##VIDEO ID:K## e e okay it being 6 o'clock I'm going to call to order this August 5th 2024 uh meeting of the chancelor select board uh let everybody know that transc t media is broadcasting this meeting live and also recording it for later rebroadcast uh if you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance United States of America okay we'll start the meeting with the public service announcements and the first one is going to be done by Harrison mayot from the town clk's office good evening everyone my name is Harrison May support coordinator for the town clerk's office I have a quick update regarding the September 3rd primary election um approximately 6,800 ballots have gone out so far for this election uh we are also offering absentee voting in person if you're going to be out of town on the date of the election you can vote over the counter in our office no appointment needed during our regular business hours uh voter the voter registration deadline will be August 24th at 5:00 p.m. you can check your voter registration status at chumford ma.gov SL vote the inperson early voting will be August 24th through August 30th for this election our weekend hours will be from 1: to 5:00 p.m. and weekdays during regular Town Hall office hours the vote by mail application deadline for this election is August 26th at 5:00 p.m. completed ballots must be received by the town clerk clerk's office by 8:00 p.m. on Election night thank you for your attention if you have any questions please contact our office thank you you okay few more public service announcements Aaron um from the chumford health department we have a free Naran training uh on Tuesday August 6th from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. at the chelsford Town Hall fire training room uh to register you can call the health department at 978-250-5908 T Angel chumford mass.gov the health department welcomes you to join us as we walk on the Bruce Freeman rail trail with the walk-in group every 2 and fourth Tuesday May through September uh from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. they meet at the 110 ball fields at the intersection of Fletcher Street and chelsford Street um for questions or concerns you can contact the chumford health department the the Chelmsford military Community Covenant task force invites the community to attend their military appreciation cookout and this is Tuesday August 13th from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Chelmsford Lodge of Elks Pavilion at 300 Littleton Road it's free to all there's hamburgers hot dogs watermelon desserts soft drinks and a cash bar next we have a free event hosted by the chelsford health department the third annual plant positivity event where youth can decorate a plant pot and decorate and attach a positive quote this is open to any youth ages 10 and up it's at the chilord Town Hall Gym Tuesday August 20th from 5: to 6:30 p.m. the chumford health department is also hosting a CPR training on Thursday August 22nd um at the chelsford Town Hall at 50 Bill rer Road and the cost of the training is $20 per person and participants who complete the three-hour training will obtain an American Heart Association heart saer certificate that is valid for 2 years for questions you can contact the chumford health department the chelsford health department is also hosting their annual Candlelight vigil for international overdose awareness day and this will be at the chelsford center Town common at for North Road on Saturday August 31st at 6:30 p.m. they will sign the names of loved ones lost and the event begins at 7:00 p.m. and they will light candles to remember those loss to overdose and to show support for those struggling with addiction chumford open space and Recreation plan um committee is looking for feedback they have a survey available on the town website um and we encourage the public to go and give them some feedback about what they would like to see in our outdoor spaces and the municipal vulnerability preparedness group is also looking for feedback they also have a survey on the town website available and lastly the chelsford Strategic plan committee is hosting a an event um creating chelmsford's future Community kickoff event they are this is open to the public and they're looking for public input on how to help shape our community there will be Community visiting for Vis visioning forums and this will be held the 18th of September at 5:30 p.m. at the Town Senior Center at 75 gron Road for questions you can contact 978 25052 31 okay thank you okay next up is the public input part of the meeting uh if anybody would like to address the board on on any topic other than those um included in our public hearings uh this evening you can come up to the microphone at this time perfect time yes Brian LA and and just a reminder you have three minutes three minute I've heard of that um valtina Precinct n town meeting rep and the First Amendment doesn't set 3 minutes just for the record um I looked at the select board um and town manager's goals and was struck by um a couple of the topics that you just read um free narcom training and in particular um there was a little note about um drug overdose um things and in the in the um select board goals we have that we want to reconsider marijuana in town and I thought that's kind of ironic that on the one hand we're losing citizens in our country and our probably in our town as well due to drugs and on the other hand we're asking you to to go and look at um putting marijuana um dispensaries in the town possibly ring the stuff here um please don't town meeting said no twice we had four warrant articles the first time um I drove up to towns and uh couple days ago and there's dispensaries all along the way so if you really need dope you can buy it in other towns let's not make chelsford that way um second second thing I noticed was there's a note in there about MW um options we don't have enough water um we have a sewer problem and we're building like crazy the um State comes in and tells us that we need to take 10% of our town and set it aside for more housing we need to watch out we cannot keep developing ourselves into the suburbs of Boston like we're doing now thank you I know I have a limited amount of time and my new country that I'm living in now thank you thank you is there anybody else here in the audience that would like to speak to the board we have before I talk my three minutes are up I would like to give each one of you a package thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you hi Mary thank you my name is Mary Donovan and I live in chumford and I'm trying to fight for a pet cemetery in town and I can prove that it will not cost the taxpayers a dime if it's run properly like the human Cemetery we need one there are four over 4,000 pets here in town 4,000 plus and some of that money money could be used besides the maintenance it's cost and I have a law in the state house right now h426 which is in a study committee and I'm pushing to have it to save pet cemeteries as you know there is one that was in [Music] tsoro and there's a th000 pets and some human ashes up there and there's 3 ft Weeds on top of them and a two family house built on the land we're not allowed to go on it to see if find our pets I'm hoping that chit can be ahead of the game and I will work hard to help and to prove that it won't cost any taxpayer a dime just the person that parries the pet I paid for the money in tsoro what it cost me to be married is a human Cemetary here and I can prove it please I'm hoping that you will send this to the warrant at the Town annual meeting so that the tax payers Representatives can approve it please I'm hoping to get this squid away before I have to decide where I'm going thank you please if you need more proof and also if there's an opening on the cemetery committee I will find time to assist I guess my three minutes might be up if you have any question some of those papers I went to the July 4th ceremonies program and at the time I talked to every single individual that's signed the paper but unfortunately I didn't know I had to type it on the front of it I spoke to every single person before they signed it but it was not acceptable today when I brought it in so I did have another one made up and there's a new one with 10 signatures on it I think 13 12 of them got approved and thanks to Mr Cohen tonight he gave me the certified copy of it which you people will have a copy of and I try to give you a copy of everything if you have any questions you can call me at home or I do not have internet because I got scammed Mary your three minutes are up sorry thank you thank you I'm a woman you know what happens Su Olsen some okay Su Olsen you here for public input yes okay thank you um I just have a couple of things um just to speak with the board about uh one of them is to thank our state reps Elliot catalo Aero and Senator Barrett after eight months the um bill that was proposed um number 3876 has finally made it out of the transportation committee at that was on July 22nd um it has now gone to a study committee um hoping it doesn't take another eight months for the bill to get approved by the full house um my next um request of the board is I'm sure you're you've all heard that Newport has been sold to a company um called um me Vincy VCI construction who are located in headquarters in France um one of their when you look on their website one of their statements is they want to bolster its Public Works operation in the Northeast which has considerable potential for growth and Mobility infrastructure I am hopeful that the board of Selectmen and the town leaders are going to watch this very carefully that we are not going to go from bad to worse I I have no idea what's going to happen or where the sale stands at this point in time but it's very concerning um and the last thing I wanted to mention was the um the truck issue of overloaded trucks that are spilling gravel um it it's continuous um I want to thank our DPW department for sending out the street sweepers they're here about once a once a week if not twice a month I'm trying to clean up the spills and I'm wondering at what point in time I know it's a Westford company but they're degrading chamford roads um at one point in time or do we send a bill to the Quarry off operators both of them and have them pay the bill for the street sweeping um and also I'd like to know about do we or who weighs the trucks when they're leaving uh ledge Road I I I don't know if they're being weighed from what I see these trucks the loads that they're carrying are higher than the the top of the truck itself and as soon as they make Corners they they spill the load so I'm not sure whether anybody is looking at the weight of these trucks at all um and that's all I have for tonight I appreciate you right at three minutes very good thank you thank you thank you okay is there anybody else anybody else on Zoom Paul no okay all right next up is committee vacancies if you want to he those the following committees have vacancies as of August 5th the bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee the CCA Town Hall advisory committee the clean energy and sustainability committee the Council on Aging board the commission on disabilities the Community Action Program committee the Conservation Commission the cultural Council the historic district commission the holiday decorating committee the parade committee the Personnel Board the public records advisory committee the recycling committee and the Robert field advisory committee um if anyone is interested in serving on a committee or board they can count talk the town manager's office for more information okay thank you okay we have uh several public hearings this evening first up is a National Grid and Verizon poll petition for granitville Road uh do we have somebody on zoom on Zoom Sam good evening Council this is Sam Ang National GD okay do you want to tell us a little bit about this uh U um yeah so um we're looking to relocate pole 68 that's kind of in front of the driveway of uh customer 234 Granite Road Granville Road I'll move it West towards the lot line um it's going to serve two purposes one is to reduce the line sag from it's the polls aren't on the drawing but from pole 67 to PO 69 that line sag is pretty significant so we want to put that pole kind of right in the middle will reduce the SAG there and also to install a new automated um reclosing device so if a tree limb or anything was to fall in the primary it kind of Clos back in and pick the customers back up without having to send crews out um so of just to improve the reliability of the area Okay anybody any U board members have any questions about this petition okay this is a public hearing do you have anybody in the room that wants to comment on on this poll petition okay is there anyone on Zoom Paul that no no we on Zoom okay so we'll take a motion I'll make a motion to approve the close the public he or I'll make a motion to close the public hearing sorry we do have to approve this though yeah second okay we have a motion and a second all in favor I okay nobody has anything no I'll make a motion to approve the petition um for joint or identical poll locations as presented second okay we have a motion in a second all in favor I okay thank you okay thank you and uh we have we have another poll petition for um let's see this one is Princeton Street Princeton Street thank you um Samy you going to talk us about that one too I was actually unaware of this petition it's not my design um like the Granville Road is so I'm not entirely sure um what our external contractors are looking to do here okay is there anybody else Paul on Zoom that might be from National Grid or anyone else if not we can take continue it until next meeting that's unusual that they would have have uh no one here is there a a description of what's looking at what's uh what installation is looking to be done it's to in install a joint operated pole at prinson Street um oh I can hear it for our external if that's okay with you um Council numbers you can you can what again I missed that I I I I don't mind doing the hearing for it I just don't know what the job entails I have questions about the job um yeah I guess the best thing might be to to postpone it um I don't know if there's anybody here that has any questions about it in the public you mean in the public yeah um ran Latina Precinct N9 town meeting rep 15 Jesse roads address on these poll petitions um the select board has a little bit of power at at the moment they're asking for a poll and this example in the previous one to maybe get some of our polls even the ones the three that are out front of this building um either reduced in size like they do in Bedford and some of the other wealthy communities where they cut the pole from the bottom up so only the wire sections attached to the pole would you consider asking National Grid to start using that technique since they can't seem to take the second pole out just cut the top off leave it with the wires thank you okay I I know we've been working with the town of trans with some of the engineers about like removing some of the older poles also um but I can speak to supervisors about just sort of doing what you saying with just leaving the wires and cutting the pole button removing that that's not the topic of this hearing exactly um okay so um I guess um since we're you know so we don't really have a an explanation for for why this is being done we can we can continue it until our our next uh our next meeting which will be on August August 19th so you know unless you feel comfortable talking about it he does he doesn't even have it in front of him right right I don't have the paperwork in front of me I don't know what the job is be us okay all right so I'll I'll ask again if there's anybody from the public here that wants to speak about it doesn't look like it and there's no one on Zoom right Paul no okay so why don't we take a motion to continue it to our next meeting do we we're not having a public hearing this is not this is a public hearing we need to close it then because we're going to continue okay uh I'll make a motion to continue the public hearing for the joint poll petition for prin until August 19th y second here a motion and a second to continue the public hearing in favor I okay thank you all right and our third thank you um a third public hearing is in regards to the uh local initiative uh project on 243 uh riverneck Road I know we have uh folks here representing the uh the applicant so if you want to tell us what's going on and then we'll open it up for questions uh sure thank you madam chair members of the board again for the record uh my name is Adam Costa I'm an attorney with the firm of me tman and Costa here on behalf of the applicant and the proponent for this lip endorsement uh we were before you last uh in late June so it's been uh just about six weeks um my partner Lisa me was in attendance at that meeting and had presented to you some updates that we had made to the project between the May meeting and the June meeting um what we uh hope to accomplish tonight and you had made a request at that meeting that we make certain revisions to the project plans and you would further ask that we submit those revisions if possible at least a couple of weeks in advance of tonight's meeting which we did uh so hopefully you've all had an opportunity to see the revisions that have been made we submitted uh three separate plans two versions of a site plan and then a package about an 18 to 20 Page package of revised uh floor plans architecturals and elevations as well as a few renderings uh of the project as uh as mod if IED so um what I'd like to do briefly is just describe for you what we attempted to do to address the comments and uh concerns of the board and the public at the last meeting uh and then maybe also just address a few of the additional requests that you had made and I'll try and do that as I walk through the plans so uh the first plan we submitted as I mentioned there were two versions of the site plan the first version is what you see on the screen before you this uh version shows a few things first it shows a division line drawn between the port of this property at 243 riverneck road that is proposed to be the we' referred to as the development area you can see that that Development Area consists of approximately 2.85 acres of land uh it's everything that is located on this plan just south of the the red line uh and the red line is a line of demarcation that separates the development area from what we referred to as the conservation restriction area that area is approximately 6.56 acres of land and that's the that is proposed to be restricted uh and as I think you know there's been some discussions with the water district as well as uh concerning a potential conveyance of that of that property but there's no development proposed for the property that is situated north of that red line we hadn't quite known where we might establish that boundary between the two properties which is why in our previous appearances before the board we hadn't divided or shown a proposed division line on the site and some of the feedback we received at both of the past meetings is that when you look to to uh the table of dimensional requirements and density standards we were calculating all of those based upon the full site approximately N9 Acres more or less and it wasn't really a true reflection of what we were developing on the site so we've now condensed what we're calling the Development Area uh and we're showing that on the on the bottom portion of the plan that's before you the other thing you can see here is that we've actually re re designed the layout of the site on the whole uh we received uh feedback from uh not only the board but from residents uh at the last meeting a meeting I did not attend concerning um the the proposed layout which included the Town Homes at the front of the site closest to River Neck Road and the residen is at the rear of the site furthest from River Neck Road and as I understand it the feedback that was received is that that was sort of inconsistent with the streetcape as it exists along the riverneck road neighborhood uh that of course that streetscape is primarily single family homes and you'd have single family home single family home single family home and then you'd have a succession of town homes and so the request was if there was any way that we could redesign the site so as to place those single family homes closer to River Neck Road that would be appreciated so we went back to the drawing board you can see here that that's exactly what we've done we've taken the residences and we've moved them closer to River Neck Road so when you come into the entrance uh driveway the residences are immediately to your left as you uh Traverse the site you go by three more residences and then it's not until you uh enter the rear of the site uh furthest from riverneck Road in an area that's really not especially visible from River Neck Road that you come upon the portion of the development where we're now proposing the town homes so we have redesigned the site in that manner uh it was also suggested and of course this comment was made in the context of the prior plans but we've now redesigned those plans that we show turning movements on the site uh sufficient for um any sort of larger Vehicles most notably fire trucks uh and so you can see here in the top right corner of the plan we have the Turning movements as well on the bottom left corner of the plan we have additional turning movements at the entrance um showing that uh those uh those fire trucks can indeed Traverse uh the site we have provided copies of this uh to the fire department as well um and we provided those uh even in advance of providing the copies to you a couple of weeks ago so um so that has been added to the plan also um if we can go to the next plan uh also a site plan uh might be further up other way the way yep it looks a whole lot like the plan where're just looking at except it has a zoning table there we go so uh so this is very similar to what you just saw again it shows the dividing line between the portion of the property where the conservation restriction will be and you can see the full extent of the property on this plan uh because it's at a different scale um but maybe most importantly it also now includes something that the board had requested last time which is zoning tables and um we we could have simply shown a zoning table based upon the development area but we actually showed uh show two zoning tables here one based upon the full parcel and one based upon the development area so you can see here we've got all the various density and dimensional controls that exist for uh the residential district you can see that we've got uh lot width lot depth Frontage requirements we've got front side and rear lot setbacks and then we've got building coverage Building stories Building height and uh F floor area ratio that are shown here and we've calculated those both for the parcel on the whole which is what we had given you before um but as well and more importantly the second table from the top is the Development Area only so then that shows you the difference when you're applying these uh these numbers simply to the 2.85 acre portion of the parcel that's proposed for development uh the last set of plans which are the ones that um you had just scrolled to a moment ago um again there's 18 to 20 Pages here I won't go through them all because I know you have them certainly if members of the public have questions or they'd like to see a particular page in the we can scroll um but um these essentially are just revised floor plans renderings architecturals elevations um in many respects at least with respect to let's say the floor plans for the single family homes the elevations for the single plan family homes they're similar in many respects to what you received before we've added some additional detail in terms of building materials because that was something some feedback we had also received from residents as well as from the board some greater details in terms of the fit and finish of these buildings so we've added some of that information but of course most notably the renderings have changed because of the the the redesign of the site and the layout of the site so you can see that what's on the screen right now is showing you the area uh where the town homes are proposed again this is now further away from River Neck Road as opposed to immediately adjacent to River Neck Road and you can see sort of in the top left corner of that plan the the single family homes that are sort of off in the distance but uh closer closer to riverneck Road um I'm just going to touch briefly without going into great detail although I'm certainly happy to to the extent that the board has questions I'm going to touch upon some of the things that you had requested that we consider um or add to the plans at the last meeting so um you of course asked for that fir truck turnaround which we provided you asked for updated tables which we provided uh one thing we didn't show on the plans and we're not we're not opposed to it but simply thought it might be too early in the process in light of the fact that these plans of course um to the extent we receive your endorsement go back before the zoning board of appeals for a full comprehensive permit public process as required by the law and that is a play structure you had requested that we place a play structure somewhere on the on the site we have adequate Green Space and land area within the site to do that we just weren't sure exactly where it ought to go in terms of trying to balance the need for that play structure with the need for example for snow storage areas or for uh adjustments to the site plan as it goes through further review uh for example by a peerreview consultant which is what we would expect to occur during a zba process it always does so uh we're go we'll go on the record saying we're not opposed to adding a play structure to the site we just haven't shown it and at this conceptual stage just yet um you had asked for us to show that dividing line between the conservation area and the development site which we've done you would asked us to ensure that there would be no building within the 50 Foot buffer that what's often referred to as the the no build Zone uh under your your Wetlands bylaw we have adjusted the plan so that there is no building within that 50 foot no build buffer you asked us to show snow storage areas in the plan again those are shown on both both vers versions of the site plan you asked us to add a stop sign at the entry or exit to the site we have shown not only a stop sign but also a pavement marking which is the norm these days uh P pavement line showing um where where Vehicles should stop before they enter onto riverneck Road um one other item that I think according to my partner's notes had been raised at the last meeting um but I wanted to to proactively address it because it's not anything that's depicted on the plan and that is uh a plan of action with respect to trash removal um so we' had some different discussions and again we're happy to to engage with the board and to respond to any feedback you might have but there tend to be two schools of thought with respect to to trash storage on site and then trash removal one is that there ought to be dumpsters and dumpsters can be placed on the site they can be placed typically within enclosures those enclosures can be screened the problem with dumpsters is you have to put them somewhere and so they're going to be presumably near some boundary um and you can guess that the neighbor who might be closest to that boundary is going to object to the placement of a dumpster and that close proximity to his or her property or residence or whatnot uh dumpsters of course can be sources for for rodents for for other other pests um and so the other option and the option that in my experience at least with projects of this size not if you have a 500 unit project or a 300 unit project but with a project of this size comprised in part of single family homes and in part of town homes but all of which have garages is to provide for typical receptacles and so we're proposing that we would utilize receptacles for these residences for the town homes and for the single family homes um if again if there's an objection to that if the preference is to have um there be a dumpster we can consider placement of a dumpster on site if the concern and this is one that I've heard from time to time if the concern is that the dumpsters are going to be the excuse me the receptacles are going to be left Outdoors uh in somebody's driveway and then everybody has to look at them as they drive by we have solutions for that too we can of course through things like condominium documents or rental agreements we can require that they be moved inside we can also build outdoor closures so that they can be enclosed at all times so they're not visible uh to passers by and there's some flexibility within the site plan to do that as well so we talked about some of those options again these are conversations that developers often have applicants often have during the 40b process um we've done a lot Upfront for this proposal because we're coming before you asking you for a lip endorsement and we recognize that we're at your mercy and we're asking for your support um but this is the sort of detail that we would often get into during the proceeding before zoning Board of appeal as a project like this gets reviewed with respect to site design site layout engineering storm water all of those reviews will need to occur uh as this project moves forward and um often results in in adjustments to the site to accommodate uh the feedback receiv received from peerreview Consultants so uh in a nutshell that's what we've done over the course of the past uh five or six weeks um we had previously submitted to you for the June meeting a summary of the other commitments just as a reminder that we had had made to you we had discussed those I had discussed those with you at the first meeting you had asked us to meet again with the housing Advisory board after that initial meeting which we did uh we again received a positive vote from the and recommendation from the housing Advisory Board uh they did request and I've Incorporated this into the correspondents that we increase the affordability um and they made their vote contingent Upon Us increasing the affordability of the affordable units within the project which we have done both by offering a greater number of affordable units than we would be required to If This Were a traditional 40b project as well as by lowering the the the value of those units the cost of those units in terms of percentage of area median income we've done both of those things in an effort to try and uh address the concerns of this board and the feedback that we received from the housing Advisory Board uh so those commitments that we made are contained within the prior correspondence that I submitted to the board uh back on back on June 18th um I did see uh some feedback that was received uh today from David Hedison um who I will say full disclosure contacted me last week um I did attempt once to connect with him to no avail and then wasn't able to do so uh today but I saw his correspondence that he submitted uh he's made some recommendations to the board in terms of uh cost certification bond for example uh that's something that typically again gets discussed with the CBA but we're happy to discuss it with you uh the concern there is that with projects of this sort um anything that that arises under chapter 40b uh there is a post permit post- development process refer refer to as cost certification some of you may be familiar with it the idea being that as you know one of the one of the Hallmarks of chapter 40b projects is that there is a profit limitation placed upon a developer uh this project adds a certain additional degree of complexity because we have multiple limitations of uh profit one on the rental component and one on the ownership component um once the project is completed in the sense that the units have been rented out of the rental portion or the units have been sold in the home ownership portion uh there's a cost C ification that needs to be completed by an independent third party to report back to the state what our actual profit is and that's based upon uh various Norms that are contained in the chapter 40b regulation so we're obligated to to proceed with that process to the extent the the board is asking for a reasonable bond to ensure that that gets completed um the state typically requires a bond anyway um but we're certainly happy to provide a reasonable bond to the board to ensure that we'll complete it it's a it's an obligation of the program so um there were Developers 10 12 14 years ago that tried to skirt those requirements and after a few uh few articles in the globe they they uh they were required uh they they modified the regulations and they've been more stringent uh dhcd now eohc and enforcing those cost certification requirements so we have no uh no objections to Mr hedon's comments with that I'll turn it back to you madam chair and again our project team is here tonight so to the extent that you have specific questions about the architectural plans the elevations we have a a repr representative of our architectural team to the extent you have questions about the site plans we have a representative of our um engineering team okay thank you thank you okay um as Mr Costa mentioned um we did receive the uh revised plans um a couple of weeks ago and so they they were sent to the department heads again um and other stakeholders and we did get responses from several of those so I'm going to read what what some of the what some of the issues were that was that were brought up by them um first of all the the fire department noted that you have revised the turning and the and the sweep path to comply with the state fire code and the transfood fire department however they do have significant concerns about the sight's grading um the Steep grading they say could Co pose serious uh issues for their emergency vehicles um in addition they said uh they note that the proposal includes the use of vertical Granite curbing at several locations which Al also can be problematic for emergency vehicles and suggest you consider utilizing sloped or flush curbing where possible uh the highway department um noted that of the 11 comments made on their April 2nd 2024 uh letter to us only one comment was was addressed that's the one of showing the snow storage um on the site plan um so the other comments they um were not fully dra the site plan review the dumpster pad and dumpster which you've indicated might not be even applicable here uh utilities um noted that this um that riverneck road is on a 5year um was paved in 2022 and is a 5-year moratorium on opening um pedestrian accommodations overflow discharge on um proposed underground Chambers a pump station and and Generator located within 50 ft uh no build Wetland zoning um although it does note that no sewer pump station was shown on the plan so again that may that may be resolved um so any but it wasn't commented on in the dpw's letter and um residential storm water infrastructure should be included in the storm water report in addition to the requirement that um 6100 gallons per day of um on-site on-site treatment system for sew would be required uh the Board of Health notes the um expectations of uh the groundwater protection Zone would have to be met and again they mentioned about the septic system that would have to meet all requirements and again a dumpster if one is onsite the as you mentioned the J Housing Authority did submit a letter um the executive director David hson said he was pleased that the affordable re rental units will be at 60% of Ami and fine with the 80% for the home ownership units but they as you mentioned he does suggest that the town consider requesting a bond that would be held pending completion of the and acceptance of the cost certification um again as you mentioned I mean I I kind of feel like that is something that the Zoning Board of appeal should take care of they're going to they're the ones going to do all the little detailed stuff but he did mention that to us um Community Development did not have any additional comments Conservation Commission did not have any additional comments the water district noted that this uh property is a directed budet to Zone one and will need to follow the groundwater protection standard operating procedures which include no private sewage allowed and as you also I think mentioned we did receive a letter from um Ruth and Joel Luna about several issues that they also raised at the last meeting having to do with snow storage the um proposed sore soils and storm water infiltration and fencing for for the turtles that are possibly on site so those are the comments we have received does anybody on the board that has any questions for the applicant at this time um could you address how you envision addressing the fire department's concerns about the grade in the curbing sure so um so I saw the the comments received from fire Highway and health those were the three amongst those that were just referenced that had outstanding comments um part of the challenge here is the unusual nature of the 40b process and I don't know how familiar I know certainly you've had your fair share in chumford I don't know how familiar your various departments and boards are with the the typical 40b process versus the lip process and whether they necessarily appreciate the fact that in the lip process all that we're asking this board for initially is an endorsement but that ultimately they'll be a full and complete review of all aspects of the project as part of a typical zba comprehensive permit process and the reason I say that is because many of the things that fire Highway and health commented upon are things from which we would be seeking waivers either full waivers or partial waivers presumably in exchange for some other assistance we're providing to the town to address the issues waivers are part of the chapter 40b process so when we submitted our application for lip endorsement a requirement of your policy uh is that we submit a draft list of waivers that that was fine by us because we'd be required to do so we will be required to do so when we make our submitt to eohc anyway uh waivers are local requirements they can be requirements of your general bylaws your zoning bylaws rules and regulations of your boards which we claim we cannot meet because this is being proposed as a 40b development the prime example would be density for example this sort of density would not typically be permitted in the residential district but we're seeking a waiver from the density requirement that's the waivers are sort of again the Hallmark of chapter 40b so we sought a w we will be seeking a waiver and it's on our waiver list from for example the paving moratorium as it relates to the comment received from Highway um Highway talk talked about uh excuse me Health talked about um groundwater protection and talked about septic requirements well we'll be seeking use of sewer again we had a brief discussion at the first session of the public hearing on this endorsement request on use of sewer um and to the extent that there are restrictions on the use of sewer we would seek a waiver from those restrictions and all of that was included in the list of waivers that we submitted with our initial package back in March or April to this board um having said that to the comments specifically from from fire regarding grading and and the vertical Granite curbing certainly we can adjust the curbing we propose vertical Granite that's sort of the gold standard when it comes to curbing uh alternatives are sloped Granite curbing which which I understand can be easier sometimes on uh on on snow plows can be easier on uh Public Safety Vehicles some fire departments actually prefer Cape Cod burm Cape Cod burm is the least expensive for a developer to install so we will gladly oblig um but how about the grade again in most instances it's I I I understand you can adjust the curbing how about the comments about the grade sure so um so again we we've had the site engineered so from a grading perspective we think it works now the fire department is going to take issue if they if the slopes are too Steep and they need require adjustment now I didn't see them say that specifically in the letter they weren't they weren't um they weren't clear about did did they did they say they they couldn't Traverse the site you want ah yeah right good if I may part two to my question is going to be if you wind up doing trash receptacles how does that translate to the the trash trucks being able to navigate that type of grade sure so uh Tim power pvi site design civil engineer uh the if I recall the comment from the P department they asked that it was a 10% maximum slope in the design uh in their in their letter uh that's what we had on the on our initial design as a maximum um really sort of the peak slope on the uh on the road design uh we may be able to flatten that out a little bit but we have no intention of going over that so that's within their written regulations is 10% Max and they actually uh in the regulations further say you can go to 12% with careful review or or some other language but we don't intend to do that so uh we're trying to hold 10% as a maximum and certainly flatten it out um if for nothing else but just the aesthetic of the road itself so uh we did the plans we presented were in response to those comments from the fire department um uh that you have now so they have the the current turning radiuses that they ask for uh and we tried to address that with them as well that that was was our initial design and we intend to stay there and can work to flatten it out as we move as Adam said move through the zba process as well um that thank you and so you said that you're going to you're requesting a waiver on the sewer but the new plans one of the comments was you're not showing any location for a pump station so correct we haven't uh all we've produced are the two plans that uh we provided to this evening station but no there's not um there did you have a pump station on the earlier version of PL plan the oral set oh was there was okay but okay so we had talked about attempting to prepare a full new set for the board uh including all utility plans which we were unable to do and turn it around and get it to as you requested two weeks before the meeting so all we submitted for this meeting were the concept plans again the two versions that I walked through this evening but I had forgotten you're right we submitted a full set that included utility plans so certainly can supplement will be required to supplement both for uh eohc uh as well as for the zoning board of appeals we be required to provide the full plan set that we had provided to the board originally and do you have any insight into how you would address the concerns that are raised about one the location of the snow disposal and that flowing over into um neighboring Properties or into the conservation land and um the a related concern from DPW about the Overflow discharge discharging onto neighboring properties sure so um you I'll let you speak to the discharge but I'm going to speak to the snow storage for for a moment so we tried to show multiple snow storage areas on the site for sites of this sort I've I've often seen uh fewer areas shown for potential snow storage we've shown areas throughout the site at all locations of the site um for potential snow storage now one way many boards will have concerns that as you said if the in the event of a particularly difficult winter uh if we have storm after storm that those snow storage areas can can become overwhelmed and it's in those circumstances often that there tends to be overflow because those piles just get pushed and they get pushed and they get pushed and before you know what they're overflowing the boundaries of what we've shown on the site as potential uh snow storage areas so one way to address that is through conditions of approval that would require that in the event that the snow storage exceeds a certain height or a certain limit that we will truck the snow off site to a disposal location and that's something that is a fairly typical condition of approval for projects of this sort um we haven't really had to Avail ourselves of it for uh many of the projects private clients I represent in recent years because we haven't had a difficult winter in a few years um but in circumstances where we do I can appreciate that those areas can become overwhelmed do you want to address the is the other issue sure sure so the the question was overflow from any recharge systems and whatnot to the Wetland so we'll have to certainly comply with the stormw water management standards because that's going to um be applicable under the state regulations for Conservation Commission uh and those uh as you may know require us to um mitigate up to a 100-year storm event uh on site so we'll have to reduce all our runoff going off from there we did do a preliminary design we were comfortable we could control the runoff from the site through a number of different recharge systems not just one large one uh we had some small some medium and whatnot around the site uh there maybe some overflow out but they'll have to have to show the burden of uh treatment uh proper treatment especially in the zone two uh to the drinking water well um along the way yeah thank you um I have three more is that okay go ahead um are you are you planning to not put any pedestrian access in here or is that another waiver or is there not room for it so we had that discussion as well um it's not necessarily that we're not planning on doing it we haven't forgotten that that was I think that was a request that the board had discussed um maybe even at the first meeting I think there was some discussion of pedestrian access even under the former layout um we've not shown anything here I mean certainly we're not proposing um in light of the site design that we would incorporate let's say um sidewalks um but could we provide um paths could we provide walkways um that is certainly something we can do as the plans get further devel beyond the conceptual stage okay and um going back to the chumford Housing Authority letter the other comment that was made in that was that um the developer had mentioned several times to the chumford Housing Authority that they were planning to rent some of the affordable units at a 10% discount to their employees is that the intent no that that can't occur under under the 40b guidelines so um and I've I've this is something that uh David was was kind enough to email me directly with expressing the concerns that he had about some of what he understood based upon conversations that he had had with as shook Patel the the primary proponent of the project um sh shook had represented that he might want to utilize some of the housing for employees of his and that in in attempting to facilitate that that he might uh consider for example price reductions um number one with respect to the affordable units that's simply not how it works the price point for affordable units whether they happen to be home ownership units or rental units is governed by eohc there's a formula that gets applied and that determines the actual price of those units rental prices or home ownership prices uh with respect to the market rate units it's a bit more confusing but there are even restrictions there as well because you have to indicate for purposes of cost certification that you're not engaged in related party transactions unless those related party transactions are legitimate under the chapter 40b regulations and guidelines and those guidelines are some 40 to 50 pages that provide great detail they they explain for example that you can not only if you so choose be the developer of a project but you could wear a second hat where you might be the realtor or broker for a project and in that capacity you could achieve an additional profit let's say of two to 4% um but in the event that these for sale units or rental units were to be rented at less than fair market value that would need to be accounted for in the cost certification and essentially what it could mean is a developer having to pull money out of his or her own pocket at the end of the day because they've offered discounts to to to to friends or family so it simply doesn't work with a 40b model like this certainly those individuals who happen to be employees of his um could could enter into the lottery and they would be they could be chosen the same way as anybody else they have the same odds of being chosen from the lottery as anybody else uh they don't get any favorable treatment they can't get any favorable treatment under the affordable fair housing marketing plan that will be required to submit to eoh hlc and get approved as part of the 40b process um and with respect to the market rate units again there's no reason why he can't sell those to his employees or friends or family or whomever he chooses but he's going to have to account for those sales as part of that final cost certification I think that might have been what led in part to Mr hedon's comment that he suggested there be a bond for the cost certification just to be ensure that it gets done properly in light of some of his concerns relative to those conversations that he had with with Mr Patel but he made me aware of that about about six or seven days ago and I've exchanged multiple emails and had a conversation with Mr Patel and made made him aware that that's not how not how this can work with this sort of a project thank you and then my my last question is um I think many years ago there was a planning board determination that the ideal site size for this site was like two or three units but in addition to that this is the third time that the Conservation Commission has um adamantly opposed A development of this size in this area close to that conservation land and the habitats and things that have um continue to grow and develop there so I'm just I do you have any thoughts about that or any philosophy about that going forward so I I I have a philosophy about it okay um maybe not particular to this project but this a general comment about chapter 40b development I mean the reality of chapter 40b development m is the Commonwealth has determined that there is a presumptive need for affordable housing and has created a process where developers through a friendly process a lip project or through a less friendly project the traditional 40b process can request waivers from local requirements I would say in my experience and I do a fair amount of this that waivers from Wetlands bylaws and wetlands regulations are probably the most common of all waivers requested because many communities in the past 15 to 20 years have adopted more stringent bylaws and regulations than the the state standard so we have to comply for any project of this sort with the wetlands protection act that's the state act it's been an existence for some 50 years we are required to comply in full with the Wetland protection act what we can seek waivers from and would we would seek some limited waivers from would be the local Wetlands bylaw and any accompanying regulations we're not seeking extensive waivers from those regulations they were included in our waiver list um we're actually seeking fewer waivers or less onerous waivers or less comprehensive waivers than we were seeking even three months ago as part of this process because we backed off those buildings so now there's no encroachment into the 50 Foot uh no no build um but that's just the reality of chapter 40b development that because of the nature of it uh and when you're building a project that is denser than two or three homes on a site like this um you are going to be sort of testing some of the limits of the developable area of the site I guess what I would say here is that I think that maybe with this project more than most projects in which I'm involved either on the municipal side or the private side there is an added benefit of this Conservation area of some 6.56 Acres uh the entire rear of the site that's you know more than twice the size of the development area that is the natural heritage area that is going to be subject to a conservation restriction that is of Interest as I understanded extreme interest to your water district and will be conveyed um and I think that that that to a certain extent offsets those concerns does it eliminate those concerns is that going to going to going to going to buy the support of the of the Conservation Commission I suspect not I imagine that they will as they have here continue to oppose any any um more dense development of this site than it needs to be but again my final comment will be there is a permit that issued for this site for more than twice as many units and an order of conditions that issued for the site for more than twice as many units so this is certainly a less honorous less dense uh less comprehensive project than what was approved some some 18 to 20 years ago thank you Ain you have any questions no I think Virginia got all of mine okay thank you thank you ge oh I mean I rip I'm on the H Advisory Board as you know so we've met four or five times with these people and um each time they came back with different you know we've asked them to do various things and um they we took two votes and one was a 5 to nothing vote in their favor and yet it was 4 to one so um they've done everything they said they would do um at our meetings uh the people very happy with the affordable uh properties and the rates and you know the percentages so I think at the very least should happen is that they get a shot at with the board of appeals if not you know okay thank you okay uh this is a public hearing is there anybody in the room that would like to um address the board about any part of this uh project and the application good evening cryst valy Precinct 10 town meeting rep um while I appreciate the applicants uh changes to the plan um the the change in the layout to bring the single family homes to the front um the change in the um or the separation of the uh Conservation Area the problem is is that this separation of the conservation area ENT without decreasing the number of units essentially creates an effective uh increase in density um and that increase in density makes other smaller items uh less likely to happen and increases the likelihood of more waivers um for example we see a lot less Green Space for kids to be playing since these are going to be families moving in and that pushes people into the street that creates a problem when you've got uh trash trucks Sanders coming into that neighborhood um without a lot of green space and I know that they mentioned there's going to be a playground but I'm struggling to see where that would be located on that that uh layout it also creates more problematic snow storage areas as you notice those two uh snow storage areas near the wetlands it's not just overflow that creates the problem it's the fact that there's any snow storage on the um the Green Space outside of the contained uh uh storm water system one of the things that the planning board has started to do in areas like more sensitive areas is require that the snow storage be on pavement so that when the snow does melt it gets collected by the the storm water system and it does clean it uh before it's transmitted into the the uh aquifer area we also note that that that steep incline is going to be very dangerous in the winter um I would hate to be in that single family home at the bottom of that curve that might cause problems um and without a sidewalk there it's going to be potentially uh hazardous we've also heard that the owner has public stated multiple times in multiple uh iterations of the project over time that he does intend to sell or rent to employees and while it may not be um something he should be doing or there might be a process I would recommend that the board keep an eye on that because he has publicly stated that multiple times um in multiple iterations so to me that there there are a lot of issues with this project and I would not recommend that the board uh recommend this this is a lit project thank you okay thank you anyone else that would like to address the board about this project Brian Latina Precinct nin toown meeting rep 15 Jesse roads my address um concern about American Disability Act um when there are more than four units being built the HUD requires you to have access and where you're building affordable housing units very typically you might have elderly or people with disabilities wanting to use those affordable units um I couldn't tell from the pictures I didn't have the layout but um project down the street for me when they built one of these um had the parking uh garage on the ground floor which meant that the sleeping areas places that you would live in the in the property we on the second floor it's inaccessible it's a violation of the Ada in my opinion um without any sidewalks and with a steep incline I'd be very concerned about again the affordable housing aspect of this so if your intention is to have a friendly um housing project for people that can't afford a regular home in a regular neighborhood um I would suggest that you want to make it friendly to people with disabilities that may be in that um situation um so if you're not having sidewalks and if you have a 10% grade and you put parking on the ground floor for the affordable units i' contend that you're not allowing disabled elderly somebody with a walker wheelchair um or in my case special needs son um trying to haul him up a flight of stairs or two as I see these are like triple Deckers in my view um that means you're building property in a Wetlands on a hill it's not accessible for the PE very people that you would expect to be they're elderly and disabled and um from that perspective I'd be very concerned at what I'm seeing here thank you okay thank you anyone else Linda Jones 242 River Neck Road um this project I feel is too dense for this area and I'm disappointed to see the developers still claiming 9.41 Acres when the chumford water district is going to be purchasing 5 Acres of that land they've already received the the drinking water supply protection grant for it in July and a purchase and sales agreement is being written up already so their actual uh acreage total will be 4.41 Acres once that five acres is sold which will greatly increase the the gross density of the project um the developer also claims to have sewer capacity from the previous permitted comprehensive permit and in the final comprehensive permit dated August 29th 2008 on page 14 number 79 it clearly states nothing in this decision shall constitute an approval for connection to the town of chelsford Municipal sewer the applicant shall be responsible for obtaining such approvals from the applicable municipal offices Municipal officials no building permit shall issue without the approval of the Department of Public Works or division as appropriate and the applicant shall pay any and all fees for such sore connections as may be determined by the town and shall conform to all regulations and finally I'm concerned as other people have been about um information we got at the neighborhood meeting Mr Patel stated he he wants to rent these units to his employees rent the houses or sell the houses to his employees um he mentioned that he has 90-day employees they come over to this country for 90 days on Visa that work for him um and I'm concerned about um what kind of environment that's going to be for our neighborhood it's an unconventional 40b setting and one that's no benefit to the neighbors the neighborhood nor the town of Chelmsford the idea of having revolving door residence is unsettling to say the least and I feel that if the select board were to approve this slip it would set a precedent for future 40 BS that would not be in keeping with the true meaning of affordable housing and would be detrimental to the town of chelsford and for these reasons I would ask the board to deny the lip for 243 riverneck Road 40b let the land sale with chelsford water district go through let them apply for state or federal funding and then to go before the zba for the the comprehensive permit process thank you thank you Joel Luna 10 Carter Drive uh spoke last time and a number of the things the issues that I raised then uh are still applicable today they aren't Changed by the change in the plans and that sort of thing um Ruth uh submitted Ruth was the one who submitted the letter um and I'm not going to get into the into the details of that particular letter I I want to keep things at a very very high level with regards to what is that you're going to be doing and you're going to be making a decision about whether you want to endorse this right your decision is not whether this goes on to the zba or not uh your decision is not whether you approve of this or not your decision is are you going to endorse this in other words are you going to say that the town of chelsford thinks this is a good idea and I think that there are a number of things that you've seen and heard already that that suggests I think very strongly that this is not a good idea for example the Conservation Commission has very clearly stated in the original comments and they've made no changes to it that they ask you not to endorse this project and I will add that the issues uh for by which it was denied by the commission was against the wetlands protection act not against the bylaws so the this commission will have issues with respect to the wetlands protection act with regards to this project another one is this the question of sewer uh and and that the the continuing question is is there going to be sewer is there going to be septic obviously the chump water district doesn't want septic it sounds like the applicant is thinking sewer but the there is no you know at least not under our established means for getting sewer permission uh are they going to be getting it so it only have to be through uh waivers and so forth and then the last one is the question of livable Community is this creating a livable Community uh the the entire uh site pretty much as you saw the demarcation of the 2.85 Acres is going to have a according to the comprehensive management permits going to have a 5-ft chain link fence around it so residents are not going to be able to go outside of that area for open space so any open space is going to have to be within that area and I don't think that creates at the density that it's at a really livable community and then also the issue that Mrs Jones raised I think is a very good one which is that your intent is your desire at least under this policy is to encourage affordable housing but affordable housing ideally is for a community that is for people to come and to live there that you want to be be part of chelsford community but if you're having people who are cycling in and out every 90 days that is not the intent at least of what you're looking to provide in terms of affordable housing I would think so the the very I noticed in reading through your policy that you don't actually have a Criterion by which you decide whether you endorse or you don't endorse and that would be one thing I would recommend is that you revisit that policy to put in some kind of Criterion the criteria I think that you probably are using that is in the back of your minds is the one that is is in our special permit criteria and that is that you look to see do the adverse effects of something outweigh the benefits if the benefits outweigh the adverse effects then you approve it if the adverse effects outweigh the benefits you do not approve it and I would suggest you use that as your Criterion in this case the benefits that you get and by by uh again this is not the question of are you approving the the 40b because that's for the zba it's your decision that you're going to endorse it and so the benefit for your endorsement is that there's two additional affordable units and the reduction from 80 to 60% of the Ami that is what you're getting for the risk of endorsing something that the concom has said they do not want for costs that likely town is going to incur because of the waivers that are going to be requested for the sewage and then also the um the negative effects of creating a community that doesn't really have the space for itself and also uh is potentially not even the kind of community that we would what we would consider to be residential in a residential area so I think for those reasons if you weigh it that way I think I think it's very reasonable for this board to say that you're not saying that you are against this project or against it going to zba what you're simply saying is you don't endorse it you don't say we favor this and I think that would be given everything that we've seen and heard I think that is the most reasonable thing uh kind of decision for you to make and so I ask you to make that decision to not endorse this project thank you thank you is there anybody else that would like to address the voard do uh Linda U 254 Lon Road um I have notice that there are still some Hang-Ups regarding uh the fire safety of this resident especially in the town houses area um in particular uh uh despite the uh now edits to the plets to show that fire engines can actually enter and exit um this housing area I still have concerns about the road widths because if you think about in the uh time of an emergency you're not just going to have uh fire engines and uh First Responders going in and out you're also going to have well their own residen cars going in and out um and it most likely won't be very organized given how it's a state of emergency uh I also noticed in the plants uh there is no indication of uh any placements of fire hydrants uh in which I feel that should be Rec consulted again because even if the engines can make their way all the way back to the town houses with no problem there is still the question of where are they going to actually get uh the Water to fight any fires that happen there uh F furthermore regarding the tow houses being all the way uh back in this residential area I feel it puts um them at risk especially because these will be areas where uh residences who cannot afford regular housing or may have may require accommodations will be uh living and they are at most at risk because they're the farthest back in this area and therefore will take the longest time for the fire engines to make their way there as well as having the longest time of egress from this neighborhood if a configeration uh spreads from the town houses to the residences up front I understand that the uh single family housing is put closer to River Road for athetic purposes however I feel that a secondary to the fact that lives may be at risk as well as the fact that it is uh showing that the um less uh sorry my apologies as well as the fact that it may not be uh representing values that this uh town community wants to represent because of the fact that the more affordable housing for those who may not be able to have the privilege of having single family housing is in a more more at risk area and also away from public eye thank you thank you is there anyone else okay is anyone on Zoom Shar Patel was on Zoom but I don't know if he wishes to speak he's got his hand raised now so yes he does okay a sh evening this is the sh how are you good can you guys hear me yes thank you yeah I was supposed to be flying back um in town on Sunday our flights have been delayed for two days days I'm stuck in Europe uh trying to get back actually might be able to flight out flight out tomorrow um anyways thank you for taking the time to give me a few minutes to speak um when we started this project um about two years ago maybe a little longer than that we actually met with uh Community Development we met with uh Town manager and I I simply asked the question can we um develop something here that maybe less dense um than what was there before and and perhaps the project can yield some meaningful housing for the community and both Paul um Evan balinsky um and many others at the town at the time said that that's a fantastic idea I think that can work uh given that you know we're in such desperate needs of housing so we we start on this journey to reduce the project in scope greatly and still put together something that's meaningful on the development cost side to make work um so I think I think our journey up to this space has been at the at the good intended directions of everybody that's involved in this process um I know there's a lot of comments made regarding uh employee housing and whatnot so I've already told our attorney to make a statement in writing that whatever um Market rates are for the rent and for the sale of the units will be at market rate um if one of my relatives or one of my employees happens to buy the home they will buy it at what the market rate is right that's fine we we will have a full AIT process we'll comply with whatever audit process you want us to comply with um that's not an issue um we will do uh we will do so so that is I'm not worried about that um uh I know people have talked about hey what kind of community will this be when you have people rotating out or something right um well in any apartment community any Rental Community you always have the risk of people rotating out every 12 months so this will be subject to the same sort of apartment community rules if people want to live there longer they're they're welcome to live there longer if they have to move because of certain reason they'll have to move I we can't control but they'll be all at market rate um that will be assured through whatever audit process uh the town has put in place or the 40b or the lip program requires um uh we we hope that uh this this support can be given so that we can further develop the necessary plans to um get them to the appropriate agencies um as time comes and and get a get a project together uh we have taken a lot of time and understanding in in uh adjusting the plans to what the neighbors said during the during the neighborhood meetings what the town feedback has been and we we feel that the version that is before you today um is probably the best product um of those exercises so thank you okay thank you may I be heard Madam chair I'd just like to briefly address a few of the comments that I I heard made beyond what Mr patella said um I I honestly don't know how the board might vote on this proposal but I want to be sure that however you do uh you have the facts straight and I heard a few a few statements that I think are misstatements I don't think that they were intentional misstatements but I I want to be sure you understand what's before you uh a couple of residents commented on uh the Development Area versus the conservation area one of them had said that we're we're now providing less Green Space and another said that we're we're claiming nine acres when really we should only be claiming four because there are already talks underway and the pns is in the midst of being drafted with the water district for approximately five acres um there's some truth to that I had said before that we have been in talks with the water district and we have committed to the water district to convey a portion of the subject property we're not misrepresenting anything to the board the site today is approximately nine acres that's how we showed it in the very first plans we submitted to you five months ago um it was noted by one of your members or maybe a few of you uh that we weren't actually developing out 9 acres and so it was a bit of a misconception when you reviewed the table of dimensional requirements to divide the number of units we're proposing into nine acres when we're not utilizing nine acres so we were asked and we have now shown a line of demarcation of division between what we're referring to as a conservation area and the area that we're referring to is the Development Area it's actually less than a 9 acre versus 4 Acres it's 9 acre versus 2.85 Acres which is our development area so in doing that we're not reducing the green space we're not showing anything less in fact other than simply switching the locations more or less of the single family homes and the town homes we haven't condensed the area that we're proposing for development any differently than what was before you six weeks ago or what was before you three or four months ago um uh comments were raised and and concerns about uh ADA compliance so um certainly that's not something from which we can seek waivers ADA compliance uh is required for all developments certainly developments that are receiving uh state or federal funding um the rule as it relates to affordable housing projects for the affordable units in particular is that we are required to retrofit units to the extent that they haven't initially been constructed to accommodate individuals that qualify for protection under the Ada um that's something that is often done with affordable housing developments it's not true that you simply can't build um a two or three-story town home or townhouse structures that have garages at the entry level because it would be a violation of the Ada otherwise you wouldn't see those types of town homes anywhere um the rule the requirement is that you need to provide accommodation so that to the extent that an individual that acquires one of those units that purchases or rents one of those units requires an accommodation under the Ada that you can provide them as you're legally required to do with the assistance that they need to be able to utilize the unit as an individual without um the same sorts of disab abilities would be able to will comply fully will be required to it's a mandate under chapter 40b it's a mandate under state and federal law um the the final point that I'll make is maybe just um restructuring the conversation or um offering maybe a different perspective on your role as a select board with respect to your lip um process and procedure um the the gentleman that spoke one of the last gentlemen to speak said the question is is this a good idea you're being asked to endorse a project if you're endorsing it as a select board is this a good idea I would state it somewhat differently I think it's not just reviewing this project in a vacuum uh I I I represent select boards too I represent municipalities do most of them would prefer not that 40b wasn't the law they would prefer not to approve chapter 40b projects and so if you ask most of them even those that I've represented and there are many of them giving lip endorsements is this a good idea many of them would say Well we'd rather it weren't an idea at all but the law requires that 40b housing be developed and so I would suggest to you the question is is this a better idea than the Alternatives that could exist and you don't have to think that much outside of the box for a project or a site like this because we know the Alternatives because you approved or your Zone board of appeals approved an alternative a decade and a half two decades ago and it was a project with 48 units much more dense than what you have here uh and so that is a that was a a reality for this site for the better part of two decades it could be a reality for the site again we could have come forward we can still come forward and propose greater density for the site but as Mr Patel himself said in discussions with the town we wanted to pursue something that was more Cooperative understanding that it was still going to be a greater density than what is in the surrounding neighborhood but something that is a lesser density than what was approved uh for Princeton Properties um the reality here is that there is another route and one of your residents suggested NOP make him go and and make an applic to the state get their get their subs subsidy and then proceed before the zoning board of appeals we can do that we recognize that that's the path for us if this board doesn't issue an endorsement but the commitments we've made to this board are commitments we've made as part of the lip process um it's because it's a it's a straighter more direct path for us to go from here to eohc and then to your zoning board of appeals if we have to go through Mass housing before we get back to the zoning board of appeals it may be that not just that you're not getting the same number of affordable units or the same extent of affordability it could be that it's a differently designed project it could be that it's not a mix of single family homes and rentals it could be that it's all ownership meaning that you don't get the benefit of the the rental units counting on the subsidized inv housing inventory uh it could mean that it's at a greater density so I don't put those things out there as threats because we haven't even developed a concept plan for something other than this this is what we put before the board I'm just telling you that that's the reality of lip versus something different than a lip something that is a more traditional chapter 40b so we hope hope that when the board looks at what's in front of it recognizing that there is opposition from a number of residents and we've heard some opposition from the Conservation Commission doesn't surprise me um we still think that this is a better project for the site than what was approved 20 years ago we think it's a better project for the site than what could have been proposed and still can be proposed as an alternative to what you've got here and we hope the board will consider that okay thank you thank you okay um I think we've heard all the comments that we're going to get and feedback from the applicant and from residents um I'm assuming everybody's ready to vote on this going to close the public hearing yes right so first we need to make a motion to close the public hearing second reporting in progress okay we have a motion and a second to close the public hearing all in favor okay um all right I mean we can begin discussion now about how we want to move forward with it um IND us or not IND us as had been mentioned by several people I Dr off the other line my laptop's Dy okay um so anybody want to start the discussion now is the time you can say how you feel about it and how you would want to move forward with it you want to start if I had to vote tonight I'd Endor it okay Pat I'm told on this one but if I had to vote tonight I would vote against it um it's um it's still just force fit to me and there's just not enough it's just not it's not worked through far enough and I I understand the complexities of not endorsing the lip and you know the possible um things that could come as a result of that that um but um I I just can't say that everything I see in the plans and everything is is complete enough or thought through enough for me to go ahead and endorse this project the way it is right here today okay thank you um I'm I'm inclined to to also not endorse it um I think that given the number of issues that we have from our department in town combined with the number of waivers that they would be looking for um it's it's it's too much for me okay J um I appreciate the rework that went into the plans I um and I understand that this is less bad than what we had before I still feel that the cons outweigh the pros um and I am I'm very concerned about still some of the issues that have been raised in even if waivers are are approved I'm I'm concerned about that so um at this point I can't get behind endorsing it okay um I mean I guess what I would say kind of echo what some of the last comments that were made by Mr Costa and that being I mean this is better than what we've seen on this property before for sure even better than what we've seen what we saw earlier um particularly getting more affordable units than what would be on a traditional 40b however there are significant restrictions and and risks that we that we take by doing this so um I think I would vote with u probably against it also so if we could have a motion can I make the motion in the affirmative is that well you know how I feel about that I know I know I know you do okay um I I will go ahead then and not do that um I will make a motion to not endorse the local initiative project for the proposed affordable housing project for 23 units at 243 River Neck Road as presented second okay we have a motion and a second to to not endorse um all those in favor of the motion not to endorse and those opposed to the motion not to endorse was okay we have a 41 vote okay thank you very much thanks for coming before us and good luck with your project however it goes however it moves forward thank you okay next on our agenda is uh discussion about uh license at Kissa Paul do you have anything on that to tell us well this is what I know Madam chair we've received no information since the last meeting although they the applicant agreed to come back okay um uh folks if you could leave quietly we still have a meeting going on thank you very much the applicant agreed to come back and provide an update at to the board at this meeting uh and there's nobody on the zoom call and I don't see anybody in the room to speak to this project which is very rather disappointing it it is very disappointing yeah I mean after they had said that they definitely would have something for us by this meeting so um any thoughts on how we want to move forward on this um go ahead Virginia were you going to say something I I just don't remember did we say come back in August and they said okay he said he said he would be back said if they wouldn't be back they would at least give something to the town manager to report to us so my only other thought is to just send him a a formal correspondents that signed off that said we need some kind of feedback by our next meeting well I mean and and if we don't I mean possibly let them know if we don't get it we're going to consider revoking the license or we'll have a discussion around it right I mean we' have to start a public hearing process for that um okay I mean I guess we can give them yeah two more weeks but I mean I I wouldn't do go any further than that before we start no but I would I would give them like a formal written correspondence okay all right we'll we'll get that out tomorrow okay now did anybody remind them about their their promise before this meeting I mean no you really shouldn't have to it was only three weeks ago so yeah okay okay thank you all right okay um I guess we handled that without Pat present so we move on next to um time manager goals um so this is what I have I came up with from our discussion from a couple of weeks ago um I tried to catch everything and put it in here with with comments as as I saw fit uh we go through them you know one at a time and see if there are any comments um make it bigger Paul yeah I'm just trying to move it over okay did you tell yeah our our friends on Princeton Street were going to ask them to come in at our next meeting okay otherwise we're going to get tough on him they were supposed to be here tonight though right nothing nothing at all nothing at all all right so we're on to our goals um I you know a couple of questions I just want to be sure that I captured everything that we talked about if anybody has any comments about rewarding or adding adding anything else um and in the in Prior years we have set different tiers for um for different uh goals do we want to do that on these and if so what is going to be the the tiers and what are going to be the the different priorities and on some of them we uh I guess especially the ones that um are particular to the select board perhaps assigning a select board member to take the lead on those I think maybe would be um helpful at this point so in terms of in terms of tears I don't think that it really did much for us except say these are the priorities and I I honestly think we took care of that by clumping a bunch under government Focus areas and a bunch under you know support to board and committee initiatives those are all kinds of the ones that we're tracking and the ones that aren't under those headings are pretty much ones that we're going to go work and do or create that's kind of how I feel about it but okay we can revisit that question after we go through it whether there's a different way people want to prioritize it okay yeah I mean you know as as far as the the layout of them I I I tried to kind of put them in some kind of priority um you know not that they have to be very specific that way but uh a lot I think on the first page are more critical than the ones on the second page so as far as the fiscal management and visibility um some of these are are ongoing the fee structure um Paul I'm assuming that can we're already started okay good and I only put the selectboard on as one of the responsible parties on that one because it'll come before you we have to make the final decision on that um legislative e marks and and grants I mean those are pretty much ongoing the legislative ear marks are also put down for the select board since we do meet with our legislative delegation about those um as far as the marijuana uh one I know Pat this was one that you had uh had suggested um um I don't know how the rest of the board feels about this I I kind of agree with what one of the residents said earlier that we have talked about this several times at town meeting um I don't know at this point if we want to do it again um it's the last time when's the last time I came up for town meeting was about three years ago Paul yeah at least yeah three yeah I think it was wasn't it last fall no no I don't think so no it's been several years it's been yeah I think I'm trying to think it was pre Co no it wasn't because we went out and visited the place in L this was way this was after Co when the planning board brought the zoning article forward to town meeting cannabis H okay so I didn't realize that it had been three times in front of time I am generally kind of interested actually in reopening the discussion but um I didn't realize it had gone three times and then so you know I understand all the discussion that will go around it but you know when I drive down Route three and I see Billboards and I walk at lunchtime down the street from my office and I walk right by a place you know what I mean it's like I think it's just we're missing the boat and we're we're because it's so close Zone it in the right area um you know I I just think we're missing the vote on possible Revenue that we should be taking in it's just become so prevalent that why why should we miss the vat on this I don't get it yeah I don't understand and I mean there's one if there's one on every border of there's one right in Lowel and I mean to me that's all the more reason why we don't need to well but we're not getting the revenue from it's not Revenue anymore you know I think when they could we discuss what possible revenues could can you use the microphone so people can hear you could we you know could we have the town manager maybe look into seeing what possible Revenue stream could come of it and have a discussion about it how so like my concern right now is that we're getting into the deliberation of the goal and I don't think we should be doing that at this point I think we should be deciding whether it's on the list or not um I mean I'm I'm kind of absent any other discussion I'm in the same place is I I'm not sure there's a whole lot of utility in revisiting this but if the if there are board members that feel strongly about it then we should at least schedule a discussion that's my feeling so Pat do you want to take the lead on that and maybe put something together and we can put it on maybe one of our September meetings to talk about it again I mean it wouldn't obviously we wouldn't have time to put it on our on our fall town meeting but that's probably kind of rushing it anyway but just to get a sense for what you think the or or you know what other communities are are getting I'm asking for the information is what I'm asking for to to you know go forth and make those decisions so I don't I mean is what kind of information or assistance could we get from I the administration uh we can we can look into it I just looked the the town meeting adopted the marijuana bylaws and general and Zoning bylaw at the October 16 2017 town meeting it doesn't seem possible that it's that it's almost seven years ago but that's that's looking at the code that's what is reported I was on the board when we did the last vote and it was after code covid and we went out to the site in LEL and Su Rosa and Pat but but but I don't think it ever made it back to town meeting yes it did I I don't remember that it did or didn't want we voted on the article here okay we can look in we'll look into it but but the short answer is is we but that's that's when it that's when it was codified in chelsford I look to see if if there was a reconsideration since so we should the other thing I would like if you're going to go ahead get data the other thing I would like to know is if there's any data available on where this has gone in terms of um you know the CBD industry when they were selling CBD oils and stuff like that that all went to mail order a lot of it and the brick and mortars kind of were not needed so and I and I understand like you can't you can't ship alcohol into Massachusetts but can you ship can you ship marijuana like is is I want to know too where the future trend is going to go if we put all this energy into revisiting brick and mortars are the brick and mortars going away like everything every other brick and mortar is going away right we we know the we know the state just re adopted new amendments on local community approvals and and what communities can receive in exchange for that so we can we can find that out I'm sure also talking with Council we can find out the current status as well since they represent 100 communities right and maybe find out what some of the surrounding communities and we can also find out Revenue as well because that's public so yeah we we can we'll do the digging and sure we we'll report it back sure thank you all right but before you leave that section Pat the ones that say ongoing I mean can we assign like um like Grant so legis I know it got translated to legislative earmarks and my question was when I brought it up are there other legislative opportunities that come up and I don't know the answer to that but can we at least like put it onto the quarterly reporting maybe it's part of the goals reporting or something else so that we're intentionally saying here's the grant opportunities we pursued this quarter right because usually it comes up at the end of the year when we're doing Paul's performance review and we say look we got $600,000 in Grants this year and I think the whole idea of this was to get more intentional sure as if we could and then the early notification of financial issues um part of the comment that I had made there was like we were look I at least I was looking for kind of a discussion around what's emerging in the risk mitigation and hopefully having at least one of those discussions before we go into trib board so it's not like already done and let me respond to those two issues on the Grant on the grant thing I I think I sent the board an email last we you want them reported here I can do that and and I'll include it when we do the quarterly goals report in terms of the revenue thing I had department head meeting on last Thursday August 1st and I've asked department heads to give me a a an initial projection uh by September 1st okay their need so with the intent and the message was is look because of the extraordinary circumstances that we're going into um you know you saw what happened today in the markets you ALS the state also reported his Revenue was down just July from last July uh and we also know the uncertainties ahead in terms of the initial projection we did a few months ago so the the message was delivered to department heads we need this we're serious and the intent is to give it to the select board so that the first time they say it isn't when we walk into the tri board meeting in December that we're we're really hitting them into the fall most likely you know a major discussion certainly around November 1st you know but certainly information even before then because it is going to be you know um very critical um where we're at so yes I I basically want to ensure the board that that's already underway as well and I'm gonna have the same kind of comment everywhere we have ongoing like what are we gonna what kind of reporting frequency do we want we'll give we'll give quarterly goals reports as we always have um and but if there's something more current we'll we'll commend with it thank you okay is there anything else under the fiscal management invisibility that we need to discuss all right thepa funding I think that's pretty straightforward um we have to to do it by the end of we have to do the yeah and so again Christine Christine Clancy and I are scheduled the next meeting to present the request for with the ongoing can we continue the monthly reporting think that's important ongoing monthly y she'll also have the monthly report and uh I think the board will be pleased the progress um that we're making okay on the process improvements um I actually had a note that we that we had had this under fiscal management but I guess it could you know maybe we can it's okay where it is okay um I don't know if there any other comments or tasks under that well again my only question is Paul is there is there like a mark in the sand where we say okay the Departments have done a a gap analysis and these are the ones that Rose to the top yeah it probably will be later in the fall um we we're we're as you know may know we're working on one right now at the board of health and Bo yeah probably no by I would say by the end of the calendar year that second end of second quarter sure would be the the Gap analysis and then we could decide from there what kind of reporting frequency makes sense all right the sewer storm water and drainage that's just all that's carry over from last year uh any other task we want under there or is the board okay with continuing the monthly reporting I I thought that frequency was yeah I mean some of it might not change as fast as monthly but some of it does yeah I mean we we always get the the sewer report every every month so yeah some of them are going to be a lot right and some activity we I notified the board that we sent out an RFP for the smoke testing and uh and so forth okay um infrastructure uh roads and sidewalks I mean one thing I I notic I noted on that is that I I like it that we have something posted on the website about what's coming up I think the residents really like that they can kind of look at that and know if something's going to be happening in their neighborhood or on their street um so you know it's I think that's really good I don't know if there's anything else that we want to add on on that what frequency do you think that should be called I mean depends on the season of the year but I mean during this season we're putting monthly notices out as was noted in the manager newsletter reporting oh reporting here uh I mean Christine's here once a month I think it depends I mean I think it probably every couple of months in the construction season is when we'll we can update you sure okay um underground utilities I mean that's a that's a tough one I've already initiated it to council they're looking into it believe it or not uh we we was Rick Holland is the one working on it um I sent information to him and some background last week so again I'm hoping in they not too distant future perhaps early fall we can have a direction um so yeah we're working on it this is mainly gear towards the center Center underground utilities glad to hear Rick is still there okay under the town government Focus areas we have uh several topics here some of which are going to be ongoing for a while some of which we do see a um an ending point on um so the the 54 Richardson wrote I think we were trying to do the bimonthly reporting based on the test sampling the quter the quarterly sampling yeah that was quarterly yeah okay so so the this whole section would probably be maybe of the ongoing items I'm just thinking are those more like quarterly just bring us up to date on where things are [Applause] yeah okay any other comments on other topics under that that that um no I didn't understand what the um the Consolidated Regional services I don't remember that discussion I'm sorry um I think we talked about that maybe in a on a couple different levels I me it it kind of was under this the storm water I think yeah we're always looking at Regional opportunities yeah and so again we'll update you if opportunities arise I remember it under storm water I just didn't and it's there I just didn't know what it was here I something different rid of it I mean Paul always tell us about any um Regional um issues or Regional services that we that we can join with others I mean could we get rid of it or or not so just not leave there just for you know to keep it in front of you or should it just be under sewer storm water drainage that too both fine I mean I think it's pretty clear it's going to take a Regional effort to get our sewer stuff under m control and few of those things so yeah but there might be other other areas where we can regionalize too so okay all right the Strategic plan um I mean we could put that under the board and committee initiatives but I felt like it did deserve its own um own uh segment because that is kind of a strong what we're going to be F what something that's going to have a strong Focus for the for the next year um so everybody okay with leaving it the way it is yeah it's got to be completed in the fourth quarter y okay and the board and committee initiatives we have many of those um my only comment there Pat was the MBTA zoning support given that we did get a response back from the state within the last 24 hours do we do we want to put instead of Q two do we want to say like q1 slq2 and kind of get it because we have to get the developer engaged and right or is Q2 the end point the end point yeah the end point would be December yeah but it's got to be because it has to be submitted by the but we can start it now yep y oh yeah okay yeah I yeah any of them we can we can start now um on I I just want to clarify on you know I put in the USA 250th birthday celebration which to me would mean 2026 but something that you had sent um I think was um geared towards 2025 the start of the Revolution right the grant money is out there now is is has to be expended by which there's a information session coming up on has to be expended by dece June 30th 2025 so that implies that there might be additional funding for the following year coming up the reason for that is Lexington and conquered happened in 1775 right exactly that's that really is what drove all this because they need a huge amount of money for Lexington and Conquer folks in the in the audience if if you could either so that's so that's where so anyway so yes we're we're we're work we're already on it we've already circulated the department heads um there are a couple people including myself who are going to be on the grant call so 202 for 2025 and then obviously we'll we'll look to see what they may allow in terms of 2026 or if there's going to be another round in 202 26 but is that is the 2025 Grant is that specifically for the revolution it's it well it's interesting it's it's it's to commemorate the nation's 250th but it it kind of get broadens out from that because not every part of the state was Lexington and conquet area so they said well it can be that or if you've had Innovative or information or or unique things that has happened in your community over the 250 years like if you invented the light bulb or something and or the rocking chair or something anyway the bottom line is they're they're trying to devote attention and funding towards the uniqueness of the being the 250th anniversary of the country and therefore they're allowing a little more latitude uh and trying to fund projects for the year ahead um and again what they said in the initial Grant round is is that the money had to be expended by June 30th 2025 so which which again works fine for Lexington and conquered but but and it may work fine for our walk to Lexington and conquered but but again if you're celebrating in the prade if you out there in you did something with the 4th of July prade in 2025 they going to be like well this isn't the 250th this is the 249th right um so again but we're also talking to the senior center and other other things so anyway we're working on it so to so yeah this this is fine in terms of the timeline we're we're already working on it and we hope to meet whatever deadlines they have and then and before we submit anything we're going to come to you and say look this is what we're asking for okay what's your input do you have any suggestions or edits okay and I think it does make sense to kind of um have the parade committee taking the lead on that but we've Al like I said we we reached out to the cultural you know the Center for the Arts the senior center and others Library okay anything else on under that topic wouldn't committee initiatives everybody okay with the other subtasks what is the the 40b safe haven are we saying we're going to have be safe by the end of the quarter we're hoping we're hoping we we're we're continuing to submit and and work with Council to get approval of those units that have already been approved locally it's a different process than 40b it's it's the local uh process in terms of local action units um so we're going to keep you updated as we get approval and certifications because again right now we're within Striking Distance of and in fact if David hedon's ones would be recognized as we believe they should be that we we'd already be there for at least for a temporary basis um so we'll keep you updated as that's going but yeah the goal is that there'll likely be some clarification on this by the second quarter okay okay um voluntary appreciation I think that speaks for itself it's just a matter of finding out what we're going to do when we're going to do it um policy updates we talked about um putting something in our policy at the Town Council and had go ahead I'm sorry my only question on the volunteer appreciation and the two policy updates was the timing because we have so much front loaded to get done by quarter two I didn't know if it might be better to bump some of that to quarter three depending what it is like the the the the volunteer appreciation as we get into the holidays and stuff how much attention are we going to get from people on that well Paul and I are actually talking about that and he suggested maybe like sometime around Columbus Day it might be a good time as long as you think it's doable that's fine yeah maybe we we'll come in with you with something cuz if you're going to do it you got to do it again the narrow window in the fall before you hit the bad weather and then the problem with spring is when you hit Spring then you hit into the graduations and yeah else you don't want to do it in winter because yeah exactly okay so I mean you know that's that's a goal to have too I mean we we might adjust it um so yeah on the on the policy updates um the Tom Council process that might you know should be kind of straightforward I can work on that and and Pat you had mentioned about the Tom manager hiring her to do about doing just a rough schedule at some point just to give us an idea it be a good idea to have some policy kind of you know it wouldn't be very detailed because we do have you know something in the U in in our Charter that tells what we have to do when we are hiring a new town manager and it probably also needs to um address what is actually in town manager's current contract so that we don't jump the gun on that so you know just look at think just have an outline I mean you're seeing it happen in real time three communities around us right now so it's very current you can probably learn lessons about right what's effective what's working what's not working because the time going to come eventually yeah so maybe that maybe that's one that that we should move we can look at it when and and we can took to talk to I think we have time on that one yeah we do we do okay and then uh the charter update on regarding committees um so I guess we need to look at on that one of the reasons why I don't know Paul you probably know this as well as I do but um when the charter was initially written the only from what I remember the only committee that the select board could appoint was public celebrations correct that was that was very definitively you know stated in the charter so and I think you know I was on the TR Review Committee in 2006 and I believe we were the ones that suggested that the wording change a little bit to allow the select board to do more appointments than that if they wanted to I think he had Personnel Board then too okay maybe yeah Personnel Board Charter review and then Town Council Town count Town manager but you're right then there was a conscious eff to the board to create ad hoc committees right right yeah so anyway we can look at that there was a um I apologize when we had our work session I forgot one thing we had gotten an input from a resident about whether we should conduct training or have more clarity around like best practices when you're the chair kind of a thing and I just wanted to see how the board felt about that or is it covered in the orientation material that you and Trish have put together I think we want to cover it in the orientation mat here we also want to cover the internet policy you know on you know part of the onboarding and and orientation that we're going to do this fall and council's already talked about the fact that they'd like to do some seminars as well so I think we're going to try to roll it into that in terms of you know look this is the basics in terms of you know open meeting a um but also here's how to chair and run a meeting and then oh by the way here's how you communicate but these are the things you should be looking out for so I think we're we're going to try to broaden our on boarding to include that yeah yeah I mean we can put that in as a goal or I mean I think we've already and then when you have it when it's available for the onboarding I would send it out to the people who are currently on boards and committees CU you never know who the chair is going to be in the next year and and last year I know tele media did record the the onboarding um seminar that we had and they did play it a lot I mean it was it was it was always available probably still is so yeah so we can do that all right anything else anything else that we missed that we want to good C all right um yeah so I'll make these adjustments and maybe bring them back next time and then we can vote whether we that will be sufficient to move forward with all right we have some bid Awards tonight Paul yeah real quickly uh for the um first one is for disposal of catch spas and street sweeping debris um the Public Works issued a you know invitation for a bid four bids were received the lowest responsible bid was WL French Excavating the amount of $94,500 more more better understood as a unit price of$ 4725 per ton um so we're recommending the bid award to um WL French which we've had um worked well with over the last couple years for that amount you can see the price seems reasonable you can see there was another bid that was relatively close um you know 4 $40 above that and then the other bid award I guess we can do them jointly was for the um oil water separated tank installation project at Richardson Road there were two bids received for that um from Apex engineering and J&R um what do they call it rendes Corporation and you can see there's quite a difference between the two bids and and the lowest bid is the lowest qualified bid so again we're recommending the bid award of $433 3.20 to Apex engineering um again which meet Falls within the project budget which will also include the purchase of the tank and the removal of the materials from the existing tank so on the the catch Basin one it it notes addendum one what was addendum one addendum one for the um I think somebody can help you she's here so addendum was one was answering a question from a contractor and it was in regards to if a loader would be provided at the site and we did uh think that was a good opportunity to reduce costs and and the cost did come in actually Rel lower than last year so we are providing the loader at the site for the project and that was addressed in addendum one okay so that's why Tim and Al Excavating is probably so high because they were going to provide their own potentially yeah they didn't acknowledge a dum one okay all right thank you any other questions I'll take a motion I will make a motion can I put them together I'll make a motion to approve the town manager bid Awards as presented second okay a motion and a second all in favor I I thank you thank you all right all right first draft of first draft of the Tom meeting warrant yeah it's hard to believe it's already here today uh was the deadline for the submission of petition Warren articles um one was included because that was submitted earlier uh this summer the other one arrived late this afternoon you heard from it this evening from Mary from Mary Donovan uh so that'll be on your second draft uh in two weeks and then your following meeting your first meeting in September is when you'll actually sign the warrant the Monday after Labor Day um at this point we have 22 articles um then there's a as I said there'll be a few more that's come on um again the beginning of the warrant tends to follow the traditional pattern reports of officers of committees which is always the first at every town meeting and then the cemetery Improvement fund which again there'll be another request from the Cemetary uh superintendent superintendent and the Cemetary commission uh and then the annual you know physical moving of of the vote to move the money into the sewer construction stabilization fund which is a procedural matter and then we we have a placeholder funding for any Collective bargain agreements that may be reached um again a placeholder to amend the current operating budget which at this point we don't know of any but again we keep it there at this point then there's a citizen petition article that was submitted by Paul razio to appropriate free cash to offset the cost of the Parker School feasibility study that was previously approved by borrowing at a previous town meeting then I have the funding for Road and sidewalk construction which has appeared the last couple of years uh and we'll do it again we don't know the exact dollar amount because the uh town clerk sorry Town accountant and fure collector working on closing of the books and and we we anticipate within the next few weeks we'll have our free cash certified so that'll give us the idea of what magnitude but obviously we're looking for a sizable investment in that um working with with DPW and the superintendent of schools is to finally get construction on the McCarthy Middle School exterior recreational area you know adjacent to the police station you may know that used to house tennis courts um that um that material has been removed from that area because the courts fell into disrepair uh we're bringing that back um and again the the plan is to seek town meeting approval so that way construction can take place in count year 25 construction of what uh outdoor planing courts that's why I use the word recreational area it's a school proper property okay and the original notion was you know we replace tennis courts with new tennis courts but then in our discussions with Dr Lang um we're right now in the midst of constructing Tennis Courts at the high school um we're also reconstructing the outdoor basketball courts that cybl uses and then the other component if you've been over there was the outdoor U Street hockey you know and as we know we've have this constant need for pickle ball constant requests for pickle ball so our thinking is take the put the pickle ball with the tennis courts and the basketball courts over at the high school why is that a good idea because there's no neighbors because we're as as I've notified the board believe it or not we had a complaint from the one pickle ball court uh at Varney because they were playing too early in the morning and the neighbors were annoyed by the noise from the pickle ball that is right the house exactly and so the concern with putting pickle ball at at the McCarthy school is it's right next to the police station and right next you know to the McCarthy school um and so the high school is is more remote in terms of for noise Factor so the idea would be well then maybe we transition the street hockey over to the McCarthy which Dr Lang pointed out that's more played for utilized more by middle school students anyway than high school students um so that's why I use the word recreational area as opposed to I didn't use courts because say well that's not courts you know so that's the plan and then also part of that is to again expand that area so that it's not only a recreational area but then you do have the passage connection way with a gate that you could then get to the back of McCarthy so that way if there are events either at McCarthy for voting or at the police station for use of the thing that there is a roadway area you know that you can Traverse um through there so so that's what in the language of the article that's what the parking and vehicle access because just I mean I would also just keep in mind as this plan matures there was a big outcry at town meeting against taking the tennis courts down and putting pavement down right and that's why we've come back with the the the component is really for recreational area but there will be an ancillary use to improve the passageway for vehicle now again town meeting can vote it down but we're not going to say there's no vehicles we're not going to say there's no access to that area we think meaning the opinions of myself superintendent of schools um you Public Works director is that that may be the best solution for that area um we'll see but you know it's it's been a couple years since this was considered by town meeting um and again it's school property not Town property so I can't guide this I need the Buy in from the school school committee superintendent in order to bring this to town meeting because it's school property it's under the care custy control of the school committee it's languished there is be quite Frank a little too long and so I've been pushing this thing to can we get something to town meeting and get this because other people can say well what's what's going on over there nothing's happening um and and I'm also getting pressure from the pickle ball component as well saying that you know everywhere around us people are building pickleball courts but we're not seeing any in chood so that's that's where we're at at this point in time and again in the next month you will see hopefully a schematic plan that shows the whole area um the next one is the replacement of the sewer Force man on Progress Avenue uh again that's funded through sewer revenues but we again recently had another break over there um we want to stay ahead of that issue U there's a pipe area the section of pipe that needs to be replaced um we're continuing to work on sewer infiltration and inflow um there's drainage project on Hugo Lane which would come from the storm water Enterprise um account um we did receive an aark in the budget that the governor signed for $50,000 for the replace the food pantry module building in the rear that's going to cost more than that you may recall our initial request was for 90,000 so we we'll come in and ask for the difference to not only purchase it but install it you know equip it um we also have an effort we talked about in the past in the goals about document digitalization so again we we had a department head meeting we're coming forward with the request to kick that off and then also probably have it voted in the annual budget annually because it's an ongoing cost um we had an aark in the state budget that didn't get approved for tree and invasive uh species inventory and management plan so we likely ask for that uh funded at town meeting because the invasive plant problem is a growing concern um and we really want to do a pilot project and get going on that and then the balance would be if there's any funds remaining the transfer free cash into the general stabilization fund the next item would be the west chumford and south chumford Fire Station construction projects which as you know is not only the town meeting vote but also on the ballot in November um and then we then move into the community preservation articles one is to resend an unexp unexpended Community preservation fund appropriation for fac program that just never took off um and Money's been languishing there uh and then also to fund a project uh to expand the and community housing at one Smith Street where the Aged 64 units would be raised and then the 96 units would be constructed and our funding would be a a component to the overall other additional funding that the housing authority and choice would uh obtain for that project which will probably be built in 2027 or so um there's also a request from the water district they want to uh obtain an easement across the McCarthy and the Parker School properties um they've submitted us a preliminary plan for the McCarthy we're awaiting the one for Parker and again that would that again needs appr approval from the school committee but thus far the early indications are sure you know this will help the the town through its water pay save funding um and then there's a request from the conservation Comm commission to tr care transfer care custody control and management of five Parcels uh to the commission the most notable is Warren pole the other four are wet Parcels that the treasure collector has acquired by tax possession um over the years so um the main one again at this time is Warren pole uh which which kolis come up kolis will come in once they that'll probably that'll probably be a year from now once they get their preservation restricted in the drafted form um the next one after that is acquiring a drainage easement at 40 High Street uh and then there's a we have to believe it or not when DPW is doing the paving project out on Parkers Road they found out that a portion of it was not accepted so we working to bring that in so that it gets again counted on our chapter 90 inventory since the publishing of this uh DPW director and I were out at the golf course last Friday we are once again experiencing problems with golfers hitting the balls over the 50 foot Nets uh at the first te and so the request is to address and we were out there and physically saw it happen with a with a a young man uh which wasn't deliberate um so the idea was to add a 25 foot extension on top of a portion of that netting uh addition to all the other things we've done to improve the play on that first hole to prevent that from occurring um the other thing that's happened uh and you'll see it in the next report is the governor is going to has a ceremony tomorrow she's going to sign the housing Bond bill which is the board and the community should be aware allows for accessory dwelling units by right in single family's own districts I've reached out to the community development director and said should we resend our local uh accessory apartment bylaw because it certainly does not align with state law uh as will be the case um and but the the difficulty right now is we we probably should resend it the problem is we don't know what to replace it with because what the what the what the statute says is that that towns May adopt reasonable regulations for setback septic height bulk for these accessory dwelling units and then it goes on to say that the executive office of housing livable communities May promulgate May promulgate guidelines or regulations I doubt we're going to get any Clarity tomorrow on this um so the problem we have right now is our zoning bylaw right now as of tomorrow will not conform to state law which is never a good thing because it causes confusion but the problem is is we don't know what reasonable setbacks are and we don't know if the word may is very vague it's not shall it's May so we don't know when how whether the state's going to provide guidelines so we're actually I working right now to figure out what exposure does a town have have and the only thing that we can do at this point is is well what if the setback requirements and height requirements and other requirements were the same as the principal dwelling so in other words if it's 30 feet from the lot line or as you know in some of the earlier versions of the bylaw your setbacks are what the zoning was when the building when the structure was constructed what if we use that just as a standard by default to determine what our exposure is meaning like what could be built in town but also would that be the basis for reasonable regulations obviously this is a discussion that has to take place with Council take place with the planning board um um but it's not too early it may be too early for fall town meeting but I just wanted the board to be aware of that uh in the event something does surface over the next few weeks or maybe even you know that the other challenge is the planning board is not meeting till the end of the month um but it could be something maybe in a special town meeting within the annual or something but this issue of adus is going to become law this fall and I don't think we want to either be violation of that law or be caught and prepared um I going imagine we won't be the only ones though yeah right and then and then and then the last one right but the question is is yeah how do you how do you everybody will be doing this and then the other one is is um we're looking at the exterior painting of the north town hall and the center Town Hall um it's been a long time since we did that project and it we finished that yeah so 12 yeah so that's I'm saying so we're looking to see again if we approve it this fall that would allow the work to take place next spring or next summer we also got to put shutters back up on the North on the center Town Hall we don't want to put the shutters up and then have to take them down and then put them back up um so again that may come up but and again if you have any other suggestions over the next couple weeks um again I'll come back with a revised draft at the next meeting and then you'll have the document for signing uh again the Monday after Labor Day which is like you know not that far away so that's where we are with the draft warrant um I'm also required to provide you with a list of qualified officers and a designated backup signatory uh as per previous years uh in accordance with Section 46 of the Town Charter the list that I'm providing for you would be Finance director John Souza Public Works director Christine Clancy and police chief Colin Spence uh again that's no change from the current year the previous year or years and then the last item is the impact on the town of CH result at the end of the state legislative session well I prepared this memo on Wednesday thinking the legislature was going to finished on Wednesday night and then as you know they didn't finish till 10:00 on Thursday morning and then as you know they didn't finish a lot of things um so that's why the memo was so brief um um and obviously I'll keep you updated I've already touched upon a little bit about the adus um but in terms of the budget you know I provided you uh in the finance committee with the uh local Aid numbers that came out from the Department of Revenue as a result of the governor signing the budget the good news there is the our Chapter 70 education funds were up 3.81% or $104 per a student and our unrestricted General government Aid was up by 3% $182,000 uh as I mentioned we did receive ear marks $50,00 for the food pantry trailer that I mentioned earlier 75,000 for planting of shade trees in the on the town's rideway in our environmental justice Community areas um 50,000 for the upgrade of electrical vehicle charging stations at the Adams library and 25,000 for the Council on Aging to meet the nutritional needs of Elders which has been a perennial one uh for the Council on Aging um and then there was a policy change having to do with the tax title forclosure process which came from the US Supreme Court ruling I think out in Minnesota where the the Supreme Court ruled that a municipality taking the entire proceeds from the sale of a tax billing property was an undue taking uh and the towns May no longer retain the excess Equity from ATT tax for a closure so the legislature you know threw it in as a late Amendment to the budget without a lot of public hearings which is the pl way of saying we think they did some things that could have been codified and in fact the municipal Association and ask the governor to send it back for some changes the governor chose not to so as of now the tax title interest rate uh interest rate for tax title possessions that are held by the town is reduced from 16% to 8% the interesting part about that is when if your taxes are delinquent that isn't put into tax title your interest rate is 14% so if you don't pay your taxes you start acre an interest rate penalty at 14% but then if it goes a tax title it goes down to 8% we think this doesn't make any sense but that's what they've done um also there's requirements that that the town in order to sell a property has to engage a broker for a year we think that prolongs and diminishes the value of the property and that's another thing the the municipal Association and actually Finance director Su John Souza wrote a letter to the governor's office asking them to please you know modify that um so again those were the changes so on tax possessions um again not a major one we we don't frequently have tax tax possessions and one of the reasons why you've not heard of those is we're we've become very aggressive meaning somebody falls behind as you can say John puts out in the notice of the tax taking and then we reach out to the people because our philosophy has been and I RS me myself John Souza has been the best thing you can do to help these people is to is to get to them early because if you sit there and say oh the town can crw 16% interest or over 8% interest that's fine but we're not in this for a win for for the town the best thing to do for a person is to help them either address their problem or to move on because if they haven't they've obviously chosen not to do tax deferral but the bigger thing is is you know ignoring the problem doesn't make it go away in fact it almost makes it more surmountable so that's so that's the change there um again we'll keep you updated um what more the legislature might do there's some talk about them going back into a special session to deal with an economic development bill we don't know if also that would be an opportunity for them to deal with some other things as you you may have noted municial reform never even got to the table um which is disappointing because that was a priority of the governor and there were other things that the hospital worked obviously never got redressed um and so forth the veterans Bill did get approved we're looking to see what what if there are any benefits we've notified our and provided the text of it to our veterans agent Regina Jackson and we're trying to see what have anything is applicable for chelwood in that um and then obviously the housing Bill we know is being signed tomorrow and again we circulate that language out too as we said had our discussions earlier so that's that's sort of my the completion of my report this evening okay and you have some appointments yeah real quickly in the bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee Sarah maio for a three-year term in expiring June 30th 27 Board of ass assesses Harrison mayot for a three-year term expiring June 30th 27 Council and aging um Steve maone for a three-year term expiring June 30th 27 uh cultural Council Barbara a shampang for three-year term expiring June 30th 27 and then for the parade committee uh Charles Marcella for a one-year term expiring July 31st 2025 okay we have a motion I'll make a motion to approve the town manager appointment as presented second Motion in a second all in favor I thank you all right we have some minutes from July 15th and July 22nd anybody have any comments Corrections edits on any of them on either of them not how about a motion I'll make a motion to approve the select board regular meeting minutes of July 15th 2024 and July 22nd 2024 as presented second Motion in a second all in favor all okay all right weison reports George you have anything no um not much just quickly uh we have our first msba meeting this week uh Thursday I think so the enrollment figures got uh placed and uh so this will be kind of a kickoff with the msba to start a discussion about uh possibly building a new park in middle school so I'll report next time okay AR uh just an FYI when the um the board had approved putting the language for the uh proposed fire station Renovations on the ballot and Paul got approval from the state on that language uh within the past week oh okay and that will be on the November 5th the acknowledge receipt of it so we've got everything we can do and I want to thank the clerk's office they were very helpful in getting the necessary certifications and such okay and the only thing I have um last week um Linda Webb who worked at the library for probably over 30 years passed away um I don't know if anybody here remembered her um anyway so uh condolences to Linda's family and uh I know there I went to the services there were a lot of Representatives there from the library so that was very nice to see okay so I'll take a motion to adjourn the executive session make a motion to adjourn to Executive session not to return to say all the purp sorry for for the purpose of strategy with respect to litigation Woodland versus the town of chelsford strategy with respect to potential litigation for ledge Road commercial truck traffic and to review the executive session minutes of June 24th 2024 segments one and two second okay a motion in a second it be a roll call vote you wish p i Aon I Junior I and I'm an i 5 Z okay we are re to executive session thank you e for