record there we go that's something that we forgot to do last time and so what I'll do is I'll read the the public notice and then after that we'll ask Christine to give the same little brief that you provided us last time sounds good so the town of vover Planning and Zoning commission is holding a public hearing to afford public an opport to comment ask questions regarding an application from the town of vover for a special permit to undertake a variety of site improvements at Veterans Park located at the juncture of Riverside Drive in Long Hill Road more particularly the improvements include construction of three pickle ball courts gazebo two playscapes and various Associated site improvements the proposed use specifically requires a special permit in accordance with the section 10 of the Andover zoning regulations which are the town's flood prone District so that's what we're here to discuss and Christine if you want to brief us on the application go ahead sure good afternoon everyone or good evening everyone my name is Christine Randazzo I am part of the Andover veterans committee we've been working on the project for a little over over a year now this project was awarded
by Grant from the office of policy of management through the 2023 smalltown economic assistance program with this grant we're so fortunate to have received we we we are proposing to install three pickle ball courts two playscapes one which would cover ages 2 through five and the other one would be 5 through 12 an Associated play items such as swing sets Spinners a pavilion with a concrete floor we are extending some drainage across the street towards the softball fields and redoing or setting up a parking area an official parking area for this project some of the things that have gone through since our last public hearing for example I'd like to talk about the drainage for the project the site currently runs alongside hop River the water currently drains by Overland flow from about the center line of Riverside Drive towards the river there's very flat conditions in this area if you can visualize the soccer fields there's the soccer fields then there's a burm and then there's this other low-lying area that used to be the town Gravel Pit this is where we are doing a lot of our Construction in this low-lying area that used to be the Gravel Pit as well as on the BM the low Ling area does experience flooding being adjacent to the hop River it does not experience flow but water can rise during severe events the burm area
does not experience any standing water fortunately so with that in mind and laying out the project we put the playgrounds on the burm as well as well as the peripherals for the children's play areas and the Pavilion the pickle ball courts will be in the low-lying area they will experience flooding the area in the low Ling area is exceptionally flat so getting the the it also feeds an existing Wetlands which is directly behind the pickle ball court area we do have some sidewalks that go from the parking area on each side of the pickle ball court so you'll be able to access it from the parking area in two different directions the parking the parking area initially had a complete paved surface we have since changed that to a
gravel surface except for the two handicap at parking spots we did that for a number of reasons in keeping in in trying to do pave surface it required a treatment of runoff from from the paved area from the back of the curbing out to the west side of the property and between the construction costs associated with Paving the area the drainage the piping the clearing in the woods because that area as well is exceptionally flat so to get the water to grade the right way to the level spreader and the sizing of the level level spreader it created an expense larger than we really wanted the grant is a $500,000 Grant the town is kicking in labor in kind of 150,000 so our our resources are kind of limited so we thought by reverting back and keeping the parking area a a stone parking area that would that is about 4 in of processed on 8 in of like a bank run type gravel so there's like a 12in depth there of a perious surf surface that we would maintain existing drainage conditions so existing drainage conditions means that the water travels
from the roadway towards this low-lying area and then eventually makes its way to the wetlands the water would be continuing to do that today with the the way that we've proposed the parking area the water would travel through the parking area seep in you know make its way down the hill right behind the pickle ball area we do have a a an underd drain I'm Excuse me an underd drain that would be collecting all the surface and groundwater that was running through the slope intercept it so it doesn't roll right onto the pickle ball quarts and it would be channeled around the pickle ball quarts to be posited right back into the wetlands our goal is to keep the water where it's currently going today because we do have a viable Wetlands directly behind our project area and we don't want to dry it out we also are constructing just a using a grid type system as an access way in and around the playscape area just in case private Public Works needs to be able to get around the play area to the hiking trails that are down by the river if any equipment needs to get down that way I think that about covers everything we have we we are enclosing the area with the silt fence it's a continuous loop per the request of Hank gruner with j- hook at each end just to intercept any box turtles that may travel up and around the site so they don't find their way into the construction area we are also proposing Lighting in the pickle ball court area the parking area and the walkways we did receive a lighting plan a revised lighting plan with the changes that
were recommended by the commission and we just received it today we did upload it we know it short notice but we do have it up there for your viewing I think that's all I have okay thanks Christine and before we head off and and take a look at the drawings you know I I recognize there's an awful lot of heroic good work that went into getting us all this stuff today as you noted a little late for the Tak a look at the new lighting plan the the thing that you when we talk about drainage and you addressed we spent a lot of time last time talking about you know the
drainage for adding impervious service greater than 2,000 square feet and we talked about how that little pit full of rip wrap or whatever that came off the parking area was going to compensate for that and and I understand there may have been some confusion as to whether or not that that little box of Stone was going to compensate for the entire site or just the parking area but I'm still interested in in the mitigation for that extra water that would run off because we've now put you know some significant impervious surface down there with the with four pickle ball quarts if you will three three in the impervious service to support a fourth or or something else so that's that's still a sticking point I'd like to point out as we start to go through it and if there is stuff that we can highlight as we go through on that that would be great so I know Eric last time you were the guy who walked us through the drawings Christine were you gonna do that tonight or is z gonna do that how I well I was gonna ask if you wanted Joe to answer the question with regards to the water first and then happy to happy to listen there yep go ahead Joe okay y now yeah the as Christin said decision was to have bless impact with the imper the impervious gravel surface on the parking
area to Pavement as far as the the HCK ball carts down below we discussed last time in terms of of Detention of water Peaks Peak flows we're in an area very close to the hop river that has a very longer peak time for the peak flow so that the runoff from this particular area the paave surface will be out and gone before the peak so there will be no impact to the increased U increased flow off the site we're so close to the to the river itself that it's it's not something worry about get close water quality the the the area is a finished pav surface that is not going to be used for vehicles there will be no sand salts there will be no leaking oil cans and transmission fluids or whatever I it's gonna be clean water it's going to flow across sheet flow from north to south one along long Dimension this charge lineally along to the vegetated area which is just down from that pass through the vegetation that is just prior to the wetlands area basically will pass through remediate vegetated brush and grass that was our basically be our so I'm not sure you I'm trying to figure out do we have a good regulation or not that says to mitigate this extra rut off and and you're telling me there's no change in the peak runoff I guess it's not intuitively obvious to me how we can put close to
10,000 square feet of impervious surface down there and the regulation says if you put more than two mitigate that there's no peak and that was an old gravel pit that that soaked in a lot of water good and so I'm not sure how we can say that we don't have a increase in runoff when we put that much impervious surface down there on the old Gravel Pit this is something as a reviewer as a town Town engineer reviewing Town Jor Clans I've done this in Along on on the on the h River in Bolt we've done it near the canand river in Portland it's you're basically the the fact that you're so close to the you're immediately adjacent to this large watershed area you're going to discharge immediately to the qu ship if we were farther even you know quarter of a mile away now you have impact on neighboring properties the flood impact would would have be real to the property downam we are immediately discharging
from this area Peak flow increased flow that c off this site will be down in on its way long before Peak flood from the Uplands fromes down on long hot Riv so the the mitigation for flood mitigation or impact to increase that the runoff does not occur it's it's something that Peaks are far apart this peak is going to be a on the radar for the larger pits coming through and this is you know this is something I have I have at my office and also a lot of people in my office have allowed to happen in areas that are very close to a large water sh are such as Rivers stre now do these other towns like Bolton have a regulation similar to ours about adding The Improv surface they they do there is the mitigate thak flow okay and this is thak flow essentially is mitigated because of where you are in relation to the water sh as you know again as I as a town engineer doing this plan for the town I'm very comfortable in saying that this will not be not be increased impact due to having this because we are so close to the watch okay so I'm going to ask you to take the town engineer hat off sure Planning and Zoning the engineer Consulting engineer hat on yes and and so from you the consultant to the Planning and Zoning your recommendation is to do it just the way you've got it laid out here yes yes and like I said done I had the
same exact situation in the Amud 44 in Bolton the Dollar General dentist office that was built there in the past five or six years that was the first question asked you have to worry about they did for all their parking areas we had them provide water water quality especially dentist office did not require them to provide St detention because they were iMed down lower Bol into the into the water this is I'm this being the same situation If This Were a private develop coming into here and this listen this we right up here we're putting a a court that's not going take vehicles and cars it's been clean water coming off of there so I'm not worried about the water quality per se of that I'm also not gonna worry about because we are so close to the very large Watershed that is part of the Opera okay so if we were to ask you to put a sentence in the the plan that the plan is what the planning zoning commission Consulting engineer recommends you'd feel comfortable doing that I could do that yes absolutely okay y that I think that covers it right now for me with respect to that particular issue any other commission members have any questions or comments
on what we've just been discussing okay now let's go through the the updated drawings if you will and you can just if you can highlight the changes to the drawings as we go through them I'd appreciate that you CH do you want me to put them up on the screen sure that's fine if well if Eric's going to do the talking he'd probably like to put him up himself so he can do move his pleasure all right I'll try to see whether I can share it I don't necessarily think I I mean I actually think the town engineer would be a lot better guy to review this since I have not even reviewed this set of plans okay happy to have Joe go through it I'm sure yeah we can do that Joe I have a set called up do you want me to share them or Joe do you want do you have a set you can
share can see your C I'm on my yeah I have to go to my work computer I'm on my home computer I have them I have a hard copy next to me here that I can ref to okay ch let me let me give it a whirl and as you go I can I'm I have the list in front of me here I can walk through the list can you see on the screen the drawings I that's better keeps getting better okay okay Christin can just maybe can that zoom out like a do you want me to start on page one or do you want me start on page one we have to sort of recreate we did last time because we didn't have it recorded and I was right from the beginning there how does that look that looks great
okay probably not these OB this title sheet here this is now my stamp is set we have left corner in the upper right along with our abbreviations and symbols that we through existing proposed through project that's site location cover sheet questions on that nope amp sign next is the existing conditions plan this essentially is the server that our LS has compiled this does not include property lines which we put on sheets from here on out simply because he did not prepare he did not locate property line so I think this is his official drawing so this is simply this survey up time okay now we're getting to the good stuff now we're getting okay again there our site plan with revisions made as last meeting going down through u j going down through your comments here I'll just start in comment number one road setbacks we've shown the 50 yard front yard setbacks taken from right here Center Line of Riverside Drive Right Here showing there yeah around sidey setback 25 yard set off the side which neighboring both Town property some front front yard set backyards run through where the proposed bilion is
and for that number two is the lighting plan and I'll let those involved with that discuss that a little further yeah number three plan should statement by the license cating the plan is in performance with all app regulations and in the notes on three of eight note number nine that basically this is in accordance with planning zoning regulation which is incorporates in the regulations do incorporate all the s mod that there so that essenti covers that and J I can add a note discussing deep flows and and of of the situation where we are in relation to the hop River how that effects are run up okay and you it didn't strike me at the time but I think that July 15 2019 date is not the current version and I think that could be important because we changed the RS to specifically allow higher lighting levels in okay athletic fields so I don't have top of my head what the what the date is but we need to make sure we Encompass the change it has okay the lighting that was on the the website but then we as Christine Dev I talked to some other some other things we run into different that new date provide me the set I will up okay we'll confirm the date okay on that Jed that the floodway earthw work calculations is right there okay yeah and Joe could go over that right now so we could that out appreciate that yeah there's our the area earthwork area is this essentially the Disturbed area a total cut and we did we've taken this from the U the autopad
program at roughly 194 cubic yards where going to be cuts and fills or filling 170 9 cubic yard 7788 cubic yards we're at 14.8 cubic yards at net C we actually have slightly slightly more storage in the area very small percentage as the toal project so it is we are not putting any fill in show now I noticed some of the elevations over in the area of the pickle ball court are different now than they were on the originals yes I dropped that down I dropped pickle down by six inches just to be because we were we were close and I just dropped it by six inches because we actually had in the lower sou east corner there was actually then turned out to be a little bit of fill in there because the lifting existing condo came back in a little bit north so we just dropped it by six inches really made fall okay so that was our issue with our floodway bill that we proved not adding any other F that would not be desirable to have any additional so that that is number moved on to number four that was number four number five how does the planning Cor the comments of the in the wet commiss buiness approval I guess Christine we talked about that a little earlier I didn't have that kind of handle last one know a
lot of that was Outlet yeah so so Han gruner had recommended doing this Clos Loop on the silt fence with the J Hooks the Inland Wetlands commission their conditions are of approval were having a pre-construction meeting yep having weekly meetings on site and we also the town had also agreed to remove some invasives from the wetlands but we need to actually identify the invasives that are out there primarily Autumn Olive so that will be done in the spring we can either tag them you know or put a marking on the on the ones that need to get just so the area doesn't get cleared but there is just a large volume of Autumn Olive there so those were the
three requests from Inland Wetlands you know what I had seen on other plans was the a copy of the wetlands approval was just included in the plan so you've got all those condition spelled out and that way that's one way to capture those otherwise I would ask that we put in the plan you know the three things that you just mentioned Christine either either way would work okay okay plan should be signed this number six PL sign the stamp by professional engineer that has been done as well as our surveyor signed in two with number seven was the signat date line which is in the upper right corner for's chair now can I ask to have that little box put on every sheet because Jim always makes me sign every sheet can do that you want I mean right through cover sheet right on through yep okay he gives me no slack whatsoever number number eight is says as we discussed the fact that plan does not show the entire parcel as ver 2323 of his own Jim comments indicated there is up for the commission better approach go
on commission may upon written request the applicant wave the submission of information set forth I goad Christin sorry Joe if I could just interject would I did write up a waiver requesting a waiver for this based on the topography in the in the parcel site I didn't know whether or not to upload it upload it to permit link or if I needed to send it directly to to you Jed I would think you would send it to Jim but I'll let Jim answer this question then sure I have it written I could send it to you right now I I prepared it already I just didn't know where to who to where to up if I should upload it to permit link or not you can send it directly to me okay I guess I'm gonna ask you to read it at some point later sure if the commission takes action and needs to needs to act on that waiver prior to okay acting on the the actual application do you have that letter in front of you Christine I do you know what I can I can open it right now sorry about looking at my chicken scratch here but [Music] let's see here we go I don't know what my screen is looking like can you see that not we're still seeing the plan oh interesting I have it up on my screen so I don't I guess I have to share it
separ it's very short and so I just just read it yeah sure it says the Andover veteran field committee requests a waiver of Regulation 23.2 Point B1 for boundary survey of the entire parcel this parcel is 15.13 Acres with the development of this parcel being approximately 1.06 Acres the survey captures adequate area around the proposed development of the site to get a clear picture of the layout and topography of the land okay with with the exception of the size of the lot I think my my concern about the size of the lot is that if you call it a one acre lot with the coverage we may exceed the amount of lot we can cover I think last last month we talked
about it being you know the combined with the the soccer fields and all that so that we didn't have to consider the amount of lot coverage so so the soccer fields are a little over four acres yep the parcel that the majority of this work is being done on is a little over 15 Acres so that total almost 19 Acres Y and the amount of impact to both of these Parcels amounts just around one acre and I was just generous in measuring so I if I if I could interject Jed yeah that that was discussed that because the town owned the two lots it was it would be considered one lot or looked at as one lot I recall that I just as long as we're comfortable that by putting that one point so some Acres of disturbance were not exceeding the the requirement of section 11.2 which I forget how much of the lot we can cover but I knew with the with the 15 Acres it wasn't a question and and maybe you said that the number that jumped out
of my mind was one acre like this was a One Acre Site we were talking about no no that that's the that's the amount of work including like all theing that needs to be done but the actual parcel itself the larger parcel is 15 acres and then theer field par parcel is four acres and this total construction project is in and around one long as your your letter makes clear that we don't have a a problem with the amount of stuff we're covering okay so very good you've entered your letter into the record for the public sure yeah you can send that over to Jim and okay I do that sure okay handle number eight we can number nine additional detail the place gapes and Pavilion should be provided picture of the plan equipment shed building would be great more particularly the plan should show base materials dep and type installation of the play gapes is typically driven by Factory specification so note to that effect would be appropriate note should reference appr safety standard being apped with the plan should provide detail on the base materials SL so on the detail sheet we did provide a section for time slab as number number eight here we've also said that
they're G to comply with well that's that's an yeah that we had Christina give me an expanded note what exactly we're put okay number seven we do say thatly with appical standards of the consumer product safety commission as that covers vast majority of especially consumer product saf very good documentation on playgrounds playscapes and then note number eight so move on number 10 several places on the plans were were removed it's in bold yeah was was a little confusing I could see what you at aspect put arrows meing to the exact clearly and then number 11 we have the signs for the handicap parking spaces I didn't have any particular design for signage for the recreation area itself sure that something that be submitted on individual as an individual package hey Christine did you have anything to add about sign yes sure in speaking with Jim hesy earlier we had a conversation with regards to the signs that we were anticipating for the project and our signs are more directives such as like a metal like the same material as the highway signs
that have more like rules of play you know just just rules of play and guidance to follow and Jim had said that those types of signs they don't need the verbiage for or is not included under the signage regulations those it's not like a it's not going to there's no s large signs proposed that are going to say like Veterans Memorial Park we were just going to have maybe a like a a rule of pickle ball courts as far as you know the sharing of the courts and being respectful of others and it would probably be on a metal sign we've tried to discuss as a committee you know what we wanted listed there or you know potentially you know no dogs allowed in fenced areas and and it's in having this discussion with Jim he said you know this isn't the type of sign that is under that is being covered under these regulations like just a little there would be a smaller you know two foot by two foot metal sign or three foot by 3 foot with you know either staked in the ground with a metal stake kind of like the handicap parking type sign material so that's where we stand with our signage that's what we
were anticipating I I did not I'm not concerned about the verbiage on it I was just interested in maybe if we could nail down the number of signs and the maximum size of of a sign I think we do have something in our regulations that discusses that and I just want to be able to say yep whatever shows up that's what we agreed to when we approve the plan so can it be made similar to the handicap parking sign because that's all it would be it would just be a metal sign on a post post you know one post you know you could you could put the signs on you know I was envisioning a sign being on the chain link fence or something yeah or yeah if it could be latched on with like metal Clips onto the chainlink fence that would be convenient as well want to walk out there someday and find 50 signs out there and yeah and said oh we didn't have to talk about that when we were doing the plan so we have this in this within the past week we have collected some some pictures of some signs that we thought we could use and the playground committee was didn't really they had taken pictures of some signs but they hadn't envisioned like a potential Like rules of play so there may only be one
sign at this point on the pickle balls because I courts because I do think having some type of structure there will make it fair for anybody that's going to walk on it to be able to use the facility y okay just to be clear like to have signs and the size of the sign so somewhere in the plan where we talk about it okay Chris Christine this this is way can I ask question on the signs is there going to be a you know like a a sign commemorating or or commemorating the the property or the the that section of the of the the pickle ball courts you know sort of like the Veterans Memorial Field pickle ball court or something like that or is it just or is just GNA be informational signs it's G to be more of an informational sign I believe there is a sign down the other end of the soccer fields that says Veterans roal Field so is since we are not able to replicate that budgetary wise at this time we weren't going to add anything so all right understood back to you that was my number 11 that was the last of the comments you did that was before to me okay let's just run through the rest of the drawings then quickly so we
can say that we recreated what we did last time before we turned to9 yes go ahead Jim I have a question Joe through you if that's okay the cut and fill calculation can you can you tell me what the the earthwork area how you define that was the Disturbed area up to okay so it's square yard okay the cleared area yeah okay so it's just a dimensional overlay of of that right you took the whole thing yeah just Pros got thank you I think there are comments here that covered sheet number three which is V F any commission members have comments on page four here page four is our typical rosion sent control notes and details the left half opposite first colum up front are seet of construction then on down are our basic our general guidelines which follow the sent Ro to guidelines set out by the know construction equipment where you refuel them we we kind of R already in notes but as well but then again go through our top solling our seed rates it's all there very standard standard kind of rules regul hey in in a lot of the paragraphs there you've got a section called maintenance and who is going to be responsible for that and that might be an Eric question I think I know the answer I would say the responsibility would be the chair of the Planning and Zoning commission for all maintenance no that wasn't the that wasn't the answer I was expecting I was thinking might be Public Works might be of that it will likely be public works okay very good got
it any other questions on this page I think it's page four moving on to page five yep go ahead Wayne now that we're eliminating the pave parking area is there going to be a a catch Basin no no there won't I I do leave that in there the way is so that we can if there are adjacent basins existing basins okay kind of a belt suspended we need to wrap up put up an inserted Basin so get to bre don't anticipate that gotcha ny questions on page five page five is just general court layout six page six this is site details looking at under drains cleanout detail the P the grid Paving what we call Paving system but it's a the grid system for the the pathway com outow design the gravel pave system you know it's then to be graveled
and eventually probably just grow into the grass but it provides a strong space for any small pickup trucks need to get down there or if even a p of Emergency Equipment need to get down any questions on this page okay let's go to the next one page seven again additional details more specific about the how the fening is going to be connected post anchors where we see our aluminum signs Reserve accessible accessible Park spaces and this is probably if you want to add Joe your voice fades in and out I don't know if you're coming in proximity to I usually have my my little boom mic here I'm working off my microphone on myera coming through loud and clear now sometimes gets a little hard to hear any questions on this page okay and this is sheet eight again this is the note we did know we touched on this before we've add the bicycle rack which is placed GNA be placed immediately down from the handicap parking place where the where the walkway starts and you kind of get down probably five or 10 feet turn to the the right and that's all the decent flat area there to place the the bike rack yep here it is sounds good and then the rest of that is the deail for the Pavilion and the proposed shed to drop over top of the elal panel that's
there and of course we have talk before the concrete slabs be under the filling and the wood ship surfacing be under the place and that that is set of drwing G okay very good any questions at all on the plan with not not discussing the lighting aspects at this point yeah so far we can go over the three changes that Joe has to put on the print Did you has anybody written them down I have the first one's change regulation revision date Wetlands approval on the print and signs on the plan yeah got that the revision date is on the front page of the regulations which is of right yeah February 11 2024 and then I also had we're going to add a comment on the method to prevent Peak runoff being exceeded was that specified by the Consulting engineer yep and then we're going to put pzc chair signature line on every page right y okay that's what I got and I think it goes without we didn't talk about it on page three but we still need the variance from the zoning board of appeals to allow the the setback difference or the setback right Pavilion yep need a 35 foot setback as opposed to the 50 Foot okay do you have something Wayne I I'm sorry I I could have swore I saw somewhere in these revised plans where it's stated by T minutes Concrete in the parking area it was after after this page oh it was in it was in some of the the detail I think that's for the handicap parking just for the handicap parking okay yeah you left that in there just
that square because we have to have for Ada we have to have a Serv all right all right okay is there is there somebody that would like to run us through the lighting sharing and if the answer is no I'm okay with that I know that came out late I did not get a a big chance to look through it did you want me to share the lighting plan I don't know if you yeah so if you share the lighting plan and just go to the third page of the the PV layout okay hold give me one give me one second here have that one ready hold on I'll get it in a sec okay and then can you scroll down to the third page of that okay so this this shows the revised photometric diagram and we can also talk about what the absolute numbers are so this indicates that there's one two three four five six seven lights directly on the pickle ball courts although it's depicted with four pickle ball courts there's actually three but this was just illustrative of what that last open spot would be in the on the pickle ball
courts so if you look at the details for that it is basically the area on the pickle ball courts is the average is just over 30 foot candles the maximum is 37 and the minimum minimum is 26 so the men to Max ratio is 144 which is more than appropriate for a a high school Level Playing type designation for pickle ball court Eric as I look through you know the center line of the the courts there I see these levels of you like 40.7 41 am I missing something there I see a bunch of 40s no that doesn't match up to their verbage for it yep don't know why that doesn't match your calculation summary yeah yeah if you if you if you took if there if they're saying it's an average and if if you averaged everything down the center line it probably would be less than 40 no I I got that Eric just read off a number that on the little chart there that had the maximum level and yeah 37 yep yeah I'm just reading off their actual calculation summary sheet okay in some form or other so but the light levels are reduced pretty significantly basically all they do is they only apparently have one intensity of LED so all they're doing is just slapping an artificial diffuser over the LED to block a significant fraction of the light that seems to be how they get the intensities that they get I don't have any fixture details of this I assume at some point they will give us fixture details but I don't have them
aside from that the on the left of your screen the walkway to the parking area the lighting was eliminated from there completely because you know given the cost of this it's not cost effective to light both sides of the walkway in the dark you can use the other walkway and the fixtures for the parking lots there was one additional fixture added and the two on the ends were moved up because that gives more even light levels on the walkway so those are the changes that based on what the lighting designer said he needed to do get to get down to a Min to Max ratio of no greater than four in the parking lot and in the walkway which they believe they've
accomplished so that is in a nutshell what the the lighting ISO diagram is and and there's no requirement that we light the walkway yeah I know there's not even a requirement that we have a walkway there well that's my point TR light it we're just G to remove it the walkway what that if you're going to make us light it we're just going to remove the walkway okay well again I didn't get a chance to review the plan for very long before coming in here and I hadn't caught the fact that we took the lighting off the walkway over there so I guess I can check that at some point here Eric just a question are they using like a Ballard style light for that or are they going to have a full pole light coming down the walk okay I guess the other question that that I asked and I was not surprised by
the light levels on here I was surprised by the fact that we chose to use a high school standard instead of a recreation standard and I thought you know in I think I discussed with Wayne We both did independent research before the last meeting and I would have thought that a recreation field by both standards was at 30 foot candles and I've seen we have to go up to a high school standard now and I guess the the thing I was looking at it only had two categories professional and recreational when we went there but I was expecting the number to be 30 but I didn't expect high school because it's not a high school field it's a recreation field well so so part of the answer to that is it depends what standard you're using because our regulations give us some variability in what standard to use we chose to use the IES Sports
lighting standard and IES sport lighting uniformity ratio that lists three Alternatives training slre high school and Collegiate and as we discussed at the last meeting the last set of lighting guidelines were basically you know at or just slightly above the Collegiate level of play and we agreed to use the middle standard which was the high school level of play and yes we do exceed that on average by one foot candle but you can't just increment down I mean a fixture is a fixture you know you don't have an infinite ability to vary the fixture intensity so the lighting designer figured this was the best they could do if you you're not find that acceptable then deny it if I could just add Jed I part of the grant that was given named Pickle Ball courts as a resource in the the grant availability and in our research in in and around the pickle ball Corridor they are anticipating it to become an Intercollegiate sport within the next 10 years it is just blossomed I think that's why they're offering it as part of the grant so I
think metering it down to something like training and wreck would maybe prohibit being able to use it at at a high school level if that came to the came to be we would be behind almost like this the school is not having lighted lit football fields you know like there's a I I feel like if we set the bar low then we lose opportunity to be able to utilize our resources in the future Okay I understand I just did not recall from the last month's meeting that we that there was a discussion on three levels of lighting I thought there was only a discussion on two recreational and professional and and that could be my mistake because I say we didn't have a recorded so I wasn't able to review that here but I understand what you're saying you know we don't have a high school don't know that we would be playing High School pickle ball here but I do recognize that the sport is blossoming so note it okay anything else on the lighting Plan Eric I do not okay and I did think there was a fairly decent write up in the in the plan about controlling the lights and so I thought that was well written I guess when we discussed the application we can discuss whether you know the the number is the right number or not but certainly we hit a lot of the things that way any any
other commission members have questions on the lighting plan is Christine or Joe was there anything else you wanted to present to the commission at this point I think we've cover I need cover through our plans I can't think anything else I I think we've covered everything okay very good Jim you want to give us your take on the application in in the plans I'll I'll stop sharing here we go so the the revised plans have addressed my concerns as far as the signage goes my conversation with Christine I recall that they had they were working on the particulars and because it was a commission a committee they hadn't exactly decided on on Final signage so I thought perhaps just a reference to the the town's regulations might might suffice I mean there's they're not looking clearly they're not looking to put a large sign in there and I have to identify exactly what what sign what definition they would fall under so I just kind put it off at that point in time that's about all I have as far as I really didn't have a chance to review the the most recent lighting plan I did I did read The Narrative of and I thought that looked good but as far as the the numbers I didn't really have a chance to go over them okay good enough any Wayne you have any questions your
comments at this point oh I think I think I'm good I I have not seen the lighting plan at all so I I can't comment on that and of course the big nut to to crack here is how to handle the Pavilion and the setback okay understand yep any any of the commission members have any other questions or comments I'm sorry I I failed to mention that the the committee has has put in an application to the zba for variants for the a reduction in this the setback requirement and they I did have a well communicated with the chair of the
the Zoning Board of appeals who indicated they'd be happy to meet before being the commission zoning board of appeals would happy to meet prior to the March meeting but it could not be pulled off in time for tonight's meeting okay got it didn't hear any comments from the commission members John you have any comments on the application not at this time I thought it was a comprehensive presentation exhaused okay are there any members of the public here that would like to comment again at this point and we did get we did get the public comments recorded from the last session so that's part of the public record I just didn't know I see I think most of the attendees are part of the committee that that work to put together the plan Shannon VA you got any comments that you want to make at this point yep you absolutely should approve of the project thanks for asking okay you're welcome I second what Shannon says we are eager to get this done for
our town hopefully we'll get approval from you tonight thank you for your time Brandy you have any comments or questions just that you know we're very excited about this project I know the town has been looking into doing something like this for a very long time and I think it'll be great for the community it'll you know people have something fun to do in Andover you know not have to travel to another town to do some sports and activities so thank you okay Katherine Hutchinson any comments not at this time thank you okay is there anybody that I missed going through there okay so I guess that that completes the discussion for tonight the question becomes oh I know what I wanted to do and John if you could help me out and if you would call up the Planning and Zoning website and I would like to just note for the record all the things that are currently in our file there I don't want to read through them all but I'd like to make sure each of those are included in the record all right Jed I'm I'll I'll share I'm gonna need your help navigating okay so if you click on the on the left hand side the application submitted or pending and then so there are there are the documents in our file and I consider each of those part of the public record that we will look at when we get get to the point of deliberating okay okay and does anybody any of the commission members have any questions on what is in the
record there or want to have any discussion on that before we move on to the next part Jen this is Jim I just want to add that there are a couple of documents that have been submitted subsequent to or at the end of the day that are not on this list correct but I believe are considered as part of the public record the lighting revision for instance and I believe the the most current revised plan understand and we'll get those posted there we went through the lighting plan in a little detail tonight I know in permanent link there was a set of plans sent out today that I think you know had very minor changes from what was put in there on 211 that we've got to get put in and I would like to get Christine's letter asking for a waiver on right you would like that put into permit link as well no send it to Jim GNA send it to okay I'll send it to you tonight okay you can stop sharing your screen there John that that does what I wanted to cover on I don't know if I can my my computer has been very uncooperative this evening see okay well while you're working on that so the next order of business is do we continue the public hearing to our next meeting or do we close the public hearing tonight because we've got everything in there that we would like to see and I will acknowledge the fact that we we had a very thorough brief a lot of the the comments were I think most of the comments that we had outstanding from
last meeting were resolved the the the things I'm a little bit uncomfortable with in the lighting plan is lighting plan we can we can find out I I have not had a chance to do a thorough review of the lighting plan there were a couple of things that that I would like to take a look at there and I think as far as precedence goes I I know is we've gone down this path you know I would think our precedence has always been that if you want a waiver from the zon board of appeals you know that should be complete before we get before we close out the public hearing so that can be in there and not have that listed as a condition of approval those those were the two things that that concerned me about closing out the public hearing tonight if we were to have a question on the lighting plan you know is as I learned from the Dollar General once the the public hearing is closed it's closed and you're not allowed to ask any more questions and and I know that's not the answer that Christine was hoping for and and I do
recognize that there's been an awful lot of very good work put into this but that's kind of where where I'm at I'm interested in thoughts from other commission members at this point well what about the lighting plan you don't like J is there a difference between Collegiate and high school what's the difference in in foot candle well the difference so if we were to choose to use the pickle ball guidelines which is one of the two choices authorized in our regulations I know it says the average illumination you know whether it's foot candles lurs I don't remember the unit they used was 30 and so that would avoid that would avoid the issue of having should it be high school or a recreation field if we just use the other standard and would get you the number you want the it caught me by surprise and and it probably shouldn't that we're taking lighting away from a sidewalk I understand that you know an acceptable answer is well we just eliminate the sidewalk well you know I I think the sidewalks kind of nice I the fact is that I haven't been able to to spend the time thinking about it making sure that that I'm comfortable with it I might be be happy with everything there I I just don't know yet you know I I stumbled across this at
5:00 this afternoon and and I know Jim didn't get a chance to well he said he read the verbiage you know and then when when I looked at the the illumination values on the field and they were higher than the max specified in the chart yeah it just probably warrants warrants a closer look and I'm not sure that that I need to change anything I just haven't done my homework to to say that I'm good and that as soon as we say the public hearing's closed I won't have another question and then I won't be able to get it answer already already learned that lesson not
to be in a hurry to close the public hearing especially when we're meeting one week after the zba you know and and I kind of think that you you've got a good case for a hardship there and going to be approved so I I don't know that sending that along is that big an inconvenience right now the average is 30 isn't it fo candles yeah it so and and again I'll have to go back and look at at the the wording and that's what the PPA is recommending also I don't recall whether it says won't exceed 30 you know and again we're very close I just haven't didn't get the chance to go through and study any of that detail you know makes sense it could be it could be absolutely okay and I hope that it is you know I just feel I have an obligation to to do my job as a chair the the commission and and look through the new
plan that came out this afternoon right you yeah because I didn't look at my email for a couple hours didn't stumble on it until you're getting ready for the meeting here but I have a question too though about lighting we're talking about the 30 foot candles 40 I guess I'm not educated enough on this I don't have any idea what kind of light that looks like and do they make the light fixtures in these quanti these levels do they have one that's 30 or is it 33 or 34 how are we going to go at meeting those requirements when you go out to purchase the light I think you know Eric discussed they put diffusers on there to reduce the the intensity of the light but
essentially the light bulb's the light bulb it's just a question of how much you diffuse it to to reduce the level in in I don't know if they've got you know how many I know they don't have an infinite supply of diffusers they probably got a given number and and they put the one that gives us the best plan to to meet the levels on the field that we're trying to get to and and this is the this this is this is clearly the best in plan I have ever seen but I haven't had a chance to look at it you know the good news is it's the best lighting plan I've ever seen the bad news is could take a little bit of time to look through it and see that it all makes sense and I think it probably will you know but I haven't done that yet so if if the world world isn't going to come to an end for some reason I would like to hold the public hearing open to the following meeting and I would expect that we would be able to close it at that meeting and we would have the variant from zba we know exactly where we're at and all that kind of stuff okay any commission members have heartburn with taken that approach that was good and I know I'm
probably more more cautious and try to be more deliberate than maybe some people would be but that's who I am and and I can't change that so that's what I would like to do then I would like to continue the public hearing to the next meeting all the other things if we can get them corrected that we went through on that list that everybody has if they're corrected by the next meeting that will prevent them from being a condition of approval otherwise I'm very comfortable putting those in is a condition of approval at the at when we do our deliberation and when we do our deliberation I think there's probably
there might be some other conditions of approval we put in there but but those I would feel comfortable with at this point so J can I just point out that we would need the commission would need a request for extension I believe they do at this point well yeah this is this is not the commission's own application is it it is not the commission's application right yeah so you you'll need a just a yeah an authorization to extend Jim I did write one of those up today as well in case they were needed I did already email you the the request for the waiver I can send that to you as well would that is that who I should send it to yes okay I'll do that right now if we've got that from you Christine you know I'll send it right now okay appreciate you want me to read it yes okay let's see here let me close
over veteran committee requests an extension to the public car and special permit for Andover Recreational facility enhancements phase two the lighting plan was submitted today and we are awaiting proceedings for a variance through zba for the installation of a Pavilion in the setback area so did you have a number of days in there that yeah do I need I need to include how many days if you could say 35 days okay that would be good I don't know the exact number between the 18th today and okay oh March 18th so yeah 30 days would 30 days does it put 35 then
I don't have to worry about whatever y thank you Christine yep I I'll forward that over to you to Jim right now so I I heard a couple of comments that we've been working on trying to get this field Improvement thing done for 20 years I think we're pretty close one more month out of 20 years isn't going to be the end of the world so thank you for all the good work thank you for coming and I look forward to wrapping this up at our next meeting thank you J okay so the the public hearing will be continued at our meeting on March 18th and the public hearing for tonight is adjourned I'm going to take a three minute break before we call to order the regular meeting and I think you all know why I got to do that thank you there yep I'm there can I can I ask a quick favor of you while we're in recess sure can I make you the host for a second and try to restart my computer because it's not fully cooperating sure I think all you have to do is you know not have your computer explode in the next couple of minutes I think I can probably do that all right I am the host good luck I'll I'll be right okay it's 8:28 and I'd like to call the regular meeting of the Planning and Zoning commission to order next up on business is roll call and seating of alternates lean Hutchinson do we have voice Communications with you now yes okay thank you so for roll call and seating of
alternates all commission members are present I see Ann Marie and Kevin also present Susan England is not present tonight so no alternates will be seated next up is addition or changes to the agenda does anybody have any proposed additions or changes to the agenda and I'm GNA have one and so I'd like to make a motion to to add to the agenda the approval of the meeting minutes from January 21st meeting is item 10 looking for a second I'll second that thank you Ann any discussion and Jed just so you know the town planner attempted was attempting to reboot his computer so he turned the host over to me temporarily hopefully he's going to succeed in that role and take it back okay are we still recording we are still recording okay because normally I see a little thing on my screen that says recording and I don't see see it tonight but oh yeah I see it okay yep just didn't want to have to go
through go through that again okay and John is back on now so and Jed yep Patrick we're not going to be doing a PowerPoint presentation tonight I don't know if that was on the agenda per se but well I'll just be saying a few things before later on so do I have to change the agenda or no you do not nope whatever you say is good to go okay great has a PowerPoint fine if it doesn't that's fine too so thanks so the the motion is to approve the minutes to add approval of minutes from January 21st is item 10 it's been seconded I'll call for a vote an i Scott hi Leanne hi Patrick I and I vote I as well that motion passes five z z next up is public speak anybody from the public want toh talk about anything other than the pickle ball courts tonight I have a public speak go ahead Patrick for the March 22nd Planning and Zoning classes there's the community center room's been reserved for anybody who wants to do the the online class
there okay great okay so I'll be there for sure thank you Patrick anybody else hearing none we'll move on to new business which talks about proposed amendments to the zoning regulations then at the last meeting one of the options that we were talking about is out of that section 11.2 of our meeting should we consider this an open space subdivision to give us reduced setbacks we chose not to go that route which I think was the correct answer but when we did that I noticed in our regulations it talks about the open space lot setback is 20 Feet Andover Lake open space setback is 20 feet and the business adjacent to the Ard is listed as 10 feet and when you define a setback is a distance from the center line of the road which is about 13 feet that would mean for an open space subdivision we'd be able to build a house or a building 7 feet away from the road and I don't think that's what was
intended I think probably the intent of that was put it 20 feet from the road in a business 10 feet from the road so the next time that I have a a proposal to update the regulations I'm going to add those in there to move those back just a little bit more than they are so that they're not right on top of the road because I don't think anybody in Handover wants the building's that close to the road that's that's my take on that and that was all that I wanted to talk about with the proposed amendments to the zoning regulations I'm going to move down to item six old business and that's the various improvements to the recreation field and that's on hold we'll discuss that at the next meeting next up is I wanted to talk for just a minute about the gravel pit and I will make a motion that the commission enter executive session to discuss pending litigation concerning the Gravel Pit All commission members Town manager prospective zoning agent and town planner are invited to attend for those people that that are still here that are not on that list I don't expect that executive session to last more than about five or 10 minutes more than five minutes I guess so you don't need to run away that just gives you a break to go get a glass of water or something but I move that we go to Executive session with those folks looking for a second Leanne was you seconding yes okay very good any discussion on the
in here okay I okay yeah Scott I Liam I Patrick I can I vote I as well John if you can do your magic and get into executive session there so the I'm sorry just to confirm the people that are not being brought over are a deel Bata Kevin arners and K cathern Hutchinson an Marie dagel is okay I'm sorry yet okay so b b thank you Catherine I'll get it right one of these days 90% better than the first time I tried it and is Kevin coming over yes yes y all right hang on so just the two people back coming
okay people are [Music] back thank you for stopping it at the appropriate point there next item up is planet conservation and development Patrick anybody hearing me Patrick oh he was out of audio okay there we go Patrick can us yes now I can hear you okay very good you're up oh I'm up yep all right so we had a great meeting with with John and and I I was actually reviewing the 2015 plan of conservation especially the de development part a lot of the ideas that we've been bouncing around in need DC are definitely where we want to go in the future and tomorrow night's meeting we're going to finalize our presentation for the planning and zoning and our final recommendations also hopefully we'll have a PowerPoint presentation so it's nice and orderly but we we talked a lot about potential development and restaurants and stuff that businesses that a lot of people in town want to see let me pull up my presentation I just want to mention one thing the reason that we're going to make some more recommendations is because please hold there it is we noticed that when H smaller businesses start to outgrow their their you know a lot of homebased businesses and smaller business in town they end up leaving Andover and move their business and we lose that tax money so that's one of the driving forces for us to really start focusing on development in our town so that there's a spot for them to go you you think we're looking at something you think you're sharing your screen I don't I'm just I'm just looking out my not I just wanted to make sure we were getting what we were supposed to be getting yeah
this is just a it's a quick rundown a lot of the the stuff that was talked about in the 2015 plan of conservation development we've started in the right direction in a couple areas like we we we have a sign in town we did the the farmers market to help bring and over some notoriety and out now obviously the pickle ball court is going to be drawing people to town but we want to be really clear on what we want to add to this but basically a lot of it is implementing stuff that was never implemented on the last plan of development so tomorrow night's meeting we'll be finalizing what we're going to present to the planning of zoning okay super now is as an aside there you John Eric Jim Wayne and I and Roberta have been working a little bit on you know the the town zoning map and there were there were some errors in there that were correcting great but there we've had some discussions about what should this property be zoned be residential Business Industrial or whatever and so I'm hoping as part of your recommendations going forward what I'd like to you know what I'd like to do with with the Conservation Commission is we sit down together and say these are the properties that we think should be developed business-wise these industrial these we don't want to be developed we want to find a way to conserve those right and and just kind of go through and make sure that we
have the zoning the way we want it and so that we can Target those properties to to put in the businesses that you guys want to to help bring to the town excellent so that would be that and and that will take probably a couple of extra meetings to have that discussion but I think you know when when Eric's asking me where do you think it should be zoned and I say well I think you know I'd like to hear from the Conservation Commission in the EDC before we make those decisions and and that will help us get the right answers in there so sounds great that'll be that'll be hopefully part of it and that will make our plan hopefully a little bit better yeah and because I I did notice that there were some areas that were were marked we we had two different ideas for Village node there was there's like conflicting ideas in the last plan of well the development
part of it so it's it's really GNA we're going to have to really finalize what we are really envisioning so but I did think there was a lot of good stuff in the old one that yeah definitely no room to do and we just need to tweak it a little bit make sure we're back on course heading in the direction we all want to go so yes yes look forward to that discussion at our next meeting great any anybody else have questions for Patrick while we're on this topic okay we move on the proposed telecommunication Tower at 7:46 East Street I did not attend the public hearing that was reportedly held I I know there were a couple of people from the Conservation Commission that were going to try I sent them what I thought was the most latest and greatest date and time and login information and and they told me they w weren't able to to get in to see it and I I never successfully figured out why it was that that I didn't get
a copy of the thing last July you know it it was sent out by their attorney not registered receipt or anything it was he had some kind of proof of delivery to the post office so he had something from the post office saying yes you mailed it but but never never heard back you know on any evidence that it showed up here the I also reached out a friend of mine's the chairman of Inland Wetlands over in Hebron and asked him if he got anything back July last July and he said nope December was the first he heard of it so I don't know what the issue is there but that didn't go exactly right but I will certainly pay more attention to cell towers in the future not that we have an awful lot of say in it and that's all I have on the Telecommunications Tower unless there's any questions for me okay GNA move on down to some more new business business and the first up is the application the action appointment of the new zoning agent and Leanne was the person I think that mentioned at one of the first meetings Wayne showed up that the planning zoning commission needed to vote on Wayne and that caught me a little off guard at the time and I said well Wayne's not taking over right off the bat he's been a he's in the learning
process for a while and it gave me a chance to go do my homework and I found two things in our bylaws that says appointments of staff and Consultants shall be made by a majority of vote of the entire membership unless otherwise provided for so that's one of the things we're voting we're voting to kind of retro proactively hire Wayne because he's here the other thing that when I was talking to Leanne about that making sure I didn't miss anything she said it used to be something about that in the charter I think we took it out but I did go back and look in our current Charter and the charter says the zoning enforcement officer the board of selectman shall by a majority vote of the entire board appoint by a four F vote of the entire board to enable to remove the zoning officer providing
either action been secured or the advice of consent to the majority of members of the planning zoning commission and a meeting warrant and held for such purpose I thought that was going to talk about bringing him on as his Zing enforcement officer I see that not in there now so I guess the the charter only only requires this big vote of our planning Our advice and consent if we wanted to get rid of zoning enforcement officer and that is not the case so our I do think that we we're allowed to have more than one zoning enforcement officer I think the time is coming very close to where Wayne is gonna be feeling that he is ready to take the lead on that effort I got some things that kind of hoping that Jim can get wrapped up before he before he draws his last paycheck for the town but I'll make a motion that we approve hiring Wayne is our zoning enforcement officer a second that thank
you Scott any discussion Jed yep I hate to be a stickler your the wording you used was hire Wayne I think what you probably want to say is appoint Wayne for okay I'll amend my I'll amend my motion to appoint Wayne is the zoning enforcement officer and I'll second that again okay thank you Scott any other discussion hearing n I'll call for a vote an hi Scott hi Leanne hi Patrick hi and I vote I as well now let me and that's all we need no Dad yep this is lean can I just this is not for us to do anything about now but as as you mentioned you had asked me
if I had any other thoughts based on things we've talked about in the past and I see the way this is worded it does refer as you just said to removing a zoning enforcement officer and I'll just repeat my opinion from apparently the language has been removed which I told you I wasn't in favor of at the time for actually hiring a zoning enforcement officer without the advice and consent of the Planning and Zoning commission and the reason for that was I was there when this language was put in the charter and at the time honestly it was a personality conflict between the first selectman and the person who was chairman of the Planning and Zoning commission at the time about the board of Selectmen hiring somebody that the commission actually didn't care for but was sort of have given to them without advice and consent anyway so that was my original opinion that I brought up to you when you asked me about it and theoretically that could happen so that's what I meant when I said I didn't
agree with that that this is the hiring now not the not the removal right that it talks about in section 72h yep now now yeah we we don't we don't provide input to the board of Selectmen and I'm not sure what if anything they do for bringing it on I know after we had done the interviews the everybody got briefed I know Scott pan and I both sat in on the interviews so we did that but the so that's where we are that's what the way the charter is now I I'm not done voting though yet I reading the bylaws and it says made by a majority of
voted the entire membership so Kevin I'm asking for your vote sorry I had something in my throat I vot ey as well okay amarie is Amber still with us i' looking no I don't see her anymore okay so we got six yeses and that's the majority of the entire membership which is eight so Wayne you're official all right sorry Jed I didn't I'm a sorry J I didn't mean to bring that up before the voting was done I'm just so used to hearing you know all the commission members the full commission members being pulled I didn't mean to interrupt you before Kevin and an Marie if she were here that was my fault I I stopped after I got through my list of PCC members here and then I remembered that the bylaws required full membership so but we're we've got six six members voting yes Susan England not present and it appears that Amry dagel is no longer present as well so they they didn't vote but we have a majority the entire membership so that takes care of that thank you I I appreciate the appreciate the confidence I would point out section 21.1 says the commission shall designate a zoning enforcement officer or officers okay yep very good next next item up is sexual harassment training for Commissioners and I think I've have heard from everybody but Patrick and in hand on thinking they've done something to put the tick in the Box for sexual harassment training an have you done it or submitted something to I I haven't been
able to find my certificate so I guess I'll do it again okay it'll be good for 10 years once you do so that how about you Patrick I'll be supplying my certificate from work okay very good yep and that should that should be all that it takes but except me say again Wayne I that just reminds me I have to sign up for it too okay yeah I wasn't gonna thump you here tonight I was just trying to make sure that we got the commission members taken care I I can't get out my records for my previous employment so moving on next up is correspondence and I think I sent out to everybody an email on a work live ride brief and there's a person from desegregate connecticut. org who was looking to brief us on work live ride that helps local commissions create special Transit oriented Community districts around their bus or rail station by prioritizing State funding for infrastructure and technical assistance to the office of responsible growth she was looking to come in and give us a little presentation I my thought was we we don't have an awful lot of Transit infrastructure here we've got you know the bus that stop by the parking ride a couple of times not not a lot of area toh put residential development around that so I was going to pass on getting that brief plus I think John is very knowledgeable in all the aspects of that and he's probably got us covered his thought was we probably
wouldn't I'll let John you know provide whatever you want to say h d John yeah no I mean I I think it's a fine offer of sort of information but this is just one of dozens and dozens and dozens of sort of affordable housing Transit oriented development type bills that are proposed I think this is their sort of you know outreaching PR campaign they've already had their hearing at the legislature so now it's essentially in committee and again yeah as you said Jed this this bill wouldn't really affect endover at all because we don't really have the infrastructure nor do we really have true Transit that would benefit from this proposal it's useful for Metro North towns it's useful for even busway towns but not so much for Andover and and frankly I I don't think it's necessarily worth our time I shared I did submit testimony on behalf of the Connecticut Planning Association
supporting it as as sort of to legislation transitory to development but it's frankly not worth handovers time to to worry about one one needle and a Hast stack of legislation yeah there's probably plenty of needles that'll be coming at us before it's all done but anyhow unless unless some commission members feel strongly that we we should be listening to that brief I think our time's better spent working on plan of conservation and evelopment okay hearing hear nothing on that I guess we'll go to administrative report zoning agent Jim you got anything for us U I've added a few properties to The Matrix number eight Aspen all letter went out today on some work that was done without a permit I'm also trying to clean up a few loose ends involving a one involving a property at be swamp that sort of was is being lived in without a benefit of a certificate of occupancy and I will'll be getting a letter out to them shortly and I finally was able to to speak to Dennis O'Brien regarding initiating of the fine finding mechan or utilizing the finding mechanism for for zoning enforcement for both Dollar Tree and Benjamin Franklin and I hope to get those letters out shortly next few days and that about it okay but I'd be happy to answer any questions yep anybody got any questions for Jim and I will point out that one of the one of those things that I'm hoping that Jim can clean up before we send him on his merry way is the remediation out at Pine Ridge Road and you know Jim and I talked about maybe going out there taking another look at it my thought is I don't want
any more action taken until we have a plan that Serenity is good with because it would involve George going on to Serenity's property to to execute the plan George sometimes goes out and does action and do what he thinks is the right answer we have asked him for a written plan I expect to get a written plan Jim and I talked about the fact that we ought to wait till the snow is off the ground before we go out there and look and given that the snow is all very icy I think that's really a good idea at this point so hopefully the snow will be gone before June so we can
send Jim on his merry way Jed yep Wayne just to add in our efforts to clean up clean up that map I submitted I talked with the the assessor and we identified 21 properties that are incorrectly zoned on the property cards and gave gave a list of those properties to her to change as far as as far as how they're listed in the on the property cards okay were any of them the ones that we were wrestling with what should it be zoned these are ones that we identified as being incorrectly zoned not not nothing nothing we were wrestling with okay yep no I just hope that we don't change it you know go through the pleasure of having a public hearing and change it and then change it back after the group to the best of my knowledge and and in my research these are properties that should be zoned one way and are incorrectly listed on their property cards okay very good thank you Wayne okay the next up is in the wetlands water course commission our meeting this month was cancelled we had nothing to discuss there and so I've got nothing to report next up is Town planner John I think we've covered most of what we were up to I would just like to note or reiterate that we did have very productive meetings with economic development last week and hopefully we'll help collaborate on their their PowerPoint for next time as well as a very productive meeting with conservation and I would anticipate I
would hope that we will have a draft conservation chapter for the pocd review available before the next PCC meeting excellent which probably should have asked it we don't have our miscellaneous topic here but but here it goes reading my source for all information on town planning stuff the River East I saw last Friday that the proposed budget had the open space funding cut from 50,000 to $25,000 and I do see that it looks like the the budget might be going up Scott or an have anything to share that led to that you know is it worth going back with the Conservation Commission to try and make a pitch to get that in or is the budget just so big an increase this year that it's not the right thing to do well our side of the budget is not that big of an increase but it's the that that $50,000 is an easy one to go after yep I suggested they do they do it 51 year and 25 the next alternate instead of going 50 every year or 25 every year okay maybe we'll do that you know and I feel you know there there's certainly going to be a time
where it's not the right thing to do to put money in open space funding I want to kind of delay that day as long as we can so we can build that fund up so that when when we absolutely can't we're in as good shape as we can be but I do understand the fiscal realities that it looked like the school budget was going to go up a bit this year and it looked like they had some pretty valid reasons for doing that and the grand list is way down also this year any any sense as to why that was is it some of the rules that the state put on cars how they tax them and Veteran are getting tax reductions on their homes and properties okay GW I was reading in the paper out we're gonna get all this extra money from the state this year so hopefully that comes to pass that's less money oh okay enough on that an you have anything you want to add before we go on to the next topic no not really it's just okay I think that it's looking at the the school budget is going to have to go up because of the increase in the students so they was something they could cut out nope that was my take on that from reading reading the River East okay any anybody else have any topic before we talk about the next meeting just yesterday in the Hartford current there was an article about at the state level they're putting more focus on climate change when it comes to drafting plans of conservation and evelopment okay I think that's good and I think you know we did have h a section
you know we haven't developed it yet but when on those we envision statements we did recognize the need to address climate change and and so I think we're consistent with that Trend good hopefully we're leading that Trend apparently anyway yeah yeah Chad I I have one real quick thing I'd like to interject and in and I think it is pertinent to the Planning and Zoning Commission because some of the regulations in terms of storm water management and other things that fall under your fview and that is I attended the annual meeting of kerma which is our insurance company and they brought in for one of the sessions a climate scientist who specializes in predicting essentially storm events and we look they showed the country as a whole and talked about what
was changing in what parts of the country in the big takeaways in the northeastern United States the extreme precipitation event God bless you excuse me are increasing pretty significantly and he said today compared to say 50 years ago the amount of intense rainfall has gone up by a factor four so the long and the short of it is what that means is what was traditionally thought of as a 500-year flood event should be thought of as something that has a probability four times greater than that and that that Trend holds through for everything between roughly the 10year storm event and the 500e storm event so when we look at a 100e storm event you can actually assume that's going to happen about once every 25 years and if it's a 10-year storm event you can assume that's going to happen about every two and a half years roughly so I think that bears a lot of thought in terms of what's allowed where and how the town copes with with significant rain events that's it thank you anybody else I'm gonna I can't remember if we did public speak or not for the end I know we did it the start Katherine you have any comments at this point no I don't thanks for asking and I think you're the only one that's hung in this far so next meeting
is gonna be on March we gonna do the minute approval oh that's what that scribble on there is thank you Ann will I will make a motion to approve the minutes from the regular planning and zoning committee and public hearing on Tuesday January 21st 2025 I'll second that thank you an any comments on the minutes Chad I have one page four out of five second paragraph after the bullets two members expressed interest in joining the Conservation Commission one of which is part of Al I believe we just read should be whom I don't know why that that warrant's changing but I just called just call my attention so what okay so what is what is your comment about the way that is worded now that I found it it's one of whom as opposed to one of which yeah oh
I'm just trying to I didn't know you were an English major there Jim yes grammar's important okay there's H there's one correction now anybody else have a comment or correction and I've got one under paragraph six on that same page where we motion to not go into executive session we required to list how people voted and as I recall correctly Leanne and I voted to go to Executive session an and Patrick voted not to go to Executive session and I put down Scott abstained because he said maybe and we need to have those results put into the minute so people know how we're voting and any other comments so I amend my motion to approve the minutes as amended by changing which to whom and adding how we voted to paragraph six on entering executive session looking for your second again an second any other discussion hearing none I'll call for vote an i Scott I Leanne I Patrick I and I vote I as well the motion passes
500 Z and Ann again thank you for keeping me honest and making sure we get done all those things that we needed to do I think we said next scheduled meetings March 18th to be held as hybrid so weather permitting we will we will meet in person with the hybrid option if it gets if February continues on like it is we may change that to zoom only but at this point we're planning on a hybrid meeting in we'll have a chance to start getting together again so thank you all for attending and participation tonight and I make a motion that we adjourn at 9:27 second thank you Patrick call for a vote an hi Scot hi
lean hi Patrick I I vote I as well motions approved 500 Z thanks again everybody good night and we'll see you