 I'm going to call the meeting to the order. The Colchester Planning Commission is 7-0-2. I don't know the person who got it, the agenda for consideration is zero for changes to agenda items in order. We can connect with all the public hearing from men to Colchester. Do you have a population supplement for 46? Yes, I'd like to make a motion to move into a public meeting. Public 46, we take it. Oh, sorry. On proposed, supplement 46 of the Colchester Development Regulations. Are you ready for a second? Awesome. Thank you. All right. All right. Hi. Hi. All right. Now we're moving to the... I'm on. Okay. So we have nobody here tonight. There are four tonight. So we need a motion to close. Uh-oh. Okay. It's so much fresher. I'd like to make a motion to close a public meeting on the hearing on supplement 46 of the Colchester Development Regulations. Here. Second. Second. All right. All right. Hi. Hi. Hi. Thank you. Mission discussion and potential action for proposed amendments to the Colchester Development Regulations Supplement 36. Our discussion basically is to send it to you in a sweat pool. Are you ready if you want to make any changes? You don't have to read all the way through again. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I knew that plan would get me far. All right. So that was pretty straightforward. We need another motion. Do I need another motion? A motion to submit it to the Select Board. Am I reading that out completely? Yeah. A motion to submit this Supplemental 46 to the Colchester Development Regulations Select Board. Second. Second. Second. All right. Volunteer. Hi. Hi. Mission Passes. And so it goes on to the Select Board. So I probably can't read the email. So I will follow up with you on a date for that. Okay. So look to your emails ahead of your next meeting. I'll at least have a date for you. That is great. Probably be a public hearing in March. But the Select Board receives that and then does a warning of that. So do we need that emotion to move it to the Select Board? That's what you just did. Oh, I'm sorry. So we'll deliver it to them. Gotcha. That's required as part of the statute. They will receive that. That's actually a formal action to receive it. And then they will do their own warning in their paper of record. And hold a separate public hearing. Probably at a March date. As is typical in NGC and the memo, it's typically good to have one or two commission members there to sort of answer any questions, especially, you know, sort of how to arrive and meet the policy decisions. So keep that date in mind. I'll follow up with you ahead of March to see what will be available and ahead of whatever that February date will be. So that's voting, right? That's the date the town votes, right? I think they vote on our meeting. No. March 5th, right? March 5th. So that's our regular meeting. Right. So we can talk about that if you'd like, whether or not you want to have a meeting. OK. But the Select Board meeting for receipt of this would either be as soon as next week, probably not likely, or March 12th, which is a week after your meeting. OK. So that's the opposite Tuesdays. So that is more likely, or February 13th. I'm sorry. February 13th is more likely the date which the Select Board would receive it. We'd have a conversation about it, talk through it, more in a public hearing, and then their public hearing unless a lot of people show up or there's outstanding work that they've asked you to work on can be a formality as well. I'm sorry. I'm confusing things here. That's OK. There's a lot of dates. That's why I try to write them all out. Thank you. It's a lot of process. But do keep an eye on your email, because there will be more interim emails than usual as far as schedule on those. OK. Comments, questions from the public? Not related to the agenda? We'll settle that one. So now we have a presentation from Rene Marshall, our deputy county manager. Great. Thank you. Happy to be here this evening. All right. Good on slideshow. Sorry. That's my glasses. All right. So this is just an update on our renewable energy efforts. This update was provided to the Select Board in December, their December meeting. So the purpose of this presentation is to update the planning commission and their role as the energy committee and to highlight some of our more significant town energy conservation efforts and also highlight the town's progress on our more major renewable energy projects from the past year. So the Heritage Project identifies the community goal to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions by improving building efficiency, exploring and incorporating alternative energy sources and supporting energy conservation and resource reuse and recycling. Some of the projects that have been completed over the years include the town's LED street lighting project in 2013 and that project cut street light bills in half, which has saved 1.3 million over a 20-year period. In 2015, the Select Board voted to provide Champlain Housing Trust with 43,000 in federal funding for LED street lights at their 166 unit Winchester Place Apartments. And that reduced their annual street light bills from 12,000 to 6,000, so again, cutting them in half. Also in 2015, the Colchester Police Department looked at their 16 vehicle fleet and they reassessed ways of incorporating more fuel-efficient vehicles. So that included eight smaller SUVs, six sedans and a pickup and a motorcycle. This achieved lowering capital costs by approximately $150,000 over a 15-year period. It increased the mileage per gallon by 6% by using the smaller SUVs instead of those larger ones. It increased the mileage per gallon by 16% by replacing the larger SUVs with sedans. This reduced the fuel costs by about 6%, or 5,300 per year after those larger SUVs were phased out. In 2021, we've seen our electric vehicle, the town purchase, Nissan Leaf, that's used by the Planning and Zoning Department. This was used for a total of $17,897, which if it was bought new, it would have been approximately $27,000. By purchasing the used electric vehicle, it allowed the town to take advantage of the $7,500 in federal tax credits and the state tax credit of at least $2,500. So we replaced the costlier SUV that was previously utilized, both in energy use and maintenance costs. Other projects that have been completed over the years included our two solar farms off of Roosevelt Highway and Pumpkin Patch. The Roosevelt Highway solar farm has 44,789 in net metering credits per year. Production is equal to 29% of the town's electric energy consumption. Savings after the capital and expenses are just over a half a million dollars. The Pumpkin Patch solar farm has $44,462 in net metering credits per year. Its production is equal to 30% of the town's electric energy consumption and it has a savings after those capital expenses of $455,649. As we've provided in updates in the past, we've been working on that third solar farm. I think we're third times a charm, hopefully. So we attempted to secure, most recently, we attempted to secure a third 150 kilowatt solar farm on an unused town-owned parcel off of Mercier Drive, but eventually we found it was determined to be too wet for the installation of a solar farm. So we looked at our other town-owned properties and we identified another site. It's an 8.4 acre parcel located off of Route 15 and it's on town-owned land that's shared with the 40th and Allen Cemetery. So we are currently in contract with Aegis Renewable for the project in order to complete the permitting. So we have funding of just over 378,000 that was included in our FY24 capital budget plan and we will receive 30% grant of a direct grant in federal of approximately 170,000. So this third solar farm will meet the town's long-standing goal of producing 100% of the electric energy consumed in the provision of municipal services. However, since that goal, we've grown and we have more electric usage with the Mallard Space Sewer Project, the Rec Center and Fire Departments. So the goal is now larger. The third solar farm, this is the location of it. This was what we permitted through the process and you'll see the landscaping that was included in the permit. We looked at that and after receiving some feedback thought we could do a better job with the landscaping and so we utilized the services of our local landscape architect that's done a lot of work in the town parks and this is the revised plan and you'll see there's a lot of variety of different plants and trees that are utilized in this plan and it'll have a lot nicer aesthetic, you know, visual aesthetic. We're very proud of the solar farms and the solar work and so we want them to also look equally pleasing. In addition, we have energy efficient lighting that we entered into a contract for just under $100,000 for upgrades to energy efficient lighting that was funded with $68,828 in energy efficiency rebates and $29,000 in the capital budget plan. So we saved the town almost $70,000 by using these rebates. We implement these changes sooner than planned and it allowed us to expand the project to include more town buildings in areas that were previously planned. It reduces the electricity consumption and it eases the transition to comply with the state restriction on the tube-based light bulbs containing mercury that will be phased out in 2024. In front of the town offices we now have a public EV charger. It's a level 2 EV charger. It was installed this past summer. The charger has a credit card payment system for public use and at a charging rate of 7 kilowatt hours an EV will gain approximately 20 to 25 miles of range per hour. The total cost of the project was just over $14,000 which was partially funded by a rebate of $1,500 from Green Mountain Power. A level 2 charger was chosen as it can be convenient for partial charges for residents who are stopping by the town offices and a level 3 charger which would charge quicker but would cost up to $80,000. Solar at the Colchester Recreation Center. So we've talked about different components that were included in the design of the voter-approved recreation center and after approval by the town attorney and solar engineer the town executed a contract again with AGIS renewable energy for just over $1.1 million for these solar portions. The town can be expected to be reimbursed by that same federal grant of approximately just under $400,000 and this will allow us to meet that goal of generating our own electricity equal to all municipal services needs even after the fire department some out space sewer and the rec center. So there is the solar at the parking canopy which you can see right there the bottom left hand there's a little closer view of it and then there's also rooftop solar on top of the rec center and that is it. Any questions? What we did for the rec center will get us to 100% current. Currently with what we have now. It gets reevaluated if there's new things that happen over time we'll be adjusting that and we're always trying to think ahead and look ahead because we know things will be changing in the future. Is there any new projects that people are thinking about but have not been able to implement? As far as... Seeding for electrical. As far as solar type? Yeah, solar or anything like that. Yeah, we're continuing to evaluate other town owned property for looking at other potential solar projects. Yeah. Can I ask a question? Hi, I'm wondering are you having any conversations about replacing boilers with like electric heat pumps I mean when a boiler is no longer be able to be used in terms of the replacement of kind of the thermal and of it. Yeah, and I think one of the slides it talked about in 2015 when we had an energy audit done there were projects that were identified so we've been working our way through those projects and some of those include updating as we replace boilers and things so they'll be continually looking at energy efficiency changes in technology as time goes on so we're keeping an eye towards the future on that as well. Great, thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome, thank you. Number 7. Information items and staff updates. Of course we'd like to welcome our audience. Welcome. Thank you. We're going to do us a full board. Small business then. 10 years so in Colchester since roughly 2006. Right in the Bay Area basically so yeah. So these are quick updates. I just want to keep you guys updated. Everything going on with the department so we talked about earlier a couple months ago applying for some grants. Unfortunately they were very competitive and we were not chosen. I did look at those who were and it seemed like less than previous years so it was indeed a very competitive grant cycle and I think when these grants are given out there's often an inclination I think to especially help communities that don't have staff and you know some of the funding that the assistance that larger towns do so when you do read the list sometimes you see towns that you don't even know we're in Vermont and you have to look them up. So they're doing great things out there. So the farm based grant you actually watch and see if you apply for that. So there's a variety of other so it's not just for that type of project some of them are yeah well they had similar type bylaw amendments you know everything from we want to figure out how to you know just update our next town plan to sometimes they're very simple a lot of affordability updates sometimes they're very specific things you know such as we want to update our flood regulations sometimes it's how do we add more mixed uses in our village in some of the small towns that really that's their downtown you know it's a small village but you know if you look at the list of communities that did receive these grants they tend to be communities that don't really have any sort of staff in some cases not much in the way of municipal government at all so those grants I think will really help those communities so a little push done kind of work we can do with our staff resources and we'll probably at your next meeting chat through the 20-24 priorities and see how those shake out it doesn't mean you know these were grants for things that we were going to do anyway I talked about so we'll continue on we just they'll go a little slower but we'll work through them we have the staff knowledge just not necessarily the same amount of time that's always what they're looking for there's a bill going through the state house and I went to a meeting the other day for the rural caucus and there's a real push now to get rid of designations like village and town you know just get it so you know I asked if that would open up like better places grants and other grants and it will yeah do you know that number Billy? I always just have I don't know you know I have there's a lot of bills to keep track of so that's a it's an unfortunate update but I think we'll just be slower but we'll get there I know that town health officer role so many hats that we wear in our office one of them is that we are people in our officer in the town health officer roles Seth Lasker for a long time was our town health officer he still is entitled I am the deputy town health officer a lot of that work you've kept up with our department monthly reports involves doing a lot of the rental inspections throughout the town somebody calls comments about their living conditions we have to go out there we have to perform a full rental inspection every time that we do it's very time consuming it's valuable for the people who live there but it is very time consuming the legislature two years ago directed the state Division of Fire Safety to take that on but there's been a transition period they finally worked out the process for doing that in effective December 31st of 2023 the rental the state rental housing inspection program has been taken over by Division of Fire Safety so now when anyone calls our office and says I don't have heat I have mold anything that's related or I'm going to call water my door phone closed my front steps are dangerous something that would fall into that category I don't have any fire smoke detectors it is now the the state that they make those plates too and they will do the investigation on that we may be involved a little bit but that's a major update for us hopefully it will free a little bit of time because it does it definitely does take some resources from our department we still have the health officer role when it comes to some of the other pieces especially anything that's a public health hazard usually that falls in terms of surfacing wastewater effluent that's not as common but it does happen but outside of the rental issue public health hazard made your trash but that's a very small component of what makes that up so and that's very good for us I just want to share that update with you because we're kind of excited about it and also now renters will be getting people presumably who are better trained you know in being able to help them I can test out water I can look at mold but I'm definitely not somebody who's trained as well as others so what do I think for a lot of people so when you got a complaint or you went out to do that before were you able to actually effectuate some sort of change? Yeah so our role is largely we expect any renter complaint to have already communicated with their landlord that's their job to do that first if they're not getting resolution then they call us so what we do is we talk to the landlord and we encourage them and require them in many cases to do the things that they need to do if there's mold then they have to treat it if the hot water's not working then they immediately have to figure out the source of that and get that fixed if there's no heat then they have to get that fixed so mostly it's communicating with the landlord to do those things so that's why it's part of the rental inspection if you're living in your own home and you don't have heat there's nothing I can do to help you but so yeah we've seen some cases stay open a little bit longer especially where they do need and historically have needed the state to be involved electrical wires especially for large multi-family dwellings where there's 8, 10, 20 units and we're talking about something we're very much not qualified and that is a much bigger fix but largely what we get is mold issues heat issues that they just need to call a contractor for a couple days and it's pretty rewarding to get it resolved so will the division of fire and safety they will now be the ones that can implement and follow up so you don't have to do any of the follow up on any of that ideally I mean it's only been going for 2 weeks I haven't heard that there's been any hiccups they only have more people doing in the entire state so I don't know I'm optimistic that it will work out but you know there will be some hiccups our poultry store is part of the northwest area that's everything from swatting all the way down and mostly it's a pretty big geographic area that one person has to cover they may still reach out to us if somebody does call and say hey the smoke detectors aren't working if they need somebody to do an onsite rental inspection quickly just to say can you confirm but it smells like some sort of battery so we might help them with that but we're not doing a full top to bottom inspection report like we did before so it's good news so yeah that's an update it's a big update for our department I put on here the December planning and zoning report and I remembered that we had that done so early in December you've already seen it we have a new one for you commercial is the same anyways probably yeah and sometimes it gets a little misleading because of what constitutes a commercial nothing yet but we've been hearing some rumblings so stay tuned you may see something this is the theme of optimism alright so now we get to the planning needs yeah so your next regular meeting is that February 6th as Sarita pointed out it is town meeting day it's Tuesday March that's February and March March is town meeting day so your next meeting is February 6th you think you discussed it the last meeting on target it's a good meeting I think to talk about your setting your priorities for FY24 setting your work plan telling us what to do especially now that we know we won't have any you know sort of outside assistance so I think that will be in the book of that meeting is that the March 5th meeting February 6th February 6th we would like to make the March 5th and I'd love to be here for that meeting February 6th February 6th I think that looks very hard for anyone that it doesn't and there are five Tuesdays in January so it's not two weeks from now it's three weeks from now and then of course we can have it's always ideal we can have one, probably two people attend the planning commission or the sub board meeting and talk about peace I think we'll definitely probably need somebody for the public hearing I believe Rich is not going to be able to attend that'll be that March 12th date I probably could do that can you do that? and I'll follow up with Rebecca to see our availability as well this is an ice storm you know if there's a really bad blizzard if I am not going to make it then everything is okay, that's good just get March 5th just get March 5th and then the second March meeting just get March entirely or March get March 12th so March 12th would be the select board public hearing and then the 19th we'll talk in February? yes so everyone hold that March 19th and we'll reevaluate February got my orders there so we move on minutes of December 6th I move to accept the minutes of December 6th December 6th December 6th I second that motion I I I move to adjourn our planning board meeting second I I I I I I I I I I I I