Every time you're trying to sell something to someone or convince them to do something or if you want something from somebody You have to imagine that what they're saying in their head is what's in it for me the entire time Too many people that are trying to sell things are trying to sell their product. They're talking about themselves They're talking about how great they are. They're talking about a great their services But they forget to actually clarify what's in it for the other person when I'm selling something I front load my conversation with here's what's in it for you Here's what's in it for you and here's what's in it for you It's really easy to forget that that the human nature Really means that when you're talking to someone people are very focused on themselves They're very focused on what they get out of things So whether you're trying to sell something whether you're trying to meet someone who's important or in general when you're trying to get Something that you want from somebody just imagine that they're constantly repeating in their head What's in it for me? What's in it for me? What is in it for me?


All right.  Excellent. Thank you, Athena. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon. So we do have an attendee. Okay. So it is. And Dave Zomek has joined. Welcome Dave. Thank you. Hello. Hello. So it is 201 PM and I am going to call this meeting of the community resources committee of the town council to order. This is the May 19th. 2020 meeting. It is virtual. We do have a quorum according to the governor's Bakers, March 12th, 2020 order suspending certain provisions of the open committee that order allows us to hold this virtual meeting of the community resources committee. This meeting is being recorded for future broadcast and all votes taken will be by roll call. At this time, I will call upon each committee member by name to confirm that you can hear me and we can hear you. Please remember to mute your mic after saying present and unmute your mic before saying present. Okay. And Shalini Balmille. Present. Mandy Joe Hanneke is present. Evan Ross. Present. Sarah Swartz. Present. And Steve Schreiber is not present right now. We expect him to join the meeting in about 30 minutes. Committee members. There's no chat room for this meeting. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them. And to make a comment or ask a question, please click the raise hand button. And if we run into technical difficulties, hopefully we will not like last night. Myself, if it's not me running into difficulties, we'll decide how to proceed. Discussion could be suspended. And the minutes would note the disconnection. Now we will be moving on. We will be moving on to general public comment at this time. The public is welcome to comment on matters within the jurisdiction of the community resources committee. Residents are welcome to express their views for one to three minutes. And we will not engage in a dialogue or comment on a matter raised during public comment to participate in public comment. Please, if you joined the zoom meeting on the internet, please use the raise hand button. If you joined the zoom meeting through the telephone, please press star nine to indicate that you would like to make a public comment. At this time, I am seeing one, two, two hands at this time for public comment. I will recognize your name. And then what I will do is I will. Allow you to talk and unmute you, and then you will have to confirm the unmute in order to speak when, when I do recognize you, please state your name. And your address for the person taking the minutes, which is Angela Mills. Thank you, Angela. At this time, I'm going to recognize Christina Scurringe. You may unmute yourself and begin your public comment. Yes, thank you. My name is Christina Scurringe. And I'm here for animal defenders and our many Massachusetts supporters. I'm not a resident, but I'm speaking for our Massachusetts supporters with thanks to the committee for its consideration of agenda item three a. That's the local measure to address cruel and dangerous traveling animal acts. We've worked on this issue throughout the U.S. and around the world, including on the proposed state measure for Massachusetts. We've provided you extensive data in our written testimony and we're happy to answer any questions regarding that data or any of the texts that we've worked on throughout the U.S., including the federal bill. Most Americans now oppose traveling wild animal acts, more than 46 diverse nations, at least three U.S. states, and more than 100 local U.S. jurisdictions have already acted, including 11 towns, excuse me, 11 towns, Massachusetts. There's a bipartisan federal bill and at least seven state bills in play at the moment prevailing science makes clear these animals are inherently unsuited for this business model. One comprehensive study we sent you considered the latest science in the industry worldwide, concluding that for circus animals this is no life worth living and that any education or conservation role would likely be marginal and outweighed by the negative impression generated by using wild animals for entertainment and also raised concerns that we know little to nothing about how or how many animals are sourced, bred, traded, how they die or what happens once they're no longer used. Federal oversight is complex and costly and by the agency's government it's not working. States often rely on a mere existence of federal licensure, despite longstanding repeated OID criticisms regarding oversight failures. The National Association of Public Health veterinarians has warned that there is no federal law addressing pathogen transmission risk at venues where the public has contact with animals, advising that certain exotic and wild animals should be banned from these settings altogether. Federal oversight does not consider public safety. That's left to you and to local first responders. Yet local authorities often lack the funding familiarity of facilities to deal with these species. Local law enforcement is often surprised to find out that it's been left in their laps. Using animals this way teaches us nothing about what it means to be wild. Rather the science shows that these acts perpetuate misconceptions that fuel trade and trafficking which harm wild populations. To present wild animals on a licensure chain for photos or petting perpetuates misconceptions that endanger humans, the individual animal and wild populations. True conservation demands that we teach future generations what a wild animal really is. And that is not a plaything or a prop for entertainment or selfie clickbait. They are wild and will seek to be free and follow their natural instincts. Thank you for your consideration. And we hope that you consider animals and and her families to ban these cruel acts. Thank you, Christina. Next we are going to recognize John Page. So John, unmute your mic. And you have three minutes. Can you hear me? We can. All right. So this is John page 683 East pleasant street. But speaking today in my capacity. Representing the Amherst area chamber of commerce. This is regarding the expedited. Permitting. And I just want to read a statement that we put together. The temporary zoning amendment put forth by the planning and permitting staff is creative, innovative and bold. It exemplifies responsive government. And just like our businesses are doing it. Enables adaptability in these changing times. This is essential to sustaining the viability of our small businesses, specifically restaurants and retail. We cannot underscore enough the gravity of the situation worrying. Multiple sources are calculating Amherst unemployment rate. As exceeding 30%. And our largest employers are institutions of higher ed. Are implementing hiring freezes and beginning to make difficult budgetary decisions. Our small businesses are making decisions, whether to fold or attempt to keep on going. We're in contact with our communities from all over the state. And are learning how their communities are adapting. Outdoor dining, altering floor plans and changing signage are critical parts of successful reopening. Currently, most of those changes would take up to as much as 70 days or more as Mr.  This proposal empowers the time manager and staff to work with existing businesses to offer safer and solvent business models. And this includes. Also includes new businesses opening in this recovery period. Regarding the discussion of new businesses. That was brought up last night. We face, we must face the reality that some businesses won't make it. We need to make it happen. We need to make it happen. We need to make it happen through this. And that we have existing vacant space. If a business needs to radically change or a new business. Wants to come in, which will create jobs and generate tax revenue. We should not stand in their way. We implore you to work with fellow town council committees, the planning board and town staff to move this zoning amendment forward as quickly as possible. Once again, I would like to thank you for your time. And have a process in place for one request such as after dining and retail sales do come in in the future. Thank you for your time. Thank you, John. We have another hand. And so. Oops. I will at this time recognize Gabrielle Gould. Hello, all Gabrielle Gould. 34 Canton Avenue, Amherst, and I would like to thank you for your time. And I would like to thank you for your time. And I would like to thank you for being a representative of the Amherst business improvement district, as well as the downtown Amherst foundation. I don't want to waste anybody's time and let you get on with your day. We pretty much wrote everything that John just said, except in a different capacity and wording. So we second John Page and we thank you for the work that is being done. Rob and Chris and from the town. And we thank the council and look forward to working with you to make a public comment. Thank you, Gabrielle. Are there any, is there anyone else in attendance that would like to. Make a public comment. I'm not seeing anyone. So we will move on to our presentation and discussion items at this time. This is item three a on our agenda. We have a public comment on the bylaw banning the use of wild and exotic animals that was proposed to the town council. We have invited the three proponents. That have. Councilor Balmille, who is the councilor sponsor of this bylaw to make a presentation today of 10 to 15 minutes or so. And then we will take 15 minutes or so. For any questions for them. And then we will move on to items on our community impact report to see if there's any stakeholders that we need to or want to get in touch with as a committee to bring in for questions or ask specific questions. We'll see how far we get. To get through that because we have other things. On the agenda. So this invite Rebecca Schwartz, Cheryl, Becker and Laura Hagan. You guys can unmute your mics. And I believe Rebecca is going to start with a presentation and then we'll move on to the next item. So welcome and thank you for coming. Well, thank you for having me. I'm Rebecca Schwartz and I want to thank you for providing me time to present on behalf of the bylaw prohibiting the use of wild and exotic animals and traveling shows and services. People all over the world have become increasingly aware of the physical pain and emotional distress. Elephants, bears, chimpanzees, tigers and other exotic animals. The animals are increasingly aware of the physical pain, and the animals endure as unwilling participates. Participants in this antiquated form of entertainment. These traveling shows are a relic of days gone by before we understood the sentient nature of these animals. And the cruelty involved with training and harboring them. In addition, there is absolutely no educational or instructional value. Watching a majestic bear where two, change their business model to reflect society's changing awareness. There are numerous successful services nowadays such as Cirque du Soleil and Big Apple Circus which do not exploit animals and still provide surface entertainment. This mistreatment of surface animals, poor enforcement of inadequate laws and public safety are all considerations when evaluating the reasons for adopting this bylaw. There are unfortunately countless examples over the past hundred years about the mistreatment of circus animals. I find the stories of the elephants to be exceptionally poignant. Every circus performing elephant was stolen from the wild as babies shipped across the oceans and then trained to perform unnatural acts. There are currently 48 performing elephants left in the US. The passage of this bylaw will move them all one step closer to sanctuary. Laws protecting animals and traveling shows are inadequate and poorly enforced. For example, the USDA's records of the Cumberford Zoo's elephant Bula who died last summer at the Big E were spotty and incomplete. Abuse of handling is correlated with aggression and there are many recorded incidents of surface animals hurting people either intentionally or not. And most relevant today, animals may carry disease. Last summer at the Amherst Farmer's Market, I canvassed for a couple of days to see if residents had interest in this bylaw. I talked to over 150 residents and practically everyone that I talked to enthusiastically supported this bylaw. In fact, many people were surprised that Amherst didn't already have such a provision in place. As more and more towns are banning traveling exotic animal acts, the exhibitors are looking for new venues. If an exhibitor or event organizer wanted to bring an exotic animal act to town, they could. There is no bylaw stopping them. It is important to note this bylaw does not pertain to domestic animals and will not impact pony rise or petting zoos that currently take place in the town common. Enactment of this bylaw would make Amherst the 12th municipality in the Commonwealth to pass similar legislation. I have lived in many parts of the country and chose to settle and raise my family in the Amherst area because I appreciated the progressive culture of the town. My children now live far from home. They see the world through the lens of Amherst and they appreciate the values instilled in them. It is based on this pride of place that I am appealing to the town's ability to continue to evolve and make positive change towards mindfulness and compassion. If Amherst annexes bylaw, the town will be adding to the collective voice for change, not just locally, but throughout the Commonwealth, the nation and internationally. Thank you for your time and consideration of this bylaw. I realize there are many very pressing issues that the town is currently facing with the COVID crisis. Still, I implore you to move towards compassion for these animals that are not able to advocate for themselves. Thank you very much. And now Cheryl Becker is going to speak. We need to unmute you, Cheryl. Hold on. You're mute, Cheryl. There you go. No, you're muted again. Sorry, I've never testified on Zoom before. This is a new experience. It's a little strange. So, hello. Thank you for allowing me to testify in support of the proposed bylaw banning wild animals and traveling shows and exhibits. I am Cheryl Becker, founder and president of Western Mass Animal Rights Advocates. This is an opportunity for Amherst to show its compassion for our fellow creatures and join a growing movement across the country and within mass to ban such cruel and archaic practices. I've been protesting in circuses and petting zoos with wild animals for the past 25 years and have seen with my own eyes the horrendous conditions in which animals are forced to live while on the road. I've also seen a lack of veterinary care. They are given and lack of enforcement of state and federal regulations. In fact, last September was a perfect example of that. As Rebecca mentioned, an elephant at the Big E Bula was forced to be on exhibit despite being seriously ill. She died at the Big E of septicemia due to pyometra, a uterine infection. But the necropsy revealed much more than just a cause of death. It revealed the pathetically weak state and federal standards for wild animals and traveling exhibits and the lack of enforcement. It also revealed that Cumberford Petting Zoo knew that Bula had a deadly infection when they chose to transport her from Goshen Connecticut to be exhibited for 17 days at the Big E. Septicemia is extremely painful for any species. And it was quite clear looking at Bula on day one that she was ill, yet no actions were taken. In response to questions submitted by US Senator Richard Blumenthal, the USDA stated that quote unquote appropriate veterinary care and intervention was administered. To Bula prior to her death, it is unconscionable that the USDA believes that forcing a seriously ill, elderly elephant to stand all day long in such a stressful, unnatural environment for 17 days is acceptable. It is even more unconscionable that she was able to be at the Big E in that condition and that no authorities stepped in when they received pictures and complaints of her looking sickly the first two days and unable to stand on day three. Authorities should have conducted an immediate welfare check on her. Instead, they dismiss valid concerns about her health. So this tragedy symbolizes all that is wrong with the use of wild animals and entertainment. Instead of a life in their natural habitats, these incredible animals are being carted all across the country confined in cramped spaces and forced to perform or be on display for long periods of time. For 50 years, Bula was enslaved at events throughout the Northeast with her two sister elephants shipped around like cargo from event to event year round. All were torn from their families in the wild at a young age, shipped to the US, beaten into submission and forced to perform and give rides using physical violence like painful bull hooks. They just like every like other elephants in traveling exhibits were confined to cramped trailers every day with very little if any fresh air exercise or socialization. So her death highlights the urgent need for towns to pass a bylaw banning the use of wild animals in traveling acts in exhibits and as you know you know there's 11 other towns in mass that have passed such an ordinance or bylaw and I'm hoping the state will pass one too but towns cannot sit around and wait until that happens to take action on their own because as you know the state takes a lot longer to pass legislation than towns. So there are also there there's also the Springfield Science Museum's wildlife exhibit including a mountain mounted elephant and that is far more educational and exciting as it shows wildlife in their natural habitats. There are also educational videos about wildlife nowadays. There's no educational value at all in seeing wild animals forced to do unnatural things in an unnatural environment. So education is no excuse. So Cumberford petting zoo has been cited by the USDA more than 50 times for animal welfare act violations. They also have had five dangerous incidents four of which were due to an elephant being spooked while giving rides to kids causing injuries requiring hospitalization and there is also the risk of dangerous E. coli tuberculosis and other diseases which are easily contracted at petting zoos even those with no violations. So you know it's not just for the animals but it's for human safety as well that I urge you to approve that the bylaw and so we also I I have another a few there's a few other incidents that happened at the Big E. I know time is limited but I'll try and make it very brief. The the weak and unenforced government regulations were proven yet again in 2008 at the Big E and attendee took a picture of many now Cumberford soul surviving elephant looking sickly while giving rides and limping which went viral and sparked outrage. Shortly after a video of a Cumberford camel being abused there went doc it went viral too but no actions were taken and many was forced to give rides last year despite documented incidents on which she attacked her handlers and members of the public. The regulations are clearly not being properly enforced in no agency monitors training sessions where the most violent abuses occur and even when they are businesses with lengthy lists of violations like Cumberford are they don't lose their licenses usually. So we created a petition my group created a petition asking the Big E to remove wild animals and that gathered 149,000 signatures reflecting the growing opposition to such needless cruelty. So if Amherst enact this bylaw it will receive so much praise from local residents and hopefully be a role model for others other local towns such as Springfield and maybe West Springfield someday. So far the only western mass towns that have passed that has passed such a ban is Pittsfield. So we really need to get more towns in western mass on board. So I let's see I'll drop it up all wild animals as you know extend extended periods of time and cramped transport vehicles they suffer from lack of exercise and restriction of natural behaviors and such abnormal conditions are unavoidable. Solitary animals get crowded together family members are separated and most tricks are coerced using bull hooks electric prods whips metal bars and methods most would view as torturous. So such cruel conditions make the animals prone to severe health behavioral and psychological problems and the extreme stress caused by the environment they're in makes them often makes them why highly dangerous especially with the public. Deaths and injuries are not that uncommon. Comerford as I mentioned has some injuries on the record and as I mentioned if you'd like I can send you the records and the videos I mentioned. So I'll wrap it up. Thank you. Thank you all for your time and consideration of this bylaw especially during these troubled times. I hope you will follow in the other 11 mass towns footsteps and pass such a ban to end such our create archaic cruelty and that's it thank you. Thank you Cheryl. I believe we're going to hear from Laura next. I do want to recognize that Steve Schreiber our fifth committee member has joined the meeting. Good afternoon thank you for oh sorry Steve's just ensuring that we heard him. Good afternoon my name is Laura Hagan. I'm the Massachusetts State Director for the Humane Society of the United States. I wanted to also offer my thanks for considering this ordinance. It's a counselor ballmeal for filing it and for all of you for taking it up during such a strange and unusual time for all of us. I don't want to repeat what Cheryl and Rebecca and Christina already shared. I think their testimony has been accurate and factual and compelling. You know I think I just want to emphasize that you know cities and towns do have a very important role to play in policy making when it comes to captive wildlife. As Cheryl mentioned 11 Massachusetts cities and towns have already passed ordinances and I can tell you that you know I've been working on these issues for over over 10 years now and I know that you know ringling used to be a huge powerhouse. They came to Massachusetts every single year and what finally convinced or one of the things that finally convinced ringling to stop touring with elephants actually two things. One was the sentiment the recognition of the sentiment that public opinion was changing on keeping these very sentient feeling animals wild animals in circuses and traveling with them around the country and the other piece of that was cities and towns across the country that had city city and town councils that it stepped up and said look this is cruelty our federal government's not doing its job and oversight and so we're going to say you know our doors are closed to these types of performances and so even though there's not a circus that's currently coming to Amherst the town's action on this can make a huge difference for these animals because truly you know in Massachusetts we do see there are certain areas like to Big E where circuses come practically every year but then we also see them moving to other small areas throughout the state so they don't necessarily just stay where they've been historically and as more doors close these circuses and traveling shows are looking for communities that are open for them to do business there and I think that the the testimony that folks have already provided you know shows you the type of cruelty and mistreatment that you would be closing the door to and as Cheryl mentioned particularly with the Big E but we've seen this with other exhibitors that travel throughout Massachusetts I would struggle to name one exhibitor that comes to Massachusetts that hasn't been cited by the USDA for failure to provide care for their animals very basic types of care such as food and water veterinary care and or hasn't been cited by the USDA for failure to protect the public adequately and you know I could send you I will send you and can send you more information with specific examples Cheryl already named several but in addition to those failures to protect the animals or the public you know especially in today's time when we're looking about the transmissibility of disease from animals to people this is a big issue with animals and traveling shows and circuses elephants are carriers for a human form of tuberculosis and at least 12 and a half percent of circus elephants have tested positive for the human strain of tuberculosis and that number may be actually quite low because it's very common to get a false negative on those tests primates carry a variety of different types of viruses fungus and bacteria that are transmissible to humans and of course these wild animals still are rabies vector species and wild animals there's no rabies vaccine that is made for these wild animals and and we've seen that in Massachusetts where in the Brockton fair young woman was bitten by I think it was a capuchin monkey and she had to go seek medical care because that is a rabies vector animal and so you know this is another reason that local cities and towns can take action to make sure that you're keeping these opportunities for not only broad human risk from injury to to a person from an elephant or a primate which has also happened here in Massachusetts but also from the diseases that they carry with them when they come into our communities so happy to answer any questions that you have and just thank you again for taking the time to take this issue up thank you Laura um at this time we're going to move to any questions that um counselors may have I'm going to put up um the proposed bylaw um on the screen so oh that's the wrong one I think oh no that's the right one so people should be able to I'm gonna make it bigger just give me a second here um this is the proposed bylaw um as amended by the proponents that have spoken today um it is not what was in our original council packet so I just want to say that and so for um committee members are there is there any are there any questions I see one from Shalini so Shalini yeah I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the work that Rebecca Schwartz and um all the other people have put in to presenting this and their hard work and resilience and getting this very important issue to our attention um and you know I mean some of you might be wondering like why why is this important to Amos we don't have anything like this happening over here and why now so I do appreciate Laura's mentioning how this how animals can be carriers of disease and um and therefore we do need to pay attention to this but my when I thought about this issue and why I decided to go and to sponsor this is it's really comes down to our values as a town and you know we might have heard uh people leaders speak about this and I remember Mahatma Gandhi saying a society is only as strong as its most vulnerable members and um so this is really a question of who we are as a town and it's not only just this issue when we have these strong values we are going to be able to tackle all the other difficult issues at hand as well so I really take this very seriously um and instead of being reactive where right now we don't have any businesses but in the future we could have and so this could uh we can be proactive about this inset of it by law which does not which sends the message clearly out and as it was mentioned earlier I think it's going to have ripple effects beyond Amherst where we really send a message to our neighboring towns that such businesses are just not humane and we do not support to create a world that's human for all for all beings the last thing I wanted to mention is that you know we've received plenty of support from multiple organizations nationally locally including taken human um society um we have um what are the others how do you pronounce that theta theta foundation animal defenders international and so many others and also our own town's um very loved animal welfare officer Carol Hepburn has sent letters of support and has been in communication with this group and supports this um by law that's all thank you thank you Shalini um Evan yeah so looking at this and um I know that when this goes to gel they're going to work to put this into the format that our lilas exist in many yo um but looking at um the content through the lens of this committee's charge um it's sort of interesting because we're sort of dealing a little bit with hypotheticals because as far as I know um the types of uh action and shows that this is trying to cover uh don't currently come to Amherst but as Shalini said we're trying to be proactive instead of reactive um and so it seems to me that the list under um uh in definitions of wild and exotic animals is really sort of the most important part of this because that's what's telling us what would be allowed and what isn't and what I see in there is an attempt to um capture as many species as possible within certain orders um but also exempt ones that we would consider to be domestic um and Indra Rebecca said that we're not trying to you know take away that petting zoo on the common with donkeys and sheep and stuff um and so the only thing I want to point to is H which is Artidactyla um I'm thinking in terms of uh right next door just over our line we have the Hadley barn UMass livestock classic that happens uh every year when we don't have a global pandemic and I know that like the last time I went to that um one there was a camel there that was um a resident of one of the participants farms a student participant um who who brought it to exhibit it it wasn't being written it was just being uh exhibited as with all the other livestock um but the second thing that really stood out to me was that Artidactyla would also cover llamas and alpacas which are not um exempted here um but our common livestock animals for wool and our common features of livestock exhibitions so as far as I know we don't have any livestock exhibitions in Amherst but if we're if we're doing this under the guise of guarding for the future I wouldn't want to uh create a situation where we couldn't have um it you know one of the local farms wanted to do a livestock exhibition uh and we're allowing cattle and goats and sheep and pigs um but not llamas and alpacas which we have just over in the Hadley barn they have a collection of llamas and alpacas that they raise domestically um so I guess that's the only one I'd take I have some concerns with is that one it feels a little bit too broad for me um because it could potentially encompass some livestock and I don't want to step on any agricultural displays thank you um any other counselors with questions um or comments at this time we are running up on our deadlines so um we will be cutting off this conversation soon and postponing it we're not going to be finished with it we will be coming back to it at a later time and I I do want to bring up some things for me and then we're going to move to our impact report to see maybe who we might want some advice or input from or questions from um a couple of concerns for me one goes to Evan's point um and the the definition of I think it was traveling show to me was was very hard to get my head around um thinking about we have a large university we have a science you know science buildings at the university at the college we have a natural history museum at the college we have um a Hitchcock center all of which have live animals for various reasons some including research um and some for because they're rescuing but they're not probably um certified under the American zoo um association and I was having problems figuring out whether the definition of traveling show could include instances of them um you know if the natural history museum at Amherst college has a live animal I have no idea whether they have any that fall into these categories but if they did and wanted to take it across campus or to UMass would this bylaw prevent that um so those are some of the questions I have does this bylaw somehow prevent researchers from you know no matter what our position on animal research is there are animals both at UMass and at Amherst college in biology departments um and potentially other departments would this bylaw potentially run into would they run into issues with this bylaw if we enacted it so those are some concerns I have um I received a question from another counselor who is not on this committee anymore and um you know one of the questions related to UMass and similar to Evan was if UMass wanted to hold a you know similar to the UMass barn but didn't hold it in Hadley held it in Amherst because their state would this bylaw apply to them and would it prevent anyone from going onto UMass's campus and doing something like this and then another question of does it need to be a bylaw or could it be a resolution and that's something that we might need to explore but something I think I want maybe Rebecca to respond to as to why the need is for a bylaw versus say a resolution that says we strongly do not approve of these types of acts um what's the benefit of really putting it on the books per se so that's a question I would like a response to quickly and then I think we'll be moving on so Rebecca if you have a response or any thoughts on that question yeah I mean I think a resolution doesn't necessarily hold tight and I I'm sure Laura could really speak to this better but I know that there are um um circuses and things like that that try to go into towns and they have bigger organizations behind them that try to kind of fight to to make themselves present Laura can you speak to that yeah it's just there there have been incidences we haven't seen it yet here in Massachusetts but there have been across the country in different localities where um circuses have either purposefully come to a city or town with the intent of challenging the a local ordinance that is in place or bringing particular animals that are prohibited by a local ordinance particularly for the just for the purpose of you know fighting it as a as a means of fighting it essentially so I do think that a ordinance rather than a resolution I mean ordinance has the power of law certainly it's enforced by a citation with a you know modest monetary fee but I think that that really is what gives the the enforcers the power to say like no and even the the city or town council if it should come before you to say no this definitely not welcome here it's not a preference it's actually that's the power of law so I think that that's the importance of doing doing the ordinance rather than a resolution because I think you know a circus or an exhibitor is not going to be looking they're going to be looking at the law to see if they could come to the town rather than you know a voice preference by the by the town council they may not even be able to find that you know when they're coming and working with a group that wants to sponsor them to come to the town if I can briefly answer the language question that you asked we did send in some proposed a proposed amendment which would which would exempt an exhibition that takes place at a non-mobile permanent institution or other fixed facility provided that the covered animal is not transported to that location for the purpose of such a performance we that is language that we have been supporting at the state level with the goal of exempting uh uh zoos you know aza zoos in the area and so the uh institutions the educational institutions would obviously qualify as non-mobile fixed facilities and they wouldn't be bringing the animals to the facility for the purpose of a performance as you noted they would have the animals there for some other purpose such as research or you know something else that's happening at that facility and so that was our suggestion to make really clear that this is not meant to apply to those types of facilities and that would also cover the museum as a non-mobile fixed facility as long as they're not bringing animals there particularly for performance and it of course would only be limited to the covered animals that are listed and I can say from Humane Society's perspective that having a further conversation about exactly what animals should be exempted as domestic is certainly something we've done in other cities and towns you know just to make sure that that works for exactly what Amherst needs to see I forgot to unmute thank you um any other counselor comments at this time I'm not going to take us to the community impact report at this time unless there are any counselors that know exactly that they really want to hear from a certain person I'm willing to entertain that now before we move on otherwise we will find some time in a later meeting to start that conversation and the potential amendments that we're hearing might be desired from the the council and start those conversations with with the the proponents of the bylaw I'm not seeing any hands for that I do want to acknowledge that there is a hand in the public that has raised your hand but we are not in the middle of public comment right now so that is why I'm not recognizing that hand but I do want to at least acknowledge that I've seen that that hand but we are in a public meeting without public comment during this particular item so I encourage I think it's Christina Scurringe to to speak with either the proponents or one of us with anything you'd like to add and we'll try and get it into a packet for next whenever our next meeting is unfortunately I can't tell our proponents when that will be it probably will not be at our next meeting in two weeks it will probably be at least a month away given some of the stuff we're dealing with but we will work on an agenda to come up with a time to continue moving this forward as time allows during the rest of what's going on so I want to thank you all for coming and presenting the bylaw and the reasons for its need and all of that it has been very helpful to me and I'm sure to the rest of the committee and you guys are welcome to stay on for the rest of the meeting or you guys can leave you don't have to sit through the rest and and at this time we will be moving on to agenda item oh yep so thank you thank you thank you bye bye bye and we will be moving on to agenda item four a which was referred to us last to hear this this is the economy the proposal to expedite permitting of local business requests there was one item in that proposal referred to us last night I am going to see I'm not going to share my screen exactly right now I'm going to give a little bit of update of things that have been going on between last night and two o'clock today and that is attempting to schedule the required mass general law public hearing on this matter and right now I have heard from two of our members rest of our councillors we are looking at June 10th for the public hearing that is required under mass general law at 6 30 p.m on when it's a Wednesday evening joined with other we will have a quorum there if we call it for June 10th at 6 30 I if you cannot make it please raise your hand and the participant button thing I am seeing none be able to have a quorum that is very good news so the plan right now is to get those publishes those notices published in the paper to comply with the 14-day requirement to hold the public hearing joint with the planning board on June 10th we are still waiting to determine whether the planning board can get a quorum on that night is not one of their normal scheduled meeting times and I've been in contact with the planning board chair and she believes we'll be able to but she's still waiting to hear from a few more of her members so that's that what would happen is we'll hear this today the planning board will hear this tomorrow as a preliminary conversation the hearing would be June 10th with a goal of having it at the council meeting on June 15th that has not been totally confirmed with the president yet things are still moving and one of the questions I'm going to be sending to the town manager is how it works to potentially put that up for an emergency vote on June 15th for immediate effectiveness June 16th say the next day effective the day after we vote which under an emergency measure is possible and then also count that meeting as the first required reading under a normal bylaw and then one meeting later on June 29th have a second required meeting of the bylaw which then if we pass the identical bylaw under non-emergency measures could then become effective two weeks later July 12th or 13th or something like that so but but the emergency portion of it you'd have an effective bylaw as Junes this all goes with laws so that's where we stand right now we're going to have the initial discussion today see if there's anything more we have questions from Rob Mora we have Rob and Christine here about questions we have Dave Zomek if we have any questions before we go into that public hearing on this proposed bylaw I see a hand Shalini catch the reason for why it's June 10th and not June 3rd oh I'm sorry I didn't explain that Gazette's deadline for publishing tomorrow in tomorrow's paper and legal notice was yesterday at 9 a.m and they are not willing to wave that and cannot wave that so that we could get it into and you need to have 14 days notice for a public hearing so we cannot get it on June 3rd because we have not met the deadline for the Gazette publication and we cannot or are not are not able to work with us to be able to get it in tomorrow's paper Shalini you lowered your hand I do have a question for Rob since Rob is here I'm going to take advantage of that and we heard concerns last night Rob about the new permits the new land use permits that this would be able to authorize on on a you know on an administrative matter and I would just like a little more clarification not necessarily for my own benefit but as we write reports and for the publics and for the rest of the councillor's benefits themselves of what couldn't be permitted under this proposed sort of bylaw article 14 you know we had a lot of concerns about you know could someone come in and you know get something that might not normally pass a planning board hearing say and so I just want to clarify a new building wouldn't fall under this procedure a new mixed use building wouldn't so maybe some examples of things that don't qualify to be administratively approved under this proposed bylaw and then some things that might qualify to be administratively approved approved might be helpful for us going forward sure it's probably easier to talk about what could be approved because it's so limited in its its scope to the types of uses that are listed in the in the temporary zoning proposal which are those retail spaces retail establishments food and drink establishments and personal care establishments and and any of their potential accessory typical accessory type uses like outdoor dining or outdoor sales you know we're expecting to see more curbside pickup opportunities but for any of those those major three major principal uses the retail food and drink and personal care this bylaw would allow anything for that type of use to be considered under this bylaw whether it's a new building a new space within an existing building or an accessory used to one of those spaces this bylaw does not in in any way have any use towards the other uses of the bylaw the mixed use category last night we heard a question about marijuana uses that's a completely different section of the bylaw so it really is focused on on just those three types of uses and their accessory incidental components so trying to get this straight a business that might want to build an entirely new restaurant building and all in theory in this 180 days would fall under this but a marijuana establishment that might want to build the exact same building but the use would be for a marijuana retail business would not fall under this am i correct that that's correct that's correct just trying to figure out the lines and does do any other counselors have any questions shalini yes um so firstly again thank you so much rob and chris who worked on this good job so excited my question was about pop-ups and would this improve the the licensing or whatever permitting is necessary to have pop-up retail i'm guessing it does because it's within the realm but just wanted to confirm that yes so this this is very specifically geared towards any of the retail type uses the grocery stores any of the other stores storefront and also potentially anything that could expand outdoors for retail sales could also be permitted under this the bylaw just thank you i just have one other question hi hoping that we can call it something different than a moratorium because part of this is also it's a motivation and it's sense of i don't know hope and support this is and it's partly marketing that's my background so hoping that we can as we roll it out and in the newspapers and media we have like a thing that we can use and i was looking at some other i'm not saying this is a good one but in virginia this town has something called rollout warrant it's like a rollout already of easing the thing i don't i don't put it but i'm just hoping if he can come up with some more motivating yeah we we did move away from using a moratorium as a a way of describing this this zoning article and and took the recommendation of our town attorney on temporary zoning but certainly because i think that carries a meeting a meaning in zoning law that is applicable but certainly from there you know the the purpose and intent is hoping for better description thank you any further questions or comments so i am not seeing any we are not going to be voting on anything today related to this we would do that after the public hearing on june 10th at that meeting it sounds it's it's looking like given the lack of questions at this point that we might be ready for a vote that day at that meeting to on a recommendation i'm going to pull up a we're going to share a new one um that was the bylaw this is our community resources committee process for advising the council um we have this is a bylaw measure so i thought maybe we could go through this potentially um to maybe talk about some stakeholders or some impacts this might have to try and see if we've gathered everything section a is what is the purpose of the crc review and that is to make a recommendation unless anyone disagrees it's a recommendation to make a recommendation on whether the council should adopt this temporary zoning bylaw the identification of initial stakeholders information needed or prior recommendations does anyone have um in either one two three four or five shown here any requests for additional information that they may need prior to making a recommendation um is this will be a planning board we will have a joint meeting with them so we will be able to hear their recommendation at the same time and discuss it with them that would be normally one of the ones we'd reach out to and make sure we've heard from um we have our town staff here is there anyone else shalini and then christine i'm happy to have christine go first okay christine there so i just wanted to ask if i could get a copy of this document here um i don't know where i would find it on the on the web so if someone could email me a copy of that document that would be helpful i will email it to you thank you i wish it's um should i go yes yeah go ahead shalini yeah i was curious uh to hear from dave and rob if they can anticipate what stakeholder um conflicts might there be like as this is and these are all the local businesses that we really want to make sure but can we anticipate um what might be some other stakeholders who get affected by this change and can we do something then about that is that clear christine or dave defer to rob on this but are you referring to um for instance butters uh potential complaints uh i know at the council meeting last night there was a question raised uh about you know kind of competing space in the public way say on a sidewalk or something like that i think a lot of these are going to be on a case by case basis and a lot of that will be deferred to rob and christine's judgment um but but again rob if you want to hear that with more specifics happy to have you do that well i i certainly don't have anything more than that what you just discussed and what's on this list and and um you know um or anything that you know i haven't thought of anything else that i think would be um something that we need to be looking out for at this point you know one one thing i mean i i don't want to throw this in there unnecessarily but things like you know piped piped music you know music outside you know sometimes concerns people because that travels in in urban settings etc um you know that may come up um but a lot of the other you know issues that rob talked about or the considerations about about space about tables about separation um you know all of that would would again go through rob's office for you know not unlike what what um he has been working in his staff have been working on with regard to the farmers market you know that entailed you know spacing access you know lanes you know people entering here leaving there you know parking all of that would be considered whether it's a restaurant in the south part of town or or up in the village center in north amish to write it right downtown and again it's important to keep keep in mind this is for the entire town not just for downtown all the village centers businesses should be able to take you know take advantage of of this if they're interested i have a question um and it doesn't relate directly to be um signs do sign we have a zoning sign bylaw somewhere on terms of restrictions on signs in terms of size and locations and stuff like that does the permitting around signs fall under this bylaw and if it doesn't currently should we consider putting that within the scope of this bylaw since there may be requests for signs in the public way no matter how temporary or not to identify open businesses or not or other things like that or change in sign for some other reason uh so this from the zoning piece this does include that so under waivers and modifications section 8.5 is the the section that allows modification or waiver of any of the sign provisions so we've incorporated that from the zoning piece during the recent update to the bylaws the signage regulations for portable signs in the public way were removed so we currently don't have a regulation uh that exists on those signs or a bylaw that exists for those public way signs so i'm envisioning that we will be looking at those and authorizing reasonable signage for these types of uses that will occur temporarily during a seasonal outdoor activity for example so those since we don't have one regulating in the public way in theory that might fall under the council's delegation of authority to the town manager to regulate the posting of a sign in the public way or we might want to ensure that it does under a modified bylaw or modified policy there i think we could be clear about that during during that that modification to make sure that he has that authority otherwise we at this point assume that he will thank you christine i just wanted to note that for signs on buildings or the typical kinds of signs that we see associated with these uses we would follow the bylaw in terms of the size of the signs and how much of the facade they can cover so you know except in unusual circumstances where someone asks for a waiver or where we're talking about signs in the public way i think we would pretty much stick with what the bylaw already tells us thank you i'm i'm not hearing from anyone else anything we need under identification of stakeholders information needed and anything else that exists this is clearly an entirely new bylaw there wouldn't be prior recommendations or potentially policies other than you know our economic development stuff that we would need to consult so that moves us into identifying impacts and drawbacks or the smart method i think we fall more under impacts and drawbacks um and i just want to quickly go through some of these so that we can identify whether any might be there or that we've at least talked about and touched on some of these because it is a bylaw even if it does sort of sunset in 180 days it can have significant impact on the town so the first is cultural natural and historic um do we have any comments or thoughts on any impacts benefits or drawbacks on that evan uh this is this is not 100 percent this isn't related to an impact but it your statement triggered something and i just literally don't know the answer to it um in theory because this is not tech it is zoning and it's not in theory a restaurant wants to um alter a business in some way and that restaurant is by where you know Dickinson street or something like that um how does this interact with the local historic district commission the local historic district commission bylaw is in play would be in place so those exterior changes in that district would be subject to review by the by the local historic district commission so so the proposal or the suite of proposals essentially exempts them from designer review board and planning or zoning board of appeals but it doesn't necessarily exempt them from all review depending on where they are they might still have to go through district commission and they have to go through board of license commission is correct they would you know i mean things in the local historic district that would probably um occur would be something like uh signage or if there was i can't think of a restaurant uh that would be there but if there was a physical change that was you know a permanent change not just furnishings uh you know being set uh that could certainly be something that would require the review of the local historic district commission right i guess i'm thinking in terms of like the where uh lumber yard used to be which i think is is a restaurant space which i think is in the historic district so if they wanted to open they wouldn't necessarily if a new restaurant wanted to open in the former lumber yard space they wouldn't necessarily have to go through the planning board or dba stuff but they would still have to go through the district commission if there were changes being proposed to the building uh that were visible from the public way yes thank you any other questions or thoughts on cultural natural historic that was a good catch evan on that question we'll move on to economic um my guess is we've kind of covered this one that for the current situation this bylaw would help economic development um in terms of given the pandemic and the restrictions coming down are there any other comments on economic impacts or drawbacks i am not seeing any environment open space and recreation not everything always implies to everything but we're going to go through the list um i am not seeing anything housing and land use i think that goes to my question of mixed use buildings apartment buildings they do not fall under this this temporary zoning bylaw so in that sense this bylaw doesn't really affect my gathering is it doesn't really affect the zoning for those items because they would still be going through the entire process that they currently go through any other thoughts on housing or land use social neighborhoods businesses noise visuals do we have anything to add evan up christine um so i just wanted to say that normally when there is music offered whether it's pre-recorded or live music the the zoning board of appeals or the planning board puts a condition on that says no more than x decibels at the property line may may be there so i think that um you know rob and i would probably come up with similar kinds of conditions to prevent you know noise from emanating into the neighborhood from a particular location thank you um shawnee yes i just had a clarifying question about that chris that how what needs to happen to allow more to happen outdoors like i think in east canton or somewhere else where there are a lot of music events happening so what what do we need to do and i think you should probably talk to rob about that so again yep again zoning um you know we're applying this to the private property locations so we're not you know we're not necessarily looking at this for a potential street closure or or activities that would occur on the sidewalk or in parking areas if that ends up to be the case so what christine just talked about was a 70 decibel maximum at a property line of the private property to to control the music that is happening on the private property that's actually criteria that's in the bylaw and we would have that available to us anyway and be using that when we're reviewing these applications now if paul were to uh through the proposal for the use of the public ways if he was authorizing part of a street to be closed down for dining and that incorporated music that would be all part of his review with input from uh you know the various town officials i would think the police chief might have some thoughts on that and you know i would expect there to be uh a cutoff a time where that would end and you know a number of conditions that would go along with any consideration like that but i think it would all be available under under these sets of temporary measures anything else under noise businesses neighborhoods not um moving on to sustainability transportation and facilities not seeing any that takes us to our last one which is financial and everyone seems haven't gave me a thumbs up um we are also not seeing any comments on that um one last chance i'm going to stop this share um one last chance at this time for counselors to ask questions make comments before we go to a public hearing shallony i'm totally trusting that you all have figured this out but and when it happens you will find a way but i just wanted to put it out there of the challenges that with outdoor dining is going to be the limiting the space for people in wheelchairs and access to did we lose shallony or did i just lose shallony is it just me yeah she's frozen for me too because i know my frozen from me but anyways okay so did i what did i miss you were starting with accessibility and we lost the last half of that oh just saying about once you have outdoor dining that that would impact wheelchair access and i'm sure i'm trusting that you all have creative solutions for that yes uh yes and in fact we we would need to ensure that the location that would possibly be used for any of this activity would be appropriate and allow for not restrict uh normal pedestrian access or accessibility okay um i am not seeing any other comments or anything as i said we will not vote on a recommendation until after the public hearing so at this time we will move on in our agenda and that moving on is to i'm going to skip b for now we're going to come back to b after we do see just to ensure that we get through c which is crc meeting times adopt a proposed schedule so give me a second i need to come up with that schedule this will make it bigger for people it is a proposed schedule it would be good if we could adopt this schedule for now i recognize that when we talked we talked about this not this tuesday time not preceding past september but i felt awkward leaving the wednesday morning times for september october november december since we will not be doing the wednesday morning times so that felt a little disingenuous to leave them on the schedule too so that's why i listed the september october november december as the tuesday two to four um but i recognize that that is a potential for changing as we get closer to september i was optimistic and when we might not be virtual again we will be virtual probably through the end of august um we will update that as as we go forward with that um you know optimism's good um i took it through the end of june but if we could just vote on the dates recognizing that the virtual times you know virtual or non-virtual are likely to be changing with the current situation and we have no idea when the virtual will stop um and if there's any requested changes to these dates please let me know otherwise we will i will take a motion to adopt this revised meeting schedule uh sarah so i know that it says 8 30 as a starting time but usually i have chores in the morning which involves feeding lots of animals and mucking disgusting things out of coops so it is my hope that maybe we could meet at nine but i can i can also try to drag myself out of bed earlier but i was just putting in a plug for it so the 8 30 sarah is gone that was prior to april 8th um all the schedule will just shows the rest of this year 2020 not into 2021 and it was all at this point two to four on my my little tired self was just making sure that if it ever becomes you know an option again then i'm putting in that one thank you you're not the only one that would love to wait evan is another one and sorry i think everyone's raising their hand um so so that is heard um good for the plug any other comments on this before i i guess i'll make the motion to make it easier if i don't see any other comments so i will move to adopt this um revised community resources committee meeting schedule that was updated april 22nd 2020 do i hear a second i'll second seven seconds any other conversation we will go through a roll call starting with shalini yes evan yes mandy is a yes sarah yes and steve yes excellent that is adopted we will get that on the calendars and on the website um that will take us back to zoning bylaws and now i know how much time we have for item 4b zoning bylaws to recommend recommend a plan for approaching zoning bylaw revisions was referred to us in november um we're in the middle of zoning bylaw revisions so we're kind of doing it as we talk about a plan um and so we will be on another announcement with this the plan at this point is to i apologize for all these extra meetings have a 10-day meeting on june 3rd with the planning board to discuss this um at 7 30 would be the start time for that they have a couple of public hearings to hold beforehand um so we would call our meeting to not start at their 6 30 start time so that we don't have to be there during those hearings to just sit um this is a revision to a flow chart that the prior membership of crc voted to recommend the council adopt the revisions refer to the first two boxes which is where my the cursor is this first one and this second one um based on the conversations we had at the last meeting and at prior meetings and in an attempt to work through what might happen before we get to sort of the hearing stage and the formal what essentially happened last night at the council meeting an actual set of bylaw revisions or a new bylaw that's in near final form ready for a hearing wanting to go um and so this was an attempt my attempt to put that into writing however poorly it has been done um we are to give you an example on this chart of where we are the zoning bylaw for um the article 14 that we just discussed today is now in these dotted lines planning board review process and crc review process headed quickly for a public hearing and then going to be moving through all of that very quickly the um and it started pretty much at council receives a proposed zoning bylaw amendment um from the planning staff um the other one we're talking about holding a hearing on June 17th for which is the voting quantum for site plan review is still in sort of this new phase here um we heard from staff we talked a little bit about it we don't have final language yet it hasn't been to the council the goal is to have that at the council on June 1 which would formally start this process so that we can get to hearing on June 17 um so that's where sort of some of them are others are still back in in these phases here with some discussion um with or without crc involvement at this time particularly 40 r is in a very preliminary stage at the planning board so thoughts on these two additions to this chart gotta get my participant window back up y'all are not talkative today christine um i received a um a form of this chart that was not stable and um i wonder if i could get a pdf of it because you can get the pdf yes um the pdf is in the packet for today but i will forward you the pdf to thank you um evan and then shalini yeah so um i want to so when i was looking at the packet and i looked quickly at this chart i didn't realize that it had been revised since we last saw i i just i opened it and i went oh my god i've read this chart like 15 times i don't need to read it again so um part of my silence has been i'm reading it in real time and so i guess i'm curious um to share a little bit about the reason for the rivet like what what the the purpose of it was one thing that maybe jumps out to me but maybe this isn't true because again i'm literally just reading and thinking about it in real time it feels like it it moves uh zoning amendments a little bit more into the realm of the council and away from the planning board which i think sort of aligns with what we were hearing from from newhampton a little bit um and also sort of reflects i think something that dave said last meeting which was this feeling that planning board is members are overworked and perhaps the development of revisions um in addition to all of the things they do might be a bit much but maybe that's not the intent of this so i'm just curious so i'll try to respond to that and then shallony just unraised her hand but um it's it was and it wasn't necessarily an attempt to remove anything from the planning board because that's not really where it's going it was an attempt to take the information we received last meeting the information dave was talking about the thoughts and sort of the what i felt i was getting from this committee in terms of prior proposals or other things to try and better write down how prioritization of various proposals might happen so more of how do you actually signal what the council may want to be prioritized um and that you know we've been hearing that the planning board wasn't sure where the priorities lied you know that you know whether or not that is absolutely true or not but that's some of the things we've been hearing that they wanted to get moving but they weren't sure what the council wanted them to move on they didn't have a lot of direction and so you know there was this sort of gumming up of something somewhere and so i took sort of what conversations we've been having and said well how could we potentially ungum that system and this is you know basically based on something david said he had suggested that the planning staff come to a CRC meeting to talk about what they'd like to see or what changes are there and get an idea from and a feeling from the CRC committee where those priorities might be as chair of CRC i felt very uncomfortable with that being only the sole realm of CRC because you know i i felt that would not be well received by the rest of the council if the only people receiving those sort of initial presentations were the five members of CRC and in talking to the council president we thought maybe an initial very broad overview of potential changes that could be useful and all could start at the council level to get a broad idea of where the council might be feeling and going and leaning towards on those priorities to be able to give that direction to both CRC and the planning board and the planning staff so that's sort of where this came from and what the intent is on some of this which is why you'll see in the very first one that it's the council hearing the presentations to then attempt to give some priority but the presentations are not necessarily direct actual wording changes it's hey we could you know we know that this part of the bylaw is not working right and we know that this part's not working right but we only have time to do one which one might you know something like that um was the thinking i hope that clears it up christine and then shallon so i just wanted to say that i think the planning board would benefit from hearing from the CRC about what the CRC and the town council think is important the planning board already has a list of things that they think are important and we've shared it with you and they are happy to start working on those things but they also want to have some sense that the things that they think are important are the things that people who are going to vote on it will think are important and so the effort that they put in will be you will bear fruit in the end so there just needs to be some kind of a communication between the planning board and CRC and town council and i think this is a good start and this doesn't preclude doesn't preclude issues from the planning board to town council just like they did go to the select board and the town meeting but it kind of brings the CRC more into the conversation and so i think this is going to be a good thing sholony since we don't have rob here all the time i just want i would love to hear from rob and who also has a lot of experience with these issues real time if you would i'd love to hear what you think help with this this process to make it more expedient more efficient efficient and effective uh well i think it's a little of all of this so you know certainly having the plan on and priorities laid out you know helps us decide where to focus our energy and and new things in the right direction but i you know consistent with what uh christine mentioned i think this is uh helpful this just adds to that uh in providing the better more clear expectation for where priorities should be set any other comments questions thoughts from the counselors the committee members Evan so i'll just say having now read it and heard the explanation in the background that seems very rational to me and i think that it definitely provides some clarity in a situation that's been admittedly a bit murphy over the past year and a half so i would be supportive of of these revisions okay thank you um dave and then sarah am i unmuted you are good yeah i had two comments one was um done the first are you making or not no i think it's steve uh um my first comment is on the the first um the first block town council hears presentation on potential bylaw revisions um so you know i really am supportive of that because i think i think we've heard for weeks if not months that you know the planning board would like more direction from the council staff would like more direction from the council but part of me thinks um there's two two elements that i see to that presentation one is you know what does what does rob what do rob and christine see as some of the the weaknesses in our zoning bylaw the the antiquated sections the problematic sections and how do we become more kind of proactive looking at where the town needs to go but the other piece is i we all know i think we all know full well the council members have their own ideas about what the priorities are so to me in advance of that meeting it would be very helpful if um if the president of the council really you know requested from council members that you each of you provide some either come to the meeting prepared to speak on what your priorities are or in advance send lin some thoughts on what you think the priorities are because i i think there's there's there's a benefit to having you respond to what rob and christine think are you know uh shortcomings in our zoning bylaw or opportunities for the future but i also think you all have your own ideas so so i really see it to be most effective that first meeting would be both hearing from rob and christine but also hearing from individual council members and not just responding to what rob and christine say so that's one one piece of it the other thing is mandy joe i wanted to talk a little bit about um this was all in development before rob and christine came up with the proposal for the new approach to zoning uh you know this 180-day approach to try to jumpstart our our village centers in downtown so i just wanted to talk a little bit about dates and you know when would we be talking about bringing this you know having this initial meeting with the council in the context of the you know response the covet 19 response to zoning um i know at from from putting my vice president hat on um lin and my as my chair had i brought this to lin as a possibility given talk last week and we were hoping to roll this into sort of this initial presentation into also the bid and chambers sort of requests for covet into one big sort of zoning type um talk at the next council meeting on june 1st i do not know whether that will stand um given that we've already received some potential changes to respond to covet from from rob and christine that are fantastic in terms of the responsiveness and all um so i i haven't had a chance to talk to the president lin about that initial plan to start this conversation on this chart on june 1 this won't be in front of the planning board until june 3 with us in the planning board speaking to hopefully on june 3 get to two votes one from the planning board and one from the crc on a formal recommendation of this modified flow chart for sort of how things might go and does that answer the questions day yeah i just like to hear from or give rob and christine a little opportunity to think about you know whether june 1st is realistic you know after yesterday's announcement from the governor we can feel a momentum certainly picking up around here in terms of the volume of inquiries and questions how do i get going you know i'm in this category that can open at 25 percent or 100 percent or whatever so i just want to be realistic with rob and christine's time and i would i would defer to them whether you know they can prepare for the public meeting and they can do all the things that they need to do and is june 1 realistic for them so i'd leave it up to them if you want to comment rob or christine um i can i can suggest that it's probably not going to be good uh for me uh with what i'm expecting and hoping that will be uh working on during that time frame uh but i haven't talked about that specifically with christia kris um i think we do have a lot on our plates um in addition to responding to to the covid issues we're also starting to receive a flood of application um people who want to get started on things again and so um you know i'm predicting both the planning board and the zoning board of appeals are going to be pretty busy with applications and other committees will also be busy with applications so we have that on one side we have the covid issues on another side and then a third side i guess is um how to approach zoning in general so i would say um i could be ready for a discussion of this flowchart here on june 1 but i wouldn't have time to presentation about how we propose june 1 but i'm not sure that's what you're expecting okay um what i will do is that i will take that information to the president the flowchart was temporarily tentatively on june 1 for first reading it requires two um and obviously we're not going to vote before we've had a meeting with the planning board um but i was i was potentially but but given everything going on i i will let the president know that um an actual large presentation from planning staff on potential zoning revisions and bylaw revisions is not something that can be done on june 1 given everything else going on yeah and i could i just add i mean i think the goal here is to get the short-term zoning relief done as quickly as possible let's not detract from that in any way shape or form council committees uh staff bid chamber all of us working to try to get that passed and then hopefully we could flow right into you know this this is really the mid to longer range and and uh you know we can we can look at some dates where it would be more convenient for rob and christine to prepare something more robust have the chamber and bid come in any you know any anyone else who wants to support or ask questions about you know this flowchart etc so thanks any other thoughts comments from the counselors sarah you had your hand up at one point i believe yeah so i was just going to say since i've been quiet for the whole meeting that most of this sounds you know really good to me and i think that having crc um act as sort of um an agent of the council to work more closely with uh planning the planning board um planning staff is excellent and i think that um closer communication and working together is fantastic um i'm also going to say just and i'm going to say this as a person from district one i think that um having some time to sort of think through and i think has shallony said sort of how we use wording or how we present things is going to be really important um because i think as we sort of maybe um start to get into uh sort of changing how maybe zoning is done or bylaws are done there are going to be some people who hear like a shorter time span is something that's negative um as opposed to positive so maybe just giving it a little bit of of extra time even if it's just a week or two weeks to try to think about that would be a good idea thank you for those comments anything else from individuals uh shallony thank you sarah i agree with what you said this is a comment that's not directly related but something that dave said and it's going back to our earlier what we're going to call biola and you dave said something about jump starting businesses and i was thinking jump start amherst as jump start amherst as the sort of that campaign that we're doing all businesses or something like support small business or something that is more proactive and and it kind of communicates the essence and meaning of what we're trying to do rescue and provide relief to our small businesses that like jump start jump start amherst okay not seen any other comments we are going to again there won't be a vote tonight um today that will happen later after we've had our meeting with the planning board that takes us two minutes and we have two sets of minutes to approve um let me i i need to pull these up because i have some requested changes myself so the first set is may fifth minutes um and the changes are fairly basic here um the first one is to get rid of the directions on public comment is one of my recommended changes the second you can see here instead of legislative board um council um from gym nash um and then i just fixed a little bit of that one sentence there the guide the revisions to the zoning bylaws a couple of just you know scrivener type things um and then then a comment on the items the 11.25 proposed amendment to add similar to um what we discussed in terms of where we were leaning and those were my changes to that um shalini you had your hand up at one point mistake okay any other requested changes to this set of minutes may fifth okay i am seeing none we're going to do these as a one full vote the next set of minutes is our april 21st minutes um and these were a joint meeting of the town council and crc um at a listed were absent were d'angeles and du mont but they actually did show up at some point during the meeting so i i put them into councilors present um and then i'm not sure if there were any other these are a long set i think that might be the only set of changes that i had did any that is the only set of changes i had it looks like did anyone else have any changes to the april 21st minutes i am seeing none so that means i will make the motion to adopt the april 21st 2020 minutes and the may 5th 2020 minutes as amended is there a second second shall any seconds that uh any other comments questions we will roll call um we will start with we're gonna start with this time we'll start with steve yes um and evan yes and sarah yes and shallony yes and mandy is a yes that is unanimous so we are done with minutes that takes us to announcements um the announcements are we are adding a whole bunch of meetings that are joint meetings with the planning board um as chair i apologize for adding double meetings lots of weeks in a row and three extra meetings on wednesday nights june 3rd for a discussion on the flow chart we just discussed june that one would be 730 is the estimated start time for that discussion um per uh christine gramel on the planning board chair june 10 for a joint meeting on the article 14 proposed zoning bylaw on temporary zoning and june 17 again at 6 30 for a joint meeting on the revisions to zoning by law section 11.250 which is the site plan review voting quantum those are all generally tentative but please put them in your calendar um the june 3rd and june 10 are pretty much confirmed almost i will certainly let you know when they are fully confirmed we are as i said for june 10 waiting to ensure that the planning board can have a quorum that night so that we can go forward with that june 17 will be confirmed in about a week as long as we have the language we need from the attorney barred um on that revision um those are the extra meetings because they are extra i will try to keep the CRC meetings slightly shorter so that we are hopefully not too overburdened um i don't think i have any other announcements does anyone else have any announcements before i move on to next agenda item preview or next agenda preview i am not seeing any on the next agenda we will be taking up master plan chapter three land use for potentially the final near final time i'm not sure we'll see um the planning board is taking that up tomorrow night and so hopefully by june 2nd we will have a better idea of where that amendment sits as we move forward and we can dispense with that potentially in terms of get that one ready to go and then ready to sit until we have the rest of the master plan um christine do you want to comment on that one yes um so this uh tomorrow night i'm bringing the master plan to the um planning board for the first time they've actually had it since march um but i haven't discussed it with them i've certainly discussed it with the chair and i have one set of comments from one of the planning board members but i don't have um comments from other planning board members so i'm just making you aware that um i think it may take more than one night to um figure out what the planning board thinks about the approach that i'm taking to update the master plan um it could be that they're fine with it and they'll resolve their issues tomorrow night but we have a couple of other things on our agenda so i'm i'm not as optimistic about that just okay that is good to know thank you for that we will i i will be in touch for dave and all to ensure that if it that it's ready for that agenda if not we will put it on the next one um i make sure we're ready for it if we are um we will i think the two things we dealt with today will not be on the next agenda because we're waiting for planning board joint meetings um that leaves us with a couple of action items um we have the wild animal act we can bring in we have the noise bylaw that has also been referred to us and we have a housing um priorities policy comprehensive housing policy referral outstanding um and so as we deal with zoning bylaws we also have those other three things to continue to deal with um i would love to hear from the members as two priorities on those three outstanding depending on whether we have time to fit any of that onto upcoming agendas evin i feel like we can probably dispense within noise bylaw pretty quickly even though i know you and i are going to fight over amending um so i kind of feel like we should prioritize that because then we can i think we could do it quickly and then we can just get rid of it okay any other thoughts on those three items shalini yeah same as evin i think these are the the animal bylaw and this noise one are simple ones so we can tackle it and just get them out and then we can focus on the house of one any other thoughts from the committee members i will take that all into consideration as we try to come up with an agenda for the next meeting um are there any items not anticipated 48 hours before this meeting that weren't on the agenda that anyone feels should be brought up seeing none i am going to thank everyone for a very efficient meeting that i was not expecting to be able to get through that whole agenda um so i appreciate that we were able to do that um and to move some of that stuff along i want to thank christine and rob for all of your time and hard work especially on this temporary zoning bylaw i know that took a lot of effort and time and new thinking um and innovative thinking to see what we can do for our businesses and to get it moving so that we can get it enacted hopefully if it is enacted and i'm hoping it will be it seemed to get a pretty good review and reception at the council in time for the phased opening that the governor seems to do so that it can actually do some real good for our businesses in town so i want to thank you guys for your time in all of the prep work and also for spending the time with us to answer all those questions um seeing no other hands and no other items i am going to adjourn the meeting at 351 pm nine minutes early thank you all


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The self-made man is a myth, notes from the edge of the narrative matrix. Anyone who is capable of honest self-reflection and critical thinking understands that the self-made man is a myth of our culture, that anyone who amasses a fortune does so on the backs of many other people whose work made it possible, and found the opportunity to do so because of the circumstances they happened upon upon by chance of birth conditioning and sheer dumb luck. And it's worth highlighting that this is also true of all other personal circumstances, including those that people in this slice of the online community might take pride in. One doesn't, for example, become aware of the manipulations of the powerful and the deceptions of the media because they are particularly smart and virtuous. They do so because they were lucky enough to find information from others which helped them form this understanding, and because their personal conditioning allowed them to take that information in and let it inform their worldview. Similarly, one doesn't wind up opposing capitalism because of any personal specialness or righteousness. One finds themselves opposing capitalism because they happened upon socialist ideas after having meandered through life, which gave them the conditioning necessary for them to seriously consider those perspectives and take them on board. If their life had unfolded differently, through no fault or virtue of their own, they never would have happened upon those ideas, or if they had, they would not have been receptive to them.  My point is we're all just kind of muddling our way through this thing, and our successes and failures, by whatever metric we measure success and failure, are due more to the unfolding of humanity's collective consciousness than any brilliance or defectiveness on our own part. Obviously, we must all try to do our very best with the hand that we were dealt in life, but it's probably a good idea to harbor some compassion for those who don't get it as right as we do in our eyes. We were all born into a world saturated with propaganda and dominated by abusive systems, and ultimately the degree to which we are able to see our way around in that world says as much about how good or bad we are as a seed landing on rich or sandy earth says about the quality of the seed. Compare the way US Empire managers shriek about the faintest whispers of the possibility of a Chinese military training facility in Cuba with their self-righteous indignation at the suggestion that Russia and China have any business opposing US activities in Ukraine and Taiwan. This is why you can just dismiss Empire simps who decry the notion of spheres of influence regarding Russia and China and insist Ukraine and Taiwan have every right to become US proxies if they want. That simply ignores reality as evidenced by US attitude toward the same thing. Demanding that Russia and China tolerate behavior from the US that the US would never tolerate from Russia or China is just demanding that the world subjugate itself to the US Empire, yet you'll see people who call themselves anti-imperialists doing exactly that all the time. The West loves Ukraine so much that for years to come its children will be getting their limbs blown off by undetonated cluster munitions and being born severely deformed due to depleted uranium rounds. I'm sorry I sincerely cannot for the life of me take seriously the position that the problem with the world's most evil and murderous military is that it has gotten too woke. The position is absurd on multiple levels. Like oh no a woke US military won't be able to win wars. Like all those wars the non-woke US military was winning in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Right its bitch about America's woke military claiming that a rainbow flag war machine will be too soft to win wars when really they're just mad they lost the culture war. They lost it so badly that even their last hyper masculine institution can't afford not to be inclusive. In reality US military recruitment is hurting too bad for them to be able to reject anyone and the reason for those recruitment struggles has nothing to do with wokeness.   When writers whine about America's woke military they're really whining about LGBTQ people being accepted even in the last places they'd ever expected them to be accepted. Conservatives are everything they used to make fun of liberals for being.   The deepest and most worthy rabbit hole you can possibly dive into is the question of identity. Not gender identity or racial identity or what ideological is or ism you identify with but the nature of identity itself. Deeply investigating the nature of self in your own actual experience will lead to a radical transformation in the way life has experienced and lived. Because it turns out it's not happening the way our minds, our culture, and our language tell us it's happening. At the end of the rabbit hole it is discovered that there is no I anywhere to be found in your actual experience and that it was just an unquestioned assumption that we built unhelpful psychological constructs around due to a fundamentally erroneous premise. Once this is seen life gets a lot less stressful and a lot more enjoyable because it's experience does happening freely on its own without happening to anyone who could be diminished or damaged by its outcomes. In the end we discover that the ego can be transcended not by heroic feats of saintly austerity or by living in an ashram in India for decades but by simply examining the nature of the ego and finding out if it actually exists in the first place. This is something you can verify in your own personal experience and you should never take my word for it or the word of anyone else. The rabbit hole is right there, right now. If you're open to the possibility of losing yourself and your whole world in your quest for truth, hop in.