okay today is Wednesday a April 16th and I'd like to call to order the meeting of the economic development commission and we'll first go around the I'm Greg Dy chair Julie
Pichn Hubie Ros Terry guest Stephen Ro Cody and we're hoping maybe one more will arrive yet but uh we have a quorum anyway Okay So we'll proceed and and as
noted we have a guest Raz Terry who we have invited um a couple weeks ago we had our subcommittee meeting on on zoning which is one of our 10 goals because we have
seven supporting role roles in actions on our master plan that involve zoning So we want to be up to speed on it We want to be able to make a make recommendations from our perspective on
it and therefore we would love to learn as much additional as we can about it So we're going to start with a question and answer session here for 15 or 20 minutes and I'll I'll start by just giving a
general overview of reszoning the the main to to really simplify it We have like two business zones business and business restricted and we have two industrial zones industrial industrial restricted and then we have basically
for residential the base zone is R40 which is residential kind of agricultural residential Uh it includes farms and and certain other things in it It's not just
purely residential There's a number of additional items and then you have R20 which I have read those over and over again and I can't tell the difference between R20 and R40 It's the size of the lot and I didn't see they
both I wish we had the last page I don't know if you could pull up zoning since you're on the computer You can pull up zoning in in mass gov I I gave all my printouts to Yeah but this this is it doesn't show the lot size and that well what it says height and area yard
requirements according to article five height and area but maybe that's a there's a chart in the back there's a table in the back R20 just has a smaller lot size has a smaller lot size the website uh if you go to mass let's yeah we can look at it later I might remember
as long as I don't you want to get the big picture now yep that's fine um and So the R20 is just a smaller lot size Then there's R20A which I think mostly adds in the apartment and condo options
approval And then there's R20B which basically has the homes for elderly and handicapped So those are the the basic residential ones And then beyond that you
have a and cont Well I think actually it's a stacked zoning basically That's not the right term John and I were just trying to think of it but it builds upon itself So AC actually comes first Yeah you're right And then they go up to where you have 40 says includes
everything that permitted in permitted in AC right plus some other stuff Yeah Some other stuff And then as you go up it's includes that or doesn't include it and then works its way up Yes Correct and
and the the AC agriculture conservation areas are basically the strip along the Sodom Drake mountain It's a strip along uh the the great brook um and an area
around Goose Pond Yep And and down and I think the pro is the side with Proven Mountain also AC maybe not up the mountain It's places that are hard to build and you have you actually need a special permit for a house right
um and I'll just add that when you talk about the business zone there's only a couple tiny dots of business Yeah You know one of them is the Big Y and and Gillette Crossing or whatever it is shopping Then there's little ones down by the lake
which are almost a couple little ones at the lake and a dot of one where I think the rendering is on Yep Yeah Near that corner So it's very little pure business Uh most of the town center is business
restricted industrial which you kind of want because you want to be able to review it Yes you really do Your thought process on that huh your thought process i think it's a good idea because there's so many businesses that are new or different or you know that
you kind of want to look at and really think about whether it fits where where it is Um which is why they've added some stuff with like the marijuana and stuff like that right um I as a because everybody comes to the planning board to say why' you allow that I kind of like that whole hearing
process and being able to put restrictions on it You know you can do this but you have to do it this way or whatever So I I find a special permit helpful you know in that sense Yeah Which and I find in looking at other towns it's very common to have certain
items require special So um there's businesses out there that none of us have ever even heard of They'll they've been coming along If you think about what was a business back in 5860 half the stuff that's around now wasn't even they they couldn't even
imagine it you know And and then the one other I'll mention is a fairly large area mostly on one area the industrial restricted which extends from Sam Mana Sam West across to the you know Hudson Drive and which because the aquifers under there I just that had to do with
you figure out way back then there were few people there was a handful of people that were involved and some of them had influence over where what their property became Okay So there were some biases in the original you know but it's a small town It's a
you know I mean and back then there was even it was even smaller And some of the stuff I don't know for sure but it's just things that I heard over the years like oh yeah that was so and so's property and he thought that would be a good idea And we probably didn't even know that much about the aquifer and protecting water So when what year was
most of the 58 58 was when it was set up very much so and it's developed that way and it's really hard to get the attorney general to approve spot zoning has to all zone changes have to go to the attorney general and the attorney
general can tell you even though your entire town voted for that you can't do it right stop zoning if you have like a whole resident we try to we try to always do it with a a group of houses so if you look up like on the corner of
sunny side there you know rays is there and then there was someone in in that group of houses on the right going south that was going to be selling their property I thought it would be much more marketable if it was business and
residential so someone could move in there and decide what they wanted to do And we basically told the guy talk to your neighbors because if we have this one business here and then we have a bunch of houses and then we have another business the attorney general is going to say no Can't do that That's a spot
zone And there are a few around weird ones And I mean you could look in the minutes and find out how they got them through you know like Walt's up there on the corner but that was our that was a bit that was like a lumber yard or that was something you know there's some that it made sense at the time because they
weren't they when you change zoning you can't actually tell someone we're changing your property right so now your house is actually non-conforming pre-existing non-conforming You can't you just you can't like do that to somebody they have
to agree to it So their house is okay as long as it's a house But if they give up the house for more than a year it has to become the business So you can lose your residential status Okay So if you did change the zone they would be
grandfathered in a sense Yep Until the the property changes owners and does something then you can't turn it back more than just change owners It would have to act last for a while It would have for a year I think it's a year You'd have to check it out but I'm
pretty sure there's a section on conforming and non-conforming which makes sense You don't want to Is it pre-exempt green fields Green fields Where's that it's a term for properties that have been contaminated
And now are subject to circle You know that that wouldn't affect what zone they're in I mean it's they're whatever zone they're in they're in Not here in South contaminated I know I mean there's businesses been around for since pre-revolutionary you know apothecaries
you know had all kinds of weird There's a house up up where Barry has his property up on um territory No that's where he built um what's the name of that
road it'll come to me It runs into Westfield and Barry has there's a property W starts with a W Will Palmer maybe that's Will Palmer but you know he there's a property up there and I think that might be contaminated I'm not really sure and it's had to stay like
can't can't change anything I it might be the property I'm not really sure But you know there's weird things that come into play but you can't take someone's property and just say this is what we're going to do to you But there's a zoning change So you're saying they're
grandfathered in as long as it doesn't lapse and Right But in order for it to Can they sell it they can sell it and market it both ways Okay And if the person buys it the way it is it will still the grandfathering will it would
still remain Yep Yeah that makes sense That makes sense Yeah But if it's been interesting because there's I I know of one or two that probably shouldn't have done it the way they did it because they stood they stood vacant for over a year
So the residential wasn't being used and so the question is then does it turn to business because it it was technically kind of abandoned as a home Nobody lived there And that's always been one I don't remember what the attorneys said We always ask It's why we
have an attorney You know you have to ask them because you'd rather ask and spend that money then get sued Yeah Cuz lawsuits cost millions Yeah
So there's there's two ways I see that zoning might be changed One is to change the class of a piece of land The other is to modify the definition of of the whole zone Um yeah you can modify it to
a point Um something always if I'm trying to remember which one it is but it's one of the business zones that always used to crack me up in the beginning There's one that you're you're not allowed pigories and and that's because there was a stinky pigory and they didn't want it to ever be able to
have any more pigories Yes I I saw that one and I I was confused by that Oh and in the business I know it's not in the residential it's in the business one of the business zones the BR zone where there's special permit for everything
but banks are allowed no matter what because you have to allow something So they decided banks are safe We we'll allow banks and then everything else has to have a special permit But that's why it's listed there Is that hard to change hm It's hard to change if the exception
is just for banks What I'm thinking of is my knowledge I don't believe we have a doctor in town but doctors fall under all Yeah they're allowed They're allowed just about anywhere They're allowed anywhere Okay Yeah they're allowed We actually like them because you don't run
into especially down by the lakes where there's arcing is an issue The restrict the library there's not enough Just reading in R40 that the office of a physician surgeon or dentist or any similar professional office provided it's situated in the same
dwelling used by the person is his priv private residence not home It's a home occupation Yeah So if you're if you live in your home there was a doctor up the street up way up there and he lived in the house and he had a little separate entrance But then another one and this is an R40 public or semi-public
institutions of philanthropic or charitable character hospitals sanatoriums other medical institutions That's our because you pretty much let the government do whatever they want right okay So those are not Go ahead Try to take that one away Yeah
And and as well as public libraries museums private schools nursery schools those are all churches all that All government you know So that and as you say and is that in R40 or that's R40 Y so that's the lowest
level of residence Yeah You know other than and then there's restrictions on how big the signs can be and all that kind of stuff when you have that kind of absolutely but saying that that's those uses are very and it's but well not a sanatorium I don't you know that's one
of those ones I have no idea how they picked that could you have to always keep in mind that state law was is is there was there and then we we do what we want to do in addition and you know an item came up in select board on
Monday about a group home the autism or whatever out on it's in an R40 area Yeah we have one on Fred or um Claus Anderson that one and their neighbors that were scared They were very opposed to that
The neighbor had to say it's not a town issue We're overridden That's state requires that that Yeah because we went into it about that one So now we know and I think there's actually one over by Edgewood Golf Club that has I think it has a couple of units and there's a a
like a medical center or something small Yeah it's something But it it's for residents There's people that live there and you know there's not and that we looked into it I remember looking into the one on Claus Anderson because they were very vocal They were you my kids have to go out and stand by the you know
what if they're dangerous or you know not controlled or or whatever This was one of the residents was entering a neighbor's house multiple times Yeah End up being a you know a police issue and technically you can go on anybody's property unless it's posted So you got
to post it and then you got to figure out a whole process I don't know if you guys knew that but you can go on anybody's property unless it's not into their house Not into their house That's what was happening What about out uh out
buildings can they go in an out building can what go in an out building anybody oh outuildings can be built um trespass I don't know that ends up being a civil issue I think I think that ends up being civil not there's a lot of
things that the town has to just say like you got to get a lawyer you know and you got to take it civily because the town can't and doesn't want to you I don't want the T It goes both ways If you you have to think about all the different
situations and whether it's something that the town needs to or wants to or should get involved with because there's some things that they just it's between two residents or it's between you know some unless someone's breaking zoning
then it would be the building inspector or if they're breaking a law that the police could take care of which the trespassing into your house that's a police issue you know and they should get arrested you know I mean even if they're not all
right upstairs they you know it that's a police issue It's not a town issue but you know like zoning or building or I mean uh planning board Yeah And and so again you said office attorney general and they have an opinion on zoning
There's things they're going to allow and disallow Do they offer any webinars classes um,formational things that would because I imagine their attitudes have changed over time They can change but they're
pretty much in mass general law It It's may be long to read but if you really read and you can't just read a couple paragraphs and ignore the ones down below if I run into that but Mass General law is the law So there can be
an opinion of the g the attorney general for some things but it actually says that right in the law and I I don't but I see what you're saying the attorney general some changes lately about you know especially affecting Boston of change rules for areas near transit
stations right yeah um so I know there's been some changes yeah master journal law has amendments like crazy and you can call um trying to remember because I know the ethics committee I've called them a couple of times to be sure that I wasn't
doing anything ethically wrong you know um being on two different commissions or two boards or opinion you know which is I ran I I could have been planning board and assessor's office but I was really nervous about it just you know I wasn't comfortable but I was told I could do it
if I want It's a small town Like it's hard to get people to be a part of things But when you're an employee and you're on boards you have to really think about that when you're you have as I say all the time wear your hat Don't
try to wear somebody else's hat And you can only wear one hat at a time Always keep that in mind You can you got to pick the hat You know like town meeting when you stand up and you give your address and you're giving your opinion as a a citizen that has to be separate from anything else that you're talking
about or you can stand up and say "I'm Ros Terry from the planning board." You don't have to actually give your address You're on the planning board and you're speaking You speak for the planning board You should actually discuss it with the planning board right but there I mean it depends on what comes up Sometimes you know you have an opinion
as a planning board member and then you might say well I'm speaking in my opin as a planning board member this is my opinion This is not something we voted on right and it's it's not it may not be the opinion of everybody And if you know someone if someone called me
out on that I would be like it's just this is what I would do if I was on the sitting at that table with everybody else this would be my opinion and you asked me what my opinion was you know or or that's what I'm addressing is that one item and if you know if someone else could stand up It's you never have a
whole board at the town But what I was getting at in in terms of understanding where they are is to avoid pushing something they're going to turn down Oh and and we there there are times when people come before us because you can get you can apply for a zone change by
getting 10 or 15 signatures on a petition Yeah And and it goes to the board of selectmen and then the board of selectmen refer it to the planning board for a public hearing The planning board has three
choices They can say they're against it They can say they're for it or they can say we don't really care We don't have an opinion So we because then they ask you know when you're in the town meeting they say and where does the planning board say and we can say we don't we
don't we don't support it but that doesn't mean the town can't vote for it That's just our opinion as a as a five member board because that's you know and other where do where does checking the you know if it's a change with the
butters where does that come into the process what are to notify do they need to be notified before the petition is done it depends on what it is And this is one of the things that kind of bugs me Zone changes have to be
sent out to the the surrounding towns and the boards The the campground across the street from us recently applied for a zone change and I wasn't notified I found out about it and I went and I voiced my opinion because it's a public meeting But it that always kind
of irks me a little bit It's really weird And that's in mass general law That's in that who gets appointed who gets you don't have to be notified as an advisor as a direct butter No it's in mass and that's one of those things that you're just kind of like are you kidding
me the board can the planning board could decide to go ahead and do it but under Mass General law they don't have to Well last time I I have to be careful because I know there's been changes So it's there's nothing against notifying people No except for the town
money We have we have to pay for the the certified mail or what however they're mailing them out We don't have to actually do them certified anymore I don't think that was I was the secretary then What a a lot of work in some zones business zone regular
business zone Like think about how many lots are within 300 ft Well I'm I'm reading some of the zoning from other towns and I'm seeing you know especially in in a city a whole lot of notes all
through each description This was changed by city council and the state This change this was added This would take all our amendments in our are in our zoning book Yeah So I I know that a lot of changes can be made is my point Um and in a in a town meeting place are
those made by the town meeting then they are but that's why I I and I I warn you of comparing us to a city because they have a mayor and they have a city council They have a planning board too
But their town laws which we have give the powers of each board right for example the the the the board of appeals in some towns have are the ones
give out the special permits Some cities some towns you know and they used to have jurisdiction over some things that became planning board and the board of appeals is feet and inches feet and they
that's all they can do They really can't somewhere along the line 20 years ago or whatever they kind of stripped them of powers and I don't really know why So let me in and we better watch the clock here Yeah too long but take
another five minutes Um this first item on the master plan about zoning says perform a zoning diagnostic Examine readability and content of all the bylaws Refine and revise the bylaws as necessary with a new format modern techn terminology
definitions that fully describe the items within the bylaws blah blah blah all the strategies So like a complete revamping which we would have Pioneer Valley Planning Commission do and they've done it a couple of times and they've tried to make changes both to
the way it was written and what it did like they I don't want to sound like I'm against the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission but that ended up being planning board doesn't have time to do that entire thing and it's a lot of public hearings because you can't do a public hearing for a a group you know
like that you can do on by law you know but you always have to think about why you're doing it Yeah And you always have to think about why is it the way it is because a lot of times there's a reason And a lot of times though you get the developers that you know they they
work in all the towns and all the cities Like a lot of people pick on LeC He doesn't want to develop Southwood He gets people come to him and say "I want to develop this Will you do it for me will you do it for me?" That's what his business is That's what his business is And yes does he make money yep But he
has to do it within the law And and he he could care less what's in all of these towns right you know he's not going out and saying "Let me here's a piece piece of property Let's find a developer that wants to do that." No that's not But you know we as economic
development can see benefits to on the tax base for certain types of developments And what we're trying to do is analyze the ones that have the best return for a limited land base right and I think that's that's a balance between business and and
resurre I' I've gotten a whole database of assessments Yeah where I compare carefully the the return per acre the tax comparison and I I'm finding that residents are really more efficient in
providing tax revenue to the town than but be sure to go talk to the the school board the school people because you don't want to get so many kids that we have to make the school bigger our school um you you finished I'm sorry I didn't you don't want to build so many
houses that they have to add on to the schools again I see okay also our school enrollment has gone down every year the last 12 years yeah people aren't having as many babies like 30 40% below what it was 12 years ago so that's yeah no we could use more houses for sure
but the best places for house the best density some of the best ones of the best recent ones which was depot square Yeah It it returns a tremendous value in tax because they sold for400,000
Right But they're also they're also dense Oh they are And you can do those densities The new the new development that's going in on 42 depot along the bike trail Oh that Yeah that was all approved for cond That's all in the R uh
the B or no R A Yeah those are all in the 20 So the density can be the density that I mean I said it was acorage but it's it's density really Yeah And and so there's some on on that side of of College Highway There are a few other
properties on the other side of College Highway that are are within uh walking distance to have more but they are 40 right so those wouldn't be bad to switch Hard to switch those as long as you do a
a couple of them probably and and that you know you don't want just change somebody's property You want to actually go and talk to the property owners and say would you be interested in doing this these are you know can you change specific properties to to that um we've
done it I mean the the um R 20 B so American in and everything that that we you know did that was pretty specific okay but just I probably shouldn't say this but we also got to watch how big that population is because
they don't vote for the schools Gotta be careful I didn't come right out and say that but Okay Well that's my implication is the implication is if you get too many of that voting population
you lo They don't vote for the schools They bust them into a town meeting and say "I don't want to spend I don't want to spend my tax money on schools I'm 80 years old." That's why it happens You have to have a balance have a
balance Yes you do And it wouldn't hurt to bring in more families No it wouldn't And and and the small a lot of families It used to be people wanted to move to Southwick because they wanted land So it did work out in the R40 because all the lots are 60,000 square feet which isn't really that big It's an acre and a half
It's not huge Right Right But there's there's a limited amount of additional growth there unless you add roads and developments Well and that's develop developers make lots of money doing that right but there's there's a limit you run out there and the town center would
benefit more if we had some denser in close development There are a number of places where that might be And from my experience both on planning board and at Arbec because I did work there for the last three years of um my working years Um and we ran into this problem behind
motocross is the developer like I'm developing this no matter what So either you give me my approval and I'm going to or I'm going to do it under the lowincome housing one that the state does and the town
has no control over that application So there are some you do need to be careful So so we and you can't put that in your bylaw You can't you know but it might be better to open up more development that's under our control than to but
once default in but that's just it though You can't say we're going to make this R20B but we don't want it to be low-income housing You can't do that Understood You can't you can't put an income right on it Exactly You can't do that That's that's discrimination
right off the bat Discrimination But I'm I'm thinking of density rather than income or the kind of house And well the other thing you could do is you could send you could make some R40s just R20s not R20 B's and A's and B's because
Right R 20 for for more for density Density Yeah So that just means you're making the lots 40,000 instead of 60 or 20,000 instead of 40,000 So those aren't very big A 20,000 square foot is half an
acre It's interesting that and I hesitate to say that because I have numbers right in front of me but in analyzing what the lowest cost per unit was I looked at one of the condominiums
up off of uh Highway Rosewood Yep and they had one of the lower costs per units but one of the higher tax per acres right because they're they're very small They are very sometimes the lower
cost units can be some of them profitable for the in terms of of a return Those are condos So there's a difference in the tax base Let me think this through Because condos the people don't own the
land Right Right But I analyze it as though they did So I look at the taxable base of the whole Office Depot Those are you they own their land I do believe So So anyway I distributed among all of the
the units and analyzed what the average cost per unit based on the assessment or the average assessment per unit and the the total tax per acre Yeah And it's one of the highest in tax per acre but one of the lowest in assessment And honestly
it's not a fun thing to do but some of these things that you're thinking about if you really get down to one of them I would talk to some developers and just say would if this happened would you is it worth it to you and a lot of times it is because they don't have to build so
much road Yeah They like that's why they like the flexible Yeah because they don't have to be that they can make it smaller and they can have they can do stuff and they can make the trade with open space with a lot a lot of people like but there's a problem with the flexible I kept my nose out of that one
but I know there's a problem with the flexible something's not right about that that we did and we've been doing them for years flexible space continuing on the density topic um there was recently an ADU law passed now will there be anything expressly included in
zoning regarding ADUs what does that mean additional dwelling units allowing um single single family zoning by right to have an additional dwelling unit within certain specifications So you do that in R40 and you'd allow the the
little house in the backyard Is that basically what it is i think they discussed that There was I believe there's a meeting I was curious if there's anything be included because I think it matches kind of the density allowing tax base to increase without adding a lot of infrastructure You guys
definitely should keep an eye on the agenda for planning board Even if you don't have an opinion just go and listen Yeah And and understand how what they do We had planned a few months ago before the changes We were about to set up a
meeting with Mike and Yeah and others to talk about our mutual master plan things but then everything changed We're waiting for it to settle out Yeah Yeah Yeah And that won't happen till after elections I don't even know who's running Not me
Okay All right Well I mean I don't know if that helped And just remember absolutely everything we discussed you know if I'm if you're looking at zoning you definitely I think should start with AC and work your way up because as you get to the industrial it's referring to
the zone before Right I noticed that Yeah So that and I can't remember the term Everything allowed in this one right i find it better to read it in the order that it's actually in zoning which my paper that Bill gave me was stapled in the other direction and I was like "Oh this is confusing."
This is confusing I just printed all those out and kind of Oh I'm not criticizing that but it was kind of funny because I was like business and then res I do this No but I I I Yeah it stacks immediately noticed how it was Yeah
referring to So it does you end up being able to do stuff that you might not you go forward a couple of them and you can actually do things you know single family homes all the way up to um into the business zone I think can't
you the B zone you build a house in the B zone BR yeah I think B bral preferably on a second I'm going again taking something else well when we
the mixed use in yeah the mixed use and can you give a general timeline of how long a business that wanted to go into business restricted and had to file a special permit how long that process would take for them to get either approved or denied
Um I mean it can take it if it's a really clean thing that they've really whoever did the work Arlobe or whoever really thought of everything and it's a really clean it and protects this and they thought of the lighting and they thought of this But a lot of times you run into it where they have to go back
and hire a lighting specialist or hire a this you know and then that that has to go back and then that that starts another problem So it it's tricky to say I mean you could say it could take a month up to you know more than that Um I think there's something in there though
about in the special permit part of it that's kind of makes you kind of move along or at least it going for a little while And that's why a lot of times the applicant will withdraw without prejudice and then come back in a few months when they got their together Okay And I want to bring
up a quickly a related one It's actually on a different agenda item We have an agenda item about vacancies and unfortunately Mark isn't here I was hoping he would be Um but we have an I wanted to call attention of this group
to another vacancy The and maybe I I'll have Julie introduce this vacancy because she's involved in this So our church on college highway is basically on residential R40
the Baptist church and a lot of businesses well came in to you know likely to purchase but then when it came out to came out to to see this because the churches are allowed anywhere Yes And now it's a problem Yeah And it's a a
31 acre lot right because it's got a and you don't want to tear down the building but you an avenue to the large area in the back It could potentially be a Who owns the one that's not developed north of it is there a house it's the same
Well there's a Are you the South the large church Oh okay And it it has the big building out front then a narrow parking area then it widens out to a big area behind it that's to Davis Road to Davis You know that is a big piece I
remember when that came right up to the edge of there And you know potentially it could be a a condo development but then you got the biggest part of the value is in that large building out front Yeah I mean but I mean could you
put some condo units in that building like revamp the inside i don't know whether you could It would probably have to be R 40 R20 Yes it needs to be multif family and multif family It's no it needs it needs a zone
change and then that comes to the problem of whether it would be considered spot zoning or not but it is a really large piece Yeah Um and that whole strip is not business No it's all the way to CVS McDonald all residential So you wouldn't be changing it out of residential You're thinking changing it
just to a different residential commercial Oh to commercial Yes you could I wish there were were we had a more mixed business residential I've seen other towns that have what they call transitional zone Well we have that we
have mixed use in our BR zone downtown and that didn't work to what we thought it would We thought that that like village pizza that Timmy would say "Okay I'm going to put this up here." And he's do that It's expensive and my roof isn't built this way and that's norally Yeah Okay We didn't think of that when
we decided that would be a good idea You know anyway when you go down that way of course you know you not too much further you got a a whole business area and short of that you've got farm stands and other there Well the farm stand is a
business in a way right you know so that's one of those things you approach to the home That's when you when you that might be what the planning board says is approach your neighbors like we're not going to do it because you're petitioning it Blossoming Acres although there's one other house in between that but they might they might prefer to be
business You never know you know you never know is they they might be able to do that And then next to that is another church right small church right and then across you got the campground and some other things So it's not really a
residential typical residential area What and you know when you get a chance to go into the planning board you know if you kind of say like we were like thinking about this and you would be there too that we were kind of thinking about from this property to that property how would you how would you advise us to move forward and I can tell
you they're going to say go talk to those property owners you know but they'll be able to tell you like no that's not going to work or we wouldn't support it or Yeah Like if you can get it moving you can get you'd have to get it surveyed and you'd have to somebody has to go through that process is you have to present a map to the town that
then goes to the attorney general So it has to be a pretty valid map And the reason the EDC would have an interest is because for economic development Oh yeah If it was a business it would it could potentially be uh assessed at many
multiples of what it is And of course as a church there's it's exempt but you know if it just goes vacant or whatever it's going to it's sad it's a nice building you know it's a nice building that would be something could be a you
know something of great value what is it 1.35 million or something I in my opinion you and the owners of the church should go to the planning board safe this is something we're hoping before
but is this a way we could do it you know and because why wouldn't the church next door if god forbid they closed up why it doesn't hurt them It could stay a church right the houses can stay houses but it lets them be marketed both ways
Any other than the street drive which and then the other thing is that um let me see if I can remember this Um let's say it's you make it BR back 1,000 ft or something like that The back half can actually could have a road in and be
residential in the back and the front half can be developed There's something about the percentage of property because we ran into that up along um along College Highway up further where it there's a something in the bylaws about
you know which way it goes if there's a split zone but you can split a piece of property in two zones Yeah I've seen properties that are split up right and that's you know and so then it can you know the front of it can be this which is is can't be a bad way to do it
because you know you which is what I think you know you could switch the the old cover property with John Wallally has now ideally on college highway it should be business restricted which industrial restricted comes all the way up to the edge of the road That should be split Yeah
But in the industrial zone you can have business But you'd like it to be restricted I is industrial restricted So I guess still you need a special permit Yeah Need a special permit for everything That's why they didn't just build it Yeah You know but over the aquafer you have to make
sure you look at the water the water Got to look at that Okay Okay Yep One thing uh I had a question with respect to setbacks I spent better than 15 years working with planning boardings
and zoning and reszoning down in Charlotte Okay And ended up on eight years on the zoning board of adjustment We had our own zoning administrator for all the associated towns in the county And uh we dealt with setbacks Oh gosh
Every other month at least Yeah Yeah And I remember uh could last time I don't want to interrupt this but Julie has to leave and I want to cover the South Could we bring a question for me i mean you can It's like you can't do anything in a setback yet We deal with it all the
time Yeah No that goes to the board No that goes to the board of appeals in Southwick And you will see that people down by the lakes get um can't remember what they're called And they can actually like have have it be closer to the edge than they were
supposed to Huh Varian variances right that's what our board of appeals does Well let's bring that up later Let's quickly cover Southwick and Bloom If you've got to go you can What's Southwick and Bloom you don't need me for that Or do you need me this is Southwick and Bloom Oh it's a contest Uh
Julie give us a quick update on where we are on this So we have the flyers and I have some for you You can take one just you know for your information or maybe even spread the word about this You probably noticed we have the big banner
on the main road Yeah Have you noticed when you were driving back right And we've got an invoice here which I'm gonna go ahead and and to So we're trying to beautify South Lake and we're trying to have you know residents businesses participate in planned
flowers in pots in any containers Yeah No that would be um that that's a neat idea We when we did it it was the pretty committee It was just businesses and we found the businesses didn't want to spend the money because they were having a hard time keeping their head above water as it was So this is contest So
the business anybody in the town Yes Yeah So we started looking into grants to see if we could get a grant for businesses to be able to do that because it's expensive and then they have to take care of it Yeah So do you have to officially enter to be considered for
the contest so yes you can um you know just scan the QR code It's going to take you to the EDC website Yeah And it will take you to the application Yeah And then once you complete the application you will have I mean you're going to get interested What's What do you win so
it's different Oh free garden It's going to be different gifts Yeah And um and on Open Farm they will announce the winner Yeah No So you're distributing these signs to businesses We've got the big banners that are going in prominent locations It's hard It's going to be
hard to let the homeowners know about it An invoice for $69 which I've just approved You can you can have that charged Blossoming Acres will win Yes Yes because they have everything right there and they'll just they're coordinating it with our
suppliers like Acres and the others um to to help promote them as well and use No it's a neat idea resources I like that you pulled in like the whole the whole town and and this first year will be kind of as you have said is kind of a
first try and realize that we're just in the learning process but we kind of committed to the long run It's part of our master plan vision is to have beautifification We may even have one of the actions of the master plan is to have a separate committee for
beautifification Yeah I was on that Oh we had one Yeah it didn't Like I said it was hard to get moving What else should we know about this so if you can just spread the word and um there is a Facebook page and
Instagram that we're running and we're going to be posting pictures and you know just throughout Is there a link to that on isn't there a Southwood Facebook page or do we no longer have Oh that was this is the logo Yeah If you just put that in it's going to take you to Okay You know and and that's part of our EDC
page We have a business directory We have it in Joy Southwick Yep I look was looking at that today I have a pile of them on my dining room table Right The the bill's responsible for distributing some Yeah I have people come over and they don't take the thing They just they
go ahead and scan They don't need the card What we're doing Well we don't want to give these to individuals We want these posted in public places because these are not these are quality We want them to be in in shops and in restaurants And I put one in Daily Grind
Oh you did okay So they submitted that to them as well as the yeah that's a good idea thing Uh I've given one to the library I don't know if have you given out any so okay but anybody else you can
you can distribute those too can both be posted and go to all the strip malls Well I know they don't like to be called that Maybe the the best thing if you're
uncertain you know see report in our next meeting how many you've distributed and then maybe in our next meeting we can identify pockets where we need to go and we'll save these because this is a long-term thing We want to from year to year We want these to be posted for many
years right we don't these are not throwaway The reason we're going with signs and and we have our big durable aluminum heavy metal ones in six locations They're all out in the hightra uh places where recreational things are
happening Okay Well are you all set with me yes we're all set there Julie We're all set She has to take off I feel it swelling And uh thank you so much No problem I hope I helped a little bit Very helpful
It gets us gets your brain going in kind of the right direction And we want over the next couple months we want to develop kind of a high level recommendation that say here are things we think y would be beneficial to for to
the town to address Yeah Get an appointment on the planning board thing like have it all written out You can hand it out and try to get it to the planning board once you get what you the ones that you're both on it Right And and we don't have the power to enact anything So it's just merely an advisory
to the planning board Right for what we want to be help to them We want to be of assist and and once they start to move in one direction there may be things you can help them with as far as research They're busy time and they got to move those special permits along They can't you know like they got to take care of
and if there things that have to be out of town meeting they have to like get them done in a timely manner Be kind of a research No that's why your name was put on on those and you know looking at you have one So oh the I took a picture Okay
great Then we'll we'll talk then I can text it to people Yes that's a way to get it to people is I have also Yes you can save the picture I have on the Facebook page or picture So and we're gonna proceed on with our
meeting and finish up I told Julie she could go early She has a obligation Uh Jean has some news he wants to bring up to us but Julie already did I answer your question all right Oh yeah Yeah So
you can go Go ahead Thank you Thank you so much Good luck with everything Okay Thank you Good luck with Thank you Thank you It was nice seeing you all Thanks It's nice to see you and take
care Okay Bye Bye Okay So Jean would you like to read your letter or should I go ahead okay It's addressed to me And Jean is
writing saying "It seems that life has finally caught up with me along with the ripe age of 74." I'll argue with that That's very young Very young uh combating a long-term COVID sorry and
taxing disability I know you've got a handicap skip sticker now after a long battle on your took a long battle just to get that So that was totally sympathetic So with with those things I'm regretfully
resigning my position on the EDC Um goes on to explain following the demise of my wife to cancer I naively thought that involvement in local government matters of of growth and all its challenges would fill a hole left in my life by your passing Filling that
void can only be satisfied by the company of family friends and the care of like-minded of a like-minded soul So beginning in the early part of the 80s I'd spent better part of 17 years involved in local planning and neighborhood development for Charlotte
It was during this time that I participated in the development of a master plan as promagated by the University of North Carolina's urban in Charlotte's urban institute As it turns out the master plan has become the blueprint for cities
and towns across the country I immediately had a passion for balancing the needs of the community the developers builders and city I was committed to give it my best efforts I had hoped to rekindle that passion as a productive citizen of Southway Ruthfully
I now call to mind Voltater's admonition quote "The best enemy the best is the enemy of the good," unquote and it haunts me Frustratingly I realized that my quote good has now become my my best
Southquake has significant challenges as it moves forward to implement the adopted master plan The economic development commission deserves the best that its members can offer Southwick is a worthwhile town and its citizenry deserves the best of those who will
shape its future In lie of putting the needs of the my community ahead of myself I now have to focus on those who complement my life with the time left available to me As the saying goes quote "The time to
strike is when the iron is hot." Likewise the time to go is before the fire goes out As such effective 416 today 2025 my participation with the EDC has come to a close Be assured that I
will continue to work quote behind the lines to enhance the community that I call home Sincerely Jean QB And PS I want to compliment and thank you all for your efforts as well as those who have gone before me and in particular Julie
who has kept the EDC focused and we'll continue to keep the EDC up to date Very well written very thoughtfully written Um and we are deeply thankful for the time you spent
here and we we wish you all the best and totally sympathize with the necessary decision that you had to make Um and for your your honesty in grappling directly
with the issue rather than you know kind of you know stumbling and you know causing stress you don't need right now I kept thinking for the longest time that uh you know I just keep pushing forward but I kept falling further and
further and further behind not only in you know uh the things that I have to tend to and take care of I got things that I started before my wife passed and that was 16 months ago a year before
that and I still hadn't had an opportunity to get back and work on it I've let business opportunities go by the wayside a major one that maybe I might be able to resurrect but I doubt it at this point
in time because time is gone You know it's the most precious thing we have If you're in manufacturing you hear about the seven deadly sins Okay And even if Ford developed that over 100 years ago people think the
Japanese developed it They didn't Yeah And he said the three but he even whittleled it down to you know material energy The worst is time Absolutely the worst of time So you can
waste you say waste money but it moves on to somebody else to do something with it Okay But energy materials and time but the worst is time and that's I tell you for me I can I I really feel it in my bones I really
really do But I thank you for your comments I know it's not is there any or is it relatively still young but man I tell you I'm just with this disability that I have it's really really dragging
me down big time hard to get any aerobic exercise in you know when you can't even walk you know around the block so makes it tough anyway I've enjoyed it to a degree
But I just can't I can't give it everything I have Just not a way Well we appreciate what effort you did give it and that was heroic given all the challenges you're facing Thank you
again Thank you Yeah you bet I agree It was a very well worth letter and uh you certainly have talent to write anyway Well it shows you you put thought into
it Oh yeah You you know I can I can read the struggle to get it all out as clearly as possible Thank you what you're but I you know like I said I give you this meeting and but then and there's a couple of things I have couple of loose ends but I do had some things
in the on the outside that outside of this that I had worked on and we need to get back to and see see a conclusion one of the things that I had working on the back side which I've let go now is is a
reopening of metro pups you know which is huge Oh yeah that's a it's just wasted energy and there's people ready to jump in there It's such a beautiful thing And when you see people ready to
jump in for an agricultural use well for just redo what you know recreate what was there which would be great That was quite a draw for the town I worked in Boomfield Connecticut and I had people from Canton and Avon and further people
came from New York and from Vermont you know I'm running to my cousin from East Long Meadow who go there Yeah it's huge Absolutely huge you know So yeah that's one of the things I have been doing And uh the other thing I I was really
wanting to take on was the because we don't even have a little league team here in town you Yeah we do have a recreation center and I would suggest hooking up with stalker They have the they used to have a my kids are our kids
are older the same kids as they age as Greg but uh there used to be an in town baseball league and then there used to be a travel team for the baseball I guess it goes along with the diminishing get together with Kirk Sanders He was just speaking to the select board on
Monday I'd watched the video of that meeting and and talking about they're going to do the rec center parade that I know they used to have in years past that is the launch of the sports season and and I don't know how little league
would fit in with their activities but I think it's beyond what EDC would be able to do so okay but that's that's a certainly a noble cause Yeah I have I still have a stack a number of
those things and I'll try to get them all out as best I can If not I'll get them back to you Yeah No that's and I got your number and have time to do it As I said I've I've given one to the library today I dropped one at daily
grind and you know other pl places when you take it say this is these are places that list your business in them and if they don't we'll add it you know this is promoting their business this is not like we're trying to promote a third party business that
doesn't benefit them we're promoting them right we're trying to build regular traffic to the website and as I noted in the agenda we're over 1650 um unique users I think we're well
on our way to hitting that 2,000 by the end of June And we're up over 6,500 I think it's 6670 or something page views So we're going to hit our 10,000 I'm pretty sure there too because we're just starting to
get activity on this QR code I'm I'm starting to see that being the landing page for more and more people as each day goes by Good So we're going to continue wrapping up a few things You can stay or not stay
We're we're going to just try to wrap up in the next 10 or 15 minutes I'm gonna step on out then Okay All right Well thanks so much We will we're gonna stay in touch because we got some business to do Sure And and we will take care You
say Beth what do you did you send us who who else did you send just you Okay It needs to go to the board or are you going to What I would do maybe is send it to to our uh chief administrative
officer It needs to they need to be aware of vacancy Okay I'll probably I'll I'll send that to Nicole Parker Okay Uh I'll send it I can scan it unless you'd rather like
to do it yourself No please do And it's okay to send her this whole letter Yes absolutely Totally All right I I will do that And she can in turn notify the select board and and then have it changed as a vacancy because we'll need to recoup for that vacancy now All right
Okay Thanks Jean Take care Thank you Take very good care All right we'll try to gap up the rest pretty quickly Um I noted on We've got our subcommittee right here What can we do
to get this website wrapped up so deadlinks are out Um that business resources page is updated as of late last night Okay The um the um it's more kind a little chronological you know
start with business plan have consult the free consulting through score and then they have our library on there as well and then if there's anything that might be a blind is it there as a draft or is it No it's it's uh so had trouble
in I haven't found a way to like archive or like save old pages which I think would be good Um it just edited the page that was there Right Which is fine Yeah So it's not did Oh you went ahead and made it live So it should be you can edit it but until you
click to make it live it's not visible So maybe I'll have to double check But I'll look I can double check And I can make it live too if you Perfect Okay If you want Yeah I'll try and take a look at it tomorrow or the day after So and
then then I'll look at and evaluate whether there's things you know whether we've we've got a presentable site now or are there big gaps are there significant gaps are we in a good position obviously we'll never be
completely done updating But I I'll take a look at that and and and see because I I really want to kind of close up some of these efforts and this is one of them Um yeah it' be nice
to close that out before we have to go before the selectment again Right Right I wanted to primarily all these goals we want to do by the end of June which is a month away right two meetings away So this is is one of them And you
know as I look through these goals you know populating the tabs being the first one I definitely want to have that done by the end of June At least as I say it's never completely done but the basic stuff done
And then as I said a minute ago I think we'll hit the traffic goal I'm not worried about that The I want to get a subcommittee meeting Well now it's just Mark and myself without Jean on new business
evaluation So since he wasn't in this meeting I will try to meet with him in the next couple weeks um to decide what our next step is on this I
don't want to give that up even though we've had a lot of roadblocks thrown in front of that all the concern about yeah we don't want to you know do something that is not objective we don't want to be too subjective about it etc right but
I've done a lot of work on the on our um property tax database and I've thrown up a lot of concerns about business assessments and right now our residential
assessments are much more dependable source of of revenue than the business assessments Partly because I don't understand how they evaluate some of those that they they seem compared to residential assessments way
underassessed in some cases and there's confusion about well what does the profit and loss of business have to do with the assessment my understanding in remass reading mass general laws it only affects it if that would affect the market value of that
business property You know an example would be you have a thriving gas station on a busy corner That's obviously going to make that property more valuable Chipe looks at it from two different ways and well yeah you have to consider that And
then another big example is a rental property where you're leasing or running to getting that big or to other businesses like the King brothers is for sale but the businesses are just
leasing that property from an owner Correct And so the you know what they're paying for lease would play into the the assessed value of it Correct That's what I was meant by the two different ways of looking at it One is the value of the business and the other if it's a rental
they generally take into the value of the rents in determining the value of the right right it's it's the value of that as a business property obviously if you have a business like if I have a design business and I work out of my house that doesn't affect the property value because the whole value of the
business is is mere if I'm running it that's not a that shouldn't play into the assessment at all because it's not affecting the value of the property only when the the value of business is tied up in the property
itself that it matters Um and if you have a property that can't be converted easily to another business that would you know degrade You know one of the concerns about for example the Carvana whole thing if they had gone and
built that whole thing on on that valuable town center property then went bankrupt their stock was going down and closed that location it would have almost a negative value because it couldn't easily be converted to another business It would have no
business value if they were abandoning it or or if they didn't even own it and the you know whoever is leasing it to them would have no rents and you know so that that's a risk whereas a house residential properties they're not going
to easily convert to no value Correct So you have to be careful that I mean that's why this business evaluation is important You you don't want to have a business that could quickly the value of that that property could
evaporate Um sure And business real estate up front probably isn't going to generate as much property tax as as a residential mainly because a lot
of it will get classified as warehouse and whatever And and that is important in a town with very limited property available for development You want to use it to the highest value use You don't want to have huge chunks of your
town center being taken up with low value uses Mhm Or you know an example is is this property that on 42 depot that's going to be built in condos You know right now it's producing and I've got
the the numbers here somewhere It's uh currently a very small amount in as vacant property It's it's like 70,000 in tax revenues is vacant property but it could go to two or 300,000 in tax revenues as
condos right so that and I I've done it a little calculator that shows how much that would reduce everybody else's property tax and a 300,000 value I think I calculated if it wasn't for for the 300,000 in the depot
square property everybody else's the median the the tax for median house would have gone up by $75 dollars Correct But our committee is to promote business not residential though It's
economic development And I I think that that uh residential is economic development too because it's it's it's revenue for the town And without revenue for the town there's no
development I think economic development can be either business or residential And if if the avenue if residential produces better economic health for the town we should prefer that
I hear what you're saying but we generally spend our time talking about businesses and what businesses are coming in with more than pro you know more than residential sales or residential
growth Although I'm I'm questioning that if if if we have limited potential for business growth but there's potential if we were able to help
some residential especially around the town center help improve residential growth around the town center That will boost all the businesses in the town center Yeah synergistic need both to make it work You need you need customers
for the businesses That's true But I always view the role of this committee to be more to generate more economic activity Well economic activity is not comes from more residents too
Well that's true You need businesses to generate the economic activity And what's the value of economic activity if it doesn't help tax revenues i isn't that the main value to the town of economic activity is it is
it I think it's certainly part of it but I think because without tax revenues one of two things happen everybody's property tax goes way up or services and maintenance go way down And either way the the town
declines if if you don't if you don't sustain revenue for the for the town and do it in a way and the idea is not just unrestrain growth but to do growth
in a way that either maintains or improves the quality of life in the town because you don't want the a type of business with big trucks rolling through the town that make it miserable uh just to lower
property tax by a few dollars But if you can get growth that actually enhances the town and lowers your property tax or keeps the growth from going as quite as h fast I hear what you're saying It just
seems like that our focus would be on developing more business And I can understand what you're saying You're bringing in more tax revenue but I'm just saying we're not here advertising come to Southwork to live course wherever we would be more
promoting come develop your business in South Lake and and as I have argued from our perspective the best way to do that is to make the environment of Southwake conducive the business to help existing
businesses do more and if if people come through and say oh all the businesses are really thriving this is a great place to open my business so we're trying to do things that help current and existing businesses thrive and part of that is bringing more
customers into the area around the town center So that's part of what I'm thinking of I'm I'm working on a idea for bike trail to come into the town center for example and that can really
help economic Yeah I think that'd be a great idea So coming in through where the ground is it the ground or the the the daily grind well coming up through our our church
property and we've got I just talked to John Goddard a couple a week or two ago and he gave me the a letter from the developer because we come across the corner that 42D from Oak Street and the developer is all in favor of it Okay do
anything to help that happen That would help the businesses and it seems we advertise ourselves as a residential community So it seems Yeah And I think we could cover entertainment and restaurants It's going to be a year or two to get it going We want to go after
a grant and you know probably take some community development u community preservation funds in addition to the grant to to cover it but it's not going to be it's a quarter acre
or quarter mile of additional trail compared to the seven miles that are already there which I think doubles the value of the trail to the town by having it come right to the center town Plus have parking I'm thinking more than double More than double Plus plus to
have parking right in the center of town for the bike Parking's huge Yeah because there's a limited Miller Road It's the only place right now Anyway that's so that's new business evaluation I'm going to try to get together with
Mark to keep that going Um because I see that as is part of our core function the signs I I sent out the all of the the big bracketed kiosk signs are up in place and starting to get activity We've
got these to go out We'll we'll keep working that over the next few months to get that in as many places as we can I've also put one at at Bali Park Uh and I I got permission from David be the
Lori to put one at the pavilion there between the restrooms So it's undercover and on the the wall I put some double stick foam pieces that that did to the block wall
Would you be interested in having these in businesses or restaurants in town oh absolutely That's what we're doing and that's why we had uh initially Julie and her South African Bloom group because they're going around to put leaves out
and I said while while you're out getting these posted you know offer these too So that's why they had a stack that they're doing in the process of approaching several restaurants in town on another matter Oh yeah bring these by by all
means And and they can tape it to a window showing out They can tape it to a wall or any any place that it's visible to customers and hopefully for the long run You know reason I want to do signs is because I
want them to last for years You know you buy an ad it's gone in a week Put up a a fairly durable sign and it can be there for years Mhm Our hopefully our kiosk ones will be there for decades
And be by having a QR code we can change where it goes to We can modify the website so it never goes out of date So meetings with business owners Someday Bill will come back for a meeting I haven't seen that in a while
But maybe maybe you can talk to him in before the next meeting and get some more ideas to either have a you could have a meeting in between or bring ideas to the next meeting He's very busy with his business now Would an open house for
like a open house for a meeting be realistic because I think that makes kind of the most sense other than a specific Well you have to have a a theme Yeah of what we're gonna talk about I guess would be I think you have to have a group that that is somewhat uniform in
their interest because our businesses are so diverse it has to be like a consumer walk-in business restaurant or shop and you know if it's have something of value always think in terms of what's
in it for the business person Yeah because who wants to show up i mean restaurants right now is they're busy you know the dinner time So it's tough The limited feedback that I've got is Yeah I'm I mean I'm focused on this Why am I going to come over and like sit
there for an hour so trying to find something that's providing value to them That's why I I threw out Bill says "Oh I I'm I'm good at doing this I I've done this in my business." And so I said "Bring some proposals." And I'm not asking that you
just go off and do it on your own Bring some ideas to our group where we can approve discuss and approve and and think of a way to launch One of the meetings just hey this is the economic development commission You might have
heard of us Someone might have stopped in your business We do a email blast out to our list and say we're having an open house So we're working on the kiosk signs Be the you can have one if you didn't get one Then southwick and bloom I'm not sure This doesn't have an exact
date on it but having people here before the exact date Well it's got got to be planted before you get too far in the summer Yeah The kind of the deadline would be that you better get your stuff in by June at the latest Yeah So it's going to bloom in the summer because
they're going to judge it in August Okay late July or early August Yep So it's it's got to be up and displayed and say the first the first year in it is going to be a learning year They're not going to
optimize it in the very first year but we'll we'll learn a lot Yeah And and other people will will see and and admire what's out there and maybe say "Wow I should do that too." Yeah Like you said visual you know so people see it But like a 15 minute say "Hey I mean
try to fill fill a few seats and say hey you want to see what we do on the ground great If you got to get out of here no problem We'll cover everything we've been doing in the past five months in 15 minutes." And another option that's actually one of the actions in the
master plan is to invite a business in here every meeting to have a short discussion with kind of a a feature business to start getting to know people So we don't have to start with a big group I'd say if we do a big group you
better have something to dazzle them or they're going to not want to come back Yeah I agree But if you have just one at a time they they come for an hour half hour even stay in the meeting and talk
about their business and you know gripe about time government or whatever they want to do Yeah I like that idea too Well listen Well it'll be mostly in that case a chance for them to listen Yeah Chance for us to listen to what they
have to say a chance for them to to talk and and you know so we picked some that that had had something to say and we'd be you know mostly listening very
attentively and and trying to to respond Okay Then vacant town properties We talked a little bit about the example with Julie
and we've got our website set up with that link I assume now for the for the business [Music] listings Uh the enhancements to the town
center you know Jean out you know I'm down to to one I one of the things I'm focused on right now is the spike trail and I have not mentioned it this first time mentioning
actually public meeting but it's just so much in the early stage I'm not ready to uh publicize it so keeping the discussions fairly private but it looks very positive um I think there's a
chance that the might be more receptive to lower the speed limit if they're thinking there's going to be additional bike traffic coming in off the bike trail to the Exactly That's what I'm thinking I'm going to interpret the resistance to not
saying absolute no that we're not ready for it Um what what we need to do to to be more ready for it is to show that it's the south that can bloom effects if we have people wanting to walk through town and
look at the blooms I've thought we've got this really nice um monument center at the at the congregational church and you know they've landscaped that but we drive by
it and there's no place to park no place to walk easily walk over to enjoy it Um I' I'd like to encourage people to to on nice summer evenings to walk through town and and uh you know I'm working with
both the historical society and the historical commission on developing some things that can go on our website that might be a self-guided tour of the historical sites in the town and you know getting people to appreciate
the you know our 250 plus history and and enjoy walking through And of course you you want to do your walk and get your exercise in the evening walking through town You're going to stop at shops and restaurants and whatever
and enjoy it and and gradually get more beautifification get more places for people to sit and maybe at that point realize oh this would be much more pleasant if we you know slowed traffic down a little bit and it wouldn't
actually take more than 15 seconds more to drive through town But you would just you'd be calming traffic more than slowing down the total travel time like that tone of calming calming Um in the
longer run I would hope they would be able to construct the road in a way that it doesn't look like a drag strip where you could have more marked careful turning lanes at specific points and rather than the whole wide open center
strip and and a lot and by having the crosswalks all of that calms the traffic gets people in more attentive mood I see people cross the street now It scares me a couple weeks ago was driving up
through the center and this like 11-year-old kid was on his little bike and darting across the the top of the hill and yeah scary I worry about that U you
know having places to cross and to be able to walk and enjoy it is a long-term goal but we got to be ready for that before we're ready to bring that up again So working on these other ways to make the downtown more walkable more
pleasant area is that that is I read everywhere that I look about walkability being a huge driver of economic activity in in a town center or
city center that if you make it a pleasant place to walk you have more activity you have more people spending time there And the density of a business is definitely on College Highway by far and especially this town center part
with the sidewalks And we've got to make it a more attractive place And it rated high in our in our survey to to make our business core a more pleasant place to do business
Okay See anything else here the library We'll have to talk about Craig hasn't had a lot of free time either I may you know touch base with them and and see if there's any new sense I can
tie up with that Their link to their employer program is on the business resource page That's a start Yeah And and I I wanted to get that start that anger anchored in there but I will
uh go on and see if there's other things we can do to enhance that at some point Maybe not in the immediate future but eventually I'd like to get get that connection done I did give them one of these
and Lyn should have that posted there um talked about South and Bloom and zoning So I think that coverage do you have any other questions on the agenda or anything we're doing
okay we don't have a quorum to vote on just say we are now adjourned How many members are we found children Well Jean we're only down one
member What yeah we got we have eight We have eight We We're full in front Okay Let's see How do I pause oh there it is Stoping