Planning Board - Regular Meeting

the what? So in my mind, you can  vote on the overlay district. No,   but it's going to that's going to town  meeting. Not much for you to recuse yourself.   Yeah, I think that that there's not an issue  with the text amendment. It's a question of   of the recommendation on the reszoning of the  specific property, which the chair I know also   would would to recuse. So, if there's only  four of you tonight, you won't have a you   won't have enough. If you both recuse, you  won't be able to make a recommendation. So,   yeah, we'll have to see how that goes. better  better better that we don't try to do that. Um   All right. Um and you have heard nothing from  all we've heard from Todd is he so all right in   that case it is now 7:02 p.m. on March 10th, 2026  and I'm going to call this meeting of the Bedford   Planning Board to order. I will begin with uh  reading the um announcement from our government. Pursuant to legislation S 2475 extending the  suspension of certain provisions the open   meeting law GL 30A paragraph 20. This meeting the  bedro planning board will be conducted via remote   participation to the greatest extent possible.  No inerson attendance of members of the public   will be permitted, but every effort will be made  to ensure that the public can adequately access   the proceedings in real time via technological  means. In the event that we are unable to do so,   despite best efforts, we will post on the town's  website an audio or video recording, transcript,   or other comprehensive record of proceedings as  soon as possible after the meeting. I will next  

also state uh for the attendees that this meeting  is being recorded and we are have the blessing of   Todd being here. So we've got four people. So  we are now in business and I believe the first   topic of the night was um 146 Davis Road. Is  someone here want to speak for that topic? If not, we can move right on. Anybody  going to talk for 140? Mr. Chair,   I I'm going to take this meeting today.  Mike Novak from Patriot. Pam's voice is a   little under the weather, so I'm going  to go ahead. Thank you, Michael. Well,   you have the floor, sir. Uh, great. If I could  just uh share the plans, uh, I will get started. and and uh while you're getting that up, I'm  sure you know that this is in in front of the   conservation commission tomorrow night. That  is definitely something I was going to mention   as we went through uh here. So, as you said, Mr.  Chair, uh we're here for definitive subdivision   at 145 Davis Road. It's actually the rear of  of Davis Road. Here is the uh GIS overview.   Uh it's a large property. If you recall, I'll  show you the line in a minute. We we did have   an ANR that was done to to cut off the front  part of 145 Davis to allow for the developable   area in the back off of Jeffrey Circle. Uh the  Whoops. Hold on one second. Computer's having   a little bit of a lag. Going back one. Uh so  here we have the existing conditions plan for   um 145 Davis. Uh I will zoom in here. Here you  can see that that's the ANR line. You'll recall  

that was approved a while back to allow 145 Davis  to exist as lodge 145A and we created the parcel   in the rear. Um, as you mentioned, we will be  back in front of conservation for an amendment   to our ORAD or our resource area delineation.  Um through the review process, uh there were   some questions raised about some individual spot  grades in and around this area that were below the   uh bordering land subject, the flooding line or  or the elevation 119 that the flood the flood   plane that's established by the the FEMA maps.  Um we initially went through the ORAD process   and then that question came up. So, we went ahead  and and took another look at the area, and you'll   see that there's a red line on here uh that that  does break at this point and continues down. It's   labeled elevation 119. That is the um revised uh  limit of flood, excuse me, flood plane elevation,   uh that we're going to go in front of conservation  tomorrow to to firm up and and truly amend. And   I'm I'm going to jump to an exhibit to just show  um what we did to get to that change. Uh this is   just a zoom in Jeffree circles here again and the  access easement. So what we have here is we have a   blue line that's the previously approved flood  elevation and we have a red line which is the   revised. Um just to be clear and make sure that  everyone was comfortable with what we did. We went   ahead and went out and got um you can see these  purple spot grades. We got about 45 more spot   grades in and around the area in question. Um,  initially we had some stray or individual spots   that were below the flood elevation that were  not included. So, we went ahead and and redid   this with with the idea of being conservative.  And you can see that we very much filled it in.   And the shaded blue is actually a a reduction  or or a movement of the elevation line off of  

the property. And then the the the yellowish is  actually an increase in the flood. So you can see   that there's there's two areas where the the flood  line pushed into the site and you can see there's   two areas where it receded a little bit. Uh in all  there's approximately about a 4,800 ft difference   in the in the four major areas. Um but we're  very comfortable with this and we even went very   conservative in in this area here. We initially  the the topo show that it wasn't connected but we   did go ahead and connect it to therefore have  a continuous flood line. um we felt that that   was the right the right decision. So we're moving  forward with that line and hopefully conservation   will agree with that tomorrow and we'll have a  a revised um resource area delineation. So I'll   I'll jump back to the plans with that and we can  certainly answer any questions if there is and I   will zoom out a little bit. So the proposed loting  plan here just to lay out the lots uh the proposed   roadway um right away with the four lots. All  lots have the minimum area required for both total   uh total area required and upland area required as  well based on those ORAD uh determinations. And to   give an idea of layout, the dark the dark line, I  I didn't make it red on this plan, so I probably   should have, but the dark dash line is that  flood plane, just in case anyone wants to follow   that. Again, Jeffrey Circle coming in through  here. We're bringing the rightway through and   getting the rightway out of the out of the access  easement to allow for a better better shaped lot.   um slight grading up and down low points  at the beginning of the uh connection from   Jeffrey Circle to our proposed excuse me railway  and then we have a low point in the middle and   back up and I can show you a profile in a second  with drainage systems to capture both of those  

um runoff areas through catch basins and uh on  manholes, excuse me. And we're also um taking   advantage of as much as we can in regards to some  some naturally occurring low spots. And we've   created some some grass depressions here and here  cuz we have been made aware that there's a lot of   water issues out of this area and and we've been  asked uh to really try to make improvements above   and beyond what's required. So we've really tried  to do that. Uh the result of these two additional   um grass depressions also allowed me to fully  address all the drainage comments from DPW   uh as well which has been included in this in this  revised set. The utilities layout um relatively   easy because we already have an existing water  and sewer line that run through that easement.   Uh we're bringing a water line off to to allow  us to set a hydrant at the end of the culde-sac   uh services from that and we're connecting where  we can to the existing um sewer line as well to   to minimize disturbance as best we can. Uh you can  see the profile here of the roadway again Jeffrey   Circle starting here catch basins prior to leaving  the site high point low point one and a 1.25% two   5% little under one and a half% up and down and  then slightly over 1% to the top of the culac very   very shallow very easy won't have a lot of speed  with water runoff so we'll be able to capture   um all of the drainage uh we're also proposing  uh porest pavement for everything as well to just   again double up on really trying to reduce any  runoff or improve any situations that we can with   our development and we did provide a landscape  plan as well one of comments. Uh, this looks a   little odd because one of the comments was uh  from DDW was that there shouldn't be any trees  

planted within the existing easement. So, we've  removed those and we've added as many as we can   outside of that that still reads regulations. Uh,  and we'll have we'll have deed uh language to make   sure that there are no trees planted after  the fact in the easement per DPW's request.   We also provided, sorry, didn't mean to scroll  into Zoom. Uh, just an exhibit of a layout of   potential, you know, building envelopes with  driveways. And again, these driveways will be   porous to help again mitigate drainage. And  just an idea of a a 65 by 35 buildable area   as it sits and how they could sit on the plan  outside of the resource areas within setbacks.   um just for a visual aid to to understand cuz  these lots are so especially the bottom lots   are large and it there's a lot of resource area  in and around them. So, uh we felt that that   would be helpful. So, I think that's the a very  brief overview of the of the uh of the layout. Uh   happy to answer any questions. Uh the applicant is  here along with Pam and we do have Rich Kirby from   LEC if there's any specific uh environmental  questions as well. So with that, Mr. Chair,   I'll turn it to you. Thank you. I I will ask one  question and then open it to others. Uh you're   saying it's porous asphalt, you know, the the  main road and the traffic circle as well as the   driveways. Yeah, we really porous uh hardscape.  It's asphalt. Yeah, of course asphalt. We really   wanted to to make a a a very very hard effort to  to improve drainage with any of this development.   So thank you. You're welcome. Um questions or  comments from members from Tony or Katherine

while they're thinking any from members of  the commission? Todd, you've got your hand up.   Yeah, I'm just and I think I asked this last  time too. I apologize, but I'm just confused   the lot lines looking at this for C and D  um down below. Yeah, like cuz that Okay,   so it's like got a D has a super long driveway is  what you're saying. It does. Okay. Um again, it   was the effort is to minimize as much disturbance  as we can in flood pl. Okay. How large is D? I   can't read it. I'm sorry. Sure. One second. Let me  know when you Okay, now I can read it. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay, Todd. All right. Chris Gittens has joined us  and has his hand up and followed by John. Chris,   you have the floor. Thank you. I I apologize for  for joining late. Um has FEMA issued relief from   um this area being within the flood plane? Uh we will need to still file with that. Um  we're trying to get through the revised ORAD   and then that's the next thing that we'll  do. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome, John. So, this this easement runs directly through  lot B, right? Um, sorry, I hit the wrong   button. Bear with me one second. It's fine.  There we go. Through through the middle. Um,  

I'm not so much worried about the utility part,  but I am wondering if the access part is ever   ever ever if we ever try to uh exercise the  access part if that's going to uh create a   problem that that you know who whoever owns lot  B is going to claim that they never knew and you   know they don't want people traceing through their  um through through the middle of their property.   Um the staff have any insight into how that  generally works and what we can do to mitigate. I can comment if if Tony or  Katherine don't have a comment, but I I would just say that the the access right  seemed a little unusual and I don't we weren't   clear whether it's of any current likely use.  I'm not sure if we delved into it far enough.   I think we might have hoped for some comment  from DPW about that. Mike, do you happen to have   a sheet with the um the house locations on it?  Yeah, that would be crucial. Yeah. Yeah. These   are possible house locations, right? Not not.  Yeah. Are you not allowed to build on top of   the easement? I assume you can't interfere with  the rights that are created through the ement.   So if if it needs people that you couldn't  present anything that blocked it. Okay. Does   someone have two devices on because I think that's  usually what causes the echo like a phone and the  

computer. That seems to be better. Okay. Um  just a quick additional response to that is   um you're you're correct. These are, you  know, hypothetical proposed house locations   that could be shifted. Um, as far as the  easement, I actually haven't I'll have to   look for it. I don't think I've read the written  easement to see what restrictions there are. Um,   DPW has asked and we've respected that there be  no trees or structures within the easement. Um,   but that said, in terms of a homeowner knowing,  um, Mike just alluded to it, but I had suggested   just because of the no tree planting as well as  the, you know, fences or other structures that   we actually incorporate that into the deed. Um,  but anytime someone buys a home, you may be aware   that, um, there's a title examination run. The  easement will come up in the title examination.   It'll also be referenced in the deed itself.  So, people should be aware. And then, you know,   sometimes you don't find the plans on record when  they're really old, but this is going to be a new   um definitive subdivision plan that will be on  record and and referenced in any new deed. So,   um it should be pretty straightforward to a  buyer that um the easement exists and what the   restrictions are. Yeah. I mean, I might have made  the same assertions about the the um the railroad   a general access easements, for example, which  apparently were news to people who who uh live   there now. So, um I'm I'm I'm guess. Um, are  we going to act on this today in practice or my guess is no. Although we'd love to sort of  make sure, you know, my my goal because I my  

my assumption is that you would like um the  con to we've we've talked to staff. We don't   see there's going to be any issues tomorrow  night. Uh but we expect you're going to want   con to act to uh approve the modified line. And  um at least some of you I think would like to   see that FEMA has acted to um agree to the map  amendment. Um but that said um we would love to   um you know feel comfortable that um the board  is comfortable with this layout. Um Mike's last   um this this set of plans um responds to all of  the DPW comments um that have arisen although   we haven't gotten any formal feedback from DPW  that agreeing that it's responsive even though   we believe it's responsive. So, um I think from my  perspective, it seems more administrative um just   to hold off on your vote until those things are in  place. But otherwise, we'd like to be making sure   there aren't any additional comments, concerns,  requests for revisions, things like that. Um not hearing anything else from Tony, Katherine,  and the board. There's someone named Wayne Foster   that has uh their hand up. Um if we can let this  person speak. Wayne, you'll need to give your   full name, address, and unmute. Yep. Uh hi Wayne  Foster, 22 Jeffrey Circle. Um I just had a couple   of well comments slash questions. Um, one I I was  at uh the the presentation at Brown and Brown. Um,   and I still see the sidewalk on the  north side. Just to let everybody know,  

there are not two there are not sidewalks on  both sides of Jeffree Circle. There's only one   side on the odd. So, you can put it in, but  it's going to end there on the north side.   Um, and I asked, and I don't know who would do  this, but I asked for a stipulation that there   will not ever be a continuation of this road to  Winterberry to 225 to the Oldtown Dump to 225   um, in some way because we're extending  Jeffree Circle. So, it's a dead end now. Um,   we're adding units. Uh, so I don't know if and  how a stipulation can be made. Uh, I asked for it   that evening and I haven't heard anything. Um, and  then my last question is, are these four houses or   are they duplexes? because the rumors on Jeffree  Circle are that there could be eight duplexes. Um,   you know, is there any I'm just trying to figure  out how much traffic is going to be added in   front of my house. So, those are my comments.  Thanks. Okay, a response from whom, Pam. Sure,   I'll start. Um, we did commit to Wayne that, um,  we had no intention to make that connection. Uh,   we're okay with you making it a condition of the  approval. Um, uh, as far as road connection, um,   I actually for some reason thought, I guess I am  seeing sidewalks on two sides. Um, this board has  

commonly allowed a sidewalk on only one side  where we would typically run the sidewalk um   down and around the culde-sac but not all the way  down the other side and that of course would save   in pavement and so forth. Um, so I don't know. Uh,  I was only saying because I'm I know that uh Luigi   and Luchia at 24 Jeffree Circle and I we don't  have sidewalks in front of our houses and we want   to talk to somebody before we put them in because  then we've got the creek and then we've got the   rest of the side that doesn't have it. So, thank  you. Right. Um and then your last question, um the   the zoning, which is fairly new, but the current  zoning does allow a two family, um dwelling to   be constructed on a lot by right. Um so I I  you know, hypothetically, yes, these could be   four lots with two family. They'd be town houses  probably on each lot. Okay? cuz then you're going   to most likely increase the parking situation as  proposed on these maps. The driveways are thin,   extensive. Um, but uh total square footage I don't  well so I don't know if porous asphalt negates the   uh calculation on on the square footage, but  okay. Uh yeah, I'm just concerned about the   amount of traffic. Yeah, we I think the town may  also have to plan to do tree work more regularly   because we had in 2025 we had two trees come down  at different times that closed off this end of  

Jeffree Circle. In 2024, one tree came down. Um,  I know that's not the builder's responsibility,   but we may need uh more tree evaluation.  Thank you for the time. Thank you. Thank you,   Wayne. Hopefully your questions have been  answered for now. There's Katherine then Todd. Yeah, I um my understanding is that the sidewalk,  although it was shown on the north side, it was   moved to the south side in the most recent version  we received. We may still have the previous one on   the website. I'm not quite sure. Um but I'm only  seeing it on on the one side on the plan that's on   the screen. Is that right? Yes, Katherine. That's  I was going to say the same thing that we did put   it to the south side and we're just showing it  from Jeffrey Circle through the middle of the   culde-sac to connect through an easement here to  allow connection to the walking trail that exists   in Winterberry. I believe that was a comment from  DPW that we're trying to respond to. Okay. Sorry,   I misread the line. The center line in that piece  on the south side is the indication of sidewalk.   Yeah, the sidewalk would sit if you can follow  the cursor kind of ring. Yeah. No, I Okay, I see.   I saw the I saw the open Yeah. It's the right  of the right of way as opposed to the pavement   and I actually did the same thing looking at it  quickly on the screen. Okay. Well, thank you. I   I apologize. I don't look at these that often.  No worries. Can I make a comment real quick? Uh,   well, Todd's ahead of you. Okay, why don't  we do Todd and then you John? Uh, thanks. Um,  

just to clarify um Mr. Foster's comments and and  so to reply to that um now by right um owners are   allowed to put a two family house and an accessory  dwelling unit um on each lot. uh due to the state   saying any buildable lot that can have a house  on it can have an ADU on it as well. Um so just   to clarify that but that would still have to  follow all of the wetlands 100 foot buffer and   everything along with that cuz I know I can't put  an ADU on. That is correct. Yes. Okay. Thanks. Okay. Todd John did it again. So So there's a  second easement on the east side of the lot from   the circle up to the trail network. Yes. Okay.  So So that that uh mitigates some of my concern   about the the access and utility easement. I I  assume the utility uh uh uh uh easement will take   care of itself, but uh I can imagine the access  easement being a problem. How wide is that that   easement? Uh I believe we're showing it at 10  ft, but I can double check. But yeah, when you   when you mentioned the comment before, I thought  you meant vehicular access through. Oh, yeah. No,   no. I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm fine with not allowing  uh vehicular access, but I you know, it it is a a   dream of various parts of the town to to to create  a bike and or ped uh uh access through this land.   So, yeah, that was one of the comments we had  to address from DPW. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So,  

I'm I'm much happier with that because I can see  whoever owns lot B being much less concerned about   people taking that path and across that utility  easement. That was the idea. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All   right. There's an Andrew Cook. Uh sir, you need  to give us your full name and your home address. Hello. Good evening. Uh Andrew Cook, 159 Davis  Road. Uh seems like a pretty good uh pretty good   subdivision. It seems very interesting. Um just  and I I I think it's especially helpful the fact   that uh vote won't be today cuz I was just looking  over and it seems that there's a couple things   that appear to would stop it from being approved.  For instance, there's under the regulations   there's under uh section 32 3.3.2.2 2 um there's  no title reference on the plans and the under   3.3.2.4 four. I understand that lot D proposed lot  D is very very unusually shaped lot but it doesn't   appear to be fully dimensioned as required.  Um so I figured couple and I believe there's   a few other but I mean I feel that this is a good  time especially if nothing's going to be voted on   um to possibly be addressed before a vote is  made. But those are my thoughts. Thank you.   Thank you, Rendan. Now, there's a Mr. Chairman,  um, could I just ask who Mr. Cook represents? I   don't represent anyone. I'm of one I'm a resident  of 159 Davis Road. Oh, I apologize. Thank you. Oh,   sorry. Yeah, ESQ threw you throw you off.  All right. There's a uh and I'm only going   to pronounce the last name. Mastro Nardi. Could  you give your full name and home address, please?  

Um yes, hi uh my name is Maricha Mastrai and I am  a resident at 24 Jeffree Circle. I have a couple   of questions. Uh one about the drainage. Uh so uh  prior to the uh new pavement on Jeffree Circle,   the water at the end of the at the end of the  road was sinking and so there was a lot of water   accumulating on that side of the road and uh the  DPW uh so there is no drainage system on Jeffree   Circle on this side. The last drainage is uh  approximately model lane. So there's no drainage   and uh so DPW when they placed the new pavement  reshaped regraded the road so that uh drains   properly outside uh away from our house. Now uh  my question is the I'm wondering if the catch   basin is enough to collect all the additional  water that is coming from the new subdivision.   uh because I mean it is a lot and um why do you  didn't consider a drainage system towards Davis   for example or to towards other areas and  then the other question that I have during   construction I'm wondering how the road  is going to support all the construction   vehicles because the new road is pretty much  the new grading is pretty much what is draining   uh the road at the moment like what's guaranteeing  that the water is not coming into our property.   It's the new grading. Uh the other question that  I have is about safety and emergency vehicle   uh in the uh in this road. I remember during the  last meeting that you uh mentioned that the the   new road will be narrow and will be narrower than  usual and um and the tub will be longer will make  

it longer than uh the existing regulation. So I  am wondering how the safety will be guaranteed   as Wayne mentioned we had two three falling down  in the neighborhood and the neighborhood was Dr.   was pretty much cut out of cut off with  the two threes and then um so how uh   emergency would be guaranteed including during  construction construction time. Thank you. Uh you may be on mute, Michael. No, I can I can  um I think I've got them all, but I'll I'll try   to There was a couple questions there. Uh I think  there was a question in regards to the overall   drainage in the catch basins. So um as I mentioned  before, we're proposing porous or permeable   pavement which will reduce the the runoff from a  uh compared to a typical tight pavement street. Uh   in addition to that, we're we're adding the catch  basins. So it's not just the catch basins that   we're implementing to to mitigate the runoff, it's  also the porest pavement. And um if I can jump to   the you can see that it's only about the first 125  ft of the road actually pitches back towards uh   Jeffree Circle. The rest of the road all pitches  internally. So we're only we're only talking about   the first basically from about right here forward.  The entire road does not go towards Jeffrey   Circle. It's just the first uh 125 ft or so. And  again based on the shallow slope, the um coarse   pavement, there won't be a lot of velocity in that  water and then the catch basin should be able to   handle anything that does make it to the end of  the road. Now during construction is obviously   uh there won't be catch basins immediately. Uh  we have propo proposed uh I believe I have that  

plan. Um a construction entrance and and a a a um  turnaround area for fire trucks uh to allow that   was one of the comments we got from fire and DPW  to allow any emergency vehicles in and the ability   to turn. And we've also dedicated a parking area  for construction vehicles uh to maintain that   access. And that that small section of of entrance  way can be the the construction entrance will   certainly dissipate any water that's that's coming  down that way. Um but again during this particular   time frame, the the drainage will will function  as it exists now. So where the water goes now,   it will will still go there until we get the  roadway in. Um, but we can certainly make   sure that that is pitched so that there is no uh  runoff or at least try to minimize as much runoff   as possible towards Jeffrey Circle uh during  construction and that this will also have to   be monitored on a weekly basis uh because of the  conservation issues as well. So there's there's   some safety and and some belt and suspenders  built in. I I apologize. I I don't remember   the last I think it was tree work um in Jeffree  Circle something along those that that line and   and no it was about um thank you for answering my  question my it was about the narrow road it's I I   remember that there is an ex existing regulation  where Jen circle is already longer than um than   this is already an exception and that will make it  will be made even longer and uh narrower is that   um and so this would be an exception and I was  wondering uh why what would we still be able to   guarantee uh safety uh with this uh new addition.  And then my question about the drainage was also  

like at the moment the new pavement is supporting  the new pavement is uh uh is holding up nicely   and so the grading is helping the drainage of  the road. My concern is that the vehicle the   construction vehicles they're ugly. They may ruin  the pavement and that will ruin the grading of the   road because the grading is the only thing that  literally keeps the water away from our house. Okay. Um so in regards to the roadway length,  yes, that's something that we are asking for. Um   and the na the width of the roadway is uh has been  reviewed by fire and has been deemed as acceptable   as 20 feet wide. Um, and in regards to any  construction related issues with Jeffrey Circle,   uh, I'm I'm sure Dave, I'm sure you're willing to  make sure that that, uh, I'm sorry, I'm asking the   applicant, Dave, to to speak on that that I'm sure  there'll be if there's any issues, um, it'll be   taken care of. Yeah. Can I address that? Yeah, go  ahead. Yeah. Uh, this is David. So, um, yeah, so   we're going to all of our parking and everything  will be on site, um, well within the site. Uh,   so there won't be any cars or anything parked on  Jeffree Circle as it currently sits. And I just   wanted to make a couple quick comments about um,  just the meeting uh, kind of a couple things that   Wayne had said. Um, so when we met with uh some  of the abutters um to go over the plan, one of   the things with Wayne was the um was ending ending  the street at the culde-sac, which I was perfectly   fine with. And then there was also another item um  from another about her that uh asked she was more   concerned with um construction on the weekends and  I assured her and told her that I have no problem  

um putting something in that that says  we won't do any outside construction   um street work framing anything like that on the  weekends. Um so I just wanted to let the board   know that as well. Thank you. Um, Katherine  Perry, you have your hand up. Yeah. Um, we've   only received some of the revisions and and the um  changed flood plane line recently. Um, one thing   that we will need to check once the conservation  commission's confirmed the delineation um is the   amount of upland that has to be on each of the  lots. it may well meet it, but that's something   that we, you know, we can't determine at this  point. So, that that's one reason to wait. Thank you. There's another Katherine, that's  why I was specific about who we asked. There's   a Katherine with no last name that has  a hand up. Could you give us your full   name and home address, please? Okay. So  this is William Sha and Katherine Sha at   23 Jeffree Circle budding. Uh so I sent a  letter to the planning board. I just want   to make sure that was received related to  um this bill to my concerns of flooding. Yeah, I I believe it was I can have  Tony or Katherine confirm that. Uh, it sounds familiar. Yeah. So, you you  did have was the letter that was signed by   several members of the neighborhood as well as  the Yes. as well as the jail. Yeah. I believe   I have it and I read it. Okay. So, I just  want to highlight the conditions that um I   put in place at the board will take that into  consideration before granting any approval.

Yes, we will. Okay. Um, and this is a question  for Mike because we spoke directly about   um water mediation because my biggest concern is  not so much the storm water runoff but mainly when   the conquer river floods uh this area tends to  get flooded and into u the whole neighborhood.   Uh so what has changed since we spoke about um  mitigation? Sure. happened to and and to confirm   we do we did have an offline Zoom to review kind  of in depth the drainage and and how this would   function so um they could feel more comfortable  with understanding the plan and since we've spoken   um two things one I've if you recall there was a  small grass depression in this area and with the   flood plane change I've actually created a larger  area so again this anything running this way is   going to get settled in here and I've actually  added uh storage uh you know drainage storage or   water storage, flood storage all through here uh  which is larger than what was previously proposed   and then um and again in trying to mitigate those  efforts or or address those efforts, excuse me,   I'd added this mitigation here. Again, it's it's  a grass depression and really what that means   it's just more volume, more storage for water to  stop and stay here or to come this way and have   a place to go without rising around. um we are  limited in how much how much area we can disturb   within the flood plane. Uh and I've I've come  very close to that number but stayed under the   there is a there is a limit. Uh so I've tried to  really uh increase flood storage beyond what's out   there now while staying within the the bookends  that we have to stay in for development. So,   those are the two big changes along with, again,  I I'll reiterate, we we've really tried to um take   the water uh into the ground before it can run off  and and create any additional flooding or any kind  

of uh or contribute to any other low spots beyond  the site. Um we're reducing uh runoff uh pre-post   for for all directions that that's required.  So, that that's kind of the overview. Um so,   we've definitely tried to make some improvements.  um and and try to try to take into account your   concerns. Thanks, Mike, for that. Um followup  question to that is I appreciate that you added   something up by like lot A, lot B of depression  over there. Um my concern is that depression   closer to my property down on the bottom because  our lot our property down here is already the   lowest point. Um, so more water coming down here  would not be something I am comfortable with. I   would be more comfortable if you try to look at  options to divert the water where the culde-sac   is and further out east of there. So this So if  I could um that isn't necessarily because I'm   directing more water in that direction. It's it's  to create the ability to hold more water in that   area i.e. to alleviate any water coming towards  you. Um, so that was the intention of that. It's   not necessarily something I need to make my  drainage work, quote unquote. It's more about   trying to address your comments and allow for more  storage on our site to alleviate or potentially   or hopefully alleviate some any increase that  you would see on your end. If that makes sense. I do see more water towards my property. That's  how I look at it, but I appreciate it. Okay. Um,   and this is Katherine Sha at 23 Jeffree Circle.  Um, we also attended the open house at Brown and   Brown. And um, David, I had spoken to you about  um, asking were the lots going to be single family  

or duplexes? And from what I recall, you had  said that they were going to be single family   because it it wouldn't have been financially  beneficial for you to have duplexes. So,   I'm hearing kind of two different things. And so,  I just same thing with the traffic. Um, you know,   right now we're on a dead end. Like, we have kids  in the neighborhood. So thinking that now there   might be eight eight sets of families of cars um  kind of zooming by our property just just makes   me anxious for the safety um of my children. So  um I guess I'm just hearing two different things   of what might be proposed and maybe that's not  decided now but I guess I'm just I thought one   thing and now I'm hearing something else. Can I  can I address that? Sure. Yes, please. Yeah. So,   uh, my comment was was not that there would be not  two families there. My comment was I was hoping to   sell the lots to do a custom home there. So, that  is still my plan. I I've never said once that I   wasn't doing two family or wasn't doing single  family. What I said was that I was going to try   and sell the lots to an end user so I can build a  custom home there. So, I I just want to make sure   that that's clear. So, I think you just clarified  it. Let me make a a comment to Katherine that   um what a comment you heard tonight and you may  have heard this other places is the town has a new   uh bylaw that allows two family houses to be  built anywhere in town by right which means a   builder has a property they can build a two family  house that doesn't mean that they are going to or   that they want to. It's simply we've made it  available. This has got to do with a statewide   uh push for more housing. So we as a town were  pressured to u make sure we can allow two family  

housing. If I'm not the abuter, but it sound  like the uh David is stating he's trying to   get all this approved and ready and then let  because these are big lots. So, you could build   a custom house on each one of them for u probably  a significant price. That's as much as I should   um speculate. Um now, Chris Kitten of the  board has his hand up. Yes. I just wanted   to comment that the uh two family uh uh bylaw  was a local initiative. There was no pressure   from the state or requirement from the state  that we adopted that. That was entirely local. You're making us try to feel good.  Thank you, Chris. Uh Katherine,   are you still have your hand up?  You have more questions, comments? If not, I don't see any other hands up.  Okay. Does anybody else want to speak?   If not, I would just want to mention one  thing real quick just on the uh the size   of the property. So, you know, we're doing a a  project right now that's that's 1 acre with 14   uh units on it currently. So, this is  a 15 acre parcel and this is probably   the biggest parcel of land with the  least amount of lots on it in Bedford. Thank you. Appreciate it. Can I make a comment  about that? Go ahead. Um, I appreciate that. Uh,   David, uh, I'll also say that this is also  notoriously an area where it gets flooded. So,  

it's it's going to limit, you know, the amount of  development they can do on this property. Agreed. All right, I think we've uh discussed this as  far as we're going to get tonight. Uh I will   check with Tony if I have any we have any other  procedures. Otherwise, I'll say thank you for   everyone. Hopefully everybody heard uh information  that was valuable to them and this topic will be   brought in front of the conservation commission  tomorrow night and the planning board will   probably do final deliberations after a result  from the conservation commission as well as FEMA.   Please correct me if that's not it. Otherwise, I'd  like to close this discussion and move on to 229   Old Bill Ricker Road. If I may, Mr. Chair, before  you move on. Yes. U this is a public hearing   that you need to continue to a specific date.  that that's what I that's and for the benefit   of the viewing audience because there's others  observing but not commenting but the the proposal   does remain under review with our DPW engineers so  the all your questions about the drainage design   remain under active review the um and then for  also for those who raise qu concerns about whether   or not these might be a two family house. Um what  the board didn't uh mention is that there are size   restrictions if they choose to do a two family  rather than a single family. So that if you know   they could build the biggest single family house  that could fit here if they chose to you know so  

they might you know you might see a a sixbedroom  6,000 square foot house or even something larger   but if they choose to do a two family chances are  you'd be effectively splitting that sixbedroom   house in half. So you'd have two threebedroom  units. So, you're not really increasing the   number of bedrooms that would be created here. So,  even though people might say, well, there's going   to be more vehicles um if there's more households,  but you're really not generating more people than   could be generated if it's a large single family.  Um, so in the meantime, while it remains under   review, uh, the next planning board meeting where  you can really take this up would be April 9. Okay. So, we have Tony has Todd has his hand up.  Yeah. And otherwise, we need to uh a motion to   move this to April 9, I think you said. Tony, I  just came up. Yeah. A couple two things. Sorry.   Uh, with what Tony just said. um clarifying  that these are conforming lots correct Tony?   Yeah. Yeah, they will be conforming. Um come back  which means other than setbacks there is no other   um stipulations for the size of like the two  family. There's no far or anything because these   are completely conforming. Correct. There are four  two family houses in the zoning bylaw. That's how   we wrote it. But there's no FAR for a conforming  lot. There is an in the footprint restriction for   two family houses. I apologize. I forgot about  that. I thought that was only for conforming   uh for non-conforming. Sorry. No. All right.  Apologies. Um and then I just wanted to clarify  

the or get clarification on the FEMA comment.  I don't know how quickly FEMA comments and are   uh Mr. Chair, are we going to wait for them or is  that Oh, that's usually fast. I I just don't know   because that was stated. Well, well, I think  what we're doing is uh moving to continue this   to the April 9 meeting. Between now and then, the  applicant will notify us uh if they are feel fully   prepared to be in front of us. Um, if that's all  true, then I would then uh one, will the applicant   agree to continuing this hearing to the April  9th meeting of the planning board? Yes, we we   would like to continue. All right. I need a motion  from member of the board to move the hearing for   145 Davis Road subdivision plan to the April 9,  2026 meeting of the Bedford Planning Board. So,   Thank you. Thank you, John. And a second. Thank  you from Dawn. And roll call vote in that order.   John I. Dawn. Hi. Hi. Todd. I. Remote participant  Chris. Hi. And the chair both eye. All right. So,   we will see or hear from many of you in about  a month or so. In between there's town meeting,   town elections and all sorts of stuff and the  cons meeting tomorrow night. I will see some of   you tomorrow night. Um, yeah, I think I I think I  recognize you, Rich. I may be seeing you tomorrow   night. All right. Thank you. See you tomorrow  night. Thank you. Yeah, you bet. Right. Yeah. No,  

I I I've read over it already quite a bit. Um 229  Old Bill Ricker Road 6 Michael Bicken Way request   for release of a lot from Covenant. Who would  like to speak on this subject or who is going   to whether or not you'd like to? I I will. Um I I  think um given where we've been with this, it it   makes sense. I didn't see a huge issue personally  with removing this lot from the covenant. Um but   the related issue is um what I I had originally  when we filed this back in November had had wanted   to do two steps. one was remove the two lots from  the the planning board covenant um for financing   reasons um and others um but uh related to that is  the anticipated amendment request to the special   permit which would um include removing both  of those lots from the PRD special permit.   They were both designed um as as we discussed  at the last meeting 251A um is really other   than adjacency is unconnected with um the new  subdivision road. It's accessed from the existing   driveway. It faces that existing syndicate land  as opposed to the new subdivision. Um it will have   um a sewer connection is the plan um which  will happen when the new utilities come in.   Um but given some of the back and forth in Tony's  comments and um confirmation with town meeting um   we have always anticipated the amendment to the  special permit but I think that's kind of where   it came from. So um I think at this point my plan  would be to finalize all of the legal documents,  

everything that's required by the special permit.  So all of that's together in one package. Um,   and then to um make the application uh for the  amendment to the special permit as well. Um,   I don't know if Tony or Katherine have  other comments, but it it seems like we   could spend a lot of time debating this and  that's not my goal to waste your time. So,   I think that's a better strategy to try to  roll the amendment into the discussion. Yeah. So, I guess I would if no one has other  comments, I would just ask to table this   um to a time in the future. Or or continue. Yeah.  Yeah. It's not it's not a public hearing, but Oh, so what do we need to do? Get off mute. So, we're  agreeing to table this till April 9th, 2026, Pam,   or you'll get back to I'll get back to you. Um I  I think it probably behooves us to um I just need   to catch up to finalizing all of the documents  I'm drafting and so forth. Because this is not a   hearing, this does not need to be set to a date  certain. So, you pick this up at at random. So,   I'll just coordinate with staff when I when I've  got every my decks in a row and um we can get it   back on the agenda. Thank you. Much appreciated.  All right. Next up is 49 Page Road. Is there   someone to speak for this? Yes. How you doing?  This is uh Greg Gardner of Gardener Contracting.   Yes. You have the floor, sir. Yes. How you  doing? Uh my name is Greg Gardner of uh Gardener  

Contracting 10 Holden Street, Bedford, Mass, and  I'm representing um Denise and Hal Call of Page   Road. They're um they've been a you know they've  lived there their whole life on 49 Page Road and   their house um they're looking to tear down the  existing house and build a two family and also   uh add an ADU unit to that lot. Uh the lot itself  is a conforming lot. It has 212 ft of frontage   and is 52,000 square ft and um requirements are  150 ft 150 ft of frontage and 40,000 square ft   uh for the lot. Um the existing house  now will be torn down. It's a cape. And   um we are looking to add the driveway on Page Road  for the ADU. It'll be a combined driveway for the   two family um existing house. So there'll be two  entrances for that lot. And um that is, you know,   one of the requirements from the DPW. Um, this lot  does have a sewer easement on the side and I know   there there was um um uh so there is a sewer  easement on that side and then also there was   also a sidewalk easement that was just um given to  the town from the homeowners to put in a sidewalk   uh up to to Hemlock a um Hemllock Road which  um will be you um a pretty pretty desired area   because it is a a busy walking path for um  um residents. Um the ADU that we are looking  

to build is going to be 1,000 square ft  and it will have a single car garage.   The garage um will be 14 by I believe 20 ft and  um the ADU height will be 23 ft high. Um it's   a you know single floor unit. Um the reason we  were able to go to 1,000 ft is we're looking to   meet the energy code. So, we'll build it to um a  higher energy code with um for the hers rating and   um that's why we're allowed to go the extra 100  ft on the square footage compared to the 900 ft. Thank you. Thank you, Tony. some of the details are not  loading in this PDF, but um so there's um the driveways have been adjusted to  try to avoid the trees that exist along here. And   then the one tree that we initially thought might  be a street tree that needed to be addressed under   the public shade tree act on a scenic road.  Um turns out to be um after assessment by our   tree warden the tree is infected with the animal  ashbor and they recommended it come down as soon   as possible. So, um, so the property, even though  it's on a scenic road, nothing in this proposed  

construction triggers review under the scenic road  act. So, it really is just site plan review for   the freestanding accessory dwelling unit. The  um there is a proposed driveway to serve that   accessory dwelling unit separate from a what  is a single curb cut to serve the proposed two   family structure which is hard to distinguish  on the plan that I have up. The other question   that came up during uh our review is that the deed  description for this property doesn't exactly line   up with the deed description for the property  to the right. But um the building inspector is   going to have to take the stamp plan that's  submitted. Although we've suggested they may   want to just have their surveyor confirm the  boundary. uh for this property just in case   it requires any adjustment to the placement of  the of the foundation that's proposed here. So,   uh otherwise the the size of the duplex meets  the zoning restrictions that we just talked about   under the prior hearing with respect to floor area  ratio and footprint. and the uh proposed accessory   dwelling unit is seeking the extra 100 square  ft uh that we offer as a bonus over the state   um protect what the state's protected ADU size  of 900 square ft. We offer a 100 square foot   bonus if they meet either accessibility criteria  or energy efficiency criteria. those details are  

certified by the inspector of buildings  during the building permit process. So um um so that's that's um that's about all there is  for this proposed. Uh this is not this is this   I don't believe this is being done on spec where  the property owners are are maintaining ownership   and I believe intend to continue to live in  one of the new units created here. So it's thank you questions or comments  from members of the board. questions or comments from members other residents  of the town? I'm not seeing any hands up. All right. Um, what step  do we need to take on this,   Tony? I was struggling with that. Is this  just an approval of of what? Yeah. So this   is a this is site plan review of the placement  of the of the actual accessory dwelling unit.   We usually often we we would often recommend they  try to be placed behind the main structure, but   because this property backs up to Elm no Shasheen  Shasheen River and has wetlands in the backyard,   placement of this particular ADU makes more sense  environmentally to be up somewhat parallel to the   main structure. And that's what you that's why  you see it here. Um I will uh if the chair doesn't   u bring it up but uh the commission did review  this proposed construction and approve it at  

its last meeting in the conservation  commission. Yeah. And approved it. The if there are no other questions  or comments then is there a motion to   approve the four said plan project and plan  review so moved. Thank you John. A second. Oh   way to go Todd. All right in that order. How  do you vote? John I. Todd I. Don I. Chris I   and the chair both eye. Thank you one and  all. Thank you very much guys. Appreciate   it. Thank you. Next topic is the um cottage  overlay district. Um the chair is going to   um politely uh disappear for about  3 minutes and then be right back. thought we should smoke them if we got them. Um, so I'm not sure if you meant for this to be  a delay, you know, or a recess or if he if he   intends for member Gitens to temporarily absorb  the chair. Well, he only said three minutes. Uh, I apologize. I forgot about the bar. I looked  through my presentation actually and uh it's funny  

the things you forget. Um but I will say I looked  through my presentation from 2023 and uh there's a   big bullet of ADUs are not allowed on two family  on on lots of two family houses and uh well well   that part was forced upon us by the state. Yeah.  In 2023, yeah, we gave you the option of an ADU or   two family, right? And then in the meantime, the  state changed the rules and said ADUs have to be   allowed anywhere any kind of housing is allowed.  Anyways, thought that was interesting. Yeah. Just   as we're striking out our zoning. Yeah. All right.  Is there um Potty Joe District? Is there someone   special that's going to present this? Uh, yes.  She's fixing her hair. I think Tom might be I Yes.   No, I'm I'm planning on presenting. Um I didn't  know order of operations in terms of like do we   open up for public comment or do I I wanted to uh  I've been working on the um slide deck uh working   with Tony a little bit a little bit of input from  Miss Brown in terms of some some information. Um   I can go through the deck as I have it right now  and then Tony I don't know I could send it to you   you could send it to everyone and people could  give me comments offline. Yeah, this is a public   hearing. So, I think the main point here is to  explain what the proposal is and give people a   chance to comment. And do we have to open? Yes.  Move that we open the public hearing for the the   cottage district. Thank you. And a second. Second.  Thank you, Don. How do you vote? John I. Don. I  

Chris I and Todd. And the chair votes I. Okay.  The hearing is now open. Um who assemly going   to present on this? Yeah, I I can present.  I can say I have not practiced at all. So   this will be very you want to present your  slides. Oh yeah. Your slides. Yeah. May be   sufficient. Yeah. You have the floor,  Mr. Proudly. Thank you. Um, Katherine,   did you want to say something first? No, you'll  probably read radio. Sorry. Could I just ask a   quick question? Um, I didn't know if there's  been changes by staff or anyone to the bylaw   that's on the website or has been submitted  to the select board from our last meeting. I have I'm pretty sure we're still on the same  draft. Okay. I don't think we were allowed   to change it. Yeah, we may have had something  to itallic explanation or something like that.   We haven't changed anything significant.  Okay, you control the side deck, Todd. So,   what are the rules? I'm trying to figure out  how to share it. I I I know we're listening.   How do I share it? I don't know. Share. There's a  green button says share screen. All right. Well,   yeah. You don't want to Or did you send them to  Tony? No, I'm I'm Hold I'm I'm almost there. There   we go. Okay. All right. Did that work? Oh gosh.  Sure. All right. Now we got it. Another skeleton. Okay. Can you see it? Yes. Great. Okay. Um,  yeah. So, there's two articles, articles 30   and 31 about the cottage overlay district. Um, 30  goes through the actual overlay district itself.  

um information about it in terms of approving and  not approving. Um and then 31 is applying it to a   specific area in Bedford. Uh so article 30, the  Cottage Overlay District. Um kind of going off   Mr. Gibton's what his uh slide uh way he likes  to present slides. I think it was great. What   are we talking about? Adding a new zoning bylaw  section 11.7 for the cottage overlay district.   Um why do we want to do this? We want to provide  opportunities for compact and attainable housing.   Um trying to accommodate a range of residents at  different life stages. First-time home buyers,   families, and older adults. Um part of the goal  with this is within walking distance of shopping,   local services, community venues, and public  transportation, and promotes housing diversity and   sustainable development. And if there's questions  or comments, feel free to bring them up now or   uh at the end or you can email me, whichever. Um,  so what is the college overlay district? It's an   overlay zoning district which can be superimposed  over an underlining zoning districts depending on   on where it's it's it's placed. Um so either the  co cadrove district provisions set forth in this   section will apply or the provisions applicable  to the underlying zoning district um but not both   at the same time. Uh so the intention is for  cottage home projects um and they are subject   to site plan approval by the planning board.  And one of the big things with this is follow   a design and sustainable development standards  which there are three slides for this. Um so for   the cottage district design standards um we have  these these four bullets uh the front pedestrian   entrance facing the closest uh sorry facing the  closest street of the access drive. Hm. It Oh,  

sorry. It must have a front pedestrian entrance  facing the the front pedestrian entrance must   face the closest street or the access drive.  There we go. Um must have pitched roofs. Uh   and then the goal is to have universal design. Um  clarification, that's not a requirement, correct? I think it is a requirement. It is. Okay.  Yeah. Yeah, I just want to make sure. Um,   so it's not it's not full ADA accessibility. It's  a lot standard than that, but it's a requirement.   Okay. Well, since you just mentioned that  because the fourth bullet is ADA compliance   um clarifying what that means for me. I think  that was just a sentence saying that if there   were proposed to be fully ADA compliant that that  would have to comply with the laws around that.   So that will be the developers option. Okay. All  right. Okay. I will have to add words around that.   Um okay. So the universal design the four  bullets there. Grab bars around toilets,   tubs, and showers. Door openings can be  only between 32 in and 48 in. No raised   interior thresholds unless required by  law. And minimize. So one of the goals   is to minimize steps necessary to access the  building to hopefully one step. Um but again   it's minimized so it's not required to be just one  step. Correct. It's a maximum of one step is it. Okay. Thank you. This is helpful.  Uh the these are similar to what we   used at the Pineh Hill crossing development. Okay. Um so for the cottage OA district  sustainable development standards   um we have sustain so for sustainable development  um energy efficiency environmental protection  

and storm water management and low impact  development um looking for help with that. What   uh because it seems rather loose to me um I don't  know what sort of requirements we have on that. because I took these directly  from the bylaw itself. Then they must be good. I know they're all good  things, but what I don't know is exactly what   it how do we energy efficiency, you  know? Yeah. Or is a lead efficiency,   etc. But I think the audience  will know what you mean. Could you say a minimum of 20% of total area that  would be impervious? I think that's backwards.   Maybe it's maximum. Something's off there. Yeah.  Let me look at the bottom. Yeah. I'm looking here. I'm actually not finding it. I know it's there  somewhere. I'm looking too. I did reverse some   things. Um Oh, so yeah, you it's um 2A, right?  Okay. Y materials in lie of imperous materials   for a minimum of 20% of the total area that  would otherwise be constructed with impervious Otherwise, minimum of 20% of the total area. Just  change impervious to perus. Sure, I can do that.

I think that does it. That should that looks good. Okay. um encouraging green space within culde-sacs  and boulevard islands. Um passive house design   features, avoidance of fossil fuel, HVAC systems  and appliances. So all all these are oh see sorry   minimum of two of of these sorry of the following  now I understand. Um rain gardens, biosphils,   nonstructured storm water controls and clustering  dwelling units to preserve open space. Um and then for the last of the development  standards there are plantings and parking.   So for plantings again taken from the bylaw  trees and shrubs provided and the setbacks   and within development. So the guess say the  goals are to have trees and shrubs provided   and setbacks and within development. Uh at  least one tree per dwelling unit. I assume   that doesn't necessarily mean new. Um that  means just some of them could be existing.   This is a total number of trees. Okay.  Uh of the trees and shrubs 70% or more   have to be native. Um and there's no invasive  species allowed and 70% of the trees in the   development must be shade trees. Um the rest  can be orient or ornamental. I'll reward that. For parking, each home has to be  provided with uh one with off sorry,   each home has to be provided with  off- streetet parking spaces. Um   uh no more than one garage space per unit is  allowed and at least one securable bicycle   parking or storage space per dwelling unit. Um  but the garage does satisfy that this requirement.

And then we go into dimensions and density  standards. Um so for this the minimum lot area   uh has to be at least 40,000  ft². The maximum height of   uh the structures so these are maximized  dwelling units just clarifying um are uh 30 ft or two stories. Um the maximum  density is 10 dwelling units per acre.   And the maximum unit size is 1,850  square ft of gross floor area. Um,   which it does exclude the garage space. Uh, and then so the minimum lot front edge is 150,  minimum front yard setbacks 20 and sideyard is 15   and rear is 15. Um so that the items bolded are  different than um and I can say lower than other   uh requirements in town for single family and  two family houses. Um there is a a note that   pre-existing residential structures should not  be subject to setback and height requirements   but shall comply with lot area density  and unit size requirements. The setbacks   are actually different to normal development.  Okay. Uh do you know? Oh yeah. Yeah. The side   is the same. Thank you. Um then I will just get  rid of the bold. Just not go there. Thank you. We will just not fold those. Just make this easy.  Is it okay for me to comment? Yes. I I just wanted  

to suggest that when later when you're making the  presentation, Todd, that you do call attention   to the fact that um the size, the height, and  the number of stories is actually smaller than   the underlying district. I know you just you just  said that, but um I think it's helpful for people   to relate it to what otherwise in Yes. No, it's  a good point. I think it's a very good point.   um duly noted. Uh yeah, and then just random  examples of the types of housing that uh we're   hoping to achieve with this cottage overlay  district. Uh that the one on the right looks   like a pretty big garage. It does. Um if anybody  can find more pictures, I was trying and I was   trying to pull from Mike Mes's website. Um I can  get you pictures from um Conquered Riverwalk or   um Woodward Village, one of those. I think that  could be good. Yeah, I agree. Thank you. I agree,   Mr. Hagen. This one is gone. Um um I did look for  like uh messages, presentations about housing. Um,   the ones I found were from 2016 in terms of kind  of the uh production of houses going down over   the years. Um, I just felt the data was a bit old.  Plus, I wasn't sure if it was totally necessary.   I I didn't know if if board members feel like,  ah, we should add more to this. It's more just   facts versus much commentary. Um, I don't know.  I'm not feeling a need for a lot more material.   this the housing subject's pretty well understood  in the town and they know who you are. This is   a zoning issue. This is not a construction  issue. Yeah, I had to make that clear in the  

very beginning. Thank you. Um just a suggestion  on the pictures, you might want to include some   that are attached or that have garages because  the you know there are various types that will   be allowed. Yeah. Okay. So add add pictures  with with the garage you mean? Yeah. Mhm. Use something from prim. Yes, probably. Smaller than the  maximum, but that they're within   the range. Is this your last slide,  Todd? This is Yes. For this, okay,   radical 30. Yes. And um other discussion  from Tony, Katherine, members of the board. Yeah, I'm I'm not I have no  comments on the proposed zoning,   but just to point out that you did get  uh written comments from two residents,   Harold Asp and Maui Pascal. And um David  Goldbomb in the audience has raised his   hand. Yeah. Right. So David, if you could  full name and your home address, please. David Goldblum, 32 Elm Street, Bedford, Mass.  Yes, you have the floor, sir. Yeah. Thank you   very much. So the one comment that I wanted to  make was that um earlier up in the presentation   it said one step into the house. It really would  need to be two steps. There's a minimum code to  

the top of the foundation which is a minimum of  10 in above grade and then you have your framing   sitting top of the foundation. So you really  can't have one step into the house, which would   mean that would be 8 8 and 1/4 in above grade into  the house. So two steps would be perfectly fine. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Well, okay. So I  apologize. Um, looking through the bylaw,   it says minimizing So, it's it says minimizing  steps necessary to access the dwelling to one   step unless otherwise waved by the planning board.  Um, okay. No, but so I mean, Catherine, you know,   you made it clear that it it's supposed to be one  step. Are we always going to have to wave this   because it's like impossible to build that way due  to other issues? Yeah, that's something we weren't   aware of. I think we've probably mentioned the  one step at standard previously, but um it sounds   like we should discuss it with code enforcement  and possible proposals tweak to that when when   present town meeting. I mean the actual motion  at town meeting can include some slight changes. Okay. Thank you. Other questions or comments? If not, we could have a motion to close the   uh the hearing on this subject. And then never  mind. One for 30 and one for 31. Is that Yeah,   we've got two. We got to do the first one.  So, Don made a motion. Is there a second?

Somebody don't be shy. Thank you, Chris. All right. How do you vote? Don  I Chris I and the I'm looking for who else is Oh,   John. I can't see you. John, how do you vote? I.  And the chair votes I. Hearing is closed. Now,   it's a motion to approve uh or I think it's  for recommend this uh zoning change for it to   create a cottage overlay district in the town of  Bedford. Is that the right wording, Tony? Yeah,   it's a motion to recommend approval. So, yeah.  Anybody want to say so move? So move. Thank you,   Chris. Second. Seconded Todd.  All right. How do you vote Chris? I Todd I John I Don I and the chair  votes I. All right. Hearing is closed   and the recommendation has been made.  Now we need to go up to article well   article 31. There's another the mapping  zoning issue. And that's article 31. Um, struggling. How do we phrase this, Tony?  Do we need to open a hearing on this? Um,   first, someone should make a  motion to open a hearing. May we   open the John zoning boards planning boards  recommendation of article 31. Second. All   right, let's do a roll call vote, but I couldn't  follow all of the ordering. How do you vote?  

John I. Todd, hi. Don, I and Chris I. And the  chair votes I. All right. Hearing is open. Is   anybody Tyler Wait a minute. Tony or Katherine  have a comment? So, this is literally a zoning   map amendment to apply the cottage overlay  district to the property at 49 Elm Street. If article 30 happens to fail to pass,  you would ask for this to be postponed   indefinitely. But if article 30  passes then we would proceed with   um giving the recommendation and then  the presentation of of this article. Thank you. So it's open any comments from Tony or   Catherine and then I'll go to  members of the board. Hearing none, comments from other members of the at the  residents of the town of Bedford. Well,   should I present what I have? Oh,  you're ready to roll already? Well,   it's more you have the floor, Todd. Yeah.  And I think I don't know, Tony. Do we have   to read in the written letters from members  of the public or how is that handled? I I   I don't think we need to read them. They  can just add them to the minutes or Okay.

Could you just summarize what  they are or what they say or one of them is uh about trees from bark. Tony, do you want to So, we asked  about the comments that we received.   They really covered. Yeah, you can send  them over addresses the proposed text   that we just went through and I'm I I will  send a response to those, but they were um they were questioning why 10 units per  acre was chosen over other densities given   um that the town expressed a preference to cap.  the Middle Sex Community College parking lot at   five units per acre. And then there was a, you  know, questioning why the board would limit   units to one garage space per unit. And that's  clearly an effort to try to minimize the bulk,   right? the fulk and footprint of the actual  structure whether you know there's a mindset in   the suburbs that families want twocar garages but  clearly we've been evolving away from that. So,   this kind of stays with that. And  it's got a very narrow, you know,   we'll see as this overlay may get applied  elsewhere in town whether that one space,   one garage space per unit needs to be revisited  somewhere in the future. But for the time being,   the board's recommendation is to go forward  with one. Thank you. There was a question and   then um there were also questions about well  about whether this is more you know could this  

be applied throughout town not just in the  areas closer to the center of town and then   um specific to the development and this article  31 there's a question about whether or not the   proposed drive serving the con the conceptual  development would be a public or private way and   as you know as as as shown on that concept plan it  would end up being a private way but um and then   Molly Haskell's comments dealt with um trees and  vegetation and includes an IT tree analysis of of   of drainage impacts if all of the proposed concept  claim was paid And but I believe a lot of this   concept plan involve purgous pavement in an effort  to minimize the runoff. So that but again it's a   little it's premature I think for many of those  comments because they're specific to development   of the property and there's no requirement that  the concept plan that was shown to this board last   November or September. uh there's no requirement  that that concept plan be built and in fact we   can't even I can't even confirm that the concept  plan could be built under the proposed overlay   district because we haven't we haven't done that  analysis. I mean, it's loosely based on that idea,   but given given that 49 Elm Street and the  owner and and developer are looking to put   eight additional housing units behind the existing  house, the concept plan simply shows, you know,  

a theoretical uh layout of that many units  on the property. So, um, so as we, so as you   consider whether or not to recommend favorably  on u establishing the overlay district at 49 Elm   Street, that's that's what you're looking at. It's  it's it's a property that's a little less than an   acre. It at that at 40,000 and square feet and  change, that means I could get nine units on the   property. and by salvaging the main part of the  historic house and adding eight units behind it.   That's that's how they would get to the nine  units allowed under the draft over district. Um so with that I uh want to propose a  question to the board in terms of their   thoughts in terms of why we did go with 10  units per acre um when considering that the   um Pinehill Crossing the old Coast Guard  housing uh is six units per acre. So I'm   looking for thoughts in terms of if this  question gets asked during town meeting crossing had some already existing uh dwellings.  This only logically just does them. It's only   got one. I think more importantly though,  this is back in the center of town and Okay,   Don and Chris have their hands up. Don. Yeah,  that would point was essentially my point too  

is that the whole of the cottage district  being a part there in the center of town. Thank you, Chris. Yeah, I would uh I  would agree with that and I would add   u that you know this is a  proposal that was initiated   um by resident and they advocated for  the 10 units per acre. So I view it as the the preference being 10 units per  acre and that being a reasonable number. Thank you. If it had been my initiative,  I might have chosen a different number.   But I look at the substance of uh what was  digested and I it seems reasonable to me. Good, John. And we explicitly  discussed the possibility that   if we were to apply this overlay somewhere else,   we might might have a different density,  but it's just reinforcing Don Don's point. Okay. Any other comments, questions  from members of the board? questions or comments from other residents of the  town of Bedford. If not, there are motion to close   the public hearing. Todd have other slides. I do I  do have other slides. Um I was going to say Todd,   sorry, I I have another question. Well, two  questions kind of, but um one in terms of  

just making sure if a spot zoning question came  up um uh just I don't know, does that matter at   all? I mean, is that a thing? Does it apply here  or Well, I sp usually around a single residence   or a single dwelling. This is we're talking about  10. Now split zone is sometime used where um only   is just applied to a particular property but it's  only really an issue if it's being done for the   wrong reason to serve a public purpose. So the  the emphasis should be on the reasons the logic   the fact that you've considered it broadly um and  that you're not doing it as a favor for someone. So you said serving up that's the essence. Yeah.  Okay, thank you. And you have slides, I do,   but and this is uh probably my second question,  but I'll get there. Um, so there's not a lot   obviously um but this is the exact map that would  be uh entered into um into the bylaws um showing   49 on Elm Street. Um, and then I just wanted to  for contextualize it a bit in terms of the Great   Road is is going almost east to west here and it's  it's south of that. So, very much in the center of   town. Um, and then the next one is is a slightly  more zoomed in. You can see that it's a fairly   dense neighborhood as it is and extremely close  to the center of town and the other, you know,   um, uh, common areas in Bedford. Um, so just  wanted to kind of, you know, just have a few   maps just to give people context in case they  don't exactly know where 49 Elm Street is. Um,   and then this kind of just shows, although it  shows just a lot of trees, but it shows, you know,  

kind of just one more area, one more overview of  it. And then, you know, I I I've talked to Pam a   bit, I've talked to um Tony a bit about this  in terms of do we show anything of this? And   I think there's been agreement that it's like  should go on backup slides. My experience with   the town is that we are not given backup slides.  They do not put them in the slide deck because   it's one large slide deck. Um I could request that  we have them but I don't know what to do about so   this and this is just so everyone's aware this is  slightly different than what we've seen although I   think it's generally the same except for this um  because this is only two and threebedroom units.   Um, and and then don't even know if this should  be in there, but this was in the original   proposal for us as well. So, it's a question  to the board of does this go in at all. Um,   do like try to request for backup slides. What  you know, I would just leave it. This is what   I've done in the past is you just leave it in  the stack, but you stop and then if somebody   has a question where that might be helpful,  then you can go back and pull up those slides.   I'm totally fine with that. Um, uh, Mr.  Mlan, yeah, you had your hand up. Um, you're on to unmute and then a slide um that  describes the density of the lots around it. Yeah,   I I requested Miss Brown today. I didn't give her  a lot of time for what what the density was. Um,   I was nervous that the density is like six  or five or I don't know something and I'm   like that is that gonna help us or is that is  that you know detrimental to this passing? Are  

you asking what the density of this proposal is?  No. Um I I I think if I understand your question,   no other lots budding this are an acre in size.  They're all smaller. No, but it's uh units per   acre. I was looking for that calculation. I  actually I have a graphic I can share with   you that shows the density of all the lots in  the neighborhood. Okay. Okay. Some of them are   14. Oh. Um just the smaller lots that have a  couple of units on them or even a single unit.   Yeah. Yeah. Um I could have add that information  but but uh Katherine yeah I wouldn't put provide   so much detail about this proposed development  concept because if we said that's not the zoning   um and something different could come forward  but I'd focus on the um specific requirements   in the zoning which covers a lot of this. It's  it overlaps anyway. If you find that you want   to show the development concept because people  are perhaps asking about it at town meeting. Oh,   I wouldn't go beyond that. Yeah. So you just  say just give these two slides in a deck. The versus the detailed um slide of bullet and then  would you rather say proposed or actually have   it just say conceptual or something like that? I  was looking. Yeah, might work better. not clear.   I can't spell. Is that right? And I don't have  to underline it or anything like that either. So,   um yeah, Tony, I don't know if you could send  these out and then people can comment to me   in terms of like word choice and like I don't  know, always looking for feedback on that. Um

yeah, we'll send the we'll send  the uh slideshow on for member   uh review and comment before we finalize it.  Okay. And and Pam, if you can give me that data,   I at least have it. I may not display it right  away. I may just talk about it and then but   well I think it was Chris at a prior meeting had  shown me the um one of those apps that websites   that was really cool but I actually just went  around to the neighborhood and calculated the   density based on the number of units on the lot  and the lot size from the assessor's records.   uh the uh I think Chris referred  to the residency software that's   been made available that will also u provide  density data of wherever you draw a boundary. Yeah, I think we need to be careful with  that because I think it was used when we did   the multif family housing of our district  presenter and it wasn't always accurate.   No, I I did one that's very specific to Bedford  lot by lot even if um I we have a range you know   uh in terms of a and I don't know if planning  can help with this in terms of it doesn't have   to be on the slide but in terms of I okay  the max density in that neighborhood is 13   units per acre and then you know if if  you don't mind me sharing my screen for   a sec I'll show you what I have and then  you I can send that to Todd. Sure. Sure. I might have hit the wrong button. No,  I think we're good. So, there we go. I think Can you see that? There you  go. Sorry, I had to stop sharing,  

I think. Apologies. I think I'm sharing. Can you  see it? Yeah, your math is Yeah. So, um I just   literally ran around lot by lot um and put numbers  on here. So, but I think what's important here,   there is a clearly a range. Um but that the  density at 10 units per acre isn't really that   far off from the existing neighborhood and other  more institutional uses. Right next door, too. So, up to you if you want to use it, but  I'll send this over to to Todd and Tony. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Um, any more discussion on this topic? If none, is there a motion to close the hearing? I move to close the hearing on 30 article  31 of the cottage district. Thank you,   Todd. Second. Is there a second? Thank you, Don.  How do you vote? Todd I. Don I. Chris I. John I.   And the chair votes I. Hearing is closed. So  now we need a motion to recommend this to town   meeting. Is that what we're doing, Tony? Okay. If  somebody want to say so moved second. Thank you,   Don. And second from Todd. How do you vote?  Don I. Todd. I. John. I. Chris. Hi. And the  

chair votes I. Well done. We've gotten through, I  think, almost all the hard stuff already tonight.   And it isn't even midnight. All right. I think uh  Oh, wait a minute. We need to do another public   hearing. Pardon? One more public hearing. Is that  the one unregistered or what? What's the subject?   Yes. Yes. it. So, we've decided this going  to be a public hearing and try to Okay. Well,   I mean, we don't get to decide. It's state  law that we have to have a public hearing   and All right. and take a vote on it. Um,  is there a motion to open the hearing? So,   moved. Well, thank you. And a second.  Second. Okay. How do you vote? John, I. Don. Hi. Hi, Todd. Hi. And the chair votes I. So,  who would like to speak on this subject? Who will   be speaking at the town meeting? Well, so this  came up at the select board meeting yesterday. Um,   because it was it wasn't really coming from us.  The uh town manager thought it was appropriate for   the select board to offer to to present it. Um,  I did not accept their offer. I did not decline   it either. I I figured I would interject that  that bit of information that we have an easy out. Um, easy out. What does that mean? What should  we be doing here? Well, I mean, we still have to   h have a public hearing and and uh possibly vote  to recommend or not recommend, but but in terms of   who presented at select board doesn't have to the  sorry at town meeting, the select board generously  

offered to do it themselves as opposed to having  Todd do it. Okay. And we're now the hearing is now   open. Yes. So Tony and Katherine. Yeah. So just  for the um benefit of the audience, the existing   zoning bylaw has a provision that allows for  up to that limits residential properties to one   unregistered vehicle. And within the breadth  of vehicle also addresses um trailers, boats,   um home I think whatever we call a home utility  trailer and uh we have some problem properties   around town that from time to time come up either  through code enforcement or police department   about you know uh complaints or are are made and  received with respect to the number of vehicles   that some properties have been maintaining  on their premises. And questions from the   voters have been how many of these are actually  registered vehicles and the thought came up during   discussions last year and I know Patty Dalin's  here in the audience and has her hand raised to   talk about a presentation. She made a presentation  to the last well actually maybe in 2024 um about   adding some teeth to that provision because uh we  were finding that vehicles may have plates on them  

even if they were not operable or may not have  been inspected. And I saw the joint discussions in   internally between the town manager's office, the  police department, code enforcement, and myself   had had been about could we insert or broaden  this restriction on unregistered vehicles to   also require that they be inspected. And then we  are also adding the turning um nonop so that you   only the goal is to allow only one vehicle that  is unregistered uninspected and or nonoperable. There is a parallel provision being promoted in  the changes to the general bylaw as well because   the general bylaw also uh may provide better teeth  or by having both bylaws try to regulate this.   We can get at situations where a landlord  might say, "Well, I'm grandfathered under   zoning because I've had whatever number six or 10  vehicles that qualify under this unregistered or   uninspected category." And I've had them since  before the rules changed. And under zoning,   we really can't have retroactive enforcement.  So we can only prevent the next situation. So   by putting in a provision in the general bylaw,  we are putting in a sunset condition that says   if you are the keeper of more than one  unregistered or uninspected vehicle,  

you have until the end of the year to remove the  surplus number of vehicles from your property. Um and and we're working on the wording for that,  Tony, or what do we Well, that wording is that so   the general bylaw wording is in the is in one  of the warrant articles that that makes other   changes to the general bylaw. Okay. that changes  to the zoning bylaw are much simpler which you   have somewhere in your background documents  where we're simply inserting the words of   uninspected or nonopile in two parts of  the existing paragraph in the zoning B. That sounds okay. Should um we have Patty Dolin   speak and perhaps a presentation?  Yeah. So, Patty, you have the floor. Thank you. Can you hear me without an echo?  Yes. Okay, great. Thank you very much. I I   do appreciate everything you've done for us over  the past two years. Um, so what we determined when   um we added the word registered in order to  prevent a junkyard being able to form on any   property in Bedford. Um, what we determined is  that it's actually possible to get 10 dead cars  

that can't drive technically registered. So,  and and we know this. The police were great.   They came down. They worked with my neighbor Tom.  Tom actually managed to get every single vehicle,   almost all of which have had to be towed in on a  flatbed. Um, he did get them all registered. And   what we then determined in working with Matt  was reg the word registered is not enough.   And the reason that I'm on this meeting  right now is I would like to advise you   based on my experience and research that  asking for a vehicle to be inspected is one thing. What's going to happen if we if  the changes that you make to the bylaws require   an inspection and a registration of vehicles,  I can tell you what's going to happen. Um,   Tom will take all 10 of the dead cars out on  a flatbed truck. He will take them and he will   meet the letter of the law. He will get them  all inspected. Inspected does not mean pass.   So he's going to get and I've seen him do this.  He he had a car towed out last year for the same   purpose. So unless we say pass inspection, we  are going to be right back in the same place. So,  

we said registered. Tom went out and discovered  it's possible to register a vehicle that's not   roadw worthy. He's meeting the obligation of the  law, the letter of the law. The police did come   down and go through all his paperwork. He met it.  I still have a junkyard across the street from me   that prohibits me from selling. And my concern  when talking to Matt is that by adding the word   inspected, inspected and registered, that's very  easy to meet. It's perfectly predictable that   Tom will have all of these cars out. He will have  them inspected to meet the law and then they will   be returned back to his property and they will  have and so when you say to him, "Hey, the rule   are it's got to be registered and inspected." What  you're going to be told is I had them inspected.   They are registered. I am compliant with the  law. So it it's not enough to say inspected because we are not defining what that means.  He'll get them all inspected. They'll all fail   inspection. If that's the only word that makes  that he has to meet to be compliant. It does   not eliminate the junkyard across from me or  the one that could form across from you next   year. Does Does that make any sense to you  guys? So, you're saying the words have to be   pass inspection, correct? Because everybody can  fail inspection, but it's still inspected. No,  

no, no. But you're saying the word has  to be the vehicle has to pass inspection.   Correct. And have a current inspection  sticker. Correct. 10 years ago. Right. So that's a change the wording of this is what  you're sosing. Yes. Um I was on this select   board meeting last night but I joined too late  to to make the request in the um opening citizen   comments. So when I talked to the office today  he said be sure to be part of the planning board.   Make your presentation to them. Make your argument  to them that requiring inspection is not enough. And I I I I think we hear you, Patty. The question  is uh I I'll go to Tony now. Um is this in wording   that we are trying to approve tonight from the  planning board? Uh so I um a couple things come   up. One is we since we're we had also proposed  adding nonoperable. So we're requiring the   vehicle to be registered inspected and operable.  So the fact that in in the example she raised that   they are being towed somewhere for inspection  and then brought back if they aren't actually   offer and I can't say what the police department  would do given the six I think right you have a  

60-day window to deal with a failed inspection.  Right. Right. So um um so I'm not sure how to how to in you know whether we need to  or should um or you could as a board offer   to to figure uh to support an amendment like  that. I will say because the warrant is closed,   we cannot change at this time the wording that is  going to be printed in the so to add a requirement   to pass inspection will have to be a floor  amendment. Okay. If it if it's going to be   considered at this town meeting, um I believe it  could be changed on the motion by the proponent,   the person that proposes this at town meeting  if it's within the scope of what of the warrant   article. Yeah. So, right rather than an  individual on the floor. Yeah. So, I think   that's a like if I bring, you know, uh I can try  to bring this up with the town manager about um since a select since I anticipate a select  board member is going to make the motion,   how how to work that in and and given  that the language that we have is a is a   combination of comments from the police chief  Inspector Billings, town manager, and myself,   uh, and town council. Um, maybe we can quickly  get some advice from council about how how to add,  

uh, a feature for um, or you know, only one having  only one vehicle that has not passed inspection. I would be and my neighbors and I speak for  the 27 people that signed the petition. I   would be very grateful. We we thought  that we would be able to put our house   on the market last year when we had  town meeting and it Tom legally was   correct in getting his cars registered  and not getting them inspected. I just um it's been 2 years and we are trapped. We cannot  sell our house and every every six months that   goes by we are further and further and further.  Um our real estate value was going down. Aside   from what's going on in the real estate market  in the past 2 years all the trees have been   um cut down. PAS has been determined to be  severely saturating our neighborhood. And   the longer this the longer this continues, um,  the more punitive it is on neighbors that are   desperately trying to sell their house. Um, I  I we got it, Patty. We appreciate it and we're   trying to figure out how to help you. And so Tony,  is is it possible that at town meeting we could  

get the proper wording clarified and approved by  town council and then perhaps Patty and others   can make an amendment to the article since  there would be several of them to endorse it. Yes, that could that amendment could also  come from many of the board members or   select board members, not just, you know,  just wouldn't necessarily have to come   from somebody in the neighborhood. It could  come from any any registered voter at town.   Would it be deemed less restrictive  though? Well, isn't that that's an   interpretation the moderator would have to  make. Yeah, call it a clarification maybe John. So, we can't amend the wording at this  point in the written warrant. Yeah. Yes. So   whether or not we're going to recommend I mean  we're going to recommend this word wording or not,   I'm going to assert that this wording  is better than what we have now. Um   and I trust staff to figure out if it  can be further improved and it sounds   like we have a path forward at town meeting to  further further do so. So unless there's more   public comments or unless the board has  more comments, I would suggest we close   the hearing and take a vote to approve or not  or sorry recommend or not. All right, Chris,

I I don't need to comment. I I'm satisfied  with I think the language as it stands with   inoperable takes care of the uh inspected and  registered but not operable issue. That would   be my interpretation. Patty, um I would just  appreciate knowing what I need to do. So when   you say unregistered, uninspected, or nonoperable,  um I just want to make sure that it's not possible   to meet the letter of the law by getting  every vehicle inspected, even if they fail,   and every vehicle registered and according to  the law, be still able to have that. So tell   me what I need to do for town meeting. I've  already planned to attend. I'll do whatever   is necessary and I certainly have neighbors that  are going to come as well. Far as I understand,   and I'll ask Chris next, is there's going to  be a staff is is going to follow up with town   manager and town council to see what can  we do at town meeting. Is it going to be   an change in the wording that can be done from  the presenter or an amendment from the floor?   Only a town meeting are we going to know the  answer, Patty. So, make sure you go pester to   the planning board. That's us. And find out,  okay, what's what's the final result? Like,   do you make the motion or does somebody  else? That's what I think I'm hearing. Chris.

Chris, you got your hand up and you're on mute.  Sorry. Didn't realize I was muted. I I'm reading   the the wording. I think it comes down to what  the definition of inoperable is. You know,   I read it and think, well, if you  can't drive the car on public roads,   then it's not operable. Um, so that would  seem to me to to cover the issue at hand. Um,   but it would be helpful to have a opinion  from town council or someone who has a a   clear understanding of what the legal uh  meaning of the term is. Thank you, Don. Well, to John's point, this is the wording we have  and we can't change it. So, it seems to me like we   recommend the wording we have and we investigate  how to make it better at town meeting, but right   now there's nothing we could do other than to  say yes, we recommend or no, we don't. So, I I   think we should recommend it soon. All right. In  that case, is there a motion to close the hearing? Please just also into the record that we got  written comments from Harold as on this proposal   as well. Okay. Is there a second? Second. Thank  you, Don. All right. How do you vote? Chris I,   Don, I. Todd, I. John, an enthusiastic  eye, and the chair votes I. All right. So,   now we need a motion to I think it if I got  it right, Tony, a motion to recommend the   uh I've forgotten what we call this the  the whatever we came up with on Yeah. So,  

I think you have a couple options. One is  you could recommend favorably on the article. Well, and also recommend that if it can be  enhanced to include provisions for passing   inspection that the board would look favorably  on that on that. Yeah, maybe we that's up to   the others. Maybe we should keep it simple and  just say we approve the wording of the article. Anyone disagree? I see a motion approve the wording of the article.  Move to approve the article as worded. Thank you,   Chris. Second. Second by Don. Appreciate  it. How do you vote? Chris I Don I Todd   I and the John an even more enthusiastic  guy and the chair both side. All right,   we've approved. You see what we've  approved, Patty, and we'll see you   at town meeting to find out whether or  not there's going to be an enhancement. All right. Is that the agenda? Are we up now  to um reports, liaison reports? Chris. Uh,   this is not the way you report, but just  letting you know that I am on the road   and I am going to sign off. All right.  But it's been great. Thank you. Yeah,   this was a night where having everybody we  could at the beginning was a huge help. So,   thank you for calling in, Chris. All  right. leazison on reports. Anyone

John? Uh I went to select board last night.  Um they as mentioned they closed the warrants   and I think the other interesting thing  was um they're looking to hire MACP to   uh to consult on the possible uses for  the um fire for the old fire station.   So that process spinning up. So, basically  run a little public outreach campaign and   uh talk to the various departments  about space needs. Thank you, Todd. And this is tough with three  members of TAC also here. But um   uh as as one member of TAC um I thought we had  a a great meeting, lots of great discussion   um and something uh in terms of talking  about oh boy, I'm going to get this wrong but   um speeds in town. Let's just go with that.  Um target speeds. Um but also uh we had talked   a bit about uh sidewalk clearing. Um and I am  taking on trying to get some information about   that in terms of potentially proposing a bylaw  change that would require homeowners to clear the   sidewalks in front of their yards. Um so looking  for input on this and looking for data and going   to be researching that going forward. So that's a  potential cuz many towns have them but many towns   don't either in Massachusetts. Yeah. Uh John,  you had your hand up. I said, "Are you done?" Got your hand up again, but you're on mute. Okay,  never mind. Uh so Cheryl just made a comment that   Conservation Commission has 145 Davis Road  tomorrow, which you might have heard about  

tonight. That that's all that matters. Okay, given  that, let's go staff any information or reports. Um, just uh I know track has also been talking  about sidewalks and sidewalk maintenance and I   know at least member Crowley is interested  in seeing what some other towns have done   for private maintenance or private shoveling of  sidewalks. And so we'll we'll continue to look   into that. It is much more common city government  formats than town formats. But and it's a common   suburban community situation where we are trying  to make sidewalk connections so that pedestrian   pathways are are are complete. But in so doing,  we're also creating more miles of sidewalk that   need to be maintained. and we're not necessarily  increasing personnel or the pieces of equipment   that are used to maintain sidewalks. So, um  so there's um there's a topic that would it   will probably also unfold maybe in part of  the comprehensive plan discussions as well.   But um but we we are going to look at at some  bylaw examples for you to consider as an or   in case some future in case you want to bring  that forward at a future town meeting. the um   uh we uh we have a meeting coming up with  DAM officials to try to get an update on   where they stand on the bids that were submitted  for the surplus property at Middle Sex Community  

College. That's coming up in a sometime later  this week. We have a preconstruction meeting   coming up with the Carl Road 40B development and  coming up I believe on the 19th. That project   will be looking to break ground in the spring  as soon as the weather breaks. and John other one railroad avenue continues to be helpful  to break ground when the weather breaks. Um not much immediately coming forward as  new applications though that require review.   So we anticipate being able to focus on some  other planning initiatives that we back burnered   over the last couple years while we were working  on some other housing initiatives. So hopefully   we'll get um we'll get those items in front of you  in UPM after the election. Um because I haven't   brought I have not brought a priority list or the  to-do list. I haven't brought that to the board.   I did not bring one to the board last  year because we I really wanted to get   the comprehensive plan up and running and not be  distracted by trying to also work on some other   things. But now that the the consultants kind of  have the comprehensive plan running, we can try   to take a look at what are the other things we  need to be looking at. said, "We will bring up   a list of to-do items in April sometime and talk  about what to focus on in the next fiscal year.

I think the only thing I have to add  is that I'm retiring at the end of   this month." Yes. Congratulations. Yes,  you will be missed. Congrats very much. Any other Oh, John. Um, I don't know  if we've mentioned this in the past,   but there was an active Wilson Park survey, right?  So, tell your and it's relatively short running.   see if maybe you remember. But so tell your  friends, anyone who ever drives through who's   ever driven through driven or walks or  even bike through Wilson Park should uh   fill it out and and they'll be at uh town  meeting. We're going to have a table out   in the front of the room to try to get people  to fill out the survey for anybody who hasn't. Any other subjects tonight? I  can hope over. Does somebody   want to make a motion to adjurnn?  Oh, move that we approve minutes. Okay. Could you tell me the date of  the minutes? I I know I've read them,   but I January 26th. Sorry, January 20th. Okay. Is there a motion to  approval for said minutes? So moved. Thank you, John. And a second.  Seconded. Thank you, Todd. How do you   vote? John I. Todd. Hi. Don. Hi. Hi. And the  chair votes I. Anything else I've forgotten? Okay, I'll try again. Is  there a motion to adjurnn?  

move that we adjourn. Thank you. Uh we we earned  our money tonight. How do you vote? John, Dawn,   Todd, and the chair. I at once. Thank  you. All of your efforts tonight. See   you again soon. I'll surely see you at town  meeting. Have a good night. Belen. Good night. Hey, Tony. Hey,