Planning Board - Regular Meeting

I'd like to begin the planning board meeting uh Thursday January 9th um with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repu for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay um we have an agenda um do we have minutes to approve um y uh Cooper had um finish the minutes jock minutes for December 12th we have one correction that JL pointed out that we're happy to make any other comments actually if you want to hand those down to Cooper I have um several typo mistakes but I can deal with that later if you want um yeah if you just share those with us and we'll make do we have any substantive no um comments uh would you like to approve the minutes uh assuming these um typographical and grammatical mistakes or do you want to save it for next meeting um I just have one comment that um uh darl had actually mentioned the last time so when we were talking about affordable dwelling units um darl said that I that he thought I said that adus would help with the affordable housing issue based on the notes apparently I did say affordable but I would just like to redact that I do know that affordable excuse me that adus adus will be helpful for the housing crisis issue not affordable housing so I would just make that clarification create more housing yeah create more housing in general not

affordable housing yes yeah we can make sure that clarification is thank you so once again do we want to approve the minutes with these uh Corrections or do you want to wait I'll make a motion to approve the minutes as they will be edited is do I hear a second second all in favor I okay uh next item bills any bills to today no okay uh next item and I'm sort of trying to move this along because we have a sort of a packed meeting tonight um member input and member update on projects um Northern Bank is under construction my house is shaking in the morning when they begin work uh 12 Robinson Road Mr Cataldo is in the room and that's wrapping up pretty much done yeah and and he gave a tour this weekend which um is very impressive Mr chairman um I'd like to invite the other board members that haven't been able to go certainly I can talk with Ann and Darren and Mark and Marin as you all have been big part of helping us get it underway so okay we'll just try to U arrange a time it works for everyone um are we interested I think you should be it's really impressive okay um so we'll try to get something going uh we have not done anything we we made one uh the next item is Town newsletter and we have [Music] um done one thing should we I'm thinking with upcoming issues maybe should we do something on adus or some kind of of um

okay so adus I would recommend we wait a little while the state's going to issue um a draft uh a model by law probably early February okay do we have any suggestions for planning board input to the town newsletter I mean we may have something after tonight's meeting to talk about um okay but let's keep that in our heads about potential um items 245 Foster Street is there anything going on with that no no no updates uh 95 Taylor Street um 95 Taylor Street um yeah if I could um ask the board to vote on the uh signing the uh trip party uh agreement and the uh Associated um cash Bond agreement okay this meeting yeah yeah and there was recommended wording on the cover page so I'll open that so you can see it um should be [Applause] up so we're doing them one at a time so I have in the cover page we need a motion uh is any uh it says move that the planning board approve and sign the updated Tri party agreement for partial security for the strawberry farms development at 95 Taylor Street and further move that the planning board approve and to authorize signature of the planning board chair on the security agreement for deposit of money for

partial security for the strawberry farms development at 95 B Taylor Street can I have a motion on that or do we have any discussion that we need to do I I think my only question was um why the two forms of bond because I don't think we've ever seen that I mean yep and it did cause some confusion and added to the process on staff's side um basically it's up to the developer to ask to put whatever bond in place whatever types of bond in place that they care to we were able to work through getting two different types in place the third type would have taken even more coordination uh developer didn't want to wait for that process so it is at the request of the developer okay right and we're confident and comfortable with the language that's in the documents and the other parts there that the bond is secure the way we need it um yes thanks for the question uh Town Council uh Chris Heap was working with me um as recently as last week on the final wording and he is comfortable with it now okay so just from an historical perspective we used to just take cash now we're getting both a tri party agreement we which we've used in the past and cash so why he's doing both just made it a little more difficult so can I have a motion so moves per the just say so moved so moved yeah yeah second second all in favor I I okay and uh the paperwork is there for your signature in one case and the board signature in the other case Okay um next um potential zoning bylaw amendments um for May 2025 town

meeting um we have the Adu issue um and we need to sort of map out what hearings we want to have in the spring starting in February um flood plane bylaw and map update marijuana cultivation facilities bylaw update uh then there's items four and five are not necessarily well we'll bring them up um I guess the question is can we do an Adu bylaw proposal for Maytown meeting um this is this new state um law has uh excited a lot of people who want to develop and I'm not sure that we should wait for fall um that's my feeling whether whether we can do it or not I don't know I was going to say part of it depends on whether what the states timeline for giving us a model um bylaw cuz I don't think we ought to invent our own and then wait for the state come out with one absolutely Meritt maren just mentioned that they want uh it's some three or four weeks from now I I the latest that I've heard is they expect to issue a model bylaw early in February um one of the me take off on a little bit of a tangent one of the questions for the town to consider is whether or not you also want to um uh restrict the use of adus for short-term rentals um Cooper um identified uh what three four questions um that we could do a brief survey get at least some data points um from residents on how they

would like to address that which is I think uh did you lay that out on one of the cover sheets yeah yeah um well should we let's talk about this um so I I have a couple comments in addition to that there are other aspects to the new law which will affect our town and that is the in an effort to create more housing they want to basically allow uh the building of modest homes on what are presently considered unbuildable Lots um so um for instance they by there uh if a lot has 75t Frontage 10,000 square ft uh as of right you should be able to build an 1850 3 square foot 3bedroom home this does have some impact on some of our neighborhoods um I am sort of interested in opening a hearing on the Adu issues because of things like this just to get the word out to people what's going on the other thing that really is a big change is that there's no uh owner occupancy required anymore so literally new homes can be developed with an Adu and sold and that's what the state is mandating but I think we all need to come to an understanding of the ramifications of of I I work with developers and there are developers already talking about do this so essentially it it makes legal two families in um in any case um subject to you know

um septic and setbacks and you know this and that and the other thing so I think just to clarify I think there's difference between a two family in terms of How It's deed versus a single family house with an Adu which which I think we'd keep as a single deed and not as separate ownership there's no provision to keep it as a single deed it could be condo yeah and I I think what will help is when I think we need clarification when when the state issues their final guidelines um hopefully we'll have some clarification I don't think it's going to work out that way um whether ownership is part of the question um well access is going to be definitely an issue in the septic M right right those are going to be the det yeah limitations but in terms of form of ownership and the physical aspects uh and then the other issue is is there any neighbor input design review Provisions um so there's a lot there's a lot it's it's not just a simple model bylaw thing I think we need to sort of understand what what's going on I think that's why I don't I I know you want to try to do it as quick as possible but unless the the the governor's office gives us a phenomenal blueprint on this which I don't I have my doubts whether we would get one that's a lot we're going to have to go through between now we're not going to get it till February you got March and April to kind of well we could open a hearing in February we could and then if we don't have the info we can well no we have to have a draft bylaw um filed with town clerk in order to then we can't do it February so right for this one but I I I urge you all to you know pick up information talk to people get their concerns um and

um you know it's sort of simple but no it's Monumental has a lot of umot decisions yeah it's got a lot of moving Parts um okay um and so the one thing we might be able to get ahead of a little bit is just asking for input on uh short-term rentals I think that's an excellent idea I mean what do we feel about that did you look at the cover sheet there was some uh questions uh that were um laid out um public out there's a public Outreach plan did we does anyone have any comments on that we could put a paragraph in the town newsletter yeah oh I was going to circle around afterwards is the things that we are planning to discuss as public hearings we probably had put into the newsletter that these are the major activities of the board coming up so that people are if they're reading the town newsletter give a heads up that we're we're talking about these things here so could we prepare a newsletter item with this um and I mean I think in general I like the proactive proactivity of of trying to uh um so then we should have it on February just for the discussion of the think so I I think that we can open it and and push it down the road but uh there's a lot of different pieces of it and people are already coming to me with comments and ideas and you know so um right certainly it can be on the agenda um but yeah I I'd be more comfortable having on the agenda for discussion not scheduling it as a hearing at public hearing yeah okay well Baron says we can't have it as a

so um okay uh so is that sufficient for your purposes I appreciate the direction on that um I just wanted to add one thing I was and maybe it would include it but I think it would be useful is is short-term rental is defined as 31 days or less we are probably got to put the definition in so that people know what kind of time FR that's referring to um flood plane bylaw and map update now we should open a hearing on that shouldn't we um yes eventually we'll need to um the state has issued a u model bylaw that's quite simple um Town Council just today sent me a draft I will work with um um Jenny Merl Town Council on um my recommendations for that draft run it by uh building department and um then bring a proposal to you bring the draft to you for February so that you later in um maybe March you can schedule that public hearing once again I'm you know I I really want to push this stuff along because March and April become really crappy yeah um okay so I'm just going to touch one thing I I was trying to look at the maps that they gave is there one that just gives a simple over that's colored of where the changes are versus the two maps and um can we get one prepared how's that uh if there one that isn't exist so that be so the best we can do right the best we can do is um give you the link to the female website that has the map that you're talking about that shows the changes in in various covers where it's an increase or a decrease they do have that cuz the one I

saw was today in the new one right not one that showed me what changed right right and what we FEMA on their website they do have one that shows the change um the problem is we can't import that information to rgis so you can't see both the lot lines and the changes but you do we will be a we'll share the best information that we have would it be possible to do screenshots and then send those to us as PDFs um of the entire town you wouldn't get the detail that you need um okay so we will we're working very hard on showing the best information that we can um understanding that we also from a zoning perspective we also have to um meet the requirements um for zoning bylaw update that include map and have a 8 and 1 half by 11 that's filed with Town Clerk of course at that scale it's not particularly alleged all but okay get our arms around all of it so like the Adu we're waiting for the model by law M okay um marijuana cultivation facilities bylaw update um at the last meeting I think the board indicated we want to go forward with um the next and final step which would um for all intents and purposes as I understand it limit the remaining we we cannot limit medical um cultivation but it would limit the uh remaining two types of cultivation that are were not affected by um our last bylaw it would also require a

ballot uh on or before or after around you know uh sometime around the um um the town meeting um that would need to be coordinated with the select board and hopefully with their um approval my feeling about this is that while we have achieved a fair amount of um uh constriction of the potential cultivation in town there are many people in town who would like us to take this next step and um they deserve um an effort whether it succeeds or not so um what would be the strategy of opening hearing on that because we have the bylaw right um we have a draft uh bylaw from Town Council that was shared with you um and the next step is for the board to uh vote to schedule the public hearing and you could schedule that as early as the February 6 meeting I yeah I know I'm trying to push all these um hearings I think we need to push this hearing so it can be put aside and achieved and we can we can uh coordinate if at all with the board of Selectmen um could I have a vote on us uh I being supporting scheduling the public hearing for February on this matter I'll make a motion that we U put this on February's agenda to uh in an effort to U put it on for Spring Town

Meeting do I hear a second second second all in favor I I okay clarification are you looking for the hearing to open on February 6th yeah yes okay thank you and uh we we'll all uh look at the uh so you'll file the potential bylaw with the town clerk we will uh all look at it and um we'll go from there put it on the website too yeah I was going to say add a couple of things there since we just agreed to that that would be another thing we ought to include in the inputs to the town letter oh okay yeah yeah but the other part is is it looks like we have two parts in the thing there one is an administrative correction uh adding MCT to a c to a two of the sentences I want to make sure that that's separated and clearly distinct from the discussion about the number of sites so we we actually have would probably have two articles for uh two changes for the uh two separate changes for the bylaw right um thank you the way to approach that is one public hearing and then you can split that to for all of the zoning bylaw amendments that deal with u the marijuana bylaw and then you can break that into to as many um or as few warrant articles as needed so you do one public hearing yeah for that I just want to make sure that we're on track that those are two sep totally distinct going to be votes that there and it's set situated such that with the however we file it with the town clerk we're consistent with that correct uh yep okay next uh there's been uh we're talk U the item four inquiry inquiry on resoning 208 and 210 Great Road from residential to Village common these are

two lots that are next to between the daycare center and um the the center of town and um this is just an inquiry uh however I think it's good to get uh whatever we decide on um the record uh I know my personal uh feeling is is it doesn't um doesn't conform with the master plan's stated purpose of trying to um um maintain in some way a low density along that part of the the road uh Village common would allow a a greater density of um um development anyone else have comments no I don't like it because there's residential between it as well you know it was it's been residential all along we built a house there now the lots that are beside it should stay residential that way you'd have you shouldn't have Village common or commercial with residential all around it okay I thought the village dist ended at where the commercial District ended at this point so this is not part of the commercial District so why would we be putting it into the commercial District I agree I don't think we should be least especially as a spot thing I mean if we're talking about rezoning all of Great Road to that's a different discussion but one single lot well there's it's two lots but I'm just looking at the picture there yes two ACR so it doesn't doesn't seem to fit but you know the reason why I want to have this discussion in a in an open meeting

is so that this is on the record of about intentions um Anna do you have any comments no I would agree that I mean I don't believe it should be done it is spot zoning so okay Bart I agree um with the previous comments I think it's important to keep the um rural character of Great Road as we come into town and you know when you go down the hill it changes to Urban but that's more or less a the top of the hill and it's kind of the end of the rural area Okay so if there are further inquiries you can refer to this conversation yep I appreciate hearing the feedback it's good to have it in this open discussion um the next inquiry was Food Service drive-throughs um we do not have food service drive-throughs in Littleton and I guess periodically we get inquiries um I would every 5 to 10 years you get a question again yeah right why no food service drive-throughs Mark you've been on the board for years we haven't had it forever we I think we mimicked what Acton does and what conent does did 30 years ago we never put it in the BW we we allow for banks we allow if you wanted to have a drive-thru drugstore we'd allow that but no take out food available on by car I think it changes the character because we're not just talking Dunkin don't our coffee shops we're talking restaurants you're talking to McDonald's you're talking to Chick-fil-A you're talking all those things and the town has never had the appetite for lack of a better word to have fast food in the town and I think it's I don't think that that's changed be nice to have coffee but that's you open that can of worms you're going to get everything so I guess Mye especially looking at the the statement here I if residents were

having a demand and for drive-throughs I think that's a gives a different perspective of it developers wanting drive-throughs I I'm I just can't prioritize that no okay I'm a no um okay if you want to respond okay um e uh public input um we're already behind um is there anyone who needs Mr [Music] Sanders I feel coold just looking at of Mr chairman um people be able to fall along with you when you use uh letters for words like the Adu the people watching this they the Adu is so you shouldn't do that like I'm going to use the word CCC that's the Camas Control Commission uh want to let you know that uh I sent an email to U A compliance officer there requesting that uh they tell Lon when the inspectors the enforcement team is coming out to inspect the sanctuary system here in uh Litton with with regard to the smell of marijuana and I also wanted them to notify the town as well as myself and to give us the results of the inspection so I sent the email off to representative J Serio so his uh director is going to follow up with the person that uh sent us the email that I

sent to learn that you all got the email but you guys uh to that also on the 20th of December I had a conversation uh telephone about 30 minutes that with a representative from uh the CCC asked me had I heard from uh the CCC which I told her I hadn't uh representative uh Don Hugh uh is uh the chairman on The Joint Committee that they have in the house there with regards to uh the cavas Control Commission there uh a lot of complaints they're not happy uh with a lot of things so he sent the letter that I sent to him over to the Camas control uh for them to answer and I had particular questions in there that I had concern about and uh I pointed out to them I couldn't understand why is it that it is said that uh if a permit has already been the issue that you can't go back and require them to do this and that well I understand that the commission is also working on that and they've made changes uh to the host agreement as well because the marijuana smell is coming up in other communities as well so it's not loan alone so they are still working on that and the thing they pointed the lady pointed out to me was that perhaps at the time this Sanctuary was given the permit maybe a lot of things was not in place as to what they should do and she suggested that you go back and look at the permit that was issued and see what did you issue requiring

them to do but they're working on that and they're also working on the the concerns that I have uh with regards to that so I just want to let you know that uh this is being worked on thank you very much and I hope you'll attend when we open the hearing on the next step okay uh item two Mark wants to speak oh I'm sorry go ahead Mark U real quick uh Mark racher I'm on the select board I just wanted to let everyone know that we have opened up application uh for a charter commission that we're starting in the select board starting to review the form of town government um applications are open now through uh January 27th we're going to have a meeting on February 4th um to appoint 7 to nine members to the committee it'll be looking at like which board should be elected versus appointed whether we should have a town manager Town Administrator all of that stuff so if anyone's interested I encourage you to look uh for the application on the website and there's more information there reach out to the Town Administrator the SE Board office if you have any questions can you read can you put it in the town newsletter it is in the town okay great I guess I should look at it um okay thank you um okay we're running a little late we have a 645 informal discussion on 600 Great Road which is known as Gary's Farm Stand okay and um so we have a quick quick switch to make it's not a hearing they've requested a remote attendance so lctv is going to enable us to do that this is not a hearing it's just an informational

discussion not two there should be two individuals okay okay U Marin this is BR caho and if you can hear me yes we can hear you okay I'm just trying to figure out why my video won't start there we go okay how's that good can we have your name and um yep absolutely so good evening Mr chair members of the board thank you for the remote option uh my name is BR kahon I'm an attorney with an office at 85 Eastern Avenue in Gloucester and I will keep it brief I know it's a busy night um I represent the prospective buyer of the Garry's Farmstand property and we wanted to come in and just start a preliminary discussion about proposed plans uh my client would like to buy the property and operate a similar Farm Stand but ex expand the use a bit for a little bit of background he currently Farms just about 2200 acres of land in Massachusetts New York and New Hampshire a thousand of those are here in Mass he grows produce flowers raises cattle chicken and turkeys he doesn't sell wholesale he sells at his Farm Stand locations which right now are in Newbury whenham do and hopefully in Littleton uh the primary change from the current use is the addition of fresh butchered Meats so since he intends to cut meat on the premises we understand that that will constitute food service and require approval from your board on

that expanded use he would continue to sell fresh produce Dairy baked goods specialty food items flowers and the like there are also currently Food Service permits for two food trucks on site and those would remain so we're in a residential district the proposal conforms to dimensional requirements of the zoning bylaw we are also in an aquifer zoning overlay District so I understand that we may have some limits on coverage I do think we can be flexible in terms of parking and other coverage to work with all of that so you know our goal is to have the expansion of the current use be appropriate for the neighborhood you beneficial to the neighborhood and the community um and the plans that we shared with you they are preliminary uh Matt wanted me to share with you that he is envisioning a smaller building than what the um original draft chose but I also have his architect Eileen here and she can talk to you a little bit more about the site and the plans okay and thank you uh thank you for that there's a lot of interest and anticipation for this um uh are we talking with the architect now or do you want comments from the planning board uh would you like her to tell you anything about the site or the plans or would you like to comment first I think from our point of view the main issue is um especially it's a it's a pre-existing use pre-existing building Etc the main issue is that uh our jurisdiction in addition to all the other town uh boards Etc will be what we would call site plan review MH um the that intersection and the way the parking uh relates to it is a problem

and um I think that's one of the main concerns and Main um areas of jurisdiction we would have as an attorney you will need to um have the rationale for extending the existing use um which I think that you are you know beginning to wrestle with um and uh I think those are the issues that the planning board would um uh take on any other com thank you for that um in general I mean it's it's it's basically going to be plus or minus the new Services there you know a reconditioning of pretty old facility to more newer and modern standards and we shouldn't discourage that kind of sight Improvement uh there so I'm naturally more inclined to to you know they're they're not knocking it down to put in houses they're not knocking it down to put in a warehouse you know uh they're knocking you know going to re redevelop it in the same manner of what its current use is primarily is something I feel we should be encouraging so along those lines the history we changed the bylaw 10 years ago Mar for Farms we allowed expanded use which is the how um uh spring spring Dale Spring Book got the uses out in the back one of them was a butcher shop actually I think it was repairs right under the accessory business use of an active farm right not clear whether that applies here but that was at least the idea of one thing that

the town was interested in we wanted to promote the continuation of the farm stands in the and and that's where I'm at too is is is this it doesn't sound incompatible with what's already there we should be encouraging it not encouraging them to develop it in in something that we possibly don't want I think the most high jurisdiction should be is the site plan right we should let them figure out what they want to put there and just come in with a site plan that addresses a multiple ins and outs parking loading they fix up the parking in and out of the parking lot Etc site predates zoning in the town and that's one of the first Farm stands that was out here we do allow agricultural use in residential zones by special permit I guess we'd have to was there ever a special permit issued for this this would have predated re it's not a uh it's Granda I I think um what uh is being said is that we're I think in general speaking for all of us I think that your comments are pretty much represent the way everyone feels since it was an informal discussion I wanted to signal that we would entertain such a proposal yeah the devil's in the details we're not approving those details at this point yeah agree um can we do you need any more clarification on that no that very helpful comments thank you okay um I think that's uh I think it may be premature to talk about the architectural issues they'll play into the size you know required parking all that kind of thing uh based on the bylaw I it sounds to me that you're not asking you don't anticipate asking for waivers of development standards um so

you know it's um we um we hope that um we'll have a great um butcher shop there I mean I don't know anyway we hope so too okay I could I ask a question yes about the uh the building proposal I know we're not talking architecture I just want to talk about the concept it looks like you have large retail space and some Works spaces in back my question is is there really a are you going to have a greenhouse in front and is is that the plan I if if I could eileene I will let her comment on that sure and Eileen I think they want just your name and address for the record thank you absolutely so this is I mean graph with graph architects um to Liberty Street Newport Mass um so to speak to that yes if if you were able to to take a peek at that site plan generally speaking the orientation there's a long um I'll call it a covered walkway and right behind it are some dilapidated um green houses So the plan is to rebuild those structures we still need to use those uh for his um you know intermittent seasons and and keeping plants um alive so so rebuild new ones there they're not permanent structures they're those thin ones um on the site plan the darker grade of Po shade area is the build proposal for a new footprint of an addition um as Britta has already mentioned um the the Matt the owner of tender crop feels that we uh are likely not going to be building as big as this um is showing but just

wanted to be able to have some some something to talk about for tonight's meeting um we did discuss with him about uh the flow of deliveries and these trucks coming in you know he has uh discussed already or mentioned that he wants those uh trucks to stay in a a forward motion so hopefully that the circulation through the site maybe in from Great Road out from Lawrence or vice versa um and so concerned about safety as well and trying to keep that loading dock when it is proposed on the rear of the property again for some of the sort of back of house um appearance to stay on the rear of the of the structure um but we're but we're open to hearing and um um more comments about uh this the current situation for entering off a great Road um it is clearly a a huge expanse of of hot top um and and and a lot of parking which is wonderful but we can rearrange how the flow is in and out so um so we're open to that okay um what is the we we need an actual proposal to open hearings Etc um right if they happen to trigger the requirement for special permits then we would have a public hearing otherwise it's more of a site plan review and at that point you'd have the entrances and parking and loading and um all of that information on on a site plan to review so thank you um you may want

to uh since we'll be focused on the you may want to share with us as you go forward your thinking for our comment before we you know we get into engineering and all that kind of thing okay so primarily yeah so parking and flow Etc yep absolutely and the the idea behind the point is the idea behind the asphalt especially on Lawrence Street it shouldn't be continuous with the road it there should be you know delineation of parking and um okay Paving okay okay all right Mr chair may I ask a question on process so if we were to uh continue conversation to show you some of our ideas would you prefer that in um in in a um say another design session is is there do you have that format in Littleton where we could schedule a meeting and have or is it in the public realm again um your choice um you can um share whatever information you want with staff and we can um run it by the other uh departments for any input fire uh police uh High DPW Etc and then if you want it to go back to the planning board um you can either have that as the next sketch plan or a um fully rendered site plan your choice okay great thank you very much Mr chairman I ask question yes this isn't a hearing George this is just an information oh yes but I just want to explain that this is not want make a comment to them that may be beneficial overall George sand 672 great Ro I filed

a bill with Jim aerio when Gary owned that property there and we was trying to get it under 61a because he was paying commercial tax there and under the 61a if you have property that's within 10 mile radius of a property then we was trying to get that provision which went to the third reading in the last section but it did not come out to be voted on when it came back in session so Gemma serial is re submitting that bill for all Farmers there a lot of farmers got stands and so forth that falls into the category that uh so you're saying that they would have agricultural property remote from say their farm from town yeah as long as it's 10 miles and he can take that number over there to make the five which is the minimum that you need for the 6 to18 may or may not apply to this client but I it's it's good for them to know yeah for them to know if they got profit is that okay well thank you very much for um Coming before us um I think you can tell from our comments that we're in general welcoming to the continued use of that property as a Farm Stand and um we'll look forward to hearing from you in the future okay thank you so much for your time thank you okay thank you good night okay we're still late um We are continuing a public hearing uh regarding 550 New Town Road I think a lot of people in the room

are for for this the hearing was uh opened and then um continued because we were to to finish the disposition ultimately of this uh proposal we need to know more about the existing building its size uh the way it's delineated Etc um I don't think we have that information yet um so I would suggest that we haven't heard the project presentation from from the applicant so at this point I'd like to invite the applicant to make a presentation thank you Mr chair board members and maren for the introduction U my name is Kelly Ash I am a civil engineer and the project manager for this project I'm with kimley horn and Associates and joining me tonight we have B who's representing storage Ryals of America the owner and developer um if the board agrees I'd like to reintroduce the project has been quite some time abely please do and I think people in the audience will be interested sure and then I'll provide just a historical timeline of um submissions and reviews to date and then just represent the project proposal highlighting the changes um addressing some of the concerns regarding the existing building um so the file on the um Drive is an opening okay that's okay we can use this is perfect um so the project site is located at at 5 Newtown Road the owner and developer as previously stated is storage rentals of America um the proposed project type is an expansion of an industrial use more specifically a self storage facility um which can be

allowed by special permit we originally submitted the application for site plan special permit and storm water permit review on February 9th of 2023 we presented the project at the uh March 9th 2023 planning Board hearing um septic plans which were prepared by others were submitted to the Board of Health in March of 2023 and the those plans were previously accepted by the Board of Health um we addressed initial comments and submitted the revised civil plans for peer review on May 22nd of 2023 we received peer review comments on June 27th of 2023 following receipt of peer-review comments we then met with the fire marshal performed additional geot technical investigations and soil testing and filed an anrad with the Conservation Commission to verify the Wetland delineation uh due to the additional uh investigation in soil testing the anrad filing and some major plan revisions required the application was withdrawn without prejudice in April of 2024 the project received um the oad from the Conservation Commission on October 28th 2024 which verified the Wetland delineation uh this oad is valid for 3 years the revised application for site plan special use permit and storm water permit was filed on November 20th of 2024 a public hearing was opened on December 12th and contined to tonight January 9th to um in order for us to address some of the concerns that were raised um in December regarding the existing building and if there's no uh questions on just kind of that historical timeline I can go ahead and discuss the uh current site conditions and then the project proposal go

ahead and Mar if you don't mind flipping to um a couple sheets prior so speak can that's this is good that's fine um the existing site conditions so the existing overall site is approximately 41 Acres with the existing self storage facility concentrated on approximately 4 Acres of the property fronting uh Newtown Road the remaining portion of the parcel is undeveloped with forested Uplands and wetlands um the parcels bordered by uh forested and open Wetland undeveloped areas uh to the North and South Fort Pond borders the Southeastern portion of the parcel uh there is a lot of topography across the site Falls uh greater than 50 ft across the site um um from the toe of the slope to the commercial space at the top of the slope and and generally the site slopes from the road south to the wetlands currently site access is provided via a single driveway the property is located within two zoning districts a small portion of the property fronting the road is zoned residential R and the remaining majority of this of the parcel is zoned industrial a the site contains an existing self- storage building with 230 storage units and approximately 12,800 ft of office use um in December we received questions regarding some interior building work that was performed um it has been brought to our attention this work was unauthorized and since then the owner has halted all interial building work and will obtain all required building permits prior to proceeding the interior building Improvement ments will not change any use or density of the existing facility so those 230 existing

storage units and the 12,800 square ft of office space will remain the unit count and mix will not change in the proposed condition uh there is an EXA an existing septic system on site which you can see um just above the Wetland delineation line on the screen there which uh failed a Title 5 inspection under the previous oper and will require relocation there is also existing storm water conveyance um that discharges offsite and a storm and an existing storm water infiltration Basin which is in need of Maintenance um it has also been brought to the owner's attention that the existing building mounted lights are disruptive to the neighbors and so new full full cut off downcast dark sky compliant light fixtures have been ordered and are scheduled to be installed next week weather permitting uh on the building uh previously uh the owner had been notified about lights and I believe it was on the front side of the building so those were replaced and the ones on the rear had not been so there are six new um light fixtures that are scheduled to arrive and be installed next week for the remainder of the building that are full cut off downcast lights and then lastly um we will work with the planning board to address any concerns regarding the existing building signage uh it is the client's intent to remove any non-compliant signage and or obtain any necessary permits or variances should relief um from any Town regulations be necessary uh to maintain operations just one clarification you mentioned lights along the front what about the lights that are on the side towards the parking area those will be replaced those two there's two there I believe and then four on the back side y so that those six will be

replaced okay and you can flip back forward uh to the site plan please thank you very much uh you can keep going I think it's a couple sheets ahead there we go perfect okay so the proposed project um uh proposes to expand the existing self storage facility by constructing a three-story plus basement self storage building uh with Associated site improvements including Paving Landscaping a new firesight access Drive firew waterer service and storm water management in accordance with Littleton and mass D regulations in addition to the work associated with the proposed Redevelopment project site maintenance and improvements are proposed to address the existing conditions no impacts or disturbance to the Wetland or its buffers are proposed no domestic water or sanitary sewer services for the new building are proposed um as previously stated a special permit will be sought for the Self Storage use however no variances or relief from bulk or parking requirements is being requested so the proposed uh building will be a pre-engineered metal building structure it's approximately 22,500 ft in footprint uh for the levels above grade and the basement level is about 17,200 ft there's a total of 485 storage units being proposed among the all the floors these vary in size in 5 foot increments so 5 by 10 5 by 15 10 X1 15 Etc site access will still be provided via the existing driveway a new fire erress Drive is proposed this driveway will be gated and only accessible by the fire department

in the event of an emergency the existing parking lot will be restriped to provide an additional 17 spaces on site there are 13 existing spaces and a total of 30 proposed spaces which needs zoning requirements regarding traffic generation uh in general Self Storage is a low trip generating land use the proposed expansion is estimated to generate only eight new vehicle trips during the am peak hour that's five entering three exiting and 13 in the PM peak hour which is six entering seven exiting the total of the existing facility with the proposed expansion still results in a in a low number of total trips uh related to the self storage facility there's approximately 0.32 Acres of additional impervious area being proposed and because of that additional storm water management is is proposed to account for that increase in impervious surface the proposed storm water management system will be comprised of deep sump catch basins sediment for Bay and an above ground infiltration Basin the existing catch Basin that discharges offsite will be removed and rerouted to discharge to the existing infiltration Basin as originally designed and approved firew waterer service is being proposed for the sprinkler building only no domestic water service is being proposed there is no office or um toilet being proposed in this building relocation of the septic system um is required in response to the failed Title 5 inspection and then Additionally the septic system was was uh relocated again in order to accommodate the

firesight egress drive that was required uh by the fire chief and then if you want to uh flip ahead to the landscape plan sorry should towards theend there we go perfect um there are rows of Evergreens being proposed AB budding the residential uh neighbors and then additionally they're plan proposed along the road Frontage to help enhance that as well and then we can uh move to the architectural plans now and discuss the building and we could probably start with the building elevations and if anyone wants to look at floor plans we can look at individual floor plans following if you don't mind flipping back one page that would be thank you very much um so the primary exterior material for the building will be a light colored vinyl sighting um which is intended to match as closely as possible to the materials used on the existing building however in response to previous neighbor concerns uh portions of the building which directly face adjacent residences have been revised to appear more residential in nature which you can see um on the elevations and on the the renderings following but certain Design Elements such as gabled roofs residential style windows with shutters

have been added to to help soften the look of the building and fit more into the neighborhood character the windows proposed for the elevation will not of course be true Windows um and that they will be opaque and are being included for aesthetic appearance only uh lights from the interior will not be visible through them nor will interior storage items the base of the building is proposed to be a brick patterned um eephus which is exposed insulation finish system it will have the appearance of brick but offers the Energy Efficiency of a continuous rigid insulation the roof of the building will be a light gray um with a minimal pitch for drainage as shown on the exterior elevations the the building height as measured from the average grade plane will be 40 ft which is in compliance with the height regulations for the district and if you want to flip to the renderings I think it gives a good visual per perspective of um yeah thank you from the the road and how it will interact with the um existing development on site so you can see that the height of the building and the height of the existing facility are are pretty similar in in relation to the visibility from the road um Additionally you know the majority of the new building will be will be shielded from view by the existing facility from the road and I would like to pause there for any questions and I can elaborate on any design items that I you know touched on briefly answer any questions that you may have and again um we do have bow here tonight too if there are any um operational questions that you have yeah I I think one of the questions I had because I couldn't po I didn't

quite see this diagram when I originally looked is is the visibility of the new building from the street it cuz I couldn't tell where the roof lines were was this going to be sitting below that so that it was basically obstructed by the uh pie arrow is it going to be above the roof lines of the existing roof line yeah it's not fully obstructed so uh I think the third rendering down is probably a good example while it's not from the perspective of the road you can kind of see the height difference it'll the majority of the building will be um obstructive and sits behind and lower but you will see a portion of it above I might point out that the second one down might be more representative uh because you see the existing building forward in this one because of the perspective it appears to be much taller but in reality wouldn't be but I might suggest that you could you merge one of these diagrams with the second photo down and it might just show that yeah I I yeah I cuz I I think we need a perspective from the street more or yeah at the the driveway perspective there uh on because everyone including the neighbors will be looking at it from the road the road is elevated from the ex anyway so it's um anyway it would pictures worth a th words and cuz when I was taken the elevations off of the ground in the 42 ft it was get difficult to see that it at one point it made have looked like it was 10 ft above the ex building so I'd like to get a much more concrete definition of what that actually looks like okay uh do you have more um do you

have more presentation that's it for what I wanted to at least uh introduce this evening I can go in depth on anything no no that's fine uh what I'm going to do is uh open it up to the board and then to the floor um darl you've made do you have any more comments yeah I I've got a couple of comments here so you clarified that the it's a fire Access Road not a driveway that goes all the way through correct uh at this point correct uh on that um I I in looking at the plan there's no there's no buffer space between the outlet of the exit in the neighbor there like there is on the driveway side uh there so there's no buffering uh uh there for both plowing and visual BL you know visual shielding yeah so which just gives me concern because again it seems to encroach now on that neighbor uh fairly substantially um there I I you know whether you address them tonight or not I'm just listing off my uh okay my my comments here um so the other part uh there is there is traffic flow currently to the left side of the building there's a loading dock back there uh and stuff like that how does that it looks like it's going to be awfully tight between the new building and the old building and access back there and I really question whether there's enough with allowed uh for the flow of you know a pickup truck with a trailer on the back of it or even a regular standard moving moving van and then the concept that since it's so narrow um whether if if there is a vehicle there is there actually fire access available uh on it

because it is it's not too Vehicles wide it's it's basically one vehicle wide uh in there and when I rented a U-Haul at a storage place in Boston I got trapped for a half an hour because somebody parked in the in the in the Road and went in the building and there was no way for me to get out I see elements of that here so I'd like to make sure that that how that traffic flow is really addressed sure um I think I guess it' be for the fire department's review in terms of whether there's adequate access to all sides of the building for fire protection um the driveway I know it's an existing driveway for the current building uh there but again it's a narrow entry between the two posts the two brick buildup things there is that adequate for when you're going to basically triple the size of the facility uh there and it ties into your traffic uh trips count there do you have a current traffic study of of how many trips per day is in the current building uh yes but based on it not current um I yeah so it's more conservative because it's based on it not actual I'd like to just see that that's you know we have that I can tell it to you now or give it to you later provide this is not really good form to try to do to do that um let's see yeah the setback on the on that driveway um okay so the other part there and I I think I saw some com ments from some of the Neighbors about drainage uh into their Lots uh from the existing piece here so I'd like to make sure we see how we are addressing existing drainage concerns by the

neighbors I don't know which ones are issues I know you know most of that whole lot is drainage for uh you know for Wetlands but I'm really concerned about making sure that the any concerns about drainage on the upper portion of it uh there has been addressed uh because also noticed that there's significant slope significant fall off to the neighbors from that lot so anything that falls off your driveway goes right into the into the neighbors there I'd like to make sure that how is that addressed uh in the in the updated in the plans and then uh okay since it's an egress emergency EG Road there I assume that um the slope of that because again it's it drops off fairly significant ific L to the existing piece there that you haven't created a driveway slope that's not compatible with with the fire department needs yep they've reviewed it okay and then it sounds like the zoning concerns that were identified at least sounds like they're starting to be addressed so I can I'll just wait till those work their way through the through the process here okay thank you so my question relates to to the special permit for um major commercial uh one item in particular it says the degree of threat to environmental resources including loss of valuable trees and other vegetation disturbance to habitats and soil losser erosion so from the current state um I'd like to get an understanding of what vegetation is is going to be going away you know number of trees information like that would be really helpful to understand well building on Anna's comment I just

like to know more about the Landscaping of that long slope down to the um 100 foot buffer zone line um that's a very big Disturbed area fairly steep slope I don't think grass is going to do it can we have some side sections or we don't have site sections just the Landscaping plan no but I mean could we could you develop a site section so PE I mean there are neighbor concerns about that Mark the only thing I want to say is that memory serves me correctly from over a year and a half ago the issue was this the leftand side where it was coming across the road into the neighbors you you're taking that drainage out and putting it more into the back which is where it probably should go you're doing more Landscaping than you proposed the first time you came around it so I'm I'm happy that you at least listened to what the neighbors had to say um I like the idea that you're making it look more like an apartment building than a than a big box storage facility and I I too would like to see how the um elevation looks in the front of the building the back is 43 Acres of um right wet and so I don't think the Beavers care what it look like anyway but at least you changing the lights doing the drainage and doing the um um getting the drainage properly located I'm I'm at least feeling better about that thank you my feeling is you have responded to a lot of the neighbors concerns and they can educate me on this afterward uh I mean when uh I give the floor to them uh this I I want to talk about the storm rer thing because uh there are concerns both from the

neighbors where the storm R was being directed to and for people down the slope and my understanding based on our bylaw peer review Etc that all storm water should be stored on site not directed to go down the slope and this and that and everything it's something that as an engineer you probably just take for granted but for our neighbors um there are requirements and there's peer review which the uh with from an independent um uh site engineer so um that's one thing uh the lighting I'm glad you uh talked about that signage is an issue I think you need to show us what you intend to to uh propose um and the I was a little confused about the traffic mention is were those net trips in in in addition to the existing building or okay yeah so those numbers are trips being added added by the proposed ex um and in general like Mark I think that you have responded to the um a lot of the the issues that were brought up but I like Bartlet I'd like to understand a little bit more about what's going on behind the building the slope the materials the you know um I I glanced at one side plan it looked like you were building a big retaining wall but you're not you're just grading it up um and uh so if we could have if we could have just a little more presentation on view from the road of the new building and um the

back uh more detail of the back Mr chair can I add on to what you just said um so specifically in our bylaw it's section 173 d88 C4 and that speaks to providing us with analysis of the consequence of the proposed development regarding the natural environment groundwater surface water quality ground water level Stream flow erosion siltation all of that um vegetation removal and Wildlife that so that's another portion of it that I think if that could be brought back to us in a manageable to understand format that would be great for everybody here thank you any other comments I'm going to open it to the floor who would like to speak yes uh state your name and address 540 new road I don't think they'll be able to hear unless he comes up okay can you come forward because we won't be able to hear you TV yeah thank you D Calhoun from 540 New Town Road uh very happy to hear about the change in the lighting that's planned for next week but I'm kind of dismayed it's taken at least seven years I think for that to happen and I don't know how that if that indicates anything going forward with this new work so that's my comment okay thank you that yes so we purchased the property I think in 2020 2021 I know we received one complaint about lighting which we which we immediately went out and fixed until I saw a letter you know in December with a picture of the remaining lights you know that was the first time that was brought to my attention immediately sent off my GC and we're going to replace all those lighting so we you know we haven't owned the I don't know when it was turned into

a storage facility or when that lighting was installed but you know promise you soon we changed out light for our neighbors all the time it's not it's not difficult for us to do so once I've heard that that was a larger complaint I know we changed out one or two fixtures before and then that was the last I I I thought that solved the problem as soon as I heard that there was an issue I immediately can you just for the record identify I'm sorry my name is Bo r with storage rentals of America or VP of development B Out West Palm Beach were you in the initial hearings yes okay thank you anything else curiosity is that there's a all the things you can't do with the light for seven years right I you're supposed to look at those and he with and yeah sure well I I apologize it this long but we're we're next if if there's any issues going further you can I'll give everyone my information you can if you know if what whatever we do next week doesn't solve it please by all means reach out we we'll fix it okay good should I go to the podium sure and identify yourself domic R 544 Ro we have the largest stretch of a budding property line to the storage place I am glad to see that the lighting situation has been improved um there were other complaints not just one over multiple years so it however it didn't translate anyway I'm glad to see that that's taking place there is a remaining lighting concern I want to talk about the the uh vegetation on the border between the two of us in the original presentation it was described that the new facility would have glass stairways glass footage and lights inside now pretty much no other property except for my neighbor John and myself would look straight into that so if there's a lot of light that's going to be happening there I'm going to be seeing a lot of light coming out of there so I think I would really like to have explained what that Frontage and

glass and stairway and lighting is going to look like before it goes up the second question that I have has to do with the vegetation along the border between myself and you mentioned that one thing are you on the left or the right side we on the right we're on the right side I'm sorry I I just don't know where the road was numbered there 55044 is on the right hand side of this plant thank you and then uh my my neighbor John Lewis has got a smaller section next to mine which also the um and the drain is going through being remove that's a plus as well I'm glad to see that so thank you for moving some of those things forward uh the veget line though and the property line we're supposed to have some sort of barrier between I question how well a vegetate Evergreen are going to do this I don't want to wait 45 years for an adequate barrier to come up there and the second is if you put a lot of trees along there they're going to grow um how are they going to get growing into the space that I use for our chickens for example like that we really don't want that to be happening either and just as an example of the impact of traffic and mainten we have snow plows that dump snow through in in there I am constantly picking up broken glass and trash and all kinds of things that coming from that parking space so that's significant concern that I had that barrier of everen is not going to work that's not going to do it uh in fact when you also have had maintenance for lawn Lo go through one day I happened to be there and had a stone kick right through to me because you know there's nothing separated so you had a lawn orow that threw Stones up actually almost killed one of the chickens too so that's just you know okay it's a chicken but that's an example of so you know so those are things that maybe we're not clarified sufficiently now before now but I just I want to make

sure you understand that something more than Evergreens I think is needed to make that effective barrier um so would do feel most comfortable with a combination of a fence and Evergreens is that what you're sort of alluding to well I don't don't so I think a permanent like some sort of bricked up fence structure would be good I put up my own fence because when I had asked about this fencing beforehand to the previous owner it was crickets I got I got nowhere so I put up a fence myself that was at my own expense um but I don't want it I don't want that fence to be seen as oh problem solved right that's was my expedient because nobody would do anything about it because I was going to ask along the CU like I drove by and I see that it's a um it's a wire fence yeah now Stockade would it be better if that was if it in included a stockade fence in front of the or however you know something I I'm not I don't want to prescribe a specific I'm not either I'm just saying something like more more blocking than something definitely much more blocking the um wire fence and I think it needs to include some sort of erosion protection because that snow the plows the thing it's been pushing that land further and further down so the fence that I put up isn't going to survive that much longer because of the erosion coming off their parking lot so something that addresses that I think would be very make you you're describing this and I I understand it what might be most helpful though just to so that I make make sure I'm actually addressing the problem I'd like to send if you if you'd be willing to do it have one of my project managers come up here and walk the property L that way we can like ex you know I don't want to come up to your point I don't want to say here's a fence doesn't really address the issue I thank you and I we can really understand just the Nuance of what you're you know you know you know making sure that whatever soltion is going to cost us money I want to make sure I'm spending it wisely on something that's actually going to fix

the no I appreciate that thank you very much so I me so for now I think you understand I hope you understand that Evergreens know there may be a temporary solution be causing a problem eventually as well so yes I would be I'll come up to I think I think if we could see it and just understand the dimensions you know it's just something it's hard to you're explaining I get it but I want to you know being able to see it let's communicate let me know when it would be a good time i' be happy to have somebody come up here I'm sure John would feel the same way you guys look through this and that that ties into my comment before also about ensuring that the uh the grading in that area that your water stays on your side of it not just flows down the hill into his into his line and more than just water snow flowers pushing stuff down there and trash just as an overarching point you know I know that there have been you know you know I I I met the previous owner I don't know what you know he didn't seem like he cared too much about what happened there you know you know I know I know we've come in there tried to improve the the condition there I know not not always you know there was so much trash and garbage just just buried in the in the in the bushes and stuff around the property so we went and trimmed all that back and then I know that upset people because now you could see that we were just trying to get there was car axles and everything you could imagine Just sh so we were trying to clean the prop so but anyways we're doing all these little fixes this is a you know we're going to invest a lot of money into the property see you know to build this building fix the drainage do all that stuff so this is our shot to fix all this spend a lot of money to do it you know and and try you know and I'd like to do it right as part of that process I mean you know it's you know it's one thing when you're like okay well here's you know a couple thousand dollars to fixes you know we're going to you know call Capital to build you know 10 12 million building I can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to remedy all this stuff in one go as part of that project it'll I think it'll no I I I applaud your willingness

to try and address all this I think that's very helpful and um you know your on-site manager you know he may further help things by changing his attitude to the neighbors I'll address that yeah and I'll make sure you guys have my contact info the the sometimes the on-site people aren't always there they're just there trying to write unit so yeah I get I get that too so thank you I think that covers most of my issues so we'll see how things appreciate the time and I appreciate the comments that you're making there because it sounded you know it was starting off with some of the things there that it was not going to it was going to be a little bit more hostile in terms of getting things done and I really appreciate the uh effort in words that you're saying this isn't an excuse but we you know we we own 600 stores across the country I'm running around a lot of these things I I I wish I could depend more on the on-site staff to communicate things back to me and that's not that's not your problem that's that's my problem I apologize for it but I'm happy to you know this is a big project for us and I I don't want to I want to have good relations with the neighbors I know this is not ideal for you all but um you know it's just it's part of our business plan so to the extent that I can do whatever I can to make it more palatable I'm happy I appreciate that actually there is one more thing sorry I just remember this this may no longer apply but some of the units the way some of the units have been used that are ground level I hesitate to call that Self Storage it's a bit more like we have a space that we can expand our business like ongoing carpentry and machining that has been taking place with doors open and sounds you know music blaring out because they're running the business out of the storage unit yeah we actively discourage that if that's happening I'll I'll I'll I'll take a look that shouldn't be we don't we don't run Flex base I mean we run self storage in fact whenever we buy a property with what you would you would call like Flex base or like light industrial we usually we usually get rid of that so that property is a little bit

unique CU there's just some odd space in it so I I'll I'll I'll check with operations and make sure and would you equally discourage a SE private business that's using the self storage place as a kind of a warehouse sort things go back and forth and collecting things I mean I can't it depends on what it is I mean yes I mean I mean you know we do have a lot of you know Landscaping businesses things like that that will that will you know rent I mean if it's creating an excessive nuisance I mean then then you know this new building will all be will be all interior storage it won't really lend itself to that it won't be it won't be exterior doors where people can just pull their trailers in and out every morning that kind of thing this is this is more for your you know you know couches or stuff like that so this isn't that kind of storage and so um we we we'll take a look I'll I'll check with operation I'll make another check with operations on that I appreciate that I think that activity rut to some of the anxiety we both yeah and and as part of getting this done if that's sort of the if I've got to have a Stern talk with operations be like hey like if you want if we want this approved and all this additional square footage you know we may have to you know be a little bit more careful who who we're running those units to because I don't want to take off the neighbors so appreciate that's happy to have that happy to have that conversation thank you for the time thank you anyone else John Lewis fre make away um yeah domic uh everything he said is true um I totally have seen the same thing with the noise and the L uh my wife just told me that your weell boxes sign is probably in our yard at the moment it's being blown by the wind of your sight onto us um when my wife complained um about the trash that ended up and the police

being called um in my letters you know being woken up at 4:30 in the morning we called the police and we had headlights we new lights blaring through our our bedroom windows and the back of my yard is just constantly illuminated I've lost all my bees um been keeping bees for a lot of years and the last two years I've been wiped out they just don't survive anymore of the the spotlights can I ask is has that condition changed I mean is is it like used to have lights P there okay and the initial complaint I did stress so I was very concerned about that so it's not new information um so Dominic's right there is I think there's kind of a Swale between him and uh the storage unit and I think you're seeing that Swale get filled in which is going to impact your drainage of your septic and also my septic eventually so maintaining that Squad is very important um previous owner was very good at um plowing snow into there I even saw my neighbor's tree shaking and and my yard got buried in snow exactly where you're proposing to put it so I do know if you put Snow there it's going to end up in my yard not in your yard so that's not going to work um and I noticed on the plan you've got parking space with two cars and if you're putting this much money as you've said into a nice storage unit you know it would be really nice if you could fix the parking so that you you can maintain that um separation area as you meant to do by the S so that that would be helpful um now you talked about on the our neighbors on the other side I see them here today they're they're very new they

just bought that house it's a new development you're showing the screening picture at the moment if you if you jump back to the site plan you will see that fire Access Road move do you just go back like the third one see it moved go back again see right there that road is up against and now it's moved back again so the plans here are not consistent you see that yeah this location is the correct location I'm not sure why that landcape plan I believe so we need a landscape plan that shows the correct site plan and the the proposed screening yes and that has all been updated I'm not sure why this and can you provide that to the to the board please so the the other concern is is the height of this building um you talked about what the street view is most people in Neighbors would see it from the street we see it from our yard and it's going it's in the where's North on this does it show where North is it should do but you see the sun sets in the west and that building is to the west of our property and so we're going to lose all the light be gu yeah so we're going to lose all the light at the end of the day yeah so it's going to have a huge impact on us for the light and use of our yard in that sense so we're very very concerned about how how impact our property it's going to be uphill from us and it's four stor is high is a very very large building so it's going to have a big

impact on ourselves and on the r we also looking for that light in the west I would just like to point out they're not asking for a waiver from the height they're they're within the Zoning for height so if you want to talk about zoning the industrial the units proposed is inside the industrial Zone which is surrounded by a residential Zone on three sites and so if you want to put that fire access in that surely that requires special zoning to cross a residential Zone from an industrial Zone that be correct we have to I don't know I don't think I I don't think so either but um okay um so you know thank you for addressing the existing issues or we have we saying you will you but still for our property we still have a large amount of concerns of how this is going impact us um I'm sorry that our neighbors aren't here to uh to show their concern as well but they're very concerned about where their property line is and how this is how this is going to impact that so uh on the impact of the western um view what is your feeling about the screening proposed of trees would you I I I think it's it's not but I mean would that further impact I mean when they mature would that further impact it or I I guess so there are trees there now okay um and then they're deciduous mhm uh they're not in good health actually one of them is um there's one that was damag in the St in the spring is overhanging the bloy L so it is dangerous to us if you could clean that up I appreciate it

I do realize that you've taken away all the dead ash a lot of the Dead Ash which was not safe for your clients or or to us so I appreciate that um the cous trees do let the light in the winter so you would prefer to see a deciduous well I would if there was a buffer so we are getting light of the moment is my point in the winter when when the sun is low we are getting the okay I'm just I'm sure the site engineer is taking notes and that may be something to consider um but both you and your neighbors comments it seems like one of the biggest concerns is that um property line the grading the offer the drainage now we have to assume that the drainage will be corrected because our storm rer bylaw requires it to be disposed on the site but the snow um storage is an interesting point and also remember that so this we talking about the screening the buffering um this is a storage unit MH um when we we met in 23 we got what roing times are we were told it was like 9 to5 when you look on the website I believe that they are advertising 6 to 10 office hours are office hours are 9 to5 Clos Wednesdays and Sundays access to the facility for the res for the customers is 6 to 10 so those Side Access 6 to 10 what hours your traffic survey done there wasn't a traffic survey done it was a trip generation based on uh industry standards for what hours for am and PMP for every one out 6 10 yeah through the entire

yes so it's it's an industrial you indust it's a small industrial area in a surrounded by residential used to be a farm it's not part it's not in a what we call it it's not in our town planning as an industrial area it's not in our in our plans um so I'm very concerned about you know traffic from 6 to 10 you know going in and out disturbing us but also that when I look at other storage units I see that some of them are moving over to 24/7 as well so this this has potential to be accessed for you know 7 days a week 24 hours that's really not appropriate in a in in I've got a D residential but obviously St in some areas is really not appropriate it's not appropriate use of the of the area and it's not a benefit to the community okay um the hours is a good point that to consider um and we'll go forward and see what we can do thank you thank you anyone else just for clarification in the old days that was called bowar yeah it was a bowling all it was they manufactured bowling machines and it had it was there for 50 years yeah it wasn't just storage act mainaction so the the book The the history of Littleton uh that's where I got the information on that that has a lot of information about the history of that area is is very worth reading I used to go there in the in the day when we were kids you could go there and bowl for free as long as you they needed people to practice the bowling alley so they would so I I was wondering actually

because the book said that the inventor of the pin setting machine so I was wondering if what you were playing on was actually a demonstration unit for people to come and see how it worked they actually made them there yes they that was their more testing they you know testing short by would you to go too oh brother did yeah we stick all the time on Friday nights they let you bow for free like they had two or three practice lanes and they were making them all all day long and you could practice was it bowling or candle pen candle P they got stupid one one try to do 10 and big balls big no it candle was candle Massachusetts had both actually probably had more any the little historic Brain Trust here so I I live next to it okay can you identify yourself 564 New Town Road um as we were saying that building originally was never meant for storage probably the original building it was actually Malloy was the first person that actually Malloy Corporation was the first Corporation there before bmar was there uh M then moved down a mega way so when this was owned for industrial it was owned because they had a Manufacturing Company not a storage company and I don't think when they just made the whole property industrial they had the foresight of seeing you know a gigantic storage facility coming in um I got a couple concerns um yes you probably won't be able to see the building if you're standing in front of the building on the road but as you're coming up the road from Acton that build will stick out like a sore THB you will definitely see that new building cuz I can see busy

comeing around the corner from my house so you can see the the current building um the access road for the fire department um you guys did a anr in 2019 or 2020 I can't remember which one it was morning the date and I'm almost wondering if that access roads on that n prop if that's even legal to do that so that's something else you may want to look into um those are my major concerns I have right now um still on the side of the buildings bother me cuz I'm far enough away from it um the other thing is I'm not too sure how you can en force your hours you're saying you're open up from 6: or 9 to to 10: what to stop somebody from driving in there at 11:00 at night two in the morning the building's locked there's an access code that you use to get in the building and after 10:00 it doesn't between 10 6 it doesn't work the other problem I can see issue is I'm going there to Self Storage I'm coming from 30 miles away I got to go the bathroom these are no restrooms so we're going to have people urinating outside the building restroom in the main building we're not putting a new restroom in the in the new in the building that we're adding but there's a restroom in in the office some need use bathroom go into the office so the other building's also going to be open the same hours yes I had people urinat in the othero um has itous waste not allowed not allowed notable they've already had a few cases from

over there if you check the records so I don't know how you can I you know how you can stop somebody from doing that anyways I mean you have no rights for going to their facility so it's something that you can't really people storing hous are just waste in the property yeah I mean it's verbid by we yeah yeah it's forbidden I just know you don't really have un unfortunately could happen but you really don't have any control over it I don't think because you can't really check everybody out what they're bring no just a story I mean across all the stores we own and all of our experiences St there's never been a really issue I mean I'm not saying it cannot happen but that'd be extremely extremely rare I mean you know right because you you've already had one isn't it at this location so um I still think like I said the the building will be viewable you can't just take it from looking straight down it will block their they uh sunlight definitely because of the directions at I'm probably going to be looking at the 40 foot portion of it from where my house is located definitely because I'm to the left hand side of the draft up there and I'm also I not that you're going to have a gate so that hopefully that'll keep people from trying to to drive out that way um water issues they don't really affect me CU I'm far enough away from it but like my uh the neighbors saying that could be a big issue I'm not too sure where the the SE system is going CU I know the proposed setic system right now is over like what with the access road is so I'm assuming you're doing a new septic system overview we we had existing septic system was no longer functioning so that was part of this problem we have to do that anyway so right but I mean the one that's already been approved is going to

have to you going to have to get another one approved cuz the one's approved not going to work with the way you're fire department requires put in that that secondary access that took care of yeah I that's pretty much probably it thank you anything else Jo Min 553 New Town Road so I'm just above across the street from the entrance and again just really echoing all the neighbors concerns of course they Downstream of that I've I'm I'm in that same position regarding the other development that that took place Downstream of the 5551 so I get the concern I guess I would just like to Echo um um just some of aggregate concerns here I haven't really had time to dive in as as as deeply as John has but so just my gut tells me that this is uh you know increasing the the square footage by 135% right so 60,000 ft² building to another 85,000 and then if you look at the the storage units it's a 230% increase from 230 units to an additional 485 in a primarily residential neighborhood that's just gon to I mean just my gut just sinks on that it just tells me that that's not um a good um a good way forward for that for that piece of property I mean obviously I'm right across the street we look at that building uh and and and uh so then so what what Downstream of that what does that translate to to me it instinctively I I heard the traffic numbers and I I just thought that was like ridiculously low I I mean I I don't do these studies for for a living but increased automobile and truck traffic into that property just seems to Skyrocket with with those numbers um and then with that

comes a noise and a disturbance level um I I I heard that the thing is lock locked out at 10: p.m. but sometimes and I I I can't remember i' have to you know I don't keep notes but it does seem that that property is sometimes at 247 and it may not be people accessing the storage unit but something's going on there whether they're um bringing trucks in or and and it seems to happen at all hours um so I see a greater opportunity for that uh and then I I think picking up on John's comment the second building is going to be climate controlled um I not sure if that's going to produce a noise impact that that we can hear U depending on the conditions you know that that whatever that drone sound is going to be if whether that's going to impinge on us also the lighting um on that second building that that has been an issue and it it we are up on a hill across the street so if it's 10 ft from the road or whatever the the and I know we're working on the roof lines we certainly will be able to see a portion of that building and and depending on where the lights are I would imagine that would add to the light pollution um and then just looking at and I think somebody else brought it up putting the building there on that slope just seems claustrophobic in that little narrow ribbon of asphalt between the two buildings which has now got to handle all that traffic um the trucks and such and and it just seems like woefully inadequate to to manage um all of that that destination space that little piece but and so what is that that mean does that mean that they spill out further out into the open area or God forbid out onto the road I I can't imagine I mean it is a storage unit they're not all going to come at the same time but it that's a a 200 um 485 additional units it's going to have a draw and and uh so I guess I just wanted to uh just quickly

looking at the plans and just looking across the street for a whole second building larger than the first is just not what I ever thought was a possibility so um really just coming at it from that standpoint not having had the opportunity to peel the onion back and get down into the details like maybe John has but but very much concerned um and so obvious leave it at that you thank you anything else um with that uh we will continue the hearing um the two representatives of the applicant have been taking notes um and uh do we want to set a time um yep I have not yet um circled back with the peerreview engineer to find out their time frame for providing a review of the updated materials um that might help inform when you want to continue the hearing too well we opened it in December um I think we should try to continue it to February uh regardless of the peer review and that means that if we don't have the peer review then we can't you know dispose of it but we can further the discussion between the applicant and the neighbors plus they have some homework they have to do too yeah yeah I think I think I think the next thing I'd like to do probably before we move back here is you just given the comments and and some of the kind of homework assignments you've given us is is you know put together maybe like a little bit more of a formal not formal like a present I'll get some additional renderings done the street I think you should I think you should do that and I'll a trip up here with my project managers to you know try to kill two birds with one stone and

just you know meet with meet with the neighbors more oneon-one I mean obviously I know I can't address all the concerns but at least address and the the uh you know I think we'd want to know about sign AG uh the hours discussion I think should still be on the table um is February work for you or do you want to push it back another month does that give you more time if you want uh well February would be the the sixth yeah well let me let me can I get back to you on that let me figure out when I can get the I got to get with my Architects and all that super when I can get the renderings done I mean I think probably probably not because I'd want to come up here and do those things and give everyone enough time to digest I mean we're happy to come back here in February and kind of no there's no need unless you have new information for us so um you'll have time to meet with you know the abuts that are interested is there comfortable pushing to March yeah that's I'm fine with that in the meantime we'll we'll we'll schedule some trips up here and get some more collateral done and uh okay and then hopefully by by March we can come back with you know you know with all of the most are all these questions answered and you know a better you know fill in the gaps on the presentation and you know see what we can do as far as you know addressing some of the issues that been brought up that makes more sense yes um okay March 13th is your meeting date in March okay so it's not the first week but the second okay do we want to set of time yeah yep you should um 6:45 do this early well that's what we did on this meeting it didn't didn't work out but yeah we should do them as the first piece of business okay um so you're hoping to continue the public hearing till um

Thursday March 13th at 6:45 that uh meeting will be in room 103 of the shadik street Town Offices so neighbors all take note um and the if the board would vote on can I have a vote on that all in favor oh so as she said we need a second second all in favor okay we'll see you March 13th and if you have anything before then if you want to run by the planning staff you know thank you appreciate that okay next um is a uh update presentation from the holy companies about 5 50 king I don't have a card you want to just you want to just give me your number and I can tou you my introduce yourself we've seen you here before the other guy is new so okay good evening and happy New Year um you may remember me my name is Chris from Tec engineering uh tonight I'm here joined by uh Morgan Pearson representing uh B um it's been about I think we're here in June um so it's been six or seven months um since we were last in front of you um and I think at those previous meetings we had promised that um as uh we progress and we have updates on the site that we can come in front of you guys and respond to that email all that those so that's what we're here tonight as promised uh little Cy update so okay

um as we start to discuss some of the updates on the site um I just want you to know we kind of as we developed the site we've kind of divided it into two components there's the infrastructure updates that are going on um and then there's the building updates that are going on so tonight we want to give you an update on infrastructure phase one and and building phase one okay um you'll see the approved master plan in front of you if you go to the next slide thank you Mar um this is the um location of the infrastructure phase one that we've um identified over the last six months um we've made progress in um um in progressing this uh this portion of the site this has been identified as um the piece of the site that we need to get some infrastructure in um so that we can support some of the building developments uh this portion of the site um includes uh roadway improvements as well as uh some utility improvements you can see just below the highlighted area um I show some lines those represent um rough area for uh for water and sewer connection um obviously as we go through and develop each site um we need the infrastructure in place um through the roadways and the utilities um to support the various buildings um so since June we've gotten funding in place for this section of the roadway um we've completed a a design and uh we've put that design out to bid um and actually we are opening that bid uh tomorrow morning so um so very exciting we're making some progress I know it hasn't looked um hasn't looked like it over the last 6 months but there's been a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes um so we're excited to open those bids tomorrow get a contractor um underway and we're hoping

in just a few short months uh this spring maybe April um we'll have uh some shovels in the ground out there and you'll see some you'll start to see some progress um as we start on the infrastructure um this will unlock the ability to start to develop the the parcels around it um and with that I want to hand it over to Morgan to give you an update on the building phase one thanks Chris uh good evening everyone um as Chris said my name is Morgan Pearson I'm the senior vice president of real estate and development for the leoi companies um some of you I've met before but part of tonight was introducing myself I think you'll be seeing more myself and and our team our development team and our construction team at leoi um as uh as we progress the design and the construction um at 550 King Street um we're really excited to to let you know that the first phase um will be these these two buildings that you see here outlined in red um those uh amount to roughly 300 uh apartment units um and the attent is to be back before the board here in uh early spring uh in the coming months with uh some preliminary conceptual uh design plans for for you to review um as Chris mentioned that's going to coincide with the infrastructure work that sort of unlocks those Parcels allows us access to them brings in the utilities um and uh helps us uh jump start that construction uh the hope and dream right now and and we really think it's going to be a reality is that at some point um this year as well we'll be back again to talk about what we're kind of calling phase 1B which is uh two commercial retail buildings uh outlined in blue here um those we're really excited about

will provide additional retail space uh there's also retail space intended for the lower building there that looks kind of like a three um but this will be a significantly more retail space and and likely some restaurant um uh some restaurants going there in there as well um the idea is to build the residential and at the same time deliver commercial space with it um so those are progressing right now we've been busy working on those and the rest of the site kind of tweaking it making it work better over the past uh 6 months or so um but the real Focus now is is on these properties we're we're hard at work on them and and uh look forward to being back in front of you um in uh the near future this year and starting construction this year as well on those first two buildings uh more details that come on that but we wanted to let you know that's that's what to expect um the other piece we wanted to update you on is if you could go to the next SL thanks is is just um some things we've heard in conversations over the past few months um the yangi river the former Yi River restaurant is um scheduled to start demolition in the coming weeks um we're in for a demo permit on that with the the town um you may have noticed if you've driven by the there's some fencing up around that so um that's a good sign of progress that's that's helping to prep the site for for future uh development construction um we're also in the in in the process of uh creating several signs to put across the property at different entrances uh to give a bit more indication of what's to come I think these will evolve over time as the as our renderings improve and as the plan is finalized in some of these buildings but the next slide is um is a template for that we're working with a

sign designer it will probably evolve from this um um I would also say that this year our intent is also to go live with a project landing page that will help provide updates to the community um on future construction and other plans as we're able to update them and share them with the public um not really a date set for that yet but it's certainly an intent and we would likely have a QR code on some of these signs and make sure that people driving by can uh can access that kind of information in the future um that's that's it for now it's not a ton of information but it was we wanted to give the board a heads up and and share that exciting news thank you very much can uh you go back to the okay well actually the one that you just had I love this by the way this is like a shocking Park you don't realize what's there until you actually stand in the middle of a parking lot so your your first phase is roughly this and so how are you accessing you know you'll do new infrastructure are you utilize the existing roadways or what how how does the existing and also what will you do with the rest of the parking lot that you're not obliterating sure what I would say and you have a thought on that if you want no well Chris can speak to a little bit two thoughts two responses one is we're certainly going to have more in detail information for you when we come back but I do want to give you some indication now which is we're got we will be minimizing disruption of parking wherever we can so we can continue to use it for the businesses that we're looking that we've already put into some of the site and we look to do in the future um but Chris if you want to talk about some of that as well more of the access yeah so um when you see the infrastructure phase one in that roadway

it might look a little random right it's kind of a a Boulevard style of Road in the middle of a parking lot um and the idea is there there is that there is an existing site access um in a roadway through this site um so yeah so it will connect with those so we yeah the plan is to construct the new um roadway um and we will there'll be some sort of temporary um condition between the new roadway and the existing uh site Access Road um until we advance the infrastructure improvements in further phases um we will utilize the the it's it's in pretty good condition right now you know the the roadway um and the and the infrastructure passing through the site um so rather than rip that up now um let's utilize that to advance the the um the other phases of of the and then the last time um Rick was here he was saying you were rethinking the parking structure what is the latest on that for the uh will you be reusing the existing parking for this 300 units or I don't know I don't know where the parking structure was for the office building or the apartments or you right so part of the work we've been we've been um conducting over the past six months is working to um find a way to minimize or remove that structure there that's that's currently proposed so I don't want to keep saying but again when we come back where our plan is to better explain and describe those improvements but um I hopefully that's we see that concept's received well by the board that're we're trying to remove some of that parking garage if not all of it all together it will it will be some surface parking um and some other potential smaller more minimized structur parking that will be built with uh with likely with these two residential buildings what's going on with the two old IBM buildings even tenants proposed or we do

yeah we've we've I I'm not sure if you saw we just had in October um a 72,000 ft tenant move in uh called hyper Global they're in now very happy it's a it's a it's a great company um it's took a good chunk of one of the buildings and we are probably in talks with u almost half a dozen other different tenants looking to uh to go into to those buildings um we're we're focusing on the first building on the left but um if anyone came in and wants you know was everything of course we're open to that but we've been we've been very pleased with the interest I think OB as you can imagine some of that interest is based on the future uh development and the excitement around um what the vision is here um so that's also motivating us to continue to to proceed with with all this work um thank you we had two Selectmen here tonight um can we talk about the shat Street Building disposition and how it might relate to this development want us to talk about well I don't know I mean give us some insight how about I pose this question I've heard a rumor yeah no I mean this is not this is not a hearing it's just no no no I'm just to say on the street there's talk that about something about the former yangi area in shat Street some kind of town hall thing could somebody provide some clarity on what what those discussions may be and where we if it is a thing tell anybody it's secret well I mean just put it on it is pretty much here this point out Chuck that's what I mean so could you address the hearsay sure chuck chuck s board um Mark feel free to jump in very early on there was some discussion about um the

developer building a shell as much of a shell as they could to allow the town to um create a town town offices on on this campus or this site um I wasn't my understanding that it was going to be done by the Yi site because at that point in time Yi wasn't part of the development it was more down by um where the the the B um just below where the proposed Boutique Hotel uh would potentially go by where the Green Space was wasn't it like well the green space is still going to be it's going to be beside it yeah so it be so you get the U house and then kind of next so um so that is the it wasn't a rumor it was it was discussed and there was some some conversation about going out to bid for this property and you the potential existed that the developer could convert this into um low-income housing and if if that were the case maybe there would be some opportunity to use the low income the extremely low income housing that this building would provide um towards the the numbers for this development yeah which is why I brought it up you know because it does sort of I'll add a little more so um our select for we as everyone knows there's a senior center being built next door we now own 36 King Street and Park and wreck and the school department will be moving out of this building so we are looking again at updating our space needs for this building and determining you know what we should be doing with this building nothing has been determined uh we haven't even updated the space needs yet but it is in it's in is in the works to see like at this point I think the plane is to moth all

half of this building or a third of this building um but we are you know nothing's been decided but we're still in Things Great okay and I wouldn't have brought it up except that it does relate to 550k yeah okay any other rumors you got yeah yeah we won't put this in the newsletter but at least it just puts it out in terms of what discussions have the three people that watch us will know about it exactly I'm amazed the people I have my archive okay uh we just one just maybe one thing could you make sometimes an overlay of the existing property with what you're going to do construction on because I'm flipping between the two to see which road are you talking about you know I I mean I like this rendering because it's in context of the other part but overlaying it on the existing parcel to show where you're going to be working would be helpful you got it yeah so all of the plans that you have right now are working off this April 12th date I just want to make sure that we're all talking off the same set of plans yeah yeah yep the yes the plan that we're working off of is is is looking at the the the various developments as each development goes through as we fine-tune all the details of each development things are going to change and shift and I'm not really exactly sure the building dimensions of of of all of these um those will get fine-tuned as we come in front of you for a site plan review yeah um but yes this um this is you know our master plan none of the units have Chang you know density scor fo just that's all I just wanted to make sure um that particularly the phasing one hasn't changed and it doesn't look like it has no no still pretty um I think originally

we might have just identified the rear of the site as phase one um and then then we come phase two up front but we've kind of um identified this Corridor next to the the surface improvements as all of phase one to incorporate some of the residential and some of the commercial all at once um so I think you know there's some subtle changes but um overall the same that's good thanks yeah okay thank you very much for coming in we're always we're always we will always welcome you to a meeting to tell what's going on but as I understand it April is or when is the next time we might hear from you um um yeah probably this spring Springtime um I know it's kind of broad but yeah April a few months uh we'll we'll try to in front of you so we want to hold you to specific date but we'll look forward to hearing from you yeah and you will see some construction going out there okay thank you in the next few months um thank you guys okay so that concludes our agenda I believe um can I hear a motion to make a motion toj adjourn all in favor I okay we are adjourned