to to design those and meet those requirements so so that that satisfies that as far as the capacity in the general area I mean there's a great history of of that being there there's 465 person capacity amongst the places that are no longer there so we are seeking a greater capacity than what was there in the past and but the town has grown around that the university has grown around that but it is not unique to this area to have that patron capacity there in a bar a bar format you know Amherst pub was a restaurant by day but at night time it was Amherst pub in Old Town Tavern was a bar and so again if you look at the history of that of that area we're not creating something that hasn't been there for a you know century so it's not it's what's going on there is not unique to what's been there in the past so that that's all on that matter so what I'd like what I propose is that we run through the questions that and requests we had come up with tonight we review those now share them with verbally we'll share them with Mr. O'Rourke and then we then Rob you create a list for tomorrow and distribute that to the board and to Mr. O'Rourke make sure that we all are on the same page for kind of a task of a list of things to have at our next meeting on this subject so I don't know if Chris or Rob who's who's started to keep that list of requests for information or comments I can always look back through it I just have to turn the page to my notes here all right so so I believe most of them are brought up during the discussion phase of the meeting okay so the so I believe the first and most important was to have a plan on how to address the queuing outside in terms of people lining up and how much of the sidewalk is going to take another one was to the amendment to the management plan yes that's correct that would be an amendment to your management plan and then Vince brought up the indoor decibel level negative impact on patrons inside how that should be addressed as well I don't know if that was an amendment to the management plan or if that's something the applicant had to look into further yeah that's look into especially for nightclubs and the levels that are produced inside the establishment correct let's see the chat is to fall with the architect regarding how they calculated the number of patrons along the walkway whether it was just done for half the sidewalk or if it was done for the fool with the sidewalk itself Dylan suggested having Mr. O'Rourke provide a measurement of sound from outside the current spoke and bring that to the board at the next public hearing meeting for this permit and then Vince recommend us the staff to look into the two licensed suspensions for Panda East for underage drinking to see in terms of the crowd reaction the crowd reaction my apologies yeah in terms of how they behaved once the police entered the the establishment all right taking note of that all right the next 753 we had Sarah mentioning that the management plan should address what the balancers should do and emerge the evacuation situation how they're going to direct the crowd when they're exiting the building in regards to the curbing the applicant should discuss with the property management group and your architect about how to address that in front of the entrance points it was discussed that the railing may not be the best idea from Dave who brought that up might be wise to just eliminate the curb in front of the egress points so you prevent people from tripping over as they're exiting in a panic then we also have so the traffic study didn't really seem necessary from the board but that is something that you could consider as a condition if there's a problem that rises bus schedule which will provide those requests from vince getting info for rideshare availability for the pastry area I don't know how we're going to do that for just pray street specifically I feel like companies like that probably only provide it for the whole town but I can always look into it for for the sake of this permit and then photographs that are time stamp over the next few weeks showing what that area looks like I believe it was in regards the rideshare line as well as what the crowds look like I believe Sarah you brought that point up correct well the crowds but also someone mentioned just is the parking lots in fact empty yeah just how empty are they yeah all right just what does it look like at 10 o'clock at night what does it look like a Thursday, Friday, Saturday 10 o'clock at night that's all that gives us an idea right all right then we have the applicant should amend the management plan to address the fire department comments that were submitted after the management plan was sent into us I believe Steve had brought the design review board conditions that should be implemented it seems like the directional sign may be unnecessary in this case but I don't know if you would rather address that at the next hearing Mr. Chairman no I think we'll just we'll leave it up to the what the but what I think we should do is put in our conditions the design review board requirements and if they say just consider we don't have to go beyond that okay what they if they decide us just about a sign and if you consider it that's all we have to do we don't have to require that okay let's see what else and Sarah I believe brought up we should determine if the lighting on the sides of the building are good enough to light up those alleyways I believe it was on the left side as well as the right side of the building am I correct on that oh sorry you're muted sorry not the alleyways but are the the where the signs will go where the signs go areas illuminated already do we is there in fact a need for illumination yeah so one thing was the was the give some context for the air the air exchange if they can be gotten from UMass or from local schools or whatever where they have similar areas they enclosed areas with large numbers of people post pandemic so we have a context into which the the applicants proposal can be fit or compared so I'd like code requirement though on there I'm not it's not like it's exchange air exchange yeah I understand that there's code requirements but I'd like to I'd like to know what others have done and what and what you propose to do and see how that I mean I I I would expect that the likelihood is not not all of the the examples are going to be the same and we we'd be good to have some kind of sense of what other businesses and institutions are doing with enclosed large capacity spaces all right capacity spaces all right then we have public comment section there was one thing that was brought up by Miss Rooney I don't know if the board wants to consider adding this as well but it was in regards to comparing the five hundred six six patrons versus the number of nearby establishments I don't remember specifically what that comparisons for I don't know if it's just determine what that would look like in regards to the spoken open nighttime like what that crowd would be in terms of size as compared to the other businesses in the area believe Sarah you have your hand up well I think an earlier request maybe from Mr. Judge might address that in part and that was to get some I think somebody some noise measurements where the where the current queues yeah form so I believe I have a sense of just how noisy are just how noisy are these people when when they're waiting to get it so I believe I addressed that at an earlier point as well I'm sorry I didn't no it's okay I'm glad you clarified I think it I think was I think Mr. O'Rourke responded to at least part of Miss Rooney's request which was how many people how many how big a facility was existed there before with the two establishments that are now gone and then I think Ms. Rooney's that wanted to know about how large are other places in town and I think that's information that's readily available by the license by the licensing board about how large the capacity is for various places on Pleasant Street I think that's what I think that would satisfy her request but I do I mean but but but I you know that's it would be interesting for us to have as well okay so you would want to know the number of businesses in the immediate area that have crowds of similar size is that correct no just how big is you know what what's the capacity for distro 63 what's the capacity for the bar next to it okay what's the capacity for you know that's that's what we're looking for and what what was the capacity yeah for the drape was another one and what was the what was the capacity of the two places that left that no longer are there and you've mentioned it already Mr. O'Rourke and if you could just give it to Rob right now that we could solve part of that information request do you know what it was I think 465 between the two of them yeah I I believe so I'd have to go back and look into that I think that wasn't for cracker and it can be obtained I can check with Mr. McCarthy tomorrow and see if he has the information available they'd have that and then that's that's all I had on my list I mean was there anything that I missed so that's pretty much it we can even review the tape review the tape tomorrow and see if there's something else but I think you've got a pretty good list miss Brestrup I just wanted to say that Rob and I will put our heads together tomorrow and go through our notes and if we come up with anything else we'll make sure that we include it in the list okay sounds great that sounds great all right so what I would like to do is continue this public hearing until a later date and Chris when is the next open meeting is it next week or is it next meeting we have which does not have an agenda or does not have a full agenda believe it is that would be May 11th is that right Rob yep so the 27th of April already has a public hearing scheduled May 11th does not have anything scheduled to we're aware of okay hold on a second okay let's I guess that's about three we'll over three weeks to almost a month to do that so I move that we continue this public I would accept the motion to continue this public hearing until May 11th so move to 6 p.m 6 p.m 6 p.m 6 p.m Thursday May 11th normal place in time right so moved is there a motion a second I'll second it max field seconds is there any discussion on that motion the only discussion I've had is I am inclined I think this is a really good idea and I think there's something we'd be able to I appreciate working with the applicant and the way we've gone through it today and I think that this has real pretends real benefit for the town and I think you've been very responsive to some of the requests of the board so I'm looking favorably upon this at this time but I'd like to see the rest of this information and make sure we can work through with the conditions that we've been talking about and some of those may make all of us more comfortable that's my my discussion about this motion anybody else if not it's a roll call vote the chair votes aye Mr. Maxfield aye Ms. Marshall aye Mr. O'Connor aye Mr. Slobiter aye motion carries all right we'll see you on May 11th all right thank you everyone have a good evening thank you thank you you too thank you bye the next order of business is public comment on anything not before the board tonight is there any is there any public members of the public who wish to speak on a subject not before the board tonight I do not see anybody raising their hand the last order of business is anything that has not come up in the last 48 hours and I guess the one thing I would like to talk about would be the upcoming meetings so we have one on the 27th what is that so just to give some background that's for a permit on Sunderland Road the project is for battery storage so BSS it's I'm not sure of the specifics of the size of the facility I still have to create the PR for that I believe there's Rob if I'm not mistaken there's eight units that's going in on that site is that correct and I believe they already went to Concom they have an order of conditions with them so I'm not sure the timeframe is for the order of conditions to be met but it would be wise to consider those for our hearing as well because a lot of them address site specific issues and concerns especially with runoff from rainstorms et cetera but that is what's coming up on the 27th and then one more thing Mr. Chairman I wanted to bring to your attention is that we do have some pending 40B permits in the near future we're seeing some that are probably going to come up over the summer so KP law we did meet with them yesterday to discuss these permits and they suggested maybe coming to one of the ZBA meetings or having a time during the week that works for everyone to train the board the entire board including alternates on the 40B process just so everybody's familiar with what the role of the board is what to expect these hearings tend to take several meetings so usually you address certain specific aspects of the permit over maybe the course of four to five separate hearings what the responsibilities of the board would be and educate everyone so all eight members I believe no sorry nine members so if people have to step in those people will know what to do in a sense so I wanted to bring it to the board's attention I also sent up a follow-up email tomorrow just to make everybody aware of it I think that's something the board should consider discussing as well yeah I'd say that having been through only 140B it was a long process it's different than our normal special permit process or variance process and our role is a little different I think it's a great idea for training from and I would encourage that we do that if you know we should do that on a if we have to we could do it on a regular Thursday meeting but I would also that's I think we have an awful lot of things in project applications coming up before us in the near future and we may not want to be taking up meeting time Thursday Thursday night meeting time with the training session so I would suggest that maybe we should survey the members to see what other either evening not probably evening we could do some of that training on and not take up a Thursday night and I know it would have to be a public it'd be a public meeting still we'd have to notice it and all that but it would still be it would would make sense not to use up one of our Thursday nights I think if we could do that Rob sounds good Miss Marshall yeah I would just note that there's like well certainly possible there'll be turnover of this board at the end of June so may want to wait to have the new folks for you know maybe everyone's re-upping we don't know but just something to consider I think some terms are ending I know all I have found all the associates are just one your terms so I have I have found that your term is I think correct me if I'm wrong Chris or Rob but I think your term goes until a replacement is found is that correct for the associate or the associate members the alternate members still a member until a replacement is found or does their term end on June 30th it depends on the interpretation when this happens we usually reach back to KP law and ask them what is their recommendation but it also relates to how the town council feels and so we'll have to investigate that the last time I went through this the decision was made that when your term ends your term ends and that's the end of it in the past though I have experienced people continuing on with certain cases as long as they're on the panel and they're allowed to continue so we'll have to get back to you on that topic yep good point okay Mr. Maxfield it was going to say looks like I'm going to be starting a new job next week that will involve evenings so I at this time it looks like this this may be I might be joining in with the turnover unfortunately and not doing a second term so I'll still in the works right now if I can if I can swing it I would love to join you guys for one more especially you know not leave you as the the only one of the only members on here who's done 40B in the past but we'll see as it currently stands it's it's looking like I may be departing in June well I hate to hear that Dylan but I'm happy it must be a good job and I'm happy if that's the case if you got something that you want to do that's a that's a that makes me feel good about it that's more important but especially this last I thought you did a great job during this last meeting I am I notice I saw part of it you did a good job and and I've enjoyed you being part of this board but it's nothing it's nothing for us we love it nothing's special yet and once I once I truly know I'll it might be able to you can do our our proper goodbyes then so think about it that's well the the direction it's heading it looks like but wait maybe it still looks official we don't want to jinx it okay all right okay anybody else that any old any other business that any old business scheduling anything else we need to go over good enough all right just one motion to adjourn one last comment before we go I just wanted to point it out uh I do appreciate the we've got the the mustachioed crew here tonight on the board we're taking over the majority now so gotta gotta enjoy it while we have it yeah while it's still the same colors you're here too that's nice all right anybody else all right do I have a motion to adjourn so moved is there a second I hear a second the motion is not debatable and requires a roll call vote the chair votes aye Mr. Maxfield aye Ms. Marshall aye Mr. O'Connor aye and Mr. Sloveter aye we are adjourned thank you guys and uh we got seven minutes before nine good timing


Welcome to the Anxious Morning, where each weekday morning we take a look at ideas, concepts, and lessons designed to help you understand and overcome your anxiety. For more information, visit us at theanxiousmorning.com. Listen to your body. This is a very common refrain in the self-help and personal development space on the internet. The idea that your body is telling you that it needs something is an idea that we hear all the time from people with very large audiences that are attempting to help. Let me inject some clarity here. For someone that might be overworked, stressed out, taking on too many responsibilities or trying to do too much and welcome to Western society, this is not bad advice at all. When you work yourself into a continuous headache, a knot in your stomach, and a perpetual short temper, then your body may indeed be telling you that you need a break. However, and note the capital letters here, for someone dealing with an anxiety disorder, the messages from your body and brain have themselves become the source of stress and fear.  Listening to your body tell you that you are broken, ill, having a stroke or heart attack, or about to pass out, again, is leading you down a path where you are constantly being ruled by the boy who cried wolf. You're ready to listen when he cries again, then unhappy with the outcome when you do. When you become afraid of your own normal bodily sensations, listening to your body is not really great advice at all. As with many aspects of dealing with disordered anxiety, the best moves are often exactly the opposite of the moves we think we should make or are told to make. Full mental health, healing, and personal growth advice is often not in any way targeted at our community. The people handing out that advice often have no understanding of the mechanics we are dealing with. They want to help, but they're giving out advice that simply does not apply in many cases. I've talked about this many times. For those of us that develop panic disorder, agoraphobia, GAD, OCD, health anxiety, and other related anxiety problems, listening to our bodies goes off the rails quickly and makes things worse rather than better over time. Consider this. Recognize what happens every time your body yells, run, and you obey. Think about what happens when you listen to your body, treat yourself like you are ill or damaged, and hide in your bed for three days straight. What's the outcome there? At least try to accept the idea that your body might be giving you bad advice and information and that you should generally not be listening to that information, especially when it's been shown to be wrong so often in the past. I know sometimes I sound like a broken record here, and that's an old reference for the win, but this is important. When I saw someone insisting last week that she might have to listen to her body and cancel a dentist appointment for the sixth time, true story, I felt compelled to address that, so here I am. Most people should probably listen to their bodies. I know I should listen to mine, but I can only do that because I do not have an anxiety disorder any longer. One day, when you don't either, you can listen to your body again too. If you're enjoying the anxious morning and you'd like to get a copy of the podcast delivered into your email inbox every morning, visit the anxious morning dot email and subscribe to the newsletter. If you're listening on Apple or iTunes, take a second and leave a 5 star rating, maybe write a small review. It really helps me out. And finally, if you find my work useful and you'd like to help keep it free of advertising and sponsorships, you can see all the ways to support the work at the anxious truth dot com slash support. Thanks so much.