6/25/2025 PB Meeting

The TOWN OF BETHLEHEM

Planning Board Master Plan Kick Off Meeting

June 25, 2025

Minutes

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Present: Alecia Loveless, Linda Moore, Jerry Blanchard, Sean Gawlik, April Hibberd, Rob Gilgen and Sally Fitzgerald

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Alecia Loveless called the meeting to order at 6:00 and introduced Stuart Arnett of Arnett Development Group to present the plan for updating the Master Plan.

 

Mr. Arnett had a PowerPoint presentation prepared for stage 1 of the Town’s Master Plan update. The presentation went over the types of municipal participation such as housing, industrial, economic, community, workforce & economic development and the offensive and defensive tools the Town had to develop a better future.

 

Mr. Arnett went on to review the scope and process which included a review of our current Master Plan, collection of new data and updates to various maps. Mr. Arnett provided a timeline for stage one which would run from June 2025 through April 2026. included:

• Tonight’s Kick Off Meeting
• A review of the current Master Plan – July 2025
• Confirm structure, data, and mapping needs – July thru August 2025
• Data collection & Analysis – August 2025 thru November 2025
• Data summary documentation – September 2025 thru November 2025
• Map and needs review – November 2025
• Map production – December 2025 thru February 2026
• Final review & deliverables – January 2026 thru April 2026

 

At the completion of the presentation, Mr. Arnett opened the floor for questions and comments.

 

A debate ensued regarding the decision to collect data in phase one rather than collecting public input. The Planning Board stood by their decision to put the data first.  The Planning Board will discuss next steps at their next meeting.

 

Alecia Loveless closed the meeting at 6:45.

 

Respectfully submitted by,

 

Dawn Ferringo

Planning and Zoning Clerk