being 6:30. >> Let's get started. Good evening. It is 6:30 on July 23rd, uh, 2025, and I'm calling the meeting of the Chsford Planning Board to order. My name is Chris Lavali, and I am the chair
of the board. Tonight we'll be following the posted agenda and the meeting tonight is both live in person and via Zoom. Uh if Zoom fails at any point during the meeting uh we'll try to get it back up and running. Uh but if not we will uh continue in person only. This
meeting is being televised live and recorded via channels telev uh on their website and on YouTube. So tonight, first thing we have uh Michael with Nemcog and he will be um presenting
to us the uh housing production plan from Nemcog. >> Great. Thanks, Chris. >> Just give me a Oh, >> I have the um PowerPoint up in the room. If you just tell me when to advance the slides, I can do that. >> Yeah, that sounds good.
>> Okay. >> All right. Um as most as most of um you know uh NIMCOG has been working the Northern Middle Sex Council of Governments has been working um on updating the um the housing production plan um and working handinhand with the
housing advisory board um to produce the plan. Um so tonight um and go to the next slide. Um what we're going to do is kind of give an overview um of the plan. Um look at the uh uh the findings from
the the needs assessment and our conclusions. Um look at uh the draft vision statement and goals for the plan as well as implementation strategies and um and also how they play into the action plan. And then we'll talk about
next steps for um for the plan's approval. Um so uh the Northern Middle Sex Council of Governments is the regional planning agency for um the l the greater l region and pil um the agency was established in
1963. Um it's governed by an 18 member policy board with represented representatives from the nine municipalities. Um and the purpose is to increase municipal capacity uh foster regional collaboration and coordination and
including providing uh local and regional technical planning services to our member communities. Um and that's what we're we're doing here tonight. So um throughout the the process we had uh we had several um inerson events um
and we tied them in with the um creating Chelmsford's future master plan. So, um this plan feeds feeds into the um the town's master plan. Um we had a survey, several um interviews with residents um
the housing the um um Chelmsford housing um housing authorities, sorry. Um and so we we rep what I'm about to present is kind of the findings from the the outreach. Um there
are basically um eight key findings that we had. Um the first being that there are significant number of residents who make um very low incomes and extremely low incomes and their housing needs aren't being met. Um the home ownership is increasingly out
of reach for the median income earner which is uh the median income um for for the area is about $132,000. Um so uh even even people making that um
that that much money aren't uh aren't finding uh sufficient housing stock. Um renters fare significantly worse. um than owners when it comes to access to and cost of housing. The u higher income levels often pay
less than 30% of their um income on housing and occupy housing that might be affordable to those who earn less. Um Chumsford has a growing population that will need accessible housing, especially uh seniors and non-family
households. Uh Chumsford has a growing need for smaller units suitable for individuals or uh small but growing families. Um there were racial disparities in mortgage approvals within Chelmsford. Um and that was only looking at at one
year's data set, but um still the the uh Latino population um was significantly lower in their uh approval ratings. Um and also we found that the sewer and water infrastructure um are near capacity and that that could have
impacts on um future development. Um so the vision statement for the plan um is that Chelmsford is committed to building a vibrant thriving community that fosters inclusive, diverse and sustainable housing that meets the community and re regional needs through
strategic planning uh private a public private partner collaboration, thoughtful development and equitable policies. The town will expand housing options, including affordable options where people of all income levels can live, work, and grow.
So, the um the HPP identifies five um goals. The first being to expand affordable housing units. uh the available availability to achieve production goals of creating an average of at least 73 um SHI units every year.
Um and that number comes from the state's um formula for uh point uh 0.5% of the 2020 housing stock. Goal number two is to monitor existing deed restricted affordable housing um
and and make sure that uh any of the um subsidized housing inventory units um don't lapse and you're able to preserve the um the amount going forward. And that that's important too because the town is um now just over 10%.
Uh goal number three is to develop diversified housing options to affirmatively further fair housing across the community. Um goal four is to preserve and invest in the existing housing stock. And goal five is to promote sustainable
and efficient development form and patterns. So that's uh a lot of it is looking at infill development and um and how we can uh keep the development away from um areas maybe that are um away
from the um amenities and services and kind of focus um focus on the inner core. So um we've al we've also identified four major strategies that uh to to um
address the goals to achieve the goals. The first strategy is to encourage uh and foster public and private partnerships to address the housing needs of vulnerable populations. Um a lot of this is kind of leaning on um um
existing uh relationships and um structures that the the town has in place along with the um Chelmsford Housing Authority. Um strategy two um improve land use regulations and streamline uh development review process. Um this
is a a an effort um that's gained a lot of popularity in recent years especially when it we're looking at um it at more um by right development and trying to um um trying to streamline the development
process so it's not as time consuming um and developers aren't um aren't turned off by uh the lengthy and costly development review process. Uh strategy three is to improve outreach to boards uh residents and committees on
affordable housing opportunities and related services. Uh this is something that we've heard a lot in our outreach um was that a lot of residents didn't um know that certain programs were available um and um and also that the um
that um with the turnover up or potential turnover um with the Chelmsford Housing Authority um uh trying to um get the board's um different ed educational uh
um opportunities and services. Um strategy four is to utilize and promote the existing and identify new funding sources um and regional programs to support residents in need and um and necessary infrastructure.
So implementation strategies one we're going to go through um there are five action items. So we'll we'll go through those actually on the next slide because u this the next slide has the um the implementation matrix
um as part of it. So if we can go to the next slide. Um so to encourage and foster public and private partnerships to address the housing needs for the vulnerable populations. Uh the first action items to actively partner and engage with developers on friendly 40B proposals
andor um local zonal approvals to expand the supply of affordable and rental home ownership units um through housing development that meets the uh desired uh attributes of affordable housing and other tools. Um so this is going to go
to advance the goals one and three. um the lead partners and this would be the uh community development director and um the housing authority. This was this is an ongoing um an ongoing action and the priority was the
a medium priority. Um the second was to continue to partner with the Chelmsford Housing Authority to create u supportive housing options for a range of populations. Um this goes to advance all five goals. Um and the lead
partners are the town manager, uh community development director, the housing authority and um the housing advisory board. Um this is also an ongoing action that has a high priority. Um the third strategy or the third um
action was to work with the community-based and regional nonprofit affordable housing developers. Um this would go to advanced goals 1, three, and five. Um with the same lead partners as the previous with a medium um priority
and a target completion of 2029. Um the fourth um action would be to repurpose or uh repurpose or surplus tax title lands to increase the supply of affordable housing. This goes to um
support goals 1, three, four, and five with the um town manager, community development director um housing authority um as the the lead lead partners and that's a low priority with the um target completion at the end of
the the planning period of 2030. Um the last action or uh the first strategy would be to expand housing options for seniors u people with disabilities and veterans. This goes to advance goals 1 3 4 and five um with the
uh council on aging planning board um community development director and housing authority as the um leads on on this action. Um this is a high priority with the target completion of 2028. Um so the second strategy we can skip
right uh to the um the m implementation matrix. Um this is to improve uh land use regulations and streamline development review process. Uh the first first action would be to assess the town's inclusionary zoning bylaw to
review applicability and incentives for uh for more targeted affordable units and new developments. This would go to advanced goals 135 with the lead partners being the planning board and community development director. Um it's
a low priority with a target completion of 2028. Um, and I think it's uh was considered a low priority because of um that it was um a recently adopted um inclusionary zoning bylaw that that seems to be um having some uh some
positive impact. Um the second action would be to modernize the zoning bylaw including adjusting dimensional and use standards to support mixeduse opportunities within neighborhood centers and missing miss middle opportunities near um neighborhood centers or other
appropriate areas. Again, it goes to advanced goals 1 3 4 and five with the planning board being the lead partner on that um with a medium priority and a target completion of 2028. um amend uh the next action would be to
amend overlay districts and bylaw to ensure clarity. Um the the zoning map has some areas that have over overlapping overlays which um can sometimes lead to some confusion um for
for the uh developers or um or or um users of the the uh the bylaw. So that would go to advance goals uh 1, three and five with the planning board being the league partner as that being a low priority.
The next action would be to encourage the creation of accessory dwelling units to provide smaller more affordable options and evaluate the progress in implementing uh to implementation to identify ways to strengthen the bylaw. Um this is goes to advanced goals 1,
three, four and five with the lead partners being the planning board, the housing advisory board and community development director um with a target completion in 2029. Um encourage housing near uh public transit, job centers and services. This
goes to advance goals 1, three, four, and five with the housing advisory board and the planning board being the lead partners and that is a high priority. excuse me, with a target of 2028 for completion.
Um, the next action is to incentivize infill development, which may include evaluating and amending minimum lot sizes and other tools to encourage this type of development. Um, this would go to advanced goals 1, three, four, and five with the lead
partners being the planning board and the community development director. um this a medium priority with the target completion of 2029. Um the last um action for strategy two is to to create design guidelines to
allow more byite development through a tiered site plan uh review process uh to support the creation of multif family housing, senior housing and workforce housing through zoning bylaw amendments and design guidelines. This would go to advance goals 1, three
and five with um the community development director, planning board and hab uh being the elite partners. Uh that was given a medium priority with the target completion of 2030. Okay. All right. So implementation um
sorry uh general strategy three was to improve uh communication and education to residents boards and committees on affordable housing opportunities and related services. Uh the first action is to increase awareness of current housing options and support the devel
development of new zoning bylaws for um options for people to agent community through regular communications including informalformational forums and targeted engagement as well as new bylaws. This would go to advanced goals 1, three,
four, and five with the lead partners being uh the council on aging, the housing advisory board, and the planning board um with the medium priority to complete by 2026. The sec second action would be to educate Chelmsford residents about local
options that the sen that uh to help seniors remain in their homes including tax deferrals uh for the existing homes, home modification programs to make their homes more accessible and other initiatives. This would advance goals 1, three, four, and five again with Council
on Aging um and the Council on Disabilities being the lead partners. uh that was given a high priority with the target completion of 2026. Um the third action item for this strategy is to promote and support the creation of uh accessory dwelling units.
Um that goes to advance the same goals with the HAB community development director um planning board being the lead partners with the priority a medium priority and a target completion of 2026. Um the final strategy for u action for
strategy three was to provide training and technical assistance to the planning board and housing advisory boards for housing related service housing related issues. Um that would go to um advance all five goals with the town manager community development director um and
chford housing authority as the lead partners that was given high priority with target completion of 2025. All right. So, the last um strategy would be to identify new funding sources and regional um programs to support
residents in need and necessary infrastructure. Um the first action be to identify programs um and incentives to assist seniors who wish to age in community. that goes to advanced goals 1, three, four, and five with the council on aging
being the lead partner with a medium priority for uh completion by 2026. The second action would be to maintain this uh standardiz housing inventory, keep all regul regulatory agreements, deed restrictions, home and rental
prices and other data units uh and other unit data. uh that goes to advance goals one, two, and four uh with the community development director um being the lead on that that action with the medium priority um targeted for 2027
completion. Um the third action would be to preserve and improve existing housing stock through utilizing uh community preservation acts funding and leverage home modification lo uh loan program
loan funds through comm community teamwork and other resources to assist property owners who make uh lower incomes with home repairs and target um neighborhoods with aging housing stock for uh revitalization and potential conversion options.
This was to advance goals 1 3 4 and five with the um uh community preservation committee, the uh community development director and the HAB being the lead partners with the
medium priority um for 2020 uh 2030 um completion. Um the fourth um action for the strategy is to address infrastructure capacity relating to sewer and water. Um this is
a a high priority that's been ongoing um and the lead partners are the public works and the town manager um participate in advance at home in Groder the regional housing strategy. This goes to support all five goals with
the community development director, um housing advisory board, planning board, uh the lead partners, and that's a high priority that is ongoing. All right. So, um now that we've gone through kind
of the the implementation matrix, um I'll stop and take any questions if anyone has has any questions before we talk about next steps. Yeah. Mike, can we go back to the um to the first
uh strategy action plan? >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, the one that has the planning board is the last one. Is that right? Yes. So, expand housing options for seniors,
people with disabilities, and veterans. So, one of the things that I I had a question about uh I I read I sort of skimmed through the housing production plan and I was trying to understand what problems that it was actually trying to solve. So the one problem that I was
trying to solve which I think was pretty clear was that you want to be able to maintain a certain level of generating SHI each year so that you could if at a point that we fall under 10% that we
could use the other means of obtaining um obtaining safe harbor. So, so it seemed to me that that is a definite goal that we want to accomplish is to make sure that at the time that we need
to have it, we are generating the appropriate number of SHI for that person per purpose. Okay, so I understand that. But then the general housing production issues which seem to center around one seniors that are in larger, more
expensive homes than they need to be or want to be. uh that uh and this was expressed at a couple of town meetings ago, I think by one of the town meeting reps that she wanted to she said she wanted to move to something that was smaller, but that there wasn't anything
that was smaller and affordable within Chsford. So, I assume that issue is also an issue that we're looking at, but that doesn't necessarily have to do with affordable. Am am I correct about that? Um, it it isn't a direct correlation between the SHI inventory, but there
there are ways to to create naturally affordable housing. Um, and and >> Okay. So, in other words, >> Yeah. In other words, so we're so we're talking about affordable in a more general sense, not in the specific legal sense of 40B, which is subsidized
housing. >> Yeah. Yeah. I guess we're talking more um lower case affordable. >> Yeah. Lower case. That's a good way to put it. Okay. So, so that would be one thing then that would be of interest is is what can be done to to do that. And so, and so I understand then this one is
expand housing options for seniors. That potentially would be one thing that we would be looking to do under that is okay. >> Okay. And then another one seemed to be that there that in general the difference between the housing prices
and or the cost of housing and the median income associated with people in Chelford. And so then there also what we're looking for is to see how we could motivate housing that wasn't as expensive and again small a affordable
>> uh as well as capital A affordable. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. And when when we did the the needs assessment, um we looked at costburdened uh residents. And even though though they might not be low income, they were
>> but as you get lower in the income, you're you're seeing more and more people spending um way more than the 30% of their income on housing. Um right. So that that's one way to to um in increasing the the supply for smaller
homes could um could have kind of a ripple effect. >> Okay. Could we go to the second strategy, the action items for that? Because that was the one that seemed to focus primarily on the planning board. >> Yeah. >> And so I was wondering if we could
talk a little bit in more detail about what those are. So assess the town's inclusionary zoning bylaw. So you said that one's low priority because we have one in place and we might want to just buff it up or whatever. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. I think that's more to look
back um and there there's there's one too for the um accessory dwelling units um is to to kind of u monitor especially the time period as it as the um the bylaw goes into effect. see seeing if
there are ways to improve it or um you know making sure it's working the way um it's intended. >> Okay. I is the AD one in this one or is it >> um >> it is both one. >> Okay. Yeah. Cuz >> because I mean um this board was not
super excited about the ADU idea. So, you know, if we're going to endorse this plan, the fact that it's stating that we're going to try to promote the use of ADUs when we were actually not in favor of that would to me be an issue that we need to resolve uh before we could
endorse it. Um but but I just wanted to walk through the rest of these. So, modernize the zoning bylaw, include adjusting dimensional and use to support mixed use opportunities. Okay. So, these are things that this board is already wanting to do to look at. Yeah.
>> Mixed use uh in commercial areas I think primarily. >> Yeah. And we are looking at that now um with the NIMCOG um is also working on the um the center village um plan and and looking at uh doing a zoning and and
land use analysis on on a lot of parcels in in those areas. >> Okay, great. And then also the missing middle opportunity. So again that would be not just uh capital A but small A affordable kinds of things. >> Yeah it could be both but um to trying
to focus on um on on the like 4 to 4 to 12 unit um developments rather than >> okay >> uh you know 200 unit um developments. >> Okay. >> Or villages of small tiny houses or something >> right. Yeah. Right. >> Yeah. Cottage courts. Um
>> right. Okay. Okay. Great. And then uh uh approved overlay sorry I don't have my >> amend over >> amend overlay >> districts and bylaw to ensure clarity. So what was what's the goal there? Uh
>> um I I think to looking to at at areas where there may be overlapping um overlays um and trying to maybe simplify where you we could u make it a little bit more clear as to um when as if a
developer come or um or land owner comes in and they look at at the the zoning map and see, you know, all these all these overlays kind of on on top of their their parcel that there may be some confusion as to how you know what
you can truly do with the the um the area and it also may may cause some issues with if kind of the overall um feel of the zone. So trying trying to make sure there aren't any conflicting
areas um and trying to maybe simplify it a little bit a little bit more. Are Evan are you? Um >> is this from you? Okay. Um I agree that CEO has created confusion and always will be confusing
for stakeholders that are trying to figure it out. Once they call and we walk them through it, it's pretty clear. Um as you can see, it's a low priority. Um, >> yeah, >> I don't I don't think the borders
identified this as a priority. >> Um, I think the board has identified cleaning up the zoning bylaw. Um, which which this speaks to. >> Okay. >> Uh, but I don't I don't view the overlays as creating confusion. >> Okay. >> I think the board's on the right track
with with your >> Okay. Yeah. My main concern was that there's an issue being expressed about lack of clarity and unless somebody can specifically articulate >> Yeah. how we're going to res overlays in any community, they create confusion. >> It's pretty accurate.
>> Okay. Okay. So, we'll let that one go. Uh so, I'm going to skip the next couple. Incentivize um infill development, which may include evaluating and uh lot sizes and other.
So, what did what is that one about? um potentially um having having incentives that the planning board can use through um the site plan or special permit process where they can um I think
you do it with u in this the um center village district where there's a um a parking um reduction that you can grant um in certain areas maybe it's u maybe it's extra units if they kind of
like how um inclusive zoning works, you know, where you can get maybe more um more units if they're affordable or if they're a certain certain um type that you're that you're looking for. >> Okay.
And then the create design guidelines and allow more byite development. >> Yep. Um then >> and that was you know with with kind of in MBTA communities there there was a push for the um more by
development and you you hear it all that's kind of how um zoning reform is has been going um in the local locally and nationally um and trying to get more um with the good with the uh design
guidelines giving giving um the developers kind of upfront what you're you're looking for in the the design. Um so that so they can gives a more um prescripted um
design guide and it allows it allows for the developers to have have a little bit more clarity as to what what's um what the town's looking for. and assurance that if they provide the town what they're looking
for, they're they're going to receive their approvals. >> Okay. How do we how do we do that? >> So once there's multiple steps here, but the theme as I understand it is the board wants to go back into CEO
um and refine housing opportunities, >> right? uh targeting missing middle smaller smaller scale developments smaller units that's infill development that's redevelopment if the board truly wanted
to embrace by right such as MBTA zoning one way of creating predictability on the architecture is to create design guidelines it's formbbased zoning basically >> okay okay >> if you Google form-based zoning it's uh >> which we kind of started to look at with
MBTA right Yeah. And so it's you're basically pre-approving architectural styles that you prefer and then if a developer builds it that would that would support the board's ability to do buy
multif family housing. >> Okay. Okay. >> So like we would be driving what we want by incentivizing it in some way within the zoning or the site plan provisions by rate. Correct. >> Right. Yeah. And I think we've learned this. >> I assume the incentive is that it's by
right. Is that the incentive? >> In exchange for in exchange for this three or four options of architectural styles based upon missing middle housing, >> right? As as opposed to having a permit where we evaluate it and we say what we like or don't like. What we're saying is, okay, these are the choice. Here's
the menu. >> Exactly. >> By right. If you choose from the menu, we're okay with it. Okay. But having just guide guidelines in general for what's preferred overall whether whether it's addressing multifamilies or or missing middle wouldn't that be a good
idea so developers know. >> Yeah. >> Like because I tend to I don't know every time something comes up here I'm like okay that's great but I don't like the like the look of it. >> Yeah. Like wouldn't that be just something we should maybe put on just to kind of not to be by right but just kind
of like you know what do we want in this town? Mhm. But I mean, if we're specifically trying to drive the missing middle or or cottage villages or something, we I mean, one way to do that, I mean,
specific to this housing production plan, I mean, basically, the housing number grows every year and a lot of people are unhappy at the large box structures, including people on this
board. And so if we want to drive away from the large box structures, it seems like we it's a little bit of a roadmap here to do that. >> Well, I mean, one I mean, one question this question that I had in reading the
the plan, Mike, was that it seemed like a lot of this was oriented towards creating housing that doesn't exist now. So it's center generating housing but the forecast of the census was that essentially Chelmsford's population is
going to stabilize and so then my question is are we how does that compute that we're generating more housing but that we don't have a corresponding population increase to go with it? >> Yeah, good question. I I there are the
projections do have have um Chumsford going up over the next 20 years by another 10 or 12% before it levels out um around 2040 2050. Um the the I think that you have to look at
a couple couple issues with you have uh some neighborhoods have an aging housing stock. Um so there are going to be there are going to be um you know h housing that's redeveloped um
um and and there's also um the amount of um residents the amount of house the household numbers are going have been steadily going down. So even though you have you have the kind of sim similar
amount of um residents, you you have less people living in in the units. So you actually would need if the trend keeps going, you're going to need more even if the population stays the same, you're going to need more housing to support less people in the units.
>> Mhm. Okay. A and because the the households household sizes are are shrinking um that would also correlate with the need for smaller um units. >> Right. Okay. >> This is an important discussion, but we do have a lot of other stuff to get to
tonight. Um can we cover the next steps? >> Yeah. Yeah. And that that's pretty um quick cuz um we I met um yesterday with the housing advisory board and um they they recommended the uh they gave a um
kind of a a recommended um approval for the the the plan. Um the next step would be going to uh the uh the select board in August to get their um their blessing and then we
would send it to um the state for their approval hopefully by the end of August. >> Is is there a deadline for this? >> Um there isn't a deadline. Um
but yeah, the you don't have a a housing production plan that's in effect right now. So, um >> Okay, cuz I've got I've got a lot more questions. I think other members of the board do as well. I think Joel's point
about the ADU piece is important. Um I >> I also have a question about if ADUs are by right and statemandated by right, how else would we en encourage it as a zoning board? Um that's just one of my
many questions. Um and so I would like to continue this discussion um at the next meeting probably for another half hour. Um, >> do board members want to send questions prior to that meeting? >> That'd probably be a good idea.
>> Well, I personally have a a problem supporting any increase in housing until I till this town gets a new school. >> We're not adding more. >> Well, that's that's one of my other concerns is that we the the goals are nice.
the action plan is very prescriptive and doesn't take into account the managed growth strategy that we're about to undertake. And so one of the concerns is I have we seem to be putting the cart before the horse. And
one of my recommendations would be to put in a very big caveat in this plan that this will be revisited after that managed growth strategy is in place and approved to revisit and potentially
change any or all of these uh goals and action plans. Because what we decide in that managed growth strategy may be counter to some of this stuff. And so I wouldn't want to endorse this
as a long-term plan that is counter to what we might come up with in the managed growth strategy. So, if if people maybe could send me and Evan
and Mike their concerns and questions, we can have something pulled together and maybe address some of those um a little bit more expeditiously in the next meeting. Um >> Mike, can you um summarize for us what
the just briefly if you don't mind what and you kind of did at the beginning, but why it is that we are in need of a housing production plan in the eyes of the state and what that en what how does that benefit us to have one? >> Yeah. Yeah. Um well, it it helps with
the um obtaining safe harbor. we started the the project you the town was under uh the the uh mandated 10% um you know since since then
is is just above the uh I think it's at 10.02% 02% now. So, um you know, the town does have have that. Um but if we were if the town were to be
under um the 10% then um having an approved plan u help it it will give you safe safe harbor >> and I mean you kind of articulated it a little differently yesterday. Yeah, I
mean for purposes of 40B, the town um is likely safe until uh 2032 when the next census is issued. >> Uh but we're barely over and as we know units over the next 10 years, units can
fall off. Uh the other uh benefit um is that um state grant programs uh use the production uh metrics for bonus points. Uh I'm not suggesting that
that the town's going to uh produce 73 units per year. Uh but it is a question that's on all the state grant applications. Having a plan production plan is also uh bonus points. Um, and then obviously having a detailed local
affordable housing plan or housing plan uh is beneficial. The timing is not really critical like it once was uh because we're not we're not chasing 10% at this point. Um you know so coordinating
trying to coordinate with the uh growth management strategy is logical. Um maybe maybe some of the themes in this get adjusted or or or you know tuned down a little bit. Uh but what you what you need to what you need to keep
in mind is this is a regulatory document >> that has 40B fingerprints on it. >> Right. And what many communities do such as Chumps is they take it they use it as an opportunity as Jill was saying to um articulate their local housing
preferences, needs, and desires. We're in that position. We don't necessarily need to speak directly to the 40B um production because we've achieved that. So that's how I would look at this plan is what is what is the town's local
housing needs and what is our roadmap and strategies uh to achieve that. >> Yeah. I mean I would say that the capital A part of this plan we would keep regardless of the managed growth strategy. I think it's pretty clear that would be a high priority for this town.
uh it's the small a is what's in flux based on what the management in particular also the list of properties at the end because some of those properties we may end up saying well I'd rather that be commercial develop commercially developed rather than residential so those are the things that I think would be more a function of
outcome of that >> to continue this 13th y >> thanks Mike >> thank you Mike Okay. Next on the agenda is new public hearing
for 1911 195 Riverneck Road. Um, >> hey Doug. >> Good evening. Um, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, uh, for the record, Douglas Duchaine, uh, with Finner and Nicholson representing Commonwealth
Construction and Utilities Company. Um, what I'd like to do is do some introductions and and just a quick overview and then I'm going to turn things over to my client who would like to introduce himself and his family and the company. Uh, and then we'll turn things over to our engineers and
architects to go through the meat and potatoes of the project. So, as I said, Doug Duchain with Fenerin and Nicholson. Um, with me this evening, uh, Katie Enight and Casey Ferrer from Howard Stein Hudson. Also Ken File from LYF
Architects um as well as Chris um Dphano uh AJ Dphano and is Bill here and um Mr. Dphano Bill uh dad is uh here
with us as well. Um my clients are seeking to construct uh uh two buildings on the property at 191 195 Riverneck Road. Uh the first building um is a 14 bay contractor's building. Um it is just
under 30,000 square feet of gross uh square footage. Um it's got a footprint of about 23,000 square foot. It's a twostory building. And then we have a secondary building behind that one uh which is 8,400
um and four gross square feet. So, um, those two buildings, the uses proposed in them are by right uses. Um, however, we are proposing to include a contractor's yard on the property, which
requires us to obtain a special permit for the use in addition to the site plan review, the aquaer protection, and a major business complex, a special permit. Uh, again, the site is located at 191 195 Riverneck Road. I know the
board is uh familiar with the site. Uh it does contain uh 233,000 plus square feet of area. So we're talking at uh 5.4 acres in size. And again, it is located in the IA zoning district. Um before I turn things over
to Chris, um I'd just like to remind the board that we did come in uh on a preliminary meeting with you guys, Singals, and um went through the proposal. uh you were kind enough to provide us a significant amount of commentary and questions and comments
and suggestions. Um I want to tell you that those comments were not lost on us. We did in fact go back to the drawing board and try and integrate as many of them as possible and to address your concerns to the extent possible. Um but
moreover um my clients actually set up a neighbor meeting and we not only notified a butters within five uh 300 square feet which would be your typical of Butters uh we went 1 1500 square feet out from the property line so that we
would integrate all of the residential structures you know that are not necessarily within 300 ft of Butters but let's say within their neck, so to speak. So, it was an extensive area that
we invited. >> Uh we held the meeting at the the Chsford police were kind enough to let us use their room and uh we had a pretty good show uh turnout of neighbors and and a butters. Um and um I I think uh we
presented the project to them and then had an open forum as you know we do. Um and and and you know the neighbors were quite vocal. They gave us too a lot of questions. They raised a lot of concerns and they provided uh their thoughts of
of what things should do or how we might be able to address their um concerns. So um at the end of that meeting we actually collected emails and we we had a little email chain going so that we could on you know continue with the neighbors and in fact uh my clients and
their engineers put together a an entire uhformational booklet that you know gave all the information about the company, what it did, where it did it. Um pictures of our equipment so people could see what equipment would be stored
on site and where. Um it was quite comprehensive. We sent it out to all the abutters that uh that wanted it and um we I we got back very few uh additional comments after that other than a couple of the neighbors that you know thanked
us and had some minor comments. But again, my clients have tried to be very cooperative in working with the neighbors and have tried to integrate as many of their questions as we could and address as many concerns as possible. So, as you know, you can never answer them all, but you know, I think my
clients have done a great job. So, um, as you'll hear, um, when you get the presentation of the process. Um, so with that, I'd like to introduce Chris. Um, just wants to come up, say a few words, introduce himself, and then then we'll turn things over to our technical folks for a presentation on the plan. Thanks,
Chris. >> Good evening, members of the board. My name is Chris Dphano and I'm one of the owners of Commonwealth Construction and Utilities, which is a family-owned business. Our company specializes in water and sewer infrastructure performing utility work for municipalities across the Commonwealth
along with working for private property owners. We are currently based out of 15 Progress A, a property that has been in the family since 2001. In fact, our our family has maintained ties to the Chsford community since 1979. As our as our business has grown, we
have outgrown our existing location and are now seeking to expand while remaining here in Chelsford. In early 2024, we identified a property on Riverneck Road that appears to meet our needs in both zoning and available space, offering more land than we currently occupy. I thank you for your
time and your consideration, and I'll turn this over to Katie Enight. >> All right, good evening everyone. and Katie Enright, um the project engineer with Howard Stein Hudson. Um just to sort of set the stage, um we realize this is the very first meeting of the
night. I know I I talked this way a couple weeks ago when we were here with a different application. We understand that traffic is a very big concern for the community. We've done a pretty significant traffic study. I'll touch on it a little bit later. Um we realize this is the first meeting. In no way do
we think this is the last meeting. Um, so I'd like to do an overview certainly as to the project and how things have changed since we were here, how the project has been developed. Certainly, if the board would like a peer review of the traffic study, we' we'd like the board to decide that tonight so that
maybe we could come back and do essentially an entire evening of traffic if that makes sense. Um, at a a meeting later on down the road um and answer any additional questions certainly at upcoming meetings. We also do not have our peer review from the lo
from the DPW um in Chsert as of yet. Um they're working to try to have it um done for the August meeting. So we understand that that back and forth has still not happened either. Um again to continue until we can have that back and forth with the engineering department
related to um storm water on site. Um so as Doug mentioned the site is 191 and 195 Riverneck Road. It's a little under 4 point or 5.4 four acres. When we were here um informally um months ago, we had proposed um a different layout than the
layout you see before you today. Um essentially where the house exists um adjacent on that little sort of the little parcel that's in front of the office buildings off to the side. We had proposed an additional contractor structure, breaking it up into actually three structures on that initial plan.
um that building was a little bit closer to the road than the main building that we're showing on this plan. And we heard from the board that that wasn't something that um was liked that it was that it was close to the road that having that separate building where that
house is currently on the site. So we've since removed that and changed the layout of the project related to the removal of that building. So that lot where the single family house sits today is essentially meant to be grading um and landscaping now to buffer um the use
of this contractor's yard um from the abutters in that direction. And you can see there's significant landscaping that we've proposed along the frontage on the side of that parcel. Um the entrance to the site has been designed to be right across the street from an existing business as an engineering business
across the street. um and therefore the headlights coming out of the site would face a business use um coming in and out of the site. The building itself is set back um well well more than 40 feet. It's almost 90 ft from the street. Um 40
ft being the requirement under IIA zoning. Um the building is almost 90 ft back from the street. And you'll see that the parking that we have along the building all faces away from the street. So again, cars pulling in would face the proposed building. There's no parking that faces Riverneck Road along the
frontage. What we're also proposing relative to grade there is to bring that area up the front of the building level with Riverneck Road. So the building itself is about the same elevation as Riverneck Road along the front. And the building along the front and Ken will speak a
little bit more to the architecture appears to be one story. So, as you drive down Riverneck Road, um Whips paid special attention to the front of this building and the visual you'd have on the front of this building and the sides of the building as you approach um on
Riverneck Road from either direction to blend more with some of the businesses, um industrial, office, residential that you see along Riverneck Road, um and really keep that profile of that building very low. We also have
significant landscaping that we've proposed along the front of the building. Um, essentially in that large buffer that we have between us and that parking aisle, that floor as you come into the site would be a mezzanine office. Essentially, it would feel if you were to go around the back of the
building, it would feel like a second floor, but you'd walk right into it on the first floor. So, an office assistant, um, anyone who works in the office may work up in the mezzanine area, which would appear like you would be walking into the first floor of a
business from the street. Um, as you go down below the building to the back, you're sinking down 10 feet below Riverneck Road. And so, the back is significantly lower than the elevation of Riverneck Road. And that's where you would see the back of house. So, we'd
have um overhead doors. Again, Ken will show you the profile there, but all of that back of house essentially faces out towards the highway to the back of the project site and is invisible from Riverneck Road. Um there's a man door garage door in the back. And then we
also have 14 separate storage bays along the back parking lot which is um more than 100 it's almost 200 200 feet essentially from Riverneck Road where those businesses a plumber carpenter essentially anything on the use chart um
that would be allowed in the IA district would be allowed to store say pallets and materials etc and anything that's there if it rains would be collected in our storm water management system, which is also pretty extensive, which I'm going to have Casey talk to you about in
a little bit. Um, the Commonwealth Utilities Building is that building all the way at the back. It sits more than 200 feet from Riverneck Road. Um, and the first floor of that building is is again 10 ft below Riverneck Road. So, essentially invisible from the street because if you were at the street, you'd
have to look up over that front building to see that back building. It's two stories again with office and there's garage bays and those face um to either side lot line at that back building. So you'll see that that's significantly
back from the road and then Commonwealth Utilities has a parking lot associated with their office and internal use and then the equipment storage is set all the way at the back of the site adjacent to um the highway ramp. Um,
there's vehicle storage back here for different types of machinery that they have. We'll provide the planning board with the letter. We apologize we didn't provide the planning board with the letter we sent to the Abutters, but it was very um educational as far as what it means and what different types of
equipment look like, how large they are, and where they would sit on the site um if they were to be at the site. Certainly a significant amount of their machinery. They have 25 different pieces of equipment are not meant to be on site. Um but you can see where we have those positioned again hundreds of feet
from Riverneck Road and behind that front building and adjacent to the business at the back. Again, the site then slopes all the way down to the ramp area in the back. Um and what we've done is we've had and we'll provide this on a on a plan. We had the surveyors go out and locate every tree within that buffer
zone between us, the mature trees between um us and the ramp there. So, there's 35 ft now that we've left of existing vegetation. And we're going to show um those trees on a future plan so that you can see where those sit. Um and
that's to protect again the area from noise um that we heard from from the highway ramps there. um to to aid in that um site circulation. You can get all the way around this site with a fire truck. That hasn't changed since the
previous plan um was before you. Um and the area at the rear is entirely fenced so that everything essentially within that area as far as storage and equipment is secure. Um, with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Casey before I come back up and just touch on a couple
of the other plan sheets and let him speak to you a little bit about our storm water system and utility connections. >> Good evening to the board. Uh, for the record, Casey Ferrero with Howard Sign Hudson. Um, so as you have probably
heard, the existing site for the the 191 parcel is currently undeveloped. um exists vegetated with woods and undergrowth. Um 195 currently exists as a single family house. Um so in combination between the two um the site
195 uh 191 195 Riverneck Road currently has about 5,962 square feet of impervious. Um, comparably to the the proposal in front of you, um, the proposal for the contractor's yard shows 135,000
13 square feet of impervious with 20,717 ft of gravel. Now, for purposes of storm water standards, uh, recharge requirements, TSS and phosphorus, uh, we have considered the gravel as an impervious surface for the calculations just to be conservative. Um because
gravel is going to uh deflect water in a very similar way that impervious surface would. Um so that totals uh realistically what we use in our calculations 155,730 square ft of imperous area. Um now that
to mass stormwater standards and local regulations um that is clearly a new development. Uh so we fall under all new development regulations both locally and with the state. Um so what that does locally is that changes our TSS requirement from 80% to 90%. Um and it
changes phosphorus from 50% to 60%. Um additionally the use um based on conversations with DPW in the past qualifies us as a fleet storage use as well just due to the number of vehicles. Um a fleet storage is considered a land
use with higher potential pollutant loads. uh and that triggers uh standard five of the uh mass state storm water standards. Um additionally we also are within the aquifer protection district on top of a
zone 2 wellhead. So that triggers standard six uh critical areas discharged to critical areas. Now standard five and standard six are both uh fairly similar. The main requirement between the two is that you are required to pre-treat storm water to 44% prior to
infiltration. Um as you if you read the report uh standard 4 details uh achieving 97% um removal prior to infiltration. Um and then we also did not include the the treatment that would come from the infiltration. Uh so basically what
you're seeing is a 97% pre-treatment prior to that infiltration u meeting both the requirements of standard five and standard six. Standard five as a loophole further requires um hydrocarbon interception uh where land would be
susceptible to hydrocarbons. So that's oil. Um so what we fitted all the catch basins with uh at least in the areas where trucks and maneuvering will be happening. Uh they all have oil booms within those catch basins. Um so that the intention there is if there is some
kind of spill, if there is some kind of leak or something from from either larger vehicles, work vehicles or what have you, uh these catch basins are protected and further the uh storm water train that is attached to those catch basins is also protected all the way down the line to further protect the
aquifer pro the the aquifer below. That's the um so the phosphorus requirements for the town are 60%. Um and that is a volume based requirement to show that we meet 60%
phosphorus. We have to show that we are infiltrating a certain volume of water per square foot of impervious. Um so in our calculations in the report you'll see that we break it up per infiltration structure. Um but just for the sake of
this meeting, the total requirement of infiltration um to meet 60% phosphorus is 10,04 cubic feet. Our total provided across three infiltration areas is 36,762 cubic feet. Um so yes, we break it up
per the requirement for each infiltration area, but just as a whole, we are more than triple uh the cubic footage required of volume. Um, briefly I'll just explain how the drainage is broken up. So really we look
at this in thirds. So the front half or the the front of the building adjacent to Riverneck Road, we're collecting all that pavement and sitting into one MC7200 subsurface infiltration system. So there's going to be one system in the front that takes care of all the
impervious that uh results as a that's a result of that parking lot out front behind the first building in that larger pavement area that has you know access to the garage doors at the back and then also the the storage um areas
themselves. Uh we have a much larger um footprint area of a subsurface chamber. Um, and that's going to take a majority of the middle and some of the rear of the parking, but also the roofs from both buildings. Um, and then lastly, the
very rear under the gravel area, we also have a MC3500 system. Um, and so just to give you an idea on size, the front system is about 5,500 cubic feet of storage. The middle system, even though it's a smaller chamber but a much larger
footprint, is about 13,500 cubic feet. And then the rear system, which is a larger chamber and also a larger footprint, has 17,700 cubic feet. Um, so there's significant areas of infiltration on this site. Um,
uh, in compliance with regulations, we have also done witness soil testing on April 8th of this year. Uh, DPW witnessed it. I went through them myself. We dug 10 10 or 11 test pits out there um just to gauge information as far as soil
textures, groundwater elevations, um so on and so forth. So that believe covers the the drainage aspects. Um again, there's you know the 10 standards are all detailed in the report. Um and we can go over any ones
that you might have questions for, but I do want to briefly just go over the utilities. Um, for a development of this of of this use, they're they're pretty standard. So, what we show currently is a subsurface electrical line, uh, in line with, you know, the town's
preferences and requirements. Um, it's just underground, it's going to go to a transformer. That transformer is then going to feed the two buildings. And, um, you know, further as, as we move into architecture and and MEP design, we'll figure out where all those meter locations are going to be. But for now,
uh, we're just showing that we're feeding both buildings, um, underground with electrical. Uh, the water is going to come off, um, through the site driveway right off Riverneck Road. Um, the front building has a, uh, 6-in line
in for a fire suppression, and then each unit is fed a domestic line as well. Uh, that wraps to the back building, which also is fed with a sprinkler system line, and then also a domestic line. Um there are fire hydrants on site both uh that are also using 6-inch waters coming
off that. I have been in contact with the Eastwater department who says you'll have no problem servicing the site with the intended usage. Um gas similar uh is going to come through the the the site driveway obviously
subsurface and each unit will be u fitted with a gas service. Gas and electric will obviously be worked out with National Grid once we move on to a preliminary construction phase if we get there. Um, National Grid will dictate really the layout and how they want it
to be connected. And then lastly, we have the sewer connections. Um, so the existing site, so the existing building at 195 has a sewer connection for the house. The existing um, property at 191 has two existing sewer stubs. one for the property at 191 and there was
previously a property I believe it was 185. So there's actually two sewer stubs available for the 191 property now plus the one for the 195. So that gives us three sewer stubs um with the um what do they call it now? The the
sewer policy that the DPW has. We're allowed an increase per stub of 500 gallons per day. Um in addition to what the existing house uses um for conservatism, we're just going with we'll be within the 1500 gallons that
the three sewer subs will give us of increases per title 5. That'll all lot us at 15 uh gallons per day per employee. That'll all lot us an availability to have 100 employees on this site as a whole. And that's just to meet the the sewer policy there. Um,
one thing that will, um, be connected to sewer on these plans, um, each of these garage bays is going to have a interior floor drain. Those interior floor drains will connect to a, um, a gas oil
interceptor prior to being discharged to the sanitary sewer. So all all vehicle maintenance that may occur within the building and it's not allowed on the outside of the building. Um but all vehicle maintenance that may occur within the inside of the building will be discharged through an interior floor drain, go to the interceptor and then be
discharged to the sewer. Now, since the back of the site is so much lower than the front of the site, we do have to have all sewer gravity to a a pump station and then that pump station will flow to the front of the building uh hit a manhole which is going to be uh
constructed on top of one of the existing stubs so we don't have to go into Riverneck Road to achieve the sewer. And with that, I believe I'll turn it back over to Katie. I think I covered all the bases that I wanted to. Actually, one additional item that I did have on the storm water. Um, also in
compliance with standard five and standard six, we did provide a long-term pollution prevention plan with an operation and maintenance plan. So, that is also within the package that you've received on the design documents. Thank you. >> And just to clarify that too, um, Casey
found sand in all of our test pits out there. Um, so we have a really great infiltration rate. Um, and we have more than 2 ft of separation in all of our infiltration systems based on um, estimated seasonal high groundwater out there, too. So, you can see all of the
test pit locations and the testing um, information for the soil profiles on the grading and drainage sheets. Um, moving into landscaping, um, we have a pretty significant landscape plan before you. um we concentrated a lot of the
landscaping along the front property line and then certainly looked at preserving um as many trees as possible along the back line. So in total we have 34 trees, 29 evergreens and 220 shrubs. Um 20 of those shade trees are proposed
along the site frontage. So we're looking at significantly landscaping um the frontage of the property and the sides as it relates to Riverneck Road. And then you can see we have some landscaping down the side property lines and then we're looking to maintain the tree cover at the rear. I also wanted to
just touch briefly on our lighting plan. So you have a phototric plan also in your package that shows um how the light will um essentially light up the property. You can see that we were very sensitive again to um the neighbors and
made sure that all of our lights essentially face inward or away from Riverneck Road and away from the abuing properties and just light up um the site um directly. They're dark sky compliant um lighting and also full cut off. So, um,
we're using 20 foot poles, um, throughout the site and then a 13T, um, wall pack for the areas or 13t height for those that are attached to the building, um, around. Um, I'm going to touch just really briefly on traffic tonight. Um, we did
do a pretty comprehensive traffic study. Again, we met with um, your planner, Evan Balansky, and also DPW to discuss where we would study for this site. Um, we studied the site driveway at Riverneck. We studied Rivernet at Bill Ricka Road, Bill Ricka, Golden Cove and
Turnpike intersection. And then Riverneck in the Carile Road intersection. Um, we also looked at not only the IT or the Institute of Traffic Engineers count for use like this, but we also wanted to make sure and we heard
the board count something similar. So, we counted um the Commonwealth operation at 15 Progress and we also counted WestTech Park in Tingsboro. Um if you've been to Westech Park, it's set up very similar to this, although much larger.
As you drive up the site driveway, you can see the buildings look like one story. You can go around back and see that they're two stories filled with um a contractor type use. We checked use tables versus the IIA district versus what's in Westech Park and came up with a similar user pattern which is why we
also counted that. But at the end of the day, it was way more conservative and way more than the traffic we counted at both of those operations. So our traffic study uses those conservative numbers. Um just as a um an example, we had um in
our weekly AM peak and PM peak, we had uh 51 in and 18 out. 15 in progress had 14 in, 15 out. So it's pretty significantly more what we're using in our traffic study. Again, just to be conservative, we're using
those IT numbers. Um we studied traffic between May 15th and May 17th, Thursday through Saturday. Um, Riverneck Road sees about 2900 cars per day, 1,400 in one direction, 1500 in the other, and 2,000 on the weekend, a thousand in each
direction. Um, traffic speeds run between 31 and 38 miles per hour along Riverneck Road based on of our based on our counts. And morning and evening peaks are about 7:45 to 8:45, 4:30 to 5:30.
um we meet um both sight distance and intersection site distance um within the requirements. Actually, we're we're pretty significantly over for all of those um to make sure that we have sight distance in both directions um when we are
leaving the site and those cars that would be approaching the site. So again, um I'd love to have our traffic engineers here specifically one evening to to discuss. The traffic study is very long. There's a lot of information there relative to the traffic along Riverneck
Road. Um certainly I would anticipate that you'd most likely have it peer reviewed and and that would be great to have too when we have that discussion um in the future. With that, um, I'm going to turn it over to Ken Fail, um, to talk
a little bit about the architecture. >> Good evening. Uh, my name is Ken File. I'm one of the owners of LYF Architects and we're the architects on the project. We're out of Havville, Mass. And those are the plans. >> Yeah, we can start with the floor plan.
Um, we'll we'll brief. I'll just go down each one. Perfect. So this first this first level plan you see here is the lower level um that you enter from the rear of the building. Um you can go to
the next plan. This here is the upper level plan that you will actually access from the upper level of the site which is right off of uh Riverneck uh Riverneck Road and that's where where folks mentioned about the mezzanine and you enter to we'll
call it the second floor mezzanine and then there'll be internal stairs that could take you downstairs to um the lower level. um elevation wise. Um so the street facade which is uh is there a way to go a little bit higher?
Uh the other way? Sorry. Uh there. Perfect. Thank you very much. Um the lower ele here we go. The lower elevation um that you see there, that's the street facade along um Riverneck Road. And for this
facade that faces the main road, we've used traditional New England architectural elements. We've have a brick base. We have painted lap siding. We have gable entry elements on uh certain certain bays to break up the facade and also reduce and give scale to
the building. Um in the initial submission that you saw, we act we actually had some higher roof elements that um I know an amendment came in uh earlier where we actually reduced the roof element between the
gables to again um reduce the height of the building from the street. Um at each of the entries we have pilasters and trim. at all the entry elements. Um we have signage boards with gooseeneck lighting. Um and the height of the
building from the street is approximately 14 ft and the top of the gable elements to the peak is around 186. um the side of the building, which it's toward the top of the page.
And yep, the very top one and to the right. There we go. Perfect. So, the side of the building, we continue the architectural elements around the corner along the driveway. We have the brick base. We have the painted lab siding.
And we have a uh a a roof element um that goes along the entire side elevation as it as the driveway drove goes down into the site. Um and then the rear and you see the second elevation down from there. Um that's on the
opposite side um of the building. That's the long side that has a driveway that again slopes down. We returned the front elevation elements approximately 20 feet. Again, the brick, the lap siding, and the roof element. Um, the rear elevation, as we scroll down a little
bit, this is the the side that's facing the inward to the site, this is where you can see it's it's the typical metal panel used for um contractor storage buildings. Um, the overall height at the rear of the building is 24 feet. And
what we've done, again, it's built into the side of the into the hillside, I guess, that we're building up against Riverneck Road. So, again, it appears as a one-story building along Riverneck Road, and it's a two-story building in the back, but that's because the grade
drops down. Um the rear building um if you go to the next page again is a typ is fully a typical metal panel contractor storage building. Its overall height again is 24 ft. Um it's
not readily visible from the road um unless you're driving down the driveway into the site um because the building is in the rear and it's centered within the site. Um, now we get to the pretty pictures. This is my favorite part. All right, so this is this is the
perspective of driving along Riverneck Road at the driveway entry. And here you can see it appears it is a one-story building from the road. You see the gable elements that break up the facade. Um, and you also see that we have that the height of the building. Again, we've
lowered the roof element in between the gables um to lower the appearance of a larger building um along Riverneck Road. Uh the next elevation, please. This is driving down the other side going the other direction on Riverneck
Road. Again, you see the same elements. You see the landscaping and then the return of the main the road facade returning 20 20 feet approximately down that side elevation as the um driveway
slopes down. And then this is the rear. Um could you scoot it a little? I want to see a little bit left on the left there please. Perfect. So this elevation here, this perspective, you can see this is the
rear of um the buildings that we're proposing. Again, the metal the the metal panel and the bays and the man doors. And you can see the second building that's tucked in behind the building. And if you scroll a little bit to the right, please.
And this is where you can see the view up the driveway, how the building is built into um the hillside. Um, again reducing the height of the building as it faced Riverneck Road. Can you go back to to what? And with that,
I'm going to turn it back to Katie. >> Yeah, that one. Perfect. Thank you. >> I just wanted to mention briefly that there's not intended to be any utilities on the roof here. So, um, we were cognizant of that. We wanted to make sure that any rooftop elements would be
screened by sort of the parapit or roof line around there. But, uh, Commonwealth's not intending to put any utilities on the roof, so we're not concerned about that viewshed. Um, with that, we'd really like to get as much feedback as possible this evening,
certainly from the board, um, and the butter. So, I'm going to sit down and, um, we look forward to having more discussion. >> Thank you. All right. Do we have We have a few letters. I believe
we have um first letters from board of health the year planning board. This letter is regarding the proposed project from Commonwealth Construction Utilities Incorporated to construct an outdoor contractor's yard at 191 to 195 Riverneck Road. This proposed project is located in the town water resources high
aquifer protection zone 2 and the state water resource protection zone 2 wellhead protection area. Therefore, this project would require rep approval from the board of health pursuant to town of Chumps for general provisions chapter 2011 board of health article 7 groundwater protection zone. This
proposed project shall consistently comply with the town of Chsford bylaw chapter 63 hazardous materials. It is designed to ensure comprehensive safeguards against hazardous materials that pose significant current or potential threats to public health, welfare, safety, and the environment,
guaranteeing their safe management. This proposed project shall consistently comply with the town of Chumpsford general provisions chapter 20 on board of health article 10 model floor drains. This proposed project has been approved by the town of Chsford Department of Public Works to connect to town sewer.
If this project plans to have dumpsters on site, then it must meet Town of Chs for general provisions chapter 2011 board of health article 5 commercial refuge dumpster collection licensing and operation respectfully Donna Greenwood and from the fire. Dear members of the
board, regarding the special permit requests for 191 to 195 Riverneck Road, this office provides the following comments and conditions. First bullet. A fireflow analysis shall be conducted and submitted to this office to ensure adequate water supply
and protection. All construction shall comply with all applicable codes, including but not limited to the Massachusetts state building code, Massachusetts CMRs, Massachusetts general laws, NFPA standards, and the town of Chsford bylaws. Plans will be
reviewed by this office as part of the building permitting process. Site access is considered adequate based on the submitted truck turning plans. Any changes to the site plans will require updated truck turning plans to demonstrate continued adequate access. Curbs on the site shall be sloped,
granite, or mountable in style. I respectfully request this letter and these conditions be incorporated into the decision-making process and made part of the public record. Sincerely, Josh Abbott, Captain Fire Prevention Office, Chsford Fire Department. And the police and the tax collector have no
concerns. Okay, Evan, do you have anything to add? >> Uh, nothing at this time. >> Okay. Um, so as with any of the project big projects that we undertake, um, I do want to do a peer traffic review on this
one. Um, so what I'm going to ask the board as we go around, are there um any major concerns, issues, questions that people have that would be good to get out um early on? And then are there any
is there anything specific to the traffic review uh that you would like to see or um concerns that you want the peer reviewer to address? Okay, Mike, let's start with you. >> And nothing particular here. I think the
traffic uh view will take care of a lot of it. >> And we should probably think about about noise. >> Okay. >> Other than that, >> to come up with >> Joel, >> I did have a question about the gravel
area in the back. Is that is that going to have some sort of how is that going to infiltrate anything that is uh water that falls on that? Is that going to infiltrate or is that captured and and also captured in the storm water system?
>> Yep. So there are three catch basins proposed at the rear there. So the gravel is uh intended to be like a dense grade gravel. Um so it acts in many ways as just another pavement. um it just can't be destroyed in the same way as pavement uh by machinery or whatnot. Uh but what we intend to store back there
is nothing that could uh leak fluids. It's mostly like steel plates, piping, um other objects that you just don't want to place on pavement. So we're giving just a gravel storage area. Um but those c there are catch basins back there. All the runoff will be directed to the catch basins and it'll follow the same treatment train as as typical storm
water on the site. >> Is there a particular reason why you why you didn't you know also not going to pave that? just so you can capture the storm water into your system. >> Paving that. Well, that is going into the system. So, we didn't pave it because the materials that are going
back there, I said steel plates, um piping, uh trench boxes, uh other items that they use as part of their construction processes would damage pavement and ruin the pavement anyway. >> So, we want to just give it a gravel pad. But again, that gravel pad is graded and drained and treated the same
exact way as any other pavement. >> Okay. Okay. Uh and then the other question I had was are there tenants involved with this as well? >> So the front the front building that has 14 units that is proposed to be uh there's been discussion about maybe
maintaining one unit for for Commonwealth. Um but the intention is that the front building will be rented to other contractors, plumbers, tile layers, you know, anybody that's in kind of the trades that would be allowed under the IIA. Um so yes, it'll be it'll be contractors that go in there. So you
you are a lull for the purpose of the fleet storage, but um how how do you control uh whether any potential tenants going to be using materials that might be considered a level >> category of leo? >> What we have to do is we have to be
cognizant of who's going to move in and whether or not they meet the requirements of the permits that we have achieved. So all the storage that is intended to be at the rear or outside um we don't want it to leak fluids. We don't want it to have hazardous materials. Um we want it to be clean. Um
but in addition, those all of those catch basins within that area are fitted in the same manner that the the loop the l would require. Um so they have their oil booms, they have a long-term pollution prevention plan which will have to be modified with any tenants that move in uh to ensure that you know
pollution is a forefront uh for conserving this site. >> Okay. And I didn't I haven't read the pollution plan yet, but are there like say spill kits or things like that in case there's a spill? >> Yeah. So, um as we've kind of done in the past, we can't really dictate what it's going to say until we have
occupancy and tenants. Um but what we've essentially said is that there will be um each individual unit is going to create its own uh spill management or hazard management plan that all employees will have to follow. And so that long-term pollution prevention plan
will be continuously updated as those um tenants come come forward or we figure out exactly what uses are going to be there. Um so for now it has a pretty basic outline of your typical snow storage litter pickup uh storm water compliance. Um you know there's going to
be some sort of spill management, but it's going to be dictated based on what's used there. Um, so right now it's it's an outline that has all your typical information and it'll have to be defined when we get tenants that >> that's part of the leasing agreement or how is that applied
to them? >> It probably could go in as part of the leasing agreement, but basically anyone that would have to move in would have to meet these requirements that we do and that'll be part of the permit process. You know, we have laid out permits based on uses and what we are able to do based on what we've shown. So, if we can't
have a tenant move in, that's not going to fit the criteria of the plans that we've applied for or shown in this application. >> So, we could have minimum requirements for individual on& and M commands. >> Okay. >> I did have a follow-up question on the
gravel area. >> So, is that completely impervious? So anything that does fall on that will be captured in the um in the treated mode
and and infiltrated. Right? >> So in the technical sense not completely impervious, right? It has your standard pavement has a curve number of 98. Uh this dense gray gravel has a curve number of 96. So in the scheme of grass
to woods, it is practically impervious. But in the technical sense, is it impervious? It's not technically impervious. Um but so it is intended to drain to all of the um catch basins which are fitted with all the pre-treatments and and the the storm water trains that meet all the
requirements. >> So if so would plows be um stored there? So there is a discussion about plows but what we would do with plows prior is we would drain all the hydraulic fluid so that there's no uh fluids readily within the plows
when they are stored at the rear. >> Okay. But if there were some material on the plow itself or on the box itself and that does get into the gravel, would that get filtered out or would that be
permeated through? >> I guess it depends on what the material is, right? So the gravel could act in itself as a a barrier and a treatment system the same way any soil would which is why we require two feet of separation from groundwater. Um I think in the realistic sense any kind of liquid or
spill would likely run off with a rain event to the catch basins. Um but there is it could percolate through because it is not technically impervious. >> Okay. Thank you John. for the um for the traffic data. I think one thing that would help me is to
know um you know an estimate of the number of employees that will be working on the site including the tenants um an estimate of the specific equipment and um you know in daily operations you would plan to you know to use um and I
would need to know like would there be limits on how many vehicles that if I'm a tenant and I rent one of the bays are there limits on how many vehicles I can have depending Depending on the nature of my business, I may have, you know, more than one truck or one van. Um, I
think that would be helpful information. And also, if we get a um an estimate on the number of vehicles that would be bringing uh delivering materials to the site, I think that would be helpful because I'm assuming just due to the nature of the business, a lot of that material,
especially if it's palletized, would be coming on larger trucks like a flatbed or something of that nature. So that would that would help I think would be helpful. >> Anita, >> I don't necessarily have um
questions. Um I I mean I still have concerns about the the amount of trucks that are going to be on Riverneck Road, especially um you know how close the houses are to the road. This is not it's a windy road and I quite frankly don't think this is
really appropriate in this neighborhood. >> Dearra, >> um well I did want to comment that I thought I think taking that other third structure is an improvement and I appreciate all the buffering in the
front of the landscape buffering on the front. Um although the viewshed didn't look as nearly as dense as the photo here. I mean the rendering here. So I I don't know if it's going to be
somewhere in between. Um I also appreciate that it's I mean Anita had said on a previous meeting that she wanted to like drive by and not know it was there basically. And um I feel like the kind of
downsizing the facade in the in height etc is helpful along those lines. Um I have concerns about the trucks on the windy country road and um the proximity to the homes on Riverneck. I also have
concerns about the trucks, you know, the K we on a previous presentation on similar property. Um, a lot of those little tiny culde-sac streets along the way, Monmouth, McFarland, and Clark, etc., all have
small fam, you know, families with small children who wait at the bus stop. So, um I guess I particularly have concerns about safety as it pertains to the traffic study at those particular locations. Um
and then the I appreciate the fact that it the headlights will go into the engineering company. Um I would want to know about the hours of operation. Um, and then
you know, noise, the rattling of the street and the whole neighborhood. Um, and I guess my main concern is the contractor's yard in this location cuz I
don't feel like it. Um, even though it's kind of hidden in disguise, I don't feel like it enhances anything for the neighborhood.
>> Good. Marcy, >> um, so yeah, a couple concerns. I mean, and they've already been brought up by a few people. My concerns is like what chemicals are going to be used on this property. um as this being on the aquifer and concerns with chemicals seeping into the soil um and PAS being a
huge issue in the town. Um on your two gravel areas, you also have them listed as storage equipment and if those trucks are leaking, you got excavator parking and storage equipment back there. If those trucks are leaking anything, that's going right into the gravel and into the soil. Um
the when we talk about as John said these different bays for different contractors, you know, how many trucks, how many employees, how many people are coming in and out because you can sit there and say, oh, you know, say it's going to add 15 additional people in and out of the property, but that's an
unknown number right now, not knowing who's going to be in there. So really, what is going to change and bringing that in? Um, as you just said, the sounds of the trucks uh rattling, what type of damage is that going to then also include to um create on Riverneck
Road for the residents who live there? Um, hours of operation so that this isn't going to become an issue for the neighborhoods that are nearby. >> Sertha, >> um, I guess I have a bunch of questions. Um, the first one is, and I'm sure it's in the plans, but I didn't see the
detail. Um the B fence in the back, what's the height and what's the materials of it? Six foot decade. And the amount of snow storage on here. What's the square footage of the total?
Okay, if you guys could look that up. Um I was a little bit concerned with the snow storage towards the front of the property in that corner where there's a lot of landscaping because it looks like you're pushing snow storage in there after you spend all this money with the landscaping it get destroyed. Um, the other thing is I understand that the cars facing towards the building, less
lights, but a lot of people will back into these spaces. Um, another concern is people parking where they shouldn't be. If you have an excess of cars and not enough spaces to contain them, they could park along the front, different areas along the side, and I don't know if there's any new parking signs there.
Um, mentioned I think you mentioned that nothing was intended to go on the roof, but is there air conditioning units that are going to be up there? There's going to be no air conditioning in this entire thing. >> Sounds hot on the ground. >> Yeah, there'll be many splits in the offices and then the garages have heat only.
>> Okay. And let's see what other stuff in regards to the gravel um in that back left portion where there's proposed equipment parking. Is there curbing that's going to be in there before the gravel like a pavement curb or anything to prevent stuff going into that gravel
zone? Are you talking about the the split between where it's paved and to the gravel? >> Yeah. >> So, yes, there's a curb, but there's also the pavement pitches away from the gravel. >> Okay. And then on the gravel portion that's to the right where the excavator
things are going to go there. I know a lot of that type of equipment has hydraulic lines and stuff. They are known to break and there's other things involved with it. And I hear about it being close to being, you know, impervious, but when it rains, stuff's still going to get through there to the ground. So, I still have concerns with
stuff leaking into the soil over time. So, that's just one of them. Um, I don't know. That's the majority of what I have right now. >> Okay. Thanks. >> So, I did hear a couple uh questions about that excavator storage area specifically. So, you know, what we could offer is an impervious barrier
below the gravel layer and we'll give a detail for that. So, basically that just prevents anything from getting through that gravel surface and then anything would spill over back into the pavement and go back through its system. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Um,
I've got a few questions and comments. Um, there are significant number of trees being lost um with this development. So, it would be good to have some idea of how many trees would be um removed, um
how many we're getting back. And I really would like because of the significant loss of tree canopy on this, I would like to have the landscaping be as dense as we can make it to recover
some of those trees. Um the other thing might be to consider some compensation for um the town to plant trees elsewhere
in the area. Um so that's something to keep in mind in the future. Um, in terms of the traffic study, at the last meeting, I did ask that those side streets be included in the study. Um, so
I would like to see those um as part of the uh pure analysis as well as really a focus on the number of trucks and the number and the impact of the trucks on um the neighborhood and road, not just
the the volume. Um I like Sertha mentioned, I found that there's not nearly enough storage um in the space. So it might be good to take a look at that.
Um, as I've asked for in other projects, I think in this, specifically in this one, granite curbing um would be needed throughout the project to make sure that that uh storm water is contained within
the site and treated as opposed to um damaged uh curbing that might allow runoff outside of the the site. Um, I really do like the the design of that
front of the building. Uh, so I applaud that. Um, the truck turning I noticed for the fire truck turning diagram, it only came in from the left side, but the
fire station is on the right side. So, it'd be good to see it from both. Um, and then I had a question about the the path seems to be going through a fence as well for the firet truck path. I
wanted to ask about that. >> Yep. So, as Commonwealth occupies the rear of the lot, they actually just want to uh have it closed from the front. So, they're really just gates. So what that shows is fences with gates coming across so that Commonwealth can access, the fire department will be able to access
as well, but it just prevents anybody from getting to the rear where they store their where they store their equipment, where they store their their business materials. >> So there would be a gate at that excavator loading area, >> right? So on the driveway to the right, there's a gate that crosses that
driveway. And then on the driveway to the left, there's a gate that crosses that driveway. on the fire truck path. It also showed it going through the excavator loading area. >> Can we display it so you can see it? >> There's a gate here also. >> Oh, yes. >> Oh, there is. Okay. >> Sorry. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> I got the fire truck turn. >> I was really confused about that. >> And that gate was actually added per one of uh John's comments at the informal meeting um where he was concerned about how trucks would be able to deliver to that rear and then turn around and get out. So that gate was added to give the
ability for a WB67 vehicle if that was what was needed. You know, we anticipate it'll probably be more like a box truck, but if there is the need for a large vehicle, it does have the ability to pull all the way through and not have to back up or turn around or make any three-point turns.
Um, I'm not sure where I read it, but I thought I read something about conversations between you and DPW about a sidewalk, >> potential sidewalks. >> So, at the departmental review meeting
that we had a couple months ago now, one of the comments was that DPWS plans to put sidewalks on this road at some point, but they don't know which side. So, it would be their preference that we give to their sidewalk fund rather than construct the sidewalks because they
could just end up on the wrong side and require crossings on Riverneck Road that they don't want. Um, so instead of adding a frontage sidewalk along this project, they would rather us work with them to determine amount that would be valuable to them. >> Okay. So, at some point during this process, it'd be good to get a final
number and get that into the decision as well. All right. And then I also read on the supplemental data report on page four about storefront parking for customers and that concerned me because that was
not taken into account in the traffic. >> Yeah. I don't know necessarily what was descripted by customers. Um the storefront parking, we're trying to paint a picture that there would that the parking to access the building is more like a storefront than like an
office building. Okay. >> So you park in front of the building you can walk directly into. There's not going to be any customers. There's no showrooms as part of this. The people that will be parking in the front are likely going to be admin, office assistants, stuff like that. Whereas the contractors and the people taking vans or whatever will park in the rear. I
think the intention of that sentence was mostly just to paint the picture of how the parking will operate out front, not necessarily who's going to park there. >> Okay. So, there would be no customers. It wouldn't be a storefront. >> No customers in stores. Nope. >> Okay.
Um, and then lastly, I know that it's still early in the process, but looking at the sustainability checklist, um, having a little bit more detail in there about commitments that the project would make
for in the order of sustainability, um, electric vehicle parking, um, more trees, bike path, um, things like that would be helpful as well for this project. >> So, a lot of the commitments to sustainability will come along as the
architectural and the interior of the building actually are beginning to be designed, plumbed, and all that stuff. We can actually commit to types of systems that we're going to use, the efficiency of those systems. Um, we can definitely look at um potential external uh commitments that we can make and see
what will work not only for the business but for the site itself. Um, so we can address that in a in a okay coming revision. Thanks. Right, that's all I had. Anyone have any other comments,
concerns? I guess one thing that occurs to me is when when um things are being delivered to the tenants of the bays, like how's that going to work? Is there going to be a main office where someone will sign for
things or there Yeah, I mean each individual tenant will have to be responsible for the deliveries that come in. So, you know, the intention is basically that we've given them a plethora of space in the back. So, space shouldn't be an issue uh with with deliveries. Um how they operate and how they receive each
delivery, that's going to be based on the tenants and how they want to do that. >> All right. Um, so at this point I think we do want a a peer review uh for the traffic. Um, and you the DPW is taking care of the storm water review, right? Okay.
>> All right. Um, so at this point I think we will open it up for public comment. Um, again, because we still have the traffic study, uh, the peerreview traffic study to to do, I'd like to try
and limit, um, comments on traffic, uh, at this point, unless you have some um, suggestions or ideas for uh, additional things that the peer reviewer would want to look for that we could add to the scope. >> Good evening, Mr. chair and members of
the planning board and uh assembled fellow residents. Um Sean Campbell, 19 Marmet Street, precinct 10 representative. Um I do have a prepared speech. I I'll try to, you know, be brief about it. Um before I get into the speech, could you pull up Evan, could
you pull up my article that I emailed so I could see kind of the picture? I could show everybody what the site looks like now because I think that will be helpful. >> Was that was that posted to the agenda? Do you know >> it is? Yeah. >> I think I saw under departmental letters
in that area. >> Okay. Yeah, it's towards the end. I think if you scroll down, you'll see some kind of pictures and um before I get into my speech too, uh I'd like to point out that it's you
might want to look at the existing buildings that you know were firm former Mercury headquarters and see the setback uh to see how far back from Riverneck Road they are u compared to the setback. I believe she said it was more than 40
ft. I think she said it was 90 ft. Is that what you said, Katie? Okay. I mean, I I can tell you that uh I if you were on Google Maps, uh so that's what you have now. That's what the site is. It's it's just, you know, trees and then there is a house that they're going to
bulldo. Um and then if you scroll down here, you'll see kind of what the what these uh sites look like. And I think it's important that this this project really represents two projects. You have a contractor yard and then you have commercial bays which are essentially
totally different things. And uh I can tell you that I rented a bay in West and they do not have contractor yards in West. I mean these are bays. It's very clean and it's also right off the highway. There are no residents around.
There's a gun range. If you know where the Tins shooting range is, that's where it is. There's no residents. Um, so if you scroll down, Evan, I think you'll see uh maybe you scroll up. Okay, so this is their existing site just to kind of give you an idea. And if you look in
the back there, you can kind of see all that storage. Um, and uh, you know, that's what they're currently operating. Um, and if you scroll up, this is a contractor yard that I found in Chsford. Um, and this is what they
look like. So, this is one piece of the puzzle that they want to create. Um, I mean, that's that's what it is. I mean, it's you park stuff there. They have little bays and uh I mean, that's that's what they want to create. Now, they're doing two things. So, they're
going to have rental units in front of that, but that will be what will be behind it. Um, so that's pretty much all I had from hearing, and I'm going to get into my speech now. Um, so I'll get into that. So, I would like to start by saying this
not personal. I am sure Commonwealth Construction is a great company and I wish them uh success in all they do. Um I have uh I I've also previously submitted uh report via email which is right here detailing my professional
assessment of the special permanent application for the proposed outdoor contractor yard and rental bays. Uh, I stand before you tonight not only as a professional offering a technical review, but as a representing the profound concerns of my neighborhood
that feels its very character is being threatened and a close neighbor to the site, I can tell you that when I was a child, I I did swim at that house they're going to tear down. Uh, that was my my friend's house. So, I'm very familiar with the property. Uh based on
my review and findings outlined in my report and in my capacity as a representative for precinct 10, I must respectfully recommend that the board deny these special permits for the proposed development in its current
form, presenting significant unresolved issues that could lead to negative impacts on our community and its resources. Um the first issue is environmental impact. Um, a paramount concern in central findings of my report
is the location of this proposed outdoor contractor yard and its associated bays within a designated two aquafer protected district. The nature and operation typically associated with contractor yards, particularly with multiple independent tenants, involves
the handling and storage of various materials like gravel, stone, dirt, rock, heavy equipment, parking, vehicle maintenance, and the potential for oil, fuel, chemical spills. the inherent risk of accidental spill, leak or
uncontrolled runoff. Such an essent sensitive area, especially giving the lack of natural protection clay layer in our aquifer poses an unacceptable and continuous threat to Chford's drinking water supply. I mean, this is this is,
you know, I don't I didn't show it in my map, but we're right by where Chford is getting their water. I mean, this is right there. Um, my analysis indicate that even with the proposed mitigation, the nature of an
outdoor industrial operation carries an elevated and cautious threat of pollutions leeching into our water supply. The board's rep responsibility safeguard Chsford's critical natural
resources demands a more conservative approach in this vulnerable zone. So that's kind of one element. Uh traffic was my next uh you know did you say you didn't want me to go in that Chris? Okay. >> Not tonight.
>> Okay. So I'll skip that. Um, next issue I have is compatibility with a neighborhood character and quality of life. The establishment of an outdoor contractor yard with multiple rental bays
represents an in an intensive industrial use that is fundamentally incompatibly with the existing character of surrounding Riverneck Road neighborhood which is primarily residential. Such facilities are associated with increased
noise, dust, visual impacts. The president the presence of mixed operation from multiple tenants makes it challenging to predict and control operation hours, noise levels from machinery and light
pollution from this site. These factors collectively threaten to significantly diminish the quality of life for nearby residents. Critically, the site currently benefits from a natural wooded lot that borders the highway, providing
a critical natural buffer that significantly reduces highway noise for nearby residents. Any significant clearing of this development will eliminate this vital sound barrier, leading to an obvious increase in noise
levels for the surrounding community. This type of development runs against the spirit of the community enhancement and investment overlay district coid which seeks highquality businesses and developments that enhance neighborhood
characteristics and the tax base responsible. It will be a significant deterrent to attracting and retaining the very types of businesses aims to foster, potentially impacting property values and future development in the
area. Tax revenue. A concern arises if the property's tax assessment is primarily confined to the building structures potentially overlooking the significant commercial value and impact generated by
the extensive outdoor contract yard. This could result on a burden on the town services infrastructure relative to the tax revenue generated as um as detailed in my report. Several
critical technical planning deficiencies remain. The project being fundamentally misplaced and is on the wrong side of the road for heavy use lacking any direct connection or proximity to Route
129 commercial industrial corridor. this forces. So, I'm kind of going into traffic there, but I'm suggesting that I think if this use case was where it is, it's better suited than where they're proposing it. The gross incompatibility
of an outdoor contractor yard with a adjacent residential neighborhoods and nearby professional businesses creates unavoidable visible light, significant noise pollution, a
concerning lack of permitting. So, I checked with uh Jose to see if they had a contractor's yard permit, which I found on that other site, and I wasn't surprised they didn't. um at their current site. Um and not to say uh that
that's a problem. I think it's a fit for Progress A. I mean, I think that it fits that neighborhood that they could do these contractor yard things without the permit. Um but I I learned that they they currently are not in compliance and do not have a contractor yard at their
existing site. So, um so let's see what else do I have here. Approving this project particularly with its multi-tenant industrial nature in its sensitive district could establish an undesirable president for future
development applications within. So basically you allow one you might have more just like progress a I mean that's what they they have there. Um, it is vital that the board maintains consistency when implying its zoning bylaws and planning principles to ensure
sustainability and compatible growth across the town. In summary, the proposed outdoor contractor yard and rental bays presents a substantial unavoidable risk concerning aquifer protection, traffic, public safety, neighborhood
compatibility, unbiased financial contribution, and thoroughly documented in my report. These are these are concerns shared by all the affected in my neighborhood. No one was welcoming this project. I urged
the planning board to mat meticulously review these concerns and prioritize the long-term health, safety, well-being of Chsford residents and its environment. Based on my professional assessment, it is clear to the community, I recommend
that the special permanent application for this project be denied. Lastly, uh I wanted to point out somebody emailed me. Uh when you're on the highway and you're driving by, you know, Burlington,
um you see kind of nice industrial uh buildings and signs. I think you see like iRoot. Um when you're passing by Challenford, if you approve this, you're going to see a contractor yard because this is, you
know, this is the other side of the property is 495. So they'll be like, "Oh, there's there's Challenge. There's a nice contractor yard that you saw in that photo. You won't see it from Riverneck Road, but we're going to show the world on 495. Um
and um somebody else also um notified me that if you look at the town GIS uh with their current site and you roll back to 2021 and 2023 that they have vehicles that are um not on paved areas
that um would not be treated currently by storm water water management. So, there could be some issues right now of whether they're really complying uh with some of these things. I mean, I I know they said they would drain hydraulic fluid. I just heard that out of these plow trucks. I mean, maybe, but I mean,
what about in 25 years? I mean, look at Progress A. I mean, drive down there. Do you think they're doing that? They they'd probably laugh at you. You you drain this or who knows what they do. Um lastly, uh I'm almost done. Uh I saw a
um uh report somebody sent about a trail. They're looking to create like a a trail to this property. Um so I don't have any comments on that, but I you know I would say it sounds like a separate issue. Uh somebody wanted an easement. I think I think it was Doug.
Um >> next. >> Okay. So, uh I mean it could be a good idea, could be a bad idea, but I I think you wouldn't want uh I mean a trail is nice, but that trail could lead to roughly off the top of my head, it could
be like 20 acres of town property that is protected. >> Uh and I don't think you would want to give the people that are working >> in the um >> Could we could you stick to what we know so far? >> Okay. Uh there could be concerns with allowing people that are worked there
just to wander in the woods, you know. So the neighborhood might want to dissect. It could be good, could be bad, but you probably wouldn't want the entrance to be in the contractor yard. >> So that's all I got. >> Thank you. >> Y >> I see my place to this nice gentleman.
>> Thank you. Frank Smart, 223 Riverneck Road. If you drive by my house, I live on the section of Riverneck Road that's probably in the worst condition. We have trucks that drive by 5:00
there's usually a couple. 6:00 there's a couple. 7:00 there's a couple. Try sleeping. They rattle coming across the rough section of road. Most of them are empty. They leave
empty. They come back about 3:00. If you take a good look at my front yard, I have a block wall. On the block wall, there's big chunks of asphalt. Then they have been there for two months.
Where'd they come from? Take a guess. I had to hire, excuse me, hire I had to purchase a contractor's power broom to get the rest of the asphalt out of my lawn.
How to get there? I know these vehicles that are going to be departing are going to be heavier than, I'll use the phrase, twin trucking. I really don't want to see this. You
know, my yard is taking a beating. I don't want to clean it. Really? This is tough. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh Doug Chandler, 47 Augusta Way, and
I'm also the Chelmsford representative on the Middle Sex Canal Commission. I'm here tonight to propose that we work out with the developer uh a future an easement for a future multi-use trail as the last gentleman mentioned uh between
Riverneck Road and the pointy end of the north side of their pro project which is at state and town property. the the idea of this trail. Uh oh, I have it's the one that's it's the next to the last. I think it's called MCC uh
one chart. No, that's that's my letter. I had a four-page letter which I was going to read to you, but uh I've been convinced to keep it to five minutes. No, not the letter, Evan. It's the it's the next one. It says one chart number three. The bottom one.
No, the bottom one. No, not the bottom of chart. The the last the last link. >> I also have a 12-page briefing which I was going to give to you. >> All right. Where do you want me to go?
>> It's It's the yellow the yellow bottom yellow. >> Okay. Yeah. Now you got it. No, that's not the right one. >> This is the bottom one. >> Oh. No, no. The the bottom link, the bottom yellow link. It is the bottom link. The
one that's titled something one chart. >> It's got three It's got three maps on the same chart. >> I think that's the second to last one. >> Oh, second to last. Okay. >> Not this one. >> Yeah. >> So, that's the last one. >> No, that's that's it should be number
>> the second to the last link on the agenda. That one. >> Yep. This one, right? >> The one above it. >> I reclaim my time, Mr. Chart. >> The MCC MCC1 chart. >> The second. You had it. >> Evan, you had it. >> This one. >> That one. >> That one.
>> Yep. >> Hey, that's great. Yeah. Well, I watch Congress. Mr. Chairman, I reclaim my time. >> Okay. So, this this gives us this gives us an idea of where this trail is going. Why would anybody want to put uh a an easement on a bike path from Riverneck
Road up to the highway ramp? Well, that's not where it's going. The top left picture is the Bay Circuit Trail. It's a multi-use trail of all different types of trails from Ducksbury to Nubberport. And there only two gaps in this in this thing. It runs in a circle
between 128 and 495. There only two gaps. Brockton which is not our problem and lol where the Bruce Freeman trail if you can look carefully there you won't see it but the the the west it splits at conquered the west side is the Bruce Freeman trail and the the east side uh
is the the Yankee Doodle trail coming up through Berka which is being built right now these things come up and they both end either just before the ll border or just over the l border at cross point tower. uh we're we're trying to make a connection between them and also
continue on to new report by by getting up to the Ror bridge and the Vandenberg esplanade and so on. But the part that we care about tonight is uh if you look at the upper right picture, you've got there uh 495 at the top and Route 3 at the side and the Mercury
Computer is the big brown buildings there. And over on the left side of that is where the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail is going under 495 and in a previously existing railroad tunnel right at at the little point of the the big blob of land
there. That's that's uh Anyway, so the I the idea is to get from Cross Point Tower down to Bill Ricka and get onto the tow path of the old Middle Sex Canal. That's why I'm Middle Sex Canal. That's why I'm here. Uh tow paths on canals were where the horsewalk that
pulled the boats on the canal in the early 1800s. Uh it has all the same characteristics as a railroad right away like the Bruce Freeman Trail. Long, straight, smooth, flat, all that neat stuff. And there are stretches of that that are still there in the woods and and from Canal Street. In fact, Canal
Street in Chelmsford uh used to be the tow path of the canal. And if you keep going down south on on Canal Street, which is the next road over after the connector on Riverneck Road, uh if you keep going south there, you actually come to stretches where you can see the canal and the fact that you're on a toe
path. So, our proposal is to bridge this gap between the Bruce Freeman Trail and the Yankee Doodle Trail by uh connecting the end of the Yankee Doodle Trail over to this to the uh to Bill Raa at the
Bill Raa Dam, North Bill Ricka Dam. So, uh there there's only like one major problem and stretch in that because other places are fine. the the riverneck road on the bridge over the route three and under the connector. Uh Tony the
town engineer says that's actually already wide enough to paint to stripe it for a bike path. In fact, there's there's almost a bike trail on there already. And that gets to Canal Street upon which we've got the the to road going down to the to the uh water
department, the I'm sorry, the the water district. Uh, and the but we got to get across from Golden Cove Road to the Riverneck Street Bridge over Route 3 and not going
through that big intersection with Golden Cove and 129 in Riverneck. The bikers, my friends, the bikers tell me, uh, I'm not a biker, I'm a cross-country runner. The my friends, the bikers tell me that that is a horrible intersection. And as you all know, Riverneck Road has its good spots and it has its narrow,
windy bad spots to for bikers. Um, the bottom map shows the idea of going from the Bruce Freeman tunnel at 495 around the uh town property. Everything there in green is is
basically town property. Uh, various departments, town water district, things like that. uh or there's a fence and over that fence at the red line is a stateowned rightaway from the 495 ramp.
So in Bar Raa, the state let them build the Yankee Doodle Trail down the embankment from the from the highway and in this flat stretch that's like original farmland there that that's runs along over to uh the the tightest part
part of the ramp. at the tightest part of the ramp there, there's there's a gap of just this just the size of this property or 191 or going through the water district, which is also a bad idea. Um, we need an easement for a
future trail which is someday going to be built. Uh, oh, I was also going to mention since I'm since I'm trying to keep it quick, uh, everything I had to say is expanded on even more in those those three uh,
those three links, the last three links. So, anybody in the audience that wants to look up and like you want to read my briefing, you want to hear more, go ahead. That's where it is. So Doug in in the over here Doug >> front
um in in the interest of time I am going to ask you to um wrap it up and then um ask that you reach out to the uh the land the applicants um to try and and have some further discussions.
>> Okay. Thanks. Um, I also want before I leave, I wanted to mention that I'm authorized by the Middle Sex Canal Commission to represent them in everything to do with the town on this. Also, the Middle Sex Canal Association, which is a nonprofit group that does sort of the same things as the Canal
Commission. And uh, also the Friends of Regional Topaths and Trails, which is a a an informal group made up mostly of MCA, Canal Association people. I also work with the NIMCOG who Nimco's Mike
explained who they are. Uh they have a greater low bicycle and pedestrian plan committee and they've got an advisory board to that on which I'm a member from Chelmsford and also so is uh are the BPAC leaders uh our friend Robert
Clinkhanger Klemer and uh Josh Warbertton uh are both on that committee too with me. So the BPAC BPAC is behind this. Nimcog is behind this idea and so are some other people that you don't know like Fort and so on. So with all
that going on, the probability of actually getting funded for this at any reasonable time less than a decade uh is increasing greatly. Mass do likes it, Nimcog likes it. There's a good chance that that this could come along. And a missing link in this trail is an
easement somewhere to Riverneck Road. And the easiest to get a easiest time to put in an easement is when you're first building. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hello everyone. My name is uh Harshett. I live on 29 Monmouth Street. So I'm uh
Sean's neighbor. Uh I have a very small statement. Uh I would like to reiterate and uh stress the points that Shawn had made. Uh he made more than what I wanted to speak. So all his like all his coins have my support and the only other point
I want to mention beyond that is having such a property in that area might depress property values. So reiterating all the points from Sean and then adding this property value frame uh property value point. So I do ask the board to request the board to reconsider this
proposal. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hey, good evening. Um Tom Bishop, 47 Drexel Drive, uh also operate a family business at 2011 Riverneck Road. Um so the building that we've been talking about a lot tonight, the Mercury
headquarters, um formerly owned by Mercury, then Davis, uh we now own one of them and then also the other one is now uh purchased out. So just when we're doing the travel test, the um just for the road um those buildings are now
occupied. So, I would just take that into account because they were just acquired last fall. Um, not really moved in until very recently. So, I know the test was done prior to that, but um just to take that into account. And then also, um, as everyone said tonight, the
noise and then um just like a lot of neighbors have kids walking around. Um, we have people walk through our property all the time, walk their dogs. I just want to make sure that everyone's safe in that area. So, just concerns of mine to make sure we're taking care of those things. But um other than that, you
know, we're very pro business here. We commend you guys for trying to expand. Um we did so the same way. So um from an expansion point, we understand what you're trying to do, but we just want to make sure that everyone's safe in the process and that it would be a good fit
for the area. So um it's all I have for tonight, but just >> Evan, that's a really good point. Can you add that to the um uh peer reviewer to also consider the timing of that
versus the new businesses that moved in? >> Hi, Vivian Merrill, 23 Maple Road. And I'm not really near the area, but over the years in my work with the town, I've heard of a lot of different proposals along this whole street and a lot of different concerns. And I think the biggest thing that stands out to me
looking at this for the first time is just you got a 5 acre parcel and you got massive loss of wildlife habitat and I'm just wondering if there's anything they can do in this proposal to try to preserve any of that habitat because every time there's a big development in
town, all those animals go somewhere. And I mean on Littleton Road when they made that big massive housing development over by uh I um >> hunt >> I don't know the one with like eight different buildings there. I the name of
the street escapes me. The amount of animals we saw in neighborhoods 5 miles away was amazing. I mean we had things we never even seen before and these things have nowhere to go. So in addition to the tree canopy that that
was raised earlier, I think we also need to worry about the wildlife because it's going to go somewhere and I I don't know this this is scary and when you sit there and look at a comm cumulative effect of all the development that is you know proposed for this whole road
and that's that's all I got. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other members of the public wishing to speak? All right, there being none, um I think at this point we've got the uh peer
review uh to do. We've got the storm water. Uh so at this point, I think I will take a >> motion to continue. >> Good idea. To the next meeting. >> Is two weeks enough? >> Yeah, it's I'm almost wondering if it's this month. >> The storm water will be ready in two
weeks. Okay. Not sure about the traffic, >> but I think there should be enough to discuss at the next meeting with plans and storm water. Um, we can focus on that before the traffic probably in the following meeting.
>> Okay. >> So, if that is okay with the applicant, we can continue to the next meeting and uh focus on storm water and site plan concerns. >> No, I I agree. Thank you. Um just we may
if we get the storm water letter like the day of we may request a continuance just so that we have an opportunity to get through it before we appear before you. >> That would help us out too. >> So yes. So so keep in mind that we may we may seek a continuence. We'll try to do it as early as possible. So
>> Okay. Thank you. >> I'll second. >> Does the town have the does DPW have the plans to review? >> Yeah, they do. >> They do. >> Okay. Were you going to modify the gravel area and is that something that should be
submitted as part of that? >> All of those gravel areas were already considered impervious as as far as the storm water management goes. Uh so it won't change what their review is as far as the documentation that we have. >> Okay. >> All right. So motion by Mike, >> second
>> second by Deerra. All in favor? >> I >> All right. We'll see you in the next session. >> August 13th. >> August 13th. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next up on the agenda is 300
Bill Ricka Road continued public hearing uh Nexus recovery. Um we received a revised site uh site plan. Um, we also
revised storm water on&m plan and um I asked Evan to attach the draft decision for review from the board um because we're pretty close to uh
approving. So, I wanted to make sure that we had the draft available. Are there any new updates from the applicant? >> I think the only thing that occurred since the last hearing is that we made those two submissions which are now part of the record. We discussed those at the
last hearing, but um they were submitted rather late, so they didn't actually make it into the record. So now you have the engineered stamp site plan and the um operational manual updated for to reflect the um snow removal snow storage
plan which is also reflected on those plans. >> Yeah. >> Which was the last thing that we were discussing um at the last meeting. Okay. >> So I don't think we have anything new other than that if there's unless there's questions. >> Any comments or questions from the board?
I have one comment which is it's been bothering me through this whole process the unoccupied portion of the first floor and um I just wanted to articulate and I don't know if it's something that should be in the decision at all if
other people agree but I I feel like there's synergy between a residential treatment and kind of an outpatient day program treatment And
um I while that is true, I feel like that would really change the use and the in-n-out um access of the property. And so I would
like to articulate that I I would feel if there was something like a day program proposed that that would be a quite distinct use for the property and I wouldn't I would want the um applicant to have to return for
>> so if if the current use isn't expanded but instead a different use is put in such as an outpatient treatment program then you're requesting that the applicant would come back and represent that to the I mean, I think that's I think that would be commen I mean, in keeping with our guidelines anyway, but
I just kind of wanted to say it out loud >> and and and I think the applicant is saying that's fair. >> So, I think we would want to put that in as a special >> condition. Um, the other thing we talked about last
meeting as a special condition was along those same lines, but um, the approval, at least in my mind, is for the second floor and the first floor that is currently defined in the plans. Anything
beyond that would need to come back to the board for approval. >> Yeah. um depending on what the and the use well depending on the use and also the capacity and things like that. So I think as part of that special
condition it would be that we were approving the phase one for the uh square footage indicated on the plan as active on the first floor and then anything beyond that would need to come
to the board. people okay with that special? I >> I think that's acceptable to the applicant. The only thing that I noticed on this draft decision and just reading it again is that it doesn't reflect at all the discussion that a 100 parking spaces were allocated for the proposed
use. And maybe that should be noted because um when we come back at some future date to talk about maybe the expansion, we want it to be um we want the board to recognize that we're not using all the parking spaces for the this current occupancy and that there's
there is room for expansion in terms of parking. >> That's fair enough. >> Yeah, that makes sense. >> Evan, can you add that one? >> Yes, I did. >> Thank you. >> All right. Are there any other questions, comments, issues on the decision draft?
>> There's a couple of things. Um, I thought we should also mention that there's u we're not introducing any new or additional sources of infiltration. Um, so that's clear that that um that that
was something that we were conscious of. Um, I don't know whether we should identify that that uh the applicant's leasing the entire property. Um, but that was important for me at least to know is that you you're leasing the entire thing. There isn't somebody
else potentially. >> I can't hear you. >> That they're leasing the entire property. Okay. And I also didn't know if we wanted to add, it was something that was important to me was that even though it's a young company, the company
is not very old, but that the people who the principles are have a lengthy experience in this area. >> Um, just in case anybody who comes back to look at the decision would see the company wasn't very old, but that we
were uh knowledgeable that these are actually people have a great deal of experience in this area. So that made a difference for me. That's it. >> Okay. >> Do you want do you want to take a motion to >> Not yet. It's still a public hearing. Um
are there any folks who wish to speak on this >> before we wrap things up? >> All right. So, I'll take a motion to close the public hearing. >> I'll move to close the public hearing. Second >> motion by Mike, second by Deardra. All in favor?
>> I >> um actually I also just realized Joel you did >> I have Mulland >> Mullen this one and Anita you Mullen as well for this one. Okay. So we're full board for >> for this vote. >> Um
>> all right. So, I will then take a motion to approve the special permit with the special conditions amended uh as indicated tonight for the uh
any additional use must come back to the board. Um including the expansion beyond the first floor footprint. 100 spaces reserved for this current use. Uh, no new additional sources of infiltration.
>> Well, that I was thinking that would be in the facts, not not in not as a condition. >> Uh, the facts the addit the two other facts of uh the young company but principles are experienced and the leasing of the
entire property. So, I'll take a motion with those. I'll make a motion that we um approve the decision on um 300 Bill
Ricker Road with the aforementioned um modifications. >> Motion by Deardra. >> I'll second. >> Second by Mike. All in favor? >> I I >> Motion passes unanimously.
>> Special permits approved. >> Thank you. Thank you everyone. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next on the agenda. >> So the mall was pulled, right? >> Uh Chelse Mall is requesting a continuation to August 13th. So I'll take a motion on that one.
>> I'll give you a motion to uh grant the continuence on the Chunford Mall project to August 13th. >> Motion by Mike. >> Second. >> Second by John. I'm presuming that there's no time limit issue associated with this. Is that correct? >> No, we just started it. >> Yeah, that's what I thought. I just want
to be sure. >> What do we have? What else do we have on the 13th? >> Um the continued uh zoning hearing um continued plan production 91 river. >> It'll be a very similar agenda.
Well, I was just wondering for Rivenac, like if Rivenac can't come on >> in the mall >> on the 13th. >> Should we >> Well, should we just move everything like should we skip the 13th and move everything to the 23rd?
>> Well, 23rd we had talked about not doing >> Well, she's talking about flipping it. >> I'm just I'm just kind of I'm just flipping the night off. >> I'm just Are we sure that they can come on the They definitely want to come on the 13th. The mall the mall traffic will definitely be discussed on the 13th.
>> Okay. >> Riverneck road traffic may not be in their they may request a continuence because of storm water. >> We may not have enough time >> on the 23rd >> on the 13th. >> No, the second one >> with the mall
>> in your zoning public hearing. >> I just wanted to if there was an like if we're just going to do it for one, >> but we don't know. >> We don't know. >> Yeah, we don't know. And the next few meetings are going to continue to be big meetings. >> Okay.
>> Regardless of how we stretch it out. >> Okay. >> Unfortunately. >> Yeah. No, that's fine. >> All right. So, it was motion by Mike, second by John. All in favor? >> I >> continue to August 13th.
Next up on the agenda is the zoning amendment bylaw and Let me pull up my notes. Um, all right. So, before we get too into the zoning um
discussions, I did want to um make a couple uh statements. the some of the slides have been updated. Um I'm not going to go through them all uh tonight. Um the AG recommended uh family
updates. Um I updated those slides attached to the agenda with the information I spoke to at the last meeting. Um so we already reviewed that information. Uh but it wasn't in the slides. So we updated the slides on the
massage establishment. Those slides have been updated. Essentially I just removed uh the additional superfluous slide at the end. Um no uh major changes on that. Um, so what I'm going to do is
are there any public comments on any of the zoning article recommendations other than the CB light and Kate's Corner um articles?
Didn't think there would be. Um so most of the discussion is going to be around Kate's corner and CB light. Um so my first question will be around the board. Are there any additional comments or
uh questions or thoughts on those two articles before we open it up to the public? >> Not here. >> Joel, >> I I do. Um the question was asked by Mrs. Bam. I don't know if she's here
tonight. Um about why didn't we why wouldn't we leave what is currently the parking lot for Lockheed that zoned CA that has a waiver for the parking? Why would we not leave that CA? Why would we
make that CB light? Why why wouldn't we leave it? Why would we make it CB light? And I thought it was a good question. Um, and I actually didn't know at the time when I heard it that I had an answer, but I think there are several reasons why it does make sense to make
it CB light. Um, the first one is that we are reducing by reducing the zoning conflicts, we're reducing essentially the type of allowed uses that are in that area. So, Lockheed right now has an
IIA use and we are reducing that IIA to this CB light. So, even though it sort of works for Lockheed in terms of how Lockheed does what they do, nonetheless, it is true that we are essentially
reducing the uses that are allowed on that property. And in that sense we are effectively reducing the value of that property. Um I think for that reason it
makes sense that we would sort sort of correspondingly elevate the CA to CB light to sort of offset that so that we're being reasonable and fair to Lockheed. I think another reason is that the potential expansion
if into that area is an expansion that is away from the residential areas. So, if it was if we were talking about the other side of their property, then I think that would be a little bit more of a concern because you're talking about expanding that existing use towards the
residences, but you're actually expanding it towards the commercial area that borders uh Route 27. Um, and so I think for those reasons, it actually is reasonable. I think overall that we're still accomplishing our overall goal
which is to reduce the intensity of uses and the conflicts that are there and even though it does increase that use of that particular property I think overall it's a balanced reduction that makes sense for everybody. So that would be my response to Mrs. by him and I certainly
understand her concern and the concerns that they have about a number of the other things that they said, but I think that makes sense for for everybody involved. That that was the only comment I wanted to make about that. >> Thank you, John. >> No, not no comments at this time.
>> Anita, >> Dearra, >> I'm good. >> Marcy, >> I'm good. >> Sita, >> Evan, >> what's up? >> Okay. Um, so I also had a similar comment as Joel. um on that that actual
question. Um and it hit me as I was presenting um the uh Chelford Mills uh proposal to the uh vinyl square committee um last night. No, night before. Um,
what we really ended up doing with the CB light is pulling looking at the uses across the use table and pulling in the best and most beneficial uses from the IIA, the CA,
the CB um, and really pulling those into the CB light uh, zone to allow the air not only to create a buffer between IIA and and residential, but also to make a
a a zone that really does enhance the neighborhood um in a way that none of our other zones are able to um because each of those other zones has some benefits, but also some potential areas
of of concern. And so what we did with this zone is we were able to bring in all of those good things um into a zone that I think based on what we've seen so far, anywhere we put this zone is going to help um that neighborhood. At least
that that's our goal and that's what I think I'm seeing so far. So, in addition to Joel's points, um I think that that is a a reason to put this CB light um zone into that parcel as opposed to CA.
Um because if you really compare the uses allowed in CBA versus what we're proposing in CB light, um if Lockheed does let go of that property, there are some detrimental uses um in the CA that
might not be beneficial to that neighborhood. So that's another um point I wanted to make on that. All right. Um, I know we had some a letter from uh Mr.
Bob Leaport as well. Um, Evan Joel, I've prompted both of you ahead of time uh for some potential feedback on this. um please correct me if I misstate anything
but my opinion um on this is on point number one um Mr. Leaport. Uh he proposes adjusting the height and I'm not going to read through all of this, but I'll summarize. Point one is really about
adjusting the height to 12 um feet uh and increasing the total height to 36 ft. I think in general this might have some merit, but we wouldn't want to do this only for the CB light zone. Uh this
is something that I think I'm going to put on our to-do list um for things that we would want to take a look at across um zones and across our our zoning. Uh we've come up with a few of these things
in our discussions around this. So that's one I'm going to uh put on the list for things in the future. Um and not I think it would be detrimental to just do it in this zone. um parking requirements. Uh oh, also for
the uh the FAR, um part of the reason we are not adjusting things too much on the FAR is because we also have the Seoid um overlay uh which does allow for a little bit more flexibility.
uh it allows um flexibility both by right and a little bit more uh flexibility by special permit. Um so we that was one of the discussion points. Number two, the parking um those dimensional requirements uh are noted
for the building. Um but we do have uh parking buffer uh requirements in 195-43 for uh parking areas that that abut residential and we are proposing a a
decent buffer on that. Um we also in 1854 have landscaping buffer uh requirements based on the number of spaces. So, the larger the lot, uh, the more buffer there needs to be. One foot
of buffer per space with a minimum of 10 ft. Um, so we do have some built-in uh, buffering there. Uh, for number three, the parking lot lighting and landscape uh, landscaping
and groundwater protection. Um the concerns raised here and in number four uh for traffic are not zoning specific. They're project specific. So these are the types of concerns that we would look at um when any specific project is
raised to us. >> Uh these are not things that we can necessarily mitigate in zoning. >> Um >> well they're valid. >> Certainly valid >> valid. Yeah, certainly valid concerns, but we have to address it during the site review, not in the zoning.
>> If there are any current >> issues with the current properties, those would be raised by the the appropriate um uh inspectional groups, the board of health and the building commissioner.
Same thing um with traffic. And then in number five, um the clarification there is that in the hypothetical situation in the first one where you have two
non-ontiguous lots, um it's really the FAR is applied uh to each lot. Uh, and if they're contiguous lots, then it's likely that there would be an ANR um provided to combine the lots to make one
lot uh with a different FAR calculation. So, I did want to address those specific concerns um that were raised to us in the letter. >> All right. And then the surplus building coverage
>> and or far of the larger to lot could not >> it cannot be applied. Um it's lot specific. >> What's the maximum stories right now in CBite? >> Three. >> Okay. >> If I remember correctly.
>> Okay. Did I cover all of that? >> Mhm. Okay. All right. Um, so we will at this point open it up to the public um for comment.
Uh >> oh. [Laughter] >> Good evening. Ann Soilleski from Prince Leel on behalf of Lheed Martin. Um I did submit an email to the board but I was only able to do that today. So, I just wanted to very briefly um give you some
>> Could you adjust the microphone a little bit? I'm having a hard time. >> Can you hear me now? >> Is that better? >> Yeah. Thanks. >> Okay. Thanks. Um so, at the last um public hearing on the zoning, there were a number of issues that were raised and we just wanted to make sure we proactively took the time to respond to
them so that the board was aware um of what we had done and to, you know, continue to demonstrate our commitment to be a good neighbor in the neighborhood. So, a number of issues were raised. Um, to just very briefly mention, someone mentioned lighting. So, after the meeting, there was a nighttime
walk taken around the neighborhood to see if there was any lighting that was visible. We identified at a couple of lights that might potentially be a problem. But to be more proactive than that, we took all of the lighting on the back of the building and converted it to
down lighting. So all of the lighting on the entire property is down lighting and it's LED to ensure that there isn't any light trespass off the property. There had been a second comment made about noise and again we took a walk around the neighborhood. The the building
itself is not really geographically proximate to the rest of the neighborhood. There's that big space and wetland area behind it and then there are the other properties along the side. We did walk around. We didn't observe any audible noise, but there are two
blowers that exist on the building again in an area that is not proximate to the neighborhood, but they exist. So, we proactively are in the process. We've hired someone. The process is being performed right now to create additional shields for those blowers to ensure that
there is absolutely no possibility of any noise escaping from the property. Um, an issue was raised with respect to air emissions. We are fully air emission compliant. We're ISO 14,01 compliant, which ensures proactive steps being
taken on a constant basis to be more environmentally cognizant and friendly as a company. Um, so I did want to respond to that. And then last thing, people were concerned about Heart Pond and as as I would note, you know, again, the pond is a value ad for our
employees. They like it. They enjoy going there, taking time on their lunch breaks and walking around. We value the pond as well. And we are storm water compliant and any future project that would occur would also be 100% storm water compliant. So, we just wanted to
make sure you were aware. Also, we are planning another meeting with the community. We're in the process of setting that up. We just didn't have time to do that between the last meeting and this one. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. Thank you. And um we will make sure to
attach that letter to our agenda uh link as well for the next meeting so that people have that letter available. Okay. Are there any other public comments on the CB light zoning or
Kate's Corner zoning? Come right up. Yes. I'm back. I'm Bob Leaport and uh I want to say something positive about this uh proposed zoning change and uh I have
seen a lot of good things about it. But a little bit about myself. I was born and raised in Chsidet before Route 3 and 495. And uh so I've seen a lot of changes and uh my great-grandfather
bought some land on Pakaville Road where I now live. So my whole life I've spent on and off Pavville Road. So I'm going to speak uh also with my real estate career. I was in commercial real estate.
I was a counselor of real estate. Uh I was managing director of the valuation and counseling group of a major Boston real estate company and I've had a lot of familiarity looking at impacts of
proposed zoning changes or developments in regards to valuations. So uh I spent a lot of time in that. So in that light I want to say that I think this proposed zoning change is a good one. Uh I think there are a lot of
positive issues about it and it goes to uh one we're uh decreasing the industrial and commercial land area and increasing the residential land area through the proposed uh zoning district
changes. I think that's good because this is primarily with the exception of Lheed Martin the residential area with a school and a lot of open space. So I think the fact at the end of the day we have more
residential open space land than before is a good thing. Uh I think there are positive changes in uh the proposed dimensional requirements having to do with story heights and uh
maximum building coverage ratios and setbacks to the residential districts. I think those are all positive things that help preserve uh the residential character of the neighborhood and I think they're important.
The other thing I've done in the last uh day is take a look at uses. So uh and you know I kind of focused on the uh Maxwell property and uh proposed uses that would be permitted today versus in
the proposed changes. And uh I think it's important to note that, you know, you could have a used car lot on the Maxwell property as an allowed use. >> Mhm. >> And you could have a self- storage
facility as an allowed use. I don't think those would be compatible with uh what I think the goal is here to have those kind of uses. Uh and also on the Loheed Martin property uh it
excludes what's allowed today uh warehousing and distribution. So I think that is a a positive change that would help the neighborhood. So all in all when you look at you know the amount of land uh that will kind of
return to residential and uh you look at the change in the dimensional regulations that kind of favor the residential character of the neighborhood and you know have some clarity on
uses that are more appropriate for that location. I think it's all good and I think I commend the board for uh you know doing this and I think it's going to help the the neighborhood and and if Lheed Martin expands I think it would
you know they've been a good neighbor to the neighborhood. So I uh I'm speaking in favor of this. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Will you come to town too? >> They are the ones who make the >> No, seriously. Will you come to town?
I was waiting for a butt. >> Thank you. >> I kind of was, too. >> Are there any other members of the public who wish to speak? All right, seeing none, I will take a motion to continue. >> You want to continue or a close?
>> Uh, I think we need to continue this. Um, Evan, what is the date that we need to close this out? >> Let me just take a quick look. the I think you'll be able to um close
this out on your September 10th meeting. >> Okay. >> Okay. We see we have some coming. >> No. Certainly no later than that. >> I thought that they were signing the >> I think the select >> signing it >> uh I think it's the either the 15th or the 22nd. I believe
it's the 15th. Part of the reason why I want to try and keep this open as much as we can, just in case we find something else in our discussions on the 515 Middle Sex Street that might cause us point to change
things. >> Um, I wouldn't want to have to >> reopen and readvertise and >> so in that case I will move to continue until >> our next meeting >> August 13th. August 13th.
>> Motion by Mike. >> Second. >> Second by Anita. All in favor? >> I. >> I. >> All right. It is continued. >> Nice. >> And I expect that as we go along, each session will get shorter and shorter. >> Yeah. >> I hope.
>> All right. Next up on the agenda, 5155 Middle Sex Street and 70 Princeton Street, the landing at Chumsford Mills. Um this is a continued um public discussion uh to um also apply or consider applying
uh this zoning to that area uh with specific um properties. Uh we have also attached to the agenda um a an email from uh
Alex the in development. Um, and also I did want to mention that I did present this um to the vinyl square committee on Monday. Uh, received really good um, feedback. Uh, they liked it. They
thought it was a great idea. Um, they liked the um, the parcels that we were proposing to change. Um they had some recommendations for outreach to the neighbors. Um I'm going to start working
with Evan on that outreach um after this meeting uh this week uh to start getting a little bit more of the neighborhood involved like we did with Kate's Corner. Um and then we'll continue that informal discussion. >> You know, you say you have a job at
Harvard Business School, but I don't believe that. This is your full-time job. >> No, it really isn't. >> All right. Um All right. Are there any comments from the board before we open it up to the public? >> I just want to thank you guys for waiting.
>> Yeah. >> We really appreciate what you do sitting here all night going through all this. >> Yeah. But we signed up for it. >> Yeah. Indeed. All right. >> I think we're in pretty pretty You were homing in on it quite nicely. >> Okay.
>> You know, so >> All right. Open it up for the public. >> Yeah. Hi, I'm Joe Freeman. We own and operate uh 5155 Middle Sex, the landing at Chelford Mills. We we love the building. We community's been great.
We're really not even here on our behalf tonight, but Chris, I'll say uh very much in in favor of the resoning from IIA to CBLT. We think it's appropriate kind of for this day and age and what that property is. Um we originally
thought we were going to be on the uh town meeting for October and we know we can see you guys have a lot on your plate. You're dealing with a lot of things sort of probably looking at a lot of different sections of town. Um and that's really fine for for us. Uh we
however we've got two tenants. They're very small. They're 3400 square feet. These are entrepreneurial women. One's been in there operating. Uh, prior to this, she's uh got a sort of a spa,
medical spa type business. We've got another that's a hairdresser. And both of these businesses, they're small. They don't represent a lot of rent to us, as you can imagine. They're 3400 square ft. But but these people have their life
savings into these businesses. And I feel terrible every time I talk to him. We haven't charged him any rent. We've told him, "Do not pay rent." Um, you know, we're going to talk with the town. Evan's been fantastic. Jose's been great for us to work with. Uh, but we really
would like to find either some way to keep our property on for the October town meeting. And if that's not possible to find some way to allow these women to operate these businesses temporarily until we get to that spring meeting.
What I'm a a lawyer from a past life, so forgive me, but I I uh you know, we could have a non-conforming pre-existing use for one of them. Uh we could it could be some sort of special permit, some sort of temporary CFO. Again, these
are sort of one room businesses that these women operate, and I just I breaks my heart to tell them it probably doesn't represent $1,000 in rent a month to us, but to them, it's it's uh it's everything. So, I asked the board if
there's any way you can help these women with that. And uh we uh certainly support Chris to what you were saying earlier from going to IIA to CBLT. We think it'll be great for us and for Final Square and we welcome you know meeting with uh the neighbors or
whatever you think's appropriate and we will come to town meeting and say positive. >> Yeah, we'll we'll >> Okay. Um before we address and discuss that one, are there any other public wishing to comment?
Yes. Uh my name is Ralph Block. Uh to Edward's place, directly across the street from your building. >> Great. >> Great. Maybe not so great, but
um couple of concerns. Uh first and foremost, a concern from the past that still seems to exist is light pollution from from the the parking area. Um
noise. There's nothing like the sound of a beating drum at 2:00 a.m. and the practice rooms operate well after 11 p.m.
>> They're musicians. So to get to get the change to CB light fine but hours of operation signage in the past
flat non-illuminated signage has been the way it's always gone. CrossFit insists on having that internally lit sign.
He's changed it so that it it isn't on 24/7 anymore, but it's still on. It doesn't go with the character of the building. You guys have done a great job with the flowers and the plantings and
all that stuff. The building is in great shape. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um, another issue is large truck access. The corner of my lot takes a beating every time a 53 foot trailer tries to
back into the loading dock for uh the covered dock for velocity. It's better since you've taken the corner off of that granite wall. >> That's the thought with that. Yeah, >> they don't climb up on my lawn anymore. >> Yep.
>> But it's an issue. Um, let me just scan my notes here. I don't want to miss anything. the uh the mill the mill building
you have an easement that runs between to Edwards Place and 54 Middle Sex. My concern is with the change
in zoning, will there be any effect on that easement? I don't want to get up some morning and find a tractor trailer parked in my neighbor's driveway. It's a shared easement, 8 feet on his side and 8 feet on mine. If we're going to change the
zoning, what I'd really like to see happen is extinguish the easement. That easement runs from Middle Sex Street all the way down to the river through the middle of the parking lot from the condos behind us
across the railroad tracks and then down to the the other mill building down off of uh Wooten Street. So, it's it's a lengthy easement. It's 16 ft wide. >> Do you know can I ask do you know what
the easement's specifically for? I assume that it was uh it was granted it was actually granted from the one of the former owners of our property uh Marie something Marie I can't
remember her last name >> Tetley but it shows up on the deed for 50 for Middle Sex and for two Edwards. Um, I'd like to see that go away. Just
I I don't know if you can extinguish it all the way down to the river. Right. >> On the top of my head, I'm not familiar with it, but I'd be happy to take a look at it. >> That would be awesome. >> Chris's point what it is. >> Yeah. Evan, >> do you have any idea what that >> I think what it was for originally
>> was to transport goods >> from >> your mill building >> down to the other mill building that's down by the boat ramp. >> Okay. >> Or down to the river >> or down to the river. >> Right. >> And I think that's why it was there.
>> Does anybody use it? Anybody use it? So, we'll consider it. We'll take a look at it. >> Talk to the lawyers and see. >> Yeah. from a zoning from a zoning perspective and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I would think that that easement for an IIA
use would be more detrimental than if we changed it to the CB light. I would think that it'd be less impactful for you when we do change it. But I agree that if no one's using it, but that I don't I think that's a
separate issue from the the zoning changes that we're proposing. >> Yeah, that that easement I don't believe has been used. I want to say was it the Dixons that owned 54 Middle Sex? I think the Dixon family. My guess is it was probably
if it's probably an industrial use type of easement. >> That's what I'm thinking. >> And that's what I'm thinking. >> If we change the zoning, I think the uses of that easement would probably be pretty negligible or go away. But I
would encourage the two of you to seek legal counsel to look at extinguishing that >> al together. >> I mean, the town is not a party to that easement. And my comment was Yeah, my comment was more of a question than a comment really. Um I don't know what effect it
will have, >> but I don't want it to have any effect. >> Um lighting, we've already touched on that. Uh the right of way, we've touched on that. lay it in.
>> You get anything else? >> I'm done. >> All right. Thank you. >> So, I appreciate you bringing all these concerns forward. Um, most of them are based on current
um uses and current signs. My recommendation is for the two of you to get together, see if you can work out resolutions to these. If not, um, if it's still not to your satisfaction, bring these to the building commissioner
attention. Um, and he can look to see if it violates any bylaws or anything like that. >> Okay. >> But it sounds like the kinds of things you mentioned are actually going to become more become less of an issue by going from industrial to
>> I think a lot of my question comes from the fact that I'm really not clear on what CB light is going to allow. you know, am I am I going to end up with a go-kart track going between my property and somebody else's, you know,
or is it going to be a salon where people just go in and have their hair done? I don't do that, but >> be helpful. >> You know what >> what's the bottom line? So,
our goal when we were putting this zoning together was to take the there are some really um least less impactful uses in the IIA district like cottage industry type of um manufacturing uh
like the small um the small types of of uh furniture manufacturing and things like that. There's also um commercial uses in the CB district and the CA uh district that are not impactful to small
neighborhoods. So we took all of those uses, put them together in the CB light district. Um so that it provides a lot of flexibility for commercial uh uses that is not impactful for the
neighborhoods. Um certainly much less impactful than uh industrial uses like warehouses and self- storage facilities and things like that. >> Equipment. >> Do we have is it in this slide? Yeah, >> Evan. >> Yeah. >> Can you page down? So you can go and see
what is actually allowed if you page down on our agenda. Sorry, wrong one. Um see this chart right here. So, if you go to our agenda and Evan, we can show you where the link is, but we have this all listed in the slide presentation.
>> I guess I didn't know that existed. >> Yeah. So, you'll see what's in IIA, what's allowed in IIA and what we're allowing in CB. So, it's like for example, um I can't see the first one. It's >> Oh, okay. So that's like it's a no in CB,
>> but it goes through all the uses that we allow in town in the districts and then you can see and compare the uses in the different districts and then what we're proposing in our new district. >> She had some copies. You can have >> Oh, awesome. Thank you. You're welcome.
Appreciate that. Um, and then the only the only other thing that that I had um you talked about uh limiting the number of stories allowable in a building. You're going to have to cut him some slack because you got a four-story building.
>> Yeah. Well, it's already there. >> Yeah. They're going to be [Laughter] >> well. Um and and the last f the last issue is uh the the vacant lot that's across the
street from Brick House Pizza. Um I'm not sure what the intended use is for that. >> We don't know that. So we didn't take we didn't buy that when >> Oh, you didn't buy that with the milk. Stone at the Alice. Uh,
>> where is that lot, Evan? >> It's across from Stone Loving Pizza. That's on the other side of Middle Sex from our driveway. >> Yeah. Right across the street from Brick House. >> Yeah. >> Um, >> so that one So, >> it actually Stony Stony Brook actually runs through
that property. >> The railway one. >> That property is actually currently zoned IIIA. Um, and that's one of the ones that we're proposing to switch to the CB light. >> That actually should be sacred ground.
My understanding is that that was the site of the original mill building that burned and the uh stonework where Stony Brook flows through that property is actually
the foundation or the remnants of the foundation from the original mill building. >> Got to go down there. take a look. >> So that would probably be under the jurisdiction of the historical commission. >> Interesting. >> Yeah. >> So any any development that would have
that would be proposed for that lot would probably have to go through the historic >> Well, and you can't you can't get far enough away from Stony Brook to to dig a hole, >> right? >> So it's like >> Yeah. >> You know, anyway, thanks for your time. >> Thank you. Appreciate it.
>> All right. >> All right. Going back to the other topic of timing, >> um I actually don't and there I don't think there's any way that we could get this to town meeting. Um given the fact
that it's summer, given the fact that we still have to officially open up a um public hearing for this and we also wanted to follow the same process that we did with Gates's Corner. Um, >> and I think like it's already a big ask to get we first have to get CB light
passed at town meeting. >> Um, and I think if we go in there, I think that's the biggest >> piece and >> maybe we could ask the council if there's anything we could do.
>> We I think we've exhausted all all options. Um, I know we had council involved. I believe we looked at the pre-existing non-conformity, but I want to circle back with Jose on that. You got have to understand this the
engagement with the property owner on these two um tenants dates back maybe April. >> Yes. Um, and then he appeared before you around that same time
and we just assumed I think collectively we assumed that it was going to be heading to fall town meeting. So that was I think collectively we said well six months out it will self-resolve and now it's becoming clear that it's
not going to resolve itself. But I'll circle back with Jose uh and revisit the uh the pre-existing nonconformity. Maybe one of them can be solved. The other one that I was looking at, and I know I've talked to you about
this, Evan, the the one that has the med spa component to it. If that can be classified as a medi a true medie spa that has a medical component, it's
possible it could be classified as a medical clinic and that is allowed in IIA. Um, so I guess that depends on a is it licensed enough from the state to
be an official Betty spa? And if it is, how much of that business I guess would be that medical component? Um because I know that that there are some licensing requirements for med spas um where
doctors and and medical uh professionals do have to be involved. So if there's enough of it maybe it could be classified as a medical clinic. >> I wouldn't be surprised but we have a little bit of leeway there. interpretive leeway, not ours really, but the
>> that would be essentially Jose's and then ZBA as an appeal. >> If they if they see no issue if they if they find that argument plausible, >> I don't think anybody's going to stop. >> So, those are the only options that I
could >> see. >> And as a property owner, I do recommend coming to town meeting to help us pass. He'd be like, "Please, >> thanks. We need all the help we can get. >> Yeah, we do. >> All right. Are there any other I'll circle back with you
>> questions, comments, ideas? >> Maybe get your tenants, too. >> Yes. >> Yeah, get your tenants >> to town meeting. >> Yeah. >> Great community. >> All right. Um, >> we don't need a mean continuence of
this. >> I don't think we need an official motion for that one. um since it's just a informal public discussion. >> Yeah. Okay. >> All right. So, moving on to the next agenda item, the annual town. Thank you everyone. >> Uh the annual town report.
>> Um we have been asked to pull together information >> uh for FY25 um report by August 13th. Um
the fiscal year for the town runs >> June 30th >> July 1st June 30th. Okay. >> Um so my idea is that if you can think of things that we've done in this fiscal
year. Um Evan included uh last year's uh on the agenda as an example. Um if you want to send them to me, I can work with Evan to compile them and submit them. uh by the 13th.
>> Um so if you can get them to me by >> That's a lot of stuff you're doing. >> Compiling compiling information is pretty easy. >> I'm not volunteering or anything. That works at another job. He really doesn't.
>> Compiling information is pretty easy. Um, so if you could get it to me, >> let me take a look at my calendar. >> Sorry, >> by the next meeting is the 13th. It's due on
the 13th. Uh, maybe by the 31st of July. That'll give me that weekend to work on compiling it. Um, I can submit it pretty quickly. Okay, please. Um, I'm hoping I can get some
input from everyone. Um, even one idea would be good. Uh, so I don't have to do it all myself. Um, >> it just has to show what what you did the past year >> from June to June. >> Yes. >> Accomplishments from the board. >> Excuse our agendas. >> Yeah.
>> Can't you just take all of the minutes and throw it into Cop? >> I'm actually considering trying some chat GPT stuff. Copilot. Copilot's really good for >> It's usually a two or three pager, right, Evan? I mean, you're not looking
to you don't want to submit like >> what you can do is you can you can dump documents in and tell it to >> summarize >> summarize >> summarize. I' I've not had good luck with co-pilot. So, I like GPT. >> They took JP GTP away from us. So, >> yeah. So, they took it away from us, too. >> But we have co-pilot.
>> Oh, we don't we don't have that. I don't have anything. >> Um I was planning on trying some of that as well. >> See what it does. >> We'll see what it does. >> So, it's June June. What is the dates? July 1st through June 30th.
>> July 1st of 24 through >> June 30th of 25. >> I want to give you good um background on what we were up to before you joined. >> Yeah, there's one project.
>> All right. >> I didn't see Pallet Drive on that list. Hilder too. >> All right. So, managed growth strategy. >> Looks like funding on the way.
>> Potentially. >> We won't know until October. >> Yeah, we won't know till October. Um what I'd like to do is get um so we talked about two planning board, one um select board, one 2020
master plan, two strategic plan, two town meeting reps, and one uh concom. Um what I'd like to do is get two people from the planning board uh to volunteer for that. Well, I've been on enough of the
committees that you mentioned that uh that probably makes sense. >> A master plan and you know, strategic plan. >> Okay. >> So, I'm willing. >> Would anyone else be willing to
volunteer? >> I'm against growth, so I'm the wrong person to go on that one. Well, I mean, depends which which what you focused on managed. >> Yeah, but I would I probably shouldn't be on that one.
>> Well, I think if you I not sure my my the time I'll have available, but I am working on the finance piece. So, I'm hoping to lay out why. >> And again, I'm not for build baby build. I don't think the town can support that, but I am going to try to lay out in
numbers why and show why some modest level of growth is healthy for the town. >> That'd be good >> from a finance perspective. >> Well, and if we if we think about like what Paul said when he was talking, I mean, >> growth happens, >> right? >> Yeah. >> It's it's undeniable. So,
>> we want to drive it. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So, we'd be looking at this group. So this board would be the the essentially the steering committee for this task force. Um we'd be looking to this uh task force to um
make sure that that we have good goals for the um development of the uh the plan for uh selecting the consultant once the grant application is done. Um, so doing things
like that and then working with the consultant to develop the plan. >> Cool. >> Okay. Um, so >> we got Mike and who? >> Mike and John. >> John. >> Yeah. >> Everyone okay with that? >> Okay. Um, so what I'm also going to do
is I'm going to email the reps, the uh town reps and the chairs uh to get volunteers for the uh rest of it. Um Evan, how do we normally handle the citizen component?
>> Um so any of the non-committee uh design uh so town meeting reps and residents, we usually put out a uh a call for interest, ask them to send an email to uh someone
expressing interest. And then if there's more than uh you know more than two people that show interest historically there's been you know an invitation to appear or some sort of engagement uh for the uh for the planning board to
assess who they want to appoint. So, could it go on the select board committee vacancy agenda and or that >> it it could uh my suggestion the way we've normally handled it is the planning board will we'll put a news flash up on the town website.
>> Okay. >> You can do a direct mailing to the town meeting reps. Um and then the select board will announce it and the planning board can announce it as well. >> Okay. Yeah, why don't we do that? >> Okay. I can I can send out an uh
>> Yeah, just keep me updated on your timing. That way we can coordinate the the the kind of the deadline for the for the citizen and town. >> Yeah. Okay. I'll work with you this week and getting there. >> All right. And just keep in mind August
is a really tough month to engage. >> I know. >> Yeah. >> Yep. It >> would likely be not till September. um we gather the names and then probably in one of our September meetings, probably the second September meeting, um
finalize the the names. Who for this two strategic plan and the 2020 master plan, who would I contact to get those? >> I'll give those to you. >> Okay. >> Yeah, just send me an email. >> Okay. >> All right.
Anything else on that topic before we move on? >> Just the housing production plan I thought had a lot of information that was very interesting and useful. So, I think we should definitely um consider that.
>> Yep. All right. Uh next item is the Northern Star Village development update. Evan, do you have >> Yeah, I just I'll give a very brief uh
>> overview. Just looking at the time here. Um if you recall, this is a definitive subdivision, 12 duplexes. Uh the last time this the board was engaged with this was a bond establishment. DPW provided a letter. So at this point, the town is holding a
bond in the amount of $385,000. all units are occupied and that money uh is intended to cover any any and all um items uh at the time of establishment uh for completion.
So at this point you have uh um 24 duplexes occupied with taxpaying residents. you have a developer who uh is still um doing a punch list of items working with DPW and their project
engineer. Um if you recall that road was intended to be um town approved that requires a planning board action, select board action and town meeting action and there's contemplation of a homeowners
association. So the residents as as indicated in the letter here have been engaging with town hall and DPW for quite some time on a variety of issues. Uh there are there are pro private
properties that have interest in making modifications to private property related to improved drainage or what they see as improved drainage. Uh and then they have uh interest in getting the homeowners association up and running sooner rather than later. Uh
they have questions about uh the timing of when uh the roadway will go in front of town meeting. uh in DPW and I have basically told them that there's not much that we
can do uh other than um engaging with the developer and and asking you know for for updates. So, at this point, my suggestion would be uh that if the board is inclined, put this on uh an agenda
formally as an agenda item. Uh we we're we're uh doing a project update. That project update will primarily come from DPW. Uh that and I would also suggest that we do a direct um invite notification to
the uh 24 households as well as the developer. um that at least provides a forum for the board to uh receive an update and ask some questions. Um
maybe it facilitates and expedites um you know some some resolution uh to this. Um there's there's not a lot that the planning board can do. Uh we hold the bond. I don't believe the bond had a
um had a time to act on it. Um and it's not really clear to me the extent of the the issues. I think DPW and the project engineer probably have the best handle, >> okay, >> on the issues, but the the simplest way
to say is you have 24 households in Chelse that aren't aren't they're not really sure what's going on. uh and we're not able to give them the answers uh that they're looking for. >> So essentially we'd be providing the forum >> for them to get answers from DPW and
develop. >> Yeah, that's the intent and again if the developer was willing to engage I think that would be beneficial >> depending upon that forum the you know the board the board has the legal right to initiate calling the bond meaning
taking the bond. uh there's there's a variety of complexities related to that uh particularly with with the kind of the status of this project uh but even that's difficult to figure out because I just don't have all the details as to
what's the punch list what's the remaining items what's the cost uh to what extent would DPW uh be interested in managing the completion of the work so there's a variety of stakeholders and interests >> is that something we should have town
council at as well. >> Um I can ask them what their opinion is on it. Um let let me start with that and see what they >> So this is money the developer would
like back but isn't doing anything. >> The developer is entitled to uh any money um that's left over. Uh and so that's a developer's interest, >> right? >> The developer is likely likely entitled
to receive a significant portion of that money back, >> right? >> Once they do their budget, >> the developer may need a bond reduction in order to do the remaining work. M >> so there's a so again there's a lot of moving parts and it's not clear to me
how we we collectively develop or working with the planning board take the next logical steps towards getting this this project closed out. So >> has this never happened before >> in in varying degrees? Um this project
has been um it's been plagued with a variety of manage management related construction issues, >> which is which is not typical for children. >> I mean, it's I mean, it seems like if we gave them their money, how would we know
they're going to spend it on that? >> Yeah. >> Oh, no. We wouldn't give it back after we're not even being asked for that yet. >> So there's a variety of issues. All of all my interest at this point was to get it formally on a planning board agenda. I think that's the prop the proper forum.
>> Yeah. So I would like to request then that town council be there so that we can figure out next steps um once that forum is provided because I don't think that >> Yeah, it's not unreasonable. Yeah, >> I just I don't know to what extent um there'll be any
>> any uh actionable, you know, item that council can uh can recommend, but it's worthwhile likely to have council there. >> Can we target putting this on one of the September meetings depending on town council's availability?
>> Yep. Okay. Uh next item, uh MBTA district. We did receive the compliance confirmation letter. >> So we are fully compliant on the MVTA
law. Uh so I wanted to make sure that the public was aware of that. Um master plan implementation updates. Um I have actually gone through this and have some recommended updates.
Um so on 2.1 The MBTA portion is completed. >> Yep, we did that. >> The SEAOD uh is planned and the CBLT is in process. >> So, I think those three bullets can be
added to the notes for 2.1. >> You able to send me your markups? >> I will. >> Yeah. Okay. And you'll and you'll bring them to the meeting. >> 2.5 um is in process. That is the CBite to Falltown meeting.
Um the 2.7 the planning board decision to not modify the bylaw and to no longer accept pyo for anything other than fractional units based on my recollection of th that discussion.
Um 2.10 10 is planned after the managed growth strategy uh is determined and then 4.3 um we did increase the fees as of October 2023. >> Wonderful. Thank you. Okay, that'll that'll help us out.
>> That pilo thing, do we need to modify our regulation or anything? >> No, that's just a >> just that's our whim. >> Just just our whim. >> It's what we feel like. Well, I mean, honestly, I think in the event that we're not the people making that
decision in the future, it maybe we should put it into >> our I don't know where. >> No, the other group could change their mind and do it the different way. >> It would have to go into regulations and that will require a process.
>> I I would like it to be personally I would like it to be institutionalized that >> it wouldn't be bad. You can change the by the zoning bylaw to not allow a pilot. You have that. You have that choice. >> Only for fractional units. >> You can revise it however you >> Yeah.
>> want to revise it or you can just keep it as a as a a policy. >> I mean, is it a it's a policy now? It's it's written somewhere. >> This fra this fractional thing. My understanding is the last time the board has this discussion, they basically said they were not going to consider pilos
any longer. They wanted the units built. >> The bylaw, the zoning bylaw as drafted provides both options. >> When developers meet with us, we tell them the board's the board's policy, the board's preference. >> Okay. >> But we did discuss unwritten policy
>> allowing it for the fractional. >> I think we should I think we should document it as a policy. >> I mean, >> it should be documented. >> Yeah. You can do a past boards have done and you just vote a policy and you >> haven't always likes to keep everything flexible but I don't like this to be flexible.
>> Yeah. Know it's clear to me that how the board feels. >> Current board definitely feels this way. >> Yeah. >> I just think it should be documented even if it's in a policy that could be changed by a later board. >> All right. >> I will add it to our to-do list of changes. >> Sounds good. Thank you so much. >> Thank you
>> for future. Uh not anytime soon because we do have a pretty big to-do list. As long as we don't have any more state mandates coming. All right. Um, next meeting dates >> that >> we will we'll have the August 13th and I think based on what I'm hearing, we're
still considering not doing the August 27th meeting. >> Well, I bought tickets to James Taylor. >> So, at this point, I would like to propose that we not do the August 27th meeting and take it off the calendar. >> Yeah, let's take it off. >> All right. I've got stuff then too
that's going to accomplish. >> So we will take that off the uh calendar. We will not meet on the 27th. We will meet on October on August 13th. >> Um and at that I think we're done. I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion by Mike, second by Anita. All in
favor? Hi everyone Really?