 from 8 a.m. to 2 30 p.m. to enable installation of signage on their buildings exterior as well as close that portion of the sidewalk over which a truck lift will be situated on Main Street from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and on North Pleasant Street from 11 a.m. to 2 30 p.m. as shown on the Google map attached to the application. Second for the discussion. Miss Burr. I imagine this has taken place since then but I had a conversation with Deborah Roussel and town manager's office to ask her to make clear to this company that there if they had a rain problem or a truck problem that day that they could not come back the next day because the next day will be graduation at UMass. So we did not need to tie up any traffic on that day. One assumes everything will go beautifully for the month Thursday. But if they have some weird circumstance they'll come back to us for another date. One of the attorneys from this law firm was in fact at our party previously and I went over that point with him. Yes. So we're all very clear has to happen on the night. Okay. Further discussion on favor say aye. Aye. That is unanimous. Let's do some taxi licenses. I move that the select board approve a new 2013 taxi driver slash chauffeur license for one of the two. I move that the select board approve a new 2013 taxi driver slash chauffeur license for Paul Benoit of Belcher Town on behalf of Aaron's Paradise. Second. For the discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. That's unanimous. I move that the select board approve a new 2013 taxi driver slash chauffeur license for Paul Benoit of Belcher Town on behalf of Aaron's Paradise. Second. For 2013 taxi driver slash chauffeur license for Yusef Awad of Amherst MA on behalf of Ambassador Taxi. Second. For the discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. That is unanimous. We have a common vitualer's license. This did not make the agenda. This is under topics not anticipated 48 hours before the meeting. This is a common vitualer's license for Hickory Ridge. They had previously had their common Vic renewed with our annual renewals but they now need to make a change to the time. So this is just an alteration of that license this time. I move that the select board amend the common vitualer's license for Hickory Ridge Grill LLC from in season 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily to year round Monday through Sunday 11 a.m. to 12 a.m. daily. Second. For the discussion. Ms. Burr. And just again for the audience's benefit we know that the chief of police and everyone else is okay with this or we wouldn't have gotten it. So that's why we know it's all right. For the discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. That's unanimous. About special licenses. I move that the select board approve a special wine and malt license to Judy Bardwell on behalf of top of the campus incorporated for receptions of various dates and locations on the UMass Amherst campus Judy Bardwell clerk as follows. April 26th 2013 at Memorial Hall from 5 to 7 p.m. And as you can see that date has passed but it's a catch up for us. May 7th 2013 at Eisenberg School of Management atrium from 4 to 6 p.m. May 7th 2013 at Durfee Gardens from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. It was May 10th. Did I save me something else? Sorry. May 10th. Okay. Is there one more? And then the last one's canceled. The last one is canceled because it's a different it's a different. Second. For the discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. That's unanimous. I move that the select board approve a special wine and malt license to Brenda Ryan Newton on behalf of top of the campus incorporated for a reception on May 11th 2013 at Durfee Gardens UMass Amherst campus from 3 30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Brenda Ryan Newton president. Second. For the discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. That is unanimous. I move that the select board appoint John Tibbets and Abby Getman to the agricultural commission both with terms to expire June 30th 2015. Second. For the discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. I just will say one thing. John Tibbets served once before on the ag commission with great distinction. They were sorry when he took could not stay on at that time and they're delighted to get them back. Very good. Okay. Let's see. We're quick untimed items. So what else can we do? Does anybody have any announcements to make before we get to our timed items? We already announced the election. I could I could semi announcement like the housing production plan that we have in our in our program. If you haven't already might have read previous versions of it. There have been some changes to it. And the power point that you may have seen referenced separately on the website for the housing and sheltering committee is also attached to this. There's going to be a memo in our next packet the packet for the first night of town meeting. The packet for our meeting on May 6th that will explain that the select board has to take action on the housing production plan just as the planning board is planning to do this week. So we'll get the cover memo that explains what our role is in this for our next packet so that we can go over this on the night of the first meeting of town meeting. Thank you very much. And Amherst media and the sound in here is fantastic right now. Thank you very much. Miss Stein. I can announce that the police station is again taking drugs. Did have a successful drug drive on Wildwood at on Saturday. But now again if you miss that feel free to drop off drugs at the police station. And I could mention a word about the vote for tomorrow if people don't know what's happening. It's there are two Democrats running Markey and Lynch. There are three Republicans running Gomez Winslow and blanking Sullivan. And so what the vote is very simple. If you're a Republican you choose one of those three. If you're a Democrat you choose one of those two. But it does help. So it's good to go out and vote. Thank you. And however the primary works out the the actual election for that seat will be June 25th. Is that correct. June 25th. Yeah. Very good. All right. That's taken us exactly to 645. So we are ready for our first-time item which is a business improvement district. We have Alex Krograbé here to talk to us about a very exciting development downtown. Alex Krograbé executive director of the Amherst Business Improvement District. Thank you for having us here on relatively short notice. I just wanted to inform the select board and the public about a big initiative of the bid that is about to launch. When we started up the bid we heard a lot that students would come downtown if it were easier for them to do so. And the product of those recommendations as well as the models of some other communities was the purchase of two trolleys that we think will add a lot of atmosphere and fun to downtown as well as a great way to get between UMass campus and downtown. These are not trolleys on rails or on wires but on wheels like a bus but they look like a trolley. A fixed route is intended to start in the fall between downtown and UMass's campus. The details of that route were still working out. The trolleys will also be used for special event shuttles including events like the block party that the bid organizes in September, printing shuttles to satellite parking lots for events like that as well as a presence at other events and in fact we are intending to launch the trolley service for special event shuttles this weekend for the ultimate Frisbee tournament at the high school going between the field locations at university and at the high school as well as downtown. And of course we have been in consultation with the town manager and UMass transit who operates the PVTA transit service as well as DPW and the police department have a meeting tomorrow at 1030 with the police chief to discuss their input on the trolleys. Currently they are being stored down at Barry Roberts property down in South Amherst. Barry Roberts and Jerry Jolly the president and vice president of the bids board directors are here tonight as well. And yeah so anything the select board or the public would like to know about the trolleys feel free to be in touch with me on the bids website there's information about the trolleys as well so great thank you questions or comments from select board this time I think it sounds like a lot of fun does it have a bell I believe they do both have bells yeah better yet mm-hmm other questions or comments it's Brooke I remember seeing such an item though many years ago when we first actually only 15 years ago when we moved to Amherst and I was sorry that it didn't work out as a permanent thing so I'm really excited to see bring this back I think having something that just looks different than the PVTA buses in addition to the fixed route it really adds a lot to the charm as well as the convenience so thank you all for working on this and I would also add that this is that certainly viewed as a supplement not a replacement of PVTA service and we'll connect as much as possible to PVTA service great thank you mr. Walden did you explain to the public the price for the user oh thank you very much they'll also be free and you don't have to be a student necessarily to ride it there for everyone yep anything else folks want to know need to know about the trolleys so he said they get started this weekend then we'll see them more regularly in the fall yeah so again we'll be running them for your special events as they come up over the summer starting this weekend and then in the fall yes the street will start terrific all that is another another concrete and wonderful sign of what the bid has brought to downtown we've had a bunch of fantastic street performances lately that has really added to the energy downtown in these past few lovely weekends there's going to be more of that soon we'll have the flower baskets coming that will be very exciting that will be incredibly beautiful we obviously had the wonderful block party last September for which another one is planned for the 12th of September is that right so mark your calendars for the second annual community block party and the cleanup efforts I mean really the the bid has been in existence for very short time but has already made a very concrete difference and and it's really appreciated by folks so thank you very much thank you and I would add that any more information about this stuff can be found at the website which is immerstdowntown.com thank you and to anyone who hasn't signed up for their email updates every Monday they send a very useful very informative detailed update about what the bid is succinct so thank you I just wanted to say those are great emails and you get a sense of vibrancy that's really nice so thank you for them thank you thank you for coming in tonight look forward to the trolleys all right our 650 item is a farmer winery license application do we have the applicant here for that hello please come forward and if you could introduce yourself for folks at home my name is Gary Caiman I'm the owner and operator of mountain one of vineyards a pioneer valley vineyard in winery wonderful welcome thank you for coming so this is a special kind of a liquor license that the state has actually just passed a new regulation for regarding which is why we set the fee for this that the last meeting or two meetings ago for $50 these is for farmer wineries to sell alcohol at agricultural events so you're looking to be set up at the Saturday farmers market downtown that is correct and what else would you like us to know about that we've submitted the appropriate materials to mdar they've approved our application we've been approved by the amherst farmers market we have all the necessary licensing materials and we think we're we have the tip certification and we think we're fully willing and able and looking forward to participating in the Saturday morning amherst farmers market terrific thank you mr. Hayden thank you for saying that out loud we knew all of that because of the huge piece of paperwork that we got from that I was hoping though you might tell stuff that we don't have in our packet what kind of wines will there be there we make both red and white wines we make port style wines we make dry and off dry wines we'll be offering these wines for sale at the farmers market we'll also be presenting promotional materials and event individuals would like to visit our winery and vineyard for tour and tasting we can offer that at the at the winery and we we hope to be representing a a diverse segment of local area culture thank you thank you Ms. Brewer I just wanted to ask that we clarify whether or not there were tastings at the farmers market itself we will be doing tastings at the farmers market the legislation allows for the tasting of up to five one ounce pours of wine we were we're expecting to be pouring up to two wines each week that we will be at the market and again that would be a maximum of one ounce of tasting other questions or comments for Mr. Kamen so you mentioned the tip certification so all the folks that will be there working with you or for you are familiar with the challenges of the potential for underage service that is correct and we're fully prepared and certified trained and identifying individuals who are eligible and eligible for tasting wine great other questions or comments Ms. Stein would you like to make the motion I move that the select board approve the application of the Mount Warner vineyards LLC of Hadley MA for a license to sell wine products produced by or on their behalf in sealed containers for off-premise consumption at the Amherst Farmers Market in the Spring Street parking lot on Saturdays May 4th 2013 through November 23rd 2013 from 7 30 a.m to 1 30 p.m pursuant to chapter 1 3 8 section 15 f of the Massachusetts general laws Gary Kamen owner manager second for the discussion Mr. Hayden good luck thank you very much and for the discussion all in favor say hi hi hi that is unanimous congratulations thank you very much you think you're going to be there starting this Saturday we're hoping to be there starting this Saturday we've been uh we've been selected as a part-time vendor as you know it is a bit competitive at the Saturday morning market but we're expecting that we may well be there this Saturday we'll know by midweek that's great well we wish you the very best of luck and thank you for coming in tonight thanks so very much take care all right we've got a couple of minutes before we get to our seven o'clock item and we're out of untimed items did anybody have any other announcements that they wanted to make any kind of information to share right now all right let's see well maybe we can deal with the select board logistics for town meeting because this is fairly quick so obviously town meeting starts next week the select board is set to meet Mondays and Wednesdays during that and what has been our practice lately is basically to schedule all of those meetings because we need to post them and then to plan to meet on the Monday evenings of that and then decide to meet on the Wednesday for the Wednesday meeting only as needed so unless anybody had any issues with that that's what we would try and do again we do already have as Ms. Brewer already alluded to the plan to talk about the housing production plan next Monday so that is a big topic for us to pick up at that point which brings us to the question of what time do we meet so town meeting now starts at seven o'clock it used to start at seven thirty we had and when it started at seven thirty we met at six thirty we tried to split the difference in the fall and meet at six fifteen I'm concerned that on nights we need to meet that that just might not give us enough time so I'm wondering how people feel about starting at six o'clock Ms. Brewer well how volunteer since we all know how timely I always am and I am horrified by the idea of meeting at six but also realize it's probably what we need to do because six fifteen's just kind of pushing it and I certainly did in fact tell the housing and sheltering committee that we'd be meeting at six on Monday the sixth so I'm in if everybody else can do it maybe we should just plan to meet at five fifty five I think that would work don't push it Mr. Hayden can we bring a sandwich absolutely there will be much eating okay so six o'clock all right so we're good for planning on the Mondays Wednesdays as necessary starting at six o'clock the other thing we usually review is that as has been our practice the last few years that we're trying to say as little as is necessary for speaking to positions on warrant articles in particular when we follow the finance committee obviously if it's the select board's article and we're doing the whole presentation making the motion then that's different but it has been our practice lately to sort of say yeah what they said unless there's obviously select board additional details that we want to add anything that was missed but and I say this not to stifle people I say this to to remind us that we don't always have to create a three minute explanation for all of these articles as town meeting gets closer and things get very busy sometimes just having that reminder is kind of a relief are there any other questions about the logistics of town meeting and how select board deals with it that anyone wants to talk about now we will be doing again and I've talked with Jim Pastrang the new moderator about that change that we made during fall town meeting also about making the motion for the next article every night and letting the body decide whether or not they want to do that at 10 o'clock and so we talked about how to do that in a way that makes it nice and clear to the body that it is their opportunity to speak to in particular whether they want or don't want the meeting to continue so that's just another tweak that we instituted recently that we're going to try and keep going with this is also a good time to remind town meeting members out there that town meeting does in fact start at seven o'clock again just like we did in the fall we are we are continuing that this will be the first time we do it in the spring I think the time that we have a 45 article warrant is a really good time to have that extra half an hour so we'll see how that goes I hope that people can be prompt and we can get our business done as quickly as possible Mr. Hayden while we're speaking about town meeting I think town meeting members probably know by now that there's a consent calendar which I'm looking forward to there's seven seven articles on that another innovation is another good innovation for 45 article yes absolutely so the the moderator will talk about that the first night of town meeting if five members want to take anything off the consent calendar then they can do that but otherwise that might be a way to get through a handful of articles pretty quickly so select board members who are speaking to any of those just might pay attention to the fact that you may or may not need to speak to those depending on how the vote for the consent calendar goes so just plan accordingly all right anything else about town meeting that we need to clarify I assume that we're still in the music room what do we call it the band room that we've been in lately but I will confirm that so I will remember to check on that okay so six o'clock Monday we will see you at the middle school all right so then is seven o'clock and we are back to taking positions on the town meeting warrant articles tonight we have a bunch of more articles that this should finish up our warrant positions tonight and we are starting with article 37 pvta funding welcome thank you just if you could introduce yourself again for folks at home hello my name is Helen Burke BERG and I was the volunteer that collected the statistics that enabled the survival center to move from its old facility in the North Armhurst school where had had been since 1975 without the knowledge that a new facility was planned and about 50 people have been essentially left behind as a result so I took out a citizens position petition which I don't believe that all the town meeting members have actually received yet however I have a couple of legal women voters that's on the petition Adrian Terizzi and Elaine Bodic I also have the center director Cheryl Zoll a long time volunteer Sarah Fischer several people that are strong members of the community I would say Heather Hornick and even Nelson Valley who was a a Puerto Rican baseball star for the Detroit Tigers who now lives in Airhurst and who I've known for a long time so I would say and somebody like Sonja I'm back back that lives in Ann Whalen and has for some time a woman that is in poverty and who I haven't seen since the facility went up and I have been there so I brought him out because that's what I was told to do I don't think it's up yet I don't know why because I didn't initially submit an article by Nick Grabe the quotes town manager Masante is as announcing that this kind of run would cost about $28,000 which is what I based the petition on as well as I added 2004 bus stop so this is an annual request shall I read the petition no that's okay we all have the warrant and so we are familiar all right so anyway my here's the map and basically what would happen is that in the old North Amherst school basement which was really quite adequate and this dog took us quite by surprise we were actually given the option when we asked about a bus to sign a petition that said we supported the facility and many of us didn't because it's not on a bus route right now there's only taxi service once a week Tuesday well four times on Tuesdays they're open four days a week the long day is Thursday from 11 to 7 the taxi service starts at 11 30 so these people will miss automatically out on their food distribution which they do at 11 o'clock I volunteered there for almost two years 25 hours a week four days a week anyway the map which is of North Amherst if we start at the congregational church and we're the old a school house basement is which has a daycare center above and where the old Amherst survival center of which I have this beautiful picture it was really nice it was really a usable space and there wasn't such a buffer between the people that are the staff and the patrons whom they refer to as clients that's a term that I find a little offensive I prefer to think of myself as a patron a lot of people eat there they don't need to eat there anyway the map I think we would go northbound up Montague Road right on to Kall's Lane left onto Sunderland Road and we would put a bus stop right in front of the Amherst survival center so it would be just going one way that spur and the people that needed to make a return trip no doubt would have to continue on to Sunderland direction and transfer a townhouse of apartments rather than the old North Pleasant Street stop but in this way the development has already begun at the old Kall's Lumber Plant basically the buildings raised Sunderjohns has made it pretty clear in the press that she intends to go ahead with mixed use commercial student dwellings and that way I'm only calling right now for four buses a day that the survival center is open which is four days a week so four times four okay thank you very much thank you this is the the bus route I'm going to leave this here if anyone is interested this is the capital campaign and people that were on it and I want to say that all donations over a thousand dollars were matched by an anonymous donor who a lot of the members of the community know who he is and the people that are patrons do not and it does create resentment I would also I'm sorry but I do have to mention that not only is this picture that Nick Grabe wrote along with the article quoting Mr. Musante and Mrs. Zoll it is on the back is another petition I did with people that are not voters of Amherst but the one I brought here tonight is in fact stamped and dated March 5th and I just want to dedicate my presentation to David Goodnow who is known as Grandpa who died on March sorry April 5th one month after I got this petition in and I had to scramble because I attempted to work with the survival center and the town on this the survival center I don't know if they pulled the software website yet their objection but I am willing to work with people and if this will help send to John's along with her zoning issues I'm all for it thank you very much Ms. Bird appreciate it does anyone have any questions for Ms. Bird okay thank you very much thank you thank you so this petition is extremely well meaning the need for folks to be able to get to the survival center to partake of the services is real the town has spent a lot of money trying to improve the sidewalks there to help improve that situation I know that the PBTA has continued to talk about what is the best solution to this problem and I'll let Mr. Moussanti speak about that but there are solutions to be found going forward I don't believe that this petition is the right solution at this time I think that that's a very large amount of money to imagine the town committing every year for this purpose but I appreciate Ms. Bird bringing attention to this need because it is a need and we need to find a solution and I hope that a very good one can be found Mr. Moussanti anything you'd like to say from the PBTA perspective as chair of that board yeah and I've talked about the needs to service the survival center with survival center staff and with the PBTA staff and as an alternative to what over over 10-year period would cost the community upwards of $300,000 to do this limited additional SPUR service there might be much more cost effective alternatives in terms of more flexible transportation options that the survival center itself could pursue and I'm willing to and have offered to try to facilitate facilitate that with the PBTA and PBTA is very receptive but and the survival center wants to work with us on that that they have said they don't consider this particular route a viable option at the present time thank you hold on questions or comments from select board Ms. Burr I'm fiddling around looking for that orange sheet of paper we got before but I can't seem to put my hand on um in the meantime I know this is something we certainly talked about when we knew that the survival center was moving and this concern was raised and we said we hope we can run a bus up to there and although it's disappointing that that hasn't happened yet it still feels as though it belongs more in the area of PBTA working out how to do this more appropriately than attempting to do it this way although I can certainly appreciate the frustration that it's the survival center is there and the bus stop isn't that is that is very hard and um the taxi service is at least some slight mitigation associated with that but we definitely don't want to lose sight of this even though we may not support this article thank you other questions or comments Mr. Hayden I I'm I'm sorry that I have to ask this question I should know the answer to it but um the public transportation and bicycle committee spent a lot of time and effort working on this I was at a number of meetings where um they were working very hard with their PBTA liaison um what's the upshot is there one have they have they come forward? uh PBTA and UMass transit were asked to do a service analysis which was the basis for that cost estimate and the lion's share of ridership is you know from Sunderland and then through Meadow street on the townhouse side so for substantially fewer dollars we think there are alternatives to a fixed route service that might service the survival center without the you know recurring costs that up that a fixed route service and so we've encouraged the survival center to pursue that and I'm offered to help facilitate that so they're they're actively exploring that I think that's a more viable option thank you I'll note that I was on the survival center board for many years quite a long time ago and and so that place is near and dear to my heart and among the things that is important to note about the survival center is that folks come from all over the place to use this it is it is a critical part of the infrastructure for folks from far beyond Amherst and so I think that part of the thing to keep in mind is that Amherst can't be the full solution to this problem there needs to be there needs to be a conversation about resources and really what is the best way as a region for us to approach this because it really is a regional issue it's the fact that the the center is located in Amherst doesn't make this our sole responsibility to try and fund the the transportation in my opinion so I think that that needs to be part of the solution going forward other questions or comments miss Burke you come forward yet you need to come forward please but like I would like to point out an anonymous person facilitated this and there's a question about why that is not known to the people that have put so many hours of volunteer work in there people are now being the move was preempted by the state of date and people are now being deprived of food and company and isolation hurts people it hurts people a community of about 50 I know maybe two volunteers with cars and a lot of people have shown up there that I've never seen before I've been going there since 2007 so a lot of men it's not a safe environment there is an indication that it's supposed to be family oriented but I question whether this building won't be flipped with in three years given this is really kind of getting off the well if I could just ask you Mrs. O'Keefe what solution do you see because I have attempted to work with people in this town for two years on this ever since I found out about its proposed existence and it did start off as a million dollar refurbishment not a 2.5 million dollar expenditure of which the building is only appraised at less than a million 988 we've strayed beyond the petition article if you could just go on to what possible solutions that were easy we would have solved it a long time ago so the conversation let me just say is Tuesday is not enough if you're not serving the patrons very much we're done with this petition if you're not serving the patrons there's still a vote it's not over till the fat lady sings there are people that are being left behind every day by the fact that housing real estate is being snapped up in this town as demonstrated in the Gazette over the past week I'm going to recess this meeting if you don't step away from the mic thank you all right Miss Stein would you like to make the motion excuse me I move that the select board not recommend to the May 6th 2013 annual town meeting article 37 petition PVTA funding and I might just say why I'm just going to have to wait thank you for the discussion go ahead partially because the survival center itself as I recall I don't have the orange sheet we're both missing it but felt that another solution could be worked at that would not be so costly for the town thank you for the discussion Mr. Aiden that is so I mean you remember correctly thank you further discussion all in favor say aye aye aye that's unanimous thank you all right who's going to speak to that thank you thank you for coming in would you like to speak to that I'll be happy to take that then okay article 39 petition for nuisance house Miss Perot and if you could identify yourself please for folks at home I'm Melissa Perot please sink to warm and I'm here to inform you that I'm going to ask to dismiss the article 39 on the town meeting floor for the following reasons that this the schedule of response costs developed by the police department will not act as an incentive to landlords to bring student behavior under control as I had hoped it's very minimal I also expected the response cost to be discussed in a public meeting at the select board since they are named as the responsible for them in the bylaw and that they would be developed also that they would be developed in a timely manner before the petition article was due that's this was not the case in these circumstances the deletion of additional fire and ambulance in the response cost definition that I made was in an effort to simplify and avoid legal complications was perhaps misadvised since that would indeed make the response costs considerably heavier than the police department allowed so that's that's the main reason I learned about the response costs not at a meeting but because I was not there on that on that day I guess but I gathered that they came from you Mr. Masanti yeah yeah and I thought they would be discussed or at least that could be a public comment at the select board but they didn't occur that way so there's not much point in making the recommendations and changes that I made to the article 39 38 I got that one 39 the nuisance house by law and also other things that have bothered me is that that given the numerous complaints have been made against certain rental properties and the threshold of three notifications has never been achieved to my knowledge I think it'll be unlikely to do so in the future so these changes won't actually come into operation and the amendments that I made would probably be irrelevant and I think the police are right in making alcohol violations their priority the third reason is that hopefully article 29 or 38 will pass and begin to bring nuisance houses under control and that this it'll all be under one sort of package of enforcement and that's probably more efficient than what we've got now thank you very much question or comments from select board I would just note that the nuisance house by law does still need some tweaks to it and it was difficult to I had been working with Ms. Perot on on some of these amendments in the lead up to the warrant deadline and because the attorney general's office deals with the stuff that we had done at the last town meeting they deal with it for months we only just last week got back the zoning articles from them the nuisance house article we just got back a couple weeks ago is so it's actually incredibly difficult to try and work with an article twice in close proximity because you're not working with the cleaned up version and so as part of the fact that you're not working with the cleaned up version a number of sections were actually left out of the petition article and so Ms. Perot has her feelings about why to withdraw it but I had indicated to her ahead of time that I was going to be recommending dismissal because it just it isn't viable as it stands and really it needs to be set aside let a clean copy be tweaked for the future but with all of the sections that it's missing currently there doesn't give us really anything to work with so I appreciate the sentiment behind it and I hope that we can bring it forward in a cleaner form for the future and as far as the response costs go that was discussed at a select board meeting it was noticed under the town managers report several weeks ago we weren't discussing we weren't discussing the costs whether they were right or not because they're just the costs it's what the it's what the police chief decided were the costs so it's not like we were setting different we were going to consider different limits than the costs but anyway just so folks know we we did talk about that and it was on the agenda okay this time would you like to make the motion? Sure I move that the select board recommend dismissal for the May 6th 2013 annual town meeting article 39 nuisance house bylaw amendment second further discussion all in favor say aye aye aye aye that's unanimous anyone like to speak to that and I will speak to that okay article 40 rental housing information anyone here to speak to that no okay so this is Mr. O'Connor's petition perhaps he'll come later so we will hold that off so his is also article 41 unless anyone is here to speak to the residential parking petition okay then 42 is the petition for affordability restriction at echo village apartments please come forward welcome and please introduce yourself for folks at home hi good evening my name is Tracy Lee but you here and I am part of the echo village tenants organization and I am here representing for the tenants organization and article 42 I brought some extra handouts that I wasn't able to get to you guys before that I use at the review so I'd like to pass them around thank you did I have enough sorry so first I guess I would like to describe where echo village is located for those that may not be aware we are located at the intersection of route nine old amherst road gatehouse road which is basically right before we get to rolling green as we're coming away from the center of town in sammers the building was sold in between two private owners going from one hand to the next and in the with that sale two buildings were purchased and the article will be amended to reflect the new approximate price total sale that we're looking at for the purchase of one of the buildings the apartment building of 30 gatehouse road which has a 24 units apartments in it so the petition we're requesting that the town acquire the property to preserve affordable housing and to see the total price will be if I'm thinking correctly sorry 2.55 million dollars versus the 3 million that's written in the petition so I will need to amend that when we get to town meeting with 85 percent of that coming through other funding sources gifts bequests grants loans from the government and the state and 15 percent of that we're asking to come through the town that will come out to about $400,000 or less and the through some of the research that I've been doing and we've been working on together as tenants we're finding that the property basically qualifies for some of some state funds and loan programs one being the low income housing tax credit at a 4 percent tax credit and also the affordable housing trust fund and home funds these are sources that we could look at using to go get towards the 85 percent that would go towards the 85 percent there you know some we're also looking at getting to the CPA committee and requesting support through that still in the process we've kind of missed some meetings they've been cancelled and waiting for summary scheduling the building has 24 units in it there are 10 two bedroom units with about one of those units is fully handicapped accessible there are seven three bedroom units with two baths and seven four bedroom units with two baths as well and one of those being handicapped accessible we see the benefit to the town and acquiring the property as having that property then come into by deed restriction come into the count that builds towards the affordability percentage that goes along with the 40B explain that right now because there aren't deed restrictions and there aren't public funds coming into the property we do not count in that those numbers that go towards the affordability percentage with the acquisition we could by having the deed restrictions put on the property then count so this is a way that the town could increase the amount of units for affordable housing without actually having to increase the number of units in you know in through construction or anything like that and it's cheaper it's sustainable development and it's you know a great way to reuse existing property we are a very diverse community and the property is located and I think we're right off of the east village center area in Amherst and you would just like to have you know an integrated community and the way it is and have it stay that way so that's very much so you would be looking for the town to acquire this for the town to essentially be the landlord of this property we are looking for the town to acquire the property yes the town would then be able to hand the property over to a non-profit organization or the housing authority to then manage so our expectation is not for the town to manage the property but to maintain ownership yes questions or comments from this Mr. Mutianti tell us about the how this looks for the town and conversations that you've been engaged in on this topic yeah and we've had some good preliminary discussions and what I have expressed to petitioners and to the property owner for that matter the current owner is a strong desire I think on the part of the town to do what we can to preserve as many units on an affordable basis as is possible for all the reasons that Tracy Lee has said my sense and you've identified in the article a number of very potentially promising revenue sources primarily state sources none of which are in hand none of which are have been applied for yet at least so my initial sense on the article is the specifics of it are premature I can report to the board that based on some initial conversations with the current property owner there's an there's an openness to having a more detailed discussion about what might be possible preserving some at least some number of the units so I have said that I'm willing to help convene the appropriate staff and others to try to further that conversation and I can see depending on where this goes I can see that then being the basis perhaps for some subsequent action possibly by town meeting fall or even next spring I'm going to relay that to the select board thank you other questions or comments from select board Mr. Wald thank you again for a very very clear presentation and good homework here lots of lots of good background and relevant issues I guess part of my question was the detail about the funding were you still hoping to get CPA to back this and does that depend on that because I know that you know they have as you know come to the end of their cycle and of course this came up at a late point in their calendar that's not your fault but how much depends on CPA then as far as the what you're proposing here um I don't think I have that figure with how much was going to come from CPA we but part of what I'm asking is CPA things come to town meeting only if they go through CPA right correct right we did understand that yes and between the time of this happening and getting in front of you know getting organized and reaching out to CPA yes we you know we're here without having seen them so what we're thinking and and looking at is that we would still love to meet with CPA committee and we do not see that CPA backing this or supporting supporting us does not necessarily need to take away from any of the other projects that CPA has decided to support or is pushing forward by bonding this project as well as one other project or maybe two other projects that would be make it possible that everything could be supported without taking anything away and denying funds to another project so that's an option that we're looking at I do know that there aren't concrete this is this whole thing with research and everything has really been outside of my area of expertise so I've tried to do the best that I can do and really we wanted to put out the possibilities of what's there and the funding sources that I've listed here will allow for tenant based assistance to or tenant based assistance holders voucher holders to actually stay in those units it makes a difference between whether it's a project based assistance versus the tenant based assistance and it also allows for a mixed income building as well which is those are the things that we're looking for and that was the type of building that we had whether you know it definitely mixed income Thank you Ms. Brewer and Mr. Heane I'm really sorry about the crackling noise I know that's incredibly distracting I have no idea why Emmer's Media is having trouble with that but I'm sure they'll think of something right now CPA was able to go outside its normal funding system never let it be said that we're just bureaucrats and that we'll have to do things on a certain schedule because we already discussed the emergency fund associated partly with tenants here which is not a lot of solution but it's a small solution toward a solution associated with the previous Angle, sorry coming from different angles of our issue right but it's still Echo Village tenants said it is directly benefiting that we voted to that we voted to support that CPA brought forward outside of their usual cycle say well maybe here's some little piece of something we can do to help with this situation so that is one of the housing recommendations that is coming before town meeting is for that particular profanely outreach and Emmer's Housing Authority for the Emmer's Renters emergency fund of 15,000 which this body previously voted to recommend so they are clearly CPA is attempting to be sensitive to this in terms of one of the details I don't know about just and you've done a ton of research one of the things I don't know about is CPA has is bringing forth these articles to town meeting it seems highly unlikely they're bringing a different article forward to town meeting given the town meeting starts on Monday is there a possibility you know we always talk about making motions within the scope of the article and what you're actually legally allowed to do based on what the warrant says I believe there would not be but correct me if I'm wrong a way to change one of the currently recommended projects that's not recommended for bond authorization to recommend it for bond authorization in hopes of helping you know reallocate things at this point it's how I mean they can't make that change at town meeting can they based on the warrant as published no so the CPA law requires that the only things that can be voted on by town meeting are the recommendations that are brought by the CPA committee they can the town meeting can reject or decrease any of those recommendations but it cannot make alternate recommendations what I was getting at was that if CPA itself wanted to say oh as has been mentioned as a possibility just like there are lots of possibilities well maybe CPA could put something under bond authorization instead of paying for it directly what I'm saying is I don't think they can make that decision within this warrant because I think it's too late for them to do that unless we simply rejected it and that particular aspect and then redid it at fall town meeting or something is that correct they can't just decide hey this is a great idea we should do this and then change it because the warrant is what the warrant is and the rules are what they are correct Ms. Stein is our CPA liaison? for me? I said as our CPA liaison to wait right but what I was wondering is if this turned out to be something that would be beneficial for the town in terms of keeping our affordable housing numbers up so that we can stay above 10 percent because we know that Rowling Green could lower us precipitously and then would it be possible for a special town meeting within town meeting to have a new article brought forward if that came from CPA and further discussions with you about the best way to go forward? I think the timing is very extremely challenging and then I think the funding plan for whatever solution if any that's arrived at should follow the planning and not be the first step of the planning and I'm saying that in all due respect to the people who've been devoting a lot of time and effort to try to brainstorm possible approaches here I'm encouraged by the fact that the property owner is open to having a conversation about possible possible approaches that's very far from a guarantee on the outcome but it puts us in a position to have a more detailed discussion about options and what is or isn't possible which could then inform I think a future article if such an article was needed Times like this when I wish Roy was still around I have a slightly different question and I want to thank you for your presentation it does sort of pull everything together and your hand out here which I hope will be on the website eventually so people at home can see it as well leads me to a slightly different question than Ms. Thine asked but it's I think it's on the right I along the right along the right lines there are a number of agencies listed here as potential sources for funding HUD for instance I understand that funding grants along these lines sometimes are supported by positive action on the select board's part or town meetings part I don't expect an answer right now because it'll take some cogitation but I'm wondering if there is something that we could do that would indicate appropriately to the appropriate people that the town is is serious about this is committed to it if CPA and maybe maybe not a special special town meeting like we often have is the right mechanism I would like to figure out or have people smarter than me figure out how we can send the right message to these people who really will need to be partners in a successful project like this you know if if you know for example if the select board as a body said pursuing every effort to try to preserve as many affordable units as possible as a policy priority of the of the board in the town I think that sends a very powerful message to the potential funding partner I would just like to say I know timing and is a big concern and I definitely want to you know point out that the tenants you know as a whole in the very short time when we were served our first notice on the 7th of February research began you know immediately after the the petition was submitted which was the deadline actually so from that point to me sitting here you know in front of you was the time of the research that we all did so I understand the concern of you know the timing and finding developers and what is that going to look like but in the very short time of roughly about you know three weeks to a month a lot of information was found and you know we're more than willing to continue to you know work together and at some point would love to be then handed over but you know I just would like to say a lot can be done in short time frames as well and we're willing you know to assist in any and every way that we can and of course this is our homes that you know we want to save and and are hoping to stay in and as well as the town and we know that you back us and support us in that as well but again to to kind of say you know we've we've been able to do quite a bit in a short time and no willing to put as much effort as we can to assist in your efforts as well thank you very much and I think all of your excellent research really becomes an impetus to trying to find a solution here and that's very important I think that echoing Mr. Mutanti's sentiments that this needs more discussion I think that it's too soon to vote funding for this and I mean really just stepping back at the at first blush we don't have a willing seller here we would be acquiring a property from someone who doesn't want to give up their property necessarily unless those conversations continue so then we're talking about eminent domain eminent domain is about the most sacred responsibility and authority that municipality has and that has to be considered with great discretion and so and public use and rehabilitation which actually a property doesn't need so let me go back public use and residential need and you know affordable housing is written also into eminent domain so absolutely being a very serious choice this is a very serious issue very much understands the housing crisis that we're in across Amherst and it's a crisis at every level and it's particularly a crisis at the affordability level it would be a big hit to lose these units for these families for sure and so we want to find a solution to this I don't I don't think this is the solution yet I don't think finding funding for this is the solution right now but I think that the conversation needs to continue and Mr. Musanti's point about about sending a strong message I'm sure that the select board will want to do that so you know we are partners with this in you partners in this with you mixing up those crazy words but but personally I'm not going to be able to support this I think that maybe of my my thought would be that it gets recommended back referred back if we recommended referral back to either the select board or to the housing and sheltering committee that might be a way to really kind of officially keep this moving forward but uh without opposing it outright because again it's not it's not a sense of opposition it's just the sense that this isn't the right this isn't the right solution so anyway that's where I am Mr. Walden head of Sanries so here's the question I'm not sure anybody's to help you hear it you know we're very strongly in favor of the portable housing I think the degree that Emerson has done too little for it's the right reason we need to go need for it so the question is given there are issues of timing and financing and we have this alternative not alternative but a different measure on the table for CPA for a rental assistance am I correct in understanding I mean it's a different approach obviously but that that would provide the temporary fix so that no one is actually harmed by the changes that have taken place in other words does that bias enough time to help the renters in their situation so that's something like this could be put together with a little more deliberation and time Mr. Mr. Mr. It by some time you know it really you know the housing court process and eviction processes and all that there's a whole timeline there's various mediation elements embedded within that so it's you know it helps temporarily at least but but the bigger issue is the long-term preservation of affordable units and just a note from you know even if town meeting were to approve this you know in a couple of weeks we know from the Olympia Oaks situation what an incredibly complicated deal it is to put together public funding for affordable housing I mean you don't just call them up and then they write you a check I mean the this Olympia Oaks funding situation has been going on for a very long time so the whatever the town decided to do with with this chunk of the money I don't think that particularly buys anything at this point that we're just this is the earliest stage of trying to figure out a solution and it's a it's a bunch of great information to be working with but we're not I don't I don't think it puts us in the position to do anything quickly Ms. Brewer so following up on that I have a couple of slightly random things to stitch together here but looking at the the deadlines page here on the back side of course you know we can talk about process all day long but the reality is aside from the fact housing courts incredibly slow people are being forced out of their homes before the end of the school year so I mean we have to recognize that and the incredible stress that that's releasing on people doesn't mean we can do anything about it but it's a horrible situation where people to be stuck in with when it mentions here for some of the state housing grant there's a May 15th deadline we don't have the resources to make that deadline at this point that's just not going to happen so I think we should state that very clearly that no one's going to be putting that in on the town's behalf at this point that was and it just have to make excuse me and the August 2013 prepayment opportunity while certainly for rolling green while certainly there and that's a very big concern and has been for a number of years and that a number of staff have been working on as well is not a foregone conclusion so it doesn't mean it won't happen but it's not automatically necessarily going to happen that does not necessarily help these people right now in the situation but just to to clarify around some of those things what I'm wondering is I think following up on on what Mr. Wildset is there a reasonable way to make an amendment or a motion of some kind that commits some amount of money to make it clear to these other because we can say oh we're all for supporting affordable housing well who cares there's no application out in the process we're just like tweeting that to HUD I mean that's like not really going anywhere so I am is there any way to make a motion associated with this that says we'll take x number of dollars out of free cash and we're going to put it aside for this project so that if something is able to come together we can do this and this is very backwards of how we normally do things we normally have complete packages put together for town meeting I totally get that but this is a different situation than just oh gee somebody might sell their conservation land we you know we try to do those in a timely fashion too but this is people and their livelihoods so do we know of a way that a petitioner is planning to come forward or that we could possibly look at this as some piece of money that isn't going to solve the problem but that will help us in this weird timeline that we're facing to say okay well all right okay we all voted that's $200,000 there so if you can put together a rest of a package with all these other agencies then you know you already have that or does that simply have to wait I mean is that have to wait because it's our usual process or is there just really no mechanism for doing that so I don't know exactly the answer to your question I mean we can call a town meeting any time a town meeting needs to be called so you know but that is always a possibility for the future I think it kind of boils down to what the the owner's intentions are you know if this was a question of of writing them a check and then you know they people could stay longer or whatever but I don't think we've anyone has identified that that's the you know he's not just waiting for check to make this go away so I'm not sure how you solve that problem with money if that isn't the the the solution that the that the land owner that the property owner is looking for so I guess what I'm trying to get at is rather than a special town meeting too since we have this warrant article already to have this warrant you'd think I'd know this being in town meeting for over 10 years but that we could make this article be funded somehow that we could set aside money we at other times will say we're going to apply for this grant and we have made the town meetings made the authorization that if the grant comes through we're going to pay this much toward it and then the money sits there and waits to see if the grant comes through and if the grant doesn't come through we don't spend the money if the grant does come through we spend the money why is this different than that because is it because the way the warrant article is written now because it obviously had to be written by a certain deadline can't can we do something like that with this very warrant or make it contingent Mr. Musanti what do you think I just circle back to my earlier description of a detailed funding plan about preserving affordable units needs to follow the remainder of the conversation I don't think putting funds in up front with no plan especially given the the flexibility that does exist to conceivably call a special town meeting you know at any time but the nature of these things is it's not a simple matter it is going to take time and that's the reality deadlines or no deadlines it's going to take time to move this forward I would just caution against that Mr. Patelio that approach sorry I'd like to address that couple things when we were scheduled to go back into the housing and shelter and committee on the 8th there were some other questions they were asking in terms of timeline and what this would what this would look like you know if there was agreement from the town what is the next step and you know with how that would play out so there is I agree a lot more research and again you know understanding it's you know just lay people basically trying to to do this and I spoke with Mr. Musanti earlier today and relayed that you know I've had quite a few conversations as well in as part of the research and has spoken to developers on you know how do we do this and what's the process like and is this feasible is it possible one of the very difficult things was kind of being the tenant organization and as you're identifying Ms. O'Keefe is that we don't have a willing seller and at the time this hadn't come before the town as a whole so we didn't have a clear specific answer for that so I didn't want to speak something that we didn't have my sense and what I'm getting from them is that if there was willingness on the part of the town that there are developers that see this as very attractive because one the state of the building you know it's it's been kept up it's great condition this isn't a unit that needs to be rehabbed you know the revenues coming in as we speak it has been all along so there are benefits to this already and it is appealing to developers the one piece that wasn't was which is a huge piece is the either the willingness of the owner or the support and willingness of the town so I think that and my day got a little crazy and away from me it was information I I still need to share with Mr. Moussanti on I should part of it a few of the different people I've spoken to but I do see that there is the possibility if we're hearing the willingness to to work with this to look into this as the possibility one yes the determination to preserve affordable housing but the willingness to look at a way to do this with Echo Village I think that there may be very well may be developers that are willing to step forward which would then bring in pre-development money to cover for the time that these grants and loans would then come into place it's a lot of ifs I do understand that and I do hear that as well but I think that that's more concrete than than the ifs of a sole person you know trying to apply for the the grants and the loans I don't know if that if that helps a little bit thank you so I know someone from the public is looking to comment Ms. Wilder if you could come forward please if you could just sort of move to the side a little bit so that she can speak into the mic also I could grab another chair and please identify yourself Paige Wilder precinct 10 I would just want to say that this has a lot of momentum and there are a lot of questions and it's falling into place very quickly and it's very likely the past town meeting and one of the hang-ups is the support of town and I'm wondering along Alyssa's comments if it isn't possible to show that support to make those things fall into instead of showing this questioning and we're not really sure and could this really happen I think it's very likely to happen all of the questionable pieces there's a lot going on behind the scenes and if the town said yes it would be more likely to happen than if the town doesn't say yes and I think it's a pivotal moment in addressing this particular warrant petition and not waiting until later and along those lines I would like to know if the select board could ask the housing and sheltering committee just to assess whether or not this unit makes sense to to address the low income housing problems the town has so apart from finances is this an appropriate way to go that would be one piece that the town could say yes this does look viable or no it doesn't and just lay the money aside for the moment everybody's worried about the money and then if the planning board could ask staff to look at some of the funding cycles that only come up once a year because to wait for the following year funding cycle is going to be a real mistake if this does pass town meeting and we can move it forward and I just wanted to point out that it was very expedient of the CPA to pull together the funding source for the rental emergency money but in reality that's relocating these people out of Amherst that money is not to help them stay in Amherst they can't there's no place in Amherst to go and so while it's helpful support if they have to leave we can set aside some money contingent on all these other things happening and it could be support that they get to say it's a it's a resource that we have right now that's going to fall apart as soon as that becomes student housing that building is not going to be the resource that it is right now thank you very much yeah I don't disagree with that it's just I think it I think that the seller is the big question not the seller the owner is the big question mark and how you move anything forward when that this is that conversation has only kind of begun and that deadline sorry the deadline is not for all of the funding sources that was one deadline that was coming up and one of the things that is happening behind the scenes is you know another effort to reach out to find community members that can work on you know the application that needs to go through whether we take it piece by piece and find people that have taken a portion that they're expert in whether it's the architect or you know the contractor but that's not a deadline that covers blanket for all of the funding sources but I also wanted that to be clear okay thank you Mr. Wong do you have re-enlightened in the missed time yeah this has made it a long time it's given that there are uncertainties on our end but things are supposedly moving out there in the wider world is there any reason we have to take position with tonight I mean is there any harm in coming back to this at one of our pre and not the male issues right now but we don't know about the vaccines and about the road and so forth coming back to it except one of those so important things you've worked on I mean because I know that the committee also has not taken a position on this article so that would give us the opportunity to learn more between now and then housing and children committee Ms. Burke could you tell us what their status is of so as the petitioner mentioned they are going to meet they're having an additional meeting specifically for this purpose they've already talked to the petitioner twice but they're just there's a lot going on here and so they want to talk again on May 8th and so I said good because the select board is going to want to hear from you and so I'd certainly be amenable to deferring a recommendation until after they hear from them as well particularly given that our housing and sheltering committee that only has a number of very dedicated volunteers but also two housing experts associated with it one of which is our director of housing authority and the others Connie Krueger who has specifically worked on affordable housing and many state programs so they can be valuable resources to this conversation as well um I'm still I'm still a little unclear I guess because I haven't looked at the finance committee report because we just got it tonight is what would this act warrant article actually do in terms of you know I I can read the words you know it says three million and we know that the number would be taken down a bit by the petitioner but if we were to approve this we we have no plan in place but what happens if tell me in their wisdom even if we said no town meeting says yes then what happens where does it go who works on it how does it you know what I'm saying what does what does the town meet given that usually what happens is I'm thinking mostly of conservation projects where we say here's some money from Kestrel here's some money from this grant here's this here's that boom we've got it all the pieces or we don't because it's contingent on one grant like the park grant this one's different I can't think of one that's exactly like this so if town meeting there there are times when town meeting approves something and it's relatively meaningless because it doesn't do anything it doesn't make it happen in some fashion what does this compel the town to do if this passes I need a better understanding of that as well before I think my recommendation okay so that's a good question what they're really choosing so if we so if we defer a recommendation until after we get more information from housing and sheltering committee and other folks and that could be part of the other information that we get because that's obviously a critical question for town meeting to know that this if this passes that would equal what what would happen thank you Ms. Stein the finance committee did defer so that's one piece of information the other is that the CPA committee often brings forward recommendations for the full town meeting so it doesn't it isn't like it's stuck in a once a year cycle I'm not saying and the third thing I wanted to say is the 15,000 that they recommended to aid the echo village persons who were being evicted was really seed almost seed money to go out and get other funding because 15,000 wasn't going to take them very far but that's still a whole lot less than the 300,000 that's mentioned in this that said I'm perfectly prepared and would like to recommend that we also defer to a town meeting because it's obvious that I have a great deal of sympathy well I hope it's obvious that I have a lot of sympathy for the inhabitants of echo village and also with our overall problem of affordable housing since we are reading the housing report and I have concern about falling behind below the 10% so there are a lot of reasons why this could be a good thing but it's obviously going to take a lot of work and I just don't know if it can be pulled together okay so I think what I'm hearing from all of us is that we're going to defer a position on this so we will schedule this for a select board meeting to be determined prior to a town meeting date and we'll let you know when that's going to be okay is it possible to come away this evening with is it possible to come away with a comment or you know of of support that I could then take as you know continuing our research reaching out to developers is there something firm that I can take and say yes the town is supporting us and looking for ways and looking you know if we can find the funding the town is here where again like I was saying before I didn't have that so as much as you know this was appealing for a developer to come in not having the necessary entities behind you know they were also reluctant so is there something you know is there support that I can walk away from very clear yes the town is here if if a developer is willing to come in with with funding or funding sources then yes we can take the next step of you know what this is and and planning this out I think what you're hearing is strong support from the select board for wanting to help you find a solution to this I don't think we can get too much more specific in what our support would be because we're still talking about so many different balls in the air right now I want to be clear that that I speak the right thing and and not misrepresent I think we're committed to trying to help find a solution to this but at this point we don't know what that is and hopefully it will become clearer next time this comes before us when we have more information and one more question is there at this point a way to continue to work with the town more closely and in researching this and looking into funding and and the application or any other that's my sanity yeah the very clear answer to that is yes and the primary people from the town to work with are myself directly and and Dave Zomek working with staff on all the various options thank you thank you very much one more public comment on this Hi my name is Catherine Gilbert Espada and I moved Amherst 20 years ago with the because of the diversity in the town my husband and I lived in Boston and we were told Amherst is a great place to bring up your child there's a lot of Latino family this is the place to be you know we were recruited to come out here and for my for my own personal feeling that the loss of these families is devastating to the other children around the area and I I really hope that I'm encouraged that you're willing to work with Ms. Boutier sorry can't say the name but it would be a tragedy to see these families displaced you know we keep talking about units and affordability but there are families with children who have friends in the schools and it will impact directly our entire community if this doesn't if we can't find a solution thank you very much okay so we're going to defer our position on this Ms. Brewer so just clarity and then to ask the town manager assuming I get other select board support for what I'm about to ask him to do and that is one when we say the recommendation is deferred to town meeting as Ms. O'Keefe mentioned we will definitely you know say when we're going to talk about this next we only have those short meetings right before town meeting as you'll delightfully get to experience as a new town meeting member and but we definitely want to hear from the housing and sheltering committee at least a recap of what happened at their meeting which won't happen until the eighth and I wonder if the town manager might do two things one is if rather than just because I happen to be their liaison if he would let staff know that again that the select board is very much looking forward to the housing and sheltering committees report as to what happened and so that we can talk about this you know sooner rather than later maybe not as soon as Wednesday the eighth but certainly as quickly as they feel like they can pull something together or even if they have to report to us verbally I could actually give up having a paper report if I had to on this one occasion maybe but the other thing I wanted to ask for is that the town manager provide to us the select board and to the housing and sheltering committee meaning Monday-ish next week an explanation of what this what this town meaning warrant article actually compels the town or any other entity to do if it passes because again as was okay referred to you know it's one thing to say yes we support this article but without all those pieces already being in place what would that actually mean it's not as clear and it would be very useful for housing and sheltering to know that before they have their conversation so if he's willing to do it if you guys think it's okay for him to do it I hope that'd be great so I think that sounds reasonable are those things you can do okay okay good thank you very much thank you for all the information and thank you for coming in tonight thank you and I can look forward to speaking to you again soon Mr. Masanti thank you thank you very much I don't think we need a formal motion to defer this we'll just do it okay article 43 the petition for conservation restriction on coals parcels welcome hello don't trip on the mic cord there there you go I'm Jack Hirsch I live on Flat Hills road so I'm gonna butt it to this to this property on on February 22nd I got a letter from Landmark saying that this proposal had been done so we're in a similar situation to Tracy's we're been running to get things together and that's why we had a very hurryed petition article to get on the warrant so I first would like to ask the select board I understand that the chapter 61 submission has been resubmitted and I would ask that you take the full 120 days to consider the right of first refusal so that we have time to finish our research and to present all the information I think the land itself the land speaks for itself it's been on the required it's been on the seven-year action plan this first map that I gave you it's this land up here and you can see on the map that it is in between two wildlife corridors one is the Cushman Brook one that's striped above it and the other is below it those are riparian corridors and believe me animals don't just stay in those two corridors they hang a left and cross that land and communicate and there are lots of animals that we see all the time in these woods the the woods are now used for passive recreation they're beautiful woods for hiking a bit tick infested but that's part of the problem that we have in New England we see lots of animals there and a wildlife corridor is just one of the of the really valuable things about this land it also serves as the home of the famous spotted salamanders which is mentioned also in the in the open space and land use sorry opens open space and recreation plan is one of the unique features in Amherst we are working very hard to find funding sources we've contacted um I'm sorry we've contacted a number of them we we have a meeting with Kestrel on Thursday we've communicated with mount grace trust we presented to the communicate the community preservation act committee and they were very favorably inclined we also prevented presented to the conservation committee they were also our commission they were also favorably inclined but because of the rushing nature of this and because of the funding cycles we're obviously at a disadvantage in that regard so we are actively looking for partners that will help us do the funding we have every intention to contact the state and other agencies as well I've been playing phone tag with Sam Lovejoy so we're we're hopeful that we'll get some good news soon the proposed development threatens a woodland that knits together several values that we embrace is critically important to the town of Amherst it provides recreational opportunities for a wide variety of people people hike up on the Robert Frost trail from amethyst amethyst broke the trail then cuts through the land in question and heads over to Puffer's pond so it provides the connectivity that the land use plan or the recreation plan stresses it's continued protection will help preserve will help Amherst preserve the extraordinary historic nature of Cushman village which we really haven't gotten into but it's on the national register of historic places and it's a very tight-knit community it's one of the oldest village centers and it existed historically even before white people moved into this area so this is further complicated by something that I don't exactly know how to address but because of the zoning bylaws as although we are zoned residential outlying we find that we have no protection whatsoever for a cluster subdivision so the only the only way for this project not to go forward would be for the town to exercise its right of first refusal so if this were a project that the town did a cost analysis of and found out that it was really detrimental for the town for the length of this of our existence the town has no protection against it so in a way I feel that the zoning has really failed us in this case there is essentially no special permit required that citizens could have input in and I don't really see how the town can object to something unless unless we exercise our right of first refusal okay questions or comments from Mr. Hirsch Ms. Burr could you clarify that the purpose of this map which is in town meeting mailing number two in which a black and white copy of which is also posted in the select board packet that this is the outline of the Cushman is this the national historic register district is this just the village what is this representing Pine Street I can't well that would be not possible on this map to see right in here so what's this what is the bright blue representing I'm not sure it's a square it's a square exactly what square is it this is in this was in with our new stuff and the black that might be reservoir trying to place it and Mr. Zomex not happening to be here I don't know he is here off my head Mr. Zomex could you help Alyssa identify a parcel pull this out here what is this square I'm lost my bearings I've lost my bearings as to what that represents because it's in the town meeting mailing it should be clear what it presents can I sneak up to the mic there sure this is an Atkins is it that's up here so we appear to be looking at a house lot that's kind of kitty corner if you will across from Rockston gravel pit so that's off of Leverett Road okay so I'm not sure what the blue represents I'm not familiar with this map I'm sorry I haven't seen it before this moment right so we have Puffer's Pond everyone sees Puffer's Pond are we all looking at the same map or not yes so we have Puffer's Pond it's recognizable shape we then have to the right or to the east of Puffer's Pond is Rockston gravel pit you can see the small outline and small pond on Rockston you then have the railroad tracks going through those are the railroad tracks going north south and this would be east of the railroad tracks off of between the railroad tracks and Leverett Road and there looks like there's a building perhaps a house on it on the eastern most portion so I'm not sure what the blue represents I've never seen that um indicated on a map before okay we could research it but I'm not familiar with it Mr. Wilde that's part of the built-up area which is I mean you know you know the extent to the east side industry to their house but it doesn't actually look like that's what the building is for okay thank you other questions or comments thank you thank you Mr. Zomer okay so here's where I am on this we just had the the discussion of the previous article about affordability in Amherst we are talking next week about the housing production plan which is in the select words packet right now in preparation for our next week's meeting page one of the executive summary says a major contributing factor to the affordability gap is that housing growth has not kept up with population growth including increasing enrollments as noted in figure one while the population grew by 24,101 residents or 176 percent between 1960 and 2010 housing during the same period increased by only 5,264 units or 125 percent underline this is in essence the heart of the town's housing problem housing supply has not kept up with the increasing demand resulting in higher housing prices and residents paying more than they can afford to live in Amherst so I find us confronted by a housing crisis there is extraordinary student demand on our housing stock and that is having repercussions in our neighborhoods it's having repercussions for families at all income levels and so personally I need for this I favor this plan going through the process to see if this is part of our solution it's not the whole solution but it would take pressure off of the existing housing which is which as we know is just being converted both in our neighborhoods and even because of the economic attractiveness of our affordability what had previously been affordable housing and echo village being turned into student housing this is a demand we cannot we cannot stop at this point all we can do is try to better address it I don't know if the landmark proposal is going to be a supportable proposal or not we just haven't gotten enough details for it but personally I'm not willing to support taking that land off the table before we even go through the process of considering whether this is in fact a good place among the places that we need to be thinking about about building housing and the emergency landmark proposal for its for its merits I will let it go through the planning board or zba process that that is required that I'm not sure if you're very familiar with how those things work but there's a ton of public input that goes into that so will you wait for the full 120 days before considering the right of first refusal I'm not sure I've got to think about what the implications are of that so when I'm talking about the process I'm talking about what happens after that talking about assuming that the town does not exercise its right which is an early assumption at this point but you know so that the public knows the option for right of first refusal is either that we opt not to accept it or that we purchase the property so purchasing the property doesn't strike me as being in the cards maybe you could talk about how what you're proposing here is different than our purchasing the property via the right of first refusal we're proposing to purchase the conservation rights to the property because of the value of the property and I think if you do a careful cost analysis you'll find that this kind of development will cost the town in the long run and will create more problems you know we already have very high dense student housing on the west end of pine street if we add that to the east end of pine street there'll be a party alley all along pine street of students walking back and forth drinking and partying and it'll it'll make the problem even worse I think to go ahead with the development like this before we've stopped in thought about solutions to the to the existing problems seems just wrong-headed to me I mean we've we've tried a number of things to try and resolve student behavior and public problems one is that UMass is providing more police force I think it's time to look and see how successful that is before we jump into another big development I think another thing that's really misleading is that this upscale it's called an upscale cottage style student retreat in North Amherst which is a few miles from the university so every student there will have a car and I think that the traffic issues around North Amherst where the roads are already in sad shape and having 700 additional cars is going to wear them out a lot faster not to mention the fire hazards in the wood is going to tax the fire department I think these are considerations that need to be happened taken into effect also I think that the idea that rentals close to the university you're going to suddenly become vacant because students can go live in the woods in North Amherst at a very high rate landmark told us there were going to be 825 dollars per room they rent per room they don't rent per cottage is just ludicrous I mean students will always opt to live closer to the university so they can walk or bike rather than have to drive most of us consider living closer to where we work is an advantage also so I see this as adding to the problems not reducing the problems and I think this is something that the select board needs to consider because once this is built the land is lost forever the problems will be here forever and this is the only opportunity that we have to really consider is this a development that Amherst wants it seems to me that development in Amherst has been driven much more by business interests lately all the conversions to student rentals are are simply driven by profit they can make more profit by renting to four to six students in a house or excuse me only four students are allowed but we know about that rather than a single family and the same thing with this development this land if you look at the features on one of the maps that I that I gave you the topographical features this land is extremely extremely hard to develop the only profitable development that's possible in this land is a huge development like this where they're just going to level the hill do all sorts of blasting bring in you know water and sewer and have to convert the whole thing if this were feasible for single family homes as it's zoned to do they would have done that years ago but you know those aren't economically feasible only a large development like this is possibly economically feasible okay let me get further comment from select with Mr. Walden did you hand raise Miss Stein I was wondering what Mr. Zomek would have to say about the conservation value and the idea of purchasing a conservation restriction okay Mr. Zomek well again I think I'll preface my comments by saying I think it's a little early in the process as Ms. O'Keeffe said we're learning more and will continue to learn more about this as things go along we don't even have a development proposal for the planning board or the planning staff to consider yet so I want to put that right out there the open space and recreation plan I'm sure will be discussed at length on the floor of town meeting happy to briefly talk about that now and we can talk more about it the conservation commission heard the first proposal from the petitioners I believe about a week ago and invited the petitioners back at a subsequent meeting before this is on the floor of town meeting I believe that was the promise from the conservation commission so again it's very early in their process and I think it's a little hard for the conservation commission to deal with this again out of the sequence of of CPAC they've already made their recommendations to CPAC many many months ago and that isn't any fault of the positioners it's just of the chapter process chapter 61 process has just started so getting back to the open space and recreation plan like our master plan the open space and recreation plan is is a guide it is not an absolute document it's a it's a fluid and living document in fact it's changed over the years and we'll continue to change as we preserve land as we preserve farmland as the needs of the town change and and grow and and and are adjusted in the the the 2009 update this area was identified as a possible forest reserve I will note and and I helped and was directly involved with the update of this with my staff that is the only that is the only section of that particular map I believe it's map seven or hold on let me just clarify that map eight I'm sorry the seven-year action plan that is somewhat tentative you'll notice all the other areas are clearly identified this had possible the other areas as you note are things like Poverts Pond to Leverett Wildlife Corridor Mount Hoyoke range Lawrence swamp those are known priority areas in previous open space and recreation plans we hadn't really prioritize that area but it was thought at the time that it was a large block as the petitioners have identified a large block of unprotected forest land so that's why it was referenced as possible you'll even note that in the on map eight part of the possible forest reserve is denoted in in green solid line with a dotted line to the west of that and that was even with some staff and commission input that it was close to a village center and that there might be possible possibilities for other things to happen there so my point is there was a fluid discussion about this area clearly the petitioners have identified the longstanding commitment the town has made and the Coles family and company has made to the the population of yellow spotted salamanders that are there again clearly that is a a wonderful educational opportunity the town is known worldwide for that the efforts it made back in the 80s to put in those tunnels what I've heard from from Cinda Jones and the Coles company and from landmark is that you know they're committed to finding some solution and some way to preserve that land that contains the salamanders so all of this I think is is a roundabout way of saying I think there's there's pieces of information that we have there's still pieces of information that we need to have we we need for the town the town is in the process of of considering the chapter 61 resubmittal of that information I don't believe we've had an opportunity to fully review that yet so I think all of those things need more input and a little more time Mr. one I can't take a position on the landmark I'm not going to as much as I'm like said but underscore what the chair said about the housing we all understand the problems of housing or maybe we don't actually we understand there's a housing problem I'll put it differently and we understand the problem of student behavior of course student drinking outdoors is illegal there's no open containers that shouldn't be an issue they can be arrested for that find but as far as the larger issue goes you know people keep expecting the university to provide housing it's never going to house all the students that's magical thinking won't get us very far number two I understand some concerns about large blocks of student housing but there is something to be said for them if they're managed by an on-site manager and well developed in providing taxes as opposed to students elsewhere where they're paying no taxes and the whatever the the solution right now the lack of affordable in the common sense use of the word housing for students is making predatory landlords buy up ranch houses and old victorians and split into apartments I mean that as you said it's it's that's what's happened that lack of large numbers of housing for the student population is ruining the rest of the housing stock and destroying neighborhoods we have to deal with that I guess what I do like about the proposal here which is nothing but a sketch is that you have cluster housing too which does use space efficiently and is considered sustainable so I guess I'm not able to judge a particular proposal but we've seen it happen before for example whether it's with another development plan for the town or even the solar and the landfill often these things look maximal at the first stage and through negotiation their scale back and protection can be put in place so I think I'd rather see as you said the process run its course to the point where we have enough information to make intelligent judgments thank you Mr. Aiden yeah I hadn't raised my hand yet but I was thinking not loud it's okay no it's just one of the the interesting things among the many interesting things on this project is that I find it right smack dab in the middle of a number of really big issues that we have to that we have to as a town have to deal with housing a meeting the demand for housing is one of them the need for open space and protection is another student behavior yes that's another problem although I don't know that this is dealing with that it's certainly going to be part of it traffic taxation all of these things really do come together here I would point out that we've been very successful at saying no to allowing students or the likelihood of student of development that would encourage students to live among us in the past and this is the first place where it's more difficult to say no thank you other select board moments miss burr side note the select board it's not been advised of receipt of the revised package on the 61a and the 120 day clock we haven't gotten that notice that that's come back in so did it it's come back in over the last several minutes several minutes okay because that's something that concom will look at on our behalf so it okay here's my question my question is will concom look at that in a timely enough fashion before the select board makes a decision or will the select board make a decision without having heard from concom about chapter 61 yeah they have to all right they weigh in both concom and planning board so I'm trying to understand what the timing is given that it's only been a few days given that obviously everybody's schedules are insane around town meeting etc if we would have some sense for the petitioners of when that might happen because they're asking you know when's the select board get to weigh in on this so what are what's our timeline look like roughly on that I don't think we have a timeline I don't think anything substantive can happen can begin to happen until after town meeting I think it wouldn't be appropriate for any boards to be dealing with this and in times that the rest of the town is committed to town meeting so okay so that's one question I had so that's understanding is that con con planning board weighs in on the right of first refusal it comes to the select board so we won't actually deal with this from that standpoint not aside from this particular warrant article until after town meeting okay point one and then basically echoing what other people have said I would like to remind us that when we talk about business interests and commercial interests driving development I would also argue that as a town we have made choices over many years to conserve a huge amount of land a huge amount of land and there is no question whatsoever that by preserving that much land and conservation and open space that we put more pressure on the housing market so we have also made decisions they are not simply market driven decisions associated with this it's one of the things that makes Amherst so special but it's also a conscious choice we have made to put a lot of land and conservation and lock it up from housing development we've talked a little bit about where student housing should be we talk a lot about where student housing should be clearly there are some folks in town who believe that housing should be on campus period end of discussion no more discussion we like to hope that might happen maybe there will be changes in the law for public-private partnerships that's not an entirely impossible but at this point it does feel rather like magical thinking to imagine that any of that will happen as we continue to be concerned about that and to in some cases take that attitude that the university should deal with it houses continue to be turned over by predatory owners and we know that and that's one of the reasons we're doing the safe and healthy neighborhoods work and the rental registration work because we aren't just going to wait for something magical out there to save us I would certainly agree with anyone who would say that the master plan would not consider this an optimal location for high density housing there's no question that the master plan would not consider this an optimal location for all the reasons you've said difficulty in developing the impact on the environment traffic etc yet at the same time where is my question we are unwilling to build dedicated student housing anywhere in town has been made entirely clear by the town meeting decisions that have been made up until now and I am not willing to continue to take that line at this point I am very comfortable with hearing from what conservation commission and planning board have to say about our right of first refusal depending on where that goes if for example Castro trust jumped forward and said oh yes please assign it to us maybe there would be reasons we would choose to do that at this point I don't believe I would think that was the best idea I'm not thrilled with this particular development for a number of the reasons that have been brought up I am very excited about the possibility of additional student housing units viable safe student housing units that have been designed for that purpose individual single family homes also come with costs so even if they were viable to be developed to their educating children in our schools has thus far proven more expensive despite the stress associated with the student population it's more expensive than dealing with student related expenses so it's not a simple rubric so with all those complications in mind and again I guess it would be good to you know really for sure what happens if town meeting actually votes to accept this article I am in no way in favor of this article at this time okay just to clarify a point I made earlier obviously we have no control over the scheduling of conservation commission and planning board the select board wouldn't be taking this up until after town meeting because because no matter whether they schedule it we're just not going to get it done right even if they schedule it next week if they schedule it during town meeting then we still wouldn't be dealing with it for a while okay and I can't imagine how most of them could do that because of everything else yeah so I hope that's what we're doing Mr. Zomey just I just said two quick points one is that as as is our process and as was our process with the first notice on the chapter 61 through the town manager town council would review that and so I think that's will be our next step and then what is typical and our process is to then convey that information to the planning board and the conservation commission through staff and then a meeting could be scheduled so that was one point second point just something that Ms. Brewer said before and and I think you're absolutely right and I'm sure there will be healthy debate about land preservation at this town meeting and in town meetings moving forward one of the points that I always like to make and clarify on on the protection of of land in Amherst is the goals and objectives of that preservation and I think it's very important to not we often lump the categories together conserved land preserved land I always make it a point to tease those apart a little bit we we really have three major categories of land preservation one is for watershed protection and clearly that's for clean drinking water from our Pellum Reservoirs our reservoirs and our wells in in Lawrence Swamp so for groundwater protection for surface water protection and then for conservation general purposes and most of that land if we look at the maps that I'm sure will be featured at town meeting most of the land that has been preserved for conservation purposes and include our trails the vast majority of that land is wet or in riverfront and could never be developed and should never be developed but in the last category is really for active and prime farmland and that in effect is the most developable land we have because it's flat and dry and well drained by and large but again as we look toward the future of how we're going to feed our population and the region I think more and more we're finding and seeing the the incredible foresight that people back in the 1980s Pete Westover former select boards former town meetings had in preserving that farmland for future generations and that prime soil it's only made once but we can keep farming it in perpetuity so I always make those distinctions because I think there's a tendency out there to lump them all together and say oh well we've taken them all off the tax roll and what benefit well tremendous benefit to water quality to a farmland and feeding people in perpetuity and yes some beautiful scenic vistas and some wonderful mountains and view sheds but anyway just for clarification I will make those points that's good clarification I'd like to add that preserving woodlands helps our planet I mean that's certainly something we could tease out of there I also think that Atkins reservoir which is the groundwater or the surface water supply for North Amherst is a mile away and I don't know that the shootsberry police are going to be patrolling the part in shootsberry but certainly the Amherst police are going to have to start patrolling the part in Amherst students will find that and certainly use it cars driving up and down the road are going to pollute the water this land is all uphill from the vernal pools and where the salamanders breed all the pollution and everything is going to run down to those vernal pools there have been a number of places throughout the state where they've tried to mitigate that kind of stuff and basically the salamanders have all died off and left the Natick Mall is the most recent one which has no more salamanders so I think that that preserving this land offers a lot other than just you know lowering the tax rules I think that that's one of the reasons why people come to Amherst and live in Amherst is because we're a rural community and we do preserve land like this and I think that building another high-density student you know development there is going to really destroy historic Cushman Village and it's going to destroy the you know the eastern half of North Amherst and we'll create headaches for the town for years to come thank you so no one wants to destroy anything that's for sure but everything needs to be looked at in those larger context of all of our competing interests and I really would encourage folks to read the the housing production plan that is in our packet this week we can't expect to increase affordability save existing and historic housing stock have diversity in our community increase affordability for everyone and house the students like we can't if we keep saying no to all the potential development opportunities so the the housing plan makes very clear that increasing density in particular in our village centers is really important increasing our housing stock in general is really important if we keep saying no to all of these things there are only so many dials we can turn and so village isn't a village no I recognize that North Amherst Village is quite a right and unfortunately we just shot that one down too so we can't keep we can't keep saying no to all of these things excuse me we can't keep saying no to all these things and expect to end up with the with the diverse affordable and accommodating community for for everyone who wants to live here so so I really do feel like this needs to go through the process the things that you're talking about all of the environmental concerns we have a fantastic conservation commission I'm liaison to the conservation commission so I get to see them at work all of this gets taken into account if if this land comes out of chapter that does not by any means suggest that the developer is going to go in and do whatever they want this will go through a long and deliberative process to make sure all of those needs and concerns are addressed as best they can and that's just at the conservation level then it would go to either planning board or ZBA so there really is a is a great deal of inputs here to have this shaped and mitigated to be as as to to lower the impacts as best they can and try and create something that is positive and I know it's hard to see it from that perspective from where you are but but so personally I I just can't circling back I can't support short circling that by by stepping in and saying no we're going to take the consideration of this land for development off the table Miss Stein I'm going to be the odd man out I can feel it but I go into I'm not going to vote against this I live on red gate lane and I remember what the wildlife was like before they put in just one additional street okay we lost the warblers we lost the weasel that ran through my yard it to say that this stretch of forest land is not worth preserving just really especially with the salamanders it's a large stretch of forest land I think that's well worth preserving I do think we need housing to and I have halfway through the housing plan so it's not that I'm I'm not considering that but I just don't see this as worth what we're giving up and I think we are giving up something and I think you have to really think about the ecology of the situation and I think that's what I'm doing I think there are places where we could build I think infill is a good idea I think we ought to consider apartment houses I grew up in an apartment house I'm not against it I'm not against the one that went up behind Judy as though a lot of people thought oh that was terrible I don't feel that way but I do really think it's like building on prime farmland I don't believe in that either I think you do have to think about the future farm supply but our animals are going to be reduced and I think we have to really seriously consider that if we build those houses so that's where I'm at and I know that people don't agree with me I am for student housing but not there okay thank you Mr. Aiden then Mr. Wong just just one one little comment and you're gonna hear this again for me soon I would urge you to read the master plan that UMass published last fall then there'd be no and I don't have the numbers in my head but you would then know how many more thousands and it is thousands of students will be living somewhere and either they'll be traveling far or not I believe the number is 1500 that's yeah 1500 is is the limit of their expansion plan beyond where they are now it's in the housing in the housing as well I haven't gotten that far in the um in the study that you'll be reading Mr. Wong and the numbers the protections yeah this is just a to follow up on the comment about students this is just a minor point careful I hope we have when we talk about the problems of destruction of neighborhood character and climate to talk in particular about what happens to the housing stock we all realize that there have been some problems with student behavior but I think we also agree even those who are most critical that it's a minority of students that cause so bad behavior and so it becomes a little bit tiresome sometimes to hear again and again that all students are drunken louts the students I know are not they're well behaved and responsible the fraternity revisited they were very serious caretakers of their property they were academically serious they do good social work on behalf of disabled so I think maybe we should stop insulting the students however we find a solution to the problem thank you very much all right it's like we're ready to make a recommendation on this Ms. Burr could could it be clarified for us I feel like in the past when we have had articles similar to this that eminent domain is in there because it's part of some standard boilerplate wording as opposed to being something we really truly plan to do since it's been a long time since we did eminent domain so by saying that we would do this so if this passes so is this you know we try one of these that one doesn't work we try not like how far are we how far is the town compelled to go if town meeting votes for this my understanding was that it was have to be lost that it was boilerplate language it was put in there and it was put in there because in some cases between a seller and the town through eminent domain you can negotiate better with the seller so it was something more of a negotiating tool than it was a reason that for overtaking land heard that too but i'm just not entirely clear Mr. Musey well the the perspective motion is kind of an all of the above yeah so it doesn't lock the town any one of those but it would authorize the town to pursue any one of those in the course of proceeding if there was an affirmative vote so to miss brewers earlier point about the echo village when i'm finding out getting a town council opinion on exactly what the town might be compelled to do if this were to pass i think would be helpful thank you okay are we ready to take a position on this so i'm like to make motion this time probably doesn't want to make the motion and i'll vote against it sorry i can do that it's very flexible sure i move that the select board not recommend to the may 6th 2013 annual town meeting article 43 petition purchase conservation restriction parcels 84 91 and 96th of map 5a and i made it in the negative because i sensed how the rest of the board was going to vote gotcha thank you second further discussion all in favor say aye aye opposed one i'm staining i just want to say one thing there is up in that area something i have not seen near my property or anywhere else in town a little tiny red frog thank you and so when i say i've seen some of the wildlife up there i really hope we won't chase them all out of town thank you okay so to confirm the vote that is four in favor and one opposed is that correct that is correct to not recommend to not recommend yep okay thank you who would like to speak to this at town meeting i'm not doing this one too i don't think you want me to speak to this one mr. wall they're interested pre-volunteered okay thank you thank you very much for coming in okay is anyone here to speak to the article 44 petition local voting rights so we have three articles that no one is here to speak to i can deal with that one because it's come up before right so we all know what this one is it's yeah so maybe we don't need the petitioner is what i'm saying so i'm seeing what the select words take on this is miss brewer so aside from that one which yeah we've voted on before in addition to it being before town many many times before the other items we don't have paper on but you know we have what the warrant says maybe what the finance committee book says do we have a sense from the warrant review maybe from the town manager if there was a presentation associated with those there because it's kind of funny that we know less than might have happened to warrant review if there were presentations there i know that people had the opportunity to come here i understand that but i mean not all of us are going to watch the warrant review so right so before before we make mr musanti summarize anything he knows about this or doesn't the alternative is we give the petitioner another chance so he has one more chance to come in that way we're not kind of paraphrasing him and since we know that we're going to be dealing at least with article 42 again we could give the opportunity for 40 and 41 also okay all right so but i think it seems that we're good on article 44 to proceed with that so this is this would allow permanent residents who are not actual legal citizens to vote in local elections only local elections and it is something that has been done in other states it has been passed with strong support by town meeting multiple times it then goes to the state legislature where it either fails or doesn't come up for vote i'm not actually sure what happens there but it never progresses there so we do this every couple of years to keep it in the legislature's docket for consideration and who knows one day we might get lucky anything else about that miss stein would like to make the motion i move that the select board recommend to the may 6 2013 annual town meeting article 44 petition local voting rights for legal permanent resident non-citizens second further discussion all in favor say aye aye that's unanimous i would like to speak to that miss stein sure unless somebody else would like to poor mr hayden is loaded down with like all of the operating budget and all the use that is uh 44 last time okay so um so i suggest that we also put off 27 and 28 this is free cash and stabilization if the select board were to come where to want to consider something for echo village um if there was some plan from how money might be spent from there it would potentially need to come from free cash or stabilization so since we haven't finished making determinations on things that need to be funded i don't think we should consider those articles which would be a potential funding source unless people feel differently anyone no okay all right then that draws to a conclusion tonight's consideration of town meeting warrant articles so town managers report only half an hour late 25 minutes um that's fine there was nobody here for the parking one so we're postponing that too 40 and 41 is both mr o'connor okay okay okay and we just said 27 and 28 right so the stabilization guy as well as free cash okay not just free cash all right town managers report the report first a quick budget update at the state level the house of representatives have completed action on their budget proposal at the late last week doesn't have quite as much state aid as the governor's original proposal that process now moves over to the senate we expect the senate ways and means committee to release their budget in mid-may and the belief is that the senate will take action on their version of the budget by the end of may which leads to june house senate conference committee a final vote on a legislature budget which then goes to the governor it's 10 days to approve or line item veto which then requires a two-thirds vote if the legislature wants to override any particular line item veto so there's not really anything new since there were some additions to the budget but on the margins the unrestricted general government aid there is a more modest proposal that was included in the house portion of the budget and we'll see what the senate wants to do the second piece of the action is that house senate conference committee has been named to reconcile differences in their respective versions of the transportation infrastructure and finance bill which both house and senate bills contain substantial new dollars for regional transit including pvta and the house and senate leadership in the full house so far on record supporting a 50% increase in chapter 90 money for local roads local roads that would make this program a 300 million dollar a year program from its current 200 million that would bring about 400,000 and new dollars per year to amers we'd go from a little over 800,000 to a little over 1.2 million that would directly contribute to our ability to really make serious headway against our transportation road repair reconstruction backlog so we expect the house senate conference committee and there's a desire on the part of some at least in the legislature to reconcile that prior to mid-may before the senate takes up the full budget and we'll kind of see so we're following that very very closely thank you questions or comments on the state budget situation i just i missed the figure on how much it will increase our chapter 90 it's approximately 400,000 it is okay thank you that's what i had but i wasn't sure and before we move on to other things do people have any questions or comments about the town managers f y 14 budget proposal in general that's part of this bullet all right very well move on update on signage and lighting for the downtown parking machines we've been there's a punch list of open issues we've been making progress and many of them two of the key ones remaining are lighting and signage for the machines the solution for lighting basically has evolved we're now looking at i'm going to butcher this more of a phone booth sized enclosure for the existing machines that provide some protection from the weather which should help the reliability of the machines and also allows us to install lighting directly above the machines so all the issues about being able to read the screen after you know 430 on a winter night and things like that that will be helpful that specific proposal is being scheduled now for the design review board because there is a there is a downtown streetscape feature these enclosures so we're working with staff to get that properly scheduled and that will also inform the timeline for the installation the signs will be installed directional signs will be installed as part of this phone booth contraption that would surround the machines that you know presumably high level this time okay we got to see a preliminary direction yeah and I had a number of specific comments that I sent in about that so before that gets finalized I sure would like to see what they came up with sure okay because I really think we need to be extraordinarily clear because people do get confused we don't want to fix it and have it still be broken so exactly new signs are great and I used to make signs at Mount Holyoke for all kinds of equipment I feel strongly about that one Mr. Wilde we're expecting historically appropriate rick booths you know with nice architectural molding for those machines that's not how it works but I'm glad to hear this because occasionally I know all of us get emails and letters and phone calls from constituents and this has been kind of a sore spot you know the problem with the 2G and the 3G and whether you put in three digits and the lighting and the bad instructions and everything so I think the public will be very glad to hear that and I tell them to watch select board I don't know if they do but they may get bored by this time but the more we can do to communicate with the public I think because I've heard people say they just stopped using the machines they go look for meters because they got so frustrated so it has been an issue and of course we're trying to bring people down and make them use these lots they're not really that hard to use I don't understand what the I don't understand why the problem is as broad as it is but uh but I think that the delay is a big part of it and clearly it just makes sense that when you can't see them at night then they're impossible to use but beyond that it's I don't know and I've heard feedback including from students that they find the machines easier to use believe it or not but they're still a work in progress and the lighting and the enclosures are kind of fundamentally important as the kind of we hope the final step let's see staff recognitions I want to touch base briefly we see the very nice letter that was sent to police chief from the Tanbrook coalition group really thanking the Amherst police and officers Menard and also Marcus Humber for their outreach efforts with some of the neighborhood groups and it was very nice to see that you know this whole safe and healthy neighborhoods effort and the dialogue and trying to respond to particular concerns expressed about individual properties and the follow through on the part of police very well appreciated and that complements some of the positive feedback we heard through safe and healthy neighborhoods work group for example on some of the work by code enforcement John Thompson people like that so I wanted to Scott Gallagher officer Gallagher is also was cited as doing some some good work in that area so I wanted the board to be aware of that thank you recent and upcoming activity follow up you know this past weekend there were two kind of big two biggest occasions perhaps where the inauguration of Chancellor Subiswami at UMass number of us attended and Ms. Brewer and I were both able to go to the Stan Zomek gala dinner Saturday night there were a couple hundred people there salute to stands over 40 years of service in various municipal positions but over 60 years of service to the greater community on a variety of things including youth youth baseball and it was just a wonderful evening a lot of great dialogue back and forth if you can picture it with Stan and the others and it was just a really nice evening and and a well-deserved salute to all of his work over the years today I attended a one of a series of PVTA comprehensive service analysis stakeholder forums I don't know if there's an acronym for that there the PVTA is engaged in a system-wide study to look at all of the various bus routes about what's working well what could be improved upon what what areas might there be to enhance service going forward particularly in the fiscal year beginning in July of 2014 if we get this transportation bill to the legislature that will generate some new dollars to the regional transit authorities and some portion of that may be able to be allocated for very targeted service enhancement so it was good dialogue it's the first of many it's about a 10 or 11 month process so they're taking all kinds of impact input there is a now we'll get this up on the town website there is an online survey that the PVTA is doing with the help of their consulting firm on this effort which is an opportunity for writers and non writers to offer direct feedback all of that will be documented and be the basis for some preliminary recommendations that we expect to see in the early fall and there'll be other opportunities for more public forums this positions the PVTA to be in the forefront of one of the first regional transit agencies to complete a comprehensive service analysis which puts us in a good position a year from now to make some decisions about what to do and so many of us were there and we weren't shy about some of the amorous strengths and some of the amorous needs in terms of service questions or comments about that so any expectations on when that survey would go on the website I believe it's already posted and I will get that information to you and you know part of our task at the community level is to help spread the word yeah that that's that's a really good way to do provide feedback terrific thank you Ms. Burr I was just wondering about the right what our responsibility was and what we might take on I mean because we don't have anything else to do I know but in terms of helping to spread the word because I know that an individual that attended that today indicated that they were concerned that there wasn't enough outreach to writers and I thought well I don't know what outreach was done I mean did PBTA put stuff on the buses do they I mean I assume they have lots of options for ways that they can reach out and I appreciate that you know we have a great town website and we can do that but I presume they're doing those things so it's kind of strange for me to hear that from somebody but maybe they just didn't see the I think the other thing to remember is that they're at the beginning of this project so presumably when there's a number of very specific suggested options that are kind of formulated that by its nature will generate all kinds of reaction and feedback when there's more tangible but you know our collective job is to help spread the word we had Richard Fine was there today for example from public transportation bicycle committee we had Stavros was represented some of the senior council on aging reps from area communities were there a number of students were there including student government some leaders in student government so we're at the beginning and we can help spread the word it'll also be hard copy surveys available to that was also a request that was made because not everyone is you know plugged into the cyber world great thank you I think that's that's all I have we're going to mention about after town meeting one of them oh yeah right thank you oh yeah there is life after town me the what may I believe that would be yeah it's my intention we're continuing to work with staff on rolling green in the preservation of affordable units there and I'm working with staff in being in a position to give you a status report I think at one of your June meetings thank you very much questions or comments from Mr Bessanti about these are other things all right then member reports liaison and representative reports have you noticed how frequently we're meeting lately like this is ridiculous so anything really important happened in the last seven days this time well these are things we did together let's see I know this and Stephanie I think we're with me at the student SRO I guess student but I don't know what the acronym is we have the basically this was a very nice reception that was held in the student union with members of the student government and they then treated us to a tour of the student union and showed us the cramped offices and the deteriorating conditions and then we all came down to the ballroom where we had were present for the SAMI awards which was very nice because two of the people with whom I'd had a deep conversation actually got awards that night Aviv Saline and Garrett Gowan John were you there am I leaving you out I'm sorry that's okay chief Nelson also was there chief Nelson also was there our awesome table we are the awesome crew so let's see and then we all went to OPIB to the OPIB presentation which was on Thursday and got a feeling for what's involved with funding other post-employment benefits which primarily are healthcare and I don't know how the rest of you felt but I felt as a scientist there are two darn many variables you don't know how much interest is going to be you don't know how much health insurance is going to go up so you're kind of pulling your hair out trying to figure out what we should do and I think it's sort of unfair that standard and poorest holds us against us if we don't do anything so it's very difficult and I think we're doing we're leaning in the right direction and then the other thing was then on Saturday that was the inauguration and that was very lovely and then that day was for change Stephanie Cigarillo but beautiful weather many a sustainability festival has been held in the pouring rain with dismal attendance and this was exactly the opposite so I thought that was really very nice to see and many many of you did all of those things thank you very much question in the comments from Miss Stein Miss Burr I was going to mention two quick things about the Sammy's this is going to go in that mythical file I'm going to put in the office someday like if we ever wanted to go look at it because how am I supposed to keep track of it but you know it's really quite cool it's seven years old this is their seventh year center for student development my husband who works at UMass for the last 15 years never heard of it so that's why we didn't hear of it you know because not everybody knows what's going on so it was really great but they invited us and included us that Chief Nelson could come just like I was really pleased to see that several staff members also came to the inauguration because you know you're giving up another Saturday to show support of something but you want to be part of it you know this new exciting era that's coming forward and as you probably saw in the newspaper Stan Rosenberg got Swami to promise ten years I don't know how he can hold him to that exactly but ten years is exciting I will also mention that just as you know we make Minzo Keith go to bazillions of things but I want you to know that I went to the football performance groundbreaking I didn't know a soul there except Diane Letterman and I still don't understand why we're doing that but the reality is they had a nice ceremony they had nice weather for their shovels and you know someday some games will come back to town which is only a good thing as Stan Rosenberg pointed out so we go to lots of things because we're trying to maintain these connections sometimes they seem a little more fruitful than others we try thank you questions or comments from Mr well I just wanted to add one thing about the Sammys and then one thing about the inauguration which is a bit of a grouch but I'm going to say it anyway the Sammys it turns out I must have been at the very first Sammy awards because as soon as we walked in and I saw the crystal plaques all of it this been here done that but I'm glad to be back my grouch was at the inauguration which was very beautiful and tasteful et cetera was that UMass is part of the five colleges and I felt it would have been appropriate as they introduced many people to introduce the presidents of the other four institutions I really was unhappy that UMass as a participant in the larger community did not make that recognition clear so I'm sure Chancellor Stupaswamy is not going to like me very much but I I just was sorry about that okay thank you other questions or comments other member reports anyone Mr. Walth briefly last week as you recall we voted to create a study committee for the Lincoln Sunset District and at the meeting of the Dickinson Historic District Commission this afternoon Mr. Tucker and I made some presentations about planning principles and permitting bodies and things like that and then at the end of the meeting the body voted to request department of a separate committee so we can go forward with that now great as with the North Amherst committee excellent thank you so that was the thing that we were just slightly out of sequence on but wanted to dot all our eyes and cross all our teeth okay thank you Mr. Hayden anything the only thing I would add is so yes I was at almost all the things that were just mentioned I also attended for Disability Awareness Week the the movie Shooting Beauty that they did in Mahar Auditorium and that was really terrific and they had the director there live they thought he was going to come in via Skype but but he was in New Hampshire so we just drove down and so so that was great it was really it was a fascinating movie that took place in the greater Boston area in fact most of it was filmed in the 90s and it was about folks in a cerebral palsy like a day center and this this woman who was an artist brought cameras to them still cameras and video cameras and and they made art you know they kind of showed their life and perspective on things and and it was incredibly empowering for them and it was just a it was a pretty amazing movie and the project has kind of spread to different places all over who are who are copying it and so it was quite great and it was really great that the questions it was I think it was all students in the audience I think my husband and I were the only people over like 22 but it was great to hear their their questions to the director about the experience of creating it and all this that this is the fraternity that Mr. Walden mentioned earlier the one that many of us went to their house for dinner that they build the wheelchair ramps and things like that pie capify so disability awareness and disability kind of the celebration of abilities is is a big thing for them so they had put on this disability awareness week and and hosted the screening so more good work by them Miss Stein I'm going to mention that the Attorney General's office did come out with their response to the quorum issue which you may remember was whether less than a majority of trying to think of the word less than a simple majority could be designated right if you had a committee that says had nine people but there were two vacancies with the majority still be five which it would be if it had a total full compliment of serving people or could it be four because the actual serving people were seven they said that it has to be five okay out of nine a majority of people that would be a full compliment for that committee unless the authoritative bodies had designated that less than that number could constitute a quorum so for example Conakasaki sister city committee can have a large number of people but five will constitute a quorum because their charts says so so if a committee felt they were being very hampered by not having being able to reach a quorum then they could consider amending a charge and bringing it to the select board or to town meeting for example thank you good to finally have an answer on that right miss Brewer to follow up on that and and I guess I'm going to be a pain and ask the town manager next time you're talking to somebody from the MMA because I just falls on deaf ears when I bring it up evidently I've made myself annoying is that this is in the beacon the thing that people with dial up read not the thing that people with internet access read this isn't even on the MMA website generally most of these articles aren't on the MMA website they don't even copy them over and I think you can find this but they don't announce it the attorney general doesn't announce it it's just like if you happen to randomly notice that it's any paper publication then you can be told this it's very frustrating I mean we do such an awesome job in town I don't expect everybody to be as amazing as Amherst but they have and even with the limitations that the state the Commonwealth has told us you know they have all these screwy ways that their websites built so that they can't do certain RSS feeds blah blah blah fine but somehow there has to be a way to say you know that quorum question there's been a new thing published boom go look at it okay we're just not getting it thank you okay anything else remember reports all right uh chair's report I don't know any chair's report we meet again Monday the 6th we will be at the auditorium until future or at the middle school rather until future notice who knows who knows how long town meeting will last during town meeting we will talk about what our schedule is after that so six o'clock in that band room music room whatever it's called and anything else we need to mention or refer to before that time Mr Hayden would move to adjourn then and without objection this meeting adjourns at 9 23 thank you very much