The Plaustow Planning Board on Aug. 6 voted to adopt amended rules and procedures after a continued public hearing, approving changes that mostly correct capitalization, punctuation and statutory citations and that add procedural clarifications for fees, the capital improvement program and staff duties. The motion to accept “the bylaws and rules and procedures of Plaustow Planning Board as read into the record and with subsequent changes as noted during the public hearing in total” was moved by the meeting chair and seconded by Dan Kane; the board approved the measure by voice vote (4–1–0 per the meeting record).

Members said most edits are technical, but a member raised a substantive concern about language in section 9(e) (page 9), and announced they would vote no; the meeting record shows one opposed vote. The changes adopted include making the effective date current, capitalizing statutory terms (for example, “Subdivision” and “Site Plan”), defining the regional planning commission (RPC) as a term used later in the rules, and clarifying the board’s authority to collect planning fees under the subdivision and site-plan statutes.

Board members and staff emphasized a new provision that allows the chair, in the chair’s judgment, to admit last-minute, non-substantive submissions into the meeting packet when a prompt decision is necessary. Planning staff also proposed a limited administrative process to correct typographical and numbering errors without reopening a public hearing, provided those corrections do not cause substantive change.

The adopted rules add explicit references to state statute sections cited during the hearing, including RSA citations tied to subdivision, site-plan and fee authority. The board also inserted a clarified description of planning staff duties drawn from the town’s subdivision regulations and added a provision that board subcommittees for the capital improvements program (CIP) may include members of other town boards.

During discussion, members debated whether the rules should require the town to provide municipal email addresses to planning board members. The final text as presented used permissive language (may/should) rather than the imperative “shall,” after members said providing town email addresses is controlled by town administration rather than by the planning board.

The public hearing had been continued from an earlier meeting; the board closed the public hearing at 7:05 p.m., moved to adopt the revised rules and proceeded to the vote.

Less-critical edits not requiring substantive action include renumbering and capitalization fixes and wording changes to align the rules with statutory language. Because the changes were adopted by the planning board after the public hearing, they will take effect per the text approved by the board.