oh that little house yeah yep you can rent that and I mean it's very small but it was in downtown Southborough yeah just uh oh that downtown yeah okay yeah I mean it's their downtown yeah yeah okay I know what you mean yeah yeah so and that's also owned by the town right the town owns that I believe so yeah I know they have a caretaker um I definitely think this is moving in the right direction I think are there any restrictions on what can be done to the barn on the inside the interior in terms of so not on the interior but that that's that will be a discussion that we'll need to evolve again once we get some experts um you know do we want to do something like HCA and sheetrock most of it um or do you want to keep it natural most of the people I've talked to and I've talked to a lot about this want to keep it natural yeah as much as a barn look I mean yeah you don't want a big blank wall yeah exactly and I also think if you look at HCA and what they're doing there as you said they're an art center and their big thing are the classes and the theater performances and the music performances and also I mean they also rent it out for events um they have big money benefactors oh yeah yeah and they have a pretty good sized budget so yeah but I think if we look at this as a more rustic place right people go all over for rustic wedding venues I think if we can keep that feel I think the discussion I think as you said the next thing is bringing this to the public and getting their input I I personally think at some point we're going to want X not get rid of the second floor but access that second level I think about like at the Warren Conference Center when you're in that main area they have that second floor where you can go up and be up there as well as I think I don't know the other thing I think moving forward we would want to maybe have a committee that works with you on this so that because there are a lot of people interested in this and I think if we can you know not just have it on you but have people who are committed and who want to you know work and design and and plan and and but you know stuff like that might be a good thing yeah I mean I think we have to use our experience oh yeah in history with that to come up with the right formulation yeah and uh the right balance there discuss this um don't you think what was that joke every I I don't know are we still discussing what we want to do with it or we're going to move on to it I think I think we moved on to discussing the finance and administration okay so I wasn't sure did you have anything to say but it sounds like we're revolving right back to the beginning again I have a question sure so um we didn't talk about the renovations of the house because that will be like a big component of it too we haven't got to it yet okay I wasn't sure because we were talking about finances I wasn't sure if we were you know we were talking about the the operating expenses but there's like the big chunk of change that we'll need to um yeah so I did talk to Doug Scott about this it's really hard to get a real estimate um for the house or for all of this that we're talking about but you know he put a price tag of four million dollars on it and we can't hold them to that um but you know he's he's got more experience than any of us or all of us combined actually so um you know I think that's something that we could we could work with now two million dollars you've already allocated two million dollars of arpa so we did one and then there was where did the second million come from because we had done the renovation well initially we had looked at doing the Karen money okay but then we decided to do and we had we were going to use uh part of the money that Karen got us we did have it as part of arpa our arpa allocation initially initially then I was like okay well maybe we can use the money that Karen spilka got us and then looking at some of the details I'm like let's just switch it back around and we'll do downtown with the Karen money and go back to arpa okay we may need to re-review that because I can't yeah I can't I think that would be good because I in my mind I see like 750 000 for an arpa funds for the barn and then the CP the CPA funds and then we were making up the Delta like there was a little bit of a Delta yeah but I don't remember but there's been a lot of like movement with different yeah he's going on it twice though and so I've moved forward just on that boat okay it would still be good to review because the Public's going to want to know right if we if we look to move forward on this with these finances where are we getting the money to do some of this work and then the other two million I mean excuse me Joe Joe did you have something you wanted to say no Mike can finish his comment I just okay go ahead I do have a question about the the house part of it anyway okay so we will have a Delta using you know Doug's very high level estimate of two million dollars um in you know potentially we could go to CPC for that we could look at general fund there's you know is that something you can um could we bond that I mean is that does that so be part of the capital budget or the law or the bonding we would probably Bond even if we use CPA it would probably you know maybe a portion of it would be a large chunk of that but then the rest of it would be bonded yeah so you you do your budget would be monthly yearly Bond payments as opposed to trying to come up with like two million dollars yeah essentially because I don't even know if we have that much CPA that we could devote towards yeah right I mean I worry about like like trying to come up with two million I mean that's like yeah that's like because I remember when we first started talking about this that we had said that if we were going to be if we were going to do all this on our own we were going to need we were going to need to go back and ask for like a debt exclusion or some sort of additional funding from from from residents yeah but we don't think we we think it's possible that we can actually do this without that when we had that discussion arpa wasn't part of the equation okay and um you know we've striked while the Iron's hot well we're very very fortunate um in that regard that we've got a lot of that money and we have to use it certain date right exactly 24 or 20.
taking a break number six Sabine technique one there one Merino can handle but it was coming with a lot of smoke and a lot of spin to try to keep it in bounds and then bang it up didn't happen here we go down the sidelines to Stefano Stevens is Right honor it all comes into the middle Bang adow at this point is really just not first of all they're getting taken advantage of here we go one possibility here claw goes down the sidelines again good as they say in football field position Advantage there on that way bounce get another throw at it thank you a slight rest put in a great performance tonight putting a lot of pressure on the Defenders right there awesome back number seven to Steph and I was really oh I mean she wants it right now you can tell um chest [Music] and that was just a boat race and really good timing by the goalie right there race to go get it the step it almost incredible speed East Longmeadow player just keeping up with their order of a step and it could have been things could have gone a different way thank you on the sideline Stevens chasing it down after it getting pushed out here we go another really good corner kick right there bounces in the air for the Eastlawn metal fans streaming govish go that whoever said they were screaming for [Music] gonna get a timeout again [Music] we're gonna really rally the troops look see something in East Longmeadow setup that she really wants to explain she's calling her team over quickly she's got a plan that she wants to put in place let's see what East Longmeadow can do thank you resting them up getting some water falling in play and you can see right here coach is really leaning on Natalie match right now talking directly to him talking to the players really at her she's giving her some fight some instructions some guidance it's exactly what she wants to do to exploit as best they can the Eastern metal defense which has really held its own has played absolutely spectacular clearly in my opinion star of the game so far I need something great Savage has come out of the goal appropriately has made some diving saves has interrupted passes has played just really played aggressively and has been the difference really between I think one battle scoring a couple of goals and not scoring let's see if they can keep it up the formidable defense line replace it Merino Roman and Steven's heaven held Longmeadow scoreless see if they can keep it up 16 minutes and 22 seconds remaining the fans are all down there sweating can't wait to go home and take a shower maybe jump in a pool if you happen to happen thank you again [Music] that one almost between them I've been trying to persuade the call there try to get it to you clearly went off of them they're leaving office stays in bounds Allie Thompson gets it kind of kicks it up gets it in the middle somebody's head goes down balls kind of moving all over the place here trying to keep the ball oh good try right now [Applause] thank you sure what happened there a ball of kind of got stuck on the wrong side the case it's got to chase that down here they come [Music] on good defensive stand there one-on-one defense again and it just held their own hung in there it's like a little bit of survival the finish on defense Longmeadow pressing forward jump up there this is what they've been asking for right here they're really trying to get that ball down up down that right hand side they're trying to get it down that right hand side to Max for a big booming shot off that right side thank you I want to just sneaks out of bounds got some subs coming in here and Jordan jumping back in number six jumping back in and Matt jumping back in and out 12 minutes remaining yeah in the second half a good long throw in ball keeps on going you got to put some trying to put some pressure on that get it Adam Jordan has it has it you want to get more else calling for it and I can Morris calling for it [Applause] the goalie and then they kick it out of bounds up red Falls a short time out to check on a flare injury and I'll try to sneak that one in while the Reno was wide open oh my God foreign [Applause] [Music] I'd like to see this here I do like to see this play Addie Jordan using her captain ship to send Sousa back into the box get one more player back in there a really good call Right There by Captain Addy Jordan works everyone there was much no I'm not going to say that's not an experienced penalty but it is good play there by Lucy Roman if you're going to take a penalty that's probably the time to do it the ball was spinning around she didn't know where it was Blair had her beat by a little bit and [Music] about all right [Music] that's a dangerous kick good call tried to do the old looked like it was going to be a highlight red but did I tried to do a bicycle kick very athletic play but it's going to be a penalty High foot I see the fans from East Longmeadow breathing taking a big deep breath after that as it flips it back forward all right this is the one you gotta cover right there [Applause] Zeus has got to go get that gotta get on that right there don't give up on it chase that one back you don't want to leave the middle of the field open like this somebody right in the middle [Music] oh a left footage strike by the left Winger number two [Music] with a left-footed opportunity number 15.
uh the deadline that Butte County has set to submit all the documents to the county um is uh 123 days from the election which puts it I believe in early June which means that the board would need to take action to call the election in May and I guess early June but it would be very very early in June and in order to for the board to adopt a resolution calling an election in May usually the draft of the resolution will need to be prepared in the march to April time frame um and right now in the fall and into the early spring is a great time to really test the feasibility of a bond measure and I understand that the board has approved a contract for a survey Consultants to get a sense of you know what type of what size and what kind of projects the community would like to support so getting that information right now I think would be very important just to make sure that you know that this plan is feasible as the district continues to explore this possible Bond measure Community survey slash poll or something like that to indicate you know how the appetite is out there that makes perfect sense I think because I just do want to point out the maximum we can go for is the sixty dollars per 100 000 assessed which would generate that that large 239 million but if the community doesn't have an appetite for that and they want something less then that's the information we'd want to know so we size the bond appropriately when we do put it on the ballot should the board choose to go in that direction so if your house basically is worth three hundred thousand dollars they're paying 180 dollars over the course of a year do we know what that would cost to go out and Survey the community and stuff like that we are currently working with a consultant to do that and um I am not sure that we have the estimate so the decision's already been made to do it we're waiting for that feedback basically okay no further questions your honor any additional questions yeah I think um just just some clarification for me is is what direction is needed from staff from the board at this time thank you Miss Delby so really when we look at this timeline um the number one element on here talks about preparing a project list and we've kind of taken the preliminary steps with that facility master plan approval this evening so really where we're at right now is step two which is we're at a public board meeting and we are asking for approval to explore the feasibility of moving forward with the tax measure so I'm not committing to it right now we're just exploring the opportunity to see if that's a viable option for the district it seems like we're already doing that right if we're if we're hiring somebody to go out and do a survey and there's been a lot of discussions at board meetings about the potential so we're just looking for approval to say yes move forth have the conversations to be able to to Really push this along that seems kind of reasonable I mean I have yet to hear any one march in here saying they don't think we need another school bond so and so that would really just help give direction to move forward with conducting the survey correct thank you I mean obviously this isn't like a a vote to support the actual Bond language so so yeah I mean there's this there's no real discussion to be had here in my opinion any other board members with comments is there any um public comment on this item okay do I have a motion associated with um approval of um 4.2 I'll make a motion um I'd like to move to direct stop to explore the feasibility of going out for a facilities Bond on the 2024 ballot is there a second second okay I have a motion from for chair dalby to go out and explore the feasibility of what she said and a second a second by um John Smith thank you in any further discussion board member tennis actually is just for the record yes the handsome Mr board member tennis hello thank you okay let's start with another roll call vote because Ms dalby is on Zoom his dalby your vote zombie I Miss conken Tonkin I Robinson eye Tennessee that's five yeses thank you Lord okay next oh and yes thank you ladies for bringing us information we need to understand before we make decisions in these areas okay next is uh discussion action calendar proposed board Workshop calendar [Music] we've got a couple of things to clear up so in your agenda there is the sheet that lists artboard workshops and annual presentations we did have errors on the last one so we wanted to make sure that this is what people have signed up for so just to double check on that I think we got it all right on the front page um I think the only question I have is about the Community Schools um it doesn't seem like that's complete on this document that's attached to the agenda so on the front page um we have the workshops so I wanted to make sure that we did get everybody accurately assigned there and then on the second page is our annual biennial standing work groups and again want to double check to make sure that we have those accurate and then we also have a new standing Group which is our community school planning Grant we did have Miss Robinson volunteer to be a part of that but that needs to go to the whole board and see if there are other people that are interested we need two people to serve on that I'd like to support Mr Orlando for Community Schools since I think that you were the champion of this idea from from before it was really a viable route to go just my two cents I appreciate that I was going to ask for the same thank you okay board um we'll add Mr Landau to the Community School planning Grant any other additions changes questions I just have a comment of thanks for um going back and and checking out all the footage and the discussion because I know that it got really complicated back in June when we were all tired and uh in August there was a lot of questions that came up about this and this looks a lot more like what we had discussed as a board and then asked for it to be brought back in August so thank you for uh staff's time for digging into this a little bit more succinctly and I feel good about the assignments um listed in this document and I think we learned an issue about using a changeable Google doc for this exercise so we may do something different in the future okay I'm bored do I have any motions yeah I've got a question I I was on every draft up until now um I don't know what happened but I've been on for months I thought I'd been on the um physical education dress code and locker room privacy why was I mistaken in thinking that I was on that or when did that change so when we brought it forward the last time you were on it but when we went back and looked through the minutes to find out what was it that we left that board meeting with um it was that had been a mistake huh but again this is the board's decision so if there needs to be changes and you guys want to discuss that talk that out now on a similar note I had a memory that you would talk about maybe being on the wellness I don't think it would um yeah and I had I had also Express express interest about the wellness Committee just for all of the topics that it covers as well um Rebecca I'm sorry I couldn't hear what you said just now I don't know if you didn't have your microphone unmuted or if it's just uh sure um so Rebecca Funk and I have and this is not by any means something I'm super eager to to achieve with you but I would offer you my position on nutrition services and local food sourcing in exchange for physical education dress code and locker room privacy but if you don't want to do that that's that's fine too oh yeah yeah yeah no that's a great that's great to do the same and swap with with Caitlin but we could maybe just move the Kenneth and all became from nutrition services on to the locker room and we'll go down and work on the nutrition of food instead one and then Ms dalby and I could have productive conversations about the locker room policy that sounds good to me sorry I I think I caught two-thirds of that I don't know if if I just am not linked into Miss conken's uh microphone or if it wasn't on but uh sorry I think I caught what that was um I don't necessarily have objections like me to reiterate I can reiterate what was discussed um Tom Orlando Mr Lando suggested uh just now that maybe we move the tennis let's see oh the tennis dalby team off of nutrition services and local food sourcing onto locker rooms we put the Lando konkin team onto the other and Rebecca konkin wisely I think pointed out that it would be helpful to have a male and a female on the locker room discussion I appreciate that input and I love the idea of sticking with you Matt uh so I'm I'm good with that change I am okay with that I I actually love the idea of being on nutrition services too so exam okay did you get that well it's not official yet so well unless we have another so so sorry to summarize what changes we are wanting to make um and then and then you know that can be incorporated into emotion would be to swap um myself and Mr tennis up to uh PE dress code and locker room privacy and Mr Lando and Ms conken to the wellness committee and then um also to add Mr Lando to Community Schools are those only changes that I've I've heard or captured you meant nutrition though right uh okay there's a standing Wellness committee okay as well got it which right now got it sorry yeah sorry I think I misspoke so we may want to just because I mean this is our third time going through this I think um maybe we just go item by item and start with October 4th and just make sure we're all in agreement and that we have the right people assigned there okay uh October 4th I have um now we would have Mr tennis and Miss dalby yes okay November 1st which is student achievement data Casp information board self-evaluation we start that process that would be Miss Robinson and Mr Orlando yes okay moving on to nutrition services and local food sourcing Mr Lando and miss konkin yes CTE Pathways and arts programs Miss Robinson and Mr tennis May 1st alternative education housing and supporting at-risk students Mr Lando and miss konkin yes and then the local control accountability plan is conking and miss dalby where did the Community Schools it's on the next page when we go to our standing work groups okay okay I just want to make sure we're good on the front page yes okay um the facilities committee it includes our charter school facilities as well miss dalby and Miss Robinson yes the wellness committee which will have different people in this scenario as Mr Lando and Mr tennis the athletic sustainability and co-curricular activities is miss dalby and miss konkin Community School planning Grant which is a new work group Miss Robinson and Mr Lando Orlando's not listed there correct we just added him okay yeah does it excuse me does it make sense to leave Landau tennis on the wellness committee when when we're using um Miss conken and um Mr no it's Miss doll yes conken and on the nutrition services local food sourcing so the wellness committee is active really active every uh two to three years and we just had that so the reality is on this particular session going through there probably will not be Wellness Community meetings okay oh yes public comment do we have any no we do not do we have um a motion now are we set to the point where we I move that as as altered and amended seconded motion by Mr tennis in a second by Mr Landau any further discussion again roll call vote Miss dalby it's all b i granted please Robinson I tennis eye when do I okay the Nexus 6 board member request to agenda's item I don't think we had a document turned in with the request then I'm going to ask for public comment on closed session items we will be going into closed session are there any comments on our closed session agenda and I will inform the board that at this point unless the board would like to go into closed session we do not have any items that need immediate attention that cannot wait until our September 20th meeting report do you have any problem with doing away with clothes tonight looks like we're in agreement okay then the meeting will be adjourned
we have to we have to prove it if it's zero we have to approve it as fifteen but it can't be zero if that there's a front door there and it has to swing and it it can't swing on the sidewalk so in that case what it means is that that code might require that door to be set back four feet or whatever that Dimension is and then in some cases that means that you've accommodated that but you still have a dimension of somewhere between 0 5 6 up to 40 feet and your position that you're advocating for is that's good enough we have if that building addresses the door satisfactorily because we have a code in position that says you can't swing out into the sidewalk I don't care about the rest of that building and the narrow sidewalk at that circumstance so I think that's I I just want to I think that's a little bit different than what the answer staff was giving you but I think that is still contrary to what councils ask you to do is to say that yes that solves the door swing but it doesn't solve a building that narrows That Sidewalk between four two five six or whatever feet and so I think the answer is yes we have other codes that's going to address that not create unsafe situations that still doesn't solve the fact that we cannot put a tree in a bus stop and an adequate pedestrian sidewalk in that place but it also I guess it doesn't solve that we still can't require that we still could have the setback with a fence and a private Terrace up to the five foot and force everyone into that pinched Zone absolutely but there's more potential in the future there's possibility if we want to give up on the possibility of fixing that then I don't think that this should be done if we don't care about that possibility and let's be honest that possibility is expensive and long and so if we don't care about that I don't you wouldn't support that but if we do care about the flexibility for having that and the liability this kind of approach is going to create the ability to make Capital Investments or improvements there okay yeah apple Investments within that 20-foot versus the capital Investments of moving that curve or making improvements of a second curve within a five-lane road to slow it down encourage multimodal is a better long-term vision and investment than separating those building faces um I mean we they're 20 60 West Stadium was supposed to have a public hearing tomorrow um as a PUD so no it's not but like it's conditions with the public hearing are getting feedback right the intensity of some of these projects are going to have the public hearing and uh citizen participation meetings that they're going to hear you know get that feedback report too and understand like I feel like there's so many kind of pieces along this project relative to how are we going to accumulate these things to turn into something right like Cottage in is at zero feet set back right we're going to get new non-conformities out of this and we have to either encourage or deal with that in the long term if that thing never gets redeveloped it will always be the nail house that obstructs any future Vision instead of saying that that curve and everything with between those curves is where we can improve and we need to put pressure on the city to say this is a problem you've created this is a safety issue you've created and this is something that we should solve and this is where we should put our Capital effort instead of putting in a private development and hoping to negotiating a different way and I think that is something that comes to the table we you know we know from a state level we wish and we talk about electrification all the time and we braided developers about it you know we tell them our frustrations we don't have control over that it's going to be similar within this setback what we wish we could see what we spend time postponing asking for redesigns we know the opportunity cost we know that the cost can roll over into the rental cost making affordability even harder for units and I'm ready to allow more units to be built in more corridors instead of holding space that may never be improved okay we have commissioner Clark then commissioner Weatherby and then commissioner white but before I just want to clarify something that you said um Alexis which is that when we approved this the first time around we did it thinking that we had this kind of generous space my memory is actually that we debated this at length specifically Stadium Corridor at length and decided to approve it as it as it's currently adopted sorry there's a clarification of my clarification by commissioner Mills well I would just say I remember that conversation and I believe it was commissioner Gib Randall who we oh she raised this forward and I but she wasn't the only one um I believe we move this forward with the idea that we knew we needed to come back that this that that was not solved but that we wanted to um make some progress on this and because this required more study that we should do the study I believe that I I think that maybe I voted at right so that may be how you voted or how others voted but I would say as a body we said we approved it we didn't approve it with conditions or was so I'm just I just want to say that we deliberated at length it wasn't that we had didn't have enough information or didn't have the right information so uh okay commissioner Clark you're on Deck okay thanks I'll keep it brief because I've already talked um I was going to just say that I would hope that if I mean an absolute minimum if we do it if somehow this does go through or whatever um there's some consideration for doing things like permitting obstructions such this is under nacto guidance again um allowing things like Dormers and other permitted obstructions into shading like shading devices balconies into the building setbacks and the setback limits which adds you know interest and more engaging sidewalks and I do think that something that is getting a little bit lost here is in focusing on the large amounts of space and reserving space that may or may not be able to be developed in a very long timeline and as commissioner mentioned very well said about um where we're going to be putting our efforts in capital investment in the future um I do want to just um yeah point out that there are other ways to make the sidewalk engaging and then the some of the less walkable areas are where you know trees and things block the sidewalk from View and I guess under the idea of safety but safety for who it doesn't always feel safe to walk through a dark shaded area that's secluded from the road um often I personally will pick the right you know area that's closest to the street most in view just because that's what feels safe is me and what jumps to mind is where on Washington where the Y is and then across the street there's that like abandoned building city-owned um lot can't remember what it's called but uh Tom had but I always walk on the side with the building right next to the road just because it feels more visible whereas on the Y side you're walking past and there's all these kind of dark um little like egresses that kind of go in and then out and there's pillars and walking through it at night it just feels very more exposed and very like it just isn't as comfortable so I do think the assumptions on you know separating from the road being safer is kind of a an opinion um you think about the places where we have that along Washington always there's there's that walking path that goes off alongside the road you'll still see people that are walking right up by the road at night like alongside the road or on the grass I don't know I can't speculate on reasoning but I just know that secluded paths aren't really especially you know for women and other people that are I have to think a little bit more about safety and anyway um and then yeah I just wanted to encourage uh if you know there's space in the code to say you know the give developers freedom to use any um Extended right away that we might just decide on on things like signage that goes into the sidewalk other things that just make it more um engaging and less just kind of open Suburban feeling um like how it feels on Eisenhower and all that area how there's huge setbacks that are just not feeling Mr Weatherby okay so I was not here for previous deliberations so you get me and my 100 uh trying to figure this out from my perspective which is as a pedestrian I don't ride a bike I don't drive a car I can drive a car I can't ride a bike so I am a pedestrian and I pedest a lot and so when I look at you know my first when I was reading this 20 to 40 feet I was like holy cow 20 to 40 feet that is so much and then I walked out of my house which is on South Main Street and I walked the 10 feet across my lawn five feet across the sidewalk the five feet to the across the what I call extension but has ten thousand names and you can watch my TV from the curb which is 20 feet so 20 to 40 feet you're not off in the wildly Woods you're you are 20 feet is not that far now 40 feet still seems like a lot to me I gotta be honest like 40 feet seems like maybe too much but 20 feet and and when I say you can watch my TV like thousands of people do that on a regular basis so I can I you can come by Saturday and you can see thousands of people watching my TV from the curb so I don't think 20 feet to me seems pretty reasonable again the 40 feet maybe um but if you walk from my house down South Main Street and you get to a pretty big place Michigan Stadium Michigan Stadium is right on the on the sidewalk it is right on the sidewalk and it is dreadfully uncomfortable has a very wide sidewalk there's no trees there's no pedestrian amenity there's no it is just you know building and then the sidewalk and it's really uncomfortable and if you walk um you know the the block before that it's it's like I mean people don't like to walk it is very uncomfortable people walk into the parking structure or the parking lot on Keach because it is you're you're literally kind of trying to duck to get away from the feel of the cars and the trucks there so you know I I definitely have I don't know that I have the I don't have the development opinions and background that some people have but I do have The Pedestrian opinion and I do have the aspirations for wanting it to like we want more building we want more housing but we also want pedestrian amenities we want people to be able to walk we want it to be comfortable I don't want to be splashed with icy snow on a regular basis as I'm walking because that limits how much I want to walk places that means I want to get in my car and I want to take my car places because the walking experience is not what we want and so I am concerned that if we go all building that we're going to say we're gonna remove the ability for people to to walk on us cleared of snow so that the plow doesn't come the plow literally will go and I've measured it 15 feet into my yard snow so you know so if we if we're really close on there that means we are restricting sidewalks for some part of our of our season um I think that uh the allowing intrusions into the setback so that there it can you can have buildings have variations I think is a really good idea because I think that makes for better pedestrian experience um I think that uh you know a lot of people when you're going on sort of Transit if you watch people walk down Main Street or down which I realize is not tc1 but down Stadium you're carrying strollers you've got uh grocery carts you've got a lot of things that uh you know a five foot sidewalk isn't really comfortable with and often you have people with wheelchairs and you have multiple people with wheelchairs and you have people with wheelchairs with a stroller or wheelchairs with a dog and so you know I think we we need to like the sidewalks aren't just temporary things for people they are an actual form of Transit and I think we need to be aspirational about keeping the sidewalks as part of our transit system not just a thing to get from one place to another and so I like this because it is still aspirational I get that that may be you know too aspirational but that we we are saving our sidewalks as places where you can walk that you don't get splashed you don't get sun you don't get you know that it is a legitimate Transit option so that's my thought out thank you commissioner white oh sorry Mr Leonard first wanted to say something I just wanted to follow up on one thing there's been a lot there's obviously a lot of thought about the important relationship between the right-of-way and private property here right and where we should be making those Investments I'd like to remind the Planning Commission that you have a role in both of those you approve the Capital Improvements plan so that also gives you the ability to say hey City we don't think you should be doing all of these infrastructure improvements elsewhere in the city we think you should be investing your resources here so I want I want to make sure that you don't have the budgetary authority to do that but you do have the regulatory authority to tell the city council that in your opinion we should not be Paving repaving improving transit in these areas we should be putting those resources into these corridors so I I want to make sure that you there's a lot of conversation about that and I want to make sure that you have some agency in the decisions that you promote to the city council that say this is where we think you should spend your resources instead of spending them in these other places commissioner watch I know the the thing that I am struck by in this conversation and I can't move from and first let me just say thank you mix Kelly for your presentation and uh something that is new to our packet potential counter arguments and responses so I thought that was really really helpful um and I'm going to come back to some of these potential counter arguments because I think that's where I am stuck 40 feet is too far so I I can just say that very clearly when I saw that I had the similar reaction to commissioner Weatherby is just like oh boy now we're redesigning for a Suburban Landscapes which I thought we were trying to get away from I understand I believe I understand the layout that we are considering so when we look at in your staff reports the sidewalk widths uh illustration which is really helpful I this makes a lot of sense to me and I think if city council was initiating a redesign of the streets that tc1 has come to this would all make sense because now we would say we have these this built infrastructure how do we achieve The Pedestrian Zone that we need of 10 feet the frontage for the door swings as well as a potential pedestrian amenities though and with the built environment that probably means that we would change the roadway but that's not where we are and I feel like and I've said this before and I appreciate your counter argument to this is what we are being asked to do is to ask private development to bank land for some eventual aspirational goal to rehab these streets and I just don't I that's just that doesn't feel right to me in a lot of ways it just doesn't feel like that's what we should be spending our time on um and I think I said this when this came to us in December and so I'm I am saying the same thing I was at the table when we had the conversation about Stadium Maple and the the significant part of the conversation was about trees and sight lines and that comes back to cars and and I just want to just say it again we do a lot to accommodate cars and if our A2 zero goals are real and our our and we want to realize them we are going to have to make some really hard decisions about how much we prioritize our land use for cars and that's what I am seeing like I loved what commissioner Weatherby just said I walk too not as much as you but I walk to and I bike and sometimes it's not safe for me to bike in the bike way so I bike on the sidewalk and I was like I wish this was a 10 foot right I wish this was a 10-foot sidewalk so that you and I can be here because I don't feel safe in the street and so we this is all about cars this is all about us moving cars this we we had um what's his name from Transportation Raymond he came and spoke at the at the work session I listened today wasn't recorded this was pre when we started recording the zooms and he was like people the the speed limit is 35 people are at um 45 miles per hour down that road and we now see the result of that a car in the subway down that road we've seen um drivers drive into Banks uh on that road if not on Stadium then off of the intersection we've seen cars flipped and it's all because we are in our community prioritizing cars we're not prioritizing pedestrians and this feels like we are stuck and so I I can't support this um as it is presented I I didn't want this back at the table uh when um it came in December um and I didn't vote on it so that it would come back to the table I voted on it so that we could get to Washington and Plymouth and we were stuck here at stadium and I'm really disappointed that we've had to spend your time in this table's time talking about this thing which is really a prioritization of cars this is all about cars it's really not about pedestrians if it were we'd be talking about shrinking the roadway so those are my thoughts um can I see a commissioner dish I just want to ask a question first is that okay um maybe just a procedural question which is um what does it mean that city council directs the Planning Commission to evaluate and recommend amendments that address constraints of existing narrow rights of way and hypothetically Planning Commission says we have no recommended Amendment as a that's just how that's just how that falls out yeah if if you voted to prove this it would be forwarded if you voted against it we would probably forward it to the city council with your recommendation of denial as a response to council asking for something and then could City Council vote to adopt it absolutely they don't need us to approve it nope got it okay thank you for that clarification commissioner dish so I mean I I do regret that we haven't made more progress on Plymouth but I don't think that this exercise which is not just an exercise but an extremely thoughtful consideration of pedestrian supportive design that comes from someone who has considerable expertise there I don't I don't look at this as as a poor use of time I think we would have gotten further with excuse me with the tc1 zones that are corridors that we need to Zone if we weren't short staffed on the planning staff and we are short staffed in almost every area of the city and it's very frustrating to me because things aren't getting done as fast as people want but we can't work people around the clock unless they're at U of MIT people they can be worked Around the Clock I don't agree that when it's true I don't agree that when we talk about trees we're talking about accommodating cars we are actually talking about storm water management and we are currently fighting about our use of trees as storm water management in court and I'm allowed to talk about it because we've had a decision you know the Master's report that was published this is something that is unique that we do that Detroit is doing it is it is worth it to me that we would have trees not just to shade pedestrians although I prefer walking in the shade also um but that we have trees to help us meet a20 goals that are about storm water which is what this city is going to be full of increasingly so I I don't accept that um I think that the other issue that is addressed with this great way of measuring from the back of curb is the inconsistency in where property lines sit and part of the problem with having a a decent looking tc1 Corridor is that you can't have it if property lines are Sawtooth and some buildings are here and some buildings are there and so this also attempts to address the consistency problem um I would like to see this reworded so that recess was allowed I think that makes a tremendous amount of sense and it's based on a model of a project that I think we all think we have a lot to learn from so if we could do that I'd be happy um I don't I'm I I would I believe that I've heard some concern about the max of 40 and I'm wondering if we could hear what the cost would be to you know change it so that instead of saying A Min of 20 and a Max of 40 what would we lose if we set a Max of 20 or a Max of 25 what what would we lose if we if we asked for something like that and I I have no actual I don't think this is gonna pass and it is totally fine because I think that it is really important that planning Commissioners vote as they see fit you bring a certain amount of expertise to the table and I respect it and I will make sure that it is presented to city council and city council will probably take it very soon not probably city council will take it seriously and then we will deliberate because we fought pretty hard over this too the the night that we decided to send this back so I don't I don't I'm not trying to so I don't know if I should be asking for changes that I think will make people happier with it because it doesn't really matter uh I mean if if you guys are unhappy it's okay I don't want to try to appease you and then you know force your hand but I I would like recess personally I would be I would prefer if it came to the council table with recess and um I I could hear pluses and minuses to going with a lower maximum or simply a maximum and not a minimum wait no we have to have a minimum I'm sorry stupid yes we have to have a minimum okay so uh less distance between the minimum and the maximum is is what I would mean to say so um and that we can take offline if nobody wants to talk about that tonight because I don't think that that's going to win votes that are against and I feel we should have a full expression of of the of the mixed feelings that are on the commission I think that's just fine I just I want to offer maybe uh a reframing of the conversation that I'm hearing I don't think anybody here is anti-tree or anti-shade everybody here loves bike Lanes wide sidewalks trees I think the the question on the table is whether the space that we are making for that in the city or in these Transit corridors very specifically should come from the streets or should come from private lot private privately owned property that we then need to acquire they're both aspirational they're both very expensive they're both tremendous you know a lot of unknowns in there so in some ways it's a it's a for I'll just say this for me then it becomes a question of like in in the abstract or in principle where should that 20 feet come from and should it come from the space between the two curbs on Stadium Boulevard or should it come from what is now currently the lot so I I think we're all in support of the amenities that this space would provide we could debate the wits but um and then I also just wanted to say I don't think this proposal solves the Sawtooth problem that you were pointing out because it has a 20 to 4 currently as written a 20 to 40 foot range so you're still going to get a yeah you're still going to get it inconsistent we're not going to get a consistent tree wall so narrowing it to 20 to 25 would would change that but commissioner Clark I saw your hand up yeah um just a quick question um so is there anything I mean just to be clear we could have a zero build to line I don't think there is a necessarily like we could have just a maximum um and that is actually something that's in Michigan's zoning Redevelopment ready um handbook um is you know build two ranges and set you know offering the minimum set back line would they even say a little support Place making issues um through inviting building facade lines and I do think that's something worth considering is that this isn't going to happen overnight so and there are going to be non-conformities either way whether it's you know if we do allow people to build up to the to the lot line and then maybe I don't know if it's getting deep in the weeds if there's a way to require you know a sidewalk expansion there's no reason we couldn't uh have design guidance that's separate from the zoning guidance that kind of provides developers with guidance about what we'd like to see on these that's a whole other conversation so I'll move away from that um but yeah I just wanted to point that out and then the other question I had just for clarification is there anything with the setback between the curb and the building the the developers would be able like what could potentially go there in the meantime until we get funding to do all these amenities like yeah I just want to clarify it again just to kind of some really quickly Jimmy what can they legally build in the front setback parking there and things like that in tc1 you can't put parking there but in tc1 you could put decks patios okay plantings signs uh uh what else was on that list Alexis would know so retaining walls and not build it but any sort of um amenity um Hardscape Furniture type features yes it's I think it's still hard to okay hard to undo though anybody else yeah commissioner dish I do want to respond to your reframing because I agree with you reframing um I did not take that anyone is against trees but I did hear the statement that when we are talking about trees we are talking about accommodating cars and I don't think that that was um representative or but that is beside the point um you are right I believe that we really should take this space out of the road but here's what it says the rebuttal and I don't take this as an academic rebuttal while curbs can indeed move property lines can also shift the proposed setback language provides flexibility planning staff are informed that capital projects to significantly shift curd blinds on major corridors are unlikely I don't think that's academic I don't think it's a in principle I mean I think being the realist that I am I have very little hope that that position is going to change in this city anytime soon and so I think that we have more leverage over as I think commissioner white puts it well asking for this or requiring this land banking and I'm sorry to say that but we are fighting a battle over Main Street that I at North Main that I don't think were you know going to win easily I mean it's just I I don't think we're going to get movement on that position or it's going to take 20 years and I don't have that time because I think buildings will get built up to the zero setback and then you can't do anything about it you will just never be able to have the zone that we want that people are comfortable in so and you all can you know but it's not about should it's about what's likely that's my judgment commissioner Weatherby yeah I think in in my view um and again having seen what happened with adding bike Lanes on Maine we will continue whether we get rid of cars or not will you continue to need that big flat space that lanes are currently so I actually see this as um we're getting it to the curb what happens beyond the curve to the other curve we have we can do things with that having it a big flat paved space does not mean it has to be for cars it could be for strollers and bikers and one wheels and whatever electric vehicle comes up whatever personal Transit comes up we are not necessarily seeding this to Automotive Vehicles we are seating it to things that go on big flat concrete spaces and right now we're right at the Tipping Point of that being a lot of different things um so I I actually don't think that we're necessarily saying I think what we are all grappling with is we don't want five Lane roads for cars I don't think anyone on here is like yeah we need more of those through the city but we whether we have no cars or not we still need Transit we still need and and personal drones you know we're a little ways away we're probably not as far away as but we still need to land them so um you know I I think I think we can say that we're we're we're promoting can we just drop you off it would be helpful um I mean we're going to get our prescriptions that way so you know but uh so so I actually am we can do with paint we can make these not car Lanes and and we are doing that and we are doing that pretty quickly like we did that on South Main in an hour for four blocks which sounds silly but oh boy people were upset so um because they went to work and it was one configuration and they came home and it was a different configuration I mean that's how we can do that's how we can transform and and yes that's not safe it's not ballardized it's not chicanes it's not but we can do that and we can close streets and we can and still have those spaces so so I actually am I'm less about like oh we're giving this up to cars we need big flat concrete spaces and we will continue to need those whether we have vehicles or not any other comments are you I couldn't tell if your hand was everything like I have no coherent thoughts at all um but I think this has been a really good discussion and I'm I I mean I there is this tension between like the road and the and the private property and I don't know how we're gonna solve that I think I would feel more comfortable with this if it was not 40.
you know everybody else is freaking out because in a couple weeks the whole federal government could shut down but at least the arpa funds my understanding is they'll still be available as of right now 2026 is when they have to be used okay but yeah I think um I think getting back you know Yolanda you know talking about like the committee and stuff like that I mean this would be a town Department that would be operating it oh okay I see what you're saying right the park and rec okay you could probably have like an advisory committee um I think more for the the creation of the you know what we do at the barn what we do for the house in regards to you know historical aspects you know or not I mean I don't know yeah something to think about because you know it's something you want some working group to continue you want some public input well that's why I'm suggesting we go ahead and get four have a public forum and then um I'm also going to review this with the historical commission and the Conservation Commission as part of the CR so I think like I said I think we just want to use prior history and experience to help inform how we move forward and Yolanda to your point we do have to have this spent by 2026.
coming back into the game [Music] a big kick here find it down the middle and again it's going to be on metal first to the ball and we'll watch not only were they first on their first and second good job great play there by Jillian Stevens to come over and save the defense kind of a ball that was rummaging around the 18-yard line good play there by Lizzie Roman locket was really getting some wonderful opportunities in this game they just haven't been able to put one in six minutes and 30 seconds remaining corner kick right here coming for on Meadow looks like they have a set play they do ball comes out good save there you're going to come out and be aggressive on that corner gotta like that [Music] thank you this is trouble good lay there by number 17 Mac to put it stop on a great play by Max he's pulling it down that's what we're talking about that's what we're talking about being first to the ball [Music] all right [Music] I found it [Applause] cramp cramp looks like a cramp getting it stretched out it's a very hot humid night gotta be very well hydrated Hannah Moreno has played very aggressively all night long she's been running up and down the field hasn't really gotten up gotten a break and it's been just an absolute stall work on defense um really putting a lot of pressure on her from this side of the field all night you can tell that that's really cramped four minutes and 45 seconds remaining in the game she's played uh 35 minutes and 15 seconds of consecutive soccer sorry 75 minutes and 15 seconds [Applause] [Music] good shielding right there I use Roman giving the goalie a good opportunity to save it Boot It Up good play there looks like it might have been off the shoulder but really gave me some oh safe that's gonna go um [Music] is the wrist here [Music] Pharmacy play there by Lizzy Roman chase down clearly it's like these long medals been trying to attack that right hand side here for the last about 15 minutes or so of this of this half I always get somebody wide open there in the middle kicked out getting Chase and moved around I can't see why we have people that are kind of like standing around here but we do is going to be it's like Reno stretching it out over there don't think coach is going to put her back in the game even though it wasn't cramping who knows you never know looks like uh it's like coach white did yeah a little bit risky fumbling around everywhere ball goes back out of bounds again thank you [Music] thank you and then it's remaining I'm not sure why the clock is stopped but there's a rule there maybe as the ball goes I guess that's how it works [Music] sticking away oh yeah it's in the middle of the field I like this [Music] [Applause] thank you [Music] one minute and 15 seconds remaining it's going to be a free kit opportunity here not sure if this is going to go direct or whether it's indirect but you didn't know this it's going to be a shot and it is [Applause] 66 seconds [Music] remaining into the second half together [Music] foreign [Music] Grace Stefano oh it looks like this one's going to end it up great matchup between Crosstown Rivals looks like it's going to end [Applause] thank you gotta go in I don't think so if you go back to the instant replay it really depends if the ball has to cross the line before the buzzer then I'm demonstrating can continue after that is then I would say that was Noble what an absolutely amazing game and an amazing finish we're gonna catch that this is going to be the most watched Hellcat Replay in a very long time coach this is going to go back to the audio and through the video but I think the video evidence will show that the ball did not cross the line I think the player's head may have hit the ball before the buzzer but I do not believe that the ball crossed the line what an exciting entrance of the game we've been all watching this one again
if the minimum or the maximum came down um but I think commissioner Weatherby summed up the things that were in my head of just like it's you know it's a five-lane road it's what 50 feet I don't know how wide 60. but you start eating into that and then you think about maybe this bus Harper Transit bike Lanes blah blah but we can do other things with those lanes and nothing is a perfect solution and I want to move on to the next corridor um so I think yeah I'm gonna vote Yes but I'd like the 40 feet reduced if other people were in agreement commissioner Mills I will make the motion to um before I make the motion to what it is I'm curious about what uh mix Kelly uh thoughts on y40 or white or better why not 25. as a Max foreign looking at some pure examples that's not too far actually away from what I think Gainesville was I actually have it right in front of me their range for example on what they call principal streets requires a 17 foot minimum and a 27 foot maximum yeah some people do things like that um I I still think we would need the language or to the front property line whichever is closer because they're the our thought was to try to catch a range of properties and look at what's currently allowed because really under the current regulation there there are quite a number of properties that can go up to 35 36 or so feet if a curb does move and somebody uses that advice If It Moves by like a foot or six inches or something we just wanted the space for one of the considerations was to allow wiggle room for that kind of thing and also just creativity on beha and look look on behalf of developers and looking at what some of the distances are along uh like Stadium manager Leonard and I looked at some of the distances of of buildings and we're like well that's you know 38 feet or 40 feet but it just doesn't feel that far and if you move if you like kind of swap where you're walking if you're not at the very edge of the road you're actually 10 feet closer than your your pedestrian experience is still going to be like 20 feet away from uh from a 40-foot setback building so and you know I think I like the example like measure whether we gave that was kind of funny just being able to see somebody's TV from that far away it's a lot closer than than it feels there's places in our main street that it that are merging on you know they would round up to 30.
we'll be here before we know it I would just kind of look at how we got to this point and where we are now and just kind of use that to help inform us right future you know that we we've had it for five years and yeah we've only got three years yeah yeah but we also had you know two and a half three years of covet in there so I mean I tell people that all the time right things got a lot of a lot of things had to get put on hold not everything but yeah and and this was never the intention we were never we were never intending when we bought the property we were never intending to spend the money to to do the renovations ourselves right we were hoping to get someone who would do fundraising right so that was the intent so plan where I think we're probably at like plan e at this point yeah I mean I I will say thank God for arpa funds yeah um um I mean I I don't know what we would do quite frankly well without that um did you have a lot what else do you want to present about this Michael um just in terms of the house you know I think that I mean there's nothing we can do in the barn if we don't have the bathrooms that are only in the house right to to be able to use you're going to have to have some public facilities like that um so I think a kitchen that if you're going to have a wedding venue you know a lot of commercial kitchen yeah I do have a question Claudia I'm sorry I didn't really mean to interrupt you but um before Michael uh ends his uh conversation we're talking about putting uh office space in there uh Town Office Space um with the renovations uh the ADA compliance act comes into play and are there any federal Monies for that assistance to make that compliant uh under those regulations you know potentially um you know in terms of the requirements for the public to be accessible to offices that's something that we would again need to explore we'd also need to um you know there's also the potential for waivers to it being a historical house there's the potential but to Joe's Point even for the staff it wouldn't it need to be ADA Compliant if you have staff that needs to access the second floor or I don't know I don't know okay we could definitely okay some waivers okay yeah I just throw that out there because I don't want to put the wrench in the works here you know have them through this that's all yeah yeah I would that's important um it's an important point and you know like I said we're talking about a lot of things that we don't necessarily have the answers to right now we'll need to have an architect or an engineer and again that's kind of what I'm hoping is that it's some you know General support behind the idea and then we can move forward with hiring an architect who can help us flesh this out a little bit more give us more realistic ideas of what's possible what's not possible what you can do what you'd be given up if you do that Etc and then also provide a high level estimate um you know based on something real yeah it sounds like a needed Next Step but you know it don't want to necessarily do that unless unless you we've got support for you know for this is that a question you want a response to right now yeah I mean well it sounds like you're generally supported I think so it sounds like you're generally supportive of a forum public yes definitely I'd like to do that if possible in early November I don't have exact dates picked out but Joe are you good so far okay yeah I think I mean yeah I think this is good forward progress and you know there's always going to be questions and issues and funding and you know all sorts of stuff to work out but I think you're moving in a good direction and thanks to you and Carl and Robin and everybody else who was involved in this and well a lot of people um have had their hands in this in some way or another again the Valentine property committee did yeah a ton of research not only on the history of the property but also you know what other types of facilities like this are doing um yeah it's got It's got the potential to be a real yeah it's really kind of not just for us but for the reasons yeah oh yeah I mean you think people go up to like Vermont New Hampshire and go to places like this and do funky little things you know I mean we can do it around here you know have any of you ever been to an event at Houston the Holliston Barn never been to an event but one time they were getting they were setting up and I Dro I stopped in I specifically was like I want to go see exactly oh that's interesting and uh it's a great little space yeah but it's it's got a vibe to it oh yeah it just kind of makes I mean it's a cement floor um but it looks like a barn and they I mean they've had it for a while and in the late 70s they put the kitchen and the bathrooms on the back of the barn so they don't even notice it but it's a it's a great space and I think I mean that was something when we decided to purchase this that I was always like we can do that or something similar with our barn where is it is it a downtown right on 126.
so that I looked so what I'm hearing is sorry he's getting late no no no 40 is not definitive like 30 seems more comfortable than 25 like 25 maybe there's a lot of things that are actually already at in some corridors already at I would say if you brought it down I I would feel more comfortable with something like 30 to 35 just uh aligning with what our considerations were in presenting it to you than 25. okay I'm I think I would make a motion for 30. as well as an accommodation for recesses actually I see of them as like protrude it's the it's the opposite the inverse of a recess exactly overhangs um I'm sorry before that motion is a finalized voted on could we have planner to Leo weigh in on the um recess I just want to make sure that the area where that would be accommodated was properly noticed for tonight uh just to make sure that the table that that would live in would be in the right place Alexis am I making sense to you if this isn't I was focused on my notes so say that one more time uh just the desire is to amend the motion to not only come down from a 40 foot maximum but to also somehow incorporate this desire for can you could you actually articulate commissioner Mills okay sorry you want me to articulate so this is the idea of allowing for upper stories to hang over into what on the ground floor would not be allowable right I'm I'm catching this now um I definitely have some thoughts and this could be crafted out I don't think that we want to write it on you know a 10 45 but I do understand if I understand if I can summarize that it should be maybe that should be expressed as the first floor setback shall be X and upper stories shall be why um like all you know it can be expressed a couple different ways but that is that is what the desire is right yes exactly and that was very smart for 10.48.
right across from their police station okay so par I'm just curious so are the parks and rec department would be responsible for the management of the barn as far as like booking it and all that stuff um and then would our Communications team be responsible for marketing it because I think part of it is gonna have to be I mean like that's gonna be a big thing um well you get the right person in place they can do the bookings the marketing you know okay they can do that now that may be a full-time job like you know just dedicated to that I think that's something that we have to well certainly certainly if they're going to be also managing the fields right I mean we've we've said that our the marketing for our Fields has sort of fallen off I mean we used to be doing some great marketing and we used to be getting some great events now we're no longer the only town that has multiple turf fields but certainly if we could have someone not only marketing a barn but Stone Park and other areas and the fields that would be a great thing yeah how big is the house in terms of how many upstairs I mean could you have a caretaker and still have room for some offices yeah you could you could yeah that could offset the salary of have you ever been in the house I I have but so we did uh not to plug the show but um two years ago I think so oh yeah we have been talking about this one we did an around the clock that like walked through the downstairs and the upstairs so double you know check that out there's some really cool in built-in woodworking drawers and cabinets and in the back part of the house yeah it was yeah do you want to try do you say you wanted to set a date tonight or you just want to throw up if early November sounds good for you I can go back and I think so I mean you don't want to go in the late November so yeah we got town meeting in late November where is it when is oh there it is 29th right the town meeting is the 29th yeah so yeah I agree and then you're getting Thanksgiving and then December so yeah early November is probably the time yeah yeah and this has been really helpful for me because some of your questions I'm sure or what some other people are going to ask too so I can start putting together some materials and he said I'll probably have a overhead map image for the Forum that you know shows where the Wetland is and yeah cool what we what we're thinking did you get your questions answered Claudia because you attached those three so it's the three Parcels together on the Google Map that makes the whole thing yeah I sat with Mike for a little bit to uh just you know go over some of the questions that I had about the property so good good I did and there are some seems to be substantial field space there available for both parking and walking in natural areas so good yeah that's the other thing we did not talk about is parking yeah right parking is going to be a key so I did a really rough rudimentary analysis that something occurred to me could we do parking right on 135 during events can you like create a space where people could pull over and on the side of the road I doubt it and with the addition of a sidewalk well maybe that's yeah well I mean we own the land so in that case you wouldn't be doing all of it you're talking about the spacecraft the frontage well we do on the Valentine property but you know beyond that we that's what I mean but I just I'm in trouble I mean even if you have a pullover space for five or six cars could be helpful I would think but well I don't know but what would be good when we get the sidewalk completed and we have the crosswalk it's really a stone's throw from the Valentine property the community center and the Valentine oh that's good so people could park at the community center if it makes sense or the schools the schools the Middle School is right there if the sidewalk gets extended that's not that far of a walk yeah I think Robin and Cindy would be open to um entertain the idea of using part of their property for parking I mean it gets used that for the State Park summer yeah interesting yeah I know that Court well some there's something to keep in mind as we designed the sidewalk about how we might want it to maybe create some parking space so maybe yeah I really do think that would be difficult yeah I mean like right on 135 well like if the sidewalk comes in a bit and then you've created some parking space though except that you have the historic stone wall oh well there's that we don't know which side of the road yeah no I don't know the sidewalks that's true yeah right that's true so something to think about anyway okay okay that's great so you're all generally supportive of this yes yeah let's keep on the way it is very much though all right all right well no that's great thank you Michael yeah why did they put the boards over the um the zip board yeah oh no no he said over the plywood he said I really like the plywood hey you know he likes The Rustic look if there's anything we've liked from this is that there there's a diversity of opinions all across the map yeah all right well thank you Michael that's that's great I'm glad to see we're moving forward on that and putting all these ideas together um all right the next I have is the baa Grant discussion and um this I believe uh Brandy uh put something together along with Susan and um Yolanda you're also who's oh no um Claudia is on also on the subcommittee so I presume you guys have agreed on those things and I think did everybody have a chance to kind of read through it it's in the packet um so I don't know I can give a really brief synopsis so um I think we started this discussion back in March um where you know we we obviously you know our town gets 22 bibs for uh from the baa for um for being a Marathon Community we ask the runners that run on behalf of Ashland to raise three thousand dollars that goes into our Runners account the runner's account then um gets used for our baa grant program that the select board then allocates amongst multiple organizations um through the year the um the organizations that are able to use the runner's account are 501c3 organizations um historically we've opened up the grant rounds to any organization in Ashland with a maximum of twenty five hundred dollars um the kind of the thought process around revising sort of our our uh our grant program was really to better utilize the the funds that the um the runner's account accumulates every year um I think I'm looking at like what I had from um from the last cycle and we had like forty six thousand dollars and that's before any of the runners even start fundraising for this year um so to better utilize those that balance um an established kind of guidance for groups that are not 501c3 because we've been utilizing the select boards gift account which is um coming down quite rapidly I would say um we use that money for a variety of things in town that money is is funded from the Warren Conference Center um room room fees in lieu of taxes and I think that if I remember correctly and Susan May uh you know definitely um correct me if I'm wrong but I think that that account generally it grows we estimate 15 to 20 000 a year so it's a much smaller bucket of money that we use for a large amount of things in Ashland including we just set aside last meeting 5 000 for the nianza memorial we use it for the volunteer breakfast and the runners breakfast and a lot of things that we do so um the other thing was that um you know we really should I believe ask organizations that have received funds in the past how they've used it um give us some information as well as like receipts of how they've documented the use of those funds um and then you know over the years we've kind of um had some some internal guide posts of how we allocate funds from one organization to another but it's not necessarily kind of a consistent process um so you know create standards that's just generally more Equitable across the board um so what I proposed was really to separate it out into two programs one is a baa grant program which is the runner's account and that you know before they used to we used to cap it at 2500 and I'm I'm suggesting we we raise that to four thousand dollars to better utilize the funds one of the comments that was provided the last time we talked about this was well what happens if there's a lot of organizations that have a lot of requests um and so you know how do we make sure that that amount isn't um dwindling down before the next Grant cycle and so I included that um if the total of all the requests for a grant cycle exceeds 50 of the balance in the runner's account there'll be a pro rat a percentage reduction of all Grant accounts to ensure that only 50 of the account balance is used um and this will also establish a maximum Grant award through two consecutive Grant cycles of six thousand dollars total for the and this is just for a 501c3 um and if all right if sort of all the things have been checked off if they provided a summary of what what they've used the funds in the past if they provided receipts and they have justification as to why they're requesting the money the recommendation would be to to um to grant them the funds that they're requesting up to that four thousand dollars um so that is the baa grant program separating out sort of a select board Community Grant which still allows us to um to give money to those organizations that don't have 501c3 status um but to a lesser amount so that we can fiscally be responsible for how we control the select board gift account for for all the other things that we use it for so um basically it's a lot of the same um the same types of things that we are allowing only a thousand dollars for the grant although they can apply in the second um the the next Grant cycle for uh for another 500 if they would need that um and then um it is the same thing that they they need to provide some rationale for how they've used previous funds in the past and it would come before the the full both of these would come before the um select board for for a full review and vote but the subcommittee would would review all the the applications and um kind of go from there so I know that's a lot but the major changes were really the the 50 Pro rata um you know to maintain the runners account to make sure we we maintain that that amount um did you have anything to add to that or do you no I think [Laughter] comments first of all this is I think very good very well thought out I like that we're increasing the amounts I like the fact that if we have too many applications everyone gets reduced not okay well we'll give this one every everything and that person not as much I think it's as you said it's a little more Equitable and it's not based on okay what we think is more important yeah so I think that's a really or needed you know I think that's a great idea I like that you've split out those cut those that are 501 3cs and those that are not I think those that's a good thing my question for you is is it a rolling 12 months right so if I'm an organization and I apply I applied in the spring and then I apply in the fall right so that's my twice but if I'm an organization I didn't apply in the spring but now I apply in the fall when the spring cycle comes up we'll go back and look at what they did in the fall correct okay so we'll have to be aware of the previous the previous Cycles um awardees so that week okay yeah and then for those that it's their second sort of bite of the Apple if their first one had to be prorated because of the number of um applicants applicants if they come back the next time and they don't and there isn't that right there aren't as many applicants would they then be able to get the full four thousand or would it depend on what they got in the first round so it didn't max out above the six thousand so if so if they did so the idea is okay so for if the first the first round you know they can apply up to four thousand dollars right um say we give them three thousand dollars they can then at the next cycle apply for three thousand okay yeah three thousand so that it's still the six yeah okay okay good yeah that's what I figured I just wanted to sort of and that's that's like my thought because I think yeah because it sets the max round is it like a distinct a stingier yeah I know you just said so is it like spring and fall is it around and then they start over or is it you know what I'm saying I think it's just two consecutive grants so right any time so it could be whatever yeah right so for some people it could be within a calendar year right so for some people it could be spring and then fall and for other people it could be fall and then so for your typical like well say soccer I think they pretty much apply twice a year so they would pretty much go down to three thousand each time then is that how that would work they would apply for say four thousand the first the first time um and they could apply for two thousand the next Grand cycle and and I would and and you know to that point like you know soccer I would like to see a summary of how they've used that so it offsets six thousand so then they give you the summary and everything then what can they apply for they can apply for the 4000 again or does do they have to right okay so it starts over that's what I'm right just like rolling 12 months depending on when your first application oh okay so okay so it's within 12 months and after that you start over Okay and for everyone we would make this effective as of this grant cycle I think it's great Joe yeah you're muted you're muted still muted there we go sorry about that no I uh I like the way you folks uh divided it up and made it Equitable for everybody um my my question is and I didn't hear it and maybe I zoned out when you were talking about it but um I apologize when you're talking about new sports we're talking about town youth sports right and not uh School related Sports so I think like like clock or Club is is like a 501c3 they've applied um I I understand that but I thought in years past there there was a there was a common common area where this didn't support budgetary line items so I have a concern about that it's not that I don't want to give it out but in years past that was part of the uh yeah so I think we've supported it we supported school um but they weren't organizations yeah before it was like the football team per se but it was like the boosters of the parent right yeah the 501c organizations that support the school I would say is what right and I understand that Claudia I just the example that was made earlier was uh the socatima lacrosse team well I meant that you saw it sorry you I meant Youth Soccer okay all right that's fine yeah that's all that's all I have to ask I'm good with it and I know that um we've received I think requests in the past to help with like hockey rank time like um yeah that's true fees and things like that it was yeah and so I I think something like that or something and that would fall more under this community Grant right because they are not a 501c right oh I see we could we could you know theoretically like decide to support if if they needed yeah um I think this is this is good I just had two um what's when you say valid request so what's the do we have a definition of what a valid request is so when you guys are going and screening this application what's the is there a criteria like um is that here or do we have it somewhere or what makes a what makes it something that's going to be approved versus seen as not approved other than we know you're you're going to require that they give us the history if they have it but is there other things in their their non-profit or if they're for-profit they're in a different group but what's what's the definition of valid I guess is about or is there so I I would say that if if they are an Ashland organization that requests funds for a specific purpose whether it's a 501c3 or another group in town because we've had we definitely have other groups that request um funds and they've provided sort of the rationale behind it and how they've previously spent money I think that's a valid request so you'll do some judgment no we don't want to do judgments I think that's the difference here well I mean but well yeah so so I I would say if they if they provide if they provide the information to us about what they're looking to do we're not going to pass judgment to say you know what that's really not a good that's not a really good project you know we're not gonna We're Not Gonna help support that because because because honestly part of this is is trying to remove some of our discretion amongst picking and choosing right right okay and I think but okay okay so so but okay that that's my that was one of the reasons that I thought this was typically do we have more grants uh more applicants than we have monies so last year and I think part of this also was Susan Susan can also talk to this too we had partly because of covid because of the way the FI and we had gone a couple of um what we would typically have as Grant rounds and we didn't do grants we had quite a bit of funds um that we weren't we weren't kind of we didn't have enough to we didn't we didn't spend it all we didn't even spend nearly what in my um my my other thought are coming in going to the what you would call the community groups uh which you're limited to um a thousand dollars right and and up to a total of 1500 through the so the only the only suggestion I would have is like leave yourself a little flexibility like if you get a someone who wants more than a thousand and they have very good reasons you know it may be that you apply some sort of um no exception I think this is allow this is taking that you know oh I think this is good versus that well right it's not that it's good it's just that they have a strong reason I mean I guess that's yeah but if we think that we need to have that higher amount then make that a higher amount overall I think a thousand dollars I mean I guess okay so I guess that does we don't have as much in the in the select board yeah right so part of it is part of it is we don't want to give out more than half of what we have so if we're making those higher if we were to make that higher we would be able to do less of them or fewer right if we have 10 people looking for a thousand dollars that's ten thousand dollars if we have ten people looking for two thousand dollars yeah I just yeah all right so in brandier analysis show that it really should be as low as a thousand dollars and I just don't I don't remember what the typical Grant has been is that a big decrease in what we've done in the past so trying to remember um I didn't I didn't go back and look to see this last time around what the requests were but generally speaking the um you know we see we see these requests for um like the Ashland Public Library we see it for I'm thinking of like like the fire the fire station needed some things for the opening of their open house yeah so small relatively small the Community Gardens like a typical person who's not a non-profit that does these classes yeah right which I think are a great thing so I don't know and I I don't recall offhand how much she requests for that but they're generally relatively small amounts all right okay so um Joe anything else all right are we ready to consider this yeah I would move that we approve the the changes as recommended and written and presented our Bia grant program so the motion has been made and seconded all those in favor say aye aye opposed none thank you to Brandi for writing this up and working with you Susan yeah and Susan great job basically Done Right very thorough you guys designed a system you're going to implement so and I like the new application as well I was going to say so we didn't talk about the application at all go ahead um but Susan had put together a new application and um the only thing I would ask and I'm looking at this and I didn't I didn't get a chance to review it before the meeting so I apologize but um are we because I know here on the first page it says are you a qualifying 501c3 and it says no Then no do not proceed I think we still want the application I think we do want them to apply or did we gonna are we gonna do a separate application Susan what was your thought what my thought was is to do two separate ones okay because you're you're changing up the criteria on the maximum allowed gotcha okay I thought we could be more specific that way gotcha okay maybe maybe just we could put a link to the other yeah or some instructions so they don't go away sad geez yeah oh no yeah no I'd like to I'd like to post them both I just didn't have an opportunity yeah okay yeah yeah of course all right very good okay I just wanted to make sure like that that um that we had a we had another kind of venue for the kids so my recommendation if we're gonna have two of them Susan is that when you go to apply it's very you know there's two of them there and one of them is for non-profit organizations and then the criteria for that and the other one is for regular and what the criteria is and the potential that you can apply for makes it much clean yeah if it's nice and clear and well and well spelled out okay well thank you and then I have opened the fall be a grant round submission due date of October 6th so do we need to vote on that yeah okay uh any further discussion about that does that all make sense due date October 6 will work guess my only question to Susan is is will everything be up you know how quickly will you get these two new forms up and does October 6th it gives them about a month does that work I just threw that in as a date it's completely up to you guys um you run into Columbus Day with the October 6th yes it would be the 18th so you could make it do anytime after the sixth if you wanted to but if you want to vote on it I would say try to vote on it by the 18th otherwise you're getting too late okay October 8th so does that work for you guys if it's a deadline of October 6th then you would have like a week and a half to review and yeah we could do have them ready to present at the October 18th meeting and maybe um maybe Michael could send the actual even you know links or attachments out this week and this is uh email I thought you was like sending something out generally I'm not no no no as part of the as part of your account manager's email let people know you know a link to the changes and yeah oh good sweet all right so you know what could I just say one thing could thank you so do we need to make a motion yes I move that we open up the fall baa grant program with a submission due date of Tuesday October 10th at 5 pm does that work Susan I'll second that motion's been made and seconded to open to be a fall Grant around on October 10th all those in favor say aye aye opposed on okay all right that passes okay the next item is to discuss the closure the MBTA station Renovations timeline and impacts okay so we'd I think just suggest to put this on to kind of update and discuss whatever we needed to I don't know if anyone has anything new to talk about with that or updates Michael Brandy me um I do know that the Framingham lot was full today was it packed um I talked to Dennis Gian Betty he was going to send something to the MBTA letting them know like hey this thing is full it would really be nice if you could open up Ashland station yeah part of it if we and um I know Brandi do you have you been to the station ladies do you have anything so I was there yesterday and um I literally I mean driving to Framingham is like I gotta build in more time but that's a whole other that's a whole other thing but um I ended up missing the express train the the 740 Express train literally I got I pulled into the lot and it was leaving so but um I was all the way in the backup parking at the banana lot at 7 40.
yeah um I would confer with uh the employment and the deputy planning manager but I I think that if you want to have some some wine if you want to put in the motion an amendment that accomplishes this I think that we can make that happen as it moves forward that would give us some time between a council conversation to figure out um how to meet the spirit of of the request perfect and you don't need me to repeat that you get the gist thank you sounds like to amend the motion to have a maximum uh setback of 30 feet at ground floor yes for first floor yes and uh greater flexibility for upper stories yes that is the my proposed amendment does anyone want to second that motion consecutive by commissioner wise we're in discussion um I wanted to maybe offer a different Amendment so maybe now is the time to do that in the discussion we're discussing okay so um I think that the 20 feet is very generous so I think it basically takes like a Max Max scenario and I think like yes a tree needs eight to ten feet but you don't have trees continuously there episodic uh similarly you don't have bus shelters everywhere you don't have so these things kind of come and go I think also the width of The Pedestrian sidewalk can can contract and expand a bit so if I take eight feet for um a smaller tree or eight feet for a bus shelter and I take eight feet for pedestrian I'm at 16.
like that was I mean so that's filling up so you know you were saying that the the parking lot was full it was probably full by eight o'clock like it it was um that's interesting so uh So like um I did I did hear from um uh Sandra monticino over at Daniel's table their their renting spots too um so I don't know if maybe and I know the city of Framingham has some Lots I don't know how what their capacity looks like but you know it might not be a bad idea um if you know we want to put together like a like a one-page sheet of just like other options for people like and post it you know it doesn't have to be a lot of information and we don't have to be in the the parking business but um just resources yeah yeah I wonder if we yeah you know create like some listing or something like that that we can put yeah I did not so I can report on Southborough I was there today and um it's still not quite full at least when I did like maybe they have 10 spaces left well now it will be now that I've yeah I'll be there next I'll be there tomorrow but yeah I mean so I don't know so there's some space available there uh but it's not it's not a ton of space um I'll call I did not hear back from Mike Mueller about his discussion with the construction company but I think part of their part of it was that I think they wanted us they're waiting to see how things work out but it sounds like I don't know it sounds like Framingham is is full um but I'm not sure are we hearing a lot of complaints and you know I'm not sure we'd hear it anyway but yeah I wish we knew how many spots short we are you know because it would certainly make it easier to try to tackle the problem or make suggestions yeah um but it sounds you were there one time yes yesterday at 7 40 in the morning so that's kind of on the later side of Boston commuters right that is right after literally right after the the last Express train that really the well actually there's I think there's um well I mean but there's a lot of there's I mean there's an eight o'clock train that that I ended up on that was pretty packed on Framingham so what does those people do I don't know at that point so interesting oh my God like I gotta go in tomorrow I'm already dreading there's already six yeah anyway the Columbus Club is that pretty full now we put that out no no they're still advertising okay so we're still advertisements there's about maybe 20 to 25 spaces available maybe there's something going on any spaces in Ashland are absolutely out of the question no they're not but I think they want to be pushed to do it you know Oh you mean aside from the station I don't think we have anything available like burning no I'm at the station yeah no because I know when they they've combed so you can't when you come down on Memorial Drive you can't go to the right but you can go to the left which is that's the smaller parking that's funny you know that's still open so you could kind of sneak in there yeah but then what do you do no the shuttless well does the shuttle go down into the into the lot and turn around last time I saw him which is a while ago a week ago and the show was right in front only on the Memorial Drive side right because they have the parking lot on the Pleasant Street side that you would think if I mean everybody thought that that's where it was going to be yeah well I'll call them again and see maybe they have more information and maybe you know with this information that Framingham is looking full maybe we can get them to do something yeah I think they're you know putting together with some resources is a good idea yeah that's good you know because you know Burnham's is available um you think I mean would it be available if we were to say to them look they want them Danny would they'd open it up you think or so look it's been open the only thing is that they didn't necessarily want us to include that in their message leading up to the construction period but people could potentially buy monthly passes there is open with how many does he have like 50 spaces a good amount of space so if he's willing to sell monthly permits you get a permit you're good if you don't would you walk up on the street go down no the shuttle should then come to the other side you have to come to the other side they'd have to change the way they're doing it yeah I'm just saying if they don't um yeah that's a long walk it's not I think oh you're in High Street Go Up High Street and then come down the little road assuming they keep it open though like this whole thing was supposed to be shut down so I don't know but yeah I guess presumably you can walk around the gate Rob yeah yeah yeah oh yeah you can walk around half the time anyway well they finally closed it when they started this Construction I don't know if someone is trying to figure that out see some of the headlines and you go yeah all right well I'll I'll give Mike bowler another call and see what they're thinking if anything I don't know but it sounds like we're getting full capacity okay they're all coming to Southborough now Rob yeah come to Southborough it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to keep some kind of pressure on them too so that they move in a timely fashion well is anyone actually I am not visually seen what they're doing has anyone seen I've seen today there was definitely some work in there I'm not sure what it was but there was was looks like they're still moving in supplies to me Joe yeah they were moving in supplies but they were also taking out a lot of the stairs pedestrian crossover they were taking all those out that's good yeah I was there today I get yelled at you got yelled at who yelled at you oh somebody in a green vest and I said okay I don't need that I don't need this all right all right so I think we're done with this one uh anything else all right so I think Michael you wanted to discuss the all-premise liquor license sir yeah it just you know if you're talking to a few of you um I'm just going to preface this by saying I don't think this is something that you want to do but there is there is the opportunity for the board to issue all premises licenses um which basically doesn't restrict alcohol to a certain area but is allowed across the whole premises um you know you think about something like the Fish and Game Club where they have a large tract of land you know if you issue an all-premises license there people could presumably go up you know into the woods you wouldn't know if something was happening or not happening it seems like a very very loose way of doing things which seems to be antithetical to what the board has traditionally done that being said Susan has done a little research I don't think she came up with much about communities that do utilize this and Susan can share that with you Susan would you mind no thanks Michael ultimately what I found only one community that I could find that currently has this and that's situate they have two golf courses in that Community one is privately owned one's publicly owned and in both cases they have a liquor license that covers the entire area all the other towns that I spoke to all do things very similar to the way we do it where they have a liquor license that covers a specific facility if you do an all-alcohol license um it becomes a bit of a management nightmare whoever the the license is under their name they're responsible for where that alcohol goes and we have an establishment that's looking to do that I have not seen what their plan is if they have a management plan in place but I didn't want to pursue it without bringing it to your attention to find out if it was something you were even interested in entertaining so I find it interesting Michael that you say no to this I only the and the reason I think I think about the Warren the Warren conference center right and we want to be you know we want to be able to work with them and they have their Lodge which current The Lodge in the hotel currently have the liquor license so they can do stuff in those two locations they've already come to us to see if they can do something in the White House in the front and they have their tent and I think about it okay if I'm having a wedding and I'm in the white house for part of it and then I go to the tent for another part of it if I could you know walk with my glass of wine or walk with my champagne I think again not for everybody and maybe not the fishing game because of the woods and stuff like that but I think for an organization like the Warren Conference Center this could be beneficial to them it could allow them potentially to increase their rentals and increase the ability to have more events going on at the same time if they could have this sort of all-premise remember that could be potential competitors of ours in the near future I'm not too concerned okay okay so that I mean based on you know what we had talked about at the agenda setting meeting I think it's something that with the with the Warren Conference Center in particular I think it would be a benefit to them which in turn would be a benefit to the town are they the ones that are asking yeah what are the other applications potentially so what happens what happens if something if people take booze down to the water and an accident happens and then you know like I'm just thinking liabilities that's actually state land you know the beaches stay true probably so that would probably be prohibited um it's not their property right they do run events that is yeah well does that give them the yeah that's it so they have some sort of lease or arrangement with DCR I just don't know if it if it would include drinking alcohol having alcohol on the beach I don't know you know I don't know one of the potential things that you could look at is when they roll out a management plan maybe you restrict if they give you a map and you could say well you can only do this area you can't do your whole 50 acres or whatever they have you can't have it on the ropes course or something oh come on so like with outdoor spaces the board has has generally been uh strict is not the right word but just we have delimited like the quarter spot yeah I mean you've you've definitely but we've also with The Corner Spot we've let it grow a little bit right it used to be a very little section and then we realized that that didn't make sense so now it's basically the whole Corner Spot so we looked at it we made one decision and then we're like wait a second if people want to get food and sit at the tables they need to be able to bring their beer there so we've looked at that I think I don't know I I think it's something we should consider um but that's just me and so how would it work in general though like so we would have what x number of these types of licenses or could any license be converted to this yes Susan did you ever get any guidance on how many of the or is it just you could do in all any of your all alcohol licenses is all premises correct ultimately when you when you approve a liquor license part of the application is the area in which you're licensing so in most spaces it'll say the building is located in a strip mall it consists of so many square feet this many exits in a situation like this it's the same exact type of license only the outline of the property your licensing would be a much larger footprint it may consist of five different buildings and so many acres and all of that I mean I think about it when we when we started looking at outdoor dining right when when we had to help our restaurants because of covid right the ability to then have their business and have their liquor licenses outside I mean I think about TJ's how now they have that beautiful parking lot I think about Ashland Ale House and they have their patio and to me this would be something that would potentially help the Warren Conference Center so and part of this we Define where they could serve right it sounds it sounds like we could do that we could look at their their map and say okay you know cut it off at the beach cut it off at different areas and but you know like I said they they have that that tent out there that they can't serve alcohol at right now but if they could that could potentially like it could expand the number of events they're having where they could be serving alcohol the thoughts are um I'm not sure how this fits in we would have oh go ahead Joe I I do have a question with respect to that in Yolanda brought up a pretty good point with respect to that um having having those liquor licenses uh in and around those general areas uh what's the what's the liability um we offer that to the you know we offer that to the to the client that wants to expand and lick their the area of operation to serve to serve alcohol uh is the town do we are we even receipt of a uh an insurance binder that holds the town homeless and and I'll leave I'll use the con spot for for an example um the property is owned by the affordable housing trust and is the affordable housing trust named as another uh group that's not held liable in this insurance policy is that something we have to look at each individual uh request for that so that the town doesn't become responsible or liable because right now anybody's looking for to show anybody it's Deep Pockets and nobody is without that so I just want to make sure that everyone is covered by it isn't the liability on the business that's serving the alcohol insurance right they you know I would think that as these breweries or whoever come into the Corner Spot they have liability insurance for their business and for what they're doing it wouldn't be any different than at the Warren Conference Center now they have liability for what they're doing even if it's on our property well you know what that would be one of the requirements of the one day liquor license right right with the one day liquor license they have to have insurance I just want to make sure that we're not we're not opening up Pandora's Box here in respect to that that's all so if you so the way the liquor license works is that if you have a liquor license for say the white building on the Warren Conference Center property you can't take a drink outside of the building I don't know that I believe that's that's the case right which is like I said when we so if you had if you allowed for them to have a liquor license for any place on the property where they set up a tent well right now and it would have right now it would have to be separate so right now they have a liquor license that covers the lodge and the hotel right right those those are considered one thing right and they're looking to have a liquor license for the white house because there's no connection they'd have to have a separate liquor license similar to what we just did with the Ashland fish and game right they have their their main building and now they have the Pavilion right those because they're separate they each have to have a liquor license by doing this premise liquor license everything on the property as we Define it could have one liquor license right well I was just thinking if you gave them a liquor license as well for any place on the property where they had a set up a tent right so that would give them the flexibility of putting the tent wherever right but yet it had to be I don't know if you could do something like that Claudia that is a possibility they opted to not do that they said they haven't had requests for liquor in that tent so we don't currently license the tent so so why do they need an all-premacy because they wanted to add a member's Lounge in that white house and they thought rather than having to come back at some other point to add on if they found that they wanted to say they wanted to add a patio to that building every time they make a modification to something they have to come back and get that included so they thought this would cover them if they could cover the entire property got it you're muted Joe thank you so my question is if if we would allow this for one one premises would would then would that open it up for us to have to deny or like so you know because I can see I can see your point about the Warren Conference Center but I also worry about like other spaces and whether or not that would open up this huge can of worms about you know whether it's it's um you know I don't know I I well that's a question so so would that be something that people would then check off that they want it on an all-premise so it's part of their license so that's one of my question so it's not a separate it's not like in a separate list it's any license could be an all-premise license Susan is that it if they asked for it correct when they put they put inscription of their property they would include exactly what they want included all right and so they would then we would then decide whether to grant them and all premise or a different kind of license I guess right and you certainly would also need to require them some sort of management plan how are they going to control the liquor so is this um so what do we what are we thinking of doing with this just allowing them to apply for an off-premise and thinking about it is that yeah I mean I you know I think you know if if you're if you're dead set against doing it all out all premises license which it doesn't sound like you are dead set against it then we would communicate that to the Warren Conference Center in any future party that might request it but if you want to say hey let's look at this on a case-by-case basis um have him submit an application you'll have an opportunity to hear it and make some adjustments and changes as as you see fit I think on a case-by-case basis makes sense right depending on the business depending on what they're doing depending on there's you know I think as we know not not everything is the same right we've looked at some business and we've changed their hours we haven't allowed them to go as late as we could or we've curtailed it different things so I think I think if we are open to it and at least then work with them potentially if they really want it it could be a positive for them and maybe maybe to that point we you know build in what we did with fish and game we review it on a regular basis instead of just letting them kind of go and right instead of saying good luck to you instead of in December we just automatically renew everybody you know we lead our list with some of these ones that we are concerned about in November before we renew in December we do a review has there been complaints have there been issues have you know how many times have the police been caught whatever um you know has there been accidents related to the alcohol and if there hasn't been okay then we renew it again for a year I mean I would be open to doing it on a case-by-case basis others thoughts Claudia Joe what do you guys think I'll let Claudia go first yeah no I would I would be open to it I mean and I think it would have to be on a case-by-case basis I mean it makes it more challenging for us at times but too bad um if we think it would work in one place and not in the other then I think we have to be prepared to explain our rationale okay I know and I'll add just one more step to that I don't see why we shouldn't uh ask legal counsel uh for for an opinion with respect to that we have we have that available to us sure so that we're on tetaphor when we make those decisions so it doesn't come back to bite Us in the uh derriere when um when it hits the fan yeah are you talking about the whole concept or on a case-by-case basis or case-by-case basis right now okay you know the other thing we're going to have to think about is the Valentine Barn is a town property to be able to rent that for weddings we're gonna have to be able to offer alcohol on town properties does that work we issue a license to ourselves is that was that the deal we generally we generally don't allow any alcohol right in town buildings I think it's it's a bylaw right is it a bylaw the recreation we allow alcohol at the corner spot right but it's not a pound in your Center yeah not since I've been not since I've been here can you get a one-day license at the seniors you can't serve alcohol but right now the quarter spot is the it's the vendor that gets the license right not the town right so I don't know it's something to think about when we get that far yep okay but but you're saying we when we get that far we have to think about it no we need to start thinking about it as because if we're proposing spending all kind of money on turning that into a venue where we can rent it out I guess I'm just assuming we got to be able to serve alcohol right I guess I'm assuming we'll be able to no yeah no the reason I said is because I think we're going to be able to solve that one well then again isn't it doesn't it just become a one day license for somebody at the at the Valentine estate the same as it does at Corner Spot and there it's their liability and everything we'll have some time to yeah no but I think it everybody's going California sober now so I don't even know sober I'd forgotten that one all right if we if you get enough out of this one you guys know what I think we're kind of willing to approach this yeah right yep okay everybody good with that yep um looking for people interested in running the Boston Marathon okay start working out you guys all right here we go not happening I know some people have already expressed interest yeah so what's this about or just just to try to drum up uh interest in our bibs Susan you were really just thinking about this from a notification standpoint right that's correct I just don't want anyone to say I wish I knew about it oh yeah all right so we'll start if you're okay with it we'll start advertising yeah that's great so we're looking for 12 people or more and what date when do you usually pull the name Susan Susan I have submission uh is October 15th and then we'll pull it within a couple of days after that okay so if people are interested they need to email you um that they're interested by October 15th yes and there is a there is a link on the website where they can fill out the form and it'll automatically submit to me perfect and Susan are these is this an Ashland residence only except for the Nord people remind me how that nope everybody's name gets drawn they either get awarded a baa Invitational bib or they get waitlisted okay great well look that's a good thing I put out you like to run yeah and you want a fundraise yeah um okay so the next is the consent agenda which is a long list there is I just want to note that the firefighters Grant Michael is going to talk about that under Town manager report so is there anybody does anybody want to hold any of these or discuss any of these separately nope agenda as presented the motion to approve the consent agenda has been made in seconded all those in favor say aye aye aye Joe you good okay yeah we're good consent agenda's approved okay that gets us to town manager report yeah so you know obviously I have these items listed I I have a couple of others if you'll indulge me as well but you know first um we'll get with all the good news how's that um so update on the downtown project um so everybody knows they've paved Hallelujah everything I will have to say the paving job this time was much better than the last time we actually made them repave a section of Front Street because we weren't too happy with the results um but I really have to give a big shout out on the paving to um Mike Carter who is our new construction administrator and Kevin langmeyer from our DPW Kevin kind of went out there on his own time all overnight and he really really did a good job kind of overseeing some of that work currently they're working on the crosswalks so they've done yeah they um I had an idea that would really make it pop and um it's stamped asphalt the way they do it's incredible so they have done um they've done water they did Concord in front today yeah oh really yeah it might have been the first one they did because I didn't see any others yeah they've done the ones on water in Maine and then they just did the one the crossing here at Town Hall as well so they'll be finishing up the crosswalks and then moving on to doing the medians you know where it has that just asphalt right now that'll be done as a cobblestone so this looks good then they have to do landscaping um I've got to put up a guard rail do some Landscaping punch list items and then giosio's contract will be done yeah it looks great oh that's very nice awesome awesome yeah so uh and then you know the next phase is the building connections to the utilities underground and then removing the poles right so um great to see that happen do you see it I'm sorry go ahead Joe yeah you're probably going to ask the same question Rob do you have a timetable as to when that's going to happen um I'm Joey I'm gonna try to learn from previous mistakes and I'm going to say October 31st for for the streetscape work to be done okay and and do you see a lot of like um traffic uh the reduction or you know traffic uh delays from the work they have left to do I don't because I gotta speed through on my way to Southborough yeah I mean yeah you know we have to do the painting so hopefully we'll be able to do that at night because it's been flowing pretty well lately that's my yeah they've done a great job but it's just it's coming it doesn't wait for you you know it's coming out it's funny um on Friday when they did the crosswalks at Water Street I went I walked down there to see and you it's great I mean you get the aspects of the downtown project they're done you see the sluice way that's we got the bids for that and opened and that's I get I think we're in under did I sign the contract yeah it's not the contract um what are they doing with that again so what they're going to do is they're going to rebuild the observation platform okay and then um where the sluice way was they're going to make a walkway okay um cool interesting and it won't and it won't you'll still see like the stone of this loose way the it's exterior okay perfect ran it once so you see that and then you see you know what we did recently with the Mill Pond Park renovation and everything you just like oh it's all coming together it's great you know it gets you excited um speaking of excited uh Mendez School opened up um a huge milestone um yesterday really without incident just have to give a big shout out to Paul Kendall and the building committee as well as a school committee in the select board and all of our staff and the project management team that our project team that worked on this another piece of new two pieces of news there will be the open house this coming Saturday and then also rob you were on this email Brandy I think you were on this email but we got an email recently from the msba saying that in recent legislation that was passed a hundred million dollars was put in the msba budget to pay for cost increases and escalations in previously approved projects and it looks like we're going to be eligible for that so Paul forwarded that to the building committee so that at our next meeting we're going to review that you know the number that has been thrown about has been in the three million dollar range for increased reimbursement wow big thanks to Senate President spilka Jack for Jack Lewis representative Lewis for what they did but yeah just another huge milestone for the town we've had a few of them this year with the public safety building and downtown and now Mendez so ancillary to Mendez is uh we have well we have to pay for it so so we do have our last borrowing associated with this coming up next week and so we're looking at about a 20 million dollar issue um that might be a little bit too much what we're doing is we're doing it as a short-term borrowing then once we know for sure what kind of reimbursement we're getting and what the final costs are we can you know permanently borrow that for whatever we need any concern that doing short term and then waiting our interest rates are going to be that much higher or it's it's something we've we've actually we were talking about today and wrestling with you know do we do a three-year term do we do a five-year term I think we'll stick with the three year which would give us you know we can go out to bond any time okay between that period okay um so but you know we got our ratings call on Friday and those are always a little nerve-wracking so you know s p will analyze our you know everything like our economics and our management profile and our budgetary performance and hopefully we'll still end up with AAA rating um yeah this Friday will have the ratings call so um do you think the shutdown will is that they even mention that at all is it on their radar screen which shut down Rob there's a few there's there's others if you're thinking about the UAW strike shutting everything down there so yeah I just I was just wondering if that's starting to make the rounds the potential government shutdown is an annual actually almost a semi-annual I know isn't it that's depressing but true that's uh what we've come to yeah um I still have a couple months to figure something yeah and they will uh right and then at the end of October um yeah okay that was it October 1st let's be optimistic why not sure you know Rob which wrong is always available but so is what's right there you go so um so next is the update on the grand reopening of the community center so that's going to be on September 12th I had to do a lot of work based on the flooding I don't know if you had an opportunity to get over there but it's it looks like a new building even though it's not um one of the things we did find through this process is just the construction methodology back in the day it was not good so we had to do a lot of repair work that um wasn't necessarily related directly related to the flood but it allowed us to see that so um but anyway it's an exciting time um like it looks great in there so hopefully some of you or all of you will be able to go to that yeah maybe I mean I have some meetings up but I'm hoping to stop by probably on the later side awesome um and then so Rob you had mentioned the assistance for firefighters grant for 921 000 almost 922 000.
so I think actually I would propose a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 25. so I want to throw that on the table commissioner survey I like it but I also in principle still don't support this if we're still in discussion and uh council member dishes comments around what council will do still stands we can still we could amend them the motion to fit the best case scenario and still vote that down and then that would go and if Council adopted it they would adopt the reduced motion as opposed to the 20 to 40 which is current well no because they would then have to change it at the at the table and they are known to do that but um that would be very interesting uh so there is some benefit in terms of signaling to council like okay we've talked about this we've debated it here's what we think you know we got a staff report that was 20 to 40.
so that is a shared Grant between Ashland Hopkinton and Southborough fire departments so basically it's for the air packs you know the the breathing apparatus which is very very expensive I think ours is pretty updated 15 years old I think Southborough is around the same time this is great we're all going to be buying the same pack so when we show up at the scenes you know we show up at a scene together we could you know reuse that and everybody knows how to use it so congratulations to Chief Roby who was was there a lead town or where the so we're the lead a community for this nice um but Chief Roby deputy chief um more hand and Captain Bowland I really have to give give them a lot of credit for for getting this this is a big Grant this is yeah and to work regionally I think is so important for something like this because I'm sure if it had just been Ashland we might not have gotten it but by reaching out to the other communities and working with them it yeah sure it made it more appealing to the whoever was giving this is this the Federal grant this is federal it's through FEMA actually Southborough actually a couple years ago tried to get this on their own and they were denied yeah so that's really really good is it appropriated already a little budget humor there it could Anything Could Happen yeah um so just a couple more things so first of all we're getting confirmation as to whether or not it's still going to happen because of the event or because of the rain but the Stone Park music festival is happening at Stone Park at three o'clock so on Saturday and that's really geared towards classical music Grace uh Sun Jun Moon who was an Ashland resident and also teaches at Center music it is organized and directed this she's really put together an All-Star Ensemble to do some performances so hopefully they have a piano competition which they'll be um bringing in piano are they doing the competition no the competition was done before oh okay I was gonna say that's that would be cool we could put it in the Gazebo yeah um so there's that another really good thing is uh I don't know if all of you know Natalia Melnick um I know Claudia knows her she's a sophomore at Ashland high school she is looking at doing this sending Sunshine program and so she is um basically you have teens and it doesn't have to be teens it can be adults too that write cards that go to seniors and you know just encouraging messages um so we've worked together and we'll be holding the first session uh September 14th at five o'clock at The Corner Spot and we also have some dates scheduled with Mina so if you can stop by that'd be great um you know what time five o'clock yeah Natalia Natalia's Natalia is cool she um she actually started her own ice cream business like a few years ago and it actually does really really well so Italia's treats I think that's what it is so awesome awesome work on her behalf and oh then we get to end on this note um so and you know that we've had some vandalism issues recently and uh unfortunately we had vandalism at the nyanza memorial site within the last couple of days it's um it's disturbing it's disappointing especially because we're looking at refreshing that and hoping to have it open in time for Kevin Keynes the 25th anniversary of his passing obviously we won't be able to do that um now because we're going to look at having to replace the sign that we did and all kinds of stuff so um you know I I will say that I'm going to talk to the chief about this tomorrow it's gotten to a point where I think really need to start cracking down and not necessarily look at diversion programs and you know play nicely do we know this who's I mean there's do you have an idea who's doing it and um we don't for this one well we did for the Stone Park vandalism that happened which actually happened throughout Town remember the Little House in the town for us yes got hit some people's homes um really yeah it was pretty bad so that's unfortunate and so one thing just related to that is at at the last meeting you voted um I didn't catch this you voted to do the five thousand dollar Grant uh for the Kevin K memorial fund as a reimbursement Grant um which makes things complicated um I hope you'd be amenable to just doing the grant the way we typically do it which is just get the information put them in as a vendor and and send them a check you know is that amenable to yeah I think so I'm not even yeah I didn't even yeah I didn't even notice yeah I didn't catch it so so um yeah okay do we need to change something do anything or do you need to I don't look I'm really necessary so all right I think we're all good with that right yeah and see that's what I have even anything baby any update on the watch well I think we found um The Nest it's actually a little bit away from the trees But continuing to diagnose these are yellow jackets they've had a yellow jacket Nest all different kinds Rob all different kinds but the nests you found though that's what I'm uh is pretty effective to spray them so you've been using traps just to go back Michael I'm looking at the minutes for the request for the five thousand made a motion to authorize funds to refresh the nyanza memorial from the select board gift account not to exceed five thousand dollars which was seconded by Miss Kinsmen okay there's nothing that says it's a reimbursement a reimbursement okay yeah well that maybe that came that came up because it was up to five thousand not to exceed five thousand right so if you're writing a check the check would be in the amount of five thousand that's what we could do though is just any we could do the 5 000 anything that's not spent return right it makes it a little bit more complicated oh I see because it's not to exceed it's like you have to come up with that you mentioned tonight become the vendor in the bill list yeah right do the exact amount we can deposit it and if they don't use it all it would come back to us right because it's an up too yeah that's fine all right that way we don't that way they they can be moving forward and not have to wait for our next meeting to vote something perfect thank you for looking you're welcome um and that's what I have okay thank you continue up for board reports all right so we'll start with board reports Joe you want to go first yeah I'd be happy to Mr chair uh not a whole heck of a lot to report other than uh traffic study committee meeting uh next week uh go over certain uh sidewalk discussions and uh new new sign locations for uh probably pedestrian crosswalks so that's one of the things we'll be doing uh affordable housing trust with I apologize we uh we plan on getting off uh summer Hiatus and getting back to the grind and trying to uh find the developer to uh start getting some affordable housing units back into town and um this is the last week that we'll be uh doing a fundraising for ration day for the coin sales uh they were very brisk this year and thank you to everybody who uh helped contribute and hope you enjoyed the uh the fruits of our endeavors the corn was very very good this year and uh we hope uh we'll be able to do it again next year and excellent day is coming up September 23rd uh everything's coming along very nicely this is time where whatever I have left on top of my head will be pulled out very quickly um because now with everybody and their brother now wants to get involved because now they know that it's actually happening and it looks like the weather May hold out for us so let's hope so and that's all I have all right thank you thank you Claudia you want to go next yeah I don't have uh too much of them we were away for a while but I was also excited this week about the opening of Mendes and it was really something to see it come to fruition and uh and to see students you know going into the building and coming out and that big huge Loop that that uh gets really most of the cars if not all of them off of Concord Street is pretty exciting um and you know I think you know Mike you thanked everybody and certainly I Paul if if you're still there I I try to thank you as often as I can because he's just been amazing in this project and uh the amount of hours he spent and even yesterday I saw him outside the school looking at how things were moving along and he I know he was in the building to make sure that the geothermal cooling system was working we certainly put it to test this week um and very successfully I understand that's great um and so it it really is uh you know really a testament to the Community as a whole and and not only thank you to all the people who've worked so hard but also to you know every single citizen in this community who's helped to make it such a great place for kids to learn and grow yeah great well thank you um Randy sure thanks um just a couple of things one I don't know if Michael if you had mentioned the the Public tours that are happening at Mendez on Saturday did you okay sorry it's been a long week and it's only Wednesday yeah one of those at like noon or something I think it's in the afternoon the Mendez is open in Public tours all that time yeah that's great so um so you know I would definitely I'm gonna bring my family along so that they can they can see the new building so which which is which is great um Yolanda and I are doing office hours at the farmers market next Saturday morning the 16th the 16th um from um we haven't figured out but like morning nine nine to twelve basically um and so that leaves um one additional date for office hours at the farmers market before they close down which is um October 14th we have the date so I wanted to see if there were any takers that I'm not I'm not around that weekend but if there were anyone that would be willing to to offer their their time to because these NBC have comprehensive plan at the pharmacy so Joe you said Yeah Joe sounded like he was interested I can't do I can't be there for the comprehensive plan but I could be there for the 14th we have a uh an engagement on the 14th okay so probably unavailable as well so Joe Joe and Yolanda does that sound good yeah sounds awesome okay I will let our marketing people know um and I just want to let folks know that there is movie night at The Corner Spot this Friday night so that's right um back to school um sponsored by the ABA and I know seti's kitchen is going to be there with food and um waca TV always does a really great great uh production there so um just want to encourage all the kiddos it's the movie is Super Mario Brothers so I haven't seen it but I'm assuming it's it's extremely kid-friendly so come on down to the corner spot and I know that there's a lot going on this weekend and a lot going on um the next few weeks so um and just uh I'm glad everyone's back at school and hope everyone has a good healthy school year and uh you know hope this heat works soon for for all the kiddos in the schools so that's it for me thank you her bra of Summer it's the only it feels like I know this is it waited till this week okay Yolanda so a couple things uh this coming Saturday is the Kitty fenwell car show from nine to one if you want to just go look at the cars that is free if you want to bring a car I believe it's 10 bucks so that is always fun and as I said that starts at nine o'clock later in September the MetroWest Regional collaborative we're having our first meeting we've been off basically for the summer it's a zoom meeting it'll be eight to nine thirty if you're interested in getting the link for that let me know and I'll get you on the list then we are having our Trail Summit so the Metro West Regional collaborative works with a lot of different groups and on October 26th at Loring Arena it's an in-person Trail Summit with David lutzenheimer from mapc giving an update on the trails that have been created and how we're working regionally and even expanding outside of the region on the trails and the landline so that's always a great event and the event will start at luring Arena and then I believe there's a possibility to do a walk on part of the Framingham trails that have been created what time is that uh I think I think it's starting at 8 30.
we amended that to 15 to 25 and then that still didn't have enough support and so now the conversation is about what we sent to them as opposed to the largest thing so I think there is still some value with regard to that and if we're following Robert's Rules of Order um as the second to the motion if uh commissioner Mills wanted to withdraw her motion I would support that and then we could entertain the other without having to vote I I like 20 to 30. I mean but if we were going to pass this if we were gonna if if we it sounds like though this is not going to pass anyway okay um because I I mean I I yeah I don't know I like to I prefer 20 to 30 but I'm also like like I said when I started this my too many too long things I this is where I think that there is a bit of compromise and I totally get what you're saying commissioner Abrams um in terms of not needing it the whole time so I um It's A Hard call and I welcome others thoughts on now two different things that are all still tied up in talking about the 20 versus 30.
wow and if you're yeah it's like 8 30 to 10 30 is the the speaking and then if you have time you can go on a walk then Rob mentioned this earlier we have our planning board joint meeting on September 14th so that's we're scheduled to start at 7 15 with them a little bit about that yeah and then just to let people know so the YMCA is moving things forward uh I think if you've driven on Memorial Drive there's now a path up into the site and they're still moving the project forward so those branded steps yeah and they're the why will be having their dream auction in no on November 8th which is a wins yeah November 8th so I know that's still far away but I just want to get on people's radar again it's always a great event it's fundraising for the Y and their programs and that's going to be awesome yeah yeah do they have a timeline yet uh we're in the stages of getting the initial funding so you know bigger donors um I think they're hoping you know 2025 groundbreak some kind of thing and then no tickets available but I just want to let people know John Oates is actually coming to Hopkinton Center for the Arts uh from Hall and Oates uh this coming Saturday it's their big fundraiser like I said unfortunately it's sold out but um I'm actually going to get a few minutes to interview him on Saturday so you'll get to see a clip of that on around the clock if not this show the next show so [Laughter] yeah and that's it great thank you uh my only item was the um yeah the just to remind folks about our meeting next Thursday join me with the planning board at 7 15 on Thursday and I discuss with Trisha here's the agenda we have and she made a recent request so I just uh discussion type of topics the first one of course the MBT communities act and then um as as time allows oh and I sh interim zoning related to comprehensive plan other items of Select board planning board coordination and issues so folks should think about what you want to talk to the planning board about we've had some things that have come up uh and then the um uh the fourth thing is the planning board associate member position now I should say that their agenda for that night is really just us so 7 15 they really don't this is their full agenda so they don't have other projects or anything no so if people are amenable to spending a little more time we can so but I did want to this plenty board associate member position typically that takes what half an hour 40 minutes depends on how many people you have I think they're not gonna have more than three so yeah I know we talked about this like it is an hour so what are you know what are people thinking I would like to keep it to an hour if we can just but that's that's that's my preference other people Joe or you know Rob everybody has a comment they're going to want to make so I don't know and I was going to do it for me and I was fine uh anything more than that it's just uh repetitive I I guess it depends on what we're going to hear about the MBTA communities Pro um Community yeah I'm not sure how long you know how long is that going to take I would think for an associate member interview the the maximum a half hour and I would hope that they would forward us the talent Bank forms of the people so we can have a chance to review it before the meeting and in regards to other comprehensive plan interim zoning I don't understand how we can start that discussion well well I think we should start it whether I mean it may be that we decide to continue it or we decide we don't need to continue it but I think we should have that discussion unless I mean assuming it's it can be a short discussion it doesn't have to be like if people don't want to I mean I'm just feeling that we should have that discussion and other people's feelings so I think we should at least broach the subject it may be that oh we may determine no this is not something we're going to pursue or we should discuss it further and we'll do it at a start at a different time okay so I think that's if that's the if that's the parameter of the discussion that we feel like there's some things that we want to be talking about right in conjunction with the comprehensive plan going forward but I think there's certain things that we've all said um you know inclusionary zoning that is part of the comprehensive plan discussion yeah and the zoning related to that um that absolutely yeah I mean I think inclusionary zoning is important but I think well I think it's part of as we're doing the comprehensive plan as we're looking at housing and other zoning things I think it should be part of that and it should go out to the community again I don't know that we need to do inclusionary zoning now while we're getting the comprehensive playing I don't think we have the resources to do that too so I mean that's fine but I'm just saying that's the kind of discussion I think we should have and if other people have brought up other issues such as um the affordable housing percentages in projects and things like that um and how the planning board may be approaching so I thought it'd be good to try to at least open up that discussion and have that in terms of coordination bring up these issues and it may be that we're saying okay we've got certain things we want to talk about or do we want to continue having this discussion and you know should we schedule another meeting that kind of thing so if people are going to be there and say no we don't I mean that's fine with me but I think we should kind of have the two boards kind of hear those you know have those viewpoints and decide hopefully quickly comment on the inclusionary zoning uh waiting any longer than we have already is going to push Town back into uh there is with respect to affordable housing ratio to get to that 10 percent and the longer we delay the more developers are going to come in and set what they want for their standard and the planning board has no has no meat to to say no we have an occlusionary zoning bylaw and this is something that you know you have to follow so so Joe you don't want us to wait on inclusionary zoning you want us to have that discussion to get it passed long enough all right okay okay and so I think part of what you know so we'll try to keep this meeting you know I think it's going to go more than an hour but I mean hopefully not too long um but well Brent do you have some is it a short knife I mean I I just well I want to be considerate but well I want to I just want to be clear of what we're trying to accomplish because what what I fear will happen when you open up those kinds of conversations is that it first of all it's very circular and second of all if we don't have if we don't have like clear things that we are trying to address we're it's gonna we're gonna spend an hour talking about something that has no I I just I yeah all right so let's keep it under control I mean in part let's identify issues and then what will come out of that I think is should we be discussing this further and if so how I mean I think and if the majority of the people there think it's important to continue this discussion or don't want to can just that's fine with me but I think we should just at least attempt that and then we'll um okay and then we'll try to keep the the planning board associate member position I mean Trisha was understanding that she just came to me today with that because they think that I mean so I think it's a joint yes so that's the question so it's a join a point if they're ready for next week of course if they're ready and they can give us the information beforehand so we can review it right by all means but if if we're not getting it till the day of it's hard to do it okay fair enough all right so that was my little thing about that that probably should have been an agenda item but anyways I apologize and that'll get posted yes I think we'll we will post it uh Susan I'll check with you tomorrow I think and does that make sense okay good all right and that's all I have so motion to adjourn until the 14th all is in favor of a journey until the 14th bye hi Joe you're you're good okay great thank you all right some of you on Saturday at the Mendez open house
in 15 versus 25. commissioner Hammerschmidt I mean I go to 18. but well no like so you know I I your point of like the the tree zone conservative I don't like the idea of sidewalks necessarily like that seems too hard to like all of a sudden it's like eight feet and then it's ten feet and like I don't know that just visually might look strange but if you only need eight feet and ten feet or eight feet and eight feet maybe 16 I don't know I don't know but 15 seems too low to me there are numbers in between 15 and 20. I mean I will also say that mix Kelly oh sorry it feels like it's getting to be like a ridiculous conversation provided us this very helpful table and if you get on the table the ranges are 14 to 19 14 to 22 14 to 23 12 to 21 8 and a half to fourteen 5 to 10 17 to 27 I won't keep going so I I don't think um it's out of lack with what other cities are doing places much bigger than ours that ostensibly maybe have more traffic on there pedestrian right away than we do they may have fewer trees we have not looked at photographs it's true I will caveat that most cities do invest in design guidelines for a downtown or a specific Corridor which is what I was able to pull examples for but those are not necessarily infill quarters that are direct comparisons Apples to Apples to what we're looking at here thank you for that any other discussion on the motion on the table I think the motion on the table is 20 and 30.
20 minimum 30 Max I haven't made it I wasn't mine was not an official motion right and I'm I'm still on the fence about friendly amendmenting any other comments how about a friendly amendment to 18 to a maximum of 30. 28. 18 to 28 I'm sold foreign going once is that a friend I don't know if it was actually friendly friendly to Commissioners Mills and white oh yeah it's our Amendment it still May Fail right I have no objection I think we're ready on that Amendment so I think that this would fall under um maybe this uh second poet in the motion there are no objections to a street type designation that's tailored to Transit corridors I'm hearing that we're primarily looking in um uh the second bullets to say uh two men table 5.17.4 from what was presented to 18 to 28.
feet ground floor ground floor with uh and retain the current setbacks for the upper floors uh no TBD what those setbacks would be and to request a staff recommendation for upper floors yes before presentation to council Mr Leonard that's what I said hey for a vote I think we're ready to vote on the amendment this is the amendment that would modify the minimum of 18 feet from back of curb along Transit corridors to a maximum of 28 feet from back of curb unless the right-of-way exceeds that in which it would require a zero foot outline and that applies to the first floor and without any other changes I just want to be clear the 0 to 15 would then continue to apply to Upper stories if this only applies to the first floor until some other modification was made my understanding was that planner DeLeo and mix Kelly said they would work on clarifying that between now and when this goes to council floor but you did not give them direction that there's what is your intention for Oh I thought sorry I misunderstood did I misunderstand I think procedurally it's um just more desirable for us to craft something that's voted on by the Planning Commission instead of something we come up with between now and then yeah yeah I'm applying this to the first floor my question is no I know what happens up above yeah yeah okay Commissioners okay I'll be helpful what happened but what is the acceptable encroachment distance right right so I was going to maybe make I'll try to be helpful to get this to the finish line here but 50 of the setback like as an encro so like if you're 18 feet you can encroach nine feet or the likelihood I mean I I would say go all the way to the zero setback line to the extension because you still in most cases have you know you would have be somewhere between 0 and 20 feet relative to that curb to property line for some intermittent trees with no building above that's the consideration right to allowing it but the ideal scenario is letting all the buildings above go to the zero except property line alternatively if you want to give more space for canopy consider something like is that you would have a percentage right like if it's that give it 50 or 70 of that setback can encroach which is similar to like our play what was previously planned projects I have to average out to a certain setback might be another way to consider it we already have that in our UDC is averaging the setback of the above floors to five feet or something just to clarify I'm just adding to conversation I did not make up another try to make another friendly motion but those are like tools relative to that recess that you could consider in and I would not suggest limiting it to the ground floor only you are going to negate you don't know the circumstances in which you would still be able to accomplish what the first floor setback is trying to accomplish um so I I would suggest that by trying to do that it's just adding a complication to what you're trying to sort in that case you could meet that setback requirement that that upper stories could project you would not be able to attain a tree canopy um you might not be able to do bus services and the like so I I guess my two senses like this seems to be a more absolute decision of the Planning Commission do you want to provide that space if so that space should be completely vertical to give the right-of-way flexibility it's okay I said if you don't believe that space is important and those tight right-of-ways are appropriate I would suggest you just vote against it I think I think it would add what to the to the purpose of trying to make it clear this does not make it clear to petitioners makes sense to me and I would also say that if the reason and the reason that I am supportive of this is so for future flexibility for acquisition and that's complicated now if ground floor is set back appropriately but the top upper floors or not okay so the proposed amendment does not include a stipulation for a differential setback between the ground floor and the floors above so we are still using 18 feet as the minimum and 28 feet is the maximum yes I think we're ready for a vote on that so soon commissioner Weatherby yes or Soviet yes commissioner Abrams yep commissioner Hammerschmidt yes commissioner dish yes commissioner Lee is abstaining commissioner Clerk yes Mr Mills yes commissioner white yes motion is modified all right so we're back into discussion of the modified motion anyone any other comments questions discussion all right it seems we're ready for a real call vote on the overall motion commissioner SoBe no commissioner Abrams yes commissioner Hammerschmidt yes commissioner dish yes Commissioners Clerk no commissioner Mills yes commissioner weich no commissioner Weatherby yes oh I gotta do math the motion fails no it doesn't so this is one of those it's one of those situations [Laughter] sorry um we could welcome commissioner Lee back commissioner Lee um I'm noticing that it is after 11 pm you would need to take a vote to take up this item should I proceed with that or should we wait for commissioner Lee to return um I you decide while I go find him okay so as a reminder if we want to take up any new business after 11 we actually have to vote to do that we could also vote to not do that in which case it would move to unfinished business on your next agenda which is suck uh no September 19th okay I'm gonna I'm gonna let um our chair foreign to start consideration of another item would require a majority of Commissioners to do so I think we're going to be pretty efficient with this but it's up to the commission to take that vote to decide if you want to do that if not it will be forward to the next agenda okay um can we just get a quick show of hands is that okay a Voice vote would be fine okay Voice vote for staying and hearing this last item on bylaws hi okay and then those opposed oh okay all right um we will go all right moving on to 10A other business um this is Planning Commission bylaw reviews modifications to chapter 8 and by-law amendments um this is going to have a staff presentation right Mr Leonard yeah it's pretty quick so uh we had a pretty prolonged discussion previously about the bylaws this has been bouncing around while we're trying to get a majority of you at a meeting to take action and there are two proposed motions here one of the proposed changes that you were interested in was reducing uh the minimum required votes for an affirmative action on a petition either at this table or to proceed to Planning Commission from six to five that is something that would require a amendment to chapter eight of the city code um I have shared with you some proposed amendments that would accomplish that as well as just some other amendments that were recommended by the city attorney's office so the first action that I would suggest that you consider is recommending those amendments it's a little bit different you're not holding a public hearing for example because this is not you recommending uh land use a petition to the city council you're just recommending a change to chapter H which you don't technically have a role in it's just something you're asking for and so that's why it's presented at this manner on the agenda if that you were interested in requesting the city council to do that it would be an appropriate time to make a motion and second an emotion and voted up or down okay thank you and then the second piece of that um uh if you decide that you want to move forward with that I would propose that we postpone um adoption of the bylaws because we couldn't really technically approve those bylaws until that ordinance changes that's okay because you had a lot of questions about conflict of interest possibilities and the like and postponing that consideration of the bylaws until the September 19th meeting will give me the opportunity to invite our very very excellent Deputy City Attorney Kevin McDonald to come and have that conversation with some of the ideas um thoughts pitfalls fears that could um develop as part of that discussion so I would recommend both those emotions that you do propose the changes to city council get that ball rolling and we postpone adoption of the bylaws so that we can have that discussion at the 19th okay thank you Mr Leonard um the proposed motion number one is that I moved to that the attached proposed amendment to the chapter 8 of the city code are refer to the city council for consideration as a request from the City Planning Commission can I have motion to act on the promo amendments chapter eight move by commissioner salvation second by commissioner Mills is there any discussion commissioner Abrams just one small correction in the last sentence of section 1.175 Planning Commission membership there's still use of the gendered term he I will update that thank you I had one other question in that same paragraph it says the terms of office of members shall begin on the first day of July nearest the date of their appointment is there somewhere else in here where it talks about an appointment like commissioner wetherby who is or maybe not in this instance but like somebody who's uh who vacates their position midterm and is replaced midterm yeah um I can look at that I don't think it's been a problem I think a lot of this language was actually structured around the original creation of the Planning Commission you'll note for example um there was a lot of language about staggered terms and the creation of those and I was proposing eliminating those because the Planning Commission has been created at this point so um I can look at that to see if there needs to be flexibility typically it does happen terms do often end around the first of July but um I guess it's part of the attorney review I can pose that question to see if that should be broadened it obviously is not a barrier for the city council to appoint members outside of that right but it seems odd for us to adopt something that we already know we operate in violation of so we could just either cross it out or yeah I can first day of a month soon after their appointment I'm happy to take that discussion before progresses to city council um any other discussion uh commissioner white to that point so we're still in section one seven six so section one 176 same organization so the commission shall organize oh no that's not it wherever it is we could just make it the next Planning Commission meeting after their approval by Council because that is effectively what happens they get approved and then they take the oath of office and then they are seated thereafter so that would just make it easy and then it would remove July because if it happens in July it'll happen in July if it happens in August it'll show up in September yeah I think a change like that would be good any other discussion I think that uh So procedurally speaking um are we making an amendment are we just you uh by voting on this motion that would have the effect of you sending this to the city council and say please make these changes so the changes just to affirm the changes are as presented with um a gender neutrality fixing that hymn term and uh I'm gonna work with the attorney's office probably on some more General language that is as quickly as a possible after appointment um okay perfect thank you um we'll go to a vote all those in favor of the motion please say I I any opposed the motion carries let's move on to proposed motion number two a move that the following changes refer to the City attorney for review the proposed amendments including the draft bylaws presented at this meeting and that the proposed amended bylaws be presented back to the Planning Commission for additional review on September 19th 2023.
can I have motion to act on the proposed by law amendments uh moved by commissioner white and seconded by commissioner Mills discussion all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed the motion carries might get to do that 11 o'clock motion next week [Laughter] moving on to uh public comment this is an opportunity for purposes to speak up to three minutes about any issue that is not listed as a public hearing on this agenda we're first call on individuals present to present to Justice Commission then remote participants to speak during this public hearing remotely please press star six if listening by phone or use the raid hand Feature Feature if viewing through the web link for phone access call 877-853-5247 and enter meeting ID 977-6634-1226 City staff will select callers that have raised their hand using the last three digits of your phone number or by name if available for those accessing through the web link you'll hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak and when speaking please move to a quiet area mute any television background sounds that we may hear your clearly and for either method please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments is there any one present that would like to speak at this time uh seeing no one is there anyone that would like to address the commission remotely there are currently No Hands raised I will close public comment moving on to commission proposed business is there any commission proposed business commissioner salve this movie two things a little related I'd like to put on commission parole's business a review of our occupancy requirements within our residential districts um and to the housing points I am helping organize a series of events next week because I want to invite all the Commissioners and listeners to called house party a couple of the events maybe to highlight relative to this is there's a coffee with a lot of uh city employees on Tuesday morning Wednesday evening a several um students are facilitating a engagement session around housing they were able to meet with interface for a comprehensive plan and so looking forward to sharing some of those outcomes with them similarly we'll repeat that Saturday at the annex so both of those sorry are at the Liberty Annex right next to Argus downtown and finally one of the there's many events but the other one I might recommend you to is there's going to be a phone booth at the downtown Ann Arbor District Library inviting people to record their stories about struggling to find housing or positive actions of housing so we'll have qualitative data to transcribe and similarly share for our comprehensive plan so I invite everybody to participate thank you sounds like a great opportunity to voice and get input commissioner Mills business big I don't know letter changes editing table 5.29-1 to accommodate subtractions in buildings under construction can you repeat the table numbers one more time 5.29-1 okay then you might just reference the burden Road proposal that we saw tonight that about why we added that on there but I think it's yeah thank you commissioner white can I request that we create a Ann Arbor City website page for the comprehensive plan and can I request that we add updates to the comprehensive plan to the egov email delivery so that people can subscribe and receive updates yes both of those will happen actually both of those are are underway and have been disgusted it's just a matter of whether we host on the city website or Standalone website or teasing out a few details thanks for your patience awesome thank you any other commission proposed business if not we're moving on to a German move by commissioner Mills seconded by commissioner White all those in favor say aye aye we are adjourned thank you thanks guys good job