 All right, we're gonna call the meeting to order for the Colchester Plan of Commission is 704 Agenda considerations deserve for changes to the agenda items and order We're all good comments and questions from the public not related to the agenda We're all good So next we have our guest presentations for the school enrollment Amy Miner superintendent of regulations Thank you come right up I've worked in the school district since 1998, so I have a fair amount of historical knowledge around the needs of our students and how we have Grown so I have prepared for you. I think I have about 20 slides And so feel free to ask me any questions along the way But my goal for the presentation tonight is that you have a strong understanding of where the district is headed Regarding facilities and what current class size and enrollment looks like across the district Really excited and want to take the opportunity to thank the taxpayers of Colchester for supporting the FY 24 Colchester School budget The budget that we presented to the taxpayers Allows us to maintain all of the current levels of programs and services that we currently have to our students It also adds a few positions in the area of support services If there is one thing for you to know about the needs in Colchester schools is we are seeing a much Higher level of care required for the majority of our students across the district and that's something we needed to add some staffing in We also reduced $200,000 in support staff positions and our largest need area is space I Went back and thought I would give you a 15 year comparison of what the district looked like in 2007 and what the district looks like this school year in 2007 we had approximately 2000 students you can see that number has steadily grown this year as of our October 1 Student enrollment we had two thousand one hundred and eighty four so every year It's just a slight increase our free and reduced lunch rate across the school district has increased quite a bit It was nineteen percent fifteen years ago, and we're holding pretty stable just above thirty percent We also have seen an increase in the number of multi-lingual learners We call it our ML program in previous years You probably heard that referred to English language learners or an ELL program We now call that our multi-lingual learners coming at that from they are speaking more than one language So we want to do it as a a positive approach to their abilities, and we're seeing that number steadily increase in 2007 and 2008 we did not have any students that were experiencing homelessness and this year We have 31 students experiencing homelessness when we have a student in the district that is in this situation We typically as a district are finding ways to clothe provide other supports transportation to and from co-curricular Opportunities to help support the family in their time of need and then we do have students that receive plans Specifically in the area of special education. We called that our child count and currently we have 380 students who qualify for special education services Compared to 2007 when it was 283 So I think this slide demonstrates for you are the needs of the students of Colchester are increasing Overall when I look at the number of students who have some sort of support plan where they require more support besides just general education a Special education plan a 504 plan or what we call an educational support team plan That's about 30% of the students in the district that are currently on some sort of support plan So here's a little bit of student enrollment We do have a preschool program that preschool program is housed at Mallets Bay School Now it's Bay School is a really interesting building because it houses ages 3 4 5 and the grades 3 4 5 Preschool really should be housed in the building where kindergarten is located But there is no space to include preschool at Porter's Point or at Union Memorial School in 2007 we did have a preschool program This is when preschool was not a requirement in the state of Vermont and it was only for students who qualified for special Education services so our three four and five year olds at that time. We had 20 students We offered two sections and you see no preschool teachers because again It was a special education program only if you were a general ed student looking for preschool you had to go to private pre-k and so we had two special education staff in 2015 Vermont implemented Act 166 which was the requirement for preschool within school buildings It pays for 10 hours a week of preschool for students in Colchester our preschool program runs Monday Tuesday Thursday Friday, so not on Wednesdays each day They're there for about two and a half hours, so we're meeting that 10-hour requirement this year We have 70 students we have five sections two and a half staff and five special education staff to support the students That are in that program those might be special educators They could be speech language pathologists, but it's a really strong program We know that there has been talk in this legislative session around making changes to preschool And we know that there is Another bill that will be in development for next legislative session around making changes to preschool For next school year. We believe that we will have enough space for 75 students in our preschool program What we are seeing is each year we have a wait list For families that want to access our preschool program But in full honesty our program is not accessible to all students and all families in Colchester Because it is only two and a half hours a day what that requires it requires you to provide Transportation to and from that preschool program And so some of our students experience preschool in the morning and some of our students experience preschool in the afternoon If you are a working family who has a full-time job, it's a quite a bit of a challenge to Meet the transportation needs for preschool our dream and this comes into my last slide a little bit Would be to have preschool housed where kindergarten is and I'll talk about our future facilities bond preschool One of the great things about having preschool at Mallets Bay School because I always like to make lemonade in any situation Is that our fifth graders and fourth graders go into our preschool classrooms and they're reading buddies and their role models for preschool students And that's a really great opportunity for those students to have But at Mallets Bay School space is a significant issue As you'll see when you look at enrollment and so if preschool was not housed at Mallets Bay School We already have plans around how we would use the classrooms in the preschool in the preschool wing Every few years we reach out to McKibbin demographics who is the demographer company that we've used Since I've been superintendent. They've done the demographic study for us Twice and they give us enrollment projections Across the district the last time we had them refresh the study was 2021 they will probably do it again in two years just because of the facilities bond and What you can see from this graph is that all the way to 2030 2031 you see a stable increase Slightly year-over-year in the number of students that Colchester is expected to receive and I will highlight those Are Colchester students students living in the town of Colchester what the demographer is Unable to do is to predict the number of tuition students that our district would receive in grades 7 through 12 We'll show you our tuition numbers at the end of the presentation But we currently have 107 students that attend school With us from ascending town that does not have a school that offers grades 7 8 9 10 11 and 12 Some highlights from McKibb McKibbins demographic study is that the majority of migration into the town of Colchester Is for individuals who are ages 0 to 9 and 30 to 44 The other component is that and you probably already knew this but Individuals ages 18 to 24 are continuing to leave the town of Colchester most likely because they are headed out to college One of the reasons for our slow increase in enrollment is any new construction But they did know a significant number of empty nest households turning over to younger families He did predict the median age in Colchester will increase and That when they did this study, which was 2020 2021 that we would have an additional 74 students by the year 3020 31 again that does that 74 students does not include any tuition students that we would have in that school year in general The growth is that we would see of additional students goes across all grade levels However, there is a bubble at Union Memorial School, which I'll talk a little bit about a little bit more But that is the school that will see the most significant increase in student enrollment and again does not include tuition students I'm about to go over what class size looks like in every grade level in every school But there are two standards that's Vermont schools are held accountable for those standards are located in the Vermont Education quality standards where it sets the rules for class size And so these standards didn't exist 20 30 years ago But they do exist now The purpose of these standards is to ensure that students are having High quality access to education in an environment where they're going to get feedback and support around their performance And so what the guideline is for grades K to 3 is no more than 20 students per classroom That doesn't count special educators speech language pathologist That's just if you're in a kindergarten classroom in that primary kindergarten teacher How many students are we going to place in that classroom? Gets a little higher when you look at grades 4 through 12 and that standard goes up to 24 in most cases most classrooms. We are currently in alignment with the education quality standards So if we talk a little bit about porters and Union We know we have two elementary schools on either side of town that model has worked really well to limit the Number of minutes that students ride on our school buses given Colchester's large geographic radius What I've given you here is a three two-year comparison and then our projected numbers for 2324 the reason why I've shown you the data this way is in the 2122 school year that is the first year where the district implemented something called the zone Typically folks knew if I lived on this side of town my children would go to Union And if I lived on this side of town my children would go to porters point school That is no longer the case and the reason for that is that our student enrollment is unbalanced And so if we would have stuck with the line We would have had classes at Union Memorial School with 26 to 28 students in them And that's just too many students to have in a kindergarten classroom if we were going to have class size at porters point of 16 or 17 So if you live in the zone Those families are notified they find out at the beginning of the summer which school that they will go to They're encouraged to play on both playgrounds and that has allowed us to balance our numbers over the last two and Over the over the next school year what they look like again So that students can have a similar experience to their partners in the other school building Wait, what I explain the zone to me again So if you live in the zone area, which I would kind of define as the center of Colchester You can't predict which school your child is going to go to whereas before if you knew you know You lived on Lakeshore or you lived Kind of near I'm forgetting the street name But you picked out of the center of town. Yeah So we picked the center of town so that we would not have students that were in the zone have over an hour bus ride To either end of town So if you live out by chimney corners on your way to the islands those students are definitely going to go to Union Memorial School That's not part of the zone right because they would be over an hour on a bus ride to porters point school And we definitely don't want kinders on a bus that long So if you're in the center of town and our incoming classes are pretty balanced Then we're most likely going to stick with what you thought would have been that school But if numbers are unbalanced like they are currently We may ask Families in the zone to go to porters where they might normally have gone to Union to help balance that class size If I look back on our enrollment history over the last 20 years There was a period of time where porters had a higher enrollment I think seven years ago the incoming kindergarten class at porters point school had 98 students in him And we did not have a zone at that time So our response was to add an additional kindergarten teacher who has now followed that class Their fifth graders now all the way up to grade five so that we didn't have tremendously large class sizes By doing this model it limits the number of times that we may have to ask for an additional classroom teacher The structure of porters in union limits our ability to add an additional teacher the year that we did that at porters in Union Music and art went on a cart music and art at porters in Union and both of those buildings They share a classroom and so we took that classroom in order to give that large class an extra classroom teacher Which is a challenge when you're a teacher teaching on a cart and delivering services to All of the classrooms in that in that building the model has worked. Well, there is a waiver process So if you lived in the zone and you really wanted your student just to go to Union Memorial School But we assigned you to porters you would fill out the waiver application and thus far Enough families have been willing to do the zone component that we've been able to honor every waiver request One of the requirements for the when we look at zone students is if there is a current sibling in a school Then we want that sibling to go to that same school That would be too much of a burden for that for that family if you have a student who is in grades 3 4 5 6 Or even in the high school. We might then might put them in the other school building. Okay, and at this point time The village is the heavier side Union by far Yeah, by far and when you look at the projections from the demographer when you get to 20 30, they are predicting 90 students To be enrolled as kindergartners on the Union side of town and 77 on the Porter side of town Do they get as specific as streets or? Areas no, no, it's pretty general pretty general and sometimes we can figure out kind of the streets because of the developments when the Kind of I don't know if we want to call them apartments or duplexes by chimney corners when that was built We actually thought that we would have a little bubble of students attend Union Memorial School and that We did not see that happen It's mostly individuals living there currently that do not have students in school So that had very little impact on our enrollment Okay, good questions. Thanks All right moving on and so here's k5 and so we're seeing class sizes between 150 160 Again, we're striving to stay within the educational class size Of 20 students when you k-3 24 in grades four to five for Kindergarten you seem in the EQS column. Are we in alignment with the education quality standards? I said yes no and part of the rationale there is both at Porter's and Union they have smaller classes and So they have at Union Memorial There are two larger kindergarten rooms and two smaller kindergarten rooms So at times we will put more students in those larger classrooms just from for a from a space Perspective if we were to reconfigure the building or expand on the building We would build larger kindergarten classrooms are smallest classrooms are at Union Memorial School that building was Constructed first Porter's was constructed afterwards So they learned some things after they built Union Memorial School way back when so grade one is in Alignment grade two grade threes in alignment. We are really closely watching grade four Grade four is going to probably go over the EQS And so we're talking with Malibu's school about moving a fifth grade teacher to grade four next year to bring those numbers Numbers down but that is something that we're watching and you'll notice in the second column It talks about how many core classroom teachers there are fourth grade is the last grade that only has seven And so if we had an additional teacher at that grade level We would definitely be in alignment with the education quality standards We would not be in a position currently to request an additional teacher in grade seven Because I don't have an empty classroom at Mallets Bay School. I would have to move someone out of a classroom Currently guidance is taught in a classroom. We might move guidance to the stage in order to make that happen But if preschool was removed from Mallets Bay School, then I would have options There but currently Spaces at a premium in all of the buildings. So that's elementary enrollment Moving on to middle school enrollment again, we're trying to target 24 I do have to thank the community for all of the increases that we've had over the years for the middle school This has been our largest area of investment as a district. My first year as superintendent Middle school class size was between 29 and 32 students per classroom It's just too many middle schoolers in a classroom. And so we slowly have increased The number of teachers in grades six grade seven and eight so they all have eight core teachers And you can see in the current year the 22 23 average class size is between 19 and 23 it's working very well for us and Next school year you can see my projections with a note that Grand Isle does not have they do no longer offer grade seven and eight in that school And so we do see an increase in our enrollment in both seven and eight It's a number that I can't predict but I'll show you our tuition number So you can see how the number of students coming to us in grade seven from the islands has grown over the last few years So cultures for middle school will definitely be over 500 students next year I would predict that both that the eighth grade class goes to 170 something and that the seventh grade class is Close to 170. I think this year we have 24 seventh graders from the islands The other component to the education quality standards talks about high school and In the high school Standards there are a couple of things that we try to do from a philosophical perspective The first is the transition to high school is a really big transition for students And so when we build the master schedule to play students in classes We try to have smaller class sizes in grades 9 and 10 and larger class sizes in 11 and 12 just Developmentally, it's part of that transition that we truly believe in we also make sure that our science classrooms are following the VOSHA guidelines and so we're striving to not put more than 24 students specifically in grades 9 and 10 and in science classes that are going to be very heavy laboratory based AP chemistry For example just from a safety perspective. Those are the guidelines that we use Rather than showing you all of the classes at CHS, which is a really long report I'm going to give you a summary of what our current enrollment looks like it's 22 to 23 in the greenhouse Which is grades 9 and 10 it's actually worked out this year to be about the same in the blue house Which is grades 11 and 12 of course we have to call them green and blue school colors Just to be you know a little funny general electives are about 24 and then we do have a number of what we call single tins This is a course where there's only one there's not enough course Student requests to have two, but those are times where we yes, we might put 28 We might put 29 we have one AP class right now That's at 28 and French five this year is at 14 So it's a little bit lower because we want to make sure that students have that experience But there are times when we're going over eqs in a space where we feel comfortable and that safety is not going to be an issue often you'll see us above 24 students in a class if it's a junior senior class or if it's an AP single tin not a science class so This is pretty naive. I have no idea what the greenhouse blue house. Yep What is that green house is all of the courses that would be required for grades 9 and 10 and So it would be you're required English class. You're required socials algebra one And then the blue house you would see the same 22 24 this year and blue house is the required junior and Senior classes, okay, we just separate them into houses got you Just to be more complicated Ed you babble for you this evening Here is the high school enrollment and projections you can see 1718 the high school is at 633 this year We are at 735 students at the high school those numbers current and past years Include any tuition students that the high school would have and then you take a look at the projected numbers And so we are projecting high school enrollment to be 731 students for the 23 24 school year However, I made ninth grade red with an asterisk because what is not accounted for is any tuition students that we would receive at that grade level So that number I would expect would go up. Do you have like a Number that when you reach capacity, I mean can you turn? Tuition or you probably don't want to turn tuition students away Yeah, we there was a time in cultures history where we did not accept any tuition students because of enrollment So that is a possibility. It's actually a question that we talk about every single year with middle school enrollment Now that we have added the last two teachers on grade seven and eight to have eight core teachers It's more likely that we wouldn't turn students away because we want to maintain that class size But in that first year when I was superintendent and class size was 28 to 31 We knew because Grand Isle had been very upfront with us that they were in the process of considering closing grades seven and eight We had to plan for that and that's why we requested that additional teacher so that we would have space for those Students, but that would be something that we might we monitor Closely we would be able to say no if space was an issue right now. I think we're comfortable We've got some room Our enrollment projections for the high school are the same I expect that all of the four class sizes are going to be Fairly consistent, so I don't have any concerns about what class size is going to look like at the high school I would say my biggest concerns right now is what class size going to look like at Porter's and Union Here's our tuition students and so this is the current year's data I thought you might find it interesting where students come from And so you can see in grades seven and eight. It's specifically South Hero North Hero and Grand Isle South Hero does have Their school goes K to 8 but from time to time they will make a request for a tuition student We have two of those and then North Hero and Grand Isle that elementary school only runs K to 6 So those students do not have access to grade 7 or 8 Which is what makes them a tuition student and so they get to choose and that is quite the effort of the middle school And high school team they go to fairs in those communities with all of the other regional school districts and it's quite a PR fair We have current students from middle school and high school go and brag about the experience that they're having and why students should choose They might leave with some sunglasses and a t-shirt just to help encourage them And then we like all of the students that are tuition students to come in shadow And so we offer transportation on those days and students will come and spend the day with a partner Current student at the middle school or high school to just shadow what the experience is to help them make the decision around Which school is the right school for them us adding staffing at the middle school was critical because as a Parent of a middle schooler if you are in a spot where you have to shop For your next school because your school ends in grade six. You're probably not going to shop multiple times It's possible, but what we're seeing is if they choose Colchester in grade seven Then they will stay in Colchester grades nine ten eleven twelve It's unlikely that they're going to go to one middle school and then go to a different high school It does happen based on experience and friendships, but the data is in alignment with that and So then you can see the high school data as well and so Alberg Georgia Sheldon They are also Or sorry Georgia and Sheldon arcade eight elementary schools. And so that's why we have Only high school students and so this year we have a hundred and seven additional students attending the school district as tuition students Just so that you can see the historical Perspective of how our tuition capacity has grown over time way back 15 16 You could see the high school was pulling in around 60 students It's now much larger and you can see 15 16 to 17 18 That was the early years where they were getting ready to close grade seven and eight in Grand Isle County So they did allow some students to come to us earlier, but that's what those numbers look like Tech students we're where are they going now that Burlington is Are they going to ask no so if High school students apply for the Center for Technology at Essex Then they are attending school for a portion of their program at Essex Tech Center for all of the students that choose to go to Burlington Technical Center, which is a half-day program They will spend half of their day on the CHS campus and then for the second half of their day They will go somewhere in Burlington They do not have one facility for the Burlington Tech Center currently based on the situation for BHS They used to all go to BHS and the Tech Center is the backside of the Burlington High School property And so now there are several different locations. I'm not going to be able to name the exact number, but They're they're all over which has made transportation for us a challenge We used to just offer a bus and it would drop off at BHS and then pick up and now we're using our district wide vans And they're making multiple stops to make sure we're able to transport our students But we're really glad that Burlington was able to still find a program those Tech Center opportunities for our students are really Really critical So the other component that you may not know about our schools is that we do have two alternative programs You may have heard of schools like Garvin or Rock Point These are schools that are considered out of district placements students don't come to our building for that We several years ago tried to create our own in-house Alternative programs for students that did not need that high level of care so we could save Some dollars so we have two alternative programs. There's a middle school program called arches It's located inside the middle school. It serves grades six through eight This program began in 2003 in a very small what I'm going to call office not even a classroom There were four students that were served by this program and this year of the arches program has 14 students across the region schools are seeing The need for a higher level of care in a different non-traditional educational environment for our students post COVID arches is The students that are in that program. They love that program. They're very successful They have tons of support including mental health support if they need it one of the challenges of having arches in the middle school currently is It is located in two classrooms and because we have added classroom teachers to grade six grade seven in grade eight Currently French and Spanish is located in like on a cart So they share classrooms with other teachers, which is again not best practice So we did talk about in this last budget Should we put temporary trailers at Colchester Middle School to help with the space crisis that that building is Having and one of the decisions that we decided is we will wait until we do a facilities bond and we're going to do some low-cost renovations to the library to try to put French and Spanish in the library to avoid those higher costs at Colchester High School. It's called the Colchester alternative program. This program Is currently located in the old central office. So my office this program started in 2005 it was originally housed at Union Memorial School. It was then moved to Mallet's Bay School it was moved into the high school and We found that as we tried to grow the program and to bring students back from out of district placements into the public setting That they needed their own space. So for a period of time we rented The building across from the middle school used to be the dentist office. That's where CAP was Just last spring we decided in the school board approved to renovate the old central office into the Colchester alternative program It's within walking distance of the high school You can see the students go from one building to the next building They no longer have to walk through the woods on an unpaved path. We had a couple injuries on the path So we were really excited about making that move for students The students are so proud to be in that program because it's renovated. They have all of their needs right there this year There are there shouldn't be that I don't know why that says oh there were four students originally there are 34 students Currently in that program. So central office. My office is currently in a rental space off of ready road And our long-term plan is to bring central office back so that we are not in a rental space so that we are closer That was a very student student-centric decision that we that we made if you are a Arches student at the middle school You're there all day long in that program if you're a cap student an alternative student at Colchester high school You might have all of your classes in the cap building all day long You also might be a hybrid student And so you might go to the high school for math because that's your strength and then go back to the cap program for the Rest of your day or you might just do PE at CHS or you might just do your electives The other group of students that we have at cap Might be students that are behind in credits or that are working full-time and they're coming to the cap program for tutoring So what's nice about that model is there are options based on what is best for that for that student? Probably more information that you wanted, but I had to share So what are we working on for the for the future? We are taking a very close look at our enrollment and the areas of growth and change that we are hoping to do Prior to COVID We were ready to do community forums We were going to do them in the summer and we were going to do them in the fall around Creating a new model for the youngest learners in our district specifically preschool up to grade two and We developed three different options for the town on what those facilities would look like it included building a brand new Building on Laker Lane to house all of pre-k in grade two One of the options was to renovate fully porters and Union and a third option was to sell one of the buildings and build a Half-size building on Laker Lane We are hoping that we will bring a bond forward with a plan to address those facilities needs In the next year or so What we are thinking about is what is the future enrollment of the town and the housing going to look like so that if we are going to Build a renovate that we are building these buildings large enough so that we don't ever have to do temporary Classrooms one of the components that we will be paying close attention to is the pre-k bill and Will it eventually be a requirement that it's not ten hours a week is it a full-day pre-k program and This idea that is out there around do the schools should the schools then house Full-day pre-k for four-year-olds, which has been talked about we currently if those changes were made We do not have the space to make that shift We would have to think very creatively about how to do that And so that needs to be part of the conversation in our planning and build process So we're watching Sarita's work very closely because it's going to impact our plan planning the other building That we are hoping to include in the bond is the middle school I would say pre-school and the middle school are two biggest areas of need the middle school is really hurting first for space our There is a middle school in Essex that has the same floor plan as Colchester Middle School And they've done some renovations to their building. So we've been looking at that We have an architectural firm that's looking at our buildings to make sure that we're meeting all of the needs But I see a future large facilities plan in our in our future one of the Themes in all of our buildings even the high school and male space school is the areas that we have for support services school counselors When students need to go for a timeout for class or maybe they're in a room for a few hours because of Behavior and they're doing some processing The spaces are limited as to where that happens And so in all of our dreams that is to create a support services center where we can Confidentially process with students and give students the space that they need when they need to take a break from the classroom right now that space really does not Exist in a positive way at mallet space school the middle school Or the high school, but the Bay and the middle school are the two biggest challenges there So a future bond hopefully in our future Any questions? That was a lot of information. That was a lot of information pretty well done though I think it's really good information. I was curious when you talked about the zone Yeah, great question it is located on the district website porters and union website So you could pull that up and you could see all the streets that are currently listed in the zone The other component that we wanted to do is be very proactive with families around the zone And so we know a very large number of our families that have three-year-olds four-year-olds or five-year-olds that are currently in Preschool and so every fall they get a letter Just saying when you're as a reminder when your child is ready for kindergarten Based on where you live you currently live in the zone and this is what that process looks like that way when you get to Kindergarten registration time, which is right about now You're not surprised that you have been planning for the past five or six years that your child is going to go to union or go to porters So where does our growth center fall does that like sevens quarters? Do you know that area there? Mm-hmm? Does that is that in the zone? It's an unknown. Yeah, it's union and so it's not Currently in the zone and that's one of the conversations that we've been having based on the building growth in the town we may need to take another look at what streets have been identified as zones as Further developments are made and we may ultimately get to the spot where we officially move the line And so that is something that we will continue to evaluate over the next couple of years We didn't want to just move the line in 21 22 because we knew that over time Of course has had more students and then union has had more students But with the quantity of growth on the union side of town We think that that might be a conversation that we need to have with the board and the community around do we permanently move the line? Creating the zone has resulted in some busing challenges for us. So it hasn't been completely smooth Because we are moving more students from the center of town over to porters And so we've shifted some routes to try to decrease K1 to porters students bus times because we really you know my goal is I don't want them on the bus more than 45 minutes But some of them have have have longer times the other challenge before between porters and union is There are very limited daycare options on the porters side of town And so we have also altered our bus runs so that if you are in a Colchester daycare on the union side of town We are having a porters bus go there because your options as a family member to find Before or after care for your student is extremely limited if you live on the porters side of town Thank you Thank you very much. Yeah, thanks for having me very eye-opener. Yeah, thanks. Absolutely Moving on now we're at the discussion of form-based regulations So just as a quick introduction here We'd agreed some time ago that once we wrapped up some of our last supplements we'd be starting to take a look at our form-based code Tonight our goal is really to just give an introduction, especially to new members who were not here At the writing of this code who may not be familiar who who hear us say FBC or form-based code and say what the heck Are you talking about lady? So the goal tonight is not to get into fine details But to give you an introduction into generally what a form-based code is It's not unique to Colchester How it's working in in other places around the country and around the the region in Vermont And also to talk to you about the one that does currently exist in what we call our gd3 That's our general district 3. It is largely the four quadrants of our Of our growth center at Severance Corners Historically it did not apply to One building at Severance Corners Village Center To okay, so this was written after most of that was built. It's important to keep in mind But it did apply to two buildings that were built after it was drafted So that is our goal tonight. We're going to start with a little bit of an overview. Zach's can help out here As the primary person who's responsible for staffing the Development review board they have reviewed a couple buildings under this code and like anything You can come up with some great stuff on paper But once you try it on you find that certain spots aren't fitting quite right. They're a little itchy They're a little tight. They're a little big little fit at all And so it's a it's been a learning process and Zach is more intimate with that than Probably anyone in the town as somebody who's had to implement it so I'll turn it over to him and I don't have a scratch your voice tonight. So I'll be easy on your ears. Hopefully So I think we wanted to kick this off with a little short video And the way we're going to do this is that we're going to escape from the Presentation and click on the link This the video doesn't have sound which is actually pretty useful Or it might have sound but we can figure out how it worked early so Hopefully this short video kind of just primes your your mind on not or refreshes your mind if you've been on the Commission for a while As to what form-based code the goal of form-based code zoning is and for folks that may be seen this for the first time Or might be watching from home kind of what we're focusing on tonight. I love things You can imagine maybe like a triumphant song That's a nice little video. We promised you short. Yeah, it's short, but it's very important. Yes. So we can get back to the presentation All right, so Moving into a little bit of you know a definition of form-based code here found one from the form-based codes Institute I'm not going to read it to you, but you know Generally one thing we want to you know recognize is that it's a type of zoning as a tool to regulate the form of a building the physical appearance of a building and development as well streets Rather than focusing on the use or setting minimum guidelines It's a really nice graphic here That was also on this website that kind of compares conventional zoning on the left here all the way to form-based code So conventional zoning we're looking at uses. We're looking at you know height maximums parking requirements You know kind of setting up a box in which development could fit in And all the way to the you know right-hand side here you have form-based code Which is setting up both a maximum minimum for your requirements Creating a prescriptive regulation That can be enforced by you know a development review board or a zoning administrator So really focusing on the built form of the entire neighborhood Rather than just use and kind of creating a box Somewhere in the middle. There's kind of a blend of the two setting up some design standards We'll get a little bit into that later, but um, you know generally that's Kind of somewhere in the middle. We have some districts in Colchester that fall into that I just want to interject real quick here You see where it says our 40 on them what they're trying to demonstrate here is that all three of those examples? Have the same density a lot of people talk about density density There are the same number of units being projected in that single large building on that left another alternative to this could show one large building in a parking lot next to it as There are on the far right, so there's a Famous concept known as you know sort of design over density or density by design And this just goes to show you that density is not everything How you lay things out can make a big difference Sorry This is a joint presentation, so just as a quick, you know primer of you know What what is form-based coded departure from you know a used base zoning which is very much? What we're working up in Colchester and in much of the United States it you know separates land uses There's an idea that perhaps there's a health and safety a negative impact on your health and safety if a residence is Right next to a very polluting textile mill if it's the late 1800s In perhaps today There are some you know design standards in you know Current use-based zoning Looking at setbacks height restrictions lock coverage This is what you're going to see around town and like these residential one through five ten districts Some of the general development districts Commercial industrial you'll see that all around town Form-based coded, you know on the other hand, you know allows for a mixture of uses that may be compatible You'll note in the video that you know There was no actual discussion of what the use of any of those buildings were it was really just focused on what? The neighborhood what the street what the buildings look like And that's really the goal is to reduce the use level review You know an outcome is that you you can predict You know outcomes from development review decisions If it's crafted well and sometimes you know there are some some areas that need to be addressed to make sure you're hitting that goal and We do have some usage of this in town in the general development three form-based district Which is the severance corners area and we'll kind of dive into that here But just you know wanted to recognize the scale here that you know Any work we're talking about tonight is not going to change everything around town tomorrow Really looking at a very specific planned area that the planning Commission is and the town in general has really focused on You know encouraging growth So is that just for the severance corner? District or are you looking at the whole town kind of? Kind of being form-based So I think there's an opportunity to use this tool a little more in other districts and down But I think for right now the conversation is going to be focused on the general development three You could almost say that the West Lakes Shore Drive the LS One and two are sort of like a form-based code light We don't call them that but they have some of the elements that you see when we talk about sort of Frontage and some of the you know window where you know requirements of With inner structure, I call it light because it's it's there's many less Standards, but if you you flip through the regs it becomes apparent pretty quickly because you can see some of those images And I think that we'll talk about this later, but some of the elements that go into This gd3 form-based code are elements that can be pulled out In other areas one at a time if you want So for example, we might talk about building types Those don't exist right now in the code, but it's something that I want to talk to you about Those are things that we started to look at for LS 3 and 4 if you remember where we said small multi-family Row house townhouse we started to introduce that concept There's an opportunity to include that more in gd3 And then those could then be pulled out to other parts of town where you say we want multifamily But we don't necessarily want it to exist in a 60-unit building For example, and so there's some there's opportunities for sure You might talk about door standards and you say every building should have a door to the front Let's take this standard and apply it But that would be a later step The only other thing I wanted to add to what Zach had said about how you're creating some predictability If form-based codes can create so much predictability that In some communities, and I'm not suggesting it happen here Definitely not suggesting it right now In some communities, they're not even reviewed by their board one of the benefits that comes with it is that it receives an administrative review by staff so if you have an application in a design review district or in a form-based code district the idea is that it's so predictable that It has a 15 to 30 day review by a staff member Because it's checkboxes. What is there for a deliberative body to? Sort of Make judgment on the regulation Again, I'm not saying that happens here But just to the point of the idea of predictability some communities do take that next step. It's pretty controversial But it does happen They specific in the area of those buildings. Sorry are they specific to the area of those buildings? Yeah, so they'll have a district, you know a form-based code district and they might even have some of them We'll have we don't do this here But if you do any reading on your own about a traditional form-based code You'll see that a lot of them come in transects T1 through T5 And some of them will say anything in a T5 where it gets that's your most dense. That's like your downtown Anything in a T5 gets administrative review, but anything in a T3 or less doesn't I Don't know I don't know the frequency That that happens, but it it is There are communities doing that So since we're here On sevens corners where they're building now, did we You have to remind me now. Did we were we specific on the buildings for each row? Or were we because that would be coming that what you just talked about or we talking about Buildings that were available in form-based And then we decided you can pick out of that So I think that no, so we don't have building types now And I think that there's there's room for interpretation under the current regulations And sometimes it's not even interpretation. It's like you know, we talk about did the Did the text meet the goal? So for example the Bay requirements I know you talked to the DRB about this at your joint meeting the Bay requirements posed a problem Because we weren't quite sure that the solution that was written was meeting the stated purpose And so it's left to the board to interpret does this meet that Bay requirement and does a in you know, does a recessed porch instead of a projecting porch Meet the same Thing and and without the clarity on that it's up to a board to interpret We can get more into and we're going to get into the buildings that have been built so we can talk about Where are their successes? Where do we think that it was met and we'll get into where where do you see a failure? And and that's going to be really important so that we can pick apart What are the issues what what happened well, we'll get through them I don't know that we're going to do that tonight through an entire building, but it is in the work plan Because I think that's critical. We learned from our I want to call it a mistake. I can't say that experience. We learned from our experiences And there's a lot to learn I think in the buildings that have been early All right So one thing I did want to just recognize is that Going you know setting that timeline of when the form-based code was adopted in Goldchester in 2013 You know prior to that there were some Design guidelines in the general development three district that influenced much of what you'll see in the sevens corners village center You know that quadra that's more built out currently So not saying that you know in 2013 you just started, you know, you had some sort of guidelines to go from All right, so jumping into the general development three district You know focusing on the purpose here just to make sure we're all on the same page The goal really of this district is to you know have higher density mixed use multi-story buildings Accommodating, you know a variety of uses, but also residential Looking to have buildings set close to the sidewalk Entrances storefronts windows facing the streets And ideally streets that are you know Nice for folks to to walk on or drive on right have curbs street trees sidewalks blocks to kind of Create to break up some of the development All right go back. Yep, please Why did you put that in black? Well, why didn't we start with a whole thing personally? I think the first line Was more important to start with because every time we do any kind of supplement We start with our idea and then we get into the next part. Just this is a nickel and dime thing I know but this is where we're starting to getting and where I want to end up hopefully on the other side Just so we're on the same page of what I'm looking at sure So that is the whole purpose statement, right? And I had just highlighted or bolded the second part because I wanted to draw your attention to it The whole part deserves, you know, your attention and consideration You know, I think modeled on traditional New England downtown's is you know something that you know We can go into other examples As well, but I did want to just talk about the intent of what you know, the planning commission identified at least in 2013 Okay, so Very good So I think starting this off here and we we have some handouts because these are pretty hard to see on our presentation But a big way of how you achieve this goal is to look at street types and in the sevens corners Form-based general development three district There's three main street types Which are a B and C streets And these kind of get towards the idea of like a transect that Kathy I was talking about a couple of minutes ago, but really looking at you know, your a streets Being your your main street, you know, this is an area where you're going to have taller buildings As well as you know buildings closer to the road Mixture of uses in there Whereas C streets on the other end of the spectrum are a little bit more Residential in nature a little bit further back from the road shorter buildings You know a little less lock coverage, but one thing here to look at Because this is a departure from the the regular zoning is that you'll notice Under building placement that setbacks now have a maximum setback So you can't have just a 30 foot minimum setback You're looking at prescribing where that building is sitting between a zero foot and 18 foot area on the site So really trying to you know, make sure that whatever ends up being built is consistent With what your your goal is Going through this here one thing to note is that This area really focuses on the creation of lots as well to create lots that are uniform in size, but also You know with large, you know having the capacity to have Higher lock coverages than usual around town. So just somebody to keep in mind For heights of buildings really looking at stories with you know, you'll notice The first floor on a street Has a taller first floor than that on a C Street kind of looking at Identifying that as a Possibly more commercial space or something that's more suited to Variety of uses rather than just a residential eight-foot ceiling Did want to pause here though to see if anyone had any questions about this because we're kind of launching into the specifics And I don't want to overwhelm you Yeah jump right in so where is parking on here? Yeah, so parking is on Actually a different section And in the general development three district, I understand that the parking minimums of article 10 do not apply Rather the general development three district tries to regulate the location of parking And what those parking lots end up looking like Regarding size of the parking lots It's on a different page. There's actually a whole table dedicated to it. Yeah, I think I saw it in what you sent out And I'm just trying to I can't take from that and put it, you know, put it into here like where it would be But you know where the parking is so yeah, I'm sure we'll at least in a coming planning commission meeting I'm sure that'll be a topic. Oh, yeah, I Want to make it I don't want to interrupt you So one of the things we have identified for discussion are these street types not necessarily Just the details within them, but do we have the right street types assigned? Is is the intention for the a streets to be the ones that are along The state highways for example Is the intention and this is this is a question to be answered but not necessarily tonight that For example, Sunderland Farms. That's the one that's under construction right now Is Is the intention that your biggest tallest densest buildings be right up there at Severance Road And it may be that you affirm that and it may be that you say boy, maybe not So it is something we'll be talking about is, you know, what is an a what is a b? What does it see? Who determines that did we did we do it right? I don't want to get into too much because it is a project under discussion, but same thing applies to the Northeast quadrant which is currently being reviewed by the board That would dictate that the a street is the one that is along Roosevelt Highway Again, this is Northwest Quadrant So the one along there Where there are currently some small buildings with some barns some residential buildings? Is it intended that that is where your tallest? densest closest to the road buildings are and I think that's that's a discussion worth having And I would love to hear from you guys when we get to that but Definitely everything about the streets and what is an a and what does it be? Not just what does it be mean, but where are the bees? It's going to be really critical. I think it's one of the things we've identified By the board by staff by applicants as being sort of problematic Because I think we have some some height issues some setback issues that I don't I don't know we're intended Or maybe they were and we can affirm it, but so that'll be a whole discussion Would it be premature at some point to walk, you know to walk around? No, I think it's a great idea You know just and have you Say, you know, this is where tall buildings would be or this is you know Just this would be the street or C Street or whatever just so we could get I mean for me that would be really helpful Yeah, I think and also looking at a building and pointing out what you like and don't like I Think it's a great idea. I'll work with rich on on Figuring out when something like that can happen because we'll have to we'll have to warn it. That's very timely Sorry, if you've read the you read an article about site visits by a planning commissioner DRB in Vermont digger if you haven't read it, I encourage you It's very interesting. I can send it around Yeah, I'm on season. Yeah See you read it. Oh, I didn't read it. Oh, okay It's a very pointy comment So I think that's a fine idea if the commission is up for it Let me think on that just because it is currently being reviewed by the Yes, so Yeah We should look at both sides. I have a feeling I mean I could say all I want I have a feeling you will hear from that applicant builder directly. I think they plan to attend future meetings And There are some lessons learned from the review of that that will definitely be sharing I don't think there's a problem with you guys talking about it It's It's kind of critical because it is we don't have that many data points, right? And we can't just ignore a whole quadrant So it's probably fine. We should look at the other side and you'll hear I think this is you're probably only meeting where you won't have a Property owner or developer from those quadrants. They've been following along. They have a list And some of them are our lists that we we've identified together even Just as things we just didn't think about it's okay So we'll definitely be doing that Yeah, I'm gonna actually very good question Because I'm gonna walk you through a little bit later some that I I know of just to sort of do a I got some really good examples actually I like to sort of show so hold that All right, so I'll try not to Keep us too long here going through architectural and site design standards But the fund didn't just stop at three types of streets it continues and You know really looking and I'm not going to go into a deep dive on all this stuff right now Because you'll probably go into a deep dive in some individual meetings I think the best way to talk about some of this stuff is by looking at buildings Rather than listening to me talk about it Generally, you know looking at you know adding some visual interest to larger buildings Whether that's you know, there's language in the regulations about articulated vertical facades And expression lines between the first and second floors of buildings And I'll have some information about some of these items here as we you know pull up some of the architectural plans for some buildings But generally looking at these requirements, you know, you have your street types, but then you also have some building requirements on the coming pages in the regulations There's requirements for at least one Type of projecting facade element now these are and I had a list on here, but I also have it in front of me You know things like porches awnings Cornices on flat roofs for example balconies You know stoopes patios these kind of in-between areas That aren't inside the building and they're not on the sidewalk, but they add some human element to you know How you might interact with the building so there are some requirements in the regulations for those There are requirements for Roof styles whether that's pitched or flat on a or B streets you could have either On C streets are looking at a pitched roof being the one that is at least Allowed whereas flat roofs are not Windows and doors there's plenty of requirements for these but generally looking at you know breaking up those flat walls And you know, there's percentages of facades that need to have windows There's actually restrictions on intervals for doors As well as I believe some regulations for storefront windows when they're proposed and the regulations currently And like Serito was saying here parking placement is something that's reviewed Whereas, you know generally across town. We're looking at a number of parking like a minimum parking Requirement that could end up being large for a you know a commercial building There's actually no minimum, but that being said there are standards for when that parking is proposed where it should be Located how many spaces can be in the lot how many spaces can be in a row And really adds just some you know some context to you know Not having parking be between the building and the road ideally There's some requirements for bays and we flagged this in the joint DRB planning Commission meeting A bay is really intended to break up a long Large facade by creating a setback in a way or a step back At least of four feet To really allow for you know building to just be broken up a bit And there's definitely some discussion that can be had here about how that should be best interpreted And there are block standards as well to kind of break up those Longer buildings to see if there's a way to you know I don't think there's been any buildings proposed that would be so long that they required They were required to be you know cut down in some way But there are some standards in the in the gd3 section related to like length of buildings and I will just flag for you that there's still some use reviews the development review board is still reviewing Proposals based on use in this district might be something that you know gets looked at as part of this or maybe not The pleasing thing to me is how many permitted uses are in here, which is great And I think you know the the main thing there is is to really provide some of that predictability for applicants As they're moving through the developer review process in this district Purist form-based code though would say that you if you have the right building the use is not that critical Up for discussion. We've scheduled that in for a later meeting So one thing I do just want to flag here Is that there's there's two ways in which the development review board interacts with this district one of which is through the plan unit development subdivision process Which is going to lay out those lots as well as you know internal street types for new streets As well as where infrastructure is You're going to see things like conceptual build-out planned for But ultimately those buildings are going to have to come back for site plan review from the development review board under the Current way that the regulations lay this process out And you're really looking at a kind of a feasibility of the subdivision at that point I wish I had some great examples for you, but the the example I have for you is Sunderland In a way technically they had a prior approval that they modified through the subdivision process under the form-based code the south West quadrant was built prior to You know this this level of review for that that area Sunderland is where those two buildings are under construction right now just to orient you and Then we have site plan review where we're looking at individual sites. We're looking at Elevations and civil engineering plans against those architectural standards that I you know and mentioned Talking about use even though, you know the purists the form-based code purists would probably shake their head at that You know that's that's considered this stage and really this is a an almost ready for construction review we get a really Comprehensive application package at this point for buildings so just to you know Give you an idea of what's on the ground or what's been approved We have and you know I should have oriented this a different way But we do have the Southwest quadrant here You know some items that you'll you might be looking at you know, there's a lot of this predated the form-based code Approvals go back to 2002 2004 for multiple buildings But you know that larger 67 screen as well as the newer building on perimeter drive did go through form-based code review Albeit, you know wasn't part of the subdivision review In one thing you'll note here is a lot of this has been built already So you're seeing a lot of what you probably see today And we can of course go back as you have questions as we look at other items here On the other hand across of the way. We have Sunderland Farms community You know this as I said before they had a prior approval that I believe Was amended under the form-based code so taking a look at this here. This is a conceptual build out that was provided at The final plat level Of review for the DRB, but you're seeing here a couple of different Maybe I could do this here So this one has been under construction and there's a modification here so this building doesn't look quite like it did It's actually flipped So fronts on the street a bit differently and we'll talk about that But these three buildings have been approved But one thing I do want to draw your attention to is that in this Layout here here is your a street Which is Severance Road? You have a B Street coming down this way a B Street coming down this way This is also a B Street Leave all the way out to pegs Cove over here and then this is your kind of C Street area down here So you're seeing you know a little bit of difference between some of these buildings You're seeing some connected townhouses. I believe similar back here Which you know adds a little bit of variety that was referred to in the different types of street types There's also you know since this is a B Street here You know you're probably looking at two to four story buildings here Just because that would be Prescribed under that the general development three language and Zach is a single building proposed on the A Street This one right here, that's it right I believe so so food for thought That's the only building on the A Street. It's the only A Street. That's the only building on straight line of buildings You are getting them from a distance I think the the function of what you get Is that you you don't see it now you will a whole lot of parking up near the road And those buildings will be in a distance The same distance you see them at now But they your vid that that will be your visual as you travel along Severance Road there I The thought and I don't know if it's still your thought With having an A Street is that you do have those liner buildings very large I just say very large, but the largest buildings that are allowed would be on that A Street So your largest potential buildings would be those liner buildings We're just seeing people not propose them Because of where the A Street is I think And we'll get into that but I Don't know we'll talk about the solution based on what your goal is But we'll have to talk again about what the goal is so that we can find the right solution But but we could say the same thing. I think there's no A Street buildings On the Northeast, right? Is there any street? So no, no, so same thing all of Severance Park. We're talking 600 units Not a single building on an A Street And there's probably actually pretty good reason for it That we'll get into later, but partially because building right at Roosevelt Highway for example Presents some issues because there's some lots. There's some lots between also, there's Some discussion about what will happen with the intersection improvements. There's There's just also a question about whether or not putting a five-story building right next to a single-story Single-family house is really the most appropriate use whether those buildings should be truly oriented to Roosevelt Highway and again, I'm north of the Severance Corners intersection when I'm talking about this But did we really want that? Larger urban building Fronting right on a street that does not and probably will not have a lot of pedestrian bike Access or do we want it fronting into the new neighborhood that is proposed? So that's a question for you. Of course this these are not No-brainers black and whites. They are that's why you're here But that is I think a very important question for you to answer Good question While it looks to me a little Antithetical to what one might think of you know this kind of design I'm wondering what's it gonna look like when you're driving by on Severance Road Are you going to see the houses and as the parking going to be hidden which might be more what this design is meant to be? In this view it looks like oh, you're just getting a parking lot next to Severance Road I think you are and I think that's what you're going to see and I think and that's something for us to talk about Whether or not it is what you still see as an a-road type building or a different type of building is a Question that we'll get into and there's some good local examples for us to take a look at so you can And I'm not saying one is right and one is wrong. Is there this this is the community decides But it's it's definitely a question worth talking about because if this builds out as this You're you're going to see just big parking lots Yes So How it would work if there were changes their layout has been approved So they have the rights to sort of where things have been laid out any new Stipulations that are very building specific. So if you change the bay requirements if you change anything that is a site plan standard for a specific lot that would affect a new proposal but The the second thing to that is For a project of this size It's highly likely that the applicant the landowner is Going to seek modifications to the overall plan And when they do that that the that's when there's an opportunity It's sort of it might you agree with me Each project And I know The other person For any commission that is part of the point base So the rest of those are kind of due to it for Colchester So I don't know whether That vision was taken into account It was at least four different projects They're going to look like more different projects than sit up in a piece of it I think that vision was that first thing I complained about with a traditional wing and look and they're supposed to be Right along 7th Road is a bunch of buildings with storefronts That's the first road and then we come in and then you have a road right back of it And that gives you your walking area with your storefronts, which we absolutely do not have So somehow informed base. This is my where I'm thinking we're getting to I hope we're getting to Somewheres along the line something was wrong Somehow we allowed this to come in with it's funny because when this was first proposed if the developer said that we should not have all these Massive parking lots along the road And by the time I see this project now I looking at it a massive parking lots along the road And we're supposed to look across all these cars to see our walking shopping area here something Something there is a disconnect. This is what I mean. We're not getting the details I didn't realize we're learning how it goes, but this is the final project on the other side If there's an opportunity to modify it Go ahead your huge Pam was during this time too I remember distinctly when we first addressed this we were talking about as a Taj Mahal But each side would mirror the other side so that there wouldn't be for distinct Neighborhoods if you will that they would be cohesive and mirror images of each other So you have a sense of continuity And I think that having those major roads be the a street was probably thought to be the solution to that because then they're They're forced to have that which is a Which I think me I don't want to say good thing it meets the vision If they build on that street this is what it has to look like But I don't think there's anything that says you have to build To the street, so that's the maybe the missing if the vision remains the same of having these buildings Front directly on the street If that is still the goal We say if you build here, this is what it has to look like, but the regulation doesn't currently say you must build here And so maybe that's an area to look at it should there be that requirement Maybe it's a ball for discussion. Yeah, maybe it's bonus for the developer Maybe there's a reason why I don't know Maybe there's a reason why nobody wants to build it Maybe this can be a bonus for the developer himself to have those buildings across In the front. I don't know that's definitely a lot of codes will require them You know, they'll call them these lines don't call them liner buildings And they are required and that you can have parking on you know But as form-based codes, there's just so many ways because like you're creating lots and what is a lot and a lot can be Just around a building or a lot could be there's a lot of ways to sort of I Won't even call them loopholes. I'd call them like loop caverns Ways to get around like what is a lot well a lot is wherever you draw a line. That's what a lot is So when you have to build 75% of your lot frontage, well, that's easy I pick out where my building was I had 25% extra boom. I've hit it because lots are imaginary lines And so that's one of the challenges within any code That I think is worth examining as well because Lot standards can only have so much teeth if you can make your own lines Did you want to say something else on that? It's kind of interesting to read through this You had it maybe a thought on whether or not it was too late, I think that was Rebecca's first question Yeah, did you want to know it's not I mean the thing is And you know through the development review process, there's You know in many ways the development regulations allow for a 10-year approval Which was requested and I believe granted to this Subdivision So you're looking at you know getting to substantial construction in 10 years You know, maybe they'll come back in but there's no Requirement that they do come back in within the 10 years and where they'd be subject to the new regulations so Not to shoot down any dreams, but I do just want to be realistic about it And you know just to also point out one other item that you know looking at parking in particular Not just here, but parking I'm actually here and you know Under the other proposal that's under review a common request from Developers is to have the parking B on its own lot So this lot is technically like an L shape and then you have the building on its own lot and That allows you to Have some parking probably where you otherwise didn't intend to have it and maybe it's not a huge deal But you know we did want to I know Kathy and I have flagged this item as being a little bit frustrating to work through with the Development review board because it seems like a workaround that might be undermining the intent of You know these these parking standards, which are minimal, but you do have them for a reason so If it was hardcore and we wanted to think about it and change that front brawl We don't have to make a decision tonight or if there's a way to do it if we decided we wanted to do it We want to pursue that We would ask for research and figure out how to make that happen. I would think That's what I'm thinking. Yeah Yes, but I and I there's even have to answer right now. We're learning tonight Yeah, and I think You know everything you guys do is is direction to us to write but I think This I think more than just about anything is so Community-specific and so there's going to be a lot for us to talk about as to really truly what you want very specifically And we'll write it for you Yeah Well, I mean for me it's always kind of and I and I go to a lot of workshops I listen to a lot of your people presenting towns But it's me kind of being very intentional of creating a space where people cross paths with one another You know that it's intentional to create a community where people You know, well like parks, you know with a lot of benches in it or things, you know that so it's kind of intentional Because I feel like with Colchester. It's like boroughs to me, you know, you have different boroughs In Colchester and it's hard for the community To meet up with one another so the more intentional we can be about Creating spaces where people do, you know, cross paths with one another have to wait in line with one another, you know Have a conversation, you know with one another. I just think that's just better for the community I think even within a singular development like this one one of my biggest complaints and Zach has heard me on the soapbox about it a few times I don't I don't see this even Even within this own little its own thing as Rebecca calls it even within its own thing. It's missing that And so I think that's an element. It's an element. We're gonna talk about I don't think we have very good standards in there for creating a central space or even creating Community spaces what there is for non-built non-parked spaces are very small and individualized to each building and If you're going to develop something like this, I think you need to have a core You know what buildings plopped in a field Which is some of the criticism we've heard about some some existing developments You want it to work together? I mean, that's the whole idea I'd soapbox about this about if you think about what a PUD we say it all the time But what does it actually stand for? What is the P? What is the U? Right, you know, they're supposed to function together. They're supposed to it's really supposed to be planned as it as a single unit And part of that is is having it work as a unit And that's something that I think is missing that that might be worth Investing some time into adding into the text for this Like I think you know one playground You're one big playground for people who have to come together and get to know people in the other part as opposed to, you know, one to the buildings You know recreation center, you know You know courts or tennis courts were again this you go and you talk to people and you see people and you cross paths with people Mm-hmm, so I did schedule it in it's on our list. I'll show you the schedule later Yeah, I might be the only one kind of thinking this way but We've heard it from other people in the community that it it feels as though these are lacking sort of Central spaces that they're their own little pods that you know somebody from One building is never going to interact with somebody from four buildings over unless maybe they're out walking their dog in the same Patch of grass that isn't even intended for a dog walking. They just happen across each other and that's That's not a desired outcome when you're talking about building especially something this large You don't want that to happen People do use the cinder path though Yeah, that path is popular. Yes. They do. They do. So I do want to recognize people. Yeah, there's some amenities do work Yeah, that's not bad. I don't see too much conservation design either like if you go to the other and there's there's what looks like What we're catching or maybe a storm pod. I don't know what's going on there But it's like cut off by the parking and so I just want to be clear as well This is not the full plan set. This is a screenshot of one for just Looking at this purposes You know, there's definitely Items that are off this plan here related to mainly class 2 wetlands which are seem to encumber every large parcel in the Growth center. So, you know, it's something that every developer is planning for and as these are PUDs There are opportunities to avoid those by getting some, you know by designing, you know around them, but No, they're definitely, you know, there's actually some pretty steep slopes on the Sunderland parcel as well Basically where there's not development proposed So it definitely is something that that's being avoided here At least on this parcel. Yeah, but it looks like a little fragmented though Yeah, the road there like that one undeveloped parcel like surrounded by Interesting could have been better designs. It was certainly a missed opportunity here Unfortunate. Yeah And I agree with the common areas are important Those are usually really successful. Yeah developments or where people want to go And enjoy going to the shops there, you know, they enjoy walking around maybe they'll walk around not You know spend time walking around not just shopping or going to the dentist or whatever, you know They'll hang out there a little bit longer. So that's important Yes, I just think with families, especially with young kids, you know That seems to be a real magnet for them, you know to try to get to know other families with young kids Like playgrounds, you know, that are kind of intentionally again built You know to have people from the neighborhood come together Is there any way to build paths through the wetlands like could that be a trail or a path center this I believe get permits you can you can ask for permits for that sort of stuff recreational purposes and I I believe this This is an example here. This cinder path here is actually in a little portion of like a wetland buffer and this the property owner did get approval from the state for that bit of You know intrusion into the buffer So there are ways to get permits for that. Yeah, so Moving on a little bit. Um These aren't the most inspiring photos and maybe if Kathy Ann and I have the opportunity to walk Through severance corners. We could have taken some nice photos of what these buildings look like now that they're they've been built But I did just want to highlight that we're looking at this building right here And then we'll also look at 60 severance green. So we're looking at the perimeter drive building and 60 severance green these are reviewed under form-based code and Ultimately, I really just want to present these to you to note that These are the sorts of proposals that the board has seen thus far Um And they're really some food for thought for you to say, you know Is this really what we're going for because the board has found that these meet the regulations and there might have been small tweaks I was relaying or relying on some possibly older information here, but These are generally what the buildings look like. So we're looking at this building being a three-story building with a pitched roof along perimeter drive You know with kind of these balconies and porches breaking up the facade right in these areas They also create bays But you're looking at kind of having it to find a couple of entrances on the sides of the buildings there Should be able to pull this one up on google in a minute. This one's built I think it looks better in person than in the drawing. This is probably the worst drawing I could have presented here to you Um So well, hopefully we can pull it up. I thought google street view showed this one as a dirt pit, but We will see We will see we'll take some pictures for you Before and i'm sure we'll come back to this as well But you know 67th green is the the newest building in that quadrant looking at another story Higher And looking as well at you know the bay requirement being the full You know facade of the building it really does step back um and You're looking at an expression line across the building Which is uh, you know required in the regulations You know, maybe it adds exactly what you're looking for. Maybe it doesn't I'll leave it up to you Um, and definitely some differences in siding materials here to create that vertical articulation moving on a little bit to Sunderland and some of the buildings that you're seeing out there This building is one that for some reason in the uh Architectural rendering we didn't get a color here, but it does have a slightly orange Accent there But you're seeing two buildings here that are you know kind of fronting right along this b street three stories in height This is a proposal that the board had some questions about if this you know really was what the Intent of the bay requirement was And the developer ended up amending the plans It to you know make it a little less You know Ambiguous because initially it was kind of like the building stepped back four feet But there was a porch filling in the gap now the porch projects a little bit more And ultimately, you know you are seeing the bay requirement met But you're also seeing you know the kind of a defining corner feature here, which is you know Pretty nice on that corner As well as a difference of siding on the first floor compared to the second and third floors And definitely some defined entryways on the corners of the buildings as well So this is one building that you know has been approved and is mostly built at this point Does not have a certificate of occupancy yet. So we haven't seen inside of it And this building is also one that has been Constructed at this point and this is the steward ab building That I was kind of highlighting as you know some modifications You're driving by it's the grayish one. Yes, this is the gray one a little bit more western to that location You're seeing here You know some projecting facade elements here As well as a cornice kind of framing these areas And also the the bay requirement is actually probably best seen this way on this plan here But you know not if you look back at the other proposal here. Oh, sorry You're seeing a building that's not too different in length with multiple different step backs or something to consider But you're also seeing something here that you know does meet our requirements, but a little bit more minimally There is an expression line here and there's a variety of colors on the sidings I didn't don't have a great image and maybe if we were out there I could have taken one um But you know these also have flat roofs compared to the uh, you know pitched roofs you're seeing in the southwest quadrant I believe the uses for both are multifamily So I think a streets are the only ones that mandate I think is accurately a first floor retail non-residential Yeah, and then uh first floor is conditionally used um Residential is conditional use on the first floor of b streets. So these both got the site plan and conditional use approval Which I will preach to you about at another meeting Um conditional use for residential use makes no sense I'm just going to say that out loud But we'll talk about why I think that whether or not You have an interest in adjusting that Yeah, so something a question that comes to mind for staff as well is looking at um, you know facades You know these projecting facade elements. There's a The requirement the regulations that you have at least one of the projecting facades that are listed um This proposal includes them on multiple stories Whereas this proposal mainly is focusing on the ground floor So maybe that's something that gets considered Um as what you want to see down the line And you're going to be seeing these a lot. We'll get you some color photos We've got the renderings that were submitted the two of these are under construction So we'll have a lot of opportunity to look at it and say what went wrong. What went right What do we like what doesn't what don't we like? So we'll we'll be diving into that All right, so I'll hand it back over to uh at the end to do the google streets. Can you freeze me for a minute? If I had the right remote, I could It's over there. But oh, well, that's okay here. I had a list on here somewhere I'm just gonna start. All right, we'll start locally. We'll do this. I know we're getting a little late here. So Let's um Let's start with well, let me go over to sevens park real quick Uh perimeter drive give me an address I didn't Did um Escape from the presentation. It's not that we'll see what we can actually see here Let's drive should a round mouse So Let's see Well, let me drive in it'll let me drive, but you think it's still a dirt lot down there Well, there's a roadwork ahead side. So we'll see what that oh, we can see if no it's under construction though So we won't see it finished And this one's a dirt lot Okay So I do encourage you if you have the time Um, I saw this place a lot differently by foot than I have driving by Um, if you have the time and the weather gets a little nice Park over by the gazebo take a walk around I think you'll find some elements That are a lot nicer. You can't see from the road Um that are worth sort of you know taking note of Um We had an event on the green In the fall and it gave me an opportunity to really just spend some time Sort of looking around and people watching and and seeing people come in and out of some of these businesses Um, and then people who were living here sort of walking over and it was it was a lot more alive than I thought and uh You know, there's just there's a lot of little things that sort of stand out as being really helpful There's some great bike racks. There's a A great little um seating area behind one of the new buildings Doesn't serve the whole area, but it at least serves that building Um, okay. We can't see a lot. We can't glean a lot from here. Um, there's a lot of different Um building types going on in here and that is I've heard from a lot of people both something that they like and something that they criticize Um, there's some people that just doesn't work together. Everything's so different and other people like I don't want everything to look the same Um, so food for thought, you know, I think you see this building here Um That is non-residential on the first floor. I think there's a daycare through most or all of it Um, and then some residential above I had the opportunity while I was over there at this fall fest I talked to some people who live up there Um And they loved it. Um, I was surprised at sort of their life stories Uh people who had moved sort of in from rural areas in Vermont Um, that we just really were ready empty nesters Ready to be closer to stuff Um So I thought that was interesting. Um, there's really nothing cohesive to me about that building and the one next to it Um, again, you might love that you might not like that. We don't have any standards that say buildings have to sort of Meld with each other. Um, so everything in here is just a little bit different Um, this is a little different here. One thing that we'll talk about Um, when we get to buildings is this idea of sort of like an arcade That sort of takes place on the first floor where you have sort of covered walkway And the doors are set back That's an element that some people love and some people absolutely hate um Some buildings really really live that up Uh, I don't know if you travel on 15 in sx past the fairgrounds There's a new building under construction sort of mirrors one up the road And their whole first floor is set back and the rest of the building sort of Comes out over it. Um, some people have some pretty strong thoughts about that. I would I'll take a picture It's not going to be here. Um, but that's something I think that'll evoke some thoughts from you guys as to Let's not do that or we love that. Let's do that. Um This one again, I think was built before a form-based code But even here you can see some of the articulation between some of this is horizontal brakes, right? It stops you from having a big massive shoebox um, this one's We'll talk about ways that that can be achieved color materials roof lines um windows Um building heights. There's there's there's no shortage of of things that can achieve that People one of the criticisms that you hear a lot of is like well, you want every building look like a like and the answer is no because When you have that menu when you have a big menu of options to choose from That's I think how you get all these differences because how do we want to do it? Well here they chose probably Three different ways out of 15 Whereas somebody else might choose something different. They've got the same color. I think Throughout here, um one of the criticisms That I I personally have about the new building. It's underland is that they on paper They chose different colors to articulate that horizontal differences But it's like dove gray and colonial gray. It's like they're different But they're really not And from the road you can't really tell that they're two different grays until you get close You're like, oh, those are two different colors They're really just two shades of the same color. And so the question becomes We say you have, you know, you can use color Well, what about color how contrast and we don't talk about contrasting colors or any So, yeah, they they use two different colors No, they they have a black as well that's set back. So it looks like a shadow Oh, there's a black. Yeah, I didn't even know there's a black because you can't see the black Um, whereas, you know, the building next to it The materials and the colors they have are very contrasting Um, so, you know, so that's one thing. Uh, let's drive by let's do another one Uh, what the hell did I have on my list? I was going to show you, uh I'll look at market street here real quick Because there's some good examples and bad examples on this one Let's drive down here So, uh, not form-based code Form-based code Let's drive So this would be the equivalent of like an a street. This is a Primary transect here. You haven't been on this road. Go check. Oh, well went too fast. Sorry Let me go back because I want you to see the whole of this Especially on the idea of a primary facade and a secondary Um, because I think that that's that's something else that gets considered Do you treat just the face on the main road or are we how much do we treating The non-primary facades? So this is a corner. So you were able to see that Again, if you're looking in terms of, you know, this is one we're going to look at And say, what do we like? What do we not like? You don't have to say it tonight, but A lot of different colors, a lot of different materials. You might decide that's way too many But these are things windows on that first floor Here's your projections. You've got your cornices and whatever else you've got going on up here You've got public art or art private art, I guess on the building I don't know if that's a requirement in any way We'll talk about doors Doors can make a difference sometimes doors look like Loading doors or like back alley service doors and they really ruin a facade. I've seen it happen a lot And so you want to make sure and actually I'll go down the road here. You'll see that it does ruin another building later You know, so there's a variety of doors That you can talk about There's a lot going on here There's a lot of articulation Everything's going on here. Um, so there's a lot going on there. I'm not even going to spend time on that one Um, I'm guessing it meets the code. It should it's their town office building So here, I think you'll see that this starts to get a little bit different, but what I think I like Whoa, what did I do? I know I look back up There we go Okay, so Things that I think are worth noting about this one. Let me go back a little bit Um, people always say form-based codes or or design of any sort can be really expensive I think this shows you a place where you're looking you're really looking at a box I don't think that the construction is anything Rebecca feel free to yell at me if I'm wrong But I think that the base of it before you get to the facade is probably very straightforward You don't have a lot of those crazy angles you saw in the building that we were just looking at Um It looks really boxy, but they've broken that up with just how they're treating the outside Um, so there's some things to like here Again, maybe you decide. Whoa, there's way too much going on or maybe not A lot of colors a lot of materials a lot of changes going up down sideways Um What I My goodness, I just want to look at the ground What I point out on this building That I think bears some discussion and maybe some criticism Is you don't have those same Doorways that present to the building that say that this could convert to a non-residential space Which it is required to do And the doorway look at the doorway here versus those other doorways their single door. They're clearly residential I walk that street Those doors pop just like you just said they look like you're going into a In a good way or a bad way a bad way. Okay. Yeah, it looked like that's not a residential Yeah, so I mean it just shows you I think what a difference a door can make I don't know what we're blacking out here um So these are again, we're going to look at this and we're going to say, you know, what's a good takeaway? What's a negative takeaway? um As we look at at designs and stuff um Lastly Again, this is all form-based code You have residential buildings. So this is where you know as I talked about you step down you step away um And I think one of the things that we hear from a lot of people that makes a good community is You don't have just a bunch of 60 unit buildings and nothing else You don't have just a bunch of That you have a variety of types um And so here you have um triplexes. I think all of them um A residential building style and you see you don't just a triplex could just be one big building here. You see a lot of Uh, you see a lot I think going on in each unit These I think get a lot of compliments They uh, they're a very shallow lot. So they're they're that's I think that's why they're very tight to the sidewalk I don't think they would have done that otherwise um But even little things as you get to The end right so now you have a corner. Do you just leave the bottom end facing out? No, I think this is another little thing that you that makes a big difference. You now have You have a you know, it presents on all sides. You now have like a front porch on this side As well. So that's an example of some codes One more Is very timely Anybody watch basketball you know My huskies won the championship last night So, uh, yeah, so I went to school here Um, but I would show you this even if I didn't So I I finished my undergrad here and then did my master's degree here Um, when I was there, it wasn't that long ago. I just want to say Um, when I was there you had the campus and nothing else. It was Like literally there was like you could go to one bar and it was Nothing I would even compare it to a dive around here um So they have since adopted a form-based code Um, and built built it fast was so fast. I went back to see it and I was like, where did all this come from? um Let me Let me orient myself. I should be better at this. Oh price chopper. There we go um So this brings you in This is the start again. None of this was there When I was there, so they'd managed. Let me go back up the road just a little bit So you're coming into town You're sort of hitting the first things. This is a new building So this is a very this is sort of that edge building. This is Appropriate to you know, we're not we're not talking we talk about form-based code just the giant things We're also talking about smaller scales as well. And so you've got this corner building. I think the ups is in there maybe Maybe a cookie store. They've they have that parking lot. They needed it. It's a grocery store So what did they do? So you're not just looking at a big parking lot These are um, they're bus stops, but they're also just sort of Just sort of art. Let me get on that side of the road Went into the parking lot So How do we get back to the road? There we go. Look season changed Back to winter. So you've got a grocery store and people say form-based codes, you know You can't do it with certain types of uses. Yes, you can This is a corner building. They've got their awnings. They've got their Upstairs. I don't know if it's fake or real. I don't I don't care If those are offices up there or if it's just sort of high ceilings and they look nice from the outside It's not your big box. And this is a good size grocery store As you go here, so They managed to even have windows here Look at that. I think they've got a Starbucks. Everybody does now So there's a grocery store in a form-based code. It works That's what was there when I was there. It's all that was there You could go and get calzones at all hours of the day But that's about all you could do So all that's brand new form-based code So we're looking at one two going fast One two three four five stories And there's a whole lot of stuff going on here as far as like uses this corners You know, this could be I don't know what it is. Right? Is it a dentist? Is it a coffee shop? Is it a You know copy machine store The point with a form-based code is it could be any of those if one doesn't work the next one will And you can walk it and it's actually really nice to walk They even managed to get a pharmacy, which everyone knows is just a box. Pharmacies are boxes not this one And it's it's neat how you do this treatment. So it looks like It's like two stories. It looks like this is all the pharmacy Um, this is an apartment. Actually, it's not part of the pharmacy But because of the way that they put this facade on here Um, it looks like the pharmacy really takes up all of this and it doesn't Um, here's their big Turn turn turn Doesn't look all that good in the winter, but they have this big Center courtyard they host uh concerts and all kinds of things going on. It's it's a pavement. Um, really nice Little squares. I think there's a fountain maybe And they have seats that they'll put in there in the nicer weather So that's their big defining feature in their form-based code Let me drive around a little bit more a few more things. I want to show you here real quick. So again Lot of residential they're accommodating students and staff and Professors and stuff, but you have a lot of stuff going on here You know people can follow their corporate branding with no problem Windows Seating areas had a nice burger here. It was really good. Uh, this had seating when I was there Visiting and uh, and it was really nice. You could just sort of watch a lot of people nicer rest that are not right here Here's your Barnes and Noble look like any Barnes and Noble you've been to You know, so again, they pull in the colors Those are all apartments above, but they make this Go up to a second story. So it looks like the Barnes and Noble Is this whole corner And it's not necessarily So they've got a lot going on here This is a little french coffee shop Also really good So we'll talk when we talk about bays, you know, what are these these 20 foot bay or 60 foot bays? We are 60. Yeah, it's like 60 You know, do you need 60 feet of setback to achieve that horizontal? Articulation I don't see a 60 foot setback anywhere along here. Um, and I think it works just fine So maybe we weren't achieving what we were trying to achieve And by not requiring that 60 foot setback, I think it becomes cheaper to construct Because you're able to build the inside and it's just the outside that you're changing You're not having to to do all these jiggity joggedies One last thing I want to show you here because this is fun So they managed to park in garages. Actually I'll show you two things real quick before we finish So when I was here, I uh, you could get a calzone. You could also get your car fixed There was this car repair shop everyone went to nobody wanted to push it out I'm sure I wasn't here when they were constructing this but It was much beloved. It's like, what do you do with a car repair shop in a form-based code? They figured it out. It's so cool. Um, I have to back up a little bit here Oh, you can't read the sign. It stores automotive. Let me move across the street I have pictures of my own that I took because that's what I do when I travel There's a car repair shop in a downtown You don't know it's a car repair shop It blends in with the building the facade continues because you've got this here Because it's on a back street or our equivalent of a C street, you know, two stories our story and a half is fine Um all their repair bays and parking is is hidden behind here So use Kathy use use use we don't want this in here Well, I don't know there's probably certain things you don't want anywhere And so you definitely don't want them in your form is good But if it's just a matter of does it work? Well, we can talk about that But they managed to make it work Which I think is really cool is one of my favorite things about this The last thing that I'll point out going down the street here. That's a parking garage A lot of parking garages here just sort of open and you know, it's a parking garage And I'm not saying this looks like something different But little things here in the way that they have treated the open spaces You know with this red meshing I think makes a big difference. It makes it look more like a building and less like a Parking garage and it certainly doesn't look like a parking lot You'll notice no parking lots you park on the street you park in a garage and that is it if you are going here There are a few small leftover ones that are for sort of I think there's a There's a greek temple A greek church here That of course was you know able to keep its own parking lot But for the most part you had no surface parking except for on street And then you had these beautiful garages That work really well and it's actually really cool in person Um, let me show you the front of this. This is their transit center. This is where their buses come in and go campus and otherwise You can transfer to trains. Um, I think you can even catch a bus to the airport from here But that's their garage behind it. It's all a garage all of that But it looks like I mean it doesn't not look like a garage But it blends in better with the building than a basic structured parking wood So, you know, what can a form-based code do I'm not saying that severance corners is going to be this dense I'm not saying that these are the right heights or anything like that, but And then you'll see there's some sort of fringe buildings again as you step down step away things get smaller shorter um a little less intense Um This seems to me it seems a little bit more intentional the design and the building material Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. It's not as hodgepodge. You know, they built it all at once. I'm telling you it's really weird I didn't visit in a couple years later. I'm back. I'm like, we're in all this I like this. I mean it just there's a kind of semblance to it as opposed to just having a bunch of Like I like enrol us that I mean again, it's just my taste, but it's just like there's so many different Buildings there now like they they you know, they just said well, let's let's have some townhouses and apartments and You know single family homes, but this I don't know. I like this. I like the way it just seems to go Uh together more And again, I think the the the purpose of this is not to look at it and say let's replicate it. It's to say Here's an example. Let's look at any particular point along here. And what do we like? What do we not like? Does it make a difference that each of these windows have a little treatment over them? We can get very fine or we cannot Does it make a difference? That you know, I think zack talked about flat roofs versus non-flat roofs Some people hate flat roofs. I think it's because they haven't seen a good one You know, so you talk about that, you know, you could look at this look at this door You know, this is what what do you think of this door? It doesn't have any windows on it. I don't know Does it look commercial? Does it not? The changing colors change the materials You see how this blends into this that makes it look like it continues So I think they had a very smart smart architect here I haven't looked at their actual code to see if it complies with it or not They had the advantage of having a single property owner who developed all of it So it was very it was easier in that aspect because you're only talking to one person They had the money to do it all at once That that you're not going to see here But street trees can make a big difference In the spacing of the street trees and little things as you get closer again like benches And Bike racks trash cans All of this stuff and uh Oh look the season changed again. The snow's gone Bike racks you can see the you can see the plaza here now They see the little green space and then you know, they'll put up posters They'll tell you what's going on. They'll have a lot of concerts the music the music schools right here And all of these have outdoor spaces of their own very vibrant sidewalk cookies until 3 a.m So So I think that's the last example I had but I think as we dive into each of the elements Which I want to bring up next We're going to look to all of these images just to get from you what you like and don't like what you think makes a difference and doesn't So that we can make sure the code is reflecting all of that So this is something I only threw together very recently But it's a potential schedule where we could look at the various elements So here we are in the fourth. We're you know, we're looking at an introduction You know as soon as our next meeting in may I start to look at building types and uses start to discuss those two elements Building elements those are those um, which you call them architectural features Get into that street types frontage specifications I put in a meeting for open space and civic space types If if that is something you want, what does that look like? Lot layouts building placements street types architectural standards Again, some of these are very optional miscellaneous elements This is just a rough schedule You'll see a couple things to note here the only month where we doubled up with two meetings was may um And part of that is because the first may meeting Has is likely to have some requests for rezoning Or because we're about that part we have two that have been submitted And then July The your first meeting is July 4th. I don't think anybody wants to be here I don't want to be here So this is just a tentative date that I'm hoping you'll Give some guidance on the 11th is the next Tuesday As opposed to going to the third Tuesday, but oh wait, we can't do the 11th. You guys are here Never mind. We'll adjust that We'll look at a different date for July Because that'll be a select board meeting night Um We could make it the 18th, but we'll we'll talk next month if everyone wants to look at their calendars Um And I'm sort of springing this on rich. I haven't even put this in front of him yet I'm not sure if I'm back on time on the May 2nd. I'm on vacation. I just don't know what time I get back in So this isn't necessarily fixed with the dates, but it's sort of a general pacing Um, and as I put a note in here These are just meant to be when we're going to introduce each component and really focus on that But the other ones are just going to continue they're going to continue to be part of the discussion Or you might say Kathy this is we won't go work on it And so we'll come back with it again that next meeting as well. So it's everything's going to be iterative, but we don't want to hit We have to have some understanding of when we'll get to the elements Do you think do you think it makes sense to have like someone come in and do a presentation on architect that does big You know designs like this and kind of give us ideas and what to think about I mean, I don't even know kind of Think about this other than I was the guy just like be looking at pictures now. I'd be kind of googling pictures of you know Big big developments and just getting down to what I like It's something I've been thinking about because I'm I'm not an expert in this. I'm not an expert in architecture for sure And there are people out there that are Because of the timing with this project and how we've done it It hasn't necessarily been set up in such a way that we've had a contract or been able to do any rfp Is there a set aside the large amount of funding for it? But there could be I think there's there's some funding that could support a little bit of Assistance and I'm I'm trying to best figure out how to I'm going to be working on that Figure out how to best bring in We can't have someone lead this whole project that the funding is not there for a traditional As was done the first time But we can definitely I think work on bringing in experts for various Pieces, I just don't know what it looks like yet, but I'll be thinking about it. I mean does everybody else think that's You probably Yeah, I mean there's national people who specialize in this and I think do a very good job of it The downside is a they're expensive Be they're busy And see they're so used to doing you'll you'll have them come and do presentations. I've seen a lot of them Their scale is a lot different. They're going to tell you what they did on leesburg pike in maryland Um or what's going on in downtown detroit? Um, I'm just not clear of how much more leeway we have You know, I don't know if everything's been decided already So do we just have a little space that we can be making decisions? on at this point I don't I I regulations are Are the towns You know, you you guys as a group decide how far and how much change you want And then uh, someone's bought land already And kind of we made an agreement or said that they could build something. Can we just change that? Or is that is that what would happen? That's what we're looking at So again, you know, there are some undeveloped quadrants. Um, there's there's Various levels of review that happened for a project as as zack pointed out you had the subdivision review and you have a site plan review The subdivision is looking at the overall project. So once people sort of Get that approved. They're sort of they're they're guaranteed where those lots are They're they they are vested sort of to have that road layout that you've approved to have The overall elements are set But they have to come in at each step for each building. So while you may not be able to say to sundarlin for example We want you to have a minimum of three acres in parks and playgrounds or civic spaces You probably can't do that To that particular parcel because it has been approved as an overall plan But if you want to change door standards, for example, or something that is very specific to a building For Any new building Would be subject to it So it wouldn't apply to the two that under construction or the three that have been approved But the next building or or whatever Would have to comply once anything was adopted. So Um, there's time for change Certainly we've received nothing on that northwest quadrant anything you do would be fully applicable unless they come in tomorrow with an application to that Vesting occurs at a preliminary plat application But again I've never seen a project this big where people don't come in for changes They come in to change things, you know, they've thought about it. I'm already hearing, you know, sort of buzzing about sundarlin looking at changes And that's an opportunity for negotiation Okay to to talk about things. Thank you Oh, I didn't know there was one down there I know Yeah, so I think my professor there or given the students involved may not Be at cost Okay, that's great Um, do you know David Raphael? He used to do a lot of these he's It's more of a landscape architect, I think, right? Yeah. Yeah Yeah, yeah Um, so we'll look at we'll look at some of those Resources, um, also if if you leave here and you're curious, you know today tomorrow, whatever That form base code institute website has a lot of videos Variety of length. I was just watching one today. I think that was like seven minutes or something that was actually pretty good Or they're on youtube as well if you look up form base code institute on on youtube And some of them are, you know, very specific about certain elements Um, but there's a lot of good ones Next We are at, uh Planning commission procedural rules. Yeah, so this is like just a just a check-in. It's been, um This is something that we'll probably be Bringing to the development of view board again too. So You have an adopted if you don't know it set of procedural rules last adopted in Not that long ago 2019 2021 um, I read through it. I didn't see anything that stood out to me as Not meeting what you're currently doing as inherently problematic with open meeting or anything Um, or a completely out of date um There's nothing that I flagged in here, but I think I think it's good to check in every maybe year or every other year on these Just to make sure it still represents what you want Um, you can either do that now says I know you've had in your packet or if you think it's too much And you want to have a conversation about it at your next meeting Um You need a motion? Is that what you're talking? Bring that by me here Well, it's up to you if you guys feel like you've read it you like it you had no thoughts the motion to Keep it is pulling. I just have a question about and maybe Aaron knows this about How we were able to come in digitally You know to town meetings and I think voting could happen and I'm just and I think that has been changed now and gone back to pre-covid Kind of regulations and I didn't know if we could keep them Or like when I came in on the phone last time and voted, you know, would I be considered part of a quorum? Would I be allowed to vote? You know, what would constue when someone could come in digital So you don't discuss that in here Um, it's up to you if you think that's important to call out You don't currently have anything in your own rules of procedure. Okay. I don't know if you're waiting on Aaron to talk No, I just didn't know if that would be okay Like, you know, if one of us was like let's say really sick could they come in digitally on zoom And be part of a consider part of a quorum or be able to vote and I don't know the answer to this And I don't even know if we want does the town have a policy or the select board have a direction prior prior to cobit a board member or You know, if somebody could call into a meeting and be part of the quorum It is very there's some things differently that the chair or staff will need to do If a bunch of people are because it's complicated about what is voting How do you make sure you have to call out names becomes a little more difficult It becomes a little more difficult for the public to engage and also to capture on camera, but That is allowed. We've we've tried to you know, go back to generally speaking public meetings Occasionally the select board member has had Select board has had a member call in on the phone, but we do have provisions for it It's easier to arrange for it in advance and and if it's somebody that You know a one-off type of thing We also don't have Very good technology here for hybrid meetings. It's kind of all remote or all Together to have one person participate. It's easy What you see here with the screens We had a company propose us I think $35,000 All that stuff Like two grand from Costco. So, you know, we did ourselves and save him some money, but it's not as fancy Yeah, as long as it's permitted, you know in the once, you know In the I don't know a year or something whenever someone legitimately, you know Can't make it in either weather or illness or something Maybe we'd just call you and ask if that what your thoughts were if they came in But I guess we don't have to do anything with the rules because it's already permitted It's not not permitted You don't speak to it at all. I think but um, and this again was 2021 so it's post COVID land So we have any thoughts on that are we good for that You know a discussion of x party conflict of interest. This is all good to I think even just once a year even if all you just read it and remind yourself Again, I think we'll be encouraging our other board to do the same um So this is yours I actually would probably not take action on this rich because I don't have you just anything for you to sign on it I think you're good But if you want to at a next meeting I can get you a blank copy so you can sign off and update the date But I don't think you need to know good. We're all good Yeah, nothing's turned out to me here as as like boy, they don't do this at all um, maybe it's outdated Motions very specific on how you can reconsider um So no action All good. Okay. That's all I wanted just to make sure you guys are still good with it still knew about it Oh, yeah, I guess I should have highlighted that one Yeah, you're not supposed to do new business Rebecca's like liar we do this one Yeah, we should talk about that one Uh informational items super quick. Um, as always I give you proposed amendments to nearby towns Uh, when new skis are pretty straightforward um I always look at them. Is there anything cool that we should copy? Is there anything we should be concerned of because they're our neighbor? um I didn't these were sort of very specific to a new ski nothing that would affect Their new buildings. I mean that's a different look. Oh, yeah, we should have they have a form-based code Yeah, I should have drove down there. That's a form base. I didn't realize those form base. They do. Yeah, I did see the building Yeah, that's different. You have a form base only their newer buildings. It's only a couple years old The stuff they did around the Roundabout thingy We're not But yeah, the new ones So nothing in there that I Thought worthy of flagging to you But you have a right as a nearby planning commission to weigh in if you want to And I just asked what is the new town center renewal? What is that? Oh, I'll get to that one. Oh, uh, so quickly Quickly be Next Tuesday select board is holding the public hearing on supplement 45 Rich joined me and Rebecca To deliver it present it go through everything. There were no changes requested from the select board And they warned it for that public hearing Nobody from the public showed up to ask questions or provide comments Um, that'll of course be welcome to do that at the public hearing. I haven't heard of anybody who will be doing so So it could be a very quick thing Um, or not, but that looks like it's on track to go forward with no changes Uh, new town center renewal applications. So, uh, very quickly The town has a new town center. That is that southwest quadrant of the growth center That's mostly what's built out severance corners village center Ha ha Um So that is our new town center. You have to in order to have a growth center have some designated Thing new town center, uh downtown historic village historic downtown. You have to have something to have a growth center This is our something. Uh, new town centers are, uh, what is allowed for Communities that don't have historic downtown or Designated downtown in Colchester Doesn't we lost widowsky? As our historic downtown. So, uh, the state created something to allow places Like Colchester to have something to base their growth center around There's only three new town centers in the state south burlington has one in berlin Berlin has the other Those have to be renewed by the downtown board We had our first approval in 2007 And so we have had to go for renewal every Five or seven years. I can't remember we're up for it. Um And that has been submitted to the downtown board Um, and we will be there on may 22nd or third Um to present that To them, um, that enables us to have the growth center. Um, Which doesn't get renewed again for a few more years I anticipate it going through smoothly Um Colchester for action on solar project permitting. So you saw in your packet a letter just letting you know about The intent to pursue permitting for, um A new solar project Planning commission meeting schedule. Let me move on to that I could just offer for the couple and Mr. Chair A couple things for some of the new members renais marshal I the deputy manager are the Staff to the energy committee, which is another function of your board. And so back in 2011 the town Changed out all the street lights for high efficiency street lights And in about 2014 the select board set this goal to Produce 100 of the energy consumed by the town through local solar projects We now have two such projects one off of obelisk the avenue one off of rosevelt highway We need another solar farm to get to that third because of environmental constraints. We've tried twice and the sun footed Maybe the third times the charm They're not a lot of environmental constraints on this property. So we hope to meet our hundred percent goal But since 2014 we took over the fire departments. That was some more energy consumption And then we approved the valence sewer and then also we'd come up with the rec center. So the rec center itself Produces all its own electricity, but enough to offset that used by both the fire departments in the malo space sewer So with the approval of this project now that the rec centers yet gotten approved will be 100 percent even though we've increased consumption So, you know, we're working real hard on it We also have ordered some equipment for a public solar public electric charger in the front of this building for rec center We'll have some of those and so Also going to change out all the towns lights To led lights they're they're now a lot of the kind that are being banned like these so that'll be a Probably a few hundred thousand dollar project to change out all those fixtures. So we're we're hard at it is your energy committee staff Great. Thank you. Really I'm so happy to see the the solar Work that you're doing. It's awesome. Excellent Very good Um, and then the meeting schedule I think goes back to sort of what I was just showing you Uh, it sounds like generally you're okay with sort of the the pacing I'll connect with rich more specifically But you would probably be looking at doubling up in may for meetings, but otherwise Especially over the summer when people are busy in a way Um, keeping the meetings to just just the one although the date may change as holidays come and go Um Sound okay, we'll get that out to you, but do plan No second april meeting We'll do that may That first tuesday and may meeting Um, so at least you have that on your calendars and probably that's second may meeting as well So we are meeting the first tuesday and may the first and third tuesdays in may But we'll make them shorter meetings I think it's just we want to have the time to work on something bring it back to you and keep iterating it Uh, especially at the beginning of this All right, okay, all right Now we need to motion for the minutes Make the motion that we approve the minutes of the story to be first Second I'll second that all right All in favor Motion passes Uh, Robert's rule says no you could even vote Yeah, absolutely All right, it's up to you. Nothing else. We're all good Motion to adjourn, please Nail second discussion in all in favor All right, we are good. Thank you very much. Thank you everyone If you want me to look at that rule is a procedure about starting things after nine. Let me know Now I see why it's in there