Welcome to the NH Lakes Region Planning Commission meeting from 11/20/13. The LRPC meeting took place at the Huminston Building, 103 Main St, Meredith and it began at 9:00 am. Click Here to visit the LRPC website

00:01 Acceptance of previous meeting minutes; correction of issued date stated on the minutes; Granite State Future (Sustainable Communities Initiative) regional master planning timeline; completion of chapters; comparison to other regional Planning Commissions; Nashua Regional Planning Commissions responsibility to review all regional master plans for consistency; Office of Energy and Planning’s statutory responsibility to formulate state development plan; effort to formulate a State Plan; State development plan; lack of funding; new legislation to have DRED (Department of Resources and Economic Development) prepare an economic development plan; June 30 draft chapter deadline; housing chapter interim draft data; incomplete future housing production needs data from the state; transportation plan not completed; transportation workshop data towards completion of transportation chapter;

05:00 Transportation workshop; importance of following scheduling process; accommodating schedule in order that each chapter be approved by the plan advisory committee; adhering to July 1st deadline; possibility of scheduling more meetings; concern- timely review of each chapter; Granite State Future Website update; archiving meeting and planning documents on GSF website; workshop information; meeting notices; draft vision statement; economic development chapter; housing chapter; plan outlines; public availability; Draft housing chapter being made available to committee;

10:00 Draft housing section outline; Draft transportation section outline; Water infrastructure outline; natural hazards section; receive request email; electronic reports versus paper reports; complaints by Chairman that the reports are very large and the maps are difficult to read; report- successful public outreach; workshops;

15:00 Press releases; informing public directly; report- efforts being made to divert planning efforts for political reasons; important to provide information to the public regarding the planning initiatives promoted by the LRPC; proposal- providing reports to member town selectmen; Freedom NH planning board; dispelling the concern of United Nations influence over local planning; dispelling the concern of global dominance; related press releases being sent to Conway Daily Sun; proposal- press releases or reports being forwarded to the member town Planning Boards;

20:00 Process- compiling the Housing Needs Assessment every 5 years; Statutory requirements; components of the Granite State Future; new element- fair housing and equitable planning effort; Chapter introductions; importance of definitions of types of housing; workforce housing; section 8; description of areas of analysis; following the Nashua RPC template; socio economic data; population data; projected reductions of population; towns experiencing negative growth; impact on schools, communities as a whole; school enrollment; schools being closed; hysterical focus on the word “affordable”; the publics concern over “subsidized housing”; perception of “an invasion of people with low incomes” “normal wages” “retaining middle class and families” “providing economic opportunities and affordable housing” ; misunderstanding the concept of fair housing and politicizing the issue;

25:00 Providing adequate housing and utilizing local zoning regulations as to not hinder affordable housing development; correlating the decrease in school enrollment to the lack of affordable housing; discussion- promoting a book named “snob zones”; large lot zoning siting the Town of Ossipee; report- housing chapter data; average household size; unemployment rate; aging demographic data; member towns with the greatest number of aging in place; 2010 census data;

30:00 Inbound Resident influx and available affordable housing; what type of housing is the inbound resident acquiring; supportive statistics; perceived fear of influx of senior residents; aging in place; non white population data; single parent households; households without vehicles; percentage of people below poverty level; persons with disabilities; Laconia homeless shelter; chart of economic and diversity populations; identifying index; residential permits; units of housing;

35:00 Single family building permits; single family; multi- family; median income; threshold of workforce housing; 30% of income; renting versus housing; exclusionary zoning; multi unit housing; workforce housing projects; housing market forces regarding workforce housing; median gross rent;

40:00 Median gross rent prices; NH finance authority data production/ projections; statewide figures; affordable and equitable housing opportunity and barriers; list of complaints regarding housing discrimination; legal assistance process; HUD’s reported cases; housing recommendations; need for more housing units; encouraging workforce housing review by local planning; housing recommendations; planning director interim reports; process of disseminating report;

45:00 Comparing statistics; adding vision statements or summery statements outlining the data; using appendices; funds within the federal grant used for communicating workshop and data to the public; presenting data without politicizing the chapters in the regional plan; presenting regional plan to compliment local master plans;

50:00 Brief recess; unrelated and related conversations; discussion and review of draft transportation chapter of regional master plan; needs of society; facilitating change; responsibility of RPC’s; livable walkable community principles; connectivity; park and ride location; opportunities for public transit; identification of new park and ride locations; Belmont locations;

55:00 Belmont town beach area; Route 3 corridor; available acreage; transportation demand management study; participation with Laconia; Franklin; tilton; discussion- park and ride concept; funding for park and rides; CMAQ funding; Congestion Mitigation Air Quality federal grant funding; EPA non and containment areas; exhibiting air quality improvements in non attainment areas; local town park and rides; life line map;

1:00:00 Discussion- changes in maps; locations of hospital; C and J transport; state controls over park and ride access; adding mountain range delineations; adding Rail Road tracks to map; reducing map clutter; adding separate maps; walking and bike trails;

1:05:00 Engaging the public in the transportation chapter workshop; education; information; providing good information to public; comments from public relating to the LRPC role; NH Association of Regional planning commissions role; funding sources; list of projects; DOT’s focus; significant disconnects; road surface management perspective;

1:10:00 Local road agent involvement; proposal to have towns take over State Roads; municipal responsibilities regarding road maintenance; snow removal costs bore by municipalities; 40%; discussion- process of snow removal;

1:15:00 Executive summery section verbiage; black roads concept; federal funding sources for snow removal; increasing the acceptance of telecommuting; salt contaminating ground water; discussion- percentage of house holds without vehicles in Barnstead;

1:20:00 Time line of transportation Chapter completion; Technical Advisory Committee review; draft chapter; TAC responsibilities; Route 25 Airport; ten year plan funding for airports; concord taxiway improvements; airport trust funds; proposal to shift transportation funds from airports to other areas of transportation; aviation fuel tax revenues; review of water infrastructure and natural hazards; energy efficiency and green building; environment chapter;

1:25:00 Review of environmental chapter; water infrastructure energy efficiency; green building; proposal to combine all into one workshop; breakout sessions; discussion- process; scheduling times;

1:30:00 Scheduling chapter workshop meetings; outline of water infrastructure chapter; water resource descriptive language; describing open forest lands as a water resource protection area; discussion- perception that water quality is declining question of accuracy; new interpretations of new data points; lake absorption of contaminants; global warming; correlation to impervious surfaces; run off pollution control;

1:35:00 Discussion- the interconnected nature of water protection with other chapters within the Regional Master Plans through out State; addressing global warming; greenhouse gases; “the way we are living is unsustainable” ; discussion- ownership plan in the Catskills; EPA requirements that force protection of water; boating causing damage to lakes, lake shores;

1:40:00 Connecting water protection with economic growth; structuring the RMP with environmental chapters place in the forefront of the document; Ossipee Lakes Alliance; increasing boat registration fees to pay for marine control officers; “Our favorite State Rep that stripped funding” ; addressing milfoil invasive plant species; Brindle Pond study; private property lake shore erosion; private property responsibilities; perception of not acting due to increased regulation of private property; State regulation of water, land use near waters; Comprehensive Shore Land Protection Act;

1:45:00 Identifying stewards of water bodies; concern of identifying water and shoreline issues- who will address the issues; the location of town data on water resource control, protection, stakeholders; storm water management issues; NHDES; creating a survey to be taken by local municipalities; Regional and local groups involvement in natural resource management, water, land;

1:50:00 Discussion- groups to work towards water management; regional approaches; citizen group outreaches; stewardship plans; Ossipee Lakes Alliance using Forest Bell Associates, environmental corp for mathematical modeling; addressing private wells in the water infrastructure protection chapter; discussion- water testing data; radon; NHDES interpretation of water testing results;

1:55:00 Energy and efficiency chapter draft outline discussion; environmental, social, economic, aspects; local energy master plan chapters; “Eating Your Energy Efficiency Vegetables first before you can eat your energy renewable desert”- Coogan;

2:00:00 Town of Effingham’s wood pellet boiler grant; Town of Sandwhich Master Plan updated energy chapter; discussion- sustainable wood energy use; wood pellets; chips; discussion- wood pellets availability in local hardware stores; geothermal;

2:05:00 Geothermal and water quality; Governor Wentworth School Geothermal; discussion- cost of installation; solar energy; Natural hazards and climate change chapter outline; local hazard mitigation plans; fire; earthquakes; evaluating addressing impacts on region; impacts to infrastructure;

2:10:00 Involvement of local road agents in hazard mitigation plans; potential scenarios regarding climate change impacts; cost and benefits; mitigate or adaptation; flood events;

2:15:00 Mitigating flood damage; Federal Emergency Management involvement; FEMA as a funding source for hazard mitigation plans; FEMA funding responsibilities: funding of hazzard mitigation efforts; flood insurance; reductions in flood insurance rates; NH State Flood Plan Management OEP;

2:20:00 Type of flood insurance; first responders; Lakes Region Mutual Aid; Regional First Responders; equipment used in natural disasters; debris management; developing regional plans for hazard mitigation; public works association- T2;