Salisbury POCD prep continues

SALISBURY — Members of Salisbury’s Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) held another editing session of the ten-year Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD), this time incorporating comments and critiques levied by the Board of Selectmen (BOS) at the Oct. 24 special meeting.

The draft, which has now seen review by the BOS and the Northwest Hills Council of Governments (COG), will be reopened to public commentary on Nov. 18. The draft available to the public will be the same document presented to the two governing bodies for review. P&Z will accept written comments until the public hearing, which is scheduled for Dec. 16.

After the public hearing, P&Z will hold a special meeting to review suggestions and concerns raised by the public, BOS and COG, all of which will inform a draft for final review. The meeting, while not a public hearing, will be open to the public.

The POCD, which is a state-mandated document that must be updated every decade, is currently within a statutory 65-day review period which ends with the December public hearing.

In order to secure discretionary state funding, the POCD must be formally updated before the start of the new year.

At the Monday, Nov. 4 meeting of P&Z, members addressed the input gathered from the BOS, whose primary concerns echoed several of those expressed by residents at the Sept. 30 public engagement meeting. Several complaints stemmed from unease with several engineering and governance reports which have proved controversial.

P&Z Chair Michael Klemens expressed that the reports are meant to be advisory in nature. “It’s basically just an announcement,” he said of the Chester Report, which is a study conducted by the Town of Chester on alternative municipal government structures in the state. The report was mentioned in Chapter 4, which covers comprehensive planning, governance and administration and was a focal point of the BOS’s criticism.

Discourse between the BOS and P&Z has at times grown contentious – “There have been jabs,” said Commission Member Allen Cockerline, to which Klemens, who attended the Oct. 24 BOS meeting replied, “Oh, there were a couple of jabs, yes.”

Members generally agreed that the meeting brought valuable insight and ideas into the discussion, though, with Cockerline upholding that the meeting was ultimately “congenial.” “Allen, I agree with you that there was congeniality at the end of the meeting,” said P&Z Vice Chair Cathy Shyer.

The Commission said it welcomes and values the input of the public and other town commissions. “[The POCD] should include as many ideas as possible,” Cockerline said, to which Klemens replied, “I totally agree.”