the meeting of the Somerville Planning Board for April 23rd 2025 will please come to order Adequate notice of this meeting as required by the Open Public Meeting Act has been provided A copy has been provided A copy of the notice specifying the date time and location was one published to the Courier News
Two posted on the bulletin board outside of Burough Hall three posted to the municipal website and four given to the clerk administrator This meeting is a judicial proceeding Any questions or comments must be limited to the issues of the board that the board may legally consider in reaching a decision and the
decorum appropriate to a judicial hearing must be maintained at all times Roll call Andrea Dear here Chris Addex here Art Akens is excused Larry Cleveland here Jason Kraca here John Melio here Barry Van Horn here Mayor
Gallagher here Council member Vroom here Chairperson Warner here Please stand for the pledge I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation
indivisibley and justice for all I need a motion for approval from minutes from April 9th So moved Second Andrea Dair Yes Chris Addex yes Larry Cleveland yes Jason Kraka yes Barry Van Horn yes Mayor Gallagher yes Council
member Vroom yes Chairperson Warner yes Okay we will be moving on to our hearing for final approval for Avalon Uh dated we have a letter from CHA our planner dated April 22nd that all the preliminary the hearing that we had for
preliminary approval everything has been met So moving on to final Hi good evening everyone Anthony Rekier you're down Howard and Cecil on behalf of the applicant As the board may recall we last appeared on April 9th before you at the conclusion of what the board moved
for uh granting preliminary approval for the application subject to final approval being carried to this evening Um as evidenced in CHA's letter um you know they were satisfied with the the revisions on the plan and the narratives that our professionals provided And um
any additional comments that uh that were addressed at the hearing will be addressed during resolution compliance And um your solicitor and our office have worked tirelessly to get the resolutions before you this evening And unless there's any questions that the board may have we ask that the board
move to grant final approval for this application this evening Any questions from the board can you turn your microphone on um let's mark as PB1 um CHA Mr Barninsk's letter of April 22nd 2025 which as council indicated u
acknowledges that the plan revisions um have uh comply with all necessary plan revisions requested by his office with regard to preliminary approval Okay Any other comments from the board all right I will open it up to the
public for any comments and andor questions Okay Hearing none Uh motion for approval So moved Second Andrea Dair Yes Chris Addex Yes Larry Cleveland Yes Jason Kraka Yes John
Manilio This is prelim final or final this is the vote on the final Yes Barry Van Horn Yes Mayor Gallagher Yes Council member Vroom Yes Yes Chairperson Warner Yes Thank you Thank you Okay We're going to
move right on to our resolutions for we have the first for preliminary carriage Do you want to go over anything uh yes So this resolution is for the preliminary approval site plan approval uh with regard to phase two Um
preliminary amended preliminary approval with regard to phase one concerning the signage uh and also approval of an exception deviation from the signage requirements relative to phase two because there were two wall signs that were requested as opposed to one Um I did go through this with council um and
our consultant um and there were some minor typographical changes Um the only thing of any substance um would be on page 21 item number 18 um should now read um as opposed to the size of two
parking spaces it reads the size of 32 parking spaces um as indicated on the revised drawings will be reduced to 8.5 as opposed to 8.6 by 18 It's the only substantive change Everything else was minor Um and we can go ahead and get a
motion and a second uh on the approval of the resolution itself And this would be I have outlined um Ryan in the uh resolution who is permitted to vote on this that was here at the preliminary u application hearings
I have a motion So moved Second Andrea Dair Yes Chris Addex Yes Larry Cleveland Yes Jason Kra Uh yes Larry K Larry K Oh Oh cuz he voted no Oh well he actually abstained What does that mean
you didn't vote I didn't vote Well we'll go through that a little later because I want to make sure everybody does understand that But we Let's finish this up and then I'll make a little comment later on You have a yes from me though right chase Barry Van Horn Yes Mayor Gallagher Yes Chairperson Warner Yes
All right So resolution for final So moved Second Okay Just let me make sure that I'm just going to amend it to reflect that there were no um additional exhibits other than the exhibit marked as PB1 Uh there was no additional
testimony and there were no uh comments or questions from the public So the motion was made by uh mayor and no motion made by Jason seconded by Got it Andrea Dair yes Chris Addex yes Larry
Cleveland am I eligible or not yes Yes This is final because this is voted yes on final Making sure All right I misunderstood but okay Yes Jason Kra yes John Manilio yes Barry Van Horn yes Mayor Gallagher yes Council member Vroom yes Chairperson Warner yes
Okay Uh up next we have a presentation from the Environmental Commission on the list of the approved street trees Thank you Thank you Thank you Uh good evening everybody My name is uh Jeff Lamour uh current
commissioner former chair of the environmental commission here in Somerville With me is Tim Deal current chair of the environmental commission U want to say thank you for taking the time to talk with us about uh the street trees that we have here in town Um what I do want to hand out to everybody Um
and the I guess Ryan may ask you did you receive my email about a presentation yeah I did I can actually put it up You able to put it up Thanks That would be helpful Um what I am going to hand out to everybody is a list of
Is that these this list oh okay No hand that out just in case Okay Yeah I think it is the same Tough ones All right Uh thanks Uh while that works its way around um I'm going to keep this
to under 15 minutes Uh at the request of the board here um Timmy and I will both talk uh with regards to what um the street trees are here in town Uh we'll focus a bit of our efforts on the downtown area in particular but we also want to include uh residential areas
here in town uh separate from that So um to begin the environmental commission uh has a mission statement that we put up here educate advocate and promote best policies and practices for the burough's environments the health and safety of its residents Um and Larry hopefully has
given some uh feedback to people here on what we what we do and and he's been on the board I thought I was there for a long time getting on six years now but Larry has me by triple that I'm sure at this point So um they they know who I am Yeah They know why I'm here And he
advocates very well Thank you very much We we appreciate that Um so to talk about um this this is a subject I'm sure that's been talked about many times before Uh what what is changing in this and what we're proposing here is kind of a a bringing
together of subject matter experts um that Terry will go into a little bit later But in particular we did another one of our Main Street tree walks Um a handful of you have been on that walk before and what we did is uh review the inventory that we most recently had Uh
we consider Main Street to be uh from about Burough Hall uh where that I forget the name of the intersection there but where it forks and into 28 and then works its way east towards firehouse engine number one um by the bridge that crosses over Peters Brook So
that's about 85 trees stretching over that 3/4 length of a distance there Um and uh we we have a good inventory but it's a bit old of what's there So what's listed in the bullet points will talk about the age and and what kinds of trees are there Um part of what we
coming here today to do is to talk and the list of the first eight that are on on the list there are ones that we think are better most appropriate for downtown uh two of those two of those particular um uh species the honeyloust and the Asian zulcoa which uh cover about 90% of
what downtown consists of are continuing to be on our list We think those are great trees for what they offer Um but we think there's an additional six that would be better to include uh for those ones Um the uh let's see I think uh as you go through main street you can tell what
areas would better suit a particular tree uh based on size overhead wires etc underground utilities and and what we what we want to do more than just present a list of trees is to let you know that with the subject matter experts we have created and are creating
a uh construction best practices list for how to actually put these trees into uh downtown It's not so much plant a tree and hope it grows There's a lot that goes into street trees So um the uh uh best one that we have that Mayor Gallagher met and and Larry and and I think maybe a couple others have met is
um an urban street tree expert by the name of Paul Cowi Um he has been working in the state for many years including in Manhattan They respect him for what he does over there Uh so I think his expertise has really played a lot into what we think can make uh the trees that
we do have better than what they are as well as uh improving what we can do here going forward Um so to give you an idea of what recent assessments we've had here in town I mean this runs the gamut here uh with Michael Cole helping this 10 years ago 11 years ago at this point
and working its way through the years Uh we've had uh LTE is a designation for a licensed tree expert That's a a New Jersey certification Um and uh those those people in particular are ones that put their license on the line for what they do So we really trust what they
come and say for a lot of those Um this uh list was done the most recent one I guess this was 2018 Um so there there are certainly are some updates to it and some trees that have been removed but it's a good start for what's
there Thanks Um so as as you have in front of you is a slide that separates uh what we've colorcoded downtown There's eight trees that are listed there Uh and below it are trees that we believe are are good for residential um better for residential because they don't think that they could match up to what a street tree especially on
downtown could accomplish Um those first two bullet points in particular are ones that I'm going to emphasize here Um street trees are bred These are not ones that you just find in the wild They're bred for toughened urban environments Um a lot of things such as root area um the
the pollution the salt that comes through winter uh the earth the soil conditions which are typically very fill uh type of conditions where you've got a lot of rocks and everything else that doesn't make a tree a wonderful place to call home but they tend to find a way Um
and then an avoidance of monoculture which is having a diversity of these species It helps in case there is disease or past impacts Um I'll give Tim a chance here to talk about more details since she is I don't want to call her a subject matter expert but within our commission she's our subject matter
expert on what these trees are Yes Uh I have a a background in botney but I am by no means on the level of of the licensed tree experts but um yeah I love I love trees So uh what you see on the the right there is the list that we have
curated and on the left are the really the attributes that um are important for street trees So um they're really hearty trees Um and uh bullet point number three ideally they would have very few um you know droppings uh you know types
of fruits that kind of fall down Uh most of our all all of our um street trees that we're suggesting for downtown are deciduous meaning that they will lose their leaves in the winter but that's that's standard Um so we tried to curate a list that minimizes the droppings as
much as possible Um and then also um like Jeff mentioned the root growth and being able to um you know overcome some of the adversity of living in an urban environment And then um you know also we wanted to provide uh a diversity of both
structure like how the tree looks and and um you know how it grows and uh you know the the the color in the fall And you know we tried to give a little bit of a range to to add some interest to downtown Um you know as as Jeff
mentioned a lot of what we have is is one or two or you know up to um you know I think we had like four four main uh species in the the previous slide So we wanted to provide a little bit more diversity there and um be able to find
the right tree from our list for the given space that's needed um for the different developments that are happening downtown Um and just a quick note we're going to be focusing on the downtown street tree list um for the rest of the um slides but the
residential street trees Um we also wanted to just quickly note that almost all of these trees are already found somewhere in town as a residential street tree We just wanted to make it more of like an official um an official
pallet for uh for what people can choose for for their residential street trees and for what we can we can kind of place um throughout town So all of those are native trees and then a few of the downtown trees are um not native but they're they're not invasive Um so that
you know we're we're working with the the ecology of the area So um we wanted to provide you with a summary of the downtown trees to kind of give you an idea of the um you know breadth of the size and shape that we're we're
suggesting here So we wanted to provide um you know for some of the more open spaces these bigger trees um that you see in the top left uh and then some kind of tall and skinny trees which would be needed for different areas and then on the bottom an array of kind of
the shorter trees which would be good um you know kind of throughout but also provide enough shade Um one of the things that we've noticed about a lot of the recent uh plantings from different developments is that they um are choosing they're choosing uh species
that that don't provide enough shade and that's kind of a detriment to um especially in the summertime to our urban environment and the you know urban heat island effects of all the concrete creating all the heat The shade just helps to kind of counteract that So um so yeah so that's just a kind of a
summary showing the the the breadth And then you can see the four um with the green dots those are fully native And then the one with the yellow dot um on the top row there that one is it's a native tree The sweet gum is a native tree but it's a it's a cultivar Um so
just wanted to call that out So all of these slides go in depth into each of the trees I don't think we need to go quite that deep right now Um we'll be providing this to you guys uh for for for nighttime reading uh later But um
yeah so the white oak is a classic majestic tree Um really long lived which is um which is beneficial for the urban environment with a broad canopy and oaks are really really important for the ecology of our town So um that's that
one The sterling lynen um again it's really hearty tree very neat and and symmetrical You can see um its beautiful fall foliage and um the two-toned uh leaves in that that bottom left uh photo Um and it kind of makes a a beautiful
shimmer in the breeze Um the columnar sweet gum So this one it grows really tall and and thinly and um yeah just kind of a cool different shape and a beautiful fall color as well Um so for for some of the
tight spaces that we might need um the Zelcoa is a really common street tree all across New Jersey Um I think we've had 30% of our current street tree uh list or you know inventory Inventory Thank you Um already is the Zelcoa We
think it's a great tree It's not um native but uh it has many other benefits Uh and you know specifically the kind of vase-like shape uh is is a good option especially for pedestrian areas Um our honeyloust which uh we have all
throughout town We love this tree and I I think it's a perfect street tree Very hearty and um you know kind of we know it we love it it's already here We should um continue to to propagate that and plant it here And then the amakia um
also very hardy That's a throughine um upright tree sort of vase-like again and does really well in the poor soils um and has has kind of pretty flowers um they're they're slight but um but they're pretty anyway And then our two
uh smallest options are the American hophorn beam um and then the next tree But this is a a very small tree that uh is resistant to pets and or pests and tolerant of drought um and you know good well resistant um for ice and snow
damage And then um our last one is the American hornbeam um which is just a a a kind of cute small tree Actually I believe we may have some of these outside of I I see that photo there It looks like it's outside of a uh some
sort of state building I think we have some on our lawn in front of the um courthouse In front of the courthouse Yeah Thank you Um so yeah so that kind of um does it for the actual trees Um I
don't know Yeah we I guess we could take some questions The slides remaining we're going to talk about what the current conditions downtown are and the short and long-term plans that we presented to council uh to talk about what we think is the best way going forward over the next year five years and even 10 years Uh trees last a long
time So um and it's a it's an expensive proposition to install a new tree downtown Um the estimates are tens of thousands of dollars to replace remove and replace I mean that's not small change So um how best to do this is uh as we continue to go forward but for the
moment here want to give people a chance before I jump into some more of those plans Uh any questions from the the board thus far yeah a couple of things One um thank you Larry and I started this 10 or 11 12 years ago And we thought we had a plan back we did have a
plan back then but but it it didn't happen And then I guess it happened again in 19 or 20 And then it didn't happen again So I'm really hoping that this time it's going to happen Third times the charm this year Yeah that's what that's what we're hoping Um and it's just getting more expensive Um
obviously we have we have um some great hazard issues We did a a big walk around and I think everybody saw you know I I think there was a balance of understanding the safety considerations versus wanting to maintain as many of the existing trees as we can for as long
as we can because the tree canopy we have it it took 40 years to get here Um and the tree canopy is one of the alluring things of our downtown So in our walkound what I had said to everybody was moving it forward over the next 30
or 40 years We want to create or recreate that canopy but but make it even more beautiful so that actually the tree canopy then becomes a destination as well during different uh times of the year different colors different blooms different which I think is a a great
attraction It really is One of the things I would like to see Well you you did a great job in showing the trees Um so is there a pattern to the plant what I'm concerned about is a pattern to the
planting I What I don't want to see is haphazard planting that Yeah Oh this one will fit here and then this one will fit here and then you've got this very staggered awkward um treecape And my feeling my thought is
you've taken it to this step take it to the next step and and take those 85 locations We know we're not going to plant them all in the next 5 10 years over the next 20 years probably And and let's articulate what trees go where now
So there is no question So that it's done and it moves forward And then during the course of plantings if we see a tree that doesn't work or doesn't fit or nobody likes then you can kind of adjust that plan But but I think rather than having the argument of what tree
goes in front of what piece of property at what time let's set it Set it and forget it I think I think that makes a lot more sense Yes it does Larry Well there's a point to that I think that the idea of Monoculture trying to preserve
what happens That's correct That keeps interest and also if there's any kind of existing trees all well I agree in one spot I agree so it's taking the trees we have
and articulating what that pattern that tree pattern will be architecturally if that's is that the right word that's the word I wrote down so how it's the right word um but that I I I agree but if we if we figure that out ahead of time it may
look awkward for a couple of years until another tree is replaced next to it in front of it and behind it and that's when it'll start to fill in It's you know I don't know anybody else's thoughts No I think that the most guessing or the best amount most amount
of guessing we can take out I guess is what I'm trying to say at the time of needing it is the better because I think that's why we keep getting to a point and then we don't ever get over that finish line is because that's where we get hung up on well what should go where So the more that we could do that in
advance I think it's half not half the battle I think it's 90% of the battle Yeah Because again if we have a document that we can point to in the future that says "Nope that's one that goes there." Whoever may be responsible for doing it can't just say "Well I want to put this
uh really the American horn beam because that probably is the cheapest because it's the smallest rather than the white oak which might be more expensive." If we have a document to stand behind this that goes there that's adopted by the planning board Yeah Now you've got
something with teeth in it that this is so so even then when there's applications we know ahead of time um what they'll have to what tree they have to put in So there's no dialogue You know the planter's not going to have an offline conversation It's they're going to say well we want to put in the three
caliber and and we're saying we want the 5 in caliper We can set that now Okay So that so that in the future if a developer comes in you know it's going to be a five inch caliber it's going to
be the white oak Yeah And and it's going to have this planting structure underneath it Yeah Because I think that's a part of it now as well because we have to figure that out Okay Well that's good Uh I'm happy to hear that you guys are thinking ahead So yeah the other thing that I I would recommend is
the root ball structure There's utilities all through Main Street and the root ball structure on these some of these trees is dramatically different Some go down some go out and in the past I've used the Cornell engineered soil to help with the root ball structure to
give it somewhere to grow But I think they the list and the sequence mayor that you're talking about should address the subsurface conditions because not all these trees have the same root configuration Some are not going to be
suitable if they're two feet away from a gas man right and uh we've run into that a lot And the engineered soil from the Cornell that was the CU stuff uh is just been there to for moisture and to provide the roots an area to grow so
they don't keep heaving up from the photographs you've seen Yeah You get the heave And then we have the tripping hazards So I I think this is a great list but I think the next step would be the root structure and the subsurface conditions to make sure that the the trees are suitable for the existing
subsurface conditions Yeah we've learned a handful of good tips from our tree experts about yeah how to make how to make the roots do what you want them to do Yeah Um in a way but at the same time you can't control it all It's going to do things like bust open through the top and you're going to have broken pavers
You're going to potentially risk your utilities So that's something certainly to consider Yeah Yes please Yeah those are expensive Yeah I think that this is you know a good kind of first step to get everybody on the same page in terms of what trees
were were suggesting and then yeah I think the next um natural step would be to put together a a more comprehensive plan I think that getting um Paul Cowi looped back in and um you know maybe uh Mr call for for some of the utilities
piece and whoever else wants to be or should be involved in that But um yeah definitely more planning to to come But okay Yeah And and then the only other well two comments One the I'm a little concerned about the very columner tree that it's not it doesn't have enough
spread to it Yeah It's that you know and it may work in some locations but it may not fit for the canopy flow And we also have to understand that the canopy really is primarily over Main Street
that it's go it is going to be pruned on the sidewalk side because we can't have it going into the buildings They can't have scraping on the buildings Sure Sure So okay Well that's good It certainly in my mind these do well on narrow streets maybe division if it once was a uh no
longer a pedestrian walkway might fit the bill in those spots but um yeah there's certainly some ones that may fit this So good call Um I'll And how are we doing on time Ryan we're probably over Okay if you want to
finish up Yeah All right we'll do a quick talk about uh um maybe the the plan that we had had put forward here and we'll finish with that for the time being Is that suitable for the board yes Okay Um the uh uh what we do have next is
kind of listed here I think uh uh this ties into what the current conditions are downtown Heating pavers are certainly one thing that falls in there That's a conversation that has perpetuated and we don't have it's not something we wanted to talk about necessarily today Um but the tree replacement construction specifications
I think are something that are important to include in in the same lines of what tree fits best or trees fit best in what local um and uh ensure that uh the planning board in particular is considering what trees are being presented from development in town and
ones that may may or may not fit Um the environmental commission uh we'd like to us to be considered a resource Uh continue to go through Larry or whatever representative is on our spot We'd love to hear from more of that Larry does a good job of communicating So I think uh
the last part I'll talk so to that end um the the planting structure So I and I think I was up in Montreal a couple of months ago and I think I sent Did I send it to you yeah you sent a good text for what the grates look like on the street
Yeah the very large grates and then there's engineered soil underneath Um and and they just it was a they did a really nice job on it Um and I think if again if we have that ahead of If the planning board has that as a standard ahead of time it's just it becomes
almost a compliance issue as as these applications come up So trying to develop what that sidewalk structure is it it can't be slippery when it's wet Um it's got to be allow the the tree to
breathe It's got to allow the tree to get water Um and those those types of grates are out there So I think it's a matter of just trying to figure out what that is And I think that is where environmental can work in conjunction with the planning board and the downtown
the DSA to establish what that is So now it becomes a compliance issue Not only this is what tree you get this is what you're going to have to do to your sidewalk out front Okay Yeah Helps the planning in a lot of respects So Okay Yeah Uh we and as we know downtown in
this top photo you can see the the cones that are around what used to be a fence Um a three- foot tall fence that was a barrier It's a bit of an obstruction Um the uh flush mounted flush grates that are on sidewalk elevation we think make wonderful uh options when done properly
and there's a lot of ways to do it properly So what makes a tree grow best is what's below that The space that they have to work with and and everything So if you're working with utilities then you only have so much to do So well and again we may not have you know the space may not be square It might be
rectangular left and right you know uh along Main Street It may be from the curb to here So we have to kind of anticipate what that you know sometimes it may go this way sometimes it may go this way but we have to we have to
create those plans ahead of time So when the when the applicant comes it's just it's it's check off Yeah Hopefully the utilities are known I know that's a that's a question often times The sewers are not known water supplies not known It's not just reactionary to an
application It's also something's happened Tree got hit by a car Tree died Got to replace it This is going to help as well Not just reaction to an application No I think we're just saying that it's an you know what I'm hearing is it's an added bonus for us because we
you know we aren't the experts We have then now have set plan you know Oh I want to put this tree in Nope Sorry This is the tree you do and and the timing is good because the DSA is is very focused on infrastructure right now Yeah So we just got a big grant 150,000 is great That's a good
start So uh I I think uh if you need me to help coordinate okay meetings discussions we can make that happen Okay Thanks I appreciate that I think I'll talk briefly about what uh we've talked about for our short and long term I'm not going to go through the bullet points here but the color coding on the
top right can help you identify maybe where we are in the progress Uh light green means we're doing we're done Uh dark green in progress and orange means it's um something to beun to begin Um so we're we're going to we're approaching the follow 25 faster than we anticipated
here So a lot of these things are are moving along nicely Um the uh the DPW is going to be someone that we continue to work with well for how this is going to go that involves the the pruning and the trimming in particular and making sure that these trees do maintain themselves
and have a life to live longer than as long as they can go I should say So um I'll move on to the last slide and this is our long-term plan This was to be 10 years out but it's a a matter of budgeting u tree assessments and and
actions and things that need to to take place for these So um who pays for these is something we have the burden to have to provide Um but something that is of consideration So um I think the last thing I wanted to say is is from a set
of volunteers that we are to the volunteers that you are on the board We do appreciate the time that you are spending now um uh we all have the same interest in mind in town Ours are certainly a green interest in a lot of ways but um you know we'd love to work together with you as we go forward So
thanks for your time Tim do you have anything else you want to add i don't think so Can you send that slideshow out yes Yes They say you have it right So yeah it's a little bit later He'll distribute it to the board for us Yeah
absolutely Um without any further questions we'll take Otherwise we thank you for your time Thank you both Thank you so much Really appreciate it Good job Thank you Okay Uh the this is again just for uh awareness ARB we had 189 West Main
Street came in for a sign You guys can see it It was already approved but I want you guys to be able to see what's going through Um all right pending Um as well as discussion items Uh Mike you want to start with ordinance 2761
just passing out the current ordinances regarding sea boxes and pods are storage containers Right now they're allowed in the residential zones temporarily and the driveways on the yards and uh sea boxes are prohibited on all zones for
permanent storage of equipment I think this definition it's in it's defined in C boxes but it helps clarify the situation uh with pods So you'll see in the
ordinance one is 117 it just talks about the closing bins The closing bins were prohibited about a decade ago something like that And then on 120 you'll get into the temporary storage containers that was pro it was a change made I want
to say about eight years ago to allow this to address the the the temporary pods on site and then the condition is on the next page that talks about the um I'm sorry not the next page it talks
about the uh number three permanent use of cargo shipping or storage containers or any manufactured device used to transplant and/or store goods is prohibited That's the idea of storing using a seab box to store on site for a permanent solution Right now they're
prohibited basically over aesthetics and there's a lot of other issues but my god they these containers are rather large So this changes this says 09 I think some of this was amended after 09 2009 but
that's your current status And uh just so the board knows um I think this will come up I think there's some discussion about allowing storage containers on the burrow streets right now The ordinance does not address that So yeah it's
creating a process or council and it contemplates know access to park and a time limit Define the fine times It shouldn't be that long because it's usually for moving or something or
you're do have work done and then you just need to get your stuff back in I thought it was like 10 days and then you can apply for another 10 days So this definition just further clarifies what's going on I'm sure in the future we might be clarifying if on
streets allowed placards complying with the normal things that things parked on the street would be reflectors something so a motors could see and sight lines and we can certainly broach these subjects should they arise which I think they will but right now it's this
definitions to add a definition to the ordinance any questions for Mike thank you Mike does everybody concur because it's it's this is referring from council to planning so we can vote on it for final on on the last page it mentions use
without a building permit is not to exceed 30 days from date of delivery So there isn't on the existing on the existing Yeah Are we proposing to change that to make no Right now just adding to
the definition section of land use what a pod what a C box is It just adds that down the road if it comes up there's a distinction made between these that definition may have to be split up but right now it's the unknown Just get a definition Yeah We just would need to
define it Right Do we need to make a I think so Just a So I'll make a motion to approve or recommend to the council Second So we're going to want a motion to say that it is not substantially inconsistent with your master plan Correct Uh based upon Mike's
recommendations is indicating that it isn't So yeah that wording sounds better than it's not mine It's the statute I like Jason's wording better Actually so do I It's much more clear Andrea Dair yes Chris Addex yes Larry
Cleveland yes Jason Kra yes John Manilio yes Barry Van Horn yes Mayor Gallagher yes Council member Froom yes Chairperson Warner yes All right Next on there we had uh the three we've talked about this a little bit Redevelopment plans master plan zoning We will be discussing these more moving forward um because we do
need to start getting some timelines together specifically on our master plan It's not master plan itself is a is a beast and it doesn't happen overnight So in the next few meetings you'll start to see us starting to talk more and more about that Um improvement coverage
subcommittee any movement status I I believe we have a tenative meeting set for Tuesday I haven't seen an invite yet but speaking to Kevin he's going to be sending something out Perfect Thank you All right Uh EV charging stations Mike can you take We do have an ordinance
that is already in place Um we used the model ordinance I think from 19 or 20 something like that Can we you draft some language bring it back to the board um with our safety concerns parking garages etc etc More flexibility to
address other alternatives is basically within the context what the state allows would prefer not to see What what I would also suggest is maybe running this through uh the fire official and the board of engineers as well so that uh they can have some input They can take a look at the existing ordinance as it
stands now and uh and see what they what they can add to it or detract take take away from it And just for the record um through research so D uh DCA which is the where the model ordinance came out as a mandate everybody had to adopt this
uh in it it does allow for us to update it to be more strict with our own with anything public or safety concerned So that's why we're doing this All right And then uh affordable housing update The housing element is completed the
fair share plan we're tweaking working the bugs out It'll be in front of planning board Uh Colin is next month Yep So we'll be looking at that The windshield survey is done subject to some policy statements So we're I would
say at least 80 85% if if not more 90% done Just tying it all up right now So planning board will get first crack at it uh and and you know taking uh uh some shots at it pulling out what we don't think works putting in what we do think
works and uh and then ultimately making a referral back up to council Right And it'll be done by June 30th Yes Correct
So we're right on time We are Okay Yeah Colin is the timekeeper Oh yes he is All right Uh I have no extra com other comments I would like to open the meeting to the public Questions comments anything
We live at the I guess maybe we Hold on a sec Yeah the There we go Yep We just need your name and your address Hi I'm Eric Knap and I live at 21 Robersonson Street Somerville New Jersey Uh I think we missed like the initial conversation that you had about the Avalon Um was
that in the beginning of the meeting uh we reviewed their final site plan in the beginning Yes Did you talk about the timeline of the construction or did that not not come up no Okay Thank you Any other public comments
questions okay Hearing none I'll close public session Uh motion to adjurnn So moved Second All in favor i all