There we go. It is now slightly after 6:30. We're going to call this meeting of the Greenfield Economic Development Committee to order. Um, we're going to start with a roll call vote. But before we do, is there anyone recording this meeting at this time other than the Economic Development Committee? Okay, nobody else. So, I'm going to go
ahead and call a roll call vote. Um, I am first on the list. Council Garrett is here. Councelor Bonley >> here. >> Uh, Council Gordon informed us she would be absent. Councelor Minhas, are you here? I think so. >> Very good. I councelor Dilmath. >> Dilmth.
>> Dilmth. My apologies. >> You are here. >> It's a top one. >> Uh, the mayor is not here. The city attorney is not here. The recorder is not here. And we have members of the public plus
and Hannah Richen. Ricken. Damn. Zero for two. You know, it's a >> You also have someone in your waiting room. Oh, thank you. >> Okay, so we have a quorum, so we can get a go ahead and start our meeting. Um, there are no minutes to approve, so we
can move swiftly right through that. Uh, we are now at public comment. There are no members of the public present in the audience, but if anybody who is online would like to give a public comment, please enter your name in chats. Excellent. Um, Stephanie, you whenever you wish to speak, you have three
minutes. I'm truthfully not going to time you, so I just ask that you keep your comments at a reasonable length. So, whenever you're ready to speak, please go ahead and do so. >> Thank you, Stephanie Duclo, 166 Chapman Street. Um, I just have a couple things.
F. First, I want to thank you guys for all the time that you guys do actually put in here, right? I don't I know I complain a lot and I'm going to complain again tonight because it's kind of my thing. Um, I'm a stickler for I'm a stickler for procedures
>> and like we have claimed that we have a disability that requires sometimes for us to attend remotely. There should be no advantage to members of the public being in person when a
quorum of the whole members of the people that are in that meeting are at that table having a conversation that if I were sitting there I'd be privy to. It disadvantages somebody who might have an ADA or other need to be remote. So I
would ask kindly if there's a quorum of the people there that you open up the video and the microphone so you don't disadvantage someone who might not be there remotely. I mean they're in person and attending remotely
and that um I'm also want to speak to um the central commercial district not complying with RA. I believe that you should probably look up some land law on that. Um there
are some like distances um that would require RA compliance especially if that uh nonconforming use extends into the RA district by use.
Um, so I would be very concerned with you guys striking out commercial district with having to comply with the RA. I think it should have to comply with the same um residential standards
and compliance that the residents that you know and the homeowners that live in the RA district that shouldn't be an advantage to that central commercial district to supersede laws that apply to their their abuing um neighbors. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Um we have another person who entered the name in the chat, Michelle Samuels. if you could just um you know give your name and where you live in town. >> Yeah. Hi. Uh I know I'm uh using EJ Baker's Zoom, but this is Michelle
Samuels. Uh uh I'm in uh Precinct 6. Um and I also work on a farm in Precinct 9. Um which is why I'm really excited about uh the proposal to open up um some of the regulations around stands in Greenfield. um making it possible for
folks to uh have stands that are for things other than uh raw produce um for flowers as well as uh being able to have stands uh that are not for profit um things that are even free. Um, as you
can imagine, as somebody who who works on a farm, uh, who who does a lot of, uh, a lot of, you know, getting to meet my neighbors, uh, working at a farm stand, um, and also doing the Greenfield farmers market. Um, I am a really big believer that one of the best ways to
strengthen a community is to make it easier for people to feed each other. um both in terms of uh increasing access to free food for the almost half of uh Franklin County families who are considered food insecure. Um as well as
just, you know, it's just nice to be able to share flowers with your neighbors. It's nice to be able to uh you know, expand out these kinds of of stands, this way of kind of interacting with each other. Um, and I just want to voice my support for that, for the um,
the idea of of a free fridge as well. Um, just all of these different ways of of expanding the ways that we are able to uh, to share food and other wonderful things that we produce with each other. Thanks. >> Thank you. And we have a third person in the chat who'd like to speak. U, Mike
Mullen, if you could just do the same thing. Just say your name and where you live in town. >> Hi. Uh, audio coming in. Good. Everyone hear me? Thank you. All right. I'm Michael Mullen. I live at 316 Chapman Street,
uh, precinct 3. Um, I wanted to talk uh, back about um, parking requirements. Um, Greenfield currently has parking mandates um, in every part of the city outside of the central commercial district or downtown. Um, kind of
ironically, uh, the, uh, the book on parking requirements, uh, Donald Trump troops, the high price of free parking, was published in 2005. It's about 600 page book. He actually shouts out Greenfield then as having been on the cutting edge, uh, cutting edge of this area um, for getting rid of parking
requirements in the downtown. U,, but here we are 20 years later and we're very much on the trailing edge of of this issue. a lot of municipalities and cities have completely eliminated them because the arguments in Shuk's book um which I encourage folks to read but I
understand if uh 600 pages is not what you're looking for right now um are basically such that um they impose pretty significant economic costs on development redevelopment adaptive reuse of properties. Um they basically
are a subsidy from us uh as non-car drivers which all of us are when we're not driving our car to us as car drivers and they kind of say that that developer there has to foot the bill for that. The space that you require for parking is spacing that's not going to be something
else. Um, I could probably go on for a little bit longer, but I've also spoken to three business owners um, who opened up or moved their business into these areas that are outside the central commercial district. Um, and none of them had any kind words to say about
what they had to do to sort of meet these requirements. Um, I'm not going to sort of name drop them. If maybe if we continue this conversation, I'll try to encourage them to reach out to you and give their own comment. Um, but I think it would be straight enough easy to eliminate them from our zoning
ordinances. Um, I'll try to send out something in writing for the full committee to see exactly what text we're looking at. Um, and uh, see if this is something that you think is interesting and worth taking up. Um, you know, I think really there's a lot of things
that we haven't done in terms of houses that we could have had over the past decade or housing in terms of businesses that we could have had over the past decades that we don't have today because they were never able to meet these requirements. I think this is kind of a we should kind of stop the bloodletting um in so far as it's possible and um you
know let let's see what develops over the next 20 or 30 years um without them. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh we just had another member of the public join. Um, we are in the middle of public comment. If you would like to uh speak, feel free just to
unmute yourself and uh say where you live in town. If you don't wish to, that's okay, too. >> Hello. I would love to speak. Um, >> fantastic. >> I apologize for my oven, which is very loud. Um, my name is Ree. I live in
precinct 8 and I am just here to um listen in on the meeting but also to express my vote of support for free fridge um zoning adjustments that allow for more flexibility in terms of what
can be in a fridge. Um things like allowing farm stands to have more than raw produce. um allowing for structures that are specifically for free distribution of food and goods and lending libraries, green houses and
front yards, and specifically adjusting the um prohibition or special permitting for commercial forestry and cordwood operations below 5 acres. Um which is a slightly different topic. And I want to
just share also that I am part of a few mutual aid groups and projects in town. And one of the things that we did today was took care of redistributing hundreds of pounds of food from the co-op which
lost power. And it would have been not just a lot easier, but also a lot more accessible to members of the general public and members in town who maybe don't have access to freezers. If we had had a free fridge to put them
into because as it is, we had to redistribute them to community members chest freezers and then we will try to work to get those out to community members over the next couple of weeks. So having a centralized location where community members can both contribute to
um community food security and also benefit from that kind of community care would be really amazing and I would love to see our town do more of that. Thanks. >> Thank you. Um Pamela, I know you just walked in. We're doing public comment. Do you want to join us or I don't want
to put you on the spot but obviously being on the spot. Um, hi. My name is Pamela Goodwin. I live at 54 High Street. Um, I just also I guess for the most part I want to say a couple of things. The
amount of time that Amy Colleen has put in on the RPI for Hope Street. I went to probably three or four of the different meetings that she held. The attendance was good. I felt, you know, wasn't huge, but um I even spoke on behalf of someone
who was too angry to even show up um because she didn't win the referendum. She wanted the parking and not the housing. So, um kudos to Amy who works so hard and Anna in that same department, all those people. Um
and I'm a little concerned about a lot of city meetings that are going on and I will be speaking about that tomorrow. Um, I just was at the safety emergency thing, which was poorly attended in my
opinion. Um, and I only knew about it because I picked up the ZHON flyer, but I'm pretty sure they tried to publicize it. Um, it's really important that everybody in the city know what happens if there is an emergency. First thing that Chief Strahan did say was that um,
the power outage that that they found generators for the co-op. I checked in with Adah who has a store there and she checked in later. She is usually closed Tuesdays but found out when the power went back on. So, um it's great that
everybody pitched in and is helpful, but as far as like a community refrigerator and being able for the entire city of Greenfield to help everybody out who has coolers, um somebody from Stone Soup was there who said, "Oh, thank goodness that didn't happen on his end, you know, with
all the frozen food." So, um, emergency is an emergency and we talked a lot about like what's considered the biggest emergency, you know, complete flooding, everybody has to leave and go to high schools, there's no electricity for powers. So, um, I think there should
be more of that. I think that people should be better prepared. And one of the statements they made was it's up to each individual to be able to grab your medications, grab this, grab your pet, figure out what you're going to do. Somebody even said, "What do I do about my horse? Is it going to drown?" Well,
Megan Tudran was there and she has a horse, but she has a backup plan if something needs to happen for her horse. It's not a sec um security dog as opposed to a comfort dog. So, um I think the city spends a lot of time and effort
trying to do the best they can. I'm a little unhappy with this meeting conflicts with this meeting and then I have to sit down and figure out if I can actually spend time catching up on anything which I find I can't. Um so it's frustrating to uh the public um
and I really care because I am the public and when I when people say oh well you know this fits our schedule and we don't get a quorum and the mayor says well um I can't be there and she needs to be there. So, I really hope we can work out something where some of this
stuff can happen on a Monday through Thursday cuz we all know nobody wants meetings on Friday nights, Saturdays, Sundays. And so, we're jamming a tremendous amount of work by a number of hardworking people into those four days a week, daytime, afternoon time,
whatever. We've had to reschedule my GET meeting should should have been tonight. So, we we try to be very consistent and every once in a while, nobody can be consistent because that's called life. So, thank you all for all your hard work. We'll see where everything goes from here and I'm just going to listen
in. >> Thank you so much. All right. Um, any other members of the public who have not yet had a chance to speak that wish to do so? I think everybody who's in the chat has spoken. And if you haven't go in once,
twice, three times a city government. Okay. Um so that is going to end our public comment uh time period. We are now to the public hearing. There are no public hearings. So we'll move on to kind of our main order of business. Um unless members of the committee would
like to hear from Amy and Anna first in order to kind of get them out of here. I think that would make sense. If anybody has any objection, let's give them a chance to kind of give their spiel. So, we're moving on. This is um section seven for folks in the public. Um and the first thing I would love to hear
about is an update on the Hope Street request for proposals. >> Sure thing. Um so, I have a draft RFP. >> Oh, there it is. >> Um it is not finished yet. Uh what I'm doing now is working with municipal
working with city departments on the technical aspects of it, making sure that details I'm including that pertain to DPW or planning are accurate and that I'm not leaving anything critical out. And then internally in my department, we're working to take the public input
information that I presented to you all at a prior meeting um and put that into a format that um makes sense to share both publicly and with the RFP so that um prospective developers are able to um read through all of the public input um
in a coherent fashion. And then I am also putting together graphics or something um coherent to be able to take this RFP I so that I would come back and do public meetings to share the final RFP. And I want to be
able to show um without people having to look through a you know 40page document. Here's what I heard. Here's how you see it reflected in the RFP and why or here's why it's not reflected in the RFP in a way that's um easy to understand
and digest. So, I am still um aiming for June for those public meetings and ideally June, but possibly July to get out the RFP. I'm trying to balance um keeping it on a tight timeline with uh just recognizing that this is a really
important project and a really important parcel and I want to make sure I get it right um before I release it. So, that is my >> elevator pitch >> update. All right. Um, members of the committee, any questions for Amy or anything that you want to say about this
process? >> I'll just reiterate, thanks again. Thanks for all the work you put in to laying out the extensive the 53, I believe, public comment um, opportunities. >> I don't think 53. That's charitable. >> Okay, that number was >> Thank you for coming to one. >> Yes, I got to attend one. Um, so yeah,
just really appreciate all that work. This is an important project and it's good to know that um a lot of care is being taken in and getting it right. >> Thanks. >> Have we had more developers express interest?
>> Um I don't believe since last we spoke not directly to me. In any case, on this parcel, >> I guess I'll recognize myself here. Um, anything in that RFP that you think is worth highlighting from public as far
as, you know, requirements for builders to, you know, because I know that a lot of the meetings had discussions about ways to make it integrated to the neighborhood. Is there anything in there that you think is worth kind of mentioning to folks that you're excited about? Like a thing that will make this a really good project? anything that's in the art.
>> I'm excited about the whole thing. I think it's a it's a really special >> parcel. It's like picking picking my favorite child. What I'm most excited about. I think um we have >> done what I feel like is a um a very
good and honest job of taking public input and incorporating it into the RFP. So things like um asking developers to to include what their plan is for parking um and then we can decide if we like that or not. Um asking developers
to prioritize green technology and green space in their um design so it's not just a cement block. Um things like that. I think I think we've done a a decent job at um taking on
board the public comment and reflecting there. So, I'm excited to share. >> The just to follow up on the sharing question, this is a draft and we don't want to send it out halfbaked obviously, >> but when do you anticipate the public will have a chance to read the final draft of the RF?
>> June is what I am anticipating for. At the time that I do the public meetings, I intend to have a final >> Okay. um finalish draft that I will share. >> Great. I'm sure there's at least a dozen of us that are looking forward to looking at those 40 pages.
>> I think your um count is low. >> There's a lot of you nerdy wonky folks out there and you listening to >> um I am the more eyes the better. I'm I it um makes me um unreasonably happy that people are really interested in
this because I'm used to being alone in an office and you know frequently people don't care what we're working on over there. That's one of the just to editorialize briefly, one of my the parts of the process with the Hope Street referendum that was really I kept reflecting on is how much no matter
which side of the argument you were on, people cared about this city >> and they really care about this city, which is a wonderful thing to have a community that gives a crap, you know, sorry to be harsh. >> Yeah. No, I have said to my team this um that referendum process and public
engagement process has been like what I think the best of municipal government can be. Um people just having one-on-one conversations. Even plenty of people talk to me who were frustrated with some aspect of it or confused or whatever. And it's been wonderful to have people
feel like they can talk to me and and have the opportunity to change the final product. Yeah, just to echo my colleagues here, I really appreciate the work you put into this and everybody else involved. >> Um, anybody else have anything they want to mention?
>> Hannah, you're welcome as well. >> Um, I mean, I would just say because I think one of the sort of overarching themes I've seen throughout this process um, is economic development, as Amy proves every day, is a very hands-on
process. um not only between you know her office and the public but also between business owners and residents and you know this RFP when it comes out um I think is coming into the waiting hands of people who do care and want to
send it on to potential developers. There is a curation process as well of making sure that eyes get on it that we feel will understand what they're reading and understand what Greenfield is about and what we need. And similarly in conversations with business owners
all over town, but especially right around that neighborhood, making sure that there's conversation ongoing about what happens when this really sort of takes its next step to make sure that no one is blindsided or, you know, unprepared to kind of be a part of the
the whole thing. So, I just want to underscore that sort of constant hands-on process of economic development. >> That's a great point. All right. Um if we have nothing else on the hope street uh RFP, we can move on to the second item uh under these bullets here that
you guys are involved in. So regular appearances at future meetings for discussion on current/upcoming projects affecting economic development and if the city could provide input/ass assistance. So this is really just a chance for you guys to soapbox about anything that you think is important. >> We have a list.
>> We we are we are genuinely again we're those kind of that want to hear it. Can I get genuinely just share some up things that I will be coming back to you um hopefully excitedly with? >> And if we squeal in excitement, we apologize. >> I'm going to be disappointed if you
don't. Um the first, as you may be aware, the one-stop grant cycle is open now. These are um grants offered by the uh state, the EOHLC, which is the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, and EOED, the Executive Office of Economic Development. Um we're
applying for several in my department. The one that's re most relevant here is that we are looking to update the economic development chapter of the master plan. >> We applied for the funding last year with a bit of a broader scope and we got uh turned down but we were offered some
feedback which we have taken on board and we are trying again this year. Um as with last year we are applying hoping to partner with UMass um their LAR program which is landscape and >> landscape architecture regional
planning. >> Thank you. landscape architecture, regional planning. Um, which much like the the Conway school has come in to help. Um, it pulls in students from UMass, faculty from UMass, and they also bring in the American Institute of
Architectures Communities by Design program, which are um architects and urban planners from across the country. They select a group who come um free of charge volunteer basis um and they pick folks who have particular expertise and
experience in things that are relevant to the project that we are pitching which for Greenfield is uh updating our economic development chapter. So I'm really excited about that. Um and if we do get that funding we would of course love to involve this committee in that
work. Um, First National Bank, the RFP is out as you may be aware. >> Um, thank you. Uh, we have extended the response deadline at the request of a developer who is submitting a response.
I expected another squeal. Um, so the deadline is June 26, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. and I feel confident that I will have at least one response, possibly two, which will be wonderful. Um, more to come on
that. Uh, bike plan, as you all, I think are aware, um, my department together with the planning department and the Conway school just completed a bike plan for the city. I'm working with Ella in planning to prioritize and identify what projects we want to push next. Many of
those projects have an economic development component to them. Obviously, if you're able to better access via bike um our business uh neighborhoods, that's a good thing. Um the first thing that are pushing forward
simply because there was an available um grant program and this is a topic that comes up all the time is um looking at better bikeability between Greenfield and Turner Falls. Right now it's Turner Falls road which if you have ever tried to drive down it much less bike is a hair raising experience.
>> It's horrible. So, we've applied to Mass Dot's LEAP program um for uh assistance in doing a feasibility study at looking at some alternative routes to that um to try and find a way for folks who want to live in one community and work or visit
the other to be able to safely get there by bike. More to come on that. Um, but once we have a better sense of prioritizing, I would love to bring back the projects that we're working on as they come up for your input and thoughts. Um, couple of other quick things. CDBG, um, as you know, that goes
through my department. We are right now running a small storefront improvement program for downtown businesses. We have to limit it to downtown businesses because of the source of the funding. We recognize Greenfield is um, businesses citywide, and we would love to offer the citywide, but our hands are tied on this
one. Um it's a small program just to update signage awnings. We will announce awards once we have awarded all of the funds, but we have already um awarded funds to a couple of downtown businesses and we're very excited about that. We're
also working with uh the GBA and FURCOG and the CDC on a small business support project. It's funded through the DTA program, district local technical assistance, which is funding that Furcog gets. I'm bringing you the alphabet
suit. Um, and what we are doing in this project is focusing on taking all of the licensing and other information and condensing it into a clear, understandable um, how to open a business in Greenfield
or how to expand an existing business. a PDF, you know, a PDF or some document or something that's easy to read that then Hannah can work her magic with businesses that come to her. The CDC can work their magic with businesses that go
through their um accelerator program and my department can also understand how to navigate that um because we hear it all the time that it's really confusing and it's confusing for my department frankly um and for myself. So, I'm excited about that project and we're happy to come share once we have um more to share.
Vercog is doing the work. Um GBA uh my department and CDC are um offering guidance and input in structure. Uh parking benefit district, you may recall we started one, we funded one. We have selected our first round of projects
pending DPW approval. So, I'm just offering this as a teaser and I will come back with the official once I have um Paul's thumbs up, but um they are a slate of projects downtown that I think you'll be very excited about. Some projects will be championed by Hannah, some will be championed by a partnership
between Christy and Rack and Paul in um CPW and some by my office. So, all focused on um the parking benefits district area which is downtown. And then the last thing is um as you may have heard a rumor, we were awarded a MK grant to host a World Cup viewing party
at the garden. >> Um and uh that's going to be happening on June 19th. We are um aiming that event, it will be free and open to the public, but we are particularly targeting youth soccer um
and youth sports clubs in Greenfield and you know Greenfield um department sports players and school sports players and soccer club players. Um we'll have some swag to give away and it'll be a free way to watch a game. Um that's a whole lot easier and cheaper than trying to
buy a ticket and get to Chelard. So, those are my projects for the moment. >> Amazing. Thank you. >> I'm going to just make sure I didn't miss any, just go through them in case anybody on the committee has any questions about individual kind of projects. So, correct me if I missed
something. Um, community onetop grant to uh we're hoping to get it uh for the economic development chapter of the master plan. >> Yeah. >> Anybody have any questions about that one? >> Good. Uh, the First National Bank RFP extending to June was the only comment I
want to make on that is it's rare to hear a delay is a good thing, but it sounds like the fact that it's coming from developer is a very, very good sign >> 100%. >> That they want to get their ducks in order. So, I'm especially excited about that. >> Yes. >> Um, anybody else have anything on that?
>> Good. Uh, the bike plan, uh, looking for an alternative route to Turner Falls instead of Turner Falls Road. That one. So again, I'll just the first thing I thought about with that is logistically that's quite difficult because there's a mountain in the way. >> And so I know I'm really curious.
>> There are two um two alternatives that were highlighted in the bike plan and then have come up. One is >> I want to say mountain road, but that feels too obvious. There's another there's another um there's another road that people do use as an alternative to Turner Falls.
>> It was mountain road. It goes by poet seat parking lot, right? That one. >> Yes. It's not like in a straight shot, but it goes down. That's one alternative. And then the other one um would involve crossing uh first light land. >> Okay.
>> And um they apparently have been approached by um bike advocates in our community and are very open to that. >> Oh, I think I heard about Sades bikes and Turners was they've been pushing for that for a while. They made little flyers. >> Oh, great. >> Yeah. Okay.
>> So, those are two that I know are on the table. Um, and then it's possible that other folks may have um, you know, it's possible that the people we hire may have other ideas. >> Yeah. >> Could I ask where I can find the bike plan? I didn't I just Google. Is it
public? >> Um, it is certainly public and I believe it's living on uh the planning department's website if you look on the planning department. Um, we've literally just got it not very long ago, so it's possible we haven't put it. >> That's okay. Yeah, I think the uh the mayor's communications director just
sent out a flyer about it with the link, too. Oh, good. Excellent. Thank you. >> All right. Um, any other bike plan or bike plan adjacent comments from folks? >> All right. Uh, CBG, sorry about that. Storefront improvement project. You're not giving us the details yet, but we're excited to learn.
Uh, there is a team up between Furcog, the GBA, and Community Development Corporation, >> Franklin County CDC. >> Yeah. uh on technical assistance district local and technical assistance is what I wrote but I don't remember that >> y oh that's the permitting one right
>> that's the funding source >> and this is the permit uh kind of plan uh anybody have anything on that one >> and then the parking benefit district again we got a teaser we'll find out more >> yes >> and the world cup viewing party I think kind of speaks for itself
>> right thank you so much really really appreciate the time for the update and I'm personally very excited about everything on that list. >> I am excited to have folks who are interested in >> hearing and learning more. So, thank you. >> Of course. And um any input we can give as a committee in the future when you
seek it, we are excited to give. >> Great. >> Um Hannah, it's your soap box. >> Yeah. Um I'll also just kind of give some little updates. Um, so one thing kind of stemming off of what we're working on with Amy's office and for Cog
and the CDC, um, the GBA is also sort of zeroing in on vacant storefront activation and trying to outline what that process is. Um, we went through the process oursel this past winter when we did a a popup uh, makers market. So that well, for the sake of doing it and also
kind of documenting what the steps were, who we had to talk to, we're trying to kind of demystify that process a little bit. We have a property owner right now uh with a vacant storefront who's very open to activation. And so we're kind of working with him and we're currently talking with a business in town um about
that process to see if we could cultivate some sort of residency. Um and it could really span a spectrum. It could be a popup in a space. It could also just be artwork in a window. Um but whatever it is, there is a process. There are people at the city that um
artists or business owners or entrepreneurs have to talk to. And for a lot of people, it's just a non-starter because they don't even know where to go. So, uh, we're excited about that. I have a great intern from GCC who's pulling together a lot of information and waiting through the city's website to see how easy it is for him to figure
out what the process is until I step in and help him, and it's I feel kind of bad some days, but he's getting there. Um, we had a really excellent third annual uh listening session with the mayor. Um, that was something we started her first year in office. Admittedly, it
was not as well attended as it has been in the past. I don't know if people were just busy. Um there is a lot going on, conflicting meetings. Um but it was a very uh contentrich conversation. So um the mayor's office, Amy, myself, and
then uh Maddie Oldenberg from the chamber kind of co-host. And it's really always intended to be a very open dialogue. It's we don't have an agenda. We just kind of sit down and the mayor um very kindly just opens up the floor
for questions. Um we had some conversations about trash downtown and the hopeful return of trash cans to the down town streetscape, which we're told is going to happen very soon. Um, and we kind of had a a real open
conversation about um, the hours that restaurants keep and kind of what this postcoid world is looking like and how hard it is, how we're in this, you know, real catch 22 for restaurants where asking them to be open later doesn't necessarily mean that they have business
and then they've staffed up and spent money and people aren't necessarily coming. But then there are people on the other side who are like, well, I'm not even going to bother going downtown cuz no one's open. So, um, we're trying to really look at that and we had some good ideas rise to the top about potentially choosing like a featured restaurant to
be open late during an event like say Winter Carnival um where we could put it out to all volunteers and attendees and everyone and say Pada for instance is the featured restaurant and they are going to be open until 9 or 10 p.m. and this is the place to go. so that we
start to kind of really put a fine point on a location before asking all restaurants to beef it up because it's it's a lot to ask. We're aware. Um we're also working with business owners to in a similar vein put forward a series of
late nights in Greenfield this summer. Um, so all of the Fridays of the arts walk, which is the last Friday of the month, um, from April to November, and then also five Saturdays, which is May 16th, which is Bfest, I'll talk about in a second, June 13th, which is Pride,
July 18th, and then August and September 3rd, Saturdays, which I can't remember the dates of. Um, again, just going to business owners and saying, you know, maybe just pilot a late night, staff up a late night these nights, rather than going to them just being like, you should be open later all the time. Um,
so it's just not approachable. So, we're excited about that. The business uh community has been really um responding well to that. Um, flower barrels are coming back. Blooming Greenfield right now is taking orders uh for adopting barrels. So, if you have not adopted
your barrel, please feel free. you can go to the GBA website. Um, and so those will be planted um, Memorial Day weekend um, to ensure that there are no more cold snaps because if there's a cold snap after that, I will freak out. Um,
so but that continues honestly to be one of the most popular things that Blooming Greenfield and the GBA does. The feedback always is so wonderful. Um we have more business owners who have uh really been a part of asking for their barrel to look a certain way and it's
it's just a lovely ongoing activation. Um the GBA commissioned a mural that is now painted on the front of 220 Main Street which was the plywood. >> Yes. Um they're very excited about that. Um to the point about vacant storefront
activation, um it took about eight months to get that project done. just pointing to how long a process it can be and why it's helpful, you know, if you don't know what you're doing to sort of be supported. Um, but we did finally wear the property owner down and
now the mural is there and it looks really fantastic and he's happy with it and um we are hoping to do some other uh public art activations around town um and work with a couple different uh businesses and organizations on their street frontage um including through the
storefront improvement grants that are available through Amy's office. It's given us a sort of opportunity and opening to have conversations with businesses about their storefront or building owner or building owners about their uh building facade. Um so whoever
ends up um applying for and receiving funds I think it has also kickstarted a conversation that's really beneficial. Um, we had I don't know how long I have, so if at any point you're like, feel free to do I was on the radio all day and I got a lot of this, so
um, we had a really lovely business mixer at the Vic. We are going to have more of those. Um, this one was sort of a happy hour kind of thing. We're also going to do some morning ones so that we're alternating the time of day because businesses are on such different
schedules. But it was the first event that we've done that was purely social. No agenda, no notes, no lessons, no anything. And it was a lot of fun. Um, so definitely more of that. I think gathering is back in style and we are looking to create a lot of opportunity
for it. Um, a couple months ago, uh, on March 25th, uh, the GBA in partnership with Amy's office, um, hosted Aaron Vega in Greenfield for the day. He is the new president and CEO of the Western Mass Economic Development Council, um, which
is based out of Springfield. Um, he took over the role in November, I believe. Um, and so far has been up to Franklin County more times in like the last five months than any of his predecessors, which is wonderful. And I think a lot of
us in the ecosystem continue to invite and draw him up. Um, but especially having him come spend a whole day in Greenfield was phenomenal. um and we had kind of invited him up for a meet and greet and it was um his request to come and spend an entire day.
So we uh took him around. We visited PB Squared um and folks from the CDC joined us, Real Pickles, uh Radial Dynamics and Ames Electrical Consulting up in the industrial park and the fairgrounds. And then we had a round table in the
afternoon um attended by different economic development stakeholders, business stakeholders um and then a meet and greet at Hope and Olive um in the evening. And we will follow up with him and just continue to put Greenfield kind of in front of him and on the sort of
larger Western Mass map. Um, but it it was lovely to kind of get to experience his outside perspective and when he was leaving at the end of the night kind of turned to me and said, "You know, you all have too many bestkept business secrets up here." And I was just like, "I'm so glad you think so. Let's work
together and make them not secret." Um, that was fantastic. Beef Fest is coming up on Saturday and a little bit on Sunday. Um, >> buzz about it. >> You get a postcard. This is I know um some folks may not see
exactly uh the connection between events and economic development. I don't know if that's anyone in this room but um very quickly this is uh Bfest has grown. It is 9 to4 this year. It has always been 9 to noon. Um this is its sweet
16th year. on May 16th. Um the GBA and the chamber as well have done a lot of marketing of this event well beyond Greenfield, well beyond Franklin County. We're very excited to kind of see what the return on that is. Um we have the
GBA got a a grant to bring Mr. and Mrs. G. U Mr. G is a Latin Grammyinning bilingual children's rock star and children's book author. I'm not kidding about any of those things. Um, and he and his wife will be uh offering a free
concert uh at noon in Energy Park. Um, and also reading at the library in the morning. So, the uh whole day has gotten a lot bigger. I'm hoping it'll bring a lot of folks to Greenfield. We've done a lot of engagement with businesses so that they know that it's happening. Um,
we have a little bee scavenger hunt downtown to take people into the businesses. Um, I really, for me, the Beef Fest is a really beautiful intersection of kind of fun and education and art and commerce because
it's about our history of agricultural entrepreneurship. That's a big deal. Um, and so we're just going to keep kind of growing that event. Um, and then the last couple things are uh sort of new events that the GBA is is uh piloting.
um or one of them is new and one of them is returning. We started an open office hours on the second Friday of the month. Um we'll start sort of bringing in guest speakers. Right now it's mostly myself and our board co-president Dan Pyaki sitting there with donuts and talking.
Um, but our hope is that it will kind of stabilize and grow and become a a drop in spot, a connection spot, and then we'll have um an a space to offer uh to guest speakers as we're, you know, trying to draw more people up to Greenfield or we hear from business
owners that they want a certain conversation or they want to come, you know, get help on a grant, we can sort of offer a space for that. Um, and then the other thing, I'll give a teaser because this sort of just gelled this morning. Um the GBA and the chamber are working with the new owners of green
space co-work to bring back the business breakdown which was a very popular event that came out of COVID. Um that creates a space where a business comes in and really gets to be candid about what's going on for them in business, what some of the hardships are, challenges,
opportunities, um and have a real sort of B2B conversation space. So, we're excited to open that back up, bring more businesses into Greenfield to talk about what it's like to be in business here. >> I think that's everything.
>> Those are two amazing lists of exciting events. >> Truly packed. >> Seriously, a lot of stuff. >> It's a lot of stuff. A lot of stuff. Um, >> all right. So, we got vacant storefront activation. We don't know which property owner is likely to activate, but there's
one of them. And I personally enjoy the mystery, but um I'm excited there's at least one. I'm sure you can't talk more in detail about that. >> Listening session with the mayor, the late night over the summer. Anybody have any thoughts about uh business hours in town and how
>> please? >> Yeah. Late or not late? Any thoughts on that subject? >> I'm just curious. How are you defining late? >> That's a great question. Absolutely. That's a great question. So right now most retail stores close around 5 and most restaurants close uh between 8 and
9. >> And the feedback that we get is um especially after events. So not only after events um folks sort of, you know, leave where they were volunteering or where they were attending and they want to go out and it's 8:30 and they go into
a restaurant. The restaurant's like you can get food to go. So, you know, we recognize that going back to like a 10 or 11 kind of restaurant life is like a huge jump from that. Um, and for
retail, I think one of the things we run into a lot in Greenfield is that so many folks are sole proprietors and so they just can't, you know, they can't possibly be open at like a reasonable morning time of 9 or 10 and then open until 600, 7, 8. Um, and so I think
we're looking to split the difference a little bit and have these late nights be 8:00 p.m. for retail and and 9 or 10 p.m. for restaurants and also politely asking if you see people coming in maybe stay open
very >> I really like the idea of pairing that with certain events so it's not just hey now you got staff which are training and obviously capital but if it's like imagine going to an event and you're out
by like 8:30 9:00 and then you're like oh okay these are some restaurants that are opened kind of in coordination with this event like that would be amazing. That's happened so many times. You're like, you're done and then you're like, oh, what do I do? And then it's like >> and there's no one.
>> Everybody ends up at Applebee's. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> That came up at the listening session that was like, you know, there are restaurants like that, but if we're really trying to revive our downtown, we have to be strategic. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And not ask too much because we are in a postcoid world and there's a
lot of recovery. I >> really like that. It's framed as support that highlighting an individual business a way of supporting that one business kind of going down the limb. >> Yeah. >> Hopefully people show up because they know >> I know that's the thing. >> But I think if it's framed that way that definitely helps, you know, hey, this
business is doing this extra thing for the community. >> Reward them, you know. >> Yeah. Absolutely. >> Yeah. No, I I agree with council men about tying it to events as well. Um flower barrels. >> That's nice. >> Everybody safe. >> Anybody on that? I assume we're good.
Uh, the mural got painted. There are more to come. I actually did have a question about that. We had a discussion about at storefront at one point. I had a buddy who's an art teacher. >> Yeah. >> Um, how do I get a paintbrush in his hand? Like, >> question. >> So, >> I wish I had a tool kit to hand you.
>> Right. Right. Like it's like he told me just the other day like, "Oh, is that still happening?" I'm like, "I need to talk to Hannah." >> Yes. It's So, there are a couple different answers. Are you asking the process? Are you asking like who he should reach out to to let them know he's interested because that's me and I
would love to have him on my list. >> So either either way. So >> yeah. Yeah. And then yeah, the how-to like in a nutshell really is identifying property owner. >> Um reaching out to them. It's the hard part. Also feel free to reach out to me. I will try and help. Um pitching them on
the idea. Um, and then getting the building inspector and the planning department to sign off on the design. Um, and then insuring the process and then doing the painting.
>> Okay. So, it sounds like step one is sending you an email with his email attached to it. >> That would be great. >> Okay, I will do that. >> Yes, a thousand%. >> Excellent. Um, anybody else on murals? Good. Uh, there's a business mixer. Aaron Vega came to town.
>> Um, and his his Western Mass Economic Development Corporation is council. >> Council kid. >> I might have said corporation. >> I might have thought it cuz I was thinking of the CDC here in town. >> Um, and that's a is that all four counties of Western Mass or is that just the Valley? >> I think technically it is just the
Valley. >> Okay. It's not It's neither here nor there, but I was curious. >> Uh, actually, can I ongoing? >> Yeah. So I'm curious what that group does and what what their relation >> Yes. So uh this is a great question. So
um I would say on paper for years their charge is to help the economic development of the entire uh triount area as a whole.
I think in part due to their location in Springfield and in part due to the sort of heightened needs of Hampton County, a lot of it has been concentrated in Hampton County and has not always sort of reached Hampshire and Franklin. Um there have certainly been uh programs
and activations over the years, rebranding efforts, different things that came out of the EDC. Um but they do uh a lot of advocacy to the state um apply for grant funds to come into Western Mass especially Hammond
County. Um they are a membership organization. So in a way they act a little bit as like a big chamber um or sort of extension of the area's chambers in networking, connecting people. Um they do run a program that I have found
incredibly helpful which is the economic development partners which is a monthly zoom meetup of um planners and um offices like mine and chamber leaders and mayors
but like economic development >> economic development personnel. Um, and that's very helpful cuz every month they'll have a little presentation. So, we get to hear about different talents and how they're addressing different challenges. And then there's sort of networking and different things. Um, I
think for this moment, Aaron Vega has sort of promised that he is going to fulfill the part of the EDC mission that is the full threeount togetherness. Um, hopefully without reviving the West Mass marketing
campaign. Very good. >> Sorry. I'll tell you about that later. >> It sounds like a debacle. >> All right. Anybody other questions on this side? Befest. Again, we're all the buzz about it. Um 16 sweet 16%
of their hours. It's really cool. >> Yes. >> Anybody else have thoughts about Bfest? >> Can I get one of those? >> Yes. >> Yes. Actually, I would love one of >> I was not kidding when I said we will be there. There's a child musician going. I mean, he is so good. We were on um the
fabulous 413 with Monty and Khalis today. It was so great. And Mr. G world debuted his new song about bees that he will sing in Greenfield. >> Really cool. >> Yeah. >> Um we've got uh this is actually similar
to my question about the murals, your office hours. If members of the committee or members of the public wanted to attend or had a topic they were interested in, is it as simple as >> shooting? Yes, please. Please. The the main reason really that we kind of like put it on the calendar um is so that as
I'm kind of like boopping around to meetings and you know all over the place, there's sort of a stable thing that I can invite people to. So if you and I were having coffee and you were like, "Oh, I'd love to, you know, come into Greenfield and have a conversation about what it is to be a city council." I'd be like, "Oh, well, why don't you
host our office hours on, you know, the second Friday in June?" And it's already there. it's already dependable and people are already thinking about it. So, it's becomes an easy sort of slotting into a calendar rather than constantly having events kind of pop out of nowhere.
>> Sure. An open door and an open dialogue. >> Yeah. >> Um and then the last one that you discussed was the business breakdown. So, a similar question. >> How do if we have a business that we want to refer to you, >> it doesn't have to be a member of the GBA? Could it be a member any business in the city?
>> Any business in the city. Um, and we're expanding it to to any business in Franklin County. Okay. As well with the Chambers's uh new partnership. >> And once again, we email you. >> Yes. >> Okay. Great. Um, so if there's anybody that's got a business they know that needs some support, sounds like that's a
great opportunity. >> It's awesome. And it's really um the the structure of it is the business comes in, does a PowerPoint for about 15 minutes about who they are, what they're dealing with, what's going on. Um and then there's a facilitated conversation
um led by me for another 15 to 20 minutes and then an open dialogue with the room questions and offers of you know advice and support and everything and then general smoozing. >> Cool. All right. Um any questions from the committee for Anna or Annie before
we release them from this lovely dialogue? >> Great. This is awesome. >> Thank you for inviting us. Yes, >> thank you. >> And I truly appreciate you taking the time and the wealth of information you just shared with us. >> So that was really like a fantastic set
of presentations and we hope you come again. >> We would love to anytime you like we give you >> hey you know volunteer we want you both here. >> All right folks. >> Does anyone else need a postcard? Pamela, if you need a postcard.
>> Yes. Thank you. >> I always appreciate a positive Folks online, the BFest posters are all over town. Rise above, Kalpa Co-op. So, sorry Kate, give you one through the Zoom. I hear they're working on that technology.
I'm just updating the uh minutes here or whatever the notes that we're going to have to read. Try to read. Okay, so that ends um the continue discussion section. I'm going to jump us back to number six so we can get back into regular order.
And so just for context for you know especially you and I haven't been on the committee before. We do two things in committee. We make motions which is about a recommendation about what the full council should do. That motion does not have the force of law. It doesn't change anything. You can recommend
something in committee uh vote to recommend it and then change your mind by the time you get to full counsel. Or you can vote against it and then change your mind. or you can stay consistent and then that's option two. But this is basically the >> whatever we decide here about the zoning amendment that we had the joint hearing
on. It's just our advice to the council as a body among the four of us. >> And so we can also choose after our discussion on this motion to make a recommendation at all. That's our kind of third option. Yes. No, no recommendation at all. So that's kind of
the the structure of this. Um, we have a letter from the planning board and we have the zoning ordinance in our packet. I would recommend kind of having that available. Uh, I'm just going to read. So, the the motion uh that we're going to discuss right now is amending zoning
ordinances section 200-5.3 additional dimensional provisions and section 200-6.2 accessory uses and structures. uh you folks were all at the public hearing so I'm not going to belabor the details but just for the sake of the members of the
public uh essentially the way this was framed at that committee meeting or that joint hearing was this is essentially a technical fix to make sure the zoning change that was made to change the height restriction central commercial doesn't conflict with other frankly more
obscure portions of the zoning ordinance there's some additional details here um I just want to point out if you look at section 200-5.3 three one family, two family and three filling dwelling units have to follow the requirements of the RA district. Um I had spoken to Ella
about this and that's essentially so you don't end up with a single family house that is 70 ft tall. Um cuz if that wasn't right like if that wasn't there we could have a pretty absurd again to editorialize kind of result. So I think
this is a rational very modest way of addressing that contradiction in our zone. So, sorry for editorializing. >> Um, in addition, I believe it was Mark Snow, the building inspector, um, advocated for having this provision, uh, section two here under section 200-6.2
about offenses because again, it's a little bit was a little bit unclear with minimum front setback line because there is none in the central commercial. There are no setbacks required. And so, you could have had a 6ft tall fence right on the sidewalk, which was viewed as a safety hazard. just if you guys remember
that conversation from literally last Thursday. Um, so I will stop speaking and I would love if any of the three of you guys wanted to add anything to the conversation. Uh, that would be fantastic. Oh, one last thing. The planning board did a positive unanimous
recommendation on this. Uh, anybody have anything to add to this? Please. >> I think you summed it up very well. Thank you for for doing that. Um, and I think yes, my takeaway from the public hearing was that this is simply basically housekeeping just to make sure
that we're cleaning up a part of the zoning ordinance that got missed in an earlier change. And so this is just eliminating any confusion, getting every on the same page. Um, which sounds like a great idea to me. >> Well, thank you. >> I agree also.
>> Yeah, council. >> Um, yeah. So, like just to get at any member in the public who thinks that we're doing something new or different, this is not making the central commercial more geared towards
residential or anything like that. This is just having like congruent zoning so that it aligns with the rest of our zoning. Um, and I think that's a good thing. It makes it easier for developers and also just residents in the community to be all on the same page. And yeah, I
think the next one was just I'm just thinking of like a random fence on in your center commercial like that would just be weird. >> Yeah. Well, thank you. And um yeah, I was think reflecting on this actually the other day and just like if a developer came in and they saw both
parts of the zoning code, they contradicted each other, that could potentially scare off that developer, like you know, and that's something I'm concerned about. like I don't want to see something that needs to happen not happen because somebody looks at our messy's code and doesn't know exactly what it means.
>> Um, >> yeah. So, >> there's there's also like there's other things that we have put in place in this last like kind of chaotic year of zoning which help create like a balance between residential and commercial.
>> When we did some zoning regulation on mixed use, >> correct? and how much of it would be mixed use, how much of it would be commercial. So, we've kind of dealt with a lot of those concerns and this is like you were saying just kind of tightening up our stuff. >> Yeah. So, thank you for making that point and I, you know, just as far as
the process concerned, I thought that was a good balance between the different kind of desires for a central commercial district. It was a good compromise. Um, so yeah, no, I think we did the process correctly in that regard. Last year, as Councilman Hos said, um, I'm also in favor of making this change. Like I
said, I view it as a technical fix. You know, there the one actual change is this 200-6.2, but it's a very rational and reasonable change. So, I'm happy that it was pointed out by Ella, who is doing a fantastic job, like really responsive to the public, really competent. The fact
that she found this truly elevates the already high levels of respect I had for her. So, she's saving us a lot of grief. So, I think we should be grateful for that. >> All right. Um, any other discussion on this item or are folks ready to make our vote on a recommendation?
Okay. Um, just based on the tone of the conversation, I'm just going to ask for just a voice vote. I don't think we need to do a roll call. Um, I don't think there's anything requiring us. No, there is not nothing requiring us to do so. So, all in favor of uh
recommending amending section 200-5.3 and section 200-6.2 two as uh presented in the public hearing. All in favor please say I. >> I. >> All oppose please say nay and anyone abstaining.
Okay. So we have a positive unanimous recommendation. Um councelor Gordon is not here. And that >> yeah I was going to say in council it's helpful if people point out unanimous of those present. >> Yes. It's a simple clarifying thing but I don't like to speak from people that
aren't there just so we're clear. If I forget to do that the full council I would request you just say hey remember remember we mentioned this and I agreed with you and you forgot to do it. So hold me accountable if you could. >> Okay so we are through item number six
and now we are to our discussion on proposed zoning amendment for chapter 200 section 3 terms of words paragraph B other definitions. Chapter 200 attachment one appendex 8 table of uses chapter 200 article 4 use regulations chapter 300 section 29 accessory uses
and structures chapter 200 section 34 sign regulations so um councelor brown is here with us and >> go here sorry just so I'm not like a floating >> person and just to emphas
not submitted it for public hearing or any of those steps. And uh so even if it does get submitted, it will have to go through planning board in an EDC hearing. So this is just a discussion and I'd like to recognize council Brown uh to kind of tell us what this is all
about because she is here and she's the one that introduced it. >> Yeah, I'm happy to introduce it. So the motivation for this was um to enable pre- fridges. However, once I looked at the zoning, I was like, there's other things as well that could be interesting
and maybe some things that are missing. So, the free bridges was something we worked on in the unhoused committee um as a recommendation to have 247 food access um for dignity as well as just practically people needed food at all
times of the day. And there's not any pantries open on Sunday as well. Um, so looking at this, there's a homeowner in Greenfield who was interested in doing it and went to the um, building department to get a permit and then we
ran into some issues about how it's actually um, currently not possible with our zoning because there is you're not allowed to have an accessory structure in the front yard. Um, but you can have
an accessory structure if it's a farm stand, but that farm stand can only have raw produce. So technically, anyone selling flowers, I don't even know if eggs count, honestly. Like, is that raw produce? So, it's not really making
sense for farmers. It's also not making sense for if you wanted to give food away. So, that was the goal to rectify that. Um and then also because I was looking at right to farm agricultural
zoning then there were some other things that also seemed worth revising. Um, and those other things would be that and I'm open to I'm truly this is truly discussion and it's going to go to
planning as well on June 4th which is crazy that that we're almost in June but um so this is going to planning as well just for discussion and then so there'll there'll be plenty of time and if anyone in the public is listening and interested they can always give me
feedback as well just trying to get discussion going and it's also So, um, I've talked about this with Mark Snow, Commissioner Snow, and and Director Thorough, and we've come up with some pretty specific requirements about how to do this in a way that is safe
because, of course, giving food away for free. Like, you don't want to, you know, make that more of a problem and a liability and injure people from that. So there there will be um health code oversight
um and guidelines around that. I can like share any of that if anyone's interested. But in terms of like the food sources and the fridge temperature and and um requiring a permit from the board of
health, which is um what the town of Buckland has in Shelurn Falls. They have they have a free fridge. They have it next to town hall. Um, and they have a permit and a inspection system. So, we can do that, too. And there's also a
network of free fridges in Worcester. There's a free fridge in Turner's Falls. There's a free fridge in Northampton. So, we're not doing something like that, you know, that unusual. It's just we don't have one yet. Um but yeah, so
that was so it's been in coordination with those folks and also with Lis and the chair of planning, Jeff Saucer. But I think there's still plenty more feedback and workshopping that we can do and I'm interested in hearing your your feedback as well. Um I can I have been
stalling out, but I can go through what the other changes were besides um the accessory structure one. >> That would be helpful. >> Yeah. So the I wanted to change the definition of nursery or greenhouse because as written um it wasn't sounding
like it was applying to agriculture and it wasn't really and it was only talking about gainful production. So not even like if you wanted to just have a greenhouse for yourself to grow food that's not really what this is about here. Um, and then this was also talking
to folks in the agricultural commission and they were also um like this isn't totally making sense here. So then with the table of uses um just changing it from where it says farm stand to say roadside stand um just for
consistency. Some places in the code it says roadside and some places it already already and then some places it was saying farm stand. So just everybody's roadside stand now. And then um there's still a delineation between if 50% of
produce is produced on site and if 50% or more is not just to try to give a preference or priority to um local farmers. Um and then adding in some table of use
um requirements around forestry. This was because I looked at the East Hampton table of uses and they had more um more requirements about forestry. And this was informed by all the noise ordinance conversations. And I also
talked to Kate Broton from the precinct 7 group because for example um Jim's on well street is gets a ton of noise complaints and there the permitting process for um commercial forestry like all like yes forestry is protected over
5 acres by right to farm but below 5 acres in a residential zone like that's something that probably we can look at whether that's not allowed or whether that's a special permit. So this would um this was inspired by East Hampton and then the noise conversations that have
been happening here. And then everything below that table of uses is just like consistency about the things I already said about making sure it fits with everywhere in the code that's mentioned. Oh, sorry. No, that's not true. The last thing about allowing a greenhouse in the
front yard is a proposed change. And that's because what if the front yard is the only place you get sun and like and if someone is unable to grow food elsewhere or for whatever reason you
don't have a backyard um then then I thought it would be great and agricultural commission folks also thought it would be great to not restrict that but of course things can be tweaked more by the board and you all if you wanted to put in like use
whatever dimensional requirements or anything can be like more get more specific but that's that was the hope. >> Thank you for the presentation. Um committee members I have a couple questions but I prefer if you guys go first and so I don't just dominate the conversation.
>> Um I like this idea. Um, I think it's if we make it easier for people to grow their own food and to give it away, that's just that's just that's just a good thing. Um,
I think the more we involve all the uh different authorities and I which I feel like from your conversation we you have been like the planning board, the health board etc. um we can have a more regulated and and
refined way so that it's safe and we're not, you know, causing more harm rather than alleviating people's uh people's need for food. Um but yeah, I I like this idea. This is really cool.
>> Thank you. >> Is there anything that you guys have questions about? >> Just one one comment also. Yes, I'm in favor of these changes. Um just a thought on the wording of the greenhouse definition. Um whether tender needs to
be in there, tender plants, um we could just say it's the protection of plants and then it doesn't become a definitional issue of what does that mean and does is this plant actually tender? Does it allow? >> So just to like kind of simplify that.
>> That's great. Thanks. >> She did have a question. So, is are there and I haven't read through the whole thing yet, but are there requirements as to where like a stand can be placed and how far it has to be from like a sidewalk and that it can't
obstruct, you know, walkways and such. Um currently I believe that farm stands don't have a setback requirement and I think this would by make this making free bridges encompassing of roadside stand farm stand then I think
as written I'm not looking to have a setback requirement partly because the whole point is for it to be curbside but I think you're not allowed to like block you're not allowed to use like the public median and you're not allowed to like block the sidewalk. So I think that's already covered. >> On page nine, it mentions that um they
shall be no accessory structure should be located closer than 3 ft from the side or rear lot line. >> Oh, okay. >> So there is an element. It sounds like Well, which makes sense actually. You wouldn't want to keep it. >> Yeah. >> From the sidewalk, people need to access it, but it's empty right next to your neighbor's lot line.
>> Yep. >> Um >> Okay. Uh councelor Bon. I'm just curious about the So the green houses in the front yards. This would be all districts. >> Um I'm open to whatever you all want to
want to think about. I I know that some folks have concerns on this one. Yeah, >> just because greenhouse is that I I don't know how that's defined and what kind of structure that could be. And so I'm just a little concerned about what that would do in a residential neighborhood. >> Yeah, this one is >> in a front yard. I don't know. I would I
would have questions about that. Yeah, this one's up to 120 ft is square feet is the accessory structures category that it's under. >> Room is probably about that size, right? 120 square feet, maybe a little bit bigger. >> 10 by 12. What is that?
>> Yeah. >> So, it's pretty large. >> I mean, it's also totally reasonable to be special permit or something else. I just feel like um not allowing it feels like a special permit. I I don't know. I just
feel like that might be >> might really change the character of a neighborhood or residence and especially if you move into a a regular residential area, you might not be expecting suddenly to have some ugly structure put up in the front yard.
Uh so I would just think that that might be that that's that's really the one question I had and it was only really for the front yard. It's not allowed right now >> in a front yard. >> No, you can't have it in a front yard. And if you're in a corner lot, then that
means you have two front yards you can't have it in. So, >> interesting. Love it. Um, I had a question about under the definition of farms, roadside stand, the phrase free foods or goods. I'm a little bit concerned about goods being offered for
donation as a very broad term because I, you know, we have a lot of illegal dumping problems in this city. M >> um we have little free libraries all over the place and then you'll see like somebody will shove like some garbage inside of it, you know, and that doesn't happen all the time of course, >> but I'm concerned about like or you'll
see like the clothing donation spots >> and then people just dump stuff in front of it. >> And so creating a cart blanc for stuff to just sit there worries me. I'm I'm very comfortable with the idea of giving away free food. I'm less comfortable with the free goods aspect because of
the danger of dumping >> and kind of the my kind of watch word with zoning is like the unintended consequences aspect of it. Like it's a great idea to be able to give away clothing and what if people use it, you know, oh hey this one homeowner has a roadside stand and then this next one
doesn't want to do it but they leave all the crap in >> and we've got a zoning regulation that says you're allowed it for donations but nobody wants that garbage. Mhm. >> So, like tightening up the definition of goods would be the only way I'd be comfortable supporting that aspect of it because otherwise I think it's kind of a door that we don't necessarily want to
open. Um I didn't think about the greenhouse in the front yard, but I that really resonates with me too. Um I'm not opposed with the special permit if it's got a strict structure, but I wouldn't want it to be carpanc either. Again, for similar reasons as what councelor Bottomley described. I had a question on
the uh forestry section here. Is there a definition of what makes something non-commercial forestry um or a commercial cordwood operation that you're going to add to the definitions list? Because right now it's only listed at forestry
um under the current table of uses and I'm sure there's a definition in the code. I just obviously don't have it memorized. >> Yeah. >> Uh is there a new definition for non-commercial forestry? And cuz like what I imagine that means is somebody, you know, I got some trees
in my backyard. I chop them down, I can now sell them. You know, like I'm sure that's non-commercial. Um, so I guess I just want to know what what's the definition on that before we vote on it whenever it comes back. And likewise for commercial and uh protected by I'm
assuming MGL chapter 48 is the farm bill and commercial court operations. Uh, so that was kind of the main things I thought about as we're going through. My biggest concern is the goods piece. But beyond that, I really do like the
idea in principle. I just think we need to be careful, you know, especially making a change to allow accessory units in front yards could have some farreaching consequences. >> Yeah. >> So, I definitely want to be cautious about it. >> I also wonder had had the topic ever come up to like restrict numbers or or
just have endless stands. I don't know. Just a a wall of thought. >> Garrett, may I may I contribute? I I wanted to to contribute about the fence. >> I I actually was cited. So I I wanted to elaborate.
>> Yeah. Go ahead. >> So um the fence ordinance includes plant because I don't actually have a fence, but they called my sunflowers a fence.
So, I got a um threat of a fine if I did not cut my sunflowers down um because they were considered to be under the fence law. So, I would definitely look that up because they were looking to find me
>> 25 days, I mean $25 for every day, 50 for the second fence, um and subsequent days that I didn't comply. And so, I said, "Okay, what's the 30th day?" because that's the day my sunflowers freaking come down >> like you know so I would definitely look
to see the cross reference of fence and um plantings thank you >> yeah no thank you for that actually um that's something I definitely want to learn more about too >> comic if you want to come close just so the
mic can pick you up we can hear you. But if >> Well, I know I only moved because it's freezing in this room and I have a sweater on, but I wish I brought a coat. Something's blowing. Anyway, um along the same lines because we did talk about um you know a need for a community
friend is who's and I know like what are the hours like if somebody's hungry at 3:00 a.m. Is there if there because I know Sarah you talked about like it's you want to be sure everybody's safe. So you got the
board of health, you got this, but is there any restriction about people just showing up at 3:00 a.m. or maybe even more than three people. And so not that they would be noisy, they would just be trying to get some food. But I'm
concerned about like what if it's unruly? What if people are there fighting over? Wait, I want that. I too bad you want it. who's here first kind of thing. So, I'm glad that the board of health and the planning board and when people talk about maybe um a special
permit, I think it's something to think about because I work a lot with the unhoused and most of them are beautiful and in need and I get that, but then every once in a while, having been at the warming center for two winters in a
row, you could end up with people not playing nice but needing food. So that's my only concern is like where's that going to go and how is that going to work and it kind of tied in John with what you were thinking and you know how many do you want and I'm not poo pooing
the idea. I just think it's a concern that people should be aware of. Not everybody plays nice all the time especially if there's a food insecurity thing going on. >> Thank you. Um that actually reminds me of a question I almost forgot to ask. Is there a like a sister ordinance that's
going to come in with this? uh based on the conversations you've had with the health department and the building inspector kind of describing the regulations around this. >> No. Um >> there's department >> internal policy by departments. I have the list of requirements that I'm happy
to like share with folks that are currently what director is comfortable with. Um but yeah, it's it would be I guess that would remain internal policy. I think that's a some flexibility, you know, as
technology, you know, things change over time. So, giving the city department's flexibility makes sense. Um, when this comes to back, which I'm sure it will as part of a public hearing, if that information be included in our packet, that would be I think helpful for the discussion. Uh is there like
how are we envisioning is this like any house any residence that wants to have one or is it like an allotted amount per precinct or like in a public space or is it just any anywhere?
I think that it's bureaucratic and time consuming that they won't pr proliferate because to get a building permit and then to go get a health permit and then get the food establishment license and be the permit
holder and have the allergen certificate awareness. Like they're not they're not springing up everywhere. Like you got to beated already. Okay. Like we don't and just for reference like Worcester doesn't have those same requirements.
Northampton doesn't do like we are going we are really like we're making it really safe here. Sorry Justin. >> Um I'm also concerned about the semi-permanent structures. I mean, I'm just thinking again, if it's all zones
for everything, uh, a lot of people would have different ideas of what that structure should look like and if it's just going to sit there, um, and rot for a few years. I don't know. I just have concerns about it, especially since we've there's been
discussions over the years, even about downtown, about what does our town look like? Do we want to have uniform signage? Do we want to have like what does our town not to make this all about optics, but what does it look like? What do we >> We want to have some of those services,
but we, you know, do we want them in a restricted to a certain area to make it easier in an area, not the entire city? I don't know. These are just thoughts. I haven't really spent a lot of time with this. >> I wonder too if you could add um
conditions or standards for the the roadside stand. So if it's if it's not being used for a period of 1 month, it needs to be removed. Um or also like for goods, any products need to be contained within the structure and can't be left
outside the structure. >> I like that idea. >> Things like that. >> Yeah. Would that be internal policy or would that be included here? I don't know. But is that because I I think that that could make sense. and just like not
sure where to put that >> most things with our I'm concerned about enforcement because I don't want out of control and no method >> or property owners that are adjacent or abuing uh
>> yes >> an area that might be helpful to look at is the recently updated tag sale ordinances which I know is because those are designed um to prevent basically junk piles in people's front yards. So I think looking at kind of the philosophy and the design of that might be useful.
>> Um we looked at that at ANO last year and I we looked at a lot of things at ANO and I can't tell you this very much the specifics but I know Chief Dodge was also involved with councelor Golib in uh revising that ordinance to make it work better. So you could either reach out to
counselor Golib or him and I think either would be helpful kind of to take some of that information >> and see if there's a way to incorporate it incorporate it rather. >> Yeah, that's great. I think another potential use with this as written is
like little lending libraries or tool lending libraries. >> So I but yeah, I think the part that's important is that it's active and there's turnover. It's not. Um, yeah. >> Makes me kind of wonder are little free libraries broke? Are they all right? Are
they like are those >> right? Are those accessory units that are in viant violations of the law damn books? >> They're so sweet. I love that. >> But again, are they lawb breakakers?
>> Six years after co it's still all this stuff. Um, >> so >> but that's good. The library is closed on Sunday, so we >> go you need something. >> Um, I that is all of my questions and I I guess I should also just make a very
important point of saying thank you for doing all this work and talking to all the departments like you've put a lot of energy and gone about this >> the right way, quote unquote, and it sounds like you've been rewarded with lots of rules. I >> other people who have done free fridges,
they don't ask about how to do it and >> file that might be the that might yeah >> you're clearly going above and beyond and again appreciate the work. >> Thanks. I think hey if we can get
something that is well written then maybe making it above board will help it you know not have just like cuz people still want to do it you know so like if we can have it well written then we can have it be ahead of it. Are we imagining like a
registry or something like that? Because like I'm thinking if somebody has an idea and they're like, "Oh yeah, sometimes I have some free food, but then they might not know that someone on their like two streets behind does like kind of the same thing." But if there's like a registry, they're like, "Hey, can
I share that too? Can we like collaborate? Like >> can we create some type of a like way where you can search up? Hey, where are all these free bridges and stuff? So, we can potentially link up and not like
there doesn't need to be like 10 different fridges on one street if people can >> use the same same outputs and stuff. Yeah, I think there are existing mutual aid networks and maps that would be able to help and potentially even the city
could include something um about it too because I think the I forget what it was called like the anti-hunger task force state recommendations that Kirstston from Stone Soup helped contribute to like they were highlighting grassroots mutual aid solutions for food
insecurity. So, I think that this is something that, you know, even if the city's not doing it on public land, we could still be like, "Oh, well, if you have surplus, you can bring it here." >> Perhaps that could be like highlighted on like a city website or something like
that where people can see that as a resource. >> So, the one in Turner's Falls, I've seen it, but I haven't. Is Is that run by the city or >> Yeah, it's run by the free store that's on the corner there. And do people can people come and put stuff in it or is
there so anyone can put anything in it? >> Yeah. And the ones in Greenfield would be different because the ones in Greenfield would be required to be um from a grocery store, a restaurant, a meal distribution site like Stone Soup or packaged prepackaged food. So in
Greenfield we would not allow homemade foods. Obviously, we don't want expired foods, noted foods or things that >> And is there 247 access or is there >> The goal would be 247 access and another requirement was for um 247 video
surveillance. Oh, wow. >> Those are my questions about where it goes just because there are a lot of people wandering around and if you have it near a neighborhood, again, we've had people in our neighborhoods wandering at 3:00 a.m. >> Yeah. can just create problems for neighborhoods.
>> Yeah. I mean, that's also something that could be amended up to the property owner, too. Like, it could be like, oh, it's it's locked between like midnight and 6:00 a.m. Like, that's super, you know. Um, and I think some of these
issues are also covered under mass general law, like noise and I forget like peace and good order, whatever that one's called, and like no loitering on sidewalks. Like I think some of it is there's already some um parameters in place. >> You already told us the proposed
location or is that a secret? >> No, I mean it doesn't have to be. It's like a salon street and >> Okay. West end of town. Yeah, but it would be great to have one like west end and then also, you know, on the east side, too.
And and that's a good location because it's, you know, like walking distance from Oak Courts and some of the encampment down there. So, but there could be others that could be, you know, if a business or anyone is interested, it's it's great if it's
curbside or, you know, walkable. That's that's commercial. It's probably ideal. >> Anything else for the uh the good of the order, folks? >> Well, again, thank you. >> Yes, appreciate the amount of time and
uh >> you've managed it first. >> Um and I and if I'm writing down the suggestions, but if you have like specific suggestions too, I'll try to like send out the draft again. But if
you think of stuff, just let me know. So, I think that concludes our discussion portion. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, June 9th, 2026, 6:30 p.m. in the city hall meeting room here, second floor, and also is a Zoom
hybrid meeting unless posted otherwise. Uh, we are now to the adjournment portion of our evening. Would anyone like to make a motion to adjurnn? >> To adjourn. Thank you. >> Excellent. Um and we can again since we
have nobody uh remote we can do a voice vote. All in favor of adjourning. >> Anybody just want to change their mind? >> All right. It is according clock. Oh wow. Uh 8:05
and I am John Garrett. And good evening Greenfield. And thank you for your attention, members of the