[Music] f hello uh welcome to the warrant
committee uh St Patrick's Day Edition March 7 2025 Karen can you call the role we have Tom Caldwell Steve ryes is on Zoom Lor Connelly and Elizabeth Dylan are here Jay funling is on Zoom we have Andrew Co
Macy Lee Peter M Julia Maxwell here Brian Maguire on Zoom Aman Nasi and ronia are here and Judy steel is on Zoom thank you Karen H welcome uh everyone this evening um and as you can see by our agenda we have uh several
things on there to talk about a lot of them um we um we have the steam to talk about um some of the budget uh issues coming up for the annual but we are very lucky today to have our planning board uh with us for uh round two of uh
planning board warrant committee meetings uh and we're tonight today we're going to discuss uh three things uh two we've already seen before our Adu and sight plan that we addressed um on the special time meeting and we're going to talk a little bit about the East Milton overlay zoning um that's also
going to be on the uh the agenda for our next town meeting so that all being said planning board would you like to come up to the microphones there's three of us here tonight so hello is that microphone available too pass one
yeah great Meredith Hall Cheryl toas and Magie oi from our planing board so welcome even good evening good to see you thank you for making the time as a group to come down and speak the war commit absolutely I feel like it wasn't too long ago that we
were together um and I just want to say thank you all to the warrant committee who's been studying these two articles so thoroughly um and was able to move quickly on the Fly before town meeting I really appreciate the time um that you were able to to put in before the
meeting um taking a look at some of the Amendments that had been requested um quite last minute so um having said that I think we're coming back to you with better articles our goals are still to make both the Adu and the site plan
approval a more transparent um simplified and just basically a clearer um road map for a a developer or an applicant to come in the language that we um the changes that have been made
are um it's it's beneficial I will say one of the things that came in the day before our last uh planning board meeting was the um the um bylaw the
model bylaw that we had been waiting for regarding Adu articles so we were able to not only simplify some of the language but we were able to include language to be consistent with the mod model biog which we had been wanting to do but really hadn't had a final version
um before last week so now we do have that so that language has been Incorporated um we found some of the definitions there were some changes um and we we wanted to have everything consistent in that so I think when you're looking through the final version
the final drafts there's some things that you are going to find that aren't aren't too different different than the previous articles they're going to be things that you've seen before most of the language is what you've seen before just a little bit written a little bit
more concisely the main the significant thing which we heard in our discussion with the warrant committee um as well as at town meeting is one of the one of the I think an improvement is the simplification of the site plan approval
that an Adu will go through versus what another a larger project might might need to go through and under other under the do Amendment under the current the way the current Adu the language that has been written um and this has been supported if you saw the meeting U that
Kathleen O'Donnell attended um was she was very helpful in in drafting some of this language to make it clear that the site plan that that um approval process that an U would have to go through is much simpler it is only the language
that is within the bylaw itself it is not the language that is separate in the separate Adu for all other purposes it is restricted to the language and we do have an application process still um that is simpler through the Adu article
and um some of the required some of the design standards are are simplified so that makes it much less intimidating for someone and and much easier uh we wanted the process to be simplified and although you know we were able to impose
OS reasonable standards we just wanted to make those really clear so those two are separated so site plan approval will not be for our site plan article will be separate the um from the review process that an Adu goes through so I would say
that is really significant and I think that's going to be really important to town meeting um for support um I want to make time for you all to ask questions but if my members also would like to add things that um that you saw as being significant
um that's just sort of an overview that I just wanted to give um for for changes and again I think it's going to be quite um familiar when you look through it and because you all have studied this um so so deeply that you'll you'll recognize
those changes and I guess then the planning board is um I would um open it up to the warrant committee for any questions that you might have on either site plan or Adu um is is it okay if we pull it up on
the on the screen be um today do you want to do the Adu first yeah I just think maybe ad first might be yeah helpful so have the graphic up and
exactly or the the document excuse me may I just add since we last met and even since town meeting um this hlc has uh been involved in and sponsoring webinar and workshops so I've um
attended two related to adus since then and um I think what the changes that we've made um have made it consistent with the model bylaw and are more particularly aligned with what we think
can be done and what's been clear but but I will say that the state has said a lot of good questions are still coming in and they're likely to be issuing some further clarifications and and maybe e even some revisions um and so I don't
think this will likely be the end but this is a good uh a really good starting point and it's consistent with what the state um has issued thank you and not that it's related directly to this but what we what we've learned for that from from
that is there may be things in our regular zoning that already exist um in some cases setbacks that are different for a primary dwelling versus an accessory dwelling that maybe we may come back to with some minor amendments
make everything consistent to make it the best um the best projects possible for the residents of Milton so there may be some things in June very small minor things so that we can get that consistency um those would not be it was too late to
try to do that um for Maytown meeting [Music] okay does anybody have any questions I just have a few that Cath she had a watch she went she went through them
right yep um and did you get the latest draft because there were some things that so we we got a new version of the site plan okay this is the Adu I didn't make okay the Adu would be the same then so if there's so this came
we got it on with a group of four and then you got a second one of the other one of the site by itself so one that they have is the one that um Kathleen made a minor revision since meeting so that's what they Reed
no that's what I yeah so we want to make sure though we all have the same so um this is just minor but um in the purpose right at the
top I think and I could be wrong the last sentence in the first paragraph This zoning provides four by adus F that should be correct yeah yes correct and then um then page
two it's the definition of Adu it might under a where it talks about um maintains a separate entrance blah blah blah blah blah sufficient to meet the requirements of the building and fire codes you might want that
Flor I think so yep that's did you also want to include egress you have egress do you want Ingress too so you have both and um enter and exit because you have egress so you have that covered but do you also want Ingress I think that makes
sense to have so because you can get in okay sorry Lori I didn't mean to jump no that's jump in let do it in order anybody else has anything missed so under five this is just a question gross floor area talks about
multiple principal dwellings are we talking about like a multifam yes so this is something where they consider the if it's a rental let's say it's a two or three unit rental if it's they consider the entire building
the principal dwelling okay so you're still allowed one Adu on that lot okay so it's by the lot you're allowed 1 ADM not by how many units are in a in a structure on the lot got it that was
something that was clarified at both of those sessions I took okay [Music] and they're still working on though a condominium because if you have three
Condominiums is it the Condominium Association that applies for the Adu is it one owner that applies so I think they still have questions is still working on that but on the rental it's pretty clear but if it was a condominium three condos still only one still only one just a matter of
who [Music] applies right that should not be allowed for all right um however if three people apply our B only allows for
one and then anything greater than one you need special permit oh so the there a protected Adu is what this covers correct and only one protected Adu is
allowed per lot okay so um the state does allow for sort of unprotected or loc they call them local adus uh by special permit um but this bylaw does
not but however it goes to the zba to for variance so they would have you for special permit um in third go ahead no you go I'm on 13 you have something before 13 13 which which letter are you under same
one I was just in I was in are you still is that what you're talking about 13 no 13 of definitions resal zoning District yeah
so you've used single family residential dwellings previously and the f is capitalized I don't know if you want I think that's right yes I think that is correct you're right and so I got a little hung up on the transit station
definitions are they that's right from the state that's yeah we did make the change because it was we took we wanted everything to be consistent with the state with their model bylaw even though that might be different than some of
their other definitions they've changed their defin that's what we ran into that was another thing that we kept you know taking it directly from their definitions and then we look at it and they've changed it so that's it's been sort of a moving Target um but so we're
we're taking it from their most updated okay and then and then at the end of um a Transit Authority I think you need a period similar to the others you're right yes thank you Liz jump in if I go past C8 is where
I'm coming in so you're fine C1 then yep um no I guess I'm okay building and building code and fire code you reference them separately fire codes we should make that consistent well if you do building and fire codes I think that's how we did it before I think you
did building and fire codes plural plural and then you want to add Ingress in there too if you're going to M name consistent so safe Ingress and egress under the building and fire codes well is that how you had it earlier it's interesting building code
and fire code here are separate separate building and fire codes okay so in this case there well you could do it because there could be more than one applicable fire code I
suppose there's one building code I think eight is okay yes I'm okay with it generally but I think that's a little bit confusing the first sentence and the second sentence so where are you Liz the first the first
part of the first uh C8 C8 subsection C Sub sub Section 8 and Adu may not is that where you are yep be rented for periods there's a period after the Peri less than 12 months at a time okay I'm fine with that but then and is prohibited from being rented on a weekly
or daily basis that's a little bit confusing because it's the same thing twice but also it's like on the one hand it's it says it can't be rented for fewer than 12 months okay period the end that incorporates that it cannot be
rented for a weekly or daily basis then people come in and they're like well 6 months is not prohibited by the second part of the sudden but it is prohibited by the first part of the sentence so I think that that is very um hard to listen to myself repeating myself over
there I think that um you're better off just getting rid of that second part or only including the second part but not having both are you envisioning a sublet situ situation so if somebody's renting um an
Adu for 12 months and then that person decides to take off and see the world for for maybe two weeks and then that person sublets or rents it out or gives it to a family member friend is that what you're envisioning with that second
sentence yes exactly okay we're just but either way it can't be rented for fewer than 12 months but the the period of L but you not prohibited from suing right and it should say prohibited from being
subleased the suas would have to be 12 months according to this language I and and it it it could be the vacationer yeah that's what I'm thinking could also be sing moves and they're gone for six months or 10 months and they still have to pay the rest of the 12 months or they
can they can go through whatever and deal with the landlord but it just is it doesn't Envision a different set of rules for sub suing it just say 12 months I just think that second part of the sentence is a little bit redundant and would kind of confuse me because it
says 12 months so the second part is already prohibited from prohibited from being rented on a weekly or daily basis it's already prohibited by the first part which is that you can't rent it for fewer than 12 months I think that you're trying you're I mean sorry to jump in Liz but perhaps
the section is envisioning the long-term rental which is 12 months but then prohibiting the 12month renter from then using it right so and if that's the intent then perhaps it should be stated
explicitly this section right right it should be clarified because that's what I when I read it that's how I figured okay so we have a 12-month renter this person goes away or I don't know could be a student tra traveling abroad studying abroad and rents it out subleases it so I Envision a suble
situation or maybe even going away and renting it out and making some money I don't know so I I just feel like that needs to be clarified if that's the intent that's behind the um the weekly daily basis
language I think we should get Town council's opinion on that um because we are concerned about this this is a reality that that things are being rented on weekly and daily basis and you know the building department as much as
you know and the enforcement officers and in the town this is this would be this is a lot to put on them and so we we do want have proper language um the other thing is if they right now they're um hlc is
allowing for mun Municipal M municipalities to determine what their length of rental would be um if that were to change we would have to go back it may be that we would change you know the 12-month period at some point if if
that changes but we're sort of building in this language so that if any other language had to be changed we have this in there but um I I think we should maybe just get Town council's opinion on that I think you can say and even if you added like a comma at a time comma and
under no circumstances maybe rented on a shorter Bas rented suas leas on a shorter basis including weekly or daily bases cuz I take your point Meredith like if the if the hlc were to come back
yes say a short 12 months is too long which I don't know that they will but if they did so far they you want to right they haven't done that but someday if that were to happen who knows you want to still have that language that says if they were to strike that out you still can't run it for weekly or daily basis
correct because then we'd have to come back to town meeting and it might be the timing of coming back to town meeting we at least would have this that language in there well do you need to add monthly weekly or daily yeah if you also don't want it monthly
sure somebody and maybe we take the language some of the language that's in the model bylaw they address the short-term rental of the model bylaw you can just take it away after 12 months at a time period uh the subes are
not allowed or whatever else you envision yeah you could say sub leases are not authorized under this bylaw any anything less less than 12 months I don't know so using if we want to use some of their um their
language um let's get I just I'm always just yeah think let's because this is this would be fine I'm sure are you looking at the definition under um under definitions
13 let's not getting to the time though it's talking about at least one room or unit is rented to an occupant or sub occupant but but using the just the same language at least Sub sub but if
you if you were to look Maggie at the um like on the in the dos and don'ts Pages before the model bylaw on the mask of website that I think you're looking at um if you were to look why they're not numbered I don't
know but C regulations one then little B short-term rentals it talks about to Meredith's point it talks about how you know you can sort of think about situations in which it would make sense to have
short-term rentals but you can limit it sort of in this way so I think it's probably fine but I would just talk to yeah talk to Town Council about how to make it a little bit clearer for people that that's kind of what you're trying to do because otherwise they'll be
misinterpreted then someone say well that's not what you said you know buy laws and can do X Y and Z we have two people online Judy thank you um I just wanted to go to this rental um language if I
could in some other towns that already had adus before this um all state law came in to effect um language that was I
thought was pretty clear that was used was adus may not be rented less than 31 days and then they sort of left it up to the landlord to
determine what kind of lease terms would benefit their situation of being a landlord and having a tenant um less than 31 days covers the
um vacation rental situation rather well also saying um that you can rent for no less than 12 months there could be a landlord tenant situation where month to Monon
leas is preferable for the business sense of being a landlord um so if you put a an exact length of even though a 12 month
onee lease is the highest percentage of leases that are drawn um drawn up for tenants it kind of gives a little bit of
flexibility um it could very well be that um landlords go away in February and March and don't want to leave their whole property for a tenant to use um um so they do you know a shorter I don't know
shorter shorter span of time um or it could be that they have F family that comes in consist every year during the holidays and they want that
space for use for that but I I saw the no less than 31 days in a few including my new favorite Town num mararo um out there in the bur shair uh they
had adus in their Town prior to this all state um situation of having adus and um that's how they determined to
um make a clear case someone coming in for a week hiking through the bir shars was not the situation they were looking for in that town it's just a thought and then you don't have to have so many
sentences in scenarios to explain what you're trying to do thank you for your consideration thank you Judy uh we have one more question new new marble was certainly ahead of their time weren't
they uh Jay funl model town uh no thank you my my point was addressed earlier sorry Jay thank you oh we actually debated this Clause quite extensively a couple months couple weeks ago was it weeks or months who knows who
knows but I I think the the length of time I think that's for the planning board and the committee to decide I think there are arguments either way some folks may want more time to have more consistency with tenants and some folks may say it could make sense to have a shorter I I don't think you know
I don't really take too strong a position but I do feel like when this was before the town meeting a couple weeks ago what I heard was some people don't feel like Adu should have added regulations compared to their regular homes and I think this one if I
was just a citizen this would jump out of me I can rent my house for three days if I want to or six months or three years but for some reason this town thinks 12 months is the right amount of time to limit adus I think that's just something that would strike me as odd I
I get that we're allowed to regulate adus because of you know of the I can't the do Under the do yeah so I get that we can but what I heard from some town meeting members was a feeling why would
why should they be limited in what they can do with adus or why should citizens be limited so so sort of our position was that especially in single family neighborhoods that most residents buy into a single family neighborhood with
the Assumption it's going to remain a single family neighborhood so when you buy in sort of like your contract with your neighborhood it's um single family that's your
expectation so because it's so new uh like in my opinion I feel like we should um keep it at 12 12 months let your single family neighbors become okay
with it and see what pops up see how many come through it's sort of just a safety mechanism personally as I mentioned at our meeting um I have two neighbors who have uh temporary apartments and it works fine in our
neighborhood um because we know our we know the owner of the house um they have family members that come in for shorter amount of times and if we have a problem with the situation we know who to
address the problem with this as of right there's no owner occupancy requirement so there could be a higher turnover and there may not be somebody on site to voice your um concerns
with so I would think a regular primary residents would still have that issue right because as a homeowner I can just leave and I can say I'm G have a new family come in every month and that's how it is because I own this house and
I'm I have Liberty to to treat my property as long as I'm not breaking any laws so I I would think I think there could still be questions at town meeting on that same thread of why why would we limit what people can do with ad use when we're
trying to open housing and invite more people to come into this community so I think that is a very good question and that's what distinguishes in Adu um is that it's under the do Amendment where a single family home is not under a do Amendment so they're different there
it's a different classification although there they're a saying don't you know you can't treat it differently they have made certain um there are certain things that we that we can um ask that that um and one of them is is
the length of according to the state they've said you can determine the length of the rental period there's things that we can't such as owner occupancy we can't require that so they and that's why we've been listening to these um different discussions on what
we can and cannot do it's always something we can come back in the future but I think with being so new I think the planning board felt let's let's start at this point and then we can we can always address it and shorten it later but um it's harder to do the opposite so and think you make
an interesting point though because the state has said what their throughout the regulations the way to think about it is if you don't regulate your single families on this matter then think hard about whether you're going to regulate
the Adu on the matter so whether that's for site plan approval whether it's for other things um because they their intent is not to have the Adu more highly regulated than the single family
is so the single families are not highly regulated to your point um there's actually very little that controls even the size of them as one of the things that we've talked about um the setbacks um are one and the height are
the primary determinants but you probably have seen very large houses on small Lots because we don't have a floor area ratio restriction so you can build a quite a large house and we don't have we have some lot coverage but then it's
uh single families are exempt from it and uh so there's these are the things that U Meredith was referring to earlier so we can't make a restriction on those that doesn't exist in the single family but we've already talked about maybe we should look at a little bit we should
look at those for the single families too so that's we may come back in June for the June if there's a June town meeting with a a couple of thoughts about that but but I think your your question is is um something that town meeting is probably going to have some
discussion about thank you um I have Allison and Brian Lori Liz Macy um thank you for the information I I do um I mean I guess this is up for
discussion but I mean many will have different viewpoints but I think uh you know living in a neighborhood um I you know I I can under I would appreciate more of a tighter versus
looser kind of mentality um especially given with the traffic the the amount of concerns that we are now facing amongst of that type of you know adding more units adding more housing add more of a
safety concern and as um parent with young kids who are constantly out in the community um on bikes everything you know it I'd rather take more caution and less turnover than um higher turnover um
you know an owner occupied does to me make more of a sense to um Maggie's point because then there's somebody on site you know you i' prefer the person who's has the um property that's there
is going to be more concerned with what's going on so I don't you know necessarily agree with people being able to do that with their single family houses either but um you know we we are um you know we could always step it back versus it's going to be harder to put it
back in there if we do that so um I can appreciate the discussion you know I I I understand that town meetings um you know a reflection of someone of the town but it doesn't mean it's necessar the whole town that necessarily agrees with it because there are people that don't get on the town meeting so I think we
need to um always take overall a Viewpoint of What Not Just What town meeting thinks too I I do want to make sure that we we think of the whole community and not always speak on just town meeting members thanks thanks Alison Brian just point
I'm sorry yeah absolutely the state does not allow us to restrict occupancy to an owner just want to be clear about that it's prohibited thank you I'm not yeah I'm not I wasn't I was just said that well we it would um to Maggie's point about
it there the adus is owner there's an owner occupied from what I understood it's not allowed temporary apartment that's our current temporary apartment bylaw has that provision but the uh it's not allowed to be uh in the Adu and just
so everyone understands someone could apply for an Adu today um because the law went into effect February 13th um and there none of these Provisions would apply to it it would only be the state regulations that apply to it um so um
and those are no owner occupancy requirements I know and that's kind of why it's a shame that town meeting didn't pass it when they did because it is up for um you know you can apply for a permit you know my brother keeps
texting me should we apply for an Adu permit you know so anybody can apply for one now and it is a shame that town meeting didn't um pass it back then um so that's why we really would like it to
pass now our position as planning board members are to protect the neighbor um and doesn't necessarily reflect what I would like to do with my property it's what it's protecting the
neighbor and so um you know we can't um do certain things and we are bolstering density in our town and in our neighborhoods but unfortunately we are
not bolstering our Emergency Services you know Milton Hospital is over capacity our uh fire um firemen are short short staff six firemen every shift our police are
short staffed so it's it's going to be challenging to you know Allison said about the safety on the streets and that's why I think a more cautious approach um is better at this point in
time one thing I'll point out too is there's um it's been pointed out that being a landlord is something that not everyone's familiar with the law around being a landlord so whether everyone's going to want to jump in and spend
$300,000 to build an Adu and then become a landlord and find that there's a lot of protections for tenants it's I personally and I think the state is seeing that it's going to be a gradual increase it's not going to be you know that every Town's going to be over run
uh with them especially in a town like Milton with such a high owner occupancy um situation so um I just want to point that out thank you uh Brian yeah hi uh just a tag um yeah I
agree with Allison and I think that's actually one of the central flaws with the law is that you don't have to be unoccupied and what there's a lawsuit going on now in California where people with and neighbors are upset because
developers have bought up land and they're putting up like 12 units and using the adus as extra units where developers come in will'll buy the property and they get a higher value for it because they can pop an Adu on it and there's really no control and I I would
feel a lot differently about this if it did have a requirement of own occupi but it doesn't so I think that's a flaw and I think that you know I'd rather make it tighter and say safer and not change the um you know have the neighborhoods have
some control over it so the building official if the building official got an application for an Adu they can't ask the applicant to show that the owner's going to occupy it I get that I think that's a problem but
I think that's why I'd rather have you don't want a developer coming in and then just renting out things on a short-term basis buying up the neighborhood and making it more economic for them to do something like that I think you want to maintain people living in the
neighborhood U because all of a sudden there's a higher value to these pieces of property because you can can build an Adu so I think you want to keep it so that people are um have to stay there for 12 months have the kids in the school Etc you don't want it so as you
want it as least transcent as possible I think my opinion thank you Brian uh Lori do we allow airbnbs in Milton or is there bylaw to prevent them or prohibit
them we do not well they've always been no not not that they are not allowed but I I just say they do exist but they're not they're they're not regulated but they're bylaw and they are not allowed there there's no there's no provision to
allow them but there is no enforcement there's no enforement so I believe back in the day there was a problem with curry college kids renting like um houses and so predated me so I don't
know but it does go back to yeah enforcement and um and what our building department you know how much can they handle and how much can the Enforcement Officers handle so it's like jay walking
like loading zones in E smon they're not allowed but they do exist I think in application if there's you know a complaint filed with the building department they go and inspect the property and then they can take
action um but they don't have capacity to go around to nearly 10,000 properties and and see what's happening um but it so it's uh my understanding and and there was one situation in which the
this particular property come to the planning board for uh to be subdivided and part of it was an agreement uh had been reached between neighbors uh that there wouldn't be opposition to the subdivision if they stopped using it as an as an Airbnb and that was not a
planning board decision ours was just on the merits of whether you could subdivide it but a separate agreement had come in amongst the neighbors for that so that's something where you know it was neighbors had taken that you know into their um what they could do about it but otherwise it's the building
officials and you probably know we have a vacancy in the Building Commissioner position so they are inundated with applications and so enforcement is probably um going to be difficult for the foreseeable future until that position's fill and we do have quite a
bit of development going on um as you all know which is in some ways great for the commercial base but it also so put a burden on um our our departments that need to be supported and funded um one of the things too just with the timing
is and what the state um and hlc has said is we want the towns we want the towns to do what's what's best for those towns so in many cases some towns will say that they do want weekly and and daily rentals and a town would be
allowed to do that it's in Milton we could do that if we wanted we could say we could allow airbnbs and do that and there will be probably some towns who who do they think that that's the best thing for their town and that's what they'll pass so we've been allowed
flexibility on on what our um what we feel is the right right fit for Milton so um and the planning board has come back to this 12 month is as a place to start let's begin here and and it is interesting because then there are other cities in towns who want to be more
restrictive so I just recently watched the city of Rivier city council and they want to seek an exemption um to the state because they um think that the Adu
law will be overly burdensome to them and they had four particular um issues so they they they in their opinion they think that it um it could be an unfunded mandate the cedu and they want to seek
an exemption so they were asking their Council and their planner to um reach out to the state so because it is so new all the towns and cities are struggling with it and um I again in my opinion I
think change is important and it's inevitable but sometimes it should be done with baby steps and caution for us to figure out how it works um for us um Liz and then
Macy thanks so um just to agree with Allison again um I think that we really have to consider sort of the whole town and so you know we're certain people you're certain people tell meeting certain people but I'm curious if you've
had input from other people other than sort of outside of just town meeting I don't know if you've had like public forums or you know invited feedback on not just this particular issue of the
short-term rental but this bylaw and then the site plan bylaw which I don't think that there has to be a public forum in every situation but you know I know we're going to get to the East Milton zoning and um I live an East
Milton so I've gone to a lot of them and I think that that's been very well attended and appreciated so I don't know if that's something that you've had an opportunity to do or would be willing to consider because I think that having to Allison's point the whole town
having an opportunity to sort of weigh in would be beneficial so that at cuz you know I get it that we can do this but it would be nice a town meeting to explain to people you know not just my
opinion as a mother of like two small children also an Allison you know our our opinions which are valid and important I think but also kind of we've heard from you know we made it available to everyone in the town and whoever showed up showed up and they gave us our
thoughts and you know kind of implementing it in that way so I don't know if that's something that you've considered and then I also just wanted to say like I really take your point Maggie about um you know that we have sort of some of these challenges in town
with the fire department and the DPW and the police in the building commission and when you said about the loading zones in East Milton Square that really touches my heart but um yeah so definitely don't want to overburden
already burdened departments um but I do think sort of to Ron's point I don't think it's my role in as a member in the warrant committee to decide what the planning board should or shouldn't do I think that you're you
know set with doing that and town meeting can weigh in but town meeting is going to weigh in and there are some people I'm interested in um have we had an opportunity to sort of be transparent and have the whole town kind of have an opportunity to weigh in as well so
that's a great um I I think that's a great question so we um we advertise we're required to post um two weeks in advance of every public hearing we have had ongoing um public comments periods
on on these articles so that is that is the typical vehicle for coming um we don't do a public forum for for every every item every article that comes before us we'd be doing public forums weekly um but we do have we post it um
it's required legally and we do and we actually extended this even well beyond because there was a break in our public hearing process so up until the week before we had an opport for a public um there was a public hearing and um and
there was there was um it was Outreach on that so that's so on this this article is a little different than some others that we initiated on our own like site plan approval where the Adu you know is a state law and we we knew that
the time frame for it going into effect was very short and we felt that um it would be good to put some processes in place that the state allows for us to put in place otherwise it's left to the Building Commissioner and the building department to review these applications
on the own without any uh other guidance than what's in the regulations and so um this doesn't give us as much time like we've been working on East Milton uh overlay Zoning for a very very long time because it is a a significant uh change
and we followed a pattern that we or uh the process that we did when we did an overlay in Milton Village and that took three years and I think East Milton's taken three years but on the Adu if we don't do anything uh quickly then the processes are already in place at the
state put in place so that's why our time frame is a little different on this um and site plan approval is really something we initiate because it's uh we think we feel as if would Aid the board the applicants and the residents so it's not something um that most people unless
they have a project that comes under our review comes in next to them they're even aware of but when they find a project that comes next to them they're very concerned about it and they want to know what the process is and they want and there's always questions about what our jurisdiction is and so we we'll get
to that but I I just want to make the distinction between how we're handling the Adu and how we've handled other zoning yeah so it is our legislators are to blame for this and I'm okay with putting blame there
and so they passed the law then they put a date on it and I'm not a huge fan of hlc these days however hlc moved as fast as they could and so that's why everything is delayed so
we're reacting to what is given to us and I think it's a bit unfair and we know who our legislators are so please contact them and um planning takes time to get it right
because once you put something up it's there forever and um it's kind of a shame that how this process has unrolled and we have had a lot of feedback is if you look back three years
ago the town did put forward an Adu bylaw to town meeting and um it didn't get considered it didn't yeah it failed and then the town get considered it was sent back for yeah
and we also put I wasn't involved in it but also a um revision to our temporary apartment bylaw was put forward that would make it less restrictive and that was not approved either so we're kind of
sent back for further study yeah so we've inherited a couple of these things and there have been years of discussion so even though I wasn't on the planning board at that time I was part of the discussion so this is a very positive thing that this is going forward yes so
people want use people are supportive of it um we know there's a need for it you know again my kids are 22 24 my daughter's a teacher so I understand the need uh I had a special need sister I my
niece has Down syndrome so I I think my family hits every category in need of an Adu um but also from as I said earlier our perspective is to protect the neighbors and a lot of neighbors don't know what's
going on until literally a construction um company shows up next door couple more comments we have ma okay go ahead I could wait no why me goad you real quick followup um have you
had um feedback about the rental term specifically for the Adu we I would say yeah we've yeah we've had some um sorry and it's been both both for and and yeah and a shorter
advocating for shorter so we have heard both thank you Ma I have a question about the definition of an Adu what comes to mind is a particular construction site right next to font bont so it's a massive house I drive by
it every day and there's a garage what appears to be a very fancy garage that looks like there's a dwelling does that count as an Adu even though it's a garage it looks like it's going to house cars but it looks like there's a
dwelling like a cottage house so they would have to go to the building department okay they would have to and that's where this is everything that we're doing is so important they would have to go through they would have to have the architectural plans that they they would show that it would be no
larger than 900 square ft it would have to have the bathroom it would have to have all of the differents yeah all of the different needs and it would have to be clearly distinct and it would have to follow um basically this the standards that we've that we have put in there so
so let's say that that was permitted before this went into effect obviously because it's been under construction for a while so it wouldn't at that time have been an Adu um unless they went through the special permit process to be a temp temporary
apartment but if that's what they did um a and a temporary apartment could be considered a protected Adu if it meets the requirements okay so but let's say they got that approved for 950 Square
fet it's not a protected Adu and then it would still exist under whatever it was permitted by okay that say it was permitted by at that point whether it was a variance or some other special permit process okay um but existing uh temporary Apartments can be uh
considered protected adus automatically if they meet all of these uh definition the definition that's in the reg okay but that could potentially be an Adu so if that was a new construction happening today that structure that looks like a garage but looks like there's a dwelling
attached to it or above it could be an Adu so let's say they got that per as living space as a family room right um and they now wanted to make an Adu as long as that met their requirements they could you know go back to the building department and amend their permit application to add the kitchen which is
probably what triggered it what trigger the probably have a bathroom already there okay um just my concern is that here we have that huge structure right and it's it um it predates the bylaws that we're we're looking at now and the
neighbors are under I mean font B's the neighbor but there are neighbors next to it under impression is a single family dwelling and it's you know garage could be a family room could be a guest house whatever but then all of a sudden it can be rental property because it looks like it could potentially be very nice rental
property so one of the things that I we've been um understanding in these workshops have helped clarify is um the Adu only has to meet the Lesser restrict requirement of either the primary
dwelling or an accessory structure so an accessory structure in our zoning bylaw is allowed to be closer to the property line than a primary dwelling so a garage even a garage and even in addition to a primary dwelling the addition can meet
the setback requirements for the accessory while the house itself is having to meet the other setbacks that's why we said we wanted to go back and look at that um height too like right now our accessory dwellings are 21 ft Max
but uh accessory structure I mean but an accessory dwelling can be the least restrictive so it could be the primary dwelling of 35 ft so that's kind of the that garage back of maybe it's only 8 feet is the setback requirement and now it can be the size of a house so you can
have the height of the main house right on a property line because it had once been that a garage footprint so so yeah these uh pre-existing pre-existing structures are another thing that the state's been hearing a lot about um and they they did
indicate that they're still looking at it so there might be some further clarification about yeah how to view those thank you good okay uh Steve Ry hey thanks uh Mr chair um just a comment um thanks for to continue work on the ad
bylaw it's important I didn't realize it went in effect on two you said February 3rd so it's good we get ahead of that and keep modifying that um just want to table a concern that I'm hearing um under staff First Responders and we continue to add to the stock and I keep
hearing that we have this huge shortage of housing but you know one of the things I think we need to also keep working with these other departments that they they're Staffing up to support that right there's huge units going in
all over the place and with this more I mean they're already stretched thin right so I just want to make sure that we keep that in the front of our mind it's it's a big issue and every time we hear groups present what we're hearing
is there's nobody to enforce any of these guidelines this seems kind of um challenging to me right we're going to be talking about East Milt in a minute um you know and everything there we'll get to that when we get there but with the inability to manage this stuff why
do we keep adding this stuff I guess would be a question I mean are you thinking about how we can add more folks to enforce what's being put out into the community thank you well unfortunately that's not under
our in our lane to do I wish we could but um and not it's not even just adding uh Personnel it's adding appropriate equipment too because I think possibly our
Fire Equipment has been under sized maybe their new one is going to be able to um be a little bit bigger um but it is a concern you know we just one of the first snow storms we had we lost a police cruiser in an accident so there's
always um things going on and I think it's a real Challenge and I I don't have any answer sorry Steve that's okay Maggie I appreciate it thank you the only thing I would say is that by adding this level of process it does give another look at
it um by the planning board um you know some people may prefer that it go directly to the building department but um the building department is um as we said you know they're going to look for just strict compliance with what the the
regulations and the zoning require where uh the planning board can have a a public meeting and take comment from the neighbors where that is not an opportunity if it just goes through without this bylaw because as we've said it's already the law it's state law over
Amendment means it's a protected use you can't say no to it you can only guide it and so um how that gets guided is through the planning board it it doesn't get guided at the building department the building department can say yes or no it meets the requirements but they
can't say will you shift it over here a little bit or will you shift it over there a little bit because or can you provide this screening because you got this condition on this particular piece of property um so it it doesn't get necessarily to some of the concerns about departments or infrastructure but
it it does get to um what Maggie was talking about was uh you know each property has neighbors and um giving neighbors an opportunity to to hear about I will say though that this does not apply to an Adu that is within an existing structure
it doesn't need an addition and it's not a new structure so if you have a a home and you want to put in the Attic or somewhere else you don't you don't have to go through this process for that you go straight to the building department that's a good point
yeah thank you which that in itself can be another problem um you know it's it takes away a review so from a public safety Public Health perspective you know there's no review
of the bedroom size requirement um that's in the building yeah so it just um you know we got sort of rid of you know basic boarding house years ago because of the safety concerns so there's safety you know
there's safety concerns well these will have to meet the building code and the health codes for for bedroom size for ventilation for sunlight all of all of those things ceiling Heights Etc would just nobody enforce it though correct
well no you have to have a certificate of occupancy you have to have a building permit you have to just as you as if you did any construction on your own home U that all applies here yeah but to Steve's point if you do a single gr a one bedroom you get your certificate of
occupancy you know year later you put up a wall and now it's to bed y it's no different on any kind of structure for that kind of okay um okay does anybody of the committee have any just questions regarding the previous section that
we've just been discussing um left in the ad duu bad law we have design standards process and authority of the planning board we just touched on enforcement briefly does any member of the warrant committee well actually I'll defer to the planning board in terms of
design standards process or authority is there anything that You' like to point out to us those are fairly similar I think those are basically the same um maybe limited a little bit more in okay scope essentially the
same as to those next three sections it's a very end excuse me the very end of the bylaw does anybody have any questions I have this isn't a question but under e process and procedural requirements number three I think it needs to have a space needs to have like
a tab number [Music] three three yeah so see where it says oneop over see how it's see that oh it's just de formatting formatting
I'll get to it later yeah and then we'll left the enforcement section um should certificate of occupancy be capitalized since it's an official is that a definition too um
just tell us number three Karen and admin enforcement um there wasn't a definition but it just is I always think of a c ofo as capitalized I didn't
know I defer not sure I always think of the capitalized items as being those that are found in the definitions but you attorney here I believe it capitalized actually should be because that's what I believe it is certificate
of of is not necessarily but of certificate and occupancy are yes that's a proper noun yeah it is it's and that's the way it's usually read um I will just point out because I think this is if you go right just above um three this is
something um I think to um point out is that we've tightened up and given a time frame on which we need to rule because we wanted to ensure that applicants didn't feel like this could be dragged out this could be somehow preventing an
IDU by dragging out the process so um there's a clear under number two the planning board shall consider the site plan approval submission at a meeting held no no less than 30 days after receipt of the complete submission and we shall issue the decision um and the
written decision to the applicant and the building commission no more than 75 days after a site plan approval submission failure to issue a written decision within 75 day period or longer time maybe time as agreed with the applicant
will be deemed as approval of the site plan as submitted so this just ensures that this is going to be quickly um reviewed and that there's not going to be a long question just as to that point uh
Mar as the is there um an appeal process for that if it's there's a denial or no or is the final after 75 days I mean I'm just curious is there if we did if we did not if we did nothing it's automatically approved okay but if
there's a denial we really can't deny it goes back to saying it's something that but if it doesn't the Building Commissioner can deny if it doesn't meet requirements if there certain and other things right they would have to come back with a
completed a new submission okay so there's no appeals so that would start the clock again with a new submission question yeah I was just curious like where would go sounds like a lot of work for you guys short order
hopefully right so that's originally it was a longer period of time which I sort of was an advocate of only because if you look right now we don't have a planning director and I know it's a per
moment in time but it puts more um more pressure on Town staff um so but we heard that it was too long it's as of right people you know we took input in and so that was something
you know we were willing to change but it is a lot on Town [Applause] staff so yes it would it would really be the building department that would deny if it was not the right square footage
if there were if there were issues um really through the building department would be the main [Applause] that's it but that was just I just wanted to point out those timelines so
okay any other questions just any member of the committee on those remaining sections everyone good on design standards everyone's good on that I guess just seeing no questions is there any finishing comments you'd like
to have like to message to us concerning I think it's you know I'm grateful for all the input I think it's made it um I think it is um there been some improvements that have been made which I think um will make it um I know the
people who we reached out to who had comments on the town meeting floor um are in support of this article um and have stated that they're willing to um to express that at town meeting so I think that there was a lot of work that's gone into this and again we now
we now know what the language in the model bylaw is we now have um you know we've had various different um eyes to to be on this and and to try to make it more of what town meeting and the town of Milton will want to see and if there are any town meeting
members watching if they have any uh questions concerns please feel fre then please come to a pointy board meeting prior to town meeting so we can walk it through and discuss and let's not wait to the last minute it's not always good
to do zoning on the floor of town meeting so um chair Hall let me ask you so I guess you're going to go back and you're going to look at the the short very shortterm rental the airb yeah we're just going to make sure that we're not going to we've gone over this a lot
the date won't be changed at this point but the time frame I should say but we should we I just want to check with Town Council to keep in because we did feel yeah that we wanted to have all that language included but maybe there's a way to to write it that's um okay so
when I ask that question we would be voting on The Adu article as written right now as written yes if perhaps you may come in with a suggestion prior to the time meeting correct okay that's really that's just I just wanted to sare that really the language that's been in
there from the beginning um but happy to look at it um further so is that that uh 12-month period language and then exactly okay yeah it was C8 yeah okay well thank you if if if we're all satisfied we'll move on to the site
plant great if you want to Great do we want to pull that up also on the screen I got to pull that up too sorry so in most this the changes um a lot of the changes that were made are just cleaning up language um making
it again more concise the significant the most of the Amendments that were made um were approved prior to town meeting and you all have already approved this was what coming back really because the town meeting members
hadn't had a chance to look at those eight um proposed amendments that we approved so those are in here we've not changed anything we've actually left the radon if you remember somebody from town meeting floor wanted to address the radon suggestion we've kept that in um
so all of those Amendments have been kept in and really um an overall um I think one thing Meredith I'll point out U there had been a recommendation to say that um the planning board could
only condition and not reject any applications but um Kathleen O'Donnell Who U is our new chair of the zoning board of appeals um is one who would like to review zoning articles now as um
part of the process and uh so she took a look at this also um as as she did with the Adu and she included some limited um provision some Provisions under limited
cases can a rejection be made so if a application isn't complete if I have to go to another and that's what we had in if you remember we had that in originally and then we took it out to try to make it you know more um and but
she under and that's because that's what we were trying to explain that it it would be under really limited conditions we had removed that and she actually recommended keeping that in so it was yeah so that the application is not complete so
this is under section L no M section M the board May disapprove and only if the board finds there's um so so that
um is a change from what you saw at town meeting which we feel is a good change um and we thank Kathleen for putting that together yeah and she was she was great to really go through this with some good
suggestions really simplifying language and taking out some things that were duplicitous that we're we sort of reiterated in two different areas um we were able to streamline the language say on her advice or councel was to uh
reduce the time frame in which we issue a decision also and she wisely tied it to we can be longer if it's also in conjunction with a special permit because those are a longer review process for us for example like the
memory care facility on Highland that was a many month review process but site plan approval on its own U is paired back so that's another change so that was in o o
decision and I think just before that yeah I just uh had made a couple of things that were in what you reive later were some were typos but one and one was just a move a sentence to start another paragraph with it and another was to make consistency on the 120 days yeah I
just got that I saw that 12090 yeah okay do you need um wasn't there an issue about a complete application I think we did because in the decision it still says um the board shall written issue its
written decision no more than 120 days after the receipt of a site plan review application what if it's incomplete yeah we talked about that I thought we did put a complete I thought we we did intend to put complete in there we did intend thank you for
watching that should be in there under thank you under CB if it's incomplete then you notify the applicant what's missing as well and then you can reject it if it's incomplete question about o down here by
Macy so I have a question about the appeal process it um it provides uh chapter 48 section 17 do is there a specific time period in which an applicant can appeal after a denial is it 30
days do you know what it is is it covered in that I'm gonna look up 48 right now it says mayal competent jurisdiction but it doesn't provide
the be County Court yeah and then 40 let me see what yeah I don't even know land Court 48 let me look up 48 are you looking up Andrew yep what does it say
20 days yeah I thought it was if you get a even if get a approved they have 20 days anyone has 20 days to appeal neighbor would have 20 days to appeal the
decision are those calendar days and not business days business days we can add that language I think that's I think you should just for clarification because some a lay person would not know to look up General Law chapter 40 so I would add 20 days after
a decision in either Superior Court or land Court Court which is weird um pursuant to yeah pursuant to general laws chapter 48 section 17 but I would like the time here there
I would just double I would just double check on the days if it's business or calendar under the law before I put that in there it's usually um business days for all appeals yeah this will be all of this will be reviewed by Town Council any
before back to town meeting so so appealing to I'm [Music] person would that be helpful suggested language I would I would do I mean I would like I said it's
if you're peeling it looks like it's an administrative review and so typically with administrative reviews based on my experience it's business days so if you're appealing something to the peel court it's 20 days but it's not including
weekends or holidays so the rules of Court will incorporate that either in this case would be superior court or land court rules so you would have to refer back but I would put in 20 days in Superior Court or land Court pursuant to
general laws chapter 4A section 17 and then the person can refer to that and see yeah and if they are filing in Superior Court they would need to look at the superior court rules or land Court they will look at the rules I know I'm getting into too much detail here so are you suggesting then after the
word appeal I would May appeal said decision within 20 days I would suggest that any person aggrieved by a decision of the board made under the section May appeal said
decision um so I would take out to a court of competent jurisdiction because chap section 17 provides very specific courts so may appeal said decision within 20 days to
the superior court or the land court within 20 days of decision being filed with a town clerk so the 20 days starts to run after the planning board files a decision with the town clerk so that makes it even more specific so you
can even state that yeah you I was that cu the 20day starts to run not when you issue the decision but when it's filed within the town clerk upon yeah upon issuance by the planning board and filing by the town clerk yeah yeah there's specific language in a decision
from Medfield um then it says within 20 days of the decision being filed with the town clerk you will need a certified copy of the decision from the town clerk in order to file the court appeal
copy of the Court appeal must also be submitted to the town clerk with copy sent to All board members that's that's above and beyond what's required under this just tells it like so nobody can say well the the planning board denied it but the clerk hasn't filed it I mean
you know I have an extra day I think right is that what we're trying to do just but it's gonna get into the weeds into the stat all parties have to be notified I mean anybody filed with the town clerk not by the yeah all the
attorneys but that's me I would I would cite that after within 20 days after the decisions where was the chapter SE section 17 can you pull the statute up again that's not the statute that's Medfield so the statute
says only person agreed by a decision for local onlyon board has standing so that's a whole other issue to bring a court appeal appeals may be filed in either Superior Court or land court within 20 days of the decision being filed with the town clerk so I would put all that in there because that's what's
relevant all right you need to be a little clearer so she can get that it's not a a superior court it's the superior no it's in either Superior Court or land court within 20 days of the decision being filed with the town clerk so it be
so it could be any Superior Court it would be norford County here because we're in norford county and she's trying to edit I know who oh you're editing sorry okay so she needs you to be clear about what you want to put I can't see I can't my eyes
are so these these it should be these a superior court because it could be any it's so yeah I would okay so with have to be nor County with the town clerk okay um but just tell me what's wrong so I would say file with the town
court in I would take away a just write Superior Court or the land Court under general laws the superior court now capitalized no you don't need to do that or is land Court capitalized there's only one that's the thing you know what
I would capitalize Superior Court the S and the C so I didn't know you were making edits that's way we typically yeah [Music] yes please failing my eye test
here okay all right so any person agreed by decision of the board made under the section May appeal said decision within 20 days of the decision being filed with the town clerk to Superior Court or the land
Court under massachus general for okay I think that's good so in the Superior Court in Superior Court that's that's what I'm struggling with yeah it's too Superior the superi cour Superior Court
well that's confusing because it looks like you're filing it to the Superior Court yeah in either the superior court or the land Court to overturn the decision okay well the town clerk is
filing it yeah in the clerk they don't file it to the Superior Court you're filing the appeal to the Superior Court yeah so the decision any person in the town clerk is filing it in the town clerk's office within 20 days um
okay so you need to clarify within 20 days after the Z go ahead the zoning board's decision has been filed with the city or town clerk's office are you reading it from the general laws or no this is
let's go back to statute I think the statute has we need to incorporate well I didn't see hold on let me pull it up because it's on the mass.gov mass.gov statute it's very verbose um they all are okay here it
goes I just pulled it up here right okay here by of the board appeals respons perra Authority you can proba also have Town Council review this yeah to I don't know if we want to be doing this right now have Town Council
incorpor by bringing an action within 20 days after the decision has been filed in the office of the city or town clerk I don't know why by a decision okay yeah I agree if set appeal is made to said division of District Court department
any party shall have the right to file a claim for for trial of said appeal in Superior Court department within 25 days after the service on the appeal is okay yeah know have them have them have councel have councel do it I would
change it back yeah let's just go back council do it the other problem is there's also a Housing Court piece too if there's a housing court I would just leave it site the statute yeah just have look at it I mean the one reason why I like having the dates in
there is because we also reference the dates and timing in the previous paragraph or section and I like regulations that don't require necessarily an attorney to be
involved in order to review it so if it's part of an appeals process a light at least a light summary I think is useful to the applicant but doesn't the
only Ron's got a question and then Liz I had a very general question um section o talks about the the decision making process and is I just wonder is it customary for the board to have to do this work or
would it be like the planning director for different towns I assume you guys are volunteers right you're not paid to do this job I I just I just worri about the town planner who would write that who would email that decision it doesn't have to be you know sometimes real
formal it's you know if the historical commission approves or denies something you know it would it sends an email over um and that would come from the town planner it would not staff I should say yeah the only reason the language is very specific that talks about it must
be by a major vote of three members I would just think if you want to have the town planner do this I would just leave it more General like yeah the town planner doesn't make the decision they don't make the decision they just would deliver the but you still have to make the decision yes yes yes sorry oh
I'm just seeing if you don't want to make that decision you want to just let the town planner do it some towns have what they call a minor and a major site plan approval and on the and some of those towns on the minor well it'll be the town planner will be authorized to make the decision we haven't made the
distinction here between a minor and a major um you know there's not a lot of some towns have a lot more different types of applications than Milton does they have a lot of different zoning they might have industrial they might have more multif family more commercial Etc you
know we have some very small commercial districts we have no industrial districts we you know we anticipate that at some point we'll have some type of MBTA Community zoning under which that would this would um that zoning would refer to this for
the process for approval um and so uh but at the moment the way we have it written it it does all of the projects that are subject to this which is at the very beginning um would come to the planning board oh I applaud
your public service and uh I I note that St Patrick's Day today and you already are demonstrating your willingness to give up your time for the town so but you as well oh we had to email me specifically yeah Ron you better be there
tonight Liz do you have a comment or a question so for n and O regarding the time limits sort of similar to Ron well maybe not so similar to Ron's point but it's very stringent that these
things have to happen like between 30 and 45 days and then the decision is 120 days and the event of like an emergency I don't know if there's any wiggle room that you want to or could
build in just like if there's another covid something happen someone gets sick you can't do it whatever there's a different pandemic something um so so one thing that we did with this is we put um all of the potential submission
requirements that we thought we might ask for in the submission requirements so that idea of a complete application is important and there's also this pre-application process so that is intended to make it very clear that when
we start the hearing we have everything we need that we've seen the preapplication and that it's time to move it through um you know mag slow down things we don't have our materials I mean Maggie has spoken about um
neighbors um but we also have applicants that we are responsible to and applicants should have uh be able to rely on a uh a process that's fair and clear and consistent yeah and so uh one
thing I would say is that um you know who we get applicants from applications from the applicants themselves um is influenced by these procedures and processes that we outline so some applicants don't look or some developers
don't look to Milton because they don't see uh they see a process that they think might not be as clear as it could be and they could be here for a long time and so it it's much better um for
all of us the town the residents uh the board staff Etc uh to set up a clean Fair consistent process so and I talk about the neighbors because I'm on the plany board but I have also been through this
personally and professionally and um so depending on what hat I'm wearing I have a different opinion um so because I'm on the planning board I do think having some
flexibility is helpful and when I went through this process um 10 years ago it's um we had an ice storm at Town Hall they qu we had a public hearing
scheduled and Town Hall was closed and um our hearing was scheduled for that night and nobody was there to continue the public hearing so then I had to start the public hearing all over
again because it wasn't closed um properly so there are um conditions that are special and there should be um some exceptions for it and
I do think having a time period for the applicant um is really important but this is also coming from the planning board so I have a different and I do think a little bit more time is helpful my situation went on for three
years and that's so not helpful as an applicant so I don't recommend that um but you know I don't we don't know what the correct amount of time is this is a moment in time as we said we don't have a planner our assistant planner and our
clerk are doing a fabulous job um but they're under um a lot of pressure right now um so in some cases I do think some flexibility and and I think probably most applicants would be I would hope
flexible they typically yeah I mean my in my 10 years on the board we've had extensions at the applicants have agreed to without problem it's really to set an expectation here and to
um again we try and set up a process that if it works properly we're able to do it within the 120 days because we won't I I can also say that on the on the board because we haven't been as explicit about what we would like in an
application it's deemed complete by the planning department and yet we ask for more things and so then it takes longer because it we'd get them peer reviewed if it's uh storm water design or traffic uh things like that and then you need
time for the peer review so it's much better to be clear in the beginning um so that once you start the public hearing and it's think about it for neighbors they have to come to how many meetings it's a lot that they've come to that they come to and sometimes they have to wait and not even have an
opportunity to speak um and so you know setting it up um in a this will be better for everyone um just does anybody have any further questions just about the site plan we've focused
on o and there's the timing um design standards you know we talked about that if I have one suggestion under I I like those Time guidelines because a lot of processes are stringent in time for
it works for the applicant or member or the board um perhaps you may want to add something about an extension for Just Cause um because I see that language a lot in a lot of judicatory boards because again CO's one of them um snowstorm so you can add a sentence
saying extension may be granted by the C uh the board um on upon a showing of Just Cause And that leaves you enough discretion to determine what just causes could be an appin being sick or someone's in a hospital but that's just a suggestion and I see that regularly um in the state regulations could you just
repeat that extension maybe maybe granted by the board upon a showing of just cause maybe granted to the board to the board or by the board if you want to Grant it to an applicant but enough flexibility for yourself and for the applicant um and
but leaving it at your discretion and I see this all over the mass health regulations it's all over okay and I'll run that by time so in justifying and a lot of demonstrating just cause
yes that might be nice to have a good yeah just cause you know unless requested to do so in writing by the applicant yeah if you want yeah which is in there it's in there we need something I think it would be helpful to the planting board and for Just Cause And then again leaving it to your discretion
so that it does so that you can decide um and if you need to continue something for just cause or an applicant um upon a showing and that showing can be [Music] anything at that and ask Town Council about language to have that because
often what happens is it might be some a peer review for there for the storm water which has just taken longer and so it's it's not anyone's fault and so it's it's mutually agreeable that we're extending because we need this information
so but that language will be helpful any other questions about site plan we're all good committee okay overlay the overlay zoning in East Milton so we had a public forum I did
were a can get an invitation to that to watch um if you did not it's um it's not too late it was recorded um I would uh recommend watching The Forum because it was our consultant was conducting the public forum and it was very well
received um a lot of East Milton neighbors were there um many I received many comments later just saying how much they're looking forward to the overlay zoning in East Milton um we have um so I
I would say definitely watch it but uh Nick Milano uh Town Administrator realizing how much was on the warrant committee at this time um had reached out and said would the planning board would be willing to move it to the June town meeting so rather than have it on
the May town meeting have you all begin to look at everything it's um there's a lot to it there's a there's a map but having said that it is not significantly different than the overlay zoning that we've done for the Milton Village matter
of fact a lot of the language that came um that's in the design guidelines that's in the zoning is the same thing that's in the Milton Village overlay zoning and so this is a continuation of some planning process that has been going on for for years um the history is
part of the presentation talking about um the interest in this by the East Milton neighbors to do a mixed use zoning which will increase maintain the commercial but increase the opportunity for um housing and and and including
that in in areas that are uh business district zoned uh primarily so I would suggest watching that it's something that we can come back to the warrant committee once you all have gotten through this Maytown meeting and
all of these articles we can come back and sit down with you um after Maytown meeting and and go through that the language the zoning language has already been sent over to you with the map so you can start reviewing it at now at this point but I think it's really
helpful to watch the uh the public forum that was held last week and which sort of walks through um step by step zoning I think I got a map did okay there will be a map to ACC
company it um yeah we just got the draft right it has to it's required that's why we had to actually add the maps at the last round meeting because it's it will need to be included okay that okay so we'll make sure that that gets sent to you um so stay tuned on that one and
it's it's something I think the entire town is really going to embrace and and look forward to and and mapc was our consultant and they actually drafted all the zoning language and they are experts in in in doing this um type of Zoning for communities so I can remember when
the initial conversations were beginning about this years back but was mic involved in this a little bit or not the funding for the study yeah the funding and mic took the lead on the Milton Village one first so uh mapc you know
the metropolitan area planning Council worked with us there and so Josh fiala the representative did did both yeah um can I just add something to it so so just quickly you know an overlay um zoning means it sits on top of the
existing zoning so the existing zoning mostly here is business zoning so those business uses they're still allowed they can do everything they can under if this passes nothing really changes for them unless they sell their property or they want to do something with the property
themselves this gives them another alternative and this alternative allows them to do multifam in conjunction with business ground floor business 50% I believe it is is required if you're going to use this zoning so that the
streetcape that we don't lose you know retail spaces on the first floor but allowing for multifam on Floors 2 and three above one thing that's a little different about this than Milton Village is Milton Village has some bonus
incentives that you can go another floor higher if you do more affordable affordable units um or if you do historic preservation or if you do some contributions to the public realm what the public realm means is you know
like sidewalks and so forth but in the case of like Milton Village it it also meant the parks and open space at Milton Landing so that could apply I mean at some point down the road if it was decided that you wanted uh East Milton wanted to look at those things um as
well they're not part of this for now uh so it's um and they the public clearly stated that they did not want them to be part of it that's why the height was a big deal where it was it was a little bit different in the Milton Village because you have some really tall high
buildings where it was the residents um particularly in East Milton which were much more sensitive to the height so that's why yeah I just wanted to make a distinction because we said it's based on Milton and it is but there are those distinctions between them and so it I just it's always the questions come up
about an overlay and whether the existing businesses can be there the other thing I think that's um a little different is the kinds of businesses in this overlay are different than the underlying zoning so you can't have a gas station funeral home a few things
that you're currently allowed to have and you still could but if you took advantage of this mixed use you wouldn't be able to so those are yeah the three stories is is all that's allowed here um there are uh you know setback requirements Etc um but they those are
the primary um I say the overarching things about the zoning and did you guys only get the zoning because I find what was helpful um what the Consultants did the commentary guines there was a commentary commentary as to why so I'll
make sure that you all get that zoning yeah so it kind of was the background if you didn't want to I guess it is the commentary it's the commentary that's important no they just have the language I'll make sure you get the com
because the commentary is really helpful it puts it in layman's terms um and so and so that would be great online so I'll make sure that that's sent over to you yeah I'm just you and we want that to be sent to town meeting members as well so making sure everybody has that
before that's a good it'd be really helpful too when you come back it might make it a lot and meeting members should really watch the your questions might be answered as to why we the where we ended up y so I'll make sure that uh the
commentary in the map is sent to you and that there's a link also to that meeting oh thank you very much chair Hall appreciate that good yeah it was all ready to go but we understand there's a lot going on right
now so um like to discuss flood plane might as well while we're here so that is really it's sort of a housekeeping there's a there's some small um State language um language changes from what we we currently have a flood plane um
bylaw right now this is simply we've been asked um to update the map for um for Milton because some of those flood plane districts have changed and so this is sort of a new updated map for the
town which really is important um for those households who need to get in a flood plane insurance they need to know that um flood plane insurance is required so and there are there are some language adjustments but those are also as recommended by theep y
okay exactly so it's pretty boiler plate from the state date pretty much so more of a housekeeping just to make sure we're updated so there just a question um assuming those maps are going to be
updated by FEMA from time to time why do you make reference to a specific map rather than just the then current map as prescribed by FMA so that it is constantly continually
up to State rather than to go back and update it I think I think it is um it's something that we're required to let the town vote on and um it has to go through town meeting um I understand the process is an updated map yeah the state
reviewed our bylaw and made the recommendations for the adjustments that are here he's asking at the map right but here's a reference to very specific no we're we're currently referencing it but assuming that this is going to be a
Perpetual problem every time the map is updated why not just make it a dynamic reference and just say that's a good question yeah I know that I think that would be good to ask Town Council that if we're able to do that I think it's cheyen had the discussions our assistant
Town planner or director of plan assistant director of planing Community Development has had the discussions with the state so I think that could be a question that gets sent back to Cheyenne to talk that way you don't have to revisit this and yeah assuming you want
it in line and all the time like right exactly yeah that's um I'll ask we'll get that information that's why we just do building code and fire code that could be updated I wouldn't be surprised if there
was some reference in some statute somewhere to a map and that's why it's kind of he's updating the maps I remember this occurred didn't we update these like 10 years ago did yeah and I can remember
the I don't know I'm just spitballing right now but yeah but that is it's a good question because that's um because this says what dat dated July 8th 2025 but but they were reacting to the previous fixed map reference right
and if there's no reason more yeah if not what triggered this is a letter from the state to the because they saw the then current to the planning department say you need to do this to update your bylaw fliply bylaw
um so the very like that particular question is not one we asked of Cheyenne so we have to go back and ask we asked different kinds of questions but I just think of it like as an insurance issue people want to see their house they did it to all
all towns that have flood plane it was this was also sent to all towns that have a have flood plane areas so this was not just they just didn't send it to yeah updates the maps and it was sent to All affected towns
so like 1920 towns received this letter it was not just Milton specific but the the long and the short of it is people who are in the in the flood plane need this to be correct in order to get flood plane insurance no what insurance rather yeah you weren't question makes total
sense while it's speaking of insurance um assuming that totally unrelated but I was thinking back to a prior comment uh about uh just cause but if there are Town bylaws or regulations that uh
run into weather or act of God related issues I mean you could consider just adding Force measure Provisions to any of the act of God Provisions to any of the laws so that you have that instant
General yeah the general that's a good question where and maybe the town clerk might be able to answer that because I think there are emergency um emergency procedures for town meeting a town meeting or you
know whatever it is but but if if there are any time sensitive time time regulated things that you have concerns around WEA just force measure language and pretty standard commonly
accepted any questions about the flood plan any other comments from planning for just regarding that should be pretty straightforward okay and I think that if we review are we doing this tonight are we going through it tonight the flood plane article yes or are we doing is
that in June this is a June flood plane flood plane is gonna be May oh May yeah let's go through it okay then I'm sorry yes got some typos well I have a question in a section A there
is flood insurance rate map which is firm and the flood insurance study which is FIS in the last sentence you say the effective firm fbfm but I don't know what that is and
it wasn't defined in here does it need to be defined someplace to reference to like reference an acronym whereas the other two are referenc so I would think so yeah so I I
don't know what you do with that what is fbfm but something that's you googling FBF Council and this may be Town Administrator too to look into this um State because it's a state mandate and then um at the end it says are
Incorporated herein by reference and are on file with the planning board comma inspectional services department is it both departments planning board and inspectional services department or it's typically the in boundary and
floodway Maps maybe read the context of the um the last the last sentence yeah yes that might be a mistake on somebody's part SE a
um I think we're going to have a few other questions so maybe yeah we can make notations or do you want yeah if you make I'll just a copy call so it appears that fbfm is flood boundary and flood way
map well should it not be according to my Google search yes we should add if you want to put an A in there I I think that's okay to insert that have it up and okay so the mirror fbfm
[Music] panels oh sorry it was under a correct yes and did you get rid of that comma after planning board yes thank you um okay so then you have a note about the
fbfm and then under under definition this is just a another typo floodway floodway flood boundary and floodway Maps they're mirrors to firms that flood plane
administrators and other flood plane professionals use to manage flood plane development or other water course okay is there a space there now is there a space other water or no it's I can't
tell it should yeah there might not be thanks and then if you go down to Historic structure it's a oh know it looks like it was Tex there is another there's a space in between B and C
that's all I had the acronym okay you can make that clear okay great okay anyone else anyone have it yeah any other questions issues or
comments I hope all goes well at Town Meeting thank you thank you all for all your time and all your excellent questions so appreciate that so I guess just as to the Adu and the site plan okay so are we you going to go back to
Town Council and ask for the shortterm language on on those two items yeah just if there's anything that he would want to modifi to make that and then any of the adjustments in the Adu I mean not the Adu the site
plan ju um I think the only thing that we were going to ask is that that we could possibly put in um an extension um the just cause the just cause um an extension language maybe and also to look at that um um section the appeal
the on the um appeal yeah I have the appeal right the chapter 4A language right section 17 section 17 yeah exactly so I have those three as the there should only be three um
possible amendments well we had that one word was missing complete in uh complete application in section zero also on decision but that I don't think we need to here we don't need Town Council for that but we need that word inserted
correct yes so you would take a vote after talking to Town Council on any language yes substantial on the Amendments and we're yeah we could probably when do you need this by we're meeting Monday and Thursday oh
okay of next week we would I don't know maybe it would be a good idea for us to vote on them and in its entirety after you speak to Town Council okay I just wanted to just to make sure we were on the same yep that's
great and Karen's gonna share with you this copy that we're going through that's perfect that I can send over and yeah we can ask okay so we'll be in touch I guess good and yeah but I think we're we're I think we're in good shape it's just those I think those are great
points that um people asked for and what will do is after our next after our annual town meeting we'll have you in briefly perhaps to answer some questions but I think we'll be in a very good position to review the other two outstanding planning articles and give
you any feedback if necessary yeah that's great and and please yeah you can go ahead and and watch that we'll send all that that um those information and that link for everyone to to be able to watch The Forum from East Milton overlay
so we really appreciate time and your explanations and all your efforts thank you so [Music] much well it's kind of just like oh I pulled up based upon's comment and
I don't think a second story in it but I this is the actual that's the garage yeah it looks taller than that um just by eye but um there's a stairway but it doesn't look like the height is big enough it would all go through the
building department so anybody building department you think it's not being built I have you know sometimes sometimes it's the the grading too that raises it up and the perception of
height but in terms of that question about the it's 26 feet to the ridge so it's well within the height limit of 35 ft but that discussion of the accessory so it would if it
were otherwise compliant that height would be compliant but let's say were 950 sare F feet now it wouldn't be protected right so it kicks it out of [Music] this it would go through the
zba not bect you're asking whether that quess structure Now 26 it not de heads it's taller than an access access structure question you
know you could go back and ask the building department was this approved as an accessory structure or was there a variance for the height it's pretty fancy garage and then then the issue comes up when they go for their occupancy permit and if they exceed it
then they have to go to get a variance and then my understanding in my knowledge usually gets approved because it's already been known when if they apply for the variance first they may not have received it
depending on the input from the next risky so it depends on the jurisdiction I've seen if somebody's off by inches the building department will make them take it down to the right move it into the right set back so
it really a question of it must have been approved the pl they would be building it the question is did the building official make a mistake or did they get a and it comes down to greeny because we had a house in my neighborhood years and years ago um was new but they ran into a
greeting and led so they built the house according to the hype but it actually was too too tall and it was you know they didn't make take it to the neighbors supported it wasn't was ancient right thank
you we appreciate it thank [Music] Youk Julia just um wondering um and trying to take lessons from the last time do we want to assign
people to comments now for some of these things even though we haven't we haven't necessarily seen the final version but no that's a good idea because I want if someone's writing the comment I want to start to think about it uh Brian wrote Our Last
Ones um I would give Brian the right of refusal since he already kind of put it together with the uh changes I have a choice there he is hey Brian
sure when you need a buy that's a great picture uh B next week Brian the Adu right yeah the Adu and a site plan I mean I assume uh I mean other than Town
Council and maybe his suggestions or specific language changes they're basically the same is that is that fair yeah except I would also say that they Incorporated the changes that were recommended at town meeting so that everybody comes down about oh yeah I
mean of course of course Brian everything that they've changed and you know there were really two proponents of a lot of these changes at town meeting and those were accepted um but I mean by and large you
know it is very similar okay got it paste paste and copy almost well copy paste
um I'm not looking to have them come back in are we good with that mhm on these two yeah okay so Town Council says something yes that's um we don't have much time so we're going to come back in with them um
or we'll come back with the language we'll we'll obviously have it distributed early enough so if you anyone here has a major issue we can try to address it um either prior to the meeting or very briefly in the meeting before
that um so we're feeling pretty good about these um I think the other two will be relatively easy um after we've done our review I think um the overlay a lot of those questions
will be answered they've been working on this thing for years uh as they said um big night tomorrow night we get schools coming in [Music] um we are not meeting on
Wednesday we are meeting on Thursday we have the police and fire coming in fire needs to reschedule fire on tpw DPW can't come in until the following week so police and fire are coming in or police need to re fire
needs to reschedule so only police are coming in on Thursday I'm going to try to get see if someone else can come in um and then we really just have after this week next week so um I'm going to be trying is there
anybody that anyone would like to hear from in the next couple of weeks specifically Jud answer question would anyone like to hear from the library I get the library in um hear from the Board of Health because I did
see the email about the let's see it was it was about a position that might be abolished that's really important because I think I got a an email with Ronald it was
about the from a Caroline canella from the Board of Health after about the potential elimination of the health agent position okay um so I'd be interested to kind of yeah we so we asked um the director of the Board of
Health what the impact would be if we were to not if the town were not to pass the override and there would be one layoff of the health inspector is what a role Health agent Health agent yep uh she she gave us a summary of what that
person does so we could read it or we can have her come in she said she'd be happy to come in but she wrote a letter to explain what the impact is on the neighborhood is this sorry to interrupt is this have to do with I don't know if anything that's going on in the federal government that's kind of affecting us
on the local level is that what it is this would be if if the town doesn't pass override okay and there' be layoffs got it downsizing her staff so can you share that letter with yeah I just end this to can okay okay yeah absolutely it
just lays out what she does she inspects restaurants he inspects a lot of stuff so a significant position with the town no eating out that a pretty soft roll up TOS on the to that that was
great I was walking out the door just just read the letter these are the points I mean these are like some serious things I mean if we look at the overrides for General town they are very they're minuscule right they're looking one two 4%
increases per budget I think the one one might have had 14 but I mean they are very very small but um obviously like issues like that I mean it would be obviously great significance so I can talk to the Board of Health she said
she'd be willing to come in if you want but we can look at the letter too of course and also is it a long letter no on page I've also been to some restaurants in town that's been pretty Suspect with uh here we go like no seriously we do our own investigation here yeah so but yeah and I know that is
a question I think that people bring up like who's looking at the restaurants especially in light of that planning board hearing several months ago up at um up in the Square um with the trash and everything um so I'm going to try to get some people in and fill the hole for Thursday
um we're going to meet next week I don't have a copy of the draft warrant yet for the consent agenda and some of the other articles once I get a copy of that other myself a can we'll forward it to you immediately so we can begin to go through some of those more of the the
typical historical articles that we go through uh and need to approve or put a recommendation in for town meeting to approve um so schools tomorrow meeting on Thursday and next week is to be determined but
I'll try to get consider at least the very least a Monday Wednesday meeting and maybe maybe one or two more based upon what I get from the Town Administrator in terms of the warrant uh comments are due uh first week of April
I know schools have already mentioned that comment to you um again if you want I know Schools is coming tomorrow but there's a lot of information Tom Jay yeah Jay sorry to interrupt um I
got a text from chair Carol who is watching the meeting and she was under the impression that schools were gonna had were going to ask for a few more days they're still finalizing their fy2 numbers take this as the third hand
information it is but the short version is I think they want a few more days before they come to us I can't hear anything no's no one saying anything everyone's stunn stunned us into
silence you did a mic drop he said you might have gotten some emails from Mark to this fact just virtually throwing up our hands I guess I did okay so um based upon that news I'm GNA cancel tomorrow
night um can fire come tomorrow these are these are going to be things we I cannot make a decision on right now I have to call and email and set things up so it's not the agenda Right jenda Said for tomorrow so that's a cancel for
tomorrow okay but don't we list all the yeah I mean I mean if he could come the fire just saying I mean this is going to be I this is going to be a change in the agenda I I can't do that and put fire on
and just uh totally take schools off so so no tomorrow night so no tomorrow night okay next meeting's Thursday next meeting we have is on Thursday maybe School can come in maybe I'll I'll
email I'll email them thanks Jay yeah appreciate it Jay it's kind of good knowing now I guess Tom Judy thank you um in regards to the schools I have a question
for the warant committee members that go to the school committee Finance um was there any thing from today's meeting that might be helpful for us to know about before they come
in NOP they have just not made that the same conversation I shared last week is kind of where we were again today okay thank you very much so no decision thus that's why
they're still meeting okay okay anyone have anything else they'd like to discuss or talk about give a motion second second may see all in favor
I thank you we are adjourned thank you thanks [Music]
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