Okay. So, I've started the recording. So, now I can officially start the meeting. Um, welcome. We have a quorum. This is great. Um, Eric may join us. And if he does, we've got everybody that's currently seated on the board. We have one open position. So, uh, four of the
seven, including the open position or four of the six would be, uh, the quorum. We certainly have a quorum. Uh, let's see. Okay. And first thing I want to do is I want to welcome um some of our new committee members. Um Colleen Shapiro. Colleen is
representing the uh recreation commission. Is that right? Parks commission. >> Parks Commission. Yep. >> Parks Commission as opposed to recreation. >> Parks and Wreck. >> There you go. Okay. And Tim Wilsmer is
with us. Tim is representing the planning board. He's our he's our new representative from the planning board. So, thank you both for for joining us. Um Chris is relatively new. Anna and I have been around for a little while and actually Eric, who's hopefully going to
join us, has been on just for a little bit as well. So, we've got a few season hands. Um second point of business is to talk about the minutes. The last meeting we held was the June 9th joint meeting with the planning board. Um Logan took
minutes for that meeting which he passed which were passed on to us. Logan then apparently left for greener pastors or different pastors. Um so I got the minutes. There wasn't there wasn't much in there. I mean other than the fact
that I opened up the meeting for on behalf of the open space committee. Uh we did have a discussion at that meeting about the role of the open space committee and uh interface with the planning board. Um we then went into a
further discussion about getting a new member from the planning board and Tim volunteered to to do that. So that's my recollection of the of that meeting, but the minutes don't reflect all that. I can add some to the minutes before I send it to town clerk. Has anyone else had a chance to take a look at those?
Annie, you were at the meeting with me. Um Chris, you were there for a while, I think, right? You're muted still. >> Um I um you know, the way people do minutes is
very different across different boards. Um but I think your observation is correct on the minutes. Um there wasn't much to it, but uh I think >> for the first hour and then I had to leave. >> Yeah. So, speaking of minutes, um Eric is our
clerk, our recording secretary, and he's not here. Um can I get one of you to volunteer to take the minutes for tonight's meeting? Don't all raise your hands at one time. I'll call names if you don't raise your hand. >> I'll do it.
>> Okay. Thank you, Chris. So Chris, the only thing we've got so far is call to order, welcome new members. Um, and we're into the minutes approval. So that's that's it for the minutes thus far. So I mean I I would entertain a motion as amended by what I said. I
would put into the minutes uh to accept the minutes from the June 9th meeting. >> So moved. >> Thank you. Second. Anyone? >> Second. Second. >> That was Chris. Yeah. >> Okay. So, moved by a second by Chris.
Um, since we're on Zoom, we're going to do a roll call vote. Um, Colleen, >> I. >> Tim, >> I. >> Chris, >> I. >> Anna or Macro?
>> I. >> Okay. And the chair votes I. So, we will um accept the minutes as amended and I will get those over to the town clerk's office. That's for June 9th. We did not have a meeting in July, so we have no minutes from the July meeting.
Um, reports from other boards. This is an opportunity. Um, Colleen and and Tim, if and Chris already knows this, you guys probably do too. If there are issues that you're discussing at your boards that you think are uh pertinent
germaine to the discussion here um you can certainly bring up you know ideas, issues uh discussions at this point. So um Colleen, anything from parks? >> Uh not that I can think of at the moment.
>> Okay, fair enough. Um Tim, planning? >> Uh no, nothing in particular. Um, I think the the planning board's generally uh uh waiting on input from this board uh if we have anything to discuss. >> Have you had have you had a meeting in
the past week, Tim? >> Uh, no. We skipped uh what was supposed to be Monday's meeting. >> Okay. So, you so you haven't talked about some of these other agenda items that are coming up on our agenda, the the writer first refusal or anything.
The planning board hasn't discussed that yet. No. >> Okay. All right. Chris, anything from conservation? >> You're muted again. >> No, not at this time. >> Okay, thank you. Yeah, summers tend to be very quiet, so that's good.
Okay, so we don't have anything from other boards. Um, the fifth agenda item is just a very brief uh discussion of the open space plan update. As some of you that were on previous calls know, the state uh
allowed communities to extend their open space plans by 3 years um if certain changes were made to a table of commitments. So, I went ahead after discussing it at previous u open space committee meetings, I went ahead
and uh adjusted that table to reflect what we're going to be doing over the next few years so that instead of a seven-year plan, it's a 10-year plan. Sent that into the state and the state immediately accepted that. So, our open
space plan is now valid until um the end of the 2029 fiscal year, which is June 30th, 2029. So that enables us to get uh to apply for grants um through open space grants through June of 2029 without having to go back
through um an open space plan update which we were kind of facing the next year. Um so now we don't have to do that next year. We don't have to have a 2027 update. We we'll have a 2029 2030 update which is great.
So that's about it for the open space pan. Oh, and I I did go ahead and ask um Carrie, I think is her name, over at the town to make some adjustments to our website to reflect that the open space plan is now through 2029 and to also put
the letter of acceptance uh from the state for the the extension up on the website. So, that'll that should all be on the open space committee website. um as will the uh the names of the the members be corrected because we the
roster that's on that website was still an old roster. So, we're going to update that roster. So, I'm going to try to keep up with uh the website a little more. Um the next item, um has anybody got any questions about the open space plan? Have you Colleen or Tim, have you had a
chance to take a look at that at all? No, I just made myself a note to go check out the website and look at it. >> Okay, it's on the website. It's a great document. Um, former members of this committee, was done before I was on the committee. Um, did a tremendous amount
of work putting it together. It's a really good open space plan. Um, so I I encourage you to go ahead and take a look at that plan. It's got information about all the existing parcels, uh, you know, proposed areas where we'd like to get some additional open space. Um,
there were, uh, community discussions and, um, queries that were included in that. There's a lot of lot of good graphics in there. A lot of lot of GIS work went into it as well. So, it's a really really cool document. So, take a look at it sometime.
Okay. Um the next thing is the right of first refusal for 222 West Towns and Road. Now this is a reprise. We've we had this in front of us in December and then January
this past year as did planning um as did conservation. Um and at the time I think we all I think all the committees I know openspace did uh made a recommendation to the board of selectmen the select
board to not exercise right of first refusal. Are you Colleen and Tim you familiar with the right of first refusal process in the town? >> Uh only at kind of a high level. >> Okay. So, a property owner can get tax
breaks by entering their property into chapter 62. And there are different versions of that. There's there's conservation, there's agriculture, there's forestry. And if if the property is dedicated towards one of those uses,
um the property is taxed at a lower rate. And as part of that, if the property owner at some point decides to sell the property for development or development themselves, um it comes out of chapter because it's
no longer protected as forestry or agriculture or conservation land. It's now becomes developable land which has a higher tax value. So there's this process that uh the the property owner has to go through and
they have to notify um certain town boards and I know it's it's it's a select board, it's conservation commission and it's planning I think are the three that they have to notify and then there are others including open space that often do get notified through the process.
um have to notify those those boards that they intend to take the property out of chapter, pay the back taxes and develop the property, but because they've had a tax break for all these years, many of these properties have
been in chapter for a long, long time. Um, the town has the right of first refusal. The town has the right to say, "Okay, show me what you're selling the property for, and we we are allowed to match negotiate with you." And we we
have the right u first in line to be able to buy that property if we so decide to do that. Okay? And it's this the select board and then town meeting ultimately that make that decision. But this legal process has to run its course
and it's I think it's a 120day process. What happened with this um particular piece of property was the notification was faulty. So it wasn't it wasn't done in a timely fashion. It wasn't done correctly. They
have to notify by hand or by certified mail which they didn't do. They didn't notify all the boards. I forget all the the details. So they've had to go back through this process. This is now the third time they're going back through this process and offering right of first
refusal to the town for the property. Um, having said all that, from an open space perspective, we generally look at these properties and we have in the open space plan, we have six criteria that we use to evaluate um whether whether a property
rises to the level of of viable open space for the community. And therefore our recommendation, we don't we don't vote to take the the right. We we make a recommendation to the planning board and to the select board as to whether or not the right of first refusal should be
exercised. So we have we have these six criteria and I'm going to try to pull them up here real quick and read them to you if I can find them for you. Oh, I had them. No, disappeared on me. Anyway, I'll try
to do it from memory. Um, some of the more important ones are size. So, generally we use a criteria of a parcel has to be 50 acres or more in size. Uh, this particular parcel I think is 13 acres. So, it doesn't meet the size
criteria. Um and and these criteria are something we've been discussing modifying and I think we will um over time now that we have a full board we'll start talking about this again about modifying these criteria because 50 acre parcels are few and far between and
there are other parcels that are smaller that because of some of the other criteria and some of the other criteria are proximity to other open space um access to other open space public access off a roadway way um contributes to, you
know, the agricultural viability of the community, contributes to the the vista um the rural vista of the community. So, we've got we've got all these criteria um and and or and contains andor contain
significant habitat. So we can have smaller parcels that meet a bunch of these other criteria and we don't we don't say that a particular parcel has to meet all six criteria, but the practice of this board has been
to say it's got to meet at least a majority of them. It's got to meet at least three of the six and preferably four of the six. So, if a parcel were 13 acres in size and and had um you know, rare species
habitat, conservation area, um trails nearby or or could connect the trails to other open space trails, had access off a public roadway. I mean, if it met some of the other criteria, the 50 acres would go out the window. >> Yeah. >> Okay. this particular parcel and Anna,
you were you were part of that discussion this past winter. My recollection is is that it met maybe one or two of the criteria, >> right? >> That that was right. >> It's surrounded by single family homes
and that's the intention is to divide it and and and take the frontage and develop it as single family homes. Uh, >> so what um they they still had to go through the process of submitting that um that paperwork to come out of 62 even
though we weren't interested um as a town. >> They they had to do it again because they didn't do it properly the first time. So So if we remain uninterested as the town, that's the answer. But we have to give that answer again. We have to we
have to vote and we have to make a recommendation again. Uh because this is technically a new proposal >> even though it's the same proposal repackaged. >> Okay. >> Right. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> So I don't know whether any of you have
had a chance to take a look at um this parcel. We we do not have to vote on this tonight. We were asked by the town manager's office to give them a recommendation by I think it's the beginning of October. I can get the date
for you. Um if if we want to give everybody time to take a look at it and think about it, that's fine. Um I don't know about Anna, but I I've already looked at it before
and came to a conclusion. I'm not convinced I would change my mind at this point, but I want to give the other members the opportunity to look at this as well. >> I've been made aware through conservation, so I'm aware of the property. >> Okay. Has conservation voted on it
again? >> Yeah, I don't remember the vote. I just remember it coming up. So, >> it came up um at parks also. And I I don't believe we saw any
value in it. >> Uh we also had uh Glenn uh the previous uh planning board member uh mentioned it in one of our uh other board discussions and he had the same uh position that it
wasn't valuable to the town. >> Okay. Um, so hearing all that, if I I would I would entertain a motion to take a vote tonight and that way we can get back to the town manager right away and give
them our recommendation. >> Um, yeah, I Yeah, why don't you make the motion and we can go through that process. >> Do you want me to formulate it or do you want to, honestly? >> Yeah. Can you can you do it? >> Okay. Um, I would say that the open
space committee makes a recommendation to the select board that the town not exercise its right of first refusal for 222 West towns and road uh because it does not really meet the criteria uh that we view as valuable for open
space. >> Second. >> Okay, we'll do a roll call again. Um, and if you're not ready to vote, let me know. So, Colleen >> I >> Tim >> I >> Chris
>> I >> Anna >> I >> and the chair votes I. So um Chris just reflect in the minutes that we are going to make that recommendation um to the town manager to the select to the select board that they not exercise
the right of first refusal and I can I'll send an email out. >> Yeah, I'll capture that. >> Okay, thank you. All right, moving right along. Um, the next section I we always have a section for citizen comments. I don't
see anybody else on the call. We sometimes do get guests that want to come in and speak to us. I am I'll give it a second, but I don't see anyone. No one's come into the waiting room. So, I'm thinking that we don't have any
citizen comments this evening. Um, unless any of you want to speak as citizens um about open space issues. No. Okay. Um, so one thing that I am going to bring up that's not on the agenda, we'll do it under citizen
comments is we got a request from the uh town of Lureberg master planning uh group. They asked us to uh weigh in on um and this was just is it yesterday? I think Tim we got this
>> uh yesterday the day before. It was very recent. >> Yeah. So, I honestly I've not had a chance to look at they sent this spreadsheet and they want they want the open space committee to go through and to fill in the spreadsheet. I don't know what the questions are yet,
but we we have a homework assignment. >> If you want, I can give uh just a little bit of background. >> Yeah, that'd be great. Um, so basically we've been going through uh kind of public interviews and and everything uh surveys to members of the town uh to get an idea of what people want to look for
in the town for the next 10 years. Um what Kim or the master plan steering committee sent us is uh a truncated list of that of things that we as the open open space uh committee might have input
in. Um so you know some of them might be a bit tangential and we might not have much to say. Some of them are a bit more related to um you know land acquisition. Um and basically they just kind of want us to go through and give do we have an
opinion on this? What is it? What do we think we can bring to that? And what do we think we need from the town in order to accomplish that? Um, so that's basically the idea like what is it that we think we could be involved in certain points? What do we think we need from
the town to complete certain objectives? Um, so yeah. >> Okay. >> I know they they >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Um, go ahead, Annie. You do. I'm going to look something up while you speak.
>> Okay. Um Tim, um are you uh is the how does the like the our open space plan is sort of our master plan for open space? >> Sure. >> Um so I I was I mean I haven't looked at
the questions um and worked on it, but is there a little bit of an overlap on to what you're asking or you don't believe so? Um, I think I think some of these do. I haven't uh I've been part of making the master list. I haven't looked at specifically what they set aside for
this. Um, but there are definitely some that might apply. In a lot of cases, I think the ones that are most likely going to apply are mostly for like parks and wreck, like developing trails, developing uh uh bike lanes or bike
trails, things like that. But like tangentially we as the board who is looking to acquire land for the town we might have some input on that as like you know acquisition of a property that can be developed for hiking trails or
something of the nature. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. No problem. >> Yeah. Kim asked that we um deliberate on this and fill in the spreadsheet and get it back to her by October 1st.
So we have another meeting, our next meeting is on September 10th. So after that, the meeting in October is too late. We'll be past October 1st. So, September at the meeting in September 10th, um I'd like everybody to please take a
look at the spreadsheet, jot down your notes, and I'm going to ask you one more favor. On September 10th, I'm going in for a total hip replacement. So, I will not be at the meeting that night. And if I am, I'll be completely incoherent.
All right. So, Anna, um you're the vice chair, so I'd like you to chair that meeting. I am going to be in Scotland. >> You're going to be in Scotland. I'm going to be out. >> Yeah. >> Um so we'd have to have everybody else
including Eric to have a quorum, >> right? >> So I can uh you know Tim, Chris, Anna, are you gonna be around on September 10th? >> Uh I will. Yes.
>> Yeah. I can ensure that I'll be available. >> Okay. >> Yeah, I'm going to be around. I mean, the other thing we we can do I think September 10th is the first is the second Wednesday, right? >> Yes.
>> Um I don't know if we move it like if we move it up one week or if we move it up another week. Um if that would help because our deadline is October 1st. when you're coming back.
>> So, I I leave on the 9th and I come back the 17th. >> So, I could do the week before. >> So, that would be Labor Day week. Um, which is not a big deal. Like, you know, Labor Day is Monday. It would be Wednesday the 3.
>> Okay. >> What would you guys think about pushing our meeting from the 10th up to the 3? >> I can be available on the 3. I I as well. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um let's do that. Let's let's plan on
let's plan on the meeting being on September 3rd and then the next meeting after that we'll go we'll go back to the regular second Tuesday which will be October 8th. Okay. >> Okay. Moving in that O.
>> All right. And I'll I'll tap Eric. What I was going to say is I'll have whatever comments I have to make, I'll I'll collate them and pass them around. We can pass notes around to each other. We just can't deliberate on it over email. We have to deliberate on it at a meeting. >> Okay.
>> But we can compare notes. That's okay. All right. So, that takes care of the next agenda item, too. When the next meetings are >> perfect. September 3rd and October 8th are the next meetings. I should be back by the 8th. We'll see.
>> Yeah, I'll be back by the 8th. >> Will that meeting be remote as well, Michael? >> Um, right now, yes, the third is going to be remote. >> Okay, >> let's talk about that for meetings for a second because we've we've had
conversations, Colleen and I and Chris, you and I have had conversations about this. What do folks think about us trying to get together in person? Maybe on the 3D, but certainly in October. >> Me personally, I'm I'm I have no no
preference. If uh if the if the if the if the committee wants to stay remote, that's fine. If they want to come in, that's fine. I don't I I actually don't have a preference. I'm good either way. >> Okay. Um, so because of my so I don't have a
preference. I'm happy to participate on both. Um, in person sometimes it's a little harder for me just because I might be in Westford. Um, but I will always do my best to be there and often times, you know, I can make it happen more often than not. So,
>> and I I know Eric um prefers not to be in person if I not not too strongly putting that uh because he often takes these calls while he's still at work. >> I mean, I like in person, but I'm not
opposed to, you know, Zoom either. If that's better for people, it doesn't really matter to me. >> Okay. >> Tim, you okay either way? >> Yeah. Uh I I also have no uh strong opinion one way or the other.
>> All right. Let's let's call it then. Let's let's do this one by Zoom on the third. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> In case I say decide to take an extended time down at Cape Cod, I can do it from down there. >> How's that?
>> All right. >> All right. Good. So, um that's the next meeting September 3rd on Zoom. Um, does anybody have anything else? I This has been a very quick meeting, short and sweet. Um, >> I'm just like wait till Oh, go ahead, Tim. >> Uh, I've just done a a quick scan
through of what uh Kim sent us. Um, some of these do seem applicable. Some of them they seem to not quite understand what the Open Space Committee's uh uh purpose is. Um, so if you see any of those, like it doesn't seem like it
applies, just note it and we'll we'll discuss them next meeting. >> Okay. Yeah. And if and if we can make a comment, it might be more appropriate that this question be put to conservation or agriculture or whoever. >> A lot of these you can see the relevant
committees like they sent it to like four or five boards. So >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah. Chris, were you saying something? >> Yeah, I just thought people might want to know that I have a interesting story for you. Um Colby, a young man,
approached the um the conservation committee asking for permission to do a project, an Eagle Scout project, and um he's putting in a um wheelchair accessible area on the small town forest. He's going to put in he's going to flatten out a little area
beyond where they park at the top of the hill. Um, and it'll have a table that you can actually park a wheelchair under. It's like it has an extended area. So, he'll be doing that. Um, I think starting on the 10th and going to the 17th. Um, it's basically just leveling out some areas and making
making a pathway that a wheelchair can can, you know, navigate. So, >> I just thought you might want to hear about that. I thought it was a nice uh I thought it was a nice project for the town. >> So, >> yeah. Excellent. Yeah. I was a a scout leader for many
many years. My >> my scout is now the father of my grandchild. So >> yeah, that's cool. >> I'm no longer involved directly in scouts, but had many Eagle Scouts that I worked with. Yeah. >> All right. Well, thank you all very much
for coming this evening. Um enjoy the warm weather, >> thunderstorms tomorrow. It's going to break finally. >> Okay. Maybe by uh September we'll be getting into some nice cooler weather.
>> Yeah. >> Enjoy Scotland. >> Thank you. Thank you. I'm excited. >> Awesome. >> Celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary. So >> Oh, when is that? >> It was in July.
>> My my 40th is September 21st. >> Well, congratulations. Yeah. And and >> have you been to Scotland before? >> What's it? >> I was wondering if Colleen's been to Scotland before. >> No, I haven't. >> I I have. It is beautiful. You'll have a great time.
>> That's what I've heard. I'm really excited. >> And so, you're getting your hip replaced for your 40th anniversary. >> Exactly. I had a big I had a three-week trip planned, Colleen. H >> I had everything reserved, everything all ready to go and
I wasn't going to be able to move for three weeks. So, >> I hope you're rescheduling it for when you'll be >> We are. >> Yeah, we are. >> Yeah, we're we're believers in the in the anniversary um Christmas and birthday season. >> Yeah. Yeah. Me, too. We We feel like we
we'll just celebrate for a year. It's fine. >> Exactly. So, okay. Um, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So, moved. >> Second. >> Second.
>> All right. Colleen. >> Uh, no. >> How do you vote? Okay. Tim >> I. >> Chris >> I. >> Anna >> I. >> And the chair votes I. Thank Thank you again everybody. I appreciate you being here.
>> Good night. >> And we'll see you on the third. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Good night. >> Good night. >> Good night.