Some mutation. That was a You. That You Wear a now. These are These are all I. Don’t hear anything wrong? Yeah, I Hear something I hear, I hear myself and I can hear Patrick and Beth, but I don’t see anybody except myself. Although I do see it on TV will hear the conversation.

But I think Well, if you if you have a public meeting, we all have to be, um, visible. That’s an open meeting law. Um, requirement We haven’t started yet, Darcy, OK? So you’re saying the Here. HM. Town Hall with a bit of sweatshop. OK? It is 7:06 P.m. and I’m calling the, uh Hamilton Planning board.

June 18th 2024 meeting to order its as I, said 7:06 P.m.. Um Our first order of business is roll call. So when I call your name, would you please indicate that you’re present? Uh, I know that Pat Norton will not be available. He’s had, um AAA family. Uh, Tragedy if you will, and our our sympathies go out

to him. Um Jonathan Poor Jonathan Poor present. Bill Wheaton, Bill Wheaton present Am Quest Amel Dost present. Beth Her. Yeah. Darcy. Dale! Darcy Dale here. Uh, Matt Hamill. He is out this week on vacation. Uh, Jeff Austin here. Good morning, C here. So Uh, the first item on our agenda is

a board discussion of the stormwater management, bylaw rules and regulations and we have discussed this in the past. Uh, I believe all planning board members, uh, have had the opportunity to, um make whatever suggested changes to the document that they thought were appropriate. I know that I

forwarded to a town council ale Weser. A number of, um And. It’s that I had to the regulations. They were mostly stylistic. I was making sure for example, that every time we referred to mass general laws that we referred to mass general laws in the same way, as attorneys know there are

many iterations of how you write out mass general laws chapter. Whatever section. Whatever so it it can have many different styles, so I made sure they were consistent and some Uh, non substantive changes, so I know for for, um, the members here that Alec Weser accepted. Those edits. He He accepted those edits and, um,

we will be having a public hearing on, uh, approval of the storm Water management regulations on July 2nd, Uh, Patrick has provided the requisite um notice of that, Um Meeting. And. So. We’re hoping that we get some input. Um, maybe from some, uh, developers. Um I know that we had a developer. Come. When. We were

first considering the bylaw and he had some, um very constructive comments about stormwater management. So. We’re hoping that we do get some feedback from, uh, people in the trade, so to speak, who can address the actual, um, requirements that would set forth and and really whether we have omitted anything. Um, inadvertently. So. I think we

can move on from That, Um, agenda item and the next is a status report on the comprehensive Plan for the Town Center and I Know that on June 12th. There was, um, a community forum and there was a presentation by the consultants UT about, uh, the comprehensive plan and the form based code,

so I don’t know if there has been any activity since that time. Uh uh. Perhaps. You could enlighten me if I’m wrong on that score, Amel. All right. Uh, there’s been no news in terms of when the advisory committee has its first meeting. Uh, it looks as though it’s going to be first around the first of

July as the early date. Um, but there’s been no activity. Uh, UTL did. Make a a 1520 minute presentation at the July 12 meeting. Uh and, uh, it was Much of the same information that we had seen previously. So. There’s really nothing new To talk about or discuss in that.

But Microphone. Really part of the fan. Mm. Yeah. There’s not a lot to add to. Thank you, uh, not a lot to add to what Marnie said there on the June 12th meeting. Uh UTL did make a 1520 minute presentation. Uh, and a lot of the material that they

showed us they had actually shown before, and we had reviewed before. In a cursory way. Um, there was no discussions about, uh what The. Next steps are the first advisory committee meeting looks like it’s going to be early July. We have not had that. Uh, told to us definitively, and then there’ll

be the next public engagement will be toward the, uh, toward the end of July will be the next community wide public engagement. Uh, so the the July 12th was conducted by the town manager and he had Uh, wanted to deal with several items on that agenda. Um Of course. The downtown area. Uh, was one of

them. The, Uh, he had Eric Tracy there as a school representative, as, um And. Uh JO Lara, Who’s president, I guess of the school Committee, uh, spoke there as well. But, um It was informational. It was sort of a kickoff meeting if you will, and, uh, he, Joe. Them its promises to have many more public engagement meetings

to, uh Uh, explain what’s going on. All, right? I think that the focus of our meeting tonight? Um will be the, um continued review of the Master plan document, and, uh, I will say now, I, I may have said it, uh, at our last meeting, but I’ll repeat it. Uh, I view the planning board’s role with

respect to the master plan. Not so much, um, to rewrite the master plan. I Think what the master plan needed more than anything was a narrative that, uh, tied the different components of the master plan together in a meaningful way. So what we had with the Master plan was six. Segments if you

will, six chapters and they didn’t really flow one to another and the vision and the goals and the issues didn’t really tie. Very tightly to the action items in the implementation, um, section of the master plan. So at our last meeting. I know that I had some suggested, um Additions to the

document. I think Jonathan had a few additions and Amel did too. And so, um, I met with Amal and provided him with my material and I. I Well I. We had exchanged that material. So he had that. Um, but We know that Amel has, um uh, uh, long

career as an architect and as a planner, and he has, um Taken the master plan and provided us with a new table of contents. And I think that What I would like to achieve tonight is, um, a buy in as to the table of contents. The restructuring of the document. We’re not. We are adding introductory paragraphs

and just reorganizing. Uh, For example. We’re not, um Making any significant changes other than correcting typographical errors, uh to the, um, recording in progress. Invent. Uh, the inventory and assessment section. We’re just reward reorganizing it. So. Uh, I think that if everyone looks at the table of contents, um I think they’ll see that it has

AAA better flow to it. So I need to. We need to redo roll call, Um, since it wasn’t being recorded. It wasn’t recorded when we started. It was not My mistake. Sorry. Allergies to all people on Zoom, Um Oh NHWC A is recorded. OK, so we do not need to go through OK? All.

Right. Go on. Uh so I personally think that the work that has been done so far has improved this document. It’s more of a Literary document it has it has more readability. There’s more of a context. There’s. There’s an attempt to explain why we have a vision. Why. We formulate goals.

Why. We are our addressing issues and opportunities and and Um The import of the, UM, assessment, and, um the inventory and assessment and how those, uh, those sections then Funnel into the action items in the implementation section. We will not get to the implementation section tonight, but I think that I know Jonathan made a first pass at

making the chart. Um, that has the different action items more understandable and Uh, simpler and then the other comment. I would make that we really well. I particularly looked at the controversial issues that the town is confronting right now. And and I don’t really have to elaborate on any of them.

But. We have the section three a issue. We have the Winthrop school issue And then, uh, just the whole, um, issue about what type of, um Or What size school. We may end up having, uh, when the voters actually go to the voting booth in the spring, so the intent here was to just

indicate that these are issues that the town is confronting. There’s The voters will decide at town meeting the direction the town will go and we try to be as neutral as possible in discussing these topics and essentially saying that this is what we know. Now. We may know more later and the voters will

decide end of story. I mean what this master plan document is not to be an exegesis on that. These these, uh, very divisive issues that the town is Fronting. Um it’s just to say they’re out there. And once we have more knowledge about, uh what the Commonwealth requires and what the voters

are going to, Uh, tell town officials, then we can plan accordingly. We’re not trying to, uh, address or solve those problems in this document, So. I think that to some extent that uh uh, a laid sum of Pat Norton’s comments. I have his comment. And, um I hesitate to

go through them in his absence because I met my mistake his import, But. He did, um, a thorough job of of addressing some issues in the inventory and assessments. Uh, section. He he took issue with a couple of factual statements, but we need to speak with him about why he thinks those statements

are wrong. In what evidence? Um, he has that suggest that that why Thinks They are wrong, But, believe me, they are. They are not statements that that are going to affect any kind of decision making. I think it one was with respect to to the, um, level of, uh, office space, Uh, availability or something like

that. It wasn’t it Wasn’t really that critical so we can address his issues when, um when he returns and Darcy Uh am I correct that most If. Not. All of your changes were, uh, grammatical typographical. Uh, Yes, I stayed away from the stylistic stuff, right? That’s OK, You know that’s OK.

Sometimes. Stylistic stuff is important. I’m I’m I’m uh I sometimes have a red pen. I’m a style, Nathan. Uh, but, uh, I think that if you assure us that your comments are basically, uh, typographical errors we can you know when When. We have a finished document with new page numbers

we can go through and accept your changes. I mean I know, I know that just looking at the materials that Amos sent around, I found, um Uh, several typographical errors and also we have to be mindful of consistency and and that’s always difficult because throughout the master plan when

we refer to the town of Hamilton, we capitalize the T, but sometimes we don’t so we need to be sure, because this is a document that we want to be proud of that we are as consistent as possible with respect to all references to the town to Massachusetts law.

Those, um, small things. Um, but they do, um, add up to making a document much more professional than if you have a lot of inconsistency. So, uh, with that, I, I Think. I will turn the discussion over to, um A because I think, uh, his restructuring his table of contents. Um, it’s something

that if we agree that this is a good way of presenting the information, uh, we will make a really good first step in, um in moving forward with the ABS, uh, actual content. Patrick and I share a screen. Um, I think I’m connected. Uh, the application. You did share or after So it was sitting in the

Wi Fi. I can’t hear you. You have to make him an older For a co That Screen. Mm. I think if you could hit new share, no. Yeah. Stops you? Oops Try it again. There we are. So there’s this Panelist. It may be the Panelist. Participants. Yeah, you asked. I clicked on Panelist, uh, is his name there?

Yep. Yep. Yeah like the three dots. Yeah. Make host Yeah, you or not, let’s not change the language, though. Change one. He was like India saying it was a webinar. And make you the host for the moment. Yeah, OK. So. Do. I have to click. Uh Share a screen again.

Mm. Disabled participant screen sharing. Um Yeah, OK. Yeah. Get started Kickstarter. Connect to your schedule. On the upper arrow part Um Mhm. I just click shared screen. Try that. Did you just try sharing sharing? You should be so on the On three again. That’s what you would What. Do you want to?

Yeah and then hit the? Yeah, you go. All Right. Here we go. Sorry about that. Keep them. OK, uh, just as a introduction. Uh, I actually was on the, uh, steering Master Plan steering committee when it first started and I was on there, Uh, for the length of the first consultant and, um So. I feel comfortable

making changes I. I Uh, work together with a lot of the steering committee folks and I was the one who introduced the idea of, um Protect provi and grow and then looking ahead as as a format for doing this, and, uh, it was accepted by the people and I noticed in the final document that, um The

consultant. I use it in only one place The Vision section 11 sheet of paper. So. What, I thought would be Go back to the original idea which there was again a lot of support on the steering committee to do this, um, to just divide the various elements into the three sections. Uh, so when I, uh

Patrick handed this out. I’ve reproduced just a S. This is not the whole document here. I’ve just done a series of, um Slides that represent significant changes from the original master plan that we, uh we saw the So that What was missing was a planned summary. Under introduction, You’ll see, the acknowledgment stayed the

same introduction of preface by Patrick stayed the same, but then plan summary the the plan had should have been introduced to the public with an overview and then the vision page, which is, uh, the concept of how this is going to be organized, uh, with Uh, Protect, provide grow.

So that was on a vision statement. And. Then there was a series of goals that followed that and I’ll go through these briefly, but I’ll just cover the contents right now. Uh, That was followed by key issues and opportunities. Uh, item two here. Uh and These. These were the issues that were raised

during the course of a lot of the discussions. Again. These the state stipulates you have to have at a minimum of nine elements covered in your document from natural resources, open space and so forth Cultural and historic resources, community facilities housing, uh, Uh, Economic development and so forth. And then, of course, you need the

implementation plan at the end. Uh, What, I thought would be kind of neat in this one is to go back to what the the three tools that towns have can use to plan or manage their communities. Um and th This came about in a study in the United Nations 1987. There was

a report that was prepared about sustain sustainable development and that shows up on a diagram that, uh I can. I can I’ll refer to later on when we start going through this, and what that does is, uh, it recognizes that there are three elements or three areas or spheres that need to be dealt

with one is environmental quality. One is social well being and the and the last one is economic development. Those are the three things that towns have to balance in some way to deal with their community to make it a successful community and so forth. Uh, thought that that would be a neat way to

kind of organize the key issues that came up during the course. The. Um, the session. None of the language in the issues were changed. They didn’t change anything there, but I just sort of reordered them. So. It kind of made sense, and it follows the lead in to the planned summary. How was this plan

constructed and put together. Number three is inventory and assessment. That was the longest section and that was the one spent a lot of time on, uh The consultant spent a lot of time on the existing conditions and so forth. Many many pages, um, there again, That’s These are the The inventory and assessment was

the part of this. That should have been divided into protect, provide and grow and under protect as you can see here, um Is natural resources, open space, cultural and historic resources under provide community facilities and services, transportation and under grow economic development, housing and residential development in land use again.

All of those sections were written by the consultant. Uh, what it lacked was kind of a lead in an explanation of why that’s why that’s occurring the way it is and some kind of context and looking ahead is the last part which we’re not going to get. To a lot here.

That’s the Land use plan. The That’s a future Land Use Plan Implementation program and the chart. Uh, this is gonna require a lot of additional work to get to more detail on that. But as an organizational structure. This is what, um I’m offering anyway as a way to use the information that we’ve been

provided with structured differently, so I hopefully is more readable. So moving up to the planned summary. Started with an overview and then a box a plan organization, which is a small chart at the bottom of the sheet. Uh, Is planned summary has three sections. There’s an overview vision goals. Uh, and a brief

description to the right of those, uh to what this section really is going to cover the issues and opportunities conservation quality economic development. Social well being. Those are the three legs on the stool at town’s manage their their communities. And determining what is the balance of all those three things, and there’s an explanation on the

right hand side there and then the inventory and assessment. This is the vision protect, provide grow all of the various elements are associated or positioned within this section, then looking ahead is the final. That’s really what’s next. In terms of Implement Implementation Chart program and so forth. This is a section,

as I say is gonna require, um It’s kind of complicated, so it’s gonna require a little bit more work and, uh, and discussion on its own. But Right now we’re looking for this is kind of the basic, Therefore four main sections within this document. This is how it’s organized. The vision.

What we did was there was no overview here, so the vision was just this vision statement, uh, at the bottom. So we put in the overview at, um I won’t I won’t read this because you members probably have, uh, but Just briefly for centuries people have left have left their mark large, small and

large in this place we call Hamilton. Our community is what it is today, partly because of its physical location and natural environment, and partly because of the choices made or not made with both intended and unintended results, all of combined to create this unique and attractive place just as the decisions of our predecessors shaped the

Hamilton of today, current actions will shape the Hamilton of tomorrow. In evaluating possible direction for the next decades. We asked several questions. What will Hamilton be in 2030 50 years. Will. We secure our identity and build places we really care about. In. What ways. Can. We manage our future. Answers to these

questions begins with a vision, then a plan and finally actions to secure our chosen direction, healthy and prosperous communities do not just happen. They are created by informed and intentional choices based on a comprehensive long term plan. The way we develop affects the quality of our lives and the vitality of our

community. We seek an environment designed around the expressed needs of individuals conducive to the formation of community and preservation of towns landscape. A vision is the beginning, and a plan is the process to secure our chosen destiny. A community by choice. So the section that the

consultants put in. Just. That is so this is kind of a lead in to What is a vision statement or why is it necessary? Uh, the critical thing here is that this vision like in a downtown it, it has to be a physical has to be a physical vision, not

just some completely abstract thing. Uh, Then the section 13 is goals. Uh, introduction purpose of planning goals again. This is quite lengthy, um And it describes, um I’ll just read the opening paragraph. The public process of producing a master plan reveal that the goals are book ended by respect

for the past and concern for the future goals, reflecting respect for the past and body recognition of what makes Hamilton and the extraordinary place that it is in view of its scenic vistas, historic buildings and open spaces and the sense of place that stems From that recognition. Uh, can

serve to guide decision makers as the town evolves over time through the creation of new landscapes, neighborhoods and other forms of development, the concern for the future, as many participants observed, must be predicated upon Environmentally sensitive development, emphasizing sustainability and resiliency. So this was again putting a context on what are

the I think the consultants so had two pages here that, um I won’t read the whole thing, obviously, but two pages that kind of describe and set up This chart of goals and this is a a revised the chart that was that they they had prepared and using the same format sort of into the Protect Uh, provide

and grow so under protect there’s natural resources goals again. That’s one of the elements required by the state Open space and Recreation Goals. Cultural and historic resources goals. Community facilities and services transportation goals, both under provide and finally grow economic development. Housing goals land use. That’s Those are the eight Categories

that, um This Master plan covers in detail. And. There’s a brief description of what each one of those goals. Uh, is a general explanation of it. That’s, followed by key issues and opportunities, and, uh can I ask a question on that there’s the U utility infrastructure goals, which seems, was that in the original

map that was not in the original. Uh I added It, then took it out again. Uh, because because I have it here. I just was with the community facilities and services. Some of the language was included in the first time I have a different version. Then. I guess the only reason Well not

the only reason but we don’t have maps on that. We don’t have any A lot of detail on that. So, uh, the amount of time Yeah. So, and it was not, uh, it it is unusual to see that on master plans. You typically do not see that, uh,

so it was But then that’s not gonna be on the table of contents, either, because my table of content still is out. Got it. Did you give her that June 18th. Yeah, this is this is kind of latest changes you different From what? Perfect. On what Patrick sent out because that way he sent out

information I gave him on the 17th. And then Jonathan. I don’t know. Do you want one? And Patrick. Sorry about that. Yeah, that’s helpful. So. This is just a an 18. June 18 update on the 17th. Right work to the end here, and, uh, Key issues and opportunities again. An overview We put in here.

This is where Um Briefly reading from the top to 2024 Master plan is the town’s best opportunity to arti articulate the way its residents want to manage our community. The way we build will affect our money, our viability and vitality as a community and the quality of our community will affect The

underpinnings of our vision and therefore the nature and location of the development. We choose all our interdependent and connected at their root by our concept of community. The section summarizes key issues and opportunities that were identified as part of the Master Plan update. These key issues were identified through, uh, input from community

meetings devoted to hearing from Hamilton residents responses to surveys working sessions of the Master Plan steering committee. It was also, um Uh, community wide. Workshop. Uh, charrette that was put on. Uh, that was part of that. But when I was on it, But anyway, um The best way to set priorities in a master plan is

to isolate key issues to easily understood and actionable categories. It is equally critical to remember that an embedded assumption in any master plan is that the community is working at creating a unified vision so that the goals are mutually supportive and actions are not in opposition to one another, the result of this approach is

that the town is seen as a tapestry containing many unique interdependent patterns, but remains a single unified tapestry rather than as a Is of separate unrelated goals and actions. In. The list of keys. Key issues and opportunities below as well as the implementation plan. There is an effort made to mention some

of the interconnections between the various goals. Um And then just jumping down to this, uh, diagram that I put on there. The. Purpose of this master plan is not to present a solution to the challenges in, uh, implicated in the key issues confronting the sound or to dictate how opportunities

will be addressed, but to provide a framework for how those challenges and opportunities may be evaluated with their interrelated this recognized in their solutions proposed The graphic. Then on the left is the one that the came about as in the footnote here, the 1987 Brunton Land Report Royal Commission on environment and development.

Sponsored by the U. This was a diagram that became sort of famous. We used it in our workshop on the Gordon Conwell, where again These are the three spheres that all communities have the basic tools that they work with for their And the overlap of all three you can see in the center here.

This Dark Green area is sustainability. So when you get, uh You get the overlap in these different spheres of their information. That’s when you get to the sustainable condition So. These are the three are economic opportunity, environmental quality social well being. So this then Um, this became our organizing principle. If, you will of the

how to organize the issues into these broad 33 categories, So. We started with again environmental quality 2.1 Natural Resources open space, recreation, cultural and historic, Um And drafted kind of A. Uh, a statement about that there and then Social well being community facilities and services. And this information below came from the original Master plan.

Regionalization. Uh then next item was housing. Which included affordable housing M BT, a community act. Uh, there And, then proactive planning for housing. That’s all under the, uh Social well being well in preparedness, sustainability and resiliency. And. Then. Finally, Uh, economic development, which is the third sphere commercial development. Um and again a lot

of most of this information came from the, uh Consultants. The inventory and assessment number three. Is this is incomplete, but it was just it was started Be. This is the statement of, uh, where the requirement of mass general law stipulates that each municipality must include the following elements at a minimum, and its master plan is noted

here as just a statement. And. These are the This was taken from Uh, Just a copy paste from the Massachusetts. Uh, literature on that. And a looking ahead, which is the last section again is the idea of features the idea that, um I’ll. Just start off reading this introduction here. Our goal is to create a community

rather than a suburb, including a full hierarchy of places ranging from a unique town center to Neighborhood residential centers to rural districts and employment areas. Although goals usually applied to the entire town. Policies and strategies have different implications for distinctly different locations, taking stock of how Hamilton is shaped by studying the historic interactions between humans and

habitat over several centuries, especially from a perspective of design the process of giving order and structure to a given set of elements and deciding on the physical size, shape and dimensions of each part as well as the whole becomes critical to a to an understanding of how Land use activities effectively shape, vibrant communities.

There’s a lot in that paragraph. Um This is a one size does not fit all kind of statement. But, but there’s a lot I think, anyway. There’s a lot of truth in that in that statement. Since many of Hamilton’s policy decisions affect how land is used. Land use is the umbrella under which all sections of the

master plan reside. Whether it is open space and recreation, transportation, housing, economic development or any of the others. Our community addresses its priority issues well, usually define the land use component of its plan. Having developed strategies for the other elements. The plan should examine their implications for land use. This is important because a comprehensive plan guides

decisions about buildings streets, park parks, open space and natural areas, as well as commercial and residential development. The challenge for town decision makers is that it is politically and intellectually difficult to reconcile or sometimes conflicting goals of economic development, Environmental protection, affordable housing and so on. Understanding how combinations Of complex issues.

Work together is difficult. All towns have three basic Variables to manage their communities. But I. This is what I said previously, uh There is a way, however, of manage the complex task of creating attractive livable communities well, protecting natural resources under the banners of smart growth and sustainability. So again.

This is just an introduction. This is a introduction to that, uh, section of future land use that’s incomplete, but It’s how this is organized and then finally, the Imp Implementation program, which came from Uh, the consultants. They set up these these two lists key to list of leadership parties. Key to elements element abbreviations. So. There are

two lists. Um, there And, then a key to a priority rankings. Then when you look at the, um Yeah. See if I can And, You look, start looking at the implementation chart again. These were these eight goals, beginning with natural resources goals. There are eight of them to to track the

eight different elements. Um, they were arranged again in terms of protect providing grow consistent with that. So that is consistent throughout the document. That same organization idea, so things are not random here. Again it This was just copied verbatim from The plan. So, uh, the substantive change as Marty said that The. Basic changes

here are to provide a better, I think clear organizations who had won that Anybody who picks it up, can track it and see what’s going on. And. It’s and the introduction gives a context to what Hamilton is after, and I think that’s that was missing in the original. Uh, master plan. And. Could. I just

interject. What’s notable here. Uh, what’s notable is that, um Judy. Barrett did the original 2000 well, not the original, but the 2004 master plan, which we are updating, and that document was extremely well done it it it had so much information about Hamilton’s past and the people who were instrumental in guiding

Hamilton. Uh, In a way that enabled it to preserve as much open space as it has and to preserve. Uh, for example, the vistas that we see on Highland Street that are so amazing with the first time you drive, um through that area, so I think what happened with the master plan that we’re now working on

is that because of the change in consultants, there was insufficient time to add that depth. Context that makes the document readable it it it’s just it’s just I a chart of goals. It’s just, uh uh, a vision statement without why would why we’re doing that? Um, so the the the endeavor here is

to make this more readable, more accessible and more interesting. Just more interesting. Uh, so I know in in one part. I think it was in the goals. We. We. Look back to, uh, one of the early planners in what he had to say about Hamilton, just trying to make It, Uh More, uh, accessible to

people to try and trigger their interest in reading more because obviously at the end of the day, it’s the last section that’s the most, uh important And so we want to get that right and one of the things that has mentioned in the Master plan and one that I think is a really excellent

action item is to have an implementation committee or at least some mechanism pursuant to which, uh, different boards and commissions can work together instead of, uh, potentially in conflict with one another, because there’s so much overlap with what’s happening in town today, and I just point out that the Conservation Commission Is is

doing incredibly important work that the planning board has to evaluate storm water management applications, which really dovetail dovetails with the work of the Conservation Commission. And, then we have the Environmental Impact Committee. And. Then, Of Course. The Select board, which is a you know, a policy making, uh, board. So if if there’s an implementation committee

working together Comprised of, for example, those boards. I think that, uh, it it’s a a better, uh, predictor of the success of this document, uh than than not So. Uh, I would invite, UH, Planning board members to comment on Amel’s table of contents. And, Um and, uh uh, how you feel about the

way this document has been supplemented. First organized much more clearly under under each of the processes you have protect, provide grow protective grow, and so it’s organized. More, Um Logically. Mhm. I wanted to just thank Emil for all of his work because this is a lot of work.

Um, I know other others have worked on it. But. I know that this is this is a lot here and, uh And one of the things that the contents hints at is a, uh A land use plan and we we kind of don’t have that, and I’d love to have the board.

Talk about that a little bit and see whether they have the appetite to to, uh, embrace that and see if we can move that forward. One of my Sort of special interests. IN looking a T. The master plan is looking at the connectivity of things instead of things being in the silos, and that’s what I wanted to

look at in the implementation chart is connectivity and what a land use plan would do is put all the pieces together, and that is a piece another piece that’s missing in this plan. So Amal has it in this table of contents. But at this point, we don’t really have a strategy to get there, and I’d love the

board to lean into that that potential and see if that’s something that has any Interest or enthusiasm from other board members. Yeah because there is an option to take a looking ahead away and just make that the implementation. Program, Uh, section, But the thing about the land the future land use

plan that it would be a picture of require a map of the town wide map, uh, showing the zoning may be proposed zoning based on some of these goals, and, uh so it starts to give, and that’s really the way you go about playing when you you

figure out, um You start to lay out What are What is the ultimate result of of decisions that you’re trying to make. So. You’re trying to anticipate the outcome on it. Uh, Jonathan said, has a lot of work. We don’t have a map right now.

To do that. That would be a lot of work to create. Uh so, um However. We definitely need the implementation and they certainly, uh but, yeah, there might be a way we we can do some graphics. Uh, We could do it graphically, but starting introducing mapping and so forth as a bigger I, I guess

for me. What comes up is One word. It’s relationship. All of these things need to be in relationship to one another. And. That’s What a map does whether it’s a diagram a chart connecting lines between the implementation, um, chart its relationship showing relationship, and it’s the opposite of seeing things in silos, so anything that we can

think of anything we can do anything we can forward here to create relationship between goals relationship between actions, um and under and understanding of about about how the edges Of these things interact, I think will make a stronger master plan. Yeah graphically. It’s doable I.

I think I can I can see something, and I’m sure you can, You know, envision how that could happen. Drawing those relationships together. Um so yeah, I don’t know if anybody else has any Thoughts on whether that’s Worth pursuing again. The idea of the land use is the Is sort

of the bottom line. Everything funnels down to land use because what the town of Hamilton does with each parcel it has is is important. And, uh, That is the ultimate land use. Uh Diagram that you know, would be really uh uh Would be really good to include here was not included in the 2004. But It’s

an interesting Um Interesting thing is to do I, I. This needs this needs further study, of course, and you know, uh, but, um I support that idea, I. I like that idea. Um, I think we should start thinking about land use? OK. So. Just. Let me ask you, you know, Does.

Everyone have the original, Uh, document in front of them. The inventory and assessment for land use because they’re two maps that may speak to what you’re talking about. One is map 4.1 0.1 land use by parcel and the other is, um, map. 4.1 0.2 zoning districts. Can you guide us to a page number.

Well. It’s in the inventory and assessment under land use, and so it would be like this right right after Page 12 of the original document. Have to pay after page 51, is it? So Page 20. You’d say Which ones are we looking at again? Uh 4.1 0.1. 4.1 land use in the original document. Yep. And that started

on page 50. Yeah. Yeah. So. I. Guess. A question would be, Would it be worth? Exploring. Sort of adapting these or enriching them. Well. I could see how W I don’t know whether the, um Right? What are the GCIS maps. GIG I maps whether they would be informative, but

I could see where It would be Helpful to look at. The zoning districts and then also look at the topography so that we could assess where we had Um Non buildable areas, wetlands and whatnot as well as, uh, steep slopes. But again. I think that that would be, um That would be Quite an undertaking.

Okay? Wouldn’t it That should be a beginning. We can look at this to see how it how it would be a future map, um, with changes. And it is a town map so we would have access to it. Um But. It’s. Could it be something that could be done piecemeal

over time. Yeah. I think I think it should be kind of a dynamic document. It does. It does change over time. You know as you go through one of the Action items that that the planning board should undertake. As opposed to trying to do it now. Could it be one of the

priority items that the Planning board should endeavor to have. Could it live in an appendix and be a lot more of a live document. Yeah. Um And where it’s referenced. It’s referenced in and updated Yeah, yeah. Just as I would like to see. Um you know, at some point, the town ought to have a design

review. Um they have one now for the Willow Street project. I guess the downtown, but I mean a really substantial Um Design review book and could make, UM If. It’s well done really would be helpful in all. In making decisions in all projects and Downtown as well

as different parts of town. And it’s not it. It is not intended to be restrictive. I Arguments with people about that before, and it’s not, uh It’s very useful document to have because it’s advisory. It’s not mandatory, so A developer coming into town can look at a design review to see Well, this

is what This is what is anticipated by the community what they would like. Uh, it does. It is influential. In that respect it will guide kind of development in a particular direction where there is no I mean we’re trying to offset that with a form based code to make that more prescriptive,

turning a process around a little bit, But the, um But that’s another thing I didn’t see anywhere in this document that would, but that would be a design. Uh, planning board a project and this could be too. Yeah, and again, those that could live in an appendix or be referenced. Basically. How. You go about amending these two

maps. I mean are you thinking in Because. I have questions. I’m Sure people and zoom and elsewhere are we talking about developing a map? Or, um, uh, An actual, uh Written Uh, Text text, uh, about how land use should be because right now say we have Um They call it an agricultural district.

But. That’s not accurate, but that’s just two acre zoning. So Are. We looking at where we would amend the zoning. Where. We would encourage. Uh, the, um Section 8.1 for the overlay district. Um Yeah. It would incorporate things that are anticipated through the the goals of, uh And, uh, the

issues that have been raised Because that certainly, uh, in the action items I should put this over here. I believe the action items include, uh, looking at the open space and farmland development, uh by law and seeing how to make it more user friendly, as well as the estate overlay district. So, uh,

Is your thinking that we would try and Um Impose those ideas on a map like 4.1, 0.2, and alternatively and I know, I raised this issue at the Master Plan Steering committee, and I think it’s an important one. And. I don’t know if If I ever got the map but a map that

shows uh, the conservation areas in Hamilton. Those areas that, um, are cannot be developed. They’re subject to a conservation restriction. And, Uh and then we also have the chapter land. You know which the town has a right of first refusal. And. But again. We don’t have that delineated anywhere. And. I think that having asked for it, Patrick,

maybe you can refresh my recollection. Was it just too difficult to obtain. Shouldn’t be. That’s My. That’s my remembrance. Yes. So. We don’t have an inventory of of the, um, chapter land and we don’t have any inventory on our conservation restricted areas. Well. Those conservation restrictions are subject to

state law. So there’s there’s no I don’t think there would be any like docket at the town hall where someone would And you know File a map showing what area is subject to a conservation restriction. I mean that the GIS map does do that does do that? Yes. I believe it does. It will show

you the overlay. Uh, the conservation, um, areas and it does, um Um, wetlands and things like that. There are a number of different characterizations that they use and you know, there are so many different conservation restriction flavors if you will. And we don’t have all of them as overlays.

Unfortunately, Does. The Assessing office have them By parcel, which parcels have, um For example. Essex County Green belt Restriction, which parcels have, uh 4040 B protection or not? What 60 A and B, Um open space protections they could probably produce a parcel map like that. They have a list of them? Yes, but they have it mapped No I

think as a practical matter. There’s not a way that we can do this land use plan within a reasonable time, and I want to get this master plan adopted within a reasonable time. I think that, uh, one of the action items in the master plan is to hire a planner so that,

uh, Patrick doesn’t have to wear the planning hat and the, um also, uh, In charge of Inspectional services so we would have a professional planner whose job it would be at the direction of the planning board or the select board to actually produce that type of map because I think it

would In. My opinion require, Um, A. Uh, some allocation of time. I. Don’t think you could do this? And in a 40 hour week. I think it would take some time to go through all the available maps and perhaps contact the Essex County Green belt, maybe the Essex County Trail Association to to make sure

whether their easement to various lands that that would be a a really wonderful To have but I. I think it would require a commitment of time that I don’t think anybody on this planning board, uh, would have the capacity to do am am I correct? You mentioned Can we mention that we’re gonna be

working on it or that we will be thinking of it. An action item in the implementation section to produce such a map. Mm-hmm That’s What. I’m thinking that that makes sense. Um, so then We just need to figure out sort of what All this alludes to in the table of contents. So The.

Other. Interesting thing is you compare these two maps. There’s a lot of non conforming use in this town. I’m looking at several neighborhoods that are zoned basically half acre and I can walk down those cul sacs, and the average density is much higher than in every town. I’m wondering, you know was it

applied? I mean? These people are grandfathered, obviously, but, um Did they get? Well, I don’t know if their grandfather did They have variances. Uh, categorically whatever was built Prior to 1954 was pre zoned. So. Many of those are not going to I. I, can I can I understand those? But All are

downtown lots of neighborhoods off of Essex Street have much higher density than one half acre. Um and So. You know they could have been developed in 1960. The zoning category changed in 1980, but that leaves them as a non conforming use, I guess. Grandfathered? Yes. You know boards looked at things differently years ago

than we do now. Mhm. And. I think there you could find decisions on some so like, say, for instance on, uh, 300 Bridge Street. Mm. That is the wild west of planning. There are, um, a number of homes on that property that, um, you know, they don’t come close to meeting Z on it. So I. I think

there are a lot of atypicals in Hamilton that you know, because of they haven’t been built and you know, prior to zone to having been adopted by, uh, the the town. They just aren’t going to comply. That’s why we have so many non compliances come in before the zoning board meeting after meeting Mm.

Right? Well. I think we have made some progress here? May. I suggest that, um That. Anyone, who has any suggested? Edits to what? Um A has done um I can ask you, Patrick. I mean when in your absence, I advised, Um, Planning board members just to share their proposed to the Master plan, I. I don’t think

that we’re we’re ever going to be, uh, voting unless there’s a real uh uh Division among members on how to actually change this document. Maybe when we come to the implementation section, it’ll be a little more dicey, but I don’t know if we could just forward our comments to, uh, AOL’s especially the typographical errors in in the

non substantive stuff, just forward it to him because he now has, uh the document with the The table of contents has page numbers and whatnot. He’s he’s really, uh over. Seeing, the formatting of this, Um I don’t see an actual problem with this as long as it’s not, You know, it’s It’s relatively

minor suggestions that we just forward it to him by a certain date, and then we review it, Uh, at our next meeting, and then um, the other thing, and I and I can try and do a memo to this effect is that, uh, we can start looking at these action items and maybe just formulating them without

Worrying about where they go and how they relate to anything else, but just get our ideas out on the table. And then and then plug them in in it it where they’re supposed to go and how they relate to other things. Um, so I know that Pat Norton had talked about an energy. Um, assessment for the

town. How. Did. He. Formulate that, um, an energy audit and and I don’t know what the town’s capacity would be to, uh for that, but you know it would be an opportunity for him to flush that out as an action item. Might be something that the Environmental Impact committee could look at.

But again. I, if if it’s a good idea, and it comports to Uh, the goals if we have it down. Um uh, on paper, we can evaluate it and see how it fits. As Jonathan says. See how it relates to other things, and I certainly, really like the idea of developing a really good map,

but I think it’s something that that it will be a work in progress. It’s not going to happen. That kind of detailed map that would enable us to, actually, um Pinpoint places where we wanted to zone wouldn’t happen overnight. I mean, I think You. Tell me how long it would take. I think it

would take I? I was thinking what information is available and how it could be combined easily and you’d have to have the resources that the ability to produce those maps, which is good electronic copy of which is beyond my word process of capability. I mean I couldn’t produce that map, so it has to

be someone with a sophisticated office to be able to to do it and probably A computer screen to boot to be able to see it. The file. The file size is becoming more enormous. Also. Yeah. So nice Try guys. But. It wasn’t gonna happen in this document. But. I still think it’s worth? Um as we round up

to the implementation part, um, to really look at cross connections, and and I, I’m Gonna try to explore that in, um sort of supplemental charts to see if I can visually create some connections instead of just you have to connect initials. You know that this is planning board this is you know, transportation. This is I Think.

We just have to add a little more creative thinking to this at last part looking The implementation implementation and it needs more, Uh, more transition and introduction. I would say that the the What they’ve given us is Minimal. Yes so so it needs introductory material to position it and

transition into it. And. Then the chart needs to be reorganized to have an implementation committee. Oh Yeah. Oh, yeah, Yeah? Yeah and we We didn’t have one for the 2004 Master plan and I have to commend Patrick and whoever else you know Tried to get all the items done there. There was a pretty good success rate.

Wouldn’t you say, Patrick, I would I mean your job was one of them. Am. I, Right. That’s true, I. Think, Um you know the possibility of having the Capitol Planning Committee. As the implementation Committee. Might be worthwhile consideration. Just to monitor progress, right? And and and basically, um If.

Something’s not getting done, Uh, send a little email to some border or commission and say, Get to work. This was the master plan. With. Some some implementation committees are made of One person from all. A lot of, uh, boards and commissions, you know, just to, uh, that’s the way some communities put it

together. We can recommend the Capital Planning committee is made up of various, um, numbers. Oh. You’re the member, Aren’t you on the planning board? No? No. I hoped form it, though, When. I was on the select board and they’re actually tasked with looking 5 1015 years down the road. It’s actually a great marriage because they’re

immersed in that already you’re looking at the but the dollars. You know what I mean? And? Um so it might be, they might Patrick’s idea is a good one. That’s a good idea. Yeah. Jack Lawrence is on that committee. Yes. I’m Sure. I Think We have a Bill Wilson used to be on it,

too. I think he still is so he would be from, you Know, select board. Did any members have any further comments before we hear from the party? I just wanted to say, um there the introduction the rewrite where, um Amel went into more detail about the town it it grabbed me emotionally. I. Really. I mean

I. Just really? I really made me wanna continue reading and it made me feel Like. We have something really special here we do, and that and that architect Um his first name eludes me, but his last name is Charles. Elliot. Charles. Elliot really recognized that And. That was when I went back

to the 2000 And. Uh uh, for Master plan. Uh, you know there was a discussion about him and I thought, Why not Harken back to that, you know, recognize it’s perfect and I and I think more people as Marnie was saying. It’s It’s readable in it makes you want to read. It makes you want to learn more.

Mhm. Yeah. That was the intent. Uh, it worked. Did a good job. Yeah. There was another person. Um, Philip Herr, Who’s MIT, professor. Very interesting planner. Um, this This was back in the fifties. I think he worked for the town of Hamilton. Uh, doing some? This was pre 2004 planning for the H. ER R.

Yeah hair. It’s, you know? Oh. Yeah, well, when I first came here, Not now, he I listened to him talking Connecticut, and he was a fascinating uh You know, person, but But he worked in the town. I think he partly authored the 40 B law. Uh oh.

Oops. Not really. So much for me. I’m, a planning board who wants to speak I think, I. I mean I, like the table contents is just so much more accessible. OK, so we’re on the right track. Definitely, could you state your name for the record, please? Uh, Deb Safford Maple Street. I just had three

comments and I do think it sounds better Looks better So that’s great. I mean, Agreement with that. I just had a question. Um The map that you’re talking about. I’m just because I don’t just don’t understand what you’re talking about with the interactive map is that to look at the land

that’s out there now now, so it’s not just like the downtown form based stuff, but it’s like looking at some of these huge properties that make our town so unique. Is it looking at those kinds of properties that might be Sold in the future and like having some sort of zoning over them before they’re asking

for it. Is that what? You’re I I’m just trying to understand what the map is. The master plan that was provided to the planning board by Barrett planning contains, um Maps. And, So. I believe that draft um Master plan is on the planning board’s Web page. Am I.

Correct? Yes so that you can look at those maps there, the one that I was referring to, uh, just has the zoning districts, but But when you’re talking about what you want to do, The implementation of it is that to look at areas that we might

want to develop or allow for a new zone to be put over a property sort of ahead of time. That can I answer. Can? I give a shot of the answering your, um So. I mentioned relationship and so what a map can really do is instead of thinking of your outlining areas that are

potential for development, it’s instead looking at all the relationships in the entire town so that you see the big picture and It tells you Where to put the brakes on where there are opportunities where there are things that are environment environmentally sensitive where there are transportation sensitivities. It shows you all of the relationships, so it’s not

about mapping opportunistic places to develop or create economic development. It’s It’s a way of understanding the gestalt of the town and then the master plan, seeing how where it fits into that gestalt does that Right. So. I mean you could look at the map and say, Wow, this could be a great

place. But. Then if you had a better map That showed you the topography, you might say. Well, even though there’s a large amount of open space the way the land is formed, would make development there a very bad idea because to show sensitivity Storm water management or the so so it’s

not to create like an overlay that says, OK. I’m just throwing out a name like The Clark family, Right. Let’s say they have a huge piece of property, whatever family a that has a big piece of property somewhere. Bridge Street or gardener or something right where you would be

looking at that map and saying, OK, this looks like a really buildable flat. Pretty dry land so we would put a zoning district for development of a neighborhood over there, even though they’re not. It’s not for sale, and they’re not asking for it. Number one, The Planning board could only

propose that it would be the town that would be voted by the town that I see. And so there there are structures against spot zoning, so you can’t just say we’re going to take you know this property making a special district. You can’t do that. OK. So that’s not the intention of that. I was just

trying to understand. Like. What was that map? Just let me let me paint an example. Um, so let’s say on the map. You could see clearly where Gordon Conwell was right, And. Suddenly. There’s some market market, um, apartments and then in the master plan, it says we should have some safer bike

paths and some some ways for folks to get downtown. You could see the downtown you could see Gordon Conwell and maybe part of the map is is, um Where are the bike trails and where aren’t they? OK got it, So. It’s not It’s not about development. It’s not about Oh, let’s Yeah. I just wanted to

clarify that I wasn’t accusing anybody. I’m, just like I was trying to understand. Like what we were trying to do with that looking at the whole picture and all of the relationships if that makes sense. Yeah thank you for clarifying that, Um, the other two questions I had are a little bit interconnected

on the, um the sustainability graphic It’s from the UN. Those three bullet points that have the economic opportunity. Environmental quality social well being the environmental quality one says, Um EG. So. It’s I didn’t know Was that just cut and paste from the UN or these ours because it says, ensure open space access

compactly built areas. And preserve in edge areas protect features, So. I just wondered if if that was specific to Hamilton, because I’m not like do we want compactly built areas? It just sounds like we have some. I know we have them. I know we are sure that we have them, but it made me think of

you know the developments like, um I really like the UN, I guess full disclosure, So. It’s just I feel a little bit like you know, I’m a little nervous about them because of this, Um There’s actually in sustainability there, um There are a list of about 10 sort of key things, and one of them is

build compactly, uh, which And. There’s a rationale for that, Uh, because some people like to live that way, but, uh, it’s not saying do everything compactly. But the intention is that if you if you had a fixed piece of land And. You did single say 10 acres and you did

single. For. Uh 4040 Acre of 40,000 square feet per per unit you’d have without streets we’d have 4040 units and, um Yeah, or in the 10 Acres. You’d have 1010 units. But if you if you build in only half of that in the in the five acre part of it

and leave five acres, open space that by building compactly by combining all those houses into half The property. You’re preserving the open space so all can take advantage of that. And so the density is the same. But by building compactly, you’re preserving more open space and

making it a more livable kind of area. So is that a goal that Hamilton has, or is that just the US? It’s not the UN? Uh, I just got this as an accepted form of sustainability. Sustainability was the point here, and Hamilton has accepted smart growth and sustainable development. Smart growth again

compatible. And redevelopment You don’t develop on green space if you’re gonna develop its redevelopment you develop on spark growth is like take what’s already cement and just build on the stuff That’s already cement is opposed to taking new space and developing it. That’s one of the one of the principles and housing Uh, for all individuals of

different characteristics age as well as income. OK, uh, those kinds of things and again there are about 10 principles there in the smart growth. The town is accepted that it was very prevalent in the 2004 Master plan. Not so much here for some reason, but that’s that has been part of the

thinking here. In the community, so it’s kind of a continuation of that. But that smart girl don’t dismiss that or sustainability. It. Also, I’m not dismissing the concept. I just dismissed like I just didn’t know whether it was this board was saying we want, you know, we want that compact

ability as opposed to having it sort of spread out as a neighborhood and everyone gets a little bit more land that’s their own land, as opposed to this board wants to build in the right way, and we’re not opposed to development. We’re opposed to bad development. But we would like to see something that fits the character.

Determined by the people, So. It’s not built as much as you can. Anywhere. You can do it a great segue into my last comment, which is building things that are sort of fit into the community and look good and personal, But. Um, when when you drive by, I’ve just become more aware of looking at everything as I’m

driving through town with all these town meetings, it’s like you just start to become more heightened awareness and, uh, When, you drive by the neighborhood, like in Canter Brook. They’re all kind of cookie cutter, identical houses. It’s a real blight on our community, In my opinion, because when you just go past that you have all these unique

They’re not like big mc mansions that are just cute, beautiful, unique homes that are throughout this whole neighborhoods on the rest of Asbury. And then you have this sort of development That’s identical and You know, I hope the developers isn’t sitting here listening to this, but But, do we have something in there?

That would I I think if we have a lot of those? I mean our character is just gone Exactly that that’s what we’re trying to do. Believe it or not, Uh, is to not have that is to not have that. The reason that happens is that there isn’t a level the codes as they stand.

Do not see character. They’re blind to character. That’s a fact and that’s why you see all these variations that shouldn’t be. You would think that a developer would go in and say, I’m gonna I’m gonna capture something in this neighborhood. Uh, and make this memorable uh, this this, but they don’t do

that. And, um But. That’s really the strength of the form base code, which that would extend outside of the downtown of that continent. But. What we’re trying to do is incorporate some of the values that are there in a way that we can Uh, you know and make it again from my standpoint,

having designed guidelines is a gives you a real strength. So. If that a project like that were to come Come back again. That wouldn’t happen again. You could have an argument about it. You know as a as a community. So, for example, a form based code wouldn’t the Canter Brook

specifically is the backs of buildings facing the street without any screening form based code wouldn’t allow that. You know it would. It would say the front of the building has to face the street in a certain amount of glass has to face the street or the the the door has to face face the street. Um so

And form based code isn’t gonna be spread all over the town, but it it in the In the exercise in looking at the downtown. Those are the exact issues that form based code would address. And. So. Maybe that would extend to new developments. To some extent, I just think that it’s like part of our character in Hamilton.

Is. This, the very distinct types of housing that we have. I mean. We’ve got great little cottages and little capes, and we’ve got the grove and we’ve got, um you know, big, beautiful. Beautiful homes with tons of land. I mean it’s a It’s a very distinct community, and I would hate to see that be

gobbled up because we want to develop all the land like II. I hope that there is that overarching sense in there of not just developing and seeing, like all the land that could be developed, but just really preserving us. This is what we’re trying to do in in the beginning of this, uh, study,

even in the downtown determined what the people in town value here, those that’s so important because those are the things you Want to build off of you Build off the things that you really want, And then you look at things that well, we could trade this off. Maybe for something better, uh, kind of

thing. And so you don’t you don’t destroy the town. You don’t destroy the things that are valued, whether it’s particular open space or particular buildings or whatever. Those protections you know, do apply to historic districts, but they don’t apply throughout the town, and that’s why this is an important process to go through.

So that’s captured in there. I think that what you’re really getting at is is how does any type of new building How is it integrated into the landscape? And so Canter Brook class isn’t actually integrated into the landscape just approved like you by law, but, you know, Interestingly, I was just In the California coast, and

there’s a really large community called Sea Ranch, and it was predicated on all the buildings just seamlessly flowing through the landscape, and and they’re visible, but they’re not obtrusive at all. And. They. They they are you. You almost have to look and then when you look you’re staggered by how many there are but they’re not offensive in

any way. And, So. That’s what you often see with new development. The developer goes in Claire cuts the land plunks down the houses and Bob’s your uncle and and good planning. Doesn’t Support. So. You guys have read all this and I, haven’t I. Do You feel like those characteristics are

captured. In the document that that that desire to not have kind of Developments mass developments have no car like, are those aspects? Is it appropriate that those being that that there’s a desire for any kind of development to have Character and not be cookie cutter. I don’t know whether

it’s the right place for it or not. I just wanted to see if it was there just have our existing zoning bylaw and that dictates how we have to handle matters before us. And. So. If the If the, uh if there’s an existing zoning bylaw, we have

to abide by it. That’s, uh, we actually have to We. Take an oath. I believe that we have to apply these laws, whether we like them or not, but they can be changed. That’s that’s the That’s the critical aspect of this document. Yeah, this is not regulatory. This document.

It is advisory. So. Whatever is in here, I. I think there could be more language on character. Uh, but that wasn’t picked up by the consultants. We fired two consultants, so I think we can take authority and The character back in the ribbon to tie a ribbon around your question. Um It sounds as though you’re looking for

opportunities to have more predictability and control over what things look like in the character of things and the preservation of open space and the preservation of Places people want to be Your best place to empower that is to get engaged and support. The Downtown form based code exploration. Your Flex me, Jonathan I didn’t know whether

that extended outside of the downtown because these can can is not part of it right? So That wouldn’t be part of it. So that’s why I was just wondering when you’re looking at land and developing and compact neighborhoods like you made me think of Canter Brook and just wanted to just put a plea that

we don’t want another canter Brook anywhere in our community. I don’t think right in terms of the design of it, and unfortunately, the way the zoning is written, it doesn’t necessarily prevent it. So that was my That was my next question, And maybe it is not the place for with that same

theme. How Protect yourself with the development that’s happening behind Canton Brook. 40 B, You mean? Yeah? Yeah that’s already been approved that the zoning Board of appeals, uh, made that decision. Um, So. Uh, we’re going to move on now, um, to the next item on our agenda. Could I speak? Yes. Sandy Fisher on Greenbrook Road.

I just want to thank you all so much for the work that you’ve been doing. Um, I do appreciate this because I know it hasn’t been done for 20 years. And. So. This Master Plan document will be Used for probably another 20 years. So I. Just wanna encourage you? My husband and I

have been doing a lot of listening coming to meetings and, uh, just really appreciate. Um, you wanting to take the time. I appreciate Mr poor You mentioned it. I think it was a June 4th meeting? Um About, making it more qualitative and just you know it and we’ve talked about this. Making it more the character of Hamilton

Um And. I mentioned that too. Um Because. I think the more we can make it like Hamilton and less like something that a consultant wrote, Um, I think you need to start somewhere. You start with a consultant, and then you take what they have. Um, put forth. And you make it your own, So. I think

that’s happening And I appreciate the work that’s been done to make that happen and just encourage you to continue to do that. Um, because once this is done Uh, you know it’s gonna be used for a long time, so it’s important to take the

time and um, and make it the way we want it to be, And. I appreciate your comments about Karen Brook. I think that was really helpful. Um, And it I do want to say we Make it What people want I heard make it what people want and I’m

thinking about my own son. Um And He wants to own a home. He does not want to live in an apartment. He’s living in an apartment Um, So. What I’m saying is, uh, I I’m hearing about clustering. Um clustering, um buildings and clustering development. On on a smaller acreage. And, then having more

open space, But. I don’t necessarily think that’s what people Would want, but we You know, I don’t know what the plan plans will come forward and they have to come before this board. Um, certainly I am in support of development of different sorts. Um More commercial in town, or, um, the

40 B. I appreciate that there’s been talk about having, um 25% of Uh what Is currently Gordon Conwell, the the apartment building set apparently are in the process of being sold at a 25% is being requested to be affordable, and I think that’s Really important. I also think, um, as you the planning board

on look at the community. The community is aging and there might be more need for senior housing. Um And, as I see on this master plan, this reference to three a And, the M BT a communities and That’s not senior housing, and it’s not, um, affordable housing. So. I just wanted to make that

statement as you, you know, Consider what’s in this document and And how you move forward with it. So, um Thank you? Thank you very much, OK. So. Um uh, We’ve finished our discussion of the master plan. Uh, again. Uh, I urge everyone to assume their suggested.

Edits to A. And, then, uh, I will, uh, get off a memo and we’ll try and, uh, start thinking about how to, uh, create an implementation program chart. That, actually, um In Is is reflective of all the work in the document that preceded it. So. Uh I would just make a couple of, um,

statements. I know the select board last night agreed to file an amicus brief with the Supreme judicial Court, uh, will will have to get more information about that. But that’s a, uh I. Think AAA real opportunity for Hamilton to to demonstrate that That. Perhaps. The guidelines are so arbitrary as to be, um Uh, capricious.

I mean arbitrary and capricious. Are are terms of art in the law, but it may be that there they effect is so, um, almost silly in the Hamilton context because Uh, I There’s no way that we could adhere to the guidelines. As a practical matter, Um It it. It’s just not feasible, um, with our infrastructure, But,

Regardless that that, uh, that happened, Um, there there. Uh, you are correct. Um the, uh Gwen Conwell Theological Seminary and the developers. They’re two that have formed a joint venture. They appear to have agreed to allocate 25% of the units as affordable. Which would be, um Fantastic because that would address um our our

10% requirement and would, um If I think it would satisfy, at least at least for the short term. Um, uh, what we did on our subsidized housing index, so that could be a real bonus for the town so that it would have more control over subsequent comprehensive permits. And then, um Let me

see. Oh. The. Other thing is that uh uh, Tobacco Hill Capital partners as we know. Um uh, filed a comprehensive permit for a 40 B, uh, at on at the site at 133 Essex, the zoning Board of appeals determined that, um, that the safe harbor rules applied. And, Um, Tobacco Hills, uh, appealed

that I believe they first go to the executive office. Of housing and livable communities. That appeal was denied. And, then they have a decision that, uh, as to whether to go to the, uh, housing appeals court, so we’ll see what they like to do is as you all know, there’s

litigation pending with respect to the denial of the special permit. So that’s the Uh, the all the news that’s fit to print. And. So, um, we can I have one other thing, Marnie, something came up on the June at the June 6th, Uh, 12th meeting. Um About doing a joint meeting. The There was a

conversation about the two planning boards, I believe and the two different we’re working on that but appears to be pretty hard to schedule when you say that. Yes, it’s been tedious. You just have too many people to get together and we meet on Tuesdays and what they meet on Wednesdays or something. And, Never the torrential meet.

And so I probably like express a willingness to meet with them, but it’s been hard. I predict a zoom meeting at some 0.0 good right if we could do that, on her before June 25th. That would be Patrick. Do, You know. I mean, are they planning or thinking about Um Some kind of

zoning area for That very large parcel of land. That’s right next to our downtown. Uh, My understanding that that’s where Uh, they intend Part of their three a zone to include What. Were you saying about June 25th Marie. I said. I’m, hoping that we could schedule something Honor before June 25th. OK, So

that’s next, but we have not scheduled anything. So. Uh And. So I think, um And that would be with both planning boards. Uh and so the only other item on the agenda is the approval of the May 21st. 2024 minutes. Um, we considered them at the last meeting, but Pat Norton

had some changes. I think you did, too, Beth, but you missed the deadline. Sorry. I didn’t realize I was my understanding was the meeting was next week and I did not find out until yesterday. I Think Patrick sent you an email. He did send me an email. I was out of town.

And. I, didn’t I. Don’t Check my town email every day, So. I miss that email, So I apologize for that. But. We. Wanna stand on ceremony and insist on having your changes made or should we go ahead? That’s fine. It’s fine. They can we can look back. Somebody can look back if

they have a question on who’s on the advisory committee that was 11 of the concerns. I just wanted to put the list there, but that’s fine, so I’ll entertain a motion to approve the May 21st 2024. Minutes. So moved Uh, do I have a second Did I get a second Yes. Two seconds. Uh, OK. So. When I.

Call your name would you indicate whether you approve? Um the minutes? Jonathan. Poor Jonathan. Poor I wait And I am Dost Amal Dost her a Darcy Dale Darcy, Dale I and Marty Crouch. So. Does. Anyone else have any, Um Comments or board business. Mm. Yeah. The. Next Scheduled meeting is July the second just

as a reminder. Oh. Yeah. We were talking about whether we were or were not gonna meet, I think, but I don’t know if that changed. We are because now there’ll be two weeks uh, between this meeting and July 2nd, and I think the meeting after that is also two weeks, so I think we’re back on AAA

better. Schedule unless we have this joint meeting, But, if that’s in, that shouldn’t be too onerous. I may have turned a zoom meeting off. Oops. I was the host. Well, the only it’s not easy. The. Only the only thing left to do is adjourn, so I don’t think anybody’s there.

Right? I make a motion to adjourn I. Second I take that. Jonathan. Poor, Jonathan. Poor I Bill and I Am Beth her. Aye, Darcy Dale. Oh she’s gone. She’s gone and Marty Crouch I Because. I. Think, Darcy. You mind? You still have a majority