About this meeting
- Government Body
- Planning Board
- Meeting Type
- Planning Board
- Location
- Maynard, MA
- Meeting Date
- April 28, 2026
Transcript
487 sections
I will open this meeting for the planning board for the town of Maynard. Today's date is April 28th, 2026 and the time is 7 PM. This meeting being held in hybrid format, which means that members of the public, the board or applicant can participate here in downfall or virtually using the zoom link that is provided on the agenda. Please note this meeting is being recorded. All four members. who are present tonight are here in town hall, which is Bill Crenshaw, myself, Jeff Black, and Chris Klein. Are you all here? Yeah, they're all here. We're here in town hall.
Yes, yes, I can hear perfectly.
And Bill Memsler is participating remotely on Zoom.
I'm ready. Yep.
All right. Okay, well, we can start by doing minutes. We have two sets of minutes. no one sorry from march 10th 2026 and i have not looked at them so i will look at them now okay does anyone else look at them yeah i hear one comment what's your comment uh page three landscape regulations because the item will appear on town meeting agenda to be voted on let's see where is that bill by page three at the bottom you know
uh oh no okay i see it yeah but it probably implied that we were going to talk about it at a later meeting or something on a planned it should be a planning board agenda
Is that good?
Yeah. don't see any other problems does anyone see any problems all right i'll make a motion to approve the minutes from march 10th 2026 uh including the change reference just now all those in favor of the minutes uh raise your hand that's four
approve the minutes bill okay i got it uh and i'll mark them right now approved so i can do that on the spot steve what do we have to do when we leave tonight don't shut off the recording it'll just it'll go to sleep after okay yeah it's fine okay what did i do all right yeah of course yeah i'm fine steve that's good cool all right thanks Have a good trip. Have a good trip on your Safari. Leave the credit card, please.
All right, next on the agenda is the discussion of planning board rules and regulations and landscape regulations. Yes, I also take us through all this. Yes.
Yeah, I can do it. What I did was this is, let's see, I'm going to do it. I'll open in the, I'll start with the rules and regulations. I have the fees as, oh God, Zoe, is it locked? Okay, wait a minute here. Let's see here. I'll open up the PDF, I think. Let me just make a copy. One second here, I'll make a copy. I also have the rules and regulations but I think the big thing is what Bill pointed out the other day that we wanted to go over this to have an idea what we're going to advertise here I'm going to share you should be able to see it in a second here yeah we have printouts in front of us as well oh you do?
but yeah you should share anyway
Is that the one you're looking at right here?
Yep.
Okay. So I can't see you guys right now. So I'll just listen to you and I'll go where you want me to go. I want to make sure this has all the formatting.
I mean, should we just go through the red lines changes?
Yeah, I think so. Can you see it?
Yeah.
Okay. All right. Yeah, let's start. Well, let's start. Yeah, let's start with on the first page, the introduction. I don't think we have anything. Can you hear it? Okay, nothing.
Can I derail this from the beginning here? Okay. I didn't hear that. What's the objective here? These suggested changes, they have They're important. They have to be done by a certain time because this whole set of regs needs a ton of work. It's obviously an old site plan document that a bunch of other stuff has been pegged onto it. Site plan has seven chapters out of 11, which you only have one, I suppose. There's no introduction to the whole thing. There's just an introduction with site plan. There's stuff in there that we don't do anymore. There's stuff in there that I forgot that we should be doing, so it probably should be highlighted. There's specifics about construction rolled in, mingled in the sections that talk about after construction or before construction. It's a mess. Do we
is there a priority here that we have to fix these little things and do everything all the big things later or what do we want to do are you asking me or the board bill you i think um yeah i i can appreciate that and we could start really from square one witness uh which i i wouldn't object to entirely um here's the deal the big thing with the rules of regulations Remember the purpose of it is to implement the zoning bylaws. So we have guidance for the most part on a lot of the stuff through the zoning bylaws. On the other hand, the things that we don't have, like for example, and that things that have to be addressed by us that we don't have, probably few and far between. Things like the design peer review, the evaluation of open space, that kind of stuff. So I guess what I'm saying is we could certainly work our way through it and make, you know, go bit by bit and probably not miss a hell of a lot. if you wanted to do that if we were inclined to do that i'd be i'd kind of want to change the whole format of this though i would think you know um but you're not wrong on the other hand we could we can just um use what we have now and leave the discretion for some of the stuff with the board um but this is this stuff is all just you know a lot of it's just clean up here So I wouldn't have a heart attack either way. If you said you wanted to just redraft it over the next year, yeah, so we could do that. We do have our hands full with some other stuff. That's the only other thing that's going on right now.
Something important that's not in here that we need to get in sooner rather than later?
If it was what?
Is there something urgent in this set of edits that you would like to get in sooner rather than later?
Most of it's just clarification. I would say no. It's just to be clear for Jane Doe or John Doe who's going through this stuff. With the, oh, we didn't know what we were supposed to have and blah, blah, blah. And I use it really a lot for... Oh, here's Mark. He's online. I use it a lot for... The design review checklist. Hey, Mark. The design review checklist and stuff like that. But if we already have that, I would say there's nothing I need like this minute, Bill. No. And like this, can you see what I'm thumbing through here? Can you guys see my... Like this kind of stuff here. I use this all the time. Anything where it just takes where some people are like, you know, people say, well, you're just, you know, where you come up with stuff. But no, I would say there's nothing that we couldn't go through.
What was the catalyst of making the change in that line?
I feel like the peer review changes are good ones. And I feel like the clarification of the water sewer capacity review is good. I think it would be worth it to try and get those done, but that's... Yeah, well, yeah, that's a good point, Natalie.
Because Natalie's right. We are out of this, really, the DPW review part. And that's fine. And that works out well in this case. So our point is we're looking at it from a zoning standpoint and from a site plan standpoint. And the DPW review is not going to enter into it other than we say, you know, Your zoning is fine, and our recommendation for the zoning conditions or whatever, or our directive for the zoning conditions or whatever, maybe. Chris, you asked me what was the catalyst for this?
Yeah, what started off making these specific changes? Most of it, we haven't done a cleanup.
Yeah. A lot of it was just updating things, which we could do anyway, like the safe value calculation, where we use that when we do these density bonuses in the downtown overlay district and this type of thing. But it specifies what it's supposed to be. So if all of a sudden I fell off the face of the earth for two years and you guys were looking at the rules and regulations in 2029 and you said, well, what should the valuation be? It tells you just use this and you know, things like that. Um, so it's nothing like, uh, it's not like the zoning bylaws in other words. Um, the other thing is I, I think that like, uh, we have to remember two other parts are, companion pieces and that's the zoning i mean the uh landscape bylaws or lance she's tired landscape regulations which natalie just put the new um dark sky tweaks and stuff in which we kind of require anyway and the uh pricing which i do so i um you know we can't i can't raise the prices for um application fees and stuff without the board. There's nothing crazy going on there. I think the only thing we did was add two new categories that we weren't charging for before, I think, but we can pull that up and look at it. Like, we were not charging for determinations, like when people are coming in for determinations of minor or major. modification that takes staff time you know pretty much the same as it would for anything short of a plan review certainly a special permit so we thought if it's you know 200 bucks for a special permit or whatever 250 dollars it should be the same for that but there's nothing that's wacky um we did raise the the i guess the most significant would be the uh cell phone antennas uh and um One thing I'm clarifying, I told you guys last time, I do want to take out of the regulations and put it in the zoning bylaws is the inspection period for cell phone towers when we need them. So it mandates for how long and when somebody can bring in an engineering report for a stayed tower, and it's good for five years, and for a self-supported, it's, no, three years, and for self-supported, it's five, or whatever it may be. But anyway, so the answer is, it doesn't put my shorts on a knot at all, no.
I do think that landscape rigs and fees are standalone, and they're coherent by themselves, and there's no harm.
moving forward on that stuff, but I would, I would say you're right.
It's just a fricking mess. I've never tried to actually read it.
Well, what are you saying? Like, well, just, just for clarification, would you, if you were waving a magic wand and you were starting over again, would you do it in a different format? In other words, like, would you, um, and, and I'll tell you why I'm asking this at the conference I was just at, This is kind of sad, but it's a good idea. There are people in other communities that have had problems communicating the rules and regulations or the bylaws to the public. I mean, we don't have that as much as some communities do. A lot of them do. They're going to comic style. like for a lot of stuff.
No, we don't. We don't need to get that far. We just know. Right. The introduction should be the introduction to the document, not to a chapter in the document.
Let's redo it then. Let's just redo it over the next year. I don't care. I'm happy to do it. I mean, I, you know, I just got other stuff. I got to juggle it.
And the big elephant, of course, is the design review, which probably should just be done
Be what? The design review. Should be what? Gutted?
Gutted. I mean, it should be stripped down to, you know, a page or two, maybe. Yeah, I think... It's incomprehensible and we just ignore it.
I mean, it's not incomprehensible.
It pretty much is. It's heavy. It's a lot of stuff.
Maybe it's just unwieldy. You know, super hard to use at all aspects of a project? Sure.
Well, that's a valid. These are valid questions, you guys.
I mean, my only question is, is it helpful to revamp the peer review money part of this and the dpw sewer connection part of this for like legal reasons so that people aren't like saying i didn't understand what i was supposed to be doing because i know that the sewer connection thing is like an active conversation in town right now maybe that's a good question uh i would say legally no it's because legally
According to town counts, I'm sorry.
Legally, we said that they need to have a letter from DPW and that's kind of the same as saying that DPW has separate water and sewer capacity review requirements.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, that's a good point. Maybe.
I know, but I'm just saying, I don't know if it's helpful for us. It says we need to, we have to have a letter from DPW attesting. To adequate water and sewer capacity. We haven't had that lately. We just say, you've got to go to DPW separately and deal with them on their own.
Yeah. Well, if these are... Just a letter. Right. If they're going to have a problem with... Oh, well, we didn't get a letter. We just told Justin, write a letter.
Right. It's... But I guess the difference is we used to do it, you know, we used to get the little says there's adequate sewer or water capacity. What's changed now, and I guess from a legal standpoint this was good, is that we could not withhold zoning approval based on inadequate capacity if the you know we're just saying you know because the in the end they can't get a building permit we're just saying zoning so I if I was starting over again like you guys are saying you know I'd strip all that stuff out I just say this is a zoning action this the you know approval is not going to It doesn't have anything to do with infrastructure capacity or this type of thing. Here's what we want. Here's what our conditions of approval are. Here's what our findings were, our considerations. And here is the approved plan. Here's the designs, the elevations that we are approving, anything else. I would be inclined to do that. Right now, the sewer and water is completely separate from us, so I would remove that. But we didn't approve that anyway. We weren't approving the water and sewer anyway.
No, I know. I just didn't know if the language change was more useful. That's all. But if it doesn't really matter, then we can just wait and revamp everything. But yeah, if you don't have the time to be doing it for another year anyway, I don't know. I don't know. Is it just a matter of advertising? Is that what you want to save time and money on?
No, I'm saying you need to work hard on this for, you know, 100 hours when you get it right.
I would be all in for that. But we've got we've got some stuff going on right now. And I'm kind of concerned with, you know, the other stuff, the the I just want to, but I think it would be a worthwhile exercise. I mean, I do.
There's one thing I like to see is go over everything that we list for site plan requirement, and see if you still care. Yeah, yeah. Our role in knowing where fireboxes and things are, I mean, it strikes me that that would happen independently from our work. But maybe it's all supposed to be there. Maybe the fire department uses that stuff. I don't know.
mean this is like this is like site planning 101 these these right here you know right and do we need it yeah no we definitely need this stuff because I still get people arguing about a north hour for God's sakes and it was what yeah well
Let's do them. If it's a big project to revamp the entire thing and walk through every single step and look at precedent and what are those downs to do and if we actually need to keep all of it, that's a huge project.
It is.
So let's... What a huge project. I think he has 100 hours.
You do? It's not one person's 100 hours. Right.
The only thing I'm saying is Bill and Natalie, remember we're going to be working in addition to the the zoning bylaws, we've got the PMOD stuff that we've Mark, we're going to be doing the mark and I are going to be doing the housing production plan. I'm doing the ADA stuff, which is I can still get this to it. But and we right now we slow down with new applications. So if we're going to do it now would probably be a good time to do this kind of stuff.
Where's, where's best?
What's that?
Where is best?
best is with you and Zoe but we've got a Zoe's got something going with that for The grant but I I was leaving out with you guys But what we have we got us another grant a couple weeks ago. I don't know if I told you guys about the a clean energy siding, and we're bringing in MAPC. So we thought we'd roll it in that there'll be assistance for that one. So the thinking was that, Chris, we'd have you Zoe, MAPC and me on that. And I'm thinking that the best would be kind of part of that because it's going to be to some portion of it, but it really needs It's its own thing, and you probably...
I'm just asking because you were listening to the other things going on, and I didn't want that to fall off the wayside. Last I knew, there was... You know, we were kind of waiting to... Last I knew, I thought we were going to have it on the agenda, so I haven't seen it come up, and I just didn't want it to go by the wayside with these other things coming in.
No, no, I don't think it will, but I... I think that it needs to be definitely refined more with you guys are working on it. More than like, for example, the data center is the other thing we're going to want to talk about, these data centers. That was a hot topic at the conference too. Data centers popping in everywhere. And the question is about what?
Come on now.
I'm playing a geek. So yeah, this is true. We've got a lot of plates in the area with it. And we're going to be going both feet in with a couple of these. We've got the housing production plan is date sensitive. We want to get that done.
So for this document, let's say we're going to move forward with a longer term rehab of this thing. We need to look at a couple of things, like the design peer review to include PMOD. Do we need to get that in these now? And then the peer review funds, do we need to do those couple of things on this and then we able this for a long term project?
Yeah. I just don't understand why we don't just do the update that have been provided if they provide clarity in the meantime, and then we work on a bigger revamping project. It's a matter of reviewing for what, half an hour tonight? Not that much.
We talked about talking about reviewing. Because this document has no clarity. This is a dysfunctional document and it pisses me off.
I read it just fine.
You're not reading it like somebody walked into this town as an outside consultant and says, what do I have to do for this project? And they crawl through this and then try to tell somebody what this was.
I'm not disagreeing that we shouldn't revamp the entire document. I think leaving it worse and incomplete until we completely revamp it. What's the benefit to that?
I don't think anything here changes. Any of the proposals change anything that's not current practice. And it's really not an issue at all.
Okay, how about this? How about this, guys? What if I do this? What if we split the difference for now? And let me take one more gander, keeping it... Let me take one more swipe at this.
with the idea that we're going to... Well, let's just go through what there is and see if we think that these are important things to add right now. It's not a lot. There's not a lot in here.
That's my point.
So... All right, here, let me pull it up here then.
Hang on. Site plan three application meeting. Get rid of the space. Can we agree that that's an okay change to make? Yeah. Okay.
Hold on one second, Chris. Let me just get in front of me here so I can make notes.
Do we really want to have a public hearing on that?
I mean, we're talking about not just that thing. It's all of these, right?
That has to be pointed out in a public hearing. Just as like, okay, here's one of the changes. You have to present it.
Okay, what? All right. All right.
Now, it has to go to public hearing. So as to the other stuff.
Okay, so you're, you're not talking about here, you're talking about, be careful.
Just you're talking about how to be advertised at our next meeting that this is advertised that we're going to talk about it, we have to say, Okay, we're going to wait, I don't even see what are you talking about in this section?
Well, I was, I was trying to wait because it's like, okay, the advertising, we're going to redo the water and sewer capacity paragraph. Sure. That's right. That's a topic that you can present at a time, but I wouldn't go for the little, fair enough.
Okay. Water and sewer capacity review page four. The language of being changed to the planning board does not determine or consider water and sewer capacity as part of their review process, processes, processes. Please consult with the DPW in regards to water and sewer review requirements.
That's poetry.
So my only question on this one is, do we even need the paragraph? Why don't we just strike the paragraph since it doesn't apply?
Because I think that people... Because I think that people say, I got a special permit issued from the planning board. So therefore, this is one of the things where we're trying to dumb it down so that people understand that it's a separate thing.
This isn't a site plan, Jack. This is how to do a site plan.
Is there something in other documents that tell an applicant that they need to go to DPW?
No.
That's your checklist, right? Don't you have that?
No.
Well, then add it.
I don't have a checklist like that.
I mean, I. Negative is weird. It's like, don't do this. Right. This does not apply. So we're going to talk about it a lot. And then you can move on to the next subject. Right. This document is saying this is what has to be in the site plan.
If you didn't address it, I think it would stand out and people would be confused. I think this provides a level of clarification. And thus you had a checklist. If you're saying it could be a checklist, I could see that. But let's come back to that one.
To Bill's point, if we took this out, would this be the only thing that the whole town is silent on and what an applicant would need to get approval for a project.
No, it's the only thing that OMS is.
OMS has nothing to do with it. My point is, I agree with Bill, less is more. But if this is the only thing that would be left out and is required for an approval, then that's fine.
I would hope it doesn't get buried in a document that a lot of applicants don't even find. They don't even know this is here.
Except Bill tells them about the pre-application meeting.
Does he?
Yeah.
Doesn't seem that way at some hearings.
Well, you can't judge the applicant.
But all right, that's fine. I just don't like filling up documents with talking about stuff that doesn't apply to anything.
Yes. I just think that doing these minor fixes in the meantime, what's the harm?
That's all we're ever going to do.
Well, no. You've made it abundantly clear that you think that this is absolutely incoherent, which I disagree with.
You haven't read it like a developer. You have to read it like a developer.
I agree. We can definitely revamp it, but let's continue on to peer review funds.
Hold on. Do we need to add design peer review? Do we need to add the MOB? It is here. Now, we're talking about things that we want to be included in the public hearing. So is this something, because we have a PMOD now, right? Yeah. It's something that should be included.
So what does section 10.6.2 of the ZBL say? Does it say that there? That's where they would normally look first.
Roll your eggs or later. Do one of you guys have it handy there? It's harder for me here to do that.
Yes, we could add it. 10.6.2, applicability. It omits the PMOD in that section. It's not in the ZBL? It is not. Okay, then yes, it should be here.
It isn't in the ZBL? Oh, it might be in the new update. If you're looking, we haven't.
That's what I'm looking at.
Okay.
He's looking at the newly printed one. Oh, let's welcome Mark to the meeting. Welcome, Mark.
Oh, watch this for 20 minutes.
Apologies for being late again. 100%.
Mark, are you able to participate in the meeting? And are you regretting being able to do so?
I'm not regretting anything. I'm a little overwhelmed by all of it, but I'm trying to take it in.
Okay, well, yeah, we're getting down into the nitty gritty.
Gritty, gritty. It sounds like we want the water and sorgfester review changes and the design peer review change, right?
Yeah.
Agreed.
Okay.
How about other consultants peer review?
well yeah because um we typically think about engineering and design but there are certain things that could come up where you where you know you're authorized to use a professional consultant so i could think of uh maybe if we had something like uh an environmental something that went beyond like a normal engineering thing maybe um with one of our um i don't know like uh I don't know, like a data center or something like that where there was a potential for we needed a more environmental engineering study. Maybe something like a, you know, I mean, I could see it, but it just...
Didn't we use that second sentence to highlight those things? Yeah, this, you know, for example, this, that noise, like whatever, you know, environmental this...
You like that, or you want me to put that in, or you don't?
I don't know. It sounds like being more specific would be more helpful. What specialized review topics could include? Yeah, something. But I don't really understand. It's not limited to engineering, design, and peer review, so it basically says it could be anything.
I think maybe adding those three words right now is maybe not worth it.
I don't know what I'm used to saying. I like to say it includes them. Peer review includes, but isn't limited to peer review. That's what he used to say.
This includes, but is not necessarily limited to peer review and path of the line. Right? That's what the track changes.
Yeah, but it sounds like, you know, we should say, hey, there might be a noise issue and you're going to have another design review or there might be a whatever.
Could we get rid of the second sentence and change it to specialized review topics?
Oh, can you see what I'm putting here? Did you like this?
But are not necessarily limited to. Is this that nailing, whatever the last four or five have been?
Noise, landscaping, like what are some... Environmental, well, all those are environmental.
We could say, I mean, what else would it be? Traffic. There could be hazardous materials. Well, that's going to come under. Noise. Well, isn't that environmental?
Oh, sure. That can be environmental. Did you say water?
Water quality.
Those are all kind of engineering.
They don't kind of fall under this. It says that all site plan materials
including the non-limited landscape and the storm. All right, so it just says, all safe land materials are subject to peer review. It says engineering peer review. All right, so yeah, I don't know. I feel like we should just list three or four. Hot topics.
Including but not limited to environmental traffic, hazardous materials, and other reviews.
Including but not limited to.
Yes. Environmental traffic and hazardous materials.
Right here? We're like I had, you mean?
Thank you, President. Are you guys there?
Can you hear me?
Yeah, we can see now.
That's better.
Traffic.
Transportation, by the way.
Transportation. Hazardous material.
Is that environmental? Everything is engineering. So, you know, you're going to use that. I mean, I like some things that cause people to show up. Noise, lighting.
Great.
Great.
What's going on here?
So both of my dogs got skunked on Sunday night. I thought it was nice. It's been wonderful. Nice.
It is you. I thought I was joking, Faith, and I definitely thought it was daft, though.
I can't smell anything.
Oh, you'll be like that every rainy day for the next six months. So, yes.
It's okay. Sorry, Chris Clatton smells like skunks, and I couldn't handle it anymore.
Not a skunk, it's the foot that I brought with my handball. I think so.
It's very mild, but it's just enough to make me think that I'm losing my mind. All right. How does that sentence look to you, Bill?
It's a horribly written paragraph. Terrible.
Lipstick on a pig. All right. Your review fun? Oh, he's still going.
What do you mean that's a horrible sentence? Who said that?
horrible paragraph chainsaw second second sentences clumsy and awkward the one I just wrote okay so this includes but it's not necessarily limited okay let's run let's go ahead to peer review funds the new sentence is you this was your idea wasn't it to promote transparency EFFICIENCY AND PROFESSIONAL LEVEL REVIEW, THE BOARD HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING PROCESS.
I GOT A QUESTION FOR YOU. DO WE NEED THE FIRST SENTENCE? IS THAT SOMETHING WE NEEDED LIKE 100 YEARS AGO?
I THINK THERE'S ALWAYS SOMEBODY ALWAYS, WELL, I'M ALWAYS ASKED ABOUT THAT. HOW CAN YOU DO THIS? HOW CAN YOU DO THIS?
So I like the sentence I just read, promoting transparency, not ensuring it. That's always good. And professional level review.
Hold on. So we have the first sentence. By adopting these regulations, the Planning Board adopts the provisions of General Law, Chapter 44, Section 53G, period. Peer-reviewed services, period. That's a sentence we're going to? Peer-reviewed services, dash. No, that's adding a period and getting rid of the comma. Ah, right.
Okay, so Bill, can we get rid of peer-reviewed services, period?
Here? You want to get rid of that period?
No, I want to get rid of peer review services period.
Second sentence.
That sentence of three words.
Okay. Just not a sentence.
It's not a sentence, so just strike it. Okay. The applicant is responsible for all peer review fees incurred during the project review period. The board recognizes that expenses for peer review can vary depending on the project. To promote transparency, efficiency, and professional level review, the board has adopted the following process. That sounds good to me. So what's the process?
Just real quick, so that we don't have the same problem as an extra space that we're getting rid of on a previous page, we probably have Two spaces after review on the third line. Your new sentence. Looks like in here anyways. Not trying to be a pain in the butt, but not free.
I mean, before the public hearing, all these changes should just be old paragraph replaced with new paragraph. None of this redlining and markouts and stuff. It's like old strikeout, new, boom.
Yeah, we can do that, yeah.
Just as a chunk. Cause then people, then we don't have to, we can just look at the new language.
Yeah.
So wait, is this, this whole section isn't new, right? It's just the red lines.
Correct.
Okay. Um, so we are changing it from requesting three quotes from firms on the list to just requesting quotes from firms on the list. Sure. And then number three is changing to at the time the applicant has selected a peer reviewer the applicant shall deposit The full amount so they get it now they give us like a that invoice
And you say, yeah, I'm good with this number. And we say, all right, we need it before the board actually takes up the hearing. Hang on.
So the color, you need to change the red back to black because we can't, it's not clear. So the applicant shall deposit the full amount quoted for the scope of services made payable to the town of Maynard, period. I need that.
No?
We need to come in as if we're an idiotic developer. Then let's tell them who to make the check out to.
I think I lost. I'm not sure what you mean.
After the balance of $5,000, can you just select the next part of the sentence that's saying and make it black?
This?
Yes.
I think that's just my track.
It still shows up.
Red is new stuff, right? But it wasn't. What used to be there. I don't think it was. I think this is a combination of track changes.
Uh-oh, it went red.
Okay, don't worry about it.
Never mind. If we do this as new chunks of text, then it won't matter.
Uh-oh.
Because I don't understand what the underlines are versus the red lines.
I think it's just two different people that it changes. Yeah.
Peer review expenses generating exceeding the quoted amount are the responsibility of the applicant, period. And then that, oh, is that all part of Section 3? Yeah. Okay. And then we continue on, it should be highlighted that those expenses incurred by applicants for material review are greatly influenced, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, so that's all part of
the time the applicant has selected a peer reviewer yeah okay i mean you know i can't well i can tell you i mean you know how often that happens we get a a if if you behave and and do what you're supposed to do with your submittal it goes easier typically yeah i mean it's just the bottom line uh
OK.
This is a checklist.
Yes, what's next? We're jumping ahead to. Where are we jumping to? Page. 18 to 9 vehicular traffic and parking. We're changing numbers, right? Is that where we are? Yes. We're changing number four to a traffic circulation impact study, both within the site and that may affect the surrounding areas, may be required as determined by the planning board or the pre-application review team.
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah.
That sounds good to me.
Same.
It's clarifying what exactly they... Yeah, I mean, yeah.
Yeah, exactly. I think...
And then are we jumping all the way to...
Page 10H2. What page? Section H number two.
The applicant instead of the developer.
Oh, all right. Yeah. Okay.
If we're in that thing with the postmaster, do we also require details of other deliveries? We're going to talk about deliveries. OK, let's do postal delivery. Show me where the mailboxes are. Show me where the UPS guy is going to go. Show me where the DoorDash is going to go. H2. I'm just saying.
It's a delivery. DoorDash. Can you get the documentation from DoorDash?
Or... No, it doesn't need to be worth that. It just means a site plan must show that information. That's all.
Okay, so can we say applicant shall provide details of postal... You should change it to delivery.
Yeah.
Postal, ABBA, postal, and other deliveries.
Postal and package delivery.
But then you should also... you know, if you're going to be talking about that paragraph, you can change that paragraph and add the other stuff. Add the other delivery stuff. Read it to me. Well, the first stuff can stay. Yep. And then, then, um, short, uh, short term delivery market. App could show, also provide details of, of courier and package and, How many columns? That's the word for door dashes and stuff.
Evil.
Third-party deliveries. I don't know. And there's some trades. And just to provide details of delivery services. Delivery and package services. Such as, Colin, such as UPS, Uber.
Third-party food delivery platforms. There you go.
Third-party delivery platforms.
Yeah, third-party delivery platforms. Sounds good.
You know, package services.
All right, Bill, did you get that or do you want me to read it to you?
I got it. I think if you like this, I just put it in here.
You got to add postal delivery, comma, per year and package delivery, comma, and third party deliveries.
That's a separate sentence. Okay. If sentence number two stays. Okay.
Bill, get rid of that. Can you get rid of that and put, we're just going to make a new sentence at the end of that section two.
Okay. Get rid of everything I put in there?
Yeah.
Drawing a mustache on the Mona Lisa. All right.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay, now, at the end of that section two, new sentence, and say, applicant shall also provide details of courier and package delivery. No, courier, comma, package, comma, and third-party deliveries.
Delivery service.
Delivery services. Okay.
Of courier.
Courier, package, and third-party delivery services. Does that make sense?
English isn't mine. You don't have to see it right now. Courier, package, and third-party delivery service operations.
Third-party delivery service operations. That's why you guys signed up for planning board, isn't it?
Yeah, it's done read-write, though. Applicants shall also provide details.
I want to have this in there because I want to be able to say you should show us where.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I agree. I agree. There's a word missing. Applicants shall also provide details.
Details of the operations. You can do the operations for courier package and courier services, something like that. I really want to strike number three, but okay.
We can talk to the fire chiefs.
We have fire there in the terminal box. Is that still a thing? On the outside of the building? I don't remember ever seeing it on a site like that.
Hey, what happened? Finish that. Okay, great.
This is good.
Yep. Okay. Now the next change is. I have trouble seeing them unless they're red.
Yeah, I'm getting rid of.
Okay. Page 12. I. After approval by the planning board and subject to satisfaction of any conditions of approval. Green 18 by 24 paper prints of all approved plans, maps, et cetera, shall be submitted for signature and filing along with an electronic copy.
Paper size. Okay. This is where we changed that they don't have to bring us so many. Six is pretty. Coming up.
That's full size or half size.
I need these for Rick and for one for Rick, one for me, and one for DPW typically. No, that's great.
Sometimes they bring it.
Like for pulse and middles? Yeah, pulse and middles, right. It's a real thing.
It should be 24 by 36. Yeah, it's 24 by 36.
Yes.
So would they work?
No. Oh. No, it has to be 24 by 36. That's a real plan. Right. That's full reference.
But that's after approval. This is what Bill wants to have in his desk. This is not what we're looking at.
Oh, so Bill wants something completely off the wall. Can we do something from the metric system then?
Wait a minute. I didn't put this in here.
I just realized that 18... What size do you want your plans to be that you and DPW and... 24 by 36. Well, this says 18 by 24, so do you want to change that?
What have they been giving you?
24 by 36.
Okay, so change that to 24 by 36.
18 by 24 doesn't exist? Probably hard to find, right? I don't know.
Come on, now.
Do we have anything about what they give us?
Do we want that recycled free-range picker pole? Free-range picker pole.
Can't we tell them that they can stop giving us 17 copies of everything?
Yeah, we told them don't. I said you didn't want anything.
Okay, great.
If you want it.
Well, I'm talking about the stuff that they have to submit that we look at.
Yeah, this is for endorsement here.
Yeah.
That's something else. See, you're opening up other topics.
I know, and I'm fine with that. And moving forward, if you need help reading the document, I'm happy to help you.
I probably will. I probably will. And I'm half, yeah, I will probably need some help.
K is a change. Change tracking of these changes is inconsistent.
Hey, Bill. Hey.
I don't know.
I can't tell. What do you guys think on this I that we just looked at? All information appearing there on should be in black ink. Is there no value in any colored prints?
Oh, no. No, not for the final. This is just for the final.
That's fine. I just wanted to ask a question.
Bill, is there any benefit to sometimes having other colors of ink?
Some jurisdictions only take black ink. Would you be
if somebody gave you color? Not that they would.
I don't know. Do we get any new sensibility issues? Does it scan right the same? No, we're way past that point.
Okay, leave it for now. That'll be part of the bigger conversation.
Well, we can just strike that sentence. That's not how it's going to be. No, no. Later conversation. Later conversation. Later conversation.
Okay, what's the next change?
K maybe.
Is K new information, Bill?
Yeah. We want this. Yes. We've had to chase down everybody for this one.
Okay. Well, then, great. Got to be unregistered. As recorded by the registry. shall also be provided prior to the issuance of the building. Right.
Right. It shows it, so it's in the registry of deeds, and then it's on them. Because then everybody, yes, yes, yes. That's a definite.
Okay. All right. And we're jumping to the design guidelines that Bill loves so much.
We're leaving special permits. Oh, we're leaving street numbers.
Damn. Oh, miscellaneous, page 22, is that where we are?
We're right here at, I'm on page 13.
No, but is there anything, is there anything, I don't think that there's anything, did anything change in between 12 and 22?
No.
Okay, so we're jumping to 22, safe harbor, valuation of open space, the third bullet point. FY26 base acquisition cost per household is $10,800.
Since it's FY27 almost, we should probably update it to $11,000.
Does this number really have to be changed this often?
The number automatically increases by an inflation factor of 2.0% annually rather than the nearest $100. We don't actually ever have to update this because you can do the math. Can you just put that Sentence in there? It's in there. It's the next sentence. Well then, great. But if you want to update it to FY27, the number's $11,000.
Should we do that, though?
Is this one that we should just wait on? We're doing a whole revamp next year?
Well, that's a good point, because there's a lot of other stuff we want to just maybe worry slightly about. Let's strike this one.
Just change it to $10,800, or you don't want to bother doing that? You don't even have to do that. Just do the math. Yeah. Right. Okay.
This bill, you're talking this? Don't change it.
Let them do the math and we'll rewrite it so that it's easier to figure out moving forward.
So wait, do you guys see what I got highlighted here? Do you want this highlighted? I mean, do you want this changed or not? These numbers?
We're not going to make that change at this time.
Okay. So strike these changes right now.
That's right.
All right, then we're going to make them red. Oh, shit.
I think I'm starting to understand why these are a mess.
Okay, are we changing this one or not?
Which one? No, we're going to leave that.
Reject that change.
We're just going to leave it as fiscal year 21.
Just hit reject all changes in public. Okay, reject this.
Yeah, because for some reason they don't want to update it to 26.
Because it's small and not...
But, like, who cares?
Because we have to present it at a public hearing.
Yeah, it'll sound like this.
Okay.
Whatever.
It's literal. It doesn't change what they have to pay. You guys can do the math.
Okay, so the next one is the example. So should we also get rid of that?
Oh, yeah. That section. That section remains unchanged.
Damn it.
Wait a minute. We should have let Mark do the edits.
all right what's it here again the same here yeah just get rid of it because we're not doing the changes so don't change the example killing me holmes What's going on here? Okay. Other posting. This is nothing changing here. That's it.
Okay.
All right, I'll go over this and clean this up tomorrow or the next couple days with Zoe. And I'll make it like you guys wanted where we just do a clean version and a, wait, right? That's what you want to do is I do one that just has remove this paragraph and just here's the new paragraph.
Yeah, instead of for the ones where it's like we took out, you know, 75% of the sentences and just left a few. Let's just do a whole new chunk of text so that it's easier to read and
But on the same document?
Yes.
Okay.
Right?
Yeah, just strike a whole paragraph and...
Put in a whole new paragraph.
Put in a whole new paragraph. Okay.
I'll do it.
So what are... So shall we vote... Are we voting tonight to... No.
No? Don't vote on nothing. I got... You got... We... No.
Okay. Okay. I really loved all of those changes.
You want to look at the schedule real quick?
Yeah.
Okay, hold tight. Hold tight.
Can you bring up the fee schedule? Because we don't have a copy of that. As we used to say, I'm a try-on.
Holy God. Oh, my goodness.
This can't be good. Okay.
Something's wrong here. No wonder Zoe didn't print it.
Oh, okay. Well, Bill found it.
Now you can bring it up off the agenda. There you go. That's the stuff that's gone, but there's a page in front of that that's the new stuff. Where?
Oh, there we go. Okay, there it is. All right, here we go.
So can you just put that on view or whatever? Take away all the red lines and notes and stuff and just put it on. This page, just turn off all the formats.
There's a review tab at the top. Click review.
And no markup.
No markup, yeah.
Then zoom in. So first question, the title of this, do we really want the calendar year date in there? Yeah. And are we talking calendar year or fiscal year?
Yeah.
Okay. Next question. Under public hearing, should there be the word required? Is that the point of that column?
Where's that?
The head of public hearing? Third column?
Oh, here. Oh, I see.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think so. Yep, yep, yep. I like that. This one went up. And here's the modification, wait. Yeah, modification is in there now. Oh, road acceptance, remember that?
Yeah.
I think that should be earmarked for downtown enhancement fund. Or sidewalk fund or something. Probably should be, road acceptance should be. We should do that.
Why?
I don't know. How many roads do we ever accept?
We do, but none of them are downtown.
No, if a road is accepted, we should go for sidewalk something. I don't know, something pedestrian. Well, we'll talk about that later. I guess we can figure that out, but it's not going to go here.
It can be part of the bigger conversation.
Under a definitive subdivision plan with approved preliminaries, do you have a double dollar thing? No.
Well, because it's very expensive.
Yeah, fine. And the right alignment of the profits bothers me, but you did that on purpose, right? It was what, Bill? The right alignment of the first column is just to annoy me, is that it?
Zoe formatted this, I'm not sure. Okay, all right. She's pretty good with this.
Job well done.
This all looks great to me.
Okay. You good with that one, guys?
Yep. Are you guys good with it?
Yeah. Sure. Holy mackerel, wait a minute. Save.
all right do we want to look at the landscape or not are we good with them um the landscape looks like it was basically just the the changes that i presented a couple months ago yeah so i don't know do you guys want to talk about it again yes where's the last Yes, we're going to look at the site lighting section. What is site lighting?
Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on.
No, no, no.
What is site lighting? Because you're reading the citizen protection thing. That's unrelated. They're talking about this light. They're talking about flagpole lights. They're talking about sign lights. Does site lighting cover all that stuff?
Yes.
Or does it have a more specific meaning?
Lighting on the site.
Any lighting on the site of anything. Internal sign illumination, external sign illumination. Anything external.
In my opinion, it's anything external to the building.
All right. So should we define that here?
Zoe's got this one locked. Damn it. This is landscape red.
Yeah.
So what does parking lot lighting have to do with landscape reds? What? Maybe it does. That's fine. I'm fine if it applies to everything.
My understanding was that it applies to all lighting that's exterior to the building. Like, that's on the site, but it's not inside the building.
Cool. Well, then we should just say that.
OK. Can you just say, site lighting, open parentheses, all Lighting exterior to the building.
Exterior to the building?
All lighting.
All exterior lighting.
All exterior lighting. Here you go. Okay, hold on. Wait, wait. What's that? Okay. Where are you at?
Lighting.
Exterior lighting. Nice. Nice words. Less is more. Exterior lighting.
Okay.
Where does this go? Under applicability? Okay.
5.9 site lighting. We're going to change the title of the section 5.9 to exterior lighting. that be the only change?
No, 591. Do we have to change it?
Yep. I mean, it's clearly referencing the exterior lighting.
Bill will gas it, and he'll be hearing about how confusing it is.
Yeah, I know. He's also going to be like, what exterior lighting? Is it for the site, or is it for the next door? Let's go. I think I should say it's for the next door, whatever.
Mm-hmm. Okay, so define exterior unsighted lighting.
Okay, so let's change sight lighting in 5.9.1 to exterior lighting.
They're not going to be happy with that.
Who?
Because it's going to say it says exterior lighting and in the house it's coming outside because they watch your TV at night or something like that.
If you're talking about the bylaw people, that's not in their bylaw either, so they're not going to be mad about it.
Okay.
I think the rest of it's fine, in my opinion.
I really want to know why the phrase except there's a flag by the public safety personnel would mean a site plan landscape, right?
Maybe it is adjacent to a piece of property that requires more monitoring, and we're using the private property to help out public safety personnel.
With searchlights and skybeams?
Yeah. Batman, okay? Batman. Batman. The answer is Batman. We're losing it.
That could be part of the larger conversation. 596. Mounted exterior lighting fixtures. What is a fixture type?
Sure. Fixtures.
I was wondering what that is. Is there a definition for fixtures versus... There is. Versus... What are the other words? It should tapes.
As opposed to a luminaire.
Yeah.
A luminaire is the fixture plus the bulb together.
Oh. Not to be confused with a luminati.
It's not all of the fixtures. Fixtures is the thing the bulb screws into? Yes. Okay. This is the bulb maybe? Yes.
The fixture is the thing the bulb screws into. And if there's no bulb, then it doesn't exist. It's not subject to any regulation.
Oh my God. You guys, we need to be finished with this.
No, that's it. That's all we have, right?
Did Bill get that?
Yeah, I got it. Is that it, Bill?
I think that's it. Motion to adjourn.
Yeah.
They, um... That's everything, guys. Next week, or next meeting, just a heads up, also, before I forget, next meeting, we have Eversource coming back. Remember the, I don't know if they're ready to go or not, so I'm going to call them, but remember we had that, and they were here over the summer or something, remember?
The substation? Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Um, Mark, also, um, I am going to be meeting, I'm going to set up a meeting up with the consultants for the housing production, I'm going to send you an invitation will be in the next two weeks. Okay.
I'm gone tomorrow until next Wednesday.
So right with me. I'll be okay. So I'll be out next week. So good. Okay.
Thanks. Are we? Mark, do you have anything? Do you miss us?
I miss you.
We'll see you in a few weeks then.
I'll be back. Where are you? Where are you? I'm home. We're leaving tomorrow. But where are you now? I'm at home. Oh, I see. I got you. Okay. I'm sorry.
All right.
Are we all done, Bill? Um... The stuff I have is for Chris. I need Chris. I've been trying to get a hold of him. I may have to, if he's really sick, Natalie, I may have to have you just help me with the, make sure how he wants to do the slides for town meeting. And I wrote the town meeting report and the slides, but he was sick and he's been, I know something has kept him busy and I have to have it in by May 4th. If he gets really sick, I may need you to pinch it, okay?
That's fine. All right. Well, you don't have a town planner update on here, so I'm going to make a motion to adjourn the meeting. All those in favor, raise your hands. Mark is raising his hand, and so are all of us here in Town Hall.
Okay.
Thanks.
Natalie, can you shut off the computer? Or do you know how to hit the... I'm going to make Chris do it. On the Apple-looking... Let me get rid of the cord here.
Is there a laptop? We get the camera.
This transcript was automatically generated from the official public meeting video and is presented unedited. It reflects remarks made on the public record by elected officials, staff, and public commenters. Transcript accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.