 We'll give it a little time for the attendees to filter in. Andy Joe, for some reason, your, your voice is really, really loud. And I have my volume turned down a little bit. It's, it's very. I'll just say piercing, but I'm not sure what's causing it because usually it's not. Now I can't hear you at all. You can't hear me at all now. Because it was a different microphone. Can you hear me now? And is that better Pam? I'm not sure people can hear me now. I can hear you. Sounds good to me. You can hear you. It sounds great. Okay. Pam, but Pam cannot, it sounds like. Pam, can you hear us? I don't think Pam can hear anyone now. Speak Pam. She can't hear anyone. Yeah. So we will wait to figure that one out. Well, we're waiting to figure that out. Can I just say I'm on the road. I was supposed to travel tomorrow, but because of snow conditions, I'm having to leave the house today. So I'm in the car. Okay. But I will be here. Listening. Okay. Thank you for that, Shalini. We're going to wait for Pam. I think Pam just left to maybe come back in. Yes. So we will figure this out for the attendee and the audience. I apologize for the delay. We'll get this all figured out before we start. Can you hear us now, Pam? She can't hear a thing. I'm trying to get in touch with her now. Yep. I'm texting her. I wonder if she has her ear phones plugged in. Sometimes when I have my earphones plugged in, my computer doesn't sound like anything. And then I plugged my earphones and there's the sound. Yeah. So we just saw you mute that one. Can you hear us through the other one, Pam? Yeah. Okay. Very weird. This is very weird. Very strange. So I think we can all hear each other now. So with that and seeing the, the people I'm expecting are here. So I am going to. I'm going to call the community resources committee of the town council meeting to order. It is February 24th, 2022. And this is a regular meeting pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021. This meeting will be conducted via remote means. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so via Zoom or telephone. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. At this time I am going to take a roll call to make sure people can hear me and the rest of us and that everyone, we can hear everyone too. I think we've solved that issue, but we're going to confirm that. I'm just going to go down my list here and call on people as I see them for our committee. Jennifer, I'm going to call on people as I see them through the portal. Jennifer, Todd. Present. Pam righty. How any Balmille. Present. Mandy, Joe Hanukkah is present. Pat DiAngelo's will not be attending today. With that, we're going to go right into this. We have basically a hard end time at 630. But when we get about halfway through after the discussion I'm just passing the chair gavel virtual gavel over to the vice chair Pam to, to run the general public comment, the minutes the announcements the next agenda preview and any items not anticipated before we adjourn the meeting. And to give her some experience and also because I have a meeting that starts exactly at 630. And so I am juggling meetings myself today. So I appreciate that Pam is willing to take over the gavel for those portions of the meeting we're hoping to get to them around six. We'll start with action items which is also technically a trans it's a discussion with potential actual action on it which is the transition memo. I put two items on this the planning priorities with possible recommendations to the council. And then to talk about the conversation topics in the transition memo. And we had talked last meeting about potentially making recommendations to the council to refer some of those topics to TSO to put them on their agenda and off of our agenda. I'm actually going to start with the conversation topics even though it was listed second so that we can potentially see how long that one takes and then maybe get that one over with and move on to the regular planning priorities. And so the conversation topics that we had been discussing in particular were. There were two that related we thought to TSO and they were when when my document comes up they were related to the closing of public ways during the summer, potentially, and then the use of the public way for outdoor dining. They may not have worded them the way the transition memo words them but that's what they were. Is there any discussion on those or other items that were in the transition memo in terms of thoughts on making a recommendation to town council about which committee should deal with these, if any, because the recommendation could be that we sort of table those topics completely too. So any thoughts. I know Shalini may not be able to easily raise her hand. There are only four of us. Otherwise, but we'll, we'll try and make it work with people who want to talk. Yeah, I think the idea of a street closure is to me is sort of a community event. It doesn't really feel like CRC as a as a topic to hash out and work through the details so I know that there are opportunities within maybe maybe within TSO just because it is street related to pass it to them. I'm not trying to pass off work but seems seems made more appropriate to go that direction. And the staff, the staff that supports TSO, you know, is WW it's all the it's all the staff entities that really would need to help make it happen. Any other thoughts on those two. Jennifer. Yes, I would agree. I mean it doesn't it seems like it would be more appropriate in the TSO. It also seems to fall a bit under town services maybe more than zoning and planning. How has it been done in the past. Um, you know, I'm not sure that the council has actually had a discussion of it in the past, which is why it was probably brought up in my by a former or current I'm not sure it could have been Shalini or I or another CRC member that that put it on the agenda. It was on the potential future agendas to talk about it made it into the transition memo but I'm not sure it's ever been talked about by any actual committee or the council as a whole. But just sort of one of those hey ideas that would be good to discuss type things Jennifer. Does the planning department have a preference or opinion. You're asking if they have a preference or opinion on which committee where they would think I guess it's for us. They think it's more of a maybe transportation or they are the use of the public way so that's that's why I think we had been settling on maybe it needs to go to TSO as they discuss uses of the public way and stuff. Shalini, and then Chris. Oh Chris can go first. Okay, Chris. I don't want to put words in Rob's mouth but Rob might want to talk about the issue of outdoor dining and which group he wants that to go to because he's the one who's most involved in that the planning department is actually only peripherally involved in outdoor dining at this point. Rob, do you have any thoughts. I would just say that, you know, my involvement with what has happened out in the public way gets into issues like having enough access for bus turning movements, fire department access to buildings, where to relocate bike path so to me it seems like what is just so far makes sense that they're definitely overlapping TSO issues that probably, you know, work on the whole picture where we're normally just focused on, you know, the layout of the dining and relation to the building or the rest of the use. Thank you for those thoughts Rob. Shalini, did you want to, you took your hand down. So, yeah, I just wanted to hear from the staff and which we did. And I agree that it feels more of a town services and outreach issue. And I think it's an important one because we're trying to revitalize downtown so I think it's an important issue though. So someone should be discussing it. Thank you Shalini. So, given what everyone said, I'm just going to make a motion. And that motion is to recommend the town council refer to the town services and outreach committee conversations. Regarding economic development and the use of public space, including the potential for closing North Pleasant Street in summers on the weekends and the continuation of outdoor dining. That's very second. Second. Jennifer, Jennifer seconds that. Athena was that slow enough for you to get that. Almost. Sorry. I was making it up on the fly. I got the transition memo, let me see if I can do it again. Use of public space and the use of I missed the streets. Let me get back to the transit. So it was use of the public. So economic development and the use of the public space, including the closing, including the possibility of closing North Pleasant Street in summers on the weekends, and the continuation of outdoor dining. Thank you. Okay. So second, is there any further discussion. See none we're going to move to a vote. Shalini. Yes. Jennifer. Yes. And Pam. And Mandy is an eye that is a four zero vote as I make notes myself. So I will put that in a, in a report to the town council. And I'm going to move on to the transition memo for that. And with that, we're going to move on to the transition memo. The second item of under this, which is planning priorities. We started this discussion. Three weeks ago, I think was our last meeting. And so this is a continuation of that discussion we received from Chris Brestrup, a list of the planning departments priorities for 2022 zoning bylaw amendments and what they were looking at for phase one and phase two. So I want to thank the planning department for providing that it was a great summary of I think what we discussed a couple weeks ago at this meeting and where the planning department was. And it was great at least to see what what they're thinking what you're thinking of for phase two. And all I want to before we start a conversation I want to recognize Shalini if she's ready she had wrote to me with a potential question on how to work through coming up with zoning priorities so I thought I would recognize her to talk about that it would mean that we don't get to making any recommendations today but but I thought we'd start with her suggestion to see where this committee stands because that that would then formulate and and you know the rest of our conversation so Shalini Joe, what I was recommending is that we created some sort of a matrix where we come together as a committee what are the criteria by which we can assess the different priorities and this would matrix would be to help us prioritize priorities. It's kind of what we discussed in the retreat that we could have with certain criteria like how are these different priorities impacting a different goals like our economic goals are social justice goals housing, housing goals, the community over at large is and then what are the origins of this is it from coming from the planning staff is it a priority of the staff, the last time console or resident raise and then we could include cost like do we need to hire a consultant would be the cost, what would be the staff time. If you start putting all the different priorities in those boxes I think it would give us some a shared language to talk about and get us to even see a big picture of what all is involved. So just thoughts about that I'd love to hear from the group thoughts about that and what criteria we might use to create such a matrix. So let's start with thoughts to see if this committee can reach consensus on whether that would be a good idea on how to approach creating zoning priorities are making recommendations for zoning priorities. And if the committee reaches consensus there we will move on to potential criteria to put into a matrix. So thoughts on Shawnee suggestion about creating a matrix for us to help analyze sort of the suggestions we've received for zoning changes. I see Jennifer unmuted Jennifer. Are these specifically zoning changes or planning. I mean, I guess I'm looking at planning priorities is what's Yeah, so I guess it's both right it would be things within the planning zoning master plan type thing that fall within are generally fall within CRC's purview. I'm leaving housing out because we have a separate referral for the comprehensive housing policy, although I will say if we like this approach for the planning side. I will suggest it in the next conversation in the second half of this meeting on how to potentially approach figuring out implementation of the comprehensive housing policy, but they would probably be two different matrices. So what we're grappling with is housing separate from the planning and zoning. I mean, all because in the comprehensive policy does talk about planning and zoning. I guess I'm, I'm just thinking out loud, but thinking out loud is perfectly fine in this committee. I think the comprehensive housing policy did actually get into some discussions of zoning or it touched on, you know, zoning that would need to be changed or whatever to make the housing policy happen. Yeah, so there is definitely in that sort of appendix to the comprehensive housing policy, a whole list of potential zoning things. I am at this point treating them separately because the transition memo is not, and the planning stuff and anything mentioned within that that's how we sort of started this conversation is not a formal referral to CRC at this point. Whereas the implementation of the comprehensive housing policy is. And so, so that's why I've got them separate even though I completely understand what we decide to how we decide to implement the housing policy definitely will probably will probably have some sort of zoning effects, right, because a lot of the potential implementation methods is through zoning. So maybe in the end we can't separate them right now I'm trying to it might not work. Chris. I'm asking a question about where do you. Where do you start, in other words, where's the list of things that you would put into the matrix and then assign criteria or check off boxes having to do with criteria related to these things and, and I'm imagining. That you would go to your transition memo and look at the things that didn't get accomplished last year, and think about whether you wanted to put those in the matrix and then you might look at the planning department priorities, maybe you would put those into the matrix and then would you go back and we created a matrix for the planning board, and I can't remember if we sent it to you or not, listing all of the different things we studied or looked at last year and stating what the status was and some of those things we want to go back to and we may not want to go back to but I guess those are three sources that I would imagine you would pull your things that you put into your matrix from, and I wondered if you could comment on that. So, yeah, if we go with the matrix method, I would start with all three things that you just identified. So, so the, the planning department priorities phase one phase two would definitely go into that matrix, the stuff listed in the transition memo would go into the matrix. And that list I believe you, you just referenced regarding the zoning parties from the last council that you provided to the planning board I think was in our last packet. So that would go into it but the other thing that would definitely go into it is anything that I saw from the council retreat in the council, the counselors took up some. At the retreat each counselor made a list of their own priorities and that was created into a document so I would go through that document to see whatever planning items were there. And from there I would add all of those to when we did this three years ago we had a list, or two years ago I guess it was we had that list. I think maybe Chris and Rob and even maybe Nate would remember, we started with some big matrix where we got some ideas from the planning board from counselors. We pulled the counselors actually and and had people send me ideas to put in the matrix from from the planning department and then we weren't sure what to do with it was the problem right. So we had this whole list and then we struggled getting it down to what to, to recommend the council take on or in, in terms of priorities. And so we'd start with that big list but maybe once we had the criteria that was the issue last time we didn't really settle on criteria to evaluate. So that's my thinking on having thought about this for exactly like two hours when I finally read Shalini's email. So, Pam. So, it's helpful for exactly zero hours so it is, it's helpful to put everything into a into a list. I think doing so helps you sort of big picture of everything that's on the table. And then we're going to get accomplished. And I think so many of the items right now are interrelated. And so I think the planning department, the planning board. I think sort of the emergencies that need to get addressed and and I would, I would say solar bylaw is probably one of those so that's on everybody's list. I, I wouldn't mind helping put this matrix together. I think the ball right now is is rolling down the track on a couple of key items. But it certainly does not hurt to, to document in one place, kind of what's on the plate. So, in that sense, I think it's a fine idea. I would have to give it a lot more thought on what criteria would would be a, you know, why does, why does item a get a higher rating than item B. And some of that is me I have a book of the beholder so I think it's a good, I think it's a good idea. I think it would take a fair amount of work to add a little bit of details, but it may in fact give us pretty good perspective of at least the range of subjects that we feel we should be working on. Thank you Pam Nate. I was just going to respond to Jennifer we asked the planning priority list that Chris sent you know phase one and phase two that those were zoning amendments you know I know was, you know, one or two of them may not have been you know directly for instance like the downtown design standards but ideally that would result in zoning, same with, you know, possibly some of the parking studies but in terms of what was on that list, I mean some of those things are underway and really are things that the planning department are actively working on so the flood mapping is a similar bylaw and assessment. You know article 14 demolition delay and in number two face you below breweries wineries and distilleries we have a technical assistance grant from Pioneer Valley Planning Commission to assist with that. This calendar year so I mean those are zoning amendments that are, you know, actively moving forward. There's additional studies and projects that may result in some but you know what we have going on right now or you know six you know six amendments or so that are actively being worked on. And so, you know our thought is those are the ones the priority right now they're active and then what else is there, you know whether it's from the comprehensive housing policy or other priorities in the town. You know what else, you know, become you know phase one or phase two. Dave. Yeah, so just to follow up on what Nate said and yeah, a couple of things so you know I'm interested in the matrix idea. I have to say, it makes me a little nervous, because I think of time and I just worry a little bit about where where we go with this and how much time it takes and a realistic we are, you know, with all of our time. That said, nature's outlined six or eight things that you know I've had this conversation with Nate and Chris and Rob and and I think I mentioned it before. We currently believe are the priorities then made outlined many of them right just a moment ago. That's six to eight months. We're, there's not a lot of bandwidth, other than those six or eight items, you know, in the in the in the planning department for the town so I think we have to be very realistic about what it is where we're going to undertake and maybe those are phase one and this matrix helps us identify phase two which might come, maybe late in 2022 or in 2023. The other thing I just want to keep in mind is that, you know, we have to figure out how, how does the CRC slash councils priorities get funneled into the town managers priorities if you will because we just there needs to be an interface between what the council wants to do and Paul's prior Paul's your goals and objectives for Paul. Because all of a lot of these initiatives to have budgetary implications so to think we can start, you know, a B or C now we may not have the consultant money until FY 24 to do it so so there's a lot of moving parts. I know we're going to talk about implementation in a few minutes as well but you know I'm keenly interested in in kind of what the current council this through you the CRC think is the council's role in implementation versus what is staffs role in implementation. And I think Chris is prepared to talk as an example about the comprehensive housing policy and what we're doing to implement some of those strategies so those are just some of my, my I guess their concerns is, and the main one is kind of time it. It sounds like a reset to me and maybe I'm in. And maybe there needs to be a reset but it seems like we, we set the table for a lot of these back in the last three years and some of them we got done I think there were seven that were approved by the council in 2021. And we, you know, there are new people in the council so it may need to be reset, but resetting is going to take some time and may just slow things down. So. Thank you for those comments and thoughts Dave. Jennifer. Yeah, I so that I, you know, share a lot of what you said that we, we have a new council, you know, different people, you know, may have some different ideas but that we probably, you know, don't want to go back to square one. I mean, I think that the comprehensive housing policy has a lot there and we. I mean, I know that that's housing isn't the only thing CRC addresses, you know, I think we're all concerned about downtown revitalization and, you know, looking maybe at design standards, but I feel like, go, you know, which we may get to today but going through the comprehensive housing policy and really how we implement the, the policy and in each part of it to keep us pretty busy. You know, and I think that I also think there's probably a lot of agreement on the overall goals are, you know, probably almost every goal of the housing policy or a lot of them, but how we get there may be where, you know, we have to, you know, we have to work through. But yeah, so I guess what I'm saying is I don't know that we have to sort of recreate because I think that we could, I don't know, I'm talking saying both things but I, I went through the housing policy and I just thought there was a lot there. And you know when I wrote a lot of notes and which I'm sure we all did but I felt I feel like between downtown revitalization design standards everything Nate said you're already doing and going through the housing policy that's, that's a lot. In the next two years. Thank you Jennifer Pam. Let's just say I would be. I actually don't know that we need to talk about it much more today. I think it's a good concept I would be happy to work with Shalini. I'd be happy to to pull all these pieces together and dump them into a matrix and see if there's some overlaps and some opportunity for, you know, different, different organizations be kind of working on different threads of the same topics. Maybe we see where, where some of those connections can be made a little more clearly than people kind of already, you know, subconsciously understand. So I would say, you know, put my name down to start taking a look at the list that Nate read off and Christine mentioned, and you know the transition carrier was the planning department list the planning board list, the council retreat items. And even I added, you know, some of the master plan items that were also working towards as well. So, I don't mind tabling this conversation and coming back to it after we've actually all had a chance to think about it. But would be happy to see if there is some some limits of order in in helping put that list out for consumption. Thank you. So what I'm hearing from Dave, can you hear me, because I have a mask on now. Okay, I'll turn on the video. Hello. Okay. So what I'm hearing Dave say is that there's already a list for the staff to tackle. And so I just want to reaffirm that what I was proposing is not to say, didn't do that we're going to create our own list and that's what you need to do. The list is more for the group to have a conversation around priorities and the staff priorities those are already a priority and we know that. So maybe Dave, as you said, that might be phase two but when we do get around to having a conversation it'll give us something to talk about have the same language to talk about. And I'm happy to work with Pam also and you know to to whenever we do have a conversation that we start putting things in and it's not for the staff to create the matrix this is something that the CRC will be doing to facilitate our own internal conversations. So we can just start pan and I can maybe start organizing and putting things down and then when we do need to have that conversation, we'll have a starting point. Thank you, Shalini so here's here's what we're going to do. I am going to have Shalini. I cannot assign this to two people without that being created of a subcommittee. So I'm going to say that right now. I'm going to ask Athena knows where I'm going with this. I'm going to ask Shalini to work on a matrix. I'm going to tell her that she can bring in pretty much anyone she wants to help her with that, as long as it eventually comes from Shalini to me to put in a packet. So we are next meeting is slated for the third that is unreasonable to think and given the other things I've heard which is we've got this phase one phase two from the planning department in conversations that we've had a CRC. I am under the impression that CRC supports that list and is not looking to remove anything from that list. And all we've been told is that that list will keep you guys busy for six months or more. And so I'm going to view this matrix as an ongoing thing to be ready for a phase two to be ready for a, as we do these conversations to be ready for manager goals, when we get to those goals later in the year and things like that. So that, you know, the first time CRC tried this it took months right this is this is not something that's done in one or two months we want to be ready for when planning department freeze up sometime to know what to move on to. So I'm going to order this council wants to so I'm going to say Shalini can work on that that matrix will have their at various points when we're ready will bring that matrix in to the council to the CRC to have those discussions. I know if you know wants to say something about open meeting law so I'll let her say that Athena. Andy, just want to point out that if Shalini if you reach out to more than one person and that's a quorum of the committee so you can pick one person. Thank you for that input before it comes back to the committee. Yes. So, but but it formally is assigned to just Shalini. And then when you're ready for it to be brought I'll be in touch with Shalini about timing on agenda for that, but it will not be on at least the next agenda because that's an unreasonable amount of time to try and get it done in less than a week for the packet and for us to get it done later. And so we will keep this sort of I'll probably rename it on future agendas, but we will figure out when the next logical time to, to bring this to the council is Shalini. Okay, so just to clarify, I can only reach out to one person. So that's clear. Now if people want to send me their ideas will that that's also not allowed. Only one person. Okay. Thank you. If, if, yeah, so, so just one person, because once you are the recipient of many ideas, you're the one in violation of open meeting law. Okay, thank you. So one person, we can do check ins regularly at CRC for those conversations to happen if you're like, you know, we really need input on X, and that's what will limit the discussion to or we need input on why the criteria or something. That's what we need things on we can we can have those discussions in CRC at future meetings in in those formats. Is everyone clear sort of on where we're going to go with that part of this, trying to help schedule and figure out where to put council time. And Paul's goals and all which will help GOL as they formulate the next set of priorities for Paul to. And all and then that, as we know translates down into generally the planning department priorities through Paul's goals and all. Any further, Shalini. One last thing about the goals that Dave talked about, and that that was the criteria that I was hoping to include in the matrix would be based on the town manager's goals, like how are these changes and those down manager goals are basically our council goals that we've adopted, or value so those would be used to create the criteria. So, thanks. Thanks. Moving on to our next agenda item, which is the comprehensive housing policy implementation. And so this one is on our agenda because it's actually one of our referrals. Shalini you are not muted yet. Do you still do you have something to say. Yes. No, okay. I'm trying to again find my equipment I'm sorry I'm trying to mute. I totally understand I didn't know whether you're you're trying to do 20 things I just wanted to make sure you knew you weren't muted. So, this is one that has been referred to the town manager and to CRC for implementation and that is the extent of the referral. So that means, as Dave hinted, we as CRC have to figure out in conjunction with the town staff through the manager and I think Dave will help us with that contact since he's our town staff liaison here. How to implement and what that means. And I think he hit on sort of the first item which is who implements or how do we determine it. We had a lot of potential implementation strategies right in this document that appendix has a lot of information. And so the first thing I think we should be talking about although I'll open it up for discussion on implementation in general but not necessarily specific strategies is what is the council's role in implementation, what is staff's role and how do we or and other town committees we did receive today from the chair of the housing trust, the Amherst Municipal Board of Housing Trust, their thoughts it was sent to the whole council as a information document they have come up with their implementation priorities based on our guidelines and they have informed us of those. So I took on some initiative to say hey we're part of this conversation, the councils put this policy out. What can we do to help implement that policy. And so that's one, one cog in a many wheel implementation strategy. I'm going to open it up and not just to the counselors on this committee, I would love to hear thoughts from the planning staff that are here about implementation to because you know I, there's a lot going on in that policy. And so the thoughts from the staff will help us inform our discussion about how we implement the policy over many years short term long term and all so Chris. So I thought it might be helpful to give like a status report about where we are. So then we can figure out where we're going from there. So I have some information to share with you if you will bear with me for a little while. Okay, and Dave has his hand up so I don't know whether he wanted to say something before me or I think he just took it down so he's good with you first I think. I was going to see if Chris and I talked about what she was going to say earlier. But yeah no I just wanted to say a few things so. No Mandy I appreciate you framing this the way you did and you know, I think the way I look at this and the way Paul looks at this is that you know by and large the council sets policy for the town, the town, the council works with the manager and sets in this case his goals, and then it's up to Paul for for Paul to really set the wheels in motion to make sure that there's enough staff and that the budgets are adequate to achieve some of the goals so as we look at this document. I would say by and large we look at the heavy lifting of the implementation being done by staff where we need the council's help is anywhere that this the implementation section touches zoning or touches policy. And there's a number of areas that that we've already achieved some some success in in this document and there's more that Chris will talk about. But I think that's where we see the interface between what we do day in day out I mean Nate is our is a is a staff person a senior planner who spends about probably 60 to 70% of his time on housing, and Chris will talk about the CPA funding where he spends on another part time planner, but we see the implementation of this document, largely falling to the planning department to work with other departments within town to work with the housing trust of course john hornick and and the team at the housing family well with them, but also with with DPW with with a number of different agencies with that with the, with the housing authority and with a number of local and regional partners so that's kind of the framework with which we see this document, and the interface we see with the council and with CRC is, where do we need zoning help. And where do we need policy help to make changes to make to produce more units across the board but also more affordable units. So that was just kind of the quick intro I wanted to give and then turn it over to Chris, and she can walk us through the different sections to give you kind of a sense of where we are in those sections, because it's it's actually pretty some of the things that we've already achieved. So thanks. Thank you Dave. Chris. Okay, so just to bring you up to speed on some of the things that have been bubbling up around us. We do have quite a number of units am I talking too loud I feel like I'm talking really loud. We do have quite a number of units in the pipeline both market rate and affordable units. And I'm going to tell you about some of that. Right now I think I counted up about 381 units that are really kind of on the table that either have been permitted or in the permit process or that we know about and have been daylighted to the public. And those include things like 11 and 13 East Pleasant Street which is going to include 90 units altogether with 11 affordable and 79 market rate. Things like Belcher Town Road which we know is our Belcher Town Road and the East Street School which will have at least 40 affordable units and they may have more than that and also market rate units. I have a list of these and I could send it to you but self point and the boulders, there's a new building that's going to be going up there that's kind of hasn't been, you know, as much in the public eye but that's going to have 47 units, six of which are affordable and 41 market rate. We have U drive south, which is a very Roberts project again 45 units and five of those are going to be affordable so all together in based on my count we have about 381 total units in the pipeline, 92 of which are going to be affordable and I think it's pretty good. And then we have other projects that are coming along that you know we often have developers come to talk to us about projects before they actually submit an application and usually we don't, you know, talk publicly about those projects because they may or may not come to pass but if we were to consider those projects as well. We have another about 195 units coming along so by my reckoning. It looks to me like we have about 576 total units in the next few years and I think that's pretty good. And that does include the affordable units. I just wanted to let you know about that because you know, many of these things kind of go by under the radar they don't get into the Gazette they, you know, where they're not really talked about that much and so you know I just wanted to let you know that there are, there's a substantial number of units coming along. The other thing is that we have made efforts to reduce the number of homeless people. For instance, 132 North Hampton Road which is, I forget the name of it but it's got a really lovely name. It has to do with the Gables or something like that maybe Nate can tell us about that but that is a project that's going to have 28 units of affordable housing they're all affordable. And some of them are set aside for a formerly homeless people, and they're also set aside for people of very low income of 30, 30% of area median income so we're really happy about that and I believe that development is either about to receive a building permit or has just received a building permit we recently had a pre construction meeting so they're going to be starting construction very soon. So that's something to celebrate and the other thing is that our staff Dave Zomek and now Nate Maloya stepping into Dave's shoes to work with the homelessness and rehousing working group, which is going to be staffed by the planning department and they're going to be looking into a permanent home for a congregate shelter, and we're really excited about that too so. Anyway, those are some things that I wanted to bring you up to speed with. The other thing is that we've asked for CPAC funding for three years to fund a part time planning staff member to work with Nate on issues related to housing, and to really try to increase the number of particularly affordable units but also market rate units because the more market rate units, we have the less pressure there is on housing and Amherst in general. So I think that's really good news and we're hoping that Town Council approves that funding for that staff member. So those are just some kind of status things that I wanted to tell you about to bring you up to speed. And I did have comments about the comprehensive housing policy in particular and if Mandy Joe would would let me go ahead, I could talk about some of the bulleted items under appendix a implementation. Yes, please. Okay. So, starting on page 11. As you know, we did make an effort to look into 40 are we worked with a consultant to examine whether 40 are would be appropriate in our downtown. We've determined that we're not convinced that it's right for downtown but we do think it may be appropriate for village centers so that's something that we're going to be considering in the future and for those of you who don't know what 40 are is it has to do with allowing modification of zoning requirements in exchange for providing affordable housing. I think Pam is most familiar with this because she was very. She helped us to talk about the chapter 40 our project that was proposed for downtown. So anyway, that's still on our radar. Accessory dwelling units is the second item that's listed on page 11. And last year we had a great success in getting an accessory dwelling unit zoning bylaw past which allows the building commissioner to approve most dwelling units without having to go through either the zoning board of appeals or the planning board. So we're really thrilled with that. Going down the page design guidelines we have $100,000 to work with a consultant. Nate is developing an RFP to hire the consultant and we're going to be going over that RFP. Tomorrow with the town manager and Dave Zomek so we're really moving ahead with that and that's going to help us with with our new building in the downtown area. At the bottom of page 11 there's an item about duplexes and triplexes and that's something that we've had on our radar for a long time and it's one of the items that's on the planning department. And under phase two. So low to medium density housing is something that we'd really like to work on that includes duplexes triplexes and also converted dwellings so taking a single family house and turning it into a house that has more than one unit. So let's see, going along on the housing policy on page 12 close to the top of the page, the inclusionary zoning bylaw we can check that off our list we've already accomplished that and we're really pleased with that and that's already producing affordable units with a lot of the new development that we're seeing. So the new development is another one that's a little further down the list now that is something that's kind of helping us to think about making our existing apartment complexes more dense in other words taking places that are already built up and allowing them to be denser. There could be places like the boulders and South Point and, you know, some of our larger housing developments so they're already developed and it makes sense to add development in those places so those, those are places where developers are looking at adding units. So on page multifamily housing by right, we had a success this past fall in allowing apartments in the RBC zoning district by site plan review. So that was something that at least the planning department thought was a good addition to our zoning bylaw so that may provide us with more ability to have apartments. On page 13. At the top of the page there's a controversial item at the very top student housing district that was something that was mentioned in the housing market study. And the idea was to consider establishing an overlay district close to the university that could be somehow regulated so that student housing could be built there or operated there and it would be operated in such a way as not to be bothersome to the residents of the area and and we have received some feedback about that from member of the CRC who is troubled about that but you know that's something that we can certainly talk about but it's, it has been something that's been talked about for a while. There was another item that also has been talked about in the planning department and snap particularly listed on this list but it does have to do with student housing and that is using some of the larger homes, trying to figure out how to allow the larger residents in town to be occupied by more than four people. And that's something that Robin more is interested in working on so we think that that has the potential for providing more housing. Going down the page on page 13 community choice aggregation is an item that's listed under municipal regulatory and policy strategies. So my choice aggregation is something that Stephanie chicarello who's the sustainability coordinator is already working on with other communities in our area and she's making good progress on that so we're hoping that that comes to pass fairly soon. I'm leveraging building repair and maintenance. I understand that Rob more is working with some town council members on trying to improve the status of rental housing and particularly enforcing and strengthening the rental registration bylaw. So that's something that's already in the works, and we're hoping that that bears fruit. At the bottom of the page, mixed income housing. So this is an idea that you can have more than one level of income in particular developments and we think that our new inclusionary zoning bylaw goes a long way to promoting different levels of income, people living in the same development. I'm super excited about that. I've already talked about people who are homeless and some of the things that we're doing to help them. And then at the bottom of the page page 13, I just wanted to remind everybody that this has to do with preservation of existing affordable housing there was a big push on several years ago and Nate Maloy kind of led the led the charge to preserve the affordable housing in the state of green rolling green has about 200 units altogether 40 of which are on the state inventory of affordable housing, but we get to count all 200 units on our inventory so that's a really good thing so preserving those units not only provided to make sure that there are still for 40 affordable units available, but it also allows us to count all of them on our sh I on page 14. At the top of the page regulatory clarity and predictability, I think we've really come a long way since the housing market study was published in 2015 to make it clear to applicants, what the requirements are what the procedures are for getting it done and Rob and the planning department have worked closely with applicants to help them to get through the permitting process and I think it's a much less arduous process than it was in the past. Down the page a bit is rental registration regulation. Again Rob is working with some counselors on that item. We may ask him about that later if you want to page 15. A third of the way down the page is deed restrictions it says use affordable housing deed restrictions for affordable housing rental and ownership. We already do that. When affordable housing is built as part of a project either comprehensive housing project or another type of project we already do require deed restrictions to be put in place so that those units remain affordable and perpetuity. Land acquisition, other land acquisition. So we're always thinking about how the town can make the most of the property that it already owns and keeping an eye out for acquisition of property that may really, you know, reap a lot of benefits for instance the Belcher Town Road properties. When those things went up for sale, people immediately noticed that, you know, that we're for sale signs out there and we started talking about it internally. Dave brought the proposal to come up with the CPA funds to purchase that property I think it was 100 700,000 or something like that but anyway that was a really good investment and now we're going to be reaping the benefit of that with affordable housing on Belcher Town Road and thinking about that and planning for it. Let's see, down at the bottom of page 15 staff support we already talked about the fact that we are asking for additional help in the planning department to promote more housing and more affordable housing. That's increment financing. We have a tax incentive in place that the Legislature of Massachusetts approved back in, I think it was 2015 I could be wrong about that but anyway, the only developers that have taken advantage of that so far is beacon communities which took advantage of that for the North Square project but they got about a $2 million tax incentive for the affordable units that they built up there. And disposition of town land and we have town some town land on strong street that Rob and Nate and Dave have been looking at to and also the housing authority housing trust excuse me housing trust to figure out whether it's possible to build affordable housing up there. So that would be town owned land that we already own and what could we do with it to increase the number of affordable housing units that we have. And I think that is the end of my presentation but I just wanted to bring you up to speed on these things because I think you know this is a very long list on appendix a but I wanted to let you know that we're already working on several of these items and we've actually got a lot of questions so if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them. And we have me here who also is very knowledgeable about housing. Thank you for the update. Chris, and thank you Nate for joining us and doing so much work on housing in in town. Pam. You're muted Pam. Sometimes you hit it and sometimes it doesn't. I thank you for the update clear that there is a lot, a lot underway. I had a question about I was thinking as Chris you said you're talking about the land acquisitions and and strong street etc. I think when the hat when hat built the really nice. I don't know 1220 unit development on Long Meadow drive down south of pot wine and pot wine lane Pomeroy Lane. Is that is that still town owned land or is that on the tax rolls. Somebody know that. It was a for I think it was a 40 be project. It is a 40 be project and Nate would probably know more about that than I would that was. Yeah, so maybe Nate knows something about that. I don't think it was ever town owned property was a private privately owned and so affordable housing is. It's a nonprofit so depending on how they set it up there really aren't, you know, many taxes paid on it it's you know it'd be pro rated at best if it was, you know, mixed so, you know, Olympia Oaks but not farms what you mentioned Pam those are usually wouldn't pay taxes, you know through inclusionary zoning if there's you know a mix of market rate. Depending on how it's developed they'll pay taxes on those units but you know certain affordable developments won't pay taxes just because of the way it's structured in terms of ownership and the financing so, but, you know, Olympia Oaks up on Olympia Drive that was town owned property, you know took many years to get there but that's something where there's a ground lease with half. And, you know, so it's town owned land and they basically, you know, own and manage the housing. Again, as you were talking it, it occurred to me if there if there was property that was not something that the town itself wanted to develop maybe that land could be sold. And the, and the proceeds could help other projects in other parts of town, you know in the way we want it to. Thank you. This is very helpful. Yeah. Thoughts Jennifer. Yeah so that I mean, that's a lot that and I appreciate you going. Chris reviewing all that. So I'm assuming this meeting isn't the time but then we'll be able to discuss some of these items, which, you know, I mean, just to throw it at, you know, having more than four students in the larger houses I mean that's a big deal. So I mean when, when is the opportunity to really, you know, I don't think it's today. It is not today it is coming up. Right. So, so, so it's a completely valid question. And it goes to why is everything in appendix a and what is the purpose of appendix a which which is I think where I wanted to discuss CRC's role in implementation. So appendix a was in there. There are a number of reasons. We had done as the, the, the last CRC before this council was inaugurated spent a lot of time working on the policy came up with a whole list of implementation strategies and didn't know what to do with it and then there was a lot of discussion. Well which one should be on it which one shouldn't some people do some some people do others, you know in terms of what they like and don't like and wanted on and didn't want on. In the end, CRC made a decision reach consensus that said, we can't narrow that list down and get this policy done in our term, because narrowing that list down to finding seven votes on the council to support every single one of them will take an extremely long time potentially. And so, in, in coming up with the list we basically pulled a lot of strategies together listed them all. And then, if you read the start of the appendix it basically says this is just a list, and it's not necessarily endorsed or that not necessarily everything will be used. And once the policy passes will go in and figure out which ones are best which ones aren't. And so, one of the things I see as part of CRC's role in implementation is to potentially narrow that list down or use help help help the planning department, the zoning part of the list, right, with a, we don't really want to explore that one, or maybe we want to explore this one and, and that's where I think Jennifer goes into your question about well, how does the housing policy work with the planning priorities, and how do they mesh together. Right. And so maybe one of the things that goes into that matrix that Shalini will be drafting is start with the whole list, and then we can talk about, do we want to just act some and say, no, we don't we don't even, we don't think that this strategy is worth talking about for the next two or three years that it's that low on the priority list or maybe it comes off the list completely. So I think as we go through to figure out, you know, Dave was talking about in, you know, they need to councils help where implement on implementation touches zoning and touches policy right the zoning is have help help the planning department figure out which items of zoning under that pilot under this appendix a council is interested in pursuing and potentially passing. And I say that we as chair of CRC as a counselor I don't want the planning department to put a lot of time into a measure that's on this list that has no chance of garnering the required number of votes at the council. That's not a wise use of staff time. It's not a wise use of council time. And so I think part of our role is to figure out which of those zoning's zoning measures that implement the housing policy should be dealt with first, and maybe others that don't and so some of that will require a lot of conversation Jennifer. So I feel or potentially that that issue regarding unrelated individuals could require a whole lot of conversation and and things like that. So I hope that helps a little bit. So eventually when we figure out what we need to discuss that will be part of that list. Other comments on Jennifer's questions or, or other comments at all. Yeah, again, I think, Mandy, you just kind of reference something I said earlier and I think I'm, you said one of the things as we look at, for instance, the zoning section of the policy. You said, I guess, to paraphrase what I heard you say was, you know, it's CRC's job to help the planning department identify maybe those strategies in that section. And where staff is coming from, we would kind of look at this and say you've got an 11 page 15 page policy with a whole bunch of possible implementation strategies in the appendices. When I sit where Rob and Chris, we see it as our role to say, as the people who actually do the implementation on the ground in town and work with developers and nonprofits and and the housing trust etc. We would kind of look at it as we should identify those strategies that we think have the best chance of success and propose that those are the ones that we should spend the most time on. So it's a little bit of a different, you know, and a little bit of a different way of looking at things but I think, going back to what I said a few minutes ago, where the council can help us I think is really in the zoning section and the policy section, and I forgot to add funding. You know, you often are in the position budget wise to vote for funding. Chris, in her very comprehensive review of some of the things that we've already done on this list. We didn't talk about, you know, staff advocating for half a million dollars in CPA funds, which is going to come to you in the in the budget season, you know, which is fast approaching. So that we can have more money to work with to acquire land and to put into projects staff also advocated through Paul and Paul approved the ARPA list, which includes $1 million for homelessness and $1 million for affordable housing. So that's another area where we would look to the council in addition to, you know, your support on zoning measures on policy that supports, in this case, you know, more housing and more affordable housing, but also supporting, you know, any votes that that you might take, like CPA funding that that can can fund these initiatives. Thank you, Dave. And, and you, you said, you brought the other area that I forgot to say or didn't say about figuring out implementation which is, we need staffs help, because staffs the experts on what will be the most effective or what they believe will be the most effective and what won't necessarily be effective. And, and where I see CRC and the council helping is looking at those and figuring out from the council's point of view which ones are more priority than others if two will be just as effective, which one with the council like to prioritize one over another potentially, but, but it being a conversation between staffs expertise on where the most bang for the buck is in some sense where what changes will help us achieve our policy that the council set forth the most with the council then weighing in on which one should be done first, second or third, based on timing essentially right you know and, and which of, which of potentially each of the policy goals is more important at any one time. Because each of them touch on different policy goals to Jennifer. Thanks. Yeah I just wanted to add you know I know when Dave said you know that the staff, you know who works with it. They know what the staff has the capacity to do what there's the funding to do and what you know and speaking with developers. You know they maybe can be done, but what I think we, the counselors also bring to it is what we're hearing from all the people that live in the community. So, you know just in, again I'm not going to get into particulars but some things that were mentioned are literally the opposite of what many of us are hearing in our district meetings and in the emails that we get. It's huge, you know we can't we're not. You know. So, there, that part of the conversation, which we, I think there's conversations directly with constituents and then that gets funneled, you know that that were the representatives for that we also can't implement particular policies that are the opposite of what we're hearing that that we're hearing across town is not actually what people. They're wanting us to do the opposite. Just leave it, leave it at that. Thank you. I'm Shalini. Could we maybe get a sense of what might be the order of things because what I'm also hearing is some sort of community engagement that needs to happen. Again, we you know we hear from different people, and then there are other people who are impacted that we don't hear from. And so, at what point will we be having a systematic community engagement that. There might be competing needs to write a different and which is not to say that's a. It's a challenging thing for sure. But I think that forces us to really look at the issues from different angles and find solutions for them. So is that something that the staff is doing and then presenting to us and then we go and take it out to the community or are we getting a sense from the community and then feeding that to the staff. So like what is the order of things where does the community engagement piece fit in. That is a good question. And why we're having this conversation to identify all of that to figure out how to implement stuff. I'm looking at the time. And I'm cognizant that we have a couple more things to get through. And so what I'm thinking of doing now with this one is, is having myself and Pam is chair and vice chair of talk with maybe set up a meeting with Dave and Chris and Rob and Nate or some combination there of to figure out how best to continue this conversation at CRC in a way that is meaningful and moves things forward and how long it might take to get to that point with what what we might need to do that. And so I'm going to, to figure it out. So that our next conversation, and I think this was a good start to the conversation but the next one has has defined goals in mind of where we're trying to go with that particular conversation. And so that obviously wouldn't also be done by the third, our next meeting is technically in a week. We're going to get stuff done in a week. And so, you know, that's where I'm seeing this conversation go is, is to a meeting sort of an agenda setting meeting between Pam myself and Dave and planning staff, whoever they think is, is best suited for that meeting to figure out sort of next steps on how we can move that process forward, given the conversation today. And does that sound like, I know it's not a complete plan at all but does that sound like that would be a good idea to do before we bring this back to CRC. As a way to move forward on on what has been referred to us. And if I don't see any hands or any conversation I'm just going to assume people are okay with that. I've seen a lot of nodding. So that that is going to be the next step that I will get down. With that, we're going to move on to the, the next item on the agenda, which is a discussion regarding the GL conversation on changing the CRC charge and I will just start with Pam before we're going to start with Pam but I'm going to introduce it a little bit and then I'll introduce the GL conversation after Pam talks a little bit but Pam Rooney brought a potential proposal to GL regarding committees of the council. Oh, and Nate already left but thank you Nate and Rob they're both gone thank you Chris I think we're done with you Chris tooth so that you can go thank you, you know, go and thank Nate and Rob for their time to I'm always slow in doing that and so thank you and enjoy the rest of your evening Chris. So Pam brought a potential request when when GL chair asked for potential rule changes Pam Rooney brought a request under the rules to look at the standing committees of the council. GL had a brief conversation, and part of that conversation resulted in the GL chair asking the chairs of TSO and CRC to have a brief conversation about their thoughts on the conversation GL had regarding the charges specifically related to their own committees, which is CRC here and and TSO would be another one. And so I added this to the agenda item. There are some drafts Pam's initial proposal or thoughts on proposal is in the packet. There was a draft charge I will say that I did that. In order to help the GL chair based on GL conversations it has not been seen by GL it is not the GL proposal, but it helps show sort of what one result of the implementation of potentially what Pam had proposed would look like for CRC and so I put it specifically to help people think about what the changes might be, but that is not necessarily what GL has not seen that document yet I will say that. So Pam, do you want to start with that and then I'll go back to what GL's conversation was Pam. Basically the the intent was to, you know, coming in as a new person, what are the responsibilities of the different committees, and my initial reaction was that it didn't make as much sense to me to, to have sustainability under the under the purview of CRC and perhaps economic vitality and and marketing kind of a thing so my recommendation was to simply talk about where there are other more logical places for this kind of thinking and priority setting to be other than a group that focuses heavily on zoning, you know, housing and homelessness. It was just more what's better fit and I understand that because of committee structure and, and even staff support to try to make all these keep these balls in the air. It is just a conversation and by no means something that you know I'm going to follow my sword over but it just made some sense to me, and maybe and maybe Mandy Joe can talk now about what they actually talked about it and she Yeah, so, so thank you Pam, GL had a brief discussion of three of CRC members are on GL so the only two that haven't really heard this are Shalini and Pam but I briefed Pam on the GL discussion, as we were talking about this item so it's sort of in the dark, but GL discussed the items and discussed more than just the changes to the charge but basically GL reached sort of. I don't want to say consensus because as I said GL has not made any decisions yet but but thought that a creating a fifth council committee that deals with it dealt with the economic development and arts and culture and sustainability from the CRC charge, and also from the TSO charge higher education. And there was one other thing from the TSO charge that I forget what it was outreach the actual outreach portion of TSO into a fifth council committee. At least on its face made potential sense in that those items in the past council seem to have gotten less attention within TSO and within CRC, potentially because the item other items within those chart those two committees require so much attention, and that potentially creating a fifth committee with those items might allow the council to not leave those items unfocused, give some some conversation and some time to those items. There were other parts of that conversation which is why I say GL has made no decisions that relate to can there be a fifth committee with sustainable council timing and stuff like that, and, and things that aren't really a part of our conversation today which was more of a request to say, hey, what does CRC feel about if GL would make a recommendation to remove X, Y and Z parts of their charge from their charge. And, and I had actually requested these conversations happened because the last time GL made a major change to committees. It did not reach out to the committees that were mostly affected and it heard a lot from those committees that said hey you didn't talk to us. And they were not happy that GL did not talk to the committees that were mostly affected before that recommendation was made. And so that's the point of this conversation is to say, GL is considering this what does CRC think about the potential removal of these items to CRC think it might be good might be bad. What problems they might foresee things like that so that's the conversation we're trying to have today. Jennifer. And also, I just want to add that it was discussed, like as Mandy said, what is the bandwidth for, you know, adding another committee. And there was a concern that if we couldn't really reduce the size of the committees because if there's three on the committee that have to two can't speak, or it's in violation of open meeting law. It doesn't mean we couldn't maybe form another committee of five but that's the concern about having more committees with fewer people on them. But then we also discussed like I'd say arts and culture is part of the CRC charge and would that be appropriate maybe moving that to TSO. Right. If it's, if we, I guess just my thoughts are that if it's determined that it's not realistic to create another committee then maybe we could take some of the, the charges in the CRC job description that we don't tend to address a lot that may not really belong in zoning planning and land use and move that to another committee, as Mandy said, and then I also had raised in GLL I had a concern and it's, you know, get off the sort I want to die on but that as somebody who was when I, you know, a couple of years ago I was just a member of the public I know when the committees were first started. I community resources committee didn't sound to me like anything that the committee did so if I was looking you know I want to know what committee is addressing zoning and land I don't think of looking at the CRC just community resources committee so I think we might think about changing our name just so it sounds a little more like what we really do. It might seems like it might be more transparent. Thank you for that Jennifer I completely forgot about the name change and this committee might be the best one suggests a name if they have one. So first off, I would say that this potential committee is the ideal committee I would want to join it has outreach it has economic development it has sustainability I'm in. That's the one I want to join. My only concern again is, I would have to drop out of if he did create another committee I would drop out of TSO probably to join this one and then how does. How are we going to make it sustainable without making it smaller committees that's my big question. And then the second thing though is when I think of CRC whatever the name is going to be I really do see it more comprehensively as the planning and development piece and and to me zoning and sustainability and economic development are all interrelated. That so when we decide on zoning and warehousing is in the densities and close to transportation and all of those those are things that impact climate change goals and our economic development goals so I see that they're all really interconnected. But then I can also see sustainability being connected with transportation the TSO committee when we're talking about bike lanes and pathways of people feel comfortable biking and walking and using sidewalks so it almost feels like sustainability is infused or should be that's a lens. We bring and social justice lens that we bring to all many committees. But that being said then that I guess the thing is that if you're really just focusing on a committee that would be not just using the lens but actually working on economic development and yeah then that's definitely something to think about or a committee that would actively be working to push for or bylaws related to sustainability and working with ECAC closely so yeah if you're thinking that it does make sense to have a third committee and please sign me up for it. Thanks. Other thoughts. Pam. You know disabled so if she's leaving TSO I could I could pick up her TSO slot because we could we could start moving things around a little bit. It felt that that there were some unaddressed topics and they and they it just feels like they do fall through the cracks, a fair amount. So it's I think it's a good discussion. You know it may end up just the way it is maybe with a name change which I think thank you Jennifer that would be a great idea. But anyway it's just to get to get us thinking about there. I think all I think all of these committees have information and responsibilities that overlap and that are interactive. So again it's just sort of how do you do lump them or do you split them and and do we create something that has that can actively focus on those elements that we aren't covering very well. So that's that. Thank you. Jennifer. I mean, it may not be that important but has has arts and culture ever come up with CRC. It's in the description of the purpose and then it's not specifically listed in the charge it would be included in the economic development part of the charge and it has. And this was the comment I was going to make which is there are parts of the charge that we've never really specifically dealt with. And I say specifically like we had a comprehensive housing policy we dealt with housing we just had a conversation about housing and that's going to continue. We've done a lot of zoning and planning because that's where any zoning amendment comes, we were the ones looking through the master plan and making recommendations on that. There's never been a formal my under if my memory serves me correctly there has not been a formal referral related to economic development or sustainability to the CRC at any time in the last three years in the first council and CRC has not had specific conversations related to either one of those during those three years, arts and culture and economic development came up as conversations in reviewing specific zoning proposals and potential zoning priorities of specifically related to the downtown, but that it was more as a peripheral related to zoning conversation then what can we do to specifically improve or encourage economic development. So, yeah, so what I was going to say is, having been on CRC for two and a half years now, and seeing that there's a couple of things seen those items don't tend to have things that come through referrals, those two specific items don't tend to have things that come through referrals. ECAC exists to deal with, in some sense the sustainability stuff so Shalini's right we need to be looking at that lens, but I'm, I don't even know whether we'll ever deal with specific sustainability referrals in the council. We could. There was question as to what to do with the carp plan at one point and what to do with it right. CRC was really busy and as we've seen from just these conversations once those referrals on zoning start coming because of the hearings and all we get even busier. And we know a bunch of them are coming. And so there may not be time in CRC to deal with them. So that in my mind favors from a CRC point of view saying if we really want to have council committee conversations related to economic development focused on economic development. It probably CRC probably doesn't have the time to do so and so moving that to a different committee that has the time makes logical sense. And from a CRC point of view I think these proposals make logical sense from a GLL point of view which we're not here to discuss the GLL I'm concerned about console time and all which is a GLL issue not really a CRC issue. So that those are my initial thoughts on this proposal that from my CRC lens. I think it makes sense personally. Other thoughts. Dave did you have your hand raised. You popped to the top of mine and that just could have been a reordering of the windows. Seeing no other come thoughts on this one I will relay these thoughts to the GLL chair as thoughts from CRC members using their CRC lens. If you ever intended us to take a vote or do anything formal on this, it's just a way for GLL to get an idea of what the committee thinks about the potential of removing them so I will let the chair of GLL know about these thoughts. With that, I think we are on to general public comment so at this point in time, I'm going to pass the gavel on to Pam Rooney to finish out the running of this meeting I will be on until I don't have to be. I'm hoping we're done before 630 given the time. But Pam take away the rest of the meeting. I'm going to put it up to general public comment. And I'm looking at the participant list and I don't see any general public. So I think we can conclude that that section is done, which is terrific. Number six is minutes and we have thank you very much Athena the January 10, January 27 and February three meeting minutes. And I want to ask if there are any changes or corrections. I am now a little bit stuck because I was going to be doing this on my town laptop, and that wasn't allowing me in so I don't have actual access to the word doc that Athena sent out. But I will just at least ask the question again, were there any changes or corrections that need to be made to the January 10 meeting minutes. That was the long that was the long public hearing. Jennifer. Okay, it's just a typo. But I'm just a minute for excellent, but on the middle of page three, where it's Alyssa Campbell's comment it says reaching new zero and that was just net zero. So it says Alyssa Campbell. Since Pam doesn't have access to hers, I'll, I'll send them off to you Pam. Thank you very much. No, no, that just happens to all of us. I was like, yeah. Any, any other changes or corrections to these minutes. Seeing none. Any changes or corrections to the January 27 meeting minutes. I lost Jennifer. I lost her face. Really. I think she's just down below the screen. Sorry. It was my narrow. No, they're excellent. Okay. And how about February three then. Any changes or corrections. Seeing none. I will make a motion that we. Adopt these meeting minutes as, as is and or as. Modified or corrected, which is the January 10 with a typo that they are adopted as of today, the 24th of February. Any seconds. Jennifer second. For a second. All in favor. Let's go through the list. Mandy Joe. Hi. Shalini ball mill. Yes. Jennifer tau. Yes. Yeah, I'm really, yes. I think that does it for meeting minutes, right. Any announcements. We'll zoom in on Dave Zomek. Nope. Okay. Andy Joe, any, oh, I'm sorry, Shalini. I don't know if this comes here, but I had a question about inviting ECAC to our committee, or are we inviting them to town council, or are we inviting them to TSO or all of the above. And this is more specifically speaking to how, like, how the car might be relevant because there are some by law, by law suggestions in their car plan that might have an overlap with zoning. I think we should invite them to, because I know that it's a really solid report and it's just out there and maybe I think it's something that the whole town council should be hearing and then we can decide which committee it goes to. I'm going to look at me and the Joe for that. I'll try. I'll try Pam. I think the council sent the carp off to the manager for implementation. Dave might know better than me that my memory is the council isn't the one in charge of implementing carp. But I'll, I can put it on a list to see to talk with Lynn about what's up with carp and what's going on with that for it, because it, I'm not sure what was ever fully decided once it was presented to the council. Athena. Athena, if I may. The council voted on September 27 to acknowledge receipt of the carp. And to thank the committee. And then they voted to ask the town manager to update the town council quarterly regarding achieving the climate action goals. And that's it. Sounds like the next step would be for, for the town manager then to report back to the full town council than that necessarily to TRC or TSO. I believe it's in the town manager goals as well. I have a follow up question. So I think I might have misheard. It might not be the car when I attended one of the ECAC meetings in November one, I think it might be the annual report that they wanted to present to town council. And it was said that that they would speak with Len and then I, my understanding is that the understanding was that they will present to the because it was so close to the end of the year. And so the understanding was that the general report would be presented to the whole council once we had the new council in place. So maybe it's more for, and what I'm thinking is specific by law recommendations in carp. Maybe that's an individual counselor thing that if you want to bring it forward. Is that right. Athena, you've got your hand up again. The ECAC annual report was in a recent council packet and I believe the president's intention was to invite the ECAC to give a brief verbal report at an upcoming council meeting. Okay, great. Yeah, maybe that was the one I was talking to. Thank you. Thanks Athena. Let's helpful. So that sounds like it's your concern is addressed. It will show up in town council ECAC report. Good. Good. If there are any other potential agenda items. I'm going to bring, I'm going to bring one up and that is just the ongoing discussion that ties pretty closely in with the housing policy. And that is the formation of some sort of research slash work group slash task force that tries to sort of tie some of the loose ends together on all of the facets that affect housing availability in Amherst. It's just something that I'm hoping that we can sort of put together and and based on, you know, much of the information that comes out of the housing policy itself, as well as Amherst housing trust Amherst housing authority. So what are the factors that Amherst as a as a town can address whether it's by way of zoning bylaws or rental permitting or other aspects of maintaining housing availability for our families. So that's kind of in a nutshell. So I was just going to suggest maybe that we cancel the March 3 meeting because given the conversations today and all it's going to take more than a week to get stuff put together and I don't believe there's any referrals coming from the council. I don't believe that we need to hold a meeting, but that's just a potential suggestion of freeing up some time if the committee's willing to, but Jennifer might have a topic for next week that we could deal with Jennifer. I was just going to add actually to what you just suggested because I think, you know, that that may also be a way since Shalini, you know, and I had touched on getting some community input that the task forces is also a way to make that happen. Yes, I do think it's a good idea since we, we can't, you know, just what the list that Chris went through today, it's so much, and we just can't really address it, you know, have a robust discussion on each one that could take up all of our CRC meetings I think for the rest of the year. So I think a task force might be the way to be inclusive and to really be able to delve in to so much that's in the comprehensive housing policy. Shalini, any, any front. David. Yeah, yeah, my only, my only question was really. I don't know where how the council forms a task force. So that might be a question for Lynn. I don't know how that, how that happens. I know the town manager can appoint, can appoint a working group or a task force. I think on his own, but I don't know how the council does that and whether the charter allows for the council to form a task force I just don't know. There's more about the charter than than most people. I would defer to her. Mandy and then Jennifer. So, as long as it's considered a committee just like we formed ECAC or is, we might have formed another one but we formed committees in the past. So a committee, a task force as a committee, it's a multiple member body. So the council or the manager conform them. The manager, depending on whether it's a council committee or whether it's a town committee, meaning a subcommittee of the council or not. It depends on who would appoint the members. A town committee would be appointed by the manager. A subcommittee of the council would be appointed by the president, but it would be a vote of the council. Jennifer. So how was the CSWG formed the community services working group. Mandy, the manager formed that and adopted the charge and then appointed committee members at the request of the council. I don't know whether the council made a formal request or not. I think the council said, we want to see a program. And this was the way he did it, I think. Sala may know better. Yeah, because I was the one who proposed that we form a committee because it was, you know, at that time, a request for defunding the police and what I and many counselors agreed was that instead we need a committee that would study and we would have a timeline by which they would study and then make a recommendation. That's how we asked Paul then to form a committee. And I don't know if it was a vote or not, but that's a discussion anyways. Thanks. Jennifer. And then did anyone from work with him in terms of how people were selected or who was selected or that he? Not from the council. Paul has, Paul created his own sort of interviewing group to interview candidates. And then as the charter requires, he selected some members. Those members then came to TSO for formal confirmation as we're doing Monday's agenda, I think has like six different committees. We're confirming candidates for per the charter, but everything else fell the charter and he formed an interview group himself. The council was not involved other than its required charter confirmation. This has seemed to move pretty quickly. That whole, very successful. So it's 625, we're going to solve that one tonight. Mandy Joe has five minutes to get a drink of water and move to her next meeting. I make a motion to adjourn the meeting. Are we officially canceling the March 3rd meeting? Oh, should we vote on that? We all nod. I think people nodded. So Athena, I think I'm going to not hold the March 3rd meeting. Our next meeting will be three weeks from now. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for clarifying that. So we are adjourning the meeting at 625. Yeah. Thank you, Mandy. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Thank you, Athena and David. Yes, thank you. Good night. Good night.