##VIDEO ID:VSs513pFqk0## it is 7 o'clock on October 28th and we will call to order the meeting of the Southwick board of appeals with us tonight we have B gregar my parent dalius Chris mastriani and Wendy cordiero Bill Liss is traveling for work so I had a couple texts back and forth with him he's not able to uh join us on Zoom so uh he apologizes for that and we'll have to pick up some of the U business that we were I was going to try to get over with tonight we'll have to do that at the the next meeting um this meeting is hybrid on being recorded on Zoom and on audio you know seeing myself here a little bit too much um so um okay this paperwork is anything you need to do no it's just like that letting you know that they're going to be going um they might be having a hearing with the planning board regarding uh buffer Wetlands okay we need to say tany road but it doesn't say where on Tannery road but somebody bought all that acreage yeah it's like 98 that was sold yeah it's pretty close to the line maybe is that what that is off at 10 202 on Tanner Tanner Road and then I think it go go down the hill Oh The Bridge towards bridge I think the rails and trails run through it as well yeah the uh back yeah did had been broken up the reason I know is I'm the one that bought it okay you bought that land yeah 30 it's 37 Acres wow you know I can we can talk Acres which is it it's it's 37 it was it was originally offered the whole 90 the old lambella dairy farm and then it got broken up but I somebody just greed that somebody just went in yeah that's the one next next door that's the oh that's not the one you got no all right let's look at these uh sensive meeting minutes here we can talk about that from uh August 26 the pretty short meeting but we were just we just had the meeting in order to tie up the Loose Ends from the uh previous few meetings on that that specific application at Lake Moon so uh [Music] pretty uh pretty simple anyone have any comments motion to accept the minutes we have a motion to accept the minutes do we have a second second second all in favor I meeting minutes from August 26 are accepted [Music] the appointments to the board were finally done I don't know when do you know exactly when it was it was like early September and I didn't I didn't find out about it until I asked the question of the select board and I was told oh yeah it was was done three or four weeks ago so uh everybody has has been reappointed uh for this for this that were due for this year and that was Mike Dan and myself so for next year Mike and Dan are again uh have to have their their term uh refreshed and Paul yours is is next year June of next year yeah I'm I'm good through 27 and Bill is good through 26 and Wendy unfortunately has the light the life sentence it's called life term I just every time I see that it just I just find it amusing that it's referred to like that but that's where we stand on that uh it was originally my intention to have the election for the commission commission for the chairman and vice chairman and so on on and so forth but after corresponding with Bill he requested that we delay that until he's here unfortunately the next meeting won't be until the end of November because of Veterans Day I assume town hall closed yes it do yeah okay so veterans they would have been our next possible scheduled day so it'll uh I think it's the 25th of November we'll have to at least what they Thanksgiving 25th no8 that's Thanksgiving week so yeah yeah Thanksgiving week so we'll have a short meeting I'll be off chasing turkeys or something we'll have a short meeting just to have the get the election out of the way for uh for the year even though they got to have to do it again in in June but all right uh one thing I wanted to talk about about is after the select board after Diane on the select board had happened to look at the videos of the meetings that we had from Lakemont street she contacted me and uh generously pointed me in the direction of the handbook for boards and committee on on how we might be able to better handle situations like that so I went and looked at those references and I put together a more formalized uh agend not real agenda format I guess I'm G to follow to uh kind to announce rules and things before we before we start these meetings like um to avoid try to avoid some of situations like that well I'll just briefly go through that uh call the meeting to order that's all basic time attendance hybrid announce Zoom we'll do our paperwork and then before the actual applications we're supposed to do a uh ask for if there's anybody at the meeting that's that's here to dis that wants to discuss something that's not on the agenda and that uh that would be this this little third bullet there so there's uh specified in the handbook there's a five minute limit per person and speakers must follow the instructions of the board members and there can be no no interruptions by other people um during that time so we will we would hear those comments but we don't have to do anything about them because it's not an agenda item they speaking things that are not going to be talked about that night yeah if somebody has a public comment that actually the law that we have to do that in Westville all the time and I'm was surprised you guys didn't do that some of the other boards do it and and U they're a little bit better at it than than than I have been but that's the general public we're talking about here yeah just five minutes okay yeah um and then then we move on to agenda items so I think before anytime we hear a application we should go through these gu guidelines is uh read the public notice and then I have it written in here that I'll have to edit this is I'll I'll well the chairman will announce who's voting on on the the application that is in front of the board at the time petitioner makes the presentation board members ask ask questions the public makes the public directs all question to the board and another five minute timeline living per person uh so they members of the public do not interact directly with the petitioners I mean if if if it's a a simple question and you know that it's not going to be ex extremely one of the things that we always had to do is we always said is there anybody here to speak in favor okay of the petition okay and then you would hear whoever had to do that and then is there anybody here to speak against okay the petition and then you'd have to hear okay I'll I'll add that in here that's that's good good comment um so then then the the board would take into consideration the comments from the public and get the petitioners uh answers to those when when all that has been satisfied the public hearing portion of it will be closed and then we discuss among ourselves the application uh we entertain motions and if if we have a motion then we'll take a vote and announce our decision and then as we normally do we advise the applicant of uh waiting periods and and written decisions and and anything like that and then after that we'll preview any new business have any additional uh discussions and then adjourn the meeting so you know take these sheets with you and U you know look through it if you have any other comments to send me an email or something I'll Incorporated in that but I I think we need an a more more detailed uh recitation of the rules before before the meeting yeah I know Paul but after the the the circus of the last one hopefully that's that's the anomaly but uh uh I just just to say a few sentences before the each thing maybe it makes it more official uh and whether it have any effect or not I'm not I'm not sure but one one of the things that I noticed that I would say 50% of the things that we had come before us we would delay till the next meeting to do some more research on it okay and and ones that were simple you would say is everyone ready to vote now but if people said I'd like to delay this to the following meeting so I can do some research on this so there there wasn't always pressure to vote that night yeah especially since they only got five minutes to present it oh no that the five minutes this is on public comments but you yeah so that's the person presenting or proposing yeah that that's not the five minute that the five minute rule doesn't apply to them that's just people making comments from the uh from the uh audience the public I don't know that's what I read but well I I can try to clear clean that up I I'll look back at what the uh what the what the handbook says and and try to just duplicate that but that's that yeah that's that's what it is we're not we're not going to limit the yeah you don't have you don't have a time lition and the questions it's just public comments yeah so uh well technically we give them about 15 minutes for the petitioner oh when we when we uh if we have more than one we allow 15 minutes oh okay so yeah that's I mean if it's really complicated then we could put it half an hour but yeah that's when you schedule it we try to do them 15 minutes apart yeah so not just sitting here waiting for that the clock to tick to the the next one yeah yeah you know this is obviously I did this in in response to How uh chaotic to some of these other meetings have been so hopefully you'll these you will never get never kick in and and have to uh uh rely on it but I think it's good just to to have it on there and have it on the recording that uh that we did that so but one of the things Chris said oftentimes we tried to do is what you did later on was explain what the zoning board of appeals can and can't do and then say the only part of this whole thing that we're studying is this and set that as a pre pre preference or precedent ahead of time so that everybody's not all of a sudden jumping up and saying well I don't like that guy because he's got blue sh you know so I would always say this is what the zoning board can and can't do so therefore don't get bring other things up because we're not I mean you might feel better that you said it but we don't have any power over that so that was always good to stayed ahead of time what the zoning board can and can do all right well if we give somebody five minutes and then then they want to use up that time talking about all things that that don't pertain then uh after their five minutes I maybe we can say all right well thanks for comments but we're only going to talk about about this we're not going to talk about health issues and and all that stuff all right it you know it's it's a work in progress but I I think it to be helpful to have something a little bit formalized so if you know read through it think about it and if you have any uh comments just forward them to me and I'll maybe in the month between now and the next meeting we we can uh get that get that finalized I after we run it through one time we'll have a better feeling yeah because right now it's kind of yeah oh I know I just I just threw it together just to get something better than my handwritten notes of uh make sure we take attendance that that kind of thing um that that's all I have anybody we don't have any new business come boy we really been quiet quiet um all right anybody uh let's see what's what's this list say Okay preview any new business any additional discussion anybody no and time to adjourn do we have wow that's that's that's really fast record um I do have one thing okay um from the recent things that happened more hilly passed something about the auds alternative oh I don't auil auxiliary dwelling unit or something Adu yeah so a single family a single family residence can have a less than 900 square foot house put on their residence so how would something like that flow down for like bylaws and stuff like that you mean like an anual apartment apartment yeah yeah so I guess with a lot of people working at home they'll build something small so it would be like their workspace or they're also talking about multi-generational living where somebody can have two houses on their can't have two houses it's it's an auxiliary dwelling unit and it's and and that's what passed so that's I just I was just wondering how how it works how it flows down yeah I would think it' have to be something that the town have to put in by the state or it's in massach it's Pass in Massachusetts one of the things that's very cloudy also is any of these people that want to build a low rent or low cost housing I think that it kind of throws all the rules out that we don't there's certain things that we and I'm not sure what it is but there's certain things we can't rule on at all and it's almost like they get a a stamp that says they can do a lot of stuff that is against the zoning laws that's why I'm wondering how how this is going to be flowed down and how it's going to interact with our Z I know it's not something we specifically touched on before but I remember when people were building garages and we would say what's all this you know what are you going to use all this space up above the garage you know um you know because it's it's probably big enough to to have a little apartment up there and then and oh what's this going to be storage so if you know if it if it was storage then then we couldn't say anything about it but if it was obviously well we're going to have another little staircase up there that I I don't think that that's something we would have been able to to allow at the time but maybe maybe that's going to that's going to change but I would think that the the town would have to put something in the yeah in the bylaws just like solar panels or cannabis or you know some something new would have to be put into the massachusett general laws first and then and then get incorporated into yeah I'm just looking at it from board of appeals you know like violating setbacks and stuff like that you know yeah a garage versus a alternate dwelling unit I just yeah yeah I don't know what I I have to look at the BW because there's probably stuff in there that says that now says you can't have two that's what I'm thinking two residences on lot so far we can't right right this is totally different yeah this maybe it came from these people putting up these little what do they call mini house oh yeah that's exactly what it is it's it's it's under supposed to be under 900 square fet that's not you know 9 by 10 w we would put that in the decision that would say this cannot be used as U dwelling for PE you know above the garage yeah that was part of the conditions of the decision was that this cannot because when they said we use it as storage well 6 months later they want to put housing up there and put a bathroom and all that and we would specifically say that this decision limited people from using that as residence yeah but yeah I I agree but I think something that is going to have to appear in in the bylaws that at least addresses or defines what uh this Adu is is it above a garage is it a separate building is it a yeah is it an addition off the house that that has its own yeah the way I read it it's it's a separate building is it okay and that's that it's a little stickier inlaw part allowable yeah now one of the things that I think it was once a year maybe twice a year um and they used to actually you know us to go there um they would have a meeting where they would have a couple of attorneys come in and talk about all the rulings yeah yeah we went to one of those once up at the off the law cabin yeah but that was that was several years ago that was on the yeah sure we used to go to them every year and you know was and all the zoning board people and everybody else were all there and the attorney would go through all these different things at the time of was Cannabis you know growing cannabis and what the regulations were inspector that's what we going to oh oh okay and they had their lawyer telling us yeah they they basically just telling little anecdotes yeah you what would H what do you think happens when when somebody's driveway is on you know somebody else's property but they it's in a different town and but any so yeah all right we'll have to keep an eye out for that hopefully that doesn't come up but uh but if it does we'll bring yeah yeah don't don't go publicizing that but uh yeah I mean if somebody decided to build on land that was agricultural or whatever and decided to build a low rent um apartment complex or what do they call it R apartment yeah there's not many much we can do to stop that even though it's not even I think that when I was in agam that there were there was a controversy of it's all built now but I think if the town has less than some percentage of housing is is subsidized or or then then the the zoning laws cannot prevent it prevent it from being built yeah we we have that that's same section B yeah so what whatever I think that that's that might be what you're talking about I don't I'm not sure the details how Southwood fits into those details have no say have no say of it like State mandates it yeah but I don't know how what percentage of oh yeah whether I don't know what the rules and I don't know how close we are to but we won't we won't dig of that so that's all I have anybody want want to make a motion to motion to aurn motion to adjourn and watch the World Series we have a second right around too a second everyone in favor okay the meeting is is adjourned at 7:25 W just