001Good evening. It's a Bford Planning Board of Tuesday, May 6th. Uh this meeting is being recorded. Uh what's the first uh minute to the meeting? Motion to accept the minutes is divided. I'll second that. Moved and second. We accept the uh minutes as uh sent. Uh any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I oppose. Unanimous of five. We got no 81 B plant. So Josh, you're on right away. Excuse me. Thank you all. Good evening. Josh Fella with MAPC Metropolitinary Planning Council. Good to see the planning board and the ad hoc committee is a joint session. Thank you for having me this evening again for our 12th session together. We're getting close, very close to the end now. Um, it'll be a relatively brief report, but I did want to touch base on the
002final engagement that we performed uh throughout the last month and then culminating in some meetings last week, talk about the final draft of the plan, uh some of the uh feedback that we've heard and then some of the very minimal next steps. So, thank you again for the ad hoc committee and the planning board for your time. You can see on this timeline that we are our arrow is very much at the end of the process here. So, uh we are really wrapping up the final items here and hope that you will find them to your liking. So, let's just dive into the final engagement review. So the approach to this final engagement was to organize some final discussions with the community uh with leadership in the town with community organizations to give a report
003out on the planning process the plan itself and to discuss uh potential implementation. We um brought together stakeholders in a variety of ways. The um for those who were very interested they were able to email reach out by phone call which I did receive emails. I did receive phone calls um and uh through a survey which we put up that was available from mid uh I guess actually the beginning of April to the beginning of May. I closed it yesterday and then on um April 30th which was last week we had uh three sessions. We had a session where we had invited community- based organizations that we had met with last June. Uh we did not have many of them come back to attend with us, but I had one uh gentleman from Milford Public
004Schools join me at 9:00 a.m. and we had a great discussion, the two of us. Uh at 11, I hosted a Zoom meeting from the library um to meet with municipal leaders, department heads, boards, commissions. I think we had six or eight in that session, so a little better attended. and then also had a lightly attended community session that evening uh where we had three people but we went ahead because of the light turnout and recorded the session via Zoom the presentation that I gave. We'll get that up online so people can view that as well just as a sort of full documentation of the process. But for each of those presentations, we gave a I gave a presentation of uh the results of the plan kind of summarizing the process, the executive summary, the
005vision statement, high level of uh what the plan is about and then dwelled on the uh top 20 actions which are a part of the implementation uh chapter. So I went through those items. uh we I think in each of those sessions did in spite of the light turnout had good conversations and did receive good feedback which I'll share with you some of the themes from that in a moment. Um this is about the the public comment period in addition to those items which I mentioned we did receive also I think it was about six responses on the survey which was available and then I've received emails and phone calls as well. So all of that's compiled in a uh document which I sent to Larry this morning I believe it was. So it might
006not have made it to you all but I I trust that he will forward that along uh which you can take a look at the um responses in in detail to summarize. We heard a few consistent things in those conversations and then the feedback and I think these are items which would be useful for us to discuss this evening just to see if you would like us to adjust the uh plan contents a little bit. The first was uh most many of the comments were still focused on I would say overall what we heard resonated with what we've heard throughout the process. So there weren't really any new surprises. Uh it was very reassuring to hear consistent themes in these conversations at the end of the process which are very consistent with what we're hearing
007at the beginning of the process and the middle of the process. But we did hear a fair amount around uh traffic congestion still and traffic congestion solutions. In the plan document today we have uh both an acknowledgment of two previous efforts. the uh consideration of a downtown bypass uh and the uh consideration of the extension of the Franklin commuter rail line to Milford. We mentioned both of them more in a historic context that they have been considered, but we do not they're not among the recommendations for reconsideration or bringing them back. um those I we heard voices in this final round of feedback that they would like us to have them more in the recommendation realm than in the past sort of recounting of events realm. What just put that out there for feedback? It's
008not it's not worth the aggravation to be totally honest. I mean if if we're going to study that then we got way more money than we need because I can tell you right now the MBTA doesn't have anywhere close to the money to do that. So, and it's so far out of our control that, you know, I I think it's it's a wasted effort. And to be totally honest, and this is another thing that people, you know, a lot of people don't think of the ramifications of that based on the state and again the state doing everybody's zoning for it. That would then put us into the realm of having to meet the MBTA neighbors requirements, which I don't think we want to go down that path to be totally honest. So there's there's many
009inputs to that that just to me I wouldn't want to see that at all. That isn't something that I would want to see on there. The biggest problem with that is the rail line would have to end at depot street and you got three not even secondary streets third third rated streets that you're going to dump if they think traffic's bad now. Yeah, I get it. It's impractical. 30 years a 40 years ago the bypass road would have been better to do back now the bypass road is a joke that's gone too right because the pardon me for not being sure of this but the bypass road is basically the rail trail right or a piece of it well the rail trail it could fit the thing is again with the bypass road you're going
010to dump it on got to have that the same streets right the depot street area street Yeah. North Bow and South Bow and Jefferson. So, what are you going to do with there? In trouble. Okay. Yeah, that that Yeah. So, it sounds like we will continue the approach which we have in the plan which is I mean they're acknowledged in the plan as items that have been explored but they're not strong. There's no recommendation really about as long as long as we explore them. Yeah. You know to you know have to satisfy your concerns. Yeah. Yeah. Um other items which I think are more squarely in the recommendations of the plan which were also discussed as traffic congestion solutions are advocating for and exploring uh changes to MWRTA bus routes which I think is you
011know more flexible and more of a potential. So that is one of the recommendations that that's a a potential area to explore. And then the addition of bike lanes is also in the plan as as written. So, those are more uh in the recommendations realm and less in the historic review realm um and are consistent with comments we heard in this final um round of conversation. The others uh which I thought were consistent with what's in the recommendations, but maybe I mean if we wanted to emphasize them based on what we heard in these final conversations, I'd be open to that. One was uh looking at continuing to sort of fortify the town's tax base and one of the ways to do that being to um encourage industrial land uses and thinking about ways to
012you know how to do that and exploring that uh through zoning or other means. Um that being uh relative to commercial uh tenencies right now a more sort of robust uh segment of the real estate market and so potentially industrial uses uh could be a viable viable approach to sort of longevity of tax tax rates and returns. So, don't know if you want us to push further on that or kind of leave. It's I think acknowledged in the recommendations, but not necessarily highlighted as a feature is how I would say it's in it's in there, but not one of the top 20 industrial uses. Yeah. For industrial top one, but there's I I mean there's no land left. Well, I I mean you could if you if you're looking at it in terms of changing
013things, you could, but I mean I've been on the board for over 20 years and there hasn't been a huge amount of industrial stuff that's come before us. So, it's like, okay, and there and there is areas and there were more areas when when I first started that were zoned industrial. It just doesn't seem like an area that you're going to you're going to need to put in a lot of work to try to get somebody here. And I don't know what you're going to have to give up to get them here to be totally honest. So, I yeah, I understand the I understand saying that and yes, it would help, but I I I don't know that that that client is out there that wants to that wants to do it to to be
014honest. Okay. And then the other theme worth uh highlighting which resonated which we've heard throughout the process but it showed up again in the conversations was improving outward communication from the town hall and desire for that transparency um and uh enhancement of people's ability to feel like they understand what's happening uh in the town. So and I think that is is squarely within the recommendations of a variety of uh goals, strategies and actions. So I feel like that is accommodated. Um there are I maybe can just flash up on the screen if I can work my technology here. Let me just see this document. Nope. Oh man, that didn't work. Oh, sorry. That's all right. We wouldn't be able to do it either. So, yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to pull up the more detailed comment
015document. Let me just see if I can do it this way. All right. So, just to give you a flavor for uh beyond those uh highlighted summaries, this is the document I sent to Oh, you is in their packet. Great. Okay. So this is the this is all the comments that were received through all of those various channels and means. Um so you're welcome to look at that in more detail. Um we do have a few uh within the prioritization that has occurred in the final chapter of the draft plan. There were uh some votes for sort of a meta prioritization of those priorities which we appreciate. Uh so that shows up in the comments. Um, we had uh one resident who I'm not sure would want to be named, but uh that shows up
016on the top of the second page that did actually a fair amount of really great work in terms of uh uh really like copy Eddie editing who went through a lot of the chapters very very uh in a detailed oriented manner and gave us uh really thoughtful suggestions on sentence structure in some places and grammar corrections. So we appreciate that and we have made those changes. They did not affect the content but they definitely affect the uh ability of the the document to be clear. So we have uh integrated those which is excellent. Um some of the others are basically highlighting the items which I just went through uh in detail or on the slides. Um and I think a lot of the others point to information which is in the plan already and squarely
017accommodated and uh reflects conversation that we had throughout the process. So, um, yeah, I don't know that there's in some of the other, uh, there were some, uh, from a town, uh, member of the town staff, there were some corrections about town meeting member numbers and number of staff in the town. So, we've made those corrections as well that were noted. So, just some minor factual corrections that have been integrated. the others we've the main themes we just talked through in terms of things that might change the content of the plan but you're welcome to look through these very specific comments uh from the in the various ways that they came into us all right so let me shift back to the presentation real quick making this work now all right so a Few other
018things that we heard too and I think this is uh we'll touch on some in this meeting and in the next meeting where we would recommend I think we're on track for recommending that you're moving towards adoption in your next meeting. I don't see anything uh too um inconsistent with how the process has unfolded. The one of the items is that organizing for implementation is critical and a lot of feedback that people don't want to see this plan uh just be a plan document that uh sees its conclusion uh with this process but then doesn't have the ability to uh affect change and affect implementation. So, one of the things that uh I can bring up in the maybe I'll I'll wait until I pull up the uh plan document in a moment, but I
019did want to touch on the final chapter which you all I think have hopefully have received the chapter 14 which is the implementation action plan. Great. So, that one uh is I think helps to focus on implementation as a critical next step and and gives ways to do that. And then the one of the other comments and suggestions we've heard which we also think is in the recommendations is just continuing to uh build collaboration uh between boards, committees, commissions and encourage that cross collaboration uh to uh work towards joint goals in the town. Just [clears throat] for my own it says desilo boards. What what is that leading to? I I I I don't understand what that what that's asking or telling. I just [laughter] that was language from I was thinking the same thing,
020Joe. Yeah, I can explain that. So that was language that was used by a a community member in one of the meetings and he was talking about how each board or commissioner committee has their sort of charge and their content area and sometimes in some cases staff that support them and they don't tend to look at what other um topics another board or committee might be dealing with that could potentially relate to some of those topics and they tend to like I guess stay in stay in your lane and kind of do the work of your board but not necessarily uh talk about other related boards like planning a good I think a reasonable example is planning board and conservation commission not saying that you do or don't talk to each other but that might
021be an area where cross collaboration could occur okay I understand what I think a question would be especially as we go into that chapter 14 you just referenced like how do other towns do that because it's hard in a town structure with you know largely run by town members and on these various committees that are functionally organized. Anything you can provide whether it's now or along the way about how people do a good job with that would be really interesting because we know the model we have and I I take your point completely but I just think like I don't know how we would do it. I think we we do talk I forget exactly where it is in the in the document. and I'd have to do a word search on it. But we
022talk about the uh one of the mechanisms to do that is just to hold regular joint meetings like as the so the ad hoc committee and the planning board have been doing joint meetings throughout this process. Not on a monthly basis. That's what we're saying. maybe like once or twice a year to actually have a set meeting for uh commissions or boards that might have overlapping topic areas to actually just come together and talk about what issues are you facing, what challenges are you seeing in the community and have more of an open forum about proactively thinking about the the challenges that face the town. So that's that's one of the mechanisms that could be used. Do you see other towns face that or address that through the lens of solving maybe specific problems? Like
023I've heard people say and work on this topic, but if you were trying to uh start a small business downtown, there's a lot of different departments and groups that you might need to go navigate and not know how to blaze a path. And that's that's a very that wouldn't be solved by committees and departments talking to each other. That'd be solved by organizing around a work stream. Is that because you just talked about it, I thought about that and I know people are trying to address that problem, but is that uh is that I think it competes with resources for doing what you're you're talking about. So, I'm trying to like noodle that through, right? Because you it's very difficult to do both, right? No, I think it's true. I think what you've described is
024another good approach where uh things like uh specific to small businesses, it's tough because we've seen towns which have got a lot of uh mileage out of things like a small business resource guide where it actually helps a small business navigate the variety of boards and permitting processes and the like that they have to go through. Um, and that would probably be better served by almost like a task force of all those groups coming together to put that resource guide together as opposed to it being solved by like a joint session in a meeting. I feel like that [clears throat] would be a more targeted probably staff based approach. It's helpful. It's but that's something in every town and city when you go in if I go in for a building permit they'll the building
025commission will tell you you have to get this you have to get that you have to get that got to go to the board of assesses and you think that happens here? Yes. Yeah. I can tell you right now if like for for the board of health, someone wants to apply for a food service permit, open up a sandwich shop or a full-scale restaurant or something, they come to the board of health and on our application it would say, did you check with zoning? Did you check with building, plumbing, electrician, you know, to make sure all the proper permits are in order? And that's done over the years of experience that we know when people ask questions, we answer them, you know, to make sure now it was on the application, not they they actually
026see it themselves. And as they put their application in to get uh reviewed by the board of health, we asked them, did you check all these things off? Did you know any other questions you have regarding this? Yeah. So that that's done as well. As a matter of fact, as a select board, I remember when Tom asked, what do we do? We had the board of health produce a document of everything you would need to do to open up a business in the town of Milford. So I just one of the things that I see happening is that like we do the same thing planning and I know you do you know how you what kind of business ask questions try to figure it out and send them to other departments as needed but there's
027but it's still very segmented so you know I don't know what happens in the board of health I don't know what happens in the building department I don't know what like there. So, I send people to where I think they need to go, but I but there's no, you know, they may hear one thing. I mean, just Larry and I, for example, if they meet with me and they meet with Larry, they're likely to hear slightly different things. And so, when they're going to other departments, I think that's that's the same thing. they're they're not they're possibly getting conflicting uh information and even if it's not conflicting it's still segregated and I think people that don't understand the process need something to bring it all together for them. Yeah. And even if you had cons
028if even if you could normalize the feedback that you got and you made it perfectly consistent, the mental image that we just had was somebody going yes from department to department to department and trying to figure out what they need to do in each of those. And that's that is what that comment's about. That's that's a siloed experience for that person. And we used one example and maybe I picked the wrong one and it's been solved. But there's certainly other things that people go through trying to navigate. And I think that's what that feedback's all about is even if you could really normalize the feedback that you got along the way, you still have to navigate seven different processes or five different processes, whatever that is. And I can see why that's that's hard, especially
029when you know you have functional expertise, you know, in town hall. You know, you're organized around functional competency and functional expertise as opposed to a generalist that could handle plumbing and electrical and fire and health and like that's difficult for one person to handle all that, right? Yeah. This is a different level to be to be honest with with all of them to a certain I mean I think [clears throat] the legal steps should be something that we can put out and make sure everybody is aware of. The fact of the matter is as as you get into it there can't be and I know there has been expectation that they walk in and talk to you or talk to Larry and have a final decision. That isn't where any of those are and people
030can't you know people can't do that. So people have complained about that type of thing and that's not something that that we can that we can uh deal with. But whether you have to go to, you know, the the outline that that you have for the board of health or whatever and and I know planning and engineering do the same thing of saying this is what you've got to do, these are the things you've got to follow. what that outcome is or the expectation that you're going to be able to go and talk to any of these people and get a final answer that that can't be. But the the process should be able to be stepped to be put out. And if it's not, then that's something that we should address as we move
031forward. But for common victual license, I know when you're going to uh vote to get it, you go through a list of all the departments. Sure. And I'm sure Rick, you must Yeah. must give that list out. He does every time when they do the board of select. So the people should know. I mean, it's as part of the process of of of being approved. It's still segmented. So when so and I do this when I can um if somebody comes over to planning and engineering and they're talking about putting a business or whatever and there comes to be something that I think they need to go see the building department. If I can, I'll walk over with them to the building department. Um, and that way I can help, you know, I can take
032what they've already told me and help facilitate the the conversation that, you know, I don't do it all the time and it and I can't say that it happens across the board with all the departments either. Um, so I think it's it's it's less about making sure you hit all of the points. It's more about feeling like town hall is one place and not seven departments working separately. That's a good way to put it. Yeah. I guess from what I'm what I'm hearing right is that it should this should be part of the plan, right? That there is a lot of questions going on. So by making it addressing it as a a talking point as part of the plan, then it puts the ownership on us of the town to to kind of create
033a way of deciding in and in and working together. So from your side, right, you put it on as a point of interest and it becomes our topic. We'll see how we can deal with it. And I feel like these kind of discussions are actually part of the solution. It's just like talking through what find out acknowledge the shortcoming. Do we have and this would not be a solution by any means because it doesn't unsilo the processes but is there any kind of permitting guide in town you know that you can hand to an applicant for any kind of permit so they know where else they might need to go just not commonly known as depends what they want to do like for the board of health we have one right but I'm talking about
034across some departments have been very resistant to such uh documents and you're talking about your phone no I'm [laughter] talking wouldn't have thought so. I'm just talking I've been very open to that idea. Um it might be again it doesn't desilo but at least it kind of unstifies the processes. Um so maybe we could think about that. I mean online we have if you're looking for excuse me a certain permit you will be able to see where you go select what issues these permits. Board of Health is issues these permits. if you know which permit you're looking for because there's a variety of permit starting a business and you don't know what permit you don't know to look under the select board and under the planning board and under the zoning board. Yeah. And you
035got to understand it's not a one-stop shop either cuz there's like Ricky said and you said it's it's different permits and they require different types of actions. Y you know not everything is the same. I mean, if I want to build a house, it's totally different than opening a restaurant, you know, which is where a permit guide might come in handy, right? I mean, we have a list that shows if you want an alcohol license, this is where you go. If you're opening a restaurant and you want alcohol license, you should be able to go look, here's an alcohol license for the board select. Yeah. So, that's a lot of what I'm I think that's we do have that they put that impression out there that we don't have that aggravates me a little bit.
036I can speak in your voice given the position I'm in. Are we siloed? Yeah. Elected. Yeah. Elected, right? Yeah. Okay. So, we are siloed in that respect. I mean, maybe the discussion and nobody wants to do the work is maybe we change the form of government and Yeah. There there's the reaction I get, you know, from me. So, and you're not going to do it all in this building either. Correct. Correct. Exactly. That's another You may have to go to the sewer. No matter where you go, water department. That's right. No matter where you go, you go to the sewer department, the water department, the fire department. It's not in the town hall. Right. But that doesn't mean that there's not conversations and and information shared between departments. And I think that is I I
037and I don't know what goes on upstairs for the most part because I don't have to deal with that. But the the departments that I do deal with, I don't have constant communication with hardly any of them. So you do with the board of health? Be Yes. So I'm part So I'm part of the board of health. That's what I do. So So that's so right. So I and um because I that that does give me um with the board of health it is different for me with that but sewer, water, highway, parks, I these are I don't meet with them regularly. Right. Right. But that's where you can advise the applicant who's coming in for advice where to go. It's up to that department to be cordial to them. Yeah, I mean we're not
038going to solve this here and certainly not solve tonight, but I mean, you know, whether to me it comes down I think the the difficult thing is that as Ricky just said, we're there a bunch of elected and there's been for as long as I can remember going back and I've been a I've been a citizen of this town for as long as I've lived live and and from those points on every one of the boards has always been no that's my board that's my prerogative that's the way I'm going to do it and I don't know that we're going to change that in the next 5 years 10 years 20 I sort of doubt it but at least the person coming in should have a clear sight as to where they have to go
039in terms of the boards working together that's a very difficult thing and to say it's going to happen is is is probably very you know is is is probably something that I don't know that you can say any plan is going to is going to do. But I think that there should be pieces of paper that say if you're looking to open a business in Milford, these are the people you should go and talk to and we should keep it updated so it has the appropriate people that are there. Well, I' I'd like to echo that. I I think it'd be a great idea to have even if it's just a visual flowchart for each type of permitting process or whatever it is. I think that's a great idea and I would welcome an annual
040or bianual meeting of the different boards. I mean I would attend that. I think that's great too. You know information you can you know you can learn a lot. Good idea. Okay. All right. We'll look we'll look through the language in the plan relative to this conversation and just make sure that it it fits. Um, but I did want to share and this is apologies because it is a little overdue. I was hoping that we would get you so you've seen all the content of the plan. Uh, you've gotten that incrementally over the last month and that's been publicly available now and reviewed um and presented, but uh and I haven't sent it yet to Larry the link, but I do have uh with me on my screen which I'll share with you the actual
041formatted document now which I'll share make sure that Larry has a do a document that he can share with you guys. But let me just pull that up because I do think it it looks a lot better than the the files you've been that have been circulating now. So this is the all of that content which you've seen mostly in um word file form. It's the same language, all the same text, etc., but in a more formatted uh document form with all the figures and maps. And I think it it just reads much better and you know pops off the page and you can see a lot of the the themes and the organization the plan and actually having some photographs in the document all of that helps a lot. Uh, but you can see
042the same the same content that we've been talking through is present, but now you have actual like chapter breaks with the intro to the chapter. Things like the the historical events which jump out a little bit more with some of the illustrations and historic photographs. The narrative sections have some images that go along with them. We've integrated the thematic maps that we've had throughout the process where they fit present day uh features of the town. We've got the demographic analysis. Now we've actually got some of the charts that are a little more interesting than the language context for each of the various topic areas. I'm just going quickly, but you can see that the feel of it and the content is a lot a lot more rich and and I think engaging than it was
043previously. And I'll get down to one of the thematic chapters. Here's the Milford's future chapter with the language around the vision statement. And even that uh feedback from the community is dressed up a little bit. The vision statement now has its own kind of dressy full spread with some of the themes that came out. the future vision map which we've talked about in a previous meeting and then the introduction of the themes which are how we organize the chapters and then from here each of the chapters is built around those themes like we've discussed. So this is the um same language that you've seen but now added with a thematic map in each chapter. And then as you get into the goals, strategies, and actions for each of the themes, uh they're organized in a
044little more readable way. And this is where we bring back the the icons which associate to the different topics. So we've we've shifted to the themes where we still hold the various organization by the topics with those icons. And this continues on down uh for each of the thematic chapters. And I'll scroll really fast because I want to get to the last chapter, which is the implementation chapter. But you can see each of the uh I think a really rich document that has a lot of content for sure and a lot of I think uh the the illustrations in the maps helped to make the points that the text was making. Almost there. 12th chapter 13th and the last one. So this implementation action plan uh I did want to touch on and one of
045the things to note was that everything I just scrolled through. So those goal the the plan is truly comprehensive. So it does uh touch on across those nine overarching themes we've we've tabulated it. So it's 52 goals uh and then there's 170 strategies and 323 actions. And that's not intended to be uh and we say this in the plan document, it's not intended to be uh it's fully accomplishable really by the town. So like this is to give you all when a topic comes squarely into the radar. Uh hopefully this plan document gives you something to move on or like you say this is a topic, what did the plan have to say about it? And hopefully this will give you some some framing and some action around that specific topic. We did want to
046in this chapter highlight 20 of the goals, strategies and actions that we do think are important to start that will get the ball rolling on implementation and that will start to move some of the most critical items and themes that we've heard from the community. So that's what is highlighted here in this chapter. And the other thing I wanted to highlight too is the notion of uh forming a comprehensive plan implementation committee. And that's been one of the um I think most effective ways to make sure that it's not just a document that sits on the shelf but is actually a document that has action around it. And that those committees can be appointed or created in a number of ways. It could be a subcommittee of the planning board. It could be its own
047independent thing. It could be appointed by the select board and planning board jointly. Uh it could be uh some communities have even created them uh through town meeting. So, there's a variety of ways that you can create that um implementation committee, but the I think the important take-home message is that to have a body that's responsible for looking out for making progress on some of these ideas is important because as as the conversation we just had about the divisions between where responsibilities lie, the the document really does cross a lot of those boundaries. And so it's even though it's a planning board document in the end, I think it's it's a little bit more expansive and comprehensive than the planning board's um charge alone. And that's what an implementation committee is helpful to help uh
048move on. So that's all in here in this chapter. And then the the chapter also does uh for each of the um 20 highlighted goals, strategies, and action combinations. We gave a little more combination around a commentary uh the type of action that it is a and uh who we think might be best positioned as a responsible party either a lead or a partner partnering responsibility on each action and the time frame whether it's a continuous and sort of ongoing activity a near-term midterm or long-term activity and then where uh external resources are available like a grant source or a funding source. We've made reference to those as well. So trying trying to give a variety of pieces so that there there's some um you know we're providing the breadcrumbs on that trail so that
049some of that action can get get moving. So that's the uh final chapter the 14th chapter which is called implementation action plan. I want to highlight that. I will send this document to Larry which we'll get to you and you can see basically again just reinforcing that none of the content is new but it's basically been reformatted and packaged with all the the visuals that we've had along the process. Uh thoughts or questions on that? just a question just because you I had read through the implementation stuff. I I didn't really have that many comments per se, but the thing that hit me as I was looking through that is and maybe it's the implementation committee, maybe not, but um a lot of these things and having gone through this before in the previous one,
050um unless there's a champion, I don't see a lot of these getting done. So, this is a question more a yes or no as opposed to you naming anybody. But as you went through the process, did you see people that were out there that you believe would be champions for some of the things that are in here? Yeah, I think I mean I hope that some of you all are champions of this work. Um, so I think that you you all have been very uh solid voices in this process. We we have seen I think what we've seen in the actual community meetings is I if if it was the town's desire to have as a composition in that implementation committee at large resident representation. We have seen some passionate residents who are eager to
051get more involved in the town. Um, and so I feel like if you if you had a few spots which were open an open call to residents that they could apply and then you can review those applications and [clears throat] see if they uh can fill those spots. I do think you would get response to that if such a call were made and that they might also be help to have bring energy into that implementation. Yeah, I think you need I I mean there there certainly may be people on the planning board that that would be, but I you know from where we were before I think you at least I feel we did the things that were within the planning board's jurisdiction from the last plan. Those are the ones that got moved forward.
052A lot of the other things went by the wayside and and I don't want the same thing to happen necessarily again this time. So that's that's why I I asked the question. So that's one. Yeah. And I do think some of the there are definitely items in the top 10 that are have a focus on zoning and that are in the planning board's wheelhouse. Um so I do think there are items which are are certainly um that fall in the same category of items you implemented from the previous point. Other thoughts or questions about the full formatted document which we'll get to you all shortly. All right. So the next steps are are getting to be fewer and fewer. All of this uh is up and available on the website for people to take a
053look at. Um Larry and I had talked about this and we had talked about previously in the last meeting I think we had together that this meeting would be a a review of the items we've gone over and if there were no major red flags that we would likely be positioned to move toward a second meeting later this month which is on May 20th potentially if you all agree and that the purpose of that would be basically to um between now and then to make sure that we're all comfortable there's no other final changes but that we uh move toward a recommendation from the ad hoc committee to the planning board and then to the planning board ultimately for adoption of the plan. But that's uh that's up to you all to feel comfortable with
054and to make sure that you're okay with uh but I from our perspective I think we are on track to do so. But it's it's fine with us too if you want to take more time for one reason or another. Josh, for the uh chapter three on the demographics, is is is it possible? I know we've been going on for almost a year, uh but a lot of the metrics are from 2022. I mean, can those be updated to current? That I can check. I think that given the lag time on um census data that those might actually be the current years. Yeah. So with the usually what we end up using the most current data outside of the 10-year census which is the dennial census is the American community survey which is a 5-year
055survey. Okay. Except that fiveyear survey the analysis of and then the release of the data from the census bureau lags by about 2 or 3 years. So the ACS 2022 with ACS of with 2022 being the most recent of the five-year estimate. So the data is actually from 2022 to 20 uh what what's the how's the math work on that to um 2017. So it' be 2017 to 2022 would be the 5-year estimate range that that data is uh reflective of. But I'll I'll check with our data services team because there's there is a rolling release of that data. But I would say probably at the best it would be 2023 would be the date on those. Um and and just as a re another measure of reassurance, the way those data sets work is
056they drop off 2017 and they add 2023. So the actual shift in data isn't that dramatic from set to set. If you one more question in general. So these um these [clears throat] goals that we set out and the action plan, the strategies, what's what's everybody's thought about having an assignment uh an assigned person or team to work on them? Yeah, I spell that out now. That's just my opinion. I think that would be very helpful and go a long ways towards implementation. I think what we could do either in session like we are I'm happy to try to take a shot at it right now if we'd like but or offline you know through emails and things what I would suggest is focusing on the final chapter chapter 14 the 20 items there and
057start with trying to assign we've assigned specific parties let me just scroll I keep scrolling through this document let me scroll back down to the bottom Um, for example, like we've got plan and engineering department, highway department, planning board, down revitalization committee, things like that. But if it would be helpful to actually pull out individual names or champions, we'd be happy to add that information in. I feel like that can some that can be helpful, but for us to do it alone, I I fear that we would mo mostly miss the mark. I don't I don't personally I don't think that belongs in the plan. Right. I mean that person could change next April, right? Because we have we have elected officials and stuff. So I mean I as far as the plan goes, I
058think you have that as to how the implementation actually works out, you know, as a start. If if if there's going to be a a comprehensive plan committee or or however that's going to move forward and that hasn't really been determined either, that that would be important to it. But I I don't think that belongs in the plan. I wouldn't go to that level. No. Well, I think the hybrid would be the the seat, not the individual. Correct. So, you wouldn't want to put a person's name in a document that's supposed to persist for a decade or so. I think that's what he's got, right? But can't see that far. I would say that you need to I would say you need to have one person listed as a lead and then that per that
059say it's planning and engineering department is the lead and then they're responsible for coordinating with the other departments because I think I think you name five groups nobody steps forward. Yeah. Right. That's a good idea. Yeah. I agree that I think that's a meaningful change. If we could change it to lead responsibility and supportive responsibility and maybe break it into two row like two rows and then actually have a lead and maybe say that they are responsible for kind of uh of course leading but also coordinating with the supporting groups leader/coordinator. Yeah. You said person but you mean position or or entity like what board? Right. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I can make that change. suggestions. I think some of these you're going to you're going to find it difficult to do that, but that's fine
060if you Yeah. to extent it can be done. Well, I think I I think just pulling one out and then the planning board can hold that party responsible whether they if the planning board doesn't see it as important then they I'm saying I'm saying it's I'm saying some of them I think it's going to be very difficult as to who the responsible party should be and and to make that judgment now before any any group of people get together to me doesn't just doesn't make sense. I mean for for the one that was up there I think you know traffic planning and engineering needs to be the lead. There is no other department in the town that that's really well I shouldn't say that because the police control the signals but we won't get into
061that. I would uh but anyways you know I think some of them are very clear as to which department it should be but others I think that may be a little more mudd muddy but if you you know if you go through it Josh and you find out you can then that's fine. I I don't have a problem with it. Let me try to be determined category or something like that. If it if it isn't apparent if there are a few choices, I think we can reinforce maybe on each of these pages too because I'm imagining that some of these might actually just like a single page might be kind of what people are starting with as opposed to like the entirety of this plan document. And so we on this single page I think
062we could also maybe just add a little bit of a almost like a narrative disclaimer about like the intention is to help get the town started and rolling on this but people shouldn't feel like oh well the you know it's written here that the planning board has to be the lead but if it's decided that there's other another better lead it doesn't have to stick to what's delineated. So we'll maybe come up with a little bit of language just in terms of how this is intended. It's not intended to constrain your options. It's just intended to get the ball rolling. And if you if there's a better approach to implementation, so be it. And you all can move from there. Okay, it's all good feedback. All right, back to this. Um, so I've got on
063my calendar and I mean you all can discuss. Uh, but if you all feel comfortable with it, I think we can I I think that what we're discussing in terms of some of these changes we can accomplish for sure in the next say week. I'll send the link that we have currently to Larry so you all can have the full document that's laid out um tomorrow if Larry's in and then uh or I guess I can send to you and Larry. Yeah, just send it to both of us. But I'm I'm sure he'll be in. Okay. And then um in the meantime while you have that document, we'll continue like breaking the the uh responsibilities into a lead and a support role and do some of the minor changes like that and then get you
064a second document back in advance of the 20th and that would be the document that would be um ready for adoption effectively. Do you think the 20th would be okay or for time wise? Yeah. For you? Yeah, I think I feel comfortable with it. I think we've got the document I just scrolled through is looking good. That would the only changes would be in the last chapter anyway, right? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. So, if we we get that and then the the changes will it'll be easy for us to go over. Yeah. Okay. As long as you feel comfortable in your on your end. The only question I have is I I don't have a problem with the date. The only thing is I'm thinking we need we should have we need to have a quorum
065then and that's not a regularly scheduled meeting of this committee. It's a regularly scheduled meeting of the planning board but not of this committee. If we can't get a quorum for that meeting then we can't really have a vote. So that's the only thing that I that I throw out there that maybe it makes more sense to do it in the first meeting in June, which would have been a normal meeting that we would have done this and if it goes over I'm just throwing that out there because I think it could be an issue. I don't know who's going to show up on the on the 20th. Okay. Yeah, you're right. What was the what's the normal meeting date in June? Just to check. Well, it would it so if Rick it would be
066Rick, Paul, and Brent. Grant you wanted to say Brent. That's fine. You guys make a quorum of your committee. The three of you. The They're the three that aren't the four. Correct. Yeah. Jeff, Frederick, that's what I'm saying. There's one that hasn't really been showing up. I don't know whether he plans to or not. If these gentlemen aren't available, I'll be there. 20th. Um, yeah, I'll be here. Well, let's fine. I don't have a problem with the 20th. I mean, that was my only question. That's where you were politely trying to go. Yeah. Would you be here? I think it's Elizabeth is trying to say very politely. We wouldn't have No, I just asked them. Goes Wednesday. It goes Wednesday. It'll go Wednesday. Shouldn't take another day [laughter] type way. That was really very kind
067of why we book another day. Yeah. Basically, what we're trying to find out is if you will you guys be coming on the 20th. Okay. God willing. Yeah. Darren to say that. See you tomorrow. Probably. God willing. Well, if all the planning Oh, well, if all the planning board members that are on the committee are here, then we'd be okay. Mhm. Anyways, if if Paul and and Rick are going to be here, then we'd be okay. So, that's I don't have an issue with it. I I do it on the 20th. Yeah. Yeah. Your your time wise was the one I was worried about more than anything. You said you can you can comply, but Yeah. No, I feel the the document which I just scrolled through with you, I feel very comfortable with. I've
068reviewed and re-reviewed. A team has uh put everything into it. So, it's ready. Yeah. and we'll make the minor change the changes we discussed this evening are pretty minor and we can integrate them and we can ex we can uh vote on it that night too, right? Yeah, we can do for acceptance. Yes. Yeah. The ad hoc can recommend and the planning board can can accept it. Yeah. What I would I guess what you probably once that happens we can send it to we should probably send it to the select board so that they have it and then uh and that would to me that would mean the fall town meeting we could make a presentation to uh town meeting. That's great. And I think Larry was talking about wanting to print some copies as
069well. Yeah, whatever. Yeah, whatever we had for that. But I already got the dividers. [laughter] Great. Okay. Well, that's all I had. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Right. Brent, I'm still working on trying to navigate our high school sports schedule trying to get [laughter] to I was wondering what's so complicated about your calendar. I think it's not your own that you're looking for. It's my job. Plus, I coach and I work with the high school team with a kid on it. So, they all the same time. Oh, good. little forum anyways. I mean if he comes obviously that would be good. Thank you Josh. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. We'll have a chance next meeting but it has been a pleasure working with you all. Yes. Well hopefully
070we'll continue with some other stuff too Josh as we've talked about. Thank you guys. Thank you. Good night. Thank you. See you tomorrow. Okay, this is for 110 South Main Street for uh electric vehicle uh charging stations. Uh Larry's Go ahead. You make your presentation. For the record, John Federico with Gurrier and Helman. Um so from my understanding um the uh applicant was in uh previously I believe in March um to uh propose uh four electric vehicle charging stations. Um those would be already in existing stripe parking spaces. Um I guess there were some issues that they had with the plan scale and some of the information that they were providing there. Um so we have prepped up this plan here with a 40 scale and a 10 scale detail. Um that just essentially shows
071that we're going to be doing a little bit of pavement removal. um or sorry not pavement removal uh sidewalk removal um to accommodate for the ballards and the electric vehicle charging station. Um we still will be providing a full 5ft sidewalk um for ADA accessibility um out within the rightway. Um but that was something that we would have to accommodate for. Um and then uh after uh reviewing uh Milford's uh zoning codes um we are allowed to go um no more than 24 in within a parking stall for some type of structure. Um so we did make sure that the design was compliant with um that uh regulation there. Um so we do believe that this should be a relatively simple change for things. Um but I'm more than happy to answer any questions from
072the board. Well, one of the big things was the transformer was in the was in the rightway. Uh it was in the um easement. Easement. Okay. But it's been relo been removed. So yep. Any comments from the board? Quickly, you may or may not know tier one or tier two charging stations or tier three. Just as I just learned this the other night at um at school committee like that show off. I know. [laughter] And that's why I said you may or may not know. I'm assuming it's going to be tier two. It says it's a um it looks like tier 2. It doesn't to me it's not a dealbreaker one way or the other. I just wanted to ask the question to see we know. What's the difference? I'd like you to learn that
073please. All right. So, your tier three are like your your Tesla charging station. So, one like a supercharging station. Tier two is a singlephase 240 volt uh 4050 amp. Um and then tier one. Wow. Can you dumb it down for me? Yeah. Same here. And then tier one is your power that's going through. Tier one is your an extension cord. How far? Yeah. Right. So, how fast how fast the vehicle shift? How fast. Right. So obviously the extension cord one is going to take a much longer time. Tier two is kind of like again what you're if you were to have a u you have at home. Yeah. Like at home. And then the tier three are truly like the Tesla charging stations that you can plug your car in and it's going to charge
074within 15 minutes. So like at the gas stationary it's going to be a those are the ones the credit card can go through. Correct. Exactly. They all Yeah. So it was just again out of curiosity I I assumed yeah it was tier two and not a tier three Tesla charging station I would agree with that I can definitely say it's definitely not just like an extension cable or anything along those lines right so okay no it's very informative hopefully it was I don't know it was quick the only is the sidewalk work in in the right of way. Do they have to work in the sidewalk or they need to and then it's being fixed? Is that what's going on or So, it is actually within our property line. Um, and you can see the
075sidewalks in the property line. The property line and that overlaps a little bit with that sidewalk there. Then the only other question I'd have is um power going into the uh distribution cabinet and in transform of those because those will be new. I'm assuming they're grabbing off the pole and going underground. The pole's right there. So, very minimal trenching. That's why they're going through this side. That's why they moved it to this side because Yep. Okay. So, yeah, they're not like they have to open up Depot Street. Okay. Pleasure of the board. Make a motion we approve the amended side plant. Amended. I think it is, isn't it? Second. Moved and second. We approve this uh amended site plan. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I opposed. Unanimous five. Thank you very
076much. Thank you so much. Um Larry didn't indicate if you guys need an extra copy of the plan at all. Um do you folks need one? You're going to bring No, you're going to have to bring the myar in for Larry to sign anyway. All right. No problem. We'll definitely make sure we get that over to you guys. We don't do we don't do myars anymore. just papers. Larry. Yeah. Okay. Everything gets scanned, so it doesn't need to be milar. All right. Cool. I'll definitely let everybody know. All right. Thank you all so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Jeez, we're moving into the 20th century, not the 21st. Anything else uh before the PL board? None. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Moved and seconded to adjourn. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those uh in
077favor opposed. Unanimous apply. Good night. Thank you.