Planning Board - Regular Meeting

All right. Thank you for joining us for another riveting episode of to the town of Norfol's planning board meeting. In accordance with the provisions of MGL chapter 3A section 20, notice is hereby given that the planning board will meet on Tuesday, March 10th, 2026 at 7 p.m. in town hall meeting room 124. Members of the public are welcome to attend this in person and I'm so grateful that you have chosen to do so. Thank you. Um at one Liberty Lane Norfolk Mass or by the remote Zoom connection provided. Please note that the in-person meeting will not be suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt the remote connection. Now we do have a full board so we do not have to do any roll call voting. We can just do a full vote at all times. I will introduce all of our members. To my right we have Mr. Sell.

Hi. That is me. Yes. Mr. Seager present. Mr. Sullivan. Hello. Miss Mayo. Hello. Myself, Chris Montfort, and our Tom Planner, Richard McCarthy. How are you doing? There we go. We're all here. Wonderful.

That was riveting. Thank you. Um, all right. So, we do have a public hearing at 7:00 p.m. sharp for 19 Valley Street. We're looking for site plan approval, storm water management, earth removal, and special permits. This is continued from February 10th, 2026. Great. So, um, Matt Smith's here from Norwood Engineering to give an overview. Uh, I think in terms of where we're at now, the the peer review has been completed. The items have been addressed. Yes, all the items have been addressed

and the uh you have in front of you a draft site plan special permit with the special permit being a waiver for the required parking as well as a stormwater management permit. Um remind me what the modification was on the parking. What's that? Remind me on the parking modification. The parking requires uh by bylaw 16 spaces. So, they're waving it, asking for a waiver to bring it down to three. Got it. Okay. Section three. Yeah. The uh two regular parking spots and one handicapped. Correct. Yes.

Join us. Yeah. Just uh make sure you grab a mic as you're up. Okay. And for the viewers at home. Yes. Thank you. And Rich didn't introduce yourself, but if you could just state your name and his work, too. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Matt Smith. I'm an engineer with Norwood Engineering Company. I'm here with my client, Todd Ruine, and we're asking you to uh approve a project at 19 Valley Street. Would you like me to make a brief presentation? I know the board has seen this before, but what would you like? Okay.

Yeah. Um I think if you could just go over the site plan very quickly. Um just reintroduce it to refresh my memory. and goes at the border as well.

Yes, thank you. This is a project at 19 Valley Street and Todd Ruin's bu uh business is is here to the right and this is a 1 acre lot. There is wetlands to the north side and there's a 50ft and 100 ft uh buffer zone on the lot, but all of the development of the lot will be outside of the 50ft BUFFER ZONE. AND THIS IS THE PRO proposed development with all untouched area in the 50ft buffer zone and two rows of self- storage spaces. And the yellow uh sheet, the yellow color means uh the the um pavement for the site. So we're asking for approval of 54 self- storage units, 36 10x 20, 18 5x10. There'll be no sewer and water on the site. No uh bathrooms, no restrooms. Uh so there won't be any water and sewer brought into the site. No septic system. Uh there is a hydrant uh in front of the of the site uh near the mailboxes uh on on Valley Street. Uh as we mentioned before, we're asking for a parking waiver. 16 is required. We provided three. Because of the self uh storage nature of this project, people are going to park their cars right in front of their self- storage unit. They they won't be parking in a separate parking lot. Uh the storm water that we designed The storm water has two units, two types of units. The first type of unit will have catch basins, a contact treatment

unit, and then underground concrete galleys. The section, the second system will be overland flow that will flow into two basins, the north basin and the south basin. Um and uh what we've done is is we've managed to recharge as much as a 25- year storm uh to make sure that everything is recharged into the ground. And we balance the rates of flow uh for all of the storms both the flow the rates and the volumes for the 1 year, 2year, 10year, 25 year, 50year and 100year storm. We provide 90% TSS removal. And again, as I said, we recharge the entire 25-y year storm. Um, we have been to all the department heads. I think we've resolved all of the issues. I don't think there's any remaining issues for the project. And at this, uh, time, I'd like to open it up to any questions that you have.

All right. Perfect. Looking to the board. Any questions? Pretty straightforward. Anything in your side, Melissa? Um, no. I had a question about the parking, but you already answered it. I was thinking the typical storage unit type place. You do park directly in front of it to get your belongings or drop things off. So, yes, it'll it's it's it's the storage unit that we've seen many times. Everybody has a garage door and Todd is here to answer any other questions that you have. And yes, people uh people park in front of their uh their unit and then uh then leave when they're finished. Yeah. And I assume Fire Chief Kenny's already approved the turning radiuses.

We have. We've we've uh we we discussed that at the uh at the last meeting. We did submit uh turning radiuses. Uh he asked us to look at having an engine go in there rather than his ladder because it's only a one-story building. He didn't think he would bring the the ladder in there. My understanding is that uh he has no comments on it. Uh I know that we submitted it to the town. Uh maybe Rich can help me with that that to answer that question because as far as I know he's uh satisfied, but I haven't I don't know if we have anything on that.

He did uh tell me Saturday at a budget hearing that he was satisfied. He looked at the turning uh movement. So we discussed it Saturday afternoon or morning. Okay. And he did but I don't have it but let's say he would email me. Um, so we'll get I'll I'll get it from him just for the record, but he did. I don't know. Both him and the deputy were at that budget hearing on Saturday. Okay. Um, so any uh vote for approval will be conditional on that email being received or notice from the fire chief? Yeah, notice from the fire chief.

Perfect. Awesome. All right. Um, I don't have any other questions or concerns. Uh, Beta's already reviewed this. Everything's resolved. I'm fine there. Um, looking for a motion to close the public hearing. So, we're at 19 Valley Street. Sorry. Well, there is what? I mean, there are people in the audience. I apologize. Do we have any questions from the audience? I'm not used to having people in front of me. I apologize. Yes, there's one question. I don't have a question. Oh, you have a comment? I have a comment or a statement or something like that. You didn't realize you didn't come here and say nothing. I was pleased.

Elizabeth Whitney, 26 Valley Street, 44 years. I think it's been a long, long time. And the Rowans have been friends on Valley Street for many, many years. And I was reminiscing with my and I'll wrap this up. Reminiscing with my husband. I said, you know, when the Rowene truck started to pull out many years ago, it was always 7:00 in the morning and if my hair wasn't done and my makeup on, I was late cuz I taught in Sudbury and I had a long trip. So the Rowene trucks kept me to my schedule. We are very pleased to have this project take place at 19 Valley. And I never really knew that much about self storage units. And come to find out, three of our friends in surrounding towns live either next to or very near self uh use storage units. And it sounds like a wonderful idea. So we welcome the Rowans again. It's our pleasure. Thank you.

Thank you. Always a pleasure. All right. Any further comment from the audience? Anyone on Zoom? All right. Now I am looking for a motion to close the public hearing for 19. So

very quickly, very quickly. Um I did notice this is in the MBTA overlay district for and you know there were a lot of folks that were um concerned about having a lot of housing. Um certainly dense housing over in Pawnville and this is 1 acre lot I believe so that would be 18 units of housing that will not be your neighbors Miss Whitney. Um but I'm I'm also glad to have a small business there and especially one that you're happy with living across the street. Um, but no, just I just wanted to note that this is the MBTA overlay district and there is no housing going on this lot, which was one of the lots that we had put up on the screen saying this could potentially be 18 units. Yep, absolutely. Great call.

Anything else? Nope. All right. Looking for a motion to close the public hearing for 19 Valley Street. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Hearing none. The motion's passed. All right. So, looking for a motion to approve the site plan approval, storm water management, earth removal, and special permits for 19 Valley Street conditional on receiving approval from the Norfolk Fire Department chief. So, moved. Do I have a second? Second. All those in favor? I. All those opposed? Hearing none. It has passed. Thank you so much. And then the contain the storm water permit.

Oh, you want to do a separate one for that cuz I tried to include it in the first one and you didn't stop me. All right, we'll disregard what I just said. Sorry. I have to give you another one. That's fine. All right. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, everyone. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We got three minutes. Uh, I got three minutes. All right. Let's go. So after discussion with the town administrator, the roads that you originally forwarded to be placed on the warrant for acceptance in May, they'll be deferred to the uh November 10. No, that'll be all of them. Oh, the whole Yeah, the whole Okay. suite of them. Yes. DPW is good with that

and the uh contractors and all. Everybody's fine. Yeah. So the only technically contractor I spoke to Rob Kane would norally he's fine. yellow work complete. Okay, that's item number three under new business. Um, can we go ahead and review and approve the February 10th, 2026 meeting minutes? There is one typo if it's still there. Um, instead of accessory dwelling unit, it said accessory swelling unit. Aside from that, I didn't see anything to change. And I I wasn't here for the last meeting, but I watched it on Zoom, so I believe I can

You can still vote on it. Um, can we call that out? Where is that? Do you have the meeting notes in here, Rich? Uh, you might not. Now, all right. Should we defer that one until next time? No. No. Hold on. Let me uh I'll I can grab them from the share drive and then just put them up on the screen. Thank you. Do you remember what page that was on? I will look right now. Thank you.

Any other uh concerns or misspellings, grammar, anything that needs to be modified in the uh meeting minutes from that day? Hopefully doesn't make public delegation. Love it. Page two. Page two. Rich see it. Page two. What was it on there? Instead of dwelling, it says swelling. Second to last line on page two. Oh, there. Oh, yeah. Right there. There we go.

Okay. So, you want to just make a motion sub that we'll have it amended. We'll get it amended, edited, and then then the clerk can come in and sign it. Okay, that work. Good. Yep. Good for me. So, I guess we'll take a motion then to approve pending that change. So, moved. Second. Second. All in favor of the approval of the February 10th, 2026 meeting minutes? I. Any opposed? Great. Thank you.

Awesome. Thank you. All right. All right. So, moving to our 7:15 um public hearing for 9092 96 100 and 100 R Pond Street. This to remind everybody is a modification of the previously approved site plan and storm water management permit for the proposed construction of large scale ground mounted solar photovoltaic system including installation of battery storage storage equipment pads, electrical service, infrastructure and storm water management facilities. This is continued from our February 10th, 2026 meeting. Well, I'm going to actually see anybody online from Next Grid.

We don't have anyone from Next Grid? No. And I'm going to check. Do you think they got confused when well they wouldn't have known that we were doing that special meeting for the second portion of the month? Right.

Yeah. They they shouldn't have been confused. I don't know how many emails back and forth they said about this meeting. So um in fact uh email I sent earlier today was I believe it. Um, all right. So, I'm going to look for a motion to postpone the public hearing for 90929600 and 100R Pawn Street unless Mr. Alfan, are you here on their behalf? I am not. Sorry about that, Mr. Chairman. For the next one.

No worries. I was just curious. Um, so looking for a motion to postpone the 909296 100R Pond Street public hearing. But just yeah, you could recess it. I don't know if I postpone it to to recess. Well, actually, let me clarification. I was going to give a definition. I was going to give it a time frame like for a half hour or something. Yeah, you can you can recess. I mean, all right, just recess and then we'll come back. We will recess the 9092 96 100R punch. So, recessing this is the first time I've seen a recess. So recessing is we're just pausing pausing for now and then we have to we would have to come back with it by the end of the meeting. Yeah. Okay. So we'd have to continue it at some point later.

Do we have to vote on the recess or we recess? I think it's okay to recess it. All right. Too tight. Consider yourselves recessed. All right. So uh let's go to our appointment our one Pine Street informal discussion regarding the site plan modification. Oh, I do see. Uh,

yeah. Hi. Uh, this is attorney Christopher Alpin, Platin, Babrowski, Hy, and Silverstein. Uh, I'm also here with Ham, who is the engineer for the project. We're here tonight just to get the planning board's authorization to resubmit an application to the ZBA and to the planning board, specifically really the ZBA. The ZDA denied a variance uh less than two years ago. Uh we made some serious modifications to the plan that I'm sure can go over very briefly, but we're most notably we're no longer requiring a variance because we're moving things back. Um, so we've made a lot of different modifications, but at the end of the day, we're just looking for the board to approve or consent for us to refile application with the ZBA.

Okay. Um, and I'll turn it over to Alam and he can briefly go over the uh modifications that we've made to the plan since it was denied by the ZVA. Got it. Now, this is the certainted location on the corner. the seed. The seed place. It was a proposed gas station slash kind of a deli convenience. Convenience. Yeah. Okay. Perfect. Awesome. Thank you. I'll grab the plan as you as the presentation goes forward. Okay.

Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board. For the record, my name is Hal Chua. I'm a consulting engineer with offices at 112 State Road in D Massachusetts. Some of you would will probably recall I we appeared in front of you probably a few times in last year. Uh we were trying to uh uh we we filed for a special permit with the zoning board of appeal for a use of a gasoline filling station at the property at one Pine Street. At that time um prior to fighting with the town, we had several meetings with town departments and town personnel and we went we went through we we we had a joint sessions on the design and the impression at that time was to save the building. So, so given the building and the location that it was in, we uh had to put the pumps in front of the building between the street and the building and the pumps and the canopy. We had in the 70oot setback at that time. We also asked for the variance on the Kennedy. Uh basically, we went through the planning board review. We went to the zoning board. Unfortunately, the zoning board uh turned down the application. Uh since then uh we've revised the plans and if I may share my screen

Yep. We're going to get you uh presenter power in a second. Hold on. Sure. Rich is running his command center over here for the evening. Yep. With no Betsy. Should be good. I do have page one of your two-page plan. No. Yeah. Well, basically what I did, uh, can you hear me? Y.

Yeah. Uh, I'm having hard time hearing you, but I but I guess you can hear me fine. So, basically, just to make things easier, can you see the screen? Mhm. Yours, not yours. Not yours. We can't see yours. No, we can see the one that Rich has put up, which is page one of uh your plans, which shows the modified front um the building at an angle. The previous It's the previous site plan. It's the previous site plan. No, this is this is new. No, no, that the first one's the new one. It says existing building on the one that you have. Hold on. You're starting to share. There we go. Okay. Okay. All right. So, so uh can you see the entire screen? Yes.

Okay. So, basically what I did, I put the two together so this is easier to compare. Uh on the right hand side, that was the original application that was submitted. You can see the the bumps on skewed on the angle between the existing building and the street. And as I mentioned before, uh this was within the 70 ft setback. So we we we needed a very strong setback for the canopy and we were going to uh renovate the existing building which we thought you know this was valuable somehow to the to the uh to the town to uh accommodate the the convenience store within the building. uh since uh the uh uh the uh the zoning board of appeal denied the application and uh you know at that time it was the impression that you know we did that because we didn't want to go through the expense of knocking down the building and so uh we went back to the to the drawing board and I do have the on the left hand side you'll see a revised plan that called the the canopy and uh the structure the canopy infrastructure out of the uh the the 70oot setback. We under that we we demolished the existing building and we pushed the building back. Also uh it's a much smaller building just to give you the difference between the two. The the proposed building is about 2300 ft². U the uh and the existing building with to be remodeled was around 30 3,640 ft. Also what we did we we uh we eliminated all the paved area around the existing building and we we will propose landscape. Therefore we're increasing the landscape area within the 200 foot

buffer or 200t bank uh by approximately 2,000 square ft. uh we will keep the uh the front landscape almost intact which that was a huge uh plus too. Uh the um on the uh original design we were going to reuse some of the drainage structures with this one. I I won't go through the details but we will provide brand new drainage structure on the on on the site with oil water separators and also we have proposed a 2500 gallon um an oil water separator for storage in case of of a large uh spill on site because we knew this was a concern. We also built the tanks part of the uh the zone 2 and the 200 foot buffer and you we know this is all double wall tanks with uh with uh monitoring 24-hour monitoring. Uh we believe this is a this is a much improved plan but we also believe this is a different plan than what we submitted originally. And basically we're here to get your consent on this is uh similar to the zoning board appeal which they found that this is a different plan and we're they're okay with us fighting back with with the zoning board. So and I'll be glad to answer any questions you may have. And and just to piggy back on that, we've already met with the ZBA and they've made a determination that they're required to under 48 that this project is a change and so they've already made that determination. Uh you don't need to make that determination. Your uh perspective is actually a little bit less which is we're just going to consent to allow it.

Yeah, thank you. And it looks like you also increased the number of pumps. Is that correct? Uh yeah, that's correct because the number of pumps increased to four from three because we're not in a setback. The reason we had the three pumps before because we couldn't basically make it without going into almost to the street and eliminating all the the landscape around the uh the entire landscape in the front. So, understood. Thank you. Any questions from the board? I appreciate that you tried to save the building. I'm sorry it didn't work out.

Yeah. Yeah, 100%. I um I like the previous design. I don't necessarily like the idea of just another cookie cutter gas station being placed on the property. Same. But I do consent personally to you resubmitting. Yeah. Any questions from the audience either in person or in Zoom? Yeah. See one on Zoom in person. Yeah, I mean um I consent to resubmit under the current design. Mr. Ala, you have a question microphone, sir.

Hold on. Question. That's right. It's for those folks following along at home. So, I was just wondering if there was a uh 3D rendition of what it would look like I was standing there in front of the building then and now. So, they they did provide that to us previously. This is just I I believe and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you're just showing this kind of aerial view to show us the differences and then you'll bring back the full package with if the board agrees the planning board to consent, they'll have to come back with that 3D. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'd like to see it.

Yeah. I I don't see uh anything glaring. I think it made sense for you to resubmit. Okay. Anybody else? I agree. Yeah. All right. I do appreciate for the record some of the board members in terms of your thoughts on the building. Um I think that it it while might not be a historic building, it had characteristics, a lot of character. Yeah, it's uh it's one of those mile markers in your uh transition up and down Pawn Street or down Denim Street. Um definitely something you knew was Norfolk 100%. Um

if you want to let the ZBA go that that that would be great. Yeah. I um can we do that? Yeah. I think I think I think of course you can. Of course. Yeah. I think in this instance uh that was kind of like the lone wolf out there. Okay. I just I didn't want to say anything to them if it would be speaking out of turn where we're two different boards with two different approval authorities. I mean, I would love to save an old building in North. I mean, it's, you know, I think for the record, yeah, I mean, it's they denied it and they're going to be going forward with this, but So, I think how corre correct me if I'm wrong. I I I hope we're not going off base here, but part of removing the building may have been to meet setback requirements. Yeah. Yeah.

For the gas station, correct? And it was I believe it was specifically the we didn't get the variance and so uh therefore we're stuck with removing the building because the variance was denied unfortunately a dead issue. It was it was a casualty of the circumstances. Yeah. And we can always uh you know approve it under uh duress. Um, anyway,

I I think what we'll do, if I may, um, we'll try to try to incorporate some of the the the the the architectural details of the old building, maybe with the new building. So, I I I we know what your concerns and we we have the same so we're on the same page. We'll we'll try to improve once we resubmit our package. We'll uh we'll uh we'll improve on the building and you you won't see like just a rectangular shoe box, rectangle or something, you know. So this is basically just to get your consent on on reapplying. I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Um so looking for a motion to uh consent to the resubmitt for one pine street. So moved. Do we have a second? Second.

All those approved. I those opposed hearing. None. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ren. Thank you, Mr. Shal. Great. All right. Looking around. Do we have anyone from X grade? All right, we will continue our recess for the time being. Um 15 Rockwood Road discuss and vote site plan modifications contain commercial space and existing building.

Mr. Frey, how are you? How you doing, Stephan Fry? Nice to see you guys. Hello. Hello. Welcome back.

Yes, thank you. Um so yeah I am just coming back in. Um I had originally planned to uh take the existing uh historic building which uh which you all know I'm keeping and um converting it to three residential apartments. It's currently two residential apartments and uh and one commercial unit. Um but I didn't know what I know now. Uh thank you in part to the um the building commissioner just get did an unbelievable job just giving me all the data points on what I would need to do in order to actually convert that building to three individual units and it's it's um it's it's really a I I really can't even I can't even do it. So um to meet all the code uh requirements, it's a change of use. Um the list goes on on the actual work that I would need to do that, um is really something I can't do. So I'm going back and the reason I'm here is I'm going back to the existing of two two residential units and one commercial unit. And then one of those units, the one-bedroom existing unit would need to be designated as the affordable unit.

Okay. So, and and that triggers and what that triggers essentially is a request for parking relief because even though it's a 700 and change square foot office space, just the the just the office use alone requires four parking spaces. And I can only provide three. Even though I'm o I'm over parked it by total count. I'm still underparked for the commercial by one. Got it. What about the parking in the back? Is that being I forget what that's being used for from our last discussion. That's part of the that's part of the count. Yeah.

That Okay. So that's already that those two spots are already accounted for the lower parking spots. We don't know. But yes, behind in the back. Yeah. So in terms of the why Stephan's here tonight, I had a discussion to ask the board whether you think this change is warrants a public hearing or not. um versus just a modification with administrative approval from the board. What are the usual criteria by which one would decide that it is? I mean there's a waiver being requested at this point. A waiver,

right? For the parking. There's a waiver that would be for parking uh being requested. Okay. So, wouldn't that trigger the public hearing? If you're in your opinion, it does. Sure. What about town council's opinion? I didn't ask town council. Okay. I mean, my my opinion is it's pretty minor. I I get it. You know, I don't think it requires a public hearing, but I don't want to I mean, saving a small business space is my preference anyway. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think

I don't see it as an issue. I just want to make sure we're doing due process and doing it properly. If that's if there's a if there's a paved path that we should be following, I'd like to follow it. But if there's not, then I'm fine, you know, swinging from there. There's a pathway for just bear with me a second. Yeah. So, for an office space, he would need to have four. What if it was the businesses that have been successful there before were there was a raiki business and that was before you owned it Stefan and then there was wasn't there the consignment shop there was uh I think that was before that but there was previously Dylan's right yeah

yeah and then there was a um aesthetics place that did well there as well um so are the parking situation is it the same for all of those types of businesses cuz I'm just thinking no that's that's kind of the conundrum a little bit is um I don't know what I'm going to have as a tenant, but

if I don't ask for this as a simple office space and and somebody comes along and wants it just for say a legal office or someone's you know, you know, sales office or what whatever it is they want to use it for as a office, I I technically would need the the the waiver request. But if, like you said, if it's a onechair um barber shop, I actually think I don't need four parking spots. So, it depends on who comes up for that space. Y

but you know based on the decision that um that came out of the the the the last meeting it does it does you know it does call for conversion of the existing to three residential units. So at a minimum that would need to be changed which I I I would assume is a minor modification request um since I'm I'm really not changing anything that's already there. Right. Um, but and also based on your proximity to the MBTA, there's a parking lot there as well that can be utilized. There's ample parking across the street by Dunkin Donuts. I mean,

there's no shortage of parking within short walking distance from those lots to your location. So, I'm not concerned from a parking perspective. Um, for me, it's just more about process and procedure. Yeah. So, I guess the most conservative guidance I could provide you would be to um confer with the bill while the zone enforcement officer and get his opinion regarding whether it needs a hearing or not. Um worst case requires a hearing, which means

can we vote to approve it conditional on uh if we don't need a hearing? I'm fine with it. It I I just I need I I need also something for my bank before I can close on our construction loan. That's the other piece of the puzzle for me. But yeah, so how about a slight alternative? I think generally speaking, the the board supports is comfortable with the modification. Yes. Right. So I think to speak for you guys. Yeah. Sure.

That I would suggest we just do the public hearing for the April meeting and just take care of and formally get it done. Okay. You know, it's I know it's a little bit of a notice, but I'd rather be more conservative and then and then does that also line up with Stefan's timeline? Are you here for this? What are you here for? I would um Oh, all right. So, we'll go back. I was hoping it's I know what you're hoping for.

Well, I I Yeah, just Well, you just asked me about timeline, but um yes, I was hoping to get a shovel on the ground and shorter period than, you know, shorter timeline than that, but at this point, it's it is what it is. I'm you know, whatever you guys think you need to do. We don't have enough time to get it on for the additional March meeting that we have, right? Yeah. No, he's too these archaic processes. We created a process. No, I know. Well, not I mean whatever. So, how about we take a vote to approve it and if we uh find out that we're shooting ourselves in the foot, we fix it later. Sure. Yep. Perfect. All right.

We're all in agreement anyway. And it's And Stephan, you're still going to keep it looking nice like the original building, right? The design didn't change that much. No. Exactly. No, same. No, that that part didn't change. Okay. Okay. So, looking for a motion to approve the uh parking modification and uh site plan modification for 15 Rockford Road. So, sorry. Additional. How do you see this playing out then by shooting ourselves? Like what case going to be and when is it going to? Worst case scenario, someone says, "Hey, you were supposed to have a public hearing." It nulls the action that we've had and then we have to come back and do this all over again with a public hearing

just with the building commissioner. So Rich will talk to the building commissioner. Doesn't really shoot the board in the foot, so to speak. It's just either we can do it sooner or we're going to approve it later. Really the applicant. Yeah. Mr. Freay is taking the chance on us that we're doing this in the right procedure and he's not going to have any issues. What is the actual threshold for a site plan amendment? I mean I don't it's subjective. We could take I could show you on screen. So, it's really I mean, I agree. I I have no problem with this whatsoever, but I'm not sure I really like just winging it and hoping that the building commissioner agrees. So, we start here.

This one four 4 A 1 2 3. Yep. Yeah. So really we're falling under section two which is a determination is made that the proposed change generates minimal impact using the following criteria. It is allowed by right. The alteration or enlargement uh in use requires the addition of no more than 10 parking spaces. We're reducing critical elements of the site are being minimally altered. This is a critical element as by defined by the parking section of the bylaws but it's not being critically altered and everything is by right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess that's why is this a a question then? And it doesn't look like he needs Well, because the building commissioner also has to see it the way we do, right,

as the enforcement officer, but I I think looking at this, I re again, I I don't think he would. I mean, it's Yeah. Nothing in this says to me that he needs a site plan amendment. So, I'm fine. All right. So, looking for approval for 15 Rock Road site plan modification. So, moved. Do I have a second? Second. All those in favor? I. All those opposed? All right. Hearing none, we wish you the best of luck, Mr. F. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Cheers. Take care. Um, all right. So, we had Norway Farms. What was that? Yeah, just uh can we do the fire station modification, then we come back to Norway Farms? Sure. Or Hold on. Uh-oh. Sorry, Kevin. Never mind. I changed my mind. Um,

in terms of Norway Farms Drive, it's not going to be accepted at the Mattown meeting. it's going to be placed on the November town meeting. So, I don't know if you had Yeah, I just was interested in like the process for getting accepted and knowing if it was going to be now or delayed, but it sounds like it would be

Yeah. So, it's going to be delayed till November. Um, we spoke to Mr. Kaine. I spoke to him yesterday. I spoke to his engineer today. Um, we need to get the final asbuilt plans and the street acceptance plans from them. Um, there's some other there's a deed for the roadway. So, there's some documents that need to be provided yet. Um, once those come in, then the planning board will recommend it for acceptance. Again, like start the process over starts with the going to the select board. They refer it to the planning board for recommendation. DPW also weighs in on recommendation to the select board which are the road commissioners and then the planning board would also provide a recommendation to the uh to the select board to get road accepted. So then once that process unfolds then it goes to town meeting town meeting votes to accept as a public way the vote of town meeting the plans they all get put on record at the north registry deeds and then it's a public way going there forward so

it's interesting as required yeah there's some documents yeah and it's kind of tricky sometimes getting in the spring coming out of the winter to do it. So, that that's where we're at with that. Um, you will, as an auter, you know, it could happen, you know, over the summer or early fall, somewhere around there.

Maybe you have another question. you can call the land use office and we can do a another Okay, thanks. I appreciate it. It's open. Awesome. Cool. All right. Uh Mr. Champagne, how we doing? How's the uh fire station? It's great. Um thanks for asking.

Great. How are you, Mr. Chairman? Um so we're uh back uh couple months ago we had presented a potential alternative construction to detention basin number one which is the basement that's not functioning properly in front of the fire station. Um at that time uh beta I believe believe had comments on the design and they hadn't been all not all comments have been formally um addressed which I think they have been now. Um so with that Steve I'll turn it over to you or Marissa whoever is best to kind of take it from there. Yeah, I know. Um, the comments were responded to and Steve Lee from Beta acknowledged that they were had been addressed. Um, I don't know if you have anything else to add to that.

No, I think that was um the last piece. Um, yes, Beta acknowledged that all of their comments had been addressed. So, I guess if there's any comments from the board, happy to share plans or or review what what the comments were and um I'll defer to the board. All right. Thank you. All right. Considering we have a representative here from Beta, um where are we at with the review for the property?

Thank you, Mr. Sure.

So, yeah. Um, as as stated by um Marissa and Steve, um, all of all of their comments had been addressed. We we did they had originally submitted we reviewed we had uh some comments regarding storm water calculations and such. We we asked for you know um a hydraulic conductivity test to be performed prior to the installation of the system as kind of like a confirmation for the infiltration system. That way it's we you know it's it's an underground system. So to make sure that we were getting the infiltration rate that we used um in the storm water model, we we asked for that and the the storm water model. Um all of the calculations were revised. Um there were a couple minor out um items that they addressed um earlier last week I believe regarding an updated O andM just update it per the new infiltration chambers or whatever is installed and making sure that the existing catch basins have um erosion controls uh installed. Um but otherwise we are satisfied with the proposed design.

Okay. I can answer any specific questions if anyone has them. Any questions from the board? No. Any questions from the audience either in Zoom or in person? Um, now Rich, I'm not seeing in the dock that I have in front of me anything that's referencing Beta's review or a decision or anything. Is that correct? It's in the file on the drive share drive. Yeah. Making me work for it.

Did you perform the calculation twice? Once to confirm why the system failed. I know we didn't I think we w that was a waiver before which is why we proceeded, right? So did you did your calculation would you refer to it as testing and did that confirm that yes under the current soil conditions this system that was properly and then you performed it again to prove the new system works.

Did I ask the question right? I I'm just wondering if you did it once or twice. Once to validate why it failed.

It it was a con the the the the drainage calculations for the original. Um I'm sure the calculations were accurate. What we found is we we we performed civ analyses on the um existing retention layer. So in a open system like that you have um 24 in of soil specified soil that has certain um sand components um silt and clay. Um they have to be in very specific percentages. Um and what we found was that when we ran the civ analysis of the material in the basin, we found that there was an excess of um fines, clay and silt, which is um which if a bio retention area is going to fail, it's it's most likely that the underlying soils as far as we could tell from all the soil test pits in the NRCS were all um you know grally sandy materials that are conducive to infiltration. So our belief is that it was the excess of silt in the top 24 in layer and we actually took three readings the top eight the middle eight and the bottom eight in that is um and there was like I had said there was an excess of fines so we're we're pretty sure that was what caused it. The plan with this will be to

remove all that all that material so you're down to the native material. When that happens, and I may not have said this correctly, but it's going to be a condition of approval that we perform the hydraulic conductivity test. So, they'll excavate out all of the stuff they put in there for the bio retention area. we'll get down to the um the actual material in the field and then we'll perform that test on there. Okay.

And I know that the storm water calculations done by niche were pretty conservative as far as they weren't using an a soil infiltration rate. I believe they were using a um a more conservative rate than that. So we have a number that they use for the design and then when we do the hydraulic conductivity we'll be able to match them up and that's hopefully that answers your question. One more. Okay. Well, thank you. Great.

Awesome. Perfect. Um seeing as how uh it doesn't look like we have any additional concerns, um this seems like the best path forward for us from a a plan perspective. Um, I think my only question is going to be let's say we go ahead, we do this. Um, let's say it does work. Great. Fantastic. What happens if it doesn't work? Where does that put us? Whose responsibility is that going to fall under in order to make sure that we get to a point where we've got this solution taken care of?

Sure, I can I can answer that. So, you know, our design is based on a conservative infiltration rate. um if the soils if the the native material is infiltrating slower than that um than the design rate um we have some options with the the outlet. We have some options with with playing around with the materials and um basically being able to achieve and make sure that it it still functions as designed. Okay. So, we have a plan B and a C essentially is what you're saying.

Okay. All right. Um, that's it for me from a question perspective. Do we have any more questions from the board or anyone in the audience online or in person? All right. So, then for me, I'm looking for a motion to uh approve the drain of drainage modification for basin number one for the Norfolk Fire Station at one of 17 Main Streets. So, moved. Do I have a second? Second. All those in favor? I. All those opposed. All right. Hearing none. Uh motion's passed. Thank you very much. Appreciate the time. Appreciate the effort. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Uh anybody from NextGrid still? No. No.

All right. So, I'm done waiting for them. We're more than half we're almost half hour out. So, I'm going to look for a motion to continue the public hearing for 909296 100 and 100R Pond Street to our April 14th meeting at 7:15 p.m. Sure. So, moved. Do I have a second? Second. All those in favor? I. All those opposed. All right. Hearing none, the motion's passed. That's been postponed. Thank you. And I apologize for those who did come in attendance to uh have conversations about that, but I appreciate you hanging out with us. All right. Uh, bylaw amendments for 51326 annual town meeting.

So, as you know, uh, we had the Blizzard 26 which, uh, shut down the Sun Chronicles. So, we weren't able to advertise the public hearing for this evening. So, the public hearings for the 25th of this month, March, uh, completely remote. So, everybody's welcome to attend via Zoom. and uh look forward to seeing everyone there. See everybody there. Is that 25th? 25th. Yes. 25th. Richard, what did I say? You said 26th. I think I said the 26th. Somebody said 26th. It's March 25th via Zoom. Yes. All right. Thank you.

All right. Any updates to the planning board fee schedule? We're going to have a public hearing on April 14th. That's correct. That's the update. All right. Perfect. Got through that. All right. master plan implementation updates. This we can cover this quick. Uh

we did talk about this at the last meeting. Uh kind of went over a process for developing a implementation working group and advisory committee as well as um putting together topics and subject areas. But I know we kind of went over it in real time. So, I think we had offered the opportunity for folks on the board to review it, come back with any questions, comments or or feedback or or you know, maybe there are none, which is okay, too. Um, and then I think the next steps from there is we'll kind of get the ball moving on at least um starting to convene a group and starting to prioritize the the subject areas. And I mean, Melissa, you've done most of the work on this, so I should probably just

That was a great overview. Thanks for saving me the I probably would have said it in many more words so I'm sure everybody else thanks you. But um I did I ran into Taes from the select board uh at the budget meeting on Saturday and uh we do need to meet with her which I can do it you can do it or we can all do it. Um and then I think she would like us to present it to the select board. Um but aside from that everything else you said is perfect. Yeah, I think we should probably meet with her and go over like the prioritization of those topics and think about like what the time scales are on them, but then otherwise I think taking it to the select board makes sense. Mhm.

And I think where we anticipated kind of quarterly updates to this group unless there was, you know, things that needed guidance or or decision more imminently than that. Right. Of course, any of the the team captains for any of those subcommittees could come to us, you know, at any of our meetings if they need a few minutes. Um, but yeah, I think quarterly sounds good. You do need to assign captains, right? We do. That's where we need to assign captains and figure all of the logistics out. Sounds like sizable progress though since the last time we spoke.

Lots of progress. Um, I'm just excited that we'll have a plan in place and we can start making progress. is a select board April 5th. I don't know if you want to target April 5th. Yeah, I mean I could do that or we can meet with her before. Yeah, I'll I'll check her timing. All right, cool. All right, town planner updates. Well, so um I draw your attention to the screen. Complete streets funding program. And did we get it? Yep. Yeah. The wrong way. And that's to build the Montreal. The Montreal.

The Montreal. Montreal. No. Uh no Montreal. But that uh that is phase one which would uh as just recap goes from Barstable down to Tucker Road. So that would uh provide walking and biking accommodations. Uh to complete that segment. I will let I just want to let you know I did apply for a grant for the design through Mass Trail. So I'm waiting to hear but um so we've got implementation funds. We don't have design funds but we did but you had previously voted to to take it out of the sidewalk fund. Take it out of the off-site mitigation fund. Um

but the more money we can save the better. But if we can get Yeah. get it through the grant. Um, that would be preferable because that grant request was covered in phase one and two. So, this is real progress. I like it. Yeah, that's awesome. Congratulations. The design would cover phases one and two if we got that. Oh, that would be great. Yeah. Rich, do they is there is it like do you let the mass trails people know that you got this grant so they actually know that there is funding coming at the end of it? That may impact how they view the viability of the design funding. That's a good point. Mhm. Uh I certainly send it to him. Yeah, I think I think it's worth it. Yeah.

Yeah. I I'll uh I will uh let them let them know forward that to them. And then um not on there, but the other update was uh we did receive Hold on, let me show you. It's a very specific number. It is very specific. Yeah. So, let me see. Going

to the granle of cement. It's too much short. It's too much. We will not accept. We You must meet our demands of 500,000 even. Now, the 26 cents is killing me. Can't we just round that down or up? Uh, well, I mean, you know, could See, this is exciting though. This is exciting. But there's more excitement. Been doing this too long with sidewalks. Huh?

Are you kidding? In this town, sidewalks are gold. Just got to bear with me a second as I go in the email. I wish had I known from the beginning of the master plan that that was going to be something we would hear about for a year and a half, I would have taken a tally of how many times somebody said grocery store sidewalk. Never make it through the night.

Aha, here it is. Excitement number two. Oh. Oh, more state stuff. Wait, you have more good news? What is this? Just grant application. Hold on. Wait, I just saw wastewater. Yeah. Oh, nice. Nice water. Cool. Where's the value? Yeah. I So, this letter I did forward to the state. Yeah. Um cuz we applied for the Oh, connecting to MCI Norfolks wastewater treatment. Mhm. This is a feasibility study. Hey, that's progress. That's where and it connects right in front of basically in front of Kevin Roach's auto shop, right? That's the connection is. Yeah, pretty is.

This is to support a mass works application, right? It's actually to support a infrastructure. I don't know it. It's a So, if you remember, we got 959,000 something change in federal funds, right? At a waiter mark. Yeah. That was from class, right? Right. But we also as part of that we need to have a 20% match. Yeah. Which roughly was $240,000.

So I've already appi I've already applied for the the match but I've have forward I've spoken to the the person who's reviewing the state grant request um and informed them this letter was coming. So I have I have forward that one already. So that one's in there. Um, so we're just waiting to hear. Um, but I think we might also, which I haven't said it's on my to-do list with Rob, we might consider going back to Mass Works for pre-development

uh grant money because then get the other we can kind of extend it. Where did you submit for the 20% that we need? Remember all these alphabets. Hold on a second. Nice meeting. Thanks. Nice meeting you as well. So we have an almost master plan implementation plan almost.

We have septic connection approved. Mhm. Well, we also have we have a feasibility study. We have funds for way more though. Huge. We still need construction money on top of all that, right? But we're on our way. Another piece of the puzzle. So jaded. Then we got our grocery store, right? The next day. I'm just going to sell lemons in the corner. Does that count? Yes, it counts. A fruit market would be great. I just have to go through my email. That would be great. We can have our little co-op that we've always dreamed of,

right? We just need to permanently uh install the farmers market there. Uh how about old town hall? Stop. Stop. No. This is the positive positive group tonight. God, you got to go through there with the termite sniffing dog. I have Pinterest boards dedicated. This place will look amazing. Pinterest board if you start from scratch. I'm fine with that. Like tear down, start over. No, no, no, no, no, no. I don't think there's one good beam left in that building. There definitely is. Have you been through it? No, not on the inside, but I will be. It's practice for the fire department. No. Yeah. Oh, no. No. Tinder box waiting to go up. Yeah,

but that's the one because there's wetlands under the parking lot, right? No developer wants it. In the exact same foot. You have to reuse the foot. Oh, no kidding. If that is ever going to be torn down, I'll be standing out there probably by myself with a sign to not tear it down. You got to maintain the footprint and you can't cannot increase. So before we moved to Norfolk, my kids actually participated in wreck programs in that town hall when it was still being in use. I've been in there before. I I remember before I moved here, I pulled documents out of drawers there and stuff. I remember my wife telling me like the building felt aged like the floors were a little uh wibbly wobbly.

There was nothing square. The grant program is administered by the executive office for administration and finance. Okay. So that's the it's a lot of big words. That's the big word in the state. It's a the state of Massachusett 240,000 matching. Yes. which is what's the success rate of that? Is it a given that they just give you the money because you've already got it's it's to receive the million dollars. So, they're going Well, I would hope that it's highly successful considering we already have Yeah. on the federal side that that grant program is for communities to chase other federal money.

Yeah. That have a struggle to get the the the matching Yep. um piece, but we already went at, you know, we were ahead in terms of getting the federal piece. So now this got coming behind it. It seemed pretty favorable. I'll follow up with him. I just literally was able just to send this off a few weeks ago. So, but was pretty positive um that we got this. So, this this is really a big step forward. Awesome. I am loving 2026 so far. Yep. Yeah, let's go. All right. Um, any other updates, Rich? Um, no, that's it. Proceed.

Okay. 2020 meeting schedule. Any concerns with the next dates? April 14th, March 25th, or May 12th? No. No, no concerns. Well, we also have what is it? March 25th. That's probably fine. I made uh the night well the 13th town meeting and the night before. Is that all right? the 13th of April. Count me is May 13th. May 13th and your meeting is May 12th. I mean, we're not going to make any substantial changes between those two dates. So, unless you're proposing we can that meeting and just have a a quick little pow-wow before the town meeting. Well, we can kind of see how things

probably going to continue things. Yeah. I guess it depends. I mean, in the past, we've gone through the slides the night before or something like that, you know, just to all get on the same page. It's like the first time in a long time I'm looking through the entire list of meeting schedules and if they all stay the same as written there. First time in a long time like it doesn't conflict with work travel. I've gotten used to like taking calls from like other countries and things. So I feel this a let down. Well, that was planned. We changed the October one for 2026. We we aim to please here. Yeah. So far we're good on dates on my side, too. Okay. All right. Cool. Um, any ant unanticipated new business that may come before the board? Anyone? No. Anyone?

No. All right. So, in record time, I'm looking for a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. All those in favor? All those opposed? Hearing none. The motion has carried. Good night. Thank you. Good night.