Meeting Minutes
6:00 p.m.
Members Present: Mark
Baker, Dan Brown, Duane Gregory, and Ken
Janson.
Member Absent: Cynthia
Gast (excused absence)
Health Agent: Jane
Evans Raasch
Health Inspector: Patricia Pajaron
The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m.
AGENDA
Public Comments
There were none.
Public Hearing
7 Garfield Street –
Nelsons Bayside Cottages: New Camps, Cabins and Motel License
Pat Pajaron produced evidence that the property was advertised under CyberRentals as a 4 bedroom home with 2 baths and able to sleep 8-12 people. Pat, based on noise complaints received from neighbors, did an inspection. The master bedroom, based on measurements, was able to sleep 3 people and each of the other two legal bedrooms was only able to accommodate single occupancies. Thus the home should be licensed for 5 sleeping occupants and 8 daytime occupants. The basement room, that had been counted as a bedroom, is not a legal bedroom due to the means of egress and the size of the high, basement windows.
Rev. and Ms. Nelson said they had purchased it as a four-bedroom house and they had improved it tremendously. Pat agreed that it was a great house, but the septic was designed for only 3 bedrooms and the assessor had only 3 bedrooms listed on his records. They were also advised that should they ever bring the basement room up to a real bedroom code they would have to do this by going into the Growth Management queue and also would have to install a new Title 5 which would accommodate 4 bedrooms.
The Nelsons were also told that they must inform any rentals that were pending of the ruling of only 5 sleeping spots and a total of 8 daytime occupants.
Terese Nelson said they have owned the house since
1998 and Roger Dias said it had been totally renovated. They argued that there have always been four
bedrooms. Nothing has changed. The Assessor’s office said they have a
3-bedroom plan on file as of 2/19/85.
Roger had inspected it completely and there is a 1997 septic system
report that says it has 3 bedrooms.
Mark
Baker told the Nelsons, once again, that this whole matter was brought up
because of a complaint the BoH had received. There have been reports of 17 or more people occupying it – sleeping on the floor, etc. The advertisement is not truthful when it states that the home has 4 bedrooms and can sleep 8-12.
Duane
Gregory opined that she was opposed to going to the extreme of having these
people get a Camps, Motel, etc. License.
She feels that the BoH should monitor truth in advertising especially
where you say you can accommodate many more people than you are legally able
to. Make them get an inspection and a
rental certificate, but Duane is not in favor of making everyone in this
category get a Camps, Cabins, and Motel License.
Ken
Janson said that a rental certificate becomes another tool that the Town can
use to regulate properties. MB might be persuaded to encourage them to get a rental certificate and
have all the conditions discussed met.
Mark Baker said the rental certificate has to have teeth in it and pat
said that there are penalties in it such as $100/day. Dan Brown was leaning toward requiring a rental certificate with
stipulations. This is because he
believes the Camps, Cabins and Motel license seemed superfluous and
inappropriate for a single-family home.
Motion:
Mark Baker made a motion to require the Nelsons, for the property
located at 7 Garfield Street, to apply and secure a rental certificate within 5
working days. Said certificate must
state that 5 people only are allowed for sleeping and 8 people allowed for
daytime use. The BoH reserves the right
to recall the Nelsons and the determination of the case should additional
information regarding licensing be forthcoming from the town counsel (with no
timetable stipulated). Dan Brown
seconded the motion and it passed 4-0-0.
New Business
Macie Karpinsky - New Temporary Tattoo Artist
This applicant has withdrawn.
48 Commercial Street - Plan review with Felco Engineering
Alan
Cabral presented this plan review for discussion purposes only. (Duane Gregory
stepped down.) The owner has a new plan
and felt that it would be easily approved since a flip-flopped plan had been
approved 3 years previously. The plan
is just the opposite of what had been approved before, in that the front yard
and back yard have changed as the areas for installation of the Title 5.
Mark Baker says the new owner has to play by the same rules as everyone else. Therefore, he has to resubmit the revised septic plan as well as the floor plans (existing and proposed) and the BoH will start at “square one” to review it. Alan said that if the new plan is not approved, maybe they can go back to the original one which had been approved before. The Board reminded him that in that case, the old plan would still need new approval.
The
original owner did not want to hook up to the sewer system; this owner would
prefer doing it. However, given the question about Phase 2’s future, that is
not a sure bet.
Approval of Minutes
for June 24, 2004
Motion: Duane Gregory made a motion to approve the minutes with a deletion of the mini discussion in the middle of page 3; Ken Janson seconded the motion and it was approved 4-0-0.
Any other business that shall properly come before the Board
The BoH was informed that there seems to be new thinking at Town Hall regarding the sewer. It seems that Phase 2 residential hook-ups might have to take a back seat to economic development. The BoH felt that Phase 2 of the sewer was to continue to be used as a no-growth system designed for health safety, and not to encourage businesses/economic growth.
Duane asked Jane Evans Raasch about the Squealing
Pig’s grease trap pumping problem. Jane
says they pumped their grease trap.
They have to comply with the regulation. Jane is waiting to hear from J. Roderick. Mark Baker wondered if people who have a
problem with their grease trap pumping should be required to have a monitoring
system? That would necessitate a Public
Hearing.
Health Agent’s and Health Inspector’s Reports
Jane
is still working on the revisions to the BoH regs as they refer to grease traps
and septic systems. There was quite a discussion with the BoH on their
opinions. Some of the thoughts follow:
Article 9 - Part VII – bedroom regs. Duane felt this must come from the building code. There was more discussion regarding Jane’s version of the regs. They have to be redone for a public hearing. Mark Baker said that perhaps if someone does a renovation, then the pre-existing bedrooms have to be brought up to current building code. (1978 the building code came into being.) The housing code came a little after the building code. Determination will be made on a case-by-case basis.
Jane
– what about a sleeping loft? Should we
say something about ladder and refer to building codes? A spiral stairway would be a legal
alternative.
Grease
interceptor – correct from “crease” interceptor.
Going to the end of her document, Jane noted that the town should have a regulation where local septic inspector permits cost $200/each annually.
The
Board will read the revised regs thoroughly before the next meeting on July 22nd
and put them on the agenda as a discussion item.
Pat
Pajaron went to court on Tuesday with the George Bryant case. The ruling was that all debris must be
removed by July 30th. On
that date a Status Conference will be held and Mr. Bryant was asked to bring a
picture of the cleaned property to court or a toothbrush because he’ll be
staying over if the cleanup hasn’t been accomplished. His lawyer kept bringing up the issue of the flooding of his
property caused by storm drainage issues.
Pat
said that in June there were 8 beach closures.
Mark Baker and others felt that it all comes back to the dogs defecating
on the beaches and the owners not picking up after them. Duane said that we can put back in place the
leash law and it doesn’t have to go before town meeting.
Pat,
in response to other members’ statements about whether or not we could prove
that the dogs were the problem said that when she does a sampling she looks at
data for rain dates and how they impact the samplings. All those things are counted when she
samples.
Board Members’ Statements
Dan
Brown thanked Mark for supporting him as a full member in front of the BoS. He also felt that motorcycle noise is
becoming a health issue. He wondered if
it couldn’t be addressed by the noise bylaw.
Chief Meyers was going to e-mail the regs to the Motorcycle Clubs. Dan was told that only the police can
enforce the town by-laws.
Dan
also wondered about the Provencia advertising a restaurant. He was told that the entire issue is still
in limbo. The Town does not yet have
jurisdiction over the Provincia and thus no action may be taken at this time.
The
meeting adjourned at 7:37 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Evelyn Gaudiano
Evelyn Rogers Gaudiano
Approved by ____________________________on ______________, 2004.