WESTMORELAND CONSERVATION COMMISSION

August 7, 2008  Meeting Minutes

The August 7th meeting was called to order at 7:03 pm with Dick Schmidt, George Duke, Walt Derjue, Russ Martens, and Selena Gallen (alternate). John Lukin arrived at 7:08 pm

Minutes from the July 3rd meeting were read. Russ indicated that the unapproved minutes that were emailed out to the members and posted on the town website had an error incorrectly stating the engineer’s name from SVE. Andrew Geffert's name has been corrected in the minutes. With this correction noted, George made a motion to accept the minutes as read. Walt seconded the motion. Motion carried.

Minutes from the July 8th Cersosimo site walk-through were read. It was recommended that the word “minutes” be changed to read “notes” and read as follows: “Cersosimo site walk-through notes”.

Dick made a motion to accept the notes as read. Selena seconded the motion. Motion carried.

Old Business

Community Conservation Partnership –

Dick reported that there was a meeting held on Wednesday, August 6^th, at the town hall with Westmoreland CCP members, along with staff from the Monadnock Conservancy and Antioch New England Institute. A post card will be sent to town residents telling them that a letter/press release will be posted on the town website, at the library, and sent out on the Westmoreland e-newsletter informing them on the progress of the Community Conservation Partnership Task Force. Four meeting dates have been set to discuss the conservation priorities of the community with the first meeting being held September 3rd at 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Calls are being made to the people that attended the forum and indicated that they wanted to participate in the prioritization part of the project. Dick also reported that 5 people are needed for the conservation-training course, which will start on September 24th.

Russ mentioned that he had spoken to Peter Throop at the Monadnock Conservancy that afternoon as a follow up to the request of bills incurred for the Spring Forum. Peter said he had not gotten them together and would work on getting them to Marshall.

Zoning Administrator/Building Inspector Wetlands Checklist –

John passed out the revised checklist that he worked on and explained his reasoning in the design of the document and that all town ordinances are to be followed up by the inspector. Dick asked if item five in the instructions should have a point in time. It was recommended that a filing date must be in 30 days of the Inspector’s signature. George recommended that the wetland indicators should be marked on the site map supplied in the application. Selena recommended that item number 2 in the instructions should read: “Prior to the site inspection, check the map for presence of wetland indicators on the site.” Reference to seeing the reverse side of the form should be placed under the name of the form on each side. John said that he will update the form with the recommendations that were made and would email them to the commission members and that we would finalize the form at the next conservation commission meeting.

Water Resource/Property line maps from Southwest Regional Planning Commission –

Russ said that he spoke Tim Garceau at SWRPC regarding the water resource/property line maps that are available. Tim referred him to Mike Blair in GIS, whom is responsible for this material. Mike said the last updated information on Westmoreland was from 2004/2005 and that the files were available in digital form. He also indicated that he would be working on updating this information. For the cost of a processing fee of $25.00, he will put the information in a shaped file and email the digital file to us. However, it would have to be read in Art View or GIS software.

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A discussion followed regarding the software. John recommended that we request the digital file as a jpeg. George asked it we could receive it as a jpeg file and that it should not be a read only file. Russ said that he would get back to Mike Blair by email and would keep everyone up to date on its availability.

Cersosimo Gravel Pit –

Russ read Marshall's email with his comments pertaining to the Cersosimo gravel pit and the retraction of the letter from the Conservation Commission. Russ stated that he had spoken to Marshall prior to the site visit when he pointed out that there was a zoning issue and that Marshall had agreed to the rescinding of the letter. Russ also said that Selena and Dick were present at the site walk through, that they agreed to the rescinding of the letter and that he had called George to discuss the zoning issue and he agreed before he called Marshal back after the walk through. Since all of the members that were at the July conservation commission meeting were contacted (five of its seven members), Russ said there was a majority in agreement to rescind the letter.

To make this decision to rescind even more formal, Russ made a motion to officially rescind the letter of July 6, 2008 from the Westmoreland Conservation Commission to Cersosimo Industries because we were given incomplete and/or incorrect information on which to render an informed opinion. Back ground information was given to the members of the commission to read. John Lukin seconded the motion to retract the letter and the commission was polled for their vote. Walt Derjue abstained due to not being present at the July meeting and site walk through. Dick Schmidt, George Duke, John Lukin, Selena Gallen and Russ Martens voted to approve the motion and rescind the letter.

Cersosimo Motion and Background submitted to Westmoreland Conservation Commission --

Motion:

I move to officially rescind the letter dated July 6, 2008 from the Westmoreland Conservation Commission to Cersosimo Industries because we were given incomplete and/or incorrect information on which to render an informed opinion.

Background:

Andrew Geffert of SVE Associates (an engineering company owned by Cersosimo Industries) wrote to us in a letter dated June 13, 2008 that “Cersosimo Industries proposes to expand the existing pit into the adjacent parcel owned by Cersosimo Industries.” In fact, under RSA 155-E:2I(b), an “expansion” means that the gravel pit area, on August 24, 1979, “and at all times subsequent thereto has been contiguous to and in common ownership with the excavation site of that date, and has been appraised and inventoried for property tax purposes as part of the same tract as the excavation site of that date.” In fact, the proposed gravel pit is a separate tract of land. The existing gravel pit is located on R1 Lot 19, a 25 acre tract sold to Cersosimo on Oct 6, 1992 by Lawrence E. Thomas. The proposed gravel pit is a completely separate tract of land, R1 Lot 20 of approximately 13 acres sold to Cersosimo by Katherine H. Wankow on Feb 25, 1994. Cindy Adler, the Town’s Tax Assessor has confirmed that these two tracts of land are taxed separately and Russ had confirmed through the on-line Registry of Deeds the information on purchase dates.

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Because the proposed gravel pit fails both the tax test as the same tract of land as well as the continuous ownership test, it means the Conservation Commission believed it was reviewing a simple “expansion” of an existing gravel pit as opposed to what we were actually reviewing, which was a brand new gravel pit on a brand new lot which had never before been used as a gravel pit and was to be located in a residentially zoned neighborhood.

Under both town and State law, RSA 155-E:4, projects which result in a decline in property value must be rejected. We were not informed, at the time of the writing of the July 6, 2008 letter, that Cersosimo Industries was planning to locate its excavation site within 25 to 50 feet of a residential property owner’s backyard when, in fact, our Town ordinance requires a 200 foot buffer. The property owner, Pam Wallis, testified as follows at the Zoning Board Hearing of July 23, 2008 (testimony was tape recorded):

(1) The proposal before the Zoning Board would have a dramatic negative impact on the value of my home and land. The proposed gravel pit would run the full length of my backyard, approximately 1200 feet. Under RSA

155-E:4, this proposal must be rejected because the excavation will cause a decline in area property value.

(2) Any shrinkage in the town’s ordinance requiring a 200 foot buffer zone would dramatically diminish the resale value of my home and that is prohibited by state statute RSA 155-E:4.

(3) I can currently hear the noise from the trucks and equipment in the gravel pit daily. This sound would be dramatically increased when they start excavating along 1200 feet of my backyard with a reduced buffer zone.

(4) When the foliage is gone in Fall and Winter, I can already see mounds of dirt in the gravel pit. I believe that both my family as well as drivers on River Road would see the gravel pit under the current proposal to remove visual barriers. That is not allowed under RSA 155-E.

(5) I purchased my home with the understanding that I was buying a property zoned for Rural Residential. I had the right to believe that the town would not violate its own ordinance and place an “intensive land use” in a residential neighborhood where that is now not allowed.

New Business

Connecticut River Joint Commission –

John asked if anyone has replaced Jim Blake's position on the Connecticut River Joint Commission. Dick said that he was on the commission along with Jim Blake and that the Town Selectmen were going to appoint his replacement. Dick suggested that he contact the Selectmen's office.

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Legal Notice for Public Hearing regarding subdivision of property –

Russ mentioned that there was a legal notice in the Sentinel on August 2 advising of a two-lot subdivision at 783 River Road. The Planning Board will be meeting on Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 7:30 pm for a hearing. Discussion followed with regard to steep slope issues and it was felt that Steep Slope regulations must be addressed at the next meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 8:54 pm

Russ Martens, Secretary Unapproved Minutes