001good evening everyone and welcome to Ashen planning board meeting of Thursday March 13 2025 a reminder to everyone that the meeting is being broadcast and recorded um I'm calling the meeting to order at 7:18 and first on our agenda as always Clerk's report okay thank you madam chair we have not received any correspondence since the last plan well that is easy then we will go on to the next agenda item thank you and next on the agenda is public comment Peter can you imagine uh manage any public comment uh if there are anybody online uh via Zoom that would like to make a public comment please raise your handbody in the room this would be the correct time to make your way to the podium we have one person at the podium Mr Mar donon
002Mr Mar Doone please uh address the podium with your name and address oh I gotta do it again hello porium thank you for setting me up like that okay um I'm going to ask the question I asked last time through the chairman to to the town planner any progress on working together with other committees about zoning and BOS Mark I can tell you right now that the main goal um is Staffing the zoning board of appeals and uh Staffing this planning board I would love to carve out a time to speak with you about zoning and the town manager however our schedules are busy um town meeting is building so I think if we can look to uh sometime into May probably be appropriate time uh after town meeting and then we can kind of
003go from there okay and I know that tonight is a little snippet I what you going to be talking about so I wait for that thank you I don't see anyone else with a hand raised so we will go on to item seven which is our first public hearing this is uh 240 to 260 Pleasant Street do you want to read that in you want me to I can read it in for you okay so the plan board will hear the petition um of Metro West facilities LLC uh requesting site plan approval design plan uh review and site uh alteration special permit per chapter 48 section 6 of the Massachusetts zoning act in chapter 282 sections 9.6 design plan review uh 9.4 site plan review in section 5.8 site alteration special permit of the town
004of Ashen bylaws the applicant is proposing to develop a recreational you soccer field and Tot Lot playground area additional permeable parking modified two-way site access driveway pedestrian walkway connection to the abing parcel to the West uh associate storm Water Management Facility Utility Services landscaping and electrical conduit or by direct burial wiring for the future Lighting on the field this soccer field will serve as a exil um access accessory use ancillary use to the current facility which is known as the Metro West Christians Academy inan connect Church the total development excuse me the total area of the development will be 1.9 Acres the property is question uh excuse me the property in question is located at 240 260 Pleasant Street assessors map 13 lot 108 and 109 and is located with the industrial district it's also
005within the underground protection uh the groundwater protection overlay district and the MBTA communities uh family excuse me the MBTA Community Family multif Family overlay District as a note um this past week the T of ashlin's MBTA overlay district has been approved by the Attorney General's office it is awaiting approval from um EC the state approval agency uh with that said before I hand it over to the applicant um just to add a little color and to put us on Pleasant Street um this is um right next to the connect Church in the daycare facility it is two I'm not going to say abandoned Lots however they're uh they are not manicured uh there's some overgrown trees overgrown vegetation and they're almost used for uh I would say overflow parking is that correct that's correct um
006and so at this point um in this application is going to look to develop these properties into a uh into Fields recreational space obviously ancillary to the connect church and the Christians Academy so with that said I'm going to hand it over to the applicant um Mr Wayne is it Bellic Bellic Mr Wayne Bellic from who's a um excuse me from Land Design collaboratives who is representing the applicant so Wayne please take it away and just and just to note we do have our fifth member um online you know at this time because I know it's a special permit so that just you know you do have five members of the board here now thank you madam chair thank you Peter nicely done uh looks like you took half my presentation which uh is much
007appreciate it Madame chair Wayne bellich Land Design collaborative civil engineers Landscape Architects uh on the project I'm joined here tonight by Jerry scherz so he's the director and executive Pastor for connect church and the Metro West Christian Academy um uh Peter uh had pretty much covered quite a bit of the site um if we could uh go to uh so Alvaro is going to be driving the bus for us to the site so if we could Alvaro uh take it to the compiled existing conditions plan couple sheets down please that's okay actually that may have been one more perhaps there you go thank you so as uh Peter had indicated it's located to the east of uh con Church in the Metro West Christian Academy as you can can see it's uh divided into two
008Parcels both combined uh way to about 825,000 Square F feet there 325 uh feet of Frontage serving the two properties um the zoning requires uh 150 fet of Frontage and 30,000 square feet so with that said uh it exceeds the uh Frontage in in laot area requirements um you'll note to the uh to the south of the property is the railroad tracks the MBTA uh and over to to the right is an industrially zoned piece of property Pro uh the topography on the site is is relatively flat and as Peter had indicated there's overflow parking there it can accommodate you know I looked at it um and if I look at the dimensional requirements for the town of Ashland's parking spaces and a 24t maneuvering aisle it can accommodate about 30 spaces uh that's a
009uh compacted gravel uh parking lot the front of and the remainder of the property is Peter had indicated is wooded with uh dense undergrowth um uh a lot of vines and dense undergrowth uh not the most desirable situation um topographically uh if you look at how storm water flows from the site um a portion of the a small amount goes to the Northeast flows off of the Northeast Direction um small portion goes to the southeast Direction uh but the balance of B the majority of it stay on the property there's some depressions on site um which tend to collect the storm water um the soils on site um are primarily Sandy gravels um we had done some soil testing as you can see on the plan uh and as was required under the uh State
010storm water regulations um local storm water bylaws and we found that the soils out there were fairly consistent uh to uh what the nrcs has on file um the site is accessed uh actually to the northwest of the site there's a paved uh exit uh to the site so currently uh connect church and and Metro West use that as egress from the site it's not an entrance as of this time uh but they use it uh for for erets ELO if you wouldn't mind uh go to the next slide please thank you yep TR to look at the from above sure what is the building so it's connect church and area what is the next that's a that's an industrial use the name of it uh escapes me okay yeah so if you're going down
011Pleasant Street you have um wher air handling s solar flare and then the next one will be the it's actually kind of cool the way it I and talk about because sort of hidden with the trees it sounds like they want to replicate that absolutely absolutely I appreciate the comments so one of one of the things that I failed to mention uh as you folks know this is PR why that the oay District was created um the nanza super fun site is uh to the southeast east of this in the plume extends onto the property um we had received information DP in the federal EPA uh have this on file uh there are no activity use limitations uh on the site or any other restrictions that prohibit uh any construction on the site um they
012do have in the southwest corner of the site there are three dedicated Wells monitor Wells uh a b and c uh it's the four series 4 A B and C they use this uh from monitoring uh the levels of the triethylene uh in the system um in in in the aqua or in the uh in the plume what they've uh indicated uh in the study um is that the the levels are very low it's down about 70 to 80 feet and what we've received from the EPA and D they don't concerns there are not are no concerns as to what the activity uh is on the property they did ask uh uh Jerry and his group to just keep them informed as to what's going on they asked for some soil data uh just to
013know what we found for soils and they wanted the soil log uh information so we decided that you know we're filing the application we'll give them everything so what they have received is what you have received so they have a a pretty good idea as to to what's going on out here and we haven't heard anything um so like I said we're we're sensitive to that as well so we're going to start with a um a site prep an erosion and sediment control plan uh to the South West uh southeast of the property there's a 100 foot buffer zone that's cast upon the property from a BBW to the south side of the railroad tracks so in speaking with uh Peter so our first meeting we had uh with the town we've had two meetings
014with Town Staff first one was planning and conservation the second one was early of this week on Tuesday with planning conservation in all the the department heads and we fielded some questions from them and they are offered their thoughts so with that said um we're not our filing uh with concom which is concurrent with this is not for the filing of a notice of 10 however it's for their storm water permit um so with that said all work is being proposed outside the buffer zone so what you see on this plan is the erosion settlement control uh barriers uh established out here we've got orange construction fence uh around the Well site area one of the requirements of the EPA um um and DP is they asked uh the church if they they Ed we
015respectfully request that you try to honor this area and and keep it protected so that there's no activity over feel that the plane does that creating a vegetative buffer uh to the area they plan to monitor this continually um so um that would be the plan they'd have access to it so in in the event uh the the plan shows uh for clearing out here uh to the erosion sediment control barriers uh so the approach would be uh to go out clear it then establish the erosion sediment uh control barriers then grub it uh start to do some rough grading stockpile areas as you see on the plan are located uh to the Southwest um um that TP you know so like any site um that's where we're targeting but they will probably move as
016site cond distant conditions dictate one of the very first things that we would look to do is create an a sediment Basin and that would be located to the downgradient side of the site primarily along the easterly property line South um we would in uh introduce diversion channels uh we would have a a construction trailer out at the site when they're doing their work um and we would also look to um and I'll get into this in a minute but one of the plans here is to as they go through the vegetation here um obviously uh remove and properly dispose of any invasives that are on the property but while they're out there what they're going to look for are some small uh shrubs that they could use as fillers along the front edge of
017the road just to again make it to Pro uh provide a little bit of a screening so to the north of the site more you know pretty much along the center of the frontage we're looking to propose a an area where um the the uh the shrubs would be balled and uh bar aped and and maintained to be uh hydrated so that when it comes time for planting the so that's basically it for the erosion and sediment control Alvaro if you would have mind so this is the layout materials plan so what you see um is a u12 sarer field that we're proposing here it's a natural turf field uh the parking in in on site like I said earlier we have 30 parking spaces currently uh on the property on the gravel parking lot
018this would provide uh 49 spaces so an additional uh 19 spaces access in egress in this case uh as proposed uh would be from uh Pleasant Street and the egress currently that is uh all primar all egress from connect Church would then again go to an in andout situation at this location so folks uh coming to use the soccer field um would enter at this location um so this the the parking as uh Peter had read into uh the minutes here uh is is ancillary to the existing uses so it's basically they're they're generating another 19 spaces um they also wanted to create a Rec recreational area for their students so this is why we looked at um a soccer field and initially it started as just an open field and you know it was
019at that point Jerry said hey why don't we just shoot for the soccer field maybe there could be multiple uses in town for youth soccer maybe we can work with the local league and uh provide them some opportunities to um there we're also proposing a tot lot about 50 by 50 it's going to be a uh hard rubber uh surface um and as I said we have the the parking area the parking area um is part of our drainage design we're proposing a uh a crush Stone parking area um the benefit to that is from a storm water runoff perspective doesn't generate as as as much as a paved surface where pretty much all of it with the exception of about 2% runs off in this case we we're going to take advantage of that
020stone and that's going to be part of our storm water system we're going to utilize the voids in the stone um so in terms of access and egress like you see up in the northwest corner um we're going to have access and egress into and out of the site um stop signs will be provided uh at the parking lot um as it enters uh through that uh paid surface area and then there'll be another stop line and stop bar out at the street um the pedestrian way is going to be provided from the uh existing developed lot uh to the west and then continue to the soccer field into the parking areas that currently is proposed as a a stone dust uh walkway um as part of the design we're meeting the uh planting requirements
021out here the landscape requirements by providing some uh trees at uh various locations if you look at what we're proposing we're proposing Seven Trees uh on the property and then we would look to as I discussed earlier enhance the uh the screening out at the street uh with the the shrubs So the plan would be as we noted on our planting uh uh notes that we would go out there with the representative from the town probably the planning department petor alaro uh the landscape architect and the contractor and view it from the street to fill the voids with uh plant material that we've plucked if we feel that uh the additional plant material is required it would come from Nursery stock uh so the from a layout materials perspective this is uh like I said
022this is basically what we have the rest of the area would be uh loaned and seated um to the East and to the South as I was talking uh earlier is the primary portion of our storm water basin so Alvaro if you wouldn't mind flipping over to the grading thank you so grading and drainage the site is pitched uh generally to the um soccer field so from the parking lot through the soccer field we have created a Swale in the Swale um we have created a uh We've uh proposed a half dozen or so so the swell begins from the east side of the uh the parking lot or the west side of the parking lot goes to the South and then continues up uh North the low points in this depressed Swale uh we
023have um area drains the area drains are eight high density polyethylene with like a beehive type grate uh so that in the uh Autumn uh conditions when the leaves come down they don't get clogged and the window will just blow them through uh and off the uh the inlets um this was an interesting site from a hydrology point of view and from an engineer's perspective it doesn't get better than this because of the soils that we had and because of what uh the church was looking to do on in the school were looking to do on the property it really didn't give us much room to discharge so with that we hit you know this is basically the cat's pajamas in terms of uh storm water runoff from the site because typically you address storm
024water rate Peak rates of runoff you're not required to uh address volume under the the uh State storm water RS you're required to you know ensure that you're not flooding down gradient properties but in this particular case we don't have a detention Bas and we have retention detention uh to remind the board is basically where you collect water uh and you releas it at a uh at a certain rate retention none of the water leaves the site so looking at our pre- and poost development numbers um we have some water leaving the site preconstruction post Construction it all goes in the ground um the system like I said from the drainage system we're utilizing the stone in the parking area uh we've done this on a number of of projects quite effectively um some of
025the projects were Ground mounted solar array Fields some of them fairly large uh solar array Fields um and it's an effective tool typically you take 40% void uh ratio in the stone we're a little conservative on this one we only took 20 so the the fact of the matter is is while uh the everything functions on site um we there is some extra capacity within the stone so um like I said that's basically the way it's laid out the soccer field is crowned um so that it pitches to either side into the swes um and contained uh on the property uh as I said earlier the uh the orange construction fencing will remain up during All Phases of construction uh the um erosion sediment control measures will also remain in place until um all everything
026is stabilized and we get a sign off um Alo if you wouldn't I don't know how much more we have here uh so this is utilities so one of the things that the town would like to do is so obviously if they're looking to do a soccer field um and it may host some games that may run into the night we need lighting so as part of this uh project we've uh prepared a photometrics plan prepared and we'll get to that in a minute uh but we have lighting proposed at the Four Corners of the field those po poles are going to be 25 foot tall we also have some light fixtures uh for the parking area so you'll notice to the east side of the parking area to the uh west side of the
027parking area and to the South we're proposing some uh poles those are only 20 foot tall different type of uh of fixture uh so those are night sky compliant fixtures all LED um for the soccer field something I should have mentioned earlier um and we have this in fact this was something that Alvaro brought up in our first meeting because of his lead foot and soccer um had asked that we provide the screening so we said we were going to provide the screening in our meeting this this week so looking at the ends of the soccer field we are providing 20 foot tall screening um but we have uh discussed with the town staff about extending that that screening a little bit further down from the corner is about another section of screening which is
028going to be about another 10 to 20 feet um so that's basically uh the layout of the field do we have any more here ELO well those are the details if you want to mind scrolling down I think I might have the y That's the detail so this is traffic maneu uh uh fire apparatus Maneuvers so while there isn't a building here you know there are some instances we've seen cars on fire and the like so what we did is we took typically on something like this you're not going to need a a ladder truck but we wanted to demonstrate that it would uh a a vehicle could easily maneuver through the site so we took the biggest beast in the fleet which would be the lad truck and as you can see uh coming
029uh into the site uh from the East uh takes the left into the site and loop around the parking area quite nicely and then take that right turn at the exit site likewise coming in from the West same type of maneuver in and out of the site and then proceeds to go westbound uh and then Alo if you want to mind flipping to the next one which would be so this is this is an exhibit that's required um in your your uh subdiv in your um zoning bylaw uh it asks that there are uh photos taken from the street um to to get an idea as to what it looks like now I think think it's disingenuous when Consultants provide a board with photos of these Lush conditions that you're going to see in South
030America uh from the street um like I said I think it's just ingenuous I think I want to see it what does it look like in the winter so what we did is we uh looked at three uh view sheds viewpoints and provided you summer conditions and winter conditions ELO next slide please so this is our photometrics plan so there will be some ambient lighting uh from connect church and uh from Pleasant Street but this is basically where we are so we're pretty much at a half foot candle uh at the street keeping in mind that especially during summer conditions when there's going to be activity out here and the lights would be activated uh at night for the field is going to be vegetation so you wouldn't be seeing the ve the the lighting
031from the street so um that you know in terms of its representation would be more of a winter condition if socer would be played in the middle of the winter and we know that doesn't happen um so that's basically the photometrics plan uh hot at the fixtures but as we uh move away from the fixtures uh the foot candle distribution uh is diminished Alvaro I think that that's the last sheet right thank you um so with that said Madam chair um uh I'm ready for some questions from the board and I will definitely open it up to questions from Ab board thank you for that presentation it was really complete I can start please go ahead I I didn't get a chance to like scrub and measure the scale um the distance from the railroad
032because I know the railroad's particular guess we should discuss that I I obviously we're not doing construction but if we approve something might not so I guess what do you know about the railroad so the railroad um in terms of the track itself or the the I mean they have a pretty a often a very large distance that you can't work and need special Insurance all of that and I don't know the scale on this yep so looking at the uses elsewhere um on the property this is consistent to what is is happening over at connect Church um so in terms of the insurances I would have to defer to um if if if you're referring to um property insurance or assurance that there's nothing going to be I me they call it railroad protective
033liability insurance okay I'm not saying that we it's under our purview yep to ask for that I think that we need to investigate but I I guess my concern for our board is if if we're approving work within some Zone that the railroad do we have liability if we don't do our eyes and cross our teas about that so I guess that's um yeah that I'm not sure I mean I do I have had a project myself we're actually just talking about it before the meeting um of a residential project on on the railroad in another town and um besides providing um the besides providing the railroad that um all this information about the project there wasn't anything else that we needed to do um so I'm not sure obviously this is a little closer
034maybe than than my project was but I think the it does I think it goes to it goes to um I don't remember the name of organization but it goes to them for them to review as well if I remember correctly yeah so we have to put that on our list I think then to find out um then so obviously you need that screening because that's pretty close to the road and and that's going to be 20 feet and your screening of the Landscaping is not 20 feet so that's going to we that's going to look kind of ugly right so we should talk about is there anything I mean it's it's actually a cute area you did a good job with pictures I drove down there it's cute right and and now you're going
035to see this wall of some kind of screening so I think that's a good question so during the winter time you're going to see it because the foliage is going to be down and that's why I provided the two of you uh the the two uh Seasons um in the summertime like I said what we would look to do is fill it with the lowly brush so we're basically looking to throw microphones around and then um looking to to fill the voids so wherever the tree canopy comes down to a certain height the goal would be to bring in that brush to to cover that curently out there with the way that brush is is grown um it was not a pleasant and no offense Jerry but it was not a pleasant experience uh going
036out into the site to flag the test Pit locations it gets pretty dense so we we'd be looking to replicate that out at the street um to the greatest extent I mean that the only other thing um you know these are all well established um deciduous trees um I'm looking at so when I looked at the site and as I noted in my uh my narrative um couple things that could happen here I know that I have clients that would take this would look at this and and again respectfully Jerry they'd say what is that knucklehead doing do you know how much money he could make on this thing with a fast food restaurant a bank which would be allowed out here industrial or some other commercial use um which when looking at something like
037that it would be much more aggressive so that's when I look at this and I do appreciate the comment and uh again like I said we're making some efforts to kind of just to screen that area um so that we can avoid having that that you know kind of break it up it's almost like looking at the facade of a a building you know if you can break it up with landscape architecture with you know some specimen trees or you know you know be a columna or a broader uh uh spread on a tree some shrubs that's what you'd like to do so that's kind of what we're looking at here so is there gonna can you I mean I think we could go I'm sorry we could go with a green screen yeah I
038think I think we're going to want to see like to be the most respectful to the neighborhood right there's literally houses across the street and like we get that you have choices about developing property but that's why you come here we're trying to represent the community of to get the best possible great so I feel like we're going to want to see kind of what that might look like and the best way to make that yeah um I mean I everything that you guys have done so far shows that you're willing to make something nice neighborhood but I think that's going to be so when you're talking about the screening you're talking about the C uh 401 where this says the barrier net system that's the the screen correct and that goes all the way
039around obviously the site to keep the soccer balls in oh so the the screening itself um the the soccer mesh if you will we'll call it mesh differentiate from vegetation yeah yeah so so with the mesh itself it's going to to be 20 ft high and it's going to go to the the far ends of the field so it will be it won't go around the entire uh field the reason we're not doing that is we're going to need to have access to the storm water basin and we have a swing gate located uh along the edge of the fence to the South to allow access to the storm water basin the other thing that we have a the the fence or entering the uh the field we have which so which line up there
040is the screen like is the mesh screen which so what is it the a solid line is it a mesh line so it's a it's a yeah it's that gray that Gray Line there that you're pointing to yep and there's one on the other side too I see then yep at the other end of the okay and then the long sides it's just a regular chain link fence but the parking lot side looks like it has that same mesh so no it doesn't it actually has and maybe it's just the scale of the plan um but the the parking lot side and the oppos side opposite side so the east side of the the fence and the west side of the fence don't have the screening it's only the north and south side of the
041fence okay because that's where the ball the errant balls are more likely uh to go yeah it's just really hard for me to find a line up there that means mesh right so that I can actually understand the design of it yep so we have it um so on the largest scale plet uh it's much easier to see um but I could get you know you know I could like I said I could probably highlight that maybe in a different color so you folks can see it one of the because it's not the thing you labeled u g right no that's underground electric that's under okay actually I should touch on that as well is it the um like Jagged Edge on that's it yeah okay so um my my question is also about not
042to harp on the soccer mesh um but someone who spent a lot on soccer fields and is likely to spend a lot more on soccer fields um I uh am wondering about to Kate's point about the railroad y obviously they'll have a special interest in making sure that there are not balls flying onto the tracks um so do we know whether this is acceptable to them in terms of keeping just the way that the orientation of the field is obviously you've got Pleasant Street where balls are going to fly you've got the tracks where balls are going to fly and then you know anyone who plays soccer knows that this Tot Lot is right in a corner errant corner kick you know you got you got balls yally flying into that playground so I'm I'm
043wondering if the railroad's okay and if there's any way to extend that screening to the playground so just to uh the reason for the the orientation um I played a a lot of ball growing up suffering for it now but um baseball soccer so soccer wasn't big when we were kids uh but the kid my kids have played soccer I coach soccer and there's nothing like a goalie being blinded from an East West orientation it's kind of like a baseball field playing baseball and then all of a sudden there's a Fly ball and you don't see it been there not nice um and so looking at this we need to go north south orientation um so I think yeah we've got the the screening one of the comments that was raised by Town staff on
044Tuesday which I thought was a great comment for that particular reason corner kick they asked if we could return the screening the mesh up the side of of the uh the field just a distance so we would probably look to extend that we're thinking another 20 ft Because by the time you do your your corner kick another 20 fet we feel would suffice I might actually defer to our good friend Alvaro on that um seeing that you have that lead foot typically something like that based on what what you see you know not that I want you out there playing soccer with kids You2 could be humiliating for you um but uh at u12 how far I mean is another 20 feet up that that sideline yep yep and so looking at that that's kind
045of what we discussed with the town so there are a couple other things that came up uh the uh Deputy Chief Fire Chief had asked about which I thought was a good uh question was access for an ambulance so we're going to put a double swing gate out there and dedicate uh a space for Access for the ambulance so with that said if we had screening around the entire field then the ambulance wouldn't be able to get into the field so into alvaro's Point another 20 feet as he said uh based on his experience would be efficient yeah I think it's a matter of like putting what you need but not going overboard with it agree right it's almost like sign pollution yeah you see some folks that put up 50 signs from the stop
046sign another 100 feet you know at some point it becomes White Noise um are there any trees that are there's no existing trees that are retained is that right it's been cleared and yeah so other than what's along the around the well area um anything that's between the parking lot uh the existing parking lot and what we're proposing uh we would look to to save those trees and we're looking to try to do whatever we can so if you look at the entrance uh poose entrance between uh the parking lot so just to the east of that proposed entrance exit we've maintained some screening in there uh and like I said we would look to enhance that with some of the the Shrubbery so Madam chair the question was raised about you know like I
047said in in in the letter the the the game plan would be to go out here once the air the trees are cut uh to go out there and say okay so this is what we're looking at let's screen this what do we have to do do that's basically the approach and that's why we would have Peter Alvaro landscape architect and the owner so that and the contractor so they have an understanding of what we're looking again recognizing that uh there are residences across the street we are sensitive that yeah I mean for me I mean I think that it's be I mean I I do see the argument about that this could become something else right and um so I I think it's a great thing that it could become a soccer field something
048obviously would be primarily used by the church in the in the daycare but would be available to the community as well when it wasn't being used um you know by the by the main function um and I think it brings some kind of life to this street too to have the kids there in the soccer field so it's not screening isn't about hiding it so everyone can't see it it's about just um having you know that there is this big um fence in a for lack of a better word and how do you give that a little bit of color and a little bit of softness you know I I think um I think for um you know going to I was wondering actually um on the other side which would be the the east
049side of the field so The Far Side that's where the um storn water is draining to is there any possibility of any further trees over there or is that doesn't work with the drainage on that side and the sale or did it just make a mess on the field so that's interesting because under the state stor water Rags they don't like to have trees in these these basins uh in this case it's interesting because a lot of times we have to deal with um and so the town engineer was involved in in the meeting on Tuesday and uh I think when he looked at this is I'm not going to speak for them but like I said earlier from a hydrologic perspective this is the cat's pajamas in this particular case we have groundwater recharge
050no runoff in volume no TSS removal because there's no pavement out there you know so we're not taking all that sand and and and treating that so uh it is a gem but they do require uh that um these basins not be vegetated uh so that they can be mowed oh got it okay and I think again given the the use next door I think um when we cited this and looked at the program that Jerry and his team were looking at um recognizing that the the use next door is an industrial use it's not as if it's a condo development or it's it's an industrial use yeah now it's it's I'm wasn't looking for screening for that side it's almost like just uh screening for the field itself that it be becomes a yep
051you know more of a secluded kind of area so that you so almost so that you don't see as much the industrial area it's like screening that that from from this site so I do appreciate that and so one of the things that we like to do I think you can see it in storm water system creativity that we you know we could have gone with an underground storm water system or we could have gone with a rectangular hole in the ground um but one of the benefits you know I've had the the honor of working with Landscape Architects since uh 2000 and prior to that I had chain link fences around all my basins just these nasty holes in the ground and you know in working with them I've come to design these things
052so that it's it serves a purpose as storm water but it's a CIT them in it but you want to design it so that and then when lid really started to kick in that was that was a dream so when you look at this and you you create these things you want to just create it as part of the landscape um and shape it so that it looks like the Land part of the landscape so that's why in this particular case just a very gentle Swale um is is the way we approached it um so like I said you know looking at it from the soccer field uh to the east um there'll be some trees there um along the property line honestly are there going to be a heck of a lot no but
053there will be some trees so other questions from board yeah I mean I just think with everything we've been kind of dealing with trees just trying to retain trees um or shade out on the I'm not a soccer player but it seems like sometimes you need some shade from all that sun but on the other hand I know that uh it can make the field a mess right um so there's downsides sometimes they just don't don't go together so um I'll leave that doc question up to others but I is there anything this is needs to go to design Review Committee correct yep who are um very uh in tune to the landscape architecture Department the um tone of things so I would recommend in going that way that um I there's there was a
054few questions we had here um I think the railroad question is a question for the the planning office just to see I mean it's really a question for for the applicant but I think um I'm I'm we should look at that and see what they required I don't think we've had something built along the railroad since I've been here yeah so um so that should be be understood um but also I would recommend that um that if you have more information on hereo can put provide a colored rendering okay for for the design Review Committee if that's getting the landscape um that's getting the the landscape architect more involved to produce that so that really can understand and I realized I was on the the wrong page which is why I couldn't pick up on
055where that mesh fence was um but so that you can really pick up where the different you know what's green on here what's what's gravel what's and and to use color to help that be a little bit um easier um I really appreciate the pictures at the end it also would' be nice to have an aerial because that's the first thing I did is go to my phone so I could picture exactly where where it was and what was happening there and I'm going to look at it closer when I drive by but so I I do appreciate that so typically what we do um and quite honestly like I said I've been absolutely swamped in work so didn't have a chance to pull something together but typically when we when we do something like
056this we'll take the aerial um our Landscape Architects when it comes to we work with lumon and Photoshop so we can do threedimensional flyovers so we we do these uh these these views if you look at our website in fact one of the first things that comes up is a car dealership that we've done on Boston area that it shows a uh a view of you know you know just a flyover of the site and we basically created that with our software so with respect to the the renderings uh what we'll do is we'll take um Photoshop and um lumion and create renderings that are pretty much lifelike bless you so we we insert it we take the site drop it into the um the aerial and doll it up it's pretty sweet so we
057can do that yeah and I think being able even if it's um as far as that mesh fence goes just to be able to if there's an example from another Community or something so you can just really just um understand what that mesh fence looks like because I know they're not real solid they're you know they're pretty light right but having and they don't look like chain link you know or anything like that so to be able to like just Express what that what that mesh typically looks like with add to that the poles cu the 25 20 foot fence essentially the mesh and 25t pole is big and we should acknowledge that and and we have been pushing to say the community really gets to see what instead of the little picture that you
058can say okay that's fine yeah so I do so your your comment early I do appreciate that I I like that you so basically uh what you were looking for if I understand through the chair was a visual representation from the street that shows what is this these trees these short trees what does that look like what is the filler look like and what does it look like to throw a mic around and then what does the the mesh look like behind it that is certainly something we can do yeah yeah just so it can I mean like I feel like I'm we're all like composing the image in our heads but it'd be nice for you to just show us what it is but I'm excited to see the project I think it'd be
059an asset for the community um so one image that really comes to mind is on the line has a ground right along the line and you see that activity and it has that flash so that's a kind of a very good example where the line runs the rail line runs and you can actually see the ground it's actually cool to see that when it's you get some pictures from the train next time you go by did that it's I mean it's great for Pleasant Street because it really activates that whole Some Way project y I was going to Echo the same to say you know I think one of the things we hear from the community is um valuing open space so I think to your point about those person things fact thater field yeah
060um going in I think that's an asset to community and and quite honestly as I've expressed the the folks before I done this for over 40 years and there are properties when I look at something like this and I know what could go here I look at that but I also quite honestly I go on to properties and I say why do they want to do something here leave it alone you know um but I also look at I need to put food on the table and I would rather have our firm do it and some hack job do it and put in 300 units on a Halfacre lot with no buffer to the law line I figure if we can if we could be involved at least we can do something a little bit
061more paceful and we like to than green and I think it's exhibited I was going to say uh speaking of green we do have a um a sustainability best practices list I don't know if if you were given that I think a lot of the stuff is covered and it really isn't meant for this type of project it's meant for our more typical project but it would be good for you to um review like I said I think you got you talked about a lot of the things with the lighting and that this is this is grass not you know artificial turf or something like that so and um the paving everything is seems to be um thinking along those lines but it would be good to take a look at the list and just
062see if there's anything else that that you either forgot to remark on or that could be incorporated okay can I just make one question here Wayne um and I we can share that list with you but obviously you know I I know we we talked about conduits putting the electrical electrifying the field getting lights in is that something that is in the future or is that going to be with the installation of this development so being the knucklehead that I am Peter it's on the plans I just failed to mention it so it's shown on the plan so the the plan would be coming from the main building um Alvaro if you wouldn't mind I hate doing this to you um but if we could go to the the utility plan that has uh all
063the bells and whistles so that came up in our discussion on um Tuesday yeah um and so we're showing so as you can see here we have a feed electrical feed uh to the field So the plan would be that we would run the electrical out to the proposed light posts uh and then just basically put Rises and cap them until they decide to put in the light poles that would be the plan there the other approach the other thing that we're looking at is the water supply uh so that would obviously because of the situation on the site with the limits of the plume plume extending onto the property we would have to draw from the municipal system from the building so we would be proposing a uh backflow preventor and a meter so
064the meter reader wherever they they typically install that uh would be located along with the meter in a back valow prevor that would go out to an irrigation pit and that would just sit until the the irrigation contractor comes in all right thank you so much for explaining that but I think with this decision though we also need to look at we need to think about the future if lights go in right what is the trigger regarding time right when the lights go off yep daylight savings time in the fall obviously you do have a situations where obviously the sun's starting to go down earlier but it's still nice to help people playing soccer what's the time limit so I think I would ask you and the applicant to say to start thinking about that
065right obviously there would be something in this decision that say you would have to come back to the planning board indoor let's iron it out right now um indoor have conversations with the abuts across the street to see what is acceptable right because what's acceptable for the town what's acceptable for you and what's acceptable for the abuts maybe three different things but I think we have to make a we have to come to a consensus to find uh a time frame what which works for everybody and I just kind of want to put out float that out there tonight rather than float there out float that one out there later because it is important um regarding time which rolls into the question of noise obviously this is a soccer field it's not not a pickle
066ball court um but you you still have to kind of put it on the put it on the radar right now good call Peter and before we go any further there might be last comments from the planning board but um before we do I want to open up for public comment so if there's anyone in the audience here or if there's anyone online online can raise their hands Anna if you have a comment make sure you make yourself known on there forgotten that you were hanging out in cyberspace I'm good uh that used to be a Little League field way back when so it was cleared and we played on that field I don't know how many times but uh it was a it was great it was a great field really was I think
067this is a great thing they're doing oh I'm sorry Robin Hicks 11 Franklin Road thank you that's a good little bit of History thank you Mr M M 119 Main Street again history yes that was ball field I was on that field try to drink the water and was burning the throat sometimes okay um this feel and the liting the the back liting the two posts they'll be tilted down with the LED and um no mind have to worry about that at all traffic don't have to worry about that because that's not a big stretch and it's artificial turf for natural to so it's all grass how much is the town water going to be used on that because it's going to be used pretty good amount of time and it's got to have to
068be rested and everything so there's got to be some sort of tax on the uh the water in this town and um it's it's youth yes or no yes but still might open up once the field is is open and used open up for tournaments are there going to be seed Arrangement and and bench Sidelines on this field that's all I got thank you Mark would you app to address any of those questions thank you um so basically what we're looking at so the water um typically when we look at something like this for irrigation it's one inch over the the one inch per week over the the surface area um it would be metered uh by um at the building in the church would be paying for that that water um secondly in terms
069of the uh sorry what was the other one see seating seating in in the in the benching benches uh we are not proposing I I we're not really for seeing tournament type play here we're just seeing you know probably practice field type thing so folks that would uh attend would stand outside the fence what I when I coached my kids that's basically what happened and the team would be on the inside of the fence so that's that's the approach we're taking and it's primarily like I said that the lot is ancillary to the church and Metro West so you know should they decide to uh to have these these events you know the local Youth Soccer like I said it's primarily for these guys and the that you said that the the the lot now
070right now is used for overflow parking so the parking you have there is actually essential I assume to the maintain the parking there is essential to connect church as well that they have that parking correct that's correct so basically what this is is Overflow so interestingly one of the conversations that came up a couple days ago was that you know for connect church it's overflow let's say there's a soccer event and folks come to the field for soccer the Overflow parking will be actually connect Church's parking lot so we discuss some signage that would need to be posted to to accommodate that got it any other questions from the board or comments then I think I I I think we can send this to the design Review Committee right and I would I would um
071want us to you know just at in our normal Tradition now is to put a memo together um for the design Review Committee I think in that memo I I see uh bill novakowski I think on there um maybe listening in from the design Review Committee um but I I think we would be the placement of everything seems logical we obviously had some questions about all the different layers of vegetation and screening and had some questions about sustainability and things like that um being able to see it from the street is there anything um otherwise we would want them to to weigh in on um I think we should add signage just that obviously if it's on their property and it doesn't really affect but we we do have um like sign bylaws and stuff
072so make sure we're probably going to want some more details about that before we'd approve it right right right so um okay so then I'll assume since no hands are up on online that no one else wanted to make a comment but they should feel free to raise their hand if they do um but otherwise I guess we will do we need a motion to send this to the design Review Committee do we uh sure we can take a motion I make a motion to send the 24260 Pleasant Street Soccer field project to design Review Committee is there a second second time and a roll call vote sorry it's okay Anna tminit I cther here's a guy Amanda ha and Hera kend without Alvaro I mean um with without Marcelo I'm I'm totally lost well
073yeah and Anna's floating up there we forget she's there and so it's very confusing for us all we're out of our our Rhythm um okay so we will be sending this to design Review Committee I don't know when they meet next so their next meeting is actually April 1 okay okay okay um and if uh since Alo kind of is the connection to the design Review Committee if you can kind of coordinate what they are typically looking for so they can um provide those images and make the process as smooth as possible to focus on the questions beautiful if you can get me an email that'd be great sooner the better that way we can get stuff to you folks earlier we can take a peek at it and if we need to add anything
074else want to make everybody happy excellent thank you uh just as a note that would bring it back to the planning board on April 10th if yeah if everything is uh I guess we have to continue it to some continue to a day certain so we we I think it makes sense to continue with April 10th and obviously see how it goes design review in the first and and hopefully that there's enough time to Prep Prep and and turn it around and continue to um kick the ball down the road all right niely done then I will make a motion to that we um continue um this project sure I'm just looking at the checklist we have like are we going to need um like a traffic study or anything for these the third party
075stuff I'm gonna say no I don't feel I don't think we need to I do they did pay for a consulted review fund I am going to send the plan to gcg just to have them take a prary look at it obviously it's a fairly simple plan there's no obviously it's a lot of catch Bas there's a couple catch basins most of the grading is done with the field um but no I I my my my opinion is that no traffic review needs to be done yet it's not required is it no I mean given the I think the major part of the traffic is getting in and out of connect Church probably on the I'm just looking so so it is at gcg now yeah so i t i i I'm going to work
076with gcg and they're going to take a look at it um but but as we've kind of spoke spoken it's not a very complicated site per se along with that too I think that was one of the things I cited in the in the report that if you had loading docks and you had vehicles coming at various times of the day and the lake the nightmare so this one like like Peter had said it's fairly lightweight the delt in in parking spaces is any anything else before we okay I think I can do this I'll just make a motion to continue this until April 10th is there a second second that and a roll call vote an tesis i Katherine Jersey guy and Trisha Kai so that's April 10th then design Review Committee before that
077sounds great thank you have a happy St Patrick's Day thank you folks all right next on our agenda our our proposed bylaw changes we're having um this meeting uh in tandem we creating a forum for bylaw changes that the the planning board uh will be that that are on the warrant already no we'll be going we'll be getting on the warrant for Springtown meeting correct they'll be submitted to the warrant um so we need to review them ourselves but maybe our big audience audience will be tuning in shortly so three um three bylaws the first one is the update to the flood plane overlay District I think everyone is what should be in the binders right the updated okay so we skip that first part that's the design review uh overlay and then flood plane
078is after that set so I think this was sent out on Friday and then I went through it um but really was just um formatting getting everything to line up pretty as I like to do and um there were a few things that I questioned if we needed sometimes there were little labels on things like State 10 or something like that and those were just indicators of where it had come from from the state's original document and really shouldn't be in the bylaws right yeah so I was just taking those things out kind of cleaning it up um I also had some questions and I think we talked about this a little bit with Becca under the definitions of the flood zones there's a whole bunch of definitions here and the state I think says
079hey take out the ones that don't apply to you and I think we were wondering if we should if it was better to keep it in keep them in or take them out or yeah just keep them all in or I couldn't really come to a conclusion on that that's under letter Q um and I think the the question we were kind of debating on last time was about the um um the exclusion for the MBTA as it's in the as it's in the flood plane but after review with Lisa it doesn't even need that because the MBTA is Al is already excused from flood things like flood planes so thank you for that I feel like that also makes sense are like existential questions how they could be like conflicting so that that's that's
080that's a relief I was relieved when I saw that note from you yeah well it's it's the only reason it's in the special um the sensitive land is because it's in the flood plan it's not like there's any you know endangered species on that lot you know so so this is just this is obviously our kind of just our review of it um it's not uh when by our calendar do we need to have it um we need to find have the final language to to um publish it right to uh so we have one more meeting or no yes we have more and more meeting between now and then MH before before we send it in where then it cannot be changed okay thank you umha your no comment on that definition once because
081I saw that and on the previous page I caught that under K we are referencing the other zones that got cancelled out yeah you know you know what I did is that um there was a note that's that's on here that says that um um I can put on the screen one that like the working draft so you can look at the it was no it's a note that says maybe it's at the beginning here yeah um definitions this is way up where in definitions definitions if the definition is from the Massachusetts building code it is from the ninth Edition which meets the minimum standards of the nfip so wherever it said base code I went back and looked at both the two um both the version nine and the ninth Edition and the 10th
082edition base code um which was either the 2015 or the 2021 um building code um to see why they would say that and so there are parts of this um the whole start of construction thing on L is not in the 10th edition but it is in the ninth Edition so um it's interesting why they you know obviously this started before the 10th edition and that definition isn't in there anymore which is interesting so I just so I thought well maybe with this base code I went back and I the base code does list all these things so to keep it absolutely consistent with the base code I put them back in which makes sense yeah and then um and then the other definitions are there we could someday have to have those definitions like
083things could change and we may have those definitions is that possible yeah you let update the bylaw do you mean no I mean um is is is it potential that someday we could have a Zone V or not really that's along a that's along a coast that will be yeah I think that like well that will be first a Bea question but I guess the geography will have to yeah I think that's a coastal those are coastal those are coastal definitions and so when you read the state when you read the state obviously template The Zone V's are actually they're velocity zones it's when you talk about V you're talking about velocity zones you're talking about wave action um that's what that's what that's what you're actually doing so in no sense does it make
084it doesn't help and keeping them here as all no that's why I'm wondering should we just take out things that just do not matter um the a130 has a similar story I don't know what the a130 is but yeah it wasn't it wasn't in Ashland so and we can have um back could explain that to us I I can get a better definition on the velocity zones uh and what they are kind of what they mean from a definition standpoint but like if you're a coastal zone town is situate they have they have velocity zones right um and it makes sense right wave action height uh crashing waves Rising Tides uh but we can bring those to the meeting on the the 27th and just to kind of go over them um and kind and
085kind of go from there yeah for me it's just a matter of does it clutter up the bylaw or make it more clear that's what I'm uh and I can't quite figure it out you know looking at the T that states the template they says okay V in red if applicable keep these in you know sand dunes keep these in right we don't have sand dunes and Ashland um right you know we don't have velocity zone so does it clutter it up or keep you know is it more streamlined not applicable to The Rivers St correct only for yeah yeah so and if something does happen in the future we we do have velocity zones right that's going to come with another update to a FEMA map which is we're also going to have to
086go back and edit this bylaw and so bring it back you can bring it back at that point if you would like to but obviously it's it's the board's call and then the other thing where I think we kind of uh I don't remember if we needed more information on it um was the um 8.1.9 recreational vehicles about um uh that if you're going to be placing them on a in an A or an e and I'm not sure where those are the A and E are they have to be elevated and anchored and what does elevated mean you know like um I think what Lisa told me for that one was that they come from the regulations so anything back to it so there was no for defining we didn't need to Define it
087within the bu but that but would that mean that someone with a recreational vehicle would need to follow whatever was there like some yeah someone who owns one right now then we should if that's not in our bylaw now we should kind of understand what that is I think like what so our our bylaw does have a recreational vehicle um component to this oh it's already there well a recreational vehicle is already defined what is a a recreational vehicle is a Wago but I mean what you have to do to it okay is is that already defined I would have to double check yeah and so if it's not we should we should and since there is a definition of recreational V here we should make sure it lines up with have our probably it
088does I think we checked it we checked into that CU like I emailed the state what is a recreational vehicle is this that looking at our p laww and they do match up it's not a car it's not a truck it is a a camper R and that and actually the definition for that is already in this bylaw so if it's outside of the bylaw it wouldn't count it's part of the cleaning up I'm not even sure we Define it outside of the bylaw you know our definition of recreational V is already inside of this bylaw no it's actually in our bylaws in section 10 of it's okay yeah it's in section Theory we could strike that because recreational vehicles could I think this is the only reference to recreational vehicles is this so I
089guess that's the only question those that's really the only question I had is those kind of clarifications on what should be in and what should be out with our various flood zones and this thing about Recreation of vehicles because I still don't understand what it is what it is people are being asked to do um and if the if the uh cure is worse than the disease and your question is more about that it's asked about elevated and anchored what does that really mean yeah like does does it okay so it needs to go back to a different to the flood plan but does that mean all all uh Vehicles need to be on a 10 foot plin well we probably wouldn't want that so I just don't know what that means I agree and
090I think I I I'm happy to call the state we're Happ I'm happy to send the email out is it does it and I think I'm understand you know doesn't need to be on jack stands right what is what's elevated mean right what do you have to do and what's anchored quote unquote right is it say um you know I'm not going to start throwing out theoretical is this you know and how you know yeah something that we can help somebody trying having to yeah yeah anchor is a question right is it chain do you yeah you know not to joke around but is it a boat anchor like I you know yeah what is it so we'll look into that I wish we could always have have graphics for all this so much and
091reading pages and Pages you're such a visual person right um so I would say also let's so I would say that definition or that explanation and um to ask Emma again because I know I had her explained this explained this to me before but about those zones and kind of her take on is it good to just keep it in or no it's just it's it's just cluttering up our bylaw right to have these things that we'll never deal with um it'd be great to have her input on that and if there's any questions from the audience either live or online please just raise your hand related to the flood PL by law at this point it is mar the Sony 519 Main Street my first question is going frame on hopefully it's not going
092to change is for the flood Trane overlay special district is that the same for planning board and Zoning or just planning board it's it's for the it's for the Zone it's actually it's so it's a overlay District within the bylaws they're all this is a FEMA provided men right they're FEMA provided layers we're accepting we already have accepted the previous uh FEMA flood plane which was last updated in 2010 and so FEMA is updating the Charles River Watershed floodways and so we have two areas in town to the all of FEMA's overlay districts for the state of Mass ju sits for the region are broke up broken up into tiles right and so two tiles are part of the Charles River water over over excuse me the Charles uh River Watershed and so we are
093adopting the two new tiles that are within the Charles River Watershed and then with that FMA is updating the regulations regarding the OVA districts and so we are updating our bylaws in addition to adopting two new tiles quote unquote which is an update to the Charles River Watership okay it's complicated stuff apparently so when yeah it it's I would probably say 90% of the Town lies in the subb aset conquered River Watershed about 10% of the Town Falls within the Charles River Watership and does our regulations have any say about it well these are our regulations but our regulations already came from the FEMA State the FEMA the flood zone and the state um sample bylaw and so we are updating what does that do to our overly special district regulations now well it updates
094the regulations so if I ask questions from what I have from the page can I ask him in the P the paragraphs of which they are in sure okay thank you is the purpose still going to be the same as the uh protected the public health safety in general all that's going to be all said I can say this the purpose of the FL plan overlay district is to ensure Public Safety reducing the threats of life and personal injury number two eliminate new hazards to Emergency Response officials number three to prevent um prevent uh excuse me of public emergencies resulting in water quality contamination or pollutants due to flooding number four avoid the loss of utility services which if damaged by flood would disrupt and shut down the utility Network and impact regions of the
095community beyond the site of flooding number five estimate costs associ eliminate cost associated with the response and clean up of flooding conditions number six reduce the damages to public and private property resulting from flooding Waters oh that's kind of way different than what I have because this is the updated State bylaws which we we're working into our bylaws our existing bylaws are fair are old the last time they were updated was 2010 so what I have is the y m so I can I give this to you sure okay yeah and the other thing that we're trying to do here Mark is we're trying to reformat the bylaw because this bylaw it's all squished together so I can read the purpose of the existing bylaw is the purpose of the flood plan overlay district is
096to protect the public health safety and general welfare to protect human life in property from the hazards of periodic flooding to preserve the natural flood control characteristics of the flood storage capacity of the flood plane and to preserve and maintain the groundwater table and water recharge area within the flood plane in my eyes that's very similar to the six bullet points that within our proposed um purpose and I assume and with my knowledge that this probably came from the state back in 2010 and our proposal is going to be from the state in 201 so I really don't have to ask it out loud because it's actually in a sense being done correct and uh I know you got the other ones too come out got become come for the uh the site plan the
097next one too okay thank you right I don't see any other comments or any comments from the board on this one so it'll be on our agenda next time and it'll be the final time we have to make any changes or comment on it before it goes to Warrant are these on the website um I think there were links to them in the where where did the link weren't they links to them in the newsletter none of the I recall exactly what I said I think I gave no the links that were send you was all the information the regulation has provided us to update it um the bylaw updated itself there okay I can certainly put them up on the website mean I think the more ways people have before town meeting yeah so
098why don't we put all three of them up together for people compl yeah that's that's no problem we can take care of that I think today this week we're still kind of working through them so I think I think it's after this meeting it's appropriate to do do that I can put like a water Markus it so then on the 27th will be our final final wording and then it'll be sent out and done but I think it's just really tweaks at this point is everyone okay if I go we go on to the next one the adus okay so the only thing missing from this right now again went through formatting um looking for any little tweaks um but we need to add um some of the definitions onto this um um because it
099gets a little specific with protected use Adu and then protected use Adu and then primary dwelling unit and dwelling unit and it's a little bit repetitive frankly but um until we have those things outside of the bylaw sitting in the definitions we should probably have it inside the bylaw at least and I'm a little leery about putting it outside the bylaw until we've read through the rest of the bylaws so that we're not changing the definition of another bylaw by by putting a defition so would it contradict in case because if we don't go through the original one and then you have another set of definition side here it can live it says for the purp I think it says for the purpose of this bylaw yeah so if you're doing an Adu this is
100the def this is what this is the definition you have to use for instance for instance um like the gross floor area is defined differently in our definition it's it's defined as the outside here it's defined by the inside wall um which is a different in square feet but I don't think we should change that one because we don't know if that's also related to other things besides Adu right so we could be changing a defin we could be changing something in another part of the bylaws that we're not aware of yeah and this definition 7.67 does say it's clear yeah so there's some other definitions like that um like I said I was kind of naming them a short list there's a lot of definitions that came with this thing that we don't need
101but just things that are mentioned in here like I said they can live in here nicely until we really start weeding through and decide my goal is is to be able to take all the definitions out of these bylaws and stick it at the end and they all mean the same thing for every single byw we have but I can't guarantee that that's true right now so I'm a little leery about pulling them out I can start I think the I think it's inre to the definitions come up front though I was maybe like the other bylaws we have couple bylaws that we purpose and then the very clear as I think that makes sense yep so that would be at 7 7.6.2 after the purpose we'll put definitions is that where it is for
102uh it's number two on the list for the blood overlay yeah it is yeah yeah okay yep we'll do that um I have some comments anyone else yep go ahead Kate um so I'm going to start with one on the parking I actually um got contacted by a constituent who's not available to come to the meeting that um the one mile they would like to see the one mile and it was a very thoughtful over like we're asking school children to go a mile so that's the state law actually school children with backpacks and musical instruments and sports stuff are are um that's kind of the little a and so it kind of made sense so I I um I know that we the board beat it up but I that I promised that I
103would represent some who asked to um so maybe get to that it it makes sense in some ways to line up I mean we're sort of lining up the same thinking um and that is the state law right you you're a mile from the school or a mile from a bus stop right that's um don't get services or you have to pay more um and then if I I go back to um 7.6.3 so it looks like stuff was added that we didn't really talk about but I'll start at the top so um the accessory dwelling unit shall be designed to maintain the appearance and essential character of one family dwelling and I started thinking about that like we the the Adu can be on your garage it can be independent so like it really
104doesn't make sense to say that I I think there's maybe some intent behind it but we kind of started out the whole processing we weren't going to be designed heavy yeah um and that absolutely doesn't work with the way the bylaw what what's allowed um so I think we have to talk about that the 7.6.3 can you uh um let's just checkle these one at a time because we're going to forget the list so can we go back to the parking one parking I had a a thought on the parking I mean I think when we looked at the radi when we looked at the map that was like the Stark visual for me and I think the mile was so much of town and so much area where it just didn't make sense to
105be expecting people to walk um and to sort of respond to the school comment again I think that is a state Rule and I I think um I've actually had people approach me um not understanding the planing board has no control over that type of thing um and I'm in this situation with war and Elementary and it's it's an all it does is create traffic right like it we are in the car with those kids like there's not sidewalks to to walk with them like I it's not walkable for me to war in school no matter what so no matter how nice the weather is I'm within the area where we have me pay for bus for my daughter but on days when she misses the bus or the bus doesn't work or the baby's
106sleeping in the car we drive to school drop off and that is a very traffic heavy experence well to be honest that's exact the other part of the conversation that I said I'm not bringing in because it's not but you that is the followup of why you know and for me I think you know any anyone who is in a school drop offline I think could attest the one mile thing in a in like hours I think is all that is doing is putting people in the car so so you're saying it should be a half mile exactly sorry yes thank you for that Trisha yes I'm saying I stick by the half mile for the same reason that the mile for school children I think doesn't work in our town just puts people it
107just makes traffic worse I think you know again having expecting that people don't have a parking spot available for anyone within the mile is going to create problems I think the half mile is the right my my problem with the my problem with like going more than the half mile is that which is different than the kids walking to school thing is that most people are going going to have at least one car some people don't but then where does the car go goes on the street you know and so now you have a car with no place to park except on the street and um yeah yeah and I'm not sure that's a good idea I complet I agree with that and I think having the expectation that people are going to walk or
108not use a car or not need a car you know and therefore there doesn't need to be a parking spot provided to them in an extra additional half mile radius beyond what the state mandating us to have um I think it's just asking for trouble from our problems and and as it speaks to the to the school and the bus thing I think that's that in itself is flawed so I don't think miring it makes sense in this instance no it it was your conversation and I'll be honest with the other part of it was saying that will help us get sidewalks to fix the problem like if we if we marry these two up now it's a bigger thing tackled and but I I mean we I'm representing some of that conversation we the
109board kind of said we can let that go and I think it's a fair conversation to say that we did have it um but I also want to just say it doesn't say they can't build it fire and the and the trend I mean we all know the trend is to say eliminate parking and I'm not saying that ashlin's ready for that because we don't have good infrastructure but it's chicken and egg right if you want your community to improve with transportation and sidewalks anyway okay yeah I think no I think that that I think that's right and I think having the accessibility conversation is I think it is chicken yeah for sure I personally stay I'm still on that half mile I'm just getting out my little half mile mile diagram I mean that
110we I don't know there's we were I was hoping people would be here um partipate but but people do watch and write in later so they may um and maybe I would be surprised if someone saidas it because paring but it's sort of how you solve it is doing something unfortunately but anyway um so 7.6.3 okay seven that's the next one well that was the one I said we the accessory dwelling unit shall be designed to maintain the appearance and essential character of a one family dwell dwelling yeah but I'm going to put one in my garage well that doesn't appear like a one family dwelling and I'm going to put it in my backyard which I'm allowed to do separate from my dwelling and that not the appearance of a single family dwelling so
111it it's starting out like a flawed description yeah I think it is what's that we talked about this one last time I back and on it yeah and I think um it's hard to um yeah I think too it doesn't um you know I I can design a house say say I'm designing a house for a brother and a sister even a husband and wife that they have different tastes I can design a house that looks like two different houses and I am allowed to do that and there's nothing anyone can do to stop me right so um so if I can do that we aren't supposed to have anything with an Adu that makes it more difficult than building a house and so I think that is you know it is I I think
112it might be contrary to what it's saying that if if you want to have something that looks like a house in a barn you know that or it looks like two little houses but I you know you can do that with a single family house there's nothing stopping you and just like that letter that talks about the water meter instead of shall should be say recomended I think that's in there already ready is it it says sh oh it is shell okay we should change it then yeah I mean I think when we talked about this last meeting I feel like we were kind of split and when we talked about the recommendation the worry was you know we're usually try we try to be pretty precise and should we have it it at all
113if it's a recommendation and you know because then it just needs to be build in code or not and I feel like if if it if we keep coming back to it and we're worried that it might not pass muster for the intent just well I think paying attention to design I don't know we don't want to put heavy conditions on it but being thoughtful because you have you probably have a neighbor who's 10 feet away from this access unit and how that unit looks may affect that property in some way right that you don't want to have a large box right about five because we reduced that back limitations right so it's the other side of the story so we can't enforce it but I think it's more recommendation or maybe something in sort
114of shall I agree with you DEA I definitely the last time we talked about it was on the side of leaving it in because I think the example I gave was like I think I've seen some that are like meant to look like something out of The Hobbit or something like that that like could upset or you could imagine someone is going to build you know an Adu that is you know looks like just functional a spaceship or something yeah exactly and and so I think I I come on the end last time we talked about it I said like I I like leaving it in but if we're worried about it and we're g we keep coming back to it if I'm the only one that feels that way I feel like we should
115well so I don't I think it I I don't even know if we would agree like what's the essential character of a one family dwelling like I If that's not somewhat defined this cannot be in their as yeah I kind of it's just not going to work I kind of agree because I I know people um who you know that I know people who love modern architecture I know people who hate modern architecture and you know which one is the essential character of a one family dwelling one looks like a box sometimes and one looks like a cute little Gable you know so you know so which we should take it out phen I I have to just to add her I remember in Alaska and there was right this like old house right next
116to Modern and I'm like oh my God that's me and my brother like we could live there right and you know which one I'd be living in um and but yeah they're literally right next to each other right and so I we cannot it's too subjective and uh like I said the the the state mandate does say that you cannot make the Adu more difficult than building a home so we just take that sentence off I guess I think we would just take that the full sentence off and let the I think we just try to explain what that is yeah I think we take that off but also um instead of exterior appearance and size I think it should be something like um scale yeah maybe scale and uh or trying to think how
117this St I do think I do like that having the staircase thing in there because that I think is no matter what style you have what I fear is these exterior staircases fire escapes going down front of buildings so unenclosed just you know um so I'm leer about that so like someone it as as to leave exterior spirit I think the facade the front the not three as well addresses the front facade of the dwelling but but just to that same point right so you're 10 feet from the property line and I I thought we agreed we were going with the regular set box so I don't know how we got five five feet somewhere else so let's just say it's 10t right so now you're saying the 10 feet but you're but like in
118my neighborhood there's a house right there and now I have to like I don't you're you're just making it's it's pushing it to a different neighbor to look at so are we are we taking out the essential character thing right we've the we've agreed on that to take out the essential character yeah the in the first right I think so at scale no I think we're just saying Rel leaving the exterior experience in size but taking out that scented oh yeah um subject no I think I think it's just a I think it's just a colon at the exterior appearance and size colon and then we get rid of that whole sentence yeah so 6.3.1 is the state law and you might as well repeat it it's nice to have it there they don't have
119to look it up yeah and so did but 7.3.2 is not in keeping with the setbacks and we definitively said we're going with the regular setback yeah did that come out that's so Lisa added and what's the the regulations are that five is defined defined in is that part of it yes okay I did not add that Lisa added that number um so that just something we missed out of the state law that needed to be in there but it's only on a lot that's 10,000 square feet or less well it's it's making so people that have 10,000 square feet or less that they can fit an Adu on when bigger Lots can do it easily so they're not they're not excluded yeah it's the same kind regul in the rules and regulations per say
120as an example is that say you have a rear setback of 30t from your rear setback line however your bylaw which there many our bylaws including ours to say you can have accessory structure such as a shed 10 feet from your property line so the state law also notes that really you take into account whatever is least right whatever is whatever is there so if you do have a setback of 10t for a shed the accessory structure could be 10 and we we do two so this is the AL that 5 feet and the the 10,000 square feet and the 5T is coming right from the state regulations like we have to have it in there or else small lot dimensions and and we'll make sure look this but says yes a protected Adu on
121a lot of not more than 10,000 square feet shall be subject to no more than a five foot setback excuse me a five foot side and rear setback a 5-ft separation between the detach structures and the separation shall be exempt from any requirements relative the floor area ratio lot coverage indoor open space so does that mean you you can make it as big as you want because it's D from the floor area ratio no it's 900 square 900 square F feet no but when you do a floor area ratio over the whole property oh yes when you're looking yes when you're doing the whole property said okay um I think that 7.63 the extent possible exterior access way shall not detract from single family appearance of the property again those are just so subjective that
122you don't really even get what that one means we will just get ourselves in trouble what's an aess way so yeah I could I could do without five anyone no just that might have just been in there from yeah I know we talked about last last time remember I pulled up that picture of a access way going up to a third story it was right in someone's front yard wasn't that I thought that was about the stairway stairway four okay yes that's four that we you know that's that's the one too I'm kind of want to keep in there because I I I can just see these third floor apartments with these stairs right out the window basically yeah I know I and uh not everything should become an Adu we can I can take
123five out that's not a big deal driveways obviously is good and so where does the um sorry where does the shell or is recommended where does that go in Department sewage so it should read okay so it is all already there okay there's an email from D yeah that's we were looking at that so okay it's already in there MH and then like I said well those definitions will will beef that up yeah so with the non-conformities and there's so many non-conformities um the nonconformities uh bylaws apply but you can't um deny the special permit just because of the Adu use right look at the non-conformities but you can't you can't lay it on the edu that they can't right okay yeah indoor imposed conditions else on that one done a little bit more chopping
124on it so that's an interesting way that 7.68 because like we impose conditions we said it can't be a short-term rental but now you're saying if it's a if it's a um pre-existing non-conforming special permit we can't impose that what it like I don't I don't get that well I mean the way it's written it just says uh in the event special permit required no such special permit may consider the Adu or impose conditions on its use but a condition of use in our earlier part is no no shortterm yeah because I think what they what you're speaking to is a dimensional special right and so when you do a non conforming dimensional special permit made the one number finding that the zoning board has has to make right is that the proposal is found
125not to be detrimental to the existing you can we add that dimensional word in or impose dimensional conditions or just to be clear because now special formit is a very generic or we Define non-conform somewhere yeah I I agree that the language is a little weird ask yeah I can bring it up to Lisa and and our concern about that that it might kick in with the rental oh yes you know that's yeah like it because it is it's just impose condition it can't we can't impose conditions on use well I'm going to use it as a short term but also you can't use it for term up in there I think it's Deep's point though like if we this is only relating to non-conformities so I think Define but there's a whole section of
126the bylaw and on yeah I think that's why he's referring to the requirements of section which is a which is a it's just the language is a little that doesn't make sense to lay ears I should say so um yeah we just get rid of the say may consider the use isn't that up shot that we can't deny just for just because it's yeah I guess it's is it a question that is it just about I it's about the use yeah that it's that last part or impose conditions on such use that's what we don't understand we we could put a period right on after ad Adu use but why do we need the second part I guess is the question for Lisa that we don't understand what does that mean okay we can ask
127a question don't big deal all right good good question there anything else on that one no questions online Mo the Sony was it third time Mary 119 Main Street can somebody read me tonight's agenda sheet and read the paragraph for this A8 Adu what it says for the introduction it says number five item number five on tonight's agenda is proposed zoning bylaw changes for the May 20 25 town meeting then there's three bullet points listed number this this one says discussion of ancillary dwelling units chapter 8 of 150 of the acts of 2024 of the Mass General law allows Adu uh no greater than 9,000 square feet to be built by right in a single family zoning District 900 900 that's what I said they say 9,000 yeah wow how big of a town do
128you want okay now the reason why I'm asking that is um what you just read from is there a bylaw and our bylaws about that so we have a bylaw about accessory dwellings that used to be a special permit that went through the zoning board of appeals however with the acts of 2024 which was passed this past summer which was a huge sweeping uh housing bill um that um pretty much transformed um accessory dwelling units to be by right and that's forced all communities in the state to abandon um their current Andor existing bylaws that required special permits most communities made them by a spe allowed them by a special permit and now it's pushed communities to adopt new by laws outlining regulations regarding accessory dwelling units and the development of accessory dwelling so because
129it's not in it's not a bylaw how would people know what to talk about if they came up here well Mark you know I I myself and Alvaro are here every day and we're always happy to talk to the citizens of Ashen that are interested in this so I was thinking to saying it this way I'm I am going to say this like an old time Western gunfight right I came up here sh in blanks all right so has everyone done any comments on that bylaw all right so the last one is at the beginning of that of three bylaws it's really just the first part well it's really just number three but I put in the other information on this sheet just so it was easy to discuss like this is all the material
130the 9.4.3 is like that's our current bylaw where we're changing we're looking to change the things in number three and for reference I looked up the actual Mass General law the bolded part is where it says special permit is 65 days from the filing of the application so we're trying to go from 30 to 65 just because when we have a special permit and a site plan review so they can go hand inand and not have one on one calendar and one on the other calendar um uh our the way we're stating this right now is 65 days of receipt of an application and then in the state it says from the filing of the application that's the same thing right they're received and filed on the same day whatever it's okay it it really
131it goes to the date that that application is file with the town clerk so they hand it to them she stamps it in correct done okay yep 100% so I have a question about that but the state law and I really think about it so someone can file an application but it's not complete and I know we have a bylaw that gives a review period right yeah so in Ashland what happens is somebody the town clerk does not just stamp an application that the CH the town clerk will send them up here to the planning office um Alvaro and I will look at the material um and then typically we have three days to St that into a notify the applicant by a certified mail that's how it always goes certified mail now it's just
132typically normally email um that their applicant was their application was not fulfilled right so um if we review it and it's all the materials are there um we'll stamp it in with the town clerk now if there's something missing we call them up and say hey you're missing this you please get it in of course they get it in that's how the that's is kind of um courteous you know uh relationship okay so the the date of filing is the date dat the toal clerk not when I filed it with I put on the it's a to date of the Town collect and typically if I guess something I file the next day I scan it I send it to the applicant hey applications in clock starting y here you go cool okay thank you
133so and then I just in looking up those things um I was just making note that there are two and I have no idea how quick quickly bills move through anything but there are two separate bills right now um and I've listed them there um that uh look like they're trying to um kind of Define more the site review process you know which now the site review process isn't even in the Mass state law that's just do it's just special permits that are in there right yeah the only thing that's in Mass law is special permits the regulations of the planning board special permits what lives at the local level is site plan review so would depending on the community every community site plan review processes are different many of them have they're all they
134all have obviously the same common themes um but yes they do not live at the state level you will not find the term site plan review in chapter 48 yeah so I just thought that was interesting and I got the sense in just looking through them very briefly um not being an expert in this but it seemed like they were trying to make them go more smoothly because I think you hear about that throughout Community is that everything gets bogged down in the process so it got it seemed like they were trying to regulate things to make that process go have more control of it make it go more smoothly so I put those in there just as a informational um so curious where our things may go in the future if those one of
135those those bills go through it some is there anything we want to change about the text in red or the anything about number three that's our bylaw is focused on number three at this point and the changes that are already there so seven days from the date of the filing that's well in the same way it's was like so if we start at three shouldn't then that be public hearing within 65 days of the filing of an application is that what you're saying first because we well otherwise we don't have filing in our in our three and maybe forget it because it's what do you guys think about that do you think it's like okay the state law says filing date of filing so should the word receip rece receipt be changed to filing and
136then in number two should instead of submitt of a complete application should that be but I guess you know we don't we never Define when a complete application that's something that you just guys is just part of the process right part of the process no he said when it's complete then they St so if they file and it's not complete no that's I think if you file and something's missing yeah the clerk and this is my experience not these types of projects filings which filings in general yeah you file something and something's not there the clerk calls you it might not be that day it might be the next day and they say x y and z thing is missing can you run this down they're not stamping it until you act so you in
137your mind the date of filing was the day that you ran it in and handed it right that's what Peter I think you guys are saying the flip but for our purpose no that's not that's Oh I thought it the filing date is when someone says here you go here's my stuff and then they check it yeah that's why we're saying receipt like the 65 days the 65 days is going to be counted on the date of the town clerk which is the date which can be different from the filing so like if someone files something on Monday the clerk on Tuesday says I need X Y and Z call them we would consider the date of receipt Tuesday on the day that we stamp it and get whatever missing thing is Right whereas the
138filing date would be considered Monday but yes so when does the clock the clock right there I thought we I thought we agreed it says in filing certified so they're saying filing just you could yeah it is weird it's I mean even in the state it's it's like they're saying two different things they are so I I'm not think they meant to but I'm not particularly worried about it because as long as I say 65 days it's going to be the same project the same application that's the biggest I'm I'm just not saying we're I'm not sure we're I'm not sure we can clean it up I'm not sure you know because it's all about interpretation yeah and so I don't think it you know we get the plans we circulate we put them BL
139BL that's what it's saying to um I'm okay with keeping it simple the way it is I think the important thing is to get those 265s in line and we acknowledge that they're some weird stuff going on at the state verbage yeah which I'm I assume with different cases it's probably been defined in some way but I don't think it's I don't think it's the C of the problem no um on the same paragraph can we lose that his agent and make it just either say applicant agent or just say agent yeah applicant or his agent shall the applicant or his agent yeah or you can say or agent our agent yeah you can take out his yeah that's fine okay take out his that's fine yeah the applicant or agent shall yeah shall attend
140such public meeting um in order to assist a plenty board response and that's all verbiage here obviously the the biggest thing too is it used to say public information obviously we're changing yeah yeah this yeah because the other because the special permit is a public hearing so we yes we want them both to be public hearings correct I think that's the terminology I was most yeah concerned okay so everyone's good with that good for wrapping it up hopefully for next time all right cool oh done you make it really quick because it was a really short little change okay thank you I was just say my name's Mar 19 Main Street getting to get bored of v um I know you got the same thing same page I said over there yes sorry Mark same
141page P you got the same page of the um 94.5 right okay if you want things done in a in a town that is running at a good Pace don't let the state interfere because they screw things up the um the 60 the 30 days to an application the 60 to 60 days is a excuse the app app applicant can say oh I'm not ready yet I continue continue continue it has happened here before and seven days Days of submitt does that mean like you just talked about does that mean it has to be a complete fent or can they add things in the middle of the seven days yes or no no Mark that is it's a complete application okay and when it it is stamped or certified it should it should be a
142big thing saying a complete not partial but complete file should be given to the office to be certified nothing less thank you thank you sorry all right so next on our agenda is um we're actually going to move ahead a little bit um we will just hold off just for one agenda item for the decision for 20 Ponderosa and we can go right to the um approval not required because we have a few people here getting tired just like we are uh so with that said I'll before Robin uh Mr Robin Hicks comes up to the microphone um this is an anr plan for 11 Franklin Road and and Robin can explain yeah Robin Hicks 11 Franklin Road uh we have approximately a little over 15 and a half acres uh we want to uh
143approval not required we have uh over 300 ft of Frontage so we're going to break off 150 ft uh we're proposing a 1 acre lot it's 3/4 Acres old uh we have a uh I'll give you a little history of the property uh we had used to write uh we could have put 22 Lots on the property what we did was we worked with the uh zoning board planning board select board uh we uh restricted our use of the property to um eight additional Lots so the Valentine estate would work um because the the select board said well if we buy the Valentine estate uh what's stopping the Hicks in and Hicks family from putting a 40b there so this this runs with the property uh if we die driving home tonight whoever takes over
144the property it runs with it if a develop buys it which won't be in our lifetime but if someone buys it it runs with the property so there's eight additional Lots we're breaking one off which is right in the front corner um to uh you know financially a little bit uh and you know we're working with develop with a developer or developers whoever wants that uh we will look at the plan they're not going to put a mobile home there they're not going to put a a prefab house there but uh well that's it so is there a yeah you have that plan up there yeah the plan's actually there's actually a a plan in everyone's binder um this is the plan that's the that's for Signature tonight um I've looked at this plan I've
145looked at it it meets the rule of 22 it meets all the zoning requirements uh with the frontage in the land area um there was a no added which respects the restricted Covenant uh which Mr Hicks just spoke about which was um which was put together through the select board the zoning board and obviously the planning board at that time um the Val State W Woods purchased so um this works out it's a it's a it's a regulated anr um it creates one buildable lot um tell me where it is I can't find it so another note uh we presented the P plan to Peter and Peter had some comments we brought it back to the engineer added some comments brought it back Peter had had some more comments and so we added those so
146hopefully it's yeah works out for everyone and my comments were just to flush out the note about the restricted Covenant that was something that was on the town side and so that was something that um we worked on together to make sure it it's there um there is one note on the plan that the driveway driveway has to be um five feet five feet from any property line that's within our bylaws actually 9.3 driveways and so the driveway that exists today does have to be relocated to respect that new property line Y um and obviously Mr Hicks does know that um but that's a typical note on an anr plan that we do have um but yes other than that it meets the the regulations of of an that's a lot that will be created
147yep that's a lot that will be created and then deeper as you can see over here yes has a scooch it has to scooch towards the yeah and I our driveway is approximately if if you know where Spencer the dog is our driveway is right next to that and we we have plenty of room to move it it it's I have a tractor I do a lot of stuff with my tractor so so the driveway is talking about is the one that goes up to the rest of the property it needs to be scooched a little bit further away from the new property you're creating yeah we maintain that stone wall we wanted to maintain the Integrity of that stone wall that's why we put the proper line there y not to follow the stone
148wall so we held it back so if you go into our driveway there's a buffer zone from our driveway on a on a triangle where we have apple trees um it's probably about 30 ft my and corner of our driveway to the to the new property linee I know i' been up there but it was a long time ago Christmas come up anytime Christmas season I think it was I tell everyone to come up and feed the horses and the goats and okay yeah I mean it seems uh pretty straightforward obviously it's a very regular shape for a lot so um is anyone have any questions sure I make a motion I approve uh approval not required plan for 11 Franklin Road and are there any further questions Anna any questions I don't know if
149she's no I'm good okay sorry I keep forting that you're there no no worries I can always raise my hand okay um all right roll call vote then Anna teski I Katherine Jers I Amanda ha I and Trisha Kendall I all right sorry to make you wait all that time no that's okay thank you for your what you guys do for no pay so Robin the Plenty board will after the meeting will sign this y tomorrow I'll scan it and then you can pick it up at any time and take it to the and take it to the registry okay thank you got thank you okay so now we're going back to um item six which is the riew of the 20 pondosa Verizon Wireless equipment decision thank you and that's under what number in
150our number one okay okay thank you this was pretty standard thank you said there was one line eliminated about that was from an older uh uh yeah did send me a couple I think there was three tweaks overall one was a reference to a water tank obviously it was it was a leftover from a from a previous decision um there there was one about there was three years on the special permit that was changed back to 24 months as our bylaws uh State and then I believe there was another scribn era um with Anna tesm malitzky I had her as Na and she was absent from actually when it says that in number eight it says a special permit shall lapse after 24 from the grant thereof so it needs to be 24 months or
151just two year or two years or whatever yeah okay I I think I wrote 24 months because that's how it's boed but not that it matters I'm just saying we need to add in the word months then so that's that's easy so otherwise 24 years seems like a long time long way um and was there any was there a third one that Anna was absent so I had her as na um when she was not an attendant so the four of you here tonight will be the four vote uh actually voted to close the public hearing and obviously okay if we vote to accept the four of us uh into the four of you will um sign a decision to okay yeah I didn't have any else anyone have any comments or questions I have
152a comment I I didn't decide to put an edit um because I think condition one covers it but um condition one pre-construction meeting with all subcontractors at the Town held by the town before any work is started so that they're going to have a big crane there right and it's it's only really impacting DPW potentially but it's DPW busy um and I and I feel like that needs coordination but technically I think at condition one at that meeting the town can ask for whatever they want but we're not explicit right about asking the um coordination particularly coordination safety barricades for the crane at Pres presumably they'll do it at that meeting that typically comes out in a preconstruction meeting yeah so I think we're okay but if someone wants to I mean we write these
153for someone that doesn't want to follow things right you have to mention that's all I don't think I kind of waffle but I'm just bringing it up yeah and I knowing that site that site's so wide open that I don't think there is that be I'm confident with DPW on on you know especially especially that's the DPW site that they kind of know what they're yeah versus if it was at a school or something I might be more okay I make a motion that we improve the special per modifications rise and wireless 20 pondosa decision a second and a roll call vote I you cannot vote right oh yeah Annie you weren't here for the last meeting I apologize can't vote for that got it Katherine Jersey guy Amanda ha ey and Trisha Kendall ey
154so to be on the safe side did you get someone to Second other than me someone started to second I think great okay we'll have Deepa I I was gonna say someone was saying at the same time you did so okay so six it's seven okay so the rest of these are um just a few little things discussion and comments for 61 Waverly um there was a notice that went out and now I can't remember where I saw it that asked for com the zba was asking for comments for the Waverly Street 40b in the same way they asked for the 10 to 60 main um and so my thought was we had a much smaller document obviously for the 61 Waverly but that we do the same thing we put our memo with it
155and we give them the letter that that we sent to the state now that project has changed I don't know if you looked at the documents but it's changed a lot since I mean never was it was never before the planning board but it has changed a lot since we looked at it and made our comments um because it was never it was never was never for before our board nope it was never before this board I can take I can kind of add some color to that so yes um the applicate the when this came for comments from the planning board to Mass housing the um it was a different developer um and it was a different site layout right um but however they the the past project was 226 units and it was
156made up of four different buildings two buildings were at four stories two buildings were at five stories the site was also kind of depressed from the rear um that kind of from from wave from from Union um that's not the case we have a new developer um the new the applicant is the Gutierrez company and they are proposing one large five-story building um which is 226 units Mass housing approved the transfer letter um back in December number um and uh and and so with that transfer letter that site eligibility which was approved for Bard which was the project which was 226 units with the four buildings one at you know two at four two at five to the gutier company which is one large building at five stories um that is a change um the
157site work on the new project doesn't dramatically drop and lower that sight um it kind of kind of tables it it kind of levels it off and there's a access to Union Street um from the site so the site is different um the buildings are more congest the one building is more centralized in that site um it's still the same site um at8 Acres um give or take um so the site has changed so with that Alvaro did send that out to all all board and committees to say hey let's get some comments back tonight we're providing you a letter that the planning board drafted uh previously um and if you if if people can go on and look at the plans I think that's the best thing to do and then kind of maybe
158send some comments back to myself and Alvaro this project will be opened by the zoning board of appeals on the 25th of March um and then most likely be continued for a month to be to go for peer review uh for civil and traffic peer review um that is the same thing that happened for the 10 to 60 main stre project um and so we are coming back to a planning board meet on the 27th it will not be in time for the opening of this however very shortly after if we could get something to the zoning board of appeals speaking for John chaaan the chair I'm sure he would greatly appreciate comments from the planning board um at that time yeah and I think actually uh um now remembering where we were in this
159conversation that um that in this case since so much has changed I think we might want to talk about it a little bit again and our comments might I don't remember what we had in that letter but it was based on that other that other proposal and this one is quite different and um so that we I think we might want to have we might want to have a conversation about that first um I'm looking at the letter now and there yeah there are places I think referencing the multiple buildings and the different heights and I wonder if we just sort of together yeah um and the memo of the 10 1060 is just for reference so we that for this we can make a cover letter sort of thing and then once you have
160your comments we can send the memo to them because I mean that's a very that's certainly a very different project but I also think that there were like strategic considerations the way that we responded to this yes yep yeah it's it's it's different is it drastically You could argue that however the amount of units is the same which is really what in my eyes Mass howy looked at yeah um and was limited to the total number of units um and so um it is a different it is it is the same with with that thread however it's a different um site development plan so um I mean what's the best course of action here it is 20 to 10 what do we have on our agenda for in two weeks so in two weeks we're
161going to have eversource coming in for a Scenic Scenic trees they are going to do some um maintenance on one of their circuits here in town which is a kind of an annual Andor biannual hearing that we typically do with eversource um and I believe that's it correct yeah well and then oh yeah and then the bylaws we'll check the bylaws one more time historic commission too that the historical Commission um they could be back at that time okay they supposed to be on for tonight they were I talked to Jim Neel um obviously with everything that was going on tonight they they decide to slide back a little bit um and kind of go from know they were still uh getting the map and stuff ready getting the map and stuff and actually you
162know we were alv was nice enough to print them a new map and you know we kind of getting him them some information but uh but that's where things kind of stand yeah so why don't we I I would recommend that we just put that on our agenda that we all um read through the letter look at the project before we come to the meeting and kind of be ready with how we want to alter this um I'm traveling on 27th but uh definitely I think this needs a thorough check with the pl references your Union Street said would you be if if you have a digital file of would you be able to mark it up yes so at least have your your thoughts on it yeah we have a word version we have
163everything so everything is online send it yeah I send it but it's also online yeah okay I'm not I'm not feeling ready to jump into it at this time of the night Den's information at 10 o' oh does anyone have any views on that all right so we'll um we'll put that on the agenda for next time um and hopefully we'll get through the other things quickly so that we can still approach it when we were are more awake okay and then the other thing on the um is this one's me yeah discussion of change to cell tower approval so yeah so just to kind of set the table for this and this is uh most likely going to be coming to the planning board um but back in April of 2022 um we approved
164um Verizon Wireless to update their antennas at 400 Cedar Street which is a water t Bank uh Tower here in Ashland um Verizon never did the work right um however this permit is still Al because there was a permanent extension act that was signed into law uh and so with that said um back in 20122 we approved them to take down uh out of a total of 12 antennas they were going to remove nine and put nine new ones up right they were going to leave three antennas up there so for they have a total of 12 antennas so because they didn't do the work long story they're like hey we're going to scrap it we want to take all 12 down now and put 12 new ones up there right they're changing the project
165a little bit the question is do we want to take this as a modification or just go through a whole public hearing process um and rehear rehear the application and I talked to talking to Trisha she asked me just to put on the agenda to pull the board just to kind of put it out there it's a self to we all know it's more of about public awareness um and notification um and so if that's a direction the planing want planing board wants to go um we can go that route notify AB Butters do all the notification and then have the hearing the public hearing um and to go in that direction if not um we can do a minor modification to the permit um which is the uh which is still live um and
166so I'm kind of looking at the board to wonder which direction you want take this um it's a cell tower it's owned by the town so we do have to sign consent on the application and so that's how we are kind of a little bit in the driver's seat at least about the public heing um is this a project where we we did the structural evaluation yep we already actually they've already done it and it's already been so the nine and the 12 are apples to apples it's exactly the same antennas correct same height there three additional going up there and they redid the structure the all that stuff has already been peer reviewed but they didn't take care of they didn't do any construction work after the after 22 2022 no Verizon put this
167on the Shelf T it and so now they're coming back and saying hey we need to do this work and we're going to do a couple things that are different to what we approved back in 20 20 2022 is the permit like good through how close it's still well it was was approved May 6 of 2022 right but we did have that Perman extension act that was past this past summer which kind of added two more years on to everything so they have until correct yeah are they extending the existing structure to add the three more how are they fitting in the additional three because I'm guessing well they were leaving three up there but they were changing the mounts right they were changing the mounts right those they were just going to stay up
168there so the three that's were staying up that's coming down and new ones are going in its place correct they're just saying what we're not going to leave those three up there we'll just bring them down put new stuff up let's just do it in one swoop they were going to replace nine leave three now they're replacing all 12 correct yeah the reason I wanted to you know I thought maybe we wanted to talk about it if we wanted to re you know Rel it you know is because it's a topic that um you know kind keeps coming up the people have some concerns about um and that um it's not the tower at the DPW which is a little bit more isolated and very tall this is the the water tank you know so
169which is just it's a very different animal you know kind of thing so I I think here's the problem I think you can't go wrong with notifying the public right and and a Butters um it's my only reluctance is we know we can't really do too much so it's like I I feel like that's a flaw of the whole thing but I feel like we need to hear right that is our job and people do respect that they at least get to be heard I think um so I I would say we I don't want to draw it out I don't think that's help ful but I I don't think we want to have people think like we were doing back deal so that that was my concern as well like not just that um
170you know it is another onethird more than they said I don't think onethird is a small number you know in this case so um yeah so my inclination was you know I think we I think we're going to have to relist it but I wanted it to be a board decision I think also just for people you know they got notification 2022 three years ago that work might be happening and then trucks show up yeah that's that feels very you know they're not aware of the permit extension and I feel like that just runs the risk of aggravating folks versus getting the new notice out there yeah and and really it's just the newspaper mailings and then you kind of go from there yeah which which is paid for by the applicant correct it's paid
171for by the the applicant will pick you know the applicant's going to do a minor modification we'll say hey this is the cost we'll put you on this put you on the agenda here and you can kind of go through obviously like the like the wireless decision tonight it was two meetings it's two weeks um it does it they had this for three years we want to do this do appropriately and notify then I think it's our duty to do that so I I don't really I I just want to make you know make sure that we had consensus did they um submit like the wireless study because if they're changing I mean like like the um the Ponderosa just submitted a whole bunch that I'm within the r the electrical magnetic stuff uh to
172you know what at the top my at 10 o'cl I'm not going to I can't pull up that file but we should ask we're change yeah but we can we can do that and I can get on the phone tomorrow and yeah there's new there's a third more there should be different data I assume you know okay all right that's easy we take care of that okay so we'll do that um and then unless there's something on this list um is there anything we need to do about the changes after planning board approval we'll get there eventually I hope we can do it's something that would make sense on lot of friends I know it's just that yeah not at 10 o' or whatever right almost some point we'll have I loved how she used
173the form today I did I have to type it up but but it helped you made a start um okay uh just to go down the list I did have a CPC meeting um week and a half ago um applicants included the Bark Park they needed a little bit more money for that and um um Town Hall wanted to digitize digitize a bunch of Records so we looked at money for that elil here showed up wanted money for the AR Arnold for the Arboretum the Ashland arum so he gave him money for that so um but it was good so those things will be coming up at town meeting um for CPC I think they were all good um you know good good things for Ashen so other than that I don't have any any
174Metro West Regional collaborative um stuff okay right anything else on that list otherwise we'll look at meeting minutes uh before we do that I just want to make a note um speaking with the comprehensive plan um Consultants uh getting ready for our meeting next week um they have asked to just to kind of uh float the idea out there that they're going to be looking for a another um joint meeting with the pl board and the select board um and that is going to be tentatively scheduled for June 4th which is a select board meeting on a Wednesday night they'll kind of review this stuff at their next meeting with the comprehensive plan but um when we did our when we did when I talked to them last they just kind of asked me to
175kind of Flo it out there it's the first it's the first week of the month so it won we won't have a meeting um so therefore will be at disciples other than that I have no updates all right I guess we just take a minute to look at we have February 19th and February 27 my only note on the February 19th minutes is the adjournment time I think it must have been 8:5 very long interview started at 7 very cont I was looking at the looking for them to like make the change yeah sorry for February 27th I was looking at just line um 93 looking at the number of rentals whether they have considered developing these as I think that should be condos we're developing these as condos rather than rentals because I think
176that's what we were talking about oh and they say condominum see in the next line e right any other uh changes that anyone spots sure can do both I think so I make a motion that we approve the February 19th meeting minutes as the small edit February 27th it's as presented well actually also with a small edit I'm sorry it was just changing one word from residents to condo I make a motion that the February 19th 2025 and February 207 2025 meeting minutes are approved with the small edits discussed second second and a roll call vote Han teski I Katherine Jers I Amanda ha I and Trisha Kendall I that is taken care of there's anything else okay any other absences up known absences that in that case I will make a motion that we
177adjourn at 958 PM is there a second I'll second though all right and a roll call vote an tesis Katherine Jers guy and Trisha Kendall ey so that is it we are over and out e e