Untitled - Town of Windham

ANNUAL SENATE BILL 2 SESSIONSG. Stearns and R. Hohenberger WITHDRAW the AMENDMENT and second. Discussion is back to theoriginal Article 15.T. Case questioned to what taxes will be lost if this Article were to pass. Rex Norman, Town Assessor statedthat the current assessed value is at $103,000, it is a limited utility parcel, because of the wetlands. Nothaving the exact information in front of him, he doesn’t want to quote the wrong information. But he wouldbelieve that the taxes would go down.Selectman Breton noted that after looking at the whole warrant article, that parcel would go down, but we arealso adding land to the parcel so that would mean the taxes would go up. With dividing the road in half andseparating between abutters they would gain more land.Motion made and seconded to place Article 15 on the Ballot AS STATED. Voted in the AFFIRMATIVE.ARTICLE 16. Shall the Town vote to accept the donation of H and B Homes, Corp. of a parcel of land of22.86 acres identified as Lot 3-B-601 situated at the intersection of Rockingham Road and Northland Road,said parcel being designated as land for Town recreational use by the applicant as part of the approval processfor the Spruce Pond II Subdivision approved by the Windham Planning Board on October 3, 2007.Selectman LoChiatto explained that this article is intended to ratify the acceptance of 3-B-601 which is beinggiven to the Town as part of the Spruce Pond II development in accordance with the conditions of approval asvoted on by the Windham Planning Board on October of 2007. By statue only Town Meeting can formerlyaccept gifts or donations of real estate property (unless given to the Conservation Commission-which is notbeing done in this case). The land donated has been prepared for development of two town recreation sportsfields.T. Case has a problem with the land itself. It’s part of the Spruce Pond Subdivision, and when people in thatarea look at their deeds they own 1/95 th of the land, so they would own the portion of that property. Hequestions the fact if it would be legal to give that donation if other people own a part of it. There’s also aconservation easement, that states passive recreation only such as bird watching and he doesn’t considersoccer as a passive recreation.Selectman Breton deferred to Town Attorney Campbell.Attorney Campbell stated that in any conveyance there would be some sort of certification of title comingfrom the owner conveying to the Town. Attorney Campbell recollects looking at Spruce Pond for numerousoccasions over the years, and this particular lot isn’t a part of the open space that’s been deeded to owners.He checked on this specifically, and when you look at the owners for the open space in Phase I, it doesn’tinclude 3-B-601. As far as what it can be used for, he recalls a past variance from the developers to allowmore active recreational use for this parcel.T. Case could be mistaken but when he looked at the plan, and in the plan it noted that that was for Phase II,and that there was two sets of open space (Phase I and Phase II). On that particular parcel it states openspace, and by reading 3-B-601 open space, he assumed that it meant the open space for Phase II and the factthat conservation easement included all the open spaces Phase II and included this lot, he thought it was partof the open space.Ruth-Ellen Post of Stonehedge Road and Chairman of Planning Board agreed with Selectman LoChiatto thatthis was a donation passed by the Planning Board in 2007, but if Article 16 were to fail, what would becomeof the parcel.Attorney Campbell stated that under NH Law this type of donation of a parcel particularly what it will be usedfor it requires the vote of the Windham community at Town Meeting. If this Article were to fail, thedeveloper would continue to own the lot. There are covenants apart of the original subdivision plan approval,but the applicant can acquire another variance and make it into more lots and build houses if they choose.2012 ANNUAL REPORTS 14 TOWN OF WINDHAM, NH