 Welcome everyone to the planning commission January 26th, 2023 Before we get started, let's see for online. We have uh commissioner mangan and Commissioner schumacher is online for the time being I think he's in transit uh, we have rafael brusso berlin and davis in the room tonight I'm wondering if we're getting the tv volume. Where's the sound normally come through? It is all right. I think that's what we're getting. Okay. Well, let's see where it goes Uh, let me get to the pc. So before we get going this evening I gotta get to the freaking sorry Thank you I don't Nothing's called out for amendments So we have an amended agenda, but nothing's in red on the agenda itself So I don't know what's been amended by sharing Green that's a good point Is it just the health and equity and town plans For presentation. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, I think we So this was amended from what we published in seven days But you didn't you didn't probably see it in any other form Yeah, I think it just the the point being we just when we put amended We got to put it in red whatever was amended So that we can tell going forward We have no Applications on the agenda this evening. So there is no need to swear in um presenters for testimony So I think we'll roll right in the first item on the agenda would be public comments if anyone has any I think they'd like to present to the commission for items that are not on the agenda This is the time to Raise your hands either virtually or You don't have The virtual you don't have the the the raise your hand option. Just speak out And let us know Not seeing anybody raising hands Okay, so let's continue on to the capital presentation Aaron Welcome. It's your first time for us. Yes Inheritance from Dennis And this is going to be a five minute presentation, right Yes We joke internally sometimes i'm the i'm the king of the one page memo usually and sometimes has get a little wordy uh speaking as well, so uh this year um The capital project team we we assembled it was myself uh Catherine Dan Roy our finance director and greg dougan um It's a little different approach than what has been done in the past here at the town Um, I think we we've got a good team when we bring in a lot of different ideas And I think the budget that we came up with together capital budget Is um, it's definitely needed And but honestly as everyone knows it's kind of a rough year this year when it comes to losing 41 of our tax base um, so there was a big void to fill um A lot of these costs that we've budgeted in the past. Uh, haven't gone away Uh, the shortfall this year was on the order of rounds 200 000 Um, which some of that will be Uh backfilled with some undesignated reserve funds that we do have in capital Um So with just the two cents collected this year we'd be looking at taking in about the 322 000 dollars, which essentially meets the needs of Maybe a couple of these line items in these projects specifically I know in the memo here was outlined that's highway and storm water constitute about 310 000 alone Which is just about all of that so um If we want to I don't I don't know how you want to do this. I want to make this kind of informal Uh, I want questions Um as we go um, we can go down Uh on your page two of this memo that we get to the select board um, we could use this as a guide or we can dig into the 11 by 17s go down line by line May put some of us to sleep I'm gonna I'm gonna ask, you know in in years past this is good to know all of the all of the budget and all of the targets But frankly from my perspective, I'm really Really more interested in infrastructure projects that affect our planning initiatives the applications that come in Where are the we overlapping? Um, you know, where where we need to be aware of you're going to be working on, you know, whether it's water sewer, you know Roads things like that. That's that's where I'm looking for more of a I'm not as interested. I'm interested as a member of the town But I'm not as as concerned with the plan to replace a fire truck You know, frankly that I mean you guys you guys that's what you do Yep, I understand. Um, that's from my perspective. I'm I'm one person on the on the commission um We are always struggling with You know sewer we're always struggling with the the roads and Where are we where we put sidewalks in what I mean that those areas that directly intersect Our planning initiatives or what I'm mostly interested in Go ahead and answer That's this. This is yeah, go ahead. So this will be two pieces then, uh, esteem. Um Definitely hear you. Yep infrastructure The water and sewer infrastructure those capital projects are under the water and sewer Uh Budget now and it's going to be part of that Uh presentation and quite honestly, I think maybe it deserves Uh to be brought in front of you just as we do with our capital budget here on our on our sense As we're doing here tonight. I will definitely promise I'll let I'll let you guys know what we're coming up with on that side as well for the water and sewer Um, but I think the targets may be here tonight. We should probably take a look at highways storm water and trails um, those seem to be things that definitely, uh, come up with with your reviews of I certainly have all come up recently. Yeah, so yeah um, so let's start right off with highways we We start our paving program, uh, or at least budgeting for it taking a look at it every year. Um, we Work with a ccr pc Uh to come up with a pavement condition index for all of our roads throughout the community Um, so then we can rank and rate each one of the road segments within the town And that's how we base all of our paving Annually each year. Um, we take we take a group of 10 of the highest or The highest the lowest ranked numbers PCI numbers and We'll go through where are they? Um, how close the proximity are to each part each other. Um, we try to Throughout throughout the town kind of Give some love around pound to each of the roads and in each of the developments. Um This year. We're a little squeezed um Included in the capital plan this year is 105 of we were requesting 160 And well, I think the 55 of them not mistaken Catherine will be made up Also with some of the undesignated so we're going to go in with the 160 for capital paving This is this this funding will be used uh with some of our operating funds um, which I believe on the order of 200 and 25 230 so There'll be a substantial amount of money out there to pave um, this year Was kind of a rude awakening with some of the cost of paving Well over 100 a ton Kind of restricted the amount of paving we could do So we kind of went into uh, some of our project estimates this year with that in mind Use use the inflated numbers and that number To kind of come up with our paving plan this year um stormwater uh, there was a memo attached to this packet um that I had Any could stand you do up for us? Kind of taking a look over the past two years um Breaks are on the order of four hundred thousand dollars for the past two years Um, we can't continue on like that Uh, there's a substantial amount of infrastructure out there Um, I honestly some of it is reaching its useful life um We also have permitted requirements to meet the flow restoration plan and phosphorus removal um, so Just those projects themselves are identified in our capital plan um We have we just completed our last combined project with the village This year a cul-de-sac project um That met some some of the requirements for the flow restoration plan We have one more project to complete which is a stormwater retrofit over at the lds church Uh, that project will probably I would probably go to construction in fiscal year 25 Um, that's a substantial project that's not in the order of a couple million dollars total project costs for that Um, so that's going to be a big hit And like I said, if you look in the stormwater Section here, uh There is nothing in there for Upgrade and or repairs of existing infrastructure Which is going to be the big hit in the future We have budgeted for it maintenance of some of these for stormwater repairs uh, we had to Take from some of our road reconstruction projects to kind of fill this, you know, it is You're robbing peter to pay paul if you will. Um But you got to start from what's underneath the road first and start getting that in order before you can start reconstructing That's on the top. So that's kind of our logic behind concentrating and moving some of our funds operating funds anyways, but our operating budget to that but In our capital, we do not have any funding for those projects Aaron I have a question. Um Oh Go ahead. Oh, yeah, I just have a question on because I Then go into the select board meetings too and I've kind of researched this Because I live on hillside and I I know there's so many Thousands of dollars you have to deal with with green briar and the whole slip lining piping and there's a sink hole at the bottom of sand hill Do you think we need to increase our, you know, the capital tax to three and a half percent? Because we need to to deal with these projects and that Everybody that lives here is going to demand that they That we have that that money for When these things pop up all the existing homes and and businesses and So that you don't have to take money out of the operating fund because if you're already 200 000 shy and you're moving money from pay peter to pay paul Like kendall set up the select board He deals with richmond, you know the water system there that it's better to have the money If the two cent is not gonna It's not gonna fly Staff staff is recommending. Oh, okay three and a half percent increase and it is up to the select board to determine To decide if that's what they want to I mean, how do you feel? I want to know what you think I I think the three and a half cents And I'm gonna say this as a team because the team agrees We all we all agree that three and a half cents is the number and that basically brings us back up to what we had prior To the village and the town separate And yet and that's not a minimum. That's what we would recommend. Okay. That's a minimum not three point But ultimately it's ultimately it's a decision. Yeah And then the the public and the pop at voting. Yeah, they're by the way, they don't vote on they don't They vote on the regular budget. They don't oh good. Okay All right, so erin. Um, has anybody given thought to vegetation that we put in projects that would produce phosphorus load and save money Project you mean you mean some of our development projects. Yeah, like guidelines for landscaping and vegetation and new projects Let's help produce the phosphorus load Yeah, um Great idea. Um, I think I think it's it's something we could coordinate and work with Any on any with but they also need to be maintained We have hard enough time finding bodies to put them in our sidewalk clothes It's it's it is it We wanted to do right by that. Um, and some of those uh, like uh in burlington I looked at a couple other areas where they You see the bump outs where they have the storm water retention and then we have the the bio retention and the plants and everything Um, I'm curious. I would definitely entertain it um, yeah, and that's not so much public um landscaping but also landscaping that's part of Tom are you like talking about maybe coming up with a different different landscaping guidelines that that would be more Yeah, I mean it seems like we're out of money and we're spending a lot of money and phosphorus and maybe this This might be something to yeah, I mean we have we have landscaping like reference material So I don't know that we have any specific guidelines and maybe this is well, I would think that if a new development triggers this a storm water permit they got to meet the tmdl for phosphorus and a bunch of other stuff so Kind of being handled off it's built in from the state level right because they can't exceed that tmdl um, I mean most of what i'm seeing on erin's memo are storm water systems that Associations aren't responsible for that the town has and the town has to I mean I still think it's a great idea But in theory if we go over that one acre of impervious and trigger a state storm water permit It's getting caught there in theory Are there things though that that The planning commission could do or their zoning regulations could do that couldn't even improve like to make it better So instead of just be meeting the bare minimum Without again making it too burdensome, of course So maybe even and I think tell me if I'm wrong what you're also getting at is some of the smaller developments that come in That that aren't necessarily going to have any public infrastructure. It's a great idea To try to incorporate some of those um, it's It's not only You're not only doing your part, but it's also education. You're educating the public as well And some of the there isn't and some of the smaller ones your question about maintenance would be on the property owner Not on the town. So if we come up with some maybe some design standards um for the purpose of Basically every play everything is a storm water retention mechanism Yeah Seems like people would be willing to do their part um, can I I just I I just spoke incorrectly about what I said about the voting on the capital budget so the Public does not vote on the capital budget But if there was an increase in the tax rate for the capital for the capital tax there would be a there would be a vote on Yes, yes So but not the budget itself. It would be the increase just again so Aaron with regards to what you're spoken of this the highways and so forth is there Are there areas or opportunities that you see where we could I hesitate to say help but are there ways where we could we could work better The public works to facilitate staging for Project X or project Y. I'm just are there ways that that we can work better with public works To meet some of the goals and the needs that that we have out there um I think we can Yes, um, I loaded question. Yeah The zoning regs need to basically incorporate The town specifications and vice versa. Um, they're they're they're one and the same um The zoning regs are more on the design side and the mile high and let's find out what we're going to do the pen to paper Um, whereas the public works specs are more let's build this um with that I think We're going to be updating our specifications Uh this coming year um I have spoken with Catherine. I I think it's warranted that We offer up any opportunity To make sure that these two documents mesh um moving forward that's very important and I think that would solve a lot of our problems when it comes to um inadequate infrastructure that may be constructed that we have to take over and then In years we have issues You know, um, I think that's the best way to attack that Yep Do you think we need to update our zoning regulations so that that would happen so that you too can coordinate and and and you're on the same page because Um, this is from my husband who never goes to any meeting His he wants me to put in his two cents Is he believes that we should be taking care of In maintaining what we already have before we go building a 35 thousand dollar building somewhere So my husband's point is he runs on allen martin Drive almost got hit twice because the sidewalks are never plowed, but it's not the plowing It's even during the summer at night when he's running when they built that sidewalk along allen martin They did it over they cut the trees and just slapped the pavement on And and trees are growing up through it. There's trees everywhere It doesn't make sense. He he he cringes that we moved here that there's three blinking lights along allen martin It's not pedestrian. We just put 53 thousand into our house this year People put money into their homes along all those houses along allen martin the developments And we want these services And this is coming from my husband. He's like do something with what we have now before we plan Even though that's our job on Building new stuff and adding more things. So that's his two cents. I don't know what you think about that But if this three and a half percent will help at least get all that fixed The three and a half cents will help the town and the other town departments and that have Items in the capital plan Maintain great He'll be happy Thank you Okay I would even offer As a commentary Catherine and Aaron both that He's just said two documents If there's redundancy, let's remove it We've talked about that if we don't need two documents, let's not have two documents I mean we've we we When the point in time the question was put to us we um I forget the right term, but abdicated the right to review stormwater and and And septic to the state So Could it be something as simple as that with regards to public workspecs to actually call them out and walk away from And this is just a thought process because I don't it it's it has been a point of contention to what a developer presents based on zoning regulations subdivision regulations, which is another discussion um and public works So let's I mean we don't need two documents. Why do we have let's not have two documents Especially two conflicting. Yeah And then that's for the problem So I guess short version is anytime that that you see where there's a Potential opportunity whether there's a project coming up Or an update to a project that you feel might have some impact to our discussions I don't think it would be worth hearing hearing about it either through Catherine or yourself um So that we stay sort of in alignment with The initiatives that you've got going so we're supporting instead of conflicting Along those something along those lines It'll definitely work towards it. Um I know that Our our document we're We've been 17. I think it was 2017 We had the last update and last update before that was 1985 86 I like to keep stuff At least every five years So we're definitely do you say for five decades Yeah, a lot of stuff has changed and I think it's great what you two are doing. I think it's great So is there anything else Aaron that you want to call out to us that I mean we focus I mean I I was one that called it out, but is there anything else that other commissioners john Do anything that you I mean, I do have a question. I'm I am Trying to peruse the document because I didn't do my my homework very well But I'm curious where are we at with the improvements that we were talking about for water for the Cnex project, but I miss any of that. I'm just curious where we how the funding is going. I couldn't find it in here So the in the future and moving forward, uh water and sewer capital projects are out of this document Okay, and they will be on their own In the water and sewer budget, okay But as for an update on that project We have all the easements Uh still waiting for paperwork a couple mortgage discharges from a couple of residents Once we hit all those we're kind of out of right away We will likely go to construction probably summer of 2024 Um Yeah, the project is is there. It's it's Ready almost ready to so you've pulled it out of this Does that change where the funding comes from or is it just that it's in its own bucket, but the funding is the same Yeah, this this this funding comes out of the the the two cents. Yep um, whereas all the capital funding for water and sewer come from uh, these fees and some of the System stabilization funds that we take out of each of the water and sewer every year To place in the capital for updates and upgrades to our system Thanks Mr. Mangan I don't have anything additional to add Or comment um, I have one just additional thought and this is something that As a team of staff who's been working on the capital budget We're continuing to work on and we want to keep working on it on a regular basis throughout the year So it's not just a budget for this year, but it's a capital plan of five years and So we want to be thinking More and I think we have in the past about What is the plan for replacement of whether it's vehicles or um maintenance of paths or new construction of paths or roads and Hey, so that's great. You know really want to put more thought thoughtful Well thought into it, but then thoughtful growth and thoughtful reconstruction and development and One of the things that I see is a planning commission role and that is in our town plan Which we're talking about some a little bit later But I think the town plan is a place where you can paint a vision for like hey, we're a growing town We need this and we can Yeah, it's it's a so more of a A vision for it versus just it's in this you know paperwork here That we're asking for it for a reason because our town needs this and people have said they want it Hey, is there anything else for Aaron? Can we let him jump? You're doing a great job in the chat is anything going on in the chat I was looking for No, the chat's clear drained There's a few people in the audience, but I don't see you, but I don't it was Sharon. You I said She said she couldn't hear but then she could hear Okay, I gotta say something that's okay Um, is it true that heather and cypress roads those two roads that the the pipe repair stormwater repair Cost 241 thousand dollars just those two I mean and then you've got our hill. I'm on hillside and the green everything on this last page at 400,000 is like, oh my god That's it's a lot of roads. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of money a lot of money Okay, thank you. Yes. Thank you We'll see more of each other. I'm sure good Appreciate it tonight. No, thanks Okay, next on our Ike high intensity um Agenda this evening we have a discussion on the town plan for 2024 and are we going to have Amanda give She's up first. She is up first Go ahead and introduce. Okay um So we have um Amanda Brioche, I'm not sure I said your name correctly. Yeah, no problem Freshly like freshly picked peaches or freshly baked cookies. Whatever. Um, whatever works Have dinner tonight. I'm kind of hungry Um, so apologize for that. Um, but Amanda had reached out to staff in the fall to See if we might consider an our town plan update including some information um about health and equity and town plans and they've been doing work through Or with other towns throughout the state on that. Uh, I know when I was just in Jericho they helped us with adding a chapter and so we thought it'd be a great idea for her to come and Just share what what they're thinking as well as maybe some getting some feedback of how you all Might want to do this if you want to do it and you know what there's a different ways that we could incorporate this information into the plan so Amanda Welcome. All right And can you all hear me all right? Yes fabulous How will how would we like to make the power point where Catherine can folks see It in front of them. Do you want me to share my screen? Um, what would be the best way to do that? Why don't you share your screen? I mean I I can but you can then be in control of Unless that's if it'd be easier for me to do it for for you. No, I think I think that'll work just fine I'll go ahead and so we have a big screen in the room Okay, great looking at The only problem is all the audience members can't see it Oh, yeah, there's nobody else in the room Okay, oh All the mini mini audience members. Okay, share screen And get set up here So here's that Trying to Get zoom I can see you all as I talk as well. All right. How's that looking for folks? All right, so I'm Amanda freshly I work as a healthy community specialist with the Vermont department of health And I work in the Burlington office of local health. So in our office. We serve chitney county And I work with municipalities on healthy communities. So looking at Um, what our health outcomes are and then thinking about the root causes of some of the diseases that we're seeing and thinking about the ways that our built environment can Can impact health and improve health and wellness for everyone who lives in our communities so I was invited here Dave to talk a little bit about how health and equity Can be integrated into a town plan and how that can have a positive impact on Health and well-being so I thought I'd start with a little bit of history on planning in the united states You all might already be familiar familiar with this. Um, but I just I find it really fascinating um planning started It originated with a public health focus so in a time of industrialization and urbanization folks started focusing on Ways that we can reduce congestion and improve public health and support social reforms that influence Housing and sanitation because we were seeing infectious disease start to spread And so it started with this public health focus, but then it kind of diverged and planning ended up focusing more on Like land use and development whereas public health took on the main role of focusing on health and safety And so now we're seeing them kind of converge again and start to collaborate in a more Uh specific way as we not only address infectious disease like we have in the past But also thinking about how our built environment influences chronic disease So we'll kind of walk through the overview of the concepts of healthy community design health equity And then I'll talk more about More specifically about how those could be integrated into a town plan and I'll also touch a little bit more On some of the other ways that we can work with municipalities So that when folks are in the more implementation phase of a town plan and you're working on more specific projects or policies or programming how We can work with folks to also Ensure that health and equity are a part of the considerations for those more implementation level Processes all right We also wanted to thank everyone for being flexible. I was originally going to come in person today to see you all But right when I live out in New Haven So right when I was getting ready to head out that System passed there. I was like, uh I'm going to end up being on the road for probably an hour and a half if I Leave now. So thank you for your flexibility and letting me join remotely today. I appreciate that All right, so I know you all have been having Meetings and conversations about you know, what folks want to see in the community through the town plan You know, what are the elements that are important to folks when they think about their ideal community? And I would Hazard to guess that some of these topics probably come up The elements that make up a healthy Equitable community are things that make folks feel connected and safe in the places that they're living So things like parks and racking community spaces a safe stable affordable housing access to healthy foods And one way that you may have heard us refer to these before maybe in the public health context are social determinants of health And so these are the conditions and the places where you live Work And they can impact your health in a lot of different ways In other words, these are the non medical Factors that can influence health and well-being and they're usually outside of individual control So they include factors like the neighborhood that you live in how safe the housing is What the water quality and air quality is like Experiences with racism and discrimination And access to all sorts of things in the community like health care education and healthy foods So healthy community design links these public health themes like physical activity Public safety healthy food access to some of the more traditional planning concepts like land use or transportation And some of the ways that municipalities can work with folks to Work on these elements of healthy Community's include things like supporting pedestrians and bicyclists Increasing accessibility of rec trails promoting healthy food availability and affordability Or enacting policies that address substance misuse prevention and support recovery And another important thing to consider when we're Looking at different plans and policies is the impact of health equity So when we're looking at social determinants of health They're often due to like long-standing policies and systems And because of things for example like an environmental policy or a zoning law Some neighborhoods in the u.s. Have more air pollution than others And if you live in one of these neighborhoods Because it's where you could afford to live Then you may be more likely to have a breathing problem like asthma And you wouldn't have any control over the unhealthy air that you're breathing in every day But it does have a notice it can have a noticeable effect on your lung health And that's one of the things that makes it a social determinant of health So it's important to take into account Who in our community are facing extra barriers to health? And how not only we can how can we remove these barriers? But also actively address and try to reverse some of those historic injustices that we're seeing through Taking this into account with our new plans policies Programming and really try to saturate our communities with Healthy opportunities that are easily accessible for everybody And the key is that health equity exists when all people have the same chance to be healthy And so to achieve health equity we focus attention on areas And populations that are facing extra barriers to health such as folks who are experiencing gender discrimination racism or like class oppression So when we're thinking about where we can have an impact What does the data show us? In vermont, we know that three behaviors No physical activity poor diet and tobacco use Lead to four main diseases cancer heart disease and stroke type 2 diabetes and lung disease that result in 50% of the deaths in vermont So this has these three behaviors have a pretty big impact on some of those downstream health outcomes that we're seeing And so the question and the work we do Becomes okay, so what are influencing those behaviors? What can we do to create environments that support physical activity? increase or improve diets and decrease tobacco use And this is where planning plays a really important role. I really think of planners as public health professionals According to the cdc and the world health organization Our surrounding environments are built environments and the health behaviors that are influenced by Our built environments account for 50 or 70 of what we're seeing in our health and well-being And the other 30 of what we're seeing for health outcomes is due to genetics and access to health care So that's like a that's a pretty big area where we can have an impact on these downstream um health outcomes by thinking Through the best ways to support health and well-being in in the built environment space And there are some concrete actions that towns can take to support these Healthy behaviors and we'll we'll get to some more specific examples later on I also want to highlight that there's already a lot of good work happening and there's a foundation that Folks can build on regionally, there's the eco's plan And while health is not a required element in town plans. We are seeing it become more of a norm In chitlin county, we've had some early adopters and I'll give some examples in a second too As well as many other states and regions that are including health and equity in their town planning process In the eco's plan We do have a health chapter in there. Eco's is the plan that ccrpc puts together and sets regional goals and our office Helped author the health chapter for that. It is in draft form right now But the draft goal right now for the health section is that all people in chitlin county have a fair and just Opportunity to be healthy and to live in healthy communities. So that'll sound pretty familiar based on the health equity information that we were just talking about Um and looking through your current town plan You've already integrated some social determinants of health throughout the plan Um, I already mentioned housing education job opportunities active transportation These are all really important key parts of a healthy equitable community that we can help Build on when you're revising your current town plan There are also other community efforts that are going on Um I'm sure you all are even more familiar with than I am But I reached out to the executive director at sx chips christina to talk to her a little bit about some of the health efforts and wellness supporting efforts that they're doing at chips and kind of some of the needs that she's seen in the community We've worked with chips in the past on substance use prevention So they provide after school programming to youth and sx and west frid area And they've engaged in some different after school activities focused on mental health Consent education programs with steps to in domestic violence financial literacy for youth in collaboration with key bank They did a health equity series with 4h And so it's just really exciting to see some of these different collaborations and work. That's already being done in sx I kind of sets that foundation That can be built on moving forward And this gets to the point where We'll talk a little bit more about what this actually looks like in practice So to integrate more health and equity considerations into a town plan There are kind of two main approaches that folks take One is including a separate Sorry, i'm trying to Move this little thing around so I can see you all better. Maybe it's not meant to be all right One is including a comprehensive review of all the elements in a town plan for health and equity implications And another is including a separate health element and these approaches actually work really well together So it doesn't necessarily have to be either or um a So the major strengths of the comprehensive review Of all the elements is that it smoothly integrates information and actions Into each element of the plan So it ensures that that inherent connection between each topic and health is clear um, so for example If a transportation engineer was referring to the town plan They may not think to look at the a separate health element But if there are accessibility um policies or guidance related to sidewalks If there are safety um Goals that are mentioned in the transportation section Those are things that would Be on their radar because it's woven into the parts of the plan that are relevant to them And that they would see naturally when they're reviewing those sections A separate health element also has Some really important aspects I think the major strength of this one is that it highlights health as a key priority for the town And it allows more opportunity to explain the context the connection between planning and health And probably most importantly it allows the town to spend time on Topics that may not It may not be obvious where else in existing elements that information could go And that's something that could be expanded on in the health element so for example um with mental health mental health is something that you can talk about in relationship to economic development strong job opportunities safe affordable housing quality education um, but there might be other aspects of mental health that are really important to discuss to such as having an after-school opportunities or places Or goals for older adults to connect with each other throughout the community And those are things that can be explored more in a separate health element We've also seen folks who expand on topics such as recovery from covet prevention of future infectious diseases the role of prevention and recovery from substance use disorders Or even the role of health impact assessments when it comes to community design. So these are all topics that maybe Wouldn't fit as seamlessly into some of the other elements that it's important to the community we could dig more into in a separate health element And for some Vermont examples, we've seen folks use combinations of these So with the eco's plan, which I talked about earlier. There is a separate health chapter in that We've also provided some data for the eco's economy section When you ski they have a separate health chapter titled safe healthy connected people And and there in this element they talk about goals related to food access public safety education parks and rec and community connections and programming Jericho we assisted them back in 2019 with authoring a separate health element and Williston also in 2019 We helped them with the comprehensive review of all the elements And integrating the health implications and language. So depending on what folks What their needs are what you'd like to focus on We're happy to work with folks to make it work for Whatever your needs are and in the next couple slides, I'll talk a little bit more specifically About examples of health and traditional planning topics how they align how they could be expanded on And where a separate health element could come in I watched a news story a couple days ago about It was about one of the meetings that you all hosted the community conversations about the town plan And sounded like folks were interested in housing economy Reptia trails those were like some of the topics that had come up So in the next slides where we're talking about examples, those are the areas that I'll focus on And it looks like I'm at 18 minutes right now So what time just want to ask what time should I wrap up the presentation part of it? How long do you anticipate going this point? What would you like? I can probably Fill another 10 minutes But I also want to be respectful of your time and I can you know, I can I can look through it to finish in five instead Let's let's do five and then we can have some time for some questions Okay, sounds good all right So with housing and health This is a conversation topic that comes up. I think in every community meeting that I've Sat in on you know that the housing crisis is a priority here about in the news It's reflected in our data And so in looking at town plans And the sections on health We can look at it through that lens of what are some of the What are some of the areas that are impacted for health? One of course is affordability Economic development job access those are all some of those social determinants of health that we talked about at the beginning That can have an impact on folks health and well-being And accessibility is also huge Depending on where your house is located that determines what kind of food you have access to Green space are you 10 minutes walk from a park? Do you have safe sidewalks? I heard folks talking about that earlier Can you go for a run at night and feel safe? So Those are highly impacted by the type of affordable housing that's available um and the quality affordable convenient housing can Really impact health outcomes by encouraging physical activity Providing a place to live that has clean air and increased access to Healthy foods can boost mental health and connections with neighbors um And it has strong implications for what social networks you end up developing so that like social cohesiveness um and data that we have at the we have We have oodles of data at the health department. And so we do have some information on housing and security rates I think i'll skip over some of the specific data right now. That's something i'm happy to come back and present on but in the In the effort of getting through this a little quicker, I think i'll i'll move over that um, we also have example policies um that can Be integrated into housing sections in the resources that I provided for folks We have um, there are a couple different tool kits One was put together by the Vermont department of health and it has um different Model language that can be integrated into town plans and it's organized by more traditional Elements of the town plan. There is also another section of the toolkit that was printed out. Um, that has information Uh model language organized by health topics. So a couple different ways to look at Um health language is a couple different resources. There are oodles of resources out there. So We can definitely work with folks to uh Basically meet whatever language needs you have um We won't have to reinvent the wheel Economic development in health is also very closely tied um equitable economic development With quality rate wage earning opportunities can promote robust economic growth. It can improve health outcomes by decreasing poverty rates Um, it can increase access to health care insurance for health care um And increase community resources like well funded schools. Um, and also Is linked to reducing deaths caused by chronic disease Uh income is one of those social determinants of health that impact many different health outcomes that we've looked at According to our data, um, we can see that folks who have low socioeconomic status experience just higher rates of depression chronic disease And they also generally report experiencing poor health in general Think transportation and health is one of the topics that Maybe it's like the first thing that pops into people's mind when they're thinking about health and planning because of the just natural tie between parks and rec and health But there are other implications as well with mental health improving um a climate through reducing greenhouse gases um connecting folks to concrete job opportunities um And safety as well. So If folks have access to sidewalks where they feel Safe walking at night or when it's getting dark at 3 p.m in vermont. Um, those can also Tie directly to what kind of physical activity and mental health opportunities people have Um, all right, I'm gonna kind of Pick along here And towns really also have different types of health chapters Um, or different ways that they integrate health So in reading through the highlights in your current On plan from the heart and soul work that was done Uh for the previous town plan a few words that stood out to me were thriving safe Connections and any of these themes along with any new ones that are connected or collected through your current community meetings Those could be central themes or focuses of a health chapter um So like I said earlier, we have sample language for policies for boiler pre chapters And different evidence-based resources that we can use to Focus on whatever is most important to you in your community in addition When folks are getting to more of the implementation phase um And comp plans are really kind of as upstream as it gets setting the policy foundation for future work And as folks get into more specific Programs or policies The health department is also here to assist with those And think through how health and equity are being considered So if you wanted to discuss the implications of a new site plan for a city hall or a bylaw or policy Analyze a corridor redesign The main takeaway from this Slide is that there are Many different ways that we can support folks depending on what your timeline is how intensive the project is We're happy to meet with folks and discuss different ways that the health and equity Implications can be front and center for any of the work that is being done All right And so that just brings me to the list of resources that we gave you all and thanks to kathryn for printing those out I won't go into detail on what all these are they're just helpful things to take a look at to get an idea of What some of the overall themes of healthy planning are the two pager has some interesting information on how planners and other folks involved in the town process can work together The toolkits have lots of great information But they also have sample language that can be helpful to see And what that actually looks like in practice when it comes to inserting health language And vdh also has an evidence-based practice list. I just printed out the one focused on housing, but there are best practices For all of these different sectors ag energy housing land use and transportation Which may also be helpful to consider when looking through this information And that is that is it from me So I'll pause there for questions conversation. Thank you. Anyone have questions or comments Catherine do you I mean obviously you you brought Amanda to us do you have thoughts on how um, we might utilize or There are opportunities that you see We're leveraging some of the resources she's made available Yeah, so I haven't taken a look at this stuff yet that she handed out and it looks like there's some great ways to things that we can look at that could Provide us some language provide us some You know get her thinking a little or moving a little bit more But I love the idea of being really purposeful in our new town plan of Putting this language in so I I wouldn't necessarily in my mind see it as a whole new chapter But just integrating it into all the different areas that we already discuss And I we're working on Distilling and organizing the feedback that we heard in our Our meetings that we had with the public and so I think there's we are hearing some of this stuff From the public. So there's there's an interest in it You know, I I would love to pick Amanda's brain a little bit more too and you know, how to How to latch onto what we're hearing and how to apply it where to apply it And you know something that I don't know how much it would be for the the town plan working group or is it staff behind the scene combination of both And at some point the planning commission you're going to be more involved in Okay My question uh would be how How often do you find that For your in your experience Putting this language in the town plan plans. How often is it just okay? We're just going to put this boilerplate in and how often is there a real intent to adopt it to a specific town or demographics Yeah, that's a great question. So What we would want to do with folks would be Uh, it wouldn't be looking through the town plans and putting just and health after After sentences, which I've talked to folks about like we don't want that Um, and we would work with you to avoid duplication to you know, we don't want to talk about the same policy and transportation as we would in Um the health chapter, uh, you know kind of avoiding that so We would work with you to pick out whatever pieces are important to the community. So it's not necessarily just boilerplate um, we have We have model language model chapters. Um, because there are some things that we see in our data that um Come up as important for most communities in vermont like with three four fifty physical activity nutrition Those are things that tend to come up as priorities Um for most folks. However, there's a lot of flexibility there. Um, so we have model language for these things, but nothing is, you know required or um Needs to be in there if it doesn't fit with your town's vision um So I guess that'll all the say it can all be, um individualized to meet your needs. It doesn't It's not just like sticking a random chapter in there. We would want it to be applicable to What you all find important I have a question. Um, you mentioned earlier that there's lots of data at the health department I'd be interested in looking at data, um for uh the 2400 homes that might be eventually built next be Next to a new industrial park I'd like to see data on that and what do I do just go to the health department and I I'd like to see that data if you have interesting so Yeah, I'm not familiar with that project. Um, some of the data that we do have at least that I work with frequently Um is the so the youth risk behavior survey. So that looks at um health outcomes and behaviors for youth in our community So like do you feel like they matter to their community? um What percentage of kids have uh are vaping? Um, so we have some of those Data points and same with adults we have a Another data set that we work with frequently focused on adult health and well-being Um, that's specific with cancer stage four cancer patients, you know lung cancer go figure So I just am curious because our town's gonna grow and Yeah, so, you know that equity you were talking about, you know equity Um, I think a lot of people that I've spoken to want human scale development More than big industry development. That's the feedback I'm getting But yeah, and that's what I mean And if there is a what I was hearing you say too is there's a specific project Sounds like where they're going to build a bunch of homes in a location. You're concerned about the health implications of where it's located um, that's actually a good example of a type of project that we could um discuss with The planning commission or whoever is in charge of that to look more deeply at the health implications of that so That would include seeking out maybe additional data or information about What's going on there. So if that's something you are are interested in Please reach out so we can talk more about that. Okay, thanks Anything else the stage? I have a comment. I noticed some of the the language our suggested language was allow farmers markets in unused public spaces and I don't know if we have any unused public spaces, but I'll just relate my experience from korea is that there would be farmers markets weekly or bi-weekly in apartment building parking lots It would they would set up in the afternoon. They'd run into the evening um And I don't know if that's a requirement that they had to do that or if it's voluntary But it's something to consider for you know for new projects I will say that one going through this this You know a draft language I gotta say there's a red flag a couple red flags that pop up for me with this proposed language that that to me start to cross over a line That I don't think we should be crossing one is The encourage the helping eating habits And help the eating messages and the others to avoid the concentration of unhealthy food providers within neighborhoods It start to feel that's where we're starting to help people how to live So, I mean, I mean, I know it's draft language and it can be pick and choose and used it it is draft But that's the sort of That's the sort of line that I start to worry about I mean we should be encouraging but I I'm very leery of telling people what's good for them Other cities have like I think Minneapolis may be Restricted mcdonald's within a certain radius of a school. You know other things like that So it's not unheard of I can see guidelines like like that, you know, but it's just it well It wasn't a guideline. It was a I mean, but but but setting it over distance, but I just the title of I don't know it's it starts bothering that when the title of the objective is to encourage healthier habits and healthy eating messages I don't think we should have drive through fast food places in sx town away Nope I'm not going there on that but No, anyways, and these are all I mean those are all excellent points to discuss and like you said every all of this can be Edited to fit what works for the town The overall goal is to just ensure that everyone has equal access to healthy opportunities Saturate the community with those healthy opportunities So, you know depending on what Folks are ready for what they're comfortable with um, there are different, you know levels of uh language that can go into that But I see documents like this are like like in our own In our own process having working from something Is a whole lot more effective from working from nothing So we have something we can we can assess If we choose to go and look at these and try to incorporate we can assess this and is this right Is this right now? Is it right later? Is it whatever but it's it's it's a whole lot easier and more effective in my mind to work from a document like this Then just trying to come up with it out of the air So I recognize the amount of work that was done to come up with this and appreciate, you know, what a tool that it provides us There's a really great tool and resources out there too. So we have we have a repository of different Examples of where some of these things have been used additional tools So if there's something that you'd like to see like more examples of or have questions on i'm You can let me know and I can look into that Is yeah having those kind of examples to talk off of Can be really helpful when you're deciding what what works for you Anything else? Okay, Amanda. Thank you very much. Appreciate your yeah Thank you all so much. I really appreciate you um taking the time to Have us come and talk. Oh and he sends his hellos and his apologies for not being able to make it today Um, but yeah, thank you so much for having us and if you have any follow-up questions, uh, please let me know Excellent. Thank you. Thanks Hey, moving on You know josh is not available tonight um updated on the community meetings next step. So we have anything Catherine Yeah, just a little bit. Um, so as you know, we finished up our meetings. We had two weeks of meetings nine of them in total and that's right And we had a meeting this afternoon of the working group to start looking at the data that we gathered and they're trying to Put them all together sort of assimilate some themes. Um, the thought is to have, um, you know, lots of different ways to use the data, but one real visual would be like a word cloud So you see here are the the main things that show up in infrastructure. Here are the main things that are showing up in zoning and development agriculture, so we Took a long time I think today to kind of figure out how we're going to go about doing that and we Got got moving and so we've got meetings set up next week that continue through that So is there is there a target in which any of any Like a more detailed update is going to be available to be presented to the commission Yeah, I would hope by that your next meeting Okay, uh, although I guess that's a development meeting So it might just be a little bit maybe for your information and we could talk about it further at the following meeting From there. Okay. So so I would say at least by that Now, you know, it's so the next planning meeting, which would be the second jewelry meeting That would be good. I think just to get a more detailed assessment of books Yeah, and we really need to start, you know, putting some words down on paper and As we're updating I need to start really updating the plan not just gathering information but moving Okay Any questions at this point? Oh, I have one other quick little update. I'm sorry So it it looks like we might be able to have an intern from uvm help us with the town plan. So it could be Uh, do a well variety of different things. So it could be updating our data that we have could be helping Talk to different town departments. There could be some more community discussions That's just a conversation I had today with with the advisor at uvm But it looks pretty positive. So I'll I'll know more next week. Nice. That's great. Um Anything else other Okay, how about minutes from just january 12th and are you in motion? Move we approve the minutes of january 12th a second Do we have anyone that want to offer any amendments to the minutes as presented? Hearing none all those in favor I opposed And it's carry six zero other business We have any Just have to read that page. Um not for me Okay Okay Then I would take a motion All those in favor We are adjourned