So okay, so we're gonna call the meeting of the community resources committee of the town council together It is 834 in the morning. We are recording this as far as we know We're attempting to record it and we have a quorum We're going to take our agenda slightly out of order today After general public comment, we're gonna go directly to action item for a which is speed limits And then on to the draft affordable housing priorities policy discussion action for item 4b We'll do minutes after that and then if we have time we'll go back to the discussion item 3a At 930 ish we will have a break in our meeting for to welcome a official from the Tibetan national Representative of Tibet So we'll break at 930 for that But until then the first item of business is general public comment. This is on items Other than the speed limits section of our agenda. Is there any public comment on anything but speed limits? Seeing none, we will move on which brings us to item 4a We had a request For the council to adopt mass general law chapter 90 section 17c and 18b It was referred to the community resources committee and the transportation advisory committee back in May and so community resources is finally getting around to discussing it and We have here the person who asked for it from from the council and we'll probably hear from him later Ask the council for it John Griffin But we also have some representatives of the town to help us through this discussion and hopefully answer some questions or be able to Come back with answers later if we have questions that they can't answer today And so I want to welcome up our town engineer Jason Jason skills our chief of police Scott Livingston and Livingstone is it stoner's in stone? Sorry living stone and and you and Gabriel ten num Ting sorry ting Gabriel ting captain in the Amherst police department So all three of you can come up and sit here if you would like I don't know if any of you have anything initial to say or if you're ready to just respond to any questions We might have yeah, so have a seat up here for questions. I know we probably have a few Bring up a third chair But yeah, I'm welcome for any comments if you've got initial comments. If not, we'll just get into questions So this is as I said an initial discussion, so we don't have a lot of information about Where this would affect or anything at this point, but there are two laws that we could adopt the first one is essentially what I can understand as a statutory reduction of speed to 25 Miles per hour pretty much anywhere in town that is defined as sick thickly settled Okay, there we go So if it's already you've got to put the mic a little closer if it's already posted it does not change that posted speed limit Okay, so it's statutory for thickly settled in business areas that don't already have a speed limit sign on the street The second one is a adoption to reduce to 20 miles per hour Speed limits in quote safety zones, and I don't know one of the questions I'm gonna have is what is a safety zone? But but that we'll get to that but that that is the two things we're looking at a 25 mile and a 20 mile per hour I know Dorothy had a question right now It was to do with the phrasing for example, I've been hearing a lot from people on Amity about wanting to stop speeding and About five or six different people have come to me in the last month or two There is a sign that says 30 miles an hour Although it is not obeyed. So when you said unless it has been previously posted. I wasn't sure if That meant already previously posted at 25 miles per hour or posted as anything the existing regulatory black and white posted signs are more or less set in stone you can do a speed study and Go with the 85th percentile speed of speed at which 85% of people are comfortable driving And then they round that up to the nearest five miles an hour And a lot of times that ends up raising this already posted speed limit So that's the mass DOT and mass DOT needs to approve those regulatory speed limits So so then in that case they would be requesting it be enforced And there may some have some structural changes to let drivers know that it's going to be enforced Maybe more signage more that the the thing that posts the miles per hour They had that they got permission for it and then it broke and it got taken away. I think it died It would require more enforcement or more traffic calming measures I'm thinking about the root nine area near Hampshire College Which is 50 miles an hour and then it hits Just near potline a little bit before potline what I would consider a thickly settled area and I've been at Transportation meetings where there have been neighborhood complaints about people endangered on that crosswalk Or the lack of a crosswalk there and then but I I'm trying to understand Is that section of the road belong to the state or does it is it Amherst as well the town owns it But the state approves that posted speed limits, and those are already approved posted speed limits So that's what would require the speed study the 25 mile an hour Townwide wouldn't apply there. You know I understand that but I am particularly for that area because I've heard so many complaints Interested in figuring out Well, you know or at least having time to think about what we might do because that's the fastest area in Amherst that we supposed to hear you so So given our first two questions I think one of the things we might need to know in the future And I'd like to know whether it's possible is can we get a map or a list of if we adopted this? 25 mile thickly settled where it would apply in town You know color-coded roads that already have posted speed limits and you know begins here ends there So we've got all that I think I talked to IT yesterday And they were gonna make that a version of that available on the GIS viewer So we should have that up and running relatively quickly because we already had the coverage You know we had the maps, but we didn't have it available to the public yet And would that indicate I guess one of the questions I have is thickly settled What what parts of our town the way I read thickly settled was what? Houses Residentials that have less than I don't know what was the 200 feet between them over a quarter mile Do we have a lot of places in town that that? Fit that yeah areas sort of open to interpretation I think most of the areas that that would be sort of open to interpretation under that 200 foot rule are Already posted so they're the more rural roads. They already have a posted speed limit They're the more main streets, you know that that already have a posted speed limit I think the one area where we get into the weeds are some of the neighborhoods that Have fought pretty hard to get posted 30 mile an hour limit We did the speed studies we came out with 30 miles an hour is the appropriate speed for this neighborhood And then all of a sudden and that's like one street in a in a particular particular neighborhood all the other streets are unregulated so they would be premature speeds But then if we drop all the neighboring streets to 25 I wonder what the people who fought so hard to get the 30 are gonna wanna and and there's no good way out of it Unfortunately, there's no there's no easy way Traffic study and the traffic study doesn't usually go lower unless you've done some things with the road You know engineering lines if you do some you know curves at curves or speed humps or you know Narrow the road there's certain you know, there's engineering measures you can do to to make a road slower But they usually involve property take you can't do them within the existing right of way that you have So you usually have to either take property or to nagle the road so that it so that it's less comfortable to drive fast Steve or Andy do you have questions? Yeah, so thickly settle also implies parking on the street So I would think that that would be a big variable as to whether or not The rule just says that housing spaces at 200 feet. They're very That's really the only qualifier for thickly settled But I mean parking on the street is another factor. Yeah, be considered in a speed study That's kind of where I was going that the 85th percentile would change whether or not there's parking people. Yeah So I have a question for for the police Why I wanted you guys here too, you know, we compose signs all we want But if they're not following it and we don't have the ability You know either funds or or office or manpower if we don't enforce it You've got a sign with no enforcement. So the question one of the questions I have for you is What is our speed enforcement? Do we have a policy of it? Is it something that if we reduced all streets in town that aren't posted from 30 to 25 I think is what this would do in those areas. Is that something that our police force could enforce To bring the speeds down is that something that's practical So good question and these discussions happen continuously through the year I probably get more emails from citizens about speeding on streets than any other And I'm glad you brought up amity Street because if of the three Biggest complaints I get in town. It's it's amity Street It's southeast Street and it's Bay Road and we probably enforce on those streets more than any other Now that being said, you know, we don't have a traffic division and it's something I'm trying to work out with with staffing Officers who are on regular patrol and responding to calls Are also responsible for conducting traffic enforcement in their downtime and I say downtime when they're not responding to calls making arrest or You know doing reports or out community outreach or any other tasks that they're assigned. So Quite honestly, we don't get enough Time for officers to do traffic enforcement in town We do have a number of grants that we participate in state the ops grants were very specifically or we Do traffic enforcement and that's where it probably happens most frequently is when we have these grants written for us But the simple answer to that is, you know, when we enforce on those streets people slow down And then when we leave people speed up so it's more cultural So there's no easy answer to that simple enforcement is just not the answer either I was at a meeting of the grant would Area and I believe there was an officer Laramie who Laramie Laramie and is he assigned to Traffic directly is he monitoring that or is that I Mean, I don't have those notes So I don't remember what he said about it But he was somehow rather connected to the grant would area as a traffic So no officer Laramie is our community outreach officer So he wouldn't specifically be designated as an officer that would do traffic, but he would You know, typically what would happen is he will bring these concerns to the captain Ting Who's our operational captain and then we have a big board In the roll call room downstairs where officers have assignments to okay We've received a number of complaints from you know, so-and-so street We need to do enforcement and sometimes it's very specific like people are speeding going to work from 6 a.m To 7 a.m. So officers will go down there from those times But again, you know people are very good about going to speed limit when a police officer is there and not so much in general life, so It's certainly what everybody knows that you know if you stay under 10 miles an hour of the speed limit, you're gonna be okay Dorothy so so the question on Amity Street There are two there are three aspects crosswalks speeding cars safety and trucks So and I'm getting a lot of communication So what I'll do with trucks first and that this has been raised here I believe in this committee previously, but the constituents are raising it with me now that Why are big trucks through traffic trucks? Going on Amity Street and not on route 9 Because there's it's really Amity is a residential street It's the big trash collector trucks are bad enough So I am really glad that my husband takes it straight to the dump that we don't have that coming by those are monster trucks Coming into a residential neighborhood, which is weird enough, but when trucks are just going through they should not really be on that street They should be rooted I believe at least that we under my neighborhood believe on route 9 That's number one but number two After a lot of discussion a lot of people talking about this a lot of truthfully, it's women up and down the street Mothers and grandmothers that are getting they're talking to each other and they're getting very upset They're thinking that maybe what we really need at that intersection of Lincoln and Amity They want to crosswalk further down the road We did get the crosswalk at Lincoln and Amity repainted. Thank you very much And people are feeling very happy about that, but they think maybe we have to have a traffic light because There are like every six months and you have the facts There's an accident because it's just a very difficult Turn for people and to cross it and I do it all the time And I I am just I do very old-fashioned conservative driving Which is I wait wait wait wait until there's nobody coming and then I move rather quickly because you can't see the visibility coming down from East Pleasant Street, North Pleasant Street isn't too good Is there any possibility of one rooting heavy through trucks on Route 9 State Road not on residential Amity Street and two Have you looked at or are you willing to consider a traffic light at the corner of Lincoln and Amity? So for the first question about re-rooting Large vehicles trans you know trucks that sort of thing I don't think that will happen. They're lawfully allowed to you know, there are certain Mechanisms in place where the town could take action on us on a roadway Actually in Northampton if you travel there They're very there are several streets along the route 9 corridor where they restrict trucks who are going to the Coca-Cola plant You can see those signs very specifically saying no large trucks I think it's $300 fine. So there are town bylaws that can be put in place to restrict that But as far as traffic lights, that's Jason's expertise We have looked at that intersection for a couple different possible treatments of Intersection control We've looked at a roundabout option. We've looked at I don't think we haven't fully looked at a signalized option because I think the roundabout would actually work better and calm traffic more and just Straight-up traffic signal. So we are looking at it. We're only in the preliminary stages and there's zero funding for it A quick follow-up But I want us to really try and keep our conversation to speed limits today because that's what we're talking about We'll get back to general transportation at some other meeting, but yeah, I Had heard about the roundabout and most of us thought that that couldn't be true So it's the woman who told me about it said no no They really were considering it wouldn't you have to take private property to get enough room for roundabout there But not any major takings you can get a mini roundabout in there, which would slightly deter truck traffic possibly Yeah, yeah, but it's it's you can fit it and we're still playing with it Okay, really still in the conceptual phase of looking at it But oh and one just one thing to add about truck exclusions those also have to be approved by mass D. O. T. I Think it's Steve and then Andy. Yeah, so you So it's all amity all the time But one thing that's always struck me about amity is the passing that that there's a double There's a dash line that which means you can pass either direction And I was always curious as to obviously there was a safety check on that Far back in history. I'm sure I know about 20 years ago. We were able to reduce the speed limit on amity from I think it Was 35 to 30 We narrowed the lanes increase the bike lanes made the bike lanes wider narrowed the travel lanes I think to 11 feet not a little bit before my time But but then at that time we did the speed we narrowed the lanes did the speed study And it actually did accomplish reducing the the 85th percentile speed from 35 to 30 at least Again, sometimes those those remedies last a while and then fade as vehicles get faster Andy My years in the select board, I guess that some of these things are not new Because there are issues that I dealt with them on that prior capacity One thing I have a couple things that there are three things to ask about one is to what extent does the experience with accidents in an area affect decisions about Posted speed limits or enforcement policies as they look at in a speed study is you look at the 85th percentile isn't the only ruling Number that you look at when you're considering speeds you do look at the last I think it's five years worth of accidents to see if any of them are heavily related to speed a Lot of times you don't get that much from that though that doesn't boost it enough where you can say Oh, we really need to reduce this by 10 more miles an hour because the the accidents are it's hard to say when they're when they're Truly speed related accidents Because a lot of the accidents aren't there you know minor fender benders aren't necessarily speed related So it's it's hard to quantify if it's a Definite speed related accident unless you know it's a curve with a whole lot of rollovers Then you can say okay, they were going too fast, but a lot especially residential streets the accidents aren't gonna be that drastic Yeah Because there are also accidents that occur when people are going too fast and they don't stay within the road they go off onto someone's lawn I'm Trying not to look at a member of the audience who's raised this issue with me previously In my select board days, but The you know that that's is that considered in a different way and Then when you get into those kinds of investigations either from your side as traffic engineering of the police side How do you make the determination whether the speed limit might be the Problem or enforcement might be the problem or the road layout might be the problem You have to look at them all you have to look at every every part of that And they're all you know individual parts of a bigger puzzle So it's it's really you have to take all the information and have it in front of you and Figure out the best means of a cure and you know if it's already posted at 30 and someone goes off the road at 50 miles an hour then What are the signs really doing for you in the first place? You know it's they're there the reason they take that 85th percentile to set speed limits Is because there is a 15% of people that feel comfortable going 20 miles an hour over the speed limit or whatever And that that's when those are the people you can't always control You know there's there's a certain percent of the population that aren't gonna follow the rules Not just true in speed enforcement. Yeah That You know in any any crash investigation, you know, certainly the police officer will take every single factor in the consideration And what we found a lot of times is speed isn't necessarily De-factor a lot of times it's inattention There might be some other factors certainly in this community alcohol can be a factor as well so it's kind of a case-by-case basis and You know, obviously if there's a specific area that that we're consistently seeing with car crashes or Yeah, I I do have one other thing I'm going to switch to in a second that the area that I was referencing in a moment ago with Southeast Street and There's lots of problems on Southeast Street because there's Speed in some sections that is More probably more appropriate it goes through thickly settled areas. It goes around curves It goes into narrow bridges. That's a particularly difficult street to Establish a normal policy to but yet it's an important street because it is carrying a lot of traffic and Has had some unfortunate Very Incidents that have occurred The other thing that I wanted to ask about though is that this started because there was an unfortunate accident that led to a death on North Pleasant Street and What was the speed limit posted? I can't remember what this being was the speeding a factor in that If we're talking about the individual the UMass student who struck last year. Yes speed was not a factor There was no impairment. It was an accident. I know that officer Laramie and some of the Other officers involved in that patrol district have done us a study on making recommendations to that neighborhood Specific about lighting was one of the things they talked about sidewalks was another but the speed zone I think is 35 through there, which is appropriate It's another area that gets a lot of enforcement radar enforcement in that neck of the woods There's a lot of pedestrians there. So it's an area we concentrate a lot on Use your mic, please We have access to that report It's an informal report that he's done so far It has I think it's made its way to the town manager's office, but I don't think it's reached to this where it's gotten to the public publication Okay, Dorothy, I think that she's talking about something that's very important I Said spoke at a meeting recently that I felt it was very dangerous and unpleasant driving and Amherst at night because it is a pedestrian city and There's crosswalks and we can't see the people and those two things that could help one would be more lighting at crosswalks But the other one is I think we need a big campaign I saw a man in a wheelchair by the side of the road at dusk wearing all black And I thought my god my god. I could have hit him It's very scary for all of us So I think we need more lighting at the crosswalks and we need a campaign of Fluorescent stripes or at least wear something light or something white Because people are walking around here just completely dressed in black at dark crosswalks, and it's very unsafe We've done actually Campaigns we've done Amherst police handouts of fluorescent vests. It was more targeting kids and joggers, and that was probably Six seven years ago. It's actually ongoing. You know anytime we have any type of fairs Where we encounter larger numbers of the public we actually hand out on Velcro Rispiness that are reflective to try and encourage that and try and encourage people to wear something on there Person Steve so I Know we're going way off of speed limits, but So in the downtown area where there are crosswalks We know that cars have to stop if you're in the crosswalk, but can you is there such a thing as jaywalking in Amherst? There is not and we broached that subject at least 15 years ago where we were It became a comedy show Where we would have officers in uniform blowing whistles at people who are jaywalking and it didn't go over well So I'm going to try and bring us back to speed limits. I'm going to take my I have some questions You know, there's there's two things here. There's the the statutory 25 and we've We need more information and hopefully we'll be able to get that more information to even see where it might apply But one of the things I think we would need to consider is our accident history are dangerous in as intersections accidents complaints Whether what so one of my questions is what? Intersections or roads have the most traffic accidents Are they speed related or where are the ones that are speed related and are those roads already posted? Or are they statutory where this this adoption of this would actually lower the speed limit? And I don't know whether you can answer that now, but I mean I can give you some ideas of Things that we tried to work with with the DPW because I get requests frequently from Mr. Maureen about a can you give us the five-year history on traffic accidents that you know position A B or C and we do that frequently Here's an example, I mean the route 116 bypass at Meadow Street now We get a lot of accidents there and speed is usually a factor or the red running red lights When we when Gilbert requested information on that as far as accidents were concerned to get some redesigns of that intersection We thought it would be a slam dunk. Yep, the state's gonna see that criteria here How often we respond to accidents They're going to have to act and it just didn't meet the criteria of the state to have that intersection changed Which kind of baffled it's all but whatever criteria they look at Instead of having a double through lane they turn one of those through lanes into a turn a left turn only lane So they did that it was kind of a minor modification I don't know if there's any proven results because that one that particular intersection comes up Pioneer Valley Planning Commission does Valley wide You know top top 100 most dangerous intersections and that one came up on it and since it was a state highway Intersection it's not controlled by the town They did they did those minor modifications. I don't know if there's any I haven't seen any follow-up Data to see if it's helped or decreased the accidents there yet or not I mean when the redesign freeze pleasant triangle came in that was another area. So the roundabout has helped with the reduction in accidents there, but that was one where we assisted the DBW in Accident information about what we could do with that intersection I mean are there any other intersections in town that this that aren't necessarily posted that are thickly settled that you can Sort of immediately recall and come up with your head saying. Oh, that would be a good one that this might apply to Amity and you drive and I know that's in the works Andy and then Pat Oh, I'm glad that Chief brought up the traffic circle because it reminds me of something going back again to select board Experiences that was installed during my days in the select board We need to always be careful as part-time elected officials to think that we know the solutions because there was a lot of angst in town meeting about that not being the correct solution and We in the end on the select board were left with the decision and Decided that the best approach was to go with the professionals because we don't have the expertise we didn't think that town meeting members had the expertise and I Think that it's something that Learned from that experience that the traffic circle was the right thing to do and are the roundabout to use the correct term I guess And I think that when we get to the speed limit question You know, it's gonna make me very cautious about not jumping ahead of where all of you who have the professional expertise and enforcement investigation of incidents and traffic engineering are there and As far as and I want to some point Miss Pam we do need to come to some discussion about lighting, but that is a long Discussion to have because there's a whole history of how decisions on lighting were made in the pros and cons of adding lighting and that's That's now within the decision-making of the council it used to be in the select board But knowing the complexity of it. I think that we need to get the complexity learned here, but that's not a speed issue Pat I'm thinking directly right now about Stanley Street Because I we're working on seeing whether we can have the DPW there blah blah blah So I've been meeting with the residents there quite a bit And there is always ongoing concern even now with the station road bridge in that people are speeding through there Is that an area you've gotten information about and if it isn't? What should I tell residents to do about contacting you should they? So yes Stanley Street is not one that I'm I've been receiving a lot of complaints about game I don't know if you've heard much, but you know there is an area on our website on the Amherst Police Department website where you can request enforcement and or our speed radar We move that around from town to town again. Those are temporary fixes But you can continue and then Dorothy What do you see as some of the fixes What impact would having 25 miles an hour everywhere in Amherst? Have really What what negative and what positive impacts could it have forgetting how we get there or whatever? What do you see as the major issues? I know we have a woman here who was on Southeast Street who and talks about neighbors really being afraid to even get their mail We have a gentleman who is a friend of A man who was killed on North Pleasant Street, and there was fatality before on that street What would you do if you could do anything? Some some of these are just accidents and they happen The the issue of the 25 mile an hour posted speed limit won't solve any of those Because those roads are already posted with a set speed limit And reducing them would be difficult unless you Engineered some traffic coming into the streets that that you know you have to have drastic curves narrow lanes speed humps Speed humps aren't that popular with first responders Ambulances and fire trucks can't really put them on main thoroughfares because they can damage equipment So you have to come up with those sort of the Horizontal treatments that make a road you have to make the road less comfortable to drive fast on so that means taking out the straight of ways And if there's already houses on both sides, there's not a whole lot of room That's one of the possibilities But really that's the only way to change it already set speed limit the 25 mile an hours are only gonna change them in the unposted, you know outskirt neighborhoods, and I don't know That'll have I'm glad Jason said it first because if I said it Guilford would have been calling me up immediately But some of these roadways southeast street and pot wine lane in particular where we get a lot of complaints Because of the soccer fields and stuff But some of these streets that were designed back in the 30s and 40s. We're just not designed for the type of traffic They're receiving now The vehicles that are using them and it really comes down to a cultural change people are Dispating more just from a personal experience Whenever we do traffic rants, I like to sign up for those and one of the hot spots that I was It's constant people speed through there and just totally disregard and that's really well posted 25 in I think in three spots in a very Section so I always hit that spot because it's easy picking for me So unfortunately what that tells me is that every single time I go there Steve where you did you something or should I move to Dorothy because I know Dorothy did Okay, so Dorothy two quick things One of the crosswalks that bothers me is a driver here are the ones that for the on university in UMass I find them dark. I don't see them coming closely enough You know Amherst College has those little flashing lights Couldn't UMass have that up for those ones because I know that people speed when I see a police car on the side of the road I Slowdown that reminds me. Yes gotta slow down because in our minds. It's a through road, but it's not a through road It's got crosswalks. It's got students and I Really don't want to hit anybody. I was because one of my big mantras do not want to hit anybody So I'd like to have it safer for Yes, and it's if we do think about that a lot and the other one is Because I think it's good to keep rumors down and to have some idea what people what's really gonna happen the roundabout at University and Amity, which I think must be in the worst I'd like to hear some more about that when it's appropriate. We'll hear about that later So we're gonna hear from Steve I have one additional question and then we're gonna open it up to public comment because I province public comment and then we might open it up to hold on and And then we will Potentially bring you guys back for if we have time for another day well potentially another day But today it's gonna be we're gonna do Steve We're gonna do me we're gonna do public comment and then we'll see if the counselors have a little more questions before we take a break Dave was ready to talk. No, I just want to make sure that we have our staff here Yes, so they can hear yes. Yes So so that's why I said after the public comment. We'll come back with you guys sitting there for potential counselors and Answers and stuff. Okay, so Steve so I remember my question So I live in a thickly settled area and every once in a while my neighbors will tell me to you know, the ghost Yeah So I think there is some there is something to be said about people's perceptions of speed Versus the actual because a lot of times when we go in and do these speed studies We find that people are really speeding that much. It's just people perceive The vehicles be moving faster than they really are and you know when we do the speed studies our equipment is pretty stealthy So I don't think that's skewing any results, but but I don't yeah There's there often time is a is a big separation between the perception of Lots of speeders versus the actual, you know We use the word increment and law enforcement and in courts and stuff. What is reasonable reasonableness and It's very different to very different people So I have one question that I don't know whether you can answer today But I want you to if we can get an answer the 20 mile per hour Statutory one that were also was referred to us. What is a safety zone? Is it something that we as a council get to just define or? I think you can call it you can you can dub a corridor that may be have includes up a school Senior center or factors like that where you can call this suddenly a safety zone or maybe it's just an area that has High pedestrian use like I could probably do UMass campus. You could do Amherst College campus That sort of thing and probably Call those a safety zone, but I do need I do want to do a little more research and look up What if there are any they're very it was very if they leave it very wide open it seems like So I think it's kind of you define it they approve it and So some more information for us to help us Tackle that Potential I think at some point or a lot of information or even if we do get to define it where our town officials Might suggest it be defined too so that you know as Andy said we're not experts Andy and then we're gonna take public comment It's just to point out that the 20 mile an hour needs permission from the state Division of highways we don't get to make the final decision on a 20 mile So we're gonna thank you all please stay for the public comments, and we'll bring you back up in case we have more Council comments today. This is the first of probably a few conversations about this And then in the audience are there individuals who would make would like to make public comments questions I see to we're going to recognize the original petitioner first John Griffin. So come on up make sure that Mike is on Can you hear me? So I guess I the first thing that I wanted to address as I was listening to The question and answer and I appreciate all the feedback that you gave there have been a number of newspaper articles since mass general law 17c was passed Particularly from the Boston Globe about how Boston and Cambridge are using these state laws to change their speed limits in Residential zones citywide and from experience driving in those cities. They are changing post at speed limits as well So I'm curious where there's either a difference of interpretation or where they are finding the power to Take this action citywide including changing posted speed limit signs and we are feeling a little bit more hesitant about that For me, I find that this is a huge quality of life issue. I moved here 15 years ago from Oregon and speed limits in the city where I grew up even though I we are relatively a both denser city in Eugene as well as a relatively much more rural region out west and Speed limits in Eugene are drastically lower there's 20 and 25 miles an hour basically citywide and I've found it incredibly frustrating how difficult it is to lower the speed limits in Massachusetts and this extensive Speed survey process that has to be followed and until MGL 17c was passed There was basically no effective way that I could see in this state to actually lower a speed limit because as town engineer said When you do a speed speed survey as they did in Hadley You'll frequently encounter that the survey says yeah, you should raise the speed limit There is a neighborhood in Hadley where they were trying to get the 35 reduced to a 30 and instead they had to raise it to a 45 10 miles an hour higher because of the speed survey that just seems totally crazy I I just had a job interview at Oregon State University I was thinking about moving back home and negotiations didn't work out But one of the things when I was out there for the interview that struck me being in Corvallis was how Incredibly comfortable it was walking on sidewalks amongst 20 and 25 mile an hour zones and these were Consistently both enforced. I saw police pulling people over as well as respected. I know I had to drive around I had a rental car when I was there and driving on a posted 25 mile an hour street meant usually 20 to 23 miles an hour and if I was going much faster than that I was pulling away from traffic around me. It was a cultural difference. It's I recognize that Posting speed limit signs also has to be accompanied by enforcement and I have to say I Disagree with some of what was said around enforcement, especially on North Pleasant Street. I've been driving that street for the last 15 years and I've Once or twice seen a morning speed patrol Other than that never I see people going 40 50 miles an hour down that street And I also disagree with the convention that 35 miles an hour is safe for that street You have a very narrow shoulder where people try to use as a bicycle lane. You have buses You have a number of crosswalks I think 25 is the maximum for that street and in the case of a Accident where a pedestrian was struck in a crosswalk if that person had been respecting a 25 mile an hour speed limit versus 35 mile an hour speed limit There's a significant statistical chance that person would have survived Thank you Miss McGowan so um I've been in front of this front of this microphone before on this issue 25 miles an hour increases accident survivability It makes it safer for people walking bikers people in their front yards people have houses next to roads That's the purpose of a road getting mail pulling your car out of a driveway Obviously lowering the speed limit to 25 mile miles per hour I'll get people out of their cars and get kids on bikes and people on bicycles and walking more And so that would be part of our sustainability push, but also just it'd be nice to have people not so injured There's a state Report that says there's three keys to safety, which is education and To educate the public which is that animals people and bikers have the right of way and cars must slow or stop And only go around them when it's safe. I don't think anyone or like I think 12 people know this in Amherst And so educating what the law is that you know actually a cow has more of a right away than a walker The second thing is enforcement and you know, I know The police department is trying and there's really no dedicated officer. It'd be a great moneymaker So education enforcement are the cheapest and best ways to get people to slow down The third way is engineering which is traffic calming which is expensive You know, it's all these different kind of things and you know, we've done some tweaks And I think it's had an effect, but it could go on for years and cost millions of dollars Why not educate the public and enforce it the law? And then also if we went to 24 or five miles an hour just safer for everyone I live on the Southeast Street Speedway as an elderly member of my community. My neighbor has said Southeast Street has had none of these solutions. There's been There's not an education campaign this very spotty enforcement for the reasons the chiefs gave There's been the only engineering is that we had two signs put up saying 25 miles an hour Which is actually higher than the recommended speed limit of the third traffic study that we had that did show speeding We've had no other traffic calming happen So we have no lower speed limit. We have no enforcement very spotty enforcement We have very almost no traffic calming measures And we have a continued series of accidents that I've sort of stopped sending to people I used to send it pictures the select board every year to grandmothers with kids in their car Just hit the top of The hill near my house a few months ago and just another day So I think lowering the speed limit to 25 miles an hour would be the cultural change and it would be townwide If you know on my street people, you know, they go 60 50 miles an hour on Northeast Street You can go up to 50 miles an hour and Dropping to 25 as you get into that Cushman corner area, you know people are already moving But if you were at 25 and you're going into more thickly air settled area You're still at 25 or maybe you're going 30 Pat But then you'll drop down to and 30 is the number where people survive more and so why wouldn't you do that? It's you know people will The people will drive less people will walk more. They'll feel safer People will bike more, you know, will you all feel safe in the roads? And you know, I know I have live on a road with a lot of rush hour traffic And you know, that's just the way it goes But if it was going 25 miles an hour or 30 miles an hour that'd be a gift to the people on my street and Nothing has been done in years as people who complained about it for a long time And we could be a great experiment in showing that we have most, you know, we have a huge amount of students We have a lot of older drivers. I love the darkness of Amherst But it is sort of terrifying when I go down Southeast Street at night I go really slowly because I'm waiting for that person in black clothes to step out if we were all going really slowly We'd have a better community to live in and be safer and I just would love to see this happen Thank you Does before we close this up for today Do the counselors have any additional questions or requests for information from our town staff at this point Dorothy the question on the Amity University? Proposed roundabout I Hold on I will add those two questions and requests for information to a discussion that we'll have about traffic and Public safety in general at a future CRC meeting. Okay Dave yeah, the one thing I wanted to add was I hope I didn't overwhelm folks with the number of links I send were they were you able to follow the links or not? Yeah, okay So one thing I would put on our agenda for a future meeting would be What are some of the experiences of other communities throughout, Massachusetts that have already done this? We're We're not breaking any new ground here in my opinion lots of other communities as Previous speaker indicated You know Boston Worcester and some some communities out west here have done this So I think it'd be interesting to talk to some of those communities and and just get the feedback and see from their police Departments from their their engineering and DPW departments What has been the experience there in those communities? Any other requests from our counselors No, so I want to thank our town staff for taking the time to come out today and speak with us We will let you know the next time this is on the agenda and through through Dave's omac our liaison here so that we can Figure out what our CRC recommendation will be back to the town council. So thank you. Yeah. Yes at this time we are going to take a pause in our meeting and So we will be back probably in 10 to 15 minutes From our break. I'm going to pause the video too Good morning This is actually in the middle of a meeting of one of the council's subcommittees or committees called the Community Resource Committee and In addition to the five people who are here for that committee We have a couple other counselors who have joined us as well so what we'd like to do is have you go ahead to come up here and Introduce our guests and the rest of the people that are with you today and have us say a few words, okay? Thank you Um, good morning. My name is thunder of saring I'm the president of the recent event association Want to thank you all for having us here With me is representative Mr. Noor of saring who's the representative of his Holiness the Dalai Lama for North America And the central Tibetan administration He's here on a visit Due to the fact that we have a world premiere film screening This evening at UMass. It's at 7 30. It's free and open to the public So we hope some of you will be able to join us and the other reason why Representative one of series here is To reach out to elected officials. So this morning will be visiting senator Markey's office as well as senator Warren's Congressman Richard Neal's office as well as Jim's office Essentially to one we want to thank congressman Jim McGovern and present senator Markey for co-sponsoring the Tibet policy and support act of 2019 and one of the key highlight of this bill is It really ensures that the institution of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of The re-incarnation is protected is preserved So that the Chinese cannot sabotage this because they're claiming that they have the right and they're going to pick The next Dalai Lama the 15 Dalai Lama, which is that absolutely not acceptable. So we want to thank Jim for introducing this bill in the house It's the bill is referred to as HR for 3 3 1 and then in the Senate Senator Marco Rubio had actually sponsored the bill but Senator Markey has also co-sponsored this and so we're going to request from Western Massachusetts Congressman Richard Neal to also co-sponsor this and as well as senator Warren's office and really the key in the very fundamental principle of this bill is it's about Human rights, it's about protection of religious freedom So I'm gonna have a presentation. I'm going to say a few words Thank you to all the council members. Thank you madam for you know meeting us at the gate it wasn't expected kind of overwhelmed with reception and honor that you have given us and So so good to be here I came yesterday and as Thunderblower was explaining I'm actually based in Washington DC as the representative of His Holiness Dalai Lama and the Tibetan administration So my main job is to Reach out to the members of the Congress and the State Department and My in my jurisdiction Canada also falls in So we're only five members there five star members including myself. I will try to reach out to all the members of the Congress as much as possible and then as mentioned by Dundula, we also have a Tibetan growing Tibetan community in North America So at the moment we have more than 30,000 and then all are organized in different Tibetan associations So we have 31 Tibetan association and Amherst is one of them and We're so happy to see it just as the you know Massachusetts and Amherst itself very supportive and active for Tibetan course. We also have a Tibetan association very Active although it's a small community here but UMass has been quite popular with the Tibetan world because of The institution that has produced so many Tibetan students who have come here under the Tibetan scholarship program And they came back to Dharamsala, India But there was a call also to me, but I silenced that so You did a better job of me than I did So yeah, well Yeah, we have you know So UMass is very Kind of popular with the Tibetan people and it has given you know Education and made people Tibetan people capable of serving other Tibetan communities In India and Nepal so far with the you know all the new learnings they got from here and They've been serving the Tibetan communities in Diceboro are quite good So and then at the same time we also try to liaison with the Chinese overseas students as well as you know Star members and also the business community try to make it aware of the alumna's stand in terms of solving the you know the problem between China and Tibet through the middle way approach and Also, the CTA, the Central Tibet administration's Effort in Trying to reach out to the Chinese government for negotiation, but you know, unfortunately not much is happening so we try to put pressure and sub get support from the United States Congress and In the Massachusetts has been really very Worker and supportive for Tibetan cause and particularly congressman Jimmy Garvin has been really on the forefront of Helping the Tibetan cause in every step of the way So overall, it's just a you know so much a pleasure so much in an honor to be here to see all of you And as was talking to one of you and you about even getting emotional talk about Dalai Lama so yes, it's so moving stretching and Whenever I get them I'll type even a tell to be so in this how the people are responding, you know Trying to get there that try to try to get touch Emotionally and mentally With Dalai Lama, so he he's keeping very well and just recently we had a very special General meeting in Damsala where Tibetans from across the world They get together to talk about the reincarnation thing because China Now he's working hard By in different ways to say that okay reincarnation is China's business Dalai Lama's reincarnation is something that then they have to do, you know They have a copyright to do it whereas we're saying that it is a Tibetan invention. It's a Tibetan rights Buddhist rights to Select elect choose the next Dalai Lama and then on On top of that according to the Buddhist tradition, it is Dalai Lama himself who has his soul sort of right to reincarnate where and when So that when people gather together in Damsala from everywhere to say please do come back and During that time he said he's hell. You know, he's recovering. He's getting healthier and he's even thinking about visiting Europe and the United States So we're also praying that he will be able to visit us soon. So with these words Thank you so much for all the council members They've been saying that you you've been really helpful supportive in You know in different occasions So they were able to put up the Tibetan flag Tibet uprising day and Help them in wherever they come to you. So thank you very much for all that We really enjoy having you here and I must say the relationship between the town and The community of Tibetans in this area is very strong. I personally have been at three events The first one was when Jim McGovern was here and you honored him and we were over at the university the second one was Many of us were there on a snowy March day When you then all walked on to Northampton and we read the proclamation for you before you left And then I was just totally honored to be at the birthday celebration of his holiness the Dalai Lama And that was just so special. I tried dancing. It was It was I don't know that I did such a great job, I'm gonna have to practice But I also would like Shalini Balman who is one of our counselors and also has a strong relationship to your community to speak So I had the recent opportunity to visit Taram Shala And I was I've been sharing with the town counselors that there is this real Energy of peace and compassion in the whole of the town And I have no doubt that his Holiness Dalai Lama's message of compassion and kindness is not just Spoken, but it's really practiced and lived and in the middle of the city of Taram Shala There's this big sign that says our ethics is compassion and kindness and that's what's needed for a smart city And so I was really moved by that and I would love for all of us to embody and you know Find ways that we can practice that and and you being so close to them if you have any message of as counselors as local official elected officials What how can we bring that culture and message of compassion and kindness There's anything you have to share. I would love I think it would benefit us all Thank you. Thank you. First of all, thank you for visiting Taram Shala Actually, this is you know one way of Strengthening or even getting to know what Dalai Lama is Talking about or what Tibetan people are how the people are, you know, living thriving or struggling So we always encourage You know members of the council members as well as representatives at the state level or in the Congress level to visit them So normally we also get delegation from Washington Seattle At the state level So if there are some opportunities in the future that council members delegation to drum Shala is something, you know, you would like to think about will be very happy to host and we'll have to arrange through our, you know, the Tibetan Association here and then about the Compassion thing now. This is becoming so popular. He's always said that he's only Dalai Lama has in you know Collaboration with the Emory University who will put his own as a message of peace compassion kindness into the curriculum form and now it's called the sea learning which is secular ethical social emotional ethical learning and last year there was a International launch by Solidness in Delhi and now in South America some of the countries they have already you know Worked on introduced this in their schools so it's actually more like a social emotional learning kind of thing but then and an additional on the onto it and I think maybe there's something we can explore with the emersed in in the schools or even in the colleges Because this is something you talk about You know the compassion kindness Not based on any religious nomination. It's on our common Experiences as a human being so it's a very very effective and Based on the right rational thing, so We'll be able to send you I'll send you information about that if some interest and there's something definitely we can you know Look into it, which it will be helpful Not not only to the school children or even college school or even the general public Yes, thank you. Thank you We also certainly hope that if you are able to arrange for His holiness the Dalai Lama to come to this country that you will strongly consider an event here in Amherst We would love to have that and I know that many many people would join in that celebration So we're gonna give you a little token from our town and then we're gonna let the committee go on with their meeting Okay As we say all in one Thank you So it is now 1001 and that was a little longer of a break than we expected but for Purposes of video I think we're gonna have to let people know the middle half an hour was not technically the CRC meeting We are coming back into session After we had a lovely ceremony with the representative of his holiness the Dalai Lama So we are back in a CRC meeting back on video and Our next item is the draft affordable housing priorities policy the report and recommendation to the Town council So a draft with revisions talked about last week was posted on to the packet Does anyone have any recommended or requested changes to that draft? Dorothy I Think perhaps maybe we might want to Prioritize some things and I often wake up recently with town council policy in my brain and This morning. I was thinking of One of the things you've asked for in here is is we need to know what we've done in the past And I think it was Kathy yesterday said we need to know how much money the town has spent including foregone taxes and Trying to count while I'm half asleep units We have how many units in the last couple of years the town have been created the town hasn't created them Some are will be created by the town But some are being created in some way of affordable housing and I came to about once we get the East Street school Maybe 50 and how many units of affordable housing did we not have because we didn't have our zoning law in Place and I came to another 50 at least with the building that has just happened in the last number of years and some of the projects Which are in process right now in in hearings and planning board So you could say in the last few years that's a hundred possible units 50 of which we didn't have So I'm thinking and this seemed to be some of the thinking that was showing up in discussions and in this draft That instead of at this time when we're trying to build the four capital projects Instead of thinking of taking more town money or CPA money for a major affordable housing That what we need to do is to have it come as part of buildings that are brought in from Developers that all of them include some affordable housing and that way Very quickly, we will have the 250 units or thereabouts that are in the proposed document I do agree that we need to look at zoning and we need to require of developers The inclusion of affordable housing. I do not believe that will fully address the problem. I Believe that the town needs to come to some real Clear decisions and about how we are going to address homelessness how we are going to address Real affordability from people making below the area median income to people who are Making the median or above but who are struggling for whatever reason and so I I I just want to make sure that the idea of developers taking over And doing this if we can even drive them there is the real solution Andy So I'm going to take a couple of minutes to try and say something about what now the discussion that Dorothy was referring to yesterday that occurred in the finance committee and my observations of Is a member of both committees as is Dorothy about the two discussions and where they differed little actually and It really gets into the question how we Merged the discussion, which was something we were holding off on until there was the initial discussion at the finance committee meeting The finance committee discussion was As you might expect a little bit more towards the financial elements of what we've done and how much it's cost to do this What we've accomplished so far and what it would cost to meet the needs and then merging that going forward into the consequences if we were to Try and go significantly further with town investment to Address some of the problem that's here What you come out of it all with is that it's a complicated issue and I will give a couple of examples One is we received a report that really Can go to this committee very quickly Because it's a published report. It was done a couple of years ago by mr. Malloy in the planning department where he summarized all of the Work all of the efforts that have been successful in building housing and tried to Determine how many affordable units was in each project and what the cost was for each affordable unit And it's in the finance committee packet so they can be easily shared with this committee without any significant effort to Make it available The discussion that we had yesterday also included both the Chair of the Community Preservation Act committee and the staff person in the finance department who Supports that committee's work Because we recognize that Community Preservation Act funding is a significant portion of the resources that might be available and There were a couple of things that came out of it and the discussion that I would cite to immediately and that is that The Community Preservation Act committee Can't create anything it reacts to things it receives the Proposals that might come forward in the housing things that have come have come from the various supporters of those organizations like the 132 Northampton Road Came because it was a request from the organization that was putting that together and it reached the Community Preservation Act committee and then on their recommendation reached the council because of the Hiltown CDC's Work so the the creation doesn't come the second thing is that We have a finite amount of Community Preservation Act funds available and we have a lot of other needs and You know there's a requirement for Community are for housing for historic preservation and for open space Recreation is a fourth category that's permissible, but it's not A mandated percentage The first three categories. I've mentioned there's a requirement that 10% of the available funds go to grants in those areas We are aware of Significant needs in the Community Preservation Act is aware of significant needs regarding recreation and We've heard a lot from our community about recreation needs both improvements within recreation areas and Just fields that are unsafe either inadequate or unsafe and I think that our Staff and mr. Zomek could speak to this is developing proposals That will be coming to CPAC and to our attention We also know When we get out of that particular area and to what other funds might be available that there are a lot of Coming requests that we will need to be thinking about very carefully ECAC is going to be issuing a report to the Council soon, and I don't know Because I haven't seen the draft report. It's not there. It's an area. I've been paying attention to it I'm not attending their meetings That there may be financial requests that come with that So there's a lot of competing demands and ultimately the council is going to have to Work with Finance committee to try and understand what are all of the competing demands into established priorities? so The conclusion of all of this from what I can say right now in this report is that Vice chair Kathy Shane and I as chair of the finance committee are going to Work together to summarize the finance committee discussion yesterday that Is going to end up being a document that's going to be somewhat similar to the CRC Report draft that we have and then we're going to have to make a decision between the two committees as to whether it makes sense To merge those documents because there are overlapping Elements to them or to treat them as two separate documents Because ultimately what we are needing to do is get back to the council. So I Can try and answer questions about yesterday's meeting, but I think that I have Summarized it as best I can and I don't think was also there and it can add to it To the extent that she feels appropriate Thank you any questions Comments on yes Dorothy. I think what Pat brought up as our Valid points, and I don't say that the having developers do it will set take care of all of the need There is of course one project under Right now the East Street School are waiting to see how that will develop Which I hope will include some apartments for people at the low end Which is something that has been really brought to our attention recently that people on disability That that level of income is not really counted into our affordable where nobody's providing those apartments There's also discussion and Dave can perhaps tell us more about this of a piece of town land on strong street and There's possible when we finish conclude Hickory Ridge that we will have a piece of land on Pomeroy Road and One way for affordable housing to be more affordable is if the town Can give the land and perhaps that would reduce some of the unit costs So I do think we need to be working at all levels of affordability But what what has been at the bottom is has not been dealt with and the the people that are And I think you did record this in our of the this report people at the higher end of the AMI Who work in town at the universities are having a very hard time with housing I? Did like the emphasis that there has to be something about homeownership in this report And I also that we need to have family housing. I think there's just many aspects of this housing situation that we have to deal with but We have to deal with it within the financial constraints of if you read this morning's paper we all or At least most of us committed to major capital projects Somehow we're gonna have to do this Mr. Zemeck Sure, just a couple of comments I was not able to make the CPA or excuse me the finance committee meeting yesterday where the CPA see was Discussed broadly and and and affordable housing more specifically Andy I presume what you're referring to is the housing production plan Is that the document that you were referring to actually? Ledger mentioned that no the housing production plan it was mentioned yesterday and we did talk about that because it is the document that is referred to in the Policy that the The affordable housing trust has forwarded to the council that we're working on and there's the reference in there in the 250 Goal in five or ten years actually came out of that report I Can show you the Document that mr. Malloy's Summary That's a different document. Okay. I think I have a hard copy now. I appreciate that So I think going back to one of your earlier Comments, I think you said Andy. It's complex. So this is a very complex subject Steve was on the planning board for a number of years. I think I Think we all recognize that it is a a serious and real issue in town and we need to Use all avenues to try to Address the situation and create more affordable units at all levels of affordability So I think I think there's general agreement That we do that I will say that I think the town has done Quite a good job at trying to keep up with the the demand But market forces are something that we often can't control so I Want to be a little cautious that we We we recognize that we need to use all available tools in our tool belt because just to say that The that developers are going to that somehow we're going to force or make developers Include affordable units is not I don't think going to get us where we want to be We've used creative means as Dorothy just referenced We have East Street School is a great example where the town through the select board and town meeting took action to say We will essentially donate that land to an affordable housing project Years before that we did Olympia Oaks up in North Amherst off of Olympia Drive 40 to 50 units there of town land and then more recently we creatively work with With beacon on two projects one is at rolling green and then using CPA funds And then more recently up in the North Square for 26 units Which is probably on this list with a tax increment financing plan there Which was on the neighborhood of about 2.7 million dollars of tax relief over a 10-year period So what I'm trying to do is illustrate there are many tools in our tool belt. We need to use them all I think Mandy and Lynn and and I and the town manager have been talking about Approaches to zoning and that's definitely a tool in our tool belt So I think I think a lot of us are ready to roll up our sleeves Staff is ready to do that. I've had many conversations with Rob Mora our building commissioner and Christine Breastrope And I think I think we're all enthusiastic looking forward to the next months and next couple of years to Figure out how do we create? How do we work together to create more units using all the tools in our tool belt? So Thank You Andy I'm glad you mentioned North Square and Sort of gets back to a couple of Different pieces here because it was mentioned made of Pomeroy Lane and the Hickory Ridge property to Everything has a cost none of these things are free and Ultimately the town's Resources are limited when we made the decision Which was ultimately a select board vote? To give the tax to enter into the tax increment financing piece in order to assure an in perpetuity commitment to some affordable housing units including some deep afford sort of Very low AMI units We recognize that we're giving up tax for a period of time and So that that's revenue to the town It's a direct financial consequence as much as an expenditure on the expense side is a real cost and Obviously, that's where the finance committee discussion comes in though We did end up obviously talking about sort of policy choices, too Because that's where it all comes together and ultimately is a council decision As far as Pomeroy Lane is concerned, I can give you the Give him a Very good reason to say that we should give that land that is Part of Hickory Ridge. It's along the main roadway For for affordable housing, but then the consequences that There's a member of the finance committee who's been saying all along that She She's not comfortable with the idea that we are using that much of our Stabilization fund to purchase property, but that It's valid to do because that land is available to be sold and the ability to recoup some of that Investment that we're making in purchasing the property by being able to sell the land Reduces the amount that is the pressure on the stabilization fund as we go forward with four major projects the stabilization fund was built over the years in Part by a deliberate effort to make funds available To make it possible to address the four major projects in whatever process that we come up with whatever the results of that process are and We also know that at some point this great economy is gonna hit a skid and we're gonna have a Period where we're gonna have a recession that we're gonna have to deal with in those of us who Managed the part of the budget process through the last recession Know how much the stabilization fund is important in order to keep the town moving forward And not harm what we are providing to our community and our community expects us to the stabilization fund These are all complicated issues and are gonna not be Easy for the council So I'm gonna take myself back to the memo itself that's drafted because I had some recommended changes that I want to mention Before I add them into it to see if people are okay with it under the general comments The general feedback number 10 that discusses specific zoning strategies In the zoning bylaw Or specific implementation strategies, I would like to add Into that not just the inclusionary zoning minimum percentage, but also the potential for removing single-family dwelling zoning from town So that's one of the changes I would like to add the other one is in 11 just under that Where we reference a specific home-sharing program. I would be more comfortable Making that a general reference instead of to a specific Program, so I I would remove and so that that one would read local development of home-sharing programs that match homeowner So describing the program instead of a specific corporate program itself Dorothy follow up on this This is something that you did in the same number 11 is a topic that's been discussed and I Swear that I keep hearing different things and that is the Tax incentives what is it encouraging two family homes with owner occupancy through tax incentives? That sounds to me like a good idea and yet didn't we bring that up with the Tax assessor and didn't he say that that wasn't possible It is Steve so just to the point of the Single-family zoning so affordable duplexes, which is obviously two-family zoning is allowed by right in Many of the zones of Amherst so maybe an amendment to that would be to You know look at the remaining zones and see why those are You know exempted But just just adding it into the document as if these things are possible and would be recommended for increasing affordable housing that that's That is that is true. Yes. Hold on hold on. I've seen your hand miss my gal and hum but but um, but please be patient Any other recommended changes to this document right now I'm not seeing any so that means while I do not have public comment on the agenda for this specific item And we already finished general public comment for the day There is a member of our planning board in the audience who is who would like to make a comment right now So I am going to open it back up to public comment for for that to be made Thank you I actually have to leave and so I'm not I'm gonna do this as a quasi public comment because I'm on the Zoning subcommittee. So in terms of the documents for your that are going to be circulating the new ones I'm preparing a list of the recommendations Made by that under the Amherst housing study and the housing production plans I'm just I'm just typing out a big list for the zoning subcommittee and planning board I'd be really happy to pass that along Both of those reports Recommended a 15% inclusionary zoning requirement across Across the board not any particular exemptions for Projects over a certain amount Also, I think it's the Amherst housing study that recommends Building housing that excludes students because it opens up apartment housing In condos and things at the lower end or the middle end For families and people and so that's legally allowed and so that could be a requirement for some types of Projects saying, you know, this is you know, this is apartment housing for families and you know, non-students So as long as you're not discriminating on age, it's okay I've in my short time on the planning board We've had two projects permitted and None of them had of affordable units in it. We had like 60 plus units Of apartment housing and then meanwhile on University Drive We were doing some kind of follow-up permit and there's affordable housing in that project That's not I don't know if it's 25 units doesn't make sense to me Doesn't make sense to me why some are required or not required And so I was just gonna say the other question point is what other places do some reveals that a 25% Affordability requirement Cambridge is that at 20% I'm sure if we looked around at other communities like us We would see that this is very inclusionary zoning requirement is very broad and it's commonly used and there's usually like an alternative Like if you can't fit it in you have to you know put money into a fund so units can be built So that's my pitch So the zoning subcommittee is looking at the question of you know, two family houses infill Development like small skill like how people can add units onto their houses or a supplemental unit and things like that So we're all moving in the same direction But I want to just make sure that my you know where you see what we're all looking at too. So thank you Thank you We're nearing the end of our meeting time and so I Had posted on the agenda that we might be able to get to a vote today. I don't think that is going to happen So I'm going to put it and without a council meeting next Monday, which is when I thought it might come up for a Discussion weren't we're not under any time crunch to try and force something today for that So I'm going to leave our discussion where it is today Think about what maybe talk with the chair of the finance committee about whether it might be possible to merge memos and Potentially then have each committee vote on a single memo instead of two separate memos So so I will talk to the chair. I know he is on this committee too. So there's but I think because it's a Strat it is a sort of administrative thing That that it will be allowed as we figure out what we might present to each of our committees for a vote And we'll put it back on for our November 6th meeting that is coming up With that we have one minute I would love to get to adopting minutes because there are three sets of minutes that are outstanding right now And so we're going to try and do that before GLL starts very soon And so the minutes we have are August 21 September 25 and October 16 They are in SharePoint I Is does anyone have any requested changes to the August 21st minutes? No, so we'll move on to October 16 No, sorry Skipped a month the September 25 minutes. I Had two changes to requested changes to those I think I posted them in SharePoint though That said as amended and those changes were who made the motion to nominate Myself as chair And it was technically councillor Schreiber. So so that was one of the changes and then there was a misspelled word So it was correcting the misspelled word were my two recommended changes proposed changes for that Do anyone does anyone else have changes? Requested changes to the September 25 minutes And to the October 16 minutes Let me find my copy of those I Had Myself I did not post these I have two changes one was to put my full name into the list So instead of Mandy Hanneke Mandy Joe Hanneke. That was my own fault. I did not tell the minute taker that And the other one was in number three It's the second to last paragraph that starts Steinberg noted that the finance committee will be reviewing the policy and it said next year That should be next month. I think not maybe next week But I thought it was at least next month because you guys already did it, but I'm Should it be month or week? The date was October 16. So you so week probably week week. I knew year was wrong So we will go with week on that any other Requested changes to the October 16 minutes No, so seeing none. I will accept a motion to Me get the right dates to adopt the August 21st 2019 CRC minutes as presented the September 25th 2019 CRC minutes as amended and the October 16 2019 minutes as amended Do I hear that motion Pat makes that motion and second Dorothy seconds it do we have any discussion? Seeing none all those in favor, please say aye and raise your hand. That is unanimous So those are all adopted any announcements We are I will announce that we with no time left we are skipping discussion item 3a So that was discussion on traffic and transportation and public infrastructure. We will find another time Hopefully when we I can work with mr. Zomek to bring in our department of public work Superintendent to to have a and potentially with a joint meeting with TAC So we'll see when I can get that back on an agenda, but I wanted to put on the video that we are officially skipping it Dorothy seemed to have an announcement of some sort or now spent I I'm just thinking of all the things that we've discussed today and I believe it several times that you have made official requests for more information and It's just I Think that's a lot for you to follow up on and if you are I thank you. Thank you Anything else with that? I'm gonna declare us adjourned at 10 33 a.m. Thank you


Today, the government is releasing a new foreign policy white paper, the first for 14 years. It charts a course for our engagement with the world over the next decade and how best to deploy our resources in pursuing our interests and promoting our values, even though we can't predict how the world would change over this time. The term of coalition government is strengthening relationships across the world and helping deliver opportunities for Australian companies and overseas markets. Korea will continue to benefit from our links with dynamic Asian economies and we're working to establish stronger trade investment ties with other regions. We can be confident when we look to the future. Rapid technological advances, shifts in strategic power and threats like terrorism and cyber attacks will make our environment more uncertain. The white paper is our plan to build national strength and resilience, maximize our influence in the region and globally and respond wisely to events as they occur. Trade investment will remain vital to creating more and higher paying jobs for all Australians, must guard against a rise of protectionism and maintain support for an open economy at home and in our region. We need to keep our economy growing. When it comes to our interests and values, we will determine our own anchor points and reinforce those when engaging with the region and the world. We adapt to developments as they occur and adjust to advance our interests and values rather than at the expense of them. The release of the new white paper follows extensive consultation with the public. Thank you so much for showing your views with us. Please visit www.fpwhitepaper.gov.au to read the paper and to explore material that shows our foreign policy in action.


So here's a very small board here with the e-info chips. So hello, so who are you? Yeah, hi, I'm Ketul. Ketul Patel working with e-info chips as a solution architect and we have built this 410, Qualcomm 410 based SOM module, which is a H Constellation So it is a solder-on module and this module has the 410 processor with the one GB DGR and the 8GB EMMC on board as well as the PMIC.  Is it POP with the RAM? No, it's not POP but the EMMC. Yeah, EMMC. EMMC and a DDR package, single package. Oh, it's on the board. Both in one. Yeah, both in one. And so one GB, 8GB, you put this on the board? Yes. You put this on this board over there? So what is this board? So this is the development kit, 410 based development kit with the base board with all the interfaces, LCD, touch panel, ethernet, USB, audio, you can have the MIPI interface also and the SOM module is already soldered on the board so it does not have any connectors. So the unique thing about this SOM module is it does not require any board-to-board connector. It is straight away soldered on the board. Alright, and you can do different boards for it? Yes. For different requirements? Yes, so we can customize it, so we can customize the base board for the different product requirements, whatever interfaces are required that can be brought on to the base board. What could be the requirements? What could be the customers? What do they do? So for example, a customer is looking for a touch panel based display where we can put touch screen, LCD, controller, if the customer is looking for a camera design. So we can just draw the MIPI interface for the camera module and we can design the base board. Nice. And so this is the information about it? Yes. 410 based and you have another board also? Yes. So this is a 600 base Snapdragon 600 based SOM module. Is it a different size, different solution? It's a different solution, completely different solution. This is 600, Qualcomm 600. So it's a bigger chip? Yes, it's a bigger chip. It's a little bit more powerful. The size is also bigger than the 410. So what is this for? So this one is again for the embedded platform like industrial automation, digital signage kind of applications. So we are demonstrating a digital signage there if you want to see that. So you can see here, this is a smart digital signage demonstration based on the 600 Aragon 600 kit where it can do the face detection. The camera can do the face detection. So yeah, it is and it can detect the smile. So if you smile in front of it, yeah, it's green. It's becoming green, right? So it is detecting the smile. So basically this demonstrates that the next generation digital signage which is going to be interactive digital signage. So it can detect how the customers are reacting while seeing the signage. So that's what, so it is been using the Qualcomm APIs for the feature recognition, face recognition. So what is the main thing that your company is doing? You do the labor march? Yes. So E-ForGyps is basically a product design service company and we design the complete product solutions based on the Qualcomm platform for the customer. And these are the different domains we provide the solutions. So it's when have we been doing this? This organization is a 20-year-old company. We are celebrating our 28th year. 20 years working with Qualcomm? No, Qualcomm is like two years only. Two years? And what were you doing for 20 years before? So we have been in the product design services based on the different kind of processor platforms like Texas Instruments and Freestyle and now Qualcomm. We also do a lot of work on the Nvidia-based platform also. And things are moving very fast. There's more and more stuff going on right now. Oh yeah, yeah. The SoC is the ARM processor going so fast. Oh yeah, a lot of functionality. So much functionality. Most of the SoCs are multi-cores. Everybody is like looking for more power with the small form factor, less power consumption and more CPU requirements. That means more work for you to support everything? Definitely, definitely. So there is more and more software support required, firmware porting of the application from different platforms, the mobile enablement with those platforms. So the infotages provide the complete spectrum, complete services from spec to the product.


listening and following really trying to understand how to be guided like when you're navigating in the illusion and you come up against a fork in the road and you're not sure if you should go right or left or if it really matters which way you go. Yeah the topic of guidance. Guidance and discernment really I talk a lot about discernment because you know when you seem to have a lot of branches of the road you know it seems to be important to really be tuned in and discerning and there's a section in the Course in Miracles called the real alternative where Jesus makes some very blunt and kind of profound statements and one of the statements is that all of the roadways of the world leads to death and so it starts to put it a whole different twist and perspective on this idea of choosing which way to go here and there and I think for most human beings there does come those points along the journey where there seems to be a bit of disillusionment like it's like you still want to throw the towel in like oh no not another dead end. A lot of the roads that we seem to take as we travel along this journey they seem to be kind of they mean they seem to start pretty good but then the more you follow them out it's like my left hold in the bag again you know it's like another trick it just didn't bring fulfillment there seems to be so many roadways where there's distractions or he says in the Course on some roads you travel along Gaily for a while you know before the sadness or the bitterness the harshness comes in so to me it's like working with the Course what it does is it starts to expose ego self-concept goals and I think when you're talking about guidance and decision-making and and wanting to be clear on you know which which branch to take on it in a practical level as you're flowing through a daily life the best teaching I found it in the world and everything I've come across and really in the Course is back as you work towards the end of the text called the rules for decision which is almost like a practical mind-training course in decision-making and guidance where basically you're told to start off with making a decision of the kind of day that you want to experience you know really honing in on that really focusing on that whatever however it comes you a peaceful day a free day a loving day a free-flowing day and then coming in with number two which is you know if I make no decisions by myself this is the day that will be given me and then when you get into the rest of the rules for decisions those are more when you've you've you've come off the beam you've come off of you've actually forgotten one and two and you've been distracted into something else and then you have to try to get back to the original alignment and that's where three four five six and seven come in you know it's actually he says more difficult to come back after you've gotten off but that's part of the mind training you know to to really have the determination to come back so I had a conversation with Jesus one time when I was going through rules for decision because I was like you can we get a little bit clearer on this some of these rules and I'm particularly interested in this in this getting off the beam what's going on here how am I allowing myself to get distracted and away from my purpose of my alignment and I remember reading in that section where he was saying well when you are doing this you're basically asking a question by yourself and I was like okay asking a question by myself can you can you give me a little more concrete answer than that it seems a little alright and basically saying you forgot what to decide you forgot to stay with your original decision for the kind of day that you wanted and asking a question by yourself is an example of not letting not deciding with the Holy Spirit in other words autonomously asking a question that really doesn't have anything to do with the purpose or being on the beam it's like a distracting question I'm sorry I said to Jesus oh say okay still though it doesn't you're giving something a little bit more than asking a question by yourself now I wish I could be more specific about that you know what are you talking about and he said okay well an example of a question that you're asking by yourself takes you off the beam he said I'll give you the I'll give you the content of it you asked this question many times a day in different forms but I'll give you the basic content of your distracting question so that would be good if I could just get the content of it maybe I could start to recognize some of the tricks and the forms and I said okay give me give it to me what is it what am I asking when I get off the beam and he said well the question you're asking by yourself is of these illusions which do I prefer oh so that starts to help a bit turns up you actually start to go hmm you start to see that well there's a preference structure there it's an ego preference structure and underneath this ego preference structure there is an identity there you know I like whatever Earl gray tea you know I like my hot dogs with mustard on or I like vegetarian food with Indian spices or I like bright warm sunny days more than cool misty rainy days you know sexual preferences climate preferences food preferences you know across the gamut you start to see that there's this ego identity that has all these preferences and these preference systems in there and how easy it is to get distracted away from really wanting a truly peaceful loving joyful day by getting off on a wild goose chase chasing down some preference system thinking that if I get what I prefer then I'll have a happy day and he was like saying this is exactly how your mind's working you know you're you get off into these distractions it could be the simplest seeming tiniest things like I know for years ago I remember getting up and and I would be living in a hermitage and meditating and making some organic gardens and occasionally I would rototill or cut the grass or something but it would be like one day getting up to do some rototilling to you know get the garden ready and then the rototiller doesn't start and then you change the spark plugs and you do all the things that you learn from your past learning to get the thing to start in it the darn thing you know it's not starting and as you go through the day I'm doing my course lessons and everything the thing is still not starting not starting you try a few more things the gasoline starts leaking out here and then at some point as the frustrations and irritation start to a bill as you're getting annoyed as the afternoon is passing the day is passing you can't get the rototiller started then you know it's like Jesus comes into your mind and says so you believe that in order to have a happy day the rototiller must start yes then you have to start to look at why it's so important to have a machine start really really why is it is it a matter of happiness or or not you know to have a machine starting and then when you start to trace it in a bit you follow the roots in a bit you can start to see that that there's a self-concept operating down there under the surface and there's rules and beliefs about what must occur in a day you know to be happy and Jesus is saying not so you know choose with me align with the spirit and and see how things will get taken care of and how you will release these expectations and these false self-concept beliefs and these ego goals that you have set up to as part of a belief system that the only way you can have a peaceful loving happy day is to achieve these outcomes in form and could be you know being a good mom or a good dad you know remembering to pick your child up at school you know you start to get lose your peace oh my god I forgot I was supposed to be there at four o'clock or you have so many things to do on your to-do list and you start to miss a few of them and it starts to impinge on your self ideas of your self-worth of being a good employee a good manager a good mother a good father a good sibling you know a good citizen you know you get you got the to-do list you're going around trying to get all your things done you you run a red lighter you run a stop sign but you don't even know you're running a stop sign until the flashing lights and siren behind you what rolled on the window what what I got too many things to do for this sir you just ran a stop sign I did I mean you know it's then you feel a little bit of irritation coming up like I don't have time to deal with the ticket or to talk to this officer or whatever I got too much to do you see the time pressure then coming in why is important to get the whole to-do list done there has to be an identity underneath that pushing that driving that it's not the spirit the spirit's not in there telling you get this whole to-do list done or you won't make it back to heaven you know that's just not the way the Holy Spirit works it's the undoing of these concepts and these beliefs that are driving the mind and once we start to loosen from these and we let them we let the Holy Spirit work through us then we go from being the doer to being done through and then we relax more the stress level goes down our trust level goes up and we can hear more clearly that discernment go left go right not that not that left like in the matrix there's a door on your left your other left you know it's a humorous kind of GPS that just keeps nudging us you know towards what would be most helpful even when we go off and we make the so-called wrong turn the GPS just says in 200 yards turn left doesn't say you dummy you just missed the turn boning in just refining refining yeah