Conservation, Energy, & Environment Committee - Regular Meeting

Um, we it seems we have a quorum. So, I am going to call the meeting to order at 4:31. Okay. Uh, next up, approval of the agenda. Any additions to the to the agenda? Okay, we shall move on. Um, let's see. Could uh in approval of the October 9th, 2025 meeting minutes. Could I have a motion? Okay. Could I have a second? Second.

Okay. Uh any discussion, corrections? Okay. All in favor? I Okay. Um I think we're good. Actually any I are are there any abstensions or nazs? Oh, and David was out of the room. Are you in favor of approving the minutes?

Okay. Thank you. You're our quorum. So, okay. Minutes are approved. Um, and actually I just want to acknowledge we have three guests. Uh Val Rosetti, Kevin Goff, and Peter Russell. Welcome. Um okay, next up is just approval of the 2026 meeting schedule. Uh you should have all had a copy in your package. It's the same um routine, second Thursday of the month. Um we've got something on, you know, we've got that scheduled for August. We generally cancel, but it's just good to have it on the calendar. in case we need it. Can I have a motion to approve the schedule? Okay. Second. Second from Bob. Okay. Um, all in favor? I. Okay. Any nazs or abstensions? Okay. The calendar is approved. Okay. Um, Nick tells me that John is planning on coming a bit later because he has another meeting. So, we will jump over the town planners report for now. Um, and we'll move into old business. Uh, I just want to sort of make the comment that I think as we talk about old business, some some of the the some new business will kind of kind of naturally fall into it because I think some of our discussion um is a good lead into our um a potential priorities list for next year because we generally start planning, you know, for the new two-year term and we will um ultimately be reappointed since uh we

serve at the pleasure of the council and we have a new council. So uh that will be coming. Okay. Um we'll just start out with solar in Bloomfield solar regulations and update. I know Nick you've been charged to kind of work on that. So

Yep. Sure. So myself and the land use department have been doing a lot of laying the groundwork for the new regulations. Um, we've reviewed the proposed regulations from 2023 that I believe are ultimately rejected, trying to figure out ways that we can make them so they will be approved in the future. Um, I've been just generally looking into Bloomfield's solar potential here and like what we've done so far, noting that we are a broncertified Soul Smart community. Um, so I've been going through Souls Smart to look at other communities and how they've done their permitting processes, their regulations, um, and noting that we already have a a solar permitting checklist, uh, which I think we can direct more folks towards if there's initial guidance needed on solar. That could be be a good first kind of thing there. Um, but in addition, we begun drafting the regulations. U, we haven't finalized anything yet. we're ready to to call final. Um, ideally we're going to wait for our full staff to be here. Um, our assistant director is currently out. She'll be back next week and I think at that time I'd like to start having them reviewed internally and then hopefully they can be then reviewed by you all here in CE and beyond. But that's the update. We've also been talking with uh CEK and and doing other kind of aside from the actual regulations, we've been working with those groups. So solar has been a topic that's been coming up since we've last spoken.

Are there any questions? What was Nancy tonight? By whom? Believe it. Sorry, you might know better than I do. My understanding is that sorry it was uh they were proposed in 2023 and I believe it was they went before TPZ. Is that correct? Um it's a little nebulous because because No, that that's fine. And I mean you're doing fine because it's a little nebulous.

What happened in 2023? Uh I know 2022 2023 um the previous environmental planner was working with Linda Lauraniano to develop some regulations because we had nothing on the books which you know was actually in and of itself a problem because people were doing solar and we had nothing on the books. So, there was a draft um there was a draft regulation that came to this body and there was some back and forth on it and we ultimately were satisfied with it and then it went to TPZ and I thought it was approved but then Linda um Linda just sort of corrected me when we talked about it in a previous meeting a couple months ago and said actually no it wasn't. they weren't completely satisfied with it. So that's where we are. So um hence another look.

And this is for residential. It's uh I think it's for residential. So, residential, commercial, but also I guess I think it's currently being broken down into um roof mounted, building mounted, ground mounted, and then we're going to have a a tentatively a third category of carport similar. I think if you focus on Cabberry that it looks like that. Yeah. Okay. Uh actually, um Bob and then David, uh just a question. Uh, is there going to be something in there to uh pro promote uh uh solar on on new uh commercial construction?

Are you referring to I think we talked the last meeting about a sort of regulation that says that if somebody's building a new commercial property, they have to justify why they won't. Is that okay? I just want to make sure we're on the same page. Uh yeah, that can be something we talk about and putting in the regulations. Um, yeah, I I I I would like to do everything we can to make these regulations as comprehensive as possible, but also trying to see like what would be required for them to to go through in general. So, I would definitely I'm definitely considering that, but I'm I'm not positive if that'll make it into the final draft. That's what you're asking. Yeah, I'll follow up. Why can't it be into the draft?

Oh, it can be. Uh, I guess I guess I was sort of prioritizing having the solar regulations in general. Um, but I I can we can make it a priority to get it in the draft and then see where it goes from there. Yeah. Yeah. That that's something that's been proposed by this committee for probably 15 years. It's never happened. Okay. Okay. It's a priority clearly. So I I will make sure that we at least talk about that as the department, as the staff and try and get into that draft. Yeah. you usually something like that that has some opposition can be gotten through by having the bottom line PNC can grant a waiver. Mhm.

Okay. Um it looks like Val wants to say something. So can you come just come? Actually anyone is welcome to come sit at the table. You you know non-com nonofficial committee members interested citizens. Yep. Just going to ask whether you're developing regulations based on the size of the arrays. Size of what? Oh, size of the arrays.

So from what I understand and what I think we are doing is we're the regulations are geared towards projects that are less than one megawatt. So and I think that's where we have jurisdiction if I'm recalling correctly. Does that answer your question? So, so you're not further breaking that that debt. Oh, like like 75.5 megawatt like that or or or the amount of acreage necessary to support you know.999 megawws. I know one megawatt or over the sighting council has jurisd

Yes. Um yeah I mean yeah we can look into breaking it down by acreage. Uh I think it's mostly being looked into based on the zoning that is in place and the type of solar array that it'll be that is building mounted, ground mounted or carport. Um but if if acorage is is a topic of concern, that can also be something that can be at least assessed in the draft. Yeah. And are you considering types of like when you say zoning, is there any um issue being developed about agricultural land versus other types of property for solar? Are there special requirements for you know putting solar on agriculture?

Yeah, I mean from what I understand I think certain land use types get certain exemp broadly speaking get certain exemptions and regulations. For example, a plot that is being used for agriculture gets certain exemptions and I could foresee one of them being related to solar. Um, in terms of zoning, I think you might know there's no zoned agricultural land in the town. That's not really a zoned use. I it's I think all zone types in in the town can are allowed to support agriculture if I'm recalling correctly. Um, and I think that was a topic of discussion last meeting about should we change a zone to agriculture because that might facilitate one way or another solar. But to answer your question, yeah, I think I could foresee agricultural use being another accepted use as it pertains to something like solar. Is that helpful? Okay. Yeah. Great.

Go ahead. I thought there was land in Bloomfield zoned farmland. No. And and there is a tax write off if you have that. Yeah. I I there's I think what you're talking about there's a tax write off if you declare the land use being agricultural but there's no like if you look at like a zoning map you we have the R20s we have I2s but there's no like A1 for agriculture you can yeah that's the idea is that

actually I'll jump in no I'll jump in um if you're yeah agriculture is what a uh use by right in Bloomfield but there is no designated agriculture al zone, which is problematic because you can have your property agricultural and then you can decide, hey, I don't want to have it agricultural anymore. I'll just, you know, we'll just lift the PA490 and I'm going to sell it and we'll use it for something else. There's no real protection. um you're thinking of PA490 if you have property in agriculture and if you do have designated land in in you know that's agricultural and you put it in PA490 you get reduced taxes on that property that's what you're thinking about land trust is looking at that with a

and what happened to the proposal that we've had the last two sessions of the solar array on the land across from Seabberry. What's happened with that?

Yeah. Uh the land use department has had several meetings with the company is CEK who is the company that is representing I suppose Cabberry or the ones who are proposing the development. Um several meetings with them. They've been curious about a path forward as to how it would look based on their environmental assessment, based on what they've heard from other committees, IWWC, TPZ, etc. We actually just had a meeting with them earlier today. we more or less laid out the path that would go forward as to how they want to do that. Um, not speaking for anybody, it appears they are still interested in seeing how that project could look. Um, but they still need to get I think almost all their permits from at least IWWC and TBC.

Okay. Um, go ahead Bob. Just one step has been passed and that is uh Eversources has accepted it. Yes, that that just happened in the last couple days or something. Yeah, I was I spoke to Kevin Costello about that. He he did say that which is great news. Um and ideally the solar regulations which we are developing uh would help facilitate that process but I think the first step for them will be to work with those committees to get their their permits. Yeah, I sorry. Go ahead. Was able to look at a map uh from 1992 of that property and that shows

farmland with the only trees are in a hedge row. Mhm. Right. Yep. And the adjacent land is also still farmland. Um I believe what the what IWW should be looking at is the the current way that land is functioning. So in the past maybe the land use was different but right now it does look like there are there's lots of land that is ecologically speaking being used as wetlands that are providing habitat, providing uh groundwater intake, that kind of stuff. Yeah, I I just a number of times have driven to Samuel Weed Wheeler Park and just looked

and I I I know on the map that was shared by CEK it wasn't wasn't they didn't seem to have quite the boundary with the park designated and somebody described to me that it their array would come right up to the edge of Samuel Reed Park and as you look at it now there's you You see the ridge and there's a beautiful um it's all treed in the back and I'm just wondering whether there's any consideration to you know maybe maintaining at least a boundary of trees rather than like cutting all the way down to the edge of the park which would really change the view of

that park. Yeah.

Yep. Um just um a couple of um a recap I guess. When this whole issue of solar regulations came up several years ago with CEC, that was when we um developed a policy that the town council signed off on about larger scale, you know, like what our preferences would be in terms of larger scale um utility renewable energy um solar arrays. Um and then we just amended that. We just revised that and the council passed it recently to encapsulate battery energy storage systems and that you know that is to sort of um put a stake in the ground as to what the town's preferences are with respect to um having some big project come in that the sighting council has authority over. at least we've declared, you know, what things we want considered um as a town. When we initially worked with actually the economic development commission on that, they they actually initiated it because they were concerned and then invited us to to comment. Um, at that point the town planner was Joseé Ger and he went to he he actually um as a as staff proposed a new regulation um around solar and part of it was and I think this was for projects under one megawatt um he was basically saying pretty much any residential zone which was really concerning um you know R40 would be fine. It's like that's not that big. Um, you know, we at the time, actually, Val, um, I think you wrote a

letter, the CEC went to the TPZ and requested that it be tabled because it just seemed to be like, throw something out there and, uh, you know, that was when we were calling for asking for some kind of assessment of, you know, what sites in town would be appropriate for solar, what what zoned industrial And I think, you know, everyone's preference is you'd rather be redeveloping brownfields or, you know, previously developed sites rather than tearing up woods and agricultural land. So, um, I think there's a lot to talk about, but that's kind of the history. And, um, Nick, you're being peppered with these questions, but that's that's the background here.

Yeah, it's really helpful. Yeah. Go ahead. Um, yeah. Oh, wait, wait, okay, wait. Actually, I'm going to give David a chance and then you. So, so looking at places where solar could be large arrays could be um my impression was that from comments last last meeting nothing had been defined the large area off Duncaster Road um towards the north on Dudcaster Road which has been cleared widely because of the power lines under that area. I don't know if it's John made the point you have to be able to connect to

the power source or the the grid somehow. Um, but it seems to me that that is clearcut, wide open. It's not going to be used for anything else. It would be a very good place. We don't want to put an AI data center there for sure though. That was that was being proposed. No, I'm No, no, no. I'm just talking about AI. I know you're not. I'm just making a comment that the mo the most recent proposal for that field was the data center. What the field Duncaster, right? I don't think the field's on Duncaster.

Field on Duncaster. Which field on Duncaster? The the power lines the whole the whole array of power lines that go up across the golf course from the other side. The other side has been cleared widely. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Sorry. Not going to be anything else there. Okay. See, I see your point. Would be the power's right there. I mean, hook into it. You could put a massive dis array there. Okay. So, I'm going to I don't know how to get that I'm going to cut this off that other than saying it here. I don't know where it goes. Okay.

Except that Nick has it now. So, so Bob and then Kevin.

Yeah. Uh there's a lot of visually there's a lot of ideal sites but and they can't directly can't connect directly to the high tension lines. They have it has to be a lower voltage lines. And the one on Wittenberry, that is one of several locations in town where you can have well, okay, less than one megawatt feeding the, you know, the the street the street voltage lines and and there just not there's you see a lot of ideal sites as far as the land use, but the the power the grid accessibility is not there without a big very big investment. Yeah. Um, I just want to make comment that I I I I'm sympathetic to David's point of view of you've already sort of clearcut under these power lines and so forth, but I think the reason those are always kept open is because they need to get their vehicles I mean their their comment is they need to get their vehicles. So, I can't imagine how you're going to have I mean that might be possible. I I I get the idea. Um and I don't know about the connection to lot high tension power lines. I the other thing I I do want to come back just because it was mentioned is I am hopeful that um there there has been for some time a uh draft suggested agricultural zone for Bloomfield. So, um I am hopeful that the TPZ,

which I'm a member, uh will take that up.

Um you know, as something that we will implement because that has been a big loss for Bloomfield that it does not have a designated agricultural zone even though agricultural is allowed in the you know by is a use by right in all the zones. Um, and I think that could solve some of these problems because the, you know, the, as you pointed out, part of the issue with this is how do you take regulations but apply them anywhere but the industrial zones and even the comment about that uh, the chair made about brownfields. Yeah, that would be great. That would be great if we, you know, took the um places where there are defunct buildings or huge parking lots, but some things that are zoned industrial are also treed and fields and never been developed. I mean there there's a lot of industrial land quote zoned industrial that is also areas that is ecologically sensitive part you know for doing this too. Another area would be the whole area behind Capacco. There's a huge amount of asphalted surface there which and there must be ability to connect to power there.

Well, I mean this gets back to the comment that David made when I I was on CC with David back, you know, as you pointed out, we have for a long time been trying to get a regulation commitment. I don't know what the right term is or but where anything that's built like this uh you know we put solar and the idea I'm very happy to hear you're talking about carports because I look at a lot of this a lot of the lands where we have these parking deserts at least we could have parking deserts with car you know with with canopies that are generating solar electricity they would be less parking deserts at that point so uh I think all those are good suggestions thanks

Bob you want to make one last comment and then I'm gonna Yeah, make one comment.

Of course, we we have no I don't think we have a program in in Bloomfield to buy up development rights for for farmland. And one one way to do that at less cost if you have a a a developer that wants to put several acres of solar on farmland that you have the requirement that at the end at the end of that period uh the solar be removed and the t and and the town be given a a development right restriction. I think that that has been done around the country at times.

Um I'll wrap it up. I I expected this to be a short conversation. Um it's been a good conversation. Um I'm going to go back to what CEC um sort of posited and then you know three three or four years ago. What is helpful would what would be helpful would to be would be to kind of inventory kind of available land in town and try to figure out which parcels and how you know how they're zoned which parcels are suitable for solar and then if we want to attract solar you know I think the point is is you know maybe Gman and more Gman and York tries to do some of that marketing for us. Um to Bob's point, that was one of the things that Kevin Costello I thought sort of conveyed very effectively was this particular parcel is very suitable because it's got the right lines to to hook into. I think if you know there wasn't the viewshed issue in terms of Sam Wheeler Reed Park that we're concerned about if there wasn't the kind of net loss of wetlands and you have to kind of remediate that the fact that there's habitat you know there's ecological functions there I think if there weren't these other things we would all be what I think we'd be very enthusiastic actually um I'd be more enthusiastic um about it but I think those were our reservations But again, um, the point I want to make is it would be really helpful to try to do some kind of inventorying and have a sense of like where we'd like to see this stuff go. Um, so that you know,

we can maybe inventory get done. Yeah. Can I We have an environmental planner.

I was going to say I have a comment on the comment and that kind of relates to that comment. So here I here I go commenting. Um yeah, so I spoke with Kevin Costello several times and one of the things during our conversation I was under the impression from him that a lot of the potent like the highest potential for solar in Bloomfield generally seems to be in the town center area and around areas that are already what I would call developed in terms of like asphalt, that kind of commercial. Thank you. That kind of stuff. He then kind of I guess you would say illustrated that uh there's a publicly available GIS map online that is um what's the word run uh sponsored by Eversource that illustrates the the potential for solar connectivity seems like you might know what I'm talking about throughout town and it's essentially green is really good I think like orange is like fine and red's like you know might as well not even try it. If you look at the map, a lot of the green is near the town center. It's near these kind of already developed areas. That could be a starting point for the inventory. Um, in addition, I do think when Kevin, he did mention that this Wittenberry project had high potential. There are some I won't use the word random, but I guess you could say outliers where areas that are kind of more rural right now do have high potential. And for whatever the that exact reason, I don't know, but most of the high potential is in commercial developed areas. And that's what he imply suggested to me is that that's where he kind of sees the future of Bloomfield solar broadly. It's not going to be he doesn't see as much future with developing these sort of I guess you could say existing habitat or former farmlands mainly because the infrastructure is just not even there. The Wittenberry proposal is sort of an outlier in that sense. That said, it's still important to talk about it the way we are, but I just thought I would pass pass pass that along. And if you want to

check the map out yourself, it's publicly available and it's it's it helps it helped me a lot. Yeah. Okay, that was a lot of info. I know that's even more. No, this is this is helpful. Um, we're going to move on. It's been a good disc. It's been a very good discussion actually. But, uh, the sun has set. The sun has set for this solar discussion. For today. Yeah. For today, of course. For today. Yep. Um, okay. Um, let's move into sustainable CT. Yeah. Yeah. Would you like me to just kick it off, Paula, or?

Um, I'll I'll I'll just sort of make an intro and then you can kick it off. Um, so I'll just start out by saying it's wonderful to have an environmental planner on board. um because Nick has really um kind of dove into the pool and done a lot of work just in terms of um assessing kind of where we you know where we stand in terms of where we likely have actions that would get us points for uh certification. Um he's going to do a lot of work. We spent an hour and 15 on the phone yesterday. Um what is good about the analysis he's doing and I think what's really good for this committee is we never wanted to we never wanted to seek certification for the sake of certification. We wanted to seek certification because it gives us a framework for hopefully um kind of incorporating into the town's DNA a better way of doing things in terms of sustainable practices. And I think going through the exercise of getting reertified is also going to be very helpful as far as us maybe establishing some of the things we want to be focused on as a committee over the next year and a half or so. So um that's my intro and uh take it away Nick.

Thank you Paula. That's that's a perfect intro I would say. Um yeah everything Paula said you're here here. Um, so I think most people here at the table at least might be familiar with or in the room familiar with uh sustainable CT, but Lynn, is it possible to maybe get Yeah, I for you folks who are in this room with us today. I did kind of make a little print out for some stuff I'll quickly go over. I'm not going to go over it at Nauseium because I typed a lot of words here, but once Lynn pulls it up. Yeah, perfect. Um, would you mind zooming in maybe a teeny bit if that's possible? Um, yeah. So, I I thought I would just kick it off with a brief overview. Like I said, I'm not going to go word for word here, but if you look at the very first bullet point here, the the mission of sustainable CT is pretty much exactly what Paul has said. I took a quote right from Sustainable CT's website. The idea being it's a it's kind of a I see as a road mapap to make a community in Connecticut um more uh thoughtful and intentional about their planning as it relates to sustainability for e of the economy in terms of equity and diversity for uh cultural pursuits uh and our natural resources of course. Um so that's kind of like the the DNA as you will of sustainable CT. Uh, and the way you get certified, um, is a point system. The point system is based on actions, and there's a list of just over 300 actions a town can do to get points. Uh, if a town gets 200 points, you get a bronze certification. Silver is 500 points and gold is 750 points. Um, a certification lasts for three years. And that said, uh, as far where Bloomfield fits into this is we have been certified once. Uh, we were certified bronze in 2019. Uh, I think we got like 290

points. I don't think we cracked 300. Um, but we we got bronze uh, but then it expired uh, after 3 years. So, I guess that would be what 2022, beginning of 2023. So, uh, the rough plan that I made here, uh, kind of outlines how we can get reertified based on getting those points. Um, I delved a, as Paul has said, I I think the pool is a great metaphor. I really dove pretty deep into this stuff, both in terms of how we get the points, how we incorporate the actions thoughtfully as a town, and also just the logistics of getting certified. So the first very first thing we need to do according to sustainable CT which occasionally referred to as SCT uh we must form a sustainability team this is just a a designated group that will be intentional about getting certified team has to be at least three people and meet according to the website quarterly which I define as once four times a year more or less so once every three months kind of um right now the team is myself and Paula u nobody here the the anybody on the the team can be anybody who is a town staff member um or a resident of the town. So even if you're not on cease, even if anybody who's listening at home, they can be part of the team. We need at least one more person. Um hopefully the team's not like 200 people, but like if anybody wants to join, they'll be certainly considered and I don't see why anybody can't join right now. That's step one. Hey John. Um, step two is like, uh, as some of you may know, I think this past summer, uh, Paula at least I know has been in contact with sustainable CT seeing if we could like try and Oh, I'm sorry. And John, too, tried to like get certified before the deadline that was this past earlier this past year. And in doing so, we confirmed that the town already has a few actions that have been, I think, checked off by SCT. So, I'm going to confirm those are still good because I suppose one thing I

didn't mention is that some of these actions have a time limit on them. So, for example, if you started I'm making this up. If you started a composting program 10 years ago that that was just that's because it happened so long ago, it's not considered you taking an action like in the present. That's not the case for all of them, but that is for some of them. So confirming that these the things we have done are still considered valid is a step. Um in terms of then doing work to get more points um I went through all 320 actions or so every single one and I've been here for just over a month but I've had a good impression of Bloomfield. I think we already have a lot of stuff under our belt that if we just fill out the form for each action we'll get the points. Um, I go into that more on the on the next page, but just real quick, I'm thinking here we start with actions that are like I call actions that are almost done. Then I want to prioritize actions that the folks here on cease or anybody else here who's not on cease, but a very interested community member would like us to prioritize as a town. Um, and then there are actions that once again having been here for about a month and a half, I'm pretty sure we have done these, but I will just need to do a bit more investigation and maybe a little more collaboration uh just to get them over the finish line. Those are actions that are called investigate if already done. Um, and I've laid out the approximate points uh for each of the actions on the next page here. Um, and the other actions are just to kind of work on uh recommended to-do items that I think could be just good for the town in general that we don't really have any uh stake in at the moment. So, yeah, on this list here that I think we're on here on the on the web page on the on the screen here, I've laid out how I define each of the categories. I've laid out the points that they would approximately equate to. Um, and if you look at the officially done, and this seemed to have all the parts, we have

over 200 points, which is just that's bronze. So, that said, I don't think I mentioned this in my rough outline here. Um, I think br I mean, knock on wood, I think bronze is very attainable, but because we seemingly already have the points for bronze, I think we can maybe go a little farther and maybe go on silver. Um I should mention there's deadlines for achieving these certification. One is for next year, April 2026 and August 2026. Um I think I think bronze by April. I feel good about that. I'm wondering if we go for silver it would potentially would have to submit in August, but I think if we waited those few months it it could be worth it. So that's just what I'm thinking right now. Um that is and on the final few pages here I outline the action the two actions that I'm 99.9% certain we have are finished and wrapped up and good to go. They're worth 25 points. And then the actions that are almost done that I'll be investigating. They're worth I think I updated the statistic. I think it's closer to 245 than 200. So I I'm not going to go through all these right now. Happy to answer questions uh today or via email later. But but that's my pitch. I think I think we're in really good shape. I think we go for at least silver and I want to collaborate with anyone and everyone who wants to be involved. Any questions, comments, please? Yes. Go right ahead.

To tie things together. Yeah. Would we get points for putting solar regulations in place? We sure would. So that's a great that's a great question is that or a great comment is that on even looking at the agenda for today there are several items that are already on CES's agenda or radar that would get us points for sustainable CT. So solar solar the extreme heat initiative the um the cl the the climate change emergency energy plan these things the recycling programs we have here a lot of them will help that goal stay of transportation. Yeah. No, it's really almost anything that's good for community is on this list.

Make progress, it'll add points for sure. It's double motivation. Yeah, that's the point. Actually, Belle, yeah. When when we first uh signed up for sustainable CT, the whole idea of the team that would uh kind of get it going and certify it was was specific that some, you know, some of the town departments also participate because one of the issues had been that this committee, you know, came up with good ideas and wanted to do projects but couldn't really get time or buy in from from um you know public works or

building management or whatever. And I so I saw when you said you know there just have to be three people and there's you and Paula and anybody is is any of the town current town staff being invited to like actively be on this committee so that there'd be some buy in from the town staff.

Great question. I have not sent out I have not started collaborating with other town departments on this yet. I wanted to get the road mapap so to speak run it by you folks. Um but that's a great point is I absolutely in I have to reach out to many of these other departments to confirm that we've done some of these things and also get further action done and if we if it sounds like we think it could be a good idea that in reaching out to them to collaborate on actions also extending an invitation to be a part of the team. I have no problem with that. I think it could be a great idea. Uh yeah. Yeah. And I think it's very important to include somebody from the board of education. Okay.

Yep. Um I think that would be I think that's critical in terms of um you know there's 60% what 60% of our energy use in the town.

So uh I think it's kind of critical that they're you know they have a a stake. And you know, Nick and I the we had a really good conversation yesterday just in terms of brainstorming around a number of these actions and just talking about the different groups that are involved, you know, in in terms of town partnerships um town group partnerships and actually Nancy and I had a short conversation today and she brought up a couple other groups um that it's like oh yeah, you know, they they're kind of real invested as well. So I think at least in terms of sustainable CT I think there's a real opportunity to um pull in work that other groups are doing like Ironwood Community Partners like the land conservancy um the churches um actually Dolls House Foundation potentially um I mean there's just a real lot and and you know one of the things that's required is this optimized for equity Um that's a new requirement that we didn't have back in 2019. And the whole point of that is to be really incorporating a pro, you know, really really developing a process where you're really pulling in and getting input from the community and engaging the community so that they're they're invested and involved and they have a say. And so I just think there's a lot of opportunity to do that. And uh when when we were chatting about the optimize for equity, we talked about um I'm just going to say it now. We talked about trees for the trees for free program that we've repeated for trees for Bloomfield as being one of them because we had you know we have the community involved in that. We talked about potentially the mosaic project which I think is very good. and we talked about um extreme heat which is something that we're

developing and we really want to try to uh you know extend the beginnings from this year. So it's more thinking about what kinds of things can we really pull the community into. So does the the farmers market that occurs every Saturday morning uh fit in? I mean I don't Good. Oh yeah, for sure. So that's that's a big thing that Paul and I discussed yesterday. There's

uh a ton of there's like the actions are broken down into categories and one whole category is like I think it's called like sustainable food security some and the farmers market's a huge part of that. Um, yes, we'd like to work with the Bloomfield Farmers Market um to find ways that either they are already doing actions that work with sustainable CT or explore ways that they can adopt new actions and practices that and the shred day events. Oh, for sure. Those definitely count. Yeah, recycling. Yeah, that's one of the I think one of the things that I forget what

huge huge food insecurity efforts that are going on now in town. I don't I don't know if that can be molded into this or not, but I mean there are huge Yeah.

Well, I mean it's a crisis now and and the community is responding and and that that could be molded that's sustaining Connecticut. Actually, David is making a good point because there there is a a network coalition already in terms of the food, you know, food security. You've got the churches involved, the Bloomfield Congregational in particular. Um, no, I know it's many.

It's many. It's many. I just I'm just thinking of them because of their community kitchen. um the backpack program and that's sort of a continual kind of thing which has really stepped up um with the government shutdown. But um it's a good question you're raising. We should look at that too. Nancy,

um I just wanted to mention that I well I'm not sure it's meeting actively. The town did have something called hunger action team that uh was um they were started in various towns by food share and then spun off to be run by the town's municipalities as they so chose and I think it kind the membership and act and action dwindled. I don't know if they're meeting anymore. Um obviously I dwindled off it. Uh but you know it it is a a structure that's still there if we want to like to David's point. Um this may not be the last time we have a crisis around food. It's not the first time either. And maybe we want to be more um uh intentional about the hunger action team otherwise known as the hat and and keep and fold it in. It was just having trouble getting many people to come to the meetings. David Runes was running it last from the historical society, so he may know more.

Okay. Yeah, that's that's kind of mostly what I had. Um, so that's what I plan on doing sort of day-to-day here as town staff is is working towards filling out these actions. And next month we meet again, I will present an update. Um, I and I mentioned I'll also be reaching out directly to SCT to start a dialogue again and answer some questions I have if you folks have any questions. I mean, of course, you can reach out yourselves, but happy to be a lightning rod and just kind of be the person that goes back and forth with those things, but yeah, it sounds like we're ready to roll. Sounds great. Claudia, I just want to say that was excellent report.

Oh, thank you. You took a lot of stuff and you made it all organized. Oh, thank you. No, I'm I'm really excited about this. I think it has a lot of I think it'll be fun. I think and also it'll be great for the town. So, it was it was a joy to get it all together. Thank you. It's really excellent that the I I can't remember the woman's name at sustainable uh Amelia maybe. No. Okay. But that she have you to relate to. I mean that that communication gets established and is ongoing. That that's that's crucial. Yeah. And I'll pass along it again, Phil. You want to hear about Lynn Stoddard

is the one. She she's the one that really started it. Okay. All right. Um thank you, Nick. And actually, um Mr. Coleman is here. Do you want to um we sort of skipped over the town planner report. You want to say a few words.

Apologize for being late. Was actually on on a call with um the TM. He's um still he called in from his hospital room, but he looked as feisty as ever and um conducted some business. Town manager was not well. and um we'd all wish him a speedy recovery, but um he had a call with a few of us, so I apologize for being late. Um we have a um a um environmental planner um who is off to a great start as you can see and we're delighted. Um he has been um been a great addition to the staff. He's ingrained himself exceedingly well with the rest of the staff. um particularly with Pedri Castali, the wetlands agent, and with uh Alexander Samllet, the zoning enforcement officer, and the three of them have made a pretty good team in terms of um both reviewing applications um doing this type of work and doing a number of site visits uh where they can provide um their own individual perspectives to the situation and report back. So, it's it's great having that team u working. And um as an add-on, he is also he and Alex have been have been filling in the last two weeks for um one of our administrative assistants who's had to be away on family issues. Uh so, um he uh sometimes if you call in, that's who's going to answer the phone. And he's doing a good job. But it's great to have him and as you can see he's very well organized and has a good approach to things. Um the POC is moving along. Um we have rewritten uh we and Justin have rewritten now four

and a half chapters. Um Claudia my next battle in the next 10 days is to do the summary which I can then send to you. Um our hope we obviously going to be reporting to the TPZ next Thursday. Um I I we are probably slightly behind because of um of the fact to some degree that I have been pulled away from my normal responsibilities to assist in covering from the absence of the town manager. Three of us have been doing that. Not a not a good excuse, but um does have its impact. Uh but I think we're going to be pretty close to having uh some a good report for the commission next week and then some drafts shortly thereafter uh and get that done. I think it's it's looking good. Um u everyone on staff has had a shot at it uh on the draft. So it's uh not just the three. And then we are also going to use um this gentleman's uh GIS talents uh to really update the uh the uh future land use map. He's already looked at it, picked out a number of deficiencies and um we're going to make sure we get that up in top shape. Terms of the town center, um we're doing a reapplication for the community investment fund uh application in round seven. They did not act one way or another on our application, but we were encouraged to reapply. Uh to be a little more detailed on on scheduling and and um phasing uh and also some additional information on values and properties and things of that type. And we hope to have that. We've gotten a sign off from the council that's required. Uh we have um sent out letters of interest to potential developers uh which is a necessary step and we hope to have the application in um right before Thanksgiving. Deadline I think is

the early December but we want to get it in early. Uh decision time probably sometime in March. Um terms of um developments um we've got um we've had um interest at uh 800 Bloom um Cottage Grove Road which is presently now an office park uh for potentially a residential development. Uh Mr. Butler is I think beginning to get ready to come in on his phase 4. We've had um a couple of interests on um the um old um Jewish school on Gab Road and on that property. We still have ongoing interest on 270 Woodland Avenue. Um the small retail development on Cottage Grove Road uh just east of um of the medical complexes uh should break ground shortly. Uh it's had all its approvals. Um I expect that there will be renewed interest on the farmland Cottage Grove Road property sometime in the new year and um obviously the town center. I think um it is my understanding. I have not looked out the door yet to confirm, but I unfortunately I think the bakery has closed um in the mall, which is, you know, a great a great loss and a big disappointment, but they were challenged. Um and I think that they've indicated that if and when it is rebuilt or rehabilitated, um they would love to come back and be a part of Bloomfield. um feel like I'm forgetting something, but maybe it'll come to me. Other than that, um you know, we're fully staffed, which is great as you can see the results of that. And um we look forward to continuing to work with you and and moving forward.

Happy to answer questions. Any questions for John? No, this is great. Just just saying having having you full having your department fully staffed is great. Yep. Good thing. All right. Um, next topic we touched on it was uh extreme heat. Nancy, do you want to just have any words there? Because we talked a little bit about it uh last month, but Yeah. Was I here? I don't remember. Yeah. No. Um that's why we had just a few words. Yeah. Yeah.

Um I I just uh and I contacted Joe Merritt who whom I has expressed interest in the past in working on some of this too, but I probably contacted him too late but um for the meeting but um we had I think we have two avenues to pursue at this point and if anybody has any other ideas let me know. One is that we talked about reviewing uh some number of um relevant town department policies around um how we react to periods of extreme heat, prolonged, you know, not not just one hot day, but you know, couple weeks of really hot, humid weather. And that would would relate to um outdoor employment, outdoor sports camps, um any anybody that that touches those areas in particular. But then also um emergency planning for times when people just cannot stay. You know, we have our winter well, we have our power outage plans, but I don't know if we have plans that would really accommodate people in the case of an extreme heat incident, heat dome level. Um, and then the other, so that's one campaign or um initiative. The other would be and this is where I want to talk to Joe more or Bren Brenda maybe also is uh just to launch to the point about equity a launch um community conversations about extreme heat which would include finding out from whoever would come to the meetings what they already know what they want to know um what they're worried about what their experiences have been and then eventually What would we need to address? What do we need to propose either townwide or to people education wise, preparationwise, whatever it might be very keeping it open so we know what people, you know,

where people are with all this. Originally, I wanted to do it for all of climate change, but that's too big. So, we'll just stick with extreme heat uh as the most pressing um emergency. So, that's kind of what I'm thinking. And I don't know if anybody has comments, questions, ideas.

Yeah, I got something. Um, I this is hearken back to uh sustainable CT if I may. There's a huge C action category about extreme heat resiliency and preparation. Um, and it sounds like this is a priority for for cease here. And I could I'll just rattle off a few of the things that uh that involves it. It involves making potentially extreme heat committee, conducting a heat assessment in town, a heat emergency plan, which I think kind of summarizes some of what you mentioned, inventorying existing cooling centers. I think a lot of this stuff sounds in line with what we're thinking here. And if we just write it down, we can get these points or also it'll give us a road map perhaps to tackle a a very large subject and an important subject. Thought I'd mention that.

A quick thing. Um, I kind of tagged along with this committee. I didn't really I wasn't that helpful. But one of the things that occurs to me is that if we have periods of extreme heat, we may very well have the resources already in place or easily developed during the day to take care of people, but we do not have overnight resources. And the heat, if it's bad, is bad at night, too. And we're talking about people who don't have or can't afford the additional air conditioning and costs or don't have air conditioning at all. And um we don't really know who they are. So, I mean, just imagining a really bad scenario, which is what this little committee is supposed to be doing. Um, I felt quite concerned about that issue.

Thank you. Yeah, that I think could be something we look at in an assessment. Yeah. Go ahead, Bob. Would you like to say something? I'm going to tie this in with solar again. uh if we have a lot of solar and we have a lot of b uh battery storage. Mhm.

Uh we we we have a chance of maintaining electrical power for air conditioning in the local area. If you have enough resources uh and you have a big countrywide blackout, you can cut off uh an an area and and and you can keep your public buildings cool. That's what we need.

Yeah. And actually, I will just mention um I I have not looked at it recently, but this optimize for equity toolkit could be helpful just in terms of thinking about the outreach that you're talking about, Brenda. Um Brenda, Nancy, your name is Nancy, but I'm thinking about Brenda's Brenda Watson, who's not with us today, is really interested in in this as well. um because she and I had an email exchange. Um but the the I mean I think this is where using um the toolkit can be helpful just in terms of kind of jogging our thoughts in terms of approach. Uh a lot of the things you're talking about Nancy Nancy yeah Nancy now I'm thinking too much about it Nancy. um yeah are are are kind of laid out there in terms of the you want to talk to the community and listen to the community and kind of get what their needs are. Um it's kind of a bottomup kind of approach. Yeah. Um that reminded me actually um that in addition to things like extreme heat being on sustainable CT for those who haven't you know been as involved with the website as I have um all for all the actions sustainable CT gives an example of a town that has completed that action. So there are tons of t they're all they're all available. The point being that we as a state can learn from each other. So there are road, you know, there are these plans that have been developed by towns maybe next door to us that have addressed these problems and sustainable CT has thought they were good enough to to be posted online. So I think there's a lot of resources uh closer than we think potentially to looking into this kind of topic and others. Just wanted to mention that.

Okay. Um where are we ready to move on at this point? I think think so. Um okay. Next up is um actually the next four items are all kind of standing items under old business. Um the climate emergency energy plan uh climate action task force. Um this is here as a placeholder because you know that is kind of like one of the first actions recommended in the climate emergency energy plan. And now that Nick is on board, um, presumably the manager maybe when the man, you know, the manager is back, we can look at the, you know, we can we can approach the manager about appointing this team. Um, which, you know, we'll look at the plan, but it seems like it would also be very much um related to what we're doing for sustainable CT. So, I don't want to lose sight of it. I'm going to leave it on here. Um but again the whole point of that is that that called for um representatives from the various departments right um it called for you know some inclusion it actually I'm not sure it called for inclusion of community stakeholders but I think it should um I don't think it should just be town staff I think it should be uh other people from the community um and potentially some young people you know we had floated the idea of um students you know having student repres presentation which I think I just want to lay that out there as a thought. David,

in in the uh version of the PCD that everybody read, um there was a suggestion of a committee being formed to oversee the PC. I assume that is in the revision. It will be and that'll be an action taken by the TPZ,

right? And if there's any way to combine the energy task force with that, because if you're asking for town um people, citizens and and and and uh employers um representatives of departments in the town to to be on that, then then you're asking that twice instead of once. We'll keep that in mind.

Okay. No, it's all it's all good. It's like you're talking about forming these various committees and task force and it's kind of like where is the reasonable intersection and you know and the appropriate utilization of people. Exactly. Right. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. One meeting a month is better than three meetings a month, right? Um All right. Um the next three items, uh tree clear cutting, haven't done it yet. Um recycling program, tree ordinance revision. Anyone want to any words about that?

Yeah, I got some words. Yeah. Um so that is another one of the regulations that I've been looking into in addition to solar. Um I have a little more movement on that one potentially. I've made some draft language. Um I've done a lot of research looking into other towns. what you know steps they have taken that may help us with what we're trying to achieve here um what I have also done uh so a little more context too one of these solutions that myself from the land use department we're talking about uh would be to create a a tree fund or some kind of payment in lie of situation for those who in which a replanting of tree situation is just not feasible or valuable or if to have an option to to make a fund um I've reached out to our financial department, department of finance to see how that would look. Um, so that's something that's on the table as well. Uh, because I think that would potentially uh help this regulation accomplish the goal which is to make sure that the tree canopy in Bloomfield stays stays great. Yeah. And there's there's somewhat precedent for that now in town because some of you know in the um in the zoning regulations where we require um 10% affordable housing, we also have a um a requirement um if they don't for a percentage of the commercial building fees to be put into the housing trust fund and that became effective last June and that transfer has already begun. So the mechanism there are mechanisms in place to establish um you know dedicated funds for dedicated purposes.

Not to put it all uh on our assistant director Linda once she once she returns uh from her for for her vacation right now. Hoping to like get those meetings started just we have everybody in the office and can really talk about next steps. But that's the plan very soon hopefully. Any follow-up questions? Great. Thank you. All right. Um, just moving on to new business. Um, so we need to be reappointed. I mentioned that earlier. Um, I actually scheduled to send for my Gmail at 5:00 PM an email to all of you um with a link to the um the form, right? I I I decided I was not going to send you an email right before the meeting because I hate it when people do that to me. So, you've got you've got the No, no, that's fine. So, you

So, asking asking people to do asking people to do something. So, yeah. So you so this was sent to you at 5:00 PM knowing that we'd be talking about it today at the meeting. I hope that everyone is interested in you know getting reappointed. Um so you know let me know what you would like to do. We are being asked to fill out the form again. Um if you want to see your old form I think I have copies of them all. I know I think Lynn does as well. So, if to save yourselves time, you'd like us to send you your old form, um, we can do that. Okay. I'm I'm getting nods.

Yeah. Just a comment. I I was I was on various couple committees in South Windsor. Uh, once you got appointed, uh, reappoint was rather automatic unless you didn't attend meetings, right? And uh I I kind of failed to see the you know filling out another form every two years. We of course that's not under our control but

that that's that that's correct. That's not under our control. Um we are we are being requested to fill out the form and as I said I'm very happy to send you your your form from last time and uh you know um hopefully and I I I guess I am hopeful that the pro the process will be fairly expedited you know in terms of it will happen fairly quickly. Um, so, uh, I will, um, I'll make a point of either sending it to you or if I can't find it in my folder, I will ask. Lynn, is this requirement in the town charter?

No, this is this is a policy. This is a policy. And again, we serve at the pleasure of the council. We are advisory to the council. This is the process that the council has set up. And um, until they change it, this is what we're doing. Um, so, um, it's it's pretty painless, Bob. And the form is not too bad. And you get them into the town clerk and then we can all, you know, together shepherd them to get them on the council agenda, right? And it's basically done on the consent agenda. Um, you don't have to appear at the meeting. Yeah. But you will have to get reworn in at some point,

right? And fill out the paperwork, right? And there's a disclosure for this committee. There's a disclosure form that we have to do, but yeah, it's not that painful. Do you want to say something else? Once more. Go for it. I I I I would suggest to the council and I should speak before them uh that rather than two years, we might have one-third of the of our group be be renewed every two years. Considering we the council itself gets reelected every two years, I don't think that's likely. I don't think staggered terms for us is likely when they don't have staggered terms. Okay, don't make it too complicated.

Right. So, um so anyway, you have that in your inbox. Um okay, and uh I just had other as a placeholder in case anybody had something. Um I I do want to mention um and this could be in announcements, but I'll just mention it here. Uh Claudia had emailed me about potentially reaching out or establishing contact with Simsberry sustainability committee. Yeah. And and um interestingly enough, thank you. Thank you, Kevin filling in, you know, adding words for me. Interestingly enough, I got an email from somebody on Simsbury sustainability committee today um wanting to find out about the community solar project. And so, um, I'm just going to have a preliminary conversation with them, but that's just kind of an opportunity to kind of establish contact. So, more to come. Do have you talked to

I haven't, but not to sound like a broken record, guess what an action item is on sustainable CT collaboration with other towns. I know. So, what I don't I'm not I'm just saying what what a happy situation that can be. Of course, we should do what feels natural and is productive, but if you if it does happen, Yeah. you know, we can write it down and send it to SCT. Yeah, we can do it. All the more reason to do it, you know.

Yeah. Yeah. So, we we haven't quite done it yet, but it's in process. So, yeah. So, uh so I just wanted to mention that and uh so obviously that's something we can pursue. Um very quickly, just a couple of announcements and updates. I want to save time for public comment because we do have guests in case they want to uh add anything. Um shred and e e recycling day I thought was very good. Um and we CEC was really well represented which was great. Um I think the food pantry did well too which made me happy. Yeah, it was doing well. Yeah. And uh we ended up we had the the shred truck we had was the big shred truck with a 40 bin capacity. 38 bins. 38 bins. So we were there until noon which was great. We turned nobody away. Um we did not fill the truck so that worked out very well. Yeah. Well I'll take credit but you know um it it was good. And I what was good this time was um there were no attempts to show up with a pickup truck literally full of shred material. Um so I think the word got out and town staff was very aware that if anybody asked, you know, the guidance of three bankers boxes or three bags just to make sure everyone would have an opportunity. I think people kind of got that. So that was good. Okay. Um, Tree City USA trees for Bloomfield update. Um, the certifi the reertification for Tree City needs to happen and I'm trying to pull that together. Um, and that would be something that I want to involve Nick with um, on a go forward

basis. Um, it's not a very difficult thing to do. Um Sharon man kind of led the trees led led got some money through the Arbor Day Foundation from Cummings this year to do invasive work um at Lassolet as well as um offering again a a free tree kind of program which is great that we can use. So we'll pull that material in. Um and then the town, uh Dan Carter has his rightway grant which will really kind of really ramp up next year which is very helpful. We'll be able to kind of report on that. Actually, we'll be able to use that for next year for the 2026 certification. Uh this year we um the town got a forest stewardship plan which is great. That was completed. That will uh count. So, um the trees that were planted in the last two years need to be checked. Um they're they're fall planting and so that needs to happen um sooner rather than later. Um well, it's already later than it should be, but um that needs to happen. And the photo contest, the reception for the photo contest is December 16th. Um the winners have been selected. um 42 or 43 entries this year. Um and actually, I'll just say it, one thing that is fun is um we had we actually had a submission from Bloomfield, Michigan, which they didn't we may show the pictures, but um there's a large lake in one of them, and it's like it's clearly not Bloomfield. And and the the entrant was uh the the photographer was from Bloomfield, Michigan. Um, we also had an entrance, uh, somebody who entered photos of Bloomfield who and that person lives in Missouri.

Yeah. And, um, so that's kind of fun. So, uh, really good. Yeah. Really good. Yeah. U really good, uh, submissions once again. And, uh, should be a nice, you know, nice event. So, the date is, uh, December 16th. Okay.

Time. Um, we generally start around 5:30 and um, you know, that's when people arrive. We I want to serve the food right away. Um, one thing, you know, I I don't want to make people wait to get their food. Like, you know, we'll whatever whatever we'll offer. I'm not sure how much food we'll be offering because our budget got trimmed a little bit. Um, so, you know, we may not do the virtual feast that we've been having um, the past couple of years. We we we advertise light refreshments. It has not really been light refreshments. So, you know, we'll we'll see what we have to spend once we, you know, get the winning prints framed, once we get the posters made. You know, there's a lot of things to do in terms of the the photos themselves. Um the public arts commission is partnering us with this year. They had um the lovely idea of um having a poem read. We did that at our Arbor Day um celebration. Um um Tom Nicotera read a poem about trees. Marilyn Johnston is going to do a poet read one of her poems about trees. And um what's what's what I find um kind of exciting is by partnering with the public arts commission, they have ideas in terms of maybe freshening the contest up a little bit, maybe adding some other types of art to it. And so, you know, next year's contest will look a bit different, I think, from this year's. Um, we've been pretty much doing the same thing for 5 years, but, uh, you know, it should be a nice event. And, uh, again, we'll invite our council, we'll invite, um, the mayor to, um, speak and maybe announce the winners. And obviously, we'll in, you know, invite town staff as well to it. So, so that's where we're at.

Um and then last month uh last announcement quickly inquiry regarding leaf disposal. Um council Mahan had brought that up at last month's public health safety and environment. He uh meeting he had gotten an inquiry from a resident and Linda had provided me some information in terms of kind of ordinances on the books about leaf disposal. There's nothing I see that requires you to dispose of your leaves. Um, basically what it talks about is town collection of material. Um, apparently apparently once you bag your leaves in the proper paper bags and you know the the big bags and you put them curbside, those leaves become the property of the town which I didn't know. You asked them to return. you've stolen some of our neighbor. Okay. Um but what's interesting is the or one of the or the one of the three ordinances sort of talks about um the ability of residents to bring their leaves properly bagged to the composting site where the town's leaves go. So I'm trying to get an answer on is that really a thing? Is that really allowable? Um so that you know that we've got a little time because the new council subcommittee has not been reappointed yet. Um so we got a pass this month in terms of reporting out um and giving council mahan an update. But um you know we also I think can maybe get more information and then do some education too about the value of leaving some of your leaf material down because of the habitat it provides for insects

and you know small animals and so forth. Yeah. So I'm going to pause other comments before we go to public comment. Well, I was going to ask what was the original concern? Someone thinking that their neighbors were not doing an adequate job or just wanted to know

the the exact opposite. It was more of a yeah, none of us should be raking any It was more none of us should be raking any of our leaves, which I think people would ob think sometimes people would object to, but it was more the the benefits of just the ecological value of that leaf litter and it's there for a purpose and you have, you know, insects that overwinter, um, small animals, you know, it provides protection in terms of the root structure. ure for plants and trees. Um, so it was more that theme like don't rake. You don't really need to and do and and do we h you know are the things we have to do. I wanted to know if we have to

if we have to. It was more do we have to. Yeah. All right. One of the reasons one of the reasons the Lisa Lane farmland is so rich is that for years West Hartford dumped a lot of leaves there. Didn't know that. All right. Okay. We do you want to say Okay. Yeah.

Just something that uh discussed at our sustainability at Seabbury. Anyway, there it's been proposed that we set up a make a comprehensive strategic plan for net zero. And it appears we might have tried have a you know a consultant do this but it's up up in the air yet. But anyway I think town should you know we're initially talking 2035 which is probably not attainable but we should I think we need a plan and I think the town should have a plan.

Well I think that's what we were trying to do with our energy plan and we've not really done anything for three years since it was passed. So, but yeah, that was the idea that that you know, we're not going to solve global warming until we attain net zero and everybody else does. Yeah. Which anyway, oops. Okay. Um, sorry, my phone is buzzing. Okay. Um, public comment. Any public comment? a few words. Absolutely. Come on up and take a mic.

One quickanded on the other hand. Yeah.

So, good evening. I named my name is Peter Russell. I live at Doncaster and I u want to say a few words about Lassellet and I ask you to think of three kind of markers. one is inspiration and second is research and third is what could be next. Um Paula mentioned the Arborday Foundation grant or the grant done with Cumins Company here uh earlier this year. uh that money uh made possible, this is the inspiration, um a a full day of volunteer work at Lassellet by about 30 staff and others from the uh beautifification committee and some others. Um clearing out the invasives which are pretty serious uh factor at Los Salat. Secondly, it funded a full season from spring through October of regular mowing every couple of weeks uh by uh Ron Pittz, local arborist, u of the paths and widening the paths and making some other clearings, for example, down near the little pond where there's a bench. Uh that's made a huge difference for hikers in uh pushing back the area where there's poison ivy and uh ticks get to the dogs and the rest. And the third uh outcome of that uh effort was um money which was to be earmarked uh for plantings for wildlife habitat. And uh so six new uh blueberry bushes have gone in there near the near the little wellhouse. Uh there was also enough extra money to put uh three new

small trees here on town green the town uh town hall land. um working through that, uh Sharon Man and Ron Pittz and I had some conversations with uh Dave Melesco thinking about how could this kind of uh good effort be sustained and enlarged at Lassellet going forward and uh uh we did some research really focused on uh three reports which y'all are probably very familiar with. First of all is the town's uh parks plan which is uh over a dozen years old but it's important reference point. Secondly was an extensive report over a hundred pages which was done about lolet um again about a dozen or more years ago uh from a whole team of environmentalists people who looked at the soils uh the water resource tree types and u uh the challenges in terms of maintaining that park and open space for the long term in a good way. And the third report came out just this year and Nick mentioned it or someone did or maybe Paula is the forest stewardship plan for the whole town all the town's parks and there's a big section there on uh the roughly 40 acres of forest land at Lassellet but the forest stewardship plan nicely really addresses all of Lassellet 140 acres. So those are really uh valuable reference points and uh we looked at them in terms both of the potential and the in the values the natural resource values of lassellet and also there's a good account of what the challenges are.

I mentioned invasives. There's some erosion and uh there are uh at least u uh eight different kind of micro u ecologies there fields forest water courses and each one needs a little different attention. Um based on that inspiration and research, we wrote up a proposal uh which we had reviewed with the parks director and then uh uh on the 3rd of November uh at Dave's suggestion took it to and made a presentation to the parks committee. Uh in that report just very quickly u we summarize those qualities that I just mentioned. Secondly, um suggest a an action plan phased uh over several years, probably three years. Um which would be a joint effort, public and private. Uh we suggest that there be a working group, not a committee, but something like the friends of Lasslet Park, which would pull together uh people both from the town and uh different uh civic groups. Um and we suggest that the elements of that plan be first um identifying and get moving on several uh I'd say modest improvements which have been suggested uh for example more of a gateway as you come into Lasselat some parking area which uh the uh the town has actually thought about and uh the little wellhouse house could be repaired uh nicely. Um and there are other things

working on the paths for example. We have focused in this plan on the landscape because there's been a lot that's been done and is going forward with the the buildings, the structures, the farmhouse and the barn and the community garden. Um but we've really focused as I've said on the landscape. Uh second would be to have uh a real schedule and program for working on the invasives and uh pushing back the the edge growth uh a lot of bittersweet vines and the canopies of the trees which are killing the trees and uh to really have that something going forward. And the third is to recognize the great potential that Lostlet has for programming. Uh you think of interpretive trails or birding, you know, working with Audabon, uh perhaps working with some of the school groups. U there you have a good element already with the community garden. The art committee has done programs there with Wintonberry Historical Society for the last couple of years where they had a notable local artist Michael Borders come in and have a program there which was which was great. Um so those are kind of the three elements that we look for in the plan. The uh the town um has had that property since I think 1992. Um, it is an exceptional landscape. I I'm assuming most of you walked over there, walk up to the top of the hill, you see our farm, you see the Hublind tower, you see the skyline of Hartford. It is really something. Uh, there are a lot of people who use it actively and uh

really appreciate it. Uh, but there is no budget per se for taking care of that park. And so um parks department and public works cooperate very well in using the resources they have as they can mostly to mow in the area at the entrance and near the farmhouse. Um but beyond that uh the only other major activity there which helps is the town and I think this is is really a good thing. The town has an arrangement with a local farmer who plows uh several of the fields. That's in accord with the the parameters of the uh of the gift of the contribution to the town of the state funds, but we we really need to be doing something more uh regular and consistent and significant. So, we're suggesting let's let's start to do that. We said that the next thing we wanted to do after the parks committee was to come to other town committees like this one, maybe the trails committee and uh eventually by let's say early next year kind of work up a budget which would show what we think we can raise from uh private sources and where the town may be able to stretch a little bit where it can. Uh the first example of that is uh Ron Pittz who not only did the mowing this year using his own equipment uh also added hours as his kind of proono contribution but he's spoken with the parks department and said that uh he would like to continue this effort do the same thing next year mowing the paths and widening some of these open spaces uh for a cost of $12,500.

That's a bargain. Uh the parks uh tells us they don't have that right on hand. Uh we have come back with a counter offer that we will raise uh half of that. Uh we we're committed to that and we think the parks department on that basis can try to uh find a way to make it work. So that would be a first step 2026 where we continue this pattern of taking good care of the the park. So uh appreciate any uh comments y'all may have or questions and I'll try to keep you updated as we move ahead. Thank you. Let's keep our comments brief because we

15 seconds. Yeah, we and we have Mr. Jones here so I want to give him an opportunity too. So Yep. No, actually just um I you haven't mentioned the history of that of the Lost L brothers and the uh monastery that was there. I grew up in Bloomfield and remember monks in robes doing the farming.

We we honor all of that and it goes back to the last couple centuries as well. Thank you. It's a really wonderful report you've given and uh I hope that uh many people can grab on to it because the potential is huge and it's relatively underused right now. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Peter. Appreciate it.

Okay. Um Mr. Lorenzo Jones, welcome. And uh please Yeah. First, I have to shout out my guy Peter, who I met this past summer. Done a lot to kind of get um um Lorenzo Jones Chickahoo Farm um or Chickix Hoy LLC farm. But no, we um Ditto and wherever I got assigned to support the stuff Peter just laid out. um he's kind of walked us through that stuff organizationally and his residents and so we definitely are in like full support of them him and his the stuff over there. I had a qu and then NY's on here. Nancy is like we go way back with Nancy. Um the um the the question I had was if if last night in the special session there was the whole conversation about the housing bill and then there was the the land issue. I didn't know if um I know some of that stuff had come up with the PCD report, land use and farm maps um and the housing stuff. I figure that stuff's going to show up in Bloomfield. I didn't know if you all had um heard heard any um anything about that since last night or if if um if y'all had kind of like queued up on it or anybody had pointed it out. That's that was all

I I read the article in the in the Hartford current today about it. That's kind of And I knew I mean I'll just say I knew that they were making some changes from bill what 502.

Yeah. And you know it's it's like in terms of I think the efforts at least the more recent efforts for promote you know supporting affordable housing and getting more going on in Bloomfield. there has been some activity both on the part of the town council and on uh the planning and zoning commission because they have this new inclusionary zoning ordinance um which I think is you know something proactive Bloomfield did. Um that's kind of what I can say about it. I don't know if if um Nick has anything to say about it at this point in terms of the the um state bill. I don't know how it would impact us. I guess I'll say that I mean

the thing that maybe as a wetlands person the thing that jumped out is the state's ability to kind of work in and around our municipal wetlands kind of protections and bloomful just seems ripe for if we if we are on the initial list I got the impression that we're going to be because of the land available land we might be on a future list. So, I I'm maybe I'm just trying to maybe queue it up. And the reason why it jumped out to me was because the the um land use, the farm, the maps in the PLCD plan, one of the things that people talked about was like it's comparison to available affordable housing stuff. So, I just kind of it kind of pricricked the you know, kind of put a pricked a thing in my head. So, I want to just join in this kind of like maybe raise it a little bit.

Okay. Sure. Yeah. Actually, Kevin. Yeah. Can I can I make a comment on I could and obviously no one has seen in fact the Senate I think is passing it today or so it might be amended who knows um but I think the thing the concerns you're raising um Lorenzo I think those only come into play for towns that would fall under 830G. I mean, and unfortunately, this this bill, I don't think they ever looked at repealing 830G.

83 830G is the is the portion of the current statutes that allow um for towns that don't have over 10% affordable housing stock. They allow overriding numerous zoning laws. I'm not sure about wetlands uh regulations, but you know, environmental concerns are less of an less of an issue if you are under that 10%. Bloomfield is over that 10%. And we will remain and with the inclusionary zoning uh uh regulation that the TPZ plast I anticipate we will be remain well above uh that 10%. So, I think unless um and and maybe um uh our planner uh knows more, I don't think that anything I've heard discuss actually I don't think anything I've heard discussed would have any impact on the kind of things you're talking about. I think the strangest thing and I'll throw this out is in this new bill build bill there supposedly is going to allow conversion of commercial unused commercial property such as dead malls to uh by as use by right to apartments. And I thought that was rather strange because a lot of commercial land is in a zone that is not residential. But I other than that

that's unique in Bloomfield. I think in I think I want to say in Bloomfield there's some caveat to that. I don't know if it's as strict. Um right in Bloomfield is there like a resident commercial can't be used as zoning ordinance. Well no I mean General Well yeah actually our town planner is here so we'll let him answer that question. John,

under our local zoning, there is, but this the new um the new um statute that was just approved yesterday um would override some of the local zoning and um allow um in certain situations, as a matter of right, the conversion of um underutilized commercial space uh for residentials. There's also a couple of other uh issues in there that I'm concerned about in terms of um allowing the development of a of a of a dwelling unit as a matter of right in certain properties. Um and um and also um what concerned me is that um uh there's also requirement to do annu five-year annual plans, housing affordability plans. a number of things that um the town of Bloomfield has already done. And I think one of the most unfortunate aspects of of this new legislation is it does not recognize those communities who have already stepped up and done their fair share and made the efforts and prepared the plans and revised their zoning. There's no recognition of that. And in some cases we u we get lumped in to the um to the overrides that I think are totally inappropriate for communities that have already made the step. We obviously need to do a lot more analysis of the of the uh of the statute. All of us just basically saw it about two days ago in its in its uh full complete writing. So we haven't completed a a really thorough analysis. There are some issues that um I think need to be dealt with and I think generally speaking communities such as Bloomfield that have stepped up um were not recognized whatsoever.

Okay. Thank you. Because I didn't completely understand why my spotty senses were going off, but I said, you know what, I'll ask the experts and here we are. Thank you. Thank you for that. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Any other public comment? Can I have a motion to adjurnn? Okay. Second, Bob. Second. Okay. We are ajourned. Thank you very much. 611. Yep.