Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Ordinance Review topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
South Thomaston committee revises application form and weighs site-plan, mineral-extraction and notification changes
Summary
Members reviewed a revised application/performance-standard form and discussed three ordinance projects — mineral extraction, site-plan review and landscaping/definitions — and debated notification, zoning overlays, and the conservation commission's advisory role for environmental review.
Members of South Thomaston's ordinance-review circle and conservation commission spent the bulk of the meeting revising an application/performance-standard form and outlining related ordinance work.
A member walked through a new draft application that would require applicants to supply contact information, map and lot, owner permission, a proposed-use designation (industrial, commercial or residential), and a site map showing structures, setbacks and named environmental features. "I tried to pull up the important points... and put it in an order that makes it easy for the applicant to fill it out and for us to understand what's happening," the presenter said.
Commissioners recommended explicitly calling out wetlands, streams and vernal pools on site maps because certain wetlands and vernal-pool protections carry statutory setbacks. They also proposed grouping environmental impacts under a nuisance heading (noise, dust, odors, vibration, runoff and drainage) and adding an operational section for commercial uses that asks for business/operational plans, staffing and parking, hours, lighting, signage, and entrance type (town vs. state road) to surface permit-related conditions such as weight limits and access requirements.
Members summarized three ordinance-review priorities that need planning-board feedback: a mineral-extraction ordinance tailored to state standards, a site-plan review ordinance to set clearer commercial standards and conditioning authority, and a narrow landscaping/definition amendment to the land-use ordinance. The group discussed whether the conservation commission should participate in pre-application environmental reviews on an advisory basis and noted staffing limits but suggested a standing agenda item for reviews.
The panel also discussed zoning options to protect scenic areas (overlay or view-shed districts) and using the town's 10-year plan as a framework for ordinance changes and public-notice improvements beyond the town's baseline 10-day posting rule.
What happens next: the presenter said they will clean up and circulate a revised application and the ordinance drafts for further comment and for planning-board input.
