ill remove the stigma and the guilt that I will feel from giving waivers because somehow by giving a waiver I'm I'm undermining the you know the guidance that the town has given us and and and now you know we can actually deliberate and we're taking away the kind of outdated requirements that uh you know we've had to live with so that's my comment very good thanks Doug uh Janet can we look at the waiver language in section 7.9 because we don't have to feel guilt when we apply very clear language and if there's some problem with the language we can tweak it and make it clearer but what we're really doing is we're going to take this whole section 7 article 7 and make it really murky and so if we can look at this language is there's three they give you very specific times that you can give a waiver one of them involves shared parking or people you might have a parking lot and people are using it at different times of day so you know so the tenants are using it at night and it's empty that's a reason for a waiver right you know parking peak parking needs generated by onsite uses occur at different times shared parking you know a parking management plan that makes sure that the tenants can get places and then of course the one that dug the compelling reasons of safety aesthetics or site design and then you know articles 11 for site plan review and article 10 for special permits make requires us to make sure that the the building works for the people in it and so we could add parking if we need if we see it we need more say there's undergraduates and they all need a car to get around so I don't see what's the problem being solved here the waiver the waiver section gives flexibility it gives a lot of very specific things if you if the planning department thinks that it wants to add some more criteria let's work within the context of that instead of adding adequate to certain types of multiple multiple multi unit places but a two parking requirement to certain other multi multi unit buildings and then those are two units versus the adequate and then we can waive those and something happens to the to the no parking district because that language shows up too I just don't I think this is really this is going to be a hard go and I just don't I just think this is really this is the kind of thing I would send to a pop-up zoning subcommittee to say like what's the problem being trying to be solved let's see what how the bylaw works and if we can tweak it without extensive changes yeah so I just noticed uh well Maria please can we book so I think you hit the nail in the head jam we're literally saying what in the bylaw needs to be fixed it's the parking the two units the two spaces per dwelling it has been the flawed piece that we've been dealing with for I can't remember how many projects now since I've been on for five years every time we look at a project where we look at what the parking was required and it's a huge number and then we look at the lot size and we look at how much square footage the building needs to have with the setbacks and the parcel size that's the flaw the flaw is the bylaw that's what we're trying to fix now just take off the two spaces per dwelling unit and do what we're already doing which is deliberating I don't think we're right now we're here to solve what the numbers we're here to figure out whether this parking bylaw amendment is as Doug touched on something that's a contentious point that we keep discussing because it's it's it's flawed that's why we've had so many waivers because it's literally something that's um yeah I don't know how else to say that's literally the answer is the requirement of two spaces per dwelling unit rather than going to the weeds of like discussing what an answer is or what a number is what a math is what's adequate I think it's just addressing that big picture which is is it's it's the bylaw the number that the bylaws requesting is not correct what is the number we don't know and that's why we have this amendment which is let's discuss it which we're doing anyways that all these site plan reviews so I guess I don't see what the risk is because it's what's happening anyways and we're addressing this flaw every single time so thanks Maria so I see we're like maybe 20 minutes behind this this ambitious schedule I think we're doing great but uh Chris I had a question about the next item the BL one and what you know we're not going to have a hearing on that on the 21st correct that's right we thought this was an opportunity to present it to you okay so if you want to hear about it we're here to present it tonight but if you feel like you'd rather hear about it some at some future date you know that that could be okay so okay and that'll be here and I just I'm just you know don't want to uh run at a clock here for us so um we'll continue talking um Janet you are new thank you so um I think that I understand what Maria is saying about the number I know some parking lots are very full I know downtown parking there's lots of people in a no parking district you know who are parking illegally or in empty lots um there's a you know there's a quite a you're a mute sorry they're showing up in neighborhoods um there are you know we have the management company a week or two ago saying that they see that undergraduates use one have one car per person and so I really think that we need to get more information and so the transportation the master plan the transportation plan says the parking needs study in different areas when we were talking about this a few years ago I know christinine breastrup was saying that we need more study um we can do that they're not that expensive the MAPC has ways to do quick parking studies we might want to wait a little bit till COVID sort of settles that but that could just be this fall um it's I don't it's like we're zoning in advance of data and information or rezoning and it's you know so I just think that we just need to do we need more information we have some parking you know I mean if you drive around town you know the parking are in the lower income there's fewer cars in lower income places because people can't I think afford cars they may need cars but they don't have them or may be dependent on very very dodgy or slow public transit system that has this strange spoke pattern and then really dies off during the holiday season in the summer um but I just think maybe more information I don't think it's hard to get I'm not I'm not wedded to two parking spaces per unit but do we base it on bed count we base it on is it student park student housing you know I just don't think we have data to make this decision and I still you know and I think there's a lot of just the distinction between a converted dwelling with three units or four units and an apartment just doesn't make it seems illogical to me good I see no other hands on the board um let's open it up to the the public let's see Dorothy Pam hi Dorothy hi I am at 229 Amity street well I could see this parking working only on one condition which is that we totally acknowledge that we're only interested in providing housing for students students can ride bikes students can walk to the campus students have the opportunity to get a pie a parking permit from the college so students have options but this means then that you're saying that you don't want any people with children because um no matter how income limited you are I don't see how you get your children to school without a car and it means we don't want senior citizens downtown either because this is New England and seniors don't want to walk on sidewalks in icy weather um because they have to avoid a fall so if you are saying okay we're just going to say we're just providing housing in our downtown for students you can you know kind of get rid of parking but I'd like to answer the objections to parking spaces some of them um one is okay two spaces you fought over this I've heard so many meetings I believe that one space per unit is fair and makes sense and that Janet has mentioned in the past that there have to be some like visitor parking that does not belong to you know the unit but handicapped parking something that could be visitors so a certain number of places that kind of parking does not have to be on impervious structure at the North Hampton new project which is being built up they have they don't have two parking spots for per unit but they have an area which will be um pervious I don't know whether it's real grass or fake grass or whatever it is but water can go through it which when needed can be used for parking and that you know and otherwise it just is green space we've also talked about the climate change things and I feel that electric cars are the answer the way they're going um I think you can be perfectly climate friendly by requiring electric cars I mean in in Amor Michis when you said two units were told you couldn't even get a parking place so that was part of their their lease was going to be you can't have a car but there was going to be a bike rack but the fact is when the developer doesn't have enough parking for his tenants he finds a way so we all knew that right next to the place that Michi is proposed to build but it's not building on there was a huge parking lot belonging to a bank okay not one that he could access or people could access but there was parking available okay and on the one with Roblesky I swear I heard that questions ask will you preserve this old house which somebody presented me with a very detailed history of that house and the answer was yes yes I will I'm keeping that house and then I find that oh the house needs too much work and and I'm going to take it down for parking so you know they think people need parking all right and they make them go through you and not giving it the way that the planning board asked for it but they think people need parking so I think that if you want to have not just students living downtown if you want to have some older people if you want to have people with children you'd have to provide some parking um but you can it doesn't have to I agree the two spaces per unit hasn't been flying but to go below one space per unit I think is just just wishful thinking and it's it's not really really good and I think you could open yourself up for discrimination if it says people say I can't afford to can't live downtown and there's an affordable unit I'd like to live in that my income meets it but there's no parking space and I can't afford to go you know rent a private space and there should have been one for me so I think that you don't need to get rid of it all and use that word adequate which I find is the biggest you could just drive a truck through it but certainly you could reduce it to one per unit and you could think of having some of the extra parking the few spaces on places that are not paved over so you can deal with some of your water problems there so anyway I think this is a big issue I think it's really important and I think it's one of fairness to do with the parking thank you thank you Dorothy um I remember mentioning overflow parking on on you know pervious previous service like it like a lawn or whatever so it's interesting you brought that up Dorothy uh well you know I I don't see other other hands up so this is uh Janet Janet Keller state your name and address please hi Janet Janet can you unmute yourself there you go yep thank you um still Janet Keller still live at 120 pulpit hill road and I would like to argue strongly for uh firm but uh usable guidelines like one space per unit regardless of where it is and what it is um plus a certain percentage for visitor parking um and um I agree that um electric cars are coming soon and more and more people are having them um I further agree that um I don't want to see an Amherst that doesn't have any families in it and the families I know need their cars to get the kids to school to get the parents to work um and to get the kids to after school things and to go to the doctors and to which might not be on the bus line this notion that buses can serve us in what is still whether we like it or not we live in western mess I don't live in providence road island anymore where I could walk or ride my bike and I did walk or ride my bike lots of places um we don't we can't do that if we have a family maybe students can so I I urge you to look at this um with fresh eyes and and um and leave our town um a welcome place for families please as well as students um and uh thank you thank you jenneth all right so we can move on to the next item uh proposed changes to the bl limited business zoning district abouting the bg general business zoning district including a proposed overlay district along north pleasant street and triangle street to allow more residential development in the bl zoning district and who do we have presenting marine hello hello everyone uh my name is marine paula okay so um I'm here to uh discuss with you our zoning proposal uh for creating a new overlay district uh the town center limited business overlay district so I'll walk you through this um there are two focus areas that this overlay district would apply to it would be the parcels west of north pleasant street adjacent to kendrick park between uh coles lane uh alex street and mccollin street I think there's maybe nine parcels or there's something one I won't count that's okay and then the other focus area is these parcels shown here along the corner of east pleasant and triangle street and um as you can see uh the surrounding area it's surrounded by the um in this sort of yellow is um is the general residence district um at the periphery of of both of these focus areas and then we have of course the the the general business zoning districts highlighted in pink and so um uh and back here um beyond this sort of dotted red line um and so the dotted red line represents the uh overlay district uh areas and um behind here represents the bl um not the overlay district but just the existing regular old bl uh zoning districts so here and then here as well and then this red uh blue line rather uh represents the uh Lincoln um sunset historic district so this would be outside of the that uh Lincoln historic uh district um the next slide um so the purpose of of this overlay district is to encourage uh residential development and these transitional zones between the on the core retail and commercial areas of downtown and the adjacent residential neighborhoods um so uh and um and is to look at the dimensional standards and design guidelines of the bl bl overlay districts um for the intention to foster development that enhances the pedestrian experience along the street um and our proposals uh our strategies for this proposal is are to create an area along the street that allows flexibility in terms of dimensional standards uh determine front setbacks that allow for wider sidewalks in active pedestrian areas along the street and incentivize density along the street away from the adjacent residential neighborhoods so unlike the uses that we've been speaking about again we're talking about now the district level the zoning district level um this slide shows the existing bl uh dimensional uh requirements under table three so of importance here you could take a look at the minimum lot area is 20 000 square feet additional lot area per unit is 4 000 square feet maximum floors allowed would be three floors with the maximum height of 35 feet and um and then single family homes and duplexes are prohibited town houses apartments converted dwellings and overnight lodging are allowed by special permit and mixed use buildings are allowed by site plan review in the bl district um currently and so now we'll focus on um we'll continue talking about this so um this overlay district would be mandatory um what what we'll be showing you in in these slides are not guidelines um and um after the last CRC meeting uh initially both of these uh overlay districts would be 100 feet in depth but after some CRC members suggested oh we'll maybe we'll make it a little wider or increase the depth so this north pleasant street focus area would have the overlay district would have a depth of 115 feet and from the property line along here and over here on triangle street it would have a depth of 125 feet from the property line and behind here the bl the areas behind this overlay district that bill is located in the bl would need to meet its regular regular bl dimensional regulations but the building height would be limited to three floors for the maximum and for the overlay district we would be establishing its own dimensional standards and so um now zooming in a bit more to the north pleasant street bl overlay district i'll try to walk you through it so again um a represents the depth of the overlay district which is 115 feet in depth b right here shown is the setback uh which is 15 feet from the front yard setback on north pleasant street the front yard setback on other streets such as mccollin calic and bull's lane would be 10 feet and um the area um here um sort of i'm showing in d here the back the back of of these lots are areas in the bl zone that are adjacent to the overlay district but they're outside of it and those vary in depth um as as it applies to that specific parcel and then um the the side and rear setbacks within the overlay would be zero the side and rear setbacks to adjoining districts would be 10 feet the building height in the overlay so within that um red dotted line um the building height would have a proposed minimum and maximum for a building height so the minimum would be 27 feet or two floors and the maximum would be 51 feet or four floors um also to note that uh we would propose that a minimum of 75 of the front facade facing the public way um shall be located along the front setback line to reinforce the street side uh street sidewalk edge so what that means is that um that you know the developer could have a little um maybe 25 percent um corner space that the building then is um so if if the building is along this setback maybe there is a corner pocket um of the building that setback and that could be a like a plaza or a cafe or or landscaping and that adds a little notoriety adds a little flavor if you will but but for at least a minimum 75 of the building facade it would be uniformed with the streetscape also to note with the overlay there are there would be no requirements related to the lot and building coverage lot area or additional lot area requirements in the areas um in the bl zone that are adjacent but again back here they're adjacent to the overlay but they're still in the bl i think i said this before they would still need to meet the bl dimensional regulations but the building height back here would have to be limited to three floors or 39 feet in in height and um now focusing on the triangle east pleasant street focus area um so the overlay district the depth of that would be 125 feet um that represented in e f is showing the front yard setback along triangle street that would be 25 feet the front yard setback on east pleasant street represented in g it would be a minimum of five feet um b represents the front yard setback on other streets such as um so that would be cottage street here that would be 10 feet and then he represents the adjacent bl district and this the remainder of these rows would be the same as as the other focus area about the side and rear setbacks and the building height and floor floors and so part of this proposal we want since this is now we're scaling up again we're looking at the district level um so we want to um get into standards and conditions and so we would propose uh additional design guidelines um we do knowledge too that there would be additional standards and conditions may apply based on the specific use classification as provided in article three um and so obviously those would still need to apply um we're proposing a frontage zone and so the frontage zone would be the front setback so that's the space between the front property line and the line of the front facade of the building um and that frontage zone would be uh the intended purpose of that would be for usable uh for incidental or accessory activities associated with the building uses and so um I just throw out some ideas of my own and you know we can play with other ideas so these spaces could be landscaping gardens sidewalks plazas sitting areas and may include amenities such as benches sitting walls and and planters and I'm sure the list could go on and on of creative and fun things uh and such as public art and um art sculptures um and installations um and so we also are proposing a project open space um at at the at this um at the district scale here and open space would need to be provided for all residential uses for the use for the occupants and visitors of the building um these spaces may be located anywhere on the property whether or not they're in the BL overlay district meaning if we just jump back to that one one of the maps meaning that the project open space you know it could be in the frontage zone but it also could be in the side setback or it could be in this adjacent BL district um if it's part of that same parcel just to show you um and so for buildings with solely residential uses such as apartments and townhouses um the project open space may be provided in the frontage zone um and so for like uh so for a mixed use building um a mixed use building could have project open space on the side in the rare but for sole solely residential um it had it has flexibility of where that could be located and the project open space would be provided in areas that are not used for parking areas driveways HVAC and utility areas service areas or unusable slope area um and so you know the project open spaces is really to enhance you know this transitional space between the dense downtown and the adjacent residential district so we want to sort of soften that transition between between the downtown the street the sidewalk the property line the transition between the property line to the door entrance um so there's moments for rest to gather to enter um these spaces and to provide frankly you know amenities for for visitors and documents to enjoy um we have some a concept example um this concept design was prepared by planner by our colleague planner Ben Breger um and so um I'll just um this is what we'll ultimately focus on this parcel here but just to orient everyone so um this is North Pleasant Street um this is where Kendrick Park is this um and the parcels in yellow highlighted in yellow those that represents the overlay district and um in the back those would be the adjacent um BL district area and so the focus for this concept example is looking at this building here and so we'll go to the next slide and so um the project so in this mock example um we we we say that this is a mixed-use building so the project open space would be required for the residential uses for the use by the occupants and the visitors of the building the project open space is provided along this now we're we're gonna ask everyone to use your imagine your imaginative goggles that there is on the side and rear of this building that there you may envision maybe outdoor patio area or landscaping um maybe a little play area uh maybe some garden plot so with your imaginary goggles you could picture that here uh and and and back um and um this image is showing the frontage zone in front of this building um which would be a depth of 15 feet um again the mock development is a mixed-use building and it would provide out um and so this mixed-use building has a restaurant on the first floor and so they want um the developer is providing a outdoor dining area which would be accessory use associated with the restaurant and again putting on your imaginary goggles maybe uh you could imagine a four feet tall native shrubs provided as a visual buffer along along the property line actually is this line right here in this particular location this grassy strip is actually within the public right away um but maybe perhaps you could imagine that there is a um you know some shrubbery or a low retaining wall that provides sort of a public private semi space um to help transition between the public right away and the private development and here is just another view of um this development so the front part of the building which is in the overlay district again um for this example the building height would be 54 feet or four stories and in the back this so that that's what I'm talking here this front part and then this back part this would be located in the adjacent underlying bl but not in the overlay and so the building height would be reduced to three floors and you can see that there is a setback along mccollin street and you can see that that frontage zone on the front the front setback as well here and you can see it in in relation to the neighborhood and um here um now I'm just showing another image of that frontage zone where oh now you don't need your imaginary goggles so now there is shrubbery on the side setback um which provides you know privacy and a space for visitors and and occupants and there could be some you know some really cool and creative things that are on that side setback and in this frontage and in this frontage zone you see that there's a change of surface materials with pavers you see that there is awning there's doors with windows there's tables and chairs and there is a a retaining wall you know perhaps there's there could be really some fun string lights um and it provides a nice transition between the public the the street to the sidewalk and to the property and then if you want to zoom out a little more so up to this point we've been just talking about the site scale if we zoom out and think about let me just go back to something now if we want to go back to um thinking about this um the next scale up district wise is providing or requiring a frontage zone um and what we're saying here would be 15 feet along north pleasant street and here would be I think we're saying I should know I think it's 25 feet it allows the flexibility for if not today if not 10 years from now or perhaps decades from now allows flexibility for the town to or the developer um to really think about the streetscapes and what we as a town envision for streetscapes perhaps you know I I'm always excited to see people use these shared bikes these electric bikes um you know perhaps these could be great locations to add more street furniture such as shared bike stations perhaps we're interested in separated bike lanes perhaps we would like to really be uh actively uh install public art sculptures throughout downtown perhaps there's wider sidewalks perhaps there are significant more uh street trees so when you think about this small zone here um this is just a sort of sample of what we could do in other zoning districts um in our downtown and perhaps surveillance centers and um so let me just go see if I have anything else to say um we did um and I would like to say that Nate Malloy uh spent a lot of time on this um and so did Ben and um and so it's been and Rob Mora and we've it's been a very collaborative um effort uh looking at this and um one of the initial recommendations were to provide some design standards for for the board to consider and um which they're all great um but we're not ready yet to actually recommend them for our zoning amendment proposal today so um they I think they may be in the packet but at this time we just want to focus on what we truly want to propose for those zoning amendments and we'll return back to these um which gets into building facade parking and mechanical equipment so with that I think I'm done questions thank you very much a lot of work has been completed um I appreciate that I'm gonna let that digest I don't really have anything to say right now um and we have Janet um when we last talked about this I think it was somewhere in the spring and um one of the questions the board asked was for unit counts like how many units um could be built like if you maxed it out and um since there's no side setbacks requirements um the building could be bigger and then also we know that a few property owners own like several lots so they could all be combined and so I was wondering if you could provide that information for both of these proposals because I remember when Maria and Andrew and Doug looked at um the unit count um under um footnote I mean under the current zoning versus the adjustment in zoning they felt like there was it was too dense and it was no longer operating that the BL would no longer be operating as a transition zone so I was just wondering can you get the numbers for us about you know say if the apartments were 500 square feet um assuming there are apartments or condos um how dense can it be how many units can it be um the other thing I want to say is um it seems like you have this really strong vision in the planning department and you know you're you're working on this um I also know that um you know Suzanne Musbratt and Pamerty presented a vision for this particular section we're looking at that keeps the historic buildings and expands them in a sort of a traditional New England way um I don't think they had specific um dimensional things and then there was talk on Triangle Street being more garden departments and more kind of a transition to the neighborhood and I everybody has a good vision I also know that the Pleasant Street area is being considered for being added to the local historic district by the historical commission so I wonder um and these are design standards I wonder you know my my gut feeling is since we're hiring a consultant to look at these issues and work with the community this would be a great add into the the the basket but it makes sense to me to wait till that person's hired and we work through the process because there's lots of different visions and um I do appreciate that you know how much work you put into it and you have this very strong sense of what you'd like to see and I just I just I want to appreciate that. Great uh Maria. Thanks Marine that was a really great presentation um I think that's doing a great job of exactly what a lot of people have said they liked about downtown which is creating a street edge and creating more human scale space um at the fronts of buildings and this achieves all of that it's really great it's basically form-based zoning without the sort of building facade um well you did touch on building facade a little bit so this is really close to form-based zoning so it's really exciting um and uh yeah I think also just increasing the density closer to the street and it only creates that street edge but you have the opportunity for more housing which is always great to have downtown um so yeah I think this is a great study and um I hope that this could inform other areas like the village centers um and I mean this is basically form-based zoning right I mean I think that it's touching on most of the things that um it just it doesn't also have like stuff like normally there's parking and there's other sort of features that are part of form-based zoning but um but yeah it looks like you've spent a lot of time really analyzing these parcels and yeah when Doug and I did it we did it just using math not we didn't put on our like architect hats we just literally sort of plastered maximum build out um minimum well if each parcel was its own parcel versus all the parcels as one so we just did some quick math but this is really looking at it from our urban planners sort of perspective so I really appreciate that and you know that you put a lot of thought as far as like what do you want to see and um and I like the vision I think it's a really good direction thanks Maria any other comments from the board uh Doug my my comment is actually a question um and that is since this is not going to be part of the public hearing next week what is kind of next in the process for this that's a great question yes is is there an answer or is it Chris Chris has her hand up so um I think the CRC thought this was pretty well along and I think they didn't think they needed to see it again Rob can confirm that but that's my memory the CRC's review so we would just want to get further along with the planning board um before we um put this forward so I will meet again with the planning board okay I'll look forward to your return good uh Tom you had your hand up yeah I was gonna ask the same question about the Doug asked in terms of process like what do what do we do with this information and how do we move forward with it and and what can we do between now and the next meeting um to uh to help move along yeah I mean it's just kind of late in the evening and you know I retained a little bit of it but I will look very forward to uh seeing it again well it's the meeting's being recorded you all can watch this again tomorrow again and again and again with your morning coffee Nate has some idea about where this goes from here Nate oh sure yeah I mean not necessarily where it goes I think that you know a number of months ago Ben and I presented a few um conceptual designs you know 3D designs as well um you know I'm probably a number of properties in this district and those still comply with these dimensional standards so you know Jenna asked about build-out so I think it was gosh maybe back at the end of March but we have models and you know we had um you know varying size apartments and mixed use buildings and what it would look like so we can provide that or it could be in a previous packet just to understand what it looked like so Ben had done the triangle street uh site and I did I think um you know a few properties south of Halleck if they were combined and what that would look like so um that's one example of what it you know a possible build-out following this type of uh zoning so there is something that had been presented a while ago just I think you know I think it would be easier almost uh to Jenna's point to show like building envelopes I think you know unit sizes can change right if you do a three bedroom or one bedroom I think it's could be more about the massing which is what we were trying to get I think when we did apartments we had like you know a 700 square foot unit or 600 square foot you know so maybe one building cut out 40 units but you know if you made those smaller it could become a 60-unit building in the same footprint but we do have some of those that we could try to get to the planning board pretty quickly just so you can see what that looks like but and just to add with these uh this hopefully I'm showing the screen um so this proposed dimensional standards would help dictate the bulk and mass of the building so talking about the building height and and the amount of floors and the and how the building is set back from the front the side and the rear and so that would help dictate the density within the overlay district um Chris I just wanted to mention the fact that um footnote A would not apply to any of these dimensional standards for the BL overlay these are you know what you see is what you get you don't have the option of asking for a special permit for dimensional modifications I thought that might interest some people good good um let me see what oh it is what 1015 yep 1015 um uh Janet so so I would love to see some unit counts um you know to understand you know how the density in a different way I do love the 3d thing I wonder I mean I thought that the the consultant was be doing handling these kind of design guidelines and so I'm a little confused about who what are we hiring this person for I thought it was for the downtown um design guidelines that informed based zoning and so is is this aiming towards a final zoning amendment without the consultant or um I'm just a little lost Chris please so what we're doing here is we're establishing dimensional requirements for an overlay zone we're not getting into the design of buildings we're showing you buildings that could possibly be built there um Nate showed you some fairly sort of uh which should I say modern looking buildings and Ben has been and Maureen is showing some um buildings that are more traditional but we're not getting into that kind of design at this level that's the kind of thing that we would get from our consultant here we're just saying what would the lot coverage the height the setback etc be for this overlay zone just the same way we have other zoning districts which have similar dimensional requirements so we're just setting up the dimensional requirements here and when we get to the consultant on board we'll start talking about facades and do you remember when Nate came through the first time he talked about you can't have more than 80 feet of a of a wall that doesn't have any change in plane and when you have your change in plane it's got to be at least six inches and sometimes it has to be five feet and sometimes there has to be a corner carved out for a space and so those kinds of things are the things that we would look to our design consultant for but um setbacks and lot coverage building coverage and height I think we can handle doing what we're doing now this just seems like a sort of seismic change and I wonder in terms of heights and density and bulk and it seems like this would be a great thing for the consultant to work with the community on and the boards thank you Nate and then Doug yeah sure I think you know this was the the overlay was also in response to the idea to allow more residential development in the bl you know the footnote b additional lot area per per unit and so you know the planning department thought you know we looked at that but that was actually actually more of a relief valve if you kind of wave that that whole piece the 4000 and so you know the idea here is to actually bring development along the street develop a street front have setbacks to allow generous pedestrians you know escape streetscape in front of a building so I think you know this was the response to that so you know is there a better way than just eliminating a footnote can we actually help develop um you know massing that's in place along the street I'll also say that you know the overlay started almost too as a response or took into account the 40 r district that the consultants had done so we actually took some of the work they'd already done through a you know a year and a half long process and we've actually I think tailored it more to amour so we actually reduced the scale of the buildings that the 40 r was proposing and we we took some of all that process in and then distilled it into this overlay so I think there is a lot of background work that was already done by consultants that was used for this overlay so I mean I agree I think that if we do have a design consultant you know they may look at it and say oh well you know are there tweaks that could be used but I think it doesn't necessarily um you know we're like Chris we're looking at dimensional standards uh that are different than design standards um you know it can be one of the same but I think you know we're I think this can be an independent thing that moves forward and maybe the consultant says wow I like these setbacks the way you're doing it um you know as opposed to a curve to a building frontage it's a property line setback that's just you know could be a cleaner way for our zoning to work um so I do think there's a lot of background research that went into this that was used to formulate it. Thanks Nate that's a good to hear um uh Doug. Yeah with the conversation about the upcoming design consultant I guess I was wondering with a question for the planning staff whether the planning board would have any opportunity to review the RFP for that consultant and whether we would have any input on the selection of that consultant Chris um that hasn't been discussed and so I can certainly think about that and get back to you on it it seems like a good idea to have the planning board have some input on the RFP I'm not sure about um the choice of the consultant but that I can I can do some uh asking around and see about that as well so I'll get back to you on that. Super I um I see no other hands raised so we can take out to public comment and I see Dorothy Pan and then Susanna. Hi Dorothy. Hi so there is a point in hanging in there to the end okay um this plan does include a lot of the nice things that had disappeared from the mix and I could see people living there I could see in my mind's eye people walking on the sidewalk and and feeling things um I have my question is just very technical um it's how many feet so on the drawing you had first the green along the curve then you had yellow for sidewalk and you had a little green on the other side of that sidewalk and then you had the gray which I believe you call the frontage area and so my question is what were the dimension not in the area of where the special town is like the trap it sticks out where there's a little town green there but in the regular part what were the dimensions of each piece so I could get an idea of how many feet back from the street edge is the building where it has the frontage area uh or are you talking which image would you like me to reference the one with the house not this one the okay the concept example short uh let's go to you had the green yellow and gray okay so um this um this where the arrow is pointing um right here that is actually the property line and so um all here is the public right of way um and so this would set back from here to this building wall of 15 feet and that's where the frontage zone would be provided and if um once again we'll see oh and then here um again that's showing showing the same information and then here it's showing the side step back which is um the side step back would would be within is actually uh the proposal currently is zero um feet but in this concept design we were generous and wanted to provide a side step back and since they are the developer would be required to provide for project open space um you know it it would be it it would be for it would be their design um would be a choice they could yeah yeah they would need to find a design solution to accommodate the project open space so maybe it's on the side maybe it's in the rare maybe it's in the front um so it gives them that flexibility of where it could be located but as you can see the majority of the building the front of the building um is is has a uniformed um building facade and that we would want consistent um throughout the that zoning overlay and you can imagine if this was applicable to other zoning districts um and then you could see that it then steps back a little bit um by at least um 25 percent um to allow you know perhaps a cafe um um or restaurant or just a plaza where people gather um for no you know for a little um like an amphitheater sort of seating um you could be I mean you could we could have fun and come up with creative ideas all day of what that could look like would that be if you have the the 15 foot setback and then you have the 25 percent I don't know how many feet the 25 percent would be just trying to manage the space that might be um what is the 25 percent sorry um oh oh oh where um so a minimum of 75 percent of of the front facade facing the public way would be located along the front setback line to reinforce um so um so this um maybe been exaggerated um the percentages but you can see that that the majority of the building facade is is would be at the consistent 15 foot setback and that that and um we'll say that maybe that's 75 percent of the building will will pretend that that is 75 percent and then um that uh there would be a portion of the building that would be setback further to provide a more ample portional um outdoor space and if you recall in earlier revisions I believe we had a percentage for the project open space and after much discussion um we I kind of forgot what that percentage was maybe 10 percent 20 percent I don't remember anymore um and but we felt that uh that that it needs to be uh the the project open space should be dictated on the the use classification the density of the development and the intensity of the development and those factors will help dictate the amount of project open space so for instance if you had a five-unit apartment building perhaps you're not going to have a gigantic play equipment area um but if you have a apartment building that has I don't know 25 units well now we're talking maybe now we can have an outdoor plaza maybe we can have a little a pavilion area um now if the building's larger than that now we're talking now we can say well we would want your project open space proportional to that use classification the density of that use and the intensity of that development and when I say intensity of that development we're talking about how many people are coming and going out of that building we're talking about how many occupants how many visitors and how much foot traffic how much cars are coming in and out things of that nature and so that that would help dictate for the board what what they would see is a reasonable project open space thank you thank you very much thank you Dorothy uh Susanna and then Kathy hi Susanna hello Susanna Moskrat 38 north Prospect street I have to say that way past my bedtime um and I hope I'm still making some sense um I was surprised that the purpose of the BL overlay district is only to encourage residential development is it not also for businesses I mean limited business that doesn't seem to be even on the agenda anymore well it would be um it would be my understanding that any proposed development in the overlay district would be what's you know what's permitted in the BL uh district so it could be all apartments right well it could be it could be a mixed use building it could be um yeah it'd be kind of be kind of nice if it mentioned that it had something to do with business so the dimensions that have changed a lot since the last time this came to the planning board and I am having real trouble understanding what um the the new height limit of 51 feet what that looks like I would really appreciate it if you would show us hypothetical buildings that were the maximum that could be built on these two blocks because we know that one developer owns the whole first block and it could be that there would be one building there and I also would really appreciate it if you would show us some sections that help us understand how these buildings at 51 feet at the maximum I mean what I would call the worst case scenario you probably call it the best case scenario what how that would line up with the the archipelago buildings across the street and I would like to see um this height against St. Bridget's church so that I have some points of reference and I think that would help a lot of people who don't have a mental image of what exactly 51 feet looks like I think it's really important that the council understand what it's voting for this is a huge amount of building for this area that we're used to seeing as a very sort of modestly scaled transitional zone and I think we deserve to understand what these changes could in fact bring upon our town thank you thank you um Nate and well Chris you did have your hand up okay so Nate I don't think Suzanne I think um you know not just a section showing a height I think you know what's important here too is we have a setback from the street and then there's you know um so we have a you know a new front setback and then there's also the property line so for instance along the Pleasant Street you know from Kohl's to Halleck you know the the property lines about 25 to 30 feet off the curb and then we have another 15 feet so even if the building is taller you know I would say we could also do sections from building a potential building across the street to the across the street to the you know One East Pleasant or to Zana Block and show kind of that whole street perspective because I think that's helpful as well you know I think comparing heights is also helpful but you can say wow that's a really tall building but if it's now 20 feet further back from the sidewalk then what we're currently seeing then the you know the relative height to the pedestrian zone is different so I think having that whole you know street side is you know one side to the other side sections in a number of places would would be helpful as well thank you um so we have Kathy Shane hi Kathy hi I'm still at 519 Montague Road um I just have two questions that build off actually what Nate just said um when I'm looking at the memo I think I'm reading it correctly that the building coverage goes from no more than 35 percent to no no maximum is the way it's written and and is that you're trying to set it further back from the street and do a variety of things that minimize the building coverage because that BG has 70 percent so it could be 100 percent is is the way I'm reading it with building coverage I'm not doing lot coverage right now so that's a question if I'm reading it right then as a transition BG has a height of 55 feet EL currently is 35 feet and this has a 51 foot height so it's not much of a transition um you know so there's something in between there like 45 feet that would be more so just a question where 51 came from so it's a question of why 51 and the um this relative scale um it would help me understand public way and property line if this particular we knew where the public way was and Chris you told me one point I can't make a guesstimate I have to go on the GIS map for each so it seems like the public way here may be deeper in this area before you hit property line so just that sense of scale you know would be helpful um I was told I live on Montague road that I can't guess public way if I go up and down the houses I have to go to each property so I don't know how much it varies um so that's where you're measuring from the public way and then the setback is from the property line so when you talk about relative to the height to the street but just put some of those on these maps too that would just be helpful for me um to get a sense of that so my first question to am I right that building coverage could go to 100 percent of whatever is left after you've set back um which is more than bg but maybe you've set aside enough lot that it's not more um so there there wouldn't be a building coverage requirement within the overlay but the um the area behind the overlay that's in the bl existing bl would need to meet the the building coverage requirement and I'm looking at the table three right now and that would be at 85 percent however but that's lot coverage I'm talking about building oh yeah building coverage sorry thank you it is it is getting late uh building coverage uh maximum building coverage within the bl is at 35 percent yeah and I just at least that means a physical structure with no maximum could be 100 percent other than what you've done um and I just would like some is that what's being proposed and does that mean there's nowhere for the rainwater to go down into the ground so I just I just want some sense of what that means if the building could be that much of it that's it it's so it's it's a comment and a question and I don't need an answer tonight very good um thank you Kathy uh going back Chris you ever hand up yes I just wanted to answer partially answer Kathy's question um so the right of way line is the property line so the right of way takes up you know all property that the town owns that includes sidewalk and roadway and green strips and trees and whatever the town owns is considered the private uh the public way and the edge of the public way is the property line of the private property that abuts the public way does that make sense it does and I just want to know how much is the public way because it's is it 10 feet of public way or is it 20 feet of public way that's in it varies all over the place right so in these dimensional things for this overlay I think it's particularly important that at least in these sections we get that wiggle line that's called public way that's what I'm asking you want to see that on a map yeah it was just to make it clear to me that the property line is right up to the public way and then we're measuring but I don't know where the public way is so um I think Kathy just quickly I think there's a difference that's why triangle street has a 25 foot setback because the red dotted line the property line is actually right on the curve right so we want a deeper setback there so that's why it's 25 feet whereas if you go to north pleasant street the property line the red dashed line is anywhere from 20 to 30 feet from the curve uh just because it's a more generous right of way and so that's why there's only a 15 foot front setback so we're those front setbacks are in response to how close the property line is to the curve edge now I think I understand what you're saying I think we could um we could diagram that uh just to illustrate that um a different way um but that's what that's what the you know where the where the cursor is right now that's a 20 foot it's about 20 feet from you know property line to right of way you know to the curve edge so there's 20 feet within the right of way that is not roadway thank you uh and then I just want to say quickly about the building coverage and we talked about this a little bit too I think you know right if you look at the blue you think wow that could be a really massive building but in reality someone's not going to make a building that's 100 feet deep most the buildings are you know anywhere from 50 to 75 feet deep you know if you think of an apartment a double loaded corridor office space just to have such a massive building you don't all that there's not a lot of light so there's a lot of interior so most people are not building a building that is 100 feet by 100 feet right they're just not building a big block even the bigger ones downtown are no deeper than typically 65 feet um yeah there might be an L shaped so it might actually be longer than 100 feet but the depth of the building typically isn't much deeper than 70 feet so I think that's a really good question about what the building coverage would look like so in concept models we can show that but I don't think rarely would you see a building that is just so massive right that would actually take up the whole overlay I think in reality the overlay is deep enough to give a developer flexibility in how they design the site in the building the hope is not that they would just put a huge massive building thank you Doug yeah jack seeing is this is our first conversation of this and we will have at least one more I wondered if we were going to have very much more conversation tonight because I'm going to need to peel off oh I think we're done I think we the Kathy was the last one and we just have a few more items to get through but I think we're all done with with the BL discussion so thank you very much Maureen Nate and Chris for all your input and Rob for your presence constant presence so uh old business no old business okay a new business no new business and for me and Pam can bring it up on the screen um I'll just describe what it is um Kay Atkinson owns a doctor's office of practice on um Research Drive over in East Amherstof Belcher Town Road and um she would like to build a parking lot for herself um a little bit farther down the street she needs more parking so she's purchasing a piece of land from Mr. Allen Birkenwald um and Allen Birkenwald owns this property that's outlined here in yellow you can see where it's located along Old Belcher Town Road between Research Drive and Haley Village Place um so he's carving off the back portion of his property to sell to Kay Dadkinson to construct this parking lot and Pam can show you the the map uh Mr. Birkenwald owns the area that's outlined in green um he's proposing to sell this uh the doctor Atkinson the area that is to the left of that red line um which is what is it 0.8 acres and what we need you to tell us is that um this is not a subdivision in terms of the usual um use of the word subdivision in other words A&R means it's not it's uh approval not required subdivision control approval is not required for this division of this property because we're not creating subdivision so I would ask you to authorize Jack Jamesick to sign this um A&R plan on behalf of the planning board and then Dr. Atkinson can move ahead with her project and by the way this is coming in under Article 14 and I'm sorry I think um I saw Rob Mara leave just now because he might have been able to explain to you um about the use of Article 14 in this um in this arena but essentially what it means is that the building commissioner can um approve a project such as this without it having to go through site plan review or special permit um and it's a it's a result of the um COVID emergency and Article 14 is in place through December 20 of 2021 so it's but parking lot aside what we're asking you to do here is authorize Jack to sign this um A&R plan okay any questions from the board I see none okay uh I guess is is there any uh anyone object to me signing this just raise your hand see none okay so we'll make arrangements to get together for you to sign the plan yeah so um anything else nope okay so reporter the chair I I think Chris maybe you could just report the town council decisions on the building moratorium and uh inclusionary zoning just in case yep people aren't aware so the town council voted on Monday night to um approve the inclusionary zoning by law and that was a vote of 13 to 0 and I don't believe there was any discussion they seem to be convinced that that was the right thing to do um on the moratorium um they voted uh four in favor and uh nine not in favor of uh the moratorium so the moratorium did not pass that was that was the result and I'm very happy to report about the inclusionary zoning I think that's really important and um yep developers are already paying attention to to that so it's a good thing good uh anything else Chris I let's see oh I should make sure that I tell you what's on the agenda for next Wednesday the next Wednesday we have public hearings on mixed use buildings apartments the parking that we showed you tonight and ad use accessory dwelling units which we showed you a couple of months ago and you all said it was good um so that's what we'll be having the public hearing on next week with it to be a joint hearing with the CRC and as I said before if you don't feel comfortable voting you can continue the public hearing you can ask us for more information um so that's that's the story okay great uh and then yeah maybe we can squeeze in the minute the review of the minutes uh as well there so next week uh yeah but see how it goes so uh I guess we can adjourn good night everyone thank you what was this four hours and 15 minutes and 40 not bad pretty long mr. gem sick yeah I kept to this good night my hand there's my hand nice stuff the cloud recording


The medical industry has seen a rise in demand for orthopedic and dental implants, which is expected to continue with an aging population and active lifestyle culture. However, failure rates caused by bacterial infection are a concern leading to research into antibiotics and antibacterial coatings. Nanotextured surfaces have been developed to mimic the bacterial properties of some animal, plant, and insect species, but there is no one particular surface structure that exhibits bacterial behavior against all types of microorganisms. Biomimicking fabrication methods, such as hydrothermal synthesis, are commonly used due to their environmentally friendly nature and simplicity compared to other methods. The proposed bacterial mechanisms between bacteria cells and nanotextured surfaces are discussed, but additional parameters, such as biological cell membrane properties, adhesion forces, bacteria dynamics, and nanostructure mechanical properties, should be included in the models. The mechanical stability and cytotoxicity of micro and nanostructures and materials must be established before nanotextures can be used on orthopedic implant surfaces to inhibit bacterial adhesion. This article was offered by Orca Jagasa, he's and Charlie, Asher Matthew, and others. We are article.tv, links in the description below.


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I, this is Professor Gerald Friedman, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst. I'm here today to talk about income distribution in the United States. Who has gained and who has lost? And the basic data is over here, which is also on the course website. So you don't have to write everything down now. Since 1979, this is pre-tax income. And keep in mind that we have cut taxes for the rich more than for the poor. So the post-tax income data are even more skewed. The bottom 20% of the population, 60 million Americans, gained an average household in that group, gained $200. At least it's positive. The next 60%, that's 180 million Americans, gained on average $9,395. It's something. Kind of enough to pay their increase in health insurance premiums. The next 10%, and now we're talking about the top 20% of the population, 30 million Americans are in households that gained $30,900. Just enough to pay your tuition. The next 5%, and here we're into the top 30 million Americans, the next 5% gained $51,300. The next 4%, and here we're talking about 12 million Americans living among the richest households in the country, gained $107,400. That's pretty good. Keep in mind that it's more than the bottom 20% of the population gained in total. So these people are doing pretty well, right? Well no, not all that well. Let's get to the top 1% of the population. And at this point we're not yet in Paris Hilton territory. The bottom half of the top 1%, one and a half million Americans are in households that gained $301,600 in income since 1979. That's a lot of money. But not when you compare it to the top one half of 1%. So here we're talking about 0.4% of the population. That's a little more than 1.2 million Americans. They've gained $745,500. That sounds like a lot of money, doesn't it? Until you get to the ones who've really gained the top 1.1% of the population, 300,000 Americans live in those households, they have gained $5.978 million, almost $6 million. We're talking about people who have gained an awful lot of money. When you take it all together, these three groups, the top 1% of the population, 3 million people, they gained more than everybody else. We have increased production in this country and a majority of the gains have gone to the very rich, to the very small minority of people who are very rich. We can name some of them, Paris Hilston, her sister, Nikki Ritchie, and you can go on down the names of the CEOs, and it's a very small group of people. There are a few thousand of them who have cycled through the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans or the Forbes 2000, and that's a lot of people who have gained a lot of money, but it's not very many compared to all of the United States, and most of the wealth has been going to them. And with that, they've done very well, they live longer than they used to, the rest of us don't. Well, not quite, I mean, the rest of us have gained a little bit in life expectancy since 1979, the rich have gained a lot more. 15% of Americans, kind of most of these people, are officially poor. What does that mean? Family of four, an income of under $22,000. Try living on that. Try paying rent on that. Not to mention school books, clothes, maybe transportation to try to look for a job. Those are the people down here. They have not done well. If we take a more realistic poverty rate, at this point, the official poverty rate for the United States is about 15% of the country are poor, but if you take a more realistic poverty rate, New York City, for example, about 43% of the population are really poor, that is, poor in a meaningful way, including over a third of the elderly, and a higher proportion of children. And it makes a difference.  Being rich increases your chance of getting into college more than getting a good score, a top score on the math SAT. Being rich, some college is going to find a way to let you in because they can get the money. 700 on the math SAT, oh, that's nice, they'll make us look good on the statistics, but can you afford to pay your way? So is this a good thing? We're going to have to save that for next time. Till then, thank you, and have a nice day.


Okay, I've been playing around with lots of camera modules to get camera vision data in CircuitPython into like an ESP32S2 and this camera is kind of neat. Inside it actually has a voice coil so it can do autofocus. I've loaded in the autofocus firmware and you can even see, here's the little camera and I'm powering it from 3 volts, you can see it's like trying to do the autofocus mode so if I put something in front of it it can actually do macro shots and if I put this away it'll focus on us. So far so good. It's kind of neat. You can even hear a little clicking sound when it does the autofocusing. The voice coil actually like literally moves the lens back and forth. This is what happens in your smart cam but now it works in CircuitPython so that's great. I'm going to write this up and release a driver for this OV5640 camera with voice coil.


Happy Valentine's Day. Romantic love. It's a lot like a rose.  You know how much that hurts, but you find the right person and it just, it's blooms and blooms and blooms and it's something really just nothing else like it. So today I'm just going to share with you a story of how my guides helped me to find the right one for me and I'm just going to share a piece of artwork also that was involved in that and at the end I'll do a love reading for this Valentine's Day 2021 or whenever you happen to land on this video, if you're drawn to this, this reading is going to be for you. Okay so this story takes us back almost a year and a half ago to November 2019 and I had about two years before left a very challenging long-term marriage and at that point I was really feeling kind of ready to maybe jump into this relationship thing again. I actually had a long-term relationship or kind of a long-distance relationship with an old flame that this person really is dear to my heart, but it just wasn't feeling aligned to me and then there was another another long story, a person that was not a romantic relationship but was had that kind of twin flame feeling on my end anyway and which I knew from the get-go wasn't right, but it just was one of those super compelling emotional things that you know it was like you know some of those things where it's like no matter how hard you try it's still there. So it kind of working through some of those things and maybe you can relate to some of these experiences. But it was like I knew that neither one of those was the right but it was just sort of you know where we go from here and so one time is you if you've been following me for a while you may know that I work in my journal and that I access kind of the akash or through my higher guidance through the journal a lot. It's one beautiful way and if you haven't tried it yet I'd encourage you to try journaling because it it's an awesome way to really really connect in a deep way to your higher self. Anyway so I was doing some journaling and I wasn't even asking so much about I wasn't even asking directly about romance. It wasn't even on my mind but I was just sort of like asking for kind of clarity and guidance on kind of the path I had or the next couple months and all of a sudden she like my higher guidance starts going in on you need more romance in your life and not the swashbuckling kind you need the flowers and chocolate kind but maybe light on the chocolate right. And then she continued and gave me this whole list of instructions and what to do next. So I wrote them all down and it was things like first thing she told me to do was write down exactly what you want in a partner all the important things just write them down. And then she said paint the angel of romance and then hang that painting up in your bathroom get yourself some roses buy roses for yourself get yourself some bubble bath take a bubble bath she gave me this whole list of things to do. So when I came out of that and re-read it as like wow and oh at the end she goes this is your Christmas wish as like and I was sort of like looking at this like where did this come from but I decided what the heck okay so I did I did every single thing on that list and starting with the painting of the angel of romance and part of me in the back of my mind is like what is this. So I got this big sheet of watercolor paper I'm gonna put this painting up here so you can see it got this big sheet of watercolor paper and just started painting and you know just letting the intuition take it and this angel appears and when I first saw him I was like really I felt dismayed I was like I am so done with you know my heart being a battleground and here's this warrior this really powerful warrior angels like I know I don't want this anymore but then I went and did the rest of it right I took the bubble bath and all that and oh they said put the rose petals in the bath so I had this bubble bath with rose petals and a candlelight it was so romantic it was just me right but then I as I took that bath they understood that and they told me and I did some more journaling around this and they said or she said my higher guidance said that there will be other angels of romance this is the first one that you're being sent and the reason it's a warrior is because he's going to protect and guard the boundaries of your heart and then it was like oh well that makes so much sense because like many of us one of the things that you know I was running into is was you know feeling this oneness with another person without really having those boundaries and which opened me up to not being treated well to not treating myself well and you know all those things that lead down that path to a very painful love relationship okay so so so what happened next what happened next was really amazing this friend of mine who I had gotten to know over the past year and had actually hired him to work on my house and stuff like that but to me I wasn't really feeling this romantic feeling towards him but he started showing up and even just a couple years before my my guidance had told me the right one's going to show up on your doorstep and and he started sort of showing up in my life and then shortly before Christmas I really started getting this feeling this was maybe two weeks before Christmas I started getting this feeling I really really need to just end this long distance relationship it just it's it's not right and and I kind of put it off maybe this is like three weeks before I put it off to about three and finally it was like really urgent you got to just cut it off and so I did and then like I think it was maybe the very next day that my friend Rich kind of basically asked me out for Christmas morning and we end up going on this hike on Christmas morning and we've been together ever since and really happy ending to that is like last last solstice just a few a couple months ago we ended up getting married so so that's my love story that I wanted to share with you and I'm sharing it with you in case if you are in that position where you're just like you have been hurt by love but are really feeling like you want that in your life that that you know even if you've been hurt again and again and again you can still like it's that that true love does exist it really does it's amazing when you find it and that you also have to be very very first of all clear about what it is that you want right what's important to you in that other person and be very clear on that and then also be willing to say no and willing to just you know bring in that warrior angel and and recognize that you are you know you're you're worth treating well you deserve respect you deserve to be treated well right and whatever that means to you but it's important that you know you first of all understand within yourself and begin to really love yourself in a deep deep deep way and to protect your own boundaries and and make sure that whoever does you know make it through they're gonna make it's gonna be that one who not just shows you love right because you know how many relationships start with love bombing but truly shows you respect and you know and who is just you know it's gonna show up for you and it also needs to be vice versa right so really being clear on you know how you can support that person as well okay so I hope you've enjoyed that little story and I'm just stay tuned now we'll just do a little love reading and by the way I don't think I introduced myself in this video yet so if you don't know me my name is Ona Christie and I am a visionary artist and energy worker I work a lot with the the spirit animals and kind of the nature spirits and today I'm actually going to be using a plant deck this is the illustrated herbiary beautiful deck that was given to me recently by Maya toll so starting with the energy of you quaking aspen okay we are one this is beautiful this is a this will be is going to be represent kind of what you're working with right now kind of the energy of the current challenge or lesson that you're learning right it's called we are one so this is a perfect card to come up in terms of a love reading this is if you're if you're resonating with this now remember this is a general reading for the collective so if you don't resonate with this it just means that you're not necessarily at this point right now but this can be this is great for either if you're seeking love or if you're already in a relationship and you know looking at deepening that relationship so aspen is a beautiful beautiful tree that if you're looking at an aspen grove a lot of times they're going to be actually the same tree it's just coming up as different that the base whole interconnected root system and so the different aspens are going to be pretty much pretty much one basically so a lot about aspen is about really connecting to something greater than yourself and because what happens sometimes in relationships is that we want to connect with that other person right and we're what we really need to do first is root down really connect with the oneness right and and connecting with that great mother with the oneness of mother earth and feeling your connection with all of humanity right and and feeling your place there and also you know reaching up and connecting with that higher light okay and once you've done that once you've really rooted and really grounded yourself and also holding yourself consistently to the light right when you really have that deep connection you know the central son of the holy father with the the core of the crystal mother earth right the holy mother that's when you can have this personal relationship because until you connect with that divine mother divine father you're always going to be looking for that connection and if you're trying to get that out of another individual it's never going to work right so aspen tells us that okay once we have that that deeper connection with you know with the planet with spirit with you know knowing our place in the whole then we can have that beautiful beautiful love bond between two individuals looking at this one this will be you know energies that you've either mastered or are coming out of a white willow says the ways of water to me water often is like this emotional field right and white willow coming up as a challenger with this water coming up as a challenger that that's I mean that to me that's always this over overly emotional or being carried away by your emotions right it's seeing that it's coming up as a challenger you know if this is resonating with you with you likely you've you may have had some of these relationships where you're just just emotionally carried away and and that's when it's like we have to have that balance between our logic right because we can have those emotional bonds that are just like a somebody's energy can just blow your way and you think oh my god you know this is this this has got to be the one because it feels so strong but then you can you know if you've ever been in that kind of relationship where it's just like you're just head over heels but you're getting the little red flags right the logic this doesn't make sense or the spiritual warnings like you know they'll come in and they may be really big red flags but if your emotions are so strong if you haven't mastered those emotions yet it it's so easy to ignore those red flags or just go counter to them okay so this is a card kind of indicating that it's seeing as it's coming out of the past you know learning your lessons from the past looking at you know if there's a new relationship on the horizon and you may be feeling that heart-thumping right look beyond just the emotions you know look beyond just the chemistry and make sure that you've also got you know your your spiritual your intuitive you know if it's a green flag rather than a red flag making sure that you know this relationship makes sense logically right we need to have all those things in place before I get to this one let's yeah let's look at this one yes this is going to be the kind of advice or moving into again coming up with a challenge so let's look at this dandelion dandelion is a real survivor right just gripping gripping gripping and it can be a very very very positive totem you can see just got the solar kind of connotation kind of bloom where you're planted but it also kind of I think has the reputation and herbal circles is kind of being a curmudgeon right and so this is it's perseverance but also just lighten up the perseverance a little bit right because we can get really like you know really emotionally attached to this idea of oh my god it's got to be the one and it's got to be the you know the twin flame and it's got to be whatever and and that can get us into almost this almost the state of flight or flight about this whole thing and and so what I think this is saying is you know dandelion can be such a survivor so grippy right and we can get really kind of uptight about it but if you turn it over it can be super playful and just sort of like allowing yourself to play allowing yourself to just sort of bloom and be happy right finding that happiness first and also that's that's where this can really lead you know allowing yourself to just spread out send yours your this is like the fruits the seeds right and so when we're fully balanced with ourselves when we found that already then we're going to be sending our little seeds out right of happiness of joy and that's when the you know that we're going to get a pull in that which we are wanting to attract so I'm going to leave this both of these right side up here just remembering to you know that you've you've come all this way you've learned a lot of lessons you've mastered a lot of things and you know love is no different than anything else right we always want to just be balanced and keep that balance and you know hold on to that and also you know just allowing yourself to let loose and play a little bit the supporting elements well so many things coming up upside down in reverse there's a star flower finding grace and I'm not familiar with this herb very much so but I'm seeing a lot of peacock here okay so I'd say that this is really about looking past looking past you know the the outer showiness you know and looking into the heart of things right even though there's not a heart here to start it just feels to me like you know the peacock can be so showy and he's trying to like show off for the you know his mate but just you know and that's why it's coming up this way is that I'd be looking beyond you know maybe maybe it's not going to be what you think it is right so you know finding that grace in the whole process being open you know watching for the signs of you know would you find peace in your heart are you feeling grace within yourself and remembering that if it's the right person even if it doesn't seem like it's going to be just give it a little chance give it a little time right and if it's right it'll grow into it like you don't have to rush into this and this is this is going to be the the challenging aspect spirit into matter okay what I'm getting here again I'm sort of getting a the same the same message here it's sort of like the grasping and the showing you know showing off the the the rings or whatever it is and okay these quick blooming things sometimes you know they can look be beautiful to begin with but take your time I think for both of these I'm getting really take your time because sometimes it's so flash something that's so flashy or showy at the beginning will wow you but like don't be too fast to jump into it okay don't be too fast allow things to really unfold and to blossom and then you're you know you don't have to jump into hey don't have to jump into bed right away you don't have to jump into exchanging rings right away you can let this blow and maybe it's also letting it really bloom within yourself first really fall in love with yourself first you know have the patience to do that and you know then it it will bloom in its own time okay so hope you've enjoyed and much love to you best best wishes and I will catch you again soon