Planning Board Meeting February 9, 2026

It's 7 PM on February 9th, 2026, and this is the scheduled Town of Dartmouth Planning Board meeting. Before I begin, I'd like to repeat the fact that the planning board voted in public meeting to continue meeting virtually in accordance with the governor's 2025 extension of the virtual/hybrid open meeting option through June 30th, 2027.

Please note that these meetings are being recorded at this point in time.

Commencement and roll call. Margaret Sweet here.

Lorie Miller here.

Rosa here.

Nick Cyclopis here.

Dan, are we okay to proceed um compared to giving it a minute or two? Are we okay to proceed with item number one?

Um yes, we could do it with the four.

Nobody Nobody needs to recuse themselves for either of the public hearings.

Correct.

I don't believe so.

No, not me.

So, we'll need to entertain a motion.

So, moved. Do I have a second?

Second.

Motion made by Margaret and seconded by Helio Rosa to open the public hearing tonight on February 9th, 2026.

Specifically, agenda item number one under public hearing is the scenic roadway by Eversource.

Eversource rep.

Uh, Mr. Chairman, first we um you want to make a motion or have a board member make a motion to wave the reading of the public hearing.

Uh, Dan, we um did we vote?

We need to vote.

We need to roll call to open the public hearing.

Yes. And then you need the motion if you want.

So Dan, to stand corrected, we're going to entertain the motion to open the public hearing first. is correct.

Yeah. I think you just need to vote on that now.

Yep. So, Lori Miller, yes.

Rosa, yes.

Margaret, yes.

Nick Cyclopus, yes. And now we'll need a motion to wave the reading.

So moved.

So moved.

Motion made by Helio Rosa, seconded by Lori Miller to wave the reading of agenda item number one, Scenic Roadway Eversource, in regards to the public hearing. Lori Miller. Yes.

Rosa.

Yes.

Margaret.

Yes.

Nick Cyclopus. Yes.

Do we have somebody from Eversource at this point in time that would like to speak?

Would you like me to just give a little rundown first? U Mr. Chairman, or do you want to just go right into it?

Sure. No. No.

Okay. Um so so this is um a standard um procedure scenic roadway request that Eversource does um yearly for their projected work in the town of Dartmouth.

Um it's for um clearing pruning um of trees as they're as they're obtaining clearance for their electric services.

Um a number of a number of streets fall within our our scenic roadway bylaw. So the streets here before you today are Allen's Neck Road, Barney's Joy Road, Gaffne Road, Horsene Neck Road, Jordan Road, Patska Road, Rocka Dundy Road, and Slates Corner Road. Uh Representative Kyle Barry from Eversource um did a drive-thru around town on these with Timothy Barber, the Dharm tree warden.

Mr. Barber left the following comment on the portal. I drove the scenic road work areas with Kyle Barry. Most of the work is pruning and removing smaller growth trees under the utility lines. They are planning to be sensitive with removals along the scenic road. We also looked at a few trees that were in poor condition along these areas which will be planned for removal during the schedule work.

So with that, if Mr. Barry would like to give his presentation.

Good evening everyone.

Good evening. Happy to be here tonight.

And uh so yeah, back again this year to discuss our cyclical pruning work. Um this is work that's done every four to five years uh on any given road. Uh so we have the the roads listed uh through South Dartmouth. I think they were read earlier um in the meeting. So we've got a number of roads, scenic roads through South Dartmouth. our standard pruning.

We're trying to remove branches 10 feet to the sides of our electric wires, 10 feet below, and 15 feet above. And there I am proposing some select removal of brush that's directly underneath the pruning zone as well, which I discussed uh with Mr. Barber.

um small diameter pieces that are large growing species, fast growing species that have to grow uh that grow up into the wires and are uh apologize, I'm getting a beep over here.

And uh so this is done every 5 years or so uh to maintain a high degree of safety and service reliability for all of our customers in Dartmouth and every other town for that matter. Um, we're pruning the branches that might grow into the wires or potentially fall into the wires and cause electrical outages.

All right. Um, we utilize NZA300 best management practices through all of our contractors who are regularly audited for quality work.

Um, and uh I guess that's it for the moment, but I'd have be happy to take questions and uh comments.

Mr. Chairman, um Tim Barber is here too if you have if um the board you have any questions for him as well.

Yeah, before we have any questions, uh Tim, with all due respect, do you want to share anything at this point in time?

Do any board members have any questions?

No. I uh I'd like to say something though. Um I'm glad that some of the older trees that are dead uh I believe uh that those are the ones that you might take down. And we I know on Hosnik Road near where I live um there's one or two big trees that are dead. And those are the trees that kind of frighten me.

um if we have a windy time, heavy snow or something because they're going to fall and go right across the street.

Yeah, absolutely. If we find those dead trees that are threatening wires and probably mutually threatening the street as well, we can we can take some of those down. We we found a number of those on Tucker last year and and we removed some of those. There are a lot of ash trees unfortunately dying in town. There's a an insect called the emerald ashbor that's killing all the the ash trees. So that that may be the

situation on horse neck. I'm not sure about the specific u tree in question, but there are some some ash still through town that are they're still affected by that beetle.

Does anybody from the public have any questions?

Mr. Chairman Tim Barber. Um, hey Tim, how are you?

Sorry, I was on mute earlier.

That's okay. Thank you for being with us.

Um, same. Um, I just kind of support what what Kyle had to say. Um, and as well as I I asked him if he did see any additional trees that were in poor condition along these areas to let me know and I can go out and take a look at them as well. uh because while they're out there, they have, you know, stated that they would they would look

at taking care of any of those trees as well.

Great. Much appreciated, Tim.

Yeah.

Or do we have anything for Tim in particular?

No, but maybe Tim, what I can do, there's one in particular. Maybe I'll try to get an address that it's near and I'll call you.

Absolutely. You give me a call or send me an email and I'll take a ride out there. Thanks, Jim.

You're welcome.

Anyone else?

Uh, yes, Priscilla Keer.

Hi, Priscilla.

I'm live on Jordan Road and I think I have one of those dead trees. We lost about a quarter of it, I think, back in May. And then there's and Andy Barn Burns uh helped get rid of some of the branches, but there's a big limb stuck in the middle of the tree. And I have no idea where that will land one of these days that's broken off.

Yeah, we could absolutely take a look at that for you. If there's any broken branches that might potentially affect a power line, we want to deal with that before, ideally before it causes an outage. U I don't know if you feel comfortable sharing the location. Uh uh it's the three Jordan Road. It's the first house going in on the left side.

Great. We can definitely have a look this week at that that one.

Thank you, Priscilla.

We appreciate you, Priscilla.

Hi, this is Rachel Consulting. I also live on Jordan Road. I I'm one of Priscilla's neighbors and sorry I arrived a few minutes late to the meeting. Um, and I think Priscilla, are you talking about the big elm tree?

Yeah, the one that has deoui on it.

Oh, yeah. That's a maple tree. But yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. But that's a little further up on the left hand side. Um, I also wanted to ask a question relating to some of the trees along Horsene Neck Road and Jordan Road, especially the ones along Horsene Neck Road that I think was it Mrs. or Margaret mentioned.

I think they're oak trees um which are very slow growing and I did also I've noticed that some of those oak trees very large are also they're they are one of them is dee I think it was marked with an X at some point last year to be removed. Um my concern as a scenic road that as we start to take down some of these old mature trees, is there a replacement plan for some of these

trees? Because part of what makes that stretch of road so special um is are these trees and as you take them out and remove them which is great for utilities and the safety of people.

There has to be a replacement plan as well if we're going to maintain the scenic the scenic integrity of the these roads.

Rachel, I greatly appreciate um your concern and your comment and being with us if ever source or Tim Barter.

Mr. Mr. Mr. Chairman, could I just add one thing? Sure.

Um through you, could we just get um Rachel's last name for the record, please? Rachel, could you go ahead and provide your last name?

Yes. Sorry, I'm having an unmute mute issue. Hi. Um my name is Rachel Kinsolving. Um, and I'm I'm my middle name, my maiden name is Rachel Burns.

So, Rachel Burns Consolving. I'm um on Jordan Road right now.

Thank you, Rachel.

Yeah, I can I can speak to that a little bit.

I I am going to be working with Tim Barber. We've discussed it a little bit about replacing trees on Tucker specifically because we did take a number of mature trees down there last year. So, this coming spring, we'll be looking for locations to plants along Tucker specifically.

Thank you, Kyle.

Hello.

Anybody further?

Yeah, I would like to say something. I'm not your name and your address, please.

Uh, my address is on Jordan Road as well, and I'm Rachel's mother. Proud to be here.

Could you just state your name just for the record?

Yeah, it's Amy Burns.

Thank you.

Yeah. And I uh am so grateful for this um um possibility to um include us all in conversations about the trees on the roads in Dartmouth. Um beyond the scenic roads um you know all all roads everywhere.

I think that there should be a focus on how to work well with trees. you know, as as we're talking about the dead trees and the trees that are problems with um utility lines, it's very important as as it is being stated that the safety and the care of the trees is being taken care of. But some of my points as well is if we can coordinate a plan as Rachel was saying to

be able to plant trees that potentially grow under the wires or things like that um in such a way that for people walking on any of the streets in Dartmouth, I've got to say that having a shaded walk under trees is so much better than a really sunny kind of parched walk and um I also feel that trees are um so beneficial to our environment as well.

So um given some of those kind of circumstances, I appreciate being able to have a conversation like this with, you know, Eversource and the um Department of Public Works and all who are involved in caring for the trees on our roads in Dartmouth. So thank you for this opportunity. I really appreciate it.

Thank you, Amy.

Yep. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes.

Um, if Tim is still on, I believe Tim is the town's tree warden who has some jurisdiction over some of these um, shade trees or trees that would otherwise be over public way. Is there any guidance that Tim can provide us on when replacements are required when doing this?

Tim, are you still with us?

I am. Yes. So, um, so we work, you know, we'll work with with Eversource to replace, uh, you know, specific trees that are being removed. I know a lot of the their work is is going to be maintaining and pruning trees rather than removing and and and just removing some of the smaller undergrowth under the wires like some of the saplings and seedlings that have sprouted up and are fast growing. Um while there will be

some trees that are removed and like similar to Tucker Road, we'll work with you know Eversur to see what we can replant after after the removal of those trees.

Thank you, Tim.

You're welcome.

Anyone else from the public at this point in time?

Anyone else from the board at this point in time?

Dan.

Uh, at this time I would recommend a motion to close the hearing and then um once we get back into regular meeting to grant the request of Eversource um in accordance with their their management plan to approve the trees um along the scenic roads mentioned in their application.

Great. Thank you, Dan.

Sorry, can I ask Sorry, can I ask one more question? This is Rachel Consolving. Sorry. I was just going to ask one more question. How how does the public know which trees are going to be pruned or is it just based on safety? And is there and who is doing the pruning work? Again, I was a two minutes late to the meeting so I might have missed that.

Kyle, would you like to respond to that?

Sure. Yeah, absolutely. We we prune all the trees that are encroaching on the primary electric wires, which are the top wires on the pole. So, anything encroaching on that zone is going to be pruned back. And, uh, we we do send out notifications to homeowners along that route, too. Uh, it's either mailed or emailed depending on your your your preference. I think that's filed with us.

And, uh, did I mention Lewis Tree has won our contract? So, that's our contractor as well. I think that was a a question.

Okay. Thank you so much. Yeah, that's good to know. Um, and appreciate again the heads up and knowing um who the contractor is.

Absolutely.

Thank you, Rachel.

If there are no further questions from the public nor the board, we can entertain a motion at this point in time to I have my hand up. Chair.

Sorry. Sorry, I did not see that. Go ahead and state your name and your address please.

Sarah Johnson, 17 Road.

Sorry for the echo. I'm on twice.

Is there any chance that you have a headset on or something that might be providing an echo?

No, but I'm twice on your screen.

Should I leave one? Ideally,

let's give her a minute uh just in case she's trying to log back on.

Can I ask a question in the meantime?

Please do so. State your name and address. Also, just for the record.

Uh, yes. Uh, my name is Bird Anderson and I live at 273 Jordan Road.

Um, thank you.

Thank you. First of all, thank you so much for um having this meeting. Um, I'm new to this forum. So, um, I had a question and I was hoping we could just take a step back for a minute and someone could explain to me what the process is around funding of replacement trees and where that responsibility lies. Um, it wasn't clear to me from the dialogue if it was Eversource or the

town or how that gets coordinated.

Uh thank you for your question and u Tim would you be willing to comment on that?

Tim Barber.

Yes. So, Eversource does have some fundings for for a number of replacement trees and we will work with them for specific locations and uh the the town doesn't have a lot of funding for trees uh to plant but but I did put some money in in the budget last year and again I'll put it on in for this fiscal year to to add some additional trees throughout town.

Um, so, so we do, like I said, we do have some some additional funding while Eversource also has some funding.

B, does that answer your question?

It does. Um I have a follow-up question and that is um understanding that both Eversource and the town have funds that would potentially be contributed to replacement trees, who makes the determination of where those trees will be placed and what kind of trees they'll plant?

I can speak on my behalf of that one.

Anyway, so as far as Eversource is concerned, if we take down a high value tree uh like Tucker Road, we took down several uh premature trees last year and they were dying and that was why we had to take those down. So that's the type of area where we would try to replace a tree to try to keep that character uh of that of that uh scenic road. And uh the

species we would plant is just dependent on the space available. So typically if we're in the wire zone, we want to grow a shorter growing tree. Uh if we have a bigger space, we can do a a larger tree like an oak or a maple or an elm, something like that. But in the wire zone, we always push for the shorter growing trees uh so that they're not growing right up back into the wires again.

And last question, I promise. Um and that is once that determination gets made, is there a hearing around the planting plan or is that something and the timeline or is that something that's uh just under the jurisdiction of your own decision-m process? I would work with uh Tim Barber on that. Uh I don't I don't believe I've had a hearing regarding planting that I that I can recall.

Tim Barber. So I um we you know we can work as well. We work together with Eversource and we can work with the planning board if they would like to um for us to come back before the planning board once we've located any replanting of trees.

Thank you. That's very helpful.

You're welcome.

At this point, I do want to move over to Sarah Johnson. She's back on and her hand is up. Sarah, if you can hear me, please state your name and address.

Yeah, Sarah Johnston, 170 Jordan Road, South Dartmouth. Uh, I'm sorry I missed the beginning. Is this total tree removal or trimming?

This is primarily pruning only. Um, I do recall going down Jordan Road. There are a few pieces of brush we would likely target for removal that are small diameter, 2 or 3 inch diameter maximum with uh a lot of fast growth directly into the wires. So I I saw a few pieces of of uh small trees on Jordan we we would probably target. Um I've I've I've heard a number of people from Jordan

Road, so it sounds like a a road of concern um with we're an active street.

Yeah.

Um, but I'd say 95% of this effort is is pruning.

And are is your um contractor a licensed arborist company?

Uh, some of them are I mean they're licensed and insured certainly and they're they're widely used nationally recognized in the utility industry. Um, so uh and and my third question is what's the time frame for this work? I assume before the leaves come out in the spring. Uh, not necessarily. I don't have it actually scheduled yet. So, it's um I I don't know the time frame, but the amount of work in town, I think we

have probably uh over 50 miles of of roadside pruning to do this year in town, scenic and non-cenic roads overall. Uh so, there's quite a bit. We work around the calendar.

Okay. Well, given the the drifting snow, I mean, right now, some of these scenic roads are barely passable by one car.

Agreed. It's been slowgoing the last few weeks.

And Jordan Road's still about half snow covered. So, um I hope it's not too soon. And also, I'm happy you're going to send letters to um property owners so we can be prepared.

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

I do not see any other hands at this point in time. If there is nobody from the public and there are no further questions from the planning board, we can entertain a motion to close this public hearing as it relates to Eversource.

I move we close the public hearing um on the pruning and cutting of trees for Eversource and our tree warden and resume a regular meeting.

Second motion made by Lori Miller, seconded by Margaret to close agenda item number one as far as the public hearing and Eversource are concerned. Lori Miller, yes.

Margaret, yes.

Killia Rosa, yes.

Nick Psychopatis, yes.

At this point in time, Dan, do we need a motion to go back to our meeting?

You're muted, Dan.

Sorry, I'm still coughing along. I'm trying to Um, no, I believe Lori um and Miller's motion was to also return to the meeting. So, we'll be all set.

Great.

So, now that we are back in our meeting, we can entertain a motion.

Correct, Dan?

Correct.

The motion would be to move ahead with the plan as proposed by Eversource.

Correct. Just the motion to grant request of Eversource Energy in in accordance with their um vegetation management plan to prune trees along scenic roadways. It's listed.

I'll um I'll make a motion um with the added stipulation that Eversource continues to work with um Mr. Barber.

Second.

Motion made by Helio Rosa, seconded by Lori Miller to grant Eversource the opportunity to move forward in accordance with what they proposed. And Tim Barber, uh, Helio Rosa, yes.

Margaret, yes.

Nick Copis, yes. Kyle, thank you from all of us, the town and the board.

Thank you all. Have a good night.

And Tim, much appreciated as always.

You're welcome. Thank you. Have a good night.

Thank you, Tim. Good night.

Sorry, we'll get feedback. Okay, at this point in time, we'll need a motion to open the public hearing regarding agenda item number two, 813 State Road.

So moved.

Do I have a second?

A second. Motion made by Helio Rosa, seconded by Lori Miller to open the public hearing for agenda item 813 State Road. Helio Rosa, yes.

Lori Miller, yes.

Margaret Sweet, yes.

Nick Cyclopus, yes. Dan, it's all yours.

Um, as mentioned at the last meeting, um, we were pretty close to um, being able to close this hearing. Um an item just came up with um needing some additional sewer information. Um they are working they meaning the applicant is working um with Tim Barber at DPW to to get that done. Um but as of right now um I have a letter asking for a continuence. I can read that in if you

would like me to, Mr. Chairman.

Um I think a motion to wave the letter would be fine unless the board feels differently.

Yeah, I would probably Well, I'll leave up to the board, but I would probably want to read it then.

Go ahead and read it then.

Um, Chairman Psychopatis, we re respectfully request a continuence from our scheduled meeting with the planning board on February 9th, 2026 to the next meeting on February 23rd, 2026. Um, and that's signed by Jamie Beset, PE, um, for Zenith Consulting. I also have in the package too because we're coming up on the on the deadline um for statutory limits for approving the special permit.

Um they have agreed to an extension of March 31st. So that's in your packet. Um and we'll just need to get that signed in the next couple days.

Thank you, Dan.

So at this point in time, based on the proposal's request, we could entertain a motion to continue to February 23rd, 2026.

So moved.

Second.

Motion made by Lori Miller, seconded by Margaret to continue.

Oh, sorry. Who was that?

Helio.

Seconded by Helio.

No, he moved it and I seconded it.

Sorry, sorry, sorry. Motion made by Helio, seconded by Lori to continue agenda item number two under public hearing 813 State Road to the two February 23rd, 2026 meeting at 7 p.m.

Sorry.

Sorry. 7 p.m.

Kelio.

Yes.

Laurian, yes.

Margaret, yes. Yes.

Nick Psychopus. Yes.

At this point in time, we will need a motion to close the public hearing and return to our regularly scheduled planning board meeting.

Do we need a motion to to accept the um extended deadlines?

No, it just it just needs to be signed by the chairman.

Okay.

If anybody has any issues with it, I guess now would be the time to mention it. But it just needs to be signed by the chairman. just just the chairman.

The rest of us don't have to sign it.

Correct. I I put a copy in the packet so you can see it, but it's just it's just an okay that it was agreed on.

No issues with me.

If there are no further issues, we'll need a motion.

So, we won't be motioning to to close that meeting. We continue that one. So, it just be a motion to return to the regular meeting.

So moved.

Second. Second.

Motion made by Helia Rosa, seconded by Lori Miller to return to the scheduled planning board meeting of February 9th, 2026. Helia Rosa, yes.

Lori Miller, yes.

Margaret, yes.

Nick Psychopatis, yes.

Brings us back to administrative items.

Agenda item number one, it is an approval not required for 802 State Road Assessor's map 163, loss 30, 31, 32, and 35. I'll let Dan take it from here. Yes, this is an application for an approval not required plan filed under the online permitting system under PNR26-1.

This reconfigures four lots. Map 63, lots 30, 31, 32, and 35 on the DMTH assesses maps into the three lots as shown. These lots are all located in the general business zoning district. They are eligible to be endorsed by the planning board under our subdivision regulations 1.101A, 101A stating that every lot to be created has frontage on the distance required by the zoning bylaw on a public street or a street the

town clerk certifies is maintained and used as a public street. So these would be all have the required frontage on state road. So this plan um is eligible for the for the board to endorse as submitted and we have the myar in the office. So if the board does decide to endorse it, it is there and ready for signatures.

So moved.

I I have a question, Laura.

Okay.

And this is just a question because um I'm familiar with the site. Uh it's just it's just to educate myself. Okay. And it's a question for Dan. Dan on this plan.

Yep.

I went in today and I was wondering none of the uh uh access points are located except the one on Reed Road. In other words, uh how how you access these lots. And I know that they have uh I don't want to call them driveways, but they have uh what do you call them? I can't think.

Curb cuts.

Yes. Thank you, Jan. They have curb cuts. I just wondered how come they're not on the plan. Just a question.

Um, you could ask the applicant. I think he was here, but they're not required on an ANR plan.

No, I know they're not required. I just wondered. Um, yeah, I like judging by this is just my opinion. I don't want to speak for him.

It just seems like he left the layer on for for the edge of pave probably that he received from his surveyor. Normally, he wouldn't show that, but um it's it's not required there. They're they're kind of shown. They're just not labeled where they are.

They are kind of shown there.

Yeah, you could if you look real close, you can see them. There's There's There's one right where 1946 State Road highway layout is, that one's blocked off. The one where the bearing is, that's the access point. There's another one that's blocked off just um west of where it says utility pole guywire. Um there's some little ones that you can you can see if you you know where you're

looking along there. So they they are shown but it's not a requirement. So they they could have completely left them off if they if they so choose.

Okay.

But that stuff that stuff will obviously be important. I would expect we'll see site plans coming into the planning board. So that'll obviously be an important things to have on our site plans.

No, I have no problem with this. I just wondered. Okay. uh if they were with the curb cuts because of course you're on the highway so yeah they'll they yeah they'll have to get that coordinated with Mass Highway and with with planning board's comments and I'm sure when we when we submit ours we'll get comments from um the safety officer oh you just knew who they were because you're an engineer

and I may or may not had some involvement in this in the past okay now he's coming clean Now, thank you. Thank you, Dan.

And I will say I appreciate probably more than most the layer problem that drawings sometimes have. So, I get it.

Well, for us people who aren't, you know, architects or engineers, it's kind of So, if there are no further questions, it is an ANR. We can go back to entertaining a motion.

I make a motion to approve.

I'll second.

Motion made by Margaret Sweet, seconded by Helio Rosa to approve the ANR proposed for 802 State Road. Margaret, yes.

Helio Rosa, yes.

Lori Miller, yes.

Nick Cyclopis, yes.

This brings us to agenda item administrative agenda item number two.

uh appointment and serpent housing plan housing production plan discussion.

Dan, I'm going to defer to you again.

Uh we have representatives from Serpent here. This is um we spoke about it at various meetings over the past year. Um this is the draft final report. Um so we have representatives here from SERD. I'm not sure who's going to take the lead.

My email correspondent was with Taylor Perez if I don't know if she's going to begin.

Yes. Yeah, I said 7:30, so that's pretty good.

You, you know, I was very impressed with the timing. Truly, I was. I was like, that was really good. I showed up early just in case. Um, well, good evening, folks. For the record, my name is Taylor Perez. I'm the director of housing and research at the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District, or Serpent for short. We are your regional planning agency, and it's

always a pleasure to work with you folks um on all sorts of planning projects.

And so, as Dan said, um just here tonight to talk about the final iteration of your housing production plan. Um right now, you know, we're kind of in the state where the final draft is out.

Um I can either walk through it. Uh I can share my screen if I have uh permission to do that or we can just go through a list of uh questions that I have and talk about next steps. But I suppose I kind of want to give you folks an opportunity if you have any immediate comments, questions, etc. about the plan from previous meetings. You know, feel free. I'm all ears and ready to receive.

Taylor, I think sharing your screen would would be valuable for us and anyone watching.

Sure.

Can everyone see that?

Yes.

Great. I can zoom in as well.

Yes, I can see.

Awesome. So here is the final draft report 2026 Dartmouth housing production plan. Um it is in the kind of standard format that these plans take where we begin with an introduction about the plan. Uh we talk about you know why we plan for housing. We go through a detailed assessment of the town's needs based on their demographics, their housing stock, uh the market conditions, etc. We talk about any potential

barriers to housing production in town.

And then we outline uh the housing goals and strategies which we've kind of developed extensively with the stakeholder committee of which Margaret Suite is a part of um and was very instrumental and helpful on. And then um just a brief conclusion with timeline.

So again I can either you know do a 30,000 foot drivethrough of the plan if it's helpful or I can kind of walk through to some specific questions I know I had left in the text um throughout up to you folks.

I I'll I'll share the fact that I I think something a little bit more concise might be more effective to keep everybody uh involved, but use your judgment and anybody else feel free to advise.

If that is the case, let me zoom to just fly through some of this. Um we'll kind of start here. There are uh four housing goals that we presented in this plan. Uh I'll just read through them super quick.

Support infrastructure upgrades and expansions to enable housing development. and implement zoning changes that enable the creation of new affordable and missing middle housing choices. Create new and expand existing programs to support production, preservation, and overall housing stock stability. And the last one, continue to produce SHI subsidized housing inventory eligible units to achieve the

Commonwealth's required amount and support communities in need. followed by eight strategies which again you know I don't have to belabor it if you don't want to read through all of them but they are here and they explore all sorts of different things from again uh infrastructure improvements changes to the zoning largely and then some kind of you know longer term ones talking about

expiring use restrictions for affordable housing in town and uh collaboration you know through the friendly 4B local initiative program process um and so that's kind of the meat of the plan again I'll zoom zoom through. There's a lot of data here, please feel free to persu at your own time if you haven't already. Uh, but some of the conclusions about Dartmouth that are very similar to

many other communities in southeastern Massachusetts in our region, is that Dartmouth's population is aging. School enrollment is declining slightly. Um, you folks have a high median income in town compared to the county, but similar to the state level, and you've had relatively home uh steady home sales, um, but rising prices as we are seeing everywhere. Um, again, happy to kind of

walk through any of those in more detail if folks have questions. And then some main uh barriers to development. Again, this is part of um required under the regulation 760 CMR56 for housing production plans, just so we know why we're talking about it. But largely, you know, starting with environmental constraints, there's a ton of uh habitats, uh critical natural landscapes, etc. protected land in town

that can limit where we want to develop housing or even be looking to develop housing.

you know, uh, again, classic and kind of I think every community, uh, as we're seeing just zoning regulations that are either very prohibitive, um, you know, have favor large lot requirements, etc.

Maybe, you know, we want to be thinking about where we'd want to reduce those lot requirements. You know, again, this is pretty common throughout the the region.

Um, and then just infrastructure capacity, which I think was kind of a big topic of conversation with our stakeholder committee that you folks do have a lot of existing infrastructure, but it's in in need of upgrades. Um, and so this actually brings me a good segue to my first question is that I wanted to ensure that there's I've covered adequately here things we want to discuss about infrastructure capacity in

town. And I defer to you folks if there's anything else you'd like us to note either about you know the um I know there was I think talks of uh negotiations around the intermunicipal agreement so we don't necessarily have to get into that now but again just want to make sure I've covered my basis here when talking about infrastructure so we'll pause there.

Mr. Chair if I can please.

Um Taylor good evening. Um I would not necessarily to the infrastructure piece but in whether it's appropriate to discuss this now or at down the road in 5 10 minutes whatever the timeline is. Um when I looked through it, it was it was it was curious to me that it was almost a tale of two different stories depending on which portion of the um plan I was reading because the way that I interpreted there was a

lot of favorite um a lot of indication of the housing need um and how to go about accomplishing that.

Yet at the same time, when you look through the the comments that um people entered, there was a lot of um commentary about not needing it, not wanting it. Yeah.

A better way.

I'd love to um get your take on how um you interpret those two differing pieces of information on one document.

Yeah. So I mean there let me actually scroll back up to some of the um the survey actually I think the survey results we probably talk more about in the goals and strategies. This is kind of a common um tension that I think we navigate and I say we as in Serpent consultants working on housing etc. Um I I know I've experienced this throughout, you know, our region working with communities where there is the

perception of the need for housing or not and then you kind of start to tease out uh you know potential things that again I think on the surface a lot of folks are like I don't the reaction the knee-jerk is usually like we don't need more which is again I I I want to be clear here that it is never um it's never in our best interest as regional planning agency to recommend something

that wouldn't be supported at town meeting, wouldn't be supported by elected officials, wouldn't be supported by town staff, etc. So, just want to caveat that. Um, but like the whole point I think and and we did this a lot, I think through the stakeholder committee is navigating the tensions and trying to think about what types of housing either are being, you know, under reppresented in the need. When you

think about the survey, for example, who does the survey reach, who can take the survey, are we potentially missing populations that might, you know, need to express a need but can't do so here, um, etc. And so to your point like we try and do our best I think to offer a set of strategies that we think that will be useful for the town to potentially undertake over the you know

the course of the five years whether that is related to zoning related to infrastructure etc but I mean ultimately if the town you know whether it's again through town meeting through you know getting something on the town meeting warrant etc is not of interest to to the town. That's okay. I suppose I don't know if that answers the question well.

Um, but I I I guess I'm just trying to say that this tension exists, I think, in almost every plan that we write. And so, we just want to try and produce something where we're making a set of suggestions that we think could be useful based on conversations largely with with you folks. Um, but if at, you know, a different point in time they're not deemed to be useful, that's okay.

No, that's good. I I appreciate the perspective. Thank you. Of course.

camera on also. Hello, Mr. Chair. I have some questions if it's okay.

Please go ahead, Laura.

Okay, I'm going through um Taylor and Hi, nice to see you.

Um I'm just going to turn the pages because I read it all and made some notes.

Um Taylor, the survey I thought the survey I didn't think it started in 2024.

It was open for a while. Yeah, it was open for like quite a while. I think we looked back to when the first response was. Um, and it was late 2024 and we really didn't get the push, I think, until we had that conversation. Um, right, at the stakeholder committee and we got, you know, I know you folks got it in the local paper and that's where a large bulk of our responses came from.

Okay. I'm sorry. I I just didn't think it was.

Okay. And um I have a question for you.

I I I asked I went in today and I talked to Ross about it and he didn't know, but I was surprised on page 16 to see that um you wrote about redlinining. I haven't heard that ter terminology in 20 years.

Sure. Yeah. I mean um because I don't think it exists anymore.

Correct. Correct. We um to kind of back up here um this this section housing for opportunity. We just like to I I think it is a valuable exercise to preface, you know, for lack of better words, why it's important to plan for housing um proactively, especially um and again just like there are a lot of folks who either don't know about the historic inequities up to this date that have led to certain

disparities in housing, um whether it's home ownership rates, etc. So again, this is my personal and professional opinion that I think it's valuable to highlight, but we usually again, if we don't if we don't want to have that conversation here, that's always okay. I suppose um it's just something I just I just haven't heard that ter as I I've been in the business a long time and I have not heard that terminology.

Nobody talks about that anymore. If you ask young people like I did today, they have no idea what that meant.

Mhm. So, I don't know whether that's a good thing. I think it's a good thing that they don't know what it means.

It probably is, right? I I guess it's a it's a history lesson more than anything. Um, you know, for folks who may not be familiar with it again as to as to why. And maybe that does speak to the fact that it's important to talk about here to potentially um what's the word I'm looking for? Illuminate uh kind of what we sometimes see on the ground.

Well, I just I don't think a lot of people are going to know them. And um I'm curious, Taylor, where did you get your uh your figures from like renters and owners and Sure. So, we can walk through some of the highle sources and then I think so we used to define them in the needs assessment, but it felt like a kind of heavy introduction to it. So, I believe

also in the appendices, if I scroll all the way down, um, we have some of the data sources defined here, the American Community Survey, uh, comprehensive housing affordability strategy. And so, you can look there just to kind of walk through some of the primary ones that you'll see throughout here. Um I mean the primary ones again the census US census um we we look at the dennial

census as the benchmark and then the you know supplement with the American community survey five-year estimates um where we we need to uh HUD US HUD department of housing and urban development largely for those AMI figures cost burden they do that uh those calculations as well and then a lot of these market uh you know housing trends ones are from the Warren Group uh banker and tradesmen. So we we kind of

have a combined mix of those really granular home sale uh transaction level data that we've aggregated into some statistics like cash sales etc. and then ones that are townwide just from banker and tradesmen directly. So you'll see you know in here we talk a lot about that. Um and then I'm well I just I just had a couple of uh uh things that I'm this is just me thinking Taylor. Okay. um when in your market

trends, one of one of the reasons that uh the housing I think uh the including the sale prices that went up was because the interest rate so low.

Mhm.

And when you had 2 and a half% 3% interest, people could afford to to uh spend more money on housing. And you know, I've seen it before in all my years in real estate. One house down the street sells for 500 and then somebody else puts a house on and they go, "Oh, that one sold in two days for 500. We'll make this one five and a quarter."

And it kind of ha happens. And I think one of the big reasons was the interest rates at the time were just unbelievable.

Today it's 6%. And so I think that's kind of stopped uh that. Um, and the other thing, um, you talk about flips, okay, and you talk about from the Warren Group. Well, I do a lot of, um, comps and I go into deeds a lot and I go into the Warren group. I'm a member of the Warren group and a lot of times when you see, and it's on page 26. When you say when

something's selling for a dollar, that's not necessarily a flip. That could be Margaret suite given to Taber Suite the property for a dollar. It could be putting into a trust for a dollar.

There's, you know, flips aren't usually sold for a dollar. Okay.

Right. So, we've we've we've excluded those.

So, you excluded all those.

Yeah. So, we exclude refinancing, foreclosures, and those apparent gift transactions. Yeah.

Okay. because that's important because that's Let's see.

Yeah, the numbers are crazy if you don't Yeah, they really are.

Yeah.

And uh let's see. We talk about school enrollment on in this um and now this is really and it's it's particularly problem problematic because with all the body bees we have coming into Dartmouth now that's going to change dramatically.

I think it it may it it it could.

I think it probably will. And uh I think um I I don't know how many, Dan. What do we have? About a thousand units looking to come into town per per all um housing options. Not just not just the 40bs.

No, but housing options. Yeah.

Right. Ta Taylor on that just real quick before so I don't forget later. Are there any kind of um data that would indicate like like school age children that would typically come into these kind of developments? Have you ever seen any reporting on any kind estimate it?

Yeah, I get that question all the time. So that's why I'm just I'm just curious.

I So this is perhaps not an area of expertise of mine. So, so kind of um you know that's my asterisk on what I'm about to say. I've seen folks who they'll try to make estimates you know on a per unit basis. There's just so many different factors that go into it to my understanding that it can be very difficult to estimate. To my understanding, the, you know, the discourse around this

up to this point has has leaned towards the fact that the impact on school enrollment is often a lot less than anticipated.

That that's what I've seen as well. But then people say, "Well, point me to something." And that and that's that's where you run into the hard part.

There's a couple reports that I always lose track of like the actual name of them that I can let me make a note to try and find those. Um I think there's one it's from out of state if I'm not mistaken. And then I think there's one from instate. Um so let me let me make a note to look for those. I I have a quick question. Would would that number differ

much from the ratio of number of enrolled students per in town per dwellings in town? Now is isn't the calculus pretty straightforward? Why would the deviation be so big?

I mean, shouldn't we as a town be able to estimate per 1,000 new units we expect the following student enrollment?

It different housing options. So, I think that's why there's there's some discrepancy.

Well, with with all due respect, we have we have uh we have apartments in town that are $1,200 and we have condos in town that are $599 and then we have houses that are four five million. We we have a big range of of units that people live in.

Margan, I'm sorry I interrupted you.

No, that's okay. Well, I was going to say cuz I'm involved in something now in another state uh with uh uh something like a 40B and normally when um they go before the zoning board of appeals, they have uh all these consultants that estimate what the the school age children will be for that site. Okay.

Sure.

And then our consultants check with that. But normally um it depends also now if you have uh one site let's say uh let's say uh Tucker Road are those are those houses three bedroomedroom homes or twobedroom homes and even with the apartments are they two bedrooms or three bedrooms because if there's three bedrooms you know you're going to have at least one child maybe two okay so the consultants when they go before

the ZBA they should they should have that figure for the zoning board of appeals and you you could probably get that uh Nick you could I agree I have a question my brain is just saying that we we as a town also then should instead of looking at how many dwelling units we have based on how they are deed how many bedrooms we have in town versus enrolled students I feel

like it's something we should be able to kind of calculate on the fly and be within 10%. I'm not saying be 100% accurate. We should be able to be close.

Sorry, Lori. Go ahead.

Yeah, I have a question on the public schools information in this report.

Um, it says that it's based on 2023. I mean, this is now 2026. I don't understand why you couldn't get a report from the school department how many students are enrolled now or in 2025 versus 2023. I mean that's a phone call to the school department. And do we also have a ability I think the school department probably knows the number of students that are presently going to private schools.

Well, but I think that number that number definitely needs to be updated and it's easy enough to get.

Yes, we can certainly do that. That's not a problem. Um and then I can look from so our data this data source the department of education DESI um we can look there and see what they've got. My understanding I don't know actually I'll I'll be honest I don't know if it includes private schools or not. I will look um but I'm happy to update that number for you for sure.

But why would you go to to a state or a federal information when you can just call the DA school department and get the information?

It's just the the most common that would be that would be exactly right on target.

They would say to you, look, we have whatever students enrolled in 2025. So, you'd have the exact number versus something that the state has that's three years old.

Sure. Yeah. I mean, Dan, if you would like to coordinate, um, we can we can get that directly from the school department.

And I also have the same question on age the age trends that's from 2023 also.

That's also a question that can be answered by the town um you know relatively up to 25.

Sure. Again happy happy to update um we just we we always pull from the census.

It's and a lot of this writing takes place at the time. So this was written throughout 2025. At that time I believe only I think 2024 American Community Survey estimates had just been coming out. Um so 2023 to my understanding is the most up to date at that time that we were writing. But again happy to reach out to whoever at the town will have the more current data and put it in.

Great. Thank you.

Uh good point Li. I agree. I'd like to see, you know, updates in the rather than 2023.

And um yeah, it confused the report, right? It does. Um, also one other point I'd like to make when people get this, you know, you have um, residence A, residence B, residence C, and of course there's nice little maps in here, which is a good job, Taylor, but people need to know that a lot of the residents in residence B do not have sewer.

So that is a big factor in why they have larger lots because there's no sewer sewer or water on a lot of these. And uh one of the other things uh is and we mentioned it when we were in the meeting is the aquifer and the aquifer along areas that do have water and sewer. Right now we have a 10% aquifer and uh I'm speaking for myself now. Uh

I'd like to see that raised to 30%. So that's that's what I'd like to see.

Okay.

And uh all these zoning issues um I think a lot of it has to be really studied.

We're at the planning board. We, as I said, we in the meetings, we'd like to do a different kind of overlay for mixed use uh in the commercial zones, which you have in here, I believe. And uh school choice is another thing that we have in Dartmouth. And I don't know how many students we have. Does anybody know how many students we have with school choice, Dan?

I do not.

Okay. I just want I know they gave that figure at town meeting. So that's another figure that would be easy to get.

Okay. I'd like to see that in here so people know how many students from other areas are coming into the town.

That would just be for high school.

Is it just a high school?

Yeah.

Okay. I'd still like to know that figure because once they're in, they're in for all four years. Correct, Dan?

I I I know personally so there there are some that come and go, but I don't know about the percentage that stay for the four years.

No, but I mean they when they come they can. Yes, they can. Correct.

In all fairness to that, in all fairness to that, Margaret, only because there's going to be another side to this story and we will hear it, you know, sooner or later either here or on the street.

There are also many high school students that choose or their families choose not to go ahead with Dartmouth High School.

Then they're either at Vogue or they're somewhere else. So there's some level there's some level of academic attrition at the eighth grade level where they don't proceed to the high school. Um and then obviously we pick some up. I think that's valuable information for everybody, us and the parents, the town, etc. So Taylor, I have a question. If it's something that's going to come up later, that's fine. Um

it has to do with the the statement that you made about rising home costs and c can can you share visually here and or speak on behalf of rising home costs and the fact that that is not endemic to Dartmouth. We are not trying to make Dartmouth difficult. We are not an outlier. It's statewide. it's happening more so so that the public andor anyone that references this meeting can also

hear it from you. Can you share that fact?

Yeah. So right here this is page 23 of the report. Um we so we also can show some you know comp communities and like you know neighboring communities etc. Um they just the charts get kind of crazy and hard to follow. Um but here you can see figure four you have unadjusted regional home sale prices compared to Dartmouth where again at the county level Dartmouth is slightly above um

Bristol County but you know still well below median sale prices at the state level. Um and again we're happy to show other comp communities in the area if you'd be interested. But yeah certainly this is not an exclusive problem to Dartmouth. We see this in um I I I truly can't think of a community that I have worked with where I have not seen rising home sale prices.

Thank you.

Anyone else? Or can she pick up where she left off?

Well, other than the questions that I asked, I think it was um a fairly thorough report and I want to thank you.

Of course. Yeah, I'm happy to um again happy to add those additional points.

I've got notes here. Um, I'll make sure I clarify some of those things, uh, you know, around the enrollment in the report. Um, and then I can definitely, this kind of, I guess, does dubtail back into where I had left off. Um, make some note about the, you know, where water and sewer are present in town. Um, you know, I don't, we could always, we we we could have a map, I guess, is what I was

going to say. Um, sometimes we'll show sewer parcels or not. that's really at the discretion of DPW um and you folks as to whether or not you think that's necessary um or if there are just like key key areas in town that do or don't have access to water or sewer that you'd like us to highlight um because sometimes that information is a little hard to find um publicly. So happy again

to chat offline about what we want to talk about there. Um, and so I guess again kind of coming back to the couple questions I did have is if there was anything else of note about infrastructure capacity beyond um, you know, Margaret's comments about residents B for example that you'd like me to note here. Um, and then I have a follow-up infrastructure question once I get some some answers here or at least

uh consensus.

I' I'd like to make just a quick comment regarding the utilities in general in just a common practice of mine is being able to answer why for reassurance of the decision that we're making. I think it's important that we share with the town a little bit more about utilities and infrastructure because perception is reality and we know where there is infrastructure opportunity at the moment and some of

the zoning changes if you would andor things that we're trying to facilitate are going to be focused along routes that have this capacity because it's the path of least resistance at the moment and I wouldn't want it to be perceived as, oh well, they're favoring this sector or they're favoring that zone.

So, I think a little bit of information about the utilities and capacity that we can share with the public and the town is going to be important. The rest of the board, please comment on that. But, I mean, we talk about this on a regular basis and we still have questions. So, I imagine the most people that are not part of our planning board meetings and or looking at bylaw changes or zoning

changes, they have even more questions.

And I think being able to reveal to them the utility opportunity or not and justify our actions is important.

I agree, Taylor. And I'm I'm I'm not by any means suggesting that we have engineered plans here but Sure. of course more more capacity and availability um and where compared to where there's no capacity and you know and that would allow us to um to respond accordingly to anybody that asks and at the same time objectively u support what we are currently discussing as a board for up andcoming changes.

Sure. Yeah. Um, I'm kind I'm thinking out loud here, Dan. Again, I think you and I can work offline. Perhaps a nice uh like a heat map, you know what I mean? Where you have just like the basic here's the town of Dartmouth. Here are the major roads. We'll label them and whatnot. And then um you know, some nice like squishy blobby lines. Like there's more capacity here. There's some here

again to keep it vague but to make it clear. Um I'm happy to do that for you folks.

Thank you.

Of course.

And I know we we definitely addressed some of it in the text, but I think a nice visual will will certainly drive that home.

Great. Um, and I guess kind of building off of that point, the other the question that I had here is, um, we've worked with the town in the past on certain, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? Grant applications um, for mass works, housing works, etc., and we're aware of some of the necessary infrastructure upgrades that the town has either successfully pursued or attempted to pursue um and maybe wasn't

awarded, but and maybe this is a question for DPW, unless you folks have some thoughts here, any specific areas in town that we want to highlight? And I'm even thinking that this map that we're talking about here about areas of more capacity versus less could be complemented by adding some of those project. You know, again, like vague indications of like at this intersection or at this uh you know, there's a

pumping station here that we want to see upgraded. Um, you know, this section is nearing capacity. Uh, you know, things of that nature is what we'd be looking for here. And again, we don't have to necessarily talk about it online here in the moment, but that could be help. I think that will be helpful here in this strategy talking about infrastructure upgrades.

Um, I think Dartmouth has a plan in place where they want to do upgrades.

Um, and I'm not sure how far out that is. Dan, maybe you can talk about that.

Is it a 10 a 10year out that they've got plans to upgrade sewer and water?

That's that's all being in studies right now.

Okay. Yeah, I' I've talked to to Tim Barber, the DPW director, on a few of those things. Um there's a few studies going on right now or starting or in the process. I don't have the exact data, but depending on on what um what kind of information you want to include, I can reach out to Tim and see what he has for specific data that could be included.

Any anything else that you think is beneficial? I know here we acknowledge that kind of ongoing planning process and talk about um pump station upgrades.

I the aation system improvement, which I think was a grant application that we assisted you folks with a year or so ago. Um, and then some undersized pipes I think came up at the stakeholder committee meeting if I'm not mistaken.

But if there's anything else, you know, offline, just let me know and I can talk about it here.

Would that would that include like um work they're doing on on grants right now for upgrades? Is that something Sure.

that you and the board would be interested in getting information on?

I don't see why not.

Taylor, can I ask a question?

Of course.

There's someone in the chat that is asking where does UMass Dartmouth come into play and does it affect wastewater planning?

That is a great question. Um, if I was an engineer, I think I would have a better answer for it. At least in the context of this plan, I can say we talked about um UMass Dartmouth in a different context, looking at uh potential public lands or or areas in town for housing production in general.

Um very, you know, looking far down the road at future development sites, UMass Dartmouth has come up. from an actual wastewater perspective and planning perspective. That is a question I would definitely um defer to DPW, to Dan, whoever might know better on how that that wastewater planning looks there. And there was an adjun question of that by the same resident asking about possible married student housing

that at UMass Dartmouth the married student h the married student housing has the potential for young kids which I'm assuming she's implying would then be part of our count um and education system. So, sure.

I don't I don't know that I have any sort of insight to add there, but it's we could definitely um see if we can find any information on it.

Fair. And she's basically expressing u good. I used to work in wastewater for EPA. Don't forget UMass was her final comment. So, appreciate that.

Of course.

Great. Let me see if there's any other questions. I had throughout. And of course, if any other questions come in in chat, I'm happy to to pause and look through. Um, just walking through the zone 3 aquafer requirements. Um, we addressed the lot coverages.

Margaret, I know we were kind of talking about that where it prohibits lot coverages above 10%. Uh, or above 2500 square f feet, whichever is greater. you know, we talk about here, at least in this section, how that can be potentially limiting. And then, you know, if there's any other points you wanted us to make about that or a suggestion to your point, if the board has uh any sort of consensus on a

suggestion for an increase um or any additional changes, just let us know. We can put that in here. But I I wanted to I think defer more to you folks on any additional recommendations you wanted to see here.

I don't know. I'll have to look it up.

I'm sorry, T. Somebody asked me a question at home. Um, yeah, we can we can talk about that uh offline. I've already stated what I think, you know, 30 30% because uh if you if you look at the maps uh along Route Six, okay, you'll see that that aquifer really I think can really hurt some of the properties potential on Route Six.

Sure.

I have to agree with Margaret. I think zone one and two obviously are very very important and you can correct me if I'm wrong but I'm under the impression that we are the only town in the state that has a zone three and right now the zone 3 is very prohibitive. I don't want to do away with it. I want to keep it because there's things in there that are very important. But that 10% is um

it it makes it almost impossible for anyone to build without getting a a variance. They have to go before the board of appeals.

And I think we should examine that and increase it. And I'm not sure the exact number. I've talked about 30, but we'd have to sit down with DPW and look at it and increase it.

Sure.

Yeah. And if but but also uh Lori uh if you if you read and and Dan will say yes or no. If you read the zoning board of appeals regarding that uh 10% they usually grant uh variance for above 10%.

Yes, they do. And just uh through you Mr.

chairman. Um, one other thing, there's a potential for a study on future well sites. That's part of why the zone 3 is created as it is to allow for protection of future well sites. So, I did ask um to be included in those discussions if if and when they do begin uh because obviously that'll be critical um in the zone 3 aquifer discussion.

Well, at that point they would make it a zone one. If they're going to put a well in, it would automatically go to a zone one. Correct.

Correct. And then you'd have zone then you'd have zone building.

Then you'd have zone two protection around those as well.

Correct.

From what from what I understand that was the reason for the one of the reasons for the creation of the zone 3 as potential for future well use as well.

So wells do come in, there's limited impact, negative impact to those well sites.

I don't even remember the last time we put a new well in.

Been a while.

Yeah. Hopefully, like I said, I I asked to be included when they when they do committees or or whatever they do. So um we'll keep an eye out for that. And I and I've made it my own opinion stating um there has to be the ability for smart increases to that aquaor limit. Um not the least of which can come from some sound engineering analysis and recommendations of how to increase that

number smartly. Um make it less prescriptive, less arbitrary. You know 30 might be the right number. Is it 35?

Is it 25? I think we'll need some some sound engineering background to um allow us to make those recommendations on what an appropriate increase would be.

I agree. Yes.

Yeah. So, I think the way we can approach this in the plan is um if we don't want to be prescriptive at this point in time as well, we can just acknowledge an increase is something that the board is interested in seeing.

um acknowledge working with DPW and that you know potentially whether it's an engineering study etc looking into that and then also acknowledging that you know these slot sizes at greater uh percentages have gone through the ZBA and been improved. So keep we can keep the language vague if we don't have any concrete ideas and just acknowledge that we'd want to work closely by we obviously I mean you folks work closely

with DPW and potentially um an engineering consultant. Would that be good?

Yes. Okay, sounds good.

Okay, moving right along.

I don't think that I'm not anticipating major feedback on this as well. Um, but I I know here in this strategy, pursue funding opportunities and programming to bolster the community preservation committee and housing trust existing resources. Something that came up in the stakeholder committee and I I think was a a pet project for lack of better words with the uh former assistant town

administrator Chris Vitali was looking at a a buyout program to deed restrict homes uh whether that's upon sale etc. I just didn't know if there were any programs that you would like us to reference specifically. We talked about some programs uh out of state, you know, to to kind of get to the closest thing I think that we were talking about during these meetings, which is one in um

Colorado offering deed restriction upon, you know, acquisition of a home. But if there's any other ones that you would like us to reference, we're happy to do that here. I just wanted to double check.

And if not at this moment, that is okay.

If any come up before the finalization of this plan, please let me know. But again, just wanted to be sure.

And then I have a feeling that was my last intext question. Oh, this was just the last one. Again, this site came up a lot during the stakeholder uh committee meetings. as a part of the housing production planning process and as required under the regulations, we usually create an uh or I should say we do create an action map where we highlight potential parcels again that the town might be interested in

undergoing you know putting out an RFP for undergoing the you know friendly 40b process etc. It's not a marriage commitment by any means but it's just a way to show that we're we're ideulating together and we're thinking about potential development sites. One of those sites that came up during the stakeholder committee meeting is the only thing I had in my notes was the former gym on Font's Corner. And I just

wanted to be super sure about the address. Um I'm I'm sure I could dig, but I was like, it'll just be a lot easier if I ask here um what that what that location or parcel ID is.

Was that was that a a town owned property? I don't remember that discussion. So, no, I think it we we talked about uh including town owned properties and then um you know, typically when HPPS undergo the approval process at the state level, it's nice to have a private property or two again that we're we're thinking out loud here could be a potential site in the future. I think that was one that came up.

Okay.

I don't remember that.

Yeah, I know. I that's why I I missed it.

If there is another site, please let me know. I'm happy to replace it. I just I'm going through I know I know the one you're talking about. It's I I want to say South I want to say South Coast Health has like trucks and stuff packed there. So I don't know if they own it.

Um so I just wasn't sure what the discussion was if there was a potential for for to purchase or if it was just something that they could look into.

You referring to the health the old health track.

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Yeah. South South Coast owns the building. That's what I thought. There's a portion of the of the land of the of the bigger lot that's stateowned because it's adjacent to the um right of way, right, for the um 195 on-ramp.

Okay. So, maybe it was maybe we were talking about the stateowned part next to it. Maybe I think we were talking about stateowned land. Maybe I know that came up as well. Um we definitely we plugged that. Um I'm going back through my handwritten notes.

I feel like we haven't talked about that property since Kevin was here and Chris was here.

It definitely was some time ago that this because it's not in any of my recent notes. I'm looking um yeah a portion um a portion of that parking lot it's it's actually the lot the section closest to the on-ramp it's it's actually pee or gravel.

That section is stateowned.

The part that's paved is South Coast.

Gotcha.

At least that's how it was.

Well, while I'm kind of perusing, I guess the question here is if that is an appropriate private property to mention as again could be housing one day in the future. And if it is not, if there is another one that we think would be appropriate to mention.

I I I don't know. I think that probably you shouldn't mention that one. That's just my own opinion because I think it is owned by as Helio said that's a South Coast owned property.

If there are any other um you know underutilized for lack of better terms blighted properties. Those are kind of some of the things we we like to think about when we're talking about the private property side of things including that here.

If you can think of Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. So, if anything comes up, um, let me know that you have in mind. I will I I'll trace back my notes. I have a feeling that they might actually be written down or I should say typed. Um, so let me make a note to ID the conversation about that if there were any other details. Um, if I may quickly add, Taylor, didn't we discuss briefly the fact that from Lowe's

all the way to the far side of Kohl's is a grossly underutilized parcel of land or are we not talking about those kinds of pieces?

That's not townowned.

Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. Sorry. Well, if you are I guess that I to circle back to what I was kind of just going through. If there if there is an area in town, whether it's town owned or not, that the town would be interested in seeing more intensely used with a housing component, whether that could be accomplished through the local initiative program or otherwise, we can discuss it here.

Well, we are deeply in thought in discussing at length and in detail the concept and it's just a concept. We're not calling it this, but we are kneede into increased density and the opportunity for increased density along particular corridors that would not only benefit the town, but those who occupy the increased density would have the necessary services within footsteps from shopping and healthcare

and public transportation. So, that's something that this particular board has collaborated quite a bit over and there seems to be common ground and we will continue to pursue that uh in the upcoming months throughout the rest of this year.

That sounds good. I'm trying to think out loud if there's a different way that I'd want to say that because I know in the beginning of this plan and you let me know if you think this is an appropriate um representation of that desire. We have some of So, this is the action map. It's pretty bare bones, but the idea is to show very clearly um areas of development interest, specific

sites. So again, these town-owned sites that came up a couple parcels, the former police station interest in, you know, potentially development again around UMass Dartmouth. Um and then zoning action areas to your point, Mr.

Chair, about increasing density along um Route 6 and portions of u you know, Font's corner and whatnot. Do you feel this is a good way to represent this? Is there anything more you would like us to show here on the map? Anything else you'd like us to say that you didn't think was representative of that in the text? Um, and we can certainly talk about that as well in that section about site specifics.

Yeah, I think I think this is the beginning of what we have discussed at length. Um there are a few other areas.

We we we were looking at parts of town that are north and south of Route 6.

Sure.

And even further southeasterly of Route 6.

Sure.

Not to be specific right now that have opportunities for increased density based on current zoning and subtle changes that could be made. So I'll defer to the board. I mean I think this is the beginning of it. Um I mean how does the board feel? I'm going to ask the board a question. How does the board feel that our interest in the phrase increase density perhaps not with those words but conceptually be

very clear in this plan that there's a notion and an interest to pursue an increased density and where and how should Should it be more black and white? Should it be more obvious?

I don't know that increased density is exactly what we're trying to do. We are we're trying to to increase the housing on certain areas of town which uh which we have been talking about in planning board for a long time. For instance, uh some of the mall some of the mall places some of the uh general business zones that have one level. So, I don't know that you want to say increase density because that might I

don't know. I think that might frighten people. And I agree. I agree that it will. Um, but how about allowing mixed use allowing mixed I'm don't know how to word it, but allowing a mixeduse housing and um retail or business or whatever to to help increase.

Mr. Chairman, if I can through you. Um, Taylor, can you just scroll to the section where you have like the eight goals because I I think they're they're kind of written into those.

Yeah, we So maybe if there's a little tweak in there if it needs Yeah, we did we did do that. That was there.

Let me pull scroll my back up. Um, just as we're talking out loud here on that action map, we can certainly so the the blue kind of fuzzy areas around Route Six and otherwise are phrased as zoning action areas. you know, area.

Again, if if that encompasses and isn't too prescriptive about the types of things you might be looking to do in those areas, we can always just expand what we're showing on the map as areas of interest for the planning board and and you can provide me with some specific, you know, whether you draw it on a map and give it to me, you give me an address and I approximate it um or a

series of addresses, series of parcel IDs, etc. That could be one way we can show it. Or we can be more specific and say, you know, mixed use expansion. Um, whatever is appropriate.

What's that, Lori?

That's strategy number two. Established a mixeduse overlay district to provide for additional housing opportunities.

Right.

Yeah. So, if we want to be um explicit in reference to strategy 2, because I know that was, you know, a big topic and obviously it's the second strategy in our plan, we can show that, you know, potentially maybe there's a different color on the map with the label mixeduse expansion, mixed use zoning, something again that the board deems is appropriate to very clearly illustrate areas where either there's overlap with

general zoning changes or otherwise. Um, but I'm happy to if I kind of bring us back down to that map, incorporate that.

I was almost right on it and I had I just missed it. Um, I'm happy to incorporate that into this map in whatever way you folks feel is appropriate.

Thank you, Taylor.

I I'll just share this. Oh, go ahead.

Is could we make a comment something about I mean that's all on the local on transportation. you know, we have our bus route there, etc., etc. Um, should we put that in there somehow to show that we're just I mean, we're not thinking of just building. We're thinking of putting them where the existing utilities are for transportation, for sewer, for water, where the um infrastructure is there for the doctors, the um

retail etc. etc.

I don't know how you would do that, but it to show that the thought is that we would put this along that area because the infrastructure is there for it already, right? Yeah, we can certainly show um resources and amenities. We have a couple different um GIS feature layers that include things like that, whether it's a bus, a flag bus route, um presence of businesses and whatnot, etc.

But we we can workshop that and try and make a nice visual to clearly show where those amenities are.

Okay. Thank you.

I'd like I just think that would make it more receptive.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

I'd like to share something, but this is more of a placeholder for us as a board as as I'm thinking about what's being shared with us.

We still may have to visit the phrase increased density as an overlay because the opportunities were describing along mixed use are only good if the owner operators of those mixed uses are interested in going up and providing units. And we still have a demand in town and a need to try and even if we don't meet our goals to not go into a greater deficit and I feel like an increased density opportunity may be a

defense mechanism for the town that we shouldn't take tonight. It should be off the table because we're not discussing it. But I just want to leave a placeholder there that the concept as to why I'm bringing it up be discussed at a later meeting.

Sorry, Taylor. You can proceed. Sorry about that. Oh, you're fine. You're fine. I Okay, then I have I have another question along with this.

Should we put something about um affordable, you know, um in order to we right now we're at 7.81%.

for affordable housing and the the state wants us to be at 10. Should we somehow write something in here about um zoning for affordable housing in these areas as well? I don't know how the rest of the board feels about this and if it's something we need to put in there.

We don't What's that?

We do have something for Well, I believe in those eight. Wasn't one of the line items specific to a B?

Was it eight?

The previous slide that I believe had line items 1 through eight.

It is certainly one of the strategies.

That's what I was going to say. There's there's a couple points here. Um let me walk through coming. So we'll start with strategy six here which was a topic of conversation with the stakeholder committee which was looking at establishing an inclusionary housing component for age restricted developments based on the uh provision of senior um assisted elderly housing via a special permit is what it was and

then um also acknowledging that I think senior residential services is a different use but they're almost the same to my understanding. Um, all that to say, allowing for an inclusionary component to increase affordable housing in senior developments was something we talked about. And then also, if we work our way up the strategy 5 on creating a chapter 40 Y starter home zoning district, that has an affordability

component. The threshold is typically higher, so potentially not SHI eligible.

Um, but just to note that there is deed restrictions as a part of that. And then when we were looking at I think which was the big topic here that the mixeduse component a mixeduse overlay district we talked about expanding the 40R whether it's a new subd district an expansion of the ex um existing district and those have at least a 20% affordability component for um you know affordable

housing. So we've talked about it in a couple different ways throughout the strategies here. If there's interest in a general inclusionary zoning bylaw, that could be either an, you know, not an addendum, but just we could revise this strategy six talking about inclusionary zoning just in this age restricted development and and then also acknowledge an inclusionary zone bylaw as something that could be addressed in

the future if you would like that. Um, but there's my point is there's a couple different ways we've tried to come at this. It's up to you folks how you want to see it here in the plan.

My initial reaction is do is is there really a benefit or perhaps a detriment when you start referencing andor including current bylaws in a in a plan that might be around for a while or I just I'm not sure that I'm I don't know that I would lean one way or the other. I I suppose it's truly just up to you folks as to if you think it's an immediate priority in the next

five years to address, but if you think it's something longer term, that isn't top of the line here, that's also appropriate and okay. You can always start with some of these again more bite-sized uh approaches to inclusionary zoning, whether it's through a specific overlay or um through the special permit process for certain uses.

So, not an answer necessarily, but Oh, that's a good point though. Thank you.

Something to think about.

Yeah, if you if you have thoughts or um desired changes particularly to the strategy six, if if the scope should be expanded, let me know. Or even if it's just a sentence or two somewhere that acknowledges that there's interest in looking at this at a townwide level in the future, I'm happy to include that.

Just let me know.

Mr. Chairman, could I just add can I just add a few comments just for of course background on the subject. So, a couple things. Obviously, this is a guideline. So, we have the ability to tweak as we see fit going forward.

There's different things in here we didn't mention about priorities. You know, what's a high priority, what's a media priority, what's a low priority.

So, are we going to get every strategy completed in five years? No. But we want to make sure we're prioritizing the ones that are important. and we want to make sure our main our main points are included in this housing production plan. So, we're making sure um we hit these key components as that also align with the with the Damoth master plan as well. So these were the the some of the

points in discussions as we were going through the different strategies um to try to hit you know the big key points and then you know based on our research based on our public hearings more input from the town we can we can tweak them as as as need arises and over the next five years. So I just wanted to add that point. Thank you.

I'm gonna just scroll through this plan here and make sure I am not missing anything.

I'm not. Great. So, this is the conclusion um where we just restate everything up to this point. Talk about our goals and then make a nice clear table of your strategies, their priority as we discussed um throughout the stakeholder committee meetings, the potential timeline, and then the goals that they address. And then obviously you have your appendices. And so that is it. I suppose that's at least

everything questionwise that I had for you folks. And I think we've worked through a lot of things here. This is super helpful for me. I have a bunch of notes. I would just like to give you folks an idea of the next steps from here on out. I go back and work with my colleagues. We incorporate these edits.

we come back to you folks, review the edits, ensure that everyone feels good about what we've incorporated and that we've stated things appropriately and are representing the town's desires in the way that you would like. And then this is almost like the we go through what I informally call a pre-adoption review, which is not to be confused with the actual pre-adoption review that is

it related to an unrelated statute at the state level from EOHLC. But we essentially as SERPED submit the final draft version of the housing production plan to the folks at EOHLC who review them and say is there anything we're missing that would be necessary to be in conformance with the regulations and they say yes or no or sometimes they have very minor suggestions akin to could you add one more data point about

this or could you clarify this statement a little more. the edits are almost always super minor, but it's a nice um stop gap to ensure that we don't go through a formal adoption process on the town end. And then EOHLC has edits and then you folks have to, you know, go read a plan because it's changed, etc.

Again, typically the state doesn't have edits when we submit it just for their review, but it's just nice to cover those bases. So, we do that on our end and facilitate that. We report back if there are any um you know substantial edits requested. Again, usually there are not. And then on your folks end, it goes through a formal adoption process through both the planning board and the

select board. Um and once you folks have voted to adopt it, the town admin essentially just submits a letter on letterhead to the state saying, "Hey, here's, you know, both boards adopted it at this vote. Um and we present this to you for formal state approval." And from that date of submittal of the letter, should it be approved, which again because we go through that pre pre-adoption review process, it should

not be an issue, the lifespan of your HPP begins and then you have 5 years from that date to do as you see fit with the plan. Um, and that that concludes the process. And obviously, if you folks have questions or or interest in any sort of further technical assistance with things mentioned throughout the plan, you know where we are. But I just wanted to clearly delineate the next

steps. It should be finalized within by the spring is what I would estimate depending asterisk on how long EHLC takes to review it. That can vary, but you know hopefully spring the latest.

Thank you, Taylor.

Of course, that's all I have on my end.

If you folks have any other questions regarding the plan or the process or any other things you'd like me to think about, I'm happy to hear them now.

Otherwise, um I could stop sharing my screen and let you folks come on with your night.

Thank you for your hard work.

Of course.

Thank you, Taylor.

All right. Well, if you need anything else between now and then, please let Dan or myself know. Um happy to to chat further offline about things and then otherwise I'm sure we'll chat maybe in a couple months or so once we get this thing finalized.

M so much Mr. Chair, could I could I ask one just followup question?

Um Taylor, just on one on the email I had sent, um getting that that table like we had in the previous one for existing subs.

That's something that you'll be able to get.

Yep. Okay, great.

It's in there right now. Um the date is a little old. I think it's January or No, it's September 2025, I think. If you'd like me to get a more current one, if you think the SHI between now and then has changed substantially, I can request it. But otherwise, I did put it in there. It is in there.

Awesome.

Excellent.

All right. Thank you folks. Really appreciate the time and all of the thoughtful um comments, edits, questions, etc. Again, please let me know if you need anything further.

Otherwise, I'll see you folks in a couple months and we'll get this all wrapped up.

Thank you so much. Good night to you. Of course. All right. Have a good night, folks.

Thank you.

All right, that brings us to administrative item number three, release of Shy Bakerville Vineyards Assessor's Map 110, lots 157, 157-1, 158, 159, and map 34, lots 1-1, 2, 2-1, 2-2, and 2-3. Dan, can you speak on behalf of this, please?

Yes. So, um, we received a request to update, um, the charity balance from the owners of the Bakerville Vineyard subdivision. Um, we sent out a request to the DPW to give us a new charity balance. Um, the existing balance, which is included in the packet, um, had a shity of 1,35,8612.

Um the charity was adjusted uh January 22nd 2026 um by the DPW and the balance of that charity could be reduced to a remaining balance of 523,917.93.

This shity right now is being held in a letter of credit. So that letter of credit would just be adjusted by their bank. So this would allow a total of $781,168.19 to be released and again leaving a balance of $523,917.93 to remain at that point. The remaining balance is eligible for release request further on down the road as that additional work is done. Um so at this time unless the

board has any questions um the motion would just be to um approve the the shy reduction amount as requested.

Thank you Dan. Can three people vote on this because I can't vote on it.

Yeah. Yes. Simple majority. Since I'm in a butter, I can't. Okay.

Do we have any questions as a board?

If we don't have any questions, a motion.

Motion to approve. Reese Shardy as stated.

Do we have a second?

Sorry, I I said second. I was muted. Oh, sorry about that.

That's my fault.

Motion made by Helio Rosa to approve the release of Shity for Bakerville Vineyards. Administrative item number three. Seconded by Lori Anne Miller. I'm sorry. Second by Y.

Helio Rosa.

Yes.

Margaret.

Yes.

Nick Cyclopus. Yes.

And just ask Lori Miller so she can say she recused herself.

Yeah. I can't. Yeah.

She's in a We are moving on to administrative item number four, discussion of potential changes for article 24.

Anybody have any comments?

If not, do we want to table this till the next meeting?

Can I, Mr. Chairman, can I just add uh please a quick thing on this? So, this has been going kind of back and forth.

We had talked about updating site plan review. Um, we've had discussions about um making some modifications. So we have site plan review and then we have a separate site plan review rules and procedures that gets adopted from time to time by the board. So this represents that that switch to the two separate documents um reviewed by town council comments back and forth. So what you have before you are um based on town

council's comments um for for those two splits. So this was all with his with his markups and and notes. Um if you look there's one thing left that he that um he questioned the board on um and it's under for this the actual in the site plan review article 24 revisions and it's in section let me see what the head the head of it is

there 375243 and then D um talks about parking garages. Um he has a note in there about parking level shall be deemed to be a story when a ceiling is 4'6 in. That's been in the article 24 regulations um prior to any comments notes. Um so if you see his comment on there basically saying up to the board but we should probably take it out. That's something for something different. So,

that's really his question for the board on that point. Um, other than that, it's just up to questions for the board. Um, any questions they have on either the regs or the bylaw changes. Um, he is he meaning Brian Cruz, town council for the town of Dartmouth, is available to come to the next meeting to answer any questions the board has. um any clarifications um with the hopes um if the board is so

inclined to proceed with pushing to get this on the um on the meeting Springtown meeting more.

So that's kind of the process here which if that's the case we got to start moving with public hearings and what's the deadline Dan?

Um we need to kind of have it by the end of March. Um, so if we have Brian come um, Attorney Cruz for the next meeting in February, we can then advertise for the last meeting in March. Assuming everything's good, we should be on pace for that schedule.

Again, can you put in a spaceolder for us for a town meeting? It doesn't mean we're going to do it, but if you put you can get to put in spaceolder. I have I have spoken with a town administrator that this is something that we're contemplating to be aware of that it's coming in um knowing that it's it has already been reviewed in in part by town council. Um it's on the the schedule. So

if if if we do hold that public hearing in March, we should be good to hold that placeholder for the warrant.

Um should we put the placeholder before?

I mean it can be it can be there's nothing set up. There's nothing set up yet. He'll be looking for stuff, like I said, for the end of March. And like I said, we are on the on the on the radar for that if Okay. Because they do have a deadline, and we don't want to we don't want to miss the deadline.

No, no. I meet I meet with the town administrator regularly and keep them updated on um the the comingings and goings of the board's plans.

Great.

So, when do you want to have the town council? When is it?

He he could be available for the next meeting. Um the 20 23rd. Yeah.

Which I would recommend.

Are we on board with that? I am on board.

Yep. No problem.

So Dan, we should be good for that meeting correct?

Yep.

Great.

Moving on.

Are we good with that the discussion at this point in time?

Number five, ongoing discussion.

Dartmouth future zoning.

Dan, do you have anything to add to this at the moment?

I don't at the moment other than what we've talked about previously at the housing production plan discussion.

I mean, I think I think we got a lot of information tonight. And I I really appreciated the amount of information that's there and I I think we're very constructive to be honest with you and the information that we request be added.

And I do think that from the perspective of education and student enrollment and having some calculus, some algorithm, some set of numbers that help us understand what's going to happen is vital.

And as far as the future zoning, in my mind, it it starts with the students and the schools and then the concept of going to mixed use and sharing with everybody why it makes sense to proceed and increase the benefits of mixed use, etc. Still leaves me with a little bit of a void that there may be a point in time when we have to talk about the phrase increase density. So, I'm going

to put some thought in that as to why and how I would defend it and share it with you folks in a follow-up meeting.

not to be included in in this this winter's work or this spring's work, but I I'm afraid it's something based on a little bit of a mathematical exercise that even though we perhaps have 1,200 and some odd units before us at the planning department on the whiteboard that conceptually could be built in town and or have interest in being built in town, the percentage of affordable units

within each of those doesn't take 7.81 and bring it to 11.9. We're chasing our tail. And until we all recognize that we either need a developer who wants to donate a significant amount of his money into developing a parcel of land that will be significantly out of scope based on cost of production versus what the rents the rent roll is going to be to help us meet our numbers. Without a significant

increased density like situation, we are not going to capture any numbers that are going to add to that 7.1. Unless unless I'm wrong, but in conversation with Dan, in conversation with Ross and looking conceptually at what has happened, it's a it's a tall order to get to 10%.

And I'm not sure between the zoning that we know and the mixeduse opportunities that we're trying to create that were ever going to come close to 10. And all I'm saying is while I'm here or or in the many years to come that the opportunity to close that gap might come as a result of something that the majority initially would not want. The phrase increased density. I get it. But it might be the

only gap filler that we know as it relates specifically to that number of 7.81 we the town of Dartmouth and 10% the state of Massachusetts. So it's plenty to discuss and and it's it's not a winter project by any means, but I'm going to struggle to let it go as long as there's a margin between us, the town, and the state. That's all. So, sorry for that rant, but just want to

make it clear that it's hard for it to leave my mind because mathematically I don't see the gap closing.

Mr. Chairman, can I just add two quick points to that? Um, on the 40B projects, um, it's it might have been a while since we've discussed this, but the benefit of of the three apartment rental projects, all of those units when build and occupied will count towards the subsidized housing inventory. So that's the the I would say benefit in quotation marks of the apartment units is we get

full credit for all those to to the housing. So that's why if you take into all those now you're for one sub 140B you're adding 288 units another one you're adding 300 another one you're adding 157. So that number is going to go up really quickly if these get approved as shown. In regards to the to the high higher density the areas one of the areas mean we're looking at is in the general business. The general

business does have a component for for multi-unit housing of one per 7500. So there is a component built in there if we work within that constraint. So there is kind of a something in there. Um now whether or not people need more than the one per 7500 that's something we'll have to discuss. So there is a component if we if we look to changing regulations in that specific district which encompasses

a vast majority of the area we're looking at to have that higher density opportunity. So I just want to I know it's we kind of discussed these things but it's been kind of stretched out over over the many months we've been doing that. So I just want to reiterate those two points. No, number one, I I appreciate you reiterating them and I think they are vital for us as a board

and for those that may be watching or want to learn more about what our interests are. All I'm implying and I'm just simply implying the fact that what you just shared is critical and would be the majority of the solution if we knew that the oper the owner operators of the properties that are involved were going to exercise their option. All I'm saying in the absence of them exercising their

option over the next 5 10 and 15 years we may find ourselves maintaining this deficit that we're so worried about.

That's all.

Correct. I mean, hopefully I'm wrong and you know, ideally that would be the case. We're we're wrong and we're at 11.7 and things are good.

So, anything else at this point in time regarding future zoning?

If not, we could move on to agenda item administrative agenda item number six minutes from December 22nd, 2025, January 5th, 2026, January 6, 2000 26, 2006. And I believe we we'll do these individually, Dan, or no?

Yeah, I think we should in case different people that want to vote on different ones.

Sure. So, specific to the minutes of December 22nd, 2025. Do I have a motion?

Um, we need a motion.

I'm sorry.

December 8th.

No, December 22nd. 22nd because we got the ETH here.

Yeah, we have the ETH.

I don't have the ETH.

I have it in the packet.

I have it.

Yeah, that's all I have in the packet is the ETH.

I printed this from the packet. I got the 22nd, January 5th, and 26th. But the Are you saying the minute meet the minute meetings didn't make it in the packet?

They did.

They did, but there's a discrepancy.

I have December 20. I have December 8th.

Me, too. The 8th.

Didn't we approve that just before Christmas? Yeah, we had a few meetings in a row. We approved that.

So, it was just it was copied wrong into the packet is what it looks like. I don't have I don't have the 22nd.

So the the minutes that need to be um motioned on at this point in time are the last minutes of 2025 were December 22nd. We need a motion to accept it.

Well, no, they say no. It's they're saying it's not in the packet. There was a copy and paste error. So we'll we'll just skip that one and I'll add it to the next meeting.

So all we'll be voting on is the January 5th and the January 26th.

Sorry about that.

Okay. Are we good with that? We'll move on to January 5th, 2026.

So moved.

Second.

I have a second.

Second.

Great. Motion made by Lori Miller, seconded by Helio Rosa to accept and file the minutes of the January 5th, 2026 meeting. Lori Miller.

Yes.

Helio Rosa.

Yes.

Margaret.

Uh I don't think I was there.

So I can't vote on it.

And Nick Psychopatus. Yes.

Dan, you're lucky. I almost said Daniosa after Lord.

Okay.

I wasn't there either.

This will be specific to the meeting of January 26th, 2026. We need a motion to accept and file the minutes of Actually, Mr. Chair, if I can.

Sure.

Just one comment. Page four. Um, and this might just be me.

Um when we voted on accepting the minutes for the 17 November 17th, December 8th, and December 15th, um there's a few of us that abstained from certain meetings. The way it's typed out is that um for example, the meeting minutes um approval for November 17th states that a roll call was approved 410.

Um in that in that particular instance, I abstained. For the record, shouldn't it be listed as four d401 number is the yes disapproval. So I would make um um I don't know if I should make a motion, but I'll I'll make a comment to amend page four of the meeting minutes for January 26th. Um the motion to approve or sorry, the approval for the November 17th minutes should read 41.

The um approval for the December 8th meeting minutes should read 41 and the approval for the December 15th minutes should read 302.

Appreciate that. Helio second for the motion.

So, sorry. Is it a motion to approve with making those changes?

I will make that.

I will make that motion to um approve on those changes.

So, motion made by Helio Rosa and seconded by Lori Miller to approve the minutes of the January 26th, 2026 meeting with the amendment of the motions noted on the December 8th, 2025 meeting, the November 17th, 2025 meeting and the December 15th, 2025 meeting. Helio Rosa, yes.

Lorie Miller, yes.

Margaret, yes.

Nick Cyclopus, yes.

That brings us to correspondence. City of Fall River, town of Westport, Dan.

And unless anybody's got any questions, I would just recommend to acknowledge and file.

We have a motion.

I'll second.

Motion made by Lori Miller, seconded by Helio Rosa to acknowledge and file the correspondence. Lorie Miller, yes.

Helio Rosa, yes.

Margaret, yes.

Nick Cyclopus, yes.

Brings us to number eight for our information. Old business, new business, incoming ZBA applications, and or legal ads. Dan, you want to take it from there?

Sure. So, there's four in this packet.

Three of them are for that property on State Road that we did the ANR for today. Um, this kind of goes into some of the things we were talking about. If you look on uh special permit uh ZSP255, the the um zoning board of appeals granted a um special permit to allow for lock coverage of 34% as opposed to the 10% that's allowed. So that goes back to what Margaret had mentioned about the zoning board

routinely gives variances up in the 30%.

So, um, exhibit A to to to to go along with her her thoughts on that. Um, so there's those three. So, we should be seeing, um, a site plan soon on that.

One of the conditions was they have to come before the planning board for site plan review. Um, the other one was for, um, the potential Audi dealership also on Route 6. Um those decisions were granted again with a condition that they had to come before site plan review. Um so hopefully we'll be seeing um that one as well.

Thank you. Dan, any subcommittee reports?

Planners report?

Uh a couple things just on just for me personally. Next week, school vacation week. So, I will be on vacation next week. Ross will be in the office. If any board members have any questions, I will be here all this week. If there's anything you want to touch base on um prior to that, please feel free to reach out. Um couple other things I've been working on. Um there's a new study that

was commissioned for the Das Landing U Pontaganza Park project. Um so, I've kind of taken the reigns on leading that. Um we're working on getting a architect as a consultant and then I'll be meeting with a few of the various boards in town. Um regards to the 40B um I've taken on a little bit bigger role in reviewing those. Um I was involved with um peer review scope of works for the new Hathaway project. I've been

reviewing variance not variance waiver lists for the other 40bs. So I've been kind of involved in that. Um just real briefly, Mr. Chairman, that's why I asked about um the school housing. When we're talking about the housing production plan, everybody not the the vast majority of people that come in assume that there is some much greater inflow of students for 40BS.

So that's why I was asking if there's any specific data for there as opposed to just taking the standard numbers.

just a just to give a little background of of why I asked that question is they you know they don't they're not going to buy well this is what we get on this stuff is like well they want to see if there's any supporting data that those numbers are in line when typical 40B projects come in. I haven't been able to find anything specifically that says there's any different numbers but if there are

we're giving people um I have a question on that Dan.

Yeah. Can we and the school department can probably give you this information.

What about the um the 40B on Route 6, the apartments there?

Um the the the gentleman who were putting up the new Woods. Damoth Woods. Yeah.

Yeah. I can't I mean they might be able to they should be able Yeah. five or just 10 kids or whatever it is. I mean, obviously, they're not going to tell us the location of them, but they have a a bus there that picks up 10 kids.

Yeah, I can see if there's any information. I know that school district, the numbers are down for that for that for that school, and I think they're down generally across the town.

So, um I have it in my notes as part of the housing production plan to try to see who I need to reach out to the schools to get the current number. So I can ask I'll write down to ask that question as well.

Mhm.

But like I said you get you get you get different you know people there's a fear with 40bs right um and one of the fears traffic drainage increase in schools whether it's disproportionate or not that's that was just the question if she had any experience being able to have that. So, it' be be an interesting um study if there was one. If there's any different ratios involved with a with with these projects,

I would expect I honestly would expect a slight difference between uh properties that are categorically built like Dartmouth Woods compared to perhaps what we're looking at at the starter home 40B. I mean, starter homes are often occupied by early families, right? and places like Dartmouth Woods are often occupied by starting relationships, right? Um, so and well, you're start you're starting

to see it a lot more. You know, you're seeing young professionals that, right, through finance, through whatever just, you know, you're not getting you're not seeing people getting married as young as ages. People seeing having kids at younger ages, right?

So, so the demographics are are vastly different just from one generation ago.

Sure. I would I would actually I would expect an objective difference in the result. But um one one other thing, we're just starting um getting uh going on a new hazard mitigation plan. Um so that's something I'll be involved in in the coming months as well. That's it other than the day-to-day work.

Thank you, Dan. Thank you so much.

I I don't have much to share. I I do want to say thank you to Dan for telling us repetitively throughout our meetings, you might want to be patient. The housing production plan is coming. It's going to be here soon. It's delayed a little bit, but I think we'll have it by the end of the year. So, I I I feel bad because I asked Dan quite a few questions often in the office and he

would turn immediately and say, "You might want to wait for the housing production plan." So, I appreciate your patience. Um, and I I just want to say that I really appreciate all of you that I the these meetings are not easy on a Monday night after a a full day in the office and rolling into these meetings, but I hope the town realizes that our thoughts and our concerns and I just

want to share this. It's not really a planner's report, but it is a message to the town that we are very broadsp spectrum and I don't think this board has by any means left the demographic out as we're thinking about the direction that the town is going perhaps what has happened in the past not to happen in the future the schools the children. So this is if somebody feels and and this is me on

behalf of the board. If there's someone in the community that feels as a planning board that all of our efforts are not necessarily encompassing the town as a whole, I would like to encourage them to email me andor contact me because the last thing I would ever want to do again because perception is reality is allow for one to perceive perhaps that we are fixated. And it's not that we're fixated and I'm bringing

it up for a purpose. There's a lot of land in our town that does not afford us opportunity for discussion and it may seem like we're stuck on Route 6 or F's corner or increased density or mixeduse enhancements but really what we're doing as a board is we are striving to look at areas that off that offer us opportunity to exercise our efforts and basically produce a desired result for you/

slashwe the town. That's all. So, um I look forward to the next couple of meetings and I look forward to town council and um on behalf of me, I hope everybody stays warm and has a wonderful couple of weeks. Next meeting is scheduled for February 23rd at 700 p.m.

And as of right now, we can expect town council to be on the agenda unless Dan advises otherwise. Correct.

You got it.

Great.

If there's nothing else or nobody else wants to get involved at this point in time, there is room for a magic motion.

So moved.

Second.

Motion made by Margaret, seconded by Helio Rosa to adjourn the February 9th, 2026 Dartmouth Planning Board meeting.

Margaret, yes.

Helio Rosa, yes.

Lori Miller, yes.

Nick Psychopatis, yes. Thank you all.

Thank you, Dan.