MINUTES OF THE SHAFTSBURY, VT PLANNING BOARD FOR
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2005
Present: William “Jake” Jakubowki, chair; Kevin Bubriski, vice-chair; Bill Pennebaker; Chris Williams; Mark Young.
Others Present: Barry Mayer; Scott Bernard; Audrey Jones; Madeline Robinson; Mary Beth Maguire; Trevor Mance; David Mance; Mike Biddy; Jon Endres; Jason Dolmetsch; Tom Dailey; Tony Zazzaro, zoning administrator; Marilyn Carbin; Lucy Robinson; Pete Sternberg; Karen Mellinger; select board member.
Absent: Andrew Knafel.
Call to order: Mr. Jakubowski called the meeting to order at 7:38 pm.
Old business: A) The planning commission was to adopt rules of procedure. Mr. Jakubowski noted that the current rules that they were working with were from the zoning board.
B) Adopting conflict of interest policies. Mr. Jakubowski noted that the town is still working on a final draft of their policies, so the board will have to adjourn the matter until the next meeting.
C) Application #05 68 24. TAM, Inc. is up for review and approval of its site development. At this time, Mr. Endres requested that the Church issue be pushed up. The board honored the request. The Church matter will be first, which is application #05 70 09.
Mr. Endres approached the board with the final plan review and noted that there were no major modifications to the plan. He said that he has sent letters to all the neighbors in the vicinity of Bouplon Hollow Road. Mr. Jakubowski said that the board has prepared a town permit for the plan. He then asked if Mr. Endres or the board had any questions about the permit. Ms. Jones asked if there was a cemetery in the vicinity. Mr. Williams moved to approve the permit; Mr. Pennebaker seconded. Mr. Pennebaker then moved to close the hearing; Mr. Williams seconded. The motion to approve the permit passed 4-0, and Mr. Jakubowski signed the permit shortly thereafter. Mr. Endres then handed the plans over to Mr. Zazzaro.
Mr. Pennebaker noted that he had had a discussion with Mr. Biddy about a few complaints which have been aired before all the town boards, and that there is nothing new to disclose.
Mr. Jakubowski said that he had a letter to Andrea Cohen, Solid Waste project manager, which was from Mr. Biddy. It goes into questions about soil permeability, as well as a question whether Trevor Mance was in violation of an ordinance concerning recyclables. Mr. Biddy pointed out that the letter to Ms. Cohen, which was a response from her department, was in response to a previous letter she had mailed to him this past summer. Mr. Jakubowski noted he was under the impression that JT Trucking stored their trucks on the TAM property.
Trevor Mance noted that he did business with JT, and that the company will provide trucking services for his transfer station. He said that they would provide trucks, and not trailers. Trevor said he is still of the belief that the landfill on his property was clean and solid. David Mance, in response to a question about the compactor, stated that it was on the town transfer station property, and not on Trevor’s property. Mr. Jakubowski asked if the new site plan was going to show a relationship between a partner company and TAM, Inc. Trevor said that if the board was going to ask for it, then he would be happy to show it.
Mr. Bernard asked who owned the fuel tank on the TAM property. Trevor said it was a leased tank and that it was owned by a company from Albany. The tank contains diesel fuel, and he does not sell fuel on his site. Mr. Bernard also asked about the dirt dumped on Trevor’s property and commented that it was town soil. Mr. Jakubowski said that Trevor had an agreement with the town in which he could use soil from their property to complete his landfill. Mr. Biddy believed that there were things going under the radar about the dirt; Mr. Jakubowski said that it was not an issue of the board’s concern at this time.
At this time, Trevor presented the stormwater plans. They have been through the operating design a few times and made a few modifications. He will make a note at this point that if the price of steel continues to go up, it may be a wood building, but the dimensions (40 x 80) would not change. Trevor then noted that he could not do the transfer station in wood due to some limiting factors. He also said that the notable change was the entrance to North Road; they have redesigned the exit a bit so that it will face due south, instead of facing directly in front of the Biddy house.
Trevor said that MSK Engineering, Inc., under the guidance of chief engineer Jason Dolmetsch, created the stormwater plans. Mr. Dolmetsch said that the west end is basically the area of focus, which will eventually have to be permitted by the state of Vermont. They are trying to not use absorption because the west side of the property is a stormwater hot spot. Mr. Dolmetsch said that he suggested to Trevor to build a new 12-inch swail on the North Road side of the property. David said that the final contour sketches on the site plan were the same as on the original. Mr. Jakubowski asked what materials constitute “impervious” to the property. Mr. Dolmetsch said it consisted of basically anything that was not grass or bare dirt. Mr. Williams asked Mr. Dolmetsch to explain what the “four bays” on the property were. Mr. Dolmetsch said that they were there on the property for the purpose of collecting water during a storm. Mr. Williams said that they were depressions in the earth that were dry most of the time. Mr. Pennebaker asked what would happen if the area had a rainfall like the other day; Mr. Dolmetsch said that the depressions were designed to take and hold a large amount of rainwater. Mr. Jakubowski requested that Mr. Dolmetsch put the state’s definition of “impervious” on the map.
Trevor said that no trash water would be entering his property; Mr. Williams noted that there were potential pollution sources, which could possibly be going into Paran Creek. Trevor said
that the state wastewater management division would take a look at his property in the coming months. Mr. Williams asked that should the permit be approved, was there going to be any follow-up by the state of Vermont. Mr. Dolmetsch said that the general maintenance inspections will be done by himself or his office. He also noted that they were filing a general application for a permit for the site.
Mr. Bubriski asked if somebody was going to be taking samples of stormwater from the site. Mr. Dolmetsch said that if samples were to be taken, then his office would have to do it, but that it would be an expensive process, especially if one were to do it on a daily basis. The depressions on the site, according to Mr. Dolmetsch, were not designed to absorb water, but to hold water for a period of time. He also noted that they were designing for the future, as well as prevention of natural disasters.
Trevor said that the only addition was that they added the stormwater detail to the sketch plan. At this time he asked the board if they had any other concerns. Mr. Jakubowski said that today, he received an application dated September 29, 2005, for Act 250. One of the things that the board is concerned about, according to Mr. Jakubowski, is the number of vehicle trips that TAM will undertake in one day. Mr. Jakubowski said that there would be a potential of trucks backed up on Airport Road waiting to get on the on-site scale. Assuming that they are going to arrive at different times of the day, loading at the transfer station would also be a problem. Mr. Jakubowski told Trevor to address the issues at the next public hearing.
David said to the board that the facility is less than 1000 feet away from an unlined landfill where the town has been dumping garbage for the last 30 years or so. Mr. Bubriski said that it was too bad, but that he did not think that it should be a benchmark for the board’s consideration about long-term consequences. Mr. Williams said he still had reservations about the entry/exit of North Road, and that he still had to be convinced that Airport Road could work as the only entrance site. Mr. Pennebaker said that he was concerned about noise levels coming from the site. Trevor asked if the board had standards for the decibel levels a site could generate. Mr. Williams said that it was about 70 dB.
At this time, Mr. Biddy stated that he had a very important question about the elephant in the room, which was the transfer station. He asked whether there was something in the application for collecting fluid and other wastes that come out of a truck when it discharges the material inside a transfer station, and also asked whether there was to be a collection system or not. David said that there was none at the present time, but that the engineer who was handling their state permit would include one in future drafts of the plan. He then presented a copy of the original site plan, dated June 1998, in which drainage sites and sloped were shown; the lot had been subdivided at that point. He asked Mr. Jakubowski to show that there was a difference between a water course and a drainage site on the map dated 1998.
Mr. Bernard asked whether someone had to buy the adjoining property near TAM due to problems with the site. He also reiterated his belief that 15,000 tons was way too much for the town of Shaftsbury. He also commented that from a business point of view, there was money to be made from household garbage. Mr. Bernard believes that the proposed 15,000 tons goes beyond what the town plan provides for. Mr. Jakubowski told Mr. Bernard that if he believed the tonnage was excessive, then he would have to go before the zoning board of adjustment. Mr. Williams told Mr. Bernard that the board does not have the authority to refuse the permit that they have before them.
Mr. Mayer had a suggestion that TAM take it on themselves to test the water in Paran Creek before problems arise, and that they do it on a regular basis. His other concern was the compactor sitting outside at nighttime after a rainstorm, and asked Trevor if it was possible to hose it down after use to prevent chemicals from going into the ground. Mr. Sternberg had a question about smaller trucks, and asked how many of them does it take to fill one big truck. Trevor said it depends on the truck; he said about four on average. Mr. Bubriski said he also had a concern about vehicle emissions, because if trucks and other vehicles don’t turn off their engines, then a lot of pollutants will be exposed to the air.
Mr. Jakubowski noted that there have been changes to Chapter 1.17, concerning the interest of a party. For the record, if statements have been made by any individual, what one should do is stand up, tell their name, and state an opinion about a particular concern.
Mr. Pennebaker asked Trevor if putting tarps on outside materials would be effective, and would it be something that he would consider. Trevor said that he plans to use closed containers for said materials. Concerning scrap metal, he said that he plans to truck it to the Port of Albany for loading and disposal. Mr. Biddy asked about the temporary C&D storage. He also asked if TAM, Inc. had given the board any application concerning a solid waste management facility.
At this time, Mr. Dolmetsch asked to make a point of clarification. Mr. Williams wanted to give a heads-up to the select board representative and to say that the contract with TAM and the town is due to expire in less than a year. Mr. Pennebaker commented that the solid waste committee was going to make a comment to the select board. Mr. Biddy believed that Deborah Markowitz, Vermont secretary of state, said that volume is something for the planning board to talk about in relation to applications. Mr. Jakubowski said that Ms. Markowitz could have been referring to the process a development review board goes through in reviewing applications; he said that volume was not an issue that they usually discuss. Mr. Jakubowski told Trevor that he might have to go to the select board to apply for a new driveway access permit for the site. The board would also like to see a new topography plan that doesn’t include all the details on the site plan application.
A motion to continue the hearing for the 25th of October was made by Mr. Pennebaker; seconded by Mr. Bubriski. The motion passed 5-0-0. Trevor agreed to continue the hearing at the next meeting.
New Business: Application #05 70 17S; A sketch plan review for Gladys Jepson for a two-lot subdivision on Twitchell Hill Road.
Mr. Dolmetsch said that the proposed subdivision is for a residential lot. There is already an existing house on a septic field. He noted that the top of the hill has had ongoing water issues for some time. Mr. Jakubowski requested that Mr. Dolmetsch get a letter of denial that the municipal water supply cannot be hooked up to that septic system. They have already applied for the state wastewater permit, and they will file for a curb cut application as well. He hopes to have it ready by the next meeting. David said both the lots are outside the water district. Mr. Williams asked about the property; Mr. Dolmetsch said that it was basically open meadow. David noted that the lot nearly goes to the beginning of Ehrich Road. Mr. Jakubowski told Mr. Dolmetsch to see Ron Daniels to see if an asphalt apron would be feasible on the lot. Mr. Jakubowski asked about septic plans; Mr. Dolmetsch said they will be included in the preliminary application. Ms. Madeline Robinson asked if they were going to dip into the municipal water system on the property; Mr. Dolmetsch assured her that they wouldn’t.
A motion to clear the two lots for the subdivision was made by Mr. Young; seconded by Mr. Pennebaker. The motion passed 5-0-0.
A motion to set the hearing for the Nov. 8 meeting was made by Mr. Young; Mr. Pennebaker seconded. The motion passed 5-0-0.
Administrator’s report: Mr. Zazzaro passed out the agenda for the next meeting on the 25th of October, as well as for the November 8th meeting.
Minutes: Mr. Pennebaker moved to accept the minutes of September 27 as presented; Mr. Bubriski seconded. The motion passed 5-0-0.
Concerning the White subdivision, Mr. Zazzaro said that he has to go to the site because the builders are digging in the wetlands.
Other Business: Mr. Jakubowski said that he got a letter from Mr. Rob Woolmington saying that the planning commission can send any issue to the zoning board, and that zoning could decide what to do with the issues. The letter said that the planning board should use deliberative sessions more frequently to discuss issues, and that they can be closed. The board should mark all the application parts with the application number. Mr. Jakubowski asked Mr. Zazzaro to designate four spots in which to place public notices about hearings.
A motion to adjourn was made by Mr. Young; seconded by Mr. Pennebaker. The motion passed 5-0-0.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:43 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Paolo S. Rosales
Recording Secretary