go Friday Saturday good evening everyone and welcome to the May 15 2024 Yarmouth planning board meeting I am Joan Crowley chair this is to formally advise that as required by Massachusetts general laws chapter 3A paragraphs 18 to 25 and pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 and an act relative to extending certain state of emergency accommodations signed into law on June 16th 2021 the armouth planning board will hold a joint public hearing and a public meeting on May 15 2024 at 5:30 p.m. the public is welcome to attend in person this evening or via alternative Public Access provided in 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 sabbin here Peter Slovak here Ken Smith Chris Vincent Joanne Crowley present seeing that we have a quorum present I'd like to call the meeting to order and I would ask that you please join me in the pledge of allegiance of aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you thank you all for coming we appreciate your attendance um this is a joint public hearing uh with the planning board and the tree Warden um as these things go uh the rules and regulations um require that um on a Scenic Road if we are to um prune or um uh uh take down a tree uh needs a public hearing and so that is the purpose of of the U meeting tonight uh following the protocol for public hearings I would first like to read into the public record The Joint public hearing notice that was published in the Cape Cod Times on April 30th and uh May 7th um I apologize it has all the Gory details uh but it is a requirement published in the Cape Cod Times on April 30th and May 7th and distributed to a within 100 ft of the proposed action joint public hearing notice Yarmouth planning board and the Yarmouth tree warden in accordance with the scenic Road provisions of chapter 40 section 15 C and the public shade provisions of chapter 87 section3 of Massachusetts general laws the Yarmouth planning board and the Yarmouth tree Warden will hold a joint public hearing on Wednesday May 15 2024 at 5:30 p.m. in the hearing room of the armath to Town Offices 1146 Route 28 South Yarmouth Mass 02664 and via remote access and telephone um to consider a Scenic roadway permit application submitted by the Yarmouth public works department to remove 10 trees located within the old Main Street Road right of way including a 24in asht tree located in front of 11216 old a 24in asht tree in front of 134 old m a 24in ash tree in front of 162 old m a 24in asht tree in front of 172 Old Main a 20in ash tree in front of 176 Old Main Street a 24in maple tree in front of 190 196 old M an 18inch ash tree in front of 264 270 Old Main Street a 20in ash tree in front of 280 Old Main Street a 24 plus in maple tree in front of 290 Old Main Street and a 20in ash tree in front of 294 Old Main Street all tree sizes are approximate Old Main Street is a Scenic Road in South Yarmouth copies of the application are available at the planning department Yarmouth Town Offices during the business hours 8:30 to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday any person wishing to be heard on this matter should appear at the time and place designated above written comments will will be accepted and should be directed to the planning board at the Yarmouth Town Offices at the address noted above or care of Kathy Williams Our Town planner at K Williams yarmouth.ma us no later than May 14th 2024 at 5:00 p.m. signed by Yarmouth planning board chair Joanne Crowley and the Yarmouth tree Warden Michael White following um uh this particular protocol on a public hearing the of the meeting will be as follows um our DPW director Jeff Colby will uh give a presentation with Michael White our tree Warden um we will then ask for any public comments or questions um Kathy has received some written comments we will summarize those for you uh we will then have the planning board um ask any questions or um uh have any comments um at that time um we will then close the public hearing um and then we will follow you we will follow that with our deliberations on this particular application um I'd like to remind everyone to please use uh the microphone there um and to identify Yourself by your name and address uh so I'd like to um invite Jeff Colby our director of Public Works and Michael White our tree Warden to join us and walk through on the application that they have presented this evening heyone uh thank you very much uh Jeff Colby uh DPW director I'm joined by Mike White our uh tree Warden I also want to uh mention that we have Jordan Young from eversource here as well that'll be available to answer some questions and Mike Donovan from uh Robert hour uh who's doing the sewer work along the stretch of uh Old Main Street uh would be available for for questions or comments as as they might come up I really appreciate the your time this evening uh this is a a difficult uh item in that uh these are some you know fairly large uh mature trees uh but there is a uh concern with the construction equipment that's putting the sewer in along Old Main Street it's a fairly large sewer main 30 in in diameter it's a major connector uh for as we call it the backbone of the uh Wastewater system and so there's some uh you know fairly uh deep depths in which the pipes needs to be installed as well and large construction equipment to do that uh but with that said I want to actually turn it over to uh Michael White to kind of talk about each one of the trees and his uh take on those as well as um uh the impacts from the trimming that would need to be done in order to get the construction equipment in there um so Mike if you want to talk about that I uh I had had a site visit with the contractor that will be doing the excavation work for the sewer project and they had expressed that we needed certain clearances for the whole entire road for the project to be able to accommodate the equipment that would be used swing radiuses and trucks that would need to be loaded um most of that clearance can be maintained with light pruning on the whole road which falls under the guidelines of the 3-in I believe is the maximum on a Scenic Road um but there are several the the 10 trees that I did select that in order to prune for proper clearance You' take so much of the existing tree away that you would more than likely cause future mortality um the trees have all been heavily overhead pruned over the years which has made kind of a an odd shape as most know that look of a tree going out over the road and out over a proper that's a great example um so in order to maintain the clearance needed you would need to take most of the branches coming out over the traveling Lane which would then leave basically 50% of a tree um and what would be left existing would be things over top of private property so if there was future failure you'd be worried about failure on private property not just on roads as well um to get the clearance needed I I there's no way around that you would need to make very large cuts on these trees and I ashes in particular and Norway maple do not rebound well from heavy pruning in that way they don't compartmentalize well and it incites lots of Decay which lots of these trees already have from overhead pruning so you're just going to add to that um so that my recommendation for removal is based on that there's really no better way around the clearance with pruning other than removal okay any any other um uh comments I'm curious this timetable maybe you can walk us through a timetable of some sort certainly I think the a couple of comments I'd like to make in timing is is certainly important uh is with regards to uh the sewer construction that's happening now right now it's happening along Route 28 uh but that uh will be stopping shortly after uh Memorial Day uh for the season uh but work will progress along Old Main Street uh at that time throughout the summer season so uh there will be work that's happening uh along Old Main Street uh as early as the middle of June I think U Mike Donovan from Robert hour could comment a little bit more on the specifics if the exact dates and and weeks are important uh but that is uh the rough schedule so it's not something that's you know uh a year in the future or uh you know in the fall is something that will be happening this this summer season uh the other item that I mentioned it's in the application but we didn't you know mention it uh this evening is that we will be replacing reping the trees one for one so each one of those trees that comes out will be putting in another tree uh maybe not in that exact location because it is a very difficult location um as you can see this is a great example in the picture it's really just a couple of feet between the edge of the road and a a paved sidewalk probably not a good environment for a tree Michael could comment on that but there's probably better locations for those for the survivability of the trees in the future uh the other thing I'd ask Michael to comment on is the spe species of tree some of these are actually considered invasive yes so not the ashes but the Norway Maples are on the Massachusetts invasive species list now anyway so those wouldn't be replaced with the same species and a lot of the species on my example list that I did provide for Public Works um are there's a few natives there's a few hybrids um and also there's actually a particular list that ever Source has calls a 30 under 30 list so if there was anyone who really really was headstrong about wanting to keep their replacement tree in the same area these trees don't grow more than 30 ft tall so if you were to replace back in that same area we wouldn't have to worry about overhead lines which would mean we would't have to worry about aggressive pruning in the future which would prolong the life of the tree um so there's that possibility I also put in um uh Persian iWood I believe is on the 30 under 30 but a red maple the Acer rub that's that's a native tree A lot of people are very into the replacing with Native species now and and that's great but also there's a lot of cultivars and a lot of other tree species that are very very good and resilient along roadsides and in my experience uh the black Tupelo does very very well along roadsides sweet gum does very well along roadsides they have good tolerances with salt they have good tolerances with not amazing soil conditions which is you know the side of a road is usually not ideal tree planting area Okay anything else you'd like to present before we open it up for public question and comment uh Kathy did you want to run through your planner memo for us yeah that's probably the easiest I think they've given a pretty good description of the proposed work that they're doing and how they're going to be doing um some restoration by replacing the trees um we did receive some comments um the police chief did provide a comment and indicated no objections to the project uh we did meet with the historical Commission on May 9th and although they understood the need to remove the trees they did request that we get in touch with the cultural center to see if the Cape Cod wood Turners would be interested in using the salvage wood so we have reached out to them and they are going to be um checking with them it would be great if we could actually reuse the wood in some in some fashion have something nice made out of it um we also received a recent letter today and you you you can have it right there an email from um Britney D Renzo the conservation administrator from the Conservation Commission uh saying that they would prefer the use of native trees to be planted instead of she did identify that the Persian Ironwood and the London Plane um I believe are in inv invasive they not non they're the ones that are not okay this would exclude Persian Ironwood and London Plane from the list of five species proposed for replacement um and then we did receive uh an email from Larry and Sue and I'm sorry I'm going to mispronounce their names palea um they expressed some concerns initially um about uh removing the trees and how long it takes for a tree to grow and how easy it is to cut it down I don't know if they're here this evening um but I did provide some additional information to them um and ultimately um they they appreciated having the additional information as to the reason why and that we were going to be replacing one to one um and then did indicate that the the uh tree in front of the snin property looks dead anyway um just concerned about how we got tree chopping crazy sometimes I think this is a little bit different scenario here uh and that it takes one day to chop down a tree and then 20 years to regrow it and he they also did note that ashes are particularly weak uh as well um and then I just just to talk about the process really quickly um as Joanne mentioned that any um tree limb or tree uh located within a Scenic Road that's 4 in in diameter or greater needs to have a public hearing um and this is a joint hearing with the tree Warden uh and the planning board the decision of the planning board is based on consideration of the following seven criteria which is Preservation of Natural Resources environmental values historical values Scenic and aesthetic characteristics Public Safety compensatory action proposed such as replacement of trees or ston walls uh other sound planning considerations uh and an affirmative vote of five members of the planning board's required to approve to authorize these removal okay so I'd like to open it up now to uh public comment um if you could raise your hand and come to the uh Podium I uh name and address please can everyone hear me I'm Curtis Fleming I live at uh 112 Old Main Street I've been and there 5 years only on the house for 2 two years um when I got the letter about the trees I was super excited cuz I have a big tree right in front of my house and I'm very excited to see that go one thing though that popped up after I saw the letter though is I have three little kids I have a six-year-old 2-year-old and one and a half-year-old uh two of my pets have been killed by cars in front of my house tree there is data that suggests canopy of trees over roads reduces speed on roads how are we going to think about reducing speeds considering it's already a road that people fly down as a cut through off of 2028 has that been thought about Jee if you want to try to tackle that one it sounds more like a la an enforcement speed Enforcement issue but it is a speed Enforcement issue but I can tell you that our town engineer uh Amanda Lima has been giving a lot of thought to this and has some thoughts about uh different Road features that maybe could help produce speeds and certainly replacing the trees I think will help as well uh in the future you know once the sewer construction's done and we replace the trees will'll be trees you know back along the road uh that I think will uh address you know in the same manner that you're talking about there will be vegetation there um but Amanda has spent some time um looking at other options with regards to the the speeds I don't think we're prepared to present anything tonight as to what that might look like but it is something we are considering because it is a concern in that area okay yeah and I think one thing too the main tree that would be taken down in front of my house is a natural barrier for cars hate to say it they fly down the road they would hit that tree before they ran into my house and take out my kids bedroom so it's something that is a concern to me I'm all for taking down the trees as long as they're is there is a pathway to reduce the speed on the road overall um that's all I have to say but thank you thank you thank you anyone else yes sir Auto Danner uh I live on River Street on 87 River Street uh I had a couple questions one is you keep talking about one for one but in reality it's not one for one right you're taken down at 50 60 foot tree and you're replacing it with what 10 foot tree what size how big is it going to be I don't know but you haven't said so that's just one thing I'm thinking about so your your question sir is is about the calber of the tree what's the size of the tree might be the replacement you're replacing a 50 or 60 foot tree with something much less than what it is right they would have to yes it's not a one for one is what I'm saying the other thing is if you go down you go down Main Street today you look at these pictures I mean I I go down Main Street really this is not a Scenic Road anymore with those trees like that right in my opinion it's not a Scenic Road when you you drive down the road and you look at this tree is that a Scenic Road no not in my opinion I I don't think other people would agree with me um I think that's the main things I had to talk about but I just that the question the other question is have we decided on what tree you're going to put in you give a list but have we decided what tree we're going to put in so I'd like to speak to that so the reason that there's a list and that there's a variety of species is because there hasn't been particular replacement sites chosen yet based on road layout um you know speaking to Residents who would have trees put in front of their houses there's a lot that would need to be done to find particular exact replacement sites and upon finding those sites that would then determine what species tree would go into that site based on soil conditions drainage sunlight all kinds of different variables and so because of that I couldn't particularly say to replace this one Ash here we would then want this species here I I would like to have once those constructions done and we can actually see the final Road layout of what things will look like when the road's repaired then it'll be a better time to discuss where things will get replaced and what species will be there in the size have you decided on the size typically roadside planting trees are a three to 4 in caliber tree um that's you know something that maybe would be 8 to 12T in height I guess the last thing is the concern is 30 years from now is that tree going to be pruned like this tree is here well that's the purpose of why we're talking about doing this is that we can re actually relocate where you know there's no reason to plant a tree that's going to be 80 ft tall underneath of a 40ft tall power line and that's why we have this and that's what robs the scenic Road of that scenic view so if we have the ability now with that we're going to come through and and plant a lot of trees we can plant them on the opposite side of the road where there's no overhead wires and there's plenty of space for trees to grow and we can put in some nice big specimen species that will actually look far better than this when my children drive down the road okay thank you thank you madam chair there's one more thing I'd like to add with regard to the species and selection uh our town Engineers has also indicated that there's an overlap with some drainage improvements that are uh being planned for along this road in at least five of the locations where trees are anticipated to go back so we'd really like to do a rain Garden type of treatment where the the tree would complement that particular scenario in those particular cases so uh some of that is still being worked through okay any other questions or comments from the public okay I'd like to turn to the board now um we can start with Peter the sidewalks sidewalks will be repaired I would imagine if um taking out grinding down the stump either replacing whatever needs to be replaced but leveling the side walk absolutely and that's actually been the case um in my time here there's been I think one other tree that was dead considered hazardous needed to be removed when that was removed we were able to fix the sidewalk so to your point in many cases the sidewalks are mounded around the trees or near the trees and that will be fixed as part of this absolutely all the houses along Old Main Street have to connect to the sore they're all be connected so if everyone's stubbed are they going to every homeowner going to be going through the sidewalk to connect cutting in uh so the stubs would typically be left on the property side or terminated on the property side of the sidewalk so that would be taken care of as part of the main installation and then people would be able to connect to that stub on the other side of the sidewalk their side of the sidewalk thank you Mr Rubenstein yes thank you madam chair and thank you very much both of you for giving a little more context um I have a question about timing um you mentioned that if this does get approved these trees would be removed let's say in the next 60 days I'm using rough numbers so sooner rather than later um can you give a sense of how much longer the sewer project is going to keep going in this area for the residents certainly that are being affected and then how does that connect to a timetable for replacement uh those are good questions I will answer the parts that I can comfortably answer I might defer some of that to Mike Donovan from Robert bow with regard to their progress and what they could uh reasonably make along Old Main Street uh but we have a contract for the sewer installation in this area with Robert bow uh that goes until September of 2026 and it wouldn't be till the completion of the sewer work that we'd be uh installing the trees and and uh that is anticipated if they finish their work early it could happen sooner um but they do have that amount of time available to them in the contract to complete the sewer work hopefully that answers most of your question I think it does I I just wanted to if there are more residents here than than those that chose to speak I just wanted them to hear what the time table was going to be so that it wasn't just as simple as well that's great that the trees are unfortunately leaving soon but when are they coming back no matter what the size and the and the width are um I guess when we get towards a motion Madam chair about the timetable about replacement is where I may have some concerns about adding on a lot more time um but obviously we have to respect the fact that this is also part of a large project um a phase of a large project um but at the same time we also and I'm sure the tree Warden is literally the mechanism to enforce this as are we um have to make sure there's some accountability so that you know we all have this wonderful meeting it's May of 2024 and you know then what I guess that's sort of where my head is gone and you know I do also sympathize for for the residents that unfortunately are going to be losing trees in front of their houses regardless of the fact of whether aesthetically we think they're pleasing or not um it kind of stinks uh and I ALS that's why I'm concerned about the timing because I want to as when we get these kinds of applications I think about well what if it was my street you know and those are the kinds of things that come to mind um and also I just want to make sure I heard this right it sounds like that you will have the ability or the intention I should say of meeting with each individual homeowner at each individual address as listed in the application about the location and the type of tree is that what I heard not entirely no the okay well that's what I wanted to you mentioned something about it which sounded good but I just want to make sure that that's I can elaborate more on that so the idea is that upon construction being completed right and we can go back now to this new open streetcape where we can actually go out and select proper good sites for replanting I'm going to look at the street uh as a blank canvas for replanting and where I find very good ideal sites for replanting if it falls in line with in front of a resident's home I would meet with that Resident and talk to them obviously that said if any of the residents who are losing trees in front of their house wanted to you know meet about a replacement tree I would be more than happy to meet with them it cannot go back in the I like to call it the devil strip because that is not an ideal planting site for any tree I get but we can also use part of chapter 87 there's a setback um protocol that I'd have to dive more into but it's part of chapter 87 where you can make an agreement between the town and the resident where there's a two or threeyear responsibility of the tree being planted set back out of the Town RightWay into the resident's yard and then that Resident eventually after two to three years would assume responsibility of that tree and have a replacement tree that we could have further back at least from the lines closer to their house got it all right so that was helpful so what I heard was we're not going to be replanting on the same side of where the trees are being eliminated because that's counteractive yes okay but the second thing is if I can just flash forward to September of 20 fall of 2026 and the good Lord willing and the creek doesn't rise that this that this part of the project is over so you're a nice resident that lives in this area I don't know know because this is even though it's been almost four years on the planning board this is the first time I've met you and heard about what you do I knew you existed but I just never met you um I guess what I'm wondering is what's the mechanism for the residents when they wake up on October 1st 2026 and there is this streetcape that you describe what's the mechanism for them to know what you're thinking and what's the process for you to educate not just the folks on that street but what other appropriate boards whether it's conservation or ourselves about what you intend to do that's a public Outreach hurdle that we are going to have to overcome currently right now there's no mechanism for me to speak to Residents in the town that I utilize um I've typically been on an as needed basis to step in on situations pertaining to chapter 87 this is realistically one of the first actual removal and replacement projects that I've really worked on in the town so we're going to have to a little bit of growing pains but I'm going to have to you know work with DPW and and with Kathy to come up with a plan on how to have Outreach with residents and myself on the rep planting well if I heard you correctly the good news is sorry the news is I won't say if it's good or not cuz I don't live on the street the news is you've got two years is what it sounds like to come up with a mechanism to help educate the nice folks who are going to be affected the most by this so and Madam chair I don't know if this involves the eventual motion we're going to make or not or whoever the right jurisdiction is but I would just like to make sure that there's some accountability not because we don't trust that you're good at your job um but because if this was any of us on our streets we would like to know that when this process comes to the next phase that the town is doing the right thing and involving the folks who are the most affected so again I'll defer to you madam chair and the and the town planner about how we can make sure since this is a joint hearing um that there is a way for the nice folks you know again when they wake up in October of 2026 they're going to be able to either have some sort of meeting whether it's public or not in order to understand what your intentions are and I know that they're good um but to also involve the residents who are the most affected in the process I hope that makes sense sorry that that was a lot of words Kathy has suggested some language on condition a condition relating and we'll get to that and I've already taken up um enough time um I also just want to clarify that the gentleman that said before he's right it's not one to one meaning you're not going to get a super big tree to replace the super big tree sir but it is literally the ratio and so I understand that the semantics are not fun because you're never going to get I'd like to imagine what that looks like without a power line there it probably looks pretty darn good right and unfortunately we're never going to be able to get back to that but literally it is one to one I know in some other places and you know I wasn't born here so I've lived in other places in some other places they don't know what one: one is so I'm not saying that it's okay that the ultimate replacement might be a 10 or 12ft tree on the opposite side of the street but there are places that let's just say one to one would not be their outcome so I'm at least very happy that there is going to be a one: one ratio even if it's not going to be the same uh Majesty if you will of tree thank you madam chair oh thank you Miss BR um uh Britney asked that two of your the um um trees you've included on your list be deleted she want she's not happy with the Persian Ironwood or the London plane so if you take those off and add more samples or more uh you yes samples of what you might use just make sure you coordinate with her so that she is happy with your selections yep and then on the on just on the one: one uh do we have to do we have to be satisfied with the the 3 to 4 inch is it possible we get larger trees um that would be a massive massive price difference what's what would be the just we we could be talking about3 to $800 replacement trees which then you also have to take into account digging and labor and all the time I'm not talking you know I'm not to put in suggesting maybe that like the next level up the next level up is is a big price difference it's not you don't go from like a three to a $600 tree to like a eight to a like $800 to $1,000 tree you typically you'll see when you go to from a 3-in tree to like a 6 to an 8 in Tree in diameter is when you get into Spade equipment and it's in the thousands per tree so you there's a large cost difference incurred in upping the size of the replacement trees most Street Scapes are replaced in a 3 to 4 inch right tree right I'm just thinking though this this is you know this is historic Street it's a residential neighborhood they're losing something that's very precious so the quicker we get it back to what we view as normal and historic and scenic but I understand but if you could just get just a a general price information just give it to Kathy so that she can bring it back to the board I'd just be interested to see what the price differential would be um and um so just to be clear the so you're taking a tree down in a particular location but it's not necessarily a replacement Tre is going back in that location is that I don't recommend replacing anything in that strip that the you're guaranteeing tree mortality regardless no matter what you're going to have tree mortality the the likelihood of establishment is much much much lower the root Zone development is very low I mean there's every single thing that can be thrown at the tree to stop it from growing is in that little Z whereas we can go across the street and you know you find these nice 10 15 foot wide swaths of open area with lots of crown space above them with no wires and right but I don't want the tree to look I don't want the street to look lopsided with one side of the street have all the trees the other side i' not have not have enough you'll end up with that nice the the the purpose of shade tree protection is that nice canopy that comes out over the road correct and we have that kind of with these trees you have like a nice on Lane thing where as if they were on the other side and you had that nice big vase growing across you'd have that canopy that could reach out all the way across the road and you actually would maintain that shap so the canopy doesn't necessarily mean you have to have trees on both side you can have Tree on one side and ideally you would like to have them on both sides but with overhead power lines taking half the canopy out it's not realistic to be able to unless trees were further set back and planted more towards the houses and they could grow up out and over top of the power lines which is the point of what I was talking about earlier with the setback plan where you can have that where you can move trees back from the power lines it's a it's a balance between the power company and the right of way to to maintain the right canopy and you you're expecting to do a mix of trees you you'd add some to this list and then I would yeah I'll revise that list now that they don't that she isn't happy with having non-natives I I take it we'll make a new list that's only natives which will also change I don't believe there may be one or two but there's not many natives on that 30 under 30 list that I spoke to earlier which is the ability to like I said if a resident was very very very upset that they were losing a tree in front of their house and and they really wanted that spot replaced you could use that 30 under 30 trees to replace in that strip or a little bit back from it in their yard knowing that we're not going to be encroaching on that overhead power line problem but most of that lists non-natives oh okay so that could be a problem with that so that might just mean that everything now would have to be replaced on the opposite side of the road and then I think I read one of the memos that urce did they offer to do something or Supply a tree list or Supply Jordan probably speak to that did Jord here from ever Source I think they're they're going to pay for the whole thing oh good they're paying for the trees but they're paying for the Jordan young Arbor with ever Source um yeah we would definitely be willing to donate a few trees you know just as a show of Goodwill um you know they would if we were going to donate trees to be planted on the side of the power lines we would only donate them if they were utility compatible trees okay um as far as the sizing goes he Mike is correct our list does not have a ton of natives on there but you know I could work with him and we could figure something out okay all right so that is part of the program that gets some donations okay that's thank you m that's all I have Mr Vincent um thank you um the question I had would uh would just a note that um trees that have good fall color would be would be preferable up in there too um not having the the total list in front of me but that would be something to consider as well so that would be nice I don't know if you can get if you're able to get some pictures of them in their fall yep we can do that colors that that would that would help that the for the people that's all I had thank you uh we're gonna have Mr Sabin uh just ask a question and we'll come right back to you Mr Sabin you have any comments or questions I have a yeah thank you madam chair um this is kind of a heartbreak you know uh I drive down that road all the time probably every day I go to the Post Office take the back road um those pictures are not scenic but I'll tell you when there's leaves on those trees it looks pretty cool um unfortunately a lot of those are not there today um you're going to change the entire look of this street I mean you're going to completely change the character of Old Main Street by taking all these trees down I get I understand why but that's a big deal and I don't know if we can put this in our motion or not but I would almost insist that any Redevelopment of Old Main Street with regards the tree planting is done in a community basis with direct input not from just the person whose house you're going to put a tree in front of but the entire Road May it that whole and I know because I was involved with the cultural center and I know that neighborhood very well they're close-knit and they're concerned about what goes on not just on Old Main Street but Pleasant and a and and all the other side streets so I almost want to demand if I could that the Redevelopment process is one that is done on a community basis with direct input from that part of our neighborhood you're literally changing the character of that entire part of our town and it breaks my heart that you have to do it but I understand that you have to but um you know that's that's to me is you can't just go do what you want to do and put whatever kind of tree you're in um because because you can um I I hate that I think you know the people that are going to have to live with it I don't know if you live in town or if you live in that neighborhood but you know I'm remodeling a house right now and the joke around the the guys that are working on it they're like can't see it from my living room well I won't see those trees every day from my living room either but I live in this town and I want to make sure that whatever we do to redevelop that is done in a way that has direct Community input as to how you do it because what we're going to do in Redevelopment is going to be um something that our grandkids are going to see our great grandkids um we won't see the the full development I'll never see a canopy over that road again um but I want to make sure that when you do that process that you keep those things in mind and understand that it is a historic area that's why you're here to begin with so do your daage to preserve you know the character of our of our town and please promise US that you'll do it in a way of not just picking what you want but doing it on a community basis and working with the neighbors as to how to redevelop that because you're really going to change the entire look of that road and um so the only other questions I had will and will thank you very much you asked a bunch of and answered a bunch of got a bunch of my questions asked um because you're going to be changing the entire character of the road um today I took a particular notice of the trees on Old Main Street some of them have been for better term butchered so much that they kind of don't even look like trees any there's one on the corner of Old Salt Works Road that it looks like they cut half the tree off at one time because they probably didn't have to come to a hearing because they didn't remove a tree so they just cut the top of it off and now it's got kind of growth on it so I I guess I'm saying is if we're going to do this can we clean up the rest of the stuff that that really looks kind of like we should probably get rid of that while we're at it um and and I'll be glad to meet with you and point out some of the ones that I saw but I think it's pretty obvious when you drive down the road some of them have been really just butchered to the point that if we're going to beautify and and start over then as you say with your clean canvas then then make sure we don't have splots of paint already on the canvas so just another comment that I had um and again I that that's it I think if we could put some Ty of requirement that they come back at two years and tell us that it's done or something U maybe that's answer to Will's concern about how do we know that they they get it done um but um I haven't read any of the proposed motions but that's all I really had is just you know please remember that people live here changing what we're going to see forever that's up thank you Mr sa um you had a question um my name is Carla Shero and I live at 162 Old Main Street and one of the trees is in front of our house um what concerns me about this is that there's a definite plan to remove the trees but it doesn't seem like there's a definite plan in place to put the trees back and my concern is that it get it falls by the wayside alog together um I think part of what makes a a straight Scenic is a Treeline straight um unfortunately you know out of necessity we have have power poles in front of our house what helps camouflage those power poles especially in a historic district is the trees if the trees are gone then it doesn't camouflage anything okay and if you planting them on the opposite side of the road it doesn't do anything for the trees that are lost on the side of the road where the power lines are and that really bothers me okay thank you uh I I I have a couple of um I have a couple of questions uh um terms of sequencing this might be a Robert B hour question um I mean the tree removals kind of start at one end and go all the way uh almost down to the cultural center um is the is the plan to do them all at once or do them as you go if we're going to be in the area for three years digging up is it I got to dig this tree up now because it's in the way for where I am right now Robert beow digging the ditch do do we do we know what the plan is on on that well I'll let Mike comment on that a little bit but what I will say is that uh eversource has graciously agreed to remove the trees and so that would typically be in one effort uh in order to do so u in addition they you've heard tonight that they're willing to donate some trees back as well which is great um but the removal from my perspective is um is a really excellent service because of the you know need for a bucket truck and in pretty extensive um effort in which to have those removed but Mike I don't know if you want to comment on the timing of that uh Mike Donovan Robert bow I'm the superintendent on the sewer project here in town um we're currently working we will be working from the intersection of Route 28 Old Main in front of the kwash and we'll be progressing towards B River um we will take the tree uce is going to help out with the removal as well as some and then we'll be doing some pruning behind them we bring the crews in and to have them come in multiple times costs multiple dollars so we come in once and we prune and we get it done um the crews will be starting on Old Main Street in mid June and progressing down um we have to flip-flop around a little bit because of the State Road um restraints on when you can work out there and when you cannot so sometimes we have to put one street aside to maintain uh to go ahead and facilitate the state road so that's why sometimes we'll have to come off and come back onto the state road till they say no you can't work any longer now so we can come back and forth so sometimes you have to flipflop around a little bit but um old Main's going to take some time it's like Jeff said it's it's the main pipe for the town and it's deep it's 30 in it's going to take us a minute to get it in so um but we intend on getting in as quick as possible and being able to restore the road as quick as possible as well and and that part of the contract Mr dunan is is the one that runs through September of 2026 that's correct the whole contract is one okay yes thank you I had one last question will there be Jeff will be will there be a number that citizens can call if they've got an issue or a problem or they need an answer right away will they will they be calling DPW will they be calling Michael who will they call call DPW um uh Michael White does a great job for us but he's not a full-time Town staff employee so the best conduit for issues concerns complaints information is to call the DPW okay or email me directly all right uh yes um for the sewer project portion is everyone required to link in to the new sewer or can they keep staying on their septic system no you have to link in you have to link in okay and that's will be effective October 1st 2026 so I understanding that correctly uh you'll have some time to connect there'll be a a period of I think the Board of Health has said two years for for that to happen once the system is active but when uh Robert bow is done with their pipes and the ground we still have a treatment plant to to build there's still some other infrastructure that needs to happen so it's not specifically that date necessarily but U there'll be a little bit of time but if there is a sewer available to you you will need to connect in that's how we're going to make progress with regards to removing nitrogen or ements is to have everybody participate okay that's clear um on the sidewalk itself I have um irrigation that runs across the sidewalk too and when the tree comes down I don't know if that's my house or not but no I'm at 112 um if that is disrupted who pays to get that fixed uh well that's something that we need to work with you on I don't expect that there'll be too much work on your side of the sidewalk okay as was mentioned before there will be a stub connection that comes across the sidewalk um we can work with you and and the Robert bow crew to try to you know plan for that stub where you don't have irrigation uh if at all possible uh but most of the work is on the street side and shouldn't affect your irrigation okay and then um for the road itself so we have the trees down we're going to tear we're going to tear up the road lay this there at the 30-in pipe in is there a Grand Vision of what the road would look like 20 27 and Beyond like will it be brand new sidewalks like how will that how do you envision the road to look when the job is fully completed uh as of right now there's no uh plan to make significant changes to the road or the sidewalk Beyond you know repaving or patching or you know repaving the sidewalk as well as the road uh as I mentioned before our town engineer has looked at what other things could be done and nothing's being proposed at this point to address the speed or other issues and sometimes that involves um changes you know alignment other things uh but that nothing has been determined that that's you know what should be done she's still looking at that you know looking um talking to Consultants about you know maybe the best ways to try to address speed but as it stands now the um once the sewer is in just repaving the road um repaving the sidewalk where necessary is all that's anticipated okay and this is where I think my concern as I'm hearing more about this is we're doing a lot of great work to to move the street forward right in into the 21st century but we're cutting down trees we're tearing up sidewalk we're planting new trees that'll take 30 years to grow back we're laying in a big pipe but we have no vision for what this historic Road will look like at the end so there's a there's no plan there's plans being put in P we're like patching it together with no with no real goal that we're working towards except laying in a big pipe in the ground wait I have a comment on that yeah I think I think picking up on what Jim said I think the the plan is to make it look as historic and as lovely as it does now to be you know like the Le least harm harm like Do no harm or do the least amount of harm I think the plan is to make it look as capy and as historic and as Scenic as it is now uh we're not going to take old Main Street to make it look like Route 28 that's not that's not going to happen um I think they they're they're very cognizant they're dealing with a residential neighborhood uh they're dealing with residents like you who are very involved that want to preserve the value that they have in their property and as Jim said if they if they get the community involved uh it will work to their advantage to have a you know to be part of the discussion but there's no grand plan on the part of the town to make Old Main Street look any different they want to upgrade it they want to make it modern but they don't want to take change its DNA they want to change some of the clothing but the DNA is going to stay the same right yeah I just hate for that clo I would just hate for that antique clothing to have a bunch of new holes in it and patches in it that's just my my stti but I I appreciate the answer so thank you there's a ro for vintage clothing there is we go uh yes follow up on that has any consideration ever been given to bury the power lines I was thinking that myself would be wonderful since we're since we're we're taking a really million dollars a mile and that was five or six years ago so Mr Colby answer any consideration Jeff I it's not a realistic consideration we' certainly looked at that in other areas of town and it's just Cost prohibitive I think the million dollars a mile is a well outdated number um and I don't think it would be fair to ask uh our friend from ever source to comment on this because he's really just focuses on the trees but there's others at ever source that have significant requirements with regards to infrastructure upgrades that they require if you do underground utilities that just really makes it cost prohibitive uh the one other uh comment I'd like to make um and then we we'll close the public hearing uh is uh in line with what um Mr Rubenstein actually the entire board I think is is is thinking allow here is that we have this very detailed plan with pictures and maps and locations and uh species um what I would like to see is when when you figure out what you think your best plan might be is you come back with a product like this that shows exactly where the trees might be going what they are and where they are and that you've consulted with all of the appropriate people who might be affected whether you invoke the chapter 87 rule that you've mentioned Mr White where you could engage the homeowner and have the tree on their property uh if that were the case I would like to see a plan come back to the planning board that's as good as this one to cut them down why can't we have a plan that brings back all of the same details with all of The Replacements um and and and we we will deliberate further once we close the public hearing but I did want that to be part of the of the public hearing um and and I don't think there's a requirement for that Kathy if I'm if I'm correct the requirement is if you want to take down a tree or prune more than 4 in you have to get our approval and the tree warden's involvement but there's no requirement on something like this um I don't even know if we have regulatory authority to ask them back I think the concern is that um this is something that I think they want to expedite because they have Robert bow got their contract ready they're ready to go and they need to be removed um so I think they were trying to move forward with the sewer project but because of that they have the detailed aspect of what they know they need to remove but haven't had the time necessarily to develop the the more detailed complex plan of what would be um redeveloped so I think if we understand that instead of like continuing this hearing for another time you need a little bit more time and it and it's going to take a little bit longer than it would be for Robert bow to be able to move forward with their with their maybe it's an agreement that you would come back to the planning board it's not necessarily something that you can require but we could make it a condition if you agree to it to you know maybe it's a case where you where the applicant shall hold a public meeting um with the old Main Street residents and the planning board we could help facilitate that um similar to what we're doing now to finalize the location and species of trees to be replanted and then and to develop that detailed replanting plan for submission to the board if I can speak to that I would like to even maybe to to make this better take this a step further that we should probably formulate a resident Committee of that street that anyone who wants to be involved in the replanting of these trees can get involved in meet and we can establish something where people who are passionate about it and want to be involved in where the trees will go can be involved where the trees will go and we can have a nice conversation people can meet and we can figure out everyone together everyone can have a piece to talk about all at once um that would probably be the best way to go forward with the replanting that said like Kathy said this was something that was brought to my attention that needed to be addressed so I addressed what needed to be done soon and not hastily but did not have the time to be able to put together a very large scale replanting plan with particular sites of I apologize if you if you if if you read my comment that way during the between now and September 2026 I would like I would like to have Kathy I think you've already constructed the language on what a condition might be that you come back and I think your idea about engaging the homeowners in the district is a great one um because that will make it the best plan no no doubt um that you come back and show us and show the public what the plan is I think I think that's where we would be most comfortable but that's a separate linkage than from this particular application to remove the trees but I do think it'd be a good idea um that maybe after we close the hearing we deliberate on that as a as a condition uh any other comments or questions I question sure um Leslie Callahan 280 Old Main Street one of the trees is directly in front of my house my question is I understand what's going on for our street it was very short term and all of a sudden we've got to cut trees down and we never heard about this prior to this what lesson are you going to take from this what's happening here to other streets in the town because I'm sure we're not the only Street and it's sad that it had to start on our historic Street just a question as to going forward how do you see this falling in other streets in the town thank you that's a good question I would say that uh most of the other areas that we're working in at least in the short term aren't as uh sensitive or historic or um don't have the the the large developed tree canopy um issues that this does but it's certainly something that needs to be looked at as part of the design process and you know what trees may or may not be impacted this is also kind of unique to Scenic roads because when trees are very protected and we can't cut them down typically over a long period of time those trees end up being very close to the road whereas other areas in town you might see four five 10 even 15 foot wide shoulders off the side of the road where there's no trees so it's kind of more unique to Scenic roads that you typically will have large diameter trees like one foot off the side of the road and as nice as that is for the scenic aspect it makes it very difficult with clearance so that's more or less unique to Scenic roads but to your point this is something to take into consideration that moving forward when we're doing work on Scenic roads in town that this is going to be something we're going to be dealing with most likely so Madam chair yes can I can I so that's all well and good but what concerns me is that the roads that are not Scenic you get to do what you want without talking to anybody there's no hearing required so I would ask that I know like CV Avenue um has a canopy so when you get to go down CV Avenue that's not a Scenic Road you don't need to ask any you don't need to come to us chapter 87 still applies to those though so you do have to have a hearing you have to have a public hearing to cut any tree in the entire downtown in the entire town yep unless it's a your unless it's a deemed Hazard assessed Hazard or a public risk or you know if it's obviously storm damage anything like that where it's a actual risk of human Hazard you you can't just just cut a tree down in the town without a hearing so it's just not with us it won't be with us but but there's going to be a hearing of some sort if you're going to cut down a tree somewhere in town and that would be with with who Mr with yourself his all so he gets to run the meeting so to to to address the the young lady's comment previously um it would probably be good for us to now take the layouts that are we I mean we clearly know where all the sewering is going to go maybe not a bad idea to get in the car and drive around look at these and then start having some hearings and meetings with people far in advance so that we're not in this situation that you won't be in advance so I think that's a way to solve the issue that the young lady had concerned herself about I agree yep thank you Mr s good to know that you need a hearing to cut the tree down not on private property just Town property right Town property correct U any other questions from members of the board or the public comment I have one quick one Joan certainly chairman I'm at Callahan and I'm at 280 Old Main Street and I I you know that that happens to be my house right there and I know you're cutting the tree down to give access to large equipment just take a look at that tree then the two branches that are going up there you could easily pivot around that tree I like the other young ladyes point about um camouflaging the the wires and whatnot there's even if you put other trees in it there's an aesthetic outrage to wires no hopefully no you know intended nothing intended in your direction but there there is an aesthetic outrage to that and if there within the context of the 10 trees if I don't know if there's another one like mine because obviously I have a focal interest in that one but that one I can't see where equipment couldn't get around that tree I mean yes I'm self you know centered with regard to that because you know it's it's I have a Southern Exposure and those trees when it's foliated is going to completely cover my house I love that but I also love the way it looks aesthetically there's no aesthetic outrage you know with when when that thing's foliated to uh to Jim's point you know that when it's foliated it's a completely different look I mean that's I have to admit that's kind of ugly right there but when it's foli it it looks a lot better so I guess my question would be are there any within the 10 that are that are that you can look at as potential save saved I I realize every Ash is going out but that one I don't understand how the the Machinery couldn't get around that ever sour robber Mr Jing up the roots though too Mr that the pipe is going on that side of the road with the trees yeah this also you actually just brought up a good point that we haven't addressed tonight at all and that's excavation is horrendous for tree health because you rip up all of their root material so by some crazy chance if this tree actually does have root material going under the road bed which I would be surprised but if it does yes the pipe would be ripping up that room and also any te's coming across are also going to be doing the same thing so you're going to have significant root damage um on a tree that doesn't have a large root mass to begin with you know most of the roots on that tree are going along that what you would call devil strip and underneath of the sidewalk it's it's not an ideal root zone so to then be digging more of those roots up too is also problematic but won't that happen to the Nutri as well no because they're going to get planted after the project it okay we're going to be using is going to be 15 ft wide the road is approximately 22 ft wide okay it also swings out over the tracks the counterweight in the back is rather large if the counterweight hits the tree which it very well may on that tree right there because it's so close to the road that damage will kill the tree right away it there's more we're not here to cut down trees I initiated all this I I'm the one who called initiated cuz I don't want to get into problems with just cutting trees we need the room to move the machine it it is a very large machine it's a very large pipe it's very deep it's all groundwater in there there are multiple hazards going through there to answer you it was just we have a lot of big gear to get in here and we just we we do need the room we're not cutting trees to cut trees what about the telephone the telephone poles you can't move the telephone poles they don't have Roots well you can pay for it we we're more than happy to take on any work you want to give us well Adam chair yes could we just could we could I do one moment of show and tell I'm sure thanks okay because I just want to understand this I've been staring at this wall most of the hearing and the record will show that so where's the pipe going down the middle of the road on this side of the road in the middle the drain down the left side of that road okay so you have to stay over to the right but you have to also have a water out there too okay so big giant machine is coming down the road yeah and it's favoring this side I mean because we're talking about trees only on this well mostly on this side but not exclusively all on that side that side these are all by the W no I got it so we prun the side that we need there's nothing left of the tree I just I just wanted to I just I'm trying to imagine this and so that's why I wanted to come up thank you madam chair to understand a big giant machine is going right down the middle of the road no one can hear you will oh that's okay oh hi a big giant machine is going right down the middle of the road and putting in a really deep pipe yeah okay because some people might say well why can't you just put it over there so that's why I wanted that that's why I wanted you to because if I was somebody living here I might say well why can't you just put it over there so could you talk about that for a second because I think we're down to the we're down to the minutia here because this nice gentleman is talking about his tree and I think it would be helpful if you could clarify some of that has been designed by the town the the town hired an engineer they designed it and that's where it goes there's a drain as we're looking at this road I have to get my bearings I'm not from around here all right I'm flip-flopped so the drain is on the left side of the road actually this will drain right in front of yeah but that's the the drain trunk line is down the left side of the road yeah it is the almost in the travel Lane exactly and you have a water man and a gas m a water man on the right side of the road the gas man is on the left off the road a little bit so the only Avenue left now you got to remember this is going to be a 12 to 14t wide trench to get this pipe in the ground it'll be as wide as the lane it it's going to be more than a one lane wide the trench itself that's big old to get this pipe down to the ground we're not going to be digging a little 3-ft trench it's going to be 12 14 ft wide so there's not much room left there to go anywhere else thank you that Madam chair thank you I that's why I just I just was trying to again not withstanding the lack of canopy which is you know I understand you took the pictures when you took the pictures but um I was just trying to get a sense of a the width of the actual trench and to put it into some sort of picture cuz that's how my brain works um and to just sort of cement no pun intended where that was going thanks thank you madam chair that was very helpful for me any other comments or questions from the board or the public um okay I would like to uh have a motion to close the public hearing may I have a motion so moved second and I note that time is uh 6:39 vote oh we got to vote uh all in favor I I any opposed okay passes unanimously so now we have our discussion and deliberation uh we have a proposed um motion that uh is part of our planning packet that um I hope all of us have um taken into account uh because we do need need to think about um those aspects of Scenic Road and uh uh tree taking um there are environmental issues we need to think about historic Scenic and aesthetic characteristics any concerns for Public Safety um and then compensatory actions which in this case is the replacement of the trees um on a one for one um uh and and obviously preservation of Natural Resources um so we have uh under consideration a motion um to approve this application um and I'd like to open up discussion uh now with any other comments um about that or concerns Madam chair would it be helpful since you read the hearing notice would it be helpful since I don't know if everybody has the proposed motion would you mind I mean would it help everybody in the audience to just read the motion so that folks know what the motion is sure I mean I can I can do that just to start as a starting Place does that make sense Madam chair yeah it's right or if it's on the screen even better just so folks can follow along no we've got enough Madam chair yes did we in this discussion uh we dis talked about the issues of having Community involvement was there some discussion about whether we could whether we have the authority to require that in our motion or not I as Kathy was I think you were writing um a potential condition I think we can ask I think we can ask so in our yellow highlight it says installed within three years of of this approval all replacement trees shall be native species um if it's something that we can require that they come back with or that they create of committee some insurances to the to the to the neighborhood that that they're going to be protect I think maybe I guess there's a couple things that were discussed uh and maybe we can just kind of discuss some of the specifics um one of the things had to do with replacement at 1: one is that something that you're comfortable with I know that sometimes the replacement ratio is is larger one and a half to one 2 to one is that something you want to consider um I do agree with Michael that once you start getting into the larger caliper trees it becomes extremely expensive and and and more difficult to install um so maybe you want to say a minimum of 3-in caliper but then maybe discuss whether you want to have a higher higher ratio and then also I mean part of the application here called for a condition to uh that the location species of the replacement trees shall be coordinated between the Department of Public Works the Yarmouth tree Warden and eversource and then you can say along with input from the residents along Old Main Street and then the applicant shall develop a detailed report replacement plan for review by the planning board and then you could say um then there would be a separate item that the sh be installed within X number of years of approval it's up to you guys to decide on that with all replacement trees being um Native species so and then again we'd have the um whatever condition you would want the replacement tree shall be blank ratio at a minimum of 3 in caliper so I could read all of that but those are those seem to be the things that I got out of um the conversation yeah okay well let's go let's go through them one at a time then um the ratio any thoughts about the ratio sure I have some thoughts um I mean if you wouldn't well it doesn't matter we'll leave the motion up there um the gentleman that spoke earlier well these are blanks in the right in the in the in the Hat right as he was mentioning we're talking we're going from a 50 I'm just going to use numbers respectfully we're going from a 50ft tree to uh Mike can you help me out where would these trees be in 20 years that is a very very very hard thing to actually answer totally I I agree it's I'm putting on Street trees are the highest mortality rate of any tree the average Street tree lifespan is actually only 20 years okay so w you gave me the average lifespan for the I mean I The Establishment is slower because they're usually in less than ideal conditions growing rate is slower less than ideal conditions so coming up with Native species that have a fast growing rate that are resilient you know it really comes down to tree selection being one of the biggest parts of you getting that aesthetic back sooner um how old do these trees we taking down most of the street trees in Massachusetts were the my God what's it called the TVA no well the albums were but that were our T ashes are also anytime you see a monocrop uh monocrop planting like all those ashes it was done as one motion it was a planting effort done by somebody so it was done by the town it's usually during TVA the um the when the my gosh the was World War II when they the federal work program CC they they a lot of funding for a lot of projects where they went around did Municipal improvements so I would say these trees are you know I wouldn't think any of these trees are touching a 100 years old yeah sounds like but sounds like 70 plus okay so if and the trees that you're in theory the trees that we're proposing that are native that would be replanted across the street would be 10 to 20 feet tall I that's the part I missed is how tall would the trees be when they're planted well typically 3in caliber is based on the diameter of the species that we're planting so every tree species at 3in caliber is going to be a different height okay uh 3in sweet gum 3in sweet gum is going to be a 12T tall Treck 12 feet okay um hold on where's my list don't hold me particular I'm not I'm just I'm just well again I'm just trying to I'm like winging this out of my head here you right now no no no no I'm just but again I'm just I'm trying to be I'm trying to think about you know the nice folks who are here Y how about a 3-in black Tupelo same same idea they're they're going to be about the same size about 12 12T tree and these trees so we're talking 25% right 12 into 50 we're using rough numbers so we're talking a tree that's 25% of the tree that they had not withstanding the Aesthetics of what we see on the road itself with a mortality rate on average of 20 years yes would you have an expectation if you PL if you planted a 12T Tree in 2026 would you have an expectation that that 12 foot tree would if the conditions were okay would that tree have that tree would grow I'm using rough terms here that tree would grow but it's certainly not likely from what you're saying going to ever be close to what it was are you saying it are you saying the tree you're planting in 2026 is not going to be 50 ft tall in 2076 right I mean I'm just trying to use like for like No And and but what you are doing is by eliminating Crown space on the street you're also opening Crown space for other mature trees that are on the street so if you have crown competition right now between two trees one across the street one maybe on a person's property that's behind these trees that you can't see those trees now can actually grow out and reach out over that so you're are going to get replacement canopy replacement canopy on the street isn't going to just be by what we're replacing with by creating open space you're actually creating the ability for other trees to replace that canopy I totally get that but but but basically what we're talking about is 25% of the size of what we have now across the street with a very small chance for those trees to get really big may I may I make a comment here I think you're still thinking that they're going to be planted right up against the street like these ones and they're going to suffer more but that's not the plan they're going to be put farther back so they have a better chance of survival okay so they not pushed back so their chances of survival are going to be a lot better that 20e mortality rate is if we replant in the devil strip where those trees are ah okay that's by setback planting and putting it possibly into somebody's property or at least getting it more than one and 1/2 ft off the side of the road we drastically increase the lifespan and likelihood of establishment of that tree every foot that we go back from the road right so but and that's and that's okay so that's where it ties back into you having a lot of meetings um you know and and having the public engagement that Mr Sabin and everyone else I think feels is pretty vital here because because as you just pointed out Chris and I'm glad you did it's easy for me to just keep my my tree blinders on and just say well if it's going to be planted but just directly across the street how does that help at the same time it doesn't sound like I think the expectations should be managed about even with all those factors you know hopefully ameliorated by doing what you just said it doesn't feel like a really strong chance that we're we're going to get back to what we had we're never going to have a crown replacement along the power lines it doesn't make sense no I get it I'm not talking about the power lines but I'm talking about even even opposite of the power lines those chances are not amazing they're they're they're not nothing though they're great they're great if we actually set back plant and I'm trying what I'm trying to say is that where the trees are is that 20 year we're not no we're never I I would never put a tree where those trees are and tell you that we'll make it even past 15 years I totally okay I get that so I guess really so I can stop lathering on it's really about the conversations in whatever format Madame chair and whatever mechanism is the right one to have on an ongoing basis 6 to 26 months from now you know to have these kinds of conversations and I think I think Kathy's worked on some legitimate language but I'd like to just go back to my question Rao there's an element that we need to lock in on ratio yeah are we all comfortable with a one to one I'm not I have I have a question regarding that obviously it would be much nicer to have more trees if you're going to take down these big ones put in more trees my question is who pays for it right yeah there you go if you want to if a homeowner wants to add a tree into their own yard by all means they can put one in they can pay for it but as part of the project if we're going to say it's no longer you're taking down 10 trees you're going to put back 10 trees we're going to make you put in 20 trees who's paying for the extra 10 question anything that I commit to that town is paying for it's the bottom line but the the T the tent trees currently and the removal by eversource the cost to the town and us is zero no no no there's going to be stump grinding required there's ever source is not donating 10 trees back we still have to work through how many they're willing to give understand but there think we can there's some there's some offset but there'll be some cost of the town for what we're talking about today a couple hundred Madam chair ask a question about that yes about this about the ratio um so Jeff you don't have a budget for trees do you we do have a tree budget It's relatively small but we do have a tree budget right so so okay I was just thinking about how the good news is if there is some that this is not something that is going to be in a budget in your budget for another 24 months I'm talking about the replanting and the because that also has a cost even if the trees are donated they still need to be planted right and they still need to be dug and put in and so is that what you're talking about when you say you have a budget you're talking about for tree replacement or tree removal for tree um trimming removal and replacement all in one same bucket all same bucket there's no breakdown of what that looks like depending on what the conditions are here there might be a large portion of that budget for the next three years that goes to replanting but we have to figure that out okay so here my follow-up question okay so where are you on Rao what's the ratio that um doesn't break the budget I I think the one: one doesn't break the budget because our work with with eversource will try to get as many as we can and the town will pay for the rest of them okay Madam share yeah Mr sa so I just have a couple quick questions um first is with regards to the caliper of the tree um what what's a typical caliper that you would put in I don't want to require you to put a five and you're typically putting in threes three 3 in would be typical for a replacement tree you also would see that like typically if you looked at a um like a landscape architect design for a streetscape from a road betterment project that's typically 3in replacement trees you know when you look at like Grand rebuilt Road um Landscapes they usually use 3 in as a as a standard and that 3 in would typically be what you said the 10 to 12 foot high when you plant it to 12 somewhere in that range when you plant it and it has a grow rate not like a Leland that grows a 40 year or something no every individual species has their own individual grow there's some very very slow growing native trees so maybe those would be things we would shy away from on this plan because the desire is to replace the canopy Mike if you were to go to buy that treat today Coastal Nursery what's it going to cost wholesale if you were to just go buy a red maple 3 in they're like 500 bucks so so it's not going to break the bank for but you have to take it in no but you have to take into consideration but there's much much more to planting a tree than the cost of the tree there's the labor to installing the tree there's transport there's transportation of the tree so that's taking in consideration you even Source the tree some of these trees you might have to Source out in Western Mass even so you take into Transportation labor for installation you have to take into consideration after care cuz if you plant the tree and walk away from it it's about a 90% chance that it's not going to make it so you need after care plans which means you need watering plans you need people looking after them to make sure most of these trees are probably going to there's a chance that some of these trees might have to be replaced down the line anyways for mortality with another replacement tree within the first year for from not establishing so there's much much much more cost to planting a tree than just the cost of the nursery stock remember we live in massachusett prevailing wage okay okay those union dues too um Madam chair if I can um I think it's kind of hard to put a ratio I agree one to one is is really not but there is no policy that we've ever had to to say that when you I got stuck with this with conservation the the policy of what is an appropriate ratio of you know is it 1:1 is it 2:1 is it where do we figure that number out and and again having trust and faith in our town employees and our community I would believe that if we could say a minimum of one to one and give them the flexibility to say hey right here we should really put two or three and so I don't want to tie their hands to to to say 15 or 20 when really they only need 12 so I'd like to give them the the discretion to figure that out but a minimum of one to one but um with some leadway that says hey you know what when we met with the not just the street I would suggest not just Old Main Street but the bass I think it's called Bass River homeowners association neighbor Civ that there's a group they have a newsletter and everything so those are the people you want to talk to just not the people on on Old Main Street because like I said it affects our whole town and particularly that that neighborhood so um I would like to to be able to give them the ability to go more right um but not say to them hey you have to have 20 and then have them stick a tree somewhere just to get to 20 I hear you I hear you uh okay um any other comments on on ratio I think insertion of the word minim Works um I'm seeing some nods um uh We've I also uh see that the 3-in caliper is one of the items we all agree on right okay um I think another minimum might be called for there as well Madam chair it might be there might be a tree or two that Mike thinks minimum minimum yeah right minimum no yeah that's especially if you come across Nursery stock that's discount that you can get bigger trees bigger is better y more is better um the F the other element here um is uh the time frame in which we would want this to be accomplished um we had talked about two years uh Jeff you in your comments you said the hour contract runs out till September of 2026 so um perhaps 3 years um I think that would be more realistic right and you as communicated that as such to the board that three years would be um more likely doable um but not beyond that uh three years that seem well Madam chair I mean this is a pretty big project as the superintendent has already described I mean it is possible that it will be September of 2026 and the Project's not done so then is that does that mean that that Jeff or or or Mike would have to come back and ask for an extension yeah you have to come back and get the permit extended right and that would have to be communicated in some way to the public as well but again that's only assuming that there isn't any public engagement but it feels like we're going to hopefully ask for some some mechanisms to do that well the project won't be done but I'm I'm assuming the 2026 is that section of the project Old Main Street correct right and not any of the side streets or any of the little fingers that I go off into aen and Homer etc etc correct so you want the clock on the completion of the old Main Street section of this in other words I don't want you to come back and say Hey you know we haven't got Ain put in yet and haven't got pesen Street put in yet so now that project is now 10 years down the road you could tie it to the current Robert P contract they don't have a contract to do those roads okay those are future phases yeah so so my based on that should we say September of 2026 I know you you guys had talked about two years or three years but it would be from the from today's State yeah three years 2027 years three years makes sense because who's going to be responsible for putting the trees back in the our company or the town the town okay so we don't have to hold the our company to anything on that no no and hopefully they'll be done using contract as our clock exactly so do you need a certain time after the completion of their contract for you guys to do your work that's the only hesitation I had with regard to the September it would be wise to so that you have adequate time to Source trees and develop a plan and especially if we're going to have community outreach with the replanting having residents involved that that's all a lot of time consuming things so to put it that right when they're done with construction we would be sticking trees in the ground there would be a lot of things all happening at the same time so it might be be working on some of that when you get close you're going to know to start working so there's better times to plant the others right also we know if it fell into the middle of the summer or the middle of the winter you know so we would have to plan accordingly three years work for you yeah I think that's from what we know at this time that that works okay well that's eight months after September is May of 2027 so I'm just trying to yeah perfect spring plan so that's eight months and obviously well obviously I hope for your sake that you'll start some of those conversations well before May of 2027 yes so that you won't you'll be sourcing trees in the winter of 2027 to plant in the spring of 2027 um Kathy what language did you have uh and I'd like just like to go to the the the other piece that's new with regard to a report back to us yeah with a replacement the tree replac plan if you will yeah I just had um the applicant shell develop a detailed replacement plan for review by the planning board close enough he knows we've got three years so yeah got three years to get one to us and we're done do we make that a separate condition or do we have uh can we just leave that as part of the the one condition I I guess if you want I can maybe based on what I've heard I can tell you what I think the motion would be okay go ahead um so a motion to approve the removal of 10 trees within the road layout of Old Main Street varying in size from 18 in to 24 in plus and consisting of eight ash trees and two maple trees and this is something that's important you need to just to outline the reason why you are allowing this to be removed based on the criteria that the board had to look at so due to the need to accommodate installation of the sewer collection system to improve water quality which is the environment the poor Aesthetics and impairment of the existing ing trees due to overhead utility pruning concerns that pruning the trees would cause mortality improvements in the reliability of the electrical grid and Provisions for replacement trees I would take out at a 1:1 ratio because we'll deal with that later so provision for the replacement trees using more appropriate species and locations with the following conditions the location species number one the location species of the replacement tree shall be coordinated between the Department of Public Works the arm with tree Warden and eversource along with input from residents along old Main Street and other stakeholders I think Jim had mentioned other stakeholders the applicant shall develop a detailed replacement plan for review by the planning board number two the replacement tree shall be a minimum of 1:1 ratio with a minimum 3-in caliber tree all replacement trees shall be native species and then number three uh replacement trees shall be uh installed within 3 years of this approval so moved I have a second second could we have some discussion yes we can have discussion so the I like everything the usual Next Step Madam chair you're right uh the the one part I don't I just think is a little bit of a gray is the the part where it says the tree plan to be reviewed by the planning board I think there should be a date I don't think it's unreasonable to say two years from now if the planting is we're asking for every to be planted in three years I don't think it's unreasonable to say we'll come back in two years or something prior to completion of the contract even better what I just I just want to throw it in there only because um I think it will it will just create the sense that again we're all assuming we're all going to be here in 3 years doing the jobs and living the lives we live but we can't so we need to make sure that those that are doing all this work and these jobs at that time understand what the guard rails are and I just think we need one more set of guard rails uh the three years is a guard rail but an interim guard rail Madam chair I also think would make a lot of sense report back okay so is this like an motion to amend theem motion to um require replacement plan uh be submitted to the planning board within 2 years of this approval you want to do two years or you want to do prior to completion of the contract comption of the contract I'll defer to you guys I just think it should the completion of the contract okay but we should put the date in because that could I mean if you get extensions that could change that so what what we have a compl I think two years gives you enough time to figure out what the plan would be yeah right yeah I think two let's just say I think of 202 oh two years from the date of this from the date of the perit see got two years to meet with the public and that's plenty of time yeah cool thank you so I mean that's so this is an amendment amended motion I make that amended motion to add that section may I have a second nobody needs a second the motion oh second any further discussion all in favor of the amend all in favor of the amended motion I I unanimous so what happens is I need to work up a decision that then gets uh clocked in with the Town Clerk and I will send it to you with these conditions outlined okay thank you yeah thank you very much uh Jeff Michael and thank you for the public for coming this evening we really appreciate your interest thank you again great thank you be kind we'll keep you posted on the replacement plan that breaks my heart I know progress just don't know what else you do the wor is call somebody's house and they going to say why didn't you do it when you had the chance you got a court hearing back a bazillion years ago there was a couple of guys in town who took it on themselves and planted all the trees I forgot what the trees were along 6A in yam yeah next on our agenda is uh uh uh discussion trying to plan ahead a little bit um Mr Vincent will be retiring from the planning board we're sorry to see you go Chris how many years 15 oh my god wow you guys have a long way to go oh yeah my last remaining original planning Bo when I got here oh my goodness well well if I add them two together kind of catching up you can catch up so um in in advance of our usual September meeting where we do our committee assignments uh Kathy suggested we accelerate this because there has been a quorum issue a couple of the members of the committee um that Chris serves on have been out for some serious medical issues um and so I wanted to put it out there for people to start thinking about um if they're interested anybody interested in what design Review Committee being the new Chris just you know design review it's design review when developments come in right you sit down the things have been well vetted already by Kathy and and that and it's really just a review of of what they have it's um the architectural and site design standards have different criteria for sighting um your development on the property as well as certain building strategies what the building would look like how it's modulated what the roof might look like um and then they go before most of the time um projects uh like a commercial development south of Route 6 would go to the design Review Committee for advisory review and they would review those criteria those app those materials or comment sheet um would get submitted um to the zba should there be a special permit and they kind of take some of those things into consideration there's also mandatory projects like when you have a hotel motel overlay District um that's mandatory requirements of meeting the architectural site design standards which the the committee looks at but then you guys also know that you guys are the design review Authority for a bunch of things the road applications and the um also vcd as well as hmod too so that's just another committee that kind of looks at more of the Aesthetics and the design and how things get laid out uh as people are redeveloping their properties it's not a lot of heavy lifting from my perspective as as the representative on from the planning board there it's um a lot of the work has been done when you get there yeah M Madam chair um I'm currently supposed to be the housing committee representative have however I've had difficulty attending their meetings because they've been when I was a working man meeting in the middle of the day so it was difficult for me to attend any of their meetings um it may still be so if somebody else is interested in housing I would certainly find design review a much more palatable place for me to be okay so you have some interest well I I if I'm going to do something I I I feel frustrated that I can't participate in all the housing stuff that has taken place because of they have their meetings at 3:00 in the afternoon they're Tuesday at 4: 4:30 so it's late after later in the day yeah later in the day end of the day and it's is infrequent it's infrequent yeah that when that's something comes up right when a project comes we just had two projects this past Tuesday um for a couple anyone else couple months typically see seven to eight a year no I don't okay I my time I can't I have a lot of opinions on things Madam chair but in this in this particular case no I meant I don't I I really would hope and this is this is because of Chris's ability not because of his leaving that we can find someone who has Especial set of skills as an actor once said you know to help fill this role so I recognize you want to get it filled before Chris leaves no or as part of Chris leaving but hopefully the recruitment position stuck doing it till July 30 still doing it still doing it till August 1 I meant I'm hopeful that we're able to recruit some I guess what I'm saying is I really hope the new person can do it so a builder or an architect something or someone in that world hopefully it would be lovely but I understand that that isn't necessarily like feel a little better kind of built a house at I I guess what I'm trying to say is no thank you okay someone else that's an interesting way to say it but but in in the absence of anybody else Madam chair for your sake I hope Mr Savin put his hand up so he wants to trade he's not volunteering he's trying to trade Tak understand I'm not even doing the job that I'm supposed to be doing on housing and that's not not my typical me okay um but uh Mr Vincent will have us covered between now and I got you when I got you I thought there was a rule that he had to find a replacement before he could move we do need to get the replacement approved by the select board uh so that's why I brought it up earlier because even though he has through July 31st needs to get on an agenda on the agenda so how quickly can we get something on the the select board they're meeting on June 5th and June 25th so we could shoot for the 25th yeah I mean sure okay did you want to wait till the next meeting is that what you're saying well Susan wasn't here okay um or Ken or Ken for that matter yes thank you you're a good clerk you are a really good clerk it's a team effort Madam chair yeah okay so uh will that that will work if we hold thater till the next meeting sure thank you uh Jim for your for your interest um we have meeting minutes from April 3rd may have a motion to accept meeting minutes I would like to move that motion Madam chair I have a second second any discussion I'll take a vote all in favor I I okay unanimous abstain oh abstain okay that abstain all right any um any committee updates I have one uh [Applause] the Water Resource advisory committee met on May the 6th and there has been more progress slow but steady progress um I think we're at the point where we were told that mass D is starting to draft the approval of the groundwater discharge permit be still my Beating Heart I know the DP is moving um that's the good news the news that is I guess more interesting is the way the parameters have been set with the groundwater issues at the proposed Buck Island plant is it's probably only going to really be able to treat 30ish per of phase one but again we had I had spoken a previous meetings and given previous updates that that the town is going to have to use Bayberry Hills in a massive way in order to help make phase one happen as well as uh the the land that the that the state owns at Exit 8 and Station Avenue so that is all still true there's going to be three places for this groundwater to go it's just not all just a lot less of it is going to go into the plant because again not because anybody necessarily did anything wrong at the Town level um and I I won't use the word wrong when I talk about the state but let's just say the state came with some parameters that were unexpected and you know originally it was like very little could be dis charged with the plant and now at least there's been some give and there's been some progress so that's good so you're talking about shutting down Bayberry Hill I'm not talking about that I'm actually talking about an expansion of of the ponds and the irrigation ponds no no no and I I wasn't I never I'm not going to shut down the course no no no no no and I never said that Madam chair for the record I never did say that bberry Hills would be affected in terms of playing golf thinking maybe of the Bass River Golf golf course where when they were looking at that for effluent they would have to dig it all up and put in the trenches underneath right well that's not currently under discussion it's just Bayberry and we're looking at they're looking at up to 250,000 gallons per day yeah so it gets cleaned at the plant and then it gets yes shot over to the pond right and then it gets reused at the golf course to help irrigate the beautiful golf course so ultimately it will be a good thing I just think for for you know Mr Colby is here anymore but I imagine he and the Consultants were under the impression that the plant would be able to handle a lot more however that is some of that was taken out of their hands um the other quick update well as we heard there's been progress throughout town and I don't know about you but if you drive around town you may have noticed that um except for the route 28 sections uh that will end at Memorial Day the other phases that don't work around on 28 will continue because that's really the only way to get this work done is if they don't stop um so um last thing is there will be a meeting uh tomorrow night with the Conservation Commission just to keep everything moving and and happy with those folks as it relates to this whole all the groundwater discharge so it's all moving in the right direction and again as long as everything as long as the septic plant is approved approved and contracts are signed by October 31st then we will not lose our 0% loans and so that until I until I hopefully until I have any worse news we're still on track for October 31st thank you madam chair anyone else uh committee reports I I was going to do a staff update so no commit okay um any other uh uh board member items they want to bring up Kathy I you're going to talk mention the the LCP meeting on Friday okay so you got that uh correspondence you've been sending us um I have one small item Madam chair I do have when you're done I I have a correspondence I don't know if we shared this with everybody Kathy from the old Kings Highway yeah on this subject from this evening Old Kings Highway wrote to me as the chair asking us to add some more streets to the scenic Road inventory and to delete some streets apparently we road is on the scenic MH um uh and Road and Long's Road uh so uh I haven't done anything with this yet but they're asking that uh Thatcher Church winter Center and Old Church Street be added as Scenic Thatcher winter these are what office 6A right winter correct those thater or thater sh um and apparently this th this uh map of that outlines the SC hasn't been updated in quite some time they said 1974 which is 50 years ago yeah I don't know the the actual regulations for the scenic Road was adopted on April 27th 2011 I don't know how these Scenic roads were determined at that time so I don't know whether there was some we just took something from a 1974 report or something and put that in or whether we can change it or not change it so I would need to figure out um how this kind of got developed to begin with and how the streets got determined and and then whether we can be changing them it's really just being you can change these rules through a public hearing um and we we change them yes it's as long as it's not a state regulation or some other criteria with this is something we taken action on okay um and if I can Madam chair I got two words Duncan Oliver oh he might know he probably knows yeah I I he's he could probably be a really good resource yep so that might be coming up on an agenda at some point um I'm in all honesty I'm not rushing to it no no and I I I may write I may uh ask put a letter together Kathy just to be responsive and tell them that we'll get to it when we can get to it um so that was the one piece of Correspondence I wanted to share with you guys uh I interrupted you Kathy go ahead I say thank you as usual are we on staff updates we are and then I have a question after Kathy's that would be that would be me okay um local comprehensive plan uh I don't know if all of you picked up picked these up but I did distribute these and they did distribute them at the annual town meeting and it kind of gives people a brief update and send them to the the vision plan uh and then also sends them to a new website which very easy yarmouth.ma uslc and that will get you to the town web page where it's updated all the information that we had had the kickoff meeting uh and a bunch of other information uh is on there as well and then it also uh includes on the same website and also on the little card how you can sign up for email notifications I think you might remember from the April 3rd kickoff meeting we had talked about um what whether we going to go with uh Constant Contact or Civic send or whatever so we've actually come up with Civic send and anybody who signed up previously for the visioning constant contact your name has already been automatically moved over to this list uh I'm going to send out a test tomorrow um so hopefully you've all signed up uh for notify me or did it it did signed up for the visioning way back in the day um but if you don't get anything tomorrow you'll know that you're not um so that that's been some nice progress um BC is working on reviewing a bunch of existing plans that we have we sent them some updated information on some of the plans that we have um and they so they're reviewing that and they're starting to compile the existing conditions information uh and the mapping we're going to have a meeting with them um on Friday to kind of talk about some stakeholder interviews you know the groups that we might want to be doing and then also specifically kind of what type of interview questions are we going to be asking are they going to be consistent questions are we going to ask different groups different questions uh some of the things that Jo and I had had been talking about is the vision plan basically comes up with very specific kind of goals and objectives so how about what action would you take in order to meet this objective and or this goal How would how would we get there because what we're really trying to get is the specific action items um that we can get to because I think the vision plan kind of really is a very good basic overall idea of where we want to go but now we need to start fleshing out the details of how we actually get there um and so that the kind of in in July and August they're going to really be prepping for that first public engagement which will be in September so hopefully we'll have some more discussions with them on what they were kind of really envisioning that would be and how we would be getting that information out the one thing that I haven't heard anything about um I know that they had some um some staffing issues uh is the web page that they're going to be developing we have the web page that we have that I put the information on because I wanted to get that to people but ultimately we will include the link to their detailed web page which will have more of that interactive opportunities for people to provide um their their input and get more graphics and more information um from them our page will kind of end up being more of a landing page sending them to the um BC's groups um landing page um so that's kind of unless you have something else that's kind of like where we S stand on the on the LCP um we also are going to we have been continuing to work on the Route 6A Village centers um streetscape improvements project uh we had a meeting um with some stakeholders in November got a lot of really great information I think a lot of um General interest and support to see some improvements in the village uh streetscape you know we're looking at things like sidewalks and Curbing and and crosswalks and how we can enhance the crosswalks for safety uh so we're going to be having uh another public meeting it's going to be here uh in the hearing uh room on May 30th at 6: PM uh it's going to be in person as well as remote we're going to kind of go over the uh the work that the VHB our consultant has been doing to kind of take all of those comments that we received and kind of fleshing out and putting in more and more detail uh into the plan so we can get more public input we'll also have some more specifics with regard to like materials that people might be able to choose from uh and really kind of start narrowing down some of of what are our preferred um Alternatives uh for that particular project um we are um also need to be working on updating our Hazard mitigation plan never never a dull moment here in toy Yarmouth uh we did get a grant and and we are going to be working with the Cape Cod Commission who helped us with our 2017 Hazard mitigation plan uh and I've been sending out some uh some feelers um actually today we need to come up with um a hazard mitigation plan team that includes um not just Town staff or or government officials but also um Community leaders business owners uh as well as um you know just general people who have other interests in this particular field um so I don't know whe it's not official committee it's just a team so I don't know if anyone from the planning board has any particular interest uh uh on the hazard mitigation plan but you're more than welcome uh I did send out something to staff kind of asking them to talk to their boards and committees and see if anybody might be interested I actually have two people sign up today so there is some interest in it that's great um so that that's something that's going on and that's something that will probably won't start until July and it'll probably run a full um year not a super heavy lift it's a relatively short plan um it's really um providing feedback and in insights on on information that's presented um the Riverwalk Park project um Robert B hour was um the low bidder for uh phase one which includes all of the site work um the the boardwalk the um playground area and the kayak launch um but not the restrooms and um we're going to be having a pre-construction meeting with them at the end of the month on on the 31st so hopefully we'll start getting construction going start seeing some movement on that uh in June we still need to bid out Phase 2 which is going to be the restroom uh in the center um but we also uh are going to be giving an update to the board of Selectmen or the excuse me the select board um to update them on the project uh on the on June 25th but we're also need to talk about uh things like plank sales we now have some information on the engraving cost we have information on what the planks costs so we were going to be having another dissect meeting sometime in June and I need to send out that doodle pole um in order to kind of go what what we might want to recommend to the select board to charge for those Boardwalk planks they're going to be more expensive than the ones at Bass hole because they're hardwood they're different different type of wood completely and they're they're 6 feet long instead of 4et long uh so I think it was like $150 at um bass hole and I think we're really looking more like $400 because we are trying to get some additional Revenue um for maintenance of the of the whole park um so that's something that we would be discussing with the select board as well as the formal name of the park we got to start uh working on an actual sign for the now that we have the project bid so we need to be sure that we have a final name for the park those are the two big items and then of course talking to them about naming rights and donations and others ways of of getting some funding which you guys helped on with regard to the signed bylaw amendments that we did um last I can't even remember last fall um and then the open space and Rec plan went before the select board um consent agenda uh which they approved the the um edits they had gone before them on April 9th they had some comments the open space and Rec ad hoc committee met they agreed to some edits we presented it to the select board in the consent agenda and and they approved it I did send it all into Melissa crying at the state and she still has some huh she would like us to say what now this is notay I think I've gotten it down to three things and I think we're in very good shape so things that may not require another meeting we're not going to meet again I'm just going to make the changes so they're not that they're not that significant um so I think we're all set and hopefully um when I have those Chang I do need to have um Weston and Samson do some a map edit so they need to add something on a map um so that should be very very close the uh has housing production plan has actually been formally submitted to the state for their approval so hopefully that would be something that's coming back I did have the scenic Road things my on my list but you covered that um one of the other things that's coming up before the select board also I think it's in August is looking at a public art committee charge so that we can start looking at it at a way of developing and uh and getting public art on Town property we're not we're not going to start talking about private property like murals or anything like that I think we need to start with public property uh get that system down pat come up with some guidelines and see see what we can get obviously the Riverwalk Park is an ideal location for a lot of that public art so we have a vested interest um but we've been working I did send it to the chambers very interested in public art as well as the cultural center so the charge uh was sent to them to see if they had any comments on it before we present it to um to the select board and the last thing is um zoning amendments I know it's like we're never out of zoning season um Mary Wan has been working with the community housing committee on some language um for modifying the calc ation for the payment in lie of affordable housing being constructed um to get to it more in line with the actual cost of doing it um I think you may recall that there was a um some a request from some citizens with regard to some changes to the seasonal employee Housing section related to you know excluding the hmod 2 from being over the 15% maybe some edits to some of the definitions that's at Town Council he's been busy with town meeting he's going to get back to me after he's made it through town meeting seasons and then I know that we we also had some discussion on solar canopies as being potential uh and I do know that there is uh the zba is going to have a solar canopy for was it St David's Baptist is it the Episcopal church parking lot yeah on the parking lot I think that was continued I'm I'm pretty sure I read that that was continued continued um so so that's that's something that as much as I'd like to get to the solar canopies I don't think I'm am going to be able to start doing some research on that um I don't whether that's something that if the planning board wants to move forward maybe some of the other members can start maybe doing some research on that what are other communities doing how are other communities addressing um and it's not just solar canopies I think we might probably if we're going to tackle it we need to tackle uh the whole bit the whole thing but we are going to be you know busy um with some regulatory thing we have the vcd site plan review for 811 Route 28 on June 5th uh and then we'll talk about it a little bit later but whatever next meeting we have we're going to also have I think a road application uh for 228 Route 28 which was a mixed use what is that it's the old tasty Buffet Johnny Johnny e tasty Buffet it's vacant now the building had been torn down was that the same place that they proposed the go-kart track exactly same place that helps me I haven't been here as long as you guys I know where the tasty buffet was I don't know the previous names so that I think is my update wow okay may I ask two quick follow-up questions Madam chair you may um on the agend on the calendar for the select board this ties into what Kathy was just saying it looks like they have put November 19th as a special town meeting date that makes sense because of the presidential elections they push in that a couple weeks okay um so you're when you say zoning amendments you're talking about possibly for special town meeting or are you talking about for spring of 2025 I think that the the things for fall would be maybe doing something about the seasonal employee housing and then the language for payment in lie of okay for fall okay and come up with some more and then the second thing was uh I believe the the uh madis reuse committee is still looking for folks to volunteer um and obviously that group isn't getting off the ground until after the election and the reorganization of the select board um and I didn't I didn't watch the entire select board meeting so I don't know if they mentioned anything about it um I do know that Susan and Jim did put their names in good so thank you madam chair anything else I think that's anything else from any board members okay motion to jurn Second any discussion quick discussion we didn't talk about our meetings next month oh meetings we got to talk about the meeting sorry my motion thank you thank you um as I mentioned the June 5th meeting is the VC site plan review um but June 19th I forgot that's a holiday it's a state holiday and town H juneth in town hall is closed um and then the the next meeting uh would be July 3rd which is the week of July 4th um and we do have that road application that we'd like to get before you guys um so I'm wondering whether you might be willing to have a June 26th meeting I would say I could participate remotely in probably only for about an hour it's just the second night of overnight camp so at 6:45 I have to turn into a pumpkin yeah I'm good for the 26th so I can be there Madam chair for a chunk of it okay till till when Wills I can only be there till about 6:45 it's just it's the second night of camp and okay second night of Camp so Susan inday then she could make it and and Joan it Jim can make it maybe Wednesday is my sailing night but we'll see oh yeah that's going to be so I'm putting Chris down as a check as a check plus well there's and also Mr Smith isn't here so yeah I meant to send him something um but I'm also in addition what what is people's availability for July 3rd were you planning on having a meeting on the 3D I'm I'm available if we need it same here yeah I suppose so Peter possibly possibly and Chris I won't be here no he's done I'm done no you're not you're not done until the 31st of July well see sorry buddy nice try we're not we're not unshackling that chain and ball that ball and chain WR the letter so I guess I'm I'm unclear so July 3rd sounds okay well Susan said she would could but she wouldn't be happy um Jim can do it Joanne will can do it Peter are you a maybe I'm a maybe yes Y and we don't know about Mr Smith yep and Chris can't do it or did you think that you weren't um I'm not sure yet and if he has to he won't be happy Yeah and I don't blame you and then so we'll ask Ken I'll probably send another email maybe if we could just get a a full confirmation of all of this that would be good CU I need to pick a day for these guys and I have to it's a formal public hearing so I have to notice itver and now you're on you make your motion again done I make a motion to return second any discussion all in favor hi thank you all