 thing that, thank you. So just a reminder, we do record the meetings and that will allow residents and anybody who is missing the meeting from the trustee board to actually review the meeting. So I'm going to open it up and see if there are any comments regarding January's minutes and I don't see any hands up. Okay, so we will go ahead and accept the minutes as they stand. Thank you. So I just wanted to give an update regarding we have recommendation of our last vacancy. The individual is Jordan Cantor and so we're waiting for Jordan to be appointed but he has been recommended to the town council to be appointed. So we're not foreseeing any reasons that he will not be joining us and hopefully, I'm probably going to be corrected so let me stop right there before I say anything else that is not correct or appropriate. Paul, go ahead. Yeah, so I have not appointed him yet so it has not gone to the town council. So you just know who's court is and we're having conversations so it's not quite, it's not there yet. Sorry that we sort of, we've got a little ahead of ourselves here but we do hope that the vacancy will be filled especially before we actually all need to have our first kickoff for our action planning. So we're very excited once the process is completed then Carol and I will confirm with everyone that the individual is who I just said it was and that they will join us in terms of our action plan and we're hoping that the individual will be joining us this evening. Okay, sorry about that Paul. All right, the next item on the agenda is the update on wayfinders of the development that they are in the process of moving forward which is South East Street School and the Beltertown Road and we had met with them just to get some information regarding their community information session. It is going to be on Thursday, March 7th at 6pm virtual, it's going to be a virtual meeting and what they're hoping to do is have an information session where they will give the community as much information in terms of progress as well as the next sort of steps and timelines with those steps. They're actually hoping to do a summer in-person site tour which I think would be very beneficial. They are absolutely interested in hearing comments, feedback, any questions people may have, concerns they have and they will be leading that information session and we hope everybody will attend and Carol and I will be asked to do a few brief comments. Of course we're an absolute support of this, we're so excited about this moving forward so we will definitely be there on March 7th but I invite everybody else to also be there March 7th. We will be getting a flyer, they're actually will we will be distributing it virtually through our own links in our connections and we hope everybody else will as well and they will also be flyering the community that's abutting the project just to make sure as many people as possible know about this and have an opportunity to join. Go ahead Gronfer. Did you state that time so could you repeat it as I didn't? Sure, 6 p.m. They're hoping to have it at 6 p.m. virtually and we'll get out information as soon as we have it through you know through our own connections but they will also be doing the same and try to get as many people as possible to come to that meeting and it really is an information meeting. It's their information meeting and I think they have some really good progress and you know timelines that they're going to do the next steps that I think it's really important for people to know about including getting in front of the zoning board. So we're very very excited and they actually the last time they came they presented their again their design the product the development the progress and they actually were able to show that they were going to create more units than we had expected that we had actually put in for in the RFR. So it's a great opportunity for people just to see how far they've gone, what are the next steps, how they're going to engage the community in input, how willing they are and interested they are in hearing community input and I think Rover you mentioned the concern that might be that you know there's a project going across the street and then this project at the same time so traffic flow etc and so it'll be really important for community members to hear what the plans are and how they can resolve some of the questions they may have. Okay so I don't see any other hands up so I'm going to go ahead and turn this over to Carol. Is a leg or raising your hand or just waving? I'm trying to and then I also couldn't figure out where my mute button went so I apologize for that. Thank you Carol sorry I didn't see you on my screen I have three people only. Go ahead Allegra sorry about that. I was just wondering if the superintendent newsletter might be a place to advertise that as well because of the close proximity with the school and families who might be either living nearby already or interested in living nearby. I think that's a great comment. I'm wondering if Nate's here if Nate maybe could speak to we I know when we did our community listening session we I think was Jennifer Moyston or maybe Liz Heygood who actually connected with the superintendent newsletter so I wonder if we have a connection that that could happen. Sure yeah I'll just say yes no we can you know I could work with Jennifer again it's usually through email it can be you know an electronic newsletter sorry I was having an update going right now the yeah that can be possible I mean Wayfinders is also going to put signs out on the property temporary signs along the street you know we'll advertise it through the community calendar and online calendars and we can try to get something through the schools as well. Yeah I actually think other schools is really really important because you know families with children they're probably going to be the most concerned about the traffic flow and what's happening so I think it'll be really important and I know just right now you know I can I can walk past something that's stapled up there but I won't stop and look so email electronic is generally like it's people's attention so thank you Nate. All right anyone else that I'm not seeing. Okay all right I'm going to go ahead and hand it over to Carol. Okay thank you Erica I am gonna probably just the first thing we're gonna do is we have a couple of town updates here I'm hoping that I thought Dave was gonna talk about the volunteer VFW work group development or however that's going on but maybe it's Nate hopefully can you give us an update on all of that Nate. Sure yeah I think I'll say hi to everyone I'm Nate I know I haven't met some of you yet new to the trust members. Yeah the town purchased the it's 457 Main Street the former VFW and the purpose is to create a you know a shelter and supportive housing and so we're finishing up or you know getting ready to this the building will be demolished that's something that would be happening. We're also looking at hiring an architect or a consultant to lead a series of workshops to come up with kind of programming ideas and concept designs for the site and the hope would be that you know probably in March someone would be selected and then there would be you know kind of like stakeholder meetings or meetings the trust would be involved and so that's where we are I think the idea would be you know by July you know three months of that work so March April May but by July 1 say to have you know concept designs and kind of an outline of what we what we think would be on the on the site you know kind of gross square feet for instance needed for the shelter or and what does it look like if it you know the parking in a site design and would help guide the town kind of the next steps then would be you know what kind of request for proposal or you know procurement does it look like in terms of actually developing the site you know kind of so it's you know the trust and did something similar for the east street school you know we had Cune Riddle did some you know concepts and a little rapport and so you know to me it's something similar to that but focusing on that site and so hopefully that'll get started in March this just popped into my head but it makes me have another question about it I sort of recall early on when we were talking about this people were talking about maybe doing some kind of a field trip to a place that I won't remember the name of that's down on the south coast somewhere I think that it has a really good supportive housing kind of thing that it's doing and we I think had talked about maybe having some people be able to go down there and just tour that and see what it's like as part of this process and I see Paul's hand up so maybe there's an answer but I hoping some of us can get to go with all that if it happens Paul. Yeah so that's in Quincy it's called Father Bill's and it's a real model for what we want to do here and we're look I know Dave and maybe Nate are working on a date they've had conversations with them about having visitors they're very open to that and welcoming of that it's just better getting a vehicle that we can a van or something that people can go in and and go visit so I'm not sure who would be going but I know that that's in the works. Great thank you that seems like an important part of the works and I'm hoping that there's going to be like I don't know some of the people who are doing supportive housing maybe some Craig's Doors people or and maybe some of us and whoever else I don't know anyway hopefully we'll find out about it when it's happening right Paul even if we can't go we'll know about it. Fantastic okay so Nate do you have any of the other thing I have on my list which we'll get to is there's a new housing production plan RFP thing being developed we have in our packet a first-run draft of that but before we go there is there any other kinds of town updates Nate or Paul that you are interested in giving us? I mean you mentioned wayfinders and I think Erica was a few minutes late but you know they're hoping to start their conference of permit application process this month so there's a an initial phase where they submit a project eligibility letter to the town and state or the subsidizing agency and the town would have a 30 day comment period and really that's the first phase to say that the project is generally feasible financially feasible the site's developable and so they're hoping to submit that and then the state will review it and say you know everything looks good we you know usually we will put up a product webpage and have comments and everything submitted along with that and so you know kind of the public meeting that they're planning is will coincide with this and it could be then that it takes the state you know a number of months to review the project and so even after this initial phase it might take a few months to say that it looks good and then they have to then prepare their comprehensive permit but you know they're hoping to be in permitting in the fall by August and be you know through permitting by the end of the year to apply for funding early next year so they'll actually apply hopefully get preliminary funding rounds in October knowing that permitting will be done this calendar year so you know it's pretty exciting I mean it still weighs away before anything but you know it's two sites the ZBA is just finishing up all lanes so hopefully they're well rehearsed when this one comes through and you know I think we have had a great team there and the town attorney is really helpful so you know I think it's a matter of going through that process but you know it'll be a number of meetings there's probably a lot to talk about but I think just getting getting this permitting starting is started is really great so is there any place in the this early part of the process like between now and your estimated October or something where support from us would be helpful to the process I mean during the 30-day common period if the trust you know if it aligns with a meeting could review what was submitted it'll be public and you know the trust could vote to have you know the chairs co-chairs write a memo to the town and the state saying that it's you know it's supported and then I think once it comes back through permitting the plan is to maybe have some more public meetings about it and I think the trust could then pick that up again too and just you know even have it as an agenda item talk about it see if there's any ways if there's any concerns I mean it's been pretty quiet I know some of the director butters have actually written letters in support of it to go to the initial phase but there's not you know you never know what'll come so I think you know someone could be how what we see what happens and how the trust might need to respond right if there needs to be some more education about a piece of it then I think that's a good role for the trust okay well if either you or Greg could manage to make sure to let us the trust members know when one of those opportunities happens so that we don't or maybe it's just me being bad at keeping track of things but often it feels to me personally at least like oh I should have done that but I didn't know about it yet so whatever way that you can do to keep us all informed would be greatly helpful and thank you very much um any any other town thing before we look at this um power production plan thing I don't think so necessarily okay that's fine so I guess I guess sorry I just quickly started to backtrack you know the planning board has been discussing an overlay district on university drive between amity street and route nine and you know I've been working with that you know looking for infill development bigger buildings mixed use apartments and it's generating some discussion about whether or not you know the town needs more housing there and if it's all students and what happens and should it just be for industry and you know I think the planning board has been up you know how to deliver a process you know the hope would be later this month or early next month that had kind of a draft of what that might look like in terms of goals and purpose and and things and so you know I do think that section of university drive is is an opportunity for newer development infill development and it's an overlay zone and so it wouldn't you know the base zoning and what's allowed there is still allowed but then the overlay would allow you know additional things if it complied with certain standards and conditions so and maybe that the trust you know we can bring this to the trust as well as it gets a little further along great thank you sounds good um so I don't know who got a chance to look at it but Greg sent us out I guess it's his draft of because it's time for the town to have a new housing production plan so an RFP will go out requesting to find a consultant to do that and it is a project that is kind of in some ways like our planning process although it's bigger because it's not only about affordable housing it's about a housing production plan of whatever kinds of housing the town thinks that it wants to have however it feels like our opportunity to kind of at least look through this draft in process this is like I think an early attempt at what the housing production plan request for proposals or RFQ whatever anyway request to have a consultant to create this plan it's going to go out so I'm wondering if people had a chance do people get a chance to read it first of all and are there comments or questions or thoughts Gaston I guess I wonder if you could just name maybe give us a an overview of where this fits in relation to the town's general strategy that is later in our packet the comprehensive housing policy what's what these kinds of plans have done in the past and I guess this the numbers the levers that are available to to move through this plan sure yeah I think the you know the the current housing production plan it's expired it was done in 2013 and you know housing production plan is something that the state is a state program and so it's a pretty formulaic process to develop housing needs it focuses on affordable housing and then the idea would be communities will complete a housing production plan submit it to the state and get the plan approved and the idea would be that if you then meet production goals which is usually set at a half of one percent of your number of housing units so if you know you know in Amherst say it's 48 housing units permitted affordable units permitted in a calendar year if you work towards the goal of the affordable housing plan then you could safely deny a comprehensive permit in your town and so the I think the idea was originally to have towns at least do a housing study to determine what are the needs what are the gaps and do an assessment and then work towards that so you know if a developer came in and proposed something that was really not consistent with those needs you could have something to deny it I think you know for Amherst right now to me the idea of this housing production plan is to focus on affordable housing but really it's you know I don't think that we we've met the need and so using it is helpful because if we have a housing production plan it does help us with grant applications and other funding applications it shows the state you know we're following what they'd like to see and that we're serious about it so you know some communities might just do a maybe like a housing study but then it doesn't really qualify right it doesn't have some of those the maybe the analysis that's necessary and so you know Greg and I have talked about is we'll we want a housing production plan but we can go beyond that so if there's in my mind if there's any you know you know things that we want them to focus on in Amherst whether it's the student housing or certain income levels you know that's where we could put it in this scope of services so it's not just looking at you know capital A affordable maybe it's different types of housing or demographic information you know my thought is this is the one time we'll kind of have you know a current housing plan that could be used for the next five to eight years and so the city of Springfield is doing something similar I guess they're going through and they're going to actually we had a comprehensive housing market study that was done following the housing production plan the market study was done in 2015 and it looked at kind of just general market rate housing and you know segments of population and it was you know could have been both used by realtors and others and it was you know kind of a broad document and Springfield is going to do something similar they're going to kind of take a housing production plan model and then also have it be a bigger report because you know it's something that then gets folded into policies or the master plan and so you know for Amherst we have you know we have a master plan that's now you know about 14 years old and then you know the housing production plan say the transportation plan you know all part of that right they get incorporated into the master plan so the master plan has bigger goals and visions we have the comprehensive housing policy and so to me the housing production plan then will help identify needs and hopefully strategies and action steps that can be taken and it's you know the trust is looking at doing an action plan and you know that brings it down say even smaller narrowing scope so what is something that the trust can implement in one to two years or up to five years and housing production plan will say okay well here's gaps and needs and then it can help the trust in the town prioritize okay if we have funding what do we do is it senior housing is it you know 30 percent AMI and you know right now we've been waiting for the 2020 census data to be out and I think it is it's not it's you know they've collected it differently than the previous years and so you know we're hoping that given other data sources we can have a really nice report that you know it might be a little detailed and take a long time to read but hopefully it has all the information in there that we can refer to it and so you know I think I think that's where it is like I just I see it as a a really useful document for the town that we can refer to and use thank you yeah Nate my question is how um I see here that it says the multiple times in different ways basically one part of it is anticipating or estimating future growth and future needs and I'm curious how that is determined and who has a say in that and I say that because like in hearing UMass talk about their house their predictive future enrollment that that had within a certain set of assumptions that we might not all agree on I didn't agree with and also I'm thinking for example like we know that senior housing is going to keep being a need as our population and average ages and student population is likely to be in need but also I think it's important to factor in increased housing for climate migrants which both domestically as as more people continue to move here as climate becomes unlivable in other places in the from the US but also from abroad and so like it's a it's in some ways like a decision making question of if we if we hire you know whoever's selected to create the plan ultimately where is the input happening and and what is the decision making process for what future needs are considered and how that decision making happens yeah I mean I think they'd probably you know you set this data we can point them to like Donahue Institute reports or other benchmark studies and so and it could be that if we have other ideas like you just mentioned we could ask them to look into it uh you know and I think some of it would also be kind of like what the comprehensive housing market study from 2015 said is that actually if there was more housing opportunity for different types they would move to Amher so it's not also about what what who's here because of what's here but it's like well who's not here because it's not built and so you know and that's hard to get at but I think we could ask them to look at you know regional data as well maybe outside you know New England and and you know and so some of it's just trends general trends but it could just be okay what's the next five or ten years really they might just project out ten years and yeah I think that's a good question and you know I think some of it is a bit of a guess but some of it would be okay well you know it's not a build out it's not looking at our zoning and saying well the town can support x number of units and per se that's a kind of a more detailed thing but you know looking at you know general population and demographic trends I've got three hands Erika so in reading our own trust mission the mission says that the trust is an instrument of the town government in supposed to promote the town's affordable housing priorities as determined through the most recent town housing plan that plan is changing we're moving into an action planning process can you talk a little bit about how you're going to ensure that what we're doing is supported by this plan where are we going to come in with this because it seems like our mission is really to work with you around the housing production plan yeah I mean last time the plan was produced the trust was you know worked really closely with the consultant and so you know trust was almost like a working group of the consultant team and reviewed drafts and talked about goals and priorities and so I envisioned a similar process the uh you know the this the procurement process a request for quotes would be seeking at least three quotes and you know we have minimum qualifications in there but it could be that a fist is something that if we like the document it could be issued and someone could be on board you know in six to seven weeks and so the the process would align what was happening with Shelley so you know I see them as you know kind of simultaneous tracks that can inform each other and then you know it could be that maybe the the housing production plan typically takes a little bit longer so maybe that the action plan of the trust needs to get modified at the end of the year if you know if something really rises up in that plan that wasn't foreseen so I don't you know I don't they're not mutually exclusive I think that they can help each other and you know that's kind of how I see it working as you know two parallel facts that can inform each other uh a guess on thanks so I guess um my feedback or curiosity Nate would be about highlighting two two things one would be better understanding of the dynamic of the expanding market for more student oriented or call it luxury oriented housing and making sense of the dynamics of that in relation to the other kind of housing the town might get and I would think that the way to do that is for this consultant to assess other university towns and give us some comparative analysis so I guess that would be one one piece that I would be really curious about the the other piece is expressing a policy preference and I don't know if we're in a position to do that but my my personal uh I guess idea is that expressing a policy to create housing for children school age children would be very positive for the town by increasing state funding for the schools um I'm gonna call on Greg but first thing I say I think that part of what we're doing here besides asking Nate to answer lots of questions is looking for the things that we would maybe like to see this proposal incorporate which is what we've been doing and so that's kind of I guess feedback for Greg and for whoever else is involved in the creation of this and so Greg thanks Carol um just going in reverse order a little bit so Gaston's um suggestion of looking at other university towns is a kind of a great example of sort of what we can insert into this RFQ which in turn will hopefully result in the eventual product containing stuff like that um so thank you for that for that idea you know and the policy idea um and I just wanted to speak to Grover's inquiry around my projections and I had similar sort of questions because it's kind of a chicken or the egg question in a way but I the thing having looked at a fair number of these plans you know both are are rather aged one and others more recent from around the state um you know and also just knowing the basics about where our census data is our plan will absolutely show acute need right like there's no way to slice the census data without demonstrating both existing cost burden households renter and owner and an unmet need for you know for deeply affordable all kinds of affordable stuff so you know how they go about you know I think there are creative places to look you know and I think looking at projections you know that that might be outside of census data could be useful looking at different populations I mean I think that's an area where the state regs don't um necessarily push really hard in my mind but for but yeah it'd be interesting to see like like then the state regs don't name immigrants at all but we could say and I can think I maybe not in the draft you well have but in a more recent one I think I added you know you know how are we serving immigrants through our housing channel you know as as an example of one demographic you know that um that we could address in this plan so but it will show need for sure um do I see any other hands I was gonna just mention quickly I'm taking some notes the planning board a member of the planning board has reached out to um well 15 college communities across the country and they narrowed it down based on population certain demographics you know household um saw you know number of households or housing units to try to get an idea of how they manage student housing off campus and so I think Greg I just was going to say that I think you know those are comparable communities that planning boards looked at those I think we could reference those and provide that uh as part of the scope of work just so that they're not you know if we if the planning board thought they were good and you know we can um provide them you know we don't have to then try to think like oh which which university town or which place it's like okay these are the ones that have similar population and you know maybe you know geographic size and other things and that could be appropriate so I have two hands and I actually have two specific things that I want to say and then I will go to the two hands the specific things I want to request are in the part where it's talking about work sessions and staff meetings it has all bunch of people that are supposed to meet the consultant will conduct a work session with conservation various stakeholders I would like to see the trust included in that list of people that they're supposed to work with um and the other thing I would like to see is on where it says the minimum consultant criteria some kind of affordable housing development experience or affordable housing experience of some sort should be in that list of things that would be good for the consultant to have um so those are my two specific requests and now I have we'll go to Grover and I think John Hornick has his hand up so Grover go ahead yeah mine is a quick comment or reflection which is like I appreciate putting in there to compare Amherst to other college towns but at the same time and this is kind of getting to my original point I don't know another college town in the United States that were like yeah they're nailing it they really have this affordable housing thing down but in the community every college town I've lived in has had significant stress so um just thinking about it's comparing is fine and also how are we setting our making sure our plan sets up for success rather than replicating unsuccessful other places very good uh John Hornick can Greg can you allow John to speak thank you Carol um um I think it would be useful for people to look at uh the last housing production plan not so much because it was a terrific plan although it did have its strengths as well as its weaknesses I don't think you have to look at all of the plan but probably the thing to focus on would be the executive summary which as I recall was four or five pages um and you know that's really what people are going to focus on at the end of the day very few people are going to read the entire plan so think about that as something either that you want or you don't want what are the things that you would like to see included for our own plan and what would you not like to see included I think that executive summary gives you some idea about how the needs assessment was conducted the last time how data was used how specific populations were represented all of those things that I know at least rover and possibly others have expressed an interest in the other thing I'll mention about the last housing production plan is that on the one hand it wasn't terribly ambitious I think it was 48 units a year for five years um but whatever we actually came up with or whatever actually occurred was a lot less than was promised in the housing production plan so you can put a tremendous amount of time and effort into doing something that's quite elaborate but at the end of the day one of the lessons I certainly learned myself was that there's no point in honestly getting over ambitious you need to focus on what's likely going to be doable and that's what needs to be represented in the town in the plan and particularly in the executive summary so all that's important last time around it had to be reviewed by the select board we no longer have that form of government but clearly it's something that would have to be reviewed by town council and the important group there would be the community group that we need to work with in order to make sure that this thing has a positive reception before town council so based on prior experience those are the things I would emphasize look at the old executive summary think about specifically what you like what you don't like what you would get rid of what you think is missing and think about working with town council to make this thing a reality because without them the state does not accept it thank you john are there any other comments questions thoughts anything anybody wants to say about this we have now something else to look at from John I think that the existing housing production plan is in the materials that Greg put together for us to look at in preparation for our for our own planning is that right Greg or am I getting it wrong well anyway we can add it to that place if it's not there you're correct Carol okay Rob um I'm uh I'm uh interested in who is who is commissioning the this plan and who is paying for where's the where's the money yeah the town had planning department had put in a capital request a few years ago and then we have some additional capital funding so it's the you know town's planning department that has the funding for it yeah we've been waiting for the 2020 census data for a while and then the staff changes and then we knew we were going to get Greg we were we waited for Greg to help with that so um I guess I hope to get it going kind of to parallel the action plan for the trust Erica I just wanted to add um I actually took a look at the South Hadley housing production plan and I think what Nate said before which is um you know using the data uh really getting you know a current sense of the data um to use as a guideline for making decisions is so important theirs was absolutely comprehensive and it included ADUs it included anything you could think about in terms of developing housing and affordable housing so uh if anyone has the time you may want to take a look at it but having that data for us we're always asking about data we're always asking about you know do we have the current data in order to make the most appropriate decisions so um that's going to be really really important and looking at all aspects of affordable housing and alternatives I think is really important even you know tiny homes um just so we can make the decision in terms of for us where's the best place where we can push around affordable housing to make the biggest impact thank you so I think then we can move on to our next item if nobody has anything else to say about this which is our action planning except that I see a hand again guys don't go ahead I just wanted to ask uh Nate and Greg what is the time frame that you're looking for our kind of last round feedback that you're able to incorporate does the strategic process that we've initiated give us that space given the time frames you're you're aiming for I mean I guess I can't I can like Greg answer but I think if I'll answer a little bit but if we have like you know two weeks to get comments um I don't think that interrupts the process because you know we have to you know I Greg and I still want to look at it we have to you know get a few things um work but I don't you know I think if we could receive comments back then yeah I mean and and to be clear too right now you know this is you know more of a housing focused group and so you know we were we decided it couldn't hurt to kind of throw this on the agenda tonight so we did um but this is just for the RFQ for the consultant where the really meaty feedback will come hopefully is once we actually have that consultant and we're doing those stakeholder meetings and we're you know and we're you know they're presenting you know you know what they find when they delve into that actual data and so forth and that's kind of when there's you know so right now we're kind of having the conversation before the conversation to some degree um uh but um in the spirit of you know moving people in you know up front you know this is a request for qualification so you know with public procurement we would take the lowest qualified response and so as you're going through the document I think the task and scope of service is important and then you know Carol you had also looked at maybe the minimum qualification so you know the idea is that we'd want to you know as a as a public procurement process anyone could submit or you know a price proposal but you know we'd want to at least make sure they have relevant experience so if you as you're reading this if you think wow there's something that is missing that can be added and so we can identify consultants to send this to but then really anyone can respond and so uh you know I was listening at the calendar for instance if you know two weeks from now if we could then um we receive comments back we get that going and then we still could probably have someone um you know selected by the end of March if you know if everything works out in terms of timing so I don't I don't think it delays it much to have that you know those two weeks to have people review it again so but if you're saying two weeks I'm noticing that that means that we are not going to have another trust meeting at which we can look at it again so I think the thing is that if we have we've said things now Greg's taking notes Nate it's going to look at it all if people think of other things especially going and looking at the old housing production plan like John just suggested we do if people come up with other things that they think they would like to see included we won't have a chance to talk about them but I think it is acceptable for us to email them not to each other but to Nate and Greg and then we haven't done any open meeting mess I don't think we just send suggestions uh from each of us as we come up with them to Nate and Greg and Paul will correct me if I'm wrong about that I'm sure so but I think I got a thumbs up so we have so figure that please look at the old production plan and anything else you want to think about in the next two weeks get any comments directly to Nate and Greg and they will proceed with getting the RFQ out okay and I see that Shelly had joined us to welcome Shelly I hope that you're healthy again and your kids are healthy and everybody's back in good shape and uh so um Shelly wanted to be here to at least hear what in the world it is that we do as we go through we had hoped that right now what we would be doing would be talking about follow-up from our from our uh in-person thing we haven't had it yet so this is kind of a chance to preview it a little bit what we thought we would do first of all is to say it has been rescheduled to February 29th from five to seven it will is again planned to be in the town room at town hall and I believe that I'm from our I think everybody could come so I think that we're really happy about that and we will go through what we were going to go through then the one thing that we thought we would do now it was going to be still is probably the first thing that we'll do with the in-person part but we wanted to spend a little while having a chance to look at mainly the document that was that is in the materials that Greg put on the website for us to look at the one that's called progress it's taking our old strategic plan it starts out with the list of the goals at top at the top and looks through what are the things that we've done and what are the things that we still need to do and um we can we have an option here we can we have slides of it if we want to we can look at all of it in detail if that's what people think they would like to do if people have already already looked at it and this will be boring and stupid in a waste of time then let's not do that but let's see if there are any questions or comments that people have I'm we're kind of open to doing a whatever way works for everybody so if somebody has an opinion here uh please let me know if there are no opinions and I'll start by asking if first let me have can we have a show of hands have people read this thing have people looked at it and so actually we know something about what we're talking about here okay that's a that's a good beginning uh um are there questions or comments from what you remember Erica I just wanted to add one of the reasons we did this is because we thought it was really important for all of us to be on the same page in terms of you know what were the goals uh from you know 2018 to 2022 and what was achieved and um what I like to say too is is that uh in the beginning there were only six goals we actually added the seventh goal um and uh I think Carol actually even cross walked our goals with the comprehensive housing policy and you can see that there are a lot of them that actually support each other um but we really thought it was important before we start talking about where we want to go is to just see what we've actually been able to achieve and for the areas that we have not yet achieved do we want to continue those particular areas or do we want to drop them so it's just really an opportunity just to have a document that we can use as a platform as a trajectory for our next steps well this could maybe be a really quick conversation if nobody's anything to say Allegra um I really appreciated this document um I like bullet points it makes my brain focus better um but I a it showed me that we've actually kind of done a lot which was nice to see but also that there is still a lot to be done um um and I think that when we talk more about where we want to go moving forward I'd be interested especially in some of the areas that don't have any yet to be accomplished solicited because I think there's still work that we could do in those areas um um but I I did like how I condensed a lot of information into a small number of pages it was accessible for me thank you so the ones that you're talking about which don't have anything yet to be accomplished are two and five maybe yes two is support home ownership homelessness prevention initiatives and expand availability of direct housing assistance we don't have anything there we said we didn't do but that doesn't mean it's all done of course and I guess I guess I'm saying I or I'm thinking about just because we've checked all these boxes and there's nothing left and yet to be accomplished does that mean that we're done with that category or does that mean there's still things that we can continue to do in those areas because I'm sure there's I'm sure there's still things we continue can continue to do uh I guess I guess I could use a little bit of um help with the analysis that that went from the left to the right column I'm looking at the number one actively foster development and uh on the yet to be accomplished it's review all affordable housing development proposals and I'm not seeing that in those words on the left column and so I'm I can see that there's analysis that that went on here that I I don't fully understand and and so it would be helpful maybe to get a little uh walking through how um you you assess the um what was yet to be accomplished from from the the left column absolutely um so in taking let me just in order to do that would it be helpful to have the thing on the screen to look at because we can do that there's no reason not to other than let's do it well you can do it but I think you know it's the the document that um I worked off of was the housing trust strategic strategic plan so in looking at each of the goals um there were objectives under each of the goals and so looking at the objectives um and again I have only been on the housing trust since 2019 um so this was actually put together in 2018 so what happened before 2019 uh I was uh I think um Greg and Nate were we're trying to help to make sure that this was accurate we actually found one area where it was not uh what we stated is not accurate and which will correct um so going through the um the plan and looking at each of the objectives what was listed in each of the objective objectives and so when looking at each of the objectives I try to think of the things that we've actually done to meet those objectives uh and so uh just in terms of the period from 2019 to uh to the time that you know I've been on the trust so for for example I actively fostering development um so you know something that's pretty clear providing funding so these are the specific actions that you know I knew of or I was involved with that would then support this actively fostering development um and then looking what is in the plan that was there's nothing here that shows that we've done it so then I put it into the yet to be accomplished column um so this is a working document if someone has read the plan and disagrees absolutely let's let's you know fix it it wasn't really it's meant to give us an insight of how much we've accomplished in what areas in the document that was stated as an objective or as a uh yeah as an objective under a goal that I did not see accomplished just for us to think about developing our future goals and our future priorities um just because there might have been lots of things accomplished doesn't mean that we don't want this as a goal actively fostering development is something that I'm sure we want as a goal but then we have to think of very very specific actions that are measurable and that we can actually you know accomplish that are they're reasonable so it's just you know really analysis from the document nothing else I got it thank you so the the I've got to be looking at the document to really see what you did but now I understand much better thank you Erica sure and again some of the sorry Carol some of the things that were accomplished are not in that document one of the things that this document stated was that we were supposed to review this so there was one review where we actually looked at and and stated what the progress was but after that it didn't happen so I think you know one of the things that we have to be very clear about in our action plan let's put in timelines for review and for documenting and archiving what we've accomplished under the objectives because that way the next group can use that as a trajectory for moving forward that that wasn't it was only done once while I I've been on the trust also I'm guessing that when we do the process that we're gonna do with Shelly this might be shorter what we come out with might be shorter because maybe if we're trying to find I mean maybe a context like this that it will be in but it may be that we find fewer things that we're really going to try to accomplish in the next couple of years and have a better idea what they are Shelly if I'm putting some bad words in your mouth please correct me okay um well is there any any other commentary hopefully people have read this and looked at the strategic plan also and so we'll be ready to hit the ground running on the on the 29th grover well one question that reviewing this with all of you raises for me is is to what extent or what level of detail do we need to lay out the like some of these um like in the yet to be accomplished some of the some of the things are actually big pieces of work that are not just one thing like develop strategies for active public engagement such as media and advocacy toolkits which is which like requires some questions about staffing or responsibility and where things are held or what our stances are you know like there's a as a person who for him this is my job to do those things like it's it's a lot of steps into that step so I'm just curious of like as we're creating goals for the next time is it like we want to promote outreach and education and one of those things we want to do is create media and advocacy toolkits then do we need to ensure that there's staff capacity to manage documents and the staff position or right like do you see what I'm saying those kinds of questions that enable that or do we just put up the end goal we want and and hope the others pieces fall into place I don't know this the way you ask the question kind of implies an answer I mean I hope that we get specific enough so that we do know something about what we're trying to do I I mean I think that's the goal and part of what we've part of what we're hoping to gain from doing going through this process with the help of mhp and shelly is to have things that are what were her words were uh measurable and and specific enough so that we can tell if we did it or not for instance so I think that's in there uh shelly I'm gonna let you talk before Nate since your hands up just to respond to that part of what we're going to do is not only the goals but also strategies under each of the goals to help you dig into what what what are the specific ways you're going to try to reach the goals so I think Grover it gets to that question that if this becomes a priority then we need to come up with what are the different strategies that we'll need in order for you to reasonably try to accomplish that goal thank you Nate thanks yeah I was going to mention I mean Grover it's a great segue I was going to say that if you know if you're looking at the document and as we're working through the the next steps with shelly I mean some of the ideas would be there could be subcommittees of the trust that take on a larger responsibility and so you know it is a lot safer just one staff person or Greg or something to do all this and you know it happens you know kind of organically with staff so you know Dave Zomac helps a lot or Rob Mora or you know the planning director and so there's a lot of people that are involved in this and some of it might be well you know maybe some of it's how do that how does that get better coordinated and also maybe there's a subcommittee of the trust if there is you know certain policies that need to be looked into do two or three members really focus on that for three months or six months and because you know there's so many pieces of it but I think you know we had subcommittees of the trust a few years ago and it'd be nice to have one or two if through this process we identify some high priorities because it can it can really help further it you know could you could be meeting once or twice a month it's outside of regular meetings you report back and so it helps you know keep things moving along in a timely manner so I you know I just think that's something to consider you know you know how do we take ownership of some of those and maybe you know it can't be 10 goals maybe it's three and it's we can narrow it down and it's really it's really concise and helpful but I just you know I put that out there you know we're willing to help facilitate you know subcommittee meetings you know Greg and I can work with subcommittee so we had I'm gonna call on Corinne in a second but I want to say that we had a small little subcommittee that was um Erica and Grover and I that came that worked to begin to start the strategic planning process and I expect that we may continue to want to have that group working on the strategic that's the planning process that we're going through as a subcommittee as we go through the process with perhaps someone else joining I don't know but I think that that's kind of the first one that we were are most likely to continue to need Corinne um in terms of the section that talks about like collaboration I'm seeing a lot of like housing organizations and I wonder in terms of thinking through like projected needs and general needs that we know of already getting creative about the organizations we collaborate with that they're not just specifically housing but who can we get creative with in terms of you know getting more information outside of someone who's specific housing and I I wouldn't be able to go through and name specific names now but I something to think about um in terms of those collaborations great point thank you Erica so when we uh did review the strategic plan and we did make the revision by adding um goal number seven we actually added a section on subcommittees and I think you know the comments that are made just right now is really important because um there are hopefully nine of us soon and um you know to explore let's say um community outreach community engagement that that you know as Grover said that's huge that is really huge or um you know keeping affordable housing in the media every week you know Amherst bulletin the reminder whatever else um that is huge in terms of the work or you know being um connected to other group speed housing or be it um you know different supportive services that are wraparound services that can impact stability and housing um you know we try to be on on lists group lists uh and be connected with other groups but it takes a lot of time if there were nine of us who each one of us would do something or even like you know I'm planning the planning board um looking at overlays if we had each one of us you know be involved in you know a particular uh objective that we decided upon I think we get more done but you know it's really a commitment on all of us to think you know can we make that for the commitment to get some things done and so I think you know in terms of the action planning there is what can we do when we have you know a trust that meets once a month or what can we do if we have a trust that has subcommittees and can you know these are the focus of the subcommittees and so um I think we have to be very realistic about how much how many resources we have and how much time as a resource we can commit and be very realistic about that as we do our action planning so we don't set ourselves up for being frustrated thank you any other comments about our strategic planning process which will begin in earnest on the 29th uh if not then I think that we are running ahead of schedule which is kind of nice and um I will turn things back over to Erica thank you um so I have added uh on the agenda um some of the legislative highlights from the messages public health association that I'm a member of and maybe some of you are members of as well um I actually did attend the BU first series on housing health and homelessness and um the messages public health association was on and talked about their housing justice um priorities uh and so I just wanted to talk about two there I know they're four there but if you go into their website you'll see the whole um the priorities that they have um there you know they're four here listed but I only want to talk about two and I think the rest you can take a look at yourself the reason why I wanted to talk about the first one the rent control enabling act um is because during our listening session uh both uh written submissions as well as people who were uh who attended that meeting the one of the areas that I heard often talked about is rent control and so it seems that this is a really really important area that we can have an impact on that uh especially in terms of the residents you know in our communities as well as across um Massachusetts and I think if you were to each of these uh in terms of the messages public health association website they have fact sheets that you can look at they're very simplistic one page um and it really can give you the highlights but I I wanted to clarify because when people think about rent control they're often a lot of issues that come up for people um so it's both in the House and the Senate um our representatives um Rogers Montiano and Senator I can't even read my handwriting Jelon and I think it's Gurney uh are the senators who are supporting it um what this does is it limits rent increases to the rate of inflation with a cap of five percent it um bans no fault evictions it clarifies both for tenants and landlords what qualifies as legal legal reasons for evictions so clarity both for tenants and for owners it exempts owner occupied buildings with four or less units and it also exempts new construction for five years so it gives people who are um developing um um apartments it gives them a five-year period to understand what's going to be required so I think that is one of the bills that I think really responds to some of the comments or many of the comments made um at the listening session so I thought that was really important to share um with the group the second one that I thought was really important to share as well is the tenant opportunity to purchase act um which is being sponsored by Representative Livingston and Consalvo and then Senator Jelon um and municipalities have to actually opt into that and what it does is for multifamily properties when owners decide that they're going to sell that property they have to notify the tenants and the municipality when they're about to sell um the tenants can actually form a tenant association um and it has to be at least 51% of the units in terms of that tenant association and they can also then designate their rights to a non-profit or local housing authority to then represent them and so what it gives them is the right of first offer and if the owner actually signs an agreement with a third party the tenant association if they can meet that offer they have the right for the first offer and if they can't meet that within a certain time period then the owner has the right to then sell to the third party so I thought both of these were two bills that really sort of fit into our goals and our mission in terms of more control by tenants and communities of being able to ensure that people have the ability to have control over their living situation and also how much they actually spend on their rent and on their housing so I just wanted to highlight those two in terms of the CHAPA priorities they're very very comprehensive and extensive and there are many of the bills that we've talked about in the past that you've given Carol and myself permission to support um and it's very comprehensive in terms of you know the the housing bill that we we've supported um anything from supportive housing the unhoused affordable housing preventing homelessness and providing opportunities for becoming a homeowner so um I would definitely take a look at some of those bills um you know generally Carol and I come in front of you and ask you to give us permission to support those bills um but these are two that I think are really really important to support and uh I hope that um you have had an opportunity to take a look at them um and so I'll just open up for comments uh Allegra go ahead um I just wanted to point out and that Somerville has actually also put forward a home rule petition for rent stabilization um which I imagine is kind of similar to the process Amherst took with putting forward the home rule petition on the transfer fees um so just putting that out into the universe um but again I think it's great that we have a rundown of some of the bills that are out there and there are some things that I know that we've supported as a trust but I also hope that we can support individually as well thank you Allegra and I'll look into it and then um send the link to everyone so they can look at it Paul yeah so the town council has been working on legislation in this and so I think it's really important for the trust to make sure you're coordinating and coalescing with town council the members of the town council um we meet regularly with our state rep and state senator and uh one of their cautions is to us is that we don't speak with too many voices um now individually people can add you know advocate how they see fit but the trust I think should be coalescing around what the council has agreed to they've the council actually had its own legislation on some of these issues so I think as long as the as long as the trust is alert to what the council's doing and and coordinating it's like more voices are always better but make sure that we're saying the same thing um because we have a long discussion about that some of these things today with our senator and state rep thank you Paul a point well taken um we actually were contacted by the town council president asking if we wanted a liaison again this year and Carol and I absolutely said absolutely because we need to be on the same page and we need to be able to then support each other when we are working on different things that also support affordable housing so um absolutely we're hoping that we'll get a liaison and we will keep each other informed Carol well that brings me to say that we um we because I did it just signed a sign-on letter in support of the bills going forth about the transfer fee um we I signed it because we have we in our past have supported both the way that the tap the way that our counselors wrote it just as a home rule petition the way they wanted it and we also have been in support of the one that people are pushing throughout the whole state to get it so that any town can do something similar so we have actually signed on to a letter saying that we support that thank you Carol which brings me to a another announcement which does have to do with the town council so um the finance well before I do that are there any other comments regarding legislation or any other bills that we should be aware of okay um we have heard that the finance committee is revising the policy for disposal of surplus town property um and so um since we did not have a conversation we actually did have a conversation a while back we never sort of agreed in terms of how we as the trust wanted to respond or if there is any action we wanted to take I think there was some concern about um first right of refusal so we never really moved forward with any action but since the finance committee is actually looking at the prior policy and revising it both are on the website the prior policy as well as the current policy with the edits that the finance committee members are making to that I as an independent resident submitted my comments asking that specific language around affordable housing be included um and the reason I asked for that was is that even though right now the commitment of the town and town council to affordable housing is absolutely wonderful but there's always change of leadership and without putting that into a document even though it's just a policy but not putting into a document someone can you know in the future just ignore it uh and so to please include language um the other thing that is um that I know it was different is is that there was um an advisory group that was in the past policy that doesn't seem to be probably is not going to be included in the future one but if it is that to also include a trust member as part of that so I know Carol also submitted her own comment as a resident of Amherst but we thought it would be important for all of us to know that that policy is being looked at and is being revised and even though we've had such great collaboration with town council and with the town regarding surplus property um it's just really important since there's such a lack of uh there's such a scarcity of of developer property in in Amherst that to ensure that consideration is being given to affordable housing is actually written in and not assumed that people will think about that um so I'll open up for comments or questions Paul you're off mute I'm not saying anything thank you Paul no it's no it's I think that's the right thing for the trust to advocate for and the council should hear from you on that and I think that's it that's a good thing thank you Paul and um I just want to thank Allegra for raising um the awareness that that was happening so quickly um okay uh Rob you have a hand up um you said it was uh on the website somewhere I didn't where is that yeah so I had to dig a little um so if you go uh onto the uh town website and uh up in the finance committee it was actually part of the agenda I believe uh for our last Tuesday and uh I just have to say I find it very very difficult to find things on the website I'd have to dig a little bit um but we actually got an article where it's embedded in the article so that was my first way of getting in and then I worked backwards to figure out how to get in there if you go to the finance committee webpage and you scroll to the bottom that says meeting packets you know you have to click on that and then it's sorted by date by year folder and then meeting date it's the most recent meeting date in 24 but yeah I think you know I would I often tell people just to keyword search the website and see you know what comes up because it might help direct you faster if you know if you for instance if we don't know what meeting date that was discussed you might have to click through a lot of folders but February 6th yeah I'll send it to Greg the link to Greg and he can send it to everybody so you can easily access it thank you Paul and that will be the prior policy as well as the current one thank you Grover well I was going to ask somebody to like do a pop education and just share your screen and show us navigating that because this is the kind of yeah this like should not be difficult you know we should all hopefully have the ability to be like oh that's actually a policy I really care about I want to be able to quickly thank you yeah let me just back out so if you is it let me sorry my toolbar is in the way is that visible for everyone yes it is visible yeah I'll just so we are at the home pay immerse the the web home page for the town if you want to write so sometimes like inside baseball like where do you go so you know if you're like oh what's the where's the finance committee you might you know that might be one place to start if you know it's a part of the town council you can go to all council committees and then you know council committees it's finance committee and then so right so if this is what you see you're like well where do I what do I how do I know and you just you know you have to scroll down to the bottom here where they have meeting packets and agendas again you know another click and then it's a the way it set up you know like I said it's a chronological listing of meeting dates and so you know if you know that it was discussed you know what you know clicking through this 24 and then this meeting date you can see the agenda items I mean that's what I said oftentimes I would just go up here in the search bar you could type you know and see what what comes up you know if I you know and then you can see where it says you know February 5th 24 at least it gives you some direction and then if we click on it it should just bring right to probably what was the document but yeah I mean it's something that you have to it might take a little bit of searching but that's you know I would start on the homepage and then kind of work your way down through it and you can always you know yeah the previous IT director said it was like you know it said unfortunately it's like two clicks in three seconds is the attention span of someone when they're trying to search a website but you know I think the search function is really useful and then you know that keyword search is is I think really comes up with what's really relevant in recent documents up top so to me that's something to start with if you're not really sure thank you Nate and it is definitely worth reading the comments from the different finance committee members um okay um at this point we're at public comments any public comments I just want to make one which is thank you John Grace and Sam for being here and I know uh it was one other person oh Laura was here for a little while and left Laura Baker okay okay any items not anticipated within 48 hours all right uh future agenda items um I know that I have raised a couple of times wanting to hear from the EMHURS Heritage Reparations Assembly and I know I had reached out and um I had reached out twice uh and did not get anything back uh Allegra I know you said you would reach out have you been able to uh I know that you made contact with Michelle and that they're interested do you know if they've picked a date that they want to come to the trust but I have not heard back I gave her the dates of the March and April meetings going on the assumption that it would be the second Thursday of those two months and then I have not heard a response thank you Allegra would you be willing to follow up again yes thank you and uh okay there's a handout Carol go ahead yeah I was just uh informally I saw Michelle at the opening of the reopening of the ancestral bridges thing and she talked about looking forward to coming and planning on I don't know whether it was March or April but I believe that she's planning on one of those so Allegra I expect you'll get a good answer from her when you talk to her yep and just for those of you um who might not have been here when we talked about it um I went to the present well actually I listened to the town council presentation was a four hour meeting which was phenomenal but it was a long meeting and they did a presentation there um and I've also read um the report there are recommendations there with regard to affordable housing um you know as part of the recommendations and what we would like to talk to them about is um have them talk to us about what they're thinking about with regard to that especially as we're planning our you know our action plan for the next three to five years so we just thought it would be really important uh to have them come and share with us uh their thoughts their vision regarding affordable housing and the recommendations and I know there were some challenges uh that we talked about too in terms of the whole concept of fair housing and also being responsive to their report and their recommendations so um and thinking about how we can uh how we can manage both of that okay any other comments otherwise our next regular meeting will be March 14th so every second um Thursday of the month so it's March 14th and we are meeting on February 29th for our action planning meeting um as we mentioned before it will be at five o'clock and it will be in the town room in town hall um and I have had one request regarding food but if you have any um questions or concerns about the pizza that Shelley's going to bring please let me know okay so I'm going to ask if there are any comments questions otherwise at 8 21 I'm going to close the meeting in adjourn and thank all of you for being here this evening and looking forward to seeing all of you on February 29th and if you have any questions about the materials please let Carol, Greg and I know and thank you very much Shelley for joining us as well okay everyone thanks good night everybody thanks good night thank you that was a fast meeting it was good job yeah it's uh yeah it goes very fast but we still have other