001that's okay yeah being s your microphon what's that your microphone they're recording right good morning so my name is David randoo I'm uh vice president of the Ashland Business Association so on behalf of the Ashland Business Association I welcome everyone to uh the Ashland Town update I've been looking forward to this I enjoyed it last year so it's going to be good so glad to be here at the historic uh Town Hall so we look forward to hearing some updates from the leadership community staff roadway projects new developments new business and what the select board their goals visions and special thanks to the Metros YMCA and Peter Weisberg for the Wiis for the coffee and bagels highly appreciated anticipated also our year-long sponsors we have the Ashlin Ale House Ashley mini storage and 126 stealth
002storage Mike Kan right up in front thank you very much and we have a at the ABA board members today myself David we have uh Peter Beth Reynolds Richard Bennett Peter Chisum and uh Adam our president Adam Sachs all right so why the ashin Business Association a quick blur about that and it is so the we're dedicated to increase visibility profitability of our members uh armato right up on our Banner we're keeping Ashland businesses on track so we have both for-profit and nonprofit organizations so please come if you're not a member become a member and so we we advocate for like healthy business environment in the town of Ash and Sanic communities uh Sanic communities we also work together with some re Regional connections we have with the Metro West Chamber Hoppington Sherman and in
003we're here we're discussing information it's healthy we want to ensure that our members have the community hear what's happening around town and hopefully in a positive way but also if there are we need to understand what are the challenges that we uh what any concerns we have we got uh having a good discussion about that will be help so we also have like upcoming events I'm glad you're here this is going to be a great event we also have a a lunch and learn from about marketing with her own Ashley that's going to be great that uh coming up on March 21st so click register and that's going to be excellent we'll have a a meeting in box on the 27th providing for the town comprehensive plan in April we hope to have a speed
004networking event in June 13th the 126 block party we also going into August we'll have the Metro West YMC a regional barbecue and then then September uh the back to school movie night but we're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves there and uh so wrap it up there all right so excellent thank you uh also we're looking for any member spotlights so what we do we have a newsletter let us know talk to Ashley and uh we will uh get a member Spotlight for you so now I'm done talking I want to listen to everybody up front so i' like to introduce Yolanda Greaves and uh thank you very much for hosting and moderating this so Y is the vice chair of the select board and active member of the community and and an
005ABA member um you have the uh car companies uh empowering systems and she's host of Ash Around the Clock in Ashland all right so I'm going to turn it over to you thank you very much thank you David for that wonderful introduction and for letting us all know all the great things that the ABA does uh I am here to introduce who we're going to be speaking with we have a list of questions that we were submitted as we did last year so we're not taking questions from the audience but hopefully you have submitted your questions and they will get answered this morning I have three people here at the table with me to my direct left is Michael Herbert Our Town manager next to him is Peter magic Our Town planner and then you
006all know Beth Reynolds who is our economic development director uh this topic this morning started as economic development but as we all know what's going on in town supports and encourages Economic Development so we're going to Jump Right In I think uh we did have Claudia Bennett one of the members of our select board was going to be joining us today unfortunately Family Matters took over and as we all know family is usually more important than even sitting here so um we're g to Jump Right In and Michael we're going to start with you we're GNA do some updates the first is the update on our downtown project thanks so I get to start you get to start oh excellent so they didn't they didn't warn me about that at the beginning um thanks Yolanda
007and thanks for the ABA uh thanks to the ABA for hosting this event and certainly hope you walk away from today with uh some more information and feel like you've uh gotten to know the town a little bit better and what's going on um so specifically to the downtown project so what we're currently doing right now is working on phase two phase one was really most of the streetscape work most of the exterior work the stuff that you see on the outside uh we also put in the uh underground infrastructure as well but phase two what we're working on right now is the building connections so connecting the utilities Verizon Comcast eversource Etc to each of the buildings along the quarter that's part of the scope of the project and so once that is completed
008uh we have to put that work out to bid that will be out to bid shortly once that work is completed then we can start the transformative process of taking the polls down um and that that that's a sequence that has to happen so and we're still at the mercy of the utility companies but um once you see those polls come down I think you will see in all its Glory what the vision was for our downtown and how great it'll look um we'll also have just a couple more little streetcape fixes to to put together like you know if you see our tree pits right now they're not bordered or anything we'll be putting some borders around that and some other stuff but that's uh the general update so con contemplating when do we
009think this is all going to be done when can we celebrate the completion uh when ever Source says so how's that no we we are we are really at the mercy of the utility companies but I will say that ever Source has told me their goal is to get the polls down by the end of the summer but uh we shall see let's let's keep keep putting the pr fingers crossed good we are going to jump to the other side of town that I know many of you are impacted by the Route 126 project it has been asked and we're going to ask Beth to answer this and one of the specific questions was can we put any pressure on eversource and Verizon and the cable companies to try and get some of the new
010cabling done now when it's a little bit milder before the spring but Beth if you could let us know where things are at and yep so the now the so the reason that I'm speaking about this is because I am um paying very close attention to that project it is our commercial Corridor I've been on um weekly meetings um with the northern construction crew and the state um where we talk about that project currently it is just sort of dormant for the winter um but they'll start ramping back up again very shortly this mild winter is helping that situation I believe um but again we're still we go back to those utility companies we really need those polls down I know that is top of mind for a lot of the business owners there along
011that Corridor that we we want to get that done the construction has been very difficult I I understand um so we're hoping that that this year they can sort of start to wrap that up um with the completion date of spring of 2025 I believe it has been pushed out but um you know I think Northern has done a pretty decent job of really pushing that project along in a good Timely manner believe it or not I know it feels really long um but week after week they still do really push to do that to complete it they want to keep moving on too so um again we're sort of in that same situation with downtown in regards to the polls but they'll start getting um back up ramping back up again soon what's interesting
012is there's a new Municipal Bill uh coming to the state um the house and the Senate to force uh utilities to remove their second polls so we'll see good if that has any help that would be great okay uh let's go to Peter and what are the current projects in front of the planning board uh thank you so much I'm Peter machic the town planner uh I just want to first uh note that Trisha kandle chair of the pl board is in attendance today so thank you Trisha uh for the leadership of the Plenty board uh currently the pl board has a few projects on the uh on our agenda that have been rolling uh number one is uh 9 to 49 home a uh that's going to be a mixed use building uh which
013is going to be the third building or third project permitted under our add uh in excuse me add uh Ashen downtown district um that project is going to bring residential units and commercial space and uh believing that that building is going to act as an anchor for future Investments kind of on that western edge of town uh and it will be the first building on that western edge of town just to note uh there's three other projects in front of the plany board board uh most recently one that was just wrapped up was uh Chase Bank uh I think some some people know that Maes uh is is no longer going to be in their their current location and Chase Bank is going to move in and and uh take over that site uh I
014would say the second the the the the project I would say the town of ashen's most excited about is a brewery at the old fire station uh and so that is moving through the process uh and so hopefully we'll see see that progress uh fairly quickly um and then the uh the newest project uh indoor application that was submitted to the planning board was six Chestnut Street the long um vacant uh Dairy Queen uh over across some 200 Homer Street so a a very finally right uh so yeah last week hot off the press uh so yeah so an applicant came in filed and they're going to turn that into a um more of a excuse me Beth Beth has a little bit more information on it uh it's more of a meat produce uh
015Market um and they're going to use the existing structure and try to work within the the footprint um uh closing off the the window area the overhang window area where you would have you know go up and and order your you know Cherry dip or your butterscotch dip you know or your Dilly bar uh but uh yeah I've been to Dairy Queen once or twice just a uh but yeah that's going to be a great project obviously I think uh everyone uh as as who has been driving by that for a number of years uh obviously has thought to themselves at one point or another you know when is when is something going to happen so uh that's going to hit our docket uh I would say late the second meeting in March um and
016then so those are the big projects right now that's great great I think that the the Dairy Queen building getting refurbished is probably huge for everybody very nice to hear it here first folks it your first and that has not been for not trying I we have been working so hard over the last decade to really try to fill that space with something that the town needs and um you know we've been building relationships and um trying to really encourage development there but that that spot does come with challenges it's up against the river it has um a lot of issues um per se and this was a really nice fit because they're really not changing the footprint although the building will change its look um they're really not changing the footprint which is nice
017to storm water issues and things like that conservation it's great to hear great to hear good uh another project that many people are excited about and always asking about is the status of the regional YMCA Beth if you could take that so I have the privilege of being a board member for the um Metro West YMCA um I have been for almost a decade now um so it's near and dear to my heart and it coming to Ashland is um a wonderful opportunity for us um and the region in general So currently the Y is officially kicked off its capital campaign um to bring this new facility to the region um they've recruited a leadership cabinet comprised of 20 members um they're all volunteers they represent Ashlin Hopkinson Holliston Sherborn and Framingham um they've also
018o been gifted uh an amazing gift by mathw works um I'm sure everybody knows math Works in niic um and they've stepped up with an initial gift of $2.5 million um and the cabinet's working to kind of build on that momentum so lots of meetings lots of energy um focused around building that momentum um and the um the Y also has a pretty um great announcement to be made at their Marathon Community breakfast and that's March 14th I encourage you all to attend that if you've never been to a marathon break breakfast you should go it is uh it's memorable to say the very least you will leave inspired and um really excited about the new why coming to town um so at this point I think it's safe to say Peter said it one
019time um so far but construction um they're hoping will begin in 2025 so soon enough it's coming I'm just going to tag on to the the marathon community breakfast I've attended many times and it is another amazing event if you've never gone it's next Thursday reach out to Peter or Rick or one of them and they'll get you the in information as to what the breakfast is and uh again it's a short morning but you leave so inspired and so excited about what they're doing for our community and the potential for what the Y will do for our community great thank you Beth yes okay another project that people are always asking about uh only because there there's been no movement recently is the 10 to 50 Main Street Mill buildings Michael what is the
020status and what can you tell us about that I guess I get the hard ones huh interesting so 10 to 50 Main Street for those of you that don't know the address it's the it's the mill building or the mill complex that you see as you're coming into the town from Myrtle Street um and it's got a couple of historical buildings there that were built in the 1860s um one that was basically a rebuild of an original Granite building that was built in the 1910s OR 1920s and then you see the B brick building that was done in the 40s or 50s and so that project had submitted an application to the planning board and I believe um at the last iteration it was something like 200 units um and 30 something thousand square ft
021of commercial space um the applicant who at the time was the OWN owner of the property a gentleman named Rich Gordon so he withdrew his application from the planning board and um you know for for his own reasons and then um he has reached out to Pete and I recently to let us know that he has engaged a um a 40b developer to look at doing a 40b project there um which I would anticipate being considerably more units and considerably less commercial space um and if it if that does happen if that application is submitted that would go before the zoning board of appeals um you know it's unfortunate because 40b applications we unless we're at a certain State um with our affordable housing we don't have the ability to say no to those projects
022and actually very little ways to influence and condition them um and unfortunately we are not at what they call Safe Harbor where we have 10% of our housing inventory considered affordable what does 40b mean cuz there may be people in the room who don't know what 40b means okay so 40b so Massachusetts has a law and it's been a law since 1969 called chapter 40b and essentially what that says is that if you if a community does not have 10% of their housing considered affordable by the state and there are certain definitions that they have to consider a unit affordable basically a developer can come in and as as long as they do 25% of their units as affordable they can override any of our local zoning um that includes our local zoning bylaws our
023local wetlands and storm water bylaws so again we have very little opportunity to condition it um so it would be it's unfortunate that we're not in Safe Harbor it hasn't been for a lack of trying um we've tried to get our unit count our affordable units up there but um you know that application has not been submitted yet you know I don't think there's any reason to react until we get an application like that but I will say that that property is the one of the gateways into town and I know we're going to talk about the comprehensive plan a little bit later and one of the things that I've been hearing as part of the comprehensive plan process is that we need to make sure that we um keep up or or beautify for
024lack of a better term our entrance ways into town and so that is certainly one of them so I think it's important for something to happen there but it's got to be the right thing right so you know we don't necessarily want to have just anything we want to have the right thing but it's important that something does happen there great thank you for that update and that actually does lead us to our next question which is uh where are we at with the comprehensive plan how is it going anything in regards to scheduled the date of completion uh shouldn't um and then there's been some other bylaws that are being presented in and do we think those new bylaws should wait until the comprehensive plan is done oh there's a lot to unpack there
025a lot to unpack there and just so that you know so Michael as our town manager is on it I'm this one of the select board Representatives on the comprehensive plan committee and Beth being our economic development director it was important that she be part of the comprehensive plan there's 30 and Peter as well as our town planner there's 27 29 I'm sorry 29 people on the comprehensive plan committee a lot of discussion a lot of people yeah a lot of people a lot of people um and that being said you know as you can imagine sometimes it's hard to get a group of nine people together and on the same page so you can imagine what 29 people's like so um but I will say the comprehensive plan committee is has come together um
026we've hired the we've selected a consultant um who has been shepherding helping us shepher this process over the last several months um we're currently in I guess what you could say is the public engagement phase so right now and I want everybody to listen closely to this because there's opportunities for you to be involved in being engaged So currently there's three really specific ways that you can provide input into the comprehensive plan and basically provide what your vision of Ashland is going to be for the next 10 years um the first one is a survey that you can take online and and we put that out we push that out through social media links newsletters uh things of that nature um if you need more information on that I'm sure any of us will be
027happy to get that for you second is on our comprehensive plan website there's something called a crowd mapping feature where individuals can go and they can actually drop a pen on a map of Ashland towards or your special places or places that you would like to see change and you can actually make a comment to that effect you know what would you like to preserve you know going back to the mill building I've already seen a couple comments that talk about the fact that we need to preserve the the the historic buildings there the granite buildings there as as any kind of part of uh as part of any kind of development I should say and then the third is is really a focus group that we call a meeting in a box and that's
028hosted by members of the steering committee um if you would like I know the ABA is going to be having one um and that's really just a great opportunity for you to just really again give your vision of of Ashlin what you think Ashlin should be in the next 10 years because this can't be the comprehensive plan committee's plan right and it can't be it can't just be my plan can't be Peter's plan can't be yanda's plan best plan it has to be the community's plan for it to work plans are only as good as the intent behind them right you know a plan without any intent is really just a dream but to get that intent to get that buy in you have to be a part of it um and so that's extremely
029important I want to encourage you to take take advantage of any opportunity you can um in terms of timeline uh so we plan on continuing this uh Community engagement phase which will culminate in a couple of visioning sessions in May and June and then we'll start the process of putting a plan together to support that vision and our goal is to have this plan before town meeting for town meeting to vote on at the spring 2025 town meeting um and so that will be the um hopefully the the litmus test if you will of how much Community input we've been able to get we'll see how successful it is at town meeting um just in regards to your other question Yolanda just about some of the other bylaws um that are kind of you're hearing
030rumors about or or or moving forward um I will say ideally ideally it's great to be able to have a plan and then to do your bylaws um you know that makes sense from a logical standpoint but I think in practicality and reality you know you've got to know how to walk and chew gum at the same time um so there's you know I I don't think there should be an outright prohibition on having you know bylaws or anything come on you know being put forward before a comprehensive plan is completed um ideally that would be the case but what is ideal in municipal government right I mean we could go we could that could be a whole panel in of discuss but hopefully that answered your questions Yolanda great thank so one thing I
031do want to note is though the ABA is doing a meeting in a box a focus group um David had mentioned it at the beginning it's March 27th 5: to 700 p.m um at DL deche um so your March is getting very busy March 14th for the Y breakfast and now that just making notes yes okay uh okay so Michael you just mentioned new bylaws so there is a potential tree bylaw there's potential downtown historical bylaws that have been prefer proposed by different communities um can you tell us well let's start with the tree bylaw where is that at and what do you see potentially happening with that okay well I can tell you the tree by law is something that is being promoted by the sustainability committee as a way to stop clear cutting
032from happening um in town um I think if you know some of the more recent developments we've seen a lot of trees go away um to facilitate those developments and I think there is um an appetite not just by the sustainability committee but by a lot of people in town to keep clear cutting from happening um that being said the devil's always in the details on these things and um I don't think there's an overall consensus among the town as as to what a tree bylaw a good ideal tree bylaw would look like so my understanding is that the sustainability committee had hoped to bring that forward to the Springtown meeting again my understanding is that they are looking at delaying that now until potentially the fall okay and then there is also a proposed
033potential historic district that's being discussed by the historical commission tell us about that one as well please sure so the historic district being proposed by the historical Commission encompasses parts of downtown and it's a local historic district which means that there are certain guidelines and there are certain um rules that you need to follow if you're going to alter your buildings downtown or if you're going to tear one down and and redevelop it you have to meet certain design standards certain um certain other characteristics as part of that um I don't think that that is going to be uh looked at for the Springtown meeting um but I do think that that will also be U looking to be moved forward at the fall town meeting and as with any of these things if you're
034hearing about it if you have questions about it go to the meetings nice that you can do it via zoom and ask your questions and give them your input that's how these things get done is with the input and the discussion of the community okay moving on MBTA communities another state thing that we're hearing about how is that impacting us uh Peter in the light of the recent news about Milton can you tell us if Ashland is in compliance with the MBTA communities act and if not how much more building will be will be expected to be allowed and is there room for any push back based on the overcrowding of our schools and services so I'm going to I'm going to change the question a little bit and I'm going to tell everyone what's
035going on right and what's happening and what the town has done uh and so uh first and foremost yes the town at this standpoint is in compliance come December 31st of 2024 we have to be in compliance right that is going to take a zoning bylaw change it's going to take some alterations to our rail Transit District um and it's going to take some alterations uh some further alterations on some sites that we have picked out uh going back a couple months ago uh Trisha Kendall the planning board Joe manani the select board Al assistant planner and myself have con started a small working group and we start to kind of vet out ideas what is happening do we have any building blocks uh how can we how can we change what what changes can
036we make to to get into compliance um and we've done that and uh we have move we're going to have a zoning bylaw um ready it's ready at this point uh we're going through some CH you know minor changes uh we're we vetting out what our affordability component can be that's being done through a consultant uh we did get a grant from the state Mass Housing Partnership um to look at that and so uh but right now we do have uh uh building blocks we've had two public forums via Zoom uh which have been recorded and uploaded on our website if anybody is interested in reading them excuse me uh listening and or watching them but from a fundamental standpoint uh we in Ashland had and you I would say the citizens um had a
037very solid foundation already poured with the RTD District going back to the early 20 I think it was 2003 the RTD was redistricted excuse me rezoned with the with the relocation of the train station so we need to we have this District which is great we have acreage we have units uh we have the cus development which is um which is 398 units and so we are trying to make small alterations to the to that bylaw and then bring in those units some have already been built some haven't but you but because you need units and you need acreage to be in compliance so at the at the end of all this we the town of Ashland have put together a very good I think proposal uh which which come forth uh first at the
038select board and the plany board meeting on March 14th and then hopefully that will move to the uh the fall Town me excuse me the Springtown meeting just a make a note you know every town I think there's 158 towns in Metro Boston inside of 495 that is that have to deal with this MBTA zoning other towns are taking different approaches you know I think uh from my standpoint we need to make sure that we have our ducks in the line and then and I think we do and we have a good game plan and then let other communities make their own decisions uh and ashon has to make their own decision too to get into compliance but in theory we have to be in compliance and our our our deadline is December 31st of
0392024 and just to be clear the compliance is just to have the zoning in place not have anything built that's correct so everyone in yes 110% and that needs to be kind of ironed out I believe uh because I think I've been reading the newspaper I i' I've read the article of what Newberry Port planning excuse me what the Rockport planning board did it was in the globe on Sunday and what's going on in Milton this is a is zoning right this is a purely [Music] um you know is a purely into the future right is that we have to allow for uh you know X number of units to be built via the zoning that doesn't mean they have to be built it just means in theory the property owner has the ability to
040go to do a byright development to build at a density of no less than 15 units per acre um and and so it's strictly zoning the state is not going to come and say well you adopted the zoning but you didn't build the zoning right that's purely a private investment and a private development that has to that has to occur there what the town needs to do is just set up the zoning um and so uh did I answer the question is that you did the another question that was on here was is there any room for push back based on the overcrowding of our schools and services you know what that's a tough answer that's a tough question to answer you know I think looking at the legislation reading this leg legislation understanding the
041legislation I think the my job and my as a planning director is to to create a in and obviously and also the the working group with Trisha Joe and Alvaro is to come up with a game plan to how to meet compliance um to to answer that question about the schools and stuff that that all kind of comes out those questions can come out you know within a perent process um but I think and I'm not trying to not answer the question but I would say that that's that question is what is being what all towns are grappling with right now right how do you and it's not just the schools it's the infrastructure it's the do you have sewer a septic are you building a wastewater treatment plant you know all those questions are
042what is really grappling um I think a lot of the communities and so um not not to to focus on that but as a game put but the our working group has come forth with a plan and and either that plan can be accepted or denied and then we can kind of move forward at that point and then one last follow-up question I found this one interesting if we meet our NB act obligations meaning creating the zoning in the areas that they've required us for is there any room to push back on development plans in other areas of town you know push back is is is a loose term yep you know uh you know I think if if the town decided to you could go back and revisit what's going you know other areas
043of town you know if you want to relook at the you know the pwn Street overlay District which was which was kind of taken into account um a number of years ago I think about 10 years ago at this point um you know could revisit some of the other zoning art the zoning area but you know most of this I would say greater than 70 plan of the town is zon residential a single family housing um and so where do you pick and choose you know that that all can be kind of reanalyzed I think and and going to the point of Michael with the comprehensive plan maybe that that can be done at a further time but uh but if the goal of the community is to be in compliance with the MBTA zoning
044uh or or excuse me the MBTA legislation that would probably that would that would need to happen first great thank you going on uh the next question is what are the goals for the select board for this calendar year Michael why don't you start with that and then I can add a little bit extra as well sure um so the select board has an ambitious agenda for 2024 um I don't know we always have ambitious agendas I think you know if you look at Community Development projects or like infrastructure projects um you know clearly the downtown project finishing that up is and 126 um are are high on the list uh we have completed uh for the most part the public safety building in the Mendes school there's still some some outline things that have
045to uh have to get wrapped up but that's with any project um the Valentine property and the future reuse of that property is also on the agenda and figuring out what that looks like and what that's going going to be uh for those of you that are familiar with that project we just finished uh basically a a restoration of the barn which um is incredible hope you know there's a couple more pieces that need to happen like steps you know so you can actually get into the building um it's an important important thing but once that happens I can't wait for the community to to you know take a look into it and and see what's been done it's it's been really incredible um the upper Charles Trail uh which is a bike trail that
046transects town and and runs from the Hopkinson border over to the Sherburn Framingham border um has also moved itself up to a priority project here in town and so work has been going on around with a lot of focus with that on the eastern part of town around 126 and putting the pieces together to construct that portion of the trail again that will run from the Framingham Sherburn line probably I think we're we're talking about when we're talking about phase one to downtown so from the Sherburn line to to downtown I would say that would be yeah and I think the D Trail D Trail would the D Trail I think is uh would be the one of the the major pieces and and the Dy Trail actually is kind of it's graded out it's
047kind of laid out it runs from 126 excuse me West to um to Sherborn yes and East excuse me thank you that's why I looked at you guys um in Sherborn uh in and through Sherborne in frame there is an abandoned Trail line uh which is actually owned I Believe by CSX yes yes and so that is under consideration so that would be kind of a point a connection piece um that would help as a building block yeah so those are Community Development projects we also you know I will say that as Town manager one of the things that has happened over the years is that we've put a lot of focus and emphasis on Community Development and infrastructure and I will say sometimes it's been at the lack or at the expense I should
048say of um organizational development and so that's one of the things we're also kind of focusing on in 2024 uh so looking at doing an organizational assessment um you know our staffing levels compared to what the community expectations for service aren't really kind of lining up so we're we're doing an an analysis to see what that looks like we're also doing a lot of work in the Dei space and we'll be coming out with our Dei strategic plan later this year um so those are a couple of things I guess you could say internally that we're focused on as well yeah and the board it it's interesting we know this is going to be a transition year uh Rob Sher who has been on the board for a number of years is not running for
049reelection so we've had some focus at the beginning of the year working with Michael and so we've sort of take not taken a pause on what we're doing but we don't want to create new goals until after the election so in June when we have a we know potentially potentially only one new member um I'm trying to say that politely um so then we'll be looking at doing and the reason I say potentially one new member is because I'm also up for re-election this year uh um and I have pulled papers um but the board typically we try to after an an election get together and really focus on different things that are going on and as Michael said these priority projects have really been things that we've been focusing on for many years and
050as some of them wind down we are trying to be very careful to not just pile other things on top so we can finish really finish some of these projects that we're working on work on some of the infrastructure within our within our town hall within our community center as people are really looking for more and more services lately so those are those are things we're focusing on as a board a couple other questions that were were brought up and I'm going to read them and I think it might be a discussion for the four of us as well is so here are those follow-up questions what can property and business owners do to protect themselves against board boards and committees that continue to add regulations that devalue their personal property and who can help
051us that's one of the questions has the select board and finance committee taken a position on the costly and intrusive proposed tree bylaw if not when will they and then the third one was have they have the board has the board taken a position on the intrusive historical district bylaw if not when will they uh and I think from I think the four of us can sort of have this discussion in that if things are being brought forward to us they're being brought forward by other members of the community and it's a discussion and I I think about the tree bylaw when it was coming out I had a number of people Express concern for me to me and so we increased the discussion that was being had I think it's similar with the historical
052this historical district bylaw that's being proposed someone in the community neither of these were generated by the board or even Town management it's by people in the community like yourselves who are looking at things in a different way so thoughts from the three of you on any of those things and how we how we work through this well one of the questions I I I see as part of this is is who can help us and I think the best answer is yourselves if you have if you have concerns and if you have um positions that you're taking as an organization or as individuals um regarding any of these bylaws First Express them to the to the board to the select board um you can certainly Express them to us and we can relay them
053to uh the board members as well um one of the ways the the question was phrased is is protect themselves against boards and committees um I would encourage you to maybe change your mindset a little bit about that and work with boards and committees to maybe develop something that's more palatable to to everybody um again I think finding something that's going to make everybody 100% happy is is basically impossible um it's really really difficult to do but I think you can find some level of compromise that would I guess help everybody leave the the table having the conversation feeling satisfied and at least like you were heard um and then if I can just before you go on to the next thing so I think that the ABA did a really good job on the
054tree bylaw um so first of all it was great to see a lot of business owners actually go to the committee with their thoughts and concerns over the tree bylaw there was a great showing and um I know the business Community was all talking which was great to see um and then I think the ABA was a great support system as well um because they brought in the sustainability committee and Ash the chair of that committee I believe he's the chair yes okay um he actually spoke about that to members of the ABA so again utilize The ashin Business Association our board um you know really does try to allow for those opportunities um to have you be more involved and your voice heard so I think that is definitely a great what he what
055Michael said y yeah and I was just to piggyback a little bit on what Beth's saying I I've always thought the ABA has a lot of untapped potential in terms of an as an advocacy group um I mean you there's a lot of Heavy Hitters and players as part of the ABA and I think you know I I think you should take advantage of your Collective voices uh a little bit more often not just on these bylaws that are presented but anything that's happening in town um any project that's happening in Town it would be great to hear from the ABA like has the ABA taking a position on something you know not just our elected and appointed boards and committees but you as um as as an industry group um you know come coming
056up with your own positions and and advocating and communicating those as well again I I think I think um I think it's a really an an untapped potential here in town yeah I would I would say that I know as a select board member I have't couple of national organizations that I follow that are supporting of business and I think we need to hear as a select board member we need to hear from our business Community because many of you not only have your business here but you live and work here and you raise your family here and you are just as important and just as much of a Community member as people who are are only residents and don't have businesses and we all know we are trying to increase business here in in
057Ash since I've been on the select board that's one of the things I've always heard is how can we turn ourselves from 10% business to 12 or 15% business and as an advocacy for businesses in Ashland let let us hear from you let us hear what you as a group and individuals are thinking that's how we increase that communication and conversation about what's going to be best for our community okay next question is how is the annual budget taking shape for fiscal year 25 another fun one for you Michael I was about to say for sure um well look I and it's an important question okay because all the things that we're talking about is supported by the municipal budget you know in terms of projects and stuff so you know a budget for a
058community is not just a set of numbers uh you know set of expenses and and revenues it's a statement of the community's values and that is that is something I really want to hammer home with everybody and having said that the 2025 budget is looking pretty tough um so there were a couple of developments that were going to come online or that we were anticipating that might come online um this year uh that did not happen and so we're facing a pretty significant deficit in our budget and there's only two ways you resolve deficits you either cut expenses or you raise revenue in in some way shape or form and unfortunately the way Ashland is structured and most municipalities in Massachusetts are structured Revenue the majority of Revenue comes from the property taxes um that
059you pay and and personal property taxes that you pay um so just on the expense side I will say that ashin spends pretty much less than any other community around us we we really look at 18 communities within the region um where I think if you look at an expenditure standpoint uh second or third from the bottom um so I think we've demonstrated a really good uh stewardship of uh Municipal resources so far we're able to get things cheaper um we're able to negotiate things for more advantageous pricing for us um so I do think um we have to look at the revenue side now that being said this year I'm going to look um and and you know present to the board probably a a budget that utilizes what we call one-time revenues so
060um basically non-recurring revenues which is not a good place to be in as a manager I will tell you when you're depending upon onetime revenues to balance ongoing operating expenses you are what we like to say technically in a hole um and so that is something that we're going to need to work on I think not just this year but also in the coming years figuring out how we're going to dig ourselves out of that hole and um I I think that's about enough for that I think that's a a I I don't expect any new real new initiatives uh coming out of this year I don't expect to cut back service levels but what's the where are we at in the process uh our budget gets voted at town meeting where we at in
061the budget process in regards to what our numbers going to be and what we think we'll be presenting at town meeting sure so so right now we're we're waiting on the school committee to come up with their figure uh their number and they're on track when I say waiting it's not like they're out of compliance or this year's abnormal um this is the standard process we're waiting for them and then once that's put together I can work with our really good Finance director Britney I Capon and you know come up with a with a budgetary plan that we would present to the select board and to the finance committee um for their recommendation um and then that moves forward to town meeting great thank you Michael uh new businesses Peter was talking about some new
062projects that are in front of the planning board we also know there are some projects that are moving forward Beth what new businesses are we seeing and what is the best way for people to stay informed on what those new businesses are so we have um some great new businesses um coming into town Jill is here with her um Journey environmental Consulting um so that's terrific we have a we have a great base in Ashlin that I love we have a brick and mortar but we also have a lot of homebased businesses um that really do contribute a lot to our community um so but today I just sort of handpicked a few and I'm sorry if I forget a few but we have a driving school in town so TDA watch out they've got
063competition um ashin driving school is out on 126 um Clover Road Brewing um they again are in front of the planning board now um that will be a Tap Room hope hopefully opening um late spring early summer if it um keeps going through the um planning board process as smoothly as it has been uh Chase Bank will be opening up this spring as well um CNL beauty and spa and Luna Nails are two new um nail salons that are opening here in town um Clock Town pickle ball um that will be opening this week I no next week they're still working with the Building Commissioner on a few things um so hopefully in the next couple weeks that will open by the end of the month that is a great new membership opportunity for any
064body who likes to play pickle ball they will also open um hoping to open a restaurant and a bar area as well um this later on this spring um again the the old Dairy Queen will that would be great to see um open and renovated um and then Starbucks hopefully this summer um or spring that that seems to be going along quite nicely as well and then hopefully everybody's been over to Subzero um they just had their ribbon cutting a couple couple weeks ago with the ABA um and they're terrific great Community Partners really off and running so um be sure you support those if to stay in touch with all of this so make sure that if you are a business owner check the business directory on the Ashlin website um make sure you're
065listed there um tell people that I'm here to help them um oftentimes businesses come in and I don't know I I don't I'm not alerted there's no button to press um so it's important that you're all talking hey have you met Beth because she can help support you um we have newsletters we love our email newsletters Michael has one uh for the town manager who goes out weekly and then I try to do one monthly um we do business spotlights we have a great social media presence as well um our marketing coordinator Melissa Hayes does a great job making sure that's current and and really up toate um so we're constantly putting out feeds in social media Facebook Instagram um and then there's something new coming I don't know if you want to talk about
066your newest and latest um out there oh so Michael is um we'll be rolling out a podcast soon so exciting um he they're working we hope it's exciting let's put it that way they've already had two episodes haven't you well we're we're going to schedule the second one pretty soon we're still you know working on some technical things with the first one but we'll probably drop two at one time so you'll have a double dose of hopefully EXC so exactly they're thrilling and then the last just the one last thing that I want to say is if you haven't followed us on social media um we do have a YouTube channel as well um where we're introducing everyone to the different departments in town um a lot of times people don't know like hey what
067we do and all the different departments that are here and so we felt it was important to sort of make sure the community does know what everyone does in town um we have a great staff um we're so lucky and I've I've hear that from a lot of different people that as is a municipality like no other so I like that and um we work really well together as a team and I think it's important that everybody knows what everyone does so be able to you know be sure to tune in to that as well and obviously the ABA pushes out all this good stuff so if you're not a member be a member so before we let you go one last question and again if anyone wants to put some we we said Beth
068was going to answer this but I think everyone can give some input we often hear from the community oh not another pizza place or not another nail salon or not another bank how can you know what why is town government allowing this to happen and the role the question is what role do we play in determining if any what type of business comes to Ashland so the short answer is we don't get to choose who comes to town um we can try our hardest to build relationships with land owners with Realtors with commercial brokers um I I feel like I do a pretty good job of that relationship building I would say that's a lot of my job and when that those opportunities come up and they're looking for different um businesses to come to
069town they will ask like what are you looking for or I have this business where would it be placed where would it be where the best place for that be a bookstore would be great downtown um so those kinds of questions um I think the way that we can sort of help God where businesses go um is through our relationship building that we do um but we don't ultimately get to choose what comes here land owners own their land Mazy we love I mean they were a great asset to our town it will be very sad to see them go um they were approached by Chase bank and they took the opportunity um beside you know minus my plea of them begging them to stay but we will welcome Chase Bank as well they are
070going to be a great Community partner as well um so so it's that's just sort of the way it goes and and we don't have as um you know as Municipal Partners don't have a say necessarily but it is through the relationship building we you know we have a great toolbox the business incentive program um is a wonderful tool to help incentivize businesses to come here um and I oftentimes work directly with those business owners trying to find space for them working with the commercial brokers um to find proper space for them too so um you know it's it's a relationship for sure yeah I I would just add and I think you know Beth mentioned the word incentives and I think that's the role that we play as town government is we can incentivize
071businesses to come here to town we don't get to choose um and a lot of people have a mistaken U mistakenly think that if you change the zoning it automatically means that you're going to get what you want it's not a zoning issue it's an economic issue you know if you have space that costs $22 a square foot to rent and you're a business owner and you're only projecting you know Revenue that's going to cover $15 a square foot it the math doesn't work and so what you can do is you can put together things like the business incentive program which helps close that Gap right so if you can cover some of those costs those outfitting costs you know a couple months rent you know Etc you know maybe you can start closing that
072Gap to where you can bring in the businesses that you want and fill the space that you have and can we just talk a little bit about how great downtown is coming along and and with the businesses you know it's just um it's amazing I mean if you we started the downtown project in 2017 um and you know just talking about the engineering and the vision and you know what because we're doing this work we're incentivizing businesses to come here into town who would have thought we would have had a brewery you know coming you know now we've got Crossroads we got Subzero we've got all these you know new businesses that come to town to help uh amplify the existing business space that we've already had our great businesses and that's another way we
073incentivize is by putting in the money into the public infrastructure and when businesses see that hey the town's got some skin in the game here um it helps encourage them to take their own leap of faith to come here to town and set up shop and invest their own own money Blood Sweat and Tears um into making a successful uh business for themselves and then also for the community great Peter any thoughts from a planning perspective no I think Michael and Beth covered it and I just want to you know say the downtown does look great and and from a joking standpoint when I arrived in 2019 there was a boat called a 20 pound dur in the downtown and so Michael and I always got a good laugh about that the first couple months
074I was here and uh the boat's been removed and it's been uh it's obvious been replaced with a beautiful downtown I just want to also congratulate the folks of Ashen to that that thought obviously that had the foresight to invest in the downtown and I concur that you know making that initial Municipal kind of investment is key and I think the town of Ashland and the residents of Ashland are starting to see the fruits of the fruits of that investment and and will continue on great uh any last thoughts we took questions beforehand um so but you can catch one of us afterwards okay so any last thoughts regarding that you'd like to share anybody I I want to Echo what Beth said earlier we have an amazing team here at Town Hall um we
075have an incredible staff uh including the two people to my left um that just do amazing work for the town then we also have a great group of boards and and committee members um and working together collectively with the res residents um we've been able to accomplish some great things I I talk to we've had a lot of new people move into town and I get a chance to talk to a lot of them and I asked them well what Drew you here and inevitably three things come up schools the location and then the vibe ashin has like they you know some people use the term upand coming some people use the term like it's going places like they wanted to get in on the ground floor but um I will say those are the
076three things that are really uh drawing people here to town yeah very well said Michael I would agree it it was interesting before we started this I was chatting with different people and I've been in town about 34 years we have Dick Bennett who's been in town his whole life we have other people who have been here 10 or 15 years and then people who have been here a little bit less and everyone says they come to Ashland as you said for the schools for the values and they stay because of of the community so you are all a big part of that Community you help our community Thrive with your businesses and with your input so I would say please continue that and keep the conversation going because that's how as an elected person
077I understand what your priorities are and the rest of the elected people as well and of course all of our appointed people as Michael said we have a lot of boards and committees uh and many of you that I see sitting here are part of some of those boards and committees so let's keep the work going because Ashland is a pretty great place to live and work and play so thank you for your time it's just after 10 so we want to let you go and be respectful of that so thank you for attending it was broadcast and recorded so you can share it with your friends if they weren't didn't have the opportunity to be here thank you all for having me as your moderator and for having all of us and I'm sure
078we'll be seeing you at other events soon thank you