11.9.2022 Planning Board

all right welcome everybody to the uh Wednesday November 9th 2022 meeting of the Florida planning board pursue it to the open meeting uh law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any media attendees are therefore advised that such recordings on Transmissions are being made whether perceived or perceived by those present

and our deemed acknowledged and permissible the city Charter section 9-18 mandates that all multiple member bodies develop and adopt rules or policy for such public comment we have adopted such a policy which in Shaw provides for citizen input on a planning board specific matters at the end of the meeting there is a sign up sheet that is located at the back of the room for anyone who is uh interested in

making any comments I'm going to have a road call Laurie Pacheco present Mario Lucio yeah that's Andrew here and myself John Ferreira here also acknowledged plenty one secretary Nina Kruger and then I go to the engineer all right first uh on the new business first item on the agenda is roadway reconstruction on Wood Street section 66-185 City audience considering the roadway reconstruction

plan and profile of Wood Street Extension yeah is there anybody here yeah there's a few people right here no but that's so fht who submitted it I don't think there's anybody here representing them to give a presentation okay so what I would offer is that why don't you let me give you my report first and then we can take anything then I'll open it up if somebody has comments so in each of your packets you should

have a memo from the engineering department uh stating to the Fall River planning board from Daniel aguiar city engineer date November 9 2022 regarding proposed Wood Street Extension roadway reconstruction plan a review of the submitted roadway reconstruction plan the engineering department and the Department of Community utilities offer the following comments the planchel illustrate the legal status for this

portion of Wood Street does the public way status to the east extend to Preston street number two the plan proposes no storm water runoff mitigation the applicant shall proposed drainage improvements to ensure that there will be no negative impacts to adjacent and abundant properties the applicant shall provide drainage calculations for the existing and proposed condition the plan shall illustrate topography for

the first 25 feet of the parcels north of Wood Street and within 100 feet of the Preston Street intersection the applicant shall label the size and type of all utilities within the right-of-way all existing and proposed utilities shall be shown on the roadway profile provide the location of the nearest fire hydrant a new hydrant may be required what is the width of adjacent pavement on Preston Street

nine a leveling area at the Creston Street intersection shall be required 10 a list of waivers from the planning board rules and regulations shall be submitted there appears to be an errant Line running parallel with the Northerly sideline of Wood Street 12 it appears that the proposed roadway surface is offset we assume this is intentional to align with the existing traveled way of Wood Street to the West

please correct the typical cross-section to reflect this the engineering department and the Department of Community utilities reserves the right for additional comment upon the receipt of revised plans so since fht is not here this evening I will forward this to them tomorrow okay so that their engineer can make the modifications that I've requested if you chose to do so so what you would have to do no action taken

today um what you'll what you'll do after you take public comment is decide whether to table the matter approve the matter and then request that this letter be sent to the applicant is there any comments here from the uh from the public on this please uh just give us your name and address please Stephen Martins 36 which um just a couple of questions in regards um a Mr agad would that be available to

be what you've just read yeah I'll give you a copy today if you would like them thank you um I live directly in front of the proposed Street my property faces the street and it also faces the two blocks that are going to be developed as the road runs now there's nothing there there was some site work done by Century to put in some utility water lines and whatnot Street does pitch quite a bit

it's not elevated properly and then there's some erosion control and there's a guard wheel at the end what are they specifically going to use for the erosion control at the end of the pavement in the guard Railway normally we would require hay bales and silt fans or wattles in a situation like this where the Topography is so severe I would I would require them to put staked hay bales and sole fence and we would

also require them to extend that further up the lot lines than what they have proposed um and then obviously behind that there is some some trees there now would there be any ability for them to conserve trees or is that all coming down no so so they would not be they would not be touching um the portion of Wood Street Beyond where they have proposed have you seen the plan I

okay so from where the erosion control line is they would not be touching that heading east so that whatever is there now is there now unless through their proposal for drainage Improvement they decide to do or need the room to do something else I don't know what they're going to propose we don't design it for them we just tell them that they need to do something to improve the situation

the water comes down because everything all that water runs towards the pot because it's a natural pit yep once it hits that tree line half the water goes to the right to the proposed build box and half comes kind of well it's not my property but the sidewalk that goes across the front and runs down sure so would the hay bales have to stay there like it's kind of no so what will happen

is the hay bales are during construction correct what we're requiring them to do is propose some drainage improvements now what those may be it might be a rip wrap trench at the end of the road so the water flows into that and doesn't disperse and then spills over properly so there are enough a number of different drainage improvements that they can propose to ensure that we don't have a runoff problem Beyond what's

already there now so until they come back with something I don't know what they'll propose but at that time you know that'll be reviewed and of course yes absolutely yeah there's obviously the Topography of the road I saw the you know the pitch and it's going to have a burn but looking at it from where my property is level it looks like the rule will be higher than property so level so

right now what they have shown is that the road is just about to follow what's there but if you heard in my comments I've asked them to show us what the Topography is on your lot specifically so that we can determine how you hire are you lower could you be affected by this um absolutely yeah so we want to make sure that that doesn't happen because the department is the worst we have Preston

Street right now currently ends and that that road starts from there to kind of down it's like almost like a two foot drop very quickly yeah and then it kind of it's a gradual thing so they would have to level that off yeah I think it starts even on their plan at about a seven percent slope and then it flattens out to about a four and a half percent slope so

um so we've asked them to to take a look at that and and now what we're charged with is to make sure that you don't have any issues with stormwater that that that's really the biggest but there's no proposed to open Preston no absolutely not nope but I haven't I read the plan where even after construction if there are issues they're responsible to come back it's always not so easy though oh I know

that's why that's why you know I heard about tabling it or yeah how we're going to do it just so that way it kind of stays fluid so they can stake it out um I know that there was supposed to be more neighbors um to come and you know maybe voice their concerns on the other side of the wood street where the rest of the water because it does yeah I did

get a call from someone down gradient and they called and they wanted what their primary concern was that it was not going to connect yeah so yeah that and you can see that in the plants but when there's a lot of runoff just so you know because obviously been there for 20 years on that side of Wood Street that is developed it's so bad that that becomes like a sheet of ice in the winter

because the rain and the water and then it refreezes yeah and like the neighbor that's on the side of that lot there when he comes out of the driveway it's just a sheet of ice so now there's not going to be any trees or any natural drainage it's just going to come running so a lot of the other concerns were what happens to the water after that time so

I know there's no one here to speak for that but that was a concerns that I had voiced to me okay anyone else for that as well all right thank you Mr Martin uh what's just just for the record are you are you in a butter or are you close by I'm on 906 Wood Street all right you might just just take those addresses down just so you know that that they did come but they

comments that were already presented cover their their concerns what they wore here all right what is the uh pleasure of the board seeing that there's still some unanswered uh questions here and they're not here to represent or would like to table I make a motion with table to give the uh the petitioners a chance to reply or give answer to being a yard's legitimate concerns which has several of

them in a very messy type of memo and then we can better evaluate it that's that's my motion a second emotion it's a glory I've made the motion Mario second

as well

good luck the next item on the new business Street acceptance for Courtney Street request acceptance of Courtney Street extending from Highland Ave to Fieldstone Lane referred by City Council on October 11 2022.

so as you all know in the past you you've dealt with these the city council when when they receive or when the clerk receives a petition from a number of uh residents in the city go through the process of going through the clerk get sent down to the council the council then orders it to the planning board for opinion so that's where we're at this evening is that we're just asking or

they're just asking for a recommendation from the board a little bit of back history on on this section of Courtney Street you may recall during the approval of the Highland Farms two subdivision required a number of improvements to be made in Courtney Street and there was actually a lengthy Courtney Street agreement with the developers of what they were supposed to do um they can't do what they need to do

until they have the legal rights to make all of these improvements so the initiation of this acceptance will then allow us being the owner of the street to provide the ability for the developer to continue on and make the improvements that was reviewed by the planning board and part of their approval during the definitive subdivision approval process so again right you are not accepting the

way you are just making a recommendation um to the city council to to accept the way in that way improvements can be made the way as it currently exists is satisfactory um it's it's a paved Street it provides access to Royal Crest uh Apartments as well as the Highland Woods subdivision but as the through the definitive subdivision process you all felt that it was required to make more improvements

adding some sidewalks new curbing New lighting for the entire length of Courtney Street and make some improvements at the Highland Avenue intersection being a private way and having some encroachments in the way from some of the abutting properties the the applicant and owner of the subdivision didn't have the legal rights to go make these improvements so this will this brings it to that next step

giving him the ability to go do that okay question to Dan Carton three brings memory court and straight bringing Supreme memory a free send this to approval hour is what else is to actually continue to prevent to remain the way it is or make an adjustment that was never made before so well so there is as I stated a lengthy agreement executed by the developer I think it's 13 13 Pages executed by the mayor the

developer the law department and in that details what you all required them to make for improvements in Courtney Street Okay so this agreement is in place the first step is them having the ability to go make the improvements so this would be that first step and then so they are bound by this agreement to go make those improvements and a certain number of homes and home sales are being held and there's a

surety in place uh performance guarantee for the construction of these ways um with the city as well so if they don't go do it we have the ability to pull that performance bond and go build it ourselves okay and the motion you could request was I'm sorry I didn't hear that so all you need to do is just um if you choose make a motion to recommend the acceptance of the way to

the city council thank you any other questions first before we make a motion I make a motion to explain to accept to end send dirty to other recommendations recommendations recommendation okay thank you enough seconds all in favor hi myself okay number three application for endorsement of plan believe not to require approval in our plan file number 22-1542 I want a Fall River Redevelopment Authority applicant DMD

companies LLC property locations zero Innovation Way sessions map w-19-0185 and zero one eight nine so I go um well looking at Mr Dunn given's presentation uh good evening everybody my name is Brian Dunn I'm a principal of the engineering firm MBL Land Development and permitting with offices at five Bristol Drive in Southeastern Mass we're here on behalf of vmd as as well as the Fall River Redevelopment Authority and

on the Apostle of land that's currently owned by the Fall River read about Redevelopment Authority on zero Innovation Way it's our intent to subdivide the property into four individual lots to proceed with site plan approval for each lot and each lot is going to have a building on it with their own separate drainage as you may have heard when Mr hagiah the city engineer first came in we were talking

about updating the drainage design so we're we're in the process of doing that we have an order of conditions from the city of Fall River as well as the town of Freetown we currently have a planting board approval in a town of Freetown as well with some special conditions that we address the peer review Consultants information as well as the city Engineers consult City Engineers

comments in regards to drainage so we're we're asking for you to review and approve and endorse the a r plan for this form a subdivision Mr chairman thank you so yeah sure so um although the plan looks very intimidating there is a lot of Ink on this it's for a number of reasons it's a very large piece of land they are creating very large Parcels this is in a general use science and technology overlay

District zoning District in Freetown and in the city of Fall River it's located in the industrial park district where the requirements are 100 feet of Frontage and 10 000 square feet so they're they're creating four lots and one parcel in the city of Fall River the minimum lot size is buildable Lots anyway 709 000 square feet with 986 feet of Frontage so um they're very large Lots what you'll notice on here is that

there was a parcel lot 5 which is actually a conservation restriction parcel so it does not have any legal Frontage and and that note is added to the plan that this is not a buildable portion so there's a conservation restriction that covers the Wetland portion of this site so they'll be creating these individual building Lots so that individual buildings parking areas and drainage

systems can be constructed later on but for your review tonight you're simply looking at area and Frontage which this plant fire exceeds any of those requirements and if I may further that conservation restriction the intent also part of the intent of this plan is to combine all of the area of the conservation restriction into one lot because as part of the agreement with the Fall River Redevelopment Authority and um

is to create one lot that cannot be further conveyed to anybody at any single time so that includes our abutting uh the Hutchinson's LLC uh possible of land that has the conservation restriction on it as well as the conservation restriction that's also in Fall River so we're talking about approximately 52 acres of land that's in a conservation restriction to prom you know help promote the protection of the

environment and as well as you know make sure that that area of land is perpetually maintained we're about to set bounds as part of that conservation restriction is required with the Misa process and the natural heritage process so we're you know we're I think we're in good shape the rest of the land is about 143 143 000 square feet of of land and we're saving the turtles yeah so if you look at

the other thing that's part of that conservation restriction is that 52 Acres we cannot even use the 52 Acres as part of our open space or any part of our development area and I noticed you you've maintained it off the road as well yes for that in Frontage all right any questions from the board I think it sounds good to me so I have a motion to accept the anr as presented Android made a motion

like in the motion Mario second all in favor Gloria aye Mario yes yes and I yes as well you want to sign the plan for me so I can take it off I'm going to be able to scan it in tomorrow the signed version the signed version okay I was gonna do that anyway so if you want to do that perfectly fine okay then I can come back tomorrow perfect great thank you very much

Cindy can come in or you all can sign it tonight I don't know I don't know if Cindy's available to come in so why don't we decided tonight great thank you very much thank you thanks Dan thank you sir okay number four receipt of Correspondence review and discussion of the nomination of s gorse and Sons block for the national register of historic places from the Massachusetts historical Commission

um I would recommend and I'll ask Nina this it references just read this and close please find the following nomination form was there a nomination form with us that was the only thing no what I would recommend is that you just table this for the time being and let us find out what that nomination form was just I want to make sure that it isn't something that that you should

all be some some more concerned about do I have a motion to table emotion motion by Mario second yes and myself as well yes all right discussion review a discussion uh review and discuss updated fee schedule and 2023 planning board meeting schedule I believe we all have the fee schedule old and new so as the chairman stated you you'll you'll see the two different fee schedules um one that's been historically around

I've got a guess for probably 20 years I wasn't unable to find the exact date so to be in keeping with some of the abutting municipalities we wanted to propose the ability to increase some of these fees the proposed schedule that you have which is the white sheet of paper is something that I put together after reviewing again all of the adjacent municipalities and what their fees are

for the different types of applications um that that we accept so we can have a discussion about it it can be tabled you can do your own research to get a better understanding of where you're at we just wanted to start the process in having a discussion with regards to the potential uh raising of some of these fees again to be in accordance with adjacent municipalities everything goes up across

the paper cost of printing municip you know employees everything so a moderate increase to some of these fees I think is in keeping with with normal practice but by all means you're the board you have to vote for it so what I I would suggest is that rather than get into a conversation that that's too deep without having looked into some of the uploading things or if you need any additional information email me and I

can respond but if you do want to have a preliminary discussion by all means go ahead I know that uh Miss pachigo had some questions uh I just wanted to do more research I mean quick question this is applicable to both residential and Commercial same exact fee schedule yes yes so I mean an A R plan is an a r plan like like this one right it could be a multi-billion dollar development or

it could be a house law when you get to form C's those are the definitive subdivisions that do require a great amount of review our our old fees are are really Antiquated and it's impossible to review these to the level that that you deserve them to be reviewed for the amount of money that that does come in um so again the only issue I got a question I had with regards to the site plan review

um it's actually not I don't believe the purview of the planning board it's the city ordinance but it does show up on your fee schedule so I'm going to look into to that portion of it through site plan review I don't know because the planning board does not govern the site plan review it's a it's a site plan review Committee of five different departments in the city but as you can

see on the historic version of the site plan review application it does show up there so I did include it but this will also give me the opportunity to to go find out that and if it doesn't belong here then we will we will be taking it off so do I have a motion to table until we uh get further clarification and maybe the members have a chance to look at a

little a little more detail and then can clarify that site plan review but that's the mobile uh because that's how the board um I I would make the motion that I need more time to review these fees but if and I can be out voted so that's my motion well Mr Aggie I still has to uh yeah no I think it'd be good for you to go in and if you want to take the time

to go look at you know how we compare and I may be emailing you absolutely yeah okay so you make a motion Gloria toward a table it's for next meeting yesterday in five seconds Mario second all in favor Gloria yes Mario yes yes and yes for myself as well we have approval of the minutes from nope oh no the second part two we have the meeting scheduled here for 2023.

uh do I have a motion to approve this is it good for everybody or I mean as you know I mean it's it's basically set the same way that every other year there will be meetings that really need to be changed or you can't attend but so that we can have at least a framework so that people can work off throughout the year and some could be canceled if we don't have enough absolutely

so do I have a motion to accept the uh the meeting scheduled my bath second

and myself yes okay now we're going to approval of the minutes of the meeting the last up in the last meeting for um October 17th everybody has a copy uh I can't vote on this I was absent I'll make a potion to approve motion by uh by Mario second last second that's second all in favor all right yes and I abstain oh we got no citizens input for tonight

we just had a little bit before you move to adjourn I just want to raise something informally um as some of you know John has served as the planning boards representative to the CPC uh very well representing the uh the plan award um he's decided to step down from that and submitted a resignation letter the process is that we need to provide a new member to sit on the CPC and it does

require some time as John will will tell you if no one wants to take on or accept that role it will fall on the chairman most likely or not provide one at all which is not a good thing we're looking into what the actual requirements are so it is requested that that we do have one so no discussion tonight just keep it in your mind if it's something that you might be

interested in doing it's a very important role you can speak with John the two of you discussing the matter is uh not a quorum so not to worry if you want to go that's supposed to be good it's mostly so that they have a quorum as well exactly so um if anybody has an interest in doing that just give it some thought um Cindy's not here tonight we will put it on the agenda for December's meeting

to have a formal discussion about it and only because I know the CPC has a number of items coming through very soon that that needs votes and they're concerned about not having a quorum as well so I think if we resolve it with a potential vote at the December meeting I think that would give them adequate time it's a great board um you know it's everybody comes before you looking for some some funds to be

bit of balance and then there's a scoring sheet after all of that is done and you hear from the petitioners score sheet to see you know who you think won first second third fourth and then you combine all the score sheets and and try to decipher who's who some have already been allocated funds in the past have never used them so that's kind of like a a little deterrent it's like well we've

already given you money but you've never used it so you know that could go to somewhere else and it could go from anywhere from a rehab in a historical building preservation we've got the ice house up in watapa we just approved lights for uh for Father Kelly after we did last year 400 000 for uh I believe it was 400 000 for uh uh Maplewood Park for baseball um so it's it's a lot of good good

things it's just trying to pick I'm picking shoes I know Water Street and a lot I've put in and it's just trying to figure out the the priority uh because you only get so much money to allocate how many members are on the board John I want to say this one two three six I'll say the six and there are members from the historic commission correct the same thing happened with housing

housing did not have a representative to to uh Community preservation so what happened was Boston came down and said well one way that we found that works very well is to tell the each board that that isn't supplying a member that okay if you can't if nobody volunteers then we're going to make the chairman the the representative yeah so now the Chairman's sitting back well I don't

want to be the difference so now they and maybe not show up in any of the media or not want to you know not not that Cindy wouldn't but right you know if it's not something that she's interested in yeah and it's uh you know it's good responsibility it's uh like I said there's a certain time of year that when we're trying to decipher you know who who should get the money who doesn't

like who doesn't like to give money you can be saying I like to give money too but it was uh again there's a lot of good projects I mean with the bell towers moving the bell towers was one I mean the stuff that comes up it's like you don't even realize we utilize a lot of the funds yeah as well there are many initiatives that that we seek funds from yeah the

city will ask for money Paul ferling with water and sewer will ask for money for a pumping station or to allocate something uh I know the Notre Dame rectory uh they were going to put uh four million dollars uh the folks who owned it into uh restoration renovation and they were seeking like I believe it was like 300 just for the elevator yeah so you know to me it was like listen

he's a young couple they're going to put in you know they're going to go out on a limb for five six million dollars you know three hundred thousand dollars in a small small number to try to at least help them out a little bit so it's a lot of stuff like that awesome thank you just for a point of information thanks sir if the first one oh you did three years

um it's very interesting yeah it's very interesting with someone else's journey is what you're saying that's a nice way of saying No thank you but no no no but I'm saying it's very interesting and I nominate John again so yeah he nominated me last night well we'll keep that in mind so no seriously I you know at that time was I just could not handle us so much going on in my life but I've

been there I've done that it's very interesting sometimes disappointed sometimes very glad to do it and be part of it so to my colleague yes how are you I have a time please do it don't blame me for it all right now with that we have a motion to adjourn a motion to adjourn you have to make the most good adjourn second a second second all in favor hi hi here we go thank you

all very much you all have a great evening