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Economic Development Committee

Wednesday 

April 6, 2022

6pm 

 

Brentwood Town Hall​

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AGENDA: 

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Minutes Approval

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UNH MBA Program Update

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Other Business

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Public Comment

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Minutes March 30, 2022

Attendance: Span, Aldred-Cheek, Rossman, Farrell, Morgan (virtual), Kizza, Finan, Greenwood

Approved previous minutes with 1 edit – broker instead of developer

UNH Interns:

  • Met last week to go over some details

  • Interested in starting to talk to property owners

    • We should give them a list of priority parcels (10-15 parcels

    • Committee members should go through their lists and pick out top 3 or 4

    • Possibly add a new tab on google doc?

    • Expressed interest in tractor supply – national chain, successful retail operation

      • Mentioned is interesting to them from an MBA perspective

      • Potential for ‘template’?

Broker Invitation:

  • Andrew Ward with Collier international agreed to meet with us

    • Will put together a presentation

    • Familiar with 125 corridor

  • Jon wondering should we try to bring in someone like Rob Healey?

    • Glen offered to reach out to him

Glen Greenwood discussion:

  • RPC interested in seeing our survey results

  • Encouraged member from this committee to join committee drafting master plan updates

  • Glen will forward the questions the UNH students sent him

  • Not a lot of prime wetlands on Rt 125 – good thing from a development standpoint

  • 75% of parcels along 125 +/- have had their zoning amended to go to property boundary instead of former 500’

    • This type of amendment has historically been favorable at town mtg

  • It isn’t considered spot zoning if you’re amending a zone that already exists

  • It is possible to change all of the remaining properties

    • Laws have changed in recent years, resulting in a more involved process

    • Would have to go to town mtg

  • Wetlands on map are defined by county soils map done in 80s

    • Done at 5-10 acre increments – not good for site specific planning

    • Invariably wetlands get bigger when you do a site specific soil survey

    • Wetlands are biggest constraint to development in town

  • Wetland relocation is not encouraged at local level

    • At state level there is a process

      • Have to protect 10x the amount you impact

      • Town selects land to protect

      • If town has no list – state default is to select land within the same watershed (not always within same town)

  • Key issues:

    • Unless town is willing to buy land, become a housing authority, and take land cost out of the equation, going to be difficult to make land affordable

    • Developers have told us the multi-family district in town doesn’t work

      • Need to change ordinance to increase density allowed

      • We don’t give any density bonus – just allow units closer together than 1 house on 2 acres

      • Hard to get buy-in from public for increased density – have tried and failed in town before

    • Current 2 acre requirement is a barrier for lower income families/ individuals

    • Can have a single family houses on any property in commercial zone

    • Mixed use: really common in communities that have a central business district

      • Brentwood doesn’t have one, unlikely without real changes

      • Could allow mixed use zoning – just would need to make sense – have housing near services people would want

      • This committee is interested in pursuing a town center type of project

        • There is a Town Center zone

    • Town is not using everything they own

      • Could be a great project

      • Could work with planning commission to get a map

      • There aren’t that many properties, and they are spread out

        • Potential for land swaps

        • Transfer of development rights – not common in NH, complicated

    • Water & sewer major barrier

      • Separation requirements between well & septic

      • Larger use wells have larger radius

      • Bringing in water from Epping could free up a lot of developable land

        • Will cost $

        • Epping has capacity

      • First step – reach out to a consultant like Wright Pierce to figure out what they recommend

        • Stef can take lead

      • Could have state reps or senators come and meet with us to discuss – should have a plan in place first

      • Stef will look into potential grants from NHDES website

      • https://www.des.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt341/files/documents/2020-01/pws-funding-resources.pdf

  • Upcoming meetings:

    • Might be beneficial to talk to interns sooner rather than later

    • Keep to 1st & 3rd weds of the month

    • Needs to be in person to be an official meeting

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