Town of Newington, NH

PLANNING BOARD

Meeting Minutes, Monday, March 14, 2016

Call to Order: Chair Denis Hebert called the March 14, 2016 meeting

at 6:33 p.m.

Present:Chair Denis Hebert; Vice-Chair Christopher Cross; Board Members: Jack Pare; Mark Phillips; Jim Weiner; Alternate Member: Ken Latchaw; Town Planner, Tom Morgan and Jane Kendall, Recorder

Absent: Bernie Christopher

Public Guests:Bob Berner and Sandra Gagnon with Eversource; Joe Ackerly; Matt Cartid; Ted Karabinas; Sarah Zoe Patterson; Mike Marconi; Jan Stuart; Jarrad Savinelli; John Newick; Joe Coronati with Jones and Beach Engineering; Attorney Bernie Pelech; Eric Weinrieb; Fire Chief Andrew Head; Ken Ernstoff

1) Public Hearings:

A) Proposal by Jarrad Savinelli and John Newick for a 7-lot subdivision at 6 and 34 Fabyan Point Road, Tax Map 47, Lots 5, 6 and 7

Chair Hebert delayed this item so that the Eversource hearing could be moved through more quickly.

B) Proposal by Eversource to trim trees along Scenic Roads

Chair Hebert said Eversource was doing two or three projects, one of which involved the annual cleaning and trimming of trees. He said he had toured Town with Eversource’s arborist, Bob Berner to look at the trees that had been tagged.

Mr. Berner stated that their Standard Maintenance Trimming (SMT) of trees around power lines was done every four years to remove limbs and branches eight feet to the side, ten feet below and fifteen feet overhead. He said they were also removing brush growing under wires. He said Louis Tree removal was doing their SMT project, which would be completed over the course of a year.

Mr. Berner said Asplundh Tree service was doing their Extended Tree Trimming (ETT) would remove trees eight feet to the side and any remaining trees that were 70’ feet above ground level. He said they had identified six trees for removal that were an imminent hazard. He said they wanted to begin the ETT project in the next few weeks.

Mr. Berner said property owners would be notified before any work was done on their property.

Sarah Zoe Patterson of Airport Road said a friend of her had never been consulted and now her tree was gone and asked if Eversource would guarantee that homeowners’ requests for consultation would be met. Mr. Berner said cards would be mailed forty-five days before work, but if they didn’t hear back from the property owner, they would consider them as consenting to the cutting. Ms. Patterson said friend her friend had sent her card in immediately. Mr. Berner stated that they hadn’t started work in Newington as yet.

Chair Hebert said he was told that property owners could request that trees in front of their homes could be left along so long as they were not an imminent hazard. Mr. Berner replied that was correct.

Chair Hebert asked if the trees in Newington had been marked. Mr. Berner said the ETT trees had been marked along with hazardous trees.

Jan Stuart of Fox Point Road said she also thought that some residents may have thrown the cards out because they looked like an advertisement and their trees would be cut without further notice. She stated that she was not against the intent of Eversource cutting dead trees and limbs, but said there was a general fear because of swath cutting of beautiful, majestic, healthy trees, some of which were 100 to150 years old along Dover, Greenland, and Lee. Mr. Berner replied that the flat or swath cutting was part of the ETT project that was reserved for a small portion that began from the Greenland/Newington line.

Ms. Stuart said someone in town had marked additional trees after Eversource marked them last time. Mr. Berner replied that they had a master list. Ms. Stuart asked Mr. Berner if he would be willing to remain in touch with the Board of Selectmen regarding questionable trees and Mr. Berner said he would.

Chair Hebert said Mr. Berner told him the ETT program to cut trees that were close to the lines was a once in this lifetime project, and then they would only do maintenance cutting thereafter. Mr. Berner said they would speak with property owners directly, and not with a mailer for the ETT cutting program.

Chair Hebert said some trees that were removed were not part of ETT, but the owners had requested that they be cut down. Chair Hebert recommended that anyone having concerns with a marked tree on their property should phone Eversource as soon as possible. Chair Hebert said would be good idea to put the trees that were marked for cutting on the website.

Ken Ernstoff of Hodgdon Farm Road said he wondered what the difference between orange and white tape. He said he would also would like a direct phone instead of a 1-800. Mr. Berner said the Asplundh permission person would be the contact. Mr. Ernstoff said the number should be on their website. Ms. Stuart said they could post on the Town website as well.

Joe Ackerley of Fox Point Road asked if Eversource would cut trees if a property owner wanted more sunlight. Mr. Berner said they would try to accommodate property owners if their trees were in the trim zone.

Mr. Ackerley said he was a retired law enforcement officer so he understood ice storm management, but he thought the swath cutting in Greenland was awful and he hoped it wouldn’t happen in Newington. Mr. Berner said all the trees that came down in Greenland were approved by homeowners.

Board member, Jim Weiner said he sent in his card, but he had not received a call back. Mr. Berner said replied that the card was for the SMT program, which hadn’t begun yet, but they would call when the work began. Mr. Weiner recommended that they provide a master phone number so property owners could confirm the card had been received. Mr. Berner said the card has a direct contact number for the facilitator. Mr. Weiner said the card was long gone and Mr. Berner recommended calling customer service because he was only in the office one day a week.

Vice-Chair Chris Cross said he had been suggesting that the power company move poles closer to the road whenever they replaced them, but they only replaced one at a time so they never did. He said he was tired of losing his trees to cutting and no one in the design department would return his calls. Mr. Berner said it was not his department, but he could take his name and number for a call back.

Board member, Jack Pare asked if they were working in connection with the reliability program to change the height of new poles. Mr. Berner said the decision was made by National Electric Safety to make room for other utilities. Mr. Pare said shorter poles for cable and telephone appeared to remain since the taller poles were up. Mr. Berner said a number of poles belonged to Fairpoint Communications. He said the last party to remove their line was responsible to remove the pole once and for all.

Mr. Pare asked if their engineering departments were keeping them informed regarding which side of the road they would be clearing for the new lines for the reliability expansion project so they wouldn’t be doing bald cuts on both sides. Mr. Berner replied that he was only in charge of maintaining the existing lines and didn’t know anything more about the other project. Mr. Pare said engineering would know where new they would be installing the new, taller poles with higher backbone voltage. Chair Hebert agreed that they should make sure that they would only cut necessary trees for SMT so they wouldn’t end up cutting both sides of the street for both projects.

Mr. Pare asked if power lines that crossed private property were part of SMT and Mr. Berner said they were. Mr. Pare said he was not sure what happened to his card, but he would like an arborist to look at the five poles on his property that were affected during storms.

Board of Selectmen Representative, Cosmas Iocovazzi said it had been brought to their attention that there was a miscommunication with postcards and they should do a certified mailing. Mr. Berner said following the RSA on notification and they were not required to do a certified mailing. Chair Hebert said he thought the RSA set a miniumum requirements, but it didn’t mean they couldn’t do more. Mr. Berner said they send thousands of cards and only get two to three percent return. Fire Chief Andrew Head said tags were put on homeowners’ doors in his hometown of Kingston.

Chair Hebert commented that not all poles were owned by Eversource. He said a Fairpoint truck pulled up near Town Hall last week and Eversource wasn’t aware that Fairpoint was going to do a cut. He advised the Board of Selectmen to send notice to Fairpoint that they were in violation of cutting on scenic roads and that they too had to send notice to property owners, so Eversource wouldn’t be blamed.

Matt Cartid, a new property owner in town said he wanted to know if they were cutting on Old Post Road. Chair Hebert said he was told they were going to cut on both ends, but not in middle. Mr. Cartid said he had just moved to town a week ago and he had not received notice. Mr. Berner said he could leave his name and number for him.

Ms. Stuart cautioned that from Fox Point Road to Nimble Hill Road, Old Post Road was a Town owned road on the National Historic Registry and the Town had been warned not to cut anything unless it was a lifesaving necessity. Mr. Berner said he didn’t think they were cutting along the historic corridor and individual owners would have been notified.

Ms. Stuart asked if the Board of Selectmen or the Planning Board would be the entity to address any issues that came up. Chair Hebert recommended they contact Town Administrator, Martha Roy who was in the Town Hall full time and have the Selectmen work with them.

Chair Hebert cautioned that bad tree planting habits close to the lines had resulted in cutting to keep lines clear. He recommended checking with the Urban Forestry Center for good planting tips for on power line friendly species.

Sandra Gagnon with Eversource’s Seacoast Reliability Project said she wanted to be clear that they were separate from SRP. Chair Hebert suggested Eversource hold off cutting until they knew what the new lines would look like.

Ted Karabinis of Little Bay Road said he recently purchased his house and saw the arborist in his vehicle looking at trees on the road. He said there were lots of pines and leaning trees that he was concerned might split and die so he wondered if someone would come by to see how far back they would cut. Mr. Berner said they sometimes drive around, get out and look around a tree to see the entire tree. He said he couldn’t say no additional trees would be removed if damage was discovered damage, but that was not the intent.

Mr. Karabinis asked what would happen if a tree fell during a storm after the work was done. Mr. Berner said they would cut a minimal portion of the tree in an emergency.

Mr. Karabinis asked what would happen to the wood and Mr. Berner said it would be left there as Eversource was not in the business of hauling wood. Chair Hebert said they would also give wood to the property owner and not scavengers from out of town. Mr. Berner said they were not the wood police however. Mr. Karabinis asked what would happen if the tree was on the Town property or right of way in front of a home and Mr. Berner said it would still be left for the owner to take care of.

Chair Hebert closed the public hearing and made a recommendation that conditions be included in the motion.

Jack Pare moved to approve the proposal by Eversource to proceed with trimming trees along Scenic Roads with the following stipulations:

That the Planning Board has jurisdiction for Town roads per State RSA.
That the trees on the side of the road that Eversource’s Reliability Project poles would go on Fox Point Road, Little Bay Road and Nimble Hill Road would be left alone unless the trees were causing eminent danger.
That the Board of Selectmen would be contacted through the Town Administrator regarding any new tree cutting issues
That a new phone number would be posted on the Town website to reaching someone at Eversource for a quick response.
That the Board of Selectmen send a letter to Fairpoint to let them know they were required to notify property owners of tree cutting intentions per State RSA.

Jim Weiner seconded the motion and all were in favor.

A) Proposal by Jarrad Savinelli and John Newick for a 7-lot subdivision at 6 and 34 Fabyan Point Road, Tax Map 47, Lots 5, 6 and 7

This item was taken out of order so the Eversource hearing could go first.

Mr. Phillips recused himself from the Board.

Mr. Coronati said he had been working on the project with the Board for three or four months. He said they had applied for their Alteration of Terrain (AOT) permit from the State, and had also received comments from Town engineering consultant, Altus Engineering, as well as the City of Portsmouth Water Department regarding the water design.

Mr. Coronati said he had sent Town Planner, Tom Morgan an email with a voice mail from the State regarding their AOT application. He said they still needed to needed a copy of the deed restriction for rain garden, but he didn’t believe there would be any more changes to the drainage systems or pond since Altus and AOT signed off.

Mr. Coronati said they also received comments from Ray Rizzoulo at Portsmouth Public Works. He said they still had to sign the water use agreement that the City could do maintenance while the road was privately owned. And the comments were not on the plan yet.

Vice-Chair Cross said he wanted to see Altus comments that still had not been resolved. Mr. Morgan passed out a letter from Altus dated that day. Mr. Weiner commented that the Board had agreed not to consider any new information at the last minutes. Chair Hebert said Altus Engineering was on the Town’s side and could respond. Town engineering consultant, Eric Weinrieb said he had received the plans s week ago on Friday.

Vice-Chair Cross said they needed to discuss Mr. Morgan’s conditions before approving. Mr. Weinrieb said the best case would be to approve with the fourteen items being conditions if they were still unresolved after discussion. Mr. Weinrieb proceeded to go through the outstanding items.

Provide sign off from the Portsmouth Water Department

Mr. Weiner said it was stated that they would need 25,000 gallons to put out a fire on one house and so they had talked about installing a 12,000-gallon cistern as am interim solution until Portsmouth upgraded the water system. Mr. Weinrieb replied that this item was regarding domestic water supply and Item 8 would address adequate fire protection.

Provide two final plans stamped by a wetlands and soil scientist

Provide a stamped engineer’s opinion on an estimate for costs that would be covered by bonding after the plans were approved by the State

Check plans for compliance with Rockingham County Registry recording standards

Change the easement from a wooded buffer to a no cut buffer.

Mr. Weinrieb said easements were typical in favor of someone. Attorney Bernie Pelech said it had already been included in the Homeowner’s agreement that was sent to Mr. Weinrieb Mr. Morgan and Town counsel, Attorney John Ratigan. Chair Hebert asked about if invasive species maintenance was listed in the no cut agreement and Attorney Pelech confirmed that it was in the agreement.

Retain current use of three curb cuts for Lot 47-6.

Mr. Weinrieb said the regulations only allowed for one curb cut and said they would need to remove them from the plan or request a waiver for three. Mr. Morgan said he thought John Newick had two already. The applicant, Jarrad Savinelli said there were three driveways on Mr. Newick’s lot. Chair Hebert said the gravel path wasn’t considered a drive, but was where he parked his trucks for business.

Chair Hebert added that the Board previously granted a curb cut on Newington Road, then rescinded the curb cut, but not showing on drive. Joe Coronati with Jones and Beach replied that part of the Department of Transportation’s approval would involve giving up the curb cut on Newington Road. Chair Hebert said they would then need to add that to the conditions of approval.