eason another reason why we're giving all this feedback to town councils because they're the decision makers they're the ones who are going to lead this charge and priorities as far as how we you know make amherst a better place to live work you know be and so um yeah i think they they want feedback from the planning board because we've been doing this for a little while and we have come across the same sort of issues and they just want to hear from us you know what are the planning priorities that are in our mind and um so yeah i think we're hearing a lot about housing downtown and then the whole zoning read write or buy it all repair whatever i think that's a separate trajectory we don't know what's going on with that yet but that might actually fix a lot of the issues we're talking about right now but the bigger bites i think are downtown and housing as far as um if town council wanted to think about other things to try to prioritize focusing on because zoning the zoning bylaw issue is um i think that's another animal in itself so um so i just want to throw that out there janet because you had mentioned the zoning 70 and i think it needs to dissolve i dug up this email from Wayne Fiden from last year because we had talked to caroline mish and um i know that chris had talked to or emailed with Wayne Fiden about like what do you guys do as far as zoning uh how do you make zoning changes and north hampton does not have a zoning set committee they start zoning changes from the planning staff it goes to um referred to the the planning board and then the planning board talks or works with the city council which then refers it back to the planning staff so they really have a smaller circle as far as their process and how all this happens so um so i just want to throw that in there even though we're going to maybe talk about it later but um yeah i think the planning board should have a bigger sort of um you know involvement in in and i'm thinking about zoning bylaw and zoning bylaw amendments and that the zoning subcommittee is a thing of the past it's um it was good when it was was around because it you know started the sort of um back when um i think a few members wanted who actually wrote zoning bylaws um but uh i think we're not at that capacity now and um yeah there's too many cooks in the kitchen so that's just my two cents thank you i recognize jack then i see michael dug and janet and just to remind everyone um we've got a lot of good stuff here so um add some more comments my plan is that chris can develop uh you know uh draft of our list and then it will be reviewed at the next planning board meeting on the 19th which um then hopefully there would be a vote and it could then be moved forward to the planning department crc and the town council so we've got a lot of good stuff here so jack yeah so you know i definitely agree with marie about the zoning subcommittee it seemed like its function was kind of interfacing with town meeting and and the education process with how to deliver complex information to many people of varying levels of of uh you know technical sort of know how and and how to process and and that's not the case now i don't think with with the with the crc and town council they just it's just it's a lot more you know efficiency that they're working with the town much better and that all makes sense to me so just wanted to say that and then uh with regard to um the lay it you know functions of liaisons from the planning board i go back to i feel like we're we're not elected people we're just appointed and then and and then when we send people to these different you know committees like i'm on the pioneer valley planning commission i mean i i'm very reluctant to make you know decisions that really have a bearing on on amherst but really that really never really comes up in in my role there it did come up when we were electing the the new director for the pioneer valley planning commission and and uh all of a sudden there was a lot of attention to pioneer valley planning commission in terms of who i was going to vote for and and all this intense is like wow people uh so i i realize like the planning board of people when we're representing on different committees uh or we're liaison that we represent the whole planning board and and so i get nervous when we have one individual that would be that liaison communicating for all of us so i just i'd rather have the crc come to us like like christine mentioned seems like a much more healthy model because again i i feel like we're more in an advisory role and in the last i don't want to pick on anyone but uh i think i heard everybody needs parking downtown not true and that's all i have thank you i see michael burt whistle yeah um um in line with uh christine's hope for a uh a top three or top five i would i want to suggest that we've got a top three and that is uh housing and it's multiple in its multiple uh um incarnations with the toolbox idea downtown and the uh ultimate repair and replacement of the zoning bylaw uh and if we submit those three ideas to crc and then to the council i think that will include almost most of the things that we're interested in working on it doesn't leave every then put everything in it leaves the flat hills issue and the water issue out it leaves the marijuana cultivation cultivation out at least several things out that were on the list but i think for me those those are the really important things and all the stuff we talk about on a regular basis whether it's form-based zoning or zoning repair or fixing the parking bylaw or any of those kind of bylaw tinkerings or or big changes you know you put it under the under the category of bylaw revision and or uh uh uh uh redoing and the same thing is true with the downtown issues and the same thing is true with the housing issues well they all overlap to some degree uh and that's why that all those uh i didn't show it up in all the different categories in the 19 in the 2019 chart because they do they all overlap and they all fit in one place or another but if we focus them the way i'm suggesting i think it makes more sense it's more understandable to the crc and to the town council but these are the things that the planning board is interested in working on and uh we hope they are too agree sounds good michael um so at this point um chris uh can you and i sort of work together and get a draft out um and send that out to members so and then put it on the agenda for the next meeting to um finalize yes ma'am okay great thank you everyone um you know this is sort of our creative process here and it's fluid and and um i think we'll do a good job and get a good list and i think it will be helpful so thank you everyone for um you're looking at this so um at this point i'm gonna suggest we move forward uh chris were there any other old business topics not reasonably anticipated i can't think of i just saw it you can't think of any okay um michael i'll i see your hand up yeah i don't know whether this is a little business or new business and they said it's not really not anticipated 48 hours of the meeting i'm driving today by the up spring street and i noticed the building at 26 is 26 spring street uh and i realized that it's been sitting there with nothing having been done to it for at least four months now um and uh i wonder if that's an issue for us uh or for anybody that i wonder i'm wondering about it all did they say other other buildings are complete are continuing in spite of the pandemic uh that one is not i guess it's the pandemic i have they run out of money are we gonna have to repurpose that site what's going on press i do not know what's going on i've heard conjectures from various people but i don't have any facts so i don't uh i can't really i can't really help to enlighten us about that one i've noticed that myself michael so it's somewhat concerning that that building might just stay that way for 15 years unless we do something about it and that really strikes me as a bad idea anyway just brought it up thanks uh item five new business topics not reasonably anticipated anything uh we don't have any new business as far as i know maybe pam has something but not i do not and jenna did you have something to say i saw her hand pop up but now it's gone but we'll just raise it again if you have something okay um okay and i don't see pam work in there uh i number no i have nothing okay um item six form a a and r subdivision applications we do have a form a yep i'm going to show you where it is she's got a map up here this is there's your map tom reedy has submitted this um a and r application and so the property that's outlined here in yellow is 10 courtland drive and the gentleman who owns this property also owns the adjacent property which is outlined in turquoise and he wants to um reconfigure these properties so that he um i think he probably wants to sell the turquoise property so he's submitted an a and r plan which pam might um now show us and um so lot one is the lot on the left where the house is currently located i might add that this um property uh on top of the drawing here that looks like it's got bricks on it um that is also a property that's owned by this fellow i think i'm not sure what his name is she needs any wice or something like that um anyway so he owns this property with the house on it he owns the property with the brick pattern on it and he owns this property um to the right side of the drawing which is called what yeah um he wants to reconfigure the property line between lots one and two um and so he can accommodate the building circle on both properties and also meet the setback requirements because you can see that there's a dotted line that runs very close to his house uh maybe pam can show where that is this line here yep that's existing lot line and that's too close to the house and it also puts this little shed this little square um stripe thing between the two properties if you go up to the top that thing there it puts that i think that's actually called a cabin um so that would have been on lot two and mr schneewise wants to have that little cabin on his own property where the house is and also have the appropriate setbacks um to that cabin and the cabin does have the appropriate setbacks in this drawing and the deck also has the appropriate setback the deck is i think it's four feet high and so it's set back a distance no it's three feet high so it's set back a distance equal to its height um so rob mora has examined this drawing closely and it meets the zoning requirements and um town engineer has also examined this closely and he recommended that there be an easement which is um the kind of hatched area that's shown down closer to the road that area there which would be a sewer easement that would allow the sewer in courtland drive to serve both lot two and lot one um so that's that's why that sewer easement is drawn there so mr reedy would have been here except that he needed to be an uxbridge at a zoning board of appeals meeting um tonight so he wasn't able to be here but he did uh ask that we present this drawing to you this a and r and ask if you would authorize the um planning board chair to sign it good does uh anyone have an issue with me signing raise your hand does any questions i'm not seeing any hands so i think um i think we're good chris okay so i'll get the drawings together and i'll let you know when um when they're all together and uh ask you to come in and sign them christine great thank you um item seven upcoming zba applications i don't have anything new to tell you um they're still still um taking on the comprehensive permit for 132 north hampton road um and they will be meeting again tomorrow night crime thank you there's something that just came in pam last week that we put into munis what was that you helped marine to put it into munis remember what that was yes that that's the appeal for that's right yep so that's that's the appeal right okay but everybody knew about that yes right so item um eight upcoming spps pr subs of applications the one thing that i'm aware of is that um survival center is coming in uh they are trying to serve their population and not allowing anyone to come into their building and right now they have a tent in their parking lot and um because you know winter is coming on they want to have a more um secure building or temporary building that is capable of withstanding snow and also um you know is a little warmer than just having a tent so um because the workers from the survival center have to be in this building and serve the people who come for food or whatever they're coming for um so anyway they want to propose a a structure that they're describing as a a temporary structure and they're sometimes they talk about it as being a shed so they're going to be coming to you on the 2nd of september to make this proposal and i've been working with the with lev benesra on the application for that so you'll be seeing that and and pam i don't can't think of anything else that we have coming before the planning board can you no okay okay thank you um i moved item uh nine planning board committee and liaison reports um so pioneer valley planning commission jack uh i i believe there's no a quote unquote recess uh going on right now um i'm not sure when we're meeting next but um it's been quiet are they going to do zoom meetings or oh we've been doing zoom meetings but um you know that was uh jeez i can't remember when the last one definitely in june i'm not sure we did one in july so it's summer summer yeah okay i'll be get started up september time um community preservation act committee uh nothing to report there or for the design review board um so before we move on to zoning subcommittee i just um i just jack do you know how many years you've been on pioneer valley planning commission um see when i start like four years ago four years ago yeah so four years i'm just and um and you have now moved up to the level that you're also on their executive committee correct yeah okay and with um my moving on that will open up a slot for someone else on the planning board to be the alternate commissioner if they would like to to keep that in mind um the agricultural commission david was on that is also open and um michael how many years have you been on the uh c pack and the design review board on the design review board for three years and c pack for two for two okay so i'm just asking because um you know in the past um usually members rotate a little bit try different committees and i want the other members and there'll be new members coming on to fill those spots but where you guys are the existing members if if you know this is a good time to sort of reconsider or move um like um with the uh if the zoning subcommittee goes away um you know michael like you have two big ones there you may not want both um and other members might want to you know those are two of the pretty powerful ones um and so just keep in mind that other committee members might you know want to shuffle it on one of those so think about which one you like the most or something well give up either of both of them well what do you want some well and that's the point i think so um we'll have over the about a month now hopefully you'll be getting some a couple of new members um elections would happen you know the board votes um so just i'll give it a little thought um you know and if other members do want that um they might speak up but michael i guess what i'm saying is maybe if you have a preference for one um that you might want to make that known so that people know that like that one you like more than the other one or whatever or maybe you like them both the same um just toss that out because you know just to rotate it around um so um i'll move on to the zoning subcommittee and um thank you didn't see your hand thank you dug yeah i i wanted to know all of you guys that are liaisons uh what does that involve do you go to every meeting of that entity or do you call the chair once every two months or you know what what's the level of commitment involved the level of commitment is you are expected to attend the meetings of those um boards or commissions or committees um that is the expectation so it is an added um uh duty to your normal planning board um so it is a commit you know a commitment and some people just don't have the bandwidth and that's okay they're not on any of the committees um but um you know we used to have some additional ones on there but the list is shrinking which is kind of good because there's already so many demands on us so um so like i said when you have new members coming in this is when you might all want to look at this with the chair christine in response to uh dugs uh in terms of the design review board and the community preservation act committee uh we're not liaisons we're members of those committees uh not that makes any real difference but they're voting members it makes a huge difference c pack also is a voting member so the only and correct how she'll commit i don't christ do you know if on the ag committee uh commission do you vote as a member or are you just um i think it's a liaison but did i was a liaison and the other ones are members right the design review board the c pack and um the piner valley uh janet janet she's muted but um he's also frozen you're frozen janet and muted okay i'm moving all right can you unmute me then somebody um yeah i've been trying to yeah you're frozen um but it's interesting i was just able to clear she might be good now yep yeah your wi-fi is just are you in a basement or something no because it's like wherever you are usually no problem but tonight a lot of a lot of issues janet you're right yeah you're just frozen you're gonna have to go by by and try um logging in again okay i'm gonna assume that she's gonna close out and then log back in um maria oh no other hands maria do you want to talk about zoning subcommittee yeah just briefly but also maybe when we get new members it'd be great if whoever's on current committees just talks about like number of meetings a month and commitment and what it's like because i have no idea what the other commitments are for the other boards um but yeah as far as the subcommittee i already mentioned it's just a now defunct group i mean especially with you going christine it'd just be janet and i and even if we had 10 people on the board it just still doesn't make sense um sorry the subcommittee because um there's a lot of other heads sort of going coming together to work on zoning right so um i don't know do we have to vote to nullify or can we just dissolve it i don't know if there's a formal process we need to do but um yeah i think the zoning subcommittee is uh no longer needed um there are other towns that had it when they had big things going on like master planning or other big initiatives but um now the balls and someone else's court so um yeah chris do you know if we need to do some sort of formal thing to save zoning subcommittee is no longer a i think you probably should to take a formal action years ago they took a vote to create it so it would take a vote to end it um so can i make a motion to dissolve the zoning subcommittee can i interrupt you all janet mcgowan has left the meeting oh just just so you know you know that i mean i have noted it here in the minutes but i have no idea if she's trying to come back okay um so i suggest we don't make the motion until janet comes back because she's a committee member so yeah it would make sense but that's the general sense of the direction of that subcommittee it's just it's no longer useful i agree and i just as someone who's been on it uh i wonder if this if she has called in can we ask this person who they are i bet it's janet because it's brand new it's me you're in i mean i'm just listening just keep going guys i'm just gonna hang out well janet we were just saying that the zoning subcommittee is no longer really a useful entity because there's other bigger groups making decisions and so we're talking about uh making a formal motion or vote to no longer have that subcommittee you know i i would actually strongly object to that because it's not on the agenda and i'm in the vice chair of the committee and i haven't heard about it but it seems you know like it's been talked about by others and um i think maybe we should push this to september to sort of discuss because yeah i i people i think people need to refresh a little bit of what robor was talking about in terms of who he was planning on working with i was also going to suggest that we also talk maybe in september as a planning board about how we're going to implement the master plan and the master plan implementation committee we had been talking about months ago so i i don't think that you know at nine o'clock or ten o'clock on a meeting throwing us in at the end is kind of a seems just seems really out of order to me well i'm on this committee and and i just i could see a role for it i'd like to talk about it and think about it and talk to the committee members not hear that like oh it's not important let's get rid of it well the committee members would be you and me and um like i mentioned before right now there's too many things going on for the planning department to really put more energy and time into yet another by monthly meeting that isn't really going to be achieving much because the town can we talk about this could we talk about this one it's on the agenda in a more kind of thoughtful way and you know put it off for two weeks or a month or so i mean we're not going to meet anyway so now we're not and maybe some maybe i might be some members on the board now or in the future be interested in we're you know revitalizing it i certainly am i guess it's it's uh yeah we can definitely discuss it later i make sense too but i also want to just have you but think in your thought process think about the planning staff as well then their time so yeah we can discuss it more but also consider that as a reason to not have it so um so give that some thought um i hope put together a memo or a list of things to send to chris breast up to then circulate as reasons why the sony subcommittee is defunct and then we can talk about it later meeting but um sure i just think it sort of it seems to be i'm kind of completely surprised by this and i have to say janet i've mentioned it to you um well you you actually mentioned it to me on a phone call as a done deal which makes me wonder if you have been talking with others about it i don't understand this process i don't get it done deal but i did talk to you about it um i'm on the committee also michael i do see it i'm i'm on the committee maria's on the committee and um i think all the reasons why maria has mentioned that this is not a good use of our time it's no longer doesn't fit for a moment open meeting let me just finish and i also agree that it's i want chris bestrup to have time to write zoning bylaws not be preparing for yet another meeting where nothing really gets accomplished i want her to be writing the zoning bylaws and bringing them to the planning board but i hear you i and that you know you don't want it to be dissolved and you are a member and i think we want to hear reasons you know specific reasons why you think it needs to keep going but before you do that think about for a minute i want to call michael has been very patiently uh with a raised hand i also see chris bestrup so i'm going to have michael talk then chris and then janet if you raise your hand like you can talk more thank you um when maria mentioned this notion of uh the zoning subcommittee being uh irrelevant an hour or so ago when we were talking about the priorities uh that's the idea first came up there one of the things that maria you mentioned was the idea of the possibility that perhaps the planning board should on a regular basis discuss these things i would be certainly reason i would be reasonable it seems to me and again this is i don't want to get ahead of this it would seem to be reasonable if we're going to abolish the zoning subcommittee that we put a an assumed hour in every planning board meeting to talk about zoning issues as as one of you know as number seven right after your business or something like that i'm someplace in there that that becomes a regular uh point now maybe we'd we'd just be responding to things that uh chris would bring us maybe we would be talking about these priorities that we've been talking about for much of the evening but uh we get so bogged down in in reviews one server and other that we seldom have chance to talk about the thing that i think is most appropriately the the venue for which is planning zoning so if we abolish the notion of the planning board having anything to do with zoning and give it to the planning department and give it to mr mora and give it to the crc then what are we doing here we're supposed to be doing zoning and if we don't do it through a subcommittee we've got to do it through the whole body and i'm happy to do it with the whole body okay thank you michael chris bestrop and then i see maria's hand so i just want to mention that um rub mara and i are going to meet with the community resources committee on september 15th we're scheduled for the day and we're going to be talking about how we're planning to approach um the rewrite of the zoning bylaw and we'll certainly bear on this discussion um he and i are going to prepare a presentation and um you know i can keep you up to date on what we're doing at our next planning board meeting on the 19th we haven't gotten a lot down on paper yet but we're working on it and um so i think it'll be enlightening to talk about it on the 19th and to talk about it on the 15th of september if you wanted to attend or listen in the rc meeting which i think it's going to be a two o'clock thank you for and uh janet i'll recognize you next and then maria but uh chris that sounds good could you say that date again for us september 15th which i think is a new thing is that right um probably a tuesday so um great meeting virtually with us tuesdays okay and you will have a list of priorities from the planning board and you'll have your own and this is sort of a meeting of the minds and that's good to hear thank you um janet so you know this is something i've been thinking about for a while which is you know especially since we're going to have new members is maybe talking like having a day retreat or something like a you know a morning a few hours or an afternoon on a weekend to talk about how we want to organize ourselves and focus on um you know because everyone you know throughout the year people well made suggestions like jack gemstick was looking for you know like how to you know in town how do we get more land for you know research part um that marshal has that thing with the whole construction you know how why we have to read that aloud um we can also i think talk about how we operate as a board and maybe the zoning subcommittee the master plan implementation with committee reorganizing our meetings a little more to focus on planning because it just seems to be our weak point um and you know maybe even just the process of how we go through every two weeks and stuff so it might be time for like a board to retreat with some new members to kind of figure out how to move ahead you know working with the zoning updates and things like that so that's just a suggestion we've been thinking about for a while so anyway that's it thank you um i just want to remind everyone about the zoning subcommittee that um the planning board creates it dissolves it it can be recreated so as things evolve over the next year or two or you know and it could come back in a different capacity and also that the mpic will also hopefully be developed over the next year and i think that will be more comprehensive than just planning board members but there might be one or two planning board members who so that might get added to our list of planning board committees and liaisons so um keep that in mind um maria um i just want to say that uh i had actually emailed chris breastrupt june 4th about the zoning subcommittees usefulness and whether we could you know of course we that was right we were not meeting and uh and i thought is it even worth starting up meeting again and then i said is it even worth existing and so we had a brief phone call so i just want to apologize to you janet about like being in the dark about it it was something that i'd been thinking about for a while obviously i didn't realize it was that long ago and that i just really thought with so many moving parts so many cogs in the machine all going to the same goal it just didn't make sense to have the two of us sitting there you know sitting around discussing visionary zoning and housing as much as i'd like to it's something that wouldn't really result in anything and it's a huge load on the planning department i just keep you know emphasizing that as well so we don't have a big decision tonight we're certainly not going to be meeting for a while so it's not urgent but it's sort of the general direction that um i think we're heading toward and like fistin said if it needs to come back you can come back later but um anyways yeah i just dug up my email it was from like june 4th it was like i just had this bug in my ear like you know this doesn't seem like a thing we really need anymore so um but yeah jenna i i i didn't think of it as something i needed to talk to everyone about at that time so i guess we had been meeting it would have come up but we don't mean yeah i just i just sort of talked to chris breast strip about it and um you know it was in my head yeah as it was mine too and i've talked to chris breast strip about it mostly because of staff resources and yeah at this time if anyone's noticed lately i've been really really fighting to try to get some stuff off chris's plate and and you know be able to have her focus on what we really want her to focus on for us so um chris i would like to recommend that you put this on the next planning board meeting on the 19th i think that gives everybody enough time to think about it and um so with that said i think we're done with the uh committee and liaison reports that was a lot but we're kind of doing some housekeeping here that we haven't done in a long time and need to do we're in a time of transition so i'm going to move to item um 10 reported chair which um a little sad to say i want to thank everybody for um this past year has it's been crazy it was a really good learning experience for me um i really loved working with you all i think we did an incredible amount of work and we even have really mastered doing this through covid online pros and cons with both person and being here but my term runs out at the end of this month so um with that uh we need to get new leadership um i did talk to uh jack and we i think we would both if he'll accept we we would like to nominate um Doug Marshall to replace me as chair um and we can open this up to discussion first he has to even say hit entertainment idea but i think you would be great you've really hit the ground running even though you're our youngest member um are we doing nominations now or um well you have to have a chair and i won't be here so um okay i mean so i mean is this is this normally an agenda item i'm kind of lost now um sometimes not always because people leave it's been done all different ways over the past five years that i've been on the board you could nominate Doug as a as a chair until you have elections um until you have your new members so Doug could be nominated as the intern chair you get new members for formal elections the elections are usually put on the agenda it's a formal agenda item well we can do it that way Doug would you accept i i'm just asked finishing the question Michael and that would would you accept a to be interim chair and then elections would be held when um the new members are brought on in September yeah yeah i'd be willing um sure i'm i'm i'm gonna be out of town on the 19th yep oh so we would do it in um so you know i i hope to call in i i know i have wi-fi where i'll be but i i can't guarantee that i'll be available at the next meeting and we still have a vice chair for that or we will okay um so Michael uh am i yeah i am um are you saying that you're not going to be the chair at the next meeting at the next two meetings that you're was you're leaving right now there's only one more meeting and i'm not sure i can make the 19th okay we have a vice chair we we do but i'm saying that i would like it seems to me totally out of out of out of order to appoint a new chair when we know that we're going to have at least two more met two new members of the board maybe three uh coming on in september uh and we have a perfectly fine functioning vice chair to operate until such such time as we have a full board to elect a new chair so we could but what i just asked is if Doug would be interim chair i understand i don't mind what i'm saying is we don't need an interim chair we have a vice chair right now so we we could but my concern is we are in covid and the crc has has not done this before and if it could be a while before we could have new members in september or it could take longer so we have a we have a meeting scheduled for interviews uh at the end at the end of august yes but it's we've been here before and it didn't happen so i i'm just remembering i don't think you've been here before it didn't happen i think the last time that last time there were interviews Doug was appointed almost immediately they're after that's that's the most now this was supposed to happen by june 30th and it didn't know that but there weren't any there weren't any interview scheduled there was not a pool there was not a pool that was deemed adequate there is now okay i'm not done christine there are uh there are uh interviews scheduled and the crc is immediately going to recommend to the council whoever they recommend and those people will be seated if not at the first meeting in september certainly at the second meeting in september and it seems to me inappropriate for us six people to determine who the chair is going to be when at least two of us won't be there maybe three of us won't be there okay so just to put in perspective i've been a new member on a committee when they do elections and it's how they don't necessarily know how to vote because they don't know us they don't know who has wants it who who's good at what and so often i didn't even vote because i had no perspective on how to make such a decision and i relinquished the decision to the veteran members who knew far better than i what would be best for moving forward as leadership that's clearly was your choice and a reasonable one but other people coming onto the board may not have that point of view they may think they know what they're doing and may want to vote for somebody and maybe let me remind you that elections are supposed to be done by june 30th every year so by the time these people come on we're already two months into that year we're behind so this should have been done back in june but it wasn't because of various things um so what i'm saying is they will be voting but there's only 10 months left at that point and then you're supposed to revote every year so this would seem like a big set of problems to me why don't we just talk about this you know one thing maybe we should reschedule the august 18th meaning here's my thing if this is my last meeting i'm just looking at this is we can't push everything what is with this like next meeting more talk like look this is i proposed an interim chair because i'm stepping down we can vote on it if i hear a motion from someone i'm going there's some raised hands we can vote on it and if there's a if it doesn't pass it doesn't pass so i'm just pitching that i just i just i feel like the end it feels like the end of this meeting is like a giant open meeting violation why i mean why wasn't this on the agenda why didn't we know about this weeks you know i don't understand what's going on the planning board rules and regulations it very clearly says we're supposed to do this every year by the end of the fiscal the end of june 30th it's what we're supposed to do there's nothing so we so this problem has been on about for months and now we're talking about it at 10 o'clock at night at the end of a meeting with no notice because these are never can talk about it but yeah the vice chair can do the next meeting you knew i was leaving so i know i do you want to be here next week if i wasn't gonna be it doesn't matter i'd still be doing this even if i had one more meeting left this is the end i'm leaving we all knew i was leaving so we should have all been thinking about who should replace me and you know jack is the norm that you default to but he has a very heavy workload so he's doesn't want to so he'd rather stay his vice chair which is fine and so my thinking after a lot of thought i just i wanted to put out there is we're allowed to do i'm just pitching that forget intro i mean i i asked if doug marshal would want to be chair so normally i know janet you're only been on the board for a year but when this happened last year then we talk about it and you know other people can volunteer too and we can have multiple votes but this is what happens every year i'm on my fifth year this happens every year well why don't we appoint michael because he's been there for four years and knows how to run a planning board meeting and can cover for a few weeks or a month it seems very i just i don't know why we're talking about this without you know just but i just let's take somebody who's been around for a while gone to maybe too many planning board meetings and just have him run the show for a month or you know the next month and we'll notice the vote and well people will know it is and we'll think about it and it seems very on the fly well i've given my recommendation i'm going to call on some other hands janet i know you can't raise a hand but i can't not try to have a dialogue with you you have to either say i'd like to speak and then i'll put you in the queue okay and you know okay maria um so i i forget what the name of my term is secretary i don't know what i am but anyways i don't have the capacity both mentally and time wise to be chair and i fully support Doug Doug is a planner and architect and knows this stuff um he's the newest member but he knows what we're talking about very fully and i just the fact that he was willing to even take it um you know to step up i really appreciate it and i think that um you know there might be other people who want to do it or have time to i i certainly can't um i don't know jack what your situation is but um yeah it's just i think jack was i don't know all the proper terms but number two and then i was number three and so that's just the way that the things sort of run around and um yeah i don't know if chris you know like what the protocol is if if both the second and third in chain can't really um step up you know what you the official steps should have been but um i fully support Doug so jack yeah looks like we lost jenna she's still listed over here in attendees that's what i just went looking for jenna can are you there i can hear you but i can't see me which you know might be just fine that's because you're on a telephone now right no i hung i hung up i i moved my my um computer and i'm in a different room now oh okay i see your name you just haven't turned on your screen yeah we'll figure that out but anyway okay jack i believe you were so i just want to say i mean obviously christine and i have talked not violating open meeting law probably you know six months ago a while and i you know and you grind along you know in life and uh where i'm at right now is you know i have a new job started that in february it's it's great but i'm uh and i also have some other commitments some which i'm pulling out of and then this pioneer valley planning commission thing i want to take very seriously that meets you know monthly in addition to the you know quarterly meetings for the commissioners and so that weighed on my mind and then also like man you know christine has done just an amazing job as the chair is like i was like holy cow how can i you know and so i have all these expectations of myself of like if i was to be chair and and do it you know to the best of my ability and and and so and that's that's where i was uh cautionary and i you know and christine had that information you know and marie has already you know said her case and and uh and i i just had to say that um you know no disrespect to to mike would you know but uh doug has he he's been pretty um for me um impressive in terms of i i don't know that for me i was like on the board for like a year uh it's like you know what's all this about and i think the first meeting uh doug was like he didn't skip a beat and so i was just very pressed by him and then he's a planner um and and christine said that he was interested so i i support you know doug if he can do it whether it's in term whatever i but i i have we would be in good hands with with doug uh have no doubt uh and that's you know that's how i have looked at but i have really been struggling i've been struggling with this because i knew christine was leaving i'm the vice chair i know i could do it but i i want to do it really well and um you know i just questioned that you know now's the right time in my life to take to take that on and um and you know again i i i apologize to to you know oh janet you get your you're back on video but anyway it was it's been all on me and i may be this you know i don't know how you get dialogue on something like this but it's this um it was personal to me um but christine had a you know uh a suggestion of doug and i think it you know it's a good one it's a good one so um and that's you know that's where i'm at you know on this but i understand mike and janet this is it's 10 o'clock and it's tough but i don't want christine to leave i mean that's my choice right there so what do you do well i would like i would feel better leaving with at least an interim chair um i think it shows leadership and camaraderie amongst ourselves i think doug is we're so lucky to have him um he's really proved his worth um in the eight months or that we've had him um you know i i would like to um i see chris's hand um chris yes so i just wanted to talk about the way this is traditionally done so traditionally the people get appointed i mean ideally to the planning board in june um they get appointed in june and they take office the beginning of july so traditionally we wait until people are appointed and as i said it's an ideal scenario because often you don't actually get appointments until september but in my experience um the the elections are usually put on the agenda as and as as an item and they're usually um put on the agenda after the new members um take office so my recommendation as i said before would be to put it on the agenda for one of the september meetings after um you get your new members and um hold formal elections at that time and to elect an interim chair at this time to carry you through until you have your formal elections and you would have to do that anyway if you got to a meeting say you got to the meeting on the 19th of august and nobody uh and neither maria nor jack wanted to chair you would have to elect a chairperson for that particular meeting so one way or another you're going to have an interim chair until you have your elections so this seems like a reasonable thing to do to elect an interim chair tonight that's what i would like to do um janet i see your hand and then michael i think you're raising your hand so i don't want to be um anti dug it anyway because i think he's been a great add to the planning board also i don't think we can vote on something this is a violation of open meeting law to be voting on an interim chair or any kind of vote without notice this is obviously could be seen under you know it could have been it's not something that came up suddenly i assume christine was going to be our chair until the end of august if we show up at the next planning board meeting and nobody wants to be chair the vice chair doesn't want to be chair the secretary will be chair let's appoint that person then i'm not comfortable voting i'm not voting against dug in anyway um but i just not comfortable voting without an item that's never around the agenda that was you know beyond i hate to use a legal term foreseeable but it's i don't know how we got here and i'm not going to be voting on anybody or anything because i think that's an open meeting law violation michael uh yeah i don't i don't um not focused on the question whether it's an open meeting law violation i don't know about that but that's not that's not what i'm interested in uh it's the responsibility of the vice chair is to serve in the absence of the chair if christine gray mullen is not going to be here on august 19th it's jack's duty if you will to chair the meeting uh we don't need an interim chair that's what the that's what the vice chair is for as jack agreed to be vice chair fills it for the chair i'm not finished christine just think jack you agreed to be vice chair a year ago or whatever it was um it seems to me that uh you should continue to be vice chair and serve as chair in the absence of the chair uh as as long as you remember the board i just don't think we need to have this kind of uh uh decision being made at this point we don't need a bike we don't need an interim chair we have a vice chair so that no you'll have no chair so what a vice chair does is it fills in for the chair but there won't be any chair you're supposed to have a chair that's a that's a that's a here's my thing we're voting on an interim chair i i don't see the problem with that well the problem with that with all the respect of doug is the interim chair is then the de facto chair when it comes time to electing a permanent chair so is it that you want to be chair michael no i don't want to be chair so last thing i want to do because my my only real function in this body is to be a a goad i'm not the chair i that's not my function that's not my role i don't want to be chair okay janet do you want to be chair i'm sorry you're muted i i i i feel like we've gone from talking about getting rid of the zoning subcommittee to voting on an interim chair and you know i don't see i'm talking about chair chair full chair do i want to be chair i'd like to think about it more than 20 seconds i i don't know is this normal process is this why can't we just wait i'm just tossing it out that if jack's not up for being chair and neither is maria and i'm gone and michael doesn't want to be chair doug has said he's willing to be chair there's only you like so there's only two options so i don't understand what it makes a difference if it's september or if it's now there's one or maybe two people who would want to be chair i'm an attorney there's an open meeting law there's no open meeting law with this janet you don't have to publish an interim chair okay i'm just not supporting what we're doing here i just don't understand this this is just very strange christine i just don't understand it i'm leaving i've been trying to leave for a year and four months everybody can proceed and vote i'm just i'm not going to vote on this i just think this is really irregular and it's hard for me to understand and i i know you think this is really an odd position but i don't think you understand how odd it is to have someone at 10 15 at night say do you want to be chair we need a chair you know i'm leaving i just think this is just everybody knew i was leaving i don't know what the mystery is here there had to be a new chair it should have happened in june we're in august everybody knew i was leaving so something was going to have to happen so this is where everyone should have been thinking how do we see this moving forward and normally it goes to the vice chair or the secretary but that's not happening in this instance so i think Doug Marshall would be a fantastic interim chair right now and have your elections in the fall with your two or three new members that's what i'm pitching i i don't think there's anything outrageous there's only five of us i mean the six of us i mean me but um and it just in case something happens and things don't roll out the way you know we're in covid we have no idea it so i'm sort of living life right now if we can do it today and just make some action and and keep leadership and keep things moving forward let's seize the day and and this is it's just an interim so anyways i would and i feel terrible for Doug this is so aco like what the heck like we're just trying to get a temporary chair to be able to work with Chris like to keep things moving forward this just seems so destructive to me to not even want to vote for an interim chair what else does there need to be thought about for two more weeks or a month or six weeks we're just trying to do an interim chair if we can do elections in september fantastic but it may not happen it may be october or november we live in very strange times right now so as chair i was just trying to leave you all in good hands and i couldn't think of a better set of hands than Doug Marshall to lead the way he has shown nothing but exemplary leadership and knowledge and shocking i know he's going to be all embarrassed now how fast he came up to speed and i i i am going to say i think he knows more than than all of us so except for not you chris so anyways i strongly would like to have a vote to vote Doug Marshall to be our interim chair this is literally what i am asking you i i have given myself as much as i could this past year and the five years on the board and this is the last thing i'm just asking that don't leave yourself without a leader we have an amazing person here who's willing to step in is the interim chair and i'm asking you to please consider i see janet then jack then chris janet you're you're muted again i had the the schedule hand up sorry okay um jack yeah i just i i just want to say that i would support Doug but you know i have no problem being you know the interim person but in my mind knowing that Doug is interested you know he would be my vote but i don't mind being you know in this transitional role being you know doing that and you know a couple meetings but you know that's uh i i feel discord here and uh you know i don't like that feeling within the board so um i know i would support Doug once we have the chair come up full but if you know i'd be willing to chair the next couple of sessions as a bridge and then you know i'd i'd nominate Doug but is that a difference than just not nominating him now so i you know i feel yeah a sense of duty uh but i i i know i'm here and what you know i guess i'm interested in what what chris you know feels is correct i mean like i think christina said like there's no it's all over the place in terms of how things are done in this situation and yeah should have been on agenda perhaps but i mean i didn't even really know you know today was i i didn't even know dave actually left you know last meeting is that he's in the way he's in the you know the in the participants there is that wait a minute we forget to add so but anyway i um i just want to do the right thing and um everyone knows my my intentions what my desire are and you know and um just want to do the right thing here and i think we need your help chris to make sure we're doing the right thing chris so i would be comfortable with having jack serve as interim chair between now and the time you have your elections um an alternative would be to actually put an interim election on the agenda for august 19th but you would only have five members available to vote so um it seems to me that the best scenario in my mind would be to have jack chair the next couple of meetings and then schedule your election for um tember when you have your full complement of members that would be my advice michael i'd like to hear what uh dug has to say everybody else has been shooting their mouth off well let's put dug in an even harder spot now dug now i'm unmuted oh right yes you are okay um so i wasn't really looking to become chair especially as fast as this would be uh christine's compliments notwithstanding i don't feel like i know everything about amherst zoning neither do i and i'm i'm i'm rather afraid that if i were chair i would display that ignorance more often than i've been able to so far um i actually agree that this is awkward uh and i think my feeling at the moment is that if jack is willing to act as the bridge uh you know with and we all need to keep in mind that he's not really able to give it the time or attention that i think he would like to that we then you know commit to having in a some sort of uh election you know with or without me in the mix in it's in september you know and then i i don't know how certain it is that we will get our new members but you know it seems like even if there's only five of us who need to go along for a couple months it doesn't seem like jack really wants to be that in that the leader for very long so so i at the moment i would sort of second what christ is suggesting which is that we uh ask jack to to to help us forward and try to minimize the load he has to carry during that time well said dug nice leadership i um i have to say i'm disappointed i think we have something really great that we're walking away from and i hope we don't regret it i hope we do have members in september and i'd like to clarify that today that if we don't what if we only have one or we only have two or maybe we do have all three now you're talking about three out of seven people that haven't even ever been to a meeting before and that's a lot of pressure to put them right in the election to choose their leader um and i i'm just saying we could have set a tone here with an interim but i don't understand why when you actually whether it's a surprise or not it shouldn't have been a surprise and when we look to who we have when we look at this i'm gone so we look to the five who's your leader who's going to lead you so you know part of being on planning board is you have to make decisions you have to take action and i i don't think we took action today i think we just made a really awkward moment and made someone who should be i think our leader we we gave him not a welcoming feeling this was not teamwork so i have to say i'm very disappointed and i'm really sad that this is how i'm ending my year as chair but janet i see your hand janet you're muted in a bid to avoid a vote can can jack just act as vice chair and haul on a couple of meetings and then um we don't have to vote and jack will just be the vice chair taking over temporarily until we get a you know on the agenda make a vote and all that good stuff is that possible i don't know when that will happen because if it's if you don't have any members in the beginning of september then you only have five members so you're shrinking i think we can handle that situation but at least we know we'll be heading into it but christine i do appreciate all the work it takes to be a chair and i know i hope it doesn't end on a really sour no i just you know but if jack can step up as vice chair for one or two meetings that's fantastic but you know i know you put a huge amount of effort into this and i wouldn't want to end it on this note either so i know i mean this takes hours and hours and hours and just even reading those insane sight you know those documents i just it's kind of just you've done a really you know good job so thank you thank you chris i don't think you have to have an election to have jack serve as chair because he's the vice chair so if christine's not here then jack would be the normal person who would step into that role so there's really no need for an election um at this time and in september when you have your election scheduled then you would um choose your chair and your vice chair and your clerk at that time so adios hasta la vista motion to adjourn well report of staff christ you got anything i wanted to say thank you to christine for all her hard work christine helping your team we a team and thank you very much christine and i wish you great luck and happiness in your new endeavors madame madame chair made such a big impression on me and her dedication again she put the bar pretty high christine steve striver uh and greg studsman and and i know that christine worked hand in hand with you chris uh above and beyond the call of duty just because you've gotten waylaid with the changing government now and everything else on your docket and um but again um don't be disappointed christine you've been a huge success and i think dug's cool i think dug is very cool all right all right so i apologize to dug for for this and i have great hope that it'll all work out um and thank you all thank you all for working so hard i want to thank pam pam you are fantastic you are like the wind beneath this whole thing yes seriously thank you i've been a pleasure the amount of work that you have to do and the amount of stuff and things you're juggling it is amazing and please pace yourself take care of yourself and i look forward to a lot of great things happening this next year are we adjourned 10 29 yep 10 29 hey good night good night thank you only a four hour