Conservation, Energy, & Environment Committee - Regular Meeting

Hello everybody.

Hello. Good afternoon. It is 4:31 and I'll call the meeting to order. So, for roll call, um, we have Nancy Bowden, Bob Dickinson, Claudia Guardiac, and Dave Hager here from the committee. Am I missing anyone? Okay. And myself. Yeah. Paula Jones. Um, so we have a quorum. And in terms of guest, we have counselor Joe Merritt on the line right now. And I'd like to welcome Kevin Costello from CEK Solar. Thank you everybody.

Y having me today.

Yep. And so um we'll get into old business in a moment and we can probably feed between the town planners report and solar in Bloomfield. Um Mr. Costello's reason for being here. And um so before we get into that in terms of um approval of the agenda um un under new business there is an other category. Um a question came into Nancy Bowden about um what was happening at 1236 Blue Hills Avenue. There's a cease and desist order there. So um I want to sort of address that, talk about that under that category of new business just to get an understanding of the situation more and more the process for when there is a cease and desist order. Um so there's that and there's some other things that we'll talk about um in terms of solar under new business but a little bit later in the agenda. And uh I think that's about it for in terms of kind of the agenda. Okay. So everyone good with that in terms of approving the the agenda?

Yes.

Okay. Could I have Go ahead. Okay. And in terms of guest, uh Brenda Watson is online. Um Brenda um after she does the paperwork uh presumably after this evening will be our newest member to CEC. Um so she's on the consent agenda for tonight to be added. Okay. Welcome Brenda. And let's see. So can I uh in terms of next agenda item July 10th meeting minutes. Can I have a motion? Yep. Is there a second? Okay. So, a motion by Nancy Nancy Bowden and a second by Claudia. Uh, any discussion, corrections? All in favor, please say I.

I. Any opposed? Abstensions? Okay. Mo uh motion carries. Okay. Um, town planners report. Thank you, Madam Chair, and good afternoon to all. Um, I think three things um that that are of interest, not well, lots of things of interest, but of significant. one we have offered and the individual has accepted the position of environmental planner and um we uh anticipate and hope that that individual will be on board um hopefully by the end of the month if not by by early October um the individual is um processing with his with their present employer and once that's done but um that that individual has passed all of the um physical and other requirements that need to be taken. So, we're we're um and has accepted the the offer. I'm not sure that they have informed their employer yet.

Okay, great. That process is is taking place.

Okay. Secondly, on the plan of conservation and development, um as some of you may or may not heard if you've watched um the TPZ meeting, um subsequent to the public hearing, uh myself and my predecessor, Justin Lefontan, reviewed all of the comments uh and recommendations that we had received uh from this board, from individuals and other commissions and boards. And uh not surprisingly uh we found them to be um significant uh and um and very important and substantial. And based on that, um, um, I recommended to the planning commission, uh, that it would be that prior to finalizing and sending the document out for review by the council and ultimate approval by the by the TPZ that it needed a significant rewrite. Uh, and that rewrite would primarily be conducted by Justin and myself. Um, and that's going to take a little time because both of us obviously have other uh work requirements. And I have requested and actually is on the town council agenda this evening um $20,000 to retain for about six weeks uh the services of Coleman and York, primarily Justin um to do about 100 hours of work uh with me and Linda uh to reflect uh properly uh the comments and conditions received make it he has a six o'clock meeting um the and

and produce a document that reflects um the vision and ideas of this community. Um so we hopefully will get approval by the council this evening and um and move on to that. Okay. uh the town center plan. Um as I think I informed you, I'm not sure. We've submitted the CIF grant um for 23 plus million dollars to state DEC and we are still awaiting action by them. It's my understanding that the approval board has does not have a meeting scheduled this month and so it may not be till next month that we um receive information on that. Other than that, we're really busy on um on um variety of um things. The Arbella proposal is um awaiting a decision by the council on its tax abate tax agreement request. Um and um finally um we welcome um solar here today. They made a presentation to the TPZ and the TPZ um felt it would really be appropriate um for them to make a recommend make a presentation to you all see where you how you felt um before we begin to develop um the regulations themselves.

Okay. Any questions for Mr. Coleman? What did you say for the town center plan thing? I missed the amount. 23 million. Yep. Give or take. You know, that's an that's not the exact number, but that's the number I use. Yep. Okay. Any other questions in the room? It is, but that's probably that's that's actually less than the going rate

should be. Anyway, okay. No, I let me just they um this is not deja vu deja vu all over again. As Yogi would say, when we retained them the first time, that was basically to get the document that was in basic unusable shape into usable shape and to correct a lot of the inconsistencies. This effort is now to respond to all of the comments and reviews that have been made by the TPZ, this body and other bodies about what was in there. And we found those to be substantial and significant. And it would have been, in my opinion, a disservice to move forward with the document as is. Um, and it's simply if we want to get it done in a reasonable period of time, it just is not something that the staff can do in its on its own.

Okay. Online, uh, Val Rosetti. Um, another guest has her hand up. Hello, Val. Oh, hi Mr. Coleman. Can you give us a a sense of the flavor of the when you say significant and substantial like maybe just a you know several of the areas that you think need to be revised? I'm glad that you're looking so carefully at the comments.

Um the executive summary uh efforts on farmland um a lot of significant inconsistencies in in the various sections. um future land use um recommendations u and and things of that type. Um um some of the um postulations that are in there about population growth and and um and development growth and connections there too. Um and and some um let me what I use the correct word um omissions in terms of um issues that are important to the community related particularly to issues that this body deals with in terms of conservation and solar and things of that type. But um you know it just is it it's in its present form. It's a document that um we believe is not Bloomfield centric. Um it has a lot of boilerplate. Um that and and quite frankly um if some of us had our brothers, we would simply resurrect the 2012 plan uh and use that. And I think that that Justin and I are certainly going to use that as a guide as we go forward and and make that, you know, obviously we'll use the format that exists now, but a more modern document, but that document is much more of a plan and a vision and a guide um than the present one and not reflective of a lot of issues that are u important to the town of Bloomfield.

Thank you. Thank you for doing that.

Yep. It is good. Thank you very much. Okay. Um does that anything else? All right. Um let's move ahead to old business. Um we'll move to solar in Bloomfield. Um that is why Mr. Castello is here. Um and I also want to introduce Valerie Rossetti. Um Kevin and I were talking um before the meeting started about the fact that CEC had kind of first visited solar and solar sighting in Bloomfield kind of um broadly like in late 2020 early 2021. Um I was on CC at that point um but not cheering and Val um was not cheering either but Val was really kind of carrying the water so to speak and doing a lot I think along with David on um kind of solar and representing CEC. So I thought it would be helpful um to plum Val's memory a little bit because I thought that would help the conversation. Okay. So um without further ado, Mr. Castello, if you'd like to um just kind of give a brief introduction. Yeah, go ahead.

Sure. Thank you so much, Madam Chair, and thank you um for all the folks here today who have allowed us to come in and speak to you on behalf of uh CEK and myself. I am going to try to share my screen here so we can get the presentation started. I usually use teams so I'm not as dextrous on Zoom as I would like to be, so you'll have to forgive me. There you go. All right. And I'm just going to uh Thank you. Thank you. It's better than I expected. It's going to go to uh start presentation.

Okay,

there we go. Very good. So, this is the proposed Wintonberry Avenue solar project. And I'm going to go I apologize for the folks who in PNZ who have seen this information already, but I wanted to just make sure everybody was on the same page. So I'm going to just do a brief overview of the project. This is not the project. Um some of you may know CEK. We've been in Bloomfield since the company started about 20 years ago. We did the very first in the state of Connecticut uh solar farm project through the former LREx ZREC program. And this is right over at the Bloomfield Board of Education. Um, so we we've done projects in town before. We are we're familiar. I think everybody um has experience with my company and I hope it's I hope it's good. I personally have been with CEK for a little over a year now and I've had nothing but a great experience, nothing but kind things to say about Mickey um the owner of the company and the whole rest of the team. I've been very blessed to uh have such a wonderful opportunity and I'm very happy with where I am with them. In terms of the proposed project, this would be for what we describe as well at least personally I would describe as a small solar farm project. It's proposed capacity is just going to be just shy of 1 megawatt um.99 megawatts to be exact. This would be in support of Connecticut's sustainability and clean energy goals and also helps to reduce carbon emissions and energy costs. The proposed location is going to be at 141 Wintonberry Avenue. The total parcel size I have in the below image, it's going to be just shy of 19 acres, just a little bit over. Our system size, um, including including the panels, the transformer, the access road, um, just about everything, it's going to be a little little over six acres in in size. So, we're using about

a third of the entire parcel's coverage. And this site was primarily chosen um for its very positive um grid capacity interconnection outlook that we got from Eversource in the state of Connecticut. Um the biggest thing that allows these projects, solar farm projects to either happen or not happen is having uh grid capacity. So what we're doing is unlike large utility scale projects where we're utilizing the large high tension lines that run all throughout the state. Looks like huge chunks of land are just carved through and those lines go through all out and bring power everywhere. We're actually utilizing what's called the distribution lines. And these are the lines that you see right out right out here on your street. Um your everyday singlephase three-phase power lines. We of course need three-phase. But what makes this site so special is um we're actually in year six of a 7-year program that replaced the LRE ZREEC program. It's called NRES, non-residential energy solutions, and that's administered by both Eversource and UI. We're sort of at the end of the the run with that and as you can imagine there's been a great deal of projects that have taken place over the past couple years and we are at a point now we're finding locations that have grid capacity are are becoming very difficult and what's great about Wintonberry Avenue in this specific part of it is we have five megawatts of capacity to work with which is um it's just increasingly rare. there's very few parts of the state that have that level of capacity left. So that's why this was initially chosen. The other reason for choosing this site was many many years ago this was originally supposed to have been a farm. The site is owned by Seabberry Living um who are the the

large um active life community that's just down the street. And I think what had happened, I can't speculate too far, but at one point they had an agreement with a farming company or a farmer. It was supposed to be a farm. It didn't work out for whatever reason. He went to a different property and what was clear land um has slowly over the years um kind of been reclaimed by nature. So this project is essentially going to serve a couple different uh purposes. One is to um provide solar which is going to help the state's goals. Another is that it's going to hopefully and our plan is to really mitigate a lot of the invasive species that have been found on site. So, it's going to be another helpful thing that um the property owners can look forward to in the future and the town can look forward to is yes, we would be doing some some tree cutting. there would be some some wetlands mitigation taking place both on-site and offsite and we're in discussions with the town about that currently, but there are a lot of benefits uh to this project that might not be immediately visible and just wanted to make sure I uh highlighted those issues. And this, as I stated before, would participate in Eversource's NRES program, which is currently um sun setting in 2027. Just a quick little recap on ENDRES. It's it's designed for projects up to one up to five megawatts. So between one and five supported by both UI and Eversource runs from 2022 to 2027. And of course is the successor program to the former LRE CREC program. And this just gives us a couple details that we think covered previously. It's a 1 megawatt array. We're going to be using ground mounted panels. um a single axis tracker for efficiency. This is the type of tracking system that allows the panels to rotate as the sun moves across

the sky to be always um at the highest capacity possible in terms of their production. And of course, we're uh integrating fencing and landscaping for visual screening concerns. And um as all projects with CEK, we're complying with all safety and zoning standards. proposed project timeline for 2025 and 2026. That's when we're going to be working on permitting and approvals. Um, also for final engineering and procurement. If everything goes well, we we hope to begin construction in 2027 with the system. Since it is such a small system, it's not going to take a long time to actually construct this as compared to other much larger arrays. So we expect 2027 would also be the year that we begin operation for a total duration of around 12 to 15 months from approval until we're energized. And for the reason that we are here today, um, we wanted to propose a text amendment or just a baseline text for the town of Bloomfield to be able to define what a largecale solar project is and how those type of projects could fit in potentially with the town's um, zoning standards and find a pathway forward that would work uh, best for the town of Bloomfield as they begin to get more um offers to work on these type of projects as new technology comes in. Whether it's battery, energy, storage, or data centers, we wanted to have a um a baseline for discussion so we could potentially pro proceed with this project. I seem to have a little issue here with my slide. Something got squished here.

So sorry about that. So we aim to define a solar power installation that's over 250KW as a largecale energy system. And we would want these to be compliant with all local ordinances. Uh the construction and operation of any large-scale energy system shall be consistent with all applicable local, state, and federal requirements, including but not limited to applicable safety, construction, electrical, and communications requirements. So that's something we thought would be an important place to start off was actually defining what what this project was, what these type of projects were to to give a comparison to much larger projects which you could consider to be utility scale that utivi utilize transmission lines as opposed to simple DG lines. So it is important to make that distinction at least in our opinion and going forward with some of the proposed text amendment changes uh we would want to include a bur a building permit and building inspection so that no large so no large-scale solar energy system shall be constructed installed or modified as provided in the section without first obtaining a building permit from the town. This would also include a site plan review and all plans maps shall be prepared, stamped, and signed by a professional engineer licensed to practice in Connecticut. And that's very standard on all these projects. We do that with Eversource now. So, it's it's very likely that anyone proposing this type of project would would have that information by that time already, I would think. Uh required documents. So we would need to get what we would what we would propose is um the proponent would have blueprints or drawings of the large scale solar energy system once again signed by a professional engineer.

A manufacturer's data sheet uh contact information including name, address, phone number, email, anything that's required for the actual system installer. Uh the same thing for any of the property owners if they are going to be different than the system installer. So for situations where it might be a site lease, we would also need to get the information for whoever the land owner is going to be. And of course with any agents representing the project, um zoning district designation for the parcels, proof of liability insurance, and then of course it's always important um to include that the board may wave documentary requirements that it finds are unnecessary to determine compliance with these regulations or as it deems appropriate. Another one of the requirements would be to have a site control. The project proponent shall submit documentation of actual or perspective access or control of the project site sufficient to follow construction and operation of the solar array. So that's basically having proof that you have an agreement with the land owner whether that's going to be a lease or an option agreement or a combination thereof. Just something that says that um there is an agreement in place. it's not fictitious and that could be referenced of course um when the project is submitted for approval. Another thing that's very standard an operation and maintenance plan. So as these projects are going to be in existence for at least 20 years because that is the amount of time that our company or a different company is going to have with the utility company um to produce the power. that's that's standard all across the state that comes from um both Eversource and UI for the NRES program. So, it's always going to be a 20-year agreement that a solar installer or a system owner is going to enter into with the utility company, but they can often go for much longer than

that. Sometimes up to 40 years depending on the nature of the agreement. So, it's good to have a operation and maintenance plan that's going to, you know, show what the plan is for that entire duration of the the contract. Utility notification. So, this is basically saying that no large-scale energy system shall be constructed until evidence has been provided to the board that the utility company that operates the electrical grid where the project would be taking place has been notified. And typically this this comes in the form of an interconnection application. And that's usually the first step that a developer will take when they're planning out a project is they'll have a site that's in mind. they'll be able to identify the feeder that is um that they want to use for that project and then they'll send in an interconnection application to either Eversource or UI and that what that does is it tells the utility company that we're thinking about doing a project here and they give us a very highlevel overview of what upgrades might be necessary if it's going to be a a feeder upgrade or a substation upgrade anything that has to do with that. So that that's usually good enough proof that a project has made it to that point in the um in the interconnection timeline. And these are the dimension and density requirements and basically setbacks that we've come up with. And these these aren't coming directly from us. We've done some research, looked at other towns that do have um solar ordinances already in play from already having solar farms being developed in their town for a number of years. And we we pulled much of this from the town of Volentown. And then we also went through and took a look through the town of Bloomfield's different zoning requirements that they would see in, for example, an R20, an

R30 zone, a light industrial zone, a commercial zone, and took a look at what those setbacks were and saw how many, if any of them would be in compliance with with the system, and based our setbacks around what the town was currently using. And I think we are above and beyond in many cases what what is currently being asked for in in residential zones. So essentially um it gives us a front yard, a sideyard, a rear yard, a minimum lot size, and then a height of the structures. And by height of the structures, we mean since these are ground mount systems, this would be the height of the solar panels, their maximum height above the ground, including any mounting equipment, things of that nature. So in the front yard it's it would need to be at least a 10-ft depth unless we're in a situation where we abute a residential district in which case the minimum minimum would then be 50. Same thing with the sideyard starts off at 25 but if once again we're in a residential zone or we're building a residential zone jumps to 50. Same with the rear minimum lot size to do a project like this. Um, we thought the minimum lot size for any large scale solar energy system as we've defined it should be 7 acres. A good rule of thumb is um, at least in my experience is you need around five acres to do a 1 megawatt project and that's just with the solar. So when you take into account things like access roads and how far we might need to go to the road, um, that's a good I think a good number to use. And then the total height, we we did our calculations and think that 10 feet is a very reasonable number to uh to be within depending on if you're going to do a single axis tracker or a fixed tilt system.

And that's pretty much it. That's uh we wanted to just give a very simple uh draft for the town to be able to digest um collaborate with us on to basically just give us a starting point. I mean once again my references for this were uh town of Volentown solar ordinances of 2024 and then the town of Bloomfield zoning regulations 4.3B and then I also included these uh two pictures in case we actually wanted to look at the the setbacks in in real time. So this one comes from a general industrial zone and we also have the residential zoning uh setback requirements here. And as we can see we are um from the front um this project would be abuting a residential district. So we are currently looking at 50 ft. U what we proposed was 50 feet. Um sideyard actually here is 25. We increased that to 50. Same for the rear. And then we're well below the the 35 ft height requirements. Do I know this is a lot different um because we're comparing uh houses to solar arrays, but since there wasn't something currently to give us a a good baseline, that's that's sort of what we used and it was very consistent with what town had in their um current ordinances. We included a link to that in case the town wants to go back and check through that. And that's that's all I had for for today.

Okay, great. Thank Thank you very much for the overview. Um I think where I'd like to start is just ask Mr. Coleman. Um you know, I I heard about this not too long ago in terms of the suggestion that you come to CEC and and talk to us about it. Um what is happening next in terms of TPZ? It looks like the uh the anticipation is there will be a public hearing on it. Um and then I do want to open it up for questions obviously and comments. I wouldn't say we're at the public hearing point yet.

Um we have to um staff needs to and we may we may have to bring in legal if necessary, but probably not. Um take a good hard look at this recommendations. We haven't really scrutinized them. Yeah. see how they sync with our regulations as they are now to make sure that there's not conflict set and or confusion that we don't want to exist in terms of tables and that type and then present it to the commission um who would then schedule a public hearing uh to be held. So I would if we um if it gets submitted at the September meeting the public hearing would not be until the October meeting. Okay.

At the earliest. Yep. Okay. So, at this point, um, I want to open it up to questions and comments. We'll start in the room. Um, I also want to, um, make sure anybody online has the opportunity as well. So, before you do, I think also the the commission is going to have to have a its conversation on whether in fact they want to permit it in the first place. Okay. and and that's the first step, right? And if they think it's an appropriate use at particular locations in town, then we'll move ahead with the regulations,

right? Okay, that that's good. And um I just want to I mean I'll I'll say one other thing and then we'll open it up. Um, I had intended um before this really even came up to have sort of a discussion about um a solar ordinances because this has been sort of an ongoing item related to the POC and to the extent um it it was more of an opportunity to just kind of review everything we have. One thing that was not part of the meeting package was the um larger scale utility policy which is hard to find online. Town policy the town council passed it. Um and I had mentioned this to Mr. Costello. Um that was more of a um the int the point of that was to more express the town's preferences in terms of where you know what what locations we think are suitable um and what kinds of things we're looking at um in terms of post project um that kind of thing. So that particular policy we updated this year and we added the um to incorporate uh best uh battery energy storage systems and that again we we all looked at that and made some changes um because there were three of those proposed for town. Um, so I think it's important, I guess, when all of this is being considered to look at that and to look at um the desires um of the town and of of the various commissions that kind of develop that policy to recommend to council in terms of sighting and everything else. And this may be completely appropriate, but it's more of a we've got those documents

to look at. So, um, so I'll stop with that for now. Um, okay. Uh, let's see. Well, actually, I'll start in the room and then I will go online. Okay. Hang on, Zelene. So, I'll I'll be with you. And actually, Zelene is here, so that's good. Thank you, Zelene. Hang on. Okay. Anyone in the room want to ask a question or make a comment? Oh, the parcel is currently owned by Seabberry Living. Seabberry. Seabberry. So it's part of Seabberry. Part of their land holdings. Yes. So

across the it's a David. It's across the street on the you know it's on the same side as as the as the uh as the Samuel Park, but it's not part of the Wait. It's not part of the park. We can't hear you. It's not part of the park, but the town does own an abuing parcel immediately to the north. And has that been farmed? Not. It has not. Wait, just Bob, we we tried tried to work with a farmer, but it didn't. It didn't work. I thought the Leopas were actually farming some of it. This is on the back side of that, not this parcel.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Uh, other questions or comments in the room before I go online? Okay. Claudia. Um, I understand you're using Voluntilar situation to Bloomfield or it tell me a little bit more about how it keeps coming up as a prototype so to speak.

Oh, we we did. So, it's it's funny. Not every town has solar ordinances. So, we had to do a little bit of research to find out where pro where there's been a number of projects that have taken place over the past couple of years, whether that's been through this program, through the former LREC program, which is how we did the the board of ed building. So, we tried to narrow that down to a place where we knew had solar projects, and there there were quite a few that were done up there. So luckily they we looked online and they had a pretty a pretty good amount of of regulations and ordinances that we thought would serve as a good baseline to start the discussion of. Um we we wanted to find a town that was I don't want to say I don't think Volunttown is a a mirror image of Bloomfield, but we didn't want to use um a town or a city like like Danberry or Bridgeport which is much more industrial. We wanted to try to find something that was close as an apples to apples comparison in terms of geography, in terms of is there a lot of farming already taking place there. Um, there's much more than that of that taking place in Volunttown, of course. So, we thought that if if it works for them and considering that they have a lot of very valuable land, a lot of very beautiful scenic land out there, we we thought it was just a good a good place to start. if it would work for Volunttown and considering all the land that they have um why not here as well or at least as a as a starting off point so to say.

Thank you. Sure.

You have a question a comment that uh okay it's not being used for farmland now. uh after this project after 20 years of this project, it could be again a consideration again that uh I otherwise not not building on it now and and having solar in at the end of 20 years it it could be restored to farmland. It's I I can't speak on behalf of Seabberry for what their plans might be in the future, but I can tell you that now they do actively um throughout their other land holdings rent rent to farmers and they I can see them very easily continuing with that trend at the end of the 20 years. And uh what would be helpful at this parcel is then after the end of the solar um period, you have a you have a parcel with

cleared out. It's it's very easy for a farmer to come in there and then begin doing whatever activities. Right. right now they're just paying taxes on it and you know they sure they want to do something with it. Correct. Okay. Um let's go online. I'm gonna start with Zelene and then go across the top of the screen. So Zelene um Val and then Council Mirit. Go ahead Zelene. Well um I'm just wondering if any environmental studies have been done or will they be done on this land? Have they been done? It's hard for me to hear you guys. I I want you to know I'm so sorry. Zelian, can you hear me if I speak uh if I speak loud now? A little better. Yeah.

Okay. So, to answer your question, yes, we we have begun that process with the town inland and wetlands commission. We have already completed or are in the process of we we've done one wetlands delineation report. There are wetlands that are on site that would be affected and we are working with the inlands and wetlands department on potential solutions to that including on-site and off-site mitigation.

What do you mean by off-site mitigation? Well, in certain circumstances when you have um a situation like this where there's wetlands on a parcel, but we can't necessarily mitigate that on site due to the parcel being rather small and not there not being a lot of areas where we can do on-site mitigation. One thing that you can do is consider off-site mitigation. So, that would be us working with a different land owner, whether that's a conservation um firm or a a nonprofit or even maybe the town itself, and looking at other parcels where we could add essentially add wetlands somewhere else to make up for the wetlands that we're taking up. Well, I don't think that's a really great solution um in general because what exists on this particular plot may not be appropriate for another wetland. One wet land is not like another. That's what I'm saying. So, I think that off-site mitigation, excuse me, is not really an answer. Um I don't know about this parcel. I know where it is. Um, and I don't know how many acres of that is actually wetland. Um, I would like to know and I would like to see the results of any environmental studies that are done.

Absolutely. We would be more than happy to share all of that information uh with with anybody from the town. We have all that available now. So, if it's helpful, I can get that sent out at the end of the day or uh early tomorrow. But to answer your question as best as I can without having it in front of me at at this point, there are some areas that would be affected. But we as a company, we would much prefer uh taking credit to what you just said, we would much prefer to keep the on-site mit to keep the mitigation to on-site uh wherever possible. But we we understand that even if that be that isn't possible, we we're going to go above and beyond to to work with the town, to work with wetland scientists to make sure that if we do have to do it offsite, it's going to be as best of a fit as possible. And one of the the hidden benefits um to us doing this on this particular project is what was found during that wetlands delineation report is that there were a large number of invasive species that were found on the parcel. So this by us doing this we would be able to remove uh the vast majority if if not all of those and stop that that issue early on in its stages.

Okay. Okay. No, I mean, are you all set, Zelene, for now? I just like to see that um when it comes in. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. I'm good. Okay. Thank you. Um Val Valerie. Yeah.

Uh yeah. Hi. Thank you. I and I'm trying to refresh my memory because uh you know back in 202021 the issue of solar regulations came up um and and it it was kind of tabled to my knowledge. No action that I'm aware of was definitely taken. One of the concerns um and I have a few questions for you. I know one of the concerns was just making this basically saying uh you know any 20 250 megawatt thing is open on any property in Bloomfield um you know other than requiring a special permit and I think we we've had some experience with special permits and I'm I'm not sure that you know how much of a safeguard that is for residential properties when somebody might you know unexpect expectedly have a 5 acre solar um project in their backyard even if it's set back 50 ft or whatever. So when I when I looked at the map this this will directly abut Samuel Weed re read Wheeler Park. Is that is that true? And so I mean that's a beautiful sighteline to to the ridge and I'm I'm just wondering in your diagram you didn't really show what it would look like um next to the park. So that was one question. The second question I had was you mentioned it was just shy of one one megawatt. Is that to avoid having the sighting council involved with the state?

No, it's it's more um for monetization purposes. So Eversource splits projects into three categories, small, medium, and large. And they pay a different amount of money depending on what that project size is. So it's more advantageous if you are a one megawatt size project to go down to 0.99 and be in the previous category then go above a megawatt and be in the larger category. Okay. So um because you mentioned that this this acre this acreage could technically support a lot more megawws. Is that is that correct? I'm just wondering why C wouldn't wouldn't sign up for that. I don't know what the financial

agreement would be, how much profit they would be making off. Um I assume there's some kind of lease that they I don't quite understand the financial aspects of this. They they get money from leasing the property to CEK. Is that what happens?

That is that is correct. That is the general nature of the agreement. It's a site lease. So CEK is leasing their land for a period of of 20 years, which is the same amount of time that we have an agreement with with Eversource for to buy the power back. But I'm I'm glad you asked that question. Why why are we not taking up the entire 19 acres? Um we could there's 5 megawatts worth of power on that line. And I think that any other developer would and I'm not gilding the lily here. I think any other developer would have tried to do that. But we are from Bloomfield. We recognize that we do not want to build a 3 megawatt project right in people's backyards. and we worked with Seabberry uh hand inand this this went back and forth um quite a few times because we we thought that it would be way better to propose a project that could work for as many people as possible than one that's just going to come in and build as large as possible be right up against people's back doors right in their backyards. We don't want to do a project like that. And we we specifically designed it so that we were as far away from any residences as possible. Um specifically designed the inverters and the pads to be as as far away from them to avoid any disruptions. So I I I'm actually pretty proud of that. I am am grateful and happy to work for a company like CEK that takes that kind of stuff into consideration because it it's it's hard not to. It really is when you have a a piece of land that is very buildable and this one is and you have the power that's available to you at the street which which this one does. We we could have done a larger project, but we chose to keep it as small as possible, not only out of respect for for the town and and to actually um credit to what you were saying

earlier, we didn't really want to have to go to the sighting council because it's kind not for nothing, it's kind of rude, you know, to to go outside of the town's purview to to build inside. So, we we wanted this to be Bloomfield's decision, not not the sighting council's decision. So, uh, we kept it to this the size that it is now essentially and wanted to work with you guys on this.

Well, thanks for that information. I I guess my um I don't know what it would visually look like uh next to Samuel Reed Wheeler Park. And I I think overall one of the one of the issues with with um for example using Volunttown as the solar regulation I you know quote unquote ideal is having been down in Volunttown it's it's kind of a different it doesn't have anywhere near the uh the um residential density of of Bloomfield and I'm just wondering whether there's a way to consider this project without changing the permits to basically allow this in any area of Bloomfield subject to a special permit. That's that feels like the object several years ago was to let the town kind of look at properties that they thought would be really well suited for these larger solar projects and and work backwards from that rather than um get a hodge podge. So, I'm I'm just wondering whether you know your com and I we like CEK. I mean, we've worked with you guys on um you know, we've done some of the solar projects. I just don't know whether changing the regulations to allow it anywhere in order to accomplish this project is is um concerning to me without looking further. But but thanks for the information. Thank you. Absolutely. I hear what you're saying. Um we we wanted to propose this as I said earlier just as a a baseline somewhere to start. Uh, Volunttown had regulations in place, which is why we thought it was it would serve as just a good starting place. Um, but I I I totally hear what you're saying. I I respect that. One of the things that we we wouldn't want to see happen in Bloomfield is just to allow for unfettered development um across any different zoning, any different parcel. Um, so no, I I hear what you're saying on that.

Yeah. And sorry for taking up so much time. Right. I I do think um I don't know if like West Hartford or some of the other less uh rural towns have solar regulations. And the last thing I'll say before I um stop is I seem to remember some issues around the whole concept of redeveloping used solar fields into farmland and that that was not as easy as one would think. And I can't quite remember, you know, right now having come to this just this afternoon whether, you know, what the issues there are, but uh maybe somebody else knows. Yeah, actually I I'll just jump in very quickly more to just um

Thank you very much.

Put put a check mark next to that. Um that that's a question I guess in terms of post project kind of land restoration in terms of the soils. Um I serve on another environmental board with um a woman by the name of Denise Sabajjo who has a lot of expertise in soils. She works with a lot of conservation districts and I think maybe chairs the statewide and that's one thing that she is very knowledgeable about and it may be helpful just in terms of trying to get some input from her um because I think everybody just views it as land banking and I think there are always concerns about compaction of the soil. um and really how usable the land is. So, it's it's just a question I think that we need answers to. So, thank you for that. Um Council Mirror, your hand is up uh next. And then you hear me?

Yes. And then Mr. Jones, you're next. And then I'm going to try to keep it to about 10 more minutes. Yeah. Um I I I was a director for some 15 years at Seabberry, so I'm familiar with the part of land and our efforts to figure out what to do with it at that time. and doesn't sound like it's changed much. Um I was curious what the name of the street, the residential street um right behind there is. That's the one I'd be most concerned about. Um how close will those houses be to uh the uh solar panels? It's Skinner Road, Joe. Yeah.

So, we're thinking it's Skinner Road at this point. And I can give you a a good approximation. I don't want to overpromise and tell you the wrong number, but as it stands now, I would estimate that we are at least 200 feet away from the resident. Yeah, that's perfectly if we keep if we keep the design as it currently stands. That's fine. Um I also wonder what's happening to the power coming out there. So I know over on the the school site which you put in there was some deal where people could share it somehow and I'm wondering where is the power going? Is it just going in for into the wires for connectivity or

you're exactly right actually. So this this is what's called a buy all sell all project and it's one of the the two main ways that the NRES program allows projects to to participate. So what uh what what essentially happens is 100% of the power that is generated on site immediately is exported back to the grid via the distribution lines that we're hooked up to. So it it's it's a think of it as a mini power plant. Okay. So it's doesn't affect anybody in town. It just goes into the end of the line. Yeah. It's it is not going to offset any uh meter. It's not going to offset any power bill. This is simply a a generation.

I was just curious. Um I also have to ask or does the town tax you on this? Is it that I I don't have and I don't want to speak out of turn. Um but I can find that information out. I know that the state is proposing or they may have already done it a uniform capacity tax on solar and I imagine that this project as well as all the others in the coming years are going to be subject to to what that is but we um we would be paying taxes to the town of Bloomfield as as the less sor of the property of course.

Okay. Well, I'm sure being that I'm on the council I'll hear more about this. So that's great. Thanks. I really think it's a great idea. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Okay. U Mr. Jones,

thank you for that. Much more of a comment now. It's a little it's a little belated. I wanted to double down on Miss Sandler's point um and questions and some of the conversation around the farm stuff. I recently I have an entirety of two meetings under my belt. So I am don't right don't kill me. But this conversation around a solar project has come up, right? And it was a similar like deep and like pretty serious conversation around the wetlands obviously. Um, and I think that maybe I don't have the notes in front of me. I just want to circle back and say as I obligated in some ways, right, to say no, yeah, like this is something that we definitely are going to pay attention to and folks are really pay a lot of attention to um at the wetlands um um commission and maybe we can get some of the notes that came out over for folks on this committee take a look at if you all haven't seen them yet um maybe get some explanations. So, I just want to just name that um because that that's just the wetland stuff came up and the farm stuff is very really important to us. Returning the land back potentially to farming um down the road, right? Still calls for like some stewardship and some other things that will be really important to us at Chicks Hoy Farm in Bloomfield um and how farmland is, you know, you know, um delineated and available and protected and you know, how it's part of what we're going to be, you know, not just kind of like what we've done. So, I was wanted to say that and I'll step back.

Great. Thank you very much. That's great input. And to the degree Wetlands has been looking at this um any information um that can be shared that would be helpful as well. Absolutely. Thank Thank you for that. Okay. Um at this point, uh Bob wants to say something, I think, then I want to say something quick and then uh I'll close the conversation and kind of figure out next steps. Go ahead.

Yeah. Uh two two things. One one I have heard that this land and and and areas across even across the street are marginally wetlands partially because the this the soil doesn't absorb water very much very very well it's probably I would imagine in clay or whatever but it doesn't absorb water well and and that's why some of it is wetlands that if it is was graler or something it might not be considered well. The other is having a relatively small project like this uh and scatter them scattering them around the town and around the state means less need for transmission lines versus having big a few big projects.

Right. And so actually at this point I will close it out. Um and then I'm I'm open to any suggestions in terms of next steps. Um the a couple of the concerns I had or questions I had have been covered um kind of post project. Um actually one thing was just perimeter fencing. I mean, I remember with the array behind the board of ed, one of the things was making sure you had um, you know, you had security, but you had enough passage for animals. Oh, yes.

To flow through, that kind of thing. Um, you know, another thing that pops into mind is, um, we keep trying to get an agricultural zone added. Um, you know, does it make sense to um is is one possibility to zone parcels that can be used for agricultural might be used for agricultural is agricultural and have uh solar be a potentially a permitted use. That is a possibility. Um I just throw it out there. I think I think um a concern that this committee had five years ago and a concern that's been raised is um just kind of flowing opening up the floodgates and kind of doing something that just lets the genie out of the bottle in terms of all residential. Um I I'll say that the fact that you've addressed some of the minimum size considerations. I think that's something that we were concerned about uh years ago because I think the proposal at that time was what I1 I2 even I uh R um R30 and R4. I mean really small parcels. Um so you know you've you've heard kind of some of our questions and concerns. Um, I'm going to look to our planner, uh, Mr. Coleman, in terms of what suggestions you might have because we're, you know, I think we need a little time to process this potentially.

I think I think while you all process it, we can um, we can begin to take a look at the regulations that are being proposed and um, and obviously report back to you at your next meeting. Yeah. But I think that's, you know, you all can process it and see where you are for your next meeting and we'll we'll work on the technical side. Okay. Anything else? I'm just looking around the room. Okay. Um, thank you very much. No, this this is awesome. Thank you so much. I I this has went very well and I appreciate everybody's time and uh very constructive comments and we're looking forward to working with you on the next steps. Okay, great. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. and you can leave.

Okay. Yeah, I wasn't sure. Nope. You are you are welcome to you're w you're welcome to stay, but you don't have to. So, thank you so much. Once again, I everyone will talk soon. Y appreciate you coming on short notice. So, thank you for that. Yeah, I know. Thank you.

All right. Um well, the good news is is we're not that far into our agenda. Um, and a lot of the items on the agenda are more placeholders and we weren't I wasn't really planning to spend a lot of time because we don't have a lot of updates. So, I think we can get through things fairly quickly. Um, sustainable CT reertification. Um, actually I'll let John give the update on that. That will be the um first assignment for the new environmental planner.

Yeah. Um and and just to um piggyback on on his comment, um we actually did a little bit of work with um the inter the fellows that were assigned to us. Um I I drafted um a document to kind of get at the equity piece that's now required. Um it's kind of the trees for Bloomfield project. It will need some modifications. So, we've got kind of I think a start, but if we can get the planner or the the new the new um sustainable c sustainable CT environmental planner, if we can get the new environmental planner on board, um we can start working on it now and we've got, I think, a pretty good path to to getting it done. So, the equity piece is sort of a big piece of it. Go ahead. You don't have a question.

You're you're up next. Okay. So, so stay tuned. Um, but we've started. Did you want to say something, David? You look like you do. The, uh, the intern last summer found a lot of documents, right? Yes. For this. Do Do we have any idea what kind of points those documents uh lead to?

I do not. Yeah, I think we were I think she I we you I think it's 200 you need for bronze. I think she had 45 on hand before I did the narrative. And then there were a couple of things related to trees for Bloomfield that would get us more points. So I'm guessing we were like a third of the way there, but we hadn't that was with documents she had. We still need to upload a lot of things and it's more having somebody dedicated as the point person that can pull all that together. I mean, that's really what we need. I mean, I think if we have a staff person who's part of their job is it we'll get there for April without a problem.

I agree.

Yeah. Yeah. And we made a start, which is something we haven't done in a while. So, that's good. Before you move on, Madam Chair, if I could, I left one item off my report and that is um we have uh finally um and we've been dragging our feet as well working with the developer of Rifield Hutddle and the improvements to Lassle Park. Um the original improve proposed improvements was a stone dut path uh trail that was determined subsequently that it would not work because of location and slope and basically would erode out immediately. Uh and um the um um the engineering division prepared a proposed alternative which was um a parking area about 100 ft into the park right near where the um common common gardens are uh for about eight spaces plus a kiosk that would have a a information about the park and a map of the trails that are in the park. And we um had a finally had to and we have to get approval from DEP to do that. Um and um we I um wrote a letter to the commissioner about a week and a half ago and within basically within a half an hour of them receiving it. They emailed me back. The commissioner was not uh in town, but their staff said that they would get back to us when that staff got back in town. And they did. And um at the beginning of this week on Monday, uh myself, Dave Mlesco, um met with um and other members of my staff met virtually with uh the de staff and we have a road forward. uh they are asking for a significant amount of updated information and new information which we're going to pull together as quickly as we can and get it

on to them so they can then process it. Uh the developer is very eager to get it done because that's part of his requirements to get a final close out uh and he wants to get a final close out and have his bond his bond released. Um so um he's ready to go as soon as we can get sign off from D. My sense is it'll probably take us three to four weeks to get that. Uh but at least we have the process has been initiated and we see an end date. And they they want updated information, but do they seem receptive? Yes. Okay, good. I mean, that's the key. It's like they like what's being proposed in terms of park improvements? The staff we talked to seem to be. Yes. Okay, good. Excellent.

So, when the maps are being considered for the trails that are there in the offer the the trails beyond lassolet. So you go through the 45 farm and to the stout farm and into penwood because that I think is the long range plan here and to get the seed of that plan really started would be very helpful. We'll certainly take that under consideration. Yeah. Can I make a comment? I wouldn't I don't want to commit to that, David.

Yeah. Can I make a comment? I'm going to make a comment. chair's prerogative. Um so when Trop Ridge Land Conservancy developed new got new maps for um Hawkill Farm, 45 Farm, we mapped at the same time Loellet. Okay. So we've mapped all the trail. We have a map with all the trails. We've also identified some of the bigger trees on Loellet as well because while we were out there with the tree guy, we did it. Kevin was with me. So, um, my hope is that the town is interested in using the same map with some different heading because then you could have and I mean it's up to the town. Then you could have the two maps um and the on the two kiosk.

Well, I'll push it even further then. You you start in Penwood. You come down to Stoutfield. You come to Duncaster. You go to the 45 farm. You go up the four five farm to Loellet. And you go from Loellet down to Philly Park. What an extraordinary opportunity for the town. True. But we have a map now that we could start with. Add to it. I'm saying get it in the writing.

Thank you for that input. Thank you for that input. Okay, so moving on. Let's see. We are. But that's great news. Um that is very good news because that's been a long time in the in the making. So that's great. Nancy extreme heat webinar just kind of report out next steps. Well, it finally happened on August 6. Um, we had a I don't know I think maybe a a dozen not counting us in the audience uh for the webinar with the library. Um, we had really enthusiastic support from the Bloomfield volunteer ambulance people in particular. Um, and um, the next steps issue which we've talked about a couple times here is a review of current town policies. I don't think they're regulations per se, but policies around uh I'm going to say behavior I guess in in situations of prolonged extreme heat extreme heat and we the areas or the populations that we have listed include uh public works, the wreck department and the camps uh sports um and then you know just just to see whether there's an awareness and educational opportunity perhaps about the the impact of extreme heat and humidity um uh looking at the way the town can send out emergency alerts and which is you know being worked on and I think there was just we've talked about that I think with the public safety committee about uh making sure that that's as robust as it could be. Um the uh representative from Bloomfield Volunteer Ambulance kind of echoed what we'd been thinking, which is that many people who either live in

isolation or elderly or in reduced circumstances um do not turn on any air conditioning, don't have it. Um they're in very hot buildings and rooms all the time. when they might go to respond to a health emergency, they're, you know, distressed to find out how hot the the homes are. So, these are all the things that we thought we would do next, you know, is kind of look how are we keeping Bloomfield safe, I guess, is kind of a caption. Um, and I think that also has an equity focus. Um, I know it does. And um so that would tie into the sustainable CT resertification and I think there are a couple items around extreme heat in there that we found also and um not going to you know maybe the climate action task force you know the tie in there too but I don't have a report on that.

Yeah. Uh neither do I have it on the agenda. I'm just saying it's something that maybe that's a task force right job along with CEC. Okay. Thank you. That's my update.

Great. Thank you. And I think um certainly pursuing those next steps um that's kind of a logical place to go. So that's great. And thank you for doing this. Um I did um bring this I don't know if you saw this um this is from the Hartford Currents Sunday edition. Um Dr. imp to examine heat's impact on mental health. So um you may have you may have this okay it's uh somebody from Harvard Healthc Care's in Institute of Living they are conducting two five-year studies into how heat impacts mental health and uh three and a half mill three and a half million grant to do the work. So um obviously um it's in the news a lot so you are welcome to this. Okay. Um All right. The the next thing I just wanted to bring this up. Artificial turf ban resolution. Um I think I sent an email out to the committee just sort of giving you an update. I had attended um the governance subcommittee meeting in July, I think it was, um just to um advocate that there be a ban on artificial turf installation, new and replacement. At that July meeting, the um feedback I got from the committee um the council members was pretty much a you know it seemed that there was a consensus that putting in new turf fields was not didn't make a lot of sense given the concerns about it and given the expense associated with it

because the Rockwell Park master plan um that was originally kind of put together as a proposal. Um when the question was raised, what's the differential in cost between artificial turf and using na going natural? Natural is $2 million less for the project. Um which is pretty comp, you know, pretty compelling obviously. Um, another good reason, the followup that um the council tasked the town manager with at the July meeting was to for the town manager to talk to the superintendent and to find out what um what the plan, you know, what what their feelings were in terms of the existing field at Bloomfield High School because that field is near the end of its life and you know something is going to need to happen. So at this September 2nd meeting, which I was not at because I had a conflict, um the manager reported out on that. Um and I sent you um a link to the video. Um so you got that probably a few days like last week maybe. And you know, I think it's at the 3:45 mark. um is it's like one of the first things early up on the agenda. Um personally, I was a little bit concerned about it because the manager, you know, the the feedback from the school was like, "Oh no, we have to do this. We have to replace the field with a new fe a new artificial turf field." Um director Molesco was at the meeting kind of advocate. You know, my my sense was from the manager kind of listing all the pros of artificial turf um was that that was the angle that was looked at and um

sort of our views weren't being represented in terms of the committee's views, but um the council members pushed back, which I thought was good um because they said, "Well, what about the health concerns that that the CC raised and we need to get some of this other information and I think the you know the proposal or the what was being suggested was getting the consultant to sort of look at that but the consultant is the consultant that kind of is working on artificial turf fields. So I'm a very I'm I'm a bit concerned about bias to be quite blunt about it. Um, I wanted to bring it bring this all up at the meeting and um I see councelor Mirren has his hand up and I think he was he's at that he's on that committee. So, um I'll sort of yield the floor but I you know it's kind of like it's good for us to think about what we might want to do as a next step. Um, we kind of passed it off to the council as a recommendation, but I feel like we kind of lost some continuity in terms of the communication here. Council Meritt. Yeah.

Yes. Thank you. I I do have some I'm I'm concerned about as you are. I was very concerned to hear all the enthusiasm and how they had to have artificial turf. And I think I was very impressed by Kevin's presentation uh to this group um on the concerns he had about the health effects and I wish he would talk to the board event because he's very convincing that this should be taken seriously and I I he was especially good at that presentation and I wonder if you could ask him if he would talk to the board of ed because I I'm talking about the board of ed not the not the the football team,

right? They they are so down that road that but the board of ed I think would be very concerned to hear about the health risk and I think they've got to get that message and and maybe the entire council should hear Kevin's talk too because he is very I I I don't think anybody wouldn't be concerned after listening what he says. So is that something that can be arranged? Yeah. And I mean Kevin is in the room. He's over in the corner. Oh, I didn't I'm sorry. I didn't know that. No, that that's that's fine. I did I didn't mean to compliment him, but he was present. So, yeah. And and and and I think I think uh John, do you want to say something, John? Yeah.

I'm probably talking out of school, but it this this discussion has always gone on. My question has always been who bears the cost? Yeah. Is it is it the community um with the cost of maintenance and installation or is it the residents with the health costs? Yeah. And the kids.

Yeah. Yeah. And I mean that that that doesn't even get to the the other environmental aspects of it in terms of like this stuff is not recycled. Um I mean we went through the whole you know we've gone through we've gone through the list a couple times of like all of the issues with it. Yeah.

Um another possibility is trying to uh arrange and it it's very doable. Someone with expertise on kind of a health risk to see if that would be more compelling. Um Annne Hulick um who is a nurse uh former lobbyist um she's you know she's a registered nurse um she was the person who was the exe you know the director of um Connecticut clean water action super knowledgeable she's the one that got pushed through a lot of the pas um regulations at the state level she's just retired and she helped kind of line up speakers I don't know if getting somebody like that in and kind of like, you know, sitting somebody like that down would be useful. You know, Joe, your hand is still up. Do you have

Well, well, I I I want to keep talking. I

I I I'm I really think Kevin did a very good job, and I wouldn't he seems to have enough expertise on his own, but uh if he wants to bring somebody else, then fine, but I I I just thought after listening to him, my mind was swayed considerably. So, I Okay. suspect that that same thing would happen to the boring bed and to the town council. So if if he would speak on that issue in both places, I think it would be very very helpful because certainly what the jocks think is is way the other way. So I I'm concerned not only about the high school field but also the new one that is planned to be artificial turf. I found out on what's a what's the new park going in over on

Rockwell? Rockwell. Yeah. And I was surprised about that because we

well that in and councelor Mary I mean I was surprised that that in the September meeting that kind of came back up and the question that was directed at Dave Melesco was well what you know the question was like what was what were the plans for Rockwell and it was like oh it was proposed as artificial turf. What didn't follow was the but there was a question about was was natural turf natural grass consider you know considered the answer was no get a cost estimate of the differential that was done and then in terms of doing additional follow-up that did not happen so but but that information to your point was not reiterated you know in July um former mayor Wong made the comment about we just shouldn't even think about artificial turf at Rockwell because we don't have it now.

Yeah. But but but she's gone and you know um it's good to kind of maybe re-educate the council on Yes. Yeah. And uh I I I just think the health risk is by far the biggest concern even bigger than cost because that'll give you the business about you don't have the maintenance cost, you don't have to mow the field, that kind of thing. But that's that's just not nearly as important, I don't think, as health risk, right? And I

So I But people don't know that and we really don't have a good feel for the long-term health risk. Any any information on that would be help helpful, I'm sure. But anyway, I just want to make that point. Appreciate that. I think there's some education that's necessary. Appreciate that. Thank you. Hey, thank you. Yep. Thank you. Um, in in something you sent out, I think the actual dollars, I thought, if I read correctly, were more for the artificial turf. True. Yeah. Yeah. When the when the proposal was done, it was like a $13.2 million project with artificial turf and without it was like 11.2. Yeah.

So, it's 2 million less. So, I don't know how that transfers into taking out a turf, right, at at the high school. This was for a different setting. But, right, the knowing the dollars is really really important. And and that's the qu and if the Yeah, but then they then they plug in the cost of maintenance which where uh where the artificial turf runs out because you don't have to mow it. But but but you also are if you're taking if you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, my understanding is you're supposed to be disinfecting it. You have to be watering it down. You have to make sure it's cool, that it's playable.

Yeah. Special machines. You need to purchase special machines. I mean, there are costs associated with maintaining that surface. Yeah. And Yeah. And I'm I'm sputtering now. I'll I'll stay on my soap box for a moment and then I'll get off. You know, I have I have younger friends with with children, you know. um young, you know, young ad adolescent children and they're concerned when their kids go and play they don't want their kids playing on artificial turf uh fields, soccer, and their kids come home and they have to like strip in the garage to put it bluntly so they're not cracking this stuff through the house. That's a problem. Yeah. Microplastics. Yeah.

So, um yeah. So anyway, um I didn't plan to expect spend a lot of time on it, but obviously we need to revisit and maybe it's kind of urgent making a guest appearance. Yeah, they have they have to make up their mind pretty quick. So that's why so a decision has to be made now.

Yep. Okay. So at this point, um the other items under old business, we need to come back to them. I wasn't really planning of spending a lot of time on them today. Um I would like to move to new business and I want to make sure we get to Sunday sun Sunday um in terms of announcements and we do want to um we do need to authorize um spending some money from our budget on that just to have it on the record. Um the tree ordinance we need to revise it. Um, can you just speak briefly about where it's lacking from your experience with the applications where you haven't been able to do anything with it?

The real lacking is um is when there's a significant uh cut um how do we compensate for that? um whether they particularly if they're um specimen and and and heritage trees and um there's a gap there that um that I find um um concerning because we've had a couple of applications where there's been some significant tree cutting and we haven't been able to to compensate. It's not a simple uh solution. Uh we've got to find the right ratio in terms of replacement for existing. Uh otherwise it be it could become a real financial hurdle for the applicant. Uh in terms of if you if you take down a let's say a 20 diameter specimen tree and you say you have to replace five 4 inch diameters for that. um and you did and you had, you know, a dozen specimen trees on the property you took down. That's a fairly significant bite um in terms of where it's going to be done either on-site or offsite. So, I we we do not have a solution or recommendation for that. But that's that's what I'm trying to will have be working on. I'm going to ask the environmental planner to spend a fair amount of time on that as well um so that we can come up with a a balance that achieves um the preservation that we want um or the replacement that we want but does not become um basically a insurmountable financial burden for the individual organization taking the trees down. and I want to do it

sooner than later because you know before it gets away from us. Okay. So that would be something along with um sustainable CT work that's high on the list. Okay. Good. Thank you. Um the solar regulations, Bob, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, but let's get it on the table. Um excuse me one second. I have to be at a six o'clock meeting yourself. Thank you very much. Um so Bob has been proposing um and I and basically let's circulate this and we'll put it on the agenda but why don't you speak very briefly. Yeah.

Yeah. It's it's solar regulations, but it's it's it's really uh a requirements in our regulations to uh for new construction to require developers to look seriously if it's cost-effective to put solar on their new buildings. and it having necessary waiverss whether you have shade or whatever other reasons that it's uh not not cost-effective. But uh anyway, I've got a couple two different uh uh starting points. Okay. Yeah, great. Great. No, he's got them.

He's got Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. That's about it. Okay. Great. And and if everybody looks at this Yeah. for another time and to make comments,

we we will we will put it on next month. This is something that has been kind of been carried along on our agenda and it it always was in tandem with we want to see where we are where we are in terms of our um POC sort of the the what we are looking for in terms of renewable energy and solar in the POC. They're in the part there. We thought we'd be done by now, but they're still rewriting it. But um now let's get it let's get this on the agenda and like work it now. An advantage of this going this way is there won't be pressure to put solar on farmland if we can put it on buildings,

right? And you know, you've got kind of the caveats around there that you're not looking to take down swaths of trees if it doesn't, you know, if that doesn't make sense. That's where the waivers waivers come in. Yeah. Are you handing something out to us or what? Do you have something? Can you share? Yep. Just Yep. Just pass around.

Yeah. Kevin Kevin will help. Okay. So, um that's very quick. Um I want to go to Sunday events in Bloomfield. Um, and before everybody, you know, Claudia will give an update on that and then I want us to make a motion to authorize CC spending up to $350. Okay. Um, for kind of materials and things she needs for this, but go ahead and talk about what you're doing here.

This will be 30 seconds. There's a new holiday or environmental focus on the sun similar to Earth Day. We've all heard of Earth Day. All these great programs have come up through Earth Day, planting things and so forth. So now we have Sunday. It's on September 21st in Bloomfield. We are doing a little program on September 20th and at that program we will hand out these flyers which invite people to go to Central State Connecticut University for Sunday. Okay. So, Saturday at 9:30 in the morning, I will have my electric car in the town parking lot. And I do have permission and anyone who wants to look at it and ask questions and people have a lot of questions. I'm always um answering questions. We'll have that there. Free coffee, donuts. So, if you've ever wanted to take a close-up look at electric vehicle, come and look at our car. Also, Bob is going to come and he's going to tell be there available to talk about all the things they're doing at Seabberry for renewable energy. And if anyone shows up, I we have sandwich boards out that will be out. We have a little thing in the newspaper, but I have not gone nuts because I don't have a budget except for this $300 um to, you know, tell everyone in town about it. So, and it's not a panel discussion. It's a couple of your

neighbors bringing some information to the town parking lot on a Saturday morning. Stop by, have a cup of coffee. If it's 15 people, we'll be happy. If it's a lot of people, we'll be even happier. But we don't really think we can do much more than that, right? It was a capa, this was brought to us during the summer. Um, a little bit of it is capacity in terms of organizing something really big. Um, part of it is to raise awareness and um, you're also doing a reading at Whittenbury McMahon. So, mention that, please.

I'm reading to preschoolers at the library on Wednesday, a book about the sun. So I think that's nice too with BP with the library loves the idea. Um we can after we do

Oh yeah. Yeah. That's a great idea. Um thank you Nancy. So Nancy saying can we have like our flyers for and let people know about shred day? Yeah, that's great. Okay, very good. Um, so, um, can, uh, can someone, uh, move to, uh, for CC to spend up to $350 for materials for the sandwich boards? And I'm writing them in such a way that they could be in coffee and donuts. Oh, I'm donating that. Well, I always donate the food.

Okay. But anyway, up to 350. And if you spend 300, that's fine. Can can I have a motion? Second. Okay. Um Dave and and Bob. Okay. Um everyone in favor? I I Yeah. I Okay. All right. Unanimous. Um Okay. Great. And actually, thank you, Nancy. Um, if we could have flyers availers for shred and e e recycling day available the Sunday. Sure. You can give me anything you want me to hand out. Right. And um yeah, photo contest. Um

I hope it's a big crowd. I'm not really sure. Yeah. Um yeah. So, think of that.

The only the only other the comment I will make about Tree City USA and Trees for Bloomfield right now. Um, and I want to spend more time next month on this is Sharon Mann's been doing um a great job in terms of a organizing a smaller tree giveaway. Um, which is going on now. And in fact, I think the trees will be picked up by homeowners and some will be delivered uh on Saturday morning. And so that's going on. Um that was funded that's being funded by Cummings in town through the Arbor Day Foundation. Um, and then good news, the um we got this nice grant from the um DP, I think it's D for um the tree the the rightway tree inventory. Public works got that. Um and the the you know, anytime you get a state grant through DP, there's a lot of back and forth in terms of kind of getting all the contract contractual pieces. Um but that happened I think within the past like month, month and a half. So the town is ready to kind of get going on that. Um I think CEC has some minor um responsibilities along the way in terms of getting articles out to the public and you know kind of promoting so that the public is aware of what's going on and has the potential for some input in terms of you know what might ultimately go um in the right away in terms of tree planting. So um stay tuned that project will unfold over the next I don't know probably six months, something like that. Okay, that's it for unless anybody has anything else.

Shred day is November 8th, 9 to noon, and it's going to be at the high school parking lot again. Yep, it's B be under announcements. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry, when is it? November 8th. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Okay. Um, at this point, have I covered everything? I hope you've covered everything in the agenda. I know.

Have I have It's like, is there anything that I was planning on covering that I've forgotten to mention? Okay. I I say no. use that. Yeah. I have to rest for what? Oh, I'm sorry. Is there any public comment? Yes. If I have to move my chair. Any public comment? Is that a yes? Yes. For me because I want to speak on behalf of Lorenzo Jones who had to leave.

Okay. um only be only to just raise the the awareness that we do want to press for an egg commission and that is in the POC. Um clarity more clarity around what is a farm? Uh what do we do now? How many farms areas designated farms do we have? Um how do we encourage people to farm? What does it mean to set to save farmland? You have a sign, Claudia. What does that mean? So, I just want to say that because I think I don't know if Lorenzo was gonna say that or not, but he owns some a farm, Chick Ahoy farm down the road here and also some other property, etc. So, I just wanted to throw that out there as a comment. That's great. Yep.

Thank you. Yep. Okay. So, now David, motion to adjurnn. Okay. Um second. Second. Okay. So 607. Thank you very much.