6 Church Street, Gardiner, Maine 04345 Pat Hart, Chairperson
Dorothy Morang, Recording Secretary
{00030026-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} CITY OF GARDINER
PLANNING BOARD
Gardiner Planning Board April 14, 2009
City of Gardiner, Maine Regular Meeting 6:00 PM
ROLL CALL
Present: Pat Hart Judith A. Dorsey Deborah Willis
Pamela Mitchel Ronald Condon
Absent: Edward Lawrence James Montell
Also Present: David Cichowski, Code Enforcement Officer
Dorothy Morang, Planning Board Recording Secretary
Tom Reeves, Presenter, Mainewatch Institute
1.) Call the Meeting to order.
Chair, Pat Hart called the meeting to order at 6:07 PM and welcomed everyone.
2.) Roll call taken.
3.) February 10, 2009 Minutes.
Pam Mitchel made a motion that we accept the February 10, 2009 minutes as written. Judy Dorsey seconded the motion.
Vote: 5 in favor. 0 opposed. Motion passed.
4.) Presentation – Tom Reeves, Mainewatch Institute
Chair Hart noted that she is also a member.
Tom Reeves said that Mainewatch Institute is a small non-profit research organization formed over twenty years ago to conduct research in the economic and environmental fields. The Board of Directors is multi disciplinary having backgrounds in forestry, energy, land use, trade, etc. Tom was the project manager to map assets neglected in Maine.
The regional mapping project Tom worked on is called “Rediscovering Forgotten Assets – Trails for the 21st Century”. Tom noted that the younger generations are not interacting with the environment as they did a generation or two ago. In addition, areas along the Kennebec have not been seen as an asset.
Tom showed the Board a map that has been developed as a visioning tool. It shows that Gardiner is a peninsula bordered by Richmond, Cobbossee Stream and the Kennebec River. This project mapped fourteen communities along with Gardiner. It shows areas that are GPS mapped; snowmobile trails; land owned by public entities, land with potential for recreational use, non-profit properties, conservation held land by easement; designated open space with public trails and access available to the public; and the Rail Trail and other trails. An idea would be to build a trail around the “central village area” of Gardiner, perhaps beginning with the Rail Trail, connecting with Cottage St, Quimby Field, and the Cobbossee Trail along with existing snowmobile trails - creating a giant loop.
Also, there is an old lead line that belongs to Fairpoint that runs from downtown Gardiner to Bowdoinham.
Tom said that as a result of the mapping, the communities of Gardiner, Richmond, Bowdoinham and Topsham have joined to create a trail system to connect downtown Gardiner to Topsham or Brunswick using the railroad corridor, along side the rail. The trail will be named, “Merrymeeting Trail”. The Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) is now interested in the project. Lands for Maine’s Future has a lot of land that they could look at for trails.
Tom showed the Board the North and South extent maps. The maps show the railroad corridor from downtown Gardiner to downtown Bowdoinham. It also shows a lot of publically held land in Richmond and Pittston as well as open space. The maps also depict the east-west highways in Bowdoinham that were discontinued over the years. They were able to map these in addition to ones in Monmouth.
Tom’s group also went out to the lakes region to see if they could link Winthrop to the Kennebec. They found an old trolley line that physically exists as part of a trail system along with the water line from Carleton Pond to Augusta. In addition, the University of Maine, Augusta has a wonderful trail system that is going to be linked with downtown Augusta. Augusta traditionally saw itself as not having many assets, but the mapping showed them differently.
Mainewatch is now going from the mapping study to a feasibility study. They are looking at the narrow gauge railroad that begins in Randolph and runs to Chelsea to the old trolley line to Piggery Rd up to the playing fields to the Motor Vehicle building to create a big loop with two pedestrian crossings over the Kennebec to link the east and west side of Augusta and Randolph and Gardiner. It would be a twenty mile loop trail. If the Merrymeeting Trail comes to fruition, Gardiner would be a wonderful junction point for the trail system.
The University of Maine is going to work with Mainewatch and include within their courses, having architectural students working on designing this project. It will attempt to show how an off-road non-motorized system could be built.
The Friends of the Kennebec Rail Trail are producing a map called, “Kennebec Trails – Augusta to Gardiner and Beyond” with inserts showing the trail systems.
Their ultimate goal is to develop and market this area.
5.) Workshop – Planning Board Meeting Policies and Procedures
Judy Dorsey explained how this issue came about. The Board had struggled with issues in previous applications on what they could and could not decide. The Board had sought guidelines, as a general matter on how to resolve issues, case by case, based on legal advice given. In addition Bill Najpauer had suggestions for additional guidelines and suggested that they keep a notebook of policies and procedures. The Board talked about the guidelines and examples that these could pertain to.
Pam Mitchel made a motion that we adopt these Guidelines on Disputes Regarding Right, Title or Interest in Property. Judy Dorsey seconded the motion.
Vote: 5 in favor. 0 opposed. Motion passed.
Judy read Bill’s suggestions for additional guidelines. They covered tie votes, what happens; rescheduling a meeting when there is not a quorum; when to change a meeting venue for more space, etc; procedure for scheduling site visits; procedure for assigning Board members to research tasks or legal advice; procedure for looking at procedures on a regular basis; scheduling meetings for overflow, and limiting public comment.
Judy will draft these policies for the next meeting.
6. OTHER
The Board discussed the Land Use Ordinance Draft and Zone Changes. Judy was concerned because she had not been given the Land Use Ordinance Draft prior to printing to make typo corrections. It did appear that Bill had made many of the needed corrections.
It was decided to hold a public workshop on Tuesday, May 5, 2009 to discuss zone changes. Abutters within the areas potentially affected will be notified of the meeting.
The workshop for the Land Use Ordinance Draft dated April 15, 2009 will be held on Tuesday, June 2, 2009.
7.) ADJOURN
Ron Condon made a motion to adjourn. Debbie Willis seconded the motion.
Vote: 5 in favor. 0 opposed. Motion passed.
Meeting adjourned at 7:46 PM
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