##VIDEO ID:yKUoSW3aHcI## [Music] hi it's the Ving hour uh 5:30 we'd like to uh begin the um zoning board of appeals hearing um first I would like to introduce ourselves on cathine Bronner chair ran trony member T Richards member Ron har member Jeremy carrier member righto to Town Council thank to uh open the meeting open the hearing I should say I'd like to read the notice that was posted the grany board of appeals will hold a public hearing on Tuesday October 8th 2024 commencing at 530 at one Library Lane old car Library top floor to consider the following one appellant Naomi and John simonic 193 ammer Street are appealing a letter from the grany Building Commissioner zoning officer under Section uh four overl District regulations of the gramy zoning bylaws applicable of section 4.2 agricultural preservation district and Grandy General bylaws uh chapter uh 23 right Das Right to Farm or right to farm by law and mgl chapter 4A Section 3 at 193 uh amber Street and known as assessors ma 2- b-3 in the town of gry mass in addition to the above hearing the board of appeals May conduct other agenda items following said hearing as time permits this notice is given pursuant to chapter 48 chapter 39 section 23b of the Massachusetts general laws um so thank you for everyone for being here and before uh we begin I think what we'd like to do the best way is to uh turn it over to our Town Council attorney Brian o TL um and again for those of you that were here last week I kind of started off with saying that well it's never a good thing when the Town Council starts off the uh the hearing because it probably means that um the course of either the filings are going through everything um I noticed something um and uh What that particular thing was in this in this point was uh the uh the correspondence that was sent to the zomix um from the bilding commissioner Damien Cody um dated August 2nd and um to the board um I would point to uh looks like it's the one two three fourth paragraph last sentence that really caught my eye here MH which says at this time no violation has been cited since this event has not occurred and um also said if you'd like to go over uh what is permissible for use of land we can make an appointment to discuss um this this will include what is as of right and consider the relief that you have received with a special permit site plan review um reading that I said well usually under um section seven there's usually an order okay whether it be a cease and desist or something along those lines but um what it sounded to me like it was an in ation to come in and go talk to the uh the building inspector about what was proposed to be going on that day um and so I did what I should do I called up the uh the building inspector or uh the Building Commissioner I asked him um and you'll notice he's not here today so you I guess you'll have to kind of take my word for it um and asked them was was this an order pursuant to um section 7 something that would be appealable to this board here under Section 8 his answer to that was no okay that it really was an invitation to come in and talk and I pointed out that you know well the bottom of your correspondence here violation of town um town of grany bylaw seems to be somewhat boiler PL language you know did you int he said he put that at the uh at the bottom of all the correspondences that came in in the in the uh uh zomix in this case seeing that um did in fact file this appeal to preserve any uh appell rights uh that they would have um um so I I suppose and I I I did speak uh before the meeting got started uh um attorney pill who's here with the zomix today um we discussed this um and I said I don't know that there's an appealable um decision or order here from The Building Commissioner to be considered by this board um and um you know based upon the August 2nd 2024 correspondence from The Building Commissioner um that is uh my opinion um attorney pill I I think at least at this stage agrees with that um that certainly doesn't mean um that in the future I I I think that the zomix should take up the Building Commissioner here on uh the invitation if they haven't already um for an event like this in the future because I as we know from last week and and I'm sure we'll hear some from some folks here today um um that there's a lot of confusion going around about what is and what isn't authorized and I'm not going to get into that today because um something may come down the line later on um and I'm going to first rely upon the Building Commissioner to make a decision if and when it comes time to make that decision now if the Building Commissioner had sent out another letter after this um event whether it if it had occurred and it was an order or some sort of decision we'd be having a different conversation here today um because I'm sure there's zomix with assistance of attorney pill would have filed a uh um a similar appeal and then we would have some substantive discussions here today but at least it is my opinion after talking with the Building Commissioner that this was not an order under 40a Section 7 um that the that the um zba would be deciding under section8 here today if I just said a bunch of words salad there uh please feel free to uh uh to ask questions and I'll I'll do my best to rephrase and clarify thank you thank you to um we'll open it up certainly for the public but just uh for the committee questions uh for Our Town Council in regards to the letter assessment and then open it up for the community no no questions question full agreement with his assessment okay very good um and is there anyone here who like please why is Michael and I'm here for me you go to the microphone micone oh I'm sorry got the microphone okay sorry about that we're broadcasting attorney pill so okay oh thank you is this why you're a gentleman at a schar sir thank you okay okay um just leave it is this this okay um in any event it's sometimes when you practice law you have to adopt what's called belt and suspenders because it did have the language in there that said if you want to appeal the risk you run is well what if you don't appeal and it turns out it was an appealable order then you're up a crick and basically um you know although no lawyer wants to admit to having a heart I mean I sue people for a living and so Pitbull's sometimes one of the nicer things I call I'm called but um what I could see is that Naomi and John are what they are is like a lot of the people I grew up with in a small Iowa Town they're people who are trying to make a go of a small family Family Farm And what they're doing are having events and producing products and essentially doing whatever they can to help make ends meet and um I to me that's very personal my immigrant grandpa had a men's clothing store and when the Family Farms died um he sat me down and he said this is is gone you better go to college and that's that's why I had to go to college in law school okay and um you know especially in these times I think having local people who produce food we may not fully appreciate the value of that but sometimes times can get real hard and in any event these folks touch me in a way that not many folks do so I'm here on what they call a pro bono basis just trying to help them out um and the the key I think is because of the breadth of your right to farm bylaw and the state laws owning exemption I think they can do what they're doing but yes they may need an entertainment license a one-day liquor license and to comply with other bylaws and I they want to do that okay for example um I had a meeting with Naomi and John and your Town Administrator and a nice lady is it okay still to call a female personal lady I mean there was that poor guy inton um okay uh from the select board and we talked all about that and I think it helped them understand a lot about some of the Hoops they need to jump through for example to have events and they want to comply with all of that okay and if I can be of assistance with any of that for God's sakes anybody should feel free to call me up or send me an email um and what is very impressive and you should know that is I didn't spot what he spotted and I when he pointed it out to me your attorney I think he was right okay and what that means is that opens the door to a win-win resolution in other words what you can do is decide that you don't have jurisdiction because it wasn't an appealable order after all and that's great okay then we can all go home and there's really no winner and no um loser and um it's an excellent uh resolution and the only thing about it is I wish I'd spotted it but you know you you're you're you're fortunate to have him and it was good visiting with him and you know once in a while despite what some folks think of our profession we can help resolve conflicts and avoid them so I guess that's about what I had to say but if anybody's got any questions um I guess I should get out of the way so any of the folks in the public can talk if they want anybody have questions right now I don't think we do sir but thank Youk thank you very much than you okay any other thoughts comments from the public if not I'll name and address Rich 428 Bachelor Street okay I just want to say I I think the bylaws in this town are a mess they're so confusing you need a liquor license you uh one day two day liquor license you need a license from the Board of Health the Board of Health has a whole bunch of stipulations you have to have for tents for uh waste disposal food disposal that the police get involved with traffic there are so many permits involved how does you know the the system in this town is lousy and uh that's about so anyone trying to start a business has a real hard time they want probably they want to do the right thing but they just don't know there should be at least a package put together where you hand someone a package and it lists it summarizes everything they need I don't know if we even have that I doubt we do but something has to be done because there's problems right from the start from the planning board uh they there I think there's going to be a move to eliminate venues from our bylaws completely at the special town at the annual town meeting which that's that's where some of the problems start this town does not have anything in any bylaw that says public venues are allowed they are not allowed in gramy at all private venues are are allowed now but the permit doesn't specify private they specify the the uh correct bylaw reference but they don't mention mention the word private at at all which that starts the problem so some people uh I know the uh ammer Street tried to get a liquor license for two events and one was turned down because it was a public event not allowed the other one was approved it was allowed because it was a private event so that's starts part of the problem there are just too many things that that uh they're so confusing now you probably don't even believe this but section 5.14 of our bylaws they're mentioned that particular bylaw it's mentioned in two different places and the wording is different the exact same number 5.14 and it's it listed in two different places open space meeting in in a private venues that that's where you will see 5.14 in different wording now I I think the uh I think the planning board just had a public hearing they uh were going to rewrite their Zone some zoning bylaws but how how how do those bylaws relate to other existing bylaws who knows but it's very confusing now thank you than all right um no further comment conversation I put I hear a motion to close the public hearing make a motion to close the public hearing on this second all in favor I um and now we'll have our uh the public meeting um and I'm looking for possible guidance from you or for the committee okay in making a motion uh I'm going to do something for the record that we uh similar probably to last week to last week yes that we don't have a motion that we neither have the authority or the jurisdiction to address the letter of um well the application um for the appeal as it relates to of the August 2nd corre that that the zba will take no action on the appeal because the uh the board does not have jurisdiction and this is going to get wordy I suppose yeah over this matter as the um August 2nd 2024 correspondence from the town of grany Building Commissioner um was not in order or um was was was not a was not an order or decision or decision under uh Mass General Law chapter 4A section 7 decision under Section 48 s section seven could I have a motion I make a motion under the wording of of attorney attorney of tools that we do not have the authority or jdic over this matter can I have a second all in favor I I I being no further business we going have to those accept you oh yes why don't we the only other matter we have I distributed earlier the minutes from the uh sep thank you all very much okay thank you the September 23rd and October 1st uh zba minutes could we have a motion to accept these with record make a motion to accept the zoning board of appeals public hearing meeting minutes for September 23rd 2024 as written thank you second second all in favor I how about to number two number two make a motion uh to accept the Grandy zoning board of appeals public hearing meeting minutes for October 1 2024 as written second motion all fav I this time I make a motion with no other further discussion or business to close the I second that motion all in favor thank you