Planning Board - Regular Meeting

meeting will come to order. This is a regular meeting of the planning board. Good evening, everyone. First item of business is the approval of minutes from our June 10 regular meeting and our June 26 site visit. Anyone have any comments on these things, Matt? Mr Chairman, it is minor, but I don't know actually if you do which meeting let's take the minutes separately and we'll take comments during the motion, so we have a motion to approve the minutes for the June 10 regular meeting. or so made second motion is made in seconded to approve the minutes from our regular meeting of June 10 either any comments.

My comment is on item eight, so SEC third page. It's very minor, but my last name is spelled incorrectly there, and it's spelled correctly the rest of the places. It is S-K-I, not S-N-K-I. Sorry, Ron. Oh, sorry, Rudy. You did it right everywhere else. That is all.

So do the maker and seconder of the motions agree to that amendment?

Yes.

Okay, so may I have any other comments on the amended motion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed nay. Those minutes are accepted. I have a motion to accept the minutes from our June 26 site visit.

So moved. Second.

Motion is made and seconded. Any comments? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed nay. minutes are approved. Next item on the agenda is correspondence. So, Ron, I'm going to turn to you to explain what we're doing with this.

so on item 2a which is correspondence that you actually received during the last meeting it's on the agenda tonight for you to take action on the request to withdraw the subject application without prejudice unfortunately one of the members here tonight mr valencourt needs to recuse from that matter since he's in a butter once he does that we would wouldn't have a quorum so my suggestion is that you continue this matter to the next regular meeting

So, if we, um, if we have to continue this, we make a motion, uh, does the member have to recuse himself to continue?

Yes, he should recuse himself. But then we don't have a correct, which means you wouldn't be able to act on, but to make the motion to continue.

Does the person have to recuse himself?

Yes, he should be recused totally from the matter.

Then we can't, we won't have the quorum to take the motion to continue. So what do we do?

You can't take action.

I think we're good. I think if you don't take action on it tonight, it's just going to roll automatically onto the next agenda. So I think we're okay.

All right. So item two is rolling over.

I got to write that down. All right.

Next item agenda modifications just a minor one we're going to take item for F before item for he will get to that probably near the end of the meeting. So the first item to take up is item for a public hearing application of Catherine Thompson. For preliminary plan approval for a two lot minus subdivision, including requests for variances from Town Code Chapter 152, Zoning Code Section 603, the lots with 104.44 and 104.98 feet of street frontage, where 120 feet of frontage is required, from Section 20B to allow creation of lots in traffic sensitive district, with 104.44 and 104.98 feet of street frontage where 300 feet of frontage is required and from section 720 c 1 requiring use of a common driveway to access the resulting lots property is located at 534 quidneck avenue and further identified as tax assessors plat 114 lot 116. they have a motion to open the public hearing

So moved. Second.

A motion is made and seconded to open the public hearing. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed nay.

Public hearing is open. The floor is yours. Good evening, Mr. Chairman. My name is Andrew Blais from Duffy and Sweeney, which is a division of Stevens and Lee in Providence, Rhode Island. The address is 321 South Main Street, if that's required. I'm here on behalf of the applicant, Catherine Thompson. in regards to her application for a preliminary plan approval for the minor subdivision, which incorporates a dimensional variance request. That property is located at 534 Quinnick Avenue. It's in an R-20A zone. With me this evening is Spencer Alexander of Anderson Alexander. He's a Rhode Island licensed architect, as well as Lynn Small, who's a professional engineer at Northeast Engineering. I know that this board is familiar with Ms. Small, and I'd ask that the board accept her as an expert, unless the board would like me to establish her credentials now. We have accepted her in the past. She's accepted. Thank you, sir. Mr. Alexander, as I mentioned earlier, is a licensed Rhode Island architect, and I can establish his credentials as an expert the board would like.

I'm not sure if we've had him before us before, have we? No. Do you have his credentials?

I could just...

Yes. Thank you, sir. I'm Will. How are you? Good.

Good. My name is Spencer Alexander. I'm a licensed architect. I have had my own firm for about seven years. I've worked in New York City. I've worked here. Please speak into the microphone. Sorry. I'm a licensed architect for about seven years in Rhode Island. I started in New York City. We do work all across the U.S. We do high-end homes, retail, hospitality. We have a seven-story building in providence going up we have just completed two in new york city we've done several homes throughout the area you don't have the one in new york city it's going to fall down do you we're on the other side of that one thank god but you know are there any objections to accepting him as an expert okay accepted thank you i'm gonna ask uh mr alexander just to give uh a brief

Project microphone microphone, please. Please speak close to my i'm just going to ask Mr Alexander if he can give a brief explanation of the project, and if you have any technical questions you can point them his way, thank you.

Hi, thank you. So this is currently a lot that has an existing driveway running through to access homes that are below it. We are in the traffic zone, which makes the frontage larger. But all the adjoining lots relatively have the same, about 100 foot. City Council Chambers, kind of frontage similar to this property and so we're meet the as of right definition of the lot square footage we just are looking for a frontage variants and the access point is already existing so we're maintaining the existing access, which is used for the lower homes, as well as this current address right now. And. City Council Chambers, list. City Council Chambers, To have you went well in to answer anything else to oh.

Sure. Good evening. Lynn Small, Northeast Engineers, Six Valley Road. I guess we're not proposing any improvements at this time. We're just creating the lot. The site would be subject to stormwater review and the utility connection reviews once we go for a building permit. There is a shared sewer line that comes into the project. site that we will be connecting into. We don't have water on this piece of Aquidna Gaff, so there are wells. So we'll be having a well and tie into the sewer. We will be working with Department of Public Works to make sure the sewer lines properly shown there in the process of getting me that additional information i think that was a condition of the trc as well that we would add that to the plans and then um once we have um if the approval of the law is made then once we have a house um the stone water design will be done and reviewed by the town engineer that's yeah there's not a lot of have anything else

And you're not at this time questions comments from the planning board members. I have a couple. One of the recommendations that the technical review committee made was that the development impact statement be revised. Has that happened, Ron? Has that development impact statement been revised?

I don't think I've received a revised statement, no.

I believe that that was asked for submission at final plan approval.

I understand that, and I'm just asking if that has been done. I do not know.

I'm not.

We have not done that revision yet. It was my understanding, it was supposed to go for part of the final as well, so I didn't do it yet.

The reason I raised this is, as you know, Ron, I consider the development impact statement an important submission in these applications. And if the TRC feels that it should be revised, at least in the future, we won't do it for this application, but in the future, I would like to have that, I would like to see the revised copy. I think the Planning Board should see the revised copy, okay? And you will revise it? Yes, we will. Also, there were some, hold on a second, comments from the Food and Utilities Committee, which of the road and utilities committee comments on this run.

Yes, they address basically just stating what we already know is that there's no public sewer on the property. Oh, yeah. And also sort of reiterating the the request for identifying the location of the sewer lines on the property, which is going to be a condition.

And also, maybe it was an issue with an easement also, right?

There's a it just noted that there's an easement on the property serving the abutting the abutting lots. And then finally, it recognizes that there's no development proposed at this point, but in the future, when when development is proposed for that new building lot, they will have to provide stormwater management.

I also have a question on page five of the development impact statement. have that in front of you when I do Okay, you see where the under the. Water supply, where you have the two tables yes. It was unclear to me whether the top table is labeled previous use and the bottom table is proposed use. um this has does this have anything to do with with the new lot or the the the lot that will be undeveloped um so no the new the new lot we're expecting will be a four bedroom home and that was all so in essence um the conditions are the same before and after basically yeah we're not changing the existing house at all now i understand okay thank you any other comments

I'll make that more clear when we make the revision to the development impact.

That would be good. Thank you.

You're welcome.

OK. So may I have a motion for planning preliminary plan approval?

This is a public hearing, so you should first invite public input.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments from the planning board members? All right. Anyone from the public who wishes to speak, please. I'm sorry. It's OK. Thank you.

I live at the end of that easement driveway, the shared driveway on the right. So I'm not exactly sure what the final plan is. Did I just hear one four-bedroom home would be put in that lot?

That's what they...

Okay. so that would make um five houses on that driveway and then there's another two going across the street currently being built so as you can imagine the concerns we have are drainage which miss small will i'm sure will identify um sewer which was also discussed but obviously the density of that of that area five houses and three will be rented is what i understand i'm not sure of that but i think three will be rented so there'll be continuous movement of of people in and out of those three Airbnbs. The traffic on Aquitina Gap has gotten a lot denser over the last few months. I've been down there since 2011. And whether it's the Morrison Ave construction houses that have been built or whatever, there's a lot of houses being built in that area. So that Aquitina Avenue and Valley Road intersection is getting tougher and tougher to get out of my driveway.

so those are the main issues we have uh from my from my seat in the driveway and uh be interested to see how this continues well um thank you for the comment that reminded me of a question that i wanted to ask you ron um in the in the cover memo for this application it makes the statement that the um requirement is for 300 feet of frontage But it can be reduced to 120 feet if they share a driveway what's what's the rationale behind that.

that's the way the ordinance reads I know that's the way the ordinance read, though, in the traffic sensitive district, the concern is for the number of curb cuts on these high traffic roadways so if someone is. going to propose a new curb cut the thought is increase the frontage. to reduce the potential for additional curb cuts if new if the new access points are if the new lots are going to be accessed from an existing access point or shared access points that concern for frontage is not as much so that's that's the reason that if they meet the minimum frontage requirement for the district then that 300 with a shared driveway then that 300 foot requirement goes away

Thank you. And and, um, um, is there any limitation on the number of, uh, of homes that can use a, that can share a driveway? No, no.

Well, what will happen is that at the point that a building permit is requested, the fire department will be reviewing the application for the building permit to ensure that there's adequate access. Um, to this proposed property.

And they reviewed it and they included the fire department.

No, the fire department was not present at the meeting, but there will be that review at the building permit stage. Okay. All right. Conceivably they might raise some concern.

My only point is 5 structures. 3 of that, which would be Airbnb is continually. In and out of people and 2 full time residents of the other of the 2 properties on that. On that driveway easement.

Go ahead, Matt.

Ron, I actually have a question. Does the town own this road or is it a private driveway?

Private driveway.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. Anyone else from the public who wishes to speak? Anyone online, Ron? Charlie?

Ron, on a private driveway like this, there are no requirements for walks.

No, it's, it's not a road there. It's a driveway.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Else from the public. We have a motion to close the public hearing. Second is made and seconded to close the public hearing. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed nay. Chair votes aye. The public hearing is closed. May I have a motion for the, um, preliminary plan approval of this application subject to the conditions imposed by TRC.

Do we vote on the zoning first? I was just going to say your first motion should be on the zoning release. I just noticed that. Which you can also apply the conditions for the TRC. Right.

So I want to amend the motion to vote on the approval of the zoning rather. preliminary plan approval so moved second okay so the uh we have a motion and second uh for a zoning change subject to TRC conditions and the findings and the findings are there any comments all those in favor say aye aye opposed nay the votes aye motion passes now may I have a motion for the preliminary plan approval subject to the conditions of the trc and the required findings come out second motion is made and seconded for preliminary plan approvals application, are there any comments. They say I I oppose nay. It votes I motion passes. Congratulations.

Andrew, if you could just submit a decision to the planning office, we'll send you a sample.

Next item on the agenda is item for be a public hearing application of the collection on honeymoon llc for preliminary plan approval of a fall lot minus subdivision, including creation of a new public street. A waiver is requested from sections 603 of the middle town rules and regulations regarding the subdivision and development of land to allow a street with pavement with. And I believe the request is for 24 feet correct 26 feet. is required property fronting on honeymoon avenue and further identified as tax assessors platform 14 lot 139 we have a motion open the public hearing. motion is made and seconded to open a public hearing, is there any discussion. All those in favor say aye. opposed nay. votes aye the public hearing is open good evening.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman. My name is Chris Duhamel, a professional engineer and land surveyor with Duprete Engineering. We are here as a continuance from the Culinary Plan hearing held last month. Within that timeframe, the Board walked the site, a site walk on 6-26-2026, and looked at a number of items that were discussed at the public hearing previous. we had discussed the the site drainage of this of the property and the um effect on abutting properties specifically to the north showing that there was no effect of site drainage by the proposed construction of a single family house we provided for environmental testing of the site a report that showed that there was no no contamination on the site that would exceed residential standards we provided for additional clarification on the erosion control on site where the areas disturbed would be would have a water buffalo or water source on them to reduce or to eliminate dust. And that would be regularly applied. We looked at the 12-inch drainage culvert leading towards Turner Road, the easement that leads easterly towards Turner Road, and the constructability of that pipe. And it wouldn't be any alteration required or proposed on the southerly abutter to that drainage culvert. We looked at the lot grading on the south of lot four as um town engineer john mellow had requested and we have a minimum five foot five foot separation from any grading and which would also be provide us a swale so again no drainage effects on the southerly butters um since since that site walk um Mayor Mrakas, Mr cal cagney Lou Lou has walked us the property with the butter 193. Mayor Mrakas, Honeyman have and has committed to providing for an additional vegetative buffer along that that right of right of way boundary. Mayor Mrakas, So a revised landscape plan will be needed to submit it prior to final.

Mayor Mrakas, Where is that Chris.

It's on the south side of the road. I think that covers everything that was asked from the last public hearing. We're here to answer any questions.

Questions from members? I have a couple of questions I think you've responded to. All of the. stormwater issues that were raised and I think that's you still have to submit a stormwater management plan to the town engineer. approval.

It is, it is, it has been submitted, but it. I believe he's still.

John Potter, Creating markups but well there's a condition proposed to just have final approval of the stormwater management plan prior to recording or prior to final approval that's that's.

John Potter, Acceptable that's fine and you've seen the comments from the tree Commission. John Potter, There were two sets of comments nearly one and then a later one have you seen both of them.

The one that we received this week, I believe. Was.

Was concerned over cutting down an existing tree, those are the those were the second comments, the first one mentioned adding another tree on the street did you agree to that recommendation, yes okay great Thank you so you're looking at the second set of comments from the tree Commission. um are you in agreement with what they are uh suggesting you have comments uh the tree that was removed as it was in the driveway slash future public road of of the four lots um before you go on Chris um Mike have you seen the the tree Commission's comments he personally I have not seen the tree commissions do you have a copy there Ron Give it a quick read. June 25th, June 25. Excuse me.

the the tree that we're speaking about is has to do with a separate second uh I want yeah I've reviewed it is what they're saying about the town requirements correct I would have to consult um the ordinance which which I can do during the course of this meeting but I do recall on on other developments in particular um YMCA, the YMCA development, this issue came up. So it is something we've looked at before, but I would need, you know, they haven't cited a section of the town ordinance, so I would have to refer to it. However, if the ordinance says that they're required to make this payment, that they'd be required to do that regardless of these proceedings. Right so it's not something we would need to necessarily condition. If there's an ordinance that says they have to pay for the removal, then they'd still have to do.

So. We talked about this the other day that it's a separate process as a separate. Process for adjudicating any violations of the of the tree protection ordinance. Um, so that's what they are referencing in that 1st comment on the most recent memo is the tree warden will. Do what he needs to do to enforce the ordinance, but that's totally. Separate from this proceeding and the planning board's consideration of the subdivision. We don't have to worry about that.

I agree.

with Ron's statement thank you second comment on the on that memo references the buffer um yeah and I think they've just agreed yes right I get that so I interrupted you I'm sorry in reference to the tree uh that was shown that's a separate permit that was applied for to build the first house in the driveway as a single family home which the permit went through all the processes and went through all the boards and approved to put the driveway in We have a permit, so we started work. I met the tree commissioner out there. I happened to be there when he showed up.

It's not an issue for I know, but I appreciate the comments.

Just, you know, the tree was dead.

The other comment I have is that the last meeting we discussed adding a sidewalk on one side of the road and around the cul-de-sac and That is a requirement in the comprehensive plan for Middletown. So I would like to add that as a condition. Move along this project. Any other comments. There any member of the public who wishes to speak.

Don Kathleen Kroger. adjacent to the construction and I believe you've addressed most of the issues, but I still have a concern about the stormwater management plan, because the earth is two feet higher than it was it's two feet higher than my property at this time.

And i'm concerned that we're going to flood, so let me ask you this question is it is it two feet higher because of the movement of construction material that will disappear when the construction processes, I do not believe that that's true. You think it's a permanent change difference in elevation yes there's significant change in elevation so, then I, I guess, I would ask Chris if you could comment on this, please.

Sure, we talked about this on site that, um. The existing grade at the North property line. Of this property has not changed at all. There's some mounting that would occur around the. around the foundation wall, and maybe that's being construed as two feet higher. It definitely is. Okay. So that two feet would drain towards the north, and it's shown in existing conditions that there is a swale. Before it hits the property boundary, it flows south.

into in the swale and it reaches honeyman avenue with chris could you show show her on the diagram where the swale is please use uh use the microphone that is uh on the table here switch to a grading plan is that you know

Chris, that's perfect. Yeah, that's perfect. So sheet 7 shows proposed grades on the site. And this grade 181 is to be. Pull back so that the water from. The mounting around route 1 foundation. Lot 1 foundation would sweat would would drain northerly. Would be captured by the swell before it reaches the. north property line of the of the butter and it would drain towards Honeyman and that is what actually happens today in the uh in existing conditions this house of the butter is um approximately four feet higher than this northerly boundary so her property drains to the lot and it gets on It's on this, um, proposed lot 1 property, and then it would drain as it does today to avenue. So there's no change in the. The hydrology of this, this, uh, northerly butter to the.

The proposed lot is the swale there now.

There's an existing swale there now, but there's stockpiles in back of it. So the appearance is that it's all been filled and it's going to stay filled. It's a temporary condition. Once the foundation is backfilled, then it'll be graded out at a more pronounced area. See, it's a more gradual swale that existed before the stockpiles. Um, once this is constructed, there'll be a defined swale. A greater V that would would force the water South. So, it's, it's engineered to have. 0 impact on the northerly lot. It's, uh, has. No, change to the drainage of the northerly lot. We're not we're not stopping the drainage at this. This boundary, so we're very confident that this is the way to go.

I certainly hope so my concern is we're in a dry period, certainly not in the past two days, but with the dry period. I don't think anyone the engineers realize the amount of water that backs up and builds up because it doesn't drain properly we don't perk properly.

Are you talking about on the land that they're working on. Yes, the whole area well they're including including ours, they are designing it to drain into the swale.

I hope so, you know I might that's my concern. Oh, I think it's maybe I should I don't know what else, maybe I can meet with the engineer to go over it will that you know I need. we're not going to flood you know that's my concern, the only other concern is the dust mitigation and I see that they brought in.

Remember that water plan that they submit has to be approved by the town engineer also okay yeah Oh, it will it will get reviewed by another engineer.

Okay, is it possible for me to speak to him, of course, okay.

I know. He has a public telephone. He has an office upstairs. I can do that. Public Works.

Public Works. His office is at the Public Works building.

And you can speak to him, sure.

Sure. And the only other issue is the dust mitigation. They've brought in water and brought in covers, plastic covers for the dirt. They've responded to that. They have responded to it, but it's blown off. You know, it continues to be a concern. So I don't know what my recourse is in the long term because this is going to go on all summer long as far as compliance goes.

The recourse, as we've mentioned, is with the building inspector who has the responsibility to make sure that practices during construction are followed. and uh I think they have responded to um you know the initial concerns yes absolutely yeah so and I appreciate that if anything else arises you can talk with the building inspector okay thank you for your time thank you any other comments from the public hey may I have a motion to close the public hearing Some of that motion is made and seconded to close the public hearing, is there any discussion all those in favor say aye aye opposed nay chair votes aye the public hearing is closed. May I have a motion for preliminary plan approval subject to trc trc conditional know we have to do the waiver first. It can all be included in the same subject to the recommendations of the technical review committee, we would also be approving the waiver request. To allow for 24 foot paved road. is subject to the required findings and the condition to add a sidewalk.

And also the condition requested by the tree commission to add this screening on the south side of the of the roadway.

Yes, add that additional treat.

All the screen screening along the roadway along the tree the screening screening and they already the trees already been added the rise, the other revised land of explaining along the screening along the road, the south side of the roadway yeah Thank you may have that motion, please.

i'm okay second. motion is made and seconded for approval of the waiver request and preliminary plan approval subject to conditions of the TRC, the required findings, and these added conditions. Is there any discussion? Those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed nay. Chair votes aye. Motion passes. Congratulations. Next item is item 4C, application of the collection on Valley Road LLC for preliminary plan approval of a major land development project for a proposed addition of approximately 6,796 square feet of floor area to an existing commercial building. Property is located in the Office Business Traffic Sensitive OBA Zoning District at 345 Valley Road and further identified as Tax Assessors Plant 114, Lot 1C.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the Board, Jay Lynch from the law firm of Moore, Vergadamo and Lynch on behalf of the owners and applicant. Just generally speaking, if you recall, we were in front of you back in February for master plan approval for this project. At that point, the Board granted the request for the special use permit for construction of the addition within the zone. One watershed protection district. You also granted the waivers for the landscape, a buffer on the West and North property lines, the subject property. uh since uh we were before the board for master plan approval uh we had gone back to the trc for the preliminary plan and the trc gave a favorable recommendation to this board on the preliminary plan we also went back to the conservation commission and tree commission Um, the tree commission had given a report recently. I believe back at the end of May, May 30, where the tree commission was delighted that the comments that were made at the master plan approval were incorporated in the preliminary plan. so the uh the tree commission had no concerns about the preliminary plan that's in front of you this evening the matter also went before the roads and utilities commission again that committee was favored looked favorably on the proposed drainage, I think, as a matter of fact, I think the the minutes indicated that the. They applauded the design of the stormwater management system for the subject site. and There's really no additional change. I do have Mr. Duhamel here. He has done all of the engineering for the preliminary plan. We have received all of the state approvals in the meantime, since we were in front of you back in February from DOT and DEM. We have also submitted a traffic study, which was reviewed and approved by Crossman engineers, saying that the traffic impact on the addition is going to be minimal onto the site, that there were no concerns at all from Crossman's perspective on the traffic generated from the addition. i can have uh mr duhamel address any questions that you may have on the engineering i'm here to answer any questions that you may have just on the travel of the matter and where we sit this evening

i'd like to speak, I have been on the conservation Commission for a little bit now, and I would like to applaud your use of the previous papers and the. Working with the tree Commission and the conservation Commission to minimize that runoff and mitigate that so you guys have done a good job, and I think they're right honestly because. On the South side or. And our bottom of the sheet I think that's West side of the property that was a serious concern for ponding and that was mitigated via your efforts, so thank you for that. The new handle gets all the credit for that I did have a second question actually about the lighting you guys said in the 11.0 impact statement that to the greatest possible extent, you would take efforts to shield lighting are these lights dark sky compliant. Yes, they are okay phenomenal Thank you.

Other questions or comments. i'd ask one of my questions, I have a couple more. I would like to echo his comments about. eating the requirements that tree Commission mentioned you did a good job with that. I have a. trivial question is just curious on your in your site plan drawing number eight do you have a copy of that with you.

i've Mr do handle address that.

Chris do Hamill to preach engineering. On that drawing there are a number of circle items that have letter designations and I couldn't find anywhere on the drawings what those letters stood for so could you tell me what those circle items are. Take the MIC Chris. Down at the bottom left is one. You see it? Yeah.

What is that? These all refer to the materials that are being utilized. There's a whole detail sheet that speaks to the curbing, the concrete sidewalks, the pavers, the paver apron.

Those circled items essentially refer to the material specs?

yes yes it's similar to what our dot drawing would would hold uh a standard um symbol and how it um it's it's defined on page two i believe what all the symbols symbols are okay thank you that's okay that answers my question page four page four thank you page four has all the yeah

I have one of the questions I just want to make sure that all of the mechanicals are under the roof is that correct they're not visible is that correct.

Building. build it on the roof.

You have air conditioning in the building, where will the units be. get it on let's get it on the record.

is currently air conditioned inside the building. you're going to change the building dramatically, but where will the air conditioning be none of the condensers will be seen from the road so some will stay on the on the left side of the building and then some will be on the roof and on the ground, yes yeah. So maybe shielded at all with Yeah, they'll be shielded with some sort of landscaping, fencing, that sort of stuff. Yeah, that's typical.

I actually have a question. You can probably answer this. The existing building you mentioned has air conditioners. Are you completely changing the heating and cooling system? Or is it like keeping positive?

We're going to keep some of it. Yeah, keep some of it as best we can with the new layout and then add more energy efficient systems to the new addition.

So it's natural gas and condensers right now?

Natural gas condensers heat pumps as a mix mix of HP AC systems inside the building yeah okay obviously it's up to you, I would suggest he pumps as a mechanical engineer yeah yeah yeah we'll definitely we'll look into it, thank you. Lewis calcagny. Correct.

Thank you any other comments or questions.

This is for. Elementary plan approval. and have a motion or preliminary plan approval, subject to conditions of the trc.

Um, and Mr chairman, the, the conditions actually were already satisfied. So there are, unless you have additional conditions, there are no new conditions to apply who are satisfied in the following the master plan approval. And also, um, the waiver that's referenced in the memo. Um, was already approved at the master plan.

So all we need is a motion for preliminary plan approval. Okay, I have that motion please. All right. Second question is made and seconded for preliminary plan approval of this project through any discussion. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Who's nay votes aye motion passes.

Thank you.

Thank you guys. Thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations.

The next item is item 4D, proposed planning board recommendation to the town council to add a planning board member to serve as a non-voting liaison to the Middletown Economic Development Advisory Committee with a recommendation to appoint Steve Hutler to this position. This This is being proposed in order to have a greater liaison with with me deck, which I think would be beneficial for both bodies, both the media and and the planning board. I want to stress that we are not requesting a formal voting member as as we have, for example on the conservation Commission rather a non voting liaison Member.

Why not voting? I mean, what's the problem? Yeah, if you're not going to have an ability to impact what's going on, why say anything? I mean, I think it should be a voting never.

Well, the primary purpose is to establish the liaison. One of the things that we wanted to avoid was to, if you add him as a voting member, then he counts toward the quorum. And if there's a problem with his not being able to attend, it could impact the quorum and we wanted to avoid that.

Well, what does he do then? He liaises.

It's a communication vehicle more than anything else. It's to make sure we're in closer communication to what both bodies are doing.

Mr. Chairman, which boards have voting members? I know the Conservation Commission and is there one more? And is that in the Middletown ordinance of they get to vote? Is that why we did that?

As far as I know, BJ was on it all the time. That's how it happened.

I'm not familiar with the actual wording of each ordinance, but typically what happens is the town council will establish the committee and within an ordinance identify who the members are, who the voting members are.

We have liaisons with other committees. We have liaison with the roads and utilities and we have liaison with open space.

Not something new, though, I think what i'm trying to get at is it's out of our power purview and on the town council's purview to decide if they're voting members or not right.

yeah it's also going to be up to the town council whether to approve the liaison capacity either way Okay, thank you.

What we what we would be doing is making a request at the town council appoint a non voting liaison Member.

You might as well have no one there. I mean, if you can't hold on something, you're a liaison. How do you enter into the conversation or the issue if you have no voting status? You can say anything you have recommended and nothing happens because you can't vote.

Well, again, it's primarily a communication vehicle. They will be free to participate in all the discussion and raise whatever issues they wish. They just will not have the voting rights.

Board that we should do this?

This is not a public item, no. This is an action of the Planning Board.

Certainly, if Steve wants to serve.

If Steve is willing.

Yeah, then I think it makes sense to move it forward.

I have nothing against it it's I think more communication is better, and this is something that I have brought up multiple times to the Council and this board as well, that there is a. lack of communication between the boards in the planning board, and I think going forward. A lot of us for better for worse are very siloed right now, and we need to find better ways for the benefit of the town for the benefit of our board for the benefit of the public. through transparency to find ways of communicating that better.

Yeah. The Planning Board has certainly benefited from our liaisons with Roads and Utilities and Open Space and Fields and with the Tree Commission and certainly with your presence as a voting member on the Conservation Commission. And we hope this would do the same thing with MEDAC.

i'd say the same thing if you if you could be voting and to be an active part of the board that's that's my thought or else why even bother sending anybody at all you know you clearly would have something to say would you like to say it publicly please come up please come up rather than making uh remarks from the audience make them public

My name is Martha Cosiera. I've lived in Middletown since November of 1974. This should not even be considered. Stephen Hutler, as he proved on June 3rd at the Middletown Town Council meeting at Gwede School, is a deceitful man and has been anything but transparent with this town, with the town council. with anybody in regard to his role he said he recused from the Sweetberry Farm discussion because he was a member of the Aquidneck Land Trust that's not why he recused he recused because Tom Haggerty and his partner Bill Foley are clients of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw the same night that I got up to speak at the town council meeting at Gaudet School on June 3rd I brought a list of documents there what's called open source intelligence they're considered to be the most pristine kind of documentation that any court anywhere will ever accept. i've made copies for number of the town council and all those documents showed. decades of deceit on the part of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw as led by Stephen Hutler, former managing partner and senior partner of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw. He has been involved with James Caram. You're not going to stop me. You'll have to call the police because I am telling you the same night on June 3rd.

You've been shadowed. Please. please please please this is a planning board matter and I allowed you to speak you were raising issues that don't relate to this if Mr Hutler is is appointed as a non-voting member it's up to us to make sure he does his job not and it's up to me as a citizen to pick up if I know something and you don't unless of course you already know is that why you're pushing it so hard That has nothing to do with it.

How come so many people know what's going on and what's being planned in this town?

Thank you. Please, we're done. Take it to court. Take it to court. Yes, please give me a motion.

I make a motion to forward to the town council a recommendation to add a planning board member to serve as a non-voting liaison to the Middletown Economic Development Advisory Committee with the recommendation to appoint Steven Hutler to this position.

Do I have a second?

Please abstain my vote from the record. Please abstain my vote from the record. I will not vote on this matter.

Do I have a second? I will second the motion. Motion is made and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Abstaining. The vote is two to one.

I believe the vote requires a A majority of the voting members sitting the vote, the members who are present or the total board. No, no of the people at the at the meeting.

So we have a two to one majority, we have a two to one majority vote with one abstaining.

It's an important question because it's either you have a two to one with one abstaining and there's a majority or there's four people entitled to vote and it only carried two of a potential four votes, in which case it wouldn't carry because there's not a majority.

So with four people present and one abstaining, how many votes do we need for the motion to pass?

I believe you need three.

So the motion does not pass. Correct. Correct.

Okay.

Thank you. The next item on the agenda. Is item for F planning board recommendation to the town council on a proposed voluntary historic resource preservation incentive program.

Just one. Taking that last start right.

So this is a one pager that. The planning board agreed to send to the town council at our joint meeting so has everyone read this one page summary of the.

It is this sorry.

So it's a. Everyone agreed that this is a an appropriate one page summary to send forward to the town council. We need to vote on this or probably yeah they have a motion to forward. This one page summary of the historic preservation draft ordinance should we attach the draft ordinance to it on oh i'm confused, I thought you were on. We're doing the historic doing for F. E or you get it we're going to come back all right. So do should we attach the ordinance to this if we send this forward as a summary that's I guess up to you if that's something you would like to do. I think it would be prudent to do so yeah I think so too, I think so too Okay, so we have a motion to forward this summary, along with the draft ordinance to the town council for their consideration made. Second motion is made and seconded to forward this to the town council there any further discussion. Those in favor say aye aye opposed nay votes I motion passes i'll work with you to draft a cover memo very good. Next item is item for E. Planning Board recommendation to the town council on a proposed inclusionary zoning ordinance amendment to the middle town zoning ordinance town code chapter 152. Has everyone had a chance to read through the memo and the draft. This is something we took up quite a while ago and then tabled it. Again, at our joint meeting, the town council said they were willing to receive a draft to consider.

Read through this? Yes.

Comments, questions? I have a comment, Ron, okay? You gave some examples on how this would apply. And in those examples. You apply 15% to the original application. You compute the number and and then add that and you end up with a percentage that's below the required percentage.

So do yeah due to the density bonus requirement, you have to provide a density bonus to the developer, but it ends up below the required 15% right.

Which seems to go against what is required. I did have some a little arithmetic on this, and if you add one iteration. You can satisfy the 15% all the time. In other words, say in the case of, what was your first example? Say the case with 20, add the 15%, you have three affordable, add three additional markets, so you have 23 total, and four, i'm sorry three. portable but that gives you 13% Okay, but if you do another iteration, in other words, take the add the the initial three in so that you have 23 take 15% of that. It for you end up with 27. I'm sorry, you end up with 24 now if you add the four to the initial 20 requested and now your percentage is 17%. And if you do that for all the other ones, you're always meeting the 15% requirement if you add that one iteration.

You add one additional 15%. Yeah, but if you add one additional affordable unit, you have to also allow an additional market rate unit. Yes. Okay.

So... What I would like to do is table this for continue it to the next meeting and go through these numbers, a little more carefully, and if it works, I would suggest doing that, then we would always be meeting that 15% requirement.

With everyone fine.

Okay, so we'll continue this to the next meeting. You have that motion, please don't know. Second. Motion made and seconded to continue item 4E to the August regular meeting. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed nay. Item is continued.

Mr chairman i'm not sure if this would be an appropriate time or not, now that we are correct me if i'm wrong up to item six.

we're moving on to now.

Okay, I don't know if you want to read that in first.

I I did not receive a copy of the status report was one issue this month, it was not I was away for a couple of weeks I didn't get a chance that's what I thought next month, not a problem. A. want to comment on the project status report or.

This was more directly and it's something that we tabled in the past, so it's more of an open discussion towards the solicitor on the status of the complete streets and.

let's let's get through the city reports and then. Other matters to come up okay okay tree Commission bj is not here open space and fields, but no quorum this month, no quorum the quorum in the meeting.

conservation Commission, we met last month at our newly scheduled time towards the end of the month and we reviewed the 50 enterprise. residences for whenever that's going to come back, we did have some some concerns which Melissa wells has forwarded to me and will be added to the packet whenever that comes up. For our next planning board meeting things like stormwater maintenance of that. dry well other things as such parking spaces etc that will be included in the next packet that we should receive when that 50 enterprise drive does come back to us besides that our next meeting i think is on july 30th at 6 5 30 p.m thank you um

I think the advisory committee that has been disbanded.

I haven't heard anything official I heard discussion that it might be as and we can take it off the agenda, so we should continue to carry it.

We don't have we don't have a representative on anymore anyway used to be Mike Fenton Okay, so we can drop and take it off them yeah. Our next meeting is August 12th. Do you have another matter to bring up?

I was just, I know we tabled this and it won't be talked about in depth tonight until future meetings, but I was just wondering, I know you guys had your work back up with you with like the potsy field deal and other things going on um and this may seem like a small thing but the complete streets ordinances and um other tabled items i was wondering if we had a status on that because it's been pushed for i think over six months now with no status update why don't we put it on the next planning board uh agenda and i'll provide a status update on the green ordinance Even if it's just an update, I would appreciate that. Thank you.

Well, we tabled that at the last meeting. Does that mean we have to take action to bring it back on or what?

You're telling me to put it on the agenda for next month? That's what I'll do. Put it on the agenda for next month.

And you will come in with a report on its status?

I will come in with a report on the status of that.

Good. Any other items to comment?

I have a question on the Should that be a rollover, just like the rollover on Sweetberry Farm because there was no quorum?

There was a quorum.

There wasn't if one was recused.

There was no recusal on even the vote that was taken? Yes, there was no recusal. There was four voting members and only two voting members voted in favor of a possible quorum. abstain yeah he voted neither in the affirmative nor in the negative so received two out of a possible four votes the matter of course could be put on the agenda again for another vote should you wish it to be taken up by the full board anything else come before the meeting they have a motion to adjourn

So moved. Second. Second.

Motion is made and second to adjourn. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you all very much.