bring this uh uh planning board meeting the town of Kingston to order at uh on Monday, March. >> Recording in progress >> 23rd, 2026 at 7 p.m. Um we'll start with a roll call. >> Alexander Graham, present.
>> Dave Gavagan. Bob Ker present. >> Okay, we also have Val here with us. Uh we have couple members missing today. Uh we have a short agenda. Uh so hopefully we'll just get started now with Val.
>> Thanks David. I want to invite Jason D. Roier from U Old Colony Planning Council to present an update on the housing production plan that he's been doing. Both the planning board and the affordable housing trust are providing a match. Thank you.
>> For the grant that we have from the environmental office of environmental u affairs and old county planning council has also added some DTA funding. So it's a team effort and we're happy to have Jason back.
>> Okay. >> Good evening. Uh thank you for having me back to present on the housing production plan. Uh I was last here on Mar uh November 10th uh where I provided an overview of the public survey that had been done and just a brief overview
of uh some of the the goals uh goal areas that were being sort of considered um that would help inform the overall action action plan, five-year action plan for the housing production plan. Uh and then the last four and a half months um the housing production plan is
largely drafted about 95% of the way through. uh just some minor uh text edits that have to be done wrapping up a couple of um sections as well as final formatting. Uh this is just an overview highle highlights of the housing
production plan. Some of the highle sort of um findings and recommendations uh that will be included in the housing production plan. I hope to have it finished by midweek this week in which case I will share it with Val. she could share with members of the planning board
and I'll also um send it to the affordable housing trust for their review um and comment. Uh just in terms of next steps, I'm hoping to get on the agenda for the planning board at some point in I would say May or early June.
Uh it needs to be submitted to the state for their review, EHSC, for their review by June 30th. And so it has to be approved by the planning board and the select board before being passed on to the um to the state. So uh May would be
preferable early June if if necessary. Uh it'll also go out for a comment period, public comment period that the stakeholders and residents in the town of Kingston can also review and comment on the plan. And I'm hoping to have the comment period open for around 3 to four
weeks um to allow um sort of substantive comments um and and a long enough comment period. So, uh, the slides that you have, the purpose of the housing production plan is to guide Kingston's housing strategies for the next 5 years, address housing affordability, supply,
and demographic change, uh, support progress towards 40B goals, and align housing with community character and planning priorities. And essentially, the housing production plan update does cover all of these areas. Uh just some current housing contexts uh in Kingston
there are 5,251 yearround housing units 272 of these units are included on the town subsidized housing inventory or SHI which brings Kingston to about 5.1% which is below the 10% state benchmark but it's approximately a little bit more
than half. And so Kingston's doing pretty well in terms of maintaining um adequate yearly progress on the the SHI. Uh and then approximately 254 additional units would be needed to reach the 10% threshold. Uh not that you know the
housing production plan gets you there by any stretch of the imagination, but in terms of like a benchmark and something to have sort of in the vision of the town, that's what that's where you would be. Uh some key housing challenges in Kingston, there's limited housing diversity. um in terms of uh
housing typologies that meets the needs of residents, there's obviously a dominance of single family homes, much as the case of a lot of sort of suburban towns on the Southshore, many of which are in OCPC's sort of uh planning region. Uh rising housing costs and low
vacancy rates, significant renter and homeowner cost burden. There's a whole section in the housing production plan that talks about cost burden that both renters and homeowners are spending a majority of their household income on housing costs. um both renters and homeowners. Uh a large percentage of the
community is what we would consider severely costburdened, which means that they're spending 50% or more of their household income on housing costs. And then there's limited multif family zoning um and many development constraints uh that limits the ability
to to develop um maybe housing that's needed. Some demographic trends. Uh the population uh in Kingston is projected to grow slowly but steadily um over the next 5 years. Uh the at the same time median age is increasing. There's rapid
growth in residents aged 65 and over especially among 75 years of age and over. Uh Kingston much like many communities in the OCPC re region are sort of graying which means they're getting older. um which obviously offers unique challenges in terms of services
and housing um for an aging population. Uh smaller households are also becoming more common as folks uh are sort of um delaying starting families um you know having sort of like not as many children as they might have had um previous uh in previous generations. The housing needs
that were identified as part of the housing production plan process. Uh housing for seniors and aging in place. There's a need for more housing for for seniors so that they can age in place, age in community. Uh there's a need for smaller homes with and smaller maintenance housing, uh lower
maintenance housing, excuse me. Uh rental housing affordable for households below 50,000. Uh workforce housing for local employees and moderately priced home ownership opportunities. And so the goals that were developed and strategies that were developed as part of the housing production plan tries to meet
those um specific housing needs and housing priorities. uh housing production needs as identified in the housing production plan. Uh 400 to 450 to 550 housing units are needed by 2035 to sort of meet demand over the next 5
years uh in terms of household formation uh and sort of population and demographic changes over the next 5 years. 20 to 25% of these units should be identified as income restricted to keep Kingston sort of like uh progressing towards your your sort of
40B uh SHI goals. Uh there should be a priority on one and twobedroom units um because of the growing smaller household sizes and then maintain the existing 272 units on the SHI. uh the SHI is a moving target in a way because it's sort of
connected to your overall housing stock um based on the census. And so if you get new housing over the next 5 years, you also need to make sure that you're also recouping some of that on the SHI or else your percentage goes down, right? Um and so
really making sure that you're not losing units that are currently affordable that might have affordability sort of expiring. uh you want to make sure that you capture those and sort of renew and extend the affordability on those units as well. Uh you might remember when I was here in November
talked a little bit about sort of the balance between housing production and sort of making sure that you're not sort of losing that sort of neighborhood character uh and making sure that Kingston is able to retain that while also growing at the same time or at least developing housing at the same
time. And so there is a focus on making sure that the housing production plan both balances housing production and maintains current neighborhood character. Uh and so how the Kingston HPP supports both goals. which really focused on smallcale housing options uh
through encouraging missing middle housing such as duplexes, cottage clusters, and accessory dwelling units that add homes without dramatically changing the neighborhood scale or adding sort of, you know, substantial density. Uh targeting specific growth areas, so directing new housing towards
appropriate locations such as commercial corridors, redevelopment sites, and town- owned parcels rather than established uh neighborhoods. adaptive reuse and redevelopment through promoting conversion of underutilized buildings and redevelopment of sites like the formal Maple Street Fire Station instead of large greenfield
development. Uh design sensitive zoning updates, so recommending zoning reforms paired with design guidance. So, new housing fits the architectural character and scale of Kingston neighborhoods and incremental and community guided implementation through uh public
engagement crossboard coordination and phase strategies to ensure housing growth aligns with community priorities. The HPP focuses on adding housing in ways that are gradual, contextsensitive, and consistent with Kingston's uh small town character. Uh there are five
strategic goals uh within the housing production plan. First is this plan and imagine plan and ma uh manage. So strengthening housing uh leadership and coordination amongst the the boards uh produce and revitalize creating new housing opportunities, zoning and
enabling modernizing zoning regulations, preserve and protect maintain existing affordable housing and educate and engage building public understanding and support for new housing. Uh the priority implement uh implementation strategies. This is not um all of them. This is sort
of just an overview of some of the ones that are included. I will say that I'm sort of one of the things that I'm looking at is the actual implementation strategies that are drafted within the housing production plan to make sure that while the housing production plan's
implementation strategies are robust and there's many of them. I I want to make sure that it's also really focused on what's accomplishable over the next 5 years. um and things that might take longer are identified that maybe this is sort of something that should be identified for the next housing
production plan or maybe a longer term strategy. And so um some of the implementation strategies that have been prioritized is redeveloping the formal Maple Street fire station site, uh encouraging mixed income housing development, expanding missing middle
housing options, conducting a zoning audit and targeted reforms, and promoting ADUs and small-cale infill housing. Um missing middle is sort of a phrase that's used a lot. Um the image on the the slide below really shows what the missing middle housing is. It's sort
of what's in the middle there. Uh heritage conserving infill duplexes, triplexes and forplexes in some cases. Uh town houses and small apartment buildings. Um, a lot of communities, Kingston's certainly included in this, um, are getting sort of new single
family housing being built in the community as well as sort of like larger multi-unit apartment buildings. But what's not being built is sort of like the smaller units, the the duplexes, um, the triplexes in some cases, um, and, uh, small apartment buildings. And so that's what we refer to as missing
middle sort of rental housing, which is housing for like workforce um which generally tends to be sort of um in between uh low to mid-rise apartments and detached single family homes. Uh preservation and stabilization strategies, protecting existing SHI
units and affordability restrictions. So making sure that Kingston's not losing units that are currently affordable on the SHI housing rehabilitation programs for low-income households as well as seniors. aging in place repair program so that seniors can stay in their homes um and maintain them and update them if
they need to and then coordination with the Kingston Housing Authority to make sure that the Kingston Housing Authority is able to maintain the units that they have within their portfolio. Uh there's also money available at the state level that was made available through the
governor's um affordable homes act that all uh provides additional funding to rehab and modernize um public housing. so that uh public housing um agencies can address any uh deferred maintenance that
might be on the properties and modernize them, maybe make them more handicapped accessible and more accessible so that as residents age in place within public housing, they're also able to stay uh for the long term within their communities. So the implementation framework
largely most of the lead entities for the housing production plan is the Kingston planning department and the affordable housing trust. Um some supporting partners include the Kingston housing authority, the board of selectmen, the community preservation committee and the old colony planning council or other consultants to make
sure that what's addressed in the housing production plan can actually be implemented rather than just sort of being a plan to say now Kingston you figure it out. there's a a road map that really helps the town sort of figure out who's the lead entity um who's supporting what years these are identified for funding sources that can
help you uh meet those goals. Uh key benefits of uh housing production plan adoption is providing a roadmap for housing policy decisions uh for the town. Improving eligibility for state grants uh allows potential 40b safe harbor protections. So if Kingston
creates affordable housing equal to.5% which are 26 units of its year-round housing units in a single year or 1% uh in a year which would be 52 units and has an approved housing production plan. The town can obtain temporary protection, which is also referred to as
safe harbor, allowing the zoning board of appeals to deny certain comprehensive permit or 40B projects for 1 to two years without being overturned by the state um housing appeals court. Uh so 26 units for one year of safe harbor protections and 52 units would equal two
years of safe harbor provision uh protections. So some next steps obviously I had mentioned this earlier uh planning board review and adoption or support at an upcoming planning board meeting select board adoption of the housing production plan. It then gets sent to EOHLC for certification and then
there's honor on uh annual monitoring and progress reporting that come with it. And so um that's the housing production plan in five minutes 10 minutes whatever it's been. Um but I can make myself available to answer any questions if you have any. Well, I just want to remark that uh Jason's done done
an incredible job of pulling all this information together. He's been very responsive to um edits that have been made by staff and I'm sure by the trust and uh we really appreciate his enthusiasm and energy that he's put into
pulling this plan together for us. Um I'm looking at possible next uh next dates. we can definitely do an a early May timing for you. Um with that I you know of course if you have discussion or
comments. >> Actually I had a question. Um I was curious as to how the new ADU law and the fact that we're now building more ADUs in Kingston, how is that going to affect um our SHI? because
um we've been able to keep keep on keep on top of that because as we build new neighborhoods we require a certain amount of affordables with every >> what is it five to 10 houses we build so but these ADUs aren't going to be counted um they're going to hurt us in a
way right I would say >> it'll increase the housing stock >> which will uh pull down >> the uh percentage >> but you know ultimately I think they make the town more affordable. >> Mhm. >> Because they're they're small housing units, usually one or two bedrooms,
which I think we need. >> Yeah. On the sorry on the ADU and the SHI, so this was included as a recommendation in the Abington housing production plan, um which y >> did get approved uh late last year. Um, one of the strategies that I
incorporated in there was that the town should explore um including or the incorporation incorporation of ADUs in the SHI. So having the ADUs be sort of targeted towards um affordable um now
there's a process that has to go through. the town would essentially have to receive approval from EOHLC. But to make sure that ADUs are not adding undue burden to the town by increasing the housing supply and lowering the a uh the SHI percentage, there is a strategy that
the town could use to >> um sort of incorporate some of those uh ADU units into the SHI. Uh that's not currently a goal or a strategy in the Kingston housing production plan, but if that's something that you would be interested in sort of like having included, it's it's simple of just
adding a bullet because I already have it written for Abington. It would just be changing it to Kingston. Yeah. >> And EOHLC did approve that as a strategy. >> Okay. So, I'm not sure what that entails, >> but uh >> it definitely seems like it's going to
impact if we don't do something because I feel like that's where we're headed. like there's going to be a lot more ADUs and a lot less building of new homes. We're kind of out of land kind of in a way, you know, when you look at Kingston, it seems like we have a lot of open land, but we really
don't. >> Yep. >> You know, so uh interested to see how that's going to play out. Anybody else have any comments, Bob? >> Not at this point. >> No. Look forward to seeing the plan. >> Thank you. So, you should have that late
this week, early next week. Great job, Jason. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. Thank you. >> We really appreciate the uh support from Wolfe County Planning Council. >> Yes. Um yeah, the ADU thing is uh really
interesting because I I really do think it helps the town and affordability, but I can see it's going to it could really hurt us, too. So, >> yeah. Okay. Uh we're at um at least 7:05. So
we could at this point continue um the public hearing that we were supposed to have. >> Yeah, we've gotten a request from the applicant to continue. They've indicated that they're going to submit new plans and so with that uh knowing that when
those plans come in, we have to circulate them for further review. And uh if for the record, this is 31 Forest Avenue um the the Hines Family Trust application. So I'm recommending that we
continue it to May 12th, which would be uh skipping one meeting and and going to the next um in order to give adequate time for us to peer review the new plans when they come in. >> Okay.
uh and entertain a motion to uh continue that to May 12th. >> So moved. >> Okay. >> Second. >> Second. Okay. We have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion? >> Okay. All those in favor of continuing
to May 12th. >> I >> I >> I >> And that'll be at 7:05 p.m. again. >> 7:05. Yep. >> Okay. Okay. Um, we at Yep. So, we're at 7:15. We have a
public hearing. Uh, zoning zoning articles. Val. >> Yes. I'm recommending that um we move to open the public hearing. >> We got to Okay, we got a we got need a motion. O open the uh what? To We don't
have to. We just need to read the >> Well, first we want to open the public hearing. Then we want to wave reading the uh legal ad. open the open the public public meeting public hearing uh on the zoning articles. Um we don't need a vote for that, right? >> You do.
>> We do. Okay. We need a uh a vote on that. We need a motion. Motion to open the meeting. Anyone >> make a motion to open the meeting? >> Okay. >> Second. >> Okay. All those in favor of opening the public hearing on the zoning articles? I
>> I >> I >> In the interest of time, I'll make a motion to wave the reading of the notice of public hearing. Um it's available online for anybody that needs to see it. Right. >> It is >> second. >> Okay. All those in favor of uh waving
the reading of the public uh notice, say I. >> I. >> I. >> Okay. >> Okay. I've got a a PowerPoint and I've practiced to get it down to 10 minutes, so I hope you can bear with me. I'll make a motion to start timing down.
>> Okay. >> Cold. >> We got time. >> All right. Well, I'll take it. >> There's lots of things on the screen here. >> See if I can uh >> get this so you can see it. All right, we have three articles.
So these are planning board proposed. We have three articles. The first is housekeeping. The second is uh updates to the ADU that was already adopted just to satisfy some changes requested by the attorney general's review. And then we
lastly we have accessory structure dimensional standards. These are all big words tonight. So I'm going to start with housekeeping and I'm going to start with the hardest one uh so that everybody can easily follow along when I
get to the easier stuff. Um, do you remember in 2025 we had to update the use table because when it was recodified, we carried over a bunch of commercial uses um incorrectly and ended up having to um add them back into the
zoning bylaw. And if you do, we're doing it again, but with different uses this time. So when we refored the reformatted the zoning bylaw, the goal was not to change anything, but we accidentally did that
again. And the recottification process involves us taking narrative uses, so like a house, a farm or a business, and putting them into a table. And when we do that, the the part that
gets a little bit confusing is when we start to quantify things. So in for example in district X, if we had a district X and we allowed a house, a farm, and a business, that's really easy to carry over into a table, that P means
it's permitted. A house, a farm, and a business. But then when we go to the next district where now we quantify a small farm or a small business, we have to add those uses to the table because it's not the same as just business. So
small farm and small business and we get to district Y and we say that those are allowed. But then you can see that the business and the farm are not allowed um because it's a small business and a small farm. And then we get to district Z, we have
to add another use because in district Z there's big business. And what happened when we carried the narrative over is when you go back to the uh district X and try to figure out well they don't list small farm and they
don't list small business and they don't list big business. And instead of saying,"Well, gee, all businesses were allowed," instead the uh consultant accidentally said, "Well, because it's not listed, it must not be allowed." So, we essentially lost a whole lot of
zoning when we did the recottification. Um, a lot of uses were eliminated that we want to put back in. It was an error. Do you have any questions on that? That's good. Okay. >> Good. So
in this case, it had to do with square footages. Rather than saying small or big, it had to do with the square footages of the size of these businesses. And it happened in the commercial district, the industrial district, and the commercial industrial
districts. And it happened on five pages worth of uses. So I'm going to show you those. Now, this is really important that we reinstate these. So I'll show you the first page and if you look at the yellow you can see kind of a pattern there. So
so the first example is bottling and you can see that when we carry that use over we had uh different in in some cases different sizes depending on which part of the narrative we were pulling that from. So up to 10,000 square feet, over
10,000 square feet, but up to 10,000 square uh 20,000 square feet or over 20,000 square feet. And before recottification is in the middle, it was not allowed in commercial. And that's correct. When we look at the current on
the left, it's not allowed in commercial. So we're leaving that alone. But when you look at industrial before recottification, bottling was allowed by right in the industrial zone if it was small. If it got to over 10,000 square ft, it was a
special permit from the planning board. And then when we carried it forward and said if it's 20,000 square ft or over 20,000 square ft, it was a special permit by the planning board. But you can see that in the current zoning they
called it not allowed because it wasn't listed with that descriptor in front of it in the previous district even though it wasn't ever capped by size in that previous district. So we have to add it back in to the industrial zone.
And similarly when we look at the commercial industrial zone for that use the smaller use up to 10,000 square ft or slightly over 10,000 square ft was both allowed by uh by right and then
when it got to 20,000 ft allowed by right that carried over. Okay. And so did the special permit from the planning board when it gets to over 20,000 ft. But those smaller uses didn't get carried over. They now currently say
that they're not allowed when they in fact used to be allowed by right. So we're adding them back in. And that exact same thing happened with industrial park. You can see the patterns exactly the same. And I'm going to go to the next page.
It's the exact same pattern with manufacturing. Um, and it's the exact same pattern with Office Park. >> Mhm. >> So, you can see we've lost a lot of uses in these districts that we want to add back in. We're not taking anything away.
When we get to professional or business office, not only did we have that same pattern, but also we somehow managed to say it was not allowed at all in the commercial district, which we don't want to do. So, it was allowed by right.
We're putting it back in by right. Um and then the next one I'm going to skip for a second. Uh I'll come back to it. Um public utility building. The same thing happened as the last one.
We had it um the same problem where it was permitted by right when it was smaller. Special permit by the planning board should be included and the same thing happened. The commercial district got lost altogether. We're putting it back in as a special permit like it was
before and trucking garages and terminals. That same pattern with the two Ps under the uh commercial industrial zoning and then in the industrial zone having it be a special permit from the planning board
when it's larger. And then you can see with warehouses and food distribution centers which is how this conversation started. We were trying to put somebody back into where the UPS building uh was located and we know that they closed down, but that was warehouse use and it
was permitted by a special permit. But it was clear that there was something wrong with the bylaw because it suddenly doesn't say it's allowed when we know it is. So, uh Paul Armstrong and I have gone through this with a fine tooth comb. And this is another one where it
was allowed u by a special permit and it needs to say so and be changed back. And again, it was um allowed by special permit in the commercial district. And for some reason right now it says it's not allowed at all. The one that I skipped over,
I'm going to go back to um and that's auto truck vehicular service and repair shops that don't include body repairs. Just for the sake of clarifying things, Paul and I want to add this footnote that says, "Please see all these other vehicular related uses
that are separately called out in the bylaw as uses rather than try to, you know, we don't want anyone to confuse this use with those uses because they're they're listed separately in in the uh use table. So, we want to add a footnote
for those. And then in that case where we saw it change was just in the industrial district. If it was larger then we need it to be allowed by special permit like it used to be. So long story short um we are adding
those uses back in with what seems like a lot but it's really just a pattern that carried all the way through uh the use table. Are there any questions on that? Okay. >> I mean, I I was on the board when this
happened and uh I remember thinking like how you know how the old document was very was difficult to follow, >> very difficult >> and the new document, you know, was uh much easier to read. But I I kept thinking like how did they do this?
Well, same thing. >> They made mistakes. some mistakes were made and and um >> it was I I it can understand how this could happen. It was a lot of work. >> Yeah. >> To do this, but >> it's too bad that they didn't get it right the first time. This is now the second time we've had to make changes
and it's probably not going to be the last. >> It's going to be nearly the last. Um I might come back with the marina, >> but other than that, I think we're pretty comfortable with all the uses being listed properly now. >> Yeah. Um
it's it's uh hope we we know and and um have been operating as if the bylaw was incorrect the whole time because it's difficult to fix. >> Yeah. >> Um so this is spent this is Paul put in probably a solid eight hours reviewing my work and this is several days worth
of work by me and we're hoping that we got it right between the two of us. Paul Armstrong. So, um, I'm going to move on to the easy ones now. Okay. Um, we have a couple of typos or what are professionally called scriveners errors
and one omission that we want to fix. These are from this recotification. Um, for the most part, well, we have a footnote where we just didn't finish the text and we actually say that there will be no raising of swine of furbearing
animals except as permitted in master general laws. But we forgot to put what chapter and we meant or furbearing animals. Um, so we just have to fix the typo. Um, we accidentally dropped the
word non in front of transient in the use that says renting of not more than two rooms by a resident occupying the dwelling to not more than three should be nontransient persons. It just got dropped. And then the word single,
the s got dropped. And although I've added it in just so I can read it, um it should be properly corrected by town meeting to add the S. So it reads single family detached dwelling in the use table. And then when we added the MBTA zoning
overlay district, um I forgot to put it into the list of districts. So I'm asking that we add that purpose of district into that section. Um it's just housekeeping. And then also we noticed that the um
autocorrect took water resource overlay district and shortened it to word when we meant W. So we just want to fix that too. >> Okay. >> So all right moving on. I mentioned that
um our second article is ADU updates for the attorney general. So I have just one slide there. Um we have to take out the reference to owner occupation and single family dwellings under the purpose so that we're not
discriminating against the byite ones which can't be restricted by owner occupancy and are not limited to single family dwellings. So we're striking that language out. Um and then applicability we have to add for the buy right uses
that they're allowed in the conservancy district um because the conservancy district although it's pretty restrictive what can be built single family homes are allowed by right and so that district has to be added and then a correction
the um when we typed this up the B that we had in that wording was um should have been capitalized so we're just capitalizing that. And then clarifying under applicability, detached accessory units are subject to
dimensional standards under accessory buildings and structures, which is a different section of the bylaw than where the table is. The dimensional table doesn't make any reference to um accessory structures.
And I have an article to fix that next because it's confusing. I've uh I have for a couple of months now been the zoning administrator for the town since Paul retired and I'm learning um the ins and outs of the bylaw even more than I had before. And I think there needs to
be a cross reference so that you know that that's where accessory structures are located. Um when I when I took that language and brought it to town council today, town council advised that when we um we are also saying that structures
that are already existing on a yard that are accessory can be converted. So a garage could be converted if it's detached to an accessory dwelling unit. But we're also adding some some language saying that it can't be enlarged uh
unless it conforms to the setbacks that are in place. So that's before I could change the slide that came in this afternoon. We're also clarifying that that's the case for so for both byite and for
special permit just so that it's clear because we when I originally drafted this I wasn't clear that there was a separate section on accessory um structures okay so that's that that will satisfy the attorney general
um they otherwise adopted everything that we had put forward at town And lastly, accessory structures setbacks specifically. So, as I said before, I just want to make a footnote on the dimensional standards in section 8 that refer you to
section 9 where accessory dwellings and structures dimensional standards is actually located. And then while we're looking at that, one more change, and that is right now any accessory structure can be 5 ft from
the rear lot line. But in talking with everyone about that and looking at that, that seems awfully close for something that gets bigger as you look at it. And so we said, what what would make sense to maybe change that to 10 ft? We don't
really care about a shed, that kind of thing. But when you're looking at a bigger structure, like bigger than a two-car garage, for example, maybe that should be 10 feet off the lot line. That way, if you had one on either property, you'd have about 20 ft between them.
You'd be able to get back there for maintenance. You get back there for any kind of fire protection, that kind of thing. So, we're recommending that a twocar garage is typically 24 by 24 or just under 600 square ft. >> Mhm. >> So, we're recommending that anything
over 600 square ft be 10 ft off the rear lot line rather than five as it is right now. And that's that. So, it's not too bad, but it is it's it's a lot of
real just editing with the change to the setback overall. Are there any questions >> that I can think of? >> Okay. I appreciate everyone's patience while I walk through all of that
>> and we appreciate the work that you've done. Just thankful that it was a recognizable pattern and you're able to get through everything. >> We are too. >> I'm going to stop screen sharing. >> Um Okay. So,
um we need to uh close the public hearing. We need a motion to close the public hearing. Correct, Val? >> Yeah. There's a guest. Are they interested in asking a question online? >> Okay. >> I'm not getting a response. Um, there's
no one here in the audience. So, yeah, I would recommend closing the hearing. >> Okay. So, we need a motion to close the public hearing. >> I make a motion to close the public hearing. >> Okay. We have a motion. We have a second. >> Second. >> We have a second now. Any further discussion?
Okay. Hearing none. Uh, all those in favor of closing the public hearing on the zoning articles. >> I >> I >> I Okay. >> And can you make a recommendation to town meeting on those articles, please? >> So, we need a motion to recommend
hopefully favorable action on the uh hearing zoning articles. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Second. >> Okay, we got a motion. We got a second. Uh this is favorable action on the uh public hearing zoning articles uh the
housekeeping uh article ADU law and the accessory structures uh at town meeting need to uh ANA on that. All those in favor >> I >> I >> I >> Okay, >> great. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Okay, lastly not least, we have this uh we are ready to do the Charles Drive subdivision which was usually used to be called Greystone Village which is also
Charles Drive where they've asked to post a cash bond or excuse me a cash deposit with the town. We did a bond estimate uh which I'll pass along here by our
peerreview consultant uh Amory excuse me Pat Brennan who used to work for Amory PGB Consulting um $218,297 with the 40% contingency. They've uh stated that they're going to make a cash deposit and they've signed
an agreement with you to make said deposit. >> Okay. >> And so I've got that and I'm first asking that you accept the deposit as by a vote. >> So where are we at with that
subdivision? Do we have any all the lots released? Like where are we at? We have not released all the lots and that's why we're um actually looking at this today. I'll show you a a slide if I can. I'll share again. Maybe I shouldn't.
Um this is Charles Drive. So you can kind of see that a lot of the houses have been built. And if you look at the end of the culde-sac, there's a couple of empty lots that they're working on now. Mhm. >> And by posting what's called a
performance guarantee, such as the cash deposit for what it takes to finish the work, they are requesting that all the lots be released for them to be able to finish building and selling those house lots. >> And so the request is that first we
accept the deposit and then we uh release the lots. >> Okay. >> Based on that, >> do it all tonight, right? >> Yeah. And we haven't had any problems with the with this subdivision. Okay, good. >> Like to hear that.
>> And what's the I'm sorry, what was the value of the deposit? Is it the 218? >> Yeah, 218 297. >> And that uh how did they come up with that number? They uh they worked with um >> we we sent our consultant out >> consultant out okay
>> to do that estimate and we had them tell us the amount and they added 40% contingency for the work that's left. >> Okay, good. >> And this will be considered a performance guarantee. >> Yes, this is um they can do cash, they
can do a triparty agreement, they can do a bond, which this board I think is more familiar with. Um, cash is always good. There's no question about where the money is. So, basically what happens if
they default for some reason, didn't put the top coat on, we would have that money available to us, which is what the agreement states, the deposit agreement says that they're giving it for that reason, and that they are um
it will be the sole property of the town. And if for some reason they don't do the work. >> Yeah. >> And that will allow us to finish the work. >> So what's left? They got a top coat, you said. And >> um let's see. >> Get a list, right? >> Yeah. It's uh top coat, which is the
most expensive. That's roughly $100,000. Yep. >> And then little stuff like finishing the sidewalk, um putting in the monuments, adjusting the frame and grate, which they have to do in order to pave. um do
the fine grain and compaction, excuse me, of the shoulders in the basin, lom the grass strips in the right of way of the road, seed that, put in a stop sign and stop line. And then they need to do an asbuilt plan or street acceptance
plan and deed everything over to the homeowners association. >> Okay, great. Just as a matter of interest, is there an advantage for them of putting up a cash uh deposit as opposed to a bond? >> No,
it it does the same thing. It it they have the right to choose what form they're going to put it into. They offered a letter of credit. I didn't feel comfortable with that. So, our my preference given the choice was cash. >> Yes. Okay.
>> Okay. Great. All right. So, um we need to uh we need a motion to accept the uh performance guarantee. >> Yep. >> First, right? >> Yes. >> Um I don't know if we need to state how
much that is and everything in the >> uh Sure. I'll make a motion to accept the offer for per performance guarantee the value of 218,297 for Charles Drive. >> Second.
>> Okay, we have a motion. We have a second. Do we have any further discussion on this matter? Hearing none. Uh, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Great. And then I've prepared a lot release of all lots just to
>> make it simple. >> And I'm asking that what they'll do is they'll put this on record and they'll reference the book and page of this being recorded. >> Okay? >> And then that then they'll put this on record after the performance guarantees
in place. So, I'm now asking that you um release all lots subject to the re receipt of the deposit. >> Okay, Alex. Thank you. I'll make a motion to release all
remaining lots for the subdivision known as Greystone Village aka Charles Drive um under the condition of performance guarantee. >> Okay, we have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any
further discussion on the matter? >> Okay, hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. I. Okay. And that is that you have no meeting minutes to the or anything like that. Anything else, Bal?
Uh I can't think of anything. We're I think they're um closing the warrant in a couple of weeks, but they're they're generally had we're looking for everyone to have filed their um articles with the
town by um tomorrow from the general public. And um just reminding everyone that that's the timeline for town meeting is is coming up fast. And uh we're just uh conservation and planning are working really hard on several grant
applications right now. Uh the other thing I wanted to mention is that it looks like on April 23rd, which is a Thursday next month, we're going to have our follow-up meeting on the future design ideas for Main Street. We had our
first meeting in November with the neighborhood and we, you know, the anyone from the public is welcome. Uh we're working very closely with the residents that immediately abut the road and we're going to come back and kind of review all everything we heard from the
workshop in November and then talk about strategies and ideas for traffic calming and um streetscape and um look at that and then hopefully from that meeting have everybody's input that again that's
April 23rd in the evening then we will um start designing for grant applications. So, we want to thank town meeting for the funding we got in order to do that work >> and anyone's welcome to come. >> I had a question. I remember last year you said that we we had received some I
think you said grant money to do some work I think in front of the library and then maybe at at Grove Street. >> Yeah. Uh great. I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah, >> we got that money and we just >> brought the designs forward. We're um it's pretty straightforward when we're
doing the Grove Street crosswalk in front of the library. We figured out that we could solve some of the driveway entrance issues at the library while we do these improvements to the crosswalk on Main Street. So, the library trustees
just signed off on the uh plans to do those improvements and we're getting ready to do the final engineering and then go out for bid for the work. >> Cool. So, they'll get done uh hopefully this spring and and midsummer, something like that.
>> Yeah. Is the uh do you know if the if is the state all done on on 3A with all the work they had they started last year? >> Yeah, we don't know that there's any more work other than fixing the all the potholes from the storms. There's a lot of them.
Um but we also um had our first meeting with them about paving all of 106 um from Summer Street out to the town line and um they're going to get to us with more information. We don't know whether it's this year or next year yet,
but there will be a Kingston specific meeting coming up in the in the near future. Um, while I'm on that, we we're looking at the um we got a um an earmark that's moving through the Senate right
now for $50,000 towards the 150 total that we need to finish the exit 20 ramp designs. That's both in Kingston and Ducks. >> So, we're almost there. We just need another 100,000. We're looking everywhere. Uh we've applied for two
different federal grants. We're about to apply again for a uh state grant. We didn't get it last year, but we're we're really pushing to try and get that done. And we're also working on the big Y intersection. >> Um that's been entered into the TIP, and we're having our kickoff meeting with
MASDOT to do some scoping around that in the next month. >> And what's the what's the plan for there? Is it lights or a rotary? Right now, we're looking at a roundabout that would solve not just the immediate intersection, but also the the Tarkland
and CBS intersection and also the Arcade Plaza intersection. >> So, it's a long >> uh kind of eyeshaped, if you will, um approach and then the culde-sac and it would solve a lot of the the maneuvering
problems and the vis everybody having to look left, right, and center while they're in that intersection. and it would reduce all the accidents. >> So, it's a very expensive um possibility. We applied for a grant just last week u to the federal wall the
day of the snowstorm. I went in Sunday night and made sure we got the application submitted and um that's to the federal program. We're looking to fund the all of the design for the big Y intersection, the finishing of the exit
20 ramps, and then all the way into the Chestnut Street intersection in Ducksbury. So, we jointly applied for that with Ducksbury. We're really pushing to try to solve those intersections. >> No, the the the the exit 20, is that going to be lights or
or more roundabouts? >> Two roundabouts. >> Nice. Yeah, >> I like I like the roundabouts. I really loved what they did at 53. >> Yeah. >> 53 and uh what is it? Winter Street. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So much safer. >> Yeah. Similar, a little bit smaller scale.
>> Um the idea is to reduce the amount of time people are idling. >> Um so not having the signals, there's a lot less maintenance and costs involved in that too. >> Infrastructure and power and everything else that comes with it. >> Yeah. So, and we're excited that the um
big Y intersection, like the exit 20 ramps, neither of those requires any takings of land at all. >> Yeah. >> Which is really cool. Um it's not usually that easy. >> Yeah. >> So, yeah.
>> Okay. Anything else? No. >> Think of anything. >> We'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> We get a motion. Second. >> We got a second. It's not debatable. All those in favor? >> I >> I >> Thank you.
>> Thank you.