Guilford Planning Commission Minutes 10.28.26

October 28, 2026 / 6:30 PM / Town Office

Attendees
Jethro Eaton (remote), Michael Knapp, Nathanael Mattiesen (remote), Marty Ramsburg,
Jeannette Tokarz, Michael Szostek, Selectboard liaison
Absent: Christina Belagour, Charles Light
Member of the public: Therese Marcy

Agenda
Meeting was called to order @ 6:37 pm
Changes to agenda order: Under ‘Ongoing work’ items #1 & #2 will be combined into one
discussion.
Minutes of 9/23/26 were unanimously approved. Motion made by Marty, seconded by Michael K

New Business
The November Planning Commission meeting currently scheduled for 11/25 will be
rescheduled to 11/18 or another date that works for most members

Old Business
Conversations with the New England Forestry Foundation regarding the logging plan for
the Weeks Memorial Forest are ongoing. Another forest walk with NEFF is scheduled on
November 6, 2026. The hope is that on this walk the group will go deeper into the forest to
view the existing trail and where the logging road intersects it.

Ongoing Work
● Strategic Plan/Town Plan rationalization work & Town Plan update
○ Bob Tobin has created a spreadsheet that lists the Strategic Plan’s Goals,
Strategies & Actions and the 50 actions from the 2022-2030 Town Plan
Summary. The work group consisting of Bob, Marty, Micheal K and
Jeannette has reviewed each of these items and made preliminary decisions
whether to retire, keep, consolidate or modify each.
■ By the November meeting the workgroup will streamline this
information

○ Using the model developed by Bennington in its Town Plan, the individual
items above have been assigned to a thematic cluster by the workgroup:
■ The Place to Be: Land Use & Natural Resources
■ Guilford For All: Economic Development; Housing
■ Connected Community: Transportation, Community, Utilities, Facilities, and Services
■ Resilient Community: Climate, Energy

○ These thematic clusters will also be used to group the 15 State Planning
Goals and 12 Required elements. This will provide consistency for ongoing
work and future work as envisioned in the revised Town Plan 2030-2038.
● Overall members liked the concepts discussed but will need to see examples of how
it is used in order to make recommendations or determine their usefulness.
● Michael K has created a software program (CivicSpace Tracker) to track all of the
goals, actions, strategies with the ability to assign responsibility, set reminders, etc.
In its current form the tool is overly detailed and editing is needed
● Michael K also did analysis of Committee, Commission and Selectboard meeting
minutes for a 12 mos period (Sept 2025-Sept 2026) to determine what town bodies
are working on. Much of the work and deliberations happening in Town isn’t
reflected in the Town Plan or Strategic Plan. This disconnect will be explored
continuously during the Town Plan revision process.

Next steps
● Date change for November meeting will be confirmed via email
● Work group will continue its work to finalize its disposition on some items and streamline
the CivicSpace Tracker
Adjournment: Meeting adjourned @ 7:37 pm. Marty made the motion, Nathanael seconded.
Passed unanimously

Link to meeting recording: https://youtu.be/OL6RGKKilm0