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Planning Board outlines 2026 action plan; Master Plan nears completion
Summary
Board members agreed a concise mission statement and a month-by-month action plan covering ADU updates, Solar ordinance, LUO reformatting, business permits, meeting recording and the Master Plan; assignments were made and Peel will draft the mission statement for next month.
At the May 5 meeting members of the Washington Planning Board discussed and began assigning tasks from a proposed 2026 action plan intended to produce short, town-wide goals and monthly work targets.
Peel described an Excel-based action plan that breaks work into monthly tasks, including an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) update, Solar ordinance drafting, reformatting the Land Use Ordinance (LUO) for clarity, reviewing business-permit structure, improving meeting-minutes recording and exploring an AI minutes tool, capital improvement plan (CIP) work, meetings with other town boards and producing a voters’ guide. Peel agreed to draft a two- to three-sentence mission statement for the next meeting; members assigned informal leads for items (e.g., Cashorali on recording/CIP; Peel on LUO reformatting table; Schwartz and Martin on Solar with help from Kluk; Schwartz to circulate ADU draft already prepared).
On the Master Plan, Cashorali reported the committee is closing the project with two chapters remaining, professional formatting planned and a forthcoming Planning Board review. Board members asked whether the Planning Board could approve use of budgeted Master Plan funds or if Select Board approval was required; the question will be clarified before funds are spent.
Piatt cautioned about adopting AI tools for minutes, saying he is "very wary of using AI for minutes." The board agreed to keep the action plan flexible and to add or drop items during the year.
No formal votes changed ordinances at the meeting; several items were left for review and assignment ahead of the June 2 meeting.
