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:
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Met last week to go over some details
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Interested in starting to talk to property owners
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We should give them a list of priority parcels (10-15 parcels
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Committee members should go through their lists and pick out top 3 or 4
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Possibly add a new tab on google doc?
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Expressed interest in tractor supply – national chain, successful retail operation
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Mentioned is interesting to them from an MBA perspective
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Potential for ‘template’?
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Broker Invitation:
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Andrew Ward with Collier international agreed to meet with us
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Will put together a presentation
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Familiar with 125 corridor
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Jon wondering should we try to bring in someone like Rob Healey?
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Glen offered to reach out to him
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Glen Greenwood discussion:
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RPC interested in seeing our survey results
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Encouraged member from this committee to join committee drafting master plan updates
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Glen will forward the questions the UNH students sent him
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Not a lot of prime wetlands on Rt 125 – good thing from a development standpoint
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75% of parcels along 125 +/- have had their zoning amended to go to property boundary instead of former 500’
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This type of amendment has historically been favorable at town mtg
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It isn’t considered spot zoning if you’re amending a zone that already exists
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It is possible to change all of the remaining properties
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Laws have changed in recent years, resulting in a more involved process
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Would have to go to town mtg
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Wetlands on map are defined by county soils map done in 80s
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Done at 5-10 acre increments – not good for site specific planning
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Invariably wetlands get bigger when you do a site specific soil survey
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Wetlands are biggest constraint to development in town
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Wetland relocation is not encouraged at local level
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At state level there is a process
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Have to protect 10x the amount you impact
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Town selects land to protect
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If town has no list – state default is to select land within the same watershed (not always within same town)
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Key issues:
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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
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Developers have told us the multi-family district in town doesn’t work
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Need to change ordinance to increase density allowed
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We don’t give any density bonus – just allow units closer together than 1 house on 2 acres
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Hard to get buy-in from public for increased density – have tried and failed in town before
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Current 2 acre requirement is a barrier for lower income families/ individuals
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Can have a single family houses on any property in commercial zone
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Mixed use: really common in communities that have a central business district
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Brentwood doesn’t have one, unlikely without real changes
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Could allow mixed use zoning – just would need to make sense – have housing near services people would want
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This committee is interested in pursuing a town center type of project
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There is a Town Center zone
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Town is not using everything they own
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Could be a great project
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Could work with planning commission to get a map
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There aren’t that many properties, and they are spread out
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Potential for land swaps
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Transfer of development rights – not common in NH, complicated
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Water & sewer major barrier
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Separation requirements between well & septic
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Larger use wells have larger radius
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Bringing in water from Epping could free up a lot of developable land
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Will cost $
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Epping has capacity
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First step – reach out to a consultant like Wright Pierce to figure out what they recommend
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Stef can take lead
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Could have state reps or senators come and meet with us to discuss – should have a plan in place first
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Stef will look into potential grants from NHDES website
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https://www.des.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt341/files/documents/2020-01/pws-funding-resources.pdf
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Upcoming meetings:
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Might be beneficial to talk to interns sooner rather than later
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Keep to 1st & 3rd weds of the month
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Needs to be in person to be an official meeting
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