##VIDEO ID:u7_vveZMFUQ## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay we good to go think so and it says it's recording so yeah can uh Chad can you hear us we can't hear you though he's probably muted he is okay uh it is uh 4 minutes past 6 pm time to start the town of Freetown planning board for Tuesday August 6th 2024 uh we do have uh our Zoom connection uh for the first time we have two people on there um we are recording this meeting is anybody in the studio to audience recording the meeting nope cool okay we'll get to uh the agenda number one discussion and vote on special permit extension one25 South Main Street and I believe the applicant Deb Robbins is on Zoom so if we can get her up there and she can plead her case hi Dave can you hear me yeah we can okay um good evening everyone um I came before the board three years ago for can you hear me yeah can the AUD yeah okay there a few people in the audience that's okay yep okay um for a special permit for 72 units of 55 plus housing at 125 South Main Street um it was we had a great turnout everybody that was there was for the project we had no opposition um everything was approved however it was not recorded um the time we had a secretary in the planning board that um well I mean he didn't always follow through and it got lost in the shuffle and I was never notified and it sat in the town clerk's office it's never been recorded in the meantime I started to get ready for the project we started all the site work um I've got probably $490,000 I believe tied into the project right now between site work drainage Retention Ponds uh engineering um just a whole gamut of you know items and I put the project on hold because covid had just ended and prices of everything skyrocketed and shortly after it turned into the interest rate went crazy and then I just decided that I wasn't interested in doing the project any longer so it's sat I now have an interested party that's looking doing something 55 plus which is huge and um one of the conditions is that the permit be valid and that's when I discovered that it had lapsed so I'm looking for an extension to exercise the permit meaning the right to record it as it should have been and the right to move forward for the 72 units of 55 plus what's what's the time three-year extension you're looking for yes yes um so I'll open it up to the board in a second um I'll just reiterate I talked to Kevin this afternoon the chairman at the time and I asked him because I knew I was a associate member on the board at the time and I knew there was a lot of problems with the Staffing or lack of Staffing and he said yes there was was all sorts of issues um and the the permit lapses unless um unless there's a oh what's that wording you have it in your letter unless there's Just Cause And so I was trying to uh find out you know what kind of just cause would we accept um from the board and certainly with the covid with everything with uh covid happening at that time and with the um the Staffing problems and issues um um you know just cause I would think would be would be something we could certainly look at so I'll open up to the board to ask any questions for the two members here or any comments or or anything you want to say she went through a lot of a lot of Hoops for Co different things happening that drag things out it was well received and it certainly uh something we need in town yeah um doesn't have an impact on school system 55 yeah and I'm assuming if we denied it would have to go you'd take the same plans you'd put a different date on it and then uh bring it in front of this board and we'd have to go through the uh the uh process again it's my guess um Chad any questions or comments can you hear me yeah yeah I I tend to agree with you that Co and and um you know obviously a staffing error would be plenty enough just cause for for us to go forward with it with this anything else Steve nothing say went Hoops so i' uh entertain a motion for for us to um extend this permit for another three years I'll make a motion I'll second uh motion has been made and seconded uh because one member is on um uh remote we have to do a roll call vote so um I will ask the members to vote uh Chad cavaro hi yes Chris melow hi Steve trip I David cros I uh the motion is passed unanimously for an threee extension thank you very much and you will do the recording and I absolutely will Dave and we'll sign this form after the meeting and we'll go forward from there awesome thank you very much so we didn't have to call Kevin said I could call him he said he was taking his wife out to lunch to supper in Newport he says but you can call me if you really need my well it's it's good to keep I have somebody interested 55 plus I'd rather have that interested party not L them than to take no I think it's it's a it's a worthy project so um Good Luck going forward thank you very much guys have a good one cheers thank you have a good one yeah byebye so yeah I wasn't expecting you to be here so I had to do my my homework it's actually the board because it's not within the NTA yeah so it could it could be much worse so 72 unit at 55 no is pro for the time yeah I think so yeah that's a good point I should y I'm big gu you're a big 55 guy you know good people thank you good people uh number two discussion and vote on as built for Tasha's Lane let me go to my last Victoria cheat she that was an email that was an the email wasn't it so I mean I looked at it I mean looks looks okay to me she was uh just said that we had to add a signature block the board to sign and it appears Nicole showed me that you had done that so um I would certainly uh entertain a motion to approve the as built as submitted dated June 20 no August 5th 2024 dated August 5th 2024 make a motion motions been made and seconded uh any further discussion on the board uh all those in favor signify uh no got to do the roll call vote Chad cavaro Dave this is Tasha Lane ah you were recruting yourself thank you I'm recing myself from both articles because my sister-in-law is real estate agent for them okay fair enough there's three of us here that's it sorry that's right uh Chris mow a motion you already made the motion seconded to approve yeah I Steve trip David CR I okay so we have voted to accept the as built for Tasha's Lane uh we'll we'll go right into the um the uh release of the Covenant and seeing the work is done I think um I don't think we have to worry about holding on to the Covenant any further um so I would look for a motion to release the Covenant on lot one the motion's made and seconded on um leasing lot one um from covenant uh all those in uh roll call vote uh Chris melow I Steve trip I David cros I uh so this has to be notorized what do I have to do now get a release the Covenant has to be signed by the board and notorized which Nicole can do at the meeting we all sign them on yes yeah these are the I can sign this with a pen right yes if it was my word to be the Sharpie and there's two copies one goes to them and one comes to us so this is the second yeah I think you were still on the board when we started this I really done nothing two copies or was three there two two yeah stuff no new projects what do we have to do about uh the missing members signing um I think we just leave them just leave them off yeah because Chad's not gonna vote on it anyways and Gary's not here okay we have three for the yeah approval okay if I can unlock this we never used it no um is it just oh it say here there we go and I think that's it yeah it's and we have nothing to sign for us so we have no M hours none of that stuff we already accepted the yeah if it was the original form sees then we would have Myers Victoria said since we just had that we don't have to bye thank you once it's recorded can you just give do a copy all right so I have to go to the register ad no matter what yes okay yeah to record The Covenant the as built doesn't need to be recorded but the Covenant does thank you you're welcome number four discussion and vote on abandonment request Torres way 11 Walnut Street subdivision that would make it impossible sell it for then um on July 101 I can't afford to stay another two or three years the house because I'm planning on guar March 202 bought a small C house for one retir years at this respectfully ask to walk subdivision project and to leave 11 Street asingle parel I have sent in the WPA Form B the request for St compliance to Victoria and will be on the agenda for the August 12 um conservation committee meeting I'm Westing to abandon Pro and on July 1 if would asked me I thought I was I was on yeah it was the last meeting yeah yeah on July 2nd is when I found out about the lean for two years and on the 10th I found out about the permit from Victoria and she said someone in town has been working on it over a year and hasn't secured yet so um you know it just makes it difficult and to me it's very stressful because I just I just can't if I hadn't B the other house yeah right more time yeah yeah but but I just can't keep two houses for years yeah yeah I don't think there's a pro I don't think I I certainly don't have rest of the board feels um we just have to um I think there has to be it has to go to Town Council you approve it go town counil it no it just has to be recorded with the town clerk we record the we're going to record the the of withdraw your letter plus our decision okay with Tom clerk okay um and then provide you with um a copy of it okay um yeah Victoria had had checked with Town Council on that to make sure and that's what they said to do so okay so I would second now uh I would entertain a motion to approve the requests to abandon the subdivision unless there's any other com comments or concerns or questions Chad no any comments questions concerns no okay so Iain a motion to uh approve the request to abandon subdivision I'll make a motion I'll second a motions been made and seconded uh roll call vote Chad cavaro I uh Chris mow I Steve trip hi David cros I so we'll sign that letter and yeah we usually email a copy and we'll um mail you an original as well and then I'll be here Monday yes that's the most important one because that's the one where it starts the wheels in motion to remove them from the house yes thank you thank you I'm going to uh seeing I see nobody here yet is someone's walking I don't know if that's them looking to get in is that yeah that's them so they need they can't come through that door you want to go get them yeah go get them you sure used to leave can okay sure CH yeah go ahead J we'll take you in this door but you uh one of the doors up front is open sorry must locked it out yeah no problem thank you that was good timing because uh number five is informal meeting 16 Water Street Michael Lemieux oh there you go perfect I take it you are you Michael yes so the floor is yours if you want to discuss um it's just an informal meeting so yeah have about it yeah um so the biggest question that I had to you guys so um so we run a company called Full Circle homes um and Full Circle Construction uh we specialize in historic um home and and um mixed use building restoration um in the context of that we also own several of our own rental properties and we built up a portfolio of that um we had been in touch with the homeowners or the current owners of 16 Water Street um and they had asked us about you know if we were interested in the building or if we' be willing to work with them on doing some kind of a partnership on that um we subsequently had walked through the building looked at um the Zoning for it and for us for it to make sense to actually put the money in and restore it would be to see if we could do some kind of a mixed use or um a multif family housing Arrangement where we would probably have anywhere from six to eight units in the main building and potentially two to four units in the barn um if you been reading through the zoning bylaws um in a Sonet it doesn't give a a direct determination whether or not that would be applicable uh other than applying for a special permit um so that's why I wanted to talk to you guys just to see what your thoughts were um and if you thought that would be something applicable or not um and then we could determine you know whether or not it was even worth moving forward um the plan that we would be looking at doing wouldn't be increasing the number of bedrooms no additional septic capacity needed um as far as as a traffic flow or anything wouldn't be anything other than what that property's been used for in the past um so from an impact standpoint just from a real high level um I don't see anything that would be you know out of the ordinary for the potential use of that property unless it was just something that was a hard and fast no yeah well um I would I I know your uh letter of um uh that you sent to Carl he he did specify that we need we would need to do a special permit for for some of that stuff because I started looking at some of the the rules and rigs for um multif family and um uh I these are these are questions I just in no order is this is this building on National register of historic places you know that is a really good question it was it's not yeah it doesn't seem like it is we are used to working with the store we have properties that are interior and exterior restricted now something working with the existing footprint um some of the uh the zoning you'd be looking for a whole ton of waivers that is my guess because it's you know just looking at some of these you think you have parking you said 8 to 10 68 so I see 12 the most which would be 24 parking spots do you there should be adequate space for that there but like I said the the the minimum number of units we would probably need to do to make the investment worth it would be probably um 8 to 10 would be ideal between the two buildings correct yeah um I don't know the the septic now I mean this is this is not this is this is not in our our B the the septic but I there's a new subdivision going in back there so I'm not sure how the septic works on the current footprint if the so the current footprint the way the building at least was listed and the way it's on the tax record it's listed as 17 bedrooms um which would be more than adequate for what we would have been proposing to do so and in spe the request that we were determining 8 to 10 units would be within that it' be a mix of two bedroom and one bedroom unit I'm just wondering if if the septic is still on the the piece of the the end that was carved out from the sub where the subdivision was well that's a great question I would probably have to go to the Board of Health has buil what we had looked at the property I can't remember off the top of my head I apologize for that um I can't imagine it would be allowed to be on unless there was an easement um I it's common ownership right now so but I don't how subdivision with having a I believe this the subdivision has been broken off somebody somebody new owns it uh not this time no supposed to schedule to close next week are you I am oh you are you nice okay yes your face look so I can answer some questions on that as far as the septic system it would have ttle 5 yeah the last system was 94 I believe was installed by local installer resendes installed it right um there's a question where exactly the leaching field is okay they did own the previous owners own the property for 70 something years right they also own the property adjacent to it they bought it in the 60s at auction um from from the town was under tax title in 63 sorry could you state your name for the record uh Robert Joe three Christy L Vice chairman of the planning board ear that comes no um so it the system so we're not sure exactly where the leaching field is right um in our plan we were we were doing four bedrooms I me four units as you know um we were bringing it we had did a new per test and bringing up the current title five so for us it really didn't matter we had great soil samples in the back in front of the bond area is roughly 1.4 acres of land that the in currently sits on the and barn currently sit on that is with it not subdivided off to the other basent Lots um so property wise there is still a significant amount of property this doesn't meet our current zoning but it be PR not conforming for our use that's what our determinations for for your use yes but going for and and and again I'll reiterate the the septic has isn't with this board I just just questions I I wrote down um so that doesn't mean anything so that doesn't mean anything um yeah just there's just a you know you're supposed to have 70,000 square foot and then 40,000 for each additional unit and everything so those are all sorts of waivers that you'd have to ask for um in terms of uh Apartments we don't really have a ton in town so you know we're not we're not going to send you flying because um and there was a business there at one time um I don't I don't know if you'd have to do a traffic study on that because of the business being there before I'd have to look into that a little bit further but yeah 50 foot buffer zone you know blah blah blah you would have Town water you have Town water um so those are just some of the you would definitely have to go for a um a is my understanding you have definitely have to go for a special permit um through this board a formal application plans and all that junk um through the chair you mind if I ask one question through the chair to sure go ahead um are you planning on 55 and over units are you planning on um what was your your thought process is it two bedroom units um one bedroom 55 over what what yeah yeah no it's a great question the um I mean we don't currently do anything right now over it's just all market right so that's what we would be proposing no income or anything we don't right now um if that's something that somebody was looking for or that you know it's not out of the question it's really just about what makes it work yeah I got yeah if you guys have any questions please feel free to ask them you had main one outdoor use and recreational space requirements I mean Park up the road there's a park up the road but still I mean you know I'm just saying there like every listing here have to be a waiver of some over that's not with the insets behind it so you know the barn is yep behind that it actually makes an L shape and is over an acre back there that's high dry that's not part of the subdivision not part of the subdivision no it sits on about 1.4 AC okay so what you see that's not cleared is only about half an acre everything else is behind it about an acre behind it it's not cleared with the water tower used to be the you remember well water towers window thing there behind the bar and all that yeah yeah um I'm assuming you'd have to go see else I have questions site plan review you'd have to do that you've already done the zoning determination um but yeah I mean this there there's not a ton of of apartments in town so that based on that statement is that something the town is looking for the town is currently right now uh coming together with a master plan so that'll come out of that right so we'll find out in the near future about that okay we have a draft of that the end of the year or something right based on feedback and online um uh say it Dave online questionnaires and stuff like that um Steve anything no I think it's pretty good idea Chad do you have any uh questions for the app not the applicant but the um Mr and Mrs Lemieux I'm just Wonder has anyone spoke to any of the The Neighbors in that area and have their opinions I have not I mean that would be part of a a formal process if they came in front of us asking for a uh a special permit then we would open it up and and have um have the neighbors give their two cents sure okay under the special permit it is a public hearing it is a public hearing correct public hearing it's not just a no correct it's public that's right have right to their yep I'm I'm a relative neighbor there so kind of sort of we're used to that go ahead Chad did you have other than that it's uh yeah I I I think it's a good idea to keep what they do and to keep the building historic so I mean other than the name uh I think it's a good idea um yeah I mean have you have you talked to the the town historic commission at all um just briefly we've talked to people in the past but not directly about anything like this what what I've been told prior and and and then what Bob was able to tell me when he and I spoke um it seems as though it would be nice to have the building preserved in some manner of fashion um I would be surprised if there isn't a lot of feelings from everybody when it comes to a structure like that in the town um and you know things that we don't know anything about um but um that typically what we try to do is maintain historic Integrity in everything we do and make sure that whatever we do fits the fabric of the community usually what people don't want is some anachronistic ugly building that is completely outside scope it is good for the fabric of the um do you have any other questions for us I mean I don't think we'd be averse to to going through a special permit if you you know formally brought it right something we're not not gonna send you packing right away yeah I I don't think I have any other uh additional questions at this time it really just trying to get our brains around what type of receptivity would be um in the town and then in the board to um even be open to the idea before we would even consider anything else okay I appreciate all of your time that's very helpful does anyone else of the uh general population have any other further questions I don't don't okay well thank you very much and uh feel free to reach out to any of the boards like I said you should probably go to the conservation I don't know about fire I guess you probably at some point you'd have to go to the fire department Department yeah that's all standard standard yeah yeah um but again before you even even approach any of those apartments or departments paron um it's really just a question of what what's allowed or or what what the appealing is would be allowed that's great I appreciate it okay well thank you very great thank you um and we'll be in touch yeah okay actually they done I might go outside with you we're not dismissing you Bob no we're good thank you very much Bob thanks for your input on all the topics so far yeah thanks for it yeah I apologize just keep talk that's all right I was a politician you mind if we leave to the exit Mr chairman I do not mind cheers thank you what you do for the time not I appreciate it there time a thankless job yeah okay uh moving right along number six discussion and vote to recommend Nicole de moranville as principal clerk for land use departments so I talked to Victoria about this uh prior her to her departure um as you know Nicole is the um clerk for three different departments we're going to be leaning on her much more until we get a new land use administrator or town planner or whatever we end up um hiring and uh so we thought it was a good idea to propose um a um a step step up in her uh position so I'll entertain any kind of uh questions comments or concerns from the board going to be great idea you know thank you it's good to have your Bo yeah worked side by side with Victoria yeah yeah some good continuity yeah um Chad gave his thumbs up I also reached out to um Charlie and Nick the the chairs of the uh concom and zba just so they knew we were bringing this up I'm not sure what the next step is I don't know if you can present this to Town Administrator or is that something I have to do um nope I have a letter um for you to sign for the recommendation and then I give it to um Town Administrator and then they put it on their agenda and approve or deny it um just so you guys know I signed the time sheets for uh uh the B the staff and I don't know if I need to have the other two chairs sign the board sign the paper I don't think the letter the letter yeah um so we also put it on the conservation um agenda for Monday okay good so um if they recommend it we'll submit both of them at the same time on Tuesday and then have it on the agenda for for one yeah but zba also falls under planning so I think not yeah I don't think we have to have them do one he's um he's aware of it so if he had you know and obviously uh uh Jim is on the board and he you know you work with Jim so so um I would need a motion to recommend Nicole de moranville um uh as PL uh principal clerk for land use departments I motions made second and seconded uh any further discussion uh roll call vote Chad cavaro I uh Chris Melo hi Steve trip hi David Cross I great um item number six discussion on creating a short-term rental bylaw now the last meeting we had before we knew what uh Victoria was going to be stepping down she was going to start um getting some information on that um that's probably something we should put on hold yeah some of these things are going to be on hold the uh the other one is the um the the individual units there um adus that bill I think is being signed into law today or today's the last day they can sign it in and I believe that makes it does something by right so whatever we had come up with is would have been moot anyway if we had actually brought that to uh fruition back at the town meeting um so I'm going to just like that I'm going to hold off on um unless anybody has a uh a need to Deep dive into it I'm just gonna put it on the Shelf I think um that brings us to number eight any other business does anybody have any Nicole do you have anything that came up at the last minute no Chad anything nope anybody else no nothing else okay uh I guess we're we're uh we're done so I need a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion motions made and SEC and seconded to adjourn roll call vote Chad cavaro I uh Chris melow hi Steve trip hi David cruss I meeting adjourned at 1842 thanks Chad all right thank you um did James end up that's not him is it could be is that James oh oh they left oh James think he was on here I I a I'll have to apologize to him I never even thought because I didn't see his name up there and yeah um he he also uh and you already did that just I know this is he hasn't been sworn in as associate member so there's not much he could have done anyway yeah um so he's got in I know you sent the email out to him to get him to sign it's just a matter of getting over there yeah he's in New York right now for work so he said possibly Friday morning he would stop by to do that he saw the that from Nico from uh Victoria no that's a nice that's a very nice cheat sheet I asked her to do that so she did say that she was going to send that out so okay yeah cool okay we're done Chad you can go you're sleeping in your car there what's going on yeah Back to Football Camp yeah football camp all right get back to the important stuff yeah exactly cheers