[Music] welcome everyone this is a meeting with the board of Selectmen today is May 14th 2024 it is 400 p.m. is there a motion to call the meeting to order so move second all those in favor meeting is being an audio and video recorded please rise for a pledge of allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for stand one nation under God indivisible with liy and Justice first order of business gentlemen is to approve the minutes of February 27 2024 regular meeting and March 19 2024 regular meeting is a motion to approve so second all those in favor all right first stter of uh new business we have have sured here Mr Grant King is here to give a presentation Mr King welcome thank you Mr chairman thank you members of the board so I understand that you received this presentation in a packet so I'm happy to run through it all and give you the the full background um but if you if you'd like to start with questions about the process we can do it that way as well I didn't want to I wanted to be respectful in your time you have time you can do you can go through the slides very good so I'm the comprehensive planning manager and deputy director at surfed surfed is a regional planning agency we serve 27 cities and towns in Southeastern Massachusetts of kush it is one of them we work in a wide variety of fields Transportation Planning environmental planning uh we help the uh we help procure uh projects and develop projects for the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security so Homeland Security related work Economic Development and then land use planning and that's really what this project is about it's about basic land use planning um let's see so the main goal today is to explain what these priority development areas and priority protection areas are um tell you where they came from and and then give you a little insight about what they do and then let you know that we've been working with Mark Jamie and Ryan rendes from the concom to make minor updates to these uh these designations over the past few months so that's what I'm hoping to do today so one of the easiest ways to explain what a priority area is to tell you what it's not right it is not new zoning it is not legally binding in any way it is more a uh very basic kind of land use mapping exercise that allows communities just to show where you think you would like to grow and on the flip side where you would like to preserve land um so the it's really important to kind of talk about that first to know that it's not legally binding now that said in many cases I can think of numerous cases we have gone around the table gotten some mapping going and communities have said oh we want to grow over here but our zoning doesn't allow that so it has led to new zoning changes but this mapping exercise is not is not Z zoning so what is a PDA a priority Development Area it's areas where you want to see more business growth or more multi family housing growth or more Transportation Investments and again on the priority protection side it's that opposite it's where you want to see more conservation land whether it's for farming activities or for natural resources or Water Resource protection or just the culture and sort of character of your community want you to know you'll see a slide in a moment where this it was not originally data driven but now it is clearly very good data is driving the drafting these areas so we we do look at your existing zoning we do look at parcels and land uses we do look at the availability of infrastructure and then for the habitat or the priority protection areas I should say the ppas we look at those habitats and aquifers and conservation areas this effort dates back to 2008 when um the commuter rail service to New Bedford and Fall River was really first becoming a a reality the Commonwealth wanted to give cities and towns the opportunity to plan for the growth that might come with that project so back in 2008 communities you can see on the left hand side there did a very general first pass on where they would like to grow here here's a circle roughly in this part of town um in 2013 we came back to the table again with all 27 communities and said let's refine these boundaries using good modern data let's draft them with those zoning or those um um aquafer areas in mind and get the the boundaries a little tighter and let's also think about clarifying the purpose for these areas so not just saying priority development but what type of development of community might want to see there and this time around again we're trying to update the boundaries through newer data through new Parcels new zoning we're trying to engage with the public a little more so we have interactive maps that uh you can link to from the web page that I'll share at the end of the presentation and we're also hoping to show cities and towns kind of case studies of how they might Implement some of these uh changes a good you know good example that we've already used tonight is we would like to grow here but our zoning doesn't allow it how might we amend the zoning to do so and we also I mean just frankly a lot can change in 10 years so we've discovered coming back to the table that lots of communities have acquired the land in their priority protection areas or lots of communities have actually changed the zoning and want to see right what's your next priority how are these used the main example is simply um in state Grant applications this Commonwealth takes pretty seriously aligning investment decisions with these priority areas so the best example I can think of is um we in an advisory capacity we help the Commonwealth um review massworks applications every year and one of the things we look for is is this is this investment in a priority Development Area the example on the screen in front of you guys is from North adabor where you can draw a direct line between an area being designated as a PDA funding for technical assistance to change that zoning 1.3 million massworks application and then roughly 200 units of mixed use housing in the downtown a clear kind of success story of how these pdas have turned into real world bricks and mortar similarly in priority protection areas um we we can draw a direct line between technical assistance funding to update an open space and Recreation plan in the town of Norton that updated plan um helping the town become eligible for land grants that's um local Acquisitions for natural diversity uh DCS uh popular DCS program for acquiring land and then 150 uh permanently preserved uh acres in the town of Norton as I said I've been working uh with and my staff has been working with with Jamie and um Mark and Ryan to update this working from that past planning from 2008 and 2013 and then here's a summary of the changes we made I have a map of that summary those those changes that that I can bring up although it's not centered on your town anymore and then I hope I hope you had time to look at the interactive map um that we included in the that's that's really it for me I just wanted to you know can you can you get that to be the town of Aion because I tried to go to that link today and it didn't work sure sure let's try it so I'll click I'll go back to the presentation click on it hopefully it pops right up it's centered on the entire service area so you have to drag it a little bit South and here we are in a cush would you like me to walk through the changes we made can can you explain so the viewers at home when they watch this tape and and of course myself in the board what green what purple what brown hatch looks like very good so um the green are the pro protection areas those areas that you want to conserve or you want to acquire more land the purple were the development areas many of those smaller areas were removed as part of my work with with Jamie and Mark and then the orange these are these kind of combined areas where you want to see some type of growth but that growth needs to be of a very careful uh nature so a good example I see you've got this I can explain why um they Chang the designation from development to combined but the best example would be like a historic village where you're okay seeing some infill growth but it would need to match the historic character of the Town that's the cleanest example let me turn off the old boundaries and just so these are just your new boundaries here are your old boundaries in the hatched so you can see some of the things that were removed were these kind of cross roads they called them in 2013 and and 2008 business districts where they wanted to see some more commercial growth one of those down at um Main Street and Perry Hill Road was retained I think if I remember from the working sessions because there are some existing businesses that are looking to to either and there's a closed business is that right Jamie country it's not it's not closing so they didn't want to we didn't want to you know remove that development um designation from there and then this was changed to combined because again correct me if I'm wrong Jamie I've done this with 27 communities but there was potential for this site to serve as a recreation outcome in the future 50 years 50 years right so that's why it was not a develop no longer just development to leave the door open to that type of outcome those were really the only changes other than as you can see this was a big let me turn this off again that's the watershed area for Coalition now yes sir exactly so this was in 2008 was a 200t buffer around linear water features around surface water and because of all the town's activity with Partners like the buzzers Bay Coalition they wanted to focus on wrong button on really acquiring more land and how that land might be improved through further um Investments and that so rather than being just a buffer they every every parcel that intersected that buffer was added at at Ryan's guidance and then this is new as well down a kind of a Riverfront access priority protection area to allow more access to the can can you go towards us oh yeah that purple spot right there right here nope the big F what's that where's that at yes sir oh that's White's Dairy yeah it's the that's going to be a giant Solon do you recall why we retained that as a priority Development Area Jamie that was Ryan it's a it's a big field and there's commercial properties all out to the front by Middle Road over there okay and there's a small circle around that was rezoned commercial going around the facility the old white St facility which is still very functionable but now that Big Field um in the backside of it where that little Pond is if you point see that little Pond that whole field all in there all the way over to Mary Drive is is a proposed solar field gotcha when we when we had discussed this with Ryan that we weren't aware of that at the time yeah I'm sure so this is a Development Area as it's as it's currently designated that would that would make sense y if I pull up this is that's like an online map this is the kind of behind the scenes geographic information systems I'm worried about trying to turn this on on over the Wi-Fi but I can hopefully pull up the um world imagery the the so you can see what what you're talking about SEL yeah right here yep that field back there is proposed Sol now yeah and if you go can you go back sure see the other purple sure yes sir so yep down over towards slokum Street what's that that area there yeah this corresponded to some existing zoning districts so that's a good question let me I'm going to turn stay with me here this might crash because we're on the Wi-Fi but I've gone South into town and if I go to I didn't prepare your zoning our top standby luckily alphabetically you're [Music] first you can see that the drawings actually correspond to your existing zoning districts so I'm going to turn these off and on that Corridor running through the center of of town there on um South Main business Village is your business Village yes sir and then around it is the fairly new residential Village District so those boundaries correspond directly to to what's the blue these countries go ahead y it's not blue any right there what's what's that blue area that's commercial industrial or something M exactly okay y [Music] yeah so those those are all actually zoning districts but with um the you know the street lines visible so the last step just so you know um we're happy to take edits tonight you know again this is not suret designation we don't have any skin in the game at all with your with your designations but we do because we serve 27 cities and towns the last step that was kind of on the slide that I skipped over quickly the last step is here Regional screening what we what we do using a kind of a GIS that's that mapping system you saw um model with a little bit of math in it we we ask it to show us things the performers really well with protecting um preservation areas for example or have a lot of really good potential business build out and then we um we kind of score them and look at which of our which of our cities and towns priority areas kind of raised to the level of regionally significant in terms of scale or in terms of how well they do their jobs protecting areas and then we kind of make a short list we don't make any designations of our own but we choose from all the universe of all your choices and say yeah this is a really good one this we we this is regionally significant and that process will happen this fall we'll widely publicize the work show you all the methodology and have two workshops one likely in the southern part of our district so near here in um probably in New Bedford or Fall River and then one probably in the northern part of our district just to make people be able to travel to it a little easier but that's the last step of this work wouldn't change any of yours it's just kind of like our regional planning perspective of things so your uh um an example you had I think it was adabor North ad North Ador you had some housing and then that opened you up was it Mass Works Grant so yeah let me back up going through this process would this make us you know put us in a better position to realize something like that you know because I'm just thinking of the um gifts to give there you know this uh done by SL Street you know if that would open us up to Opportunities there for as we're trying to do like slou Street and all that work yes sir yeah so I mean the the the short answer is yes but it still has to go through the typical process right so this particular example um they realized the zoning wasn't in place the way they wanted it to be so they applied to a grant to change the zoning that zoning went to town meeting and what could where it could have be succeeded or failed it happened to succeed and then because that zoning was in place and they had kind of A Bird in Hand private sector partner around they brought that to the mass Works um Grant and said but for this sewer line extension I think that's what it was for yeah roads and roadways and sewers this might not happen maybe please like I'm sure the town has done apply for an infrastructure award that was successful um and then the units themselves were built um there's actually a Transit facility there too the um why do you why do you you use the terminology apply for a grant for changing zoning we're a municipality like we can change zoning whenever we feel at Town meaning so why would we need to apply for a grant it's not asking permission it's asking for the help because you I don't think you have a full-time Town planner right we don't have a town Planner yeah so it's that so it's rather than the planning board or the select board having to actually write the the bylaw itself they worked with a consultant I think it was actually sered in this case they at no cost to the town they worked with a consultant to draft the legally the the language the zoning language that that's why it's not it's not applying for asking permission it's getting funding to actually write the bylaw let me let me let me get to the bigger question because the biggest thing of concern for me when I read through this original document um it said it says the payment the total master project of approximately $140,000 the town of kishner will be responsible for 100,000 of this cost to be funded by the fiscal year 24 housing Choice Grant yes sir so we we've skipped to the second agenda item the second reason I'm here that's a different a different uh projects but they're related they're very similar in that while where this is a land use planning excise that's under the that's under the master the plan one app part of this no sir uh which one are we on then because I'm getting confused now yes sir priority development and priority protection areas is that part of the master plan no but let me if you if you'll allow me they're very similar super similar ideas where a community comes together and says hey these are our goals these are our priorities this is where we'd like to grow this is where we'd like to preserve that's all this is It's a mapping exercise again at no cost to you or the citizens of of a Kush net the master plan process is very similar where you kind of it's like a trip to your general practitioner once a year right you go and you get a physical what should I work on what are my what are I deficits what are my goals for the next year a town comes together and in a master plan um there are eight required excuse me nine required chapters under master General law for a master plan land use is one of them that's really this uh Economic Development and housing there is um open space and Recreation natural cultural resources transportation and circulation uh services and facilities and implementation how do we make all this real that's that second agenda item that that Jame Jamie and um Mark and I have been sort of developing so that's why I'm here we're trying to kill two birds with one stone you just tried to kill that second bird a little earlier all right so let me try to kill that bird again you go back to my original question because this this document says town of a chriset local contract Mass the plan and that's where mentions the payment that I just read off and it goes to the $100,000 from the housing Choice Grant sure so how are we getting that Grant if we're not designated as a housing Choice Community that's where I have a little note hopefully where I didn't know if that was the right one Jamie asked us to prepare a draft scope of services my understanding is that there is a $100,000 available for this project I wrote that program in I did not know if that was the correct one so on my copy there's so your little note says is this correct funding program or is it a community planning Grant and that's my question because if you look up that housing Choice Community Grant it specifically talks about MBTA housing right um and I'm 100% against the town of akush accepting money from a state Grant that's going to now say once we take the 100 Grand from the state now you're forced to do that kind of housing for that train nobody knows if it's going to fail the rail is going to fail or it's going to succeed I think there's a consensus among a lot of people that I speak to that it's not going to survive and I wouldn't want to take money from the state and be handcuffed with tentacles around this community and the people of this community to say you took our money to do your master plan via that kind of a grant you're stuck with that housing now pal and I know there's a lot of municipalities further north fighting MBTA housing planning and all that stuff live and clear so just to clarify the housing Choice initiative I'm not even sure this is where I was counting on in the okay so so you can set that down for a moment but let's down that is the master plan project is not being funded by the housing Choice initiative just an error uh I thought it was either that or the community planning Mark in the outside section of the budget Schmid and Schmid stra that it's anark in the budget all right so that that I can erase that from my head yes sir but because that's bad news for us and I wouldn't allow it to happen so let's return to that though my understanding is that um the housing Choice initiative let's imagine that it was funded by the housing Choice initiative doesn't say that you can't work on other things like this gentleman mentioned about uh maybe we want more housing in this particular area of town there are lots of grant funding through that program doesn't it's not all about that NBTA Community section 3A um but I hear you clear that grant program I did do a little research on it today on mass.gov right and it does specifically say a spot of General size needs to be dedicated towards that kind of cluster housing that's section 3A yep and we're helping numerous cities and towns either try and understand their liability like it sounds like you guys are or we are we are we not I don't think you are currently subject to it but that could change and then some of them have chosen to prepare draft bylaws and then wait and see what happens with the courts this fall as you know Milton as you referred to and a couple others yep so that's going to make its way through the court system the Supreme Judicial Court has said that it'll likely rule in um October I think so we get some kind of final Clarity on it there and then it's up to the you know you guys the leaders and citizens of a cushion to whether you comply or not or if you're even subject to it so I hear you there's a lot of confusion about it whenever the word housing comes out trust me I come from a rural community that's maybe subject to it maybe not there's a lot of similar conversations like this um that's what this is all about coming to you with a in a transparent way where do you want to grow where do you don't the master plan what are your goals how can we help um so you're not I I hear you loud and clear that there's a lot of um skepticism and a lot of concern um we're here to help you navigate that not to uh tentacle anything right yeah not you folks I'm just saying once we take money right and that's the problem with grants everybody thinks it's free money but it's never going to be free right there's going to be tentacles attached to it somewhere down the road they're going to say wait a minute Charlie you took 100,000 bucks from US state and in that little grant program housing Choice grant program says you will have that kind of housing so do it and we're going to be forced to do it when I know other municipalities are fighting it yeah um and there's a lot of fights going on with it right now right and I don't think that's where the town of aush at I would much rather ask the taxpayers for 100 grand in free cash to fund that if that's the way it was going to be funded so it's Oz and only o right but if we have earm money it's a different it's so we just got to get rid of that language before somebody signs this goofy contract well so I'd like to think it's not goofy but there's no there's no uh that's why it says draft nothing in there that you guys don't want to have in there will end up in that document or you may choose not to sign it that's also a fine outcome yeah no I think I think the concept right it's it's something that we're probably overdue on just I don't want strings attached by any other regulatory arm or state agency dictating to us because quite honestly we didn't get an opportunity to vote on that rail right as a community right but now somebody's going to try to stuff housing cluster housing and change the the rural character or just the character alone of our community because of a a rail that could possibly fail so I've even talked to my state reps and said you know what give us a buy wait three years when that train station opens wait 3 years if that thing's still functioning and is is running profitably then we'll consider doing it but those stuff housing down our throat that thing fails and we got that crappy looking housing in our community because of your fictitious rail right Goa that's that's the concern and it's not just my concern I've talked to a number of my constituents and they kind of live it about that rail without us voting on and I get that I'm B of that I hear you loud and clear we're we're hearing it all across the areas we serve um just I think we you know um it's above my pay grade but we have to be patient and see what happens in the courts and um and do our best to kind of all act in good faith and just know that this is not connected to that that definitely not this um I'm in a I was in a master plan meeting and if you'll allow me a quick anecdote in a community we serve in the northern part of the district they're still trying to figure out whether they are subject to it or not as well and um they're their strategy is well let's go ahead and try and figure out what the liability would be what the Zone would have to be and have it ready just like you said have it ready and then if we are legally have to comply then at least the at least the strategy would be in place but let's not pull the trigger until we've got more clarity so that's perfectly good good faith approach I would say all right so we're just going to make sure that funding source comes out yes sir I'm happy to hear that cuz when I was reading and I briefly just touched on that kind of that housing Choice program and I'm like well wait a minute we're not even right um thank God we're not really um but you know this is all stuff that we we absolutely need to explore in our community right um we're getting limited on where we can develop due to Wetlands and swampy yeah even if it's not even if it's not considered Wetlands there's a lot of swampy area and if it's not sewed you're out you can't develop because you can't do Title 5 right got and you got to get sewer out there in order to develop that land but that's something that this would obviously bring into that scope and say look this is a nice pastel of land that could be developed however you need sewer because it's not perable right yeah so what we do as part of I would like to say every master plan I've done either all or part of roughly a dozen is we do run one of those buildout analyses where you look at like all of the all of the um factors that you just kind of ran through in your mind what's available what's already built what's Wetland what's conservation What's um difficult to perk without sewer or a very expensive stetic and then you look at the available building like theoretical building available left in town and then you look combine that with estimates of demand for growth and you kind of have a decent idea of where things might happen um that's returning back to the priority development and priority protection areas that's really what this is all about where do you want to grow as a community where would you be okay with more sewer and more um uh Investments like you just mentioned on Solen Street um you know the town of acrush has an interesting history with Master plans you know if I remember correctly the first master plan was done in 1965 it wasn't done until 2008 and I think you know we're still paying the price for some 40 plus years of not doing anything prior to 2008 and then once you know Kevin you were involved when we had the master plan we built a new library we built a new police station we we upgraded our pop Park we we did the parting ways building we you know we've done a lot cuz that was our North Star so I think this is important you know really important to keep going um and keep that momentum but I think you know the one thing that this town I think desperately needs quite frankly is is an aesthetic facelift you know I feel like the times that we're we're old and tired you know there's things that we need to do to improve our infrastructure um but the bones are good but we need to take it to the next level you know so I think this would be an opportunity to do that and I think we need to open up zoning really I mean I don't know how it probably doesn't need to be part of a master plan it could be probably done by a planning board but we're really confined for our business zoning right and and I've had some conversations I've talked to Mr France about a little bit and all other the people in town and are around different boards and it just it it really baffles me that we don't have our Cara like Main Street you pointed out some down by the Perry Hill where the country hardware store is and then you have the liquor store in the blue land and everything else but then we have another one down the road of Mass Collision or something like that down here rep well so we have little businesses right but they're all subject to go to like zba for special permits and and I I just it kind of blows my mind why like this car out here we have like it's kind of like a mix use business type thing and so many feet in from the center of the road it's like 100t on each side of the road that business Village District thing and it goes down here to like Al Vera Al to near poac and it stops you know I it kind of blows my mind why do we stop you know and we have these little sporadic businesses throughout time why why wouldn't we just continue that down the car us right in Middle Road um I know a few people that there was a small building I think somebody's actually living in like a residential home now but they was forced to not open up a little breakfast place because it wasn't zoned right um and it was far I just think that's ridiculous that we don't open up Zone zoning down our main corridors and and I'm not saying you know blow out big commercial businesses but you know the city of New Beed I'm in a Zone up there where it's mixed use business right we could figure out what we would want to see in certain areas down those corridors and say you know 100 feet in and 200 feet down from the sidewalks or whatever have a mixed use business and label like what we could allow in there as mixed used business instead of just residential this is awesome these are these are the exact types of ideas that we try and unearth in a master plan process and back to your point about um how it led to specific Investments and it was like the North Star I think was the phrase the master plan process if you choose to proceed at least the when the ones we run are all about soliciting input from the public so there will be several events where we want to hear from business owners hear obviously from elected and appointed officials such as yourselves but really hear about those like goals and what are the problems if there's a local I heard from you loud and clear that it's not necessarily about making the more development but making it easier to do business in a Kush with your for your existing for your existing businesses we hear that a lot there are strategies that you can pursue permitting guides e-government streamline permitting so like that type of thing that I hear and my staff would hear during numerous master plan workshops would be we'd be taking notes just like I was try to findy consensus and then match it to strategies Kevin you just mentioned we we're going in the opposite direction you just talked about a business that was turned into residential we had pop Casey's which was a thriving restaurant is now residential we're losing businesses to people converting those those locations into residences you know you know we go to places like Maine you see a CA like South Main Street here that look like homes are you know you got a small restaurant or an antique shop or things of that nature that build character you know I think those are the things that we should be looking at you know it's kind of crazy yeah there's another area of town but I don't know if I want to talk about that on camera not just yet anyway right cuz it involves an adjacent property got um but I think that'll yeah that'll be some of the conversations right it opens up some opportunities for us in the town of makush and plus others right and that's kind of where we need to be looking at right you got to help businesses through drive right and and accommodates businesses because without them we're done you know and that and that's I just I I just for the life of me I can't understand all these years have passed by and we've never opened up carus to mix use business at least at minimum right and then I see people go and they get turned down gotcha um I'm like that that doesn't make any sense like we're clustering everything in like this side of town right the South MBE side everything's clustered over here and the traffic is is is ridiculous so why wouldn't we start opening up those Alleyways down here and having more people funnel over there instead everybody coming over here and dying right there's a lot of our restaurants are in this little strip right here and you get all these people coming in and clustering up you see the traffic congestion over here if you put a little restaurant on the other side of town gotcha they probably boom right but they can CU it's not allowed in zy it became a church something you thriving there you go Place banquet hall and the zoning wasn't there to to turn it into a there was a Bonafide you know restaurant tour couldn't get the couldn't get the zba to approve it and it's now a church doesn't even pay taxes right off the tax roll so that's kind of I mean from my perspective it's just something you know I know we'll form a committee for the a master plan committee and and have people engage and then you come back to us local officials and we'll tell you and we'll look at what committee's been talking about and the local of town officials will say yeah we don't really like that in the workshops and I know you it was you folks that did the matap poison one right correct and I know that I looked at that it was probably a couple years ago but I know there was people that would directed me to go look at it and it was kind of cool because you did that and you opened it up online for people's input right what would you like to see is and you gave just Real Simple Choice right instead of making people have to stop and think of what you just put a list of things right and you said what's important to you right open space Recreation bike pass whatever it is and you just click click click and you got an overall consensus and you bring it back to the master plan committee and say so this is what the what your community said online is is what they like to see let's build that into the master plan exactly you know that's the vision that you need to have and involve the community not just six or seven guys or girls on a committee and then a couple of us you know Town boards giving the input it's all about the people of the because quite honestly I I say this all the time the taxpayers are the shareholders of this community right we're the ones that built this community thus far to what it is today um and we should be taking their input to build it for the future right couldn't agree more so you referred to a survey we'll have master plan surveys when we get depend you know we like to follow the project where it leads us so we might find that there will be like a visual preference survey about you said fa Town needs to facelift so okay if we're talking about mix to use zoning along a corridor that needs design guidelines or design standards to make it look the way you feel like it should look well what is that we have to ask the public so there can be like visual preference surveys about what type of growth uh examples you you'd be comfortable with and then that can inform design guidelines so it's all about a conversation with the with the town again you know I've done about a dozen of these and I can comfortably say that all the good ideas come from the public from somebody who comes to a match planing Workshop J after work and just gives their idea and I I think that's great that that's a great idea I wasn't even thinking of that aspect of the planning pop the design aspect of it right so you kind of put that that that's the way it needs to look the character of the building if somebody's going to put a building in the character this is this is what it is you can't go down the road over there and build a pink building and have a purple one over here and make our town look like a rainbow right it's just it's everything's going to aesthetically fit into how the people of the community would like to it right yep so those I think that makes a lot of sense in that aspect of the cool yeah so I mean we like to listen like very actively and then try to match um strategies that in this particular example would be design guidelines likely in uh planning board rules and regulations do you guys have S plan review yeah so you probably many cities and towns choose to put that type of guidance in site claim review r rules and regulations um they don't require it under spec it's not a standard so it's not actual zoning but it's a you put it on the table across from the your development partner and you go this is what we'd like to see and what we'd like not to see it just makes the decision-making process collaborative predictable I've worked in the private sector I understand that's what they want so it's not a requirement but it's a uh a dialogue that's open so that's that's one good example that we've Unearthed tonight in what is it 30 minutes or so that could likely come out of a master plan process excellent yeah all right well you answered my question about the funding so I'm not getting tentacles about the around me Mr Kelly uh as you know I've been involved with serpent for years from when I in my own community and here uh they recently a recent history they did the Norton uh master plan and we've had 12 businesses open since the master plan was completed and using that as a guideline where they should open and uh we even had uh former library that was owned by the college has been turned into a professional building and it was all based on the work they did out of the master plan the only the only other thing that my concern but it's a town issue is it's on page four who's going to really administrate this thing right the town of aush and the design will complete the following task we identify a contact person will act as a liaison to town departments boards and commissions assist with the compulation of town documents relative to this project especially new relevant GIS so not having a planner yeah um we do have an individual that works in the planning board retiring but would like to come on and and spend some time in the winter months but you know I don't know how that's he's just really familiar with the planning board office very de detail oriented I spoke on him last time Mr Paul Sullivan um I know Mark you speak very highly of Paul as well um you know we need somebody like that um that has that kind of time and and knowledge that already knows where everything is right to make everything a smooth transition and keep fluidly pushing materials to you whatever you're going to need he's probably the best person to do it in my opinion within this town I I I know that we've got some money in the budget to keep him on board so I'm hoping that that's going to be funed that town meeting we keep him on board but I couldn't think of a better person to do that than him I I couldn't agree more uh it's a conversation that I've started having with him um obviously we're hoping to get Town planner whether fall apart or whatever the situation may be we're hoping to get one sooner than later uh but when we do get a town planner I think that having someone like Paul would be a great asset to him or her and and also whoever else is doing the the master plan so I tot I couldn't agree with anymore um and with the brief conversations that I've had with him might be something that is he's just he's just an look he's he's an incredible individual he's turned that office right around from what it looked like 3 years ago compared to what it looks like now you go in the office you ask him for something he walks right over to it pulls it right out it was never like that in the past and I just can't say enough about the man he's a he's an incredible individual um and he just really knows his crap so I I would bman I'll do my best to convince him to help us out and work on this over the next year you can change that language to from one to you know mult at least one point of contact all we're looking for with that is someone I can me or my staff can rely on right that's the problem is I don't really know anybody else that's going to have that kind of wealth of knowledge without taking them away from their act actual duties right I mean well that's that's our job Selman it's it's we're we're not we're not taking anything away it's just like for this one it's more like okay we need to schedule a master plan Workshop we'd like to do it um on these five dates can you help us choose the best location choose the best time it's really that kind of thing it's not like write or read or you know we're we're your full service consultant on no I know it's just like getting information from the past for you to put into it and understand it and he actually understands the 2008 version of selectman w talked about master plan he understands it pretty well sounds so it's kind of things that you guys you can pick up the phone and say well he's he can tell you well we already did that we don't need that in there this is what was discussed in the old master plan perhaps just give you a copy of the old master plan for you folks to browse through and see what's already going on right simplify the process sounds great that's all it's perfect but as long as that funding source is history y it's as soon as I started reading I'm like oh no this just can't happen so good I'm glad we I said different part of gold which in aach right and or off and and running so if if if I may sir if we can Circle back to the priority development and priority protection areas if you have any comments on those and I felt really good about that working session with Mark Ryan and Jamie um it's not too late right so in other words if you get home and click that link it worked for me just then but I I'm happy to try and I could set up a meeting to walk through it with you um just where the the chance to um change these boundaries you know for the third time is kind of closing pretty soon by the end of June what what link did you cuz I don't know when you clicked on the bottom and you showed that link I got it right here when I even wrote right here link doesn't work okay and it's the https col2 [Music] slcg do is sl1m capital S4 y yeah so if you click on it or copy and paste it into a browser all I'm saying is if I click now is opened up for me um I think you said m y yeah what is it there's no m in there it's a billy oh wa who so you put the wrong stuff on this piece of don't be doing that with my master plan it it what is what that's why I ask you what is the L yeah wait it's that's not even it you got ju hold on so unfortunately these links are generated by that same software that I showed you this is the you know I was trying to write that link oh my fault my fault took it away from you cuz the Link's wrong that you printed in the pamphlet one y j u PL not even close cool um happy to happy to take more edits I tried to open it with my iPad yeah I use I had to use a computer I was on an iPad but the link is Dave just pointed out the last few letters is wrong so whatever I'll try that one on my iPad I couldn't get the iPad to open quickly so I had to use a computer yeah well I'm just saying that the link on this page didn't work gotcha so thank you very much for your time that took a while I didn't intend for it too it's all right it's educational right that's that's the important aspect of it is they give the public and give us the educational aspect of it I'll give you a call we can fix a draft sure anding edit happy to make any edits to that draft um the other last connection was I think you were going to put me in touch with j and I need to do so to understand those Jen has to go through the portal the state portal to have the funds for thank you very much for your time looking forward to working with you guys citizens at home appreciate your time appreciate it all right so we have uh few resignation letters it seems to be I guess some of these people have been appointed but didn't have an interest in being on the bicycle committee so is there motion to accept the resignation of Adam noi from the bicycle committee second all those in favor is motion to remove Amy Gordon from the bicycle committee so move second all those in favor hi okay that was done old business sured contract master plan dealing with that right he was on here A bunch of things so that takes care of that the uh Teamsters m gentlemen I just wanted to make a correction that there was a half copy left on the desk it was incorrect and the part that was incorrect was to be eligible for any retropay and officer must still be working for the town as a police office on the day of ratification involuntary retirees will be eligible for retr pay and retro pay retro buyback allowances and then on the shift differential the fiscal year 25 was left out it is inside the version that we did vote on um but again two signatures were on an old version that is not correct so is there a motion to approve the version put in front of us today so second all those in favor thank you please care that I just jump right over to eversource Paving just to let you guys know it's on the DPW General I'm just going to jump around a little bit wait until 5:00 we did receive the funds there was some conversation between from ever Source um he and the DPW about not giving us the funding that they originally agreed to for 900 Middle Road Cory Bono North Anthony Henryetta um I think and hotley was on that last phase um but they Anthony did turn that conversation around inhouse and did get us back um full funding for that project so I appreciate Anthony from everis as he's here Anthony thank you very much for your efforts he High he's over here so um Kudos D up we'll throw down the next agenda to discuss what how we're going to move forward without Paving um just to get rid of that but seeing how 10 minutes left to go uh I got uh one announcement uh Mr chairman that uh the mapa took up the mo MOA on the town flanner on Monday night and they are going to forward the executed copy to this board to execute they also are going to uh forward a copy of the draft advertisement that will be within the budget parameters that we discussed very good so it's moving okay um and we got a few minutes I can't open up the public hearing early because we don't know if any of BU is going to show up so it's 9 minutes left to go Mr Kelly you want to give a quick um budget update to the board what do you want me to just say we're still looking for a quarter of a million dollars uh actually uh with a little bit of the shake and baking that you and I talked about we're uh 187,000 short but we've got two major uh entities that we haven't refund find yeah correct one is the insurances the other is Public Safety and uh it's been an interesting project uh sitting for hours with you Mr chairman sure is been a lot of money that's we've squeezed and gone through the process over and over and over again it's just now that we're uh guess Mr Kelly's terminology is where trying to roll quarter Stacks at this point right and that's the difficult part and we're still that far away but we do have executive session to discuss um different things with the board tonight so but uh General government there only uh 54,5 38 and that's for most of the departments in the town government increase Public Safety right now is around a 200 $100,000 increase uh education is around a $750,000 increase MH uh Public Works which is driven mainly by the mass SE mass and the water increase is 192,000 Human Services is a decrease of 880,000 culture wreck is an increase of 4,000 uh insurance which we're squeezing now is 282,000 that includes pensions includes pensions health insurance and pensions combined is that health insurance pensions Med Medicare and uh all the other insurances unemployment workers comp [Music] Etc so we're still rolling quarters yep back at it again tomorrow hopefully we'll get it down right select announcements sure you have a select announcement I do if it's all right with you knock yourself out um couple months ago not even probably about a month and a half ago I had a uh young gentleman who is a carpenter student at Old Colony reached out to me in regards to replacing the little library that was at Pop Park um which had been vandalized and damaged to the point where it was unsafe so it was removed and I talked to Chad and Chad was in full support of it and just yesterday I helped three Young Old Colony students install a little library at p park so I wanted to give a little shout out to Tyler Demitri and Noah uh for doing what most seniors don't want to do and that's dedicate some time to the community and they put together a nice little Library we put it up in the park and they actually stocked it with books as well they did a book drive at their school so anybody that had a old books that younger brothers and sisters had so they actually uh pretty much fully loaded it as well so I just wanted to say it was it was a nice change of pace to see some young gentlemen put some effort did you install it with the cameras can see at this time I put it exactly where it was oh okay we do have security out there as long as those camera's there now actually I would say now because I watched um Luc has put the cameras up it would be in camera view excellent should be good yep but yeah it was just just want to give them a a shout out for being a outstanding young gentleman and uh good residents of aush okay right just still want anything on the select well I'll take an opportunity right now seeing how we have a few minutes to kill I'm going to ask for a moment of silence for the passing away of our tree Warden Norman for that thank you gentlemen ladies and gentlemen Mr chairman Mr Kelly I think we should end it with the phrase that he always left my office with God bless God bless yep he was a he was a a good man and a good friend of so many of was in the community call me up and say Kev it's a fat French cousin no I mean really it's too bad he's a good man all right I will declare it 5:00 to open the public hearing Verizon New England and NSTAR Electric TBA urce to place multiple jointly owned poles along mle Road the installation of these evosaur is request for the purpose of cable upgrade along Route gives petition numbers it's on the agenda I'm not going to read all of that and there's numerous different petitions different locations from mendle Road extended through Perry Hill Road and on Main Street and a cushion at Mass whoever we have from Verizon urce whoever wants to speak please announce your name where you're from sure uh rossu representing Verizon New England um 21 Oxford Road mainsfield Massachusetts um Verizon as you guys are probably aware is U Verizon's maintenance area U cushion rather is Verizon maintenance area uh so we're obligated to set these polls uh evos reached out to us in our with our internal uh Communications about upgrading and placing some new polls out here for a project they have going on uh to place some new services and and Rec conductor some of their equipment uh overhead uh in order to do so like I said we need to place a few new Poes uh from mle road all the way up Perry Hill Road to Main Street now uh I know some of those polls will be replaced some of them to be new um like I said for epu driven project so I've been whacking this paddle around for a long time and it just seems to get worse and worse and worse every month I've talked about broken poles double po strapped poles in places where upgrades aren't even happening on the other side of town that have been there for well over a year and nothing's still been done about those poles being taken out as far as I'm concerned it shouldn't be the town of a cushion it's problem to contact cable Verizon or urce to get their crap off a pole and move it into the new pole and get rid of the old pole if it's Verizon's poll then it's your job to get everybody out there and do that and that's failed miserably in the town we have hundreds of new double poles on that side of town which is just beyond me I don't I don't even I can't even fathom it but I know that we've had conversations um with urce and I guess it's just the way things are put in the queue and I'm going to let Anthony speak on that yeah so Mr chairman uh it's Anthony Comm urce so um I think for some of these new polls we're we're not quite ready to do that's part of a a larger upgrade to uh four towns of a kushit uh Fair Haven mapa and Rochester we're upgrading four substations and then with that comes all the support work um in the town of aush we have a reconductoring project along Main Street that's really the priority for the moment so maybe maybe we put this the support work for the de project off a little bit and let us uh give us some time to do the work on the cushioning cluster reconductoring maybe revisit this late summer early fall uh might be might be a better solution this way we can show you guys some progress I mean Horizon's here we're all we've been working at this for a couple weeks now we've been myself Michelle uh are scheduling planning teams trying to put a plan together to tackle you know some of these situations in a cushion in so I think it's it's shown a lot of progress we're in a much better place than we used to be we're a lot a lot of communication back and forth I think that's a maybe a positive solution we can look forward to uh tonight last time we we met and talk about all the broken poles pieces laying on the ground those pieces are still laying on the ground the broken poles are still there there's one right out here that no everybody you can't miss it right down Middle Road I talked about ni Lane in  Street on Middle Road there a piece of pole that just snapped and sitting there on the ground yep so you tell me about down Middle Road on B Street I talked about that one they're down Keen Road I've driven down Keane Road this PO strapped through each other same thing cut off right at height length I took the two transmission poles right I think they were on middle those are gone yeah the ones at the e in the right away yeah they laying on the ground yeah so thanks for doing that but we get a lot of broken poles that are unsafe and I talked about it last time and it's still there okay so I think when you stop removing those poles and showing the to the town they uh making a good faith attempt to get rid of all these double poles especially the ones that are dangerous that we've been talking about for months and nothing's been done then we'll allow you to start setting more polls yeah underst so Mr Kelly in addition uh Mr chairman uh the town has uh fiber uh on various polls if uh you're you all are getting together to schedule the change and the removal you need to include the town and give us notice so we can have our contractor go out there and take care of that can you provide can you provide ever source of Verizon with a map of where we put Fiber Well I think I think we can give you guys a list of uh they've got they've got the map yeah oh you have the map of where we put our fiber we down what roads and we know who's on every pole yeah but you know the path mhm yep okay that's fine there you go right I'll make a motion to continue to S 17 2024 subject to staff recommendations move second all those in favor all Mr chairman I will say this Michelle right it is there was an issue um I was notified by Gary haway at Scuttlebutts mhm you know that Pole right literally right in the middle of his driveway mhm and I put him in touch with Michelle and I think they're working on that so I do you know In fairness to raise an issue and the customer service was very good in that instance so just want to at least recognize that well that's nice to he than so Anthony and I both working on it appreciate that yeah I think that'll be a big help if we're able to fix I'm working on it thank you I appreciate it it just doesn't seem to be happening fast enough I get a lot of residents that sit there and complain right and there a lot of residents that walk with little children in in baby carriages and just and you can feel free to give my contact information to any of those folks you should have it I've given it out but I'll give again that's fine that's fine I just I try to save you the grief of listening to five people and just listen to us and if they actually listen to the board of Selectmen which are the town fathers I I think we would have a lot more progress um moving forward right so we've talked about six different polls those same six poles are still sitting in the same place and that's on the other side of the channel from whatever happened car accidents or whatever happened right that hit the poles it's not even got to do with solar and his upgrades and everything else and now we got 200 and something new polls all doubled up it's crazy and I wrote them down from the last time but I could have missed a few so I can follow up with whomever to make sure I have the exact addresses in streets because I was up at the podium speaking and I wrote them down but I may have missed a few so I'll I'll do another draw by and I'll give you exact addresses as close proximity as can I mean you might have like you know 400 Middle Road and there's nothing else in between so I'm just going to say on or about 400 Middle Road that's absolutely fine folks can drive by and go oh yeah this is the poll no I just want to make sure I captured everything that I sent to my f I appreciate it no thank you all right than you enough thank you all right when no other business under Open Session executive session under General Law chapter 38 subsection 2183 to discuss strategy with respect to Collective B and United Steel Workers Union asme team DPW labors Fire EMS and fiscal year 25 warrant if an open meeting may have AAL effect on the Bing position of the public boarding the chair so declares and the board will not return to public session at the conclusion of executive session is there a motion who move second all those in favor right Mr Hinkley roll call Vote Yes Mr wner yes and I am yes we are now an executive session [Music]