 All right, thank you. We'll get started. It's the Wednesday, May 15th meeting of the Amherst Planning Board and the first item on our agenda is minutes. We have two minutes in our packet from April 17th and from May 1st. If members have had a chance to review those minutes, I'd entertain a motion on them. There's one amendment that we'd like to make which is to the May 1st minutes. There's a reference to planning code among the conditions and we wanted to make sure that that was changed to a plumbing code. Number seven. All right. With no objections. We'll consider that change approved. Mine is set so it can be either on or off and I leave it on. Is there anything else that I need to Is something supposed to happen on this panel up here? Why don't we just give it a little test now? And if it's not working, you could come back and let us know. Yes, but I can't recall if she was being amplified with someone testing testing. Thank you. System is working as expected. All right. So we have one amendment to the minutes of May 1st and with no objection. We'll consider that amendment approved. I'd also entertain a motion to approve either set of minutes. Jack, let's start with the minutes of April 17th, if you could. I move that we accept the minutes of April 17th. I second. All right. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Yeah, question. Yes. On page four of the third paragraph. I think it would be clearer if the two dash one bedroom units, seven dash two bedroom units, two dash three bedroom units were the first two and the second, all the twos were in Arabic numerals rather than written out. It's a little confusing. Two dash one bedroom units. It looks like that's two or one bedroom unit. Or some other kind of way. Maybe some punctuation could clarify it. But it's a little confusing the way it is. Yes, Chris. So we'll change the first number to an Arabic number? I would suggest the unit breakdown includes a number two dash one bedroom units, a number seven dash two bedroom units, and a number two. A number two dash three bedroom units. All right. That change will be reflected. David? I'd like to make a comment about, it's not a proposed provision to the minutes, but comment. And I know that this is being addressed or was being punted or pushed to the town council for clarification, too. But it had to do with the situation. This is the April 17th minutes. After a site plan review with the tree warden to look into the tree warden to look at the trees that needed to be considered for removal for that project out on southeast street. And then a letter of opposition was written, was, was, was, was, was, was, was introduced by a resident. And that took it out of the planning board in the town and the tree warden's decision making. Because it got now essentially kind of appealed to the town council. I think, and I know that that's being, I think that that's being addressed procedurally. But I think that it seemed to me that it makes a lot of sense to, for it to go to town council, if a citizen, if the resident objects. But that, it seems to me that there's a lot of consideration. And after considerable time of planning board members going to site plan review with the tree warden and considering those trees, it seems to me that, that are not having the ability to, to make a recommendation to the town council for that sort of denies the effort that was put into it. And consideration. Because a lot of consideration was made to those trees. And there, and it's, the town council is not benefiting from that. It's just time and thought that was put into it. So, Chris. So I'm exploring that issue. I've sent an email to the town, to our town attorney about it. And he's written back kind of an equivocal answer. So I have to talk to him. But I, in rereading the state law, I think that the letter of opposition can only be used against the opinion of the tree warden. So I have to go back and look at that again. But I don't think the letter of opposition can be used against the opinion of the, of the planning board. So then I am wondering if we should re advertise and re hold the planning board portion of the public hearing. And then let the letter of opposition stand against the tree warden and his, his thought process. But I'll get back to you on that. That's interesting. Thank you, Christine. Would town council refer it back to us or you, you weren't just like Sarah kind of pretended didn't happen and start over again. Chris, I think I need to talk to the town manager about how to handle this. But one thought I had was that you could reopen or re advertise and hold your public hearing and that the town tree warden could do something separate. So anyway, I'll get back to you on exactly what should be done. And I will talk to the town manager about it. Great. Thank you. So we have a motion and a second on the minutes of April 17. And we have a change that's been adopted to those minutes. So further discussion on the minutes of April 17. Not all in favor. All opposed. And all abstaining. So that's six in favor, zero opposed one abstaining. And then I entertain a move motion on the minutes of Wednesday, May 1. Move to adopt the minutes of May 1. I'll second. All right. That's been moved and seconded. Is there any further discussion? If not all in favor. And that's unanimous. All right. Thank you. Next we have public comment period for any items that do not appear on the agenda. We have no public present. So no public comment. Moving on to item three, planning and zoning, zoning subcommittee reports. The zoning subcommittee just held a meeting which was in part a joint meeting with the town council's community resources committee. We had a good conversation about the zoning priorities chart that the zoning subcommittee has prepared as well as the draft articles that have been prepared, including a new draft article prepared by staff. The zoning subcommittee will meet again on May 29th. Any comments, questions on zoning? All right. May I? Yes, please. Greg totally rocked the house. I appreciate that, David. Not typical phrasing you hear in the zoning world. I think we should reduce the stuffiness like a lot because zoning is really pretty stuffy. That's fair. Some of us were not in attendance at this meeting. Could you be a little more specific, David, about how what the rocking was? Sure. I mean, I do not know the politics at all. However, there were a lot of the CRC who I now understand better are also all town council meeting members, town council members. And Greg demonstrated with no notes going through that very to me still confusing zoning issues priority list going through two thirds of it in a great level of clarity and detail, but not getting stuck in the weeds. And those are mean from the parking to the zone form based codes to the transitional zoning in the BL. I mean, there are a lot of different levels of complexity and detail and Greg just navigated it very well for however many others who were here. And that's like my third or fourth time hearing this spiel too. And so I'm just catching on. And so Greg is, you know, leading that led that very well. Thank you. Thank you. I want to give credit to the CRC members who joined us also. We had a really productive conversation and I think all of us in the zoning subcommittee look forward to working with them in the future. Was there any other planning and zoning items? All right, moving on to old business item for a signing of decision for SPR 2019 dash 05. I have a decision to sign. Yes, Chris. So the decision is essentially what you have in your minutes of May 1st, which you just approved. So I'm going to pass the decision down to you. And Mr. Let's see. This gray mullin was the chair at that time. So she should sign in the second spot. I mean, on the second page of signing. So she's going to be up. All right, we'll circulate that for signature. Is there any old business topic not reasonably anticipated? Any new business topics not anticipated? Chris. I think I'll go over what we talked about with this CRC about the bylaw. And I'm not sure if I've talked to you about this before, but you know, you held a public hearing in December. I think it was December 12th and you reviewed some changes that had been proposed by the bylaw review committee. The changes were to make the zoning bylaw comport with the new charter. You recommended to the town council that they adopt that version of the zoning bylaw as the base version. But the town council at that time was busy with other things and they decided not to act at that time. They're getting ready to be able to act now soon. So since they didn't act the first time within 90 days of your having recommended it to them. You have to hold another public hearing. So my understanding of what the process is going to be is that the town council will refer this zoning bylaw to you. And then you will hold a public hearing and I'm thinking that that could be either June 5th or June 19th, depending on when town council refers it to you. And then you would probably make the same recommendation that you made last time. And then you would pass that recommendation on in the form of a report to town council. So the report would be similar to the reports that you used to write to town meeting. But I think it could probably be a pretty short version of one of those. So anyway, that's what's going to be coming up in the near future. And depending on what I hear from town council, I'll let you know exactly what date you'll be holding the public hearing. Great. Thank you. And if I could ask if we've heard back from the town attorney about the voting requirements question that we posed to them. We have not heard back from him, but I'll prompt him. Thank you. All right. Do we have any form A in our subdivision applications? Any upcoming ZBA applications? Ms. Field Sadler can explain the upcoming ZBA applications. There are several. The first one noted here is a public meeting for Cooley Dickinson Healthcare, which is at 170 University Drive. They are requesting that the ZBA amend their 1972 approval for their driveway. They actually want to construct a new driveway off of Northampton Rowe right into the parking lot. So that's expected to be heard by the CBA on May 23rd. So is that next week? Chris. The TAC will be reviewing that on May 22nd. So if people are interested in finding out more about that project, they could attend the TAC meeting, which starts at five o'clock on May 22nd. Are they going to abandon the driveway off University Drive or keep that and then add the driveway? It is my understanding that this will be an alternate drive. So no, they aren't abandoning the original one. And also, so a request for a special permit is being made by John and Jessica Brown. And they are, oh, they want to create a flag lot out at 389 391 Road. So that also will be coming up on May 23rd. The golf course solar project will go in front of the CBA on May 23rd. And herbology will be there as well. And they're requesting two special permits, one for recreational marijuana and one for offsite medical marijuana dispensary. Christine. Could you remind me, what's the address? Which one is that? For herbology, I'm sorry, it's 422 Amity Street. And there's two more. So let's see, at the CBA meeting on June 16th, Jill Greenbaum is going to request a special permit to construct a non-owner occupied duplex. And that is going to be located at seven P's place. Chris. So this is an interesting one because it already has a single family house on that lot. And the CBA will have to make a finding that the duplex is compatible and complimentary with the use of the single family house. It has a lot area for three families, three units. And the last one is a request for a variance by Heather Sheldon for lot 15D93, which is on Auburn Wood Road in between number 67 and 87. And they are requesting that the building area of this lot be reduced from the 120 feet in diameter that's required to 105 feet. And the reason being is if they keep it as it is, the building placement is going to be out of line with other buildings on that street due to the frontage. It's my understanding. So a reduction in the building circle. Is that something that gets reduced often, Chris? The frontage stays the same. And there is currently a building circle drawn on the ANR map, which you approved, the ANR plan. And the request is to move the location of the house closer to the road than the building circle can be. And so that's why they're asking for a variance. They're asking that essentially that the size of the building circle can be smaller so it can move closer to the road. So they're going to have to claim a hardship based on something having to do with the property. And we'll see if that actually gets through the zoning board of appeals. I'm only aware of one other variance having been approved in recent years and that was for Jim Hurrell's property on Southeast Street. My recollection was the bylaw does not allow that reduction, but a variance would be the way to go. It's interesting. Was that all for upcoming ZBA? That is all. But we would also like to know if you would like to have presentations for any of these projects. Have there been any major changes or developments in the solar project application? Chris? The only changes that they've, well, I should say one of the changes is that they've eliminated the western driveway. So they only have the eastern driveway and the eastern driveway will come in towards the east part of the site and then wind its way up to the two solar sites. So they're not going to have two driveways. So that's really the essential change. I'm satisfied with that. We discussed that at length already. All right. Any upcoming SPP, SPR, SEB applications? You've heard about most of these already, so I won't go through them. But I did mention the fact that you would be looking at the bylaw amendment bringing the bylaw into conformance with charter either June 5th or June 19th. And we have at our next meeting, yes, please. I'm sorry. If we happen to get the flood maps sooner rather than later, you would be looking at the flood maps also on June 5th or June 19th. That is a mandatory part of the process. Yes. It's really what we would recommend that you hold a meeting about it. It doesn't have to be a public hearing, but it would be probably a joint meeting with the Conservation Commission to have a presentation about the new maps and then have people, the public, come and hear the presentation and will probably have maps lined up around the room so people can look at the maps individually and ask questions if they have any. So I think the fact that you had a presentation in 2017 alleviates the formal requirement that you hold such a meeting, but we think it would be a good idea to hold it. So that would be a joint meeting of the Planning Board and the Conservation Commission, and we would encourage the public to comment. So a slightly different format than our last presentation from those consultants. And what was the date? Do we have a date on that? We don't really have a date yet. You have meetings in June on June 5th and June 19th. Alternatively, it could be held on a Conservation Commission night or it could be held on a Tuesday. And perhaps that might be more convenient if we're having a big meeting with the public. All right, so we can figure out the details of that at our next meeting. Were there any other upcoming SPP, SPR, SBB applications? Not that we know of at this time. At our next meeting we'll hear Amherst Media again. And do we have the application for the project in East Amherst, the mixed use building? We haven't received the application from Amir yet. Amir McChee about the mixed use building in East Amherst. And nor have we received the application for the dog park. So I think those are more likely to happen towards the latter part of June. Okay, thank you. I move on to Planning Board Committee on Liaison Reports, PVPC. I just want to remind everybody the annual meeting is June 13th. And it may be an opportunity for all Planning Board members to gather outside of the, you know, auspicious building here and formality and that and break bread together, that sort of thing. Yeah, free food. And it's going to be at the Northampton Center of the Arts, which is on Holly Street, which is where Spilettos is. You just take a left right there. But June 13th, time wise. I have a postcard invitation from them. It does not mention a time. It's a save the date. So I guess they're firming up the details. Yeah. You were invited. I haven't. Actually Steve was. I would think like five, they would open the door and then things usually start around six perhaps. All right. That sounds like a great idea. And we have two Planning Board meetings before then to share reminders about that. Yes, Chris. So I don't know if Mr. Jemsak mentioned that it was the president of the Union of Concerned Scientists who's going to speak about climate change. Yeah. Interesting topic. And he was the former head of Commissioner of Environmental Affairs as well. A qualified guy. Kimmel was his name, right? Yeah. Excellent. Thank you. All right. Community Preservation Act Committee. Oh, there's no new information we have received. Any specific feedback from the Finance Committee about our recommendations as yet? Okay. Ag Commission. Okay. All right. Design Review Board. We have had no meeting since our previous Planning Board meeting. Housing Trust. Met recently. Working through its housing policy document, which is a document that will likely be passed on to this group for our consideration and possibly endorsement. It's essentially a policy that Trust is looking to say how the town should approach affordable housing, what percentages we should provide of housing at different affordability levels. So we should be seeing that in the next month or so. So in the subcommittee, we've already gone over a UTAC no longer meeting, I believe. And the downtown parking working group. Have not met. Okay. Meeting on Monday. I think it's 9 or 9.30 in the first floor of town. All right. Thank you. Report to the chair. This is one of the shorter meetings we've had. So I hope folks can get out and enjoy the rest of the nice weather we're having. Christine. Just a scheduling thing. I wanted to confirm that we don't have a meeting on the 29th of May. And I wanted to ask about July. We do have one. Yeah. It's going to be a long one most likely. Good to know. And then I just wanted to bring up July. Because when they were talking, nothing said May 29th. So I was hopeful. Anyways, July 3rd. I wanted to ask if you think we'd have a, you know, I don't know if people have travel plans or whatever being the third and the fourth. You can decide now that you don't want to meet on July 3rd. Okay. I will not be here. Others. Preference. As of now, I'm fine meeting that date. So, sorry, Christine, you are away. Okay. All right. I do have an announcement. Are we down to my report? Yes. Report of staff. So the consultants who are working with us on the 40R district are coming back on June 4th. And they're going to be meeting with us in the Woodbury room. And I think I don't exactly know the time yet. But maybe Mr. Stutzman knows. Or maybe Ms. Chow knows. It's at six. Six. Okay. So they're going to be presenting sites. Sites that have been talked about with staff. They'll be presenting the sites kind of overall. And then people have an opportunity to react to that and to come up with scenarios that they like. I'll also be hearing from the architect in a very conceptual way. He's planning to present information about massing and numbers of units that might fit into these various locations. So I think it'll be an exciting meeting, especially coming on the heels of the one that we recently had about what is a 40R district and how could it benefit Amherst. So that'll be in the Woodbury room at six on June 4th. Excellent. All right. Well, we're adjourned. Thanks everyone.