 Thank you, Chris. Great. Welcome everybody to the Amherst Design Review Board meeting of March 6, 2023. My name is Erica Zipos and as the chair of the Design Review Board, I'm calling this meeting toward 5.01 p.m. The meeting is being recorded and will be made available via the town of Amherst's YouTube channel and minutes are being taken. Pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 and extended by chapter 22 of the acts of 2022 and extended again by the state legislature on July 16, 2022. This design review board meeting will be conducted by a remote means using the zoom platform. The zoom meeting link is available. On the meeting agenda posted on the town's website calendar listing for this meeting or go to the top of the page. No in-person attendance of the public is permitted. However, every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the meeting in real time via technological means. It is important that we're unable to do so for reasons of economic hardship or despite best efforts, we will post an audio or video recording transcript or other comprehensive record of proceedings. As soon as possible after the meeting on the town of Amherst website. Board members. I'll take a roll call and when I call your name, if you could please unmute yourself. Answer in the affirmative and then return to mute. Tom Long. President. David McCulloch is not able to join us tonight Catherine Porter. Present. Lindsay Schnarr. Present. And Erica Zickis is here. And Chris Prestrup and Jennifer Mullins are here from town of Beaver staff. temporarily to fix the problem and then continue the meeting. If the discussion needs to pause, it will be noted in the minutes. Please use the raise hand function or simply raise your hand to ask a question or make a comment. I will see your request and call on you to speak. After speaking, remember to re-mute yourself. The general public comment item is reserved for public comment regarding items that are not on tonight's agenda. Please be aware that the board will not respond to comments during the general public comment periods. Public comment could also be heard at other times during the meeting when determined appropriate. Please indicate your wish to make a comment by clicking the raise hand button when public comment is solicited. If you've joined the Zoom meeting via telephone, please indicate your wish to make a comment by pressing star nine on your phone. When called on, please identify yourself by stating your full name and address and put yourself back into mute when finished speaking. Residents can express their views for up to three minutes or at the discretion of the chair. If the speaker does not comply with these guidelines or exceeds their allotted time, the participation will be discontinued from the meeting. Tonight's agenda includes the following. DRB FY 2023, number 17, Amherstberger Company, LLC. Then we'll have approval of December 12th meeting minutes, general comment period and any other business not anticipated within the last 48 hours. Let's start with DRB FY 2023, 17. And I see that Mr. Barry Roberts and Gabrielle Gould are here, but if you could join us, state your name and address for the record. And I'm happy to share my Zoom screen unless you're prepared to do so for your presentation. Let me know what you prefer. Gabrielle? I made Gabrielle a co-host to share. Okay. Assuming you would like to do that, Gabrielle. Barry? I just identify myself. I'm Barry Roberts, owner of Amherstberger LLC. And I'm gonna let Gabrielle do the presentation because I'm colorblind. So she knows a lot more about this than I do. And I hope you all show up at Burgers and Ice Cream pretty soon. You got it. Thanks, Barry. Gabrielle? So I'm Gabrielle Gould. I'm representing Amherstberger Co as the executive director of the Amherst business improvement district. And this is a new downtown restaurant that we're very excited about. I'll share my screen. So I thought I'd just start with the color palette for the signage and our, we thought Bison was a brilliant idea for a font because Burgers and Bison and Anton. So these are sort of starting. This is the location that is going to soon be Amherstberger Company. I'm not sure if the DRB has anything to say about this, but whoever owned this previously put some kind of a reflective tape or surface on the inside of the windows and we'll be peeling that out because we would actually like people to see in and see people enjoying their meals and their time here at Amherstberger Company. So that is going to go away. And there's no way I know how to make that look like it's going away. So you just have to use your imagination. As you could see in the previous picture, there were long, about eight foot, nine foot long signs here. We're gonna condense them a little bit more because our logo is a little bit different than Shanghai Gourmet. I'm not a graphic designer. So I just kind of plonked Bison, but I think you can get the general gist. It will fit in between these sort of boards up and down. And then we'd like to do an Amherstberger Co here. And I'm not 100% sure, but probably we'll do a smaller decal over here as well. I just didn't put it in. We'd also, there's gonna be some beautiful outdoor feeding, outdoor dining here, which is already approved by the town of Amherstberger. It'll be about 10 tables. So again, this is an awning. This isn't the exact color. The color's more in line with this. But again, I'm not great at that graphic design part. And I don't have the right software to do that. So this is kind of like with the awning. It is a 16 by, I believe, 10 foot awning. It is retractable. So during the winter months, it will be retracted to hopefully maintain its integrity and keep it clean and nice. But on sunny, warm days, we'll bring it out because this area gets a lot of fun. So I'll go back to this one because that's the one that it's going to be, I would say nine months out of the year. Happy to answer any questions. Great, Gabrielle, thank you very much. Could you point out what's going to be the primary entrance to the restaurant? Primary entrance will be right here. We are not going to use this. This goes into a small vestibule area. We're going to like fill this with some ice creamy stuff. So it looks kind of fun and light in there through the windows, but nothing in the door, in the glass. Okay, great, thank you. I will open it up to DRB members for a comment and I see that Lindsay has something to say. Lindsay, go ahead. Hi, this looks great. Very exciting. Couple of questions. So you may have said this and if I missed it, I apologize. But the window adjacent to the main entrance, what are you proposing for that location? Anything? This one right here? Yes. If anything, we would probably do a smaller version of this decal on either the door or the window, but otherwise, I think there's going to be a high top right here and a bank out of high tops right here. And we really want the outside to see those and not obstruct the view in. Yeah, I remember this from the previous time we reviewed this site for the previous owner's retentance. And it's a challenging storefront to try to direct people to that entrance. And I think that there's only so much you could do, but perhaps having some kind of signage at that main entrance would be helpful based on the way the elevation looks like my eye would be drawn to the other door just because of the decent decal in that window. So I think that that's one possibility. Maybe you have some kind of like lit open sign that's on that window or something that kind of grabs your attention that's different or an accent from the other more static graphics and signage. So I think that that would be the main thing that I would recommend and then perhaps something on the door that says like enter here or entrance or something that just like really indicates to people that that's where you want them to come in. I think that would be if everybody could imagine in this color palette and font a sign right there that says please use door with an arrow. And we might as well get that put in everybody's mind as if we could approve that now. And I do think we'll probably put a smaller decal here just to make sure that this is very visible as well. I have two other relatively minor comments. I mean, I think that the graphics are really great. I love the font and the shape with the kind of curve from the circle like being mirrored with the curve of the sign. I feel like given the space that you have along that, that area, you have that full length, one option that could be interesting to make it pop would be to just fill that with like a black paint or something that would just kind of give it a background that fills the space and almost makes it look like it's taking up that whole area. It makes the kind of gold pop a little more and take up kind of a longer stretch or a larger presence. So I think that's maybe just in those two spots and you could consider doing it in all the panels just to create more of a band of cohesiveness but I don't think it's totally necessary. My bigger like design question is just around the existing paint. So I think that the red goes really nicely with the brick and it creates kind of just a very simple connection to the ground and to the brick surround. It's that kind of lighter peachy color that I feel like is clashing with the gold. And I'm wondering, it's such a small area that I wonder if there's a way to paint that even just a white, like something that just cleans it and kind of takes that clash away. Yeah, we talked about that and I just thought that exterior colors were sort of, you had to leave them alone. So we were trying to not get too involved in the exterior redoing because we didn't want it to be like, oh my gosh, you know, everybody loves these colors. Filling this in white would look great. I think it would look better with that and a lot better with this too. So we kind of hate this color. It's a, well, Barry doesn't, but that's because Barry can't see it. Nobody's married to that. Yeah, and like you said, it's such a little amount of space that it's not like it's gonna break the bank to get that painted. Right, as long as it's, there may be a question of where to stop because the next business. Right, I kind of was wondering that too, where it slides over. Maybe they'd want it white too. Right. That's all that I have. I think it looks great. And I'm, you know, I would approve it as is. I just think that those would be my recommendations to strengthen, to strengthen it. Thanks Lindsay. Tom or Catherine, do you want to hear? Yep, my hands up. Great, Catherine go ahead. Okay. Well, I think it's a great idea to have something, a new business in that area. My question is the door to the right. Does it have to be there? I have this thing about doors that don't open and arrows and pointing. Couldn't you fill that in? Could it be a panel without a knob? It's an awkwardness to me. And if you're not using it as a door, are you assuming it's an emergency exit? And if it's not, why does it have to be a door with a handle? Why can't it be a little bit more built into the whole exterior of that particular part of the restaurant? What's the deal with the door? My question. Hello. Barry. Barry. Yes, I think we could take the handle off the exterior, but I think Mr. Marr would like to have that as emergency exit. Yeah, all right. Yeah, okay. I understand. Yeah, if you took the handle off, just because doors that don't open to the public, I don't know, I think it just takes away a bit. And I do have a question about the, over here on the left, are those panel doors, are they the white ones or are they windows? These are windows and these are doors that can open. They can. The kitchen has an open kitchen window. So in the state of Massachusetts, you can't have these doors open while serving food unless you have, so they're gonna make a better window than a door. Yep, okay, fine, yeah. And yeah, so there's no, people aren't gonna be service. Servers aren't gonna be coming out of that door. So that brings me to the other question. If you only have one entrance and you're gonna have outdoor dining, you really have to rely on that one door for everything, right? People coming in, people paying the bill and leaving, somebody serving a hamburger, have you thought through how that traffic's going to flow? We have, Catherine, there's only, it's a 10 feet space outside, so it's pretty small. And this is the type of burger place where you're gonna go up to the counter. There's gonna be a big ice cream counter. You're gonna order there, we're gonna call your name and you're gonna come and grab your food, sit down and everything is recycled and eco-friendly tossing, so. Okay, yeah, so you're not having table service outside. No. Okay, that's good. All right, thank you. Thanks, Catherine. Tom, your turn. Sure, all of my comments and or questions were covered. So in regard to paints along the soft fit, the peach color, how one goes in and out and how service happens, all of those things are answered. So I'm good with it in regard to my comments and I support the other comments that have come up from me. Fantastic, all right. And I just have one thing to add and it hadn't occurred to me, although I appreciate Lindsay's suggestion about painting behind the Amherst Burger Company sign in that rectangle to kind of magnify the presence of your signage. I do notice though on the not main entrance facade that right now your graphic is not placed in the center of the panel. And I'm wondering if that's your intention. I think it should be. So if you hold on, let me find that, what I do with it. If you look, you'll see the panel's a little bit wonky because it's got a line there. And it's not under the light, right? Yeah, and so, and if you, this is the cutoff for the location. So we centered it between that and this and then centered it in the light. And that makes it complicated to what you would paint, right? Well, I highly doubt, I'm not a builder but I highly doubt this is holding up the building. I bet we could take that out, paint that black and maybe even transfer that to there for little architectural, you know, boom, right there to match that and we would just swap it. So I have a feeling that that could probably be done. Barry, what do you think? You've done more building than I have. Yes, I think that's possible. Yeah, and I mean, I think it would be necessary if you like the idea of doing that background paint. Lindsay. Yeah, I guess I just think now that I'm looking at a little bit more that I do like the idea of wrapping the band of black just because it is such a kind of dual storefront, like there's this kind of question mark of where it begins and ends. But if you like that idea and of having the black background in the panel that is, it does have a signage, I think I would be curious to hear other people's thoughts on extending that to the kind of corner and then to that right vertical trim board on the non-entrant sign. Right there. If we put that one piece of wood right there would really make that pop. Again, I just, I figured there was no way we were painting the exterior of anything. So I love this. Yeah, I think black above and white below and then your signage really popping and clearly identifying the front door that that would be a really strong. Yeah. All right, let's see. Does anybody else have questions or should I attempt to now summarize? Oh, Tom, sorry, go ahead. No, I had a thought, but I'm gonna take it back because I was gonna say that to draw attention to that door it might be an opportunity to bring that orange color around that as a door frame, but I'm not sure I like it next to and adjacent to the red. So I think you should ignore my comment. So I'll just let that hanging out there. Just thinking out loud, we got to. All right, I'm gonna attempt to summarize and then I'll just check for accuracy. Comments are that we like what you're doing and we had some suggestions to make it clear, stronger, better. The first comment was around making sure that we can identify the main door. You mentioned that you were gonna put a logo there and we think that that's a good idea. Filling the fascia behind the signage, painting that in black and then moving the trim piece to mark the limit of your store is an idea that we all support. Replacing the peach with a white would clean things up and so we like that on the facade. And then there was a, I don't think that we would make this a requirement, but for clarity, if it is possible to remove the outdoor exterior hardware on that secondary door, the exit door, that we like that idea as well. Did I capture everybody's intentions? Yeah, I had a question about the outdoor furniture. I thought when we were approving this several years ago, well, maybe it's the question, do we have to look at the furniture and offer any suggestions? I thought on one other. We have in the past, but there hasn't always been delivered. It's not a requirement. Is that okay? It's not been part of our package. So I wonder if Chris has any thoughts on that. I don't think so. Yeah, it's not a big deal. I'm sure whatever they have will be fine. Just leave it. We're not talking here about the retractable awning, but I think that that's part of the package and it looks nice and clean. Okay, Lindsey. I think my mind wandered for a minute. Did you mention the painting of the peach? Yeah, okay. Yeah, okay. So if there isn't any additional discussion, could I have a motion to approve this design with our suggestions as previously listed? I move that we approve this design with the recommendations that have been offered to offer. Thank you. Would you like to second? I'll second. Okay. Thank you. All right, all those in favor of the motion? Aye. Aye. Say aye. Aye. All right, that's the unanimous. Thank you, Barry and Gabrielle. All right, can I ask a question? Yeah. Where are you getting your ice cream? Where are we getting it? Yes. Is that the question? Yes. Where? Cook Farm in Hadley. Oh, Cooks. Oh. That's very exciting. Yeah. And I love Thursday. I have a lot of ice cream eaters in my house, including myself. All burgers are coming from Echodale Farm in East Hampton, grass-fed beef. Excellent. Very nice. Yeah. It is a very local farm-to-table burger joint. It's gonna be really great. I love it. Are you doing evening hours too? Yes. 11 to 11. Awesome. Cool. Fun. So it won't be serving beer. Will you be serving beer or wine? Yes. You are. Okay. And we applied for a full liquor license, but we're going to start off just doing beer and wine and hopefully it'll all work out. Well done. That's exciting. Good luck. It is exciting. Thank you. Thanks for bringing this to us. And we will, what, line up for burgers in May, June? Three weeks, we hope. Oh, okay. Okay. And that is why I just wanna thank you all and Jennifer, thank you for, I know that this isn't your normally scheduled and we slipped through the cracks and I'm sorry about that, but thank you all for coming in and having this meeting today because really three or four weeks from now, this place is gonna be open and it would be terrible to not have time. Uh-huh. Okay. No words said. Yeah. I thought it worked out. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Have a great night. You too. All right. So next on our agenda is approval of those December 12th meeting minutes. I'm wondering if anybody had a chance to review the revised minutes that Chris was so kind to send around. Are you guys able to approve them if I wasn't present and don't approve them given the number of people present at this meeting? Right, because we'd be three of five. So that's still, that's still a quorum, right? Yeah, that would be, I think we could still approve them, right? Is it okay if I recuse myself and sign off? Yeah. We can. Bye. All right. So, Tom and Catherine, did you have a chance to take a look? Yeah, I did, but I don't have any. Yeah, I don't have additional comments either. Okay, great. So a motion to approve then? So who? I move that we approve the minutes of the December whatever meeting. 12th. Yeah. 12th, okay. 12th. All those in favor? Bye. The unanimous, great. Thank you guys for revising that, that was helpful. Yeah, it was great to listen through the whole meeting to do it. Are there any members of the public in attendance tonight? No. Fantastic, that means we're done. Okay, that was quick. Was speedy. Thank you so much. I got stuff in the oven. And so, Mike, I had 30 minutes and so it should be beeping. I didn't do anything. I was like, let's see how if I could get this right on 30 minutes. Okay, we're under. We're under. It's 5.27. Thank you. Okay. All right. All right. See you guys. Good night. Thank you. Good night. Bye. Night.