Minutes - PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING December 8, 2015

Town of Pittsfield, Vermont
Planning Commission
Minutes of December 8, 2015
MEMBERS PRESENT: Suana Rubin, Marsha Hopkins, Sarah Gray and Jennifer
Howard.
1. The meeting was called to order at 6:30pm at the Town Office.
2. Agenda Modifications – Letter from new Water Shed Coordinator
3. The minutes from the October 13, 2015 meeting were read. Suana made a motion to approve, seconded by Jennifer, all in favor.
4. Correspondence –

• Letter from the new Water Shed Coordinator with the Department of Environmental Conservation, Danielle Owczarski, introducing herself to local towns and expressing eagerness to begin work with us.

5. Ongoing Issues – Electric Car Charging Station and Park Update

• Suana let everyone know that she attended the last Select Board meeting where it was decided to pass on the Electric Car Charging Station Grant.
• Suana informed the commission that the Select Board had decided to go ahead with all Green infrastructure items; removing berms, shoring up the bank, adding plantings, and bringing in better soil. The Selectboard does have the authority to go ahead with the gray areas as well, whether that comes to a vote remains to be seen.
• Jennifer said Bruce Shaw sent an email saying he was out of town, but was going to join. Suana was going to check with him to make sure he would be in town when the commission was meeting. If he could not be here, Suana thought she might have another viable candidate.

6. PC Future Items
The commission started to review the Matrix attached to the new Town Plan, addressing items listed between 1-3 years.

• Utilities and Facilities – Capital Budget. Sarah thought Two Rivers could help with this item. All agreed to bring up formalizing budget after Town meeting was done since everyone’s plate was full currently and budgets for next year had been completed.
• Flood Resilience- concerning water shed protection. Suana thought it would be good time to bring in the Coordinator since she was eager to start meeting with the local towns. All agreed it should be scheduled possibly for our April meeting.
• Energy – Public Awareness. Marsha suggested getting the library involved to organize some kind of guest lectures demonstrating cost cutting devices and energy saving ideas that everyone in town might be interested in.
• Energy – Identify areas in town that could potentially house alternative forms of energy. This one to be tabled for now since it had a five year timeline on it.
• Economic – Conduct Inventory of local services and identify gaps in services. Commission conducted an inventory and felt the town had an overabundance of services for a small town.

1.  Oil Company
2. Gas Station
3.  Hair Dresser
4.  5 Restaurants
5.  1 Caterer
6.  1 Ski Lift Company
7.  5 Inns
8.  2 General Stores
9.  2 Excavating Companies
10. 1 Dry Cleaning Pick up and Delivery Service
11. 1 Roofing Company
12. 1 Firewood Company
13. 1 Tax Accountant
14. 1 Architecture Firm
15. 1 Bicycle Tour Company
16. 1 Auto Repair Shop

Many local contractors including carpenters, electricians and plumbers.

• Natural Scenic and Historic Resources- Inventory of Wetlands. Sarah said the Forest Service should have already mapped those out. Marsha said she would check with them since she was planning on going to see them for other business.

7. Comments – None
8. Adjournment-
Meeting adjourned at 7:45
Respectfully Submitted,
Marsha Hopkins
Secretary
The MINUTES of December 8, 2015 were duly APPROVED
on February 9,2016.
Signed: Suana Rubin