 Hey folks, can you hear me? Can you hear you Bruce? Great Bruce, no it's Andrew. And it's Andrew. Okay, Andrew, yes. We can hear you Andrew. Very good. Hey everybody. Hi. Hi. Oh, I see. We've done it twice. Yeah, we have his picture and then his phone. I'm not quite sure how that works, but. I dialed in because the amount of training in the website is horrible. So I dialed in to make sure I stay on. Excuse me, I have the zoom on just to be able to see the exhibits, but yeah, don't pay attention to the zoom. Okay. All right, Mr. Marshall, I have 635 you are the co-hosts. We are recording. We have Amherst media in the house with us. You look good to go to me. Okay. Thank you, Pam. Welcome to the Amherst planning board meeting of June 7, 2023. My name is Doug Marshall. And as the chair of the Amherst planning board, I am calling this meeting to order at 635 PM. This meeting is being recorded and is available live stream via Amherst media. Minutes are being taken. Resume into chapter 20 of the acts of 2021. And extended by chapter two of the acts of 2023. This planning board meeting, including public hearings, will be conducted via remote means using the zoom platform. The zoom meeting link is accessible on the meeting agenda, posted on the town websites calendar listing for this meeting. Or go to the planning board webpage and click on the most recent agenda, which lists the zoom link at the top of the page. No in-person attendance of the public is permitted. However, every effort will be made to ensure the public can adequately access the meeting in real time via technological means. In the event we are unable to do so. For reasons of economic hardship or despite that happens. We will post an audio or video recording, transcript or other comprehensive record of proceedings. As soon as possible after the meeting on the town of Amherst website. Board members, I will take a roll call. When I call your name, unmute yourself, answer affirmatively. When I call your name, unmute yourself, answer affirmatively and return to mute. Bruce Colton. I'm here. Thank you, Bruce. Tom Long. Present. Andrew McDougal. Present. I dug Marshall and present. Janet McGowan. Here. Johanna Newman. Present. And Karen winter. Present. Thank you all. Board members, if technical issues arise, we may need to pause to fix the problem and then continue the meeting. If the discussion needs to pause, it will be noted in the minutes. Please use the raise hand function to ask a question or make a comment. I will see your request and call on you to speak. After speaking, remember to remute yourself. To the general public. The general public comment item is reserved for public comment regarding items not on tonight's agenda. Please be aware, the board will not respond to comments during general public comment period. Public comment may also be heard at other times during the meeting when deemed appropriate by the planning board chair. Please indicate you wish to make a comment by clicking the raise hand button when public comment is solicited. If you have joined the zoom meeting using a telephone, please indicate you wish to make a comment by pressing star nine on your phone. When called on, please identify yourself by stating your full name and address and put yourself back into mute when finished speaking. Residents can express their views for up to three minutes or at the discretion of the planning board chair. If a speaker does not comply with these guidelines or exceeds there are a lot of time. Their participation may be disconnected from the meeting. All right. So the first item on our agenda is. Minutes and. Pam, do we have any minutes. For discussion this evening. No, no, we don't miss from Marshall. Okay. Thank you. So we'll now go to the public comment period items. The second item on the agenda. And I see 14. Participate are four attendees actually. In the public. Actually three Andrew McDougal is listed as a public attendee. So we have Elizabeth Veerling, Mara Keane, and Tris Metcalf. Do any of the public wish to make a comment at this time? Okay. I don't see any hands from the public. We'll go to item three on the agenda. And the time now has just turned to 640. And so we will, we're going to open two public hearings simultaneously. The first was advertised to start at 635 and the second one was advertised to start at 640. These are a site plan review and special permit permit public hearings. The first one is 2023-04 with Amherst Community Television doing business as Amherst media regarding a project at the corner of Gray Street and Main Street. It is a request for a two year extension of time for site plan review approval, and the second one is for 2020-11 to construct a new building and associated site improvements for Amherst media, a 501c3 educational institution under section 3.330.0 of the zoning bylaw located in the BN zoning district on, on map 14B parcels 250 and 251. And now opening is a special permit SPP 2023-04. Also with Amherst Community Television. And also on the corner of Gray Street and Main Street. It is also a request to extend for two years. Approval of the special permit approval SPP 2021-01 under footnote A of table three, article six of the zoning bylaw to modify the front setback requirement if required for a new building for Amherst media located on the same zoning BN and parcels 250 and 251 on map 14B. So board members, are there any board disclosures for this discussion? Okay, I don't see any hands raised. Pam is, or Nate, is there a presenter from Amherst media that would like to make a presentation? I believe there is Amherst media is listed twice as a panelist, so. Yeah, are one of those the person that would like to make the presentation tonight? I think, yes. Okay, I see a hand from Amherst media. You can unmute yourself and speak. Good evening, everybody. This is Jim Lascaux, the executive director. We heard your first sentence and your second one was somewhat garbled. All right, let's try again. This is Jim Lascaux, Amherst media's executive director. Is that better? Yes, that's good. Okay, thank you. Thank you for hearing this request. It's a formality that we just needed to do. We did meet recently with the building commissioner and with Nate and with Mr. Metcalf who Metcalf associates is in the house with us. But it's really was a matter of the timing of right before COVID. We got came to a standstill and then as things move forward, our architect, Mr. Metcalf. We were kind of stuck in and running around and trying to find a new architect and to figure out how do you move forward at a time when people weren't even building. If you remember, there was a moratorium on. So we're very confident right now. We show we have our full set of plans that we brought with us into the planning department the other day. We really think that we can move forward with the local historic district giving us a 90 day extension already that we can move forward as we need be. So we're very confident that we can move forward with the local historic district. And we can see this starting as Nate said to us there. And, and Rob, that, you know, we should be able to do something really fairly quickly. There's very little that's changed. As far as the site plan itself. All right. That's all I have to say at the moment, but I entertain any questions or Mr. Metcalf is here in case there's any questions. Okay. Thank you. The approvals we are being asked to give are based on the previous approvals with the previous plans. And we are, we are not entertaining any changes to plans or other things this evening. This is purely a time extension. Yeah, just a time extension. Their permits are set to expire. On June 15th. And so, you know, it's a quick turnaround to get a decision filed. And it's not going to be an extension. It's not going to be an extension. It's not going to be an extension by next week, but really it is just an extension. There's no request to modify the conditions or waivers. That's really accepting it as it was permitted. Before. So the existing, you know, really it's a, the vote would be a new permit number because it's a new year, but it's really just then saying to extend the 2020 dash 11 permit. All right. Okay. So board members. Any discussion of this request. Yeah. So, um, You know, if it wasn't for COVID, these permits would have lapsed after two years that they were. Um, excuse me, issued by the, um, the decisions were, were assigned by the planning board or the, or filed with the town clerk. Um, COVID told those kind of permits. And I was wondering how much for, is that why we're coming on to the June 15th date. Right. Right. So. You know, even the local historic district too, everything was told during COVID, right? So it started. Um, and. I don't know if it was March, went back to March 16th of 2020. And for. You know, gosh, I want to say it was, I don't know that I, I don't have the numbers handy, but it was, you know. It was more than a year, but I can't remember either. And I was just wondering if you've done all those numbers. I don't know if it was March, March, March. I don't know if it was March, March, March, March, April, April, April, April, April, April, April, April, April, April. And it seems. Kristen Rob have. So I think it ended in. You know, November of. 22 or something. And so they, we've calculated that Chris did that. A few times Rob confirmed it. And so, yeah. Okay. Okay. I was, that's what I was worrying about. I was, I was looking at, I was like two years and then I thought, okay, COVID. And I just wanted to make sure the numbers are right. Otherwise they just, we'd have lapsed permits. Right. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anna Bruce. Jim. You said a moment ago that you have a full set of plans was the phrase you used at the building commissioner. Do I correctly therefore understand that that's essentially. A full set of construction documents. Supporting a building permit application to stop. Hi, Bruce. It's good to see you again. It's been a while. So I might have misspoke and don't forget. I'm not, this isn't my, my field of expertise. What we brought in is the set that we will be presenting to. The building commissioner. So I don't know if I'm answering your question or not. Or if Mr. Make cap would like to step in. And would you be presenting these plans in order to apply for a building permit? Yes. Okay. So you're about to. You're about to begin construction. Is that correct? Yeah. Yeah. We, we need to go back into. Local historic district. And that's why we've got the extension on that first to make sure that, you know, they accept that nothing's changed dramatically to what was accepted by the local store. But yes, we have that already, right? Well, the, sorry, I'll just jump in. One of the conditions of the certificate of appropriateness is that before the issuance of a building permit. It's not a new hearing per se. It's really just going back at a public, you know, during, at a public meeting to determine. And to review these, you know, the conditions of the certificate to make sure they've met them all. So, you know, I think when Rob and I met with Jim and Mr. Mac half. Recently it was getting close to write a, a, a permit. And it was, it was, you know, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was. And it was, it was, it was. I mean, you know, you understand when you write up a permit set, Bruce. So, you know, I think their, their idea is that within the next 30 or 60, you know, by 30 days. That they would apply maybe 60. They would apply to the town for a building permit. Okay. Bruce. Does that take care of your comments? Yes, but it. Right. It gets rise to a second. With the. Once the construction begins. of the period, right? So it was seen that they really asked what they really wanted was a 90 day extension rather than a two year extension. So I guess I'd like to know why a two year extension if you're about to start construction. All right, Jim. Where am I? The we actually asked for 90 and Christine said it was the one that came back to us and said that actually for the those two permits, you need to go for two year. That's what I was told. Okay, sounds like Nate's about to say the same thing. Yeah, Nate, you want to fill us in? Sure, the local historic district can only provide a 90 day extension, you know, an extension of 90 day increments. And so they, you know, if the commission were allowed to go longer, they probably would have. And I think for the site plan review and the special permit, you know, under the planning board's discretion, it's up to a two year extension. So that's a, you know, that's a statutory limit. You know, the board could decide that it would only grant a year extension. So it's a map, it's up to two years. I would just be careful that it's not just, you know, getting a permit and then, you know, putting an excavator on the site, it actually has to be, you know, a fair amount of work. And so, you know, I would recommend that the board not say a 90 day or three, you know, I would say at least a year because, you know, they're going to be, if you say, say six months and they miss the construction season now and they wait to the spring, they might not actually have fulfilled the permit of substantially starting construction even if they're on site. And so then they'd have to do this all over again. And so, you know, right, you may not think that two years is too long, but I wouldn't, I would say, you know, three or six months might be a little short, just given that. Is there any downside? I mean, it seems to me the upside of doing two years is then we don't have to see them, you know, until two years have gone by in case there are all kinds of things we can't foresee. Is there any downside to doing two years? No. Okay. All right. So Bruce, that's the discussion about the time. Janet. I would agree with Nate in the two years because you don't want to get into a debate on what substantial construction is. And so I know there's been some example where a person, a developer did really virtually nothing, but at the last second, like move some earth and said that was substantial construction and obviously it wasn't. But, you know, I think avoiding gray areas or discussions like that. And you want the, you want to issue the permits they build it and it just doesn't hang out there. But I think, you know, at least a year, I would think, but, you know, I don't want to be in a debate about that. And, you know, so. Well, it seems like from what I saw the proposal so far, we were expecting to talk about a two year extension. So, you know, it seems like nobody's objecting to that and there's some benefits. So maybe we should just go on that basis. Any other comments from any board members at this point? All right, I'm going to turn to the public and ask if there are any public comments that on this topic that people want to make. Okay, I'm not seeing any members of the public raising their hands either. And I still don't see any from the board. Jim, any more comments you want to make or shall, are you fine with us going right into probably having a motion to vote on this? No, I appreciate the discussion and I'm willing to watch a motion go forward. Okay. All right. So do we have any motions from the board or do you want me to go ahead and try to fumble my way through something? Oh, go Bruce. Yeah, take it away. I was going to say, you do it and I'll say so moved. Oh, okay. All right, so. You're looking at the numbers at the, you know, at the data sheet there. So basically move to support the year extension. You should probably do this as two motions, one for each permit. Yeah, I think one motion could be for the site plan review, you know, in a vote and then a second one for the special permit. Okay. All right. So I guess I will make a motion to that the board approve Amherst Media's request for an extension of site plan review, SPR 2020-11 for a period of two years from its date of expiry, which I gather is June 15th. Is that right Nate? So from, so it would be extended to June 15th, 2025. And I'm going to stop my motion right there. Bruce, you can second that or do a friendly amendment if I missed something. Second the motion. All right, thank you. Nate, comments. My only comment would be to extend the permit with a new permit number, you know, 2023-4. Okay. Just so that it's clear, you know, we're not, we're issuing a new permit that will just cite and reference the 2020 permit. Okay. And to close the public hearing, I guess has to be added in there. Yeah. The motion would be to issue a new permit that designated as SPR 2023-04 in order to extend the approval previously proposed in SPR 2020-11 for a period of two years until June 15th, 2025. Is that work, Nate? That sounds good. Yeah. Bruce, you're fine with that, is this for seconding? Yep. All right, everyone. We got to a vote here. So I guess without any further comments, I will go ahead through the roll call. Bruce, are you on board? Aye. And Tom. Aye. Andrew, we'll see if we can hear you. Aye. Thank you. Aye. Got it. Thank you. Janet. Aye. Johanna. Aye. All right. And Karen. I missed a lot because somehow I was thrown out. So what are we voting on? I don't know. Okay, so this is a motion to issue a new permit to extend the approval of the previous permit for two years. Yes, yes. Aye. Aye. This is the first of two motions and this one deals with the site plan review and the second one will deal with the special permit. Okay, so Karen, you're an aye and I'm an aye as well. That's unanimous. Seven in favor, no abstentions or objections. So that topic is completed. And I suppose as the second motion I'm going to do it very much the same but I'm going to include that we close the hearing because we need to do that. So the second motion is that we close this public hearing or joint public hearing and that we issue a new permit for a two year extension of the special permit approval we made previously under SPP 2021-01 also for a duration of two years to June 15th, 2025. And hey, Bruce, you want to second that? I'll second that. All right, thank you. All right, any further discussion? Any further hands from the board or the public? Okay, I do not see any. We'll go through the same roll call in the reverse order. Karen. Aye. And Johanna. Aye. Thank you, Janet. Aye. Andrew. Aye. Thank you, Andrew. Tom. Right. And Bruce. Also aye. And I'm an aye as well. So that one is unanimous also. And the time now is 6.59 and we have closed the public hearing that was item three on our agenda. All right, thank you all. So in our advertised agenda, the next item on the list was the old business, item four, Nate or Pam, or is there any old business we did not reasonably anticipate? Not that I'm not. No, no old business. Okay, what about new business? I'm not aware of any new business either. All right. So we'll go to form A and R subdivision applications. And I believe there is one topic on that. Pam, do you want to bring up the graphics? And Nate, do you want to introduce the topic? Actually, I neglected to say thanks to Jim and good luck with your project. And you don't need to stay for additional parts of the meeting unless you want to listen in. Sure. So, you know, this mayhem hour is on Cortland Drive. And on the existing map, there's two parcels in blue and red. And the red one was actually, you know, developed through an A and R in 2020 from the lot to the north, but to the left on the screen. And now the owner of the blue lot would like to combine it and they purchased the red one, they want to combine it into one lot. So one lot under the same ownership. They're the same ownership now, but they'd like to combine it. And so that's really what the A and R is, is just combining the two lots into one. They get rid of this. Yeah. If then, you know, the Jason, skills of town engineer had no comment or concerns with this. Okay. And I assume that since it was legal for them to split this parcel at some point in the past, there's no issues with recombining it. Correct. Okay. Board members, any questions or concerns? I think the question is gonna be whether there's a consensus that it's okay for me to sign that the approval is not required on this transaction. All right. Don't all speak at once. Okay. So I guess I'll ask more pointedly, please raise your hand if you have any objections to my signing this as approval is not required. And if I don't see any, I will conclude that that's a consensus and we can move on. All right. I dragged that out long enough. There are no hands raised. So we will Pam or Nate, you guys can let me know if you wanna meet me behind town hall some evening to sign this as I do with Chris or whether we need to wait for her to come back. All right. The time now is 7.03 and we'll go to the upcoming ZBA applications. Anything? No, I have nothing new to report. Okay. Yeah. I was gonna just say quickly that, you know, there's the, you know, the solar shoe spray road solar is something that would be coming soon. And then Valley CDC's Ball Lane project, the comprehensive permit and North Amherst for 30 homeownership units will probably be submitted in the next, you know, month, month and a half. So those are, you know, two pretty big projects, not, but there could be other things as well. Okay. Janet, I see your hand. What's the Shootsbury solar? It's a pretty large solar development on Shootsbury Road, you know, on Cole's property. It's probably about 50 acres. I don't know how, I forgot how, you know, how much they've been clearing, but it's something that town staff has been working with AMP Energy and the applicants to, you know, finalize plans and make sure everything is, you know, in accordance with the regulation. So it's something that has been, you know, they applied with Drew and they've submitted again with revised plans, wetland delineations, you know, a lot more information that was required or requested of the town. And so what is it coming for us just to look at? And then, because the ZBA is the one who issues the permit, right? Right, no, it is a special permit for the ZBA. It's just oftentimes if there's a permit, you know, say that may be impactful or the planning board may want to review as well as, you know, to provide recommendation to the zoning board. Okay. Yeah, okay. They're just letting us know that these two projects are coming and we can decide whether we want to see them. Right. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I think Valley CDC, I mean, we'll require to notify the planning board and send a transmittal out once they apply really quickly. And so the hearing has to be open within 35 days. So once that happens, the planning board would get a transmittal for this comprehensive permit. And then it could be, you know, your decision to have a presentation if you'd want to as well, just to let you know that it could be that, you know, in August, early August or sometime in August would be probably the time, maybe September, that you would have that discussion or presentation. Okay. So are you interested in hearing whether we're interested right now? Where is that later on? Later. Okay. Okay. Well, thanks for letting us know that those are coming. And obviously August is a time that a lot of people are traveling. So we'll, we'll see how that goes. Okay. Upcoming SPP, SPR and SUB applications. Have we got anything on the horizon? Nay. Would you like to talk about those? No. No, we do have a site plan review application on June 21st for a restaurant at 63 Main Street. So that's something that, you know, is already in the permitting. There's a few products that we've been discussing with applicants, you know, every source is looking to do some work at the substation on College Street. And that's something that'll likely come in the July meeting. There's a resident that would like to do some work on their property on Vista Terrace. And every property there is actually subject to a site plan review. So anytime there needs to be changes, it has to come back for a site plan review. So that's something. And then. Where, where is Vista Terrace? Vista Terrace is south of Akin's. It used to be Applebrook. So if you're heading south past Akin's, it's on your left before you start heading up the notch. So it's a, you know, it's a recent subdivision a few years ago. Near the Gun Club. Yes. Yeah, it's funny. I mean, I know, I can hear it. I was hiking Moody Bridge the other weekend and I was like, Oh, what's that noise? I'm like, Oh, that's the Gun Club. Yeah, okay. But I don't, you know, I don't, you know, I'm trying to think that there might be one other, but we're, we've been working with applicants to try to get a full application set before they apply. I mean, you know, I feel for, for applicants, you know, they may not understand and we try to convey it, but you know, even ever source had submitted a plan that didn't show half the improvements they were planning. And we said, well, we really want to have that plan. And they said, well, can we just apply and then we can try to get it to you before the planning board hearing? And it's like, well, we prefer you not to because then we're just, we're chasing, we're waiting. And so, yeah. So anyways, that's where, you know, I think that's where some delays might be in actually getting applications to you, but it's really important that we don't open a hearing and continue it three times. Yeah, I personally, I appreciate you're doing that for us. It's always easier to just have one plan with everything on it and not have to have multiple versions or things show up two hours before a meeting. Right. Okay. So we can move on. The time is 7 0 8 and we can move on to planning board committee and liaison reports. Bruce, anything for PVPC? There's a meeting tomorrow, but I won't be able to attend actually, but they are planning to meet and it has to do with election of officers actually wish and so forth. I don't think Jack's able to attend either, but our attendance has been pretty good. I did notice in the April minutes that two thirds of the towns represented weren't represented in the meeting. So even, you know, we've been showing up seems to have put us in the top third of industrious participants. Well, good. We certainly waited a long time to have you represent us. Okay. Andrew, anything for CPAC? Thanks Doug. I know there were efforts to convene a meeting, the dates that were thrown out, I was not able to make. I am not sure whether a meeting was held or not, but there was again some efforts to get together, but I have no updates for the board. Okay. All right, thank you, Andrew. Tom, DRB. Nothing to update. Okay. Janet, solar bylaw, how's that going? It's dense. Our next meeting is, we're starting to talk about solar on farmland. And so our meeting on Friday from 1130 to 130 is talking about the smart program requirements for dual use and does dual use farming really work or what is known about that and what would the impact be on, most of the farmers and namers actually don't own the land. And so we're gonna dig into that. And trying to get farmers to come to this meeting, unfortunately is really the worst possible time of the year. So I don't think we have anyone from American farmland trust coming and somebody from the state, but we don't have farmers yet. And so it's an interesting and really difficult issue. So if people wanted to attend, they'd be welcome to do it. Okay, and that's Friday at 1130? Friday, 1130 to 130, yeah. I have a flyer I could send out to people. I should have done that already. Yeah, why don't you send it to Nate and he can distribute it? Yeah, I'm sorry, I didn't think about that. All right. So in Chris's absence, Nate, do you have anything to say about CRC? No, I will say that previous meeting, there was the discussion about the lighting policy and then the zoning amendment and the zoning amendment, I think both are coming back. So the zoning amendment will be at the next meeting, the Stuplex triplex and housing amendment, it will be discussed again by the planning board. So. Okay. All right. I don't have any report of the chair. Nothing new on my end. Actually, I will mention, I think it was mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, but if you would send me and Chris your dates of absence this summer, that would help us know whether we might need to cancel a meeting or two. Anything report of staff, Nate? Yeah, the only thing I would say is the decisions for Amherst media that we just voted on tonight need to be filed by the 15th of the town clerk. So I hope it would be to have something ready by then of day tomorrow sent out for your review and then we need to get signatures early next week just to be able to file that. So that's something we'd have to act on pretty quickly. Okay. Well, so I trust you would send out an email to all of us when it's ready to be signed. Yes. I mean, I could make an appointment with you right now just to meet you at 515 tomorrow night behind town hall. I will not be there at 515, but... Okay, then I'll wait to hear from you. Sure, yeah, I'll send an email out. Okay. So that concludes our meeting. If there's nothing else from you, Nate, for a report of staff, the time now is 712 and unless anybody objects, we can't adjourn. Hey Doug, it's Andrew, can I ask one quick thing? Sure. It's super fast. I know we've talked about it many times, but any chance we could meet in person over the summer, I'm not sure if it's scheduled, but I would love to try to get the board together. I think as some of you know, not everybody is going to be on the board this fall. So it would be wonderful to get together with the people. I understood that you and Tom were coming off the board as of the end of this month, and I was... Is it the end of this month? I know we started in September. I'm not sure when our term officially ends, but anyway, with that backdrop, yeah, it would really be wonderful to be able to... Yeah, I was thinking I would try to send out some dates where we might all get together in my backyard again. And so that we can properly send you guys off the board. So I will send out a date tonight, probably, and we can all discuss when would make the most sense. Nate? Yeah, I was just going to confirm that the... Whether or not you started on June 30th, the terms end on June 30th, so that would be the termination of those. Okay, and Nate, is CRC and town council, are they working on nominating new members to the board? Yes, they're looking at that for both, you know, zoning board and planning board will have vacancies after June 30th, so they're aware of it and working on it. Okay, but you don't expect the decisions and nominations to be finalized before the end of this month? I thought they were doing their holding interviews this month, and then there's 30 days for council to review those appointments. So it could be that, you know, the new appointments are ready in early to mid-July, but... Okay, okay, thank you all. And I guess we'll see you all in two weeks. And your train travelers travel safely. Thank you. Thank you so much. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Hey, everybody. Wow. We did it, but we're still recording. Stop. Okay, good night. Thank you, Pam. Okay, good night, Mr. Marshall. Yes, so much stuff. Bye.