Town of Searsmont

Planning Board Minutes

March 4, 2008

1. Call to Order: 7:00 p.m.

2. Attendance: Chair: George Sprowl, Vice Chair: Paul Leeper, Dave Marceau, Steve

Porter and Peter Jolliffe.

3. Review of Applications and Requests: None

4. Minutes: Review of February 19, 2008.

5. Communications: None

6. Old Business:

There was a discussion on whether the Planning Board should place the overhanging of a roof of more than 3 feet on the town meeting vote. It should be noted that it is too late for the regular March town meeting but it could be put under a special town vote, to change the Ordinance. It was decided to wait until next Years town vote to change this Ordnance. The discussion on including the over hang of any roof as area, began in September 2007, and consisted of issuing permit fees based on including the square footage of the overhang or not. The previous discussions took into consideration, based on Maine Municipal Associate, that most towns do not have a definition of a Footprint and that it is up to the town to decide a decisive mark of a footprint of a building to base its fees upon. The Planning Board discussed not including the overhang of less than three feet in a permit fee, but for permit fees over 3 feet there may be a fee. No motions were made and further inquire into this matter, by the Comprehensive Committee, needs to be explored before taking action. Redefining; Footprint, Floor Area, Enlarged, Moved and retaining wall were also part of this discussion. It was centered on the belief that changing the definition may change the area that the Planning Board bases its fees on in regards to the overhang. The Planning Board decided that a definition should be formulated in the future, for a footprint, to resolve this issue.

7. New business:

A Discussion on a new Commercial sign that was proposed to be placed across from the Post Office, on Route 131, was determined to be Frank Therio’s jurisdiction, not the Planning Boards. It was noted that Wayne Thomas resigned from the Planning Board Post. And discussions took place on how Table 800 should be amended.

8. Adjournment: 7: 40 pm.