Community Preservation Committee Meeting - December 16, 2025

Wonderful to see everybody this evening.

Um so we got full agenda. We'll start moving.

Try a different one. Thank you.

The first uh item on the agenda is we have minutes from our November meeting that were distributed via email. Um and could I have a motion to accept the minutes?

So moved.

and a second.

Second.

That was Mike. Um I had one um any corrections?

I didn't see any.

The only thing I think is a correction is um on page five that paragraph um I think it should just say um so we got a um I got a question from Nick Wildman DNRT regarding accessibility. to this the New Bedford Trails thing. Um, that should just be struck.

Okay.

Do you need another motion?

And then I will get a motion to accept the minutes as amended. With that, striking the language on page five. Um, striking from the New Bedford Regional Trails Organization.

So moved.

A second on that.

All right. Um, all in favor?

I oppose. That's unanimous.

Because I came in halfway through the meeting, so I don't know what went on.

Okay. One abstension. Thank you.

And do we have um it is Christmas time, so do we have any invoices, any money to give away?

Okay. Hey, Santa.

Great. Thank you. Well, Chris, um, we have a invoice for the dog park. Uh, Ramco Survey Stacks is the vendor. Um, and this is um per the contract um that is currently in um constructing the dog park. And this includes earth work, earth works, um site drainage work, um crush stone and pstone uh steel edging being installed. Uh 6 foot high uh fence and gates. Um stone dust walk and seating lman seating. Um, and

let's see, that is an amount of $31,426.75 cents. So, take a look at that as it goes along.

And then from um regarding the DCTV um vid documents um project from the Brewster Thornton Group architects. Um this is um for this is uh construction document work and some building assessment structural assessment work for a total of $8,1540.

And then um TNT Gravestone Solutions. That's kind of a a interesting name, isn't it?

Um I like that name.

Yeah, someone had fun with that.

Um I do not think anything was blown up.

But um this is for u work at the Joseph Davis uh cemetery. Um, all the gravestones have been sprayed with the um, biological solution to clean them. Um, and let's see if this is any.

All right. So, that's work in progress there. $5,500.

There we go.

That's it for our invoice. Is that right? Yes. Yep.

Then Susan, once you have them, you can um do the motions. S to approve payment.

Just as one can see as our sign says we are being reported by DCP.

All right. I make a motion to pay Ramco survey stacks $31,426.75 cents for site work on the Dartmouth dog park.

Second by John. Um and any discussion?

All in favor?

I. Any oppose? No, that's unanimous.

Is this the dog leash? The dog one again.

What's that?

This is DCTV.

The see that it's not holding together, is it?

This is DCT. Yeah. Somebody clicked the dog pot to this one.

All right. I make a motion to pay Brewster Thornton Group Architects $8,154.40 40 cents for the DCTV uh work.

Second.

Is that John? You're the second. Who was the second there?

John.

John. Um any discussion, questions? All in favor?

Any opposed? That's unanimous.

I make a motion to pay TNT Gravestone Solutions $5,500 for cleaning gravestones at the Joseph uh Davis Cemetery.

Second.

All right, John. A second. And any um discussion or questions? All right. All in favor?

I I That's unanimous. Thank you.

And as that's coming back, sign that back.

This was supposed to go with the dog.

Okay.

That one goes with the dog park.

That one.

This part of it. I think it was part of that just pass. Yeah, this belongs to the previous one.

This must have come out of one of them.

Oh yes, this is the dog park one.

Okay.

And um if you could pass the cookies, please.

Starts off the year with oranges and fruit. Ends up with cookies.

I know, huh?

Going downhill quick, buddy.

I'm definitely going downhill quick.

Thank Thank Richard for us.

I will I will definitely do that.

Yeah. Thank you.

Definitely do that.

She she uh enjoyed doing it.

Did she?

Yeah.

Nice to make cookies around Christmas.

J.

Yeah. We were well choreographed in the kitchen. I was making dinner. She was doing the cookies and one to the stove, back up, one to the oven.

We We look We look quite choreographed.

Nice.

She enjoys it. And if she wants to do it again next month, just let her enjoy it again. You know, I mean, we don't want to take away our fun.

Yeah, that's true. We don't want Yeah, we don't want to take that away.

We stop.

Okay. Next on our agenda item is um we have um eligibility consultation um with um DNRT regarding the ocean view project. Um, I had put a placeholder in here for the agricultural preservation fund, but we'll table that because we don't have a specific consultation kind of request, but uh, Nick uh, Wildman is here and Nick, I wonder if you could just one Yeah, great. Got to go there to the microphone and just um,

give us a just a short kind of summary of what what you all are looking to do. And this is just an opportunity for us to kind of just talk about that idea and then just give you feedback on it um as you would prepare then a full application.

All right, great. Good evening. I'm Nick Wildman, the executive director of DNRT for those of you I haven't uh interacted with much. Uh thanks for having me here tonight for this eligibility consultation. I had spoken with Mr.

Baker Smith about this idea um actually a couple times and he recommended that we submit some materials for the committee members to consider. Um so hopefully those were distributed. Were these distributed to everybody?

Yeah, I think it went by email.

Okay. I had sent along some renderings and things in short.

But I will if you need have a hard copy.

I have copy.

Okay. You send that around as you Okay, great. Yeah. Sorry. I I didn't get that.

Thought those were going to be submitted.

Oh, did not. Okay.

I didn't see it. We might add it.

I might have gonna snap through with the email. So, okay.

Take a little bit time if you walk around.

Yeah. Walk us through this.

The short We'll start We'll start simply. Um DNRT is very conscious of the fact that the amenities that we provide to the town can be somewhat abbleist. In other words, things like our trail run and our walks and hike series. You know, we have a lot of folks in this town who even if they don't use a mobility device, just have a hard time getting out. And so, we've been looking for

opportunities to provide not just a token kind of simple thing, but a real meaningful outdoor experience to folks who are challenged if not just with mobility um but also with sight and other types of limitations. And so we pulled together a group um composed of folks from the Schwarz Center, advocates um who do statewide advising on uh accessibility for mobility uh challenged folks. We had um some elderly

folks and um actually one woman with some pretty severe uh sight challenges to advise us on really what that community was looking for in this area.

And you may know that at Stone Barnes, Ottabbon already provides a uh an allp person's trail as they call it.

Well, not too far from there, through these discussions, we identified our property known as Ocean View uh Farm Reserve on Allen's Neck Road as a great place to do this. The reason why is most of our trails have lots of rocks and roots and things and to get in there and do an accessible trail in an environmentally sustainable and smart less low impact way would be extremely challenging. The the trail we already

have at Ocean View Farm is about 3/4 of a mile from the parking lot down to the observation platform. So, it's a really a substantial hike. It's a substantial adventure for many people. Right now, if you're just somebody who gets a little tired after, you know, 10 minutes of walking, there's no opportunity to sit down to get out of the sun on a sunny, hot summer day. And for some folks,

getting out to that platform, the stairs can be a challenge. So, with the advice of our committee, we identified first that Ocean View Farm would be a great place to do this. And part of the reason I'm here before you today is because, as you probably know, Ocean View Farm was protected in part with the support of CPC. And it also already is covered under a conservation restriction that's

co-held by the town. This property is open 7 days a week, 365 days a year, uh, during daylight hours. So, it's a great opportunity to bring people down to the Allen's Pond area. It dovetales nicely I think with the uh facility that Ottabbon provides and really you know from our view would meet with some of the goals that are important to this committee specifically the goals to really provide

recreational opportunities for all members of Dartmouth community. I'm very proud and I think we're you know generally pleased with the work that DNRT has done to provide recreational opportunities. But if you're someone with a wheelchair or a walker or some kind of difficulty getting around, perhaps uh vision limited, most of our facilities really aren't going to provide you a meaningful experience. So,

I wanted to share our plans with you.

Um, putting together an application for your review is no small effort and we want to do a good job with that. And I don't want to do that at all if the committee feels that this isn't really a good fit with your mission.

Right. So uh one thing just added is I did check with um the uh preservation coalition and said so you know an existing pro you know previous project um is this something that you know would be eligible and under which kind of category and um and got the feedback that uh yes this would be eligible um as um because trails which is kind of the trail on this property is considered recreational can be on a conservation

but it's considered recreational and this providing handicapped or ADA accessible trail would qualify as rehabilitating um the that recreational use if you will that the trail park. Um but I thought it would be good just to have an opportunity for folks who want to ask some questions about this. Now, this is kind of just to make sure we're kind of clear about the idea of what this what

this would include. Um, DNRT will file an application, you know, for us to consider.

But just wanted to take a few minutes in case some questions want to try to understand what our dog think here.

Yeah. I just have a question about the improvements. Who owns the improvements once they're complete? Is it DNRT?

Yes.

Is it the town?

And it would be our ongoing maintenance responsibility. Something we've talked quite a bit about. The way the we evaluated a number of different trail materials for example um and the one we've settled on is sort of like a Rice Krispie treat. You take the the aggregate and you mix it with an adhesive and lay that down. Um it's very durable. uh it's much less prone to washing out than other things, but I

bring that up as an example of the ongoing maintenance that would be needed if that were to, you know, have issues.

In addition, so what I should I should say is it's really not just the trail.

Um we don't want to have a trail that brings somebody to a platform they can't get up on. Um and so as might be counterintuitive, what we're planning at this stage is to do the improvements to the platform first. Um because right now our preliminary design budget is for the entire project is um about $900,000.

We're planning to phase this out into at least two years of implementation. So year one would be constructing the improvements to the platform, having an ADA compliant ramp, uh some additional signage and interpretive elements, some benches, some more seating both up on the platform and underneath it to keep people out of the sun because what one thing we've heard is that folks who have

um not just mobility challenges, but some folks who have um uh cognitive or developmental issues, sometimes uh regulating temperature can be a challenging thing for these folks. So we don't the last thing we want to do is create a safety issue for vulnerable folks. Um anyway, back to what I was saying before is so that would be that would be uh phase one. Uh depending on how funding works out, most likely we

would you do the improvements to the trail and to the parking area in year two.

Can I ask a follow-up question?

Yeah. Um so you just mentioned $900,000 preliminary uh design. That's just for design. And it's not like the the construction to build it out.

Oh, no. That is I'm sorry.

Is okay. That includes the construction cost. I thought so, but I just wanted to clarify that when you said pluring design. So, it's not just design, it's design and construction for for the for the phase for phase one or for both the entirety. The entirety. Okay.

And we're looking we, you know, we've had a number of consultations with different vendors and different um contractors and we think that might be high. you know, you hire a Boston consultant and sometimes you get Boston prices, but you know, this isn't just a stone dust path. We're really trying to make something that's going to be stable and uh durable and also safe. It is has

a textured surface, which um you know, I said, well, why don't we just, you know, there's no wetlands. Why don't we just pave the thing and do asphalt? That nothing's cheaper and faster than that.

But really, what we're trying to provide here is a surface that provides that outdoor experience. And so we're gonna have to do something a little more expensive. Hopefully we're able to defay those costs. Um we're talking with Voke Tech um about Carpentry Shop, about them working on the the platform, for example. And um I've had um certain private donors and and foundations that

specialize in uh handicap accessibility um engagement with veterans especially um who are interested in in supporting this project as well. So, I think it's it's quite different from other work that we've done um because it touches this nerve um that generally isn't part of what DNRT does when we preserve a property and open a trail or something like that.

Other questions have um just curious um you said this is going to be a multi-phase project. You're planning a multi-phase project and I'm sure this question has come up. I'm probably not the first to ask it. And my first thought is, are you putting the cop before the horse?

Multi-phase means me there's always a risk that phase two or phase three doesn't occur.

Right.

Um you mentioned phase one would be the work at the platform, a ramp.

If phase two or three doesn't come along, now we've got a ramp that leads to nowhere as far as mo somebody with mobility issues getting to the ramp. So, has that been considered?

Absolutely. Yeah.

So, um what what what are the risks? I mean, you're not afraid of the risk that phase two and three doesn't come out. You got a ramp that doesn't uh My preference would be to do it all at once. Uh I just I don't know how how feasible that's really going to be to happen. That said, I also don't know.

I've got these lines in the water with other funding sources. the CPC certainly wouldn't be our only uh support for this and I don't have concrete uh commitments yet for that. So in other words, what I'm saying is best case scenario is in before my application I may find out that we have private donations to cover this all and we don't have to in involve uh a request to CPC for phase one.

That'd be tremendous. Um, this is the same question we had uh in a meeting we had with the administrator for DCR's uh mass trails grant. They're, you know, these amenities that we're hoping to provide are somewhat kind of ancillary to their trails goal. It's called the trails grant. So, they consider trails first and foremost. The big thing is, you know, you're right, multiple phases

mean phase two might get stalled out. At the end of the day, we don't want to bring people to a structure that they can't enjoy. If you've been to Ocean View Farm and you've been to that platform, that's your view of Allen's Pond and it's it's really an excellent view, not only to Allen's Pond, but if you turn and look back north, you can see all the agricultural area, preserved forests and things. So, um,

you know, it's a bit counterintuitive, but if we can make these improvements to the, uh, platform, which I, I don't have a finalized budget yet, are actually less expensive than doing this Rice Krispy trail. Um, we can actually kind of make this springboard that support to the next phase.

Um, so if you were looking for funds, are you looking for funds solely for phase one?

At this time, I don't know. I I was hoping to get the committee's uh view on the eligibility of this in terms of the grant and exactly the break points and the budget. That's still still to come.

Yeah. So, my personal opinion, I think it's a worthy project. Um, would love to see something like this in town. I am a bit nervous about the cop before the horse.

Um me voting on, you know, um taxpayer money going to a project that never come to fruition because we can't control phase two or phase three is a bit concerning for me. Um, so from my perspective, you might want to rethink that on uh are we better off going in and asking for funding for phase two and and phase one uh you know, we go elsewhere. Just from my perspective, if you were to come in and

say we're going to do the whole thing all at once, fine. I I you know, I'm um Well, I don't feel I'd be putting the taxpayers money at risk.

Uh doing it all at once, right? And that's just solely my opinion. I'm only one of seven, nine, whatever.

No, it's completely understood and that's that's good input as far as crafting a competitive proposal to you.

But I applaud you for thinking of the project and uh trying to make it happen.

Yeah, Susan, maybe I missed this while I was looking at your pretty pictures, but um is there a cost breakout for the different phases?

Yes. I didn't provide that with my packet because it's still sort of preliminary.

Um hand wavy.

What's that?

Can you give us like a hand wavy like and then like what are you asking for roughly for C from CPC?

I don't know yet. My my hope was just to find out is this eligible. I want to put forward to you all the most competitive and appealing uh project and that includes the budget. It includes the sort of uh sequencing but I don't have that yet.

Yeah. Jim, um I I'm I'm willing to suspend for six months or more the question of funding. Um you have a terrific track record in engaging partners uh in funding of your projects and um so I'm I'm willing to u just not worry about that at this moment. Um the to the question of eligibility, I I I I I don't think this steps on any of the landmines of the Community Preservation Act

um about open space enhancement. You know, it's the the it's not a stadium.

It's not it's not it's not synthetic turf.

And those are the things over which that there have been battles um in the in the history of of the act.

And uh I mean to to to my point of view uh this is fully eligible for the the um uh for funding with CP money.

It was a great idea.

Yeah. I I just have a question because when I walk when I used to walk before I hurt my ankle, I used to walk by there all the time.

Um, do you have any idea how many people use that like in the summertime and the fall?

We don't really know. It's It's not one of our more higher traffic. It's not like a destruction brook where you right, you know, you can hardly get in the parking lot on a Saturday or something like that. Um, you know, what I think is great about this is this will be a draw. And and what we found out um through our research, talking to um disability advocates and others is that um actually having the

Stone Barn facility nearby actually makes it more likely that folks will visit it. Um, you know, I think this opens us up, it opens Dartmouth up to, um, folks who will come from out of town because they have a family member who uses a mobility device or somebody who um, you know, one of our advisory uh, folks was from the Perkins School of the Blind and so there's opportunities to

have outreach and connection with that community. So, it's a great question. We don't have the answer to that because we've always wanted to, you know, we haven't um made those efforts out of respect for people's privacy and things and different reasons, but um I think that by making these changes and making these improvements, it sort of makes it a more of a destination than it even would be now.

So, you would also allow um seeing eye dogs to go down because you don't allow dogs but Right. Dogs at Ocean View Farm um are required to be on a leash unlike at Destruction Brook or some of our other reserve. And that's because we manage the grasslands and hayfields. They're for um ground nesting birds. So, we can't have dogs tearing off through there. But yeah, certainly those dogs um

would be accommodated by this too.

Yeah.

Yeah. Susan, so if it does become more popular because of this, is there opportunity to expand the parking lot?

Absolutely. Um, one of the uh, one of the figures that was in your packet shows the improvements to provide for um, not just regular um, larger spots, but ones to accommodate vans. We do have a bit of a grass area there that has room for even further expansion if we need it.

And do you know um, if the construction would have any impact on the farm next door? No, we've been working um with the farmer who leases that hayland and and um both hays it and grazes it for us to make sure that um not just the timing but the alignment of the trail which would be a little bit different than the dirt path that's there now um would be conducive. We don't want to set up a

situation where you know suddenly you know he he's got to go all the way around just to get a mower on the other side or something like that. Um, so that's been part of our work is to coordinate um to maintain that aspect of it as well.

Nor do we want cows walking all over our beautiful uh cow no cow patties. Um, and then finally, you know, you're a conservation group. I'm assuming that there isn't any issues with runoff on this Rice Krispie or any other environmental concerns. Yeah, it's it's really important. You know, that's the other benefit of this site because it is relatively flat. There's one spot where there's a little bit of a grade to it.

Um, one of the concerns that we have that we'll be working out in the final design is how to we want to have an edge. So, this has been one of our challenges. Uh, for folks who have sight impairments, maybe they use a cane um or don't. Um, having some kind of edge helps those folks kind of navigate where they're going. Obviously, um a border or some kind of edge, whether it be stone

or wood or whatever, is something that a cane can hit and they can say, "All right, they can navigate by that." The other option we're considering is a rope, right?

Uh handheld rope situation like they have at Stone Barn. Um that's quite a bit more of a cost and maintenance challenge. And you know, just with any group, you know, it's not a it's not a monolith. It's not a homogeneous thing.

Everybody doesn't agree. Some folks with sight impairments hate those ropes, some because they feel tied in, some people love them. So, um, those are the kind of details that we're working on um because they have to work not just for the user, but for if we're trapping water on there that's going to ice up or, you know, cause that material to break up, it's not going to work. So, these are some of

the final design kind of tweaks that we'll be making. But, yeah, in general, it's very flat. Um environmental permitting is relatively minimal because we at the very end we are in the buffer zone um and we are in uh some endangered species habitat but this is very dimminimous you know impact to those and and we're very you know what's the material again you saying what what is actually the material rice

krispie what what is this material uh what do they call it there's it concrete is it asphalt because really there's only two things that's going to be any type of in in New England it's going to survive It's one or the other.

Yeah. This is like an asphalt. This is in the sense that it is basically uh it's sort of like gravel or like a stone dust, but you put it down with a binder compound. That's like your marshmallow in the uh Rice Krispie treat situation.

Um so it's the same thing that DCR uses on its trails all around Massachusetts.

So it's processed gravel. It's processed asphalt. It's just ground up and then res resurfaced with with a binder.

Yeah. It doesn't look black. Um, it looks like and it's got kind of this uh textured kind of topping to it.

Okay.

It's not pumin puminous based, right? Exactly. It's not oil based or anything like that. And um Well, if it's asphalt, it has to be oil based.

It's got some kind of top. Yeah. I apologize. I don't know the name of that product off hand, but you buddy. Can I ask another question?

Yeah. Yeah. Um, so my my other thought was when you were mentioning about some of the other sources that you might be utilizing, right? You mentioned private donations, but are there any other sources that you would have to be applying for and I was just curious like the timelines of those applications as it relates to our funding at the CBC and how they dovetail together. So that way

you know your your projections in terms of your timeline when you're actually going to be able to get your funding together all you know all of it together and then be able to what's best case scenario you know I guess. Yeah, there's a lot of You're absolutely right because that is a a mixed bag of things and so um assuming that we do apply, we'll make sure that's all laid out in terms of

what's what's in hand, what's been applied, when that's expected, blah blah blah.

Um okay.

To make that clear to the committee.

Great. Great.

Any other questions?

Terrific. Thank you for coming and taking a little bit time. Give us an idea of what you all are looking at. We look forward to getting an application. Uh January 28th is our deadline.

So that's fine.

It's going to be here any minute.

Yeah. Yeah.

All right, buddy. Thank you so much.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you.

Good holiday.

Okay. So, uh the next thing on our agenda is to go into a public hearing session.

um regarding our annual needs assessment. Um and see if there's any comments that we have received um and uh yes, we tabled that because we don't have Okay. Yeah. Thank you.

And so what we'll do is we'll take a vote to go into the public hearing part of our meeting. Um, I will then kind of just share a couple of the ground rules and then when we've heard the comment comments um and are done and there's no further comment, we'll vote to close the public hearing meeting and come back into this meeting which will remain an open meeting. Okay. So, if I can have a

motion to open a public hearing.

Moved. And this is for the purpose of comment on our annual needs assessment and plan. All right. And was there a second?

Second.

All right. Uh Christine.

And all in favor?

I.

All right. That's unanimous. Um, so first I would hope Nick you would have some comment because we'd love to have comments but we often do not have people to comment. So um if you're willing it would be great to register a um someone from the audience.

That's very flattering. I'd be glad to be glad to give you some comments.

Great. Well, if you would like to come up to the podium on that. Um and what we'll do is we'll just uh there's your thoughts about our plan particularly you will your you know your expertise clearly you've done a lot of work with the CPC with the CPC and the town on open space and conservation work but um we'd be interested in just any feedback you have about the kinds of goals and strategies that we've been

pursuing.

Thank you. uh Nick Wildman, executive director of DNRT. For uh those at home, you know, my main sense from reading the needs assessment this year and thinking about how it fits in with other work that I know other town departments are doing. Um last night I had the opportunity to present to the select board, for example, and and heard a lengthy discussion about property tax rates, both residential and business tax

rates. And you know what what strikes me is how the CPC fits into the larger vision implementing the town's master plan in light of a a variety of needs really. And you know it's it's very similar to the thinking that DNRT um does. You know DNRT was born in like a lot of land trusts in the 1970s uh from that model of protect it first, worry about it later. You know let's lock up

this land. to make sure that development doesn't take off uh you know rampantly.

I think that the C the community preservation act kind of mirrors the evolution that DNRT has been undergoing re which is recognizing not only the value of working lands and agricultural lands which I know that uh this committee has supported and and is mentioned in the needs assessment this time around as well um but also balancing smart development and housing opportunities and you know I'm really

pleased that there's been a lot of discussion at previous meetings um and speaking kind of anecdotally with some of the committee members about the committee's role and making available the funds that it has for um sustainable housing and what have you. So I don't really I had not prepared remarks here tonight. Um but uh I think that that is really I think the work of the community preservation committee and the

priorities outlined in this needs um needs report really jive well with these these pressures that we're seeing around town both for not just protecting our important historical and cultural landscape but also understanding that we need to maintain land for working lands for agricultural purposes and you you know, we need we have a housing uh a housing shortage. So, um glad to be working with you all on on

all all those things really.

Um are there no uh in terms of looking at land conservation um needs in the town or priorities? Um do you all have a sense of priority properties? what on your radar screen? Um, and how do you, you know, is how do you all go about that? And yeah, we how might that get reflected in kind of what our priorities might be?

Yeah. Um we have we look at a range of factors um in evaluating the um relative benefits of protecting any property and they range everything from the natural resources you would expect wetlands, endangered species habitat, what have you uh to scenic landscapes and working lands, agricultural land, etc.

Um all the and then you know some of the mundane kind of feasibility things. is this, you know, a property that if we were to steward it, that we could manage it effectively, etc. Um, as well as opportunities for uh recreational, you know, we do we do a lot of work that does not involve recreational opportunities, and that's a matter of capacity. That's something you'll be hearing me talk a lot about in the

coming next years is our we're rolling out a new strategic plan next year focused on building our capacity uh so that we can step up to the plate when those things happen when we have C uh chapter 61 properties uh writer first refusals referred to us for example um you know we we opted not to uh seek community preservation committee support for uh acquisition earlier this year of

34 4 acres adjacent to the southeastern Mass Bio Reserve and our Ridge Hill property. Um it was a tremendous opportunity. It potentially someday would be an amazing recreational opportunity based on its proximity to existing trails. Um you know, but we evaluated that against the committee's goals and priorities and we said this isn't really a good fit and we chose to fund that through our own uh our own

cash reserves to protect that property.

now worry about the trails later.

So, you know, for us and I think for a lot of other nonprofits as well as from the town, you know, um this committee's heard from Mark Garrett and others about the responsibilities that go into stewarding uh conservation land, protected land that the town holds and the u the capacity, the person power and the financial resources needed to do that. So, we're in the same boat. Um we have to make those considerations as

well. And um we also want to be thoughtful about how we do that relative to asking for public funds.

Great. Thank you. Any questions?

Great. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

We have um heard from the historical commission.

Um I think do I have Yeah.

and the historical commission has uh sent us um their kind of uh thoughts around goals and priorities for um 26 u actually going into 27 um in terms of fiscal year. Um and the one thing that um their comment is um the I they suggest striking and maybe um Christina you could say a little bit more about this striking the um support the development of a historic structures report for the Smith's Mills Library um

before any plan for adaptive reuse can be I I think the conversation there was just that um it's it's been a project that's been um kicked around for quite some time and it's kind of like who who who could take it, who could do something with it that would um create something supported by CPC funds, accessible to the public, meet all the criteria for support from this group And that hasn't

come to fruition despite several tries.

The last I think any of us could remember it was um the Smith Mills camp and we were waiting to hear to see whether um um Mr. Salastano was going to give some input on whether that was even feasible because it's not a public piece of land and would the public have access to it.

So, it seems to be stalled and so we thought we'd rather take it off um until we have something more that we can say one way or the other about whether we can come up with a useful place for it.

Mhm.

And then the other um the other suggestion or or actually the other um um thought was striking the support the preservation and historic rehabilitation of the old Southworth Library because that had been done.

Oh, okay. Because it's been done. There probably going to be more phases, so I'm not sure.

Okay. Um, but that was that was a thinking that this was a completed project, right?

Got it. Okay.

The only thing that I see now that maybe we could also take off for now is the um it's under the documentation and it's support the update of the town's archaeological reconnaissance survey because we've also done that.

It's under the first goal.

Uh before current priorities, second bullet up.

It's really early on in the first page.

If you see the words mris, it's right under mris.

Oh, great job.

Support the update. So, we have done that also.

All righty.

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Um, and those are the comments that we've received and I do not believe there is any further comment from our audience.

So, if I could entertain a motion to close the public hearing.

Motion. All right. And a second.

Second.

All right. All in favor?

I.

That's unanimous.

And we are back into our regular open meeting.

And so now we want to um consider adopting our plan.

What I had uh sent out.

um included a couple of highlighted elements. Um and so one question I have is if uh there if those additions amendments to our current plan going forward are ones that made sense to folks.

I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but I didn't see anything highlighted.

Only I see highlighted is in the uh pixel box with acquire create preserve support.

Was that what you highlighted, buddy?

I thought there was a couple. Do you have some wonder if not capitalized? Okay, there there there's it's that yellow stuff, right? Capitalize agricultural preservation fund under community preservation strategies. That's the only one that I see.

Oh, I'm sorry. There are Are you talking about this?

Yeah.

Okay.

And so then there are the the figures as well. So let's hold off on the figures.

Let's just do the They have figures the figures didn't highlight in the uh Yeah, we got no nothing in your email.

Maybe when they're printed. Yeah, I I have my own, you know.

Yeah, it's interesting. It's like it didn't um carry over when you look at it as an attachment.

I I print everything. See?

Yeah.

Because I don't I don't do well with what you're doing, Christine. I print sometimes. I do sometimes, but I don't I print it too and I don't see it.

Better keep going.

I don't think I have that.

Oh, no. Never mind. You got it.

forgot I'm set to black and white printing. Oh, okay. That's why.

Okay.

So, Margaret, I wonder if um actually I'd be happy to do this.

I could go over the the highlighted parts for folks. Sure.

Because it's not showing up in their document.

All right. Here we go. Let me just make sure I don't give you Which section is it? It's the It's the availability section two, right?

And I took that out of order.

I got section one, which is in green, right?

I saw that. Yeah, I got it.

Okay. So, um, one of the edits is under the, um, page under open space and community preservation strategies.

Uh, was added a strategy of to capitalize an agricultural preservation fund.

So that's one addition to our our uh needs assessment and this is something that we've um agricultural commission and the town have been looking at and we um we'll get an update a little bit later in our agenda but that's moving forward and then that was the main so where is that buddy I'm not.

Yeah, that is on wish page number. It is then the I think it's page quite a bit.

Page six community preservation strategies page is not numbered though, right?

No, but they can count.

Maybe they can't.

You know what the difference is? If you click on if you have word and you click word on it and actually go to the word document itself, it'll it'll highlight.

It's all you got to you got to click the word portion, right?

Yeah. Then it'll all pop up. How we how we remember this?

It prints that way too.

Yeah. In the email in the email uh you got to actually go to word, right?

Okay.

Now we're on board. We're on board.

Okay.

Can you see that? But it says that.

Okay. Great. I think that's the the one addition. Um and then the other is taking um into consideration the historical commissions um priorities and um goals that we try to align with. It would include uh striking the um um the archaeological survey reference since that's been done and striking the old south uh not the old uh the Smith Mills right library item. I would I would recommend

holding on to the old South Worth because they think there's more work that that's still a um a project in progress.

We're kind of they're they're working off a phase one, but I think we should expect to be at least another one or two phases to that project.

There are a couple of other things under goal number two that are struck out.

Yeah.

Let's see those which I don't know why in what uh historical commission provided.

Yeah. Under number no under number two in the document that we're reviewing.

Okay.

Goal two under objectives, the maintain inventory of historic properties is recorded by historic.

Oh. Um, and then the third.

Okay. Yeah, those are not strikes. Those are that they they moved, right?

So those those are not strikes. the the line would go through all the words and stuff. So that little line at the bullet is what you're looking at.

Yeah, they're completely crossed out.

No, they're stricken. The whole Oh, the whole bullet.

Maybe we have different versions. It's also Oh, yeah. See, I don't have that.

That version doesn't have that.

I don't have that.

The whole bullet, every word is strucking through like you're striking the You're taking it out, which we don't want. Yeah, that's interesting how this weird how this is reading the sense how the documents reading with these edits is a little a little screwy I guess one would say but they are not struck they were just moved moved where in in terms of the order of things. So like when you're when you have kind of a

um reviewedit thing when you start moving things around it keeps track of what you moved. So, um, where did it go?

No, this just says it was in a different place as now it's here. But it's not you're what you're looking at is for some reason it's showing up as stricken, but it's not.

Um.

Okay.

Yeah. Yes. And I I apologize. I don't know why it's the document's reading differently. Um, and when you're looking at it online or are we going to have a Are we going to have a finalized copy that all looks the same to all of us?

Well, I think that's what I sent you.

But the problem is the edits are showing up differently when you're looking at Are you in Are you open Have you opened up in Word?

If you open it up in PDF, no, it doesn't. Uh, if it's a PDF, it's different.

Oh, yeah. I open I didn't have highlights. I opened it up in Word and everything popped up.

It said Docs. Doc X is a Yeah. You know.

Yeah. Yeah. That's That's an Apple thing.

Yeah. See, it's different. Yeah. You got an Apple. Yeah.

Yeah. Same with me. I have ducks. I apologize.

So, I don't know what to do about the confusion here.

I have word on here, but see if you can open up in word.

You open up. Yeah.

Okay.

Three the three bullets on the upper right hand corner. I think if you hit that may open up.

There's no three dots.

Do you want to just walk us through the ones that you actually need and then we'll just try to follow along that?

So, one thing I can assure you is those things are not stricken. So, they are in.

Okay.

Okay. But we just want to be clear about that.

As long as we're clear on that.

Yes.

Yeah. Well, I have doc x as well. So, mine is also same as all right. So, what's a section that's go down is much I think sharing as a PDF would help solve some of that because everyone sees a PDF the same word. Now I see highlighting and yes historic preservation stocks and then number two. So, what's my lesson? PDF.

PDF that make sure that it shows up the same whether you're on a PC or Mac, right? Got it.

Yeah, that's that's bizarre.

Thank you.

As much as I hate Adobe, that's what my uh keep going.

Right.

Well, I apologize for that, but that's what you had the word on.

Lesson learned. Then I have to remember what I all these different different devices you know they remember they format differently I guess you know yeah if you do it from your computer he's doing it with word then you got to get you have to have word on your phone.

So the one um the one addition is capitalize agricultural preservation fund. Um the one strike is to strike the Smith Mills library reference in the historic um um historic preservation section and the the um archaeological survey and strike the archaeological the is this I see when I go to work Smith Mills library it's mentioned a couple times is it just being struck from that one place I can't hear

uh yeah let's see here There's lines under that one there because it's also under current priorities. Preserve the old Smith Mills library currently at risk on Tucker Road collaborative process.

Is that a um what do you call that?

I guess it's still something we want to do, right?

Yeah. Joke just but we're we feel like it's stuck right now.

Yeah.

So, the Smith Mills library reference should be removed wherever it shows up.

Well, she's just saying that they still want to do it. It's just stuck in process.

Yeah.

So, is there a way to know like preserve the Old Smith Mills library currently at risk through a collaborative process?

I guess you know that's still a goal or a priority, right?

I don't know how to what's the differentiation between an objective and a current priority because I could see it being in one place to the other depending on what your answer is. Mhm.

And the other one is is support a development of historic structures report whereas the priority is to preserve it.

I I redact I keep the preserve redact my comment. I would keep it in objectives and not under priorities. Is that what you're saying?

No, keep the go with what the the one that you all struck which is support the development of historic structures report which is under objectives but keep under a priority to preserve the old Smith's Mills library.

So keep priority six.

Number six in the priorities here.

Because that bullet where it says support the development of historic structures report etc and coordinate with friends of the elderly we did try to get it to them and that was a dead end. Mhm. So I think what Susan's pro suggesting is strike strike that but but under the current priorities further down number six keep it keep that that's still the overall kind of okay so the wording edits so far um

except the addition of um capitalized agricultural fund in the open space section. Strike the Smith Mills uh reference in the goals section of the historic preservation. Strike the archaeological survey uh language in the historic historical preservation historic preservation section.

Any other in terms of text? Any other additions or changes?

And I went back and just double checked.

We don't have any new, you know, we next year we will have a housing production plan to review and incorporate, but right now we're still working off the the approved plan. Um Okay.

So um let's turn our sights to section two, funding availability and plan.

And this is um where we just provide some general kind of projection of um funding uh where where we uh anticipate or would project um CPA expenditures.

Um so let me walk through so the key thing here is the assumptions and just how comfortable we are with the assumptions and um so the searchcharge revenue 27 28 fiscal years 27 28 and 29 are all based on a year-over-year 2% increase. So took so we have the 25 fiscal 25 um figures are actual um so estimating our fiscal 26 which we're still in the middle of as being 2% higher

taking that figure and then continuing to increase it by 2% is where those numbers come from. Um, that's generally been the trend. Uh, it has not varied much. It it generally follows a 2% kind of year-over-year trend in terms of revenue. Uh, the state match.

Um, this I assumed what I drafted this this assumes a 15% flat um year overyear. I think um this year was I think 17% something like that. Um but it basically is just assuming a relatively low state match for the next uh over this period of time.

Total revenue kind of is the arithmetic of what we estimate to get from search charge revenue and then from the state.

uh assuming our admin budget just stays flat.

Y um this is what we would end up with. So you take away the admin, we don't have debt service and we're not projecting any debt service and you get this net uh revenue available for projects.

Um we do not have on the books any future commitments. So we haven't committed any future uh funds towards any of these uses. So that's all zero.

Um and then um took some gueststimates here. Um looked at the last five-year average.

I put those figures off in the on the left there.

Um and then I anticipated um capitalizing the agricultural fund. So that took that 5-year estimate. Over five years, we've been averaging on annual basis about 122,000 in open space. And I just jacked that up assuming um you know that there would be additional money if we were capitalizing a fund any given year. Who knows? I mean, we may come in with someone that has you know $600,000, you know, for an

open space project. Um that very well could be but this is just look we we don't know those projects. So um but that's why the um open space is higher than the average. Um and the housing kept it pretty much in along that line. Uh, and then historic.

Um, I am anticipating that there's more work that the um Old South Worth Library and they're getting they're they're working through their first phase. So, this is anticipating that very likely there will be additional phases for that. So I um bumped up historic what we might be looking at in terms of historic preservation.

Um but you just did it for one year, right?

Uh yes.

Yes. I'm not sure. I think there's another phase, but I'm not sure how much long. So that bumped up and then went back it may go back to this um kind of average rate.

Thank you. Yeah. Um and then there is setting aside the minimum 10%.

Um I just assumed uh setting aside any you know if we have a project that commits more than that amount we don't have to set aside anything. Um but I just put it out there is that's an option we might consider nevertheless.

So it just and so those numbers are based on the net revenue.

I probably should make they should probably be on the total revenue.

So that's can I ask you a quick question? So the you have projected FY opening fund balances open space 212 housing 367 that's 10% of what number?

Yeah. So, and and I I really should do this a little differently. Um, then it should be 10% of the total revenue. I did it on net, but actually has to be 10% of total revenue. So, I'm going to need to make these adjustments. So, this is like Okay.

27 and it should be more like 112.

Mhm.

Um, this should be more like 114.

And then on the labeling, should we because again I these comments on the side, I don't know if they're just for our benefit or if they're going to be in the plan, but should there be a comment that that kind of denotes what that is? You know what I mean? Like the um or is that in your footnote here? I'm sorry. I didn't see the footnote. Oh, yeah. Right there. Minimum reserve. Yep.

Okay. Number four.

Is that okay? In the note that exists.

Mhm.

Okay.

Yeah.

That makes sense.

I thought he was talking about that, right?

And then in terms of these balances, um this is assuming that we still try to minimize um we do the minimum of what we need to do in terms of um the designated restricted um funds.

So um and try to keep as much of it in unrestricted just so it's available for any use. Um so we this is assuming we're probably doing the bare minimum and where we have projects we're going to commit that reserve money. Mhm.

Um and so it's very possible that these could be, you know, these reserves might be zero in terms of but only because we're trying to maximize that bottom one, the unrestricted.

Mhm.

So this is the amount of funds for the year 2029.

Uh yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

With this kind of right spending.

Mhm.

Yeah. We'd have probably 4.5 4.6 million available.

Do a lot of good with that.

So those are kind of the assumptions I you know um people are comfortable with those numbers we can go I will correct the the um 10% project the 10% because I I that's has to be on these this higher figure up here. Um,

it looks good.

It's it's, you know, qualitatively we don't other than the the DNRT project we heard about tonight, we don't have other projects of real money that we can see in the pipeline.

They're probably all anecdotal. Um I think um we've got the uh I would think that we're going to get um from the agricultural the town on behalf of the agricultural commission will be a request for capitalizing agricultural fund. I think we will see something there.

Um there is going to be another a small um cemetery preservation project. So I think um we've already seen that application come in. we just won't discuss it till after the deadline. Um I think there is another potential conservation kind of project that the town may move forward with. Um I don't know how much.

I mean will any of them be a million dollars?

I don't think so. And I think the Old South Worth I think the cultural center is very likely will submit an application because they're looking out into next year. And I think what they're seeing is as they wrap up the work that they're doing now, they want to be able in July to go into the next phase of work, which means they'll have to apply for it in January. So, I think we will

very likely um see an application for the next phase of work at the at the Old South Worth Library. So, I think they're right here. Anecdotally, I think they're that's what's kind of hovering hovering out there.

Have we ever got the contracts that we needed super looked at by Saviano? I did get an update um from Chris and they Yes, those documents came back for the rehab loan and Cody is now looking at them. Um but they're new lean documents that align and stuff like that. Yep.

Yep.

So um we have so I think um the motion before us is to um adopt our fiscal year 27 plan.

um with the by making the revisions the following revisions to our 26 plan which would be to add the capitalizing the agricultural fund.

Striking the Smith Mills um reference in the goals in the historical section. striking the archaeological survey reference in the historical um historic preservation section.

amending the project um commitment figures to align with 10% of the projected total revenue and adopting these figures in section two.

um projecting the revenue and expenditures for the CPA funds from fiscal 27 through fiscal 29.

That's the motion.

So moved.

Second.

Second.

Um other questions or discussion on this?

All right. All in favor?

I opposed. That's unanimous.

Um, and I really apologies apologize for the technical kind of snafoos here. I will try very hard and Michelle you can help me on these kinds of things to use the PDF version so that everybody's just it's clear how we're working off that.

Okay.

There. I messed it all up. So now I'm giving it back to you.

Well, I have it.

Yeah, I had it on my phone, but Okay.

The highlights were much Okay, that's fine.

That's why I knew. Uh oh, there's an issue.

Okay.

So, we'll get this posted. I'll I'll put these changes in and send it to you, Michelle, and then not go up on our website and replace the other one.

Hold in here. Or is it me?

Oh, it is. I feel a little Oh, god. Freezing.

Almost 8:00. They're turning the heat off.

Oh, there you go.

Was that what they did? Cuz we at planning yesterday, it was freezing. We had to put the heat on.

Oh, really?

We did put we raised it up.

If you're getting cold, you should have another cookie.

We warm you right up. That's actually how one solves that problem for temporarily.

Yeah.

Thank you.

So, um the next on our agenda is to look at um our existing project agreements andus and um approve any extensions or any actions on these. Thank you.

And we do this I'm trying to get us in a cycle that we kind of just have to do this like every six months something like that. Um so what you're going to get is the list of our active projects awards.

Um and the first few are ongoing. They're the ones that are related to the rehab loan program. Um and as I as Margaret had asked and I had answered um the documents are finally back to the town.

Um and uh to Cody is looking at them. So I will continue to ask for updates.

We'll get a we'll get an update every meeting because at this point Yeah.

we should be on the cusp of of the program going live again.

I hope so.

Yeah.

Um the dog park uh still an active project. Um and the term uh current term goes to June 30th the 26th DAS landing um expansion that is just about done except there is an outstanding there's we haven't released the last bit of funds um and they're considering kind of how to work a sign that maybe would qualify for funding but they'd have to include reference to the CPC. So, um what I

would recommend to the committee is we just extend that uh term for another 6 months as they wrap up whatever little details they want uh to wrap up um before we close the project out.

And so if I could have a motion to extend the DAS landing marina expansion term um to June 30th, 2026.

So moved.

So moved.

All right. Any questions?

All in favor?

Okay. Post. That's unanimous.

Dartmouth Heritage Trail. That project is complete.

um they came in under budget. So there is u an outstanding balance of $7,17428.

Um what we need to do now is what basically recapture those funds um and instruct the town account to transfer the funds to the open space recreation um reserve.

So, um I could have a motion to um transfer the outstanding balance to the open space reserve.

Motion.

All right. A second.

Second.

Right.

Get that. Susan uh I think that her buzzer went off maybe just slightly.

Um, so all in favor of the transferring $7,17428 to the open from the Dartmouth Heritage Trail project to the open space reserve.

I oppose. Okay, that's unanimous.

Dartmouth Cultural Center existing term goes to June 30th.

uh the dinging storage. Um that is now that they've they've kind of reworked the plan since they didn't get the state grant and now they're using their funds. Um but that hasn't been completed yet. So um this would be uh to extend their term to June 30th, 26.

If I have a motion to do that.

So moved.

All right. A second.

Right. All in favor?

I opposed. That's unanimous.

Did you skip the Mendy's Montro House?

Um, yes I did. Yes, I but I checked it off.

Um, yeah. Did we have their invoice? Did they um we get the for release?

I didn't see it.

Not see their invoice for release.

No, I didn't get I just have the project update.

Yeah. So, there should be uh No, I didn't get anything.

Yeah, they submitted the close out report.

Um, and we got a copy of the restriction.

So, I think the that's all I received. All right, let's come back to that because I think um we need to vote on this release. But thank you, Margaret. I skipped right over it.

And the housing production plan, which is still in the works. Um we need to have a motion to extend that term to June 30th, 2026.

Motion.

A second. Second.

All in favor?

I opposed. It's unanimous.

And then we've got the Uponagansit Park Das landing master plan. This had been postponed until um Cody came aboard and got his feet about what this is about and what the history and all of that.

So, they really didn't anticipate starting the work until really after January. So, I think here probably makes most sense. I would recommend that we would um extend it to 123126 for to complete this plan.

Motion and a second.

Second.

Thank you, Mike. And um all in favor?

I I oppose.

Okay, that's unanimous.

Um the harbor dredging um that needs to be extended to I think they've done most of it but I do not think we have the close out on that.

So let's extend that to June 30th 26.

Second.

All right. And all in favor I opposed.

I think that really will get wrapped up very quickly but gives us a space. Um greenway that's already term the rest of these um go into 26. So going to come back to the Ontario house.

what we need to do there's an outstanding the there's released the the remaining funds. So we have received um the closeout report and we have received the certificate of occupancy for the building.

Yeah.

She also sent this But I think we should have gotten an in there should have been an invoice for the Okay.

So, um but in terms of the close out, um I'll read this from Connie. U the original purpose and award of $500,000 was to help close the cost of the construction gap. The partners in housing has over the years received monies from the home ministries 115,000 of which 100,000 was a loan. Webster Bank 7,700 and Bay Coast Bank 35,700.

Um CCRI I can't remember what CCRI is.

Yeah. Yeah. So um community but they were generous with $75,000 u mass works $275,000 SEAC provided 15,000 facilities consolidation fund provided 1.5 million uh HSF housing stabilization fund housing stabilization fund provided 1.1 1,214,373 CPC had provided1 $1 million. Dartmouth the housing authority $1 million for site work and a $500,000 loan to cover the funding gap. And the National

Housing Trust Fund, um $1.5 million.

Um and that's how that thing got paid for.

Um and they've had two draws on our on the remaining grant with us. one was in September for $387,46822 and then the balance of $112 um 53178 in October and we've retained a $50,000 um hold back until we get the copy of the certificate of occupancy. So, we have received that as well as a copy of the um affordability restriction that was uh recorded. So, everything is in order um to release the remaining

$50,000. So, um I think what um since we don't have the actual invoice to sign, I think if we could take a vote to approve releasing the the remaining $50,000 for the project now that it's completed and they satisfied the closeout report requirements, uh as well as the term of the agreement, which required the certificate of occupancy, that we take that vote. Um, and I or Margaret, somebody can swing by and sign

sign the invoice. But, um, make a motion to release the $50,000.

And a second.

Second.

Okay. Then all in favor?

All right. Opposed?

Very good. Unanimous. Um, did you see the invoice? Did you get an email? I have No. No. That's why I assumed that cuz um she said, you know, she sent in everything else and that's when I thought, oh, well, then there would be a an invoice for for that. So, if we could we want to reach out to her and say get and so she can give you what you need and Okay.

And then we'll get it signed. Okay.

Great. Thank you.

All right.

And I don't know if we have um any additional project status reports other than Wendy's Mont.

Yeah, I have um dog park in the dog park.

Yeah, DCTV. We already did that.

Yeah. So, we just have the dog park. Um, and this came with the invoice as we always would like to get them. Um, and he said as of November 21st, um the company has substantially completed the dog park project. Um, and they expect to hold a grand opening for the park in the spring of 2026.

Um, and really the next thing is they will be sending us a closeout report. So that's pretty cool.

That was a long time in coming.

Yeah.

Patience, right?

And and then I the volunteers who kept that.

There's two women up there that they're super kept that going and their their and their commitment. They were solidly behind for several years now. I can hand.

Yeah. So that social media.

Yeah.

So So that would be a that will be a fun um opening to go to and I think some of us have watched this come and go and stall and start again and stall. So I think that long time for for some we we just might be tearful.

Got to wait till the spring because the grass has to come in to fill Yeah, grass. The grass got to make sure the grass grows before they Yeah, the dogs can ruin it.

Well, part of the deal is when they built it, like they guarantee the grass, so they have to grow.

So, they're going to wait till springtime which Yeah, just as well.

There's plenty of other extracurricular activity going on.

Oh, yeah.

I'll follow you. Mhm. I've brought my dog with a long one time.

I can't bring my new dog in. Hates other dogs. I don't know what I'm going to do about it.

It's like the owner. Oh, great. I do want to some dogs take on the owner's personality.

Just saying.

This happens to be a rescue dog that I saved from Texas. I'll check in with Becky.

Didn't have so bad, guys.

All right. On the dog party. Okay.

Beautiful. Do you want to do you want me?

She likes the snow though.

Yeah, that would be four years old.

Okay.

Nobody wanted them. So I took a the housing uh production plan.

Um could you know Margaret or we have a draft. Have you seen the draft?

I have not seen that.

Well, I saw the draft because of the planning board. Okay. So I have to find it now because I had it all in there. I think I don't know if uh did you uh used to send out the emails but he's gone now, right?

Oh, who?

Tomorrow is last day.

Oh, tomorrow's last day.

Who's last day?

Chris Vitali.

Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um we got a draft for the planning board yesterday because the planning board had a special meeting on housing. So, uh we have eight strategies. Um do you want me to read them? Sure. Yeah.

Um, explore opportunities to upgrade and expand key infrastructure across town.

Leverage local funds to match state and federal grants. Work in tandem with the DPW to identify key upgrades.

Establish a mixeduse overlay district to provide for additional housing opportunities.

Um then we need to work with the uh EOHLC to potentially revise and expand the existing 40R district. Uh create a new mixed juice district in areas across town where it would be complimentary.

Evaluate the zone 3 aquifer requirement for potential reforms. Uh review lot coverage requirements and definitions.

Um that's on we broke these down to high, medium, and low. And that was one of the high things that uh we thought that we we could do. Um pursue funding opportunities and programming to bolster the CPC and housing trust existing resources.

Create a chapter 40 Y start a home zoning district. Review the town's existing zoning to establish an inclusionary housing component for over 55. Prepare to negotiate expiring youth deed restrictions into perpetuity.

Collaborate with proactive housing developers and the state to create SHI eligible units on town and stateowned land. Uh right now, um Ross is looking going to give us all a uh uh an Excel sheet on all the land that the town owns. Uh the housing goals.

There are four housing goals based on information from the town's housing needs assessment feedback received from the stakeholder committee and community preferences survey. They are one implementing zoning changes that enable the create creation of new affordable and missing middle housing choices.

Create new and expand existing programs to support production, preservation and overall housing stability.

support infrastructure upgrades and expansion to enable housing development, continue to produce SHI eligible units to achieve the Commonwealth's required amount and support communities in need.

Uh there are eight housing strategies which we uh have outlined.

Implementation time frames. Uh each strategy has a listing time frame within it which should be pursued and subsequently implemented.

A short means less than two years, medium between two and five years and long is greater than five years. And on here if you want to take a look you can pass it around and give it. Okay.

So that's what we've been doing. And we should have this by the end of the year.

This is a draft. You can have took both pages. This is a draft. So they did promise us to have it by the end of the year.

Yeah. So I think those are pretty good strategies. What does what does anybody think?

Well, the one thing so I know last meeting I had to jump off or whatever, but one of the things that I I see here they have priority, they have timeline, right?

And they have goals addressed, right?

Mhm.

A, B, and C. And I know this is just like a plan, right? But I think it would be helpful maybe to try to maybe talk about whose responsibility like whose ball in court is it who's you know whether it's whether it's a department or a committee or whoever so that way there can be some sort of ownership of the responsibility of these items because I think nine times out of 10 what happens is stay there

these these things sound great and they get put into a plan but they sound great to everyone and everyone else kind of says well who's doing it you know so I think it's just like you know and again we we do have staff here obviously you know to you know to do those things but if there's certain committees or whether it's um you know departments or whoever that need to be involved I think there

should just be some some discussion of that in the plan somewhere so that way the responsibility is the reason we got that draft was because the planning board has an special meeting yesterday So, um, we asked Dan for that and Dan called her up and that's what we got. I'm not, you know, that's just a draft. That isn't So, I will talk to Dan about that. I'll ask Dan.

Suggestion. No, it's a good suggestion.

But I think the reason we got that was because we asked for it. It wasn't completely done, but we wanted it for our meeting yesterday. Okay.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah. Identify who's responsible for actually doing something.

I I wrote it down. I'll call Dan tomorrow.

There's a lot of things that that they don't get a lot of balls that are on the floor dropped.

Well, there's a lot of overlap, too, I think, in terms of um different departments and different um you know, committees or agencies or whatever. And I feel like that's why it' just be good to know who's taking the lead on certain things.

A good point.

Uh any other questions or thoughts on that?

Great. Thank you for attending these on our behalf.

Um the next thing we have some old business open space preservation process has no no new uh news on that. Um I think the last time when I reported out um had a meeting with Cody and Mark and now they're looking at um um just what would it be to contract to jointly hold um the CRS and that seemed to be a feasible way to go. Um and so the next step I think in

the town was just look at okay so well it's really u probably not a well there could be somewhat of a template on how to contract for that.

You know it needs to have some room to be adjusted for particular circumstances of a property and things like that.

for the town to think through like, okay, if we were going to jointly hold a CR, these are the kinds of things that we would need a vendor to do because we don't as the town just doesn't have the capacity um to do that. So, I think they're kind of looking through working through through that. Um, and then Chris, the historic building inventory is complete.

Whoa.

Got an invoice today.

So, we um I think I mentioned last time we all met. Well, not all. A subgroup of us met and discussed, looked, printed everything out, reviewed everything, made comments. I made a sheet that I sent back to Lynn with our comments and suggestions and revisions and things, and she incorporated those, sent back the updated drafts. We looked over those, made final comments, and she incorporated everything, and we just got

um kind of a zip drive with all with the final batch, and that was followed by the invoice. So, that was sent to Robert also. So, we'll bring that forward for next month.

Yeah. Great. Great.

And um we also have a planning meeting to create the next list. Uh there we go.

Excellent. Thank you.

And then they uh I don't know Susan just want to say a word on the agricultural preservation fund. Yeah, we had a really good meeting with Buddy, the adcom, Cody, and Gary.

Um, I think it's pretty clear now that the town is willing to, you know, the adcom is willing and the town is willing to create a a preservation fund that will fall under the agricultural commission.

um that adcom will come before this group in January to talk about numbers and how it would work um to just get feedback on what would be acceptable to this group.

Um and then the adcom will put in an official application for the January uh 28th deadline. Um, oh, uh, Sugaduchi wanted me to mention that, um, she is working on getting a meeting with the planning board, um, in January to talk about reducing, um, house lot size on preserved farmland to make it more feasible.

Um, we want to keep one of the key things about attracting and keeping farmers in town is to for them to actually be able to live on the farm and it's hard to do with the um current large house lots that are required. Um, I think that'll be a problem.

And then I'm I'm missing something, buddy. I'm sure.

Then you all have some details to work out about how how that Yes, there there will be time in the spring. We discussed to figure out theou between CPC and egg to make sure that the funds are used correctly. Um we also talked about um oh that was it. The the way the old a preservation um commission or committee trust worked was that it had members of a number of the boards a lot of representatives from

the town. So planning, financial and it was that collaboration amongst the um town boards that made projects go smoother. So we want to recreate so the we can't capitalize the old aggrav aggravation agricultural preservation fund legally the way that the statute is. So it has to be under the adcom. So we want but we do want to recreate that um advis like an advisory committee that

would have different boards on it um to again help with that collaborative effort of making projects go smoother and easier when they do come up and also it's a way you know uh I think the the agricultural commission misses um being able able to better inject the needs of farmers in town into the different it was that was one way that the needs of farmers were brought up into different town boards was through

the egg preservation trust and those meetings that had um the different representation. So I think that would help keep um farmers needs their uplifted into the different parts of the town. Um, so that was that's the hope is to create some sort of um committee that would oversee those funds and bring a lot of different opinions to the table.

Great. So moving along, but come back to us in January to talk a little more. And that's good timing because um what we'd like to do I think is we had met with the egg commission was it a year ago or so? It was a while ago. It was a while ago but that before I was even on the CDC.

Yeah. We were talking about Scoffield.

Uh that um and so one of the things we had wanted to do is just keep touch at least once a year if we could with the egg commission. Um and so I think January that's going to be really nice opportunity um to talk about this um and if there's any opportunity to kind of let this committee know about current trends, priorities, things that are really important that are going on with

the farmers in town. That's probably good education for us to touch base at least once a year around that. uh and it's also I have on January is a time that we touch base at least once with historical commission and so this is going to be very timely because part of it is is that we would have some conversation with historical commission about the historic assets in town and so

we will hear you know we'll have this report out on the inventory if there's some so I think Chris there's some highlights you're going to have to have a substitute that today. I'm afraid.

Well, as long as you get a good substitute. Um, I am not going to be available that day.

Um, thank you.

But I can't just get somebody else to come for me or Well, they can't vote for you, but they certainly could come and Okay, I will make sure that there is a represent represent from the historical commission.

But it' be great that to kind of one, we should get a report um you know, the final report.

Yep, we have that. Um and then the historical commission will will endorse paying for it.

Okay.

But we'll have to vote to pay for it since it's our you know um this is a work that we've had done. Uh but it'd be great if there are any highlights from that. Mhm.

Um to hear that. Um and I think also for whoever is going to be from the historical commission again, if there's some important kind of things that people want to share about uh historic preservation in town, we it's good to be able to touch base with that committee at least once uh a year. Um I think for us the ongoing thing is going to be you know we have um

a growing reserve and how can we put our heads together to see that you know these funds can go to some um tangible kind of benefit. Well, we have a planning meeting. Actually, we're informal planning meeting that we're going to have in um I don't know if Robert's talked to you about it in January to come up with some concrete ideas. We have one there's a the old fire station which is now being used for storage.

That's one that's on our radar street, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

Um opposite the new station.

So, we are we're working actively working on that. Robert's really got a fire under him to get some concrete stuff going. He knows the money's sitting there and he wants to find some worthy projects.

Great.

Um, so I'll reach out to Robert and um and I'll um and who Susan who who I reach out over to a commission to just you know say invite and you're on our agenda and we want to talk you know uh Sue Gaduchi and Derek Christensen.

Okay.

I would I would have them both. I think I think Derek's the chair.

Yeah. Uh but Sue and and Derek is now he closed his farm stand so he's more reachable but but Sue um she does the I think she must be clerk because she posts the meetings and things like that.

Got it. Got it. Great.

And she was also the second reviewer for the inventory list. So she'll be good to have for us too.

Mhm.

Good.

Okay. I think that is our business.

Uh anything date of the next meeting? January.

Yeah, we need to Our next meeting is going to be January 6th.

Is it January 6?

Is that the second to 13th? Is the second?

That's right.

13th or the 6th?

13th.

January 13th.

Oh, I thought it was the sixth. So I Yes, I did too.

It's okay.

And I think I I will be able to be on the third.

That'd be great. Yeah.

But still have the rest of them come.

You don't want to let them off to hook.

No, I don't.

Yeah.

Thank you, Jim. Appreciate it.

Great. Well, happy holidays to everyone too.

Please take some cookies. I know many of you have children. You have loved ones.

You don't want to like stiff them. So, I'll take two.

Believe me, there are more cookies at home. Don't feel Don't feel bad about me, you know.

Oh, we wouldn't feel bad about you.

Motion.

A motion to adjurnn.

Motion.

All in favor? All right.