 All right, good evening everyone and welcome to the October 17th 2022 meeting of the Town of Arlington Re-Development Board. This evening I'd like to start by acknowledging the members of the Board who are present, starting with Steve Rebel. Good evening, Madam Chair. Melissa Tentakis. Present. I'm Rachel Zemberi. Jean Benson. Present. And Kim Lau. How you doing? All right and we have Claire Ricker joining us from the Department of Planning and Community Development as well as Kelly Linema. All right so for everyone joining us here in the room please note that the meeting is being recorded by ACMI and we will start off by moving right into our first agenda which is the discussion of potential zoning items excuse me zoning amendments to bring to town meeting or special town meeting including a discussion of MBTA communities and I will kick it off to our Claire to begin our discussion. All right so we are going to circle back to a document that Kelly distributed at our retreat two or three weeks ago right when I first started which is a really great table very very informative about that really condenses and itemizes each of the zoning recommendations suggestions policy change potential amendments that has come out of recent plans. So what we need to do is what the Board needs to do is we'll get these recommendations decide if any you'd like to bring forward as a board to town meeting so that we can start to you know flush them out and put the research behind them and yeah so essentially that's it which of these amendments we'd like to get behind if any knowing that we will also be dealing with MBTA communities. Another document that we have for you this evening is a really rough working schedule for where we would like to go with implementation of MBTA communities I think this board we've already sort of discussed in principle and timing that we'd like to do a special town meeting related to MBTA communities. I think that said I'm not sure what the appetite of the board is to you know really push on some of these but again I'd like to hear from you all what your priorities are so that we can get to work on them get started on and so I'm not sure what the best way is to kind of go through some of these you're far familiar with them than I am I called out a couple that I thought were interesting including transfer of development rights I think that's something you could look at as policy recommendation especially related to MBTA communities and implementation and then as I brought up in our previous meeting explore options to establish a chapter 40 art smart growth overlay that came out of the housing production plan that's something I think we could also relate back to MBTA communities over life so those are the two that really I think immediately stuck out to me I'm also aware that we have our Arlington Heights neighborhood action plan I'm not sure if we would like to start to implement some of the recommendations of that plan one of the things I love about that plan is that it's recommended to consolidate business districts I'm wondering if this is a pilot thing we could do for Arlington Heights that then get some metrics around it and see what's applicable in other places so I think initially those are the items that I'm looking at and of course certainly you know whatever the board's priorities are we'd like to discuss as well thank you Claire and and if I could also just read through the list of zoning bylaw modifications that we made at the at the retreat of potential zoning bylaw modifications so these are in some of them are redundant with the recommendations from the recent plans and some were the result of some of our our discussions and our more recent hearings that we that we thought were necessary I just want to run through these and then what I think I'd like to do is have each member of the the board weigh in on those that might be their priority and then we'll run through the whole list again and identify which we you think we might want to pursue it doesn't mean we will pursue but we want to put some concerted effort right into it if that works for everyone okay so the lists that I have from the from the retreat are looking at the open space requirements and their setback limiting the size of the building based on number of units versus building lot area let's see setback requirements looking at the setback requirements for new construction with multiple frontages that has been an area where we have found that we need some additional clarification and perhaps some more leniency clarify the 100% stormwater treatment on site for what storm event and is this even possible looking at the the use of self-storage in the industrial zone whether or not that's something we want to keep in or not the discrepancy with the far definition between the building department and the way that it's written in the zoning bylaws potentially modifying the far limits in the r2 district right now it's 0.35 if not a one or two family which as we have necessarily makes sense looking at a potential overlay this seven Broadway this is something that we could look at in conjunction with MBTA communities or a standalone there was the case of the industrial expanding some of the uses for the industrial use area so looking at whether or not items such as a doggie daycare other types of uses that have actually come in front of the department of planning community development which makes sense in that area but are not explicitly stated I think relooking at the use table in terms of how explicitly things need to be stated or not and then we had the 40-hour district also on our list so it sounds like that's something that we might want to move forward the prohibition of one-story buildings on Mass Ave which is something that we had talked about also appears several times in the zoning recommendations and the last item I had is the transfer of oversight of the ARB properties to facilities so that was my initial list jean I will turn it over to you yeah I should say a couple things before I give you my list some of which overlaps with what Rachel had to say there are a lot of things on those only recommendations that I think we should pursue but I think we should probably pursue them as part of what we do with MVT communities so things like 40R things like that I'm not going to mention because I think we'll need to have a separate discussion about what to do about MVT communities so I'm not doing that the second thing I'll say is that the connect Arlington plan Arlington Harley likes neighborhood action plan whatever it is the net zero action plan and the fair housing action plan never came to the ARB for input and we never was approved by us so I have more concerns about those than I do about the master plan and the housing implementation plan where we had a lot of input into it so that said let me just my list is divided into two pieces one is things that I think we can do at the same time we're working on MVT communities I think big lifts and the second are things that I think we need clarification or correcting mistakes that I found in the zoning body and I probably didn't find all of them because they keep popping up so and some of them would just said you know first one which is something that Rachel mentioned that's found in some of the recommendations is no more single story buildings in the B districts on Mass Ev and Broadway and this just says encourage I would but I think we need to take a look at that seriously open space in the B districts again Mass Ev and Broadway this is mentioned in the housing production plan and I think an interesting thing for us to think about that is to give us some leeway in our known design review so that they can put the open space in front to allow a more active street stage put in tables things like that if you look at most of the sidewalks in the business districts they're pretty narrow you know we have people with tables in the streets things like that if they can start figuring out how to do that or make that as an option I think we have the ability as buildings get built to create a better frontage with some um mentioned in here parking in front setbacks which is mostly a residential thing as I walk through my neighborhood even though there are garages and long driveways there are always cars parked in the front setback so it seems that it doesn't make a lot of sense to me that we prohibit it when really it happens on a pretty regular basis so I think we need to think about about that um mentioned was um what to do about inclusionary zoning and a feasibility study we actually we meaning either this board or planning made a commitment two or three years ago to town meeting when we asked them not to invoke to vote for an increase in the percentage that we would get a study done to see if 15 percent was the right percentage and we never got this so I think that would be helpful and I would combine it with looking at density bonuses which are also mentioned in here so we can potentially combine them I as um Rachel mentioned I think we should take a look at removing the self storage facilities as a use in the industrial district now that we've gotten the second one there we may have enough um and maybe time to take that out and it was only put in when we when we did the industrial districts two or three years ago you know and there are a lot of changes made and maybe that's served its purpose um environmental design review I had this conversation with some people on the climate group should we put a criterion for climate environmental design review which we do not have now something that deals with both um mitigation and adaptation um and is it I mean all the edr criteria are pretty vague anyhow so it's probably easier out of egg one having to do with climate adaptation and mitigation for us to take a look at when facilities come in for um edr review similarly something that bubbled up in the um zoning bylaw working group but never made it to this board was something where we would allow additional height for buildings that are getting built to reamp in the flood zones 100 year flood plain so that they can be higher so there's some free board above what we expect the waters to be so that's another thing I think we should look at um now things that need to be changed for clarification um you all can look at this later but you know there was that interesting discussion at town meeting a couple years ago about what residents would be allowed in the eye zone and it clarified in one part but in 5.6.4 h it seems to be much broader than the narrow one I'd say we probably want to amend five to six four age to indicate that it's artist mixers and not other sorts of mixed use um if the AG's office approves the solar roof bylaw we should probably amend 5.6.2 d1 and 7 in the industrial zone which was written ahead of time which doesn't quite contemplate the same roosts as roofs so if that's approved I think we should fix that um then the stormwater which Rachel just mentioned that we had that one problem with already where it says retain and treat 100% of the stormwater on site are you retaining it are you treating it which one are you doing and then how could you retain 100% of stormwater what size storm so we really need I think some help with maybe you know David Morgan or somebody like that to think through what's a reasonable size storm that we can expect to be retained on site so we fix that um in March of 2021 the AG's office in approving bylaw changes made indicated that a sentence that is in the bylaw that was adopted by town meeting is inconsistent with state law but it's in the bylaw without any indication that it doesn't belong there that section 3.1 b the last sentence says no such permit shall be issued until the building inspector finds that the applicant is in compliance with the applicable provisions of title 6 article 7 of the town bylaw and the AG said that cannot be applied to authorize the withholding of a building permit for failure to comply with the general bylaw requirements in title 6 article 7 because the building permits have to flow from whether they meet the standards of the zoning bylaw and the building requirements so the sentence either needs to be removed from this or we need a footnote that says it's not enforceable I think it should be removed because they shouldn't be there if the AG said they can't be there but I leave that to wiser heads to figure out which one of the two to do section 5.3.21 which I now have to find 5.3.21 thank you number two in parentheses d as in dog references a section zero that's just typo or it was a holding was that never got done I believe that section zero and somebody should check me on this should really be section 5.5.2 a so that's just a correction that needs to be made okay so that's what I thought it's great thank you yeah much appreciated can there well I think I think I'm going to capture everybody's thoughts and then we'll go through the prioritization exercise if that okay if that works yeah I mean I just feel like Jean I heard a lot and so I was wondering if there's a way to group it a little bit um even like between corrections and some of them are initiative yep yeah that's what I tried to do right yeah yeah like you did fit them in that through but then what floats to the top right sure and I think clarification wise those are I'm just going to keep it as a group but yes I think those that I'm putting under larger efforts we should absolutely believe those it's a good can your thoughts yeah I took the same approach and said look I took out I looked at all the stuff he was really really long and really thoughtful okay but I would like to organize it into different groups okay and like maybe one group I think Jean is correct it's clarifications and corrections and changes yes one group another group is MBTA and that itself is heading has all these different changes to it yeah on all the all the different zoning open space high density everything that goes with that but that's one section and then the other section maybe is industrial how do we talk about do you want to support that how do we support that how the changes we do for that and then the other one is mixed shoes how do how do we you know how do we enforce that or encourage that or whatever and then how that applies to different areas as an overlay or not an as an overlay but I think a lot of these days here we all grouped into like five groupings or four groupings and I'm not sure which you know what the groupings are quite yet but if we just get in group these sections and then prioritize it and say okay we're going to work on this one for now work on this one you know the clarification ones I think we need to keep that rolling yeah if we want to focus on the MBTA because there's a lot of money involved in that let's focus on that first one and then if we as a board agreed what's the next thing we want to investigate you know or what residential wants to look at I mean I think one could be explained residential housing you know yep you see the single family two family three family all that group for there you know like she said we have parking in front of those areas we have no parking where you put the garage all these different things but they all should be that one group they should look at this as a totality not you know this one low light doesn't use sort of new tracker everything so that's how I sort of took it and I figured maybe today we can sort of sit down and figure out what one of those four or five headings that we can sort of group things in and then prioritize either by heading or items within each heading that's my suggestion yes yeah that's fine so maybe just Rachel be taking now a clarification yeah we were talking about the having a special town meeting for MBTA so what was the thinking behind that again that any zone related to MBTA communities would come to special town meeting yes the thought was that to have a comprehensive process by which we review and prioritize and hold hearings in education for Kelly has a process yeah why don't we actually go through the process because I think that'll help clarify yeah we look at the calendar there will not be the time to do what we need to do most likely for me but that if we look towards September there there may be enough time and you may have Claire and Kelly updated that even since we're looking towards October okay so the thought was that we needed to have enough time to run through this full process and still leave enough time on the back end for all the approvals that need to happen prior to January 1 2024 Kelly yeah I mean so this is you know we've had number four community reach out to us about the timeline we've also talked with different staff in town hall and it seems like what we're hearing from the community is just a request to allow enough time and meetings for people to really discuss so what this schedule does is that really starting now we could schedule a meeting just a broader meeting with the community we've met with this we've shared with the select board we've shared with you and update on that we really haven't done a public event to kind of educate and inform people about what is the legislation what does this mean for harlington meeting update we also did the application theory for technical assistance just open today so we're applying for technical assistance from mhp I don't know if we are selected for technical assistance I don't know at what time we would have the technical consultant on board but that consultant would really be on board to draft the zoning or draft a zoning overlay and to do like the technical aspects of it we would still need to do um and working with a working group and the ARB and everyone really do the substance work that helps each engagement so after just preparation and start off and just kind of raising some awareness with the community we would move into proposing to move into like a just kind of like an education and outreach so it's more like an open-ended conversation to secure from people like when you think about multi-family when you think about the regulations in the MBTA meeting going what what does this mean for you where would you where do you feel like it's most appropriate for harlington what is what does that look like we could also at that time incorporate take a look at some of the other zoning recommendations that are on that spreadsheet and say which one of these would work and is there a way that we can accomplish more with the MTA communities than just doing the bare minimum and meeting the state guidelines can we also meet some of the recommendations the master plan are there ways that we can advance some of the some of the zoning recommendations that require the master plan is there ways that we can also kind of tie in economic development and commercial revitalization as part of this at that point I would anticipate that we would be able to get a consultant and we have some interesting conditions we have some analysis of what's our zoning conditions on the ground we have our model finalized we'd be able to like have like a have a baseline that we can start with and then bring that to the community in march with sort of in existing conditions and report out on the engagement so we can share what we've heard this would be a second public meeting as well so there's like a report out that would come from the working group and then public meeting where we share that we go into that point is kind of more internal work session so the consultant at that point would really kind of take those recommendations and then come like develop three or four scenarios that we would then bring back to the community and so this is what we heard you say here's the trade-offs like here's the scenario this accomplishes x y and z here's scenario two this is how it's different this is what it achieves because there's especially because we have been sort of untethered from hill wife it creates almost like an infinite number of opportunities for how this could look so I think that's where engagement is actually even more important we're not limited to a specific area in May definitely probably late May so definitely before school let's out for the summer we'd be coming back with to the consultants would be coming back to the working group with three or so three or more scenarios for compliance and then at the end of May or very early June bringing those to the public in a public meeting and then it's a whole other round of feedback where we you know we need to hear back from the community you do more surveys we do focus groups we meet with some committees to find out what what scenarios work for you which of these things are what do we miss what needs to be adjusted usually what happens in iterative processes is that you want to match two different things together and so maybe that's what happens and so that starts a summer of kind of iterating listening and revising so that would go through August um then presenting getting getting that together working with the consultant to get a final recommendation for a zoning environment so then we have then we enter the time meeting process where we need to have hearings in front of the ARB we need to figure out what our main motion is we need to have the discussions with time meeting members and maybe attending freezing meetings um getting that more article in the motion together and again this doesn't necessarily have like the specific exact timeline that would have to be in because I don't know what that date would be for special time meetings so I have the graph dated according to the attorney general schedule but the idea is that if we would be able to bring this to a special time meeting at the end at the middle of October the end of October we would then have that to the attorney general in time to still participate in the fossil fuel pilot program because the deadline for that would be in February of 2024 um and the other thing that this this it's maybe a little bit of a protracted schedule but the other thing it does allow us is to do allows plenty of time for visualizations uh and creation of like a lot of the graphics work that would need to be done in order to really show people what these changes would look like on the ground because I don't I think we're we're sort of um we're operating in a disadvantage where we can't show what technical words mean in a physical way in a physical realm but I think this again this is totally a working job for discussion there was nothing concrete here um looking for your feedback and whether you think this is this first of all if this kind of more protracted timeline seems more feasible um and any and if so if there's anything that you would change about this um or if you really think we should be advancing this to your time meeting in April of which case um this gets like shocking now thank you Kelly because I think um part of what I'm looking at are zoning and policy recommendations um my sense is that there is kind of a lot of pieces that can be incorporated into um this concept of accomplishing more than just the MBTA benchmark and it seems to me that that can come in kind of different forms so like the mechanics of it are interesting to me so that it's not just a overlay that might meet the you know maybe the basic requirements but maybe that we work together and do the harder work for a new zoning district that is being formed based code that brings in the housing and the mixed use pieces but with the design component that you're mentioning in the visualization and so I guess my thinking is it could incorporate a lot of pieces of the recommendations that I see in here including the 40 r that you mentioned yeah flair um and I think you know the 40 r I mean obviously it's having production that zero connect Erlington and so a lot of them not all of them connect that way that's why if you're asking me kind of my thinking on some of those the 40 r kind of syncs up and it seems to align what flair recommended too to kind of think about um but I like to think of how we kind of can maybe you know fit it in and to the context of the mbt community and I think you know I understand the value of the corrections and the clarifications um and that's an important role too but if we were as a board to really kind of throw our energy around something like this meaningful change I would like us to really consider you know thinking of something older uh a new zoning district long base code 40 r and really making that meet the mbt community using a and a stronger one thank you missa Steve so my um I'll start with sort of like a process question or suggestion traditionally the a or b in the select board of inferior limited bodies and for permitting I think but for policy I look in terms of setting policy I personally would not mind working more with the select board I think they could offer a good set of expertise and you know to the extent that um you know they agree with it we can agree on a direction I think we have a better chance of achieving it um I can just give a little context there sure um the select board has in the past chosen not to weigh in and take a position on a lot of the zoning bylaw movements and work of the a or b it doesn't mean that they never will but um we certainly can can work towards that again like I would like to at least offer them the opportunity to you know even if we just get together and say hey this is what we're thinking of doing what do you what what's your opinion what are your concerns um for the mbt a districts I think it's going to I think they're involved in it will be for it will be important um just you know because they are one of the main political bodies of power um and you know buy-in you know the broader the broader you can broader the buy-in you can get I think the better chance we have of succeeding um now corrections I think I'm I'm familiar with several buttons Mr. Rensen mentioned and I think it would be really nice to get them fixed so we'll stop I won't dwell on that the um looking through the um you know looking going through the spreadsheet I think there are a number of pieces here that could be used in the implementation of an mbt a of an mbt a community district and I'd like to just sort of hold on them for now which is to say don't do them this spring um save it for save it for the big effort right um but in terms of things that could be you know that we might consider for the the spring um I do like the idea of you know considering a um you know I had height minimums in the business districts so no more one-story building as well as possibly some of the district consolidation that was recommended by the Ellington Heights neighborhood action plan not necessarily getting into the whole play to the plan unit development part of it but for the you know the the street blocks that face mass out um you know it's a patchwork quote right now and that you know it doesn't need to be and it's probably it probably would be better if it was just I had one comment to make about one of the things we talked about actually I had this so set in my mind and organized we're going to talk about this and we're going to talk about this but you're right it's all related so I think the one comment that I want to make about the schedule that I I understand it's a little bit extended is that I do think we need the time to coalition bill um and to um you know really get people on board with this especially if we're going to do different pieces that are not just a density for example you know kind of a far more comprehensive and thoughtful overlay than just here's what we have to do to get massworks funding in the future I think it's going to be we're going to need a lot of time to let people know who are doing can I think you know at the retreat you said we're going to need good graphics I think we're going to need time to develop something like that so we're not just talking about designing architecture um and so this is really why we've looked at this at this sort of longer schedule and I think you know here in the community as well if we are going to include something like 40 r 40 r right now is 20 percent um minimum inclusionary units hours are new by law says 15 that's something you have to look at you know for example um you know how do we best put these things together it will take longer I think then you know for 400 months or 300 months I do think we need that time um the other comment that I wanted to make was later to your last your the last item on your list um all we need to do is a warrant article that suggests the redevelopment board will transfer property to the city excuse me town the facilities we don't want to do that we don't want to do that no no okay administration the administration the maintenance the maintenance yes okay well as far as well go ahead I don't want to go for it as far as uh appropriateness of renters and what what's the use of the buildings are for that I think we still want to retain oversight of that okay all right all right so we won't put that on you know it's just it's just you know we're not set up to do housekeeping and uh maintenance or or heat or hey that kind of stuff uh which then falls to your department which is not the appropriate place and Jenny used to do that and I yeah I bless her hard to do that but it's something you're not set up to do let's get the facilities department let's get the you know snow shoveling and all that kind of stuff I'm I'm wondering Kelly you can take a note um in my conversation with Sandy he was very clear he said we need to transfer these properties in order for that to happen but I don't maybe that's not the case I think we have to do some more research all right sorry I was a little premature in that one can I mention a couple things about please go ahead I think the timing makes a lot of sense I don't think we can get it done in a good way in time for spring town meeting I think generally the sort of steps make sense I do have a few questions I mean there are some consultants who are really great at here's how zoning can change and here's what it would look like and there are other consultants that are really great at community process and I'm not clear and they don't always go together and um I'm not clear which ones we're getting but it'd be nice to get both not simply you know ones that are going to do you know help you figure out what three zoning scenarios are and what they would look like but and there are groups that do this that can help us do a really robust community process so that's that's one um additional thought I have about this the the other is the last time I looked we still had an action plan due to DHCD on January 31 but it wasn't clear to me and maybe I didn't find it what goes into that action plan and how do and that's not that's not here and I think it should probably be added so what goes into it and what's the process that gets us there and what's the ARB's I mean you're going to do it but yeah is it best or is it something more robust yeah no yeah it is it's saying what we're going to do in the timeline by which we intend to do it so it's it's basically conveying a form to DHCD kind of laying out your schedule and by when you anticipate okay so it'll be helpful just to get get that in the chat that's good to me the date is that it's going to be too and and I think you know and I think this is a big process that you know and should take a lot of time and resources to to make work well and to have a good outcome but I do think we can do more than simply the clarifications and the corrections for town meeting in the spring maybe and clearly not everything but things like the no single story you know deciding what to do with the self-storage facilities in the iZones maybe some other uses we want to add to the iZones so I do think we can have a subset of things that we think we can do leading up to town meeting in April that will not create too much problem with rolling out this plan for October that's my thought so that might be our best next step actually is to is to start going through what those might be so that we can identify those as discreet scopes to focus on so I completely agree with you Jean I I think that we should parse out what belongs under the bucket of MBTA communities it may not end up in the you know at the end of the match that it is it that it belongs there and it's something that you know we could always revisit if it doesn't make it into the MBTA communities piece but if there are I agree with Jean I think that there are other items that make sense for us to approach for spring town meeting we should we should go ahead and pull those out and do that I'd love to use this time to figure out what those are and which goes into the MBTA communities bucket knowing that the clarifications list we will move forward with because those are fairly light left so maybe what I could do I think I have everything written down I will go through just what's in the clarifications if somebody thinks that there is something in here that is actually bigger or belong somewhere else just call out will I review these so the first is the clarification about artists artists mix use other than rather than other residential and aligning with the solar bylaw if approved by the attorney general the stormwater retainage and treatment on site that we ran into the 3.1 B provision that you identified Jean is in conflict with the AG's letter and the citation reference their reference section zero which had another section so those are the clarification items that I had on the list did you include the zoning interpretation between us and I can add that into the clarification I think that's that's the clarifications yep if we're interpreting one way and they're interpreting another way it just makes all that more confusion I really should be able to make sure that it was in the we've never seen that I've never seen what the difference is between the zoning bylaw so we'll need to work with inspector champ out okay so that's what I have under clarifications and then I have a couple of different buckets so we have general uses and again there were some broad items to be identified in the industrial zone under residential housing the list I have included parking and frank setbacks removing that requirement and the far limits in the r2 district given the point three five did not seem to make sense for us to us and studying inclusionary zoning percentage with density bonuses which I'm actually going to move I think into the MBTA communities section I think you've shown them both I mean because it one applies to that area might not apply to the MBTA that we're looking at the same thing okay I can keep it in both I think the FAR is definitely goes into MBTA communities and then also any is there anyone who doesn't think that the FAR limits in our two belongs in MBTA communities okay I'm just trying to make no progress we don't have to revisit you also have the single family zoning right in there I do not that is not something I personally would like to go back to this year I know but we okay I just want to put it this way that last year we said we were going to talk about it and more and make it more broader because we didn't have a chance to look at that yes all the open meetings if we want to push that back later on I'm okay with that I do personally I don't think that with everything else we have on the list that's something there I would like to say this year but I'm open to other pieces now I think we have because we're on a debt we're on a deadline with the MBTA communities and that is that will be a major effort I concur with Rachel I think deferring deferring with the single families oh I have no problem deferring I just want to put it on the list oh okay I'll put it on the 2024 list you know so it's because I mean you have four or five groups we're not going to do all four or five groups we're going to probably do one or two okay right so I just want to lose that understood yeah okay thank you absolutely um let's see so under business districts we discussed an overlay district between on mass av and Broadway which I'll put I think into MBTA communities um density in terms of a excuse me height minimums so prohibiting one-story buildings on mass av I would I would keep in the business districts section that could be done independently and then consolidating the Arlington Heights business districts without a PUD I think that could be done either standalone or as part of MBTA communities probably easier as a standalone since it's a discrete district and there still may be an overlay in in general so I'd keep that in the businesses trade section I keep it business yeah right now the MBTA is I think we should focus on just pure housing the MBTA doesn't have mixed use it doesn't have business if I am I am I interpreting it correctly no I don't think that's right we can't require we cannot require it okay that's you could not require it but you could say if you provide ground floor commercial you could do you have some kind of bonus right okay because I thought it was pure like three family triple-deckers or quads or you know just it could look a whole lot of different ways okay you can have required I mean this is a discussion to have in lots of places right which is to what extent do we want to use the business districts for MBTA communities housing or to what extent do we want to reserve them for commercial and move the housing to the Arlington Heights and that's I don't want to sort of prejudge that one way or the other but I think that's a conversation that needs to get in the way okay I usually maybe put in both for now well we're having MBTA is one group and I don't want to necessarily put commercial space solely in MBTA I was I still like I still want it in another group which is the business district and if that you know if we fit it and work somehow in the MBTA fine but if it's if it doesn't lend well there then we just put it right into the depending how the direction we go like you said like you may move it into the residential areas we don't touch the Mass Ave in Broadway and keep that the business district so let's keep that in that category but if you these things could fall into groups maybe and just leave our options open or my interpreting is correctly and you're thinking differently Rachel I'll put it on our list what we do need to identify is what we are going to commit to moving forward with pursuing for spring town meetings so you can't really have it both ways you can you can either need to decide to pursue it for spring town meeting or say it belongs in the MBTA communities list and it may or may not end up in that and if it doesn't we pursue it in 2024 okay so that makes sense yeah okay so so where are we putting it we're gonna put a MBTA if it fits in if it's in if it doesn't we're gonna slide back over to the business district you know I would like us to try to do something with the business districts I would choose so this is the list of the business district items that I have let's prioritize these okay let's do that okay so we have height minimums prohibiting one-story buildings on Mass Ave consolidating the Arlington Heights business districts reviewing the open space in the the business districts those requirements which we've discussed we feel is prohibitive to development the setback requirements with multiple frontages and I think this one is in alignment the open space requirements yes that's in alignment with the other one up here when you say setback is setback or stepback stepback stepback yes so let's prioritize so please I guess with all those things could that not be accomplished in the new zoning district the creation of new zoning district as a again as a mechanism as opposed to tweaking individual and deciding which business district is getting up the next business district with additional tweaks to that business district is there a reason to think that we should work harder for a new zoning district we could do that through prioritizing the consolidation of the Arlington Heights business district um we talked about doing that as a pilot and at the same time I think we could approach it two ways we could either look at consolidating the Arlington Heights business district as a pilot or we could do that as well as rectifying challenges that we see in the other district districts as a two as a parallel path piece or we could again leave the items that we know are challenging which is a hard thing to knowingly to believe you know in the other business districts while we pursue the consolidation of the Heights business districts I think it's just a lot more work to create new business districts which I don't think we should be doing while we're trying to do MBTA communities I think it's less work to just say okay let's change the open space requirements or just step back requirements because once we create a new want to create a new zoning district there's a lot more public notice and individual notice to each one of the landowners and we don't want to confuse the right between the what's affected by the MBTA communities and what's affected by this change I'm just concerned about doing that's fair you know we're thinking of the zoning district at the same time we're moving toward the MBTA communities then could I ask staff how are you reconciling an approach that would include mixed use like if there was a business district would be consider housing in that business district and then with the density bonus or what not then is that a revisit again with the MBTA communities so what you're saying is if we did business district consolidation to their allow or disallow residential well then we have to look at it again when we're doing the two of them well the business districts can have residential as long as they're mixed use so that's very right now I mean if we're doing the underlying zoning one way and then we undo it or do a bonus for them over time well on top of it I'm not I'm not really sure why we go through the exercise of changing the underlying zoning unless you know because they you can always opt into the underlying zoning it makes sense for someone to do that if we anticipate when we expect someone to do that well to your point about a whole new zoning district that makes sense I think I mean that's that would be great I would I would love it if we could do that I'm just not I think I'm a little worried about that you know a little worried about doing something like that but I do think you know we could you know certainly that's the campaign let's look forward um let's just pursue we can we could absolutely do that I'm thinking we'll really now you know for a while I can then potentially revisit but if there are changes that maybe you need the underlying zoning because it's not working well that I mean some answer right no no that's part of our discussion because that's why we're making these adjustments on a regular annual basis right is the underlying hasn't worked so there's always tinkering of that right and then if the intention is the overlay why would we keep baselining it with some under that isn't working right that people can then default well we may we may not do an overlay on Mass Avro Broadway the overlay may be intentionally exclude those because we don't want them in the commercial districts true true but we haven't feted that out no we haven't we haven't right and we won't know that until after spring right right and so I am I'm not to like say hey let's just want to do anything spring but I mean I think you can also use it my sense is you can also telegraph a message to the community as a board if the intention is really to focus on the MBTA and really do something that is meaningful to the zoning as opposed to tinkering a message could be that we are not doing anything that is tinkering and we are making you know basic corrections adjustments kind of as we talked about and our thrust in our our communication the community is to really everyone get involved because this is where we want to focus because otherwise we're bringing some pieces again and I feel like the conversations then devolve they get kind of small and we miss the bigger picture as a conversation short I think the only challenge with that is that sometimes historically it has seen that when there is too big of a change at one time then nothing happens nothing gets approved and nothing goes forward so in order to ensure that this moves forward are there steps that we can take so that when we vet all of this out if it's determined that it's a discrete exercise or abroad we still have unlocked some of the potential that currently is locked by the zoning I can see it both ways I can see both ways I mean that's the uncertainty or the gamble on right either way right so my personal preference would be to pick a few things that again we use to unlock the potential of some of these sites so that we are able to encourage development um in whatever way that we can not knowing where MBTA communities is going to get out and then through that process identify how broad because I completely agree with you I would love for this to be brought in in scope and to um unhand cut a lot of the things that were settled but I just don't know again we'll find out through our public meeting process how much appetite there is for that I think I agree what are your thoughts I agree Rachel I think um taking the gradual steps that's incremental that involves the public is more a bit more more perceived than just saying this is the new thing I think that'll be harder to progress and I think going the way we're doing involving it is the way to go I think we have to do more public meetings here and split the public meetings into the areas that actually affected so if your area is affected let's talk to them directly and answer all their questions and then open up to repeat open up to the rest of the town so everybody else knows what we're doing so it's it's gonna have to be two because you can't I think if you get have one meeting you're not going to get all the answers and you're not going to get all the questions and then on here I like this whole setup but I don't see the ARB anywhere here taking the lead on anything I'm just worried that in the past we a bunch of changes were done and recommendations done and then we given it to us at the end and we review it we had we had no I'm gonna say that okay but but we had no we had no review process along the way or we had no input on how things sort of developed and I like to have more of a input in that and say hey yeah so we so maybe we add some more or you know I don't know thoughts close thoughts open thoughts or whatever I agree Ken I think that that's a really important fine and and I have to say having been a part of several joint select board ARB meetings as well-intentioned as they have been they have accomplished very little and I think that we need a few meetings where we accomplished quite a bit during this process please I know at the retreat at least three of you had indicated what you wanted to work directly on this is the idea that these three of you would be a networking group I mean so but I I do take the point that this needs to show more like direct and oral concessions within the area like this kind of thing here we did what we're not hampering by viewing projects we're reviewing other things and we this meeting is just to talk about that is good would the board be interested in potentially regular meetings from a working group I mean I think more communication is referred in this and education too I mean I think a lot of that will point at being not only for the board but for the people who attend the board the three people that's going to be on that it's going to be the majority here already you know so it's you know I know what you need but you know so I think the board would be pretty well informed just because you know there are at least three people at four right Steve no I agree having for our three of us then having you know dedicating a portion of meetings new business or whatever the recapping you know what's what's been done I think is a very logical approach so I think that clarifies some of the what we'd like to see in the project timeline and what we think we'd like to see as part of the MBTA communities the two area the three areas that we think still need to prioritize in terms of industrial business districts and residential housing what we will plan to pursue for April town meeting we could dive into the industrial uses or we could leave that for this year the business districts again I think the I personally would would still like to move a few of these items forward not knowing again what the scope of the MBTA communities peaceful would be I think that the open space requirements the height minimums and and I really like to look at the Arlington High's business districts it's I'm not sure how the rest of the board feels but that's been on our to-do list for quite some time and personally I'd like to prioritize prioritize that over some of these residential housing items which may be actually captured under MBTA community but I'm curious to know what other people would like to prioritize MBTA oh yes that's a given right and we have a whole list there the business in the clarifications and I think that's all I think that's all we could do the three and then as always you can try to see much in to you know just just a timeline that this is really good way to spread out so long so we get involved enough to try to squeeze something in here the only thing I might ask the industrial districts for two reasons one is to decide what to do about the substance and then if the planning department's been approached for various sorts of uses that haven't been allowed I think we need to have a discussion about that to decide whether we want to recommend changes to those uses in the zone because you know it's been in place just a couple years and I think we're learning about what's working and what's not working about it so it might not be a big lift it might just be are there some uses that we want to add and what do we want to do about the self-serve facilities so leave it at that minimum minimum you seem to be stuck on the self-service just just because I'm not I'm not saying it's bad it good but yeah but is is there more coming in or is there a desire not to have any more well I actually have this a slightly different question um are there instances where someone is approached to fighting departments and said I'd like to be such and such in the industrial district and we've said no yeah we recently have done it so again I think it might be looking at how specific some of you know there are how can we encourage more creative the intent was to encourage creative use of that space for the benefit of the town and that is certainly a creative use of the space for the benefit of the town and for the way that it's written it's we're not able to permit it so I think looking at the language in terms of and whether that means we address the self-storage or not but just how broadly can we help identify I'm okay with that that's how I would prefer to look at it I'm just wondering why self-storage came so well I keep well partly because can remember when it was committed it maxed out the floor area ratio that was allowed in its low value commercial it doesn't really yield what the intention of the zoning was so whereas you have like a class a office building that has a certain value just talking about the building itself with storage unit doesn't have that it doesn't come anywhere near it and then if you're looking at jobs if you're looking at creativity if you're looking at a catalyst project it didn't do any of them if now we actually have more of a cluster like storage units I mean and if we want doggy daycare I mean I thought that was supposed to be more of like a creative hybrid of like an innovation space that's how it was built I think to town meeting versus you know more neighborhood serving services and that's fine but I don't know if that was the intention yeah I'm not sure I'm like pro-arquad under doggy daycare but I think it's worth having a discussion about on their uses that that would be appropriate there that right now we can't say yes to yeah that I don't know I don't know what kind of interest we have in that area so I think rather than getting to the weeds on this one right now it sounds like a discussion would be warranted so let's keep that one on our list and then what I would ask is that we work with Kelly and Claire and their team to identify what's been asked what currently is allowed and then we can have an informed discussion around what we may or may not again these are things we're exploring we're not committing that we are absolutely going to take these to town meeting so let's at a future meeting have a discussion about it with the information in front of us that we can have before discussion okay so that one we will move forward to a future meeting clarifications we identified we can move forward and then the other recommendation was to look at some of these items in or all of these in the in the business district and again the list I have is height minimums on mass have the consolidation of the heights business districts open space requirements and rear setbacks and step back requirements for multiple frontages and if you want to focus that as a test case in height I'm okay with that too I'm not saying that you know but I like to leave it broad like that and maybe bring it down later okay I think that's fair I think that's anyone else have a concern I just think we should look at it for the town but we can decide that it's not right to go from there yeah sure it's fine yes well the the one advantage with the heights is that there has already been a public process and there were some recommendations that came out of it we don't necessarily have to go with verbatim you know we could use them as there is something there to use as they start so review consolidating the business districts absolutely will be limited to the heights in terms of our review and then I think in our next discussion the question is these other three items are those specific to all of the business districts or the business districts where they apply representing 25 lot were just in the heights well well if if we want to rely on reports all three things are in the housing production plan and the master plan yes so they're not limited to the heights and so right and I would say again if we're going to apply these we should do with five districts and those districts are found elsewhere in I'm all for that so it's okay it's involvement from us okay something coming up the ending here all right here we go any anything else I hate to say this please go for it I don't think say your piece that we have the bad one to do it okay we're not doing anything about affordable bought and you know specifically says so I don't know what we if we want to do something what we want to do but I just feel like so 40 r is under our MBTA communities best correct that's what we one of the strategies we've identified and so again if we to Melissa's point take a broader view we meet the MBTA communities requirements but then also take a broader view as to what else can we create as part of that so it may go beyond that's that's what's on my list so I have the 20% inclusionary requirements specifically listed under that even though it's not part of that as long as we bookmark it is something that's going to be reviewed yes through MBTA communities that's on that's on my list not simply as part of 40 r correct and I will add that in to make sure that that's clear thank you yeah just study inclusionary zoning percentage with density bonuses right that was the the last one okay I will have that in my list this could evolve okay then we can go back and figure out how we're going to do it okay all right all right so I think that is our path forward and and that concludes agenda item number one and we'll now move to agenda item number two which is the redevelopment board 2023 schedule and Claire or Kelly did you want to highlight anything specific within this we're just looking for feedback to know okay okay um I just I basically pulled every first and third Monday of the month with the exception of those that fall on a holiday as noted in the section below um I you know I have a meeting on every Monday in March just because that's been how it's turned out in the past couple years obviously that's going to depend on the number of zoning amendments in the city's for a while first time I think it was Monday's and Wednesday's in March this past year it got worse yeah I lived on zoom so I'm Arlington Claire so this is just a big yeah yeah yeah yeah so like what what ideally we would love to do is to be able to confirm the schedule through this summer like and I think we could change if the board decides that you want to take a July break instead of an August August break this year um but what would be great is working with our office manager Miran Zinski to determine an overall schedule of when hearing materials need to be submitted when the advertising dates are just so that it's very clear to the public and applicants as well uh the sooner we can have the schedule nailed down the sooner we get that published without an application that sounds good the only question I had and then we'll see other questions that we have I'm assuming that the three meetings in May the May 22nd meeting is just so that again cause our fingers that town meeting is done by by then that we get a meeting in in May in case it is protracted for multiple weeks yeah I think this was kind of modeled after last year's schedule as well yeah to do a number of one hour meetings right because they were right right okay um yeah let's cross our fingers that time being stopped at May 22nd it's less than four weeks yeah it'll be in person cross our fingers for that too in a passive work time where we had a meeting that we just walked over as opposed to you know doing a zoom with it yeah this is good because it allows us to set the other meetings uh on all the boards so we coordinate uh one like the CQA stuff to start up right now so my my thought was um from May we might just want to add an asterisk noting that those are um subject to the town meeting schedule because I just don't know that again if town meeting you know is complete by May 15th that we need to have another meeting on the 22nd as well and and we and we don't know how many special permits and where but do we want to designate which march meetings are the ones that we have special permit hearings or do we want to leave that open for you in the past you looked at opening because we end up having what what I know you try to do in the past is if we do have a special permit hearing we've tried to look back to one night because it all has to be advertised and so it would end up being at the end of the meeting and we just try to limit the number of hearings that you have on top of town meetings. Any other comments or questions on the schedule? Thanks. Thank you for putting that together. That's good. Do we need to move acceptance or adoption? Do we need to approve this? I think we've done that. Let's go ahead and do that. I don't know that we do but might as well. Is there a motion to approve the January through July 2023 meeting schedule as submitted? So moved. Very second. Take a vote. Ken? Yes. Gene? Yes. Who is that? Yes. Steve? Yes. And I'm a yes as well. That is approved. Thank you very much and that closes agenda item number two. We will now move to agenda item number three which is open forum. I invite any member of the public who's joining us this evening to raise your hand if you'd like to speak. You'll have up to three minutes to address the board and I ask that you introduce yourself by your first, last name and address. Please go ahead. I'm Worden. Tell me you remember Precinct K. I want to thank the board for having a real meeting instead of a Zoom meeting on it. Among those who are really sick of Zoom meetings and it's nice to see people in real succession. However, I have to note that the unamplified voices of the board members in this spacious hall have made at least 50% of the audience we did not have the wisdom of much of what you said. Except Mr. Lowell. Anyway, I looked over this list of facts to your agenda of several six pages of stuff that we found located from one or another of the documents and 52 years of looking at zoning I've never seen so many bad ideas on a single page, single document over it. So I want to give you a few ideas for some things that you should consider. One would be looking at 40B to establish a swing chest to get an institutional zone in which you would put cemeteries, playgrounds, town hall, fire station, police station, libraries, churches, and so on in a zone and take it out of our one so that the 1.5% of residential zone property in the town would be easily met. Those properties have been in our one just because nobody ever, when they did that, they never thought of such an evil thing as 40B would come along. That's something we really should be looking at, a swing chest to get it, and you can look at their violence in details. The other next thing I would suggest is that my opinion is not really a housing shortage. There's a shortage of housing that people have for it and there are a lot of houses in this town and for other towns in the post war small houses that could go to families, starting families, or older people who want to move in from their large house to a new house, but they never get to it on the market. They're double up like developers to tear them down and put up a big mansion before it was a two-family zone, a oversized townhouse. And I suggest if you look at the type of zoning, if they are or set back rules or whatever, open space requirements to try to preserve those houses for the people who need them. Developers don't need to make any more money by building mansions for computers, computers, and companies. They need the ordinary people who are always scared of it, having to be able to live in the house. We are. Over time, if you have another point you'd like to make, we'll certainly take that over time. Okay, well, let me just go wrap up. I really have more to say than that. You're more than, we'd love if you would like to submit anything in writing. We'd be more than happy to review that as well. Okay, well, let me just say, let me say two more sentences if I may, Madam Chair. One, I think mixed use, you should require at least 20% of the commercial non-residential so that it's not just an excuse to build a big apartment building, open shopping apartment. The other thing is on the MBTA community, I think we have the obligation not to sell our neighbors of East Garland to the Downing River in order to satisfy the whims of whoever put that stupid legislation in. I have a plan that I think would deal with that without sticking it to the friends of East Garland. Thank you. Thank you very much. Please. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm Carl Wayne, I'm leaving Precinct 15 on Edge Hill Road. I wanted to say it's so important that ACMI is here today and I've heard you say that within a month or two you will be getting the hybrid meetings going again because we have four members of the public as far as I can tell here and what you're talking about is very important. I'd also like to say it's great to see the new director planning. Thank you and welcome to the town and thank you to the volunteers and the board for being here. I think it's very important to the audio comment that Mr. Warden made isn't here to it and improve it. I'm sitting in the front row actually it's the end row also the only row here tonight and I'm 50 and I couldn't hear any except the best strongest voice right here. The rest of you have great voices but it's hard to hear you and the sound is not adequate. It's noted. Thank you. Thank you. I wanted to point out that the MBTA density is already achieved in Arlington. You probably all know this. I don't know if people watching you know that 15 units per acre is already achieved and it's really it's so frustrating that we in Massachusetts could not fix the MBTA overlay to acknowledge what Arlington has already done as its share in building good density. So I hope that we consider do we need this mass housing money or can we fight as a group of communities in New England in Massachusetts to acknowledge that Arlington is already in the dense bucket. I'd like to point out that on that packet of six pages that Mr. Warden referred to yes there are some very admirable things that might help our climate resiliency and might help our affordability but as he said there are some detestable options in there. Do people realize that making single family housing might become potentially something you have to get special permit for or that making a building more building with only one floor might be illegal. Property owners and renters and users of Arlington they are the ones who we all live and work with and I think that the town manager and by extension the director of planning work for the people who rent and own here whether they are business owners or whether they are residences and all of us volunteers who come to these meetings or are present in the commissions we have to recognize that we don't work for Metro Boston organizations like MAPC we don't work for developers who aren't here yet we work for the people who live and work in the town already and as far as the housing crisis which we know there is a housing crisis it's not a quantity crisis it's an affordability crisis there is so much housing but it's not in Arlington other places are cheaper Arlington is the second most dense town in Arlington in Massachusetts we need to look at affordability climate resiliency equity and inclusion and diversity of people and homes and building structures we really have to work as as Mr. Warden said not to sell people down the river like East Arlington people who are living in two families there suddenly looking at their neighborhoods destroyed by huge multi-family units that don't really have any rules on them we have to look at the people who are single families to say oh you live in a single family that's okay too you're right in time thank you thank you thank you there are only four of us but I think a three-minute limit seems you know whatever here you go um Kelly would you just like to to clarify for our folks who are joining us through ACMI whether Arlington does or does not meet the density requirements? Sure so we actually haven't done that calculation to understand density yet but what we do know is that we don't allow three families by right which is a key component of MBTA community so we have to allow at least zone we have to have a zoning district of reasonable size it's going to be at least 32 acres it doesn't have to be connected to Aleway for in East Arlington it could be anywhere in Arlington because of the revised DHC guidelines and that district does have to allow at least three families by right so we don't have any districts that allow three families by right at all. Appreciate the clarification. Thank you. Any other members of the public who have not spoken who would like to speak this evening? Okay with that we will close open forum and move to our next agenda item which is new business for any new business. I have two announcements what one announcement one update so this board at one point had said that a goal for this year would be to look at commercial design guidelines hire potentially a consultant who could help us put together a design guidelines much like we do the residential design guidelines. I am currently reviewing a draft RFQ for that consultant so we aren't going to be ahead of that and I'm going to have that draft to share with you a certain environment stating it properly before. And the other announcement that I have is that our senior transportation planner Dan and that's leaving us for VHB one. We just have to just so it will be hiring a transportation planner ASAP that I said please make your announcements to everyone you can because we're going to try to get this out as much as possible. Obviously we will very very much miss Dan he's been great. We will miss him he has been a wonderful asset to the to the team. Yeah so we're down another you know senior planner someone at that at that level I will say that I have received to date seven applications for the FNR development board in precision and Kelly and I will be resuming this is number one on my best day of the morning. We'll be looking through those and we have some really great panelists. You're testing. Pretty exciting. So can I ask how long Dan has lived us through? Dan he will his last date is eight. Okay I believe. But he is going to his last day in the office is Any questions for the personal announcements? Sorry. I'm just curious is there I mean with VHB email I mean say that current in general you know he's having more trouble keeping track I don't know there was any kind of indication that's interesting I asked I actually asked him though I said you know could you give me would you give me an opportunity to match I'm not even sure if that's my budget I don't know and he said you know whatever it was I also don't think you could match what you know all the consultancies are stacking up because there will be very very soon quite a bit of infrastructure funding coming and all that's going to happen is I mean as Kelly's will be awarded and the first thing we're going to do is hire an engineer so those shops are really really they're stepping up and they're stealing I was just wondering if it was a remote or any other kind of pertain that you know not really in fact he told me he's going to stay in the area for a little while his job is actually this one's based in West Virginia so they will eventually have to be able to find out. Thanks. Sure thank you for the update. Any other business please? Is it loud? Project. They could have said something. We'll work on that in the future that is noted and it was a good feedback and we'll take that absolutely absolutely. Any heads up of any potential projects especially for every time we go this this winter let's let's leave it this winter that you know that we've sort of been thinking of or some of that I just you know I always get nervous when there's meeting after the meeting it is no special project we're not going anywhere. So 80 Broadway's going to be scheduled to November 7th um even a number of signs that are coming up I know that's not the kind of project you're probably asking about um and then it does seem like 645 mass ad will be coming back the the not your average dose so that will be a project that is uh that will be coming back probably this fall. That's as far as I know so far um there's a couple of other like you know I hear from various attorneys and whatnot and I just they haven't materialized into real application yet so I'm just kind of waiting. Yeah I'm just curious but because of that some of the zoning changes we've done are they still waiting for that to go official like some parking reductions and increase uh well they were just the new ones were just closed it today okay yeah so and that is as applicants have been as people have been contacting our department have been alerting them to the fact that those zoning changes are coming and now that they're posted they're they're retroactive to the date of time meeting so they're actually in effect as of April um so that's what I haven't heard anything about the industrial districts the doggie take care was just a a use that wanted to go into an existing building so. We just want to hear any of our changes to make any of the fact or anything I want to understand that. Thank you. So I just wanted to mention that in the spring I think the MBTA started a call together with us project and which I felt was terrible for Ellington and I don't know that to select they weren't commented on it I did go they didn't I went to some of the meetings and other boards and other elected officials from other communities weighed in on what they felt the negative aspects for their communities I don't know if anybody in the community weighed in on what I felt was negative um and for those of you who don't know the number 67 bus would be eliminated that goes from Sins to Ellington Center right Sins to Ellington Center down Pleasant Street and to um LL so we eliminate one of the major bus routes to and from LL that picked up a lot of people along that route somebody not me actually posted signs along Pleasant Street that said do something about this that didn't take away our bus and I often used to take the bus so I knew a lot of people took it um it also would end the 84 bus that goes from LL to Ellington Heights it would reduce the frequency of the 78 bus that goes from Ellington Heights to Harbin Square from one so we were crossing the 20 minutes to a head hour to once every hour it would create a 54 bus that goes from Ellington Center to Rotham but not to any of the employment areas in Rotham not to 128 and not to Brandenburg so for Belmont and the circuitous route that I don't think anybody would take well there are lots of comments the T's having a public Zoom meeting on November 2nd I think about it and they're coming out with their new revised better bus plan they said before that so people might want to take a look at it and also they propose to eliminate 79 bus which they haven't learned in a long time this is all concerning because one of the things that we've said is Ellington has good public transportation because there's a lot of ways to get to LA and UNO and ways to get to Davis Square and Porter Square and they're eliminating a significant number of those public transportation routes so I think we should pay attention and maybe at the next meeting we'll see what it is if there's time to comment and we might go and work with the staff and comment on it so those are showing us the time we're going to do it sure okay thank you G I appreciate you bringing that to our attention it's helpful any other new business I'll just note that um at our as I mentioned during the question at our next meeting there is a series of decision points that's been created by the remote participation study group that we will need to discuss amongst ourselves and come with come up with a plan so that we can begin hybrid meetings as part of the program so that's something that we can discuss on the 7th I can just add that um Jim Finney is trained me in how to use the need for it so we're pretty much set up to go just want to get the protocol in place great it's going to be this room that's that's the plan so we can talk about that as well as any implication that we might want to I think it's yeah maybe just balancing that lower yeah so maybe we had the select board set up everybody had to do a little microphone in front of them because that was quite that maybe we can convince them to start meeting on Wednesday so that we can get their chambers on that's for another time any other new business all right um is there a motion to adjourn so motion I'll second I'll take a vote can yes gene yes do you want to say yes Steve yes and I think yes as well meeting is adjourned thank you