At Windham’s Town Council workshop on Tuesday, the Planning Board explained how the planning process is fraught with “inefficiency and delay” that wastes hours of time for the board, planning staff, and potential commericial and residential developers.

“Windham is a good place to live, work and do business,” said Kathleen Brown as a preface to the night’s discussion. “Tonight we are here because changes in the community have prompted us to reflect on how we do business.”

Brown said that 90 percent of development applications that come before the board are “bottlenecked” through the planning process. Incomplete applications, unclear ordinances, and lack of direction from the planning staff has weighed down and dragged out the process. There is now a 20-to-60-day wait for review of development applications, said Brown.

At the meeting, David Nadeau used a wall-length diagram, drawn up by the board with bits of colored paper signifying different steps, to take the council through the process and show them trouble spots. A lack of understanding on the part of the developer has led to much “handholding” through the application process, said Nadeau, and a push of incomplete application through to the Planning Board has delayed the process along with a drag in communication between the planner and board. At many points, Nadeau explained, the board often has to backtrack and do a full review of an application again to make sure its complete.

Brown said the new goal of the board is to pass 80 percent, or eight out of 10 applications, through the first time. This may take up to year to achieve, she said.

“Windham has not planned for development,” Brown said. “The one thing we hope you get from this is that the planning process is not serving the community as it should.”

Many councilors agreed with this sentiment and asked questions what the board saw as potential solutions. Solutions given by the board included a checklist for developers to understand what is expected of them, more efficient application processing, a “punch list” of problems a developer must address before going ahead with a project and more comment from Code Enforcement. The board also recommended additional planning department staff.

Councilor Lloyd Bennett noted that an additional planner is poised to be hired by Code Enforcement once space becomes available in the crowded Town Offices. Councilor David Tobin said that developers have a reverse understanding on how the planning process works because many believe it is the board who they must “sell” the idea of a development to.

“Professional staff is who the developer has to sell on the idea,” Tobin said. “When he says it’s complete, it should almost be a rubber stamp (of approval).”

Nadeau pointed to a much bigger problem however: a lack of definition in the town’s “outdated” ordinances. This has led ordinances to be interpreted in many different ways.

“We need help,” Nadeau said. “Our only tool is the ordinances.”

Nadeau gave a series of examples as to how developers have worked around ordinances to push through their projects. Though an Ordinance Review Committee has been formed to update the ordinances, Nadeau believes that it will take professional help to give them clarity.

“Our ordinances have lacked for so long and have been interpreted in so many ways,” Nadeau said. “I think it will take more than a volunteer board to change the ordinances.”

In closing, councilors commended the board on their hard work. Planning boards don’t usually plan, Tobin noted, they usually just approve planning projects. Board members said they will now be working to come up with solutions to process delays in order to speed up the planning process.