001can I hear a motion to that effect we'll make a motion to approve the minutes from August 1st I second right all those in favor another mode I understand I friendly carry on yeah okay there's one more which is August 8th which you should have gotten on this eighth yeah okay I didn't uh on August 9th not when I got out I just either sat there and did it that night or did it the next day the meeting was on the 8th correct that was the night Brendan lost power well I guess you got your power back on huh we did what happened you know um a tree branch fell on a telephone wire and kind of just knocked our neighborhood out we gotta we had a squirrel do it for our neighborhood one time
002yeah I need to buy a generator at some point yeah how's it keep happening yeah so before that one actually not as much as before I'm sorry we we have August 3rd before that one August third so August 3rd is actually when we we wrote report number two so maybe what I think is August 8th is actually August 4th oh no no so we we reviewed with the applicant on August 3rd and then we didn't have time to actually write the report and so we met on August 8th we wrote we wrote report number two on Tuesday the 8th all right can we do this first because I think I might have it in here I might have the the third you're saying the third is when we met about the the third is when
003we met with the applicant all right but then we just approve August 8th August 1st because that's when we wrote the letter right we just approved August first yeah but that was a separate meeting what do you mean Kathy uh I'm trying to find it I think I want to approve the August 8th okay I'm trying to find that in my email oh all right because I'm trying to find August 3rd again because I think I had it up oh I have August 3rd I see okay nope that's the agenda all right um let me do this huh you took the minutes that night do we know um I didn't have anyone written down so maybe it wasn't um I think we only met with the applicant I don't know if we well we should
004have minutes but I don't know who did them about the report did we wrote a report so that would take the minutes right the report is that is a record of the content of the August 3rd meeting but we still need to have minutes that open and close the meaning oh sorry this is bad I think it might have actually been me that's why I'm wondering because there was a meeting where I took minutes and I ran the thing and it was it's really hard to do uh I don't know right now let me bring up what we have get everything we have I'm going to look for August 3rd right now I don't have these trying to find that all right I just resent it to you I got something here it says draft
005that's a good sign foreign one minute I'm going to pull up obviously all right has anybody seen August 3rd or not no sorry guys um August 8th is this the agenda this is the agenda no is it they're in there okay I literally just uh yeah that's sorry sometimes I don't take them out because I uh forget to take take it out make it look like it's does this mean that Hannah and Bill were both absent I wasn't going to revise the formatting but um it's just confusing fine anything to make it less confusing my book so is that right that Hannah and Bill were not there correct okay yo under reports it just says no work done on the rest of this agenda because we didn't now at the bottom is the adjournment that
006was report number two just for clarity's sake I'm just gonna say there was no discussion what was report number two that's what we discussed in this meeting yes it was the one that ended so early okay I'd entertain a motion to prove the minutes of August 8th make a motion to approve the August 8th minutes I got a second I'll second it second nope and I second it all those in favor MMO and I understand I Brenda carry on Rooney I okay and I found August 3rd and then with the exception of July 27th we'll be in compliance which is awesome and pulling up the Third thank you I think I think this is the spelling of her name um hold on I'll tell you oh n-i-c-k-o-l-e did I say Ron to somebody then I
007see k not h oh see okay and I saw it with an H before and maybe that was a typo okay well I have it yeah because I just pulled up her email okay it's my bed is this what we want to say here foreign it seems like these two ideas or questions are contradictory to if this was your comments uh no my comment was meets the massing and then the applicant said volume is consistent with what's on that street and it could be going all the way back down to 200 but there's nothing else on that street to compare to what he's putting in so which is what what would sparked the comment so I'm going to jump up from that I gotta go get uh the power cord for this thing or I'm
008gonna lose the meeting altogether oh we've got it right here peace okay well you can keep going I think it works do you want to revise anything about this it just seems like it's not uh well I that was a question that I had it was a question I have for us to discuss later which we can discuss tonight so you could take that out and then the the rest of it is a quote from the client the applicant that's why I shouldn't be taking minutes because I put stuff in them that really doesn't belong there I just revise that line it was the applicant that brought this up about what the city of Newton is doing with the vibration yeah there's actually an interesting comment that he brought it up at the end of
009the meeting which actually is something one of us should look into okay so I marked all of these not discussed there was no other business and I think my only other comment on these minutes would be um where do our minutes begin here right here tearing started immediately after a couple of ground rules were stated regarding open microphones um you want to put it in a different way well I want to say something to the effect that the following is is or our minutes of the conversation that that was conducted with the applicant and to see report number two that um okay that was issued as a result of the of the review right so it's not conversation it's sorry it's not a conversation it's a hearing okay so you could actually say this is
010the hearing when I actually put the ground rules thing in there just so well a lot of these minutes are kind of conversational about um what was discussed but they aren't the official um result of our report I'm sure that's what I'm trying to say if you feel like we don't need that I'll leave it out well the report came after so these are the minutes of that meeting I I I'm not sure you can reference the report in the minutes because we haven't we technically hadn't done it yet by the time okay uh sorry I guess I don't need to pay anything man unless you want to say something down at hearing and just say the hearing okay does anyone have anything else on this I think it looks good entertain emotion they'll make
011the motion to approve um the minutes from August 3rd 2023 I'll second all is in favor Ernestine I Kevin modai Brittany Gary eye Kathy Rooney I okay thank you very much everybody it's on a text to Bill about those other minutes um so before I forget uh bills at the comprehensive plan he's gonna he's been looking at all the other comprehensive plan documents the towns produced and because I had already done that at one point there's a theme and he started to pick up on some of the themes so I think at some point he's going to talk to us about those yeah um I hate to do this but I I think there is one other set of minutes I that we need to approve that a draft was sent and was uploaded um
012but we actually have to approve them and those are the June 15th minutes and you can tell me otherwise if they're already approved but I I don't think they were I thought they were they were approved at one immediately we just approved the minutes for oh uh sorry because we did we actually got those done a lot uh well that was the first because for some reason that was the one that I sent her at available or that meeting don't ask me which one but I think it's already been I think it's already been um posted by the town so let me think about this for a second were you gonna send these in or do you want me to send them in I have them all open so I can send them okay great
013so I just send them to the entire committee and make sure you have um the town clerk at Ashland Mass cc'd on it yep but these minutes are um you know ready to post yes we'll do okay great because he's always very um he'll send back something saying posted okay great that'd be awesome if you would do that full day tomorrow packing prepping for a class that I'm teaching on Saturday um okay were you teaching Bethany um well I have it uh a second career in the entertainment business so I do yep uh I do greens work for movies so um that's one of the things I do I also do craft services so I need craft services for Coda which was really fun when it came up for all the awards and so teaching
014greens work what I'm doing is taking people who are thinking about it as a craft or want to know more about it I'm teaching them basic plant ID which is untold amounts of documents and then we're gonna go whack it to invasives and then we're gonna go do some very very basic um creating definition at the place where we do a lot of these classes so the studio mechanics local in New England is all the people behind the movies who do movies um we do a lot of trainings at one of the first Studios was open in the Boston area down in Canton and and we're constantly using their facility and so I basically said why don't we do a little bit of work for these folks down here because I know they need it
015because every time I go down there it looks you know like trucks hit stuff and things like that so we're going to do a little bit of cleanup I don't know how far we'll get but I'm hoping we get far enough that the there's a garden outside the entrance where um they like to bring people into that needs a lot of help and then their entrance garden needs a lot of help for the staff in the back so wow that's kind of cool yeah it can be it can be extremely rewarding and it can be one of those things where there's a lot of hurry up and wait there's a lot of bosses [Laughter] um as you can imagine but it's it's definitely another slice of life we did um sea of trees actually was
016done over at baffling State Park right yes um Matthew McConaughey felt they had a lot of trouble getting it marketed because the subject was about people going into this Forest in Japan where they commit suicide but there's a lot of trees in Japan that are very similar to trees here so we've gotten all the state parks in Massachusetts a couple of state forests I was also a really cool film to work on very interesting we created the flood and the back lot of a industrial park in Worcester which was really crazy but um that was also fun okay enough about me um where are we here we got all the minutes done thank you thank you Okay so I'm just trying to figure out if we can come up with additional ways with our report
017how we can improve the efficiency of our meeting so we're not wasting applicants time and our time and I think that we had a list of documents way back when at our January meeting with a joint meeting with a planning board Kevin did you find that at all in January you're talking about yes no I have to write them everything goes so long ago that I'm actually forgetting what it was that I talked about and I think it was um the Ashland Mills project no no I'm talking about the agenda that we sent because we started we had different agenda ideas in the planning board and there but they basically wanted to do what they wanted to do because we thought we were going to collaborate on the agenda so we had something that said
018discussion of design Review Committee right yeah thanks for reminding me I'd uh do I'm going to pull that up yes please well it had a list of of documents that we thought we needed and we did I think we started a list we had started a list for one of the reports I don't know where that ended up um but I think we need I think what we would need to do is know what else we need from an applicant um so we can ask for it at the outset foreign language now for some of these things but we just need to make it so it's understandable to everybody uh do you want me to try to look and find it I'm trying to I just don't um know where anything is uh I think
019one of them is in our email we went um so I think it was a document that was called triggers but maybe it wasn't actually no let me see if I can find it again um in the meantime um Brandon and Hannah well we're looking for documents sorry if you have any thoughts about things that we additional um drawings whatever else we might want to see I think we need to be clear about it I think I found both oh great okay good because I'm not getting very far here with that huh do we want to edit this right now I don't know if we're editing this we just want to make a list of all the documents we think we need to see that's it by the way um that's the one that I
020have that we that we want to see from an applicant were not already seen up front so that um so we're not wasting their time and our time Kevin you're I mean Brendan you're frowning are you looking at this frowning I think I was a referrals this summer night can you blow that up well this is something we sent to the planning board it never happened number one's good yeah well that still hasn't happened either um I'm talking about documents for applicants right now we had a can you can you blow up the printing the size yeah I'm just trying to save a copy of it if we're going to be making any changes so I think what we'd actually do is pull out the document request coordination piece and work on that there's a
021separate thing all right pull out which number or which say that again this whole P document request coordination for project review that whole section and just make this document about that sure a great way to do it then get rid of sign off DRC project review okay great so is so for instance um does anybody have any comments about item two and actually that um stuff on Somerville that I looked at the other day that has a written perhaps more officially or professionally is that right we were talking about do you want to look at that I can um yeah I think it might be useful here you think it's more professionally written than how we have it I think there are phrases in there that might be useful but I don't know I'm and
022I was specifically thinking of um yes Brendan do we want to say minimum one perspective view or should we just say prospective views from each of the following locations like why would you have two prospective views from the same can we just say like respective views from the following occasions and a b and c look good yeah I actually think I I was looking at that thinking that was weird too so thank you yeah okay views should incorporate through your decent property and should we say adjacent properties do we need to say three um yeah we need to say three because um sometimes you can't tell from being close by you need to see how it's going to fit into other properties on the street we actually we had had that view of 9-49 from
023the same side of the street where it would look as garbage but I think it does should we have like a a little star at the bottom saying um D or C or like could coordinate prospective used with DRC prior to rendering I mean like we could easily go on a Google map throw some arrows on and say we'd like to see here here and here I I think that sounds reasonable I'm not sure we'll get it but let's try it no I don't know if it's like a requirement or just we're just like trying to be like um and not waste their time and it could help them and for us to understand it we could actually coordinate with them and maybe save a meeting yeah I'm all for that I agree with that
024that notion I've never had a board tell us as an architect which views to take um yeah I don't know if that's overstepping I think it might be helpful but I don't want to okay I think we wanted by by having a b and c here I think we wanted to cover our bases I I think I might say to two adjacent properties and the only reason why I would reduce it is that that might apply to every project every project has like if it's along a street it has a neighbor to the left and a neighbor to the right um yeah maybe I'm sorry I was gonna say maybe we should have like to to show context of or to um or like a little like line after that explaining why we'd like to
025see it yeah maybe maybe it's about showing the properties on either side but then also across the street or the impacted Properties or so in Summerville for instance they say three viable schematic massing Concepts building six stories or less or excluded Illustrated an axon and perspective views and then they follow that with a larger context plan showing the surrounding neighborhood including neighborhood Open Spaces both public and private significant buildings made to erodes Transportation connections and natural features so I don't actually care how we do it when a math when I'm after is to see how will this fit into [Music] the the area that it's going into and so my concern is if we do it from two buildings away we're not getting enough perspective on it yeah I think as you can see you
026get closer right so um this one is close closest to the property this is three adjacent properties that are a little bit further away and then C is um from a distance of three properties away um to put it in Greater context okay but I do want to add what you noted Kathy about the the three schematic options or or massing studies I I don't think that's ever been requested of an applicant that's coming in and trying to to design a project for this town and um that really would would introduce the applicant's idea to us at a very very early stage and I think that's what we've been missing I I would agree you want to read it off the front the Somerville one yep um so from Somerville it's right um right there
027yeah so it's three viable schematic massing Concepts buildings six stories or less are excluded that's for Somerville yeah so just take that out but the rest of it would be good yeah because I really I think this has to do with the fact that if there's a property to build on in Somerville it's going to be very compact and I think we have um well we have the same problem in our own way going on yeah well in the downtown but then there are properties outside of the downtown that might be a little more sprawling or demand more review of the massing concepts that that are viable well I think we're starting to do that because people are really annoyed at the lack of Green Space and then that other part of the Somerville thing
028was the paragraph adjacent to that to the right of it yeah I'll go back and look at that one I think this this concept of presenting a viable massing options I think that would be number two I think that's at the very beginning of what they should start okay needs his own number yeah freeze and three viable masking could we say before and during and during schematic design schematic design is is going to be they have massing and they're going to develop it in in more detail I think we need to agree wait a second this has three viable schematic massing Concepts Illustrated an axon and perspective view so it uses the word schematic yeah before there yeah I guess it depends when do they normally come to the DRC is it well I mean
029they don't come with just Concepts they they're probably NSD right well this is part of this is part of what's going on right now is that they used to come to DRC at the same time as planning board and there have been issues in previous years where they go back and forth with the two groups and so that I think is one of the ongoing issues that has to be addressed period um because I know that we've gone through with clients I mean sorry applicants clients on the brain right now um and we've gotten buildings to a state where we think they're they're pretty good based on what's going on with the planning board but we've at least gotten the outside to look decent they don't have you know my pet peeve all the vents
030running down the front and things like that or they're hidden and then um they get the planning board and everything gets changed so both 128 Main and 12 Pawn that happened um and that wasn't the only time actually it happened a lot before that we tried to do this in in all of our presentations you have a large context plan that shows significant buildings and features and open areas around the project um so I I think we should be asking for that we make it part of our practice but not everyone is going to do it unless we ask for it correct I think too we could you know say something right in the beginning that you know these documents are being requested uh in the interest of streamlining the you know process so that
031we don't have to go back and ask for drawings over and over again so maybe it would be a way to kind of elicit some cooperation from the applicants you'd actually pull that language right off the agenda so I put it on there because I'm really I I I would like this to work um and I think we need to tell them we're thinking about this because I think they don't think we are I agree with what you said Hannah um how would you like that to be I think it's like a introductory sentence before you get into the list of drawings so like right under the title there it's like you know that this list is presented you know to facilitate a streamlined process of communication and approvals whatever words you want to use
032but basically to let them know that if they give us these drawings the process is going to be quicker and more efficient hopefully questions earrings the greatest streamlined process about the planning board and design committee foreign like how many meetings do they have with the planning board before we get involved because it's not right from the very beginning well no it's in flux right now um that's the best I can say about it because it used to be right at the very beginning in the in the bylaw says at the very beginning right I think we need to have a conversation or another retreat with the planning board in order to discuss this you know if we're going to be able to look at three viable schematic massing Concepts then it has to be at
033the very beginning but that has to be understood when the planning board discusses when the project comes to the to the DRC um so yeah I well I was going to say let's get the list together first and then we're going to discuss that approach second because the answer is I think we need to do that but we have to watch the time here because it's 8 30. Brendan said he had to leave at nine and I have to leave shortly thereafter right wow is there anything that we should skip ahead and do or if we just come this list are we could we be done for the night or um yeah I think we need a list well and then we can discuss the the marked up um marked up report sorry thank you
034I just forwarded the stuff that Kevin and I were talking about the other day and a couple of things I found going on that website of theirs so you all will have it and you can look at it because it's it's actually really interesting um and they're not messing around food I think we should reword this but do we want to add something to this effect to the list yeah I was thinking that would be useful unless other people have a something else they want to do yeah I'm for it um the other thing Kevin would be the site analysis well actually it's that whole next section at the bottom actual below this one should line it on our foreign six and seven yeah like should um should seven be like an a probably or
035you could just combine it I think yeah hidden line perspective let me use of the model thank you so site analysis do we want to expand on that it says a site analysis that considers environmental conditions including but not limited to solar aspect including changes that any building would create during an existing vegetation topography noise screening Etc I don't know well we never see that we see some of it but we don't we don't really see I would rather them I think we could figure it out ourselves and then I feel like I'd rather ask them to focus on like the massing and the things well we actually need them we actually need them to tell us some of this because they don't it doesn't get concerned what do we know Ashland more than them
036ideally yeah because you never he didn't give us the proper solar thing and so you know some of this is saying stuff that you might already do without even thinking about it when you look at a project but some of these people are coming in here and they don't they're not they're they're not thinking about this stuff or I'm gonna say that the way they present stuff I I think they aren't thinking about it in a holistic way um and it comes in piecemeal fair enough and we need them to be to me it's a way to get them to do their homework because I think that some of the issues we're having right now are because stuff wasn't thought out or they just thought they'd do it as they were building it I don't
037know what they're thinking um but it's actually they're just not professionals I didn't say that there's another there's another time well what precedes that is it says three viable schematic facade Design Concepts Illustrated in elevation including details of the building base yeah we don't even mention anything about materials or facade options here all right so that that's actually where we're proposing something somewhat different and new because then they go down to follow any additional diagrams illustrating proposed satisfaction of the design guidelines applicable to the development proposal you guys work in Somerville right what's HUD PUD um a boy a thing design Urban Design so it gets even more crazy it says it's a planned unit development as well developing subject to any previously approved PUD of the Pharma asmd zoning District must provide the following
038blah blah blah yeah I think a putt is is similar to like the the Ashland downtown district it's it's a planned development with a with a future goal in mind I don't know um I don't know what we actually want to list here because it could be an endless list actually well well I think the list that's there gets through well this said environmental conditions including but not limited to solar aspect including changes that any building would create drainage existing vegetation topography noise screening Etc so I know like in Boston they talk about shade of buildings they talk about wind tunnels like all the time it's one of the big it's two of the big things to come up with with buildings and that's from oh a long time ago back when I used to
039live in Boston long before they changed the name and they wanted to know all these things about it um in particular downtown by the common in the public garden they were very clear that they didn't want buildings to be that tall to create shade on either of those spaces wanted them to be in the sun to be nice pleasant spaces and at some point uh I was in charge of an event down there and the people were from New York and they all commented on the fact that it was a sunny space whereas wherever they had done something in New York it used to be sunny but it had become shaded by buildings which I thought was a really interesting comment I was like huh unintended effective development that nobody had thought about until they
040had to [Music] yeah I don't think you can make a good Building without without assessing all of this so when we present to a client we actually say you know you already know all of this we're just kind of telling you the story of of your town or your property or whatever it is and it really shows that we've done our homework and we we know why we're doing the things that we're doing even exactly even if we feel like the person that we're presenting to already knows all the information right right no I think it's a good it's a good um I hate to use the term exercise but I think it is yeah I don't know what sorry I'm skipping ahead but I don't know where this one came from now it's not
041so confusing I can't say that is it because we don't trust that when they say they're doing compact spaces we don't trust that that they're scaled correctly in the plan or I think what we actually wanted to see is what the difference would be so that if because our parking calls for whatever it calls for and it's more than it's more than people think is reasonable now which is why everybody keeps coming to us saying we need we want an adjustment to it and generally they they get it um even though they have to go through all of these Shenanigans to get it and so that's in there because what would the square footage if you if you didn't have all of the parking per the bylaw What would essentially what where would you where
042would you get extra square foot on your property and what would you do with it that's that that's why that's in there I think it was a long time ago it feels like a long time ago when we wrote this I think that would it feels confusing what's that it feels confusing me I just I mean we're just asking them to present a civil drawing that shows the parking I I don't know because the the parking regular space and smaller space so so you want to see I don't know well let me put it to you this way I don't know if this is reasonable and I don't know if we can get it out of them or people are going to have the reaction that YouTube just had um but I think that was
043in there because when it got written at the time you thought it was something that would be reasonable to ask them and partly because it started to come up at planning board meetings there are actually theoretically going to be looking at that and then when I heard that's why I sent the stuff about parking a while ago and about the cost of how much it costs to make to parking spaces per unit in a project I'd rather rather them just meet the parking standards for the zoning check that box and then we can have a discussion about reducing sizes but I think that's a that's a zoning question well it It ultimately is I guess I would I would never like I would never prepare like a separate site plan with different parking sizes okay
044that didn't meet the zoning requirements just get it out of there um I've never seen a planning board well we we actually it's because we're we have an an ongoing issue with smaller compact cars some of them and some of them are behemoths still and then the third piece of that is that we're [Music] um people are either way are trying to not do the standard like 10 by 20. parking space anymore they're trying to go down to that's 9 by 18. not of 18 is the standard everywhere pretty much okay then 10 by 20 that's insane well yeah but that's the order I've never seen that um in some of the older like um malls and places like that you'll pull into a spot and you'll be like my God like you don't really
045have to even think about parking you know or or pulling in or you know you go into some of the garages in Boston and they're very specific about these are compact spaces only and then I don't even know compact spaces what do they what are they now I think you can go as small as eight by maybe 16. 24 foot Drive lens pretty much the standard I have never really seen sometimes they do like 20 feet long but it has a shorter drive lane like a 22 foot drive right well I did a events for years in a parking lot where it was 10 by 20 so it was fairly easy to Pace off where the tents and things were going to go that's not like Shoppers World no [Laughter] be about 100 years old
046if that was the case yeah all right what else we got here oh I had a question about um are we making this list which is the same list that the planning board would be requesting applicants to provide to them right is this this is the same list whether it's um documents for our review or the planning boards review because the planning board has to review a civil drawing that has parking shown so maybe we don't delete that line item I don't know well see I I don't think we should put the the words planning board up in that first yeah because I think we're asking for these documents in particular to streamline the process with the applicant yeah we rarely get all the documents we get like a pretty picture yes okay so this
047is in addition to what the planning board might be requiring correct yeah okay um so a number eight Like A and B could be combined I'm not quite sure why I see we should just be like an existing Edition survey I wouldn't want them to like to confuse them it'd be nice to have like a a survey like like 1949 it looks like they just kind of like Trace some property lines and don't have like an actual survey uh uh are you moving that yeah I think it should be next to the site analysis oh okay oh what Brandon was saying about the survey is actually let me just say like existing conditions survey with topography and vegetation well with topography and vegetation identified yeah so the site walk through for 9-49 I actually asked
048them to do that because there were a couple of significant trees which at some point we saw on something we stopping them again and that's why I ended up having the whole conversation with Julian about the critical root Zone documents which we had already sent over to the playing board like well over a year ago so I forwarded those to Alvaro to send him so they could protect the roots of those and I think there's a uh maple and I don't remember what the other one is and they're sort of to the back one of them was more off to the right and honestly everything else back there is stuff that's really beat up or invasive they did another they weren't surprised to hear this from me because they did another they did the entire
049uh they actually got a safe plan approved for something called Alden Street uh 41 something Walden Street and there was a boatload of trees behind that I actually went down and dragged my husband to help be the recording secretary we measured all the trees so I could talk about how valuable they were in the landscape um and what they were really doing was hiding really awful views that project had gone through or um you know but creating some buffering views and I really wanted those the trees the trees respected and there was at least one neighbor who was really glad that we were down there doing that because she had large trees right on the edge of her property they were just inside her property line but that they you know they were going to
050totally take that project out to the edges just like this one we could take discussion of Starbucks until Pond Street out that line I was just looking at the Somerville list again and I think what would also be helpful is a narrative oh yeah very good a written narrative we do that yeah we do that a lot just describe the project great because we hear it a lot we never see a written thing on it yeah because we ask a lot of questions that could be covered in the narrative and that we have a record of it you know about sustainability goals and um like I think I think it would be helpful for applicants to think about how the building fits into the context and actually write something about it that we can read
051um because I think it would be a little more thoughtful it sounds good to me so where where would that get put I just put it here under number two oh there you go okay thank you um we need to say something about Green Space in that line Green Space yes you could even say public Green Space because that's actually what the town is after yeah I like that sorry okay I'm I'm rewriting this a little bit so that we're not um accused of copying basting I don't think anybody from Somerville is um thought I thought there was maybe something else here oh diagrams oh I think there are two things I I think this actually would be helpful if we actually required a format for the presentation for one thing would be easier to
052see when we're when we're looking at it's 11 by 17 it's automatically going to be a larger scale on the screen we can print it and review it more easily if if we wanted to if um and it forces the applicant to create a presentation rather showing a civil drawing I'm I'm anything you think could improve what we're seeing would be great honestly and you all do lots of presentations like that because yeah this tells me that it that it shouldn't be uh construction drawing that we need to take in construction drawing and make a more you know aesthetic presentation you know it's for a different audience and context right do we treat all prefixes equally like or is there like a minor review and a major review you asked that again sorry it just
053popped in my head but like um do we treat all projects equally as in if you had to come to us it's the same or they're like a minor like like demagunka road is there like a minor view compared to like 1949 or um in the downtown where it's more of like a major kind of you have to yeah is there a threshold or I think it's all about this it seems like a lot yeah I think it's um is there anything that defines like like a minor project for us uh like a major project we could actually specifically like I mean like like this this list is great for 9 to 49 or like 10 to 50 or Main Street but like um Road like do we just need like a nice site plan
054that shows everything they're doing like with dimensions and types of any kind of proposed element or building um well we either need to say that at the top or we actually say it at the bottom and just say because that was a the big projects so I don't want to uh we need to be careful because he was doing something very different from uh that um the lovely storage building on 135. so they're both commercial uses but his um it's a much his project of masking scale of it is in has a much smaller footprint than the than the storage unit project for example or um even like 128 million or 12 pond have are there's more massing to those I think than than there is to um then what happened over at magunco Road
055because he was mostly a one-story building over there right maybe it's two stories of like parking spaces and like Signs and like it didn't seem like it seems like this would be like over their head well it's Overkill first I well yeah yeah I'm not sure how I don't know if I've raised the planning board if they decide or not but it feels like I think we're Fresh Off in 1949 and we were kind of like and we need to Destin this message it seems like a lot I think um we just need to think about the phrasing of how we would do this of how we would say that um and put it up at the top that this was intended for larger more major construction projects or yeah major yeah we have to
056Define it really carefully because it's defined what's major what's Minor by laws anywhere no I don't think so I mean you have to poke around and look I don't I mean the only way it's defined is about multi-family and the amount of parking which is way over the top you know I mean we have to come up with a different way to describe what you're talking about because I think you're right but he has Oodles of parking there what's this business auto body right you know so he's going to have them there and he's doing two things there I think he's selling used cars and he's doing the auto body and I jumped in on this topic yeah please please um I I think that it's up to us to determine how we apply these
057these questions and and our report format and list of documents to each project right but if I Was An Architect going you know going after a project and and maybe it was just like a small addition to an existing building I would look at this list and probably I would respond to each item in in the narrative that I would write per per item two here and I would say not applicable to like to any of these things if if there's an item here that we're requesting that doesn't apply to the building at hand or the project at hand then I think it's up to the applicant to note that it doesn't apply to them and and I think I think that could be reasonable I think we just assessed that on a case-by-case basis
058I don't want to I don't want to create separate lists for different types I don't think we need to say anything upfront about that this list is only for certain projects because then because then an applicant might say well my project doesn't fit into that mold and so I don't it doesn't apply to me that's that's partly what I'm concerned about I don't want this to be misinterpreted but I think it's a really viable point [Music] um is it kind of this application for like anything that like requires a special permit yeah we only review special permit products okay so okay all right so yeah let's just make them say like like um let the applicant determine what they want to provide I don't why did go come to us because of where it's located
059it was a special torment with regards to the parking wasn't it or there was a second use being applied to the property yeah but I don't remember the the triggers for generally you are our location in the town where it's it was um it might have been the parking that brought it because there was so much parking compared to the buildings I don't actually remember I just remember being surprised and then I figured out who it was I was like oh wow guys I'm gonna have to go in a couple of minutes just so you know we if Brendan is leaving too then we need to um because we're not gonna hang around for a little longer okay so my concern is I want to actually get I want if we think this is good
060so Hana before we finish the list yeah do we think we've finished it that's my question or do we want to just uh you could send us back out to everyone and we could look at it see you know fresh if we notice anything missing right that's what I was thinking just so we don't yeah done here and maybe we can figure out a way I think we have to be really careful with that I think you've got a good point Brendan but I think we have to be really careful with how we raise something like that because whoever somebody else I haven't been here that long so maybe just that one little project seemed like it was like maybe that's just like the odd odd project so well we've excuse me we've actually had
061a couple um there was one where they're storing a bunch of stuff the downtown project right now and a lot that's on magunco road right at the top of mogunco road across from where the dance studio is I think that's called zero montgomco Road or I don't remember and then there was another one sorry where all the lighting poles are yes thank you and then um there was another one that backed up to the railroad tracks behind the magunco road properties uh which is a landscaper who bought up three properties down there to clean up and expand his business and fit everything into that area Metcalf Road Maybe um anyway that was sort of a small one because he was changing the use of something over there even though it was in an overlay District
062they had to come before us so you know they didn't those didn't have a lot of documents either foreign need them they were going to be I think uh design Review Committee at the time thought that the landscaper buying up the property and doing what he's doing over there was going to be a vast improvement from what had been previously going on what's up you know so um do we want to do we think this is good for right now we'll take another look at it next time yes I think so um yeah okay and then um anybody have any comments on the letter before we uh the email from design review I mean two design review from the planning board all the green notes mm-hmm you had a reaction Brenda thank you I know
063it seemed a little dismissal like not not your Not Your Role Not Your Role not your role yeah we'll tell you what to look at exactly I told Kathy we got sent to bed without supper so I think we all feel the same way that's how I feel right like keep screaming into the void well I think we have to be clear about what we think our rule is per the bylab which was set by time meeting and if we think that what we did was reasonable and we just keep on going make it as transparent as possible because that's what I think we've been really trying to do and we've been trying very hard with some good success to work on our Communications streamlining improving the communications with this document thank you again you
064guys you dreamed it up to begin with that was that's huge um I think it's made a big a a big impact I don't know sorry go ahead well I didn't know if anyone else had anything else to say but I just I I don't I don't know another way to approach this I think you know they called out the bylaw in their letter and so it's an invitation for us to revisit it and check what we're doing against it which we've done before but maybe just look at it again um and then continue on because I certainly I mean from the tone of the letter it was more like we'll decide what we want you to look at not like you should you know follow the bylaw even though they brought it up so
065I found that to be a little contradictory right well what I was also struck by was that we're clear we're advisory so I'm yeah I'm finding the tone you can only look at this if we say so well surprising actually based on what the Biola actually says so I think we're we're getting um uh I asked talking to I don't know two or three people about this I said it would be helpful for us to have binders of the bylaw so people can go through and mark them up and flag areas and things like that because I find it really much easier to edit stuff if I have something in front of me as opposed to trying to do it digitally um so by Tuesday Wednesday next week Alvaro will have all that stuff ready
066for us what is it a print of the bylaws or print of the the guidelines or what is it and I'll I'll actually it's a good question I'll just clarify with him that we're looking for both you know I mean looking at the email from Marcelo and Trisha I I wonder where we overstepped because the Bible we broke down our report format into landscape and building orientation open space Heritage pedestrian access like that's that's how we broke it down and then when you look at things like under building orientation height and scale I mean those are kind of vague things and I I think we're still within our rights to to review them I don't I don't think we overstepped yeah I don't think we overstepped based on what I've seen but I think that's
067why um I think would be useful for everybody to have the copies of this so we can all be looking at the same thing and go through it and make sure that we're we're within the bylaw I I think that the idea is that the project is beyond the point looking at massing that the planning board planning board has already reviewed and invented that and well it's it well let me just finish that's another reason why we should be looking at projects earlier so that we can actually comment and make make some changes um at the outset right and we had a conversation about this lack of space at the front of the building and the masking the scale in terms of why um one of the reasons why we were having so much trouble
068figuring out what we could do with the Landscaping and all the other things that were desirable to have out there in that front space because it's really too small for the scale of the building so just say nothing of now we have holes and wires out there also taking pace well I don't think we have time to actually talk about the project no I think um no and I think I'd actually liked it um I had a I have a long day tomorrow I had a long day today um oops sorry um so what I was thinking is we can go back we've got we've got this thing which you can send out to all this right cap the end of this what you edited yes yeah and we'll um we'll all look at it
069oh we'll I'll look at this uh committee report and hopefully next week we'll get the binders and we can start going through them to and apply it to the report and see if we think we're still you know we're still within what we're supposed to be doing and then we'll take it from there I think you know I think we can if we disagree with what's being said we can just write on our our last report that we respectfully disagree because I'll our job is to render an opinion it's their job to make the decision yeah and I I think what what the planningware wants us to do is focus on what we can still control at this point with this particular project um right we still have decisions to be made so I'm going
070to use those have been made already yeah I'm gonna use a project though that we got we got the uh there was a 40b it's tied up in land court right now just below Cirrus and we got a request from the zoning board to look at that project they wanted us to look at the architecture of the project it was pretty modern and I think they weren't very comfortable with it by the end of the guys presentation he'd he had referred to the Landscaping so many times in the presentation that part of our comments back we prefaced our comments back to the zoning board saying we cannot consider this project without the Landscaping so we've made comments about it and I just happened to run into the chair around town and said you know I
071hope we didn't overstep but that's why we did he said oh no it was once you wrote it that way we we understood what you had said and that was fine to do that so that's where I'm going with this that was kind of just had to pop off so um yeah but I you know I said this I think a few weeks ago that we needed to all read the Bila and here we are so um you know and I think it's gonna I think it's gonna be important I think it'll be informative and then we we can make some decisions moving forward so anybody have any other comments no okay anybody wanna uh entertain a motion to adjourn can I ask one one final question you can always ask a question what is
072what is the plan for reviewing in detail those green items the do we have uh I guess we're not reviewing those items until the applicant comes back to us with revised drawings and materials and all of that so are they set to be on the agenda in the next couple of weeks um I want to say there was some mention made of August 31st so that's a good question and I will just write my primary question is I don't think we need to respond to this email um with the comments from the planning board and until we meet with the applicant I don't think there's anything we need to do right now right and I'm also concerned this this report has been sent to the applicant which is something they said they weren't going to
073do in the future and so I'm not sure how this is communicated to the applicant right now um well because we had a oh I forget uh who we had a meeting with um Brendan it was before you came on for sure where the applicant essentially told us we didn't have to do this because there was a memo from the planning board that said they didn't have to do it anymore and that wasn't the case I think it was 100 Chestnut actually they had sent a memo saying they wanted these items answered but it was not to the exclusion of all the other stuff our committee is not the HJ we are not the authority having jurisdiction actually over the applicant so I think well that's why I want everybody to read the bylaw yeah
074and see because I think town the intention of town meeting was to actually have additional eyes on these projects reviewing it because Tom reading felt it was necessary kind of like the hers stuff the first time adopting the basic hers you know was kind of like the town meeting where this past time or only half of the hers stuff got adopted um when people got up and complained that um it was going to be too expensive I mean they just they they all got up there and sang a song and literally as soon as the thing got passed there was a developer in town over on um Oak Street no off of Oak Street on uh to Oregon Oregon Road who put in a development and everything up there was following the new Horrors and
075apparently it's some of the best housing in town in terms of you know at the time it was in terms of design or Energy Efficiency Energy Efficiency you know the design was pretty standard but Energy Efficiency well like maybe the action item right now is just confirming with Peter that the applicant knows what they need to prepare to come back to us do they do they know what their items are I think that's that's what we asked Peter to to find out I was kind of confused looking at the whole document like I think is internal I mean it's it needs to be public record of course um but I think right now it's just internal correspondence between between the planning board and ourselves but how is the how has that been translated to to
076the applicant and to their workload well yeah we'll find out eventually because that will be a public document I believe it's an official email going back with instructions if you will to an applicant or here's what else we want to see yeah I just wondered if they're making a succinct list or just sending that report with all the green text on it that's why why I brought it up I don't know well shall I make a motion to adjourn I was willing to entertain it a few minutes ago oh excellent all those in favor all right let me get further notes okay [Music] Brenda carry on sorry I said I it's unanimous that's awesome okay Brendan thank you so much no problem um quick question when did you call the me to order before I
077arrived that like 650 or do I just say 705 and that was kind of like a 705 whenever we started we were actually doing housekeeping housekeeping okay until last week oh good point so um okay I have the notes promptly took them up excellent appreciate that all right thanks everybody have a good night too take care good night