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Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=ceT_5p0cVPE

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Okay, thank you everyone for joining us. Uh, I will call to order tonight's meeting of the Milton Select Board for Tuesday, June 23rd, 2026. I would like to ask you to join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

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All right. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

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>> Thank you everyone. As usual [clears throat] we will begin with public comments. Uh we have allotted 21 minutes for public comment. Three minutes per speaker. Um, I don't know if we have anyone that has signed in. Can't say anything from here. Anyone

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in the room? [clears throat] No. No one online. So, we will close public comments. All right. And with that to item four, I would like to ask the planning board if you would uh join us here at the table for discussion. Um,

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I'll also ask uh Chair Hall just for formalities if you could call your meeting to order. Thank you very much. [clears throat] join. [clears throat] Terrific. Thank you for having us. Um I would like to now call the um meeting of

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the uh Milton Planning Board um to order and we typically begin by introducing ourselves for those who um those in the audience who might not know us. Let's introduce yourself. >> Magfield member. Sean Fehey, member, >> Cheryl Tagaya, secretary,

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>> El Mer, member, >> and Meredith Hall, serving as as serving as chair. And with us this evening, we have our planning director. Um, Liz, if you'd like to introduce yourself, Miss Manning, director.

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>> Thank you for having us. Um well just to begin um Winston and I have met a few times um and we really thought um just at the beginning of you know following the election with all new with new members um one of the things that we

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really felt strongly is um is improving um and having good open communication between the planning board and the slug board. So with that, we thought, you know, rather than just my meeting with Winston that we would have the entire board come and have opportunities to

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speak on some of our some of the things that we're working on with shared goals in mind. Um I know some of the materials have been distributed to you. I thought first I would give you a highlighted overview of sort of what the planning board has been working on. Um I'm not

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going to go into every detail of the matrix that you've been sent, but um this was a wonderful way to organize projects that are um being worked on not only by the planning board, but by the planning um the development um the

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planning um staff as well because there's a lot of things that they oversee that don't necessarily involve the planning board. So just highlighting um and Liz and Devonte did a great job of um putting this together. Um the matrix if you look into you know if

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you've gone through it if you have any questions please feel free to ask but it was divided up into what we work on um whether it be um a housing a category of housing open space and recreation climate and environment zoning and

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planning traffic and transportation affordable housing compliance budget and finance um with regards to our our budgeting um town and management projects and and grants, town projects and committees that we serve on um such

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as um in the various um a lot of the committees that you all sit on as well. Um there's also a lot of other regional um things that are trainings, things that um the staff attends and are involved with in ongoing um to keep

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updated um with state regulations and what's happening on the state level especially Um the items that are in here are things that we are um have been working on. Um just for and many of you may know this, some of you may not. And

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for those watching um currently there are 11 construs under construction right now that um that have been approved projects. Um they and some are close to being finished uh and completed, others are still in in progress. Um but all have

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been approved. Um they would include the Gardener School which will be a new preschool if anyone has seen on Blue Hill Avenue to Elliot Street um which is the new market that will open up where the Bank of America uh building is. Um that's very close to completion. 152

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Robins Street uh the farm stand there. Uh 936 Brushill Road the Truss low uh 40B project 7-Eleven Randolph Avenue. Um the trust low should be completed this summer. Uh 7-Eleven Randolph Avenue fall

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um of 2026. 440 Granite uh A fall of 2026. Uh 40 Access Road uh 40B project summer 2027 582 Blue Hill A summer 2027. the East

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Milton Residences, uh, fall 2027, 107, uh, Highland Street, which is going to be a memory care facility, um, soon to begin construction, uh, spring 2028, and the Winter Valley expansion, also 2028.

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um some of the items that we've also looked at um and putting into um not only things that we're currently working on um but future zoning bylaw and regulation amendments that we're looking at um things that we've discussed um

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wanting to take a look at condominium conversion uh the West Milton Brook Road overlay uh pre-existing nonconforming uses uh for our businesses um that are in residential districts a cut and fill bylaw. uh looking at

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floor area ratios for a single family home and and in general um new construction business zoning district boundaries, parking requirements, dimensional requirements for accessory structures, small cellular

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uh battery storage and solar site plan for town projects, short-term rentals, low impact design, subdivision rules and regulations and scenic road regulations, um updating some of those. So, that is

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sort of an overview. Um as you know, we've been, you know, busy with with doing a lot of um really exciting work in Milton and we're going to be seeing a lot of that and the staff is overseeing um the completion of some of these um housing projects um that we've been

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working on and um have been approving um in recent past. So um that is a high level um just overview and what so we were not here all night. Winston and I thought let's sort of narrow it down to you know what are some really the most

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important things that we're working on that um we really um we rely on the support of the select board um in doing these and funding these. So we appreciate our having time together. So those the items that we sort of were um

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sort of first and on the forefront um the housing production plan um is the first thing I'll speak on next. Um and actually I think I'm going to leave the economic development plan for last because I think we're going to want to dig into that and spend a little bit more time. The reclottification

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of our zoning bylaws. Um it is on our agenda for Thursday, but maybe a brief discussion on Laboreet. Um since our board has not had a chance to uh speak on that, we will have that on our agenda. And then just communication and and ways to that we ideas for better

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communication um between our boards. Um to start with the the housing produ um housing production plan. Um there was a kickoff meeting and feel free if those of you um want to add something to this who were able to attend. Cheryl is our

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representative. Sean was out of the country so he will be catching up on that on that initial meeting and from >> myself and Megan Dolan who's not with us today were there. >> You were there. So feel free to add anything if I I'm I'm just going to do

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an overview s also for people who are watching because we do have a great committee comprised of two select there are two select board members two planning board members and two affordable housing trust members and we are very fortunate to have our

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consultant uh Karen Sunborg who has there was a really robust um housing production plan um Cheryl was on that committee and and many other really um wonderful members who really dug in and spent a lot of time on that housing production

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plan. So, she's very familiar with our town, very familiar with um a lot of, you know, the issues that Milton and challenges that Milton has had um and helping to guide us through this process. Um that again, that kickoff

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meeting um began. So, and I'll just highlight just sort of task one through seven, what those are. Um and that is again the task one was the kickoff and coordination. Um, next is the data

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collection and analysis and task three is the housing needs assessment. And all of those will be completed um fairly soon by I think there's a first draft that's been issued for the committee um because that time frame um was to um to

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be on schedule was to be the end of June for actually for the kickoff the data collection the needs assessment and development um of constraints and opportunities. So those are the first um four tasks um that will be completed.

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Task number five, which is a really important uh part of the housing production process, is community outreach. And so reaching out to the community for um community engagement will be task five. Um folks in the community should look at that happening

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through the month of July. And then task six, goals, strategy, and action plan. And that um will be coming out in community engagement um community engagement September when people are back in the fall. You know, we know folks are away in the summer and we want

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to make sure that we're you know being able to reach out to as many people as possible. So task five, community engagement and then goals, strategies, action plan. um that will be sort of ongoing into October with the um

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October and then final finalize and submit the plan um by November. And it is it's extremely important that we do get this done and it's been a a goal um and a focus of the planning board. I know it is for the select board. Um we're currently um our current housing

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production plan has expired. So being out of compliance, um it's not only safe harbor, um but it's also um just, you know, associated with other grant funding and and things that we would be working on. So um it's it's critical

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that we do get this done and I think this is a great time frame working with a great um a great committee and a great consultant. So um Liz, I don't know if there's anything else you would like to add. >> I have a quick question. I may have missed this because I was absorbing a

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bunch of information, but what's the duration of the of the plan of the project? >> Our last years. >> Five years. That's Yeah. >> No, I mean like how long is it going to take the consultants? >> So that that's part of um where my

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kickoff meeting was laying out that calendar. >> Yeah. >> Um the goal is please tell me where we're on. >> November license and submit the plan. >> So there are steps along the way. So, it's going to be a three-month engagement in order to get back into >> Right. >> So, it's really doing the task one

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kickoff and coordination, data collection, needs assessment, development, constraints and opportunities by the end of June. Then um and then sort of kicking off um and moving into community engagement, goal, strategy, action plan in October,

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September, October and finalizing by November. So, I think we should be in a good place to submit before the end of the year. Yeah. >> Do we have that was that calendar shared with us at the board? >> Yes. Yep. I did. I I shared out that um I shared out the the schedule. I think

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what we're going to try to do on the uh the meeting on the 15th is try to nail down some of those dates. I know we talked about wanting to, you know, similar to this effort tonight, wanting to um collaborate potentially on another joint meeting if that can help kind of

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the schedule and kind of move things along. Um so yeah, I'd like to try to nail down some of those dates and sort of look at, you know, what the potential conflicts might be with with fall town meeting, you know, requirements and things like that.

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So Liz um the summary that you circulated to us um targets midocctober for that joint meeting >> I believe so. Yes. Yes. Yep. That's the target. So I think we'll just have to kind of you know put everything

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on put everything on paper and see where the see where the conflicts are and try to you know chart a path to get us to to November. Karen has already supplied the the needs assessment. So tasks one through one, two, and three are complete. So we're we're on we're on

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schedule. And I think if we can if we can um you know, colle combine a few a few efforts to to to to move forward faster in the fall and we should be able to stay on schedule. One of the things that

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we spoke about um with Karen was getting a real sense of where we are with our percentage of the subsidized housing inventory. There's been some talk about we're close and how close are we really, but um is that something that she has in

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the draft that's been circulated? >> I got it yesterday >> and I've read like some of it so it has and I haven't circulated it beyond that. Um, I think the numbers like in the sevens. I mean, Nick Nick might have

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that number more than me in terms of the in terms of the shi. >> I think that's right. It's a bit of a moving target as projects have come on and come off just based on their various path their where they are in their construction schedules. That sounds about right. But if they're all built

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and they open, everything that's been approved would kick in. When is the effective date of like a unit that counts towards safe harbor? Is it when there's an occupancy permit? Like >> there's three different thresholds. So

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it's upon comprehensive permit being approved, >> then there's a year to get a building permit. Then you can go back on. So you can go on then and you come off. If you don't get your building permit within a year, >> okay, >> you can go on the list if you have a building permit that lasts 18 months.

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Then you can come off again and then you go on permanently on the certificate of occupancy. >> Okay. So like the co is like really the point >> final. Okay. >> Yeah. >> So with the schedule that you outlined, Meredith, we're into 2028 for some of

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the units that are being counted, right? So like Winter Valley, it's 30ome units. I think you said spring of 28. Um, so my understanding is that we still um without the housing production plan,

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we're still subject to being um receiving 40B applications because we haven't actually finally booked all of those. That's just for those who are watching. I think it's important to understand the value of the housing production plan for temporary safe

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harbor given things go on and off. you still have windows for 40B developers to submit even though you think you're almost there. It's it's an important um effort. And so in September, folks uh hopefully can participate in the public forum because part of the plan is

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identifying locations where affordable housing could be located, places that that the town believes are good locations, including private property and public property. And it's those identifications of the sites from my experience in the past is really where

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the public wants to um have some understanding and input um into that before the plan's finalized. And the good news is that we have made a tremendous amount of progress in recent

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historically you know in in recent past we've there's been quite a few um not all by our own cho you know choice it was fairly forced on us but it was um but yeah we there's been a lot of progress

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which is good um okay so then um then we can move on to recotification just again a high level view um um town meeting member um I guess it's been a year and a half two two years that we that we passed um the funding for

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general code to come in and upload um make our all of our um zoning bylaws accessible online. Now just because it's online doesn't mean it's necessarily organized or that certain areas are in conflict. So the good news is KP law um

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now that we have KP law can do this in house because we previously the planning board had been concerned on well how do we go to the next step we would need an attorney to come in we would need to you know solicit the services to come in which is extremely expensive when towns do that so the ability to work with KP

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Law and have Carolyn Murray do um do this in phases we won't be able to do everything at once um we understand it's likely um it's not that realistic for communities to say you know what we're going to throw out the entire bylaw come

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back with something new and expect town meeting to understand that you know and and and follow that process. So, what we're going to do is do a first phase in audit um as part of our first phase and um and it will be a four-phase project. And once we finish the audit, we'll

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really know what we're up against as far as you know, does sections need to be moved? What needs to be consolidated? You know, there's been issues with, you know, really um particularly for the building department in town to um to be able to understand our zoning. It t it

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takes a while. Joe Ponduct, it took a while. It's been, you know, a point of frustration for applicants, developers to come into town to say, "Wait, we thought it was this way, but now we're reading something else." So, this way it'll be clear, clean, as concise as

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possible and and Carolyn Murray will be um leading that. So, again, we appreciate support and funding for this. Um, and I'll just highlight the phases right now that KP is um that Caroline has laid out. Phase one is the optional

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zoning audit which we all felt was really important. Um phase two is a zoning diagnostic. Um and that would be our next step. Um they will prepare comprehensive di diagnostic report identifying the

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housekeeping organizational and legal issues that should be addressed as part of the revision process. Um and then the next step um three zoning drafts. Um we're looking at some um of our

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depending on you know how the planning board um feels is looking at some of the drafts of our current zoning and maybe cleaning up some of those drafts that we know have been problematic in the past. And then the phase four is the adoption process which will um certainly will

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include a lot of public outreach sort of explaining what the changes are so that residents aren't you know panicked and they're worried that certain zoning is going to change without their understanding. This is really um not to look at changing new zoning. It's a

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clean really a a cleanup of zoning um that will be in a digital form that will be easily accessible [cough] for anyone even a homeowner um saying oh what are my setbacks you know what are what are my you know certain things in in my zone just in my district that I live in. So it'll be helpful for everybody um

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including our residents. So that um is the recottification. Any questions on that? >> Can I add? >> Yes. the um as one who's worked with our zoning bylaw for a number of years now um our zoning board of appeal, our

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building [cough] department, our planning department spends a lot of time um trying to understand and work their way through applications. Once this is updated, it will make our work the work of our town staff more efficient and

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therefore um hopefully they can work through backlogs quicker. It should be easier for residents, maybe they don't have to hire as many professionals like attorneys and engineers and architects and so forth. Um, and it also should make it u easier for the business

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community. Um, so this I I view it as really positive on a number of fronts. Um, I I again as one who uses it, one of the first things Carolyn Murray said is we don't have any u charts and tables, which is one of the most important

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things you usually find in the in the zoning bylaw. So there's uh some of those things um that are sort of lowhanging fruit as I think um Meredith mentioned and some of the others are going to be things that we really wanted to take a look at like changes in the bylaw but even some of it is the bylaw

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is not consistent with state law. So there's some things that we know we want to tick off first. Um and it would be helpful to think about not only just the planning board funding this effort. I'm just going to put in that pitch because we know it's expensive and you I'm trying to lay out the benefit overall

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for the town, not just, you know, from a planning perspective. >> I think that's something that we discussed briefly at the board about funding reconfocation and those updates. My understanding is that this has happened just over time with changes and things moving very quickly and I'll be able to go back and sort of clean up

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these things. Um, in this overview, um, one, how long do you think it's going to take? And then in the overview uh are there steps being taken so that we don't have to come back and have these same issues in the next five or 10 years making the changes.

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So we've talked um [clears throat] certainly not fall town meeting obviously the deadline is July for any articles um and we will be submitting um we are we should add um one of the things that we will be submitting um for the fall is um we think we'll be on

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track for a short-term rental and we just received a first draft from KB Law. So stay tuned on that. We'll be letting you know um when that gets a little bit further along. Um but we've talked about having a first, you know, maybe a first um

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issue of changes uh to to be able to be ready for springtown meeting to identify um but once we have the audit done, I think we'll know a lot more. Um Carolyn is is wonderful, but we also want to be realistic and what her time, our time.

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Um right now we we have time to focus on it. Um so she will be initiating that first you know audit and but our goal is to have something for springtown meeting I think we >> um at our our last discussion with Caroline. So

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>> I think your question was will this have to be revisited in upcoming years? Likely not. You know, this is this is addressing something that has accumulated over a very long period of

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time where the the um the various documents, you know, codes that someone has to review to to uh determine whether or not they could be in compliance or how to be in compliance. It's incredibly complicated. Cheryl spends a lot of time

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because this is what works. She's very familiar with how difficult it is. But once the recodification is addressed, it will be it won't be your work. It probably won't be your successor or that person's successor or that person's successor. So this is this should

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address an issue. We're not going to have to pay these funds again, you know, in any near future. >> And we will have the tools to analyze if there is conflict somewhere. And one of the thing right now some of the just the

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language the definitions are in conflict you know what is the median grade you know height of a building how do you where do you measure from when you're measuring a building so things like this once they're cleaned up everything will be digitized so it it can cross

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reference if you know if there is a section that um if we're working on a new bylaw the attorneys will be able to review that and and and isolate um any conflict when we're writing the new zoning once this is done. >> When we presented to Tammy the site plan

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review section of the bylaw, we did that anticipating this thinking that um when there's a requirement for site plan review, it it sends it to one place. So, that's kind of what we're trying to do with the codification instead of having

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to jump back and forth to multiple sections and getting someplace uh inconsistent cross references or inconsistent requirements in one section or another. Um, and that leaves our building commissioner to have to make a lot of interpretations or send it to the

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zoning board of appeal. Um, so, um, our chair of the zoning board of appeal is very supportive of this as well and so is our building commissioner. and and prior commissioners and prior chairs >> and our planning director [laughter] >> who's trying to piece it all together.

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>> And I think Caroline put it nicely when our meeting last time is that at one point this made sense, but over the years I think it's been kind of grafted on to the the zoning bylaw. So now it just makes sense. So the definition is in the middle of the of the overall uh package, right? So now part of this effort is to move that to the front and

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kind of organize it so it's logical and go for it. So like Sean said, it does not. Can >> I just give you an example? We just we did a webinar recently where an attorney said that a bylaw said that 10% of the parking lot had to be green

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green space. So what does what do most people think of when they think of green space? Be something landscape, right? >> But apparently a a developer painted half of the or 10% of the parking spaces green and said that they met that requirement in the bylaw and it was challenged and was upheld in the courts.

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[laughter] And so having these uh green space be something that's defined uh is a is a good example. >> Words matter. >> Words matter. >> Words matter. >> Yeah. >> And words definitely matter to businesses in town. And I know I'm

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getting a little off topic, but we're going to review the economic development plan as a business owner in town. uh we had to buy was um for my own business and from year to year to year those different building inspectors come

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in there's different interpretations um and for me personally having um different interpretations is not good for business. Um and also it is um in conflict with state law and it needs to

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be updated if we ever want to attract um and retain businesses in town. >> So this is a win-win for everyone. >> It's just a tool that our building inspector and our our staff needs. Um

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and as someone mentioned, it's not really a planning board. It's really the town staff town hall. So I too am an advocate of getting funding from other sources. >> Great. Um so why don't we start with the

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go on go into the economic development plan. Um and because first economic development plan might take us a little [cough and clears throat] >> do you want to go to library? Do you want to just have a quick discussion? So we just haven't had a chance for any of us to >> All right. We really wanted to hear from

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the planning board. Um library is obviously early days. Um, but it is a potentially big project. Um, and so beyond us just starting with the schools around a recommendation, uh, potentially going into the bid process, hearing from the planning board just on your thoughts

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on the property, your thoughts on what you've heard or seen for the potential of, uh, of that plot of land. >> Well, you want to start? Yes. Go ahead. Um certainly you're thinking about what

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happens if a school goes there or if a school does not go there. >> We're think I think I think we're looking at at both at both pathways there. I think one um the schools have laid out their plan. It certainly seems to be right now the preferred usage of

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that of that place. Um but if there is a chance that there is something goes ary and we do have to sort of you know change streams and go another direction, what are our options there? I think the school option. >> So my thought typically like when we've

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looked at even at uh daycare centers, you know, we've looked at um what impacts there might be for neighbors. So that might be traffic for example. So um you know, what's the schedule and how does that coincide with um any other impacts you have? What other uses are

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nearby? That's just something with any parcel and any project. Um and as far as uh if there's an addition required um if there's additional parking required um you know certainly the town in the past

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has not had any planning board uh review of town owned projects. So uh even though there's things and town's not subject to our zoning bylaw necessarily. So there's requirements in the bylaw for parking lots for example to have landscaping. So you're breaking up the

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amount of imperous area, you know. So there's some things like that if if it's a school that we might want to offer some guidance on how we would look at it if it's a different kind of project. I think if it's not a school, it's it's something to be uh the town needs to be thinking about because the property zone

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single family and at just under five acres um you by the math you could do four uh single family lots. by the frontage you could do three. Uh so if you did four you'd have to put a new road in. So you're looking at something

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which is an assessed value of I saw I think 13 million or 14 million something like that on our website. So is that going to be the economic use of a buyer? the highest and best, you know, use for a buyer to put to have a land

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acquisition of say two to three to four million dollars per uh parcel to buy the land and then you still have something to you have to do with the the building itself. So, are we susceptible to a 40B developer? um if that's the only other

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alternative that's not a dober protected use. So do protected use will be a school daycare center house of worship. Um so I think um we need to think about uh as a town if the school doesn't work

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what would be the uh desired use there and and how does that fit into the picture of our economic status you know our revenue status because it's t currently tax exempt is there possibility uh for any tax revenue

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that's a conversation that has to happen with the obviously with the neighbors the neighborhood the public u but I don't think it's one we should ignore because it you know a school might be the top choice of every every person but we have to think about what a plan B I

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think might be >> your point is that not only is the land very expensive but then doing something taking down the existing buildings preparing the land for single family homes building the homes that's a lot of investments just to get to those single family homes if that was the route >> right

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>> that was as a zoned right so those that's not probably doesn't pencil in that situation >> probably >> in my head in my day job as an architect I think you know that you're looking at most likely a 40B because that's going

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to be what that price point can >> um can support. >> So I think we're jumping ahead. I I sent a letter to the select board after one of your meetings and I strongly support

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um the town um buying the property even without knowing what the end um use is going to be. I think ownership provides the strongest protection for the future of the property. um ownership creates permanent local

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control and I think um as we all know zoning can change um there are do protected uses there are um state u mandates that come down and I think long

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term um we need to own it and I would love to see a school go there um I think having a school there would actually sort of help bring the town back together. The lamb swap was a very

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divisive issue. Um back in 1978, my father was on the conservation commission and he put that land the lamb's woods in um in conservation. And I think unfortunately through that process there were people who were

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labeled as anti-school when a lot which was myself labeled as that when I'm I am pro protection of land and conservation. We're not making any more land. Um and I think if the

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school was able to use it I think that would be a win for everybody. But even if the school decides that it's not um within their program, I still think the town should buy it. And as Winston said a couple meetings ago, it's just for

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control reasons. We then can control it. We then can decide what is best there, what is best for the neighbors. The neighbors can come in and be part of the process. So, I do support the town buying it and um and and then um and

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then seeing what the future uses. So, I support that. >> Well, I think it's a uh I mean whatever it's on the market, it could be gone tomorrow, right? I mean what whatever whatever decision you know will be made

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by the town [clears throat] um it's available they're accepting offers so um and I believe the minimum is 10 million so I think that's been an established minimum uh but it's I have

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not been inside the building but from what I've read uh it's probably an asset that's It was renovated in 2016. It was renovated also in 2023. Um, it looks to be in very good

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condition and maybe in equal or better condition than some of the academic buildings that we already have. So, uh, it's it's a valuable asset. Um, and it's 51,000 square feet, I believe.

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I don't don't think I well enough how our program would how we would fit our program, you know, and but you know, we certainly have plenty of expertise within um within our school officials to to see

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how work. I agree with what Charles said, the math doesn't really pencil for single family residential even in that neighborhood. I mean, that's one of the most beautiful neighbors we have in town. But I think the, you know, the

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number for a house, you know, based on math would probably be, you know, an 8 to10 million home maybe minimum. Um, based on land cost, development cost, construction cost of a home. So I don't I don't think it'll ever work single

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family residential which creates a problem for us because the alternative is multif residential and you know my opinion I I am not opposed to housing at all but the idea of a 40 project would

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not be to disrupt that kind of a setting that is a historic set you know adree and I think even the strongest advocates for 40 projects you know recog the importance of allowing a particular

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particular neighborhood to be made as it is. So if it doesn't serve an academic use as it has for labor or as it's just you know short distance away um it I think would be would be not

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consistently keeping that neighborhood the way it is >> and I've shared my uh views in our discussion with Winston as seeing this is to be a real win-win for our town. It's solving a huge problem of the over

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the classrooms um you know just just being overly um dense and in size but the but to Maggie's point the the piece about the conservation if we could preserve that

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and I think give the schools really a flagship school I mean this would be something that I think would attract people back into the school system that may have that may have left. I think this could be a very much of a um if we could if we could put the admin

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buildings I've been inside it is [clears throat] been beautifully restored. So the historic house they've really kept it intact. I think that administrators would love to be in those spaces which are currently set up as off many of them set up as offices. um it's

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really been carefully um protected and then you have you know again new modern um classroom facilities that are there. So I if this could fit again I'm not an expert we do have experts on the you know the school building committee and

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those um in our um administrator um who have said you know um the leadership team really uh supports this. So, I would absolutely support um acquiring this and um and and if it could happen, it would be great because it would

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happen much sooner than a new school building could be built um which could be years down the road. >> I think that's I just want to I just want to reiterate that last point. Um if we have a sincere interest in resolving some of the issues that we hear about in

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regard to our schools, we should do it sooner rather than later. And the path to a new school in Milton. Um, spent 40 years in the construction industry. Even from a point in time where you put the first shovel on the

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ground, you're two to three years away from new building being built. And we're not even close to putting that first shovel on the ground. So, if you're relying on a new school to solve, you know, the issues that we're talking about today, you're you're in a four,

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five, six year time frame. You know, is that really fair? You know, the residents of the town, the teachers in the town, the leadership of the schools with the taxpayers, right? I don't think it is. So, I think Mar's last point in terms of timeliness

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for a solution for that problem, this is this is a great opportunity. So, I think that we're all not everyone here, but I think we're all in agreement that the school is the first best option and second and third best option. Are you asking though if that doesn't work

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out for I I you're listen I listened to your most recent meeting I think you guys approved an OPM to explore that option right if that doesn't pencil out for the schools are you asking us what could go there >> or if somebody sweeps in right and buys the site tomorrow right which could

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happen yeah it's just kind of like a backup like what should we you know as stewards of the town just realizing that we don't just have to eye school for that site. What would be a responsible

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pathway to >> So if somebody buys that property tomorrowite and they send Liz over to their door and knock on their door and say, "We'd like to talk to you >> because we want to work with that buyer rather than them have something come in

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>> that we may not be interested in and say we want a partnership to work together that's going to work for them, for that buyer and for the town. And that's really important in so many communities that open door with the planning department and the the commercial or

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residential building industry is is is really just super important. >> So that's >> and I would and I think the town has a history of working with with um applicants to try to figure out zoning solutions. That's been that's been my

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that's been my experience. I haven't been directly involved in anything but I know that there was special zoning adopted for the memory care for instance. >> Um so yeah for cutwoods which was the carberry property before there was a lot

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of concern about that when it went on the market who was going to buy it what they were going to want to build there. Um that buyer and developer worked with the neighbors and with the planning board to craft zoning. That town meeting approved and then the planning board,

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you know, worked diligently um you know to to um approve a special permit that had a lot of conditions in it. And that's the sort of thing that I could see for the lab campus if it doesn't go towards a school is that

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there's that kind of collaboration. [cough] That's why [clears throat] I said send Liz there right away because that I think people would say that that was a success, you know, for a large p piece of property. Um what would happen? >> Well, I would be disappointed in Labber

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if they just went and accepted an offer from somebody else. So for all these years um they have been tax exempt and I believe the town of Milton has um as good relationships with our institutions

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in town um the Milton Milton Academy Curry so I would be extremely disappointed in Laboreet if they didn't come to the town of Milton first so instead of waiting for um

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Liz to get a knock on her door. I would expect that the town of Milton should be knocking on Labra's door and saying, "What can we do to um make sure that the town of Milton has the first right of

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refusal?" Um you know, what have what pilot um contributions has Labber given to the town all these years? I haven't heard of any >> and I think that should be a big

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discussion point with them. Um and I know in other towns um that they work with um institutions in town they work with um property owners of of land

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that's been um zoned agricultural. when you get a a tax abatement if you're a farm, the first right refusal goes back to the town um for an offer to buy. So, I would assume that the town of Milton should have the first right of refusal.

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We don't have any like for clarity we don't have any legal [clears throat] right of first refusal over the property >> but just good good um business part >> but we have been in close contact I'd say >> probably on a every other day basis with either library or their representative

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so that that line of communication is open um but it is being actively marketed as Sean noted so they have a a broker on board who is actively marketing it remaining close contact >> I think to What I've heard from everyone

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here from our board is the town making all efforts to secure collaborate and then moving forward with whatever their plan will be whether it will be the school first or if that doesn't work out whatever the next thing will be. Most important thing is that the town is going to make all efforts to acquire the

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property. Um so Maggie's point and point we've been making here at the board. We do think we have a really good relationship with Laboreet but we certainly can't make them you know give us the property but good stewardship good neighbors good continued relationship with Curry we hope that the

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time and the years that they have been in the community do play some factor and hopefully the continuous educational institution as well plays a factor into us securing the property. I just one thing that I I want the group's input

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[clears throat] on. Um you know the the process how we proceed methodically in evaluating the school viability option is is fairly straightforward to me. Well, it's complicated and difficult decision, but how we're going to get

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there to inform our decision whether to, you know, put a bid on the property. Um, that seems fairly mapped out. I mean, I I think we're going to talk about it more tonight, but in terms of the roadmap we've laid out in terms of the school committee,

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um, you know, setting forth its programmatic recommendation and hopefully later applying a bit more on how that this option weighs against the MSBA option, then school building committee coming on top of that with

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some, you know, how pricing that out and engaged um, you know, an architect and a structural engineer and you know so I see the diligence forming to inform that path on the plan B path if for whatever

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reason you know that gets derailed and um what I what I'd love your guys input on is um you know working up the diligence a little bit on

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and how planning boards can be involved in that on um if we find ourselves at some point in that plan B lane and I'm not you know I'm not going to put percentages on it. I think it's nonzero. So I think it's worth trying to kind of

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move that thinking along. Um you know under the umbrella of trying to control the property if we can. I'm interested in like how the planning board how you could see yourself supporting that thinking along the way and when for

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example I'll put like a couple questions out there um as a group how do we you know how much of that thinking do you want we want to try to move the ball on pre you know

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transaction you know or pre- bid not a lot of time So there's maybe not a whole lot of realistic possibility like move along our you know recommended um use or thinking priest. So, do we think not

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moving that thinking along given the time constraints, you know, I'm thinking about from the town's perspective when when it's coming to a vote, a town meeting or you know, for a potential eventual debt exclusion to approve

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um you know, the purchase, what's going to get approved at that level? It seems like a fairly popular idea. So maybe residents will only need to know subject to further decision of

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use. You know how much specificity at that do we want to I'm I'm I've been trying this whole time to kind of work backwards picturing ourselves in you know whatever December, November with this decision kind of showing up to

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residents. How much are they going to want to know? How far along should that ball be? Um, you know, a couple scenarios could be some work has already happened to sort of try to narrow down what other uses

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could look like to try to inform that conversation. Or maybe that's just not realistic and you you put it to, you know, maybe you tell residents, well, here's what we'll do after acquisition to, you know, engage the community and go through this multi-month process to

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think about you. So, I've I've just been trying to line up think about us lining up the different pieces to just inform that not only the bid or whether the bid and the bid, but also that period from if we're fortunate enough

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to, you know, a contingent bid accepted basically like where do we want to be, you know, as elected officials in this kind of going to those different votes along the way? How far should we push that other use? Diligence is what

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I've been trying to think about. What's realistic? Um, again, I see the school decision diligence moving along. I'm trying to kind of figure out think about how far to move that other ball in these short windows.

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what will help you know if if one of our objectives is to get the you know potential acquisition approved by the town how much are residents going to want to hear that how far that thinking is so um you know those are some big questions but certainly something I've

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been thinking about um you know really valuing like the planning board's perspective on that kind of thinking use ideas zoning analysis type thinking um you Maybe that's for a later day. I'm just kind of

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sharing where I'm sort of hovering around like what how how to kind of move what timeline to move that along. But um you know feel free to share your thoughts on that now or just you know I hope we can kind of keep that

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thinking accelerated frankly. John, you want ahead? >> Yeah, Nick, we got to live in the real world. Houses are selling for a million five, million8. Developer with a lot of money could come

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down there tomorrow and buy that and do like a 55 and up. I don't think we're going to have to go to the voters and ask for an override. And how far how long would that take >> to acquire it? to do all the work,

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>> do all steps. >> It will require a town meeting vote October November time frame and a ballot question vote either on the state election November or December time frame. And I've I've shared that timeline with libraries. They're their understanding of that. I think by the

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flip side, you know, for potential acquisition, there may be some people looking to buy it with contingent offers and they've said they don't want contingent offers, but there might be we'll be we'll have to make a contingent offer as well, but our

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timeline would be like six months from now for resolution. >> So any you know um it's going to be a while, but they're aware that our our duration is a little bit longer than a normal buyer might be. Uh >> but they have to answer the board of directors, right?

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>> They have board of trustees, correct? >> Yeah. So if they get a big >> relationship with Curry as well in terms of the proceeds of >> I'm just thinking if they get a big offer like Sean said, that's out in the real world, >> you know. I'm just thinking like I see

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what houses are selling for, you know, and that's a desirable area. >> So John, the zoning and the and the nonzoning uses of the Dober amendment and the 40B are the uses that would be non-contingent. Everything else is

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contingent on a zoning change. So if you wanted to to do an over 55 community that's not 40B, it requires a zoning change. So that's >> only 40B >> only 40B. No, I understand all of that could go in right now,

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>> but some developer company might want to try to go that way. The 55 and up. It's a desirable area. >> But I think Cheryl's saying that in order to do that, you got >> you have to go to board of appeals. >> You have to have a zoning change. >> You have to come in. >> You have to go to town meeting to get

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the zoning change. So, it's a process that some developers are willing to go through, but $10 million minimum, not being contingent, knowing that you may not get the zoning >> before you even tear down the buildings and make the site ready. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> Yes. So, it's

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>> so some of the zoning that's there now is to our benefit. I'll say it's not just for any use. >> Correct. Correct. >> But they could threaten the 40B though. >> 40. >> Correct. That's why I brought that. >> I understand. But they could still get the sway to go the other way. >> Are you pointing out

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>> sueded to go the other way? Yes. >> Are you pointing out that time is of the essence or that no guarantee we get it >> if a developer that's a pristine neighborhood. I want to buy it. Believe me. Wish we [clears throat] could get someone to give us 20 million offer.

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>> 20 I don't have it. >> Seriously, not me. I want the town to buy it. >> But but we got a long process to do it. >> Yes. But but I think there um and this comes back to Maggie's point I want to make about elaborate too. I think the relationship that with them being in

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town for as long as they have been the program staying in town through Curry they have an understanding of how long our process would be. So we're a little unique to any other buyer and you know I'm not a 40B developer than standard costs. Um I don't know if it's

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if it's profitable to do a 40B there. Can't speak to that. I hope would be that it's not um for us, but you know, there are some things that do that are in our favor. I don't think library has given us a date where they would select the purchaser. So, we're not sure if

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they're, you know, and just taking all bids or, you know, just waiting for the right numbers. >> And that building, you can move kids in there tomorrow. >> Yeah, it's a great it's a great building, great property. And I think it could be just a a real

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sort of feather in the cap for the school department. I mean, I think it's just it would make it a real special place sort of an entrance to come in. >> Just want to come back to Pete's question and comment. Um, if we if we can. I do think um it's best not to wait

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until the last minute to start thinking about what an alternative use might be and what path that might need to take. because even there may be somebody who decides to buy it with [clears throat] risk or

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you know assuming that they can make something work there and if not their fall back would be the 40B. So they might say I want to do an over 55 community and if I can't get that done and I'll my default will go back to the 40B. So I do think um that would the 40B

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at 10 million or above it's just going to increase the density of what goes there. If we think about the land acquisition for let's say a Canton 40B two parcels totaling maybe three million they paid for 116 units. So you can do

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the math on that you know so if you're paying 10 million you know you're looking at probably somebody wanting to do a lot of units there. And so that's why I think we need to be ahead of it. So that's my point. I've seen these things come. John, you've seen these come too.

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>> I have. But Nick, who what if Labber had if they bought they had the right to first refusal and the other parcels are landing >> and you I I thought you said hopefully that moves with whoever bought, you know, if we buy it. >> Library currently holds a right of first

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refusal, right at first offer over the font on campus. So this question of does that then go of >> well that's what I'm looking at too >> right >> that's a big piece of puzzle >> it certainly is so I guess >> which would allow for additional ball

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fields you could add for you know sort of an expansive >> long term >> is there planning work that should start is there consultant that we should talk about bringing on board to start conceptualizing that post plan B post

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reuse or at least maybe getting the parameters there's a little scope together to be prepared to move that point. I guess that >> maybe to to I think the question also that we can't forget is that this is this has been a

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school. This has been utilized for school for I mean >> both >> forever. I mean there forever. I mean yeah Aquinus it's it's been forever. Um and but what we would want to do is solicit um input community input and

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neighborhood input I think before we did anything. Obviously [cough] if it didn't go to a school there's other options. Um I don't know if Milton Hospital would consider you know if there would be another school that would be interested. I would like to see probably to keep um because I think the neighbors

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are accustomed to having a school there. That would be ideal for a first step, but certainly I think we could we could begin having conversations, but really having public outreach um the neighbor down the road a mile. >> So we public outreach would be an

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important part. >> We wouldn't get zoning um yet we wouldn't have zoning in place. I don't know. I don't think you're thinking having zoning, but having sort of a plan of how it could be mapped out is certainly something that we we can't say

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tonight what that what it would be, but we could certainly start talking about it um and looking talking to Liz um and looking at some um >> I think part of it an educational um component to it. um like we've been talking about tonight like

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the what the proposed um acquisition cost is likely to be how you back into uses based on that you know because some people if you just uh put out there what would you like to see there it not may not be realistic to your point John so there has to be I think some sort of

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framework set up first um that um here are some range of opportunities for this property that would work within this financial. So, let's say the town does buy it for, let's say, 12 million and it goes to a school, there's then there's

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probably not too much additional process, but I still think neighbors are going to want some process about how it's going to work. Where are the buses going to go? You know, where are the cars, the drop off, the pickups going to go, is there outdoor spaces, a playground, where's that going to go? You know, there's lots of still site planning decisions that need to be made.

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Um, so even that having a community process around that I think makes a lot of sense. I don't think necessarily that's all happened a lot on our municipal projects. But it makes a lot of sense to me. But then on the second piece of it now you've set the framework about what issues you need to talk about

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what kind of land uses if it doesn't go to a school. What else can support that 10 million? What else can the taxpayer see as a way to pay for that 10 million? Um, and what would they like to see there? So then you have to go through the range of uses and I do think a

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consultant would probably help. Um include like a new office. >> It seems to me you have a 51 as Sean said 51,000 square foot building and that's occupiable. I don't see like the best thing for the environment would be to tear down a perfectly good building. So is there a

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way to reuse that building? That would be my first step. What use might be able to reuse that building? And I I just want to and I know you you were waiting to see like I'm not tonight trying to kind of get into the whole like

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>> more political decision of like you know school or not or all that. I'm I'm really focusing on like contingency planning here and and focusing on plan B because I see the diligence roadmap for plan A. So for plan B's, that's what I'm

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kind of trying to get. >> Right now, what you describe as plan B is being worked out by developers that are considering buying it. >> So what they do is they'll bring on board a civil engineer and an architect. And that civil engineer and that architect are examining that piece of

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land and what the options are and what they could do. And they may have four, five, six, seven, eight different options. It could be everything from like what happened at Calgary's land up on Canton A >> to Woodre to a multi-un. So what you

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describe as plan BP is happening right now. Anybody that's looking at this is utilizing, you know, whoever they have their chosen civil engineer and their architect, you know, developing schemes and those schemes are what you described

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as what would be your your your land and and it's the only way to really do it. You know, Cheryl How probably done plenty of this. You know, I do a lot of it on residential side commercial side, but um you know, we take a site plan. uh would examine the building and see what

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are the possible uses for that building. Could could it be repurposed into residential? Um because some of the floor plans for school buildings don't don't repurpose well for residential. It's just it's it's really challenging.

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But anyhow, my [snorts] point is plan B right now, anybody that's looking at that property is doing exactly what you described as plan B. And we don't have those resources internally. you know, we would have to bring that. >> So, since we have a lot to get to the

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economic development plan, what I'll say is um plan A for us is acquisition and then that allows us flexibility with um whatever we need to do after whether that takes some time and hiring a consultant, whether it's community outreach or whether the school's plan is

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the 100% best way forward. Plan A is what we have. I think the plan B that I'm thinking of right now is that if we don't get it and that's that's going to knock on the doors and then us working with planning board and others in town is to what do we do now since we did not

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get this property but think we have acquisition then [clears throat] we can get into the weeds of like what do we do with it if it's not going to be really just wanted to hear from you guys in terms of your input just how we would actually work together for both of those

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both of those strains Thank you. >> Okay. So, [clears throat] just to um move into the economic development plan. Um I think it's important you know that we just and you all I think have all

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received this but I'll just sort of read through um what MACP MAPC um the econom's economics development plan which the planning board has um completed phase one and two of this or I should say our consultants

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um have um completed phase one and two the project understanding uh the town of Milton will work with MAPC Metropolitan Area Planning Council to develop an economic development plan with analysis and recommendations to enhance the mix

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of economic activities to better meet community needs, sustain economic activities, particularly particularly economic activities that while affording growth and intensification of use are generally consistent with the town's

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physical scale of activities and expand the commercial an industrial tax base. The plan will provide analysis, goals, and actions the town could take to facilitate economic investment within the town's priority priority commercial,

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industrial, and mixed use districts, the priority business districts. Thank you for clearing that up. Um the plan um while highly while highly dependent on there being productive community engagement, the engagement will seek to

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identify complimentary objectives for each each versus competing object for each versus competing object objectives. The project will include consideration of novel economic development goals and strategies that diverge from traditional

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economic development approaches. The plan will include a discussion of key townwide drivers, opportunities, and challenges from an economic development perspective. The over overarching project goals are one, create an economic development plan for Milton's

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key commercial districts, and two, identify and recommend goals and strategies necessary to advancing the identified plan. three share and support the town's effort to build support for the report recommendation and implementation efforts as result of the

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plan. The report will focus on the identification as well as thoughtout and economically viable goals and strategies supported by the qualitative and quantitative data assessed via the process. Development of specific recommendations on zoning changes and/or

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infrastructure improvements required for planned implementation are beyond the project scope. Although a high level discussion of such items captured through an analysis of previous studies will be discussed and helped to inform the report recommendations. Uh the

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planning process is expected to begin September. This was September of 2024 at the time. um and was expected to conclude by 2025. Um and there were issues with the funds um that were covering this. So the work

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halted um priority business districts. The economic development plan will provide analysis and recommendations on the four priority business districts identified below. Milton Village business district adjacent to the Milton Landing and access to the Neponet River.

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Central AB business district, the northern and the northern granite a business district. These business districts fall on the east side of town. This project engagement will also assess the data and conditions to understand the potential for expanded commercial

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activity on the town's west side. There is some resident sentiment that such activities are lacking there. Uh while not the central focus of this engagement, attention will be paid to the potential for the route 28 corridor to receive additional uh light

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industrial flex and or office uses and to be um the focus of more intensive utilization. Uh project process. The process will consist of one, an analysis of existing conditions of the districts,

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including broad real estate conditions not inclusive of parcel or property level analysis. Two, the community and stakeholder engagement centering on communities and stakeholders priorities of the priority business districts listed above. And three, development of

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goals and strategies, including a townwide survey and community workshop to inform the priorit prioritization of goals and strategies and for uh the compilation of a final report with recommendation and presentation to

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a select board meeting. Um the [clears throat] project tasks the these have been completed already by MAPC. Um, and I won't read all of this, but existing conditions and analysis of Milton's economy. Um, we had a kickoff

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meeting, uh, review of existing, uh, subtasks are kickoff meeting and a review of existing plans, >> continuing regulations. We can post >> I won't go yeah through everything, but basically step one and two um have already been completed. And we were um

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our last meeting with MAPC was um a presentation of um their work up until that point and we were getting ready gearing up for a community survey which Liz do to recall do you know if that went out that community survey that's

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when it so we worked up until that point um and so I think tonight the conversation I think the planning board has discussed wanting to continue with the work that MAPC but maybe looking at um you in depending on how much funding

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we have looking at maybe diving a little deeper into um maybe we talked about the west side of Milton. I know Cheryl you wanted to discuss Randolph Avenue. Um so I I would just open it up to >> so my understanding is that we started

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this in 2024 process began and we ran out of funding along the way. So this is the scope in range from the original. >> Correct. >> Correct. which we are okay with reopening and starting with this scope and changes in the scope in the project

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again but we have some issues with funding. There is an amount I think we've now both boards have dedicated 25,000 to continuing and that leaves us with a gap I believe of 30 to 50,000 to finishing it. 30.

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>> So yeah, the original scope was >> I have questions about the scope here in the business that we're focusing on. >> I don't want to >> if if we were to take this scope as written [clears throat] and as budgeted,

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then there's $99,000 of which the town has paid about $18,000 of that. So that would leave approximately $80,000 worth of work under the scope of services under this fee proposal um of which there is 50,000 dedicated towards. So

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there is a delta there but that's the where the budget sits. So I'll defer back to school. >> So it's 50,000 in the delta of needed 30,000 to finish the project to your school. So

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my my main questions around the um [cough] the business districts the the scope as written mentions the west side. would folks be open to more explicitly

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highlighting um some focus on the on the west side and where businesses would be focused. So I think assessing data and conditions to understand the potential for expanded

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commercial activity I g I guess that's >> [cough] >> um [clears throat] I guess that's go headed in a good direction but I think we should think about how to more explicitly call out what we

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what we would like to see there in terms of recommendations. Nice. >> So I think these were highlighted because >> we really these are our business districts in town >> existing. That's what I Yes. So part of this and what it may be is some

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recommendations to really open up and because I think what we would need we we have identified parcels. They're they're not all connected. Yeah. >> Um so we would really need resident input. Um, you know, we have we have

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experience with MBTA discussions on where development could go on the west side. Um, but I think changing, you know, looking at doing a res a new district, >> we would want to get that input. So,

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well, we've done with the Empic, there was a study on um a portion of the west side of town that maybe some of that could be added or inform uh additional. >> Right. I see. I hear what you're saying

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is take a district and say, let's analyze, let's look at this, and then we can get some input, which could lead to maybe a future overlay. asking about the process for changing or adding to the scope given that this is a document in agreement from 2024.

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>> Um is MAPC would this be okay for us to go back to them and say here are some changes or additions and does that change the cost? that cost is the overriding factor, but do we have the ability to change some of the scope given this is a document that we agreed

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to >> the the contract is >> no longer valid. So they would repric it all. I would expect updated pricing and I would expect they would be flexible in terms of if we want to add to maybe pull

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some scope out of certain places and add scope elsewhere. I would say it's very flexible. There's nothing here binding us. I think this serves as a good template to to tweak if there's any tweaks and >> right and because MAPC has most recently worked with us on both the Milton

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Village and um most recently the East Milton overlay zoning that we did. We have a lot of survey data. We have a lot there was a lot of public outreach. They have a lot to work with. So they might need to do less with East Milton because they they've sort of they've heard and

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they've heard rankings of what you know um what res >> they could pick up and move quickly with it. >> They could pick up and move quickly. Exactly. And I think the same for the village where we could spend maybe more [cough] time for you know you know hopefully not too much more money but

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again that would be Liz has had a conversation I think also with um the consultant that we had that we had started with. Yeah, it was it was it was several months ago. I haven't had a recent conversation with them. Um, but yeah, I agree with with Nick. I think I

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think we could we could negotiate and and get new pricing and and try to figure out, you know, what the budget will cover and where your priorities are and then try to plug that plug that gap essentially >> because we're at such an early stage, you know, making making whatever

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[clears throat] changes that Megan is talking about or any changes. This is a very appropriate time. They're at the very early stages. So, whatever we want them to focus on, if it's different than what's written in that contract, this is a great time to do it. And it's probably not going to change very much from a cost.

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>> Can I ask one more quick question just out of my own ignorance here? So, the Northern Granite Avenue business district, where exactly is that? Is that like up where Heritage Hall is or >> it's just the office building

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out? Okay, >> that's its own little district. >> Okay, >> but if there was some thought to change that, that could be discussed, I imagine. But >> so before taking on new um commercial um

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across town, I would like to see our focus on pre-existing non-conforming. Um so we have a most of our businesses are outside the um business districts and are there via special permit and um

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subject to zoning changes um and neighbor issue complaints. So before taking on um new um districts, I would like to somehow um take on our pre-existing non-conforming to make

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those businesses more stable. um and um less subject to um zoning issues. So I think to me personally that's should be our first um number one task on our

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scope. >> What would that entail? >> So it would probably entail um getting a list of all of our businesses that are outside the business districts. I did go through the um the existing conditions

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plan that MAPC um gave to us and there were many businesses that are not located on that. And then there are also businesses that I'm not sure if even exist anymore. So I

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had said to Nick, what I'd like to see on the existing conditions plan is uh by parcel where are these um businesses? How many businesses do we have in town? Where are they located? Like for instance, in East Milton, the Rockland

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Trust building, that's in a residential um um district. And within that building, there's all sorts of businesses within that building. And so, I'd like to see that address listed and then a list of all the businesses within

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it. Um we've heard um you know through many residents in town that they want um different um um um amenities in town and we hear all the time, oh do we want another nail salon? But I was trying in

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my head trying to figure out how many nail salons do we have? Like how many do we have? Three, >> four. And you know, and if you look in my industry, we have three nurseries in town.

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>> He has a daughter. And I would >> and [laughter] I would never say I would never say or exclude another nursery from opening up in town. So I I think it's hard sometimes to um to restrict

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what type of business um should go in a certain location. Um, but it would be nice to see how many nail salons do we have? How many restaurants? We all say we want restaurants, but is it fair to say, "Oh, the town can support 10

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restaurants, but we can't support five nail salons." I mean, I don't go to nail salons, so I'm not advocating for more. But I I think it would be helpful to have a list by industry and how many businesses currently exist.

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I think Mandy's point [clears throat] highlights that there's there's quite a bit of policy embedded within this plan too, which I think highlights how it probably intersects both of our boards

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in terms of um stewarding of law. Um which is another come back to that. But on the scope, I would just emphasize Sean to your point about can, you know, [clears throat] input out. Um, it just seems to me like

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it's heavy on the east side and is that, you know, can we shift a little focus >> and we've spent a lot of time on the east side. So, I think >> the east side is like >> do we have to take another survey, you know, of community outreach? So, I think shifting it and to Megan's point and

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doing more exploring because that's that's what our board is hearing is that we want coffee shops. We want, you know, some some amenities that we can walk to and not have to get in our cars. So, I think that's definitely worth making shifting that. Um,

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>> I think we we we need to include all of the existing districts and think about where we have businesses outside of the districts and whether we should change our boundaries. Um, a part of it we can think about, um, relative to our zoning code recodification we're talking about

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because right now those businesses that are outside of the business districts and a lot of them that are even within the business districts have kind of complicated approval processes associated with them and so that makes it harder for businesses that might make it harder to attract more diverse businesses. So there's a

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there's policy that there's zoning and then there's um you know I think some economic analysis as well. I uh was looking through the existing conditions report piece that we did get and it refers back to 2015 in the retail

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leakage. So something we talked about recently which is Milton taxpayer dollars being spent in other communities. And one of the things I would like to add to this scope is that component to it. Like look at what our leakage is today. That was 10 years ago

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plus that was in that 2015 master plan. I recently was reviewing uh a market analysis and fiscal impact analysis that was done in the last year or two um in Belmont where they asked a consultant what would it take for us to change our

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residential commercial tax revenue from a 95% 5% to a 90% 10% and they had a lot of analysis that went into that. Um, and so that gave them information to make decisions about whether they thought

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they could ever get to that 10%. But they had that data there and it looked at regional and local market conditions for for housing, for office, for they had a lab use. But here we have bid Milton, you know, bid Milton which is

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expanding a lot. Is there some uh thing that we should think about with that with respect to our economic development plan? You know, we have a memory care center opening. The hospice just reopened. Uh it was recommended on our master plan that we should do a medical

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overlay district for zoning. Um and so that it just makes these if we think that there's some opportunity uh for these businesses in town. We should plan for it a little better so that it makes the process smoother. And u I would like us to think about that. That's a much

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higher level than I think a lot of what's in this scope is this is you know where where do we see that Milton's not taking advantage of opportunity where is that leaking out is that bid Milton office space leaking to Quincy are our

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retail dollars leaking to all the adjacent communities and can we bring some of that back in to help with our budget challenges so I don't disagree about what you've said about what we should look at where and Maggie what you should look at but I also think we we need to elevate it and look at um more

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potential. >> So I I think um in the interest of time I've heard a little bit and what we're saying here is that we would all like some more input on the scope. So um if we could set a timeline or a calendar

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through Liz or Nick talking with MAPC about how we're going to change or add the scope when we need to have those changes in which I think would require perhaps us in some capacity meeting again. I don't think emails would be good enough for us to do that in getting to a

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scope. Maggie's point about um businesses outside of business districts as well as listing of those businesses. Um John has repeatedly said in our meetings about empty office spaces and commercial spaces. Um Cheryl's point as well, which I'm forgetting right now. Sorry, Cheryl. Um and then Megan's point

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about >> retail leakage. >> Retail leakage. That was Thank you. [laughter] >> I've never heard of that in my life. Now that's a term >> retail leakage. uh Megan's point about the west side of town and then I also have a a thought of which I don't know if this could happen but

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that since we have an outside [clears throat] consultant instead of us telling them where to go and study if they just came into Milton and looked at Milton just gave us an idea of where things could actually work um that's an idea that I thought this they just came in and said these these are the places

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to where you should have the business districts these are the places if you can do it over again you'd be very successful these folks are asking for if that's possible. >> Um, and I think the biggest thing for us to discuss is how we pay for it. Uh, is

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going to go in ask MPC for some changes in scope, maybe it changes in cost, maybe it doesn't. I think we had two um potential ways of paying for this. Should we discuss those now and then think of the way that we can come back with these changes in scope?

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>> Sure. I think, you know, the first one [clears throat] at all times is always just going to town meeting and and requesting an additional appropriation from free cash for a onetime expense such as a study. So, that's always an option. Town meeting vote um and could

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be length. The alternative would be um looking within the existing it's too late for fiscal 26 weeks to go. We're not going to find money. We have a snow and ice deficit that we need to deal with as well. Um but looking at the fiscal 27 budget uh if there's any um

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surplus funds in the select board budget but alternatively within this planning board's um your plans and studies budget is $85,000. So it would make sense to find finalize this scope maybe utilize some of that funding and then the ask a town meeting is to to put that money

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back into place. So, uh, maybe progress using some of the the planning board's appropriation, but preparing an article to to replace that money, um, for the fiscal 27 work that the board might work on. So, that's I think those are two options. They both kind of hinge on a

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little bit of time meeting action. The second option would be a little bit quicker if we get to a place where we have a scope and a fee that everybody's agreeable with. Uh, and we can also kind of poke around in terms of what selective budget is at the additional funding. I think um broadly those would be the ways that we can grab some

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additional money for this. >> Could we also reach out to um if if um we're we're going to create new zoning for um BI should we reach out to BI to help contribute and pay for um through a pilot?

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>> This is very explicit that there will be no zoning coming out of this [laughter] >> but but for a pilot. So uh we who has contributed um this past year and uh to their pilot and how much have we collected? Can we do a more robust

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outreach? >> Um we have a pilot committee. We have committee >> with Milton Hospital work but it's Milton Academy Curry College and uh >> it's not good to go out to Curry at this point when we're trying to work with

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them to part of the negotiation. Curry's been a consistent contributor. >> Yes, >> they have. >> Uh, I just want to thank the four veteran planning board members. You've had a few tough years. I've been mad at

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you quite a [laughter] bit, but uh I'm living with it and uh we're all sitting in the traffic so we're all involved in it. So, I just want to thank all four of you. You did a great job under not great circumstances

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and the town's lucky to have you. Mr. Mango were lucky to have you, too. >> Thank you. >> They uh you've had a few tough years. >> Thank [laughter] you. Thank you for your service. >> What you do as a board member, but what you do, which I don't think you get nearly enough all around town.

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>> All right. Don't worry. >> Well, we appreciate >> Wish I had 15 million to buy that property. give it to the town >> because I don't think we're going to move fast enough. >> And just I I think in closing, I think this is a great first step of communication which was our goal. Um I

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think highlighted it, you know, it has some towns do include the planning department in their site plan, you know, process. Um early in the stages when they're planning a new facility or a new project. um it is helpful because that's

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what we do on a regular basis is review sites for potential you know problems that could arise and um and just even how a building is cited um you know on a piece of land. Um so that is something that some towns do include and I think

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um we would love to be part of that on in future projects um when the committees are being assigned looking at new buildings but >> an example. Well, currently I mean some towns it it depends on what town you know whether

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it's the we the fire department did come to us but they pretty much finished all of the initial drawings and architectural drawings and it was it was you know there weren't many changes that could be made. I think there were little things that we tweaked at that point. um talking about landscaping and trees that

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you know the central you know this project took down a hu huge amount of trees so we tried to help with you know preserving as much green space as possible um but that that was late um uh late at the the game um you know we've never typically have been involved with

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school building projects some towns um like Easton for example they're involved and I don't think we need to be on every level but um ball fields and and different playgrounds and parks. Um their planning department is is part of

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that. So just something to keep top of mind, you know, when when determining I don't know, you know, other than school building, you know, everything fire stations. Fortunately, we'll get Athetherton underway. Um quite soon we're we're lucky to be sitting in this

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building tonight um with the preservation of the original old fire station. So um that was that was good work and a good committee. So just something to think of maybe having a representative from planning board just to be a lazone in projects.

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>> I don't think you mentioned on one quick thing on the um short-term rental bylaw. We spoke about that being possibly a general bylaw rather than a zoning bylaw that we would work on the bylaw and present it. But um hopefully that would

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be a joint kind of article uh because it wouldn't fall under our jurisdiction. they would either follow fall follow onto the select board or the board of health or or both. >> Yeah. Which would sort [clears throat] of expedite the process and help >> that's working together, right?

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>> Yeah. [laughter] And that was um Carol and Murray our um from KB Boss made that suggestion and we'll have it teed up and ready to present to you and you know certainly um and one last thing for those who might be watching there were several residents who came to the

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planning board and asked us to take a look because they felt it was an issue in their neighborhoods and um and that's why we uh prioritized it just for those who are interested in how we arrived at that. while you're still in the department.

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>> I don't know if your group, but Armstrong's property is getting developed the first phase and they shook the contractor down for new policemen, new police car, fire gear, and a couple of firemen. I don't know if your board has the power to when these developers

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come in, not business development, but housing kind of shake them. Like I said, you can't insult them. You can go at right at it and at the end of it, they'll love you. Was that a 40B project? Was that a 40B project? >> Yeah. Armstrong. >> Which one? The one in Brain Tree. >> Yeah.

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>> Yeah. So, that's that's an MBTA communities project. >> Um that area of sort of mitigation and what have you. It's a it can be sort of a a tricky a tricky space, you know, and it has to be really carefully connected to

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the impacts of the development. So, [clears throat] um yeah, it's uh >> we can open our eyes. Maybe we Yeah, >> we could proceed with that. >> Just while you're still thinking about the um short-term bylaw, I think we

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should seriously consider any additional money we can get out of that um in terms of local search charges or um what do they call impact fees? It's probably not much, but could be a deterrent factor there, too.

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>> Um so, I mean, if it does come to us, I'll certainly be thinking about it then, too. So, I encourage you guys we definitely talked about looking at and it's we were surprised how many towns don't charge impact fees >> but Carolyn Murray also um cautioned

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about that because there's a recent case I think where you have to show that that fee is tied directly to an impact from that short-term rental can't go to a ball field can't go to support the little league can't go to it has to go to a direct impact of that short-term

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rental >> so most of the towns aren't doing it. Yeah, >> but there is the other. So, >> two fees. Yeah, >> there's two fees. >> Yeah. So, maybe just do the easy one. [laughter] >> Um, so before we wrap, so uh to take away

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with us on the economic development plan, the timeline on us making changes as well as the options for funding and amounts to take away from this. Um, one thing that we did not get to and perhaps in our next meeting, um, I do

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[cough and clears throat] want to talk about how the how we can have a better relationship whether it's the planning board, all our boards together with developers that come in. Um, we're talking to them about what they're going to put in buildings. >> Um, if that's been the norm, if it's

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happened at all. Um, I say I have spoken to some business owners in town who feel that the fees are being passed. developments have prevented them from opening things that folks would like. So I don't know if there is a way we have in our relationship with the developers

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and particularly with local business owners that we're talking about this being a space where financially business owners can open a space and still thrive. That we're not we're making this actually

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businessfriendly environment. Next. Fix it. >> It's a trailer. >> Yeah, [laughter] >> that's good. Sounds good. >> I think I think you have to adjourn. >> We do. Yes. Can I have a motion to adjurnn from the planning board to >> second? Second.

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>> All in favor? >> I appreciate you guys. >> Yeah, I know. Good to see you. Yeah.

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Next. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. And with that, we'll move to item five, Labor Day College closure and sale. And we have Superintendent John Fa and uh school committee chair Mark Luren

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joining us. >> Good evening. >> Good evening. Thank you. >> Thanks for waiting. >> So um I will pass it to Nick in a second, but we just wanted to convene to talk about uh the school committee's decision about Laboreet. Uh we have not

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had a chance to hear from you directly. I do understand that you've sort of put a a proposition forward as how you think the program will work and also in the conversation tonight. I think us talking about communication with our residents about what the potential is at the

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library site and how we see it moving forward just so our parents are informed. >> Uh no significant updates at this time. Um, as had been mentioned by Sean in the planning board conversation that the site is now being actively marketed.

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They have a broker on board. Um, there's information on online about about that seeking buyers. They've said generally they're soliciting offers over the course of the next month which tracks with kind of what we've been hearing from them all along. I kept you posted in terms of the school building committee's work and what

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they're marching towards towards an end of July time frame for some information. and the architects and the engineers did a walk through library on Monday. Um we had move forward at landfest for the appraisal. The appraiser also walked through library on Monday. So he's done his site visit. Um so as we get

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information back through that we'll keep u posted. Um after our conversation last week, we had a conversation with um traffic engineers about potential scope broadly in terms of what they'd be looking at on transportation traffic just to get that ball rolling. will

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report the school building committee once um everything is generated on that. So, we expect kind of a a rough proposal uh by the end of this week. And then just kind of other pieces that we're working on and is uh an overview of how an acquisition

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would work procedurally but also financially, what that might mean on a taxpayer front, what we be asking of taxpayers, and then also just quantifying in terms of what's our carrying cost for that building going to be if we were to own it, what is our cost going to be to just kind of keep it

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maintained, functional, um, and safe. Um, and then lastly, some work around identifying mapping out the various options within the school. So that's kind of the work that's been going on since we last spoke and I know there's some questions on schools just turn back to the board in terms of where they want

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to be to the schools. >> Uh sorry we don't have a planned presentation. Uh but again thank you so much for letting us uh be here and and share a little bit of an update. school committee has talked about this at two meetings. Um and essentially the things

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that we've decided uh is one the committee has directed the superintendent and his team to kind of investigate lab to look at and think about uh what type of educational program does it appear could fit and what would fit based upon kind of the

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educational needs within the district. And so superintendent and his team did that. They did a site visit, observed Bell, and let them talk more about what they they saw, but essentially did that, came back to the committee, shared some more ideas uh about Laboreet. Um we had some

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questions, gave some push back or some some I guess further areas of thinking uh that we asked the superintendent to look at. They continued to talk internally, came back with us and ultimately kind of through that robust discussion talked about uh kind of two uh potential options really for labor.

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one being the prekk program which I'll discussed. That's the option that we asked the school building committee as kind of a support in terms of helping us kind of understand what is possible on the site. We asked the school building committee to kind of direct the

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architect that they were hiring to focus on that as the option. That was mostly because our understanding was the scope of the architect's in order to stay under kind of public procurement thresholds because of the time restrictions. [clears throat] The architect really could only look at

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one option and so we picked the prekk option that seemed like a priority that the district said could be a potential good fit there. Uh and at the same time we know that the MSBA process itself is still moving forward. Uh and once we

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have an architect and OPM fully on board for that, we now have an OPM, but once we have the architect, that architect through the MSBA can actually look at labor for K5 building because that is kind of uh still part of the MSBA process itself. And so kind of those are

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the two paths we are continuing to go down. Obviously, a preK through K program is a much smaller program. If that doesn't fit on the site, then we know the K5 won't uh won't work. And so, uh, can kind of throw that away, but those are, um, kind of that's the

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discussion we had. And so, again, kind of the votes that the school committee has taken is one ask the school building committee to have the architect on a prek option. And so, we're excited to get that information back from the architect to help inform uh, the discussion. Uh, and then also again ask

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superintendent, his team on what they think can fit programmatically kind of at a very high level. I just make sure to name that for everybody in the public. We are trying to move very quickly in order to be competitive. I have many of the same concerns you've raised, John, about just our ability as a town to kind of be competitive and I

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certainly look to this board um to whatever y'all can do and Nick obviously to to manage that aspect since that's outside of the school committee. Um, but we are trying to move quickly in order to try and get as much information as we can for us uh and for from the school

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department and um ultimately kind of pass that over to y'all with kind of what we're thinking about as it relates to how the site could work for addressing the school overcrowding issue. Um, so make the determination as to whether or not to move forward purchase.

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I'll pause there and >> yeah, thank you Mark. Uh first of all, I want to thank Nick for all the work he's doing and Sean or Rook and the building committee uh is doing behind the scenes with this uh and the work with the select board and talking with MSBA and really engaging with uh LA has been very

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helpful. This is a unique opportunity for the town. Um the leadership team felt strongly that preKK program would be the best option for that site. Um, and we're also well aware uh that if this site doesn't work, we we have a a really hard workinging school building

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committee that's been doing the planning 4078 preschool uh off the G road site that we feel very supportive of as well that that want to work on that. Uh the advantages of a prek program is it does relieve space at all four elementary schools which has been the primary um

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bottleneck of students. Um it does relieve space at the high school because the administration in the business office uh superintendent's office, the um special education and other central office um spaces will be moved to the uh library site and free up space at the

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high school. And if you were around back when the high school was built, those spaces were dedicated to guidance, music, classroom functions. They were never designed to host the uh central office function. So, the high school uh is a growing building. The 9 through 12

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population is growing in the high school. So, we'd love to be able to give that space back. Um the other upside to the library site is actually uh to the point that some of the planning board folks where we're taking an existing building and renovating and using space

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that's already available as opposed to taking over space that would be open uh currently. Uh so, it seems to be very green and friendly in that sense. Uh but the downside of this is that it doesn't really impact the middle school u enrollment challenges that we have that

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are probably the least challenging of the three levels. Uh but it does not address that. So this prekk program is unique to the opportunity that's been presented to the town through the sale of the property. Uh we're trying to check the boxes that it it will um uh

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fit uh for the needs of the town in the school department, but there are some boxes that it doesn't fit, which is the remedying of any kind of middle school challenges we have to face. So it does take care of our elementary uh enrollment challenges, our high school enrollment challenges. Uh it does

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present a very unique opportunity for the for the town to use the space for a very unique opportunity. Uh but it does not provide space for middle school. Um, that said, I still think the positives outweigh the negatives. I think that we talked to Dr. Fish at the middle school.

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He feels that he has adequate space to make things work. Um, and when we had Sean O at our school committee meeting, um, you know, he was very aware of that there's pieces that are definitely going to work for the big picture of the town's needs of space and over

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enrollment. uh and that the middle school would be something that would have to start thinking about a plan B for if it didn't if it didn't in fact become a problem moving forward. But um I think the the community needs to hear that it does certain things really really well. It's a good fit and there's just some this one piece that doesn't

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work. So that has to be part of the decision-m that we have moving forward. Uh the other parts that I think are positive as well is the uh the ability to if we're able to acquire the space and it is a school that goes there, it might just advance the timeline a bit to

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be able to renovate and move in quicker as opposed to going through the MSBA process. If we do for the 78 building and preschool does take a little longer. uh you know I think the estimation of you know two or three years versus four or five years and um so we'll we there's

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definitely some upside to to taking advantage of this opportunity and and I know we've met at different times where uh just as a town I just think it's great to be able to purchase an asset that could be controlled by the town and not a private party would be would be great

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for the time period. Uh the leadership team is very excited about the opportunity for sure. Um and we're uh been in contact with Sean Auror. Uh we already have put down a projected space needs assessment that I

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have in front of me that I'll email to him tomorrow. We're setting up a meeting with the architect uh for either this week or early next week so they can have whatever they need from us to be able to do their assessment um and uh provide that high cost or high high level view

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of what this would look like if it was going to be turned into a school. So all that work's been happening behind the scenes numbers questions comments. >> Um thanks for what you guys are do doing. I mean I've heard from folks

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that um you know that they've just been impressed about the even there seems to be acknowledgement that sort of a tight timeline here but of the level of diligence that the town is going about considering this um so thank you um

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watched all the school committee conversations on this I think they've been very clear um I have a few questions one on sort of the parent community engagement side of things, the other on

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deliverable from school committee and district leadership just in ter over the next shortterm stretch here. Um I guess let's just start with go order of you know engaging folks and you know

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may I don't know if you guys have how much um community input we've received to date or if you have a view on you know how that might progress particularly parents of this option. I

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mean from my perspective as a parent I think the communications coming from um your you know different you know whether it's you superintendent Failen or from the school committee I mean that's all clear and I think the word is out there about

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that option. Um, in terms of written communications, um, I I I'm thinking about appropriate additional engagement along the way and maybe that some of that's postacquisition. I'm not sure, but it's certain I mean I think you kind of

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started with that Winston when you mentioned um, you know, inviting thoughts on community engagement, but um, and I think that's twofold. I think that's one inviting feedback on the feelings of

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this project and two keeping expectations clear about you know where we are in this project like I think if we are fortunate enough to acquire this in you know conditionally in August I don't

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think it's we're in the position to say for sure yet it's 100% for a school I'm not sure but I guess Just I'll pause there. Um if you have thoughts on, you know, touch points for engagement, if you've been thinking about that.

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>> So, um this is a tight turnaround. It's on the market. >> The town has to decide whether they're going to buy it or not. Uh we're the programming people. You guys purchase people and as school building, school building committee, other building folks. If we do purchase this property,

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we would absolutely want to go out to the public and let them know what we were thinking. Why would they get uh are there any alternatives? Uh and I think Winston you had mentioned that you know if if the town just bought because they think it's a good idea to secure the property it would give some flexibility for the schools to be able to think

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differently if we wanted to. Right now we're only exploring the prekk option because we have limited funds and limited time and we want to be able to show the public something that we would be able to do with this made sense. But I think if the town out right purchased the property,

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then the schools in the town could partner in what that could look like for the town and have that outreach that I think some folks would want to be able to uh provide feedback and put into the process and definitely open to that happening. Uh but I I do think that that

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that might be post-purchase um just because of the timing. It's an open market situation that I'm not the boss of that. Yeah, I mean I tend to agree just um I think there there will need to be more significant engagement with the community about the design and the

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implications of moving kindergarten students right away from kind of right now more neighborhood schools into kind of more central space being able to walk with those are conversations we need to have. I don't think people are paying really close attention. We are not getting many

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emails. I can say that. I mean it's the end of the school year. People are dealing with a lot. they're about to go on vacation, right? I don't blame anybody for not paying attention, but it's just not a very good time to really be able to get parental eyes and focus on this. I think again, I appreciate the

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superintendent has shared uh information and some of the updates around this uh to try and be transparent. We again talked about the school committee, our viewing numbers are not quite as robust as your viewing numbers. Uh but even still, even if they were, that still wouldn't be kind of as many eyeballs as

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maybe we want. So uh I I agree. I think we we need more community engagement. I just think within the timeline and trying to understand like we ourselves don't even know really enough at this point to go and say it's a prek. We we

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are talking about that at an extremely high level until we get some more information from an architect to say yeah that's actually feasible and here's like how it would look. Uh, and by the time we get that, my understanding of the timeline, you're gonna have to make a decision to to purchase and we're not gonna have a whole lot of running room

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to have a lot of time to kind of engage folks, unfortunately. But I I agree with John on the point of I think the the line of conversation around it' be good a good asset for the the town to control and be able to have input as to what happens. And hopefully that's the school

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in order to help our uh space overcrowding needs, but if not, it's something else. agree with that on a personal level. I can't represent school for the town, >> but it could be a nice addition put onto

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the side of that building, too, which would help. Great. And if if this would happen, this would be the third mansion the administration's going into the one at the cemetery. The one up at Milton Flatley's project, >> Howard Johnson's mansion.

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>> That was the Howard Johnson's original house. this >> I I agree. >> We like mansions for the administration. >> I'm only here for a year, John. I'm not looking to live there. I just want to I just want what's best for the town. But I remember the Howard Johnson's vision. We were there for two years. >> There was the one right there at the cemetery right across the street.

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>> I think your point there was right in that the even with the prekk option in addition is going to be necessary in any of these the existing square footage layout is not going to be sufficient. Uh is is our current understanding. Uh and so maybe architect but yes an addition

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is going to be necessary >> so could potentially help over more >> more of your needs. Yeah. I Yeah. I mean again it you know you got cafeteria right space, playground space. Like they're just it is a college uh

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essentially space. So it is not designed for little kids right now. And so we need a lot of interior renovation plus uh >> is there um is there a design estimate at this point yet? I think the last time

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I talked about this with someone, uh, the um, school building committee was evaluating what the potential design options would have to be or the design requirements to make it suitable

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for the program. Is there is is there a cost estimate on that yet or when do you think [snorts] we would hear of what that is? So, um, Sean, uh, has just contacted us over the last two days. We are going to be sending him our projected space needs to

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give to the architect. >> Okay. So, we're not at that point yet. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Cost meant for the construction or for the design, >> I guess. Right. So, I mean, they all they all look lump in into a total project cost. Uh but I

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guess that you know the design the design would uh determine the construction cost obviously. So I don't know >> once we get the design then then you can get the projected construction cost but

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yeah I just >> in the way I think about things. Yeah. >> Um just wondering like where we are and getting to a firmer cost estimate for the overall project. >> Yeah. again uh I think that's important >> and how that compares to the existing

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projects >> the MSBA. Yeah. So I can clarify from a school building perspective that again an architect uh has been um contracted with uh the cost is I don't know exactly but under $30,000

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the design cost and again that's in order cut scope so they're only looking at the prekk pro process uh I'm sorry project idea uh the goal at the end of that is that they will have a rough kind of design not even schematic So even

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rougher than that of just kind of boxes that you know might be a little bit better than boxes on a paper but like how do these things fit on the site >> 5 to 10% design or something. >> Yeah, maybe um like given kind of some of the space needs and some of the conversations with the department right we want these to be you know somewhat

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helpful and not totally based out of nothing. So they'll take that they'll put that together. uh we are having the structural engineer look at the space as well as just an aside to try and inform cost projections right and is there anything of concern and then separate we have contracted with a cost estimator

435
02:06:51.119 --> 02:07:06.400
who will take kind of the really high level architectural designs and be able to provide a estimated rough cost estimate of what it would cost to >> you know carry out those designs and construction so that >> and with the projected site acquisition

436
02:07:06.400 --> 02:07:23.040
cost and the cost estimate that you're talking about from this plea the total that we would go to town meeting with. >> No. Well, I'll let I can let Nick my understand. No, we the only thing we'd go to town meeting with at the start

437
02:07:23.040 --> 02:07:38.639
would be the site acquisition because you wouldn't want to go with a number. The number is going to be a rough guess number like it form number to just let us know generally how cost effective is this >> versus the Guile road project which obviously has no land acquisition cost

438
02:07:38.639 --> 02:07:54.159
is a larger facility and is a new construction and so therefore there are other cost implications for that but give kind of an the goal I think here is to try and give an apples to apples comparison on what those two pathways could be in terms of cost to the town so that there can be an informed decision

439
02:07:54.159 --> 02:08:09.679
but the initial ask of town meeting and of the the town as a whole would just be on the land acquisition cost and then we would work with a new designer or this designer I don't know um to refine the designs really get to a yeah much more

440
02:08:09.679 --> 02:08:25.440
than schematic design yes and then get cost estimates from that >> so we'd have to do two debt exclusions for this >> yes the first one will be acquisition of the property the only nuance to that I'll add is if if this project were to proceed outside the MSBA pathway we

441
02:08:25.440 --> 02:08:42.800
would need to appropriate money for design >> to get it to the point to be ready to come back for the second ask of town meeting which would be the project budget with the that exclusion frame. But the main >> pathway right now the first ask um would

442
02:08:42.800 --> 02:09:00.079
be the acquisition as a standalone and to return for a project. >> Okay. I think we're as we discussed months ago um that story and timeline is something that we are very much going to owe to our residents

443
02:09:00.079 --> 02:09:16.079
as in one going to town meeting for acquisitions if everything works out two if it's going to be a school by that school what it alleviates what the space impacts are difference between lab site versus the Kyle road site difference in

444
02:09:16.079 --> 02:09:33.199
K five or seven to eight or prek kindergarten impacts of that and then also design and then coming back for um construction, renovation and all those pieces. We'll owe that entire timeline, narrative, story, reasoning to

445
02:09:33.199 --> 02:09:48.719
the >> which will be really which would be um really important. Also knowing that you know the impacts of >> are there more teachers? Are there not more teachers? That entire piece is what our parents and residents going to need to know because you know we have a few

446
02:09:48.719 --> 02:10:04.880
really big things going on same time we're going to do talk about that we're going to be two three years down the line this has to be something where no one feels that they're being surprised and the reason behind what we're doing here at the town for the long-term benefit even though in

447
02:10:04.880 --> 02:10:23.599
the short term it may seem a lot >> my just my other question on the deliverable from you guys. Um, if you think about that slide that I I don't know if it's a school committee slide or school build building

448
02:10:23.599 --> 02:10:40.400
committee slide that it sort of shows the roles of this phase school committee district leadership your focus is on school building committee attach price to it us assess feasibility purchase on your slide there there's a couple

449
02:10:40.400 --> 02:10:57.360
responsibilities that um I'm I'm trying to visualize like maybe those h maybe they're embedded with your comments now and maybe it's a little bit also during a later phase that Winston talked about but it it's sort of the bottom two and sorry we're

450
02:10:57.360 --> 02:11:12.639
not looking at it but it's you know evaluating the the impact on um our existing overcrowding problems is the one and I'll read the other and I can say them both again um evaluating the

451
02:11:12.639 --> 02:11:30.239
lab option um versus the MSBA option. You know, um to me those are a little bit more of like a quality comparison and and also talking about like how how long would this path sort of cover us on

452
02:11:30.239 --> 02:11:46.560
the overcrowding issue. I mean, those are those are deep substantive questions. I I'm not expecting like tonight to touch on those, but are those on your radar and and when do you see that sort of conversation?

453
02:11:46.560 --> 02:12:02.880
Um I mean I I mean don't get me wrong, like I'm hearing a little bit of it already. I just don't know if you have like a thought in your mind of um you know the the the presentation or the discussion on

454
02:12:02.880 --> 02:12:19.040
that. Yeah, we've I think what we're waiting on, what we need is we we have theoretical ideas on what library can provide. Yeah, we have more clarity on what the 67 G road project can provide given how far school building committee

455
02:12:19.040 --> 02:12:35.040
was able to move that work forward in terms of the designs in terms of site is acquired in terms of cost estimates. We got a lot more of that right before we ended up going to MSBA. that will change it somewhat and so we don't have that clarity kind of through the MSBA project

456
02:12:35.040 --> 02:12:50.400
but I personally feel like the school building committee was able to get us really far with kind of what six seven project at G road could look like we are couple weeks a month into lab and so we just don't quite have that information

457
02:12:50.400 --> 02:13:06.000
as a as a comparative but to your point it is absolutely going to be a question of how many classrooms does this you know, save us? Does this get us back at our overcrowded uh elementary schools? How

458
02:13:06.000 --> 02:13:22.639
many spaces does this give us back at our high school? Uh, and what does that mean to those kids at those? Uh, and how does that compare to the spaces we we would gain if we did the originally planned kind of G67 site? The library site is going to be smaller than the

459
02:13:22.639 --> 02:13:37.040
Galler site. It's just it's a smaller parcel. It's 4.7 acres versus over six acres. So, It is a smaller parcel. The expected enrollment for a prekkk option is much smaller than

460
02:13:37.040 --> 02:13:55.599
67 3k option obviously. Um so you know a a smaller project is going to have less significant impacts on the overcrowding. A smaller project is also cheaper, right? And so those are just the tradeoffs that I think we as a school

461
02:13:55.599 --> 02:14:10.719
committee will need to talk through. Ultimately, y'all will as well, and ultimately the town will, right? This isn't actually a decision that school committee makes. It is a town meeting and a townwide decision, but I think the school committee's voice in trying to

462
02:14:10.719 --> 02:14:27.440
drive towards one outcome or another will be an important part of that. And so that that definitely is a a conversation we need to continue to have. But I I I think we are a little early just because we're not quite sure what lab can give us. And so once we have that, I think we can get more tangible about weighing those

463
02:14:27.440 --> 02:14:49.280
differences. >> Agree. >> Just real quick, I was able to, you know, I'm on school building committee. So in the context of that, I I was able to do a brief tour um to observe overcrowding at Cunningham and to a

464
02:14:49.280 --> 02:15:03.920
lesser extent Kolkat. And um you know I just want to pause and I mean it you can still see the visible examples of that and and just want to recognize um the teachers administrators over there for

465
02:15:03.920 --> 02:15:22.960
um you know they despite that manage it exceptionally professionally. >> There's a lot of them. I didn't see them on edge of road parking. >> Yeah. No, I I appreciate you mentioning that because I I do think that's we've just been in the process of school building for so long and again hats off

466
02:15:22.960 --> 02:15:38.480
to been on the committee a little bit longer than you, but there so many of those members have been on there for seven, eight years at this point. So, we've been working on this for a long time and I think you can get numb to that experience. I think folks have said it well in that, you know, the MSBA

467
02:15:38.480 --> 02:15:55.440
would not have invited Milton into the school building process if the state did not feel like building that overcrowding issue. They have limited funding available to them. They have lots of needs, lots of requests they get on an annual basis. And so I think you know

468
02:15:55.440 --> 02:16:10.639
the I think the school building committee, the school committee, the past select boards have named time and time again about the overcrowding is importance and I appreciate all the members who who did that who well predate me. Uh but I think just to get the folks in the community to understand

469
02:16:10.639 --> 02:16:28.360
that you know this is not just Milton's perspective. This is like folks who look at overcrowding across the entire state have come to lower town and said, "Yep, you need you need some support and so have invited us into this process." Appreciate raising that.

470
02:16:28.800 --> 02:16:46.479
>> Thank you. I'm actually uh your framing of schools being willing to adjust assuming that we make a purchase really changes the way I thought about that because I thought it kind of went in and knowing that we had to purchase it and time to review, think about what was

471
02:16:46.479 --> 02:17:05.240
best right away is really helpful for me. If there are no other questions, thank you, >> gentlemen. Thank you for your work. >> Thank you for your help. We appreciate all very much.

472
02:17:06.399 --> 02:17:22.639
>> You want to stay a couple more years, Mr. F? Um uh we have 12 big months coming up. So that'll be good. >> We can't persuade you to stay. >> You you you you're a good persuader, so you never know. John, >> I'll buy you coffee every day of the week. >> I'll meet you at 71 on Houston app.

473
02:17:22.639 --> 02:17:41.599
We'll have coffee. [laughter] >> That was our old meeting places. >> Thank you. >> Thank you guys. All right, we'll move to item six. Especially time we need to date timeline of potential warrant articles. Believe Sue Gman's going to

474
02:17:41.599 --> 02:17:58.639
join us. How you doing Sue? >> Good. How are you? Thanks for having me. >> Thanks for coming. >> It was a very interesting meeting. >> By the time you're done, we will open your office for tomorrow. >> I might. [laughter] >> No, it was glad to be here and hear all the important information and folks will

475
02:17:58.639 --> 02:18:13.200
discuss it. So Sue, I think you're going to share with us your feeling on uh potential special town meeting dates for the fire station and potentially about Ray as well as the um state election and ballot questions. So floor is yours.

476
02:18:13.200 --> 02:18:31.200
>> All right. So um I had the opportunity to go to a town clerk um convention and during that we talked about the upcoming November election. Um, currently there's about

477
02:18:31.200 --> 02:18:48.160
Oh, so there'll be about 19 office positions um that will be on the path. Um, five of which are going to be for Blue Hills Regional Bone Technical School. So, we will be voting on um Avon, Brain Tree,

478
02:18:48.160 --> 02:19:04.880
Canton, Denim, and Randolph's school committee members. So, that takes up a bit of our ballot. Um I'm going to just digress a little bit and go backwards. So in 2022 um state election to just give you a

479
02:19:04.880 --> 02:19:22.479
comparison. We had um three pages. So it was a total of two card ballots. Um there was five questions plus roughly about the same amount of offices. um this election

480
02:19:22.479 --> 02:19:39.200
there's a potential there was an initially a potential of 11 to have been um taken off. Um so right now as it stands we have none. Now that number could change. Um if the town was to put

481
02:19:39.200 --> 02:19:56.080
a question on the ballot first of all we can only put up to three on a state election. So, I don't know how many you folks are considering, but there there is a limit of three. Um, the town's questions would be last.

482
02:19:56.080 --> 02:20:13.840
So, we're looking at probably three cards um for the battle where our questions would fall might be on the back of the third um page. So, potential areas that I see

483
02:20:13.840 --> 02:20:30.160
could be problematic. Um, we do a substantial amount of vote by mail during a state election. Um, I don't have the numbers yet because they're an ongoing moving target, but if

484
02:20:30.160 --> 02:20:45.120
I was to give a guesstimate, somewhere between 5 to 10,000 um, uh, applicants the which is great, you know, because I love to see people get out and be

485
02:20:45.120 --> 02:21:01.760
engaged in the vote. The problem with that is when ballots are mailed home and there's multiple pages, somebody in good faith could think they put all the pages in that volume.

486
02:21:01.760 --> 02:21:20.000
We do not know that it doesn't include all those pages until those ballots are going through the machine election day. There's no point. There's no way to contact those voters once it's submitted to us. Um so there's a great potential that

487
02:21:20.000 --> 02:21:34.720
although we might have very good numbers of um voter turnout, our questions may not may get a lot more blanks than we would like. Um

488
02:21:34.720 --> 02:21:51.359
nine nine potential valid questions. That's a lot of reading um for the voters. We would have to do some very heavy marketing in my opinion to make sure that the voters are aware that there are

489
02:21:51.359 --> 02:22:07.280
two two or three questions of one question on our ballot. Um the red book that comes out that the secretary of state prints that that would not include any of our

490
02:22:07.280 --> 02:22:23.040
information or our balance. we're not allowed to um give a a yes nay on our questions. Um which can be a drawback because people will get their red book, decide how they're going to vote

491
02:22:23.040 --> 02:22:37.760
and see these other questions and if they haven't been engaged may not respond to those. Um so I'm painting all negatives and I don't mean to. [laughter]

492
02:22:37.760 --> 02:22:55.439
Um, but I'm just trying to provide you with an opportunity to make decision based on the fact that there there could be although it's a great pool of voters, it might not be

493
02:22:55.439 --> 02:23:15.359
um as great as we would hope. >> So what would be our alternative? So the alternative would be to have a special collection. Um so as we know the cost of a special

494
02:23:15.359 --> 02:23:32.560
is going to render us somewhere around 40 um thousand. Now 40,000 could be more depending upon again the costs go up depending upon how many people actually request vote by mail because postage and manpower are the

495
02:23:32.560 --> 02:23:49.439
biggest cost derivative of the elections. Um, yes, the ballots are, but when I look at all the figures, that's where the money comes up. And, um, so it it would be at a minimum 40,000, give or

496
02:23:49.439 --> 02:24:03.840
take, depending upon u early voting. Um, by law, if we did it in this calendar year, we would have to anybody who applied for all elections, we would have

497
02:24:03.840 --> 02:24:24.560
to send them a ballot. Um, so that that's something else that you would need to >> do. September 1st would be too certain, right? Well, first September 1st is the primary, >> right?

498
02:24:24.560 --> 02:24:40.640
>> Um are you >> and presumably people will show up for a primary, right? And the final like the ballot qu the statewide ballot questions are not on the primary ballot. >> Correct. So that would entail a dual election which I would never recommend

499
02:24:40.640 --> 02:24:59.600
because essentially what you're doing is holding two elections at the same time. We couldn't. So we can't >> you can't put a question on the primary ballot. Okay. >> Yeah. Unfortunately. >> Yeah. >> And I've done one dual election and um

500
02:24:59.600 --> 02:25:16.000
>> can it be done? Sure. Anything can be done. >> Yeah. you have to make sure people it's >> it's a logistical nightmare and um it's >> um >> and procedurally not that it's required for dead exclusion but in that case

501
02:25:16.000 --> 02:25:35.160
there wouldn't have been a tow meeting prior to the ballot question vote which is the normal rhythm but it's not you could go ballot question first then town meeting but typically for Dexions >> the two we have in question right Now the fire station

502
02:25:35.200 --> 02:25:50.160
um as far as we know right now is the fire station community still preparing to move on general elections. They're planning on a fall yes fall town meeting with the expectation of a ballot

503
02:25:50.160 --> 02:26:06.240
question on the state election ballot but more generally that time of the year. And so the other thing that I I should inform you August um 5th is the deadline that the decision would need to be made.

504
02:26:06.240 --> 02:26:22.319
The board would need to have voted and notify me. So I have a deadline to um notify the secretary of state if if you are going to have a ballot question on the September I mean the November pass. Um and it has to be a hard copy. So, it

505
02:26:22.319 --> 02:26:37.200
has to have enough time for it to the physical paperwork. It I can't email it. So, um a vote would have to occur from your office and um the actual questions would have had to have been written. I

506
02:26:37.200 --> 02:26:53.200
mean, it's pretty standard questions. Um when you're talking about an override question, you can't um they write everything out. Um but town council would still have to write it. you folks would have to approve and get it to me

507
02:26:53.200 --> 02:27:08.160
and I would have to fill out the necessary [clears throat] paperwork to get it to the Secretary of State's office. So, it's not a lot large window for you folks to make a decision. Um, and for a special election, um, it's 35

508
02:27:08.160 --> 02:27:29.040
days you have to notify me before you want that election. So, as long as I am notified, then we can call election. >> So, on the table for us allow correct me if math is wrong. If we want it if we want it on the state election

509
02:27:29.040 --> 02:27:44.880
it should all be done by August 5th which we discussed previously. I think we were leaning towards a special election um after setting the town meeting day for labor. So that be the idea of this fire collaboration in the

510
02:27:44.880 --> 02:28:02.560
same special election or to be asked by a community for being on state. So would your preference be that we do not have any ballot questions on the state? >> Um I don't personally have a preference. I I think it would strictly be uh for

511
02:28:02.560 --> 02:28:19.520
you folks. But I do caution by having the question that it can be overlooked. [clears throat] So I my fear would be that you wouldn't get the visibility that you may need for >> but you're talk you're talking from a

512
02:28:19.520 --> 02:28:34.160
>> I'm just trying to weigh it to like correct you're talking out of a higher turnout election already. So you may lose people may miss it out of a much higher turnout than the special election. >> Still could get the same >> Yeah. it could still have the same

513
02:28:34.160 --> 02:28:50.399
outcome as if you did it. >> And and to me, when you're holding an election, what drives the voter is the cause of the what they're voting for. >> So you folks, myself, we can all wave

514
02:28:50.399 --> 02:29:08.160
banners. If if the um residents aren't excited about that election, they're not going to come. So, um, you know, a special election [snorts] we could get just as much or more

515
02:29:08.160 --> 02:29:25.840
than this state election. You know, honestly, I don't think for this particular election there's a lot of interest in the races. I think that there will be a decent um voter turnout. It's not going to be like a presidential, but I do think that there's enough engagement um that we

516
02:29:25.840 --> 02:29:44.160
will see a good voter journal. >> Yeah. But can't your workers tell everybody there's a back page? Make sure you >> Oh, and they would and there' be sign. >> So, it would be against the law. >> Nope. There it So, regardless, this is

517
02:29:44.160 --> 02:30:02.319
going to be a multi-page ballot. So, we will have in every envelope, you know, please remember to return all all pages. Um because for us, even if somebody didn't want to vote on any of them, if we don't get those ballots back

518
02:30:02.319 --> 02:30:19.040
for an accounting purposes and for our paperwork, it's it's difficult, you know, not having all of those ballots back. So, we want them all back. We want answers on them, too. But, you know, we want to make sure that when somebody's

519
02:30:19.040 --> 02:30:34.479
in person, it's a different atmosphere. Our folks are right there. They hand them the ballot. Oh, there's three pages. Please make sure you submit them into the ballot box. There's somebody in the ballot box that's saying you only have

520
02:30:34.479 --> 02:30:50.160
one page. You got to go back and get those other ones. will have people um perusing to make sure that no ballot is left behind. Um at home it's a different environment, you know, and everybody's good intention. They may have their

521
02:30:50.160 --> 02:31:04.880
papers there and really honestly think that they put all of them in there and they may not for for or somebody may say, "I don't care about those. I'm not going to put them back in um and figure I'm just going to put in what I voted on

522
02:31:04.880 --> 02:31:21.920
because that makes sense to me. Um so despite all efforts, we will still get a percentage that will not come back in its entirety. >> Just one last question. Do you have a

523
02:31:21.920 --> 02:31:38.479
view on if if we're trying to move f quickly on a special election like what's a reasonable time to space that out from >> So I mean we could do it the November

524
02:31:38.479 --> 02:31:57.680
November 3rd is the election. I mean in theory we could be working towards a mid November election. Um, you know, so the the other thing that I would need to

525
02:31:57.680 --> 02:32:14.160
keep in mind is for our state election, we have three different precinct style ballots. So on top of having four ballots, page four pages or three page cards, we have four different for all

526
02:32:14.160 --> 02:32:32.240
intents of purposes zones. So you are in precinct 6, right? >> Very nice. >> Um, so precinct 6 votes in one zone. Um, somebody who is in precinct five

527
02:32:32.240 --> 02:32:49.840
votes in another zone. So we have different ballots. Um, which can be confusing. Um, so thankfully a special election everybody in the town would get the same. um it's not like an uh that we

528
02:32:49.840 --> 02:33:05.359
would have town meeting members or this um breakup of the town for different legislative offices. Um >> so you know as there's a lot of moving

529
02:33:05.359 --> 02:33:20.720
parts when we're sending out ballots and making sure the ballots that each voter is getting the correct candidates on their ballot. So you're going you would like to have two elections >> to make sure everything gets done right.

530
02:33:20.720 --> 02:33:38.720
>> I I think it's a safer prediction. I don't necessarily like the cost associated with it. Um but weighing we want the voters to know what they're voting on, see what they're voting on, and make sure that

531
02:33:38.720 --> 02:33:54.160
those that really intend to vote on this are voting. Um, I think having a special election is the way to go. It can get lost to the next. >> I just I it may be worthwhile to be a little more specific on dates just

532
02:33:54.160 --> 02:34:11.040
because this is that's such a busy time of year. So, if it's not on the state election is November 3rd, the other Tuesdays in November the 10th and the 17th and then the 24th is the week of Thanksgiving. So, I think we all want to avoid the 24th. So, it sounds like the 17th would be the option in November.

533
02:34:11.040 --> 02:34:28.160
that would the ballots vote by mail ballots be crossing the mail of the state election? >> So, so they would >> y uh but the majority of the state ballots would be out. So, the last day that we can mail out ballots for um the

534
02:34:28.160 --> 02:34:43.280
state election is going to be somewhere around October 27th. Um so there would be a little bit of crossover but the major bulk is like those first weeks that we get it because

535
02:34:43.280 --> 02:34:59.760
all the people it's just more people apply in the very beginning and then it dips down. >> Sure. And then in December the first is a Tuesday and the 8th is a Tuesday and we're probably getting closer to the

536
02:34:59.760 --> 02:35:18.560
holidays. We have to check holiday calendar. >> Okay. nomber 17th through December 1st. >> November 17th, sorry. >> November 17, December 1, December 8th, December 15th, depending on how

537
02:35:18.560 --> 02:35:35.040
>> so I could into the calendar year, >> work on a schedule, calendar, count back and everything, give you the dates of >> what we would need things by so you'd have a better idea of what dates you're looking at. If that's helpful,

538
02:35:35.040 --> 02:35:52.880
>> should we engage the fire station? >> I can check with them and then we may want to check with their friends at the schools about how disruptive that would be special elections at that time of year as well. So we can we can do both of those things and check back in on what's schools.

539
02:35:52.880 --> 02:36:08.640
>> Yeah. And the schools are phenomenal. So we never want to take for granted them. Um >> very helpful. Well, thank you for having me and if you have any questions, um, let me know and

540
02:36:08.640 --> 02:36:27.280
I will get that emailed off to you folks, um, by the end of tomorrow. >> Okay, >> thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, now we got >> Jojo. >> We're all talked out. [laughter]

541
02:36:27.280 --> 02:36:43.920
>> Moving to seven. Discussion approval energy credit agreement with Rew. if you all have the documents um thoughts or comments from the members unless Miss Milano has some context you'd like to share. >> We are in a place with uh town council

542
02:36:43.920 --> 02:36:59.359
and their council not quite able to get over the finish line still. So I there are really two options. Um, if the board is comfortable with these agreements as a policy decision and and open to approval of entering into this agreement, it could

543
02:36:59.359 --> 02:37:14.160
the board could vote tonight, you know, subject to approval of town council. If there's anything where town council and their council just at complete disagreement on and back to the board for a decision whether to to just accept the agreement with wild's preference

544
02:37:14.160 --> 02:37:31.280
preferred language um or council and their council would reach mutually agree with terms that we could proceed with execution. So the board could approve it subject to town council approve it tonight or you can hold off until July 14th um and see if they're able to agree. In the meantime, Rewild, I'd say,

545
02:37:31.280 --> 02:37:47.439
is probably getting a little antsy, but they're also at the same time part of the issue that we're facing. So, those are the two options. If you're agreeable in terms of the policy decision, >> you can leave it subject to town council. Move to approve the energy credit agreement with Rew Wild LC

546
02:37:47.439 --> 02:38:04.160
subject to approval by town. >> Resident attorney is okay with that as well. >> Second, Mr. Driscoll. >> Second. Yes. >> Mr. Yes. >> Myself. Yes. >> All right. Uh number eight, discussion

547
02:38:04.160 --> 02:38:20.720
approval amendments to H.4094. Uh the amendment reading an act relative to the establishment of a Milton Means Tested Property Tax Exemption. Thoughts, comments from the members. This was sent to us from our state

548
02:38:20.720 --> 02:38:34.720
representatives with some language being changed for bill going to the house. Any [snorts] thought possible comments on the amendment? If not, I will take a motion. Appreciate Representative Wells pushing

549
02:38:34.720 --> 02:38:51.520
this along. Very important. I move to approve the amendments to H494, an act relative to the establishment of the Milton Means Tested Property Tax Exemption. >> Second. >> Executive Mr. Driscoll. >> Yes. >> Story.

550
02:38:51.520 --> 02:39:05.840
>> Yes. >> Yes. >> Myself. Yes. And I'll echo Mr. Thson. Thank you, Representative. Well, this is for your work. >> Number nine, discussion update committee reports. >> Milton budget coordination committee chair.

551
02:39:05.840 --> 02:39:23.760
>> I do not have an update. We um we our next meeting is on Monday. >> School building. Mr. I think we pretty thoroughly covered where we're at, but I'll just flag there's a date uh next week, Monday,

552
02:39:23.760 --> 02:39:41.120
June 29th, where I I encourage this to happen. The architect is coming to the meeting, allow us to continue to hash out like, you know, make sure we're all on the same page about the scope of the work. So, I encourage folks to attend

553
02:39:41.120 --> 02:39:57.439
and participate if you're interested. Affordable housing trust. >> Uh we met two weeks ago and we approved uh $600,000 to the Milton Housing Authority. Now help them get more grants, secure more grants. I think it's

554
02:39:57.439 --> 02:40:17.120
over a million8 for some new porches, fix the two units with the drain issue and new siding and updating on air conditioner. air and conditioning. [snorts] >> Thank you. I'll just add the housing

555
02:40:17.120 --> 02:40:33.520
production plan. Um I don't think I have that calendar that was shared tonight. Um I can try to secure that and send it out to all the members so we can see that plan for work as well as community engagement. Right. Moving to number 10.

556
02:40:33.520 --> 02:40:50.080
I would like to request that we move this to the next meeting this um discussion since uh one me member Nolan is not here. And that gives me a little more space. Just kind of have a longer discussion on it if you'd like. So we move number 10 to the future.

557
02:40:50.080 --> 02:41:04.960
And number 11, discussion approval of board and committee appointments and reappointments. Now we can do this um wholesale, but I will ask uh you Milano because I do want to I do want to pull one out. I want to

558
02:41:04.960 --> 02:41:20.560
>> pull me out of the airplane. >> No, you stuck there. No, I I want to uh pull out the exact name the local historic district study committee others. Um I think if I

559
02:41:20.560 --> 02:41:35.920
can pull that out, we can do the things as a whole. My thought on that is I believe about a year ago the historic district study committee came to us and they were going to put forward a article at town meeting. um it was then edited

560
02:41:35.920 --> 02:41:51.439
and then pulled from from the article and now they've resubmitted it. They haven't made as many many changes. So I would like to have a discussion with them to see if this article is the end of their work. Perhaps the committee is no longer necessary just an update as to

561
02:41:51.439 --> 02:42:06.640
their article work and is the committee going to continue. So thoughts members >> I'm all right with that. >> Right. So I'll take a motion to approve all of them except for the local history historic district study committee

562
02:42:06.640 --> 02:42:30.359
reappoints and we will engage them to coming into special move. >> Second Mr. Driscoll >> yes >> yes >> yes >> and myself yes Here

563
02:42:36.479 --> 02:42:59.200
we go. 12 discussion approval application for Milton High School to use Town Green. >> Yep. So, I will take a motion. Uh, I'd like to make a motion to move to approve the application from Milton High

564
02:42:59.200 --> 02:43:15.040
School to use the Town Green and Baron Hugo Gazebo on September 5th, 2026 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Gazebo for a cabaret style performance. >> Second sounds exciting. >> Mr. Driscoll,

565
02:43:15.040 --> 02:43:31.439
>> yes. >> So, yes. >> Sager, >> yes. >> Myself, yes. Thank you. >> 13. Discussion approval meeting minutes for May 26, 2026. I'll take a motion. >> Make a motion to accept the meeting

566
02:43:31.439 --> 02:43:48.479
minutes for May 26, 2026. >> Second, Mr. Driscoll. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Hagerty. >> Yes. >> And myself. Yes. And I'll move to the town administrator's report. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. uh work has

567
02:43:48.479 --> 02:44:05.600
started over um on that small stage in Manning Park in East Milton deck. So that that work is underway now. Uh so we appreciate your patience while we uh get that built out. Um excavation work, site work is also started at Pebble Park with a new playground located on Summer

568
02:44:05.600 --> 02:44:20.560
Street uh next to Pope's Pond. Uh so the excavation is underway there. Um and the contractor who will be building a playground will be following the the rest of the next few weeks. Uh so we're excited to see that project take take

569
02:44:20.560 --> 02:44:38.319
shape. Um we have several open positions in um in town hall and elsewhere for anybody interested uh or knowing anybody looking for jobs particularly a couple payroll positions, one in town hall and one police um an administrative position down at DPW um labor positions at DPW.

570
02:44:38.319 --> 02:44:54.880
So please share that with uh perhaps any recent college grads who are still trying to figure out what they want to do. We are uh taking applications actively. Uh in relation to some of the school project conversation, if you recall, we had submitted a home rule petition that town meeting approved um

571
02:44:54.880 --> 02:45:11.760
some point last year to extend uh the deadline by which the town needed to act on potential school projects at Kyle Road. Um that had a deadline of 2028 uh that we had filed a home petition, a town meeting approved to extend that by five years. Um and senators can file

572
02:45:11.760 --> 02:45:27.920
that. That has been approved and signed into law. So that land swap legislation had required the school project be acted upon by 2028. That is now extended to 2032. So appreciate the delegation's work on on shephering that through and getting that approved. Um and then

573
02:45:27.920 --> 02:45:44.800
lastly, we had a walkthrough at the East Mountain Fire Station today for the request for proposals um related to um the existing East Mountain Fire Station. Um and uh we following up with those who visited and those those proposals are

574
02:45:44.800 --> 02:46:00.880
due in mid July. So we'll see what kind of an interest level there is um for that project and that's my thank you uh as the chair. Honestly, I don't have much to report this week. I will just say thank you to the planning board uh

575
02:46:00.880 --> 02:46:17.359
and the schools for coming in this week but the planning board specifically. um as you can tell from the conversation we have Thursday locked together and uh [clears throat] very happy for their engagement as well as their partnership and all the work that we have ahead and I think the collaboration is sort of

576
02:46:17.359 --> 02:46:33.520
thing that gets us the best stuff for the time. So thank you for that. Uh members reports anyone information nothing from the members public comment response we do not have public comment

577
02:46:33.520 --> 02:46:51.040
future meeting schedule Tuesday July 14th and July 21st that's the works I believe any future agenda items from the members a lot of >> yes perhaps again I'll say the re-engagement with the church for an

578
02:46:51.040 --> 02:47:09.920
election. Maybe it can't happen at a special election, but some >> I think I put for the one of the July meetings further consideration of traffic subcommittee oversight of the calming

579
02:47:09.920 --> 02:47:35.279
report. Don't have a strong preference which one All right, with that I will move to enter executive session to consider the purchase, exchange, lease or value of real property laboratory college street or 3 Adam Street based on it my belief that the discussion of this matter in

580
02:47:35.279 --> 02:47:51.359
open session may have a detrimental effect on the negotiating position of the select board. Select board will not return to open session. >> Second. >> Seconded Mr. Driscoll. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. >> Myself. Yes. I'll also move to enter

581
02:47:51.359 --> 02:48:06.080
executive session to consider the purchase. Enter executive session to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining bargaining. Milton clerical unit of the southern southern eastern public employees association. Milton Professional Management Association,

582
02:48:06.080 --> 02:48:20.800
Milton Public Employee Association, Milton Firefighters Local 116, Milton Police Association, Milton Superior Officers, Milton Library Association. Based on my belief that discussion of this matter in open session may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the select board. The select

583
02:48:20.800 --> 02:48:41.520
board will not return to open session. >> Second, Mr. >> Yes. So, >> yes. >> Sag. >> Yes. >> And myself. Yes. >> You did you do need one more 488. >> You're right. move to enter executive session to consider purchase, exchange, lease or

584
02:48:41.520 --> 02:48:59.439
value of real property 488 cannab based on my belief that discussion of this matter in open session may have a detrimental effect on negotiating position on the select board. The select board will not return to open session. >> Second. >> Yes. >> Yes.

585
02:48:59.439 --> 02:49:18.319
Myself. Yes. Up to you. What I will also call to order. >> Let's adjourn the select board first >> and move to adjourn the select board. >> So move second. >> Yes. >> Mr. Trisco. >> Yes.

586
02:49:18.319 --> 02:49:35.840
>> Shag. >> Yes. >> Sag. Yes. Myself. Yes. >> Now I must call to order trustees of the governor stoen trust. >> Discuss approval of meeting minutes April 14th. That's the one

587
02:49:35.840 --> 02:49:50.800
>> and then town farm property is broadly on as well and we're in open session still and still broadcast. So I'll take a motion to approve events. >> So move >> second. >> Yes.

588
02:49:50.800 --> 02:50:08.800
>> I'll probably abstain. This is before the committee and I don't remember >> minutes. We Yes. All right. So let's discuss the property and building commission and maint.

589
02:50:08.800 --> 02:50:24.319
>> So there are really two tracks here. I think one one conversation is near-term medium term in terms of what kind of level of maintenance effort um folks are looking for in terms of the actual physical structure in the physical

590
02:50:24.319 --> 02:50:40.000
landscape up there. Um our approach generally is is minimal attention. uh we will keep an eye on it. We'll you know maintain and visit in case there are issues but those buildings are quickly degrading and are in tough shape as

591
02:50:40.000 --> 02:50:57.640
anybody who's been up there recently. And then the other track of this conversation is the more long-term what is the trustees want to do with that. So defer to the members and which conversation you're interested in having of those two or both. Um but uh happy to talk more about uh

592
02:51:00.720 --> 02:51:21.840
>> I think the building condition we can talk about the long term I think that's >> agenda items like change but our options for maintenance and cost so right now who is who's out

593
02:51:21.840 --> 02:51:37.760
between DPW and consolidated, the departments will keep an eye on it, but we're not doing we don't do preventative maintenance. There's really not much we can do now other than um if we think they're truly unsafe, removal of historic structures, that would trigger a conversation with historical

594
02:51:37.760 --> 02:51:54.479
commission certainly. um or if there's if there's work or studies that the board wants us to undertake in terms of understanding that the condition of those buildings better, that's something that the project would have theoretically achieved without the

595
02:51:54.479 --> 02:52:09.520
expense of the trustees. Um so that's just kind of broadstrokes just looking for feedback on what information you're looking for, what what you want from us. [clears throat and snorts] Are the buildings themselves secured so

596
02:52:09.520 --> 02:52:29.920
that nobody can get into them? >> Like my fear at this point is like a group of kids thinks it's like funny to go in there or something and they get hurt. >> They're secured in the sense that they're boarded and blocked but they're not fenced off.

597
02:52:29.920 --> 02:52:50.720
somebody wanted to they they would and one of the challenges that we face is it's land that was given to the town but it's under the control of the trustees. So we're cautious on spending town tax

598
02:52:50.720 --> 02:53:09.000
dollars but also by the flip side that endowment money is really you know we are trying to use that for poor Milton less so on property man so >> it is that is a factor as to why there hasn't been investment there

599
02:53:09.120 --> 02:53:30.439
but it is an option the maintenance we're doing with Is that is that just cutting back weeds causing general? >> Yeah, there was there was tarps put on one of the buildings at one point. that's falling off.

600
02:53:34.960 --> 02:54:02.640
But nothing >> I'm just trying to think about what potential decision is before us like what options are we choosing amongst eventually here. Um, how whether to contribute more funds to

601
02:54:02.640 --> 02:54:22.880
enhance maintenance. Basically, >> we'd really have to engage with professionals to to figure out what level of effort it would take to stabilize them. So I guess if that's really the first question you're looking for an answer on, we can we can start

602
02:54:22.880 --> 02:54:39.880
talking to a few folks as to from a engineering and building perspective, what would it take to stabilize and prevent further deterioration at this point I wasn't thinking building.

603
02:54:48.240 --> 02:55:12.720
>> We'll get the building inspector. You might want to tear them down. >> So, it sounds like we do not have much of an appetite for increasing building maintenance. just don't want no one to get hurt and uh

604
02:55:12.720 --> 02:55:29.439
I just hope uh they don't go up on fire, >> you know. >> Is there something we can do is in terms of having someone those buildings more potentially dangers?

605
02:55:29.439 --> 02:55:46.560
We can certainly I will will everybody again just to make sure everybody's been up there for sew and there's nothing else from a life safety perspective that they would like us to do. Um we we've had those conversations but we'll reiterate it now and then um we'll kick around with consolidated in terms of

606
02:55:46.560 --> 02:56:06.520
their their ideas. Anything else just to kind of hold any preventative things that they would suggest on the buildings themselves start danger

607
02:56:10.960 --> 02:56:28.080
>> and like the runway of being in this situation is until there's a longer term. Yeah. So, >> okay. fire hazard is one that's coming >> and and it's partly why we thinking a project was going to move

608
02:56:28.080 --> 02:56:44.399
forward and address the issue is violated there wasn't a lot there our holding pattern for at least the course of the future just okay >> thank you I'll take a motion to adjourn >> make a motion to adjourn

609
02:56:44.399 --> 02:57:00.439
>> second dress >> yes >> yes Yep. >> Yes. offic. We're still live.