e e e e then you can just stop sh it I am oh how did that get oh yes e okay we're
good okay good evening so um it is a 7:01 and so we're here for our public meeting of the Danver planning board we're here at Danver Town Hall in the Tumi room uh it's March 25th 2025 I'm uh Lou George I'm the chair I'm
joined here today uh by Jee hartnet our Clerk and by Jim Sears um Tim spittle and Mike dulus are not will not be here today and we're joined also um with Josh Morris um principal planner with the town so um and so why don't we start off
with uh with our agenda and I do want to mention I think just at the the outset I mean just for for folks who might be here um just in terms of walking through the agenda today we do have a um we'll begin first item on the agenda is a transportation needs assessment uh it's
a discussion with the metropolitan area planning Council staff uh we do also have two other items on the agenda the um for 50 Independence Way and for tras Lane and it's my understanding Josh that both of those um will will be continued we'll be we'll
have we'll be moving to continue those okay so so those items will not be um will not be discussed uh today so the the one I guess substantive item we'll be uh discussing those the first item on the agenda is the transportation needs assessment I think we have a uh a guest
today from the U from MC so I guess I'll turn things over um if you want to introduce yourself and thank you state your name for the record and kind of go from there sure sounds good my name is Sarah Scott I am a senior Regional landu and historic
preservation planner at the metropolitan area planning Council MPC we are the regional planning Agency for the Greater Boston part of Massachusetts we are one of 13 Regional planning agencies authorized by the state um that exist to
to cover all communities and support all communities Statewide um our region does include Danvers which is why I am here today and we have been working on a project with Town staff mostly led by Brian zelli the planning director on
what we've been calling a transportation Community needs assessment it is an opportunity to really take a look at what some of the challenges and opportunities are in Danvers specifically related to Transportation
because there have been topic or location specific studies that have been done but not really at a higher level and so Brian had actually applied uh for funding from MPC to have us support
doing a project a study of this kind so that we could help guide the town in making decisions about how to prioritize future planning and future infrastructure Investments around Transportation rather than kind of going at it blindly and making assumptions
about about what was best so I put together a presentation that shares some of the work that we've done to date some of the findings we've had to date I will note that we are very much in the middle of the project we actually have a public survey out right now so at the end I'll
have some information about the survey and would love for everyone who's listening or attending to take the survey and share it with everyone you know um we're trying to get those numbers up so it could be representative of the community great I've taken the survey excellent
thank you preaching in the choir um all right let's see if I don't mess this up okay so and so just before we your presentation so what do you anticipate know obviously you'll be
giving a presentation will we um would you like us you know to to will you be asking us questions we have obviously we have members of the public here as well so how do you sort of Envision the presentation that's a great question so you actually set me up perfectly for my agenda slide okay great share a little
bit about project goals and context go through those existing conditions that I had mentioned talk a little bit about goals and opportunities and then and then mention the survey I think really around the existing conditions review if you have questions or Reflections about
the data that we're sharing then that's an opportunity for conversation and then similarly when we talk about goals and opportunities I think that's really where I'd love to hear from you in in terms of what you think the town should be focusing on and how we should be
starting to develop recommendations for the plan okay great and and would love to hear from members of the public as well perfect okay great thank you and I will try not to uh take up your entire evening knowing that your other items have been
continued um but this has been a really interesting project so um so as I mentioned really the Crux of the project is trying to identify what are the community's needs when it comes to Transportation more broadly speaking so rather than going directly into doing a bike and pedestrian plan or doing a
commuter rail shuttle or doing um a repaving plan analysis right like instead of going very deep trying to have that higher level needs assessment and part of what we want to look at is understand where there have been barriers in the past for implementing
Transportation related changes because the town has done plans and studies in the past related to Transportation um but those recommendations haven't always been been carried forward and at the end we hope to have recommendations for the town in order to
meet some of these Community needs by implementing recommendations right away but also there'll probably be some recommendations for for closer study and then the last bullet is just um a reference to Mass General law which has a citation that gives communities the um
the opportunity to develop a comprehensive plan also known as a master plan and danrose does not have a comprehensive plan and so part of what Brian the town planner was hoping was that this project would essentially be one of many plans almost like a
constellation of plans related to the different topics that comprise a master plan so we're we're doing a master plan kind of Peace meal so one of the things we do with pretty much every project is try to understand what are the Baseline demographics in a community and part of
that is to make sure that we're getting a clear picture of a community and part of that is to understand are there are there populations within a community like Danvers that we maybe wouldn't hear from in a typical planning process and
especially folks who would be most impacted by decisions that are made relative to the process so um so on the left I just listed some of the highle statistics that we had pulled mostly from the Strategic Danvers plan that was done recently and then also from the
housing needs assessment which was done as part of the housing production plan and so in in in my reading these demographics help us focus on what some of those priority populations are so in this case we know that there are about
650 households that don't own a vehicle which is a relatively small number when you look at the overall population but that's still 650 households right and so thinking about how do people in Danvers get around and have their needs met without having a car we also know that
133% of renter households do not own a vehicle renters are typically more likely to not own a vehicle or not be able to drive so trying to focus on hearing from renters similarly we know that seniors make up a large part of the Danver
population and seniors can have different transportation and Mobility needs families with children are a slightly smaller part of the dver population but again trying to recognize that those types of household compositions are going to be looking for
particular strategies and then also recognizing that about uh a fifth of the population daners are people who identify as having a disability and so part of what we were looking at with this list was also trying to understand who in town we should talk to so we've
had conversations with the senior center and the the veteran Services Group um we are having conversations with the disability access commission we've um put out surveys through the schools so trying to understand how to to really get the word
out so I have a series of slides here that talk about Transportation connections to other topics that Danvers has studied in in past plans um and also topics that danver's actively is engaged in today through different aspects of
town Administration I will not read everything on the slides because I know that there's a lot of information but what I was trying to show on the left were the very specific statistics so that I'm not just giving you the the kind of big picture takeaway without having that background data um but then
we can focus on the right which is really that that big picture take away so when we're thinking about connections between land use and transportation they're actually very Clos connected and one of the data points that we looked at was really trying to understand what are
existing land uses in Danvers and how does that impact how people get around in this case there's a lot of single family housing both in terms of just the percentage of um of types of housing unit but also in terms of the land area in town and so having single family
housing especially on larger Lots can increase dependence on cars because folks are more spread out it's harder to have walkability and bikeability and mixed uses um another thing we looked at was the parking requirements in zoning
which are often quite high and what a lot of Studies have found is that by requiring parking for new development it actually encourages people to drive and so that's one of the things that we want to look at for recommendations and then we were also
trying to understand Trends in terms of uh of new development especially in terms of housing units and what we saw was that there's actually been pretty significant growth in uh buildings with more than 50 units and so as a number of housing units increases
there are more opportunities to support Transit and active Transportation through the development review that you do but then also in terms of thinking about where that's cited and feel free to to stop if you have questions or comments on any of these but we can also wait until we get
to the end of this section this is a graphic that we had taken from I believe it was the Downtown parking study that was done in 2015 and what it does is it compares the amount of building square feet which is
the the blue part of the bar to the amount of parking uh the amount of square footage dedicated to parking that is required for each one of these uses that's identified in the zoning ordinance and so the the dash line that I had dropped down there is showing you
where that one to one ratio is higher or lower and so this is just reiterating a finding from the Downtown parking study that there are very high minimum parking requirements um even higher than what some of the more conservative Traffic
Engineers tend to estimate we also think about transportation in the context of Housing and employment um what's interesting is that in Danvers there are a lot of jobs that are based here but not a lot of people who live in Danvers work in
Danvers it's really only 14% of the population so residents mostly don't work in Danvers and they mostly drive to work because they don't have many other options and the people who work in Danvers mostly do not live in Danvers and they are also mostly driving because
they don't have that many other options and so what we can think about here is a little bit of that mismatch between residents and um and employees and how that con traffic congestion I just ask a question just in terms as we're you know talking about this the statistics here
in terms of people who work in Dam living in damers I mean um has there been any change over time in terms of in terms of you know remote work at all in terms of numbers of um you know has that has that I assume that that's changed over that that's changed over time I I
can say that even personally you know in terms of um I've gone from from working you know for uh you know going into Boston every day to now you know now working for the most part remotely yes I believe that most of the statistics that we had pulled from are based on the 2020
census so they're probably not reflecting that as intensely um I do think that it's an evolving landscape as well because there's also so many return to office mandates from different employers um and so I can I can take
another look and see where some of the data had come from and if there's more Nuance that I can share with you yeah yeah and you also hear about people who are coming into the you know who are you know you you I hear of the phenomena too of people even with work with back to work mandates are doing I think as they
call it the coffee badging where they'll actually go into the office and they go and um read about it where you go where they go in and they see some people they go in spend part of the day there but then they go home oh I see come home at lunch or something like that so they've done the
in the office but they've actually you know so they've they've shown their face they've gone to the office they've they've they've clocked in in essence but then they uh then they're on the roads coming back right so understanding how remote and hybrid work is changing traffic patterns yeah no that's a great
question we also looked at connections between transportation and climate this was mostly looking at the resilient Danvers plan that was completed recently which had done a lot of analysis already about uh Transportation especially
related to emissions um so like many other communities in Massachusetts transportation is a big chunk of the emissions that are generated in the town and so what that means is that you really need to focus on reducing Transportation emissions if you want to meet your climate goals you can try to
meet them through changes in uh you know in building and construction but transportation really gives you a good bang for your buck one of the other things that I thought was interesting was that there's actually a higher amount of vehicle miles traveled by danver's residents than there are
residents in Beverly and Salem and certainly there are so many different factors that you could think about that um that influence that but just showing again how Danvers is a little bit more car Centric than some of its neighboring communities um probably partly because
of the transit that's available but also because of those land use patterns um and then we also see that a lot of emissions come from people actually just driving within Danvers which I found quite interesting and so that points us to a need for residents to have options
to travel within the town without a car so it's not just about looking at commuting patterns or going to school or you know the grocery store but also just getting around town and I think there for me that's a really nice entry
point for thinking about how the town can make improvements because sometimes when you're thinking about Transportation within a broader system so thinking about like Greater Boston commuting right it's it's hard to think about okay what are the levers that Danvers can pull
there this is a graphic that we pulled from the resilient Danvers plan and so this shows um the uh the sources of emissions and so you can see here that gasoline is by far the the highest
source of emissions compared to these others we also were interested in looking at the town's complete streets policy um and it's uh safe roots to schools policy and programs so these are two programs
that are um are essentially kind of national programs national standards that are often administered by States and then adopted locally complete streets is really focusing on the opportunity for people um to travel using different types of Mobility on the
same street and then safe roots to schools is about making sure that there are ways for students to get to school that uh that prioritize walking and biking as opposed to having to be driven to school um so just again some
statistics on the left about danver's participation in both of these programs um which is active but also there's some room for for increased participation um the town has a complete streets policy and a complete streets plan those are kind of the first two
tiers of the state's program and then the third tier is being able to receive funding um to really Implement these projects which the town has not done yet and actually mot recommends revising prioritization plans about every five
years so so I am anticipating one of our recommendations will be revising the complete streets prioritization plan um and then similarly there are a number of schools that are partnered with the safe roots to schools program but not all of them are and then even those that are partnered haven't necessarily taken
advantage of all the different um offerings through that program how does um like school buses fit into that that's a good question I don't know the details I think that the focus of safe roots to school is more on
W walking and biking um I think it's less about bus transportation for sure yeah yeah could you give a definition of please could you go and actually I'm sorry just go just for the purpose of minute so we
can go yeah could you go to the podium yeah thanks address any questions to the chair if you don't mind yeah could could you give us a definition of a complete Street and could you name could you give you your name sorry what could you give you a name just for the record John
buard Cross Line Circle in danas sure I can give that a try um so a complete street is as the name somewhat reflects a street that is providing space providing opportunity for
different modes of transportation so it would not be exclusively for one mode of transportation um so most streets in Danvers probably have a roadway for cars to travel down and then probably have a
sidewalk for pedestrians as well and so that would be considered a complete Street um you don't necessarily have to have have um vehicle a vehicle travel Lane and a buson lane and a bike lane
and a sidewalk and you know yeah so it so the name is is I think both uh reflective of the goal but also maybe a little bit ambitious in terms of what complete means yeah yeah sure so this is a map that shows the
schools in Danvers and it shows um in the icons it might be a little hard to see on the big screen um but the icons are colorcoded to show schools that participate in the safe roots to schools program those are the orange schools um they're all east of uh of Route One if
that helps you identify the colors a little better and then the the kind of purple blobs that emanate from the the school icons is a half mile walk Shed from each of the schools so it shows you approximately um how far it would take
to walk a half mile from each school and some of those walk sheds kind of meld into each other um I think what's interesting about this map and and something we can certainly talk about is that it it gives you kind of an entry point to thinking about where you might want to
prioritize uh safe roots to school program participation and then also what types of safe roots to school programs that you might want to engage in and then outside of that thinking about okay well where are there opportunities to actually prioritize
just improving the sidewalk infrastructure for example or repainting crosswalks because you see that there's multiple schools that are benefiting from the same walk shed this might start a series of maps
we'll see okay not quite yet um we also were looking at down parking specifically because we know that downtown is kind of distinct from other parts of of Danvers especially the more residential parts and because there had been a Downtown parking study that was
done um again I think in in 2015 and so what the study showed was that there is an overs supply of parking downtown and that's based on these industry metrics for what it means to have uh enough parking that folks who need to are able
to Park but not so much parking that you just constantly have a sea of open parking spaces um and that goal is really about having 80% of your parking spaces used at any one time um and the usefulness of the study too is that it
was looking at both on street parking and then what we call off street parking which would be more of those larger Municipal Lots yeah I see a question right so so so that percent and I welcome any other board members to have questions too but if if if this is so the percentage
you're looking at so when you're looking at this percentage is that Tak into account so that Takens that takes into account the street parking spaces and maybe a parking lot that is maybe a little further yep further down yep so the study had is there is there sort of
a like a certain number of yards or something that you look at in terms of what's considered you know frankly close you know so I know that the study had identified a a particular B of of where they were studying the parking and they did look at
distinctions between on street parking and those offre Street Municipal lots and I think they may have distinguished actually between the off Street Municipal lots and the off- street private Lots as well so so again this is us just really trying to lift some of those those big picture takeaways but
there's more detailed data in the study that was done yeah because there's definitely I think of there's I think there might be a difference between between statistics as well as I think perceptions as well yes and I think that part of what the study had showed was that there is demand that is more
concentrated in specific areas and so that can lead to a perception that there is no parking available especially if everyone's trying to to kind of get the spot right in front of the store at around the same time and so one of the
recommendations of the study was not about increasing or decreasing the supply parking but trying to improve parking management so thinking about uh for example having on street spots be time limited but having Municipal Lots
be not time limited to encourage a little bit more turnover in front of businesses for people are parking in front of business signage that sort of better signage exactly so being able to say don't worry there's more parking just half a block away if you're not able to find it right here I think one
of the other interesting things from the study too was folks who really talked about wanting a more walkable downtown and I think part of that is like you were saying really being able to show that there is ample parking and that you have the ability to park once and then
walk to one or more destinations once you're downtown so we are not focusing exclusively on downtown for for our project um but we did think it was useful to to single it out because you have had focused attention on it and we
know that it's an important issue for a lot of people okay so then we've got a few Maps um so this is a map that shows roadway jurisdiction in the town the uh the green lines are roads that are accepted by the town so the the town controls
them and then the kind of pinkish lines are ones that are unaccepted and then the thick gray lines are the the roads that are controlled by mast do and so the reason why I think this is important to show is that yes there are some roads
that are not controlled by the town that may be contributing to Transportation challenges or where folks would really like to prioritize opportunities and and you know maybe that is possible and and we can certainly talk about those sorts of recommendations um but also not being
frustrated by the inability or or the difficulty of for example having a conversation with Mast do about Route One access because the town actually control 62% of roadway in Danvers and so thinking a little bit about okay well
again where can the town really prioritize Investments and where does it have the most ability to control what the outcome is this is a map that shows the public transportation that currently exists in Danvers as I'm sure all of you know and
have experienced there's pretty limited fixed rout bus service um especially I know since one of the the bus routes was taken offline due to low ridership um one thing that I was kind of surprised by not being from daners was that there's really no transit to get you to
a Commuter Rail station um so you don't kind of have a reliable almost like Transit shuttle type of system to get to commuter rail and that for the most part the transit that does exist whether it's MBTA or the capan Transportation Authority or Logan Express is actually
really focused on access to the Liberty Tree mall that's kind of become the transit Hub as opposed to for example downtown and there had been just so you know I mean there had been that the bus route which was the 465 bus that went from and I know because I used to I I
would when I worked in Boston you know sort of pre- pandemic I I took it and you took it to the and it actually ran in the morning it had a it had an a quote unquote Express that took that left Danver square and and went directly to Salem Depot MH okay and so they would do the same thing
on the other way on the other way around so that did it did exist you know historically from the down you know from the downtown that's good to know yeah and um and if if you caught it during the other the off times it was it would do the circuitous route through the malls okay but then but again if you if
you caught it right in the morning or in in the afternoon 5:30 or 6 o'clock coming back you it was it was the straight shot back in okay which was great it was like a it was you know it took you 15 minutes or something that is great this map shows the existing
sidewalks and trails in Danvers the orange lines are the sidewalks and the green lines are walking trails um I also know that there is two shared use paths that that go through Danvers um and what's interesting here to note is that
there's fairly limited sidewalk connectivity outside of the downtown area so I think if you if you gave this map to someone and they didn't know Danver at all you said where is Downtown you could probably point to it just because there's more of a of a sidewalk
Network in that area and so folks that are outside of downtown especially folks on the west side of the highways really have quite limited sidewalk access and this is shown in this map which is a a metric called potential for
walkable trips this is a metric that um that Mast doot puts together and so what it shows in the orange are segments of that sidewalk Network that have a medium potential for walkable trips and then in
red are the segments of the sidewalk that have a much lower potential for walkable trips and so um again I'm sure as no one is really surprised um there's a higher potential for walkable trips in downtown and and part of that is because of the existence of sidewalks but it's
also sidewalks being able to take you to and from places so it's connected to land use as well um and again you can see that some of these lower density residential neighborhoods really don't have great walkability and so it can make it
challenging for people to get around without cars and can create isolation um this is a study that actually just came out recently and uh made the rounds in my office which was done by um by a number of researchers that were looking at the correlation
between car ownership and happiness um I as a car owner myself I you know I think that I like being able to drive somewhere if that's what I need to do um but I don't necessarily want to have to drive to be able to do everything and so
they were they were trying to kind of look at this balance and I guess their findings were that for um for kind of the average person in a typical week if they relied on a car for more than 50% of their activities then they actually reported a decrease inre in life
satisfaction so the reason why I put this up is just to kind of to make the point that we're not necessarily looking at this study in order to say well no one should be driving no one should own cars but instead to say it's it's not about
taking away this option it's more about giving folks additional options to be able to make that choice when it works for them um the map on the right is the service area map for the Salem Skipper which is a relatively new um shuttle
it's it's a type of Transit called microtransit which I feel like it's a very challenging description to use but basically the idea being that it's uh it's it's not fixed route and it's not operated by the MBTA or the capan
Transportation Authority it's more of an OnDemand uh service very similar to an Uber or a lft um the difference here is that there is a a service area and so you need to be picked up and dropped off uh within the service area and so as the
name indicates the Salem Skipper originated in Salem you can see there's a much larger service area there and then expanded to Beverly and now to Danvers and so um we have been trying to understand the role of microtransit in particular Salem Skipper as part of the
overall Transportation picture in Danvers but then also how that relates to the use of r share the graph on the top left just shows um ride share usage in Danvers starting in 2017 and then going up to 20123 so you can see there
was a bit of a dip during the pandemic um but overall an increase in the use of of ride share and so whether that's because folks don't have a car but need to get around with a car or they don't want to drive they'd rather take a ride or you know we don't know the details
there but at least just noting that there is this trend so that's the main portion of what I was calling the existing conditions um if you'd like we can take a break and uh I'd be interested to hear what you've learned if you think that there's information that's missing that's
important for us to know um but then also if you had additional questions whether they were clarifying questions about what the data means um but then also if you had questions just kind of about how we might use it sounds good turn to the board any
questions Jim yeah um sure I think obviously the downtown area is important because we're doing we have all that additional Zoning for um additional development downtown and how that's going to interrelate with the need to
uh create more housing downtown and to manage that traffic and as you said you know ideas like perhaps 15-minute parking in front of the coffee shop or things like that to keep people moving along where they like to think it's a Starbucks and stay there for 4 hours and
do their taxes um you know can can help with that um but I think that's important um and like you said at the beginning I think that the problem we're having with the bus routs is the lack of population that needs the public
transportation which you know would kind of reduce our likelihood of getting additional funded opportunities or maybe state aid because I know our State Rep is been trying to get you know that bus route back but if people aren't going to use it because they don't need it um or
you know we love our cars um we do have that one development I think which kind of skewed your I I don't know if you did this in 2020 do you take in effect the Big Maple Square building is that part of your building's over 50 units because that's really the only probably not we
have over 50 units recently you may have cuz that that was a approved a while ago okay so that might have skewed your um June of 2022 huh yeah but we we approved the zoning on that the square the maple Square project
was approved in June of 2022 so just for context I'm not sure exactly yeah right but we approved the 40 a zoning probably a few years before that the uh the 40 R the Maple Street 40R was um in in December of
2017 yeah so I don't know if that y um I'm not sure yeah what we Sarah and I can discuss uh that slide or that info or the data for that it wasn't I wasn't sure myself what that was referring to but we could talk we could talk about it
yeah but I think that's obviously the impetus once that building gets occupied and I know that they're working on that now um that that's going to have a tremendous impact I think with the need for more downtown um public
transportation and and um parking management um I like the idea of that microtransit uh and the commuter rail Transit idea if we could have like a a certain area downtown to you know
transport people right to the Beverly train station that' be a great idea you know and then the only other piece I think is try to we we talked about our last meeting in the effect of you know the adus um how that might
impact uh your numbers as well uh whereby you're not necessarily adding new homes but you're adding these additional units and and how that would kind of factor into future planning you know so but I I appreciate
it I think you did a great job great thanks J Jean any questions or comments or um I think it's a comprehensive presentation thank you um one of the questions I had on the
school slide it would be interesting to see the the areas in like if you differentiate between what type of school whether it's high school or at the middle school or elementary school because there's a lot of
overlap um in terms of breaking apart ages yeah um and then I well just from personal experience like we are a lot more walkable towards Riverside and we're at
Flex street so then we got put to Thorp which is not exactly walkable so like I know it depends on class sies and things like that but maybe there's a way to have people that are more walkable for an elementary school actually be put
where they can walk to um and yeah I like the you're focusing on parking management versus just adding uh more parking to the downtown especially if there already is enough just utilizing what we have um
and then I also was not aware of the Salem ride share service so that was good information to have um thank you it's just informational on that Salem Skipper it's when you I've taken it um it's actually the ride cost is only
$2 so I took a u a ride from I walked to downtown and had to go home and uh it was to Beverly and it was it was $2 it was a good experience good I'd recom i' highly recommend little better than surge pricing right yes is it on a
certain schedule no it's so that's what's really nice about it um it's like a um the issue the issue but it just um I don't know if it goes till I don't know if it's like 1 or two in the morning but it's certainly kind of what
you think of it's like regular business I I I believe it's probably at least like 8 88: a.m. to 7:00 p.m. type situation is there a certain app or something how do you yes yep it's called the Salem Skipper and what qualifies you to get use of it just being
a resident or working in Salem Danvers and Beverly so the fact that you live in Danvers you can you're as long as you're within that I guess as long as you're within the catchment areas if that map it's uh we these the three
communities uh Danver Salem and PD kind of went in like a joint like uh we received funding I think it was like a um it was a federal Grant of some type I believe there was some federal funding um that was awarded uh it was sort of
like this like a pilot program I believe uh Brian and Aaron could speak more to it um a maybe two years ago plus s it it has been utilized in Salem for a year or two and we were we've been trying to
jump on and uh we were able to uh Danver and Beverly's able to join and uh I believe that access for daners folks was um probably about a year ago I believe and I think it's still going to it's a
pilot so there is it the end date is either in a year or two and it's sort of a way to show Transportation folks that that you know this option is is viable and we should continue to um you know invest in it I had just a couple of questions and
I know and also want to make sure we get some questions from the members of the audience too but just a just a couple of questions I had in terms of the um sort of you know I know you mentioned some popular destinations and all um have you looked into also some additional Transportation like I know that we have
like Logan Express is is now here in in Danvers and just I mean personally when I've gone on work trips it's been um it's been great I mean being able to you know I used to be the driving to the to the to Wonderland and taking the subway and leaving the car overnight a few days there and but then um now you can you
can you know Logan Express is is right there so it's but getting there can be a little bit challenging too at times like you know impose upon my you know wife to drive me to Logan Express at you know 5 o'clock in the morning yeah potentially you could you as we were just speaking
out you could you maybe not I'm not sure about 5:00 a.m. but you could you could do the Salem Skipper from your downtown which you would be in that catchment and you could take that it would be a $2 ride from your neighborhood to the loan express that's that's good and and I'm
interested also sort of in knowing just in terms of that sort of the impact of sort of what of people using Logan Express because it definitely seems it seems popular for sure as well as um I'm also interested sort of I know you said you've been working with the the senior center um I mean just you know my own
you know you know just anecdotally I know my uh you know my mom made use of the uh of the of the senior you know the senior van you know when she when she stopped driving so that's definitely I think that's been a great resource I know for the town um you know the you know coming from the the council and you
know Council and aging so um and I guess one the things that that that did um that surprised me a little bit is the uh that did surprise me bit was respect to the um I guess in terms
of the parking in downtown and I know that there that that there's more parking than sort of the perception but the numbers do you know surprise me a little bit uh does that take into account I guess I guess we'll see you know does that take into account potentially you know future development
in downtown as well or does that's sort of where we currently stand yeah I think that's um um okay um so the parking study I believe was done in 2015 and so it would have reflected conditions then I know that
part of the study included looking at what the development potential of downtown could be if the parking minimum requirements were lower Andor if shared parking was something that was allowed so sharing essentially sharing parking
requirements and parking spaces across you es even within the same development um so there was a little bit of that type of projection but I think the study focused more on current conditions as opposed to uh for example I think folks
were talking about specific developments right like it it wasn't necessarily a um like a a traffic impact analysis that you would get as part of a special permit and and in terms of just in terms of you know you I guess you know knowing
the field and all I guess in terms of um you hear about this and you see in about how people about the attachment to cars is that that that has been changing I guess as people have been getting you know um you know I think younger Generations I I'm feel very old now but
younger Generations are are not as attached to cars as maybe some of the you know older Generations are you seeing anything in that are we looking at is there a progression where people will be more likely rather than owning a car we'll be doing ride share we'll be doing other bike or other stuff that's a
great question I don't have the statistics off the top of my head but they are posted in the break room at my office so I can take a photo and send them to Josh tomorrow um because there was a study that was done that looked at Transportation preferences by age and um
I forget if I think it looked at Millennial and jenzy and there was a very strong preference towards um not relying on cars and walking and biking and taking Transit kind of on the other end um AARP has actually been one of the biggest
proponents of um of Mobility U yeah Mobility options and uh and what we would kind of call Smart growth or sustainable development in terms of being able uh for for seniors in particular to be able to access goods and services um and live a healthy
independent life um we as part of the survey actually that we've put out we have a series of optional demographic questions at the end and that is partly for us to be able to make sure that we're trying to track as closely as we
can to overall demographics in town um but then also if it's you know if if the data kind of leads us to it um maybe pulling out data by different demographics and so um one of the I think most brilliant things that Brian did as part of this project is he was
able to get taking the survey to be counted as community service credit with the high schoolers and so as soon as that email went out we had a spike in under 18 taking our survey um that's since you know kind of uh kind of
flattened a bit so it's it's actually pretty representative of the Town um but in terms of the study though you you have the stats of you know the current stats in terms of population figures so in terms of whatever the study shows you'll be able to see sort
of you know I guess normal I it all right is that yeah yeah and we can also again if the data is compelling we can say um people under 18 prefer X people over 65 prefer y or you know that sort of thing um especially when it comes to
for example thinking about the senior center um the the senior center director actually had shared data on the shuttle that we're working on incorporating into the analysis as well um so I think that will probably provide something interesting to look at yeah I think to the ENT that people I think people like
to be able to I think the whole idea of I think also looking at this the complete streets I think people like to be able to you know to the extent they can to be able to walk to places to be able to not have to get into the car for everything you know even that's that's something that you know living we live sort of close to downtown so it's nice to be able to you know go to the go up
the street to get a bottle of milk or something like that if you don't uh without having to get in the car for everything yeah so okay so before we go to public comment I might just wrap up with a few additional slides if that's okay that's fine and then we can have a broader
discussion um so in addition to the data that we had pulled looking at all these specific statistics we were looking big picture at the recommendations from these different plans and studies and we found seven different plans that were
done in the past 10 years which is generally the frame of reference that we use for these kinds of past plan analyses and there were actually over 40 Transportation related recommendations so there's no shortage of recommendations that already exist um we
won't have to be uh you know rebuilding the wheel here but what I think was interesting was the different topics that the recommendations fell into across all of these different plans and so as you can imagine parking was a big one especially in the Downtown parking
study and um and energy and Emissions was a big one from resilient Danvers but some of these other topics like active Transportation which is kind of the broad category we use to talk about walking and biking and uh what some people call rolling so using like
Scooters or things like that um and then also looking at Transit looking at public realm Improvement so um I forget Lou if it was you who was talking about signage downtown right like that would be considered a public realm Improvement um and then also planning so something
like the complete streets prioritization plan or having a repaving plan um also came up these recommendations so one of the things we're interested in doing with with our recommendations our sort of meta recommendations is thinking
about how they relate to these different topics and since I am a planner uh I always go back to what is the the kind of Community Vision and the community goals which in this case was expressed through strategic Danvers which um was a
really robust Community process and and done fairly recently so there were five goals that came out of this process and I highlighted the two that I think really have the strongest correlation to Transportation um although I think you can make the argument that that all of
them are connected the first one is about preserving and enhancing parks open spaces sidewalks and streets so that's thinking not only about kind of Transportation uh in terms of people getting around but also the recreation aspect as well and then the other is
being intentional about growth in ERS and recognizing that connection between land use and transportation and how they influence each other so the the thing that I'll kind of leave you on is the the two-sided coin
right Challenge on one side opportunity on the other and thinking about some of the goals that were mentioned in strategic Danvers and and I kind of reformulated them here in terms of thinking about what can the town control relative to Transportation improvements and so one thing that seemed really
important was about supporting downtown businesses that came across in multiple plans another important goal was about reducing traffic and congestion and then the third one that that I really saw come out of um of these plans was providing Mobility
options for people who don't drive and that's not necessarily something that I think people are saying directly but it comes about indirectly through some of the other goals and recommendations and so um so if if those three questions you
know those three goals are resonating with you that's great but if they don't if you think that they are other things that are important curious to hear about that if you think that there are specific recommendations that the town should focus on especially in the next three years whether that's something
perhaps um at a higher level like talking about the Salem Skipper and expanding the service area there or if it's something very specific like we need to improve the crosswalks at this one particular intersection um and then
lastly just kind of thinking about what it would take to move some of these recommendations forward so Danvers does not have a transportation department you don't have a transportation planner a lot of Transportation work is uh is divided between the um blanking now
Community devel planning and Community Development was the name of your department yeah that's okay the planning and Community Development Department land and Community Development the land ENT Community Development Department Services yeah that department yeah the planners
um and the engineers in the Department of Public Works right so also kind of thinking about um what are the other priorities of those departments and those staff what are the constraints that they're working under and and how does that impact the types of recommendations that that you want to
prioritize so we can leave it there just Reflections questions um and then uh at the end I'll just come back to the slide with the information about the survey okay sounds good thank you for the thanks for the presentation any other
any other questions or comments for members of the board I want to hear from members of the public if they have any comments or questions I would just add to the first item um support downtown businesses and new residents because in the next three years we could see a
couple hundred new residential units um in downtown so I think we need to factor that into the equation because they will be um you know parking at their residences and hopefully you know taking
advantage of walking and and um the stores and businesses downtown but also um they'll have guests and they'll be some increased retail development I think is part of it but you're going to have a lot potentially a lot more residents downtown I know I talked to
someone the other day about the the 140 plus unit development on Maple uh Crossing down there and um I'm told they already have about 45 people that have applied for apartments so um in three years that should be fully tened along
with if the dams Hardware development gets off the ground and someone starts building that and then Murphy's and you know some other smaller developments but you know in 3 years you could see see you know a couple hundred more residences in there and they could vary
from Studio to two to three two not really many threes but twos and one unit um one bedroom apartment so you could see a fair amount of growth yeah so Jean anything further or any questions no I would only make I I would make a
suggestion as well in terms of provide Mobility options for people who don't drive or for those who choose not to drive or choose to drive less sort of picking up with that even the you know the sort of the I think the happiness
slide you had there in terms of people who um you know so you might be have a situation where someone you know they have a you know have a car and but they just don't may they may not want to you know they want that Transportation option where they want to go um you know maybe they they they want to go to the
mall without having to deal with you know without without having to drive that particular time or they want to go to Logan Express and not have to to um you know to to to get an Uber or bother bother a friend for a ride mhm yeah thank
you um I want to see if anyone from the from members of the public if they had any comments or questions or thoughts definitely Mackenzie come on up and go for it just introduce yourself for the
record and Bill McKenzie 34 Harbor Street I think this is a really good presentation but it's really old m a lot of the data and everything is you know 2015 a little bit further up as we were talking you you were
talking earlier about how many more people are going to be downtown damas that the pocking is going to be a problem so we should have some type of service to get people in and out of the square and go further into our town I
don't think bike lanes are going to be what we're looking for because I don't think this is a town for bike Lanes but I think taking the sidewalks that we do have and making sure they maintain properly get all the brush and all the debris and everything that falls on these sidewalks and maintain it I know
right now people say oh it's the person that owns the house in front of the sidewalk you know that doesn't work a lot of people are lazy I think us as a town and we should all get together and do that and maintain our sidewalks
other than that I don't have anything else to say thank you you great thank you any other y Mr Bard John bushard don't make fun of me but down in Florida in developments down
there people have a car and they have a golf cart oh yeah a golf cart's a possibility to go into downtown Danvers to eliminate a lot of the traffic congestion I wouldn't mind taking a golf cart I mean I only live
you know a mile away I wouldn't mind taking a golf cart would that help alleviate some of the congestion in downtown danas it may be it works very well in Florida people put their car in the garage and they drive around that golf
cart all over the and they on roads they got number plates on them they're licensed they share the road with cars it there's a resident near me that has one one yeah oh really on Reservoir he has one yeah people try to outdo each other with the golf carts down there
they're not regular golf carts you look at them they look better than most cars but they work yeah just okay is yeah is that something that just picking up on that I mean is that something that's that's done in massachus I was not prear
with that question um I I am curious about so um I I too have driven golf carts in Florida um in Key West where they are the cars yep yeah exactly take a golf cart
just straight down um I don't know the legality of that one and I think yeah I I don't know in terms of like if it's a town-owned road versus you know the highway like there's probably restrictions there um and then I don't know if it's like something that the
state allows across the board versus like a town would have to get permission from the state so I mean certainly I can ask around about it I think um part of what you're referencing is what Transportation planners will often call um the first and last mile connection
right and so for for some folks you can achieve that through biking right so like I actually bike a mile to get to a bus to go to work and if I wasn't able to bike um it makes my commute a lot more of a headache but not everyone can
bike and a mile is is generally like too far for people to walk comfortably so then is there an option like the Salem Skipper where you could just on demand you know get get a quick ride and you're not necessarily waiting every 30 minutes
for a bus or something like that um I do think yeah those first and last mile connections are the trickiest ones for sure yeah that's good okay yeah yeah hello Lauren Steves um town meeting
member Precinct 3 um interesting you bring up the golf carts I I think it works really well down my in-laws live in the Carolinas they live in a a community and they take their golf cart everywhere there's also no stop there's no stop lights there's no intersections you know they go down to the pool or the
bar the restaurant there and it's kind of a miles and miles of community but you're not going out on main roads um um I do know that you can get them to be um street legal because I've seen someone driving down by Plains Park uh one last
summer but um what I will say is I I'm a millennial and I 10 times out of 10 will choose to drive myself everywhere because I like to be in control it's just a personal choice that's my my husband feels the same way I have a lot of friends who feel the same way
um that's just a personal choice I will say um that MBTA bus was taken out of service cuz there there was low ridership there was not uh a an overwhelming need for it um I would be concerned about limiting
parking downtown um because as we know Maple square is set to open in the next month or so um from what I understand and correct me if I'm wrong there is zoning for x amount of spaces for the 149
Apartments the people who own maple Square are allowing one parking space per unit and they're charging for all other allotted spaces on that property which is going to push people into that Municipal lot fulltime all the time
parking their cars there um so 149 Apartments there's five three bedrooms there's about 62 bedrooms then you have one-bedrooms and Studios and maybe you have couples who have two cars living in the one bedrooms we might have
a lot of cars that we're not anticipating um and people who don't frankly want to pay for the second spot so they just say oh there's a municipal spot uh parking lot right across the street I'm just going to park there for free all time you saying like like potentially they'll they'll maybe they'll or they'll pay for the one spot
and take their chances no they'll take their free spot and they won't pay for the second spot and they'll Park in the municipal lot cuz I that was me I'd be doing that um you know you might have three 32 somethings or 30 somethings that they can't afford so they're going to split that three-bedroom apartment and they're
going to have three cars CU they might travel for their job I know my husband just got a promotion now he's going to be traveling all in New England um people's jobs change all the time their needs for where they're going change all the time um and I guess I just have like I
want a a a clarification on what it means to make downtown more walkable because I I don't know if you're talking in the sense of sidewalks or in the sense of people getting there because if you live on Dayton Street or on the Beverly line downtown's never
going to be a walkable area for you you're never going to be able to walk to downtown from your residence it's just it's too many miles um so I don't know if you mean walkability in the sense of like hey everyone in town should just start walking downtown from their residences
or maintaining sidewalks or or what that kind of looks like um La can I ask me I ask can I clarify what does that generally mean in terms terms of the when you say walkability of downtown what does that generally entail I think it means walkability once you are
downtown so less about going to and from and more about once you're there like you were saying having well-maintained sidewalks and signage and and benches and crosswalks and and good lighting and yeah okay trees yeah I mean I I totally
agree with all that I think that's great to have well-marked sidewalks and benches and and all of that kind of stuff I 100% agree with that um I also personally feel that any money that you know any of these recommendations or money I would love to
see our roads and our sidewalks also be repaired and upkept um I drove down I don't know what street it was Colgate somewhere in Woodville and I was like holy cow this I used to have a paper there when I was 12 years old and
I was like Wow but the Street's terrible um so I would really like to see money to be spent on on keeping up our roads and um sidewalks so so people have the opportunity to walk if they so choose um yeah so that those are my thoughts on
that thank you thank you Mr Brad street did you have something so your hand up um while he's going up I am curious are are the municipal Lots not enforced
regulated so in in terms of like you have a parking we have a parking officer there is okay and is and has has planning office they they you you've received I think complaints if someone's been overp parked there for someone um not usually the municipal
Lots but um if something Rises to a situation where it's a common issue we we are in communication with you know other staff yeah but there's a lot on hobot uh is that 24 hours not sure about that that comment that
was brought up tonight I'm not I don't I'm not sure about that I was thinking about that actually um there's no time limit on hogart that's that's probably if there's no time limit I guess as we speak that there's not so would that be wasn't
would the selectman regulate or is they just regulate on street parking um so would you need to have the selectman Andor I believe if you were to make any change or policy change in on street or in aible lot I believe right that they would probably have they would
have to go of the park Commissioners but I would think if if if that's an issue that's going to come up right then that may have to be addressed quickly that's possible yeah yeah to prevent that problem but I think it's a common thing for newer developments like that to charge for parking even believe it or
not yeah but they do it in Bevy they do it another other but if we're mandating it by zoning we're saying you have to you have to 180 spots and they're saying well we'll give them 120 but we're going to charge for the other0 we're mandating that they have to
have those bases but then we're going to turn around and allow them to charge people for it we can't regulate we can't regulate whether they charge or not that's not something we can regulate so say Okay 179 SPS you're going to pay for 179
SPS then they then they won't rent there if they don't want to pay but I can tell you there there are a lot of newer Construction in Lely and that's what they they charge not only they're charging you for your apartment fee water they charge you for water and sewer they charge you for utilities and
they charge you for parking a lot of the stuff on ran tool that came back got built recently it's like a condo but you're renting it and you have to pay for parking just because there's a demand well again then don't rent there
you know it Eyes Wide Open renting in and the whole just the whole justification for that zoning was to encourage people to have one car downsize from your house if you're
seniors into these apartments one car from two cars or you're a millennial you come in you're going to take advantage of the public transportation which we don't really have Andor other modes of transportation and you and your other
significant other use one car so that's really the push of that zoning that's why they got the density bonus that's why instead of requiring two parking spaces for a two-bedroom it's like one and a half and so that's that's the zoning that's what I that's how that
building got built but you can't you can't the planning department can't regulate how a private business charges for parking or not you know what I mean you just need to provide they provide the parking
right and they meet the numbers that's just like back in the day you'd go to elmy and Salem and you'd have to pay to park in their parking lot M that's just the private you know I mean you can't still have to pay to that for that par most
places like in downtown Beverly you park anywhere in Beverly on ranol it's all metered everything's metered we're not at that point and hopefully we won't get to that point but but that's way of them collecting Revenue to maintain their roadways to maintain their sidewalks and
to grab some additional revenue and those parking meters are there till like 9 at night it used to be you know six yeah back in the I remember as a kid going like to Woolworths and all they had parking meters in downtown they took pennies yeah remember that now they
take your credit card because you don't need a Metate exactly Mr Brad Street sorry Mr Brad stre no we're here for information yeah that's why we want to hear comments one of the things that uh got me
is one two three four five were six citizens here I know the argument is I can always watch it on TV is anybody calling in with questions they AR a lot of people choose not to
involve themselves with the town which is unfortunate mhm one of the things I've said at other meetings is uh what's being discussed here what's being presented maybe not to the extent of the pages but uh everyone gets an electric
bill put some information in electric bill to keep well put it out there if the people choose to ignore it shame on them but put the information out there for the people to this is damis this is what's going on this is what we'd like to do this is what we'd like not to do
this is how we're going to do it y again put it out there if they ignore it shame on them if they get involved that's what we're looking for okay uh and on that point I was just going to
ask real quickly in terms of the survey I think this is an opp I think the survey is a really good opportunity for people to participate if someone's watching and is and wants to to take the survey Josh what do they need to do and and frankly I think all survey responses are if even if someone if if someone
fills out a survey and says I drive everywhere and that's the way I I think we I think you need we need to know that yeah yeah absolutely um where do people find out about the survey so uh so the the slide on the
screen has a QR code if you are a QR code user um you can access the the online survey that way um there's also the shortened URL which you can type out there um if you go to the town's website
there is also the the link is listed there um I don't know if it's gotten buried under other things but I don't think no um can someone come to town hall and get a get a yes there are also physical copies of the survey um I know that they had been distributed to I
think the library and the senior center and I think that there also may be some available in town hall um but I would encourage folks to contact Brian zelli the planning director about about that okay I I'm helping with more of the behind the scenes and and he's the one
out there uh pounding the pavement okay you may have seen him at the pancake breakfast he was at the pancake breakfast as far as the packing meters when I was very young Chad clinch used to go around with the uh golf cart Dolly and empty the parking meters in the
Square source of revenue for the town I remember to get some I'm old enough to remember there and it the revenue for the town encouraging people you this is a limit if you stay Beyond you're going to have to run back and pay or move or
get a parking ticket damage to me is a drive-thru Community connecting route one 12862 uh we have a lot of traffic to through the town whether they pack or not par I half-heartedly suggested that
we put a parking garage down in the way or someplace I don't mean it but if there's parking problems put a parking garage down there I don't mean it but it's there if you if we don't have the packing some of
the questions are thought brought up in the past was what parking we have downtown is pro not properly or better uh identified right signage issues and people my age get used to driving as opposed to walking
not everybody but some of us I want to I want to drive to where I want to go spend a little time driving to and from a little time what I've got to do when I want to get home and relax it's a very busy world as far as the
sidewalks downtown you maintaining them that's a that should be a year round job I know in the winter time it's very difficult to walk downtown with the sidewalks not clean or sanded or salted so that you don't take your life in your
hands trying to get from here to there my understanding was they did a traffic study for the maple square and again we're a drive-through community and I I forget the exact figure I'll say 20,000 K drive through
Damas and I don't know if that's in a day or or if that was a week study but that's a lot of traffic through the town not all of them are going to need parking spots however some of them will and they have to be rotated
uh uh yeah bring back the par and me and bring Chuck back Chu clinch what yeah you thank you okay anything anything further on this at all from members of the board
or no everybody Josh anything from from staff anything you wanted to add or anything no Sarah Sarah show uh I mean we'll be if anything obviously comes up but so I guess if you get a little bit of timeline yeah yeah what's the time we go
where do we go from here yeah I can wrap up with next steps um so we've had the survey open essentially since um since the special town meeting and we are planning on closing at April 18th so it's the Friday right before school
vacation and um then after that point we will analyze the survey data and we will use that as one of the data points in addition to this conversation the um existing conditions analysis we had done um we've also been doing interviews with
various community- based organizations and service providers like the boys and girls club and um the Chamber of Commerce to try to understand from their perspective and the people that they serve what some of the transportation challenges Chamber of Commerce sorry the Beverly chamber greater Beverly Chamber
of Commerce yeah um so so anyway we'll we'll kind of take all of those inputs and um and then put together draft recommendations that we will share back with the town for that to be reviewed um Brian will kind of
take the lead on that um so I think you know if if you as the board are interested in in seeing those draft recommendations and possibly discussing them then you know I'd share that with Josh and um say yes that might not be coming back to present but it might be
um just sharing comments back to us on those recommendations um and then everything will be wrapped up by the end of June because that's uh that's the funding deadline so um so we will have uh some sort of final deliverable plan
that will reflect all this information back to you along with some top recommendations great yeah all right yeah go ahead yeah just go yep just identify by yourself for the record yeah Lois McKenzie Precinct 3
town meeting member I just want to say um I know there's a lot of interest in bike Lanes I don't know if anybody's driven through Salem summer winter whenever it's a nightmare but I I honestly think you need to look at numbers and compare the
number of people that you you might think by doing bike Lanes would be a great idea and I I don't even know if that's being consider considered but a heck of a lot more people walk in this town than they do ride bikes I will walk
sometimes six miles depending on you know my grandchildren if they're willing to go but I will tell you the sidewalks they are not up to par in this town I literally have the carriage like this so
my grandson doesn't fall over and it's been like this I have a grandaughter who's eight now it's been like this since I've had had them I live down danversport the sidewalks on River
Street you go down the end of river there's mcdu a there's tons of apartments condos these kids walk to Riverside and those sidewalks uh when the when the street was repaved I probably four or five years ago I said are you going to do the
sidewalks no sidewalks were done there are craters on the side of the road that you gather water which just backs up right over the sidewalks so you just have to think in
in a large way there are a lot more Walkers than there are people that are going to ride a bike especially 365 days a year and I'm not one of those people to stay in the house my kids my grandchildren they get bundled up and we
go out so it's just something to think about okay great thank you okay so that's it for me thank you so much for your time I really appreciate it thanks very much appreciate it thank you okay all right
well very good good discussion let's move on to our our next item here which a um uh this is a our public hearing 50 Independence Way it's a request for site plan review pursuant to section four of the zoning bylaw submitted by Chick Fil-A Carol bowler engineering for
property in the commercial 3 C3 zoning District the applicant proposes a standalone restaurant with a drive-through and Associated site modifications map 63 lot 5 unit one and Josh we have a update on this one I believe that they they've
requested a continuance that's right yep okay so um yeah so they requested a continuance to our next meeting on April 8th okay um so we would need a a motion to continue this item okay so I'd like
to entertain a motion to continue the public hearing on 50 Independence Way to the April 8th planning board meeting I make a motion we continue 50 Independents way to our next meeting April 8th okay motion's been made by Jean is there a second second okay
second by Jim okay any discussion hearing none all in favor please say I I I any oppose none okay so tras Lane uh full release of Covenant request for a full release of a covenant established on August 28th
1972 which is associated with the definitive subdivision plan entitled proposed access to Folly Hill development danver's mass and dated June 2nd 1972 And also known as tras Lane danver's mass and Josh similarly with
Su uh yep very similar um the um the applicant team has requested a continuance to our next meeting on April 8th this item is that application all right so that's a um okay and so that's that's a so that's a continuance till
April 8th right yes okay okay I'd like to entertain a motion to continue um I guess it's not really it's it's not a public hearing on this one so is to continue the um yeah the application to continue the application of tralan for the full release of
Covenant to our next meeting of April 8th I make a motion we continue Tas Lane full release of Covenant to our next meeting April 8th okay it's been made by Jean is there a second second second by Jim any discussion on that if not all in
favor please say I I I any oppos none okay so we have minutes here I think these are the minutes from our uh our March 11th meeting okay there we had the chance to review
these if so motion to accept the minut on March 11th by Jim second by Jean any discussion on that okay all in favor please say I I I oppos None okay so let's see so what do we
have um so coming up sure next uh yeah Josh I so we have a couple of items I guess now which are continued to April 8th uh so 50 Independence Way in trass Lane that's right so and what else um um and then um we will have um there's a
new speak up a little sorry there's a new hearing uh for special for special permit and site plan application for 61 High Street which will open on that evening so that will open on April 8 that's the that's the the building close to the the phone
company that's right to the right the first right the first at uh partial to the right of if I'm looking straight at the Verizon building to the right okay okay um it's a mixed use project with um proposing like eight residential units
proposing eight residential units okay so that'll be on up that'll be that's on the agenda for the April 8th yes and there's also um an administrative matter there was a anr perimeter plan submitted today that will also be um on that April
8th meeting okay what part of the is that um so it's uh for 30 36 Maple Street downtown 30 to 36 yes downtown Maple Street okay okay um so those are the four as we speak items for our April
8th meeting okay I know we um and just picking up from our uh I think we discussed this maybe a couple of meetings ago after the special town meeting the uh the lighting articles were sure um were referred back to the
planning board I know there was even a discussion I think at yesterday's zoning board of appeals meeting I think there was a question about the lighting sure um sort of the lighting and such I think is it related to Pine Street right so I think that yeah um so I think it's worthy of maybe at our next meeting
putting it on the agenda to at least open a discussion about sort of where we go from here sure yep that yep we could do that yes um terms of lighting and and when we like right when we want to um um just like the planning process about you know what time me would be on
and when the process would be and that type of thing yep yeah just sort of walk through Logistics and and sort of sort of a game plan for because it would be going on because it would be looking at at at going on to our next special town meeting so prob corre which um has not
been confirmed or um an idea has been floated um like February of 2026 okay yep and I know that in the meantime I think we had some I think there was there was a there was a there was a I think we the town staff received a comment from which I I received which I forwarded I think to oh yes staff there
was a comment from a town meeting member who I think had spoke at the special town meeting and I think also there was some I think probably we'd want to look at the comments from I think Mr Bennett who spoke at the meeting as well sure yep yep all of those public comments could or you know will be incorporated
or discussed as we go through the process okay yeah so if we can just at least get that on the agenda for the E it maybe just we may not have a because there's some other items on there we may not have a lengthy discussion but at least start sure talking about it yep um and I think we've also just and also in terms
of planning sort of looking at the next maybe the next meeting after I think we've we've also um I know it was just just received there was some citizens petitions yep there was a couple uh citizens petitions regarding Planning and Zoning related
articles uh for the upcoming annual town meeting um so I believe I'm going to I believe we discussed just adding them as like discussion items discussion items at we will probably discuss them at the following meeting on April 22nd April
22nd yep okay yeah April 2 second meeting to discuss and so these are some not to get into that but the there are some there are citizens petitions and I believe they dealt with the um uh sort of with a downtown or MBTA yep that's right um yep will they
be presenting at that meeting uh I'm not sure that that I think it might be just a discussion with the board but obviously if we're discussing it in this public environment you know the public is able to you know if we're willing to you know entertain
comments if it's the will of the board or yeah because just in terms of the I mean because ultimately I think that the that the um I would imagine that town meeting would want the the board to to weigh in in terms of sure in terms of at least our our our thoughts with respect
to that that seems inappropriate appropriate I assume they would want a recommendation passing it on to um finance committee right typically that's what we would do for each zoning article sure so there's like one zoning article
and then two like res two resolutions essentially so yep and then also at that April 22nd meeting there was a spe there will be a special permit application for 180 endicot Street um the
former um Bed Bath and Beyond tenant space for um indoor pickle ball so indoor pickle ball yeah for the bed Bath and Beyond Space okay the uh indoor indoor entertainment in
that property they requ they need a special permit for that use so that's why it's in front of the board that's commercial three that's right so and that would be be coming before before us on the April April 22nd April 22nd yep
okay so lots of top lots of applications and discussion in April okay the the April 22nd meeting I won't be here I could probably do remote okay we could we could talk through that a little bit because I think Lou also mentioned that
that's um I will be in I will be on a work trip in Illinois so I'll be able to participate remotely on the I believe as I believe as long as we have three members so I can just check in as long as we have three members who can physically be here um I think that might work but I'll Circle back on that
shortly okay and in terms of sort of coordination in terms of discussion on any of the um on the citizens petition in terms of um I'm trying to recall when uh one finance committee is I do not know but I could s i could let send the
board that date but I I'm not sure about that I know the select board is meeting on April April 1 any discussion that we have if that you know just to make sure that that's you know so that that any any feedback that from us is you know um you know the time the timing Logistics
work timing yeah I know the select word's talking about the warrant on April 1st so um I don't know about the fincom but I can Circle back with the board and let you send the board that date yeah because those came in just pretty very recently yeah one was
Tuesday of last week and two of one was Tuesday or Wednesday of last week and two were Friday so Friday yep and that was the closing day for the warrant that's right okay okay Lots up all right anything else um Josh I think
that's it okay Jim anything further I'm all set Jean okay okay hearing none I'd entertain a motion to adjourn make a motion to adjourn okay there's a first is there a second second any discussion
all in favor please say I I I motions adjourn have a good night so