TOWN OF BETHLEHEM
ZONING BOARD
Tuesday October 8, 2019
BETHLEHEM TOWN HALL MEETING ROOM
Minutes
6:00 pm
Present: Amy Delventhal, Kim Johnson, Andrea Bryant, Shane MacElhiney
Excused absence: Patrick Doughty
Debbie Bayley Planning/Zoning clerk called the meeting to order. She asked the board if they would like to start with the pledge of allegiance in the future. All in agreement
Minutes from November 20, 2018.
Andrea Bryant motion to approve amended minutes Amy Delventhal second All in favor 3-1 Shane MacElhiney abstained
Election of Officers
Amy Delventhal nominated Andrea Bryant Shane MacElhiney second
Kim Johnson nominated Patrick Doughty there was no second
Andrea Bryant nominated for Chairmen 3-1 Kim Johnson opposed
Andrea Bryant nominates Amy Delventhal for Vice Chair Shane second 3-1 Kim Johnson opposed
Board Business
Discussion was centered around being able to call a meeting if 3 or more people are in favor. There was no formal vote.
Kim Johnson brought up Blind emailing. You are not supposed to even BCC.
Defining this as a no group meeting – do it individually to Deb Bayley, then she can send it out.
Be sure to respond only to sender being Debbie. Share suggestions. So, no one can accidently reply to everyone. There needs to be transparency.
Chairmen Bryant expressed that the board needs to meet more than once a year. Even though they do not have a project to approve. She also mentioned Rules of Procedure for the ZBA. This will be discussed in another meeting.
Andrea Bryant passed out suggested changes to the Special Exception criteria. She suggested to look at the Bedford, Hillsboro criteria as an example.
The board would like to streamline the criteria. Chairmen Bryant asked the board to take this criterion home and send suggestions back to Debbie Bayley. Debbie can send the suggestions back to each board member. Then a new meeting can be planned in a timely manner to meet the Planning Board deadline.
Shane would like to see how a Special Exception and or Variance would play out before he would feel comfortable changing the criteria. PB sends applicants to the ZBA for a special exception from the permitted uses for that district. for height variance, setbacks, for each district. Amy Delventhal said that we need to have an impact to the town criteria added.
Everyone agreed that the SE Criteria is redundant.
Towns closer to our demographic such as Northfield and Brookline would be another great resource.
Andrea Bryant Motion to adjourn. Shane MacElhiney second 4-0
Adjourned 8pm
Respectfully submitted
Debbie Bayley
Planning/Zoning Clerk
