Planning Board - Regular Meeting

It looks like I'm not going to get any video at all. Already. I'll just stop it so my name is there.

Okay.

Ready when everybody else is.

Hi, Tony.

Hi, Scott. Was that you who said hi or John? Yes, sure. Yeah, we just have a couple of technical ahead of your application, and then we'll get into that.

That's fine. I thought you were going to say technical difficulties, which is what I'm having. Yeah.

something you Oh.

Good evening, all. Good evening. And we are waiting for Todd.

Any reason to think that he won't be here this evening?

I have not heard. Okay. Since we have a quorum, I'm going to proceed. So I misplaced my notebook. I had to track it down. All right, so all members of the board are present.

Tony, do we have everyone involved with the development session that we expect to have?

At least for the first discussion. All right, very good. I'll kick things off then.

I'm for legislation in H62, Chapter 2 of the Act of 2025, extending the suspension of certain provisions of the Open Meeting Law, General Law Chapter 38, Section 20. This meeting of the Bedford Planning Board will be conducted via remote participation to the greatest extent possible. No in-person 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 aren't able to do so, despite the 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 meeting. Before I go on, John, did you have a question or comment? You're muted.

I was going to ask when we have to continue the first item to, so I could make a motion.

I guess I will get to that. All right, so on the agenda for this evening, three items on the development session. Public hearing for 150, third try is a charm. 145 Davis Road, definitive subdivision plan for four lots off of Jeffrey Circle. Middlesex Development LLC is the applicant. Second item, a discussion of a preliminary subdivision plan for six lots off of Elwill Farm Road. That would be at 251B Old Billerica Road. And then finally, discussion for site plan amendments at 213 Burlington Road, proposed addition for Sam Walker's American Tavern. And in the business session, I have some charts. I related to a dark sky, um, general bylaw discussion, uh, reports from, um, board and committee liaisons staff updates. Um, and we did not have any minutes this time. Is that sorry?

That's correct. Okay.

Um, so with that, um, the development session, first item was one 45 Davis road, uh, public hearing. I understand they wish to have that continued to June 9th.

That is correct, OK?

So the Mr. McLean move that we continue the one that that session to June 9th. The hearing is June 9th, seconded.

But move by Mr. McLean, seconded by Mr Crowley, Mr. McLean. Mr. Crowley? Aye. Mr. Hagan? Aye. Ms. LaFrance-Lyndon?

Aye.

And the Chair votes aye. Public hearing for Definitive Subdivision Plan at 145 Davis Road continued to date certain June 9th. Second item, discussion of 251 Old Billerica Road Preliminary Subdivision Plan. We have applicant presence. Yes, sir. Please proceed.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Scott Farrier from Holmgren Engineering. Good evening, board members. I am representing 10 BR LLC, who is the owner of the subject property and also the applicant. And as you read in the notice, we have a preliminary subdivision to create six lots uh it would be five new lots and one lot with the existing dwelling at 251b old bill ricker road uh would be situated and uh the access would be off of the end of the existing cul-de-sac on el will farm road uh so it would be an extension of el will farm road uh On our property, it's about a 600 foot extension, adding the 200 feet that we have to go to the end of Elwill Farm. We're probably looking at about an 800 foot extension of their existing dead end road. So we received some comments from the DPW. They were all fine and we're happy to make all of those adjustments and certainly get everything up to snuff when you file for a definitive. Our biggest concern and really our main reason for filing with you folks is just the length of the dead end road and just to make sure that you know, that the board just doesn't have a policy of not granting waivers on that maximum dead end road. Everything else, all of your regulations, we're certainly fine with and capable of meeting all of the comments from the DPW, but really our biggest issue, Mr. Chairman and board members, before we spend a lot of time and money was just to get a feeling on that one issue.

Understood. Tony, I'm Yeah, I lengthy cul-de-sacs dead end roads in town. How would the envisions extension measure up there?

So there are numerous examples of dead end roads that are longer than 500 feet. And in researching another project, just by coincidence happened to come across a decision where that another subdivision application where that road is longer than 500 feet. The board happened to grant a waiver and made no findings. Dave Kuntz, relative to it it's simply it's simply granted the waiver which I thought was interesting in that particular example but um. But the board over history has granted. exemptions. or through use of other zoning tools to use between the planned residential development districts or the cluster subdivision. There are. Several in the last 20 years, where the resulting roadway whether public or private is longer than 500 feet.

Okay, thank you. Questions, comments from members of the board before I offer a comment? Mr. Crowley.

Yeah, sorry, if you can just let me know how long will the road be? I'm trying to find it. I apologize if it's obvious.

Yeah, our road extension would be about 800 feet.

and the existing road on el will is i believe about 700 okay um sony or anybody on the board do we know why we have this concept of 500 foot dead end road just for safety or yeah or we wonder if in history it was related to the length of two fire hoses right

um or some some reason like that there's no in my opinion there's no other or no current valid reason for a limit of 500 feet yeah that's that that's always the uh the reasoning i've heard in other towns as well as 500 is the magic number because that would be two lengths of hose

Other members, questions, comments?

Sorry. One more thing. Sorry, Mr. Dagan. It was, well, the Davis Road one that we're discussing is 2,000 feet? It's off from Davis, sorry. It's not Davis. Like Jeffrey Circle, or I forget the name. Jeffrey Circle.

Isn't that 2,000 feet?

Yeah, yeah. So this is this will be under that, correct? Yeah. But

The other opportunity here is the existing 251 uses access from an existing common driveway. And I think we would negotiate whether we can create some right of way for emergency access to that common driveway through this development as was done with the abutting property at 251A. again that would just that would be to use in the event that access for a will is for whatever reason go go and the opposite side of that that would be great that's a good idea thank you mr reagan i have no problem with this

Um, so my only comment is, um, uh, read through comments and all seemed reasonable. Um, I just want to hear from fire department that they had no particular concerns. Okay, but other than that, um, yeah, this seems reasonable.

All right, we'll certainly make an effort to reach out to them before we go too much further. Mr. Jim. Very good.

All right. Well.

think that's all i was hoping for folks so uh yeah i think with that uh we're we're good to go very good thank you for your time all right thank you folks enjoy the rest evening we'll see you soon thank you thank you and sorry i'm looking at this so that was just a discussion we don't need to take any action

The guidance we provided there is sufficient for moving ahead. Correct me on that, Tony.

Yes, we can. Okay. Yep.

All right. So with that, I'm. We are on to the 213 Burlington road site plan amendment discussion. I'm. I don't see anyone in the audience.

Yeah. So the builder contractor is in the audience and attorney Brown had hoped to be able to attend to present the article, but she has a conflicting event. Okay. And asked if I could at least open the presentation and then. Sure. If there's something specific we might Julian Bolger in the audience is the gentleman building the revised restaurant layout. So funny, we didn't even put up the plans for Old Bilwick Road.

Oh, I was looking at them.

I was looking at them. Yeah. So as you know by now, Sam Walker's American Tavern is remodeling the former bamboo restaurant space at the 213 Burlington Road site, which has a couple other restaurants and has other office retail uses in that building. uh sam walkers would like to create a patio to go with the in interior seating which is in addition to the building the um it it we're calling it a patio but it is it uh It has effectively something like garage doors that can be closed off to protect it from inclement weather and but the amount of seating being added here would be offset by the conversion of the former flatbread office excuse me former flatbread restaurant space to office space where the red cross is now maintaining facility an office and donation yeah literally a donation location in the former pizza restaurant space And so that conversion created a technical surplus of parking because office space requires so much less parking than restaurant space does. So the technical details of how this addition will be built was reviewed by engineering as part of the Conservation Commission review which previously reviewed and approved this construction activity. I think Sam Walker's will be a good addition to the restaurant scene here in Bedford hoping it helps provide some competition for the heavy draw that sits down the road in Burlington. If you've been to the one, there is one in Stoneham, I believe that's Stoneham, just off of Montfail Avenue near the I-93 interchange. There is a Sam Walker's there that I believe is highly popular. And if you went there, you'd see it's pretty well run. um the ownership team has some other there's a couple other name plates in their portfolio and I and I and I think this the team that runs this group is pretty is is well capitalized and well um well organized so and then uh let's see Mr Bulgers raise this hand if he wants to add some do you want to take his comments now yes please So, Julian, you can proceed.

You're muted.

I'm sorry, folks. I'm sorry. I was having technical difficulties. Can you all hear me now? Yes. Good evening. Sorry. Thank you for taking the time. And thank you for the introduction. I appreciate it. Yes, we do currently operate multiple stores. There's a Sam Walker's in Woburn. We opened one in Swampscott in December of last year. And then we have three in Dorchester, which are Lucy's American Tavern, The Bowery Bar and Chubbs, it's a taco and tequila bar restaurant. I mean, they're all pretty much restaurants. They're, you know, we're kind of 50-50 food to beverage, you know, heavy on kind of lunch and dinner and brunch on the weekends. uh again we think this is a great location when uh i first approached uh the town our concern was you know a lack of seating and i know it sounds odd but just in this day and age with With rising costs across the board in everything, you know, I mean, you've got a kind of a limited market on the weekends, on Fridays and Saturdays and Sunday for brunch to be able to cater to guests. And the reason for the addition would be to add an extra 48 seats, which again, typically you end up doing a lot of functions and events. So to have that was kind of, I don't know, it was very important to us. So we've gone through the motions. We have some of the sign offs. And we're looking kind of for this kind of final sign off to, you know, we're The place has been demoed. Our underground plumbing is all done and in place. Concrete has been poured. And I'm trying to wrap up permitting just to kind of go full steam ahead. We're shooting for a, I want to say, first week of September opening. That's our target date. I have a good crew of contractors and subs people I've worked with for 20 odd years. They're very confident and very efficient and have done multiple bars with me over the years. We're excited to be a part of the neighbourhood. We think we can bring a definite value add. With the parking lot size, You know, I mean, we hope we could put a lot of cars in there and get a lot of guests in a restaurant and give great service and great atmosphere. And the addition would propose is just the fixed, there'd be a fixed window at the front facing onto Burlington Road, but at the side there'd be garage doors. I think it's two 13 and a half foot wide garage doors. I think by six, I think six feet or seven feet. They're not floor to ceiling. And then there's a smaller one in the middle, which would be, I think, six feet. But it'd be great just to be able to open these, open air, get a feeling of being outside, even though, you know, you're partially outside. It is covered, hard roof, but we have these in Woburn, in Swampscott, in... In Dorchester, we've used garage doors for, I don't know, I want to say 10 years now. We find them very effective and very appealing and easy to operate, doesn't displace guests when having to open them. And I'm happy to answer any other questions any of you may have, but we're very excited to come into the neighbourhood. We're hoping, I mean, based on our other locations that are similar size, we're hoping to employ you know 80 to 85 people and that's what we what we have done in in our other neighborhoods I've got to currently have I want to say I'm close to 600 employees as of right now between the other restaurants we don't have huge amount of turnover luckily you know our places are well received and bottom line is money talks and we're able to keep good employees on for periods of, you know, lengthy periods of time. I mean, I've got a GM and Lucy's brought a 10th year and he's still with us. So we're doing something right. And, you know, we hope to continue that trend going forward in Bedford. Thank you. Thank you.

So I've reviewed the application package. Tony, do we want to put that up on screen? I'm happy to share my screen.

Oh, all right.

Either way.

I was just because I haven't opened it first, but you can if you're ready to go.

Yeah, it's going to start on page eight of the application. Can you see that? Okay. Other members of the board. Very good. All right. So scroll down. So the area in question is on the Middlesex County, uh, Middlesex County, Middlesex Turnpike side of the building. I'm yeah we had many a family outing to flatbreads when it was there so familiar with the general location i'm just going to scroll through and please stop me if uh you want to have a closer look or julian if you care to comment um yeah no just regarding so i did i did so

there has been a slight modification to the to the storefronts um my uh architect in the beginning you know gave me a few different renderings this was kind of the first one and was submitted very very early um the plan is for the building to be pretty much um twice so there's currently red brick there um i plan to you know keep the brick and whiten the brick and then use Ipê at the storefront at the vestibule at the entranceway and also in the columns at the side of the building to use Ipê, the Brazilian hardwood that adds a lot of character and then obviously we will you know, re-green and replant, you know, the front of the building. But, you know, if you look at, again, if you even Google Earth or Google Maps, Woburn, you know, we take care of all our landscaping. It's not our landlord, you know. We have my partner Pat Dylan's mother is a is kind of a landscaper and She does all our planter boxes in all the different stores and that's her, you know She's a little bit older, but it's what she loves to do. And you know, we take pride in how our our restaurants look inside and outside but I felt that the The black was too dark. I'd like to be able to kind of illuminate it with small kind of planter lights, you know, so it's kind of visible on that corner as opposed to being a darker corner. So that's the intent on that. So I can I will happily. get you kind of an updated kind of rendering of the exterior. If somebody wants to just give me an email, I can probably do it.

I'll interject. And my own opinion is that we're a land use board and not design focused. So, what you described sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I'm more focused on the land use. Okay. That all seems fine to me as well. I'll let other members of the board chime in. But I thought the parking analysis looked solid. I think the location on the property is that it's away from the river, the swamp. That was a good choice. Other members of the board? Bottom line, this seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Okay, great.

and location see i'll zoom in a little bit here and this was the old flatbreads here again that's kind of my point of reference and It looks like my screen may have. All right, there we go. And this is your I can folks see my cursor or no. Yes, okay, so this is the. Proposed outdoor seating my correct there. Yeah.

Okay, on the right hand side is the, the proposed edition. Correct?

Yes. Okay.

And it's, it's approximately 800, uh, I think it's 836 or 846 square feet.

Okay. And here are those garage doors.

Correct.

So there was a 13 foot on either side and then smaller on the middle.

Correct.

Okay. And we had the parking analysis in this table here and all seems in good order. I will leave that up for other members of the board or the public if they wish to view. Mr. Crowley, Mr. McLean, Ms. LaFrance, Lyndon, in that order because that's how I see it.

Yeah, I was just trying to understand. So now I see that it's adding 800 or so more square feet. So the whole area is being converted because that whole back part isn't bamboo, correct? Or the old bamboo.

Or was it all?

Give me a question for Tony as well, but just trying to understand the layout.

We're capturing bamboo, completing space inside, and an addition on the side of the 850 square feet. OK.

All right, so you just make it a little bit bigger. That's all. Correct. Basically kind of taking up landscaping that was there currently. Yeah.

That back wall, if you're asking about that, that's actually, that's an exterior wall. Okay. So there's no, there's no, they're not grabbing any internal space beyond the old restaurant.

Okay. All right. Thank you. I have no problem with this either. It looks really nice.

John. Looks fine to me too.

Dawn. And I will add my voice looks good to me. Parking looks good. The very excited to to see the little addition of some alfresco dining. So exciting to to see it happening in Bedford.

Todd. Actually, we'll ask a question. Currently, that is kind of a one-way. I think when you go more towards the 62 side, right, that's going to stay that way in terms of driving. It's not the Middlesex-Turmpack side, but the 62 side. Is that correct?

There is a one-way entrance drive off of Burlington Road. As you look at this plane, it's on the right side of the building.

Yeah, but you can only go. I thought you can only go like around bamboo one direction. You can't come back out that way, correct? Not leaving the property.

You can't go out that driveway.

Right.

But the circulation aisles around the building are two-way.

They are? Yeah. Okay. I thought it was. Oh, I always thought.

Well, it's just that one entrance drive is one way. That's the only one way.

All right. But you can go both ways in the whole parking lot.

Okay.

Thank you.

So seeing no other hands. So this is just a discussion at this time.

is there an amendment to approve we have it noted on the agenda just as a yeah so it would just yeah so if if the board will this is not a public hearing so it's just uh amending the literally amending the plan to allow the ex you know the 830 square foot addition to the building for you says restaurant space so moved second

All right. Moved by Don, seconded by John. Don? Aye. John? Aye. Todd? Aye. Steve?

Aye.

And the chair votes aye. So site plan amendment approved 5-0-0. All right. We'll look forward to

okay i appreciate it um and i think so i guess just from a clerical end um will somebody once once the decision is written or whatever can will somebody be able to go into permit eyes and and um uh check off on the on the permit aspect of it yes Um, okay. That'd be wonderful. I think I'm just, uh, health is signed off. I think the only other one is public, uh, works, which I think will be done in the next day or so. So, uh, then, um, Dan Sullivan said he'd be able to issue the permit. Right. So yeah, like I said, the goal is to get ready for, for September and yeah, listen, we'll be, obviously you'll all be invited open. We generally do two or three soft openings for the town and, and for friends and family and just kind of find our feet for a few days. But, you know, we'll be in the building then probably training for a week and then go live to the public. Very good. Looking forward to it. All right, listen, thank you all for your time this evening. I appreciate it.

Good luck with the project.

Thank you.

all right so that concludes the development session yeah um if i can interject mr chair we um in my preview memo i added a commentary about releasing this lot on selfridge road which I did add to an amended agenda that we filed today which we mostly filed to highlight the fact that 145 Davis was going to be continued but um because there's a property that's trying to have a closing later this week I would ask the board to entertain this request to um issue what we call a form h to release that lot from a subdivision covenant that um for whatever reason was not done over the last 26 some or more years for a house that was completed and occupied in 2000 so uh Selfridge road extension was a four lot extension on the east end of Selfridge road that was approved in 1997. Um, this particular house was completed as I said, in 2000 and the same owner still has lived there, but, um, I understand the wife passed away a couple of years ago and now they're now they're looking to sell the property. But because of the technical absence of the paperwork in the registry of deeds, they're not going to be able to sell it unless you authorize uh, the release of the lot from that covenant. Um, there were a couple of issues that came up from, um, from the reports from many years ago where, um, two things seem to have been outstanding was one was the planting of some street trees. and the second was getting a deed from the subdivider to be able to convey the way to the town for street acceptance unfortunately the builder subdivider passed away in 2016 or so so um we may end up having to, if we move forward on getting this finalized for street acceptance, there are other means to get that done, but it's simply, this is one of a handful of technically incomplete projects that DPW and I are slowly working on how to, you know, how do we bring it to final completion, which in this case would be public acceptance of this it's it's literally I believe 340 feet of the street the rest of the street is already a public way but this this addition that was approved as I say in 1997 just has not been um has not been moved forward for acceptance

Don, please go ahead.

So is the summary of this that we're in effect correcting a clerical error?

yeah I don't know if it's a clerical error or just for whatever just an oversight from uh from history yeah I mean not to do the house wouldn't have otherwise gotten an occupancy permit if it wasn't released from the covenant but clearly an occupancy permit was granted and the property was sold As we're all four lots, and this was a four lot extension and, um, all four of them have been, you know, we're built in the late nineties and, um, I'm pretty sure we're maintaining that part of the cul-de-sac, even though it's not a public way and, um, or at least maintain it to the point of we're plowing it, we provide trash and school bus service. So, um,

Well, I see no reason to stand in the way of its sale.

Right. That's what I'm saying. So we may still be holding that $12,000 bond from history. Todd Grappone, We the time you know, like this, this property owners, not the cause of the of the issues and therefore I would ask you to in that same vein is that like it's not their fault. Todd Grappone, And therefore. Todd Grappone, I would ask that you authorize the issuance of a form H release of lot and you'll get that. Todd Grappone, sign, so they can record that with their closing documents.

Todd. So then technically the other three lots are still part of this?

Well, the other three, yeah, the other three lots may also at some point need paperwork. But I didn't dig into those because there was no...

Right now, there's no pending as far as I know, there's no pending sale.

So the three which would be complicated by this missing people.

But the real problem was the first occupancy permit that was granted should not have been until this was taken care of. So in some ways, it's Bedford's fault. Because that was issued, and that should not have been issued.

Right, in other words, I'm saying it's the town, it's our fault. Yeah.

I note item four from the covenant. The covenants are complete to the satisfaction of the planning board, the construction of ways in which to meet the services honored before November 10th, 1999.

So I think we can say that ship is in motion.

I'm just curious about the street trees, though.

yeah so the records I have indicate that the that the owners ended up saying they didn't want the trees and I think there was um because there's a town sewer pump station back there I think at least one tree was planted there but I don't know um about the others and that's a um That's probably a discussion. The players at DPW have changed. The players in my, you know, clearly we're different in the planning office. So I think we will probably reach out and start a new discussion with the property owners on that issue because given how much time has elapsed, I'm, you know, I'm not even sure how many of them were the same owners who were there at the time. So we can, um, we can look into that and, um, and, or figure, you know, I also have to figure out who's controlling the estate of the subdivider. Because if we still have the bond and we don't use it or don't need it, we have to return it to that entity. But in order to get the road ready, we'll probably need some of it to do the paperwork to get the road ready for acceptance. And then the question of whether or not we need street trees or not. To be honest, I have not been out there in a while. You know we'd have to take a look at whether or not planning street trees would somehow impair any improvements, the property owners have done in that space that's between the edge of pavement and the property line. So. As I say it's it's what we'll have to start a discussion with them, but um. is to say in the meantime i'd like to at least get this one property sold so that the prior owner can move on steve and then john okay mine is uh agreeing with tony let's get this property sold what is the wording for the motion that would uh

resolve this tony and i'd make that motion um so i might suggest we hear john's comment first and then i can word something for you well he probably wants to move it too i mean i do i i just want to know if there was any any concern about the agenda being posted yeah just by the agenda being posted late and

not late but within the 48-hour window I mean I know there's there can be exceptions for because the original agenda was posted more than 48 hours in advance you can you can revise it with with reasonable notice this is not an action that is a public hearing so there's no yeah there's no testimony this is just literally an administrative action and okay so if this is a public hearing we could not add it is what you're saying just yeah if this had been a public hearing requirement we would have had to wait two weeks to get it posted and published but yeah okay i i yield the floor back to steve hagen and i use the bold word back to tony so he can yeah so what i'm looking for is if the board would make a motion to release lot one also known as one selfridge uh to drive so for droad um from the selfridge road extension subdivision covenant so moved second

Steve, how do you vote? Aye. John? Aye. Dawn? Aye. Todd? Aye. And the Chair votes aye. 5-0-0 to approve release of 1 Selfridge Road from the Selfridge Road Extension Covenant. All right, so With that, now we are done with the development set. Okay. I do have some charts for a support of dark sky bylaw discussion. And I will share my screen again unless there are objections. Right.

All right.

There we go. First few turrets are ones that the board has seen before. I mainly include them for the benefit of people who will be watching the Bedford DV recording I'm after the fact. So a bit of background and overview. Maynard recently passed an outdoor lighting bylaw. That was about a week ago. And then at the beginning of the month, actually, I guess it was last month, Chelmsford passed an outdoor lighting bylaw. So go very briefly through Maynard's. And since we have a... Fair amount of time, I think, rather than flip through annotated screen captures, which is what I did for the Chelmsford material, we can just watch a few minutes of the Chelmsford town meeting. It's not very long and fairly instructive. And then a brief discussion, potential next steps. So for the benefit of the viewing audience, definition of light pollution is a manmade alteration of naturally occurring outdoor light levels. Light pollution disrupts wildlife, has adverse effects on human health. For example, disrupts circadian rhythms. It's energy that goes into... lighting that isn't necessary. So is a draw on money and resources there. And I speak as an amateur backyard astronomy. It does degrade one's view of the night sky. So here I'm talk some about responsible lighting practices and I'm what's called dark sky friendly. Legislation and dark sky.org has some really nice resources for anyone who wants to dig in a little bit deeper. And I will share these charts with you, Tony, so that I can post them to the website. Or if anyone watching would like a copy, they'll be available via the planning department website. light pollution in southern New England is pretty significant. Anyone who's gone outside and in particular look to the south, southwest, you can see sky glow from Boston and inner suburbs. Yeah, you have to get pretty far west or north before you get a really dark night sky. And if you're not a the scientists, those numbers, and the radiance you know, bar on the lower left in the left-hand image, probably don't mean much to you or anything to you. But suffice it to say is that, you know, orange is pretty bad, yellow is bad, and red is pretty awful. You're not going to see a whole heck of a lot of stars, you know, at night in those areas. Yeah, it's very disruptive to wildlife and also to circadian rhythms. So the goal of outdoor lighting bylaws, and there's been a fair push recently to update them on the part of various towns. Minimize light pollution from outdoor lighting. Protect folks from light trespass, basically spill from one property to the next. I am control glare it's a safety issue, as well as i'm yeah a dark sky issue i'm yeah aesthetically i'm yeah enacting bylaws which minimize i'm uploading and i'm yeah enhance our ability to i'm. see stars and a clear night. It's a quality of life issue. At the same time, I'm allowing for lighting, which is effective for safe work outdoors at night. And finally, promotion of energy conservation. I go through how I'm light pollution bylaws can be structured from most significant item to emphasize to finer points. First, decide whether lighting is necessary in a particular location. Once necessity has been established, look at how you can shield it to prevent upward-directed light, uplight for short, and glare. Color temperature, basically blue light, which is a characteristic of LEDs. And so it's really emerged as an issue over the last couple of decades, which hadn't been so much prior to that. LEDs emit a lot of blue, and that's particularly disruptive. The yellow-orange, cooler color temperature is less detrimental. So after you look at shielding, color temperature, then address brightness. Is lighting brighter than it needs to be? And then finally, yeah I is there the capacity to uh turn it off you know automatically when it's not needed um smart controls being very effective for that all right so with that I'm a very quick summary of the Maynard outdoor body outdoor lighting bylaw I'm passed I'm less than a week ago no sorry I'm just over a week ago. It was a citizen's petition, and you can read the details at the Dark Sky Mass link below. Yeah, there is not a grace period, but the bylaw applies only to new lighting. There's not an obligation to change out old. It's inclusive of residential and commercial and municipal facilities. There is an exclusion for holiday lighting and enforcement is through the town administrator or their designee.

So before I move on any Todd, well, it's just if I'm reading it correctly, I'm surprised how close the vote was. Yeah. Any thoughts on that?

I am. I have not picked up enough details to speak to that. And yeah, there I am. Dark Sky Mass has a Google Groups page, and I do somewhat follow that. I, to the extent I dug in, I didn't find a lot of detail on the Maynard discussion, on the Maynard bylaw, but I will look closer at that. Yeah, that it's been, you know, that it was relatively recent, I think there hasn't been a lot of commentary posted. I think there was a DPW or facilities, person had expressed some concern that they hadn't been engaged or consulted to the extent that they would have liked to have been. So there perhaps was some pushback as a result of that. I think the way to, I'll look at the Dark Sky Google Groups page and see what I can report back there. Comments evolve.

Yeah, I just found a site that's talking about it. So it seemed like a lot of homeowners didn't like to be controlled.

And the way that, we'll get to Chelmsford in a second, the way that Chelmsford dealt with that is that the bylaws binding on commercial and municipal properties, and then as a recommendation on residential. So I think there was less pushback as a result of that. And actually there's, well, we'll hear some comments during the town meeting presentation, but they had a proposal that they revised. And if I recall correctly, they did revise it in response to feedback along those lines. Homeowners were less enthusiastic about being applied to them than to commercial and municipal. Shocker, I know. I'm So Chelmsford's outdoor lighting bylaw and just taking a clip of that. So the half dozen main points provides adequate lighting for safety and security for all Chelmsford residents and safer performance of outdoor tasks. Glare or light spillage control. That's two and three. Light trespass being light spillage from one property to the next. Minimization of light pollution, especially blue light, which has both human health and effect on wildlife. Aesthetically, minimizing sky glow to... Tom Connelly- help make it easier to see stars on a clear night and then finally energy conservation and i'm. Tom Connelly- CO2 emissions reduction. Tom Connelly- And I think we'll just go rather than go through the rest of i'm. I am the charts which are annotated screen captures we can go through, we can watch for it's less than 10 minutes the. section of the Chelmsford town meeting unless they're unless anyone would like to see my annotated screen captures instead. Alright. So that i'm going to stop that share and i'm going to.

Chris LaValle, I'm the chair of the planning board, and this is a joint article proposed by the planning board and Kelly Beatty. Chris LaValle, We'll be discussing articles twenty seven and twenty eight tonight. Kelly will handle the technical portions of the presentation, and I will handle the zoning and bylaw related items and questions. If Article 27 passes, which is this bylaw, we'll continue with Article 28, changing the current zoning bylaw, which will no longer be needed.

And I'll pause to say, if you want me to pause or have any comments, just raise your hand. I'll watch for that.

If Article 27 does not pass, we will withdraw Article 28.

So I'm going to... I'm going to pause to say that 2000 lumens, that's on the order of 100 watts. 100 watt incandescent about a ballpark of 25 watts of an LED.

So we have the bylaws slides in the presentation that you have the text of the proposed bylaws in those handouts and also in the FinCon committee book. If you'd like the full version, our presentation will be more of an overview and the highlights. So I'm going to have the microphone over to Kelly.

Thank you. We have had an outdoor lighting bylaw here in town since the year 2000. And. At that time, we were 1 of the few communities that had that it was very forward looking for its time. It was, however, very basic and didn't have a lot of the detail that we now realize it should have had 1 component that was inserted. was that project developments that came before the planning board would have to have lighting plans submitted and i have to tip my hat to the quarter century of planning board members who have safeguarded a lot of our new developments to make sure that those uh buildings had a very high quality lighting that uh we can all be proud of and we're very forward-looking and sustainable So with that in mind, we set about to do an upgrade because the next panel, please. Something fundamental has changed in the last 25 years and they're called LEDs. They are a once in a multi-generational change in the way we light our night. They can be good. They can be very bad or ugly. One of the consequences of LEDs is that they emit a lot of blue light at blue wavelengths, which is detrimental for virtually everything that happens at night. pollinators, sky glow, human circadian rhythms. It's a very long list. And in the FAQ handout that you, I hope, picked up, I list some of the scientific studies that back up what I'm saying. So there are two things that I want to focus on. The first is, we can change the panel, please. The first is that glare, science now realizes that the glare we see from these intense LED lights has become a real problem, especially for our seniors, anyone with compromised vision. You all know that when you encounter a car with the moderate headlights, it can be very difficult to navigate the road. Now imagine that applied to all the different buildings. And so there's a lot of focus on glare, controlling that glare. And as an aside, I want to mention that the streetlights that we have here in town installed in 2012 are really good from the standpoint of glare. So with all of this environmental harm, next panel, please. This is this is what glare is this is how we think about the light that's emitted from outdoor lighting fixture. Anything above horizontal is considered up light and that's complete waste. And then this glare zone, which is below horizontal can be very detrimental. So this is what that means. I'll give you a couple of examples. Next slide please. this is a not in chelsea i could have picked a lot of places but i picked a place on nantucket for safety uh this is a school down there that installed lighting on the outside and you can see how intense the glare is from that these were on pivoted mountings and so nantucket has a very strong outdoor lighting bylaw and as a consequence of that they simply pivoted them down and you can see it's a much more elegant kind of lighting it's the same thing that happens in your homes When you don't go around leaving your table lamps bare, you put a light lampshade around them to diffuse the light and make it better. This is what we're talking about by controlling glare. Next, please. The second thing that's become very important is this notion of color temperature. It's a way to use a Kelvin temperature to sort of indicate how blue a light is. And the lower that temperature, the less blue light it has.

Pausing to note that the sun has a color temperature of about 5,800 Kelvin. So yeah, more or less right between the 5,000 and 7,000.

And that's what has been driving the development of LEDs for the last 15 years to get to ever lower color temperatures and therefore bring out as much of the blue wavelengths as possible. So the new bylaw has specifications for color temperature as well as for glare. Next, please. So this is what we've been trying to frame as a new bylaw that is more complete in the sense of capturing things that the planning board cannot. Think about it. People who put outdoor lights on their buildings or their homes or their residences don't have to go before the planning board to get a permit. And yet many of those lights installed since the year 2000 uh have would not have been conforming by the old bylaw so we're looking for a way to maybe uh quantify the light a little bit better you can see there some of the specifications uh one of the things that we're doing is the reason for going for a general bylaw as opposed to a um the zoning bylaw that exists is that the general bylaw allows us to declare all of the bad lights that have been installed as non-conforming And rather than require that they all be changed right now, we create what's called a sunset clause for 10 years. If you're a business and you installed a really bad LED five years ago, we'll give you 10 years in the terms of this bylaw to correct that, which is roughly the lifetime of an LED to begin with. Now there are certain exemptions that allow many more than the 2000 by-law has, but we also want to find situations where if something happens, we want those lights to be converted right away. So for example, if it's been demonstrated that your lighting creates a public nuisance, or if you undertake a renovation of your building or the number of parking lot lights, that that will cause the zoning enforcement officer and planning board to require you to change the lights at that time. It's a couple of simple triggers, if you will. Next, please. One of the important things in this bylaw that that has recently become aware is this notion of lighting in the public right away. Think utility poles. Now the town street lights are on those poles and We've tweaked the wording of this so that the existing streetlights would meet the requirements of this new bylaw. What we're trying to capture is the utility lighting that Chelmsford Street is a very good example where the lighting, these are utility-supplied floodlights that are just horrible. Pretty soon, National Grid is going to come through and change those to LEDs. They aren't that now. And when that happens, we want to capture that moment and make sure that National Grid or any other private developer installs lighting that is fully shielded and more environmentally friendly. And then finally, I want to mention that the existing bylaw has very little means of enforcement. i have spoken to the building commissioner mr negron several times we went out and did a site walk at night to see what is and isn't uh good lighting he sorry he uns inescapable he saw the light and uh and and really has embraced the notion of of enforcing this uh better and so consequently There are improvements in here that he will be able, there are numbers that he can actually use to determine conformance or not. Next slide, please. Just about done. Some of you might remember that I had brought, I and the planning board brought this before you. We're going to bring this before you last year at this time. We got some very constructive feedback from a lot of people from the finance committee. And so we drew it and retooled it and we feel this is a much, much better bylaw for 1 thing. We reorganize it so that the residential and commercial were separate and now understandable. The residential requirements have essentially been eliminated and replaced with suggestions. That is not enforceable, but we put that in there so that you who have really strong security lights will think about maybe trying to make them a little bit more aesthetic for your neighbors. And the final one, that might be the final one. Ah, it was the final one. And so I asked her for your support of this. This is something we've been working on for a very long time. It's a bylaw that I think we can all be proud of. And I will say that other towns are watching what happens in Chelmsford tonight to see if this is the way they want to go forward. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Todd, why is it a 2 thirds? vote required? Because it's more restrictive?

General bylaw? That's a great question. My thought was general bylaw.

Because I thought the dark sky and the sidewalk potential were majority votes. But weren't they also mentioning the bylaw?

Reserving bylaws?

This vote was only for adding to general. Then they would remove the zoning bylaw in a separate vote, I thought? Question mark. They were going to withdraw that one. If this didn't pass, then they wouldn't vote to remove it.

Yeah, I guess I skipped over that my head just thinking that was kind of Chelmsford, Chelmsford specific. And then we'd swept the details as applied to Bedford.

Actually, what will be for Bedford, I guess is, you're right, the most important thing.

I was expecting it to be a majority. But I have not investigated that. I'm still at the phase of, you know, do people think this is a good idea? Do we want to move forward? What do you, what'd you like about the Chelmsford concept? What, what might we want to do differently? You know, do we, do we want to, well, Maynard's was generally, it was applicable to everyone, but only for new installations.

chelmsford's you know they've got the the grace period um for commercial and municipal but it's only a recommendation for um for residential todd i guess i kind of myself i'm i'm open to anything but um i i wish we could do everything so residential commercial um kind of like maynard and and not but not put a 10-year like just yeah

it kind of roll forward i guess but that's me i'm curious what other people think i'm i'm in the same boat and i like the complaint motivated enforcement too john um when this came up before i had concerns about how this might interact with the um historic districts because i live in the historic districts um and but i suspect Assuming a reasonable number of lumens is allowed without restriction, it's probably not a problem, but it's just something I want us to keep an eye on. And I would tend to want to also have this applied to residential, considering my neighbor has a light that shines in my window. But if we decide we have to, maybe one way to split the difference would be larger residential developments would need to conform. Don Finan- Since that's up so since I mean that it's always something that that comes up and presumably a large commercial builder has more wherewithal to. Don Finan- So just just a random idea.

Don Finan- Thank you. Don or honors.

think don was having technical problems okay she looks frozen yeah yeah i'm todd well by a larger residential do you mean a two-family and an adu that would qualify as a large residential and then to play there that means every life i was gonna leave that as an exercise career i was thinking probably multi-family but that's my steve please go ahead

Yeah, the mix of those. Commercial and industrial, yeah, you could get support and get passed. I'd like to leave out residential, but as you say, for large development, how about just 10 units or more, which is what we're building lately. Yeah, other than that... Even the ones on Loomis Street, those are almost individual houses. That's my general opinion. Stay with the commercial and industrial. If you get that one through with a 10-year sunset clause, you can think about presidential next.

Steve, I'm just curious. Are you thinking that because you think it may not pass, or are you thinking it because you don't feel residents should have to not put lights into the sky.

No.

Residents who put lights in the sky that hopefully will do better.

Yeah, our commercial and industrial are extremely limited. You know, Crosby Drive, it's not going to bother them. And then we've got Street Road and Loomis Street. That's kind of the town. And everything else is residential.

That's my point. We're not doing much if we just do it for industrial.

I think you could get commercial industrial passed. I'm not sure I'd be so in favor of residential, even myself.

And I'm curious as to why.

All my houses, the lights in my house would qualify. They're yellow, orange, et cetera, et cetera. But I'm still not sure if you want to put that on any other new residence and individual house in town.

Thank you, Steve. Tony, any thoughts?

No, I'm just taking notes and. I agree the lighting bylaw. That we have is a little older and out of dated and. And I think to do for revision, but also do for elevation to its own. To its own section of the general bylaws so. Rather than having it hidden within the sign regulations so it's some. The. You know, and I just listened to where I think most of the sources of up lighting and glare do come from commercial and industrial properties, even though there are probably some examples of residents with spotlights or other things that. um, either create glare or, um, concerns for wherever they're shining lights at. But, um, but I think if we start out by looking at, you know, com rules for commercial and industrial admit and, and the multifamily properties, we can, uh, try to, uh, create some ideas, utilizing some of the examples that are happening around us, um, As it happens, the planner in Maynard's a good friend of mine, so I will see if I can find out his insights on why the vote was so close. My initial reaction is because it was presented as a citizen petition, it didn't go through what might have been the traditional vetting process, although the planning board seems to indicate it's their concept as well. I'm not sure if the select board had in had wanted to keep it off the agenda and so they used a resident to force it on the agenda so but that's I think that's that's an interesting side point but I would agree there's there's a variety of dark sky pieces that would be beneficial to bring here to Bedford

oh i'm muted todd please go ahead uh just curious um i feel like a lot of the illumination or you know whatever sending light into the sky at night especially like after 11 are parking lots and so forth um that let's say after midnight or after 11 aren't used um I mean, I don't even know if Maynard or Trump started this way. Are they required to turn those lights off at night, like timers now in those towns? And would we be able to have that in our, I don't know, plazas and so forth? Or is that not even possible?

That's a great question.

yeah so just i can give you some perspective on there are examples of bylaws that require lighting to be a lot a lot of lighting and illumination to be turned off after 11 o'clock or midnight but there are typically provisions for some amount of lighting for security purposes in the interpretation uh arguments rely around how much lighting is required for security when I was in Burlington we were always fighting with the auto dealers Because the auto dealerships like to light up the sky. And, and we would always argue that the amount of lighting across the property and, and literally extending beyond the property exceeds reasonableness and clearly exceeds whatever minimum is needed for security purposes. So, um, it's, um, you know, So it can get sticky. And I'm curious in that Maynard example, why, I'll ask maybe, why the town manager is the enforcer, because that's highly, in my mind, that's highly unusual. But, you know, who, as I say, it ends, and let, It's easy enough when you're negotiating site plan or special permit for a new project to discuss the lighting fixtures and placements and require a plan that shows the amount of illumination from the design. It's always the... You know how do you set a you know how do you set a horizon for non compliant lighting to come to compliance and. and then it'll get enforcement of that on pre-existing problem lighting. But we'll see what's out there and we'll talk with some of our neighbors about how they foresee enforcement happening on the pre-existing properties.

That sounds good. And one thought I had on residential if I wanted something that was not confrontational, but still had opportunity for significant effect, then target trespass. Recalling spillover from neighboring properties. There was an extended discussion regarding the 251 Old Billerica Road. I'm PRD, and there was a pretty detailed lighting plan presented with an address spill onto adjacent properties. So I look at that and think, oh, yeah, there's a way to enforce... Yeah, restrictions there. I'm, and I think that I just politically I'm trespass on abutting properties would be people would be more receptive to that, then restrictions on I'm, yeah, I'm holiday lights or holiday like lights that would have some, some uplight effect. Michael Perlmutter, Just a thought for for future consideration i'm. Michael Perlmutter, So, in terms of next steps, you know i'm happy to be a champion for this i'm if anyone else is so inclined i'm happy to share or conceivably yield i'm. Michael Perlmutter, yeah i've looked through the dark sky the model dark sky by law, but you know I haven't i'm. I engaged it in detail since late 2024, so I need to go back and look at that. haven't begun public engagement, so would need to do that and want to come up with a notional timeline for doing so. And with the thought of trying to bring something to town meeting in the fall or if that's too aggressive, spring 2027. And then with respect to the model bylaw or implementations in Chelmsford or Maynard, what modifications would better suit us here? So that's my idea. And I'm looking for responses, positive, negative, indifferent.

Todd. I'll speak up. I'm definitely very positive for this. I do understand the concerns with a full residential and I think it's Chris Price- it's specific to stage to do full residential and commercial probably not the best idea find was just doing 10 you know 10 units or more, you know multifamily and or potentially spillage. Chris Price- You know, but that fine restricting it for sure, and not not as aggressive on the residential side but love to see us do something for sure I think it's great thanks Chris.

Chris Price- Thank you don yeah i'm very positive about it too i'm i'm thinking that maybe. we can look at it in terms of stages, maybe stage one is doing municipal and commercial areas and you know, kind of socializing the idea letting people become familiar with the concept and maybe even see some of the impact on some of the places that, you know, maybe they go to on a frequent basis. But yeah, I think I think it's the right path. And, you know, kudos to you for getting it started.

Thank you. Todd. Sorry, I'm not very organized tonight. Tony, how do our town lights fare in terms of, or does anybody know, in terms of, like, amount that goes up currently? And, like, for instance, would we have to change all of our town lights? Like, potentially. You mean just, like, on municipal properties? Yes, but also just street lights.

Oh, and street lights, yeah. So... We have, over the years, been converting streetlights to LEDs. And I believe they've been adjusted when requested by residents affected by any individual streetlight. I don't have an answer to the extent of which lights in town

contributing but there's a lot of them i just it's well i do live close to town but i don't need to turn on any lights in my house at night i can see like walking around no problem there's just so much light it's crazy yeah same there's a street light out front now the dog and i can go outside and yes plenty bright

All right, so unless there are any comments, we can move on to liaison reports. Thank you all for your help. Steve, please.

I was trying to make 1 last comment. And this is where I think explaining to the residential like, um. The front of my house, when we have, let's just say, those of us that are on in ages, we do have large floodlights, but we only put them on when we have company. And they got to go find their car in the dark. And some of us, and then you turn them off. So again, for residents, as long as it's clear, they can put on the bright lights as needed. But no, it's not mandatory. You can't have them. That's all. And then I'll do the reports too. There's nothing from Conscom or Depot Park. And I did, thank you, Tony, for the, I did go to the memorial service over in the auditorium. Yeah, so that was appreciated having the news of that.

Well, thank you. I missed the energy and sustainability committee meeting last week, so I have nothing to report there and. So all others anything from tack. Or bicycle advisory.

We had met before our last report our previous meeting and then our next meeting is next week. Yeah, yeah.

Okay. steve um i forgot there's a uh the long-term plan the 10-year plan meeting as well as Wilson Park. Wilson Park was, you know, nothing special. The long-term plan, I want to try, and I made a comment, and we put it in the minutes, I hope. I want to see what those on the board that may have school children still. There's a, this is all about, we are reviewing one, two, and three, which is transportation at Yet et al. There's a program, the Safe Routes to School for students in schools. And I said, that's good. That's nice. Let's do it in February and require a February meeting because Are they shoveling the school bus stop places? Not just that people say bus stop. And I added, no, the school bus stop too. And the sidewalks, which is what Todd has been bringing up. And I said, do your safe route to school in the month of February. And let's see what we learn out of that. That's a real verification test for how were we in that area. I'd like to push that. Do other people think that's a good idea is my question.

I like it. Thank you. I have no problem with it.

I think you might have some trouble getting participation, but that's another. I don't think it's a bad idea, but I think you might find it challenging.

Well, I was going to delegate it.

All right, anyone else or to Tony for staff updates.

Just as a staff update, we are interviewing candidates for what is now the community planning and sustainability manager this week had some today. We'll do some more tomorrow. and then we will be interviewing some candidates for the community planning assistant but it's not called that community planning manager no whatever the new administrative title is called those interviews are being scheduled for next week and so hopefully we'll have people in the office uh

by the start of the new fiscal year very good i'm i have a question i'm related to uh multi-family overlay rules and uh application to 26 uh 26 36 through 44 lumas I'm there is a transformer up now. I'm close to the sidewalk. I'm and I saw a comment and haven't checked the. Tom Connelly, The bylaws but i'm comment that i'm a trans transformer would need to be shielded i'm the fence or plantings i'm in there, there are none up yet transformers and new on the property i'm, but I just wanted to confirm that and i'm yeah if enforcement of that that falls to the building inspector correct.

Dave Kuntz, enforcement falls to the building inspector yeah. Dave Kuntz, yeah there is a. Dave Kuntz, Well, for for my entire career, it has been. Dave Kuntz, A struggle to work with utility companies to get them to put. Dave Kuntz, transformers. Dave Kuntz, In. preferred loc in what we consider to be preferred locations that kind of hide them and in the end um they end up going where the electric company interesting okay so that was it was probably not the developer's choice where it was installed correct okay yeah the property yeah it is the property owner really has no say interesting okay that's good to know um i had a thought and

I lost it.

Yeah. So if it's gone somewhere, I have, I'm wondering, I hadn't noticed it on my last inspection, but I'll take it within the last week. Yeah. I'll talk to the team about whether or not they can screen it somehow. So, um, cause it may turn out that they're unhappy with the location too.

So yeah, it's, it's not, um, from an aesthetic standpoint, there could be worse places to put it, but none immediately come to mind. just needs to be painted that's all like the rest in bedford it needs like an invisible cloaking paint oh all the nice ones out with flowers and bees and i think what's what's otherwise yeah i i have a pretty nice job of um yeah presenting the yeah facing side of that prop and the transformer is not it's not an asset not an asset has anybody toward them hi hi has anybody toured them i i i did uh i have not they're they're quite nice yeah yeah yeah they did a nice job all right i'm and there are no minutes to approve tonight um so unless there are other comments requests suggestions Poems to read aloud.

Interpretive dance.

Interpretive dance, yeah.

I just will say I am still working on sidewalk stuff. It will take some time because the presentation to disabilities is in July, but we're trying to do research in the background, the chair and myself. Sounds good. More to come. All right.

Well, I'm ... I will work on an interpretive dance piece for Dark Sky for next meeting. May not bring it to completion, but I'll entertain motions to adjourn.

Move that we adjourn. Seconded. Seconded.

All right. All right. Moved by Mr. McClain and seconded by, I'm not sure, Mr. Crowley may have went out there. Mr. McClain, any vote? Aye. Aye. Mr. Crowley?

Aye.

Mr. Hagan. Aye. And the Chair votes aye. Thank you very much for a productive meeting. Looking forward to seeing you all on the 3rd of June.

Good night. See you then.

Tony, man of mystery.

Yeah, it's a little dark out now.