Planning Board - Regular Meeting

It's past 7:00. Yeah, we have business. I'm waiting for all of this. Um, it being the appointed hour plus, I will call if we're recording. Not yet. It's

recording in progress. I will call this meeting of the Grafton Planning Board for Monday, February 9th, 2026 to order. We have no members on Zoom, so we don't need to do a roll call. So, we can jump right in. The first item is a joint meeting with the economic development committee and uh be good if they could

get up here with us. screen. Is it right if I start or are we waiting for anyone? To go, Joe. Thanks. Okay, all good. I just given Joe telling him he's good to go. Okay. Well, hey everyone. Um Okay. Tell us what we're doing.

Sure. So, yeah, I'll give just a brief overview of the project, Joe, and then I'll turn it over to you, uh, the expert. So, um, board members may recall that we had, uh, a, um, discussion about getting, uh, DTA funds for a permitting guide. Uh, this is the first kind of kickoff meeting with B, uh, with the board to start this project. Joe did come in um and meet with um department heads and um staff uh about a couple of weeks ago, I think. Now, um going over some kind of basic questions, formatting, and some more kind of administrative matters before diving into the kind of deeper um items associated with this guide. The town has always had a a pretty basic um pamphlet uh you know a trifold pamphlet that uh has been very outdated and quite frankly with the way um permitting at the state level is evolving as well as some of the complexities of land especially in Grafton and you know lots of wetlands here ledge etc. We wanted to create a kind of comprehensive go-to guide for anybody who's interested um in developing here, doing business here um and just just have a basically a clearing house of information. So the we did apply for DTA funds and were awarded in January. So the project will be unfold well and Joe will go over the timeline, but the project will be unfolding over the spring um and into the summertime. Um, so I'm happy to answer any questions for me at this point, but I think otherwise you can

um, it were posted as a joint meeting, so we probably should have Yes, we did. There wasn't a a a official posted meeting for the economic development committee. I don't believe anybody none is here. So I don't have to get them to convene themselves. No, they don't need to do an official roll call. Yep. All good. But that is but it is posted in all the appropriate places. So if anyone does join I'm a little disappointed in that. Yeah, I think schedules scheduling is hard. So um but yeah, otherwise um let you know if any board members have any questions for me. I can turn it over to J. No.

Okay. Name, rank, and serial number and and then uh tell us what you're going to tell us.

Sure. So hey everyone, my name is Joe Zowski. I work for the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission. I think probably most people here are familiar with CMRBC, but in case anyone isn't, we're Grafton's regional planning agency. So, we provide a range of technical and consultant services to Grafton and other communities in uh uh central and southern Worester County like economic development, land use and zoning, grant writing, and so on. Um, and as Fiona said, we're here today to talk about the Grafton permanent guide project. Um, sorry the I know the day on the slide is is a a little different. Um, but um, if you could flip to the background. Yes, sorry.

Slide. Thank you. Um, yeah, so just a little background on this project. As Fiona said, the goal and deliverable is a permanent guide for opening a business and developing uh, property in town. Um, you know, you could think of the target audience here as people are opening a business for the first time, people who might be doing improvements on their home. While we'd like the guide to apply to the broadest target audience possible, um, we're trying to balance um the, uh, depth of the information with conciseness. Um, so you know, your seasoned developer may find take a little less from it than um than some other people, but hopefully at least in terms of organization and structure and giving an overview of the process, it'll be helpful for everyone. Um, as Fiona said, the funding source is uh IPC's district local technical assistance uh program and the timeline is January to June 2026. Although we did discuss at the um at the meeting with town department heads that I understand that Grafton may be adopting e-code. Um is that is that still right?

Yeah. Eode 360. Yeah. Yeah. So um depending on the timeline of that, the project may um extend a little longer um just to incorporate the new uh zoning um code or codes or article numbers into the permanent guide. Um, so that that may be a little flexibility here and that's okay. So the CMRPC or the DTA program can run all the way until the end of 2026. So or projects under the DT and so the participants obviously are CRPC town staff and boards and committees. Um, so the template, sorry Joe,

no problem. Um, so just to save um time and resources, we'll be adop adapting a template um from the Charlton uh 2025 Charlton permanent guide. So CMBC previously worked with the town of Charlton to develop a permanent guide. And so we'll be taking that same structure or utilizing that same structure for this permitting guide. So this is just a a brief overview of the structure. So, the first section is kind of a step-by-step guide to local permitting, helping people understand what permits might apply to their business or development project. Um, you know, a brief overview of what information or professional expertise they might need to consult for that project and then identifying contact points with town government um who to contact um and when. Um the second section is permit timelines and fees. So just an overview of all the different permits and permits um their timelines. Some timelines are obviously internal based on department policy. Others are governed by statute. Um and then some an overview of fees uh as well. And then the last section is just a brief overview of state and federal permits that might apply. And so the work plan um is January of this year is um the goal is to introduce the project to town staff and boards and committees. So we're doing that now. Um got a little delayed by the weather, but that's all right. Um so February um was reviewing any changes although when we tal when um the town department heads met they they felt that there wasn't really a lot of structural changes that needed to be made to the template as it as is. Um so I think we've we've already made accomplished that perhaps um February to March would

be kind of swap um inserting in town specific uh regulations, information, policies, pictures into the permanent guide template. Um early mid April would be distributing the guide to um town of farm heads to review and approve. um late April and May would be updating the per uploading the permanent guide to Adobe Inesign. Although we did discuss um in the town of Marvin Head meeting that um with some trends in the um field of accessibility, we may opt to do an interactive website instead. just um I I knew Tracy the building inspector mentioned um I think is um screen readers have a better work better with websites. So instead of a PDF, an interactive PDF, it may be an interactive website. Um, and CMRBC's done a lot of those um with like Azri story maps. Um, and then so in June, we'll present the final deliverable um to town staff and you all. Um, and then I just had some some broad questions here um for you all just to see if you had any feedback. So, one was, you know, are there any particular issues or challenges that you want to see addressed in in the permitting guide? Um, oh, actually, I think, sorry, I guess I'm looking at so um sorry, this is the presentation I sent to um town staff, but um I just had a few updated questions here, so I'm just going to read from my screen here. Sorry about that. Um

so, were there any particular issues or challenges you all would like to see addressed in the permanent guide? Are there any existing resources you'd like the permanent guide to reference whether that be from the town or other organizations? Um and then we we t talked a little bit about this at the department head meeting but um should we solicit feedback from the local business community and how should we go about it? Um you know what uh what format should we solicit feedback in? Um did you all have any thoughts there besides that? That's all I have. Um, so I'll also take any general questions you have about the project. Now, questions.

I would just say in terms of feedback, if you can get people maybe that have recently gone through the process and say what do they wish they knew at the beginning, those could be good points to include in a guide like this. That's a good point. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I'd say that you very closely related to that is and maybe that's one that's one angle on it is that when we write this stuff, we all kind of know what we're talking about.

And so getting feedback from people who would be reading this, not only as Greg suggested, you know, people who have recently gone through processes, but you know, maybe maybe some sort of a sample of of people and slightly more generally people who might be you might be interested in reading through this but just to get some feedback as you does does this tell me what does this do does this answers my questions as best as something at this level can answer the questions

but yeah definitely in in in some parts in some parts of the world we call that getting user feedback Yeah, I'm also thinking about I I think I felt Dave was talking about people who might want to use this in the future. Mhm. Uh but I'm thinking that maybe you can or we can try to ask people who have been through our process what they think about this.

Would it have you know are there holes? Would it have been helped them whatever? We we do have a member of the EDC that has just joined the meeting. Yeah. So want to introduce yourself, Laura? Yes. Hi, I'm Laura Dillo. I am the chairperson of the Grafton Economic Development Commission. So, I'm here to listen and also give input as uh needed. Yeah. Well, this this is this is where we uh have we're looking for input. Okay.

Yeah. One question I have. I don't think I saw subdivisions covered in this. Is that something that we want to have covered subdivisions in general, 40B projects in particular as as one variation of subdivision review? Is that is that something that we think we should be including this or is that does that is that specialized enough that it's um maybe outside the scope of a more general permitting guide? Joe, do you want to Well, I mean, you know, I think subdivisions can run the gamut of complexity.

Um, so if it's us, you know, maybe we could touch on it lightly. Um, just in case, you know, I don't know if someone's looking to do an ANR or something like that. Um, perhaps that could be helpful. um you know going back to what I was saying earlier you know you know a developer who's doing a subdivision of any complexity you know I think could gain some benefit maybe from understanding the the sequence of the processing graft and but I think they would probably be more experienced in permitting than the target audience of our of our guide perhaps yeah that was kind of one of the reasons I asked the question is it

the you the people who would typically need to know about subdivision development. Good chance they already do, right? You'd hope. Yeah. So, Dave, I might just Yeah. I mean, we could probably do like a reference to like 40, you know, there's 40B handbook and things like that and great resources out there. We could do like a reference maybe in the document, but I wouldn't want to talk substantively about it. I don't think yeah I wouldn't want that for for the for who I think the target audience is for this is that we would not be we would not want to go into any great depth on subdivision development

even though you know some aspects of subdivision development ANRS and minor subdivisions are are more more likely to be potentially of interest to people who are not experienced in subdivision development. Mhm. I would think that this would be helpful depending on how much we have in it or what we have in it might be a a thing that on social media when somebody says why don't they not allow or why don't they something

you say go look in this guide. So, you need it would be good to at least see an outline of all the different, you know, you got 40B, you got 40 X, Y, and Z. I don't know what they all are anymore, but what they are. Um, you know, just explain a little bit about what they are and where you go to find out about all of those different things. Um, would be helpful. And I was also hoping that the form this would take the deliverable would be uh readily modified in the future.

Mhm. Uh when things change. Um Mhm. Yep. Yeah. We we definitely discussed that at the meeting with department heads that any end deliverable would be editable by the town. um whether that's a PDF or or a website. Um and yeah. Yeah. And with regards to 40B um we're talking about 40B, you know, housing developments, right? Is that right? Yeah. Um

yeah, I mean, as I as I recall, there's a minimum, you know, size to 40B developments. So, you know, anyone doing a 40B, I I think probably would uh would be more experienced than the audience of the permanent guide. But we can definitely link to it. I mean that there's no harm in that. I I think you want to say one of the things that can happen is a 40B development and the way that works is it gets approved by the ZBA instead of the planning board and there are these laws and whatever. So that when the person says why is this happening

on Facebook you say go you know it's explained there. Um hopefully this would be a fairly accessible thing to steer a lot of people to. Yeah, I think this is this looks like it's more of a more of a guide book than a detailed step by step for for every possible permitting situation. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. You know, I think that the intention is to help people understand the big picture and the steps and then that way they can be a little more informed when they go talk with town staff who can actually walk them through the

the more refined details. Um because, you know, a lot of people, you know, aren't going to need to know those refined details by heart per se in their dayto-day, but if they if they understand the big picture, at least that can get them farther along in the process. like you can mention a you know you can mention a topic here and point to if you want to know more about this here's where to look. Mhm. Yep. Uh and I hope we mention there's a process of the uh development meetings. The development teams. Development team.

Yeah. That's a big that that should be a big big kind of a key part of this is what is it? and uh you know in what circumstances might you want to be interested in it and what do you do to get to it? And that'll probably be one of those things we'll have to edit one of these days. Mhm.

My thought would be, you know, your target audience is as you mentioned in your introduction is the small small business owners, homeowners, and developers. It's a very broad and very diverse group that you're looking at there. So, you have to make sure when you're using the jargon that we've been using in the in the last five minutes that a lot of the people that are going to be looking at it to learn about where to permit, make sure you're thoughtful on them reading it. Definitely.

Yeah. actually to that end. Um if I could just ask. So um the the Charlton one, it sort of has their guide is trying to talk to all three audiences at once, which I think might be sort of confusing. You know, like it says like skip this page if you're not applying for a business, skip this page if you are not applying, you know, so on and so forth. Does it have to just be one or is it possible to make sort of one per audience? Obviously with there'll be some overlap, but yeah. Well, I think I think the thought um behind that was, you know, in Charleton, um the guide was, you know, um really focused on businesses and and development. you know, I think there's some use that residents could find in the guide. Um, but and I think the thought was, you know, a lot of people opening a business does overlap with property development, even if it isn't constructing a new building. You might have to reout the existing systems in your building and get a building permit for that. Um, which a lot of people might not know going into opening a business. Um, so I think that's why we chose to go along um, and and group them all together. Um, and that's why we also, you know, tried to identify up front, you know, you could skip this section if it doesn't apply to you. Um, but, um, you know, uh, I mean, we can we can consider that. Um, but I do think there's a lot of overlap, um, at least at the level of detail we're going into right now. Um, I guess I should clarify, you know, um, while so the target audience of this wouldn't really be anyone other than like a small developer. Um, you know, a

developer might be able to gain some insight into like the sequence that they the sequence they should consult town departments, but anyone, you know, doing a subdivision or a multif family development, you know, um, I think they would be coming. I I would hope at least they would be coming with a lot of experience and background in this. This is more for people who might have heard of some of the steps in the process but really couldn't articulate them very well to you.

Um so it's it's more targeted towards you know the business owner who's more versed in the business rather than the permitting process. um or you know someone who is you know a small developer um you know a business owner outfitting a space stuff like that. Should we be including something in here for the average person who didn't know that they needed a building permit to do to build that porch or know all of that?

Yeah. So, I mean, in in the Charlton permitting guide, the BIS the building permit section has an overview of these are all the hypothetical projects or a sampling of hypothetical projects that could apply to building permits. Um, so I think it does a pretty good job of covering the bases. You know, it is probably not everything. Um,

Mr. Chair, I'll just add, you know, well, yeah, we try and we're trying to find the commonalities between um different types of folks who will be approaching the town. Um, but also trying to be, you know, as comprehensive as we can. But it is, you know, we're looking, you know, we're looking to really focus on kind of what the the day-to-day average person who's not working in town hall. They're trying to do something standard, uh, whether it's open a business or um make, you know, a home modification or what have you. And we'll try and do the best we can to be um as comprehensive but succinct as possible. And if we do need to explore things in the future, like maybe additional guides and we could do a future DTA request or expand on on that, um, that's definitely possible,

I'd be a little bit concerned about trying to be everything to everybody,

you know, and so there's, you know, there are probably a number of different Wow. Well, I'm not even sure how how exactly it is. A number of different development related topics that various people might be interested in from just people who don't know anything about permitting and developing to people who want to consider doing some type of development kind of within within the scope of what the Charlton Guide kind of covers. Mhm.

But if you try to if you try to throw too much into this and try to cover all the bases, it may become sufficiently difficult for anybody to read and find what they're looking for. So, and I'm not sure exactly where the happy medium is here, but it it's if nothing else to be

to be thinking ahead. Um, we want to kind I think we want to kind of focus this on the potential audience that would would most benefit from this because they want to actually get something done and they want to know how it's done. There may be other there there may be other related guides or you know information that we ought to be providing to our citizens and to you know other other people that maybe is out maybe ends up being outside the scope of this but it's

so as much as I'd like to have this be like one stop for everything you ever wanted to know if that becomes unwieldy then really we have to we have to partition it somewhat definitely somehow.

I apologize the phone call. I put my phone on do not disturb, but I guess that doesn't turn off the the ringtone. Um, yeah, that's definitely true. And, you know, if there's any if there's ever any specific topics that people are curious about, you know, we could make a tab on the planning department website, you know, that addressing the topic of 40B. um you know some towns have that you know you know a list of common questions commonly asked questions um that people ask and and answers. So and you know we discussed at the town department head meeting you know maybe at some point down the line you know it's within reason to do a living and grafting guide that has you know more information on things like um tax abatement and and stuff like that. Um, but yeah, I think I think you're right in that, you know, we don't we uh the permitting can't be everything. Um, because you know, then we get down the the slippery slope that is per the complexity of permitting. So,

I see Laura has her hand up. Cool.

Yes. Hi, thank you. Um, and apologies in advance if this is a bit orthogonal to the discussion at hand, but uh perhaps one thing that would be helpful and I don't know if we have this is um an FAQ sheet on the permitting department and you know uh page on the town's website and also with a uh an addendum on there on what's new for 2026 or what's new and have and has changed. You know, um there's a lot of interest in Grafton, you know, from both residents and people who might want to open up, you know, small home businesses and things like that. And we can't um naturally assume that they would know all of these things. And a lot of times people want handholding and you know point them in the right direction. So if some of this you know if we had such a thing an FAQ and what's new and what's different that might be very helpful. I know that we have also in recent months said hey Grafton is committed to making it easy to do business here in Grafton. And that's that's certainly something that's worth highlighting. So, how do we make it easy for you to do business? Here are the resources we have. And it doesn't have to be war and peace. You know, you do an outline, bullet, bullet, bullet. You know, here are the basic facts. For more info, go here or, you know, see this person, etc.

Okay. Are we in good shape here? No more hands. Joe, did you have any other questions? No, I think I think that was all on my end. Um, if you have any other questions or comments for me, feel free to reach out. Um my contact info is well I'm not stoing the slide anyway but Fiona has my contact info if you if you want to reach me. Uh good. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate the time. Thanks to the uh to the committee or is it a commission or a committee? It's a committee on my agenda. Sometimes it's a commission. Thanks.

Okay. Um thank you, John.

I'm going I'm going to bet that this is going to go quickly. The agenda says public input at this point. Uh this is where if somebody has something to talk to us about uh within our purview, which isn't otherwise on the agenda tonight, this is your chance. Raise your hand in the room or on the on the web. Nobody. Moving on. All right. I understand that uh I should hold off on 3A and 3B. Um uh to be taken at the beginning of the public hearing down below. Um uh if the joint does not run past Republican board. Yes, I've just done that. Um all right. This uh having cancelled the meeting having had to cancel a meeting two weeks ago has created this whole even ask. Uh all right. Now let's see. Um, we have a request for uh a continuence of the hearing we were supposed to hold last time

to this time. That's on um item u the the um that's on 124 124 Westboro Road. Um, does anyone I guess as a formality, I move that the board accept the applicant's written request to continue the hearing to Monday, February 9th, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I

oppose. So voted. All right, that takes care of that request. Um, what am I Number two, explain it. Request for inclusion in the exhibits. Oh, request for inclusion in the exhibits uh conference continue with requested in the well it goes in the exhibits. I don't see what um to a uh to in general cover. Yeah, we did that, right?

Yep. We've done a continuous. We did that. Yes, I guess. All right. There's a request to uh wave peer review on in the action on action item a uh a seven I guess that's 7. That's 3A now. Oh 3A action item. Yes. Now

vote on peer review request. We vote vote on it before the public hearing opens. Yes, you can vote on that now. Mhm. As a standard action item. I move that the board grant that we applicants requested waiver of the peer review for this project. The project at 124 Westboro Road. Second move and second a discussion. Mr. Chair. Yes.

I just clarify that the written request is in the exhibits in the application package for uh just for the public and the board's edification. Um discussion hearing none. All in favor? I

I opposed. So voted. Uh now we're ready for item 7A uh the special permit and site plan approval for 124 Westboro Road. Okay. Okay. Pursuant to sections 1.5.7, 1.3, and 5.9 of the Town of Grafton zoning bylaws, the planning board will hold a public hearing on Monday, January 26th, 2026, commencing at 7:30 p.m. in the conference room A at the Grafton Municipal uh Memorial Municipal Center, 30 Proidence Road, Grafton, Massachusetts, to consider the application for a special permit and site plan approval for a common driveway to serve two industrial buildings proposed on subsequently divided to subsequently divide the land parcel with a separate lot for each building on property located at 124 Westboro Road shown as Grafton Assessor's Map 12, lot 1B. B said property is located in an office light industrial OI chapter uh 43D priority development overlay district PD S OD and campus development overlay CDO zoning district. The applicant owner is Westbrow Road Property Owner LLC. A copy of the application plan is available for public inspection at the Grafton Planning Department during regular business hours or on the town of Grafton website at www.graphton-ma.gov on the planning department and development projects web page.

Good.

Okay. So, I will be quick. Um I'm going to give the some board members may be familiar with this project. It wasn't that long ago that Haley was before you um in 2023 for the um approval of a major industrial complex for the two 100,000 square foot buildings that you're seeing on the plan here. Um they are now proposing to subdivide the lot. Um in order to do so, they need to get procedural approval and establish legal access through a common driveway. So nothing is really changing other than subdividing the lots into lots one and two. Um the uh original plan set that was approved by the board was entered into the exhibits for um this application. Um there was a little uh back and forth a bit correspondence with fire. Um but they had no um no concerns after getting some final clarification. Um drainage uh utilities and overall site work, earth removal, etc. will be the same. So um I you know might have a lot you know a overview outlined in my memo but I won't regurgitate that. So I'll probably have the applicant take over.

Thank you Fiona and thank you Mr. Chairman and members of the board. For the record, my name is Haley Palazola. I'm with Westboro Road property owner, the owner and applicant of the application this evening for special permit and site plan approval. I'm joined by Andrew Steiner, uh civil engineer of Bowler Engineering and um attorney Jason Talererman, a partner, excuse me, a partner at me Talerman and Costa. Uh so, as Fiona has already stated, we are the property owner of 124 Restboro Road, which is an approximate 33.2 2 acre property. Um, we received approval from this board in January of 2024 for a major industrial park, including two almost identical 100,000 foot warehouses, industrial light industrial warehouses with access to the property off of Westboro Road and Institute Road. Um as Fiona mentioned already that nothing on the plan has changed except for the fact that we are seeking a subdivision to allow for greater flexibility um with end users for the building financing um just provide more flexibility in the project. Um to do so we need to first um seek approval for the special permit for the common driveway and then we concurrently with this application filed a uh ANR plan um with this. So, I'm going to go ahead and pause there and turn it over to Andrew to talk through kind of the technical details of the plan.

Good uh good evening. My name is Andrew Steiner with with Bowler. Um so, as uh Haley and Fiona have mentioned, this is a pretty straightforward application. Um so, I'm going to keep my presentation pretty brief, but happy to answer any questions at the end. Um you know, should should there be any. So again, as mentioned, this was a previously approved project back in January of 24. Um, and really the purpose of the submission in front of the the board this evening is to provide flexibility and to continue to um again just provide flexibility um to as the um owner looks to find uh end users for the for the two buildings. Um so again, this would be done by dividing the parcel. You can see the the um property line kind of running running along. That would divide it into two lots where each building would would fall on its own lot, which that's as part of the ANR application that'll be in front of the board later this evening. And then there would also be a common driveway component, the extent of which can be seen on blue on the the plan in front of everyone. Um this common driveway um is is really in line with that initial approval where the main entrance would be off of of Westboro Row. Westboroough Road and then it would extend southernly into the site about 945 feet. The first 525 feet would provide access to both um the loading areas for buildings A and B and then the remainder would pro uh provide access to the um subsequent employee parking areas. So again, as it's been stated, there really hasn't been anything that's changed um since that initial submission. the site layout, the grading, the drainage patterns, um the vehicular access, the um access for emergency vehicles, all that's remained the same um since the initial submission. And really, this is again just to provide flexibility for the for the owner as they're looking for for end tenants. There are a handful of

waiverss, one of which was was just voted upon. Um but the subdivision regulates uh regulations specify a maximum length for a common driveway of 500 ft. We'd be seeking a waiver um to increase that length to 945 which is again kind of based on the uh previous approval of the the layout um and the common driveway really is kind of locked into to that. And then there was also um a waiver for there's a um stipulation in the zoning bylaw which has a 10- foot buffer in between lots. This um is seeking a waiver from that requirement and which is can be waved through um the common driveway special permit process. So you know with with that I'm happy to answer any additional questions that there may be. Is the driveway still in the same place it was? Okay. And I It's been long enough. I don't remember for sure, but I was think I'm thinking that there's an access off of uh the side institute road.

Institute Road. Can you point out where it is? Yep. the the access off Institute Road is is in this location

and it part of that I think was to ensure the ability to flow better uh to both properties. Will this be done in such a way that that is still the that it's still available to the folks over on the right hand side. So, there's still access, you know, circulation throughout. Um, again, the the common driveway would be more of like the legal way to to kind of set where where that driveway would be, but again, you could still have access through through both lots.

I seem to remember that that was a point that we talked a fair amount about back then. Also, just add to that, uh, Mr. chairman, that the access off of Institute Road is limited to passenger vehicles and emergency vehicles only. So, there's no truck traffic, but passenger vehicles could use will still be able to use that to get to the building over on the right. Yes, that's correct. Okay. They have to go all the way around the building. They have to go all the way around the building on the bottom, but the bottom of the pan there.

And I'd add too, and we'd expect this as a condition. And in fact, I think it's already in the a draft uh condition that we would provide the cross easements because it'd be two separately owned lots. So, exactly cross easements, association documents that govern the use the those uses by between the the two lots. So, we we would handle all that. That's normally done as a condition of approval prior to occupancy or building permits or something like that. And we're comfortable with that. who has Yes.

Um, and I I understand what you're trying to do, but what's the flexibility component and do you have endusers in mind already that that flexibility is going to accomplish?

Yes. So, I can answer that question. Um, flexibility in being able to phase the building's uh finance and potentially um sell the first building or second building. So, we are in um serious discussions with a potential user, owner, and occupant of this building here. Um, this building is a 110 plus year old family-owned um company that specializes in um moving and storage needs for corporate companies. Um storage, I can read you what they do. Um I was provided some ways to to discuss it. I I just wanted to be because I I didn't I want to understand the flexibility component then. Yeah.

Now I got it and it is and we and we discussed you know these things come up and users have their various likes and dislikes and we talked to them about rentals and exclusive easement areas and this and that. Their preference this particular owner uh or business owner is uh their preference is to own what they're going to be put their business in. And you know, if we can add flexibility to the type of people we're trying to attract to the site, then we're all for it. I understand that. I uh the way I took it is that you were looking to lease, not not to sell the property. So that's why it makes a little difference. I appreciate that clarification. And it and the reason we haven't announced to it is is it's not documented yet. So

it's totally fine. I just wanted to make sure I understood. Yeah, it hasn't been cast in stone yet. It's pretty contingent upon this happening. There is as of yet no firm commitment, but it's correct. Very close to it. Yes. Yeah. So, as as what this looks like to me is this allows the two buildings and the property that they sit on to be owned separately. Yes, that's kind of a key here. And to make that work, you need to do the ANR. So, you have two separate lots. And to do that, to to have adequate access, you need to take the existing driveway and have that formally designated as a common driveway. Correct.

Correct. And that's really all we're all we're trying to do here is Yeah. We have to call it a a common driveway. So then you can split the lots so then you can market each one separately. That's correct. That's correct. Okay. Anybody else? Anyone? I'll go. No, my question got answered. I was going to ask about cross easements and that got taken care of. Yep. Okay. Anyone else public internet? We have no hands on Zoom. No hands on Zoom. Is there anything more that we need to know?

Can Can I if if I may just cuz assuming that we might be at a point where we can close the hearing. Um Fiona's already done a a draft decision. a lot of it had had redundancies with some of the the prior decision which is totally fine and then there's some

conditions in it that um I think are appropriate for this. There was one condition that I just wanted to flag and I'd be happy to work offline with the uh board and with Fiona. Condition number 18 talks about change in the traffic patterns and it's a little more rigid than the existing condition which is was discussed a lot which uh requires us to do a traffic study and monitoring program after we get to full occupancy and allows some flexibility but also allows the board to impose additional conditions there. And and I think what I would prefer rather than having something that is yet a little bit different is just either repeating that or it's already incorporated by reference through condition 8,

but just making sure that they're consistent because they don't quite match up. Um, but the spirit of it is is that the board gets to look at a fresh set of data after we get occupancy. we get to evaluate that and if there's additional considerations, changes, conditions, whatever, then there's options there. So, that that would the only thing that stuck out to us was that one. The rest of it, a lot of purposeful and smart redundancy between the the two decisions. I don't think that has to stop us from closing the hearing. Do No, it shouldn't. I just wanted to make sure I I flagged it while I had the opportunity.

I'm uncomfortable with it. It's just Yeah, if there's already a reference to I'm okay with that. I'm willing to move that we close the public hearing. Second. Moved and seconded. Discussion, Mr. Chair. Yes, we need to call Ray just in case. Yes. Well, Justin is not here. Okay. I'll designate our um associate member Ray me to act on this. Yeah. Yes. This is a special permit. That's what that Yeah, that's when it comes comes to voting on the special per.

Okay. Just wanted to state it. So I think that base is covered. No. Um we had we had a motion. Second close the public hearing. Good. Any discussion on closing the hearing? Hearing none. All in favor? I opposed. So voted. Um all right. Now we have a draft decision. Can can we get past this um concern about the one

I have I I don't have a problem with with what was outlined and making the necessary adjustments. So, so that would be to update this decision to be consistent with the prior decision when it comes to the traffic. Correct. Yes. So, those two you you referred to F8. Yeah. So, not F-18, the condition number 18 in the first section conditions. And what we'd prefer is that it just we there is either reference to

um or somehow in the original decision in Roman numer section Roman numeral 3-7 I believe has the comprehensive uh traffic monitoring requirements after occupancy. And you know, we're obviously comfortable with that because it's in the original permit. Yeah. So, if there's going to be a reference to looking at future at what kind of traffic is coming out of the project, we'd prefer to just stick with what we already know is governing. This is the this is the correct what's highlighted on the screen there. Okay. Y so condition 18 and then

so that would be right. So Fiona Fiona would would update the draft condition 18 to be consistent with the prior permit and that would be part of a motion for approval.

Yeah. So if that I I guess if if we seems like we might be in a position to have a motion, which I proceed to make the motion that the board find favorably um all the findings in the draft decision. The board grant the waiverss requested as outlined in the GR draft decision and approve the special permit site plan approval with all the conditions as drafted with condition number 18 modified as we discussed.

Someone second moved and seconded. Any discussion on the motion hearing? None. All in favor? I I opposed. So voted. That brings us to an ANR that's part of all this which was way back action way back under action items and the ANR what mostly puts that property line in. Good.

Correct. The the again the ANR is mainly to establish the property line and then to divide the the two parcels. Yeah. The ANR that's being proposed meets all the necessary requirements now that there is a special permit for the common driveway. The ANR makes meets the requirements.

So so that is one thing Mr. Chair I just want to highlight. So just to be as consistent and keep recordeping as clear as possible, we made a recommend I made a recommendation in my memo to include the book and page number for the recorded common driveway decision. So you know the board finds that acceptable. It can um you know allow allow them to submit once they have that information to my office for for signature at a later date. Um I don't know. You know, it's just we're just trying to be making sure that everything is tied in together as much as possible. What this accomplishes is that on the recorded ANR, the special permit will be documented as because that's an essential part of

the approval not required. It's my recommendation. So that's is no one's made a motion yet, right? Yeah. So the motion should include So yes, I will I will move that the board find that subdivision approval is not required for this plan provided that the plan that is signed and submitted to the registry includes a notation referencing the recorded special permit for the common driveway. Second moved and seconded. Is there any discussion hearing? None. All in favor? I

I opposed. So voted. It's a long twisted path to get something fairly simple. Okay. Good. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. You're welcome. So, Mr. Chair, I'll just follow up. I will get the decision um done and filed and then follow up about any other specific questions that you have about what needs to be done. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for coming. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Good luck. Thank you. And we have a whole another public hearing. We were going to forget about

Let things settle down a little bit. Okay. Believe that brings us to 7B. Um a this is a new uh special permit and site plan at 244 Worcester Street, Wyman Gordon. All right. Pursuant to sections 1.5.7 and 1.3 of the town of Grafton zoning bylaws, the planning board will hold a public hearing on Monday, February 9th, 2026, commencing at 7:30 p.m. in conference room A at the Grafton Memorial Municipal Center, 30 Pro Providence Road to consider the application for a special permanent site plan approval for construction of a renewable energy generating facility 3.0MW 0MW-AC solar array on property located at 244 Worcester Street shown as Grafton Assessor's Map 35 lot 1. Said property is located in an industrial I low density residential R40 and chapter 43D priority development overlay district PDSOD zoning district. The applicant and owner is the Wyman Gordon Company. A comp a copy of the application plan is available for public inspection at the planning department during regular business hours on the town of Grafton website www.graphin-mma.gov on the planning department development project web page just give a super quick overview and then I'll let you folks take it from there. So, um, as Greg just stated, um, the applicant is requesting to construct a ground mounted solar array, um, separate from the existing power grid. Um, the array is roughly 10.8 acres, um,

and is located to the side of the existing factory building. Um, there's a variety of of parts that are associated with this, including um, significant demolition of existing buildings and structures to make way for the array. Obviously, um the uh I won't attempt to speak intelligently about solar panels.

I'll leave no uh yeah, so I'm going to uh leave that part to to you folks, but um just to summarize, there will be um some wooded area removed, but overall um pvious service will be increased. The base of the array will be grass um slash vegetation. um there won't be any changes to the existing storm water, which I know is typically um something that the board is interested in as uh we review these types of applications. So, um with that, I'm happy to answer any any questions. Um I do have in my memo a few questions um outlined that obviously the applicant can um respond to at a later date and in writing or whatever um whatever the board sees fit. Um, so with that, I just turn it over. I

Mr. Chair, just one one thing. I just want to clear up some um some confusion that's been going around through around town. This solar farm is on the left hand side of the existing Wyman Gordon's building. Correct. It is not on the land that currently has approval for 331,000 square feet of building. Thank you for clarifying. Wanted to get that clarified because a lot of people are going, "Oh, it's going to be a solar farm and that's going to be great." I was one of them till I saw the plan. So, it's uh it's on the left hand side. Yes. Okay. So, thank you. Most of what's over there on the left hand side. The the um the map that shows up

I think in in a presentation helps me a lot more than um that you know the things we got before. Okay. Told you it was bad, Nick. No, I'm kidding. Uh name. Yeah. Tell tell us who you are and tell us tell us what you're going to tell us.

So, first of all, thank you Fiona for and and also thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the board for your time tonight. Uh it it does mean a lot to us. So, my name is Adam Hartman. I'm a senior director of renewable development uh with Tim, which is an affiliate of Wyman Gordon. We're all kind of part of the PCC umbrella. uh joined here tonight by Nick Fasendola from Level Design uh who's done I'll get kind of give a brief overview and he'll kind of dive into the details and then uh Ronnie Brooks who's uh sitting back here as well who how long have you worked for Wyman Gordon 59 years.

There you go. So, one of the many many reasons he's here. So, um, you know, tonight what we really have is an opportunity to repurpose some what I'll call kind of obsolete or underutilized land. Uh, it is all within the project footprint of the plant. Uh, so definitely a great opportunity. So, the proposed development area, as Fiona mentioned, uh, encompasses approximately 10.8 acres. The entire project footprint is right around 162 acres. Uh so Wyman Gordon just a little bit of uh background about it. Uh it's a forging facility with diverse manufacturing capabilities. Um it meets the critical needs of the aerospace industry, energy industry, uh as well as military and original equipment manufacturers. So a little bit of history and Ronnie, please jump in if I represent this wrong. Uh the plant was originally designated as Air Force Plant 63. The plant was uh for its entire life has been operated by Wyman Gordon. Uh Wyman Gordon was a contractor operating it until it purchased it 1982. Uh as things stand today, the uh the site houses one of the nation nation's largest forging presses and several of the world's most powerful hydraulic presses.

Oh, do you have the present or do you want to present that? I don't know if anybody's I apologize. I should have said something to begin with. No, that's okay. No problem. You can skip plan. You can go to slide two if you want. Yeah, that PDF presentation. Bear with me. Oh, I see it. I'm sorry. Exhibit. Yes. Yes. Sorry. I'm just going to open it on the full screen. Sorry. Bear with me.

My apologies. I tried to downsize that PDF, too, so it' be a little bit easier. I hope that worked. I know. I could hear my computer like revving up. I know. That's always the worst, isn't it? Okay. Okay. Slide two. Uh, yeah, that's all right. Yeah, if that works. Sorry about that. Okay, so if you go

Oh my goodness, this is not functioning for me. I'm sorry. Um I do have some paper copies I can hand out if that's easier or if you guys have it up. Whatever's easiest. I got it. Okay, there you go. All right, up. Got it. Just there. Sorry. Um go one more. Okay,

so this kind of gives you an overview of the entire 162 acre site. Again, we are, as you pointed out, in the north kind of west corner. Um, and converting this area into Ground Mount Solar Way, you know, does a number of things, but represents a significant investment by the plant. um and demonstrates the company's commitment to modernizing the site, approving sustainability, and as you touched on earlier, removing outdated uh infrastructure that's no longer being utilized or no longer contributing to the operations of the facility. If you want to jump to the next slide, you can kind of see um again just off to the left of the main building, the I'll call it the kind of hashed area. And then um sort of in the middle of the hash area um is our project substation I guess would be the best way for me to do this drawing there. But u the electrical substation's kind of right there in the middle. So it all kind of lines up all in one area kind of make a lot of sense there.

And just a few key points. Um you want to go to the next slide. Uh the project size approximately 3 megawws. It's kind of going to depend on the final iteration and kind of how everything fits the size of modules and things like that. Uh the project footprint again 10.8 acres approximately solar type will be ground mount and just because I think this is interesting projected number of panels approximate 1750. So, kind of a few key points I guess to point out. Um, you know, overall all this power as it's set up now will be fed into the plant, utilized by the plant. So, in theory, you know, everybody hears about the electrical grid, the strain on the electrical grid, especially during peak times. Uh, and this in theory will reduce the strain on that. Uh, it's going to generate both uh temporary direct and indirect jobs while it's assembled and maintained. And as we touched on earlier, just kind of reinforces Wyman Gordon's long-term commitment to the facility and enables modernization of the aging infrastructure. Just uh kind of set us up for the future um and positions us for future growth. With that, I'll turn it over to Nick and uh when he gets done, we can answer any questions you guys have. Good evening. For the record, once again, Nick Fasendolo with the Level Design Group. We uh prepared the site plan and uh special permit and site plan approval application before the board this evening. Um, just so the board knows, we've also submitted with the conservation commission and we'll be in front of them next Tuesday for a notice of intent and storm water management permit. Um, quick overview of the site.

I'll just try and hit on all the things that um, Adam didn't really go through just to kind of get a little bit more detail on the engineering uh, or the layout of the proposed facility. This is a more zoomed in view of the uh entire 162 acre facility. This is the parcel that was cut out that was spoken about earlier where we have the uh 330,000 ft² warehouse facility uh that was recently permitted in 2023, I believe. Um obviously everybody knows it hasn't been constructed yet. Um but the parcel has been sold and is no longer in Wyman Gordon's uh ownership. So, where they're still waiting to see I think they're waiting for a final tenant on that before they uh move forward with construction. Um access to the array area will be from the uh central driveway until the site uh in the front is constructed and then all access to the array will be through the route newly reconstructed uh east driveway that was part of the permit approval for um the warehouse development. And then they'll come through around here and access the array from this area. And there's also an existing paved driveway which provides access around the building. So this is the 10.8 acre area. Uh there's a variety of small buildings which are currently no longer in use by Wyman Gordon. Some storage buildings, an old uh vent structure building located here. an old tank uh and pump houses that are no longer being utilized. All those structures will be raised and um covered with uh lman seed. Same will go for uh a large parking area here, driveway um walkways within that area. This whole

area will be grass ground cover with solar panels over the top. We will be constructing a access driveway as requested by the fire department. So the uh system is essentially broken up into two components. I'll call this the northern array which is above the substation, the smaller component. Then we have the southern array down here. And there's an existing driveway that's going to remain in place that'll provide access to that existing substation. Um, as we come around here, we did um meet with the TRC committee and the fire department did um have some comments on this and requested that we provide at least a 10-ft wide driveway around the perimeter of the site. So, as I previously stated, we have an existing paved driveway providing access up and down that area. And then we have a 10-ft wide proposed gravel driveway. And then I have another four feet clear on each side to provide a little extra space for them to maneuver any um off-road vehicles that they would like to see uh come around the property. Um other infrastructure in the area, there's a variety of uh storm water outfalls for roof drains and there's some small catch basins that end up discharging to a wetland. And we have Bonnie Brook which runs through here. It's an intermittent stream that runs up through this uh portion of the site. Um there's an existing town of Grafton waterline easement uh that provides uh water service for the Creeper Hill uh neighborhood that's going to remain intact. We're going to continue to provide access over that easement. We're not going to put any panels over it and we're going to um ensure that access is u maintained over that easement. Um I don't believe there's a lot of maintenance work that occurs there, but there is a break. We want to make sure that the town water

department does have access to enter that area. So we've um made sure to have our site fencing work around that existing easement. Um as it is a energy generating facility, it's required to have security fencing and safety fencing around the entire area of the um array. Wyman Gordon's a secured facility which is completely fenced in. So we'll be tying into existing fencing where we can but you know along this area we'll have to provide some access gates along here and we will then um tie into existing fencing infrastructure which comes up along this way. You know as uh the plans are quite detailed with um we have a demo plan kind of showing and this is a more zoomed in view. just the lower area um of the property. So, this is where the the entryway is going to be. You can kind of see here a 40 scale plan. This is the main parking area which we're going to be removing. Existing buildings here, tank structure here, another existing building. All that's going to go away. There's some old rail spurs we're going to remove. So, really clean up the area as well as redevelop it for solar. Um here. So this is the back side of the site and you can kind of see here this is the uh Bonnie Brook the intermittent stream here. But we have some small buildings here, paved um walkways. All that's going to be coming out and we're going to be installing the solar facility. So the way this kind of works out with being a redevelopment site as this whole area is pretty well developed with the removal of the impervious coverage. I'll kind of I'll give you guys the numbers on that. Let me see

here. And the removal of the existing buildings. So, we're removing about 19,387 square ft of buildings and an additional 47,148 square ft of imperous surfaces, uh, parking areas, driveways, walkways, things of that nature that no longer need to be there. With that net reduction in pvious coverage, we don't have any uh storm water basins proposed because we're now infiltrating directly into the grass and we don't have that increased peak rate of runoff. We did provide a storm water management report which details all this in uh you know fine detail. I believe that's going to be reviewed through the town's um peer review consultant. We haven't received any comments yet, so we anticipate those coming in from the uh town's consultant. But overall, storm water management, it's very minimal here. Um peak flows are managed from just a reduction in imperous coverage and there's no new impervious coverage. So, we don't have suspended solids. We don't have to do those additional steps where we have to treat and clean the water uh because there's no pave area here. We're essentially removing all that as we move forward. Um, and just one thing I want to note, I've done a lot of solar fields in in my day. This is the first larger one that's not a commercial facility. So, this is going to be owned and operated directly by Wyman Gordon. They're going to use the power. So, this isn't going to be a system that's interconnected to the grid where they're selling the power. There's no proposed batteries at the facility. I know that's a a hot button item for most um communities. So, there's no proposed batteries associated with this system.

All the power is going to go directly to the existing substation which currently exist. And then from there to the uh to the building. Um there'll be a small equipment pad which we're proposing um in this area here. It's a little bit to the south for that building. We're going to remove the building, but the concrete slab is going to remain um part of an required environmental cap. Um there's been a lot of environmental work out here. The site's very clean uh for this type of use. We can't put, you know, housing here, but for uh solar, we have the green light to go ahead and do this type of work with the, you know, main consideration of this um slab having to remain in place. So the structure will come down and this building slab will remain. So we're going to try and reutilize that to um hold the inverters, the um other type of electrical equipment that's required to operate the system. And then from here there'll be a small conduit run that goes to the electrical substation. That's pretty much it for um the required utility work here. Um there'll be some minor sight grading, very minimal, just enough to kind of cut in this proposed gravel driveway. Other than that, it's relatively flat site. It's all been previously worked and graded um when the facility wasn't originally built. Um we are doing some uh tree clearing. Kind of note that area. It's primarily in the lower array down through here. There's a good two and a half acres of wooded area that will need to be cut and managed as part of the project. But, you know, with the removal of the pavement, there should be no increase in in runoff from the site. So,

no storm water um implications from that. Also given where the system is positioned, um we haven't proposed any additional screening as the site itself provides the screening for the facility based on its location. So let me just jump to that to kind of jump in. You've got, you know, the the plan on one side, you've got woods on another side, then you've got this proposed uh warehouse that that really sits in front of it.

So, there should be no visual impact to the to the neighborhood, you know, along Worcester Street here. So, as Adam said, this is a twostory million square foot plant right here. So, that provides a lot of buffering for the facility. Here you have a wooded area. Then you have the New England Power Company. um transmission line area here. So there's no residential butters in this area. To the north you have the Boston Albany Railroad and then you have a variety of industrial properties along Creeper Hill Road. Um and then as we said along the front there's still going to be some wooded vegetation in this area here. And then once that warehouse facility goes in, I mean I'm pretty sure no one's even going to know there's a solar field in the back here. Um, so it should be very well screened.

One other thing to point out too is we're not proposing clearing trees all the way over to the New England Power U area. There will be some wooded area that's there and the two and a half acres of trees that we're talking about uh proposing to remove. Um, I know the definition of tree is is is pretty contentious. Trying to be close to the mic. Oh, I'm sorry. I know the definition of tree is pretty contentious, but I would say small growth. I mean 6 in almost like shrubs. Scrub brush. Yeah, scrub brush is a great way to put it.

And then yeah, so you know, we're going to work with the conservation commission. We're going to respect the no disturb buffer zones and all everything that kind of goes along with that. So we have worked that into the proposed plan as well and we'll coordinate with them. But yeah, we are going to a lot of this area back here. There's pretty much no vegetation on this northern part. It's mostly down in this area. But I feel like I've rambled on long enough uh about the project and I apologize for that. So we'll uh open it up to the board for any questions. Mr. Chair. Yes. Um so the uh electric substation, yes, that's a new building, correct? No, this exists. It's it's a that's an existing building that's got

it's not a building. It's more of a just an area. Looks like has all sorts of electrical so equipment there. I'll let the Sorry. Go into the building. Say that again. Panels that go into the building. Is that Yeah. So, what's there um is it's a electrical substation that's owned by the company. You've got a step down transformer that's there that provides all the power service to it. Then you've got a a series of breakers that are kind of towards the front. Y and that's what makes the feed. But you're not tying into that. Uh more than likely we will. So Wyman Gordon owns the substation. Yeah. Yeah. So So

but but I'm not going to commit to that yet just because we got a little bit more work to do studywise. But we're never going to produce more power than what uh the facility is using. Uh and in the event that we are uh we we would shut it down and we've got some fail in there. Okay. The reason that I ask about that is it is noise. Um substations usually generate a constant hum especially if they're old is if they're from the 40s. So the the hum that you're typically hearing is the main power transformer which I believe in this case is stepping it down from to the one 13 or 138. I think it's 138 and it steps the power down. That's that hum that you're hearing.

We're actually interconnecting on the other side of that. So we're already connecting on the low side. Typically called the high side low side of the transformer. Uh we're already connecting on the low side. So it should not contribute to any sort of a humming noise. But the existing humming is still going to be there. Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. And just so for the record, the substation, it's been there for 50 years. Oh yeah. With the trees gone, you know. Well, I didn't say anything about the trees, but now that you added it. I'm just trying to be clear. No, I'm just I'm just saying, you know, to substations create the humming noise. Mhm.

What I don't want to see is this humming noise to be increased based on you guys connecting the solar to that. And and if you're going to upgrade the entire substation, then it's going to almost go away because because the new new systems don't hum as much. Yeah. So, we're not um again, that humming noise that you're hearing is typically that that main power transformer.

Um and and we're going to be connecting on the low side of that and with all the power being consumed by the plant, we we shouldn't contribute. I mean, I can't 100% confidently say this, but if we're, you know, pulling less power in and stepping it down, in theory, you should should go down. Should go down. Correct. But, but I can't stand here and confidently say without a doubt that will correct. Yeah. Okay. Um, so, uh, panel right, but confidently you could say it's not going to be more. No, I Yes, I I can confidently say it will not be more. That was a horrible way to say that, but I can confidently say it will not be more. Before Ray gets on to something useful. Sorry, Ray. Um, useful.

Uh, I'm going to ask something that isn't. Geez, if I had feelings, I'd be offended. Yeah. Um the the power I'm an electrical engineer or I was um awesome. I'm curious the you're talking aboutund and some thousand volts uh as the high side. Does that come from the street or does that come like right off the the high lines? It comes right off the highlight. It comes right off. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But but it's a little weird because it's considered

it's considered distribution, but it's but it's high voltage. And that probably means more to you than it does to me. But um there's a series of lines that run through there, but that one is considered distribution because it it directly feeds a plant. No, I'm an electronic engineer, not an electrical engineer. I think he is too. Yeah. I didn't spend a lot of time in power engineering in college. I spent as little as possible. Um but he wouldn't mind me again. Never mind. Um so I I have another question. So um I mean I've seen these these uh the solar farms all over the place down south is hundreds and thousands of acres of those.

Was the roof structure not adequate to put those on the roof? So, um to be very direct and transparent and clear, we could not get comfortable with that roof structure and both the remaining life that's there. Um and you know, overall just rooftop solar. Um I'll be honest with you, I think I made six trips out here with different engineers and different roofing contractors and probably spent more time on that roof than I ever planned or wanted to. And I I remember the last trip out there, I just kept looking out and looking at this piece of land and calling Ronnie who was on the ground saying, you know, what what are we doing? And and I credit Ronnie for being the champion of pushing this of why would we put on the roof? Let's let's put it on the ground and and utilize the ground that we're not utilizing currently.

But very fair question. How does the power consumption of the plant compare against the maximum capacity of the array? So, um I'm going to be a little bit guarded in answering that just because we're we're still sort of figuring out the equipment and the size, but um right around that 20% mark. 20. So this will provide 20% of the power, correct, that the plant draws. So it's still going to be drawing most of its power down through the transformer. Yes.

And um it'll only be helping when the sun's out. That is correct. And this plant's 24/7, so that kind of skews those numbers just or it doesn't snow on the panels. It doesn't snow on the panels. So Oh, they warm up on their own. That's what people say. You don't want to look answer that. But um depending on how much snow you get, you still can get some production out of them. Um it just really depends. But there isn't any problem that you're going to be making more no than you can absorb because I would think that the workload in the in the plant varies a lot. It does.

Um when you go on the low side, are you still, you know, you're still in the window we're talking about? So, uh, back of the napkin math, and we're finalizing that now. So, so I want to stress that, um, even when the plants producing very little, uh, we're still not at that 20%. So, and if we ever were, uh, the way the switch gear and inverters are now, um, we can program it with logic to disengage it. Yeah. So, it'll be it'll be hooked into the grid in such a way that the solar will never feed power back into the grid. Correct. Yeah, because because you the point is it's going to be making power.

Anytime the sun is there, it's going to make power. Correct. And it's the power is going to go someplace. Well, uh yes and no. If you disengage the inverters, um it'll actually kill it all the way out there. So, you won't be technically producing power. I mean, in theory, you kind of are, but you're dissipating it right there. So, okay. Anything else? Right. No, that was it. Okay. Anybody else at this step? Oh, just quickly, the slab that you have to keep, why is that that you have to keep it? There's some bad stuff underneath it that was capped in concrete. Yeah, that's not can't can't pull it out for environmental purposes.

And then the in the in the rest of the area, is there any kind of like testing or monitoring of what's being exposed by taking out the other buildings or We we've done uh an environmental analysis on the buildings. Uh there is some stuff there uh that has there that has to be remediated. Mhm. Uh and that's kind of all part of the the demolition process, but we have we're not just going out and tearing them down. There's there's things that have to be done uh to abate it responsibly. I do you remember Ronnie? There's something monitoring wells that clean. Yeah. But there's like a coating on the outside of one of the buildings that has to be removed.

One of the buildings it has a metal siding on it. At each seam they put an asbestous glue when they built it. Yeah. And that was prior to me coming when it's over 60 years old. But we still take each panel off one by one. Clean them and then dispose. Yeah. A long time ago they love to use use asbestous. Blame that. They've been paying for that ever since. Blame that on the Air Force, right? Um, I mean, you know, I remember the signs, you know, government secure or whatever, you know, don't it used to say United States Air Force Systems Command Base number 63.

But it said like don't dare come in here or something like that. Those are still up. Those are still there. Um but just to kind of get back to your um item there, we will have oversight during construction for anything that's going to go out. Come, you know, any material that would need minor amounts that would need to go out. A lot have to be tested. Licensed site professional be on site monitoring u the work. Not a lot of excavation work here. Like I said, just some grading for the for the driveway and any um you know, we'll try and keep everything on site, but um yeah, we'll have um I believe it's GZA who did all the environmental remediation work um in this area. They'll be they'll be out there keeping an eye on things.

And and one more thing to add is um uh myself and the gentleman who wasn't able to be here tonight, Ryan Wilson, came from uh you know, PCC's owned by um Birkshshire Hathaway. we came from the renewable affiliate of them. Um, we're going to put together a a robust maintenance plan because one of the common things we see and I think we talked about that in in a meeting before is everybody can build them, hardly anybody can maintain them. You know, uh, and there's, you know, prescribed maintenance that needs to be done on inverters and and modules and, you know, you have to make sure the grass is is is not growing into them and and different things like that. And you know, we've modeled it out where, you know, like an inverter design life is x number of years. We're going to have it set up where we come in and change it. So, I mean, we're we're truly here for the long haul. And eventually, one one of the things we typically include when we approve a solar array

is eventually against a possibility that might eventually be decommissioned. You know, we include some we include some language in our permits regarding decommissioning. But yeah, that's which is something you you will you will take that into account. That's that's probably done pretty much everywhere. Yeah, very common. There are a few other sizable arrays in Craftton. Can have you made any comparison get it give for people who are interested like is this the biggest one or or that sort of thing?

I mean your standard groundmounted facility it's probably I mean I've done a handful of these throughout the state around five megawatts. So they're probably 20 acre footprint plus or minus depends on the configuration. You know, if there's wetlands, they got to dance around, but you're probably 15 to 20 acres of panels, right? So we're floating around 10. So this is about half the size. I'd say we're in the middle. I mean, there's one down at the um end of um south end of Georgia Road uh that the power company I think the power company owns.

Yeah. Um, and then there's one over at TUS, and I'm not sure the there some others that I think are smaller. Um, I just, you know, I kind of this isn't necessarily even as big as something else that we already have. No, I would say it's most likely not, but we could take a look at those and I can take those aerial images and kind of put this in there and show you how it fits into there just so you have a

perspective of it. you now you're the power that you're displacing is coming down off the high line. So the local the power company shouldn't be disturbed by fluctuating uh you know megawatt several megawatts of um I could tell you're an engineer.

Yeah. No um you know we'll have a forecast and and and sort of keep an eye on that. But as far as uh um you know, solar's somewhat consistent, right? You're going to lose a few percent here or there. You're going to lose, you know, cloud cover and things like that. But as far as uh um uh it's not like wind when you think of, you know, the gust of wind, all of a sudden you're producing 10 megawatts, then it dies for, you know, 10 seconds, you're producing one megawatt, then it's back to 10 and that sort of thing. But it should not impact the grid as far as that goes. Yeah. because typically these are adding to the power flowing into the grid

uh during the day and I think that was part of what the power company was doing with the one off on Brigham Hill um was I think trying to learn maybe that's the one that's the power company you know supposedly they were experimenting to see all those

things that are difficult um uh before I forget the uh the water easement I think every waterline in Grafton has has needed or will soon need. I mean, they're it seems to me they're digging up something every day. So, be sure that they can get at it. Um, let's see. Um, one other thing, there was a which is basically same stuff we've been talking about. Uh there was someone put in a comment in the um record. Who is benefiting from the energy produced by the solar panels? Is it Wyman Gordon or the surrounding residents in Grafton? So I I think it's

I would answer that both ways, right? So um the energy produced there is is going directly into the plant. However, that's less energy that we're pulling from the grid which helps strengthen the grid. around the plant and and and you know for the community. He also asks how is the plan approved? Is it vote is a vote conducted by the surrounding neighbors or is it approved by the town?

I'm going to let you answer that one. I think the main approval I mean there's who knows um you know the other folks but uh primarily this is the approval that goes with it. Yeah. People don't get to vote. No this this board and the conservation commission. Yeah. Um and uh let's see. Oh, and the the last thing is uh yeah peer review. We don't have the peer review yet and I don't think we can close the hearing until we have the peer review and go through it. Okay. So, um continue. Right. Right. To be a verbal request.

Do we have anything else tonight that we want to do? I have nothing more in that case. Um perhaps you'd like to ask for the for the hearing to be continued to um the next uh meeting is the 23rd. I will be here. Yeah, she has there should be a form. It was left in the office. So we'll do it at a later date, but yes. Yeah. Sorry about that. It's all good. I'll move that the board will grant the applicant's written request to be received. Thank you.

as expeditiously as possible to continue this hearing to Monday, February 23rd at 7:30 p.m. Second. Moved and seconded. Discussion hearing. None. All in favor? I opposed. So voted. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you. Natalya should have sent it via email the public the continuence request just so you you know. Okay. I will take a look for that. Thanks. Now then that needs we just need to fill it out. Takes care of. Yeah, just put the 23rd. Take it from there. Thank you. Now discussion items, right?

Uh subdivision rules and regs. Actually 3C. We need to do 3C as well. Oh, the um I'm sorry. 3C. The annual report. Mhm. I looked at it. There's an amazing amount in it. I You didn't make the change. I didn't make a change for the thing I sent in. It It said how many special permits had been approved and it didn't say how many hadn't been approved. And I thought, you know, if you're gonna the Natalyia, did you um thought that was something that

So there were no denied ones, so therefore that was not included. The years that we have something denied, we will include that figure. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else with anything? Move the board approve the annual report. Second. Moved and seconded. Discussion hearing. None. All in favor? I opposed. So voted. Now can we get to subdivision rules and regulations? So Mr. Sher, I don't have anything since the last time. Very good. We have a public hearing coming up. Public posted public hearing coming up next meeting.

Next meeting. Yep. And that's that's in the meeting materials as well. Bills. There was a bill move the board authorize payment of the bills. Second. Moved and seconded. Discussion hearing. None. All in favor? I opposed. So voted unanimously. Um all the votes should be noted as unanimous. You know why? Because that's otherwise there's a law someplace that says you're supposed to record who voted each both ways. Um, so I but I always figured out that if it was unanimous, you could sidestep that.

Yes. I think I think the open meeting law specifically says that if it's unanimous, you don't need to take a roll call. But my doing that goes back before the um uh minutes of previous meetings. Move the board approve the minutes of December 23rd, 2019 and January 12th, 2026 as drafted. Second. Moved and seconded. 2019. We're catching up. Catching up. Yeah. To the best of our ability. Did we even have recordings back then? Yes.

Oh, and we could get to the recording because someone was just trying to get to a 2020 recording on social media. My question on that is I read it and it seemed logical but I did not watch it or Yes. or attended meetings but but um you don't you can vote on minutes if you want to anyway. Yes. Um any other discussion

hearing? None. All in favor? I oppose. So voted unanimously. Staff report. Um, so Ben, I'm just kind of focusing on getting this uh there's a lot of like grants that are due at the moment plus um balancing just um applications and a lot of inquiries. We're starting to get out of winter and we're starting to, you know, see that people are trying to get moving on things. So, um, we've been kind of focusing on more, um, making sure that we're kind of closing out existing permits, um, fielding inquiries from people who are interested, um, in development. Um, just kind of a lot of that lately. Uh, I did submit a Mass Trails grant for a feasibility study um, for the Grafton segment of the Blackstone Bikeway. Um, that was done in coordination with the Blackstone Heritage Corridor and Sustainable Grafton. So, we had a meeting and um obviously uh for those who may there's some folks who will know, but for those who may not know um and which I found out after digging through many years of paperwork that this has been something that's been going on for quite some time and the Massachusetts uh you know segment needs to be completed and I think this is now that we the town has acquired parcels along Providence Road, there's some uh alternatives to be pursued. So hopefully um you know I'll keep you posted if we get it. I also did submit a C uh CPA Community Preservation Act um application for uh the match. So that is coming up on the 26th of February. We were recently awarded the MVP 2.0 planning grant. So there's going to be some significant leg work that's involved in that process including a seed project. Um, so be, you know, be aware that th that will be unfolding. I

have a kickoff meeting in the next couple of weeks in person in in Newton to discuss who our regional coordinator will be. Um, I've been keeping the board updated with um, DOER's small permitting um, inciting requirements for um, smaller scale kind of energy projects. So, that's in that's in the correspondence, but I just want the board to know that I've been talking closely with our regional uh representative and I can have him come to a future meeting. I know this is this is generating a lot of conversation, so I'm happy to do that. Um, yep. Just a a lot of things going on and I'm kind of blanking, but I'm happy to answer any questions about anything that um questions anyone has.

I hesitate to ask with all the budget stuff going on, is there anything that we have concerns about like what might happen to the budget? Um we are obviously with new newer positions like the joint um planning and conservation admin position like that would be something that would go away um if the override um which is a bummer but it does make sense. So okay because there's been some interest in the subject on social media.

Yes. Mhm. Yes. If you want to call it interest um uh that okay correspondence anything apparently not um micro uh under u planning board representatives on town committees and CMRPC the um CMMO micro projects program application So Mr. Chair, so we were approached by CMRPC and Mass Bike if we were interested in applying for a grant program. It's called the micro grants program. It's small awards for first and last mile projects. It's usually like a lighter lift items. Um we Mass Bike does um a lot of educational workshops, group rides, like events to um spread awareness about um multimmodal transportation. um a as well as ways that you know communities can improve etc. We have a bike plan in town. Um we've made made very little progress in implementing the recommendations of the bike plan besides bike lanes on 122 um main street. So we obviously we want to improve in this area and I you know we thought it was a worthwhile endeavor. Um we did apply for um similar to the master trails grant CPA funding request for the match. So, um hopefully that uh you know, we'll see what that that's being taken up on the 26th as well. But the overall request is for um $7,000. It'll uh we're proposing to do events more or less and education. Uh and again, as I mentioned, group there's going to be group rides. the final program hasn't been established because we need to figure out how much funding we'll be able to work with if we

get the micro project grant or not. So, right now it's being proposed in the application to at least three events and there was a very similar um program that was spearheaded in Worcester Biomass Bike and there it's this is closely aligning with with that. So, so the application's been sub submitted. So, okay. Um, does anyone have anything as planning board representatives on town committees and or andor CMRPC?

Just one brief item on from the open space and rec committee. We've updated the open space and article 19, article 97 inventories reflecting changes that throughout 2025. If I can remember to do so, I will email those to you, Fiona, so you can put them up on the OSRC's web page. Perfect. Thank you.

Um I I would assume that CMRPC has let made you aware that in the last year or so we added an engineering capability um someone who was representative from Shrewsbury the highway I think was the highway director um in Shrewsbury would been the delegate to CMRPC

uh now he's working for CMRPC and the the idea is that he and others can give help to towns that need help pulling together things that they need to do. Um, we have some pretty good resources, so I'm not sure that it comes down to us, but um I've not mentioned that before. Okay. Okay. Anybody? Anything else? Move to adjurnn. Second. Moved and seconded. Not debatable. All in favor? I I oppose. So voted unanimously.