You know what I'm What do you think is the financial >> final? >> There's there's none. You might be able to find one, I suppose. >> Good evening. Seeing it's 7 o'clock. I'd like to call this uh two Thursday September 18th 2025 meeting of the
finance committee to order. Tonight we'll be following the published to posted agenda. We are broadcast live by council tele media and recorded for future viewing. Uh first on the agenda this evening is approval of minutes from September 11th, 2025. Has everyone had a chance to review them? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Do I have a motion?
>> I make a motion to uh approve the minutes of September 11th, 2025. >> Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I >> I >> abstain. >> All right, >> good idea.
>> Five in favor, one extension. >> All right, moving right along. Uh we have uh first our first section of public comment if there anyone would like to speak prior to go entering into the review of the articles. Uh we will also have an opportunity for a public comment after we've reviewed the three the multiple articles on on for this
evening. Um, seeing as there's none, we'll move along to the review and discussion of Warrant Article 34, which is the preservation of open fields at Coois Farm. And with us this evening, we have the petitioner, John Ray. >> Good evening, uh, John and Joy Ray, 223 Pinehill Road.
>> Good evening. >> Good evening. Um, I've not done this before. So, you questions? >> No. Uh, I just want to uh present your article, talk about why you're presenting it, what the articles for. Think of this as an opportunity to
practice because you'll have a couple of opportunities before town meeting before you present town meeting. So, feel free to go through if we have as ask have questions, our committee will ask them and uh we'll go from there. >> Um, the basic question, I guess, is why are
we doing it? Uh the petition asks the select board with guidance from town meeting the petition asks that the select board with guidance from town meeting decide the future of Kool's farm. It ensures residents have a direct voice in shaping
how the this important property is used for generations. And it should be understood we are only talking about three acres of 31 acres. The rest is all natural. Um, three acres of familyfriendly
activities out of the 31 acres. This would be a win-win uh opportunity for the town and its residents. Now, uh, this is the finance committee. There are no expenses, expected expenses
from the friends of Kulus for the maintenance of of Kulis farm. Do you do you want me to read the um petition? Uh >> you have the petition. >> We we have the petition. It's on it's it's it's placed right up there.
>> Okay. Um the language for the warrant article. Uh I did receive a an email that the committee received an email uh which we'll be read I'll be reading to the record next. You'll be I'll read it. You'll have an opportunity to to discuss uh it's uh after I've uh read through
it. >> Thank you. Maybe the third one. Third one. Thank you. >> Got some good eyes. >> You could see that. >> Hold on for now, right?
>> That's Carl Slope of the >> Okay. And this is from uh Carl Bash, the uh chair of the conservation commission. background. The property was acquired in November 2023. Three separate parcels,
technically four two south of I495 are adjoining, were acquired. Two, the coolest farm task force was chartered by the town manager to come up with ideas for how the property will be used. Three, the task force met in the early part of 2024. The select board and town
manager heard the recommendations at their May 20th, 2024 meeting. Four, the select board at that time asked the conservation commission to take on the responsibility for the site, including developing the preservation restriction, the conservation restriction. The CR is
required by state law as a result of using community preservation act money for the acquisition. Five, the select board and town manager both told the coolest task force work party spin-off that you follow the guidance and direction of the conservation commission.
Six, the Conservation Commission supports essentially all of the recommendations of the task force with the following notes. A, native plant meadow. We agree wholeheartedly. B, wildlife rescue facility. We strongly support New House Wildlife Rescue and their mission. However, town council KP
Law provided an opinion letter last year. The acquisition of the property using community preservation act CPA funds for uh open space purposes would not allow a structure/ business to be located on this site. This opinion differs from the original opinion given by the task force by the previous town
council changed in FY25 to KP law. C. Community garden space quote reserve if there is demand in the future. End quote. We agree. D. Sledding. We agree. E. Event area. Quote. An event area is also very much in the spirit of Kulis
Farm and is favored by the task force. End quote. We do not fully agree here. We allow events on all conservation commission managed properties with proper approvals. But setting aside a large space for occasional large numbers of people and requiring regular maintenance
and upkeep when the space could be wildlife habitat is not in line with conservation commission values. There are a number of other good-sized family-friendly maintained open spaces in town, including Robert's Field only a mile away from Kulis. F. Agriculture. We
agree. Two agriculture use licenses have been approved through the commission and we expect to continue with this approach. G. Walking trails were implied in the recommendations as there was a discussion of the creation development of trails on the site. We fully support this use of the site
addressing the specifics of warrant article 34. A maintain the property in the condition last maintained by DPW as family-friendly recreational open fields and managed agricultural land. I or one focusing on the main parcel. DPW did not
maintain the property last year. They spent a lot of time removing the house and other structures and lots of debris. They spent a lot of time and effort developing the site and did a great job. They did not take on the maintenance of the site and my understanding is they are not willing to take on maintenance of the site. They have enough on their
plate. The quote friends of Coois Farm and quote volunteers did a lot of the day-to-day maintenance last year, not DPW. to the site is not in its final state. There is still work to be done in cleaning up concrete pads, removing more debris. DBW has this on their to-do
list. We are working closely with DBW on this work. We are also working to get a kiosk granite site sign and more picnic tables on the site. We expect to continue to make improvements to the site, including interpretive signage, perhaps new trails, and lots of invasive
plant management. Three, the site is open to the public and has been since spring 2024. In my opinion, the site is family-friendly now. It is being maintained by volunteers, including members of the conservation commission and other local volunteers. Four, quote, managed
agricultural land, end quote. The other two parcels south of 45 on Hunt Road and between Pine Hill Road and 495 are both licensed for agricultural use approved by the Conservation Commission early this year. We expect this to continue annually. B. The property should be
formally designated as community focused multi-use land is proposed by the coolest farm task force including an event area suitable for larger groups. Five. I'm not sure how to answer this. The property is community focused multi-use walking trails, native plant
meadow, sledding hill, picnic tables. There's a cut grass area. We support having a community garden on the site if that need arises. Six, the conservation commission believes that the amount of open space in town is constantly decreasing and our per our charter, we
need to continue to protect habitat for wildlife. The town clearly values protecting and coexisting with wildlife per the strong public support of the local wildlife rescue operation. We intend to manage the site balancing the need for community access with the need to provide habitat to support wildlife.
Seven, maintaining a large frequently mowed space does not fit this approach and it it fell on the D if it if it fell on the town DPW would add cost that we don't need to incur. Eight, the conservation commission does not intend to allow the site to revert to quote unmanaged habitat or forest end quote.
We highly value the existing woods and the existing open meadow areas and intend to de develop a long-term plan to improve these areas. We are currently working with a consultant to make significant improvements in the evasive management of at the Warren Pole property. We expect to do the same at
Kulus in the future. Nine, we conservation are mostly focused on working towards developing the conservation restriction while ensuring the site is still open to the public. We are making good steady progress on the CR. There are a lot of deliverables that need to be in place before the DRA
document is drafted. We had instructed the friends of Kulas farm last year multiple times that significant changes to the site needed to needed to wait until much of the CR work was completed. There are a number of other family-friendly open spaces which are currently regularly maintained and mo in
the vicinity. Robert's field. This site is only one mile away from Kula's farm property. Varnney Park playground, South Wheelfield, Southwell Field Complex, Bartlett Park in the town center, town common and various schools. The conservation commission has posted on its website a quote coolest farm update
end quote located here. Uh website address is chancellormma.gov/276 conservation-commission. Please vote against article 34 as it will do nothing more than confound our approach and the work we are doing to make this site both accessible to the
public as well as a rich protected natural resource. Carl Bishoff, Chancer Conservation Commission Chair. You're not expecting me to respond to that? >> I'm not. You are You're welcome to respond to it if you'd like to. You're allowed to make any statements in your article you'd like to. It was this was
just provided to us and we were asked to read into the record and that's what I did. >> Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate getting that seeing that. >> I would like a copy of it. >> We will certainly provide you with one. >> Okay. Because I would like a copy of it. >> Sure. >> I don't see that. >> And we need time to respond.
>> And we need time to respond in a positive. And as I as I said, >> positive manner. >> Yes. >> Just received it. Uh we also won't be voting this evening on this anyway. Uh we have a meeting next Thursday where we're scheduled to vote on on all articles. So if you want to respond
before that uh with within the week, that's possible. Additionally, I'm sure you'll be presenting to other committees such as the select board. Um uh so that I'll provide this with you to you. >> Nobody's asked for our >> No one's asked for you to present. >> Nope. So to my knowledge,
>> I I imagine you'll you'll be >> No, I apologize for that. >> Again, >> but but but you just came up. >> I again just received it, asked to read it into the record. >> Sure. I appreciate that. We'll provide you with a copy and certainly you'll be part of our minutes uh when we post our
minutes. Um but um >> if you have anything >> when are you going to be voting on this? >> Next week, next Thursday. >> Next week. >> So our our agenda will be posted by Tuesday. Uh we'll be starting at 6:30, not 7 next week. We had a scheduling
conflict this week that started us at 7. >> Have any other questions? >> Does anybody have any questions? >> I'm trying to form it. Um, you don't want any party space. Is that I'm just
rejiggering what? Um, >> I No, we're not talking about a a party space. Maybe an event space, but not a a party space. No, we're just familyfriendly usage area is the terms we've been been using and floating
around much as we u had events last year. So like what what kind of events that's I just I'm having problems picturing what >> we had some scout uh >> oh scout stuff >> scout stuff uh star viewing um and and
realizing we had just started to mow um the area and there were still a lot of rocks so we didn't couldn't have a lot of unstructured uh events there so I whatever citizens want
>> and and safe. Um so so we we do get a lot of support um neighbors, families, open space stewards, scouts, uh gardeners,
recreational general recreational uh advocates and residents who want to use Kulis farm serve multiple community needs. Even members of the Kulis family have praised the uh the exemplary work
done um to initiate and restore the site standing stand by having the um it maintained. Now, what's happened is since since May, the flowers have bloomed and
it's really kind of nice to see the bees and go after the flowers, which is kind of fun. It opens up the window for doing stuff similar to what was done or is done in Redwing Farm. Yes.
>> So, I I we don't have definition of what we're going to be doing exactly. You want you want it to look like >> Yeah, we want it to look like Redwing. Are everybody familiar with that Redwing Farm? The problem with that Redwing Farm is it's a small parking spot and and a
lot of people want to use it. >> So, I guess what what is the the main concern that you're trying to address right now? Is it a certain area of the farm that you're concerned about? Um, >> it's just the three acres that we're talking about in of the fields, the three fields.
>> Okay. Is that the main space behind the parking area currently? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> So, your your pro uses space for group activities. I'm going to call it scout stuff because I had three scouts, so I know what scout stuff is. Um, overnight
scar staving. Um, >> familyfriendly so that they're not restricted to just certain paths. If you're out sky sky gazing, you you it's hard to manipulate around to be able to see some of the planets like we've gone
through uh a a situation, Mark, of of aligned planets, a line that you can see them uh in the sky and sometimes you have to duck a little bit, but it's a big dark area uh to be able to see and
it's it's you can't go through a a corn maze in the dark easily. >> Okay. For for that kind of an event, >> do you do you feel that someone is restricting you? Uh what what is what has prompted you to do this for this uh
for this these three acres? Like what do you what are you thinking? Are there people trying to constrain what your ideas are? because it sounds it sounds like everybody's kind of on the same page with a familyfriendly. You know, >> we were instructed by by
um these uh select board errand to not mow not maintain not mow not maintain um the fields >> those three acres you're referring to. I see. Okay. >> Okay. And it's not about mowing. It's
it's maintaining the fields in a right now the maze is almost a a tick habit habitat. >> Mhm. >> And and and since then very few if any people have been using Kulis farm and
even the deer don't use Coolers Farm any longer. I'm I'm I'm not from this area so I'm not a I'm not familiar why. I've been told it's because the deer don't like it. It It's not a safe zone for them
that because the coyotes can hide. If anybody's a hunter that could add to that information, I don't know. But I have not We used to see deer all the time on the fields. And we see the deer around the hay area across the street
around the edges. They they like what Caroline Parley has been mowing, but you don't see them over in cool anymore. >> So, just to make sure I'm understanding the the crux of the situation is that um you think that the certain areas should
be mowed and so that then that encourages other people to come and use it for different purposes. And then there's, you know, you've gotten direction where that's something that you should not be doing because that's not consistent with how um the property was, you know, designated. Is that right? >> Correct.
>> Okay. >> Wait a minute. But isn't it like from isn't it under the conservation commission's responsibility to >> So I'm gonna I'm gonna ask and address that. Okay. >> Soon. Um I guess my my question is how often are you looking to have this area
mowed? >> Are you looking for a regular every other week maintenance or >> We're not looking for for the town to mow it. We're looking for volunteers >> volunteers to mow it. just like it's done over at um Redwing.
>> Okay. >> So, we want it and and Cal's group maintains Redwing and we'd like it maintained just like Redwing is maintained. They do an excellent job over at Redwing and we'd like to see
Kulis >> done like that so that our side of town has something very similar to what Redwing has. Do you know how often that they that they mow that area? >> I I really I don't know. I don't. Okay.
But every time you go there, it seems to be short enough that >> And so we don't expect um the town to have to finance anything. We there's um we expect volunteers and the 501
uh C um what is it? A 50 It's a 501c group. Um what's it COSS? there's any any expenses, but there wasn't any last year and I don't expect >> there would be under friends of course. >> You're not looking for funding. You're looking for permission is what really what you're looking for.
>> Uh if you don't mind, the conservation commission chair is in the audience. I have a couple questions for him based upon the letter I just read into the article if he's willing to come up. >> Sure, we can go. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Carl Bishoff, 15 Lock Road Conservation
Commission Chair. >> Evening, Carl. Um, so currently there's a there's essentially a moratorium on mowing the three acres. Is that accurate? >> Uh, mowing the field. There are trails that are mowed uh fairly regularly. Uh,
yes. >> Okay. And I guess I want to understand the thought process behind not maintaining that particular area. Uh I think you kind of outlined it in the in in the letter on the first page. I think it's part E of of paragraph six, but
>> um just if you could just expound on that. >> Yeah. U meadows are a big important habitat in uh in this part of the area of of this area. We have lots of woods and if you don't maintain a meadow, uh it will turn into woods and so we really
treasure that area as a meadow. If you turn it into cut grass, like a lawn, like the town common, um you don't get the butterflies, you don't get the bugs, you don't get the birds. It's very obvious when you're at Kulis that with the uncut meadow. Um it's very active.
I've seen bluebirds, I've seen uh goldfinches, I've seen dragonflies, all kinds of uh wildlife there. Uh I don't agree with the statements about deer. I've seen deer there this year. Um, so I that the idea is that we're trying to
maintain it as as much natural as possible, but still have uh some cut area. We do have some cut area that's uh a a decent size area for people to spend time in easily. You could do events. You could do any kind of uh sky, you know,
night sky viewing. There shouldn't be any problem with that. We could make it a little bigger if we needed to if that was really an issue. It's not an issue. >> Okay. So, how often? I guess you're not you're not maintaining at all right now is is is what you're saying that that >> we cut we cut the trails two weeks ago. >> Well, not the trails, but the open area.
>> The open area. We will probably cut it um probably after October because once you get past the pollination season, the pollinator season, uh the pollinators are moving on and so then you can cut it and still and we'd probably try to get to cutting the cutting the whole field
at that point. Have there been any other any other um recommendations made about how to maintain that particular area from any of like the trustees that are coming in? >> No. >> No. >> No. And and honestly, we're we're doing this um without an official plan.
>> Uh this was the idea is let's get the conservation restriction in place and then we will then we will work to get the plan. And so we're this is the approach that we're taking. Um, we we do expect to have a land management plan that will have a more
guided and specific schedule for how you cut the fields and how frequently. >> So, no discussion of a burn or anything like that. >> I'm sorry. >> No discussion of a burn or anything like that. >> No. >> Okay. >> Uh, I've looked at that. I my my judgment is we're too close to 495 to do a burn.
>> Okay. >> Is there a happy medium here? I it sounds like there isn't because you're looking to >> I kind of think if you go to the site and you look at it now, I think it is a happy medium. I think that's where we're at. We've we've conceded a lot of things. We let we let the friends of Kulis put a a a shed on the site on the
site last year. We were happy with how they were maintaining the the site in general last year, but we said this year they were looking to remove all the stones and we said we we can't be removing stones. It's easier to cut a field when you get rid of the stones, but we said until we get the conservation restriction with Sbury
Valley, uh, who's likely to be the holder. >> We we didn't want to be making those kinds of changes. >> And what's our status on the conservation restriction? >> We have a number of deliverables before we get to the draft of the of the CR and we are very close to having all those
deliverables done. We've uh a site uh uh survey plan. Uh we're doing a uh uh contaminated field assessment. Uh make sure there's no issues there. Uh baseline document review. There's a whole list of things that we've been
working through for the last year to complete so that we can then get to this to the uh to the document. >> Okay. Um and once that conservation restriction is in place, is there is there wiggle room for discussing discussing the use of the of that of that main area? that is that is defined
in the CR. So >> how that how that's used will be defined in the CR. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> And we we went through that with the Warren pole site and we we always tried to put an envelope in the wording so that you it gave you a lot of future um
opportunity if things change. For example, we don't plan to be doing um crop agriculture at Warren Pole, but we allowed it >> in the CR so that if in 20 years we decide we need the town really needs tomatoes or something, we can do that.
>> Okay. So, the use of open space is is a is a is a use of larger open space is a possibility to include in the conservation restriction. >> Could be. Sure. >> Could be or will be. >> I have we haven't got there yet. >> Haven't got there yet. >> Haven't got there yet. >> Okay. >> This is honestly this is kind of early. This is, you know, we this takes time
and and this particular article is to me is jumping the gun. We're just, you know, we're just not there yet. >> Okay. >> All right. Any any other questions? >> No, >> it's up to you.
>> So, and I apologize because I came in late. Um, so I'm a little Why did like Why aren't we working with the conservation commission? He is the conservation commission. >> No, not to the proponents of the article like
>> because it it seems like what they want is very generic >> if I look at the wording of the article which >> I'm just confus like I guess I'm confused as like why this can't be resolved all like together.
So maybe the proponents can come up and My name is Mark Petroone. Uh I live on Pineh Hill Road out right up the road in my my family is the one who lived on on the site. Um John Ray, he's a steward of the land. He's been taking care of the
place. He organized work parties to go down there and clear a lot of the bittersweet bittersweet. This thick that thick. I'm not kidding you. And um he's been doing such a great job. They planted three trees out in front of the the coolest farm area. John's down there
every couple of days pouring. He brings water down and he waters each of the three trees. I think that's all he's asking for is there's two big fields. There's one field right behind the parking lot. He's saying, "Let me clear that out. The big field on the other side. Leave it alone." Kyle's right.
It's beautiful. There's there's butterflies. is I walked it with my daughter just yesterday and we just love looking at the bees and the butterflies. We love that stuff. But why not have this one piece that John's talking about. Let them clear it. It's just a beautiful area, you know, and there's
plenty others. And the trails are still terrific. I help work on those trails with John and I think that's what we're not asking to put an auto body shop on the property. We're just saying we just want to do this one area. He wants to clear it. He's done a fabulous job. and
I I thank him all the time when I see him, but uh that's all he's asking for. He's not again, we're not talking about mowing everything in the place. I wouldn't want that. I'm an environmentalist, too. You know, I understand Carl's uh reason and his ecological, you know, principles. I love
that stuff. Okay, that's the only one. I know you want to get the hell out of here, so we'll just >> I I get But I I guess I don't think I got my answer. like why isn't why are we working if that's what you want why are we working with the conservation commission why is this being brought to town meeting
>> I I've seen a couple of of the meetings uh that previously happened I think there has been some discussion back and forth I think we're at we might be at an impass as to how they want to address it seeing as a conspiration restriction is being worked on they don't want any mowing being done on it um and so it's a
we want to mow no we're not mowing and the conservation restrictions being put into place so that might prevent that area from being used in a way that the proponent of the article wants it to be used. If I'm if I'm summarizing it correctly. >> Yeah. Certainly.
Um May 12th I went to the select board and the select board said no more maintenance. Turn in the lawn mower. No more maintenance. I asked I worked with
conservation u with Bill Vines who's this conservation steward steward for Kulus and Sue and Will uh who the site managers and I've worked
with them and uh for uh since then this is the first time I've seen anything from conservation as a for a plan. I asked for a plan. This is the first time I've seen that kind of detail.
Now, I'm That's not a negative response. Conservation has a ton of work to do. I totally get that. I couldn't do Carl's job in a heartbeat. >> Okay, Carl.
>> I mean, I couldn't I'm, you know, I'm glad he does what he does. I'd be asleep. I'm too old to do this stuff. But I asked for it. So it it it collaboration is two ways. What is the
plan? What are the dates? This is satisfactory. This is not satisfactory. You know, I've I've communicated that. I've tried to we will take a look at this note. Okay. And try to work as positive as possible. very positive
because I will not do anything that's not positive. This is all for the community. All right. And Carl's saying this is all for the community, too. I know that. But it's different. You know, I'm on the ground and and the people that are there
aren't happy with what we're all doing. They've seen it in a different fashion. So, I I need time to go and look at this. Sure. >> If you don't mind. >> All right. >> The other suggestion I'd give here, I think it needed to your point, is that
the way that this is um written is a way it feels like you could interpret it in many different ways, right? So, for example, if I was just sitting here um looking at it and trying to vote, for example, in the condition last maintained by the DPW, right? That's a fairly generic statement. So, it's kind
of hard to know what does that actually mean. So I think what would be more helpful is just to be able to be more specific in your ask and say I want to set aside an acre right next to the parking lot for open space for this reason. Yeah, I think that would really cut to the >> or to the effect of like the event
>> in our arable soup for larger groups, right? Including event like right like I you think of >> scouts, I think of weddings and that's a very different like I won't like like as written since it's not specific like I that's not something I want. Right. So I
think this needs to be very >> this language can't be changed because it's the language of the actual petition. And so what I think might be helpful, John, for you for making your position known to everybody else, especially the town meeting, is putting together a couple of slides or a couple of uh PDFs that have the pictures of
what you'd like it to look like, pictures of what you worked on and then pictures of what it might look like. Now, >> we we've posted that and we can make that available. >> I think for town meeting purposes, you're going to want to have that in a presentation format to show people. >> Um,
>> thank you for the input. I think that would be certainly helpful because people want to see what you're talking about as well as understand what you're talking about. >> I would invite you to come to Culis >> and we could with Carl we could we could do that collectively >> and we've already started to put
together a slide. >> Excellent. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> Pictures. Pictures. Thousand words each. >> Yeah. >> Map and pictures. >> Yeah. That'd be great. as of the day we stop.
>> And to Stephen's point, I'd like an an aerial showing the location that you're looking at that you're you're talking about. >> We have those. >> Excellent. So, in in in the presentation form for town as available. >> Okay. >> So, we're pretty much all set up
>> and we'll take each item that put together and answer that for you. >> Okay. next Thursday. >> Thank you. As much done as we can. >> Thank you very much. >> Of course. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next on the agenda this evening is a
review and discussion of warrant article 33, the home rule petition regarding second generation anti-coagulant rodent rodenticide uh prohibition, also known as escars. Uh with us this evening is Derek Su the Save Chancer Wildlife chair
um main main person and uh I see Jane New House from New House Wildlife Rescue is also with us. >> I do. Yeah. >> Start off with that >> and I have the updated one with the with the correction you you mentioned.
>> You have like a trigger I'm sorry. You >> want me to point at you in the >> No, I'll just keep just you say next slide or I'll I'll I'll try to keep along with what you're saying. Y >> uh good evening. My name is Derek Suhu. Uh 78 Davis Road. Uh I'm here as the
founder of Save Chumsford Wildlife. Tonight I'd like to talk about a home roll petition to protect Chumsert's wildlife, water, and community health by addressing the use of redicides in town. Um what are escars? Um second generation anti-coagulant
rodenticides are poisons used in black bait boxes um to kill rats and mice. Um they work by preventing blood clots which leads to internal bleeding. These were banned in 2015 by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for
resale due to dangers of pets and children. They don't kill immediately. The rodents wander around for days before dying. Uh let's see. Um before dying in that time they are often eaten by predators like owls, hawks and foxes
uh which are also poisoned. These poisons can stay potent for months before losing their potency. When escars are used in everyday homes, the poison rodent will hide in homes until death and could be found by pets and children.
This isn't just a rodent problem. It's a community problem. Owls, hawks, foxes, coyotes, pets, and even our national bird, the bald eagle, can be poisoned when they eat contaminated rodents. These poisons ripple through the food chain, wiping out the very predators that naturally keep the rodent
populations in check. Here in Massachusetts, testing has found rodenticides in many species of wildlife. In 2020, the TUS wildlife clinic found 100% of red tail hawks that were found dead had traces of escars in them. This has been an increasing number
over the last decade. Wildlife rehabers treat dozens of cats, dogs, and other pets each year as they are affected by escars. Traces have also been found in waterways which have threatened our drinking water. Chumps conservation land, wetlands, and wildlife are all at
risk. The good news is there are safer alternatives. Owls boxes attract natural rodent hunters. A single owl can eat up to a thousand mice per year. Snap traps and exclusion methods are effective and
safe. With simple steps like securing trash, reducing waste, we can prevent infestations before they start. Public education has been a focus for chumps uh save chumps wildlife. Other cities and towns in Massachusetts are beginning to look at rodent
restrictions. There are 91 out of the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts that have organized groups just like save chunks wildlife. uh the number is actually updated to 40 have reduced the use of escars and 18 have home petitions like the one we are talking about
tonight. These numbers are growing each month as we are all pushing for the state bill an act restricting the use of rodenticides in the environment. Jumps has the opportunity to lead and to show that we can protect our families, our pets and environment without relying on
dangerous poisons. The petition asks the state to give chumser the authority to restrict the use of escars within our town. It does not ban pest control. People and businesses can still manage rodents. It just simply encourages a safer solution.
By passing this petition, chumps will be able to protect uh protect our children, pets, and wildlife. We'll safeguard our rivers, wetlands, and water supply. and we'll supply uh we'll support healthier long-term solutions to rodent control that actually work with nature and not
against. And tonight I ask for your support for Chser's home rebal petition. Um you're choosing to protect our wildlife, water, families, and the chance to show our town, state, country that we care about our future.
So on behalf of Safe Chumps for Wildlife, we thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. >> Any questions? >> Back >> to his presentation beginning the slides. >> Hold on.
And >> which which >> like one it was one of the beginning ones. Uh my question is around Yeah. This one. >> Yep. They were So in 2015 these were banned for resale. So how why are we still using them? I guess I don't
understand what does that mean? Banned for resale like does that mean? >> Oh that means they can't um buy them in like Home Depot um the grocery store like Lowe's and stuff like that. So they banned it because there were um children and pets being affected by it.
>> We see like in >> so only pest control companies can purchase escars. Okay. because of how toxic they are. >> But technically, you can go on Amazon as long as you order a very large amount of it. >> So, people still are able to get their hands on it. But the main issue is
>> I'm sorry. If I could just ask you to come come to the podium so people at home hear this carries. >> I'm sure it is. But you'd be surprised how sometimes it's doesn't get picked up. >> So, escars aren't legally allowed to be used by any member of the public. So, you can't buy them at Home Depot or Ace
Hardware or something like that. So they they were banned because of how deadly they are. So what happened is we had first generation redundes and that was what everyone like warin which actually some people use like in their for medication. Um it thins the blood that's
how it works to help people with heart problems. Uh with mice and rats they eat it and they just start to bleed out internally once they've eaten enough. They came up with escars, which is the second generation, and it's far more deadly, but it takes longer to kill
them. And the thought process was they'll be able to get out of the building and not die in the walls, right? >> Uh it lasts far longer in the tissues, but this seemed to work out well. They were leaving people's houses and they were they worked well to get rid of the
they were cheap, so everyone started using them. What happened was wildlife rehabilitators like myself started getting a lot of predator species that were bleeding out internally. >> Um, a lot of wildlife clinics have been talking about this, especially TUS Wildlife Clinic. They've been doing a lot of research on it. So, what's
happening is you have you have owls, you have hawks that are eating literally thousands of these rodents per year. Okay? So, they're getting out of the houses now and they're compromised. So, just like if you watch uh Discovery Channel or National Geographic, the lion's going to go after that
compromised gazelle, right? So, when you've got a mouse walking around like it's drunk, it's dying, it's bleeding internally, you're going to have a fox or an owl or something like sweet. This guy's going to be an easy meal. >> So, because it lasts so long in the tissue, what happens is one mouse isn't enough to kill a fox, right? Uh but he
eats like three or four of these things a day and it stays in his tissue for at least six weeks. I know this because I treat foxes for secondary arenicide poisoning all the time. And what happens is if I don't give them the antidote twice a day for six weeks, if I stop
short of that, their blood will have trouble clotting again. So what we're finding is that even if it doesn't kill the animal, it causes a lot of secondary effects like it really affects a fox or a coyote's um ability to clot. And because it affects their immune system
and their ability to claw, they be they come down with mange or other issues a lot easier because their body's not functioning at full capacity. So, for example, I I got a coyote the other day um and you know, it's blood should clot in three to five minutes. Your blood should clot in 3 to 5 minutes. Um I drew
his blood on that Saturday and Monday it was still completely liquid. Like that's nothing that's going to happen naturally in your body. Like I don't care if you have liver failure or whatever. like you might have a delayed clotting, but there's not that's so unnatural. We had
a lot of pest control companies argue that we were treehugging crazy wildlife people and we were just we just had something for escars. U so we just started testing everything and the state doesn't pay us to do it. So we were paying $100 a pop uh to get actual
Kansas State University to assess these livers of these animals all coming up positive for these escars, multiple different types. Then the um the pest control companies were saying well uh you know so they had they had they were exposed to it but who's to say that's
what killed them. So then we had to pay uh veterinarians to do assessments and open them up and say this animal bled to death internally and they tested positive for our scars. So definitively it's very negatively impacting our wildlife. And another issue is it's not
helping the rodent problem at all, too. Because if you just killed your neighborhood owl, that's 2,000 more rodents a year that are now going to be running around. And the owl and the fox, they're free rodent control, right? That's literally that's what they do. I I feed them all the time. I had one fox,
I I wanted to give him my outback steak because I felt so bad for him and I didn't finish it. They don't care. They just want the rodents. Like they that's all day long. That's all they're doing. So when we use something that impacts mother nature's natural way of handling
this uh we we feel it all the way down. So what we're asking is that we use something different. Ideally we use exclusion, right? We that's the first thing we got to focus on. Like we see a lot of towns that are that have a rat problem, but I walk around I see all the
bait boxes but I also see these open trash bins. I'm like well I I mean just just close it. That'll help huge, you know. Uh but also we've been working with uh other pest control companies like Banner Pest Control who um LOL stopped using the escars. Bill Rick has
stopped using them uh so because of the damage it does to wildlife and they stopped I forget when LOL stopped. It was a few months ago sometime last year. They're having great success with it. It's not costing a town anything more. Okay, that's another thing to keep in
mind is the escars don't have a stop action. So what that means is the animals eat them and they don't feel bad, right? Because it takes a little while to to work. So they'll gorge on it versus there's another type of poisonous like a vitamin D3 that has a stop
action. So when they're eating it, they'll start to feel bad pretty quickly and they stop. So they're not ingesting as much. So what happens is the actual poison itself costs more, but it lasts much longer. So in the long run, you're not paying anything more. So, we would
just like to get approval on trying to get our town to switch to something that is less deadly to our wildlife and and definitely to uh to put in for that home rule petition as well. >> So, this you're asking for the town to
stop this or for like any pest control? >> No, we've already stopped as a town >> town. So, it's any pest controls that come into town. They can't do this. >> So, I I guess my question is what what's the enforcement mechanism look like? because there's nothing in this article >> regarding enforcement,
>> right? >> So, home rule petition, I don't think the town can decide. Doesn't that have to go that has to go higher? >> So, what's been going on with the other towns is I I don't think it's actually written in our town that we're definitely not using rat poison anymore or the escars anymore. >> I know we stopped, but typically with the towns that we've been working with,
they actually write something out saying that definitively like that's it. We're not using it anymore. So, um I'm hoping we can do that. position to prohibit and restrict the application within the town. >> Why does the finance committee have to
approve that? >> Because it's because they're a warrant committed. coming into town with these materials or otherwise >> just and this is exactly the same language as >> okay
>> just in in the presentation just for like folks like me like that re like if you could just point out that it's not allowed to be sold to people like you can't go to Home Depot and buy it right like it's already been banned like I can't like like it's >> you could hire a pest control company that could put it out there >> right but like I think if you point out
like that like you the normal person can't buy it. This is, you know, it's already banned for that. We know that, but our town doesn't use it. >> They can buy it, >> right? And so, we're just want to make sure that it's not being used in town.
>> So, so as an ordinary homeowner, right, how, you know, we we we call up, you know, Bane and and and other companies, you know, I have this I have this problem. So, they come out and they they do their thing. I mean, ho how how how do you envision um notifying the general
public on on asking, you know, educating them enough to ask questions um and and even a step before that having them understand why it's why it's so important, right? I mean, >> yeah. Well, you actually had an event um
right in the the talent center. Okay. Um Okay. >> It was like uh July uh 12th >> and you know, just like a community like thing. then just like draw everybody in and then that's when they can just start asking questions. Um so jumps for wildlife like you said we like outline um that we're you know based on like solely education.
>> Okay. >> And making sure that you know like answer questions like this. >> Sure. >> Um we're planning on having like many like more events like public events for free. >> Okay. and people can come in and then we can just like talk about like you know what the what the >> alter.
So so there's no there's no uh um you know as far as the the mechanism to to monitor this there's no you know volunteer policing going around to people's black boxes and and testing them. I think we have to actually work directly with pest control companies. So they're trying to actually get it
outlawed in Massachusetts. The escars are not allowed to be used in California. They're not allowed to be I think Rhode Island just passed it. >> So eventually that's that's where we're we're headed there anyway. I don't I don't think that there's so much proof and we've got endangered or special
>> species of special concern like the bald eagles. We've had three in Massachusetts that have died from renocite poisoning. So um >> so really it's getting the the pest control companies because they're the only ones who can actually buy it to stop using it in our town. >> Because in the end, guys, I deal with it. like they make all the money off of
it and it costs me a grand per fox to save them. It's usually blood transfusions, plasma transfusions, six weeks of care. It's >> it's it's and it's horrendous the amount of suffering. The birds have it even worse. It it's it's awful. It's awful. Ideally would have it out of this town,
>> but there's just no enforcement mechanism through this, >> right? We have we have the lang. We'd have to adopt the bylaw. >> We have to adopt the bylaw in order until you have the Yeah. Mhm. >> Unless steps up. This is like >> this is essentially a a a a flag saying,
"Hey, we're joining the the band here and we want you to the movement, if you will, uh to uh to push forward the state passing it so that there will be an enforcement mechanism associated with it. >> Then we can bring bylaw and have
allenies and everything else. Mhm. >> We're hoping the state will move on it, but as we've seen with plastic bags and other things, they haven't >> they haven't done it. Yeah. >> So, this is >> and there are just to be clear, there are other ways to like there's you said the first generation that if they really
wanted to use something, >> the problem is if we bring up bylaw, it will get rejected by the attorney general >> because there's nothing there. Yeah. >> The same thing trying to do the same thing with cryptocurrency ATMs. Same thing. You can't do it the state provides
I see. >> It's frustrating. That's that's how it works. >> This is the first step. Yeah. >> Unless they act before that. >> But in the meantime, the town we're not schools are not anywhere in town buildings. >> We're doing our part, but now we want to
apply this to anywhere. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. The director the DPW told me that. Yeah. I think I um asked u had a question on the presentation that was sent asked about throwing away the little darlings if they're in a um classic cartoon snap
track trap and and I was told that you wrote back and said that it's yes it's okay to throw them in the garbage. That was my one question. >> I like to throw them in the woods to be if they weren't poisoned because >> I'm okay. >> But but how do you know then? So if if if it's your house and you're
snap trapping them, right? So you know you're not using poison in your house for the mice and the rats in your house. >> I have a lovely husband who takes care of these things for me. Um but I don't like the chemical ones because I I'm always afraid of them dying in the house. >> Yeah, of course.
>> And I when my children were smaller and one of them was dumb enough to touch a dead mouse and I was like, "Let me wash your hands." >> You know, she's like, "Maric touched the mouse, too." No, he didn't. He had a stick. That was scientific. You touched it with your hands. I'm washing your hands. Um anyway, but yeah, it just I
think that if people know they could try them way in the garbage and I'm done because there's not a lot of people who want to reset the snap ren the snap trap. My husband will, but a lot of folks don't want to. >> The town's garbage goes to an incinerator which is producing
electricity. So put it in the garbage. I've always told people, I mean, if if you know there's no poison in the house, um, one way to attract the predators that eat the mice and the rats is if you were to throw the mice and the rats that you kill in your house, the dead ones, out in the woods or the exterior, I
don't know what your property setup, but don't throw it in your neighbor's yard, but you know, if >> someone suggested once throwing them on your roof so that the that all the hawks and the that the can see I have
>> hopefully not small pets. >> That's right. >> So, there's there's ways you could use nature to benefit you, too. I don't know. There's no Is there any issue with the board of health and throwing the mice? I I imagine people throw meat in the trash sometimes. I can't throw my stuff in the trash. I have to go to a
vet clinic with all >> mandate. >> Okay. I'm still stuck with the rest of the >> Any other questions or concerns? >> How do you enforce it? >> Well, we as we just discussed, we they can't right now.
>> Yeah, we're not it's a petition. >> We're not there yet. >> So, well, there's strength in numbers and more towns and cities are all we're we're we're talking to the legislators and when they see that there's there's 40 towns right now that have banned it from municipal properties. So the more
towns that do it, the more we're making a statement to the state of Massachusetts. >> Well, I get that, but we're already not doing it here in this town. The town's not doing it, right? >> Town's not doing it, but we can't prohibit private residences. >> But the way to do that is to go after
the You're working with the different um pest control companies. Is that >> They don't work with me. They won't even talk to me. >> They won't talk to you. >> They don't like me at all. Are you kidding me? I'm costing them so much money. Um, no. They they don't really I've literally tried. They won't work with me. Um, but I I mean I know one
that does. Chsford was using escars until a few months ago. So, we we talked about it and and got that removed. But, um, but this is just a step. It's a small step for a much bigger cause. But, we have to start here. >> You don't want to go into restaurants
and see, rat traps, and so forth. The same thing. They didn't want to go into the schools. And that was the schools and see, you know, traps and those type of things. That's why this type of application used by industry described. They eat it and they go away
and they're not dying inside your walls hopefully or >> any other questions. >> Thank you. So you don't vote now? >> No, we vote we vote on every We have 35 articles to vote on next week. So
>> yeah. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Moving along our agenda, we review and discussion of zoning warrant articles 15 through 31. With us this evening is Chris Valley,
our our uh planning board chair. >> Slides. >> Yeah. Hold on. >> I remember exactly where it was. >> Oh, okay. >> He is. Yeah. >> Thanks. >> 31. >> I got it down to where
>> Oh, he'll get through them quickly. I know. I hope >> read every slide word for >> you. No, you're not. >> You can >> I'll get the >> bear with me one more second. I remember that's 15 is the
>> There's the consent agenda. So, that should show you what we're >> There you go. >> So, that's going to be my first set of slides. Uh the consent agenda. Um articles 15 through 26. um all essentially establishing the CBLT zoning district. Um I'm going to go through a
little bit of the why we're doing this and then I'll talk through uh hopefully pretty briefly um some of the uh the what in in what we're doing. So we did uh a while ago identify a
number of zoning conflicts in town. Um and there are a number of ways to mitigate them. You can do overlays. Overlays are good for expanding options uh to available property, but if you're looking to restrict or change things, um it may not be the best option. Uh so we
didn't want to negatively impact other zones in the area as well. Uh where um or by changing one area of town, uh for example, the IIA district, we didn't want to negatively impact another area
where the IIA's district is beneficial. So what we opted to do is create a new zone um and specifically use that in different areas of town where the uh zoning conflicts are and where we might mitigate the the negative impacts.
>> Now this um we have looked at the CB light um zone uh as the option. It's a solution for at least some of the zoning conflicts that we think we see in town. Um, and not only can we use it as a transition zone between the IIA and
residential or other uh commercial zones, uh, but we can also use it as a replacement for IIA. Uh, in some areas like Kate's Corner, um, which we'll get to in a bit. Uh, that's too small for that transitional between IIA, uh, CBite
and residential. Um we've also in the process of developing this new zone looked to apply it um in theory to different areas. Uh Kate's Corner is the first area that we um were working on developing the zone in. And um we also
look are potentially looking at using it uh in the uh 51 to 57 Middle Sex Street area which are the uh some warehouse old uh uh mill areas over there uh near the establishment across the street and then
potentially also in Riverneck Road area. So the bylaw changes themselves. Um I will quickly go through these. Um I've put this list in the order um that we're going to present the slides so that way
you can see the progression of what we need to do, how we need to do it um and in that order. Uh so the first is the actually creating the zone itself. The second is the
defined new defined uses that we're going to be putting into the area. the uh table, the housekeeping changes to the use table, uh dimensional requirements, the overlay uh the sead overlay dimensional requirements, the
applicability, uh property line landscaping and street frontage. So, those are all things that we're going to be addressing for this zone in these different articles. After this uh consent agenda, if we pass
it, we'll then apply that new zone to Kate's Corner. In the next article after that, as I mentioned, we're also looking at uh potentially applying it Middle Sex Road and Riverneck Road um among some potential other areas. So, the next
article 23, this is a current uh definition of heavy manufacturing that we do exclude from all zones in town. Uh so, just wanted to keep that there uh as a reference. This is another current definition we have manufacturing light uh again in the
uh industrial zone area. Uh and this is really about indoor manufacturing. Uh we do allow this in the IIA district and what we're proposing is a in article 23
is the ultralite. >> Hold on. Someone just turned on the >> We're proposing the ultral light manufacturing and um I'm not going to go through the whole definition, but essentially we wanted uh a use for
manufacturing that's less impact to the uh neighborhood, less uh trucking, less uh uh noise and pollution effects. Um and the examples are really good at illustrating some of what we anticipate. artisal food production, um
manufacturing, precision instruments, uh small device manufacturing, boutique furniture making, those types of things that you might see, um in in an art type center. Uh I think LOL has a pretty uh
similar type of area uh that they have. Um and then to coincide with the definition the new definition we also have to update the light definition uh to make it more precise. Uh so that's what we did here. Um the biggest change
that we are proposing here is uh if you look at the some of the crossed out it talks about leather, wood, paper, chemical, plastic. Um, and the wording there was so general that it could have defined it as wood manufacturing or
paper manufacturing. Um, and that's obviously a very heavy uh type of manufacturing that you see in in upstate Maine. That is very uh heavy manufacturing. So, we did want to make sure that we clarified that uh so that
we don't see that in town as well. All right, getting on to the useing table. Um so for this what we did is we took a look at some of the uh adjacent uh zones the IIA, the CB, the CA and the
RB. We took a look at some of the uses in those tables, the uses in those zones to see where can we see the most advantageous uses, where can we see some of the least impactful things that we
want to see near neighborhoods. Um, and we took all of the best uses of those zones and brought them into the CB light. So, I'm not going to go through this entire table, uh, but I will point out,
uh, two, uh, line changes. Uh, slide 14. Uh, on one more uh, back. Yeah. At the bottom, you'll see parking lot accessory use. um under commercial and you'll also see the same thing under
uh industrial. And what we wanted to do is allow um if a if a business wanted to expand into an adjacent lot um we wanted to allow uh parking to be in one lot and
the business to be in the the adjacent lot. We wanted to be able to allow that flexibility in case it exists. And we did we do potentially see that in Kate's corner as well. Um on the bottom of the uh other page uh
yeah we also added the light manufacturing um and we added it in a way that mirrors the um the ultralight manufacturing mirrors the light manufacturing in the other zones. So where we allow light
manufacturing in IIA, we also allowed ultralight and where a special permit in CV, we also did it by special permit as well. Uh here we defined the uh accessory use parking. Um we didn't want it to be we
wanted to make sure it was adjacent lot. We didn't want it to be too far away from the principal use. We wanted to make sure it was within arms length. >> Long arm. >> Next. So these are essentially housekeeping. Um what we realized is
that if we add a use um in CB light, we have to make sure that we uh make sure that we extend the table through all of the other uh zones as well. Um, and so here you'll see again I pointed out the
ultralite manufacturing for the accessory use. We are only allowing it by special permit in the CBLT and not allowing it at this time in other zones. Um, if we want to expand it later, we can. We just didn't want to mix uh too many things into this that haven't
already mixed in. Uh, this table is dimensional requirements. Um so in this table we're updating the dimensional uh standards um that are essentially mirroring the CB
zone. Uh we wanted to uh make sure that we were as close to uh some of the non impactful areas as we could. Uh so that's what we did here. Um we looked at some of the commercial properties to see
how these uh dimensional requirements might affect some of the properties and so we made some slight adjustments on those but we tried to keep it as close to the CB as possible. The sead purpose and intent is just as a
reference for you. Um and these are the site and building table uh dimensions uh that we use for the overlay. Again, keeping it very similar to the uh CB area commercial
districts. Um other changes, uh really didn't go too deep into these um on these slides, but essentially we're updating property line landscaping for the new zone. Um and updates to the uh street frontage to
the new zone as well. >> Have questions? I can answer questions on those. >> What type of opposition would you would you expect the town meeting to any of this? >> It's zoning. It's planning board. >> Why are you asking that?
>> I've come to expect every opposition to zoning a town meeting. Um, we've heard from a number of different people. We had extensive neighborhood meetings with the Kate's Corner neighborhood as we were developing this.
Um, we had a lot of discussion with um with the neighbors. We had a lot of discussion um with the commercial uh businesses in the area. uh Lheed uh was a good partner with us
in developing some of this. Um we wanted to make sure that we were minimizing potential impacts while recognizing that they've been a really good neighbor to the uh neighborhood. Um the neighbors did uh did express some concerns
uh at some of the meetings about noise and uh pollution and things like that from Lockheed. and they were really good neighbors and and worked to address all of them um within our our meeting span. So,
we wanted to make sure that we were addressing all those concerns early on. We also had some discussion um while we're not bringing it forward in this town meeting because we still have more work to do on it, but we did apply the concept of this zone to the Middle Sex
uh mill area and just as a stress test to see if it would work in more than one area and we think it will. We think it'll benefit a lot of the the businesses in the area and it will prevent future expansion of uh high impact negatively impacting um
businesses in the future if those current businesses do move out. >> So is this more of an effort to clear up the zoning in a lot of areas and to make and to and to guide uh how zoning could have could be affected if those businesses leave? Yeah, I think it's it's aligning some of the zoning
to what's currently in place now and leaving room for future growth um in a way that benefits the neighborhood >> and like right now we have a lot of you know is really like on top of each other and we have residential that buts IIA
and a lot of the problems we have in the planning board which really upset a lot of the neighbors is when you know we allow certain things in IIA which we think Oh, in this spot it would be perfect but not next to this neighborhood. And of course that's the property they come and
put it in. So by creating this zone if you you can apply it to the areas that you know you have IIA you have residential and you can apply it to that as a buffer. So then you have you know less impactful businesses know not to go
there. they want to go, they have to go in these specific IIA more districts. >> A transition impact, >> a transition, that's the intent. Um, so you know, >> and then just on on slide 50 there, it looks like there's um no depth
requirement. Just what's the the logic behind that? Where are we? >> Are you talking this the So trying to remember the discussion on this. Um Evan, do you remember
>> CB had zero and we were trying to get keep it consistent. I think CB should be NA. Yeah, CB should be NA as well because I, if I remember correctly, and Evan can correct me if I'm wrong, a lot of the businesses are right up to the street because of
the way the neighborhood's been constructed. And so we wanted to keep that type of characteristic. And I think I don't remember why, but NA was more applicable to that dimension as opposed
to a zero. So not applicable was more applicable. >> Yeah. >> Right. Because you know just the inconsistency there is you know one one of the things I think that would >> Yeah. One of the notes that we have is to actually change that zero to an NA in the future changes. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. >> And so I I totally understand. I certainly appreciate the the philosophy of being able to move to a transitional zone. Um I think with this particular one we'll get into it in the next one. Um and the next one is you know I had a
different take than the take that you um had said around the reaction right so I know that the characterization of you know uh you know locked as a good neighbor when I was talking to neighbors at one of the um meetings that is not
what anybody said that's not what anybody said right and so I that's where I just want to make sure that everyone understands that there is a much wider diversity of opinions on this for the people that live in the area than what you're representing. >> And I think that that had been the case.
Um I do know that some of those residents who did speak out did actually after Lockheed took those steps to correct those issues. Um they did come before us and and said that they really appreciated Lockheed for for doing those things. Um there is some still some
tension within the neighborhood about Lockheed wanting to expand. Um, but I think that this allows us, this zoning allows Lockheed to expand if they need to, um, while keeping the protections in
place for the neighborhood in case Lockheed does leave. Um, because they could technically expand now anyway. Um, and so we wanted to make sure that if they do expand and leave, um,
a warehouse wouldn't be put in its place. >> Yeah. And I think that makes a lot of sense. So maybe go through 27. >> Yep. Are there any other questions on the zoning in general?
>> All right. Kate's quarter reszoning. Um, so I'm not going to actually go through these intro slides because it's pretty much the same intro as before. Um, so this is the current zoning um, in place. Now, uh, starting from the left,
you have the, um, residential, you have, uh, the CB zone. Um, and what you'll actually notice is that there are a number of those properties that are both residential and CB. Um so that's another conflict that we're seeking to address
um in this process. Um you've got the IIA zone uh which includes a number of parcels uh chopping up some of those parcels again. And then to the right you have the roadside uh uh commercial and
then the CB down below and then the residential to the right. So this is the current uh zoning map. Um this is one area where while we wanted to see that transition area, we really
can't do a transition area in here because the IIA is really just a small piece of the the neighborhood. So, what we're looking to do is clean up clean up the um parcels so that every
parcel is one zone and not multiple zones. Um down below, those are the townowned parcels. So, we wanted to actually change those over to public um zone to make it more in line with the uh
the current use. the CA towards the right. Um, we wanted to expand that into the full parcel. Uh, so the front parcel, the front half of the parcel will stay CA. The back half will be changed to CA.
Um, going back on the left, uh, again, the parcels closest to the the pond are going to be public. Uh, those are town owned. Um, and then on the left, we wanted to convert uh those parcels uh
completely over to the residential and then essentially use that CB light for the old Maxwell property, the two um Loheed Martin properties. Has there been a discussion with the with the with the owners that are
currently zoned both um RB and is it have they no >> CA >> CA? >> Yes. Um yes I believe all of them uh attended the meetings. Uh all but one
were in favor. >> Okay. Uh there was one gentleman who spoke out against it um primarily because he wanted to keep some of the historical commercial uh use. Um but
I believe and Evan can again correct me if I'm wrong, but that use because it was no longer an active use has expired. >> Wow. >> So he would not be able to use it as a commercial property anymore. >> Or agriculture for that matter. and agriculture could still be done in a
residential area. Sure. >> Um so this summarizes the changes that we want to make uh for every one of the parcels. >> Any questions? >> So I asked this before, but I'll ask it again. What's the logic behind zoning
something that is rearoking versus forward looking? So there's a pond right there, literally right there, and a school right next to it. How is industrial appropriate for that location? >> Industrial is not appropriate. That's why we're removing it. >> How is manufacturing appropriate for
that location? >> So the manufacturing that we're proposing for CB light is actually um the type of manufacturing that you could have that it's the artisal manufacturing. It's a very light impact um that one would see uh in potentially
a lot of residential areas. Uh and so th that's the type of light manufacturing, ultra light manufacturing that we envision. Um it's the cottage industry, it's the honeym, it's that type of um
furniture uh woodworking uh commercial that we envision in that type of neighborhood. And I think that all makes sense, but if you look at a what the use is today and what it is planned to be, that doesn't match, right? So what
you're talking about is the exact opposite. Right? It's a defense contractor. >> Yep. >> Making missile parts. >> So that's the other piece of that is the um precision instrumentation. So they're not doing largecale production. Um, it's
a big facility, uh, but a lot of it is office space and they don't have a lot of delivery trucks. They make one or two pieces and ship them out. Um, it's peacemeal production, that type of of
industry. And one of the things we didn't want to do and that we have to keep in mind as a planning board is that when we do reszone, we can't punish the current property owners either. Um, we have to make sure that they are also
able to survive, that they're able to sell the property if they need to. Um, and we we can't be punishing the current property owners. Um, just like we wouldn't want to punish the the residents um and switch everything over
to an IIA district, we can't do that for commercial either. >> So, we have to make a balance. >> So, what's the next best use of this land? >> I think that we've struck a really good compromise. Um, we are able to project
into the future something that we could sustain in that area. So, previously at the last meeting um that I was at over the summer, uh the reaction was that when this zoning changes, you're
grandfathered in under basically nothing would really change. >> So, if you went and changed this into all the lightest residential that you could, nothing would change. Lockheed would continue to operate there for until they decide to vacate shutdown operations. And that could go into perpetuity. It could
>> or it may not. Um we would essentially >> have the right to do that. >> Yeah. We would essentially reduce their um resale value if we changed it to all single family home. >> That's where you get conflict and you get litigation because you're try they're reszoning you in into a a zoning
that's making you less less attractive as far as your as as what you're currently at the location. much harder argument and much less of a possibility of being successful in claiming that that um the zoning is hurting you if it's not affecting what you're currently doing.
>> So why not call it CB? >> That's the next best use. It's mostly office already >> because >> because they are manufacturing there. >> Yeah, they're manufacturing and >> they could resell it as an office building. >> That's not the same. That's the that's the problem, Stephen.
The problem is if you're putting if you're if if you're changing zoning and you're changing it to a use with where the use that they currently have is no longer allowed, they have an argument at that point in time to say, "Hey, we're already here and you're changing my zoning uh to to to not allow a use I'm
currently allowed to use." And therefore, my resale value for what I'm currently doing, not just the office space, but what the what I'm also currently doing is no longer allowed. And I'm going to fight the change that you're making >> because now they're now they're the technically not allowed to do that anymore. We're
stopping them from doing their business like in we changed the zoning because now they're out of >> you aren't they're grandfathered. So you're not stopping them from what they're currently doing, but what you are doing is you're hurting their ability to sell at what they're currently doing. >> Correct. >> Right.
>> And to the point, is a commercial land more or less valuable than industrial land? it's more it's more valuable like and so I don't see how that's an argument at all in this situation.
>> I would I would I would beg to differ. >> So take that logic and now apply it to the person who disagreed with re reasoning this. Could they have the same argument? Hey, I have industrial as part of my or commercial rather. I have commercial as part of my um current zoning. You're taking commercial away
from me. So, you're taking value away from me. >> He actually doesn't anymore. Um, he's not allowed to do commercial on his property anymore because it hasn't been done in I forget how many years. >> Yeah, we actually that was brought up at the meeting specifically. I think if
Evans on the like everything that he had thought that he could do technically can't do regardless if it's CB. >> So then play it out, right? The other thing that they're going to do is put a parking lot there. So, if you go back to
the map, where does it drain to? >> I'm sorry, what was what question again? >> Where does where does the parking lot drain to? >> Drain. >> Drain. >> Drain. >> Yeah, drainage. >> Because that's the other thing that came up at the the meeting. >> Yeah. And actually the the storm water
standards now for parking lots will protect the wetlands whereas um if it's not a parking lot or um if the a lot of the Maxwell's property is
um permeable and so that is going untreated into the wetlands. Um, so if a parking lot does go there, it's actually going to be an improvement in the condition uh for storm water. >> But but where does it go?
>> It will get treated and then go into the wetlands. Um, now it's going into the wetland uh the water table untreated. >> The creation of parking lot sets it to the new standards required for storm water. So the storm water mitigation requirements that'll be put in place will actually improve the water flow and
how it's treated going into. So that there'll be mitigation that's required under the standards that's not currently required. Any other questions? 28. All right. Uh massage services. Um so
this came to our attention uh from the building inspector um or building commissioner. He uh had a situation where a um licensed ma massage therapist was moving from one u establishment to
another >> and uh yeah across the street and realized that the um use there was not allowed uh even though it was a salon. Um and we realized that the definitions
uh from the state have changed. Uh and our definition in part D was referencing the board uh the Chsford board of health who does not license massage therapists. Uh so we're doing some updating of the
language to uh in part one to mirror that of the state's definition of massage therapy and then um striking out the licensing from board of health in part D and switching that to the state
uh lensure board. And then in the next slide, we are uh essentially looking at it like any uh other type of spa service uh where we're allowing it in all of the
areas that we uh by right where we used to uh do special permit for it. >> Any questions? 29 Uh oh. >> Oh, there we go. >> Yep. Here we go.
>> So, article 29, excuse me. So, article 29 um we are bringing back to town meeting um because our current law, our current bylaw is um unlawful.
Uh it will open us up to civil action and overturn decisions. Um, so we decided to or I decided to do a little bit more research, look at other definitions that towns use across the state. Um, we did some revisions and now
we're uh reproposing it to you. So, why is this an issue? Um I want to make sure that people are clear um for this article that the zoning and the zoning definitions regulates the use of the land. It does
not define personal relationships or family composition. Um the current definition is not inclusive of different household types. Uh and so therefore it will open us up to um civil lawsuits.
Enforcement of a familial definition could be uh seen as very intrusive. Um and familial connections are really impossible deter to determine through a building permit or certificate of occupancy review. Um we don't want the
building uh commissioner checking marriage certificates. So um I wanted to talk a little bit about enforcement uh this time around. Uh so essentially the property owner is really responsible for compliance um on in this
situation. Uh most zoning enforcement happens when a building permit or certificate of o occupancy is being sought. Um and that's based on the plan review and inspection. Otherwise, it's really when a complaint um comes up.
So, these are the types of building codes and sanitary codes and state licensing uh laws that um kind of relate to what we're talking about because a lot of people did last town meeting bring up uh numbers of people in uh in
uh the housing units. Um all of that is based on state sanitary code. Uh there are fire safety codes uh for building code and then the state licensing law really defines the houses and or the
lodging houses and hotels. So we really don't need to get into that type of of discussion either. So the next slide after the last town meeting I did some additional research. Um, and this was
the definition that we presented last time. Out of the hund or 351 Massachusetts municipalities, about 30 to 45% of them, 100 to 150 of them use that definition
or something very similar. I've noted some of the examples. Um, some of these examples are our peer uh communities, uh, communities that are nextdoor neighbors. Some towns and cities added a little bit
of a qualifier afterwards as distinguished from a group occupying boarding house, group home, lodging house, club, fraternity, or hotel. As I mentioned, we really don't need to get into that because the state already does. A few towns did keep the blood
relative definition in there. um but they added the or um between the two. So it's either the blood relative or this more generic definition. Um not sure that that's really required if uh if one
of those pieces is very difficult to enforce anyway. So why do municipalities use this language? Well, there are four of them right here. The Fair Housing Act compliance. This is the model language that regional
planning organizations, not just NEMCOG but MAPC often recommend um in their model bylaws, administrative simplicity and case law. Um the Commonwealth versus Jaffy actually has reinforced that zoning
bylaws must not discriminate based on familial status. If you go to the next slide, it doesn't define for us what that uh definition should be, but it gives us some guidance.
It suggests using the single housekeeping unit language. It suggests describing functional aspects like living together, cooking, shared responsibilities. It talks about avoiding requiring kinship.
And it says it it suggests to emphasize the unit's stability, permanence and cohesion. So based on that, our objectives for um let me yeah so the last thing that they did um was that they said a cap on
occupancy in the definition of family in the zoning um could conflict with by ADUs. Um so that's another reason to keep the cap or the numbers out of the zoning. Um especially since it's already in the
health code. So looking at our objectives of our updated definition, we really wanted to remove references to the degree of kinship. Uh we wanted more inclusive uh objective standards. We wanted to update
the definition to be more consistent with the state sanitary code, building code and other state law and clarify the distinction uh from transit accommodations. So this is what we are proposing in the next slide
um as the updated definition. So, one or more persons occupying a dwelling unit who share access to common living, cooking, and eating areas living together as a single housekeeping unit with permanence and cohesiveness.
So, it addresses all of the case law points. It keeps the objective language in >> and hopefully it satisfies the town meeting this time.
What would be a sign of cohesiveness? >> Good question. Um, and we're trying to keep it as open as possible. Um, and by keeping it as open-ended as possible, it allows for a little bit more
flexibility. When they talking about a person or one or more people sharing a unit, are we talking like three people on a lease? Um, kind of
I look at the apartment complex that's near me and I just look how expensive the three-bedroom apartment is. So, is that a family or is that three roommates who have to get in together to be able to afford to have? So from the definition that we're using for zoning,
it would be considered a family because it's a household unit. >> So if they're sharing a kitchen and sharing bills, >> they're working together as a household unit. Um in the discussion with the planning board, um Joel actually did
recommend that we not use the word family and that we use household unit. The challenge with that if you look in the definition above it where dwelling is we have a number of instances where it says multif family a single family.
So we need some definition of what that means. Um some towns have said family or household unit. Um, we decided to keep it with family for the purposes of zoning
because we actually don't use household unit in any of our zoning bylaws. If we did, we probably >> family because family is a unit that you've used a lot of other places. So, you don't want to have to go back and fix all that, >> right? Mult otherwise multi-unit, we
have to change everything to like >> multi household >> instead of multi household unit versus multi. >> And the industry standard is multif family. Mhm. >> So is you're are you I've been to town meetings. I'm just going to guess there's going to be
people who just have a more conservative view on what a family is. >> Yep. And I need to stress that this is about zoning. It's not about a societal definition of what a family is. >> You talk about I mean I don't you probably know them off the top of your
head. I don't know what the rules are for like bedrooms people bedroom people. What are those rules? >> I actually don't know offhand um what the limits are, but I know that there are building code limits for how many people can be in a one-bedroom or
two-bedroom unit that building code and health code. So, the the planning board does not >> and there is this is you can find a rule that we're concerned as a town going
against. Why isn't they a a single piece of language? Use this language in your cool. >> Good question. Um the the state at least the courts have not done that. >> Um >> so they'll tell you you're wrong, but they won't tell you what's right. That's
nice. I mean, the the case law that I cited, Jaffy vers Commonwealth versus Jaffy, they did they didn't tell you what to say, but they told you what not to say and what pieces to include in what you're going to say. So, that was
the closest we could find to something. Um, again, the model the models that all of these uh collaborative groups are using is the the model language that we tried the first time. Um the earlier
slide showed the other those other places that are using this or similar language. >> It's very similar language to what we have or to our initial version. Um none of them use the um familial definition.
>> Any questions? Well, I'm just wondering like is there a way of of saying like family for the purposes of zoning like at the beginning of the definition? Because when you you read family throughout the rest of the the code, it makes sense, right? It's all in that context. But if you just present this on its own to meeting, people just see it
in isolation. They don't they don't get it. Is there a way of like saying for the purposes of zoning family is >> Yeah. At town meeting, I am going to stress that more. Um, that slide that I had that on, I'm going to try and stress that a few times during my presentation
at town meeting. >> Maybe add it again at the very end. >> The first slide that you had. >> Yeah. >> Maybe like and finish it with the same slide. >> Yep. >> Because as you get them all up because they'll be riled up by the time they start reading this stuff and they'll forget. And then
>> it's just like, hey, on Zillow, if you're looking for a house, it's, you know, multif family. That's what we mean here. It's like that thing. But are you saying Stephen a change to the actual language saying family person owning one or more persons occupying? Are you saying in the presentation
>> in the presentation like finding a way of communicating it to the broad town that just hey remember this is in the broad context of of planning and zoning right this is you know I don't know if it's like a presentation layer to it or or something else. Um because once you start to narrow down and you only see
that on a slide everyone gets tunnel vision um to that one thing. Second one. T one more. >> I mean, I did talk to it in the why is this an issue, >> right? Yeah. Like to this, right? >> But I can add it a few more times slides. >> Yeah. >> And also Matt say, "Hey, if you you get
all fussed about this concept of family, we're going to have to come up come in front of you and have a million things to change. Would you like that?" Like we the point number one >> under >> Yeah. So usely and not personal
relationship, right? >> Yeah. >> Right. I I guess my point is find another way of put so when you're showing the definition of family, remember to put this like >> front and center to people's brains otherwise they're going to forget about this long long after you present it.
>> Yep. Thank you. highlighting what the the the change would require to call something other than the family would require >> Yeah. us to be there two nights voting on all the articles to change. >> Yeah.
>> Any other questions before I go to 30? >> No. Thought we were told that no this can't happen. I remember being at a town meeting a while back where we were told you couldn't do this. So when why is we talked
>> couldn't do >> you couldn't say oh we can't have this apartment building here because it'll overload the schools. >> Yes. >> I thought we already said that >> we >> well unfortunately this article was bundled with the family article in the same vote.
>> Um so >> correct we did and it failed. It failed because it was bundled. I think it failed because it was bundled with the family discussion. Um so this time around I split the two up into two different votes. Hopefully they will
both pass. Um but yes, it's this presentation again is stressing I mean there were some objections to us removing it. Um but again what I'm going to stress here is that keeping it in is
unlawful. it. We cannot as a planning board consider school impacts as a criteria for special permit granting. Um we can't do it. It's illegal to do it. Any decision we base on it will get
overturned. >> Um so we have to strike it to make it clear to applicants and the public uh that we cannot do it and to future planning boards. So that's the essence of this one.
>> I'm not going to go through all these slides >> because you have seen them before. >> And we voted favorably on this last time. >> Article 31. >> All right. ADUs. Um, so this one's
interesting because during the recent AG review for zoning, um, they did approve the bylaw, um, including the, uh, parts of the ADU bylaw, um, that residences
did take exception to. Um, so all of our ADU bylaw uh was found to be compliant with the ADU with the exception of two areas. Uh, the AG did uh delete two
sections um that they found problematic and I'll go through them now. So deletion number one um is essentially a
two, five words. Um that essentially according to the AG can apply we can apply dimensional standards to the principal dwelling and not the lot. So we had to make sure that that was clearly stated. Um
I don't understand how the strikeout makes it more clear, but the AG found it to be more clear, so we're going with it. Um Mhm. >> What I also found out is that when the AG strikes out um sections or terms in
their review, it automatically um is enacted. So, we do not have to vote on this deletion. Um what we do have to vote on um is the section four. So
this entire section that we had in our proposed bylaw um the AG's office did strike uh they deleted the entire subsection um because there was a concern that the special permit criteria and votes could be or would be applied
to ADUs. Um, so after we found out that this section was deleted, uh, our town council met with the AG's office and came up with language that we could put back in, um,
to that section that would meet their needs um, and their clarification. Um, so if you go to the next slide, this is essentially our original paragraph. with the text changes um that you'll
see. Just to give you some context in the article itself, it only has the clean version because technically we're just replacing the entire paragraph. Um but here you can see what we actually
changed from our original version. Again, not material changes. Um, but we did have to uh essentially say that while we're going through the process with ADUs, it does not require a special
permit. It does not require the the um special permit vote. It only requires a simple majority vote. >> So, it's housekeeping that we we wanted to do. >> Any questions? All right.
>> Thanks, Chris. >> Thank you. >> Oh, springtime meeting. That's not right. >> There we go. That's better. All right. Next on our agenda is a discussion of future meetings, voting on recommendations and a timeline for finance committee warrant book
production. We had a initial discussion about this last week. Um but essentially uh we have our one meeting next week 6:30 again not 7 um where we'll uh not only uh vote on the articles we also have to appoint someone next week to the
capital planning committee. So that'll be also be on our on our agenda. >> I'm sorry what's that last part? We'll have to appoint someone to the capital planning committee for this this this year. >> Okay. >> Um so we'll do that as well uh at the start of the meeting next week. 31 35 articles, but we've got some bundling and I think this might move on the first
time. So we can actually do a vote on totality uh from 15 through what was it? 30 29 was it? 28. >> Um so okay >> it'll be a little bit more condensed than than than it looks like it will be.
>> Um From there, uh, on our voting recommend recommendations, um, we'll have, you know, a little while to, and we had the, uh, schedule up last week. Uh, I'm not going to put up again, but essentially, we'll have a little bit of time to get our comments in if there are different votes, if there are split
votes. The reasoning behind, I'll just ask again, just like we do every year, people to provide those to me so we can put them into the letter and get them into the book. Everyone will get the copy of the book to review. note any issues, changes, suggestions, letter will be added and then we'll have that
out the plans to have it out two weeks prior uh to town meeting which starts on the 20th. Um so that the it'll be posted on the website but also it'll we'll start to um uh get the uh physical book done for especially to be available on
the night of pre-Town meeting session uh that Wednesday prior at the senior center. Um, is there any public comment? Seeing none and none on Zoom, I will in there no press questions. I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved.
>> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I see you next week.