Planning Board - Regular Meeting

[music] Okay, I'll call this um March 2nd, 2026 meeting of the Grafton planning board a special meeting uh to order. First, we need a roll call. Who's here? Um, who's going to do that? Justin,

I can do that. Mr. Robbins present. Mr. Polmo present. Hi. Justin Wooden here. And Mr. Chair, Robert Hassinger, I'm here. And then staff we have on the call Fiona our account planner director planning and Talia Alward our assistant planner

present. Ah okay. First on the agenda is public input. If anyone has anything uh within our purview that's not on our agenda. This is a chance to talk to us about it. Raise your hand now. I don't see any hands. We'll move on. Action items. Approval not required under subdivision control ANR 2026-0230 Crosby Road. Thanks, Mr. Chair. So, um this application is a pretty standard um approval not required. Uh the applicant is requesting to subdivide 30 Crosby Road into lot one with the remainder of the uh land to stay what is labeled as tracked two on the plan. um bo all area is buildable and complies with zoning and u meets the minimum requirements of mass general law. Um I coordinated with the applicant's engineer on the submission to make sure all the details were provided and updated um correctly. um those revisions were submitted and this uh copy of the plan which I can share is refle reflective of the changes requested. So I am happy to answer I'll pull up the plan and I'm happy to answer any questions that the board may have for me and I believe the applicant is here as well.

Any comments from the applicant? Uh, no. I was I I was told I thought Norm would be on the call, too. So, I was just assume I was just joining to see if there were any questions I can answer, but obviously Norm did the work and land planning did the Oh, he's actually here. I'll probably I just asked him to speak. Okay, Norm, let me just unmute. Yes, this this has proper acreage and frontage. is actually enough acreage and frontage for two lots, but Bill's son wants to build a new home here. So, we just cut out this lot the way he had asked us to.

Okay. Anybody have any questions? If not, do I hear a motion? I move that the board find that approval is not required. Authorize the planner to sign on behalf of the board. Second. Moved and seconded. Discussion hearing none. Roll call. Mr. Robbins. I. Mr. Polmo. I would I and Mr. Hassinger I. Motion carries unanimously. Congratulations. Thank you all. Everyone stay well. Thank you.

Thank you. Take care. Okay. Um, next we have approval not required under subdivision control ANR 2026 03 27 Old Upton Road.

Yes. So, uh, again, uh, um, application, um, to for a subdivision, uh, to subdivide the property of 27 Old Upton Road, um, into two lots labeled lot one and lot two on the plan. Again, both are buildable and comply with the zoning um, of the area. the um the lots are in compliance with the minimum standards of Mass General Law and we did not see um we know we didn't have a lot of back and forth with the engineer. Um the plans were um pretty uh pretty thorough and um we were reviewed for compliance and found to be satisfactory. So again, I'm sorry for the delay. I'm going to pull up the plan set now while so the board can and the public can see. You just give me one minute here. And I believe again the applicant is is on and can speak to anything that um any additions that she would like to make.

Happy to answer any questions. Questions. Comments from the applicant. Comments from the engineer. I'm just I was just trying to unmute my um speaker. So, no, I don't have any questions. Thank you. Or comments.

Okay. Um anything anything else from anyone? I think this staff I think this is the one that I had trouble on my main computer. It opened up oddly. The the um the plan part of it opened up oddly. Um it was all squished down. The it was correct horizontally, but it was squashed vertically. On a different computer, I I managed to get to it. Um, not confusing enough. Okay.

That that was the same issue that I was having, Bob. Oh, okay. So, it's not just me. No. And then I was able to view it on a on a different computer. Yeah. Um, I I fell back to Adobe Acrobat Reader um from whatever Google has done to me. Um Um Okay. Uh, anybody have

progress. [music] All of a sudden, the computer I was trying to get in on woke up. [laughter] My head hurts. Um, okay. Where was I? We're complaining about um Adobe. Of course, everyone does. Okay. Um I will move that the board find that approval is not required for this and authorize the planner to sign behalf of the board. Second.

Moved and second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. Mr. Polmo I. Mr. Robbins. I. Wood votes I. And Mr. Passenger I motion carries unanimously. Congratulations. Moving right. Thank you.

Welcome. Um moving right along. uh vote to sign and send letter of support for AARP community challenge grant with a vote to include authorizing the director of planning and community development to sign on the board's behalf. [clears throat]

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So, um the town of Westboro approached my office about um coordinating on a regional walk audit in um conjunction with CMRPC. Um the towns of Shrewsbury and North are also participating in this effort which will um essentially uh it will be an an event a sponsored event um that will basically provide staff and board members and members of the public um training on how to conduct what are called walk audits. So these are um common exercises uh um for communities that are trying to improve their accessibility um mobility options and create generally more connectivity within towns. And it it the you know there's it's a it's a great benefit as data that's gathered during the process is used to inform um future efforts and decision making as well as grants. And um it's it's a pretty nationally recognized um program. Um AARP does uh a lot of this work. Hence why um we are working with you know Westboro, Shrewsbury um and Northboro to get um to coordinate on this grant effort. So there uh town of Westboro staff is requesting a letter of support uh from the board. Um if you are interested in providing that um the grant is the AP community challenge grant application um this is uh very typical you know this is a typical funding ask uh for this program um and it's just a better way to create a more connected Grafton and try to explore how to make our streets safer, healthier, more walkable and generally more enjoyable for for the people who live and work here. So um

we're hoping that you know there's there was a DTA application submitted by the town of Westboro to also assist in this effort. So CMRPC is heavily involved and they have provided a certain you know uh um certain uh number of hours towards support and financing is coming from that. But we do need to contribute it would be about $1,000 per community to contribute to this. And obviously, you know, grants are the best option for um before trying to consider other avenues. So, this is to forward that effort. So, I'm happy to answer any questions about the program um or the letter and

let me know. Thank you. Questions? Um anything motion? Someone want to make a motion? I'd move we do the thing, but I think that's probably too vague to do do what Fiona just said. So moved. Second. Second. Any questions? What would be the downside of saying yes to this?

[laughter] Nothing. Not spending the thousand dollars. That's it. Roll call. But we have a chance to get money as a result of it. Mhm. Mr. Polarmo. I. Mr. Robbins. I would votes I and Mr. Hassinger I. Motion carries unanimously. Very good. All right. Bills. I move that we authorize payment of the bills as presented. Second. Moved in second. Discussion hearing. None. Roll call. Mr. Polmo. I. Mr. Robbins. I. Wood votes. I. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And Mr. Hassinger. I.

Minutes of previous meetings. Did Did we have some? Looks like four sets of meetings here. I'll I'll move that the board approve the minutes of the meetings of January 10th, 2022, May 23rd, 2022, July 11th, 2022, and August 22nd, 2022 as drafted with any changes proposed during the discussion of the motion. I will second.

Moved and seconded. Discussion. I my biggest discussion item on those is the format is quite different than the ones I'm used to having seen in the past. It I do recall hearing at least from some other committees that there was some minutes in the past submitted by using AI to scrape the meeting materials and then submitted that way you like the recording. And I also know that in some of those cases, individual people had to actually watch the meeting and make corrections to what was generated by AI. So I think my only kind of question here is were these generated by AI? And there might be something that we could have missed if we didn't look at it closely.

Do you Mr. Chair? Yes, these are most certainly generated through AI and we are so just before so some context. So we have been backlogged with minutes significantly and are trying very hard to get out of the backlog. Um it's been very challenging especially obviously these longer meetings that go for two and a half plus hours. you know, it's just Natalia and I. We've tried over the years to get support with minutes through temp adding, you know, um hiring a temp position, our senior worker interns, but we're just kind of continuing to have um issues with just getting these done. And unfortunately um or fortunately, however you want to, you know, AI, you take it with a grain of salt, but we're trying our you know, we're just trying our best and and quite frankly AI has been the the best the best option and I know it's been utilized by other communities. Um obviously double-checking needs to occur, making sure that we're meeting the requirements of the law and and myself, I've been checking and Natalya's been checking very closely as well and we've been also coordinating with the clerk. So, full disclosure, we received a public records request for over a hundred sets of minutes that we are actively working on.

Okay. And yeah, I we're just trying to get through it. Yeah, there's I think there are methods that could be used to make these men look closer to our to our old ones, even with the use of AI. That said, I have no objection to to voting yes on getting these out and continuing until we can find a more sustainable method for our backlog and what we need to do. Anyway, it was just to understand if that was the reason that looks so drastically different or if there was something else going on or that kind of thing. So,

yeah, it's it's a it's a good question, Justin. it's fair and I did want to just provide that additional context just so the board knows you know this is not the normal way um I think Natalya was wildly uncomfortable submitting in the [laughter] submitting it the format in this manner um because she's hugely quite um you know she's quite diligent and quite good with her her standard template but we will um we will you we will improve the template um in the format for sure going forward yeah I did I did read through each of these minutes and I did not see anything that looked inaccurate.

And fortunately, you would remember all those meetings [laughter] from way back in uh history. Um yeah, there's only those were only three and four years ago. Yeah. Well, you're good at reading minutes. minutes were briefer than their typical minutes, but I didn't see anything that I thought was I didn't see any gaps or things that I thought should be there but weren't. Yep.

I can't account for the whether there would be gaps or not because I was not um on the board that time, but they all seemed um logical. all four that I read. Okay.

With with what I have learned about AI, I'm I'm cautious about this because our minutes end up in court. Um, and the board has said they're they're true. Um, so I need as much comfort factor as I can get about cross-checking. And I'm wondering if there should be a footnote some in the or something some sort of a mention in each one that about the process that produced maybe even a reason but um the the reason and the process so that you have a little bit of a of a escape hatch if it turns out that something's not right there. Would we do that? Do you think you think we could put something in them

along those lines? Yes, Mr. Sher. I think that's a that's a good idea to just explain um you know how we generated them and yeah, give a brief explanation as to why um that's that's definitely doable. Okay. So, I I think the motion will include that thought. Yes, the motion was intended to include any any changes that we during discussion that we wanted to make. Right. So, any other discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. Mr. Robbins. I Mr. Polmo I.

Wood votes I and Mr. Hasser

I. Motion carries unanimously. Correspondence. Was there any correspondence of interest or concern? Apparently not. All right. Reports from uh town committees and CMRPC. I know CPC had several um applications this round for Maytown meeting. Unfortunately, I misread the agenda and I didn't realize it was in person only for this past week. So, I was unable to attend, but I'll be refreshing my memory and what went on in there, but just wanted to call that out. I know Fiona was there for at least part of the meeting for some applications that she put in on behalf of the town.

Is it CPC where there's the talk of changing at least the amount the town takes? So the idea of putting something like that on the on the town warrant would be primarily a select board decision and my understanding was the select board was not entertaining changing the the CPA enrollment at this time and I don't think we can lower it without taking us out of it entirely right now as I believe the case was that was also on the agenda for the CPC meeting for a discussion on that but I again it wasn't not there. You say you we can't take part out. We have to take all of it out.

We we are on the lowest search charge amount for CPA match right now. Okay. Anybody else have any questions? Uh all right. Um Tiana, you have something to talk to us about?

I do. I do. So, I just wanted to let the board uh and the the public know that I will be leaving the town of Grafton. Um unfort, you know, very sad. It was Grafton's been a wonderful place to work. This board has been absolutely fantastic. Evan and all the staff have been wonderful. I've just got a an opportunity that presented itself um close to home um and to jump on it. So with that being said, um you know, work uh working very closely with Natalia um and other department heads to make sure that this is a seamless transition. I've started developing uh plan of action for um the potenti you know the new person. Um I did and and just making sure that we're tightening things up and buttoning up as much as we we can before that time. Um I am planning to work through up until uh as as as late as I can. Um so that will be the through the 13th. My my start date is the the 16th. But I wanted to just reiterate really how uh wonderful of an experience the past 3 years in Grafton has been for me. I've learned quite a lot. Um I had some great teachers uh and it's been this has really been really really fantastic. And um thank you all for everything and um I'm sad to see you all go and but you know we we'll continue to stay in touch and of course if anyone has any questions or needs anything at all between now and then um I I am available and happy to help with anything that I can. So

thank you.

Go ahead. I just want to say [sighs] Grafton will miss you terribly and you know you you've been a very very valuable asset for this community and I really regret that you found a better opportunity be going to be great for you Fiona I know that and the your new community will will be will be benefited greatly by having you. We will miss you. I I can't even describe how much you will be missed. You you've been a a real pleasure to work with here. You've contributed so much to us. There's a lot we we just couldn't have done without you.

Thank you, Dave. Very well said, Dave. I agree completely and um appreciate everything you've done for me in the short time that I've been on the board, Fiona, and wish you all the best. Um and do you you said you're working on the transition, but they have someone named already. No, not not yet. The posting will be going out. Okay. Yeah. I misunderstood. Sorry. But all the best. Thank you, Mike. Thank you for everything. Of course. Yeah. We didn't tell you, Fiona, but you're supposed to have arranged for a successor for yourself before you accepted. [laughter]

I'll make sure that I put it out everywhere. This is a wonderful place to work. Highly encourage all my planner friends to apply, my talented planner friends. You need Whoever replaces you needs to be at least as good as you are. [laughter] Is it possible to proceed? I Yeah, I I was going to say I I don't know that we're going to be lucky enough to find someone as good as you've been, but I'm happy that you found something that meets your needs much better than unfortunately this town distancing for you does. [laughter]

Thanks, Justin. Do you have anything to share about where you're going or what you'll be doing or is that not time yet? Sure, I'm happy to share. Um, so I will be taking uh the deputy director uh position in the uh planning preservation and zoning uh department for the city of Somerville. Oh, yes. So close closer to home and um back kind of into the more city um city specific planning which is where I got my start. So yeah. Yeah. So excited, nervous, excited.

I've been here for the departure of every one of our planners. I don't enjoy it. I hope I hope um it uh I hope we get someone faster than we did with um our second. I guess I think she was second. Um so okay, anything else?

I [snorts] think it is also my understanding and that we probably will not end up needing a interim at this point where we have Natalyia and other staff that can fill the interim role until the new director of planning for Grafton is is picked and decided and arrived. Yes.

Yes. So, so Evan and I have, you know, um been speaking about it and yeah, the so the position is going to be going out right away posted on um Mass Planners, Mass Municipal Association, all like the kind of bigger uh you know, platforms uh and you know, we put in a concerted effort to get the word out. Natalya will be, you know, helping with, you know, through like application processing and kind of handling three things at once. So go go go go go easy on her, but she, you know, she's very capable and she'll be taking on um you know, just a little bit more. Um I I I am going to obviously uh make sure that that like any of the heavy lifting for any, you know, any pressing matters is taken care of so that it's not on it's not on her to have to to worry about. Well, I I kind of I kind of felt this was coming. I

Oh, well, your commute and your situation are not a good fit. Although there's plenty of opportunity here to do good things, which you've managed to find. I mean, oh yes, I've learned a lot being here. This town has been fantastic, but yes, the commute is is a long one for sure. How many grants do you suppose? [laughter] It's good. Definitely. Well, when you figure out a good chunk, I will say at least 10.

When you figure that out, send it to us in email. Okay. Uh, is there anything else that can lawfully come before us? If not, motion to adjurnn. Second. Not debatable. Roll call. Mr. Robbins. I. Mr. Palemo. I. Wood votes I. And Mr. Hassinger I. We are adjourned.