001it's okay okay so um before we have a little technical break we um you were telling us about um six Chestnut Street that they have we needed to continue it until until April 11th yeah so just re to to re re reiterate to anybody that missed it uh online is that U we have to continue it to April 11th due to a a butter notification uh technical technicality um and we will do that but all the information uh is up online uh to re be reviewed and and they the applicant did go to the conservation uh commission last uh Monday night and and did kind of receive a uh a favorable um response to the project regarding the work in the riverfront area uh which was which is a positive note is is that part
002there is that process done or not done just the first meeting just the first meeting they didn't close out they didn't make a determination however they just kind of heard the application saw the site plan um and kind of and is that their their process is also moving along uh and so but I would just say no you know with the proximity to the to the river um it kind of uh it makes sense uh to have the conservation in the concer on in the conversation sooner rather than later so but we'll open that up on the 11th and we'll continue on any questions on that project motion I make a motion to continue the six Chestnut Street site plan approval application to our April 11th meeting I'll second that and a roll call vote
003de D Anna teski I marcelona I Katherine Jers I and Trisha Kendall I so six Chestnut Street is continued till April 11th next on our public hearings we have 151 Main Street this is the Clover Road um Brewing um that is looking to come into the old um fire station correct so I can give a little quick update on this uh in that the applicant kovera Brewing uh in custody of and or care of uh John mun um was working uh with their his Architecture Firm to kind of firm up um a couple kind of loose ends regarding accessible parking and the the kind of the knee wall in the front but as it turns out that the architect that was working with the applicant at the firm Architecture Firm uh moved on and so
004therefore uh a new architect has had to step in and so uh they should have new in information to us regarding the building however I do want to just make a note that uh Beth Reynolds is here from our Economic Development coordinator uh and she just wants to make a note of the uh and and just take a couple minutes into talk about the trash enclosure in the rear of the property um Alvaro did send out a quick there was an email email from Beth that kind of explained the um the the tra the trash enclosure which I I I'll let Beth take care of however uh just to make a note that uh it's on the town and and it's under the town responsibility uh since we're making some some forward steps with this
005property um that we would like to put a fence we're going to put a fence up along the back property line um and right now it's obviously wide open to the tracks and so with this new uh this use being there uh we are moving forward we like to move forward with that fence installation uh and maybe also with the trash enclosure at the same time so uh with without further Ado I'll ask Beth Reynolds to to um come up to the microphone and I will make her a co-host um so she can unmute herself and uh put her video on hi sorry hi Beth hi um Peter can you bring up the drawings or do you want did you want me to do that no I'm happy to I'm just going to take a
006it's going to just take take a second terrific so thanks everyone so we've had plans um since the town moved decided to move forward and Lease this property um we've always had a plan to put a fence along the property line um just to secure it without having police and fire there um we wanted to do that so that um chain link fence is going up on Monday um that was something that we've been working on for five months so um the fence is there but then in the whole conversation with John and clover Road the dumpster came up um in question so I wanted to let you all see on our plan where that dumpster was going to go it will be a 10x10 enclosed fence for the dumpster that Clover Road will be
007in charge of maintaining you know just making sure it's not overflowing they'll rent it um on their own but we are dividing the fence because we want that fence to stay there should Clover Road ever leave um so this is the yep uh if you you have to scroll down a little bit more P to see the dumpster or at least from what I'm seeing I'm not sure yeah one minut I'm having a uh Adobe technical issue oh there it is there it is yeah it is um so it is will actually be um put on the asphalt um in sort of like a it it's like one parking spot that will go into their um into like this I don't know kind of grade out area um it's there's no parking there now um
008but it is 10 feet away from the building which is what the fire department requests or requires and um it is going to be on asphalt which the Board of Health has approved or the director agent has approved um so that is what we are looking at yeah and I I would say um just to note if you're also you know purchasing the dumpster is that the pl you know the one of the things that we're always looking for is that the dumpster is lower than the fence obviously so that the dumpster doesn't stick up above the fence um but uh so that's just something to keep in mind with the with the planning Beth do you want explain what the fence is obviously I think you you put it in your email but it
009will have blastic uh kind of slots in it is that correct y yep it's a the black chain link fence that will match the um the fence that's going in um and the full description um it is a six foot high all black chain link um it will have the the slats in it so you can't see through um yeah it and I mean it has the specifications of like the top Rail and the coral oil wire but yeah it'll be six feet tall and it will be enclosed so be locked I just want to follow up with um Trisha's thing that it it's now become in our standard conditions that in a dumpster the dumpster has to be below the height of the enclosure so we will probably be putting that condition I'm assuming
010right with the um any decision but I I would just make sure that um that's well coordinated before you install it because we've had other businesses have like they're still they still exist right that the dumpster above the height of the fence so I don't think we want to bring that to another area in town sure I'll double check that on Monday um that's good to know all right any other any other questions in this project right now like Peter said we're waiting but for the new architect to step in and then we're waiting for the details on the the little wall in front and the clarification of the parking which is just kind of mismarked I guess I have a um question on the schedule because that I looked at it's January something so
011I mean I think it's 90 days without it's 120 days so I counted today so we have up until so the application came in on January January 4th in 100 days uh since then brings us to May 3rd so we have some time before we're we're up we before we have to um obviously uh make any final decision um and I think obviously since the this is a town property and clover road is going to be a tenant I don't see foresee any issues with that but I think hopefully we can get this closed out prior to May 3rd so um obviously we are well Beth can I ask you do you have any other uh questions that you while we're here that you want to ask or good at this time okay that's um
012so are we looking at uh or April 11th is getting is going to be a little busy um just so people know but I think we just have these you know hopefully some of these projects it's it's a smaller time frame as we kind of move through them and I um I I think it's I think it's going to April 11th we just might have to plan on that being a longer meeting so in the in the spirit of full disclosure I'm out of the state on the 11th in traveling uh I should be able to attend remotely because my flight lands prior to our meeting but I just wanted to folks to know that I would be remote for the meeting any other uh questions comments on this project at this time all right
013otherwise um someone want to make a motion to we're moving till April 11th again I'll make a motion for 151 Main Street site plan approval application to the April 11th planning board meeting I'll second it and a roll call vote I Anna tus minitz Iona I Katherine Jersey I and Trish Kendall I so we will see 151 uh on April 11th thanks Beth all right um next on the agenda is um the public hearing for 9 to 49 Homer a um last time we're reviewing comments in blue this time I have taken off um the comments in blue that I think uh we had all agreed on are talked about or went through and then the new things or things that were still in um in wording or whatever are now in kind of a
014purple fuchia fuchsia kind of color um and I think there's a couple little spots in yellow uh that still um need uh factual information yep that kind of I was able to take care of those today okay uh and most of them so for the last couple days where is that so we will just be now so for the special permit sorry yeah the special permit you'll see that those highlights and purple for the uh site plan review we never kind of got back to looking at the um the site plan review conditions findings sorry findings um most of them uh you know related directly back to the ones in special permit you know they different wording of the condition but they're very similar so but we didn't actually go through those so I want
015to take a a pass through that and then of course through the remaining items on the special permit plus um any obviously any other questions um people have uh preference on where to start um special permit or site plan review I think this special permit because they might copy overrate yeah they might so so I just want to make a note from the application team we do have Charlie zudo here and Mr Rong Fork so if there's any questions we can refer them Attorney Terry Morris was not is uh is feeling under the weather tonight so he's unable to join us okay so uh just first area of it looks pink when you print it out but um was just on page five that was just the um addition to the documents of adding that
016um rendering of the pergola sorry are we in on page site plan review page four or no we were on special gotcha okay sorry you said special permit Kate right yes sorry sorry sorry sorry yeah so special permit page five yep it was just adding that rendering of the pergola that um we looked at last time that wasn't in the list yet um the next thing I think I see oh um I'm gonna stop at page 11 even though there's no pink on there um because this this will come up on the um the site plan review if under number six um the last two paragraphs under number six do you have what you need sorry I'm just looking at um deepa's version and mine match but yours looks a little I printed mine at
017home oh gotta sorry so I have my notes on that's okay just like are we all looking at the same thing yeah yeah no sorry I um they should they should be the same that's okay um but uh so on I'm looking at page 11 number six it's not there's no pink on it but if you look at the last two paragraphs under number six it's just repetitive like the first sentence of that says the board approves the non-conforming setback for the existing building at 9 to5 hom RAV and then the second paragraph it it's only a sentence but it's it's all about that the board also approves the current setbacks of the existing commercial building to remain it's the same building that we're talking about so I was going to eliminate the first sentence
018and the further of the of the middle paragraph since the second one is more detailed think that makes sense okay I noticed that actually when I was looking at the site plan review on um so you got that piece mhm and then the next page page 12 is where we actually have a uh more pink this was about the survey um and I don't remember actually where we had this one last time if we just we did discuss it right it was are we looking at the wording the inspection the the survey yeah um so yeah we did discuss it and then um that is the that's that is the newest that's the newest condition that we had I just want to make a note that some everyone else is you'll have you'll see green
019green was uh just some language that when Lisa me reviewed this decision she just had a few edits uh this paragraph for blasting didn't really change but she just wanted to reflect a few items and then the second par this the paragraph Below in green um just has um you know information regarding um consent of the adjacent donors Peter that's second green section I think it's meant to say to the extent with a T at the end okay do you see how it says to the extend with a d to yes I do I think that's that's supposed to be a t got it makes sense I also looking at the first screen um I promise I'll I won't go backwards uh looking at the first screen as the planning board reserves concerns about the
020possibility of blasting and then we have a sentence that actually says blasting shall not be permitted so I'm I'm a little I don't want us to sound uncertain in that first sentence where we're like oh we kind of reserved the right to be concerned rid of that first sentence maybe we just get rid of that sentence entirely and just say blasting shall not be permitted it just kind of creates this uncertainty like are they just thinking about it or are they saying it's a bad idea okay I think we are saying don't do it so maybe is that uh does that sound good to folks all board members I see a lot of heads going up and down with with one exception though because I totally understand what you're saying it made sense the first
021time you said it but I reread it and and I and and I think you said this was reviewed by Lisa right corre the way after rading it a little slower I think there is always the possibility for whatever reasons when you start an excavation that you end up needing a certain type of technology to get the job done so there's no there's no way to full proof that somebody's going to say you will never need blasting and I think that is the intent that Lisa put in here or I don't whatever this came from if we had it and she fixed it is that we don't want blasting and that's the first thing but in the event that is needed then there's got to be a certain set of procedures and I just want
022to highlight that it's impossible to foresee what you will find when you make an excavation that's just the world that's the way it is so I don't know if that's the intent so yeah that that might have come out of um cuz I Peter and I we're probably trying to write that condition based on um uh gcg's um information and we also we're considering that often times or I I I'm not an expert so I won't say often but sometimes um the blasting is actually people think of blasting is a huge blast and sometimes it's more like a firecracker and sometimes it's actually the less obtrusive Thing versus home ramming which is constant and so I think it was kind of saying yeah we don't think it's going to happen here we reserve some concerns
023but there may be a case where that's actually the better option you know um and that's and it would have to be supervised by experts and by complying with whatever state regulations there are so so I I I don't know if removing part of it uh I'm okay with it staying as is I think the point would still be made without that first sentence the first sentence I don't think the first away I think actually because it every it says it's not permitted until you're in compliance and the follow on of our concerns are expressed by gcg why you wouldn't want to do it I mean I'm fin leaving it but we try to be as tight as we can so it's not going to hurt till he did but it's not a big difference
024but yeah I I see I I think since Lisa has already reviewed it I think just leave it in yeah that's fine by me you know I just I'm okay with it as as as is I I do think we you know when Lisa gives us input we still have the responsibility to review it and agree to it um but I'm okay with it as is if it's not going to harm us to leave that sentence in I just felt like it wasn't necessary right agreed we're fine okay so the uh the inspectional survey um so that really um has kind of two parts one is about the 300t radius um and again this is uh the surveys is always happen with the um approval of the homeowner they don't have to approve someone coming
025on their property to survey um so that's why that language is put in there and then um for the uh for the elevation markers it's the abing properties mhm um to see if the if there's any changes in the ground that was from G CG so if the my only concern about that second part so I think if you say no one can take pictures of your foundation you're kind of on your own the second part if nobody lets them put a marker how are we going to measure and check for settlement like wouldn't we want that anyway can you do it against the will of the owner I don't think so trespass I don't think you I don't think you can but but I didn't say to do that I said like is there
026a way to do it which is maybe on the edge of their property or something I don't know I think I think we have to figure that out um I I I think the procedure is pretty clear and it's in the interest of everybody to to participate on it some body doesn't want it you cannot control everything you're given all the guarantees and safeguards that people deserve you cannot force somebody to be helped I'm not sure that I don't know if it's about the helping of other properties necessarily like if somebody doesn't allow like I I I haven't been to the property in a little while since our site s sidewalks but if one property owner says no that property owner's refusal to participate could harm somebody right next to them who says yes why
027so presumably these properties could be sharing elevation in theory that could then right this is what we're concerned about so I I don't necessarily think a property owner say not giving consent somehow allows the harm I think the decision is meant to be written in a way that we can monitor the end result I am not a technical person so I have no idea if there is a way to place the elevation marker on this property to kind of not rely on the placement of it on the adjacent properties but if there is a way it you know that might be more reliable than a photograph it's hard for me to imagine how you would take a photograph to prove to prove that there's no no you can't use the the photographs are like if
028if there's ho ramming and your foundation gets a crack right the settlement is the issue with groundw something could be it has to be monitored but what you all are telling me is if nobody around gives it then we are just saying n sorry you can't Monitor and I don't think that's acceptable I I'm not a lawyer to say what we can do I think this might be a gcg thing like can't you just put it on if no a butter allows it then can we ask for it to to be put on that property does that I mean can have some experience with this where they' be willing to put a elevation marker on their own property if there's a lack of consent I mean I just don't understand the problem though I mean
029yeah you you the instrumentation this is this is a technical thing and to to instrument a you have to survey and repeat the procedure scientifically to prove settlement if you don't have the instruments in place you cannot do it why why wouldn't somebody not want to do that I don't know presumably that that could be the case if somebody says I don't want anything on my property okay but just from the legal point of view don't you on any other case do you lose your standing if you refuse to to help with proving that you were harmed I don't understand the legal part of it but I just everybody's given open opportunity to make sure that nothing happens to their property what else is needed I I just don't see really the need to go
030further the Project's also going to have building per you know building permits affidavits the building official is going to be there every control construction but but these are the that is the way you check for that I mean this I I'm pretty sure when we were doing the big dig this actually happened to a building like I don't think this is a madeup condition that can happen right so no it's not it's not a madeup condition but um you know um so we're saying that the the property owner I mean there can be settling on their own property right it's their property and that's one condition but if if the owners of the adjacent property don't want to have this information and don't care enough then who so as long as you're saying we have
031no culpability then because we made a condition and nobody went with it and then doesn't matter planning board so worst case of building caves and everybody doesn't matter right case that is that is not consistent with this Cate because so the way this is written the way this is written it seems like the intent of the draft is that we're going to make sure that there is no um what is the technical term here we're trying we're trying to avoid a problem relative to Elevation that's our intent and it's a property that's very I think it's fairly dense and other things that are there so again my concern is if one owner is not Cooperative or not reachable or out of town doesn't participate doesn't like it's not necessarily the intent of the owner to
032be annoying or reject or rejection maybe they're not available and therefore somebody does not quote unquote consent I would be more comfortable making sure that we as a board come up with a different way if there's a technical way to do it like why not ask the applicant they've built properties before is there a way to measure this without sticking the marker on an adjacent properties if the adjacent properties are not Cooperative can the applicant creatively think of a way and if they can why don't we okay I see Char so I see the applicant with their hand up so Charlie uh I'm I'm please unmute yourself I I did make you a co-host and so uh please help out help us in this discussion can you hear me yep loud and clear so Pete
033honestly we I've been doing this for a long time Bild we've never had to do this only if you're doing blasting they make you do serving on the properties around I mean have you done this to all the other developments in town that if somebody's building a like when they were digging the streets for instance they were doing major work for the new develop for the new roadways did you survey all the properties around this is something that's only been done when you do blasting not for regular site work or anything like that oh I I I understand that Charlie and uh yeah this is a new condition that this board is putting on and so um but no this is a blasting condition I I I see only for blasting or for everything no
034that this part of the condition is for settlement like in digging the basement or water or something like that it's not really about the blasting so the so this is not just for the project in general it's still got to be done not only just for blasting correct okay so this is something new that the town has adopting as a ordinance for anyone doing a building so if I if I could please um I I think that the way to think about it is that each project in my opinion each project gets to be viewed relative to where it's located and so this is not just the board randomly choosing a new condition we are cognizant of the fact that we're looking at an area that is downtown and we as a board have been
035attentive to that fact relative to this project so just like because you're in downtown we have been thoughtful and flexible with you relative to certain conditions and certain elements of the project and how we're designing it how we're working with it we're also I think appropriately considering things like settlement in an area that is high traffic high visibility highly important to the town of as highly marketable related to Economic Development etc etc so it's a perfectly reasonable thing in my opinion for the board to consider unique conditions relative to downtown and I don't think how many times do you want this survey done so over the I I think it's over the course of the project to confirm that there's no settlement Charlie so I'm going to have to have a survey go survey every
036house within 300 ft of this property ongoing for the course of the project no it's a budding it's only a budding property Charlie oh okay cuz this thing says 300 foot radius that's the first paragraph that we're talking about the second paragraph okay now on that on that note what uh what Anna said it's it makes sense but the caveat to me is that you can go so far I think that there's going to be a a substantial excavation in the site and this is taken care of you know measures to make sure that nobody gets impacted by it so just just so hold on so so uh trying to come up with scenarios that could be what if this what if that I don't think that's the the board's job either I think we
037have a gcg that provided some recommendations we have Lisa has reviewed this there is a there is a system in place recommended I think we should just uh um trust the building code procedures the staff in the town that's going to be reviewing those inspections the professionals that are doing this under lawful techniques that are approved by the code and not come up with scenarios like what if something happens I I think we could come up with a thousand different ones we'll never end did is that ccg language though with the consent of each do we have their um because I don't I remember it being something like explaining how to do it and how often I do not recall them linking it to another property so that's what I guess no I think the
038explanation was putting some initial market and reading them I think monthly over something like that I remember but and so I think that that is the issue if it has to be tied to an abing property or not to me I think it sounds like everyone agrees with a professional recommendation a reasonable Condition it's it's thec um trying to understand if it has to be tied to an abing property and I'm not clear that it has to be but if you mention their foundations you have to I'm going to make a suggestion I don't think this board has the technical expertise to create a condition that would place this elevation marker anywhere other than the abing properties the way it's drafted so it sounds to me sorry hold hold on hold on talk one at
039a time hold on I'm okay with the language as is I'm changing my mind because I don't think we have the expertise to make it different from the way it's drafted um I'm learning as we go here that I need to educate myself more as to how these things work technically um I will say I have some grave concerns if the applicant is already kind of um views this as cumbersome as it's drafted um I'm concerned about our ability to assure that it's actually followed but I will put those concerns aside and I would hope that the applicant will follow the condition and actually make good faith effort to reach out to the abing owners um and if they're not responsive to follow up Etc That's My Hope just a note before I'm going to
040let Charlie talk again um that uh that um the cumbersome I think is more um uh it in my mind more unusual that this is an unusual condition um it it was not part of the other projects we you know it was an unusual condition and so um and it's probably unusual for him too and I think that's fair so Charlie did you was there another comment you wanted to add yeah so what the survey can do is they could take the top of each Foundation where the foundation meets the framing and use that as the marker on each property I I'm just just concerns like it I've never had to do this before and if I'm only getting if this is the only project that this is going to be used on or if
041it's going to be in the zoning code for now on for every project I think um I think the there's some new things here because this is the first downtown project that's been done in in a while and certainly and certainly by this board so that's why um and and and we know that the project has kind of a high water table so that's why this has come up so um I understand your concern I understand what you're what you're saying Charlie um it's we we're kind of figuring it out so Kate so I mean this has underground we we had residents at some of the very first hearings having concern about construction near other buildings and digging down and I think full circle we're doing our best to to understand that this is not
042the type of construction we've seen before so I just want to I I want to recognize that that the public raise concerns we know that buildings get built like this in Boston but maybe they haven't been we acknowledge that in Ashland and that is part of us trying to do our due diligence and and and just to add to that this it's not really that unreasonable to to test that when you have a Butter's next door in a downtown situation and and I think other projects that come with similar contextual um parameters probably will get the same condition I don't mind doing it I just want to make sure that I'm not the only one doing it that it's for every project in the town like if there's if you're if you're trying to set
043a standard I'm all I'm very happy to work with you on that but it should be a standard for the whole city okay hold hold on if I if I could I think that it's Our obligation as a board to constantly evolve and learn and look at project in a unique fashion that it is but also reflective the environment around it so I'm not comfortable guaranteeing that every single project downtown is going to have the exact same conditions I think the nature of our work is that we we're going to continue to evolve and learn um that's my position on that okay so what I'm going to suggest is that we're going to take a little breather on this condition and we're going to come back to it because I want everyone to have a
044few minutes away from it you know um to let it let it settle a little bit no pun intend yeah okay so um that's a good planning joke right there thank you uh so uh so we'll come we're going to come back to that um make sure you keep track of that where that is okay um 14 shared parking again this was um just to try to clarify the relationship uh between the uh you know basically borrowed parking from 20 Homer AV the train station and what should happen say if one of those properties it's sold and the new owner says no way know how no one's using my parking you know that kind of thing so um I believe this was this condition also reviewed by yeah this is review by Lisa uh Town
045Council and this is the final uh draft that she has posed did she have feedback um on I I think our thought last time was to request that an easement go into place if ownership changed like at that time as a term of sale and that's not that's not it Just reflects that if there's a change of ownership the shared parking agreement shall I think that was our concern last time is that that agreement would there's not like an enforceable way to carry that over um said in the event of the use or ownership of either property change in the future the parking agreement shall remain in place I think that was the concern there there there's it says it goes on to say that it will be filed with the registry of deeds I
046just I think our concern was that an easement would run with the property it couldn't because they're owned by the same owner right now you can't do an easement now but you could as a term of sale in the future and I think that changes not reflected I wonder if Lisa had it sounds like she's she's drafting this as like a general General condition of like whatever needs to happen shall happen right like it's almost like implied like said share parking agreement shall remain in place right implied in that is whatever legal instrument you need to make that happen should happen okay I think that's what she's doing um I don't know if we necessarily need to dict the legal mechanism that's utilized to make that happen as long as we are all interpreting that
047sentence this is a directive this shall happen it shall stick around um I guess the question becomes um what is the obligation for us to kind of Follow that through when that transition of ownership happens like who who has the jurisdiction to sort of pay attention to that is that the building inspector like how does that work yeah I think it's really all of us in town hall The Building Commissioner too you know he's going to be the one that signs occupancy permits he's the one signs building um is there is there a way to indicate like um but if there's a sale what would trigger that right is there a way when the sale happens is there maybe we should I'm just suggesting maybe we should add a small note that when the sale
048occurs we would be notified like the town would be notified it says the sh sh parking agreement shall include a requirement to notify the building office should a lease within either property be terminated for any reason uh so you're you're you're thinking when the ownership changes the lease will terminate not terminated by any reason that would include a sale I just I don't know I don't know if that lease would terminate at this point of sale maybe we're just too worried yeah I I think that too deep into it I think we're probably okay the way it's drafted I've talked about it with her she's she know I discussed everything she's done this you know many times and I have full faith that this draft and this condition can be implemented okay perfect that's that's
049great if she I just wanted to make sure that that was the discussion about transitioning from a shared parking agreement to in easement I I just wanted to make sure that was switched for like intentionally and for a reason that's that's perfect be comfortable moving on um number 17 is the mural um I think this basically stayed the same we did put it back into the conditions um yeah so um again it's just that the applicant is offered and the planning board accepts the wall space um and that the planning board will work with the applicant to develop a process for implementation artwork shall be mutual mutually acceptable to both parties um that might need to be mutually but it's not a big deal mutually Mutual acceptable I think mutually right mutually how do we
050feel about putting some time frames on that like right now the way it's written in theory it might never happen like at all um is there any thought about if the applicant is comfortable of kind of working with us on this within I don't know certain type of time frame year two years I think I think given that there's no building permit there's uh there's a site demolition delay there's we couldn't even we don't know who's going to be handling the mural we don't know I I I think I'm I'm good with it just leaving it General as something that we're going to work on together and we'll see down the road how that happens me too I'm comfortable because it says we'll work with like the ball is very much in our cour shouldn't
051fall off radar when the time is right yeah when the time is right I I it sounds like the majority wants to go with as is I'll just say that without some time frame like hey within within a year of issuance of the permit or whatever um I think it's very likely this will get buried um but that's just kind of where I'm at with it well if the planning board at that time is not interested in pursuing it that will be up to them I guess you us or them whoever people I guess that's what I'm saying I think we're pushing the buck on something that is being given to us um and without framing some kind of um reasonable time frame for a Cooperative process like if it said within a year of
052the issuance of the per all we're doing is we will work with the applicant the applicant that point might say I don't really have an idea yet but I'm working on it like it gives us some framework to achieve this otherwise to me this is just like a lovely paragraph that there's absolutely no incentive not to cut you off but Charlie has hand up if you want to make a comment yeah sure Charlie if you want to jump in on this I don't see his hand up anymore okay I'm sorry he did have his hand up so yeah so I I just I I really strongly think we leave a general we're still learning about this whole mural thing Starbucks is a case in point it's we're learning as we go I I'm just not
053into putting more any more detail onto it and we don't in a way we don't know what we're doing yet so um Charlie does Charlie has his okay Charlie you want to jump in yeah sorry about that you I mean you might want to change your mural every two years so just put something in there that's like a permanent thing you might paint a mural and it might not be you might want to change it as the seasons go on if this school system has an hot team that wants to change it every you know Season or something we're we're fine with that yeah so it's something that can be an ongoing thing I think it's just a description of an ongoing partnership and we'll leave it at that is agre General agreement yep okay
054all right moving on um some of these are just recording things that we um hadn't recorded last time the building brick um doesn't really have a um a colorful name like gray slate or Pearl gray associated with it so we uh just put in transitional brick that's what is L is labeled as provided to the planning board or an approved equal um which is a typical way of doing it in specifications um the pavement brick we put in um uh those information about the brick from downtown so we put in that um information about the brick used in downtown or again said approved equal in case for whatever reason it's not available or we can't get that exact batch or whatever um pocket park pergola um obviously just tried to ex um describe what we
055saw in the image and the um you know the basic comments we made at that time about Pera and then referred to the drawing and that was the drawing added earlier who comment Who's the um approved who approves the equal if there is a change um well that's a good question I mean and uh usually it's the architect um like like it's it's usually the architect but so yeah you're not going to have the applicant approve their own or equal I don't think that would be the intent of our decision right yeah no I mean so um I would just I could we could put what without unreasonably held by the planning board you can just say approved equal um after Consulting with the planning board yeah or something like that just we just need
056a consultation hey this one is not available how about this one yeah we can that could be a simple procedure equal approved equal after Consulting the planning board approved equal are we looking to color match what is that deal it's not the spec of the brick what are we trying to get is it getting color match to yeah it's usually this brick is no longer available is this one okay it's a color yeah it is a color match just a little subjective but yeah yeah so you can just put them both both of those locations got it okay all right any further questions on that um exterior materials okay um next page is pretty simple uh just adding a phrase there it was just no some pump shall be allowed and then um it was
057added in to be no sump pump shall be allowed to be connected to ashin storm water system so bless bless you sorry um the next page is 17 where this was where we were looking um at the um exterior elevations and if anything was added to the exterior elevations we talked about um the normal events and things that are available from a public Street need to be um they're not currently shown in the elevations must be carefully placed aligned so as not to Marv the approved elevations and then we were we were discussing the placement of mechanical electrical or other equipment or vents the pink is what was new um originally said is not allowed without approval from the planning board um this is where I will just call it the Starbucks situation you know
058and how do we uh how do we prevent that from happening um so um and the problem was that without that pink section there's no um there's no differentiate between um something minor and something larger yeah you establishing a baseline establishing a baseline yeah I'm okay with it makes sense so so anyone have any comments about that okay I I hope nothing ends up on those elevations but yeah it's construction and then I think the last pink comment is on 21 is that yeah about the dewatering um can we can we just the two words submitt in there so it needs to be if a dewatering is required a dewatering plan shall be submitted for approval to the Department of Public Works period that's my recommendation y you got that Peter a dewatering plan shall
059be submitted for approval to the public works yes yeah okay all right so then let's um skip over still not going to go back to uh so I think we caught everything in there right I just had a very quick clarifying question on the sign I know we don't normally talk about signature pages um for the special permit that we just went through uh and Amanda is noted as na associate member no vote cast and no signature um but for the site plan review we we are having aanda sign so I just want to make sure there's some consistency oh uh between those two things yeah that was that was just left over gotcha oh you copied it over without yeah that's just I haven't filled that out yet because oh no no what I
060mean is on the other one oh it's not an NA on the other one it looks like Amanda is voting so we just need to like be consistent okay is the asso number voting or not and it should be the same on both documents or is she signing both or just one right like there has to be some in general we should make sure we're consistent yes okay so you put it from your house oh okay right got it thank you I'm getting confused in my own stuff okay yeah and then just to make a note the decision so the decision the documents are record in the decis in the conditions are going to be a mirror image for both documents the only thing that's changing is the uh the meet the finding section okay
061so then we run into blue at um in the in the um findings um and again this isn't um we reviewed them we reviewed very similar things in the special permit but these conditions these findings criteria are different in the in the site plan review than they are in the special permit so it doesn't copy over exactly but the phrasing um should be very familiar of of edits that we've already made so I think on under number 11 that's um page 10 to 11 is the same um repetitive um thing about the uh the setbacks so in the third blue paragraph We should take off the first sentence that says the board approved and then take off the word further page 10 yeah it's the same edit we made before I mean I feel like
062all the edits should be just replicated because it's the exact same language so like yeah yeah so um yeah so it's repetitive with the last paragraph there which is more detailed okay so after Dimensions yeah we're taking off the board approves the non-conforming setback existing building at 99 to 15 take that paragraph off the sentence off oh the sentence off and the word further and the word further okay so it's like the board approves gotcha yeah and that will be consistent with what we did before on page 11 that word exit um was already there we've already gone through that we just hadn't done these comments um did we we ended up not changing anything with the blasting is that yep we stuck to the blasting thing as is the only change is in the
063inspection survey the extent extend versus extent with a t Okay M I think the rest of it is the same parking mural it's on the next page right wait no did I miss it yeah go back down in your green oh go you yeah yeah ex yeah okay okay and so and then it's down to just U number 29 that we just corrected um unless someone has something did you go P page I'm was going to finish I'm fix proved equal yeah we can take care of that if do want plan we submitted to the depart public submitted for approval that's that then we need to go back to six page 16 number 18 whereafter um or approved equal I can't remember exactly what wording or approved equal by the planning board yeah approve yeah
064approv by the planning board for [Applause] EX this is a very minor thing but under affordability in the findings or sorry in the um under special project conditions affordability at one point we used the the new um eoh see and then a few lines down we say dhcd oh yeah so just to have it be the proper yeah organization gotcha is paragraph 11 supposed to have some kind of filling of the occup occupancy permit like a little L the sidewalk sorry for sidewalks and curves yeah I'll just say the first I'm sorry where are you uh paragraph 11 that says sidewalks and curbs the last sentence has a blank right in front of occupa occupancy permit y um it looks like this like a oh like a little place to fill something in it's supposed
065to say first okay yep I fixed it thank you I'm looking at the other my earlier version okay so those little Corrections are made on both documents yep I'm making them right now okay so um I think that puts us back I have a question I'm not finding it now but was there and I might I might have mixed it up with another decision that um like if it's not if the permit is not exercised Within two years it's two years because it conflicts they had three but that conflicts with the bylaw yeah so I went back to the two years I just want to make sure to make the line it up with the bylaw awesome y I took care of it um and then I think something I wanted to bring up and
066I I know there's some uh language it's fairly standard we've been doing about third party inspections but I know a the downtown is um high profile for the public for the board for the town and when we were talking about um the Chestnut Street project I talked about INSP in independent third party inspections and everybody said given that the last small projects in town have not been built with the planning board wants and I think that's not great for the town I think that's not great for the planning board so when we get projects that don't end up getting built what's approved I feel like we have to make sure that our at least every condition is getting us to the best result of that once once we approve or not approve we don't actually
067control it but it's it's a little bit um egg on the face of the planning board that something got built that wasn't what it was approved so I I guess I want to bring up that are our conditions adequate and is that the best possible is everything covered the best possible so we can try to get what we asked or or we're going to potentially approve is it a are you asking a question about a condition yes I am which which one um well there there's um like the third party inspections if we I don't think it has um like it doesn't have a timeline or when they should be performed or how how are we going to prevent I mean actually I take that back is the next even Starbucks is also an example
068it was we think we have a way to recover but that's a smaller issue but buildings that were not built to what we I mean it keeps happening so I I guess I want to be part of a board that tries to prevent that and I'm I'd like to bring up what what kind of inspections are you thinking of well how did the a building uh almost across from town hall get built not to the plans and there's other examples so I think that inspection has to be fairly frequently what kind of inspection so are we thinking third party inspector that the town pays that the applicant reimburses us or are we thinking the building code requires a specific set of inspections that they have to provide by law and the Building Commissioner will get
069those so are you thinking having a condition that somehow reflects a report of that inspection to us like how would we frame the well there there is language of third party inspections and it's and you can do that by Mass General law that's how it's written what I guess I just don't know what you're getting at what kind of inspections that will will fall out of what the code requires well buildings got built not to what we approved apparently they were code required so if that's the best we can do them then we can't do anything I guess but I I'm not sure I believe that though so are we talking about technical code construction or planning board conditions because it's very different yeah I'm talking to so I would assume that it met technical
070building code and what are we trying to say I mean they're going to have to comply with that right but if how if there's currently like we're we're it's right across the street a building that got built not to what was approved that was that's a situation that took place during in the middle of Co and I can tell you what happened and I can tell you how we fixed it and we've wred the ship hold on I I don't know if we need to like go back in history to a different project I think the question is do we have jurisdiction as a planning board to require some kind of third party review on the spot I try to look it up I can't find how it works in Massachusetts I found New Hampshire
071allows it allows planning boards to do it um but Anna before we go to knowing the jurisdictions we need to know what are we trying to ask for I think what I'm hearing is a concern that because this is a downtown project do we want to have some kind of communication close the communication gap so that the planning board has more awareness relative to any kind of third-party review it sounds like it's already required by law but there may be communication gaps because it's a downtown project do we want to maybe reference it and say to the extent there is a third-party inspection per state law that the applicant will communicate the results of that inspection to the planning board do we want to maybe create some sort of closure of the communication gap so
072that we're we are aware of when the inspection happens the planning office is is uh notified that gives the planning department the ability to double check that everything is going smoothly so that we as a planning board have done what we can we're not putting an additional requirement we're simply asking to be informed so that we can assure compliance how is how is this not covered in item two third party inspection which I'm sorry I mean I so I don't think that says a um it's daily It's weekly it's whatever right it says we're allowed to do that but I don't think that it says um they there every time constructions going on they're once a week once a month I I that's the part that I think but that is enforced by The Building
073Commissioner because they will not get a building certificate of occupancy if they don't comply with what's required and the the billing commissioner has a lot of discretion under the code for administration so uh I just there's inspections going all on all the time all the time and I just don't I don't understand what lack of communication has been I think the process that we go through been one year we've been going through all this communication to get to where we are I don't think we need to micromanage every single piece of every single project moving forward we set up conditions the building inspector requires to make sure that they comply if something happens that is completely out of the bounds of the conditions I'm sure the bill inspector will notify us or directly request that
074they fix it but I I I think it's very easy to come up with a with a number of potential potential situations I think I think we're distracting ourselves our job is hearing the conditions and I think they're very clear we we're being we're being f studious about making sure they're clear I think we should stick within the bounds of that beond that is just making an effort to go way far into the future imagining potential I'm fine with that if we say we we did our due diligence and if it doesn't look like it was approved that the I'm sorry the planning board had nothing to do with that why are we apologizing in advance of something that we don't know because we are honoring the fact that it's a downtown project that that
075we care about downtown and want projects there to reflect our intentions and our decision so why do we one second but why do we feel the need to say that I think people that see these meetings will know that we've been working for that very reason on all this we we don't have to go on and publicize that we care about things I don't see the need personally we this the process I think for me it's more about understanding I want to make sure that we've done our our piece of assuring our intentions are understood and so one of the things I'm looking at like to Trisha's point is this paragraph enough what I like about the paragraph is that it says that if if there is an inspection official they're going to give the
076planning office a weekly report that part I really like the part that I'm curious about and that I would like Peter to explain to me is how do we decide how does the town actually decide when we would when would we choose to hire a third party official under what circumstances like if I had a better understanding as as a planning board member then I could agree with marcelo's point but I don't have a full understand when we notice as the project starts the engineer they come in the contractors chosen right and they're going to give us a schedule of work when are you going to do this X Y and Z right when are you going to do the UN you know the the storm water infrastructure right that's an item where we typically
077say yeah we want mik Carter to come out and do a full inspection to make sure that the subterraneum storm water is taken care of right but I don't think that's never been in a decision our our water department goes out when they're connecting to the new water meters right our our Sewer Department goes out when they're doing all these inspections right so over the course you know they're do we're doing inspections over the course of all projects and so it's usually something that's set up within a preconstruction meeting within that preconstruction progress you know and then I'm usually involved in that process it it's it it it's kind of It kind of rolls a little bit with the with the project so what can we how what can we do to catch the things
078that are not do not involve some kind of Staff like the the examples you mentioned are there's already like a person from our town that has to get involved sewer so there person Road opening DPW all all of us but there are things our daily job thinking of the Starbucks project forget Co postco thinking of the Starbucks project there is no human there when those electrical panels went up on the wrong side right so how can we as a board make sure that the design element of the building like the setbacks all of that is honored for that part we're not there when it happens so you well a number one the building department has to be issued right and that's going to take into account the site plan the building setbacks all of those
079elements right and typically that's how you kind of can confront that and then sometimes there's there's you know for this one well Charlie has his hand up but they're all going to be you know put through this building permit through this decision we're always doing inspections and then the final outcome is a as Bill plan to make sure that that asil plan reflects the approved site plan yeah let me let uh Charlie do you want to weigh in on this so even even not only with the city even with the bank it's very important for them so when we dig the foundation as far as the setbacks go we have to have the survey come out and Survey the property while while we do the foundation and that get certify we send that to Peter
080and we also send it to the bank so the the bank will not let us move forward if the the building is in the wrong spot yeah I think it's more about these little the little things that that happen later or or trim details I mean if we looked at 128 across the street you know just kind of they kind of winged it after a while and we're just putting up different kinds of exterior sighting and different kinds of exterior trim because someone said hey that might look good this isn't this isn't you Charlie this is someone else and um and it kind of been it had to it all had to be undone right you know because they just didn't follow the drawings I don't know they just didn't understand that they had had
081to follow the drawings that that were approved anyway well I already I already learn my lesson with you people on that too yeah I'm talking to the board here um yeah so um so but I think um you know I I agree with Marcelo that that I think we're we're trying to uh we're trying to baby proof the world you know in a way um and it just came can't it can't really be done in that way and um I think you you have to let it play out a little bit you have to have some trust in the players that are in place and in the recourse that comes back to the planning board does that mean everything is going to go perfect all the time absolutely not it never will no matter how
082many conditions you have in place it's going to happen anyway and it comes it comes back right so um I'm not sure we have to so test everything I'm okay not overly managing every single word and having some trust I'm okay with that up to point to me it's it's about building a relationship so um building a relationship with the applicant right making sure that there's open communication um I will say that prior to my time on this board there was a project not far from where I live that Charlie you're involved in it's the project you have on 126 and there were neighbors that raised to me as a new planning board member hey this project was supposed to have a pocket park where's the pocket park and that was elevated to me when
083I became a member of this board as a warning from residents on the 126 Corridor who said oh good luck because sometimes as a planning board you guys make decisions that don't actually get um don't actually happen as you envision and so as I remember as a new planning board member that was something that was was really important to me that I would make sure that to whatever extent I could projects would actually come to be the way the planning board intended so for me it's about building a relationship and frankly Charlie I'd like to hear your thoughts how will you make sure in this project that if we leave this paragraph the way it is that you would communicate with us and communicate with the planning office in a way that would actually honor
084all of those things that we've included in this decision and I think that's a fair question because it's about building Trust so that we don't have to micromanage every single sentence I I agree with you and so let's go back to Pawn Street real quick the problem that happened with Pawn Street was the wrong set of plans got submitted to the city or town so we built off those plans and there were a few things that were the plans were almost identical but there was a few things that were different and the architect sent me the wrong set of plans I said sent them to Peta no none of us knew until the building was already built that we were working off the wrong set of plans and it was just it was like trim
085detail stuff and siding details and some color details but there was never a pocket pack on any of the plants or anything we submitted with the town for that project so I apologize if people thought we were going to put a pocket pocket pack there then on on this project we know we have to build it to the plans it'll be built to the plans and we're going to pay more attention to making sure the proper set of plans get submitted to the city town I'm sorry and you know before it just was things looked exactly the same and we were rushing to get the plans to get the permits pulled we will pay more attention to that and we will follow the plans if you look at all the other projects that we've built
086we never had problem I'm not sure about the name of the of I can't recall anymore about the label pocket park and when that kind of came in I there were some Landscaping things um at 12 Pawn Street but I can't I'm not going to recollect I can't recollect the exact term we I will say it was way before my time so and I was there but I can't I don't want to turn memory I can't and I do appreciate Charlie's uh transparency yes as to what went off the rails and that does help me and I I appreciate that because we're having that discussion publicly and it's on the record and I think words do matter and and I think that I'd like to find a way to to believe those words and and
087I think it's a move in the right direction to have that kind of conversation so I do appreciate that Charlie thank you I think that condition then is in place in my mind I think it was put in place was it for 100 Chestnut Street maybe that we first it was really for 100 Chestnut Street and then then it we folded it over to 501 py and it's there to have you know gcg come out and do site inspections and do spot inspections when need be at the proper times that are decided in the preconstruction meeting to make sure that storm water storm water structure is put into place and properly put in place that connections to our water and our sewer are put in place um but it doesn't call out a certain kind
088of consultant it calls it that's up to the town the type that's up to us right if somebody need to be need be so it seems that to me that there's the Trust In relationship but if a warning Bell goes off that this thing gets triggered and say now we need someone now that trust has been broken now we need someone who's checking it out you know um and and this and this goes into effect that was always that was always my impression of was I'm glad we're having these conversations um I'm learning on the go I think that it's great progress for us as a board to have this kind of condition um and I think it's really important and I appreciate Charlie speaking about it openly and and you know I do think
089words matter it sounds like Charlie wants to be a man of his word and do the best that he can and we're all going to do the best that we can to make sure the correct documents are attached and that they're followed and and hopefully we're not going to have a repeat of this conversation all right so um are we comfortable with that condition the way it is I am I I think I am is if Charlie's on board my representation of what I'm hearing him say like does that make sense to you Charlie that we're kind of going to trust you to to make sure this gets followed and the right documents get filed yep that's what we're only going to do it the right way okay so the remaining condition I think we
090we we still need to go back to inspectional survey is that right at the one remaining condition so um Kate you announced about exactly what gcg said oh G G's the Le I going close it off sorry do want me to read or do you all all right so um I'm just TR to this is a question about um requirements need to be listed about what the preconstruction survey includes so gcg wrote a video and pictures of the exterior of adjacent buildings and property should be provided so that's in there and then said an elevation on the side of each building to be checked over a period of one year after completion of construction um um and then talked about monitoring they just said submit an elevation report every month until one year after completion
091certified by a professional liced surveyor so so what I'm he's talking about exterior of adjacent buildings and property should be provided and so I think that doesn't imply it can't be on the property and I maybe that's a question for Charlie like can this be so if if the adjacent property for any reason they are just not available and you don't know that they are refusing they're just not available can that be placed on the applicant's property to follow that monitoring of settlement I think Charlie alluded to that because the what what what I think is being recommended here is a marker a marker is anything right mhm Charlie said well the surveyor could with his or her instrument determine like say the the Inception of the s in between the foundation wall a a
092place that is fixed in the building and and and looked at it from the other side and confirm elevation changes based on a on a datum that that would fulfill both well and so I think that's I guess the point of the purple wasn't gcg wasn't saying go to the adjacent properties and get their permission and do it they're saying this is how you would do it so that I think is the only confusion here so what if we put in a sentence like this if adjacent properties cannot be used for elevation markers other suitable locations for El for elevation markers will be found so if all the property owners say no no no no one can can't use my property can't mark my building we'll find other suitable locations whether they're on the property
093oop nope it doesn't work like that they can't be on the property we can go deeper into the site maybe two houses over says yeah you can monitor mine right we can find some other suitable elevation maybe you can monitor along a telephone call like I I don't know right so but that's where gcg would be involved in those finding a suitable marker if no one absolutely no one wants to do it then I mean then you can see as something on your own property but that's all the options there are right you ask private homeowners he has the building across the street yeah let's be honest with each other he owns the building across the street so you can monitor that you can monitor that and you're trying to create a baseline that's all
094you're trying to do is create a baseline okay except that's not in our decision so no so that that a proposed modification that TR yeah if that's a proposed modification that works I think just a suitable if if the adjacent home or some other suitable location as approved by it should be approved by gcg or a third party that sounds good I mean okay think that's a reasonable so where should it be inserted um I would just put at the bottom of at the very bottom at the very end of that pink paragraph are you ready I'm going to take that I don't you won't be able to read it okay sorry okay all right so um if so what's the 300 ft radius that's for the that's for the blasting that's for 250 or
095300 ft is pretty typical for the blasting well it's not just blasting is they're they're required to do that any anyway cuz I trust me I mean my Foundation was shaking with with a project near me like think they said we could do it for home ramming as well but it's the typical I think 250 is the typical range for blasting when it's going through the fire department which monitors blasting so we put it in here for whole ramming for for any just to do the survey whether it's whole ramming or blasting or that they need to do 300 ft I think 300 ft was suggested by their engineer no fair enough but that's in both the paragraphs that's under blasting and inspectional Survey so if this 300 ft radius was for blasting why do
096we have that under inspectional survey category CU you already covered that in the previous paragraph that makes sense because I remember the conversation with the engineer was exclusively on blasting cuz that's covered I because that that's I think that's what was Charlie's question to begin with why do you have the 300 ft because that's throwing and there's nowhere in that report that talks about so I think this line you're saying the mention of the you're saying the mention of the 300 feet in the inspection under blasting and inspection so so should we just are you just saying just to take off the 300 feet and then it says including inspectional surveys and the next section is inspectional surveys and then you read about inspectional surveys okay so I can we check the gcg because I
097didn't read it that it was only necessary for blasting I think I thought that was a recommended condition in general I mean I I see that often we should read it think to blasting but the 300 thing also creates a limited Universe of where you need to care so I I would think we want to keep that there I don't think we want to get rid of that and make it like applicable to everything I think we need some kind of you said yeah so if it says 300 I would I would stick with that if this was cut and pasted from their report yes yes so the in my mind the um there's the condition about the blasting right um and we can take off the within the 300 ft so we don't say
098it twice a compl completely separate condition is the inspectional survey that says prior to any site work and with the consent of each owner the applicant applicant shall complete an inspectional survey of ab budding properties within a 300t radius to set an existing conditions Baseline for possible construction related impacts it does not say what kind of structional related impacts um so it it's a separate condition you have to follow it separately than the first condition so whether it's h ramming or it's blasting um I confuse things because usually it's a condition associated with blasting it's usually regulated by the fire department but we had talked to the engineer um I think the radius is usually 250 he set off and they put it at 300 he was comfortable with that and so that's what we
099did is that I could C 100% you know we've had these conversations and this condition's they've been in there so all right so feel comfortable with it so in the blasting we're taking off the 300t radius but we're saying but we're leaving including inspectional surveys which then makes you read the next part because it's related right um and that's about the inspectional surveys okay um so um okay so are we do you you took off the so we're taking off the 300 feet in the first one right um we're leaving including inspectional surveys and we're only taking off within a 300 foot radius where I'm so sorry where are you removing the 300 ft from the BL I only see it once in Blast right there and it's here okay including inspectional surve it says
100including inspectional surveys so then you read immediately condition two is about here's got okay right I'm I'm so sorry I'm confused which 300 you're removing are you keeping it in the blasting section the top one under condition one so what radius will it be in you have to read inspectional surveys and then it the next Point fair enough so you don't have the same information in two places got it that's F clear I thank you I just couldn't as long as we're not removing the limitation I mean there should be containment so we're good okay so at the at the end the pink then what we were talking about if adjacent properties cannot be used suitable oh let me when if adjacent properties cannot be used suitable elevation marker locations so what do you say
101suitable or alternative alternative is fine um locations will be used as approved by third party inspection will be used as approved by that's fine or third party consult thisway after the building is complete one year after the building is complete during construct the the elevation survey are monthly during construction and for a year after are we seeing that here it says elevation markers shall be monitored over the course of construction and for one year this just says over the course of construction I don't know what do with monthly for the course of construction and for one year after an issuance of occupancy permits okay I don't recall if I just read that thing but I don't recall if it said monthly it it is monthly because it says on a monthly basis a monitoring report
102shall be submitted the belly commissioner by professional license surve it you could clean up some words to make it not that you didn't have to read that next sentence but it I mean if you're confused maybe other people I just didn't read that next sentence I just stopped where I stopped so I'm okay with it with not making so many all right do you want to read that sentence back to us sure says if adjacent properties cannot be used period alternative locations will be used as a as a approved by thirdparty civil engineering consultant nobody can see that no civil engineer yeah if adjacent properties cannot be used comma alter alternate alternate or alternative resp alternative locations will be used as approved by it's probably should say a professional license so oppos no but the
103third party third party third party consultant thir consult ading properties cannot be used alternative locations will be as approved by should you say the town's third party yeah I would just say the town's third because they are the ones that have followed up everything so they should do it okay okay so those have to go into the other site plan yes yeah so that will have to be Chang hell yep Charlie how you doing hold on pal patience um Charlie okay go ahead so even when we do excavation you I got to do the survey for 300 feet the survey just the survey of the 300t radius is the typical um is the typical radius for blast T in but in this case we're also doing it for home Ram H ramming or whatever it's
104just the typical survey um but not for not for digging a foundation Charlie I think when pre pre this pre-construction we're going to ask you to do a survey of all properties right and to just to kind of to view the existing conditions to set a baseline yeah that's what we're asking to do but it this thing says every month doesn't it that's for that's only for the that's for the uh the settling the adjacent properties to make sure that there's no settlement and or grade change yeah so not 300 R not just for the adjacent properties for the settling only for one time not every month right once a month this was this is from the third party consultant it's going to probably cost me $5,000 a month to have the surveyor come out
105and Survey these properties every month it's it's only like one marker on each adjacent property it's not it's not 300 Properties or within it's it's just the ones adjacent to the site like connecting to the site you have like two sides of your site honestly I it it I'm baffled by this if you want me to do it at the beginning I'll six months or something for every month well at this point at this point we're not going to change what our third party consultant recommended okay so I would suggest that you look at some real numbers on it if you're paying someone $5,000 a month I I think I should become a surveyor so if you got to survey five properties that that's they charge a th like a th000 bucks maybe 2,000 to
106surve a property for for the settlement you don't have to survey the properties what we have to survey is the elevation markers that were set up at the Baseline to make sure they haven't settled so the surveyor will come and verify those elevations and report what they find you don't have to survey the properties every time the survey is only a survey of elevation markers I just hope that this is something that that you're going to adopt for your bylaws that every developer in town going to have to do not just downtown then downtown where this is this is really DSE let's say dense areas you know we we don't know where every project is going to land so if all right that's fine I'm sure we would given that this is somewhat new we
107would appreciate feedback along the way on it I I would like to feedback along the way to see how it operates in real life so okay so I think does anyone have anything else on this list that that we missed that we that was pink and we forgot about it that okay so um then at this time the first thing we would need to do is to close the public hearing right now the public hearing is still open once we close the public hearing there are no more questions to anyone online is everyone ready to do that yes okay I'll take a motion from the floor meeting I'll make a motion to close the open hearing for uh 949 Homer Avenue uh special special perit and site plan approval I'll second it Anki I Marcel
108I Katherine Jers I and Trisha Kendall I all right so is there any further discussion about this project or comments or all right is there a motion on the floor if there are no comments I'll make a motion to have to do one individually for each process uh yes yeah so I'll make a motion to um approve this move on through other agenda items and after the uh at the conclusion of the meeting I will ask everyone to sign and then tomorrow morning I will file this decision with the town clerk's office and so uh a copy will be sent to the applicant and that will Kickstart the 20-day appeal period all right um Charlie I see your hand up I just want to thank all of you for your patience and time to and
109the approval of this project and I appreciate it and we'll make it come out nice make everybody happy and I I thank you for your patience as well obviously we are constantly working to do better for the town um and uh I know that puts some frustrations on developers as we go through and try to have a better and better process so we appreciate your patience as well any other have a good night thank you all right I just say okay so um next on the agenda we are Switching gears Roberta you are on um we're um going to have a presentation um regarding the Ashland open space and recreational committee's um open space and Recreation plan so okay Peter yes oh you have a hold up do you want uh do you want me
110to control it from my computer so I can share it it doesn't matter I'll just tell you if you want to do that I'll just tell you is your last name pronounced Su sulman mm sulman yeah I always feel like I get it wrong hold so I'll just share it from this screen I have to tell you to find it tell you oh man okay that's on you robera EMG can you just explain upfront that we're not what we're doing here tonight because I don't sure I want everyone to be um thinking that we're approving something um all right so if you want to start the slideshow there go okay so first of all I want to thank you all Forbe we should wait just a minute till Marcelo gets back okay so I made
111you a co-host okay so therefore you let's see if we can do this yes okay so then you can just toggle okay back and forth and then um and this obviously is just there but you won't be able to see that on the screen okay thank you no sweat okay so those are your toggle B okay great thanks so much okay hi thank you everybody for maybe this will be like a little refreshing break for you I hope um thank you so much for giving me a little bit of time from on your meeting tonight I really appreciate it um what we what I'm here to do tonight is just to explain a little bit about the open space and Recreation Plan and the New planning process that we're about to embark on and the
112reason that I'm coming here to the planning board is that the while we would run the plan by um for review by all kinds of committees and commissions in town it starts with the planning board in the sense that the planning board is the only required review and comment that we are required to have by the state and attached to the plan before we submit it which we're months away from doing so um what I had emailed to all of you before uh what was emailed to all of you is the plan that is currently in existence that expires at the end of April because the state requires that you periodically update it because Community conditions change development affects open space all kinds of things change the community demographics change and what people want will
113also change so um this particular plan the open space plan is very prescriptive in terms of the structure and the content and the requirements um in that way it's a much deeper dive into open space issues than the open space portion of the comprehensive plan that the town is currently embarked on so while they may intersect and overlap a little bit there's much more that that happens in the open space and Recreation plan with regard to open space and uh preservation conservation restrictions historic preservation th those kinds of issues okay I was instructed to toggle oh it's not going it's not moving did I do something wrong yeah that's weird what happened and actually you could put your microphone on yeah okay yeah there you go okay great so these are some of the required
114content areas and pretty much each one of these topics is a separate chapter in the plan there are about 10 chapters in the plan including all of the references and and the maps that we're required to do so we need to set out what our planning process is and how we're going to engage the public you're required to have a certain number of public forums you're required to do a an open space and Recreation survey you're required to do specific Outreach to the environmental justice neighborhoods in Ashland and every one of the nine census blocks in ashin is an environmental justice neighborhood um determined so by the state according to the criteria of the demographics which in this case is minority demographics and one of the census tracks is is an environmental justice neighborhood based
115on minority and income so we're required particularly to do handle that neighborhood which is a lot of the downtown area along Pleasant Street and um Cherry Street and and that area is is tagged as um a specific environmental justice neighborhood for minority and income we have to do Regional context which means do a demographic portrait of Ashland Visa the other five towns in the Metro West area Holliston hopkington Sherborn Framingham um we have to put it in the context of all six of the towns six of the towns together we have to talk about the history of ashin the archaeological finds um history since you know with before 1846 going back um a long time the demographics current demographics at the time the plan was is being done but also demographic trend changes um growth
116and development changes increases in population changes in the types of developments from single family homes are there more Apartments now or more all the condo developments whether we're at buildout things of that sort we also have to do a natural resources inventory of water bodies and open space and forested areas um and a list of environmental challenges like if we have Wetlands what does that mean in terms of protecting open space and development if we have floods what you know chronic flooding what does that mean for open space and development how does that have an impact and other kinds of environmental challenges we're required to do four L land inventories survey all of the open space that's state-owned all that's town-owned all that's um owned by nonprofits in the area and then other Parcels that
117are undeveloped at this time that have protection and are privately owned or Parcels that we might be interested in protecting in the future and then uh Community Vision with goals what is the community want in terms of open space and protection and recreational opportunities for their population we also have to do an analysis of different kinds of needs around resource protection Ada needs how accessible are the recreation areas how accessible um is the open space how accessible are the trails when we did the Riverwalk we put in a piece of the trail and an observation deck that was the first Trail Public Trail in the town that was handicapped accessible and and gave people an opportunity to um enjoy what the rest of us can enjoy by having easier mobility and ability to get places
118we also have to do an action plan based on um serious input from the community so that action plan would have a set of goals objectives and activities and we have to prioritize them um in terms of like high medium and low um what's going to be most important under each objective to do what will be medium importance and what is low importance at the moment we have to record public comment and submit that with the plan and then there are lots and lots of required Maps GIS maps that have to um visually demonstrate the narrative if you say that there are environmental challenges where are they we have to locate them on the map Point them out if you say you want to protect open space where is it we have to show it
119on a map where are the water bodies and each one of these Maps has a different overlay and is is going to be very different these are the current goals that are in the plan so these are high level goals then there we have objectives under each one of these goals and we have activities under those objectives but this at least gives you an idea of the broader framework and the values that the community um had when we did this plan and we receed their input they want to preserve protect connect and enhance ashlin's conservation and natural Land Resources provide maintain and improve diverse re uh recreational opportunities preserve the quality character and health of Ashland and build a strong constituency of open space and Recreation Advocates through education so if you think about each
120of these goals you can also realize that there are very real living examples of how we have pushed those goals forward over the last um five to seven years of this particular plan for example preserving protecting connecting and enhancing conservation natural Land Resources we have the town's um prospective tree bylaw we have the wetlands protection we have conservation restrictions on certain pieces of public land because we're required to if we bought them with State money and the CPA we also have storm water management now that is a part of protecting the water bodies and Water Resources in the town under the second one recreational opportunities we have the trolley Brook Trail and the connectivity of mult multimodal trails the Ashland upper child's Trail the Riverwalk um safe roots to school is a project that is
121listed under the the open space and Recreation plan and generally um making the town more walkable and more bikable for the third goal improving the quality character and health of Ashland's Community we have things like remediating degraded lands such as Cadillac the Cadillac paint site that is moved forward um establishing a downtown historic district and nominating sites for the National Registry to be protected historic sites for protection those are just examples of some of the efforts that were listed in the plan that have um progressed along through the town and then the final one on building a constituency we've done that through sponsoring open space events hikes workshops educational events in Warren Woods in the Town Forest we participate in cleanup Ashland from an environmental perspective we also um staff tables at the farmers market
122in Ashland day to distribute information and also to collect Community input so our plan expires at the end of April and we'll be starting a new one and these are some of our next steps we'll be establishing a process for Gathering extensive public input because we're required to but also because we want to and because the plan should be based and has always been based on the input from the public and what they value and what's important to them we may need to secure resources for mapping and anything else that might need to be outsourced um we will review other Municipal open space plans from other towns um we've always done done that and we'll review their updated ones you can get a lot of good ideas for implementation from what other towns are doing
123we'll review the current goals and objectives and activities in the context of new public input and revise them as we need to we'll also update the narrative especially the demographic sections because things have really changed and changed rapidly and we'll be meeting with Town committees and commissions to get their input um as we formulate goals objectives and activities and listen also to the public we'll ask them for meeting time as we're formulating the plan but then afterward for review of the draft we'll also have an open public comment period for the public to be able to review the draft then it gets finalized we go back to the planning board because we'll need a letter signing off saying you reviewed it and you're you support it um excuse me and then we submit it to
124the ex itive office of energy and environmental Affairs their division of conservation Services which is the agency that has final approval and once it is finally approved Ashland is eligible to apply for state grants through the division of conservation Services um for projects in town they're eligible to apply for States uh grants and get the money so I'm happy to take any questions this will be will be launching this you know soon um trying not to certainly conflict seeking public input at the same time that the comprehensive plan is doing that we won't be ready to be doing that doing ours certainly in April but you know could be over the summer that we'll start doing some public Outreach especially at the farmers market and then into September at Ashland day and doing surveys and
125and the like um happy to answer any questions I'm happy to um come back again at some other point um to keep you informed of what's going on and I'm also happy to sit down and let you get on with your meeting because you have a long evening I always do um thank you for that presentation I just I just wanted to clarify or make sure it's clear to the board because they they received your initial email as well that originally you said that this needed to be approved at the end of April that there was a rush and and and but yeah that's that was kind of a misunderstanding of the schedule there's clarifica I received clarification today from the state so so even though your current plan expires at the end of April
126that doesn't mean that you have to have a new one all set in place at the end of April you can't and they don't expect you to they expect that there they are going to be months some some municipalities take a year or two to develop their plan depends if they have a consultant do it or if they you know have volunteers do it or whatever ever but you know you can submit it at some point when you're far enough along and it can get conditional approval which will allow you to apply for Grants but you won't get the check or the money until you get final approval on the plan so so because we're undergoing the comprehensive plan process doesn't necessarily mean that this can get delayed right so because if there's a gap
127then we're not going to be able to get funding is right right so we we need to get our ducks in a row in terms of our planning um and so we may start some other things other than you know public surveying or that kind of thing because I don't want our survey to come on top of the comprehensive plan survey which is on top of the Dei survey and Survey survey survey people just won't fill them out after a while so I'd like to give people a little bit of a breather um yeah from what I understand and you are on the steering committee the the survey and the meetings in the Box for the comprehensive plan the deadline is April 26th right so I think you're going to be good to go right
128after I think what I'm I'm kind of curious about is obviously your work is going to be very important to the comprehensive plan steering committee because once you that that plan whatever it is once the planning board approves it can be helpful and beneficial to the steering committee so it seems like the timing is is good and the sooner we have it here the better because then we can deliver it to the comprehensive plan folks as well right and I want to be clear about one thing um that the executive office of energy um and environmental Affairs says in their um open space plan workbook guidelines is that when we do a draft and we come before a board or a committee um for the for their review even the planning board it's not that
129the planning board or any other Municipal committee your commission approves it they just have to say that they looked at it and they they might have made comments and requested you know changes but they're okay with it because they were very clear that the only agency that has any right of approval is the state the division of conservation Services any questions anyone so when do you um and you may have already said this but when when do you see that having this new document do you have a time frame when you might you might I don't yet our our committee hasn't met yet to talk about that we're meeting in a couple of weeks and um we need to figure out the resources that we're going to need to push this forward and if we're
130going to need to apply for any money to Outsource any of the tasks so months to a year out probably before it gets back before the end product gets back to us okay yeah all right I would just uh say when that time comes as you can see what our schedules kind of look like to give us as much time as much as possible especially given the length of the document we we'll want to go through so absolutely all right uh any other questions thank you all right thank you I I just wanted to ask um if you are here for a particular reason like were you looking I I know our schedule Sy NBTA communities but we're not we're not talking about that tonight were you so that means we can't comment tonight um
131you have somewhere in your agenda you have public comment yeah we do we do have place for our public comments that's fine I just that's fine I didn't know if our agenda um no implied that we were having a larger discussion okay all right so that said sorry I lost my agenda it's here somewhere oh okay Starbucks okay so um next on agenda is the um discussion of the proposed modification to 399 Starbucks thank you Anna um Peter give me an update on this or us an update on yeah I'll give everyone an update on it so um I think we've discussed this at our last meeting everyone understands the situation out there is that the electrical boxes were put on on the side of the building so since that point the applicant Greg Salvador
132who's the owner of the property uh he came to in in Starbucks right uh came to us and asked if we can move the mural from the side originally approved which would be facing uh easterly along West excuse me along Union Street to the front of the building and so I think tonight uh that is being proposed um this is the area that they are opposing to move I cannot um that's the area that we can put you know the mirror would be located um and then secondly uh within the packet Starbucks does and and has in some locations and and is proposing in this location to provide screening elements uh of those electrical boxes uh those screening elements can be seen on a sample detail uh here I just want to make a note
133that that ladder this is a sample and I hopefully tried to make that clear in my email that ladder is not going to be there it's going to be on the rear of the building so let me reaffirm that's a sample um however this is just from Starbucks there also is a detail sheet of what these kind of screens look like um and furthermore you can kind of see it from this back elevation here the ladder will actually be installed right around here uh if you look at the actual construction drawings of this building with that said I also printed out a landscaping plan as you can kind of see uh there is going to be a Transformer box which is going to be surrounded by um some U's which are kind of uh commonly
134known as arbores smaller arities and then there are also going to be in in the front area some ink berry Hol um now I've kind of talked a little bit about this with Trisha and I think the idea if approved would be to um allow me and our conservation agent Becca Solomon who has a wealth of knowledge within the plant of plant specimens to try to see if if approved to the front of the building to see if we can work with the applicant to I'm going to say add some Pizzaz Andor some color to the screening around the Transformer box in addition to the screens being located um to help block out indoor um help could you describe that pizaz a little bit more what are we talking about colors on WE colors on
135like flowers with colors well here's the thing right I was talking to you know there's a number of you know there's there's number of examples you could kind of use right no Evergreen is going to flower right so if you're going to have something 12 months out of the year for screen as a screening element you're going to want it Evergreen right however if you want some flowering shrub you're going to have you're going to lose those obviously leaves right and so there's a couple elements that we could look at um and I'm not going to start naming plant but I think it would be allow us to to work with the applicant to kind of replace those 's which are non non- native arbores with different species with a different species can I just
136get I'm so sorry I I'm just like a little bit confused because there's like the pizaz idea then there's the the the screen idea maybe the Paz was the wrong term but like which one is being proposed the screening or the trees or both yeah so so let me explain I think that the thing was that oh yeah the electrical stuff got put on there probably everyone's seen it by now right it's not small yes so um obviously the applicant proposed the front to the building um yep place for a mural when you when you're coming down looking at it you can kind of really picture something kind of cool there right so I think I think that was a great plus but to me that still left the discussion we had as a group
137that this building has three sides that are bounded by public ways and public views and by our bylaws it says that those three sides are supposed to be treated relative equival equivalently they're not this is the back of house side and in order to rectify that when it was a debate we came up they proposed the idea of a mural right which is a was a good idea we like the idea and I think the greenery on this um was in ipation actually of that mural right it's low um it it it allows the mural to express itself you know whatever the mural is supposed to be the important part so once the mural went away to me we go back to the question of having a a facade that's kind of like right so
138the screen comes into place which is basically just so that you don't see I assume the electrical stuff the door you know whatever and then it goes to the greenery for me like how can we just both right screen first then the green the box has always been there we've always been disguising it that's always been there you know and will the Box be behind the screen no the screen is closer to the building I think you can see that yeah sorry I'm thre dimensionally screen is for the electrical boxes got it the green is for the Transformer now I imagine now I got it so it's kind of like this layers so what I'm saying is that when I when we're all coming out of CVS assuming go there like I do that is
139there a way to give that facade some layer a little bit more layer it's not meant to overall it's meant to can we trade this plant for that one to give it a little bit more life on that facade MH I don't know a thing about plants and I don't think Peter does either no I do not so do not hence we thought Becca would be the proper person for this job being able to say Swap this one out for that one it's part of what she does anyway um uh to make sure they're native she knows the different characteristics and then it doesn't have to come down to I assume six people seven people seven people that unless someone's hiding a secret Talent don't really know a lot about can I ask if the
140barrier is meant to be the entire side of that building like the entire will the will the fence I don't know what you call it a whatever that this is is it going to cover the whole side where the electrical stuff is now hanging I believe it's it's it's like right there like 2/3 of the way so the screening that's what I mean was uh Starbucks did I remember that correctly like Starbucks corporate or they wanted it or we asked for cuz I like to me that screening jumps out is like not better it if they want it I'm not going to say you can't have it or anything but I I I'm not seeing that as better yeah I'm kind of feeling more green and less screen screen the screen feels to me kind
141of it's just another instit pull my eye in more to it than the more natural Landscaping but I think they both are going to play together the the screen looks like a nice screen uh and I think I would rather have that to have like layers like plants the screen and then the electrical boxes that I think really makes it go away I I would prefer to have the it's kind of like it's kind of a layering a depth a layering sure am I understanding the screen would be closest to the building and then there's the Transformer and then there's the plants you can kind of see the line on the pl carefully you can kind of see the the line where the screen is just on the other side of the sidewalk there's a
142I do not have a secret Talent so I I agree that like that but my one question that I might pose is that like because of where the electrical boxes sit they're here are not small um is there a way to get a second tree to like to have some symmetry with this tree here like that would go a long way towards visually you would Vis idea taking away that those boxes yeah I don't know based on what's underground right there and and you know whatever but there's a lot going on underground out there though I think I would step away from a tree but Becca can make that ass and I think we can make that assumption I mean no we not assumption excuse me we going to make that we'll work with back
143going to make that assessment yeah yeah mhm mhm so your secret Talent is to figure out balance obscuring large electrical boxes all theologies they're very useful we figured it out we fig she lik so it seems so this is obviously just a an approach um and we're trying to keep it that it seems reasonable reasonable approach as long as we don't start putting a mural on the screen and El are we that was a joke are we going to comment on the mural part on the location of the mural no no at the location I think like we discussed it last time I I just have a question cuz this graphic shows like a highlighted area where the mural can go um and is is is this is this what's being proposed kind of U
144as a concept because the bilding has a plint and a top with different materiality and I think the mural should be on one or the other but not on both that's just my personal opinion I think the box is what Starbucks is offering oh I see I don't think it has to be what we're taking I see so that said I think the cultural Council and the muralist the muralist have some suggestions oh or maybe but if the planning board has a you know a a preference or a suggestion then I think we can I think all I'm saying is that my preference that's just personal I think we're not just Plastering a mural onto something should be part of it and for that should be following the architectural lines of the building so so
145it looks natural not something imposed that that looks like a like a bad addition so it should be yeah exactly it should be either on the lower wall if that's what they want to do or on the upper portion only but not I think we should let that line kind of read and and be part of the building so it's a mural with inside a building not a mural that somebody attached to a building it's it's a great time to view it right now because that upper part is yellow right yeah I saw I that's why it came yeah so it stands out as um to me the upper part is what looks like the mural to me like so it's visible from all all the way when you're coming down that Hill um but
146I'm also not a muralist and so um but that could be if if the whole board feels that way it could be our suggestion with with possible of with the artist and and I would say it depends on the intent of what they want to achieve if you take the upper part it's a mural that is for for for viewing from a distance and and and the content should be developed accordingly if conversely what they want to do is something that has detail that you that you experience when you walk by it then it should be in the lower part so that it accomplishes that function uh so itend what they Tred to achieve part of part of what I recall the planning board wanting to achieve is to connect this to Ashland and have
147it be visible to the public as we drive by or walk by and and maybe I think some of the things we brainstormed about was you know it could be anything from a rendition of the Boston Marathon to you know some connection to ashlin's history and I think the rendering that we had indicated that historic connection that would be visible to the public so this could be a happy accident in a way where this makes it really visible it's a much more marketable spot and hopefully one that would make it more uh exciting for Starbucks to the extent that they're involved uh to Showcase in a way that they like um but I I I think a suggestion from the planning board is fair like we could suggest that we prefer for it to be
148more visible and therefore on the upper part but we certainly understand if maybe the budget limitations or artistic preference or Starbucks preference places it towards the bottom um but I for one don't think we need I mean I think if the board feels really strongly about marcelo's position I I support it um but I I think I would trust the artist and Starbucks to kind of if it bleeds into the bottom in a thoughtful fashion I would have no problem with that it could kind of tell a story that is both visible in a distance and and could be enjoyable up close so there there are ways to make the space work for the artist budget Starbucks that I'm okay with whatever happens but I'm also comfortable with the suggestion like we prefer the upper
149space I would suggest I would suggest um that given our conversation here which seems like we're we're kind of in agreement on the next step is that um is to put together kind of a short letter or memo put something in writing from the board um so that it's documented that that we're good with this kind of solution and uh and and we we can move on and that's something yeah I can write up a quick memo for that and I think that's something that's easy to do uh I agree with you Marcel address into into three items to follow the architectural lines and to make sure it fits and they're not poting something Plastering something up and I do want to just make a note of because I heard it from the culture Council
150and I just want to make a note the culture Council email I emailed with Stacy Lewis uh and they are in full support of this move uh but also cost right and obviously the bigger mural the bigger cost more maintenance XYZ right and so that's just one element that needs to be kind of looked at uh but no I think we could take your suggestions and then kind of create a memo you know there's one item but I obviously I don't know if it's included in the budget that they're thinking but I don't know how Starbucks sees it but how is the building going to be illuminated at night because well the mural depending on how the light of the building works or the site yeah could right now there are three there sconet going
151across the just down down and up that's a two-way sconet okay so and at the mural of the mural position would there be others I I'm just curious probably not because that was not plan original I'm just saying that the council whoever is addressing that should consider lighting be considered yeah what the reality of what the lighting is going to be cuz that that mural works at day but it also works at night right so I can work with Peter on that memo unless anyone else wanted to be involved I feel opposite to what Marcelo said it feels like using the verticality would help in this because the material palette is kind of monochromatic for Starbucks and looking at that kind of that rendering on the last page where it's probably an entry feature that
152one vertical element breaks and actually draws your attention towards that versus all the vanilla um exterior and I think that verticality using that in the front will help um again if those three boxes that you're seeing here are literally light fix pictures that's a fun challenge than the artist is going to have because the light seems to be on the two sides of the light picture but um and then the other thing that I in connection with that tree that we talked about there is this patch of top soil that's on the exterior it feels like if we really landscape that part of it that's really going to help help conceal the kind of that fence Transformer and that's what you're going to see when you're coming out of CVS for example because when you're
153stand sitting at that light that's what's going to catch your attention not something that's a little set behind so I think Landscaping needs to be Revisited and not do a hotch poch of stuff here that tree do replicating that tree is not going to do not going to help us in any way because that scale of that tree is not it's going to be high the Transformer footprint is so huge the tree will not be successful in that location so uh I to me revisiting that entry landscaping and really looking at this mural as a larger element so that your eyes distracted with mean at least attracted to a mural versus all the other Utilities in the site would be my way of looking at it but I I think the the revisiting of the
154Landscaping is limited in kind of the it's just yeah I don't think it's up for redesign I think it's up for some swapping um you know but we bought the mural right that mural was agreed for a full whatever that square feet wall was we it was not something that we asked for relocation or redesign it was a mess on their construction part and I think the square footage that we are looking to swap is almost the same what we already had right before no the original was here just the lower part yeah just the lower part wasn't the full height no not in the diagrams we were showing here's the thing this yellow we didn't make this up right they did that's their diagram so if they're offering the yellow that's really generous and
155I think we should say thank you and take it and and then I think we should say if the budget and the artist allows it please take as much of that as you can I I think to to deepest point I can see it both ways I can see the point that Marcel is making the point that deep is making I think both of you have a design eye that's value ad but this is where for the first time ever I will say I think it's to up the artist and corpor and budget to make this work and I think both views are valid and it can be done in both views art is really kind of within the eye of the beholder um there is something exciting to me about this very generous fix
156and I don't want to say no to it I that my gut instinct is let's take this this this seems like a fascinating solution to a problem we did not anticipate that could actually end up being even more exciting than what we envisioned yeah I mean I think I think our memo can outline some possibilities but really leave it in someone else's hands so and obviously that's something um that'll come back to the board you I don't think there's a I don't think there there's a rush on this level of detail at this time no I well the culture ccil is trying to move forward with with muralist right to try to get a picture of but I think to say yeah okay you know we're all in agreement that this is a good move
157and then we'll kind of take one step time when is this opening uh it's a great question Deepa it's not from marath Monday are you thinking are you are you thinking are you thinking pictures of us should be in it and we should be standing next to it yeah we'll be marath M they're trying I won't be that picture you know I can tell you right now they so um the owner has built the shell right and that's that building permit's been kind of closed out now it's up to Starbucks to do the interior so now Starbucks is going to come in and build out the interior and do all that work and so that's the next step in the project and then the site will be kind of finished up and completed I don't
158want to obviously get I I think it's most likely going to be around July 1 in the month of July IND oror late June okay so we have a way of proceeding then that everyone's happy with okay all right I'm going to um Shuffle up the agenda just just slightly and um we'll move up public comment um it is quarter to 10 so I am going to limit content I am going to limit public comment as we usually do to one time to the mic 3 minutes a person so um but I will open up public comment at this time we're back the rang to jar to High Street burner restaurant the last meeting my husband and I voiced our opinions regarding the MBTA Community zoning then the members of two boards responded I would
159like to thank Anna for saying that the Homer a project is exactly what you would like at burnhams we absolutely agree unfortunately it is not true that we can have this right now without any issue Peter was almost right when he said that project is 29 units per acre the Homer a project is 29 units but not on three acres as suggested it's three lots for a total of 91 acre that comes to 32 units per acre all of you voted to leave us out of the MBTA zoning plan leaving us at 10 units per acre instead of 32 and to say and and to say we could have this right now is false because without Zone owning by right we would have to go through the special permit process we are a property owner
160not a developer our only bargaining chip to sell the property is to have zoning by right that meets the goal of a homer resque style project we do not have the time to wait for a developer to go through the special permit process a recent Boston Business Journal article said the following in 2021 the state legislature passed the MBTA act tradition Al developers must obtain special use permits that require a special review process to develop multif family housing units these special review processes Take Years stifling development process the MBTA act enables the development of multif family housing where it is most needed near public transit systems I will give you one example the mixed use project for the mill building the conceptual plans were completed in April of 2020 presentations in public forums followed then
161the project was withdrawn it will likely return as a 4B so far the process has taken at least four years with a long way to go and blaming the developer for delays is irrelevant to us it's just part of a lengthy process after looking through ashlin's public records recently I would like to repeat that no one who actually lives on Pleasant Street has expressed opposition to or even commented on mixed use development on our street the opposition is from people in other areas even on the opposite side of town there are also two interesting emails in support of hire density near the train station in closing if the select board had received correct information comparing the Homer RAV project to our site we believe that some of the members would have voted different so therefore
162we are requesting that a new vote be taken thank you thank you is there any further said it All I Have Nothing any further public comment good evening Mar Soni 49 on road I would like to say to the board themselves that sometimes it's like pulling hair and teeth together progress going together I want to say quickly that the agenda you be so long you do one one project that um all the details take good amount of time and this is why CZ participation gets pushed down but that's as that's being said from me I'm going to say to the board and all the members living in this town so long understanding different boards understanding reasons why the boards are around I have filled myself with information and ideas and idealism what things work out
163that when citizen a citizen comes out to speak like myself I am am informed I am full of not Pon but I am full of information and I'd like to have the boards understand that a person like me can be reached out for ask questions too and maybe get answers that You' be surprised that I do know for that reason Peter is the only one that knows me about the zoning and the um form base coding that I got in this town the rest of the boards I done other things for them too and they got got things going and comprehensive plan is at my next landing spot so I'm trying to say reach out to a person like me I will email me I will email back and if you don't believe that I
164can be inform informative test me thank you thank you um seeing no other public comment we will move on with our agenda so the next item on the agenda is item six a replacement representative for Precinct one I don't think we no update on that that's still in the town manager kind of um Arena okay I'm just going to express that's really disappointing because at April 26 we're ending the public engagement and I mean that was that was the reach out right to cover to try to get public so whatever believe he's been trying so it is disappointing but not well I mean the trying was supposed to be the the next person but if not it should come back to the select board and planning board and try to do something like I I
165don't think we should leave it to one person it's something that important can we just step back a little bit because I'm not sure the rest of the planning board is aware of the context of the issue which is that um the select board and planning board in choosing the steering committee for the comprehensive plan wanted if you remember we wanted to have a representative of each Precinct part of the steering committee there is a Precinct rep for Precinct one who has resigned there was a list of original applicants if you will for that position it sounds like it's been difficult for the town manager to reach people on that very short list of I think there was a total of maybe two or three that made it the final list um I I do
166think that it would be really important for the planning board to think about working together with the select board to come up with to release an a reach out for a Precinct one rep sooner than later because yes we're going to probably miss the deadline of having a Precinct one rep be part of of the of this round of public input there's going to be multiple other elements to this process and so the sooner we have a Precinct one rep the better it would be great to have somebody soon like while the public process is happening if possible so in in my opinion I mean not that I think this is the direction the planning board wants to go this evening but it sounds like there's a list and you're going down the list and
167it's not happening going down the list finding a person to say yes isn't going isn't going as quickly as you had hoped we don't know I I haven't re I don't do we have an update from the town manager as to how the reach out is going you know what I I haven't talked to him on this topic in a few days to tell you the truth so um I I can't give you a I don't want to I don't want I don't want to speak uh without the correct information without up to date information last I here we still you know we were still talking with the next person on that list and I could not confirm where that conversation went um but I I'm happy to reach out to Michael again um but
168I know he's been trying his best and it is one of many things on his agenda in or to-do list so do you just wanted to express that we hope this position can be filled as quickly as possible well I think there's alternate ways than leaving all the work with one person that we know is very busy like there but but you certainly you don't want multiple people calling the same person saying please please please join the I don't I don't I mean plus it's was I'm asking what what okay I left the the comprehensive plan steering committee saying I'm going to reach out to the next person I don't actually believe that the project management group had a next person but we don't need to be picky there was some people that got interviewed
169and if one of them take it I'm okay but if we're getting a stumbling point need to regroup and like maybe you have to open it up maybe you just have to say Precinct one is now open and do that process some version of that process again I don't think um one person needs to be fully responsible for this and it's very critical so I think it has to go back to some process I'm sorry it it doesn't seem like a huge issue that needs a group but um but maybe it does D um sorry I must have missed but how was the town manager nominated did for this task who nominated him the town manager did he he has a list he was in office somebody must have given the Michael volunteered he volunteered
170yeah I think Michael stepped up and said I'll take care of it so just we I recall we had an agenda with the select board to discuss it at that time there was no information now it's been what what is it a week and a half since then and we still have no information I I think that the next meeting of the board is in two weeks from now and then the closing of the period happens so essentially we just need to come to grips with the fact that by having Michael do it and Michael is busy we actually have no Precinct one rep for the period that is critical which is the public input period so it is what it is my suggestion would be that the planning board can lead here and the
171planning board can say if we choose to that we have a recommendation to the select board which is that we should advertise for Precinct one we should find the old ad advertisement and we should release it and then we should see who responds and bring those candidates back to the process which was the select board and planning board working together and I would suggest we we advertise as soon as possible so that we have a chance to get somebody prior to the closing of the public okay data period do okay well let go ahead sorry I just uh do we have to go through this select word or can we just say if Michael can't get a hold of people in the next you know this week we open up the Talon Bing form next
172week I think so sure so that maybe we have some applications or for the next plan but I I also feel like that's to your point like if he's been reaching out since the last meeting like it feels like if he can't get a hold of anyone or no one's sort of biting in the next week or so like we open up the townmate for yeah at that point I think there's no biting for 3 weeks which is plenty of time for us to know that we got to do something okay so let's have a suggestion from the planning board that if Michael cannot fill a position from the list um in in the next in the next what by Wednesday um since he's been working on it that that the talent Bank form opens
173up before next weekend to fill that spot is that is is that an appropriate suggestion to put to Michael and to the select board who are our partners on this that seems reasonable okay is everyone good with that that seems reasonable okay so we'll compose a email send yeah I can compose an email it's not a big deal okay um and I think we had a prior language that we used to get this out which we should be able to find and just edit to make it about Precinct one I think the prior prior push was like for all Precinct it was all six precincts so we just need to edit it and say one whatever that means we will get that out we'll get that to Michael tomorrow all right that's an easy thing
174that's an easy left I can put an email together um okay so that leads us to various updates and meeting in a box at 10 p.m. what do we want to do about this folks we got to get this job done um it's not happening on April 11th I can tell you that right now we're it's full I think we should give it a shot I think we what did we cover already I mean we only did two and but I think we should at least do um so do two keep I think there's there's one that's extremely relevant which is kind of like what's your vision for the future of ashin what should housing look like Economic Development all that thought we did that last time we did yeah no I mean they do
175sort of repeat I think what we've learned by doing them is we um this was a fun group to do with because you it live it more but um just keep it moving okay that's fine ready to start yeah are you taking notes to I will take notes to but Activity three so we had done one and two we're on three living and working in Ashland imagine the ideal future for Ashland's residents housing and businesses who lives in ashin what different types of housing are available example multif family smaller homes rental housing affordable missing middle Etc what kinds of jobs are available in the town what types of businesses would you like to see where are they located I guess I'll just jump in um I I think when I kind of in my ideal
176World Ashland has um more sustainable living neighborhoods meaning that I can live in in a specific area of town and not have to drive across the train tracks to get to a grocery store I can kind of do my local shopping and what I need to do within a short distance so that I avoid traffic more walkability um and I can live play work in theory within within a a a neighborhood that I can access that also includes the ability to for the kids to have some kind of play area for elders to have safe social spaces or Transportation spaces within that imaginary ideal of what ashin becomes as far as housing I would say um more what I call real affordable housing real affordable to me means subsidized housing for our income restricted individuals
177for elders um I think Ashlin has done a good job working with developers to build multi- family residences that have statutory affordability but subsidized affordability we don't have a lot of recent and I think we could benefit from that I also would love to see accessory dwelling units and um flexibility for homeowners who um who could in theory find ways to have their Elders stay on their on their property find ways for the growing population of Ashland to actually continue to afford Ashland um and the last thing I I'll say is when I moved to Ashland Ashland was affordable for me relative to other communities if I try to move into Ashland today um as a single working mom I could never do it Ashland essentially has become impossible for someone like me to move
178to and I would consider myself based on income and education to be someone who should be able to afford to live here but cannot and so if I cannot live here then people who don't have the privilege of the privilege I had which is which is a high degree of Education will certainly not be able to afford Ashland and that's not okay um so I want to see I want to see more real affordability for workingclass families um and middle class families I think a part of the question was about working in Ashland and I think um I mean I I would like to see you know kind of the uh the thought of 126 Pawn Street development really become that commercial Corridor that it was has been in intended to be for decades right
179that that it's whole reason that the state gave all this money for that to become a commercial Corridor and I think there's obviously a lot of very under underused properties along there including the Shaw's Plaza right it's about kind of a big open parking lot um and things that can uh provide opportunities for a lot more and different kinds of businesses to use that area of town much more give it give you a reason to go over there besides Shaws right um so I'd like to see that happen I I see downtown as more um smaller businesses things that are small scale I think everyone kind of likes the keeping the the small scalen of of downtown as much as we can um and that can be in contrast a little bit to the busier
180Corridor of of one of 126 um and Elliot Street I think in you know in that area not just 126 um so but I think there's opportunity there for more more and bigger businesses I think yeah I agree with that and I I always go back to downtown I think that's what I would like to see more um more development on in the direction that's going I think the seeds have been planted both in downtown and 126 with the improvements and I think they they are the the ground has been laid to for things to happen and and on both counts uh there are still a lot of properties that are kind of under under the the the Capac capacity that they have to contribute to the downtown or the one to6 Corridor so I
181hope that that that the interest grows and and with that more housing which will produce more affordability and all the things that and I was saying so but to me Priority One One the downtown is the hard and I I would like to see it complete in the direction that's going I I have two more thoughts on it but I want to make sure Deepa um and Amanda have some say first I I to me Ashlin is a place where you can be an entrepreneur kind of a have a grow that big dream in terms of working um but that also means when you're trying to attract that Young Generation you need that Community to kind of expand and grow to give opportunities for people with young family to have their kids have play place
182to play and have that good school system um and I think our working environment right now in ashin is forcing all of us to go towards Boston obviously and it's it's a challenge do we I think we are still fighting the battle of of density versus wanting that Boutique kind of environment so either you can have a holiday home or you can have that perfect living which is adaptable and flexible and I think we still have a long way to go it would be an ideal place for a young family to start a new business but how far you can go is how much infrastructure the town is willing to expand on and I think we have that big battle ahead of us to be clear and hopefully the comprehensive plan process will help that
183so um to me living and working in Ashlin is on a very micro level versus what I wish we could grow to but you know you remind me you reminded me of one thing that that I I just came back to me and I think it's part of the zoning but I I remember the idea of talking about downtown again uh of the what I call the the tesinsky hotel um that's what I was going to bring which which is an idea that Anna had of of of something that is not allowed in downtown but but the idea that that it came out in the discussions when we were doing this other project uh that if if the conditions are are are are proper uh some small boutique hotels or some type of hospitality could
184be a nice addition to the downtown and I guess our understanding was that it's not allowed but so something like that maybe could be interesting to that's what I was going to add kayen Kate and me went to a planning conference what was it called it's 10 o'clock so I don't remember plan training thank you not to minimize their title um not the most marketable title um so citizen planner exactly the suggestion yeah I I I did not um but what was really helpful is you got to see what other communities are doing for economic development and like what are their tension points and there was some fascinating things one is there's a ton of energy right now around you know how the whole marijuana thing was super controversial in Ashland well all of these
185communities that kind of messed it all up all kinds of interesting things have happened one of those things is the state is Shifting how they regulate the fees collected from those kinds of businesses to make it more ethical and then the other thing is the state is doing some really interesting work relative to diverse community and minority communities and marijuana businesses to make it more accessible and more fair to minority owned businesses to go into this kind of field and so it's getting really exciting out there and communities are are kind of doing it different ways than they did when it first started and so one of the things I'd like to see is Ashlin revisit that particular opportunity because it's no longer what it was it's getting a lot more regulated in a way
186that makes it more ethical and makes it a lot more um advantageous to development in my opinion because it it's starting to understand its purpose which is giving people Economic Opportunity that they have never had before in sensitive parts of our town and for communities in our community who are not necessarily privileged to start a business so there's a lot of really cool stuff going on there and then the other thing is the hospitality thing that's also really exciting a lot of um communities are finding tension points because those communities that have um Airbnb interest are really struggling with making that work and there are communities playing with this idea of accessible dwelling units and at the same time making their um making their towns uh accessible to hospitality and so in theory we could
187have a zoning change that allows hotels in our community that then prevents some of those challenges that some communities are facing with airbnbs because if you do both together accessible dwelling units you're potentially opening up a door for Airbnb controversy in which case a hotel downtown can be a way to augment that because then people have a natural place to go and they don't need to Airbnb as much you're giving Kate a lot of notes to things like that so I'm kind of throwing that out there but like if Ashlin wants Economic Opportunity those are some of the things other communities are exploring and one other thing I'll say is that the things that deep is mentioning that brought me here like the high education the affordability it's starting to be more challenging because we
188are getting so overpopulated relative to our resources that the school system is strained um housing options are strained and so I I will reinforce the idea of um Economic Development and Commercial tax base being an exciting way to balance our budget or move towards the financial stability that we need without over relying on more Apartments more housing more pressure on the schools Amanda do you have a chance um I mean my thoughts on both housing and um working in nation like I think diversity like of choice or options comes to mind for me for both things um so I think you know to Anna's Point having affordable hous increased affordable housing but also just having housing options um and if you're you know being able to um you know find a great apartment or a
189great condo if that's where you want to live and then move into a multif family or into a single family home rather um and having that choice think everything feels so constricted right now um and so sort of that diversity of choice um and options in housing and then similarly for for working and Ash I think Depot was drawing on this like you know having um if in 10 years fewer people had to Edge towards Boston to go to work like that would be really awesome thing if you know 126 was developed in a way where we had um more sort of diverse Industries and job opportunities that were popped up along that Corridor that you know I would love to not commute to Boston every single day but um it's not really an option
190for me to work closer to home so um well I don't can beet to Boston every single day but I would love if my if my employee you know didn't have to be in Boston um so I think you know the idea of having more diverse opportunities in both of those Realms um and then to marcelo's point I I mean the groundwork has been laid for this phenomenal downtown and if you know we get to a place where we have you know that's um I think DEA used the word sort of Boutique like that's the idea where or the place where I would really love to see some you know really unique businesses that are um you know unique to Ashland that um that uh sort of can become part of the Bedrock of our
191community and I think you know projects like the one that we voted for today like there's space opening up for for businesses to come in like that but you know I dream of things like a bookstore you know a market downtown or some clothing boutiques or kids store or whatnot like some of the things you see in Holliston that I think we can absolutely have in our downtown um and we're opening up the space we're laying the groundwork for that um in terms of of having spots for um these businesses to crop up but you had a book store or kids store I missed one in the middle of that clothing clothing oh so I have so many ideas okay well fill them up um you're very good scribe I have to read it now
192and write it uh we another move on to another one I think so 105 um operations and transportation in Ashland imagine the ideal future for Ashland's Town buildings and op operations public services and transportation options what would you like to change what would you like to stay the same what do public buildings and properties look like who has access to public spaces what does the day-to-day running of the town and public schools look like how was car travel biking walking or public transit made easier safer or more widely accessible what type of Transportation options exist I'll I'll jump in at 10:15 here um two things that I I imagine and some of this is from some of the um meetings in the Box I've seen uh so these are not all my ideas um one
193is that downtown is extremely valued but that there seems to be kind of frustration about traffic um and so one of the things I've been thinking about is is like like what are we missing and I think one of the things we're missing is is some form of a garage some form of a place where you can park and actually Park affordably Park cheaply um and be able to get into downtown and enjoy it without overly relying on cars now if you come into the MBTA stop is that too much of a walk Etc um and one of the things I would suggest is we consider something like a local Town shuttle or bus system obviously we would have to work with various Transportation related entities regionally um I would imagine something like a uh
194we create some kind of I've been jokingly calling it The the clocker shuttle something that looks like a little watch or a clock face and that represents some sort of a circle through the town of ashin that takes people from the MBTA station to downtown um to 126 to the community center to was State Park back to the MBTA on the other side so that you can really see the entire community and get around um this would be revolutionary for our Elder Community who don't have cars um we've been hearing from Elders in the meetings in the boxes that they literally cannot they don't have a way to make it to town hall or to our town meetings um they're unable to show up and vote they don't have cars they can't go to the
195store they rely on food being brought to them by agencies Etc so there are people in our community who are literally Limited in where they can get around there's kids who don't have an easy way to get around either um after school they're all congregating in in stone park because they have nowhere else to go where it's too far um so there's huge benefits economic benefits to some sort of shuttle and a parking a better parking garage system in Ashland or a garage of any kind anywhere I like the idea of a shuttle but um not sure that there's resources for a public one but but but I I mean it would be great dreaming I I know so but but but there's uh there's something that we've heard in a couple of projects that
196have been proposed of um of of um a proposal of including as part of these developments of shuttle system that takes people at least to a station on or U an agreement with the what's that entity m m um shuttle to come in their place like in 126 the more I I think those things should be explored maybe encouraged for future developments maybe there could be a an association of these potential projects in the future where they share the cost and it's a public thing without the town having to pay for it I don't know this this category is what transport a and what operations and transportation so public buildings properties okay day-to-day running the town I was wondering because um maybe focusing on the transportation but um because it seems to kind of relate
197to open space but one of the things I I was wondering about is um um is outdoor facilities like um tennis courts and basketball courts some some some indoor things like indoor basketball courts and outdoor tennis courts um where just to be able to use them it it's it's a little tricky like you can go to the middle school and use the tennis courts you know when there's no school and there's no lessons stuff but it's really hard to say to go like for my son to go to a a pickup basketball game somewhere inside in the winter right where you can just go so those are right now those are um town-owned properties you know but how and those and they're needed obviously by the schools and stuff they can't be just always open
198to the public but how could there be facilities that um that allow for that kind of it's not necessarily open space when some things are inside but allow for use of public buildings for just just being used let's get step in here because I heard this actually I was part of a we did a meeting in the I did a meeting in the Box Wednesday well last night with Beth Reynolds um with the ABA uh and so and there actually really there's a very interesting guy came in and he lived in Minneapolis Minnesota and in the winter time in Minneapolis Minnesota the um they opened up the basketball courts the rec not the rec centers right but the school kind of gymnasium facilities right every Saturday morning from 9:00 to 11:00 right and it was
199for the pickup basketball game to take place or the kids to going to get out and run around it's probably a little bit colder in Minneapolis um but it's that outlet right and I think that was kind of what you're were trying to Cambridge does when I lived in Cambridge the Cambridge and Latin School the high school has open gym and pool so when I was just I just a resident in Cambridge I I paid a nominal fee but it was super cheap and that's how I worked out um you could use the wheight room and um I think basketball courts and the pool um when the school was not using it so weekends I mean it actually worked great for um you know folks were working all day cuz it was in the evening
200and on the weekends um I I think another thing is that um again talking about public spaces is um like shutting down in the summertime shutting down parts of streets I remember thinking about this in terms of um what's the one that's now going to be between is it between Starbucks and Stone Park what's Summer Street yeah I thought about like you know as I used to live in Cambridge you know they used to shut down they shut down Memorial Drive yeah to to shut down certain areas in the Summer where you know kids can just ride bikes and it's just a big look at a beautiful mural look at a beautiful M get a cup of coffee um so that it really it kind of becomes a bigger Park it's just so effective in
201in Cambridge about just kind of making the street into a playground I think for a while um there's also more opportunities than that because um and I don't understand the the ownership but what happens with the Farmers Market Market is another opportunity there's going to be a brewery at the end there now which has plans for some public engagement and activities which is cool it's at the corner spot so there's an opportunity if if that strip of land is not just the farmers's market area but it's something that has other potential uses when there's no Farmer Market maybe there's some delineation there's some pickable cords that's other things that people could just kids or adults can just say hey so imagine if the town of ashon worked out something with the state or or purchas
202part of that massive parking lot that the MBTA no longer uses postco because of the whole remote work reality and build a garage that includes um a space for an indoor Farmers Market that's municipally owned um and has some recreational space for kids just I'm just kind of throwing out an insane idea um towns do those kinds of things if they plan for them um you know I lived in Portland Maine and there's plenty of Municipal parking garages there's plenty of those in Portsmouth and Salem and communities that have a boutique downtown have parking garages it's not a wild idea um but to your point like recreational opportunities for kids whether they're inside or outside are massive we do have underutilized public publicly owned spaces we have a Girl Scout camp on Ashland State Park
203that is literally shut down that should be utilized that is a massive exciting space that kids should have access to that families should have access to that clubs should have access to sports clubs um we also have what do you call that um I think we have a lease with um I have no English right now suddenly um the the Cory the Corey yes I believe that is a semi publicly owned space where the lease I believe is coming to well that's not a publicly no not yet no no no no we do not have publicly not yet I thought we did to some of it okay I may have Miss understood uh we did a tour with Michael and I thought he mentioned something about some type of we have an AG there's a
204closure agreement that the town has that it would fall into town ownership correct yes and so that in theory could could fall into town ownership and that is a very unique open space um that in theory we could plan to redesign for example towards a skate park or something that is unique structured um that we could think about DEA you want to get in I don't think I have more to add it's a it's a tricky one um but for me it's that more walkability um I think we lack that and attracting folks to downtown is a challenge because it's not a walkable Street um I've taken the train from Framingham I've this was the first time I tried Ashlin and I lived not even a mile away and I could not walk I needed
205a ride because it was not safe for me to walk on the streets um so I think it'd be great as we're talking about MBTA communities like making it walkable attracting people to downtown I think is more important for me than trying to figure out traffic because unfortunately reality of life is you cannot live without those vles I think for me it's connectivity like I think the traffic and the walkability for me are both a connectivity issue like I think about the path that I drive every morning and like this is wild like sort of the the way that we're constricted and the ways that we have to cross town just it forces so much activity onto sort of the same onto Main Street you know the way I the way that I I Traverse
206in the morning is just like kind of absurd um um and there has you there has to be a way to sort of you know I can be at the train station dropping my husband off in the morning with my two kids in the car and then needing to get to the Federated Church to drop them off for daycare and I'm looping all the way back down you know 135 and through Main Street when I'm right I'm right there I could shoot down Pleasant Street and I'd be there you know in a minute um I it's this the sidewalks you know I have it's similar situation DEA I'll have I think I said this in our last meeting in the box but we're so close to Warren school we can't safely walk there so my
207kid's going to bus but we'd be Walkers otherwise um and so there's just this lack of connectivity I think also like I I live in a part of town where if if we had sidewalk just for such a short area you know we could get all the way to Warren Woods or to the tennis courts at the Warren Conference Center which is not a public property but it's you a great resource and then we could walk all the way into downtown if I had sidewalks I could I could walk my kids to school on nice days where they are now in downtown it's not a far walk it's just not safe that's every single group has said sidewalks every like so this is low hanging fruit here we can do this um let's see we're
208not going to I don't think we're going to finish there's three more do we want to try to push more agenda items right yeah or are we going to forgo the others I feel like the very last one tends to not be that intense I feel like I feel like the last three yeah I think we should give them a shot and just read them all okay and see what focus and just say don't do the ones and just do one more and be done with it is that well I keep going protecting and adapting Ashlin um imagine the ideal future for ashlin's historic natural systems as well as the town's ability to adapt to climate change what would you like to change what would you like to stay the same which historic resources are
209restored or have greater protection what types of natural places and ecosystems are protected restored and strengthened what types of environmental sustainability programs does the town offer how has the town prepared for storms flooding and droughts related climate change how can natural open space be improved upon to increase Community use and enjoyment for people of all ages and abilities what role does the town play in educating the public about its history and climate change how do do bullet points since we don't have a lot of time uh with um global warming having thinking strategically about emergency planning um having places for people to cool down if there's a heat wve um having safe places if we lose power things like that are good to think about and plan for and make sure we have resources for
210um and then obviously viously people seem to care in this town about open space and trees and revisiting some of those protections and making sure we're thinking about um with climate change and our community getting um more populated figuring out where we want to protect those resources un unrelated to comprehensive plan I remember someone on CPC like talking about like why doesn't Stone Park have a have a splash park for kids right you know and talking about places to cool down right to um without you know that without going into air conditioning but the ashon state park as I'm sure you probably know is absolutely packed on hot days and Su are just packed like the parking lot will shut down like there's so many people trying to just get in and enjoy be cool
211and and GA gathering you know as well and so if there's other places to go that obviously you're not going another Lake but if there's other places to go I do think that there could be other access points to ashin state park because people are always talking about the parking lot on the other side which gets way overrun but yeah the they used to used to be able to go into the we used to drive into the Girl Scout Park and camp and then get in that way but that's closed off it's probably unsafe maybe at you know but there should be other access points to get in there and be able to use the this resource that we have and I'm only relating this climate change because you talked about cooling down but it
212it's a good to have in there somewhere like how do we how do we access this great thing we we have there's very limited ways to kind of get in there and enjoy it so yeah I um there are trails that folks use to access it near I live right across the street from the state park and um it's not uncommon to he Choppers like you know hurt or something it's not safe it's not not you it's a a high down it's not a safe access point but it lands you right at the um at the dam I think I know that path I think I've been on it well I can Envision my soon you know one day teenagers that they will be that's there's a lot of folks that had done that way
213but um I lost my entire train of thought accessibility um you guys all mentioned water so I will say that water pres it mentioned like educating the public or things we need to think about I think water uh conservation is an important uh thing to consider um I think we will be struggling with that within the next 5 to 10 years anything else from on um sustainability just as a note like as last night from a sustainable standpoint like we all know about like black Earth and do compost here uh I know a couple years ago someone mentioned there was like a rain barrels which is a good option obviously water conservation do you think any of those elements could be absolutely we should add that spearheaded more electrical charging stations throughout Town things all
214those things that I think Worcester is doing a lot um yeah a lot of grants for that type of thing there are grants out there we're actually going after a couple of them uh we're having actually a big Earth Day like celebration with with folks uh including the comper heads of plan on at The Corner Spot you know but black Earth is going to come we're trying to kind of advertise it out to everybody to have you know that kind of environmental sustainability kind of U um vibe to it with obviously solar companies XY and z I think it would be great if um we had a way to make black Earth clearly more affordable than just relying on our town trash bags I think that's like I know it's like that's a tough ask
215but I think that's a bar like that's it's a barrier in our household because we're married to at least one large trash bag a week with children and diapers that's not I know ashin residents feel very strongly about the trash bags um those keep coming up just just like sidewalks yeah um it's fascinating but people really have a lot to say about the trash bags so if we can plan for a future either without those trash bags where you collect fees in a different way so that people are less frustrated and taking out their frustrations on a orange trash bag and instead we find a way to create fees that people actually understand better um and maybe come up with other forms of of saving money or give people incentives I right because I think
216that maybe you don't have to use the trash bag the math just doesn't work on it for us because of what we what our realistic trash needs are that we can't get away from I'm sure I'm sure that there are other demographics aside from young families that have kids and diapers that just can't avoid throwing out a certain amount of trash a week yeah I'm with you I I I hear you 10% somebody has young kids and you know I think you do we we all do the best you know I live in a community that you actually take your trash to the to the transfer station and they do provide compost so I as my mother has giv me more information on composting AKA guilt um you know I I scrap it and I
217freeze it and I take it and I throw it over into the compost pile when I go to the transfer station so and that works for me but obviously it's the options right I do black Earth one thing I'll say is like I was somewhat inspired forget for a second this idea of Ashlin becoming a marijana place but think more about the intentionality of some of these communities where these communities say we're going to have the this kind of business here they rezone for it with intention right so in theory I'm just going to throw something crazy out if Ashland has a certain value if you will to open space and sustainability and composting I'm just going to pretend for a second that we as a community put that as a priority you could in
218theory sit down work with those businesses have um conventions for those businesses have a yearly event for those businesses and Zone as a town that cares about sustainability and that could be your theme that could be an economic theme where you start to attract those businesses to your community just like those communities that decide to be the marijuana Center of Western Mass we could be a sustainability Center or a outdoor Space Center or maybe a dog Center we seem to care a lot about dogs here whatever it is we decide we can in theory zone for it and attract business accordingly all right do we want to do the other two you want to save that we have two left right you're losing me yeah no I think I think it's I woke up at
2194:30 in the morning so I think maybe we save the other two even if we have to T tack on one on the 11th and we tack on one on I think we got one more shot the 25th you know and we'll get through it before your 26 deadline by the skin of our teeth if not um I'm going to just put a plug though hopefully I would love to be able to go back to the steering Comm and say that we did it and everybody at least did one with your family your neighborhood something so just kind of there's still some time independent of the board like do it in your own living room your own neighbor something right I'm shamelessly plugging it I do catch everybody the grocery store on that topic so
220you're not spared here throw it out there all right uh God I've lost my agenda again um in the Box we did public comment we did reports from the board members and town planner okay thank you reports anyone um I think that was those are four committees done what do I do with this thing uh I think as as far as the comprehensive plan we gave you an update with the rep one rep I think that covers it uh I don't I I'm not sure that does I mean I would assume that Trish was maybe got a communication by now but the the for when we left the steering committee the 418 meeting of the steering committee is all of the Consultants Jam Goldson subc Consultants presenting existing conditions and they wanted the select board
221and the planning board there and I unfortunately I don't think like I assume they would be not assumed they said they were going to contact the select board and planning board but I'm just bringing it up because right now is also school vacation week I I understand that I'm just saying that was talk that's a good point um I'm sorry I was can you give me the you give me the one sentence 418 the steering committee the expectation is the planning board and the select board will also be there right because the consultant has the current conditions report okay so 418 April 18th if you're in town for school vacation week please try to put it on your agenda to attend the comprehensive plan and instead um or on our off week in order to
222go to that meeting so we'll have to we'll have to take account there doesn't I assume there doesn't have to be a it's not a quorum event right it's not like we have to it's more of an informational event I believe um because you're basically being educated as the planning board hey this is the current conditions on the ground I am really concerned that it's school vacation and I for one will be out of town but I will try to attend I mean I think we are ex the the expectation consultant was asking that it should at least be I think we should put an agenda notice whether we all show up yeah we could do that I think we should just do that I can take care of that that's not a big deal
223so I I don't know yet if I'll be in town or not but so um we will try to get as many of us and it can be virtual too right right so okay um design Review Committee I don't have anything new there sustainability committee to specialize code is going to be um sustainability committee is going to come and talk about specialized code on April 11th as well so that's coming up CPC we had a meeting last week we talked about um funds for painting part of the historic part of the library and also money for the engineering development of the Dyke Trail which runs from kind of the Market Basket area of 126 towards Sherburn there's a I've never been on it myself but there's a trail that goes out there and connects to
224other trails and eventually on our side we'll connect to other Trails so that's just asking for money for engineering those things might be coming up at town meeting um as part of CPC funds so just great and I'm working on doing a meeting in the box with CPC great so um uh Metro West Regional collaborative we met today um and there was a presentation on the inid corridor and um interesting I think the other takeaway um just from town comments um because Southboro and Sherborn both had um the state agency came um back on their 3A proposals um with some tweaks some stuff that the Consultants didn't totally nail because I think it's a little bit fluid um this is the MBTA yeah stuff exactly um Southborough is pushing uh they're not going forward with
225Springtime meeting their proposal is not compliance their consultant just missed it um and so they're pushing to fall um Sherborn because they're not because they're adjacent they have more time and so they're going to make their tweaks and move forward but it did sort of throw off their timeline all right so um are you good yeah so MBTA communities here the Public Notices went out so we will be using April 11th um also as um a public hearing time for that warrant so um ashon historical commission request for meeting that is still out there I don't think they're in a rush but they want to talk about um potential historic district so I want to get to that as soon as we can but it'll probably be after town meeting at this point um I
226don't need to explain it to you guys I demo delay who's in charge of that is that historic they yeah it's historical that's going to be a general bylaw yeah so they're bringing up um some things about the bylaw but I think that's just a meeting to inform us so we'll we'll get there on but it probably probably be the second week in April it's it's they don't need our approval it's just an informational yeah it's informational so that the demo and delay is a general bylaw so it doesn't obviously go through the Plenty board such as the zoning bylaw would uh and so they are just proposing a few tweaks um and I think um being briefed on it today one of one one of was that if a property owner if if a
227property changes hands then that new property owner and if a old if a property owner starts a demo delay process and then he change then it changes hands then that demo delay process has to restart with the new owner and then also they're trying to add in a uh daylight Clause saying that after three years if no action has been taken on a demo delay then obviously that clock would have to restart with a new application so maybe we'll have to look at having them come in on the or the second meeting in April I just don't think we have time on the 11th ier um so I just don't know how we'll fit something else in um okay and any other reports MW see the next item and sorry I should have updated this
228is not I think this is not going to happen oh it's not breakfast the legislators can't be at the legislative breakfast so well good going to be that simplifies our agenda is it just breakfast then Did they reschedule it June I mean if they're not there I'm more likely to show up so yeah I think the legislators sound it's budget just kidding process time there's all sorts of things going on I didn't get to those emails today they cannot swing bre all right okay so we are to um updates uh I I have kind of we talked about Starbucks um I have no other updates for that list um except where it continues obviously at Village Americas and I hope to get back up there next week um and then I just want to make
229note um for new projects I sent that application hold on Peter 501 Pawn Street yep that permit is is going they told us that that they were going to start this spring mhm is that true I do not know so when I checked last checked uh the current owner is TR company it was always my understanding that tras was going to move that permit um anytime after January 30th um I have not been updated that property has sold um and so therefore I do not know if uh tras is going to move forward Andor if the new owner is I can tell you though that tras has been working with our water Department to take care of um one of the conditions that we had in our conditions which was to install the um 20
230ft of a sewer connection pipe that would link up the the pumping station pumping station to the existing sewer and so that is being worked out and so I have been on those email chains from tras with Greg Eldridge who's our sewer third party consultant to outline that work um I cannot confirm that work has been completed but I know they were starting to do that in my eyes that tells me that tras is obligated to finish that to do that work prior to moving any any land indoor uh work order um so that is being uh worked on right now any followup no I mean I do briefly we actually residents at the uh Residence at Valley Farm we did um meeting in the box and people obviously are interested because it's a big
231project near them so I guess um if you at some point can have a memo like we we were particularly asked people are both excited and concerned about what's going on next door MH then we can from for the residents yeah yeah I'm happy to reach out to the to the residents of Valley Farms I think we I can I can get hit their contact they would be appreciative can I just make a plug for Valley Farms really quick the executive director there uh is fairly new to town and it's really into Community involvement and has a beautiful public beautiful space inside the facility that she would be delighted to have more public meetings at um we utilize the downstairs space for a meeting in the box but she has a gorgeous upstairs space that's
232much more isolated and I'm just going to throw it out there that it might be a very interesting place for a p uh for a planning board retreat um um because it is a wonderful place to engage with those residents they can come join our Retreat learn about what we do um and it's a great way to for us to be in a in a really stunning space um sorry point taken um update new project yeah I just want to make a note I did send out an email there is a new project uh 10 to 16 Main Street um the owner Rich Gordon and a development partner have filed the 40b for 10 to 60 Main Street so their application was submitted to Mass housing uh it is in the state's perview right now
233but uh everyone should just be aware that the the develop the the owner of that property and a development partner have set Wheels in Motion to start the pering process uh that process starts with the state Mass Housing and then uh the town will be obviously brought into the process the that does the town brought in the process mean like the there's a public comment perod or does that go right to the zba process there'll be a public comment perod okay definitely publicize that to people you know and and obviously you know I'm getting the information daily as information comes in uh today um we were notified about the public comment period and that's going to open uh fairly shortly to my surprise I thought we were going to it was going to be in
234a in a month or two uh but that's going to open up and so I'll be working with my Michael to to spearhead that obviously with the select board and the planning board um and so that will be something that will be on my that is on my radar um the process right now is for the application team to obtain what's known as eligibility letter from Mass housing the eligibility letter is their their their I'm going to say ticket their ticket to file with us the 40b with the with the town that process goes to the zoning board of appeals uh most likely I will be helping staff that process um and go from there so that's where it stands right now um and I'm happy to talk with anybody that have any you know
235questions about it but um that's as as information comes in I'm happy to get it out but it's kind of uh it is in the purview of the state and uh in the select board any other questions on that right I just want to like can I'm sure you will but like at what like I guess sooner rather than later a public folder people are used to going to projects and I know it's like in that stage but if we're getting stuff we probably should be posting it right for the public I know not your everyday email but like when we get no I know I think um you know it is not in my eyes at this point it it it I would have it's not the planning but it's not within the planning
236board's office perview to be posting this stuff on the planning board's website so if if the town manager and the select board want to start publicizing this and the information then that's that's their purview I do not want to overstep my bounds and my role as the town planner I didn't take Kate's comment as we should be posting it I took it more as the the town should beting it um the point taken point taken I think I can I think we can yeah I think up but I don't I don't I just want to be clear of my role in it I mean I think if we as a planning board have consensus to ask you to speak to the select board to request this that's a fair request I I would concur yeah
237I have no I I think I can vocalize that but uh I am not going to um I don't believe it's in my purview to just go ahead and post it stuff okay so that's uh upcoming and um OB was it would be on our minds um reports on planning board topics I don't think there's anything I don't think there's anything new there especially nothing we want to talk about this evening at 7 minutes to 11: next next meetings are listed we've already talked about those and then we have the meeting Minute review I I don't have any changes to the minutes I had a couple changes I for me it's more of format question so um lot of these notes in this particular one is talking about all the line items that we talked
238about on special formit uh should we be matching to make sure there's no clash between what we finally agreed and what's here because it goes into a lot of details it it does but we've had meetings in between this one and that one meeting minutes that are still coming so just because it's written here doesn't mean we changed it at the meeting the next very next meeting so um yeah so my question is do we document those con that that part of the conversation cuz it's talking about including line items of numbering and line items I'm not sure whether that's typical for a meeting minutes um like 13 mural 9 affordability it's literally going into that level of detail in the meeting minutes yeah I mean it does I think that's a conversation we'll have
239to have like how these these details are great because they are very detailed but maybe too detailed really meeting minutes really should be um this is almost like a transcript versus versus meeting minutes so there may be too much um um you know if we want and I was thinking about this too because maybe this needs a Maybe This needs another pass because there's definitely some things I was trying to find the tape to see if is that is that really what I said um or or or what I meant by it because I'm I'm sure she's very accurate about about what I said I wasn't yeah um so uh but but I'm wondering if if maybe we should just have Peter post these as a draft which we can do so they're posted and
240then we can kind of go through them a little bit more I'd like to go through them a little bit more carefully I haven't had time maybe we maybe we take out some of that detail yeah some question marks it more feels like conversations in a meeting minute which may not be yeah it should not be a transcript yeah so maybe we want to maybe we want to make some suggestions about what what we want the meet or maybe that'll just be our role to modify them into meeting minutes as we want to see them but I do think it's a little transcript like versus versus minutes can I can I ask why we're troubled by that I actually love this style I think it's very transparent and extremely open to what we're actually doing
241um what's the concern in being so out there it makes me think that um because it is as it's reporting as being very specific that I have to make sure that that's actually what I said well the thing the general topic of conversation because it's not a like a legal procedure that it's transcript for the record it's it's to capture the idea of of what was said because if you go to the transcript approach you cannot miss one detail and say other right and does it I mean I I guess for me I I can tell you this with the AI and and Technology out there basically it's getting more and more accurate I think me personally if I had an understanding of how this person puts this together and I had some confidence in
242the technology he or she is using I I think this is a tremendous Improvement to our prior minutes which were sometimes very mysterious as to what we actually did so I I'd like to find a common like Middle Ground maybe not go all the way back to the IG minutes that we used to have where sometimes you didn't really know who said what it was like the board discussed um and so it'd be great to to find a middle ground yeah yeah I mean like sentences like letter G was added under exterior materials to ensure whatever that's like uh it it's a transcript yeah you want to be sure that that's really true so and again it's more a format like we used to have voting and names of members who voted I don't know
243if we've decided we're okay with just the 5 kind of starting to show up all in favor does that matter I mean does that matter is is there a I don't think way of doing it right I think it's fair simp you know I think it's just a preference you know it's a preference do have one coming I I looked up so for that meeting there were no new correspondent and I I don't remember if I even said if they said it wasn't on the recording but if if we're just filling that at zero well why don't we you know because we do have a new person obviously doing the meeting minutes and and they are very detailed which is which is good um but maybe we can get a little bit more information about
244you know is it the process yeah the process um and then you know we'll have to maybe have a further discussion about because there's obvious some varying opinions about what we think the meeting minute should be and what they should contain um so um but for now I because because I do have some changes in these and I didn't have time and and I couldn't find the tape I was looking for the tape but I I just couldn't find it online um so if it's okay I'll have um Peter post them as a draft which we can do so if they're up there and then um and then we'll still have time to go through them and and make sure that they're the way that we want them to be as the people who are
245there right if that's that's okay okay we don't need to vote on anything like that we just cust them as a draft no yeah we're all set all right anything further otherwise I will make a motion that we adjourn at 10:59 before 11 I'll second that tki cther J and Trish Kendall I all right long one