Economic Development Commission - Regular Meeting

So, we shall call the meeting to order at uh 5:32. I'm going to call it. And I don't see any members of the public on there. So, trust I'm not seeing any public comment. Somebody decides to join, we certainly would entertain that. We'll hold off on approval of our prior minutes until Lona gets here as we don't have a formal. But we can proceed with uh our strategic plan progress reporting and I know Cheryl has been quite busy with advancing the plan. So you open up on article one promotion and marketing.

Okay. I will just walk through the tasks and actions and I had some comments on related to this um having seen last month's meeting. So um placemaking and our story of place I've started pulling that information together and the narrative is shaping up to be basically what we've always seen it to be which is this is a community that is engaged with its ecology, its nature, the beautiful scenery brought the artists here. The artist created a place here and there is um ongoing effort and focus on preserving the heritage and the historic um aspects to all of that.

Hi, that's okay. That's okay. So, um I saw some comments like this is a relatively rare and powerful story of place. Um O line is a place where nature made artists and artists made a place. Um we're also a small town and we're a bedroom community. So bedroom communities typically have about 5% commercial

property income taxes. Um so I think that number for what we've been is typical and I think one thing we as a commission need to do is think about if we're talking about growing that 5% is that what the town I think Eileen said it last time too. Is that what the town is really looking for or is the town's vision to be a quiet, understated, historic, different, unique location. Um, so I just wanted to say that website management. Um, I'm meeting with Katie Balaka next Wednesday. We're going to spend half a day updating the town's web page for the EDC. And then we also have uh Explore Old Line, which um I've said this before, but when you when we have new things going on like Midsummer Festival or now America 250, that drives traffic to explore online and then people explore other pages. So, it's good getting people driven to that page and then they read about our shops and things like that. I have I can get these out next week. I not next week, next month when more of us are here, but I do have the Explore Oline EDC window stickers and they have a QR code that sends you to Explore Old Line. So, we it would be great if this year we could get these in the windows of some of our local businesses. And what else do we have here? Encouraging links to explore old lime on business websites. Most of our tra I shouldn't say most. A lot of our traffic comes from Lawrence

Fredzel Museum website, Lime Art Association website, and Old Land website. So that's kind of interesting. the brochure typically like mid late April I have a good sense of what summer businesses are coming back. So this gets updated very quickly annually with um new changes to businesses and opportunities to do things. Um and then I'll get that printed early May so we'll have it for the summer. Can I ask a question? Sure. So I don't Jee, we were talking this morning about branding or whatever, but what handbook?

Yeah. When we have the branding handbook, will you try and then align some of the color palettes or the fonts and other things to try and the more we can tie together? Same thing on the website. The more we can tie to that something as a commission we should pursue as we think about how to utilize the $10,000 that potentially we have. It seems like we may need to generate a list of here are ideas of what do this is one of the things we may come up with five other things because like one thing Mona mentioned the um the mailings you know that is something a volunteer can't keep up

I try I cannot keep up with it and no one else I don't think on the commission wanted to do that or was able to do that so which is that regular mailings to businesses by paper, the emails and that sort of thing.

Well, I we generated a list and then Scott came in and I walked away. So, I'm not sure what happened. I mean, if I if you wanted somebody to try to maintain it, it's not that I wouldn't. I just stepped away because you guys were getting information from another place. So there's creating the list but then there's also creating the content and that's it's the writing that's the time consuming part like okay let me gather five idea like I was doing top 10 ideas for businesses in old lime or whatever it was so it's the writing of the content that and planning the content that is the time consuming part. Um and then the the one other thing I wanted to say about tourism and considerations for um that aspect is that explorine started the website explorine started when the old line arts district had its own website and talking among themselves said we'd rather have a website that told we could point to it and say, "Here are the local restaurants you can walk to. Here are some shops you can walk to." Because their biggest problem at the time was people at the end of their visit saying, "Where can we go next? We don't want to get in the car. We just want to walk somewhere to get pizzas or somewhere we can walk." And so they wanted some, you know, hold up my phone. They wanted some easy website to show people here's where you can go next. So that's why Explorer online started because they needed to be more than just the arts assets. They needed it to show shopping and eating and staying and all that kind of thing.

So the big question I think is tourism itself is doing fine. The museum brings thousands of people into old line every year. It's like 4,000 people in October for week village, probably more than that. How do we keep them in old line spending their food dollars rather than getting on the highway and going over a town or two? And that was the original question that I had at the beginning of Hall's Road Improvement. the whole idea of how do we safely, you know, sidewalk, whatever. How do we safely get people down the street from the Flow Grizz parking lot to the hideway or to Bowerberg or whatever. So, I think that's the key question with tourism. They're doing fine. They're, you know, I mean, everyone had a blip with the pandemic for sure, but they're growing. They're regrowing their numbers, but it's how do we take advantage of the tourism that is in town?

Okay. So are we a facilitator as EDC or are we supposed to figure out how to to drive the marketing strategy for these businesses? So how do you look at that? Well, that's what I mean, you know, we created the website, you know, they all have this little thing, you know, where they can say, "Oh, here's what's on Hall's Road." I don't know what more we can do. If you all have ideas that are feasible in terms of what we can actually do,

I think it's worth talking about. But um I think that's the disconnect and the problem to be solved on a bigger level. Well, my my first thought would be okay, we we hear a significant number of visitors. Could that be expanded? You know, what would be needed to expand that number? the number of visitors. We're not taking advantage of the visitors we have. I'm saying both, you know, I mean, I would like to see take advantage of the visiting business value to our town businesses, but also to even grow the number because part of the problem with our businesses is they don't have the traffic. They don't survive.

Absolutely. You know, so I think growing the number would unavoidably increase the traffic. I think you should find out what the number is because the number is healthy for our arts organizations. They're not complaining that they don't have enough visitors. Yeah. They're not saying we need to drive more foot traffic to the museum. We need the indirect.

It becomes a chicken and egg though for the proprietors of the restaurants, for example. You know, is there enough traffic coming to them? That's where we have a chamber of commerce and I feel like, you know, I've reflected a lot since our last meeting about things. I've talked with other people and we've seen stuff on Facebook and what people are complaining about and it's like our role with economic development. We are not a big business town. No,

we are less than 5% and the majority of people and I even went back to the 2019 report and if you go back to it you guys and you read it when we spent all that money to survey the people who live here now it is almost seven years old but people move here because they like the small town. The people who come to Old Line and don't want a small town really shouldn't be the ones having the biggest voice to try to change it. People moved here because they like the small town. But how is it more effective for our businesses and you know we're seeing and I said this last month and I'm not trying to be like Debbie Downer but it's true. More businesses are closing than they are opening.

Correct. And Matteline had a great point that the zoning has a a good reason for that. Starting a business in Connecticut is very difficult. It's not an easy process. And a lot of people are not happy with the state of Connecticut just in general. So, if they can walk away from a business and stop owning one, they're doing it. And some of these are selling. So, that's good news. Uh quite a few. You probably have the report on the ones that have already sold. Some are just closing. Um, some were reading on Facebook and social media that they're being forced to close. I don't know the truth to that or not. Um, but we should know these things. You know, I wasn't privy to conversations that were had with the new owners coming into Big Y. I was told three months ago they seem completely cool with trying to keep local businesses intact. And now local businesses are saying to customers and on Facebook that they got priced out of their their rentals. So shouldn't we as commissioners on EDC, shouldn't we be tracking down the truth on that and finding out what what is the truth? And some of you guys have these connections. I don't. If you want me to

What are we going to ask them that? So we're going to go down to the marketplace and and the new owners and say, you know, we can publicly see what the rents are. That's the only way. But they're not going to show us that they bought it for 11 million make, you know, making I don't know if that's a number. Their cost of capital's here. They have the debt service which kind of drives the rent and the improvements. So what you know, I mean, it's a private business to certain extent. There's public there's public leasing number available on the sign, but there's only so much we can do. So yes, they

I really was trusting that when the only thing that was brought to this meeting was that you and Mars and I don't know who else met with the new owners and they were planning on keeping the businesses.

They said that when we gave him some advice, I said it would be good to use some of the local vendors in your vendor list. Get them qualified. Don't use all your out of town vendors. make an emotional deposit with the vendors here and make sure that um you know make sure that there's some balance of local tenants. They asked about national tenants. They asked about some tenant. I don't think it's appropriate for me to disclose that but they said if we bring in some national tenants versus some local how do you feel about that? So but why was it that you were having this you weren't having this conversation with them on behalf of EDC? you were having it on beh as behalf as just a person in the community.

I was invited by the first select woman to come to the meeting. So she asked me to attend and and introduce there was a gentleman from the zoning um you know if so is this a meeting that's on record that's um I don't know but you know I I gave you the substance of the meeting so um I don't think it would have anything I said would have impacted the sale of the building. So, the sale the sale was going to go through. Um,

I guess maybe what you're trying to get back to, let me see if I understand. Um, because we're talking about one specific meeting at this point, is what do what do what does the leadership the town's leadership expect is the responsibility of this commission? and are we then all aligned in what the what we think what we believe our role is what they believe our role is um because I don't know whether or not we are the marketing arm of old line are we supposed to be the marketing arm of old

line EDC state statute is the EDC is the marketing arm not the sales arm but the marketing arm marketing arm and and I will say that you know Martha has said to me that there's a number of businesses expressing interest in coming to town and whatever we can do to facilitate them coming to town to help that process happen. That sounds like that's a commission that you know we have been given to take on.

Yeah, we follow we follow the tradition as Cheryl said when they say there's a new business to come, we take a phone call from the barber. We take a phone call from the the guy was the restaurant guy, right? So, we're we're just trying to help. Where do you get information? What should you ask for? You know, what what is stopping your progress?

What can we facilitate for you? Tim Griswald would get a call about a property and he'd pass it on to me. Um the the other thing, and I don't want to get us off topic, this is related. I we have such a small percentage of commercial properties that I think it's very visible to everybody when someone retires and has their for sale sign out. We have I think normal business churn. We have always we will always every town is going to have businesses closing and reopening or you know opening in another way. We've had two big events settle for people what they want to do. The sewers were decided and Hall's Road Overlay was decided and a lot of people were just holding their breath until one or the other of those two things was decided so they knew what to do. Okay, now I'm going to retire or now is a good time for me to put my business up for sale. So, um, I tried to get the Connecticut Connecticut town economic index for last year and that is town by town. They look at they've created an index number for you on how you're doing. Last year's number isn't available because of the autumn federal government shutdown. The US census data didn't feed into the state. So I made a call today to see when is that going to be available. But year-over-year since 2020, we're moving in the right direction. The last data is 2023. We are moving in the right direction. I can't imagine 2024 suddenly everything went to pot. So yeah, businesses are closing. They always close

and others will open. I guess my question is is do we have alignment? So are the selectmen or the leaders are they expecting and are they okay with 5% of our tax base coming from commercial? I'll tell department is well I'll tell you the board of finance the board of finance was pretty clear in approving more than we asked for expecting an ROI. So they want they want help. They want us to help facilitate in some way that we are increasing the percentage of our tax base for the town that is coming from commercial. I don't think it's increasing the percentage. I think it's keeping our buildings occupied.

Yeah. I don't want to assume anything. I would want to I would want to hear that from somebody. So me too. That's an excellent question. I've been here for two years and we worked on this and I can't say that I know if they've ever looked at it, approved it, agree with it when it changed. You're right in questioning. I mean, you know, but I I the signals the signals I've gotten are that, you know, we we are on a mission to support the local businesses, bring new businesses, which to me is growth. And you know, our funding is contingent, you know, on us genuinely showing an ROI that will generate more revenue to the town than they're giving us.

Well, but so there's a to Cheryl's point, businesses are closing, but others will open. So if on average we're staying at 5% because some will close and some will open. I but I will say I I think I think that's what demonstrates that the the the town is vibrant is someone paid $11 million for the one building and the other um this old line shopping center is under agreement and someone will buy that as well. So someone who's willing to spend money to come here, invest capital, at least higher interest rates is indicative to me that they believe that OM is a viable town to invest capital.

And I and um 2025 there were 30 housing permits and in 2024, the year before there were only 20. So the number of housing permits are going up. So

Right. So to me then I'm just trying to get some clarity. Are are we okay? Are the Because the town's people want us to stay my read from all the comments you see and from the reports that have been written is that the town's people are basically saying we are and I'm going to use the 5% commercial general representative of the nature of how we want our community but they're okay with staying at that. They may not as a town's people fully appreciate that as the cost of the school system which is our largest percentage of where we our monies go that it that may not be sustainable if we only have 5%. For the long run they may or may not and I don't I don't that's not driven on data but my gut says

not enough people challenge that budget. Not enough people challenge it. And somebody as somebody who worked in the school system for six and a half years, I can tell you not enough people challenge that and that very well may and the number of students is decreasing every single year and not enough people challenge that budget. So, but if the budget and that's a separate and somebody should be challenging should be challenging all parts of our budget today.

Well, we have a vote. It's just everybody thinks that they can just vote for it and it's going to be good. But if you keep voting it up and the number of students goes down and in the state of Connecticut, we have a law where your budgets cannot go lower than the previous year unless there's some extraneous circumstances. And so school schools use that. They could stay even. They definitely could stay even and find a better way to use their resources without a doubt. Okay. But my only point is who do we ask? Who can we get that clarity from? Can we request a meeting with the selectmen for them to come and have a conversation with us and say we need it's the planning commission?

Yes. They write the plan of conservation and development. They've never put a number in it. But they are the ones who are setting the vision and the goal for old line for the next 10 years and they have never put a number to it. Okay. But they've also never said growth. They want stability. Yes. Stability. So, so can we ask for a meeting with that group and the selectman at the same time? Because I want to understand that they're all on the same page, right? Yeah. Because we have a separate zoning and we have a separate planning and then we have a separate selectman, right? And I'm not sure they're all thinking the future looks the same. Mhm.

If one group is thinking, "No, we need to grow the commercial base." And one other group is thinking, "No, we don't need to grow, we just need to maintain it," and then is zoning putting in place the or updating our regulations or whatever it is to support whatever that is. Otherwise, we're just Yeah. They could be updating in a vacuum, not knowing what what the planning commission is is planning or what the select men have asked the planning commission because they report to the select. So can we ask for that to get that clarity?

The question I would ask which is should be a natural evolution for the planning commission is what is the full development scenario you've got a plan of development. Okay what let's take it to full deployment. What does it look like? There's the goal based on planning. Well we have that and they are not planning further development. They're not

based on the report that I read there's no plan. In fact, it is maintain status quo is what I read in the plan in the plan. But that is not necessarily aligned with at least what we're interpreting or you're interpreting the conversation with the board of finance. It is giving you more money for I'm not sure what if it's just for more marketing of what we have. That's one thing if it is with an expectation we're going to return an ROI. Yeah, that's that's the that's the signal that I see

different and professional support for the things we've been trying to do. I've been talking to them for three years about staffing and have not asked for the money because the committee was not or the commission was not in agreement on it. But they understand that there are things we would like to do that we cannot do as a group of volunteers. Correct. Well, if that's what they expect, I don't 10 grand and they're not going to do it. I think it's good to get a tuneup on our strategic plan at the board of selecting. Yes, it really would be great. I think that's an excellent idea. I'm sorry. I'm just new and I'm trying to put the pieces together here and we we've been immersed in it for a year and a half.

You've been frowned down so much. Say, okay, is this really in line? I think it's a brilliant question to ask and um question I have to ask is just circulating back uh Mona until you arrived we didn't have a quarum so I want to vote on approval of the me minutes of last the last meeting so do I hear a motion to approve the meeting minutes moves second any discussion everybody in favor I I Okay the minutes of approval hang on keep going I any nos? Oh, any nos? No. Any abstensions? Uh, no abstensions. Yes.

Yes. She's got the book next to her. All right. Um, okay. Moving right along. Branded signage and wayfinding. Okay. All right. What does he got? We have a hand out. All right. A hand out. Apologize. I'm not a a graduate Catholic school, so my handwriting is very, very poor. Thank you. apologize. So I mean and I met on a first pass. So if you look at initiative two we under task and actions we're doing a bottom up approach. We started with the scope development first. So we wanted to start with the preliminary scope

and we met uh and decided that there's um one existing and six potential new locations. So we wanted to get consensus that we are headed in the right direction. So um A is mark the existing. So when you come down the base of exit 70

70 that's the existing sign that I have on my phone. It's the sign that says welcome to Limeold Lime. It's fairly faded. And then um if you go to the northeast there's B and that would be at the base of the historical district when you get off of 95 and you make a left. We were contemplating a sign putting a sign there and this is all conception and pretty much it's we want to make sure that there are these welcome signs and wayfinding. Here's the beaches, here's the art, here's the historic, here's the whatever. And almost all the welcome points in the town.

Because the other test is that, for example, location A where you get off exit 70, the sign is there if you're going to the village, but if people are taking the south connection onto 156, they won't really have eyeballs on it because you don't look that way. Correct. I noticed that last time when I took a picture of the sun. There you go. So, we're right now we're just locked at locations right now. No, I think the locations are fine. So, we have B. Yep. In historical C is really up in Town Woods. That's kind of a secondary site per perhaps. You know, it's the rowing area. It's Town Woods Field. It's it's the senior center.

So, um that's that. So then if you go uh to to D which is um four mile in the box on 25 D is the you know Hatchets road you know uh that industrial center right there or if you get off of get off at exit 71 you could put a sign at the top there to this you know I'm going to paraphrase what you said to me this morning the beach is to the left and town woods to the right.

Yeah. Um so that's that's D site E is at the intersection where East lime and old lime converge again go to the left beaches uh go to the right u and whatever. So, we'll figure all that out the next meeting. And then when you come down to box 88, which is F, which is um the sound view area or you know beaches, food and beverage, carousel could be called entertainment. You know, if you don't if you want to be generic and call, you know, call out this business, you know, you have to be very careful here. And then finally G in box 53 is the points you back on McCertie road to back to again to town hall historical downtown.

Right. So um would you like to add anything to that? Yeah. No, I think this is very very good. So this this is a start. It's a start. It's progress. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I So this is kind of a broad scope. Um I think next month we would like to come back and maybe put some meat on the bone and say okay in in in area A this is what we'll say you know sign A you know B just to the right um something to district

this is just a a a logistic here G is actually closer down to here where the neighborhood good is. Yeah. Yeah. G I I probably I'm apologize. It's not completely accurate, but it's really where the G is Mccertie Road, but people, you know, vote here today. 56 and Mccur Road intersect. Yeah. It's really down here. It's not It's not up there. It's really down. Yes. Okay. Two, this is huge progress. So, thank you.

Um, two suggestions. One is there's been a lot of um discussion especially with the Halls Road Improvement Committee, a lot of discussion about when you're coming off 70 south. So you come down and O line is next to you and you look across at the line art association and there are all those signs. Everyone wants to consolidate all those signs. Yeah. There's a I was there last night. There's a bunch of metal state highway signs there. they're not very attractive and there's a series of um so you might want to incorporate that into this especially possibly

with an arrow to the left for the historic district because you will have some hurdles adding a sign in the historic district. Okay. So, so we'll call that I believe H is next. We'll call H at the base of Actually, you already have it. You have it as exit. It looked to me like it was driving into line speed or me. Yeah. You're just moving a location of B. Yes. B. Move B. Yes. Well, it's just at the base. Well, we tried to create a state B

endorsed cultural district. It required signage in historic district and they would have signs. So that off-ramp and I don't I'm out of my understand that may be a state off-ramp which you know Yeah. So it may have to go across through the light when you come down the ramp and may have to be on the other side of Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And David Kelsey spent a lot of time studying that corner and the signs. So he's good to talk to. And then in general terms if you want to think about like obstacles to or hurdles to avoid a former EDC member Sherry Cody I don't think yes did you overlap with Sherry yeah

when she was the e economic development director for Guilford and Madison she did that sign program so she can tell you oh here's what you want to do here's what you don't want to do here you know so just you might want her on your committee okay when that time comes. Sherry, Cody, Sherry. Okay. She did Guilford and whichever one. Guilford and Madison. So, um, next month we'll do our best municipal best practices research and come back some best practices. So, we're we're we're we're in the task and action section

making progress. But this is where that branding comes in. Yeah. At some point at some point we're going to need the branding way finding font size colors visibility minimum for sight lines for most you know you know we probably need it in the next 60 days at least if not. Yeah. And sight lines and location or size may actually does that come from planning would that come from the planning fruit? I don't think that's going to be a branding guideline. Zoning zoning has zone zoning has rules ordinances. We should go to Eric Nap and find out what the we should just touch base with him and say where do you direct this I believe.

Okay. And then public works to all them. Okay. Find the money. Yeah. Good progress on uh on branded signage and wayfinding. Okay. Our next is business resource which was Cheryl and Scott. Well, the first one is commercial space information system. Is this where you want to share your I'm having a hard time logging into my account. Couldn't get I got bounced. So, um

Okay, some of this I'm just losing. Where do we talk about data? I'm still hurting this initiative. Okay, Scott and I will have to work on the commercial space information system. Um, I think until the zoning process is well underway, we can't really clarify or document that. New business guide I'm working on. Okay. um online resources for businesses.

You're way ahead of the game on that. I got that going. Somewhere I wanted to add that in looking at the data, we have like the fourth or fifth lowest unemployment rate in Connecticut this year. We're 2.9. Wow. Most towns or cities are 4.0. There's only a few up in like Warren and Sharon are 2.8, But we're the we're the lowest in New London County. They have no businesses, so there's no jobs.

Okay. And then resources, new business mentorship program. Is that something Scott and I are responsible for? Well, it's it's on here as initiative three. I'm willing to help with that because I I am interested in the school to career effort. Yeah. And that's having the um mentoring core. They still meet here Friday morning. So I will include that in my to to some degree also that kind of dovetales with the chamber of commerce I think because that's kind of the intent of the chamber is to allow businesses to collaborate if you will with with peers.

That's true. So, I think that's where that probably belongs. Okay. And then, um, initiative four, economic development and land use process. Mona, you're the, uh, so,

Yep. So, zoning had their meeting after our last meeting. They they voted to adopt the changes in language that they had worked on in their first rewrite, which as we've discussed before was to try to simplify the current existing regulations. It wasn't to change anything. It was just to try to simplify the language, reduce redundancies, and that's what they were working on. So, they officially adopted it and voted it to be as of today. And one thing that got brought up which we did discuss at the last meeting, do you recall that that there was something that I had learned at that previous zoning meeting that in our industrial area they weren't allowed to have businesses where people could come and go. Well, they ended up now having a discussion about that. And so they they have they um commented that there's a need to clearly differentiate customer-f facing retail versus back office businessto business establishments. So there are new definitions in the draft dated December 3rd 2025

but both are allowed in commercial and light industrial districts districts. So, when they said, I thought I was learning something new, like you couldn't have an In-N-Out business. Well, it turns out you can in the light industrial. So, I don't know. We'll see if that ends up changing. Did you catch that part, Cheryl, when you reviewed like from the meeting? Yeah, that's what you were saying. Yeah. So, it's just something I had never thought about that, you know, because there was Wasn't there like a a a makeup store that was once in the commercial district of makeup and purse store? I've heard about this store that used to be in there. So that obviously was a customerf facing retail establishment

and you also had the doctor's office which was a good example. Yep. So so we we should keep an eye on that and now they're going into the phase two where they're supposed to be talking about having opportunities to meet with the public. Yes. But I didn't get any information about that. Yeah. I picked up Mona is that at their April 13th meeting they will set the timeline for the progress on the the next phase, you know, phase two. So I think we need to pay attention to, you know, what comes out of that April 13th meeting and see if we can get on to their calendar. Um, and those meetings are not online. Oh, sorry.

Are those meetings online? They're online and in person. Yeah. And they're recorded and they're three hours long. Yeah, we don't do that. I listen to them at one and a half speed. Good for you. I do the same thing. Uh so, okay. I There was just one other thing about zoning up there. Um that you guys had a conversation last time about being surprised that multifamily could be allowed in like me. that it's it there's that plot of land is zoned for multif family. See the purple? Mhm.

So they only do you think they got the permit beforehand or it's been like that for a while. And that that's Hatchets Hill. That's Hatchets Hill. Yeah. That's 47 Hatchets Hill. So the blue is light industrial and the purple is multif family. So it's not like they're trying to put multif family in light industrial. It that's there was lot that's behind where son um not son. Oh no shahaki son. There we go. Well that's Kellogg's taking that over. Yes.

Yes. So so that property I did get into my account. So that property is still for sale. Teddy's is still for sale. The multif family property is still for sale. Yeah. Yeah. And uh the James Bugby store on 60 Lime Street is for sale million4 and the old ice cream place is still for sale at 550. Um and Snap Fitness Fit Fitness the equipment only it's a lease and it's for sale as well.

Okay. Um All right. So, uh, with regard to our discussion on just now about zoning for commercial district support, um, through the shoreline gateway committee, um, I prepared, you know, with the committee, I kind of originated, but we developed it jointly, the a proposed blight ordinance and a and a proposed update of exterior lighting, which is sort of related of light because we now have with the advent of LED bulbs, we've got amusement parks growing in the town. You know, there are some some persons that are afraid of the dark and they've got beacons of light beaming out and trespassing across property lines and all that.

Commercial or residential? Residential. Okay. And I guess to some degree commercial as well, but residential in particular. The the shoreline gateway area and the beach communities because the density is so high. If somebody decides to crank out 3,000 lumens, it becomes quite obnoxious pretty quickly. And and I will say, you know, I I live on just just shy of four acres of land and I now have a neighbor that has illuminated their house to the point where, you know, it's like, no, we can't do that. Uh I read a newspaper in the backyard, you know, and this is like far away. So, what is the current zoning for nightlighting? Yeah.

Uh it is it is a hodgepodge. It's disjointed references peppered throughout. Oh.

Uh, no enforcable criteria. For example, with noise, you know, if there's a noise complaint, you can take a noise meter and say, "Well, you can't make so many decibb cross my property line." With lighting, that that's really what I've written into there is, and I've looked at other communities that have got ordinances, uh, you know, and obviously in their zoning regs, lighting requirements. So anyway, for for the purposes of Shoreline Gateway, we have submitted to zoning both instruments. Zoning has come back and said that blight is not a zoning ordinance. It has to be a separate but it it stands alongside zoning basically. So

or else would it be if it wasn't? Yeah, exactly. So So we have requested to meet with zoning and to review the blight ordinance, you know, as Okay, we get it. It's not stat statutory wise. It can't be part of zoning, but it sure as heck is a first cousin to zoning. And then the lighting, they were more receptive. So that's something that I want to discuss with them. It's interesting that light wouldn't be part of zoning when they discussed hoarding issues and that was part of their lasting. Hoarding. Well, blight, not lighting, right? Blight. I mean, aren't blight and hoarding similar?

Well, the hoarding is generally people that are mentally troubled and that's why they've pushed back in the past on having a blight ordinance because few things. One, you're dealing with mental health. Two, you're dealing with one person's pollinator garden is another person's mess. You know, pollinator garden looks like a meadow, right? Um so people have different ideas residentially what um blight looks like. Right. And then there's just you know but you can look at buildings and know that building right is going to fall is going to fall down. Yes. Yeah. Condemnable. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. the the you know the the big thing with with the issue of blight from what came back you know from zoning and particularly the zoning enforcement officer Eric Knap is the you know

it's somewhat subjective as to like for example what's the definition of an eyesore and I I went to the OED and found that it is funny they define it as something like a building that's profoundly ugly you know so I'm like oh okay there is a definition for it um But anyway, so those were those were the major things that um that you know has been happening as far as commercial district support is u the warehousing of buildings is what's been happening on Shore Road as well as in the beach commercial areas of Sound View Design District and you know again this goes back to sewers no sewers you know so that's sort of shaking itself out now finally but uh you know but for an owner to have a you know a property that's just kind of boarded up and warehoused and just sits there for 20 years is not in the interest of the town, you know, and I don't think there's any uh action that's been taken to try to do something about it until I, you know, we put together this black ordinance.

There's an ordinance that I'm not fluent in, but it has to do with you can't tear down a building at old line unless you're going to rebuild it within 12 months, something like that. which is why buildings stay up because once you tear it down, you only have a short period of time to rebuild. And I that's another issue as far as the zoning rigs that uh for example the ice cream parlor on on Lime Street. If they wanted to reopen that as an ice cream parlor, it would engage a lengthy process to get approval to do that, which to me is kind of absurd. A like for like

Yeah, it's a like for like. So, it's like, how can this be such a a stopped being an ice cream store and turned into a residential? It was possibly going to be a studio, but they never got that far. Right. But anyway, so the um but a a zoning ordinance, whatever, that says if you take down a building, you have to rebuild on it in 12 months. That doesn't make sense. We need Meline to look at that. Yeah, she'll get it right away. She'll get it. So, we need Maline to look at that. And then um just for the light pollution, the shore, not the shoreline gateway, Connecticut River Gateway that Yep.

you know, rules the whole what they have light pollution guidelines and dark sky guidelines. Yeah, it is my hope. I think I I don't know for sure. I have to look it up if the town has adopted, you know, dark sky compliance, which is what that's about. Yeah. because um you know that's something that I think is is also in keeping with the sensibility of most of the people in our town. You know, if you want it to be dark at night, if you want it brightly illuminated, move to a city. So, so that's all I have on that. And I could see maybe in a commercial area you Yeah. want that. But even from a commercial, for example, security perspective.

Yeah. But from a commercial area, what you want is what's called cut off type fixtures. So the light beams downward. It doesn't beam outward. That's what automotive did. They did all down lighting on it as well. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That's that's the fundamental thing with the the dark sky, you know, ordinance is that fixtures have to be cut off type fixtures it's called. So everything just goes downward because one thing about the LEDs that you know I have from personal experience there there's more of a beaming character characteristic. So that if you've got even a 100 watt bulb, you can see it a quarter mile away, you know, because it just kind of beams out like a headlamp on a car. Okay. Um regional events updates. Well, we've got a golf tournament. Uh the the Greater All Sabbrook Chamber has got a golf tournament on June 8th if anybody wants to go golfing. Uh,

and this is with the greater the greater old Sybrook Chamber of Commerce. It's going to be I think at Fox Hollow. Anybody's a golfing enthusiast or but it's something that we could potentially um was trying to think. It's like, you know, Cheryl was saying if people are going to go golfing there, can we get them to have lunch? Have lunch in town with signage. You have to put signs. Uh okay. Uh I did attend the first Thursday which was hosted by Nautilus Architects who is doing the luxury on the move uh May 31st car show.

Uh and that is jointly with AllPro Automotive and they've got I also noticed there's apparently two car clubs. You know, one of them is New England Supercar Club and another one is the so slow society which must mean really fast cars going really slow maybe. I'm guessing I think you can see what they look like. So that that is um something there was an issue I think Cheryl you're aware of the America 250. So the I I had July 4th but from what I'm gathering Cheryl it's July 5th will be the big picnic day.

Yes we have a um me just pull up my page. So the committee has been meeting. We have right now we have two committees. We have a general committee for America 250 and we have a picnic planning team not a committee. Um so we now have on exploral lime a whole calendar of events. Oops. Um it include I just wrote up today we're having a community quilt. So any quilters out there can make a square. We're going to pull them all together and unveil a community quilt just like they did at the bsentennial. We have a number of lectures and um talks and that sort of thing mostly by the old line historical society. Those have all been uploaded to connectit.com by the historical society. um all of the arts organizations are having exhibitions that are thematically in line with it. So um lime art association is having an exhibition called a Connecticut history. Um the Florence Grizzle Museum which was going to be closed during the summer for renovations but they're now delaying that. They're now having an exhibition called Catchwork. Connecticut artists consider 250. They're inviting Connecticut artists to submit art to uh a jured show and patchwork refers to the fact that they have the bicesentennial quilt for Old Line and that will be on display. The artist Jack Laav um had a show

several years ago where it included a life-sized George Washington and the it's hard to explain, but there are like in the creases of George's pants are scenes of him crossing the Delaware. like it's a very it it the portrait itself tells a story that will now be on view at the Gallery during the summer. Um so all of the organizations are kind of hopping on board. There will be an I think it's going to be Arbor Day. I'm waiting for confirmation. The tree commission is planting a descendant of the charter oak. They have a seedling. Um just waiting for confirmation on that. We have a series of blog posts about people who need history here. And then there's things we're doing that the whole nation's doing like on July 4th ring everyone rings a bell 13 times at 2 p.m. Um there's a public reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 8th which is the anniversary of the first public reading. Number of different things. The picnic. The picnic will be July 5th at Townwoods Park. People are encourage encouraged to bring their own picnic makings blanket or a table or a pop-up tent and their food. There will be the Lion's Club on um on the grounds doing grill items. We're having um live music. I just got a text from one of the bands we're talking to. Um there's going to be children's games. We're gonna in between sets of the um band. We're going to do things like pi eating contest, like real kind of oldfashioned kind of stuff. Um we're also doing a

competition, a jured competition of tablescapes. So, who has the most patriotic table setup or, you know, picnic setup? who's got the most historic or the creative that sort of thing. So, lots of good ideas and now we're in the process of implementing them. Okay. How are you handling parking? We have parking there and then we also are promised parking at high hopes and we're hiring a shuttle bus. Good. And the shuttle bus or you know cars and the shuttle bus will be able to like circle through at the senior center. We're meeting tomorrow on the grounds tomorrow afternoon to kind of figure out the fencing and all that. So, um Okay.

Yeah, everyone's working together well. And I know one of the questions last time was getting businesses involved in America 250 and I don't know resource-wise how to do that. So, if people have suggestions, like, you know, Nautilus wants to do a Lego um sort of thing and we suggested doing something sort of patriotically themed, but um beyond that, I feel like a lot of people are going to get into this once the beginning of summer starts. Yes.

And then they're going to say maybe they'll say, "Oh, let's have a 250 sale or something." I don't know. But does anyone have s specific suggestions on businesses and the America 250? My f my first thought would be going back to the colonial era. What businesses were in town would be my first thought. But there had to be some semblance of what we have today in a different form. So that might be interesting. And we got to look at that. Um,

are there local restaurants planning to do anything like think about foods that might be aligned to that or we have we have Johnny Cake Road, Johnny Cake Hill Road, right? Just back to Journey Cakes. As I run up it, it's like the highest highest climb we've got in town. So I haven't emphasizing you know they would have to be coming up with the themes but then it's like is there something that we could help them to just pull together and saying

you know if you're not going to the picnic or while you're here in town we could go to the hideaway and they're having they're hosting something that's related to the 250 and the old line men's hosting something and I don't know like a 250T at the whatever m or something over the month of July the din round guide something like that. Yeah, I don't know if they're planning to do that related to it, but we could have a foot race on Johnny K Hill Road when a Johnny Cake gets the reward. I'm just thinking I'm not really sure we want to pull in that. I was more thinking going, you know, do the restaurants want to do something themselves. But that with that,

you know, as part of the advertising for the day or the, you know, obviously I I agree with Cheryl, this is going to pick up momentum as we get closer. And that question is what can we pre-plan to help the process look for midsummer? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. And our our our board of finance allocation will be approved sometime around July 1. We won't have earlier but it'll be effective effective July one.

If we did a mailing to businesses saying if you have a promotion that is relevant, you know, $2.50 Andies or whatever their twist is, right? Um we can have you know on that America 250 page we can link to business um promotion. It is hard to get businesses to do like I think last year we didn't even get brochures from anyone and I sent out you know for midsummer talking in half sentences. Um

I don't even think anyone dropped off brochures for the table if I remember rightly. There were some. Were there? Okay, good. There was some. Not a lot, but there were some.

Okay. Um, community resource management, the on call consultant services. We don't have the full commission here, so maybe I'll defer that. And also, we're kind of run running into overtime. Um, we'll defer that in terms of how to use. So just continue to think about how we could deploy the hours that they're making available of consultant time uh retention of in town talent school to career. I keep you know I'm a retired engineer but I I can't get over the versatity that is occurring with this AI stuff. It's unbelievable. I mean like licensing of new nuclear plants using AI the review process has been contracted from what was let's just say you know a six-month process to review something has been turned into like a a two week or let's say a six week you know six months became six weeks because researching all the little elements and referencing into specifications and so on so I'm wondering for our high school you know what what opportunity ity might lie. You know, it's this whole craze right now with AI, but it's got my interest because I'm seeing it being deployed in manner where it's, you know, from a business perspective, it's making money and so it's something that just I think we might want to pay some thought to new and other business. Um I think we'll just defer to our next meeting again the same issue as the on call consultant services. How can we deploy the funding that we're getting from the town to get an ROI in return for that funding?

Well, I think that goes back to clarify what is what what is what is the ROI that we're looking for and can we start just to generate a list of different let's close our meeting with how do what do we do? Do we try to get the board of select persons to come to our meeting? Do we go meet with them? Uh I it sounds I thought it would be just the board to select room but it sounds like it's also planning. It's also planning. Well there's two different things. One is understanding what the goals of the town are and then also the spending of the money and the spending of the money if I remember right they want a job description. Correct.

Right. So I don't think it's spending of money. I think I think the genesis of this was alignment with our strategic plan. Whether it's the board of select offices, the people, I think that we should ask them to come to our meeting. So, and have them tell us. Yes. Like, I'll tell you what, we'll give them homework. We'll tell them to go and confirm with plans. Yeah. We should send them the plan ahead of time and say, "Come and give us some feedback on it." So, so let's do that. I will uh Jeff, between the two of us, we won't fall down. We have to invite them. We can ask them for some feedback on the plan, but there's not a lot of specifics in there other than to say yes, we like the wayfinding, we like the followup and all the various things that we're doing, but it's more

it's more on where where does the what is the vision that they have for old line and you can even get so specific as is a 5% commercial tax base is that is that where we want is that where we want to Is that what we should be planning for? That may be eb and flow of different kinds of businesses or right some businesses will close others will open and we have to help to support maintain probably should include the board of finance. What do you think? I mean they they kind of drive the purse strings and they know where where is it.

So what I'm thinking Jeff is let's invite the board of board of select persons with an understanding that they will you know if you will um distill what is currently going on between the board of finance and the planning commission. But now show them do the distillation. said, excuse me, Cheryl, you said that you've been asked to asking the board of finance for the last few years about getting extra money and so then for support I have said separate then that's not the 10,000.

Well, I think we have two different conversations happening. Yes. One is about staffing and I have said in the past we will be looking at some point for help in doing what we need to accomplish. I don't think that that's why they gave an extra 10,000. Uh I mean so who knows if they remembered it from a past year. I have no idea. But then this conversation is about hearing from planning and the board of selectmen and me the board of finance. What are you What are your goals for the town? Are you wanting us to remain a bedroom community? Do you do you have

I understand that, but I you I don't think that I mean I can I'll go back and I'll listen to the board finance meetings because I'm curious as to why you know they don't typically just say here's some extra money unless somebody's asking for extra money. So, I don't understand. I don't know why we don't have a direct answer like they're going to give us an extra 10,000 and you're saying you're assuming it's because of this or that's what you think or you you know, but nobody said, "Hey, EDC, we're giving you an extra 10,000 because of what?" Well, they're they're expecting return on investment. They're going to they're they're willing to invest.

Somebody said that to you. Yes. Those were their words. Who's whose words? Fred Behringer. Go to the Mona go to the uh the video of the of the meeting and you will see in there.

But who is like like who and so then everybody just said I vote I yeah we're going to give an extra 10,000. There was there was some discussion but you know it was the the initiation of the discussion was I I interpreted you know we are a volunteer commission we can only do so much and there is more that the town would like to see happening from the work of our commission and the only way that's going to become feasible is by having at least a little more resource to work with. There's a lot of different ways you can measure ROI though and there's resources could be more people. It didn't have to be money, you know.

Well, it's essentially need to go and ask them and and and clarify that. But that there's like two things going on here to Cheryl's point. I think one is what is the vision? What is what is the expectation? What is the thought process if you will around where's the town and where are we going with it? And then there is linked to that I think if some of the extra funding that they've offered I guess because it's not hasn't been approved yet. Is that linked to some expectation or or what is the expectations? Yeah. What is the expectation? Is it I don't even know what it is. Whatever it is I'm not even they have to tell us what is it.

Yeah. and we can clarify that. All right. So, we're going to invite well, Jeff and I will invite the board of select persons to come to our next meeting. I think we should discuss with commissioners about the request from the Canadian Examiner to comment on the Oh, yes.

the the online marketplace. So, this is goes back to how we started the conversation tonight. So, we've been we've been each individually contacted by the uh Connecticut examiner for a future conversation about what's happening at the old line shopping center which is a private piece of property. So, um you know we have not agreed to that and we wanted to bring that up today. Do you think it's what what do the commission what do you guys think we should do? they can either com respond to their review, decline their review, or somewhere in between. So, I'd like to I think we should go around. Give any more context for what they wanted in the conversation.

It's the tree thing. The It's the It's the tree thing in general economic development town, right? That's what the email said. So, so what do you think we should do? What's going Do you mind if we go around the table? What are the options? We could talk. Don't talk. No, we could say it's p, you know, it's private property and and and it's not really our view to, you know, as you can to comment on private property. I don't monitor, what do you think we should do? Ask the tree warden.

Well, while you're while you're thinking of your answer, I'll give you my answer. My answer is that the town is taking care of it. It there's a landscape plan. I mean, I read about it in another online magnet online newspaper, but um Martha addressed it and Eric addressed it and so it's what does landscape plan fall under? Zoning or something. I don't know what it called land use. I think it's a land use issue. It's a land use issue that was their original I'm sorry for interrupting. was their original going all the way back to when they planned 1989 was the landscape plan that they pulled out.

I would take a pass on it and I would defer them to talking to either the owners because they know best what their plan is and you can get it straight from them or they can get it straight from not us. um on Elizabeth. It sounds not a lot of upside. I don't think

I think there's no upside in having a conversation with them. I personally I think there's no upside for us or for the town. I did appreciate when Shil had put on there, you put on a comment and said that the select woman had addressed this in her most recent newsletter and so that if people took the time to go read her newsletter, then they could find that she had addressed it according to this plan. I thought that was like the best thing ever because they're going to have to take care of it, right? hopefully the new owners,

which I think our opinion kind of doesn't matter in that. I mean, it's ordinances or whatever landscape plans fall under and I think we should pass, Jeff. Yeah, I'm with you on that at this point because it's just that great, you know, it's already been addressed. Yeah, if it if it was a discussion about, you know, economic revitalization of the center, then there's something maybe we could talk about. But the the issue of uh you know, arubberism or whatever the aubberist pursuits, that's not us. There's no upside.

No upside with us related to the new owners who I think ideally we have a productive relationship with or we cultivate a productive relationship with. Yes. I remember the last thing I asked him to do, create a sense of place for a community gathering place. That's the one thing when I fumbled around when you asked me, create a sense of place. It was when my kids were young that they had concerts there and band things. So, make a town a vibrant town. So, if you can create that sense of place with a stage or something like that, that's the other thing I said to them.

Pretty neat. Nice. Um, and I do see on Crexy they do have their full marketing plan. It is avail. It is out there. You probably seen it, Jeff. I have u Yeah, I'll look at it. Find it. How'd you find it? Yeah. If you go under Crexy and you look for Old Lime, it's a business site. And so then they have their plan and it even shows. Can you send the links? Oh, I can look to send the link. Right.

Because I did I did go into full-on research mode when I started to see people complaining about their trees. I was like, what is going on down a rabbit hole? Yeah, I did. But it um it shows you know the locations of the existing businesses that are there, the ones that they know which are renewing their leases, the ones which aren't. Uh there is a proposed pad site closer to where Bower Bird is for another potential building. That would be very interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Is is there something that this is speaking to the old lime marketplace where the big Y is?

Yes. Is there anything similar for the the old lime shopping center where the hideway is? That I I don't know. Jeff, do you know when that deal is? It's under agreement. I spoke to the broker last Friday. It's under agreement. He thinks it's going to close. I don't know who the buyer is. He didn't tell me. I didn't ask. I said, "I have a conflict. You can't tell me. I just need to ask a question for my real estate update. Thank you. Well, but it's encouraging news that developers are No, this is this is very encouraging when you really think about it.

I think it's indicative that there's some economic um opportunity in town. So, I I view that both these trading are good things for our community. Yes, I'd love to see them do something to make them more appealing, eye appealing, you know. Well, it's an open Well, especially so for the Especially so for the shopping center where there's an abandoned foundation that's been there for 41 years that I've seen it. You know, it's like I think it's time to do something. All right. Can I make a motion to adjurnn? Yes. Motion to adjurnn. I'll second it. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. I. No abstensions. No.

All right. No. No. We are journed. Thank you. Thank you.