##VIDEO ID:b7BFruXHoMk## good evening and welcome everyone to the August 21st 2024 Yarmouth planning board meeting I am Joan Crowley the chair um this is to formally advise that as required by Massachusetts General Law chapter 30A paragraphs 8 18 to 25 and pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 and an act relative to extending certain state of emergency accommodations signed into law on June 16th 2021 the yoth planning board will hold a public meeting on August 21st 2024 at 5:30 p.m. the public is welcome to attend in person this evening or via alternate public a access provided on the notice of meeting available on the town website I will Begin by taking call Susan BR present will Rubenstein here Jim sabbin here Peter Slovak Ken Smith here Joan Crowley present uh seeing that we have a quorum I can now call the meeting to order uh and I would ask that you join me in the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible Li and justice for all thank you all for coming this evening uh I have one item that's not on the agenda and unfortunately it's a sad one um i' I'd like to make uh some comments with regard to the passing of our uh chairman of the uh select board Michael Stone who I considered a a good friend and a friend of the planning board the town of Yarmouth has lost a true friend with the passing last week of Michael Stone chair of the select board on August 13 2024 chairman Stone a longtime resident of Yarmouth was a committed public servant and he left behind a legacy of dedication and service that has profoundly affected the town and any of us who have been public servants and many of us are um know how important that is and his contributions were remarkable his dedication to public service over four decades was Second To None I personally had the great privilege of working with him um as the chair of this board and has uh he was chair of the uh select board over the years and I remain grateful for his support for all of our projects that came before the board that were sometimes very difficult and controversial he seemed to always be on our side um the planning board and me and the town will miss you dearly Mike um uh chairman Stone so now I'd like to move on um and we have some guests tonight I'm very happy to see the executive d christe uh Senator is here from the cape CL commission thank you for joining us um and you're going to present the comprehensive Economic Development strategy for us so I'd welcome you to come up and uh fire away perfect thank you and I'm also joined Away by Erin Perry she's our deputy director nice to meet both of you again let's see hopefully can you hear me okay okay great well first of all thank you so much for inviting us here this evening we know you have a lengthy agenda um but we appreciate that you're recognizing the importance of the comprehensive Economic Development strategy that we've recently updated um so we um are the regional planning agency obviously for the cape and a lot of the work that we do is centered around Economic Development and making sure that we're focusing on the correct elements of the cape's economy and so we've recently updated the comprehensive Economic Development strategy for Cape Cod um so what is the SS and we kind of refer to it as that acronym the SS it's a a five-year strategic plan for economic development on the cape and it sets out an action plan with priority projects that will move our economy towards a sustainable future so that's kind of a really short statement about what the SS is um there are many areas across the country and the the Commonwealth that have Economic Development strategies and we're pleased that we do have aseds on the cape so aseds is really um something that's a requirement for the federal Economic Development Administration to maintaining this designation that we have that's called an economic development district and so we have this designation not all of the Cape is necessarily eligible for that designation um based on census data and information um but we applied and were granted this designation as an entire region uh a few years back and so now we have the opportunity to apply for Eda funding that can be beneficial to the entire region um as I said we've had a SS for some time um our first SS was developed back in 2009 um we've had SS that have been updated about every five or so years since then you can see that time frame in the middle there was when we uh applied for and received that designation as an economic development District now providing that eligibility for different grant opportunities um the most recent SS that was developed was in 2019 a lot has happened in the last 5 years so it was really a good opportunity for us to take a look at the region comprehensively um and understand uh the economy that we're living in currently so there are some components that are required by the federal Economic Development Administration um we have a uh an economic condition summary so we go into some of that data today but not all of it um we've done an in-depth opportunities analysis um an action plan has been developed an evaluation framework and then throughout the plan is really a focus on economic resilience and these are all required by the federal Economic Development Administration so all of the SS is online it's available on our website we also um really took a hard look at the data site that we have datacap Cod do.org and really kind of focused the plan around a lot of those major um issue areas so we really look at the cape in terms of the people the place that makes up our region and then the economy so really focusing those um goals and objectives that you'll see in just a few moments around those major um kind of buckets if you will let's see there we go um so I'm not going to go through it it's a fairly lengthy document but I'm just going to we're going to go through some of the Highlights today and then we can answer some of your questions but we really talk about the cape uh that's a special place um obviously we talk a little bit about the character of the region the history of the area um with a focus on really what's happened over the course of the last um several years if we look at it in terms of those buckets of um uh the people places in the economy we spend a lot of time talking about who makes up the region um if we look at the population you can see that significant population growth that we H had happened from the' 70s up through today this is the most recent census data we're looking at about 229,000 people here in the region on a year- round basis we know those numbers significantly increase in the summer um but we've also seen a sign significant influx of that that pink line that you see on the bottom is the percentage of our population that's aged 65 and over so you can see in the 1970s that was about 177% um about 2020 we're now about a third of our population is age 65 and over not surprising I think these are all this is all information that we know but this really helps us to focus on how we want to really address our our economy and then if we look at the cape in terms of the police obviously we live in this very unique area um unique geographically um but we also have over 500 miles of Coastline we know that we're being challenged by climate change and Coastal resiliency issues we have Coastal embayments that are being impacted um over 890 freshwater lakes and ponds and so well we're not talking about it tonight we do have a freshwater initiative that's been the focus of ours for the course of the past year really taking a look at the impacts that we're seeing to our freshwater quality as well um and then of course we've been very good at protecting open space across the region so while were're um developed in many areas we've also been very good at at protecting a lot of the land that we uh would like to maintain here in the region and then if we look at the economy um obviously we're looking at some of our top industries here if you look at monthly employment our top industries really are accommodations and Food Services healthc care social assistance uh retail trade those tend to make up some of those top employment um numbers and then on the right side you'll see that column we're seeing those increase in jobs over the last um five or so years construction and professional and Technical Services making up the bulk of the increase uh that we're seeing in jobs so this is not meant to be uh in comprehensive or inclusive but certainly just a very a very brief snapshot of some of the data that we included to really kind of um provide an overview of the cape's uh economy um we have been working very closely not only with our staff but with the Cape Cod uh Barnsville County Economic Development Council so that's a an organization that we staff um and they are responsible for the implementation and the development of the SS so we've been working comprehensively with that board to really develop the plan that you'll um that you that you see before you um but it really is a Contex sensitive plan and because we are the regional planning agency we have the benefit of also the development of a regional policy plan a climate action plan a transportation plan a coastal resiliency plan a Wastewater plan so we have all these other plans that we can draw from to really start to um make sure that the the economic development strategy is reflective of the goals and objectives within each of those plans as well so making sure that they're integrated was important um and now so now we're going to get into a little bit more of what's in contained within the plan and so we spent some time reviewing and developing a vision and goals and objectives to accompany the plan uh so eron's going to walk through the process that we used to develop the vision and goals and uh get into some of the detail around the evaluation frame Mark so thank you um so just to give you a quick overview of the vision and goals uh as Christy said we worked very closely with the Barnsville County Economic Development Council um to do that opportunities analysis to work with them to identify our strengths um challenges opportunities uh across the region and all of that went into developing this vision statement uh along with several other stakeholder meetings we held um an economic Summit in March where many people came uh to provide us feedback on a draft vision and draft goals um and we worked with several focus groups over the course of the planning process to arrive um at what you're about to see um see today um and so the vision for This Ss um and the vision for Economic Development Across the region is for a strong and vibrant Cape Cod it's a region that supports a resilient inclusive and d a diverse year round Community with access to those um kind of services and amenities that that year round Community needs so housing and transportation education employment um and it envisions a with strong and thriving natural resources because we know that is really what makes uh Cape Cod unique and so that is a a very important part of the the sets and maybe something that people don't typically um consider as kind of part of our economic strategy but um as far as I think we are concerned the stakeholders are concerned and Eda as well that that is is really critical to our identity and so we've identified six goals again uh within those buckets um kind of categories that chrisy already identified people places and economy um and I'm going to touch on them just briefly we have a goal associated with each of the six categories you see here as well as a series of objectives um that really will kind of guide uh implementation of the action plan these are the things that we're trying to achieve um we know that this action plan will be critical to that um but we know there are many other things that communities are doing uh that will help us to achieve uh these goals as well so housing attainability I know that you all are very aware of the housing challenges we have across Cape Cod um within the people you know housing attainability is a is a critical goal to support our economy without an adequate supply of yearr round uh rental and ownership housing uh we struggle to provide the the housing needed to support um not only our our yearround residents but most importantly the workforce that we need uh to support that vibrant year round economy under Community we know we have a strong and Vibrant yearound Community but we have opportunities to strengthen that um and so a goal here of the economic development stry is really to kind of strengthen that sense of community in part by protecting and enhancing our historic assets our existing cultural resources but also by fostering more Civic engagement um across across all 15 towns and the region under places uh it's really two goals infrastructure um and natural resources uh infrastructure is incredibly important to fostering and supporting uh the yearound economy it's not only um kind of the you know transportation kind of related infrastructure um you know that allows for adequate access to and from the region throughout the region it's our Broadband infrastructure ensuring that those um here on Cape Cod have adequate access uh to you know the internet that those underserved are served and in the future and that you know that those are served today have access to perhaps multiple providers of that service um it also you know ties into protection of our natural resources you all are you know certainly doing a lot of that here in Yarmouth but Wastewater infrastructure and other infrastructure that you know protects water quality as well as impacts of uh the impacts of climate change uh are important to this particular uh goal our natural resources we know that we need to continue to protect and restore those resources um and again that is a critical aspect of the work that we'll do here uh through the economic development strategy and finally under economy and again these two goals really uh kind of tie together we have a Workforce Development Goal as well as an economic diversity and resiliency goal uh we know that we have those kind of strong traditional industries that we have um kind of supported and that are thriving and have been thriving here in the region uh for a long time and we know that we will continue to have that important seasonal economy and that uh you know the industries that make that seasonal Eon economy successful we must continue to support um we must do that through kind of Workforce Development and appropriate training opportunities but we also need to think about our emerging Industries and where there are opportunities for inovation uh where we can really Foster um industries that can help us address our critical challenges and again that ties back into Workforce Development and ensuring that we have the programs uh and resources to train people uh to fill those jobs in emerging Industries and so finally you know the kind of you know this all culminates in an action plan which is really kind of key uh to the economic development strategy and so we worked with stakeholders and The Economic Development Council uh to identify a series of key actions uh that could really help to support and and Achieve those goals in the coming five years and so specifically this action plan it's not intended to be a a long list of projects that we all hope to achieve in those five years but it's supposed to be um according to Eda kind of some of those targeted actions that um we can achieve over the next five years we can make some progress on um and that will really impact kind of all communities across the cape um and so we have a you know identif ifed 10 uh key kind of strategic and impactful actions um that we will be working kind of to prioritize over the next 5 years along with stakeholders across the cape um and the key actions um that are identified they address multiple goals uh so they're not all geared toward one particular goal or they're typically kind of crosscutting uh actions um and the action plan identifies some of the key entities or stakeholders that uh will really need to advance these over the coming 5 years or in many cases are already working to advance these um and so I'll kind of run through them quickly I won't go into great detail though certainly happy to answer some questions uh if you have them um but really there's several that tie to housing uh so we know we need to incentivize year round housing uh we also need to think about ways that we can simplify appropriate Housing Development and Redevelopment in areas uh that are appropriate for a community uh that will help us to again tying back to that housing uh attainability goal provide appropriate housing for our year round residents the Workforce that we need to support our economy providing opportunities for organizations and entrepreneurs to Pilot ideas uh we have a strong community of small businesses and local entrepreneurs um and that sometimes that barrier to kind of Entry is difficult and so identifying opportunities whether it's through existing programs um that provide support and technical assistance or whether it's partnering with other organizations or entities that perhaps could provide you know some space for a short period of time for people to Pilot ideas um without having them to Pro having without them having to provide kind of that upfront cost uh for space supporting year round Community activity and Civic engagement again we know we have a strong year round um year round population identifying opportunities to make that year round population aware of opportunities to get more involved whether it's in municipal government or other volunteer opportunities and really making sure that they are part of the community developing and connecting students and Workforce to educational and training opportunities um and again this ties into the next one a bit identifying and supporting the growing Industries in the region uh we really need to be sure that the workforce training opportunities and while there are many here that exist through the educational institutions um that we need to continue to Foster and and we hope will continue to thrive um you know we really need to also identify those emerging Industries and create new programs and kind of continuous continuously evaluate uh those programs and ensure they're meeting the needs of the region uh and the Region's businesses investing in water quality and Wastewater infrastructure rure this is certainly not new to anyone in this room and um you know Yarmouth is even highlighted as an example uh in the SS um an example of that coordinated local and Regional planning um and an example of of a community that is advancing Wastewater infrastructure for both the purposes of natural resource protection and economic development purposes and so we need to continue to invest that invest in that infrastructure and that's critical to being able to continue to promote uh Economic Development opportunities across the cape similarly we know we need to invest in in other infrastructure that's Broadband infrastructure uh we have done a lot of work over the the past year or so to identify um gaps and potential opportunities to support Broadband infrastructure across the region um and that's something that needs to continue we need to ensure that our underserved communities uh and populations are served by that infrastructure moving forward um and then also tying into kind of infrastructure is the replacement of the canal Bridges which I think um probably doesn't need a lot of further discussion we know that we um have seen some success recently in obtaining funding for the Sagamore Bridge but uh we need to continue to work toward also um advancing efforts around the Bourne Bridge we we really do need two new two two new Bridges um and then finally supporting climate change resiliency um and what is articulated within this action um is both um kind of doing the planning work uh that we know will be critical and identifying and developing local climate action plans um and supporting those planning processes but also uh using what we know and what we have to around potential um you know potential adaptation strategies to address some of the impacts we're seeing today whether that's uh you know taking action on some of our low-lying roads um or looking at um some potential you know issues that we have in terms of other aspects of our built environment and advancing strategies there and so the last piece I will just touch on here is that um it is a requirement that the sets also include an evaluation framework and and frankly you know it's necessary to ensure that the plan is uh successful and that we know that it is having an impact uh on uh the economy and on the region as a whole and so um there are several aspects of the evaluation framework that are included in this SS it's really broken down into three uh kind of three pieces qualitative indicators macro indicators and programmatic indicators these are reported on annually and it's a requirement uh that we report on those uh and and provide that information to Eda it's also really important for our own evaluation because annually we do have an opportunity to think about whether we need to make some adjustments to the sets um and we can articulate those in our annual report as well uh qualitative indicators really come about a little bit more organically and so those are uh you know there's not necessarily data associated with them but that might be kind of describing the process for example or the um uh the kind of what has happened over the course of that year for example to address the canal Bridges what what progress have we made in terms of planning um the qualitative indic excuse me the macro indicators these are things we track regularly we might not see significant changes from year to year um but over the course of that 5year span we should see some Trends and changes and be able to better articulate and understand whether the sets is having an impact uh these are things like population and population diversity uh changes in our housing stock or seasonality of Housing and then programmatic indicators are indicators that are tied directly to those actions the 10 actions that I just uh described and those you know are things that really identify how successful we've been in implementing each of those actions um and so those might be things like tracking um the investments in Wastewater infrastructure is I think a good example here in Yarmouth um and across the region or for example you know tracking changes in the Acres of open space that have been protected over time um so those tie back directly again to that to that uh action plan and I know that you do have a copy of the SS but this here is a link directly to it uh for anybody who uh who would like to read it in its entirety um and then there's also a link to the website that chrisy mentioned datacap cod. org and that provides all of the data and information that went into the sets and much more thank you thank you very much Ain thank you Christie um I'd like to just open it up for any questions or comments from uh our board members um who would like to start anyone let start go ahead I'll start uh a couple of things you mentioned that there was a list of priority projects is that included or is that is that an addendum to the overall report is that included in the report so the priority projects are really those 10 actions oh I see okay I thought you was specific I thought it was specific projects no I will say in the past the SS has uh the guidance from Eda has been to include more specific projects and the guidance today is to focus on those kind of broader impactful actions um but they are drafted um and intended to be broad so that many of those local projects um that would contribute to a achievement of those actions and goals can be incorporated I I will say I'm it's gratifying to see the emphasis on creating jobs that go with the housing um so that people the types of jobs that people can afford the housing that we're not caught in a spiral of constantly um tinkering with the real estate market to meet the um the financial requirements of of of you know our citizens that don't have great jobs and that's sort of the that's sort of what happens in the summertime we have kids come in they get minimum you know minimum and we we accommodate that by providing housing for them but we have to think long term about jobs for highing higher paying jobs so that people can afford market rate you know individual homes or condos or whatever it's going to be and so I think the two concepts have to go hand in hand um there's been a tremendous amount of um emphasis recently on housing uh and I'm always wondering why why aren't they talking about better jobs in addition to good housing uh so this I think I think you've have you've got a decent balance of um but I still am mystified it's very difficult to try to figure out how to attract um a more Diversified economy on the cape how do you create a more because we're so well known as a tourist industry a tourist economy and how it's really hard to diversify that uh and what do we all have to do to get into the and get into the arena and do that because that's the only way you're going to do the housing and the better jobs if we we have to diversify the economy uh and yet overall that everyone wants to preserve U what makes the cape special which is capin you know beaches and loveliness and quaint little Villages and ice cream shops and all that kind of stuff so it's a it's a very difficult um it's and it's a difficult and I don't know how you prioritize it that's even that's even more difficult but it's a it's a good framework I think it's a good frame the cap C commission does that kind of thing really well actually chair I'll just touch on a little bit because you hit the buzz word that I was going to ask is how do you can you would could you bring up the 10 the 10 um key indicators right the key actions like how do you prioritize that I mean it's a very comprehensive list but as you look at it and kind of building off of what Susan said is you know if I look at incentivized year round housing well the only way you're going to get that is to get better jobs here people can't afford more housing as Susan just said so I mean do you look at Key action items on this plan and say this is like you know five years goes by like that is okay this is the stuff we want to try and work on and work with public and private sector and then tying that to you said you had some you know public and private Outreach and had some you know forums you know from local businesses help me understand what that was like and how that was done so sure well I'll just um briefly touch on the key actions these aren't in any particular order because they're all priorities and as Erin mentioned in the past we've had expansive lists of priority projects and so we wanted to make sure that this was a plan that um we could really address our priority projects over the next five years and this isn't a list of things that the Cape Cod Commission is going to do it's a list of things that we need a variety of stakeholders and organizations and public and private sector to help us work on um but we did do some extensive Outreach during the process to develop the plan so maybe Erin can touch on that but going forward in the implementation phase um we will be working closely with the Barnsville County Economic Development Council as well as other stakeholders to make sure that there's some ownership and responsibility over the implementation of some of the key action items so those are definitely our next steps we did just hear I don't know two weeks ago that the plan was approved through Federal Eda good so we didn't have to make any edits and so now we're really kind of moving into that next phase where we can start to you know continue working with stakeholders to address um the priority actions but maybe you can touch just a little bit on who we've spoken to throughout the process sure um so I can touch on it kind of broadly but maybe starting with the BCC so the BCC is the said strategy committee and that is uh what Eda requires they require that that strategy committee be very well balanced and representative of the key Industries and sectors in the region and so that representation is really important especially as we're developing these actions because they're individuals who have expertise or work in any number of of these areas so um it's it's helpful to get their perspective on what can be accomplished in that time frame um we had the economic Summit which I mentioned briefly where we brought um you know local stakeholders together but we also had input from the state the state Economic Development secretary uh was there to talk about the state Economic Development priorities and how uh we can coordinate and collaborate at the at the local and Regional level to ensure we're making progress on these elements um but we had about 100 people attend and that was a mix of both uh public uh sector individuals people who serve on boards uh like yourselves uh staff um as well as uh some Regional representation um many organizations that work on housing um whether it's nonprofit or the developer Community was was present uh we had some local business representation as well as several chamber um as well as the Chambers uh representation and contributions um we had you know those who are more engaged in natural resource protection and natural resources issues um as well as Regional organizations like the climate change collaborative so it was very broad representation and we used all of their initial input to actually um develop the action plan we didn't go in there with kind of um you know prescribed ideas around the specific action so I think that was really helpful um but still the action plan I think at that point was was there was a lot of content um coming out of that meeting so we held a series of focus groups I'm not going to remember all of them off the top of my head but you know it related to infrastructure both Broadband Wastewater transportation we had a climate Focus or climate change focus group I should say um we had more of a natural resources open space um so there were a series of focus groups Workforce Development was another one um where we really tried to bring in those additional perspectives to narrow what could could actually be accomplished in the next five years great thank you mam chair yes hi Mr Rubenstein thank you for being here first of all apologies for the hat but I just came from Day Camp pickup and it's it's very bright outside and my face needs less Sun not more um just a very quick technical question I know a lot of federal acronyms but you have stumped me with the Eda can you please help me I have never heard of that organization in my entire life and I am not a dummy so can you please help me this Administration yeah but where is that live in the federal government Commerce dep ah one of our most least known Departments of our federal government would we agree secret but important no no I got it I'm just wanted to put it out there to everybody because I have never heard of this organization and like I said it's not my first rodeo and so I appreciate you putting that in some context so at least when people are trying to connect all the dots are like Eda I don't know what that is but I'm glad that we're a part of it and I'm glad that we got approved um um I'm glad that we had the questions about the key actions um I don't believe you're going to stick around for number item number four on our agenda tonight which is discussion of the 2024 housing Bond Bill aka the affordable homes act however Madam chair I don't think we should pass up this opportunity to hear from the esteemed two top people at the Cape Cod Commission about their opinion on the affordable homes act that was signed by the governor a couple of weeks ago and how this does or does tie in to something that we all agree is you know if I had to rank them would be maybe number one which has to do with housing so surprise but I mean it's either that or make you wait another hour and that doesn't seem fair especially to the other people who are on the agenda but I feel like I I I I agree I think if if you would if you wouldn't mind christe TR into the actual reason that they're here Madam chair I'm not just you know coming up with weird curveballs because I'll I will share with you very candidly that um this town went through an extensive long process to get it right for the people of Yarmouth and that just got thrown out the window about the Adu bylaw oh yeah sorry yeah and and maybe one other element of it um but that was you know there was a lot there was a an emotional investment in that um and we will live with it we have to live with the new law we we'll go through it um but it would be interesting here from a from a a countywide a commission wide point of view um how you think that how do you think that's going to work because there's still some gray areas we have no idea what it all how it's going to be implemented and and how it how how it can really help you you know the first item on your list of key actions here so I I appreciate that will for you bringing up um so you can you can be as as candid as you want or or not Christie but we'd appreciate your opinion and it probably won't be the last time you're asked this question no definitely definitely won't be um and I think it's actually really appropriate to talk about in the terms of the in the context of the SS because we actually had the benefit of um also developing a Regional Housing strategy simultaneous with the update of the sets whether that's a good thing or a bad thing it was just a lot of work but it actually one informed the other and vice versa so it's actually really I think a helpful exercise for the community for us to be able to undertake both of those the development of both of those PL at the same time um we have been working closely with the administration um and also with the delegation and seeing the different iterations of the bill moving forward and um I think there are some you know definite opportunities for the cape to take advantage of some of the elements within there within the affordable homes act I know there are elements that you know unfortunately didn't make it into the final version and there hopefully will be opportunities going forward to um to to rectify some of those issues but we're now work working through our Regional Housing strategy and many of the components of the implementation plan for that as well we had a meeting just this morning on different types of pre-approved plans part of those will include um accessory dwelling unit so there's opportunities there to now take what we're developing and hopefully make that more appropriate and user friendly for our local communities as well so um we look forward to continuing to have a a a solid coordinated relationship with the administration around housing for um the cape across the Commonwealth I know that they are focused on the cape we're actually hosting our 10th Annual one Cape Summit in September 18th and 19th we'd love to welcome as many of you to that as possible we will have the lieutenant governor um speaking and I'm sure that this will be one of her the elements of her um talking points that day as well so um I don't know if there's anything I missed that you might want to add but before you know without going into too much detail around certain certain elements of that you know I think that there's opportunities and we're looking as the regional planning agency forward to um implementation of our Regional Housing strategy to really make sure that some of these decisions are appropriate for the cape and and and and do you think the the fact that it's it's it is now been approved um is a big assist for this and your housing strategy I think that this is it's a great next step and knowing that we have these good relationships with our delegation and with the administration to really focus on the development of housing in the right places and the right types of housing um coordinated with the appropriate Workforce elements that we need um is is a great Next Step any other any other questions just one follow question sure um the fact that the plan has been approved does that give you any kind of automatic access to Eda funding or is it still project by project it's still project by project so can you though apply for like some uh study funds or just because the plan has been approved can you just put in some an application for some study funds or Consulting fees okay there's different types of applications but yes that was going to be one of my questions how much funding have you receed from the Eda over the years good question um we receive uh so it's been Project Specific we've received about a million to support uh climate action plan development and a number of uh efforts related to climate resilienc um one of those for example was the lowl roads analysis which I know all 15 towns participated in but Yarmouth uh was certainly engaged in that effort uh so that resulted in conceptual plans for a number of lowline Roads across the region uh that communities now have and can can advance um there were a number of other elements developed through that process like the flood plane design guidelines which I know many communities are using um we have also supported um applications kind of that were more specific to a particular community so there's there's kind of that that in the recent history we've received the million dollars to support a number of climate uh climate action plan elements there's also a series of funds that are available to entities who develop and and support implementation of the SS um and so Eda regularly supports the efforts for us to coordinate implementation of this and help um for example communities or entities across the region pursue funding for more specific projects that are consistent with the SS I feel like I'm forgetting one funding was the town of Bourne was able to complete Wastewater infrastru structure um through an Eda Grant so that was a big infrastructure project that was um uh a really good first I think that might have been the first Eda funds that we received after Grant was for couple million I was I think it's 2.8 comes through you and and then to the town of Bourne or it's no it goes to the town of in in that instance it went to the town of Bourne the fact that that the town of Bourne is Under the Umbrella of the commission is and you had an approved plan allowed it to apply correct I I understand okay without if it if it helps clarify anything without the plan only about a quarter of the cape census districts would actually be eligible based on eda's need criteria so anybody any any Community across the cape can apply once we have an approved plan yeah that's the benefit of being a regional the regional plan as opposed to individual City plans that concept of regional is very important um Mr sa do you have anything uh I almost wanted to say no but then I were going to say something so therefore I do have something um a lot of big bites um you know somebody asked about priorities and I and I think when you really look at this some of these need to be prioritized because without one you can't get to the other right and and so I I I think there's got to be somehow a way to say listen we really need to concentrate on X Y and Z um before we work at you know get a Lear to walk before you run um but these things are all big important items the the thing that I I often think about is when we Implement all this what do we got you know what does Cape Cod look like when all this stuff happens um when we get our new Bridges when we get Wastewater in the in the town of yth where we can now U look at Economic Development what is that Economic Development going to be and when I look at you know the target Industries you know how do those things help um some of them we're just going to have to deal with because that's the way they are but um I often look at you know we talked this board had as the chair said a a long drawn out discussion about adus and one of the biggest things that I heard was the character of our community what's it going to look like so I think when we start looking at all this stuff I often wonder what is all this going to look like and it does the the commission have a vision of you know what's Cap Cod going to look like if all this stuff really if you know we win the billion dollar lottery and we can do all of this stuff what are we going to look like so does that well I think it ties back to the vision statement that we that that's on one of the previous slides that really just strong and vibrant Cape Cod so we need to continue to rely on our competitive advantages that make the cape a unique place but also really make sure to um identify those new and emerging Technologies and new and emerging industries that are going to um uh evolve over the course of the next five years and certainly beyond that this is you know things that we want to make sure we're at least touching over the next 5 years but this is a longer term strategy um and we have the benefit of being able to update and make some changes to the strategy over each each year so things changed we had no idea what was going to happen during those Co years and so we had the ability to go in and modify those plans so um you know I think we are just hopeful that we have a a strong and vibrant economy we've got a large group of stakeholders that are invested in making sure that the cape remains a special place and um you know we look forward to working with all of the community stakeholders across the region I I I have a a couple of specific questions I did happen to go through the plan and looked at the at the key action items and I did mention this with Kathy today um I noticed under the in the first one incentivized yearound housing that your plan is to conduct an analysis short-term rentals um and right now Yarmouth is in the process of developing an RFP um that we may um we're working on a scope of services with UMass Donahue Institute to look more detailed get the data for for the town of Yarmouth I know you guys were working on it but it sound like it might be a little bit longer term get to it and we're really interested in seeing whether we need to make any changes whether it's a general bylaw we our actual zoning bylaw does have a sunset Clause so do we need to make any changes to our zoning in order to balance that need and uh benefits of it with any detriment that may be coming along with the short-term rentals um so my my question was what your plans I I presume you'll try to be as inclusive as possible with all the towns um and that we would have some um input as to what the scope of work might be um as you go forward yes absolutely this here in Yarmouth this this is um at times a critical issue um and it's also a a terrific source of revenue for the town and it's going to help us build our sewers um so um uh it it is it is um important and I was happy to see it um in in the plan um so uh the other thing I wanted to ask and this is a question similar to Mr rubenstein's again I I think I'm a fairly informed public servant but I don't know who the Barnstable Economic Development Council is who's on it how it's when it was created does Yarmouth have a rep how does it work who does it report to I I don't know anything about this and you've mentioned it I counted seven times sorry christe you you mentioned it and Erin seven times how how do I not know this Council and who they are and what they do um so help me sure um and Erin talked a bit about the makeup of the committee itself um but it is a a committee a council of Barnesville County they're appointed by the Barnsville County Commissioners um and they are the strategy committee that's been identified for to for the set so through the Eda um and so they're a wide uh range of Representatives of the community public and private part um interests are represented there um and they really do they meet monthly um and uh we provide that administrative and Technical Support to the um Barnsville County Economic Development Council so and it isn't necessarily a person from each town it's not no it's a it's more about the talents in the background and and that kind of thing how big is it uh it's uh 14 members total 11 uh voting members and then there are three um Hawk members so I guess we need to talk to our member of the select board Mr Forest and find out more about that and he's a member of the Barnsville countyy economic so he's so he's I guess our member he represents commiss are on the council one yes okay yeah well see I learned something okay that's good um and what the Eda is yeah and we know multiple things toight know it's going back to school yeah um anyway um any other any other questions Kathy did you have anything you wanted to add at all yeah I want to thank you for you for coming out tonight both of you we really we really do appreciate it you know we're in the midst of developing our own local comprehensive plan and we want to help this inform us as we as we move forward um so we we really we really appreciate um you coming and I'm remiss in not um uh just making a a notice about our representative to the commission um Dennis preon I think is here hi Dennis how are you nice to see you we're going to invite you to more meetings um if that's okay well it's okay yeah um uh and so I wanted to just re I I I neglected to recognize him at the beginning so I appreciate it your time and the presentation and we look forward to working with you on the action items great likewise and thank you very much and I do just want to recognize and thank Dennis prev that I didn't see him behind me and now he's been a really exemplary member of the of the commission so we're really Happ to have thank you so much thank you okay next up on our agenda this evening uh potential zoning bylaw amendments to section 405 seasonal employee housing at motels hotels um we're going to have a discussion on amendments that have been proposed by members of the public related to seasonal employee housing in the hmod to zoning District um and to the uh Definition of transient I'd like to welcome uh Jane Ellen Pace Gail Leon Donna zcas and Nancy babier if I got all those names right thank you uh to our meeting this evening um and to walk us through um what you've been working on I know you've worked very closely with Kathy um on this and we'd like to go through um your work and how it's been transitioned to what's an important what we call a Redline document that we we would um uh we consider tonight as to how we might um move it forward uh based on our discussions this evening with the board and how we um move forward so I'll turn it over to you um and what I what I would really like is to just focus on the zoning Amendment itself the changes I I will share with you not to not to um limit the discussion but we know the problem and you have helped us learn a lot about it in particularly in your neighborhood yes and we are very sensitive to that we appreciate it you've been very vocal and and and and forward with your concerns and you've done the work to present some changes for us um but I think the most most productive way moving forward is if we decide tonight to reach a consensus and move this forward as an amendment um we we'd like to focus on the changes to the amendment that you're suggesting so I'll turn it over to you at this point thank you that's fantastic thank you very much I'm Ellen pace and uh as you all know all of us my neighbors and friends here we live right behind the Village Green motel um in South Yarmouth and I want to start by thanking Kathy Williams for all of her excellent advice and assistance in getting us to this point and also for her patience with our various schedules and setting this hearing um and thanking you all for allowing us to come in and chat about what we hope um might be some helpful revisions to the bylaw and like you said I was going to ask how much background you wanted how much you wanted us to reiterate you have my letter in the record um but we do we have seen that there there are inconsistencies I know unintentional and loop holes that um some business people have taken advantage of unfortunately um and that the transient definition within the bylaw seems to be a bit inconsistent with the very carefully crafted seasonal employee housing by law um I think that one of the problems is um you know and and an elegant solution I think is if we can cap at 15% within the H hm od2 District um will alleviate some of the issue um because the most recent incident we had in 2023 was the use of the Village Green 100% of the property housing seasonal employee workers at the water park on Route 28 as well as red jacket and um that was without any kind of a petition to the zba um but it was done um under the transient definition because the way it is currently written our Building Commissioner has expressed the fact that he feels that his hands are somewhat tied um and that um he really didn't have a choice so we're hopeful that the revisions we've worked on with Kathy and that we're assuming Town Council and hopefully the Building Commissioner of w as well or in agreement with um might solve that ambiguity and just kind of tighten up the loopholes so that somebody can't come into a place like the Village Green and use the entire property without the knowledge or approval of the zba just based on this transient definition is our goal is our ultimate goal and I think some of the suggestions that Kathy has made you know remove that ambiguity and make it quite clear that within this District um you know that you can't exceed 15% um I think another and whether it's something thing I don't think it's it's a change that we've made but whether it's it's a deficiency that we would want to think about or you all would want to think about going forward um if you use just the transient definition it's not specific to Yarmouth so that technically if somebody wanted to house seasonal employee workers from a neighboring town they could bring them into Yarmouth and do so um so that's just something to think about as well not something that we went back and forth with Kathy on but as we were reviewing this for the hearing tonight something that we we notice too okay thank you Kathy would you like to go through the redline version for us sure um um I think the first one is relatively easy change to make which is basically not allowing the option for special permit to go above the 15% in the HM od2 the HM od2 is a optional overlay District but the underlying zoning is residential and some of the um business are really surrounded by a residential neighborhood this option is not even allowed in if you have a hotel like a grandfather's hotel in a residential neighborhood you can't do more than uh any of any of this there so what we're trying to do is get it back to not allowing it in areas that might be more residential in nature um Madam chair can we ask questions along the way yes I think we should yes may I yes of course Mr sain can Kathy how many properties are there that this will be affected by and do we know can we identify them yes I think they're they're all the properties that are in the hmod 2 which I believe might be seven to eight hotels down there on sell Shore Drive Kathy there there's eight properties on cshore drive it's it's the majority of the red jacket properties along it's not just the red jacket prop it's not exclusively done but sure they're basically the existing Motel properties off of close to and off of Southshore Drive and there's eight I makes sense to me I would I worked on social drive for many years that's why I know yeah so this discussion just I want to say it even though I think I know the answer this discussion is separate from the from the other motels that do house seasonal employees and are allowed to house more than this 15% because they're in a different District they in different district and they go to and the zba says yes or no or come back next year after I say yes okay thanks they're in the hod1 I did look um I did have a nice conversation with Mary velbon and she was wondering well how many people are even using the 15% and the only one that is using it through a annual permit from the building department is the Village Green and they have four of their 46 units so they're well below the 15% but none of the other um hotels in the H O2 had are using this thank you for the clarification could I follow absolutely how many of them are on the north side of South Street actually AB budding Residential Properties um well it's the Village Green three k Ken you know that are by the back of your hand there's three there's three three on the North side sou Shore Drive Village Green what are the other two Parker River motel and I can't think of the name of the other one the old wind they're talking on the opposite side of the beach yeah right right there's that actually AB but houses yeah I mean there's the office for the Cottages across the street but that's not really the hotel facility is not there I was counting that as a property you are okay and then that's there's the the one right on the other side if you're facing the beach this way right next to where they're going to put the pumping station that's the one I was speaking of yeah exactly okay [Music] okay okay just kind of curious as to what the effect of this is going to be I guess one of the questions I keep writing myself and I guess this is for later in the discussion is what's the difference between having seasonal employees in vacationers that are there for a few days what I mean emplo think this out right but if I think this out as as a vacation they going to someplace some people tend to let the hair down carival and Provincetown is a great example of having a fun time for a weekend so the seasonal employees they're not having fun times every day because they're working so why are we I'm I'm missing that connection here why we are trying to restrict this to 15% when it's kind of an economic decision for a business do you want to take 15% of your business away to put housing in or do you want to you know rented for $250 a night monary right so I'm I'm I'm trying to understand where we're going with all this you can still use the 15% it's just you wouldn't be given the special permit option to go beyond 15% why not that's my question I don't understand I'm just saying I just want to be clear that they you would still have the ability to do the 15 the 15% is is there it's it's the excess beyond that they've had that for a while the excess was being abused yes yeah because of the transient right this definition okay just thinking and asking out questions a lot thank that's yeah that's any any other uh questions or Kathy why don't you continue yeah show us the next got a couple of red line edits here I think it's just the transient definition um just kind of some clarifications it's not significantly different um but I think we wanted to be sure that we were talking about all of these occupancy requirements are at a single motel or hotel property so it's not a case of shifting from one room to another room within the same same hotel which was one of the things that we ran into got it um and then just clarifying the the definition this particular Transit definition doesn't apply to the on-site property managers where we do allow um some units that are allowed for Onsite property manager then also if it doesn't apply if you did qualify for the seasonal employee housing at motels and hotels per section 44.5 so just clarifying that this really is applying to hotels and motels not these other sections um and then looking at it we also have a definition for transient extended stay hotel so we're just kind of matching mirroring that same language change Kathy what is an extended stay hotel how do you define that that's something that it actually has there's a whole section in the zoning bylaw with specific provisions and requirements the motel room needs to be at least 300 square feet that type of thing so it would allow for maybe have a little kitchenette so allow someone to stay there for a little bit longer um basically to 90 calendar days it's more of a yeah it's more of like a little mini Suite or a little mini studio is what it kind of is that's it um I had just just in an abundance of caution Kathy I don't know if you saw my email this morning the if you can keep scrolling down and and this may be you know way too many you know too much belt and suspenders um down to the footnote below the existing use table um and at the B at the end of parag 43 just a pending um subject to the limitation set forth in 44.52 because we have yes under hm O2 there well it just says it's it's subject to approval in accordance with the provisions of section 44.5 which is all of that section okay like I said it may be too too much but yeah that was the one suggestion we had made I'm not sure I understand what the foot they want to reference a very specific section of section 404 which the one that eliminated the ability to house more than 15% within hm O2 just trying to drive it home I I don't think the well as our as our as our um expert in zoning that kind of redundancy is really not is really not required um I I think we've tried to accommodate your yes um um your concerns in repeating in several cases you have indeed thank you over indeed o over you know more than once um and it it doesn't help in zoning lingo to oh sometimes less is more in zoning um it gives people flexibility one way or another although I sat on zoning and I will tell you I think they should repeat it as often as you can because there will be someone that will get up there and say oh it's imp par try to you make we've seen we were just trying to I Kathy you think it's pretty tight I think the concern is is if you ever want to change it again later if you have the same information in five different locations have you caught the change in five different locations um so I think it's I think it's better to keep it and simple and I think obviously the Building Commissioner understands that you need to meet all sections of 44.5 ask question that was my actual next question is how much has the building commissioner been engaged in this process we I reviewed this with him and also with Town Council and both of them question that was going to be my next question they both fine both fine with with these changes abolutely yeah okay and and and the other one is of course is the implementation it's not so much about making the change it's okay who's making sure that you know who's going to actually enforce it which I assume the building will still be in the same place it was before but now with a different bylaw supporting it or different language that's more clear supporting in this particular case those properties that we're discussing on in in the and the enforcement that's a good point and as Mark always says the citizens must be engaged in the enforcement that he cannot do it all so that he will rely on as as you know will said everyone's got to watch and be engaged in the help him with the enforcement because he just doesn't have the manpower to be checking of how many people in every room that kind of thing so um any any other any other comments uh or concerns Kathy anything anything else from no I guess we were just kind of um we wanted reach some consensus here that the board feels comfortable moving this forward on our agenda for the special town meeting we have one other article um zoning amendment that we'll be proposing with regard to the affordable housing definition um and the and the um inl of payment uh so we would couple that with this if the board is in agreement Madam CH you mean one hearing as we on on our schedule to cover both proposed amendments do you want to move forward with two zoning amendments one I'm just making sure it's all going to happen on the same night I just need the consensus of I think we have consensus of the board to move forward so we'll be we we will do that then um I want to I want to thank you for coming this evening um and thank you for you know public engagement is really important uh and we appreciate all that done to bring this forward um I I will say um it's it's taken some time for you to get to this place and we appreciate your patience but I would also like to just remind you that um staff here at the Town Hall do their best to interpret what they see as the requirements um and you may have been frustrated and and disappointed um at times with uh some of the actions that were and and and interpretations that took place I assure you that the Building Commissioner and the town planner and anyone else who works for them are looking for everyone's best interests in a most timely fashion um and we're glad that we could get to this point where we have resolved this and we're moving forward together what could be better absolutely yeah so I appreciate that all four of you coming this evening um and we look forward to uh special Town Meeting thank you very please join us for our public hearings of course oh we will because we will identify you as uh as as the uh as our authors uh um uh ghost I I don't know they wouldn't be ghost authors would they this is not a petition it's not a petition no we're sponsoring it we're sponsoring sponsoring it that's the question do you guys want to sponsor this bring that's the consensus I don't then let's I think you should I mean the consensus is the group but yeah I don't necess I thought petition article oh no no no no I thought I thought I thought I made that clear this is not unlike the the housing uh affordable housing in Le of which we all kind of agreed yep let's go forward with that kind of a handshake if you're not that's okay we'll we'll record it as such I think the consensus of the board is to go forward well and as Mr sa knows we're going to have a public Hearing in the first week of October and he'll be able to vote accordingly so I mean you know all the all the all those opportunities will be there to register the A's and the I'm not saying I'm for or against just you're not ready I was not prepared to okay sponsor this you'll have your opportunity understood sponsorship might be the drawn wrong word uh you know I don't know what we would call this Kathy correct do you recommend this change or not so it's not NE sponsorship or whatever but ultimately you will be voting to recommend or not recommend yes okay there's no point in moving forward if you're going to say not recommend right no I'm going hear whatever the pros and cons are but so we'll we'll continue with the process sure okay good here you go that's what we want okay well we app appreciate your patience com again thank you um do you want to go over the calendar real quick or do you want to do that later the Cal the special town meeting calendar oh sure why don't we do that now yeah and I'm sorry it's later in your agenda it's it's attached to the uh advisory from the Town Council um but we excuse me it may help the nice people that were just here to listen to this part because that may be that one the dates where that we would they would ask to become come back I'll send them emails right emails great for that kind um so at our next meeting on September 4th I would hope to have um the actual articles written so just taking those red lines and turning them into a into a formal article because I'd be looking for your general support for that to submit as the draft to uh the town administrator's office which is needs to be done by um September 13th um and so I would Envision that we would probably be having our um special our public hearing I think what's the first meeeting in October is it the October second second you actually put it right on here I did I'm too good at the back of our bottom of our agenda Kathy she she did it right um so that would be our public hearing for that and then we would be October 22nd is we're tentatively on for um meeting with the select board for zoning changes um and that's that's also the night that they would close um I believe they would close the warrant that evening uh as well so just to give you some some idea that September 4th we'll have the Articles hopefully will be in good shape for that if you guys say okay I'll advertise it we'll have our public hearing on October 2nd and then we'll go to the select board on October 22nd [Applause] okay uh next on our agenda Village centers Center over a district site plan review spr application 2024 1A uh We've we've been here before welcome back welcome back to see everyone again yeah um uh I I I I really appreciate you coming back again and I know you've been working really hard on some changes um and uh in the meantime you know Kathy and I did take the opportunity to meet with the chief of the fire department and his staff and that seemed to seem to help a little bit definitely I I really appreciate all your time and effort it's it's all due to Kathy um so uh I'd like to have you walk through um your uh let me just get my paperwork here together sorry about that um you the change that you've made you've been able to make um with regard to the uh 811 Route 28 South Yarmouth assessor map 33 parcel 72 uh zoning districts VC o vc2 hod1 Road and B2 um the applicant is proposing a modification to a previously view reviewed project I believe it was June 5th we we met um to to redevelop .58 acre property into multif family housing with a total of eight one-bedroom units utilizing the zoning bylaw section 414 vc2 um so I I'll stop there and we'll move forward with how the plan has changed and hopefully we're moving forward here for um reconsideration thank you great well good evening um Brian uration from BSC group professional engineer and with me is the applicant Christina megason um glad you had a chance to to so you're you get the background information um but I'll just give it for for anyone listening in but essentially after we had received your approval and we were thinking about things and and I think we really weren't happy with the way the site turned out with that big ugly turnaround there and you know as you would pointed out um we only had one parking space per unit and we knew that that was going to be a challenge and I know that you know you certainly weren't thrilled with that either but nonetheless it did meet the bylaw so uh after you know meeting with the the fire department and Kathy and Mark um the fire department was open to finding another way that we could satisfy the state fire code which is what was requiring that that turnaround um so in the end the resolution was we could put a fire hydrant on the property uh and that would wasn't thrilled with still having to back his engine out onto Route 28 but thought he could live with it so and what we've done is we removed the turnaround uh we moved the building North closer to Route 28 and then we just basically created some additional parking in the back of it we didn't have to move the septic system we essentially didn't have to move the drainage system we just reconfigured it a little bit but um the biggest thing that we moved obviously was the building and then we created this additional part here MH so the VC bylaw allows a range anywhere from one space per unit to 1.5 so that would allow for a maximum of 12 spaces so we have designed an additional eight spaces so for those uh four additional spaces that we're seeking we will be going to the zoning board of appeals for a special permit um everything else is is largely the same as you remember it except for the SL configuration um I won't put you through the walking you through everything but maybe instead I would just ask if you have questions we'd be happy to answer them for you m Madam chair I'll jump in first I think it's a great revision of the plans my first comment I just a one quick question just so because I couldn't find it in the plan is where are you proposing that the dumpster is going to end up right oh right there in the corner okay I missed it thank you yeah because it was more prominent before right yeah exactly exactly I I lost it in the plan so appreciate you you're pointing it out I I think working with the figh apartment and the additional spaces which I think were absolutely needed with you know basically it's a two-car world for every couple you know um I think it's a huge Improvement to the property great thank you how how much how far forward did they move it how many feet um you remember 40 I was going to say 40 42 I'm remember it was a lot it was quite a bit it was a lot 40 sounds plus or minus sounds about right yeah but it still leaves the buffer out on 28 and everything so Mr yes um I just want to ask about the dumpster which I did find but it wasn't easy but that's okay um is the access to it directly from behind where the folks are parking in other words there's no other way to get to the it's just you go down you turn left you hit that dumpster you dump it do the Macarena you get somehow get the dump tru 100% correct all right the dump truck's going to be doing some it'll be a front loader and it's gonna right it's going to have to it's going to maneuver little gation around but also the idea is that you know I well because there's no backside access is what I'm saying right that absolutely not it it's always been we have drain a drainage system for the roof there y I just wanted to clarify that all kinds of landscaping yeah all kinds of landscaping back there I see that on here um but I'd also like to Echo Mr Mr Smith I think it's a it looks like a winwin you know and thankfully the fire department is is now a partner yeah in all of this which is ultimately what anybody asked for when engaging with the you know we were very happy they were very very happy that they were uh so willing to work with us Y and and keep it safe still of course for everyone you know could I just clarify I couldn't and this is again I looked at the plan but I didn't see it can you just describe where the hydrant will be yes right there on the front Hy's going to be this is the this is the center of the building where the laundry room is and we have the hydrant shown it has to be within 100 ft of that the street fire I saw the sewer connect I saw the sewer connection sorry which plan are you on septic and utilities northwest corner of the building it's right here got it okay cool thank you no more questions Madam chair anyone else just make one comment oh yeah when you were here and Jun and I also commented it was not part of the plan but we talked about um an irrigation system given the fact that the trees and the can and the and the Landscaping now play a more permanent part I would if you can I would really urge you to I think everything on 28 should be irrigated so that things don't die just look at the CVS on the corner of Higgins CR in Route 28 there's no irrigation system there and it always looks like the Sahara Desert and it protects your investment because you have a lot of investment in those trees yeah a lot of money can be it all worked in I think it would be a good investment we can talk about okay to we can talk about it and see what it will cost and you know how to put it in and all that stuff and see something we can put in like it doesn't it doesn't require the any approvals so yes it is yep just MoneyWise I don't know how how big is the main building again it's all one building really it's all connected how many square feet like uh each unit no the entire un the thing that I don't know oh okay okay so I think the the one major change that we need to have a consensus on if I have this right Kathy is oh I'm sorry Jim sorry oh no don't no no go ahead go ahead I just had a couple quick questions um and comments how many additional parking spaces did this create eight eight eight it created eight more yeah wonderful and um I didn't have a problem finding the the dumpster but I'm I'm curious if there's any screening on the east side of where that dumpster is fencing or something I see lots of vegetation before that but there seems to be a blank space there so so there is a white vinyl fence that's proposed around the entire thing yes in addition to that there's other landscaping that's on site not necessarily designed specifically to to screen that mhm we figure the fence does that but okay so that's it I think uh outstanding I I like the the changes I'm glad to hear that the town and and you have been able to work together to get something done good thank you um I just wanted to clarify Kathy uh you know um the the approval that we gave back in June had some conditions what have we changed in terms of the conditions I think the only condition um I got eliminate and I think I sent this to you just see one about making sure that the dumpster was outside the rear 20ft setback but it's over here and it's can have a 10- foot setback so you're fine with that location so I eliminated that and then I did um it's in my my planner report but we can go through site plan review and design review again because there's generally comments but I did want to touch base with the fire department and the building department um the fire department was was fine with the proposed layout um but they they did have a little bit of concerns with that hydrant being so close to the building and they kind of wanted to work with you to pick it pick the location but they said we can deal with that during the general permitting process when they apply for the building permit um and then the building um commissioner did ask did outline the relief that would be needed in addition to that one extra piece of relief that you would need for the uh four Extra Spaces they eliminated the need for the relief from the rear setback because they moved that all forward so they have the adequate rear setback now so that will be nicer I think for the for the people um that live behind there people that live behind there and then again the original architectural plans that were submitted before have not changed have not changed same exactly so as far as additional the conditions I just want I like to have them all in one place so no one has to go back and look at another one um so the additions were to coordinate with the fire department for final approval of the fire hydrant location fire lane markings that was mentioned by Matt beer and then coordinate with the water department on the water main locations I was just afraid with that reconfiguration of the infiltration now the water main is going through the it's cutting the corner of the infiltration structure now in in this little corner here so you easy peasy you can figure that out it doesn't involve you guys per se but I just wanted to make sure that that you were aware of that and got coordinated and then everything else is the same as before okay um so and we we we we need to make a motion um to make sure we include these additional conditions right cev yes yeah so um listed in this list of eight that you have here they're all right there yes so if I make a motion that says what Kathy says or do I need to read it you need to read it anybody else want to make this motion you make the motion I make a motion to approve the Residence at 811 Main multif family housing project at 811 Route 28 VOD spr 2024-the of August 21st 2024 and in accordance with the plans and materials submitted subject to the following conditions one revised easement for the shared access driveway shall be recorded at the Bron County registry of deeds prior to the issuance of a building permit two vary the building materials on the Eastern side of the building between clap wood and shingles three provide one affordable unit four coordinate with the fire department for final approval of the fire hydrant location and Fire Lane markings didn't we they do that in this I think it needs a little more tweaking based on my discussions with the fire department they're they're generally happy but thank you five coordinate with the water department on water main locations six existing trees which are to be retained and protected during construction shall be identified on the erosion and settlement control plan seven plantings along the southern property line AB budding the residential zoning District shall re shall fully meet the requirements of the zoning bylaw section 41489 point3 B8 any relief required shall be sought through the zoning board of appeals may I have a second second discussion all in favor I thank you very much thank you so much we appreciate it thank you when are you going to be sub what is your plans for submissions next sure so tomorrow um tomorrow being Thursday either tomorrow or Friday we'll be submitting both to Conservation Commission and the zoning board of appeals as well the decision yes but we'll I assume we'll have it you you would have gotten it to us before the hearings anyways I would think oh I would definitely get it to you before the hearings but I'm just saying it sounds like you need it tomorrow or Friday at the latest oh uh I don't I don't know doesn't care zoning you okay Z we have to submit it with the zoning package in other words if unless I called Loris and let her know it's coming on Monday she'll be fine or whatever but yeah if you can do it Kathy we would appreciate it we will do it I just wanted to know what your schedule was so we could meet it thanks again for coming back thank you so much thank you for talking to fire dep to I appreciate it this actually was a a good example of you know something that we all learned about gee just put in a fire hydrant you know because all of the properties on 28 are like yours you know long and narrow um and having the turnaround really constrains I mean it's obvious in the way that you've redone this so honestly if you didn't think about it and and you know everyone on the board think about it and bring it up we we never would have thought about you didn't even know about it we would never have known so you know it does make a difference listening talking everyone you know well we're very good luck with it we're looking forward to it thank you congatulations thank you next up 2024 housing Bondville wow that little thing yeah that Old Chestnut no big deal um the 300 Page fact sheet wow Madam chair I did not see that in our email no this is old this is from the original that's not necessarily what was signed no no well it didn't change too much say pretty close close I don't know I think um um Jeff Lacy who's works for the rural planning associations on our planner uh kind of email chats had done a sum pulled out all the parts of the approved um housing Bond bill that were related to the Adu so you can kind of see the exact language this is what Town Council looked at when they did did their summary doesn't include seasonal communities because there probably not too many seasonal for them but um but this was very helpful I think just so you can see the actual detailed language um which I found to be very useful um do you want me to yeah dive in or did you no no give it whatever attention you want c um seasonal communities um Yarmouth was not an automatic designated as a seasonal Community uh because they wanted to have over 35% seasonal housing units and we have less than that um but the state may designate Yarmouth um as a seasonal Community Based on some factors which I think we would be relatively qualifi for with regard to the high rate of uh short-term rental significant seasonal visitors excessive disparity between area median income and median home price um percentage of housing stock not used as a primary residents and high variations in monthly employment um ultimately if we we did qualify as a seasonal Community we would need to accept that designation at town meeting so Qui question yes so ultimately does the planning board need to take a position on on this the seasonal Community Des designation and and I'm not I guess what I'm asking is since we didn't qualify automatically do we still want to yeah well I think it gets into what's the what's the benefits and what's the um the detriment okay I'm sorry I and you were about to say that go ahead no it's a very good question because um you know when you kind of compare the two things so the benefits of being a seasonal Community are kind of outlined in the advisory and I think a lot of the things that allows you to do is to designate housing that has to be for year round housing occupancy which doesn't necessarily mean a 12 months a year it could be 10 10 months a year uh and then also giving a housing units with a preference for um seasonal Community um public employees so employees that you need to run a year- round uh Town Pro providing some preference for housing for those for those types of of workers it could be teachers um police and fire and that type of thing um they can also allows for the establishment of yearr round trust fund um we obviously have an affordable housing trust uh I don't know how that would be funded I don't know whether they' be providing some funds that might might be going towards that um and then also you know housing for individuals who um you can designate housing for individuals who produce or support artistic and literary activities so there's some there's some things along those lines that become um beneficial um and they also haven't come up with a as I mentioned year- round housing is 10 months per year so that kind of makes a little bit of sense um but they also have this word attainable housing uh they haven't fully defined what attainable means but that might be the you know the 100 to 200 area median income so more of the workforce um uh housing uh type it would be identified as as attainable so kind of what do you need to do um if you are a seasonal Community you must adopt zoning ordinances um that permit undersized lots to be used for the creation of attainable yearound housing um that's something I need to coordinate with Mark and Town Council what's in our existing bylaw do we kind of already have something along those lines um but there are some some different things um well and the tiny houses is also the thing that stuck out to me too yes yeah I'm I'm just looking over here a little bit more um size lots and Tiny Houses yep and that's the other thing with the regard to the tiny houses if you look at it it says a tiny house is defined as a detached structure containing a dwelling unit containing 400 ft or less uh excluding Lofts they indicate in the actual um housing Bond bill that basically if they're movable they have to be registered with the R&B so how is that different than a mobile home so there's a question I think we all think of you know tiny homes is kind of these super cute uh and they they're adorable on a foundation well no the there doesn't say that if it's yeah it doesn't say that when you think of a tiny home is that no I think I mean you see them I love my YouTube they yeah yeah they build it on a chassis but then they screen around it so it doesn't look like you're really viewing it but it's and it's hooked up to all the different utilities but how is that different than an RV and how is that different than a mobile home so tiny homes have kind of become the rage and they and they look one way but by allowing those are you allowing maybe some other things that you may not necessarily want so those are some things that we need to um to think about in a a little bit more detail my RV is my tiny home it is yeah you're lawfully allowed RV I lawfully allowed because it's registered that's right it's registered just wanted to clarify there's also um a little thing in here I noticed um that I thought was kind of interesting because we don't have a residential tax exemption in the town of Yarmouth I think barnable has that um but it's limited um basically the exemptions up to 35% of the median uh home price this actually there's a little section in here that allows it to go up to 50% wow so that might be something you know that the finance committee or the Assessor's department or the treasurers Department might want to look into and run run some numbers and say you know how is this benefit in yearr round residents and putting more of a tax burden on these second homes that are causing some of our other problems um obviously we would still be collecting the same exact amount of taxes uh it just would be distributed a little bit differently so I thought that was interesting uh a little bit of a nugget in there that I that I deciphered obviously we'd all know about the accessory dwelling units um per The Advisory we have 180 days from when this became effective so February 2nd of 2025 is when it comes into uh effect regardless of whether we make any any changes to our zoning so we're going to possibly have certain sections and portions of our existing bylaw that would be unenforceable by our building department so we are okay so is the intent to review and match and then make edits to the at annual town meeting or further down the road I I think it's a little bit new I think we definitely can't do it for special town meeting because I don't think we can make the changes I don't think we can educate the public that this is not something that's coming from the planning board It's Something That We're just trying to match I think a little bit more time would allow us to do that I think Town Council and Building Commissioner can work together to identify very clearly what portions of our bylaw would be considered reasonable uh restrictions uh and what he would have to have to ignore uh it's not ideal uh and I wish they had given us a little bit more time because we most of the towns are you know we have annual town meeting at least but maybe some people don't even have special town meeting it would been nice if we could have Incorporated that into into our regular processes without having uh any additional special town meeting um but you know it's like any do Amendment you can do some reasonable um regulations and it's just clarifying with Town Council what in our existing bylaw is reasonable um things like size restrictions dimensional setbacks and height limitations prohibiting short-term rentals um and then also the potential for requiring site plan review um our site plan review except for the vcd is really just Town staff getting together and talking about how you need to meet all these different regulations that's called our site plan review team um I don't know whether we want to be going through S I don't know whether you can really go through site plan review with a regulatory board because that's very similar to um special permits so that's something that needs to be figured out as well do we want to add that layer just to have a check on in some Fashion on that some of the changes that we're going to you know of note that we really need to make is one Adu is allowed by right in any zoning District allowing single family homes I think that's pretty much everywhere except for the B3 um you cannot require that owner occupancy that was a big discussion uh here so this could be someone could come in and buy a whole bunch bunch of of residential homes put it in accessory and then you'd basically be renting out maybe with an off Cape uh property owner so little concern on that I just want to make an anecdotal note in the last week since the governor signed this I've received three postcards in the mail oh offering to buy my house for cash and so I've started to look at these companies that are that are out there uh and I'm going to keep track as best I can who who are these people they know that it's they know they know they're out there they know what they're doing and they're who knows where they're from what they're doing cash call us how's all of a sudden yeah you know three in from the time the governor signed the bill interesting so I I'll give you some updates as I do my forensic work you know it also becomes you know enforcement another Enforcement issue for us M um because you know that some some of them are going to be short-term rentals you know so how do you I mean you can maybe the accessory unit has to be year round but what about the house can that be short-term rental so it's going to it's not necessarily going to solve as much of our problem as we would like where we were saying that the house has to be your primary resident so that's your residence that's a year- round unit and then you're creating another year round unit um so lot lots of concerns um no more than one additional parking space space shall be required for the Adu uh it does say no parking within 0.5 miles from a bus station I don't know whether the T the H's Transportation Center would be considered that but I hope not it is I mean how can it not be considered a bus station it literally is a bus station C absolutely is but the buses go so few places I mean that's something I would ask Our Town Council about what the definition of a bus station is but I can't imagine that doesn't fit it it's called a Transportation Center so you're not getting around that one I'm in and out I don't think we're going to be able to get past that one so that that's something to think about and then identifying what that 0.5 miles is from there what part of town is actually impacted obviously it's not huge you actually measure the half mile we on that site I'm sure it will come down to it will come down to houses on streets when you when you think about the location of the transportation center it's like almost in West Yarmouth yeah and they consider the the Steamship Authority part of the transportation because if it is then it's even closer yeah to hang on his back well closer further deep into town yeah but close to actually to H you're right if they take the steamship author I think they might consume Hy Park and so no parking is allowed if you're within a half of you don't have to require it doesn't mean they can't provide whereas our bylaw required it after all the conversations reading we required two spaces was it two two yeah we required two spaces cuz we thought everyone was going to be having two cars yeah well I don't think we thought wrong I just think that now we're going to have the unintended consequence where we're all these people going to park park on the street they're going to park on the street that's exactly what's going to happen and we're going to have the same issues or more of the issues that we were trying to avoid avoid regardless of what part of our beautiful town you live in nobody wants has more street parking the bigger problem is this is a blanket solution to a problem where we new exactly and this is going to change the character of every town in every part of the state yeah and how we and we how we move forward in providing housing accommodations and as Kathy mentioned and I think I had mentioned this to her in an email when IID read about the the signing I was like I really hope there's a bunch of very nice people that work in all the cape towns that care about these issues that talk to each other and thankfully there are because this is a 15 times yep problem I mean I thought for the oh it's a 300 no no I get that I'm just trying to keep it I'm trying to keep it from the bridge East and like okay and I respect our friends on the island so let's call it 17 so the good news is those 17 the nice people like Kathy in all those 17 towns seem to have a way of communicating with each other and saying okay how can we figure this out together and use the hive mind to try to at least be at least going through the checklist of The Who as much as the the what we need to do and who do we need to talk to and who do we need to consider as we figure out how we've you know the governor has come is coming down from the mountain with the tablets on February 2nd 2025 and saying I have given unto thee I just some shocked at the towns there's six months now to figure out with all the nice people that Cathy gets to work with sorry madam chair for the it really tramples local zoning get when you get a one party rule okay well Jim yeah so and and not and not to to correct you but um B Vineyard I think has five towns so I apologize to my friends on I don't know what the actual number is but it's like is five is it I apologize to my friends Vineyard 17 21 what I'm trying to say is we're alling This Together thankfully thankfully nice people like Kathy have resources in order to think about seasonal Community designation or not um how we're going to interpret all of this and like as we've always said right Susan enforce yeah me the parking and the the ownership were I think two issues that almost everyone agreed on yeah that that was we always wanted to have the owner biggest discussions absolutely we didn't we talked about the corporations we and the parking you parking was an issue we heard it loud and clear from citizen after citizen yeah and actually the the women that we had tonight with the uh the part of their problem was the parking you know people driving so it's just I don't know I know we interrupted you were on letter D yeah bus station yeah you can always provide the parking on site and I think I'm sure if people have the room they would like to do that but you don't have to provide it then it's going to be street parking or they're parking on their front Lawns yeah right yeah that's a that's a good um yeah that's a good point like is that a reasonable we may can't say two but we can say one can we identify where we want it is that considered reasonable or is that excessive and not allowed so those types of things literally line by line we're going to have to go through uh and see what we can use the word reasonable all everywhere and that's always of course open to interpretation one person reasonable is another person's outrageous that's right for letter D I can't are we already doing that we um have two different sizes for um one bedroom and two bedroom so the two-bedroom would be 900 we just wouldn't have the smaller one that's 800 so we' still be the 50% um it is limited to one Adu by right but can require a special permit for more than one Adu what I'm not clear on I think it means that if you choose to have allow for two adus on a property the first one's by right the second one is by special permit so if you have a 5 acre piece of land and you want to put two of them right two of them on the first one is is a gimme after that you got to get a permit I don't know whether you're you spend on that talking about by rer special permit oh no don't please do not don't start I don't know if we're required to allow a second Adu by special permit or that's if we decide we want to have a second Adu it's okay if we say it's by special permit versus the tablet that comes down and says the first one's by right sounds like the second one is is up to us to whether you give it or not I think so do you mean the planning board and the zoning the Z through a special permit or you mean the zba yeah I mean this is not that elaborate the affordable homes Act is not that elaborate when you start looking at what they specifically said about things except the tramples on home rule totally I'm just saying it's it's not there's not much to it exactly what it does right there in that show thank you real estate industry I don't know if it's the real estate industry as much as real estate industry the Housing Industry as a whole which is they're all together it's the opportunity to make money yeah well it's trying to find way to address a a serious problem but I I think players like hack were very influential oh yeah I think they're 100% influen Governor Hill's ear um so and and that's just our housing assistance Corporation here you have POA oh the housing advocacy it's very strong very well organized and much better organized look at gives to those organizations it's all real estate money it's the underpinning for that is because they're they're and that that's natural I mean they they want to have the housing built they have advocates for it that's a natural stream of of income for them that didn't surprise me at all I it's not it's not you know Catholic Charities giving to the it's it's you know the real estate Board of the United States or whatever they want to call because it goes together it makes sense we had a need and they recognized it and they could fund the you know they could fund the the movement I we we saw with our own that's what happens every industry does what they need to do to benefit that industry real estate or provide a social an answer to a social PR aut makers I mean you know okay Kath let's continue um there's a couple opportunities um for using under undersized Lots Andor adjacent non-conforming Lots like it's called the merger Doctrine um and that's both something that I think when I talked to Mark he thought that we kind of had that generally already allowed in our bylaw but if you're a seasonal Community we already talked about that you do get the the undersized lots for creation of attainable housing um but there's also the um adjacent non-conforming Lots under common ownership if you have a certain size and a certain amount of Frontage they may um not be considered merged under your zoning sometimes if you have two set Lots together and they were very very tiny because we have that but then and was owned by the same person over time if our zoning increased it was those lots were considered merged for zoning purposes and they were no longer two separate buildable Lots now they're saying we want to keep those lots separate so you have two separate buildable Lots so you might see someone who has their house here and then a big side yard that at one point was probably another buildable um lot back when that subdivision was done in the 1927 or whenever um so that that's something that might start allowing that those they're not considered merged and those might become buildable Lots but they did put some restrictions on them um and we need I don't we need to be sure that this can somehow gets in there that they can't be more than 1,850 square feet of heated living space minim minimum of three bedrooms and cannot be a seasonal home or a short-term rental so that's something that's in there I mean we have to do some we have to do something to get that like I say this is something that we're working with Town Council and staff to see what we have now what we might need to change to accommodate this obviously seasonal communities we don't need to do that right now because I think that's going to take take a little while before they start designating new people as seasonal communities excuse me Kathy which of the cape towns did quality oh I'm sorry I didn't I didn't look okay um I would think EV probably I know Denis we came within 2% uh I'm sure like in the Outer Cape I'm sure everybody I'm sure everything out there designated um so Outer Cape maybe even a little bit of lower Cape definitely Dennis um but like sandwich I think is only 15% right so they're we're like a 32 I think you we're 32 yeah so um Madam chck can I ask um the merged Lots we did that to ourselves when we changed from 25,000 ft to 40,000 square fet um I know in my old neighborhood that um a developer had to take 20,000 foot lots and put them together to make 40,000 square foot lots and their ISO is in the neighborhood now because this's this one house with huge pieces of land on either side and every other house is like dot dot dot so it looks kind but they built the house I think in the middle so I'm wondering be before we go through the exercise of this is how many of those are actually right in town that we would even I mean if there like is it worth the effort or are there an insignificant number of them to even go through that exercise I don't know how you Findation I don't know how you do but idea I I mean how how many of those are really in town a lot of them are south of 28 because a lot of those subdivisions are super old and they were cut up into these tiny little chunks um but you have to be at least 10 thou there's like I said that you have to be at least 10,000 square feet and have at least 75 ft of Frontage so there's some size requirements it couldn't be like super small Lots like 7 but you're right they probably the majority of them are are in those neighborhoods where there were 10,000 foot right neighborhoods and somebody bought the lot next door to protect their privacy or for the future of you know did it for my when my grandchildren they going to have a house and then we made all that merge together so I'm just wondering if there's a lot of those or if it's I mean if it's not worth the effort to even go through I don't know how you divide it decide it how would you is is it even possible to you have to go through back in history have to go through the Deeds to see when the L will I the only way you're going to find out is it's kind of like you know zoning enforc you know you're not going to know until somebody comes forward and says hey I'm one of them you know kind of like hey the registry of deeds it's still going to look like two lots right sometimes it may be on one deed and it might be partial one be a paral one parcel two and the deed was combined ah okay so the but to go through that search I don't even know how you begin that I really don't I I W wouldn't have a clue no wow I think you're going to find out by by when people realize 21 towns sorry marth's Vineyard all 21 towns depending on their seasonal status will have to then account for I mean 1,800 Square ft it's pretty big and a three-bedroom minimum minimum minimum like I'm like what what I know it and try to enforce that that that's definitely going to be filled with that's definitely going to be a seasonal rental for sure gosh yeah at least I thought that I just I was surprised by it being so so large I could understand it being okay let's do something smaller but bigger this now yeah that's that's a that's big well much bigger than my house yeah 1800 bigger than your house Jo that sure is that's a big house most most houses in Captain's Village are probably the Brooks are smaller than they're half that size yeah 900,000 Square so I think the other that's a good thing is that we have inclusionary zoning so that does allow us um to work with a developer to set aside up to 10% of the units um in affordable housing development for preference for low and moderate income veterans um lots of times we can do like 70% local preference on something but that doesn't necessarily touch a veteran per se this is saying okay we want to have a little bit carved out just for people who are qualified veterans so that's something that we've been trying to get for a long time is some veteran housing in in town so maybe this is something that um that might help us with that there were some other like little changes in here related to um making it harder for people to to um appeal things about the how about the quarter million dollar yeah and maybe having to put a bond up and and that type of thing that's not something that really changes our zoning too much but it was in it certainly puts a damper on public participation it was in The Advisory um document by Town Council um to to look at those types of things so um so as I said we're going to like take a take a closer look at it over probably the next few months uh and see what we need to do and see how to set ourselves up you think there'll be any Town that's going to like lead a Revolt like Milton led the revolt against the the Metro Financing yeah that was that was another Governor's initiative where if they and that was a a really good case because they took a little sliver of that went right across to East Milton and they said we don't even we're not even a metro town and they said no they said no we're not and they said we're not going to are you going to give up the money and they said yeah not that this has got any money associated with it right but I it sort of like Jim's pointed it was sort of trampling on local management yeah that's exactly what it's doing right there in the nutsh and these and these are significant change these are not just minor ones these are significant changes it will change the character of our town if everyone jumped on board well there's a lot of other things that are going to restrict it the zone two and the number of bedrooms the flood plane and the expense of having to develop you know that that part didn't change so things didn't change there's still some protections there are still some protections but it also you know we have a problem with our drinking water and our estuaries and this is now just saying well we're not taking that into consideration we're not saying this needs to be next to a sewer line or this needs to have an you know an IA system or anything like that it's just saying do it if if you can if you can make Title Five work do it so it's like one one hand and the other hand of these two different you know areas are not speaking to each other so it's housing housing housing and then it's like environment nitrogen nitrogen nitrogen and they're not they're not matching so which goes back to my comment to the commission that you've got to have one before you start creating the other otherwise you're going to create all this and then you got nothing to support it and that's exactly where we're heading right now was CU Housing was like the you know the buzzword this is the buzzwords imagine if you turn on tonight's comments they'll probably talk about the ability for housing and it's a it's a big issue but you got to have the infrastructure to be able to create the housing and they're kind of getting that cart before the horse you also have to have the jobs to support the housing too as Susan touched on without that you can have some great empty houses so yeah jobs Drive everything right if they people will be employed with a decent wage we can provide their housing for them to live in Kathy is there going to be any kind of opportunity for like public comment on for example the the seasonal Community notion and the changes is anyone planning any kind of a public hearing on the on the governor's Bill the impact on the town or something like that no it's a done deal yeah this is over yeah but just TR inform people um the select at the select board level at any level just to inform the people that this is now the law it feels like the select board should should have some sort of discussion about they should they had all the hearings but nobody listened I don't I don't know why they call them hearings cuz nobody was hearing do we know if the select board has discussed this does anybody know no do not believe he send a letter it would be who he did send a letter to the state assuming that the select board would have known that the planning board sent no read it I assume VI had the Town Administrator who certainly knows about this but the citizens know about I I get it I I think you're right it should be on a select board agenda item should be select what it feels like they should have they should have like a Saturday I don't know Open Mic kind of thing where they invite people to at least explain to people what you know what this means to them I I think they I'm surp well it it it just it did just happen but I think we all sort of knew it was moving in this Direction I mean the impact on Town operations and town staff are relevant I mean they don't care they didn't care no no I'm talking about how our town administrators need to think about what the implications are of this act on Our Town employee and their and resources and the ability to to to to not break the law that's what we want to say what would happen if the if we did say um no we exactly we want more than we want more than one required parking space or we want what happens if the what what does what would the state do to us that that's a great question for Town Council Sanctuary town for parking I me what would they do if we said no we absolutely want to have owner occupied that that was such a huge issue with us uh that is what we that's what we Define as reasonable yeah that's and so what do they what would they do to us the special permit besides arresting you what else would they do to us Kath Kathy would be in an orange jumpsuit how they always respond to that is by holding back funding for something yeah that's the it's called waste water they hold back the money that we need for that that's how the government gets States and towns to do things is to basically say fine you play by our rules so we hold back funding on a b c d e f g that's the only leverage they really have yeah they're not going to come down and lock up town hall they're going to say they hold back also think people would win I mean if if you Deni said someone told someone that they had to have two parking spaces and they only provided one and you denied their permit they would appeal to the zoning board of appeals who probably would say no you only have to do one or if they if they upheld it then you'd go to Superior yeah and and then they would just say of course yeah they're going to win they're going to win every single time and then you might find that people start getting mad at the town and and their argument is parking on their lawn means they don't have to mow as much that's true I'm more concerned about the owner occupied I think that's a bigger issue because that's a a huge issue I think economics are going to dictate a lot of that too yeah yeah in what regard how how so whether corporations start buying up all the properties already got kath's already Kathy's already know the corporations or they just some real estate guy who sends out I Buy Ugly Houses could be could be yeah so you are you calling Joann's house ugly that is one way to interpret is one way to interet let the record indicate that I do not I've never seen your house I have no I'm always offended when they when they do that to me like my on the cookie stroll it's good enough to be it's good twice there you go I missed it then then on the cookie stroll oh okay keth what anything else would you ask Will's ask the board of SEL go get the word to the board of Selectmen is there going to be any kind of public like a Saturday morning special session or something where with the the impact of the the uh Governor's agenda item on the select I say this with peace and love I think it's more likely that it'll become an agenda item at A Tuesday meeting coming soon as long as it's disced I don't believe it's going to have the kind of separate attention that I think it may or may may deserve however as February gets closer we may see as Town staff are busy interpreting and figuring out and they're reporting to the to the Town Administrator at their weekly department meetings I I think we may we may get there well even if it's just on know what it means to us yet we need to get to the point where we know what this means and how staff and Our Town Council are interpreting it for us and we'll have a better picture there this is this is all question marks two weeks old this is alth the ownership thing in the packing thing is pretty clear sort of yeah but they the stuff about the merging lots and all that that's you know really interpretive and impactful how what how that's effective immediately actually the merging of lots yeah the way I read it they do it today if they understood it I don't even understand what it say I don't think they understand it either I agree there I think the only part that's really undetermined is a seasonal designation correct Kathy that's the only part left to be determined whether the toy amth is determined as a seasonal designation even want it right or and who makes that decision want even want it who makes the decision and what is the process to respond to that decision or to be a part of that decision like I say it needed to be approved at town meeting it has to be approved but how do we gauge the citizens how do we gauge the citizens attent do they want it or not I mean reading this it certainly doesn't benefit us you're going to get more guidance documents coming from the state they have that whole seasonal Community I forget what the group that they're putting together they have to come up with rules and regulations I think within a certain time period so more information is going to be developed before February 2nd so and certainly most likely not but certainly your your colleague in Dennis for instance will start getting stuff that we're not going to that you're not going to get because of the designation so I would assume that because you guys chat anyway on at a regional level that maybe we could start to see from their friends in Dennis that do have the seasonal designation well what is it that the state is saying and what is the timetable and who's enforcing it and what do they what are they telling Dennis to do sort of like I mean we don't even know if the seasonal communities coordinating Council has been established who who is it and who's on it who's on it they they identify who needs to be on it it's in there oh it is there yeah one the people only one for the whole C Friends of the sitting Governor May it's the executive offic what do they talk about um they have they have very specific things that they need to accomplish a lot of them is setting up their own governing rules and that type of thing so but four of them are going to be appointed by the governor one shall be from the Western one shall be from the Northeast one shall be from the southeast and one shall be from the cape well who are these people we don't the cape person yeah I was going to say the cape person at least there's an acknowledgement of the cape and islands that he'll be appointed by the governor four people the governor likes let's just put it that way you know that's really what it comes down to it's whoever the governor wants that's right that that's exactly who it is anyway so more more to come yep moving along since we we do want to bring this to a close sometime soon um LCP update we met um with the cedc on August 13th and um we're fortunate that Mark forest was having an affordable housing trust meeting there right before us so he stayed and participated in the cedc which was very which was very good um some some of the things they they a lot of the members were really great they provided and I sent it off to you that their comments in writing but some of the thing I kind of highlighted a couple things about you know easing the permitting process and the timeline including with the Cape Cod Commission because that's a whole another uh thing to talk about um what I really wanted to know is identifying where the issues are with the permitting process because lots of times it's really not our some of it's our local regulations people want more things out of our zoning per se um but a lot of the things are state regulations that we are required to enforce the building code the plumbing code um you know the Wetland regulations the health codes we're just we're just following the rules that we have to do according to the state and having gone through the Riverwalk Park um project it's like it's the state sorry that where you get hung up because we and maybe it's because I knew the local permitting so well we went through the local permitting fairly quickly it was the the year for the chapter 91 license the whole meepa the the environmental notification the dri that was required that was years of Permitting um whereas we probably got through locals you know permitting in three to four months tops we were two years just trying to get all this other stuff done so understanding where people feel that you hear it a lot streamline permitting what does that mean where are you getting snagged up and what could we even possibly do to help you because sometimes we can't we can't help you um really interested in hiring staff to assist applicants throughout the permitting process and really people to focus on economic development and attracting actively attracting new businesses and also promoting the blue and green economies and drawing different types of of people um providing incentiv whether it's local state or federal for businesses to locate expand or redeveloped um direct Town involvement to acquire um blighted properties for redevelopment we've done that through the affordable housing trust where we purchased um one the Yarmouth Gardens and that was ended up becoming affordable housing but maybe it's some type of Redevelopment um corporation that gets done in order to to make that be more proactive on the town level um and obviously improving Aesthetics of the of the commercial Corridor and then utilizing our Cape Cod Rail Trail Trail heads to Spur business opportunities lots of stuff going on in Station Avenue there um more Workforce in seasonal housing but trying to identify how much of a gap there is in the seasonal housing we have ex existing seasonal housing bylaw how much of that is actually working and so what's the Gap um that we might need to expand expand upon we want to expand mixed use zoning opportunities I think that's been something that we've consistently been hearing even amongst ourselves um and ways for B to help businesses build their own Workforce housing maybe it's something that's in the the back of their business or something along those lines um better coordinations with the businesses during the Wastewater construction this is going to go on for a long time making sure that people are aware that these businesses are still open even if something's a detour you can still get down to these businesses and keeping them open and keeping them informed uh of the construction schedule infrastructure I don't think any of this was surprising Wastewater Broadband um the mes Redevelopment I mean that's going to be a big uh infrastructure the Riverwalk Park libraries um educational facilities recreational facilities and then seeing uh some type of downtown area or Main Street development that might be something that's one thing that Yarmouth really lacks have any update on the mes committee that this setting up have they made any my understanding is that they were supposed to be doing something about that on an agenda in September um Bill Scott is back he came back this week that's good that was my um yep so the man he is the man and he's but he's heavy into capital budget right but yeah he is the spearhead from he is the spearhead and and I think he was talking about having um working up some type of scope to to move that forward and hiring the consultant to help uh kind of with that starting from scratch which is what the select board was looking to do um what I'm sorry I thought it was very clear that there were four or five different options that this mes committee was going to operate under and not start from scratch that's what I believe um bill SC proposed to the select board but my understanding was that they wanted to start a little bit further back and not just say to my two colleagues on this panel that have put their names in please take that information under advisement before you choose to spend your time I say that respectfully the box that says other that ends up it could be more time consuming if could be that could be a year oh yeah definitely that one decision could be a year really y I just I just wanted to clarify it because that was what I was actually kind of reasonably excited about was that Mr Scott had taken the time the framework the four or five pathways to say we don't have to start at zero we can start at 22 out of 100 and that makes a humongous difference in terms of wheel spinning and Naval gazing which is not what this town needs because the madis property is two years behind where it should be sorry madam chair I will get off my soap box that you can't see um ter so you know obviously tapping into the state funds through the mass leads Act and the housing Bond bill for funding opportunities for infrastructure and housing so a lot of these bills come may come with some rules but they also come with some money so let's make sure that we can get um some of our our share of that they we did ask that question about what um cedc might want to see at madis getting back to mes um they they wanted to see the um use committee established very quickly uh and then talking about adjusting zoning looking at event spaces or a theater a cultural art center co-work space for remote or hybrid workers mixed use with housing retail professional and community space or recreational facilities so they provided that's all over the map right there and then and nothing in there about education because there is a elementary school there you know that either it's being relocated somewhere else or it's being rebuilt right there somewhere yeah it has to be considered yeah I understand your frustration with that whole process but the fact that an individual has selected ABC and D doesn't mean that ABC and D are correct and I think that's the approach that some almost taken just wait a minute you think these but don't we need to look at totally I don't disagree with you but it was after I believe months of work internally um to to get to just to get the thing going oh don't misunderstand this should have been done I'm in agreement with you once they decided to build the new a perspective you're the second we voted to to build a new school that committee should have been created the next day the day it shuted it should have been started didn't even need to be shuted you knew it was going to shut so even before on and I think ABC and D Encompass virtually anything you could possibly put on there pretty broad categor there's an entertainment one there's a recreation one there's an education one and there's commercial one well okay those are four pretty broad buckets let's start to Comm virally anything under one of those umbrellas exactly even Las Vegas welcome to the town of Yas yes um one of the things that that was mentioned by cedc members but really um emphasized by Mark forest was really promoting our history and Heritage tourism I guess it's very big in Quincy uh and then be sure that we're preserving our historic buildings and areas and having that be a draw um looking for more types of business businesses and events for young people um more year round Recreation more effective communication specifically related to when there's an emergency constructions and events that are going on around town my question to people was how do you get your information how do you want to be getting your information that's the the issue because there's a lot of information out there but if you're not seeing it that means it's not the format that you want it in usually rumor well Mr sa made a point earlier about the purchase of the of the bricks and how easy or not easy it was and I can just say is somebody that uses my phone a little more than the average bear let's say as a 51-year-old the fact that when you see an alert from the town of Yarmouth that I actually get a text alert and I click on it and I'm using my phone and when I finally click on it I can't actually read it I cannot actually the the website on your on the town's website on our phones is not optimized for Mobile use it makes no sense so even when I turn my phone sideways it's cut off so I can only read this much of the fact that Long Pond and Forest Road are actually closed as opposed to gosh it's 2024 maybe the town of Yarmouth new communication director who I believe is doing a very good job should help us optimize the website and the alerts that we get from our town about what the heck is going on because the majority of sorry a lot of people Madam chair absorb their information on a mobile device whether it's an iPad or an iPhone or an Android device and the fact that you can't read an alert even about chairman Stone's funeral which I got an alert about I had to click four or five different buttons just to read about when the funeral was and where because on a mobile device our town website stinks well I think our website don't completely does but to what you're saying we can send out a telephone message that's a rhyme about okay all kinds of other things but we can't send one out that says hey stay off a Forest Road tomorrow in Flames yeah maybe maybe if we get somebody to do it in in rhyme that they'll be more willing to go on and send those but so Kathy keep going continue um things like more EV charging stations in town and Grant applications for climate resiliency and they also talking about maybe some additional bus shelters along the the um Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority route along Route 28 I think you need to identify where the Clusters are because it is a flag down you could have a bench the entire way um it's so 1950s they run out to and the bus stops that's just un un and the traffics up instant and it's usually someone with the bike bike and you're laid for an appointment um so the last question we kind of asked for people was what did you want us to take away and people were saying hire staff to F focus on economic devel velopment grants completing existing studies and streamlining permitting including timeline rezoning and private Public Partnerships to drive development and economic growth strengthen ties with educational institutions for skilled Workforce and effectively implement the LCP action items LCP offers our opportunity to shape the future of our community and learn from our history develop a downtown area that becomes a destination and question mark whether that could be around the Riverwalk Park and part that would really need to be some type of partnership between the town and and businesses and developers and then just do a better job to get the word out about all the things the town does do for his res for its residents um I know that when you even at the cedc meeting you know Peter Slovak said well there's a bunch of things that we do do with zoning and he listed a bunch of stuff and I think people weren't fully aware of that so I think when people say we need more mixed use well tell me what mixed use do we allow right now on Route 28 and you probably would get none no we we we we do have a lot of different opportunities yarm with Commons was complet completely by right completely by right with our current zoning so we do have a lot of opportunities we obviously can always do better and expand um but we do have a lot of things going on so the the finance committee interview is set for next Wednesday um August 28th I believe it is um at 6 pm and I'll give out the notification for anyone that can come I'm going to be there Joan's going to be there um and then um where isna take bags I think it'll happen in in conference room a it's their regularly scheduled meeting got it y I think it's a one agenda it's it's just us and all the items that we would like to um get their input on I think it's going to be very interesting conversation bunch of smart people there who've thought about a lot of different things so it could be very interesting um and then I also want to emphasize that the um community openhouse meeting has been scheduled for the senior center for September Thursday September 26th at 6 PM we'll be talking obviously more about the formatting for that and that type of thing as we get uh a little bit closer and I need to start getting out notifications uh for um the the Hub is up for people to start putting mapping some ideas doing some of the crowdsourcing map identifying and thumb up and thumb down on some things I did go ahead and populate some things based on um as a resident some of my concerns but also as Town planner from things that I heard during the visioning uh process and you can certainly go in and and add your your comments as well so I'll be doing some more publicity on that and then a little later as we get closer to the community meeting we'll do be more publicity um with regard to that I do need to start working on scheduling more of the other meetings the the capital budget committee now that Bill Scott's back he's trying to coordinate that uh and set up a meeting with them but then there's a bunch of a whole laundry list of other people we were trying to to get in touch with so I'm going to start seeing if we can't um get those in order and start scheduling those meetings so lots going on yeah uh next on our agenda are meeting minutes uh may I have a motion to accept the meeting minutes of July 17th 2024 so moved second any discussion all in favor uh committee updates anyone have committee updates Madam chair yes Mr Sav so the to be named in the future Park woodwalk planks are now available to be purchased uh I find it extremely difficult process myself and I talking about our Town's website wouldn't it be nice if there's just a little picture of a boardwalk that you could click on and go right to something that be able to anyway um you can do it you it's a little bit more difficult than I thought it should be but um uh it kind of goes to some of the pr things that we talk about you know and all the wonderful things that going on in town um if you're listening out there in town employee land and who makes these decision decisions social media really works really well there's a group's friends of yth that I see some lots of conversation about things uh that are going on in town and so there are some ways that we can get the words out the things that are going on at the at the to be named Park um are really cool but none of us know what's going on except everybody asks us hey what's going on over there um just another example uh so anyway you can buy your your your Boardwalk planks 24 characters uh the symbols come for three but anyway you can go on and find that um that's the key thing I have for right now except that um yeah that's it could could I expand on that yep if you go to um yarmouth.ma us planks oh and you're not going to you're absolutely right the website is not formatted for mobile devices forget it but it's yarmouth.ma believe that that exists it just does it looks terrible and it's very hard to use mobile form on a mobile device I agree so but it's Yarmouth it's yarmouth.ma us planks and that will give you the link on how to do it there's also you go down at the bottom if you want detailed instructions on how to do it you click here we already have 11 people have signed up for their planks please keep it to 24 characters um that's very clearly identified in the in the forms no exceptions if it goes to 25 I might just let it go if it's something but we won't we can't don't even say that say that don't say that I been I spent most of my time today telling people that they've exceeded the 24 um so it that's why if there's a little block with each with 24 spaces then they know you got to fill it in with these spaces someone needs to manually take that information and put it into a spreadsheet to send it to the engraver so that they have that information I mean on the application if the application has 24 spaces I agree with I agree with you but there's limitations to all of these open gov any type of of formatted type of program there are limitations and that's one of the limitations the nice thing is I get a spreadsheet an Excel spreadsheet of everything that identifies the icon the message and then the other icon that people can use and then that just goes to to the uh can you please remind us what the deadline is there's no deadline this is when we sell out 1,600 plus planks I was just trying to artificially create some uh momentum if you will do it now there now you said there's no deadline well I'm just going to chillax over here with my with my with my non-mobile uh non-mobile optimized webs well he's not wrong I know exactly what you're talking about um there is there are included there you're absolutely right there is a little bit there's 200 planks that are included right now in the con uh contract with Robert the hour so if you're the first 200 you're guaranteed to get it done uh as part of this construction if more come in and we can get them to do more of them um as part of the construction better but otherwise you might have to wait longer because it would be done later uh when DPW would then be responsible for doing certain batches of them so the more we can get done okay as part of this the the better off we are and then all that all those funds do go into a special account that's for the uh construction operation maintenance of the Riverwalk Park that good or to be named later yeah I just I want to mention the naming um it's going to be I believe on the September 10th selectboard agenda the naming the formal naming of the park until then we can call it TVD they do all these things when I'm not around you notice that don't take it personally I don't I for any other committee uh com U Notes okay Kathy um any correspondence or staff updates you need to um bring our way yeah the only update is kind of piggy backing off what Christy was saying is that we did have a meeting um today with the Cape Cod Commission it was a lot of planners um a lot of building officials to talk about um they've hired a consultant to develop architectural plans for things like Adu small townhouse type um projects up to 12 unit Apartments the idea is that for a certain number of them they would have some pre pre-designed prepaid for um architectural plans full full building permit applicable plans that people could use in order to create a detached like an Adu or something along something so it would it wouldn't be a case where oh lost I don't know what to do I don't know what it looks like and you have to work with an architect you have to find one you still need to hire a civil engineer you still need a site plan you still need to deal with your septic but it takes one thing off who who's doing that Kathy the commission's doing it they have a grant to do it and they've hired um that's really great yeah so we started today to kind of Identify some of the concern and issues um again they kept talking about streamlining permitting we're like it's not really going to streamline permitting because it's not going to doesn't take the building department that long to look at a set of plans it's going to save a lot of money for someone who wants to develop an Adu uh and then I was asking go well can you you know make them expandable because maybe somebody wants a smaller one because you got to hit the 50% but then if they can have a larger one you add the bedroom here and then it's just like yeah the bedroom so they're working this what's that what's that local architect are loving this yeah well I think they're so busy that they're like they can't even get to smaller projects like this so that becomes a problem so that very interesting we're just kind of starting that and they're hoping to have um really it done by the end of the year they're going to have a whole guidance document that also goes along with it which will take longer like this is not your last stop of these model designs you have to go through all these other things you need to consider uh when permitting good timing for February 2nd Madam chair [Music] have all these plans at the ready those that wish to take advantage of it yeah anything else kth okay um next meetings oh yes we have lots can I've outlined a bunch of them yes so um the next meeting in addition to having the Articles written for the zoning changes um The Pump Station number three which is located at the front of the Riverwalk Park um they've made some they weren't quite as far along as the rest of the park but they they did contribute and put in a design for a building that went through us uh through the VC site plan review now they make want to make some changes I think they did a good job trying to make the building look similar even though it's smaller and that type of thing so we're going through design Review Committee tomorrow at 4 o'clock um yeah we should probably touch base ahead of that for your first meeting so you can know how that runs um and then hopefully that'll be on September 4th so that'll keep it going I think they did go out to bid but they need to have the permits before they they'd like to have all the permits before they open the bids um and again it's that deadline of October 31st of having things awarded that is kind of really dictating some of that um the National Night Out uh where we're planning on having a table um for the local comprehensive plan um has been modified to uh Saturday September 7th I believe from 10: to 1 um so it's not it's not a night out it's a day out it's a um so I think that would be something you know if other people want to participate I'm going to go and and just we'll have a bunch of information to hand out um and kind of get people hopefully jazzed for the upcoming community meeting that we'll be having later that month um September 18th is a regular meeting nothing that I know of right now and then again the September 26 is the community H open house at 6 p.m. at the senior center uh and then October 7th is our our second excuse me is our regular meeting and that would be the tentative public hearing on zoning amendments the only thing not in here is the um August 28th fincom meeting but we talked about that earlier uh Kathy for the September 26th open house meeting would it be possible for you to have ready for us to just take a look or you just send us via email it doesn't have to necessarily be at the September 18th meeting kind of the agenda for that and how we want I presume the Consultants will be there yeah they're working on the format for it and I think they did want to have it be a little bit more open house so we might have more tables and each of us will kind of like man a table so we definitely need to have more information on what's expected of all of all of us and how it's going to run and then working on that okay good it'll be here before we know it it will be here before we know it so so will the zoning Amendment hearings yes um okay any anything else on meetings Kath no good okay I may I have a motion to adjourn before we do that Madam shair I might so um as we noticed we one of our members is not present tonight the month of September I'm gone I won't be here the entire month of well I'll be here for the 26 meeting so that being said it's important that you still be able to get a quorum I won't be even near Zoom the second thing I want to say to our list listening audience we still have a vacancy on the planning board so if you're interested in getting involved then then we could sure use your help so that we don't have to worry about quorums particularly but anyway I wanted to bring that up to thank you on that subject um we Kathy and I have uh looked at a talent Bank form and we have um moved it forward to a select woman uh Joyce Flynn and hopefully she will arrange an appointment for an interview that's great Cy I'm not going to be here on the 18th either we're waiting great to hear so there's two of us that won't be here on the 18th okay well there's nothing on there but we do need to talk about the community openhouse um 26 for the so you you won't be back for that I'll be yeah I come back on the 22nd okay third somewhere around there okay uh we have a motion on the floor may I have a second second any discuss I'm not sure anybody made the motion toj so I'll make the motion to ajour I think there was I walked it back you did I did okay I I I I