By JENNIFER CLAISE
Staff Writer

CANDIA – After a two-year development process, members of the planning board voted 4- to approve the master plan, which is intended to define a long-term vision for development in the town.

The master plan suggests possible zoning changes that would allow for different housing types, such as multifamily housing, accessory dwellings and cluster developments.

The plan encourages the development of a “mixed use” district at Exit 3, which planners have called the “gateway to Candia.”

However, the plan does not show lot lines or specify exactly where changes would occur. Planning Board Chairman Mary Girard said this vagueness is an intended part of the plan.

“These are simply suggestions,” Girard told residents at the board’s meeting Nov. 17. “We didn’t want to show the lines because we don’t know what could be changed.”

Several residents turned out urging members to reject the current plan, which they claimed contained errors and out-of-date information.

Residents criticized the reference to possible cluster developments – which groups homes on a small parcel of land and conserves the remaining open space – arguing a previous cluster ordinance had been repealed by voters in 1999.

Ingrid Byrd was part of the original group that recommended cluster housing, but she said the idea did not work out due to the way the homes were taxed and several other reasons.

Byrd said the cluster ordinance was repealed by voters 368-188 in March 1999.

“Once people moved in, they found they could hear their neighbors’ toilets flush,” Byrd said. “And people want their own land – that’s what they come out to the country for.”

A few said they feared the suggestions in the master plan could be used as an excuse to go ahead with controversial changes without the voters’ approval.

“Could someone use it as the background to lay changes in town, saying they can do it because it’s in the master plan?” resident Tom DiMaggio asked.

But Girard and Master Plan Committee Chairman Ron Thomas were quick to point out that the document is not law, and its passage does not make any changes to the town’s ordinances.

“It’s intended to be a living document,” said Thomas, who apologized for the errors and assured residents that a clean copy would filed for reference. “It’s the best the volunteers could do at this point.”

Any proposed zoning changes would have to be approved by voters during the annual March Town Meeting. Girard said it’s too late this year for any changes to appear on the March 2005 ballot.

Other residents at the meeting stirred in their seats as board members approved the plan, rumbling that their suggestions had fallen on deaf ears.

“People feel like there’s no point in coming to these hearings anymore,” said Byrd, gesturing to the low attendance in the meeting room. “They feel like they’re not being heard.

But Thomas stressed the master plan was developed with “unprecedented” resident input, citing more than five public forums and over 30 public Master Plan Committee meetings where residents could offer suggestions.

And after the two-year process, Girard said she is pleased to see the plan finally pass.

“We feel it’s complete enough that we can go ahead with it,” she said. “We’ve been trying to get it over with so we can go forward.”

William “Kim” Byrd and Arthur Sandborn were the two board members voting against approving the master plan.