 As well get underway. We're also joined by the applicant. Welcome Melissa. Thank you for being here. So if I'll wait for the keep the thumbs up from Meredith, and then I'll kick things off. All right, there it is. Thank you. Welcome everybody to the city of Montpelier Development Review Board. It is Tuesday, September 7. My name is Kate McCarthy and I chair the DRB. What I'd like to do by way of introduction of the other members is call people's names and just have them say hello. So, Rob. Oh, I'm a rocket one member of the DRB. Thanks. Michael. Good evening. Good evening, Michael. Abby. Hey, Abby here. Hello, Abby. Joe. Hello, this is Joe. Hi, Joe. And our newest member, Catherine. Hi everyone, Catherine Burgess. It's my first meeting today. Welcome Catherine. And is Jean here? Is that Jean? Hello, Jean. Hi, which way am I looking? That camera is to say hi to people. But if you look, oh that camera. Okay. It's good to see you from all angles, Jean. Yeah, good to be here. Thanks. And Kevin. Great. So if I'm counting correctly, we have eight members here, including myself. So what we will want to do, I think right now is determine which member will be observing and not voting and I think the kind of default thing to do would be Jean, if you would participate. You're welcome to participate, but perhaps not vote since you're an alternate. If that would suit you. I really, really appreciate your being here. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your kind of introductions. I will say, um, very glad to have a new member here and we'll have it take a little time at the end of the meeting to just do a round, the around Robin for folks to say a little bit more about themselves, but that so we can do that later. But that's longer than I usually take. Oh yeah, go ahead. Catherine. Could you just wait so I could see. Oh. Oh, thanks very much. Thank you for asking for that. Great. Meeting has been called to order so before we go any further, I'm going to turn things over to Meredith to review the remote meeting procedures and process. Okay, so we don't have any members of the public other than our applicant on, but Melissa has not participated in a hearing this way and neither has Catherine. So I'm going to probably go through the whole spiel, especially because we have everybody pretty much on remote except for two members and myself. So I'm going to share my screen. And go into my slide show and the slide show is really more for people watching via orca who might want to participate. So for those viewing this meeting via orca media, if you want to participate, once you once the meeting gets started and you hear something interesting that you want to comment on, you can do so by using this link here. And that will take you right into the zoom meeting platform and let you participate and watch anything that we do on share screen, all of those opportunities. You can also call in this phone number and using this meeting ID, and then you'll at least be able to hear and speak as to what's going on. If anybody is trying to log in and is having problems, please email me I'll be monitoring my email throughout the meeting. So for those attending via zoom and doing this for the first time, turning your video on is optional. And actually, if you're having problems with bandwidth, the first thing I suggest is to turn your video off. And that can often help keep that the meeting run more smoothly other another option is to turn off other applications that you may have open. I can always share meeting materials on my screen so that you don't even have to have Adobe or anything open on yours if that's causing issues. So for those attending, please keep your microphone on mute when you're not speaking this will reduce background noise. We don't have anybody on via phone today but if anybody logs on via phone. So using star six will mute and unmute you the zoom chat function that should only be used for troubleshooting or logistics questions. If you have a question or comment about an actual item on the agenda, please raise your hand, either physically if you've got your video on or by using the raise hand button on your zoom toolbar. And, you know, wait, wait to speak until the chair is recognized you. Once the chair is recognized someone to participate, please make sure to provide your full name and address for the record we don't really need to do that for anybody on right now. Because we know who everybody is right now but this is if somebody else logs in as a public participant. All right, in the event the public is unable to access this meeting, it will need to be continued to a time and place certain that's one reason I'm monitoring my email. I'll now hand this back over to the chair. Very good. Thank you Meredith. The next item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as printed. Oh, second. Motion by Kevin. Second. Second. Because we're still in this hybrid format I am going to do the motion. All right, so we have a motion and a second. Kevin. Oh, yes. I'm just gonna say you're, I don't know about anybody else here you're, you're just it's stuttering a bit. So I don't know if you want to try and turn off your video or something else. I'll turn off my video. Let's try that for a bit. Thanks for letting me know I can also switch to phone if that's. This sounds good. I can't regarding call the roll. Kevin. Yes. Okay, thank you. Rob. Yes. Michael. Wasn't at the July meeting. We're just approving the agenda now. Oh the agenda. Okay, I approve that then. Excellent. Easy. Abby. Yes. Catherine. Yes. Joe. Yes. And I vote yes. We've approved the agenda. And that was a good test to see how the sound is working. Can you. For me. All right. Okay. Thanks. Great. So the next item on the agenda is comments for the chair. And as I did last time, I want to thank you all just in advance for, I want to thank all of you for joining me. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. It's a great experience. I really appreciate that we have the ability to continue this thing with in-person and remote options. I thank all of you who are there, especially our technical folks, Meredith. And Rob from Orca. Keeping it all streaming. And people should continue to use option that makes sense for them. And we'll continue to all do our best together. So thank you for that. And thank you so much for joining me. And I'm happy to be here today as a new member. Really grateful that she has stepped forward to serve and work with all of us. And we'll chat a little more at the end and get to know each other a little bit better as best as we can in this environment. So welcome. So move on to item six, which is the minutes. We're going to vote on the minutes of July 6th and of August 16th. We're going to vote on the minutes of July 6th. And we're going to vote on Rob, Abby and Jean, who are eligible to vote on the minutes. And we are all present. So let's, let's go ahead and do that. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of July 6th, 2021? So. Just had one suggestion. Motion by Jean. Hold on a second. I had a, I had a change. Let's get a, let's get a second and then discuss it. Yeah. I second it. Yeah. Okay. Is there any discussion? Yeah. I just want a quick change. It's worth noting in, see what is it? Page. Second page. The second paragraph. Maybe adding. Yeah. After the last sentence or added onto the last sentence that. Was not sworn in as a witness. So she attended his counsel, but I think it'd be good to clarify somewhere in advance that that did not happen. I just raised a point for discussion there. Rob. Legal representation is not. That's what I was looking for. Typically sworn in. You get a pass on that. Well, so what I could do is at the end here. Brook Dingledine was in attendance as counsel for Ms. O'Connor and the Copeland's comma and therefore was not sworn in as a witness. That's what I was looking for. Just for clarity. It's redundant, but. Yeah. No, I understand where you're going with that. It makes sense. Okay. Thank you, Rob. Thanks all for the discussion. Is that. Is. Is that acceptable to the person made the motion? Jean. Yes, absolutely. Yes. Great. All right. Let's go ahead and. Let's go ahead and vote on those minutes. And if there's no further discussion. Okay. I'll call the roll. Kevin. Yes. Yes. Yes. Sorry. Okay. How about Abby? Yes. And I vote. I vote yes. And Jean. Yes. Thank you. We've approved the minutes of July 6th. 2021. And then the meetings of August 16th, 2021. Are there any modifications or corrections to those minutes from those who were there? Make a motion. To approve the minutes of. August 16th. Seconded. Thank you. Motion by Rob. Second by Joe. Great. We'll call the roll. All those in favor of Rob. Yes. Yes. Michael. Yes. Joe. Yes. And I vote yes. Oh, sorry, Joe. Okay. I'm experiencing a bit of delay from my sound. So what I'm going to try and do is log off of the computer sound and call in on my telephone. So if you all wouldn't mind waiting for, for 30 seconds while I do that, I'll be right there. Sorry. All right, everybody. How's that? Sounds good so far. You're coming in. All right. Oh, good. So that's an improvement. Thank you. Thank you for your patience. Okay. So without, without further ado or suspense. Let's move on to our business this evening. We have an application for 11 Ridge street, which is a request for driveway improvements with reduced minimum distance from the adjacent driveway. So I'll, I'll welcome Melissa and let you and other board members know how we usually go about these reviews. So what we do is we swear in anybody who wishes to be heard on the issue, the person applying and anyone who wishes to speak. We get an overview of the project for Meredith. We'll hear from, from you, Melissa, anything that you'd like to add. And then we'll walk through the staff report with, or the board may ask questions after you give your initial initial presentation. With this, we're going to really focus on the driveway spacing question. And then we can go back and answer any forward questions about other criteria that we need to assure our match. All right. That's what we're going to do. I'm going to try my video again. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. All right. Great. So, Melissa, what I'd like to do first is swear you in as a witness. So if you would please raise your right hand. And then we'll administer the oath. Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing, but the truth under the pains and penalties of perjury. Is he nodding? You can unmute yourself. Sorry. Yes, I do. Thank you. I thought you would thank you. Very good. All right. Now we'll move on and receive an overview of the project from Meredith. Meredith, you are on. Thank you. Thank you. So normally a project that's the small where they're just widening the driveway. A lot of times would just be an administrative permit. But in this instance, we have an interesting situation where. It's a shared curb cut and was actually at one point, a shared driveway. There's, there's, you can see in the photographs that there's almost like a railroad line. So it's a shared driveway. It's a shared driveway when you get further back from the actual edge of the road. And so really it, it's been counted as a shared driveway under the V trans standards. Because for the Vermont transportation and therefore the department of public works standards to be separate driveways, there has to be at least four feet between them. And so we're going to be able to separate those driveways with a, a planted area in between. That at the road right of way is going to be over four feet wide. So under our, the other, the Vermont transportation and DPW standards, these are now two separate driveways. But these two separate driveways are closer together than I can improve administratively. So we're going to, we're going to go to the, to the board to look at the site specific conditions and decide whether or not you guys are willing to approve this separation distance. That's less than the minimum standard. You know, and that minimum standard doesn't mean it can't be approved. It just means that it needs to go through some extra hurdles. The board needs to look at it. And normally we get, you know, we're going to have to look at it. And as long as we've got this minimum spacing of. Over four feet. Department of public works is okay with this. But the board still has to go through the criteria. And make sure that they're happy with it. Under section 3010. That's what I've got. All right. Thanks, Meredith. I'm going to ask Melissa, if there's anything you'd like to add, please go right ahead. No, I think Meredith explained the whole thing really. I'm just looking to go from one parking space to two parking spaces. And in order to do that, I need to separate from my neighbor. Okay. And the width, the new width of the driveway is what will allow you to go to two spaces instead of one. Right. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. That's a great name. Right. Is it Melissa or Melissa? It's Melissa. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Sorry. I should have asked that center. Okay. Well, great. Board members, are there any clarifying questions right off, right off the bat before we get into the criteria? Yes. From, from me, Kevin. Or go ahead, Kevin. The question I have. This would be for Melissa. Do you have plans to move the. This would appears to be the small garage or shed. At the end of the drive. No. So that'll stay exactly where it is. It's just the actual. Drive itself that is involved in this application. That's correct. Okay. Thank you. Thanks Kevin. Other other clarifying questions. Okay. Well, let's, let's do this. Let's go right to page six of the staff report. This is section 3010 access and circulation. And this section of our zoning bylaw is about promoting safe, safe movement onto a site within a site for people walking, biking or driving. And so one of the standards within that is that in this case, if we look at the, if we look at the district res three, there needs to be a minimum of 45 feet between residential driveways. And typically we, we look at that across the street. We look at it down the street. And in this case, we're looking at them side by side. So. Meredith, it says that. We are considering this. We're using our discretion as a board and our standard is considering the site and street conditions. Do we grant an exception based on site and street conditions? Do we need to consider or evaluate? That's really what you've got. That's the criteria that the board's authorized to do in, you know, with residential driveways, you know, if this were a commercial driveway, there's more standards, but here it's, it's a residential driveway. So it's really left to your discretion. And that's why we tend to get as much information we can, including from the department of public works as to what, what the criteria are and how they feel about the safety. Okay. All right. So maybe I'll kick it off with one question for Melissa and then others can ask questions to get information that they might need beyond within the application. So could you describe for us, Melissa, how these, I'm interested in the function of the driveways because part of the reason for the standard is a safety function. So you're going from. You're going from two driveways like this to two driveways like this and one of them is wider. Is that accurate? That's accurate. Okay. And can you say anything about whether or how this will have an impact on the way that cars come and go from the site? And if that. How, how, how will the driveways function differently or, or will they function the same with this change? I don't think there'll be much impact on the neighborhood unless I'm not thinking about something, but, um, I think it's going to have more impact, positive impact for us because right now my daughter has to park in the street, which it's a narrow. If anybody knows red street, I'm at the end of it. And it's very, very narrow. So, um, you know, it's hard for, you know, it's hard for bigger trucks to get by if there's a car in the street. And then the winter time when there's a parking van, it's almost impossible to park in the street because there's snow cover. And the, the distance between the, um, snow banks, a parked car only leaves a very small strip. So even the mail carrier can't get by. So, you know, the, the winter parking is really where it's going to benefit us right now. She can park out in the street, but, uh, in the winter, it wouldn't be safe. Okay. Thanks. Um, so it sounds like. This will improve. The flow of traffic. In the neighborhood by virtue of having the car off the street. Um, But what questions do folks have about this? Yes. I don't know who this is a question for, but I'm curious as to why the department of public works. Said that they would have, they're okay with it as long as there's a four foot. At least a four foot. Distance between the two. What's kind of magical about four feet? Um, that is a Vermont transportation standard that is in flows down into the department of public work street standards. Um, for, for the V trans, the state standard to have them be counted as two separate driveways. They have to be at least four feet apart. And then, building on that the maximum width allowed for a residential driveway under the V trans standard is 24 feet. So for, for the new, the moved driveway to be able to be 24 feet wide, it has to be at least four feet separated from the two driveways. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. The matter for you saying it can't be 24 feet wide unless it's also four feet apart. Just from a, on the ground, leaving aside the V trans standards is, is that four foot separation also necessary to align the new width where it needs to be? Or is the four foot purely a, a V trans and V, V sub. Any one standard. Uh, the, the, well. Um, so the four foot. The four foot separation. I don't, I don't have it. It's not purely V trans because DP for, for Melissa to get the construction and access permit she needs from department of public works to widen her driveway to 24 feet. It has to be moved at least four feet from the adjacent driveway. It has to be its own driveway. To be able to be a 24 foot width. Um, I don't, I don't, I feel like I'm talking in circles. I'm sorry. No, you're doing, you're doing all right. I'm thinking in circles. Um, so this is, this is because the town has adopted the V trans standards. So it's not V trans is if we're not indicating V trans. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry, Joe. Um, and, um, it's that the 24 foot wide driveway will only be approved. If it's also uphold the other standard as adopted by the town. Great. And those, those numbers are not in the zoning regulations at all, except that. Section 30, 10. Incorporates the DPW and the V trans standards. Like it has to meet those as part of 30, 10. Okay. I think where I'm going with this is perhaps more a policy question than an interpretation of our bylaws and you know, forgive me for that, but it seems like what we're doing by requiring that four foot strip is creating a little more work for the applicant and creating a much wider curb cuts than there would otherwise be. And usually we don't want wide curb cuts. Um, but here we are. That's true. Um, and, but it's, it's a. Um, it also will create a pervious area in between those two driveways for things like snow melt and other other runoff issues. Um, while also still allowing Melissa to have that increased parking area. That can be has room for, you know, snow storage and snow movement. You know, I can, I can only speculate, but, uh, the, the purpose of the four foot, uh, dimension is, is also, uh, to have a viable separate, a viable, uh, uh, planning area. I mean, less than four feet kind of, you kind of defeat the purpose. It's going to be tough to keep anything viable. Um, in a high saline environment. Uh, this, uh, the four feet just gives us a standard, which is already been worked out by. Uh, the trans and DPW. Okay. Yeah. So for future screening opportunities, if, if, if someone wants to do that. Um, thank you. And I should say my, my questions are like carry-on. The policy on the ground more than concern about the application itself. So, um, thank you for bearing with me. Um, what else would, um, are there other questions from DRB members that would help them consider, consider this request. So if you think of something pipe up, but in the meantime, I will say that, um, it is our job to determine whether or not to grant an exception to the minimum. Um, the staff recommendation is that we do grant that requested exemption, given that it complies with the standards we've discussed. It's substantially similar to what is there now. And meeting those standards is not possible on the site. Um, and as we just described, it's still going to be a continuous curb cut. There's still going to be a continuous curb cut. There's still going to be a continuous curb cut. Um, and as we just described, it's still going to be a continuous curb cut. There's just going to be a little more space between the parking spaces. So that, that's that recommendation. Um, does anyone want to, any concerns about that recommendation or questions about this section of the, of the zoning? Rob, I saw your unmuted. I want to make sure we get you if you have a question. Oh, no questions about that specifically. I just, is my understanding that there's no connection between the work on the retaining wall and the driveway. Um, and this, uh, curb cut and that those are completely separate projects. It's not, it's not a separately permitted project. It's part of this permit. It's just that it's been evaluated already. And I would have disapproved it administratively. So that's, it's in here in the dimensional. I folded that special standards into the, um, the, um, three zero zero two and three zero zero three analysis versus having a whole separate special use standards because it's a wall. So really the only thing that comes into play is the height. Um, And, and it meets those requirements and there's no changing of slopes. So we don't have to worry about that. And it's a very, very low wall. Um, so that will be approved here as well. So I guess, you know, our. The, the motion to grant approval at the end could probably be modified to about the 24 foot wide driveway and the. Max two foot retaining wall could be thrown in there, I guess, in the motion. That was maybe an oversight on my part. Is there more information that folks are interested in having about the wall in order to be assured that the. Dimensional standards. So anything you want to talk about? Okay. Um, what I'd like to just do then is open it up to board members. Are there, are there other sections here where we're going mostly with the general standards. Um, uses, dimensional standards, demolition riparian areas, wetlands, rental pool, steep floats, erosion control, storm water management. Are there, are there any, any questions or information that you'd like to have about any of these criteria? And you can just start speaking if you have something to say, because my video is still luggage. I would say Kate that I'm satisfied with the information as presented. Okay. Thank you, Kevin. Um, with that comment and hearing no other questions, um, is there a motion to approve the request for a driveway with less than minimum spacing and. The retaining wall. Is there a motion? I'll make the, I'll make the motion. Thank you. Um, is there a second? Second. Second from Joe motion from Kevin second from Joe. Is there any further discussion? Right. I will call the roll. Kevin. Yes. Rob. Yes. Michael. Yes. Abby. Yes. Yes. Joe. Yes. And I vote yes as well. The motion passes unanimously. Um, thank you all for your questions and discussion. Um, at this point, um, the Meredith will issue a written decision within 45 days. Um, after which there is an appeal period for 30 days. If you have questions about what that means for making decisions about your project, I recommend chatting with Meredith. Um, after the meeting. Um, but that concludes our review of the, of the application. Really appreciate your participation, Melissa. And good luck with your project. All right. Thanks. Everybody. I appreciate it. You're welcome. Good night. All right. Oh, great. Everybody. Thank you. We have a light agenda today. So, um, what I'd like to do now is move on to item eight other business. The first item there is that our next meeting is September 20th. Um, 2021. Um, another piece of other business that I think you're aware of, but I should say publicly is that this is my near to last meeting. Um, as chair and on the DRB that's hard to say out loud. Um, but that's, that's what we're doing for now. And I appreciate you all being so supportive of, of that decision. I really like the sport. And know that it will carry on just fine. Um, so what I'd like to do is just take, you know, 10 or 12 minutes if you all wouldn't mind. Um, really happy to welcome Catherine and just thought it would be really nice if, if we could take this time to each take a minute or so say hello. Say who we are. Um, you can say one or two things about yourself. Um, those can be personal or professional or your favorite ice cream, whatever you like, whatever you want to share. Um, and if you. If you really feel like making it, turning into a fun ice breaker, you can say what you love about the DRB or something that you've enjoyed learning or find interesting about this, or you can completely skip that question because some people hate ice breakers and that's okay. Okay. Could I just ask just sort of a general foundational question with regards to this discussion. Sure. Should we be, should we be an open session or in deliberative session? I throw that out for the board's consideration. I hadn't thought about it one way or another. Um, Meredith, do you want to advise on that? I mean, if all we're doing is introducing ourselves, I think that can be open. That's open meeting. That's fine. Um, you know, that's, that's the public, if there's any public actually watching this on Orca, who knows, am I entertaining them as well? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's just a matter of what, what level of detail we get into. I mean, discussing, uh, chair, uh, succession and that kind of thing. That should definitely be done. Right. Well, or kind of have a chance to get up early. Right. Um, we, um, we won't be discussing, discussing any, um, board personnel. This is, this is just a very casual chance to do introductions. And I, I'm totally supportive of the direction we're going in. Okay. Great. And people, um, I, I won't be labored any further. We'll just get started. Um, I'd be glad to go first and then I'll hand it over to Catherine. Um, and we'll go from there. Okay. So, um, you know, my name, my name is Kate McCarthy. I served on the board since about 2012 when I started as an alternate. Um, I later became a regular member and the vice chair and then chair. Um, I'm a land use planner by training and I've done that work in a variety of ways in Vermont, uh, related to environment and communities. Um, I live in a small house in town where I can walk around and that's one of the things I really enjoy about being in this place. Um, I've been very glad to serve on this board and get to meet a lot of people who are doing really interesting things with, with their property and in their neighborhoods. So something I really appreciate having a window into. That's me. Um, so Catherine, if you'd like. Great to meet everyone and looking forward, I hope to meeting folks in person at some point. I'm Catherine Burgess and this is, as you know, my first meeting with the DRB. I'm a land use planner by background, but I've worked in national policy for the past like 10, 15 years. So I'm really excited to serve on the DRB to both get to know Montpelier better. I just moved in the past year and to, you know, do service for the community and also to, um, you know, get to get nitty gritty with zoning here because right now in a national job, I'm often kind of at the 30,000 foot view. So I work for smart growth America remotely. They're DC based advocacy organization. And I previously worked in urban resilience, the urban land institute. So, you know, always looking at kind of national land policy trends. So something I hope I can bring to the board is knowledge of like best practices and trends in other regions nationally. And yeah, that's that's a little bit about me professionally and personally, you know, being new to Montpelier, I've just, yeah, love getting to know the community. And I've got two kids and live near the rec center. Yeah. Great. Thank you so much. All right. Next, I'm going to turn it over to Kevin. If that's all right with you. Oh, sure. So I'm Kevin O'Connell. And, um, I've been a member of the board for, for a few years. And, uh, thoroughly enjoy my involvement. As a way of kind of paying back the community, which I, which I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoy here. In, uh, in Montpelier. Um, I am recently retired from state service, uh, most recent, uh, position and I was a contracting grants manager for the health department. And I retired right before the sky fell with the COVID, which was really kind of interesting. I don't know if I was glad or not about that. I spent most of my time in state service, though, as a, as a budget and management analyst in the governor's office. And, uh, my, if I go back to quite a few more years, um, my graduate education as a landscape architecture and urban studies. And, uh, I sort of took a turn about 30 years ago, which led me away from that and more into administrative financial types of things. But yeah, I live here in Montpelier, lived here. You know, most of my life. And, um, uh, have no plans to do, to move anywhere else. I have plans to do a lot of traveling, however, and sort of sums it up. Um, I mean, I'm really hoping that, uh, we can get clear of this, uh, this persistent virus, which is, which is playing havoc with our, uh, with our lives. So anyway, good to meet you. Thanks, Kevin. You're here. Um, Rob, would you mind going next? Oh, absolutely. Um, yeah, I'm a Rob Goodwin. I've lived in Montpelier for. Oh, five, four, five years now, I think. Um, I don't know the pandemic counts is like five years. So in 10 years, like, I don't know, like what the formula is, but, um, I, um, I'm a background in land surveying. The work is a, um, survey project manager at an engineering firm of offices, actually in Montpelier now, um, called VHP. Um, and most of our work, um, is supporting engineering and transportation, uh, projects and utility work around the state. Um, previously I worked for four or five years doing primarily residential survey works and also divisions and, um, you know, site plan type, uh, type work. And, um, I, uh, yeah, I grew up in the, at Rondack's in upstate New York. Um, and, uh, if you see someone really muddy up, like in a gravel roads, it's could be me, but also it could be a bunch of other great people in this town like do that too. So that's, that's really good for fun. Yeah. Well, thanks, Rob. Um, Michael, would you mind going next? Sure. Uh, my name is Michael. I worked for the town of Stowe Oak Creek department. Actually worked with, uh, one of Rob's colleagues today, Brita on a. No renovation projects I have going on in Stowe. Uh, moved back to Vermont. I think it was in 2018, like Rob said, I think it's been a while. I think it's been a while. Has slow down and sped up with the pandemic. And I think the DRB is, is fun because of, uh, All the quirky neighbors you get to meet and all the things that they like to argue about. So I think for me, it's, it's fun. I've been in a lot of Western towns. And it's a good opportunity being in the Northeast because you can actually be a part of, uh, small town government. Um, Abby, can I turn to you? So hi, Abby white. I'm Montpelier resident and I've lived here for. Uh, I don't. Maybe nine years. I can't really remember. I have to go back to like my children and how old they are. Um, I think eight years. And I have two kids in the schools. I have a, um, I have two kids in the school. Um, I'm a eighth grader and a fifth grader. And, um, For professionally, I'm the vice president for, um, strategic communication at the Vermont land trust. So my professional background has been in. Marketing communications. Um, previously I was with efficiency. And I worked in the energy sector. Um, and I've experienced as a coach in my career in marketing communications roles. Um, Gosh, when would I love about the DRP. I mean, it's like, you never know what you're gonna get. No, Every, every meeting is different. Every, every case that we review is different. and to be involved with the the city in a way that's kind of like pretty nitty gritty but very impactful you know quality of life here. Thanks Abby. Joe would you go next? Sure my name is Joe Kiernan. I've lived here in Montpelio with my wife for about eight years now. We moved up. I grew up in Massachusetts went to school in Pennsylvania and I followed her up here when she got a job up here. She actually now works for the same company Rob works for VHB. Previously it was the Johnson company but they got bought. I work as a civil engineer for VTrans and the roadway design group so I design roads all day. Previously I worked as a environmental consultant for a little while and also as a contractor doing utility installation and road work. A little bit about me it's hard to think about anything else right now. Today my wife is 39 weeks pregnant so things are happening quickly probably but not as quick as she would like. So it's a good chance by the next meeting the family will be three instead of two. Wow. Congratulations. Thanks. Keep us posted if you like. Great. Gene. Hi Catherine. It's nice to meet you and welcome to the DRB. I've been in Vermont over 20 years in Montpelio about everyone forgets about five six years. Yeah and this is right here the DRB's bible. I have a phone before you. I brought it. The best tool. I'm an independent contractor in town and I manage a few properties in town. I'm also an upcycled repurposed artist involved with central Vermont recycling and I'm a local business owner. So yeah this is being involved with the DRB is a great opportunity to meet many in our community and assist and learn and be a part of the applicants challenges and agendas. So welcome. Thank you Gene and last but certainly not least Meredith. Thanks Kate. Hi Catherine. So I will try to keep this relatively short. I grew up in the area. I lived in Montpelio for a short stint when I was in high school and then again after undergrad and then my most recent real background is that I went to Vermont law school actually got my JD there and I'm after studies in environmental law thinking I would go into environmental law and then of course I was a baby lawyer competing with all the experienced lawyers moving up from out of state and so I ended up actually doing corporate law for about six years mostly corporate and after I had kids I needed to change pace and so after taking same time off and reassessing I lucked into this awesome zoning administrator job and now I get to work one-on-one with people or small businesses as well as the larger developers and help people understand the regulations, help you all understand the regulations as well as work out kinks in them to then go back and try and fix the regulations if there's stuff that doesn't work and I get to learn new things every day it's great I get to learn things from all the DRB members as well as applicants and you know my team down at the planning department and so it's you know there are days that get a little repetitive but then you learn something new just about every day there's just like Abby was saying you really never know what application is going to come in the door you know am I am I going to be helping someone's dad figure out how to put a porch on their house or am I going to be helping a developer figure out how to put in a new 80 unit you know apartment complex um or are we going to try and figure out how someone can put steps in down to the river um and not violate our repairing buffer so it's it's pretty cool it's pretty fun and I really enjoy the the back and forth that goes on here at the board and as Kate likes to say you know we really try and make it a conversation a lot of the time with a lot of these applications and I think that's great it's been a really fun board to work with the last three years I just want to do a shout out for for Meredith here we've had we've had some really good zoning administrators but no none of them have been as good as Meredith she's the most knowledgeable and happy to help uh administrator that I've ever experienced and really appreciate that thank you Kevin that means a lot considering how long you've been on the board thank you very nice well thank you all for taking the time to do that particularly since we have not we have not convened in person as this board because as we all know why so I appreciate taking just 15 minutes at the end of the meeting to reconnect a little bit Catherine really happy to have have you on the board and use that as an excuse for us to just have a little bit thank you um thank you all for doing that so um if there's no other business I'll take a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn by Jean second I think that was second by Rob and Kevin okay I'll call the rules that's what we do um Kevin yes Rob yes Michael yes Abby yes Catherine yes so yes and I vote yes all right everybody the meeting is adjourned thank you all very much for your time and uh have a good couple weeks uh till we see you on the 20th yes