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Plaistow planning board to circulate master plan implementation schedule, consider regulatory reorganization
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Summary
The Plaistow Planning Board agreed April 1 to circulate the master plan implementation schedule to town departments, prioritize a short list of tasks, and pursue separating site-plan and subdivision regulations with consultant input.
The Plaistow Planning Board on April 1 agreed to circulate the master plan implementation schedule to town departments and begin organizing priorities for implementation, members said.
Chair said the board "would want to have some sort of a kickoff," outlining a plan to invite RPC and other town committees to a presentation and review of the implementation annex. Planning Administrator Shea Ramaker told the board the implementation section "is up on the website at the bottom of the master plan," and members asked staff to distribute the full implementation annex to all departments for feedback.
Board members emphasized the scale of the work and recommended narrowing the list to a small number of high-priority tasks. "What I would suggest is not only do we look at all this, look at whoever what is responsible along with the planning board ... set some sort of priority and then realistic goals," one member said, arguing a focused list increases the chances of completion.
The board also discussed regulatory changes tied to the master plan. One member recommended separating the combined site-plan and subdivision regulations — now bundled in a single draft — into distinct documents with shared definitions where needed. The planning administrator explained that separating the two would reduce the need to "bounce" between sections during applications and keep engineering and soil-related standards centralized in the subdivision regulations.
Members asked staff to reach out to consultant Steve Keach for his view on whether to keep a combined document or move to two separate regulations. The board agreed to schedule working sessions in 2026 to review consultant feedback and to begin addressing implementation priorities at an early May meeting. "If we get a copy, we can just look at it," a member said, noting the board could tackle sections across multiple meetings.
Procedural note: the board also approved the minutes from March 18 by unanimous vote.
