Master Plan Working Group - Regular Meeting

[Music] I guess sort of call this meeting to order knowing that we don't have a quorum, but I'll I'll take a roll call. Bob Carol absent. Victoria Duckworth present. Lindseay Fox absent. Amarie Foley, no. Deborah George, Brian Hoo here, Shantel Kimble here, Essex Petri, David Robbins here, Sue Robbins here, Colleen and Roshan. So we that currently puts us at five with a quorum requirement of seven. So proceeding into our agenda, we don't have do not have a quorum. So we cannot uh vote to approve last month's meeting minutes that unless unless we end up with a quorum later during this meeting, we will uh just punt that to our next meeting. And under discussion items probably a major part of major part of this will be we where we are at with the draft plan and implementation matrix. So uh Sarah you can start off by bringing us up to date on where we are uh whatever you know whatever elements of that we need to discuss this ne this evening and then where we're going to go. So, where are we at currently? I know that uh just from what I've seen, there was a an updated draft posted to the Dropbox about two weeks

ago. I've you know I' I've gone through that. Uh but it's it's clearly it doesn't have all the updates that we were expecting, but then it was done. That's as of two weeks ago. I will assume that more work has been done on this since then. So, you bring us up to date on all that, sir. So, do you know which changes you were looking to see in it that you didn't see yet? I I uh out of the 129 comments that were in the comment matrix, 58 of them have not yet been resolved in that draft, including quite a few that where the note on it was will implement or will fix or I I'm not going to I'm not going to go through I'm not going to try to itemize 58 things that are not yet done. I don't want to take up all our time with that, but anyway, there are and I I can uh I can provide you that feedback offline if if if you need it. So, I'm like I said, I I sort of assumed that there was additional work being done on the draft since that version that was posted. Yeah, I'm concerned if parts of it aren't updated as I thought they were. um because it should be up to that 131 uh updated. So, I'm not sure if parts of it didn't save correctly. I'd have to talk to our designer. Um because at this point since we're in the design phase of looking at the plan, um I'm just more of a middleman to making sure the changes are made. So I'm wondering if some there was a glitch on her end of uh downloading the full plan

or maybe some of it isn't updated because I was hoping this one was going to be all of those changes. Yeah, that's I was I fig I I kind of thought we had that uh we had that April 16th deadline for comments to be submitted and uh you know as I said and in the comment matrix there are the the notations in many cases seem to say that the comments were that the draft had been updated in response to the comments and yet what I downloaded from the Dropbox it's not all not entirely not entirely updated as as I expected it to be. And that's that 424 draft. H frustrating. I'm sorry about that. That is not helpful for our meeting tonight for sure. Um I'll have to check with our team. If you have like just notes of which ones you didn't see yet, that would be super helpful. I'm wondering if it's by chapter or the full plan. Yeah, I think it was they were scattered across several of the different chapters. Okay. So, I like I said, I I I have no interest in it wouldn't be a good use of our time tonight to uh to go through all that, but I can uh I can after the meeting I can send you I'll send you a list of all the things that uh uh were not in that version in that copy of the draft at least were not updated. Yeah, that would be very helpful. Thank you. And yeah, I apologize again that it's not the most updated one because we did change all of those comments.

Um yeah, I think on top of those changes from before that edit period, um we did we did receive some changes after April 16th that I know for sure aren't in that version. Uh we are still working on South Grafton Water District data to compare to the Grafton Water District data. Um, Fiona left some comments that do include changes to some of the action item language that I wanted to run over with this committee and we have new maps from Dave. So, those are three things that um have not been changed yet, at least on our end. Yep. Yeah. And I I apologize for not having sent those updated maps right away after our last meeting, but I sent a whole bunch of other stuff out, but So, do you see those in the chapter? No, the the and one of the things that prompted me to send those maps out a couple days ago was seeing that my up the updated the updated maps I mean some of the other updated information that I sent a lot of that is there. Okay. Okay. those the the two maps that I sent sent you on Monday, uh those were pretty clearly not in the draft since I hadn't sent them to you before. But I did I did, among other things, I did check through the draft and and looked for all the other updated maps and other information that I sent and with with one exception, it's it's all there. Okay, great. Awesome. That gives me a little bit of hope. Yes, clearly a lot of updating was done in that April 24th draft. So I did, as I said, I I counted a total of 129 comments in the comment matrix.

And of those, u 71 were reflected in the draft. Is it some of those little things like typos that aren't fixed or bigger content? It's more than there. There was some substantive content that was not updated. Just as one example, that food retailer map. The the old one is still there in the draft. I know we we had a couple of email exchanges on on how that map was going to be updated. And it's it just appears that that update did not make it into the latest draft. I know you had the information, but yeah, that's one example of something that didn't pop up in the draft like it should have. So, we owe you, we definitely owe you a more recent copy as as soon as we can. Um, this does muddle our hopeful timeline for the rest of the planning process. I'm wondering what the best course of action would be, but we were hoping to start the public comment period as soon as possible. Um, on our end, we're hoping the plan can be finished in this fiscal year, and that would also help with grant reporting on when this project is due to be complete. So, our hope was that May could be a public comment period and that would leave us to the June meeting to discuss any potential changes from that public comment period and hopefully a approval with said changes so we could present the plan to the planning board uh in June later on that month. um public comment period will work a little differently than how we've been doing it with the committee where I

won't make any changes to the plan based on those comments until they are approved by this committee. So we would have the whole month or however long it is uh when we could get a updated version and we would just close the period like a day or probably the Friday before the June meeting uh and go over them as a group and see which ones are appropriate to implement into the plan. And that would give us a few weeks to make any changes before a uh planning board approval or presentation. So this muddles things a little bit. Sarah, is it unreasonable to ask for an extra meeting for this month just to get caught up? Um, we could absolutely do that on our end. I I would be curious what the committee thought about that, but if that's helpful for moving things along, we'd definitely be open to that. Brian, your hand is up. Oh, yes. Just curious in terms of the public comment period, um, how is the public be informed that they're going to be having this open discussion possibly with regards to this plan? Great question. Uh we use a lot of the same methods we used uh way back when with our community engagement campaign. Uh so we still have the active Grafton masterpl.com domain. You might have seen it down for a little bit. We switched websites. Um but that will be updated with the full plan and then the plan by chapters and the implementation matrix uh as long as um with a like an embedded form for comments that somebody can answer as many times as they like with as many comments as they'd like and that

goes by chapter and page. Um, and similar to community engagement from uh the first phase or the second phase of this plan, the town can use that web page to copy it onto your own Grafton Massachusetts website um and the Facebook page. And I think previously there was a few emails that went out from Fiona's office on to municipal boards, committees, and that whole list. Yeah. So, we will give you the web page and um language to send to as many people as possible and then this town can use whatever outlets usually work. But Facebook was really great for the workshop. So, we'll definitely do that again. Yeah, I find that the u the local Facebook page for the town uh not enough for the town but uh just what is it? everything wrapped or something. Yeah, people seem to to engage with that particular site. Yeah, Brian, we'll we'll just elaborating a little bit more. So, yeah, I think you know, we'll do physical postings. Um, we're limited in terms of sending out mailers just from a budget perspective. So, we wouldn't be mailing anything. Um but yeah, a variety of you know working with the library, working with the senior center um anywhere else that's um that we can physically post the flyers um as well as you know the fa Facebook website um emails um news flashes through the website where people who are subscribed to those will get those um yeah and just kind of just try and try and get it out as as much as we possibly can through multiple different methods. Have you

used the community news uh paper at all? Um that's seems to be gathering some steam. I I've seen it, you know, more we we don't really have a grafted news anymore, but um the community news seems to encompass uh grafting and I think once a month, you have to kind of get it in soon. um how I'm not sure timing wise didn't work this at this point but yeah yeah we I can I can work on a press release and that yeah that that fee is pretty marginal for the Grafton news so I yeah that's that's could be a a departmental thing that we support um yeah I think this the big thing is yeah nailing down before we do that nailing down when when the comment period will will be because if we have to if we have to meet again in May which is fine I think I would prefer that um myself. Um then the comment period could go in from you know from late May into early June and then we still have a planning board meeting at the end of June where we could be on track for adoption. Yeah. you know, we just it's it's tough. You know, the quorum the quorum issue I thought, you know, that that's gonna hope hopefully that won't repeat if we do another meeting this month. It it is probably almost inevitable that you know interest in the committee interest in attending committee meetings tends to drop a little bit with with something like this which is a you know a limited time committee to begin with and you know we've been going for a couple of years now so uh I'm not totally surprised that it becomes a little bit more difficult to muster a quorum Yeah,

we if if we have any committee members who just don't want to do this anymore, it would be helpful for them to resign from the committee even at this late date. I don't know that that it would be true of anybody any of our committee members. But uh anyway, don't want to belabor that point too much. So, a little bit back to the updating the draft plan. Uh Sarah, I think you said that there were at least one or two items that you wanted to discuss with the committee regarding the uh uh I know there were there were a few items that were highlighted in the comment matrix and I don't know whether that was any of those were things that you needed some input from the committee on tonight, but if if there is anything that you need from the committee tonight to help uh complete the update on the plan, now might be a good time to go over Yes, thank you. Um, we have a few more comments on changing action item language, so I always like to run that by the committee before I change anything. Um, most of these are pretty small changes, so I can just kind of run through them quickly. Land use, uh, 2.2.1, 2.1 which is expanding the North Grafton Village District was recommended to delete that based on limited ability to expand geographically. Uh so that would be deleting that action item. Uh a note to add a action item about implementing hazard mitigation plan recommendations for historic resources under natural and cultural strategy 2.2 two uh which we have that in another plan based on emergency management. So I think that would be in

line with adding that to that chapter. Uh a recommendation to improve advertising for affordable lotteryies under housing 3.2. So that would be the area of the housing plan that's about the affordable housing trust. Um which that's a neat thing to add. I'm sorry. I don't want I don't mean to be biased. I like that one. And then uh quality of life 1.2.4 which is all about town processes is ad improving archiving. Interesting. Huh. Uh, and then housing 1.1. Um, there was a consider recommendation to expand village mixed use district which I think is mostly covered in land use. I don't want to have too much in housing about village to Dave's overall point about not having too many ash items that repeat between chapters. Um, but if we want to add more about that in housing, I think there's a little bit of narrative that we can be stronger at. Cool. So, those are the changes since we last met to action item language. Um, and you'll see what's to come in the current form. And as soon as we can get you a better copy of that plan, you can see the changes that are have been made that you should see soon. So those are the only ones I wanted to fly through the committee unless um you wanted to say more about your maps, Dave. Um no, there's really I I didn't have anything more to say. I, you know, submitted, you know, the the updated maps I sent you a couple days ago were just in response to a comment that suggested we spell out the zoning names

instead of using the abbreviations. And we did, you know, in in the updated draft that was that was uploaded to the Dropbox, the uh there were some maps covering different time periods. We changed those to align with the census based time periods that the document refers to elsewhere. the uh the density map. I hopefully I've you know I revised those in hopes of improving the readability to you know so someone could better understand what they represent but there was really no no substantive changes there and you know the only the only other thing that I've pro provided and uh it's I think I I initially sent that to Sarah and Fiona But it's you Fiona uploaded it to the meeting materials website is a a cross reference of action items and I really I haven't yet made up my mind what we want to might want to do with that. U the uh what I did was I went through all the action items and uh uh identified connections between action items. you where the where an action item was two action items were the same or very similar and ultimately I'm expecting that when we get into the implementation we may find that two or more action items are sufficiently closely related that from an implementation perspective we might want to handle them together that you know at this stage of the game I don't know that We want to take the time to drill through all these action items

and combine or cross reference them within the the plan document. Um the a a review of this may be helpful in some cases to uh to refine some of the action items in the document. But uh um you know I like I said I put I put the I put this together and you can uh for if you don't already have it anybody you can download it from the uh uh the meeting materials on the Grafton website but it was as much as anything for my information to see what kind of connections we might draw between action items and I think in some cases we've already revised action items to account for this. But thank you for doing that, Dave. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we could we committee members can look this over and see if there's see if you see anything in here that really shows saying it needs to be it needs to be changed in some way in the master plan document itself. Otherwise, it's as if nothing else, this may be informative for the follow-up imple implementation work to try to tie things together in in in ways that will facilitate the implementation of the action master plan. I think that's a really reasonable recommendation, right, to to make edits, changes, recommendations in totality in the implementation plan, not in in the in the draft of the the body itself. Because as as we've discussed before, there are going to be folks who care more about one section than another and and don't read it. and a a little bit of repetition is not um is not the end of the world as long as it's taken into account and we actually are assigning

things to people. So I I think that's super reasonable Dave. Yeah. Looking looking ahead into the implementation. One of the things that I hope we will be doing is taking I mean f first of all I think we've already said that we kind of expect that as implementation progresses we're likely to be adjusting and changing. So you we're not taking this implementation plan as it's completely fixed and we have to do exactly what it says. So part of that is inevitably going to be we're going to make adjustments and and changes in task descriptions or priorities as we go along. But uh there's only so much we can do within this master plan document to anticipate what's going to happen over the next 5 to 10 years. So there's certain things that are best left to the implementation phase and I will just for the record I I I will take the time to update this document to reflect what we end up with as an implementation matrix. you know, there already we've already made or discussed some changes, but uh I'll try I'll try to keep this up to date if nothing else for the benefit of the implementation team. And let me see. Yes, as it as I was reviewing the April 24th draft and comparing it in the comments, I did notice about 10 items that I had not previously picked up. You mostly relatively small items, but uh I'll include that in what I send you Sarah after the meeting tonight to to you know list everything that still needs work that I could identify. I'll include

there's a few additional items. Most of them are relatively minor. Nothing nothing I need to talk about with the committee tonight that I can think of. Thank you. And just to acknowledge that Colleen has joined us. Thank you, Colleen. And and uh in case it wasn't already obvious to you, Colleen, we don't have a quorum. So yeah, [Music] we limited to an informal discussion here. So Sarah, did you want to go back to the recommendations but um that I had suggested and just kind of run through those with the u with the working group and see how they feel about it and then go from go from there. Yeah, the ones that I um just read out loud. Yeah, before we before I opened up the um document that Dave had produced about the action item cross references. I think um you wanted some feedback there. So, I'm going to pull that up and I can just explain a little bit too about why I said what I said. Um Sure. for context. I took no comment as a good sign. Yes. So a a lot of this is just like very like oh priority needs to be changed from like low to medium or medium to high. Um or like the lead is the TA's office but actually planning is involved too. So I like tech like it's all kind of like nit nitty things like that. Um but the so you know we have a so for this first item here that's highlighted so the we we you know we have a North Grafton transit village plan that was done in

2017. Um in my opinion it's quite comprehensive. Um, maybe I'm being maybe maybe I'm not using my imagination enough, but I feel like expanding that area like we are limited in terms of how and where we can expand because you've got the the jobs uh grafting job core campus is included and then beyond that it's TUS and they're of course you know doing their thing. Um, you know, we have kind of following the corridor Westboroough Road basically from the Tus campus to the um, Winslow Point, Woodland Hill subdivision area and everything in between that from north to south and then from and then kind of outside of that it's kind of low density or lower density residences. Um, so I was just trying to just kind of be realistic about what you know what we can do. So I think I actually have um I can pull that plan up. I don't know if anyone can see my screen now. I've been switching. Yeah, I am switching to You're all good. Yeah. Um the if you're if we're talking about the transit village v transit yeah the VMU TV the transit village mixeduse district. When we put that in place we did discuss the possibility of expanding it that there there was some room potential room for expanding that VMU TV district.

uh which is not the same thing as the transit village overlay district the 40R but we did have we did have some thoughts about expanding the uh VMU TV district so we sort of re reserved the possibility that so this so can everyone see my screen I've switched now and the plan is up so this is what I envisioned and And I'm going to So this is like the area that's covered um the scope of that which I you know I is pretty extensive but I think if you if you were to consider expanding the boundaries beyond that I I think it might be a bit challenging to do um because you know you've got Sent Park to you know to the top um top corner here and then you've got PS that's being built out. Um you've got the residences on um that as I mentioned mixed use at Winslow Point and then the um Woodland Hill subdivision to the south there. So that's being built out. Department of Youth Services is kind of their own their own thing. Um the mass development site is is permanent and being built out. Sent Park should should obviously um remain a an air a priority area. Um you do have TUS, but TUS is TUS works very closely with the town, but um you know they're they're own again their own identity and um the jobs core campus. I think that's kind of a that one's kind of a question mark to me anyway, but it seems like they also are kind of their own thing. So, I just I just don't want to be recommending that we're updating this um

plan without having, you know, a clear understanding of how to how we're doing that. So, that's why I'm recommending maybe we we don't f we don't include include it. Um, but I'm happy to um hear otherwise. I'm just gonna see if I can find a better image because this was a pretty significant visioning and planning effort that was done not that long ago. Um, it's still pretty new. Yep. And with respect to the area that was covered by that plan that's on the screen now, um there is probably there may not be a lot of opportunity to expand on that. Yes, we did. Yeah. Yeah. I think at the at the time, you know, basically across Route 30 from, you know, the Ephanso area, there was some property that it wasn't a large amount of land, but we did we did consider that as a possible expansion. It's relatively modest. Much much of what was proposed in this plan is uh Okay, that's pretty much it. kind of kind of follows some of that with the uh the the the two parts of the North Graffton Transit Village overlay district. Yeah. Some of the some of the rest it was envisioning things you some various forms of potential development on the TUS property. Like like Discovery Drive is still a priority and the town is highly invested in seeing development go there and

that's not going to change. That's incorporated in the plan currently. So that was just kind of what I you know I think deleting things deleting an action item at this stage like it's probably a drastic suggestion on my end but I just don't I just want this plan to be implementable in a in a way that kind of makes sense. So and if if we were to delete that particular action item that doesn't preclude in the future identifying some opportunities for expansion or changes in that area. Mhm. But uh yeah, given the given that the opportunities right now look fairly limited maybe maybe not to make a big not to make not to make that a major element of the plan is not although yeah I don't know I I have slightly mixed feelings about it because that was an area you know that we've we've kind of envisioned as a you know a future sort of the transit village development and and uh it almost looks like we've done as much as we can in that direction now assuming that the approved plans actually go through which remains to be seen. Yeah. Right. The majority of those parcels that were previously vacant are now seeing activity. Right. Yeah. So I don't mind not emphasizing that in this plan, the master plan, but we like I said, we we we we can still, you know, even if we don't identify that as a major point in the master plan, it's we we still might end up doing something there. Any anybody else have any thoughts about that? It's, you know, Yeah. Enough said. Enough said by

me. Anything else? Nope. Moving on. So the next one, the next highlight is I just included that because it has a mitigation plan has a good amount of recommendations in it about preserving historic resources. So I just want to make sure that those that document's talking to this one and they're kind of reiterating each other. So, it's kind, you know, pretty benign, but um just wanna I I'm I'm trying to make sure that anything that's in, you know, something that's in one plan is also in in another one if it's a longer term type of thing. Brian's hand is up. Yeah. just so I understand um it sounds like based upon your discussion with Dave and what you've mentioned is that we really don't have any land to develop in those wrapped in as far as the the area concerns around the mixeduse area that we're talking about. Um am I reading that right or is that what you're saying? Is it just there's nothing more we can do in that area. So, we shouldn't have put it in we shouldn't include it in the plan or you know regarding misuse. Yeah, I think because the actual the actual recommendation uh the language in it Sarah maybe you know off the top of your head but was ex was expand the yeah the North Grafton Transit Yeah. village center or um and for me, you know, I'm looking at it and it's quite ex it's quite comprehensive and there's a lot of traction and expanding outward beyond that area. It's going to be significantly more challenging because there's farms and housing and not that I'm not trying to always think creatively and I do encourage that, but I just I I can

foresee that being hard hard to expand. That's just my perspective. Would it would it make sense to make an uh a comment regarding that fact, you know, in terms of the plan? Maybe putting that as a point on we're presenting you this information, but this is what's going on um currently and you know, we don't see this as a high growth area, you know, anymore. It's just maybe if something does come up, this is what we would envision it to to be. I mean, I don't know if that touches upon you or just maybe defines a little bit better what we're trying to say here. Yeah, I think that that like a like a some like a few sentences to just explain that I think would be Yeah. fine. Yeah, for sure. Um Yeah. Sarah, if you are you does that make sense to you? I'm looking above that objective. There's another action item that in the implementation matrix is more long-term because the North Grafton plan is so recent, but that action item is to update the North Grafton neighborhood plan. Uh, and that gets to some of what we've been discussing tonight that, you know, we know the current conditions now, but there is potential to change in the future and adapt. I think that might get to Brian's point that um, goes to the longevity of this plan. And, and since this chapter does say a lot about um, continuing to support North Grafton, I would be fine with deleting that objective to enlarge the village center. Yeah, I mean I I have no issue at all

with you know updating that plan in the future, but I my just you know my my concern is that if you if you focus the focus area of the study is probably as big as it's going to get. So continue updating what the focus is now. Yeah, I think that's great. But that that's just that was just me. though I don't want to harp on it too too much but um but yeah I think you know because it so the overarching objective is to is to revisit the plan in the future and evaluate if it needs updates that is an action item under a separate objective that's okay but yeah essentially okay so yeah just any reference to it unless any members of the working group disagree which please feel please feel free to disagree with me. Um yeah, just maybe remove any mention of expansion. That's that's probably how we'll deal with that one. Sounds good. Um yeah, I uh this is kind of just a visionary thought that I had about expanding the the VMU districts. I think like the you know I think that there's some of the VMU districts are a bit limited um before and but you know there's you know the south south VMU gateway which is where 1727 Upton Street is um and um the Worcester Street um VMU district I think there's potential there actually been asked asked by members of the public about this very thing like oh can will you consider expanding would would you consider expanding it and I mean it allows for

more flexibility I don't think they will be able to expand the VMU transit village zone which is in that north Grafton um it it's it's basically the the Winslow point development I don't think that you'd have a lot of flexibility to expand there but I the other three you could and VMU you know as discussed previously like the you know that the requirements of that bylaw need to be revisited but I think it does add more flexibility for different types of development different types of housing businesses etc so I think you know instead of having the kind of standard like more exclusionary type of zoning that's like oh you have to have like a huge lot And you know, you know how it goes. I think that the VMU would be a nice alternative, especi especially along Worcester Street. I think that that corridor is very key, very much traveled. It could be an amazing hub for all sorts of fun things. So, when when we created the Worcester Street VMU, we assumed that we would eventually be expanding it. So okay, perfect. The the the idea of expanding the village mixeduse districts in general is an idea worth considering. Probably I mean the South Grappia district is fairly large as it is. Uh but we may even even so we may find it advisable to further expand it. As I said, the Worcester Street District, we uh when we put that together, we thought it very likely that we would be wanting to expand it in not too distant future. Gateway BMU District is somewhat limited at the moment, but there is perhaps a potential for it to

make sense to expand it. and the TV, the Transit Village BMU District. As I said before, we did we did see when we put that together, we did see some at least limited opportunities for expansion. That that is that is fairly limited, but it's not zero. Yeah. So if if you if we wanted to have sort of a as a general concept to look at expanding V VMU districts, I think we have some opportunities. And one last thing I'll say about is the VMU district is designed to encourage diverse types of land uses, right? Like it's a lot of uses in the VMU district. A lot of them are, you know, a good a good chunker by special permit, but a good chunker is just site plan review, which is a real is a significantly easier process to go through for people who are trying to move to or set up a business in Grafton. So, it's just that's another kind of benefit of, you know, considering this is, you know, it kind of helps remove some of the regulatory barriers that are traditionally in place. Um, yeah. So, if nobody has any questions about that one, I'll just wrap up with the last two. I think pretty um pretty selfexplanatory, but the um yeah, we just get a lot of people reaching out to, you know, I get a lot of people reaching out to me about advertising um upcoming information sessions um lotteryies uh associated with affordable housing that's coming online in Grafton. I don't think a lot of people are aware or know where to look on the website or what have you. like we have we print out the physical packets

and we put it at our um on our counter and we share it with the senior center and the library and you know the TA's office and whatever we we we kind of do what we we try and do what we can but I just feel like people really aren't finding out about it and a lot of people will come up to the my window in particular and ask be asking me about something else and they'll see the packet there and say oh great I'm going to apply or I'm going to send this to my friend who wants to apply or because there's a lot of, you know, there's there's a lot of information in those packets and it's super helpful for people who are trying to find housing. So, that was my thought process there. And then, um, improving archiving. So, we're, you know, there's so many records at town hall that are need to be digitized and space needs to be um provided for the physical copies of things. And I've been trying to work with the building inspector and um the town engineer and a few other folks to kind of figure out how we can best use the spaces that we have, but they're getting quite cramped. I know the conservation commission in particular had had a senior work uh worker come in and she digitized like all of their stuff and that's great. Um but sometimes the the needs especially for the building department transcend like what a senior worker can do. So, um there's just so so many files and they're all really important because things come back around and it's just where can how can we fund um or create space? How can you know things like that? So, that's kind that's where where that came from. Um planning as well. I mean, we have records on records on records and need to need to work on getting those um organized and archived correctly. So, and I know there's money out there for

that type of thing. So, yeah. So, I'm happy to answer any questions about the highlights or anything else. These are just kind of I went through I focused on the implementation matrix because that's kind of you know I I've already provided comments on the the chapters and I'm I'm happy with them. Um so yeah you know I think that that that's where I'm at and let me know if you think otherwise. Any comments, questions, any objections? So, I I have a question on affordable housing lotteryies um and getting the information out uh recommendations to improve advertising and so forth. Where where do we currently do it now, Fiona? Uh as far as the affordable housing, it's you said senior center and and a few others. Yeah, we'll send the information to the senior center. Um I have sent it to the library in the past and I I put the physical packets out at our at at our um window. Okay. But um I I will send I have sent emails in the past and we do have a we have a um site on the a page on the town site, but it's kind of it's It's kind of hidden. I think it's it's so affordable housing. So if you go to the affordable housing trust page, affordable housing resources and then um housing opportunities in Grafton. So there's, you know, we list them, but um Okay. Gotcha. I think I think we could just do

probably a better job than what we're doing now essentially. I I think you're right because I think a lot of people that um aren't necessarily looking at the town website to find this information. Mhm. It's just not I mean I I see why they should, but I just don't think um I mean I'm not sure how what what's your success rate of you measuring in terms of the uh getting I guess uh seeing what the response is in any way you getting any kind of way of measuring the response? Not really. It's it's honestly it's been kind of how many people pick up a packet which has been you know about one person a month for the past six months. Got it. So, but unfortunately it's hard to measure because the lottery agent handles all of you know it's a specific lottery agent associated with the development itself. Um now who is the lottery agent? is we have a specific person in town that is a lottery agent or it depends on well the developer hires the lottery agent. Okay. Yeah. So they work directly with them and pay them for their services and Okay. Colleen, did you you have a comment? When you send like when a packet becomes available, can you just email the affordable housing trust so that we can make an announcement at our meetings and then make it part of the select board announcements? those that seems like such an easy lift and and that reaches a lot of people that way too. Yes. Yes, I will. I know. And I'm wondering if it should be like a standing item or something, you know, when on the affordable housing trust agenda. I think that that's a no-brainer because now it's just it's just another location for it to be. Um the select board, I know they do announcements at the beginning of their meetings. So, if it's

like when it first gets announced and like the meeting right before it closes, like those two seem like it makes sense to me. But yeah. Yeah, for sure. No, that that's a good call. And yeah, you know, I think that um just like by calling this out in the master plan too, it'll just underscore I think some people just obviously, you know, if you're not like in in this world sometimes like people who might not know what an affordable housing lottery even is. So I think just looping it into um to the plan just be helpful and I think that there's multiple places where this posted. So okay. Well, all righty. So Sarah, that's those are just my comments on on my um my suggestions. So I don't know if you Yeah. It sounds like they're in line with the committee. Yep. Hearing no objection, let's uh let's uh go for it with these. Okay. So So we've talked about updating the plan, the draft plan. We'll try to get that done as soon as possible. Uh we talked about what we're going to do for public comment in terms of publicizing it and having a public comment period and how we're going to handle that. Uh questions of timing. Um Sarah, you've got some you guys have some work to do to uh to update the draft plan. Um as said, as as I said before, I promise I promise right after this meeting, I will send you the information. tonight. You know, the results of my review of that plan to identify work that still needs to be

done. Um, we've got some additional work that we've talked about tonight that will be done on that. Uh, the objective, the immediate objective is to make is to get an updated draft plan that's ready for public review and comment. Um, do you have a sense there of how long it's likely to take you guys to uh get that all together? Yes. I'm guessing more than three days. No, this will be priority number one. And I know that there is a draft somewhere that is the right update. So, um, and we will cross reference that with your list to make sure that that is updated. Um, and these are pretty small comments from tonight that shouldn't take too long. So, my goal would have this to be done by Friday for the committee. So, the question would be how long the committee wants to have your review. Um, after that, can I can I make a suggestion? Um what what are or ask a question to the group. Uh what would people be opposed to meeting in like two weeks time again to um to just kind of go over and and continue to kind of stay on track with the original timeline. like we'll be pushed out by a little bit, but I think if we were able to at least meet, get a quorum and and and at least start, you know, vote to, you know, have the comment period start. Um, that might help and still get us on the get us on the planning board agenda for the end of June. I have we're so close to crossing the

line, we're crawling in, so I have no problem. Yeah, I'm fine with it. Yep. As soon as I see an updated draft, I will go through it with my with my usual fine tooth comb because if Sarah, if you had So, you're saying Friday the 6 the 16th would be the would we when the edits could be turned around? Oh, I'm saying the 9th. Oh, hey. Okay. End of this week. Yeah. Okay. So then that gives the committee um you know one six yeah like eight eight days give or take to look it through and then we could you know the theoretically meet um on the 21st for an hour before people go away from Memorial Day weekend. Um, well, maybe the or I don't know, maybe the 28th. I was just trying to see what we could do in the next couple weeks. The 28th, I guess, would be fine, too. That's coming off of Memorial Day weekend, so you're kind of hog tied either way going on the 28th, just just so you know. Okay. If the 21st is okay with everyone, I think I'll try for that. That works for me. Okay. I mean, I have no objection. I'm out of the country, but that don't not do it because of me. Just as long as you think two other three other people will take my place. Just as long as you Can I Are you back on the 28th? I am back on the 28th. Can we meet earlier on the 28th at like 6? Because I do Victoria, you're like a diehard member, so we need you for quum.

If if that's if that works for you, Colleen. Yeah, we can post it early. My meeting starts at 7. So if we can start at 6 and we can get through stuff and then I can jump off to go to seven. That that works. I can make that work. Okay. Does anyone else have a problem with the 28? That's six. No, that works for me. works for me. Not a problem. Thank you, Colleen. I may not. Thank you guys. May not be here. Okay. Where am I on mute? Okay. Um I may not be here. I going to New York. Um I think the 28th. Okay. Can you zoom in from New York, Brian? What's that? Can you zoom in from New York? Uh, I would love to, but I'm going to be um I might be able to. I'm not sure that evening I'm going to be No, I'm going to be tied up all evening. Um U um let me double check. And the ging throw it out there. So the 20 and just the 27th that's a Tuesday. That's a no, right? Oh, okay. Colleen's thumbs uping me. Anybody? Does Is that good for everyone? 27th should be fine. I We can't do the 27th, Dave. Darn. Okay. Yeah, we've got something going on that day, that evening. Okay, that's fair. Um All [Laughter] right. Sugar. Okay. Is one day past not enough time? The 29th 29th. What about sooner like the 14th? Like is that not enough time?

Are you out of the country, Victoria? Um, what this would be at 7? Um, I would be in a car for the first hour and then I'd have to jump off at 8. We could start at six. fix on the 14th I could do. Yeah. So if if the updated if the updated draft plan is available by the end of the day on the 9th 5 days later is the 14th. 5 days presumably should be enough time for those of us who want to go to review it prior to the meeting. We should be able to do that. I should I I won't speak for anybody else, but yeah, I know I can handle that. Honestly, pulling it up makes the most sense, right? You know, just for safety sake, I I think doing it on the 14th makes a lot of sense. Mhm. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we'll move forward with the 14th at 6. And I will um I will make sure we have a quorum. I'll bully ESC. You must know. I think you if you make a note telling them that this is we're crossing the line and we really need them there and we need to have them help us get there. Um they might be willing to make sure they make the meeting. Sure. Yeah. No, absolutely. Yeah. No, I will do that, too. I'll put the put the pressure on. And it typically Ann Marie is pretty good attendance-wise. So, I'm hoping that out of the people who weren't able to come today, you know, she she she does typically does typically intend. So, we'll hope hope for that. And yeah.

Yeah. So, so, so Sarah, so, so can you just kind of summarize where you know, so we're going to be, so Dave's going to get you the um flag some of the things that weren't incorporated that he noticed. You'll you'll incorporate those. Um, we'll meet in a week. We'll review that and then we can then we need a um the public comment period opens right away. And that's two was that two weeks? Yeah, that's a good question. Um because we look for about a month, a little less than a month for a public comment period. So that would assume that this committee is okay with opening it on the 15th. So one, two, three, four weeks would be June 12th. Mhm. Our next meeting was going to be June 2nd. So, I'm wondering if if we're doing double duty in May, if that meeting would be pushed back to mid June instead. Okay. Uh, for example, and we don't have to schedule two meetings in one night, but June 16th would be ideal. And then we could have the public comment period open from May 15th to June 12th. Brilliant. Okay. So, May 15th to June 12th and then I'm and then we would meet on June 16th. Mhm. Okay. Yes. That works for me. And if June 16th has to shift a little bit for committee, that's fine. But just an overall timeline that would keep us on track. So you so you think that Sarah your

CMRPC team could feasibly take the comments that were received over the course of the month and be good a a week from the 16th because that's the planning that's the last planning board meeting in June. Mhm. Okay. Unless somebody tells us to burn it to the ground and start again. No universe. Sarah, don't chase us. Sarah. Yeah. Barring any need for major rework, hopefully the public comments will Yeah. will not yield a will not produce any anything that's really major rework. And Sarah, do we need the the m the working group when we have a quorum the next time around? you need a vote on anything. Um, I mean, that'd be up to the committee if you want a formal vote to open the public comment period, but Okay. that next May meeting, we don't need to approve the plan because we assume we're going to change it into Okay. Yeah, I just wasn't sure if you were if we procedurally the working group would want to take a vote to approve the plan for comment or whatever, you know, an additional an approval before the board or basically either informally or former informally or formally the working group should agree that yes, this plan is ready for prime time for public review. Yeah. Right. So, we'll cover that on the 16. If I had to if I had to make a judgment based on the draft plan I read, it's not ready for prime time, but I already understand some about why it wasn't and how we're going to uh how we're how we're going to make it ready for prime time. So, I I have no

problem with but yes, the committee needs to at least informally agree that yes, we're ready for public review. Perfect. Okay, sounds like a plan. Thank you everybody for your flexibility. I apologize again um that we weren't ready. No problem. I feel like these with the plan this big, there's always going to be a long kind of roll out period regardless even if everything was done perfectly. So, it's just a it's just such a beast, you know. So, if every So, okay. So, we're we have a a plan. I will do all of the followup for this tomorrow or the day after and uh yeah, go from there and I'll try and let everybody know as soon as I can possibly know that the 14th definitely will work. Thanks, Fiona. Sure. So Sarah, are you all set with what you need from us? Yes. Thank you. Awesome. So we all know why we all know what we're doing next. What everybody's doing next. Sarah's gonna have an I I I owe Sarah a list of everything I've spotted in the draft that wasn't done as it was expected. Sarah's going to get the

updated draft by the end of the day on Friday. We're going to meet next week, Wednesday. Mhm. And after that hopefully uh we start our public comment period and then we'll meet again in June after the close of the public comment period. Don't look for too many mistakes, David. Turn your perfectionism off. Sounds good. Well, I I have to tell you my my standards are pretty high and one of my concerns is when I read a plan like this, if I see little mistakes here and there, that makes me question what else might be wrong. So, I I I prefer to read plans like whatever. I prefer to read plans that don't have anything in there that's that I that I know was obviously wrong. So, I do I do tend to be picky, but there's a reason for it. I think the uh it it the fewer the fewer errors or glitches or whatever you want to call them, the more credibility the plan has. That's because he didn't look over the marriage license real well. And I didn't read the fine print, did I? Love it. Sounds good. Yeah, I think we're I think we're all good. Are we all set then for tonight? Since we still don't have a quorum, I guess I can't call for an actual vote to adjourn the meeting. But we'll take it as a consensus that we are done for tonight and uh we'll we'll plan on meeting again in one week's