Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board of Trustees - Regular Meeting

And um great thanks everyone. Thanks for agreeing to meet in person. I think um meeting quarterly in person is good idea and does help us to um yeah work together. So roll call. We have Mark, Sue, Matthew Bartlett, and Maryanne here. Angus is not. And we'll see if um Liz is able to join us. AM raised hand. Okay. So, all right. Take a look at this here. I see that um when Anna or Mar run the meeting, I think they generally promote someone to panelist. That's correct.

I don't see how to do that here. Is there any in attendance side? Look at the other tab on that window there. It says Oh, yeah. Yeah. You can promote those too if you want. Okay. So, Angus and Liz, can you hear us now? I can now. Yes. Thank you.

Hey, Liz, you out there? There's um a hazy lens or it looks like someone is in some kind of witness protection out there. [laughter] So, I don't know if it's There we go. Yep. Yeah, we can see it now. Oh, there we go. Okay, let's see.

Hello. Tell me for affordable affordable housing trust. Yeah. Hi, I'm Catherine. Hello. Hi, Catherine. I'm Steve. There's Liz. Hi, Liz. Liz, thanks for joining. Hi, everyone.

So, we're just getting started on our agenda here. Um, thank you for joining us. I don't know that we've had um guests before at these meetings. So, welcome. And uh normally we meet all on Zoom. So, this is uh a little adjustment for us, but um we'll start with uh roll call. We'll do that again quickly since we just promoted everyone else. So, Mark, Sue, Matthew, Bartlett, Angus on Zoom, and Maryanne are here from the trust. Um Liz is here representing EHS to go through our um LRAP and grant program applicants and we have a guest. Thank you for joining. Um we have a topic that's kind of a carry over from last meeting, board elections for a clerk. Um I mentioned that Lucia asked me if that was an oversight that we didn't vote for clerk or if we decided to not have a clerk. And I said we definitely did not decide not to have a clerk. Um, I asked her what the purpose of the clerk was and she said it varies. So I think Angus you are the current clerk. So maybe if you wouldn't mind just telling us a little about what the clerk does then we can decide if we if we need one and and uh nominate someone for that position.

Uh well uh my understanding of it was that the clerk was supposed to keep the minutes and uh uh keep things in order, but we haven't actually done that. The minutes are being um transcribed electronically and uh Lucia does that of um you know uh of the meeting. And so um the role uh would have been active if we were a uh paper and pen committee I'd imagine. Uh but um that's the best I know. Perhaps um uh some of the other members uh can chip in. So on on the select board, the clerk reads the motions and I think we don't have any work for a clerk, but I think we have to elect one. I believe that you need a you need a chair and a clerk,

I think. Okay. Okay. One thing I'd like to propose is that the clerk, since we don't have minutes, um maybe the clerk can prepare the update that we have annually for the town. I think Mark and I did it last year, but I think that'd be great if um we could transfer that to the clerk. So, that would be a proposal. So, um we'll go with Matthew's understanding that it's mandatory that we have a clerk. And do we have um any nominations? Would you like to continue, Angus? Uh sure. I have no objection to it. Does anyone else want to do it? Thank you.

I I nominate Angus. I move that we vote to I I move that we vote to um to install Angus as clerk. Appoint Angus as the clerk. Second. All in favor? Matthew, Susan, Mark, and Angus. Okay. Yes. I so approved. Thank you, Angus. We appreciate it. So, Angus is clerk. All right. Um, item three, our action plans. We'll start with 4.1 small grants program. And Liz will turn it over to you.

Thank you very much. Is my audio okay? Yep. Yes.

Okay. Um, I'll try to live up to Amy's um, reputation here. Um, so the first, um, one I have here is the small grant program. This is SGP15. Um, and the household size is one. They are below the 80% AMI for their income. They are looking to have a chimney restoration done. They're um a senior female and there are structural concerns, health and safety concerns with this request. It has been reviewed by the building commissioner and he has made a request to go specifically with estimate number two, which is $3,725. Um, are there any specific questions I can answer in regards to SGP15? Do do you know if they use this Jimmy for venting a stove uh like a wood stove or a gas stove or if it's just a for a fireplace?

I believe it's just for a fireplace. It says that there are bricks missing. Many others are loose. There's cracked grout. The cap needs to be replaced and secured to keep the animals out. It also needs stainless steel liner. Right. Any chimney that's in use needs to be structurally sound. Yeah, of course. And aligner is good. And so

yeah, I I thought it was quite interesting that the um approval was for the higher amount, but when I read through I found that um it was uh certainly because the the lower um quote was uh substandard. So this is a case where we are uh consciously going with a higher uh quote and uh I I think it's uh you know it's welld deserved.

Right. I think um our building commissioner did an excellent job reviewing the estimates and found that one of the quotes did not have the stainless steel liner um in within the quote. So he was good to pick that out. Well, within the $7,500 limit. So, do we have a motion to approve? I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Um, so we'll go around. All in favor? Matthew? Yes. Yes. Mark, yes. Susan, yes. Angus, yes. And Marian, yes. Okay. So, approve SGP5.

And what's next? an L wrap.

Okay, good to move on to the Lrap. Yes, let's do that. [clears throat]

So, this is Lrap number 42. Um, annual So, the Let me start again. Um, household size of two, annual income 45,964. Their current rent is $2,300 a month. They receive preference points for being within the 30 to 60% AMI bracket. Also in uh preference points for the rental burden for residing or working in Littleton and also because both occupants are seniors. So it's a total of 10 preference points. It's an elderly couple who are working with family to complete applications for subsidized housing as well as affordable housing within Littleton and the surrounding towns. One of these residents was working up until a year ago to supplement their income um but has been unable to continue due to declining health reasons, which is why they've begun um searching for alternate housing arrangements. That is LRAP 42. Liz, this is a new application, right? We have not seen this one before.

Yes. Sounds like a good fit. Yeah, seems pretty straightforward. Agreed. I'll make a motion that we approve Lat 42. Second. Susan seconds. Um, Matthew approve. Yes. Yes. Susan, yes. Mark, yes. Angus, yes. Maryann's yes. So, LRAFT 42 is approved. Great. Any more LRAP applications? Nope. That's it for me.

This is the fastest we've flown through these in in a bit. So, this is great. Um, and the next item on the agenda was the policy language for eligibility for the extensions, but we decided that since Amy's not on the call this evening, that we'll save that till our next meeting. Very good. Absolutely. [clears throat] Great. Thank you. Thanks for joining, Liz. You're welcome to stay, but feel free to uh to drop off you need to. Okay. Um item 3C on the agenda is 119 to Ottawan Road status habitat for humanity updates.

So, we did the sitewalk with habitat. I believe they now have full control of the property. Uh we did the sitewall class last Tuesday. Uh they are going in front of the conservation commission in an hour I believe today uh to get their sign off and then they head to uh ZGA give it their sign off.

Um what they said at the um there there's still some tweets potentially on the site layout to satisfy the neighbors and things going on. They're hoping to have the foundation in sometime over the fall so that they can go vertical in the spring with the um um the tech school kids. Um okay, I think that pretty much covers it. Yeah, we had one neighbor um about her Marielle N was there and I think she had some pretty reasonable questions. And so there's been back and forth with her and Caroline from Habitat after, but that seems to be going well. It's good to have that open dialogue.

Yeah, there was some discussion about the length of the driveway and why the house was set so far back. That's kind of [snorts] an open question, too. Yeah, they were they were having that back and forth and looking at the shorten the driveway or move it over. There may be a reason for it. Yeah. Yeah, I think that um Caroline agreed to to look at it again, right, with the engineers and see if there's an opportunity to really move the the new structure a little bit further away from neighbors.

Do you know they do they need to do anything to do a cut through the stone wall? Mhm. They might very well. That's those find scenic roads and stuff. So, it might be historic or I don't know who's in charge of scenic roads, highways. So, that might be that's a question to ask. That's cool. I'm asking the planning portion. All right. Well, we'll have a meeting in September and talk about it, but I thought Marilyn said that was the border.

Well, there's the stone wall we walked over to get into the property. Oh, okay. So, which is not in great condition. Yeah. And actually, it's almost kind of falling apart there already, but Right. But I don't know if there's any wall bylaws or anything in place we have to they'd have to worry about as part of the part of the grant maybe for the brown property. Would that be I mean I know there's one for the orchard for example but I have no idea if that was part of the language for the brown property.

Yeah. I don't know what the rules are in town generally if you're punching through a phone and allowed in allow to do. I know that further up to Hadawan near near the gly house at the corner there there's a house going in that requires a removal of part of that stone wall and that's a scenic highway you know designated scenic byway or whatever. Um, so that had to go through the process with the planning board or Yeah, it was I mean it was in front of the planning board. Yeah, it'd have to go through the planning board

or does ZBA override that anyway if they're in front of the ZBA? No, it's a it would be a planning board issue. I think I don't think the ZBA would be involved in it. Okay, we should just check. Yeah. So yeah, should we add that for a follow next week? Sure. We'll follow up with that next.

Okay. All right. Move on to our next agenda item then. Strategy 2.1, the Derky farmhouse project.

All right. Um, in the in the minutes I had noted that it's noted in there that there was some of the access is open and I called the highway department and they have fixed that. Um, I had driven past it at one point and the front door was open and I called them and that's now securely fastened. Um the rest of the what I have to say about Derky is that I I totally screwed up. Um in June there was a question that was going around about who was going to sign the agreement, the grant agreement. And um it turned out that Jim Dugen is the one that signs it. Um, so he informed me that he was going to sign it and I we there had been a lot of emails um going back and forth between a lot of people and it turns out that I was supposed to forward that email to um MHP and I didn't because it it just I sort of thought that that everybody was included and they weren't. So

we we can share that one and that could have been something with the transition from Anna to me as well. I think that's probably a piece of there's a lot there was a lot going on at the beginning of June and and um so that didn't happen until um I mean at the beginning of August I called MHP to find out where the RFP was and they said well we haven't started the process because we don't know who's going to sign it. We need that. So in 10 minutes they got their name and things went were underway. So, we lost two months of, you know, engineer work. Um, but it'll happen and it's underway now. And

and this, um, what Jim signed was for the forgivable loan so that Laura could proceed with the technical assessment and then eventually the RFP. Correct. Okay, good. So, maybe in September, we'll invite her. We'll have something. I don't know how long takes them to do their their process, but yeah, I'm sure as soon as she sends it to you, you could forward it and we'll review it on our next meeting. Right. I get it. You'll be the first to know about it. That's good. On the term side of the contract, so that's good. Anything else on Derby? No.

Nothing to report on that. This might be a quick meeting. We're flying through these. Um, so the next item, E, um, actually I looked it up and that would fall under strategy 3.2 and I added that based on an email exchange that, um, Bartletta and I had with Anna. She forwarded to us and it's related to the timing of having the affordable housing units. It's been on the planning board agenda, right? Right. And I think that there's some differences of opinion as to when the affordable units will be included in 550 King Street.

And I talked to Anna at length about it and I was actually hoping that Marin would be here tonight to maybe shed some light or give her perspective on it. Um I think Anna shared with me her thoughts and her really position based on calculation of when the affordable unit should be included. And um right now that's not shared by the planning board. And the differences are related to one just the interpretation of the calculation, right? There are a couple different ways you can interpret that.

The second factor I think is the desire to to partner with locally, right, and recognize that he has some upfront costs and that maybe they want to push it out further. And then the third, I think there's also potential that they may want to put affordable housing on a completely separate in a completely separate location. Um, you know, align with the the Shadic Street discussions that we've had. So, those are three factors that she mentioned why it's what what could potentially delay those um those units from being included. Um, but at this point um it's not on our agenda. It's not for us to decide. My my understanding is it's a planning board decision, but we can certainly make noise and have an opinion.

We can have an opinion. Yeah. What's the What's the the delta in terms of units or time between what Anna believes and what the rest of the planning board?

Lup came in proposing to include nine affordable units in the first two buildings, which is about 300 units. And um Anna's interpretation is that once you cross the 30% of the total which is smaller than the sum of those two first two buildings then we have to have 10% and it's 10% of the 800 which is 8080 units. So um you know we that the two buildings being I don't know the map is a little complicated but the two buildings being a third of the project and we have the third of 80 which is

what 25 26 something like that. So there's a that's the delta and I'm not quite sure Lupi explained how they got to nine but I couldn't really follow it. I didn't understand what they were saying or I wasn't paying attention or something. It's also confusing, I think, because the vi the way the bylaws are written versus the special committee and everything else. It's just it's like a who's on who's on top on these things.

Yeah, she did mention that that there's a conflict conflict between the two, but also exactly like you're saying whether it's 10% of the total number of units or 10% of that increment once they hit 30. And that's that's a big difference, right? He said that's either nine or 30. The way the bylaw is written, I think until they hit the 30% threshold, they have there's a very low number of affordable units. They had none. Zero. Okay. So, a very very low number. You know that after you get to 30%, you have to have the entire the 10% that is required.

Basically, from then on, you have to% progressive. So with 90% you have 90% and 100%. Yeah. 100% I think. Yeah. So it's Yeah. So what I can do maybe is prepare a summary of the numbers of the differences and maybe if Marin's on the call next month at our meeting next month we can ask for her interpretation of it well as well and then maybe go to the planning board with our point of view on this. And um I think in general we want to push for more units sooner, right? That's agree. That's obvious statement. That's certainly

but I I I mean I'm I'm sensitive to to Sal's requirement. I know he does have a lot of upfront costs and I am sure that there are financing like hurdles that he has to clear and obviously affordable units reduces his income, right? But I thought that's what the 30% was for, right? that that 30% is what we gave him to let him get up and running and established before he has to start putting units in. So, I feel like that's we've done our our share of that. So, as a town,

well, I kind of Daryl Baker on the planning board and said basically I kind of agree with the approach that said says when you build the first building, this is the number of units you'll have. When you build the second, this is the number and the third and so on. and to come up with a chart like that that everyone can nod up and down. The hard part there is once you hit, you know, like the last build, you know, what happens if they don't build the last building? You want to make everything so backended. Yeah. That you'll never catch up. So, but there should be a way of kind of accomplishing at least part of that along the way.

You don't want stuff like lane where they just decide not to build the last one because it's a portal, right? M so you a very it's a very real risk and we know that there have been some other some other lupi developments that have had problems completion and that's been a problem. I mean lol just took over one of his developments for that very reason. So I think it's not not a concern that we need to we can just ignore. Right. Okay. So we'll add that to the agenda again next month. Um the

does does this board have a sense of can we say that in general we want to have more units sooner? Is that the sense of the board? Yeah. I I mean I would I would say as a rule of thumb like there should always be 10% of the units should be affordable. If if he's renting 100 10 of them should be affordable. If he's renting 400 40 of them should be affordable. I mean in that ballpark anyway. Yeah, I completely agree. And if he's doing 300 units and only nine are affordable, I feel like that's short of his present, right? Yeah. I mean, I'm willing to listen to his financial concerns, too. But I think, you know, he knew what I mean, the rules were there before he started, so Yeah. Right. Yeah.

I'm I'm okay with cutting him a little slack on the first ones, but, you know, you're going to catch up pretty quickly. Even that even if we said that 300 was the threshold before he had to catch up at 450 he's going to be pretty close to caught up. Yeah. Right. You're not waiting for him to hit 800 and say, "Oh, we're going to catch up on the loss." But Nope. Right. Um because I I'm guessing that at 300 he's probably not making his money back, right? He probably has going further than there, but we shouldn't um wait till the very end and hoping Yeah.

And the on-site versus off-site, I don't think from our perspective, I really don't care if they're on site or offsite, but until he has a, you know, a burden and offsite, they're not in the calculation. Until he has something a property that's under his control that he's talking about building affordable units at onsites, all that matters, right? Totally agree. I would go so far as to say until he has a special permit with with a listed number of affordable units there. That's those are the ones I'm going to count. Right. Yeah. Agreed. Okay. Okay. Back to you. So, did you you going to say something?

No. Well, you know me, so people break me up. [laughter] Um my understanding was that what they were interested in doing offsite was the 40 units of deeply affordable. the deeply affordable units a whole separate thing than 550. So I think they're interested in moving as many of the affordable including those deeply affordable offsite as possible. Even the ones at 550. Yes. But but that but those 40 would count towards the total of total of Yeah. of the those 40 count [clears throat] grand total. Yes. Exactly. Of the 10%. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

So that would be almost half if he if he builds 800 units that would be half of his requirement. The one thing I would say is when if he's building the units offsite, you have to decide if it affects the numerator and the denominator or both. Is it out of 800 or out of 840? Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And also I think we'll need to look closely at the timing, right? I think that was the concern with the 40 was that it was going to be years after um they would have been at 550.

So uh this is Angus. Um I just want to draw the trust's uh attention to a previous experience we've had. Uh I I believe we should be on him uh on the developer as much as we can, as soon as we can and as quickly as we can because we've had a situation where the developer uh refused to build the assigned units or one of them and uh there's nothing that we have done or could have done so far and so that uh case is still out there. Uh I'm sure those of us who were here when the Kalpa uh fields was being built will remember that there are units there that weren't completed at the end of it. So we probably should as much as possible try to get them to be building as they go along rather than wait and hope that they would deliver at the end of it.

Completely agree. Thanks Angus. Okay. Anything else on 550 King Street? Indeed.

All right. The next topic is about the magic affordable housing trust round table um that I attended on July 16th and um no action requested. I just wanted to make everyone aware of some legislation. This is what they reviewed in the meeting. Um it's called a transfer fee that they're looking for some statewide legislation to allow municipalities to implement. So, it's what they're doing is giving us a way to raise funds for affordable housing. And the way they're doing that is by um placing or charging a fee of up to 2% onetime 2% fee on real estate transactions for high-end real estate, mostly over a million dollars. So, um each transaction will be charged a fee of 2% um up to 2% um that would go directly towards affordable housing. Um there's a lot of nuance with this. There's a lot of opposition um as you can imagine from the real estate lobby and others. Um and it really it doesn't mandate anything. It just puts this um a mechanism in place for us to be able to to do this as municipalities if we decide to. It can be up to 2%. It could be a half a percent. Um it could be any property over a million. It could be 1.5 million. I think there's some opportunity to go lower if your um if your average um home price is lower, but that's that's the general idea. Um I don't think that we or I know we don't need to make any discussions about I just wanted you guys to give a piece piece that came up.

This was a state initiative. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's an enabling act that allows the towns to put bylaws in place that would make it happen. Yeah. Like the Community Preservation Act is is that same way. Yeah. Um Jamie Aldridge is already listed as one of the supporters. You know, there's nothing that we need to do to um to lobby him. And it goes it has needs town meeting too. Yes. We'd be changing the town by law because it's a pilot. Um so are there restrictions on where the money can be put? Does it have to go go to a housing trust? To a housing trust. Okay. So, so we could we could put it run it through the CPC if we wanted to

or not. That's a good question. I'll write about Senator Elders and tell him he has to make it that. Okay. Um, that covers our action plan items. We can move on to board business. Discuss exploring the next affordable housing trust development. Uh revolving RFP to land purchase that is for market rate.

So we talked to town council and Kim Robo about writing an RP. Um they were both willing to help us but I don't think we followed up. She sent us a couple samples. So that's in that's in my inbox. maybe yours too, but that's the the balls in our court to go back and give her some feedback because we thought that would be a good idea to have that and she'll work on that with us. And so we would just like every quarter renew it or something like that. Yeah. We just post a new RFP saying if you have any property just sell, you know. Got it. Yeah. Okay. And as I think you mentioned last time, it's just so that if one does come off, we don't have to go through the whole process at the time and potentially lose out because of the

Yeah. cycle. So, how how would a property owner know to look for an RFP? No idea. They they wouldn't. I think that that we would hear about a property and we would talk to the property owner and say to them, well, and you have to go through this process. Fortunately, we already have an RFP open, so if you want to apply for it, we can try to get you through the process. Um, but it just keeps us from having to draft one specifically for that property after we know about it. Okay. So, it could speed things up. We can also let the realtors know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good point, too.

Okay.

And then the second item was or one of those properties that we were interested in actively pursuing, which is 13 Shadic Street, uh, which is the empty lot that's next to Pine Tree Park. and we met with um the town council, Tom Harrington and Jenny and they told us um we didn't know the owners. We found out who the owners were and we asked the best way to approach and they said uh if you can get an introduction, you know, if you know it's a small town, if you know someone who knows them, get the introduction or send them a friendly letter. So, we sent them a friendly letter [clears throat] and haven't heard back yet. And we've heard though since then that Immire told us that she had heard that they went to Henry about potentially building a single family home there.

That the property has been sold to someone or potentially being sold. Being sold. Oh, okay. Um, and the other property we looked at was um 82 Russell Street, which is where the partner was talking about putting the tennis courts just immediately across 95 down his steep hill,

right? Um um what I've managed to find out so far is that the deed is um it was given to Parker as part of the development as um at the Delaney Drive. um decision. It's been deeded to parking rack. So to undeed it to parking rack, we'd have to figure out a way. It's effectively as if it was conservation, the chapter 97 land, you'd have to do something to

offset the or it's also possible that we could go through the process and say that um the property was deeded for the purpose of active recreation. So they want to build ball fields back there which they can't actually do because it's too expensive to get access to it. So it's possible that we could say that we will provide the access you know the we're doing you know if they deed us it's a six acre parcel or something they need us two acres we can you know provide the access to allow them to um

improve the site. So it could be some kind of a mutual agreement, but it's going to get stuck in [clears throat] legal for a while to put yourself. I I would assume also it would be expensive to build there just because of that entrance like more expense. There must be I mean there must be other lots around that are less difficult potentially, but it's also uh has the advantage of being really close to sewer. Uh [clears throat] so you can build more dense. Oh, I see. Okay, it's not on the sewer line. It would still cost money to run the sewer there. Um, but that might be h that could be happening in one of either direction.

Um, yes. Yeah, the sewer is going to cross 495 over there some point. It's just no matter which direction it's coming. That's part of what made 13 Shadic so attractive also. because that's already on town sewer and a bus, Pine Tree Park, [clears throat] and it's right, you know, the senior center, the library, all those good things. So, we're not giving up on that yet. Maybe there's Yeah, maybe there's a chance, but there's always eminent domain. Well, we don't even have to do them in here. Yeah, there's a couple other parcels we've discussed looking at, but we haven't done any any further labor.

Yeah. Yeah, we've ruled out a couple, but we had a longer list and some of them weren't viable, but we'll keep looking. So, there there was um some chatter on Facebook about the Morgan property because farm 3559 said that they had to move because that that property was being developed or put condos in. I said, I I don't know if that's the case, but that would be that would be close to the sewer as well. Yes. So, that's something we should probably look into as well. And we have not done that yet, but it's on my Okay.

And I know that like two brothers in a mortgage property are not currently protected. Something to think about. So if we do if it if it if it needs to happen, we could potentially say, you know, protect the back, you know, 90% and give us the first 10% to build something. Yeah, sounds interesting. Okay, thank you for that.

Um, next up are trustee and town planner updates. So, Mar's not here, so we'll do trustee updates. Um, I guess let's start with you. Any updates?

Uh, well, yes. Uh, uh, myself and, uh, uh, uh, s Oh, just a minute. Let me just get my uh um thoughts correct here. Um we were tasked with uh looking at uh options for folks who are um re-requesting LRAP, you know, the repeat LRAP process. So that's a work in progress. Uh we have actually finalized the work. I have a report ready, but we're waiting for Amy to be present uh before we um submit the report to the committee. Uh what we've done is just um you know review the whole process and see where it's at and then the trust will um make a decision at the time.

That's all I had. Great. Thank you, Matthew. Uh no, just visiting the Tadawan site with everyone else who's here. Great. Yeah. Thanks. Got it. No, I'm good. Thank good. Thanks, Susan. I'm good. Mark, I'm good. You're good. I'm good. Also, um Oh, um from your There's the next magic meeting is September 18th, I think it's posted in that packet was sent. So, okay. Yeah, September 18th at 9:00 in Lexington. So, I will probably go home.

Yeah, I'll go as well. Um, okay. Next item, gift acceptance. So, we need to vote to accept a $50 gift from Christine Northhouse. No relation. [laughter] [snorts]

So, um, is despite there being no relation any context that you care to show? When we tour the Derky farmhouse, there were a couple of dressers in the front room and my wife refinishes them and sells them. And I think this one, this one she I believe donated to uh the restore, the Habitat Restore. Um, and this is this was her this was the proceeds. I mean, we didn't get any [clears throat] money for it, but she's definitely out of it. So, she refinished it, painted it a beautiful green, and some lucky person has it.

That's amazing. Well, I heard that she does beautiful work, so they're like you said, a lucky person to to have that. And um how nice that it was reused also. Yeah. Right. That it's still living. Yeah. So, great. So, do we have a a motion to accept the $50 gift for? We'll make that motion. Thanks, Bartlett. Second. Seconds. All right. Matthew, yes. Bartlet, yes. Susan, yes. Mark, yes. Angus,

yes. Maryanne. Yes. Okay. Thank you to Christine. Next item. Um, possible candidates to fill our seventh seat. Anyone else come to mind? Mar proposed a woman last time that said that she wouldn't be making a decision until September. So, I think we're holding off until then because she was a highly qualified individual. Any other names come to mind? I didn't speak I didn't speak to anybody.

I haven't either. Um based on the the credentials of the the woman that Marin mentioned, I thought I would I would wait until find out if she was interested before um having conversations. Okay. Um, next item, minutes to approve from July 22nd. I think Lucia sent those out, right? Yeah. Does anyone have any comments or amendments to propose?

I have a very minor one. Um, at the bottom of page one, um, the only exception was in the case of a terminal recipient. I think we should change that to terminally ill recipient.

So catch thinking and I don't know maybe on the second page the property across 495 from Russell Street. I want wonder if that can be identified a little bit more. It's 82. Yeah. Put in the address 82. Okay. Russell Street.

You better. And then it says 14 Shadic, but it's 13 shadic, isn't it? Yes.

Booms on that side. Okay. Do we have motion to accept the meetings with those amendments? I'll move that we accept the meeting minutes from July 22nd, 2025 as amended. As amended. Second. Susan seconds. Okay. Angus, do you agree? I agree. Matthew, yes. Bartlet, yes. Susan, yes. Yes. Marian, yes. Okay. Um, we are Do you have public input? Want to say anything?

Well, first I want to thank you. It was very fascinating and wonderful to be a part of. Not really what I expected, but I haven't been to a lot of town meetings. My name is Katherine and I live at Hager Homestead. And I think the first thing I want to say is thank you, which is what I said to Marin at the beginning of the summer because I moved in there to one of the affordable units.

And I know the town was behind the percentage of units that they had there. And I've went through a chronic illness, lived in the Bat Bay, lost a decade of working power, and you know, never expected to be in the financial situation that I was that happily gave me housing in the hometown of my grandfather, my paternal grandfather. So, and somewhat sadly, but also um optimistically, I'm still moving on because I'm heading towards Vermont. So, my affordable unit will open up and I brought that tomorrow. So, I I heard the word affordable. I don't know how I knew you guys were meeting and I just wanted to learn a little bit because I'm a a potential that you may not realize that there are people in my kind of what I would say you know middle class that have been hit by something whether it's a chronic illness or something that have changed their life and their ability to live the way that they used to live. And um we can still have really beautiful quality living with people like you partnering with people like Her Homestead. And you know, we've got I think seven to 10 units over there and so well blended. There's no difference. Like it makes me kind of sad when I hear about things being offsided, you know, from the big project because

there's no difference for us. These are 26 families that are, you know, all mutually thriving and um if I didn't have the pull to continue out of the suburbs, you know, I'm all about community and mutual thriving. So, I just want to thank the town. My grandfather was Wilbur Sterns and they ran the general store up across from the historic center for decades. You know, they're they're in they're long gone, but they were an important family in this town and I'm sorry that I won't be staying longer. Uh but I just want to thank you for what you're doing and continue to do it because world has changed and our financial situation has changed and I I don't want to say non poor people, right? But just average people like me and you need good housing. It's it sounds weird to even say, right, that that it you don't have to have nothing to need a good house, but of course you have to start there and make sure that that people are taken care of. Um, but it's just important. So, thank you.

Thanks for coming. Yeah, thanks for making time to to come to the meeting share. I never saw it. I did. But I'm I'm very glad to hear that that the Hagar Homestead is is blending successfully the affordable units. There's, you know, in in my opinion from one of the affordable units, it's not Yeah, it's not there's no line and in general just that it's working so well, right? Because it is so kind of experimental.

Absolutely. And as a senior community, you know, if we're 55 plus, it's a model for young living because we have to do it all. You know, we have to govern it all. We're under sociocracy is our governance system. that, you know, it's there's circles for everything you can imagine and you know um we're all doing the work and it keeps you keeps you vibrant and you know purposeful and yeah so it's a good model for the town and I hope that we'll be able to um have you get to know us better. We're actually going to do something at the library September and invite people to walk them out and come down and see what we've done. But yeah, you know,

I wonder if you might want to invite someone as a guest, one of our meetings. Yeah, share a little bit more. Yeah, anything that you think because really what's going on and it's sustainability for the meadow. There's so many master gardeners and conservationist people that are there that live there and we're not, you know, we're not about we're not allowed to put this in the compost and no chemicals and the butterflies have to come back and conservation for sure, right? We're just so want that land. It's been kind of harmed by that big footprint coming down.

But it's good because we only used three acres of it. We preserved well over that 50% formula to keep green. And now we're trying to just get that land the lights down. We know the lights are horrible. They're too bright and they're white. We're spending tens of thousands of dollars of our own to turn that into yellow light for the insects. And the good stuff going on there. and they we've just had our head down kind of coming up for air from the landing that we haven't had a chance. I think this Tom would love to hear more about that. Yeah, great.

Yeah. So, I would be happy. I'm I'm not going anywhere fast because Littleton will help me put the my home on the market for me to make my turn. I'm being pulled towards Vermont. Um, so I said to my community, I'm 100% present and love this project and love this town and it's always the love of this town. So I think I'll still kind of be involved with anger even no matter where I go. So if you need a spokesperson for now and and on into the future, please call to share. Great. Yeah, that' be terrifying if maybe you can leave some contact information.

Sure. Super. That's excellent. Thank you. We have one final order of business to lock down our next meeting. You stick with third Tuesday the 16th of September, I believe. Yeah, that works for me. Yeah. I don't know if you're here for that.

Put that in the agenda for maybe we should have another inerson meeting. I think we should do that. I think we should. Yeah. All right. Um I probably won't be in town that day, the 16th. I think I don't know. My plans change all the time really because um I'm not available on the 17th or 18th. What about the 15th? Do you guys have select for? We do not. I could do the 15th. I could do the 15th as well. The 15th for a few bucks. Well, um my calendar is telling me that I'm gone for the whole week. Oh, okay. Um Angus, how about you? 15th 16th.

I'm available all days. Okay. So, do you want to make it the 15th? You said you're available both days. 15th September. Sure. Monday the 15th. Okay. Well, we won't get cake. [laughter] K birthday just have a birthday, you know, a birth month, right? And that way, Barbara, if you leave a little late in the week, you can still Yes, I'll speak to my wife. Thank you. We'll see. Yes. Okay. I think if you can do we have to make a motion for We do. Okay.

So, move second by. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah. Thanks everyone. Thanks again for coming. Thank you for coming.