MASTER PLAN STEERING COMMITTEE

MEETING

Monday, April 1, 2002 – 7pm

Corner Meeting House

Present:  Chairman L. Frawley; Members W. Brunkhardt, R. Ashbaugh, D. McLelland, N. McCurry, P. Harris, Judy Pilliod, Staff C. Daigle & R. Korber.

L. Frawley reported on her presentation to the Town Meeting regarding the Master Plan.  Those present gave updates on the subcommittees.

Land Use:  J. Pilliod stated that the agricultural section had been drafted and that the committee would be reviewing it.  The Agricultural kit from BCCD was most helpful.  L. Frawley noted that Land Use and Conservation & Preservation held a joint meeting.  J. Pilliod expressed how helpful Jan Hooper has been to the subcommittee in doing the work.  Ms. Hooper attended the joint meeting and provided information on the District’s programs.  Additional information on conservation easements can be obtained through Digit Taylor.  L. Frawley stated she felt there was consensus between the two subcommittees that information overlap was healthy and that both should continue with their work.

Conservation & Preservation:  L. Frawley reported that the committee is a little further ahead than the others.  Chrm Knowlton will be putting together a summary for the next Belmont Better Times (BBT) for feedback.

Utilities:  W. Brunkhardt report that there have not been any additional formal meetings.  He is currently working on the rewrite and Richard is working on Construction Materials.  He feels the chapter will be done well ahead of time.  R. Ashbaugh is working on the Telecommunications/Cable section.

Transportation:  N. McCurry reported that the subcommittee had met two weeks ago and will be working more on the chapter.

Housing:  L. Frawley reported that she felt the housing goals & objectives would be wrapped up within the next couple of weeks.  J. Pilliod referred to the recent development report issued by LRPC.  C. Daigle noted she was refining the housing totals based on actual housing data as the totals provided over the last decade for the report do not seem to factor out expired permits.

The chairman asked if anyone had any information resources to share.  J. Pilliod reported on an agricultural coalition meeting that she had attended.  Much valuable information was obtained, including the agricultural kit & video, which was very helpful in developing the agricultural section of their chapter.  One of the main thrusts is to improve communication between farmers and regulators.  She also referred to the funding being raised by some NH towns to support open space preservation.  She had provided that meeting with information on Belmont’s resources, including the 4-H property and Food for Thought Café, who might be contacted regarding purchasing local supplies.

L. Frawley explained that the coalition is a working group of resource people.  One of the other topics that was discussed in light of 9/11 was food security allocation.  Belmont has a great deal of agricultural land that could be used for local food source production.

The members discussed how to present the draft and get more public input.  L. Frawley will handle media and promotion.  The questions of having a summer community meeting and/or mass mailing/BBT insert were discussed.  The decision was made to hold one more community meeting – tentative date Friday, 6/21, at the Corner Meeting House using a similar format to Nov meeting.  Subcommittees need to have at least Goals & Objectives ready no later than 5/31 for publishing.  L. Frawley will include a one-page invitation and a text update in the next BBT (May 10^th submission deadline for June issue).  C. Daigle will forewarn S. Jesseman for room in that issue.  We can also do additional mailings to people involved in the process, people who attended the last meeting, business owners, property owners with out-of-town addresses, etc.  The full text of the update available for that meeting will be available for review at the town hall, library and on the web site.  Several techniques will be used to make sure the most people possible are informed and have the choice/options to comment.  R. Korber suggested doing something through the school kids and providing a method on-line for people to respond.  W. Brunkhardt noted that we needed to publish the last date for taking input so people would know when it closes.  The members discussed the following tentative schedule.  L. Frawley will distribute dates to members.

May 31^st – By this date all Subcommittees submit the draft that will be published for review at the summer community meeting.  At a minimum should include Mission Statement, Goals & Objectives.

June 21^st – Hold community meeting. Similar format to November.

August 10^th – Reminder info at Belmont Old Home Day.

October 15^th – Last day for public to submit comments.

November 18^th – Planning Board public hearing to adopt.

Members discussed having Economic Development chapter in 2002 version of Master Plan.  L. Frawley handed out a summary of the ’92 MP chapter and offered to have an afternoon meeting with several area people and then draft the chapter, which would not include an ED plan, but would identify issues and recommendations.

D. McLelland handed out a memo with an attached memo from 2000 and suggested that it be used as the basis for the 2002 economic development chapter.  He said an ED committee would be premature at this time, as the ground had not been laid to support the effort.

Members discussed sending out a memo to MP subcommittee members asking who wanted to serve on an ED chapter subcommittee.  They also discussed the issue (more apparent in this 2002 version of the master plan) of the need to balance economic development with conservation, as economic development is not “the” answer to Belmont’s future needs.

The meeting adjourned at 9:15pm.

Respectfully submitted,