Members of the Planning Board are looking to add an energy chapter to the town’s master plan.
Lisa Murphy, senior planner with the Southwest Regional Planning Commission, is tasked with drafting the chapter, which will focus on promoting renewable energies on a small scale while writing in language that would could help regulate commercial projects.
“There’s a definite tension in the town between changing the characteristic of the town versus promoting green energy. They’re both important. And so it would be good if we had something there that would help us find that balance,” said Planning Board member Andre Wood during a meeting last Monday.
Chair Paul Renaud said right now the town has no ordinance in place to regulate solar energy, which could be problematic if a commercial project were to come into town.
“There’s a bit of a concern we want people to be green, but also don’t want a huge proliferation all over town,” Renaud said.
Murphy said the master plan should be written in such a way that it would set the stage for a future ordinance.
“We know the master plan has no regulatory authority, but it does allow for the next steps,” Murphy said.
The chapter will also include the importance of conducting energy audits in municipal buildings as a method to decrease energy costs.
Years ago the town did have a committee aimed at making municipal buildings more efficient, but the group has since dissolved.
“We can’t even get people to sit on our Planning Board, we can’t even get people who get elected to this Planning Board to sit on this Planning Board, people who volunteer to serve don’t come here,” said Select Board member Robert Marshall.
Instead of creating an energy committee that could, once again, disperse, he suggested adding the energy-efficiency priorities to a preexisting job at the town, such as the buildings and grounds position.
Marshall said direction from a professional could also be helpful to moving forward with energy audits.
An energy audit could mitigate increasing energy expenditures in municipal buildings, costs that are projected to spike in every department next year.
“There is no reason why we can’t begin to take some initiatives as a town to come up with alternative energy generation,” Marshall said.
An important piece moving forward, he said, is taking action.
“I want to make sure whatever we decide to do, number one there is an identifiable, characterizable, outcome. That it’s relatively small and likely to be obtainable with the minimum amount of input over a relatively short period of time because if we don’t build success and we create these huge models we’re wasting out time and money,” Marshall said.
Murphy said she would take comments from the meeting and begin drafting language for the master plan.
An initial draft of the energy chapter will be presented at an upcoming planning meeting. Renaud said it hopes to put the chapter forward at town meeting in 2018.
The Planning Board amended its Site Plan Review Regulations and Subdivision Regulations.
It held a public hearing regarding the changes Tuesday, but no one came out to comment on the matter.
Changes include bringing site plan and subdivision application procedures into compliance with state RSAs, eliminating inconsistencies in procedural language, establishing criteria for activities not subject to site plan review, establishing criteria for expedited review of site plan and including additional guidelines for determining the necessity for site plan review.
Abby Kessler can be reached at 924-7172, ext. 234 or akessler@ledgertranscript.com.