PZC: New Home-Building Continues in Goshen

Goshen’s Planning and Zoning Commission met on Tuesday, August  22nd for their monthly gathering. All members of the board were in attendance save for board alternate William Clinton and board members Cynthia Barrett and Laura Lemieux who were excused. Additional attendees included Town Planner and Zoning Enforcement Officer (ZEO)  Martin Connor, and  Emergency Management Director Shilo Garceau. Board alternate Jim Withstandley and alternate commissioner seated for this meeting, began the meeting by motioning to approve June’s meeting minutes. July’s PZC meeting was canceled. This was unanimously approved.

For new business, Silene White-Pogodzienski requested a 90 day extension to file final approved 1 lot subdivision plans for Buzziena White on the property located on 192 Kubish Road. The 10+ acre subdivision would be used to develop a four bedroom house with a garage, septic and well along a pre-installed driveway. The subdivision was approved in June when William Colby introduced the proposal for Buzziena White. It was approved with the conditions that the Whites submit a letter containing a waiver request for open space and recreation and an updated proposal with corrected typography errors to the subdivision, site development, and septic plans. Connor introduced the request to the commission and explained why they are requesting the extension, “The surveyors right now are pretty backed up and apparently the surveyor for this project hasn’t had an opportunity yet to put those pins and monuments in place and just to protect the applicant, I talked with her, Silene White. I suggested she write a letter to the commission requesting a 90 day extension for having those pins and monuments placed and submitting the mylar map for recording.” Property pins and monuments are metal pins placed at property corners or on proposed boundary line changes while mylar maps are used to identify subdivisions within a property. Connor recommended the PZC grant the 90 day extension to save everybody involved in the subdivision “time and effort”. He also corrected for the record that the property is referred to as 192-A Kubish Road, not 192 Kubish Road. Secretary Lu-Ann Zbinden motioned to approve the 90 day extension. This was unanimously approved.

Connor then conducted his ZEO report. Goshen is still having houses built in town. Connor recently approved the construction of three houses with several others already underway. The 12” by 24” pavilion for Goshen Center School to be used as an outdoor teaching space and shade for students is almost complete. The PZC approved the pavilion in April. Last week, concrete was poured into the pavilion with roof structures beginning to be placed. On August 7th, Connor attended the Goshen Business Circle’s meeting at the town’s historical society to discuss the 2016 Plan of Conservation and Development. Connor suggested they renew the POCD in 2026, “We’re going to have to, in my opinion, ask to have money set aside to help develop the plan and the commission’s gonna, like we did [the] last two times, we basically went through it on our own and talked about what things we accomplished and what things hadn’t been and gave us some ideas on what new things we’re gonna need to do.” He believes the Goshen Economic Development Commission, Business Circle, Conservation Commision and Land Trust can help renew the plan.

After briefly discussing an upcoming Northwest Hills Council of Governments Zoom training course for the role of Land Use Commissioner on Thursday, August 31st from 7-8:30 pm, Zbinden motioned to adjourn the meeting. This was unanimously approved.