Planning Board Meeting Minutes July 10, 2018

Transcription

1 Planning Board Meeting Minutes July 0, 0 0 MINUTES OF THE PLANNING BOARD MEETING OF July 0, A meeting of the Planning Board was held on July 0, at the Salem Town Hall, Geremonty Drive, Salem, NH. PRESENT: Keith Belair, Chairman; Ed DeClercq, Vice-Chairman; Paul Pelletier, Secretary; Lisa Withrow, Selectman s Rep; Linda Harvey; Bob Gibbs; Beverly Donovan; and Ross Moldoff, Planning Director. The meeting was called to order at :00 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance. Chairman Belair introduced the board members and went over the agenda. Dufresne has been withdrawn and will be back in August. REVIEW OF MINUTES. June, Regular Meeting MOTION by Mr. Pelletier to approve the minutes of the June, regular meeting as printed. SECOND by Ms. Donovan. VOTE ON MOTION: 0 (Mrs. Harvey abstained.) NEW BUSINESS. OMJ REALTY SITE PLAN Public Hearing for roadway and utility plans for Tuscan Village project at Rockingham Park Boulevard, Map, Lot. MOTION by Mr. DeClercq to accept the OMJ Realty site plan application as complete. SECOND by Mr. Pelletier. VOTE ON MOTION: 0 UNANIMOUS Abutters: There were no abutters present. Joe Preschino, Tighe and Bond, said we are coming here for a roadway network for the Tuscan Village. This is the entirety of the roadway project with connections to Mall Road, Rockingham Park Boulevard, and South Broadway. These connections will be the backbone of the Town of Salem, NH Page

2 Planning Board Meeting Minutes July 0, 0 0 development for the Tuscan Village around it. We are also including the utility infrastructure, the drainage for the roadway, and the Tuscan Lake, which is a central component to the project. It will be an amenity to the project, and where a large portion of the stormwater after being treated, will enter into the lake. It will be an inner network of drainage systems and utilities. So tonight we ll go over a review of the roadway, pedestrian connectivity, the landscaping plan, the lighting, the cross sections, and how it connects to central village. Mark Gross with MHF Design Consultants, is representing OMJ on the roadway plans. He showed an overview of the property with the adjacent highways. You have the roadway plans on disk. He showed the overall roadway layout. Tuscan Boulevard, which was Market, comes off Central, and goes to Rockingham Park Boulevard. We have roundabouts along Tuscan Boulevard. We looked at signalized intersections and we found the amount of room we would need for those intersections was tremendously large. The roundabouts give a better feel for the village in terms of how they look and operate. Each one of these are two lane roundabouts. The one off of Route (Market Place) is a one lane roundabout. We looked at significantly improving this intersection. From Mall Road, where the existing signal is, is Artisan Drive, which continues into the village and intersects with Market Place, and out to Route. These are designed so that you won t have a heavy volume of traffic going through, so everything is coming off Tuscan Boulevard, Artisan Drive, and Market Place. He showed more detailed plans of each roundabout, explaining where they come from and head towards. Joe Preschino has been working with the town on how to interconnect with the current project along South Broadway and looping the utilities, including water and electric, through both this development and the north Tuscan Village. We are making connections. He showed where they ll go through the site. He also showed where the sewer connections will go and where the water and electric will go. The stormwater, the water from the roadway, is treated along the roadway through rain gardens. We are having the rain gardens treat the water along Linear Park, and feed into a closed drainage system which then feeds the Tuscan Lake. There will be an outlet that goes to Policy Brook. The lake is being designed to expand the existing pond that s there. We are increasing the size and depth to support wildlife and activities. It will be connected to Policy Brook. Mr. Gross said next we will be talking about bike and pedestrian connectivity. Bob Euhlig, Halvorsen Design, said we want to complement the vehicular circulation with pedestrians and bikes. He showed the main bike path along South Broadway. He showed the connection at the south, that goes up to Tuscan Lake and adjacent to Tuscan Boulevard, and goes to the north side where it connects to Linear Park. It goes around the stream and connects to bike lanes on Central. There is also a bike path along the east side, so you can loop through the site. In yellow is how pedestrians can move through the site either on streets or on adjacent paths. It s a network of how people move through the site. He then showed the Linear Park design. We will have little niches along the way. He showed an overall of the site plan, and explained it in cross sections. He showed how each cross section will look. He also showed the seating niche concept. He showed images of what it is proposed to look like. He also discussed landscaping. Town of Salem, NH Page

3 Planning Board Meeting Minutes July 0, 0 0 Heather Monticup, from Greenman Pedersen, are the traffic engineers for the proposed project. We have a few two lane roundabouts proposed. She showed other roundabouts in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and discussed the internal analysis. We submitted our first letter about the internal roadways on April,. We ve had some back and forth with Steve Pernaw. We updated the letter most recently on June th to reflect the most recent master plan. We submitted PM and Saturday traffic volumes for the entire 0 acres. The trip distribution hasn t changed. The only thing that changes is buildings move, so people enter from different driveways. We show driveway volume comparisons between November and today. She showed the volume amounts at peak times for each roundabout, and the level of service at each. All of the roundabouts on Tuscan Boulevard are two lanes because of the volume of traffic. She continued talking about each roundabout. She then discussed the offsite improvements. She discussed the Route entrance and explained the number of lanes at that intersection. She also spoke about making double left turn lanes out of the site per Mr. Pernaw s request. She also spoke about the signal on Mall Road. It is the main site driveway on Mall Road. These construction documents have been submitted to the town, but there is a double left turn lane onto Mall Road. Once we receive all the comments from the town and NHDOT, it will be modified. Mr. Pernaw would like us to extend the queue storage on the double right turn lanes out onto Rockingham Park Boulevard. We are working on that. Mr. Euhlig spoke about Tuscan Lake. Along the north and east sides of the lake is more of a built edge. The west and south sides are naturalized. There is, what we call the beach, along the south edge, which is more approachable. He explained those cross sections. Staff Comments: You approved the conceptual master plan for this project in December, and they are coming back for a revised conceptual plan. This road plan is tied to that. They need a revised State wetland permit because they are revising the pond layout. They did have an original permit. The floodplain issue was addressed through the initial approval from FEMA. They will need a final approval after construction of the flood channel is done, but that will be handled through conditions. The outside drainage review is pending. He discussed sidewalks and pedestrian connectivity on the plan. There are pedestrian crossing signals. One thing you may want to think about is, there are no sidewalks on Rockingham Park Boulevard. The idea is that people would walk up the railtrail to get into the site. They need a State water and sewer extension permit. They need an alteration of terrain permit from the State. We will need an easement plan. They need access easements on the whole thing and on utilities. We are waiting for the easement plan. The circulation around the roundabouts will be confusing. The outside traffic review is pending. You may want to talk about, before any use of these new roadways inside the site, maybe some of the road improvements at the intersections on Mall Road and Rockingham Park Town of Salem, NH Page

4 Planning Board Meeting Minutes July 0, 0 0 Boulevard need to be completed. We have an outside review of the design guidelines. The consultant may be here at the next meeting. He mentioned the change in light posts. They are feet tall but in the north village they were only. You may want to ask why the change? Any work in the right-of-way requires Board of Selectmen approval. We have asked for a phasing and scheduling plan. He got comments from the Fire Department. They approved the plan. There are some issues in terms of hydrant spacing and turning radius at the roundabouts, and making sure the fire trucks can get around them, and fire flow calculations. He got comments from Engineering, which he has given to the applicant. They are mostly technical details. He got a memo from Public Works/Municipal Services Department. They want to talk to the applicant about coordination of the traffic signals on Mall Road and Rockingham Park Boulevard, and some system they want incorporated into that, called the grid smart system. In those comments from Dave Wholley, he says there will be a need for someone to help coordinate all the work on the traffic signals. We are waiting for some review comments, and for those comments to be addressed by the applicant. Recommend - continuance. Steve Pernaw is here. Steven Pernaw, town s traffic consultant, said that everything that was presented by Heather Monticup, he agrees with. He had three memos that he published on the internal road system. The volume capacity ratios at the roundabouts are good and true. There are a couple of site driveways, unsignalized T intersections. Those will, or are projected, to operate very close to capacity in during the peak hour periods. The ratio of. and. is close. They did design them with two exit lanes, which is the right thing to do. But there will be some delays and queuing in. Heather didn t mention the signal near Market Basket. That is projected to operate at. at capacity. We asked them about it, and about putting additional lanes in, and they said no, that what they have is the best that can be done. We are dealing with a situation that will be close to capacity. We do have some issues with driveway locations, such as the one on Artisan Way, that s closest to Mall Road. We think it s too close to the intersection, because of projected queuing. Their response was to address it at the site plan review stage, which is OK. He just wants them to know that where we see it today, he doesn t think it will work. For that reason, when you are asked to approve the internal roadway system, you should do it with a caveat that you re not approving driveway locations and driveway design. Things are going well, we made suggestions and they do the ones that they can do, and if not, they have made explanations. To date, he is happy with it. Chairman Belair asked for public input. Chris Graham, Abby Road, made comments on the electrical utilities. He is involved with the north village. With the street lights, they forgot to provide power to the lighting. He is hoping that consideration is given to landlord services to be provided throughout locations on this next Town of Salem, NH Page

5 Planning Board Meeting Minutes July 0, 0 0 phase of the roadway. When the road opens you will need the lights to work. He also mentioned consideration for temporary construction power. He is looking at the scope of the buildings and all the generator usage that will be required. He doesn t know what Liberty Utility s plans are, but there is a trunk line, but there is no end user power available. They should have usable power when constructing these buildings. Kim Hazarvatian, traffic engineer with TEPP LLC, introduced himself and said that the Town of Pelham has retained him to review this also. Kathy Robichaud, 0 Pleasant Street, mentioned traffic. Pleasant Street is getting overloaded with traffic now. Until Tuscan Boulevard is created through the site, most of the traffic will come through Pleasant Street. Pelham will also be impacted. To get to Market Basket, or get into the site, Pleasant Street will be the street they use. It is difficult enough now to get out of our driveways. It will be worse when everyone moves in. She would like to see Village Way done away with, to ease up the traffic impact on Pleasant Street. If not, then perhaps they should have a light there because someone will get hurt. They pull out of Village Way now, and when you come around the curb, she spoke about people almost getting hit. Something needs to be done with that driveway where it is situated. Mr. Pelletier said he is an advocate for two entrances for any facility and he doesn t see that for the assisted living that is proposed. He would like consideration of possibly a second entrance on the northwestern part of that parking lot, to the side street that comes off Mall Road. Just for emergency situations. Mr. Moldoff said that s been addressed. Mr. Gross said, on the conceptual master plan, there is a shared driveway going in, between the apartments and assisted living. He explained where the driveway will be located on the plan. Mr. Pelletier said also, you talked about water runoff and it going to a cleaning process, then the lake. Is he to assume that most of the western part will be filtered and go to the lake, and the eastern part will drain down to Route and the sewer system? Mr. Gross said that s correct. Most of the western side on Tuscan Boulevard will drain into rain gardens and then the lake. A portion of the easterly side, in the area of the hotel, will drain to rain gardens or underground facilities and then the lake. From the easterly end of the lake, to Route, will be treated, then go into the floodplain. Mr. Pelletier mentioned the bike trails around the open water. Is there any winter activity in there? Will it be plowed? Mr. Gross said the pathways probably will. He explained that there will be a maintenance fleet on site. So yes, the paths will have to be plowed. Ms. Donovan said, around Market Place, coming in off South Broadway, is that one way going all the way around? Or is it two way? Mr. Gross said its one way. Ms. Donovan asked, is there something to make sure you go that way? Mr. Gross explained where to go on the plan, and how that circulation will work. Ms. Donovan asked, are there loading zone or delivery areas? Town of Salem, NH Page

6 Planning Board Meeting Minutes July 0, 0 0 Mr. Gross said yes, that will be part of the site plan that you will see later this year on the whole central village. Ms. Donovan asked, are you planning any kind of bike parking? Mr. Gross said probably at the areas that Bob showed, in terms of seating areas. That path at Linear Park is a multi-use path. Bob had a sheet showing amenities. There will be bike racks. There will be amenities when you see the plans for central village. It s basically a city street. Mr. Gibbs mentioned the water for the lake. Will you have enough water? He likes the boardwalk. Do you think there will be enough runoff to keep the lake high enough, and if not, where will you get water? Mr. Gross said we did an experiment on the existing pond. The level of the pond doesn t change. We found out that the pond is lined. It will be relined with natural clay. He explained that the racetrack had a pump that pumped groundwater into the lake when it got low. They used it for irrigation on the track. Mr. Gibbs said, regarding not having a sidewalk on Rockingham Park Boulevard, he would be OK with that. There will be fencing and shrubberies so people can t cut through. Mr. Gross said that is a State controlled road, and the State has no interest in maintaining a sidewalk. Mr. Gibbs mentioned the parking garage. Can you talk about how people will enter and exit, etc? Mr. Gross said he will do that in two weeks when we go through the conceptual master plan. Mr. Gibbs mentioned, coming in off the flyover, to Mall Road, and coming into the village. He asked Mr. Gross to explain that road. Ms. Monticup said we re restriping the right turn off the flyover to be two lanes and it has all been approved. That has not changed. It will be two lanes off, with new signal equipment, and then we will widen Mall Road so that the outside right turn lane will basically flow right into Tuscan Village into that right in, right out driveway. So that will be helpful to process the office traffic. Mr. Moldoff said it will be one lane coming into the village, and two lanes coming off the flyover. Mr. Gibbs asked, all your studies show that s enough? Ms. Monticup said yes. Mrs. Harvey asked about the bike pedestrian concept, if you are coming off of the bike path. Mr. Moldoff said we will want to get that material into the next round of plans. Mr. Gross then gave that information to the board. Mrs. Harvey asked, everything that is green, is bicycle? Mr. Gross explained the bike paths and multi-use path on the plan. Mrs. Harvey asked, will these be designated bike trails with signs? Mr. Gross said, it s a multi-use path and he then showed these on the plan. Mrs. Harvey said she doesn t think 0 feet will be wide enough. Walkers will be in conflict with people on bikes. Mr. Gross spoke about putting multi use on both sides. Town of Salem, NH Page

7 Planning Board Meeting Minutes July 0, 0 0 Mrs. Harvey said her experience is, it s better to keep the bikes going with the flow of traffic, which means both sides of the road. How do you plan to get bikes through the roundabouts? Mr. Gross said there will be crossings. Mrs. Harvey said that bikers tend to actually go through the roundabout. She mentioned that they won t use a pedestrian way to get through a roundabout. She is speaking through experience. Are there raised curbs? Mr. Gross said we want to make sure that everyone crosses at the crosswalks. We ve had a lot of discussion of how to get people from one side to the other, and we all agree this is the safest way. If a biker chooses to go down the side of the road, we can t stop that. Mrs. Harvey asked, so it won t be prohibited? Mr. Gross said, not that he knows of. He doesn t believe we will prohibit it. Mrs. Harvey explained that if it s a general roundabout, that s where accidents can happen. She will look at it to make sure we re doing it in a safe way. Mr. Gross showed crossings for the bike path. Ms. Withrow asked, when you enter the roundabouts, will it be curbed? Mr. Gross said it is two lanes all the way around. There was discussion of the roundabouts. Mrs. Harvey asked, will there be a speed limit through that road? Mr. Gross said it is designed as, and posted as. Mr. DeClercq asked, regarding the Mall Road, right in right out, why do we have just a right in right out? Mr. Gross said, it is to have full access without a signalized intersection. Mr. DeClercq asked, once they get into that parking field, where do they go, if they want to go left? Mr. Gross showed on the plan where they can go. There was a discussion of that area and where traffic will go. Mr. Gross said there is an assumption of volumes and who is going where. A lot of your traffic is coming from Route, and they will probably go back to where they came from. That s part of the internal roadway analysis that Steve Pernaw is reviewing. Mr. DeClercq said it seems like you are going into a dead end, because you can t go back out from the way you came in. Ms. Monticup said we didn t make that right in right out a full access. Steve Pernaw further recommended that a median go down there, so we re extending it to keep it a right in right out. On the last plan we had a big design district anchor, and we only had one driveway on Tuscan Boulevard leaving that site, and it worked. With this new development now we ve made two full access roundabouts leaving that area. She explained the improvements. Because of that development change in the south west corner, that s why we have two full roundabouts. So Town of Salem, NH Page

8 Planning Board Meeting Minutes July 0, 0 0 people can get out of that big parking lot and get where they need to go. That was always the plan, to have a right in right out driveway because we couldn t make it a full access. Mr. DeClercq asked, near the assisted living, he heard you mention gated? That won t be a full access area? Mr. Gross explained on the plan where it will be gated. It is basically for emergency vehicles and maintenance vehicles. Mr. DeClercq asked, can you get to there from Tuscan Boulevard going out that way to Mall Road? Mr. Gross said no. He showed the access getting in and out of that area. Chairman Belair mentioned the foot light poles. Mr. Gross said it will end up being the same height light fixtures on these roads, as we have on the 0 acre parcel. Mrs. Harvey said, this is not part of the Tuscan Village plan, but it is something she mentioned at the very beginning. There is very poor access coming from Pleasant Street. It is a sidewalk path that goes through the mall property, and to Mall Road, to a sidewalk adjacent to the Tuscan side of Mall Road. That sidewalk, leaving from Pleasant Street, all the way to the intersection, is in desperate need of being redone. She knows it is not part of your land, but it will be subjected to a lot of use, probably by the residents in the north village. Is there any way, in cooperation with the mall owners and Seritage, to do that? It really needs to get improved. Mr. Gross said we are replacing all the sidewalk on Mall Road, up to that path. From that path on, it s not our property. We don t have the right to do that. Mrs. Harvey asked, is there some way that the town can get involved? Mr. Moldoff said we will talk to the mall. Chairman Belair said we can t fix the other properties tonight. We have to stick to this plan. Mrs. Harvey said this project impacts that. Mr. Moldoff said, on the th you have a full agenda, and the th is the conceptual master plan on this area, so that would be a good time to have a special meeting on the conceptual master plan. He asked for a special meeting on July st. MOTION by Mr. DeClercq to continue the OMJ Realty site plan. SECOND by Ms. Donovan. VOTE ON MOTION: - 0 UNANIMOUS PUBLIC MATTERS. Rockingham Planning Commission Mr. Moldoff said we put out a call for candidates for representatives to the Rockingham Planning Commission. You don t appoint them, but you pass on the application to the Board of Selectmen Town of Salem, NH Page

9 Planning Board Meeting Minutes July 0, 0 and they appoint them. We got one application from Bob Donahue, and we are getting one from Paul Pelletier. Ross asked the board to allow us to pass those on to the Board of Selectmen. Those were the only two who applied, and we have four positions. The consensus of the board is that it is OK to pass those on to the Board of Selectmen. Mrs. Harvey said this is her last meeting as a regular member, and she thanked the board for their support. She has submitted her letter of resignation, effective tomorrow. She doesn t plan to run for re-election in March. Her objective is to give the alternates that we have, a chance to have more experience. She thinks it is important that when the elections come up, that she hopes the alternates run, and that they be elected because it is important to have experience, regarding knowing the regulations. It takes time to learn the regulations and the alternate position is the best way to do that. That s why she is resigning now. The board thanked Linda for her service. Mrs. Harvey said she does plan to apply for an alternate position of the board. She explained that she is on the Conservation Commission, and she thinks it is important to have a connection between the Conservation Commission and the Planning Board. Mr. Moldoff thanked Linda Harvey for all her work. She has been a great citizen volunteer. MOTION by Mr. DeClercq to adjourn. SECOND by Mr. Pelletier. VOTE ON MOTION: - 0 UNANIMOUS The meeting adjourned at :0 p.m. For further information, kindly refer to the videotape dated /0/, located in the Planning Office. Minutes by: Susan Strugnell, Planning Board Recording Secretary Approved: Planning Board Date: Town of Salem, NH Page