##VIDEO ID:JZOt1AkDjVs## I loved it oh like they did a new system and they don't have it anymore but I loved it good evening and welcome to the October 16th 2024 Yarmouth planning board meeting I am Jordan Crowley the chair this is to formally advise that as required by massachus general laws chapter 38 paragraph paragraphs 18 to 25 and pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 an act relative to extending certain state of emergency accommodations signed into law on June 16 2021 Yarmouth planning board will hold a public meeting on October 16th 2024 at 5:30 pm the public is welcome to attend in person this evening or via alternative Public Access provided on the notice of meeting available on the town of Yarmouth website I'd like to begin by taking roll call Susan BR here will Rubenstein here Jim Sabin Peter Slovak here Ken Smith Joanne Crowley present seeing that we have a quorum I'd like to Now call the meeting to order and ask you to join me in the Pledge of Allegiance United States of America to the rep stands indivisible andice for first item on our agenda this evening uh is a continuation of our deliberations with regard to the two zoning amendments that we are proposing for special town meeting uh zoning article one uh amend zoning bylaws section 412 affordable housing to revise the methodology used to determine the amount of the fee to be paid in lie of creating affordable housing units I'd like Kathy Williams Our Town planner to walk through some a minor change that we've made adjustment based on our discussions last week uh there were some questions raised and I think we've answered them you and and Mary wagan have met yes correct and Mary's there she is um welcome Mary at at the open at the open house see I'm at the uh public hearing U there was no comments from the public or written comments but the board did want some clarifications on when the actual uh cash payment amount would be set annually Mary and I talked and we basically settled on it would make sense to do it on July 1 of each year and we would use the current warrant group data and also the affordable price would then be requested to be calculated by the um housing and livable communities and it would still remain fixed for the following 12- month period and then so there's the change there and then minor changes to the explanation to correlate with that change any discussion board members any concerns Mr Savin not a concern but um I think that always trying to think how town meeting is going to go the question is going to become who is the housing and Li Bill communities and um who appoints those people are they is that a state leg uh agency is a agency executive office of Housing and livable community used to be um CH what is it HD what was it what was it before Mary DCd it's now the executive office of uh housing and livable communities it's a cabinet level office now at the state level and the reason why um I suggest that office to do that is they um run the local Initiative Program which um sets our our resale prices for any affordable home in town so they do that for us already um so it makes sense that they're the ones that would set the theoretical price for a resale unit or an affordable home being sold connected with our cash payment in L super I appreciate that I I I expect that somebody might ask that at town meeting so I make a suggestion i' appreciate it whoever's gonna handle this who handles this on the floor that night we haven't we haven't decided on that maybe in the narrative they could have one line in there as Kathy just said or as Mary said explaining just hlc is a state level cin that does this for us and that way it would be in the record in the explanation yeah always trying to you know think but you know when it comes to town meeting who knows what somebody's going to come up and ask Madam chair can I ask just a timing question please um assuming this passes a town meeting I can't remember how long it takes for our zoning it's days to submit it to the attorney general and then 90 days for them to respond to it so 120 days yes okay well that shouldn't matter what the date is on the uh setting the rates so will this it only matters in terms of development will this be effective the date would be set on July 1st 2025 right the first time I meant the date of the effectiveness of of this change versus anything else so it's going to be four months any should it be approved at at special town meeting then in July that this would actually go in technically would go into effect before that but would be actually used the first time in July so anybody that comes before us before then would use the old method I think that makes sense Mary okay thank you for two thumbs up just wanted to talk that out for a sec thank you any other questions with regard to this um we have one outstanding item on this and that's who will present it and in our meeting minutes from last week again my recollection is that we thought one of two of our real estate professionals might want to present this Mr Savin or Mr Slovak um so uh Susan has already agreed to present the next the multi the seasonal housing uh so I if you're intending to attend town meeting if you can Peter or Jim I would I would pass to Jim on that should have spoke first def I think it's already me if I spoke first and said i' defer to you then then it becomes now I now I'm wondering where's Ken on [Laughter] this it's easy to all right so we yeah um Jim Susan said she'll do it she'll do both of them um it's up to you guys are you attending Jim are you gonna be there I'm intending on attending oh okay well whatever if you want to do it you can otherwise I'll do it there we go Susan we I'll give you the full support right behind you I'll cheer all along that's all I need do that's all I need thank you Susan I appreciate that moved enough articles lately so that takes care octob November when is the meeting the 16th of November no the 19th 19th I always get that confused are you going to vote to recommend now or later well I I wanted to we've just covered zoning article one and kind of slipped into zoning article two for a second uh so I'd like to um uh ask that uh may I have a motion to recommend zoning article one amend zoning bylaw section 412 affordable housing so moved moved second all in favor I I I oning article number two uh is to amend section 44.5 seasonal employee housing at motels hotels to limit the number of rooms that can be utilized for seasonal employee housing at hotel motels to a maximum of 15% in the hotel motel overlay District 2 hmod 2 zoning District along South sh Southshore Drive and amend section 500 definitions to clarify the definition for transients at motels or hotels at extended stay hotels this um has not changed Kathy as I understand from last our last meeting and uh Mr Slovak you weren't here for that any questions or concerns no okay so may I have a mo Mr Mr Sabin actually I do have a question um I kind of deferred to my comments on this originally because I wanted to get up to speed on a little bit so under 44.52 special permit or variance relief no special permit or variance relief so I'm I'm wondering what the reasoning and thought process behind um restricting variances considering a variance is is for a hardship so why are we eliminating variances from this process is there do we know that I I I believe that in our discussions and prior meetings we do not want to leave open and hon op option under any circumstances for more than 50 15% we want to close the door on any opportunity any route if you will to to to appeal or to look for more than 15% my that's my recollection other board members uh I thought Susan you I think um certainly when the when the we have the community Testify the the overall issue was abuse and I think what they were looking for was the most restricted easy to understand change so that we would eliminate virtually any possibility of abuse um and that you if if although it's a it's a decent concept but then the question is what what constitutes hardship and that opens a whole realm of roots that we did not want to go down and certainly the neighborhood did not want to have and as a former member of the zoning board of appeals oh yeah well yeah certainly it would be kicked to the zoning board of appeals they would be the ones to determin hardship but as traditionally they have and that we thought their job yeah we thought that was unnecessary because the planning board was asked to look at this and solve the you know don't just Le lessen it but solve it and I think that's what the language that's why we made it as restrictive as possible I've heard no objections to the to the article um just that was my own personal kind of whyo variance i' like to tie can I tie in something that you just said I watched the select board meeting from two weeks ago and I think uh Mr Forest immediately thought that we were trying to you know hurt business owners yeah from being able to house their employees so it's not his fault that he hadn't taken a deep dive into it which I guess he will do Madam chair when you go before him but I think when he understands that we're restricting this to the to the to the hmod 2 only I think he may feel differently but also in the explanation just to piggyback on what Jim said the explanation paragraph of the article it says this article at near the end this article would prevent ancient mod2 properties dot dot dot but retains their right to seek relief oh from other Provisions okay so it still does allow some business owners in that to go before the zoning board but just not for the 15% corre cap that's correct so I think that's again as Jim was saying in the first article Madam chair to anticipate not so much a town meeting but at the meeting with the select board that may be something they come out of the traps with about us trying to you know hurt employers and as someone who does have seasonal employees I can tell you that is the last thing we're trying to do um it's very specific and very limited and I think hopefully Mr Forest and I assume he will go through the packet of the materials and see that's what we're trying to do so I'm just trying to throw a couple things together there I'm sorry go ahead and no one spoke against it I mean even the Chamber of course I don't think they even sent anything in so I think people aware of the abuse what had gone on and um the the aim was to correct the abuse and I didn't I don't think we had anyone testify against it do we I don't think so the one thing Mary vbon did talk to me wanted to know who what which of the hotels in the HM O2 were using this at all now the only one that's using it is the Village Green and they're using it for the less than 15% none of the other hotels are using any of their rooms and that may be the single sentence you have to say to Mr Forest so that he can understand that we're not trying to do what he thinks we're trying I added some extra stuff into the PowerPoint presentation and I did see that too and I provided um thank you Mr forest with some additional information thank you mam chair yeah Kathy did get back directly to uh okay selectman Forest on this issue uh and quite honest economically it's not to their advantage to if they got their employees in there they can't rent that room for $200 a night so I mean it's not to their advantage what year is this 1977 Jim what is I don't know what hotel it was Jim have you seen a map of where these properties are $200 I have an RV I don't go to hotels you glamp something like that um I'm not in in in opposition to this by the way I just was you know good clarification yep uh any other comments with regard to zoning article number two uh or questions of concern okay may I have a motion to recommend zoning article number two to amend zoning bylaw section 44.5 seasonal employee housing and section 500 definitions so move second oh there was a tie Jim can have it no you can have this one oh wow the spirit of collegiality any further discussion I'll take a vote all in favor hi hi come to town meeting uh Kathy we have the memorandum to the town moderator um and we'll add uh Susan Bria to that as the uh thank you for coming Donna appreciate it thanks so much you're welcome we can go to the S meeting oh of course of course yeah we would like you to you know if you if you if you if you would speak up allow they allow it Madam chair if I can the in our packet um one of the part of the presentation is the the overview map that shows the HM od2 zoning in which hotels are affected by this um I think that's an important pet piece of our PowerPoint presentation so people wonderful thank you nothing else okay so uh moving on next item on our agenda uh is the madak keys use committee at our last meeting uh Mr Sabin you raised the issue that there was no planning board representative on the mes use committee um we had a general discussion on the topic with many of us agreeing with Mr Sabin and we agreed to put this on our agenda this evening um and I at the time requested uh Mr Sabin and Mr Rubenstein to collaborate on a letter uh a memo uh to to the board of Select to the select board um it is in our packets Kathy included it uh and i' I'd like to open up discussion on the draft I appreciate again uh will you and J well just in the interest of the public record Madam chair should I read the letter should we put it on the screen I you know I don't want to I don't want to get too into the minutia do we need to read it out loud or is that not necessary it's in the packets on screen I think we need to read need to read I just wasn't sure what process you wanted it to be it'll become a public record at some point when it's final it's in the packet and it will also be in the select boards packet right once we get it to the final form um Madam chair I guess I would just say that uh Mr Shan and I met last week and um we just took the kernels of what we thought the most important points were um from our discussion last week and put it into written form um we did out a couple things specifically um uh posting what the actual charge of the madis use committee is um and comparing that and contrasting it to our you know lack of appointment uh and also um it made me think because we just had the discussions about all the different committees that the planning board is assigned to it we decided to list them um and I might have missed one or two so I hope at some point someone will correct us um Kathy had one um actually it wasn't Kathy um I just was thinking out loud to myself which you know is a fun thing to do when you're by yourself um is that some of these committees on here there's one is was an ad Haw so it wasn't that the select board told us to be on the open space and recck plan actually that came from the Conservation Commission so I might want to change the sentence above that list but in general we restated our disappointment in not being appointed to begin with um um recapped how much of a role we play um both mostly on the 10 to 20 to 30,000 foot view of lots of projects in our town through our subcommittee work um and then made a request at the end a call to action to uh have an appointment from this board um on the mes use committee that's essentially what the letter says comments suggestions Mr SLC any thoughts I I will add that the cedc also had two applicants that were not chosen so um and you read the charge in economic cultural tourism Recreation and would have made sense to have representative from that committee have they had a meeting since yeah since the the committee this committee was formed was there any discussion about the same thing to two M the two members were not were disappointed to be chosen yeah so okay interesting okay they're not going they're not necessarily doing what we're thinking about doing because we haven't decided to do it yet right okay they not uh that that will be an important part of the minute thank you Peter appreciate that Mr sa any are you were part author of this any any further ex explanation or I think um in light of the fact that I just heard that the economic development committee is not included in this I originally was concerned about the charge that we're we're bringing forward to them of asking them to increase the number to nine u members and to include one a member of the planning board but hearing now that the economic development committee is not in on this as well then it makes much more sense to look at the nine and bring them along with us because I mean if there are two boards of committees in town that I think that would be instrumental in the Redevelopment of our community would be those two you know and then go from there I mean those are like you know Muki bets and shohi Otani those are the first two you start with you know they haven't helped us up last last night so um I think we're just trying to make it perfectly clear that you know we just don't for the life of us understand the logic behind not having the town's planning department committee board involved in planning and I think that's kind of the gist of what we're trying to you know maybe they can explain it away and maybe they'll do nothing um but I think it deserves an explanation I think it's a question that you know half the community is probably asking how how do those how do those two not be involved in this crucial Redevelopment okay a couple comments um I agree you know that maybe but I have to tell you I'm not prepared to carry their water if they want to send a letter let them we're we're I'm only no I'm not suggesting to add their name but I'm just saying that the number nine now makes some more sense because they could then go to them as well that leaves it open for them um the only other thing I would add is maybe a sentence in here that says you know given our given the expertise on the planning board it is we believe that the community would have and still will benefit from having a planning board member on this committee um I think that I think we need I think it would be important to make a link between what we bring all our expertise and therefore because of this expertise the community would benefit by having a planning board member on this on this exceedingly important uh development opportunity um I agree I I think one of where we tried to get to that is when we put the sentence and the planning board members are uniquely qualified we could add another sentence there we can certainly add it there and and and the community would benefit from having the expertise of the of a a planning board member on this committee okay the community at large the residence Town whatever however you want to say it well Kathy's going to make these changes as we go along so let's agree on what we want that sentence to be I'm hearing that that sentence would Now read planning board members are uniquely qualified to serve on the mu and the community would benefit as well and say or benefit by having a planning board member or you say comma and therefore the community would benefit okay from having a planning Ward member on this committee can I throw the word greatly in there no adjectives no Madam chair is community would Madam chair has comments about adjectives we'll get can we just say and the community would benefit from having the expertise of a planning board member there you go oh go Kathy I think I just wrote it down faster than you and I whoever said it I'm just writing down what they said you get you get this you get a start you get a sticker oh my goodness thank you transcribe and I think in the interest of clarity and as I mentioned earlier in the two two more sentences down where it says on top of that crucial work I would change it to on top of that crucial work planning board members serve on numerous Town committees and I would say in addition to that crucial work instead of on top of okay cool in addition yeah on top of is not great work yeah in addition to that crucial work planning board members serve on numerous Town committees involving Community planning colon and then it has the list and that will that way the ad hoc committee gets gets swept up in there which is important but is not a charge um I guess I would just like to say in general um you know what is the outcome we're trying to get right so that's that's the reason why we're going through this whole exercise and the outcome we're trying to get is to get one or more well first thing to increase the size of the committee right so that's why we had to that's why Jim and I Jim and I are running this we're like wait we can't just say put a member on when the charge literally would not allow them to do it um increase the size of the committee right and has to be an odd number so we went to nine seven to nine one of those seats should be appointed one of the increase should be an appointee from the plan board committee that's and that's what you say and the nice the nice part is it allows the select board the Unity to to also appoint another person right because right now there's only seven or they could appoint two people from the planning right but I'm not we're not demanding that but we're allow if they start to understand the math of it all it gives them the chance to once they could could appoint another citizen they could appoint someone from from the community Economic Development they could appoint anyone in that ninth seat but of the two extra seats one should go to planning so does the end of this letter make sense to everybody or should it be rewarded I think I think it's pretty pretty clear here is that we're asking them to modify the charge to do two things you know codif codify these two things make it nine and include a planning board member and then the second separate thing we're asking for them to do is then appoint somebody from the planning board to modify the charge so that and again there might be some English here that we could you know improve on but we just wanted to make sure we're not we want to make sure we're trying to we're trying to get the outcome we want uh I would suggest that uh that last sentence beginning with therefore we don't need in the interest of planning the future for the county arm we don't it's just a little extra sauce but you're right Madam chair we don't I kind of like it though okay well because we are trying to build a case that we bring some expertise I'm going to guess that Madam chair says we've already made our point and we don't need to hit it we don't need to hammer them again do well if you think this is this is going to be an ask this is G this is a letter to them that they could just write a letter back to us yeah this might never appear on their agenda true they determine what their agenda is so in the interest we could we could ham it up all we want one approach I I agree the most important thing are the two things we're asking for and they're very direct and they're very clear um and I I think limiting language that suggests that they were not looking at the interests of planning the future of the town of Yarmouth might be uh controversial might be insulting in the in the this therefore interest they continue this we'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they started they were and we're going to continue it by increasing the board to nine people therefore in the continued interest in your continuing interest in order okay all right in your your in your continuing interest in your continuing interest or in the best interest best interest or better than you thought you like it making when we say your do you like that better Madam chair this is going to them your in your in your therefore you could say in your continuing efforts to I'm not describing because I've lost where we are okay so therefore yep in your continuing interest do plan Contin to plan for the future of the town of yoth how about that go continuing interest to plan for the future the town of yoth we ask that you add the following to your meeting agenda colon modify the MC church I would put a call on there to say one increase the MCU uh committee to a nine member committee to what include a planning board member I'm following Susan saying in one a change it to increase the muuk yeah use a verb there increase the muuk to become a nine member to be a nine member and to include one planning board appointee right to put some verbs at the beginning of those little a little B words yeah that's so you want that as one you don't even want it as an A and A B it's just the I was just saying put the verbs at the beginning of those of A and B increase and increase and include so increase the muck to to become to become a nine member committee and then include one planning board appointing to right and then a point includ because then it's consistent because it says mod then we have modify increase include a point yeah wow it's a verb of paloa or verb did you get you have that Kath did you get it okay I'm going to do is I'm going to make the edits that I think I've heard tonight and I'm going to send it back to Will and he will let me know who do you want me to send it to well we're going to need to get it to all of us sign it yeah we're going to have to come and physically sign it at the Des that's why I I that's why I spaced it out the way I did so that every one of us can actually sign it yeah we we need to sign it um assuming that we're all in right of course we we don't I know Ken is Peter sign like you are as well of course okay yeah I can edit send it all out to you guys you can't deliberate on it anymore but if there's an grammar error please let me know Madam chair would you mind if I just get it back from Kathy look at it and send it back or would you rather it go to you I don't care no it doesn't need to go to me but I think we should all see it right but we can't before we come in and sign it but how do we do that without violating any open meeting laws it's dissemination of information you just can't like I say you can't deliberate on it anymore email so I can look at it and then forward it on to everybody no what what I think you should do is I will send it to you and if you're in concurrence with it then I will send it to the group and say this I just write I just write Kathy back so this is what's being signed unless there's major grammar error we we both missed I just have one etiquette Point mentioning Jim's name and my name in the body of the letter especially since we're going to sign it it says here two PL board members I would just drop our names yeah that's true that makes sense I would just just say two planning board members submitted application yeah that's a good point because Jim and I are signing it so it look a little self serving that's true excellent point and I have only one comment severe um again it's just it's just my bureaucratic background the use of the word we no severe where are you reading severe the third paragraph the third paragraph where your name was it's not I I don't think it it makes a difference and severe means different things to different people and that word I just want to strike the word it's a mistake we think it's a mistake and and saying it's a mistake is also powerful Madam Chair say oversight oversight okay we could say it was an oversight wow oversight sounds way think okay even than again we're trying to get an outcome oversight get more believe it was an oversight okay thank you wow look at that you just weren't thinking so you you good cath with okay Jim and I will sign by a blood print oh boy what just this just a quick historical question and maybe Jim knows too given both of your combined service records how how many times has this kind of situation come up never I don't know where the where the planning board has written a letter to the select board asking for something in a very you know in again in the best interest of the future of the Town way I can't remember any committee that was formed that did not include a basic package from the standing committees at the time I can't now there' been a few I'm just asking Jim's not fine Jim Jim usually comes up with these things big development committee that was established and that had a good cross-section of representation but it wasn't from a lot of other committees though wasn't what I don't think it was from a lot of other committees no if the driving commit cedc and plan you were the planning rep no who was no I wasn't the planning rep who I don't remember I'm sorry that project got on so long in the commit changed used to go to all the meetings no he's he's from he's from cedc I it was the older guy um that narrows it down was was Tom roach oh Tom was it Tom roach was Tom roach fall and thin that's but in general I guess Madam chair what I'm hearing is this is unique in every in the best sense of the word in in my remembrances of tongue governance um typically the planning board has been involved in any planning project that the community so this to me is the first time I've ever heard of a planning project of any sort that the planning board was excluded from besides the magn you know we're setting aside the magnitude of the project of course just just the whole General concept of planning uh anything in town but in terms of planning board writing letter to select board that also doesn't sound like something that doesn't happen often but it has happened it has okay that was my other question I mean the planning board has even um objected to uh zba decisions okay well that that have over you know gone against what the planning board so they've had to have hearings for that I call was the town was putting they're building a garage at the what do we call it now transfer station the dump the dump um and they got a special permit that the planning board thought should not have been granted and we challenged it and went back to the CBA so it happens okay I mean these things happen um thank you I just wanted to put it in a little bit of context because I don't have as much u in and typically you know most towns Boards of governance tend to work a little bit more of course collegially cooperatively and and well like like letter said Jim it's an oversight and we hope that they I'm sure corrected I'd like to I'd like to move on in the interest of time if that's okay I think we we're good on this uh Kathy's going to run through um in our in our packets was a very extensive summary of several uh uh uh summaries the openhouse summary which includes a summary of the mapping comments uh to date uh most of us were there for that capital budget Community interview comments summary of the LCP interview with the school superintendent which I attended with Kathy and and various other and will thank you excuse me um and so we've got a package of information kind of bringing us up to date on kind of what we've collected so far so Kathy if you wouldn't mind just just a brief aside we did um attend the seaside Festival we were there from 10: to to 5 and we did get a lot of interest from people coming over obviously it was a crowd that wasn't always people from the town of Yarmouth and we would ask that question early on before we went into our Spiel um but I think people were really interested they they had the infographics p uh board there a lot of people stopped and just were staring at that from a little afar and gave us a chance to go and approach them and that type of thing so I think it was very very successful in getting the word out um about the LCP and directing people to the online uh opportunities for public comment um they they did BC group did an excellent job I think summarizing the openhouse and they kind of went through the different dots and identified the various themes that kind of came out of it very strong support for the libraries and then continuing on with their um services and facility upgrades obviously enhancing communication we've all been hearing about that for quite some times where people were very interested in that and being sure that we're still providing Services programs and activities for our aging population a lot of people interested in continuing studies on Route 28 um with regard to Future growth Economic Development as well as the Aesthetics of what it looks like in those design standards that we have been talking about strong support for events activities and businesses that engage our young adults and expand the shoulder Seasons I think giving people some reason to be a draw to the town of Yarmouth is good obviously very very strong support for the Maes middle school property reuse that was like the biggest item that got um got the stickers next to them um increasing uh looking at zoning different zoning initiatives to increase uh housing growth in various types ppes in various uh locations um additional coordination with the Cape Cod Regional Airport they have a lot of things going on there and it does impact um the town of Yarmouth uh looking at improving our pedestrian and bicycle safety and connectivity throughout the town uh one woman was actually there with her bike and that was her comment at the seaside Festival so we're like yes I agree uh it certainly came out of the open house as well being sure that we're support um protecting our drinking water supply and also our Coastal and Inland water resources and then of course the very um supportive the future phases of our comprehensive uh Wastewater management plan they also went through and kind of identified the themes that came up through the uh online mapping process and some of the themes were really related to um looking at town-owned land for affordable housing I think Mary was very active in the map on that one and gave some good ideas there improving Route 28 again with the Aesthetics and infrastructure and pedestrian safety and mixed use uh and then also improving uh Route 6A uh improvements um a lot of it having to do with parking and pedestrian safety improvements I think that's a lot of it related to The Village Center and then they also went through the raw data of the crowd sourcing information and kind of showed what people were liking and and disliking and there was a lot of support um for things like the station Avenue traffic Corridor study that was done and trying to do something about that pushing for improvements at exit 75 or all Exit 8 I know that Will was concerned about that as well um and then also looking I think that light was talking about Seaside uh SE view a and Route 28 um and then again the planes in the neighborhoods looking at how great Taylor bra Farm is lots of likes on that um lots of likes on the business Corridor improvements on 6a um looking at the route six Bridge replacement making sure that we're um replacing that to improve water quality but not flooding people out that was a lot of support for that um the elevated boardwalk at the Riverwalk got got some somebody said I already got my engraved Boardwalk plank so wasn't me it wasn't you um and then again again creating still working the website creating a long-term vision for madaki so that was it was good I think um one of the things that we really need to do um is I had I had a brief discussion with Lorie Sullivan the communications director and we're going to work up some Facebook um and social media social media post and then I'm going to highlight to everybody look we just have a post on social media can you share that with yours and send it to you and as many people and just try and see if we can't share that on social media as much as possible and get more people going to the to the mapping and providing uh online comments and maybe even signing up um for the notify because that's an easy way to get a direct notice either through a text or or email and so I guess the next thing it had to do with capital budget committee um they did a great job of providing a summary for some of the the questions that we asked for their interview questions um looking at uh Capital Improvement projects not surprisingly Wastewater as being a long-term uh Capital Improvement project but also not losing sight of our Municipal Building facilities like the fire station library and me small school and then also Shoreline protection and restoration are their key projects um looking at things that could um also be added to the capital Improvement projects was just developing a full comprehensive plan for Rolling Stock or vehicle plans so when when do these need to be replaced and kind of planning that out and spreading it out over over 10- year period um what external forces would should they be considering related to Capital expenditures or significant investment um you noted that a lot of these things that were mentioned like Pasa are environmental and the cost of those are really related to what the legislation is what are the regulations that are restricting things paa were something that we never used to test for and then we tested it for it at this limit and we were okay and then they lowered it and now we're testing at this limit and we have problems and we're doing our treatment um so staying ahead of that curve is going to be a little bit difficult um because you don't really know that balls moving all over the place with regard to regulations and legislation and it indicated that it holds true for sea level rise and Shoreline protection where you're really trying to balance the infrastructure protection but also the Environmental Protections related to that fourth item was are there any action objec objectives or strategies you think the town should consider supporting the general goals um and really was just having that detailed checklist or implementation plan and then having performance standards to kind of keep track of are you being successful in these things that you've identified um how can we address our maintenance needs in a cost-effective manner and I think the key is scheduling maintenance when you need it so it doesn't become a giant Capital Improvement project later for a replacement project I think a lot of different um departments including the schools are kind of working on that type of thing right now um what is the development uh vision for your Redevelopment of the mes middle school property um and how can it be used as an economic D driver I think one of the things capital budget is they really wanted to see some type of cost benefit analysis to see that if the community is going to be making a a big investment uh is there a positive return on that particular investment because I think people have a lot of different ideas but is that the is that really something that is sustainable or financially viable uh long term and if it's something that the town is considering for economic development um let's also look for some outside funding sources for all of this as well um some suggested action items over the next 5 to 10 years on any of the goals were you know just kind of keeping with the consistent attention and capital and financial planning for our multiphased Wastewater plan and doing the same thing with regard to the municipal buildings and Shoreline protection the three main takeaways um were the first one is like when we do the a lot of capital Improvement um we don't really hear get evaluations of the progress sometimes people will get money in capital it'll languish for a little while they won't get to that project they want to have a better idea of what you got this money what are you doing with it and where does it stand and how are you progressing on that particular ular project which is good it keeps everyone accountable for for the for the money that's done um and I think they were also looking at um having individual departments uh garnering public support before coming to the capital budget committee for all of these different types of infrastructure Improvement projects and then also the last one I think is really looking maybe at a little bit of the public private partnership with regard to investment if you have a developer coming in maybe they put some money into a public project that improves and makes their development project possible so a little bit like an impact fee but a little bit more hopefully friendly um working together to get those done and they also notified uh notice of looking for Grants before coming to the capital budget committee my only comment on that is a lot of these grants require some type of matching fund and you got to find those matching funds somewhere and have them before you can apply for so it might be a chicken and an egg thing you might need to get a little bit of capital and see what you can then find the problem with a lot of these grants is um they have very strict time frames you apply in July of one year but you can't start spending the money till July July of the next year you have to be done by June of the following year so trying to to stack a bunch of grants that that all of the the timing works so the same I find this is my problem with the Riverwalk Park Park I'm sorry The Parkers River Boardwalk Park um it's just that that it's just trying to stack everybody has very different uh timelines and when things can be done and then the last thing uh we had a great uh meeting I thought with the superintendent Mark Smith and Tomas Tolentino the school uh committee chair and then and will and and Joanne we talked about their uh demographics and they are seeing an increase in their enrollment they have like a thousand students each in the intermediate in the high schools and about 728 students in the elementary school and that's gone up since the 2020 which was the recent low um and now they do have space limitations in Station Avenue so a lot of things are happening at me small including special education and prek um we do have school choice where we are at a ratio of four to one meaning four going out to one coming in and they were working to decrease um the out of school district choice for students um and then the and if there's any type of feasibility study that gets done as far as the elementary schools um then they would have to do a Dem a more detailed demographic study at that time but we do have a large number of high need students um in our district they are working on a 2024 to 2029 strategic plan they have on some draft strategic objectives initiatives and some outcomes that they're looking at uh obviously their number one outcome was improving in school performance we always want that to be done graduation rates developing that 5 to 10 year uh infrastructure and capital Improvement plan reducing the out of District placements and then decreasing uh in absences Emmy small I think is the big thing coming up um they did uh both the town and the school committee did put support into the msba the school building author Authority yeah I always want to say Association for some reason um that they would be willing to look at consolidation uh there's some concerns about where that consolidation would happen and the traffic issues Station Avenue so there's still a lot that would need to go into that and we'd also need to provide the town would need to provide the funding for that feasibility study lots of things are happening in Communications at the school they're hiring a full-time communication director which I was really glad to hear to kind of improve their public relations and Communications and of course we be coordinating with our uh communications director as well they also have the different programs for translating documents and that's helpful if we want to disseminate some information that way there's also a superintendent message that goes out monthly or bonly and they have like a little section at the end about Community um information so we could add some some additional information that could go out to the schools that way they're also willing to accept Flyers um for putting in in backpacks so that might be another thing we can work on the superintendent was really outspoken about wanting full transparency and he's really looking for invitations to come and speak to different groups um so I thought we were were maybe putting a burden on him and he was like no this is exactly what I'm looking for so it was it was really good um the school budget coordination I know we've heard a lot about that and I think they're really making progress on that they've already met with the town administrators and the finance directors in both communities and they're working on uh arranging a meeting with the chairs of the select board finance committee and school committee and staff uh in each Community uh sometime in no by November um they feel pretty good about their uh expenses because all their contracts have been settled and they're making some reasonable estimates on state re reimbursements based on the the trends that they have going on the student Opportunity Act that was um something that happened in FY 23 uh to remedy inequities and opportunities and achievements in public schools and we've kind of been getting a gradually increase in that amount um but they are um kind of Le we're assuming a level funding so we're trying to be conservative with that and saying that we're going to get the same amount we got last year of $875,000 so that's good the main concern with Staffing is housing not surprising um but as far as getting staff that I guess Dy and other schools had some layoffs so there's more teachers seeking employment so they were able to hire speech pathologist position that had been vacant for a little while um the school is interested in adding an administrator for English language Learners and first language not English programming uh it's currently a coordinator but no principal level administrator we do have a lot of students who who fall into that programming we did talk about the community based learning that they have there and they do have uh a great careers program starting in eth grade they start with experiences like going to Career Affairs Cape Aviation visit blue big blue conference and then they progress to things like internships there's one at the local vets office the police and fire and Landscaping firms so that is good to hear that they're already doing kind of that in the community uh internships so the real takeaways um that they wanted to present to us is you know in the past the schools really operated as separate entity and they want to build that relationship between Yarmouth Dennis and the school so we can all work together collaboratively uh as partners in decision- making and that just a viable healthy school district benefits the entire community so it was was great we got a lot of great information here um I am working on scheduling some more staff um interviews I talked briefly with a couple um staff members about reaching out to them and they were certainly open to to doing so finding out more about what they're doing at senior center in the health department areas that I'm unfamiliar with so Madam chair I just want to say I was glad to be there I think it's a real breath I'm going to say it out loud it's a breath of fresh air Dr Smith in his push for transparency and also want to give credit to the finance chair uh Richard Simon for pushing for these kinds of budget conversations to start happening now in the month of September and not in February March where they come down from the mountain with the tablets and say oh this is what the state said sorry everybody here's your override no that's not how it's getting done anymore and that's a credit to not just Mr Simon but also Dr Smith last thing I would say is I didn't know the exact number but I did learn that the school uh District employs 630 humans that must be one of the largest employers in our town if not second large I don't know who else would qualify um the town itself right no how many employees work for the town of Yarmouth not that many right so it's just a another just a reminder of what the impact is in terms of not just employers and employees but also where do these employees live and what towns do they choose to live live in and how can they afford to continue to live there um which are all the big issues that are facing not just this board but many others thank you I I would agree it was a it was a um it was a a very very good meeting uh I attended for most of it um uh Dr Smith is very impressive uh and clearly is open to all sorts of um uh uh options to include uh the School District in our local comprehensive plan which is really important I I mean I've done some brief reviews of local comprehensive plans uh that the Cape Cod Commission has already approved um such as sandwich um sandwich had two paragraphs on the school one about Capital Improvements and one about uh the uh Wing school that's been transformed that's kind of armades I guess um uh very limited very limited um uh and and that's a school district that's not Regional yeah uh so I think our plan is and and and again our plan has learn in the in our vision statement which um other local comprehensive plans don't I mean they have limited school committee is over here school budget is over here uh um I think based on the conversations we had with Dr Smith and I think and and the school committee chair Mr talentino they they want to be more engaged in what the future planning for the schools are going to be in the way that the town can um collaborate with them so it was a it was a good meeting yeah Madam just a couple quick comments and questions um if we can go back to the first to the crowdsource uh data do we know what the demographics I mean I noticed you know the demographics at of our event at the senior Center seem to be appropriate for the name of of where it was because the majority of people that came I'm not say suggesting everybody but majority of people seem to be of the senior age so I'm wondering how we're doing with reaching out to the the younger population the the the schoolage children's parents what that well it's it's interesting you mention that because at the meeting with Dr Smith um he opened up the door for us to provide direct information to his essentially his email blast list I'm I'm using that generically uh and and offered to Kathy um any um platform that she might have for flyers on the local comprehensive plan so he has offered to open that door to us to reach the parents of this of of all the the you know the I quized him pretty heavily on that with regard to that's why I was talking the communication section and I think once they hire a communication director oh how nice that would be you know if Lori and their communication director can go back and forth and and really provide that that interconnection but we can certainly move forward with that um but definitely because I don't think that we're tapping into everybody in term you and and that's I mean if you look at how the town operates there's the demographic of school age children and then there's the demographic of people been there done that and their mindsets and and and goals and Ambitions are completely different but most importantly for something like this um it's I think it's critical to tap into that um that school age children family um demographic because they quite you know hate to say they are the future of this community they're the ones who are going to you know uh inherit what we put together so I think it's be important to try to um find a way to tap into that and it's good to hear that the superintendent is willing to do that the other thing I want to point out if I can um when I looked at this um student population makeup May oh my has our community changed 26% of the population in our school system is defined as FL L NE and that's first Lang first language not English and that's increased from 12% in 2013 it was probably double slightly more than dou 14 yeah yeah it's more than doubled um in 10 years and and really dramatically gone up since you know 2021 uh from in the last you know four years it's gone up 6% so you look at that and then the other staggering statistic which i' I've heard quite often um baned about but um quite a a a strong impact in our community is the top line which is the economically disadvantaged um 55% of the kids in our school system an economically disadvantaged I don't know how they grade that but however they grade it it's it's pretty shocking to me that that 55% of our popul our school is economically disadvantaged so those are only just some quick comments on on the information I appreciate the time you've all spent with with both uh the Committees and I think the work that's being done is is pretty good so far Kathy I know you have to leave uh so uh and I will continue uh taking any nominal notes but I think we're we're pretty much done on this right yeah did you want to vote the minutes yeah let's vote the minutes may I have a motion to accept the meeting minutes from October 2nd 2024 so moved second uh one discussion Point Mr Mr uh one this there's one um change no no no U Peter Peter slac's name didn't have a v in it at one of them oh it does here hold on is he wasn't here I know but it was about the fact that he had written tried to volunteer him for a committee yeah yeah we did try to volunteering for a committee that was the piece oh there it is it's under a little F on page two of the of the minutes it's the very last sentence Peter a typo yeah under deliberations Kathy but yeah so I'd like to amend it to have it be Peter Slovak nope not happening uh all in favor I okay you like a friendly rack update Madam chair or should we wait till Kathy leaves yeah uh we'll let her we'll let her I'm not going to pick up I'll just come back later I just have to go to finance committee we won't be here we won't be here I'll come back and get it all later all right thank you good luck with that yeah thanks those are two important things uh so any committee updates Madam shair yes the rack committee the rack met on Monday the 7th and I have good news our friends at Mass do believe it or not have temp at least for the initial part of the winter defined as after November 15th are allowing work on Route 28 because as we know from Advanced common sense it is not winter on November 15th but the good news is uh at least temporarily I believe u um Jeff Colby and his team will have to continue to revisit that as the months go on but the good news is the work won't have to stop on November 15th on Route 28 which initially it was going to have to do so they're able to get a temporary waiver and that's a wonderful thing kudos to Mr Colby um the second thing is um as opposed to scheduling a big public engagement meeting which is not what the committee decided to do they're going to actually change our agendas every month so that um there is actual more allowance for the public to participate on a monthly basis and to try to promote the fact that our meetings do exist on the first Monday of every month at 4 p.m. at the DPW conference room and hopefully either virtually or in pres or in or in person we'll start to get more members of the public to participate there will be some Milestones that should be achieved in in early 2025 so for instance there was a groundbreaking down on Southshore Drive right yeah and hopefully in February there'll be some way to sort of put a bow on some of the contracts at least for now and that might be another opportunity to do some more public engagement but as far as what I had mentioned in previous months minutes um those meetings are not going to happen before 20125 um but you know the contracts uh administratively just need to continue to unfold and believe it or not there should be some perhaps a groundbreaking for the actual Water Resource uh the Water recovery facility uh in early 2025 so I think that would be another big milestone for a lot of folks and um the good news is we don't have to borrow all 207 million we get to borrow to like 205 so that's a good news for the town taxpayers thank you Mr thank you madam chair I appreciate it Madam shair could could I ask a question of our colleague um I've I've heard a lot of discussion about the cranberry bog next to what I would refer to as your Barefoot Trader property um can you clarify that for those that may not know what that means Route 28 uh across from sish way yes we're out next to the old Acme laundry which is now there is going to be a pump really telling my age thank you there is going to be a pump station there and I understand there's some pushback are we taking that through eminent domain I I don't know the exact details but I can tell you that Mr Colby has direct conversations and agreements with the owner of the with or the owner of the bog so it's not being it's not being my understanding it's not being forced they're not being forced to do it that's not my understanding from the meeting I attended I don't believe it's bog property I think it's the the outlet property oh well it was brought up briefly at our rack meeting and Mr Colby was unless the bog is an issue of some sort I'm sorry well no that's okay it it was we were not led to believe that it is an issue so apparently there is be true but that is what we were led to believe there there is an issue whether whether be the bog itself or the use of the bog or whether it ties into the sewering system or not I just know that there's Rumblings about on social media regarding this piece of property and and the town wanting to take something in domain yeah that the ENT domain phrase did not come up in the meeting but it seemed like and I'd have to go back and watch the meeting to remember exactly what was said it seemed like the town was a not doing something that um would be terribly detrimental to the property and B that anybody who wanted to could have a conversation with Mr Colby about it which as we know from Rumblings on social media Sometimes the best policy is to actually talk to the people who are doing the work and not just throw some you know what you know where was the bog identified as the site I thought it was the plel next to the bog that was the jump on the bouny site that no one's used for years I thought I would have to defer to Mr Colby because I don't honestly I that's what I thought was maybe periphery on the B but big site was that site that uh maybe where I'm getting hung up is I think there's going to be a pump station at the b or close to or right adjacent to it either the owner of the b or something has posted that he he feels threatened by the town okay well that is certainly not doing something I didn't know if it was something that you you committ certainly not something that Mr Colby would agree with um and hopefully they're continuing to have dialogue about it but that's not the impression that our committee was given at our last meeting okay thank you you're welcome committee reports anyone else cedc Peter anything no I I mentioned that two of the members uh were not chosen for the mes for use committee that was U we we also got clarification on the St Patrick's Day Parade will will fall to the select this year we we thought maybe they were the $50,000 that was you know sort of appropriated to to the selectman budget in some way y um and I guess the the select board now is going to be responsible for giving them the money or interviewing them it won't be under CVC right right right so you mean the select board went against the recommendations of a border committee they chose to take on the responsibility I suppose of the parade that HP that town meeting that realloc that allocation to the select's budget that's okay right that's right the thing any any tourism um you may have covered this before but um your the tourism funds and the applications is that progressing we started yeah we had the first one uh yth Historic Society was in we we we allocated some money to some projects there Cemetery markings uh some other things like that and so it's starting okay great um at some point when you get to the point where you've got it your the the whole listing of what the committee has run through it might be might be good and I only asked that because they are calling they're coming to your committee and they're coming to CPC okay my committee that I'm on many of the projects are um historic ones are are the same and we're in the middle of reviewing them now as well we had three today that came in again Cemetery markers the monument and the um Monument the markers and um another one some of the sign boards some of the uh oh it's a signage right historic signage yeah Bob Kelly was in B we those three right also went to to you you guys last week okay great great um so now I've covered my committee update that's very convenient uh uh any other committee update Madam chair if I might the drivein sight utilization committee which may or may not still exist I'm not sure um they haven't told us to go away yet would like to remind the public that planks are available for sale at the boardwalk site 24 characters go online to town of yama's website get your plank while you can back slash what was it planks planks I think that was what we were Kathy would want us to say that uh see let's just go through upcoming meetings um uh again we Kathy did mention the correspondence that she shared with me with regard to the note she sent for clarification purposes to um selectman Forest regarding um our zoning Amendment for hmod 2 um and uh hopefully that will clarify any questions that he has um so October 22nd um is not a meeting for us but it is the meeting at which the select board uh votes on the warrant right and I misspoke at our last meeting because I hadn't watched all of the last select board meeting where I think they realized they couldn't wait till the 29th when I sat here and made it sound like they weren't doing their job which they are the the warrant is going to be uh you know kind of activated uh uh next Tuesday um the following Tuesday is when we will be presenting the zone articles and Kathy's already worked up you know a a perfunctory uh presentation for us um excuse me Madam chair at the same night we would hope that there would also be a discussion at the select board meeting about our placement potentially on the manes use committee is that correct they have the letter by then I guess what I'm asking is in the in the interest of collegiality as well as progress do you want us to attend such such a meeting um members have attended the the zoning article um presentation in the past now we have two reasons perhaps yeah and I would I would recommend that anyone who can attend attends Madam chair if I might I would strongly recommend that in light of the fact that we're sending them a letter uh with each of our signatures on it that it would be highly beneficial for each of us to sit right in that little front row there while you give your presentation if in fact we make it we could all put it in our in our agendas he's saying it would be it would behoove us sorry madam chair go if in fact they include us on that agenda date even if they don't we're sitting there well they got it there you go um I I I think that's a good suggestion Mr s and do they meet at 5:30 or 6 I honestly don't know it'll be posted okay you're right Madam chair I will I will look for the posting sorry um November um yeah but that's a different one next week November 6th is our meeting and the B BSC group will be giving us an update on the LCP for that meeting uh just so you know I've had a conversation with Kathy I'd like for them to um organize uh the framework you know what's the T I'm I'm looking at it like what's the table of contents what's it what's the big you know order of things going to look like sure um different lcps have done it a different way they organize it based on the Cape Cod Commission natural systems buil systems Community Systems sorry got a dry throat anyway I'd just like to have them present to us um what what they uh are going to move forward with um special town meeting is November 19th Madam chair um thank you you're welcome that's at six o'clock correct I appreciate that it you're welcome uh sh v no no please Mr Tom water Tom water good stuff and then our meeting is on the following day the 20th uh not sure what our agenda will look like for that I I think Kathy had hinted a couple of meetings ago that that meeting may not be necessary Madam chair uh I think she did um uh so with that um any other questions about the calendar coming up one other question for BSC would be just and I know they have a really helpful um I guess it's a Gant chart that sort of shows where are we in time and space you know on on this process they do and I think it would be super helpful for us to go hey it's November of 2024 this is where we are versus this is where we should be it would that would really help me Madam chair and maybe that was similar to what you've already requested so if it's redundant I apologize no that that is a different request okay well I think it would be really super helpful to me and maybe some other members they're very beneficial to be able to keep it account of where they're at and moving projects along some accountability so I I know Kathy does working on something five years from now yeah no we want to get this is on we don't want this on slow motion um so with that may I have an adj a moment U may I have a motion to adjourn so move second any discussion all in favor