SOUTH HERO PLANNING COMMISION MINUTES September 17, 2025
Members Present: David Roy (Chair); Don Bedard (Vice-Chair); Michele Gammal (via Zoom); Joan Falcao
Member Absent: Brook Scott
Others Present: none. Martha Taylor-Varney (ZA) was on travel, unable to participate.
6:00 PM – D. Roy called the meeting to order.
Joan Falcao was assigned to be minute taker.
Changes to the Agenda
There were no changes.
Public Comment
No Public attended.
Old Business
- Final Draft – Definitions — Average natural grade; pre-construction elevation: D. Roy has not completed re-crafting the wording for average natural grade, which he enhanced at the last meeting and which members needed time to review. In further discussion, Falcao suggested wording changes from an internet search and introduced a hierarchical approach to specifying how to establish the natural grade when the original natural grade cannot be determined due to prior disturbance or lack of records. The hierarchical approach would use, in this order (until established): (1) historical data from a variety of reliable sources, (2) site survey by engineer, (3) averaging of adjacent undisturbed land to reconstruct a smooth transition. The Development Review Board would make the final interpretation from materials presented at the time of site plan review. D. Roy favored this hierarchical approach and will include it in the draft definition. J Falcao also offered for discussion a rule that if the average finished grade is less than the average natural grade, then the average finished grade shall be used to measure building height. [This would prevent removing soil to allow a building taller than the building height restriction.] D. Roy did not favor this suggestion as appropriate for our development concerns, and others did not comment on it.
- 1 st draft review – change to measuring setback distances from structures: Martha Taylor-Varney, ZA, who is on travel, lost work products due to a computer crash. Her email describing this was referenced at the meeting. Discussion is postponed until next meeting, on October 1. M Gammal is assisting in furthering this work by researching other towns’ wording.
- South Hero Scoping Study – Featherbed Lane/Apple Island Update: A printout of the meeting presentation from the Project Team meeting #2 on September 11 was distributed for discussion. It is also attached to these minutes below. Three alternatives to address traffic safety concerns were presented with tradeoffs between “short term/low cost” versus “long term/high cost”. All alternatives included two pedestrian crossings – one at Featherbed Lane to access the public marina and one between the Sandbar Inn restaurant and the small private marina. The highway right-of-way is wide enough to support a sidewalk on the western (a.k.a. southern) side of the road as well as bicycle lanes on each side of the highway. All alternatives favored narrowing travel lanes and better signage. Reducing speed limits was heavily favored in the prior public meeting, but this is an issue beyond the scope of the study. A public engagement meeting of the committee is scheduled for October 20.
Approve Minutes of September 3, 2025
D. Bedard moved to approve the minutes of September 3, 2025, as presented; M. Gammal second. All in favor.
Administrator’s Report None at this time.
Announcements
- Meeting House – no report.
- Town Office Committee – no report.
Next Meeting – October 1, 2025
- Gammal and D. Roy will not be able to attend this meeting. Greta Brunswick is scheduled to attend this meeting. Concerns about a lack of quorum and the effectiveness of Brunswick presenting to a planning commission without these key senior members led to discussion on this problem. After a loss of connection in the Zoom session and a pause in discussion, Zoom was restarted. D. Bedard moved to cancel the meeting and reschedule the Brunswick presentation for the October 15 meeting, if she is available. M. Gammal, now present on Zoom, second. All in favor. The next meeting will be on October 15, 2025 at 6PM at the Town Office.
Adjournment
At 6:52PM M Gammal moved to adjourn; J Falcao second. All in favor.
Respectfully submitted,
Joan Falcao, Planning Commission member
Signed: __________________________________________ Date: ______________
For the Planning Commission
These minutes are unofficial until approved at the next regularly scheduled meeting. All motions were unanimous unless otherwise indicated.