I'm calling the Tuesday the February 18 2025 meeting of the EA met planning board to order uh I'm required to ask if there's anyone in the audience or by Zoom who might be recording this meeting if so please state your name and Method you're
recording none we'll take the role those in attendance are P hundson bansa Russell Denver Cassandra cheris Willam and we're joined by the planning director Robert rash so first order is approval of the
meeting minutes of February 4th 2024 hopefully people have an opportunity to review it you have a motion to approve move second motion made in second any discussion all in favor say I I matter passes Mr
clerk uh case zn- 202 5-01 an amendment to table 3-1 schedule of use regulations of the East mdle Zone by law to allow for the use category convalescent Assisted Living congregate elderly cap housing or nursing home Allowed by
special permit in the industrial Garden Arc igp zoning district oh Rob do you want to introduce this yeah sure so if you go to uh your packets a Revis area of the T
um living is located actually the full name for the use category isn't just cist living it's actually convalescent assist elderly handicap housing or nursing home so it's a broad category that captures all those types of uses
currently it's only allowed by special permit in the residence ablea residence a b c elderly residential and the uh planned unit residential Zone
District the component Mr Plant who's before you tonight owns property in the igp district and he is requesting to have the districts from a no to special permit and to my knowledge that is pretty much
the extent of night thanks hi good evening could you state your name and address and please sign in please your uh William llant um 61r North Main Street in East
Long Meadow um I'm a lifelong resident of East Long Meadow business owner in town property owner in town including a parcel that's in the industrial Garden Parkway on denlow road and um about a
year ago I was approached by a group that had an interest in building an assisted living facility Memory Care Facility in town and um the parcel that I have is a buts Long Meadow um
residential area um and I was surprised to learn that in the igp you could put a hospital sanitarium child care facility medical office um and that this was not an
allowed use um and uh that's when I started talking with Rob talking to some other people in town the demonstrated need for um additional assisted living and Memory Care in town and actually throughout the
country um you know Rob and I had talked about um approaching the board in the Town Council uh to get that under a special permit so it still gives the planning board the ability to look as I understand that my parcel is not the
only parcel that's affected that an amendment to the table affects the entire Zone um but under the special permit it gives um this board the um the ability to say it is in the right location it's the
right facility so on and so forth um so that's why I'm here I'm happy to answer any questions so we we have a letter dated February 7th 202 to Rob wasila who's the director of uh planning for the
town though in the letter they reference that he has indicated that he might want to build three to four three or four more Assisted Living congregate Elder housing Etc in east or in the area
and they reference 330 Chestnut Street as being a potential site and you or Mr tarnowski address that yeah do you even know where chest street is Mr IDE okay I haven't heard I haven
heard great thank you okay um okay anyone else wish to be heard on this matter please step forward anyone
okay the Town as the indicated Memory Care is going to be more important location I assume people your due diligence continue do if it meets all the requirements I would be strongly in favor of having it here in town okay
and just for the people who might be watching here in you know who are presently here or watching on TV can you disclose the specific site that that you're proposing this to go on yeah it's 199 Denow so it's 199 denlow Road yes
okay which side is that on as you're heading towards lawn meow on the left hand side before you get to the that last lot the last lot that some Stakes on it it borders yeah border um and then there's been some misinformation I I and again I just
quickly went through this letter um you know we're not we're not proposing and not opposing to do multiple facilities in town um the project we're
talking about is there there is a desire to do additional facilities in other neighboring towns and where you know need is demonstrated but it's not we didn't have an intention of coming in here to build for five facilities which
it looks like this you contents okay all right anyone else wish to be heard on this matter do we need to read this into the record um it's up to you you can also confirm that you received it date and
time okay well I will confirm that we received a letter dated uh February 7th 2025 address to Rob bashila uh director of planning 6 60 Center Square East metal Mass 1028 um it is
signed by John W power 17 broadleaf Circle metal Mass 01 01028 it has specific questions which at this point other than
disclosing that they don't plan on putting additional sites on 330 chest Street Andor has been disclosed that the project that still needs to come back to this planning board for
approval be on densow road uh just that there are other Assisted Living sites in East Long Meadow that have that are required by special permit in other zones and that we would be
changing this to allow this type of facility in the industrial Garden Park District under special yep under special permit all right um if there's no one
else anyone on Zoom wish to be heard on this no have a motion to close the public hearing it's all moved second motion made in second any discussion hearing none all in favor of closing the public hearing say I I I anyone oppos
hearing none on the um of the amendment motion approve the amendment for the industrial yep under special permit under special
permit yeah I'll second okay any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I oppos hearing none that passes so just for the people in the audience or by Zoom so this is the first step this now
goes back to the town Council for their hearing on the matter and then if they approve it and the developer wishes to move forward they come back to this planning board for Action by special permit and special permit allows this
board to put conditions on the use uh and on the property before they can develop it and move forward so there's still quite a ways to go before this gets done and just we've been letting every know that we have been
reconstituting the design Review Committee for the town through the planning board where all new projects will uh go to the design Review Committee and uh we will work with the developer so that it will become the design will be more East Long Meadow uh
in Focus so uh is that an informal meeting ahead of of our planning director is the chair of that committee so do you wish to describe that a little bit more I mean it's just like um so we're still trying to populate the committee but um it's just like a if a
project is so significant the board feels that it should be reviewed for style architecture site design Etc um it's more of like an advisory committee that weighs in hopefully this committee we want this committee to have a professional designers like architect
or Landscape designer or even graphic designer just look at the elements to make sure it fits in with the vibe of the town character of the neighborhood nothing sticks out like a sort um and it's not like an authority that approved or denies project it pro it provides recommendations to the planning board
during their site plan review process so yeah I think By Design of your previous Endeavors he you do pretty good thank you right in all right thank you thank you very much I appreciate next item Mr clerk sir uh
case s-2251 request for special permit for blind therapeutic massage massage therapist facility 280 North Main Street Street 5 assess paral ID 14-12 DF located in the commercial zoning District applicant ches roach 5 Redwood
Street nfield Connecticut 06082 would the applicant please come forward sign in than support as landlord and will be know please state your name
sorry so we will start off with just some questions for you and then it is a public hearing so we have to have a public hearing if the public wishes to be to address this board on this matter they can feel free to do so as well so tell us something about yourself where
you know about the location about your background hours of operation whether you're going to have employees okay um so my office space is located at 280 North Main Street um in sweet 5 um not yet fully set up um I have been in the
East Long meno area for over four years massage um I reside in Enfield it'll just be me um this five clients a day five to six days
a week other questions from the board before we open it to the public hours of operation um that can vary um so the schedule will be open for people to book online so I basically go from that so
basically about 7 to 7 at night thank you does the building itself have hours specific hours of operation pretty much seven days a week uh whatever they need to do they generate and
okay all right thank you so this is a public hearing so we open it up to the public have a motion to open the public hearing have a second second favor say I I so anyone in the audience you can you
can step back okay anyone in the audience who wish to be heard on this matter please step forward anyone by Zoom wish to be heard on this matter please step forward thank you my name is AR you can you can come into town please state your name please
my name is Arian boyy Ain I own Escape therapeutic massage located at 45 cran AV and health tracks um it is to my knowledge that she is operating without permits and without licensing by the state okay currently
so so concerned so A very wise person spoke to me today who also indicated that they will need uh Health Board of Health approval um and I'm forgetting the other things she specifically referenced a
solo establishment license yeah so um obviously she can't open until she has those and it is incumbent upon the town to make sure that they do indeed have all of the necessary permits for
the individual could open the establishment okay okay other anyone else wish to be heard on this matter well we did n my name is Christopher I'm the owner of for 50 years us building was built in
1974 is there another agenda item tonight at about good I will I will withold the other agenda item is this board is considering doing away with the requirement to have massage therapist
come before this board to get a special permit to operate so on the main matter is there are a motion to close the public do I have a second under the conditions that all licenses are proved to be valid and current and uh and
proper insurances and so forth and present them to the planning uh director prior to Y open yeah so we do have a a license that was sent to me expires uh May 20th of 2025 uh issued by the Tom
Massachusetts division of Occupational licensure uh for massage therapists Jessica L Ro address that you read in the legal notice um and this is it right here
screen so I would say as of right now the licensing seems to be up to date but of course you know can't fully open even though the special per is being awarded or you know whever the boards can decide they still have to get the other remaining approvals from the other authorities including the state and the
board right forward without business certificate exactly which you need this in order to complete so there's still a lot of other things that have to go on before you can officially open but does that have to get to you oh so this has already been sent to me that's all you need yeah so I just have to close out the business license portion once this
is approved by the planing board um other than that I have no other issues for my end Mr shair great got it so um it's a motion to approve the special permit with a condition that all proper
licenses be uh in place provided to the planning department prior to the opening and understanding that she needs our approval to do the other stuff make a motion to approve it yeah okay still have a second second any further discussion hearing none all in
favor say I I and post hearing none that matter passes thank you next item did you close I did thank you yes so the next item is at our last
meeting this board express interest in removing from the town zoning requirements that uh there be a requirement to obtain a special for massage
therapists because we felt that there were other conditions in place that essentially covered the town uh so I know the Board of Health uh the state license Etc needed to be in place so that we felt that there were other
safeguards um that were in place that did really almost uh were more stringent uh than what what the planning board would be required to do I'm going to turn over to Rob and take it from there Rob yes I'll be I'll
be very brief I mean the changes I'm presenting to you in nature it's just more about um taking away the special per requirement for massage therapist facilities um currently in the bylaw we have a section called
48.9 which falls under article 8 special permits and within this section we have specific criteria for a specific use that's allowed by special permit but it's additional criteria they have to follow uh for this specific section it's
only half a page um it it made sense to remove it from the section because the board has felt that moving away from special permit this type of use is the direction they want to go in so therefore it didn't really seem appropriate to have it in the section anymore and just from reading the
language um pretty much everything that's in here is is what's already required to do most of what you can apply for in to anyway so for example in order to get your business license you have to show your identification with the state anyways um
violations this provision um anything that involves code enforcement that's pretty much built into the town Charter anyways um there's nothing in here that's St stood out to me in terms of keeping um and I know you equated Mr chair to
uh personal service shop and Massage Therapy being similar um there's no other section in the bio that talks about specific requirements for personal service shops other than the definition of personal service shop so it made sense to remove that section and to
rename 8.10 to the new 8.9 in that case that's registered marijana dispensaries and if you go to the other side of that sheets um number eight is massage therapist facility or licensed massage therapy Salon uh there was a note in there which
originally said c article 8 and section 450 8.9 that's being crossed out and removed uh because it references that article under the special permit section of the bylaw and then the four areas in town where it was previously allowed via special permit which are the Commercial
Business Industrial and mixed use Village districts it's being replaced with Y which indicates that's it's a byright use and doesn't require any zoning approvals from the planning board so Mr chair that's the extent of the changes being proposed uh just as a
reminder this is not a public hearing this is an informal discussion uh just off next upep thank you comments from the board no makes sense to me yeah makes sense I believe the vote would be a
recommend or with recommendation pass along to Town Council for Action yep and the planning board would be the proponent of this amendment okay so you the planning board is suggesting to the Town Council to consider opening a public hearing for
this amendment I have a motion to do so so moved have a second I'll second any further discussion there none all in favor say I anyone opposed hearing none iting passes director's
report ready so not very long but director um but in there the next six meeting dates to note that on April 15th I will be out on sle getting surgery so 10th to about the 20th I will be out of
the office um we do have a potential public hearing sorry not potential schedule public hearing for the next meeting March 4th it's for a special permits to uh change owners ship of uh Tal's Asian Cuisine 31 Harkness AV uh to
the new owner dnw Asian quisine a uh they're not doing anything different they're amending all those special permits listed in that legal ad language um and that is the next public hearing that we have coming up in terms of recent zoning updates the accessory
dwell unit bylaw was adopted by Town Council at their February 11th 2025 meeting after a very lengthy discussion which was productive um as Russell mentioned earlier the design Review Committee is looking for applicants so far we've received only one application applications will be
accepted until the end of the week but we are would consider extending the deadline even further uh to let more people apply and lastly um at the last Town Council discussion about the center Town District uh just want to let the board know that I did meet with the town
management this morning um so far it seems like Pioneer Valley is going to be Prov providing us draft language for a district but just leaving out the quite a bit they're going to send that to me and then to the other department heads I'm going to look it over and start
drafting a bylaw or edits that would fit into the zoning bylaw the best way possible and of course that's going to Kickstart a series of public hearings on on the Amendments so that's that's what's going to be coming up this year in addition to that it is 2025 and we
are doing a overhaul of all Town bylaws through the Town Council zoning is one of them zoning is anticipated to be the longest and lengthiest of that so there's a lot of things going on in the zoning world and it's gonna be a busy year ahead us so that's all I have I just want to just thank the planning
board members that were able to meet the joint meeting uh with the Town Council you know I think some positive things came out of that specifically you know we applaud the Town Center Center steering committee Center
District steering committee that the right phrase yeah yeah I mean some of the things that they've been talking about are really very exciting I think everybody was on the same page about doing a total zoning redo of that specific area um kind of removing a lot
of the industrial uh use on it and kind of make it more of a traditional New England Center uh so I thought that was very positive they're still is a housing component on all of that um so those individuals who wish to see some housing
interpers within uh the Town Center I I think you know there's still a very real possibility that that indeed will happen but uh you I want to thank Connor Rocha for reaching out to this board for the joint meeting I thought it was very
productive it was it was very nice to see two boards finally getting along there's been animosity in the past amongst everybody now we're all working together it seems like it seemed that night everybody was kind of like pulling in the same direction with 40R definitely being the center of attention
but now that we can work around that and make some progress I think everybody was satisfied and additionally the explanation of the adus was really educational I completely understand the bylaw now as laborious as it may have been it was it was good definitely a A plus and Rob thanks uh I know your work
is not done yet as our representative from the planning board on on that committee so thank you very much may be soon but okay all righty uh if there's no other business to a motion to adjourn so moved second all in favor say I I
thank you