 Go ahead and call the hearing to order. So just per folks awareness, we're first holding our hearing to consider adoption of revisions to the brain tree town plan. This hearing is a required step in the process to consider adoption of the revisions to the town plan as they have been recommended to us by the planning commission following their public process that they went through in accordance with Vermont state law to amend the town plan. And the purpose of this hearing is to take a comment, which we will record. Sorry, wait a minute. Sorry. And folks, we're also invited to submit written comments. If you have any written comments, we will also be happy to take those from you. We did invite folks to submit written comments prior to the hearing. It's my understanding from Janice as of earlier today that we received no written comments in advance of the hearing. So I think with that, I would welcome any members of the planning commission that are here and are interested to speak about the process that you went through in revising the town plan. Since there are members of the planning commission here, I'm reluctant to speak on behalf of them since they were so much more involved and put a lot of time into this process than the select board has. So I'll open that up first. Sure, I'm Jackson Evans from the planning commission. This was a process that crossed six years and one pandemic and many, many hours of deliberation and revision and tossing out of bold versions and bringing into one. We worked very closely with two rivers, out of which regional commission on crafting this to help, you know, they kind of helped for Michelle and we filled in the various sections. I think it represents, you know, a good plan for the next eight years and we'll make sure these process the next step is that the planning commission will begin and has begun on is rewriting the zoning by-laws. So the town plan informs the zoning by-law which comes next. I don't know if you want to add anything? No, I think in our deliberations, we try to be as clear in our own minds about where the town of Raingery fits within our local economy and within our region and to have a plan reflect its current role to those to its historic role, although there is an overlap there and also to reflect and to incorporate a number of elements that are now statewide in terms of both legislation and priority for the state, in terms of housing, in terms of conservation, in terms of resiliency having to do with the climate change and more frequent and bigger storms, good kind of thing. And we felt very good about the way in which we were able to do sensitively and in many ways incorporate all those elements, recognizing that sometimes one element can cause some tension with another element. The schools are not always mutually exclusive. They are dependent upon each other and some degree of balance is required. So at that point, I think I'll stop and we can answer questions I think if there are any. Well, I just wanna start by saying thank you so much for all of your work. I know it did take a lot of years and a lot of your time and we really appreciate all of that work that you put into it. So greatly appreciate that. So with that, I'm happy to open the floor for comments or questions of the members of the commission that are here. Janice. How much important have you had as you reviewed this and we were accepting this as it is? We have, that's correct. Yes. My name is Lou Helmuth. I live on Boca Louvre. I thank you also for many years that went into this during which I did not participate. So I'm here at this last moment and my question may be one that's inappropriate at this time and I'm happy a year about it, that's the case. It relates to the references in the town plan to Sourcing Grattle and there are several references in the town plan to a preference for in-town gravel. And I'm just wondering why there's a preference for in-town gravel stated in the town plan. Absolutely, really good question. So part of the process of creating this town plan was using the bones of the existing town plan and that may have been a piece that we hung on to from the previous town plan. I don't recall specifically having that conversation about including the preference, the preferential piece. Why would you prefer in any house? Well, I think you would prefer if it made economic and ecological sense to do so. I mean, there are lots of places where there are gravel in this town where it's not, I mean, you got it, like in the town of Rivers, out of Riverbanks. And this has been a recurring issue for the town of what do you do about where you can get gravel and where is it available and where is it economically available. So I think there wouldn't normally be, you know, there was even Steven on all of their options and one was local and one wasn't shocked to be built there but I don't think the planning commission really had any conversation around that particular point which actually put it out there. So I think that's just something for the SWEF board to think about. There are preferences stated in there and I agree with you 100% Paul that there might be a preference for that if there is economical advantage to the town and ecological and other acceptance of and compliance with other components of the town plan. But it does appear to my reading that there is a preference stated without recognition to that balancing. Thank you, Luke. Thank you. Yes, Christy. State of emergency, you can go down the Dagen River anytime you want to get the gravel. In a state of emergency. It's a state of emergency, statewide. All of those come out. If it truck runs and you can put it on the road, I believe I can jump on the wheel without a CDL, but I'm not quite sure. Yeah, well, while these days these events seem to be becoming the rule instead of the exception, I think we still have to be prudent and plan for normal operation outside of state of emergency. But we spend a lot of those these days. Any other comments or questions? Yeah, well, I see two other contradictions. One is reducing the fossil fuel. Now you're gonna run your north field and how much fossil fuel are you increasing? And the other one was recommending not giving up the town trails and class four roads. Was that, sorry, Janice. Not giving up. Is that a separate comment or in relation to the sourcing of the material? Right. Okay. So it sounds like you're in favor of sourcing material pursuant to what the town plans. I read this through and I could see those three things as a contradiction to what you're practicing. So with the roads and the trails, where is the contradiction there? This recommends not giving up class four roads or trails. All right. And we haven't. No, but you've got it on your warning. That's a reclassification. There's no discontinuance of roads. No, we're, yeah, we're gonna keep it and we're gonna shift it to either a trail or but it's a reclassification. The road stays have just changed class. Yeah. Everyone's not in the last communication. Yeah. I'm sorry. Which road are we talking about? We've been, this is a conversation that's been happening outside of the context of the town plan, but at our regular select board meetings, we've been talking about reclassification of Dukelo Road, a specific portion of it, not the whole road, and then Wilson Road. It's not in the town. Yeah. Well. It's independent of the town. I think the planning here has some really significant features that are commendable. One is, Bravery has a really important capital resources in the one part of our area. And compared to some of the neighborhood, neighboring towns, percentages of protection. It sounds like we have some really important resources and it's nice to see them called out in such a strong manner. So I just like to thank the commission. Thank you. And would you mind just stating your name for the recording? Juliette Robbins. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other comments before we close the comment portion? I have a question. Yes, thank you. So can written comments be submitted after this hearing? We were welcoming them up until the hearing. I'll note that on our select board agenda, we do have the item under new business to adopt the town plan or to consider that question during our meeting in 13 minutes. And then we go through the process going forward in terms of approval or another hearing? Nope, this is it. So there's been a, the planning commission had their statutory required hearing several months ago. They then kind of sent the town plan to the select board in June. And at that point in time, we considered it as a board and decided that we were comfortable with the town plan written as is, as recommended by the planning commission to hold this hearing. And here we are. Thank you. Okay, I have a question. What would you consider in quick summary fashion are the biggest changes moving forward? Could it be conservation or housing or could you just spell that out for me? Sure, I definitely defer to Jackson and Paul to weigh in on that since you have the, you know, the pen. Yeah, all right, that's great. No. Okay. That's kind of you. I mean, housing was a big, housing, energy, you know, those were some of the bigger things that we focused on. I think having gone through a pandemic while writing this, it was a real eye opener in terms of what's gonna happen in the next decade with immigration from, you know, we saw property selling very quickly in Braintree. And so, you know, that's probably not going to stop. So thinking about how land use reflects housing was a really big thing that we were keeping an eye on. Flooding too, I mean, we spent a lot of time talking about flood resiliency and the challenges, we don't have new flood maps. And so, you know, we know it's coming, FEMA hasn't mapped us. And so there's not a lot, we were kind of hamstrung in that regard. We couldn't, there's not a lot of planning you can do without official maps. So, I mean, I think housing, energy, environmental issues and conservation were sort of there. And as I said earlier, I think, there's always a question of how you balance the level of these things. Because each one has, is taken to an extreme, under cuts to the others. We try to be judicious, try to be solid when that happens. And am I correct in saying that the implementation matrix was a new feature of the plan this year? Yes, definitely. And that was to allow all the participants, are called upon to actually do something to maintain the plan real. To call to their attention, what is their role going forward? And so that's the section five in that chart. So if you're on a select board, you can go down and you can see what we're really expecting the select board to do, or the conservation commission, or so forth. Yeah, that was as, you know, I'm a bureaucrat for my day job. So that was the section I was the most excited about. I'm just really nice when someone is just like, here, here's what you need to do. Don't do it. I like that. So, yeah, I appreciate that addition. Hey, it's not a compound on the town plan, I was going to say, thanks for all the time and the years you put into it. It's more of a process question. So when is it finalized and when then do bylaws, new zoning bylaws, take shape? And how different do you anticipate they'll be from previous bylaws based on the town plans? I mean, that's the process. You know, we sort of need the town plan to be approved. So we know what the guardrails are within which to create the bylaws. So we started the process of talking to two rivers looking at grants to help pay for this work because it's pretty intensive. It's not, it's very technical work. You know, so we're looking at options for working with either two rivers or another consulting agency to help us craft the bylaws. But they'll basically be informed by what the town plan is showing. And I think we'll more or less use the existing bylaw as maybe a starting framework, but in terms of how heavily they're going to be changed, I'm not sure. I think there's definitely some of the weak areas in our bylaws and we know some of the new, some of the new things in the town plan that will require new bylaws. So those are kind of starting points. I mean, the process itself, I mean, it's a couple of years, probably, you know. I think there are two things that may amplify on that. The process is first to have the town plan adopted and then that gives us a degree of guidance in terms of going forward with the drafting of what, redrafting of the zoning ordinance. The zoning ordinance is a very technical document which Jackson said and it's not only technical, but it's very detailed and it has to all work together. And so the conversation that we've had within the planning commission is that this is a task that you really need some technical help on, okay. And so that means whether it's two rivers or as an independent consultant, it's coming across money. And so one of the issues around that is we have considered applying to the state, there are a couple of potential grant opportunities that this state programs that could underwrite both of that expense. The window for applying for those grants is limited, it closes later this fall, like beginning of November or beginning of December. So if we don't have the plan in place, we can't apply for the grants. If we don't have the plan and we don't apply for the grants, then we basically lose a year waiting for the next window of opportunity to apply for grants. So I think that's something in terms of the process and the timing that's very important to know. The second comment I would make is that there have also been new legislation at the state level, both in terms of energy and in terms of housing. And so we need to make sure while we have reflected those objectives in the plan, we have to figure out a way to reflect those and incorporate those into the actual zoning ordinance. And that's another technical piece, which is significantly different from the current zoning ordinance, which did not anticipate. There are a bunch of smaller things that are administrative and clarifying and definition on footwork. But I think the real lift here is going to be how we incorporate some of the housing requirements and some of the energy and efficiency requirements of the state. All right, and I just want to note that Kyle from Two Rivers is online or on the phone. And just Kyle, I want to give you an opportunity to say anything you might want to weigh in with. If not, that's fine. Hi everyone, Kyle Katz at Two Rivers Outreach Regional Commission. I'm just here to answer any process or process questions related to the town plan hearing. And I know there was one question a few minutes ago on when the plan becomes effective and it's effective immediately upon adoption. So once it's adopted, that is the plan, obviously there will be technical things like putting any adoption date on the title and when the adoption date on the maps as well. But yes, once the plan is adopted, that is the town plan. Thanks Kyle. Yep. Any other comments before we wrap up? Okay, with that, I'll make a motion that we close the hearing. Second. All those in favor? Aye. All right.