Meeting transcript
Zoning Board of Appeals - Special Meeting
September 2, 2020 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
Voice on there. The only other voice I was hoping to hear was William Monroe. I left him a message that we accepted his application, and I know that Jim sent out a letter to him, basically filling him in that his application was accepted and that he needed to go into the town hall and be sworn in. But I don't see him on the call tonight. And Walter can you unmute your phone just for a minute there can you hear me yeah I can hear you now look at that life is good yeah I'm actually Allison is Bill Monroe Oh, okay. Hey, Allison is Bill Monroe. Okay. Well, thank you for coming on, Bill. I appreciate it. Okay. Okay. So do we not have Walter Ware then?
I don't see him.
Okay. He's usually pretty good about these things. Okay so the roll call would be everyone but Walter Ware then correct? I think so I'm here
So, let me just ask a question, because I am new at this people. This is my second meeting I'm running, filling in as the vice chair. With this, with Walter, I'm sorry, with Jared being an alternate that's accepting the position of a full time member, Linda and I were just discussing the fact that you would need to submit your letter of resignation, Jared, as an alternate and send in a letter of application to be formally accepted as a full member.
For tonight's meeting, he can still be an alternate and you can appoint him as a participating member if you wish. Perfect. Well, let's do that then. So I Who those do I letters to, Bill? To the town clerk. Town clerk. So I gotta gotta send them to the town clerk. Yeah. I would call her first because she probably has a form letter or something you could use. Okay. I'll call Carol and ask her
and Yeah. Situation Tell her and and she'll tell you the exact way to proceed.
All right. I did ask her if I needed to be sworn in and she said yes, but I don't have to go there because she knows me and she knows my voice. Okay. Perfect. Perfect. So I'll ask her about the the letter of resignation and the letter of interest in the full.
Yeah. Just tell it, you know, tell her the board has, you know, approved you to be a full member and, what's the proper thing to do, proper procedure. All right, I'll contact her tomorrow with that. All right,
guess we have to do we have to officially call the meeting to order then? Yeah, I've been recording you so you can call it to order right now at 704.
704, call the meeting to order. And I guess right away I would just say that Gerard Kerme, our alternate will be filling in as a full time member, full member tonight. And I believe that gives us enough for quorum. Would that be correct, Linda? Yes.
Okay great so going through the agenda I guess I can pull that up real quick too yes One more time here. There we go. And I don't know if everybody got the agenda in the mail. They must have if they're on this call, right? Yeah. I got an email. Okay, great. Got an email.
Yeah, I got an email. And I can't get to mic, oh, there they are. There's my controls. All right, so we did roll call. Public participation, do we have any public participation tonight? I don't think so. Okay, so moving on to new business. And if I do anything out of line, please someone let me know. The really new business here is the adoption of the annual report. And I just had it up a minute ago. Let me just go back to it. And basically what I did is I just took last year's and copied it. I put in new dates. I put in my name as the vice chair, but obviously if we elect officers tonight, we would have hopefully a chair and a vice chair, and we will change that to say chair of someone's name.
And then I just updated some of the information down here. Basically, let me go back. So what was written last year under twenty eighteen-twenty nineteen, as I read it, I really don't see any way to improve it or change it. And I'll give everybody a minute to read this page before I scroll down if you'd like, just in case you didn't have it in front of you. But it basically talks about the fact that this is our call, and I can even read it out loud for those people that may not be on seeing Zoom. It says basically, according to Section 22.0.4 of the Andover Zoning Regulations amended to four-eighteen-eleven, that's the date, the Ann Arbor Board of Appeals is charged to, and this is our charge, authorize upon appeal in specific cases variances from the terms of these regulations whereby reason of exceptional shape, size, or topography of lot or other exceptional situation or condition of the building or land, exceptional difficulty or unusual hardship would result to the owners of said property from strict enforcement of these regulations. The board meets on the third Wednesday of each month at 7PM, and we can discuss that, that works for everybody, in the community realm. Please contact the zoning agent with any questions regarding this board. Below is a summary of the board's activities for the year, which would be twenty eighteen-twenty nineteen. Applications information can be found at, and myself and Linda just added that line, applications and information can be found at
the Ann Arbor email address, w w w dot andnoverconnecticut dot org. I also added the line, during the COVID-nineteen pandemic, the board will meet via Zoom meetings. So I guess we can discuss that. And then I just put down here, because I don't know the exact number, I can recall three meetings where there were three applications and all three were granted. Now, if somebody on the call tonight can correct me, I would love to know if there was more than three. And to my knowledge, there were no denials. Would that ring true with you, Kathleen or Walter? Yes, that sounds fine. No denial.
Great, thank you. I did change names down here, but Linda informed me that I really got to go back to the names that were on the board last year, not as the board appears now. So I'm going go back in, I'm going end up taking, I changed Jerry's name back to an alternate because that's what you were last year, Gerald. Jared, I'm sorry. I'd probably put John's name back in here, John Valente's name back in here, and add in the two other members that left, and I can't remember the names, Carol. Somebody help me out there. Carol and. Knows he can help me out. Karen Osborne.
Karen Osborne. Change it right now. I'll put her name in there. And is that Karen with a K, do you know? No, it's C A R O N, I believe. It's C A R E N. Oh, C A R E N. Yep. And the last name was? Osborn. Is it B O R N? I think it has an E on it.
Okay. And the other person that left, I forget his name. Walter, come on. John? Was it John something? That looks right. I'll get it. I'm
going back and looking at your minutes from last year, so I'm going see if I can find the name for you. Oh, thank you.
I know when we started, what is it, August or September of last year, 2019? It was John who had been on the committee His for name is Vince Williams. Vince Williams. Okay.
As of 07/17/2019, was Karen, Bill, Kathleen, Walter, and Dennis, and Jared was the alternate. Correct. Dennis not Vince? Dennis. It's Dennis.
That's it. Very good. Okay so let's just scroll back up. Does all of this up here meet with everybody's approval and is there anything that we need to change or is there any of the changes that I made that anybody has issue with? And again, the only thing I really changed down here was adding this information here about the Andover website and the COVID meetings. I'm okay with it. Okay that was Kathleen yep right I'm okay with it too Jared and Walter Bill yes yeah I'm okay with that
Perfect. So if it's all right, think this will be a pretty short meeting. I think that's pretty much how I'm gonna present it. I'll verify that this information is correct here and how it's I will submit it. Now the only thing I was gonna ask is 7PM on Wednesdays, the third Wednesday of the month, still work for everybody on this committee? It works for me, Bill. Works for me Kathleen.
Very good and I think that we got we heard from Jared Walter.
Bill says it would work for me but I don't think it will work for me this month.
Okay so what usually happens is just for I think Jared you would know this we only meet if there's so we we have it scheduled for the third Wednesday of every month but if there's no application before us we don't meet that is correct though so we will just be sending out I guess the minutes would just say that the meeting was cancelled that is correct
Okay, good. Do we need to vote on this as it stands right now or is it just acceptable or how do we do that Linda?
You can either do it by consensus or you can vote on it. I just have a question for Mr. Monroe. Have you been sworn in to be a member of the board? I have. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. And again,
thank you for that. Do you like to go by Bill or William, Mr. Monroe? Bill's fine. We got two Bills on the board. That's great. Can I vote on this? Because I'm an alternate.
No, actually what we were hoping, Bill, was that you would be a I thought the letter that Jim sent to you stated that we were interested in having you come on as a full time.
I would like to at least be an alternate for maybe a couple meetings to see what's, you know, what what my responsibilities are and if if it Sure. Get an idea, get get in and see what's going on. And and I have a feeling I I would be interested in becoming full time or permanent or whatever, but I'd like to at least have at least one month or two months of meetings without that.
That's fine. It might take you more than that only because, again, if new applications come before us, we won't meet. I'm hoping So that I can plan one of our next meetings working with Jim to bring in, I believe it's a lawyer that kind of goes over the legalities of being on the board and how we normally approach these things. Just for your edification right now, Bill, normally, unless there's something really crazy out there that people object to, we normally, from my experience and people that can jump in like Walter or Kathleen that have been on the board longer than myself, the general idea is to work with applicants to the best of our ability to grant the applications unless there is, you know, people, neighbors in the area that object or there's some other legal reason that we really can't do it. But generally we try to help the people out. Our mindset isn't to
reject appeals, it's to work with the people to make the appeals possible. Does that fit in what everybody else remembers and agrees? Think that was well said, Bill. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Kathleen, you feel the same? Yes, that's supposedly what we're supposed to be doing.
Right, okay. So, this is Linda. Yes, Linda. So, Mr. Monroe, it really doesn't matter if you've been sworn in as a full member or not, because there's only five of you, three regular members and two alternates as of tonight, and it's a five member board. So you're gonna be seated as a full member at every meeting anyway. Okay because it really doesn't matter at this point okay
now the other piece just going back to what we discussed last week was that if anybody on the board tonight knows the people that you think would be of interest to them to join, what would be nice is to have one more full time member or if Bill decides to come on as a full time to have an alternate. So if there are people that you know that are interested, definitely bring those names to my attention so we can contact them and see if we can get them to submit a letter of application. Okay, so.
So, is Linda again. Yes. So, Mr. Monroe, you've been sworn in as a full member. So, if you do want to be, I believe that's what you've been sworn in as, because that's what they were asking you to take on. If you want to be an alternate then you would have to resign as a full member to the town clerk and submit an application to be an alternate on the board.
Okay. Well, maybe I should do is just hold off on that. And then if after a few meetings, it isn't a good fit for me, then maybe I would do that. I would. Okay.
Okay. So as of tonight, you are a full full voting member. Okay.
Perfect. And and Jared is gonna he's gonna take the steps to resign and submit a new application, resign as an alternate. And so we will have a nice full board here, which will be really nice. So, okay, so I guess at this point then, why don't we just have a roll call, yay or nay, in favor of submitting the report as it stands with any corrections to be made down here to the number of applicants. I think that's correct, but I'll verify that. Can we just have a roll call starting maybe with Kathleen?
Okay, first you have to make some first has to be made and then a second. Okay, so will anybody entertain a motion
to accept the zoning board of appeals annual report as written?
Also move to accept the zoning board of appeals annual report as written
and that's Jared and Rachel I second it and ask Kathleen thank you discussion I'll take that as a no so let's have a roll call Walter yay or nay also it's not here
Walter? Walter's not here. Oh, thought he was. No. Kathleen? Yea.
Jared? Yea. Bill yay and I'm a yay so I believe the yeas have it okay Let's see. Seeing all this public participation on your public participation Linda and I discussed this earlier. I don't believe there's any thing to discuss there or there's no other people in the public. That's that's done, We did the new business and accepted the annual report. Old business, we just took care of all that with the filling of vacancies. Election of officers, I guess I'm gonna throw it out there. Was there anybody that would like to be seated as either the chair or the vice chair?
Okay. I don't feel comfortable doing either of those because I haven't been on the zoning board of appeals very long. Exactly.
And I would imagine that bill probably feels the same way. So I'm gonna take don't know if somebody I don't does somebody have to nominate me or do I how does this work Linda to be someone someone has to nominate you okay I nominate you Bill DeRosier
to be the chair Okay. Of the zoning board of the Does anybody want to second that? I second that. Thank you, Kathleen. Any discussion? I think it's a fine choice.
Thank you. All right, so I guess we need to have a roll call. All
you have to do is ask if there are any more nominations.
Are there any more nominations? We need to have a vice chair. I would like to nominate Kathleen as the vice chair. I'll second it. Is that Jared? That's Gerard, yep. Gerard, any discussion? Yes, what does the chair do?
The chair fills in if I drop dead or decide to move out of town tomorrow, then you become the chair. Heaven, help us. Or if he goes on a business meeting.
Yeah. Just so that everybody knows, to be fair, right now during COVID, it's not an issue. I don't travel. I'm restricted from traveling. But at some point when things get back to normal, my job does take me out of town very frequently. And so there's going to be times when I may miss a meeting. I'm not saying it's gonna happen a lot. I would hope it doesn't, but I just wanna be fair in making a vote for me as chair, you're knowing that there are gonna be times when I'm not gonna be there and Kathleen will definitely have to step in for me. I don't feel comfortable handling a meeting. You're not comfortable?
No, no. Okay. Well, I mean, the staff would
help you. I mean, Jim would help. Yeah. Jim is usually on these calls too, Kathleen. And it's mostly, you know, like Jim put together this agenda for tonight. I think usually that will be on But
because I'm just doing this over the phone. So Yeah. And I've you know, I really don't think I'm in a good position to do that. Okay.
That's fine. No pressure. I'm not sure if there's any other nominations for vice chair that anybody would want to entertain right now. Anybody want it? Does anybody want it?
I feel like I'm in the same position that you are in. Just not I've got to get my feet wet here. Can you see me? Can you even see me on this thing? Yeah, I
see I don't even know how to use this thing very well.
Yeah, hopefully we're gonna get out of this whole COVID thing sometime soon but okay. I guess I'll just ask a question of Jared. Would you be interested in as a vice chair before we even ask anybody to make a nomination?
I 'm nervous because I've never I've not been on this board for very long.
That's the only reason. Linden, can we just table the election of additional officers to the next meeting or
Yeah, you can because your current slate of officers will just be in place until you nominate a new slate. Slate, okay. So, All right.
So what you need to do is withdraw the Jared has to withdraw his nomination of you as chair
in cast We have to go back. We can't elect one officer tonight. Have to elect You can if you want. Well, that's what I'm saying. Maybe we should just elect me as chair If that works for everybody. I'm comfortable with that. We'll revisit the vice chair each month that we're together until maybe someone else feels more comfortable to get a better understanding of the role. And as most of you probably have figured out, this is only my second meeting. Well, first meeting, I was elect chair to elect, guess, whatever you want to call them. So, shoot, do we have to vote on that, Linda? Or is it
Well, we have a nomination and you have a second for So you can
Call the roll? Call the roll, yeah. Okay can we have the roll Jared? Yes I vote for you. Thank you Jared. Bill? Yes I vote for you. And Kathleen?
Yes I vote for you. Okay, I guess that's enough to carry the yeas. So, I am the new chair. We'll try and fill the vice chair role in the coming months, again, as people become more comfortable with what that role would be. Okay. So, filling up vacancies, election of boards, that's that. Commission open discussion. Is there any other open discussion? Okay. Our zoning agent is not with us tonight, Jim. So, that is that. What about approval of minutes from the last meeting? Did everybody get a copy of the minutes?
Yes, I got a copy of it, Bill, but I can't vote because for I wasn't You weren't here. Then it was
obviously Bill Murphy. Can just Kathleen and I approve the minutes or is that not enough, Linda?
Technically, as long as everybody's read the minutes, people can vote on them or abstain
from voting. Right. So Bill and Jerry would have to abstain, but myself and
Kathleen could Vote on them, yeah. Vote on them. Still have your April 23 minutes that haven't been approved yet either.
And I apologize. I don't have the April 23 minutes in front of me. You want to take both of those to the next meeting then? Yeah you know what I don't think I was at the April 23 meeting. I can't remember now. I was there.
We'll postpone that to the next time. Apologize for that. I'll make sure that everybody, well, Kathleen and I both have a set of those minutes from April. But we can approve these minutes from last week,
right? Okay. Are these the minutes that we got on email? Yes, they're from last week's meeting. They're
not hard copy that we got. It's just what we got on Right. Yes, I did get those. And did you have a chance to review them? Yes.
And do you accept them as written, or are there any changes needed?
I accept the First, someone has to make a motion to approve the minutes.
Okay. Can I make that motion? Sure. So I would make the motion that we approve the minutes from last week's meeting of August 26. And you need a second. Kathleen. I second it.
And then if there's any changes or anything, this is the time to make them.
And I think we both agreed that we have no changes in mind, so And we're the only ones that were there, so we would have to be the only two that could do that. So, Kathleen, do you accept the minutes as written? Yes.
So do we. So, the minutes are accepted from last week. Okay. There is no public participation, so I guess I would entertain a motion to adjourn. I'll move that we adjourn.
Right, it's Jared, get a motion to adjourn and it sounds like Kathleen seconded that motion. Yes.
Perfect. Well, you everybody. I really appreciate both Jared and William, Bill stepping up to fill these roles, these important roles that we have. Again, we'll be trying to set up some training myself and Jim Hallisey for our next meeting.