e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening welcome everyone to the March 6 2024 y with planning board meeting I am Joanne Crowley chair this is to formally advise that as required by Massachusetts general laws chapter 38 paragraphs 18 to 25 and pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 an act relative to extending certain state of emergency accommodations signed into law on June 16 2021 the armouth planning board will hold a public hearing and a public meeting on March 6 2024 at 5:30 p.m. the public is welcome to attend in person this evening or via alternative Public Access provided on the notice of meeting available on the town of the Yarmouth website I will Begin by taking roll call Susan BR here will Rubenstein here Jim sain present Peter Slovak here Ken Smith here Chris Vincent and Joanne Crowley present seeing that we have a quorum I'll not call the meeting to order and I'd like you to join me in the Pledge of Allegiance the United States of America to The Republic which stands one nation indivisible liy jce for all thank you thank you first item on our agenda this evening is a public hearing regarding the 2024 annual town meeting zoning bylaw article number one related to short-term rentals I would like to now open the public hearing on this annual town meeting article I note the time as 5:35 following the protocol for public hearings I'll first read into the public record the public hearing notice that was published in the Cap Cod Times on Fe February 20th and February 27th uh but before I do that I would like the planning board members who are here to introduce themselves and I'll start with Mr Smith who is to my left uh good evening Ken Smith Peter Slovak hi I'm will Rubenstein SU oh sorry that's all right Joan Crowley I've already introduced myself Jim Savin thank you public meeting notice published in the cape cut times on February 20th and 27th uh 2024 the yth planning board will hold a public hearing on Wednesday March 6th 2024 at 5:30 pm. in the hearing room of the armouth toown offices 1146 Route 28 South Yarmouth Mass 02664 and via remote access on its website or via telephone um to consider the following proposal to amend the Yarmouth zoning bylaw number one amend section 48.6 of the zoning bylaw to extend the expiration date for the sunset clause for Section 48 short-term rentals copies of the complete proposed text for the amendments are available at the planning division Yarmouth Town Offices 1146 Route 28 South the armouth mass 02664 during business hours 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and on the town of Yarmouth website under the planning division any person wishing interested or wishing to be heard on the proposal to amend the zoning bylaw should appear at the time and place designated written comments will be accepted and should be directed to the planning board care of Kathy Williams Town planner at K Williams yarmouth.ma us no later than March 5th 2024 at 5:00 p.m. signed by the armouth planning board chair Joanne Crowley so the agenda for this evening on this public hearing will uh present one Amendment for your consideration uh and the Order of the meeting will be as follows for many of some of you who have been here um you know the public hearing protocols uh our town planner Kathy Williams will present the amendment um we will uh uh listen to and and accept comments from the public after the article is explained written comments will then be reviewed by uh Kathy Williams Town planner I will then close the public hearing um and that will be followed by the public meeting um of the planning board where we will deliberate and discuss the amendment um as a reminder um please use the mic and identify yourself and your address um if you wish to speak uh I'd like Kathy now to uh present the article Joanne and everyone has introduced themselves our lovely planting board lovely so we have a very simple uh zoning Amendment for the sorry you should probably have this over here a very simple zoning Amendment for annual town meeting it's really simply to extend the sunset clause for Section 418 which is the short-term rentals we want to be sure that we can have the continuation of this use and also the continuation of receiving the shortterm rental excise tax revenues uh while we continue to do a little further studies and Analysis are being conducted I think everyone who's here is very familiar with what a short-term rental is but a little bit of background is it's when you're renting a room or apartment or a house for less than 31 days at a time so it's your typical vacation rental that we're talking about in 2018 the state um required the um the short-term rental registry and they also formed the cape and Islands uh water protection fund which helps fund our Wastewater programs on the cape and they also allowed um communities to put an excise tax on uh short-term rentals the town of arth has a 6% uh excise tax on short-term rentals and it uh generated about $1.5 million in FY 23 we've also as a community designated 75% of those funds uh to our Wastewater programs very important uh source of funding for that program uh back in 2021 there was a case law that really brought into question whether short-term rentals are something that would be allowed in residential zoning districts if it wasn't specifically mentioned and allowed in the zoning bylaw uh so we wanted to be sure that we weren't putting our short-term and Jeopardy in that excise tax that we were receiving uh so the town did add um this bylaw section 418 uh in the 2022 annual town meeting and it expressly allowed for short-term rentals and it also included a lot of Provisions to help protect uh the character of our residential neighborhoods this was done in a relatively expedited fashion uh to avoid having impacts to the 2022 summer season uh and because of that expedited uh process we did include a sunset Clause that was added uh to the bylaw so that we can kind of see how it worked and get uh any additional information um from these additional studies that that I had mentioned so basically without the amendment um to the sunset Clause section 418 will expire on November 13 2024 and short-term rentals would not be allowed in yarm we would not be able to get that excise tax so just to remind people a little bit of what are some of the protections that are in the existing bylaw uh we have defined ineligible units so so anybody who has a capital A affordable deed restricted unit can't do it none of the access apartments that we just got through um can do it as well as any units that have any type of building or code violations are are ineligible again we're continuing any rental unit and short-term rentals itself uhu need to be registered and inspected by the health department and they also need to provide a 24hour local contact some of the general Provisions to help with the with the neighborhoods is requiring that trash removal be done after each occupancy is completed or once a week if it's an extended um multi-week uh short-term rental we also had a lot one one of the other things we heard um about was with parking where people were parking with regard to their short-term rentals so we wanted to make sure that there was adequate on-site parking requiring a minimum of one Spa one parking space per bedroom we do not allow any parking on the street or on the Lawns at night time not on the Lawns ever but uh not on the street uh overnight street parking and then no street parking at any times if you're creating some type of Hazard you're blocking an intersection you're blocking uh access for emergency vehicles um to kind of minimize some of the the turnover we did have a duration of a minimum of two nights obviously no RVs Campers or tents can be used and you need to meet all of the state and local regulations um that we have for building building uh Health fire water department and also any pet control laws we have in town one of the big thing was restricting the types of rentals we really wanted to be sure that these were residential uses only so we have no large scale events are allowed so you can't have a large scale wedding or a big corporate event or a big class reunion or and I know sometimes there's been and issues with photo shoots at short-term rentals so those are specifically not allowed and no events that include T tents like the large tents that you might need or any type of Amplified music which might impact the neighbors and again we just kind of put in an a general copy out of any adverse effect on neighborhood um that basically impacts a person's ability to enjoy their own property and again as I mentioned there is the sunset Clause that's in there that expires on November 13 2024 so what does this Pro proposed bylaw Amendment do one very simple thing it extends the sunset CL from November 13th 2024 to November 30th of 2026 this is being done at the annual town meeting instead of the Fall because we're not sure the date of the Fall town meeting and it may um we just want to avoid any conflicts with the presidential election we know how busy that the town clerk's office gets with the early voting and stuff so they typically on a presidential year like to have the fall town meeting after the election and that unfortunately would probably be after the expiration date so we just want to make sure that we're not having the situation where this bylaw is expiring so what are some of the further studies and Analysis we might be looking at the affordable housing trust voted $50,000 to do a short-term rental study this was one of the items I think you the planning board might remember uh that was included in the uh as a housing preservation strategy and the housing production plan and we did have some comments um with regard to to that specific language in the housing production plan so really just taking a look and compiling uh information and data on yarm what are the short-term rentals what's our housing situation what are our rentals and that type of thing and then try trying to evaluate the relationship between these seasonal and short-term rentals in our year round housing and availability on prices and then of course looking at the revenues that that are generated from that and then recommending any strategies um that might be able to amplify all the benefits that we get from short-term rentals but also mitigate any identified uh uh negative impacts or issues that we've been having with with short-term rentals so we're going to continue to collect data through the new online permitting uh system of opengov and we're also going to be looking U for some add input from town staff un identifying any complaints received or any issues like that the Building Commissioner Mark grills is here and he has does have some information um on some of the of the issues that have been happening uh recently it might be good to have him maybe give a little bit a brief uh overview of the complaints that he might he's received which have been relatively few do you want to come up to the mic Mar for you I bet I've never heard that before Madam chair members of the board Mark brills Building Commissioner um last year in Yarmouth we um logged 13003 short-term rental units out of 133 we received 10 complaints four of them were for the same property um and and the complaints were all minor in nature had to do with parking location uh the 4 unit one uh the four complaint one had um a minimal amount of trash on the ground it just the neighbors were hyperfocused on the property so that's what it would seem anyway and two of the complaints um I called them myself it had to do with parking in the road and the people had the cars moved within the hour so uh each one of these has been a a quick phone call uh to remedy the situation it didn't have to go through a long-term process of writing letters they they like to keep um the reports to the vbo and the Airbnb people they like the complaints to be kept to a minimum um because they get a bad rating I guess through the through the program so they like to keep a well kep property so um there are many um a lot more of them in the south in the West Yarmouth area than yport doesn't have that much uh availability for properties that could be considered short-term rentals I guess but there are some but there're just there's more of them south of south of uh Route Six thank you that's about all I have any questions uh yes I have one um of the 1303 can you do you have the breakdown of Southwest and yarmouthport no no the U open goov cannot map them yet I was trying to get it to work that way but the program it won't do it for me I tried I I did look on the town on the uh State's registry and I think it's it's almost evenly percentage wise based on the amount of residential housing we have obviously there's less in yarm forth because you literally have less housing units in yarmouthport so maybe there's like 300 in yarmouthport and then pretty much evenly distributed between West and and South Yarmouth yeah well I I just I'm just referring to the uh we had a Q&A an FAQ rather um when we first presented this at annual town meeting and back then um we had uh over a hundred in yarmouthport and then kind of an equal amount between South and West does that sound that's about accurate there's more in yarmouthport now I think proportionally things have gone up because I think when we did the FAQs there was about 900 shortcom this is this is from 2021 yeah it's dated okay thank you Mark you're welcome anything else mam chair I have a quick question yes uh M um Mark throughout the process of getting to this bylaw as well as the Adu bylaw we talked a lot about the burden that some of these things could cause to your department specifically and now that we have a couple years worth of evidence could you just talk a little bit about whether that's true whether what the impact has been on your department has there been any hiring and to help meet whatever the need is and certainly it sounds like it's grown from 900 to 1300 so could you talk about that for please yeah since the uh Inception of this new bylaw the short-term rental bylaw we've we've been able to hire a new another housing inspector so now we have two which that's helped they're still busy but it's it's definitely take the burden off the one um and um as far as um the adus that's really nothing's hit yet because we just got confirmation from the uh from the uh AG's office today but um yeah we're we're always busy though but we did hire another building inspector which is like he's kind of useless right now and that's to be expected probation areway um a three-year learning curve so he'll be useless for a little while but but in general you would not describe you would not describe your department as overwhelmed because of this we're just no definitely not no we're just busy but great we're not overwhelmed thank you thanks good question any other uh members of the public would like to speak please come to the microphone introduce yourself um and let us know your address sure Linda bager from bter Avenue um question I have for you is as you're collecting all this data and then putting it together will that that be made public and in what format will that be Kathy I'm going to refer to you yeah sure I mean the affordable housing trust is going to be doing the study and I'm sure they will have presentations I'm sure they'll want to be having presentations with regard to the community housing committee and then we can certainly have a presentation here in in the planning board the whole idea is to collect the information to help inform us as to whether we need to make any changes and this may not be just zoning by a law changes we may be say we may say you know from a zoning standpoint we're we're pretty good this seems to be working but maybe we want to start talking about some general bylaws we had talked very briefly about some bylaw changes that were done General bylaw in Provincetown and some of the restrictions to that so we're hoping that this um study that's being done by the affordable housing trust will give some of those suggestions of you know these are some of the things you might want to consider and then there'll be a whole process of okay let's consider those are those right for yarm if they're not and in terms of the data will it be sort of will it be granular I mean will a community like Ham's Park be able to actually look at what's going on in our neck of the woods well at some at some point I if I may Kathy uh the this would have to be a consultant that we would hire correct and our scope of work for the consultant could include um uh Provisions uh uh similar to what you're asking that we look at particular neighborhoods perhaps um but that scope of work is is usually a public document as we develop it um and again it will be managed through the affordable housing Trust and the housing committee uh but we all of that will be public and to the degree that we can focus on particular areas of concern uh we will try to do that great thank you thank you Linda good evening Christine gy from uh Glenwood Street in West jarms uh first and foremost um I want to thank you I know a lot of hard work Goes Forth with the planning board and with various departments in the town who have to you know be the monitor s and the policemen and everything else on these things and I will in full disclosure say that having purchased a home uh Cottage in 1981 that for two decades I was a short-term rental you know owner um you know very carefully monitored by my husband and I so that we could really be ref uh respectful to our neighbors in the neighborhood and I think that's the concern that comes up regularly um is that right now it's like a nuclear winter down in my neighborhood I mean I'm one of three people who live year round on the street and everybody else is gone and then you start seeing you know people rearing so of course you're going to see additional traffic and people in the neighborhood because these are people who are now come back to enjoy the beauty of the neighborhood however um it is also very very popular for short-term rentals and some of the issues obviously over the years have been the density of what's going on I mean I've had situations where I've tried to get back into my home down um uh wward and harbor and not been able to because of the parked cars on either side of the street and that section in an ambulance that was attempting to treat a medical emergency there and I wound up turning around and B back up in 28 and coming back in the other way so there are significant issues and one of the things that strikes me that I've always wondered um I've always concerned about one who do you call when you I mean I don't like to bother the police with things but it's like is you know it would help for the public to know you know who it is if you've got an issue in the neighborhood about short-term rentals who would you call that would be a good piece of information I think before the season starts for those of us who are very confused I mean know poor Mark's going to be answering the phone or whatever but you know if there is somebody or some Department that's designated I think that would be very very helpful secondly um I've always had this fantasy that in some way or another because I know you're supposed to inspect um that we could actually be very Cooperative with you because if we're finding like huge numbers of rental a house has it has that town actually been inspected and permitted and allowed it by the town or they just simply bypassing and then also how many people are allowed to be there with how many cars because I've seen situations we've had seven or rate cars and I'm sorry a house that size does not have room to sleep a potential of 14 people depending upon how many people came in the car and I've often wondered sometimes if there couldn't be some kind of little site that just says you know certain addresses or how many capacity or something it' be easy for us rather than troubling people to say oh I'm worried about you know 10 Smith Street and um sorry about that and and you know they've got six cars out there all night long and yet it looks like it's a little tiny place um and so it's sort of like almost as if there was some kind of easy way as a neighbor that I could check to see have they indeed paid their taxes to the town because this revenue is important to us and also to know how many people truly are permitted you know into that facility um into that uh house and so as I said I'm very happy I I think you know the fact that there is more work to be done I think it's great that you're not allowing this to Sunset but that you're going to continue the opportunity to take a look at the information the data and particularly um with this new uh open gov site and all to really start to take a look at some of that but um I know we're going to be very popular I mean we our Chamber of Commerce is out advertising you come see us we've got beaches we've got water we've also got of quality of life that's very important and a protection of our environment because a lot of these cars do park on the lawn so I'm sorry you know that's one of the things I observe and it's kind of fascinating to see what the regulation is because I don't think those are being complied with at the same time so in order to protect the quality of life the environment and everything else I think that there's still elements um as we go forward with this thank you thank you Christine uh would before I'm sorry before I'd like to I'd like to address her questions first if that's okay Mark is there any chance that you might be able to talk about the transparency on permitting information and also who do you call um the police generally cover traffic complaints but however um the calls that I received were people parking in the road the neighbors reported that some people were parking in the road I called the owner of the property and they had to resol they had two calls about that so I've only received two calls I don't get an abundant number of calls um but if there if it's nighttime and they're blocking the roadway you call the police so they're traffic enforcement and just let them know they're blocking access for for emergency vehicles and they'll they'll have it addressed rather quickly um but the other two people that I talked to um the two owners of the properties were very um instant they don't want the problems with the town so parking on The Lawns if we know about it if you report it to us we can't be there at night obviously but if you report it to us um you know we'll we'll make sure that the owner knows um the other thing that in open go we don't have the ability to chase down every one of the uh properties but we just opened up a new part of the permanent program to where now we're logging complaints so now we'll be able to track complaints the number of complaints on the specific property the area of town that you know we'll be able to pick out what areas of town are the biggest problems um but we just started doing that like honestly in the past week so we're trying to get open goov fully running um it's not uh it's not 100% foolproof right now we have other issues with how openg goov interacts with another program that we have to use every day so we're trying to work those bugs out with it at the same time so can I ask Mark a question when would like if somebody gets a registration for a short-term rental when would that go on laser fees which is open to the public and they can look at that as soon as it's entered into open goov either by the public or by us it automatically goes to laser fish and that's the problem that we're having is that laser fish is now when something comes from open open goov laser fish is creating a new Street file for that property and so we have stuff all over laser fish right now that we can't find so we're trying to get that cleaned up right now so ultimately there is on our town website something called laser fish which basically it has a bunch of um scanned in information as well as all of the open gov and the former asella stuff um so you can go under it's it's under the health department and see if they if there's a registration there and whether they have been properly registered or not the taxes do not come directly to the town they go to the do and then they distribute them back to the town the mass do you could actually look up every address through them that's registered so if you were trying to find out if there was one in your neighborhood that that you're questioning you could go to mass Do's website and they could they could tell you yeah because quite often you don't want to Bor them to town it's like it'd be easier to know should I complain or not or is this okay you know send us an email doesn't hurt okay we'll take the email so we we won't know if if if um NR is paying their taxes right if they're paying if they're recording revenue and then paying taxes unless we look no the only way you could do is are they registered with the state and are they registered here in the town of town the state monitors um Airbnb vbo very closely because they want their money too they want their revenue and the state sends us the check based on on that so how I know this 133 rentals in the short-term rentals in the town they came from the mass do website Madam chair trust me do looks at your registrations and compare it against their records on a monthly basis yes and process that so if you're not paying the taxes you're gonna get a letter yeah they're not shy thank you Mar welcome thank you I think I just don't want to be the only one who hasn't come up here um my name is Anique Cooper I live on Highland Street in West garmouth I actually am a shortterm rental owner I have two properties um a cottage uh at number 12 which my parents bought in 63 I guess and we came up here we didn't live here permanently but we came up Summers every summer loved it and then uh how long ago was it at least 15 years ago we bought the house next door my husband and I bought the house next door and now I own both when my mother passed she left it to me so um I've been uh uh doing short-term rentals with first the cottage and now my house as well for a good 10 years or so um and so this concern this is of interest to me because you know because I do it I'm very strict uh I have a four-page rental contract which has everything in it that I want a renter to know um such as uh you cannot have day or night more than the number of people who you have and you've written the names in who are staying there overnight without my permission which I will give if they say you know our cousins want to come over for lunch one day sure but if it's like a party I've been asked so many times would you allow a wedding or a graduation party and the answer is always no though I recognize that some people maybe are not quite as you know strict about it but these are my homes um I I guess I have only one direct question about this this case law that interests me um because I mean Cape Cod is it it part of it lives on the summer the summer you know that's just we are a summer community on my street also there are let me see one two three of us in my one two three sorry four we actually have more alltime all year residents than most streets um in a in a short but there are a lot of rentals and I know that the rentals have increased a lot since I started 10 years ago um but you know renting your house on Cape Cod that's been done for over a hundred years that's there's nothing new about that the first time my parents brought us to the cape we rented the house that they then bought which actually they bought it from my aunt and uncle who you know in 1963 so so it surprises me a little that there would be a uh you know a what this a CA some case law saying that well maybe it's not allowed so what is that case law can you name it because I'd like to look it up it's Styler St y l l r versus the zba of lynfield l y n n f i e l d okay um I think I think that the tradition has changed I think originally when a lot of times when people were renting it was a family rental you were renting to a family for the entire week everyone would come down and it would be a a wholesome family vacation and I think when you started getting all these different platforms you started getting much shorter rentals you started seeing different types of rentals it became more of a commercial business for some people versus oh I'm just going to rent it out during the summer I so I can still enjoy it and the shoulder season and it's still my house it's not a business well yeah no but it does help pay for the bill so in that exactly exactly but as it became more and more of a business Enterprise this is when when somebody sued obviously the zba of Linfield saying No this this is not accessory to my residential neighborhood this is a commercial use in my residential neighborhood and that that's what brought this all to and they won that or they basically said because there's nothing in your without there being something in your Zone own bylaw you may be uh have some difficulties with regard to allowing this so what we got out of that input from Our Town Council was if you really want to continue to do this it's probably best to codify it because I know Mark's office was getting a lot of questions after this came out uh are you guys still going to allow me to do short-term rentals and it was kind of like a little fuzzy yeah so so we we said you know this isn't accessory this is something a little bit different so let's just codify what we've been doing all these all this time and also have these rules in it's good to hear that you are being very restrict but it's not just you being strict it's the law of the bylaw you need to adhere you can have weddings it's not just a matter of your particular um so all of these criteria everybody needs needs to know about and on the town website when you register one of the things that's listed there for the documents is this zoning bylaw so that people can read it and they're well aware of the fact that they have to meet these criteria I see okay so uh Chris you wrote the name down yes thank you we had lunch today we know each other well um anyway all right I did want to find that out out and um you know just to talk a little about from my experience as a short-term owner I mean whether there were whether even without those regulations I would be strict because it's my home and um I you know I think there are a lot of people who are like that I'm also on some sites where other Homer owners we ask each other things and a lot of people are if they're if those that aren't I understand that can be a problem for the neighbors but um if anybody during the process of wanting to you know get information and what have you wants to talk to a few homeowners I'm happy to do that okay any questions no thank you for being strict can I clarification certainly when it when you say on no weddings and no graduations and that those are on the short-term rentals but if you were a homeowner are you allowed with a permit to do that okay thank you yeah the difference between having wedding every week versus having the wedding once in a lifetime or twice in a lifetime that's right now I'm not intending to or anything like that but I just wanted to point a clarification thank you okay and just three times in the further just as a as a further point of clarification as to why we went and did this back in 2022 uh we learned uh and I saw Mark Mark U jump up to the mic if your zoning bylaw is silent and doesn't have the words short-term rental in it then it's prohibited uh so this was driven in part by the fact that the state established these surcharge taxes on this thing called short-term rentals so in state law there's this language called State short-term rentals they get some money we get some money um but if you don't have it discreetly listed in your bylaw it can be considered prohibited um so that we rushed to get this in once the styler case came down and we learned about it um which is part of the reason why we put in this Sunset Clause uh because we knew we were rushing it be this is an an incredibly important source of revenue for the town and our Wastewater plans it's incredibly important and we didn't want it to be threatened so um so that's part of the background story Mark um uh our Building Commissioner Mr I believe that Cas La also references that short-term rentals are like mini motels so transing uses are 30 days or less they gave them 31 for the short-term rental so people staying in the building for less than 30 days it's a transient use much like a motel so you're operating a mini motel in a residential neighborhood which you would require zoning relief for or in the form of a variance if this was not in there so um this was actually very important to get in there um and and it's it's actually good it's it's it's helping the town realize some Revenue but also it helps us kind of keep track of what's going on and where the complaints are coming from so uh and like short-term rentals are probably the least of our you know the least of our problems honestly as far as complaints go 10 out of 1300 and we have 3,000 and we get so many complaints about actually the the long-term stays are the ones that are that were perpetually being called back to certain ones not every one of them but short-term rentals are the least of the problems thank you again sure um so excuse me if I'm not familiar with how this works but I mean I certainly hope that you know when when something I presume something will come to a vote about short-term rentals how does that work in two years or is it just constantly extended no to be to be codified in the bylaw uh well Our intention is to uh to take it till November of 20266 so that we can conduct a thorough review of Where we've been and have um good evidence to support it being permanently codified in the zoning B that's our goal which is a vote amongst you or a proposal or a vote that we only make recommendations right the town meeting town meeting decides um I don't know if there are any attorneys on this board but given that rentals short-term rentals have been going on on the cape for at least a hundred years at least I mean if it is not codified could that be come up as you know a case to be fought against since like why change it now maybe regulated a little more because the state's getting money and the town's getting money but it just seems to me like if you have a home you know you should be able to do what you want in it or with it yeah it's zoning tells you what to do on your property quite a bit more than people may realize um don't we don't have a we don't have a a a projection on that one way or another we we just we're just trying to move in a a direction that prots this important Revenue stream and quite frankly provides a back stop for you as a as a landlord because you now have a zoning bylaw behind you that at least has a baseline you can be stricter than that but at least you have a threshold below which nobody can go right we didn't have that before and there will be opportunities for further public hearings before and unless this temporary bylaw becomes permanent both here and then of course the and any discussion on town meeting floor so there will be many more conversations not to mention after we get the results of the study and Etc plus there's other bodies as mentioned earlier by Madam chair the affordable housing trust and the community housing committee so there'll be lots of other opportunities you know for these conversations to happen well before anything becomes permanent right okay um that's it thank you did any other board members have a question or comment yes the study I'm interested in this study um is the 50 who's who is the $50,000 coming out of the affordable okay um the only comment I would make is I would I would hope that they would listen to the comments that that um Linda made and Chris made about the quality of the data and transparency um so that it is a worthwhile study that I mean it seems to me intuitive that this is the kind of thing we should have it protects everyone I kind of imagine someone trying to build a case that we should not have this bylaw because it is a win-win win for everyone it provides protection for you it provides protection for the but it would be nice to see a study that actually supports that conclusion uh with some good data that they're real that whatever problems are out there they're hand they can be handled they're not overwhelming they're not going to um you know make they're not going to uh cause any confusion that Mo will be able to handle them and if we're going to spend $50,000 on a study that you know think that would be worthwhile these are two very good comments about the quality of the study we don't want just some sort of rhetorical this is a great idea let's keep moving forward we want to know why why is it good um are there weak spots enforcement is always a weak spot it's a weak spot in every town um and that as marus said repeatedly good enforcement relies on the citizens to to help the law enforcement people that should be incorporated into the study that people always say oh how's it going to be enforced it's going to be enforced if you pay attention to it and when I say you I mean the citizen so the study I would like to you know really emphasize that the it it has to be granular in nature and it has to be transparent so that we can figure out what's going on yeah Mary wagan is going to be working up a scope of services so to speak before going out for I believe an RFP in order to solicit uh a consultant for that work and I can we're certainly going to be talking about it I will relay to her that we would like area specific data so that it's not homogeneous through the entire uh town it's getting into the some of the specific areas and also being sure that there's a lot of public uh opportunities for the public to to see this information and like will said there's going to be plenty of other opportunities um obviously we're going to be going forward with any type of zoning change either to edit the sunset clause or or whatever we're going to want all this information to present to the public uh as well thank you any any other public comment questions concerns board members I have a if I can you I always hate things that are open to interpretation so in my business I I don't write that a property is within walking distance to a property to something because what walking distance for me is completely different than what's walking distance for my wife or me to the end of the driveway she'll walk to the end of the Earth um so so when I'm looking at the bylaw it says types of rental says no large scale events so I'm trying to picture what a large scale event is to a only child having a wedding in their backyard with 20 people is large scale to them but to a family of nine having a wedding large scale might be 200 people so how do we how do we make Mark have to deci I'm assuming this would be mark would have to decide what is large scale so I mean I don't want to open up Pandora's Box here but I can just see somebody coming in saying well I'm having a wedding it's not large it's not the one that I wanted at the chat and bars in with 300 people my family and I have decided we're going to have a nice small 50 people than so how do you have to deal with that Mark my first question would be is um can every car your event park in the driveway if you park your car on the street then you're a large scale event so I'm having all my friends park somewhere else and shutle of them in well still have 50 people but I don't have a parking issue I guess I'll have to wait for the complaints to come and make an assessment at that time Miss F you also do what this this uh owner did and have in her leasing document no weddings Lodge small no weddings no great well that's what she may have but I may not but that's the kind of thing that could at least help address if they were encouraged to do that kind of thing uh in the leas document that would help in some measure address you know whether it's l or small we don't want a wedding we can't require somebody to put something in their lease document no I didn't say require I said that she did it voluntarily can't even excuse me I think you can't even require that someone have a lease document I have one you know and what I specifically because I have had I I can tell you twice I did have weddings they were allowed by me and they were allowed by what I'd written in my lease because they did not involve more than the number of people who were staying at the house and so that meant that the people who came to the house to stay told me before we'd like to have a little dinner celebrating you know they they got married somewhere else but celebrating in afterwards and no guess we're all there already so that was fine and another time in my mother's house cottage they came up from Texas um to get married and there were you know eight people or so which is fine for my house so I don't it doesn't matter to me if it's a big party if it's a graduation if it's a wedding if it's like you know your dream is to do it at mine if there are more people who are going to be on the property day or night you you can't do it without permission and if someone says well we'd like to have a small wedding you know 50 people the answer is no you know 20 people the answer is no that's not how many people can sleep there so that sort of takes care for me that takes care of everything right but we not everybody is you in this town I assure you I I I'm gathering but so here the other the the if I may on that this is exactly why we need to tighten whatever the language might be where we see some loopholes I read that as weddings corporate events class family reunions and photo shoots so we've defined what a large scale event is in the bylaw well know we've we've described events but not the size of the just say no events we've used these as exam weddings corporate events CL that's how we have defined large scale events so no weddings weddings corporate events class family reunions photo shoots that's how I read then we should take the words no large scale out because it's a relevant as to whether it's large scale or small scale this is exactly why the study is going to be important I think Jim I think it's a simp saying no events period yeah know the other interesting part of this is that if it's a family um so I own a house and I own a short-term rental right next door I can have a wedding at my house but the people that I'm renting to right next door can't so they all come to my house they're still getting the wedding I think it's kind of I mean to me it's kind of silly that I'm a homeowner that I can have the wedding but the house that I own next door that I'm short-term renting to can't as the homeowner you're having a wedding every weekend because then you're running an event space and then I'm writing a violation on it so and I've only one wedding yeah we've had it happen actually one on New Hampshire and the other one's a railway Bluff and and uh one of them came to the board of appeals and and was uh they did not get to overturn my decision so they're not supposed to do that it was a huge piece of property had a lot of bedrooms in it but no place to park so and it got unruly for the neighborhood so I'm just thinking this through is just what you would have to deal with for some of the well it's not going to be large it's only my you know my immediate family like no events period so maybe we should think about when we we do this taking the words large scale out just saying no events events such as Weddings But you don't have to try to Des describe to somebody that three people is a lar they can bring me to the board of appeals and appeal my decision too so I would rather keep it simple for everybody not make it difficult for you not make it difficult for the people trying to figure out if they can have a wedding we can certainly fine-tune the language and I think that's something that the planning board would do I'm not sure whether the study's going to show a lot of things on those types of things but that that's certainly something you can it certainly gives us window of time to look at things just like this J and the event last thing and then I'll sit down an event I think in my own event the eight person dinner was a dinner sorry the answer to that call it an eight person wedding dinner don't call it an event right if the bylaw says no events don't call it an event okay so my daughter for example was married on N Tucket at my sister's but we had a party for not all of the guest certain guests and there were you know 30 40 on at our house that's my daughter I don't think it would have been I mean I was going to have it and I don't know that that would have been wrong it's my daughter nobody parked I mean everybody parked somewhere else or took taxis so to me that's a carve out now if there's some owner who says every time they have a wedding oh it's my niece it's my nephew whatever well you know probably not but for families that come that rent that pay me money to stay there they can't have more people than sleep there y thank you regardless of what they are doing appreci regard of what they do that's a good way do I was actually GNA make a point um labor Labor Day weekend the neighbor two doors down from me or Three Doors Down from me held their quote engagement party it involved food trucks it involved fireworks uh musicians in their backyard and they're the owner of the property so uh it's rather unusual um some actually some of the fireworks out in the backyard there were better than some of them on the bay that were done by the Town of Barnstable but um yeah when you get into this conversation of events and things like that and the whole issue of homeowners versus um tenants renters you know it's it's that's why I'm happy that you know we're going to extend your Sunset class because I do think there are a lot of things that you know May trigger a lot of things when when you're talking about rold actually talks even about homeowners and the things that are going on in town so good luck on it all thank you Christine Kathy is there any I'm sorry um is there anything on suing or no suing I don't see it in there there is there is not no in the current bylaw no there is I mean that's that can be an issue if somebody wants to lease it for 30 days and then Su leas it to more any other um probably a few things that we didn't necessarily consider when we were going through it the first time and it's a good time to dive in a little bit more it was really quick uh the last time if I as I recall uh we we had a very short uh time frame uh to get it together any other uh planning board questions or uh concerns that we might uh engage the public with anybody I have my friends here who take try because I can't see them Christine there is a there is a person they haven't indicated okay do you want to offer if they have any comments to raise their hand uh Molly Sullivan do you w to oh suiv sorry Molly o solivan excuse me how dare I so close to St Patrick's Day um would you like to be recognized Madam chair seeing nobody else say i' make a motion to close the hearing can I just make one more comment no we have one more thing we have to one we have written comments we have to go through that's I was going say motion we have no written comments that's all I wanted to we need to make a comment there no written comments no written comments Mr s you are in the in the in the middle of making a motion sir to close the public hearing Madam chair I'll second that we'll take a vote uh any discussion before no uh Mr Sabin hi M BR hi Mr Rubenstein hi Mr SL hi Mr Smith hi uh and the chair as well I note the time as 623 any further discussion uh on this by planning board members um I just wanted to point out I think there was a typo in the memo but is that what we're talking about next no we're talking we're just talking about yeah we're still talking about just the the amendment clear um I there there were a couple of is the is the memo to the moderator part of this discussion Kathy yes because that's what that's where I'm going memo for the select board there was just the memo to the moderator as 2023 in it what yes y yeah oh it does and a special town meeting no l as as does What will is going to bring up after we vote that's what happens when you start with the old and you mean you're human it's okay I said 2023 I haven't done that all year I got the date right but the year wrong any any further any further discussion or comment okay uh may I have a motion to recommend zoning article number one to amend section 4186 of the zoning bylaw to extend the expiration date for the sunset Clause from November 13th 2024 to November 30th 2026 so moveed second any discussion is there an amendment to that um that Ro is going to bring forward no okay uh Mr Sabin hi hi Miss BR hi Mr Rubenstein hi Mr Slovak hi Mr Smith hi and the chair as well hi thank you uh amendment is uh passed and will be recommended to the board of Selectmen and we do have a calendar for that do we want to talk about who would explain it at annual town meeting just to get that out of the way uh yes for the moderator uh memo right sure any volunteers this annual count meeting uh April 30th last Tuesday in April April 30th no that won't be yet you're committed I'll do it I'll do it uh Miss br will be thee um the presenter by consens thank you Susan thank you Susan um you might regret that but don't say that Susan got you back um I just had one question because um they're putting together any additional slides for the annual town meeting presentation I don't think we need any additional slides I just want to confirm with you guys because I have to give it to them by tomorrow morning I don't think there's any additional slides for annual town meeting additional to the ones that you shared tonight no this this is this is something that I think we would kind of be giving to the board of Selectmen at the right but the actual annual town meeting you know how like last year we had the whole extra slides that gave the explanation on the accessory Apartments I just don't think we need anything other than the article itself and then the explanation that's in the warrant all we're doing is changing the date don't like want memory pictures of how we were meeting exactly I'm fine with it I just wanted to confirm with you guys that we're good with just the the text in the warrant is basic I think so too okay Madam chair I just wanted to point out the memo to the select board is that is this now the appropriate time yes it is Sir okay yes the date on that memo says 2023 but also it does say uh number one zoning article one accessory apartments and as much as I would love to I would like to not go back there so we please change that to short-term rentals I will do so thank you thank you but that was so much fun no it was fun but it's over it's over it's it's fun and over also those two things are not mutually exclusive they are the same since we are on the subject of the draft memo Oh yes any other comments from planning board members on edits to it yes Madam chair I just wondered if it made sense because I thought it was helpful to have the real numbers um to mention the $1.5 million not just saying at the last on the that very last sentence at the bottom of page one local excise tax revenue maybe actually quantifying it you know and approximately $1.5 million and if you want to mention the Wastewater program go for it but at least on its face a million and a half dollars is a lot of money and I do think it's important to recognize that I agree thank you madam chair others were okay I'll just put that 1.47 million in FY 23es what yeah of however you see fit any other any other comments on the M okay on anything else with regard to this amendment and the annual time meeting um just so you guys obviously know we're on the March 12th bard of Select board excuse me uh meeting we were lucky to get in before the big public hearing on the budget so I think we're on at 6:30 I was going to just send um in addition to the memo and and the other attachments it's just a slightly modified version of the PowerPoint presentation that just kind of gives a brief summary of the um hearing comments and I'll also add that into the memo as well what what we heard tonight in in in the hearing and then that'll be what will be uh given at the board of Select sounds good meeting minutes from February 7th May I have a motion to accept meeting minutes of February 7th move second any discussion uh Mr Sabin hi Miss B hi Mr Rubenstein hi Mr Slovak hi Mr Smith hi and the chair as well committee updates any Comm oh Madam chair I got I got one okay so as it turns out the uh Water Resources advisory committee meets on the first Monday of the month and this is the first Wednesday of the month so what nice timing and um I'll just use the same headline until otherwise notified the wheels of sewer Justice turn slowly that is the headline um and I'll just repeat we are trying to work backwards from a very hard deadline of October 31st 20 and 24 in order to maintain 0% funding and all kinds of other fun things and I guess I would say there's been some more progress but I'm not here to say that everything is great so I think both of those things can be true at the same time um as mentioned earlier um the the state D folks have established a working group with the town they are meeting every two weeks there have been two more meetings since the last time I shared update here there will be another meeting next week that's all great um there's been a little more movement now on the evaluation of Buck Island Road as well as Bayberry Hills as well as the state-owned property at Exit 8 and there has been some movement thanks to those bi-weekly meetings of now moving away from this on tenth of a foot issue with the groundwater discharge permit and now there's been like I said some movement towards either half a foot or one foot because we're trying to generate up to one and a half million gallons a day so I won't go much further in terms of that piece of it but just to say there has been progress um but of course with some progress comes some other stuff so for instance um both the Bayberry Hills and the M the Mast do properties are in the zone two drinking water area so if we start pushing treatment SL treated water into to those areas don't you know um there's going to have to be some work with our friends at the Conservation Commission which has begun um but I would also venture to say that there will be tens and tens of millions of dollars more possibly possibly added to the cost of this project now do I know if it's going to go over 207 I can't say that sitting here because way people way smarter than I are working on all of that but I do feel that because of this issue where the itself is not going to be able to handle everything in Phase One and we're going to have to find these two other sites that we are going to have to move towards the golf course and to Exit 8 and that will then of course mean more cost not just in the environmental aspects but of course oh my gosh we got to build a big old pipe and we got to run it all the way up there now which we didn't have planned when we first approved this so I think it's fair for me to say that that is still in question but our friends at the Conservation Commission who also sit on the Water Resources advisory committee are deep into that and the good news is they will handle their business the bad news is we just don't know what the cost is going to be um yes Susan is it definite that we're abandoning plan a and moving to plan B I wouldn't say we're abandoning anything the plan is still going to get built and the know that but I'm talking about the location is it now really clear that we're going to have to uh no I'm sorry if I wasn't clear the Buck Island plant will be built right well first it has to get bided and then it has to get hopefully Buy October 31st and it has to get awarded and we have to get the discharge permit to unlock all that so that plant is still going to get beb built there the question is how do we treat how do we treat more than what that site will be able to handle that's why these other two locations are being looked at did that help is that Y is that more clear will can I can I jump in just for one second it's not treat the plant has a capacity for treatment it's where do we discharge it's a discharge the discharge start is but the EPA is still and the D is still at at odds with us on it's not the treatment this is the plan that they agreed to for five years well except up until a few months ago several months ago when they said oh by the way you can only go one tenth of a foot and everybody said what are you talking about no one ever said that so that's why it's been slow and steady since Ken and I uh sailed past each other like ships on the ships in the night on the committee um but like I said at the beginning of this little update there has been progress because of these bi-weekly meetings but we're certainly not ready to bid out the plant and that's not good but we still have I'd say from what I'm understanding we have until about June is maybe July to get the plan out to bid so that it can be awarded but of course we can't get that unlocked until this groundwater discharge issue is resolved and we get the at least a an agreement to agree to get a permit which I think would then free that plant up to be bid um okay um the there actually has been some mobilizing and some work being done um hopefully folks who know that know that so specifically um there will be a groundbreaking on March 14th at 10 a.m. and actually that location will be 170 Southshore Drive where actually the pump station one of the pump stations will be located you can park at The Parkers River um Beach parking lot um just as a quick side note that pump station has has to go through a little more zba uh stuff I'll use a technical term but it's that's happens to be over here but that will be the location of this this Pump Station apparently has to be elevated y five feet off the ground five feet up the ground but it's all going to get taken care of but that's where this uh that will be at 10: a.m. um and then as it relates to contracts two and three that work you know is underway and we've already talked about that but it's actually real now um I'd say one thing that I brought up has to do with as you know there's three more contracts that have yet to be awarded one is contract four which has to do with the bridge and as you know the bridge itself has been delayed um the bridge work is not going to start until the fall 25 and the water main work is going to stay with that but the sewer work um that project you know is still under conversation with d and hopefully we'll get um we'll be able to get bid and contracts awarded by June so that the sewer work at the bridge can start after a Labor Day and move in and hopefully take about a year and then hopefully that'll link nicely up with when the bridge work actually starts itself so that's that the next one if you don't mind Madam chair I'm almost done um the last two contracts have to go from Parker River to the barnable line they're split in two different portions and of course the one I wanted to mention especially as it relates to my colleagues here is I said hey aren't we building a really big park right where we're supposed to put in a really big Pump Station I said have you guys and again I'm just doing this on behalf of my friends here have put in decades of their lives into this I said is it fair to say that you have all communicated about the timing and the sequencing of all this and thankfully the answer is yes but I really it worried me at first because I thought well wait a second you guys are talking about awarding this contract what about the park um and at least according to what I was told is that the coordination now lives underneath DPW for both projects the park as well as this particular project obviously and um they hope to bid that the that particular contract in August and then get it awarded in October and then start next spring now I have no idea what the timing is of the of the park but that at least is of the timing of the sewer part of it so I hope I did not just throw a few bombs into the room but I don't think I did um let's see I think that's enough but I I just wanted to say like it feels like there's progress but you know remains to be seen how it's all gonna turn out line now on your tax bill it says water that means it's a go oh sorry and I should say at town meeting uh and we didn't get this in time but we'll have it at our next meeting which is just before when the zoning article uh the town meeting uh warrant is is finished there will be a few uh sewer articles uh having to do with establishment and betterments because you have to set that up in advance and um things of that nature we'll talk about that next month thank you madam chair so Madam chair if I could um now that the subject of the park has been brought up there was once a woman in this town very wise woman who said to me once imperfect progress is better than no progress at all and many of the projects we have in town have imperfect project Pro progress um you Riverwalk Park so the the comforting thing was this morning I heard on the radio that Barn's big dig uh intersection is going to be two years behind in completion so that gave me comfort in knowing that it's a million years to get a driver ins sight turned into a wonderful project so maybe Kathy wants to tell you more but little less a million years but um yeah we we had gone out to bid there was some uh irregularities in the way that we had bid it and we had to cancel the bid now we are separating out all of What's called the the horizontal work the site work which is the vast majority of it into one separate phase one contract which is going to be going out to bid I believe on March 21st with bid openings on April 11th and then we're going to be separating out in a second phase contract the restrooms um the reason is that they are Bid under two different Mass general laws one uh deals with horizontal One deals with vertical construction vertical construction has a lot more restrictions you have to have a decam certified contractor there's not very many decam certified contractors um who would be interested necessarily in doing all of that site work so we're be paying a premium if we did the whole thing under um a DeCamp certified contractor we got some initial information from the AG office that we didn't have to do that subsequently there was a a revised opinion that basically said we we either needed it to be all decam certified or to break them up so we are breaking them up we feel that that's probably the best opportunity to get the best price uh for the for the project so hopefully um we will open boards on April 11th uh on the vast majority of the prod of the work um uh on April 11th and we'll be able to quickly turn that around hopefully and have no anomalies in the bids and be able to start construction in in May on that project we really have to uh and that will probably go through June 30th of the following year so there will definitely be some overlap with that pump station number three in the Riverwalk Park and our plans we have kind of dotted out that area to let the contractor know you don't have access to this um and they'll have to do something you know reciprocal with the uh the contract for that pump station um but as you know we've already gone the we we pulled that through the vcd site plan review process with that pump station so they have that permitted through through you guys um and then we're going to wait until we have the bids opened on the phase one before we go out to bid on the phase two which is the restrooms Kathy how long is the um horizontal bid going to be open for the actual the bid we're we're doing with the truncated because most of the um General Contractors have already seen it it's just a matter of um kind of fine-tuning the the quantities um so it's I think it's only three weeks that it's being out to bid any other uh committee reports yeah U just a quick update on the capital budget committee um we've completed our work thankfully uh from this past winter I'll call it from the capital budget reviews around all the departments in the town we were waiting on Dennis from the school department um they've completed their side of it so now we were able to complete the balance of it it actually is going to be presented next week at the select board meeting um quite a bit of work went into it um numbers came in under what we originally projected which was good not a lot but a little bit and uh you know I think it was all positive I think everybody got pretty much what they asked for and has that already gone through finance committee not yet it will be recommended as of I think it's gonna that's gonna be part of presentation same time oh the 12th is a very long meeting be a long meeting that's why it's so good that you were got the placement that you did don't give it up whatever you do any other committee reports okay uh C the only I'm sorry open space and wreck plan ad hoc committee oh um it's gonna be we're supposed to we're having a meeting next Friday yes we're having a meeting on the 15th we basically staff and Consultants have been taking all of the comments that we received during the September comment review period as well as comments weed from U the division of conservation Recreation those are the people we need to make happy uh your comments um and comments from the concom and tried to incorporate them into some Redline edits uh that we're going to be going over with the ad hoc committee on the 15th because we are going to be presenting that to the board of Selectmen on April 2nd may I ask a board member question is it not is it now the right time for that sure um Kathy are you aware of any more movement on the madis ReUse committee since the month ago when we last talked about it I'm not I just want to know if you were I think they approved the charge and that's all I know okay so no okay great thanks uh correspondents or any staff I'm sorry Mr Sabin she might be covering it I was just wondering if we're going to discuss the uh the Attorney General's decision on Article 19 was that what you're about to do y see never mind you could see it over there you is that you mean about the ad are you talking about adus or talking about something else accessory apartment yeah you want me to yes you're using numbers Jim not not words yeah I I hand I sent it out to you guys later this afternoon so a lot of you may not have been able to see it but the Attorney General's office did uh approve our accessory apartment by law um but they did have comments um those are kind of a want you to think about these things um they noted that we should be careful um with the two-bedroom limitation uh and rental rights for families so basically which I thought was a little strange because two-bedroom you could still have a family um but there's certain Rental Right laws and you can't discriminate against families basically and they just kind of said you should be thinking about this um and then they also warned us that the potential changes from the affordable homes act would make um yeah would basically make them by right uh and then it it would also eliminate the owner occupancy requirement um in the AG's office a letter it made it sound like they thought that we were doing our accessory apartments by right but were're not its special permit uh I did follow up with Town Council on this I sent it to him um and he said he wasn't too concerned about a first set of comments this is kind of a common admonition um they basically didn't they approved it they just want you to know well you may be in a conflict with this other state law that's what their job is um but he he also you know he basically said we should also be mindful of Fair Housing Act issues but I don't believe this is a cause for alarm arm their second Point regarding potential future legislation is important but is a bridge that we'll cross when we get to it um the last thing that needs to happen is Mary masasi the town clerk needs to post these provisions and she's hoping to do that um sometime at the beginning of next week and once it's posted then it's effective as of the data it was approved at town meeting does she post the comments no she just posts the um the decision yeah okay the the other thing as I was rereading on that um there's another provision that if the access in the proposed legislation if the accessory dwelling unit is within a half a mile of a bus station and I don't know if I were to draw a circle around the hyen transportation center it would it would touch the town of Yarmouth well that's interesting there are no parking if you are within a half a mile of and it says a bus station and that Transportation doesn't say transit station it says bus it says bus is that an MBTA station it the legislation says bus I thought it said Transportation centers but it said no it said and and well they Define them Ferry Terminal railroad bus and what does the language say you can't pop within a half a mile within no if you are within a half a mile right of a bu of a Transportation Center and they go on to describe right bus rail blah blah blah Ferry you can have no parking no parking can be required in your Zone No Parking can't have a parking space because they want you to take the bus yeah to where we can all ride for free now can ride for free but the ferry would also apply that's closest to the town that's even close that's right on the town line corre but is it town it's not Town Line it's location of the Adu yeah but it's within a half of if you draw a circle I have to look at the map Circle I'm surprised they didn't that's a good point mention confirm that that's not an NBTA route a year ago it was only along MBTA routes so if you were an MBTA town then it would be applicable captur by that uh the language is much broader and it literally says you cannot have any parking at your Adu yes it does that's literally what it says not you can't require parking this is another reason why it's never going to pass well no but I always want to make sure that I understood what mam shair said that you you don't you can't require Park you can't you can't allocate a space for the ad if you're within half a mile of you can't allocate a parking space like our bylaw it says you have to have a parking spot require it and it would be th they' say no you don't have no you can't do that no additional parking shall be requir our friends in um I it won't be required it's not that you can't have it right it's no additional parking spaces can be required so it says no parking SPAC read it again Kathy please it says no additional parking space shall be required for an accessory dwelling located not more than 0.5 miles from a Commuter Rail station subway station Ferry Terminal or bus station that's a very good catch with the yeah yeah because we did we did comment on the one parking space thinking that there will have a lot of dual income and there'll be two cars um but that that's very interesting this is under the affordable housing this is the affordable homes act homes yeah proposed propos legislation s right they act like it's passed it has I'm wondering given that you the fa the ferry terminal is there and the bus station is there that we might want to consider sending another note yeah yep and asking that and yeah saying that seems to be that would be an issue in conflict with what our brand new approved Adu yeah a it though let's think twice about this oh until it's yeah well well I think right now it's just proposed Madam chair I think we just wait good that's a good point I think though that once our legislators I think it's important for our legislators to know of our concern because they're the ones who are casting the vote um I don't know if we have to put anything in writing be a conversation well my next update is um Mark Forest Bill Scott and myself and Mary wagan met with some of the staff from Senator Sear's office today to talk a little bit about um seasonal communities they were hoping to flesh that out a little bit more they didn't provide us with any any documents to look at it was just kind of on the screen and talked about um but you know they're just going to come up with certain parameters about what would Define a seasonal Community obviously I think we we would apply and a lot of it was um additional funding that would be given um and grant opportunities for for seasonal communities and just understanding that we're a little bit different because we have such a high short-term uh rental percentage so it was it was interesting and they had started that because they wanted to flesh it out it's very basic kind of more of a placeholder in the affordable homes act but as they move forward and move things along um they're going to be fleshing that out a little bit more so I did go through all of the comments and they got a another fresh copy of this um and basically emphasizing you know the water quality issues and if you have money make sure that it's money that's towards Wastewater that can then be tied to housing because we're not going to be able to expand our housing without addressing because we're unique here we have a serious problem with our with our water quality that may not apply to some of the other seasonal communities um that are out there so um it was a it was a good meeting it was just with their with their staff their chief of staff and their um director of operations um but it it just shows that they're working on more um seasonal communities expansion but I think Senator seir is mostly working his main two main issues are the seasonal Community designation and also the real estate transfer tax local option so that's something that he's working on closely to they going on Jim's comment about things undefined do they Define a seasonal Community what are they I think that's what they're trying to do is is to come up with the the metrics that would define you as a seasonal metric you will automatically are if you meet you know four of the six metrics or something along those lines yeah and I and I asked I go is it going to be by towns I hope it's going to be by County because you wouldn't want some communities on Cape for whatever reason not meeting and I the metrics and I said you should be very careful that all of the communities in y in barnable County are meeting all of these metrics so that we are seasonal because we're all seasonal communities they don't Madam shair ask ask a followup question on the Adu bylaw so we got the memo back from the Attorney General's office and then it has to be posted with the clerk so what is the so what's the timing on when folks would be allowed to start as soon as Mary tells me she's posted it which sounds like she's going to post it next week okay and then the way for us to know because this has been one of the biggest issues we talked about over the last 14 18 months is what's the volume going to be once the gates are opened for Adu land how many customers are going to come streaming through the turn Styles going to tell you that right but I'm getting to that but I'm guessing we're also going to start seeing on a zba agenda yeah accessory dwelling unit applications and that will be our measurement sorry Mark um since the bylaw was adopt well since it was voted on a town meeting I've had six inquiries to to utilize the new Adu bylaw so that's that's where we're at so far okay it'll be real it you know that is the one thing that none of us actually know is how is it going to all go were any of them existing accessory family existing conversions conversion not yet no I know that in the at least the past four zoning meetings there has been Adu but under the old under the old under the old application uh so they're they're they're moving and they apparently you know there there's really so little difference between what we had and what we have now that people are there's been at least one in every meeting because I've been looking at the agenda so they are still moving okay thank you thank you madam chair that's certainly any other updates from you Kath and then just um we we have executed the contract with BSC group and we are going to be having our LCP kickoff meeting on the 3D of April you want need to be there do do you need to be here yes do I need to be here here at these meetings at this meeting no I'm kidding at that meeting well that's at the planning board meeting the planning board meeting I'm sorry third is the planning board meeting yeah I'm sorry yeah they're gonna be coming you'll get to meet everyone we'll talk about roles and responsibilities talk about timeline we'll get into deep into the weeds I think on the public engagement plan and then hopefully they'll show some of this arcg um example of how that might work and how they're going to set up a a project uh web page for and maybe have some interactive uh ways of getting some input from people on that which is I'm I'm really excited about that Madam chair yeah Mr Sav I apologize I I meant to bring this up earlier um I'm just wondering is there a time in the year that we do a review of the bylaws the the actual zoning bylaws so some if you do that right now some things are somewhat dated and don't apply to the right things I see Mr Slovak nodding his head as well so I'm wondering is there a time that and maybe it's something we should consider on an annual basis of a of a cursory review of our bylaws and to to tweak the things that are dated and correct the things that there's a lot into bylaw so you know some stuff just unless we look at it regularly gets moldy and I think there's some stuff that that needs to be looked at so I guess my question is is that something that we are considering in the near future or could we consider in the near future to do a maybe if we do a chapter or two a month or something I don't know but I just think that it's probably not a bad idea to look this thing over once in a while considering a few things are Antiquated I guess would be a word but maybe not the right word but just as a open comment to that I guess I would say we're embarking on the LCP I think that's the most important thing it's the number one priority of the select board um um and I do think and I I don't disagree I do very strongly feel that a comprehensive review of the entire and possibly a rewriting of the entire zoning bylaw is not out of out of the realm um but that's not something ask for that I'm just saying started I think that we need to kind of get as much through the LCP as possible I know in December our December meeting we had talked about a couple tweaks that we would be looking at for the fall special town meeting um so if you guys I guess maybe if you guys had certain things that you really felt needed to be looked at maybe you guys can look at them individually and bring them to the board but I just um I just don't know how much horsepower is going to be available in the near future to to address too many things I think the and Kathy maybe you could follow up on I think the the review that um the deputy Town Administrator is doing on the passes along with 28 I me they're doing a study on um all the passes along with 28 I think it's sort of a interesting thing to do because they were looking at development opportunities along 28 I think as part of that study gra gra they something like studies they were looking but I think as part of that I think they were looking at some zoning what the current zoning was look at the Village Center overlay district and possible 40R was just limited to Route 28 that was so there there's a little bit of review there but not not a comprehensive Town review but that's the cedc gr Madam chair that was a cedc grant that the cedc absolutely but the last I knew cuz the last meeting I went to no one had even been hired yet for that study really but that was two months ago the last time I sat in at a meeting so I don't know no there's the money is still yeah we don't know no I think it might be a case if we might need to go back to cedc um and look maybe for some slightly additional funding because I know that they had originally asked for like $75,000 C amount has been used up already uh and I'm not sure enough is left for the the cedc money was for the marketing study basically to look at our our population what are the services that our population needs or to draw people with tourism um and then look at different um uses that might be beneficial to actually be pushing in the in the town of Yarmouth that's one of the economic studies the other one had to do with what Susan was talking about which is a community planning Grant in addition to some additional funding from the affordable housing trust um to really look at at Route 28 look at our Village Center overlay District look at potential 40R and maybe that's not just on Route 28 maybe that's part of the madaky's solution as well um and both of those things are something that we need assistance from um the assistant Town Administrator to to kind of move forward a little bit on that as well as Karen green our director of Community Development was also looking at maybe the starting to look at the scope for that second study the the community planning Grant as well so I kind of hinted to her that you know we're starting our local comprehensive plan and we want these things to move in parallel so we need to keep those things um moving forward there are parts of the vcd Kathy I know I brought this to your attention too that if you look at it and you read it whether it's one two or three and then you look at the map the map identifies the various zones and it points to the Cavalier Motor Lodge or it points to properties that no longer exist on this map I mean if handing that to somebody to to do a survey at 28 I I don't know what they're gonna I just I think to Jim's point I mean some of this could be updated so that at least it's understandable to somebody who wasn't hearing 2012 when they passed vcd I think something like that is something that can be done so if there's things like that I just I'm not one not clear on like assuming you're going to look at a a chapter or a month or whatever might be a little bit too aggressive but if you guys know of certain things and you feel that there should be some tweaking I've always felt that the vcd really needs a a calling I think we tried to do it a little bit when we went um through it recently for the Riverwalk Park but it's still extremely specific uh we did make it easier to get around by making it changes most of the changes if you're not meeting it you can get it through a special permit from the zba versus a variance which is what it was before um but that needs to be looked at I think we also need to look at you know topof shop housing or additional um yearound housing opportunities on on Route 28 right now if you're not in the vcd OR and you're not in the motel hotel overlay District you know it's one right so you know maybe maybe we want look at that we do have um something that allows more than that for employee housing so if you're going to have an employee but keeping track of that and is that person who's renting that always an employee it's maybe that becomes something yeah maybe that can be something that gets tweaked to just be anybody has new inspector what are you talking about sorry I forgot sorry that was bad for the guy sorry and design standards I think we need to look more closely at our design standards and not make them um advisory they need to be mandatory and if they're going to be mandatory they need to be better than the architectural and site design standards that we have now which are a little squishy so should use a camp term when we when we talk about uh swim you know swimming swimming going to have to go to swim we call it fundator it's mandatory mandatory we say swim swim group is fundator today should try that sorry madam chair it's okay so so what I'm hearing Kathy if I may is um for those of you who are paying attention and are very interested in some things you know you know don't appear to that need some attention in the zoning bylaw yeah you know Kathy needs your help to understand I'm I'm looking at a lot of people who were in real estate here I am not um but you probably are engaged in it to a greater degree and have that professional background um so we can start to take a look but let's get maybe a list together of just where we think there are some really soft points that we could address quickly maybe there's some low hanging fruit um Kathy's already suggested that for special town meeting we look at a couple of things maybe we can bundle and and kind of do a whack at it we're not going to be able to do anything comprehensive because our Focus needs to be on the local comprehens I think and Madam Shar since I haven't I've only been on the board for three and a half years we haven't really done any of this what you're disc would that require going to town meeting if we're going to start changing things eventually it ends in a pro all that work then ends up at town meeting oh yeah right something if you're looking what I meant like as an example is what is what Peter brought up that's a separate map outside the VOD or outside the bylaw that can Chang do that are effective and efficient that don't require bring it up the date little huge process right in order to actually affect the change so that's just a town document the the the map I think so it's the one I'm thinking of coded it's on the website it's not part of the bylaw itself that's something that can be updated sure yeah I mean it references the you know I think vc1 is the family fun recreational area which is really now moved up to where the water park is it's no longer where Skull Island is because I mean in theory it's Cavaliers gone um yeah Irish village is gone it's now it's there's more housing there than there is family fun it's kind of shifted so it's and that's more of a that's more of a use change or eraser or something but I mean it's at least that map given to somebody who's hired to come in here and do a survey can find what the map's referencing yes lots of times we'll have like what's called a housekeeping article which may hit on a bunch of different sections and just kind of tweak some things in theory then there could be one a year from now it depends on what it is the yeah okay I I have one update that I I forgot I I attended the library planning committee meeting uh their consultant constructive disruption what the name of their constru disruption what is this called I'm sorry the library planning committee that's looking at that took all the survey results from the LI from the library um inquiries uh I would encourage all of you uh to watch it it was the best example of a consultant using our vision plan as the foundation for talking about what the town needs and what the people are saying for the library they went through each and every one of our goals and lined them up in terms oh it was a remarkable no was it was it was heartwarming to me these Consultants jumped on the vision plan took it as the foundation for their presentation quoted what meeting was this the library planning committee last Thursday evening so Leap Day umil 229 it's chaired by uh George bino so it's at the library it's on YouTube is it yeah yeah I think it was filmed and it was the committee receiving the results it was a terrific presentation by constructive disruption okay and they it was just terrific and it was the vision plan came to life they they used it as a complete framework to talk about slotting in their findings from this survey about the library what libraries what what people in the town want from their libraries what our libraries don't provide now it was terrific I really would recommend in fact I almost wanted to get it on the agenda um and have us see it um take the time for all of us to see it together it was and it wasn't that long it wasn't that long um it was really and so I when I listen you know I complimented them and thank them it was really quite good Madam chair where were they out of constructive disruption you know I don't I don't know I meaning where libraries build more they might be kit cot I'm not sure I just that's what I was curious really you know based but the presentation by the two uh Primary people was really terrific yes I I really hate to water on on a raging fire um but I I had the exact opposite um okay not on everything but on the notion of public Outreach and I sent her an email after that presentation and said I have to take exception to you to the comments about public comment and they level and who was involved because I emailed all of the associations along Louis Bay to see if anyone had been coming had contacted about the library and not no one except for Hannah p and they said they but they did they did the survey no one else I know participated in the so that's the Serv in any public they were never invited to go to any particular meetings one set of neighbors went to one meeting I think over in South yth I went to another meeting in the West yth liary Library um only because I found out it by accident so I went up to the library and stayed five minutes because they were doing coloring and construction paper and didn't think that was me know what the meaning at any event some of the stuff they in terms of the vision statement and what libr supposed to do know very very good but the whole notion of uh this is reflective of public comment and everyone got involved and uhuh that's not not my not my vision no no but this the sample size was relatively small small but it was almost a thousand people because they they they actually re referenced the fact that they said they had more than the vision statement in terms of the number of participants in the surveys and I corrected them because we had more I don't know well they they had used some number that I I knew I knew what our numbers were but but I think you get five 600 people commenting that's a sample size that's going to work if if you're if unless you're the sample size is biased well well yeah but that depends on the participation of people in town that's my point understanding that it's out there that's my point yeah well and I guess they're going to make a presentation to the board of Select soon right yes okay I did have one other staff update um I just wanted to the the Cape Cod Commission they had their economic Summit yesterday uh and I I attended so they're similar to their five-year housing Regional Housing strategy they have a five-year Regional Economic Development uh strategy saids uh comprehensive probably economic um so they they were just starting looking at their they' kind of come up with some general um topics obviously related to housing Workforce Development this type of thing and we're looking for some specific action items from a variety of people they had some really interesting um presentations presenters very Dynamic um and hopefully that PowerPoint presentation it wasn't up when I checked earlier today but we all be on the Cape Cod Commission uh website a lot of great statistics about you know just just a lot of good information from the UMass I'm too tired right now from UMass Donahue um Institute about you know people um who's migrating out of out of Massachusetts who's coming into Mass Massachusetts you know how we're increasing our population how are we getting the workforce that we need it was very interesting so that process is just starting for to have a five and they're hoping to be I I shouldn't say just started but it's kind of like January to June process and they're hoping to have a draft in June and will that be more Regional Kathy or are they gonna have a Town Base like the housing I think it's regional I don't more s they're not going to do those town by by sometimes what in the past what's happened is they will come up with these um the the things that they're trying to hit on with specific action items and then they'll ask the towns do you have any projects that fit into these and then then they see if they can can do those projects kind of been and then Benchmark it each year throughout the sets through the five years we we haven't had something on the sets in in a while I'm not even sure how long certainly not the current one anything else welcome to do I have a second second any discussion oh let me see Mr sa hi Miss BR hi Mr Rubenstein hi Mr Slovak hi Mr Smith hi and the chair you thank you so your concern is there a seven death almost fall asleep