DURHAM — The Select Board voted unanimously Tuesday to remove from a land use ordinance amendment a requirement that private roads be paved.
The change was made in response to feedback received from residents at last week’s public hearing on four land use ordinance amendments. Over 60 residents attended the two-hour public hearing.
The board agreed the requirement was not necessary and would place undue financial hardship on residents.
The Select Board additionally discussed a change to the fee schedule amendment.
The land use ordinance amendment would create a separate fee schedule for permitting and other related fees. Currently, these fees are included under different ordinances and require a town meeting vote to alter, making them difficult to update.
Under the current proposed amendment, the Select Board will approve the fee schedule once each year. The discussed change would give residents, not the Select Board, the power to approve permitting fees at the annual Town Meeting each year.
Members ultimately declined to make a motion for the change because they did not want to wait another year to alter the current permitting fees, which are far lower than towns of comparable size.
During public comment, a few residents asked the Select Board to reconsider their two-part plan to change resource protection zoning, which restricts where residents can build.
The current plan calls on residents to vote to remove land from resource protection zoning at the Annual Town meeting in 2022, then vote whether to add land in 2023.
A few residents asked that the board either reverse the order of the plan to approve additions first, or combine the two steps into one part.
“I’m really uncomfortable with them pulling stuff out then trying to put stuff back in,” Jane Rice of Durham said. “I think it’s going to be really hard to add more space in (resource protection) on the next round, because I know how I felt when my space went in. I didn’t have a say and these people, they have a little bit more of a say.”
“If our goal is to get to the science behind these regulations and to say that our objective is to make sure we’re following the best available science and make sure our zoning is reflective of that, I think it would be more beneficial to do it all in one fell swoop,” Joseph Roy of Durham said.
Chairman Kevin Nadeau acknowledged their concern, but said the board wanted to prioritize removing unfair restrictions from landowners.
“The whole point you’re making that it will be easier to get stuff in if we do it together, that’s exactly why we separated them,” he said. “Because then you’re using what happens with certain people’s property as leverage for what would happen to other people’s property, and we didn’t think that was appropriate.”
Town Planner George Thebarge said the Conservation Commission was also in favor of adding and subtracting land from resource protection in one step when it was consulted last spring. However, the Select Board voted to pursue a two-part plan at the recommendation of Thebarge in October.
“We didn’t want somebody who had land in resource protection to have their chances of having those inappropriate restrictions remain on their land because of a separate discussion about property that perhaps should go into resource protection,” Nadeau said. “We saw those as two separate issues.”
Durham residents Juliet Caplinger and Heather Roy expressed concerns that the rezoning process was rushed and lacked collaboration with other town committees.
“After the land use ordinance overhaul (in 2020), we started right on this,” Thebarge said. “The Planning Board, again, took this up two years ago, so it’s not rushed,” adding that the Conservation Commission was also involved with the process.
The four land use ordinance amendments up for vote at the annual town meeting relate to resource protection zoning, roads, appeals and the fee schedule. Residents will discuss and vote on these amendments on April 2, beginning at 9 a.m. in Durham Community School.
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