001chair natal absent commissioner stro absent commissioner caderas absent commissioner Bowman commissioner DS commissioner Dawson commissioner selmont alternate hilzinger alternate Blake alternate Affy you have a quorum flag States okay we have one item under new business so um hold on should I do the call you want to do the call want me to do the call sure the chesher Planning and Zoning commission will hold a regular meeting for a public hearing on Monday May 13 2024 at 7M at chesher Town Hall 84th South Main Street chesher Connecticut to hear the following application for a special permit on behalf of the town of chesher applicant is requesting a special permit pursuant to section 30 schedule a permitted uses number 27 of the zoning regulations for modular classrooms located at 490 Highland Avenue assessor map 51 Lot 2
002Zone r20a thank thank you representing the applicant as usual name and um address for the record uh just before we get going um uh if anyone's here for this uh public hearing for the Highland School we have our boards up here it might be easier if you come up to the front right of the audience if you're interested in seeing what the commission's seen thank you let me interrupt for one second also if there's anybody in the audience that's here for the Mountain Road affordable housing public hearing that is not happening until the 29th so I want to bring that up too ready good evening Commissioners I'm Vincent massian I'm the Chief Operating Officer for the chesher public schools and I'm here just to provide some background on this application um before the the uh
003experts will talk about the application request itself so the um tonight's request before the commission is to add two modular classrooms at Highland Elementary School and I know that might sound a little bit odd because I'm sure the commission members know that we're adding two new elementary schools however those two elementary schools won't be built until uh two school years from now 26 27 and the issue that we're having and why we're here tonight is that the capacity at Highland is going to be exceeded before those new schools are built so that's what I'd like to give you a little bit of background on um this is not something that is completely unexpected the board of EDS planning committee back in 20122 did an RFP to do a study and anazia Associates Lisa atates from
004anonia is here with us this evening um we did an an Elementary classroom expansion study look and specifically at Highland and dittle and what are the things that we can do to increase classroom capacity over the next two years um and we focused on dittle and Highland because those were the two that we feared would not have enough room to get us through the next couple of years and as the the school year this year went through we realized we'll probably be just fine at do little but clearly at Highland we'll be exceeding our capacity and when I say exceeding capacity that's not the fire code capacity but rather the 20 student per classroom average that we'd like to not be very high above um so Highland right now we've use virtually all of the
005Interior spaces we've got 46 regular education classrooms this year we um last summer took the library resource room and divided that up and made it special education spaces we currently have learning support tutors alwayss at Highland we've added cubicles rooms that they were in so that we could use those we also have um a storage area to support some additional staff that we cannot have in our classrooms anymore related to this the uh new development um on on Sodom and way which are the tow houses those students were redirected they'll be going to Chapman even though on the district map they're Highland students but that was a way for us to try and keep the population at at Highland to a reasonable level so we started doing that this year so really the Portables are
006needed to avoid the overcrowding the Town Council in 2023 did appr create funds for portable classrooms to be added at Highland we do need them at this point and I'll I'll wrap up with just some quick numbers here um as I said earlier Highland as of today is at 899 students when we started the school year we were at 885 so we're up 14 students from October till now the projection for the fall is 912 students we think we'll be above that if we look back at the projections that were done to um determine the elementary school sizes that we need in in at this point two years the projection from the consultant that we use slammed indicated that Highland would be at 858 this year again we're at 899 it predicted we would be
007at 886 next year we're above that and it uh projected that we'd be at 923 and 2526 so that's a long-winded way of saying we don't have any additional room at Highland these Portables are necessary to get us through um when the two new schools are built the redistricting will be done into the new elementary schools the population at Highland will then come down to about 700 students so we'll be a little over 900 as we go through two years then that population will come down to 700 students but our plan is at that point in time since we're adding these two new portable classrooms and we'll be continuing to use the two older Portables which were um more than 30 years in place will probably take out the old Portables and keep the two
008newer Portables in place so that is the high level plan and and with that I will introduce Ryan McAvoy of of SLR and I assume that we'll take questions at the end Mr chair but I can pause if you want to ask some questions now uh the 20 per student Aver average is that a treasure policy we our average right now across the district is 18.8 Highlands at 19.5 we've been averaging around 18 students per class the the 20 students per classroom is higher than we would like it to be in chesher but it is not a state mandate or anything like that if that's the question okay and do you know what classes are going in the new ones it's probably going to be fourth grade um and they would use this if you're
009familiar with Highland there is an access ramp that comes from the school up to the two portables and you'll see in the design we would use that same ramp you're either going left or right for the newer Portables right thank you you're welcome two two additional so if we use if we have 20 per it's it's 40 additional students I see one indicated on plan it's one unit sorry you have to come up to the microphone identify yourself this is Le Ates from anazi Associates Thank you Lisa Yates from anazi Associates is a 14 square foot double wide unit that holds two classrooms and two bathrooms so it's treated even those two is treated as one as double wide right okay right and the double wide is not for the two classrooms it goes the
010other way gotcha thank you good evening for the record my name is Ryan McAvoy I'm a licensed professional engineer with SLR and uh just so everyone is oriented with the school and where these additions modular classrooms are located this uh map represents an aerial image of the school property today uh it's about 24ish acres in size and we have this property bounded by um this yellow line it's along Highland Avenue obviously behind the police station police station shown here on the left of the sheet North is up the school is located roughly Central in the property we have Residential Properties to the north commercial space to the southwest and multif family residential housing to the southeast uh presently you have two modular classrooms that are accessed to the rear of the school uh on the
011Eastern Far Eastern side of the property near softball fields playgrounds things of that nature uh you can kind of see in this lightish color this whitish Square maybe from your Vantage Point you can see that's that's where there's a ramp currently that exits the school comes to this gazebo like feature and then students uh go to the North or to the left to the existing modular and what we're essentially looking to do is add the two new modular classrooms one building uh located again this is a little bit more zoomed in so you could see the the softball fields to the rear of the school existing School here in this tannish color existing moders located off the rear of the school we're looking to put these these new classrooms uh essentially mirrored uh from the
012existing modular there today students would take access uh from the ramp to the Gazebo and then to the right towards this classroom associated with this is a a minor relocation of a roadway that uh U that is circular access around the around the building so we'll be shifting this slightly to accommodate the new building uh playground some playground equipment will have to be shifted and relocated to the east or Southeast in existing lawn areas off the softball field um for bookkeeping purposes uh this was reviewed by the Inland Wetlands commission and they found that a permit was not needed and uh we also review this with the Water Pollution Control Authority and they determined that a application wasn't warranted for this use um so in terms of site plan modifications it's really just limited to
013the new buildings the ramp to access the building itself uh shift of the circular drive that goes around the property today and movement of some um playground equipment to the uh to the southeast to accommodate the new modulars and as um Mr masana mentioned uh the the idea is that when the school population decreases that the Modell existing modular to the Northeast um when the school population decreases that they that they'd be eligible for um removal so that's a quick brief summary of the site plan modifications if there's any questions for me um if not I can turn back over to Lisa just to give you a little more detail on the building excuse me did they purchase the trailers or did they lease them purchase Pur them okay well maybe I misunderstood right how
014far is the um what's the separation between the main building and the uh modular about 20 ft perfect thank you how long are those uh expected to last those just existing 30 have been there the existing ones have been there for 30 years and they've held up you know we've had to you know re roof them and add gutters but they have held up it's longer than you know probably expected life cycle but we do tend to take care of things um and I I call all the Portables that we have our permanent Portables because we seem to put them in place and leave them there thank you thanks which by the way is not uncommon what is uncommon is uh that the owner acknowledges that the use will not be temporary so I'm just
015going to take you through borrow Ryan's easel here I'm going to take you through the plan in a little bit more detail the purpose of showing this this enlarged plan so the um the the Pavilion that Ryan mentioned is this Square here this is the ramp from the main building this is this the bottom corner of the existing Portables and then you have this it's a101 in your packet we we used it to identify light lighting location so this is serving as our site lighting plan there's minimal new lighting being added there are square lights that that exist in this area which are relatively new we're going to use the same ones they're down lights they're indicated here in yellow so there are three new down lights and they're undercover so they're full cut off
016the uh Portables themselves come with lights at each entry um emergency lights and also just regular sconces on the wall also pointing down also undercover so they're full cut off and then so this is when I said these were double wides before you can see the trailer hitches which will be removed but you can see them in the drawing so you can see see the orientation of how they're arriving and then one classroom at the top one at the bottom toilet rooms in the middle this is the main accessible entrance in the center under cover these are emergency exits which are typical for portable classrooms also undercover I'll flip this around so these are our building elevations the new Portables are shown in this sort of tan color this is the existing Pavilion and this
017is our cover walkway that leads to the main entrance and that's sort of that's the most this this shows the back so this is at the at the fire department access road goes past here and these are the the emergency exits and then this just shows each end this is this is the nearest existing building facade which we have shown on here because we're demonstrating our separation of more than 20 feet for the for the building and fire yeah how how are the these heated and cooled um and electrified I'm guessing they run power from the main building is it is it draw heat and cool uh cold from the main we're pulling electric from the building and then there will be uh through the wall units in each one which is typical for pump
018something heat pumps Heating and Cooling and then the the water and sanitary we're going to we're trying to use the same hookup that serves the existing Portables and we're setting it up in a way that if when those go away they can be cut and capped in the the uh the utility connection room means assuming that this is approved what's the time frame on it so will the kids have a playground in the fall or they're going to lose the playground for a little bit um we're we're trying for installation over the summer so there shouldn't be shouldn't be a gap for the kids um this part of your packet or should be but we did send out notices to all Property Owners AB budding this site and across the street and that was sent
019about over two weeks prior to the public hearing so um I imagine there's some members of the public here who may have questions that that was my next move see if I from the public wants to speak please go up to the microphone and state your name and address for the record good evening I'm Steve Thomas and I live at 15 burnt Hollow Court and uh you know our our backyard pretty much AB butst the current baseball field to the school um for to help Orient me anyway could we go back to the first image that was up here because I thought I saw my home but I if we could just see it a little better I don't add it's be over here okay confused I'm glad I came no further questions you got
020your question answered anyone else from the public no any more questions from the commission applicant you're good thank you okay going to call to uh order the regular meeting for Monday uh May 13th uh can I get a motion to approve the minutes Mr s Mr Dawson second any discussion no okay communication I Sor we need to approve the minute sorry all in favor I I thank you Communications you have uh the Federation Planning and Zoning commission's agency quarterly report in your uh packet also we emailed you stuff for PCD the response to the survey um and and we're I'll have a schedule from the consultant for your next meeting on the interviews for the uh commissions that will come to this board okay so you have the result results from the the survey for
021the plan of conservation development and then also we the boards and commissions that other boards and commissions that will be coming to you as part of the process and discussing portions of the pro the the plan we have a tenative schedule draft Ed with each with two commissions each night identified so that'll I'll have that to your next meeting okay okay so on our unfinished business we have the applications before us have a do we have a motion I'd like to move staff wording uh approve the application for a special permit on behalf of the town of chesher applicant applicants requesting a special permit section uh pursuant to section 30 schedule a permitted uses number 27 of the zoning regulations for modular craft rooms at the property located at 490 Highland Avenue cessor map 51
022lot two Zone r20a commission feels that based on the presentation and documents provided the applicant Dem demonstrated compliance with the chesher zoning regulations the approval is based on plans entitled Highland Elementary School proposed modular classrooms prepared by SLR with a revision date of April 22nd 2024 any ready move staff's War the applicant coordinate with the fire chief or his designity for the fire hydrant relocation second okay third any discussion no okay all in favor I opposed abstaining motion passes good luck next meeting we'll have that for you I think we might have people here you've got you've got people still here just let them for the I think they're here are you oh I'm sorry I announced it earlier are you here for the Mountain Road subdivision okay that's going to that uh public hearing
023is on the 29th we table it 29th please come back yes please please thank you thank you yeah Matt really loves ex okay now get a motion to adjourn go moved all in favor I