##VIDEO ID:wMNkY4Jv-NQ## [Music] good evening everyone today is September 5th the time is 6:03 and this is the Acushnet plan commission this meeting is being recorded and will be available for future viewing via the YouTube channel can I get a motion to open the planning board meeting motion to open the meeting our second all in favor I I can we introduce ourselves please Peter GAA member Victoria alaro Town planner Mark Francois chairman Brian the Champ's member thank you uh all right we have a few people are but we do have a quum tonight um minutes did everybody have a chance to look over the meeting minutes from August 22nd uh we were all in attendance um as far as I'm concerned I read it over uh I found a couple of typos on the second page second paragraph with the square footage where it says 71,000 82 ft there a slight typo there and uh second paragraph little typo with the um right before right under Mr Roman ell's name um besides that I think they were well done anybody have any other I make a motion to accept the uh meeting minutes as submitted August 22nd 2024 and make the uh changes that you have presented with corrections uh I have a motion I will second that all in favor I I all right I will sign the new version okay moving right along public hearing contined continued definitive subdivision 20231 39 Keen road map 2 lot 13B the owner applicant amn estate holding LLC representative Farland Corp uh scope of the work a proposed six slot subdivision um the applicant has not submitted a revised plan or response to the peer review uh we received an email from them requesting uh a continuation uh I'll entertain a motion to continue the public hearing to our next meeting on September 19th 2024 I make a motion to continue the public hearing to 919 2024 I second all in favor [Music] I next we have an inform meeting an informal meeting 211 Middle Road map 23 lot 2929 a29b this informal meeting is required per the new bylaw prior to filing an application a prese submission meeting was uh with the department heads was held on 8:22 um the applicant is uh Rew Renewables represented by BS and Thomas somebody here from B and Thomas if you could please introduce yourselves as you speak and the floor is yours hi I'm Mary K I'm a senior environmental planning specialist with bson Thomas and I've been a permanent lead for this project so far b f Thomas and I'm the project engineer I'm Craig Samson with Sol wer I'm Council to uh the applicant who progress he couldn't be here tonight to introduce the project he's been before the board on a few other occasions and was looking forward to introducing this project with you again he'll be here next time okay so um I think everyone is familiar with this site this is uh as the chairman indicated 211 Middle Road um is the home of the uh it's owned by whites Dairy and it's a home of a number of different uh existing commercial uses I believe there's a salon uh an ENT mment Center believe there was a pet grooming business at one time there um there is a rear portion of the property that has largely been cleared uh in support of a former dairy farm uh and that is the area where this proposed solar array is going to be cited so because it's in this wide open fuel area there is no substantial tree clearing involved and the grading uh is going to be minimized to what is necessary for storm water management so this is a great site uh for a solar project as you can see it's set back somewhat from public ways in Acushnet um it is near some residences in New Bedford so on the rear of the property here there is a 6ot landscaped burn with a 10ft stuck CID fence proposed to address screening impacts to these residences over here um as uh the chairman indicated we did have a meeting with Town staff and got a number of very good comments out of that uh first of all uh based on the fire chiefs comments we did uh propose a gravel access road around the entire array uh of 18 ft to accommodate his largest possible truck um he indicated it would probably be one of the smaller trucks that would go out there but in the event of an emergency that's uh what we planned for uh and I believe the building inspector raised that there had been a number of uh storm water related concerns uh at other solar projects in town um so I'm actually turn that over to Nate to talk a little bit about the St water design not my B but sure yeah um as the building inspector mentioned he said you know Overkill the storm War design um to address stor War so you know we're keeping everything within regulations coordinating with the Board of Health maintain that for the free board um is requested offset the groundwater all that stuff so um yeah curly wanted to tet basic proposed as part of the project as you can see in the uh corner of the site here uh um also show you probably SE on the grading plan is a storm water swell to help convey storm water which will be conveyed with a CT underneath the gravel roadway and into the det Basin oh yes yeah we did um receive an order of resource area delineation for the onsite Wetlands those are flagged and we are going to be filing concurrently with the Conservation Commission uh for an order of conditions um I understand they're actually the approving Authority for the stormw Water Management permit in town so we're coordinating with them for that as well um and I think the really only ask we would have for the board tonight is just that you know I I understand the board establishes a consultancy review fee that we you know try to coordinate Consultants between the two boards to the maximum extent possible just to make sure the design kind of stays on track uh for the two boards at the same time um but yeah happy to take any questions you might have we're going to be filing a site plan special permit shortly in uh compliance with the new bylaw we've been talking with Victoria about the filing requirements they are moving the T boxes from the driving range before they install the pay yes I actually just drove by there uh just before coming here I'm trying to see where the front gate is so this is where White Center Middle Road yeah so he here right yeah the nice thing about this sting know is mentioned it's it's open right and so it also has nice access from the street with some lay down area up front so you know it's it's kind of Ideal for both the layout and for construction all right you made mention of a fence before can you show me what lines exactly um I'll y um might be a better plan for this [Music] put on this exhibit cuz it's shown in Red so obviously there's a perimeter chain link Propst fencing all around the site um propos gate here for the actual array your existing Gates like you mentioned there was one right at the side entrance there's also one you know slightly into the site and then here is the stock fence in roughly the perimeter of the C and BM okay so what you're saying is you're only going to put a stockade fence on this line yes there stock here the rest of that's going to be chain link chain link do surround the attire so there'll be chain link and the hood St okay look we're saying we're putting a stock here so these houses over here won't be affected but yeah how about these houses over here for screening purposes you see so all this existing vegetation is going to stay um and this also is more for because this the site kind of slopes towards the dairy farm so with it sloping down that's where the visual impacts were kind of addressed but I kind of follow Brian saying we need to take these people here into consideration right so as far as a chain link sure I would rather see The Stockade coming down all the way okay so that we we have one in town right now that they just put up a you know a w fence and it looks terrible yeah it looks terrible yeah and it's right on main thorough streets on the main road right and we have another one here where they put the white vinyl fence up well at least it's a little more palatable right so really you know and I read in your thing something about you were going to put a BM too is that what this we see in here that's a BM outline is so there's a fence on top of the BM on top of the and it's there right now or is it it's going to be going to be construct they want to put up a a 6ot BM with a 10t fence y and that's part partly because as Nate mentioned the elevation change so you know one of the things we talked about at the staff meeting was you know we'd like to try and going to try and meet with some of the residents and and make sure that that's the proposal that works best for them because if they prefer to have some vegetation closer to their property that may be more effective cuz just cuz the elevation change and where we have to play something so we are open to working with them and coming up with solution that's most effective um this design we think does work but obviously it's you know we're going off the side of the slope to build a burm and then a fence so if there's something so anybody that's up on a higher yeah exactly okay yeah CU you know that's one of the biggest complaints we have that people just you know these why offenses just don't cut it you know people just don't want to see they don't want to look at they don't want to look at the solar right so wherever on that whole project can be seen from somewhere else it can't be seen we'd rather not we'd rather it not be seen so I'm not saying you got to construct a 10t you know all the way around but definitely where there are um residents AB Butters yes on the North side I think that is where you're more in the woods there on the right that if you can't if you can see it from a distance and there are neighbors in the area again just take a walk around if you see that you can see the panels or you're going to see the panels and neighbors can see the panels even across Nice Lane if they can see it then uh you know it's something that we need to address they just don't want to see the panels and if it can be a fence uh you can put up big you know Green Giants and you know to keep it green whatever as long as it's not seen and I like the fact you want to hear from and that'd be a good thing to really hear from the residents to say okay you know we really need to address their issues yeah they did have a um during did the anrs that at a public hearing requirement so there were a couple folks that we got some names from uh obviously like I don't know if you know the anrad process but everyone comes out and says what's the project nothing we just trying to get the lines approved yeah um but we do have a few names including some of the people on in the New Bedford section it's a nice neighborhood there they we think we can get some communication going and you know our goal is to do it most effectively I watched the conservation meeting for the anrad that you went to and there were some abutters there that were concerned and uh yeah uh yeah and I mean obviously we're going to go through a public hearing as well so uh the the more you can involve the public the better off you'll be and less issues in the future that but I've always found recently the best the biggest thing is the screening you know if you can if you can convince them that you're taking all the steps to make sure that they don't have to see it then they're going to be more willing to you know work with you so understood yeah absolutely and we have a glare analysis that's part of the submission but that's more on that's not quite the same as I can see it so we kind of look at it from both perspectives yeah I mean if you're getting glare from it then you're going to be able to see it so if there is a glare analysis and you're not cting any glare then then you can't see them yeah I know there was a sight line requirement in the submission requirements and I think we were not going to uh submit that with our application just to get some neighbor feedback and if they wound up saying oh we'd rather not The Stockade Fence we can kind of change our sideline approach a little bit okay yep um if I'm not mistaken this goes to peer review same as uh for storm water goes to peer review yes and I I know you mentioned earlier about trying to coordinate peer reviews we're going to do one peer review and just make sure we coordinate with conom you know internally and that way everything's kind of getting addressed one letter awesome and clearer and I I think you and I might have talked about this but I know that the board needed to establish the consultancy fee um is that something um you need to talk about internally and yeah I'm going to have to go talk about it with kcom now I know you are going to file concurrently um well they I think it depends on the they do it depending on the project so they might get an estimate first like once you submit they might get an estimate from the peerreview company and then that we'll have the fee from there does that make sense yeah I I was speaking with someone in the Conservation Commission um yesterday and and she was mentioning um the idea of circulating a Draft application to the peer review consultant for a better price to get kind of everything all all on track so yeah yeah similar yeah so you can either when you're ready to submit you submit everything we'll get the estimate then or if you have the draft you want to send that over you fible okay excellent I'm sure we'll definitely be in touch with that okay sounds good any other questions from the board um no I mean I'm not going to I just got these plans so I I'd like to look him over with time um I'm more interested in what peer review is going to say uh like Brian had mentioned I think our biggest hurdle hurdle our biggest goal is to keep neighbors and butters happy I think with this not being fully wooded and we're not cutting down five or how many acres this is we're not clear cutting Woods is a big bonus it's already cleared a lot um we've had stor water issues uh with previous solar sites that had uh steep slopes they went and clear cuted uh right before in the fall right before the winter we had massive water issues um we we're not going to have that um we got to make sure that you follow the the BW as far as clearing any top soil before I think it's like November or whatever it is I don't think we're going to get there this year uh but you know there's no clearing and removing of soil before the spring where you can at least HDE your seed and then you know stabilize the site um prior to the winter again so uh I don't think we're going to have that issue I this looks like it's going to not going to be started until at least next year sometime so um that's another big priority but yeah once it goes to peer review we see what they come back with uh regarding the new solo byw then we'll go from there okay awesome anybody else Fe good I'm good I'm good okay thank you very appreciate it good night these will be up at the at the office if anybody to go up a look I will be one of them thank you yeah all right all right so gentlemen I'm going to go slightly out of order um I'm going to jump right down to other business uh earlier today we um kind of realized that there were some solar special permits that were going to be expiring so we reached out to the proponent and said hey uh special permits are going to be expiring so um these are for [Music] the 1050 1052 and Robinson Road projects um oh okay Robinson Road crushing Lane and the one behind crushing Lane [Music] and wait a minute isn't that one Mr Mark can you yeah no I'm happy to try to do my best to answer the questions on short notice here is uh mini mimoso as a pinch hitter the last of the ball game um so yeah so the three that I'm prepared to speak on um I think that you know under the law technically if we have not acted on it you could resend I don't know that we have to necessarily come technically to say I want an extension the way you might with a conom but we're here to ask for an extension or to ask for you not to resend it whatever it is legally I don't want to go into that piece but I do think that I've got good news on all three sites for you um if you've driven by cuz I know uh uh Mr chairman that you are as you did with the last one you often drive by to see what's going on I don't think there's any question on Robinson Road that would made substantial progress It's one in which um we haven't had an unexpected surprise and we've move forward with it and it's probably 80 to 90% done so we would respectfully ask that I I'll ask for them all at the end but that that there be evidence that we've made substantial progress and therefore it should not be rescinded the second uh project 1050 main we have done work with and I have photographs for the for these first two that uh we put the road in and we're ready to go forward there's been discussions with the town um over the past 3 or four months that I've been tangential on because I'm not an engineer and I'm just really called in when they need me to to speak to you all but as it was approved our people are ready to go forward there's a new fire chief who has said I might like you to tweak it a little bit and so there's dialogue going on about whether it can be done reasonably with a modification or whether it would be problematic to try to modify what our rights are versus the town's rights are we're not looking to pick a fight but I just want you to be aware that we have made progress we've done work on the site it's not nearly as far as Robinson Rad but as far as your legal standard we've made progress towards that site and then the third site is the most complicated is the one on Woodbridge and uh you may or may not be aware of this but after you approved it we went out and began to cut down a couple of trees and two neighbors came in and said you have no right to get to that property because you have to cross across our property um so my clients have put a fair amount of money unfortunately not in my pocket as their lawyer they have Boston lawyers who are dealing with this but there's been a fight about the rights to get there and not only have the neighbors and my clients been involved but the town's been actively involved in it as well and in fact fact they entered into in the land Court a very lengthy settlement agreement within the last four months to say here's what the town has decided here's what we are willing to commit to here's what the neighbors expectations are everybody has signed off on it so we have not sat on our rights in fact we were we were forced to be in land Court to establish that we had a prescriptive right to be getting access to that property based upon the historical use of the property by the the current owner who's going to be our landlord and uh and and I'm happy to you know supplement and provide you with a full copy of the settlement agreement but it's about 40 pages long and it's not that interesting to be honest with you but it is available and so I think by the legal standard it is either we've made substantial progress or there uh there are extenda circumstances that would suggest that we weren't able to do so and would respectfully suggest that based on the one that we had no issues with with we're 90% of the way there the one that we had some issues with that we're trying to resolve with 10 to 20% of the way there and the third one we've spent money on the litigation that we should be permitted the extra time to try to continue to develop the project so that's my little pitch um it's a good pitch um so I'll add to what you said so yes um Robinson Road is pretty much 3/4 of the way done if not closer um going driving by looks good we have uh continuous dialogue with the company and and they are what's the word I'm looking for they're they responsive thank you um so yes Robinson Ro personally I don't have an issue with um I do know that you want to land call for Cushing Lane that's the one at the end of the road um and I know that you need to go through Cushing Lane to get to 1052 um correct uh I do realize that if you weren't in land court that uh um that one would probably be as uh Advanced as um Robinson Road is because out of all of them that one had like the least amount of wetlands that one had the least amount of problems yeah um 1050 uh the one right on Main Street there uh that when you built a driveway you're right you do you did start um but if I'm not mistaken you still have conservation issues there's two yeah there I just to be fully transparent there are two issues one is and Nate was here earlier there was an original design for What A detention Pond would be right I was with I was in front of the concom about 10 months ago or so where they said we have some issues with the way you've done the detention Pond redesign it you have to make some modifications that's something we have to go back in front of them for make sure that they're happy just realizing both from the developer side the lawyer side and your side like we all stay in our silos so we're not unaware of that issue but as far as are we making progress are we trying I think that in light of the fact that first of all some of the work's been done secondly I know there's a neighbor who has had issues because there was for my view it's unrelated to I get no but that that's actually not to interrupt you but that's actually is the one that's related to us so the two that I'm aware of the two isses I'm aware of is the one with concom which is the back retain retain Chon in the back um I know you have issues with that and you're working on that the other issue clarify if you remember is the left of that new driveway that happened that they put in a a small pipe to basically drain it across it didn't really work and then we were kind of going back and forth we need to figure out as far as the planning board's concerned we need to figure out a way to alleviate that ponding on the side because that is what happened last year it flooded so much it Flo across the road Flo into the neighbor's property across the street and and out their basement is what it does and then there was an accident the car hit the pole because it was flooding out and it was and I'm I am not an engineer I have a hard enough time being a lawyer but I will say this from what I understand there were issues with ponding there that existed before so I don't think we started from scratch that we were hurting an original situation and it was something that really originated with our neighbor I think it's to the South where originally there was a flow of a goalie that was filled in and I'm not here to blame her I'm not here to blame the board stuff happens in time um my understanding from the engineer was number one that we were going to make sure that we did not create further of an issue we were not going to say on our side of the driveway block anything more whether we did or we didn't that's for experts beyond my capacity to say we also have had dialogue at one point with what could the town do if we don't want to demand that that labor correct the problem does the town have the capacity if we bought pipes and DPW put in pipes is it financially feasible on both sides those dialogues have gone on I'm aware of I don't want to speak for the town I don't want to speak for my client that an answer has been resolved I think I just want to set reasonable expectations for the neighbor which is you had issues before we don't want to add to them we want to try to to the to the extent possible solve them it's an engineering problem in is something we're aware of and we will continue to be aware of it and we recognize that when we deal with the concom on the back they that's something we have to come back to when we look for our final approvals from you it's something we have to have addressed in a way that is fair and reasonable not 100% what he wants not 100% what we want and we're willing to do that um for The Limited purpose of tonight I appreciate that the chairman is telling me hey don't think you're coming back in front of us to close this out without addressing those two issues totally aware of it but I I also think that as a technical matter since we got the email this morning saying hey you better show up to show us that number one you've made progress and number two that you know where we come from both of those messages have been sent agreed um and in the past in the past few months we've had other solar companies coming in asking for extensions um speaking for myself um when I see somebody sitting on their hands and they haven't done anything whatsoever then it makes me question whether I should extend that perit or not uh We've also been hit with Town Council and other legalities from a state house that there's all kinds of bylaws and whatnot that that are being created or whatever they being for for the solar so almost our hands are almost tied as far as um the interconnection agreements that are going on um I will say that out of other um solar companies that have been in front of us they have been some of them have done absolutely nothing because they're just waiting for their interconnection agreement I actually think you guys have an interconnection agreement um and I do think you have been trying um if if again if everything was just sitting and nothing's been going on that's a in my opinion that's a different story I know that Robinson R just about done I know that you wanted to go into Kush Lane we've been out conservation but I know you hit a legality snap with with Cushing Lane that one actually has a building permit and you can't do nothing there then you got to go through Cushing Lane to get to Woodbridge which is 1052 and I know you probably would have started with that if it wasn't for illegalities so as far as the question of um a company that has been trying I will say you have um compared to some that have gentlemen any questions no I agree fully with that they totally made progress on all three sites one almost done another one sort of starting to get its way and the other one they've been fighting these different issues but they have been taken on the issues so they have been trying to advance the projects so no problem with me yeah it seems like they definitely advancing the project so I really have no issue it looks like you're addressing the concerns um yeah the only thing that I know that you can't answer which probably du or the engineers could answer is when will we see this board sees something regarding 1050 uh because that's been lingering for some time right so I think I don't want to commit to a date certain but I do think that technically on the back part the concom is the controller like are they going to be happy with the way we redesign that once they approve it we would come to you guys I don't want to come to you and then have them say it's not good enough CU they're the ones who really have that's that's within their syum and how far are you away from that do you know do you have any idea that I I'll I'll check with Nate and I will get an email to staff okay if not tomorrow then next week so that you'll at least have that you'll be aware of that and the second issue in the front um I honestly don't have an update since the last time I was here and the gentleman who has been here a number of times before he seems like a really nice person he's clearly upset that he's had issues with his basement but you know we've tried to do the best we can to say we're not going to make it any worse but you know if you buy a house that had had this issue and had two some pumps before you know it's it's going to be an issue and we'll try to we W make it worse we'll try to make it better but we can't guarantee you something but that being said it is on our agenda and I do know that there were some discussions at one point cuz we're all familiar with the fact that for a public project to go forward it's a lot of money for the town and you got to go out to bid whereas if a private developer is doing something you can sometimes get things done more efficiently whether it's buying us buying the material and some Town people improving an unfortunate situation that dialogue is is open the last I talked to the owner and developer from our side on that particular sub isue was within the last three months and he was open to that discussion so I'm hoping that okay well that'll be something that will be discussed once once once we have a plan and we can ask for specific relief and a modification we'll do it um we have the ability to extend uh a special permit for a year or two uh we don't necessarily have to extend it for two we have the ability to do it for one or two years uh I'm I'm in the point of extending it for a year and then that gives you a full year to figure what things are out not saying that you can't come back in and ask for that second year y but at this point I in my personal opinion I would recommend extending all three for one year especially Robinson Road you know for sure that's going to be done long before that year understood no and I I get it that uh you know you have a role to play in this and you want to keep our feet to the fire but you're trying to be fair to us and we'll take what you recommend and we'll be grateful for it but just we do appreciate what the town has done and we're trying to work with the town so whatever you think is appropriate I'll take motion yeah I make a motion that we uh extend uh all three projects another year I'll second it we have a motion we have a second all in favor so your all three of them expire on 914 2024 thank you 25 yeah right now it's 24 you have until 25 make sure come back next no you got thank you everybody appreciate I appreciate I'll send Em sounds good thank you good um was there something that I skipped over you for something uh I don't know if you want to bring this up now or later I have some property in a cushion it um hold on come on stand [Music] up my name is Derek Adams I own some property off of Lambert and East laon um I believe I might as with you briefly um I've been trying for about a year and a half to get some information on the property um brief description my great great grandparents developed Auto Land from NIS Lane heading North East lton lton Street Kendrick um many 100 God knows how many Lots from n Lane heading north um they've in you know over the years people have passed away and i' for years I've been paying taxes on the property I was going to build my own family house there I've dealt with everybody from Kevin to multiple people in a cionet and I've been frustrated with go here do this go here do that and I've gone in circles for a year and a half now if not longer with go to this go to that planning board go to the conservation and that I have nothing to it's been nothing but aggravation over and over and over actually came to conservation uh meeting uh last week and Ryan helped me out um briefly and I've contacted some people and they're like you I don't know why you're coming here you need to go to zba I put an application for zba supp to come next month and then they say you leave zba you need to contact conservation uh somebody to have the land uh surveyed and have the land uh walked and oh no you don't need that you need to go back to zba to have them improve the lots and then planting board and the select board cuz you have lots that don't meet the requirement for the size of the lot my Lots um it's map 18 128 and 136 uh those two lots are larger than any pel anywhere in that area I'm more than almost 350 ft to 400 ft away from any w lands um Fernandes owns a property after me that he has some problems with Wetlands I nowh of that I actually had somebody from the uh uh conservation come out you know just a plenty walkth through nothing formal just come out to look at it um the agent I think his name is Mark he came out walked it he's like dark I see nothing you know that I'm worried about I said okay well I don't want to think of writing I just wanted to make sure I'm not seeing I've walked this property my entire life I've played on it I've picked raspberries I've like I've done all kinds of stuff there um I grew up on this land you know um and now I'm I'm actually figuring out if I'm going to sell it or I'm going to keep it build my own house um I've said in the past I've been so frustrated that I don't want to build anymore in a cushion net um which is pretty sad you know cuz I you know my whole family is from a cushion net you know um tabers tab Street and you know Cox Street and all that it's all family names it's all it's been the family and I want to keep it in the family I really do uh I don't waste you guys time but I I keep going in circles to find out what I'm supposed to do as far as I want to be straight forward with the town I want to be straightforward with a potential buyer and also do my due diligence as far as to resale again to buy my own home or you know to build my own home there um it's wooded land it's all Upland is what I'm told um I've many people friends of mine and the family uh Engineers go out there look at it and they see no problem so I just I'm I'm going to cut you off I'm I love that perfect um correct me if I'm wrong yeah so basically I think your best bet would be to get an engineering firm and get a preliminary set of plans drawn up you can come up to me you can go to conservation you can go to zba and say I have this I have that I walk this I walk that we don't know anything until we see something on a piece of paper you got something on a piece of paper I know what your Frontage is I know I know what your back is I know what your square footage is it would behoove you it benefit you to throw a little bit extra money and get a wetland scientist and abist out there to say yes he's got zero Wetland or this is where the Wetland is blah blah unfortunately to do it without spending a dollar is going to be difficult but if you want to just spend a little bit of money you don't have to get a full-blown set of plans done or nothing a small preliminary set of plans get an engineering firm out there and then you can see if it meets uh a zoning requirement for a house comes to us we'll say yes sorry to interrupt so just to clarify a little bit this is a paper Street issue okay um right I believe no I mean my Lots um there is paper streets that run right through the center uh and then there's a couple streets that go on either side right and on both sides of your lots and I've been dealing with a few paper streets so corre correct me if I'm not talking about the right one but you have lots on either side right and the paper Street in the middle is not improved it's all wooded correct right so I think that's part of the issue um paper Street we got take care of that paper Street situation again I this is the first I'm hearing about isue with a paper Street I've been told by suing the planning to the selectman's office to uh conservation back and forth saying you can either a combine those two lots and take over the paper street with zoning Board of approval and planning board approval you could either just enter there's three different locations to enter on that one property uh Lon East Lon um the end of Cox Street and then lton Street um Cox and lot running the corner there um there's three different entrances you can get to that one property nobody ever said there'll be a problem with entering or you need to take over the paper Street or anything with again you might not you might not have to if you have enough upin if you have enough scrip with if you have enough everything as long as it's again it needs to be on a which I I I was totally for going to Rick Sharon I called I talked to Rick Sharon and he was supposed to get back to me on a couple different occasions and I've yet to hear from him um you know I reach out to another person that Ryan recommended and he said you're wasting your time and I I didn't understand why you was I was wasting my time um you know the lot sizes AR big enough and um my one of my ab Neighbors is 100 by 100 my smallest lot is 300 by 270 I think so in my mind call me crazy but this lot is three times to four times the size of my abing neighbor I mean why wouldn't it be approved with you know different boards and it might possibly be uh but we need it on a piece of paper showing us exactly where your Frontage is where your road is where that paper Street if there is any where that fall you need I need something to look at so I I submitted um not sure how we got was it from the town I'm that you submitted that right before I came on I think you got it from the assessor's office I think yeah it was just there was actually 12 lot property map yeah there was a property Map There's 12 lots and they combined them to two separate uh I don't know how the town did that but they combined I think it's nine and three so nine lots and three lots across ret treat from each other somehow they combined them together and now I'm because after a certain amount of years of being held in common ownership in carial lines dissolve okay so that's how they come that's how they I appreciate I appreciate the knowledge because nobody as far as the neighbor like you said he's got a 100 buying 100 well maybe when the nab's lot was built or when that lot came into existence that was the zoning at the time now the zoning over there has changed probably so now you need a bigger lot instead of just the 100 by 100 right sure so you know those are other things that you have to take into account absolutely I'm not I'm not saying that you know I'm you know I'm I'm definitely transparent on things change and I'm just trying to explain and I you know that's all I want you really need a preliminary plan so everybody's something to rust their hat on and say okay this is what we're looking at you know so that's definitely the route that you need to go right now to get this Advanced and I don't see why you couldn't get it Advanced I you know I I've reached out to many different people and you know even Engineers you know I've reached out to a couple different and I'm still waiting to hear back I know they are busy and long but even like I've reached out to people in in in town as far as you know in the town hall and some are very helpful and some just kind of like okay I'll get back to you again if those people and I'm not going to speak for those people and I'm not going to speak to for other boards but if there was a piece of paper a plan that showed what you have and you brought it to planning conservation zba any other board Board of Health you bring that set of plans anywhere most of them can look at it and say oh this needs to go here because this so this you know right so would the first my first uh stop would be zba the first stop is to get a set of plans zba actually accepted the layout that I had that I had to make nine copies of and get a list of abutters um that office accepted what I had because you know you clearly see what was paper what wasn't in you know in between um they accepted that and then at the conservation they said you don't even need zba this is this is you shouldn't even need this so it's kind of like one person saying yes one person saying no and you know if I have to go to you know either Thompson O'Neal or you know falland or whoever yeah I can't speak for other the other um boards if and it might be us that you need to see it might be zba I can't I don't know what I just didn't know what I I've tried to if it's a cut and dry set of plans with a lot on it you bring that in front of us and we'll take a look at it and we'll tell you yes that's a buildable lot no it's a nonconforming need this is what we need to do I'll tell you where to go once I see a set of plans okay I can't tell you anything perfect at yeah we need all the information in order to make a and then I'll tell you exactly whether we can do it or somebody else that can so it goes from zoning board to planning board to selectman's office how does that how does it work as far s might not have anything to do with it depending on what your issues are it might come I would say come to us okay first we'll look at it if it meets requirements with the last stop we'll tell tell you what to do after that if it doesn't meet requirements and you need a a zoning uh variant you got to go zoning board of appeals and then we'll also say you know hey you know wetlands are we can look at you know satellite photos and say on your property they might be off to the corner but then we would notify conservation saying and then they would say whether or not you need an abist out there to to survey but for again for right now I can't tell and I hate to give you another Runar around no it's fine I can't tell you what to do where to go without I've come to the town and just to try to talk to somebody has been very difficult this person Works two days this person works three I can never get we're a small town of course I totally understand uh so it's kind of tough to get answers and you know the secretaries do the best they can and I'll reach out to you when I talk to this person and and I kind of get you know kind of forgotten about which you know things happen um just just want to clarify trying to find out what I'm trying to do my due and again I'm not you know I've been frustrated in the past and I'm just like you know what I'm going to sell I just want to get out of here and not worry about it but you have a hard time selling if you don't have a set of plans some buy hon I had I had to reach out and they said we'll buy it as is no questions asked but obviously for substantial less for what what it's you have a set of plans stamp I want to deem it you know buildable um and do the right steps you know to you know my do d as far as you know before I you know it's listed for sale right now um just to get the word out you know but again I'm not saying no I'm not going to build on it yes I'm going to sell it you know I'm not really you know um 100% sure on what I'm going to do but so like I said I can steer you in the right direction that's all I want I appreciate look at and again Ryan's been great from conservation and um couple other departments have been you know pretty transparent but it's just difficult with one person says one some you know kind of go back and forth that's right but that piece of paper all get on the same that's the thing yeah I I mean I've given what I have and you know some people say Hey listen this is good enough and I'm like you sure yeah that's good enough you you get a rough idea of to square fidget a lot we can kind of figure out where the lot is and then you go on the the the State website and you can see that Wetland is far enough away that had nothing to do with me and so then some like no that's not enough you have to have it you know surveyed you have to have a botus come out and well you don't need to do that you need to have it surveyed first and the survey says Nope you don't need that you need to so I kind like you know it all it all falls to a set yeah so I'm going to so I'll have I'll have the uh land surveyed um and I guess then have somebody come out as far as conservation to have it having a b b come out and check it out if there's no wetlands and they stamp it that's just one less step you're going to have to go through in the future and whether you keep it or you sell it it's going to you're still going to you're still going to need all that to well you don't need it it would you'll make a lot more money if you have it right correct and I'm not I I really don't want to sell it I really don't you know I really want to stay in a cushion it if I can um but my frustration has just been so I'm going to so I'll do my I'll do what I have to do as far as homework and uh come back in front of us and we'll help you out we'll help you every way we can yeah Kevin's been great I mean he's a busy guy and he's like I'll reach out to I got to talk to and you know he's been dealing with some other stuff we haven't had a Time planning for a long time so now we a lot of you know some things could have fallen through the cracks as far as my my Department's concerned but they have they have them but then again now we are up and running and give me a set of plans and I'll guide you in the right direction I appreciate that so I have a zoning board meeting with some I think that I put my paperwork in Tuesday before I think it was last week I had be in so the that supposed to be done so I'm going to try to get that done um and then I guess things moving forward so you go I appreciate you guys time you got it I appreciate it guys thanks thank you very much thank you have a good night thank you all right let's see where are we all right we jumped that we jumped that we're going to discussions and other topics B discussions of the master plan committee uh the master plan will be kicking off soon we need to uh appoint somebody from the cing board be a representative on the committee I'm going to hand this over to you could you yes fill us in a little bit please of course Victoria alaro Town planner for the record um so yes the master plan will be will be kicking off soon um I did have a call with Serpent and Jamie or Town Administrator today um so I guess with the master plan there were also a couple other projects that the town was thinking about like looping in kind of doing at the same time um so the open space and Recreation Plan update and also a Water Resource Management project um so before the master plan can officially get kicked off and started the town sort of needs to determine what are we going to are we going to do all of those are we going to keep them separate efforts um and see with what funding we have so I did um reach out to um Jen from of capital strategies I think she does a lot of the grant applications and Jamie said she knows kind of what funding we have and what we don't um so I am going to have a meeting with her next week about that and sort of go from there and then I think we'll we'll sort of decide what what we think is is best with like looping in together or keeping as a separate um project I do think the open space and Recreation Plan update is that would be a good effort to pair with the master plan cuz there's already an open space section in the plan so when you send out surveys and do Outreach events you can kind of do them at the same time so people don't get this like oh there's another event like then you don't have attendance um so I think that will work out well um so yes so hopefully the internal kickoff meetings there going to be a few people you know with staff um that will happen in early October as long as we stay on track um and then the B plan committee will have to be established and typically it does have representative or two from the planning board so I think it it it' kind of be time for you guys to sort of start thinking about if you want to participate um or not um and sort of go from there every Community sort of sets this up differently some communities like to have a meeting every month some only when it's like major things happening um so it really depends and you just want to make sure if you're going to commit this is at least a 2-year Endeavor roughly so you want to make sure you're going to have that availability to keep on with the project just something to consider thank you um I the master plan is is is important it's a it's a big project I'd like to be uh on the committee uh representing the planning board uh but I also open to having somebody else uh from the planning board as well on the committee um you don't have to we're not a full board right now but you guys you two guys can think about it and then we'll you know we'll ask again when everybody's here uh and decide on uh possibly uh one more person uh for the committee on the from the planning board um I will make an announcement now uh for all you viewers out there that we will be taking one or two people it hasn't been decided yet but the vacancy notices um for for the citizen um representative seats will be posted online and and on Facebook once we get a committee set up we will be posting um for anybody uh residents that would like to join the committee uh for the uh helping out with the master plan questions very good moving on uh C discussion on revised fee schedule um Pete this is before you uh we had um discussed different fees and different we're actually going to table this one um we had been discussing this today and a couple more questions came up that we don't have the answers to so we're going to table the revised fee schedule for a later meeting moving on discussions on draft accessory dwelling uh unit by byaw Victoria all right so um I did um attached to your packet a draft um accessory dwelling unit or Adu um bylaw um I basically mirrored the state's um requirements um with the exception of adding um you know prohibiting short-term rentals which are rentals shorter than 30 days um I do think to a certain degree short-term rentals contribute to the housing crisis that we're in um so I think it's it's mindful you know for the board to consider that um when adopting this bylaw um you know I do think adus are a much needed housing off options for you know older adults who want a smaller space but still want to maintain their independence but it also could be you know a recent college graduate who wants to live in town but still have a separate space from from their family or so forth um you know or homeowner that you know would like to supplement their income so I think there's a lot of different um groups of people that can benefit from this housing option um including the town um since I believe those units will be taxed a little differently if they're for rental income um so also keep in mind that um as we develop this bylaw um additional regulations and guidelines may come out from polc which is the state department um who was authorized to create guidelines but they haven't said whether or not they're going to do that um so it's just just like with the NBTA communities act that came out they developed those guidelines a lot later and then revise them a few times so it's just important to keep that in mind that this that may in fact come up um and then the last thing I wanted to touch on was that there are several sections of the bylaw that reference um that you need an a special permit for accessory Apartments so we're when the time comes we'll also have to hold a public hearing to remove those um out of the bylaw and then also I believe there's a section of our rules and regulations that mention you need planning board approval for like an additional unit um or like a dwelling uh unit um so that might need to be adjusted as well it's just good to kind of keep that in mind yeah for sure and if there's anything else that you guys can think of that you'd want to add to this obviously we're we're kind of you know limited to what we can add to it but if you find you have any ideas I was talking to Victoria about this earlier I'm I'm also in favor of this um but something that I brought up was if somebody in town 5 Acres whatever amount large piece of property and they want to put a dwelling here and then go back in front of the zba and ask for a dwelling here and then a dwelling here and then a dwelling here right now the way it's worded they can't oh I was reading I thought it said you couldn't put more than if you have a multi family already on on a lot you not allowed to anymore and if you have uh if you have more than a if you have a residence and there's already a rental property there you can't add no more so you're saying in terms of the the state law or the draft um you're talking about the state law that you read yeah it had to be the state law the one that we law the last meeting yeah so the state so the state law does say that for single family homes you can do the accessory dwelling unit by right but for an additional for they say for more than one you shall have it have the additional unit by by special permit right so that I put in there cuz that's in the state law so it doesn't limit multiple you uh use I I guess I I'm just trying to say that even if they had that 5 acre law there're still going to be two units and the story I mean the way the state law is written I don't think that's technically the case because they're saying for if you want to add a second unit you need a special permit okay but that's the second unit not the third fourth fifth and sixth I guess is what I'm trying to yeah and I'm not sure honestly if that's if we're able to limit that I think maybe we should consider that and try and then you know when the Attorney General's office reviews our bylaw if they say oh actually this is in conflict with the law then we'll have to remove that right right now the the the B the law that the that K law sent us m is vague and it it doesn't say just one just two just whatever it's vague so I was talking to Victoria about this and I think we should add our own saying you can only have two basically if you want you got one above the garage and then you want to throw one in the backyard that's it you know that's it you're done two two right so so you had to have the main residence and if you had the garage with the house that's it that's the second one you're all done okay then I would like to have that added in I mean two residences per lot and that'd be it two I would agree with you yeah now I'm just hoping that that's what the state well I think that may be in conflict with the state law only because they put that sentence in there that says for an additional accessory dwelling unit um it shall be by special permit and Sh is typically sh is typically mandatory so that's at least how I interpret it I know this is very new um it there's going to be a lot of feeling this out to see how how it P up right and what the state is going to consider a reasonable restriction or not right right so I would agree I would I wouldn't mind seeing somebody who's got a house and they either put it above the garage put it in the basement even if they did a little 900 foot SEC uh separate little housing on the side you know I wouldn't mind seeing that I'm I'm in favor of a lot of this I just think like wait a minute what if somebody's got a big piece of property and they throw another septic sign now they put in a second one and then they want to throw in another one over there and before you know it you got you know three or four residences on one piece of property how does one go about selling that keeping that how do you do that I mean to me that makes that's so convoluted you can't do it after all the years the state stopped everybody from doing it you know what I'm saying it was a law you couldn't do it you know you couldn't have two residences on one law residential unit you just couldn't and that's been state law forever you know you can't I know I did lanan long enough I know you can't have two on one law it just that's not allow now you can't now you can't so let's just throw that some wording in on that and see if if we get our hand slapped or not but let's just throw that in there and say you got the ability to have a dwelling and one Adu and see where we go for oh no the second the second by special per the special perit and then that's it you're done and that seems reasonable I would think so as well right so let's try to throw that in you okay okay uh [Music] moving on time planner update got me again so okay so I want to bring up a few different grant opportunities and I know we are starting the master plan and potentially roping in a couple other projects I think that's important to sort of consider how we move forward with that we fact if we apply for anything um so I want to start with complete streets so that's a grant funding program through the state I'm not sure if anybody's heard of it but it's about making streets safer and accessible for all roadway users um so Vehicles pedestrians cyclists of anyone that uses roadway um the town is not a part of this program currently um and what this is is it's divided into tiers so like the first tier would be the town adopting and complete streets policy you know stting they're going to do exactly that make the street safer for all roadway users um and then from there you can create what's called a prioritization plan which you can put up to like it's usually around 15 to 20 projects you know you can put like a problem intersection um on there that needs to be addressed um you know sidewalk connectivity if you have a missing link there and you want to improve that ADA CB rips it could be such a wide range of things to make the street safer um so you can get up to $38,000 in technical assistance funding to do that plan and you can pair with a consultant and they'll help you uh help us do that and then from there once you have that there's a third tier that you can apply for up to $500,000 for construction funding um so that is only construction and not planning documents just to keep that in mind um but that funding will help you do you know your your transportation project um and that funding is available every four fiscal years and let's say you don't use the full 500 you can apply the next year but just not more than 500,000 for your community over the four fiscal year span um so I don't know if anyone has any um questions about that grant program um I mean I think it sounds good it depends I'm not 100% familiar on how all how grants work and how you I know some grants are different than others um as long as there's no strings attached that you know for us to give you this you have to do this and for us to give you the 500 you have to do then it's going to cost us money in a different area no the only thing you have to do to be eligible is to adopt the complete streets policy which would get adopted by the board of selectman and then someone from the staff also has to have taken the complete streets training which I completed a few years ago with a previous Community um so that requirement is satisfied but other than that there's no you know yeah I mean as far as there's no that the complete Street thing is that so they have like um like designated bike lanes and it can be it's not all doesn't have to though yeah it doesn't have to be focused around that like for example there um in the previous Community I worked in there was a a really bad intersection where there's almost near accidents all the time so one of the things there was to potentially put like a roundabout a mini roundabout um so it's just about making making the streets safer um not necessarily pushing shared youth pass or anything like that but that's not to say you can't have that in your plan if that's a priority for the board um I like I like the fact of you know uh maybe a few more sidewalks on some of the main roads um obviously you can't do all of them especially back roads and small roads but some of the main roads that don't have sidewalks or if sidewalks don't connect I think or you know the handicap accessible uh for for sidewalks that I think is is important I think it's good and if all it is is you know we have to adopt that plan and then you know we just apply for the funding and then you know and if we are accepted then I think it's not a bad Grant to try to go for yeah I I don't think so either um I think it's even if like let's say you don't use this construction funding but there's another opportunity you have it in one of your plans you can show you know that other funding opportunity hey this is already listed this is a priority for the town you know what I mean so it does sort of open up that you already have it documented that this is an issue and it needs to be addressed so I think it's good for more than just this program okay I'm good okay um and then moving on so um Community compact best practices I did put this on here because um they do have an option for like doing an economic development plan and I've heard like from the first day I started that's huge for the town um but I do not that there is a component of that in the master plan as well so it might be that the master plan will sort of satisfy that for now and then if we need to dive deeper we can do that I'm just thinking about if we need to prioritize if I don't want to take on too much but I do think that that is something to consider um well an economic plan I think is very important in this town right now yeah yes which is what I heard um so that could be one of those things where it could also kind of go hand in hand with the master plan um because there is a section on that as well um I know an economic like the master plan will be more of a a brief overview and I imagine economic develop plan is going to be more specific to the areas in targeted um um but that one um it could be that one opened up a few weeks ago and it goes until the funding's exhausted so that one You definitely we would need to make a decision on relatively soon whether or not we we want to apply for that one what what what entails that one is just applying to see if we get approved yeah that one's relatively simple it's so um aush is a part of the community Compact and so what that is is you so like the administration office will get a letter from the state with a link of of to click on to apply and everything and you can apply for up to two best practices um it doesn't really have a cap but usually I've seen funding kind of between 20 and 50,000 to do these sort of planning efforts um so yeah and it like I said there's no deadline but it does go until until the funding is exhausted so it's just important to keep that in mind so they sort of first come first serve right I think we should just jump in line for everything so yeah great I'm not going to disagree with you on that so you would like me to talk to Jamie about applying for that talk to Jamie about that I know I have heard um the select board the select board I know is in favor of going for Grants MH uh I know that I've heard uh some of the members again like I mentioned before kind of worried about um applying for this but you got to do this to get this and right um I just whatever we as a board um decide let's say the three of us decide yes we want we want to try both of those I just feel that we should one present it to Jamie the Town Administrator and then either he will present it to the select board or we you present it to the select board but um uh to keep it everybody kind of in the loop and kind of everybody uh happy then we definitely got to include everybody of course okay um so if there's no questions I see go for that one too okay perfect um so the so the complete streets you want to start working towards that the deadline's not for another 6 months we would have just missed it but to do the policy first and everything that takes a little bit of time anyways yeah so I think we should just jump in and get okay and then lastly the last thing I want to mention is also another Community compact program it's called the it Grant um so I do know our billing department does have online permitting um it can be quite a costly expense to start up with that and they're the only Department that's on I did have a meeting with our other perim departments today and I think one of them has to check with their board but I think most of them are in favor of of you know getting online Prim rating um so this definitely would alleviate the cost you know for the town if we were to receive this funding yeah cuz there's a lot of Permitting software out there there is we have Simplicity um that's what the building department has so I imagine we want to continue that and use the same so we're all the same software um the online permitting does have a yearly fee associated with it so I believe this would be mainly for the startup cost and probably the first year and then after that the town would have to fund that so that's just something to keep in mind that that will be a reoccurring cost for the town again I mean and if we go for it and we we try to go for this grant then you know before obviously we we start with anything we got to know more or less what that reoccurring cost is cuz that's going to be approved by all the powers that be obviously and probably town meeting and all that yes uh so um but I totally agree and I and and I know that there's a lot of surrounding towns that have online permitting uh I know that uh um out town clerk would love it if uh dog licenses were were online permitting I know there lots of things that and a lot of people would rather just go online like we they do with the building department now right so I think it would be really great if we could you know go and run in that you know modern day yeah style like everybody else okay so I will talk to Jamie about that one I will talk to Jamie about that one too perfect well that is all I have of course if you guys ever have anything for me you want me to research or look into feel free to let me know fabulous all right uh that's all we've got we're down to our next meeting being Thursday September 19th uh gentlemen anything else you'd like to bring up or discuss sure all good all right entertain a motion I make a motion to adjourn I will Second That Emotion all in favor all right all right [Music] [Music] oh