Town of Sutton 2004 Master Plan
Future Land Use Chapter
12/6/04 Meeting Minutes, 7-9pm
In Attendance: Laura Scott, Ken Uzdanovich, Sue Reel, Bill Hallahan, Carol Williams,
Dan Sundquist, Thomas Ross, Sue Reel, Anthony Scarpa, Vicki Pearson
Introductory Items:
Introductions were made for the benefit of those who have not been to other Future Land
use Subcommittee meetings.
An overview of the Master Plan and Future Land Use purpose and timeline was done.
We reviewed the meeting minutes and they were accepted from the last time.
Work on Future Zoning Map:
Laura tried to sit on the sidelines while we worked on the future zoning, but nobody
picked up a marker. Dan Sundquist overlaid the property line info via acetate overlay
from the tax map information. He noted that the way our existing zoning is versus the
way the Town has actually been developed do not paint the same picture. For example,
the Rowell Hill development (which straddles the town line of New London) is a tightknit,
village scale of development in the Rural Agricultural District. The subdivision near
exit 10 (NAME OF THIS?) is similar: a tighter knit development where one was perhaps
not anticipated.
Ken Uzdanovich raised concern with our being a very small segment of Sutton who were
charged with drawing these lines, that will seriously affect existing property owner’s and
their land value. Laura explained that this is true, new zoning may very well affect
property value one way or the other. This is the nature of zoning. However, making
zoning decisions ahead of time, and facing the inevitable conflict of interests throughout
the town, is more valuable than not making any decisions at all. Bill Hallahan brought up
the fact that getting the zones, with regulations for each zone in place, will lessen the
current ambiguity that exists with the Zoning Ordinance as it is currently written.
Still no one raised a marker to a map. Carol suggested that we remind ourselves what we
had previously discussed for potential new zoning districts. They are as follows:
VD Village District
This would include both existing villages (perhaps expanded) and perhaps a new villagea
“New Sutton”. The proposed requirements would be:
• ½ to 1 acre minimum lot size(perhaps with shared septic? There are plusses and
minuses to this approach);
• uses of mixed residential (single family, duplex, 3-5 unit multifamily), professional
offices, small retail services, B&B’s;
• architectural design requirements with regard to character of area and abutting
properties
RES Residential
• Lot size 2 acre minimum;
• Single family or duplex;
• B&B’s;
• “limited” home business;
• NO Commercial, not even little corner stores;
• NO Agricultural uses, not even bee keeping.
RR Rural Residential
• Lot size 5 acre minimum;
• Single family and agricultural uses;
• B&B’s
HC Heavy Commercial/Industrial
• Lot size based on footprint of developed area (building and parking) with a maximum
amount of the proposed lot allowed to be developed;
• Uses to include manufacturing, warehouse distribution, auto garage, body shop;
• For example Labsphere and Streams Ministries, Sawmills would be examples of what
could go in this district
• Buffers, landscaping, and architectural requirements
RC Retail/Commercial
• Lot size based on footprint of developed area (building and parking) with a maximum
amount of the proposed lot allowed to be developed;
• Uses to include restaurants, hotels/B&B’s, movie theatres, clothing stores, car
dealers, gas stations
• It was noted that the lot size maximums for this district may be less than the HC
district, so that if a developer needed a larger piece of land, he or she would need to
look in the HC district to accommodate that use.
• Buffers, landscaping, and architectural requirements
We did not review Laura’s current draft of the written chapter.
Subcommittee meetings have been added – Monday 12/27, 1/10, and 1/24 at 7 pm at the
Town Hall. NOTE THE CHANGE IN DATES (LAURA ADDED).
Submitted by Carol Williams
| 
