Reader
Browse passages, annotate evidence, and export with full provenance for citation.
Aaron second by Raquel so motion by Aaron second by Raquel all in favor aye opposed thank you so moved an adoption of the fiscal 2024 budget I'm going to go out of the limb and ask if Tony's going to be presenting this for chance I am as matter so this is the final stop on our tour of the fiscal year 2024 budget of which we're almost nearly a full quarter into the fiscal year we will be at the end of this month and we're required by law to adopt a budget by the end of this month we wait as long as we do primarily to get as much information as we can so we can build the best plan possible because there's still information coming in on a daily basis that we could continue to fine-tune this budget and it is indeed just a plan and as information changes and the plans change we certainly um account for those as well this budget totals um would you actually open up the summary please Holly and go to the Highlight page it totals of some 132 million dollars in revenues and a 130 million dollars in expenses so we expect overall our revenues to increase by 4.7 percent over the prior year and our expenditures to increase by 5.2 percent if I remember off the top of my head correctly if you scroll down just a wee bit further and that would yield a surplus of 2.6 million dollars that is approximately four hundred thousand dollars more than when you saw this budget last month in August when we held our public hearing overall our salaries we expect to increase in total by 8.1 percent to some 50 million dollars and our benefits to increase by four and a half percent to some 13 million dollars they also have a contingency of a half a million dollars for any unanticipated expenses overall our staffing will increase by 2.7 FTE or full-time equivalents to 668.8 excuse me 666.8 FTE and while our student enrollment is declining slightly by a little bit more than two percent that will improve our pupil to staff ratio to 7.7 students per staff members and I happen to look back to 2015 which was the first year that I served in this role and that would number was if I remember correctly 9.8 so that ratio has gone down by basically 20 in those in these now almost nine years in almost that decade which is a pretty significant increase in terms of Staffing available for students as I mentioned earlier the Investments are probably the highest that we've ever seen in the history of Batavia schools that is yielding a a return on that and those Investments of about 2.2 million dollars so our surplus of 2.6 million dollars would not be a surplus of 2.6 million dollars if we did not have the opportunity to invest that money and as I say I feel like a broken record but it wasn't that long ago four years ago where we wouldn't have had the opportunity to invest that money because we didn't have it in fact we had to issue tax anticipation warrants because our cash flow was so small that we needed to borrow money to make payroll and bills in the later parts of the school year unfortunately that's not the case this year and we're able to invest that money and and get a considerable Year my concern moving forward is that if we continue to see expenditures increase that outpace our revenues that will continue to put pressure on the amount of money that we have available we won't be able to undertake those Investments and we'll have to make some other decisions to manage our budget prudently so if the market changes or if we spend that fund balance for example on the facility improvements that our schools desperately need that money would not be available for investment apart from that this budget as I note in the uh kind of the cover report that's in board docs requires us to transfer funds between our money between funds and they're outlined here more can't spend money on long-term debt out in the outside of The Debt Service fund by law and so to the extent that our long-term debt isn't funded by the by bonds that are directly part of tax bills we have to move money into that fund to pay them those are noted in the report in addition we move money from the education fund and the operations and maintenance fund to the capital projects fund to pay for the work that we're undertaking at our schools to to improve them and notably in this current budget year would be the work at Rotolo middle school for improvements to the to the kitchen which which was original to the building when it was built in 1992 and to the improvements to the entrances at Alice Gustafson school and JB Nelson School and I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have anyone have any questions um so quick question uh actually a few um in the I think it's in our budget the curriculum and instruction is that including our resources too in that like text like our resources does that include our resources yeah there are several places that resources come from they come in part like probably the largest amount of of resources come from the curriculum and budget but they also come from Individual School budgets as well okay um because I saw like so I said curriculum and instruction and then on b11 it said textbooks so I just didn't know like how it's separated out it is there's many ways you know what we try to do with this budget document is take what are about I think 8 500 different expenditure accounts and present them in such a fashion that we make meaning out of then we look at them through different lenses and basically different arrays so that we can kind of construct some understanding of where the money is indeed going but it gets confusing in terms of which budget exactly is what but generally speaking when it comes to resources that are used directly in classrooms you're going to see it in a function like a regular programs function that we talked about last month on 1100 is the number that we associate with those accounts and they would either be in a school's individual budget so in the control of an individual principal or they would be in under the control of Brad in the curriculum and instruction Department um second thing I have is when you broke out the school budgets um and I'm just curious how you got that number so like JB Nelson has the highest population as students um but they they don't have the highest number of dollars so I just did like Grace McWane is this they have the of the schools they have the lowest population with 312 but they get basically 148.35 cents per student where JB Nelson gets 142.70 so how do we is it astute observation thank you for looking at it so there's two things that go on in the individual School budgets one is that we allocate School budgets on a per student basis but also on a student needs basis and so various indicators in terms of student needs whether it be students with individualized education plans or students who might be English Learners or all the various at-risk indicators we provide additional money for those students and so it's on a per student basis but also we try to use an um an equitable allocation approach that gives more money for students who have more needs in addition we allow principals to carry money over from year to year to a certain extent there's a limit and the reason being is because yeah you know budget is a plan but we don't want principles in particular to have to spend money in a given school year just for the sake of spending money so we allow them to carry up to 10 percent of their allocation over to the next year and so it can kind of make it look like some school is getting more money than another and it just is more likely the case that either they have students with more needs than the next school or they're carrying money over from the prior year so they could have carried like Grace McQueen could have carried like three thousand dollars and so it was technically it was three thousand lives but then you add that three thousand and that's how they got their dollar exactly and then this is I'm just really curious do we have to break out regular and special ed pay is that a requirement um yes we have to allocate we have to account for all of our special education expenditures because of a federal federal and state requirements for what are what's called maintenance of effort and so the reason being is that we get money from the federal government and from the state for special education services and we cannot reallocate money from our local sources away from those students you have to basically maintain effort from one year to the next we can't spend less than we did in the prior year and we can't really we can't supplant funding and then I was just really curious what schools have summer school do all the schools have summer school or that's a bad question we've done various things over the years with summer school the high school runs a credit recovery Summer School uh We've not found a lot of success running our own summer school so we do we've tried various things over the past couple of years try and run our El summer school which is a virtual so they're connecting with their teacher over the summer but we don't run like a full-blown summer school um when you say like so we have done that the population is down by uh what enrollment will be down 2.2 to the what is it 5 000 that's a forecast 137.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
yes that's well so again I would I don't know fortunately we did have the 15 has been in there for a while so both of those I think it might have just been the typo in the again unless David or the petitioner disagrees I think that but the supplemental regulations is what you guys had reviewed in a and agreed to so I think the presentation like is I I agree that's that's entirely my fault I apologize good good eyes good catch I appreciate that yes but thank you thanks the the slide is wrong the supplemental reg's document is correct are correct yes the supplement of eggs are something that has been reviewed previously correct thank you And to clarify it's 15 feet correct yes okay it's in the supplements right now that's what we write consistent with the office District that's why we went to that number gotcha and as a point of clarification the side setback is 30 feet so yeah okay any other Commissioners commissioner hammershit I have two things quickly to start um the curb Cuts I only see one where are the two is it is the north one on they're both yes that is on the altaram site yeah yes yeah the line doesn't quite go that far up but the property line goes to the middle correct okay I thought I was reading something in here that there's maybe not in there in somewhere that that was like some sort of easement but yes there is an easement that goes back to the hotels behind there okay that's correct okay there is because there's there's adjacent access to all of these other there's a couple of hotels including the hotel that's off of Plymouth yeah uh yep I see the Holiday Inn but I don't know what it is now yeah I don't remember okay um okay so that's the max curb cuts no more curb Cuts they can relocate a curb cut that's it um since this is a PUD and puds you know we talk about public benefits since this is it's an existing PUD but we're amending the Pud do we still need to analyze this in terms of public benefits yep absolutely because you're still you're still I don't want to say re-upping but yeah you're still reauthorizing the Pud uh to the standards of today yeah correct and which is why we've tried to highlight certain benefits that we've called out but yes that's absolutely correct okay I mean I fully support more development on this site um I live by here I think it would be great for you know more residential more anything I would love to see it more like tc1 where it's pulled up to the curb um so I need I want to think about like the setbacks and the building frontages and stuff but you know to the to the point of electrification too like those are things that we're asking for in puds and that we're getting so I I mean I know like what like to the petitioner or staff like was that was it discussed that like you know new development within this would need to be all electric because was that ever a conversation I mean it was brought up that it would probably be a comment from planet Noah so well yeah that's that's a fair question we we um I don't believe it was brought up when we were before the Planning Commission to present previously to present this I did hear a discussion about it tonight um obviously we haven't done any real analysis of that we don't know who will purchase and what they will build obviously back before the Planning Commission if and when there's a site plan uh for review and that will require if I'm correct uh it's a an amendment to the Pud again so well it may not require it will definitely require a site plan but if it's consistent with the zoning it would only it would still be a full site plan that it would go to Planet Commission but it may it may tweak the Amendments but or sorry the Pud but okay so so but it will it will be back in front of the Planning Commission for a site plan for site plan review certainly that that we can explain I thank to whoever is interested in purchasing the remaining lot that that's a consideration that the Planning Commission is going to be looking at certainly so we can't require it then uh you you probably couldn't require it but you could certainly indicate that that's something that would be your decision now okay yeah we have again we have not we have not done any review of that debate no I'll leave that with that for now council member dish so yeah two other wish list items off of Kirk was Fall's wish list um I don't know why we don't accept the suggestion of prohibiting Street facing parking that that's something that you you could I mean we didn't the staff discuss it I did not discuss that with the petitioner I didn't go into that level of kind of detail but but absolutely as a commission if that's something same as with the um the other issue we brought up that we were going to change the two-story minimum um correct that can also be discussed and you know discuss with the petitioner brought up as well yeah well I would like to put that on the table um uh clearly not that existing parking should be ripped up unless it's being substantially altered but development on the vacant part it seems like there's no reason to have Street facing parts so basically by Street facing you mean like so no parking in front of a building more or less like there has to be a building screening it correct okay so again that that's something I would look to the petition if what what our council member planning Commissioners is pointing out in the supplemental regulations would be a restriction to have parking uh sorry no no parking in front of buildings along uh Green Road Green Road yes that'd be correct well and just and and the reason I bring this up is because when we last discussed this which was about a year ago we talked about why it wasn't being rezoned tc1 and it was it was an interesting answer that we had there that that there might be some benefits that we could get if not that um if we Zone this tc1 the existing buildings would be in non-conforming with that but also that aspects of this project are looking forward to tc1 and I sort of I liked that sentence in my notes and so I thought perhaps we should think about as many uh aspects of the of of what we're doing now to look forward to tc1 would be nice and so and then the only other one and this conflicts with what I have just said but uh the other one that uh Mr Westfall brings up is protecting the trees that are now shading that very long sidewalk along green and um a setback of 25 feet would probably do a better job but that was an error so so we have a setback of 15 feet and um that is probably not adequate to protect that lovely stand of trees I don't know um if they're I'm not an arborist they are large I don't know if they're special in any way but they do produce shade along a pretty exposed area by virtue of it being across from a really large concrete you know what's on the other side of the street is a really large concrete thing and so those trees are pretty nice and I think I would be you know so if we can I know that that goes against the idea of we just want to build up to the front lot line but we're also debating that as well so um okay so those are the two things that I wanted to put on the table the front-facing parking and do we want do we care enough about the line of trees sorry and sorry if I could just add one thing it triggered my memory as well that I wanted to mention is that right one thing to keep in mind with these supplemental regulations and you touch them as there are existing buildings in this PUD right now so that is one thing that we have to consider a lot of times with a PUD you're dealing with one a vacant site or you know a site to be completely remodeled but this these puds I meant the the it applies the entire now again that doesn't necessarily have to change any weight Direction you're going I just wanted to make sure that's clear and then regarding the trees along there that is something that well at least staff I internally debated about reducing that setback knowing that those trees were there but again looking at how we were like with tc1 now we're putting you know things a little bit closer to the street and so that again was a good point for discussion at Planet Commission in which direction we want to go and I don't know necessarily whether 25 feet wood protected trees or 15 feet would necessarily kill them I didn't go into that level of detail thank you commissioner salvate so maybe I'll address that and say I believe it's a minimum setback and so the building could set back further and if we reviewed a site plan a alternative Arrangement plan may have to be shown relative to the change of natural features so if they demoed all of the trees to fit the sidewalk and the building very close we could evaluate that in terms of harm or good uh similarly if we allowed the flexibility at 15 feet maybe a piece of the building such as an entrance could protrude we could lose a couple of trees and the thing could jog back or something and so I'm comfortable with leaving it and giving the flexibility for design and that we could evaluate it with natural features at a site plan level later on um but I do want to add relatives to maybe the kind of alignment with tc1 and that um also the 2021 building code is finally getting reviewed um and that we might be looking at 75 feet instead of 55 feet for uh tall buildings now and so this uh asks for the 65 feet and I'd recommend it aligning it 75 feet maximum height maybe even striking the stories this is my comfort level so I put it to the table um just to to meet similar to tc1 which is at the 50 and 75 feet and then it also aligns with the building code so that we're not having kind of difference in height restrictions between zoning and building code so I offer that to the table commissioner Mills thank you for noticing me because this follows immediately onto that I um I was curious about the 65 feet because that doesn't seem to line up to anything in the height table everything is 55 feet and two stories or something different and I was similarly curious about um in most of the situations where it is 55 feet there is some reference to nearby residential and I know again a lot of the attention is on the parcel that's farther from residential but following through kind of the 55 within 80 feet of residential and 75 within 80 to 300 feet within residential I think again borrows from another District that this might be realistic to or um related to and I was just curious about why that why in a lot of the office in the office District there's a step down when it's a budding residential and since that I double check to make sure that the the residential to the South is is residential zoned so I was that part of the discussion reducing the height next to the residential note was not what is common in the other areas um I know it would be a reduction from what's proposed but it's not a reduction from what is there right now within 80 feet and then going up to what commissioner sovay suggested 75 for what is the majority of that site um makes me feel like it uh it's more in keeping with what's there but I'm curious from um the petitioner's perspective like if that's a if that's a friendly Amendment yeah I I I think that the um decision was made to increase the height based on comments about how to make the pros the parcel generally better use of the property um so it was basically based on on feedback that we received um I don't think there's any objection with making the height taller and or you know limiting the height in relation to residential adjacent districts to the proposed height and taller and other areas I don't think either one of those is necessarily problematic um we don't know Tracy if we need to speak with any of any of the other folks in the Pud to get feedback on those sorts of ideas but we have I mean I don't think we would have any objection to that I mean to be clear my understanding again I got to pull up the other one but the 55 feet within 80 feet is still more than what's currently what's currently allowed at all correct so it would ah I'm it's still again more than what's there and this would allow even higher um kind of farther from that southern property line so sure and it's a PD um so I think there's you know some some policy decision making about you know whether or not the City wants to try to you know make the best use possible the property but um there was there hasn't been a ton of discussion about higher height or a different height at this point yeah thank you I had another note let's see I appreciate the um so I'm I'm interested in that I would be interested in making now we're talking about three changes to height adding a minimum height increasing the maximum height overall except within 80 feet of residentially zoned property to keeping that at 55 to match whatever's and the rest of here and I don't care about the story stuff so I'm sorry you said match fit to 55 the existing says 50.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
so was that last year's enrollment 5137 that's our estimate for this year this assessment for this we won't know officially we won't have an official number until October 1st okay okay I have a comment I usually do but I want to thank again this Dr englese and his team for putting this 55-page document this is available to the public for review and again you don't have to be an accountant to understand it although it does go into quite a bit of detail so I think I would encourage everyone you know during the past referendum there was a lot of talk about transparency this is an example of transparency you know 67 approximately of our Revenue comes from the local taxpayers and we take that very seriously that we're using that money wisely and so I would encourage everybody in this room or watching to review the document I want to point out a few high-level things that I observed that I'd like to share but one is that we are living within our means our surpluses from our investments so we're living judiciously and we're trying to be very good stewards of the money another reason why I say that is izv is a institution that provides a financial profile school for districts across Illinois they write districts on a scale of one to four four being the best ones uh poor the scores are based off fund balance to revenue rational score expenditure to revenue ratio days cash on hand percentage short-term borrowing remaining score and percentage long-term borrowing remaining score and we scored a perfect score of 4.0 which is recognition so that's something that we should be proud of Tony your team should be proud of we all should be proud of that and so right now while the financial Outlook is good there are definitely challenges that we have ahead one is our facility needs that are still very pressing and you know we've done a good job of Manning our funds but we are going to have to really make some really tough decisions and while our Good Financial standing in my opinion gives us some opportunity to do improvements we can't miss and so you know I know we're going to be engaged in the community for next steps on that but that hasn't gone away and it's going to be we're gonna have some hard decisions to make moving forward but outside of that I just want to say again thank you for your team for putting this document together again I you know people talk about transparency this is it right here this is exhibit a of transparency and so I would encourage you to share this with other people and um again thanks for your effort on this document so I have one uh question Tony um honor Investments do we use a service a financial advisor we do yeah okay yeah we use PMA there are financial advisors is uh okay and is there a requirement like a certain amount has to be in the cash versus like a CD or something like that that's just there's not a requirements in the amount uh but there are requirements in terms of the board has a very specific policy on this in terms of what we can invest our money in and they would have to be collateralized and insured so that there's there isn't necessarily A the fullest of like a perfect guarantee of principle but we're not investing in stocks or anything like that while we're there isn't it looks all pretty conservative okay generally at CDs and U.S treasuries or some form of a CD that would be FDIC insured right anyone oh nope go ahead FDIC see insured up to 250 000.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
I know I'm at 55 from Office correct 55 from office and from almost everything else within the table in the current Zone 55 feet office within 80 feet 75 everywhere except within 85 feet of residential 80 80 feet 80 feet of residential sorry and then being 55. 55 over week with that residential zoning yes within residence I think that's right I think that that is how the tc1 is drafted and that's how a lot of this works yes that's similar yep um I appreciated to the discussion the reminder or about why keeping it in a PUD D I'm I'm so I I actually have looked I was like I don't remember discussing this it's because it's math last year like and so I was up north at the map conference so I wasn't there so sorry um but I think this for me so I um I trust that conversation happened I'm thinking about like what are the benefits um and part of me but also saying like this is why I don't love Beauties generally because they come out of date because we're making it current with what is happening now and so um it's interesting to me that there are uses that are allowed here that we don't allow the combination of uses anywhere else that is very interesting to me I don't know though based on what we're hearing that that's actually what we're gonna get um and so I would just say like this is what happens I appreciate like pegging it to the things that are currently required in our code because I have lots of questions about EV charging and all of those things you know um Dark Skies compliance and all of these things and so even so if it were just if it were uh um a standard zoning District that would that would keep up with the times as we're going overall so I'm not staying in the way of this but I just noting it for everyone's benefit thank you commissioner Weatherby yeah just a couple things um one I think the height makes sense to sort of tie it to other districts but also this is on the north side of the housing and so whether it's 55 or 65 or 75 it's not going to block sun it's not going to really look that different to the three-story buildings behind it so that's just like I don't have a strong feeling but if 20 more feet gives us a lot more opportunity than I don't think it's really infringing if somebody on their first floor apartment is looking out it's going to look the same whether it's 55 feet or 75 feet from their point of view and it is on the North side so um but then the other thing that I did notice is the public benefit really the only public benefit other than um an interesting mix of uses is the affordable housing premium I'm not going to say premium but um and and there is no guarantee I mean this could very easily be medical manufacturing I mean and would make a lot of sense in that area to you know manufacture face masks or vaccines or whatever so there is no guarantee that affordable housing or housing at all would ever be there and um so for that to be kind of the only public benefit is it it doesn't necessarily sit well with me as a really strong benefit it's great if housing is built but there there is really no guarantee because we've added other uses in addition to housing for this site thank you um with a petitioner like to respond to that just briefly sure that there's some really good comments there yeah um we just interestingly we did hear from another owner in the Pud that is an office owner that they would actually have interest of considering potentially in the future looking at a residential use even in lieu of existing office so the the couple things you mentioned there in terms of making the house the height uniform throughout the project would probably help facilitate that was one thought and then the other thought I guess is you know the fact that there is there has been expressed interest in potentially doing housing on this vacant site um and and existing um other other existing Uh current office users considering housing as well um you know I realize that that that's a limited public benefit in relation to other types of public benefits but I do think it's material in terms of the the impact of a 15 to 20 percent affordable housing component if if in fact housing does materialize as we've you know seen interest in in actually happening on the site that's it thank you if I could just add a little bit I mean we did internally as staff we discussed um with with Mr Leonard as well as you know that the question that you just kind of touched on which is that residential right is not required um but it's it's a slippery slope where we try you know how how could we require it like like just on the new parcel or like part of the old again dealing with all these other existing uses it was really tricky so again not to say that the blind admission can't recommend things I mean absolutely we can we can work within that but that was something that we did debate again it wasn't something that we put forward to the petitioner because we just didn't it it was it was challenging in itself and again to write something that necessarily require it we get into but acknowledging that the public benefit would only be achieved with that use or that public benefit but you know again we're trying to make it a little bit more liberal rather than trying to restrict things down even though I understand that housing is what we all really want to see on the site um but but that is correct it's not a required use commissioner White so I appreciate commissioner weatherby's raising of the public benefits because I I would agree also with the public comment from Mr Garber that there aren't very many public benefits in this PUD um dare I say any and um I wonder given so so if I can get a better framework because this is an existing PUD that we are making text amendments or changes to to permit more uses and we're trying at the same time to bring aspects of the Pud to match our existing code but that's not required so we could they would have a right to leave the Pud as it is and just come and ask for the additional uses and not have to meet our EV charging not have to meet our dark sky no I mean I think I understand but they still have to do a site plan which has all those requirements when a site plan comes but that's only triggered by the site plan correct okay yes all the application of those ordinances and it would not apply to the other built infrastructure that's inside the Pud unless they brought a new site plan because that would be the only place that we could make those changes right would it put correct like if EV parking well I'm trying to think through this if it was a requirement how it would depend on how this particular PUD supplemental regulations are crafted if if tonight's project fails the existing PUD does remain and they have and they are entitled to build under the current supplemental regulations right so I would build I would say that's a manufacturing the benefit yeah and I would say that the benefits discussion should be what the what the proposed changes are they could propose to fully revamp the planned unit development supplemental regulations and and and I understand they have to an extent they have not correct me if I'm wrong they have not said we we will retroactively apply say electric vehicle parking but also it doesn't seem like it's it doesn't seem like the Pud has been labeled as phases for the this vacant piece these are the requirements requirements for it we have a sort of a hybrid approach there's nothing that's off the table per se but to be clear at what they have they are proposing that to change the supplemental regulations and the new requirements would be immediately effective but they only apply to when a site plan um the trigger is the site plan so um it I am correct in my understanding that they could uh re-parcel the land sell it and then the new owner could come and request a zoning change from PUD to something else yeah that could happen with or without this tonight's change so it and just helped me as I am I'm going to do a commissioner dish I'm even going to use the fingers I I just want to better understand what I don't understand and um sorry if that wasn't fair to how you articulated it um so there are benefits to the current holder of the Pud for us to make these changes as opposed to us rejecting these changes and then having the owner either have to decide to parcel out the land and request a new zoning and and so because I'm just trying to to to understand like the framework that we are presently under correct so I think if I understand so right say that say the existing so one of the options could be for the petitioner if yeah if you left the existing zoning in place as a PUD that the petitioner could um withdraw you know with the permission of the other you know pull this out of that PUD district and rezone it is our 40 year or whatever I mean that is an option that I think was briefly looked at at least initially but again and then the existing PUD would stay in place for the other ones right but that was something that we as staff it looked at and again in cooperation with the petitioner thought that would be more valuable to bring the whole District up acknowledging that there's challenges with that but maybe getting some new things again we were looking towards most of the likely the potential uses of residential but that's not necessarily true so we but overall like I said we did feel that there was advantages to bringing the whole PUD District rather than advising them to pull that parcel out and rezone it to something else okay I hope that answered thank you Alexis I know this is your question between you it answers my question I think what I'm trying to parse is they're because this is such a artifact from past zoning being brought forward there are advantages that are built in for this PUD that wouldn't exist if we were looking at a new PUD so if they were bringing this PUD to us today this would have to meet you know section F of 5.29.11 and there are seven points under there the open space requirement the innovation of the use of the design and the layout and the type of structures the economy and the efficiency of the land use the preservation of the natural features the employment shopping district as well as the use of reuse of existing sites and none of that is really under consideration as we consider these changes all right for the for the proposal correct right okay that's that's what I thought other Commissioners commissioner Abrams um I would like to continue having the conversation around public benefit but first maybe I also want to just have a conversation around potential detriment I guess um and make sure we're protecting against that so um I wanted to talk about parking maximums and maybe learn a little bit about how those were determined because they seem high to me and I would support lowering them but I didn't know if they were so some of them are zones where there currently isn't a maximum some of them are zones like office where there is and it matches that uses sorry not zones like one thing I can say to the parking is that many of those are are the exist what was in there exist there actually wasn't no more then in the current um requirements the the only thing that staff uh we did change to one and it was actually two per two per dwelling unit for multi-family and we re we just knocked it down to one and a half which again I I think I probably have mentioned but but parking would be a discussion issue as well as far as the parking maximum but interestingly there was already maximums in in that section but we didn't so those are in place from the current uh proposal so I would be interested in a conversation around reducing those if the petitioners uh open to that conversation I don't have any numbers to propose like throw on the table but we could talk about that I think also um I really want to add my voice in favor of something which prohibits Street facing parking in any Redevelopment or future development um so those are the things that I think would be potentially detrimental like more big Seas of parking which are on green um and then in terms of the public benefit I would like to have a serious conversation around electrification so I don't know how to but it seems like maybe that's something you wouldn't be prepared tonight to commit to um so I'm not totally sure how to proceed on that but maybe the first is to see whether fellow Commissioners would support that on the topics of electrification Street facing parking and parking maximums would any other Commissioners like to speak up in support of those changes I could take those all three kinds separately commissioner oh I'm sorry for a long day sadira Clark sedira sorry commissioner um yeah I just put support what um commissioner Abrams just brought up with the um adding in something about the parking in front yeah commissioner Mills so the parking in front is not allowed in a lot of our districts because they have we have a minimum setback or maximum setback I'm sorry so in my mind that actually again I like flexibility but I don't see that as a benefit a unique benefit to this Sony District so I think that it should be included in the regulation but I don't I don't count that as a benefit um I I would be very much in support of including full electrification as a benefit because that's not something that we do require in any of our districts you can't even get a height bonus right like that doesn't even get you necessarily A type one so um or you don't have to go that far in order to get the hypo and this is the better way of saying it so yes that strong benefit I can totally stand behind that um the other thing that as you were talking thank you commissioner Weatherby for breaking up like yes there's lots of things that could happen but and we're thinking about one particular use that might be beneficial but there's nothing that ties it into that I mean one of the things I don't love this but I'm just going to say one of the things that was through my mind was you could you could you could cap the square footage of non-residential right I don't like that at all exactly I see sheds shaking but I mean if you want to if you want to make sure that any additional is residential I mean again because though this is all together It's Tricky um but requiring residential is something that we do like we have we have this is what we have in tc1 right so so for me the thing that we know we can get out of this is electrification and that's important no matter what but it it's really important to me particularly if it's not residential because well um that requires a longer conversation but but I think that is really really really important and that's something that we can no matter what goes in this space we could say is going to be a benefit and justify a PUD because you because it's not in any of the other districts thank you so um commissioner also it's uh safe to say that you would like to see that as an amendment to the Pud do I have a friendly second on that commission seems like whether it be commissioner Salve which okay um all right I'm gonna any other commissioner wanna add in at this point in time commissioner Hammerschmidt I support that too I just I think I have a clarifying question I don't even know who I'm asking this to um so the full this is a five parcel site right the um we're saying full electrocation on the whole site it's like anything new obviously would need to be electrified at what point is it like any sort of renovation I'm thinking about the existing structures that are on the site that would then be like non-compliant I'm assuming if they have anything true this okay that's my question I'm sorry anything that triggers a site plan would happening on the site would then be subject to retroactive even for renovations right we wouldn't it would depend on if yeah yeah we'd have to word it but right we could word it in a way that wouldn't affect the existing well I mean I wanted to affect the existing if anything happens to the existing but yeah okay yeah I mean I support that as like the fifth or sixth got it thank you um sure Hammerschmidt do we have other discussion items commissioner Weatherby uh I just and I think probably everyone understands this but I just wanted to point out that the expansion of the permitted principle uses would include medical and dental offices which are currently prohibited um and expand the definition of hotel which is now like only Extended Stays bigger than 100.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
so yeah we have to compartmentalize things yes exactly which makes the Investments all that much more complicated especially when you have 33 million of them well rob you asked my question so I appreciate you doing that um yeah I've I've seen I mean PMA is a well-known Financial kind of um uh advisor group that is kind of ubiquitous really across all districts and and find in taxing bodies I mean from libraries and everything else so it's it's a good crew and they don't tend to steer people wrong from what I've heard so so thank you all right one last chance for any other questions on this literally for this budget and by the way we start we'll ask next month for your permission to Begin work on the 2020.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
right and permit residential so just that we are actually adding a lot of potential uses to this which I you know I mean that's something that we're giving a lot um of potential uses and I think some of those are probably as you know definitely medical and dental offices are a would be a big thing over on that personal thank you any other commissioners I'm going to look to recap a little bit here and see where we're at let's take a little bit of a count um so prohibition of Street facing parking there was discussion regarding kind of the frontage of the maintenance of the trees relative to the building Frontage one of the things that I'll add is to me that's kind of the new urbanist concept of trying to make it more interesting slow down traffic if you bring buildings closer and I think a lot of that has to do with making pedestrians feel safer so is our tree sufficient in that you know that end so I think that's still kind of you know Up For Debate but there's discussions around Frontage one of the things that I wanted to mention on that street to the north is c1b and C1 which is actually a 10 feet up setback so from my standpoint I was thinking about what what is the continuity of that zone look like so that's one thing that I also want to make sure that Commissioners take into account so we have Frontage Street financing parking electrification the requirement thereof we talked about height making it consistent with the tc1 zone so increasing maximum height to 75 feet unless within 80 feet of residential um and then I think we have a larger thematic question at least the one that I think people have been kind of grappling with is is this is this a PUD amendment can this be achieved in another different Zone um and then this question about you know what are the sufficient public benefits so the um the sufficiency of electrification one of the things that I will mention is that in the past we did have Sartorius come here if they are doing lab it is difficult when you have larger cooling requirements Etc so just the the vast variety of uses it electrification the grid requirement for us to sit you know sit here and say we don't necessarily know what that substation can hold to say you know that that's required we may be prohibiting some uses without us actually knowing it so I think a little more due diligence is required on all parties in that respect um taking a look so I think that's kind of the items that I see as you know uh discussion points that we've had so far the things that I wanted to add we are in the midst of a new comprehensive plan currently in fact there's a new public uh announcement that's going to happen at the end of this meeting um as well uh that being said the best thing we have right now is a 2009 Land Use plan as a part of our comp plan so when you take a look at that it does say mixed use for that so it says commercial to the north mixed use research to the east resi to the South and so for me um I think the challenge is does this actually adhere to the land use plan that we've come to as a community um and so the challenge I have is is it going to result in the mixed use right because it could be any one of the Myriad of yeah it really is a wide palette of uses um so I think that's the challenge I I have kind of going into this the so that that is my feedback as far as the application of the 2009 Land Use plan is it going to result in the mixed use that we want um Mr Kowalski I do have a question um procedurally on puds okay when I look at the Pud on the UDC the unified development code says that a revision of pauds refers back to the beauty section and it should be accompanied with a site plan so for me it's kind of tough to say like how can we kind of evaluate without did you guys come to that did you have that discussion internally I mean it can be unless no development is proposed yeah then there's that exemption that the planning manager can waive the uh area plan or it's like well it'd be an area plan so it any reasoning typically above single or two family has to come with an either an area plan or a Safelite so the planning manager does have the ability to waive that so in this case again since we didn't have anything proposed at the time that was the case so correct this one does not obviously have a cyclone with it sure and so to try and judge the merits of these proposed changes without having kind of a clear site plan that that's a little tricky especially with the infinite permutations of uses that we see here I agree with commissioner hammer schimitz first statement that we support densification intensity of land use productive use of land I think that the proposed changes here may be challenging to reconcile in this short period of time unless the petitioner can tell us it seems like the commission would like to see I'm going to recap again electrification that's probably a big one even though I'm saying here right now in the past we have said for lab uses restaurants you know things that require you know high intensity of heat thermal load Etc that require lots of cooling there may be times where you know we may not be able to accommodate that we've said that in the past but we do have an a20 climate goal and we do need sufficient basis for public benefits so electrification Street facing parking you got same petitioners tends to be pretty friendly to that the height you were friendly with um so I think it really comes down to can we get a commitment I think from the petition or on electrification and let me just ask that question otherwise I feel like this is probably headed to uh I'm just reading the room and I'm trying to be practical about like Hey what how do we proceed So yeah thank you actually for that summary that was very helpful I think to kind of take some notes it was very good summary yeah um and I'll just I'll just note how we got here because I there's been a lot of new stuff discussed tonight and I appreciate that the initial concept was to say it would really be helpful in in marketing the undeveloped site to expand some uses and um that's kind of where we started we had some discussions with staff and staff said well that's great it would be good if we could update all of these kind of Standards to current you know lighting EV parking Landscaping setbacks all that sort of stuff and so um there was a good comment uh made that you know somebody could come in and develop under the existing PUD and not have to do any of that stuff so we kind of view that I mean we do view that as a benefit that that would happen um so I I think in light of all the in light of all the the new things so that's how we got here I just wanted to clarify a lot of these changes were not things that we initially were proposing or thinking about um given that some of the discussion tonight I I think it would be helpful for us to probably if if it would be um something that the commission would consider to table this let us go and have some discussions about how some of these things um what the impact of these things would be and see whether they're things that see what see what we can find out I mean to your point we have no idea about the capacity of the substation to provide for electrification of whatever uses may go in there or you know we certainly haven't discussed with existing owners the potential that they have to rebuild their their existing buildings to some of these standards that you've discussed tonight so I think it would be our preference to have some time to go back think about this come back next month tell you what we can and cannot do and and see if the commission wants to move forward oh sorry and to that point I I think I would second that because I think with some of the changes that most of these are no no-brainers but I I would like to go into a little bit more depth on that electricity and again see how that affects because most of our puds like we say are dealing with like a new parcel basically or new building and this has all these existing uses so I want to make sure that however if if that is the will of commission as far as electrification that how can I how can we write that in there that we don't create either non-conformities or limit things too much so understood uh so commissioner Abrams I just want to make sure I understand everything there is going to be non-conforming in a lot of ways right no there will be no nothing will be well like a once we change the Pud the existing things will be non-conforming well I think you'll want to someone will want to go back and look through and be very clear about what the new standards are and how and what they apply to um and and for all the changes I don't think we'd be creating a lot of non-conformities well like you currently proposed yeah the goal would be not to create like we've expanded setbacks or not expanded but we've redu we do we fainted High School I don't think looking through what we've proposed I did think through that previously that I don't think we've created any non-conformings as it stands now again but however I didn't go through it's possible there's a medical office no so I think Street facing parking would be the one thing that we're talking about tonight that would produce that for the one that we wanted that correct I mean there could be a set but yeah I guess I bring it up just to say I I already thought we were doing that and I thought that was just part of the process was accepting that in order to do this kind of funny thing where we're changing a beauty for multiple puzzles some of which are developed in some art that producing non-conforming would would be part of that product I guess I was comfortable with that so if that's something that's something I should be alarmed by then maybe I would want to know that and we can have it better if this is indeed postponed obviously I'm gonna look into the issues of the and how how that affects any of the existing okay absolutely because I certainly wasn't indicating that I thought the existing buildings needed to be retrofit to become electrified it was just new construction yeah okay yeah based on the discussions here at the table okay um I believe I'm looking for a motion then to uh postpone I moved to postpone this to the second date uh of Planning Commission in October the 17th I second and I think we do a vote right just by showa hands um show hands all right um any opposed okay um hereby this is postponed to October 17th thank you thank you Commissioners appreciate it yep okay um it is 9 15.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
so enjoy the next 29 or so days all right um if there are no more questions I'll entertain a motion to adopt the fiscal year 2024 budget including its respective fund transfers as presented so moved second Aaron and Raquel uh motion by Aaron seconded by Raquel all in favor aye um all opposed thank you motion passes strategic plan is this you Tom this is me hi Tom Lee please fill us in all right um me one second there all right thank you all right so um I've been here for about three months and have had an opportunity prior to even that uh to that to you know start getting engaged with our community both the internal stakeholders and external stakeholders uh during the course of that time it's been amazing just to hear about what people love about our school district what people hope for our school district and then also what people wish for our school district in terms of opportunities for growth opportunities for some change Etc um at opening day when when we were able as a school district to get together and celebrate the start of our new school year and be welcomed in by our Union leadership our our students who I want to point out are still here because they're just they're awesome they're fully engaged and wanting to see what's happening um and then a brief talk from me and I say brief right um but one of the things I shared is that there was going to be and there would be an opportunity for us to engage voice of our staff of our students and and really understand where where we would like BPS 101 to go there's been some mauling about does a new superintendent wait a year to get their feet grounded a little bit more and and you know continue to meet with staff continue to see students and meet with students Etc or you know do you have a good sense that after a start to be able to possibly say let's engage now I'm presenting to the board tonight that I'd like us to engage now I would prefer we move forward instead of waiting a part of that is due to the fact that I do think I've had a lot of Staff a lot of administration a lot of students a lot of our collaborative partnership groups outside of the district be really transparent and open and honest with me and share the great um you know the uh some things could be fixed and and what we should be going after right so tonight is an outline of what I'm proposing to the board a strategic plan process for 2024 and in this process like to talk about the fact that this this process would be touching our current strategic plan which has in its entirety been worked on as an entire project for around 10 years if I understand correctly parts of this plan have been touched by the district over its time but this seemed like a good opportunity for us to talk about what kind of nuclear path are we looking for and get the input of all of our stakeholders for BPS 101 and provide us a map and some goals and outline as to where we want to go next uh one of the things I think it'll help us do too and again this comes through some feedback and conversations that I've been having is giving us the ability to align in our district to talk about those collaborative relationships and what does that look like and how do we want align when we talk about certain things um as it relates to teaching and learning as it relates to equity and education and inclusiveness as it relates to what our facilities needs might be those are some serious themes that have been coming out during my opportunities to meet with people these are not things I'm manufacturing these are opportunities I've been hearing from everybody including parents when I go to different events or I'm at the bell ringing event at Louise White and had a couple come to me and ask me what am I planning to do about our buildings and Facilities I was like give me a minute we'll figure something out so um and then the other idea is that this will be an opportunity for us to identify what opportunities we want to want to approach and address as an organization is how we grow um so in terms of the process itself there's going to be a very similar looking overarching components you know we will take a look at what our vision and mission for the district is we're going to identify areas that might need to be addressed for growth and then we're also going to identify what our resources are identify those and then prioritize what are the resources that we know you know we just talked about the budget and approved our budget for next year we've talked a little bit about what those financial resources look like we also know because those are investments if there are priorities being identified that we need to spend money on some of those Dynamics change as Tony alluded to and we may have some decisions we have to make Again part of that will come through the feedback that we're getting so we understand what the priorities are and that we're not being left making these decisions in a vacuum right and the last thing is this is an opportunity for us to engage all of our stakeholders get them at the table have people provide their input give us ideas about how we want to approach these these things strategically part of the process is also going to include which is part of what I'm so excited about um is leveraging our students to be leaders in this process um there's a lot of people who sit down with me I tell them that our business is people our business is our staff our businesses our students that's our product that's what we do that's why we exist so for me I'm really excited to say that um I want all of our internal stakeholders our adults our staff our administrators to be engaged in the process and not working the process and who I like what we'll see leading is our students and I'm really excited by that because I think it gives our students an opportunity to be part of the process in a different way to help cultivate the conversations that are happening in our vision sessions and talk about their ability to not only lead our process but then engage with their own peers as well so that we have student input and student voice in our in our strategic plan process I'm saying process a lot right now um but so then the second part um to all this is our stakeholders so the question is well who who will exactly be invited nvps 101 the promise was made and the promise will be followed through on we're going to have all staff given the opportunity to participate in our process to engage in these sessions we're going to give students the opportunity as well we want student voice there and we'll have that and then our Administration the one group I didn't put in here but I'm going to make sure that you're very aware of board will also be part of the process boardwalks so have the ability to weigh in and be part of that voice in shaping what we're looking at for feedback from the external groups this is not a exhaustive list this is just an example of some of the folks that we want at the table but there's going to be more but as you can see this encompasses a lot of groups that we've been meeting with that I've been meeting with or that we've engaged with and that we're going to continue to tap on them and find ways to make sure that we have their voice represented um during our strategic plan process for the year one of the ways we want to ensure that there is accountability transparency and just making sure that we're following what we said we were going to do is the creation of a steering committee so the steering committee is the group that I'll meet with and report to regularly and if you can see up here on the slide these are the groups that will be represented they'll have a key representative there so the steering committee will be the body that will review like for example the raw data that comes from all of our listening sessions our vision sessions they'll take a look at that and then and then look at what we're synthesizing so they can say yeah no that that is completely accurate to what we're seeing from the raw data as well we agree bill this will also be the group that takes a look at drafts of the plants as we get through the process that will be able to provide feedback and then if there's something there that the steering committee feels isn't consistent to what they're seeing that's an opportunity for us to pause and talk about that and understand and what's what's happening there because again the biggest thing is is when we get done with this I personally do not want this to sit on a shelf and just check off and say we've done this right this is something that I expect myself to be held accountable to by the board and making sure that this becomes a living mission of what we're trying to do as we move forward right so I hope that means that all of these stakeholder groups have to believe that this was done correctly this was done transparently and this was done to make sure we're doing what's best for our students best for our kids um in general so then in the first semester the timeline for this current year obviously we're here tonight um talking about this and then seeking board approval for us to begin the work uh moving forward then through the remainder of this semester a lot of the selection process will begin um in in providing uh you know an opportunity to get to know students start selecting our our student facilitators start rounding out who will be the key stakeholder leaders in the steering committee and then providing training So the plan is that as we near the end of the first semester We Will We Will train all of our student facilitators so they know what it looks like to lead these processes and given that we'll look for different age ranges what I'm excited about it's an opportunity for our students to be mentors to younger students in our district as well so there's like this multifaceted approach of how our students will be leading together um so I'm pretty excited about that and then uh as a steering committee planning on having a meeting so that we can talk about what our protocols will be as we start this work together um how we build the themes is going to come through not only just what I shared with you in terms of my own uh you know observations and qualitative data from meetings I've had but we'll also be pressing surveys out so that we can make sure that we're consistent to what the feedback seems to be for our themes of what we want to approach during those Vision sessions so we we understand what opportunities we are trying to strategically want to address right and so that we have a little bit of a narrowed Focus um so that'll come through feedback that all of our stakeholders will be able to provide feedback to that we made available to everybody then as we roll into the following year at the start of the second semester uh we will commit time so the question might be like how do we get that voice we're going to commit our January and April Institute days so that when we have all of our staff together people don't have to worry about passing on commitment or passing on this opportunity because of personal commitments after work or anything like that will do we'll be using a portion of our Institute days for this process during the months of February March we'll use those sessions or those months excuse me to provide sessions for all of our other stakeholder groups and that's when once we start getting all that feedback come back in April we'll be able to provide a draft so that people can actually see what has been synthesized after the steering committee is taking a peek at this too and gives it that you know thumbs up to move that forward to the to the rest again the goal being to be as transparent as possible um and then at the April um Institute day we'll have staff and administration and students be able to provide us with feedback on what they think of that final draft does It capture what we have seen and heard and as a steering committee and myself will reconvene one more time to look at that feedback decide what adjustments we may need to make then by June bring this back to the board for a final approval and from there move forward I'm doing wait time any questions any questions uh yeah um for your students um I forgot what you call them committees or uh how are you going to decide that you know are you taking students on just different groups what is the plan for that do you have a plan for their eye I do so part of that is you know using the buildings leech student leadership councils I've already begun getting invited to some so I can start building a relationship with some of these groups of students and getting to know them the other thing is is me kind of trying to leverage some of our sponsorship groups you know the adults that know certain students because what I want is a really good cross-sectionality of representation on our student facilitation teams so that we're not having just you know a general type of student I want all various backgrounds to be represented through this process great question we're not taking their time away from the classroom for this are we right we are not no yeah I'll just add that we had a little meeting before the board meeting tonight that Mr Kim and I with our student ambassadors and I can say that what's exciting for me is that we are elevating student voice and we're making them active participants and you know strategic plan is our North Star it's our mission statement basically and so I can say Tom's got a lot of enthusiasm but when he's talking to students he really does that energy comes through so I have full faith that you're going to engage our students we're going to get a good response and I'll say again that um you know people want to have a a voice in our school district and what's going on we're going to be reaching out for leaders to share their opinions and their voice and recruit others so what an excellent opportunity for the community to get fully engaged with what we're going to be doing for the next decade or so probably so it's an ambitious timeline I think but I'm excited to see us get to work on it I'm not leaving myself any room by saying this is a tentative timeline trying to stick hard and fast to it so that we are we are here we're ready to go let's get this work done and um you know I think that's as some might say you know our students don't have time to wait so let's get after it let's let's hear our feedback I know in talking with teachers from every single building you know I think there's there's an energy of wanting to engage I think this is going to be a great chance to do that anyone else come on Raphael you have one question um you have a um cost of not to exceed twenty thousand dollars can you give us a little bit of what you see that would be great question yes so um you heard me mention I want our Administration so to in the experiences that I've had um the Strategic plan process typically engages using an external console uh consultation service or you use them but then the administration is asked to kind of lead a lot of that work on the front end I want our Administration to be part of the voice and feedback as well I want them to be part of the process not not necessarily leading the process um and I think because of that so I am asking the board for that authorization to utilize some help with um people to just help me with the background work set up the survey set up the training um you know help me take a look at as to how do we organize all that feedback and data that'll be coming back but then again like I said as part of the leadership process it'll be me and the students and I think board you've seen some estimates prior to me arriving as to what some Consulting Services look like for these things I think you'll see that our ask it's not to exceed 20 000 I anticipated to come underneath that but comparatively speaking to other services this is a very very fair for the community that might follow along will you be giving updates along the way of the data that's pulled in okay yeah in fact my plan would be during the uh like the administration report at board meetings even that we're just talking about this publicly just kind of providing that update for the community so anyone can see it I don't want there to be any secrets to this great any other questions not hearing any I will entertain a motion to approve the Strategic plan process for fiscal year 2024 with costs associated to the process not to exceed twenty thousand dollars so moved ah beats Aaron all right Danielle so uh motion by Rob second by Danielle all in favor aye aye opposed Q thank you last motion on a very motion heavy night approval of weight room four at high school I believe Mark you're leading this for us today good evening board um the weight room floor as you can see in my report um is in need of replacement to say the least um this really wasn't planned to be this soon it was kind of out there a little bit um the repairs just are not holding so we prepared it in early August um and I know the board um you saw some very recent pictures of it um in the last month's time it has not quite got back to where it was when we fixed it in August but it's getting there my fear is it's just not fear but it will just continue to get worse so that's why I worked with on the company to see if they could actually do the install over winter break um and they could but there's a timeline to get it and that's why I'm here tonight presenting it so we do need to get this ordered so they can get it done over winter break because as you know winter break you know as a only a couple weeks and there's a lot of pieces that have to come together to get this done I'm confident that will happen this weight room floor first started needing repairs I would say about three to four years ago when I say repair more than small repairs more extensive shutting the weight room down for a period of time it's a process to get the glue down to do it it is continuing to come up the current weight room floors and squares kind of similar to this carpet in here and so those squares are starting to come up they're bubbling and they're actually lifting away from the subsurface underneath and as you do it you pull the whole square up you actually have to cut them down to get them back in because of how what the floor is doing it's a recycled rubber product that was originally put in it was part of the referendum and well it's 2009 to 2012 so that I think the weight room if I remember correctly my research was opened in the fall of 2010 so this product's about 13 years old um it's probably a little bit sooner than it should but usually these floors have about about a 10 to 15 year span so yeah it's time but it's a little quicker than I had originally anticipated the product that we're going to is not a squared it's an actual rolled product so it doesn't come in individual squares so there's some benefits to that it's a product that I've gone and seen you'll see it in lots of weight rooms College High School kind of a you know in today's terms what what is normally used today any questions for Mark what's the shelf life on the new there's a 10-year warranty so 10 years which is pretty typical um there's some less some more but it's 10 years are pretty typical with this type of you know flooring well the role versus the squares help prevent that bubbling more than likely I mean that that's yeah it should um I from different contractors and different flooring reps I'd have had in it's their expertise it sounds like it's because of the type of flooring that was put in and each one of them says oh that's the Recycled rubber it's like yeah it was kind of like okay but each of them kind of said the same thing as I've come in and like yeah this isn't recycled the role isn't recycled whatever this is apparently it's a type that was used during that time um I don't know a lot about that um but the new stuff is that and it's a eight or ten I think it's a 10 millimeter product it's called a 10 mil and this space is kind of used all the time I knew this before that you started putting it together but I heard through my kids about how often the space is used yeah and that's kind of trying to get the time to really go in there um if not you're closing the entire thing down so that's why when we did the repairs it was in that first part of August um that's week that really nobody's in there well nobody should be in there during that week first week so we try to get in there and do as much repairs as we could Zara how often are you in there training right yeah it's an important resource so and it's so mark that warranty in 10 years that's full right like anything that happens and it's product warranty correct no cost to us right so if there's any defects with the product any you know anything like that okay any other questions all right hearing none I will approve of I will entertain a motion to approve the purchase and installation of a new weight room floor for Batavia High School from Kiefer USA and the amount of 114 610 dollars is that Danielle Danielle second by Raquel um all in favor aye opposed and motion passes thank you very much everyone thank you Mark uh an Administration comments anything Tom would you like to kick him out I did but Todd did it again so I I'm ending the BPS comments at the beginning of these meetings you're stealing every this is like two months in a row now and then our student ambassadors stole my son with thunder too so this is no good uh in all seriousness I do appreciate it I think it just goes to show just there's been there's a lot of good things happening but that there's a lot of good communication happening too um and that we're continuing to get better at that so just to reiterate you know obviously Yes you heard some great things that are happening at the high school in some recent recognition um including our graphic arts teacher Kathleen tiriton who is part of that Award of Distinction for our high school but she herself will be awarded as the Illinois art Education Association secondary art educator of the year so that that's an amazing recognition we heard about our wonderful marching band and their recognition at the NIU competition as well for best General effect we have three students at the high school who are finalists for the National Merits Scholarship and Kaden Johnson Alexander uh spinovich and Daniel White um one of the other announcements in case you haven't noticed on Windows we have homecoming week right so yeah as we've noted right parade right thank you for showing us the schedule and one thing we did not know say um allowed is that today is officially our I.T professionals recognition day appreciation day so I just wanted to say thank you to our entire technology department for all of their work that they've been doing I think you know it's been amazing just how much they do and how many tickets they keep taking care of as they come in the work ticket system so Dave thank you to you and your team kudos to the work and then I just want to thank Zara and Dory for taking time it's homecoming there's activities but they have chosen to stay here and be with us I want to thank you both I didn't put too much pressure on them in our meeting with Aaron but you know I expect when they leave BPS that they'll be uh creating world peace in solving world hunger these are two amazing kids and they're going to do some great things um I want to thank our Union as well with the Strategic plan process and rollout I've been talking with with our Union leadership and giving heads-ups about this process and and just how incredibly supportive they've been about just bringing us to a place where we're elevating our students in their leadership and their voice but also an opportunity all our stakeholders so it's very excited about that and uh I'm I'm just uh yeah oh I get excited about it so I'm gonna stop rambling because I'll just keep rambling I'm done that's it okay thank you Tom um I start with you down there and work your way back to me sure um I guess not too much this uh this month here but uh just wish all the students a successful homecoming week and I think the dance is on Saturday night so hopefully everyone will have a good good time this week um thank you to Tony Steve Brad for all your contribution to this meeting a lot of great information so I appreciate that and to reiterate Aaron's point about the transparency of things very good you know and appreciate it so thank you uh yeah lots of recognition from ba Best Buy student ambassadors the side over here um I think the only thing I have to add in this time I do want to recognize one other person Amber dressa I've recognized her previously when she received the north suburbs region teacher of the year award um she was also one of 12 finalists for Teacher of the Year I'm mentioning her again today to recognize an outstanding article written about her by the National Education association's opportunity Coalition um the article was about her professional and personal Journey um you know she's really worked to advocate for every student to feel like they belong um and what that provides is a better ability for for a really better education when our students feel like they do belong so I wanted to recognize her for that that article is really cool so um you know we have amazing staff and students who are continuously giving that's a reason to sit up here admire them and recognize them so just awesome it's my only add-in this time um so again I wanna I always say to every meeting but I want to thank everybody who participated in the meeting tonight or BPS Partners student ambassadors members of the community and then the staff who spoke again it's all valuable input it's essential for us to do our work uh I give credit to everybody who comes to the meeting and stays for the entire meeting so thank you for that and everybody who's watching online or who watches uh reads about it later on but again we need that feedback so we encourage that again when I say it's really exciting to see our students being recognized for academic achievement and the Arts and Athletics I mean our kids are really thriving and at that point the people I want to recognize are really our families and the people that are supporting them I mean I think the reason one of the reasons our kids are able to thrive is that um they're able to focus on these things and I see a lot of parents who are doing a lot of hustling to support these kids and get them to the activities and to provide them the resources so that they can you know perform to their best so you know tomorrow at the homecoming parade they'll be driving floats and I'm sure they're helping with those things and that's a lot of thankless work to help our community celebrate our children so I just want to thank our families again uh Batavia families always step up and rise to the occasion and then again I just want to say I hope homecoming is fun and safe for everyone it's a fun night but also it can be a stressful night and so I would just say look out for each other and take care of each other and I hope that uh you know Sunday morning we can all look back with fond memories so thank you that's why I say congratulations to the grace McWane for the heart challenge Grant congratulations to Daniel white Caden Johnson and Alexander Alexander simanovic for being named the finals for the 2024 National Merit Scholarship program congratulations to the Batavia High School for being recognized as a 2023 School of Distinction by the Illinois art Education Association and then also September is suicide prevention month so my sympathy goes out to anyone who has lost someone to Suicide has struggled with suicidal thoughts or communities that have been impacted by that I just remember that 988 is the suicide hotline so please call if you are struggling with suicidal thoughts also uh his happy Hispanic Heritage Month I'm proud to be Mexican descent I'm proud of all the contributions that the Hispanic and Latino communities have made and I can't wait to see how the future Generations continue to contribute and to keep Bridging the Gap to equality and lastly happy homecoming week please be safe at the game and at the dance and go Bulldogs um I won't belabor too much I'm the only thing I'm going to mention again is thank you for everybody that did come today and spoke and our student ambassadors you guys did a wonderful job as usual and I kind of see you leveling up of the game and if you're not ready for it Tom will make you ready for it so good job for keeping up with them thank you to um our Union partners that came and spoke we do appreciate all the the kind of communication collaboration and that is something that we look forward to carrying on with and is very important to us as well on a personal note I realized when NIU when the marching band went off to uh place first at NIU which this is the first Saturday in nine years that I did not go do that so I do want to just kind of bring back the point that talked about all the effort that goes in to that and that's not just parents that's teachers and staff putting their support Behind these kids and giving them their opportunities to succeed and giving the parents the resources to be able to place to build props keep them out of the weather keep working when it's wet you know have the resources and the time and and that's the thing that people don't always realize about you know that that kind of relationship is not just between the teachers and the staff and the admin it's also between the kids and the parents and the teachers and the staff and admin and that's something that I find really unique about Batavia and I'm really proud that that's kind of going off without a hitch and the kids are seeing the rewards of all that labor whether it be football games or art Awards or anything else so thank you again I believe that would be it since I'm the last board member to comment so I will entertain a motion to adjourn so moved Aaron second by Raquel all in favor all opposed it is now 8 22 p.m in the morning thank you again everyone
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
uh how is everyone doing on energy should we keep going good good all right we are moving on to section 9C regular business I'm going to introduce a petition 1710 duvaren Road Village of Ann Arbor mended site plan and rezoning for city council approval thank you again um an amendment to the approved side plan that includes rezoning of two Parcels from Township to r4a multi-family residential and an additional 200 120 residential units along duvaren with an amenities Park area in adjacent parking the total units proposed will be 604 units on the 78.5 Acre Site the parcels to be rezoned are 2520 and 2540 Pontiac Trail the total area of rezoning is 5.9 Acres the staff recommendation is an approval and we will start with petitioner presentation welcome thank you welcome back I am back good to see you again uh Tim lockerman Robertson Brothers Home 6905 Telegraph Road uh see a lot of familiar faces hello good to see you again um so tonight um yes we're here and I had alluded to this back when I saw you last which I'm thinking was last year already time flies that we'd come back with a site plan Amendment for the remaining portion of the village of Ann Arbor which was a previously approved excuse me for 448 forums for 84 homes on Pontiac and duvarn so we can skip to the next I'm trying to size this properly I don't know why my screen isn't I think you can go to under view Matt on top left view I got the view up oh no no no no no it's sorry there's a lag uh re yes read mode I think that's what we want there we go okay that's better sorry about that yes okay yeah it's still a little I have to scroll up a little bit but okay perfect um so just and I'll go quickly because I know you're all familiar with the project quite a bit um but the village of Ann Arbor and we are developing in conjunction um with dtn there are Partners on the project it's a large site obviously you all know we had a lot of challenges um to bring the project to fruition took a lot of time and effort and thought and help from you help from the city council and and you know we appreciate we're very happy with where we're at again this is really that last step um in the the process as we had been up front about from the beginning the site overall we really we called it Village of Ann Arbor because we really believe it is a village it's a concept with a lot of different types of housing options um you know ranging from the request here tonight 685 square feet up to about 1850 square feet multiple bedroom types that sort of thing so you're going to see a lot of different types you know real diversity of home buyers and renter so there is a for sale and a rental component tonight what we're talking about is the just around five acres of the site which is over about almost 80 acres so it's a very obviously small portion of it we really always envisioned as you know the bringing in this additional area and the site plan and you know in fact our storm water Pond had been sized for it so this was always something that we had had planned I want to go into detail obviously in a minute here your master plan density designation is seven to ten units per acre it is zoned r4a with the exception of the two Parcels that are recently annexed which is why we're delayed we were delayed in bringing this additional portion in front of you tonight but r4a we are buy right in that r4a zoning District we have not asked for anything this is not a PUD with any public benefit requirements we did have a variance we don't need it now if we can get tonight's site plan Amendment approved which again we'd always envisioned so tonight 120 rental units in this amendment is a total that would bring the total up to 604 total again for sale and four lease homes just around eight units per acre which is right in that seven to ten band the unit sizes tonight and the request they're 685 square feet for a one bedroom and just over a thousand square feet for two bedroom units it is a stacked product three stories and overall open space which is very onerous is 65 but I think it really adds to kind of what what will draw people into this uh this community so why are we here I've kind of alluded to it it's to mend the overall plan for the village of Ann Arbor and we're asking really for just just some specific things the addition of the 120 unit for at least portion that is the area on duvarn and these areas have actually been already rezoned a portion of it was previously previously zoned r4a we had rezoned the other portion of duvarn I think it was probably official earlier this year late last year the rezoning request that is in front of you is for the two Parcels that we had annexed in recently and that's important because um the delay and bringing you these 120 units on the plan really specifically was the length of time it took for those two Parcels on Pontiac Trail to get annexed in it's just a long process well well no so we had moved forward with the rest of the project knowing that after we get annexed for those two Parcels which is official now we come back in and those are the 10 acres on Pontiac Trail the reason we did that a for density although I think we would have met the density without it but really the open space the open space of 65 percent it's very difficult to do without buying additional land so we had identified that a long time ago just took time to get the annexation so that really is the purpose of meeting your open space minimums the majority of the site really does remain the same we've made some what I'll call minor improvements to the south southern portion which I'll show you on the plan and those improvements are really kind of just realigning some of the buildings changing some of the access around the clubhouse and an addition of a building path system on the former landfill which of course one of those challenges on the site as long as we can get through Eagle the other thing I'll point out on the site plan which I we're very excited about is we're adding a very significant Park amenity to the site dog park landscaped areas Pathways Community Gardens that sort of thing so we're very we're very excited we always kind of thought of that as this is an area where we can do something really special on the site so and as I mentioned this does eliminate a variance then that we already received so the project highlights I'm just going to go real quick on this um you know we've got the mix of residential land uses we do have um I believe quite a bit of green energy initiatives we've got solar street lights just to bring everybody back up to speed um BMP stormwater infrastructure Clubhouse solar panels energy efficient appliances and we did agree to the for sale portion being all electric again that was not a requirement but we felt that was very important to do um you know we've had a lot of conversations with you with the city council and also with quite a bit of the the residents of your city we've had a lot of private conversations and and I think we've really had a lot of good discourse between and again family oriented plans and I won't talk about dtn Robertson because you've heard me say it all uh next slide is the context plan uh everybody's familiar with it I hope but again duvar and the Pontiac Trail the things that maybe you may have forgotten we are providing a new access to Leslie Park the only access right now was from the Devon on the Park Subdivision which is really kind of a private entrance we will have private roads but they are open they'll be a public easement so they'll function like City roads we'll just maintain the um through our HOA and our leasing operation the maintenance on those roads so I think that's a win-win for the city as a matter of fact and also to the north to Olson Park so we really like how that kind of connects the two parks that's been something we've we've really liked from the very beginning and you can see we've got r4a and r4b basically all around us so we really do fit in in that respect the next slide please Matt so this is the overall plan it's basically almost identical to what you've seen before with the exception of the four buildings along duvarn that's 120 units for 30 unit buildings All Surface parts and then essentially you can see those nature trails I think I'd probably shown you that in a previous iteration saying we don't know if equal allow us they have given us a thumbs up but I don't have a permit for it so we're still working through that but we believe that we'll be able to meet all of their requirements to put nature trails which be open to the public again better connection from Olson to Leslie Park and then on the south side if you can scroll down a little bit we haven't touched any of the town home the for sale portion the um the apartments on the south side we just kind of cleaned up some of the um dimensions of where those buildings are located just to make it more efficient and then improve the parking around the clubhouse um and then I think the most exciting part is as you go west along where the apartments are we've had that Community amenity I don't think this shows up very well but we're very excited about that so there'll be some natural areas some um you know special seating seed mix on on some of the the grass areas as I mentioned before our Our Land planner Geeks out on this so he really he really kind of kind of I think gave us a vision that we were hoping for on this and then you can see a little bit of a community area gazebo with some Community Gardens so that's something that I think in a community this large is something that that I think is really productive for the project and then we'll still have a lot of open space you can see all the way to Pontiac Trail that'll stay open at this point other than there will be a single family home that'll that'll remain and that that's always been part of our plan there and that'll stay with the seller we do have quite a bit of wetlands of course we're I think our Wetland we already have a wetland permit and I always think it was like .04 Acres so we stayed out of that as much as possible so I went quickly on that but you've all seen it so that's the overall plan I just wanted to point out some of the improvements that we've made the next slide just as a um highlight of the new area again it's close to duvarn road which takes away that variance that we've received you can see the elevations there it is it is a stacked product they are all rental units all surface part we're meeting your your new EV parking codes which we went through you know throughout length with planning and you can see there's kind of that little line there that is part of the the landfill area we do have a methane trench I think I talked about that last time which has been approved by eagle kind of cuts up in this area but of course away from from the units themselves we are providing quite a screen to the west side where there are some existing homes we've had a lot of conversations with them we've worked with those Neighbors on a new easement so they can access this new road there so I believe and we've tweaked the site plan to as you can see put some trees so they don't have buildings right against right away from the across from there and entrance there so we've worked closely with them as well so that's the new site plan amended area the next slide again is that little bit of a blow up on that Community Park amenity I'm happy to go into detail on some of this but I think you can tell this will be a great addition to the project overall and then the next slide and I showed you this before so nothing's really changed I just we we did have a lot I think a lot of things that we added to this project that maybe we don't typically do just because it was such a large site so first and foremost this is recycling a contaminated landfill it's been sitting there there's a reason why there's 70 80 acres in Ann Arbor um how should we dropped it once so I think I said that before so it's hairy but um we got we got a handle on it we're ready to get started of course the all-electric component which I know is very important to you and those connections to Leslie Park so I went through that fast but I think you probably appreciate that and I am happy to answer any questions you may have thank you yes thank you we will go to staff presentation Mr Kowalski and get you a yeah good overall screens um good evening again I don't really have a lot to add uh interestingly although it's not necessarily a small apartment with a small project with adding 120 units it's it's kind of a small part of the overall site so um as far as like a site plan review there wasn't um you know there wasn't um as was mentioned there's not a lot of changes Elsewhere on the site there's a couple of tweaks to building layouts and parking Arrangements obviously that was all looked at as staff we look at the entire site plan again because excuse me there it's it's one site plan so we had to look at everything again so um we did that but as far as focusing in on the 120 units there again there wasn't a a lot to really analyze there there are it's heavily treated but a lot of them are not Landmark trees there's a lot of I mean and I hate to call any Trio junk tree necessarily but there's not a lot of necessarily high quality um features right in that area and of course everything's mitigated as required by code um again you know as was mentioned if you have it just to reiterate there is a rezoning involved with this as well so this is a pipeline that will go ultimately to city council for final approval um the rezoning at those Parcels along Pontiac Trail basically as was mentioned those are annexed to to get the uh the land area basically to enable these units to be added along duvarn and that was uh that the nullified basically the variance that the petitioner had to get previously because of the uh Min the max exceeding the uh setback in that area so that now goes away uh again as far as any other items worthy of pointing out of all the existing sustainable elements again we just reiterate those are anything that was pledged for the first project as far as yellow solar lights and all those kind of things for Street lighting that goes consistent with this with this new area that's being developed as well um and I think that sorry I think that kind of wraps up really my presentation I think at this time again just reiterate the site plan and rezoning before you're here tonight thank you Mr Kowalski we will move on to public hearing this is an opportunity for persons to speak up to three minutes about the proposed Village of Ann Arbor amended site plan we'll first call on individuals present to address the commission then remote participants to speak during this public hearing remotely please press star 9 or star six if listening by phone or use a raise hand feature if viewing through the web link for phone access please 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 and 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 and mute any television or background signs so that we may hear you clearly for either method of participation please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments is there anyone present that would like to speak at this time hello welcome thank you we have a microphone okay my name is Rich Fein I live at 618 Duane Court I'm a member of the Ann Arbor chapter of the citizens climate Lobby I lead their building electrification and efficiency action team back in July of last year you were told in a commission meeting that operating costs for heat pumps were much more than for gas yes in Ann Arbor utility costs for heat pumps are higher it's due to our high electric rates and our low gas rates but the burden to the renters is much less than what you were what you heard I apologize for going old Tech on these all right next time I'll be digital the data tables that you have received show utility cost differences between gas and all electric for a for rent town home at the Village of Ann Arbor this graph shows the cost differences per month between Gas and Electric these calculations are from four different energy analyzes the main point is that the consistency across three of the four analyzes indicates that additional utility costs for using a heat pump over gas in these Town Homes is likely around 21 to 31 dollars per month rather than the much higher 93 dollars per month shown in a report provided at that July 2020 commission meeting now relating this to the 120 apartments at the village a preliminary analysis for its two-bedroom apartments and I will repeat preliminary shows the cost difference is likely to average around ten dollars per month yes every dollar counts for a renter but where 71 of the city voted for a climate millage we believe that most are willing to pay a little extra for cleaner Heat it's a very small percentage of the rent Robertson Brothers should also consider that when the public disclosure component of a20's green rental housing program is implemented gas will be a marketing liability other developments are being built with all electric Why Can't This we have all have to start moving out of our comfort zone to make changes that must be made the passivity has to stop we request that the village to project up I'm done or not permitted to move forward without further review of the potential for it to be all electric or until the Planning Commission and the council develop a plan that incentivizes electric or otherwise averts new construction with gas thank you thank you is there anyone else present yes please hi I am Dr Larry drunk 2128 Wallingford in Ann Arbor's Ward 3.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
I am a professor emeritus and U of M medical school here to speak against the plan of Robertson Brothers to incorporate gas furnaces and gas water heaters in The Villages of Ann Arbor I have no conflicts of interest my comments today are directed both to the Planning Commission and to Robertson Brothers is a physician knowledgeable about air pollution and climate change I'm very concerned about the bad Health consequences from climate change caused by the burning of gas I'm also concerned about other consequences of climate change including direct heat effects on humans extreme weather events Extinction of animal and plant life virtually no educated person doubts the existence or seriousness of climate change but recent events in the news highlight how serious this is this summer was the hottest summer ever by a large margin the oceans are the hottest ever by a substantial margin in the past month we've seen three severe storms with a probable relationship to climate change including storm Daniel which has taken over 11 000 lives effects in Michigan have included flooding in Detroit and threats to Michigan agriculture atmospheric CO2 levels are the highest ever at 417 parts per million and Rising steadily strong actions are needed Ann Arbor's 820 plan is a strong plan with a realistic chance of success provided homeowners and other involved parties cooperate it calls for measures to make Ann Arbor carbon neutral by 2030.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
in 2022 a millage to fund this plan passed with over 70 percent of votes in favor Robertson's plan not only doesn't comply with a 2-0 plan but it's an insult to the leaders of Ann Arbor and to our good citizens who strongly support this plan with its gas furnaces and water heaters excuse me the plan of Robertson Brothers appears to be geared toward their short-term profits but against the long-term interests of their future residents and the people of Ann Arbor in doing so they have underestimated the people of Ann Arbor who tend to be smart caring about the community and caring about the world around us in addition to flying in the face of the 820 plan Robertson Brothers proposal to use 20th century Heating and Cooling technology will contribute to health problems in our in our citizens as well as the health problems of climate change it will leave homeowners paying higher monthly costs in the future concerning that burning gas is less efficient than heat pumps for home feeding and Home Heating and water heating also that gas prices are unsustainable at their present level it will lower the long-term value of these homes because of their inefficient 20th century technology I urge the committee to do everything you can to steer Robertson Brothers in a better Direction with this plan thank you thank you hello hello welcome I'm Lisa Spitz I'm a tax paying City resident 809 Johnny Woods Drive thank you for this opportunity to speak I appreciate your work this spring I retired from a3c collaborative architecture after 25 years with some of the best sustainable designers in the region for the prior 13 years I worked in planning and design at St Joe's I recently started a retirement job for the A2 2030 District continuing my work with Jane Culbertson who I'm sure many of you know I'm an artist with a lifelong passion for the natural world I'm appalled by the Folly of people who are blind to the worth of all other species with this history combining science art and inclination I'm here to beg you to do the right thing on phase two of The Village project and further at every opportunity please use your position to help and fossil fuel reject the site plan Amendment until Robertson Brothers agrees to an all-electric plan for all units you are not locked into approval you could postpone request more information or simply vote no I offer one example of many Tim McDonald and onion Flats architecture whose team has created dozens of phenomenally inspiring Net Zero multi-family developments many for affordable housing you don't build affordable housing with overly costly Tech The Proven technology is in use right now we are in a climate emergency not in the future right now we must stop business as usual you can make this simple choice to insist that all new developments be built all electric city council recognize the climate emergency a tremendous effort has been put into the incredibly ambitious a to zero plan it's not perfect but it's such an excellent framework any new fossil fuel plans negate this work and we are not meeting those ambitious goals I'm told the developer plans to build in capacity to switch these apartments from gas to electric in the future when these appliances will last from 8 to 20 years gas appliances working in this field all my life I can tell you that switch won't happen before that if you must see it only in terms of dollars look at the long term cost the fossil fuel damage in this plan would dwarf any negligible cost of the electric alternatives finally back to art I believe at this critical time in human history we must recharge our imagination there are so many astonishing inspiring efforts underway all over the world to implement Solutions we need all of these efforts we have to search for them build on them and align our imaginations it's not too late we can do this but we must do it now thank you hello hello I'm Donald Levitt I live at 218 West Kingsley street I'm here to voice my opposition to the use of natural gas in the village of Ann Arbor phase two I'd like to tell you about my personal story as to why I feel so strongly about this my story is in two chapters chapter one on May 7th I hosted the first annual A2 climate teach in at Genesis in Ann Arbor mayor Christopher Taylor was our opening speaker Professor Shelley Miller was our closing speaker we had six breakout sessions and 16 table staffed by local climate action organizations we were sponsored by eight congregations Beth Israel congregation blue ocean Church First Presbyterian Church First Unitarian Universalist Congregation Sinclair's Episcopal Church Saint Francis of Assisi Parish Temple Beth ameth and Zion Lutheran Church all of these congregations are concerned about climate change and there are certainly others now hearing this you might think that I'm knowledgeable about climate action I'm not I'm a total novice it was only 18 months ago that I really gave this any thought chapter 2.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
two years ago in 2021 my wife and I moved into one of the new condos in Carytown there are 51 units in the building all with gas heat here's the point of my story when we moved in in 2021 I didn't pay any attention to the fuel used to heat the condos it wasn't on my radar screen then I got interested in climate change and now I'm frankly horrified that I live in this gas-powered condo it's a beautiful building on great location we love it but damn I wish I had thought of this before we moved in my point is that many people in Ann Arbor will be like me the 250 people at my teach-in will be like me they won't pay any attention to the gas versus electric issue until they do pay attention to it and then they'll be mad like me that the builders could not look even a little bit into the future and see that gas-fueled heat in this day and age is ridiculous and vastly destructive it's wrong we all know it's wrong and a couple of years from now people will look back at this so-called controversy about continuing to install gas and wonder why it was even considered it's time that we stop installing gas now not only at the Village of Ann Arbor but for any new construction we can't stop this one development at a time we need a comprehensive process that steers developers away from gas and to full electrification thank you hi Commissioners thank you very much my name is David gerk I'm from 1315 South Maple Road on the west side of town and I'm representing Washtenaw climate reality this evening um I understand that this uh is your opportunity to consider phase two of this project with phase one a lot of us did come here or write letters and we asked for you to compel the developers to use purely electric means to eat the property and as I understand it you went through with the approval anyway I and and it went to the city council for them to pass um so you might wonder what's different now what's changed now what's happened why are we bothering to come again if it happened before presumably you'll do the same thing this time what's happened this time is the summer of 2023 I'm sure you've all been reading about it every day hearing about it in the news we've been breaking uh heat records everywhere 31 straight days over 110 degrees in Phoenix nearly the entire summer over 100 degrees in Austin Texas not only in our summer here in the northern hemisphere but in the winter which is going on right now in the southern hemisphere they're breaking all sorts of Records it's not just a matter of breaking records it's demolishing records obliterating records not by hundredths of a degree but by a quarter of a degree that might not sound like too much a quarter of a degree celsius that is a gigantic differential when you're talking about going above what the previous record was and it's not just a matter of numbers it's also a matter of consequences we had the fire uh the wildfires in Hawaii now was that all because of climate change no they had invasive grasses there which really were not properly adapted to the area but climate change is always a threat multiplier it dried they had a drought there they had a excessive heat there everything was dried out and when the heat when the fire came it just spread literally like wildfire just a couple of I guess it was about a week or two ago not probably not even two weeks ago probably one week ago in Libya they had that horrible flooding situation now we all know the dams broke and a lot of that was because they weren't maintained properly much of it was because it was an inordinate amount of rain just today the weather attribution World weather attribution service said that the rains were 40 percent greater heavier than they would have been in the absence of climate change and that the break the breaking of the dams was 50 times as likely as it would have been in the absence of climate change I'm just saying things are different now had it been 10 years okay had it been 10 years okay okay please I'm just going to Echo what my what my colleagues said earlier please don't let this through and I want to thank the Developers for making the change that you did with regard to putting in heat pumps in the um in the condo aspect of it but this is a different era now we are not in the era of half measures we must stop the use of fossil fuel completely at this point so thank you very much thank you is there anyone else present I would like to speak thanks Charlie Ken Garber again 28 Hamburg Court I won't try to match the eloquence of the previous speakers um I'll just try I just want to raise a few points the um 164 for sale homes they'll be all electric the solar street lights and the clubhouse solar I don't know how widely known this is but you and I are paying for that not the developer it's it's been Incorporated in the Brownfield plan for this site um 1.32 million for the heat pumps 440 thousand dollars for the solar panels plus 1.171 million in carrying costs for the above so um a developer in my mind doesn't get points for this and I personally think that we as a pub the public should not be paying for something that developers should be doing already um so uh I've spoken and I counted 14 separate times on the village project dating Back to December 2021 um all for the same reason that the previous five speakers just did I understand everyone's position on this the developer it's a speculative project you know they see risk it's a big project they have to pay off their construction loan they have an internal rate of return they have to achieve why add x what they perceive as you know an extra risk on to this you know this commission I know you badly wanted electrification we saw that with the alterum discussion I thank you for that I'm really grateful that that it looks like you're going to require that of that developer I realized that once this zoning is approved this becomes an all right project and you feel that you cannot you can ask for it here but you can't require it um because there's nothing that addresses this in the UDC all this is true everyone is right okay but the net effect is more and more missions you know globally nationally locally on our our latest uh inventory showed that local emissions are up for the second year in a row we must take Collective responsibility for this problem including average Americans like me with our huge carbon Footprints someone has to own this uh maybe that time and place is here tonight I asked Robertson Brothers Mr Law Firm for the 14th time to go all electric you know this is a good developer and this is a good site plan um like I said I understand their their point of view but um I ask you to take what you perceive to be a slight additional risk to this project you're just harder to go all electric um but do it for the planet um if they don't I ask you as a Planning Commission to take an expansive view of your responsibilities something has to change thank you Mr Garber is there anyone else present that would like to speak seeing no one else is there anyone that would like to address the commission remotely we have three total callers with their hands raised I'll go in the order on my screen color ending in five three four where's my mouse um you have permission to speak to the Planning Commission please unmute yourself you have three minutes thank you let me start with what I like about this project it meets the density in the comprehensive plan seven to ten years and it has a nice variety of houses I really like that aspect of the project the for sale and the four ramp and the different housing structures I think that's excellent part of this plan I suppose energy commission environmental commission even the CBA anybody to speak to ask or essentially a carbon impact statement on every single development that comes before you if we are going to beat Net Zero by 2030.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
we need to know the numbers to plug into that great big spreadsheet we must have because every time we approve something that's then there's a deficit that we're going to have to make up somewhere else if it's your intention to approve this with The Gap appliances then we need to know that number to plug into that big spreadsheet but we have to make up we know what we have to make up elsewhere in order to hit that at zero and we should be doing that for every single project the hope I can influence Planning Commission to put some pressure on whoever it is that's going to make that decision the required carbon impact on every single project whether you vote no or vote Yes we need to know that we know how we're doing on meeting that Net Zero recently we passed we approved a plan at lower down phase three for 200 apartments that are going to be yeah heating gas water heat they said maybe they might switch to electric dryers uh your former chairs Planning Commission was essentially pleading with the developer to please do better um in that case we have the Leverage demands that they do better I think some people did not understand conditional zoning well enough to know at the time that the developer had conditions upon them and they were asking to have those taken off and we had the leverage to demand better in terms of putting the building on that project we're not always going to have that Leverage but when we can we need to use whatever influence we have if we're going to achieve that Net Zero and I really want to thank all the articulate speakers that preceded me today thank you all for showing up I'm sorry I did not thank you all right um next speaker um Luis Vasquez you are now allowed to speak you have three minutes to address the Planning Commission thank you uh Luis Vasquez 909 Barton Drive practically a neighbor of this development this proposed development um it's hard to balance the need for the extreme need for housing in Ann Arbor with the need for sustainability and just as you spent a bit of time talking about the Green Road PUD just before it hit 9C on your agenda you spoke about electrification and the importance of electrification and I have to agree with all the previous speakers that this is also important for this proposed development uh so um yeah uh and and additionally I think the buildings along uh that that are being proposed to be built along to foreign they're not nearly tall enough and also need to consider electrification in in terms of reaching our goals of sustainability and uh getting the use of fossil fuels down but yep it's hard to balance the need for housing along with the need for sustainability but I know your hearts are in the right place on these issues and uh and I would encourage the developer also to take it to heart you know we want the best developments we want to add neighbors to our neighborhoods in Ann Arbor and let's move forward I'm really excited to see uh Planning Commission moving forward on a lot of these properties and developments and these issues but uh yes it's important to consider electrification thank you for your time tonight thank you we have one more um attendee who has a raised hand Alex Lowe now you can unmute and address the Planning Commission for three minutes hi folks it's Alex Lowe again 3340 Fernwood Avenue I want to start with just a quick correction to Dr Larry duck gas heating isn't a 20th century technology we've been piping methane into people's houses and burning fossil flatulence since the 19th century so it's even older than that I am a pro heat pump and pro electrification I certainly think that gas stoves are a terrible idea and quite frankly heat pumps especially you've gotten ground Source ones are a no-brainer there aren't many things in engineering that are a win-win situations but these are better for the environment even with dte's coal-fired generation and it's something that they'll have to eventually do anyway putting in geothermal heat pumps now well there's already going to be large construction equipment all over the site it's going to be far cheaper than retrofitting the buildings later we've heard tonight from some real environmentalists with real concerns as well as from someone using for environmentalist arguments to opposers development I'd like to add one more real environmentalist perspective I would like to see electrics Joe's heat pumps Etc I'm okay right now with uh with having gas for backup uh heating for the middle of winter and maybe for uh for uh for water heaters if we could get a limited one that would be great but another environmental thing that's that seems to have been overlooked sheer magnitude of space that we're devoting to or specifically of lands that we're devoting to the storage of cars rather than you know housing people I think that a a much better version of this project would be are for e-zone and would have either far less parking or have their parking instructions I really would encourage the developers to consider this especially get given the Egypt just in normal in all this environmental damage that that caused you globally every year thank you so much thank you we have another caller with their hand raised give me one second caller with phone things jumping color with phone number ending 194.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
please unmute and you may speak to the Planning Commission for three minutes caller ending in one nine yes we can hear you now thank you hi this is Rita Mitchell calling I was at 621 5th Street in Ann Arbor and I'll just let you know that I am here at the environmental Commission in Ann Arbor but I am speaking for myself tonight um and I want to thank all the speakers who called out to the points of needing to move to electrification as soon as possible our need for that is urgent because of the clinic emergency so I only want to call out a point that the real expense right now I think Kathy for developer probably won't be the long-term owner of this property and so is looking at costs related to initial implementation but we need to look long term and so my comment is that what's really expensive is retrofit we should not set up buildings now that has to be retrofitted in the future in order to accommodate the electrification that we know we need now that's all thank you very much thank you uh no other callers so we will move on to the proposed motion the Ann Arbor City Planning Commission hereby recommends that the mayor and city council approve the village of Ann Arbor r4a zoning and site plan located at 1710 duvarn and within the southeast quadrant of the Pontiac Trail in duvaren Road moved by council member dish uh seconded by commissioner weich we are in discussion would anyone like to kick us off our council member dish I will take the privilege of speaking first because this is a project that is in my ward I appreciate the acknowledgment by a number of the speakers that we are all on the same side none of us denies the seriousness of anthropogenic climate change none of this lacks a sense of urgency about the problem in this as in every situation we confront trade-offs and we can emphasize what this project does not do but we could also emphasize what it does do this is a forward-looking future looking project that repurposes a blighted site that has a capped landfill on it has and has been set or sorry has sat vacant for over 50 years I think right um this is diverse housing these are not High bedroom count units targeting students students are welcome to live there and they may well this project adds some housing at an accessible price point to an area that has seen on the one hand high-end Market construction and on the other construction targeting students designed for students and not very adaptable to anything other than student use it is the 164 for sale condos are all electric that is not how this project came to us it required considerable negotiation hard work by staff and a lot of I think genuine Goodwill by the developer who has spent an enormous amount of time and money trying to figure out how to build residential you know houses which is all houses or residential houses how to put a residential project on a site with a landfill all of the buildings and homes with this within this project not just the condos but all of them will include electric cooking appliances and electric washers and dryers the I mean I I wish that there were simple choices but there are no simple choices the city does not have the legal ability or really any other tools to compel developers to heat and cool all new buildings with Electric Power and until we are able to make the same impose the same requirements on everyone who comes with comes to us with this kind of project this is not a PUD this is not a this is not uh this is not the same yes we are rezoning a next properties but it's not the same as when we Face a PUD I don't feel that we can randomly hold some people to higher standards than we hold others we need to treat everyone who wants to build here fairly no one is seeing this only in terms of dollars I'm seeing it in terms of 604 more people who will come to the North End of Pontiac Trail rather than driving in on M14 which is doing a whole lot of damage to our community and so I understand the things that this development doesn't do I value the things that it does this is a small piece of a project that has been very uh that is required a whole lot to bring it to fruition I think that we would have negotiated into in bad faith if we did not allow these this last bit of this project to go through and welcome the green space that these residents will have it's marvelous to provide such amenities so thanks commissioner salve I'll Echo that um yeah we have a hard time and we have a lot of work to do relative to incentivizing I agree that there are tools that we can probably incorporate that we haven't yet to help incentivize not require that's what we can do at this table and I'm looking forward a lot more of those conversations and we are in the crisis that this is should be near the top of our list um at the same time there's just this unique point of this project that um with the addition of this we get more open space so we remove the requirement and we get more density simultaneously so it just seems like a little Nuance to celebrate within our zoning that's going right that we get open space and density simultaneously um and a lot of the pieces that you know we go back to to the trade offices if not here those homes are going to go somewhere the housing crisis doesn't stop at our city borders it goes elsewhere and the market will follow it and we have a green belt and so we're not those homes aren't going nearby in the township they're leapfrogging over that green belt and commuting even further away so our our ideas of the green belt from 30 years ago or actually having repercussions on increasing our vehicle miles traveled uh and the townships and the municipalities in their perimeter uh are not putting the pressure on electrification uh where we are not not only putting the pressure on and seeing developers kind of meet us somewhere we are continuing to try to work on those incentives as well um I'll add I appreciate the utility cost mishta's uh utility schedule for our region actually um matches this very similarly so he just to kind of add anecdotal data heating is eleven dollars more for electric versus natural gas cooking seven dollars water heating water fifteen dollars service for gas is 14 for electric is 10.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
so that gives us a Delta of 29 additional a month for mishta and how they factor in your cost of living at your 30 percent for your AMA calculations so similarly we see between 21 and 31 dollars a month and mishta is here at 33 29 to 33 a month so Misha's done the work too and misht has also done the work to calibrate and say affordable and electric are also compatible right and they're factoring that in so it's just good to see and it's also recognizing that electricity is more but also supported by our affordable housing factors at the same time so I don't see it ever as an excuse that a little bit more a month makes it inaccessible or inaffordable it just kind of validates we're all working with utility costs as the issue and maybe my final point and I know we had this discussion the first time around that DTE and the service on the North side is difficult and I understand that there were conversations around this project and what service could come and again we have a lot of conversations to have as a community with our utility and service Proprietors to put that pressure on to bring more service to these areas because we want to see more density and we want to see it serviced by electricity um but I don't want to see it serviced by gas outside of our our community and IT service by gas and then connected by gas cars simultaneously so I look forward to supporting this with the tools that we have as it's presented today but I appreciate all the variables and the conditions presented and we understand and we're really working towards that if I can kind of offer that up thank you thank you commissioner salve Mr Hammerschmidt can't really follow either of those so I will say I concur for the petitioner you mentioned an easement thing is with the neighbor and I remember when you were here before we we talked I think a lot about the the lack of connectivity into that neighborhood at that time so were you able to make inroads with that Community that's to the north west to a lot to to have more like penetration and connectivity between the sites to single-family homes that are on duvarn so there's a common access right now off of duvarn for that we're shifting that over allowing them to access on our new road so that's what I was referring to I don't believe there's any opportunity necessarily to connect to Devon on the park just because there are a lot of their homes basically backing up all the way to the actually adjacent to the landfill so no I we that's what I was referring to right now okay so those homes are not that is not part of correct that's to our West okay the entrance yes oh bummer so that still doesn't connect okay um then one more question um what is the distance so I was just trying to like I'm looking at the clubhouse I'm looking at the new park and I'm looking at the the new um Townhomes that are being proposed off of duvar and like to walk from like that building that's right on devaren down to the clubhouse how long do you think that would take and and is that a path you're envisioning that people I'm I'm concerned about people being like I want to use the pool I'm just gonna drive there you know so I'm just wondering what are you thinking about like making that Street feel like something that people want to walk down or I can't I can't get a sense of like a distance it's about a quarter mile I'd say um so I mean it's certainly I mean we obviously encourage um walking we did put parking down by the clubhouse but we limited it I know that was a con you know part of a conversation we had earlier um so we did that specifically for that so yeah the encouragement obviously is to to walk to it um I can certainly understand your concern but um you know our our own intent was to create all these paths so people will use them yeah I mean I'm sure you're thinking of this like whatever you can do in terms of like wayfinding signage and stuff like this it just feels like you're way up here in duvarin it's a little disconnected you know like I'm looking at bird's eye view I don't know what it's gonna look like when it's done but just anything you can do to encourage like people to be like taking the trails or taking the sidewalks together I appreciate that that thought it's hard to see um you know obviously we'll have a connection actually there's so many trees there you can't really see it but on the east side of that north south street where the landfill is there's a sidewalk there so that's kind of the encouragement there um you mentioned way finding I've never mentioned it but we have kind of a kind of a robust wave out wayfinding plan um that I think hopefully everybody will will appreciate just to kind of theme this also those exactly what you're talking about it'll have directions to some of these Pathways awesome um and one of the callers mentioned parking it does seem like a lot of parking I also know this area of town and like it's hard to get around without a car but it does seem like an awful lot of parking but you know we don't we don't have minimums we don't have maximum so yeah and and I don't know if you wanted to respond to that or not you know we talked about I know we limited quite a bit there was a I think um the commissioner watch had kind of um made those comments earlier and we did reduce quite a bit of parking on the southern side the northern side we're about one and a half spaces per unit our concerned with going any lower than that is there's really not another area to park so we didn't want to you know flood the neighbor to the west or the church to the east so that's there just wasn't an opportunity to have any overflow parking in our mind there well I thank you for not putting it up against the road no I well yes I mean we we consciously wanted to put the the buildings up against the road we think that that's good planning practice for sure thanks any other commissioners commissioner White uh thanks for uh coming back and remembering that I was uh opposed to all the parking I remain opposed to all the parking um especially uh when you first presented it and it was quite uh significant I wonder uh as we've heard from uh the public tonight around the concerns with the gas and um hookups and I know Mr Garber has actually spent a lot of time uh talking with you and and speaking before us about your project in particular to try to convince you because you know we lack the authority to deny this request because you are hooking up to gas but I wonder sort of where you are today because this has been a multi-month um project and uh are you willing to reconsider um hooking up gas and going all electric for this new edition so it's the same I guess the same arguments we had before and I do understand things have changed a bit you know and I've heard those comments we have met quite a bit with Mr Garber Mr fine um you know and and and umzersky as well so I mean we've had those conversations um in fact we're we're willing to have more conversations they've actually invited us to a forum which we're excited to be part of we're happy to be part of it so yes I think we're open to those conversations um as of right now no we're not willing to commit any more than what we've commit we did though commit I think um uh commissioner dish had mentioned um councilmember Edition mentioned the appliances the washer and dryer those are all electric and then we will it's not a matter of retrofitting we will plan on the front end for the replacement of those when they go and it is probably it is 8 to 15 years I think is really what what the the thought process is that's our game plan now we're open though as I mentioned we have have accepted their offer to meet with the Forum we're not going to just turn her back and go from there so I know that's easy for me to say and you know just just believe me but um we're willing to keep the door open and they'll they'll attest to that I'm sure they will and can you remind us the length of time you've applied for the Brownfield abatement is it a 30-year um it's a 15 I believe so 15 years yes okay thank you any other commissioners thank you for the presentation and to all the commenters obviously um we have talked about this at length again the legislative tensions with respect to what zoning act enables us to do is the challenge I think commissioner white asked the question that I was going to ask which is simply have you tried um I mean there's a trade-off of you know natural gas piping is also very expensive right so there's a initial build cost relative to you know but again infrastructure once it's installed um uh tough too take away let's put that being said I think I agree with the I concur with the comments made earlier I think I'm not seeing any additional comments I believe this goes to a roll call vote Miss allele thank you uh commissioner Lee yes commissioner Abrams yes commissioner white yes commissioner Sobe yes commissioner Hammerschmidt yes commissioner dish yes commissioner Clark yes commissioner Mills yes commissioner Weatherby yes that's nine votes the motion passes thank you we are moving on to the next order of business it is 10 20.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
let me just check in with Commissioners okay we will take five and we will reconvene at 10 24. thank you all right we're calling the Planning Commission back into session moving on to section 90 of the agenda regular business I'm going to introduce a petition 3701 and 3713 Riverside Drive annexation and Zoning for city council approval request to Annex these two Parcels totaling 0.74 acres in Ann Arbor Township to the city of Ann Arbor and Zone it to r1b single family dwelling the staff recommendation is approval we'll begin with staff presentation Mr Kowalski thank you that was pretty much my presentation um I mean there's not much to this um as chairman we just read it's I mean it's two family single family Parcels basically a parse a building on one of them a house the other one is vacant um again they originally requested r1a zoning staff had come up with an r1b zoning the difference being 10 000 square feet per lot 20 000 square feet minimum lot r1a and 10 000 square feet a minimum for our 1B and that pretty much summarizes the uh presentation yep and of course that's recommending approval thank you thank you and apologies for taking your thunder but I think the the r1b activate the rest of them too the r1b was uh very helpful I'm going to now move to public hearing this is an opportunity for persons to speak up to three minutes about the proposed Riverside Drive annexations well first call on individuals present to address the commission then remote participants to speak during this public hearing remotely please press star nine or star six ifless Thing by phone or use the raise hand feature if viewing through the web link for phone access please call 877-853-5247 and enter meeting ID 977-66434-1226 City staff will select callers that have raised their hand using the last three digits for 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 background sounds so that we can hear you clearly for either method of participation please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments is there anyone present that would like to speak seeing no one is there anyone that would like to address the commission remotely there is one person with their hand raised Alex Lowe you are now able to address the Planning Commission for three minutes if anyone on the commission other than potentially a commissioner whether it be doesn't know what uh what I'm going to say at this point um you don't have to ask yourself but maybe maybe pay more attention because it's going to be the uh the same drug feed that I have for every one of these it's great that we're doing this annexation it should be R1 e or n or maybe even r2a there's nothing that is allowed in r1b that it uh that is disallowed in either of those districts and that allows more freedom for the uh for the property owner as further development happens especially noting that one of these Lots is entirely vacant and surf the current owner which is uh were to sell that under r1b there uh the uh what could be done with it would be far more restrictive than other either under an R1 e or R 2 a so thank you thank you Mr Lowe any other callers um there are no other colors with their hands raised thank you with that I will close public comment and I will read the proposed motion the Ann Arbor City Planning Commission recommends the mayor and the city council approve the annexation and r1b single-family dwelling District zoning of 3701 and 3713 Riverside Drive move by commissioner Mills uh council member dish um discussion don't all speak at once oh commit hey council member Dash I will merely ask the question seeing as I have heard some feedback from residents in the area where we rezoned to r1d is there any reason why we shouldn't do the same here since we did it elsewhere I think from the report the wording of the port I think I know what you will say and I'm not saying I'm not saying I want to change this because you know we did it to Ward one let's do it to ward two two um I would only mention the within the R1 category staff feels it is the planning commissions discretion prerogative we would caution against an amendment to a multi-family District on the floor because of the um the public water and sanitary sewer impacts have not been studied commissioner weich but we we could go to r1d because all that is is that just changes the minimum lot size it doesn't restrict them from just putting to single-family homes on the Lots as they are currently sized it would just increase the density later if they choose to sell they could subdivide it into four and I just what I don't understand sits at front uh here on River Drive are there any restrictions that I'm not aware of in terms of the orientation of that subdivision that would prevent them from being able to fully realize the four from from being able to go if it's a 10 000 you were considering r1a so it's a twenty thousand square foot lot so going from r1a to D would allow for four and so are there restrictions in the code that would prevent that sub division and not be allowed in that space no there's nothing in the code that would preclude I mean there may be natural I was trying to pull up a map really there could be other elements but there's nothing necessarily in the code that would preclude them from getting access to that they have Frontage along the public roads so I would be happy uh to amend from r1b to r1d um since it has no significant impact on how they're planning to use it and I don't think we have to re-notice no commissioner or council member either way I'm proud of both um the report um so it's a it's a it's a 0.74 Acre Site so um so yeah so if it were r1a there would be they say yeah um one house only that would be an extremely inefficient use of the space which is 32 000 square feet if it were r1b it goes up to three and if it were r1d the max would be six and then and I don't know if they looked at natural features when they calculated that just they were just doing the math I could say yeah those are just based on the raw numbers so again when you once you put layouts and setbacks in there I don't know I rarely see that actually penciling out exactly like six odds and they're seeing all of these arguments uh with people whom I need to talk to about this not being such a dramatic thing to do because um you know so in this case unlike the other case that we had the owner intends to sell the parcels for development opportunities so we know here that that is the plan so um you know the more you subdivide the less you charge for the house so at some point your own Financial calculation it should you know might say to you I think three is fine even if it is zone for six so you know I don't know why we don't on the logic that we had for the last one zoning changes nothing we add more flexibility um it I I I I take the report seriously it says r1b is recommended for consistency with surrounding land uses and the opportunity to evaluate future zoning of the area comprehensively I don't you know we aren't we aren't leaping from residential to multi-family residential so or single family to multi-family so I would feel good about it but I'm also I don't really feel strongly about it and I also am tired as everyone else so so whatever commissioner white yeah I mean we didn't have a strong argument the last time either and only to understand it it wasn't at the table um it wasn't a big back and forth because I I think the thing that I learned from commissioner sovay was the when when Mr Leonard responded around density because I went when looking at those 11 Parcels that were coming in on Nick on um yeah Newport I was like let's go to r4c that's where I started and I and I was just not being ambitious enough you know I I should have gone all the way uh to whatever our highest residential density is which I've talked to with Miss DeLeo about like let's just go all the way to R6 but um any in any event I think it's easy for me to support the conversation that you've started for us to go from r1b to r1d and I think just as a signal to planning staff if there's a way for us to so to say can you all bring things that are Township Islands in at the highest residential density that makes sense for that um as we gear up I think that just makes the conversation a little bit better because it sort of pits the staff against the council or against the table and I don't think there's that much distance because even Mr Khan said when we when we sat here he's like I'm not going to defend r1a but that didn't get into any public comments it was all you know we we just decided to change it at the table and and he was the person he was like I'm only picking it because that's what the code says and I just don't think that's a strong enough argument for us as we're sort of trying to improve uh what we're doing with density so so I I fully support where you're going commissioner disc I'll just add some quick math that if we're looking at Frontage with r1d it would be five instead of six uh Parcels could be the lot split so that's actually more of the limiting factor than the 5 000 square foot minimum lot size it's a lot Frontage just for more spatial context for us yep yeah thank you commissioner Salve do I have a friendly to amend to r1d well first will you move yeah yeah to r1d uh the second uh by commissioner salve discussion all in favor oh so yeah yeah uh all in favor aye all any opposed okay so now we're in discussion for r1d uh okay and commission reels the only reason the only reason that I had a slight pause in terms of differences is in part how it's currently served by public transit which is when we were thinking about this before I mean it's right on like right on bus line This is less removed but I also think that we need to plan for what we want to see in the future um and the idea that there would be I don't know that there's any bus service on here on River Drive right now um but the idea that we would want more frequent bus service on here on River Drive sure um so I I would just put that into the mix as we're like as we're kind of debating I mean collapsing overall the number of districts that we have makes a whole lot of sense anyway but yeah I think we need to start the trend somewhere about like what is the appropriate R1 zone so yeah thank you any other discussion um council member dish the only I've I'm not a lawyer um we know this one we have a statement of intent to sell the parcels for development opportunities and I know that uh I I don't know if that um creates a presumption that we are engaging in a form of zoning that we should not do in order to create wealth for a developer the fact that we know that as an intent that was that is the biggest difference between this and the other one so absolutely not I mean there's no that intent could go through that that yeah no worries okay commissioner Salve our intent is to create housing that's what this does I believe any other discussion I believe we're good for a roll call vote [Music] commissioner Lee Yes commissioner Abrams yes commissioner white yes commissioner Soviet yes commissioner Hammerschmidt yes commissioner dish yes commissioner Clark yes commissioner Mills yes and commissioner Weatherby yes that is nine in favor the motion passes thank you yes now we move on to section 10A other business uh note of notice of intent to plan um we'll go to staff presentation and Mr Kowalski yep um well we don't really have presentation tonight I need to read my whole uh intro yeah um this is the requirement that I think many of you have seen before basically in the planning enabling act that requires us to distribute uh uh excellent actually at this point said the notice the plan basically that we send out to all the adjacent communities and telling them that we're starting up a plan so um really with that I mean we have kind of emotion in there and a little bit of background there so we can answer questions but otherwise it's just really looking for Planet commission to um approve the motion so we can release the documents today or at least joining people know that we're planning perfect thank you Mr Kowalski I'll read the proposed motion resolved by the Ann Arbor City Planning Commission that a notice of intent to plan be shared with the surrounding communities in applicable agencies as prescribed by the Michigan planning Naval act moved by commissioner weich and seconded by commissioner Mills is there any discussion seeing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye any opposed the motion carries moving on to section 10B other business bylaws discussion the agenda um okay uh do you want to give a quick introduction here well you're going to hurry to both yeah no we're just we're recommending it be postponed at this time and at the next meeting the City attorney and as well as planning manager will be present to go through the rest of the explanations got gotcha all right sounds good I move that the consideration of the proposed bylaws modification be postponed to the October 3rd 2023 Planning Commission moved by commissioner Salve seconded by commissioner Mills any discussion all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed the motion carries moving on to section 11 public comment this is an opportunity for peoples to speak up to three minutes about any issue that's not listed on the public hearing on this agenda will first call on individuals present to address the commission then remote participants to speak during this public hearing remotely please press star nine if listing by phone or use the raise hand feature if viewing through the web link for phone access please 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 access synced 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 so that we may hear you clearly for either method of participation please state your name and your address at the beginning of your comments is there anyone present that would like to address the commission seeing no one is there anyone that would like to address the commission remotely there are no Colors oh no there is a caller thank you Alex Lowe you may now unmute and address the Planning Commission for three minutes hi guys I'm back um I'm really disappointed that we only go out to r1d I'd like to point out that from the documents it says that R1 deep can get a maximum of six homes on the space and r2a could get six duplexes or or 12 phones and it seems like the only opposition to to that was well we haven't studied the utility oh Mr Lowe we can't hear you Mr Lowe hi can you hear me now yes yes sorry about that uh it's Alex Lowe yet again 33 40 foot uh Fernwood Avenue I'm a little bit disappointed in uh in that last piece specifically about it when you're getting to r1d which allows six units in in that area of land uh to a would have allowed six duplexes um it seems the the discussion was pushed aside pure leaving uh really because of not having studied the utility difference of those potential extra six units but it's this is a potential of six extra units it's not like we're adding 30 000 housing units to uh to to Ann Arbor uh with that we're adding the potential of six more hoes that doesn't seem like a a huge burden to me we should be we should be studying the uh that by default maybe even all the way up to our uh our foreign by default so that uh us that we know rather than uh having to guess thank you Mr Lowe any other callers there are none seeing no other callers will round out public comment we're moving on to section 12 commission proposed business is there any commission proposed business chocolate is something I heard thank you to Mr Leo we'll move on to seeing no other um commission proposed business a German move by commissioner weich seconded by council member dish all those in favor say aye aye we are adjourned
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
all right it's going live all right you're live let me just make sure we are live I'm just making sure of audio I'm not sure all right we are good all right good evening everybody sleep all right good evening everybody [Music] was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have an advance notice up and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which time any business affecting your interest is discussed and actively in accordance with the provisions of this act and Board of Education policy zero one six two the board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be posted in the board office high school and mail or faxed to The Courier News clerk southbound Board of Education and any person who has requested individual notice pledge allegiance to the fire the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands a nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice Mr Garcia roll call please it's about here this casino yeah Lima here Mr minhas here says hi here Mr Bowmer here Mr Januzzi here board president you have a quorum president this evening thank you very much for my president's comments tonight I will try as always to be brief just want to say welcome back to all of our staff administrators who are joining us here tonight it's great to see you all great start to school year for my board of education members I want to thank you for enduring my absence last month and for some really great committee meetings earlier this week I know it takes a lot of time for us to get through all the materials but I was really impressed with the amount of positive updates that we had to receive and share and uh just how much progress is being made so thank you again for that um and that goes for our members who are both here and out here this evening so uh join unfortunately was under the weather report to share those for now I'm going to hand off to Dr Freeman thank you Mr President and good evening everyone and welcome back to our September board meeting we're very close to uh finishing our second full week of school um we had the exception of a few pickups that could be expected during opening days we had a very smooth opening I want to thank our administrative team our teachers our staff are making that possible because without them it wouldn't be and I'm looking forward to a very successful year tonight we don't have any future student awards we'll begin that next month and we're looking forward to it at this point we want to uh our student director board present so we can turn it over to sure yeah absolutely my report's kind of long today but I'll try to do it chronologically um this past summer uh sorry it was summer school most students finished and were able to recover their credits meanwhile many seniors came in for English and math before at least ccrf uh managed by blogs and some of the other teachers at the high security been offering my students help with their college applications and SATs and thoughts on it and all of that Financial stuff um along with this new school year there's been new special programs I've been interested in with rbcc these include Advanced Manufacturing mechanic one YouTube makeup design slash Artistry and Healthcare all of which are I've seen a lot of success so far uh the freshman orientation went well with guest speaker Nikki France is giving a speech about the tool tip for success which is designed to introduce middle and high school age students to ideas that can help them increase their skills in decision making conflict resolution positive coping skills in terms of our teams folks for and on sport uh boys soccer are currently at a 3-2 uh win-loss record in their next game is away against Manville tomorrow football hook up their first win last Friday against South River with sorry they also have two losses so far with their next game at home being against Voorhees on Friday we miss Casino um managing the football social media account girl to tell us is that a one win six losses for the next game girls volleyball is also at one six with their next game at home gets Burns the cross-country team has reportedly had an investment Beyond sectionals and Robotics are currently planning for a showcase at the Bridgewater Mall on September 30th and October 1st for people edges the college fair which is colleges from all over the state come to Bound Brook to Showcase and social students is on October 23rd same thing with the career fair for November 15.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
there has been adequate notice of this being provided by the Board of Education for a date and time School website and the borough clerk has an Instagram fantastic [Music] [Applause] yeah I am yes yeah yes we always want to presentation New Jersey however I want to thank you risk process in our results is stands for a quality single accountability continuous basically it's really a comprehensive accountability systems below instructions [Music] important time to go through our overall scores in order for a district to be considered highly effective they must score e or above each so these scores achievement attendance rights of student growth percentiles um procedures to make sure that we are provided so all of those District compliance educators [Music] an additional management the districts have to drink the types of things reports should not be anything efficiency reports of the responsibility in the professor funds um that are finding the statutory regulatory requirements you know major standards to provide students [Music] um it's all the things that the state is that important in that area Personnel uh this includes evaluation and staff development processes that those are executed properly that we provide professional learning and staff development applications that our people are properly certified um you know recommendations made by mistake again one thing with staff because this is a really rigorous process and requires a lot of hands together and [Music] and ensure that we are you know executing you know our educational system in a way that is um [Music] would it be possible to add two and three required sure every three years and absolutely and I just have one question um I guess the Personnel was 85 and like the curriculum or the programming category was at 87 which were both highly but lower than the other three areas is there anything specific that we can Target in those areas just to ensure that in three years she don't see a loss so the 87 like I said in terms of what the district is responsible for in terms of Reliant model we got 100 points there okay so the where the scores dropped a little bit whereas looking at a Json data looking at Road over time so the data where we've lost points with all the data attention okay so if we really wanted to bring that score up I think people would have to improve test scores um I'm not sure what the absence this year but it's pretty interesting to go back [Music] um [Music] so in the area there were seven places foreign so when they come back let's say in 26 27 they will look at where you were 25 and really it is you know well and I haven't done it in Longwood County okay um they will do an audit of your personal lives they show me the purses the summative evaluation show you this would not see that you know observations are our teachers are conducted within a certain time frame and that unique timelines to you know submit reports of teachers another part of it they again will be checked out what their certifications are correct patient so those are the pieces [Music] yes um I think again more of a timing issue of armed circumstances [Music] yeah uh [Music] uh so there were some as I said there were some maybe this time with grants which again in all of the Esther funds that were coming in and being you know managed that is something that probably is going to go today as an issue as her friends um that was probably the only place um [Music] yeah and the answer is because the way that some of these are weighted is you know some things get more weak than others and it's an all or nothing in terms of the points so that's where the warrior zero and it might be needed so it is just a matter of huge needs and I would be curious to see what supporters have been prior um these are these are all above and space theater viewing um report what is the one year well I'd say you know I think around evaluation um is very important to me I like to spend a lot of time in classrooms and you know working through that process with Fidelity staff um where you are implemented therapy any questions well we have we have Frontline now as a system right that allows us to you know see everybody on a dashboard and track their I don't think we require prior to um and that is certainly a really helpful instrument um you know as an administrative team you know we have to go through and ensure that if you see somebody as far as not moving right let's make sure you created a spreadsheet that divides that valuation form across the three administrators with that timeline you've shared those timelines with our staff and like I said by starting observation of this week so that we can make sure that there is a lot to conduct Ed three teacher-ups for finishes if you have a student growth of characters that you have to monitor a professional development plans so you know and then you attended the staff on two observations student worker so all of that calls within the evaluation system so it's a lot to stay on top of and keep track of it so we are trying to use Frontline to ensure that we stand on Target and just being even with our teachers then you're coming in by this date you know so when you say that it makes you to them [Music] well um and ensuring that if you are contract you know so that is very comfortable instrument to manage one more question um I'm not I don't believe that has been used here that is certainly something that I'm comfortable well in the future um I understand that you know even in districts where that is an option sometimes [Music] just come and observe it again rather than we have a degree portfolio I appreciate the spirit of it um yeah so yeah I mean certainly if somebody wanted to do it Frontline um are just kind of curiosity and then we also have to keep track of vendors this is just really a professional component we have is called the professional growth [Music] foreign one successful management I think it's fiscal management but that is where they you know virgin [Music] thank you Electronics yeah the larger School sometimes [Music] [Applause] your job openings um you know what you use after track which is also support Frontline Central it allows you to leave notes about cancer they've applied for you know it's a very um when you are going through the hiring process it really um they also have a section for certain types of course to go through approval process things like field trips professional development we have to purchase those components of the program now but you know might be something District Bowl number three which ones are you using well which ones are maybe not using it should phase out are there some things so that's also something I'll be continuing um and next we have visitors business visitors are permitted to comment on agenda items only at this time [Music] a couple of things we discuss describes the steps to make some progress on replacing the player all right I was working there is some specifications of the specifications [Music] thank you [Music] yes he was working um for Maxwell Elementary School but he's working with a company he's trying to set up a meeting New Jersey so we will be less big time and be able to work yes but so um we're exploring practices [Music] or ready um specifications something [Music] thanks [Music] I believe [Music] thank you any questions um sometimes can be done by community members by volunteers I was wondering if that's an option when it comes and it is foreign experience or something [Music] um there's going to be a part two of this meeting because we're trying to figure out different ways even requesting ideas um so we'll meet again as we get more information yeah so so what Stacy has in place they're going through the training with um and um yeah [Music] standpoint and um you would have to you know I would say that as a field trip and I would want parents um going on so in addition to them being taking the lesson on how to use the playground you've also put the PlayStation going outside anyway s [Music] they have they do a great job lovely I mean my kids are there any other questions [Music] tomorrow night for high school uh it came out about an hour or so ago maybe due to the impending storm on Saturday afternoon [Music] High School dismissal at 1206.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
okay I'd like to call this meeting to order and I'd like to make a motion that we move to Executive session pursuant to ARS 38-4 31.03 A3 and A4 for discussion or consultation for legal advice with the governing board's attorney regarding personal matters and to consider its position and instruct its attorneys regarding its position regarding contacts that are the subject of negotiation second all those in favor we will be back foreign I'd like to make a motion that we reconvene in General Session seconded all those in favor we will now call this meeting to order thank you all for waiting for us Mrs Richards oh I'm sorry please join me oh we'll call roll call that was right I was right I was right thank you this is Richard's roll call please Mrs Reese's confusing me I don't know why the presidential members of the board let the record show that all five board members are present thank you now would you please join me in a moment of silence thank you I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation another indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you I'd like to make a motion that we approve the agenda all those in favor motion carry it's five to zero Mrs Richard's superintendent's report hi hello there we are tonight we have another exciting episode of Higley Adventures to share with you Coronado Elementary's PTO met their goal of raising forty four thousand dollars during their recent fundraiser reaching this goal will ensure that all PTO events are free and it will also help with the renovation of their Library so we want to show you just a little glimpse of principal Armstrong [Music] thank you take me [Music] and we also [Applause] we want to thank all of our ptos across the district as well as our booster clubs we couldn't do what we do without you thank you a local Law Firm recently honored a Higley Academy teacher hope Berg as their August teacher of the month she was featured on a billboard and also presented with a 500 check that's exciting [Applause] congratulations to our four Higley High School students who have been awarded National recognition from the College Board congratulations to Haley Vasquez mitsu Navarro Jaden O'Hare and Mason Anderson these students earned this academic honor because of their GPA of 3.5 or higher and outstanding performance on the PSAT the psat-10 and or AP exams now they can list these honors on their applications to colleges when they apply so let's give them a round of applause [Applause] congratulations to our five Williams Field high school students who have also been awarded National recognition from the College Board congratulations to Daniel Romero Emma Childress yaden lot Karen Kent and Maya Cruz these students earned these honors because of a GPA of 3.5 or higher outstanding performance on the PSAT or the PS and the PSAT 10 or and AP exams they will also list all of these accomplishments on their applications so let's give them a round of applause thank you Hayden is one of our Higley High School students She was recently featured in hearing our way magazine which is the only magazine for kids and teens with hearing loss Hayden worked alongside our husd teacher for the hearing impaired to write the article featured in the magazine we're so proud of you Hayden [Applause] thanks are they okay all right now nobody's looking forward to this but we have a surprise fall break September 25th through October 6th who wants to give a round of applause for that [Applause] our next board meeting will be Wednesday October 11th here at the district office and we have a School site visit to San Tan Elementary on Friday October 20th and we hope you guys will join us foreign from our constituents the time on our agenda has been set aside for anyone from the audience who wishes to address the board those that wish to wish to speak should have filed filled out speaker cards which are due prior to the start of our meeting members of the board may not discuss comment or take action on matters raised that are not specifically identified on the agenda therefore pursuant to ARS 38-431.018 action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for future consideration and decision at a later date also we ask the audience members practice proper public medium decorum refraining from either negative or positive responses including clapping or verbal outbursts to ensure fairness to all points of view those that refuse to follow these rules will be asked to leave speakers please limit your remarks to three minutes thank you for your cooperation first up we have Mr Wyatt Ford share with all of you should I restart her sorry yesterday September 19th was my son's book fair event for his school we saw a variety of different books from informative dinosaur monographs to Pokemon comic books and everything in between once we were finished browsing the side aisles we decided to head to the front of the book fair they are propped up front and center of the venue was a book titled in the spirit of a Dream by Ada Salazar upon opening the book I was appalled at what I saw here's one of the excerpts I read verbatim we come as migrants often unwanted to this country that will always belong to the First Nations to inhabit it this quote is further substantiated in the table of contents section by a chapter labeled undocued poets for those still wondering meaning illegal aliens per Scholastic on their official website this book has a target audience of five to seven year olds why this book is teaching our kids that no matter what they do this country will never belong to them why need I mention our state's deteriorating border crisis it's unfathomable to me that this rhetoric is available especially given our circumstances simply put this is my land This Is My Children's Land This is my first generation Honduran grandmother's land I serve this country my ancestors served this country men and women have fought and died to be able to say this is our country the United States of America home of the brave furthermore I would like to clear any notion that this may be directed at Higley Unified School District it is not the most you folks can do is try to get Scholastic the entertainment company that provided the aforementioned book out of your schools you may still be asking why undisputedly BlackRock Incorporated Investment Group purchased just under 5 million shares of Scholastic in January of 2022 those numbers are still active as of 2023 per nasdaq's official filing report this is 15.4 of the Scholastic company BlackRock is a company that has destroyed the middle class and that has left our housing market in Ruins they're also publicly endorsed by the world economic forum as per the world economic forum's official website thank you to all of the Higley Unified School District staff for what you do as for Blackrock in the world economic Forum we see what you are doing without political bias you may control some of those who make laws you tell us you will own nothing and be happy well I say when tyranny becomes law Rebellion becomes Duty six semper teranus thank you next up we have iorella Latham president Schultz members of the board my name is Ira Latham I have four children that attend in the Higley Unified School District I'm here today to talk about the proposed dress code changes that are up for voting uh I was I spoke before on the dress code changes it was voted down for much of the same reason I think that it should be voted down this time I read through the dress code the new proposal it's much more wordy this time but it says the exact same essential thing it's my request uh president Schultz and members of the board that you reject this current proposal and you either enforce the current dress code that we have or you have a dress code that reflects more of the concerns of the parents in the district as a parent I expect the district to be able to enforce policies that help my children be able to go to class and know how they can contribute to a safe classroom environment as well as limiting the needless distractions in the class this policy does not do that I also think that it brings a lot of unnecessary pressure on teachers having to deal with the vagueness of this policy because I have no other way to describe my concerns about this policy I'll do an object lesson this is what I do for my kids when I have to tame them why we're doing things the way we need to do them under the proposed policy this would be appropriate in a classroom wow now if you ask me this is inappropriate for a board meeting if you have a dress code policy that allows us in a classroom it does not promote a hell a safe classroom environment as well as limiting the amount of distractions in the classroom I would like to request that the board reject this current policy either enforce the policy that we have or have a policy that reflects more concerns that reflects with what uh condo conducts a better environment for the students for them to get the most education out of the class as well as prepare them to enter the workforce when they leave the school I can't think of any place of work where I could walk in in an interview and be taken serious in something like this so let's put let's let's be adults for these students let's put the right policies in place to help them have success in the future thank you Monica Latham as shown um thank you for letting us speak as shown we are super passionate about our kids in this environment I don't care what other districts do this that's not what we're here for we are here for the kids in this district and this is we're trying to make a difference for our kids for our kids future this is super important to us because changing the stress code does not help the education whatsoever for our for our children it actually hinders them because you are going to get different shapes and sizes that's not a problem but you will get more bullying that will happen girls are just mean boys are mean they will they will do it to these individuals if it's this dress code is passed do also I have heard of teachers that turn their room into ice boxes because they do not want to be known as sexist or favoring or whatnot other students and they make sure that they turn them into ice boxes so that they wear and cover their themselves so they don't have to deal with any of that this is inappropriate what they're asking for the School attire to be approved I really hope you can reconsider because it's not fair to the teachers it's not fair to the students and as parents I'm I know five families five families that took their kids out of school this last year because of things that have been passed and I would not be surprised if more people pull their kids out of school and money out of this District if this dress code gets gets approved thank you for your time Linda Payton hi I'm I have five [Music] um no I have nine grandchildren in this school district and I would also like to address the dress code um you know I've watched through the years and it's gotten worse and worse and I think a lot of it is because it's not being enforced the dress code that we have right now needs to be enforced or it needs to become more modest we are letting our kids education go bad because the young man I'm sorry the pornography and stuff that is out there they can get it on the internet but they can come to school and see at the schools which is totally wrong and it's due to the non-compliance of in making the dress code enforced and so that was one of the things I wanted to talk about um also I wanted to talk about the I like our school district to become a model for other schools on having a really good dress code instead of following the the styles that the other schools have why don't we become the best and have people that want to come to Higley and did people that want to leave we have a lot of people leaving this District because of dress code and because of the education that's being taught and I know the education comes from the top and you have to kind of teach some of that but we're going to try and change some of that I hope through the parents getting involved and plus our our state board is really On Target on helping what helping with that and I'm really grateful because one of them is here today thank you um also I would like to talk about [Music] um a couple of times ago it's about two months ago there was some um there was a one of the board members that was very rude to another board member and the rest of the board members sat there and allowed that to happen for five minutes I was totally appalled and I would hope that from now on you would think about yourself and think about yourself being in that position and not allow that to happen it is it was not a very good situation and I would have really appreciated if you guys would support one another in helping one another and pulling together instead of pulling apart we as a district could be absolutely wonderful I've lived here 30 years and it used to be really really good the modesty was much much better we need to get the modesty back in this school it is really really suffering and I think that if you would start in enforcing the dress court code or even make it more modest you would find a lot of students coming back and you would find a lot of people wanting to move here and I thank you for your time I appreciate the good things that are happening but I'm really really concerned with especially our young men having to watch this pornography in the schools with their fellow students that are in the classroom with them and that's why you know they don't want to study a lot they would rather watch that so anyway I would appreciate you considering it thank you very much thank you Heather Balch Heather did I say that right I'm sorry I think I've said it wrong before then I apologize I I know I'm sorry thank you no problem at all good evening governing board cabinet members of our wonderful um Higley team I am Heather Walsh I do um I've been in the district for 20 plus years and I do serve on our executive board of our heckley Education Association so I'm here to talk to you a little bit about that tonight I'm higlia education association's mission is to advocate for Education professionals both certified and classified and to unite members to fulfill the promise of public education to prepare every student in a diverse and interdependent World our goal for the 23-24 school year is to help husd retain staff members and we believe that open communication is the best place to start so we've been talking and here's what we've heard so far Higley teachers love Higley Higley staff loves Higley our staff feels supported by their administrators substitutes love working in our district they talk about how supported they are by their schools as well as how respectful the students are to them so that I thought that was really cool um ptos on the campuses I saw PTO back there uh they support their campuses and provide the needed supplies for all kinds of events and activities overall our employees love the culture that is created here in Higley on behalf of the Higley Education Association executive board I pledge that we will continue to support the collaboration between teachers and staff with Administration so that we as a district can provide the best public education experience for our students thank you guys so much Nancy William nope I'm messing that up overwhelming is there a Nancy Nancy can you please tell me how to say your last name wilming of the time um I'm a grandparent my grandchildren have and do go to deeply schools I'm going to speak about the dress code and I am simply going to read some definitions from the Merriam-Webster dictionary which one would assume to be currently applied in the Higley Unified School District number one school an organization that provides instruction to acquired knowledge or skill number two instruction formal teaching number three educate implies development of the Mind four standard established by Authority having recognized and permanent value number five code a system of principles number six discipline training in habits of order and rules number seven decency code of ethics socially accepted Behavior conduct that conforms to a standard of right or wrong profession a vocation trade or occupation number nine skill proficiency at executing something with all these words and definitions in mind these are the reasons we send our children to school this is the guidance we expect in order to set them on a path to achieving their individual goals I find the need for a very clear dignified established dress code to be much needed requirement in our schools this will habituate our children to an environment and a manner of dressing that will enhance and optimize their chances of success as adults thank you Linda Manning oh I'm sorry yes I missed one sorry Ginger Smith hi my name is ginger Smith I have three girls in the area and I feel like we're forgetting that we're not just raising girls we are trying to raise women to be leaders in society but we're allowing them to believe that they're nothing but objects when we allow our children whose brains are not completely formed yet to believe that they're in control over what they get to wear I want them to be able to express themselves but we need to be leading by example and sharing with them that express yourself in dignity and respect if you can't respect yourself I'm not sure how you can respect others so it's a distraction yes that's also a concern but also just we need to be raising these girls to be women in society and to have that self-respect and dignity that's what we need to really focus on as a society that's all I have for tonight Linda Manning hi good evening thanks for having me and hi I just wanted to address the Peaks behind me um I've been part of the Higley school district for 18 years my husband and I adopted my three grandchildren they went to Cortina they went to Sossaman and they came over to the high school there might be people in this room that might recognize me I was a permanent fixture in Cortina in Sossaman in Higley High School daily um when I took on my grandchildren we had certain standards my daughter had gone through a rough time and because of that we reached in to save these children I was very happy with the Higley school district and I will go on to say one statement sex sells that has been the mantra for as far back as I can remember from toothpaste to toilet paper chocolate doesn't matter Hollywood all the rest of it it's all about that what I had seen over these years that my grandchildren were attending here one who was the head of the the yearbook another one that got an award for Trailblazer um all with 4.0 grade point averages the youngest one just started ASU doing wonderfully my husband was in the Marine Corps he died with four purple hats we had strict rules at home children need boundaries they beg for boundaries never once did I ever see and God bless her I became very good friends with Nancy diab who was the principal at coitina and as my children left Cortina and they went over to Sossaman so did she and when she left there and she came over to Higley so did they so I've known her for a very very long time she knew the Dynamics of my household it's me I get that second pick um she knew the Dynamics of my household and because of that she knew how important it was for me to keep a very close watchful eye on my grandchildren because my daughter suffered at the hands of an abuser a sexual abuser um a groomer my my antenna erupt I don't know if we have numbers of how many in the different school districts and departments that have been charged with sexual assault it might be a number we want to look into but when I walked into the high school one day and I saw this girl come walking out I thought to myself where the hell am I are you kidding me right now somebody led her out the door like this shame on the parent however at the same token the school has allowed it Nancy diab had a motto a school dance my granddaughter came down over the stairs I said new get those shoes off first of all you'll be carrying them all night second of all Nancy's her it could be a school dance shingles lasagna Getty so me being Italian I was all over that if they weren't in the dress code they were not allowed entry these girls need to be respected thank you your time I know who's in that school and what they're thinking while they're peering down thank you your time is up thank you you can see what they had thank you your time is up moving on to the consent agenda I make a motion that we approve item 6.1 through 611.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
hello it is time for the select board update for the meeting that happened on Wednesday September 6th I'm Yolanda Greaves current Vice chair of the Ashland select board and your host of Around the Clock the meeting started at about quarter of seven we had a short executive session to review and approve some minutes from another executive session we started at seven o'clock we had two hearings in front of us and a few other events we had some citizens participation we then started with Paul Gustafson he is the owner or was the owner of 433 Chestnut Street and he purchased it from the house that is known as the Henry Warren house he has since refurbished it and is now on the market it is a beautiful job that he's done if you've watched previous select board meetings we've talked to him about using some of the old materials and that is now on the market so we had to talk to him about some finalizing paperwork and agreements with the sale of that house we then had a public hearing for Ashland Fish and Game they were back in front of us for a complete liquor license they were in front of us back in April for just a beer and wine license for their Pavilion and now they realize that they really need a full liquor license because of the variety of Liquors and alcohols and all the things that are out there so we approved that for them they have the ability to serve that in the Pavilion as they're doing events or parties from 12 P.M to 10 P.M every day so if you're looking for a place to rent check out the Ashland fishing game from there we went to a public hearing for Mike's Auto Sales they are currently on magunco road and they were moving from 50 mcgonco road to 185 magunco Road I'm sorry other way around from 185 magunco to 50.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
foreign thank you foreign good evening everyone and welcome to the uh September 20th meeting of the Ashland select board we are returning from executive session um so I call this meeting to order and our first item is Citizens participation is there anyone here for Citizens participation either in person or on on Zoom you can use the raise hand function so I'm not seeing any citizens participation okay let everybody in yeah all right so I think our first item is uh Jason polish update on the 495 partnership and I think we can move ahead to him so welcome Jason yeah stand right up there and speak into the microphone excellent well thank you everyone for having me and I do have a slide deck sure which is visible on my screen but I'm not sure how it becomes visible to you yeah really interesting and there's no camera on him that's the thing usually the the laptop podium oh okay here where is the zoom on here that's weird oh the podium's not on here is he in the zone meeting no we never put the podium one on there it looks like you know maybe it got logged out I thought I logged it in before we um executive session that's all it is just not easy fix so I just have to let you in and then and then make him up for me sorry Jesus can people see me so we're just having some technical issues here with uh Jason's presentation we will be coming on as soon as we can come on it's dark blue by the way all right is that gonna is that gonna work for you Jason that should work fine okay as I can scroll and let's see if I can we can okay foreign go ahead Jason when when you're ready thank you everyone for having me so members of Select board uh residents watching my name is Jason palich I have the honor of serving as the executive director of the 495 Metro West partnership I want to thank you for taking the time uh to hear an update uh for those of you who are familiar with the partnership an update but for those of you who are not I'll give a little bit of background on what and who the 495 MetroWest partnership is uh so we you'll see from this very bright orange color which has been our theme color for 20 years now it's always a quick way to recognize us but the 495 MetroWest partnership is a regional Economic Development organization serving 36 cities and towns and the 495 Metro West Region our mission is to lead the advancement of the 495 Metro West Region as an exceptional location for people businesses and communities our vision is one where our region will enjoy sustainable economic growth well stewarded natural and build resources diverse transportation and housing choices as well together these assets make our region a desirable place for people to live and work so when I talk about 495 Metro West what am I talking about if you look at this uh the slide this this purple region to the right I like to describe it as a diamond to the west of Boston we are 36 of the Commonwealth's 351 cities and towns uh we are about a tenth of the state's population if we are bounded to the north by Westford we come as far west as Shrewsbury and Grafton all the way down to Foxboro rent them in Plainville and on the East Wayland And Natick Ashland being relatively close to our geographic center we are a public-private collaboration a lot of our economic development organizations are Chambers of Commerce or member organizations primarily responsive to business obviously the business Community is heavily involved in leading the partnership but as opposed to being a business only organization we are a stakeholder Alliance we are an alliance of businesses municipalities higher education institutions regional transit authorities Chambers of Commerce and environmental organizations developers folks who do not always find sitting around the same table coming around the same table where their common interest is advancing the cause of our region we have a full-time staff of two myself and our manager of policy planning and policy excuse me and we are led by a large volunteer board of directors we have been in continuous operation for just over 20 years since February of 2003.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above