Planning & Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

Just one second. I just have to look at it. John, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Thanks. Yes. Okay, we're recording.

All right. Um, I'd like to call to order the Madison Planning and Zoning Commission regular meeting for Thursday, January 8th, 2026. Happy New Year, everyone, and welcome. Um, I also want to just start out by mentioning that we've had a couple of last minute agenda changes due to the applica applicants requesting uh to present at later meetings. Um, so that includes the public hearing which will open and then immediately continue to February 5th. Um and then also for that's for 142 Boston Post Road and then also the pending application for 196 Durham Road be tableabling probably to till January 15th our next meeting. Um but with that said just as a sort of preliminary introduction so anyone who's attending for those two applications may not want to stay um they're welcome to. Um and with that said, we'll move to the first agenda item, which is the election of officers, which we do on the first meeting of every year. This is chair, vice chair, and secretary. Uh our vice chair was uh elected to the board of finance. So, we have an opening there. Um chair if anyone wants to

excuse me Carol just for purposes of our minutes um and attendance attendees um take first in person attendees we have John Duza Andy Rubin myself Carol Snow chair Mike Bugda and our town planner Aaron Manx and on attending by way of Zoom we have Janet Pinflaw John Morgan Max Karun and Bob O' Conor did I get everybody Yes. Good.

Thanks. Okay, so that's our attendees. Um, getting back to election of officers, first position would be chair. I've expressed interest in serving for another year. Um, but if anyone else would like to be considered, please speak up. That said, okay, do we do these one at a time, Erin? I think I just came from a regional planning meeting where we did them all at once. Um, but I feel like you've done them separately. Yeah. Okay. So, let's do separately individually in the past. So, um, nominate them. Yes. So, thank you. I'll second. Thank you. Any

I'll third. [laughter] All in favor? Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for your support everybody um and assistance. Next is vice chair and um we have someone who is interested John Dooa. Would you like to say make a few statements about Sure. my campaign consist of pointing to my consistent attendance. One my general interest number two and the fact that I did run one meeting in your absence. Yes. Everything went uh smoothly and efficiently. The minutes reviewable

and uh I just wanted to regarding your nomination, I mean your your dedication, diligence, and knowledge of the rules, regulations, and history is uh thinking about it. A real asset to the commission. Thanks. But I'd be glad to fill in in your absence if necessary. Great. I'll nominate John Duza. I'll second. Have three seconds. And no further discussion. All in favor? John Da as vice chair. It's anonymous. Thank you, John, for Thank you.

your service as secretary and now your promotion. I think it's called a promotion to vice chair. Um, so with that, we have an opening for secretary if anyone's interested in serving as secretary. Uh, I think John, you've done a great job at reviewing the minutes. Someone else takes the minutes, so you don't have to worry about that. So, if anyone would like to serve as secretary, that's not my role I want. Very easy. Interesting. I'll take five minutes and if not, I'd be happy to do it, but somebody else should. It would be great if someone else could do it. Here, I'll I'll uh I'll uh nominate myself. I'll vote.

We had we [laughter] had responsibility from Andy, but John, thanks for a half. He's a half-hearted thing. Go ahead. You can have it. It's all yours, Andy. I'll support you anytime you need help. Help each other up. Okay, great. John, thanks for that. And can I have a motion then for John the secretary in a second? Any discussion? All in favor? Thank you, John. Janet, we can't see you, but you can't. No, I'm on our screen here in the I don't know why people are disappearing off of I think it looks like they're the only ones we can see. We're I can see everybody remotely. So can I

if you're attending remotely you can see everyone but for some reason we've got a display on the screen as this Paulie is not speaking relation can you hear us? Yeah, I can hear you. Just not see me, right? Sorry, I don't. No one's ever walked in my case. Okay, you'll shut the meeting down. It's short enough. I don't I don't know. So, sorry.

All right, moving along on the agenda. We do have um a public hearing scheduled. But I'm going to save my processes for the public hearings for the next um for the February 5th meeting when we actually do it. But we would like to have a motion to open this public hearing and then immediately continue it to our February. M we should read legal notice um for this. Yeah, it's important to get that on the record.

So I will turn it over to Aaron Maddx, town planner to read the legal notice. Thank you. Notice is hereby given that the planning and zoning commission will hold a public hearing on Thursday, January 8th, 2026, beginning at 7 p.m. in meeting room C, the ammonass room, town campus campus drive, Madison, Connecticut 06443. This is a hybrid meeting and attendees may also join via Zoom webinar through either the webinar link or call in information below. The webinar ID is 91581966735. The password is 4552138. The call-in number is 16465588656. The following application will be heard number 25-30 plus coastal site plan 142 Boston Post Road, MAC 45, lot 138, zone R2. Owner applicant is 142 Boston Post Road, LLC. This is a coastal site plan and a site plan application to retain existing mixeduse building with office on first floor and one-bedroom residential unit on second floor and construct new 4,350 square ft two-story building with eight residential one-bedroom units with associated site improvements including parking, walkways, subsurface sewage disposal system, storm water management system, 10t x 14 ft storage shed and 10t x4 ft covered picnic area pursuant to Connecticut general statutes section 8-30g. Copies of this application are available for inspection in the land use office. Further details on how to participate in the webinar are posted on the town of Madison website www.mmadisonct.org. All written correspondence can be

submitted to the land use department via email at landusemadisonct.org. Dial 203245-55631 for assistance. Dated at Madison, Connecticut this 12th day of December, 2025. Carol Snow, chair. This published once in the source on December 25th, 2025 and once on January 1st, 2026. Thank you, Erin. And so, as I understand it, the applicant has requested that we open the public hearing tonight and then immediately continue it to February 5th. Uh, they're revising the application and aren't ready to present at tonight's meeting. So, could I have a motion to open and continue to February 5th?

Motion. Move. And a second. Yes. Any further discussion or questions? I just have one question. How does this affect the timing of the public? It's a good question. So, it starts as of tonight when we open it. Correct. So, their window is the same window regardless of the fact that they're going to have less time

for timing is 65 days to act on a site plan application or an automatic approval. And so, because of this extension, the applicant is understanding and if necessary, the commission can request extension discretion. Thanks for that question. But the hearing as of you're not But the fine the 65 days starts now. You're you're fine. No, it starts from the date of receipt of the application. Um but you are sufficient to get to February 5th, I think. Okay. All in favor?

Janet, is that a yes from you? Yes. Yes, muted. Yes. Okay. Thanks. All right. Then we have pending application uh 25-26196 Durham Road map 58 lot 14 zone RU2 owner applicant Temple Beth Tikba site plan modification application to change site lighting landscaping and parking driveway area material from originally approved plan. again they've asked to have it tabled we think to the next meeting uh yes 15th which is next week

yes till next Thursday normally our meetings are two weeks apart but because of the uh New Year's Day holiday we're here tonight. So could I have a motion to table it to the January 15th a motion second? I have to excuse myself. Any further discussion? All in favor, if we could hear your voices, that'd be great. I in favor. In favor, Janet. Thank you.

And then, uh, scheduled for our January 15th meeting, we have 25-27 875 Austin Post Road as well as 25-28 the Bushnell Lane resubdivision. Um, and I think we've already we've already scheduled those. Yeah. January. So, moving along to approval of minutes. U John Morgan, can we catch you by a surprise? [laughter] No. No, you you can't. John D, would you like to?

Sure. Last call meeting December 18th, 2025. Members and alder present to Bugghda, Karun, Donald, Duza, Morgan, Honor, Peek, Paul, Ruben, Snow, and Clark. Motion to approve. Michael, thank you. Second, Andy, any edits or comments? Is that good? Anybody? Uh, Terry was right on target. Vote to approve. I thank you. Good. That's fun. Thanks, John. [laughter]

Uh, moving on to remarks. Um, I actually would like to encourage new commissioners to do their training. Um I think Yukon is Yukon clear the easiest way to get the training at this point. Yes, that's great.

Um t my office is in the process of um updating all of our commissioner uh uh contact lists now that everyone's been reappointed, sworn in. We have new um officers. So, we'll get that out to you as um as well as training requirements. um because your terms are staggered. Your training requirements are going to be staggered. Some people have already met their requirements up until their reappoint. Others who were just recently appointed are going to be subject to um additional training um because it is per term. So we'll um link Yukon Clear is a great resource for um pre-recorded training sessions. Um, this is an off year for Connecticut Bar Association. Uh, but we can look to see, um, you know, I always recommend the basic commissioner training classes, uh, available through Yukon Clear. Um, they are having some changes to staffing. Um, so I'm not sure what their schedule is for live classes. Um, but I'll reach out. I'll get as much information as I can. If not, give you the basic trainings. If we're looking for training on anything specific um you know that the commission would like to see or you know that you'd like to learn more of, we can always arrange our own trainings. We have a lot of flexibility as far as what counts to the four hours. Um the only statutory requirement is that it is four hours of training per term and one of those hours needs to be dedicated to fair affordable housing.

So we'll be in touch. That's actually a good segue for me because I'm just coming also from the regional um SCROG meeting which was at 5:15 this afternoon. Normally it's the second Thursday in the month. So I get to do two today. and um they mentioned that they will be the COGS the council of government's regional programs will be doing um housing education sessions based reporting back after they're they're doing sort of thorough thorough analysis now of PA25-01 which was HB 802 the housing bill that was passed right before Thanksgiving um and they're reaching out to different municipalities within South Central Connecticut for us to sign up if we want to have them come and give us some training and some and oh cool public outreach type information sessions which we

yes one is available um it is scheduled for January 29 I'll include include that in um it's it's through the it's in the afternoon it's through their um affordable housing work their housing working group um and so we had a meeting today prepping for that um and it will include an overview view highlighting the relevant um reg you know regulatory and I think that's like 1 to 2:30 but it's recorded too.

Yes. So that could serve as one um and you know they are also in the process of advertising for um a new housing coordinator and municipal waste coordinator there. Um, so that housing coordinator can hopefully serve as a liaison for some resources for the commission as well once they get on board. I think it's it's a complicated bill. The more explanation we get, the better. Yes. I also want to mention that I was elected vice chair of the planning commission today. Who is the chair?

Uh, he Oh, you're catching me off guard. I don't have the list in front of me. Um, I think it's it was Kevin. Now it's Bob Satty, I think, from I can't tell English. Bob Satty. Well, that's you.

Yeah. And there actually the the commissioner, some of them have served through several cycles. So, like Chuck Andre says, we tried to nudge him back in, but he wanted to take a little bit of a break before he cycles back in. [laughter] I don't blame him. He said for a long time. Speaking of which, you know, I think I've been doing this since I've been serving as chair, but it doesn't have to be me from the commission. So, if anyone else is really interested, although I I've committed to being vice chair for one year, but yes, that you're right. It um it's a representative from each municipal planning and zoning commission. Um a planning commission actually because it's the regional planning commission. Um and so if there was a separate

planning and zoning, right? Yeah. Um, but it's interesting, you know, it's it's sort of learn. It's good to learn what other communities are doing, what other municipalities. Um, we're kind of an outlier being in the eastern border of South Central Connecticut, and I think we're one of the smaller communities, not the smallest, but um, it is interesting to see what else is going on. And the role of the commission really is to review regional referrals. Regional referrals. So, and and see if they impact other municipalities or Long Island Sound. Yes. So, um and a lot of the uh zone boundary changes, regulation changes, amendments, things like that.

Um there are mandatory referrals when the local municipality makes or proposed change, those get referred to regional um and often the receive comments back from the regional commission. Okay. So, um, not zone boundary, it's, uh, text amendments. Um,

okay, speaking of text amendments, I have one, uh, update about our regulation amendments. Um, we had talked that the first step was, uh, the reorganization of the regulations. the commission saw um before the holidays a um a restructured table of contents. Um and so the goal of reorganizing now is um part of our uh codification and getting our regulations online and to be able to be tracked through each section as you move forward with your review and update. And so the first step that the commission will be doing, our consultants um after the commission reviewed the table of contents and staff, we reviewed it. We didn't have any real recommend recommendations to change it. Um it's it's nice, clean, makes sense. Um and if you recall on that table, it under each section of the table of contents, it gave the number of our existing regulations that would slide under that. So, Ty is reorganizing the regulations, all existing text, just putting it in a new order. And so, the next step would be once we receive that document to review it. Um, we may have it as early as next week um that the commission could begin reviewing that um to schedule a public hearing on it. Um the the goal is to adopt the reorganized regulations.

There's no substantive change to that. Um, it just moves forward that this is now our new reorganized regulations, all existing text, but now we can take each section and update them section by section rather than referring back to the old organization. Um, it will just be clearer for um, tracking all of our changes. So, there will be no eliminations, no edits at this point. It's simply cut and pasting our sections into a new organization. Um and and there will be a public hearing for this for that approval.

Absolutely. Any regulation amendment, any change um requires referrals and posting in the clerk's office and a public hearing opportunity. So, um you'll be going through that first and then we'll start breaking down sections. And um I I think the goal is to do um small adoptions of sections as we go rather than yeah, you know, working on something and then a year and a half later a public hearing and we might not recall the discussions on the particular sections and things like that. And each of those each of those changes will also go to the regional planning Y group to

Yep. every every edit has to follow the process. So, we've seen that with other days where they they kind of feed us little text passages for each meeting to be um updated. Just sounds like better organization and no substantive changes for the first step. It's administrative. Why does it have to go to a public hearing? It's the statute moving deck chair. Yeah, the statute requires it should I mean that should be bureaucratic and a waste of time but okay your thoughts I mean at least you understand what we're doing that's exactly correct unfortunately

it's true but I think you have to have that approval first and then you can start making text changes or updates and I I think really the goal is to have that document that you can look at from the very beginning and know exactly where everything has gone in edit and it gives us fully tracked um from beginning to end what happened to that text. Um and so having it in that new format is helpful. It sounds that way.

We have a member question on that. Um does that mean if somebody on committee was going to be eventually recommending some changes they wanted to see, they'd be able to follow where it's gone to now? they they would need this new document. Oh, sure. This is all Yeah. Yeah. So, but don't come to a meeting with or send you comments based on the old uh table of contents. Make sure we we get the right numbers and everything off this. There will also be convers working group conversations amongst you know members of the commission and the the committee as well to discuss months out anyway, right? Talking in a time frame, weeks, months.

Yes. But as soon as we have the document and it's it will be public record and becomes the new reorganized. Yes. So it will be accessible. We have consultants working on this for us. So it's not just us. Yeah. I know somebody in one of our members is is working on something. I see he references you know the existing verbiage and where it is and now all of a sudden everything is going to change. I just want to give him a heads up if he doesn't know already. Yes. But yes, and we will be able to track where that section moves to. Yes. Yeah. Clarify that too. So that's this year's project. On that note, do we have anything else? I do. I have a motion to adjurnn.

Motion to vice chair. Thank you. Secondity. Thanks. Any further discussion? All in favor? Thanks everyone. 7:25. We're back to