(Oct. 20, 2016) Berlin Planning Director Dave Engelhart called a lack of uniform design standards “the biggest hole we have in our armor” during a planning commission meeting last Wednesday.
The commission had previously attempted to craft such a document, but the effort stalled. Afterwards, the town budgeted to outsource the job and appeared to nail down a firm, when the low bidder dropped out and a satisfactory alternative could not be found.
Last week, Engelhart asked the commission if they would like to try again.
“We’ve discussed it many times and we know we need to do something,” he said. “We can approach it a couple different ways. I’ve talked about this with [Town Administrator] Laura Allen recently again. It doesn’t ever get far from our minds.”
He said members of the commission could form a subcommittee, look at other design standards from similar municipalities, and “come up with something that we can work with and tailor.”
“If not, we still have the ability to put it out to bid and try again,” Engelhart said, adding that standards would help “protect and guide the growth that we’re probably headed for in the future,” especially along the Route 50 corridor.
“That’s good as far as our growth area and our comp plan are concerned because that’s where we said we want it, but we still want to be able to control it,” he said.
Engelhart said he already had a list of links to professionally written, online examples of design standards from towns like Stevensville, Grasonville and Easton.
Committee member Ron Casio asked about the previous effort, “why did we fail?”
“The first bidder that we awarded the contract ended up backing out. They had one of the principals leave the firm, so that was one reason,” Engelhart said.
He said $35,000 had been budgeted for that, and the first bid came just under that. The second bid was more than $50,000.
“Why are we different than any other of these towns and we don’t need any professionals?” Casio asked.
“If somebody has written it and we could adopt it and save the taxpayers $30,000-$50,000 I think that’s a very good direction,” committee member John Barrett said. “I think three of us could probably go through and find something that we could present to the board that we could vote on and possibly adopt.”
“That was my thought from the beginning,” Engelhart said.
Casio said he had his doubts, and worried specifically about the board becoming “citizen planners.”
“I’m concerned that we don’t have the professional knowledge,” he said. “I wouldn’t fix my own automatic transmission. I’m not going to give myself an appendectomy. I don’t know that we have the ability to come up with a really good plan for the town.”
Commission member Pete Cosby said he did not think it was “rocket science,” while Chairman Chris Denny added, “the town burned down in 1894 and they rebuilt it in 1895.”
“It’s not as easy as you portray it to be,” Casio said.
Cosby said he was satisfied with his own effort on a previous attempt at crafting standards, and did not see why a subcommittee could not try to replicate at least part of that.
“Let’s finish up the spec examples and finish this thing,” he said. “We’ve got an ordinance, but we don’t have any guidelines – that’s all. Let’s pass some guidelines, get it done and if there’re not good we’ll amend them later. It’s not a big deal.”
Engelhart said he could recirculate the previous work down towards the standards to the commission members, with the understanding that the discussion would continue during the next regular meeting, in November.
“I think that’s a good approach,” Barrett said. “I don’t think we’re that far away from it.”
The commission had previously attempted to craft such a document, but the effort stalled. Afterwards, the town budgeted to outsource the job and appeared to nail down a firm, when the low bidder dropped out and a satisfactory alternative could not be found.
Last week, Engelhart asked the commission if they would like to try again.
“We’ve discussed it many times and we know we need to do something,” he said. “We can approach it a couple different ways. I’ve talked about this with [Town Administrator] Laura Allen recently again. It doesn’t ever get far from our minds.”
He said members of the commission could form a subcommittee, look at other design standards from similar municipalities, and “come up with something that we can work with and tailor.”
“If not, we still have the ability to put it out to bid and try again,” Engelhart said, adding that standards would help “protect and guide the growth that we’re probably headed for in the future,” especially along the Route 50 corridor.
“That’s good as far as our growth area and our comp plan are concerned because that’s where we said we want it, but we still want to be able to control it,” he said.
Engelhart said he already had a list of links to professionally written, online examples of design standards from towns like Stevensville, Grasonville and Easton.
Committee member Ron Casio asked about the previous effort, “why did we fail?”
“The first bidder that we awarded the contract ended up backing out. They had one of the principals leave the firm, so that was one reason,” Engelhart said.
He said $35,000 had been budgeted for that, and the first bid came just under that. The second bid was more than $50,000.
“Why are we different than any other of these towns and we don’t need any professionals?” Casio asked.
“If somebody has written it and we could adopt it and save the taxpayers $30,000-$50,000 I think that’s a very good direction,” committee member John Barrett said. “I think three of us could probably go through and find something that we could present to the board that we could vote on and possibly adopt.”
“That was my thought from the beginning,” Engelhart said.
Casio said he had his doubts, and worried specifically about the board becoming “citizen planners.”
“I’m concerned that we don’t have the professional knowledge,” he said. “I wouldn’t fix my own automatic transmission. I’m not going to give myself an appendectomy. I don’t know that we have the ability to come up with a really good plan for the town.”
Commission member Pete Cosby said he did not think it was “rocket science,” while Chairman Chris Denny added, “the town burned down in 1894 and they rebuilt it in 1895.”
“It’s not as easy as you portray it to be,” Casio said.
Cosby said he was satisfied with his own effort on a previous attempt at crafting standards, and did not see why a subcommittee could not try to replicate at least part of that.
“Let’s finish up the spec examples and finish this thing,” he said. “We’ve got an ordinance, but we don’t have any guidelines – that’s all. Let’s pass some guidelines, get it done and if there’re not good we’ll amend them later. It’s not a big deal.”
Engelhart said he could recirculate the previous work down towards the standards to the commission members, with the understanding that the discussion would continue during the next regular meeting, in November.
“I think that’s a good approach,” Barrett said. “I don’t think we’re that far away from it.”