so today's February 26 2025 it's a preliminary matter the sporty night chair of the newy planning board permit me to confirm that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and Canam planning board members when I call
your name please respond on the affirmative Peter posos yes sir Larry Murphy here Mary Stone don't see her she may be joining us soon Scott kter see Scott
either hopefully he'll be joining us as well and um Steve manangan associate member here hello Steve Town staff when I call your name please respond the affirmative Kristen grubs planning director
here Daniel oo assistant planner yes in math and Tay a special projects planner here very good good evening February 26 2025 open
meeting of the new planning board is being conducted remotely consistent with chapter three of the acts of 2023 which extends the governor's March 12 2020 order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law
GL 3 uh 330a 20 until March 31st 2025 for this meeting the Newbury planning board is convening by video conference via Zoom as posted on the
planning board's agenda which can be found at the town's website you may join us by going to W uh http slash slash Zoom
Us in entering meeting ID number 832 7141 3056 pass code 10879 or by calling 1929 205 6099 us and entering the meeting ID
number and passcode when prompted for Zoom meetings please note that this meeting is being recorded and that attendees and participants are participating by video and or telephone conference the meeting is also being
broadcast live through local access Channel 9 and on zoom and the recording will be available on the Newber access YouTube channel before we turn to the first item
on the agenda please permit me to cover some ground rules for Effective and clear conduct of our business and to ensure accurate meeting minutes as chair I will introduce each speaker on the agenda after speakers conclude their remarks I'll go down the list of board members
and fiting each by name to provide any comment questions or motions the meeting tonight includes a public hearing for the zoning amendments for the annual town meeting that's it 6:30 the clerk will
read the legal notice and there will be presentation of slides followed by the opportunity for planning board members to speak after the board members have spoken I will afford the public an opportunity to comment and or ask questions I will
seek questions and comments through the zoom raised hand function in the order in which the people click on the raised hand button finally each vote taken in this meeting will be conducted by roll call vote
um so before we have Larry Larry read the do we want to do approval of meeting minutes or do we want to do that at the end no preference we have uh meeting minutes
for February 19th 2025 is everyone here had a chance to review I have it I'm fine with everything okay Pete I have I just have a point of order Larry do we have a
quarum uh yeah and Woody okay cool cool cool great thanks thanks for clarifying that P so um I've reviewed the minutes as well uh we'll do a roll call vote
does anyone have any questions or comments no Larry already said he didn't Pete you don't I'm good okay uh I'll entertain a motion to approve the meeting minutes for February 19th 2025 I'll make that
motion I got a motion a second second second from Pete thank you roll call vote Pete yes Larry yes and the chair votes yes as well so the Mee minutes out the way um Larry could you read the um
public hearing notice well I actually I read it at the last meeting and I wasn't anticipating having to read it again so if I need to I don't have it someone can put it up on the screen if it needs to be read again does can someone clarify if it needs to be read again if the public hearing is still open and it
doesn't need to be read again we won't read it I think you're all set um okay good because I have a cop still open so you're good okay very good so I'll turn it over to
Kristen great um thanks so much Woody and um for everybody for this continued hearing um as discussed at the last meeting we were able to follow up on a couple of the outstanding questions on
the zoning amendments um uh we met with Town Council um Martha and Daniel and I met with Town Council on Tuesday Tuesday afternoon um
so uh our thinking tonight if this works for the board is to review the items um that were under discussion at the last meeting um and I we have a memo that
just highlights those items so I can share that and then if we have and we can go through it and if there are any specific questions where we want to pull up the drafts of the complete bylaw and look at all of the language um we can
also do that I have all those ready to go as well um does that sound good Woody and all yeah yes great okay can you see that
yes okay um so we um one of the bylaw amendments is specifically about accessory dwelling units or
adus um in doing and this is a complete um replace the current the current accessory apartment bylaw with new language so in reviewing all the new language uh one more time with Town Council uh there were a couple minor
changes that um did not come up at the last meeting uh but we wanted to highlight for you there's nothing of content being changed um this first bullet Town Council recommended to
delete the term protected use Adu um this is a term that the state's regulations about adus um uses to distinguish between a uh Adu by right
which is a protected use versus an Adu that still requires a special permit which is a discretionary um approval so because our bylaw does not use this term protected
use anywhere else in the by but we had it as a definition the recommendation is that we don't include a definition of something that isn't currently in our byla I think in the future if town meeting and the planning board and uh
the community decide to make um edits to the bylaw this may be a term that we bring back in to distinguish again more clearly between adus that are by right and protected versus a special permit but at the moment
it's not needed to be included because it's not a term that's used any questions about that I recall that we anticipated that there'd be some future editorial changes at the last meeting and this certainly
seems to meet that criteria great thanks Steve um let's see um okay so this uh in bold and underlined um is a phrase that was
recommended to be added to the definition so again to clarify that the definition of accessory dwelling unit includes uh a both attached and detached
unit from the princip principal dwelling unit um it seemed like this added Clarity and uh the current definition didn't didn't include any anything referencing whether it was attached or
detached but those are qualities of adus that are discussed in other parts of the bylaw so it seemed important to add it to the definition for clarity moving on um the flood plane bylaw and I'm happy
to there's a few items here so I'm happy to to bring up the bof that uh is easier most of them we would we did discuss and look at at the last um at the first part of this hearing um so it was essentially
confirming with Lisa that the changes that were um the edits that were made and that had been suggested by um DCR by their flood plane management uh when staff when they reviewed this bylaw the
changes that were recommended by DCR that we had chosen to make and were in the bylaw you reviewed last time are approved Now by Town Council so those included
um striking this section um because it was redundant and uh edits had been added later on in the bylaw that um were uh duplicative to this language so it wasn't needed
anymore Lisa um Town Council agreed with that the next one um the state had made a mistake in their model Zone bylaw and neglected to include zones a and AO so
those were added back in so that was approved by Town Council um this one uh is under uh the addition of used for 180 days or less as a
clarification to what temporary means so um Town Council agreed that that was an important addition because defines what is meant by temporary um
see okay maybe maybe the next two Martha and Daniel chime in but I'm I'm thinking I might just bring up the whole bylaw for these next to it might be easier it might be helpful for the board to look at excuse me I agree I'd bring up the
BW okay gra it okay still working with my two screens here where' it go okay um okay these are the last two changes
um uh well we just discussed this 1880 days or less um this letter g in the section 12 of permitted uses the language that was previously um in our
current bylaw this is language that exists um that letter G buildings lawfully existing prior to the adoption of these Provisions um dcr's comment you can see on the right here that um
recommended this was not needed or recommended removing this um because the building code regulations in terms of damage and repair of a structure is applicable so that's
um DCR disagreed with removing this her uh opinion was this is a true statement that this building's lawfully existing prior to these Provisions are permitted use and we should keep
that and I don't think um the comment from DCR was not uh was a recommendation for clarity for clarification purposes and not something that we understand to be uh requirement
um by FEMA or by DCR and then the last one for this um bylaw there's a a this definition of alter um which was
proposed by the town to be added um in the course of the reviews of this bylaw The Proposal was to add this definition of alter however um DCR flagged this as a question and um Daniel
and Martha and I in reviewing this we looked to see where the word alter is used in the the rest of the bylaw in which it would Merit a
definition like the helpful to uh the interpretation to have a definition of alter and the only place the word alter is used is actually the word alteration and it's used um in sections
of the bylaw that say the alteration of a wall or ceiling in a structure so in every case where alter uh in the majority of cases where alter is used it's used as a description of a constru
a component of construction um however this definition of alter is straight from the wetlands protection bylaw and it talks actually it references alteration of a water
course you know of a a water body of wetlands and that that definition is not relevant anywhere in this bylaw there's no reference in the bylaw that says altering a Wetlands or altering a water course
um so this could stay um but I think the recommendation from staff is that it's not necessary to be added so we could strike it so Kristen I'm I'm a little bit
confused so is Town Council recom recommending that we retain that language um in our discussion with her she suggested it stay however we did not actually do the
exercise I just described that we at at the staff level did which was look at how the word is used in the bylaw and we haven't we didn't have a chance to Circle back with her today but I don't I think she would agree our our
recommendation is that this is not necessary if it stays if the board is comfortable keeping it that's fine our recommendation would be that we change the definition to say alteration
of a water course because that that's what this definition is about it's not about altering a structure okay um just no Christen alteration is misspelled there thank you I mean our I think our
yeah so that's a decision the board should consider we can either modify this language that is being added in this way that I've just written
or we could um just not not include this addition so Kristen if I understand correctly we don't we won't use this definition anywhere else is that correct correct it's a definition that's
taken from the wetlands protected act and it is it's a legal valid definition but it just doesn't pertain to the this bylaw in any place so the definition is not necessary for the bylaw
correct Larry what are your thoughts if it's not necessary and the state is suggesting it be removed uh um I guess maybe we ought to remove it but I'm I'm a little troubled by by the
fact that Town Council but Town Council wanted to leave alteration or she recommend Al using alteration of a water course no she recom I mean she thought it was appropriate to
have alter because the word alter was mentioned in 12 instances in the bylaw but again when we looked at where the word alter is used and I could you know I could pull up a couple of them if that's helpful
um it's not about it it's this isn't the definition that that word is being used for it says Al alteration of a ceiling or uh structure in during construction it's not talking about
altering an area subject to protection under mgl which is the wetlands protection act I know this is confusing it took us a while of reading it through to understand so Kristen the the question is is the word alter used
or is the word alteration used currently there's one place where the word alter is used about altering a sand dune um but otherwise the word alteration is used I'll I'll find an example that's
all call oh so these are this is the definition we're looking at um so here's an example um for a substantial Improvement the actual start of construction means the first alteration of any wall ceiling
floor or other structural part of the building whether not that alteration affects the external dimensions of the building uh down here in the course of construction alteration or
repair uh not intended for use in such construction alteration or repair none of these references have to do with altering as defined by the Welling protection act though the word that is used in the
bylaw is alteration not alter is that correct I'm just confirming that there's no where where it where alter is used I don't believe it there is then Woody my thought would be that
if the word alter is not used then there should not be a definition of it I agree yeah and the only place the word alter is used is in this added language in the definition so you've just pulled up where
DCR recommends striking everything in blue correct and we would strike def the definition of alter as well 16 or that would stay it's just striking what's in blue
there are other definitions that stay okay Pete and Larry how do you feel about that prob we take it out I would agree since the word alter is not used anywhere necessary for a definition it's
alteration which is used then the word then why Define a word that's not used not only that but we want the state to be happy with with the final result as well because we are just trying to
uh stay eligible for the flood insurance program y good point L okay thank you for uh talking through
that um okay okay Martha or Dan do you want me to keep going or do you want to take this one we're we're back to the final discussion about the general Provisions i' say you're on a roll keep
going okay um please chime in um so I think all of us appreciate the conversation that was had at the last at the opening of the public hearing um and we talked did our best to talk
through the questions and concerns that were raised and shared the public comments that were made um uh Town Council definitely agreed by one of the comments from David Powell which was the um title of this um
article one bylaw uh it it said purpose and intent um but there had been additions to the section that talked about um The Authority uh and other uh
um other components of the zoning bylaw Beyond purpose and intent so uh everyone agreed with the recommendation which was to change the title to per purp and Authority which better describes what the article um is
doing um then we discussed uh the phrase increasing amenities um and this um let's see Town council's recommendation about this language uh
stems from a consideration of Newber zoning bylaw which goes goes back to when the town did not have special permit criteria specifically so in some cases when a permitting board or permitting Authority planing board
zoning board is looking at evaluating an application it's helpful to have uh General criteria named in this purposes section that um is a um
allows both the applicant and the the permitting authority to look at the bylaw for guidance so part of the zoning recodification is adding um those special permit criteria but hand inand with that these changes
are recommended to give more um broad Authority and description to the purpose that the zoning U byla is intended to achieve so it's for sort of the changes this is
a general comment but my understanding is the changes being recommended or for the benefit both of applicants and also the permanent authorities so um the change there as you remember and I again I can bring up the specific
bylaw if that's helpful um there was sort of a laundry list of things like schools Parks sewer and just in a general cleaning up way it was thought let's name those as amenities um Martha
helped and did an exercise of looking at other Town bylaws and there were a number of towns that use this specific language so it is uh increasing amenities is commonly used in zoning bylaws in the purpose
section which is just a helpful aside potentially um in particular the word increase we also discussed at the last meeting um that um language actually is in the
town's current bylaw um as stated here the current bylaw says to preserve and increase amenities by the promulgation of regulations so really the recommendation in um replacing some of the old language
with this new language is bringing this same phrase down um and uh I don't have it in front of me I'll bring it up um when I stopped talking the phrase I think it says preserve the
historic agricultural cultural I think it's historic agricultural cultural benefits of the town I'm not sure what the noun is and to increase amenities so
essentially this phrase to preserve and increase was just split apart so it says preserve historic and Agricultural and to increase amenities um so at the end of our discussion I think
uh staff felt comfortable with the proposed language happy to have anyone else chime in or and or answer any questions and I will bring that up if
that's helpful hi Scott [Music] hello sorry I'm late just got home no worries at all okay anyone have any
comments on that I'll just say that it seems consistent with what now is the industry standard uh for this the language that's commonly used and you know if you for get one en listing a laundry list this is all inclusive so I think we've done a
full circle discussion on this so I can appreciate uh our discussion and where we're at now with this and I think that was you know that was Town council's point that uh to make the language broad enough and flexible enough instead of you know potentially
leaving something you know something off the list no I I agree with that yes I as well um striking the list and putting that in the way it's worded it's probably the
best way to do and as Kristen mentioned I did do a spot check on various zoning bylaws and virtually all of them had that language of of preserving and increasing amenities including as Dan's memo indicates our
own so the word I would was looking for was um Heritage to preserve the cultural historical and agricultural Heritage of the community to increase the amenities of the Town da da da and I forgot to
mention this um was also a recommendation from the public comment and discussion at the last hearing which is to add a uh reference to the town's um master plan or and the recommendation
is to use the term long-term planning documents so that it encompasses um the housing production plan and the hazard mitigation plan and the open space plan um so again this is uh sort of
giving uh the board a um some guidance in a general way to have decisions support and further the goals of the town's planning documents and Town Council was um very supportive
of adding this phrase that's in yellow here so Woody that's all I have if you wanna um I don't know if there's you know we're still in the public hearing if there the board members have other comments or the public has any comments actually if I may I have a couple of
things that weren't on Dan's memo um one of which I thought of as I was driving home um so if I might mention those briefly um one is in the the Adu um as I was going through formatting today I
noticed that there was a typo in the section on submission requirements and one of the requirements is that um the applicant submit a um architectural plan Stand By An Architect showing existing conditions and it says
the proposed H or the existing and proposed number of buildings and it's actually supposed to say the uh existing and proposed number of bedrooms and that it was intended specifically to help Peter benett if he's reviewing uh proposed adus down on
Plum Island you know to make sure that they're not exceeding the three so I'm not quite sure how that typo in there but Kristen and I talked about it and agreed based on our conversations with Town Council that it it was supposed to be bedrooms and the other thing I wanted to
mention is we did also talk to her about the the change that we discussed last time in the osrd about the the trigger if I can call it that you know right when we changed the language from Shell to May and it said more than four unit
lots are units would be the trigger and we discussed changing it to three or more so that anybody who can who wants to submit a subdivision that's will result in three or more Lots would be allowed
to do so the language if we don't change it precludes that possibility and Town Council agreed that um that was a reasonable change within the scope of this public hearing it's making it less restrictive
Marth is it three or more Lots or three or more units it says three or more Lots or units as as it was amended last time so those were the only two that I had very good any other questions on that all right I don't have any
questions um what's what's next uh is there any raised hands on any of this oh sorry I just had one other thing in the osrd we also um David had had
rightly pointed out that we should reference the chapters number for the osod rules and regulations so that's chapter 112 and that's been added okay so no hear any more questions or comments is
there raise hand yeah David go ahead David you're muted okay I know um I just was wondering do we have at or do you have I should say at this point uh what the purpose and
intent final thing is going to look like uh because it seems to me just trying to follow the discussion earlier that there sort of
fragmented um stuff about you know uh this phrase that phrase but I is there anything that shows okay now is what is that that is the current thing that's going to be
offered to the [Music] town this is so this is these yellow markings are for the purpose of this meeting to highlight for the board and and the public what the changes are so
those will be cleaned up the striketh through language is through the comments will be cleaned up and then this is the propo proposed language uh am I missing something in
that wasn't there uh discussion about housing being part of this purpose um we did discuss that previously that isn't in this current version but it it could be added um
there was a phrase up here um yeah well that's what I'm thinking that there seemed to be the last time you discussed this when I was around that that had gotten dropped out
and I think I had found and I think Martha concurred that uh other communities do site housing as being a primary purpose and in view of the
current situation both regard to the state and our own um town I I think not to have it in there is um would be unfortunate to say the least yes no
somebody I it's certainly I I'll let the board members speak but I I think the reason it was not carried down was just aligned with uh the sort of moving to be more General
and less specific so by calling out housing or I should say no calling out housing is com uh included in for instance the comment
about furthering the goals of newberry's long-term planning documents which would include housing planning um and I also think increasing the amenities I would say the perspective of Town Council is that that would
include all sort of all of these other things that areed I'm sorry I there's no way I buy that there's no way you can disagree for sure I'm just trying to explain what I
know discussion okay well I'm suggesting is that I understand the idea of embracing some things so it's a bit more inclusive so particularly in regard to um planning
documents however I I just think that housing is housing is at the center of what the planning board deals with day after day
week after week and not to site that as a purpose seems to me to be my opic at best I I you know and uh housing is not an amenity of the
town unless it happens to be public housing as in you know a Housing Trust situation and we don't have one of those so if you want to let it go that's just fine but um I I think you are doing the
residents of newb a long-term disservice at this point oh Woody yes go right ahead if I could Dave um I think you know the fact that we have now a a well-defined accessory dwelling unit component of of our bylaws
um and the fact that we reference the documents our master plan and our housing production plan uh that steers uh the guidance um so I don't want to get I I can appreciate what you're saying and I don't want you to take offense but I
think that the the intent is to have a broad Highway here as opposed to a narrow one and I understand the the needs of the housing for all income levels we all do um but what we're trying to do is be consistent with all of the
goals of Newbury and not just focus or or signal out one so what what is highlighted under B uh is to be inclusive of everything with of all the documents and all the energies that have gone into those documents so this kind
of steers you towards okay what's the Hol production uh document look like what does the master plan look like and that's where the the meat and potatoes what we're trying to do are where this is kind of the the guidance toward uh so I guess it it can just be
you know how we want to look at how we want to look at the pieces of paper right well I don't buy Peter very simply it's I understand difference elegant explanation but I simply do not buy it
it doesn't work that way okay do you have any other comments David no I'm good thank you very much Wy David do you have any other comments uh no I was just asking about that in specifics and um okay
uh I've tried and it's a public hearing so it will be publicly available and people can see and Doge for themselves but I still think you're off on a couple of wrong tracks here
um the major thing as far as I'm concerned is that the whole idea of increasing amenities even though it was in the purpose before and other towns may have it it's it simply to me doesn't
hold water because planning boards do not have agency they do not have um agency to essentially [Music]
do what it is that you would need to do to improve something so you simply don't have the instrumentality but there you go perhaps my understanding of English language is different from
yours okay well David thank you for your participation in your comments I appreciate okay thank you all right um Kristen what do we have to do next now with this um so I guess uh if there are no
additional questions or um discussion then the board would vote to approve the zoning Amendment as modified and as discussed and
modified and recommend that they um be or take a vote to recommend inclusion in the town War warrant for annual town meeting recommend to the select
board okay um f first no one has any other questions or comments and their adal raised hands correct not seeing any all right I'm not hearing anything from the board so I would say there's no more comments or questions I would first
off I would entertain a motion to close the public hearing and move to close the public hearing do I have a second second thank you Scott thank you Larry
um roll call vote all close the public hearing Pete posos yes clar Murphy yes uh Mary's not with us uh Scott ker yes Steve how do you feel we're
done very good and the chair agrees as well yeah so public heing is closed next I'd entertain a motion to adopt the changes that we' made and pass them on to the selectwood for the consideration
and to go to Tom meeting so moved I'll second that okay roll call vote Peter posos yes Larry Murphy yes Scott ker yes Steve manian how do you
feel I feel good about it very good and I vote Yes as well there chair okay um does anyone have any further other comments or anything that needs to be discussed this evening Woody if I could I appreciate
all the efforts of town staff and I appreciate the discussion that we've had over the past uh two uh meetings and I think it's been very helpful uh and appreciate the public participation and uh the chairs are handling thank you yeah Woody i' really appreciate
David um you know stepping up and participating and um you know his opinions uh C made uh me think um you know about the um amenities uh but I'm certainly satisfied now uh but uh we
appreciate that uh a lot David thank you yes and I I appreciate David's participation as well he gave us all something to think about so any other words of wisdom
anyone have any else to say no not hearing anything would you like a motion to adjourn that would be great There You Go sir and do I have a second
second very good roll call vote Peter Larry uh yes Scott yes uh Steve for sure and I vote Yes as well thank you everyone and have a great
night thanks for your for your help and everything