Planning Board - June 2, 2026

I'd like to start the planning board and please join me.

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

So, we're being video recorded in SLI.

Yes.

Okay.

And so, first up

is approval not required. ANR at 1065 Horseneck Road.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.

For the record, my name is Mark Bucher with CAB Engineering Solutions, Inc. I'm in Bedford, Mass, 25 Street. Um, and I'm here this evening to present the approval not required plan for my clients, uh, Joseph and Karen Kishian, who are looking to divide this parcel, 80 foot wide parcel on the norally end of their property as a non-buildable lot. Uh, retaining the remaining land that contains the house

and the out buildings as shown on our plan. Um, None of these parcels have any weapons on them and the lot that contains the existing house uh has sufficient frontage area and up to qualifying or remain qualifying as a buildable lot. Uh parcel B that we show uh is not a buildable lot and it's been labeled accordingly and we would request that the plan board vote to endorse u the plan as an app an

approval not required division

question. Yeah, absolutely.

So, this is just about parcel B.

Yes.

And uh it seems straightforward, but can I just ask why uh you're creating a non-buildable lot?

Um I think the Kians at some point in time intend to convey it to one of the neighbors that's interested.

Convey it to one of the neighbors, the Huntingtons. Ah behind So, um, so the Huntington lot already has frontage, I think, on Redbrook Lane, right?

Uh, no, the Huntington parcel has frontage on Indian Spring Lane.

Indian Spring.

Yeah, Red Brook Lane does not actually touch this parcel.

And so the Huntington's own that 20 foot strip already.

Yes, that was on the previous ANR.

And is Indian Spring Way exist?

It does. Was approved under the subway control.

Okay.

Um, I understand what you're doing, but I don't understand what you're doing. So, or I don't understand why you're doing it.

So, how big is this honey?

Uh,

Michael approximately just under 17 acres.

Okay. And is this is this That's the lot.

Yeah, he's asking you if that's the At this point in time, the paintings actually on this lot as well as this lot.

So, the Huntington's already get their access. That's a driveway you just had the cursor on, right?

Yes. They they get their access on Indian Spring Way.

That's a private private approved subdivision.

Yep.

There's additional lots further down. um frontage on Indian Spring as well and that carries with it um no additional lots can be obtained on Indian Spring.

So they couldn't subdivide the Huntingtons could not subdivide that correct.

So, any more questions?

More motion?

I guess so. It's still on my screen, but I move to endorse ANR plan for 1065 Force Neck Road is presented, finding that it does not require subdivision approval under Matt general Law Chapter 41.

Second.

Any more questions, comments?

All those in favor?

I I

for the 650 total hearing.

So, do you have a short planner report?

Yeah, it's short.

First item on the planner report is an update on the Northern Scenic Greenway, which is the shared use trail that we're designing with Mass Trails or with Mass Trails funding with the South Coast bike railway lines and Serpent. We are working our way through the proposal review process and uh once we have selected a consultant, we'll give you more information on that.

um update on our barrier beach management plan. On June 22nd, we'll be asking the select board for an endorsement of that plan and uh we will also ask them to sign the notice of intent to take to the conservation commission um and get permitting through DP in an order of conditions.

And lastly, our hazard mitigation plan.

We received comments from MIMA and FEMA, so we're working through those. Going to um update the plan accordingly. And then hopefully we'll be able to have an approved plan through some sometime this fall. I had to extend our grant contract because there were delays in the FEMA review process. Um, so that grant contract was extended to October.

So hopefully we've been on top of getting things back to them. I just because of the way federal staffing is right now that they they've had some delays in their process process now. I mean they they've replied to our submittal.

Is it it's not approved until we resubmit? Yes, we have to address their comments and get a clean letter essentially and then they'll stamp, not literally stamp it, but they'll send it back and say this is good. This is an approved hazard mitigation plan.

Would you like to move to the assistant planners report while we're waiting? We have a couple more minutes.

One one thing I'm sure you know the happened to be at the select board meeting and they unanimously voted to endorse or uh to send a letter of support for the master plan.

They did. Yeah.

Thank you for your time.

Okay. So the assistant planners report.

First, I have a construction update from SW Cole Vakori Ridge Estates.

Um, so I'm just going to read off the report. Derek has um started um construction, sorry, inspections for ongoing inspection. So, the roadway has been cut in from Cornell Road through the property to the Hammerhead in front of lot number two. The stone tracking pad is installed. Detention basins one and two have been excavated and rough graded while detention basin 3 has been constructed and graded per the plan.

Some se uh some lom has been installed.

The 12-in HDPE piping from basin 3 to basin 2 is installed and was available for review. Straw waddles were noted for the entire length of the project on the eastern edge of the property. And then Derek outlines the upcoming work which will be completing excavation of basins one and two final grade installing lman seed and the pipe work. So he's included a bunch of photos as well if you'd want to go through them.

We're also working on some edits to the homeowners association document that'll be brought forward to the planning board at the next meeting for your endorsement.

Want to go through that?

Sure.

Put this in the middle.

Or is it just two of them?

No, there's quite a few actually.

So, I don't have the plan up next to me, but here's the gravel roadway. Okay.

Can you orient us, please?

Sure. This is the beginning of um Thomas Corey Lane, and this uh is off of Cornell Road.

Yeah.

Mhm. So, this is the entrance. It's a four lot subdivision.

And like Derek said, work is ongoing.

Usually he captions these photos so it can be a little easier to identify what we're looking at, but we're in pretty close contact with Rich Rich System who's the contractor on site.

Um, so we exchange emails every week. So Derrick say Rich Rich. Mhm.

So Dererick will probably be going out probably next week again.

So, this is the one that was held up in court for a while, right?

Yeah.

Well, if there are no other additional comments, we can move on to the 615 public hearing.

Okay. Next up is the public hearing for 615 for Route 88 solar file number 26-3937 SP-S minor modification after the fact modification to the large scale solar special permit to allow above ground utility poles instead of underground installation.

Mr. Chairman, good evening members of the board. Attorney Todd Broer from Fletcher Tilton here on behalf of the applicant. I think we kind of commonly call it Route 88 Solar, but it's got a more formal name with an LLC. Uh you may recall some of the members I recall from 2018 19 when we actually permed this this project quite some time ago. it's taken this long to get to where we are, but the

project is on the one yard line, so to speak, in terms of the the on-site the on-site work, but that does include Sullivan Drive, which is, I think, the you know, the real reason that we're here. So, we're here for mod modification of the approval plans. Um, you know, this project had had gone through quite an extensive permitting process with with the town special permit site plan also conservation

commission. This has multiple layers to it when you deal with the utilities and the interconnection and the metering and everything else that goes along with the the solar projects. Um and in most of the projects that the client works on they have some flexibility in terms of over underground and above above ground poles. It was a little bit lost frankly on this one as we got down towards the end of Sullivan Drive.

You can as you can see from what's out there today if you've been on site it's underground entire way on Sullivan Drive. It's thousands of feet of of distance. And the applicant made improvements to that to that road, including culvert replacements, which were needed. Uh that was causing some drainage and and and other issues in the area. So, it it looks it looks as it should on the plans. It looks that way

in person until you get up to about the end here where you see three utility poles installed by Verizon. It It says Verizon. It's an Eversource project.

It's probably too much detail to go into, but the polls are Verizon poles and it's an Eversource project. So, it but it's driven by the polls and the location are driven by the utility and their their requirements. What's out there today, you'll see if you've been up there, there are there are three poles along Sullivan Drive on sort of the straight way of it, if you will. When you get

down to the elbow and it turns towards the project site, there are currently six poles along the drive as you get into the facility. Those poles are actually customer poles which will be relocated. So that what you see out there today, those six poles will be relocated. They are sort of tightly packed. There was purposeful, but we can relocate those. do control that and that's something that that is that we

can do. But what's what's proposed instead is four poles down towards what I'm referring to as the elbow, if you will. And they're a little bit lower on that drive. So, they're closer to the the turning area where it's wider and there's more um there's more room to place them there. They don't need to be tightly packed like they are where the six poles are. The four poles will be a

little a little bit more spaced out. And there's two on either side of of Sullivan Drive. So those would replace um you know those would those would be those would essentially replace the six poles, but those six poles do still need to exist. They would be located within the project site. They need you know you need to go pole pole to pole on a on a project like this once you get above

ground. So So what's out there today?

Six poles that a customer pulls and then the three poles along the straightaway.

the three poles. We're proposing that the three poles along the straight of the way would stay. The six poles would move onto the site closer to uh the equipment that's on site that it needs to look into and and instead there would be four utility poles placed by uh Verizon towards the towards the elbow area. So this I hope that's clear, but that's that's the intent of of the amendment.

And, you know, I would I would like to say I I know the the the staff put in their their memo and their their thoughts on this that it's a it's an after the-act modification, and it is. I don't think we can sit here and say that it isn't. Um, but I just wanted to make sure we were we were clear that it wasn't this it wasn't this uh you know malicious thing. it just this the

project moves moved on and in most projects there is some flexibility with the utility when when we're talking about underground or overhead. In this case this was the design that got ended up getting pushed through the Eversource process. And so this is what we have we have today. It wasn't meant to to negatively impact, you know, the neighbors or the area or to, you know, to fly in the face of what's in the

town's bylaw. It it really is driven by the utility. I wish we had a bit of a better answer than that. I know there was some disappointment in the memo as to, you know, not explaining further the rationale. Um and and perhaps if if we were um mechanical engineers or the like, we might be able to explain exactly what the issue is, but I can tell you that it has to do with the

smart program and metering responsibilities and having a having riser poles where where needed. So it's it's we're trying to do the best with what we have there currently. to you know start over so to speak would require a significant process with Eversource probably a 9 12 month delay is what we figure and the project is really ready to come online so you know we'd like to start producing that that

energy that's supposed to be coming out of that field um sooner than later for a variety of different reasons but that's that's that's where we are. So, we're looking for, you know, an amendment to the existing approved plan to provide for locating those poles as stated. So, the four poles in the elbow and the three poles that are along the straightaway.

So, I'm a little confused about how many poles we're talking about. So we got three on the straight straight away on teleah drive which you're you're hoping don't have to be moved and then the elbow you have four correct and those exist or going to they do not they don't exist correct and then you have six on site so you got 13 balls there are six currently there are six currently

in in this area. Those poles need to be moved on on site. They still need to exist.

So, the red arrows are new locations.

I think there were two versions of the plan. I apologize. Maybe that maybe this is the older version of the plan, but the the six the six where it says six utility poles installed by a Greco, those are what we're calling the customer poles. Those show where they are h mostly where they are currently, but they would be moved within the fenced area.

So in the end there'll be six on the fenced area and three on Sullivan or more on the There'll be seven on Sullivan. Four in the elbow, three on the straightaway and then six on the So 13.

Yes.

So our approval I I believe went by our bylaw which said underground. Right.

So we had we had a lot of discussion about polls and and other utility items.

But if you if you go back, you might you might also remember that um we were we were permitting this project prior to modifications to your your bylaw. Right somewhere in the middle of that permitting process, the town town meeting adopted um some new provisions and we had filed a subdivision plan ahead of that to free zoning. We we moved forward on the project under the old bylaw. I

what was old bylaw. So when we when we got to the end of it, there was there was some discussion about how closely we complied with the new one and we didn't in all respects. We and we were granted some waiverss from those items. This result really wasn't intended.

So, you know, that's why this is coming to you late in the in the process.

We intended to do as stated and keep it underground as much as possible. And as you as you know from the the length of Sullivan Drive that it's it's a really long run where it's underground.

Uh vast improvements were were were made in that in that area to the culverts and the like.

So I mean it isn't unusual for solar connections to be underground um especially on public ways.

Uh there's a big stretch coming in with Eversource now from Hicksbridge area towards Dartmouth and I think down horse neck road. Um and in Rhode Island there was a really long underground on Fish Road and Brighton Road. Um it went to a large solar array.

Uh so I I guess the question in my mind is you're saying it people thought there's flexibility in the decision.

Um but there is normally on the projects that the that the company works through usually their plans say you know UG/Oh meaning underground or overhead and it's it sometimes is dependent upon site conditions you find and sometimes it's other other factors partly because these the utility um specifications change with some frequency so you're kind of following the bouncing ball if you will

in terms of trying to comply with those those various programs.

I am a little perplexed, but anybody have any questions?

Uh when when do you want to open the public hearing? Yeah. You want to motion to open up?

Sure.

Yeah. I I uh move uh to open the Route 88 solar public hearing.

Second motion.

All those in favor?

I uh Mr. Mr. Chair, um as you know, we've been supportive of this project and and it's good to see it's on the one yard line. Um uh because it's clean renewable energy.

Um, but what disturbs me a little bit, and congratulations on doing 80% of it underground or whatever it is, 90%.

Um but but what concerns me is when we have a bylaw on either a utility company Verizon which you said install some of the poles or the developer says well doesn't apply to me you know and so we're just going to put them in here in violation of the bylaw. Um, I don't know that it makes a big difference. Although, I couldn't help but see in the TV news of the recent storm, you know, all these

utility lines uh broken in half by falling trees, uh, which you wouldn't want to have happen here. Um the uh other than than that and I'm not sure there are any trees there to fall over the lines. I think it's an issue of precedent. You know that we've got to be concerned with that. Well, it's okay for some people to violate some of the bylaws.

Uh you know that it's close enough. you know, we did an awful lot on the ground, but we can't do all of it. And maybe the practical answer to that is, yeah, go ahead. But I'm worried about then people saying, well, there are exceptions to this bylaw. You've already granted, so we don't have to do stuff on the ground either. That's what concerns me.

And and I don't understand why if you go underground all this way, you can't just finish it underground.

You know, is it a case of uh uh uh rock getting in the way of dredging or you know what's the difference? I don't get that.

the there's a reason why we change the bylaws and that's because we um the utility companies like to do it their way and they like to do what is easiest for them.

And we had a project on a main road that was back in the woods and it was actually a a very good solar project um in that along with land swaps and a whole bunch of things.

There were a great deal of benefits out of out of that and it was not visible at all from traveling up down the main road except when they ran the power hook.

Then all um all of the transformation and metering equipment is hanging on these big poles.

And people were sort of you know, outraged that the whole project was sort of hidden except when you get to the street and then all all of the big ugly stuff is hanging on the poles.

And and to me, it makes a big difference on what's what's going to be on those poles. If you take those other six poles and put them on your site and and all that metering and transformation stuff and is on your site away from view of the road, that's one thing. If it's just being moved from those six poles onto these four poles, then then I think that's not a good solution.

It's it's it's in violation of the Bible.

So it makes a big difference what's on those.

How are you Mike Kushner uh with the Greco, general manager of our USDG uh sort of division. So projects like this all fall under my domain. Um appreciate the time tonight to to discuss this. So also at the time the project was approved um it was a company Infinity Energy of which I was the CEO.

We had since sold the company to a Greco and and all our projects and team sort of was absorbed into a Greco. So a little bit of the history there but um so I I've been involved with this from day one which hopefully gives you some comfort. um speaking from a place of at least having the the background. Um to answer your question directly, the six poles that are so if we think of it like

crystal sites and some of you may know solar, some of you may not. Um essentially we're taking our array and we're trying to connect to the utility, right? So it's two ends of of the same circuit, right? Essentially or what we hope to be the same circuit. the six poles that are existing now that are customerowned or our side of the the Christmas array in my analogy. We are going to move those into the site, they

will have what was always intended to be on them. It's not a matter of moving those onto the four poles from the utility that we're asking for. Um the utility will have some of their equipment um on on poles as well, but most of the heavy equipment I think as you described, metering, reclosers, go absor supplied equipment. So, we'll have that inside the array. Um, specifically on

the four, we can probably clarify that for you. I want to check with my engineers. I know it's lighter than what we would have on ours. Um, so that's that's number one. I think the other point that I would like to uh present here to to the board, right, is the the intent here on the underground and appreciating your comment about, you know, 90% of it being um, you know, per per intended underground. There's one

one aspect here is that when we had the original site plan approval and special use per day, it was all done prior as is common right throughout the Commonwealth quite frankly these types of projects prior to the timeline in which the utility defines and finishes their design. So we're taking best known practices of what they will do and what we typically will design and then from

an electrical feasibility perspective and sort of presenting that at the time of site plan. The reason that we do that and the reason it happens like that often and and you may have heard Todd mention the beginning of 2018, 2019, 2020, um it wasn't a matter of us as Infinity or now of Greco delaying the project or capital constraints or anything like that. The project got bumped into what's called a cluster

study. And so anyone who lives in the Commonwealth understands that there's been a proliferation of solar projects over the last decade in in the Commonwealth, right? And so what happens is the more that they become centralized in certain areas back to a specific substation, all of those need to be studied together. So even though there may not be a bunch of projects within a certain radius of this exact project,

they're all heading back to a certain substation. And when you get to a certain level of saturation, utility studies act in what's called a group study or a cluster study. That took four or five that we were just at the mercy of waiting for that approval. So when that comes through that study a lot of what we have now on on the utility side coming to our side again in that analogy

I was using the crystal slides it becomes revealed at that time. So just a little bit of the the linearness or lack of linearness in the process um I think contributed here a little bit. I think the other part is um as Todd mentioned often we we'll have UGH on the drawings because of that timeline and it being a little bit disjointed right from the utility approvals versus what we're

getting uh municipality approvals. Um so I'll pause there and see if there's any additional questions spoke for a little bit longer than I thought.

So I I am fully aware of all the difficulties of getting interconnection um because we've done quite a few of these things and some of them have been way delayed and some of them have not.

Um is now putting in some structure on the east side of Westport going into Dartmouth to handle what's already been approved and not installed. So I understand all that and I understand the state the new state law takes some of the our ability to detail what you can do from us right but that wasn't the case here and I think um even though the state delayed you I I don't understand how that changes is

what you agreed to do.

Understood. I think I think the other point and I appreciate that. The other point I would I would add uh if you look here, anyone who's been out to Sullivan Drive heading into the the site, as Todd mentioned, we have a couple of pretty significant covers that we put in. One further down on the straightaway and then one effectively here that's it's comparable to Bridgework, right? Like

bridge work. um not being an engineer or in the project management side at the utility I can only surmise that part of the discussion when this came out again on the utility side we've already acknowledged and completely agreed you know the customer own polls which we have autonomy over within the utility developer relationship we'll move these inside the array as intended that was you know no no issue really they

shouldn't have gone there it was just they closer to where the utility was coming up uh but we can we'll move those in there. I can only surmise that the reason they may have designed here overhead not being involved in there is that this crossing in this environmentally sensitive area where we have a lot of this ecological sensitive area where we have to put in the covert and the bridge to make sure the water

and everything is staying is is probably contributing to that design if I had to guess. Uh but again, I'm not on the design side for the utility. So I hesitate to say that with with you know all definitiveness.

The biggest culvert on the run I on the solid drive run I think is is is actually right in right in here. It's it's appears to be fairly dry today, but I think we know we're in a we're in sort of drought conditions, not not having had a lot of rain.

I I think that was a contributing factor.

What's what's on the Verizon poles? Is it just cabling?

It's it's cabling here. Um and then they may have a meter but it won't have air brakes and recloses that exist just cabling.

Just cing cabling.

Yeah. These three that are existing currently. So this however many feet run underground essentially riser pole and then just cabling to get I guess I'm still confused. Um you you give the project I mean so we didn't ask you to do it.

You came to ask us if you could do it, right?

The project in entirety.

Yeah.

Correct.

Right. So, and at the same time, you're asking Verizon, not Verizon, but Eversource.

Mhm.

To connect, correct?

And you wait and you wait and you wait and wait.

But how does it get dropped that these poles are not supposed to be there? So if we were to go back in time as soon as this comes out of that study years later so I forget the exact date the approval 2019 2019 and so 2023 or 2024 when the utility approval came through that study at that point essentially what should just happen is okay they're they're designing this with these holes we

should come for this exact conversation at that point that's how we would have done it in hindsight part of that is again company sold couple different development managers marking. No excuse, just sort of what happened.

So, these three polls are going to be visible from 88 and Sullivan Drive, right?

Um perhaps in the in the winter they may be, right? I think in the summer I don't think there's really very much chance anyone's going to see a perverted hit.

And again, so on the elbow, you're saying there's going to be four additional poles there, correct? So, so this third pole that's currently installed to here and then right. And so you have both sides of them. They come back to R six poles. And the reason that there's four there is so they're going to be on both sides of the road.

They they are um and it's PV and then it's a battery project as you guys know, right? So there's a battery as well. So the smart project requirement or program requirement, sorry, is that you have um you know sort of the connection is running in parallel. Can you bring up the photos?

The new map?

No, the ones.

Oh, sure.

So, what's on the four holes that are going to be relocated on the elbow that are not yet installed? That's I I'll confirm that for you guys. I'll confirm with our engineers, but it should be cabling and meters. That's it.

There shouldn't be any air brakes or reclosers or large equipment. Are those six poles your poles?

Correct. Those are the ones once they get moved.

Correct. We're going to deconstruct and move those back in.

And then and then towards us as we're looking at this photo would be where the four correct Verizon pools.

That's right.

Yeah, that's the request. Correct, sir.

So all the ones outside of your property will be owned by Verizon or half by Verizon and half by Eversource.

Verizon installed, Eversource owned. So they'll both probably have rights to maintain whatever they need to. But yes, none of them will be customerowned. We won't have any maintenance obligation or ownership rights to those.

So if there's no houses up there, why is Verizon involved?

It's a great question. I mean, we have telecom, right, in in some of the cabling you see sometimes is fiber or cell service just for the the array itself reports cellularly, uh, weather conditions and, you know, energy reporting, things like that. Um, I have to go back and check with our engineers why these are horizon versus ever source, but often that's the case. So I I guess the my other question and then

I'll let other people speak, but is who dropped the ball? Is it is it you or the utility or the utility dropped the ball and you didn't catch it or what?

It's a great question. I I'd say no matter what, I'm the one standing here.

So to me, my team, us as the developer, um I think what it is is that four or five years of study, they come out with their interconnection design. um you know how much they look at the site plan that's provided that's approved I can't speak to because I'm just not in that room. So, so the other question, um, I'm sorry I lied.

Give up this the speaker thing, but so the reason that you're here, uh, is you don't want to have the time delay or you don't want to spend the money or is it both?

Time more than anything. Essentially, you're going to wind up and we would wind up with a phantom project for as long as the utility takes, right? So, we know the last time that we went through this design for us, it took four or five years. Um, and I don't think that's beneficial. Certainly not beneficial to us. Obviously, that's the place I'm speaking from. Uh, but from the from the

municipality perspective, I don't think it's beneficial in the sense that it it would delay the pilot payments that we make. As soon as we turn this on, we start to to make our pilot payments um on an annual basis.

Okay. Anybody else on the board?

planners and then I'll open it up to the public.

Sure. So I I have a review a staff review to share.

Um as we know this is a requesting a modification to special permit for solar.

Um I'll just read a little bit about the background. So please don't read the whole thing.

No, I'll read the background and then it's it's really quick actually. It's just a couple bullets. So the first approval was um in 2019 where at the time it was stated that the um utilities would be installed underground. Um and then site plan rules and regulations and zoning bylaws also called for underground utilities. Um this past winter in 2026, the utilities were installed above ground. Um and in

January 20 January 2026, the better at map 29 lot 22A also reported concerns to the planning department regarding um access due to the customer utility poles. So when looking at site plan rules and regulations um the proposed modification does not indicate screening for the proposed utility poles and looking at detailed performance standards for other utilities. The project is identified as a large-scale

solar energy system, a development requiring underground utilities to the extent feasible. Um, and these utilities were required as approved by the planning board special permit for solar.

Um, when it comes to the town of Westport zoning bylaws, um, the narrative submitted with this modification details the ongoing approval process, but does not address how site conditions necessitated the overhead utilities. Um, rationale was not provided. Um when it comes to the wetlands, the conservation has no concerns regarding the wetlands protection act. Um and then yeah, just

to just to review, the applicant did not provide evidence to show that the site conditions required it. So staff finds that the modification as presented does not screen utilities and does not make reasonable effort to place all utilities underground.

Okay. I I think uh they haven't claimed that it's the physical aspect.

So, of the property. Um, anything more?

Chris was okay with it, but yeah.

Um, thanks for the the presentation. Um, I think that, you know, I I doubt anyone here wants to delay a worthwhile project four years while you redo a mistake. Um, so there's a couple of choices, I guess. One is, uh, you're before us asking for forgiveness. Uh, hey, we screwed up. Forgive us.

uh we meaning including Verizon um in which case I can see in the future everybody coming up saying you did it for them do it for me why do I have to bury it and uh the other option is mitigation all right go ahead and do this but you made a mistake and so you should do something in addition that benefits the people of Westport u and So that that way there's a little bit of a

penalty for as our chairman said drop the ball and uh then when the next person comes and said you did it yet. Yeah. Well, they paid a penalty. This is what else they had to do because they did that. So um so um you know that could be it's I drive by look at it because I love solar. I got solar on my house. I I just love it. And um uh

uh I look at the screening uh which is I don't know this tall and the solar panels. So you see right over the screening to so the screening doesn't really uh accomplish its purpose. Uh, but I wonder if uh there are other ideas you might have about public benefit if we let you go ahead and forgive you on the forgiveness model as opposed to go back and do it correctly model.

Sure.

Cuz I don't think I mean speaking for myself I don't want to see this delayed four years.

I appreciate that. Um it's not often also that we walk in where people say that they like 50 coin. So it's uh positive. Um not to underline. I don't know that I can I'll stop my but understand the the process.

So based upon that comment, do we want to continue to have them give them time to think about Yeah. I we we want to have you or Bob ask or say something and then we'll open it up to the audience and then I understand the situation coming from your line of work. Um is there any possibility of maybe uh drafting a technical memo or something to attach to the package to explain the

situation as well. So we have it also in public writing so if someone ever does come back we have documented evidence. I come from an industry where if it's not written down doesn't exist never happened. So I that's where kind of where I'm leaning from for my technical expertise is if we can get like a a summary of event timeline and where we kind of went ary on the public record. I

think that would be beneficial for the town to have as well. So if someone does come back or we have an issue like this in the past, we have a little bit more uh background on that when we could possibly look at that. So that would be one of my requests out of this.

That's all I have.

Okay. Can I ask a question on that?

We'll obviously uh company letter head site use attorney letterhead, engineering letterhead preference.

Just uh company letterhead with uh Yeah, that'd be fine.

Understood.

Yeah.

Okay. Uh this is a public hearing. So if there's anybody here that would like to ask a question or uh say something, please come up to the audience. and come up or you want us to do it separately.

You can come up together. Just have to identify both of them.

Hi there. My name is George Dean. I'm on the property from that old elbow to the site itself along with me along with my brother Alan. Can we go back to the other site where they're showing the polls and you got their names?

Okay, go ahead.

Okay. So, we own right to 88 through here all the way up to their property and to the south.

Yes. From their south. It's 2 and 12 acre parcel that we own right here.

Okay.

And it's a buildable house lot. It's already been burnt.

And we were never notified about any of these poles. So there is six poles here, but you're you're thinking you're forgetting about all the guy wires that are holding it. We have no egress right now to our property with what's there existing and these holes.

How do you get just how do you get to your property right now?

Right here. This is this, you know what I mean?

This is the highland. This is the higher piece of property where it's cleared.

You can go down. This here is all the wetlands against 88 to the swale. Yeah.

So their their poles are literally two to three feet from our property line and they cut trees and they cut above the tree above the poles to clearance. So there's all switch gear here. So this these will also be on our property line and there's no means I don't know of any means for us to get power to our property. I mean, they've done a great job on the road and there's no bridge

here. There is no nothing going through here. This is all existing the way it was for teen years. I mean, I have no idea how long.

So, it's a it's a vacant lot.

It's a vacant wood lot, which has been perked. It is a house lot.

It perked.

It has. You have record of it.

And you have frontage and 150 ft of frontage and area.

Yep. See, originally what happened was the town uh our family went to court against the town and the judge sided with our parents stating that it does meet the criteria to be a a lot.

So I mean how how many square feet do you have?

It's 2 and a half acres. 2 point I think it's 2.4 and you got over 30,000 square feet of what was the problem?

What do you mean? You didn't have furniture on Sullivan because this was an easement.

Oh, it was an easement. Okay.

Back in the day.

So, where does Sullivan Drive stop? Do we know?

I think it stops right here now. As far as I'm I don't know that.

I don't I don't know that it does.

But I I mean, either way, there's no there's no means on to our property right now.

No, I understand that. Okay. I'm not I'm not disputing that. If you look if you look on the on the other ones proposed Sullivan Drive goes up to Pedro's farm way back here in his fields.

Right.

That's the old road.

Old Sullivan Drive.

Correct. The old Sullivan.

This these poles are after Sullivan Drive.

Right. So Sullivan Drive ends there basically.

Yeah. Right about here.

Yeah. So this is what an easement from from Pedro.

Pedro. Pedro being not Pedro the farmer. Pedro from Well, it was it was before they even owned it.

Pedro being the company, right? Well, no, it' be who owned the property for the vineyard, right?

The winery, right?

But this was done previous to them owning it.

So, I don't know when that was back back in the se, you know, 70s or 80s.

So, are you saying you won't have access from Sullivan Drive? How how can you sell a piece of property that you can't get to if there's going to be stay wires and poles in front of it? I'm just saying.

Yeah. I don't know what the They're talking about moving those poles. I don't know what the right They're moving those onto their property, but there's still going to be four here that we're going to have to deal with. There's going to be overhead wires.

I'm I'm assuming from here to there. And I'm wondering if is is it going to be a safety issue if someone does want to buy it to put a house up on the side of a solar field and with all the power lines coming out. And they also put all the blockading on the south solar farm for visibility. They did nothing for our piece of property for visibility to the

solar farm. And I was just wondering if there's any plan for the the uh the retention pond and stuff there against our property line for maintenance or anything like that.

So the the requirement for the screening was done at the public hearings we had six or seven years ago.

Mhm.

Did you guys come to that?

No, we were aware of it. We were notified.

You should have been notified.

Well, we didn't get we didn't get any mailings.

This may confuse the people at the microphone, but I'd be interested in understanding why in this section above the corner there have to be poles on both sides of the street.

You just have poles on one side of the street for straight lines, right? It comes around the corner and then there are poles on both sides straight. Why is that? Use the Yeah, you for sure. Sorry. Back.

No, no, sorry.

Been sitting on a train like that. So, it's okay.

Again, I'll confirm, but I'm I'm It's parallel battery plus solar. So, that's that's likely why.

So, they can't do that on poles on one side of the street as it's designed. No, but I'll let me find out why. I'll speak to the engineers and just confirm the electrical engineers around that question though. Um, since you have poles on both sides of the street and you only have poles on one side, what happens to the lines that are going on the other side of the street

there? That would be a question I have cuz right now you have you have poles on one side of the street further down, but you have poles in parallel sides of the street going through that corner. What happens to the line on the other side of the street?

So they're saying there there have to be parallel lines based upon the battery versus the solar. But at the same point there's one here.

There's only one set there as it comes up the riser and then the cabling comes and then that would be my question is understanding your two your your two by your two by twos across all you shop the one. I will I will say uh having been out there last week or two weeks ago um and not not certain with the flutter and land owner here uh in terms of how much

egress they're they're thinking about or considering when we move these six poles. There's quite a bit of room here I think for drive access.

I'm not sure if they picked up on that.

So the six poles that are there right now are all everything else is coming down to there's still got to be four poles with stise.

Excuse me through the chair.

I'm sorry.

You can ask me the question.

I just there's there is four poles but there's going to be staywise on our property to hold those polls. Is it I I don't know that.

Right.

I don't know that.

Well, there is now. business.

The other thing that interested me is you said you you can't get electricity here.

Well, I don't know that when I I spoke to Eversource and nobody can tell me how I get power to my piece of property from what they did here bringing the solar down.

Well, there's I was never spoken to from Eversource.

Yeah. Okay. But I think you need to ask the question because um Eversource is a public utility and they have lines going down at least to the end of Sullivan.

Correct.

I don't know about on the Eastman, right?

That other line is their line basically.

Well, it's not that and so I don't know if it's connectable.

Exactly. That's that's another one of my questions.

But you need to find out. Exactly.

And we we have no success in talking with Eversource ourselves. So you've got to talk to them.

And when I spoke to the repres representatives, Joe, he couldn't give me any information whatsoever on what was happening. when you know I mean if you because it is a buildable house lot whether we build on it or we sell it and and build on it it's still going to be able to be proposed electricity uh whatever else Verizon for you know telecommunication or whatever and so I I hate to keep on dwelling on

your your problem here but with the change in ownership I assume there was some change in ownership did the easement survive that Yes.

You sure?

Yep.

Mr. Chair, I I think uh I'm trying to keep a mental list here, but assuming uh that we're going to continue this uh to get some suggestions from you on mitigation and we've heard about screening towards Route 88. We've heard about screening or other things that don't take away from these gentlemen's ability to market their property.

And then the question that I don't think you can answer right now, which is why do you need poles on one side of the road for 90% of the way and then you need poles on two sides of the road?

Because if you what you're going to move six of them, so that kind of solves that problem. But the four that Verizon ones, you know, why can't that be two? If if they're on the inside of the road, uh, all the way up there, why do they have to go to the outside of the road once you get to the corner?

So, we're talking about those two. general question, but these two specifically.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, and also the ones closer to your property that those are the ones that are going to affect their ability to get into their lot.

These won't be there.

They won't be long.

They're going to be in summer.

Yeah. So, they after we had we had I think maybe Joe um who is our project manager um had had become aware of the concern with access for I think I'm sorry.

Yeah. So, we had we had said we'll move those poles inside that. That's reasonable obviously.

Okay. So I I think the Jared Jared read a uh an interesting point. I think I think we need information from you on what what is going to be on the four holes that you're asking for.

Um that is the the equipment that's hanging on there. And then whatever um I I don't know which which set of poles has the bar, which has the controls or the battery or anything, but but what's how does the whatever's hanging on the poles on the south side, how does it get to the north side?

This is I'll confirm. Is that overhead or does it drop down and go how what how does whatever is running on the south side does does that go over? So I think what's on those poles and how does how does it get transferred from the the south side of the roadway to the north side the south side wires to the north side and then um what's is all the metering and the heavy

transformation you know all all of that those kinds of things that are hanging on the poles is Is that all going to move into your property?

All of our heavy power condition equipment on our poles will be inside on our poles, right? But I'll get confirmation for you on these two.

So then with with those poles and their guys and everything go away. They now have physical I don't I don't know what their legal access is, but they would then have physical access to get in in the high dry pot of their land.

So, how far into your land were these poles, these six poles go?

Sure. Can we go to the aerial that you had of the the existing?

Yeah, if you could zoom in a little bit for me, please.

Sure.

Thank you. Uh, so currently we're we're approximately here, right? 33 something like this over here.

We're going to be in this area, right?

to to be finalized in terms of whether we're going to split these or just keep six here. Uh mostly just because the gate for maintenance of the site coming in here, we just want to make sure we don't restrict long equipment.

So is is there any reason that you're going to be moving all that equipment off of the poles and relocating the poles?

Mhm.

Why can't you put this equipment on the ground?

It's for right there. power. It's just different equipment. So, it's padmounted equipment versus polemounted, which is a different and and you're you're talking about a couple things, right? So, one, I don't know, we'd probably have to come back with concrete pads, structural design, conservation commission for impervious conditions. So, there's there's that process that I'm sure we'd have to go

through. And then I think secondarily, the equipment that is out there that can go on the poles within our customer, which was I think initially intended pole mounted anyway, within the array.

If I think back to the original site, our customer poles were always polemounted inside of here. So these six, the the error was here versus inside the fence. I don't think that's really a deviation from plan. It's just a deviation locationally. Uh but the equipment itself that's here that we would transition to pad mounted comes with different equipment, different spec. We'd have to go back to utility

because we're changing that. Even though I understand the question is if I have a recloser or an air bra and I'm going to put it on a pole versus a pad, why would ever source need to get it bomb again?

It's just the process that would and we'd have to go back through that that entire and we'd be deviating from the interconvention rule.

I'm just thinking of what John was talking about mitigation.

Mhm.

Cuz a bunch of polls all together with a bunch of junk on top of it, it's pretty ugly.

Understood. I think I will answer or get the answer on can these two be on the north side. What is on these four currently? Two south, two north. So that's one key question. I think that the six that we're moving back into our array with polemounted equipment was always the intent and what was approved originally in 2019. So my my request would be not to start to redesign that and look for a complete deviation

respectfully. Uh that's how far up there can you can you put it?

We we spoke to Eversource two or three weeks ago uh when when I had made the decision to tell the team to move this back inside and I think um from recollection we had 150 ft that we can move from their their hall to our farm as far away from correct we will we will extend it to the far as far to the west as you can do it.

Sure.

And then the poles that are going to be there the four or two that are going to be on the corner the utility one. Right.

Right.

Yeah, I think if you put them close together, they're ugly too.

If if you can spread them out somehow.

Mhm.

So that it isn't We're used to seeing poles every so often.

Understood.

It really looks weird when you have four of them right next to each other.

Understand? I I also besides North and South two and two, I think that when they came out and installed and st their poles, these were existing on the customer side. So we have some additional real estate perhaps that might make this more feasible. So I can have that conversation. So I if you need four poles because it's not so much the wire as it is what you the equipment you're hanging on the poles and once you

move the six onto your property as you say you got more real estate. I I think there's a big difference for your neighbors whether those poles are in the north side of the road or the south side of the road. And so if you need four poles, not so much for the wire as for what else you're hanging on them, you can spread them out now that you moving the six of yours into the

site. And uh I think that does a lot in terms of mitigating impact on uh your neighbors here. And I think the other thing to think about is screening both uh as I said the the screening fence it's there and all but it just doesn't seem to be high enough when you're driving on on uh 88 and the screening there isn't any there isn't any of between the site that's what you're saying right correct

where the solar panels are and their property. Yeah. that that you need to think about. Put yourself in their shoes. They've got a piece of lot land there that if they can get electricity and it works and everything they can sell, but uh who's going to buy it? What are they looking at?

Sure.

And how do you improve what they're looking at under mitigation?

All this the equipment that I see on the ground there that looks white. It's all the battery packs and battery inverters.

Mhm.

Is that how many?

A single battery and a single central inverter. Then you have a transformer and some other equipment. Weather weather weather data make noise.

Does it?

No, I think Yeah, I think from it's not on, right? So, but I from my collection I think it doesn't make noise cuz it's not on.

It's not making any noise right now. Um, I'd have to go back and look, but I think we had at the original approval, I think we had gone through decimal level, you know, sort of testing and things like or we at least presented that as as what these will emanate versus what the ordinances were.

So, that's important because visual screening doesn't take any mass. All it takes is a, you know, something. Uh, but sound screening takes mass. And so if you're going to screen the sound from the abuter, it's what do you build the quote fence out of? You know, instead of a thin fabric which won't stop sound that for that segment next to the uh uh batteries, etc. Understood. Yeah,

from recollection, we were underneath the decibel requirements. Um and I think we were even comparative to the Route 88 noise, but I'll we'll take a look at it.

Yeah, the root 88 noise I think will will flood out anything that's okay. So, yeah, but this is constant. So, it's different.

So, uh this is a public hearing. So, I'd like you.

I'm just wondering if it would be possible to get something in writing from these guys stating that, you know, if I was to have my son build there that it's going to be totally healthy for him to live on the side of a solar field with the lines going across the front of the property. I I'm just Yeah. You know, I'd like to know from my own sake. I don't want to sell a piece of property

to somebody that's if we go that route or if my son or his sons or you know I' I'd like to have something in writing stating that this is safe and I'm I'm sure they have access to that kind of information so that they should be able to provide it to us and we'll share it with you. So if we continue this hearing and we want your advice on how long uh then I could see several

conversations happening. We have a hard time talking to Eversource. These guys have them on speed dial and uh you may have a hard time with Eversource but they don't. And so if they are talking to you about um what do we do so that there's no adverse impact on your property that might include answering your question about whether you can get service from every source to your property, right?

They might be able to find out the answer for that whereas you and us might not be able to. and also screening issues and and the issue of the polls.

And then it, you know, as Jared said, in terms of getting some of this on the record and written down, that kind of agreement could be something that you say to them, trust but verify. Can you write down what you're going to do in terms of moving the balls or screening or whatever else uh you talk about? And I'm I'm sure they'd be willing to do that.

I I was I was in contact with Joe before they even put the poles in.

They weren't even there. And this all came about and nobody ever got back to us at all.

That was the problem.

And then as they're going, they're still going forward with dressing up those six poles. So I know they're going to move them now, but they're still they would they just dressed those things all out.

They were there was nothing hanging on them before.

Yeah. You know what I mean?

They're still going forward with the six poles. They just put the wire on them.

They just put the switches up there recently.

So, okay. So, the six poles are going to come inside. There's still going to be four. There's still going to be guy wires at some point because you can't go across the road without a guy wire going the same direction to hold that pole vertical.

Gotcha.

You know what I mean? So the the the guy wires are going to end up on our property if they do if they do the north and the south and you know we have to see if there's means for getting us power cuz what I what I seen what they buried in the ground they only brought down a couple of conduits where those vaults probably handled 10 or 12 right they probably didn't put vaults at

your place no the vaults are coming down the road and then those above ground above ground they you could get it from above ground the question is is it what what is the nature of that electricity that goes on those poles is it the right stuff I don't know so we'll try to have them find out for us okay so again this is a public hearing anybody else would like to comment question

Mr. Chairman I do have a question for the applicant is um getting an answer to Mr. Dean's question about how they could receive electrical service something you would be amendable to do because you had posed that but they didn't have a chance to respond.

So so you may have seen Todd and I sidebar and all that was happening. So certainly not against doing it. It's different departments within Eversource.

So it's not exactly so the folks that we have on speed dial are much more medium voltage and you know so we we will we will make the attempt to to shepherd through uh obviously they've had some issues with getting through the utility so we'll make an attempt to try to benefit us both for getting information.

So question, how do you power your regular stuff? You must have regular service at your place.

That that's part of what's being brought up, right? So So let's just hypothetically say that let's say there was existing or let's just say that the array went all the way towards bricks.

Actually, we would be tying into existing circuit 132 KV lines that are there already. So it is, you know, it's it's your I mean, are you going to have a field office there or something that uses electricity?

No, we're we're sending electricity back, right? So, we have some things that have some parasitic load, but it's not necessarily the same in way that you may see further down uh Sullivan Drive where there's overhead service to some of the residents, is there? Uh not necessarily. So, the one thing and I can't speak for Eversource, right? Um and I'm I should have said at the beginning, I'm not an engineer. I'm on

the the commercial side in the organization. So, if we get too technical, uh, you'll understand why I have a an army of engineers who are much brighter than I. Um, the poles potentially could be utilized, right?

Just from practicality for them to bring a residential service to that lot as well, right? they would they would likely not put additional polls if they deemed you know down the line if they had a request for service for residents and they deemed that the polls were there they may come underground then rise or pole and then run overhead service like you see on some of the others so that may be the case I can't

say definitively but um it may be beneficial the electricity once it leaves your site from the solar Mhm.

is that compatible with residential use or is it higher water higher It's it's higher.

Yeah, it's higher. That's right.

I'm not an engineer.

Nor am I.

Okay. So, I I think if there's a consensus to continue this, how much time do you need? Sure.

It's a good question. I I I see that your your next meeting may be June 16.

I'm curious what your next meeting after that might be.

June 30th.

June 30th. June 30th.

I think that's probably more reasonable so we can get some substance behind the answers.

Mr. Chair, you want to uh I move that we continue the public hearing um on um Route 88 Solar until uh June 30th. You want it time to 6 p.m.

6:00 p.m. or 6:15 or 6:15 6:15 p.m.

June 30th.

Second.

All those in favor?

I thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, next up is the

next up is the Gnome Surf Inc.

public hearing scheduled for 6:30.

File number 26-3662 spa-l.

The applicant proposes proposes to construct a surf therapy camp for children and young adults, including an education center, a twostory office, and instructional building, outdoor program space, and five camp site style cottages with a shared bathroom facility.

Mr. Chair, do you mind opening the public hearing first before the presentation? Does it matter whether it's before the pres?

All right. I move that we open the gnome serve public hearing.

Second.

All those in favor?

I.

Good evening to the board. Attorney Mong on behalf of the applicant uh known as SURF. Before we get started, um I'm also joining with Christian Farland with Farland Corp, who's the engineer um and consultant working in tandem with me um on this project. We had a brief traffic study done um and literally got it 2 hours ago. So, uh we made copies for everybody, but we're not able to send it

to Mike ahead of time. So, if you're okay with it, we'll just pass it out brief. It's only three pages. just kind of highlights um some of the car estimated car count um ahead of you know the public comment and comments that we got from you know the board ahead of time

and we do have some extras if anybody

So, this is the first time that we're before the planning board with this one.

We were before conservation um last month to discuss the impacts um on the conservation area. Uh Dia, do you mind going down to the full site plan?

If you're familiar with the property, um to the north side here is Cumberland Farms. To the south is uh Venton Courts and then further south is the um West Old Westport Family Medicine which is now Primacare. Um Primacare is the owner of the property um and the seller here.

Just to kind of get you acquainted with where we are and access here from Main Road is proposed and shown as such. A little bit of an overview about Gnome Surf. If you're not familiar with their organization, um they teach neurode divergent people how to surf um and use surf surf therapy um as a tool to work with these different persons of different ages, most notably children specifically. Um and the premise here is

to create a space for uh children and families to go. Um it's kind of their home base. So that's the premise with the main building here would serve as a executive offices, administrative, but also serve as a little bit of a surf shop. Um there'll be bathrooms in there for the students coming off of the beach to be able to shower and clean up. And then um a part of this is also these out

buildings here that will be used um as sort of like campsites. um their structures designed so that some of these students and their families can get out into nature and experience something that they otherwise would likely not have access to. Um you know, they are typically living in the inner cities and things like that. And so this provides an opportunity to really put them out into nature and and get them um

an experience, a unique experience that they wouldn't get otherwise. Um they used to be located next to uh the Barn restaurant down in Adamsville. That's where they've been um and established and we're actually here with two members of them. Chris is uh worked a long time in building this and this is definitely a dream and a a long-term project here for them and it's a special one. Um I'm

happy to be a part of it and excited to see, you know, what we can do here. It's been a long time looking. We've looked at multiple other properties and finally we're able to negotiate a deal and it's probably been 6 or 8 months before we've even, you know, gotten before the board.

I know I came and saw the Michael earlier. I talked with Ralph and this has been a conversation for a long time.

So eager to hear what the board has to say. Um, a little bit more about the project. As I mentioned, access from main road into a parking lot, all gravel.

um parking for the main building, handicap accessible, all ADA. Um we'll be able to go around the entire building and then have access to the back. Um do you do you mind just pulling up the illustration of the building purely an illustration at this point? Um but just something to kind of show you the thought process. Um really going for the barnaminium is the terminology that's been used. Um, much

like the pole barns that we see throughout Westport, it's a poll structure. Um, you know, there's no definitives here. We're not definitely going with this exact plan, but this is just something to kind of show the board an illustration of what the thought process is. Um, and give an idea where the base layer or first floor is general public and, you know, accessible to all.

And the second floor would serve primarily as an office space to be utilized by the team at Gnome um to conduct their operation. And then this kind of shows a little bit of the cottage idea with these outuildings, just some of the theme. And it it's a fun place for children to be able to um experience nature and and those sorts of things. Lastly, something I want to mention that's not shown on the plan,

but we talked about spoke with D about this earlier. There is um a dome that is being proposed as well that we don't show on the plan currently um but will on a future iteration. So, we're not looking for approval tonight.

There's we're this is early stages. We really want to get feedback from a Butters and feedback from the board um so that we can kind of sharpen the pencil and come back with something that checks all the boxes and you know hopefully be able to look for approval then um in a subsequent meeting from today.

Okay, thank you. Um so I am familiar with how um we've used their services to uh have grandchildren of friends of ours learn how to surf over at horse 19 and I'm also familiar with one of the people that work for dome. So, um I I think it's a it's a great concept. Um my my only issue is where it's located. Um, traffic wise, Cumbland Farms being an extremely attractive distance to to little kids.

Um, and all the traffic going in and out of the gas stations and stuff like that.

But, uh, beyond that, I think it's a great concept. I just wish it weren't right behind.

Understandable. And you know, as I mentioned, we have kind of searched high and low. There's not a lot of vacant land in Westport that meets the zoning requirements necessary to do this. Um, we are limited to business districts because of the fact that, you know, what they're intending on operating.

You're not educational.

It's arguable depending on how you classify it. Um, I would make the argument fair. Again, still property-wise there is limitations, you know, with especially with what's been for sale in the last couple years while we've been hunting um for a property. Um, so, you know, we settled on this and again, part of the other factor that goes into that is it is a cost analysis. you know making making this work financially um

is important and right now the numbers work per se is there any flexibility on the entrance you enter through climate so we've discussed that we discussed that that's been a major concern that I've heard from some of the waters that I've talked with conservation mentioned that people had those concerns um conservation did discuss obviously that would want us to avoid a weapons crossing if possible. Um, do you mind

going back to the major full scale?

So there, if we were to access from Primacare, it would probably have to be here because anything in this over here were beyond Primacare's building. I think Primacare is located somewhere here. Um, and this would be too large of a wetlands impact. we'd be beyond the 5,000 square feet and it would be pretty major. Um, so if we were to access it would have to be through here.

It's it would be difficult. Um, and I think it would put an impact on Primacare and the flow of their traffic.

You know, this is a pre-existing lot.

the plan exists from 1999 and was endorsed as a form A and actually even notates that it had the requisite front end at that time and etc. Um, bless you.

I do think that the concern of you know being an attractive nuisance with Cumberland Farms could be mitigated by some fencing. Um, and obviously, you know, when there are people on on site, no one works with these students day in and day out and are very familiar with, you know, the likelihood that they're going to want to try to go somewhere, but are going to do a good job at mitigating

that concern. Um, furthermore, if you look at the car count, I think we're seeing 15 in the morning and 15 in the afternoon on an average at peak. And again, this is only a part part of the year. Obviously during the winter months there's not this is this is traffic into your site.

Yes.

And how about crisscross on main road? I don't we don't have a traffic study on main road.

I mean I'm sure that abundance of them have been done. I mean we the question around the traffic study the does that traffic study include the additional or is that modeled off of the existing traffic out of your Adamsville road location? This was this study was based and Christian, you can probably speak to this more than I can, but this was modeled off of this specific project at this plant.

What is the expected uptick with regards to additional vehicles like uh uh van storage, things of that nature, like you're running your your your operations, right? So, you're going to have some additional more it's more than just people coming and going and dropping off and picking up. It's also your gear and your and your stuff. How is that all equated into that traffic study factor employees and you know the like

there was a conversation between the engineers that did this traffic study and known so that they could better understand how their business operates.

Um do you guys intend on buying more vans? Is that No, I mean do would you guys prefer that he come up or is it okay?

Yeah, why don't you come up and just answer that question.

just introduce yourself.

Um, my name is Chris Anteo. I'm the founder uh of Gnome Surf. Um, touch on a few things.

We don't intend on buying many more vans. Uh, we just we have our fac uh our trailer at Horseneck Beach that has a lot of our equipment.

The only time that vans are truly leaving um our facility currently is uh during the winter maybe when they go to schools. Uh we do inschool services uh for uh kids who have autism and down syndrome where we do landbased uh surf fitness and social emotional wellness.

And that's the other reason why we have these you know four or five cottages back there is because our families start to isolate themselves and that affects their mental health. and we're just trying to create a safe space where they can come together uh and actually be with like people where they don't feel uh left out and can actually focus in on their their mental health and social emotional

wellbeing. So to be brief, no, we we don't have that much traffic at all. We have four full-time uh employees. Maybe we'll add another one. Uh we don't have that much traffic coming to our facility. Um, but over in Adamsville, we're we're in a colonial house and we're like in one room. We we cannot get any work done.

So, this is why we need to build this facility. The cottages is like a phase two thing, like a dream. Uh to be able to provide this space for families to um be able to congregate together and and you know build those relationships that they need, those support networks and not be forgotten like they are everywhere else.

John.

Um I think uh I I think what you do, Chris, is amazing work and I'm so glad you you do it and I'm glad you're growing and finding more ways to provide the services you do because they're uh important. Um I think uh in and I think you're creating a uh a you know Cumberland Farms is not a controlled environment. People come in whenever they come in. You have a more controlled environment where people are

coming in at a certain time and leaving at a certain time and that's something you control. So, um, you know, whether it's having, you know, when everyone leaves at one time, someone out on main road to make sure everything's okay.

That is something you have the ability to do. Uh, so the first point I'd make is I appreciate you coming before us early on in in the process. I lost track of how many notations from uh MBL in terms of but it's a long list yes of things having to do with how you present all of this and and I'm sure you're going to go through that list and do do those things and check those boxes

so that when you come before us that's that list is going to be a zero list. Um the um the point on traffic though that I would make is that uh the planning board is uh trying to reinforce uh the different character of different parts of Westport.

So, uh, and we did that with the zoning change over near your current location on the Westport side. Um, because that's a little mini business district. And Central Village is clearly another area where what we want to do is reinforce the activity that is there. uh because there a lot of businesses, there's a lot of traffic leaves, you know, everyone and they reinforce each other and everyone finds a way,

including me, of several times a day of figuring out how do you get in and out of leaves or over across the street to the bank, you know, it's but people do it. So I think adding uh the people who are going to use Gnome into the central village is a good thing, not a bad thing. I think we want more density in the central village, not less density. And that means traffic.

Well, in business districts, you have traffic. That's what you have. That's what makes them successful in business is that there are a lot of people using it. And I think we want to reinforce that uh here, at least I do, you know, and over at the at the border uh with Adamsville, you know, these little business areas, you want to strengthen them. It's a shame to see what's closed over where you are now.

You know, there was a lot of activity and now vaporized. Um, so I'm not a as concerned by by the impact because I think there are things like are people going to wander into Dunkin Donuts to go buy a Diet Coke? I don't know. But I think that's something that if you find that's uh not a helpful thing for what you're trying to do, you're going to have a way of preventing that from happening. So

I'm I'm not too worried about that.

Anyway, I I'm supportive. There's a long list of stuff you got to do. Um but I I think this would benefit Central Village. Uh and I'm glad you're locating there. You know, there other places you might locate. I think this will be a real good addition to Central Village.

I I would agree. as a lifelong Westport resident. I think that Central Village is a wonderful place. And you know, something to point out is the distance from Main Road. I mean, I think we're probably 300 ft.

300 over 300 ft away from Main Road. Um, and again, in this area, as John pointed out, you know, it is densely populated as it is. that you don't really have cars for. You hope you don't have cars flying down, but I mean we've got the playground, we've got Lee's Market, Cumberland Farms, Village Market, all you know, in this stretch. I mean, you know, I know I slow down in there. I

hope that most people do as well, but the speed limit does reduce in there.

Um, but the congestion kind also slows everybody down and does make it possible to be able to enter and exit. And again, we're not talking about a hundred cars here, you know, it's not a lease market.

This is a a minor orland. Exactly. You're controlling the times.

Exactly.

I I I think that the traffic is a is probably a a minor issue here.

I've looked um Howard Stein Hudson knows what they're doing, you know, and I And I think that that operation is small. I think it's it's more um the phys physical aspects of having um you know the Benton Court's driveway is right along that side of his property.

Those two driveways come together. And then you've got just the big um open space of it's just all paved in front of you know in front of the uh you know in front of the gas station and everything.

It's just one big pavement area.

Um, and those those are things that we're trying to we'll probably be dealing with in the new central plan. Um, you're applying for a special permit and uh low impact uh development. So, you got to think about that. You should just as a caution, I think you should think carefully about the well and the water supply and particularly when you uh I I don't I I think just surveying the the pandemium and so you have a

place where you can operate the you know sort of the the the program the the program space I I think the weld is a minor issue. But when you start to have the cottages, the well the wells may each cottage will not have a water supply. So the cottages are basically a bedroom and the there will be one out building here that serves as a bathroom for all of the units. So there would

really only be water and sewer here and the sewer line comes through and would connect into the sewer system here. It's shown on the uh north side of the property there. So wellwise and again, you know, the the load here isn't a massive one. We're talking about a couple cottages and I do think, you know, there are some showers and whatnot, but that would really only be in peak season that we have them being

used. But definitely understand the concern.

Yeah. I just just you know the board of health and D may look at this differently. So just just be cautious about that. You know it isn't you know I I I know we're used to having wells stuck right next to our houses.

D may, you know, I don't think this actually needs to get D, but the board of health may may have another caution about that. Um, so just that that 100 foot radius around this well, I think you could easily be in that, you know, just just be careful about where that gets located.

I guess the question for the board of health is is the public water supply or is it just a well and you really need to have some conversation?

You think you should be able to if there's not plumbing in each of these, you should be able to dodge the public water supply.

Agreed.

Because if you're the public, there's also no I mean I don't even think we have we show like a basic kitchen to like wash dishes, but this is there's no like formal they're not even serving food to tens of people.

I love the design of them, but you you might want to think of a different word than cottage because cottage implies you're living there. You need a bathroom, you need a sink, you need a lot of stuff.

I almost used uh rooms for reflection or you know, the only reason I used cottage is because like I was going to use the term yurt. I don't know if you're familiar with that where it's like the tent, but they have structure.

They're not a tent. You know what I mean? It has a roof. It has a door. It has windows.

So it they look like tiny houses.

Yes.

But they're not because there's no kitchen facility or bathroom facility.

And so I don't know how the board of health would or D would look at that.

Would they consider that five bedrooms or is it five?

I think that's what we're designing system based on.

Yeah.

For the record, Christian Fallen, principal engineering president of the Fallen Cor. Um, as far as the board of health goes, we are in D. We had to be in full compliance with the design of the septic system and well, um, we did look into the, you know, the town also has more stringent bylaws than than title 5. So, we are look we have looked into that. um as far as the cottages or

we'll come up with another name for our next meeting, but they will be um we did we did propose 110 gallons per day, which is basically one bedroom. We haven't filed with the board of health yet, but we believe that makes the most sense for for the use. Um but we will again we're early stages here. Um no turf there. This is a big benefit for the community. That's why we're here. We

want to hear from the community and before we address all the peerreview comments in in the um the town staff report, we just wanted to you know I think you need to speak with the building inspector too because I don't know what he would consider those sheds.

I mean a disconnected bedroom or disconnected office space.

Disconnected.

Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know why.

We'll definitely look into it.

I believe because of the square footage of them, they fall into like a unique situation because of how small they are.

Um but we will check with Ruff and confirm. Again, something that we will address prior to the next meeting.

There was a time there was probably a lot of little cottages like this all along the river.

That's right. I think they're cool without you know it's you could even make them tiny houses. I mean that's so that you know a family could stay in there um without having to go outside.

Is the intention that people would spend the night in the evening?

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Like a one night type of situ, not a long extended period, but you know on a weekend a family could come in and spend the evening.

And as Chris pointed out, you know, you intend to have them all filled and so that people on the same background get an opportunity to do something collaboratively. You know, shared outdoor space, maybe a fire pit, those types of things.

And a shared bathroom, shared shower.

Yes. in the there's multiple there are multiple showers. I mean obviously I think the intent here is a short stay so you're not going to have people like excessively showering or anything like that but yes there would be a shower.

Got to get the salt water out.

Yes. And the sand most um what do you consider the use?

It's an office. It's a mixed use. I mean because we have office space, we have education occurring here. I mean it's it's really flexible and so that's why we've stayed within.

So I mean you're familiar with our bylaw. So I mean how are you how are you fitting this peg into a round hole is really what I want.

Business business district has a lot of flexibility with what you can do especially in this area given the unique nature of it. you know, that's why we settled on this. Um, we did look at another property further down, but it was primarily residential and that, you know, gets complicated when you start having office space. And also, this location gives them the ability as they grow to bring on a couple more people.

And, you know, a large part of what they do is administration. You know, getting in, they do a lot of work with the local schools, New Bedford public schools, fall public schools. So there's a lot of um administration that goes into that.

So you're talking about educational use and educational use can be anywhere.

Doesn't have to be for that portion of the business. You know, I I do think it lends itself to that. But I I I understand where you're going with that because I think then it could be I would interpret it that way, but I don't know anybody else would be the building inspector.

But we had one before us up on Old Harbor Road.

Yeah. Being we're just saying exact Mr. Chairman, if if I may, I mean, I'm familiar with the Dover amendment. I don't know if that's where you're going with this, but educational uses um would would fit underneath that where, you know, you're proposing a school or something like that. So, that's something we can look into. Um, and that would allow us to be anywhere, allows us to skip some of the

the the zoning requirements for Well, I think it's also fundamentally true. I mean, you take young people at one level and then you bring them to another level.

Yeah.

And that's education. I mean, that's really what you're doing.

It is. It's not something we wanted to, you know, push, but it's it's definitely a part of an argument we could make if we had to. I we had another one before us on Old Harbor Road a couple years ago that was for older teens, but it was um I think it it could have gone, but it it just it blew up. I mean, it it could have gone under the education.

The big difference there is they were in a residential agricultural district and this is in the business district. They don't really need that, right?

I I I think I I'm not troubled at all by the mixed use. That's exactly what we want.

That was my my fault with it.

Locationally speaking, I think it's prime zoning for what we're looking to do. You know, I do agree that if we were in another location, we could look to make the argument, but I I don't think we need to at this point. I don't think you need to view either.

They're tailor made for this district.

Cool.

So, this is the public hearing. Is anybody else like to say anything or ask anything?

Yes.

My name is Andrew Bettton Court. I uh I own the uh property the BC court family property here and for years I'm not trying to dissolve this. I'm not trying to stop them from doing this but there is an issue with entering the place for years Dr. Ken there's not enough room right away at this point and they've always wanted to access our property to to continue to get through. So, I just again I don't

I'm not trying to stop this, but how do we resolve this issue? I have all my my bins here for the for the blocks, right?

I start moving those over. You know, it's changed my life now. So, of course, do you know what what the dimension is from the I thought it was 40 ft. It had to have, but it could be different with different zoning or 69. Yeah.

So, we proposed a 16 ft wide um driveway to cuz it's very low use, 15 trips per day, very minimal.

Be very rare for a car to be coming out and a car to be going a car to be going in and a car to be going out. Um there is enough room to do so, but also, you know, it's it's a tight squeeze in here, but there's certainly more than enough.

Um there's over 40 ft here. a typical right away. If this was a residential development, a right away of 40 ft, you would have a roadway of 24 ft. Still enough room for sidewalks if you wanted.

So, there's definitely more than enough room here to do what we have to do. We also, I haven't mentioned, but we've we've kept the grading um try to minimize it as much as possible with with the existing grades. So, especially in this area, it's very kept at what the existing grade is. So there will be very negligible difference in elevations in this area. And what that allows us to do

is minimize degrading um within this area here. Um there there was a little high spot which is on Mr. Benort's property. Um so that area will be cut down a little bit. So his property is actually going to be higher than ours.

um which also is a good benefit because we're not shedding any storm water onto his property and it's going more towards um we created a swale in this area here to prevent any going to the covering site and we designed a bio retention area in that in the front area here to capture that storm water but to answer the question that um that definitely is not the squeezes but you can confirm that that's 40 ft

from the I will get you the exact dimension. Um, and I can show that on a plane.

Yeah, please. I think that would be be helpful.

Y, if I recall, Mr. Barter, I think that uh when Ken was building the family medical center, he was using that that access.

Uh, he was when he was uh he was going around through the back through this way to access it.

That was just with the equipment and whatnot.

But for years, he's he's He's had these surveyed twice already just and it's never been wide enough.

So, I don't know why all of a sudden it's wide enough now.

Again, I don't I don't want to stop them or anything. I just don't want to say, "Yeah, okay." And then all of a sudden, well, we need more room, you know.

Well, it's it's for a subdivision road that you'd need 40 or 50 ft.

Yeah.

So, and this isn't a road. This is just a driveway.

So, it's not It's not not the dimensions of a road. It's just just a driveway access.

Okay. So, they use different uses different.

If I may, I think in the past there have been multiple developers that have attempted to put subdivisions back here, multiple houses, which would have lended itself to a wider layout, but because it's a driveway, significantly narrow.

I mean, I'll just watch out for myself, too. I don't want to have to stop moving things and you know the blocks on that side they're not you know presentable they're functional so you know you're going to be like well you know put a fence there or something and that's my responsibility or something like that and then the other factor is too they occasionally get moved do I have

access to to the other side I I actually been clear enough behind them because they can grow they have to do I don't think that they would have any issue with you going back there with a machine and if something were to fall over I mean once you get to that point obviously I just you know that's what these things that's always good neighbor

Nicole Plant, the owner of Scrapper and Hardwork. I own Even Kill Realy in the back part of Scrapper and Hard Work. Um, I love Home Surfing and what they do and I would like to make that clear for the record. Um, I have talked to attorney Long and I have talked to Chris. Um, we have had a couple of phone conversations.

I am concerned about the location and children running around. As people know, I have tenants that have big trucks. I have the area of where I am located and the money that I've had to put forth to improve my driveway due to the trucks and transportation. I know they just produced truck city and thank you guys for doing that, but in the past couple of months and the people know in the

summer and July 4th weekend, I can't get in and out of my parking lot. Um I have talked to the um Michael and a couple times about the transient area of Cumberland Farms. I've had to put up fencing. I have spent over $50,000 to improve the front of our building to help keep the transient area from flowing over into our parking and to keep our parking. I have a question for

them of where does the parking overflow when they do have volunteers and they do have extra people in this and I feel bad for them because they have not experience a Fourth of July weekend when now there's no parking in the village and there's people using parking and there's no way to get in and out of their parking. signage for them is going to be difficult and how where all that

place is and I'm worried about them coming in and out and I was very honest with them. I want them there. I have no problem with that. But the location for us is awful to come in and out. It takes me 10 minutes to get in and out of my own parking lot. Had an 18-wheeler this weekend totally block our whole driveway. None of us could get in and out for appointments because of these

and everything across the street.

They're going to add to that that Yes.

But that whole area is so congested right now. We're going to add to that also in adding another driveway. And it's nothing that has been ever been done about that whole area with the the traffic a real traffic study by the town to kind of see how we've all done. I've removed rocks with which this town has not done. We have spent $5,000 removing a rock that was in the middle. If you've

been here long enough, it was a rock with that we moved to get things out to get traffic off the roads. They fly by, come in our parking lot and go by cars all day long. You hear horns and everything else. They are going to have children in the backyard where we have till 11:00 Farms is open and then we're having a restaurant open until 11:00 at night. It is not going to be quiet and I

am sorry. I have been there till 11:00 at night. It is not quiet there. People leave certain restaurants certain establishments I'm not going to say and they're allowed. They're the it's the only two places in town they're going to be open till 11:00 at night. Someone just go a liquor permit that is on the other side of me which is 100 ft away.

It is going to be loud and sorry they're not going to sleep. I'm worried about children. I have my own. It is not going to be a quiet location. It is not going to be rustic. My whole property is cleared to the back. I am going to do something. I have brought different ideas to this board. I have run ideas by them. I have a well in the back. I have

a sixbedroom perk for the back. It's not going to be quiet against this line right here.

I would hope there was fencing. I would hope it would be something I want to protect the children. I would really want that to happen.

Um Christian, um my property actually grades it grades towards my property.

You kind of have it here, but it pitches down towards my property. I'm worried about the runoff from that Dominion running into my property and flooding it. Because if you go in my backyard after a heavy rainstorm, there's certain parts that would have flooded and if they add don't have drainage off that barn dominion, I will have a water farm off.

Electric going to the back. I have been working with Eversource for a year.

Coming back here, this property has new electric companies worked with us for I've owned that property for 5 years. We moved the pole so we can make the parking lot better for companies and for us. They worked with us. We moved them now. We're working to put electric to the back. They have four engineers working on that. I'd like to see the electrical plan and how you guys want to get electrical to the back of that

because I don't think you have any room on this side to do that and where all that would be congested because I have to go underground after that hole.

Again, there's so many pieces to this little congested area. I there's so many questions that I have that I'm at I know they're at 10,000 feet and they got to get to 5,000 feet to even come down. But I would hope that there'll be open dialogue and more dialogue because again there's concerns about the location I feel for them. Thank you.

Okay.

So I guess my big when I went through everything I went through all the notes a couple times. Uh my big thing is around fire uh service fire fire safety services and stuff and there was the 16 foot wide driveway where minimum apparatus size by fire department is 20 and we're asking for you know some there. I kind of struggling around that also around the fire department also says they need complete access around

the building as well as access to all those cottages whatever we're going to call them in the back right from a from a life safety perspective. So I I would really like to understand how you're going to resolve those comments just because I mean even though it's going to be seasonal use in those we still need to be considerate. We someone's going to get tra you get someone you trap

everyone in there with a 20 16t driveway and a fire truck and all those things if you have an incident. So we just want to make I just want to make sure that everyone is safe more than anything. I I really appreciate what you guys do. I think it's a great charity, a great great thing, and I support it. I just really want to see make sure that we're safe

for the people that are going to use this, not just not just people staying there, but also your your employees and your volunteers. So, I think that's one of the big things that I'm struggling right now with the design, the way it was and the layout of the road and everything. And given that I go into Cumies, I go all like some half the time you're in and out of Cumbies and you're

almost going to get hit trying to pull out. I can't, you know, so just that that amount of the amount of curb cuts that'll row there, it's it's a little scary for me from a from a safety perspective.

While I understand where you're coming from with that, with it being busy, but again, it's Central Village, I don't think we're adding a lot to it. We do intend to talk with um Darren specifically and the fire department and get their input on the plan as it is.

Um, I think for a fire apparatus to be able to make a wide swing off a main road and come straight back, um, is a much more feasible access than having to come into Primacare and make a tight corner around to then come up and in.

We're not going to really be able to make the roadway or access any wider from if we were to even be able to access via Eastman. Um, another thing that we talked about doing was an underground storage tank to add water so that there would eliminate the need for a bump truck on site um, just to service these areas. We did talk about grading along here um, so that if god forbid

something did need to get back there, it could. Um, but this is all ADA accessible. It's all one level. You know, you can walk out there with a wheelchair. Some of these students and children are in wheelchairs or are, you know, electric chairs of sorts. Um, so there'd be no reason why a stretcher couldn't get back there or they wouldn't be able to access it. I completely agree. I mean, obviously the top concern

here is the safety of everybody. Um, most notably the students. You know, they're they're special needs. They don't move in the same manner that we all do. Um, and so that's a concern, but definitely something that we intend to go over with the fire department specifically. Um, again, this was primarily to get feedback and and go from there, but we do intend to meet with the fire department um and and discuss that.

You should also reach out, I think, to the commission and disabilities to get their input around any of the ADA or pieces there. I think that would be a good a good uh you know gesture to the community just because they they feel like getting them involved would be a good idea as well.

Uh I'm glad uh everyone who's spoken is uh supportive of what you're doing and wants to see this happen and we're talking about how it happens not whether it happens. Uh that's the sense I get from the comments. Um, and safety is uh always a concern.

Sometimes gets used as a trump card. And yes, the fire department likes 20 ft, but fire apparatus is 8 ft wide. And and that's what you're trying to do is get a fire truck up there. It's 8 ft wide. Um, the other last point I'd make, uh, and I think we should continue this so that you can start to address the laundry list of all the things the specific comments. Uh, and we need to know how

long it's going to take you to do that.

But this is a 7 plus acre buildable lot as I understand it.

And uh, it's not owned by the Land Conservation Trust. So, it's a buildable lot and that means the kind of issues we're talking about are going to be there no matter what the use is, right? It's it it's a lot that an owner of this lot has a right to use.

Um, and so access all of that kind of stuff have to be solved uh by anyone. But to say, "Well, we're not going to use it."

I I don't think that's uh a proper response. Agreed. And I, you know, just to kind of echo on some of the comments, most notably first year with Betting Courts, I think Christian and I made a point and we will be discussing this with them, but I don't see an issue with doing something like a 10- foot wide easement for you to be able to get in there and make, you know,

if if a block were to fall over or, you know, something were to shift.

Obviously, you're driving in there with a loader, things move, you need to be able to fix that. I don't foresee that being a problem. There'd be clean and clear access in there. Really easy for you to be able to get in and out. I don't think that would be too much of an issue. To Nicole's point about if there was a time where there were a plethora of cars, um, we were, this is a dirt

driveway to kind of preserve the natural characteristics. you would be able to park on the shoulder. Being that even at the most narrow, we're at 40 feet with 16 feet, you could still have an additional eight feet on either side.

Um, plus, you know, we're still talking 16 ft off of 40 24 ft. So, there would be a little bit of an additional um room there. Concerned about the runoff.

That's this entire way here, but this entire area is a retention basin to capture the water.

not on the other side.

No, no, I I understand. But when whenever a project like this is designed, we have to reduce the amount of water that we are putting on for the property. So the purpose and size of this basin is to capture all of the runoff from the cottage cabins, cottages, yurts, whatever we're going to call them, the barnaminium, from the parking area. Everything is captured and not dispersed onto either side of the

wedding. I do like the idea of putting a fence. I was under the impression that there may have been a stone wall. Is I put that stone wall when I cleared the property.

So there is a stone wall there now.

It's just rocks from now. We're going to finish that when we finish that gets finished. We're doing that phases.

Yeah. So I mean you know definitely some sort of a border there to protect most notably the children from wandering off like we talked about. Um, but again to echo what John said, it it seems like more of a how, less of a if and we are, you know, a collaborative company and and want to collaborate not only with the town but with the abutters and make this a space that everybody is excited

about and happy to see, you know, be a part here in our community. You know, I I personally thought that this was a wonderful thing to come to Westport. I mean, there are other towns with beaches, you know, locally that they could have elected to look at, but they chose here because of Horseneck Beach and the nature and characteristics of Westport. And, you know, I think that this is something that we can be proud

of to have here in our town.

Okay. I'm going to say that I agree with John. It's not a question of no, it's a question of how.

And so, That's if we can get through those. Is there any more comments from the audience?

Questions?

I think it's minimal. I live in the condos. Uh Westport cottage condos. I live right along the utility road. I'm not really speaking for them, but they know I'm here. We just have noise factor. How does it affect our um leeching fields and our wells? How close is it? I know we got the restaurant going up too. That's that's hard.

Mr. Chair, I could just So if you could come up and Sorry, it's just resident questions.

Sorry. But we have a TV audience and they have to hear what you're saying through the microphone.

My name is Cheryl Ly and I live in unit 18 at the Westport uh cottages.

Okay. when we have the um senior building in the back and a lot of us are concerned because you know we've had a lot of issues with our wells and our leing fields and just trying to keep them up to date because they were pretty pretty standard uh not standard they were pretty high high access not access they were made very well about 20 years ago. So now we're having problems and

you know we've been spending money. We have to watch things like that and we have a big uh natural wildlife roadway.

You know we get the 30 or 40 turkeys coming through. They'll be back in your yard too. And then we got the deer. We got the coyote back there. U maybe the more people move in they'll move out.

Which I still like seeing them though.

But uh noise factor. The restaurant's going to be closer to us I guess than your facility. And I understand they're having outside music. I already hear music. Even when I shut my uh my sun room, I can still hear music in my house. So, I'm along along the wood line. And we were just concerned about that because I knew you were going to have little fire pits. And of course, I

don't know you're going to have electric music. You're just going to have just simple natural music, right? Just people singing and gathering around. And the restaurant's going to have the electric music. So, we're just all concerned about just little things like that.

Yeah.

I I don't think uh from my perspective, I don't think it should affect your wells or your septic.

Um I don't think it would affect the noise level. I think other things would be more noisy like the restaurant, right? If they have a Well, there's there's um what is the timeline? Was it 10:00?

A lot of people they have outside music.

I I'm probably hearing the pizza place.

That's what I'm hearing. 10 cousins.

10 cousins.

No, they have outside.

Village pizza.

No, 10 cousins. I'm sorry. Where am I pointing that way?

10 cousins. You can hear they have outside music.

Social club.

Social where we are.

Where would we get?

That's a central business district.

But but it's 10 and I was told Yeah, it's 10:00. It's 10:00. Not all of them.

Some people have their private bodies, but you know, sometimes you got to live with it.

Okay.

So that's petty. I know.

It's a concern. Why would access? We have good access.

You know, we have perfect smiles up there, but we have great access. So could I get Cheryl's last name, please?

Oh, I'm sorry. Bell Isle. It's B E L I S L E.

So that's it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

In terms of a continuence, we'd probably be looking for the 6 week mark.

Six week mark.

Just to allow us time to address what we have, you know, send in the plans, get some more peer review back.

Mid July.

July 14th or end of July?

July 14th. Mid July.

What's the end of July meeting?

28th.

28th.

All right. Yeah. If we could continue to the 28th.

You want a motion, Mr.

Uh before I make the motion, Chris, I think when you cut the ribbon on this, it's going to be an incredibly festive, positive day for the town of Westport.

I agree. And everyone's going to want to be in there seeing it and participating in it and seeing what you're doing and how you're doing it and wanting to uh uh rent your cottages because they're going to be so awesome.

But at any rate, I move to uh continue the public hearing to July 28th at 6:15 or so.

Second.

All those in favor. I I Thank you to the board and thank you for the Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, back to planners reports for Have a good night.

Yeah, you too.

We've completed the planners report. Um the assistant planners report. There's an ongoing projects update. So Dia, if you could um just cover the highlights.

So, major subdivisions and uh solar developments.

Sure.

Okay. Conversations outside.

Thank you.

So, I have a little project update for um projects that have been worked on this calendar year 2026. Um we don't have to go through the whole thing, but you can see, you know, we've done a couple special permits, unspecified categories, preapps, and 14 ANRS. When it comes to site plans, um we just received the asbuilt for 515 American Legion Highway. That's an old development from um 2018. So we'll sign

off on that. We've got some old developments like Wata Realy and Five-Star that we're still trying to track down their asbuilt. Plaza 549 is pending its final review. Um American Legion Highway, we have final plans um in the department to be endorsed and then we'll move forward to the asbuilt.

Um 854 State Road construction has not started yet. That's a minor site plan from a couple months ago. And then we just res reviewed Gnome Surf, Inc. Um 222 State Road is upcoming at the next meeting. Then when it comes to subdivisions, um Lot and Trust, um Bob actually called me just a couple weeks ago. He said the asphalt's almost complete for that. So hopefully we can get that out of the way. Bentley

Estates, Derek's going to be going out this week. Construction inspections are going to begin um on Whan Way. Um Inheritance Lane, they just have a couple final items they've got to address before we can sign off on the asbuilt and release the shity. Cory Ridge, you saw an update today.

Construction is ongoing and we're still working on some of the last minute tweaks to the HOA documentation before we bring it before the board. Same with Francis Estates. They're also they've also got some HOA documentation ongoing with inspections beginning this week with um MBL Rosewood Lane. They've just got um an asbuilt to be updated with the gas line. Marcott inspections are

ongoing. Last contact um last week. And then Herring Run Farm is an old development that we are trying to reestablish and finish to see through construction. Half of that um subdivision has been built. And then with our solar, we pretty much just have Route 88 on the docket. Ironwood Renewables is still working on their back-end permitting. And then 359 Division Road Solar will actually try to close out this month.

Okay. Thank you.

Uh, next is minutes from May 19th.

Jared, you you read these comment and they've been corrected, right?

Yes, they have.

You're now there.

Oh, I'm official now. I made the minutes.

You made the minutes. So, you were there.

I I will move that we uh uh approve the minutes of May 19th, 2026.

Second.

All those in favor?

I move to adjourn.

Other business.

You scared everyone away.

We did. Yeah, we did have an amended agenda today. So, there's other business. Jim wanted to discuss the high school reuse.

And you with the select uh not all of it but some of it. Yeah.

Not I didn't hear the discussion.

Hey you left before the discussion picked up.

It was a it was it was a quite a watch.

Yeah I I watched some of it. Um, and I I think that we ought to have in a future meeting uh a discussion on how we can help.

And I think that we could um a couple of things. One, I think I don't know if they care what we think, but I think um I think we ought to keep the high school and not try to sell it or not get done and even though the usage for it may develop over time instead of a big plan right in the beginning and I think if we're going to consider

and I think they were talking about this is housing for some of it I think the way to do the housing is to back into uh what kind of water and septic we could get uh and use um the other uses that you want to use the building for and then subtract that and get to a point where you can say okay we want a RFP for 39 housing units in there to maybe fit in and

um send it out and try to get some real feedback from people who really do this kind of work instead of just consultants.

And so I think we ought to offer um the planning offices ability to to write this kind of stuff up.

I agree.

You need a motion for that or anything or just sense that that's what we're going to do. What's the failure?

I think we we can't help and I and I you know I think we've all commented from time to time you need you know you need someone who's actually building affordable housing would you know if you lay out I I think you're I think you're exactly right what assumptions went into well we can't do housing because we don't have any what we're doing in Missouri. Okay.

Well, that that door's closed because we made this assumption. We'll assume something else. you know, instead of spending, you know, we've spent several hundred,000 studying it, how about if we went out and did some perk test and did it well and say, you know, you could actually get if you throw in all the property, which is the town property, you could actually get this for water supply and then,

you know, Then and then okay then what what doors does that open up and and I think you know that you know those are the kind of steps that you take if if you said to you know then then I think we need to think about the zoning and the zoning uses and all those kinds of stuff because we're in residential once it once it doesn't become a school then it's 60,000 square foot lots

and that's and that's not what we want in preserving the value for the town is in having some excuse do we do we we have a zoning article that supports a proposal you know that's those are the kind of mechanisms And and just as if if we were doing a feasibility study for a a buyer, not not feasibility study for the town, but feasibility study for the buyer.

How much water and waste water can I get can you know and what are the basic questions?

Does does what I want to do is it allowed under the zoning and we think the values is for the town is residential in converting the the school.

Is that not allowed? Could we change the zoning? Those are the kind of steps that we need to get through as opposed to knowing, you know, everything is a constraint.

Well, how do we overcome those constraints? Well, I think I think so with the zoning, if you're talking about residential uses in addition to other uses for the county, um I think the residential is going to be more ruled by the new regulations at the state level than our own zoning.

We could we could reszone it in a smart in a smart growth overlay and I I think that would get around any concerns of spot zoning with changing the underlying zoning. We could just put a smart growth overlay on top. I think that would probably I mean like to Bob's point, we would need to see what kind of density that the land could bear out, right?

Um but we would then design it around those parameters.

No matter what, it's not it's it's not 200 units. It's it's 30 to 40. That's what that's that's what we're talking about.

You're not talking high high density.

You're talking appropriately sized for the space and that the that the infrastructure can hold infrastructure water.

You're not talking about knocking it down and putting No. So, but then you can also put in the RFP that we want a uh space for a nonprofit that's going to come in and do YMCA kind of stuff.

Um, and we want to preserve the auditorium because it's much better than the new one. And it's it's it's got all the electronics. It's got the acoustics.

It's got the stage. It's got more seating.

Why would you want to get rid of I think, Mr. Chair, I I'm totally in agreement with the procedure that Bob laid out uh about seeing what water and septic can support in terms of housing.

And I think h and I've said this before, but I'm sorry to repeat myself. Housing is the primary first thing to consider because housing is the only use that actually brings in money and all the other uses take money.

They're nonprofits, their town offices, they're whatever that uh cost money.

Housing is the one that generates an income stream. And unless we want the uh taxpayers of Westport to pay the entire cost of this, which is not going to happen, we're going to have to figure out what creates a revenue stream, how big is the revenue stream, is there a developer because of the revenue stream who would do a mixeduse development. Uh that would be uh the foundation would be the

housing, but they would then be able to do other uses, you know, public use of auditorium, town offices, whatever. And you combine that, if you sell uh this building in town hall because everything's moving up there, then there's more revenue. Uh that brings that cost down from 40 or $60 million, which is never going to go through town meetings. So, we've got to that's why I think housing is so important to

consider. It's the one thing where you may get a a developer saying, "I can do something."

And the reason I think that we need to get input from real developers, we have some of these developers who live here and we've talked to them and um they say, "Send us a article."

Yeah.

So, I mean, but I think we need to include it. What what else we want out of this? You know, we just don't want to give away the building.

We want to have it have have the whole package be an asset to Westport so that you can get um you know the for instance the wreck department wants to have access to the gymnasium and stuff like that.

But our rec department is run by one person and they can't run something like that. You need to get a nonprofit and we have really I mean we have I don't know how many billionaires we have in Westport now for the increases by the year. I think should be a way to convince some of them to donate something into this kind of structure for the good of the Mr. Chair I don't think this takes a

joint meeting of the planning board and the lake board. I do think uh you and and Bob could meet you could get on the agenda of the select board and say just what you said which is you know we can be helpful to this process uh to get us away from chasing our tail and going around in circles to actually getting uh some direction in uh some movement in a direction.

So, here's what I would recommend is to draft for you all to authorize the chairman via planning board staff to draft a memo to the select board um to get on their next agenda. I don't know when they're going to talk about this the next time. Um but to outline some a couple of ideas and approaches um just very conceptual level don't have to get in a lot of detail but to start

the conversation with them because I think it will really take you all sitting you know bu and and and Bob sitting down with them and having this conversation to get things moving.

Do we need a motion to do that? Just do it. Um it would be authorize nice to have a motion just because uh unless you all want to review the the memo before we send it out which we could do in two weeks.

So, would you prefer I'm confident that you can draft the memo based on the conversation we've had tonight and I would move that um we authorize the chair and vice chair to meet with the select board and present them a memorandum of how the planning board and planning department staff can assist the select board in getting to a uh feasible solution. solution multiuse solution for the high school.

Second.

All those in favor?

I now you want a motion to obviously wait.

Move to a chair.

We have a second.

All those in favor. I I Thank you everyone.