Ashland Planning Board Aug 27, 2015

001well thank you very much good evening glad and good to be back again with uh some good news and steady progress towards the rail Transit District development phase one um I just thought i' take an opportunity just to update the board on a couple of developments uh before we hand it over to the folks that are looking for the changes to the Covenant which was signed back in 2000 I think the last time I was here I believe I shared with the board the letter we got from Mass Works uh again committing to the $6 million Grant um I've had a a follow-up conversation with them with Mr Gainer as the land owner also campelli Thorndike on the line as well uh to brief massw works on the progress uh that everybody has made just

002recently actually last week the board of Selectmen approved and signed uh a very comprehensive development agreement with Mr Gainer um and that is now fully fully executed um m is just working out a few details on one of the exhibits related to some alternate funding Arrangements um that we're working through uh so that's obviously great uh great progress Mass Works uh again on the telephone call committed that um based on the the steady and significant progress all parties have made on this particular project um that there's a flexibility with that 30 November date that was put in the uh the original letter so the grant is is still secure and and um still supportive of this overall project um next week I expect that we will bring before the board of Selectmen uh the two

003remaining documents that they need to approve one being the uh development agreement uh between the town and Campanelli Thorndike um and then that alternate funding agreement that I just mentioned uh which is one of the exhibits to those development agreements uh and then lastly which is the reason for being here tonight is the fact that you know the Covenant that was signed back in 2000 uh some 15 years ago uh there were some changes that um the parties wanted to make to the Covenant to support uh this particular project um and based on the original Covenant requires a joint approval by the board of Selectmen in the planning board um to approve any changes to the actual Covenant so what you should have in your packets are the actual Covenant from 2000 as well as

004uh the Covenant amendments that are being uh proposed for Change and give the board an opportunity uh to ask the uh the applicant some questions uh or attorney Meer myself if necessary uh related to that uh given the timeline um and I know that um Mr Ginger from U or Ginger from Camp La Thorn can talk a little bit about their timetable um but we were hopeful that you know as we go through this tonight and ask some questions that um we would like to try to tenably schedule a a joint meeting next Thursday all five of the board of selectman members are available uh we're just waiting to hear on how many of the the planning board members could be available for that joint meeting meeting um to kind of review the final um

005you know Covenant Amendment and be prepared to discuss and and perhaps vote on that uh so that we can continue to move forward with um their submission to the to the planning board for their uh site plan approval modification so that's the uh the update from from our end and um so at this point attorney me I don't know if you have anything you want to add that I may have missed in that brief introduction but no I I think it's probably good to hear from the app the owner and the uh developer to understand why the changes are being requested in the Covenant first and then we can go from there okay any questions for me before I thank you very much so maybe what I'll start to do is walk through them and

006then because there are going to be questions and then perhaps um both uh Mr ER and Mr Gainer can address them so um I think that the the the first big um change that you notice in the Covenant here is the mix between one bedroom and two bedroom units um so the Covenant um excuse me the Covenant originally requires a 7030 split and they're looking for a 6535 split on one bedrooms versus two bedrooms so perhaps um Mr Geer can discuss that um but before we delve into that I'd like I'd just like to ask a more basic question if I could just to get all of us up to speed um so we've heard the term Covenant we've heard the term development agreement and um we're at least I'm wondering if we could explain

007what exactly those documents are and what purpose they serve when the um when the uh Mr Gainer and the talent originally worked on this proposal pre-2000 um given the size of the parcel that it was and what could potentially happen over there and what the desires the town were and what was attractive to Mr Gainer um there was an agreement to develop the area in a certain way that had certain impacts on the town but protected it the town in other in other ways and so in order to do that it was a essentially a three-step process one was that the town entered into a covenant with Mr Gainer that they agreed that only certain things could happen on the land regardless of what the zoning says regardless of any other law this is what

008could happen on the land and nothing else and then layered on top of that was a development agreement excuse me was the zoning which codified some of the parameters about how you could use certain portions of the rail transit district and it created the rail transit district and you have all amended the rail transit district and you've seen what that zoning article is so the next part was how do you implement the Covenant and that would be through the zoning article and that occurred then then The Next Step was to have a developer come in and and develop the first phase of the rail transit district and that was multif family housing and that was proposed and approved by JPI at the time and those were multif family for rent units um and then the

009downturn hit JPI went out of business um mostly in Massachusetts and um as you've heard from Mr Gainer on many occasion uh nothing happened for a long time because of the downturn in the economy given the change of circumstances uh and and in a both from the town's perspective Mr gain's perspective and what is marketable now and what is not marketable changes needed to occur with the Covenant because there were some base rules about what could happen on the property changes needed to occur with a development agreement because the original developer was gone now and a development agreement protect Texs the town and the developer in what's expected by both parties aside from what zoning might require or in addition to what the Covenant might require so there's a development agreement with uh Mr Gainer

010now who owns the rest who owns the property and uh there's development agreement excuse me with campelli Thorndike who um has a purchase the sale agreement for a portion of the property and that goes to developing their property and so under uh the Covenant and the uh that exists if the Covenant is to be amended the planning board and the board of Selectmen need to jointly approve that by a super majority vote um and that's the only way the Covenant can be amended otherwise the board of Selectmen have the power within the town to enter into the development agreement with the developer Andor the landowner on any in any instance so that's kind of the basis of where we are and so in order to essentially bring the Covenant up to spe speed where the

011current market is and what is what the community is looking at and we're going to talk initially about number of bedrooms essentially and affordable versus market rate units um for instance the town has taken a much different stand lately on affordability and so because of the requirements to meet the subsidized housing inventory if you build market rate units you want to try to keep up as much as possible with the affordable unit requirements as well so um that's one of the first things that gets change so as I mentioned earlier the uh number of two bedroom units versus one bedroom unit is controlled by the Covenant for the first parcel of land and uh that was originally set at 70% one bedroom 30% two bedroom oh excuse me 60% one bedroom 40% two bedroom 40%

012one bedroom room and now that they want to change that so I'll let them explain what that change is Thank you Lisa uh Lloyd Ginger Thorndike development um the 6535 change from the 640 um which we talked about at some length with the selectman uh last week um really uh is driven by a change in in the in the market that we're seeing and specifically uh most of the data out there is pretty clear that where where you see a a shift in the profile of the renter is between the two and the three-bedroom the profile of the renter for a one-bedroom apartment and a two-bedroom apartment um is almost indistinguishable and from our perspective the difference is that as I think it's intuitive it doesn't cost that much more to add that second bedroom

013the difference between a one-bedroom apartment and a two-bedroom apartment it still has a kitchen it still has the bathrooms it's it's the the incremental cost of going from a one-bedroom to a two-bedroom is relatively small and as rents have climbed in the western suburbs and you see potential renters looking at rents of $1,900 $22,000 for a one-bedroom and for another couple hundred bucks a month being able to get that extra room for the study or the guest room or whatever the case may be what we're seeing more and more is that same renter profile whether it's a young couple or a professional person or whatever the case may be saying I I'll take the two-bedroom because they want that extra space so this shift is really intended more to ensure that we are being Market

014responsive than anything else we're all I think on the same page we want this to be a successful project and if we're delivering a product to the market that's inconsistent with what the renter's expectations are that's very challenging it's also frankly helpful for us on our Prof fora um because the same metric applies in Reverse in other words it's not that much more expensive to add that second bedroom but the and the return that we get on it is a little bit better so all in all it was part of how we were able to reduce the apartment count from the original JPI number of 500 down to 3 98 but the most important reason for doing this is to be responsive to what the renter is expecting in the marketplace today Mr Ginger since

015you're still up there the other change of regarding the essentially the configuration of the units has to do with the definition of study so in the underlying Covenant there was a very specific definition of what a study is part of that was to be clear that you couldn't take a study and turn it into a bedroom um and there there's a constructibility issue um with the design of um the proposed um apartments and so they're um changing the definition of study to include a definition called Flex space which I'll let Mr Geer um explain but that no unit can have both a flex base and a study the the flex base notion is really um One Step removed even from a study in in terms of its functionality and its appropriateness as a bedroom this

016is not a bedroom you know in the definition of a study for example um you could have a window on the outside wall which would uh make the study potentially more habitable our Flex spaces are really little nooks that are um that occur as a result of the overall design of the building and they in every case occur when you enter the apartment at its front door it's a space to the right or the left up against the party wall where the corrier is so typically it's a 7 by 8 or 7 by10 space um without a window wide opening into it where someone might put a desk or have a little computer Nook or use it for storage it's inappropriate as a bedroom um but it's a very valuable space to someone who's looking

017for another another opportunity for them to set up um a place as I said for typically for a desk so um this is a from our perspective a very specific request relative to the design of the buildings that we're advancing um and so we were asked the question is there ever a situation in which you would have both a flex space and a study and the answer is no so we have in some situations a study that um in general meets the definition that exists right now although we've asked for a very modest change in the size of the opening from 6 feet to 5T and again again um this is a design specific request um and of course when we come before the board with the plans we'll roll everything out and you'll see

018everything in great detail um and uh the flex Bas then if if we have a flex Bas we don't have a study if we have a study we don't have a flex Bas uh the next change as I mentioned earlier briefly was the um requirement that uh there be 10% affordable units um built um within each of the residential um areas of the district uh that was not a requirement before and the the lengthy inclusion in here meets the Shi guidelines so it's sure that it will be able to count towards uh the town's subsidized housing inventory to help you not lose ground as far as your 10% is concerned so that's the affordable housing uh piece that's in here um the uh next uh clarification is that the um there was originally a golf

019course that was proposed and now there is not and perhaps Mr Gainer can address that yeah that one's fairly simple in in uh 2000 they were building golf courses everywhere and uh we thought that it would be kind of neat to put a small municipal course nine-hole course uh and either deed over to the town or we we it was never really resolved just exactly how it would have it would be uh deed but it wouldn't it would probably become a public uh Municipal uh things have changed significantly since then uh there's closing golf courses versus building them uh it's not viable to any developer and therefore we're not going to build it but we did it there was a provision put into the Covenant um which stated that in the event that the gulf

020course is not built that the developer has to lose 40 units of the housing uh combined on Lots one and two originally it was 190 units of housing between the apartments and the town homes and it's been reduced to 650 units of housing that's the reason for that um any questions okay okay please still um okay thanks Bob y um the next change is um it's not really a change it's clarification because the next provision in the Covenant actually included language about the golf course and we kept the language in and restated it about the requirement to have a buffer and what they call area F and so um when you go back and review all of this you there are plans that go with this and you'll see the area f it protects uh

021a residential area from the rest of the district um the next change is the uh size of the building Footprints and um there is a change on that because there was a requirement that each building could not be greater than 18,000 square feet and now the change is that in fact the average not be bigger than 18,000 Square F feet and perhaps uh Mr Geisinger can address that yeah as I understand that this was uh somewhat of a shrink wrapped uh provision that related to the original Footprints of the JPI buildings um we have reduced the number of buildings um so that there are now in our planned 398 Apartments there are nine buildings and one of and that allows us of course to have more open space more green space and and uh reduce

022the footprint of the overall development um to make that work um two of the buildings of two of the nine buildings have a slightly larger footprint they essentially add an apartment on either side of the center line so the remaining buildings are more in the 16,000 ft range um the look of the buildings Remains the Same um um and that was the reason for this request so on average the buildings will be less than 18,000 there'll be two buildings that are have an extra apartment on either side of the central entrance um otherwise everything Remains the Same um the next change as indicated in here has to do with what can be counted as open space and what can't be counted as open space and again that was a rewrite after the omission of the

023golf course so that's what that's relevant to um and then uh the next change um has to do with um having uh Mr Gainer as the property owner have a timeline within which he has to come in with a plan or at least the concept for the next sections of the RTD so that the planning board sees that there's some work being done on this and it's moving along um so that's the next section that was added to it um paragraph 8 um changes section 10 uh regarding the um requirement that the property owner deed to the town by gift a parcel of land um necessary for or for the town to build a municipal building a public safety building or otherwise uh and that's a requirement that's in there and there's been a location

024for that in the district and the developer has agreed to gift the town this about four and a half to five acre parcel of land uh for a municipal building and I think Mr Moi you want to do something yeah I just wanted to uh to read in the uh 420 continuation of 4 66 Chestnut Street that continuation um will take place after the RTD discussion concludes comfortable with that thank you thank you um I don't know Tony did you want to say anything about the um Municipal Building or the gift of the land okay uh and then SEC the omission of section 11 18 and 22 were cleanups um that were because of the passage of time were no longer necessary in the Covenant one had to do with um I don't have the

025underlying Covenant in front of me but one had to do with the um the purchase of a a van for the senior center which is no longer necessary um and uh there were a couple of other items like that that were in the Covenant that actually were by the passage of time no longer necessary so those were omitted I think that um when Mr skav gave the planning board these packages he also provided the original Covenant to you so you actually will be able to see and compare both of the documents um and as always I you can ask Matt questions or you can send me questions if you have any between now and then regarding the Covenant itself and its impacts or anything of that nature if you'd like so if I can just

026comment just briefly on just since Lisa didn't have the uh the Covenant in front on on number 11 if you see that in there was a requirement uh payable to the town $11,000 per unit for Public Safety that um is actually been moved over and is existing in the camp andell Thorndike agreement so the town will be receiving $398,000 from camp and heli Thorndike u based on that paragraph for Public Safety use uh for the town uh paragraph 18 just had to do with a grant as uh attorney me mentioned for the mini buus that's no longer required and um and then number 22 um was related to um area e which is again no longer no longer required so those were the only three omissions from the original Covenant so the so the objective

027here ultimately we're looking at a vote um a week from this evening and so this is an opportunity for the planning board to understand the changes in the Covenant understand what will be deliberated upon and voted upon so that they're ready uh next Thursday correct that's we like right now uh all five Selectmen have affirmed that they're available next Thursday night for a 7 o'clock joint meeting with the planning board if we have a sufficient number of planning board members so um you know timing what it is uh you know all these things are are necessary to be able to have camp El thorite prepared to submit their site plan modific a application to the town so um this is the opportunity to an opportunity to review the changes and and to ask questions and

028be comfortable with uh with that or if we need to do any additional research for the planning board on any of these items we certainly would would do that between now and then if if it's necessary okay thank you Tony um any question questions how how many votes do you need next Thursday super majority of both boards at least four then well um yeah no that's a super majority would be seven of 10 oh it's combined yes combined oh interesting okay got it that is I don't think I've ever seen that before it that's actually a requirement in the coven very clearly laid out in the C can can each of you make it next Thursday uh what time was it 7 o' um I I'll try I'm on baby watch but I should be

029able to make it I was the first one to respond with the dates by the way yeah you were you were I can make it and I couldn't do next week let me see what time you doing what time is it open 7 7 o'clock on Thursday they going to jump right into it Preston can make it so if you can't make it we'll have four you can I'm going to try so you got 50/50 right here um you do it right at seven then I can just be late for the other thing same thing all right so if it's right at seven we can jump right into it seven will jump right into it okay do you want me to so so tonight you're looking for thoughts reactions in general that we're looking for

030tonight do you want to go down here anybody else want I H go go we go sure all right um I like this by the way it's the first time I've seen like a nice layout of uh the mitigations benefit type Mass Works owner developer combin due date that kind of thing I really like that so I appreciate that um I don't know who did that but this is your work right um the updated Covenant as a whole just kind of run through a few things to get my gut reaction area by area I was studying this I think maybe a week or change ago than I had to just get reoriented um the flex space the shift to two beds I would agree with them 100% the market has shifted towards two beds versus

031one bed um personally I know there's this uh bias or disdain towards more than two beds a lot of people I mean I get it they they assume it's going to be a lot of kids in overflow of the schools um and I think obviously from the planning department planning board and planning department we have to consider those things um my personal bias is why are we so discriminatory against families we should be welcoming families into the town um but I understand the way that uh the Covenant is trying to achieve that is through either the leases or the deeds and I would maybe it'd be nice to hear uh Town council's opinion on the more effective way to do that but by the way this is worded I guess it's leaving it to determination

032it's going to be tough once it goes into leases and that may push May shift some pressure onto the actual owner or whoever's going to be managing this afterwards but um I guess I can throw that out there quickly is this is it pretty common or do you find one is more eff in the other or is this kind of saying both well I I I'm not sure that I understand the question so in in section one we talk about there's one little section here that we're modifying it says all leases and or deeds shall specify the number of bedrooms associated with such unit and shall specify that any Flex space or study shall not be permitted to be used for bedroom purposes so obviously yeah so it's going to be it it's actually going

033to be it'll be a it's a part of the special permit right it's going to be a part of the site plan review one of the things um that you'll see in the development agreement so the same language in the development agreement that the board of Selectmen are signing also contain the limitation on bedrooms and in those development agreements campelli and Thor have already agreed that a condition in the site plan approval modification will include the development agreement so will be enforced through a zoning process through the development agreement in addition it'll be in the leases so all the leases will say how the space can be used um and it's on the Covenant so those are the those are kind of the layers of how it will be enforced okay and I'm just putting

034that out there for the public as in general I've kind of stated that I think we should be welcoming families to town but uh it is something people ask um the I like the proportional releases of affordability so people and they've stated that in this Covenant it's it's restated whereas they can't just put in 40 Market unit market rate units and then hey we're going to give you one affordable it is it is proportionate to so they've got they even numbered you got to get up up to 10 you got to at least do one affordable so I'm glad we kept that in there um the golf course thing I think probably would have tanked so I I I see why you took it um Hon's got to deal with this right now even though

035I like playing there I don't think it would work in this location so that's again my opinion there's not really enough space um and couple other things towards the end um the footprint piece as far as that goes I think I I think uh I don't know how it made the original Covenant I'm assuming people don't like to see large buildings but there's a lot of efficiencies to large buildings as you guys probably hear there's less um impervious type surface roofs pavement that kind of thing it does give them better opportunity to open up for Green Space so um I tend to mentally be is obviously you have more massing towards one building but um it's not not as though they went higher so therefore I think this is probably a smart thing for the

036town overall to have a slightly larger building um and section eight um the piece of property so the wording of this is interesting because I I would prefer obviously this may be the way it's worded but I would prefer that the town get to decide afterwards should we choose to develop on this piece of land or sell it if we choose that there's a better piece of property more ideal for the fire and police and the way you worded it when you were talking was or otherwise and which I actually like um and but it says here um the granter shall convey as a gift to the grantee a parcel of 4 and a half to 5 Acres which is suitable for the town to construct a combined fire and police Public Safety facility or

037other Municipal facility as the town determines it in its sole discretion so it's kind of a it's allowing us to construct something but it isn't allowing us the freedom as a town to sell it if we'd have a better piece of property so well it says other Municipal purposes not facility maybe I don't know maybe you have a draft that before before that was changed um it just says or is the town or is the town determined so I'm just uh thinking a little bit down the road I wouldn't want to be situation where we're now fighting with a few residents that don't want us to sell it I'd rather give flexibility to the town to decide Town management to decide if we do have a better location and it and it's in a more

038ideal centralized location which obviously this is a pretty good location but it would be nice to be able to turn that and then obviously build somewhere else and do nothing with this should the town choose so just just curious and doesn't sound like the developer cares um so just a thought in general I saw the piece of property too and how you have the fire department potentially positioned right on NBTA Road and the police a little further back so you might determine it's not ideal to have the police further back and and we got to do something weird with the Wetland to get back there and and and they're giving additional acreage beyond that if we have to deal with Wetlands which makes total sense but so was part of my question I actually don't

039know where it's located the 5 acres and so it's about 1,200 ft in on the the MBT access road and and the picture you have was just an early design thing that the desire of the town is to build a combined facility um and so I think the wording in there is suitable for the town to actually build a combined fire police Public Safety facility or other Municipal purpose if we decide not to build a public safety facility there it could be left as just open space could put a park there I mean you know I guess there's you know a number of things that the town could do to it um I say short of of selling it but um so wouldn't necessarily have to construct a building that we would be able to

040use it for other purposes but the design of at least for Public Safety was to have enough property available in order to build a combined facility that's why you'll see some language and they're related to Wetlands there are some Wetlands around there and should uh through the you know Conservation Commission process um you know the town be allowed to to fill some wetlands and replicate those that Mr gainers agreed to give us additional proper property necessary for replication of wetlands again you know not withstanding any you know decision on the from the conservation Comm Commission on that so we've tried to provide a number of different ways for us to be have flexible use of that of that property and not U you know pigeon hole for just one you know one use short of

041sale but why wouldn't you want to be able to sell it um well I mean I think we really wanted to use it for something so I think during the negotiation process we really didn't uh you know you know have that uh discussion in depth about you know whether the town could eventually sell it or not I suppose we could talk to Mr Gainer about that but it didn't actually come up in our discussions okay I'm just say if this is the time period where you're just about to go to to select and get this locked in now I'm rather I'd rather give the town Max flexibility otherwise we could legitimately be looking at a nonsense I'm not going to say useless but a dead piece of property that has the potential to be $500,000

042million just you know to the town and of course we'll use it for good purposes so right trying to help you yeah thanks so I don't know it's up to you guys I guess you're GNA have to draft something if they decide to go in that direction Tony talk to the board so okay and that was pretty much it for me did you have any comments good I'm good Fel um so we talked about the location of the land um so it's it's been determined you said 1,200 feet and on the right approxim approximately right and then um for the affordable units I would may be split 26 units to two bedroom and and 14 to one bedroom or is I saw something here that mentioned three bedrooms for the affordable units is that something

043in the Shi bylaw or no there's no three there's no three bedrooms at all so on the bottom of yeah I didn't know um the bottom of this page here with the chart talking about Mike yeah the three three bedroom units shall be developed simult mously and continuously with PR development of the one and two bedroom units where next page oh something else maybe it's one more page in not seeing a little chart at the top of your page so right there oh look at that no this needs to be changed there are no three bedroom units no there's been a million pairs of eyes on this and nobody's got that mic so that's good there I I will revise that there are no three-bedroom units okay and so will the split I assume it's

04440 units right you got to round up and yeah everything has to be proportional right so it'll be proportional to what you're building so 2614 I think it that's the new split or something like that it's proportional and it's prated as we move through the project okay does that that applies to all 690 units in theel velopment or 650 now I should say 650 10% applies to it all so and that just keeps us on on par it doesn't certainly right and again this language is also repeated as you see in the drafts that you have in both development agreements um as far as you you mentioned the the mitigating funds have moved to campelli and thorn right what what that was $1,000 per unit right um for all 650 units as well no the

045300 just for phase one right and that was for services rendered like that are going to be impacted by the town I assume is that what that it's for public let me answer that I can add some context to that it was specifically related to the fact that the town did not have a fire truck a hook and ladder truck that would that would uh service four-story buildings and because these would could be four storing on on the low side uh they put that in to purchase a hooking ladder Tru that was the that was the original purpose of the thing so that was so it applies really to lot one because there will no not be any other buildings that'll be four story only L have that truck now huh we have a truck

046now that can do that yeah they did do we have a do we have a fireman that can use the truck I don't know Tony what else what else do we need um so I know you have the straft we're not going to go through it but in the development agreement with Kelly and Thorn dij is paragraph 8 um and it talks about the, per unit mitigation for Public Safety Public Safety um also in the original agreement there was and and I I did catch a little bit of the board of selecting meeting but not all of it but I know there was um some discussion around uh Trails right and then there's something in here that talks about future development of a bike and walking path and connections to High Street I saw it

047in the in the original Covenant so the that has not changed in the Covenant so that's why you don't see it in the amendment yep that hasn't changed but then in the uh we made a revision in the development agreement regarding the access to High Street for Trails um and I watched while you're trying to find that I did watch a little bit of that discussion and I I thought it was just I guess a a little unclear as to what kind of trails will be left or what kind of access and the ownership of it and and maybe it was purposely left that way but I just um I didn't really understand it and then when I I also received something from Joel today kind of outlining some of the standards around Trail building

048and and keeping it up uh to the same standards as the rest of the The Greenway so I just wanted to does language need to be in there that says it'll be maintained to the same standard as the rest of the greenway right is that essentially covered or is it kind of up to the landowner to maintain the trail as they see fit so in the development agreement with the um with the landowner in paragraph five and you have that document it talks about the future development plan to be in Conformity with the zoning Provisions um of the RTD shall depict white bike and walking paths connections to the downtown and Facilities connections with the upper Charles rail trail committee work um and that talks about subsequent site planning approval with the planning board um

049there's a couple of other places that we have the trail uh all public uh access bike and walking paths which are part of the parcels being developed shall complete prior be complete prior to the issuance of certificate of occupancy for any structure a part of those Parcels so there's a deadline to enforce when the bike and walking paths have to be complete and you as the planning board of course are going to be approving the site plans right so they have to come in in conformance with this and they have to show where the bike and walking paths are throughout the throughout the district as it gets developed that would that be the time to I guess say how wide or the maintenance schedule of a trail yeah would be at that time that's exactly

050right it would part of site plan approval and that will be proposed by the um applicant or the developer as the case may be but there are a couple of places within the development agreement that deal with the the trails and they'll certainly remain open to the public and there's nothing right so Mr Moi it Mr scavi is correct this is the change this is the discussion you heard from the board of selectman meeting uh that declaring agrees that no access or erress shall be permitted to Heist Street and Lorraine Drive except for emergency access or eress and just so you know that's taken that is something in the original Covenant that's not changing as required by the town notwithstanding connections to biking and or walking trails determined by the town to be in the

051best interest um and is contemplated under Section Five the agreement which is what I just read to you um the developer agrees that 50 feet of a portion of the RTD AB budding Residential Properties in Frontage on high and baln circle shall remain undisturbed um or shall be land escaped in accordance with the plan approved by the planning board originally again that protection is also in the Covenant so I think that's it the other I guess one more question would be um in regards to the tra traffic pattern in and out of the rail transit district and I know I've heard other people mention it as well you know someday we'd have to to connect to either Pleasant or high Street somewhere um is any of that covered in the Covenant or the agreement or

052would it just be excluded from phase one and be added to Future phases I guess I'm so I not going to address the connections exactly but when the original site plan was approved um there was a traffic study done by VHB I think is that who the traffic study did vaness like the predecessor yeah the predecessor to VHB and some of those improvements were implemented and some weren't and the ones that weren't um are required to be implemented by uh Campell Thorndike as part of their development agreement and in addition they will be having a traffic report for you uh their agreement also requires them to uh do a study of the olive Franklin one other Street provide money for and provide money to do the study for the that intersection that has proven to

053be somewhat of a problem so um you will be seeing all that traffic work and I don't know about the later connections but of course as each part of the development comes in you have control over that site plan review and part of that site plan review is traffic so you'll be able to see all of that yeah my my concern is that the site plan reviews will come in one at a time if if we don't understand the layout of the property prior we may miss our opportunity to appropriately connect to another Corridor right and that is why we ask as part of the uh developers the owner development agreement that he present an overall plan to the board within a certain period of time kind of a concept I had mentioned that earlier

054um I'm just trying to find where that is Lisa can I uh can I address that because I I I understand the question uh and the reason for the question uh we looked at connecting from the MBTA parking lot through there's an access there there's an emergency access uh to the bridge just prior to the bridge to get out to Pleasant Street and then to Oak Street Etc rather than going all the way around through downtown uh that was uh we we gave up that because we had a lot of opposition from the people on High Street who were concerned that people would use that to go out onto High Street and then go out High Street to the further down 135 so there's there's reasons for some of this and uh even though we're

055trying to make some of these changes uh we we can't we have to be sensitive to the fact that this that this Covenant was put in place actually as part of the bylaw not not really after it I mean um before it the bylaw was presented and then the Covenant was put in place uh to ensure people that certain things in the bylaw would be uh would would be complied with by the developer the future developers of the site so we made so so that was was a provision that was put in there uh to U appease uh the people on High Street as was the buffer that Lisa talked about along Apple Ridge that was a negotiation with them to give a un uh touch buffer that would separate them from any housing and

056that we wouldn't go out onto Lorraine Drive nor would we go out onto Balin Circle so those those have you know uh historical context reasons for being there uh personally it's not it's not a problem for for me as as owner of the entire site I have no problem whatsoever I think it would be good uh Tony and I talked somewhat about it and there could be be a a you know provision that you can't make a left turn there and can only go right and over the bridge and out to Pleasant Street which I think would be a good thing uh so you know but clearly if we're going to have traffic going out and then going the other way going south on uh High Street uh that could or could not be problematic

057not not as far as I'm concerned but people might have a problem with that so if that helps you at all that's where that came from um but to your long range planning issue um so it is in the Covenant that you will be approving in um paragraph 7 um that it's that it will be amended to say that within six months of the execution of this amendment the grantor shall commence and diligently pursue the planning of the remainder of the RTD within one year the grantor shall provide the planning board a plan which will set forth a concept of the remaining layout and uses in the RTD including timing for implementation of same subject to limitations of the Covenant in this amendment so it does put a requirement that show you a l an

058overall concept plan which will be your time to start to consider that so so not not being a lawyer um the word subject to limitations to the Covenant make me think we should maybe identify a spot that could potentially be the connection in the Covenant now right before we see that plan should we no the limitation of the Covenant would be so for example to what Mr Gainer just said you you couldn't you couldn't use the Covenant says you can't use um you can't have an excess out an exit out of High Street into Baldwin Circle you can't do that so that means that when you're doing your planning work you can't say to him you have to go that way because the Covenant doesn't allow it so that's subject to those limitations so if

059there's anything else that aren't Limited in the Covenant you can absolutely consider okay I so I understand that so I'm I guess my question is are we considering other exits than the circle or at High Street right is there other spots that we can identify on the front end that may well there's not a plan put forward right I mean there's not a plan put forward there's a piece of land there right there's no there's no overall plan I'm just not comfortable we're going to end up with something that's suitable address so I I think one thing that's important so the Covenant can be changed as many times as the board of selectman and the planning board wish to do so so I think what attorney me's trying to get at is when uh Mr

060gaina provides the plan and there's a similar requirement to come in I think quarterly to the board of Selectmen uh to develop this this future development plan and I think there's probably interest in you know another exit of the RTD out into the the you know Pleasant Street area and so as that moves forward and a plan gets put forward to potentially do that if it looks like that is a a viable thing for the town and and the community decides that's a good idea the the planning board and the selectman certainly can go back and amend the COV again to adjust those current limitations that are in there so that you know there is never an opportunity loss you can go back as many times as is deemed fit for the town to go

061back and adjust the Covenant it's just in this particular situation on phase one um it wasn't a requirement there limitations are there but I think in the future for the rest of the RTD I think those discussions are very appropriate um but we also need to take into you know consideration the larger community in that discussion and how that may take shape as you know the the land owner puts forth future plans uh for the the remainder of the of the rail Transit District so okay thank you and and I agree it's part of a larger discussion I just didn't know if we needed Protections in there but if we can revisit it after then that's certainly an acceptable answer I just I mean the landscape of 135 has Chang changed we all know that

062there's there's different traffic patterns been 15 years ago and uh so the the landowner the town and the board the board selectman and the planning board can all agree to change the Covenant at any time my questions anything else from any the members of the planning board at this time you um Trails for you got anything next so we'll for next Thursday so we're going to schedule for next Thursday it's so um BOS is set up for 7 o'clock right all right so then um we'll aim for Thursday at sub um if we start on the dot I think we can do it can we um what would would it help if we started at 6:30 I me it would yes yeah can you make it at 6:30 I I should be Al that be

063yep 6:30 works I do I do have a question I think just for Tony before we leave or or for the applicant I guess and it's it's um around discussion around the rail Transit District obviously there's a lot of interest from the community I didn't know if we had any uh forums planned to kind of outline you know that it's what it is or if you know I think it' be a good idea to get in front of people again and give them a chance to to hear more about it and learn more about it because it's certainly you know the Talk of the Town right now yeah we can we can talk to that I we haven't put anything particular I think it would probably go a long way with letting people understand what

064what's back on the table and what's going on with the whole parcel of land as a whole thank you guys continue discuss yes right to read the time again ready to see the applicants here for 466 Chestnut we're going to continue the uh public hearing on the senior residential commun and special permit um sorry for keeping you guys a little bit longer than anticipated um are they picturers that need to probably be on the camera you may want to ask the cameraman over there where should they set them up under the TV yeah right on top of that on top of that table so the um the peer reviewer um PSC recently provided um the planning board and the applicant with the first iteration to the peer review um which was supplied late last week

065um we have our onewe policy but the applicant um has been very ambitious and they and they'd like to move forward um and dig into a little bit little bit of it tonight um they'd like to hit on some of the highlights um and review it with you guys um so we'll open it up to the applicant um before that um John you missed the uh last meeting so could you just State whether or not you've seen the tape and signed the affidavit I have I have watched the tape made a bunch of notes and I have filled out an affidavit and got it over than that thank you no problem photometric engineering haven't done anything this is pay back we C you guys yeah that's fine and I I feel I don't mind being

066vation oh my God I've seen them all twice three times way too much I walking the other day it's like somebody's going on a date I'm like do you really get to watch this ready yes good evening Mr chairman members of the board fellow citizens of the town of Ashland for the record my name is Jerry Efron I represent pck Development Corporation doing business as the green company were the applicant for a SRC special permit um I wanted tonight to bring you up to date on events since the last meeting and go over a few other things our decision to come before you after seeing only the peer review report on Friday has nothing to do with being ambitious or impatient it has everything to do with trying to get some input from the board

067to guide us uh together through this process um since since the last meeting I wanted to go over briefly some events I then want to discuss a few sections myself of the peer review report and then I will turn it over to Mr C Garis and we have our engineer here for questions as well I then want to discuss some issues relative to where we see going from here open items scheduling and the like um we did have a meeting with the Conservation Commission since we last convened uh that meeting revealed no substance issues that will require the applicant to relocate any of the ways or the infrastructure laid out on the site plan which is good which means that we can go forward to supplely discuss all of the items and issues that result

068from our play our layout our location of units and everything else without concern that there's going to be any drastic need to move any roads homes drainage facilities there we had received according to the records of the Town only one additional comment of piece of material since our last filing that was a a letter from a neighbor that deals with some issues relating to the entrance way on Chestnut Street Mr calligaris will uh respond and and relate to those um we determined during the course of uh some technical review in response to the peer review report that through inadvertence um we had uh filed in our Scenic Road permit which is part of this Consolidated public hearing only to um get permission for the minimal alterations on Elliot Street we inadvertently omitted to deal with

069the minimal alterations on Chestnut Street as a result we need to file that application and we need to join it with this hearing uh prepar atory to filing that application that the guts of which are rather simple we need unfortunately to do some survey work out in the field it'll take about 7 to 10 days to complete that based on the notice period um what would mean that we need to get that in and have it published before we reconvene and we will be looking for um scheduling for the next meeting so that we will be able to have notice given that that hearing can take place and then be combined with the remainder of this hearing so that the board can have all the information it needs to make the judgments it will be

070asked to be made at the end of the proceeding um as Nat indicated um we did get the peer review report um we were afforded an immediate meeting which we very much appreciated with Nat and Town Council um which occurred on Tuesday um that was an incredibly productive meeting we literally went through each line item one by one um disc discussed the impact uh and came away with an overall feeling that uh there were no insurmountable that were presented by the peerreview report um that is that is as often the case the report correctly identified uh some omissions which will be able to be cured effectively raised some issues which were able to be discussed and which can be responded to effectively and probably set forth the need to augment the original waiver list um

071to particularize some items um which for which there will most likely not be a lot of dispute but which might properly um deal with waivers um with respect to the peer review they were putting aside the order and I I guess we thought the peer review was written pretty well flowed pretty easily and was actually a very easyto read document which we think is helpful to the process it really identified a couple of major areas the first being the overall compliance with the SRC bylaw and uh the requirements for open space and yield which I'll speak about um then then also some things with respect to the effect of some of the product being in the co district and also with and what what role the subdivision rules and regulations will have I'm going to

072speak about those three things in general and then Mr caligaris will speak to some additional specifics as well as discussing the matter of that letter that I spoke about um initially the peer the peerreview report in the beginning the first really you know one to eight items uh in part uh talked about the overall use of the project um determined of course that it was proper for an SRC um since the gentleman who wrote it was not here at town meeting he did not know that the town meeting had approved the use of the SRC which takes care of an item that he specified as to whether or not such use was permitted in the co District um he then went through some various uh questions as to the applicability of certain items in the

073co District um which I believe there'll be a concurrence of judgment um do not apply because we are this product does not involve a commercial development within the co District it involves a senior residential Community a residential use so to to a certain extent some of the things he called out like a site alteration special permit and a particular setback requirement with respect to buffering um and some reasons for connecting they do not apply to this particular project the residential SRC project uh of great importance um the um he reviewed the various layout with respect to the configuration of the property and looked at the various dimensional requirements set forth in the SRC district and in doing so he used those to make a determination of what methodology should be used to deal with the

074appropriate yield the maximum number of units that could be put on the property the two overriding policies in the SRC District at least in my judgment are the yield and also to preserve the open space in a significant way and he found that uh according to the methodology that there could be a maximum of 126 SRC units on the parcel giving giving full account to the the dimensional requirements the methodology the requirement of open space and the requirement to set aside wetland and as you all know we're only proposing 93 units we're well within the um permitted amount of units which was a a very good thing um the last item I wanted to talk about a little bit is the uh subdivision rules and regulations the the his the history of the three SRC

075permits that have been given um makes it clear that the SR that the uh subdivision rules and regulations apply in certain areas um particularly in the construction end in certain cases but don't apply in others these of course are private roadways private sidewalks private infrastructure no Town maintenance of anything so to the extent certain specifications are written for subdivisions and will include projects which are uh going to be taken over by the public those regulations do not apply and it's the same thing for certain of the dimensional requirements so in discussing the matter with the plan and Town Council um we're going to respond to the peer review uh to the board rather in a manner that will make clear that to the extent any overall waiver is required um just simply because of the

076disconnect between the two areas we'd be looking for one but in particular for those items which traditionally have been the subject of waivers and the traditional subdivision review where necessary we will make a specified waiver list we submitted I believe five at the time that that will probably grow but it will will not be growing by a significantly large number um with respect to the process um we believe we're going to be able to get this back to the uh planner within a week to 10 days it'll be augmented with some plan revisions uh some additional supplemental sheets for certain areas including the clubhouse which you're going to hear something about tonight um and you'll you'll also be getting some revisions to certain items of the text these should be able to go back to

077the peer reviewer uh for his review and response um in an efficient manner and a timely manner and it is our hope that we can receive tonight perhaps any input that the board may have although we know that you also have had to review this in a very very expedited way and you're certainly not foreclosed from that review at all ever until the close of the hearing in this case but we hope to take whatever guidance into put it into our responses so that we can get these things back and the town can then receed uh additional advice and consultation from its technical consultant so that when we reconvene we'll have made hopefully whatever modifications are necessary and we'll be ready for uh some judgments to be made um so with that um with your

078permission I'd like to turn it over to Mr caligaris to respond to that matter about the entrance ways um and also to discuss some peer review items and of course we're all available for questions thank you thank you thank you Jerry so um as Jerry mentioned what we thought would be helpful um what I'd like to do is to go over the uh the letter that we received uh that the board received um it is consistent I think with the the issue that I identified at the last meeting uh which had been identified to us uh at one of our neighborhood meetings before we filed and that has to do with the concern of uh the primary entry being in the location of the um existing entry uh on the property off of Chesnut Street

079which is right in this area over here um what I had told you at the last meeting um was that when we had heard of that issue we uh we tried to be in this whole process there are so many there are things we've tried to be as responsive as we can and there are certain things that we can certain things that that we couldn't but what uh what we did there is we tried to slide that entry um uh further to the north uh which is vertical up on the plan um in order to provide more uh space to the South um the gentleman who wrote it I believe it Liv in this house right here and it provides us more space to landscape to the right of our entry which will allow us

080to essentially preserve the area from the you can see a stone wall out there at the entry to his side of it which which is very very helpful um and so that entry we from day one uh we always thought that that entry was logical because that's been the entry to the property forever um in terms of the use uh as identified on the traffic report or the traffic report from the uh from the VHB engineer um the use that an SRC Community has is much less on a per home basis than say single family homes in fact the easiest way I think about it is that the 93 SRC homes here produce the same traffic as the 36 or so single family homes that one could get on a traditional subdivision on that property

081um the additional thing is that the characteristics are such that they're not quite as much in and out at the same time as single family homes which is which is helpful for the dispersion of of traffic you know across the the length of the day um the in terms of safety aspect uh that's one of the things that was addressed by the engineer in the traffic report and they found that the site in both directions and things were fine uh they didn't feel that the amount of volume that we're adding uh really puts any kind of stress on that road um and they did you know they did traffic counts they did current traffic counts and they followed the standards that are typical with with those kinds of reports um in terms of some of

082the items identified in the letter um that deal with you know speed on the road and uh sort of what's Happening across the street it's hard for for us to to Really deal with any of that um I will tell you that you know it's there's always a quick reaction in terms of thinking about the numbers of homes but it really you just have to see some of the communities they don't really produce a lot of traffic it just doesn't seem like it and I know Sudbury on one of the communities we did about 12 years ago they had done something for another community that was applied and they were it was underneath the traffic counts that we had given when they actually went and did their study so um so we we're very comfortable

083with with the location of the drive uh with the safety aspects of it um and but the fact that it seems to be more logical for it to be there where it has always been and I guess the only other thing that I would add is certainly while that property was being used for the town hall I can assure you the traffic was far in excess of anything that we're producing in terms of traffic in and out with whether it's employees visit visiting all that kind of stuff now that goes back a few years and I'm just sort of trying to trying to keep in perspective the fact that it is commercially zoned and yes it has been vacant but that's the kind of dynamic you get if there was something commercial there so I'm

084not sure what else I can add to that um yeah I'm not really sure what else I can add to that if if that's if you want I can start to move through the some of the items we were hoping to get input on from the uh the peer review there pay attention um certainly we take some public discussion now if you have a certain comment to the traffic pretty simple my name is Tom I live at 47 the that email there's a possibility of 186 CS being in that development okay which isn't a big deal but in the morning these people have to work okay I don't care if it's a 55 or older they're $500,000 homes and they have to work okay that being said where the entrance is you got a left

085and right there's no way you can't put that entrance onto Elli street without a problem that gives you five choices left and right you go right you go left and right on Chestnut you go right you go left and right on the prospect or continue straight on the Elliott I have four pictures here I don't know if you have them I sent them before I really can't hold them up and show them but like to give it to you to be helpful for you yeah no no it's um I really know what they are so let me explain okay if you look at this there's our house there's the entrance okay I really need you guys to see this because I don't want you to have these but it's only 60 ft away okay this

086entrance shouldn't be on Chestnut Street I'm the wife for here in town you how many fatalities we've had on this road you how many bad accents we've had on this road now we have the soccer field we have the bot field there's a lot of cars right there at one time when I first moved into this house 13 years ago we had three ft of dirt right there in front of the house now there's practically 20 ft of dirt in front of that house because everybody that misses hel Street turns around right there and it's created a turn around right there which again is right near the entrance of this project I know it may be financially we taken away from homes or whatever by creating an entrance exit onto Elliot Street but it's for

087the safety you know it really is guys I'm asking you I'm not asking progress I'm asking to guide it because it really isn't a good idea for chest Street to have an entrance with possibility of 186 cards so I just want you to think about it again it's not that hard to change the road up to Elliot really is guys will keep this think about it thank you for your time thank you yeah I think um continue finishing and then we'll uh we'll take any more public discussion okay at the end all right okay so um in some of the items that we'll talk about relate to um I know we haven't submitted it but just giving you an idea of where we're going with some things so um I think since I have this

088plan up uh one of the items that the peer review reviewer identified had to do with the plantings on the perimeter buffer so there were kind of two issues there one had to do with uh stuff that was preserved and the very simple answer that we'll be giving there is that we have a limit of disturbance line around this entire perimeter and so essentially what's happening is everything on the outboard side of that line that's not Disturbed so it's all saved everything on the inboard side has to be recreated I mean it's one of the tradeoffs one has when we're trying to preserve this much bulk open space I mean there are tradeoffs we have to make the only exception that we would make to disturbing something in that that uh that buffer area that's

089indicated and all of it is 30 ft or more it's it's it's more than what's required under the bylaw would be to the extent if you have like a something that's dangerous a tree that might be leaning into the a developed area in which case we will we will use the landscape architect to indicate that that's a danger and if we had to deal with it in some way or manner so that has to do with the sort of the stuff that's preserved and and and uh and not preserved in terms of the uh the buffer and I I sort of understand this and and we approached it in a manner where we highlighted on our plans all the areas where we would go back we you know once the clearing happened we would see

090what's there and we would supplement the underst story to Kickstart it normally what happens with the underst story is once it's exposed to light everything starts growing to that light so it starts to it starts to fill in Fairly fairly well um but typically what we like to do is to supplement it uh recognizing that that puts an ambiguity into the into the process what what I'm going to do and what we'll resubmit is we'll come back with uh some sort of a uh a list with uh you know the types of plants and quantities that we'd be thinking about for the different areas and uh we will also um I was asked recently when we do that because somebody said you do it at the end of the project and I no no way

091we do it as soon as we can so we we like to plant spring or fall um and we like to plant it as soon as we can so it has as much time to sort of get going um and so with each phase we would be dealing with the uh the perimeter buffer in that phase so if with phase one Kur could you put up uh the phase one plan there so as an example just stay near there because I might need some help on something so as an example the perimeter buffer that's involved in this area here this there's really not going to be nothing much needed there but here and here uh we would do all that as part of phase one and so what I will do on the the plane

092coming back is rather than treat it the way we did we'll treat it with more an indication of um of plant material and some quantities so at least you you know that that those quantities will be planted there um so that has to do with sort of perimeter buffer the preservation and sort of the uh the planting type stuff um um the second thing on phasing is we there will be an adjustment to the phasing claim that deals with one of the items the um the peer review raised and we actually had already dealt with it with the fire department um but we just hadn't reflected on the plans yet and that has to do with phase one everything is fine when we get to phase two we end up with a fairly lengthy Dead

093End Road before phase three kicks in so what we're going to be doing when as part of phase two is we're going to rough cut a gravel road out to this point here so it will give the fire department a second way to get in if something happens um and it will also provide a second means of of access to the site during during the construction process so that will be reflected on somehow on the next version of the uh of the phasing plan um in terms of Entry signage K can you uh um the other thing that was pointed out was um in the bylaw there's there's supposed to be no through traffic and I think it it it sort of stems from some problems in Prior communities or something but essentially here there

094there is no through traffic I mean you can't get through because there's no way to get through uh all that we have here is an emergency eress is Chained off so um what we were thinking if if the board feels that a sign is needed is that if somebody comes in what I'm trying to do is avoid sort of signage clutter at the entry so if somebody comes in they can make their way they can loop around so you know they come in they're just going to end up finding their way out the only place will be the road that comes down in this area so so we could put a sign here that says not no through traffic or dead end or something no exit whatever uh and I think that that would meet

095the uh the technical parts of the bylaw I think in we already meet it in spirit because you can't go through you just can't drive through so that was what our thought process was if you guys feel the sign is needed that's really up to you we're certainly happy to do it we think that the logical place would be down uh it would be down on this area down here uh Kurt put up the just flip to the second so in terms of signage um this is this is where we're headed uh at the entry sign it's uh says the lanterns at Warren Woods uh you can see the lantern theme playing itself out this sign is 3x3 so it's within the limits uh provided by the bylaw and this is uh if you go

096back to the Landscaping plan CP which is the very first one uh as you may recall if you look at the entry um sketch here that sign on both sides of the entry there's sort of a a a column a stone stone wall type column which dies into the natural stone walls a stone wall that angles back off the angles into the entry and then another column so that sign would hang off of that uh half of that post uh internal to the site uh is really just a sign at each of the neighborhood uh entries that basically says um 2 through 12 um Warren Way which happens to be the the name we're looking at for this first road here even on the left and we've reviewed that with both the building inspector and

097the fire department to make sure that they're comfortable with how we've numbered things and how we're treating it and they're very comfortable with it um and then there'll be some signs hanging off a light post at the different Street Point points to show street names and that kind of thing so we'll have uh we'll be be able to show the entry sign as we submit it next in terms of open space um since our last meeting there have been two things that I believe have happened yeah I know they've happened so uh on one level I believe the Conservation Commission voted unanimously that if offered the land these two bulk open space first of all we're talking about these two bulk open space Parcels here the field as well as this area to the uh

098to the to the east I guess um and so the the Conservation Commission voted to accept it if offered and the board of Selectmen voted unanimously to accept it if offered so there are details that have to be worked out with all that in terms of the logistics and the timing and all that which is fine we're happy to do it however one of the changes though that we're going to make on the next set of plans is we're going to break down this open space area are to break it down with sort of the equivalent of anr lot around the house so it'll become open space A1 open space A2 because I believe that there there will be a way that uh those Parcels could be conveyed at different points in time I know

099for sure that uh you know we haven't got into the details of it but I'm sure the town will will want to make sure that that drainage basin is all complete and everything is done before uh the lane gets conveyed conversely the house could happen right away so the most logical thing that I could think of to accommodate that and it doesn't it can go all at one time doesn't matter to us uh would be to just break that open space parcel down into an A and A B and uh so you'll you'll see that and the a will be the effectively equal to uh what would be essentially an anr uh configuration for the for the house we conform to zoning it will conform to zoning yeah um there was a comment about handicap

100access to open space and a suggestion that we add a handicap spot um in this area here there's some parking spots there there also an is an ACC there's a ramp down here that allows ramp it's it's grass but it allows you to get down to to service the Basin so we we're happy to do that and that will provide um the sort of technical handicap access to uh this open space parcel along Chestnut and Elliott and uh there's the plan is to have a field mode path passes its way through here and then ultimately connects over to Warren wood so it will not only allow access to that but it will allow a connection to waren Woods to happen as well um sidewalks so actually let me deal let me deal with sidewalk let

101me deal with the clubhouse first um in terms of the clubhouse Kurt just flip to the next plan there yeah um all right so just to give you an idea of location this is that first K can you hold up the site plan for a second just independently of that if you don't mind just so I can show okay so the clubhouse is located right at this first intersection when you come in and what I've said in the beginning was that was really a marker for where it was I knew the footprint wouldn't be any bigger so we don't have any lck coverage issues and stuff so this is a further development of the clubhouse where we are right now that you'll see coming in so this is that intersection coming in from the entry

102this is that first right-and turn F and Crossing happens to be the the road name that we're uh that we're looking to do and you'll see the the uh site plan of the clubhouse in this area with the walkway systems that would tie to the parking on either side back to a handicap ramp on this side of the clubhouse um CT the full board this in the very last one there where we with the clubhouse right now is we're still working on just put it vertical we're still working on some elevational issues with it but the floor plan is pretty much settled down um so essentially you have an L-shaped this is the front of it right here uh we're working on this this uh the massing of this building a little bit but there's

103several things to point out one is uh the use of an sort of an L-shaped porch to kind of bring some outdoor space to the to the area there a kitchen a couple baths a um uh what is that one back that's a storage area back here because again this will be on a slab so we need to provide some some storage um there is on the right hand side of the building this is where the post office would be so in a lot of our communities we have this sort of thing people come every day they pick up their mail it's a convenient place for the postmaster to drop everything in one place and so it it also brings daily usage to the building so it helps it helps with interaction within the community

104and and while this ramp is shown internal ultimately the by the time we get done the ramp will be exterior to the to the porch so we don't disrupt it but the other thing I wanted to point out was we've also gone ahead and uh on this elevation over here to the South we've put some solar panels on the roof uh there was a request that we we consider that and so uh we we are we are putting those on there to uh to accommodate that uh this is simply to give you an idea of we're heading towards a sort of a reddish color for the building as being the primary color theme obviously there'll be other things we've done that in a number of places and it um it it really works well um

105and so that's that's kind of the direction we're headed in but we'll have a lot more in our next filing but I had promised you guys that we would do that uh Kurt pull that one down for a second could you confirm to the board cling on Club constru yes the the clubhouse um the general timing that we would have is that the models would start uh as immediately as we could um site work would then be either little bits of it this fall the bulk of it next spring we would start the clubhouse next year so we don't wait until the end we like to do it earlier but we would want to make sure the site work is in place in phase one before we start it so we really like to get

106that done early on because we want people to be able to use it it's you know truthfully it's it's a good marketing thing for us so people know what it is that they're getting as part of the community so that will happen as part of phase one um there is a change to uh what you can see here is um on the plans that you have the sidewalk that runs from this area down to Chestnut is on this side of the road uh based upon grading as you start to get down closer closer to Chestnut it really makes a lot more sense for it to be over on this other side it will allow us to be more sensitive to the grades because as you're coming in into the entry the grades are rising on

107your right and so by having a a sidewalk over there it forces us to do some more extreme things to grading so it really makes a lot more sense for it to be on the other side so all we've done as you'll see on the final CH plans as we switched it over and run it down on the uh on the north side of the entry Road um drainage issues that are in there I mean generally uh we'll be able to comply with that stuff there might be a couple of waivers that come out of it but you'll you'll see the logic and all of it when the explanations come through uh the one item that probably is worth touching on is the notion of uh site runoff could you put the site plan back

108up for please thank you so as you recall we have uh drainage basins in in this area the service phase one and two in this area the service phase three and this area the service phase four in the general regulation is that you your post-development is the same as your pre-development so what's happening here is the drainage that moves off site it gets controlled by uh the SI basically the size of the pipe so it it get the amount of flow the rate of flow that's coming off site is controlled to be the same as it is today um um and so whatever the flow is that goes this way is going to be the same whatever it goes this way is going to be the same uh really because of the impermeability of the

109soils of the site all that really ended up happening is we had to make the drainage basins bigger to to store more volume in a heavier storm and so if you got a big bucket and your hole is that big it's just it'll just take a little longer for it to drain through into the Wetland system and get dispersed Downstream so there's no flooding type issues it's all controlled in that manner uh a little more does go in this direction but that's because a a lot more does not go in this direction there is going to be a tremendous Improvement on the side of Prospect Heights uh right now it flows off in that direction over people's yards into their basements and whatever else happens over there it's not good um so by the development

110it we natur naturally capture it uh and with the soils being impermeable it has to go into the drainage the drainage system uh we've talked about the so site run of mail facility uh not a through Street we've talked about that utilities you'll see several items with utilities uh just know that uh we have pre submittal we had consulted with DPW and sort of work through a lot of this stuff with them the the second issue is that this is a permitting set of plans and so some of the specifics that are being identified would be specifics that would get part of a construction set that that DPW would it have to meet their requirements and their approval no matter what so some of the explanations may be that this will be part of the

111construction set we'll have to meet whatever DPW says so you'll see some stuff in there about that um let's see perimeter plantings lighting uh we're in the process of doing the uh the photometric plan that's turned out to be a bigger challenge for me than I was expecting when I first went in it but we're getting there we're making some progress so that's essentially a site plan that shows where all the lights are and then uh where the uh where the light falls onto the grounds just to make sure that light does not extend beyond uh beyond the the boundaries of the site uh fill deliveries uh there's an identification we have uh gravel that we'll need to bring in over the course of uh four phases is really not all that it's it's not

112significant but uh what the peer Reviewer is saying is you need to identify where it's coming from and um obviously we can't do that we have specified the quality of the gravel which is one of the items that he identified but we really can't say where it's coming from because it's a function of the site contract that we end up using and where gravel is available at that time so that we thought the the best way to approach this would be simply to at the time put in something that says we've got a file with DPW where it's coming from um and get their approval and then give you guys a copy you know submit a copy for your files or something like that we thought that would be a reasonable way of approaching it

113so that it would be um I don't know how else to do it quite frankly in terms of all the you know cleaning of the streets and all those things those will be in the details of our plans and that's something we do standardly um so that's not a problem it's just really you don't know where it's coming from until you uh until you need it um and then the final thing is there's some comments in there about ADA um doesn't really apply necessarily to the housing uh certainly there are some requirements as part of a clubhouse but you know as part of the building permit process we will meet anything that we're required to meet um there's an implication that someone should give a very broad overriding certification that that that will not happen

114nor is that ever I've never seen that nor nor can it happen our Architects will uh certify what we need to have happen with the uh for the building inspector to give us a permit and then it's not not something required for housing David do I have these most updated um documents in my file uh you don't okay you don't and that's what I said early on I said we haven't some of these we haven't given to that I just wanted to give you sort of a preview of the direction we're going in to get so you have a sense this is not uh I'm not asking you to say yay or nay on any of these just to so that I can provide some some images to the directional information I'm putting out there

115that's really all TR this is actually not so much as part of your process but more of the open meeting law requirements okay so you're presenting them tonight so they become a part of the record of the town okay and so the planning board needs to get copies of those everything that's presented tonight you can do it electronically or or full size whichever but they need all right we can do that thank just know that they will change on the absolutely but okay it's being presented as part of the record okay electronic is fine Y no problem I think that covers yeah I think that covers pretty much everything in terms of you know without going down the peer review list item by item in terms of the direction that we're headed in with with

116all the different items and you know any bar ing any reactions that steer us in a different direction that would be sort of the way you will see the the response start to play out so this is really an opportunity for the planning board um to um Express thoughts ideas comments to the applicant uh thus far about the peer review so that the to to assist the applicant in responding to the peer review and into responding to what you'd like to see excuse me so being a public he I know if you guys had anything to say before I ask for any public comment or you have anything quickly you want I some I can go after you going to open it up to public discuss it's discussion something is there anybody here in particular

117that wanted to speak directly to 466 Chestnut good to see you again Joel it's been a while uh Joel arbitman Woodbridge Lane first you know I keep my ear to the ground on a lot of these projects that go on in town and there's oftentimes real pain coming from the residents that they're upset about traffic or too much building or the quality of the construction or whatever and I just want to thank the applicant I've heard nothing but very positive comments about this project and it's very heartening to see that so I think that's just great I had a couple of questions though I uh it was especially concerning the traffic issues and and I I don't want to make any comments about whether this adds a significant amount of traffic or what the traffic

118studies show but I have my own traffic study I'm a very regular user of Chestnut Street uh especially as a bicycle Rider which is not my focus and I can tell you whatever anybody thinks and whatever experts come back and tell you come come ride right alongside me on a bicycle and you will see very quickly how dangerous Chestnut Street is the speed limits are too high on there and I have actually had an incidents where I've had to call the police due to some very dangerous driving situations so I was hoping when I had heard about this project that all the traffic was going to empty out onto Elliot Street I'm not a traffic engineer I really am not familiar with the tradeoffs here but I am a little bit concerned that I I

119know that it's very difficult coming out of Warren Woods at the maintenance shed where where we frequently go to assemble uh uh clubs that I'm with uh to come out onto Chestnut Street at times is extremely difficult this is at 10 o'clock in the morning 11:00 in the morning and even getting back in there off South Street further up Chestnut Street at maybe 3:00 it it's not easy to to come off of those side streets so I have no idea whether what what the volumes are here being talked about or the frequency of usage and so on but I I would love to see the town recognize that it's a dangerous Street the speed limits or the actual speeds let's phrase it that way are too high on the street and I hope that you

120take the traffic concerns along chestnuts treat very seriously the only other I had just a couple of other questions one um you know Warren Woods itself is is a very attractive area you know to to go into into the various ways to get in there and I was just wondering whether any consideration or anything in this plan is has been looked at with regard to sidewalks either along Chestnut or possibly in Elliot Street uh I understand that there may be a crossing uh created going across directly across Chestnut Street to go to Warren Woods uh I just wonder whether sidewalks you know whether this is the time to start looking at sidewalks on some of these roads either as a part of this project or just to understand that that might be a valuable asset

121for the town to have in this general area it's right now it's it's it is totally autoc Centric it's all about cars on both streets and if somebody wanted to come out of this neighborhood and walk down to Shaws or something like that or even walk down the other way to go to downtown I'm not you know what it's not safe it just is not safe I I I don't know what traffic engineer would tell you that's a good idea it's just a dangerous dangerous environment up there and maybe this is the time to put an end to it not because of this project but while we're looking at the area maybe some consideration could be given to that the only other thing I wanted to ask is and I I know there was some

122discussion of buffering uh is is the I'm trying to understand what the view would be from the main Warren Woods area say from where the maintenance shed is for example or what whatever if we put a barn there in the future or whatever the town might consider if if we look across to this property is that open area we're seeing which I I'm guessing is on the corner of Chestnut and Elliot um is that would that be the main thing we'd be looking at or would the would the houses further down on Elliot be very visible from that location and what buffering might go that's the current field that's the current field and where's the can you can you just point out where the 4 building is on on this map the bottom that's way

123up there okay so that's really good that sound that seems great and how much of the housing that would be above your your currently planned uh Entrance Road off Chestnut would be screened by buffering from A View from Warren Woods I mean would those all those units be visible or would there be you know screening there the best Benchmark the almost thank you U the best Benchmark I can give you is that this um this line here which is sort of the open space line is just on the other side of the the uh stone wall that's out there so that stone wall has some vegetation all along it plus it'll be some vegetation behind it so part of this whole process and the things that the town worked through we originally had houses all

124out in here and it allowed us to push it all out Beyond there so there's actually uh vegetated foreground so it'll give you the ability to see the fields vegetation and in the houses through yes will you get peaks of houses I don't know if you look enough if you can get peaks of anything I suppose but but there's definitely vegetation that that will be there which has been I think a major Improvement on all on a lot of levels is additional screening a possibility uh well in that area it's all natural it should be fine in that it really should be fine in that area to be honest with you um you know our our screening Focus has been more where we have neighbors um because because the buffers aren't you know that I

125don't know how many feet that is but it's a long way to get to that yeah you okay Mark Sony 49 Hon Road and good evening and um I have about three questions the all going to be quick and easy I hope the road itself that it's on does not have sidewalks but years ago we had the village of America's put sidewalks down are they under the same conditions to do that if they build that I'm sorry can you can you repeat Village of maras was built and they were conditioned to put down sidewalks down by the um wildway Cemetary down the road towards towards Main Street years ago this has no sidewalks in the roads itself are they conditioned to put down any sort of sidewalks for safety reasons the requirement for Village of

126of the Americas to install sidewalks was a function that that was years ago right that was years ago that was a function of the um certificate of approval the Covenant the agreements that were made we haven't yet created any such agreement here okay we're not at that point in the process okay and um the Open Fields and buffer and all that stuff this isn't even natural way it is have have some sort of even minimal buffering is going to help everything in sight and for traffic I'll end it on this everything that's new adds to traffic I um Penny M uh 16 Mount viiew Drive and I am an abod to this project I don't have any issues with any of the things that they proposed absolutely Chestnut Street is is a disaster and I

127have to get off one of those side streets in the morning to to go to work and it's a lot worse when the snow piles block your view in addition to everything else and um you know that's it's but it's been a disaster for as long as I live there and at least they did finally put a traffic light down there um and I don't know this may seem really super Petty but when you propose the name Warren Way all I can think of is oh my goodness there's going to be such confusion because right around the corner we have Warren Road so I don't know if there's um a mechanism to make sure the street names be I'm my street is named Mount View and I can't tell you how many times my packages

128are delivered to Mount Gate you know um and so I I just don't know if some consideration could be made to just make sure that the street names aren't so similar to existing streets in town but again I I do support this so thank you still got truncated to thank you yes I can respond to the street name part um so uh may I may have misspoken I'm not sure but the there's basically three names that we're looking at here and we've checked them against any any streets that are on the list in Ashland um so it would be Lantern Way would be the entry and we try to relate it to the community many communities we have just have a just one one name to the whole thing and it's just numbers within the

129community fire department wanted there to be a breakdown by Street it makes it easier for them if they have to respond to something so so so we have Lantern way uh Fern Crossing and C what's that it's on there right it's on this one down here maybe Old Stone no yeah was on that's Fern Crossing and and this one is like Old Stone I forget what it was but it has to do with the stone wall that runs alongside of it so that's the direction we're heading it's not war way is it no there is not you know maybe I said could have misspoken all right thank you any other comments all right I will um I'm going to open up to the board before opening it up to the board just due to a

130lot of the comments we are hearing and I do believe the traffic study was done right can you do a Pres presentation of that at the next meeting and uh just present your study to the board open it up for comments or questions not answer most of mine we going to do the gravel road for the cut through and that's I think at the end of phase one for for for over 800 Fe you're going to just put in a gravel road uh after phase one as part of phase two doing um so I continue to be impressed with your presentation and your thoughtfulness in um considering the needs of the town and