[Music] Good evening everyone. Today is August 21st. The time is 6:12
p.m. and this is the Kushna Planning Board. This is a hybrid meeting. We are live via Teams tonight. This meeting is being recorded for future viewing on the town's YouTube channel. Uh we're on via
cable and for future watching on the cable channel. Can I get a motion to open the planning board meeting? >> Motion open. >> Second it. All >> in favor? >> I. >> Can we introduce ourselves, please? Victoria Albaro, town planner.
>> Peter G, a member. Mark Francois, chairman. >> Rick Ellis, vice chairman. >> We have a quorum tonight. Um, gentlemen, did you have a chance to look over the minutes from the July 17th meeting?
Um, I was in attendance. Rick, you were in attendance and Brian, Steve, and Peter were not. Um, Rick, did you have any This was a one of those This was the ultra quick
meeting we had. >> I have no problems with the minutes from the last meeting. >> Okay. >> Such as it was. >> Okay. Uh, I'll take a motion to accept the minutes as written. >> Motion to accept the minutes of our July
17th, 2025 meeting. >> Okay. Got a motion. Oh. Two of us though, right? Does that still >> tech? Anyone can vote on the minutes. You don't have to be at the >> Oh, okay. Second. >> Second. All in favor? I
>> Thank you. >> All right, gentlemen. Moving right along. Uh I have to open the public hearing. Correct. >> So, we're um you do not have to open it because they did not meet the legal requirements. >> That's correct.
So, uh, just for everybody's information, uh, we had a public hearing scheduled tonight. Uh, this, and I'll read what it is. It's the site plan review and special permit of 109494
Main Street, Clem's Way, Map 7, Lot 15. Applicants, Clemway Solar LLC, and Real Renewables. uh Brookside Realy Trust represented by Bills and Thomas. The scope of the work was a 5 mill
AC solar array. We were supposed to have a public hearing tonight, but due to the fact that the proponent failed to um file uh the notice in the paper uh in
time, uh unfortunately uh we cannot uh have the public hearing. So, this public hearing will be rescheduled for what is it? September >> September 18th. >> 18th.
And again, uh, for anybody out there watching, uh, you can call or, uh, reach out to the town planners office the day before or the day of to make sure that that, uh, that they are still scheduled
for that meeting that night. I hate to see people come all the way down here and be disappointed that it's been um, rescheduled. Moving on. Uh, discussion
discussion and vote on revising the filing requirements. >> Victoria, you want to help me out with this one? >> Yeah, absolutely. So, that document is in your packet. Um, so the revisions to
this would basically just be making it clearer to the applicant what their responsibilities are. So in the top bold area it was changed to show that um the applicants are responsible for notifying
of others and for placing the advertisement which is um what past practice have has been since I've been here but it's just more about making it clearer in writing um for for potential applicants. So basically everything on this is the
same except um highlighted that the applicant is responsible for placing the advertisement. >> Mhm. And for notifying >> for notifying the buyers. >> Correct. >> Okay. I think that's good. Gentlemen, any questions?
>> I looked at all right. >> Thought it was pretty >> pretty straightforward. Straightforward. Yeah. Uh well, just so everything's on the up and up, I would uh entertain a motion to accept the the requirements for the
filing with the Christian Planning Board. >> So moved. >> You got a motion? Second. >> Second. All in favor? >> I >> I accepted. >> Moving on. Other discussions.
vote on creating a business development and permitting guide. Victoria, >> so um I gave you guys an example. It's not in the packet, but I can pull it up if that's >> please.
One second. So, basically what what this is is a guide um for applicants to sort of see, you know, I want to open up a business. Where do I start? And this guide goes over all of
that. One second. Share my screen. All right. It should pop up any second. Okay, there we go. So, this is what it looks like. Um, well, this is a potential one. and Mansfield did a great
job with theirs and they have many different sections um such as key contacts, opening a business, um you know, they have different zoning applications on here and it really just kind of gives an overview of who you should be in contact
with, where you should start. I think that's something um you know, since I've started here, I'm sure it's been talked about before that the town kind of has wanted to implement. I've heard it from various departments. So, I think this would kind of make it easier, especially with changeover and staff and things. We
have a consistent guide for our residents and applicants. Um, yeah. >> Now, is this something that would go on the planning board website? >> Yeah, it could go on the planning board website. There's another appropriate spot. It can certainly go there. Um,
other departments if they wish. Yeah. >> I mean, that would be the best. That way people can look it up online. Yeah. you know, and decide whether decide what they want to do. >> Absolutely. >> No, you're right. We even know since I've been here, it's something that's
been discussed um to where people don't know what their next steps are. Uh I definitely think if we have something that's, you know, clearly spelled out step by step, I want to do this step one, step two, contact
this person, contact that person, I think is extremely important. I looked through this Mansfield um one that you had here, which is a good example. Uh I thought it was very well
laid out and uh very clear. So um I'm I'm in agreement in total favor of of making anything easier for our for our citizens to be able to navigate. So, this is like an example and would be
modified to >> to our town. >> To our town. I mean, I think it's a great idea. >> Yeah. >> Anything that uh helps streamline the process and let people know what they're in for, >> right? >> Good thing. >> It's a good thing. And like Victoria also says like sometimes, you know, you
have turnover from, you know, whether it's clerks or, you know, board members, you know, staff of all, you know, all the staff. when you get a lot of turnover sometimes people don't know always know exactly the procedure but
even they can come and look at it >> I mean even if it's something that they've got around town hall and just say well here's >> here's what the planning boards put forth you know I mean something as simple as that would be great >> absolutely we can definitely have copies printed up and you know have them laying
around for people to just grab on their way out and >> and and have something to you know a guide of some sort. >> Mhm. Yeah, I think between this and the and that uh the filing requirements we've just put that we just voted on, I think good thing to have people at least
have an idea of what what's next and what's required. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of times the engineers if you if you get as far as hiring an engineer to do your project, that's fine because a lot of them are used to it and they know the procedure. Mhm. >> Uh but a lot of homeowners want to, you
know, can do things themselves and they have smaller projects that they want to do and they don't want to hire an engineer. At least it gives them an idea of of >> what they're going to do. Right. Right. What the procedures are and and who to talk to. >> It saves it saves talking to several people at town hall and getting
different stories from every everyone or somebody misses one part of it. It it's it's >> this is writing now. >> It keeps it consistent, >> right? you know, so which is important. >> Yeah. Uh so again, I'm just going to take a quick vote. Uh is the board in
favor of kind of taking this this Mansfield example, kind of modifying it towards our town? Obviously, we'd all, you know, look at it again before anything was set, >> but is that something that we're all in favor of doing? >> Yes, sir. Absolutely.
>> Absolutely. We'll take it. Unanimous. All right, let's uh one more discussion item here. So, discussion on promoting economic development, Victoria. >> Okay. So, I have permission to share my
screen, >> please. >> Okay. All righty. >> Sorry, it takes a second to load up. Um, okay. So, for the record, Victoria Al Faro Town Planner. Um, so I did um put this presentation in the packet for you
guys. Um, but I know the board has talked about and the town in general has really talked about promoting um, you know, responsible economic development um, and things like that um, to help ease the tax burden on residents um,
diversify the tax base. So we'll go over sort of an overview of what um the landscape is in a Kushnet which some of these figures you may have seen through master plan presentations and things like that. Um then we'll see what are
what are our objectives for economic development. What are some goals and strategies? How can we get there and what should we focus on first? And finally our timeline of how to accomplish it. So the economic growth in Aushna has been very minimal for the past few
years. Um we have a split tax rate with the residential tax rate being the highest among its immediate neighbors. So our surrounding towns um were the highest. Um residential growth contributes to the majority of new tax revenue and just under 85% of the tax
burden is on the residents and the remainder is a mix of you know commercial and industrial. The average cost of a home has increased by 49.1% since 2016. And in 2023, the average cost of a home in a Kushnet was $410,000.
And it has gone up since then. And for the planning board, from 2019 to 2023, only two new commercial developments have been permitted through the planning board. Let's site plan reviews.
So our objectives for um economic development is essentially to improve the quality of life of our residents and the financial stability of the town. So some objectives that have come out of, you know, discussions with residents, you know, through our master plan
process are to diversify the tax base to reduce the residential tax burden and create a more resilient economy. increasing the tax revenue to support essential services and infrastructure maintenance, encourage uh shopping locally, produce goods for the
sustainability of our local economy, and to redeem existing small businesses. So some goals and strategies um that we have seen again through the master plan process is to revitalize our main street, South Main and Main Street um
focusing on suitable areas for development and diversifying the housing stock as we mainly have single family homes. So for revitalizing Main Street, um encouraging walkability and placemaking was high on the survey as
well as creating a neighborhood friendly business district from Middle Road to Leonard Street and reviewing current zoning to determine barriers to development in our downtown area. For suitable areas, um we wanted to focus for mixed use, commercial, and
industrial growth. So finding spots in town where that's appropriate um for that kind of development. Pursuing brownfield remediation at critical parcels, which is parcels that are contaminated sites. So how do we get those back into compliance?
And reviewing our inventory of town owned land to explore development opportunities, whether that's selling properties to get them back on tax roll um and things like that. and diversifying the housing stock so we can meet the needs in the entire community.
Review reviewing the minimum lot size of the residential a district and expanding the residential village district. These ideas kind of came out of our master plan meetings and from engaging with residents at outreach events um as well as the survey.
So a big part of promoting economic development will come through zoning changes. Um this can include expanding our industrial and commercial districts to help uh promote economic growth through clear regulations and simpler permitting. Right now 95% of a Kushnet
is zone residential. So it's only about 5% for the remainder. So some potential focus areas are to amend the village business district. This can include revising and expanding the village business district from South
Main Street down to Leonard Street. As I mentioned previously, we can expand both the business commercial district and industrial district for suitable areas and amending the residential aid district for minimum lot size and expanding the residential village district as well as conducting a
comprehensive zoning review of the bylaws to remove any ambiguity and improve clarity. So, there are some spots that aren't necessarily clear. I'll get calls on it, things like that, and it's left open to interpretation. And we don't want that. We want to be clear to developers, clear to staff um
on how to proceed. So if our goal is to do one or some of these um you know in preparation for spring town meeting, we should kind of set some benchmarks um for a timeline to stay on track. So fall of 2025, we want
to pick our focus area and review bylaws. um winter we want to do public outreach and study some other bylaws from other towns. See what has worked well, what hasn't. And you know, late winter, early spring, we want to draft these proposed
amendments. And then in the spring, prior to town meeting, we want to hold the public hearing um as that's required. And that's all I have. Thank you. Um, I mean, one of my only suggestions really is to
try and get a an idea what some other surrounding towns have done that per I worked on permitting retail and commercial developments for 23 years and
almost every time what if it's an industrial use they want close highway access because Nobody wants tractor trailers running past their house all the time and they don't want to have to deal with it. They want to be able to get off the highway and get to the
industrial park or whatever it might be. Uh retail, those guys are looking for how much traffic is going by the front of the site. And uh that's why you see more retail in town
around this area, Main Street, South Main, uh because that's where the traffic is. That's where the retailers want to be. Dunkin Donuts, the the uh the convenience store that recently got permitted. Uh so I I think that's the
biggest challenge that this town is going to have to attract retail, commercial, and industrial development is we just don't have the road system and the traffic volumes that
a lot of these retailers are are going to look at. So that's why my suggestion would be to look at what some other towns have done that also don't have, you know, great highway access in any one location or or a lot of traffic
volume along a main road. You know, that's why Fair Haven and Dartmouth, they're most of their commercial development is right along right along Route Six because that's where the that's where the traffic volume is. That's where the easy highway access is.
Uh, and we're kind of out on the side of nowhere in a cushion. >> I don't Yeah. I I don't think we could ever have uh a Route Six. And I don't think we want a Route six. >> No. I mean, the road the road isn't there.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Uh but I do feel that we could get a little bit more from from here to Leonard. uh make it a little bit more commercial. Uh whether it's
a dog groomer, a hair stylist, uh a small restaurant. >> No, no, no question. No question. >> Whatever. And then we should we should make it to where, you know, they put, you know, small little storefront and apartments above so people can live above it, you know. We should make it to where, you know, they can have a liquor
store underneath and and live above it and and and make it easier. Uh, Main Street, South Main, they're getting busy. There's a lot of traffic on on Maine and South Maine. Middle gets a lot of traffic all the way to Leonard. Um, I
just think whatever it takes for us to make it easier and again, we're not going to get target in >> No, no, no. I I understand, but that was that was the reason for my suggestion to look at what some other towns that that don't have the the big road system.
>> Totally agree with you. Totally agree with you. But I I just think we should start there. >> Uh and I think out of all the ideas that you presented and and by the way that was a great presentation. >> Thank you. Uh, I think out of all of the ideas that you presented, I definitely
think what would benefit this town the most would be to change zoning to allow for uh any kind of retail or commercial development from the smallest to however
big we can get it. Uh there's uh little things that we can do. Obviously, there's only so much sewer and whatnot and and but there's little things that we can do as far as zoning is concerned to make it easier for them to to want to come in or you know,
you go down you go down to Cape and uh lots of people who have a nice size house literally turn that house into a restaurant. >> Mhm. >> And you drive by you can tell that was an old house at one time, but now it's a restaurant that seats, you know, 10 or 15 tables. If we can make it possible
for people to want to do that here, uh I think that would alleviate the burden a little bit. Uh whatever we can do to alleviate the tax burden on this town, I think should be this board's number one
priority is to uh help out with the tax base. We were all at meeting. We know what we know what our taxes are like. know what the school uh is always wanting more, wanting more, wanting more and we just need to kind of help our residents as much as possible. I think
and >> agree. >> Victoria and I have spoken about this numerous times. Uh and I think that should be our top priority uh moving forward uh is to to whatever we can get
that and grants, you know, uh if if there's a sewer grant to go, you know, to extend sewer down uh middle road. >> Yeah. Retail developments aren't real heavy on on sewage. Uh restaurants are
>> restaurants and grocery stores. Uh it's that's tough without a sewer, >> right? But uh but there are a lot of other commercial developments that are not heavy uh heavy sewer use. >> Got you. Good. Yeah. Well, things like that is what we should really be
focusing in on >> and I know it's been a big discussion for the master plan. Um, and uh, I I just want, you know, I'd love nothing better than to, you know, stand up at a town meeting a year from now or two years from now and say, "Look, this is
what came in. This is what now is, you know, opened up in our town because of the changes that we made." And and uh, I I think again that's that should be our top priority for this board. There's lots of things we can do other than
that, but I think that's what we should focus in on, >> you know, and and you know, one other thing to think about is to try and attract smaller operations
uh to make them go through a special permit process can be quite financially challenging. >> Uh and I I would say that if there's a way to have a
threshold level where businesses below a certain number of square feet. I know the parking thing uh that recently got so they had you didn't have to have very many parking spaces and you need to go
into site plan review. If you're looking at smaller users, that process is expensive and time consuming. Uh, and just just throwing that out as >> So you're saying if it's a smaller business, we should try to make it a little bit easier for them somehow.
>> Absolutely. >> Streamline it a little bit easier. >> Absolutely. I mean, the thing that that those people went through with the uh >> with the convenience store, you know, that was a big a a big operation, you
know, they had the funds to put forward with with permitting. uh not everybody's going to have that, you know, and and you know that maybe that was a size that you want to have the special permit stuff kick in, but having not not having
to do that for smaller operations would encourage >> that type of development. Uh >> agreed. >> That's all that's all the only reason I'm just I'm just bringing up as conversation. That's all. >> No, but that's the way it starts. Along the lines of that too, it's also a deterrent, not just financially, but
because developers or small business owners get worried that the special permit can be denied. A site plan review is for an as of right use. So they know the use is allowed. So they think, you know, I might not get this permit. I'm going to go to a town that it is by right, so I don't even have to deal with
that, you know. >> Mhm. >> So it's also deterrent that way, too. >> Yeah. No, I agree. So I mean this was a good opening conversation for this uh segment. I definitely think uh as a board we should all come up with you know either ideas
or suggestions uh that we can toss around to each other and then like Victoria had the timeline set up you know you know have something nailed down as far as what we'd like to present at town meeting. um some ideas
regarding, you know, redistric redistricting of zoning. Um the one that you had on there as far as lot sizes for different districts is something we should definitely look at. If certain areas only have 6,000 foot lots and
there's there's an open 6 foot or 6,000 foot lot right next door, but there's nothing built on it. Well, then they should be able to build on it. It shouldn't have to be 10,000 or 60,000 depending on what area you're in. If if if every other lot is that size. >> Mhm. >> Oh, >> you should allow that person to build a
house or build something on that lot if everybody else has a lot that size. So, I mean, those are things that we should look at at and encourage. Mhm. Um I know that I've spoken about um um
downtown here trying to make it more of a walkable type thing for people to be able to um it's it's a tight road. That's what makes it a little bit harder for that road. But >> through through the tick project we're doing for South Main Street, um cuz
Masto wants us to take over South Main Street at the end of the process after construction, but um they're actually working on that. So I think, you know, down the line once it gets constructed, it'll be really nice down there. >> And we're also advocating for on street
parking on one side because our current businesses have such limited parking. Um, that's not something Mass Dot typically does, but that has been talked about in the design. So, hopefully we can get that as well. >> I mean, park parking to support commercial uh operations
is the biggest use of land period. >> You know, there's so many most most developments are limited by how many cars you can park there. >> Yeah. and and parking requirements are uh the retail one would be around five
spaces for every thousand square feet of of space. And a lot of retail Well, I'm I'm out of uh it's been a while, but at retailers were always looking for a parking count of around five spaces for
every thousand square feet. And that's that takes a lot of space. those >> I mean to to provide five parking spaces with access aisles u is easily as much or more than the actual building itself.
>> So that makes it tough on like 6,000 square foot lots to put a you know a retail or other kind of commercial establishment there. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, agreed. Agreed. But we just got to got to kind of really put our thinking caps on and see what we can
do to change things. >> Uh, and I think little changes will go a long way. >> So, that's something we're going to dive a little bit deeper in as a board. >> Uh, is is um
is Ser do they have traffic counts on some of the major streets in town? Do you know, you know, without having to go out and do them? >> Yeah. that I'm not sure. >> I mean, that will give you some indication too of of which areas might
be more uh suitable to retail development if there's already, you know, relatively high traffic counts. Lake Street accepted. >> Okay, I'll take >> It's narrow. It's narrow and winding and I have to worry about getting run over
when I check my mail these days. But that that that might be a more difficult road to uh to try and do something with. And there's a there's a fair amount of traffic up and down Lake Street. >> No, there is. >> I mean, a lot more so than there ever was.
>> Well, they're doing a good job of cleaning up the the ponds. So, um I'm sure there's more people using there to go to go see the lakes. >> Yeah. I mean I mean like when this Dunkin Donuts went in, when a Dunkin Donuts goes in, the first thing they
look at is how many people are driving by that place every day. >> And that's why they're all at intersections and the most miserable places already to drive >> because they know that they are going to capture a certain percentage of that
traffic that's going to go into their facility and buy stuff. Uh and and most your bigger retailers are like that. They're they're looking at traffic count. >> Mhm. >> Uh it wouldn't be bad. >> And and again, those are bigger those are bigger operations, but u I guarantee
you that the convenience store up here, they looked at traffic count to decide whether or not it was worthwhile. >> Yeah, I'm sure. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, we have a direction and we have a focus. All right.
That's it on the discussions. We've uh we haven't had anything new come in in the last 48 hours. Uh our next meeting is uh Thursday, September 4th. Gentlemen, you have anything else you'd
like to discuss, bring up topics? >> I will be able to make the meeting on the 4th. >> Okay. >> But I won't be able to make the one on the 18th. >> Okay. That's >> because that one's a special permit. We need at least four.
>> Yeah. I mean, I can I can do I can watch the thing on on YouTube >> for that one meeting. Yeah. >> But September's kind of >> Okay. >> Uh not available. >> Okay. No, thanks for letting us know. Um we'll have Victoria reach out to the
other board members just to make sure we can have a quorum for that uh public hearing >> and then uh we'll go from there. >> Okay. All right. Appreciate Appreciate the heads up on that one. >> Um, that's all I got, gentlemen. I'll entertain a motion.
>> Motion to adjourn. >> Second, >> ladies and gentlemen, it is 6:45. Good night. Thank you.
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