there now Amherst media is here Jack and I'm now recording so you're good to go okay so we're beginning the Amherst planning board meeting here at 632 welcome and this is you know December 16th 2020 meeting based on Governor Baker's executive board is suspending certain provisions of opening law um and signed March 12 2020 this planning board meeting is being held virtually using the zoom platform my name is Jack Jumsack and as a chair of the planning board I'm calling this meeting to order you know I already said whatever was 632 this meeting is being recorded and is available via Amherst media live stream minutes are being taken as normal board members will take a roll call when I call your name and meet yourself answer firmly firmly and and then please place yourself back on mute uh Maria Maria's here I know oh here yes uh and Tom here uh Andrew present Doug present Janet here and Johanna here so we have a full slate tonight um if technical difficulties arise we may need to pause temporarily to correct the problem and then continue the meeting if you do have technical issues please let Pam know the session may be uh suspended while the technical issues are addressed and the minutes uh will note if this occurred please use the raising and function to ask a question or make a comment I will see your raised hand and call on you to speak after speaking remember to remove remute yourself ah that doesn't sound right but um opportunity for public comment will be provided during the public uh general public comment item and other appropriate times during the meeting please be aware the board will not respond to comments during the general public comment period if you wish to make a comment during a public comment period you must join the meeting via the zoom telephone teleconferencing link and that link is shown uh uh right above us sir so uh the link is also listed on the meeting agenda posted on the town website via the calendar listing for this meeting or you can join go to the planning board webpage and click on the most recent agenda which lists the zoom link at the top of the page please indicate if you wish to make a comment by clicking the raise hand button when public comment is solicited if you have joined the zoom meeting using a telephone please indicate you wish to make a comment by pressing star nine on your telephone when called on please identify yourself by stating your full name and address and put yourself back into mute when finished speaking so uh residents are welcome to express reviews for up to three minutes and at the discretion of the planning board chair if a speaker does not comply with these guidelines or exceeds their allotted time their participation will be disconnected from the meeting so um with that said we have our agenda um and we have several minutes to approve we have it looks like May 6 October 21st and November 4th is that correct Chris that's right okay so um we can uh let's approve these as one bunch but certainly if there are any comments I have to I'm just queuing up the hands here okay uh Johanna I am interested in moving this along quickly but I feel like I'm going to vote differently on them and so for because I wasn't at the meeting in May and so if we could do them one by one yeah that's that you're right you're right sorry about that all right um okay so we have the makes let's let's uh present the May 6th minutes there for approval um do I see any you know I'll move to approve what's that do we need to discuss first or can we can we go ahead and move uh we can move and then discuss I think it's it's we can discuss first or or move you know I think that's that's flexible so um but you weren't here um right so it's Jack Maria Janet and Doug I hope that we approve the May 6th minutes okay Doug uh here a second second okay Maria uh any discussion Jan and I thought you were talking but maybe not no I I made a motion but I think I was on mute so oh okay all right all right so uh we'll do a roll call um on this so um Maria approve and then Janet I approve Doug hi and myself approve so that's five zero for those minutes would we just abstain for the yeah yeah so I'm good so uh Andrew I'm staying and uh Johanna I'm staying and Tom I'm staying thank you so uh the October 21st minutes uh we can discuss or someone could move to approve the minutes I move to approve by second all right so uh that was Doug and and Janet yes okay um any discussion yeah sorry I can't get the hand up quickly but is this the one this is one that we had the revised minutes is that right for the October 21st yes I emailed them to you this afternoon with two comments that came in and I think they were both from Janet they came in at different times so they're on page five of the um the one that I mailed to you today maybe um a pam could bring that up on the screen I'm gonna try I was having trouble with that document hang on um I think one of the I only mailed one set of corrections today based on my memory of what we talked about so I'm not sure I think you might have sent the other comment um a few weeks ago okay that's yeah so the second comment came in earlier and the first comment came in today yeah so this is the one I did today based on my memory I didn't go back and listen to the meeting and I was confused about whether Doug had raised the what issue and whether Tom had raised it and I think initially I thought it was Andrew so if everyone can identify themselves that'd be great I didn't have time to go back and listen to the recording today did I yeah I mean this this is I didn't either but this this aligns with my recollection at least I was just trying to give the gist with that like too much yeah I will say my my last name has two L's in it if Pam you don't mind changing that yeah I can see that there's a there's a few editorial things in here and I will also say too that when I tried to save this as a pdf for sharing it just consistently would open in word so you're going to see down here that it looks like it's on page six but it's because and I couldn't fix it I don't know what was going on with the document um but somewhere up here like page four is practically blank but I went through it and this is the correct information so the final draft will actually look like a normal set of minutes so when Mr. McDougal said that he that this aligns with his memory which one of these paragraphs aligns with his memory yeah my kid only my comment Chris I don't remember between Tom and Doug the the second or the first red paragraph okay so I think I must okay so okay so I have I'm identifying people incorrectly so okay but I'm wondering when we talk about business hours that the the management plan for the facility spoke to this so I'm wondering in terms of business hours but never mind never mind let's just get these minutes approved um so I was a little confused did Ms. McGowan mean to substitute Mr. McDougal's name in the first paragraph that's shown up here instead of Mr. Long you would put Mr. McDougal now that you've heard that he feels that he yeah yeah because I think I'm making the same mistake twice or something so yeah Mr. Marshall also asked a question about lights being downcast except for signs so this would be the first paragraph in red here is the one you're asking the board to agree with yes and then substituting with yeah yeah so I just actually the first I don't remember the first one I think that was me yeah I think I think you're correct me and then I I raised the section number from my from reading and and then Mr. Marshall followed up on that okay trust your I think you're correct here yes I'm sorry I think there were these names confused I should have just listened to it again it's the first paragraph the one that Janet is putting forward as the correct one yes yeah do the yeah with the and the second paragraph should that be in as well or not no so you want this you only want the first paragraph is that correct yeah okay with the correct yeah so we can approve the minutes uh as with these corrections um any further discussion nope okay so we'll do a roll call here and Maria approve Tom approve Andrew approve Doug prove Janet and Johanna approved great okay and I approve so that's some zero and we have one more from November 4th so moved to approve second one tiny typo in this the very beginning um my name is misspelled I don't know that it matters hugely but that would be the one correction where is that um page one planning board members participating remotely and present by roll call my first name has an h in it sorry Johanna it's all good okay and did someone second the move to approve not yet we got Andrew Andrew seconds any discussion on the minutes okay I see no hands raised uh we'll do roll call Maria Tom approve Andrew approve Doug prove Janet approve and Johanna approve right and I do as well so that's seven zero for those minutes so um we have a public comment period and what do you see out there uh Pam this moment I am seeing none but usually I say that and see yep one popped up so we have Catherine api okay I'm gonna allow to talk hi Catherine Catherine can you hear us um yes can you hear me yes excellent I just wanted to yes thank you um my name is Catherine api and I live on redgate lane in Amherst I wanted to make public comment about the 40 r proposal I strongly support the proposal to bring thoughtful development to downtown Amherst these plans are the product of a very long and inclusive process if this proposal is adopted we have every reason to be confident that it will produce the following results it will make the downtown a more vibrant and appealing place to visit both for residents and out-of-town visitors it will broaden our tax base thus reducing the pressure of steadily rising property taxes on individual families the proposal's requirements for ample sidewalks setbacks and protected open spaces will enhance the physical beauty of the town by creating a more robust downtown the plan will help to minimize sprawl and other forms of growth that do the most damage to our natural resources finally it will serve a goal most community members have long embraced but have never fully realized the need for more affordable housing so that we can be community in which the widest possible variety of people can live and work I also support the proposal because I respect and trust the people who have committed so much time and effort in to create it they are extremely gifted and have engaged in an open and inclusive process over a number of years they have sought community input and consulted with a wide variety of experts and stakeholders including the massachusetts smart growth alliance local community members and the state I also support this program because it's not a one-off experiment but part of a process that has been used with success and over 40 municipalities around the commonwealth our plan has benefited from all that experience and we will also benefit from the state commitment of funds it will bring to this project thank you so much thank you Catherine and we have one other hand up that we can't really identify who that is so um we can allow them to at least introduce themselves and make sure they're you know identify themselves hello hi this is matt blumenfeld from 335 middle street in amherst sorry i've used them i'm on my work um zoom id so that's why i wasn't identified i see hi matt nice to see you all thank you yeah matt what did you say your street address was 335 middle thank you thanks um i'm also calling in to um uh urge you to support the uh 40 our district um i'm looking at the overlay right now and i think it makes tremendous sense in terms of what we want to see in our downtown um i've lived in town for 25 plus years my office is above hastings and i would love to see uh more dynamism uh more affordable housing more activity downtown and i think uh 40 rd does just that so i won't echo everything that catherine said um and i just want to say that uh i urge you to support this initiative i think it's well thought out and will benefit our town for years to come thank you thanks matt we have a few more jack okay next we have um sarah lakour sounds good hi sarah hello can you hear me yes yes great um thank you for taking a public comment um for those of you um unaware i'm the former executive director of the amherst bed and longtime resident of amherst um also a professional landscape architect and planner for many years um a 40 rd for downtown amherst is huge it um not only provides the opportunity for us to create affordable housing which is something we've talked about in this community and felt the need for for so long um but it also by creating a 40 rd district in our downtown keeping the density there it protects our open space and the natural resources that are so important to us as well our downtown is uniquely well maybe not uniquely but critically important and a great area to do this it's on bus stops not only pbt are local but people can get to new york boston springfield you know this is this is a regional new england destination area public transportation the proximity to services and resources for those um living in affordable housing um you know we often we've had you know issues with some of the affordable housing is off our bus routes and is out of town and people can't access the services and the cultural opportunities that that they would have in downtown um you know the the civic institutions the health resources that are relatively new to downtown all of that is accessible with putting our affordable housing in our downtown and protecting our our um natural resources this is what smart growth is all about and you know we've talked about in amherst for a long time creating affordable housing protecting our resources this this is it this is how we do that um it provides the incentives um the state this is working really well across the state i'm currently working with it in love low and it's been um a great success so i i just wanted to put my two cents in and encourage you to to look favorably on this um on this great planning tool so thank you very much for your time i i appreciate the opportunity to speak thank you sarah uh we have what jenny jenny hamilton hi jenny jenny i've enabled you to speak i think it looks like we have kent enabled to speak at the moment hello jenny jenny is still yep okay so do you want to go out of order jack oh that's fine kent hi um my name is kent ferber i live at 481 station road in amherst and i've been a thank you very much for all your work for the town first of all we we really appreciate it and i've been a member a resident of amherst for about 43 years and i love living in amherst because of its high aspirations it wants all kinds of good things in the way of affordable housing schools roads fired police services library and the lake but over the years it's become increasingly clear to me that it's having more and more difficulty affording these and i'm of the of the view of that's shared by many others and part of the reason for that is the town's heavy dependence upon residential real estate taxes as long as that represents something as i understand it like 90 of the tax revenue of the town it's going to be difficult to afford that commercial development is inevitable whether we like it or not so the trick to achieving both the normalized tax revenues and the kinds of things that we want seems to me the kind of control smart growth represented by this 40 r overlay district this is a proven way of controlling that development to our sensibilities making it do what we want and so we are i urge you to recommend that the overlay district be adopted by the town council thank you very much for the chance to be heard appreciate that thank you kent and jenny is my audio working now there you go jenny yes excellent thank you for your patience still figuring out the technology you think i'd have it down by this point in the pandemic jenny hamilton i live at 140 middle street and i'm echoing many of the statements already shared this evening in favor of the 40 r district downtown i come to this actually having worked with 40 r as a board member of the massachusetts smart growth alliance backed when the program was new about 15 years ago so you know this program has been around for over 15 years it's well tested by other municipalities and we've seen the work that town staff have been doing with the state's 40 r process for a few years now so those state funds the skill of the consultants you've been able to bring in we've seen that skill in action through the the draft zoning that you all are looking at now that's in line with the master plan that we have guiding the work and the principles so i will not repeat what others have said although i share the support for abortable housing the smart use of our resources and i particularly personally i appreciate the design standards that mimic blocks like the hastings building in town rather than continuing the piecemeal developments that's been so controversial so since these design standards reflect the public input from the multiple community forums that have gone on i hope you all will respect this process i thank you for the hard work that's been put into it and i hope you'll move this process forward thank you thank you very much jenny and we have erica hi erica hi thank you i'm erica zekis and i live at 40 and i also concur i just wanted to speak in favor of the 40 r overlay i feel it's an effective approach in line with our master plan that will support a vibrant downtown providing a mix of retail and residential people living and shopping in our downtown will create a dynamic mix and importantly this zoning change provides an avenue for more of the affordable housing that hammer's families need so much thank you erica so i see no other hands raised right within the public entities there so pan correct i didn't see any more either jack okay so i think one last look yeah good so uh we're looking at our agenda you know we're nine days from from christmas it's a busy time of year um i don't really want to go real late this evening uh i will not say that every meeting but generally it seems like had been saying but especially tonight um um but so we have a lot of you know like heavy items on the agenda and i just thought i put some time limits on them um so you know first and foremost we have to get through the the kenry park um you know addition of of uh playground equipment there no problem um the master plan implementation matrix i'm wondering if we can just kind of discuss that for like 20 minutes if if people feel you know that's reasonable the 40 r is again with the comments we had put more into that 30 to say 40 minutes um and then the other one be uh the zoning priorities for new business um you know definitely that deserves 20 minutes but that that could take us all night um if we go at it so i just it'll be our first look and then the the comprehensive housing policy is um is just emerging and so but we need to be introduced introduced to it but i don't know that it's worthy of of much discussion uh at this point from the planning board but i would you know like to know how we want to approach it as a group so with that said uh we can start the review of the final choices for equipment for the playground at kenry park in accordance with the condition number four the site plan review decision for spr 2020 07 town of amherst east pleasant street kenry park playground and i think nate's going to speak to this hi jack and planning board i can uh i'm going to share my screen it can be really quick uh because um we've already ordered the equipment so the um no thanks for having me back the uh the uh the playground was approved earlier this year you know there's a whole um you know one phase of kenry park i'm sharing my screen here so what you're seeing is you know all of kenry park in the outline and then what was approved was a play area some sitting areas and walkways and so what we're focusing on tonight is really the play equipment and then some site amenities and the um just a just a as a refresher you know if you can see the cursor here is east pleasant street there is an east west walkway and then here is the um the area that's you know will be under construction it's actually already started so public works already and start installing this pathway we've chosen a contractor out of wooster and they mobilized on site i'm not sure how much they'll get done this fall but this is being funded mostly with a park grant it's a state grant uh they expect this to be done by june 1st of 2021 they don't offer extensions although we've asked even with covid they they said they still expect this to be done by june 1st and so you know if um because of that we you know that's why some of the equipment was already ordered so we have to maintain the timeline and uh you know there's a few things that have still yet to be decided but the play equipment has been ordered uh we worked with emmy o bryan they're a a large vendor they represent a number of companies so this is just showing the play area and the way it's designed is there's a two to five-year-old play structures and then five to twelve-year-old play structures there's some freestanding items uh and then there's you know some accessible equipment the the next picture will show you a rendering and this is looking as if um where it says kendrick park on the bottom this is actually where the i'll call the east west walkway is and so we're kind of looking northeast and the the palette of the play equipment is the same as grove park so we wanted to keep kind of muted tones grounds greens uh light browns the play surface what we were seeing here is all rubberized so there's the the black is rubberized it it's just a different color to to note you know a walkway but it's also within the fall safe area for some of the equipment and then the interior is a different color it's a mixture of tan and black so again it's very similar to grove park that speckled um rubberized surface it's accessible uh it's you know it's actually what massachusetts will require i think next year as one of the only play surfaces because it is fully accessible this spinner we see here is accurate and it spins and it's also someone in a wheelchair or their mobility devices can get into it there's other um they said some freestanding items that can be played with so you don't have to necessarily be on the play equipment and then there are a variety of different options within each uh each structure so there's you know ground level things there's climbing there's slides there's uh you know platforms you can get onto or or you know reach so again here's another view just showing the different equipment here's another perspective showing this is the two to five year old upfront and then the five to 12 year old is in the back it's a much larger structure there's a rocker a spinner and so that's that's that's it for the playground in terms of the site amenities we're going with a style bench we use that um at grove and similar to the rest of some areas of downtown but it's all metal the color will be kind of a light they call it Sudan but it's a kind of a tannish color uh these are the round tables so within the sitting area on the park there's three or four tables and so we've already ordered these these are some that we've seen downtown now that we the town put out in the summer and they'll be repurposed and used at Kendrick so they're all one unit with four chairs or three chairs there's one that will have an accessible seat a companion seating area the trash receptacles are the same as what's um downtown it's this black it'll be half recycling half trash there'll be a few those at the park I mentioned the rubberized surface um I guess we'll keep going there's a possible sign design before we get to that I just want to say around the perimeter of this park there will be granite curbing in some spots and granite wall so in addition to this playground equipment and manufacturer equipment there is granite curbing and walls there are boulders and there'll be logs on this east side here as kind of a natural play area so those are things that you know I haven't shown here it was during the site plan review decision or review and those are things that will be supplied by the town and the contractor both during construction next spring in terms of the sign for Kendrick park in the plans we've shown one with granite posts and then you know a signboard inside and so we we have the sign be small enough you know less than 12 square feet and less than four feet in height so it doesn't need to be you know complies with the site plan review regulations the town has also been installing kiosks uh at the recreation areas and conservation areas they're timber framed they can't have a roof or not have a roof and then they have the ability to have a poster board uh so there's a internal team working with Kendrick park and it hasn't been decided yet what what would be the preferable sign and so um you know that's something that like I said we're still considering there there's one more um yeah so I think I think that's it uh for now if um I was going to show one more one more picture so Nate you're talking about either the the kiosk style or the stone monument style yeah and the kiosk would not have a roof we'd have a you know just a post with copper caps and then a signboard the the sign itself uh sorry for all the scrolling is going to go back right here in this there's a landscaped island as you're walking along the path so it's a it'll be a two-sided sign right here and so on the front of the sign we'll say something like welcome to Kendrick park uh you know um we have to um we'll recognize the community preservation act they help fund this as did the park grant and then on the back side of the sign would be rules and regulations and playground safety uh requirements so the manufacturers recommend having some signage about you know not to jump off the top of the slide or something so they provide uh you know language for that and so it would be you know just one sign right here uh and you know it's not necessarily for the all the entirety of Kendrick park it's really specific to this play area in this this new park area thank you Nate um I see Chris uh has her hand up I would like to ask Nate to describe the naturalized play area to this uh east of the more um manufactured play area because I think that was something that um some people really wanted to have and I think that the designer made an effort to put that in so Nate did say a few words about that but I wondered if he could just describe it a little bit more it's um again towards the east side of of the main play area sure yeah if if people can see my cursor you know here's the the east west walkway this is going to be paved and asphalt and then here is the the play area with the rubberized surface as uh you know it also acts as a perimeter walk and if we go further along in the playground area or in this this development area there's there'll be another walkway and all this is accessible so it creates an accessible loop walkway there's areas where benches are pulled off to the walkway here there's benches here and then there's a a pebble area so this is just keystone gravel with granite blocks around so this becomes you know just another tactile area for play if we come along the path here there's an amphitheater uh there's a there's a grade change so it slopes up so this is a little natural um slope there's an amphitheater here in this area right here although it's not shown there um they'll be earth and mounds two or three earth and mounds you know a few feet in height just again um you know using natural grass and earth just for for play area and then the naturalized play area down in here will be covered in in mulch wood fibers and there'll be a series of boulders and rocks there'll be a large granite block from public works that kids can climb on and then there'll be stumps that are placed anywhere from 12 to 24 inches high you know vertical stumps that are buried and then there'll be logs that are you know secured here to the ground that kids can climb on and so the exact design of that isn't determined we have different different pieces in the town will work with the contractor in the spring but there will be you know a fairly large area that is mulch and have different elements in addition to the to the you know manufacturer play area thank you uh so we'll open this up uh to the board and i see uh johanna thanks so much for this presentation nate this is really exciting um i had two questions as i was reviewing this the first was there was the there was mention of the pollinator garden so i was just curious what the location of that was and the current thinking and then secondly it seems like it's pretty well contained in the center of the park and i know that there was some discussion about fencing or you know just building i don't know living fences potentially to make sure you know kids don't accidentally run off into the road but i'd love to just hear the latest on the thinking there oh sure the um in terms of the water we did bring a hydrant to the site and so there isn't any water right now at kendrick so there's a hydrant now uh right right around here um in terms of the pollinator gardens the original thought was to have them on either side of the amphitheater and then in certain areas um you know acting as both you know there's a drainage swale here so the dotted lines are perforated pipe or drainage that'll then go to an overflow here but this is all this is above this will be a a garden in a drainage swale so the idea would be to have have that be planted um we're still thinking of that you know we're working with alan warden the um alan snow the tree warden and call deathy or public works to come up with plant selection and so we still want to do some type of pollinator garden i guess the difficulty is and um you know watering it and maintaining it but there is still some thought of having you know annuals or different types of vegetation here um in terms of fencing this is north pleasant street so along this walkway here there behind it will be um layers of both um ground cover then rhododendrons or you know kind of shrubs and then trees and so with the curving granite blocks and then you know vegetation there is a pretty strong backing here uh the you know when you're closest to the street in terms of east pleasant street you know there is you know a fair amount of distance and then there's again there's a series of benches and blocks and then you know we can use the overturned stumps and trees to create some type of barrier but there isn't you know we're not putting a fence or anything um you know i mean as the as it is now there is you know it's it's completely open and so if kids picnic there with their families there's you know there's the ability to wander thank you um johanna there's that yeah it's great let's get the information thank you uh andrew thank you my questions real quick just i was curious how tall is that climbing structure like i would be excited about i just i'm curious like if you go to one of the the renderings that's so this one right here yeah yeah that's a good question i uh i don't have the specifics you know right now in front of me if we're assuming that's you know about a five foot tall person so it looks like it could be about um you know 12 feet to the top maybe but i don't i don't know you know i'd have to look exactly on the specifications okay yeah i was i mean i'm just sort of curious whether um there's some acceptable standards or also just like how the town is protected in case of uh any accidental injury right so you can see here in this rendering you know someone there's the you know someone could walk across up here but the height of the next there's no you know if you call these like a a wire wrong like a ladder you know they're you're not meant to get on top of this you know i'm sure there'll be some daring kids uh everything exactly that's what i would try so you know the the the playground manufacturers they um you know they put their stamp of approval on this and so the rub rise surface will have to be padded enough you know they have to under you know they've already assumed that liability and then when we post the rules and regulations on the back of the sign that i think will cover us uh you know there is some some risk here right so there's some level of risk and responsibility with the users but there should be you know we're assured by the playground manufacturers that this meets all the safety standards so you know if someone does get hurt you know if they follow it depends i mean i i hope it doesn't happen but we'd have to then you know see what happens to every course there is yeah no i understood thank you looks looks really good appreciate the presentation and uh tom please yeah sure hi thanks for the presentation excited to get this in downtown looks fantastic i just had a quick question about the signage and whether that would be presented to the design review board for approval it had been presented to the design review board and we said we'd go back um once we had something finalized as well and so okay because i saw two versions yeah right yeah no you're right and so you know i was gonna have a new share um what we had been looking at in terms of signs you know here's the amherst golf club so here's you know what a granite post would look like we wouldn't have a stone um sign display area uh you know unless someone wants to donate that and then here's um here's what the kiosk looks like and so you know the the team i think is leading toward the granite posts uh you know we were at one point we were thinking about trying to have a consistent design throughout town but i mean these kiosk uh you know maybe more appropriate for recreation areas and conservation areas unless so for a downtown park so you know that's yet to be determined but if you have any comments or feedback no i'm i'm on the design review board so i was looking forward to seeing it there okay nat that what's uh sweet sir park have is that the right name sweet sir i'm not you know i'm i don't know if there there's an old star there's in the corner there's a you know one of the old wayfinding signs or markers from the town has on the corner of lessee and main street but in terms of an actual sign uh there isn't a sign you know there isn't a more formal sign at sweet sir right now if i if i have my memories correct i think the more formal sign downtown with the more appropriate potentially than the kiosk sign but this is my opinion yeah i mean we yeah i think some staff felt the same way once we saw the actual image of what the kiosk looks like yeah okay but i think that amherst golf club sign is like looks just it's amazing but you know conflict of interest conflict of interest right here but um so uh chris you have a hand up yeah i just wanted to um respond to those questions about safety of the equipment and one of the reasons why we chose manufactured equipment for the larger area of play was because when these manufacturers design these things they design them with um safety in mind because they don't want to be sued for injuries so they try to make them as safe as possible for the general public and that's why rather than having the whole playground be natural which is what many members of the public were thinking that it could be we went in this direction first of all these these things many of them are accessible to children who have handicaps but on the other end at the same time they are you know tested and they're about as safe as you can get and still have some fun so i just wanted to say that thank you chris uh andrew only only because you asked me that i actually like the the um the non-granite sign only in that i could imagine this might be a meet-up space for parents and like to the extent that that could serve as sort of a bulletin board i know some of those types of signs will have opportunities for like people to leave messages like that might be something worth considering but again only because you asked no sure thanks thank you andrew um so i don't see any other hands up um we open this up uh any public comment ham rooney hello thanks um as i was watching and listening to presentation um i'm sort of thinking as a landscape architect what the bigger safety concerns might be the nice sidewalk that's gone in the asphalt that's there spills out to east pleasant east pleasant street but there does not seem to be any intention of safely directing people across east pleasant street and i wonder if you could address um what provisions provisions there are going to be for uh people once they get to east pleasant street thanks yeah i do but i believe that was already addressed during the initial acceptance of the project but nat if you would review that be appreciated uh so for east pleasant street i mean there's an existing sidewalk now along east pleasant street in the walkway we'll just enter here so there's not um you know there have been a you know there'll be um bike stations and benches you know we're not thinking about actually you know creating any type of barrier here uh you know this will just be in open you know in a continuation of the sidewalks downtown so uh i think excuse me my my question was more because it would be kind of a midblock crossing if people come to the street and they in fact were sort of using using this new sidewalk as a cut across from from hallock and mclellan and they cut through the park on the on the sidewalk that they're sort of faced with no opportunity to get across east pleasant street i would i would say that we've already kind of gone over this and i i know chris helped me out here but i i don't know that this is really a subject for discussion of what is being presented today well your discussion today focuses on the equipment but i will say that there is an overall plan for the park and um i think pam may have been part of the group that developed that plan i don't really remember but um it is on our town website and it does show that there is a proposal for a crosswalk um roughly you know a third to a halfway up kendrick park crossing over east pleasant street um we don't show it on our plan because it wasn't really part of our project but there is an intention to do that and it's really um up to the dpw and the town council to work out exactly where that crossing is going to be but if you look on our town website and you look um for the kendrick park um concept plan i think there's lots of information about that and that will show where there's a crosswalk um thought about for east pleasant street super thank you very much that's good yeah sorry misunderstood the question yeah i i think you know gilford during the super intendant uh super intendant public works has said sometimes if there's you know there's a there have been a crosswalk right in front of her two cheese and so somewhat pretty close to where this entrance is here but he's always said that if you know if we if there ends up being a an issue with where people are crossing we can always investigate and assess whether or not there needs to be a you know uh measures taken so thank you nate any other comment from the board i see janet's hand yes janet so that that actually reminds me of a comment or a question i'd estimate about a raised crosswalk there because i think that families will be trying to enter the park crossing that street which is much busier than north pleasant street and so i think um that that conversation i think is a good one because even if it's painted on we know that by the end of the winter nobody can see it you know for whatever reason and so i i really would put a pitch in for a raised crosswalk so the traffic will slow down it's probably not going too fast but you know you can't guarantee it um coming out of the roundabout but it would people would slow down for that as they're driving by and because kids will be crossing there to get into the park and come out and hopefully grabbing some food and things like that so i would just put a pitch in to nate to really put a serious look at that and that way until somebody's injured you know some little kid or someone who's just crossing and stuff like that it's going to be drawing people in and let's just you know let's just share the road with the pedestrians too so thank you sure thanks so on that i i thought we were moving away from the raised crosswalks because they don't stand up uh to the the wear and tear is that yeah i think you can do it so that the plows go over it and it's not so high it's kind of more of a blanket and so um or actually you can put a surface down that's like a plasticized surface that is like creates like a um kind of when the cars go over it it's kind of um you can feel it and you're driving it and you can see it more than just paint so there's lots of options but i think something has to mark where people are going to go and then so the drivers can see that and feel that and slow down yeah so chris can you i i just what's the current thinking it depends on where it is um we have a raised crosswalk in front of the jones library and that works really well um there are considerations for drainage if you have a raised crosswalk then sometimes you have to add some catch basins so um they do become a little more complicated than the regular kind but this may be a good location to consider a raised crosswalk and that's something that we will bring up with the dpw when we're talking to them about this project great thank you chris thank you janet uh and other hands raised i don't see so uh no further discussion someone to make sure mr marshall raised his hand oh okay dog yeah i um i was sitting there looking at mate's screen share and had a kind of an off-topic question i'm glad i'm the last uh how did you decide what order to to list the town counselors it's it's clearly not alphabetical i'd have to look at that again uh it's the dpw's fault blame it on the dpw no i know it's not clear if it's age or height or some precinct order i don't i don't know that's a good good uh okay well thanks thanks a lot dug your level of scrutiny is uh should be commended the first three are at large members right the second two or the second ones are uh district one so it probably was in terms of district numbers district yeah all right so we will be uh up for you know proving the the playground structures the the sidewalk is still to be determined the sign is still to be determined correct uh just the you know the sign is i think you said sidewalk jack are you well the the crosswalk across the discussion but i thought the sign was was still it is right the sign is yeah we're okay i'd like to make a decision on the sign you know in the next month or so uh just we can get that fabricated and shopped around okay so uh andrew yeah does the sign count as a site furnishing i'm just wondering if that's a case can we actually move on this just as once final choices for play equipment and site furnishings have been made yeah i'm assuming the sign was part of the site furnishings but you could exclude that from your vote you could say everything except the sign i'm fine with that and then but that would mean we'd get another visit with the sign and at a future meeting yes yeah okay great so um any further discussion on the board um anyone want to make a motion andrew so moved okay uh is second i'll second this is your okay any further discussion i see no hands uh so we'll do roll call and maria approve tom approve andrew prove dug hi janet hi and yohana hi and myself as a yes so that's seven oh four zero for for that uh proposal check the motion excludes the sign is that correct yes correct nate yes yeah okay thank you we'll we'll value with uh a sign we'll come back you're gonna come back one we we just love seeing you here nate so yeah no thanks we're looking forward to that yeah it's actually a nice agenda tonight you know i'd like to stick around but right andrew will take your comments about the sign too i mean i think there's yeah it'd be nice to have the ability to have some area where you can either post things or even if we had um we talked about having a locus map and showing other destinations downtown so people could place themselves and know where there's either public restrooms or parking or shops and restaurants so you know we've had different comments about how to make the sign more than just a you know a welcome sign thanks nate thank you nate thanks great um so we have uh a next on the agenda is a master plan implementation matrix and it has some girth to it um again i i mentioned a lot going you know too far into it but let's i i i this is this is exciting because in lieu of the zoning subcommittee you know we talked about doing these types of things so this is uh i think it's great that that is being presented and and then all of us can discuss but obviously um there's a lot here and will rely i presume on on dug in and chris to give us an update on this shall i start yeah that sounds great thank you so why don't we just go through like a couple of pages of this and you can see what we did it was essentially um dug and i met probably i don't know six or seven hours at different times and dug was great because he had this matrix all ready to go and he typed and he corrected me and he added things and and i talked so it was a good collaboration and um you know i just kind of talked off the top of my head about things that i knew that had happened in the last 10 years or hadn't happened so the goal was to figure out which of the strategies had actually been implemented and which hadn't been and also to talk a little about which ones were worthwhile to continue to try to figure out how to make them happen and which ones could we put aside because things have changed in the last 10 years so i'll just go through a couple of the pages of the land use section which is the one we started with and that's really the most in my mind it's the most interesting because that's the one that we deal with as planners and planning board members so the first section is says preferentially direct future development to existing built up areas and we were already talking about that a bit tonight with our with our listening we weren't talking about it but the members of the public were talking about it with regard to 40 r and potentially putting the 40 r in an already developed part of town so the idea there is if you build up already built up areas then you can save your um open space uh for for recreation chris i'm great question i'm just looking at what was in our packet yeah and okay so i'm just wondering if i'm looking at the same thing uh lu one a is that what you're on i was looking at one which is the title okay so okay that happens after that is under that um title of lu one preferentially direct future development to existing built up areas so the first one was inventory and identify existing developed areas that are appropriate for density increases and redevelopment so we certainly made progress in developing a gis database which we didn't really have um or at least it wasn't widely available and widely used when the um when the master plan was done and the gis shows us clearly where development has occurred um we haven't really inventoried areas of where development has occurred in any other way but we have inventoried areas where development hasn't occurred and that is contained in the open space and recreation recreation plan um the town is either has done or will soon do a flyover of the town to generate a new gis base and the old gis base i think is from 2009 so it's about time to do a new flyover and see exactly where development has occurred but for the most part development has occurred in already developed areas with the possible exception of amherst fields amherst hills and amherst woods and some smaller subdivisions around town the second one lu one b evaluate built up areas on the basis of character quality and priority identifying areas to emphasize preservation historic areas of the downtown and village centers emphasize adaptive reuse particularly high quality historic areas of the downtown allow a varying combination of preservation and redevelopment such as other village centers transitional or neighborhood business areas and allow more extensive development and redevelopment with the balance of incentives and controls such as highway commercial corridors research parks etc and encourage denser development of appropriate scale and design in village centers in downtown so in with regard to the first one historic preservation we've established two historic districts in town two local historic districts of course we have the national register historic districts but we've established two local historic districts one in the Dickinson area Emily Dickinson museum area and one in the Lincoln sensate area so that went a long way to try to preserve some of our historical buildings we do have a few unused historic buildings but unlike you know holy oak in north Hampton we really don't have big mill buildings or big hospital buildings or anything like that but we do have some smaller historic buildings such as the Chevy dealership on Dickinson street that was turned into Amherst college facilities a facilities building so they're they base their facilities department out of there the Baptist church on Pleasant street was on south Pleasant street was turned into an Amherst college office building and the north Amherst fire station was converted to residences and then we're I'm talking about the small north Amherst fire station on pine street it's very tiny you probably wouldn't even notice it if you hadn't known it was a fire station previously but that is now a residence north Amherst school was converted to a preschool and a storage area for 10 for the town and cindy jones turned a barn into a satellite for the Atkins farm market that doesn't really operate anymore but it's currently being used I believe by provisions which is a new commercial establishment that's moving into north Amherst and in Pomeray center two existing historic houses were turned into office use and those are on Ron Lavertier's property just opposite where moan and dove is so those are examples of adaptive reuse of of historic buildings and then with responding to some of the other items in that in that section university drive we've changed zoning from only BL along university drive to include an R&D overlay district which allows some of the spin-off companies from UMass to operate in in those buildings that exist there now and if new buildings were built there they could also operate that there and that includes laboratories and manufacturing so that was that was a big change we also changed the zoning of the west side of university drive from OP office park to BL limited business to allow more flexible development and that resulted in Barry Roberts mixed-use development at 70 university drive and we reinterpreted zoning in the PRP zoning district where there were a lot of non-conforming uses that allowed residential use to occur there so one of the projects that resulted from that and that was really the building commissioner and came came up with that idea I think Amherst Motel was a non-conforming building it was very unused and a kind of an eyesore and that's being converted to apartments it's a it's a building that's currently under construction it's behind dominoes on route nine and at the same time there's a new mixed-use building going in at the corner of university drive in route nine where university drive south is going to be located it's I think it's got 45 apartment building apartments in it and an eye doctor's office so instead of a single family house at that location we're going to have a nice building with affordable units in it as well and then the last one encouraged denser development of appropriate scale and design and village centers the town supported cindy jones and the beacon communities in their project to create 130 housing units including 26 affordable units under a chapter 40 b development including 22 000 square feet of commercial space so I think you know all told we've really done a lot to implement this particular section of the master plan the next one is lu1c use flexible zoning techniques such as form-based codes to promote mixed-use development well town meeting rejected form based zoning for north amherst and akins village center but we're now re-exploring form-based code via the chapter 40 r zoning so so that's coming back to life again lu1d undertake rezoning efforts in order to direct more intensive development to appropriate areas and limit developments in resource areas so we have a farmland conservation overlay district that requires cluster development when residential development occurs in a farmland conservation area and that what that means is that the houses well you've all seen it happen down at this to terrace farm what is it heart well farms formally called apple brook and that that development has eight eight houses and they're all clustered together and the developer of that property is is giving I think it's a seven acre parcel to the town of amherst as recreation and conservation area so that concentrated development and maximized open space another thing is we're allowing five-story buildings downtown by right which allows denser development of the downtown and along about the same time around 2010 maybe slightly after that we eliminated the requirement for additional lot area per dwelling unit in downtown which now allows residential and mixed-use buildings in the downtown which is a change from previous years so I don't know how many how much of this you want me to keep going through well we've got we've got some time why don't we go through the all the lu1 okay up the lu1j okay lu1e create incentive zoning with bonuses for well-designed infill redevelopment projects we have not done that nope we haven't we haven't approached that one lu1f provide incentives including density bonuses to encourage energy efficient development we do not have density bonuses for energy efficient efficiency but we do offer density bonuses for affordable units in cluster developments and misty meadows on tamarack drive utilize this particular section of the bylaw but that has to do with affordable units and not with energy efficient units lu1g establish programs to encourage economic development in existing developed areas such as economic opportunity areas we do have an opportunity zone in north amherst and certain types of development receive tax benefits in that area we also had prior to 2010 we we had we helped atkins farm market with an economic development economic economic opportunity area but since then there really haven't been too many of those i think laverdiers property on larkspur drive may also have benefited from that but there hasn't really been too much talk about economic development areas other than the opportunity zone which is a federal designation so we did take advantage of that but there hasn't really been any development done as a result of that yet lu1h provide incentives to encourage infill and redevelopment i don't think we have made progress there but we do have a tax incentive for creating affordable units so you could argue that that is that is going towards this strategy the only time that tax incentive has been used was by the beacon communities at the north square in north amherst lu1i reduces energy use by encouraging new residences near supporting goods and services so when we removed lot area requirements for residential developments and allowed higher buildings in the downtown we did take some steps towards implementing this particular strategy and we changed the zoning on university drive to allow residential development there university drive already has a lot of services and it has bus a bus route and so it was a it was a smart move to change the zoning there to allow residential use in that in that area lu1j create market or other mechanisms for transfer of development rights otherwise known as tdr's from key resource areas and agricultural lands to village centers downtown and other areas where denser development is more appropriate so we did have a project it was actually um what do they call it a a d lta project with pvpc and the um the acronym is escaping me but it was something to the effect of local technical assistance um anyway we worked with piner valley planning that's right yeah district local technical assistance that's it all right so we work with pvpc on this and we got pretty far with it but then we didn't really have any public um what should I say uh support for it nobody was interested in doing this they didn't want to transfer development rights from outlying areas to the village centers and this was back probably shortly after the master plan was was completed I think it was particularly a sensitive topic in north amherst because people envision that the north amherst village center might become over over developed as a result of this so they didn't really um want to do this I think there were landowners in the outlying areas who were would have been happy to sell their development rights to places in the village centers but there weren't there wasn't a popular support public support for the village centers receiving those development rights so that uh that was sort of um we made a try at that and it was not successful it has been successful in some other towns and maybe we'll go back to it again at some point but right now it doesn't really seem to have much um much appeal so shall I stop there yes sounds great um very good so let's uh let's have some discussion amongst the board on what has been reviewed and um I'm looking at hands Andrew hi jack and thanks chris and Doug is well for putting this together it's it's it's an impressive document um I was curious of a couple things one um the last one you mentioned you know given some of the feedback we were hearing relative to 40 r and and given this has been a conversation of late when we've when when we identify no progress on here um you know do we want to uh do we want to consider revisiting some of these like how do we sort of go to the next step um because certainly when you mentioned you know that this was maybe back in the 2010 time frame again given what we've heard about today maybe there's more interest in in resurrecting something like this um and then also I was just curious since since um you know you've you've been along the ride for a long time chris is um what's your general sense of like all we've accomplished you saw the obviously a very large list and lots on here do you feel like we've we've met your expectations exceeded your expectations I would love love your professional opinion I was surprised at how many things we had actually accomplished because um you know we haven't really looked back at this list until now and so I was pleasantly surprised to see how many things we had accomplished but there is more to still be accomplished so um does that answer your question the yeah the second one and then I guess the first more broadly for the for the planning board is um you know what's next right as as we look through some of these do we want to resurrect them um you know at what point are we willing to say that like that's done so I was just master plan came out in what year 2010 2010 I mean looking at this compared to say that the 10 years prior to 2010 it was like crickets uh so I think I think the town the planning department has done a fabulous job with the charge you know presented them you know with this master plan um my opinion but um sorry let me look at other uh Tom hey thanks um and thank you Doug and Chris for this it is really a tremendous document and I and I agree you know hearing um from from Jack and Chris about progress you know over the last 10 years versus the 10 prior I can only imagine how much was accomplished um I mean my question is similar to that of uh of Andrew's in the sense that a lot of these things are actions that we're doing and that we're documenting those actions but have they how do we benchmark results right so how do we actually evaluate these things to say if we've done this thing or we've incentivized this or we've moved towards this or started this process how do we evaluate whether that's done or completed or did its job and then maybe something we want to incorporate in the future so I guess you know if like for instance within the master plan there's some really great things and and some of these you know building an opportunity zone is excellent how many do we need to make serious change right and when are we done building opportunity zones and how do we evaluate the success of that to say we need more of those I guess is kind of what I'm asking and that's just more for us to start thinking about and you know trying to come up with a process for us as we go through the rest of this document over the course of the next you know a few weeks thinking about ways that we can start to I guess assess these things um evaluate them and think about how we move them forward um which which part of that sure wait but I did the opportunity zone thing where is that um in our list it was just an example it was ldu uh 1g 1g okay just as an example like we made one right but how many is what we need or how how how valuable was that one you know how much improvement came out okay I actually underlined that and uh I forgot chris so I wanted to say that that particular um what action um has not borne fruit and it's kind of a an odd duck it was set up by the federal government in the last few years it has a limited time span and we're about I don't know a third to a halfway through that time span I think it's got a 10-year time span and then initially we had a lot of interest in from developers um but they were mostly interested in projects that were already shovel ready and they wanted to jump in and invest in them what it does is it gives investors a way of um not having to pay taxes on capital gains so they can invest their capital gains in certain types of project projects and then if they hold the um investment for long enough and I think 10 years is is one time of frame um they don't have to pay taxes on their capital gain so there's a lot of incentive to get into that early on but um when people found out that there weren't really shovel ready projects to invest in um it seems like they've kind of lost interest in it so I would say the opportunity zone although it seemed um very worthwhile in the beginning was probably not as worthwhile as we hoped it would be on the other hand it covered a huge portion of the town and I was I questioned it to begin with because it covered areas that aren't even appropriate for development um that are you know outlying areas with their their hilly and rocky and um their zoned RO and RLD so residential outlying and and residential low density so they're you know I I always had trouble figuring out how this thing was going to work it was basically the whole part of Amherst that's north of the university that was included in this zone and as I said it was a federal program that was set up in the last few years to I think was to jumpstart the economy but it it kind of didn't work for Amherst I know it worked for other places thank you Chris thank you um and thank you Tom um Janet so um I I'm assuming or I think to answer or I'm I'm I'm assuming this is kind of we're I don't know what the process is here in terms of going through all this amazingly long excel sheet and I'm not sure if that's what we're planning to do over the next few weeks I was hoping or thinking that we were moving towards MOPIC the master plan implementation committee um which you know so the idea is you know this is a great start on this work and then we could pass this along to MOPIC for you know starting like implementation and looking at it because like you know it seems like most of the areas have you know it starts with like do an inventory of your resources in this area assess them and evaluate them and then figure out programs and strategies and maybe zoning changes that implement that strategy you know you know the assessment so you know um and so and that you know that's obviously ongoing work and um things like that I don't think I mean I don't know if we're going to go through every single one of these things that you did with Doug because we could do that in our own time and you know I've got a million questions about them but I I thought we were sort of moving towards starting maybe an implementation committee who starts to say like how do we implement this to sort of answer the questions that you know Tom and and and you have raised which is like what's the next step and so you know like evaluating the built-up areas and the basis of character quality and priority like where do we want to preserve our historic buildings you know how do we want to do that could we do it through incentives or you know things like that and so um I don't think the so I wonder is that where we're heading because I'm sort of asking the group because is that is that what the next step is for this group or are we going to continue to I mean I'm happy to work through this because it's super interesting to hear what's been done yeah I mean personally I feel this is this is this is great and I I know what we're doing now is what we've all envisioned for a number of years of you know planning board kind of looking at and discussing uh but um I think when you have a committee that's going to break this down then you're looking at compromising Chris Brestrup's time who is doing great work with the CRC and I just I don't know that we have the capacity to really support you know a committee and I feel like this has been good I thought that we had been talking about doing mopec as like instead of doing there was a proposal um by the planning board that put together the master plan to organize this committee wasn't there that proposal that you had showed us I can't remember if this was in the summer or in the fall because I feel like every day of the pandemic is viable to me but um and so Chris you were saying that you thought maybe instead of having a broad mopec committee which is called for in the master plan that we could do an in-house and you could find some time to sort of sit with us is that is that is that a discussion that this board has had or did it proceed our new members I can't quite remember I don't may I answer that yes Chris I I don't remember exactly what the discussion was I think I did say that I would be available to sit with um the committee I I don't really want to get into a lot of paperwork but I'm happy to sit with people and discuss things and go through um you know some of these strategies like I went through with Doug and you know talk about what we could work on moving forward um so I think there are two aspects to the master plan implementation committee one is that it was set up by um it was supposed to be set up by the select select board and the select board came up with a charge for it and um no one was ever appointed to it and that was partly the fault of no one from the planning board volunteered to be on it and it was supposed to have one planning board member but there were also supposed to be a lot of other people on it so the planning board I guess by itself um could establish a committee of the planning board to do what mopec was or mpec was um supposed to do but it's it wouldn't be it wouldn't be peopled by town council unless you ask them to set this up and I think if you ask them to set it up exactly as it had been written up in the charge it wouldn't be a committee of the planning board it would be a committee of a lot of other people with one planning board member so you know you'd sort of have to decide which route you want to go you want to have a committee of the planning board looking at this or do you want to have a larger committee that's um peopled by uh that's I can't think of the word authorized by the town council so anyway I'm willing to sit with a small group of planning board members I don't want to have to get into a lot of paperwork or you know writing reports or anything but I can certainly meet with people if people are interested in this topic yeah I'd like to hear what Doug has to say and he has his hand up so well I I feel like I'm jumping in front of Maria that's all right you're you you were you had a hand in this so I just well sorry Maria Maria will understand I'm sure okay well I'll try not to go on too long um I guess uh I had a couple of thoughts one and I hope I can keep them both in mind um first of all in response to Andrew and and Tom's sort of saying where do we go from here um I guess as I was going through this with Chris my thought was that we were basically updating the scorecard of what have we done in the last 10 years and when the planning board recommended to town council that we just asked town council to adopt the master plan as it was done 10 years ago and that we not embark on a new master plan to me that means we're affirming the points of or the objectives of the master plan that you know are listed in this matrix and and described in the master plan we're affirming all of that as goals we continue to have so I felt like Chris was basically giving me a brain dump of what we've done so far and these are all you know many of them came across in the conversation with Chris as uh sort of living in her head as objectives to be pursued as she's working day to day with all the different people that she comes in contact with so uh I guess it's it seemed to me that Andrew the next time we really think about whether this is still a good idea you know any particular of the of the goals listed here is really when we do our next master plan and um in the meantime you know like the the one the the economic opportunity area or the transfer of development rights you know it was in the master plan staff tried it and there was resistance by some or all of the uh residents so you know there's just not going to get the focus that uh or it's not going to get prioritized by by staff at least and so I feel like that's kind of the steady state we're in until we do another master plan now and and then in terms of Janet's question about the master plan implementation committee I guess uh I I kind of feel like uh I guess basically what Jack was saying that you know um I don't know if the town staff have bandwidth to support another committee but I think there's I've I've never been completely clear about whether the implementation committee was was looked at as the ongoing scorekeeper and maybe an advocate with the other branches of town uh government and you know volunteer or or committees um just a just a scorekeeper and an advocate or whether they had any uh executive role um and I've assumed they didn't have any executive role so that essentially what we were doing here was sort of a shorthand you know update of the scorekeeping and then we as a planning board are essentially the advocates to other entities whether it's committees or staff or CRC or whoever for for what they ought to prioritize that's all thank you Doug um Maria and then I have I have some thoughts but I would note that we're an hour and a half into our meeting um and um you know we'll never we'll never finish this discussion on the master plan implementation um with that said Maria please um actually thanks Doug and Chris for doing this because this is very timely um the next agenda items about the CRC's memo about priorities and what they want to look at in three months versus six months to 12 months um a lot of these align with um the things that were in this matrix and in particular I kind of circled areas that I saw where the priorities the CRC sort of noted and where we either did or didn't do things and so a lot of it was in the housing section that um you know I think that a lot of this could blend together in a way so that as we work with the CRC on helping them figure out uh how to implement these priorities they've set for us we can look at those really great you know tool now that we have because we can see oh we've tried this or we um haven't tried this or here's a objective that can actually help resolve this particular priority that CRC has brought up so I think this is really great timing to have had this done and in our back pocket now and I think yeah I agree with Doug where we're the planning board we're sort of like this um connection between this matrix and the CRC coming to us with like um how do we uh what were some of the things we'll talk about this I hope tonight maybe a little bit but just you know unlocking housing working with fixing the BL in downtown there's so many of these things that overlap so I think we should definitely keep this matrix and keep referring to it as we work with the CRC um whether we create another committee right now um I had hope that some people from the community who have extensive sort of zoning bylaw um expertise could help out maybe there's a way you know if the zoning subcommittee grows into the MPEC zoning subcommittee um some sort of group that also brings in more of the planning board members we can work with this CRC on there um this I don't know what you call this thing that the memo from December 5th you know getting that um moving forward um I think that all of that sort of in tandem we have a lot of great resources now so I really appreciate all the work of this matrix but um yeah I don't I don't feel like we need to go through every line item but I think now that we have this we can refer to it it's really great to have so um so Maria I mean uh what do you suggest how how do we approach how would you suggest we approach the review it would be great um if later we get to the CRC memo we think about how we want to fold in our work as a planning board um some of this is really technical I'm really getting into like zoning bylaw wording and so at that point now that we have our priorities the zoning subcommittee can jump onto particular items from their memo as well as refer to this matrix of like what's been done or what's been tried um and then I would like to just talk to yeah the planning board as far as like who else wants to join the zoning subcommittee and then Chris is there a way we can bring some people from the community um I think rob crowner would be a great you know addition he has so much experience and historical knowledge um it'd be someone from bid someone who um I don't know if it if it makes sense to bring someone from the plan department as well I mean it could be just the ad hoc group that we work through things and then we report back to the planning board so that way we're not you know overloading staff with having to set up zoom meetings and we can just as easily set up our own zoom meetings but that's if that's legal but um but yeah I feel like as we get into the CRC memo we can then think about what the zoning subcommittee could jump on next and whether that can tie into um you know always referring to this matrix as well as bringing in more people that's pretty convoluted but that's sort of you know it's kind of a nebulous path forward but that's kind of my my general sense so um so you your feeling is like we we shouldn't be going light on them during our meetings through this no I don't know that I mean that'll take days you know um but I think that as we get into sections that the priorities that the CRC has set up for us we should definitely refer to that section of this matrix and say okay let's look at what's been tried and done or hasn't been done so um but I mean I think yeah yeah I think what Chris did with the land use was useful because it's relevant to us so okay so so maybe the next meeting we will rely on the board to review the entire document and we'll just take comments versus having Chris present it all and then maybe divert to the the CRC you know kind of pinpointing things and and in using points of reference uh does that sound reasonable to to everybody on the board or but Janna has her hand up so um I remember like Rob Wilbur from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council saying that if you don't have an implementation committee for your master plan it will never be implemented and so um I understand the issues that Maria's raising because there is a it is really it's kind of unclear I mean we're kind of in a fuzzy state and I wonder um I don't know if this should be homework for the if I could present that or propose it for the planning board to look at the implementation sections of the master plan and not just this matrix but also there's a whole chapter and um look at that and think like maybe we can reflect on like oh what's the best way to implement this or um I think if it goes ad hoc it's never going to be fully implemented and so I don't think obviously the hundreds of pages bump but I do think there's some really big issues here that we need to look at which is you know like a more systematic way and so can can we just I don't think it's going to happen in two weeks but we look at the implementation sections and kind of figure out like oh do we need an implementation committee should it be in-house you know or whatever is there look at the um maybe Chris can give the select board um charge because I thought the charge was really good um and then as to Maria I'd love to talk more about like what happens next with you know the CRC stuff because I'm kind of lost on that myself so um so our next meeting is January when is it January 6th January 6th okay um so one okay Chris you have your hand yeah please speak I just wanted to say this as far as I'm concerned this isn't finished it's a draft and there were several items that I was going to um consult other people about and so I feel like it's um there's more information that needs to be put into this and I will keep you know plugging away at it when I have time and sending you you know updated versions of this I think Doug noted those areas where we need more information like I think he wrote in red Chris yeah I I generally did write them in red uh I noticed there's a couple that are still just in regular black text but so we could um I could focus on that you know spend some time between now and January 6th um seeing if I can get answers to some of those questions but that's that's all I wanted to offer Andrew has a stand up yeah thanks Jack I I think Maria I think it's a great idea of being able to use this as a as a way to reference what we've looked at or what we're what we're what's been shared by the CRC I would sort of restate my point from earlier and and I think like the the TDRs especially like we it didn't work 10 years ago right like so should we say that it doesn't work you know I I don't I mean given the time horizon for all this I don't know that's really relevant uh in certain circumstances then I'll start to uh Janet the point you made or restated like I guess is this the only document that we have that demonstrates progress towards the master plan and you know if so and I guess it's like you could argue we don't even like there's no point of even having this if if there's no interest in updating right um so I just throw it out there I'm looking forward to to more conversation on it the the TDR I'm having a brain cramp what just the transfer of development rights okay it's just that you know the notion of of building density when all of the public comment we've heard lately is about building density in 40 r like this is another mechanism of doing it so the fact that that you know 10 years ago people said no I don't think it's really relevant when we consider where we are today so thanks thank you uh Johanna I'm really grateful to Chris and to Doug for putting in the time to give us this snapshot of where we stand on the master plan um I do feel like we have a lot of kind of pressing and urgent work that is in front of us right now that would touch on a lot of these aspects and so rather than like going down the rabbit hole of oh let's figure out where in the master plan we're falling short or whatever I'm a little bit inclined to move full steam ahead with the things that are on our agenda 40 r the zoning bylaw and then you know a year from now go back and like update this grid and say all right where did we make progress and um and not I don't know like not spend so much time on the spreadsheet and the analysis of like where are we going now because I actually think there's a we have pretty clear direction about where we like where the big points of action are moving forward thank you Johanna um based on that and and Chris has her hand up but I think that we do need to move on and Johanna mentioned 40 r that's one of the topics we have um uh Chris so I wanted to say I think there's a lot of momentum on the part of the CRC and the town council to move ahead with zoning amendments and I think that that's where your energies would best be spent town council is only going to be in office for another year and after that we don't know who the players are going to be these players have shown an interest in the things that Mandy Joe has put in her memo to the town council um and so I think that there's an opportunity here to act on those things and that's where we should put our effort so that would be my recommendation rather than um spending more time going back over the implementation matrix and figuring out what we haven't done or what among those things we would like to do we have a kind of a list in front of us here that CRC has given us that these are the things they want to do and I know that the planning department has things that we absolutely need to get done like the flood mapping so my preference would be to work with those things where there is already an incentive to move forward and that's what I would recommend so um with regard to this you know speaking of the implementation of the master plan I guess I'm seeking you know some consensus from the board of how we want to take this on and any you know motions without we treat this moving forward I think again I haven't had time to go through all this but it looks it looks completely solid I think Doug and obviously Chris for for the work put into this so it's it's it's it's valuable we've we've not had this before um any thoughts on the board Doug uh you know it's not really clear to me that we need a motion but you know if you're looking for one Jack you know I'd make a motion that we we uh just agree to set this set this aside use it as a resource over the next year allow Chris to finish the loose ends that she agreed to pursue you know this time around and then you know just put on our calendars for another year or year and a half from now to sit down and update it so I I agree I agree Doug no vote but I would just like affirmative you know people kind of shake their heads whatever maybe on this because it won't be on our you know future agendas as such other than a reference is everybody okay with that um Johanna yes Janet no no okay Andrew okay so there's it's not it's not unanimous so let's talk about this you know more you know next meeting we'll get you know some sort of point of uh you know strategy yeah I could I could send out the sections on implementation and stuff and um so we could look at that and and not just the matrix but like how do you implement the master plan so I feel like I've spent a lot of time on the master plan this year and I wonder if it's all just going to fizzle out I mean and then in 10 years we do a new one that we don't really implement in a cohesive way that's kind of my fear but it may be what happens so okay well this you know again it's a 20 we have other items that I'd like to move on to so the next would be the 40R discussion and um and I might my understanding is that a few of the planning board members were at a kind of productive meeting within their districts and I'd loved it to hear about that um and but before I don't know Chris if you have anything to say on this on the as we're entering this 40R discussion my comment would be that I'm interested to hear that there has been support for the 40R I haven't really you know prior to September say I wasn't really hearing support for the 40R from any quarter of town um other but the possible exception of John Hornick and Rob Krauner and now I'm hearing a lot of support and in fact we received um and I'm remiss for not having forwarded them to you but we received four emails in the planning department email in the last week in support of 40R so it seems like it's got some energy behind it and my my feeling is that it's not a finished document it's it needs some work and um questions have been brought up by CRC members particularly Evan Ross and Mandy Johannikey about inconsistencies and things that we want to change so I think it's probably a good idea to spend some time on it for me to spend some time on it trying to clean it up and for you all to spend some time on it telling me what you think should be changed in it and maybe we maybe we do have a proposal that actually can work I must admit that I I wasn't really taking this all that seriously until probably September-October just because I wasn't hearing support from the community or from really members of the planning board and now I'm hearing that and so it's worth you know putting some effort into it to make it right and really come up with a good product if that's what you would like to move forward with. Good um Doug? Yeah I guess I wanted to ask uh what is it that Jack you or Chris or CRC want from us about this do they want us to try to wordsmith it or to fill in the blanks that are yet to be clarified or are they simply looking for a general uh expression of support that it's worth others spending time on so I'm I'm a little clear you know this I agree this doesn't feel like a finished document I have you know a variety of concerns uh from you know wordsmithing to overall approach so I'd like some guidance on you know what's the end end point you want to reach with this group very good very good question uh our statement Doug and um Chris can you provide us some light on well I think that the CRC is interested in this they're they're interested to to the point of talking about it and discussing it and Mandy Joe has reached out to the other CRC members to get them to send in comments so far only Evan and Mandy Joe have provided written comments but that indicates to me that they take it seriously and they want to look at it and I don't really feel like it's the CRC's baby it's if anybody I mean it in my mind it probably could have been the housing trusts baby but they didn't really want that baby they wanted to give it to the planning board so I think it's the planning board in the planning department it's our responsibility to make this into something that we think is a good product if if we think that we want to pursue it and I'm hearing from several members of the planning board that it might be a good idea to pursue this so if the planning board tells me that they want us to work on this we will work on it yeah my personal opinion since since Doug asked I really I feel like this is something that is timely given everything that you know the town and the region the state is is facing right now it's a shot in the arm and I'm very very interested in implementation not particularly for the entire scope but for a portion you know particularly you know the BL district there on you know west of Pleasant Street and and I just it doesn't seem like there's any downside I mean it can be implemented and it and it's an overlay that the the developers the developers can choose to use the the 40R or not or use the BL but I just I feel like our downtown could really use a shot in the arm and I think the the the bylaw the guts of it are are are really improved from what we saw in the spring and it's just very intriguing and so you know we're not I think we're only recommending to to the town council whether we would you know promote this in total or in parts but I but I you know if we were to wordsmith yeah I mean that's there there's a lot there a lot a lot of heavy lifting but um my two cents uh Janet so I've been I've listened to the last two CRC meetings and they haven't said let's go with the 40R there has been no vote and it doesn't seem like they've been discussed it recently and so if we're if we decide if our goal is to implement or try to run with um the CRC priorities I don't see that on the list um and then you know I guess when we get to the new business there's eight to ten pretty heavy hitting zoning changes and so um so I'm wondering like you know if we if the planning department I know you have the planning department has completely different priorities and things you're working on these eight to ten kind of heavy hitting changes that all really often relate with each other plus working on a 40R I mean it sounds like I don't I don't know I just I don't I don't see the CRC saying go for the 40R and so I'm wondering I don't think it's possible to do all those things in a year the second thing is I think if like by the time if we really spent some deep time on the 40R we might as well just fix the problems downtown like if we're going to work on the design standards in the 40R which I think are very weak and we make them stronger why not make that into sort of design standards for downtown and so to me I think our efforts would be if we're going to focus efforts is to do focus on the downtown problems that we see and look at them as a whole um which I think was part of our priorities that we had listed in the summer and Dove's tales with the CRC changes but the 40R is like a big it's a big beast and just I don't know who's going to spend the time on it I don't think I don't think the planning department does if you're going to be doing your flood maps you're doing a recodification of the bylaw and I keep on forgetting the third thing um is it there's some other big project that you're doing and then we have like these you know very big eight eight to ten changes proposed by the CRC in the next year plus the 40R and you know and then in my argument against the 40R it doesn't address the holistically the problems in downtown so I don't know I know I'm not I don't want to spend a lot of time rewriting the 40R you know it's 25 pages and it's you know it's a rough go so I would mention Janet that uh we do have a couple of pages from the two CRC members within our packet there so I think they have um two of the five members but but they haven't voted on and they haven't talked about it no no but but there is I think there's interest in it um so I'll let yeah I just don't know I don't get direction I don't see the direction from them yet so yep okay uh Johanna it's helpful to hear that other town bodies are thinking you know 40R is now like it would be the planning board and the planning department that folks are looking to to refine it um I think my gut would be to invest the time and refine it and you know try to put forward a product that we think jives with the master plan and jives with you know kind of the direction that you know we think based on kind of our experience the town wants to go in and and move the ball forward on 40R so that would be my inclination thank you um Maria um so uh I really appreciate those public comments at the beginning because they kind of said exactly what was going on in my mind and my responses now which is you know when John Hornet came and talked to us about how time is of the essence if we don't accept this 40R now it's gonna be five ten years before the next fix comes and this is by no means a fix that fixes everything this is one of the many tools we need to do a lot of good work um yes this this 40R there are a lot of flaws but I feel like no matter what state it's in everyone's gonna always see something they don't like this product has been worked on for a couple years now with um a lot of consultants who've done this for their profession for many decades a lot of input from public comments public meetings I think it's a missed opportunity to not put more time into this um I don't know that we need to invest hours and hours and weeks and weeks I'm almost ready just to accept it as is I'm just I still don't want this to go away and be a missed opportunity um it it can address so many of the issues we have it's not going to fix everything but unlocks BL we still have to work on the BL of course but it just seems like if we give this up now it's like what was all that for and we're missing out on a lot of what it can offer our town now um it's just such a timely thing and also I think that um to say let's just fix downtown we've been trying to do that for decades I don't think that's an easy thing to do I think this is one of the tools to you know kind of slowly move toward that but sort of ignoring this and saying won't we just fix downtown I I don't know what that means um and I think that um a lot of people I really respect have spoken up and finally spoken up I think that was because of a lot of concerted effort of um some people sending out emails and just saying we need your voices we need you know there's a sort of a a silent majority I think that has always been there but just isn't you know they're they're all working there they just don't have time to come to these kinds of meetings or send out emails and finally they are and it's just so appreciated because like Chris said we just weren't hearing support and so we kind of thought well it's not going to go but um I've always supported it I just yeah I feel like uh if we can put I mean I'm happy to put more effort into it I don't know how uh we work with the CRC or with playing staff but whatever we can do to make this happen in some form I think this is the time to do it that's my two cents thank you so much Maria um and I agree with with what you've said uh Tom thanks Jack um and I I would probably lean towards agreeing with uh Johanna and and Maria at this point I think it is an imperfect document but it's getting laid upon a very imperfect uh overlay area and I think in some ways um speaking to what Jenna was talking about if we are going to be making changes to the overlay document we can explore how those kinds of changes that we want to see are the kinds of changes we want to change in the bl and other parts of the downtown and that we can rewrite those and use this as a learning document to sort of what do we want to craft how do we want to craft the landscape of our downtown and what do we want to incentivize and then we can use that as a means to then shape other aspects of of the downtown zoning for a benefit so I see it as a a way to get this group to spend more focused time on trying to address some of those challenges with downtown zoning but also to capitalize on a an opportunity that's presented in front of us now to make some changes that I do think will be beneficial thank you Tom um Janet you have your hand up but also Chris so Chris hasn't spoken a while so I'm I just wanted to say I thought it was very helpful to get those comments really specific comments from Mandy Joannike and Evan Ross they were questions and comments and if planning board members would be so inclined I would appreciate hearing from planning board members in the same way and Janet did produce a document that commented on 40R back a while ago and if she wanted to update that document you know in light of the 40R proposal that we have today I would welcome that so any comments that the planning board would like to to submit not to all of you at the same time but just to me you know to get my thought process going about this would be helpful and then we could see where we can go with this because I think it has potential but I certainly don't think it's ready to be presented to town council today I think there are too many unanswered questions so anyway Chris would it be helpful if the board kind of gives a kind of an approval of the concept for the CRC or can they wait for you know more specific you know comments and you know again I how I think Doug brought this up you know how how I'm deeper going to drill into to this proposal and we know what it where they look and I know we can only recommend it's it's up to the town council on that I think there I think the CRC is looking for a product I'm not even sure they're looking for a product because as Janet said they haven't voted to say we think this is a great idea and we want to see a finished product I think they would probably if if they were inclined to support this idea they would look to the planning board and the planning department to come up with the product and present it to them I don't think they're going to spend the time doing that so if the planning board is seriously interested in this and wants to submit comments to me I will do my best to work on it and try to come up with a product it's not going to be immediate because I have a request from the CRC to work on these three month priorities so I'm going to be working on those I'm also going to be working on the flood maps and other things so it'll it'll take a while it's not going to be immediate but if you're serious about this it would be nice to try to get it done within the next year so that this so that this town council could vote on it does that make sense well I mean I'm looking for action you know items like what what what do we need to do and and this is going to remain on our our agenda should we have a vote with regard to you know are we behind this I think you should have a vote with regard to whether you're behind this and then that will give me a direction to move in and then I'll look to you for specifics okay Janet so the thing that CRC also is recommending to the town council I'm not sure it's a is to hire consultant to work on design standards for downtown I would love to work on that project I'd love to work with the consultant I'd love to work with the community about you know I think there's a lot of agreement on what we want to see downtown I think people would get on board for more density if they felt like they they liked how it looked and it protected the historic buildings and you know was a you know very um we always talk about vibrant but we also want to talk about like walkable and you know human scale and so I'm happy to work on that and so I think that that recommendation I'm not sure if CRC is going make that recommendation to the town council and they authorize it or you know whatever um I also think I'm a little concerned about you know normally we don't take citizens comments like we take general public comments in the beginning of a meeting on issues that aren't on our agenda just ask people and then we have public comment what after or during our discussion so I know people are in the audience going to talk but if we were going to do like a head count on the comments on about you know 40R it's been overwhelmingly against it a lot of the people who spoke in favor today live in South Amherst which you know as we know is a bupolic and beautiful place the people most affected by it in downtown have been against it and other people in different parts of Amherst and so if it's going to be like a polling thing and we're going to go with the group that has the most votes I think we'd say no we don't have public support if four people speak at the beginning of the meeting that could be a groundswell of support of the silent majority but the majority majority you know 30 people or so have spoken against it or raised concerns and so those are my thoughts and I really do think we should go to the public comment and hear more from people you know like to take that before we make a decision I think we should also wait to see if CRC is interested because if they're really not you know there's so many dogs we have in our race I don't know you know you know I'd love to work with the consultant on design standards I'd love to work with somebody for you know inclusionary zoning I don't think that's a hard you know I think that takes care there's a huge problem but I don't really want to go down to the rabbit hole of 40R which I think needs a lot of work you know but if people want to do that I guess they I won't stand in the way but I do think we shouldn't hear from the public and if we're counting heads most of the people were against it thank you Janet um I would just say like 30 people we have a population of what 20,000 I'm not sure you know we talk about silent majority it's all up to town council I we need to rely on our individual opinions on this and not like who we think we represent I mean I don't think that's our charge um so I do think that we have the people most affected by this proposal have asked to work with us on it and have opposed the height density I mean you've heard that meeting after meeting and we're sitting in the audience now and so I don't know it's everybody's downtown it's everybody's downtown and um uh Doug um so I've heard uh several people express support sort of unequivocably for the entire proposal uh Jack I think I've heard you say it was a way to unlock the BL I happen to uh and you know I've said this before but I I think uh it's the areas of the BL where I think I could find I could most support this um I don't think I'm not as convinced that our downtown or or BG area really needs this um so I my support for this is strongest in you know whether you call it the BL or you call it I think it was zone zone two that they had in green on that plan yeah um so so that's that's one one point I wanted to make um and with perhaps uh well anyway so in addition um you know I'd be willing to spend some time with you know a couple of other people you know I'd go through it and generate a draft and work with somebody a couple of people and we could try to try to turn it into something that the board could endorse or or not um I don't want to spend that time if it's going to be dead on arrival um but uh I guess uh you know for better or worse I'm I'm offering to spend some time on it thank you thank you um Maria I'm happy to help you dad and Tom say I'm happy to help out okay like I don't know whether the best way is to do it individually with comments like Chris suggested or whether it actually makes sense to get together or yeah well I was I guess I was making my offer to maybe allow Chris not to deal with it at least as soon can we can we hear can we hear from the public people who are have their hands raised uh is any other comments from the board this time okay so we'll open up to public uh you ready Jack yes Jennifer start with Jennifer Tom I'm sorry can you hear me now yes okay I was muted my name is Jennifer Taub I live on Lincoln Avenue and I have to tell you it is very distressing I actually saw some of you kind of make faces you were surprised to hear that there were many residents who have many concerns about 40R and the push for maximum densification in the BL and to relax design standards at the same time and yes it's everybody's downtown but for the many many residents who live right on cottage street uh the north prospect Lincoln sunset amnesty there's many of us that walk downtown many times every day it's everyone's downtown but there are people that use it more than others and it is concerning that there's I feel like it's this sort of closed loop there's five people on the CRC there's what is there six or seven people on the planning board I don't know if any of the planning board members it's not geographically represented on the planning board and I think that there's members of the CRC I'm just going to be really frank here that have some extreme views on what they want to see downtown in the BL and even the um the you know RG neighborhoods look like and um there are we have an organization that's just forming we have an active mailing list of over over 63 residents from cottage street and the north prospect Lincoln sunset neighborhood we've weighed in at the you know few meetings that were had that we were invited to with a consultants and I I feel like we're really not being heard and we want a vibrant downtown but we want to have you know input into what you know if 40 hours going to be adopted what it's going to look like if it's going to be downtown as opposed to some of the neighborhood centers but nobody moved to Amherst just like all of you who live in more bucolic areas in town I don't think anybody said I want to move to Amherst, Massachusetts because I want to live in a densely populated community with lots of tall buildings that frankly look we didn't want to move to a downtown that looks like one East pleasant and Kendrick place if we wanted extreme density this is not where we would be and I feel like we're we're just not being heard and we want we want input into you know how this is going to unfold and we feel like um you know that we've come to neighborhood meetings and then you know when I see the reaction here of your surprise that people are Jennifer I see like there's four more hands I think you've you've you've spoken and I think we understand your your your concerns and I apologize but we're way I'm happy to but I just um yeah okay so but I just think that you you know I just want to know that we've been heard and you understand that there's a there's many people out here that don't want to see extreme densification and the relaxation of any kind of design review thank you thank you thank you Jennifer um next is jean okay jean hardy so jean if you can keep in comments three minutes they'd be they'd be great thank you thank you very much for recognizing me and letting me have the chance to talk I have brought this up before and written letters to the newspaper etc asking that people attending these meetings get to have their their faces seen and they can see the other people here and that hasn't happened and I would really like to encourage the planning board to work on doing that because it it isn't fun to be a faceless person operating without knowing who else is at the meeting that being said I would like to really thank Janet because Janet is a voice that really resonates with the way I feel I also feel a lot how Jennifer uh how Jennifer feels there are 30 people like so Jennifer mentioned 63 people there are 30 of us that have spent a lot of nights listening to you talk about 40 are and we put in the time to come to these meetings specifically because we care very much about it so jack you say it's everybody's downtown but it's not everybody who is going to have a five-story building right next to them within 10 feet of their house with people looking down into their bathroom if you know many of you live out in the woods and I find it strange to have people who didn't choose to live downtown legislate to those of us who do live downtown how we should live we should want to have large buildings next to us we should want to not be able to park our cars and take the bus I've heard all of these things talking about this increased densification what we should do I see people on the planning board not making those decisions because I I know where some people in the planning board live and I I feel like the people who have the most vested interest are those who live right next to the BL and our way of life are you know my ability to take a shower without having four stories worth of people looking in my bathroom will be directly impacted so I would really ask that you take these people into consideration I disagree entirely that there's a silent majority who has very strong feelings about this who just hasn't been heard they're silent because they don't really care but those of us who spend our nights coming to these planning board meetings care because it will really impact us and I I really thank Janet for trying to think about about about us I would like to also address this unlocking the BL I don't understand why we need the BL to be unlocked there are plenty of other places that can be developed without unlocking the BL or without changing the zoning of the BL and I don't see I don't see why the 40R is such a fantastic opportunity and why it's only a fantastic opportunity right here in downtown Amherst and not in many of the other you know at the beginning of the summer this committee was saying that we should put 40R somewhere else so I thought great and then suddenly six months later we have a complete reversal where there's only one member of the planning board who isn't strongly in favor of 40R so um what's so I thank you so much um it was that three minutes it was um I can't get my timer to go off here can I at least finish by saying that the BL is a transitional zone and the way that the 40R is being planned is not a transitional zone and so it really negatively impacts the people living in jason's okay uh thank you thank you jean uh I would I would just say that there the the at least for the area that I was interested in the BL that that actually I maybe someone on the planning board can correct me but it was actually a lower you know number of stories than that would be allowed but again the setbacks and all that make the the BL unworkable but the the proposal by the consultants definitely took into consideration um the height of buildings and I and I believe it was only three stories the second round suggested three stories but someone else who knows correct me well that's what we're that's what we're considering right now we're that that's that's what it is right now is a is a second round so we're we've moved on uh so uh just wanted to add that but we have other three more I see uh next to Susanna hi Susanna hello can you hear me yes yes thank you I'm Susanna Moss Brad I live at 38 North Prospect Street I have uh sent comments into Christine but I believe she said she was going to distribute to you all my concern is that as I read the draft bylaw it is eliminating a lot of the kinds of review the design review and the historic review that protect the historic buildings downtown many of which are in the subsection two of the proposed district and I'm very concerned I think those small buildings give the downtown the texture and the small town feel that the plan that the master plan uh and joins us to protect and that are very important to many people's view of why they like downtown Amherst I'm also concerned that small shops are being driven out by these big buildings and we we need those small shops because they give people a lot of reasons to come downtown so those are my concerns I haven't found a very good forum in which to ask some questions and clarifications of what the intent or what some of the language in the bylaw is so I think there needs to be more discussion that citizens can take part in the consultants mainly talk to people who are not residents but who were had business interests and not the small businesses the big businesses thank you thank you for the time to talk thank you thank you very much next is Elizabeth okay hi Elizabeth Elizabeth you're muted yes thank you yes this is Elizabeth Veerling and I'm at 36 Cottage Street and I wanted to start just by saying that I'm in strong support of a vibrant downtown as well as infill and affordable housing so I just wanted to preface any of my other comments with that comment I have also written to the planning board in the past and been at these meetings I do want to start by saying that in contrast to the speak that those individuals who spoke at the beginning of the meeting I disagree that the consultants and that there was a wide discussion of this proposal among residents as was just pointed out by the previous speaker the consultants did not speak to a single resident in formulating their proposal I also would like to agree that the BL zone then design standards as written in this proposal remain non-transitional they are not transitional and in fact the only changes that were made were made because of major pushback by residents and they're still insufficient in my estimation I'm I would also like to point out that it's unclear to me and I have still not gotten an answer from the planning board or from someone familiar with 40R my understanding is that the 40R overlay does nothing to the general business district because there's no incentive for a developer to use the 40R standards rather than the standards that are already in place rather than the zoning bylaws that are already in place for the general business district so we're really only talking about BL as being impacted by 40R and we shouldn't pretend that it's going to change the general business district and then just two other points one I point I want to make is that One East Pleasant and Kendrick Place do nothing for residents of outside of those buildings if they even do anything for residents in those buildings but there's no incentive for anyone to go downtown to see One East Pleasant or Kendrick Place so if the idea is we're going to have more of those buildings we're going to eliminate any reason to go downtown and then my final point is that I actually find it extremely amusing to see the detailed plans for a playground when and and all the discussion about exactly what the sign is going to look like on a playground and then we have no kinds of similar drawings considerations or great detail on what 40R would look like in Amherst and that I think is is ridiculous frankly thank you thank you Elizabeth I had I had some thoughts on what you had said but they they escaped me right now but I have to say that like Kendrick Place I have a neighbor that moved into the area because of the jobs that were provided by Mass Mutual there and and you know so a lot of people and not students live in the buildings there so I just I I would temper your comments on on those two buildings and do we back there there are two more public comments with two more hands raised so we have Anastasia would be next okay hi Anastasia hi there can you hear me yes hi good evening I just wanted to speak up about this issue I've been I found the comment from the board very interesting I actually missed the first public comment section at the beginning of the meeting and have found this conversation very interesting and also some of the comments that I've heard made from residents I think that input is extremely important and I agree that you know I think residents throughout Amherst need to be able to speak up on issues that affect all of them the downtown absolutely 100% affects every single person in this town not just people who are living immediately in the downtown area but I also want to stress that you know this community is made up of people of all kinds of backgrounds including those who cannot afford single family homes who cannot afford the high priced real estate in Amherst and they also deserve to live here and not outside of the boundaries of this town so if we can provide them an opportunity to do that through you know zoning that has been adopted already by other communities throughout the state progressive communities and we want to count ourselves as being progressive that it's important that we consider this and and give it the seriousness that it deserves and I also want to state that you know what brings people to Amherst I think people appreciate the bucolic and you know beautiful scenery in the area they also appreciate the jobs at UMass at the universities these are the things that are driving people to a place like Amherst they also appreciate the schools that are here those are the things that are driving them to Amherst so it's not the the you know very expensive housing in downtown Amherst it is all of the different resources and if they can't live here and yet they have to work here and they can't send their their children to school here we actually don't have a very vibrant community so I do hope that the planning board and the rest of you know the folks who have been involved in this conversation are thinking about all of the neighbors that we have here and not just those of privilege I appreciate that thank you and we have the last hand raised is Pam Rooney okay hi Pam hello again how are you I'm I'm actually quite sad that we that we don't have a vision for our town center and we we obviously have some conflicting views on what the look and feel of a town center is I was actually going to speak about some of the zoning priorities that you were going to talk about maybe you won't get to those tonight I don't know but it certainly occurs to me that um given the lack of vision for the town center yet we are plowing ahead with a 40 our proposal that has fairly loose and and undeveloped design standards and we're plowing ahead with the dozen miscellaneous CRC zoning priorities and I think I would what bothers me is that is that treating them as piecemeal targets doesn't make a hole it does not it does not mean that we come out the other end with something that's cohesive or applicable so I would I would challenge you the planning board you've said you're the best planning board in years I would challenge oh I can't hear you that might have been my I'm sorry that might have been me I was it was I apologize Pam how much of my speech do I need no yeah I I I I'm so sorry but you you you missed the best part and that I'm that I'm challenging the best planning board ever your words exactly to take on the responsibility of of doing the legwork doing the homework on what each what what 40 are will look like if you decide to tackle it what will it look like how will it feel are you actually creating community by the creation of a very dense BL district I want to I want you to tell me that because you will be affecting the the sense of the town for the next hundred years also as you as you decide to tackle the zoning I want to see from this group what are the ramifications of each of those footnote changes and I think I think there are some very clear ramifications and I would like to see you do your homework on what they are and how that actually affects living in Amherst I'm happy to help by the way you mentioned Rob Crowner but there are in fact other people that have been on the planning board in the past who are available thank you thank you Pam so I think we can go back to the board and Janet you have your hand up so um I think Pam has spoken really has spoken to this before and I think that if members of the planning board want to work on the 40 are which we all can agree affects certain parts of the BL I think it'd be good to do a comparison of the 40 are however you draft it to adding you know the CRC change of adding BL to footnote B and all the other footnotes that attach to the BL and give waivers to an idea of changing the BL to business village center which gives a lot of flexible zoning but still you know keeps heights and things and to start just looking at three or four options side by side and what do they look at what does build that look like look like what are the pros and cons of each and I think that's something that the planning department and planning board could work on and it would be really helpful to this discussion because you know we're talking about the 40 are in certain parts of the BL um in in downtown um CRC is talking about changing BL which is you know three different parts of Amherst and with no real sense of what that's going to look like physically and so I think that's something that we can bring to the table and to the discussion and make it richer and I I'd look um deeply to Chris Brestrup with leadership and maybe I don't know if Ben could help with that in terms of drafting you know what does build that look like throughout the BL downtown or on route nine or on university drive and the density numbers should be get really could get really big especially since apartments are now smaller and you know that memo that you did in 2016 I think is going to be helpful but I think we need to update it because the apartments are smaller so I think we can as the planning board bring some depth to the analysis of saying let's compare these three different methods for four or five and what does it look like and what's the best one and and also bring the community in to discuss it because you know they have good ideas and it's their town too thank you Janet so I guess in this for the sake of time we're going to put this back on the agenda for the you know next meeting I think would be the wisest thing but you'll see when we go over zoning priorities and the comprehensive housing policy that you know I feel that town has a little bit of a crisis with regard to the whole housing issue and and young families and that sort of thing and that's only you know that's one of the main reasons I'm I'd like to for us consider 40 arg is that's what it's all about but let's continue this discussion and you know Chris you put it on the agenda for the next from the next meeting we'll continue but it is getting late and we need we want to talk about Amherst Hills subdivision update which I think is good news Chris yeah so we have gotten word from the developer and his lawyer that the roadway is essentially finished the work that was going to go on on the roadway to patch the holes and and repave it and I've gotten confirmation of that from the town engineer that the roadway is pretty much finished there are things associated with the roadway that remain undone and I think those probably have to do with some of the drainage infrastructure but I don't know for sure so I've reached out to the town engineer to get a sense of what exactly in addition to the roadway surfacing needs to be done and how much does he think it's worth in terms of you know a cost estimate we did get a request from Michael pill who represents to Fino associates to for the planning board to consider rescinding that notice that they have filed with the registry of deeds the notice requests that the building commissioner not issue building permits for I think six or seven lots in the Amherst Hills subdivision pending finishing the roadway work so I need to talk to the building commissioner about that and I need to talk to the town engineer about exactly what work does remain to be done and then I'll come back to you with a recommendation about what to do about that notice that you that you've put in the registry to request that the building commissioner not issue building permits it's possible that you could move forward with releasing some lots from that that notice so that would be upon the request of the owner slash developer yes and we've received an email with that request I don't know if I related that to you I don't think I did forward it to you I didn't think it was ripe for you to act on but okay possibly by January 6 that would be right because I will have heard from the town engineer about how much work remains to be done off the roadway surface okay okay thank you chris um so topics not reasonably anticipated 48 hours part of the meeting for old business I have a topic that I could report on which is that it appears that the Amherst media site plan review and special permit was not appealed the deadline for the appeal was supposed to have been December 14th we filed that decision with those decisions with the town clerk I think we filed them on November 24th so in any event as of the close of business on the 14th there had not been an appeal filed according to the town clerk so if that holds then that means that that project can move ahead so I think that's good news in my mind um on that note I I notice like within a might have been the gazette that the the hills henry hills what henry hills house yeah henry hill yeah so they they're they're putting up a barrier there with regard to arbor vitae or something like that that's right but that's they're completely within their right to do that they are certainly yep in an arby's zoning district and they're a single family house so they can do what they want with their single family house okay yep very good um okay so on the new business uh can we just jump uh from skip the zoning prior priorities just because of the comprehensive housing policy I just want to introduce that um what has been distributed to the planning board I I'm not keeping track on that but um okay so we have a we have a couple of pages from the CRC but I I believe there's there's much more uh just met with the with the CRC they had the chair of the um uh well they had the CRC uh committee members then I was there and they had chair of the ZBA um the the CPAC uh Sarah Marshall uh the the environmental uh commission they never forget the name of it the acronym there you see yes uh and thinking that that was it so anyway they they brought on and so the the question is that uh we're going to be looking at this pretty detailed policy for how the town you know approaches what I term the the housing crisis but um you know John Hornick has been developing this for many many years and um and and I think the CRC is pretty much adopting what he's saying but they're putting their own um you know revisions uh to it um and we have a policy but now they're they're working on measurable goals aspect of it but again Chris we haven't distributed uh any draft to the board no we did we did distribute a draft I think it was either last year or the year before but that was the draft that the housing trust had produced and then now the town council has asked the CRC to come up with a version that the town council can adopt so the CRC is looking at the the version that the housing trust produced but they're um taking part of it and not taking other parts and they're rewarding it to their own um you know to their own liking so they they do intend to come up with a housing policy working with John Hornick and the housing trust but yeah that the town council can accept and adopt so in in concept I guess it's it's a decision that that we can make as a board would we make individual comments on this policy and forward it to the CRC or we would we'd rather uh collectively as a group uh provide you know our bullets and with regard to comments there so that was you know just a or a process you know order of of a business there how might we want to um you know approach this this topic so that much I know I just I don't know if anyone wants to speak to that or not uh Doug yeah uh I guess I'm a little I thought I received a draft housing policy document that came out of CRC or maybe the town council a couple of months ago it was like in October am I confused that it wasn't this comprehensive housing policy and it was some other document it might have been the the older one that just the housing trust developed so I don't I'm not sure that had the CRC's you