WATERVILLE — Paul Lussier will continue as Planning Board chairman, having been reelected to that spot Monday by the board.
The vote was unanimous, 6-0, with board member Tom Nale Jr. absent from the meeting
Lussier said Tuesday that he was pleased to have been reelected. He became a member of the board in 2014 and has been chairman since 2017.
“I’m honored to serve in any capacity, and I appreciate the vote of confidence from the other board members in nominating me and voting for me,” he said.
Board member Bruce White said he and others were happy Lussier accepted the position again. Lussier is a developer and former code enforcement officer for the city.
“Paul is always professional and respectful to all who come before the Planning Board,” White said. “He doesn’t take it personally if you disagree with him on issues that come before the board. We are fortunate to have Paul serving as the chairperson once again.”
In other matters Monday, the board voted 6-0 to approve, with a condition, revisions to a previously-approved plan to reconfigure vehicle and pedestrian traffic to the Alfond Youth Center building on North Street.
Lussier said the plans call for moving the main entrance to the building to improve traffic and pedestrian movement there.
“They’re going to discontinue the current entrance and move it to the right so when you come in, there will be lanes for drop off and pick up, like an airport,” he said. “It looks like a well thought out design to me.”
Lussier said the Alfond Center is awaiting approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection to make the change, so the board approved the plan Monday with the condition that the DEP approve it.
The board also voted to recommend to the City Council that it approve rezoning 209 College Ave. from Commercial-C to Contract Zoned District/Commercial-A to allow for a total of four apartments at that address. Kingston Properties LLC is requesting the zone change.
Kingston also is requesting approval for four residential units at 209 College Ave., a proposal that will come back to the board for final review after the council considers the zone request, according to City Planner Ann Beverage. The plan would be considered under the multifamily housing regulations in the city’s site plan review ordinance.
L/A Properties LLC requested preliminary review for a 65-unit mobile home park to be developed on West River Road between the Village Green and Countryside mobile home parks, but not all of the design work is completed, so the request will come back to the board, Lussier said.
Beverage said L/A Properties owns Village Green, Countryside and Punky Meadows mobile home parks, as well as vacant land between Village Green and Countryside. L/A wants to build a road from the land back to Webb Road, and the road would cross the tip of land on the south side of Webb Road in the Residential-B zone, she said. But the regulations do not allow for crossing a Residential-B zone to serve a use not allowed in that zone, she said.
Mobile home parks are allowed only in the Rural Residential zone, according to Beverage. The council would have to approve the rezoning of the strip of land before the access road could be developed onto Webb Road, she said. The council on Jan. 21 referred the request for rezoning to the Planning Board, and the board will hold a public hearing on the request Feb. 24.
Discussion of a request by William Dangler that the city rezone 3, 5, and 7 Park St. from Residential-D to Commercial-A so he may move his hairdressing business there was postponed to the next meeting, according to Lussier. The board may make a recommendation to the council on zone changes, with the council the only panel that is authorized to make zone changes.
Dangler owns People’s Salon & Spa on Temple Street and hopes to move it to the Park Street property which formerly was Redington Funeral Home.
Beverage said that in the Commercial-A zone, a developer must provide a buffer between commercial and residential uses. Neighbors on Park Street are asking that a fence and landscaping be installed to screen the parking lot, she said.
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