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call to order this uh February 10 2025 meeting of the CHC select board um and notify everyone that Chanel T media is broadcasting this meeting live and recording
it for later later viewing if you would join me in the Pledge of Allegiance Al United States Amer and to the stands Na and I'll just also note that uh select wood member uh Pat Maloney is not with is not able to join us
this evening uh so we'll do public service announcements sure so first from the town clerk's office we have an announcement regarding the 2025 annual Town census um it's coming soon and responding to the census maintains your voter status provides proof of residency and helps us provide better services to you and if you have no changes to your household you can respond online also from the clerk's office
uh 2025 dog licensing has begun you can license in person online or complete the application that can be found on the town town clerk's web page and return it by mail you must have current proof of rabies vaccination and you must license by February 28th 2025 to avoid late fees for more information you can contact the clerk's office at 978 25052 five we have a bunch of
announcements from the chumford health department regarding some upcoming events they every second Friday of the month from 7: to 10: p.m. at the Chelmsford Center for the Arts there is sober caraoke admission is free and snacks and mocktails are available for purchase also from the health department we have opioid overdose response training and that will be held on February 19th from 3:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Chelmsford Town Hall in the fire training room and the class is appropriate
for all ages and every participant will receive an opioid rescue kit that includes Naran also from the health department we have a youth Mental Health First Aid course uh on February 11th from 9: to 3 at the chelsford Town Hall teaches adults how to identify understand and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges among youth ages 12 to 18 we also have a community CPR class
on February 18th from 9:00 a.m. to to 1: p.m. also at the Chelmsford town hall and the fire training room each participant who completes the 4-Hour training will obtain an American Heart Association heart saer CPR AED first aid certificate that it's valid for 2 years and they have a note here that there is a $20 fee for the card and please call the health department to reserve your spot the health department is also holding a event on healthy relationships on
February 11th from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. it is virtual understanding abuse setting boundaries and identifying warning signs they also have announcement regarding care soless which is a mental health referral service that also offers housing and food and security support for chord residents and employees it is available 24/7 with multilingual support and they provide care regardless of insurance
we have a depression and anxiety support group being held on February 25th it's every 4th Tuesday of the month from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the chumford Center for the Arts it's open to adults 18 years and older and registration is preferred but not required also the health department is holding blood pressure screenings the first Thursday of the month from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the health department offices are oh I'm sorry at the no the first Thursday of the month
from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the chelsford health department and the last Thursday of the month from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at the chelsford senior center and no registration is required for that and some other updates from the health department um February is teen Dating Violence awareness month this month is dedicated to raising awareness surrounding the prevalence and impact of Dating Violence among teens they would also like everyone to know that it is not
too late to get your flu shot and you can call the health department to schedule yours today and also the health department has free covid tests available in their office um one box per family and you can stop in and grab those and also they have an announcement here regarding empowering chelsford youth with ey decide new facilitators is ready to make a difference the I decide program developed by the center for addiction medicine at Mass General
Hospital is a comprehensive drug educ ation curriculum for middle and high school students it focuses on Intervention diversion and empowerment to help students make healthy decisions and understand the impact of substance abuse and the public health and wellness coordinator Taran Angel and public health and Community social worker Marca ceron have completed facilitator training and are eager to bring this valuable service to chelsford that's it okay thank you okay we're now at the uh public input section
of uh this meeting is there anybody here that would like to address the board on any topic okay and you have three minutes thank you Brian Latina Precinct 9 town meeting rep 15 Jesse wrote as my address um last last week on the thir Monday um you had a public what I thought was a public session of the select board with no public comment allowed I felt um that this should not be um a standard and I hope we're not approaching that town meeting has reduced
our time to legislate in in so-called debate as Town moderator calls it discussion down to 3 minutes that's not enough time to consider that Free Speech this board just told me I can only speak for three minutes I represent 9,000 residents in my precinct um and being able to speak once every two weeks for three minutes seems a little um a little short I consider that to be um a little bit of um blocking
my ability to speak freely um I don't don't care for it um I noticed um last week um we were talking uh the town manager gave quite an extensive discussion about um what it's going to what it's going to cost taxpayers next year and how much he's cut out of the budget and I was impressed with cutting something out of the budget first time I've seen that in a long time um we cut out a few people and I know that's very painful um we're seeing that in the federal government and nobody likes it it appears
except taxpayers um I wish we'd consider looking at what we paid in 2019 before covid um that's now 5 years passed and it's time to go back and look at our budget relative to not having $10 million in the last couple of years that we got to spend on anything we wanted um Senior Center added on Monday night a new program for 45 year olds that's not seniors that should not happen and I expect all the different topics that they were adding might cost some more money should look at that um we
talked about out the finance books I believe out of our budget so town meeting members will not get a printed book they can print it themselves I heard on Monday night don't care for that we used to get it mailed to our house people don't look at them as it is we need to have them earlier and not not virtually on my cell phone I can't read it um snow removal was excessive on Sunday I had a truck drive by back and forth until I stopped them and asked him not to scrape the rest of the pavement off the street
there was no snow left and he said I'm only doing what they tell me to do don't widen Jesse Road drive back and forth three times and go away not 15 um and then salt it with a huge truck um non- Massachusetts plates still a problem in our um so-called project areas our hous the housing units that we've added um last time I counted there were 20 plates 23 plates um just at the projects
over at Turnpike and and Warren um that amounts to 20,000 uh let's see $20,200 in excess taxes we didn't collect this year just those plates and yes they've been there for three or four years nobody cares and that's that three minutes that was very good excellent timing uh My Maria cares I live at 10 parkerville Road in chelsford mass and uh I'm also a co- uh a co-owner of
a business in cheler as well um I wrote a letter so I'm not going to spend a lot of time having this discussion you all receive my letter this is in regards to the rezoning of the parcel that is now uh 24 Maple Road or Maxwell's formerly ague um thank you to those who who did respond I do appreciate that um I think the article the warrant article that's being proposed today is jumping the gun we don't need it we are reasonable people
um I'm here also on behalf of my neighbors who asked that I attend and speak to you like I said we're reasonable people we can compromise we are happy for the most part with loed and what they've done we've already had conversations with them I think we can continue those conversations and see if we can do something that is in the best interest of both the residents and the business so I would just ask that we throw away that rezoning Al together and let
them do what is best for not not just them but for us thank you thank you anybody else okay there's nobody on Zoom call okay we move on to committee vacancies the following boards and committees have vacancies as of February 10th 2025 the CCA Town Hall advisory committee the clean energy and sustainability committee the commission on disabilities the Council on Aging board the Conservation Commission the
cultural Council the historic District commission the holiday decorating committee the parade committee the public records advisory committee and the recycling committee if you are interested in serving on a Town border committee please complete an online application available on the town website or you can contact the town manager's office for more information at 978 25052 two thank you okay we have one license this evening for St Martin's uh church
is there anybody here yes he's online good evening hello hi my name is Bruce K Jan um I live in drit and I'm the parish council chairman um of saints fonon and we have a liquor license request for March 1st um for our Mighty gr event okay does anybody have any questions for the applicant we know he's they've done this many times before
they've done this you know every year since I've been here yeah at least once okay so any questions if not we'll take a motion I'll make a motion to approve the one day all alcoholic beverages license for safe Vance my Armenian Church at 180 old Westford Road for March 1st 2025 has presented second okay we have a motion and a second all in
favor I opposed okay good luck and thank you all very much appreciate it have a good night all right now we have uh Christopher Hayes from ncog is going to give us a presentation about at home in Greater L hello hi so this is uh Chris Hayes housing economic development program manager at Northern middlex Council
of governments the regional planning agency for L and all of the surrounding communities and as far rest as peolle and uh thank you so much for giving us some time today to talk about at home in Greater L which is the Regional Housing strategy for the greater L region and uh can we go to the next slide so we want to kind of talk about both what at home in Greater L is and why we started the planning process that we
really see as a plan not just for our agency but for all the member communities in ncog uh we want to talk about some of the strategies and local actions we're recommending as part of at homeing grader and then finally we want to talk about what is happening next over the year 2025 next slide please and so just to start off uh at
home in Greater L is a housing plan that we started uh about a year and a half ago and that was really at the request of all nine of Our member communities plus the business community and really looking at some critical issues such as homelessness such as uh folks uh having uh housing cost burdens especially renters that pay more than half their income on housing
and uh Staffing shortages folks uh both at businesses and in the municipalities having trouble recruiting Because of the high cost of housing and we were asked what a regional approach would look like to tackle those housing challenges go to next slide and you know the initial data that we found is that households are increasing and projected to increase but that's really
faster than the population in increase that's because households are getting smaller folks are aging there are uh more seniors living alone and more young families that don't have as many children so we are seeing a need for more units and smaller units different kinds of units accessible units Etc to address these housing shortages next slide um because we're increasing the number of households without necessarily increasing the number of housing units it's
kind of region wide all of those towns we're seeing really increased uh uh not increased vacancy rates sure decreased vacancy rates so a healthy uh apartment rental vacancy rate tends to be around 8% and sales units tends to be 2% and about 15 years ago that's where we were at but we've been slowly seeing a decrease in vacancy rates so it wasn't necessarily all happening during covid but
it's actually been a slow decrease in vacancy rates over the last 10 15 years next slide and we really seen that now that has led to an increased housing cost burden we've seen the housing prices again rise roughly at that same rate as the vacancy rates have uh shrunk so we really do see this as a housing supply problem and one that isn't necessarily caused by recent immigration but really a kind of a
longstanding problem as these households shrink and age and we need more housing units to serve the same amount of population and so going over the entire nimai region more than a quarter pay more than 30% of their uh income on housing and that includes rental and sales units so that includes people who own their own home and that's really concentrated among really the the lowest income so the extremely low income those are that's
really the sector we see people paying more than half of their income on housing the next slide um and then through the uh conversations and interviews we've had during this planning process we've seen that this is really impacting us in a number of ways in the short time we see seniors struggling to stay in their communities we see those labor shortages that we were talking about and we see those uh difficulties um uh recruiting that we talked about but we also see
that that less money is being spent at local businesses as more is being spent on housing um we do see homelessness as something that is very directly correlated to the housing shortage uh yes it it it uh mental health and substance abuse is major factors in that but we're seeing an increase in homelessness even among other types of folks just as the housing shortage increases um and then more in the longer term we're concerned about the young adults leaving for less expensive areas
is that includes New Hampshire but that also includes the region entirely to the South and that businesses are reconsidering uh their location in our region due to the shortage of working age people in the region and the decrease in the labor force um and of course that would ultimately lead to uh increasing pressure on municipality budgets as there are fewer working age folks to pay taxes fewer businesses to pay taxes
that's more looking into the future but it's something that we see as a problem that is on the horizon so for this uh housing plan we have worked together for the past year a few folks around the table uh We've really appreciated your uh contributions at our uh planning processes um we can go to the next slide um and really the strategies that we've come up with have been developed
over the course of talking to uh more than a hundred people whether that be through surveys through three summits that we've had over the course of the year um or through other um one-on-one interviews that we've had over the course of the year next slide and so really we've kind of developed this plan that includes three parts the first part is something that we are looking to finalize in the next couple of months and that's what we want
to talk about today day and we want to get that right because the next two parts we're going to be working on in 2025 which is a storytelling program so basically a public education program that highlights stories of folks looking for housing folks who have found housing folks who provide housing to better kind of understand how the policy decisions we make play out uh in in real time and a municipal toolkit which includes potentially education material
and uh step-by-step guides and other elements for planning boards and Municipal staff to be able to work on local strategies to tackle some of these housing challenges um and this is why we really want to get these strategies right because we want to make sure that all nine of the communities basically Buy in and agree broadly on the strategies even though they're going to be looking very different in each Community because chelsford is different than LEL
and chelsford is different than dun but uh we want to make sure that broadly we get Buy in so that we know which strategies we need to be making those toolkits for and Etc so we're really asking today whether You' support advancing local actions of the strategies we were talking about what you would need to advance those strategies from Nim Cog or from other Regional partners and if we need to adjust any of those strategies to make it make more sense for both
Chelmsford and and the region at large so I'm going to talk about just two of the strategies you've got a handout that has all I think it's 17 strategies right now organized under six goals um we're going to highlight a couple of them that have um the onus on kind of it's going to be more about how municipalities Implement them at the local level than at the
regional level um one of them is is what we call missing middle zoning that's basically looking to allow smaller multi family units uh whether that be tow houses or duplexes or triplexes uh what we tend to see is that there are a lot of single family homes on really large Lots or there's really big Garden Apartments with like a hundred units in one building or one complex and there's really not that much uh zoning that allows for these kind
of smaller types of units where somebody could buy a duplex and rent out the second one or two people can buy as condos and again those are some of the small units that people seem to be demanding more and more whether they be small families or seniors that are looking to downsize and local actions could include looking to adopt zoning that is uh cottage style so basically allowing very small Lots but small homes on those small Lots or potentially that missing middle which could be Town Homes duplexes
Etc and uh we can go to the next slide those are just some examples of the types of housing units we're talking about uh when we're talking about missing Moodle missing Moodle missing middle zoning uh which could include um a variety of different housing types that are kind of traditional to New England but we don't see being built very much anymore next slide then the other one that strategy we wanted to
highlight is inclusionary zoning um that is I actually don't remember if chelsford has inclusionary zoning yes 25% 25 okay so what we are recommending is that municipalities both if they don't have the zoning which again for people in the audience who might not know what inclusionary zoning is basically it says that if you're above a certain threshold if you build more than seven units at once that you have or however many units at once you have
to provide a certain number number that are incom restricted subsidized housing um and that's a really great way to provide affordable housing and what we're recommending is that all municipalities those who don't have that type of zoning take a look and see if they could adopt it but those that do do a market study and see if they need to tweak that zoning in any way in some cases uh it kind of backfires and the market can't support the affordable units and
therefore no affordable units get built no units get built at all and in other cases uh the Market's so hot that actually you could increase the amount of affordable units and get more affordable units per market rate unit which we really see a need for especially at the lower incomes so with that in mind we're recommending Market studies to really see what the market could bear and make sure to tweak it to make sure that the affordable z uh the inclusionary zoning is meeting the each municipality's housing goal next slide
so uh like I said those were just two strategies we've got a lot of strategies that we're happy to talk about Kelly and I um and I never introduced Kelly I just keep saying Kelly and I I'm joined here by Kelly LMA who is deputy director for Nim Cog and kind of my partner in crime in terms of working on this uh at home and greater La plan and what we are committed to do over the next year is well first of all to finalize these strategies and share that to
you when it is ready um and what we're calling part one the data and strategies so that includes a lot more data than I shared tonight along with the list of strategies and more detailed uh discussion on what those strategies really mean and then in phase two we want to continue to regularly communicate as we develop that toolkit and implementation guide and storytelling Camp U uh program and then finally at the end we'll return to share
that part too as well to make sure that we are keeping the municipalities the select boards and the planning boards and all the other committees that are involved in that housing discussion up to date so we can really work together to tackle some of the housing challenges um and I believe with that yeah we are uh happy to take any questions or even just feedback um we're really recording all of this so we can adjust those strategies and and bring it back to you okay
any questions for Chris I have a question go right ahead so if some of the housing shortage is driven by the fact that we have so many seniors staying in place or Aging in place and yet the size of family households is decreasing what happens if we start implementing these strategies what happens as the senior mortality rate increases then
do we have a big Surplus so at least with the housing projections that um the state has created and I would say they're pretty conservative housing projections at least until 2040 the number of households is projected to continue to increase due to um just mainly natural birth rates and uh immigration from within the United States
from other states um and so what's the senior mortality rate over the next 15 years so that's a generational thing right now where we have more a higher senior population than in decades past right um it's hard to say in 2050 that's when we see that impact beginning to happen the senior mortality rate uh because uh when 2050 that far out that's when the
projection are yes how old are the Boomers now um yeah I can definitely get back to you in terms of the specifics of how that modeling was created curious um there is honestly a really large group that are millennials that are living in the Boomer's homes right now um that we're seeing so basically uh a large group of uh 20 to 35 year olds that
are and this is in most of the communities except for LOL uh 25 to 30 year olds that uh are showing up in the population data but not showing up as heads of households meaning that they are still living with parents most likely unless they're big and big situations yeah my question was more around do you wind up with a gross imbalance as the senior mortality rate increases because we have more seniors today than we typically do it's it's hard to project in 2050 a lot
of things can can happen in a change but yeah we can definitely get details on that and Kelly if you have anything additional sure I mean I think it's it's sort of like the the senior mortality rate is also offset by the household formation of this younger group that's unable to find housing right now the other thing that we do know from the data is that households are smaller so people are having fewer children so the need for those smaller units is going to remain the same just because we're not seeing the same size of households and that is just a general Trend all across the United States and that's been ending
down over the past few decades so it's sort of like some of these things offset or compensate for each other so we're not anticipating that there's going to be a sudden excess of housing um what we also know is that we are actually losing a lot of population as a state especially in that 20 to 40 year old age group because they're unable to find housing right now so part of the goal is to also retain some of the younger population as they're leaving the universities or as they're graduating from high school to retain them in
our region because we don't necessarily want to lose that Economic Development opportunity and we don't necessarily want to see families lose their adult children to move to a whole other state um which is what's happening now can I ask a question are you done with your questions Virginia I just have comments left so go ahead with questions George question um excuse me how
much uh zoning changes are going to have to make be made you're going to have to have a lot of zoning changes because of the size and trying to get more units on you know so that you'll have to get change some of the Zoning for um so what really phase two is about is exploring that so right now we know that some zoning changes are necessary because really those kind of middle-size units just aren't allowed um but we haven't really gone into that it needs to be a big change or a little change
because what we want to do over the next phase is do some scenario development and see how those households as again um younger households that might want to be established Etc where they might be in the region so some of those might be in LOL or in Chelmsford uh you might want to look at really densely around like vinyl square and chelsford Center as opposed to spreading it out or maybe you do want to spread it out or maybe you want put
it more toward uh Highway onramps and and that type of thing so we want to do that kind of scenario development with the municipalities hand inand with the municipalities to help decide how much that would be and and really what what would serve each municipality because the answer is going to be different for each each one and one of the goals of this plan has really been to try to rightsize the recommendations for each Community like Chris said at the beginning we know that chumford is different than dunable is different than LOL and so what that
is part of phase two it also is tying in with the state's housing production plan which was just released and so there there basically are sort of projections for each region part of our job is to take those projections and work with our communities to understand what that looks like in every Community we're not generally recommending wholesale zoning of every parcel in every Community is trying to work with communities to understand where are places that you want to
grow and where are places that you want to preserve um because those two things really strike a balance I think you had a great idea uh you just mentioned I think we brought it up at the housing Advisory board about like like around vinyl square which has got you know a lot of all the unused property or underdeveloped underused property it could be converted into senior housing which also has a lot of the amenities which would be a lot nicer for the
uh the elderly people where they could walk to the bank they could walk to the you know coffee shop uh whatever in the area and then maybe develop some kind of uh you know like a a bus to the senior center or something a couple times a day to pick up and drop off and stuff like that I think you know uh I think that's where I would think would be great to start with I mean people and they would
be a it wouldn't be like being alone I mean a lot of the people today you know I I know I live alone now I'm I'm an old man now but uh but it's you know I I can understand you know when the weather's bad and it's cold and and it gets dark very quick and you have nobody to talk to and people don't have relatives around or whatever um so it' be nice to have it in a community where you know there's people around and you know there's always some activity that they could get involved
in uh be visit that uh so I I do believe around the areas that are there now if we could just expand them like like I said vinyl square would be perfect for it because obviously I grew up in N CH so I mean the center is a little bit different because it's a little bit more developed than uh what have you but U but I think we talked about I think it'd be a great idea but I I think smaller housing in other areas I don't know if you I don't know if they'd be like a 40b project
or or just sport zoning or whatever but I mean if it made sense uh you know again you have your uh you know infrastructure problems too so I know but you know I think you do a great job I've attended a few of your you know your sessions and they've been very informative so thank you thank you for taking notes okay okay now yeah I have a question actually I'm
I'm just curious if there's any um if there's any conversation going on about the what the increase in the number of units if there's conversation about the number of rental units versus um poly owned and if there's any conversation going on anywhere about promoting ownership as opposed to rental um this is kind of a problem that I have a lot where you see you know 400 apartment complexes going up and I understand that that increases the housing um bucket by 400
but it's all rental and uh for you know young people and young families I think renting has a a place but I I do think ownership is also better for people in the long run um so and I but I don't see a lot of conversation about that so I don't I don't know what's going on out there yeah just uh directly on home and gr L one way that we we do address that is is a strategy to work with state
and federal partners and I know in LOL they're looking to expand the one mortgage program which provides low interest uh actually the uh down payment assistance for uh first-time home buyers and what we're looking at is trying to work as a region to expand that program to include either low or no uh no interest mortgages depending on the income of of the population um along along with vent to own program or
other firsttime home buying programs to be able to provide stair steps for rental into ownership because we're seeing this kind of Gap of the rental units being so expensive that people can't put aside the money for the down payment to get into the H uh the housing units we're also seeing a gap where the sales units are just so expensive at this point um and we do know that interest National interest rates do play into this but putting that aside for now even outside
of those the gap between the expense of buying a house and renting a house is just so large that we're seeing fewer people be able to make that uh leap so that's one way that we're looking into supporting that along with again trying to get those vacancy rates back to a healthy level so that just the cost of buying a home would hopefully be uh less over time and I think one other aspect to that is looking at different types of housing so you know I know for me
personally a starter home was a um a second floor unit in a two Family Y and so that was for us what we could afford we there's no way we could afford a single family home when I grew up in a three Ducker my parents bought the three Ducker we lived in one apartment they rented the other two and then they yeah yep and so it's trying to think are we providing different types of starter homes for different types of famili so you know sometimes that that that third story and a Triple Decker is the starter home for somebody to move from an apartment and then they build equity in that because I think what what everybody
knows is that housing is one of the greatest ways to gain wealth in this country and so trying to encourage people on that latter of home ownership is really important both for for people who are making um average income and also people who are making lower incomes yeah is there is there any movement as far as because I know a lot of the two families and or the multifamilies that are built they're then put into condo they're sold as condo units is there any conversation and again you you're going to understand I'm saying right cuz you
grew up with you did the same thing right so is there any conversation about keeping them in that kind of um realm where where somebody can buy the whole building and essentially rent the other side out or I I just feel like everything ends up being condo now and and sold off separately so there really isn't that opportunity as much anymore as there used to be I think that's definitely something we can consider one of the things that we're looking at in Phase 2 is looking at sort of not just how many units
per Community like a range of units per Community but also like what type what percentage of those units are affordable what percent of them are rental versus home ownership and in different types of housing so we can start to get a little bit more nuanced in the recommendations which might include some Pathways to building a two family home um so that you can rent it out or so that you can um have your parents stay in the ground floor or something like that um so I think those are those are questions we don't have the answers to yet yet
but it's something we're looking at as far as Phase 2 is concerned okay good thank you so um I'll just make a few comments I'm I'm very pleased with with the the strategies that you're suggesting on I guess on two levels one being um it's not a one-size fits-all you've made that very clear that the different communities are going to have different strategies and how they're implemented and the other one being the uh um kind of the goal of I guess incremental changes to zoning which I think is is
so critical you know the past what 18 months or so we've had these mandates from from the state and I think that has caused more angst than anything that we've seen recently and I think because it is it is kind of you know proposed as a one-size fits-all every Community has to do so much for mbda zoning every Community has to allow adus by under these criteria so um I I think it's a it's absolutely the the way to get Buy in from the communities so I app you
for that and Viria you had some comments I do um so you said that you were asking us to adopt these strategies and respectfully I don't feel comfortable sitting here as a select board member saying yes I endorse adopting these on behalf of the town because there's a lot more experts people who are far more informed about zoning and things than I am and I
think there's a lot more people that need to weigh into whether and to what extent these things are right for Chelmsford including the planning board and the housing authority and I know it's more work on your part but I kind of feel like it's incumbent upon you to get the feedback from them as well I would support this as considerations going into ongoing processes and ongoing trade spaces and you know we've been having other conversations in town about
what is our strategy for housing and Commercial growth and I would definitely support this as something that feeds into that conversation I don't feel that I can sit here and say I want to adopt this on behalf of the town tonight um and I appreciate the amount of work that's gone into this and I went to some of the sessions and I know how hard it is to come up with a cachent strategy with the specific so thank you for that I I want to touch on
something Pat referenced which was these top- down mandates that we've been getting the MBTA the adus and I do think there's a cultural Sting still from that um I also wonder if it would be prudent to especially with the adus to see how that plays out a little bit before we start like physically introducing some of these other zoning changes and um I think that
changes like this I I appreciate that you're going to help support figuring out where the right pieces are or if towns want to adopt these things I don't think that can come without some support for looking at infrastructure okay it affects utilities sewer water schools public safety and in our passion to solve the housing crisis sometimes I
think the pragmatics of what goes behind that are forgotten and then those become a crisis so I I know you're like a small staff and there's but somewhere you got to we got to figure out how do you provide a balanced view in how do you address all the things that come with increased housing density which is really what you're talking about um and then like I said it's just I think this is bigger than the select board
to say we adopt um and I would support saying we should leverage the work you've done and consider it in some of these ongoing strategic discussions and have you support that and that's my thought and I would also Pat when you're done with the board I'd be interested to hear what the town manager right and I just have a question now was the the expectation that you expected us to endorse it formally endorse it this even that's what the chart said that's why I was okay yeah I would
say more more accurately we wanted to learn what what aspects you'd like us to see work on and what questions answered moving toward that kind of endorsement rather than an actual like vote tonight or anything like that yeah I mean I so so I would like to see this kind of in a roll up your sleeves fashion be integrated into some of the other ongoing discussions with the experts in town I think that's what good feedback thank you
um and I do I I just want to point out one thing is that this um and it's kind of hidden in here um but we do recognize and one of the things we have heard over and over again is the need for infrastructure studies and this goes from everything from energy to transportation to um sewer to storm water and so that is a that is a recommendation under um under goal six and that's something that we really want to it that requires multic community collaboration and I think that's really one
of the things why it's so important to do a regional housing plan um I know that other Regional planning agencies and Metropolitan planning organizations across the US they do these kind of studies on a regular basis because it's really important for them to understand does do the zoning changes that we're recommending or endorsing are those things aligned with the infrastructure that we have and making sure that everything is Right sized I think is very ke could you clarify what you mean when you say a regional housing
production plan cuz that makes me cringe cuz it feels like it's another top- down regional thing that we're going to do so sorry did I say production I me I don't know what you said a regional housing plan or whatever but what is a regional what does that mean so this is at home and greater low it's a Regional Housing strategy as plan um but it's really identifying strategies that apply across our region that can be fine- tuned and tailor adopted individually and tailored individually yeah okay yeah um it's not
a mandate thank you yeah just to be clear yeah and I would like to definitely also reiterate that we're really hoping and this is why we're having these conversations that this isn't Nim CG's plan that we're taking to you but rather this is your plan that we're helping facilitate and by your I mean the town of chelsford but the other communities that surround the city of LEL and are you planning to go to things like the planning boards and the housing board
words or with this same anybody that will have us we will gladly come I will say that we have talked to uh chord Housing Authority staff quite a bit um but happy to go to planning boards or anybody anywhere else okay Paul do you have any any input or uh yeah a couple couple thoughts and I think it's a concern um and I'll sort of go on the Lighter Side you remember the movie The Sand lot where the everyone in the neighborhood would played ball
in the lot and and why I mentioned that is what you're talking is basically infill I mean Champ's developed and I think the the concern is is there's is you know we we get from the administration and why you're here tonight is housing housing housing but sometimes I think the whole and this I think some of the comments you're hearing earlier about infrastructure and so forth or bigger picture things is there's also the value of open space and that's why I mentioned the word Sandlot is you know if if the the in the the goal is to fill
in housing you know it it's sort of contrary to the I said the previous generation view of well you wanted the house in the suburbs that had a yard and that you had a park and and the kids could play and that's why the idea of the sand lot and and so forth and now it seems to be infill and so then the question becomes well then where are the socialization and interaction situations opportunities that are generic that can spring and I think that's a concern I could see going
forward is if you have infill and you have the density and then you have every you know the everybody on this then where is the societal and the communications and the networks the other end of the spectrum would be the economic development piece and and you're a regional planning agency and there the regional effort but we're not I think the concern that some of us have and we've seen this in chord is we're tending to be more growing in value in terms of our commercial
value is diminishing the value residential is growing and then where's the job creation where's the economic development that that sort of accompanies that housing development because we're not always going to be in a situation that we've been in in the more recent times where it's a labor shortage and then where where's the economic engine and then where's the opportunities because then that creates the issue of all the environmental things that you're trying to avoid which is use of automobiles for travel you know the greenhouse effects because you got congestion on Road roadways
and everything because you're traveling you know to employment locations because they're no longer part of the inner core which is what the commuter rail system is geared towards this Hub and spoke situation and so I think why it's hard in chelwood Is Shel has many people including some in this room who were alive when ch's population tripled but yet it feels like a never-ending treadmill build more housing more population which then means you don't have enough housing more po you know and then so now the
town triples in population is built out and yet the problem exists of well we need more housing we need more population and and I think that's sort of why the mindset is tends to be you know we've kind the count kind of experienced that but look where we are today we're three times the size as we were you know in that in the Youth of the generation that's now you know in the in the latter part of our community and I think I think that's what makes it
a hard sell it's like it and the fact that housing is a fluid commodity in other words if we adopt this strategy and and and people are mobile it's not going to lower the housing cost you're GNA you're going to you're going to bring in more people by the attractiveness of the opportunity to live here because the housing shortage isn't just limited to chelwood or Massachusetts it's a national in fact even goes into Canada and other parts and I think that's what's making this so difficult I know the answer isn't just throw up your hands and and walk away from it because you're right the
demographics are different there is a need for Smalling housing size but I I think people are trying to figure out what is it that they want what is the North Star what is the desired State and I think that's what's missing from the whole discussion housing is a vehicle to what end and I think if L people see what that desired end is that's what makes it so hesitant to get people engaged what is the desired State because housing
isn't isn't the North Star it's it's a component of a strategy to get to that Northstar and I think that's what's missing from the broader discussion and so I apology for what you're doing you're doing the perfect thing as the housing Advocates and this Quest on housing and we know it's the administration's Focus we know it's it but I think the question is is people need to adopt that but they need to see it as part of a greater strategy and I guess that's what my comments are about in
terms of how does it fit with the environmental strategy the Open Space strategy the economic development strategy and therefore what is the vision that we're trying to get people to be because if the message is just housing density that's not going to engage the populist to say yeah we need to go there so thank you for listening to me but I think that's my perspective and what I've been seeing for some time I have yeah go ahead yeah so I
I um these are very good points thank you and I think it really resonates to say what is the vision like what is what is the end game what is why are we doing this and so I have a few quick answers I'm sure Kelly has a few ideas too um but it's an ongoing conversation um so one thing I want to mention is we definitely um we did not start this planning process because of the the administration um we we started it really at the request of the town
and the local businesses the local business Community I should say um since we first applied for our very first grant for this planning Pro process NBTA communities came into effect uh the housing Choice uh uh um act uh has been passed uh including the Adu but uh Adu law and so a lot of things have changed as we've been doing this so we we we do though want to to keep in mind why
we were asked this which was really about local challenges and in the business community and local challenges in terms of renters feeling like they were paying too much in rent and not being able to buy homes in the region so we really want to continue to think about that as a North star rather than Massachusetts big problem uh second we are doing a comprehensive Economic Development strategy which is a A Five-Year Plan we're calling a greater L stronger together and housing is an important piece of that
but it is only one piece and we are very aware of the balance between housing and making sure that we still have businesses in the communities in all the communities that includes lifestyle important Main Street uh restaurant and retail that includes uh occupants of large business parks where people are going to be employed uh that's part of why we want to address housing is so that those employers don't leave for the South where it's cheeper uh
but also uh knowing that that is a balance and that if there's no room for businesses we couldn't have businesses in our communities so that's certainly something that is being uh talked about and that question of where do we want to preserve where do we want to grow where do we want to have a more walkable area or convert some formerly commercial areas into housing versus what do we want to preserve for a commercial that's kind of the journey you want to take in the in the next year certainly and I think those are really critical
questions to answer uh and finally uh well I know for some communities preserving open space is about thinking about smaller Lots so they can preserve their Farms preserve their woodlands and look at maybe growing more densely in the Town Center I know chelsford is a different story because you are very um uh uh uh you don't have huge tracks of Farmland there are still some remaining Farms we know and I imagine you you'd like to preserve those and how can
we work with preserving those along with allowing for some of those uh diverse units because we are talking about population increase but it's very modest it's more about like we said the household increase where uh uh more variety of different types of units rather than allowing for another tripling of population or anything like that H and that's again talking region wide uh because we haven't really dug into individual communities we're really just right now talking about a region and will'll go into those communities hopefully
in the next year I don't know if I'm missing anything no I think you thank you thank you okay thank you yeah thanks very much for coming appreciate all your work thank you okay next on our agenda is U potential endorsement of the municipal empowerment act um we talked about this actually the beginning of January when when we were looking at um
the resolutions that the mass Municipal Association discussed during their um conference uh last month and one of the one of the items was pretty much the municipal empowerment act which we had voted then to support um the governor has refiled the uh Municipal empowerment act and um the MMA is asking us to
um use our voices to um to move it forward if we can so I just wanted to put this on the agenda um to see if the board would be okay to send a letter to our legislative delegation uh in in supporting in support of the municipal empowerment act and I was thinking that we could maybe highlight four or five of the different parts of it that are especially critical or could be critical to us so
don't know if anybody has any thoughts on it did they give you any ideas of what the they're working for um well they just you know they they just want us to reach out to the legislature as you know as massively I guess you could say as possible to try to get you know have more success this this time around to get it passed versus the last time when
when it uh ended up not going anywhere in the legislature um you know there are some things that I think uh would be um critical to us or things that would be important to us on page one of the the the second uh document here um that that lists it section by section summary um I had noted a couple that I thought would be important like to make permanent the co era flexibil ities
for public meetings um they keep extending that uh about a year at a at a time um but to make it permanent I you know I don't see any any downside really to making it permanent even if they wanted to put a few restrictions on it but just to have it available I think I think would be critical so that was one um I ask sure I have just a clarification question on some of these Pages as you go through them if that's okay yeah sure so on on H1 Paul M
under Municipal procurement the last bullet says eliminates the requirement to publish notices for competitive bids on combes why are they doing that because they already make you let me explain what combes is so that people watching I know the board may be aware combis is the state's procurement newsletter combis obviously the nice acronym but the state also makes cities and towns publish it into Central register in goods and services and that's really where the vendors
and the biders look to and so basically it seemed to be repetitive and redundant and and again another task for cities and towns to then put it onto the combi system so would combis eventually maybe go away well it it just would it it just wouldn't be another again mandate that you have to then take the form and effort to go through the combines it's not a major a major reform effort but that's that's what happens is and and because for years and again it probably a generational thing for like decades you had you had to advertise in the Secretary of State's goods
and services bulletin and Central register depending upon what type of service or or you know if you're doing design of services and so forth selection combines the more recent uh phenomenon of the state in terms of an online system and I just think cities and towns are just sort of saying again you're making more work for us so again it's not a question they don't want to publish it or make people vids know about it it's just why are we having to do duplicate State Publications I feel like combis is what everybody is actually kind of actively using
right like the town ping on the town right but the traditional means and again maybe it's the old school guard of the MMA and some of the longer term municipal government people's you know Central register was that's where you put all your designer selection you you're you know you were looking for an OPM and so forth those type of things and then goods and services as the name suggested was where you then advertise for your if you were out buying you know you know materials and products and and
and and consultants and so forth and so perhaps it should have been again I didn't the list but it ought to be it ought to almost be like one of the other why do we have multiple State Publications for procurement so so again I think that's probably why it's the B bottom bullet is um yeah I mean I wouldn't fall on my sword over it but I just didn't understand it and P but I I'm sorry I should have I agree with your highlighting the um hybrid meetings as as one that's important on that first
page I mean and there may be some that we want to indicate that we we would like to see not go forward and that that might be one I don't the one you just mentioned like I said I wouldn't fall on my sword over it I just didn't understand it because I thought combis was where everybody went yeah that I mean they go out and they do training on combis for small businesses and it's very prevalent so I didn't know why M that because it's seen in the local level at the state bid list and what they making it is they're making it a municipal no words you have to publish
your invitations on the state's bid list and that's why it's it's just foreign to Municipal governments because they use comis as where we go in other words if we want to go out and buy you know Road De icing we'd go to combis because that's the state contract whereas goods and services is more of a more of a procurement notice and and that's what central register is as well so the the feeling is you're just making
comai kind of a a universal hub but it's it's you know optional optional I think is how they would look at it does that decrease our visibility as a as a municipality no because again we see it as professionals that we have to go through the one that is interesting we'll just fall back yeah you just fall back on it but again it's not a major item so even if that would have passed it probably wouldn't change the practice follow no um yeah so I mean in in 10 years I've never seen the state come around and say come get trained on the center register goods
and services it's all combis because that's done through the procurement process other words when you become a municipal procurement officer or become a procur asso those are the programs that that they put out through that program yeah whereas the combis is it's more it's more broad anyway it's just a different okay just a different vehicle okay were there any was there anything else on the ones on page one they had anybody had any comments on no what's the the postretirement oh just so
you can keep people uh yeah that's really big by retirees and those new new new soon to be retirees it provide you with the dexal flexibility to keep people on past for more hours after they're formally retired because of the quote unquote critical shortage of positions so looking at at page too I mean that new local option tax on
vehicle um motor vehicle excise I would not be in favor of that um you know further on it talks about the is that 5% to everybody yes yeah yeah which which would impacts you know almost everybody in town as opposed to a choice to stay in a hotel or go out to eat exactly y yeah but again it's local option so if it's you know I I have no issue if they pass we they never expl why it was 5% and
where it came from my my big beef over the years is the motor vehicle excise schedule depreciation schedule is so outdated but nobody wants to touch that because it's a five-year schedule and it doesn't match is no way near the value of your vehicle you pay the tax on but that charge well this is this is easier because they'll get grief if they change the motor vehicle excise depreciation schedule that was probably the same schedule 50 years ago as it is today when you know when vehicle weren't constructed or have the life that people
have today on a vehicle that's what's wrong with the motor vehicle schedule I mean another way they could handle it Paul is to make it a threshold so it's of up to 5% right yeah and make a local option right well it is a local option yeah right but it's it's a flat out 5% there's no choice um there's one towards the middle of that page appointed and combined treasure collector don't we have that isn't that what this gentleman standing sitting out in the well that's by Charter
see this is by this would be by Statute if Comm many communities don't have H Ru Charters okay that's fine and this would oh this would enable them to it would it would force them to it just so anybody else have anything is there anything on this page that particular ularly you
feel passionate about no no all right how about page three I don't understand the third one the amortization what is that oh basically if you have to go into deficit for an emergency let's say extraordinary snow removal or yeah or the the floods that hit in western Mass and so forth or in lemonster if you may recall they had bad situation you had to pay that off in one year what they're trying to do is well
why can't we spread that cost out over a multi-year period um no the big one initially was whether you wanted to borrow for school project from 30 to 40 years but it's like taking a home mortgage and borrowing it for 40 years it's going to cost a whole whole
lot more in interest over 40 years than do30 and the problem is you then have overlapping interest to projects because if you have multiple schools you're not going to you're not going to be paying one off before you pay down another appreciably anything on page four anybody has anything what about the chapter 90 expenditures chapter
90s are spent without appropriation yeah if you don't have in your Charter then you basically it's seen as a grant and then you have to vote it at town meeting and it's one of those it'd be what you would see on a um consent agenda on communities that don't have a charter they're basically just they so that doesn't apply to us we have a charter but other right oh well that's yeah I think the big one on page four a nice one would be the elderly exemptions yeah 9 you know the one
that's like two3 of the way down okay it's limited to $500 and this is one of the things you'll see in our agenda tonight it's been $500 since you know Nixon was in the White House and that's the problem is the $500 this isn't worth anything when your tax bills now are so many multiples of $500 that's minimum how does the state Define the age of a senior U by Statute it's generally it's generally 65 yeah what's the cola
for property tax exemptions Clause meanall at the bottom of page four oh it's one actually what we're bringing some of those statutes the town meeting the spring that allows you to increase the veterans and the senior citizens by the cola those are I don't want to get technical but there are other exemptions that the caller isn't allowed for so some senior exemptions is isn't um doesn't allow the
Coler adjustment um it's the 40 the ones that you're bringing to town meeting are are allow by Statute yeah the 17s and the 22s it's the 43s is that what it is John 41 41s 41s is no Cola allowed so that's what that is it's it's to allow the the Miss vales again who's in the 41s 41s the seniors as well there's two different groupes of seniors and surviving spouse and so so again I think anything that allows for elderly exemptions and col is are
only a good thing because okay the so you would highlight both of those on that page yeah and then there's another one at the top of the next page tested yeah is is that another one you that's another one because what's happening is you're seeing a whole bunch of communities in Westford being a more recent one that are doing these home rule petitions
for senior means tested exemptions my community did it um but generally there only tends to be about a handful that qualify but for those people it is it's basically allowing people to be able to afford to live in the community if they're long you know if they've been there a long time and don't have assets other than really their their dwelling um that's why you see having durational residency and basing on certain other income and asset levels so again it's it's allowing those basically not to be priced out of their Community had a question what about
the the collection of Motor Vehicle excise what is the the intent to mark their licenser registration for non-payment want to explain how that works John that's John's one about being doing it what does that mean they're going to mark your license that's currently that's been a longstanding plan not paying taxes but so just to explain for everybody um what happens is um with motor vehicle bills there's a whole series of steps we have to go through to collect them so the first thing the initial bill is sent and then if the initial bill is not
paid we send what's called a demand Bill and then if the demand bill is not paid there are two warrants that are sent out one's like mailed one's delivered to where the person lives by a dep a company that works for us called a deputy collector works for a number of municipalities after if all those steps are exhausted the deputy collector then notifies the registry of motor vehicles and so your license or plate is marked for non-renewable but that's been a long standing law that we've always we've always
you know we follow that and then what happens is when the person goes to the registry to renew their license or plate they're told they'll the the customer service person will give them a print out and tell them they need to talk with their you know their tax collector because there there's outstanding bills that have to be paid so it's kind of a collection tool because so right now the the DMV step is not being taken but this would allow that I is it's almost bypassing it's allowing collected to directly notifi the registry you got a delinquency
as opposed to going through the cumbersome process John while you're there well before we go on to another one would so would you would you support this I would support giving us the flexibility to do it now because otherwise you'd have to have Town staff notifying the registry so um the way it works now is there are um you know the the deputy collectable works hard to collect all these fees the town gets its share they get to keep a few fees but um they're but they're doing the work
of notifying the registry and then they notify the registry as soon as the per the taxpayer that's seriously delinquent pays they then notify the registry and they unmark their and it only comes up when the person goes to renew their license yes exactly it's not like a you like a um violation or something in their record right right I believe it's not to the best of my knowledge there's nothing criminal about it just by the way there's a mark on your license you have to right it's just it's a basically a way because some people block
them from renewing their license until it's cleared yeah yep they will not be able to renew it because there's a small percentage of people that no matter how many notices you send them they will not respond so this is a collection tool it's been in effect for many many years so otherwise you know if I keep renewing my plate and I'm not paying I'm not going to pay any attention to the bills that so while you're there the one above it equalizing property tax Appeals let's see I
don't so this is it um it says currently personal property taxpayers only need to pay half of the tax bill to preserve their right to appeal while other property taxpayers have to P pay in full do we have that issue here I think it's just utilities who have that's all I've ever heard of is you know you can't file for you can't file for an abatement until you pay your full tax right the world with interest um like with real estate taxes um if you
pay any interest so if your bill is late and you pay any interest to a town it you it negates your right to go to the appell at Tax Board and file an appeal so you'll often see Property Owners the old the rulle is generally pay first and then if you want to dispute your bill you can but if you if you're late paying it takes away I'm asking is is this an issue of that we have that I don't see that as an issue for Town um we have a small amount I can get you percentages of personal property taxes that are
uncollectible um the issue we have there is they can't unlike real estate they cannot be leaned to a specific property so if a company goes out of business and they have no assets it can be very hard to collect but it's a very small percentage of the roughly three and a half to four million we Levy I could get your numbers if you wanted but I I I don't think it's something that would benefit the town at all okay thank you okay anything else on page five it's just the two on page five the senior means tested exemption and the collection
of Motor Vehicles yes that I have yet I had three on page six that I thought would be um something we would favor the first two the local option taxes for restaurants and hotels and then a double pole enforcement of course although we're doing really well on that I think we're we're setting the standard on how to you know how to get those used
but are there any others on that that U um so the local option taxes I mean it doesn't look like a big jump but is there what's the impact that for us well we we do pretty well with especially hotel right now um meals is going down a little bit right since before or is it yeah it's it's it's doing okay right yeah it's doing okay the the depending upon the quarter um
the idea is is it was it was the local option came when the state raised the meals tax from the previously 5% to six and a quarter uh and then they gave the local option to do it uh three4 of a percent so what they want to do is basically give the allow the community to you know to tack on you know you can see from from you know from 6% to 7% so basically you know um that's that's the ability what they're looking to do here prob
we don't have to yeah so it's extra quar extra quarter perent yeah so now would that have to go through town meeting again to to increase it oh I'm sure yeah yeah they're not going to let you do it just at the executive I thought since we already had that that already accept accepted the option before yeah okay Paul does the bus procurement one have any bearing on us with our school systems oh I not that I'm aware
of I mean I I I think we know of one Community you know you have to be a community like a conquered and so forth to actually consider doing it in house that's a symptomatic of a larger problem which is the lack of competition and school bus and that's because of the Acquisitions and mergers of school bus companies without any state effort to you know ensure that there's a viable market for it okay Lo what is
the share the shared employees when cities and towns share employees under intermunicipal agreements the conflict of interest law allows you to be lot precludes you from being paid by two different municipalities right y so this would allow you to share resources I think is what they're saying it allows an employee of one c town to take action consistent with the share of in right so is basically what you end up
doing instead is you have a lead Community like when we share dog officer with tingor we're the employer it's not a shared position so so what I think what they're trying to do is allow for shared employees um in that type of an area or if you were sharing an assessor if you were a smaller town and so forth that they wouldn't be one Community owning it and you know then does that make it easier to have shared employees like that or more difficult it depends on the situation I mean
where you know yeah it I think it really depends on a position but this gives us the option the option on a Case by case basis so is that is that something that that I don't think it's for a town like I think it's probably big out in the cape or on the western M smaller Comm okay then on the last page obviously the last one is something that we've been trying to do something about for years
um the OPB commission yeah yep can can we ask John or Darlene if there's any we missed okay John was there anything else that you thought thank you I I don't
see anything the benefit okay thank you all right so um I mean I don't know if we need to take a vote but if everybody's okay I'll write a letter to our legislators and yep Focus especially on those and then and then you have sign it though like either way the only other thing that Nim Cog asked we today I was meeting with Chris and Kelly and the other managers from the here is if we could send a copy of our letter to Nim Cog because I think Nim Cog perhaps is a council and as a entity may also help support the empowerment act so I
think that's another good suggestion is maybe a combined Voice Even though towns will have different ones you can just say we've heard from these different towns these are some common and important areas so okay now should should we you know copy the governor and yeah no downside to it yeah and I don't know same list we had with the ad the governor the governor supports this and yes the governor supports this it's really the L more likely the speaker of the house and the Senate President yeah they yeah they have been so enthusiastic particularly on the local option taxes if you've been reading well we
should definitely include our local legislators like we did before yeah that's that's who yeah that's who I was definitely going to send it to but yeah okay everybody's okay with that all right we will move on to Tom manager reports yeah thank thank you madam chair members of the board two weeks from tonight I'm be presenting you the final warrant final draft final to be executed warrant for the spring
annual town meeting this is my revised draft um there's some changes from the earlier draft uh some of which I've written some brief memos about because they were notable and uh and uh some of them obviously caught some attention uh as we heard earlier this evening um I'll just highlight the changes because we went over we went over them one by one the other meeting and I'm put you through that again but one thing we did do in speaking with the assessors and John soua was here and also with um our finance director and also with our
veterans aent virgin Jackson we met recently with the board of assessors uh last week and we've added an local acceptance to for the increase the senior exemption by Cola uh that's the that's number 19 the Clause 17f uh as and previously I mentioned you about the 21i which was to increase veterans exemptions by a COA uh again as I mentioned earlier we were discussing those COA those exemption has been in effect for many years so if you have
a $175 exemption it's not worth the weight that it had back then but we think even with the town's Financial challenges it's only fair to continue to provide some means of support for those in need uh infected by the the increase in the property tax so we're bringing forth those two companion articles uh for veterans exemption by Coler and also senior exemptions um what we are studying and and we'll look further into is is further uh providing additional exemption
relief uh in the in the terms of the veterans ones there is this multiplier that you can actually increase by 100% up to 100% the current ex the exemption with the cola that you can provide to Veterans uh and then simly on the senior exemptions you can raise the uh criteria or cut off for for assets and income and that could make more people eligible but the but that comes with a cost so we're working with the assessors to evaluate what those
are looking what other communities similar to us and nearby to us are providing and then what our budget can support uh in in the years ahead um and so that so that's you where we're going with this and this is an important and and probably uh long needed uh First Step so that's what's going on with the uh the um Article 19 again addition um following the wake of the veterans exemption is Jes how do we how do we not also provide those other people
who receive exemptions which generally tends to be seniors surviving spouses you know and you so forth um article 21 was submitted by the superintendent of schools since our last meeting this is for fost care reimbursement in order the the the school district is eligible to be reimbursed for 10% of the cost of transportation for foster children however in order to achieve that we have to under the provisions of state law adopt or approved the authorization of that
um so that's what that article is uh again it's just I think the superintendent estimated the value is between and $15,000 currently and so again why just leave money on the table if it's still available there so that's what that um that's what that article is it's basically under the provisions of state law to ex to adopt that um article 22 is is a an article that I've submitted and this pertains to the submission of
the Town manager's budget and um the deadline for that um and what I pointed out um is under the current um scenario and in the town bylaws the charter speaks to the fact that the school department or school committee submits their budget 90 days prior to the uh town meeting um and that that bud budget is supposed to be submitted to by the town manager
at least 90 days to enable the town manager to consider the effect of the school Department's requested appropriation upon the town budget um but then the town bylaws under Section 35.1 on the anual budget process says that I have to submit the um the budget and supporting documents um 90 days prior to the spring session of the town meeting um to the finance committee well the 290 days don't allow for the
consideration and for years and I again I've been here 18 years when it was level service level dollar you know level Staffing it didn't matter you know because it was just profun and you know we've been to the tri board meetings most years it was you know okay we've heard what the nooba tech needs are we heard what we heard what the um chood schools needs are we've heard what the town needs are and generally we think we can accommodate it you know and it's fine well as we saw this year that's not the case uh and I think is looking forward that probably not going to be
the case for the short future so what I'm asking is to provide a a gap or basically that I can consider the school Department's request prior to the finalization of my budget which I think is what the en the charter intended and which I think is more help critical and helpful now the other thing logistically and John can speak to this the other thing that's logistically challenging with the 90 days for the man budget is the governor releases her
state budget on the 4th Wednesday of January and as long as it's not an election year with the new governor because then they give the governor till mid-February but on most years the governor provides her budget the fourth Wednesday in January this year was fine because there were five Wednesdays in January so the fourth Wednesday in January was great it it enabled us to get our budget out in the timely manner next year Jan January starts on a Thursday not a
Wednesday this year so um it's not the budget won't be released on the 22nd uh it's going to be released on the 28th which means I'm really technically supposed 90 days in and I haven't even seen the governor's budget and that's more you know common than not the way the calendar Falls because there's 31 days in January so by pushing it back to the 10 days that I'm requesting it provides us I mean the finance crew on the side into beginning of February so we would actually see the governor's budget
see the go see the Cherry sheets that accompany the budget which come out the day after that that Wednesday uh usually in the afternoon um and then also see the school department budgets then that way we can make a holistic decision on what the recommended budget of the Town manager is to the finance committee uh select board and ultimately till town meeting so that's what this article is about and that's why it's coming up now is is because we are in a different scenario than we we have traditionally been um so that's that's what
this article is it would just amend we we didn't make the 90 days this year no and the school committee never is never ready in January so you're accelerating their schedule too yeah although I said to the do Lang when we met last Friday morning I said I said Dr Lang from my perspective see you can continue the same schedule and path that you're on it's just I'd like the ability to go to that school committee meeting when you hand out the budget on the Tuesday night and then have time
afterwards before I can make a final recommendation on a funding level for the school department in the whole town he'd have to be ready in January and they start till February right but at least I have at least I could have something because what I've also seen in recent years isft we've not seen we've not seen the school committee deviate from the superintendent's budget right um but but the whole point is is you know I I want I want to be able to see everything and not just me I'm not going to be the manager forever but whoever
the town manager is I think the intent is and I think the the the wise thing for the town would be is that budget that's put out there should should be holistic knowing as much information as possible I.E what the governor is and state aid and what all the Departments are providing including the school department are requesting um or it shouldn't be finalized or be finalized those other things are because otherwise well you can you can just imagine and the difficulty is and why that's important is in a situation like we had
this year where you're cutting services indor people in positions that matters you don't want to be jerking people around because they want to know is this it and and believe me I went I had to go through the building afterwards and explain to people this is it because the anxiety level was was off the chart because people weren't sure it's like what's going on is this that is this everything because this is different than what we've customarily had and so I think the the fairness is is and the other thing that practically works and
again with the current finance committee is they generally don't meet until the second week of February so for example the first fincom meeting is is this week this Thursday the the 13th so under this scenario I would release the budget a week before meaning the the Thursday before but it would also be the time for the packet for the select board that traditionally meets the second Monday in February as well so in essence it would be this in my mind the process would be the same for the manager You released the budget you put it in
the select board's packet you send it to fincom presenting to the selectboard on Monday night and then that following three days later presenting it to the fincom I just think I just think that's the process and I think also it's the intent of what the process should be so that that's what that article is um the next one is dog license fees and seal weights and measures fees that's I've refined it from what we we did before but basically we're we're increasing
those fees um in light of the cost of providing services and you know and particularly the sealed weights and measures fees since Nim Cog is no longer providing that service the cost that we we are uh will will incur to provide that service and again it retains town meeting approval so if we ever have to adjust them again town meeting will have to vote them so that's what that's the the revisions to 23 and 24 285 mil roow um that's a
I placed this on as a zoning um article request um and it's and I did send notice out to to you at the time through the packet as well as to the planning board um what that is is um the best way to summarize this because I don't want to read to you the memo I wrote th this goes back to the issue of providing amenities in the 129 Corridor the
we've now had the zoning in place and the only amenity we' have out there is Press Cafe and they're doing well and it's worked the problem is nothing has happened from them despite the success of Press Cafe recently where this came real clear to us is recently when the lighthouse School vacated their space on 284 mil Road um the owners um sorry 285 mil Road
the owners came and met with community development director EV balansky and me and talked about their difficulty of renting that property much as we've seen difficulty in renting on 129 and their request is to reone the property to allow for a standalone drive-thru um because right now our bylaw in the district allows for drive-thru but it
can't be a standalone building that's why Press Cafe is part of a larger building but it would allow a place like Press Cafe to actually exist in a standalone building um and what he would Envision doing at 285 mil road is tear the building down and he showed a sketc plan that showed two Standalone drive-thru restaurants and what you're really talking about is a is a is a um Starbucks kind of establishment McDonald's type of establishment Press Cafe type of Standalone establishment that's not allowed under our
bylaw even though our bylaw only allows drive-throughs on the main roads of mil Road and b r Road in that whole overlay district and only allows three such facilities one Press Cafe being one and talking to the community development director today he thought even if it was two on one site it probably would only count towards one not two but the bottom line is it it would provide amenities into that Corridor why
that site you know it could it would apply to any site in that area that I described along m road or along bcka Road from the Town Line to basically Alpha Road and only on M Road up until Z so it's a limited area that's defined already in our bylaw is this would allow drive-thru Standalone um and again we have a cap on it also the reason that they're looking to folks like like Starbucks and and the McDonald Corp or something like that is the amount of capital that's required to
take an existing building down and to rebuild a structure with a standalone you you those you need somebody with a long-term tency they're not going to do that for a plaza or you know a a small operator because you just have to you have to be able to go get financing so that's what you're looking for and at that site that backs onto the onramp of Route three and no neighbor Butters what you really why they're doing this is that's their Market
they're basically they'll tell you 90 plus perc of their traffic they would pull off of the highway and would pull back onto the highway um and I just think it's it's it's it's an opportunity that they have met with the chair and vice chair of the planning board you know they are aware that I will be discussing this with Evan on this Wednesday and they're prepared to go and discuss it with the planning board later this month um in my sense is I said the m is I think it's something the town should consider to be reactive to the
market that's out there and if the answer is no that's fine but I don't I I just feel I have a responsibility to to move this forward um and the select board will make its recommend if it gets to town meeting s Bo Mak recommendation Finance Comm recommendation planb Mak recommendation and then ultimately town meeting would decide do they want to allow this um I think it's transparent and I think it's it's just reflective of what we have in the market um so that's that's what that article is about I
can tell you there's still some tweaks going on to the article so what you see here probably won't be the final form for example they thought the size of the standal own uh in speaking to to the property owner today was too big as well as the seating is too much seating so they actually they were actually trying to diminish the size of the establishments and also the exterior appearance would be governed by the planning board so as I mentioned there it could look like the you know how they design the CVS and the town center and you've been in other
towns the cape and other locations where they build a facility that looks appropriate for the site um and the other concern they have are the operating hours um right now the operating hours are rather strict uh 10 p.m. and so forth and I think obviously they'd want that relaxed you know they point out that you know a lot of these places for coffee and that stuff are open 24/7 you know I'm not sure that's what we want there but I think 10 p.m. might be a
little tough to get anybody to um make that investment so that's where um that's what that article is on the um milroad um um 129 Bara Road Corridor and then the other one I have has to do with um zoning what I guess you'd refer to as the Maxwell's um Agway and and I want to read you an email which I'm going to share with you that I received this afternoon
because you've been see receiving some correspondence with this EV Evan balansky photoed me this message that was sent at 4:59 this afternoon from loed Martin um senior operations manager and just because I want to explain to you how fluid this is and also what their latest statement is because I know different things have been said about what and I'm not saying it's not true or not true with what was what has been said at the meeting last Saturday at the
um bam school and and so forth and just give me the Indulgence of assistant um Dear Mr balansky we would like to take a moment to express our appreciation for the time and collaboration you provided us your proactive response to our needs has been truly valued and we are grateful for the open dialogue we are writing to express our interest in acquiring the property located at 24 Maple Road which was recently listed on the market for sale this presential transaction is in a very preliminary stage and we are
conducting internal Business Review in our evaluation as well as preliminary environmental review to determine if the site meets our needs and requirements although we do not have concrete plans of fully developed Concepts at this time we are excited about the potential opportunities this property presents as a long-standing business in chelwood we have always sought to operate in harmony with the surrounding area we take pride in our reputation for being discreet and respectful of the village charm as well as all of our neighbors we intend to continue this approach to
any consideration for future development or expansion the current zoning of 24 Maple Road property CB which is the Maxwell site offers additional options but we believe that changing the zoning to limited industrial IA would provide us with the versatility to meet our needs and those of our neighbors both in the near and long term in addition to the zoning change at 24 maple road we would also like to request the opportunity to rezone the existing parking lot at 16
Maple Road that's the locky Martin site the parking lot okay parcel 1164 61-3 from neighborhood commercial CA to limited industrial IIA for the same reasons mentioned above we will keep you informed of our progress and appreciate your continued support and open dialogue throughout this process thank you again for your time and consideration I I've also heard from the owner of of Maxwell's um they obviously
support the IIA zoning change and now you can see lock is not only thrown in the request for the Maxwell site they're also their own site because the Zoning for their their building is different than for their parking lot look I don't know what's the right thing but I know that I have a responsibility to inform you in the community of the request of a major employer that provides a presence in the community for for decades as well as high-paying jobs that I think any
Community would want and desire and I would hate to be the person to learn one day and have to forward a message to you that they're moving five miles down the road to westf in vacant space on Littleton Road or someplace in Westford that's not a scare Tech if that's a reality as I said in my memo we've seen Mercury computer leave this community we've seen Kronos leave and it's not out of the question that if their needs can't be accommodated that they may leave and maybe it'll happen any way or any day or
who knows but the point is I think it's important to to make the community aware of this request uh to make you aware it it's more than likely that this won't be consumed prior to town meeting and that they I may make a request that there be no action on the article but I think it's worth knowing in the sake of transparency and awareness of the fluid economic development Market that's out there um and so
my intent at this point is is and the request is to move forward I will incorporate the request on the zoning into the final form of the warrant I will go as I said earlier to the planning board on Wednesday I expect and understand that they will go to the planning board at the end of the month um and then we have two more months to see if this gets resolved in some form of a of another in terms of whether it's a binding purchase and sale agreement or what have you or it also could be something that town meeting could take up
at a later time but see that's the Catch 22 is how do they do a you know they they would likely do a purchase of sale agreement contingent upon town meeting approval of a zoning change because like any other development they're not going to purchase that property without you know no you know they're not going to put their money at stake um and you can't just make it a parking lot because that's not allowed by zoning either um so so again what we're what we trying to do here
um is you know show a transparent form of what we're doing allow the community if it if it makes it that far to make that informed decision um and also look at the council because all this does is make the zoning change anything that were to get built on either of these projects would require special permit and approval of the planning board with legal notices of Butters and and final conditions for any project um but my my sense was that
if I didn't take this action in the draft that I just don't want to look back and say GE I wish we could have should have would have you know did we make people aware were we transparent and what was going on and I think that's what's expected of us um and I can tell you that the feedback has been as you can see in the letter and otherwise has been favorable I think that helps our reput ation in the development Community because if you don't have a
good reputation then the opportunities aren't are going to bypass you you won't even know what you've missed and then lastly in terms of the Maxwell site in speaking to the property owner and I understand property owner has a vested interest the fact that the property sits there empty and vacant is because they've been unsuccessful to find a retail Presence at that site um so again going back to the other things it's sometimes the market is telling you what exists out there and no doubt in this case the the property's of interest because
of a buttlock Eid Martin um but I think that's that's the reality and we have to respond to that reality maybe maybe it isn't at the end of April but it's going to be sometime perhaps soon and then the same thing as they said for the earlier article so I'll stop there and I appreciate you're taking the time to listen to why the request has come uh and and what we're trying to do here this is not trying to be disrespectful of the neighborhood or disrespect with the planning board or any of the process it's if there's
one thing I've learned in 18 years and through some hard times is be transparent and be transparent early um because otherwise it doesn't go well and because we don't want to be sitting here having other types of discussions of who knew what when and what why and and so thank you for your time on this this evening and that concludes my review of any changes on the warrant and I'll stop here if you have any questions on this or any of the other articles so I just want to
make one comment I I really appreciated the the memos that you included for the justifications on some of those articles you know that that was very helpful anybody have any other questions can I just ask a quick question on the locky Martin thing so the rail trail goes right between those two so from a from a from a um I don't know is the rail trail like in easen how does that work is that an ement on one of the properties or yeah let me explain to when they wouldn't be a continuously owned
no when they first came to us they asked about air rights and then how who could we contact regarding air rights or easements through the rail trail or across or over the rail trail because I think they were talking about a walkway you know like you'd see at hospitals or other things uh and we in fact Evan and I we reached out to representative catalo at the time trying to figure out who we should be talking to I think what's happened is the plans have evolved where what they would do now is they would expand on their current parking lot and
then move their parking to the to the Maxell so you wouldn't need the expense and maintenance and and unsightliness of a corridor air RS over the the rail trail so I think that's that sort of I think is waned and we haven't heard any mention of that what we're hearing instead is it'd probably be more cost effective and more effective to build on the other side but the problem is there's also a zoning thing the town is the zoning on that parking lot isn't the same as the building uh and not to mention the zoning at Maxwell's which is
different um so that's that's the pieces of the puzzle it's just all industrial they can kind of p and maybe at the end of the day as Evan says maybe at the end of the day it becomes one of these things that we saw with the UMass West Campus of the Project based zoning where you sign a development agreement and we go to town meeting that might be the ultimate outcome but I'm sort of trying to increase the transparency and bring the thing forward with the expectation that it probably won't you know be ready to move across the goal line at town meeting but I
think moving the process along only brings a benefit um because in my mind having dealt with this stuff if they're already thinking of expansion you know I I I think it's it's it sort of sets off concerns that they're looking at all options and that you know I don't think it's just limited to Maxwell's um so that's why my sense of the urgency of of making it public transparent and public thank you Paul yes in the draft
um lighting bylaw Amendment yeah who is the lighting officer and can we fund it like do we have the means to implement that I I think it would most likely Fall to the Building Commissioner it because we know we don't have means to fund the lighting officer what I'm hearing the the the the most recent revisions came from Council um the end of last week which is what you have in your packet and it's going to be discuss at the planning board on Wednesday my sense from Evan is this may
not be another one it may not be ready for Springtown meeting okay uh in the next two weeks but it's going to be discussed this Wednesday but yes that is a concern is who's going to do that workload um I think in the absence of anything it would fall to the Building Commissioner who would then become sort of this lighting officer with the light leader and everything else much like he's doing noise and some of these other concerns
if there's no further questions next on my report is the um shared seal of weights and measures uh position with the towns of tribury and Westford as we've noted here in the past um Nim Cog is no longer providing this joint Regional program um the effective way to do this is is one you know each town doesn't need a full-time person and and speaking to Nim
Cog which oversaw this program as well as the state division of standards which oversees the program looking at our case loads they're confident that one person could do the three towns of chelsford tuxbury and and U Westford and so we'd be the lead Community um in essence we would sign an agreement similar that we do for dog officer and what we're doing for supporting of the Housing Authority for it um and then you know we we would then execute basically we're going to execute
the reg the same a similar Regional agreement to what Nim Cog provided so that there's an agreement between the three towns um so that's where we're at and most likely this would be the end of the revolving fund what we would do is similar to those other things is we would receive Revenue it's funded in our budget and so it would come in as a local receipt as a revolving fund but in essence that's how it would work going forward um and that's why I had to adjust the fees because what was happening with Nim Cog is they weren't collecting enough Revenue to support the
program so that's why they saw the challenge of the fees and we price it out we see the same thing so where it says that we would obtain and own the testing equipment is that going to be like a capital expenditure that we have to get to meting approved no it's not that it's not that expensive U we have we have funding uh in the revolving fund that can cover we don't need those two towns to contribute no that way we own it because one of the things that's come up with the nimock thing is well who owns the ncog equipment uh yeah so is it is it possible to purchase some of what
ncog has going to say are they going to have tag everybody's got everybody's got their hands on on it sure so maybe whoever goes first yeah and then the last one by dalen's here is the um approval for the three-year Financial audit so I'll let D's been patient I'll let her come and speak to the board about this border good evening yeah we reach out to um to to CLA just to see if they
were willing to uh sign a um another contract with us um I didn't really see a reason to bring in another firm there's really not a lot of firms out there now and now the some of the firms are actually starting to combin um like poers and Sullivan um they they've sold off now it's actually they've been bought out by two firms um in the past year so they're not even power some really doesn't list they're under a new name um and I
think that we're both John and I feel that that um Clifton Lon they've been doing they've done a great job so we did reach out to to Matt hunt who was um our partner with them and we told them we'd like to go ahead and sign and if this the board is comfortable with that we would just change Partners in The Firm he could would just bring somebody else in he's comfortable with doing that um just to have an again and another set of eyes from his firm but it would be using the same firm um their cost is just
a little just they went up a couple, more which is very reasonable we feel that they um but both John and I have been happy with them we didn't really see it's a lot of work if we had to change firms again that upfront work for the firm and for John and I to again you have to do a complete data dump of all of our general ledger um it's just a lot of work for the firms and again they they have all our information already they would just bring in another partner to to do the next
you know the next three years audit okay any questions for Darlene no so we do need to vote on this correct yes okay yeah we have a motion here um it's not an authorization it's just a motion and approval appr approval of the uh I'll make a motion to approve the um three-year Financial audit proposal from c as presented that good
okay we have a motion and a second all in favor okay perfect thank you very much and then the last item this evening is notice that we received uh from from our current Town Council KP law that they're raising their fee for Legal Services by $10 uh at the start of the upcoming fiscal year um so have that information uh for you obviously that's an annual appointment that will
occur you know later this spring okay all right so we are on to remember leaon reports and referrals George anything Aon Virginia um just took two things the uh strategic plan has reached its next draft form um Charlene from Barry done spent a lot of time with the committee after getting all the
environmental scans and staff input and uh Paul sent that out today to the department heads and Charlene um will be going through another iteration with them with their feedback it'll come back to the committee then it will go out for public comment come back to the committee and then come back to the select board for adoption and by the April May time fre time May so they're they're on track for their one-year um schedule that they
proposed good okay and then the second thing I have is uh the vinyl square committee is meeting on Thursday and one of the major things on their agenda is um to review the draft Freeman Lake Diagnostic and management assessment that effort began in 2023 and the draft analysis is done um the town is trying to get the copy of that and when they do it'll be posted uh on the town website
but you can get to that place um from the public announcements on the homepage right now so when it's available and you want to see the document it's there and that meeting is going to be actually at the school administration building and it's also available by Zoom if people want to join in a hybrid manner okay is it it okay the only thing I have is uh earlier today um we have a new lieutenant on the police
force uh Lieutenant Dan Goen uh he was Prior a sergeant so congratulations to Lieutenant Goan for his promotion to Lieutenant and with that one more motion I'll make a motion to aurn Second all in favor thank you
e for