so I'm going to call the Tuesday May 7th 2024 meeting of the Esau meal planning board to order the first item of business is to call um the RO so present are Cassandra chero Russell Denver Bill fona Robert Ro PE hundson all right second item is uh I'm asking if there's anyone in the audience or by Zoom who might be recording this meeting would you if so please state your name and the method you're using to record the meeting I will ask one more time if there's anyone in the audience or by Zoom who is recording this meeting and if there is please state your name in the method in which you are recording the meeting hearing none uh I would ask for approval of the April 2nd 2024 Open Session minutes I'll make a motion to do have a second second motion made and second any discussion hearing none um all in favor say I I hi abstain okay uh first item of business Mr clerk uh case sd- d223 d01 request for consideration of performance bondur and Covenant for Oakwood Estates applicant Thomas El Beretta 32 Eastwood Drive wilham mass 01095 and I'm going to turn it over to uh Rebecca to kind of just tell where we're at with it sure thank you uh I'm under the impression that Mr fra and his legal representation are not here tonight because they are waiting for final approval of their letter of credit um so they kindly ask that this be taken up at the next meeting motion um motion to continue it's not the public hearing so tabling I think is fine okay so someone make a motion to table this item someone have a second second any discussion hearing none all in favor say I hi no one is opposed so that matter passes Mr clerk uh public hearings case s224 d03 requests for special permit for best daycare homebased Family Day Child Care operation at uh 28 how Hill Road assessor partial ID 5-17-18 located in the RB zoning District applicant Beth D 28 outer Hill Road East on metal Mass 010 so is Mr the petitioner here can you please come in and sign in please SAR there should be a pen there if there's not I'll get see one sorry okay I get a motion to open this public hearing second second any discussion all in favor say I I I so thank you for submitting everything but for uh the people in the audience who may know nothing about this or the people who are on elcat watching when you tell us what you're trying to get with from the planning board this evening and a little bit about the business how long it's been operating hours of operation number of children okay Etc um I run a home daycare that's licensed with uh the state um out of my home I've been running for it'll be two years next week or the week after actually um that I obtained my license um I'm just trying to get my business license uh so that I'm operating legally um I run from 7: am to 4:30 uh PM Monday through Friday closed holidays um I have six children in care right now one being my son um I will have seven over the summer my license is for six and two school age obviously transportation is weird so I only offer summer care for the for the school AG children um I've been working in education for 20 years um professional settings uh I worked at Kinder Care in Long Meadow um I have an Associates in early Ed I have a bachelor's in biology from elm's college and I have my master's from AIC in education before I open it to the public do anyone have any questions of the petitioner thank you very much uh if anyone in the audience or by Zoom that would like to be heard on this matter please raise your hand or come forward if you're in the audience I'll say again anyone wish to be heard on this matter please step forward or raise your hand by Zoom seeing no one on zoom and no one in the audience do I have a motion to close the public hearing have a second second motion made and second any discussion hearing none so uh the public hearing is closed and on the vote on the issue of public hearing vot oh yeah okay yeah motion to close the public hearing did that okay now call for the vote now I'm calling for the vote thank you no problem what a team we have here I like it all right um any further discussion hearing none do I have a motion on this item I'll make a motion to approve the special permit for best daycare located 28 Power Road okay to have a second okay motion made in second any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I anyone opposed no item passes thank you very much great night Mr clerk our teach while I know yeah case SP d224 d04 request for special permit for the healing Coupe cop uh a massage therapist facility at 280 North Main Street sors partial ID 14-12 f-f located in the commercial zoning District applicant cesa cot 98 Air Road easta metal Mass 01028 apologize if the petitioners in the audience would you please step forward or by Zoom okay before we do that so I'll make do I have a motion to open the public hearing we move second second any discussion motion been made in second all in favor say I I anyone opposed hearing none welcome good evening good evening thank you I just lost the sound for a minute while I got asked to be a co- panel person so I'm Sask go owner of the healing Co-op we um like to do body work holistic medicine and I would like to add massage therapy as well so I'm requesting a permit for that we're commercially Zone and there's already other massage therapist in the building and it's just therapeutic massage any questions from the board hearing none anyone in the audience like to be heard on this matter or anyone in Zoom like to be heard on this matter I'll ask again if there's anyone in the audience or by Zoom that like to be heard on this matter hearing none any other further questions from the board so have a motion to close the public hearing don't move have a second motion made in second any discussion hearing none all in favor of closing the public hearing I say I anyone oppose no one opposed on the main item do I have a motion to approve move to approve the special permit for the healing poop massage therapist facility at 280 North Main Street uh good that's presented yep do I second second motion May second any discussion hearing none all in favor say I I post no one thank you you're all set next item Mr clerk right case site d224 d04 request for site plan review approval of the demolition of the existing eastlon metal high school and construction of a new high school building and Associated Parkways driveways parking driveways utilities and field at 180 Maple Street processor partial ID 17-33 located in the RB zoning District applicant Tom Christensen 60 Center Square East metal Mass 01028 you're not Tom Christensen but that's okay you can come in um so do you have a motion to open this public hearing yes have a second second second any discussion hearing none uh all in favor of opening the public hearing say I I anyone oppose don't so we're open the public hearing I think um if I could just give some words of advice on that certainly this issue has been heavily debated and it's been acted on so I don't think that we need to get into on whether the school is the proper size or what's going into the school I I think the the issue are on just the site plan items that are properly before this board okay I mean it's passed and it's moving forward and so I don't think we need to debate any of that um so we do have a presentation that just goes through okay site and just general go ahead yeah we should turn our chairs or not sure why this nice School nice there we go right uh oh good evening my name is John heart I'm a civil engineer with smma um and we are group is proud to be here and presenting your project uh high school project Tom Christensen applicant Town manager and H School building Committee Member uh Dory Brooks um behind me uh with Joe Winslet Architects uh the prime designer for the project and architect um Eric bages or Landscape Architects with smma um and East Long medal high school graduate um myself civil engineer with smma uh Cameron St Croy civil engineer uh Greg Lucas and Matthew stoes from tyan Bond are Traffic Engineers and then Mark Hogan I saw I didn't see Dan um but they're with the construction manager Fontaine brothers and um we're going to go through just overall site design U what's what's in the program of the school um on the exterior uh just touch on zoning and the project phasing and then through uh dory's going to talk about architecture um the building and I'll touch on the site utilities and storm water and then uh go through the traffic and then open for questions so I'm going to ask you to change this agenda okay move traffic after site design okay I know there are people in the audience who are here because they're most concerned about traffic so I'd like to make sure that we address that okay okay sure um do want big PL for on the table for reference do you want to pick plants in front of you thank you thank you John uh my name is Eric bses landscape architect with smma uh before we get into the proposed site plan site plan we just like to take a second and step back for a minute just to review the camp reintroduce the campus uh in context with its surroundings so the existing campus is over 60 Acres uh it is about just just over 3/4 of a mile to the west of town center I it's bordered to the north by Maple Street and residential neighborhoods to the west by residential neighborhoods uh to the South by residential neighborhoods and Industrial uh businesses and to the east by resource areas uh the Redstone rail trail and St Michael's parish uh as you can see today on Maple Street there are three points of access to somewhat opposite Melwood Avenue uh that's the primary entrance to the site that brings you to the the front door of the school which you can see is highlighted by the Red Dot and that's what we call the Horseshoe uh there is an entrance at the northeast corner of the campus uh and there is also a secondary entrance at the southwest corner of the campus uh which is basically an extension of nordon Street and that provides access for district office employees and uh visitors uh also some of the smaller school buses and vans use that rear end entrance as do custodial staff and also services and deliveries uh right now large deliveries like tractor trailers typically pull into the main parking lot that you see there uh and unload from there because they just can't make make it through those uh those residential neighborhoods uh so you can see the existing building in the heart of the property um it's an expansive building uh that what's interesting is if you look from Maple Street at the existing building really cuts off the view to the rest of the campus Because it stretches so far from west to east uh to the east of the building are the existing tennis courts and of course to the South into the West are natural Turf athletic fields and then we have the existing stadium with the Synthetic Turf and field and track over to the east that large parking lot serves both visitors or excuse me serves visitors uh faculty and staff and uh students and it's it's hard to see in this image but there's a red line that's painted across that parking lot and that's really the only means of delineating the faculty and staff parking from the student parking so again just wanted to kind of give everyone a kind of brief overview of the existing campus now as we get to the proposed site plan so we we spent two year we've spent the last couple of years developing this site plan based on a wealth of input that we've received from uh both the district the school staff and faculty and interest groups as well as interest groups from the larger community so what you'll notice and what parts of this that I would like to highlight tonight is so what we've done is access one of the uh repeated comments that we heard throughout the design process was the concern about the mixing of school bus traffic and parent uh pick up and drop off now we typically like to separate those so one of the primary features of this site plan is is to do just that it is to separate the parent pick up and drop off from the school bus pickup and drop off so as you can see we have Consolidated the two entrances to what was the Horseshoe to one single entrance opposite Melwood Avenue and that will bring in a new drop off Loop that comes to the new front door of the school now the school is going to be located to the South and the east of the existing building so it'll be a little bit further away from Maple Street that uh parent drop off Loop will come right to the front door we're going to use the Northeast Entrance we're going to improve that and we're going to use that for the school bus drop off that will bring students right out to the front and see sort of at the northeast corner of the school and then you can also see the pool building that is attached to the proposed School uh at the northern at the northern Edge there so we're going to have separate separate parent drop off and pick up from the school buses um we also have parking distributed throughout the site so and and better separated so we're going to have faculty staff and visitor parking out front as you can see uh just to the north of the school we're going to have a lot to the left uh or to the West I should say that will provide parking for district offices elcat and visitors and and and potentially some staff as well and then we have a large student student parking lot that you can see SE from the others and then to the east of the building we have parking along that Eastern driveway the Northern Bay of parking will be uh can be used by the community for the pool building and then we have some parking that that will Service uh provide parking for custodial staff and people services and deliveries um so what we've done at nordon Street one of the opportunities we saw at the beginning of this project is like I said when you look for Maple Street right now the building obscures your view and it's a it's a massive Green Space It's a Wonderful Green Space that works with the Town Center fields and Heritage Park to really provide a valuable community resource and what's interesting about this property is its primary function and I want to stress that its primary function is for the school and administering the school's education program also their athletic program and events such as graduation um you know competitions things of that nature but this site also is a valuable community resource and there are a lot of community events that happen here that needed to be accommodated as part of the program things like the summer concert series uh Fourth of July fireworks Fourth of July parade which uses that parking lot also as a staging area not just as the beginning um so these are some of the events you know Recreational Sports things of that nature it had to be incorporated understanding though that again the primary function of this is the high school but what we really wanted to do is we wanted to sort of reveal that open space to people when they enter the site so now you can see the primary entrance as you enter in The View with the building being shifted to the east is going to open up views into this large open space that's going to contain the relocated and reconfigured athletic fields which I will get to in a minute as you can see to the north of the pool building there's two tennis courts uh two at the northeast corner of the site would be the relocated six tennis courts and the existing Stadium uh will remain although will be improved and again I I'll get into that a little bit more in a minute so zooming in so this is the area around the school so you can see that both of these separate drop offs are actually going to be connected by and serviced by one main entry Plaza and there'll be seating out there Hardscape um trees it'll be a very very nice space for kids um to wait for pickup or wait for the school bus or when they arrive uh it'll be a very very welcoming place and it'll serve as the front door and a real add a sense of arrival when you get to the front of the school uh to the West on the west side of the school we'll have a small prek play area we'll also have an Arts Terrace on that's going to have some outdoor spaces for Outdoor Learning and Outdoors outdoor display on the south side of the building we're going to have an outdoor dining Terrace with a shade structure uh actually shade incorporated into the building and a separate structure to the South and then at the southeast Corner we have a Sciences Outdoor Learning space adjacent to the greenhouse uh one of the other features of this site plan that we're very excited about is that we have cut off nordon Street and that connection given the fact that the building so far to the east now that's that connection really didn't seem to make sense anymore and it disrupted that contiguous open space that we showed you in the previous in the previous slide so what we've done is cut off nordon Street and we've reoriented the loading dock to face East towards undeveloped land and sort of tucked into this Cove of the building and this will mitigate noise uh and visual impacts uh that currently the you know neighbors of some of the abing residential streets look into uh and so the Terminus of nordon Street's now just going to be three accessible spaces and a little Hammerhead for turnaround so people don't aren't encouraged to turn around in residential driveways there will also be gated access for emergency vehicles to access the athletic fields if necessary and it's a little cut off I'm sorry about that down at the bottom here you can see that there will be 360 degree emergency access around the perimeter of the building just a couple of highlights that we wanted to bring to your attention so these are you know by no means FAL but these are some working renderings showing what you know the some of these spaces may look at so the largest um image you can see to your left is the the arrival uh kind of the design for the arrival is you you you come to the front of the the main entrance to the school um you can see there'll be a generous uh outdoor Plaza area and that will be a flush condition so when kids get out of their car they don't have to worry about tripping on a curb we use ballards and flush curb instead said also makes it a little bit easier for snow removal uh and you can see some of the seat walls that we're proposing in there um the don't concern yourself too much with the exterior of the building at this uh Dory will get into maybe a little bit more of the detail afterward about the exterior finishes of the building this is really just to show massing so these aren't the necessarily the proposed finishes um we want to you know East Long Meadow is as I grew up here it's an interesting Tale of Two Towns in some respects because it's got an indust industrial developed core which we sort of relate the school to in this image but it's also got the history of the quing so we took it took advantage of that idea by creating a bior retention area you can see just on the left side of the screen that's going to have a weathered weathered Steel Bridge Crossing which will allow the kids to interact with that space they don't hold water for more than 72 hours it's really more just like a lush uh green that manages storm water at the surface as opposed to just bringing it underground so that's a that's what we're thinking for the arrival at the front door and then just some of these other images at the on the right side you can see that's an image of the outdoor Arts learning environment um seat walls and Hardscape low maintenance materials we we've you know placed an emphasis on that the outdoor dining Terrace you can see with its shade structure planted south side of the building and then the outdoor Sciences in the in the lower right hand corner you can see again just seat walls permanent seating a mixture of permanent and and um more Furnishings uh that that students can move around and use the use the spaces in a in different ways we like to make those spaces adaptable so that we're not telling teachers and students how to use them uh and then just to get into Athletics so the Athletics demands are high on this site um so what we did is at the beginning we inventoried all the fields and what we can tell you is effectively we've we're going to be giving you back what you have uh with the exception of one Outfield overlay field that's in the existing varsity baseball field because the varsity baseball uh Field's now going to be fenced we are also we heard uh input from the community that right now the varsity and JV softball have to go to the middle scho school um so there was a strong desire to bring softball to the high school to ACC company baseball and we agreed we felt that was the right thing to do so we've Incorporated two softball fields to go along with the two baseball fields here and uh We've we've got a small area for Javelin and for practice over to the right but you can see with the fields here we we put back the JB football soccer and boys lacrosse soccer and girls lacrosse and then we'll still have that one Outfield overl those tend to be helpful especially for wck programs and practices so that's the natural Turf athletic fields uh can you go back yeah of course the very end sucessful roots to fields and courts yes so what's the diff distance between your parking your main where you've got staff and students to any of these fields yep um I don't know the exact numbers off the top of my head but to give you an idea from home plate to the left field Outfield fence on the varsity baseball field is 315 ft so again the the intent here was to the intent here was to create a large contiguous open space so what we've done is we've located accessible parking in that small lot to the west of the building and our thought was that the accessible parking at the in the staff lot that you'll that you can see up there and in that Western lot can service let's say the Varsity softball and baseball field and maybe the JB football field whereas the spaces at the end of nordon Street could also service the JV baseball the JV softball and there is you can see that path that that goes around the perimeter each field has an accessible route to it that's a that's a very important thing in modern Athletic Field design is that you have a paved firm stable walkway that gets people to each field so I'm not I'm not debating and if I miss something please tell me but I thought you just said that you're dis discontinuing nordon Street in so what parking is there to be able to access those fields it's it's just G to be it's just going to be the three accessible parking spaces the uh three there and 30 to the west of the building I counted 30 maybe last 30 uh west of the building there's it's okay there's 39 total spaces and there are three accessible spaces in that lot as well okay and then four accessible spaces at the front door which again will have walkways uh that cross that entrance drive to get you to the fields as well thank you you're welcome so just ay so am I so if I have JV softball on a Saturday all the fields are packed there's not much parking or I I'm going to have to park in that main lot walk the pathways all the way around that yeah so there were some there were some concerns um by the by the ne from the neighboring communities uh about large quantities of vehicles going through those neighborhoods to access the fields and speeds going in and out of those areas and again given the given the desired Athletics program on this site we really could not extend pavement too far into the site because it just took up room that you know was needed for fields and their buffer spaces and and things of that nature so yes we we are trying to keep parking to the outside of these fields and we did not want to put a lot of parking at the end of nordon street because we really only wanted that to be accessible we didn't want that to be felt as a parking lot yeah um thanks and then over at the East End of the site this is just an enlargement that again shows uh we're going to be relocating that throwing wall that existing throwing wall that's going to be relocated to within the stadium limits it's going to maintain the same exact um orientation that it has now it's just going to be relocated uh to make way for that service drive there with the parking uh and then we'll have um existing shot put and discus will remain the track and field will remain we are proposing a new concessions building which you can see in the upper left corner of the stadium we're also proposing a brand new uh Press Box with an accessible ramp system that'll get you from at grade up to that Press Box it'll maintain its current elevation above finished grade though and you can see the two basketball courts uh positioned between Bus drop off um and the and the service drive and then the six tennis courts and on the six tennis courts uh we're going to on the southern Bay of Courts we're going to stripe six pickle ball courts because pickle ball was has been very popular in the community we expect that to continue and there was a strong desire to uh to incorporate that um and that would have uh portable Nets as opposed to permanent Nets like the tennis courts do are you replicating the same number of parking spaces as you currently have between staff the new staff the students it's a little so right now we are proposing in a total of 464 parking spaces the the actual quantity of parking spaces on the existing site it's it's around 500 it might be give or take because we've got some areas that maybe aren't strip that can accommodate parking and some but but 464 spaces there's over 280 spaces in that in that student lot and there's 106 spaces in that front lot and you know we were looking at you know 100 to somewhere between 100 to 150 for all faculty and staff combined so we have 106 at the at the front we've got 39 to the to the West uh that will also incorporate elcat of course and and it and district offices and then we have more spaces to the east so we've we've sort of taken that number but we've distributed it around the building not into one big giant you know tarmac of a lot you know that like what's out there today uh and again to get that to get that desired separation so I'm not 100% sure exactly how many existing parking spaces are allocated to staff and faculty right now but again we try to hit that Target and and you know we're we're not too far off from what's out there today thank you uh I think I think that's pretty much it on the Athletics the only thing I just note is that you know during a large event or like a a you know a varsity game or something a competition on that field the entrance the the new concessions building is going to be located right near the the existing entrance to the stadium and so you can see we put a nice large crosswalk we're going to direct people there there's sidewalks in throughout the campus all of them will be accessible you know brings people into the campus gets people through all of the all the various site elements um via accessible walkways um yes so just to touch quick on um with the uh large site over 60 Acres and um the building being centrally located to the site um all the the um setbacks from front rear sides are all NS um Building height um is a few feet less than the maximum allowed of 45 um lot coverage is is under the allowable as well um there um for educational use uh but in residential there is a 20 foot uh landscape buffer um where that bu residences and there is um 20 feet of landscape in some cases it's it's lawn um but that is goes around the site the only places where it doesn't is where the access to the two accesses to the street um are and also you know the little Hammerhead from nordon Street and glad to get into any zoning questions and then just quickly phasing of the construction and then we'll go to traffic um so this is the initial phase that will start this summer and the construction initially starts with really the the building and the foundation of the building I'm getting going in back of the existing School access will be off of Maple Street on the left side of the Horseshoe the west side and we'll go around uh around the building to the west and then come into that back area there'll be a little um work done uh in the back area of the building uh between the fences uh the of uh the construction fence between the the new and the old school um so this will be the area that will be fenced off and used in the enabling phase and then for the beginning of phase one and there'll be temporary parking in that horseshoe in front the Shaded area in in the middle of the Horseshoe that's temporary parking that will be built from the beginning and then as we go on in Phase One still the construction of the building being the main focus that whole area to the south of the building will be contractor parking and uh lay down area for materials and so forth um again the access around the west side of the building and in the summer of 2025 it'll expand up to the Northeast to uh to construct the the new parking lot and that'll be done during during the summer and then phase three once the building's complete um it'll switch over and the building will then be in use and the new parking lot will be in use um and that whole right side east side of the site will be used by students and the parking up there and then the existing building building will be demolished and the fields um finished and then the the the loop at the front of the building will be you know come in from Maple Street over where the existing building is what school you're expecting that excuse me what school year were you expecting that the new building to be used 20 six that's 20126 um and we're going to skip to traffic ahead start you go ahead start hi I'm Matt Stouts I'm the traffic engineer from time Bond um and we were tasked with conducting a traffic study uh to evaluate uh potential traffic impacts to the local roadway network uh as a result the new school uh so our study area includes five intersections circled in yellow on the aiel to the right uh which includes uh the three site driveways the entrance the exit and the eastern most um near the sports Fields as well as the two intersections at Marshall Street and Melwood Avenue um so we started out by collecting uh traffic volume data so we collected turning movement counts at those intersections during the uh arrival and dismissal periods um which lined up with the start and end of the school day and also aligned with the before and after school activities uh we also collected speed and volume data on U Maplewood Road and so we found that our 80 85th percenti all speeds which is like also the operating speed of the roadway where 40 miles per hour and uh this compared to 35 miles per hour for the postage speed um and also traffic volumes on Maple Street were about 10,000 Vehicles a day we next conduct a safety review for the uh previous six years of available data and based on that review we didn't find um any concerning patterns uh there were uh two crashes that involved The Pedestrian or cyclist so we took that into account when we were designing our improvements on Maple Street they were 18 in total over six years yes that's correct two collisions two pedestrian what were the other sorry one one bicyclist one pedestrian okay uh then the remaining uh 16 were just vehicle versus vehicle or vehicle versus a fixed object on side of the road and did you determine times of day that were most frequent with those accidents yeah we so we did look at that and that is in our study um there weren't any specific time periods of the day I think you're probably asking did they happen during dismissal arrival yeah and there you know they weren't like overwhelmingly during those periods well how many were and how many weren't I I off top of my head I do not know um but I can I can get that information that would be relevant yeah yeah okay um but we really wanted to you know look into safety as part of the new school because we know there were I was out there at the site and I I saw a lot of near misses and as part of the study we wanted to see those exist existing issues and what we can do as far as the new school to fix some of those current issues so we yeah like I said I was out there during arrival and dismissal periods um you know watching kids getting dropped off by the school buses parents drop off you know kids crossing at the existing pedestrian signal uh you know at the other Eastern driveway how they were uh getting out of the school grounds that way um so this was done during the arrival and the dismissal and then next also looked at the access and circulation on site as Eric said right now buses and parent drop off are all on the main Loop um and then you know students park over and staff park over in the Eastern larger driveway so just seeing what we can do to improve upon that existing condition so using our data that we collected we conducted a traffic operations analysis uh using uh software and so we looked at two scenarios um during the morning and the afternoon uh periods and the first was in 2022 which is our existing condition um under the current uh driveway configuration uh and this was during our SCH schematic design phase when the project uh got going so that's why now we're in 2024 but that's why we looked at 20222 then and then the second scenario is in the future when the school will be fully opened uh the new driveways will be constructed um and things will be operating uh how they are proposed and that was projected to be 2027 um so during both existing and future conditions we generally found acceptable uh operations um as Traffic Engineers we look at an a to f scale a being the best and F being the worst uh so generally we were seeing C's and D's is widely um considered acceptable uh there was one instance where we were seeing failing operations in the future condition and that was at the school driveway so now now you have the Consolidated School driveway opposite Melwood Avenue um and this was during the the am peak hour um but there the driveways were designed so that they can accommodate um the queued vehicle that are stacked up so it really only amounts to being four or five vehicles that you end up seeing sacked up and it's important to note that this is you know during the period when parents are leaving um the school to drop off their kids it's a very short quick 15 minute period of time that dissipates pretty quickly um under the existing and the in the future condition and doesn't impede through traffic on Maple Street right right yeah yeah the operation on map Street um what about the inherently dangerous coming from Long Meadow yep you're coming up the rise over the rise down into that you know to where the entrance would be yep just said that you're at 85% tile which meant that it's probably five the average was 5 miles per hour over the normal are you anticipating requesting dropping the speed limit uh we will get to that um say yes or no but discuss that thank you the next couple slides okay we but I'll just note on the speeds uh the speed data was collected on the straightaway to the east of this driveway shown on the screen here um so you do get higher speeds in that area um and actually where the proposed driveway is located now it's actually in a better spot than it the entrance is now it's located further east from the the crest vertical curve uh so we're actually like we tried to we looked at different options in locating the driveway and we found that was the the optimal location where drivers have the best sight line you know watching for students and and cars exiting the driveway and met Avenue I just want to add for any presenter tonight so we're asking questions because the public wants us to ask questions not we're picking you apart we're asking questions because the public wants to know okay so and I guess I just want to note that with our operations analysis so as Eric was showing on the site plan the whole site was kind of reconfigured we closed uh Norwood uh down to the South West so we we we looked into uh moving that traffic to the main driveway to accurately depict how it's gonna where people are going to be headed to and from under the future School condition and then next we looked at whether a traffic signal would be warranted uh right now that traffic signal in the photo there it's only a pedestrian signal uh it's you know it's only going to go red on Maple Street and the walk signal will will go on when a pedestrian comes up and pushes a button uh Vehicles don't have any signal heads facing them so they they're not controlled by the signal head on the side street or the driveway um so it's really just on Maple Street unless a p pedestrian pushes pushes the button um so as part of that warrant analysis uh the mucd which is the m ual on uniform traffic control devices has uh warrants that will help you determine if a traffic signal is Justified or not and these these aren't set in stone um it helps you make an informed decision uh to justify the need for a traffic signal uh so we looked at two warrants uh when we conducted this analysis uh the first was The Pedestrian volume warrant so this is just really based on the number of pedestrians Crossing um at near at or near the driveway and we did find that The Pedestrian volume warrant was met under the existing and the proposed condition uh but typically we look for um whether the vehicular warrants are met so this means that either during a 4H hour or 8 Hour span uh you have to hit certain uh volume thresholds uh in order to justify um a traffic signal so this with the school generating a lot of side street traffic during short periods uh throughout the day um and and it really doesn't have this sustained volumes you need during those longer time periods uh we found that the traffic signal was was not warranted at the Consolidated School driveway under the uh future condition we also looked at it under the existing condition as well and found that it wasn't warranted that was a little circular your description there you said it is flexible so we have an existing you know light there um that can't can that be reused in some type of new Recon new reconfiguration of the entrance so I think I'm going to pass it over to Greg because he's going to get into the yeah we're going to talk about the improvements and also the condition of that existing signal um for the record my name is Greg Lucas with time Bond go ahead just the chair I guess so um you said during those extended 4H hour time frames but certainly with drop off and pickup would it would those numbers warrant a light uh no so yeah because it was it was such a short period of time we did not hit those those thresholds so between 7 o'clock and 8 o'clock the amount of traffic would not warrant the amount of traffic on Maple or coming out of the school after drop off would not warrant under the guidelines you talked about it wouldn't warrant a light uh right so you look at a one hour period so we don't we don't look at a one hour period in in a vacuum we we did so we collect I'm looking at it in a vacuum it does not warrant it okay that's that's why I'm asking thank you thank you again for the record Greg Lucas from TY Bond um so first since it's clearly a point of Interest I'll talk about that existing pedestrian signal and so the existing pedestrian signal um one thing that we noticed when we went out and did site observations is that although the pedestrian volumes as Matt mentioned do meet a warrant for signalization pedestrians aren't consistently school kids school kids aren't consistently using that signal they're crossing without pressing the button or they're pressing the button and they're crossing without waiting for the signal because there's gaps in traffic so they can safely do that so it's not operating as efficiently as it could um another condition another issue is that the condition of it it's older it's in poor condition it's a consistent maintenance concern for the town um and then the third the third issue that we considered is once the driveway is Consolidated and the exit driveway is relocated to the West now where that signal is located if you were exiting and you're making your turn you're at an intersection you're coming out of the driveway the new driveway is opposite Melwood have you're turning right out of that driveway and there's a little bit of distance before you get to that signal and those drivers may not be expecting to make that stop now still it's a signal and if it's red they're supposed to stop but it's a less safe condition because of the distance it's more logical where it's placed today next to the driveway so now the other question and you asked this was what could it be relocated and because of the condition of it probably not and so now you get into a question of if you're relocating it you're probably replacing it and so now you're replacing it at the intersection and now we need to evaluate those warrants that we just talked about which aren't met and so you could The Pedestrian signal wouldn't control traffic on the side streets and we wouldn't have indications for the school driveway or Melwood Avenue to show them what the patrol is based so what is instead proposed is our rfbs um rapid rectangular flashing beets you see at the right a diagram that shows a typical intersection with rfbs on what in this case would be Maple Street on both sides approaching the intersection those and I I believe they Exist Elsewhere in town although I'm I'll admit I'm not from this area so I don't know exactly where they're located town where yeah I was gonna say okay so just so people have an understanding of what those are and that's a push button actuated device that accompanies The Pedestrian warning sign and has a beacon that flashes in a wigwag pattern back and forth the rapid comes from in the name is the rapid flashing um to alert drivers that there is something there the warning sign already alerts them that there's a crosswalk the RFB alerts him that there might be something actively happening and of course The Pedestrian requires them to stop that St law and so this alerts drivers and because of the relocation of the crossw you see on the diagram where the green arrows are um really kind of formulates this as an intersection where today the school driveways are separated they're offset for Melwood a they the school exit driveway is close to The Pedestrian signal but but none of the other entrances in exits and Melwood AV or not um this consolidates it as an intersection with crosswalks on both sides rfbs for approaching traffic on both sides um there is an nrfb facing School Drive Ora Melwood Avenue reason for that is because Matt had mentioned the manual and uniform traffic control devices which defines how we can use these devices um is an appropriate on stop controlled intersection a stop controlled intersection is the same as anywhere else you come up you stop at the intersection you go to make your turn there's a pedestrian there you can't make that turn you have to safely allow them to press so that's the intended control of the intersection and what's shown here um the two crosswalks that are circled in red will be removed they'll be um they'll be covered up and the center line restored through them um with the crosswalks Consolidated to the new driveway as I mentioned creating an intersection ask question so there's so going off for us this question earlier so there's that sidewalk on this west side I think this one here that one's going away is there a driveway there help me remember or is it just now in the center where the green lines are is that the only entrance today that's the only entrance it's Consolidated the what you see next to those red circles are the existing driveways that would be removed all consolid to the center so there's no there's no there's no fact there's no driveway right exactly so that seems considerably further down from that Hill because he's right coming over that Hill that was that was part of it's an immediate down consolidating in formulating an section um you know helps that issue right did you guys consider putting a rotary I'm just kidding hang on this slide are you putting the striping on Melwood app is that an accurate addiction what's that are you proposing actually putting the striping on Melwood app down the middle of the straight no no that's just a diagram um that isn't specifically proposed and then the curve Cuts here on Melwood you're not proposing adding any sidewalks there it would be existing as is no no we wouldn't there aren't any sidewalks proposed onw how about um like no parking signage on Melwood it certainly could be added I think I think it's gonna I think so I live on melod okay right at the top of the street um and right now we have a traffic problem with high school and we have people who Park on both sides of the street and then you have cars trying to sneak through the middle to get down and then you have the kids that across the street trying to get to those cars running through the active traffic there's no one watching it it's a mess this looks like it could add to the mess as well if there's still people people parking there as they are now waiting for their kids to come out so I think no parking signs could be effective and they could not be because not every abides by them okay yeah I think I mean that it's an existing issue so it's kind of a secondary issue to the proposed school um we would hope that the you know reconfigured the separation of parent pickup and drop off from school buses might provide more onsite storage for pickup and drop off and maybe they'd be I'm an optimist you know they'd be less likely to park across the street um not an unusual problem and certainly it can be enforced with no parking signs to follow up on Cassie traffic on Maple Street's a disaster when school gets out there's just nowhere to go and I think that's one of the reasons they're parking on Melwood youturn and you're on Westwood and away from the traffic and I don't know if that there's any way to solve that I really don't you're talking about re-educating the people and I I agree with to no parking signs I think that should be a requirement at least to try and stem the problem of all that parking because I have seen it that way you you really need to go sit in the parking lot student par parking lot now yeah when school gets out and just go through the line and go through the cues and see what happens it absolutely needs no parking signs on Melwood absolutely because the old ad they I'm sorry Peach um they all don't show up at the same time but they're all leaving at the same time and everybody wants to get out as quick as possible yeah yeah and that's what causes TR I mean a traffic with the rotary you're coming down right you're in a gridlock yeah pick up and drop off each have their own characteristic because you know uh drop pick up they're arriving you know in waves but they they build to to a critical mass everybody wants to be First Once School releases and then they're all leaving at the same time and that you know speaks to what we're talking about although that was a morning issue of traffic coming out and stacking on site and waiting the idea is that the site accommodates that and it dissipates over a short period of time which is common for a school operation you you can't solve the fact that you have a huge influx of traffic I agree with that the intent is to accommodate them on site to the greatest extent right you're trying to mitigate existing issues that's why I think I'll go back to saying again no parking signs on Melwood I think should should happen has it been considered how many parents are traditionally are each school year picking up and how long that road is now because it school's considerably further back right right is that is that pickup aisle long enough to accommodate blank cars which there's traditionally this many children being picked up because now I'm sure it's too that was yeah that I mean that was all part of the evaluation in the schematic design phase we looked at you know existing demand and storage and reconfiguration and separating pickup drop offs from school buses that was all part of that equation I don't have the specific numbers it's all fed in the schematic in the current situation if you park five school buses in that horseshoe there's no room for car that's just it and that's where difference and it's going to require retraining some parent Behavior you're 100% correct and certainly no parking signs on Melwood will help do that is not still gonna have a bit of a backup when the school buses leave the loop and exit out onto uh the Eastern entrance and exit onto Maple Street you're going to have all the students trying to get out at the same time I mean a lot of times the students are leaving before the buses actually get full leave but I can see that being a problem that in the morning I don't see it being much of a problem because the buses just come in and they go out but when they all leave at once the whole world stops yeah and the buses are first and if those yeah and if those if those two streams do mix there may need to be some by the school um to prioritize the buses and make sure the students actually understand they don't the buses sleep first they understand so oh yeah the buses don't let you out believe me they don't they don't let you out no there's not an inch between them no okay all right this is better though so so this is definitely better proposed driveway if you look at table one the proposed driveway for 2027 it says it rates at an S yeah right that was that was what Matt had talked about where there's no there's some there's there's some queuing of vehicles exiting the proposed driveway um waiting for a gap in traffic on Maple Street um we expect that that would dissipate quickly and there's adequate storage within the proposed driveway um so that they aren't going to impede the school parking they're just waiting to exit you know currently F and it's gonna go because it doesn't exist yet that's why it's not here but that that's for the afternoon in the morning it will rate at an F in the afternoon it'll improve to a d okay it's a deit Improvement yeah yeah it yeah okay and so this shows the the um Eastern driveway um a crosswalk re restriped here uh an RFB proposed here um similar to the others except instead of having the two sets on each side of the intersection there's just one facing each Direction at a single crosswalk and so um you know this works well on the left side of the approach the west side of the approach um expecting that there's a heavier right turn exiting traffic um so won't be as much conflict between turning vehicles to pedestrians again the RFB will illuminate uh folks exiting from that driveway would see it and obviously would see The Pedestrian and are supposed to stop The Pedestrian so this helps kind of formulate and the other critical piece about these crosswalks and the rfbs and is the internal sidewalk connections all connect to this today we hear about um students C going across School the church property um this kind of consolidates them onto walkways that bring them to the sidewalk if they want to cross to the sidewalk which is on the other side of the street this gives them a logical place that connects the sidewalk s but who determines the timing like how long the RFB links or whatever it does we would do that as part of final design okay so we would you know we typically calculate how long it takes someone AC cross and that's programmed um you can sides of the pavement yeah exactly the road and so you can also program how often it can be activated you can actually have like a lockout period you know so that it's not just constant activations so that all be part of final design is there a standard time that you guys Bas start with 30 seconds or and then go up or down whatever is there there's a standard time for frosting um based on walking speed and so you do the calculation based on the width um three and a half feet per second so we would calculate it that that way and we usually round up a couple seconds so depending on how that calculation comes up we don't want it to be excessively long because what happens then is The Pedestrian pushes the button the RFB comes on it's flashing they cross it stays flashing and the drivers that come through here they come up to this thing and they see it flashing and there's no one there and they're less likely to adhere to it so we really want to keep it tight you know it's a coin of phrase um based on the need so and that's always something that could be adjusted to if it's something that the town discovers later that it's not long enough or it's too long it can be adjusted simp so this is the East entrance um the other thing we'll talk about is school zone and this goes back to the question earlier about um speed so today there are some school there are some school signs out there they're faded they're outdated um the kind of spread of the school because of the two driveways it's not really a well-defined school zone the other thing is that massach regulations that Define school zones up until very recently didn't consider high schools for school zones you weren't allowed to sign a school zone for high school that's changed recently and so we're able to sign it properly based on the mutcd and based on mass standards as school zone and so what you see here is on each approach a sign typical school crossing sign fluorescent yellow green that says school zone and then right after that a speed limit sign that defines the school speed limit at 20 um and shows times those times can be set as needed um based on the school um arrival and dismissal times and then markings there's a school marking in the road in conjunction with that first sign U which is hard to see but that black mark in the road is a school marking where it's a school across the lane and so this really will help Define the school zone for approaching traffic in both directions and that's the end of our traffic we'll turn it back over to the rest of the team okay thank you thank obviously we get into public questions we're happy to answer questions after so um maybe if we just switch it up a little bit I know there are people here who might have questions about the traffic go it so can we just uh just open it up to anyone in the audience who might have a question on traffic and wants to be heard you can come forward if not we'll just move on to the next item okay next item thanks see any hands up again my name is Dory Brooks from Jones wised Architects and I I imagine that these images are already familiar U but just to give you a quick overview of the elevations that you're going to see in the new school um this uh front image here is showing you the arrival moment at the school um our intent here was to combine two different materials in the exterior cladding of the building um the lower level would be a traditional uh modular unit brick with two tones um and the upper level um which is surrounding the larger Community spaces of the building is a warm metallic um cladding and this combination of materials is spread about throughout the front elevation of the building um at the rear of the building the academic wings are entirely brick clad um and uh and more uniform um the overall plan I'm going to go fairly quickly because I know everyone's probably already seen these and they aren't as gerine to the the committee's work um but just to give you again overall understanding of the building that that uh as a security measure in schools today we really aim to bring students into a primary entrance um there are ultimately uh two entrances that we imagine will be heavily used by students in the in the arrival and dismissal the front main entrance as well as the entrance that separates the pool and the school which accesses uh towards the student parking area and the Bus Loop um both all of all the entrances are security control old um from the front of the school you can see that we' we've designed the school to put the gymnasium and the auditorium towards the front because those will be most heavily used by the community and kept the academic Wings to the back um so that uh the front spaces can be utilized by the community after hours um there's a a third entrance that's critical it's is the district offices which are also in the school so they have their own entrance again with um control with a receptionist buzzer to allow people in after school hour start um and and that's consistent across uh both of those entry points yes question using the district office entry will that gain you access to the school as well um no you'd have to be buzzed from by the staff there into the school okay so there will be access as long as you're buzzed in yes you're buzzed into you you enter you're gonna be buzzed in twice right correct okay okay thank you and that's the same in the main School correct yeah um additionally um there a a a a point at the prek that is only accessible during those morning hours students are being I understand that have to come in through correct okay thank you um uh and then this also shows you again the second floor of the academic Wing um for the classrooms and then third just wanted to share a little bit of an interior understanding of the school to show you those major assembly spaces the auditorium this is still in design um the central um spine of the school that takes you past the auditorium to the cafeteria um two sections of cafeteria one is low and then opens up higher um that looks out towards the wooded area behind and then the community pool again these are all um spaces that are still in design but just to give you an understanding of of the major assembly spaces any questions on the the architecture this just a quick touch on utilities um you know we've met with DPW um throughout the design of the project to get their input and uh and and lead to the to the design we have um this diagram the um colors represent water sewer uh an electric um so the water will be uh tapped off of an existing feed at a meter um from from uh Maple Street come in loop around the building um several hydrants around the building and then we'll also connect back to nordon to make a redundant Loop um provide better um redundancy and and and pressure um and also help the the nordon street neighborhood as well with with the same uh z um will be going by gravity out to nordon Street right now it goes um to the top to like C Barry Barry Road believe um so now it's going to go down to nordon Street um and that's by gravity um the concession stand will have a small pump chamber um it's just a little too far away um and then the electric will come in from that Eastern uh entrance off of maple come down essentially the main gist of that is coming down the the Eastern side and then comes in it's a loading dock and there's some electrical equipment outside loading dock that's uh School a condition yes finally so we have a letter here from Bruce FY who is the uh this title superintendent of Public Works superintendent of Public Works dated May 3rd 2024 I'm sure you've seen this uh May 3rd like week ago like a week ago I haven't seen it so it's their comments on the site plan okay and there are I'm kind of surprised it didn't get shared with you there are 22 items that they wish to have addressed so I'm sure you'll do them all right them sure yeah you seen this yep do you want to talk to them or is there anything unusual or must not have been fored over a lot of them are basic detail changes yeah they Ed conrete for a when it should have been by minut these kind of things okay so I I would I mean we normally if we get letters like this the planning board we normally say site plan approval dependent upon you know the developer meeting all the requirements in the letter right you're okay yes okay okay used to do that for me Russ I know I know I was waiting for your name I said you still get one you can have mine if you want yeah uh you don't need to address them right now I mean I I kind of glanc through it I I don't really see anything major here I think it's just everything that has to these are DET the small detail and I'm sure more will come as project stuff like that yeah unfolds yeah we can address them and okay yeah have to be yeah are you all set oh one more slide storm water so we we uh went up in front of the Conservation Commission too weeks ago and had approval for the project but uh just the design goals were to meet the Massachusetts storm water policy standards include some uh low impact development the bio retention areas um Forest pavement that loop around the back is Forest pavement and then there's some some parking up in the front that is uh Forest um pavers and we have some infiltration uh as well um in a couple areas and a water quality um volume design is is one inch which for the uh the state standards that's the higher it's either a half inch or an inch um because of the good soils that are there and the high perk rate of the soils um we we have to design for the one inch so and the peak flows are reduced um for the Post construction so and then this just is a diagram showing some of those lid elements the bio retention area is there's three across the front of one north of the uh track stadium and then two kind of in front of the school there and then those uh parking spaces are the porous uh pavers uh and then Forest Pavements asphalt pavement around the back of the school um and then the recharge area in blue so I know it's out of order so don't change the slide yet so so that's that's last slide so there was a slide I can't remember who was up presenting it but it was the timing of the construction yep and so um if you want to pull that one back up my question is for those people along Susan street during the construction phase what Arrangements oh there you go what arrangements are you taking to kind of buffer them from you know uh construction debris dust you know air quality all that fun stuff noise because it does look like you're putting in a temporary roadway around all of that so can you address that sure um so there is that temporary roadway um we wanted to come off of is it is it pavement is it sure so it's it's it'll have fence um on both sides with scrim so they'll can't see through it so it'll be a chain link fence with a how high 8T 8 feet high okay and it'll it'll um follow the road on both sides so the so the white on the inside the field that'll be used by the school yeah so it's separated from the school and then it's also separated from the outside the the neighbors so so and then it is paved and and how long do you anticipate that to be place that will be in place from uh this summer um say like July 1st to um the end of phase one which is can't hear we can't hear you in the new school it'll be a SW two years so essentially okay all right just hold on we'll get you'll get a chance yes you will all right okay all right so you're going to be using the West the West entrance to the school for the so that'll be a split entrance so it it's widened and there'll be Loop for for parents and then there'll be a construction with fence for the construction okay that's just going to create a mes till it's done because that that bad point you're G have large trucks entering exiting at different times during the day so going to be afterwards restrictions of they can't come in and out during like to drop off and pick up okay so so normal construction hours are what 73 usually s to three seven to three five days five days a week 330 3:30 7 330 be five to six days a week okay all right thank you you can so I will open to the public anyone who would like to come up be heard ask a question the floor floor is now for you to come and do that so and you just just because it's procedure you need to write your name let us know who you are yes my name is Jim calib I live right on the corner there on Susan Street so you need to ask the question yes my question is of the committee and then we need just need to send it back question I the access road that's going through what decided it being there were there Alternatives looked at and if so why weren Alternatives looked at it's probably two feet off my property line okay maybe three feet so he's asking if there were alternatives to that design for the road temporary roadway um and did you look at them why did you end up with this um we don't we were any alternatives looked at um we don't have slides of all those Alternatives I I can't say that you know can you stand up so people can hear you so there was the the option of coming from nordon which would have created problems for the nordon neighborhood which was already trying to Min that's also he's also in the nor yeah he's in that area the other alternative was to come off of the East entrance would have entangled the student traffic as well so this was viewed as the least Troublesome way to to do this without impacting the parking schools not an easy what's the distance from the property line where the road is I looked at the plans it looks like probably runs right against my property line so you're talking about the fence the roadround the road itself the road itself has got to be two from my property I if you're going to respond you have to please stand and you not you just trying to respond I think yeah I mean I just like to know what like said the Alternatives why they didn't use the Alternatives I mean it's still impacting the neighbor it runs right behind all the homes an eight foot fence which it's G to look like crap but I mean what type of vehicles are gonna be rolling behind our house does anyone want to address I mean I don't I just did anybody look into this I mean we're asking that's okay all good my name is Mark poogan F senior superintendent so we looked at many things I'm I'm a town resident for 31 years I've lived in this town we looked at many excuse me many options coming around like Dory said coming around the East into implementing the students we look for coming behind the football field but with the wetlands in the buffer zone we couldn't do that originally they wanted to come through nordon street I'm like there's no way we're coming through nordon Street why couldn't you just take a hard left come the other side of soccer field because the the distance we' lose the soccer field you can move the soccer field over the same distance there's not enough room for a buffer between the building and where the water lines are and where all the the um there's there's roadway there's walkways there there's access to the building you have to have egress out you have to fire department I mean all that goes into consideration we talked about all that going by the eess anyways does make sense to the building there's no exit on the next to the building all windows all classrooms windows they can come out the other side by by um the GU right where the road comes this way and there's an exit over here no matter what we do with construction we're gonna we're gonna interfere with somebody we're even if you went through the center of the soccer field this is going right I mean this road is got to be two feet from my property line I'm gonna have trucks rolling by I mean what type of trucks are going by there cement trucks the other the main thing was coming right through N Street we yeah at the end of the day your value your property should go up when the school is done we can't get into that not getting into that I mean was there I mean coming in through the other entrance I mean where they're building you could shoot in that back entrance right across the parking lot you're there instead of looping all I'm not being TR pay the I'm just if you had really looked into we looked in because you can't just look at the overall pictures you got look at what's under the ground right so the reason we took the front of the the front of the building we're making that all parking the reason we're doing that is because during the Summers we have to reconfigure the parking lot move the move the sewer move the gas move the water all that stuff has to happen concurrently so we have to give this the um excuse me the faculty a place to park so as you keep going through that the really the only way was to go around the school we're taking all the fields from them and as you know this town is very tough to have Fields so if we took that soccer field and that baseball field and they'd have nothing for three four years because we couldn't even go on it till 228 till after it grows a year excuse me so we looked at a lot of different axes and this was the easiest and less um I know I understand that the six houses or seven houses long Su Street it was going to it's going to impact that corner we'll try to be as as impactful as as we get or less impactful as we can but this was like the best thing that we came up with after all this things we went through left and right so you did a study looking at moving the soccer field we looked at study going through the getting rid of the soccer field but then now the school has no other fields there's no JV all the the gym classes if we take all those fields the students are suffering for 4 years we gave them as much as it is we you know take the JV field We snuck another soccer field in the back in soccer football lacrosse field hockey all those practices you know youth football the town the rec department I'd like to see the study showing you can't move the field over and run the road by the school if you did I'd like to see it I mean it must be somewhere you must have analyzed it's all internal how we try to try to make this a less impactful and again the day there's a lot of money involved in the town so it's all budgeting and everything else um there a lot of things are going if there's a study showing that it doesn't work that way I mean should be somewhere we're already spending what $170 million at a school okay thank you just yeah the other question I had too is the baseball field I know they said they're putting fences up how close is that baseball field the fence to the property line who wants to touch that one I don't know how much consider the distance well it looks like they're doing a line of trees yeah or something there yeah can you put a BM there yeah so the B I'm just curious how close it is to the me some of the plans I show saw it look like was right on the right on the property yeah so the The Outfield fence it varies as you can see but the close point it will be I believe it's 21 feet from the property line um and that again the the distance of the Outfield I can tell you if believe it's 315 feet from home plate to like the left field corner so then it would get longer as you're going along that Outfield Arc and then you'd have the additional distance on that we're proposing six foot height fence around the perimeter of the Outfield and then we're planting in those proposed evergreen trees and you know we could always densify them in one area if there was a particular pinch Point uh that needed to be addressed um so those are the those are the distances and then there's existing there's existing trees and an existing hedge along that property line too which wouldn't which would which would remain uh I believe those trees are on private property anyway uh so those would remain and we would just be augmenting it with the with those additional evergreen trees and then as you as you get to like I mean I guess it would be left center field and further to the east towards right field now you're also not only is there that vegetated buffer but you're also hitting into a hill yeah because that'll be um we're actually G to be furthering the cut slope a little bit just to get these fields just to get these fields in so um okay my last point and I believe you mentioned it arcing how long a walk is it there we Face the traffic now is there any consideration to stopping people from making our our neighborhood parking lot they do it now yeah they on they don't want to walk so they park there right yeah so uh that is really that's what they refer to as a rule of the road and traffic uh signage for no parking and so forth is a matter of the Town Council so the town manager is here he can take your concerns to not even signs but enforcement there have been signs back there for years that parking was never supposed to be used parking it would be the Town Council yeah I mean that's just a point neighbood could turn it over yeah yeah we did I I I do want to just speak to the fact that we did have conversations and um about that our understanding is that there is no parking allowed on nordon street by by rule there's no parking on nordon street and that was one of the reasons that we two things number one we didn't want to make a big parking lot there because we didn't want to encourage parking back there and number two that's another reason why we provided you can see that Hammerhead in there so that you know it's to discourage people from using driveways to turn around they could just pull in and back out so you know the old saying you win some and you lose some so by taking out that driveway from nordon that goes in currently by the elcat offices and then even further way back that's where a lot of people park now to use the athletic fields so essentially you take that out you relocate them over to the 30 that are near the administration the faculty and the students so that's a much longer walk yeah so nordon nordon may lose the that traffic in the morning for faculty and staff and others but I don't know anyone over anyone certainly no one older than me is going to walk you know that far they're going to park on nordon Street on Susan Street to go see their kids games but that's up to you guys to have to deal with and guys have to administer but okay so you win something you lose something yeah um so someone could get an answer as far as the study they did on the road yeah they've got your name and hopefully they will take care of that yeah yep anyone else like to be heard on this matter please step forward good evening my name is Colin Temple I live itate Susan Street not happy to see this you have I have to sign in I guess pleas yep have to take my GLS off sorry I'm very upset about these plans as far as that construction road Within of my property okay it's a paved road is it going to get removed yes yes yeah okay so it's not going to be coming walkway tempor I see and Jim's already mentioned about parking on Barry or Barry um which is a disaster as it is now there are no speed signs anywhere is that another town thing yeah it's a Town Council thing yep yep okay um as far as the crosswalks with the new parking lots and on Maple are they gonna be raised like Long Meadow did anybody we I don't like to call a speed bump because I don't but right now we are not proposing any raised crosswalks so what we are doing is that um basically up at the front of the school that's going to be a flush condition so it's going to be a you know a six inch height curb let's say as you enter the site with that sidewalk right along the edge and then when you get to that first little stop line where you see the three crosswalks there it's going to transition down to flush in front of the school so oh on Maple on Maple okay I apologize um on Maple no we are proposing Cur find that slide oh yeah not sure I'm sorry let me go back on actually you know what okay that's good um yeah so no the these would these CR and I I can let um on traffic speak to it a little bit more but they're proposed to be at grade crosswalks painted um with curb cut ramps traditional curb cut ramps with detect the warning surfaces as you enter onto the onto the right place it's just it's a good deterrent as far as I mean Marshall Street is a disaster they speed there and I understand your concern you're on Melwood is it probably walking on on Marshall Street in the afternoon I not the same and some of the biggest offenders actually are um School Personnel who almost tiit me yesterday morning going at least 40 45 miles an hour hour um to get to the parking lot off of Norton but that won't exist pretty soon yeah well it exists now so that's um my main concern also I wanted to ask how high are these proposed trees you're going to plant who's going to take care of them who's going to clean up the trash between them and my property so that's I mean it's all you know that's the town's responsibility to maintain all of that oh good so y okay we are we are um do you know what type of trees are going to be well that no that's a good that's a very good question uh abraid grow the fastest they they are an option the one issue that we have seen with arborite is that deer tend to ravage them so we're going to look at a few different species uh we haven't picked species yet um but there are a number of different you know native species that we are going to consider um hopefully some that are a little bit more deer tolerant uh and then we're we're looking at the I I can't remember off the top of my head what we proposed but we were not proposing a five to six foot height tree I will tell you that it was it was tall I'm still GNA see the fence a six foot fence I believe that the trees at the time of planting will be more than six feet tall that'll be good and we can make that a condition of a sight plan approval yeah so well that would be helpful yeah um to say the least they're G to be on this fence side your property or are they going to be planted on my property line on the to school property school property okay so they're going to trim them on my side too right yeah okie dokie well I will tell you this that we that that's another very good point that you bring up it is the responsibility of the landscape architect to select a tree species that is appropriate for the use so it is not appropriate to put a white pine there or something that's going to be 75 ft wide when it gets or sh anything actually please so we we'll we'll um we'll be very careful in the species selection I can well I appreciate that since I've worked hard trying to get rid of overgrowth as it is um completely understand I I just am not pleased with a lot of what I see here as far as my property line and I guess it's a done deal but as long as that roadway is going to be removed save some of it yep um as far as the 7 to3 330 of big trucks and cement six days a week thanks gentlemen that's really appreciated too anyone else in the audience like to be heard sure uh um so I'm hearing what they're saying I'm just trying to play on both sides here so the the reason you can't move swap the soccer field and the road is there's utilities that run there now there's also utilities but also in order to make the trucks turn truck Ste coming in originally they were you know the plan was to come to nor res like just thinking the time you lose a soccer field for one because to in order to make that turn come around there's no way trucks would make that turn and took the soccer field out out of out of completely out completely because you can't because it's it's so close now with the perimeters and with the grade changes we looked at all that and going with the school already taking all the other fields actually baseball right away half the tennis courts all those areas in the other talking with the school and everything else if they lose everything where are they going now they're have to go in different towns news and stuff like that so think of the cost savings and the time savings by cutting off that whole run you could come straight through right but at the end of the day it's it's you're really not you're saving not not to make that difference in there want to keep the road 20 ft off the building which is just essentially adding another 20 ft that that pushes got to find 20t somewhere that pushes your field off yeah yeah you need yeah well that's the other thing it's the the emergency vehicle access for access to existing School Y is online while we're give them access any other questions if not uh I'd like a motion to close the public hearing so moved have a second second motion May any further discussion so all in favor of closing the public hearing say I I close no one so we close the public hearing so um if I could so I'd like to I'd like okay they're g g down okay so uh just to uh get discussion going would someone make a motion move to approve the site plan review okay move to approve the site plan review for the demolition of an existing East Long met high school and construction of a new high school building and Associated parking driveways utilities and Fields at 180 Maple Street with the additional well let me get to that yeah get to that so do I have a second on that second all right so for purposes of discussion okay go ahead no were you gonna add some conditions with the conditions presented tonight by the superintendent of Public Works okay um also um I'd like to the last speaker so uh that no plantings along the backside along Susan Street be no less than eight feet in the beginning um that the construction be you know Monday through Saturday 7 to 4 okay um I think that's an appropriate one I think that we should just um it gives can't make it a condition but certainly ask Mr Christensen to pass along the our interest in with regards to no parking at least no parking along Melwood and nordon nordon and Barry thank you Susan I thought you said there were some on Susan already but if not well just all right Susan that immediate area y it would be I mean yeah they're in the traffic rules of RS you cannot park on those streets okay already so you'll have a discussion with the appropriate authorities about enforcement yes I shall okay thank you no sign onw yes a sign um that okay hi so I am a resident on Lori Lane and so I have similar concerns um one is the um are the trees going to remain and is the fence going to remain that is already there L Lane down bottom bottom oh in the back really maybe all around any yeah Lori Lane is to the South correct yes so Lori Lane those existing trees and though and uh any fences back there there were no proposed changes down there the idea is to keep the the development on the inside of that tree line uh now on the West Side along Susan Street she's not addressing that okay just addressing that okay go ahead watch she go ahead the other part of my question is is that the fence doesn't run the entire length on this end so people cut through the yards all the time so with those fields I think we're going to have a similar issue with cars parking here and cutting through as well so the chairman of the school committee is shaking his head like you're going to fix that fig all right so they this the the chair of the school committee is here he's indicated that the school school department school committee will address that concern for you okay okay all right could you say your address for the record it's 42 Lori Lane okay so we we've talked about no parking where there signage Mr we're gonna ask Mr Christensen to um address enforcement but we are a recommending to the Town Council that they um address or actually put in no parking for an established length to be decided by DPW for Melwood we've talked about the construction hours we've talked about the The Greenery along the Susan lane or Susan Street uh properties um so can can we follow I know the Susan Susan Street people would ask going around from Lori is anything going to change on that side or it just additions yes from the L's question so right now I'll just let's so we addressed Lori Lane so let's just go right up the West property line there you can see there's not much of a vegetated buffer right now between that that Residence at the let's say the bottom right corner of nordon Street just below the blue asteris so we're proposing again some screening evergreen trees there to just beef that buffer up a little bit then there is pretty large area of it's like mostly sumac it's a lot of scrub Vegeta vegetation but it's pretty dense we're going to save a good portion of that some of it just to get that baseball field in we we got to pull back a little bit but but the major stuff in there will stay and then we're going to keep most of that vegetated buffer and then as you move up you can see we're plugging a few holes that we observe with some evergreen trees they those will have to be Field located but the but the big mature existing trees uh you know the plan is to keep those there might be need to be some pruning because one of them is dropping a lot of branches right now so we want safety so there might be some pruning but all the Evergreen Hedges and things like that along that property line you know would keep um the only thing is up at that when you get up closer to Barry road right now actually one of the things I love about that property line is that it's sort of there's just some scattered plant beds that sort of loosely Define that property line out there it's very parklike it's very nice so we'll have to work with the neighborhoods just to sight properly site those trees and if it means that the private properties would prefer that some of that deciduous material like the lilacs come out I'm not saying that they do I'm just saying if they okay then we would have to fit those ever in you know amongst them and and make that work and that can all be Field located so we've closed the public hearing yeah and we've had a motion they gonna get a study on showing us if they did not why not the parking lot by football field I get the worry tonight but I want to see that they actually serious would someone be able to provide my whole life my house tomorrow y so would someone be able to provide an analysis of what you looked at with respect to the construction road to them yeah there was there were PowerPoints internal a review okay good so if you want you can forward them to Rebecca Ley here at Town Hall and she can distribute them to you when she gets them okay any other conditions questions from the board hearing hearing none so all in favor say I anyone oppos say nay it doesn't so this item passes thank you thank you got a lot on the table I'll sign and then I just want not done yet not done yet real happy people s back kid that came up she was not Happ yeah how are you buddy good to see yeah looking well it's as be expected how are you yeah good good to see you all right so uh we still have business to conduct so uh we didn't really adjourn the meeting so the conditions they from uh the meeting see watching elcat I just want to see if I have that so it's the 22 questions from DPW Town manager and elpd to enfor the parking on the recommending Town Council no parking on Melwood both sides both sides thank you yep anything else that I'm missing the construction to take place uh 7 to 4 Monday through Saturday that no plantings be less than 8 feet in height they said the was GNA be like8 feet so we're good there yeah I would have made it 7:30 so the next item is uh Planning and Development uh staff report I'm very happy to announce that we made an offer that was accepted and we have a h new planner director planning starting on May 20th all right congratulations thank you so much yeah that's a big smile yeah note also that the Centertown District steering committee is having an i social it's a meet and greet that's tomorrow from 4 to 6 at the Deo at Graham Central Station onap Street 64 Maple Street and then the next um Community engagement form for the central Town district is on May 20th that'll be in the auditorium from 6: to 800m okay so with that can I'd like to ask our ex official member his thoughts on Town Center District to date I I sat way in back during the first session yeah so so uh candidly I I think the R40 is uh too early I don't think we need it I think we I think we all backed into it as I was sitting next to our Council chair um I said do it doesn't make sense why we're not fixing the zoning and we're going ahead with doing the R40 when it it doesn't really produce a whole lot it just kind of restricts us and adds more restrictions onto it so I had concerns there I think the first step we needed to do and I think we all kind of backed into was fixing the zoning first getting the zoning cleaned up um contrary to what some people thought I vocal and said if you don't think there's a lot of undeveloped land that's zoned Industrial in this town that could be turned into another Warehouse I I don't know what town you guys are living in because there's a lot of stuff that's a mess and I think that needs to be cleaned up and then revisit the R40 stuff um that's the sentiment I got walking away from it um well thank you for participating there was a lot of people not in favor of it and I also felt people did come out on the understanding that we already approved it s like this like this was gonna happen just a f uh just asking questions here that was it but lot more to go so so I am unable to be here physically on uh our next meeting um I think you've all I've let all of you know about that in early early March yes um but there was another meeting scheduled for May um so um there's about a 10% chance that I might be able to do it uh by Zoom I won't know until I actually get to Chicago and know what my full schedule is for work uh so Cassie it's all yours have fun um nice but just not a problem yeah after that one I will not be here on June 18 I will be back there you go all right I'll get a report I'll get a report from Pete on how you did here to help Cassie don't worry yeah yeah I'm gonna be sick that day think it don't show up but we're all set right do have a motion to adjourn um I know we previously talked about it but I would like to bring it back to the board again um drones any like we don't have anything about drones anywhere I could find some sample language for you to consider okay yeah and then if you like it we can go through the process of filing it okay I would like to revisit okay motion toj oh one more thing oh yes yes go ahead um I just wanted to say that I I took to heart some of the comments that were made about the underlying zoning um and I put in an expression of interest for a One-Stop Community grant that would do a full review of the Town bylaws um the use table where we're finding a lot of conflicts and then also the zoning map um so fingers crossed we get that Grant um and we'll have some money to do that underlying review um but in the meantime um there's still a lot of options to look at for configuring the central Town District once we have the other pieces of zoning in place I think that and that's I think where I was trying to go I'm just saying against the R4 I think it's I think the zoning needs to be fixed first and that was kind of the steam everybody like let's fix that problem then look at the rest of it but I don't know there's no need for any discussion until the zoning changed really first thing so move all in favor