05-17-2021 Planning Commission Packet

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO PLANNING COMMISSION Monday,April 19,2021 6:00 o'clock p.m. Mr. Gronberg said with the plan they have fire and police can come in Pence Lane and go out Walters Port and vice-versa. Eric Vogstrom,2710 Pence Lane, wants to be sure the Commission understands the big picture. Coming in on Pence Lane right now is himself and the Randall's;right now that road is 16 feet wide and has three people coming in on it.He said now they are asking for a fourth person. Kirchner opened discussion and noted this is just feedback without a motion. He said the letter before the Commissioners talks about the redundancy of the driveway paralleling the existing driveway. When he first looked at the picture prior to reading the letter that was his concern.He does not know how it works with a private road versus a private driveway and Barnhart could assist on that.Kirchner would prefer to see the existing driveway on the east side.If the second driveway to the west of that was not added and instead,where the 45-degree angle is on lot 2 and it starts to open up wider,he would like to see that secondary driveway branch off right there.He understands there is a covenant that they cannot cross two to one. Barnhart said from a new plat standpoint there are certain things they have say in and certain things they do not. There is a shared driveway agreement for lot 2 and a lot that is not part of the project,so there are certainly constraints within that of who can access or share that driveway. If three lots shared this and it branched off, it would have to be a private road and they do not have the width for that,nor is that what is proposed.There are setbacks and he hears the concern with the redundant or parallel driveways;however if they meet the setbacks there is not much he can do about it. They think they can meet the five foot setback from the driveway perspective but they just need to see it on the drawing. Primarily they are focused on if the Commission is comfortable with Pence Lane terminating in this cul-de-sac,are they comfortable with the likely necessary variance from the right-of-way width from the existing Pence. The Dunkley's brought up the connection between Pence and Walters Port for fire and emergency vehicles which raises another level of comment and concern because they have private road standards including vertical and horizontal curves and things like that for those vehicles which they do not have for private driveways.He would be cautious about promoting that as an emergency access;knowing the history of the site,there are some challenging horizontal curves and elevation changes that might be difficult to address.They would want to look at that before they say it is an access. Mr. Gronberg mentioned the right-of-way pavement issue he would like some comment on; from Staff's perspective the standard is 24 feet and they should keep it at 24 feet to make it a true private road. Again,they are here to listen to the Commissioner's comments. The lots meet the standards in terms of area and width,both have the improvements from a hardcover standpoint so there is no issue there. Primarily,the main question is what the Commissioner's thoughts are on Pence, because if Pence is a private road,they can remove those conditions. Kirchner said there are covenants that do not allow crossing from lot 2 to lot 1,so adding that drive off Pence to lot 1 then connects with Walters Point;he asked isn't that a similar thing? Barnhart thinks that will be less of an issue because now they will have their own access to Pence. Kirchner asked if the traffic on Walters then crosses onto that private drive. Barnhart said that is a fair point but he thinks the issue raised earlier is because there was no driveway and there was a concern that it would be a big loop.Now there is another driveway so that is less of a concern. Page 9 of 10