##VIDEO ID:Y8BYJMK86o8## right I call the meeting to order uh 602 for the November 6 2024 planning board meeting my name is Stephanie slish I'm the chair of the planning board to my right I have alternate chair Jimmy tar far end I have Doug Finn to my left I have John jeffris and the far end I have Lee Bell and then I have um wow Lori what's your last name Bard okay L Lori um Administrative Assistant um and as always public forum this is for but we're what are in the audience and would like to speak to something not on I think y'all everyone here is on the agenda so with that we can close public forum and move to uh approval of the minutes of the October meeting um that I wasn't there my opinion is I've read through of them and we'll make a motion to accept as presented yes I read them too and they look good to me too um all right any further discussion all in favor I approval of the minutes of October 2nd um as they were written and thanks to Bella for that um all right uh first item on our agenda is a public discussion with uh potential plans for 121 West Street parcel ID number 26-4 and partial ID number 26-5 we've had a couple of different folks coming through here in the past couple years with asking about that parcel so um if we W would have you both come to the front and so we can access this microphone here introduce yourself for the record and then um explain what brings you here tonight Jesse so we are coming uh in a manner to get kind of unofficial approval to move forward with a commercial project um that involves what we what's deemed Flex space so it's uh in a nutshell it's basically a building that is a larger uh storage unit that um houses U individual businesses so we would be renting out uh this space to uh individual tenants that have small businesses um online businesses small warehousing type uh companies um the roofer that you know rents but doesn't doesn't have a place for their truck and their supplies and all their equipment um things like that so that's kind of our primary market for tenants uh but the flex space does allow for a number of uh potential tenants based on its kind of design um there would obviously be limitations that we would probably set um just on our own end some issues that we've run into you know the sewer doesn't go all the way up there so we obviously couldn't have somebody that like a brewery or something like that just throwing that out there um that would be using tons of water um for instance so there would be limitations um so a couple of things uh we just wanted to come here and just kind of broach the topic uh and see if there were any real concerns on your end um about the plans and the project that we have set forth um we provided a copy of our business plan I wasn't exactly sure this is our first time if you have um the page two I assume your packet matches ours that's kind of a brief um kind of a mockup of our ideas um the current lot uh lot is it five is the um is what we see here in the lower right hand corner with the house uh there's a potential for renovating the house we don't anticipate demolishing the house we'll probably keep what's the foundation and do something with it um we're just kind of not exactly sure what yet um the other part of the the lot four there has that parking lot with the buildings along that south side of the the lot line um the lot along the line within obviously these are rough sketches they're not obviously to scale so we would be following any requirements thereof um we're currently working with Fleetwood Environmental Solutions for a Wetlands evaluation uh which since we're not the only ones that have come here I'm sure somebody else has uh done that as well if you have any insight we'd be curious love to hear um we would wouldn't mind some history if you are able to share that information um so we're working with him on delineating some Wetland um within the Lots we're also uh working with birkshire design for a site assessments and we're kind of in the preliminary discussions with them um we're also trying not to get too far over our heads monetarily before we a come to you guys B get our Wetlands um a due diligence process on our way to uh hopefully purchasing this property um so I just I know you spoke to Bella who couldn't be here today who's our assistant planner um about about this and so she just gave us her notes she couldn't be here tonight she's traveling um so we're aware of this but obviously it's good to present to the public and let them know about this um one of so yeah the one thing is like the house to me is that can stay so basically we are allowed to prove things that are allowed in the light industrial zone right and so whatever is in our table of use in our zoning bylaws for a light industrial Zone while like and that what you're proposing I don't know if it would fall into our table of use which is the qu that's the big first thing comes to mind um because yes stor self storage facilities are allowed but but not allowed in light industrial is you don't we don't allow like warehouse storage or uh sales or storage of distribution of building materials for example or Freight or uh Freight or Trucking terminals which you know that kind of looks like it's and so that is just the first thing that comes to mind with this not depend regardless of how I personally feel about that part about the use I think it's a really interesting idea um I just we I don't know we might be constricted by what is allowed in light industrial use per our zoning bylaws and that's just my first thought I have a slight answer to that so the idea is um to search out tenants that fit the criteria of the actual zoning versus trying to get special permits or anything of that nature um the perfect example is I own J electric here in town and I'd love to be able to put my shop in there spot for the Vans to to park and all the material and our office to be set in the back of that shop and so we kind of want to mirror that for any any other small contractors in the area or anything of that nature that may need um that type of space that's primarily who we were planning on marketing to um obviously we might get somebody as as the word spreads to say Hey you know can we fit our business into plan I think that's when I think every tenant is going to going to have to come either to you guys or at least already have a list of approved businesses actually it's the table used that's interesting he's he's he's proposing creating a space where where uses under the under the zoning bylaws would be acceptable and they could be and they could move in that's an interesting take which would be like the Professional Medical and business offices and services I'm just looking at what actually is allowed in that um and of course we we would have our own restrictions because you know there's certain businesses where you don't want to mix with say a construction company or you know something of that nature you know we love the idea of having a coffee shop there but does that classify as a restaurant and it's like do we really want a restaurant there you know those type of things yeah like a convenience store would be allowed a small scale retail establishment would be allowed restaurant would be allowed um I mean all these you they would have to come in for permitting um refreshment stand whatever that is we have that listed yeah Professional Medical building and offices but um let's see what else I'm Just Wireless communication Self Storage scientific research facilities um telecommunications medical marijuana dispensaries or testing Labs manufacturing of food products um manufacturing of met blacksmithing printing engraving book binding processing or warehousing of agricultural products General manufacturing and enclosed structures I'm just trying to look here and see like um yeah go ahead can I ask a few questions um The Proposal that you have outlined first of all I'm looking at the uh the drawing that's in that's in this packet three staple Pages um it shows a long rectangular box with diagonal lines the next page it shows that alongside some what I appear what appears to be buildings yes units that uh the big Gray Line right down the middle is the parking lot theoretically and then in that rendering there are three buildings in there that are 200t long a piece now I just threw those in there just to kind of get the overall scope we'd love to go that big but we're almost certain that we're going to have to go one building and then for a second building um the uh the question I had is um The Divided lines that are hash hashed together I mean obviously there's no scale or anything on this but do you foresee those as parking for um semi-trailers not not semi-trailers um we I was kind of thinking so in my personal business we we tend to haul a trailer around that has a tractor on it or standard landcape kind of correct that sort of thing or what have you y okay um do you expect any materials to be stored outside of the building no because I'm pretty sure in the zoning we are you're not allowed to store anything exterior of the buildings would you limit any given vendor to um rental of more than a certain amount of space like I assume that each building consists of one two three four five six seven eight maybe nine or 10 units would you allow a vendor to rent out six of those 10 units well part of our business plan was to kind of make it scalable and um bring in whatever type of business they need if they needed three Bays we would kind of uh go to what they wanted and of course whatever is is allowed for square footage per style Bill uh business okay um so we're not talking about storage materials outside of the building there might be parking of vehicles and or trailers in the parking area yeah but there won't be will there be any processing or manufacturing onsite for by any of the vendors I mean outside of the buildings oh outside of the buildings no not um more because there hazards of of other people who are renting type of thing um any limitation or do you foresee the need for any limitation for um activity on the site and by I I mean to say uh time limitation um midnight activity uh activity on Sunday that sort of thing I see what you're saying some storage places are 24 hours some are just business hours yeah so I guess that would be a very good question because you know I end up going back to my office at 10:00 at night sometimes if we have to restrict that to every business that they can't get there after 5:00 p.m. I I would say that if you're going back to your office in your vehicle and because you're doing some paperwork or whatever that's not what we're talking about we're talking about somebody loading and unloading a a a bobcat on a trailer and maneuvering a dump truck around the lot at one in the morning yeah something like that I think we would have to heavily restrict that because there there is a neighbor um on the yeah on the left side and across the street yes yep um yeah no I think that's it so where we would allow businesses to operate I don't want to say 24 hours but have them be able to go on site to finish up paperwork in their office um within the structures themselves any kind of outside activities would be logically Limited well we would attempt as best as possible to logically limit them so that they're not operating and basically causing Ruckus after hours okay I mean we know Amazon delivers all hours nowadays so it's hard to say all right 800m is the limit well what happens when Amazon delers at 8:30 I think also too so looking up the table of use I think I talked myself or I looked in so there's a section that said that allowed for light industrial is a planned business this in Industrial Development which you could argue that this is a development for an industrial like Park in a way but like in a different way that right but I think that's how but everything you're talking about isn't air it says it gives a list of all the types of businesses that would be allowed in that that you're you know it would look at it's 6.5 of our zoning bylaws and in that it also talks about the noise levels that are allowed between up until 10 o'clock and then after 10 o'clock it's much lower noise level that's low and so all of the stuff that we're talking about would be regulated um if we treated it as a planned business if you came to it came to us as uh plan business and Industrial Development kind of approach maybe that's what I was getting at in terms of the time restrictions that you know if you're coming in in a personal vehicle it's not going to create a lot of noise right but if you're coming in with a 10- wheel truck with a trailer behind and somebody's clanking down loading Gates and all of that it's like that's a whole backing up with a backup thing that that would be a consistent irritant to a neighbor yeah absolutely well and also you know they would have to come to us to before they started operating that business anyway oh right no matter no matter what yeah yeah so um what what what we're looking to do basically or to give some sort of like preliminary yes I think this actually could be a use that fits in the zoning yeah we'd like to get this guy the pages of the use table point5 that's kind of yeah I know you're saying you might want to stray away from the Industrial Development piece but I all the things and then questions that were being brought up are all listed in this as treated as such yeah as a plan business and Industrial Development take a look at the use table in the zoning bylaw um that's kind of what we're going to be using um screening is important Landscaping is important uh storm water management is very important lighting um lighting is important guidelines design guidelines we got to start on you know um Town lights yeah the and the design guidelines you can get yeah from the office definitely Wetland is be neighbors yeah as much as possible Wetland will be tough but that's conservation and I don't know of any history on the site yeah what the what someone looked to a company like that just was probably looking for land um a Solar Company was thinking about putting in solar there but then when they realized that oh the 30 acres is a bunch of not there's rocks and so you really can only develop you know the front part like very small portion of that 30 they kind of stepped away from that um and then there was talk about yeah there's some Wetland stuff happening in there that what there was a company that was looking at solar on that site yep on that site and I wonder if they do canopies over parking areas I'm just saying mean you know we want to eventually do solar on the buildings or a parking lot type type stuff and that makes sense yeah um I'm just looking at wonder what so yeah it's 5.18 of our table of use and in there it refers you to go to special regulations for uh planned Industrial Development um okay we'll revise that yeah I think that just is that what we think that they should go for related to any Z an application I I think that makes a lot of sense yeah um I think the light industrial is correct me if I'm wrong I'm looking to you for confirmation the light industrial was an attempt to sort of discriminate between the smaller industrial uses that we see a little bit further south on 5 and 10 and CNS right right right that's kind of what we were trying to that's the sort of cleave yeah like the difference between and the yeah like um processing Earth Products bulk storage of soil Grand savel commercial excavation stuff lot of activ a lot industrial So based on what you're saying it sounds like you would fit within the light industrial kind of concept but you really need to look at the table of uses uh and understand our design guidelines um as you plan your full application and I the other thing I think is any potential tenants would have to be very very aware of the restrictions that might be on their own s individual businesses and whether they indeed do fit especially with plans to grow right A lot of times you start a business and then all of a sudden you go the way the market or opportunity takes you and then all of a sudden they don't fit within the scope that might be allowed so that's something that we see sometimes too so I'm thinking about a um an HVAC company that has an office there up in West Hampton um they do a lot of metal work on site in their shop and that was kind of a point of contention when they were looking at getting a review um even something like that where there might be work being done in one of the the units I don't see it as a as a as a deal killer um that might just require a careful selection of the right unit for them one of the units towards the back of the lot is probably not going to be in much of anybody's way or you know cause too much trouble so that might be managed just by selection of the right unit for that particular use um but yeah appropriate management yeah yeah yeah with the understanding that if you put them right out front and the neighor complains about them doing metal cutting and grinding at all hours then there's going to be an issue right so yeah M yeah um there you go yeah I think yeah this is a I think you're barking up the right tree right I think I think that's what can you bark at the right tree you can bark at the right tree all day right you can bark any a tree all day long but you can bark up the right one occasionally the only thing that I'll say about the smaller like one acre parcel with the house on it is that if you wanted it's Grand grandfathered in pre-existing non-conforming to stay a house so if you wanted to update that or make an addition or whatever you're allowed to do that but if there's or you can allow to do anything else that's a light allowed light industrial use approved light industrial use as well but there is like some like there's not really like residential development that can happen in light indust we're plan on building a bunch of houses back there anyways they would mix very well little brown right there on that that exist yeah could make a nice little coffee shop little restro just saying it's an established use or that could be that's an allowed we have to get it reson if it was so it could stay the residential zoning it's actually probably so that's okay so that's another thing we should bring up here figure that is that the map says it's light industrial however the property card says it's rural residential right so what is right is the question that I I I stopped by Kyle's on the way up here and he said that the light industrial is the zoning and the card is wrong yeah I would like to prevent any of spot zoning so if it's keeps it more contiguous in by having it light industrial I feel like that's probably the intent of it or should be that what the building inspector said prior so can we just put a memo to the assessor's office and say we've noticed this it's an error please make the correction yes yep zoning officer right and also a sit down restaurant is allowed in a rural residential Zone anyway so would which is interesting but yes so would we be able to build a second structure on there assuming Wetlands is not the issue I mean it's a 1acre parcel we have stepback requirements so I think there's a question of what you would be planning to do and what you propose to us would be a question just gotta get yeah um you were referencing uh the zoning use 5.18 is that table of use table of use okay I kept reading a mention and I didn't print it out uh there was a mention of 6 five 6.1 6.5 maybe it kept a lot of the Industrials like light industrial was referencing 6 point is that just the special permit regulations special perit just the standard process the method of managing a special permit application got I think if memory serves she's got the book impressive if you remember that um yeah if it depends on if it's um a special permit or speal yeah references five 5.3.6 I don't know public hearing 5.3.8 special permit and I I mean if you're working with birkshire design they are familiar with our zoning bylaws because they bring a lot of projects um our way too so excellent we got a few more questions yeah go uh sewer now we know that that road has been torn up and down for The Last 5 Years type of thing how far is that sewer planning on going because we were told by the listing that the sewer was going to be there eventually we all know what that means the plan is supposed to go right till Chestnut Street so close adjacent yeah not right to you but close to you that is not a permit we could pull to potentially tie in that would be something you could pay for piece of information my house is on 59 Prospect Street right across from the store the nearest sewer to me was in front of the Polish Club on whatever street that is um I got a permit and went down my driveway on the greenway and across the street and tied into the sewer all the way over there as and after I did that several of my neighbors tied into line that I paid to put in but it was your cost my cost didn't matter they they paid the cost to tie into that line but that's you know at least 150 feet so you might be able to pay the cost of getting to that sewer line on your own depends on what's in front of you if you have to get right ways across other people's land or whatever my was only deal with to property so it was not a real problem and we were told that the the vacant field the one that had the horse barn right across from from that what that's pretty much where it was ending is what we were told yeah is going to tie into the Chestnut Street because it comes down off the Chestnut Street there okay I gotta so that's as far north as it so we could potentially talk to that neighbor and say Hey you know if you want to get off of your septic that you probably just put in escapes Builders folks yeah I'll tell you a little something else about that piece of property the owner died this spring this spring this spring the owner of that property died um his name was Frank steel and oh the of the field that you're talking the field you're talking about his daughter Elanor steel is in charge of all the property now so we'll see what happens with that project it's kind of they had a project planned in there and um we don't know what's happening with it since Frank died so and she's in charge of his entire estate and his estate is colossal oh you're you're talking about the um Tobacco Barn next to the property the reason why we got the massworks grant to extend the sewer in the first place it was people working with theam so yeah I think that's a question I mean you might take a look and depending on what you're proposed to build and like what septic requirements might end up happening that it might you know you might be stuck having to put in huge SE huge SE that would be something that you have to look into um yeah that would might keep you yeah prevent you from doing something a scope of something that I just just that might be something that could come up GPD if that isn't an option right the tie in but that would be something that would you you would have to um choose to fund that one make that decision to do that okay even though it's like right there might be worth it compared to doing a sep so it would be worth it yeah 100% given if you're talking about the existence of wetlands yeah without a doubt yeah yeah it would both shortterm and long term yes yeah well that's actually a really good segue um is there a permit we need to pull for taking down any of the trees that aren't deemed in the Wetland Conservation Conservation Commission tell you all about that and there are like um we do obviously like want to preserve trees and things like that too so it's just sadly they went and clear cuted all the good trees before it even went up for sale that's what that's what created the wetlands was all the all the tree trucks driving back and forth compacting the soil and that's what created so yeah that's a that's outside of our jurisdiction but we make sure that Conservation Commission you know is blessing it or whatever in order to move forward so do you have any information or can you point us in the direction of where there may be a plot plan for the residential lot things like location of septic um would the registry of deeds have that information the registry of deeds may have a plot plan the Board of Health should have a plan for the septic if one was ever filed uh if they have a Title Five inspection then there should be a plan for the septic somewhere I mean I think the property card says it was so last was 1970 something so that's Donaldson old house yeah yeah so who that might be we anticipating the septic to be ripped up type of thing because of the age but it's better to find out where it is no where it is right right and also the buyer or the sellers are you could always contact the P the buyer like they might have they might tell you who the re Septic company was that would service it and they have a map too they've been pretty vague on communication so oh that's too bad it's been very difficult to get uh any answers so you know that's why we're doing our due diligence here and all that so okay yeah any other questions for us um I don't have any for you any any others for us things that we should take away I mean it's it's hard without seeing something it's like this whole like dance of we need to see something in order for us to give feedback on it but you obviously don't want to bring something to us if you know we're if we're if it's like completely outter left field that we're not going to be on the same page about but I think that it it seems to be it seems like something that could work for for the town and for that parcel um yeah so no I mean yeah you just have to follow follow looks pretty good I reach out to DPW for the sewer question as soon as possible do that yeah I'm calling tomorrow moves really slow so on radar okay well then just talk to him because I know that he's he we've talked about that whole process and how to tie in and stuff like that so he'll be able to just shoot you straight on it cool thank you thank you everyone yeah and just the just so you're aware of the process of it it's like we would like um an appli at least how many weeks do we say Lori um because we have to when there's a special permit application we have to publish it in The Gazette it's a state state law that we have to publish it for two consecutive weeks ahead of our meeting and so people think oh like I'm GNA get on the agenda next the day before the meet no we need like at least a month probably yeah keep communication days keep communication with us and so we can we meet once a month and so there's like that into play and so we just want to make sure that expectations are all set around uh when you to submit the application and then when the hearing will be and all that this is the sewer and for potential building not the sewer just the project in general for the special tournament sewer is Administrative isn't it yeah sewer doesn't really have come through us or anything it's no meeting or anything DP I mean we look at um if there's like Wastewater issues or think like it's a it would be a part of the application to that you're going to be using Town sewer versus septic but it's not handled by us that board of health does septics um and the DPW would be the one for the sewer so you'll be getting to know everyone in all the town uh boards and committees thank you very much all right thank you we already do didn't get shot down right from the beginning there's plenty of complications and plenty of stuff to to pursue first but it seems like your project is going to fit here done correctly yep thank you good night have a great night all right thanks for your patience Sean oh no problem actually it's been incredibly interested I mean I think uh we're all very lucky to have you guys doing this work because seems tedious and you have to be extremely knowledgeable uh to do it so I really appreciate all the hard work you all put in that thanks joh if not tedious I don't think was that devious or tedious one of the other definitely impressive conversation so um Sean is here from the comprehensive plan committee to give the final presentation um on the outcome of this over two-y year long process um with because it's our job as a planning board P Massachusetts state law to officially adopt any updated master plan and so this is the final presentation so thanks for being here tonight sh I'm going to be doing the PowerPoint PowerPoint for you so thank you very much uh Stephanie served on the committee uh with me and put together this PowerPoint so greatly appreciate uh that it was you know I have to look to see exactly how long but it felt like two years of uh yeah two years of of work um meeting regularly a large group of folks but we'll go through all of that um right here so how did we get here so we got the grant um around in 2021 funding for the comprehensive plan through the municipal vulnerability preparedness action uh Grant fund and that Grant's focused on climate resiliency um but could be used as part of our comprehensive planning uh process um so we sort of built on past plans uh and updated it and so this is the third comprehensive plan in Hatfield's history so the process we've got seven key objectives that you'll see outlined in the plan and I believe this plan was shared a few weeks ago uh with the committee uh so all of you have had a chance to look at it but those seven objectives uh for the um watching audience I guess is to get a better sense of how the Connecticut River flows will impact Hatfield as climate uh to promote better understanding across Hatfield about the climate change impacts to be anticipated um to engage more deeply with certain sectors in town especially seniors and Farmers um to create a forum for open dialogue within the community about how to best how best to adapt uh we use both words and Graphics to show major ideas and priorities as you saw from that first uh slide that was was up there um as well as public engagement as um and other actions identified in the final plan and art I would say was brought throughout our process as a way of engaging people in town if any of you attended our sort of um Community uh planning event at uh black Birch art was a tremendous part of that people sort of representing their ideas around the plan and artistic ways uh which is really cool and I think brought out um interesting ideas from people in a different way than you normally get ideas um in a process like this uh Advanced Dialogue on how to best to uh Advanced adaptation and mitigation within specific areas and you'll see that reflected by each chapter um and prioritizing actions with estimated timelines and recommended resources so that Hatfield can immediately take next steps and as we'll mention um this plan's only as good as the efforts we take to move it forward um and so you know really what we did is we really did clearly outline what was identified in this plan as ideal next steps and what should happen but we'll need the help of committees like this to move some of these ideas forward um so when it comes to community engagement uh we had many opportunities for Community engagement we held two focus groups for Farmers including one-on-one interviews and a survey uh you know actually one of my uh my head farmer from Prospect mle Farm attended one and he said it was well attended did people were very engaged in the discussion uh so it sounds like that event was went well and actually represented a large part of the farming Community uh for seniors we had a focus group conversation on uh the greatest assets and challenges and a survey was mailed to every resident over 60 um I was able to participate in listening to some of those conversations um and reviewing some of the results from the survey and so there was actually a reasonably good participation in that for youth uh we surveyed Smith Academy students and brought curriculum into the schools as part of this and there was actually a contest I believe if I'm remembering correctly some sort of contest for the students can you recall anything about that oh there was a there was definitely some sort of Project based yeah like a poster project or something that the schools did as part of this um we had a virtual Gathering and an in-person event at black Birch uh with over 50 attendees and we did a town wide survey with around 200 responses we also tried to think of other creative ways to engage people around this work and to draw attention to the climate uh resiliency aspect of it based on sort of current events and timely things so for example when we were experiencing the floods of that summer we hosted a flood tour you know and we had one of the Consultants on this project be able to join with Town's people and visit all the places in town that were being flooded and talk about the impact of that and connect connect that directly to this plan um and we had over a dozen people participated in that and had a bus available to drive people around and there were even more people at different locations who just showed up to the ones that sort of more were applicable to them uh so we came up with creative um ideas like that that were really fun to do and that the committee all volunteers really took on in organizing uh the commu uh the community input takeaways uh the plan incorporates all of the feedback from inperson sessions um and to from the survey and there's some uh here's some raw data from the survey yeah these are two of the survey questions um I'm sure you all probably had a plan you would have seen the list of uh the robust team of Consultants that help this plan truly comprehensive and these were all expert experts in their field um we got to learn a tremendous amount about them I'd say particularly um around flooding and and the history of flooding and whatnot um and in the expectations around future flooding they helped us analyze FEMA maps and flood data specialize in creating uh the amazing poster that we shared at the beginning there were 11 volunteers um on that committee representing Town boards and committees and three atlarge Town members uh so we of course give a big thank you to everyone uh who was able to make such a commitment for over a couple of years too um these were relatively fre quent meetings and and not necessarily sure although now as I'm sitting here with the planning board I'm like well I'm sure you guys meet a lot actually is so I don't know if it was at that level but uh certainly it wasn't easy um the plan so the vision statement so for the uh audience Hatfield aspires preserve its rural charm strong Community bonds and exceptional quality of life while embracing sustainable growth inclusive practices to ensure this vision statement weren't made simply were large discussions over long periods of time where people representing every different uh Committee in town were able to sort of add some input and even debate over individual words and this so this was a a very thoughtful process how toes distill 300 plus pages into a vision statement yeah yeah interesting data about Hatfield you can see up there is growing our under 18 population is is steady declining slightly we're in a predominantly white community so climate change risk the nature of the uh action Grant had us focus on climate issues specific to Hatfield so Woodward and Kern who were great actually to work with analyze proposed FEMA Federal insurance rate maps that aren't implemented yet so it's interesting impact uh reflecting that if it remains as it was presented to us um the river is Flowing faster than it has been uh the levier Dyke is not sufficient for stopping flood waters but will slow down the flooding I think this is one of the great things about our flood tour we were able to actually towns people were able to ask questions about that actually on the Dyke with the flood experts those who chose to come so I think it's you know beyond just this report I think what's great about this process is that we gave people from town the opportunity to sort of learn more about things that are going to have a significant impact um so I think that's a great example um big takeaway from the comprehensive plan committee was that we need to be very cross-section of Hatfield to Smith Academy the they keep town hall and the fire station out of flood water the updated maps with new flow rates that's the lineing yellow puts water flood waters lapping the doors of the town hall and the basement underwater puts the fire station under two feet of water the red line up there shows what could be possible with climate change continuing at a similar rate to what a flood event could look like which fills and that would with water about four feet of water in the fire station um as well was interesting when we were talking about that and what that would mean because obviously has flooding increases the further it increases it creates issues with opening doors and things like that so what does it mean on certain aspects of infrastructure one of the top priorities in community surveys and from the public in past master plan surveys so key [Music] themes Harvard I think what can we do to La them yeah yeah so the key themes there are seven key themes which you'll see here Farmers some suggested actions include resolving ditch maintenance and wetlands permitting issues I will emphasize the resolving ditch maintenance piece I think that is Farmers mentioned it constantly uh on our farm it's a huge massive concern and how it impacts our neighbors and I heard from the agricultural Consultants who did this project that it was like sort of a common thing they heard and it also came up in Municipal VAB ility preparedness plan a key action of mapping those ditches out and figuring that out yeah yeah yeah so yeah and we hear you know the impact on our property it's sort of uh we will do something where it shouldn't cause any additional you know just add some more Stone to our driveway or something uh and it shouldn't cause any more additional flooding but because all these drain ditches continue to just get filled and filled and filled from whatever wash water and then it's a yeah and it's a question of well is it on our property on their property oh can I do it can I not do it it's just not clear and that's the pro and then now of course liability concerns and things like that everything's a little bit different W in Wetlands yeah and so there just needs to be more clarity around it because I certainly think everyone's willing to do the work um involved in fixing it um seeking out opportunities to collaborate and partner with surrounding towns and supporting Farmers um actually and that makes me think I wonder if there's towns ditch maintenance that maybe we could identify the process MVP action Grant funds to map out their ditches you know so that's cool maybe we need to do that yeah addressing soil Health Improvement and cover crop challenges by facilitating and encouraging improved practices um let's see we want to show the reduced flood risk to town-owned um facilties some of the suggested actions around that are to analyze and uh prioritize Rel location or flood resilience upgrades needed for public facilities and other facilities and services most at risk in the flood plane with an eye towards to consolidate resources and centralize services we spoke quite a bit about that too throughout our work um ensure that the new wastewater treatment facility is designed to min minimize future flood risk and conduct a flood risk analysis of the Mill River to better understand how current and future flows can impact the town plan for resiliency of Hatfield's uh historic and cultural resources some of uh the suggested actions in that include uh pursuing planning for resiliency in place and appropriate retrofitting of atrisk historic resources to sustain flooding impacts um collaborating with other Connecticut RI River communities with similar flood risk potential for state or federal planning and funding Support also we'd like the best location for Hatfields Museum and archival materials for longevity resiliency and Public Access possibly upstairs at Town Hall and investigate archival Grant programs to fund organizing and safeguarding of collections uh one thing I well I think we all learned from the big flooding season but just also while doing this work here while that was all going on so hearing from flooding Consultants is how suddenly this could come on you know really at any point there could be a sudden big flood that impacts you know some building in town and you don't want that to be the building ideally where all of your you know historical and archival things are um so it was interesting to hear how really at any point Come uh thriving a local economy so you see the giv giving greater shape to commercial development along Route 5 and 10 something we talked quite a bit about uh and suggestions included rezoning along the full extend of Route 5 and 10 ex extending the sewer line um you know some of us I think you know in talking about this had that jealousy of of the benefit to Hadley taxwise of having developed strip there and the potential possibilities in the future um of further development along that strip to support allow them to preserve a lot of their Farmland 50% of their land that is preserved yeah and the character of their Community too for the most part preserved I can outside of r n yeah outside of n yeah yeah you got to give something sometimes uh so support for continued viability of Hatfields farms uh some suggestions include promoting the leasing of town-owned conservation land to small and beginning Farmers uh setting up a Market Garden Farm incubator of some sort another idea was exploring opportunities to Aggregate and also Market Hatfield grown products at events fairs festivals and surrounding towns an an active agricultural committee could potentially take on some of those things and maybe there's some grant funding out there for that or forther partnership with an organization like cisa to figure out how to pursue things like that um maintaining opportunities for development within the context of our character which was of conversation particularly for the downtown Main Street area views of zoning bylaws and maps to reduce spot zoning and make sure local zoning meets the intent of uh the state law review lands current industrial zoning inventory to determine what is act actually developable and where can industrial zoning be moved that is more practical we actually had some fun activities around this where we had big maps and got to sort of Envision what could be where as a committee and around the impact of that and what that would mean yeah and talked about is a lot of our light industrial and Industrial land um is in wetlands area and so it could that was something that came up as like well why is that zone play industrial and Industrial so yep and I think some of these examples just show you how thorough this process was too you know I included to fund a planning board staff position and consider increased support to attract the qualified people um another one that you'll see up there enhancing economic vitality through a well-maintained transportation network uh the suggestions around that we performing regular traffic data collection on roads to assess existing travel speeds vehicle volume crash history at key locations in town and potentially installing an additional speed uh feedback sign uh the next one there assessing potential for renewable and Alternative Energy uh production uh especially Associated manufacturing and services some suggestions include determining the appropriate locations sighting requirements and regulations to encourage green industry and jobs another one's to identify how town can set example set examples with investments in Renewables particularly electric vehicles in charging stations and solar on public buildings uh you can see when you travel sometimes there's Town Halls that and actually as I'm saying it I'm like we don't have one here have uh power charging stations you know right outside of their Town Hall that people are able to use uh and I think that's not only useful uh for the people who work in town hall and visiting the downtown but people who are passing through and sort of it encourages people who are passing through to stop walk through your downtown visit businesses things like that because I've seen Jimmy and Betsy have to do that with their electric vehicle so so I know that that's how it can happen uh let's see here let so encouraging temporary commercial use in uh Town Center with a popup and mobile commercial offerings um some suggestions around that include U utiliz existing buildings including accessory buildings and existing SPAC spaces such as parking lots to host popup and mobile commercial offerings I think one thing that we heard from some parents and sort of just throughout the process from younger families I'd say in town is this desire for more activity you know more downtown stuff things neighbors interact and so I think some of these opportunities like that yeah also we heard that there's no public bathroom accessible to anyone downtown which is another yep so things like that yeah yeah so creative ideas how do you you know make sure the bathrooms in town hall are accessible during special events and whatnot um next is health and wellness uh so the first one you see up there is expanding opportunities for passive and active Recreation Hatfield um some suggestions include providing access for non motorized boats to M River above the dam um and expanding sidewalk the sidewalk Network throughout town to increase walkability uh that's something certainly I think a lot of people uh felt strongly about you know if you're not living directly in the sort of immediate downtown area you don't necessarily have that same benefit of the uh walking paths of the sidewalks and in an aging Community adds a health benefit which is great um but also it's attractive to young families you know attracts people to a town potentially too the fact that their kids can walk on a sidewalk to go see their friends and whatnot um so that's something that and and I think uh we thought it could it sort of creates other neighborhoods and and thinking about the town infrastructure in general in the long term if you think about sidewalks and what how they Define spaces and then the added element of infrastructure you're creating new sort of town centers too you know new communities uh Within in the town which is interesting um let's see yeah so we talked about expanding the trail system that changed sort of well actually the bike system is actually what I'm thinking about right now but building additional Trails for hiking and passive Recreation but what know and from my conversations with people there several people felt like there's been some great work around this in our town and there's some beautiful Trails uh that have been defined um over the years uh thanks to certain very active Town members who were committed to that um but continuing that and building on that creating a map of trails that includes difficulty ratings accessibility notes parking Etc and benches along some of the walking uh routes um ensuring older adults in Hatfield can age in place uh some suggestions include uh redeveloping existing properties for small congregate homes and updating zoning to um allow to allow for that look at Zoning for additional rental housing opportunities within walking distance to amenities um and services you know and I I would uh note the some of the creative ideas that are able to sort of make some progress towards some of these things that different departments in town have done and I'll I'll use a Council on Aging example uh do each year now the last two years a you count your steps and ultimately there's prizes and whatnot ass associated with it and so that's a way where you can encourage people to sort of make the extra effort to get to our sidewalk system because a lot of people have been doing that together um and your report steps and it's kind of it was something that people were talking about a lot and happy about so I think some creative ideas can sort of maybe make access to some our existing sidewalk system more attractive to people because it's sort of part of something bigger a community event or a goal or something so there's other things we could do with that potentially um affordable homes and vibrant neighborhoods uh so there were a lot of thoughts around that um so we can explore where there may be options for other Village centers in town with live workable and walkable neighborhoods as I was talking about earlier uh we can provide housing stock that protects and maintains the scenic natural and historic resources of the town this includes ensuring open space uh protection when building housing as well as adopting low impact development standards uh for all develop we can also promote housing that is financially all ages and housing configurations through incing affordability and adding affordable housing units to make progress towards the mgl are we required to do it get to that goal is it goal then a project can come in and we don't under 40b yeah under 40b yeah we basically by right with very little review yeah yeah okay so so there is a consequence for not being at that which is just yeah we're right now at like 2.8% or 3% something like that so we have we're not it's not like we're close we're very far away from that um and it's something that I'm encouraged but the New Town Administrator actually in his interview made a comment about how he has worked with his previous town to help it you know they were at like nine point something percent and so I'm curious to see the learnings come and see if he was interested in help no we and some suggestions from the committee was identifying a location for additional public housing and seek pro project approval and funding I know terms of that is is there creative ways to do mixed use you know where so maybe it's a certain element is you know elders and a certain element is some other you know maybe it's a low-income Community maybe it's a disabled Community whatever it might be some mixed use um so that you're keeping you're giving opportunity for some of the older people in town who might want to downsize to have additional places to stay in town while still creating some growing communities and freeing up some houses potentially larger houses um for to add more families into town uh to support our schools and you making town uh increasingly vibrant um protecting Hatfields Community character um is a is a huge piece of what we talked about and some suggestions around that is pursuing a local historic district study for the uh Hatfield Town Center uh with updated historical commission documentation and strengthen the current demolition delay bylaw to cover building 75 years or or older I'm encouraging stewardship of Hatfield's uh historic resources so some suggestions for that include uh pursue certified local government status with the National Park Service which provides a direct pathway for increased state and federal support and funding um benefits of becoming a CLG include access Grant funds local involvement in the National Registry of historic places local involvement in reviewing compliance and I think the Comm some of these things leads the town and maybe the Town Administrator to pursue some of these grants that you know often our Cas is strengthened by having this thoughtful planning process you know in place too so hopefully this can be used as part of some of the applications for some of these things that we note in here term um Hatfield becoming a CLG uh certified local government with the National Park Service uh and then continue to advance and I talked about this earlier pedestrian safety uh within the town's Transportation Network so that's identifying gaps in the sidewalk sidewalk uh Network and prioritizing projects to fill those gaps and there were some ideas potentially starting with Main Street Bridge Street gorev Prospect Street King Street chest now for what people brought up um ensure optimal functioning in locations of crosswalks in town actually on Halloween that became very clear I mean walking on Main Street in Halloween with kids are trying to have them cross the street there were some people flying like flying down that road I it it was wild growing food and there you know are some challenges around that with obviously the impact of flooding and whatnot but embarking on a program of Farmland protection that matches State goals of protecting 50% of currently cultivated lands which entails adding an additional 857 Acres about 35 Acres a year until 2050 uh to the 521 Acres already conserved for Agri agriculture in town uh develop internal procedures for Town regarding right of first refusal of farmlands being converted from agricultural use under chapter 61a so that important Farmland protection opportunities are not missed uh next is protect protecting drinking water supply um and some of the suggestions around that include evaluating drinking water supply protection vulnerabilities through an analysis of existing protected land and needed land protection and reviewing Provisions in the the zoning bylaw on drinking water supply and protection an update where more control and guidance are needed to ensure continued Integrity of uh sources and of course support sustainable forestry practices to ensure healthy Forest act ecosystems and prevent erosion questions for that first one you see up there ensuring that keeps its schools retaining full enrollment of local students uh some suggestions include supporting a third-party study that provides a complete understanding of existing costs needs for long-term and strategies towards a more sustainable School District in Hatfield um let's see another together as a community um goal is celebrate Agriculture and some suggestions around that include organizing and pro and promoting local educational events and workshops on topics including Farm succession um planning soil Health pollinator Health regenerative farming practices AG forestry um Etc again that might be something we can partner with existing Community you know Regional Community organizations um to to do um undertake a pride and Hatfield grown program like talked about earlier that starts locally perhaps drawing on a New England uh um prize which actually our school has applied for a couple of times and so we could potentially next time we apply include a reference to this longer term plan actually I will I will bring that up to them next time they apply um also Ur as a community community ensuring that all public build Park especially you know with wanting to people having an opportunity to get together teens or told by someone of a team Center that used to exist town you know and I know towns have moved away from that but maybe they're small towns but maybe there's opportunity to sort of bring back some of the benefits that came with something like that even if it's on a popup basis or something like that um but and and that's part of that improving the communications because people know there are a lot of great events like that happening around town but we what we heard from other members of the community uh of the committee is it's hard sometimes to find out about those events I think one of the better examples of good communication though as a Council on Aging member would be the Council on Aging newsletter you know it's something that does get out to people go to homes um but you know if you're under 60 I believe is is the age the events are so there might be more we can do around that let's see in improving and adapting our transportation infrastructure and services to support an aging population while also meeting the needs of a diverse younger demographic and some of our suggestions include a complete streets plan to create connections for walking and biking and to win designation as a complete streets community so that halfeld can qualify uh for State funds I don't know if this is also gonna I can't remember if this is all elsewhere but I know connecting the bike paths is sort of part of that goal and while there's been some temporary uh hiccups I think our goal is still to to do that to help accomplish some of these um yeah that was the next bullet point well there you see I got right ahead of myself explore alternatives to access the regional use uh path Network as well as feasibility of joining the regional Bike Share program and then and next is in enhancing support for Hatfields historic and cultural assets and those suggestions were work with the Hatfield cultural Council working with the mass cultural Council and other Cal District I believe this is something that they've done in the past from what the representative to the committee shared at the time but it's been some time so I think that's something that uh needs to be done again um continued support of Hatfield celebration committee to plan and coordinate funding and volunteers or support the development of this uh committee into a collaborative nonprofit to support Community programming uh capable and resilient local government uh promote capacity in local governance ensuring the town's departments are appropriate Ely staffed and equipped they have some great s suggestions evaluate whether Town departments have the human resources as necessary I.E Staffing training management appropriate pay to meet the current and projected service demands of the community that's one thing that came up I think throughout conversation in the process is that a lot of these things take careful planning processes all of that and so if you have your resources already stretched within your existing offices it's hard for people to make that space to actually pursue some of these different grant opportunities and whatnot that would help make some of the things talked about in this plan realistic financially um so there's some level of investment managing the town infrastructure efficiently kind of connects um suggestions are investing in routine and capital maintenance Improvement activities at local roads Bridges water supply and resource again making sure that your your teams your administrate Administration has the capacity to think longterm helps and making that realistic um max in terms of time maximizing use of the town's existing facilities and services to promote Financial resilience some suggestions include inventory and developing um an integrated use and reuse plan for town-owned properties to promote their highest and best use in consideration of community needs and benefits and in consideration of flood potential uh climate change impacts while I'm not up to date with what's going on at the project across the street um to me that seems like a good example of a former uh Town resource that was able to actually be changed to something that could potentially be a town benefit in terms of housing um the old school uh so I think you know that to me in some ways that's a good example explore the Strategic expansion of the community's Wastewater infrastructure um and support Hatfield Farmers more actively uh some suggestions around that are regularly connect with Growers to ensure they are accessing appropriate technical assistance current grant opportunities and uh service providers yeah I mean I think you know just like it's helpful for us when we're having you know if you have a question related to your taxes to be able to stop the collector's office you know for some Farm farmers and whatnot it would be great if you have a question about you know how can you help me out for this money I'm applying for that'll help clear all my ditches to have someone who you know to go to and who has the capacity in the space to be able to help you um and so just you know the in increasing our infrastructure to be able to support activities like that or even if it's just saying pointing them to the resources that already exist like cisa like a y y and we try to do some of that an anticipation of this Pro problem in our plan by specifically mentioning some of the resources that are available for some of these things as a way to direct people to it them that I'll make available that even goes into that a little bit further that we've worked on is is um the planning in Massachusetts the planning board is the authority to officially adopt a new master or planning board is the authority to officially adopt a new master comprehensive plan so I don't know what that means for you all tonight in your meeting but that's on you sta uh in order for this to not become just something on a shelf uh we recommend the select board Crea an action committee where we can keep the document alive and hold committees accountable to following through on the vision of the plan I mean some of us thought that that big map uh that we created the Big Image we could just get blown up and post it directly behind the select board's um table where they sit for Town meetings like that could just be a massive constantly remind all of us of where we're going um because again the value of a comprehensive plan is almost nothing if you don't do anything with it and I I can't say I'm not somewhat cynical but I'm trying not to be to be honest you know um we also plan to print copies of the poster and hang those in town hall um as a reminder and we're going to have copies of the full plan to available in different places like the library Town Hall maybe one or two other places we were talking about maybe the school library or something like that a small printing amount of funds left for printing yeah small amount the plan and they're very expensive to print turns out so yeah that's everything it was a lot it was a lot of work everyone all of the different town commities had Representatives who were actively engaged a two-year process where community members were given many opportunities um to have input and we made sure throughout the process that everything was available online from the committee meetings to even things related to discussions that we were having the material was always available on a website that we tried to publicize as best as we could thank you Sean I appreciate you going through that thank you thanks for distilling 300 pages in a in a way that is digestible and presentable to the public and us so none of this would be possible without all your hard work and I and I don't know how you do it actually you played a major leadership role in getting all of this done and so I appreciate that thanks yeah anything else for me or am I good yeah any comments from the board we've talked a little bit because this is delayed a few times um we've talked about this off as a board so um this is great to see all these different conversations that we have threaded together and weave together in in this presentation and to assuage some of your cynicism our work with the adus has address some of that yes yeah we've already done like a couple somewhere that's great yeah there are several things on list I feel like we're making some progress on yeah so all right great well thank you all very much I appreciate it thank you Sean yeah we see you all right sorry thank you thank you okay all right so with that um it is up to us I'm assuming we've all read it we've talked about it like I said multiple times I think in a way good that we've been delayed on this because we've been able to to think about this and take time to read it and digest it um instead of being rushed into reading it and presenting and adopting so um I don't know how we feel about adopting tonight but we totally can um if there's any other comments on the project all of my questions or concerns are probably post adoption anyways and they the only question I have and maybe you can answer this is the referring to this chart which is to my not even all that old eyes is nearly impossible to read but um they use uh the plan uses the traditional short medium longterm time frame uh funding sources all of that that all makes sense that's all good General sort of basic strategy for implementing these things um once the plan is adopted assuming the select board appoints committee is the committee going to refine this implementation plan and set priorities right so that's the thing is like um the select board at the presentation that the comprehensive plan committee gave to them a few weeks ago they seemed to completely open and willing to implement an implementation committee or whatever we would want to name it um they would say probably shortly in the New Year pending our approval um and it's really up you know we wanting to make sure that the the committee pushing things forward but also is something that you brought up I think Doug like staying within the scope of the fact that it's really a committee without too many te too much teeth really um so I think that's all to be negotiated I think yeah okay um I think anything that we as a board are willing to this is my personal opinion are willing to like wanting to pick up and run with great and if there's priorities that they think should be at the top of the stack we should weigh that in whatever we're we're planning one of the more and this is not speaking out of school but maybe not speaking about the game we're playing right here one of the biggest challenges in West Hampton is the fact that our implementation committee um took upon themselves to start implementing things which caused a lot of confusion with exis sitting boards committees and employees where an employee had a Committee Member reach up to and say I need you to do this for me and the employee went um no no not um and that's the the importance of making sure that the implementation committee works and interfaces with the select board which is the oversight Authority for all departments um but also they need to maintain good clear communication with all the various boards and committees um this this chart is all we need to start running and we certainly would want to have the implementation committee suggest quick easy things that we can check off and get done but otherwise I think it's it's these priorities if it's on the planning board that would be our our job to sort of pursue as we think we can um but the oversight of that committee would be to the select board the oversight of the committee would be to the select board I would expect that once a year once every six months whatever that committee would come here and say hey wanted to get you an update here's what's going on and we note that you've just done these two things congratulations we hope you're gearing up for these next two things because that's coming up in the time frame and what can we do to help what kind of funding do you need b boom that's fine you know but but again so that's why I'm saying this is all sort of post approval I don't have any problem at all with um approving the plan tonight so yeah I I think yeah yeah I think they imp presentation committee would definitely be a commun trying to bring the people together all the Committees together that need to work together because frankly we work pretty siloed um and I think there is an opportunity for us to be more in talks with different committees about certain things um so I think that could be yep one of the prongs of that committee but yeah yep um yeah I I being a part of the committee I definitely um there was good representation of of folks not just like of thoughts and ideas as well as being people from different committees um it was interesting that we all you know had different backgrounds perspectives and things but we aligned on a lot of the same things which was really encouraging um not in a way that was you know this is just one um One voice of Hatfield that's driving this but it was nice to see a bunch of different voices that actually were rallying around a few things which were really made me encouraged that was that this is a solid um comprehensive and also uh taking into account all the views of Hatfields in in this in this plan so do we need a motion to adopt I make a motion we adopt as as um presented the comprehensive plan a second that motion any further discussion um all right all in favor I all I all right great our comprehensive plan our updated master plan has been approved and we'll go ahead with what we need to do for documenting that with the state and going forward so it's it's officially official Awesome chapter 84 of [Music] mgl all right next item on our agenda is the Adu bylaw update um it was something that latter last meeting Doug you kind of um like kind of right before the meeting came with updated you changes was it right before the meeting no I don't remember you you gave us yeah yeah yeah yeah last meeting you mean yes yes and you we were kind of waiting to discuss it to give time to us to read it although I'm not seeing it in my packet I yeah read it before and and I'm and I feel like there might have been updates since then yeah there are there are and it's the state still hasn't rolled out its regulations its interpretations of what the law actually says it's kind of a mess um the so you can KCK I I suggest we don't do anything on this right now we wait another month or so and see if we get updated guidance there are a couple different Regional planning organizations that have rolled out model bylaws which they're worth the paper they're written on but I'm not sure I would want to take them to the bank right um somewhere between all of them will be where the state lands um so as long as we're just mentally anticipating having something on the town meeting agenda yes update it without a doubt we have a few months four months till we get there yeah yes so I I recommend caution and and slow progress on that um okay yeah I'll keep my eyes on thanks so we'll just keep moving yeah and I know Bella's keeping an eye on it too um she similarly said to me she's like there's things are changing that she doesn't feel in being ready to approve anything because things are still changing can you grab a couple of those model the model BW drafts yeah that'd be good just get our heads around what they're thinking about and again I've seen one from a law office from KP law I've seen another one from the uh uh the Martha Vineyard commission I've seen another one from Pioneer Valley bling commission and they all write bylaws differently so it's not something we can just plug in um no matter what there's have to be modification to it to to make it fit our use so right yeah I will but I'm happy to get them and forward them F to folks to look at if you want to to Bella and and us would be great sure cool okay um the next item on the agenda is just this very long letter about the mass do notifying um updating Three Bridges along five and 10 well no not five and 10 um along 91 or is it five and 10 and I don't even know I yeah they're they're over five and 10 91 Bridges to go over five and 10 yep and there's one of them that's in Hatfield and then two of them are in weightly and it's just giving us the heads up and if we want to give any feedback and so I just wanted to put this on the agenda for the Public's knowledge it's um the the bridge that they're referring to is the one that goes over between Pantry Road and North Hatfield Road um that uh bridge that goes over there they anticipate um updating that between it's it's on five and 10 but it's the bridge that go it's between Pantry Road and North Hatfield Road um that they plan on working on these in the next what did they give a date 3 to 12 years um right I I skimmed through the letter I didn't see any details there I tried to look at the plan do they suggest limitation on use while the work is going on right they get that detailed I think that would be the question that we would have um is how that would impact people moving people try moving and transportating transporting moving wow transp transportating transportating across it that's when you're moving potatoes Mar has a set of plans I think in office that they sent okay yep yeah it's it you know the modification of whatever that that's fine uh but even like with the Sunderland bridge where they did major redecking um between Deerfield and Sunderland they still maintain two open lanes the entire time um whether that's needed or if they just want to put temporary stop lights one on either side that's fine as long as it doesn't turn into a you can go north but you can't go south because now we've got major amounts of traffic that are going to get rerouted through the center of town or something or through like yeah like Pantry road which is a very narrow roadway right just wouldn't work that way yeah absolutely okay all right so I I'll look at it great yes and that select board is more than planning board anyway so yep it's more of a heads up to us and so I just wanted to put it on the agenda just so other people get aware of it also um the plans are at 25% complete so we're still a couple years the way I would imagine but heads heads up yep um all right next um I'm going to skip four number F five oh wait no that's not that's related to Lori so Lori um has updated our an anr application for approval because remember how request eight copies it requests them be sent on a CD or digital copies which I'll obsolete at this point so Lori um updated the for a which is just a simple majority vote that we can take here to update um our anr forms so that we don't have to end up with a gazillion copies of large copies and we can actually get the digital like you said Laura you can't even access the CDs that people send because we don't have anything in the town hall found an old computer that had a drive put someone who would submitted CD it just would not so we're updating to be with the 21st century here so um I make a motion that we accept the updates to the anr application second um any discussion yes the only um thing I would suggest is that under item three page on the second page yep number of existing Lots fine area of existing lot or Lots isn't necessary for an anr we don't need to consider that wouldn't it wouldn't it be in case uh we needed to look at whether or not it affected the if if if there was a an encroachment onto a piece that was non-conforming we would need to know the square footage of that lot in order to see if it was less conforming so in other words you a let me just kick it back and see if I understand what you you just asked so if somebody proposes a lot line division dividing a lot into two Parcels but one of the parcels is non-conforming or or that parcel is at the limit at which it is conforming we would need to know that um 40,000 so let's say it's 40,000 feet if that lot is at 40,000 feet that would that would affect our decision as to as to an encroaching um cut in the survey I understand what you're saying um anrs aren't a determiner of um whether a lot is viable for a building lot um and there may be other I'm just stating this because I've read it in case law there's reasons where people may want to take a full a whole lot and cut it into two non-conforming lots that are outside of the scope of what an anr can do so I want to take a whole lot cut it in half because I'm taking that piece and selling it to the guy next to me or whatever um the I guess I guess what comes what comes to mind to me is one is our most recent anr where he was where he was taking a small piece of property from the from from the next door yep and so we would need to know the square footage of that property so is to make it so is to make sure that we're not making that property less conforming by giving that space that would be my that why why I think that information sure an anr plan can't create a non-conformity that's that I guess that would be my why I think that information would be necessary okay also like well does it hurt to just ask for it even if we don't need it it's like a little MTH well one of the things that might go along with this would be um specifications for the plan that on anr plan the town of Hatfield wants to see us and it can just be a schedule the area of the lots of each lot as it exists and the area of each lot to be proposed which I imagine would be on the plan anyways right um many front the frontage uh and does um does he field zoning require that the frontage be maintained to a certain depth on the lot for it to be conforming I don't believe so I don't think soet right standard offset building offsets right well I'm thinking if if I've got a 200 foot foot on a road and then I narrow down to a 30 foot way to get back to my my buildable parcel way at the back you call it a flag lot if you will [Music] um in some towns that width that minimum Road Frontage width has to be maintained back to a certain depth for it to be to for it to qualify I didn't know if Hatfield does is that a road or a driveway doesn't matter doesn't matter so we're in that situation a little bit on El Street right now with the Doctor's house behind and there's not a lot I mean he took the house in the front sh that might be a shared driveway situation there are they I don't know well technically one of what are we talking about here I mean I think it's just keeping it's the 3B I'd say just keep it that's fine no it's fine we can have the exercise I mean if folks understand that yeah where if a lot line creates a non-conformity then the plany book wouldn't allow it because we just wouldn't but so yeah leaving it there is fine yeah yeah the only thing that I would just for the planning board use part where it says thumb drive change the wording to it says electronic copy USB drive or whatever or or just even they can it doesn't even need to be a thumb drive put I would want to put 24 in by 36 in 17 in and then not scanned copy because that degrades the copy we want an electronic copy if you say scan copy then people are going to want to follow that and give us a crappier copy so scratch the word scanmed so we had a mo a f motion and a second and now there's further discussion remove we can remove with discussed change so we're changing it you want me to keep the 24 by 36 i' put little double quotes by them indicating inches same with the 11 by 17 and then instead instead of scanned copy electronic copy electon I'm sorry where are you just at the top of note where it say note very top okay and then on the planning board purposes it says thumb drive but I think just for consistency it I didn't see that either or just change it to electronic copy on uh copy set electronically electronic copy where it says thumb drop yeah so we don't want I'm okay with that copy sent electronically they can ask you can email to me you give me a thumb dve either way I can't take CDs I can't so we're only requiring them to submit one fullsize plan the myar and then five copies of the plan yeah okay the 11 by 17 uh what do we sign just the Myer MH yes which means the town doesn't keep a the town keeps it it'll be the town won't keep a full size so we're only keeping the 11 by 17s and then and the electronic of course but they keep record you guys can sign those those are just staying here they're just have it doesn't have to be there because if they send it electronically electronically will have the right whether it will have the right measur question M we have all these 24 by 36 and eight copies and we're try to no I I was saying you don't need usually one page it's just conserve space in our bylaws we ask for like eight copies too but this is the easy thing we don't have to bring it to town meeting it's thank you for doing that Laura all right can we update that motion then do we need to vote after further discussion I propose that it's I move to approve the edited anr is that an amendment or the actual motion I retracted my motion okay retracted removed approve the approve the form as with reason all right the last piece on the agenda is update from Bella which I forwarded to you via email um and then she has this beautiful binder that she's putting together of all these things that we're going to be hopefully working towards which is great um just Top Line she was saying that she was doing some digging because DPW and Marlene thought we had complete streets but we do not which we should so that's like an easy lift low lift thing so she's just looking into that I think having someone like her um on staff at Town Hall would be helpful in moving things along that might not be exactly in our purview but um other that could help moving moving some of that along um what else did she have in here correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the first step is we adopt a complete Street the town Ops a complete Street policy yes that has to go to the state it has to get approved once approved then we can start looking at the possibility of getting grants for various projects correct my understanding is that as a policy that has to be approved by the select board probably yeah I think so okay so we can encourage them to consider one correct okay um or like have input on on what we would want to see correct um or give them draft Version play with but right give yeah I'm sure that's something that we can work with Bella to make it a low lift um piece that she working on was The Guiding Planning Commission put together like a couple sheet about uh that's deep into that so she's going to be working with that um and then the other part is just just updating and keeping updated this the document you referred to with a really small font um and keeping keeping us printed on one page um well yeah so keeping that up to date and then making sure that you know she's helping track resources and things for that so I don't want to speak really for her because she's not here tonight but I just wanted to pass those things along that she's moving on things um we reached out to P Alle Planning Commission about any resources for updating our zoning look at our zoning and they pointed us to the municipal vulnerability action preparedness grants but we would need to tie it in with something else related to what came out in the that and the application window just like closed for that or statement of intent for applying for that Grant just closed so there are other resources but I'm waiting to hear back from them on that so that's that's that update um I have too many sheets of paper I lost my agenda I think that was it um our next meeting is thank you December 4th and then I also wanted just to note that normally we meet the first Wednesday of the month the first Wednesday of January is January 1 so we will not be meeting on that day um so it be January 8th I just wanted to put that out now um sounds good with that make a next Mee great can I get a second oh why not sure kind of having fun don't let it end any further discussion all in favor I I all right the November 6 2024 planning board meeting is adjourned at 741 thank you