Town of Sharon
Community Preservation
Committee
Draft Meeting Minutes of 8/23/07
Committee
Attendees
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Guest Attendees
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Town of Sharon
Community Preservation Committee
Draft Meeting
Minutes of 2/28/08
Amended and approved on 3/27/08
Amended and Approved on 1/24/08
Committee Attendees
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Corey Snow - Chair |
Allen Garf |
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George Bailey - Treasurer |
Arnold Kublin - ABSENT |
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Arnold Cohen - Clerk |
Susan Rich |
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Peg Arguimbau |
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Guests
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Jennifer Goldson |
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Chair’s Report
The meeting was called to order at 7:15 PM by Chair, Corey Snow who reviewed the evening’s agenda and read the Chair’s Report.
Treasurer’s Report
All open invoices were signed. Treasurer Bailey reported that there was no activity in January. We are on target and there are no changes since December in variable expenses. He discussed the clearance of $500,000 towards the MBNA property and $250,000 for the purchase of 9 Glenview Road. Mr. Bailey also discussed that he contacted an archivist who wrote a descriptive letter describing the state of the art in microfilm and converting microfilm to digitized images. Mr. Bailey said he would like to see a consolidated study to include all town records over 50 years. He suggested this would be a good opportunity to take the lead to make the project useful for the Town. Groups to include would be: Treasurer, Assessor, Town Clerk, Library, School Department and Selectmen’s records to name a few.
Mr. Bailey commented that microfilm has a 100 year life. This will not be a project for discuss at this Town Meeting because more research is needed. Mr. Bailey wants to make this an ongoing process.
Mr. Snow commented that with reference to the Community Center and perhaps funding a playground, they need a more comprehensive plan for what they are going to do with the grounds. We are not acting on any projects for this cycle.
Meeting Minutes
The meeting minutes for 1/24/08 were reviewed. Mr. Cohen moved to approve the minutes of 1/24/08. Ms. Rich seconded the motion and the Committee voted 6-0-0 in favor.
we
therefore
Meeting
Initiation
The
meeting was called to order at 7:07 PM by Chair, George Bailey who reviewed the
evening’s agenda.
Meeting
Minutes
The
meeting minutes for 7/26/07 were reviewed. Mr. Garf moved to approve the
minutes of 7/26/07 as written. Mr. Cohen seconded the motion. The Committee
voted 4-0-1 in favor. Ms. Argiumbau abstained due to her absence from the 7/2607
meeting.
Chairman’s Report
Mr. Bailey discussed Ms.
Goldson’s revision to the schedule of meetings with the Board of Selectmen and
the various stakeholder groups. Mr. Bailey and Mr. Garf attended the Selectmen’s
presentation. Mr. Kublin is reviewing housing issues with Ms. Goldson and Ms.
Desberg to establish priorities for housing.
Mr. Bailey also suggested
that the committee think about changing the process for finalization for
recommendations that go before the committee. He suggested having a hearing
before the committee acts regarding money. He suggested a public hearing be
held at least a month or two ahead of time. This would give the committee
members time to make sure all bases are covered before taking action.
Mr. Bailey reported that as
of last Tuesday, the Selectmen acted on the Horizon’s for Youth Bond issue. It
went out at 4.63%. He also stated that the first fiscal year was not heavy on
open space issue. Its 3-4% on 1.2 million spread January – August which makes
the model change. Instead of 30% open space and 40% recreation, $33,000
needs to be encumbered for funds for open space because it went beyond fiscal
07. Mr. Bailey wrote to the DOR and they said encumber the amount for open
space. Mr. Bailey will put a spreadsheet on the website to explain the process.
Discussion
Laura Russell came before
the committee to discuss project #016 – Borderland Massapoag Trail. She
explained that the project began in the 1995 – 1996 timeframe. In 2002 a petition
to build sidewalks along Massapoag went to the state and it was determined that
it was not eligible for TIP funding. Now the residents have put together an
effort to request a trail along Borderland and Massapoag and transition to
sidewalk to the wate rtower. This
would be a recreational access connection to promote safety and access. She
worked with the DPW to determine a monetary estimate to perform the work.
Mr. Cohen asked if the
sidewalk would be separated by strips of land or granite curbs and Ms. Russell
said the right of way would be the setback. Mr. Cohen replied that if it is
part curb and part meandering paths, can’t it all be meandering roads. Ms.
Russell replied that a huge part is recreation and the sidewalk is part of
recreation.
Ms. Goldson recommended that
this be looked at as a trail for nonmotorized activities. What’s the proper
width for bicycles on a shared use path? BHB, a company who does work on
transportation, Chapter 11 shared use path and greenways said ideally a treadway is 10 feet
to accommodate shared use for bicycles but would allow a
reduction to 8 feet wide. Mr. Cohen said he was not sure of
the logic behind a 1 mile bike path. Ms. Russell replied that the ultimate goal
is to create a bike path to the lake. Mr. Garf questioned if the $600,000
estimate covers 10 feet. Mr. Bailey suggested an examination of various
alternatives.
Mr. Kublin stated that this
project is a work in progress that started in 1995. What is the town government
– DPW, BOS reaction to the proposal on the drqwing board for
12 years? Ms. Russell said the BOS was excited to put in the TIP plan but
funding did not come through however there is a desire. Mr. Cohen said if people
want sidewalks, impose a betterment on the Town.
Mr. Kublin stated that sidewalk
construction has to take into consideration people and children walking . The criteria
is safety where people have to walk. If the Town
stopped that’s unfortunate but we are looking at a substantial sum of money
requested but there are other areas that have safety issues. Mr. Cohen said he
would like to see bikepath but not on top of the road.
Mr. Bailey said regarding
TIP funding that there is no money at the DCR. He recommended to think about flexiblity to get
state DPW money and CPC funds to meet the criteria that doesn’t call it a bike
path for a cost savings. He recommended that Ms. Goldson go through the
report. Ms. Goldson said that she evaluated the request and more design is
needed. CPA allows or trails and not sidewalks. In terms of guidelines for the
project submission everything is clear. Mr. Cohen said this concept talks
about 3/10 mile gravel. Is this where Massapoag reaches Borderland and Ms.
Russell replied yes. It would be 1.1 miles of paved sidewalks with curbs.
Mr. Bailey said we are facing
a financial challenge and agrees with Mr. Cohen that a sidewalk is not viable because
the Town needs a lot of sidewalks in different places. Ms. Arguimbau asked if this could be
divided into 2 projects; Massapoag to first section of Borderland. Ms. Goldson
said if we got away from the sidewalk scope you can go with a gravel path idea.
Mr. Bailey said he would support the stone dust street. Goldson said find out
from the DPW about the stone dust trail and can it be handicap accessible. This
project is competing against other projects. The main issue is the cost. Can it
be justified or bought down. It is CPA eligible if there are no sidewalks but a
trail. Determine if there are any other funding sources. Could there be a a cost
sharing with Easton? Mr. Cohen asked how practical it is to build a trail off
the road. It was also stated that the DPW must be asked more questions about
the setback, the scenic look at the road, the number of tree removals required.
Ask if there another way to design
it. Get the layoutof the street with topal lines
Treasurer’s Report
Mr. Snow was not in
attendance so a report was not presented.
ed that he
is closing out all invoices for FY07. $49,000 was paid for the painting of
Hixson Farm. $11,500 was spent form Administrative non-payroll out of 20K. The
excess of $8,500 was encumbered. There was an excess of $2K on the payroll
account. Any excess will be appropriated to pay down debts. The annual forms to
the state are due in the fall.
CPC Consultant
and therefore that amountJennifer Goldson, the CPC
Consultant began her discussion at 8:30PM
and stated she was glad to be back. She had gone through all of the data
obtained at the Public Hearing and had a lot of detail to
go through. She first asked for general impressions of the meeting. Mr. Kublin said he had
doubts about the small # of people providing input and feels it was not a good
enough representation. Mrs. Rich said the table she facilitated had good ideas. The people
were involved in the Town but not true representatives of the Town. Mr. Cohen said
it is hard to get a representative vote. Mr. Bailey
commented that the people who attended are a structured group with ideas. Ms. Goldson commented that there were a lot of
ideas on the table. Mr. Kublin saw more interest in open space than
housing; Mr. Garf was impressed with the
presentation, Mr. Bailey saw more interest in recreation and trails
and Mrs. Rich thought the maps were
useful.
Mrs. Goldson provided the CPC with a
handout of actual notes taken related to the focus group discussions and
individual comments, a handout summarizing the responses for Community Preservation plan
questionnaire and a summary of the needs for Community Housing, Historic
Preservation, Open Space and Recreation as well as associated suggested projects. All of
these handouts are available in the CPC files. She
also provided a suggestion of proposed next steps with reference to her services as a consultant to the CPC.
Ms. Goldson said the next steps to get to the next
level of community input would include her going
to other Boards and Committees and presenting the information
generated so far. She would solicit feedback and any new ideas to determine
what’s out there that we do not know about. She suggested holding a second
community meeting the fall after going to the other Boards and Committees. This would help give more
feedback before writing the draft plan. The CPC then reflected on these choices.
Mr. Garf moved to adopt Jennifer Goldson’s proposal
entitled: Stakeholder Groups for $4,000 and report back to the CPC
with any changes. Mr. Cohen seconded the motion and the Committee voted 6-0-0.
The Committee did not vote on Mrs. Goldson’s proposal regarding an
additional Town Meeting and the
preparation of associated materials. Mr. Cohen suggested that another Town hearing would not provide much more
information. Mr. Kublin suggested looking for more in the way of community
education. Mrs. Rich suggested perhaps a spring meeting when the process
was further along. Mr. Bailey would like to see the program explained with numbers.
Mrs. Goldson said that she will provide the CPC
with written summaries of what she has discussed with the various groups and will prepare a plan outline in October.
Business Community
Preservation Plan
Jennifer Goldson attended the meeting to review the draft CPC plan for the public comment period. The goal for tonight she stated is to come to a Committee consensus on the edits so the plan can be sent out for public review. The changes that were received since the last meeting were word smithing and grammatical changes. Ms. Goldson said she highlighted the areas to be discussed tonight and will provide her thoughts. She reviewed each set of edits to validate if the Committee agreed or disagreed with the changes. This was a lengthy and detailed discussion. The document she created is to be used as a guide for the public. The next steps are for Ms. Goldson to make the modifications agreed to and then release for public comment. There is no hard time line. Chair Snow moved that the plan be released after Ms. Goldson makes the agreed upon edits and as per Mr. Bailey’s requests, change the statistics for active recreation. Mr. Cohen seconded the motion and the Committee voted 6-0-0 in favor of the motion.
Ms. Goldson will send copies to regional planning and community coalitions. Ms. Levitts will post the document in the Library, DPW, Town Hall and on-line. She will also ask the Advocate to post a brief write-up regarding the document.
Ms. Goldson stated she would update the plan based on the meeting and everyone’s comments and forward an updated copy to the Committee.
Town Report Submission
The Committee discussed a particular paragraph within the Town Report for the CPC on which Ms. Cheyer had commented. The Committee discussed the changes and agreed upon a new version. Mr. Snow moved that the edits as discussed to be made to the Town Report for CPC, be approved. Mr. Cohen seconded the motion and the Committee voted 6-0-0.
Other Business
Mr. Snow stated that since we are not authorizing projects for this cycle, he will contact the Town Treasurer to get a better return on cash funds. The timeframe in which we can take on additional projects would be next November. He will also ask the Treasurer about the possibility to pay down the bonds.
Mr. Snow discussed joining the CP Coalition with annual dues of $1,500. Mr. Bailey commented that with the CP Coalition, you do not have a vote. It is a lobbying organization that is well financed. He suggested before joining, a financial statement is reviewed to determine what type of representation we should have. Fees are based on budget. Mr. Snow stated he was concerned that we may not get $1,500 worth of benefit. We may be able to use the money towards a project with value to the Town. Mr. Cohen commented that we used them in the beginning when the Committee was being formed but have not contacted them recently. Ms. Arguimbau suggested inviting the rep of the CP Coalition to provide a better understanding at the next meeting. Ms. Arguimbau motioned to have a rep from the Coalition discuss the benefits with the Committee. Ms. Rich seconded the motion and the Committee voted 4-2.
Mrs.
Levitts provide the CPC with award letters for the Massapoag Brook
neighborhood, the Water Department, The Historical Society, the Drake Cemetery
and the School Department for signature.
Next Meeting Date
March 27th
August 23rd,
September 18th and October
25th, 2008, 2007. were
selected.
Election
of Officers will occur on September 18th.
Meeting Adjournment
Mr.r.
CohenCohen moved
to adjourn the meeting at 1010:25:00
PM and Mrr.
GarfKublin
seconded the motion. The Committee voted 66-0-0
in favor.