##VIDEO ID:Ihr-37l9lxU## today's October 2nd 2024 um as a preliminary matter this is Woody Knight chair of the new planning board permit me to commit that all members in presence anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me pling board members when I call your name please respond on the affirmative Peter Pacos yes Murphy yes Mary Stone here Scott kter Scott you're muted but I can see you nice to see you Steve mangian yes yep okay very good town staff when I call your name please respond in the affirmative uh Kristen grubs yes anticipated speakers presenters on the agenda please respond in the affirmative uh TJ Melvin from Millennium engineering yes okay very good good evening this October 2nd 2024 opening meeting of the new rep planning board is being conducted remotely consistent with chapter 2 of the acts of 2023 which extends the governor M March 12 2020 order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law until March 31st 2025 for this meeting the new planning board is convening by video conference via Zoom as posted on the planning board's agenda which can be found on the town's website which identifies how the public may join may you join you may join us by going to http semicolon zoom. us and entering meeting ID number 83271 41356 and the passcode is 10879 or by calling in 1 92925 6099 us and entering the meeting ID number and passcode when prompted for Zoom meetings please note that this meeting is being recorded and that attendees are participating by video and our telephone conference the meeting is also being broadcast live through local access cable channel 9 on Zoom and at www.tn cv. org and the recording will be available at the Newber access YouTube channel meeting business ground rules before we turn to the first item on the agenda permit me to cover some ground rules as chair I will introduce each speaker on the agenda after speakers conclude their remarks I will go down the list of board members inviting each by name to provide any comments questions or motions finally each vote taken in this meeting will be conducted by roll call vote so that's that um first item on the agenda this evening is old business um we have uh TJ Melvin from Millennium engineering uh three Newport Turnpike uh Ono Bavaro family reality to LLC and this is uh for a request for modifications to approve site plan to add sidewalk retaining wall and a Transformer Pad so uh TJ um would you like to update the board on uh what's yeah what the status is of the site yeah absolutely uh good evening everyone TJ Melvin with Millennium engineering uh it's been maybe about a month and a half since we were last in front of the board um since then we've filed a new notice of intent with the Conservation Commission as the order of conditions had expired on the site um as part of that filing we're also including the amendment to uh show the retaining wall and walkway to the rear of the property and the Transformer Pad uh we've had uh two hearings with technically three hearings with the Conservation Commission to this point um we've also had a site walk which I know Woody was able to attend um at that site walk we were asked to start writing a draft order of conditions which we had sent in to uh the conservation agent um one of the items that they had asked at the siteworx already put in place and to rify the Wetland line along the rear property boundary uh which we have also completed as well um and then we had one comment from D asking to install erosion control mats along the downhill slope most adjacent to the Wetland um I know most of you probably hasn't seen them as we submitted them to Kristen today uh revised plan set which I understand the the board you know doesn't want to take anything you know unless it's a week ahead of the meeting um but that that's kind of the information that was updated on that plan Set uh the only other change that we made was in response to Joe Sak's comment um that the walkway along the southern portion of the building didn't fully extend to one of the egress doors so we made that change in that set as well um we were anticipating getting approval from conservation last night however we did not have a quorum uh so therefore we had to ask for continuance to the next meeting um I'd be happy to address any questions the board may have or I can pull up plans if you guys want to look at anything specific again I fully understand that you guys haven't had a chance to see any of the plant were submitted today so with that I'll answer any questions okay great um so we we got plans I haven't seen them so that they definitely haven't and no one else has seen them on the board um and what's Kristen what's the status with uh Joe Shaka um yeah so the plans you guys saw aren't fundamentally different than what was submitted today but um yeah I haven't forwarded what was received today with those couple updates that TJ mentioned so I'll do that um so those were some of those updates were response to Joe's a review of the previous plan set so we need to get those back to Joe and get him to give another comment letter back to the board um letting you know if he's satisfied or if he has any additional questions so I can you know transmit those administratively if the board would like me to do that um does anyone on the board have any questions for TJ at this time hearing none um I guess we'll deal with the peer review from Joe and um conservations needs to weigh in on this matter and well they'll have another meeting in two weeks and um I guess we will continue this to our next meeting uh does that have to go a motion and a vote Kristen or is no I don't I don't think so I think it's soon as I get comments back from peer review I'll share them and if you know hopefully we'll get them in time for the next to be on the next agenda if that works for y for okay the applicant all right sounds great thank you TJ and uh we'll see you at the next meeting okay oh he's on for the next great thank you all project too y oh yeah NOP sorry about that now on new business we've got TJ for millennium engineering for uh 68 Green Street uh owner crane properties request for approval of the asilt plan and request for release of bond from Barm View Lane so um what's the status on this one TJ good evening everyone again TJ Mel from Millennium engineering um so at this point the the applicant has completed all of the work on site um all of the houses have been sold and at this point uh we're requesting a final release of all the bonds I believe they're two separate ones um and acceptance of the as built plan uh to close out the the whole definitive plan process um I know we've had several site meetings with Martha and I believe Chris and you come out to some of the last few ones um I've met Joe there several times as well um just trying to come up with you know different little Solutions if there was an issue with storm water or uh you know little tweaks in the field um so at this point you know the the grass is in the Landscaping is in um again all the houses are sold and we're just looking to close out the bonds and get final approval of the as belt all right and you've submitted the as belt correct correct all right so we uh we need to submit that to Joe Kristen yeah okay so we'll do that and um there's a s sidewalk there on Saturday with the conservation so the conservation still has to weigh in on that and that meeting will be in two weeks and if they're satisfied with the improvements we'll get you on the agenda for this on for 68 Green Street uh on our next meeting I'm not sure the date but it's in two weeks awesome yeah and uh Kristen if Joe wants I can meet him out there and we can walk it together or he can reach out to me if he wants or any other information or anything so just let me know I'd be happy to walk it with him hey Woody when is the um conservation the when's that site walk um I believe I don't have my notes in front of me I'm sorry but I believe the S sidewalk for um 68 Green Street is Saturday morning at uh 9:00 if it is isn't it's um because there's another s sidewalk and I wrote him down so I wouldn't so I could go back and look yeah I couldn't remember for it was Tuesday or Saturday I know there's one on the eth as well the eth at eight but I believe that is the Paka River uh 286 or something High Road Baka River and like I said I don't have my notes in front of me but it's either Saturday or on the 8th I think I think um Mason thought it was on Saturday for the commission I don't know if I don't know if any of plan board members who haven't been on the property I know some of you have pretty recently um but we could I certainly am willing to ask the commission if he might be able to join that or yeah been there I mean I could uh that's why I asked I mean if if they're going to be out there Saturday I could certainly join if uh appropriate all right Scott uh I will check and Kristen will check and we'll get it shoot you a note to confirm that it's this Saturday at 9: so you can be there all right thank you yep yeah I think that's I mean that's perfectly normal for boards to want to you know see the final the final final um before the Asel comes back for final review so if it doesn't work on Saturday we can find another time I think okay yeah and it it' be great Scott to get your eyes on it because we I believe everybody else in the board was there we had a sidewalk there a few months ago so or earlier this summer right all right well thank you TJ we'll see you at the next meeting I'll see you at the Salk thank you all right and uh next on the agenda um we had uh Bob grass Grasso but uh the the uh submission they've asked that uh they don't appear tonight and they've withdrawn the submission so we'll pass on that um next thing on the agenda uh liaison and meeting reports we'll start with with uh Larry if you would uh CBA yeah actually I don't have anything to report Woody they had to cancel their last meeting for lack of a quorum so okay that's it that happens yeah very good um Conservation Commission we met last night um unfortunately I don't have my notes in front of me but I do recall um the things that pertained to us was uh 68 Green Street we just discussed that they're going to have site walk on Saturday and reconvene at their next meeting um three uh three new report turnpik they ask for continuance so we'll have that at the next conservation meeting and then the Sunset Club which is uh 2-8 oldo Road um they requested a continuance as well so we'll see them in two weeks at the conservation meeting so other than that I do not recall anything else that pertains to our board um Kristen mvpc yeah so I um after a summer Hiatus there uh both the mvpc Commissioners as well as the mvpc planners groups um met this month um so I attended my my first meeting as commissioner so that was that was enjoyable um and it was on Zoom but still enjoyable uh so I didn't get a free lunch but maybe next time um and then the planners meeting was held the following week so those will be monthly now for the sort of school year um mvpc is super busy they're just doing incredible Regional work they're um getting a lot of Grants to support their programming um but so a couple highlights um they they're doing a lot of GIS work they have some really great new um viewers uh on their website and I can send around links there's a lot on the website so sometimes it's a little hard to find but they have a viewer that has gathered all the demographic data for the region and town by town and you can like choose how to sort the information you can look at you know age brackets or um economic socioeconomic data all sorts of really cool ways to um to view and aggregate different data so this will be a really great tool for the towns um particularly in writing grants where you're sort of making the case for a certain program um they also did they excuse me did they um did they develop that that themselves yeah yeah it's using um uh I I can't remember now there're two sets of data I think it's using the um not the Census Data but there's another American ACS American census survey um but yeah they have a really high powerered GIS team right it's definitely pretty cool though look at um they also are in the process I think Martha mentioned this a few months ago but they're in the process of redoing the whole my map um which is on each town website that shows all the assessors and parcel data and all the different um State you know layer data layers they're sort of re that hasn't been like a re overhaul in many many years I think they have had that out more than 15 years so that's in the works but it's um they've had uh they've had a lot going on so that'll be coming the next few months um um they have a new tool for um their environmental program which is a uh predictive monitoring like an early alert for um combined sewer overflow so they have a map of the river and when there is an event um or in an anticipation of weather events that come you can look and there's like points on the map that say whether there's any um uh uh concern about ecoli or other dangers at public access points to um whether it's boating or swimming or whatever so um it's a predictive monitoring of ecoi on the on the marac river but it comes all the way down into Newbery and into the Basin and Plum is so that's pretty cool um they also have been doing a lot of energy planning um regionally so they have a new uh again a viewer a it's called Rea Regional energy planning assistance and again you can sort by town to see where electric vehicle Chargers are you can see how many electric vehicles are in the town um you know fun fun factoid for you they well I should I should play a little poll how many electric vehicles do you think are in the town of Newberry are owned by residents in the town in Nur I I'll say like uh under 200 raise your hand wait wait wait what's the prize okay uh the prize is just victory on the zoom recorded forever so what's the first one okay we'll do two we'll do parameters zero to 250 250 to 500 uh 500 to 750 or more than 7 750 so 0 to 250 couple yeah two or three four that's a lot uh 250 to 500 500 and up anybody I think everybody's voted no everyone's voted Scott oh Scott's voting every time um so of the 6,700 vehicles that are registered in Newberry there are 549 that are electric W now those hybrids are pure electric um I don't know I'm assuming it's all electric but could be hybrid probably anybody that plugs in so not like hybrid electric not just hybrids that's eight eight plus percent that that was 500 and what 549 that's good yeah I was surprised very good I am too um what else there are two Regional studies that are open for public comment right now so I've made news alerts on the website but I'll send it around again they're open they're both open until o October 16th um one is the vision zero plan um which we are going to have Elizabeth malder come back to a planning board meeting to present that unfortunately we weren't able to schedule it during this public comment period so inviting you all to take a look at it and then we can have a discussion at a later date so that's the roadway safety analysis of the region town by Town looking at priorities in terms of elimin ating um injuries and crashes due to safety issues um it's also called Safe Streets and roads for all you know zero is an awfully tough standard to ever meet yeah I know just a general comment yeah I think it's a na it's a national it's a federally funded program so it's yeah but that explains it why it's zero even harder um yeah and the other plan is called marac Valley moves and it's the active Transportation plan which so active transportation is defined as any any movement that's human powerered so walking biking scootering um so looking at Regional priorities in terms of improvements and how to encourage um active transportation with a side benefit you know all sorts of public health benefits of course but side Ben benefit of reducing personal vehicle use in the region um so that plan just was released a couple weeks ago and I'll send around a notice about that um and then just to note the marac Valley Planing commission is celebrating its 65th anniversary um they're celebrating that in conjunction with the um with meva which is the um the Transit Agency for the region um who's celebrating their 50th birthday so they're celebrating together the public are invited it's October 17th um from 5: to 800m it's going to be a meeting and a party um and it's being held in methan at the marac Valley Golf Club so that'll be that'll be exciting they're excited about it so that's it from mvpc update thanks thanks CHR very good thank you Christ okay next thing on the agenda is um the September 2024 financial report um planning board financial report September 2024 payroll and invoices authorized payroll warrants for planning director and special projects planner a PR 25-6 for pay period ending 92124 and then escrow accounts uh Joe Shaka construction inspections Cricket Lane 9824 Joe Shaka construction inspections three newort Turnpike 91724 Joe Shaka construction inspections uh newb Golf Center 131 scotton Road 92024 and that is a financial report next thing on the agenda um the plan is directives report planning director's report um thanks I I'll just talk with a few more items um perhaps of Interest one is May an offer for an assistant planner super excited um Daniel Laro will be I'm sorry I think I Mis pronounce that Daniel Loro R OE uh he's a staff planner in Salem currently um he's been working there for a bunch of years and is looking to get involved in a community where he can you know be involved in a whole bunch of things and I assured him this was a good time for that because a lot of things come through the planning department here um and so super excited Daniel be starting the end of October that's great Krist new yeah um and we had a lot of we had a number of good really good candidates so um just you know want to thank everybody who did apply um um let's see so there are a couple other meetings all on that same night I just mentioned which is Thursday October 17th um if I could be in three places at the same time I would want to be on that night so besides the um mvpc celebration there's a really great um presentation being held by storm surge and the new BR Port resiliency committee it's um a couple uh staff members from the Woods Hole oceanographic Institute um and they're talking about specifically geared towards private homeowners so understanding your flood risk and um real you know proactive strategies for um helping buildings be more resilient to flood risk so um certainly it's something I think we're we've all been talking about for a long time but in particular this week in terms of um everything that our Southern neighboring states are going through it's it feels really important that we all I think educate ourselves and and really think about different ways that we can be faced by flooding because these big rainstorms um are not going away anytime soon so that event is Thursday October 17th at 7 o'clock and it's being held at the Newport Senior Center at the community center um and then the other one of course the same night um but it's actually at six o'clock so maybe you could sneak them both in um the greater newb Port housing Choice Coalition um monthly meeting is Thursday night it's held hybrid so it's in person at the YWCA in Newport but it's also online um and they have a really amazing guest speaker um really exciting to get her up to this area her name is Amy danne um and maybe those of you who have been involved in Zoning for a while I've heard of her but she um her famous book was called exclusionary by Design so she has done a lot of research and a lot of data and she's still working in Massachusetts um looking at the ways that zoning regulations um enforce racial and class discrimination so in particular single family zoning um over the decades um and again it's she's a real data scientist so it's um it's pulling that data in and then talking about you know what we can do to address these issues in terms of um zoning in particular which not all of us think zoning is super exciting but she makes it pretty relevant and and interesting so that again is the 17th at 6: PM um at the YWCA in um couple other things I want to just give a shout out again to the open space committee they're really looking for new members um really trying to get energized and dive into updating the town's open space and wck plan where still waiting to hear if we have um been awarded a grant from the community onstop State program to support that open space Plan update but in the meanwhile the group of people are are meeting and and really fun group and looking for new members so if you know of anyone interested um one of the one of the things we're working on is um going to be a establishing on the ground the trail at Caldwell Farm um which is a part of the open space subdivision at the planning board um permitted many years ago um but it's been a plan uh a trail on paper but we're working with some of the open space committee members to um get that going and the town's public works department is going to help um establish that and there'll be a parking area and be open to the public um working on that later this fall so that's exciting I think that's it we have I mean there are a fair amount of Permitting things as you know that are um that are floating I've had a couple inquiries about um small anr divisions of land um that'll probably be coming in the next uh couple meetings um and in addition um some of the projects that still need closing up um gadston Lane subdivision they're going to be submitting their as built pretty soon so that'll come to the planning board in the next hopefully one of the next meetings um and 108 Main Street um is still working its way through the Conservation Commission um and uh but I've been keeping updated with with John colony and he's still hoping to get started get restarted with that construction work in the spring which is what he told the board a few months ago so um lot going on Happy to answer any questions that's I just talked a lot Kristen does the planning board have any rev review requirements um you know relative to the C called well um Farm um Trail or is it just a volunteer type of um um um so the trail what there is a trail easement that is held by the town through the Conservation Commission so they're The Entity that actually holds the conservation restriction and the trail easement on the property so if there were questions about it I think it would probably go through the Conservation Commission um in terms of just actually establishing it there isn't it's already agreed upon and you know in the plan so both the homeowners and the town are in agreement about where it'll go um so it'll just be I mean we'll be keeping the homeowners association updated there for sure What's the timing on that is this like a year two years um away from seeing you know a trail um the hope is to to get going with it um when before the snow fli and after the um ticks and poison ivy Abate a little so I'm thinking November gotta okay really already been done sorry I'm you were both talking go ahead Scott no I just said it's exciting this is um um long overdue it's uh it's going to be great yeah we have so there's a line on a map and what we're working on now is getting um it transferred into a GPS unit so we can go out on the property we not necessarily me but collectively um flag the route and then the town's public works department will help with the clearing um and it's a you know it's a pedestrian sort of low access kind of Trail it's not for hes or bikes um but it will be um publicly accessible that's my understanding Steve did you have a question yes what I gathered from what you just said it's um you know clearing the area where the trail is going to be there isn't any other design considerations that need to be addressed um I think this my understanding is this has been in the works for a long time so any in terms of Permitting or review by the commission um in terms of where it goes it's um it's all set that said I don't know there might be something that we run into on the ground that needs to be modified right I guess Joe sarch won't be reviewing plans maybe that's where I end up in terms of the U interests of the planning board no I I don't think there'll be there there won't be any like grading or you know gravel or like it's it'll be just kind of clearing a path that's my understanding sure and once that's done who's responsible for the maintenance to you know keep the poison ivy down in succeeding years yeah I think it's the town um but I haven't reviewed that trail eement deed recently so it's a good question thank you yeah all right do we have any other questions or we'll move on Kristen you're done right thank you yep um okay the only other thing I see on the agenda is uh planning board meeting minutes and unfortunately they're not quite ready to distribute to the board yet so we're going to pass on that this week they'll be ready for our next meeting um anyone one has anything else Speak now or I'll entertain a motion to adjourn you have a motion you have a second very good roll call vote Peter yes sir Larry yes Mary yes Scott yes sir and Steve how do you feel I feel good about it okay great it was nice to see everyone and have a good night okay how do you thanks CHR oh I vote Yes definitely