Everyone here and at home, welcome to this the Monday, September 22nd, 2025 meeting of the Lunberg Planning Board. We are here as always at uh the beautiful Bilata
meeting room in town hall. You see three of us on the stage. Ms. Reed is joining us remotely. Miss Reed, could you just chime in so we know that our audio is good? Can you hear me? I did hear you.
Wonderful. Love it. Um, this meeting is being recorded and will be posted later on YouTube. And uh, yeah, I mean, this is I think that's actually everything. I did I leave
anything out that time? I got myself distracted. I think we're good. Okay, great. Well, thank you for joining us and we will open the meeting with public comment. And again, if you're at home looking for public comment, go ahead and use that
hand raise feature. Seeing none, now if it's taken you a moment to get to the hand raised, you can still hand raise. That's always fine. Uh we're not we make a point of not really being stingy with the public comment on this board whenever we are able.
Okay. Um with uh mild apologies to the board. Uh there is I don't I normally try to write out a bunch of note for uh chair report. There isn't a lot for us right now and I didn't write out any smaller details. So
if something comes up while we're going I'll mention it. But um I can't think we don't have anything big that's changed since the last meeting. So, okay, great. Um, appointments. We do have a training on open gov with Brian Jingris, our
building commissioner. He is joining us remotely tonight um because he's going to be doing a a digital walkthrough so it's easier to do from his computer. Brian, you are welcome to take it away.
Well, good evening. Can you guys hear me? Okay. Little soft. Hello. Oh, could you try speaking again? I don't know if I heard you. Can you got me now? Very low. Very, very low. Oh, boy. Might have to turn your uh
volume up there. Um, there you go. Yep. Okay. Okay. So, tonight we're going to just do a brief overview of how to get into the employee section and of open gov and kind of do a run through. I
picked 485 limits of Shirley Road since it's a project that's already come through the board. It's complete. So, we're not all looking at stuff outside of a hearing. Um, I'm going to do a screen share. I'm going to show you guys how to log in. Um, and where to get the
link cuz it's actually available several locations on the town website. Um, doesn't sound like all of you have logged in. Correct. Could you ask that again, Brian? You're still all logged in. Okay. Okay. I have not. I'm working on that right now.
Okay. Um and Brian, I'm not logged in right now, but I've I've lived in the employee side before. Yes. Um again, it's not the end of the world if you haven't. Tonight, we're just going to go over again how to navigate from the employee side. All
planning board members are set up as employees view only. Um which means you really can't break anything. You can get in and have a look around. um it gives you a little bit cleaner access to
comments um and such versus the public side which does still show you everything. Um but this will just be much easier to navigate for a board. Um conservation commission has been doing it this way for a while and it's pretty much the only source of info that
they're using now. Um so if everybody's okay, I'm going to go ahead and screen share. Great. Okay. And sent a request. So yeah, you have to go into Zoom and
approve his request to screen share. We allowed it on this end. So okay. Um let's see. Okay. So, you should have the uh town website up now with the agenda page. Yep.
Okay. You're all seeing that. Okay. So, to log in, um obviously once you find it the first time, I suggest bookmarking it. But you can come in through the planning board um you know, apply online. You can go in through the building department online permits. It's
always going to bring you to the page that is your um your department. You scroll all the way to the bottom. There's a little employee login section at the very bottom. That is on every open gov landing page. So even if you go in through board of health or conservation, you'll always find it.
Still recommend bookmarking it later. This is going to make your life a little bit easier. But if you go and you click on login, it's going to be a simple login username and password which I understand not everybody has set up. Um, and it's going to bring you to your homepage, which won't look anything like
mine because I have a ton of tasks. Um, you know, you're going to have your tasks on the left. If somebody tagged you on something, you might see it. You've got a little notification section up here. Again, if we tagged somebody for comment, you have happened to be
you, you might you you'll see it. Um, from here, it'll look a little different. You got mapping. you got some stuff that you don't typically have on the public side that might be some useful tools for you if you're going to look for a record. So, tonight we want to look at 485 Limits of Shirley Road.
You can do that a few different ways by searching. You can search by your record ID, you search by your address, search by an applicant if you want. Um, for here I'm going to search out the actual record
which would have been published on your agenda. It's PBSA2 25-1. When you hover over that, you're going to have a little bit of background info. You go ahead, you click on the record itself. This is what we use on the employee side. It's got your full
workflow, all of your departments, any comments that may have come in along the way. Um, you know, little comments like waiting for the abuters list, stuff that may not necessarily pertain to you guys. Um, but then there's some comments from the building commissioner in here. Um,
yeah, you get it's a one-stop shop for everything. um you know even simple things but did we have the legal ad paid for and such all taken care of. Um so that's the workflow. What your
board's primarily going to be concerned with is looking at either the details of the application which is everything that is on your application broken down by property owner etc etc. Um description of what they're doing. Um, and we have a little
approval section that works on the back end. Um, and the most valuable section for you guys is going to be your attachments, which is everything. Your site plane, your drainage calculation, certificate of ownership, on and on and on. What you also get is pretty much
everything. What we encourage applicants to do if there's an update, upload your plans here. um if they uploaded a new site plan, the old one would still be available plus the new one and you can see the history of all of them. Very valuable if you're
doing a comparison. If you've continued a meeting, continue a hearing and they've provided new plans and you want to look at old versus new. You actually have both right there. You can see the dates and times that they were provided. Um you click on site plan, it's going to show you everything, right? Um it's
going to be as fast as your computer is. I know the tablets may not be the quickest. Um, and some of this will kind of look the same as um on the public side, just the layout is different. We do tend to find this a little bit cleaner when we're trying to
do reviews. Um, again, if you want to look at applicant information, you can actually see everything that they have. Um, I mean, that's it. I know I went through a little quick, but for employee or planning board, it's view only.
So, like we're not really going to go over how to manipulate these steps because you won't have access to them, but you definitely you can review you can view everybody's comments, right? Um, this is great for the applicants. Again, board of health throws a comment
in there and they're able to address it before your meeting. Um, so that's it. I mean, I ran through really fast. Does anybody have any questions or anything they want me to dive into a little bit more? Um, Brian, I just want to clarify the
planning board does not have the ability to comment. Correct. That's correct. They are view only. Perfect. I I wanted to make sure that view only included not Yep. because that makes it that eliminates one avenue where we
could mess things up. Perfect. Yep. Um, so yeah, you have view only. Now, I'll use the conservation commission for an example. Their chair has the ability to leave comments, but only the chair. And the comments go into site visits, and they're they're very
limited in terms of what they can do. They can post their photos from site visits and the results from the site visits, but only the chair, not the whole commission. All right. Excellent. Um and uh questions from the board on how
this behaves for us? No. Tim saying no. I mean I think it's I I but I I think it's straightforward but again I've played in it for a while. Amanda, do you have any questions? Nope. It seems pretty easy to understand right now.
Yep. Okay. And so then as we adjust in, this will make getting those documents and tracking them on our electronic devices even easier. Perfect. Yeah. And again, thank you.
Yep. If any members want to go over anything individually, you're welcome to set up a time to commend. Gladly discuss it with you. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you, Brian. Have a good night. Take care. Bye.
Um, and again, we just dove right into it for the sake of uh, I mean, Brian Jingris is our building commissioner. He has been working since very early this morning. Um, I wanted to get into it quickly.
This is just that training for open gov because the planning board um like many of the boards in town in the town in general is where possible moving to the electronic permitting in applications and everything else. The goal is that
makes it easier for everyone. It makes it more difficult for uh those those little human errors get removed if well more of them get removed if things are being tracked in a computer because it's
harder to go uh-oh I forgot to include that page in this packet etc etc. It also makes it easier for your board in the long run to look at plans as they've changed and see differences. Um, this is a a real nice
step forward for the town. Um, in the long run, it also helps us as we're in there. It also helps the applicants um hopefully have a smoother application process. Should be good for everyone. [Music]
Wonderful. Love it. And I will we uh I would move us on next on our agenda would be the public hearing for a public hearings for 390 Goodrit Street. We have both a site
plan approval and a special permit for ground mount solar. Miss Reed, could you uh open that for us? Yes. Okay. So, the Lunberg Planning Board will hold a public hearing on September
22nd, 2025 at 6:05 p.m. Town Hall 17 Main Street, Lunenburgg, Mass to hear and review an application for site plan approval and special permit pursuant to 250-4.13 of the code of the town of Lunenburgg by
Kevin Jibo for Intelligent Solar Services LLC. The subject property information, the location is 390 Goodrich Street. Assessor's map uh 128, parcel numbers 23.
Owner is Ryan and Courtney Jerome at 390 Goodrich Street. You can view view materials online at lunbergmma.portal.opengv.com/arch opengv.com/arch with record ID PBSA-25-7 and PBSP-25-6
via an email request to the planning office planning at lunbergmma.gov or in person at the planning office at 960 Mass Avenue in Lunberg. All right, great. and we'll invite you
up to uh cuz this is y'all, right? Yes. Okay. Yep. Come on up. And um this is for your ground mount solar. Take it. Now again, when you come up, we
just need uh your name and your address. And if you're here as a professional, you know. Okay. And time. Uh yeah, just so we get them both is fine. If you're going to speak, put it in. Ryan Jerome with 390 Goodrich.
Kevin Jibo, uh, located at 917 Flat Hill Road, Intelligent Solar Services. Um, um, and this is what this is your f is this your first permit before us in any way? Uh, yes, before the planning board. Yeah, before the board. You do a lot of work in town. Yeah, I know. I know that, but I meant
before playing board cuz I know we have some uh intricacies here with our aging aged horribly aged solar bylaw. Um but to that end, go ahead and give us a I mean uh an overview. Let us know the
plan. You can uh if you have anything to show us, we can put it up on the easel. We can look at the plans on our screens as well. Full size plans printed out there as well. Great. 24 by 36. So you may want to pull this. I have a small copy here, but is
that what's in the No, that's yours right there. Um, so is it possible, Jen, for you to share it on Zoom for the folks at home? Yeah. Is there I don't know if you have an electronic that you could share, but
so we had Dillis and Roy uh do a site plan for for the solar. Um, a little background on on the the project. Um Ryan's looking to you know decarbonize his his um electricity consumption. Um so we designed a solar array for his
house to provide power only to his house. Um and it needed to be approximately 37 kW. Once we triggered over the 10 kows the bylaw takes into you know takes into play and of course then we have to go through this process.
Um, one thing that doesn't it, you know, the bylaw is old, right? And the efficiency of solar panels has more than doubled since the bylaw was probably written. Um, and so the total area of the system, um, it's not much bigger
than you, you know, it would have had maybe way back in the day with a 10 kilowatt system. So, that's one thing to note. And you know, I've been talking very closely with Brian, um, the building commissioner, and, you know, he's fully on board with this project, and he was kind of saying the same thing. Um, but again, you know, it's not
a it's not a solar farm. I mean, I know we're kind of going through similar maybe some of the similar processes just based off of this bylaw, but the um the solar is um about 250 ft from the property line um in the middle of Ryan's property. I mean, the the parcel about
20 acres about 25 acres. 25 acres. And it's it's not visible from the road at all. I think maybe it's visible from one above if that and he's aware of course. Um and it you know so there's no glare effect or
concerns from that perspective. Um the footings for the solar they're not concrete they're just ground screws. So similar to like a helical pile were very minimally impactful from that perspective. um you know the the total footprint of the array. You could
probably see in the plan. There's two racks, two, you know, two arrays that are, let's see, pull the plan up here. [Music]
60 65 ft long by 14t wide plan view. And then they're about 15 feet apart. So the total footprint that they're occupying is only 42 feet wide by 60 feet long. And again, it's it's in an already cleared area. It's already just grass,
you know, lawn. We're not uh we're not doing, you know, some we're not cutting trees down or anything for that like that for this project. Um it's not going to impact any, you know, really anybody. Um and it's going to decarbonize Ryan's footprint. It's also only providing
power for uh Ryan's house. It's not like we're selling power to the grid and trying to, you know, make a bunch of money. It's just to provide power for his home. So, yep. Um, anything else I can uh and I'm just going to comment for our friends at home. You may have heard me
reference that they're here to before us tonight in part because of our aging solar bylaw. And that is because uh we had a really frankly a really good solar bylaw 10 years ago. That was 10 years ago. There's been a
lot of changes in tech and everything and and as was stated um a a 10 kilowatt hour is that 10 kow system. Yeah. Yep. 10 kilowatt used to be a big
install. It isn't anymore. And I mean people put more than that on their roofs all the time which is by right. But in Lunenburgg we said oh on roof by right but if you're going on ground we don't want it too big. It just happens that by tying it to the amount of electricity
made that isn't very big anymore. Maybe a footprint or something would have been a better place. Well, it's it's a model from 2009 which is archaic and the by roof by right is required by
the state. So, and for those who have really paid attention when you've heard me talk about trying uh at town meeting or something about how when we're putting forward a bylaw, we've tried to futureproof it. This is an example of
what I'm talking about where we look at it and go, "Huh, if what we're concerned about is physical size, maybe in the future we don't tie things to electricity produced. We tie it to what we actually care about, which is physical size." And that's what we've
did with things like our uh battery battery energy storage system bylaw that went through town meeting a yearish plus or minus ago. Um but we haven't had a chance to look at solar which is a
bigger situation. So you're before us tonight for a special permit as well. Not a big deal. Okay. Um I would turn to the board and ask and I'll get public comment after that. Do we have any initial questions? I do.
Please. Um, so just on note one, Dillis is misspelled. That's kind of a pnicity thing, but um there's an extra e at the end of Dillis in the first mention on note one in the upper corner. U
second, the existing surface where the solar panels are going to be is a meadow right now or a a field of some sort. Correct. Okay. So, um, do you have any water problems as far as
like squishy ground? Is it sand? I know you're kind of up on a hill. Is it a perched water table? Do we need to worry about the impact of imperous surface from this? We're not increasing the amount of impervious surface. Like I said, there
the the foundations are ground screws. Well, but solar panels are disconnected impervious. You're adding 2,000 ft. It's minimal, but it's it's clean runoff like a roof. Yep. If there's a tight soil or there's a perched water table, I'd like us to consider some additional measures,
not of any grand scope, but if it's a series of stone trenches or something just to prevent a runoff issue downhill or or downstream. So, so there's four So, the the way the panels are oriented is in landscape orientation like you might, you know,
see piece of paper, right? Um, and so there's four rows in landscape and so they're 45 inches wide. There's approximately a half inch gap to an inch gap between each row. So when the water hits it, it comes down and it drips off
of the edge of each panel individually down into the permeable surface which will remain grass. Um, I I understand how solar panels are constru I'm asking about the soil conditions. It's I mean it's it's a pasture that I've got three
and it all is on a grade going the same direction. It kind of flat it's a little flat where we are installing and then it just I mean it's kind of slopes to the north and then it keeps on sloping down from there pretty gradually. So I you've never experienced any you know mushiness in that area.
So you said you have you have llamas. I can drive a tractor across them. Okay. All you're continuing the llamas within the location. Now, that brings me to my next question about the split rail fence. Is that remaining? Are you altering where that
goes? Are you fencing the panels themselves to keep the animals out? What's the final condition? I think ideally we'll probably move the fence in just inside of where these are to keep the animals away from them. Okay. And I'd like to see that reflected on the plan.
Absolutely. Yep. We can certainly do that. Uh, I don't see any equipment pad for inverters, transformers, any of that stuff mounted right in the back of the equipment. The right on the back of the racks. Yep. So, unstruct right to the Yep.
Are you proposing any battery storage? Not for this project. No. An interconnection back to the grid. It's all set. It's up. Do we have that paperwork? Cuz I didn't see it on any of our records. Um I it did not show up as a a document you were looking for, but we can
read the bylaws are required prior to filing. And as part of that interconnection, bless you. Uh is the utility requiring additional poles from the road up? Nope. We're underground. Yeah. And they're not replacing transformers or anything. Everything's underground. I just know sometimes when you get into
an interconnection, you're in that kind of weird space, but it's enough that they can start to hit you with that. Um, and our bylaw does require single or three-phase diagrams of the system for the records.
So, those also need to be submitted to public safety so that in the event of an issue either related to or not related to the system, they're aware of what's there and and how it works so they can respond adequately. Sure. Yeah. And we have those in in our
complete plan set as well. That was so I'd just like to see those uh make it to our record as well. Absolutely. Not a problem. Great. Um, if there's no further question for the board at the moment, I'm going to go to public.
Um, and Misery, just unmute yourself and yell at me if you want to speak cuz you're a member of this board and you've been remote before. You know how we roll. Um, all right. This is a public hearing. So, is there any public comment? Again, if you are looking for public
comment, go ahead and use that hand raise feature. Let us know. Um, do we have anyone looking uh doing hand raise or otherwise? Nope. Okay. Hello.
Oh, hello. Hello. So, go ahead and uh if you're here for public comment, just make sure you uh say your name and your address and we're happy to hear from you. public comment for just the hearing or in general? I'm sorry.
Are you are you taking public comment for the hearing or just in general? Uh for the for the hearing. Oh, okay. Sorry. I'm I'm good for now. Okay. Uh we did we did public comment in general at the beginning of the meeting.
We'll have it again at the end. If there's anything else about any of the particular um topics, just let me know. Um, thank you. All right. Great. Okay. So, hearing and seeing no public
comment otherwise. I did have one other question. What's the distance of So, you're under your utility is currently underground from the street. Yep. And are you needing to dig up to add additional conduit or wire or is
what is in place adequate? So there is an existing underground um empty conduit. Okay. That goes with you know somewhat close to the right. We have to do some trenching just to get to it. Um but you're not digging all the way from
Goodrich Street to the house and then across the yard. No. Exactly. And we're not even disrupting um any asphalt or anything like that. It's some frenching across the grass to get that existing condute to get into the house. All right.
Okay. Great. Other questions or comments from the board? Seeing none, I want to make sure, let me get this in my call up my notes as well.
So, Adam, you noted a few things that you would like to see. Um, could we go back over those again just to make sure we have all of those and everyone knows uh what the requests are? I would like the utility interconnection
agreement between Unatil and the property owner. Um the one or three-phase wiring plans that are for the system to be included. Uh, and I would like the plan to be I'm fine with the existing conditions, but I would
also like to see um it added that the fence will be in a different location so we're aware of what that looks like. Our bylaw doesn't require the system itself to be fenced. That would be an individual choice. Uh, I don't know if
the applicant has children or not, but I also don't think you're going to get terribly hurt by a properly installed um solar array. To meet code, we screen the back of it. Okay. So that it's none of the electrical components um that Yeah. the wires and all that good stuff.
Yeah. So I I don't necessarily need it to be fenced or screened. I mean, they're going to look at what they're going to look at and they'll do what they think is appropriate for their their property. Um and then my last ask uh of my fellow
board members would be that um proper erosion control be installed on both sides of the trench while it is open uh and stabilizing which I think is a a pretty low ask cuz I doubt it's a terribly deep trench and
could probably be handled by waddles or just straw waddles. Yeah. Yeah. Just being at the top of the hill, I don't want an open trench to start. Okay. Washing everywhere. Um, yeah, it's approximately 24 in deep. Yeah, maximum. We only need 18 technically.
So, but we go 24 usually. Yep. All right. Does that need to be shown on you want that shown on the site plan? Yeah, I mean I'd like a detail and if you want to show it just what what trench is going to be open and where the waddles will lay would be helpful.
Okay, great. Yeah. Yeah. So it's essentially anything downhill. Yeah. Anything uphill wouldn't make any sense. No, uphill is not necessary. Yep. And I'm fine with those as conditions if there aren't any other concerns. Okay.
All right. Um, Miss uh, Miss Reed, I just want to make sure. Do you have anything else? Uh, I do not. I think everything that Adam went over seems to be uh acceptable and easy to do for the applicant. Um so
nope, I don't have anything further. Okay, great. Um and so we were thinking about um we would formally put this together once we close the hearing, have a deliberate, but so again, Adam, you were
saying you would be you would find fine as as conditions for the utility interconnection agreement to be uploaded as it requires the three-phase wiring plans uploaded. show fence change on the plants
and show straw w and show erosion control as straw waddles installed on the on the downhill side of the trench when it's open. And um I apologize. I I'm I'm reading through the bylaw again course
and I just want to make the applicant aware that we do require financial shy for the decommissioning of all largecale systems. So you would need to and I I think it's probably more in your
interest to get a bond from a company as opposed to post a cash shity. Okay. So um I can see your client is is looking at me like he's not sure what I'm talking about. So we require that we have an amount equal to 125% of the cost
of removal in a secure manner that if you decide you're going to move to Florida and just leave this abandon this property and and leave it as it is and the solar field is there, we have the
money to remove it and decommission it if it becomes nonfunctional or otherwise. So you can get a a paper bond is what they call it. So you would go to a bonding company and you pay a nominal amount for them to guarantee that in the
event that you neglect your obligation to remove it at the end of its life, it's like an insurance policy basically. Um and as far as the amount on that, so just maybe as a professional if I get a professional quote for correct and we would get it
peer-reviewed. Um I don't think that my that would need to be a condition of occupancy in my opinion as opposed to something you would need prior to okay the the approval prior to finalization correct of the the building per of the final
I'm only one vote though so I look to my fellow board members yeah I mean of course it's on you know private land private use yeah I was going to have a question and it's that all all we don't have any any solar solar fields that are not on private.
Well, right. Right. But most of those those solar field the solar fields that the bylaw is intended for typically is much larger. Much lar much much larger. Yeah. Thousand% agree. Sure. So I would imagine that I mean the cost of removing the system will be relatively small. I
I would I would I would completely agree with going to be too too bad to do that. But unfortunately we're here not to make a judgment on the bylaw but to implement the bylaw as it's understood. hamfistedly written. I guess what I'm saying is it should I can't imagine it would be that.
No, I mean I think for the last um the last large field that I recall in town, it was 6 megaww and it was it was less than half a million dollars of removal, right? This is
and you're like a factor of one 10,000th of do the math is probably Yeah. So it unfortunately it's it's a lot of additional for something that's probably not worth it. But the law is what it is
unfortunately. But that's conditional upon of course upon activation of the system. Okay. Yeah. Right. [Music] And just uh to make uh one other point you had mentioned oneline diagram or threeline diagram.
The bylaw says one or the other. Okay. Perfect. So we have a oneline diagram. That's what national grid requires and that's fine. Um you know you know or excuse me in this case requires. So um I just want to confirm that that is sufficient. Okay.
All right. And um because of the way public hearings work once we close the hearing and deliberate I no longer get to turn to you for a bunch of questions. We can reopen if we really need to. It's not the end of the world but it's easier if we don't have to. So, I just want to
turn to you and say you've heard these conditions. Um the uh the the uh the shity isn't something we really have control over. Of course, the other ones um I just want to make sure
those I mean some of those are just required forward, but these are these work for you just fine. Of course. Yeah, most of you already have. No. No. Yeah, exactly. It's just a matter of uploading some of the stuff and getting Disroy to revise her plan. I didn't think it'd be an issue, but I want to make sure. And if we're all on
the same page, that makes it I'm giving you your chance now to say, "Uh oh, this would be a problem for some reason." So, we don't have to deal with Perfect. No problem. Love it. My only ask is that we do this as fast as possible. Trying to get it in before the ground freezes. That is why I am trying to have all this
discussion now. So, and and Adam saying, and I believe that's why Adam noted, we can condition these. So that means that we would have the option of voting tonight and then so long as you meet those additional conditions. Sure.
You're good. I mean plus the the regular standard and everything. Okay. Great. Uh if that's it and I think we've had no other ask uh there's no other no one raising their hand for the public.
So I think we are good on motion to close the hearing. What's that? Motion to close the hearing. Seconded. Moved and seconded. All votes tonight are roll call. Um, Miss Reed, I will generally go to you first for ease, just
so you know, and then go down this. Uh, Miss moved and seconded. Miss Reed I, Mr. Bernie, Bernie, I. Mr. Wils, I and I from myself. Okay. Uh, do we have any further
discussion on this? hearing none. I would look for um a motion such as to Oh, we should do them separately. And where Adam, where were you thinking these conditions? Do they go on the site? Yes.
So, I'll make a motion, please. Uh, I make a motion that we approve the special permit for largecale solar development at 390 Goodrich Street conditional upon plans of the one or
three-phase wiring documents being uploaded, the utility interconnection agreement being uploaded, the plan reflecting the new location of the proposed or of the existing split rail
fence and location of uh erosion control on the downs slope side of the trench and that a shy bond for the removal of the system be placed prior to occupancy.
Uh second moved and seconded. All right. All in favor? Miss Reed? I. Mr. Bernie Bernie I. Mr. Wils I. And an I from myself. Okay. Okay. And we still need the site plan approval as well. I make a motion that we approve the site
plan for 390 Goodrich Street with all of the special conditions listed in the special permit for large scale solar to be included. Uh second. Moved in a second. Do we need to specify
the uh standard conditions as well or is that by default? They're standard. Oh, okay. So, great. We always say I'll I'll amend my motion to include the standard and special conditions. I don't know how much it matters, but yeah. Okay, great. All right. Uh seconded. Move and seconded. All in favor? Miss Reed?
I. Mr. Bernie. Bernie. I. Mr. Wils. I. And an I from myself. You're all set. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Great. Thank you. [Music]
Now I've turned to the town for years and said I want solar to be what we look at next. That is increasingly hard as the state keeps throwing and you need a planner to do that. Yes, we need a planner and the state keeps throwing things at us. Um
now on the other hand once we do have a planner uh the if there are if there are industry professionals who want to be involved if there are other boards who want to share their thoughts once we have a planner send them our way. Um would love to hear
it because this is an example of how our solar bylaw does need updating. We can get through be easier if we didn't have to that way. Wonderful. gonna go back to the agenda. Give me one second. There we go. Um
there was going to be a decision for us to review tonight, but um that has been hammered out. Instead, can you print it up tomorrow and board members can so come by the office and sign, please? Okay. Um that has been hammered out, taken
care of, all set. I mean, read it obviously, but okay. on to board discussions. I do not have an update from our consultants on the MBTA community's bylaw. I got them some of our updates a
little late and I didn't get a chance to push them today the way I would have liked to double check. Um they said I mean they had said that our requests seemed very reasonable and shouldn't be an issue. That means we don't have something to look at and say tweak this further
tonight. We can do it at our public hearing. I think that's what we'll have to do. Yes. Um and I think whatever language they have should just be submitted for the warrant and Yes. hopefully we can get final language
before printing. Yeah. Nope. Full agreement. Uh the warrant submission is October 2nd and I am sure we will have updated language from that. Okay. Yep. Um will they attend our public hearing?
I haven't I haven't asked them. I'm sure we can. I I it would be my preference because I what what I don't want to do is what we did last time is give them a bunch of feedback and have them say we'll get back to you. I want them here to be able
to explain why things say things or what can potentially be in their opinion altered to meet kind of what we're hoping for. Good with that. All right, I will pass that on. adding to my notes.
Um, [Music] okay. The other board discussion we have is answer questions from the master plan steering committee. I have not I was leveled most of last week. I was in bed
a good chunk of it sick. So with apologies I didn't get to chat with Ramy then when I wanted to. Um so I haven't been able to get some of that additional feedback I'd like for us. I am if we want to go through those item by
item and respond we can. I am fine with us waiting and if the master plan steering committee waits on our responses a little. I don't think it's the end of the world. They're taking it very broadly. They couldn't get quum for their last meeting. So I'm not heckbent. But I'm
also going to turn to you Tim because you are um uh I mean you're a representative to the master plan steering committee. I'm giving my opinion but you can speak for that committee somewhat too. If you want to say no, we should act, I'll hear you
out on that happily. Um I to to what we've uh been asked to do here, I went through um mostly I was just going through Adam's comments and they were uh more insightful and
complete than anything I had. So I didn't have anything to add to our actual uh documentation. Um, as far as turning it in, um, I am not entirely
sure what happens with it when we turn it in. Um, so I don't really have much direction as to uh delaying or turning it in as we have it now. No, based on the discussions I've been there for.
Yeah. Um, I mean there's an understanding that from at least some members of the committee because you don't get everyone in the room at once like you'd like. um that this
is going to be a little that they're expecting a level of vague fe vague feedback from committees and boards kind of getting that they're asking this info but it is in a somewhat constrained way
and I mean public uh capital planning for example a lot of her answers are well depends yeah a lot of her answers were so much to the extent that this is a capital project that would come before our
committee because there are capital PL projects that come before capital planning. There are cap I mean there's capital projects that come before capital planning. There are capital projects that are capital projects,
but they aren't part of our what we would normally consider our capital planning budget because they're much larger. I mean, redoing a school is a capital project, but a different scale. I also think the complicating factor is
they're asking for feedback on a document within a specified discipline that other boards don't have the technical or professional knowledge to
answer in and I don't in an educated way in so far as within that field. So they're going to get colloquial responses sort of like the colloquial information that was sent out. Mhm. Um so that it just creates it's it gets
information back but then there's more sifting. So I I don't think an extra 2 weeks or whatever it takes us to get that back is going to be the thing that breaks the process. No. And if the feedback from that
committee is that they would really love more directly, then it would be my intent to forward Adam's feedback, which again I I have some individual thoughts, but they are well encapsulated with that and more complete.
Um, and frankly, I've said several of my thoughts anyways to that committee and they've gotten voiced otherwise, so I'm fine with it. Um, no, they're expecting a level of colloquial and then it gets reinterpreted, put back together. And
part of this overall is just so that there's that feeling of but why haven't I been included? But why why wasn't I asked about X? And this was the attempt to as comprehensively as possible. Mhm.
Turn to everyone, every board, commission, etc. in town and say, "Here's the things that could possibly apply to you. Give us feedback." But it was done in a way to try to direct some of that
feedback. um in part because people you say give us feedback that's very broad and that can lead to well I don't think we should be doing X but why and a bunch of other things this was to
give a little more scope I think it will be fine um Miss Reed are you okay okay with us delay de delaying and if needed I can pass along um Mr. Bernie's feedback. Yeah, I'm fine with that.
Okay, great. Okay, I think that's where we are on that. This could end up being a very short meeting. Um, is there anything A budding community noticed this? Is there anything big happening next door?
Nothing of note. Has Lemonster told you when they're going to start building Costco? I haven't asked him directly. I maybe I'll make a phone call and just say, "Hey." I mean, just because I mean, it's not like I've been searching for news articles
for predicted timelines so I know when I can get my lightly breaded chicken chunks more regularly and not have to take up my freezer with several bags. Um, side note, my eldest is now using them to make barbecue chicken wraps and
quite happy. So, good for him. Can I make dinner tonight? Yes. Yes. The answer is always yes. Um all right. Committee reports. Master plan steering committee. Um I was unable to attend the last
meeting that apparently didn't happen anyway. Uh next meeting is this Wednesday. And I know they were concerned about quorum for that. I don't know if people have responded. I don't know if you've seen. If not, no big deal. I was just curious. I'm not sure. Okay. I I could look at the document
just as well. I didn't know if you happen to have looked at it for coordination coordinating. That's fine. Open Space Committee. Uh has not met since the last meeting. Municipal Building Design Committee. Oh, that's me.
Oh my god, I'm an idiot. Like, wow, he's looking at Tim. Like, oh, wait, that's me. Yeah. Um municipal the municipal building design committee has met with some initial chat
and feedback and thoughts. Um the overall charge from the select board is hey can we do can we do kind uh super paraphrasing can we do kind of like the old idea but less
um and some of the thoughts are that the there were aspects of the previous design that greatly increased the cost doing a 13 ft basement so the pack could
be there for example dramatically increase the cost of the project because you need to dig deeper. Um, so to that end, there's thoughts of could we get can we maybe
get rid of the annex at Ritter, which is kind of difficult because the annex turns Ritter into a three-floor building rather than a two-floor building. Um and in doing that and building out there, could we keep Ritter a new
expanded Ritter Town Hall as a two-floor building? Um there was some talk about well if that happened could um maybe pack be moved could the first floor of town hall be converted into open office
spa not open office into open meeting space with hotel hotel conference-l like dividers. So on times you need a big meeting, it's a big space. When you need smaller meeting rooms, it's smaller
spaces. And the thought was um I guess many boards who meet here aren't thrilled with the stage setup. I I I love it, but um that's my background, right? So point me to a stage I'm happy to be on. Um,
so potentially converting this floor, the second floor into pack space and the idea of moving the ACE program for the schools. The suggestion was to the Brooks House. I countered saying that I
I don't think um the Brooks House is I don't think that would be economically feasible. I don't think there is a way to turn the Brooks House into a usable structure personally at this point. Um, but I just want to kind of give the feedback of where it is and there was
some very light discussion. The big takeaway is the committee wants to be looking and doing more. Last time there was a lot of getting ideas from the town, bringing them to the architects
and saying make this work. that resulted in a project that was bigger than the town was willing to start. So the thought now is can the committee itself do more of the initial planning for what
would this look like? What would what would the footprint maybe beish where would we want to put things? then turn to architects and say what is the way to do this or is there I mean maybe there's a more economical way we haven't thought
of but putting doing more of that initial footwork with people who know the town uh turning more to town employees it happened some before uh and getting the idea of the workflow to make sure that we are both planning for the
current and anticipated future workflow shifts Um, this is more than we normally talk about on committee reports, but this is, I think, going to be a big deal for the town and a big deal for the planning board. What's the what's the future of
TCP currently? Um, that is that was part of the discussion. What that nebulous what is savable, what isn't, what is usable, what isn't. Um
I the committee's met once. Mhm. It doesn't want to meet super often. I understand that. Um I'm not personally sure how quickly this committee is going to be able to turn around if we're meeting once or twice a
month some of these ideas. But I think that will be something that will a little bit fall out in the wash. And um you may find this shocking but if I find myself in a position that I'm not that I feel the committee should be meeting or operating differently I I will be very
happy to explain that that perceived need from my end. I just guess from my perspective changing Ritter seems difficult politically, not physically
as it was a gift. And with the APD and the APDC functioning the way that they have recently, it concerns me about the
movement of that as the singular focus and the potential for a lot of planning and effort to go into a project that might be politically salable. to the town as a whole and have
it held up in a permitting quagmire. Now, APDC is represented on the municipal building design committee right now. And I understand that and I just it it's a more of a and I haven't followed it as closely as maybe I could have, but
that's kind of the the sphere that I'm I'm looking at it from. and a representative on the committee is great and provides some insight, but you then get in front of a full board and they're only one of
a number of votes. That's fair. And not that I think TCP is necessarily a good solution, but I think that what was proposed there, while thoughtful and inclusive to all the things that people
wanted, um suffered from some sticker shock kind of like you said, how do we make this is this is what we want, make it work instead of here's what we can do. How do we do that? Um, yeah,
I agree with that. Now, I was meeting with a resident uh last week who brought up the idea of what appeared to be some of the larger, less used, more commercially type spaces in town and was
wondering aloud, could the town of I mean basically instead of being downtown and personally I think this is a very valid argument. Um, maybe town halls shouldn't be downtown. Maybe we should
be looking at, and we don't mean this structure picking up and moving this building, but maybe town government offices shouldn't be in the center of town, taking up real estate that kind of in some ways prevents the center of town from being a
center of town because government eats up so much of it. and maybe we could be looking outside of there potentially at converting existing structures. Um, and there was some thoughts as well about
options for how that could be handled fiscally. I I think there might be some other options. I'm personally interested in exploring. I I want to look into them before I go saying, "Oh, this could be a great idea." Yeah. I think the
I think municipal government can operate anywhere within the community. Doesn't need to be downtown. And I think the footprint of town government downtown in the prominent buildings that it occupies
certainly does its own work to arrest commercial growth. Yeah, I mean that's that's my concern. That is an idea I want to float by that
committee, but I want to have a better idea of what my I want to know what my idea fully is. And when I say my idea, I mean, like again, this isn't me. This is me speaking. Um, it was with
Dave Rogers that case who was like, "What about X?" And I'm like, "Oh, what about axe?" Yeah. I I think I think there's a lot of validity to looking at at things from that lens. Yes. Um because if if you're driving to town
hall, you don't have to drive to the the center of town. Well, but but by which I mean our downtown district necessarily. Um yeah. So MPDC is super early on in this renewed
process and we're going to see how it goes moving forward. Um I certainly appreciate the thoughts and feedback and we'll carry that forward to the committee. Um all right,
capital Planning Committee has not met since our last meeting. We did meet Yeah, we met before that. Okay. Has not met since our last meeting. Economic Development Committee has not met since our last meeting. We are
meeting however on Tuesday I believe to tomorrow. Uh sorry, next to uh no the 14th.
I believe the meeting is on the 14th um before the select board meeting. It's like a 5:30 meeting. And uh don't forget that also coming up, however, on October uh 2nd, next week is the town official
meet and greet. I would encourage um I would encourage any board member here or anyone else uh any other board members in town. This is a great chance to get out and if you interact with business people as part of your board, this is a
chance to interact with them outside of that normal, you know, they're sitting in front of you at the stage or at some other meeting or across office desk. stormwater task force. Um, I accidentally scheduled a meeting
for last Thursday that nobody was able to show up to, so we have a meeting this Thursday. Very good. Montichus Regional Planning Commission. Uh, that one has not met since our last meeting. That's the one that y'all are
covering for me while I teach. Um, the next one is coming on October 9th at 7 p.m. So, once I get that info, I'll email it over. Okay. Thank you. And let me uh I'm just going to I'm going to take
us for one second. It's October 9th at ah um if there's another board member who can cover that, I am not able to attend that meeting virtually on the 9th. We can chat about it, but if we can, great. If not, we just Ludenberg won't be
represented at that. Missing a couple ain't going to kill us. Better if we're there, but okay. M. Now, are you doing Montichus Joint Transportation Commission or do you need us doing those, too? I don't remember. I apologize, Amanda.
That's okay. No, I can still cover MJTC. Um, so that's that's fine. That doesn't conflict. Um, and that one we have not met since our last meeting. Okay. Um, great. Thank you. Jen has sent us
minutes for our September 8th meeting. Um, some of the motions are missing and you are not included on any of the votes the 98. Uh, the copy of the
I have not had a chance to look at it yet. So I um yeah, the motions for uh Oh, that doesn't actually have one. Uh yeah, 8:30 Massav doesn't have you voting.
None of the votes include Matt. Uh the minutes approval motion is empty. And I don't remember you making the motion for the ANR. Oh yeah, that does seem odd.
I don't make motions as a chair. Um, I've been told that's best practice. It is best practice. Yeah. And this board is I've never seen the chair make a motion. So, and the motion to approve for 1083
Northfield Road is missing uh person. Okay. Have Have you uh did you get to make note of those change requests? Okay. All right. So, these can be uh if you can make those changes and then we'll look at them at our next meeting, the
end of October. Okay. Um, if we do have a joint, assuming we have a joint select board meeting on the 14th, we still won't do business then. I mean, aside from joint meeting business.
All right. Okay, that works. Anything else on those minutes? Great. Meeting schedule. Just reminding everyone that we meet uh the your plan board meets at 6:00 p.m. at town hall
unless stated otherwise. Upcoming meetings include that are currently expected uh and scheduled are October 27th and November 10th. Now, in addition, I am expecting uh pending if
the board's available, I'll send out an email just to confirm that with everyone schedule-wise. Um, I'm expecting likely a joint meeting with the select board on the uh 14th of October, like I've said a couple times.
All right. Um, at this point, I would take public comment. Do we have any It looks like they gave up. No. No. Okay. All right. Um, I know there was someone here for public comment earlier. If you
have a question or something, you can also always reach out to the planning office or drop me an email, um, which is mrener lunberg ma lunberg mma.gov.gov.
Okay. Like I it switched. I should be able to deal with a switch because it was over a year ago. Apparently no. Um, okay. Great. Do we have any comment from the board?
Now, I did send uh you, Mr. Chair, and Jen, the language for the certificate of digital signature. Uh, I know I've mentioned a couple of times I it got lost, but I I have it and it should be in your email. So,
I see that something we can talk about maybe in October. Okay, great. I love it. Um, as a reminder, our October 27th meeting is um 22nd.
2. Is that the 22nd? Oh, no. Sorry. Today's the 22nd. You're right. Sorry. So, you feel like also feel mix and updates. Yeah. 20. Okay. October 22 27th meeting. um because we don't meet for the federal
holiday is going to be a public hearing for the MBTA communities. Um I although we are doing a lot of work to fine-tune this, there's been no indication from the public that this is at all controversial
because this is what they said they wanted at info sessions. Um but it is a public hearing. things could come up and info sessions only reflect the people who show up. That is also correct. Uh this there h there were emails that came in
periodically to me saying, "Hey, what's going on?" And I think it it everything's reflected in the same direction. Yeah. So I'm not particularly concerned, but who knows? Um be part of government. If you have an opinion, come make it heard.
All right. Um then without further ado, I would look for a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Roll call vote. Miss Reed I. Mr. Bernie I. Mr. Wilsmer I.
And an I from myself. Friends. Just over an hour for planning board. Love it when that happens. I hope you all have a great great night out there in TV land. And take care of yourselves. See you next month.