[0:00]

[0:02] Minute to spare.

[0:03] Yeah morning.

[0:04] Your board is going to have official recognition on 24,

[0:07] 25th.

[0:09] They will then officially vote there on the 25th.

[0:12] That will then be given to the mayor

[0:14] and as an official recommendation from the board.

[0:16] And then we will then either at the eighth

[0:18] or the following week, decide to inform council of the plans.

[0:22] Who's that.

[0:24] Will they have to give a presentation.

[0:27] No so anybody could get started on this.

[0:29] Thank you.

[0:29] Yep yep.

[0:31] All right.

[0:31] Hey you ready.

[0:32] For 30.

[0:33] You ready.

[0:34] Yep all right.

[0:35] We're running.

[0:37] So I was planning to go through chapters 1

[0:42] through 15, so it's half of what we did.

[0:46] We did it in two workshops before,

[0:47] but there's a lot less changes.

[0:49] I was only going to touch on the highlighted ones,

[0:51] but we can certainly touch on anything else

[0:53] that you may look at again and wanted to talk about.

[0:57] The first highlighted change is actually a big one,

[1:01] and it's the salaries for the town

[1:04] council members and the mayor.

[1:06] And what I put in there as a placeholder was essentially

[1:14] double the existing.

[1:16] But that is also essentially what 1999

[1:20] numbers are brought to today's numbers,

[1:23] rounded to the nearest 1,000.

[1:25] So that worked out to be double.

[1:28] And you have the spreadsheet that

[1:31] has a lot of the other jurisdictions,

[1:34] obviously, that this is still even low by some

[1:36] of those standards, but it would certainly

[1:41] do a lot to bring it up to current day numbers at least.

[1:45] So that's what's in there now.

[1:48] And the way it works is if we were

[1:50] to enact that with these code changes,

[1:53] it would apply after the next election

[1:56] to those election based on position.

[1:58] Yep well, I don't know what I would do with all that money.

[2:06] Pay back all the people that you hadn't paid for all this work

[2:09] here.

[2:09] How about that.

[2:12] So everybody's anybody's thoughts

[2:13] on adjusting it for inflation, bringing it up to out of 1999.

[2:22] When I was just finishing my first year

[2:24] of teaching, May of 1999.

[2:31] The other thing we talked about the first or second time

[2:34] around that we talked about this issue,

[2:36] was whether we should include an annual escalator.

[2:39] I did not, but we certainly could add one

[2:41] if you wanted to have it automatically go up

[2:44] every year, a certain percentage or percentage

[2:47] that the staff gets for cost of living or something.

[2:52] Some jurisdictions do that, it just ends up making them.

[2:56] I think that's fair.

[2:59] Yeah, I was thinking about it.

[3:00] I mean, personally, as somebody as we're elected,

[3:05] I feel like we should let the people know

[3:08] when we're getting a pay raise.

[3:11] That's just me.

[3:12] So I feel like if we just make it and I get the argument,

[3:15] I mean, these are not major increases that we're going

[3:18] to be seeing, but I just feel like any increase

[3:20] there should be at least some public knowledge saying,

[3:23] hey, these guys are going to get a pay raise again

[3:25] instead of just adding it in.

[3:28] That's just my I mean, I don't think that would be a problem,

[3:30] especially during budget time.

[3:32] We can make it clear that this is

[3:34] what's already been implemented and the budget time comes.

[3:37] That would be an opportunity to make that statement.

[3:42] Just for a point of clarification.

[3:44] If it's not done all at once, would

[3:46] it only apply to the next term.

[3:49] Can you give yourself a raise.

[3:52] Yeah So you wouldn't be able to give annuals.

[3:56] I think every year you have to wait until the election.

[3:59] You would essentially be given an annual

[4:00] till the next election.

[4:01] Yeah every four years.

[4:03] Would that be the case, then.

[4:04] This needs to be looked at forecast it forward,

[4:07] and then come up with an estimation of those who

[4:10] are already on the council, who are after this election may be

[4:15] elected then and use that number because we wouldn't

[4:18] be able to get anything until the election

[4:20] if we were re-elected.

[4:22] I think if you're deciding in each budget

[4:24] what percentage you're getting then yes, that would apply.

[4:27] But if you put it in there now, I think

[4:29] it could automatically apply.

[4:31] If you say correct, you'd have to put

[4:33] the whole thing in now, right.

[4:34] Rather than wait each year.

[4:36] Yeah what Andy was saying it needs to go in now altogether.

[4:41] So if we were to go for an increase with the idea

[4:45] that there's going to be an incremental increase that takes

[4:51] that would take effect.

[4:52] Like for example, if I ran again and won in 2029,

[4:58] that wouldn't take that policy wouldn't take effect for me

[5:01] until then.

[5:02] You would get the initial and any others

[5:06] that were approved by that.

[5:08] And then each year you would get the annual ones

[5:12] for your full term.

[5:13] I guess that word gets sticky is that theoretically, you're now

[5:16] behind whatever that annual increase was

[5:18] for the other people for the first two years.

[5:20] Does that make sense.

[5:22] Because you wouldn't.

[5:23] Yeah and then everybody would have different.

[5:27] Yeah amounts.

[5:29] They'd be compensated every single time

[5:31] you had a change in your starting position

[5:33] and starting over.

[5:34] And to me, I mean, I agree that bringing the whole

[5:41] all the levels up to a more reasonable or timely level,

[5:46] I agree with that.

[5:48] I don't know about the incremental annual increase

[5:52] thing just because it's going to make things very complicated,

[5:55] and I don't know that.

[5:58] I don't know that I agree with that anyway.

[6:00] But the other issue that we've discussed before

[6:03] is that if this goes forward, then next May

[6:08] will have council members making more than the President

[6:10] of the Council, which.

[6:11]

[6:14] Seems unfair, inappropriate, unfair, whatever the word is.

[6:18] And we're the mayor technically.

[6:22] Well, yeah.

[6:23] That's right.

[6:24] So she.

[6:24] Yeah, it's her and I are the ones and David is up.

[6:28] Yes yeah.

[6:29] So I mean, I don't want to take away

[6:30] from anybody else who would be benefiting

[6:33] from this in that time.

[6:35] I'll share my raise with you.

[6:37]

[6:40] Can we make it the 2020?

[6:42] There's no end around because we do it in 29.

[6:45] There's no end around on that.

[6:46] The people that already.

[6:47] Well, then council members will be making more than the mayor

[6:50] in 29.

[6:51] And so you would already be like, say, if everybody got

[6:54] elected and we got elected again and it's implemented in 29,

[6:58] it would encompass all of us at the same time.

[7:03] And then going forward, because 29 is the longest,

[7:07] the other side of all of us here right now,

[7:11] would that work doing it that way we

[7:13] could delay the effectiveness.

[7:14] But then that one's the 1 three and Mayor

[7:18] are only guaranteed it for two years until the salary.

[7:20] So I'm OK with if it's Doctor Montgomery

[7:24] and miss Curry and Mayor cook again, I'm fine

[7:28] with them making more money than me.

[7:32] So it's a stipulation only if they're elected, right.

[7:35] If it's somebody else.

[7:39] Oh, this means I'm going to have to buy beers.

[7:42] OK, you said it.

[7:44] Food for thought.

[7:45] Also, because I know it's always kind

[7:46] of awkward to advocate for your own compensation

[7:49] or future compensation.

[7:50] You can create something in here that allows you to say,

[7:54] this must be re-evaluated.

[7:55] This will be up for reevaluation every eight years

[7:57] or something, so that it's not you deciding

[8:00] that it should be erased.

[8:01] It is this automatically reconsidered at the next one.

[8:06] I know it since it hasn't been since 1999.

[8:10] And finally, like, OK, this has been long enough,

[8:11] but no one wants to be the person that says,

[8:13] I think we all deserve a raise.

[8:14] Well, I think you create that mechanism.

[8:17] No, I don't have a problem saying

[8:18] I think the council deserves a raise because I think it's also

[8:21] for the future councils, not just the five of us now,

[8:24] but for the people down the road.

[8:25] I mean, still getting paid based on 1999 salary

[8:29] seems a little low.

[8:32] So it seems like everybody's in favor of the.

[8:43] Increase and then maybe we could look at some kind of language

[8:48] like Mr. kitcher was talking about,

[8:50] where it could be reevaluated every so often, automatically.

[8:54]

[8:57] If everybody seems OK with that.

[8:59] Yeah, I'll abstain.

[9:02] A it affects me and I have mixed feelings about this so I know.

[9:09] Please proceed.

[9:10]

[9:14] The next changes go back up to the boards.

[9:19] I'm going to do all the highlighted ones.

[9:21] So that's salary go down.

[9:24] Yep so this was based on comments from the council.

[9:31] About town residency.

[9:34] And this is now saying that it can allow non town

[9:39] residents if they have possess certain qualifications

[9:44] or expertise.

[9:45] But every board committee, task force

[9:49] has to have at least 2/3 of its membership town residents.

[9:52] I think that's the direction I got

[9:54] and rewatching the previous workshops.

[9:56] And then I included language here

[9:59] about not getting compensation so I could take it.

[10:01] Remember, some boards had it, some boards didn't.

[10:04] None of those get compensation.

[10:06] I did say, unless specifically provided otherwise,

[10:09] because the Eastern Utilities Commission does get

[10:11] compensation, but they're the only one

[10:15] that I know of that does.

[10:17] So I think they get the same as the Council members do.

[10:21] So I'll have to visit with them whether they're

[10:24] going to raise their salaries based

[10:25] on you all doing that as well.

[10:29] Any questions on this or concerns.

[10:34] Have we ever had an issue with not having 2/3

[10:37] of the membership of a committee or task

[10:38] force being town residents.

[10:40] I don't know.

[10:40] I don't think we've ever tracked it that way.

[10:44] We certainly have had members on various boards

[10:47] that have not been town residents,

[10:49] whether we've ever had three at the same time, I don't know.

[10:52]

[10:58] The next.

[10:59] So I'm sorry.

[11:00] Go back.

[11:01] That was 2/3.

[11:03] Yes OK.

[11:04] Yeah thank you.

[11:05] And unless otherwise specified.

[11:07] So some could be more.

[11:09] Restricted And then the next couple

[11:14] highlighted changes are just like I said,

[11:15] taken out the compensation.

[11:17] A couple of places.

[11:18]

[11:21] Then the next.

[11:23] I think it's a little ways down.

[11:26] I'm sorry.

[11:26] Could we go back.

[11:27] I'm trying to figure out whether I want to erase this,

[11:31] but I think I should.

[11:33] The sentence in section 2.3 says while members of boards,

[11:38] commissions, committees and task forces

[11:40] may allow non-residents to be members.

[11:44] It's not the boards that appoint them, is it.

[11:47]

[11:51] Oh, yeah.

[11:52] No language.

[11:53] Maybe it shouldn't say members at all.

[11:54] Just say well, boards, commissions,

[11:56] committees and tasks.

[11:57] Maybe they have non-residents.

[12:01] Yeah OK thank you.

[12:03] Good catch.

[12:04]

[12:12] I like page 10.

[12:14] Yeah if you could go down to the next one

[12:18] while I make that quick.

[12:21]

[12:25] Oops go into the highlighted one.

[12:35] It's Tyler.

[12:37] It's a little ways down, I think.

[12:39]

[12:44] 2.15 if you get to a page that we know.

[12:48]

[12:52] Are absentee ballots, maybe page 69.

[13:00] That's what you think it is.

[13:01]

[13:04] Yep that is it.

[13:05] And that was where we made the change.

[13:09] We talked about at the first workshop

[13:12] that it could be postmarked before you

[13:15] had to have it received by the day of the election.

[13:18] And I think the mayor brought up well,

[13:19] we don't count the votes, the absentee

[13:21] ballots till 4:00 the next day.

[13:24] What if it's postmarked the election day

[13:26] and we receive it by o'clock.

[13:28] Then it could be counted.

[13:29] And so that's what that change represents.

[13:31]

[13:36] So I think that might be the end of this one.

[13:42]

[13:47] Chapter 9.

[13:48] Yep all right.

[13:49] We're moving to chapter 9.

[13:50] The second document.

[13:52]

[13:55] Or at least that second PDF.

[13:58]

[14:03] So the first change related to burning combustible materials

[14:11] and.

[14:11]

[14:15] Added the qualifier provided it does not

[14:17] produce any noxious or excessive smoke

[14:19] or odor detrimental to neighboring property.

[14:22] I think Tom deem had suggested some language to that effect,

[14:26] to give them some flexibility to enforce

[14:29] this provision a little better.

[14:32] And then someone had mentioned we should define incinerator.

[14:36] So I found that definition for an incinerator.

[14:40] What this didn't do, but maybe you want to add

[14:45] is we talked about whether an incinerator is,

[14:48] has to be in some other structure

[14:51] or whether it can be a standalone incinerator.

[14:53]

[15:00] I don't know if anyone has any thoughts on that.

[15:03] I didn't get consensus of what I should.

[15:06] So my question is, what kind of.

[15:11]

[15:13] What kind of incinerator go into.

[15:16] So it's not seen as that the ideas like in a shed or a

[15:20] where I mean.

[15:22] Yeah outbuilding.

[15:24] I don't know.

[15:25] I mean, is that safe.

[15:26] Can you put Yeah, I wasn't really,

[15:28] but you can't put an incinerator inside a building.

[15:31] That's not safe.

[15:34] Trailer what's that.

[15:36] They have them on a trailer sometimes.

[15:38] So there's more of a movable incinerator.

[15:41] And then I think there's more of a permanent fixture incinerator.

[15:46] But, yeah, not necessarily within a structure,

[15:48] I wouldn't think, but I wasn't sure.

[15:50] And someone had brought it up at our previous workshop,

[15:53] so I didn't change it yet, but I just wanted to raise

[15:55] that issue that I didn't.

[15:59] Yeah, because we had an incinerator in Matthews town

[16:01] run and it looks like a dumpster.

[16:04] Burn stuff.

[16:06] So, I mean, I don't know where you would.

[16:08] I mean, it's enclosed already being.

[16:10] Is it permanent.

[16:12] No, it's kind of like a roll off.

[16:14] It just rolls off like a dumpster.

[16:16] Would you do what you got to do there on site.

[16:19] And then they take it away and then they take it away.

[16:22] Is that what we're talking about.

[16:23] We're not talking about a permanent.

[16:25] The way it reads now that would be

[16:27] allowed to have a permanent one would be allowed.

[16:30] Well, out, saying a portable one would also be able to do it.

[16:35] Well, I don't think we want to allow a permanent one, do we.

[16:38]

[16:41] I wouldn't want a permanent incinerator in my neighborhood.

[16:45] We do.

[16:47] I don't think so.

[16:47] But if it's not providing any obnoxious or excessive smoke

[16:50] or odor detrimental to neighboring properties, then.

[16:54]

[16:57] Yeah, you may not know it's an incinerator.

[16:59] And is a crematorium considered an incinerator.

[17:04] I thought about that.

[17:05] Those are inside there.

[17:06] Yeah, maybe.

[17:09] So, like the Humane Society.

[17:11] Exactly they probably have a permanent

[17:16] a permanent incinerator.

[17:17] I don't know whether it's inside or not.

[17:22] All right.

[17:26] No homemade incinerators is what we're trying to get at.

[17:29] How do you say that.

[17:30] Nicely built in incinerator.

[17:35] The only other way is you can permit incinerators.

[17:38] So hospital.

[17:39]

[17:41] Hospital will be built in.

[17:44] There's and that's hospitals a commercial.

[17:48] Yeah I mean, we're talking about residential incinerators.

[17:50] And do those need to be permitted.

[17:51] I mean, there's an extra work, but there's

[17:54] a way you can maybe regulate those differently

[17:55] than a commercial building.

[17:57] Who is going to have all the building

[17:59] code and regulatory things before they have

[18:01] those at their establishments.

[18:03] So that makes sense to permit them in a residential capacity

[18:08] could environment.

[18:10] But maybe then something that happens in the zoning ordinance

[18:13] as opposed to here in the fire chapter of the code,

[18:19] but I don't know.

[18:20] Just thinking about a permit, there's not necessarily

[18:24] a permit for this stuff.

[18:28] I guess we could create one, but.

[18:30]

[18:33] Yeah, I think it's my only thoughts

[18:35] were around the residential use of a roll off incinerator.

[18:39] I mean, who is determining what is appropriate or not

[18:43] based off of the look of it, the size of it, the material, it's.

[18:51] But I don't know.

[18:53] Well, I also think the main point here is also

[18:55] so that you're not just having a big burn pile

[18:57] in your backyard in town that could go in any which way.

[19:01] So the idea is that it's going to be enclosed, right.

[19:03] Which I think is important.

[19:05] So we're good with that.

[19:11] Yeah, I'm good with it as is.

[19:13] And if we need to make something based off

[19:14] of something that rises up, we can

[19:17] always adjust it or reevaluate.

[19:19] This next change is just 1112.

[19:25] Page 5.

[19:32]

[19:37] 1112 oh 4545.

[19:42] Yeah all right.

[19:47] So this we had talked about.

[19:49]

[19:52] We had had language about bringing the trash

[19:55] receptacles to the curb.

[19:56] And then we realized, well, we only do that for residential.

[19:59] So we added residential.

[20:01] And then curb maybe is not the right terminology

[20:05] for everywhere.

[20:06] So it was to the edge of the property along a public street

[20:09] or such other location as designated by the town

[20:12] for collection, to give a little bit of flexibility

[20:13] for unique situations.

[20:16] You were good with that.

[20:18] OK pretty good.

[20:22] All right.

[20:23] And then the next section.

[20:25]

[20:31] This is about the trash fee.

[20:33] And I think the council wanted that an appeal to go

[20:38] to the board of zoning appeals.

[20:40] And so that change was made there.

[20:44] And I'm sorry, instead of coming to us

[20:47] the amount of the trash fee should go

[20:51] to the board of zoning appeals.

[20:53] Well, it goes to the town engineer.

[20:55] And if the person doesn't like that decision from the town

[20:58] engineer, they can appeal the town engineer

[21:00] decision to the board of zoning appeals,

[21:02] just like they do any other.

[21:03] Oh, so.

[21:04] OK So they're not deciding the fee there.

[21:09] Yeah, it's only an appeal.

[21:11] So if they bring in, say what.

[21:13] I've charged the wrong fee.

[21:15] And Rick, probably with Sandy or whoever takes a look at it

[21:18] and says, no, you charge the right fee.

[21:20] And they say, I want to appeal that it would go

[21:21] to the board of zoning appeals.

[21:23] Gotcha which is the process that's set up for.

[21:26] And really, all staff that appeals like that.

[21:30] And then I think there was the council wanted to be made aware,

[21:35] though when those happened.

[21:36] So we added language to say that the council

[21:38] gets a copy of that appeal.

[21:40]

[21:46] And I think that let's see.

[21:49] Is there anything else.

[21:50]

[21:57] Oh yes.

[21:58] There was a small change.

[22:01] I think Nick Ewing had made us aware that traveling nurses.

[22:09] Would solve a lot of their issues

[22:11] if we could make short term housing

[22:13] three months or below instead of four months or below.

[22:16] And so I think the council was receptive to that.

[22:19] That was a good rationale for making that change.

[22:22] It wouldn't really have a huge effect on the weekly stuff

[22:27] that we were you're worried about more in a neighborhood.

[22:30] So I think that was the last page in this chapter.

[22:37]

[22:39] There were a couple of issues that the council raised

[22:43] that are not addressed here yet, because I

[22:44] didn't feel like there was a consensus yet

[22:47] on how to address them.

[22:49] One was voter IDs.

[22:52] We talked about it a little bit, and I

[22:54] didn't know whether that's something you wanted

[22:56] to move forward with or not.

[22:57] I think you all said we want to think about it

[22:59] and come back to that issue.

[23:01] So bringing it back.

[23:04]

[23:07] You heard that live.

[23:08] Do you know chapter or not.

[23:10] It will go in the elections election section.

[23:13] So obviously we're just talking about our town elections.

[23:16] Yes so.

[23:17]

[23:20] Give me the background because I'm not sure I remember.

[23:23] That was one of my questions.

[23:24] What is the state policy when it comes

[23:26] to voter ID identification.

[23:28] Because states control elections.

[23:30] So what's the state of Maryland.

[23:31] State doesn't control municipal.

[23:33] No it doesn't.

[23:33] You're right.

[23:34] But it sets the rules for the elections within the state.

[23:37] So the state I believe ID is required to register to vote,

[23:42] but not when you show up on election day,

[23:45] is my recollection.

[23:49] And everybody who votes in a town election is registered

[23:52] is registered with the Board of Elections.

[23:56] Yeah they keep our list now.

[23:57] It used to be we had a separate list,

[23:59] but now they keep our list.

[24:01]

[24:07] I'll stick my neck out.

[24:08] I think we should be requiring voter IDs.

[24:10] I think government should, at every level.

[24:12] But at least we have our opportunity

[24:14] to state that we want to guarantee

[24:18] the integrity of the elections we don't want people to be

[24:21] able to walk in, claim they're somebody else just

[24:24] because they know the address.

[24:26]

[24:29] Anybody else.

[24:30]

[24:35] Do what are we.

[24:37] So as far as identification is concerned,

[24:39] what would we accept as identification.

[24:42] Picture identification.

[24:43] Official state issued ID card or driver's

[24:47] license Passport something has photo

[24:50] government issued ID photo ID.

[24:52] Yeah, it's the only thing.

[24:54] So if you're an 18-year-old voting for the first time

[24:58] and you don't have a driver's license,

[25:00] what would you have as a picture ID if you don't have a passport,

[25:04] you get a state ID card.

[25:05] You would have a non-driving ID that's issued by DMV.

[25:09] But if they haven't set out to begin that process,

[25:13] if they haven't been, if they weren't interested in driving

[25:16] to that point, well, then they're probably not

[25:17] interested in voting either.

[25:18] So it's simple enough.

[25:21] There are a lot of states.

[25:23] There are a lot of samples out there.

[25:24] I just I didn't pull it all together because I wasn't sure

[25:27] if that's something you wanted to do or not,

[25:28] but I think there was some language that I saw that talked

[25:32] about what was acceptable or not,

[25:33] that we could compare other jurisdictions if you

[25:36] want to move forward with that.

[25:39] Does that eliminate absentee.

[25:42]

[25:45] Municipals? all in all, on location.

[25:47] I know Mr. Forte had talked to in the past about the idea

[25:51] of you would need your ID to get your absentee ballot

[25:56] to get your absentee ballot.

[25:58] I mean, some capacity, but that would require the folks

[26:01] at the front, at the front desk to be inspecting

[26:04] IDs when they're picking up.

[26:06] I don't think it's not overly complicated if waitresses

[26:11] in a bar can inspect IDs.

[26:13] Yeah no, I get it.

[26:13] I'm just saying that would be a requirement for them to do that.

[26:17] I can't guarantee who fills it out and submits it,

[26:19] but I can say who picked it up.

[26:20] So I mean, that's about all we can do, but I don't.

[26:24] That's not a bridge too far if we're

[26:27] for absentee, if that was the determining factor on if we were

[26:32] going to require it on site, are there any municipalities

[26:37] in the state of Maryland that require

[26:40] and you might not know this yet.

[26:42] Yeah, I don't know that yet because 36 states require it,

[26:46] but I don't know in terms of how many.

[26:49] 36 we're not one of them.

[26:52] It says 36 require voters to present ID in order

[26:55] to vote at the polls on election day.

[26:59] But Maryland does not.

[27:01] Maryland does not.

[27:02] There are.

[27:03] And most of them have exceptions to the rules,

[27:05] but they're very blue.

[27:06] States do not.

[27:09] So this doesn't violate 8 by requiring them.

[27:13] And I've heard this argument in the past.

[27:15] That's why I'm bringing it up because I wouldn't want to see

[27:17] us get in a bind with it.

[27:18] But the 23rd Amendment, not 20 sorry,

[27:23] 24th Amendment says that there's not going to be any poll taxes,

[27:26] which is a fee in order to vote if you

[27:29] have to get a driver's license.

[27:30] Some places have considered that a fee in order to vote.

[27:34] So does that violate the 24th Amendment,

[27:38] which somebody's going to sue the town of Easton because it

[27:40] violates the 20, because they think

[27:42] it violates the 24th Amendment.

[27:43] Whether it does or not is why hasn't

[27:45] the Supreme Court already.

[27:46] I don't that's why I'm asking.

[27:48] I think so, but I don't know the answer to that right now.

[27:51] Yeah, I just like to make sure before we.

[27:55] Yeah, I would argue it's probably

[27:58] sounds like there's some interest in at least

[28:00] looking at this further.

[28:01] So maybe I'll pull together everything.

[28:03] But I would like to say one thing.

[28:05] We struggle to get people out to vote in municipal elections

[28:10] as it is, and I would hate to put any impediment

[28:20] in a potential voters way.

[28:22] I would like to I hear what everybody's saying,

[28:25] but I'd like to know what the exception to the rule

[28:27] is, because there may be some situations where I lose my ID,

[28:33] I want to go vote, but I didn't have enough time to go do it.

[28:37] I just want to make sure that it's fair across the board

[28:40] that no one is deprived the opportunity to vote,

[28:44] because there's too many people who have died just to vote.

[28:48] And I'm quite concerned about people coming in and say,

[28:52] I'm Elmer Davis.

[28:53] And then when I come in to vote, they say already voted.

[28:57] I said, that didn't happen.

[28:59] I mean, so I'm quite concerned on both ends,

[29:03] but I just want to make sure that we're

[29:07] doing the right thing going forward and not

[29:10] dialing some things backwards.

[29:12]

[29:14] OK anybody else.

[29:17] No I'll look more into it.

[29:18] I'll pull some stuff together for the next one.

[29:21] Next workshop for that.

[29:23] Then the final thing that was raised before were false alarms.

[29:28] And I got a copy of the County false alarm legislation.

[29:31] So I don't know if you had a chance to look at that

[29:33] and whether that satisfies any concerns

[29:37] or whether we want to do something

[29:38] additional in the town code.

[29:41] So it said that if there was more than two

[29:43] nuisance alarms like any.

[29:45] So basically it puts the onus on the departments

[29:47] to make a complaint to the County,

[29:49] is what it looked like to me.

[29:51] Like we've been to a place on West Street

[29:53] probably 2 times within the last month,

[29:57] let alone in the calendar year.

[29:59]

[30:02] So what was the.

[30:09] I don't remember how this came up.

[30:13] I think we were just talking about false alarms

[30:16] and whether or not there is any kind of penalty

[30:19] that the town could enforce.

[30:21]

[30:25] Or wanted to enforce.

[30:26] Yeah, I think you can.

[30:28] Yeah you just have to decide if do we want to.

[30:32] And then the amount comes secondary to it.

[30:37] And if you do there is sometimes a grace period after two.

[30:42] The third one, there's a whole bunch of different ways

[30:45] you can see there'd be like a charges for false alarms.

[30:49] Yeah like a fine.

[30:50] There would be a fee you'd have to pay for the company coming

[30:52] out again.

[30:53] Yeah or the police coming.

[30:56] Yeah I don't know if it's a police.

[31:01] I'm sorry.

[31:01] What does the County do after the second the chief

[31:06] from any department or department

[31:08] can file something with the County

[31:10] if they've been out to a certain place more than twice

[31:14] in a calendar year for a false alarm, more than twice

[31:19] in a calendar year.

[31:21] But the fire company, the fire company

[31:26] has to file the complaint with the County.

[31:30] I mean, they may do some enforcement on their own,

[31:32] but I can't imagine they have any way

[31:34] of knowing unless the fire department reports it.

[31:37] So it would be up to the Department to do it.

[31:40] But even I mean, even if we were to implement something,

[31:43] it would be up to the Department to let the town know that we've

[31:45] been out to this place four times this month,

[31:48] and they're not seem to be changing their.

[31:51] I mean, I think twice in a calendar year is

[31:54] a little severe, but I think four times in a month

[31:56] is definitely warranted for.

[32:01] So I don't have a problem looking

[32:04] into some sort of a fine for the repeat offender, if you will.

[32:10]

[32:14] Does the County ordinance only apply outside the towns.

[32:19] When we met with them.

[32:23] I think they applied it within the town as well.

[32:26] It's my recollection.

[32:28] So do we need to have one.

[32:31] That's really the question.

[32:33] Does this cover what we would do anyway,

[32:36] or do we want to do something stricter I guess.

[32:40] I mean, two in a calendar years, it can't be much less than that.

[32:44] What's a municipal infraction.

[32:48] I don't know how much they enforce this.

[32:51] Yeah, they have it on the books.

[32:53]

[32:57] But I also don't know if fire departments are reporting it.

[33:00] So maybe they don't know.

[33:01] Yeah I'll say something to Chief Dobson

[33:04] and see if anybody any other departments are, I mean.

[33:10] But to be honest, I mean, Easton gets the bulk of the alarms

[33:13] anyway in the County.

[33:14]

[33:17] Yes Salisbury is within a year or two freebies.

[33:20] Third one, you're getting charged.

[33:25] And I think it's important like, I guess being left up

[33:29] the department's important because obviously there's

[33:31] a difference between a malfunctioning

[33:35] detector which just has gone bad versus somebody smoking

[33:39] in the hallway of the building.

[33:41] And then it sets it off and it's repeatedly that's the reason

[33:44] why you go there.

[33:46] OK Yeah I'll check with him about it.

[33:52] And the only other thing I have.

[33:58] We're going to need at least one more workshop

[34:01] to go through the rest of the chapters.

[34:03] Again, with the changes like we did tonight,

[34:07] do you want to do that at your first meeting

[34:11] in September, which is a Tuesday.

[34:13] So it's kind of weird with the Labor Day holiday,

[34:17] it's Tuesday the eighth.

[34:19] Or would you rather wait till the 21st and do it then.

[34:25]

[34:28] I would personally rather wait.

[34:29] That's because I have company.

[34:32] I second that motion.

[34:33] All right.

[34:34] Sounds good Because it's my first day of school, so.

[34:36] Yeah OK.

[34:38] There you go.

[34:41] That's great.

[34:42] Second meeting in September for that.

[34:44] Yep awesome.

[34:45] Kathy, you got that.

[34:48] Does anybody have anything else as far as chapters 1 through 15

[34:51] go.

[34:52] If they'd like to bring up, we got a little bit of time.

[34:58] Just we might want to read once again,

[35:00] Section 4.4 of on how the definition of a meadow

[35:08] will be changed.

[35:11] We got a couple minutes.

[35:12] We can pull that up if we wanted to.

[35:14] Yeah, that sounds good.

[35:15] Thank you.

[35:16] It's 11.

[35:18] Is it.

[35:19] Chapter 11.

[35:20] Chapter 11.

[35:21] All right.

[35:24] Said section 4.

[35:24] I think let me get there.

[35:30] Come on.

[35:33] You said 4.4, David.

[35:35] That's what I remember.

[35:36] But I can't remember which I thought

[35:39] it was chapter 5 for some reason, but come on,

[35:43] I can't get back.

[35:44] Trying to get back to any old and table of contents and see,

[35:52] I think it's in chapter 11, but that's

[35:54] one of those ones where it has a lot of point somethings.

[35:57] And so it could be that it changed.

[36:01] Yes and I'm not sure what it was.

[36:05] What letter it may have.

[36:06] It may have been a letter.

[36:08] It is page 30.

[36:08] Demoted it a bit.

[36:10] Page 30 of the second document.

[36:14] Oh there it is.

[36:15] Yeah thank you, thank you.

[36:18]

[36:23] Yeah it's 11 5, but then it's of the property

[36:28] maintenance code three or 2.4.

[36:30] So it has those two different numbers.

[36:32] OK here we are.

[36:33] Yeah 11 5.2.20.

[36:38] Chapter 3 general regulations 302.4 weeds.

[36:45] Exceptions number four Meadows.

[36:47] Yeah provided that no portion extends

[36:55] into public right of way.

[36:57] The area is set back at least 10 feet from any adjacent property

[37:00] lines.

[37:00] The area is clearly delineated from maintained lawn

[37:04] by edging, fencing, mowing strip, or other visible border,

[37:08] and the area is maintained free of invasive plants

[37:11] and prohibited noxious weeds.

[37:13]

[37:16] Give a definition.

[37:19] So I guess my question is, what is.

[37:21] What is the purpose of this definition.

[37:25] It is.

[37:26] It'll make a big difference at Eastern club for the maintenance

[37:30] of the MHC properties, which right

[37:33] now are allowed to grow any kind of grass, weeds or anything.

[37:39] Gotcha and would only need to be mowed in a 10 foot

[37:42] perimeter for them to declare that all

[37:44] those weeds are a meadow.

[37:46] Understood thank you.

[37:49] Put it in context for me.

[37:52] Thank you.

[37:52]

[37:55] OK I mean, I think Tom's motivation

[37:58] for proposing this was just to make

[38:02] this language comply with the current international property

[38:05] maintenance code.

[38:06] Sample language.

[38:07] But that the effect is it will affect the East Coast.

[38:11] So that wasn't the purpose for it, but it is an effect of it.

[38:15] Yeah so people need to know.

[38:18] OK yeah.

[38:21] Just any kind of thing.

[38:22] Yeah There's a lot of houses like that.

[38:25] Great yeah.

[38:29] So, Doctor Montgomery, you're good with that.

[38:31] Yes, absolutely.

[38:32] Thank you for that clarification.

[38:34] That's important that the purpose of putting this there

[38:37] was to comply with the International Building codes.

[38:40] We didn't just make it up.

[38:41] He pulled this from somewhere that had a sample language.

[38:45] Yeah just I know we have a very specific case that

[38:49] we're thinking about for the item

[38:52] be if I do not have a 10 foot setback,

[38:56] does that eliminate me from being able to have a medal,

[39:02] thinking about more of an in-town residential property

[39:05] that may not have that much distance between properties.

[39:08] Is that just if you don't have the 10 feet, you're out of luck.

[39:13] I just want to make sure that makes sense.

[39:16] You wouldn't want someone walking

[39:17] by on a sidewalk to have.

[39:21] Hitting their leg.

[39:22] You want to make sure.

[39:22] Yeah, we're thinking about it because it's

[39:24] not just a public right of way.

[39:27] Maintain privacy.

[39:29] OK anybody else MS Vandenberg, thank you very much for all

[39:38] your work with this.

[39:39] And you got a little bit of time.

[39:42] We'll take a quick break, and then we'll be

[39:44] back for the meeting at 5:30.

[39:46] Yeah, I was trying to figure out.

[39:47]

[39:50] So what is that.

[39:51] The maintenance room.

[39:52]

[40:57] You don't know.

[41:09]

[41:24] Me good evening, everyone.

[41:33] I'd like to open the meeting and have

[41:35] remarks and pledge of Allegiance by Council Member Curry.

[41:39]

[41:44] Good evening, everyone.

[41:45] And in this age of online, even the Pope is online.

[41:51] And as a good Catholic, I'm going to read

[41:53] his newsletter every Monday.

[41:55] So I'm going to read from his newsletter this morning.

[41:58] Lord Jesus, as we begin this new week,

[42:00] take complete control of our steps,

[42:03] decisions, plans and desires.

[42:06] Go before us and make straight every crooked path.

[42:09] Give us the wisdom to recognize your will,

[42:12] the courage to obey it, and the humility to surrender

[42:15] what we cannot control.

[42:18] Amen amen.

[42:20] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,

[42:25] and to the Republic for which it stands.

[42:27] One nation under God, indivisible,

[42:30] with liberty and justice for all.

[42:32]

[42:37] All right.

[42:38] I'd like to open, with the approval of the minutes

[42:41] from the August 6, 2026, regular meeting.

[42:44] Do I have any questions or a motion on those minutes.

[42:47] I'll move to accept the minutes.

[42:48] Second We have a motion and a second to accept the meeting

[42:51] minutes of August 3, 2026.

[42:53] Regular meeting.

[42:54] All in favor.

[42:55] Aye Opposed.

[42:57] All right.

[42:57] Municipal items Mr. Christopher.

[43:00] Good evening sir.

[43:01] Good evening.

[43:02] Council I don't have a long list.

[43:04] I did want to just update council.

[43:06] And in the public, we've been receiving the emails that

[43:10] have been coming in about some ongoing concerns

[43:14] affecting East East residents.

[43:17] East I'm sorry, Eastern club.

[43:20] And we are addressing that internally.

[43:22] Our staff is on top of it and we are looking through what

[43:26] options we have available.

[43:28] From a code enforcement standpoint,

[43:29] and we'll be reaching out to both Eastern club and the

[43:33] adjacent property owner, MHC.

[43:37] But I'm going to be serving as that point of contact.

[43:39] So if you all are receive additional communications

[43:42] from residents.

[43:43] Those can be forwarded along to me

[43:46] and then my staff, whether planning and zoning

[43:49] or a building official, will be reaching

[43:51] out as necessary to detail out what we're doing moving forward.

[43:56] So I know there's a lot of things going on there,

[43:58] so I just want to update council on that.

[44:01] Thank you.

[44:02] Anything anybody have anything for Mr. Kitaro this evening.

[44:06]

[44:08] Thank you sir MS Vandenberg, how are you.

[44:10] Good I have nothing at this point.

[44:13] Does anybody have anything for the town attorney this evening.

[44:16] Rolling right along.

[44:17] Thank you.

[44:18] All right.

[44:19] We're going to move a couple things around,

[44:21] and we're going to move to the presentation

[44:25] proclamation presented to the 2026 Maryland

[44:27] Junior League state champions.

[44:29] And we're going to have Mr. Rankin read that proclamation.

[44:33] And if you guys want to please come up team

[44:37] coaches any parents family who want to be up here.

[44:41] We want to get everybody up.

[44:44] I'm a little nervous, guys.

[44:46] Got a big team here.

[44:47] I feel like I'm up at bat with two outs

[44:48] in the bottom of the ninth.

[44:49] And you get that run across, so need to deliver

[44:52] this proclamation here.

[44:53] Good for y'all.

[44:55] So I have a proclamation here from the town

[44:57] of Easton, Maryland, for the 2026 Maryland

[45:00] Junior League state champs.

[45:02] And it reads, whereas it gives us a tremendous amount

[45:04] of pleasure, on behalf of the mayor, council

[45:07] and all the citizens of Easton to express

[45:09] to the members of the Talbot baseball

[45:11] all stars representing Easton.

[45:13] Our sincere congratulations on your participation in the 2026

[45:17] Maryland Junior League region tournament

[45:19] in Dubois, Pennsylvania, where they

[45:20] put together an impressive run.

[45:22] And whereas the team players, the head coach Brian pluchek,

[45:26] and coaches Jason Smith and Bobby Callahan

[45:28] are to be commended for an exciting, hard fought

[45:32] and successful season.

[45:33] Advancing out of the state tournament to represent Maryland

[45:36] in the junior baseball.

[45:37] Small junior League Baseball 2026 region tournament.

[45:41] And whereas the camaraderie, the laughs, the memories

[45:44] and the unforgettable miles together during the practices

[45:47] and tournament are a true testament

[45:48] of an exceptional organization that

[45:50] has been active participants, excelling in our town's efforts

[45:53] to promote and provide recreational opportunities

[45:55] for our young people.

[45:57] And now, therefore, we are pleased to publicly commend

[46:01] the Maryland Junior League state champs for their fine efforts

[46:04] and present this proclamation as an expression of the affection

[46:08] and admiration from the mayor, the town council and all

[46:11] our citizens to the coaches and members of this team.

[46:14] Congratulations on a great season.

[46:16] This is signed here by the mayor, Megan Cook.

[46:19] So congratulations.

[46:20] Thank you.

[46:21]

[46:31] Thank you.

[46:34] I think we'll get you a little photo here.

[46:35] Yeah That's where I go.

[46:45] You got a camera.

[46:49] In front of you.

[46:51] Yeah 1, 2.

[46:52]

[46:59] Let's see.

[46:59] Let's be good, boys.

[47:00] Hold it together.

[47:01]

[47:04] You guys could move in a little bit on.

[47:06]

[47:13] The phone first, and then I will take a picture of.

[47:17] Three two.

[47:18] One OK, now the one for the.

[47:22] What's this.

[47:24] All right.

[47:24] And three 2 1.

[47:28] Thank you so much.

[47:29] Good job, boys.

[47:31]

[47:38] Thank you.

[47:43] Good I'll send you the video.

[47:46] The video.

[47:47] The whole thing.

[47:48]

[47:52] I already said that.

[47:54] Chief and team don't feel like you have to stay.

[47:56] Because the chief of police is getting ready to come up,

[47:58] and it's going to get really boring real quick, so.

[48:00] Yeah you're right.

[48:02] OK thank you all.

[48:08] Yeah you don't have to stay.

[48:10] Congratulations, guys.

[48:12] Great job.

[48:13] Thanks congratulations.

[48:17]

[48:21] I remember where Ryan was.

[48:24] Really this is what he was talking about.

[48:29] It's not.

[48:30]

[48:40] Sure it is.

[48:43] Reverend Davis, whenever you're ready.

[48:45]

[48:48] Hey, Chief.

[48:49]

[48:51] Chief you're up.

[48:52] So let's see if you can beat that.

[48:56] Here we go.

[48:58] Thank you.

[48:59] Council members, town manager, the.

[49:03] I assume you all have gotten a chance

[49:04] to take a look at the police board

[49:05] report for the second quarter.

[49:07] As usual, we were pretty busy during the second quarter.

[49:12] As we get into summer, it always picks

[49:13] up for us at spring time with all

[49:15] our special events and things.

[49:17] I mean, you'll just look at that front page

[49:19] and see even just the amount of patrol

[49:20] checks and neighborhood checks.

[49:22] We're talking over 1,000 in that category.

[49:25] And then if you look at just our patrol,

[49:27] our patrol division in three months handled

[49:30] 5,000 calls for service.

[49:31] So that's a lot going on.

[49:34] And as you noticed in that opening paragraph,

[49:35] we're doing that we did that during that quarter

[49:39] with some serious staffing issues between people that were

[49:42] on medical leave, people that have been deployed

[49:46] and some vacancies roughly.

[49:49] We're operating at 20% down at that point.

[49:52] We're getting a little bit better.

[49:54] We have only two members that are now on light duty.

[49:59] They're back in the office and helping us helping their team

[50:04] handle different things.

[50:06] Other couple have returned to full duty.

[50:09] The deployments are the deployments.

[50:11] We have two out right now for long term,

[50:13] and we have a couple others that are

[50:15] scheduled for deployments that are going to be at least a year

[50:19] long.

[50:20] So it's just the way it is.

[50:25] Our military people are great hires,

[50:27] and it's just part of us working with the people that

[50:30] are in reserves and the guard.

[50:33] If you look at the community resource and community

[50:34] engagements, I mean, you can tell we're pretty engaged

[50:39] in the community in terms of the different events

[50:42] that we're at between coffee with a cop

[50:44] teaching, active violence response and all the

[50:47] different for citizens going to different events.

[50:52] Officers are out at a lot of different things.

[50:55] It's been a very busy spring and beginning of summer for us,

[51:00] and we're now right getting ready for obviously

[51:02] school to start.

[51:03] We had a little brief pause here in August,

[51:06] where some of the special events end of July kind

[51:09] of fell off after 4th of July.

[51:10] We took that opportunity to do active violence response

[51:14] training, along with Talbot County Sheriff's Office

[51:16] and some of our allied agencies at Easton middle school

[51:19] over a two week period.

[51:21] And that was very productive for us to be able to do that

[51:23] with our other allied agencies.

[51:26] We got some good feedback from people

[51:28] that came for training on that.

[51:31] I noticed that on the investigation side,

[51:35] we've had some good cases.

[51:38] Cooks hope is obviously one that stands out.

[51:41] That was a difficult investigation

[51:42] for that home invasion.

[51:44] But the detectives put it together

[51:47] by tracking vehicles and stuff to try to identify the suspects.

[51:51] And as you read in here, that led to search warrants being

[51:55] executed in multiple jurisdictions in Maryland

[52:00] with tactical teams as well as Marshals,

[52:03] task force catching one of the people as a fugitive

[52:05] out in Ohio.

[52:07] So kudos to them.

[52:09] As it's recently, we've also had a couple

[52:13] of incidents involving firearms in which we made arrests.

[52:16] And in a shooting where somebody was injured,

[52:18] we had arrest in that within two days.

[52:21] And we also made another arrest in another prohibited person who

[52:25] made threats of violence with a firearm

[52:27] and recovered two firearms recently.

[52:28] So we're pretty proud of that detective work to get

[52:31] those firearms off the street.

[52:34]

[52:38] In terms of our grants.

[52:40] We successfully closed out all our grants that we

[52:42] obtained for this last year.

[52:44] We did obtain two more, one for additional training,

[52:49] as well as a continuation grant for the.

[52:56] Hero program.

[52:57] It's a great program.

[52:58] If any of you ever want to come out and see it,

[53:00] it's held out at a training facility,

[53:03] but it's aimed at youth to instill confidence in them.

[53:07] And most recently, we took out some kids

[53:10] that we take kids out from a lot of different areas

[53:13] Multicultural Center.

[53:15] Bam we're taking out a scout troop soon,

[53:18] and we've taken kids out that have been involved

[53:20] in the foster system, as well as kids that have been victims

[53:24] in the past of sexual abuse that come into the social services

[53:28] system through that.

[53:29] And we've seen a lot of good results with that.

[53:32] And how it empowers the kids.

[53:34] And we also get a lot of kids when they

[53:35] get done saying what, I think I may want to be a police officer.

[53:39] They get to go out to this facility.

[53:41] They actually do a mission, to save people.

[53:45] With police officers as well as NPR comes

[53:48] out with their helicopter.

[53:49] Sometimes they're riding on boats down creeks and stuff.

[53:53] So it's pretty involved and they really enjoy it.

[53:56] It's been a really empowering program for us.

[53:59] So that's about all I have for you.

[54:02] Do you have any questions.

[54:03] Any questions of the chief.

[54:07] Yeah, I had a couple.

[54:08] Chief, if you got a second.

[54:09] Crossing guards with school starting.

[54:12] Are we good with all of our crossing guard hires.

[54:15] Do we have everything filled.

[54:17] We are good, yes.

[54:18] And then.

[54:19] And we think we have some applications in the queue.

[54:22] So people are interested in the crossing guard.

[54:24] We always take an application.

[54:26] And then I know it's come up quite a bit recently.

[54:31] And I know you and I have talked about it, but just

[54:33] for the public knowledge, does the EPD utilize

[54:37] flock cameras anywhere in town.

[54:39] We do not.

[54:40] OK yeah.

[54:41] We do not use we don't contract with flock.

[54:44] And we don't use flock cameras.

[54:46] OK So thank you.

[54:48] Is there anything crime related that's trending

[54:51] in any neighborhoods that our citizens need to know about.

[54:54] We've had the whole County has seen a lot of fraud.

[54:57] And we've actually embarked in a fraud education process,

[55:01] I think was one of the neighborhoods that we hit.

[55:04] I think maybe Eastern club is also at one point,

[55:06] we had we're going to be making some return rounds,

[55:10] but the sheriffs are also out there doing educational rounds.

[55:14] There's a lot of online fraud.

[55:17] Telephone fraud.

[55:19] And the amounts of money that people are willing to give up

[55:23] is substantial.

[55:25] I mean, we have some that is 10,000 and we have some even

[55:30] as high as 100,000, depending on the type of fraud,

[55:35] whether it's sweetheart fraud or it's other financial frauds.

[55:39] And it's very hard for us to investigate and prosecute

[55:43] because a lot of them crossed not only over state boundaries

[55:46] but can also cross over international boundaries.

[55:49] So the best approach for us is to try to educate the citizenry

[55:53] about what the types of fraud are

[55:55] and to just say no and hang up the phone or get off the chat.

[56:01] So yeah, I will say, as my 95-year-old mother lives with me

[56:08] and has a landline and it rings constantly

[56:13] all day long and it's nothing but spam calls,

[56:17] it's unbelievable.

[56:19] I bet it's 15 calls a day.

[56:23] Unbelievable it is.

[56:24] It's pernicious.

[56:25] And it is a lot.

[56:28] Some people give up a lot of money before they realize that.

[56:32] And a lot of people are embarrassed about it,

[56:35] so they don't report it.

[56:37] But I would encourage anybody, if you're a family member that

[56:40] has somebody that's another family member that's older,

[56:43] that to talk to them about it and keep an eye on the finances,

[56:46] because that's often how we find out.

[56:48] Is that a family member or a son or daughter

[56:50] says, hey, my mom or my dad.

[56:53] I don't even let her answer the phone anymore.

[56:55] So it's horrible.

[56:58] I'm curious about something.

[56:59] I know we've had it comes and goes,

[57:01] but car break ins happen often and they different neighborhoods

[57:05] and whatnot.

[57:06] So obviously people need to lock their cars.

[57:07] But I'm just curious, has there ever been a situation where

[57:10] anybody's been caught or anyone's been apprehended

[57:13] related to CAR break ins.

[57:15] They go in spurts, without a doubt.

[57:18] At the end of last year and the beginning of this year,

[57:20] we had a little rash of not only car break ins,

[57:24] but actually stolen cars.

[57:25] And some people were caught in those situations.

[57:28] And then recently in the courtroom Parkway

[57:30] neighborhood as well as Eastern club East,

[57:32] we had theft from vehicles.

[57:35] I don't believe we've actually identified anybody in that case

[57:38] yet.

[57:38] That was a lot of cars.

[57:40] Most of those, almost all those cars except for one

[57:42] were unlocked.

[57:43] And that's typically what we do see

[57:45] is that people go around pulling door handles,

[57:47] looking for the opportunity, not actually breaking into the car,

[57:51] so they can be very difficult to pin back to an actual person

[57:56] unless we catch somebody either in the act or one of our best

[58:01] resources is people who installed their own security

[58:04] systems and have cameras that provide us

[58:07] at least some type of description or photo

[58:10] or video of the person.

[58:12] So we encourage residents to take hey,

[58:15] take your safety into your own hands.

[58:16] That's the first.

[58:17] That's the first layer of defense against it.

[58:20] One lock your cars.

[58:21] Don't keep things that are valuable in the cars,

[58:24] and invest in your own security system to help provide evidence.

[58:29] So as much as I would like to say,

[58:31] hey, we live in a free country and I

[58:33] should be able to leave my laptop

[58:35] in my car unlocked and expecting nobody to steal it.

[58:38] It's inviting heartache down the road.

[58:42] So thank you.

[58:43] Yeah all right chief, we appreciate

[58:46] thank you for what you do.

[58:47] Keep doing what you're doing.

[58:48] Keep us safe.

[58:49] Thank you, sir.

[58:49] Thank you.

[58:52] All right.

[58:53] At this moment in the meeting, we're moving

[58:54] on to the public hearing.

[58:55] 5:35 PM public hearing to solicit public comment

[58:59] on ordinance number 861, which proposes amendments to chapter

[59:03] 28 of the town code zoning.

[59:05] The purpose of the proposed amendments

[59:08] is to revise the code to make the town's treatment

[59:11] of accessory dwelling units ADUs,

[59:14] consistent with the provisions of recently

[59:16] enacted state legislation and recommended

[59:18] best practices for such uses.

[59:21] Good evening, Mr. Thomas.

[59:22] How are you.

[59:23] I'm fine.

[59:23] Good evening.

[59:24] A tough act to follow.

[59:25] I've got the chief with his professional report.

[59:28] I've got state champs and the Pope.

[59:32] Yes I'll do what I can.

[59:34] We're excited.

[59:35] We're ready.

[59:35] Yeah so, ordinance 861 is brought to you in order

[59:43] to bring the town into compliance

[59:46] with law that was passed by the state legislature back in 2025.

[59:52] You may have followed the state in there.

[59:55] They've been working on this for gosh, probably

[59:58] four or five years now.

[1:00:00] I think they introduced legislation in 2021 and 2022

[1:00:07] that ended temporarily in the creation of a task force,

[1:00:11] which I know oftentimes is where legislation goes to die.

[1:00:15] But in this case, it actually led to a proposal that

[1:00:19] was in the form of HB 1466.

[1:00:22] In the accompanying Senate Bill, which

[1:00:25] passed last year in the 2025 legislative session.

[1:00:30] Part of that required all municipalities and counties

[1:00:35] that exercise planning and zoning control to adopt

[1:00:39] a local law authorizing accessory dwelling unit

[1:00:42] development on land with that also allows single family

[1:00:47] detached dwelling units.

[1:00:50] And additionally, there were some other things that eight

[1:00:56] ordinance 861 does not address, but were also

[1:00:58] part of the law regarding such things as impact fees and HOAs,

[1:01:05] and the limits that homeowners associations

[1:01:07] could go in terms of regulating accessory dwelling units.

[1:01:12] So what is proposed is with the planning commission,

[1:01:17] feels relatively minimally necessary to comply

[1:01:21] with the state law.

[1:01:24] We were, by and large, in compliance with the state law.

[1:01:28] They are proposing for changes that

[1:01:31] are a combination of either necessary to match the state law

[1:01:36] requirements, or are suggestions made by the Maryland Board

[1:01:42] of Realtors that they thought would

[1:01:44] be appropriate in consideration of local ordinances

[1:01:48] to implement the law.

[1:01:50] So the first one is in actually in the treatment of this use

[1:01:54] and proposing to change it from special exception,

[1:01:58] a special exception use to an outright permitted use.

[1:02:02] I think that was done for a couple of reasons.

[1:02:05] One, it was the recommendation of the board of Realtors to.

[1:02:11] It was also not related to this effort,

[1:02:14] but it was also a recommendation of our attainable housing

[1:02:17] task force from last year.

[1:02:19]

[1:02:23] And lastly, the thinking is that this

[1:02:26] is a relatively low, impactful form of affordable housing.

[1:02:34] Then we should probably facilitate that

[1:02:37] through the easier process.

[1:02:39] And I believe the feeling is that

[1:02:42] with the accompanying supplemental standards,

[1:02:45] that there are appropriate safeguards,

[1:02:47] that a special exception review is not totally necessary.

[1:02:54] The second proposed changes is very simple,

[1:02:58] and that's just to terminology.

[1:03:00] The Maryland Board of Realtors suggested

[1:03:02] we strike the term granny flat, which is

[1:03:05] what we have called this use.

[1:03:06] You also hear referred to as in-law suite,

[1:03:10] sometimes referring to how they are frequently used.

[1:03:14] But the term that the state has used

[1:03:18] in the more encompassing term is accessory dwelling unit.

[1:03:21] So we just proposing that change.

[1:03:24] We're also proposing I'm sorry, Mr.

[1:03:26] Thomas, can you move your microphone down a little bit.

[1:03:28] I'm sorry.

[1:03:29] Thank you.

[1:03:30] That's the third proposed change is simply

[1:03:33] to adopt this state definition.

[1:03:37] For this use accessory dwelling unit.

[1:03:39] And then lastly, there are a couple of changes

[1:03:45] to the existing supplemental standards

[1:03:47] that we have for this use to.

[1:03:52] Fall in line with the state law specifically.

[1:03:58] Well, one that we've added on our own volition

[1:04:01] is currently we require that the owner

[1:04:05] of the accessory dwelling unit reside

[1:04:08] in the principal residence.

[1:04:10] And we are.

[1:04:11] And this was also suggested by the Board of Realtors

[1:04:14] to expand that slightly, to allow the owner

[1:04:18] to occupy either the accessory dwelling

[1:04:21] unit or the principal building on the site.

[1:04:26] Next is to impose a requirement that the floor

[1:04:31] area of the accessory dwelling unit be no greater than 75%

[1:04:36] of the gross floor area of the primary dwelling unit.

[1:04:39] That's actually part of the state law,

[1:04:40] so we definitely need to make that change.

[1:04:45] Limiting the number of bedrooms in an accessory dwelling unit

[1:04:48] to no more than two.

[1:04:50] And then lastly, a provision that it shall have

[1:04:54] direct exterior access that is separate from the existing

[1:04:58] primary dwelling with the provision

[1:05:01] that we can administratively waive this requirement

[1:05:05] if an entrance is provided that does

[1:05:08] not go into or through the primary dwelling unit.

[1:05:13] And that's it.

[1:05:14] In some I certainly entertain any questions.

[1:05:18] I think what we'll do is we'll allow for public comment,

[1:05:20] and then we'll call you back up for questions

[1:05:24] in the legislation portion.

[1:05:26] That works.

[1:05:27] Thank you.

[1:05:28] Thank you, Mr. Thomas, for everything.

[1:05:30] So this is an opportunity for residents

[1:05:32] to come up and speak on the issue of ordinance number 861.

[1:05:40] We ask that you do share your name with us.

[1:05:42] You don't have to necessarily.

[1:05:43] You don't have to give us your address or anything.

[1:05:45] But we would like to know who we're talking to.

[1:05:47] And we ask that if you're speaking for yourself

[1:05:49] as an individual, that we keep it to three minutes in case,

[1:05:52] we have other people and we have other stuff to cover tonight.

[1:05:54] And then if you're speaking on behalf of a group,

[1:05:56] try to keep it to five minutes would be beneficial to us all.

[1:06:00] So again, please come on up to the mic.

[1:06:03] If you do have a comment on ordinance number

[1:06:06] 861 accessory dwelling units.

[1:06:10]

[1:06:21] Three 7585 Holly Hill lane.

[1:06:26] You have my comments.

[1:06:27] I just urge you, you don't have to solve

[1:06:31] all this, all these problems, all these issues tonight.

[1:06:34] You need to get past the state deadline.

[1:06:37] And then there's a plan to revise

[1:06:41] the plan, the zoning regulations to accommodate

[1:06:45] the comprehensive plan.

[1:06:47] You can go back and fine tune and pick up other things

[1:06:50] like the parking restrictions after you

[1:06:52] check the boxes for this, the state parking study.

[1:06:55] So I just urge you to you can still keep it

[1:06:58] real simple tonight and come back in six months

[1:07:03] and finish the rest of the business.

[1:07:06] Thank you.

[1:07:07] Thank you.

[1:07:08] And thank you for your email.

[1:07:09]

[1:07:22] Good evening.

[1:07:23] I'm Doug Holley from Janet's way over in Eastern Clovis.

[1:07:26] I'm presenting myself, and I guess

[1:07:31] I think a lot of the things have common sense.

[1:07:34] The thing that's different is because now

[1:07:36] HOA, which has certain restrictions,

[1:07:39] are no longer valid.

[1:07:40] It kind of changes the nature of it.

[1:07:43] So look for some common sense opportunities to give things.

[1:07:50] So I think the requiring the direct an exterior

[1:07:53] access, the owner living on the lot which those things belong.

[1:07:58] I would suggest that maybe in the beginning,

[1:08:01] all waivers should come before the board,

[1:08:02] so the board can see the nature of the waivers

[1:08:05] that are being asked for.

[1:08:06] And then once you get a feel for it, delegate that to others.

[1:08:15] I think that's the key thing.

[1:08:16] Oh, and if there's a way I don't know

[1:08:18] and I don't want to steal your thunder,

[1:08:20] but if there's a way to have the next door neighbor and Eastern

[1:08:23] club East, we require next door neighbors to sign off

[1:08:26] when somebody's doing changes so that people are aware,

[1:08:29] and they're not surprised when all of a sudden

[1:08:31] the crew comes in and just putting on a new roof

[1:08:33] or something like that.

[1:08:34] If there's some way that a next door neighbor,

[1:08:36] because they're going to be affected

[1:08:37] by a new building going up in the lot next door,

[1:08:41] that would be terrific.

[1:08:42] I don't know what the answer to that is,

[1:08:43] but it would be very helpful.

[1:08:46] And that's the key thing.

[1:08:48] I did want to just comment on the one thing

[1:08:50] the Eastern club East talk about scams and stuff was excellent.

[1:08:56] They did a wonderful job.

[1:08:58] And it's really good.

[1:08:59] Thank you very much for listening.

[1:09:01] Thank you, Mr. Ali.

[1:09:02]

[1:09:09] And the last one was a really bad.

[1:09:11]

[1:09:14] One yeah, right.

[1:09:19] So what I'm going to do is have a little taller.

[1:09:25] I'm Lynn Randall, I'm the.

[1:09:26] At the moment, I am the chair of the architectural committee

[1:09:30] at East club East 452 homes.

[1:09:34] One of the concerns I have that I noticed

[1:09:36] in reading through the law, when it says

[1:09:39] 75% of the size of the home, that would not be realistic

[1:09:46] or even possible in most lots in East end club East,

[1:09:49] because they're not big enough.

[1:09:50] What I would suggest is that square footage.

[1:09:53] Th square footage application based

[1:09:56] on 1000ft versus the size of the big in terms of how do I say it.

[1:10:06] I'm talking about the amount of space they take up

[1:10:09] in the property, not 1,000 square foot home if it's two

[1:10:16] stories, but 1,000, it can't be more

[1:10:18] than 1000ft total on the ground for the footprint.

[1:10:22] Footprint thank you.

[1:10:23] Sure that's really all the only comment I had after just reading

[1:10:28] through the law for the last couple of days,

[1:10:31] but we will definitely have to put our covenants

[1:10:36] and our architectural guidelines in line

[1:10:40] with what the town chooses to do and that may come that may raise

[1:10:45] some additional concerns in terms of setbacks and things

[1:10:49] like that.

[1:10:50] So thank you for addressing this.

[1:10:53] Thank you.

[1:10:55] I'm good.

[1:10:55]

[1:11:09] All right.

[1:11:09] Not seeing anybody else at the moment.

[1:11:10] We are going to keep this open.

[1:11:12] This public hearing open.

[1:11:15] So again, folks at home, if you have comments or questions,

[1:11:18] please feel free to email the town.

[1:11:21] And of course, you'll have the opportunity at the next council

[1:11:23] meeting as well to speak on this particular ordinance Mr. Thomas,

[1:11:29] if you want to come back on up and.

[1:11:31] Oh I'm sorry.

[1:11:31] No, that's a little bit further down.

[1:11:33] I'm sorry.

[1:11:34] Jump the gun.

[1:11:34] Never mind.

[1:11:36] Jump the gun.

[1:11:36] Sorry moving on to the legislation portion

[1:11:39] of the evening, we have resolution number 6226

[1:11:42] authorizing the finance officer to make

[1:11:44] abatements for the neighborhood service center.

[1:11:47] Just a couple comments here.

[1:11:49] I did want to point of clarification

[1:11:52] this resolution 6226 with the mayor serving

[1:11:56] as a board of directors member, we

[1:12:00] wanted to pass along the resolution to council

[1:12:02] without a consideration from the mayor

[1:12:06] as supporting or not supporting it,

[1:12:07] but wanted to make sure that council knew that this request

[1:12:10] came in and for you all we wanted to pass

[1:12:14] along the vote to you all.

[1:12:16] As for consideration, a couple items we have not

[1:12:22] and the three bullet points for six South Street.

[1:12:27] I do not believe we have provided an abatement in

[1:12:32] the past for that property tax.

[1:12:35] And then the final item, I believe

[1:12:38] this would be the only nonprofit or any business

[1:12:42] that would receive an abatement for solid waste

[1:12:45] or recycling fees.

[1:12:46] We currently do not waive that for anybody else

[1:12:49] except for the Eastern volunteer fire department.

[1:12:56] So just wanted to give some context to the request.

[1:12:59] We've given tax abatements in the past to habitat.

[1:13:02] Habitat for, I think, construction projects and some

[1:13:04] of the homes when they're under construction, the second one

[1:13:06] does fall in line with what we've

[1:13:08] done before with some properties under renovation or rehab.

[1:13:12]

[1:13:15] And was there a specific reason why

[1:13:18] neighborhood service center is asking for it this year

[1:13:21] versus in past years.

[1:13:24] I did not get any additional information

[1:13:26] minus the letter that's attached in the packet for the request.

[1:13:31] And with the mayor not being able to be here,

[1:13:33] there might have been a secondary conversation,

[1:13:35] but it did not come to me through the executive director.

[1:13:39] They do have a new executive director,

[1:13:41] so maybe he's just trying to look at other avenues

[1:13:44] to save money.

[1:13:47] Just basically just I don't want to speak for the director

[1:13:50] of the neighborhood service center,

[1:13:52] but I do participate with them on a separate task force.

[1:13:55] And we had a meeting last week and he reported that they've

[1:14:00] had quite a bit of funding cut from the state for a lot

[1:14:02] of the work they do to help support low income and unhoused

[1:14:07] and folks who need assistance.

[1:14:11] And so to your point, MS Vandenberg,

[1:14:14] I expect maybe this is to help maybe

[1:14:16] offset some of those cutbacks they're getting so that they can

[1:14:20] continue to provide funding to support

[1:14:23] their clients and customers, residents around town,

[1:14:27] but I don't know.

[1:14:28]

[1:14:31] Any other comments or questions at this point

[1:14:33] in time about resolution number 6226,

[1:14:37] which is eligible for a vote this evening.

[1:14:41] Just a question.

[1:14:41] Will we be taking a vote now or during the legislative session.

[1:14:45] We're on the yeah we're at it are in the legislative session.

[1:14:48] Yeah I have great concerns about.

[1:14:51]

[1:14:55] Tax abatements coming in through the back door

[1:14:58] for any form of basically for any purpose whatsoever.

[1:15:04] I think that that's something that we need to examine

[1:15:07] as a policy prior to starting to give those exemptions one

[1:15:13] place or another.

[1:15:14] Certainly the issue of whether we should subsidize low income

[1:15:20] housing, the construction of low income housing,

[1:15:23] or the offering of low income housing

[1:15:25] was not something that there was universal agreement

[1:15:29] on in the Affordable housing task force.

[1:15:33] Some of us, including me, do not think

[1:15:37] that there is a groundswell of voter support

[1:15:42] for are having other taxpayers pay for the cost of low income

[1:15:47] housing, which is essentially what

[1:15:49] a property tax abatement does.

[1:15:51] It means the town is collecting less money

[1:15:54] from those structures that are designated

[1:15:58] for low income housing.

[1:16:00] And the only way to cover our cost of service

[1:16:03] is to have taxes higher than they would otherwise

[1:16:06] be for the rest of the town.

[1:16:09] Approving one application for that after another.

[1:16:13] And this is certainly not the only nonprofit group

[1:16:16] that provides housing for low income, special needs recovery.

[1:16:24] Other things I would oppose having us

[1:16:28] suddenly start granting those exemptions Willy nilly,

[1:16:32] without having a substantial discussion of whether it

[1:16:36] is the policy of the town to subsidize

[1:16:39] low income housing or not.

[1:16:42] Can I make one point of clarification.

[1:16:45] Before I meant I referred to the loss in funding at the level.

[1:16:50] I misspoke.

[1:16:51] The state level has not reduced.

[1:16:52] It's the federal level of funding that's reduced.

[1:16:54] But I just while I have the mic, I. One

[1:17:01] question I seem to recall last year, there

[1:17:04] was some financial related decision made

[1:17:07] related to the neighborhood service center.

[1:17:09] I can't remember if it was something about providing them,

[1:17:11] helping supplement their funding or I

[1:17:14] can't remember what that was.

[1:17:15] I don't know if I feel like something came

[1:17:16] from the Affordable housing fund to make a contribution to them,

[1:17:20] and I can't remember the exact amount that was done.

[1:17:23] They came asking for a lot, and I think

[1:17:25] and it came from the Affordable, the discussion was

[1:17:27] from the Affordable housing.

[1:17:28] Yes OK.

[1:17:29] And then just to the point by Doctor Montgomery,

[1:17:31] I'm not opposed to trying to get more information

[1:17:34] about these requests, just given the fact

[1:17:36] that it's the organization.

[1:17:41] I think it's deserving of support.

[1:17:43] But I think just to the point of other organizations

[1:17:46] who might need support as well and might

[1:17:48] be coming to ask for abatements, it's something

[1:17:49] that we should maybe talk more about,

[1:17:51] get more information about.

[1:17:52] I don't but this is not the first time

[1:17:55] that we've given abatements.

[1:17:57] I mean, we've done this previously,

[1:17:59] so there's already precedent for giving abatements.

[1:18:05] I hear you when you say you're not going to subsidize the poor,

[1:18:08] but all of us subsidize the poor.

[1:18:12] And so I hear you on one hand, but the relative,

[1:18:20] my understanding is it would be most difficult

[1:18:22] for some people even to live in the town

[1:18:25] because they can't afford it.

[1:18:27] I mean, so is the town going to be inclusive of everybody

[1:18:30] or if you're poor, you can't get any help.

[1:18:34] And I think the neighborhood housing is doing a good job

[1:18:37] of helping people who live in the town of Easton

[1:18:41] and abatements have.

[1:18:43] We've already set precedent.

[1:18:45] We've given abatements ever since I've been on the council.

[1:18:50] And it wasn't just for neighborhood housing,

[1:18:52] it was for other organizations.

[1:18:54] So I don't know where we look for information,

[1:18:58] but I know we've given abatements

[1:19:00] and we have voted on it.

[1:19:02] And I hear all my colleagues comments,

[1:19:04] but the precedent has already been set.

[1:19:08] I'd like to know specifically what those abatements

[1:19:11] were granted for.

[1:19:12] I do know that we have a number of developers who are saying

[1:19:16] they will put some low income units

[1:19:18] into what they were building.

[1:19:20] I would hate to think that we're setting

[1:19:22] a precedent that builders get tax abatements from the town,

[1:19:27] because to set a precedent for giving developers tax abatements

[1:19:33] for properties that they develop and because of our insistence

[1:19:39] on having some low income housing or affordable housing

[1:19:46] put in that they then turn around

[1:19:48] and say, OK, we'll be happy to do what you are telling

[1:19:50] us to do, but now you have to put

[1:19:52] the money back in our pockets.

[1:19:54] I think if we are going to have a policy

[1:19:56] toward affordable housing, it needs to look in an integrated

[1:20:00] way about whether we want to have the developer pay the cost

[1:20:04] or whether we want to spread it across the taxpayer.

[1:20:07] Once again, I see this as a potentially

[1:20:13] precedent setting event for housing

[1:20:16] for low income households.

[1:20:18] And I think we need to think very carefully

[1:20:20] about whether we want to start to make that

[1:20:24] a part of the town's budget.

[1:20:29] All right.

[1:20:30] A couple of things.

[1:20:32] One, in speaking with what Reverend

[1:20:35] Davis had mentioned about.

[1:20:36] We've done tax abatements in the past.

[1:20:38] The habitat for humanity.

[1:20:40] Those were abatements while those buildings were being

[1:20:44] built. But once they were done, and I

[1:20:46] would like it to be checked to make sure I'm correct on this.

[1:20:49] Once they were done that those abatements,

[1:20:51] we did not renew those abatements.

[1:20:53] It was just for that year or two.

[1:20:55] While the construction was sometimes while

[1:20:56] they were holding or in the construction. right.

[1:20:59] That's typical.

[1:21:00] And just so that everybody understands what we're talking

[1:21:02] about here is we're talking about one residents,

[1:21:07] we're talking about undergoing another piece of property

[1:21:12] for renovation.

[1:21:14] And we're talking about the waste

[1:21:15] and recycling fees for the Office

[1:21:17] of neighborhood service center.

[1:21:19] So those are the three items that we're looking on.

[1:21:22] But I mean, I could be wrong based on the conversations

[1:21:24] we're having.

[1:21:25] It sounds like people want a little bit

[1:21:26] more information as far as the abatements are concerned.

[1:21:31] And we can provide additional information

[1:21:33] on previous decisions that we've made.

[1:21:35] We can also withdraw this or remove it or not have a vote

[1:21:39] and come with something that's more overarching.

[1:21:42] That wouldn't specifically be to a singular property.

[1:21:45] Again, I do think this is singular

[1:21:46] in nature for my own personal comments, and we need to.

[1:21:51] It's probably better to think about it holistically

[1:21:54] on how we would want to address some of these items

[1:21:57] before I am evaluating each individual letter that comes

[1:22:02] to me and I give to you for consideration,

[1:22:05] I do want to make one additional point.

[1:22:07] I said earlier, the only person who doesn't pay

[1:22:09] is East of volunteer fire department.

[1:22:11] Eastern utilities also does not pay for trash services.

[1:22:14] There's only two.

[1:22:15]

[1:22:19] Any other comments, questions.

[1:22:22] Thoughts at this point in time, MS Curry,

[1:22:27] I feel obligated to say that I have to disagree with Doctor

[1:22:33] Montgomery's initial statement that this was a request

[1:22:38] coming through the back door.

[1:22:40] And I take exception to that.

[1:22:43] This letter came to us the same way.

[1:22:46] All the other letters have come.

[1:22:48] And I've known Andy Hollis for almost 40 years,

[1:22:55] and he's an upstanding, good man who's

[1:22:57] trying to help his community.

[1:23:00] And I don't disagree with the fact that we need

[1:23:04] to take a holistic approach in looking at how if we

[1:23:12] and can we support affordable housing in a meaningful way

[1:23:17] in this town.

[1:23:19]

[1:23:22] So let's do it.

[1:23:25] Thank you.

[1:23:26] So it sounds like Mr. Rankin.

[1:23:29] I mean, just to piggyback on MS Curry, I agree with her comments

[1:23:33] and in spite of wanting to understand more about this

[1:23:37] and wanting to consider this holistically,

[1:23:40] I have learned in recent months how important the neighborhood

[1:23:43] service center is to our community

[1:23:45] and to the people of our community who need this support.

[1:23:48] And so I believe they're a worthy organization

[1:23:53] that does deserve support.

[1:23:56] But I also agree that this needs a little bit more time

[1:23:58] to consider and discuss and understand

[1:24:01] better some of the precedents that have come before.

[1:24:05] It has come in as a one off thing, which I think

[1:24:07] is important to evaluate rather than just blanket waving things.

[1:24:11] So I think everything is case by case is important right now.

[1:24:15] And so I just wanted to make those additional comments.

[1:24:19] So it sounds like we're not going

[1:24:20] to have a motion on resolution 6226 this evening.

[1:24:25] OK my thing is why have affordable housing task force.

[1:24:29] I mean, are we just perpetrating a fraud.

[1:24:32] We're saying that we really want to help out

[1:24:34] people who are less fortunate.

[1:24:36] Is that the real reality.

[1:24:38] I mean, we've been kicking this can down the road a long time.

[1:24:42] We've come up with all kinds of answers

[1:24:46] that affordable housing, attainable housing,

[1:24:49] things of that nature.

[1:24:50] And that housing hasn't helped anyone.

[1:24:53] If we really want to fix the affordable housing problem

[1:24:56] in the town, let the town go buy a piece of land,

[1:24:59] and then we build it and then we can deal with it.

[1:25:03] Or we as an organization say that we're going to give

[1:25:06] x amount of dollars to whoever.

[1:25:08] And as we write some kind of policy

[1:25:11] that we don't get ourselves in trouble,

[1:25:13] that we're inclusive and fair across the board.

[1:25:16] I agree with Councilwoman Curry, the neighborhood housing

[1:25:21] services help a lot of people that need help,

[1:25:25] that need that helping hand to get

[1:25:27] them to where they need to be.

[1:25:29] Some people struggle just for a short period of time,

[1:25:32] but they just need that boost to get them to the point

[1:25:35] where they're taxpaying citizens giving back to our community.

[1:25:39] I just don't want to overlook that part

[1:25:43] as we look for some policies that we can all live by.

[1:25:49] So any other comments.

[1:25:56] All right.

[1:25:58]

[1:26:01] All right.

[1:26:02] Moving on to ordinance number 861,

[1:26:05] an ordinance of the town of Easton amending chapter 28,

[1:26:08] zoning of the town code Mr. Thomas, welcome back.

[1:26:11] Thank you.

[1:26:12] Thank you.

[1:26:13]

[1:26:16] This will be an opportunity for anybody here on the council.

[1:26:19] Has any questions Mr. Thomas, regarding ADUs.

[1:26:24] So I'm not.

[1:26:25] I'm concerned about why it's not a special exception.

[1:26:31] I have quite I have concerns about that.

[1:26:33] I think that the individuals in our community

[1:26:36] have a right to have a voice.

[1:26:38] If they wake up to somebody that has built something 75%

[1:26:44] the capacity of their house.

[1:26:46] I think it's fair and prudent that individuals

[1:26:49] in the community have a say, just that they come

[1:26:53] and it's a check off Mark.

[1:26:55] I don't think that's acceptable.

[1:26:57] I think our community deserves to have

[1:27:00] a voice when it comes to this.

[1:27:02] And then secondly, you said something about

[1:27:04] and I don't get me wrong.

[1:27:06] Adu OK.

[1:27:07] Maryland law.

[1:27:08] I'm not against any of that.

[1:27:10] But when it comes to the town, we can put in our own criterias.

[1:27:16] And special exception is one of them,

[1:27:19] because we want to look at what you're doing

[1:27:22] and put an extra eye on it, not just let it happen.

[1:27:27] I'm quite concerned about that.

[1:27:29] But then you said something about how

[1:27:30] this helps affordable housing or something

[1:27:33] with affordable housing.

[1:27:35] Say that back to me again so I can get some clarity on that.

[1:27:39] So I think part of the rationale for suggesting it be an outright

[1:27:45] permitted use, rather than a special exception, is obviously

[1:27:48] that's an easier process.

[1:27:51] Special exception is not a overly burdensome process,

[1:27:56] but it is an additional process, including

[1:27:59] more time and an application fee associated with it.

[1:28:05] So if this is a relatively low bar to affordable housing,

[1:28:13] the thought was, well, let's remove any.

[1:28:19] Potential barriers to that happening.

[1:28:22] Yeah I just I'm not quite sure I can

[1:28:26] buy into that affordable housing piece

[1:28:29] just because it makes it easier to flow.

[1:28:33] We haven't even solved the affordable housing

[1:28:34] piece as of now.

[1:28:36] And now this is going to be some kind of lead way

[1:28:39] for affordable housing.

[1:28:40] What we need to do is stop using affordable housing.

[1:28:43] If we're really not going to really anchor into what

[1:28:45] affordable housing is.

[1:28:47] I'm done talking.

[1:28:48] But the special exception it has to be in there because I think

[1:28:53] the citizens in our community have a right to know what's

[1:28:56] going on in their communities.

[1:28:58] It would be horrible that you wake up one day and then bam,

[1:29:03] that could be catastrophic.

[1:29:04] So in my opinion, that's where I'm at.

[1:29:07] I'm done.

[1:29:08] Doctor Montgomery, I agree with every word

[1:29:10] my colleague Reverend Davis has said up to this at this point.

[1:29:14] In addition, I see nothing in any of these regulations that

[1:29:20] suggest that these ADUs would be offered at anything except

[1:29:24] market rates, and 75% of a $500,000 house

[1:29:32] is a 350,000 $400,000 house.

[1:29:35] I see nothing in this that gives us any expectation that it would

[1:29:40] be an affordable unit, and taking away a $100 fee and $500

[1:29:45] in legal expenses is going to make

[1:29:47] the difference between affordable and not affordable.

[1:29:51] Now, I've many other things I'd like to bring up,

[1:29:54] but I just wanted to step in at this point to support

[1:29:57] what Reverend Davis said.

[1:30:00] Any other comments.

[1:30:01] I offer my take on it.

[1:30:04] I don't necessarily disagree with what

[1:30:07] my colleagues have said so far.

[1:30:08] But from a conceptual, affordable housing perspective,

[1:30:16] there's no one thing that's going to solve the crisis.

[1:30:21] There's not one thing.

[1:30:21] There's not one single thing we can do to just all

[1:30:23] of a sudden address the issue.

[1:30:25] ADUs were in the attainable housing task force report

[1:30:30] as one of a number of options and proposals

[1:30:34] to try and address this in different ways.

[1:30:38] My view of an ADU in this context, and I

[1:30:41] know some folks I've talked to some folks who

[1:30:44] are interested in this concept.

[1:30:46] We have aging people living in their houses,

[1:30:52] and they have property that they might want to build a smaller

[1:30:56] dwelling unit so they can move into that

[1:30:58] and have their child take over their house and use that land

[1:31:06] so that they're making more use of it.

[1:31:08] And whether or not that unit is affordable,

[1:31:11] I think in that case, is addressing

[1:31:13] another aspect of our housing challenge that we have here.

[1:31:16] And so you're potentially creating opportunities

[1:31:19] to folks to be more flexible and make more use of their property.

[1:31:24] I'm also a little concerned.

[1:31:26] I think we need to talk more about the special exception

[1:31:28] process.

[1:31:29] But if you buy a property, it's your expectation

[1:31:32] that you can do some things with your property

[1:31:34] and to be told that you can't or that you have

[1:31:37] to go through some special exception

[1:31:39] to build something on your property

[1:31:43] could devalue one's view of or it could lessen their view

[1:31:46] of the value of their property.

[1:31:48] So I need to think more about that.

[1:31:49] But just something that came to my mind

[1:31:51] with that, so I hear what you all are saying about it,

[1:31:57] and I hear your concerns, and I do

[1:31:59] want the community to be aware of what's going on

[1:32:01] and be comfortable about what's going on in their neighborhoods.

[1:32:03] But my recollection and my view of ADUs

[1:32:08] is it's one tool in a toolbox to try

[1:32:11] and address some of the housing challenges we have in town.

[1:32:14] And so I just take a little bit different view on it.

[1:32:20] I will echo that because and I'll bring it home.

[1:32:25] I would love to put an on my property

[1:32:28] that I could live in, and bring my nephew and his family

[1:32:31] back to Easton, where he grew up.

[1:32:35] He's been in the Navy for almost 20 years now.

[1:32:39] They want to come home with their children

[1:32:41] and raise their children here.

[1:32:42] They can't afford to buy a house in Easton.

[1:32:45] But if I give them my house and I build a little ADU

[1:32:48] in my backyard, then they can come

[1:32:50] and I can play with my great nieces and nephews all day long.

[1:32:54] I think that's kind of cool.

[1:32:55] I do not think I should be able to do that without letting

[1:32:58] my neighbors know.

[1:33:00] How do we accomplish that.

[1:33:02] Because I would never want to put I don't care if it's

[1:33:05] two bedroom little bungalow I'm putting on

[1:33:08] and I got plenty of property.

[1:33:10] I wouldn't do that to my neighbors, I really wouldn't.

[1:33:13] I've lived there almost 40 years,

[1:33:14] so there's no way I'm going to do that.

[1:33:17] But that's an example.

[1:33:19] That's just and I think that's what this whole concept is all

[1:33:25] about.

[1:33:26] It is an affordable I don't need a four bedroom, three bath house

[1:33:29] anymore.

[1:33:30] I need a little bungalow.

[1:33:31] But I would love to stay in my neighborhood.

[1:33:33] So how cool is that.

[1:33:34] It's a win-win.

[1:33:36] So that's just my take on it.

[1:33:38] But again, should not be allowed to do that without talking

[1:33:41] to my neighbors.

[1:33:43] Yeah Doctor Montgomery, anything else.

[1:33:46] Yes several things.

[1:33:47] The first one is that I think many of my concerns

[1:33:50] would be taken away at this point

[1:33:51] if we simply kept it as a special exception.

[1:33:55] Because I think the use that MS Curry wants

[1:34:00] to make of it and your willingness

[1:34:02] to consult with your neighbors, it's

[1:34:03] exactly what a special exception is there

[1:34:05] for, and good reasons that the neighbors and others can accept.

[1:34:11] I think we'll always work in that process.

[1:34:15] As far as this being something in our toolbox for dealing with

[1:34:18] affordable housing, I think that's saying,

[1:34:21] I'm going to go out and buy a screwdriver

[1:34:24] so that I can fix my entire $15,000 air conditioning system.

[1:34:28] It's just so trivial that I do not

[1:34:31] see it without and without direction that I don't see

[1:34:34] it making a great difference.

[1:34:36] Certainly not any difference.

[1:34:38] If we are debating the difference

[1:34:40] between a special exception and permission.

[1:34:44] I'd like to change the subject a bit

[1:34:46] though, because it disturbs me that we are reacting here

[1:34:51] to both what the requirements of the state are

[1:34:55] and what some recommendations of Realtors are.

[1:34:58] So I'd like to know exactly what wording in here

[1:35:02] is mandatory for the state, and what

[1:35:04] wording is trying to go along with what the realtors want, 31.

[1:35:08] Because I would reject, I would.

[1:35:10] We have to accept.

[1:35:11] First we need to ask ourselves, why would

[1:35:13] we want to do the latter.

[1:35:15] I represent a Ward which has three very large

[1:35:22] and one moderate sized homeowners association.

[1:35:26] None of them want to see ADUs within their homeowners

[1:35:29] association.

[1:35:31] They want to be able to retain some vestige of their ability

[1:35:35] to define the community the way it was originally conceived.

[1:35:40] And so I'm always going to advocate for that.

[1:35:43] And therefore, I want to know what is the absolute minimum

[1:35:46] the state requires us to do.

[1:35:48] Because I think that's what I am obligated

[1:35:50] to argue for my constituents.

[1:35:53] And just a final conceptual point.

[1:35:55] I think we always have to challenge the notion

[1:35:58] if I have property rights, I should

[1:35:59] be able to do anything I want.

[1:36:01] That is absolutely false.

[1:36:04] The whole idea of zoning is to tell

[1:36:07] people what it is that they can and cannot do on their property.

[1:36:11] As a matter of how it is going to conform to the needs

[1:36:19] of the rest of the community.

[1:36:21] My property rights.

[1:36:23] My rights end where yours start.

[1:36:25] And that is true of everything.

[1:36:27] And the notion that I get irritated if I have to go

[1:36:31] get a permit for a shed, but I understand the reason for it.

[1:36:35] I certainly do not think that my property rights give me

[1:36:40] the right to develop, to add additional housing

[1:36:43] on my property.

[1:36:45] That's what the developers would like us to believe,

[1:36:51] so that they can go out and sell their property

[1:36:53] at the maximum amount they can get for it

[1:36:56] and build the maximum amount of housing on it.

[1:36:59] And that's not the kind of town I want to see.

[1:37:02] And that's not the kind of development

[1:37:04] I want to see Mr. Thomas.

[1:37:07] It sounds like from the conversation

[1:37:09] this evening that I think there's some people.

[1:37:11] I think there's definitely a consensus on the idea

[1:37:15] of a special exception.

[1:37:17] But also, if you could.

[1:37:20] We can look up.

[1:37:24] What is it.

[1:37:25] Housing bill.

[1:37:26] I wrote it down.

[1:37:28] 1466 I know we could look that up.

[1:37:31] But if you could share with us, I

[1:37:33] think sounds like from a couple people

[1:37:35] what the requirements actually are from housing bill 1466

[1:37:40] to see that.

[1:37:40] Yeah, and that doesn't have to wait till the next meeting.

[1:37:44] No, I can do that.

[1:37:46] Yeah OK.

[1:37:47] Yeah I think the important point about the homeowners

[1:37:49] association, I think that in the bill or not.

[1:37:52] If that's not in the bill, then I

[1:37:53] think that's something that we should

[1:37:55] tell the homeowner in the bill.

[1:37:57] If I remember, I'm sorry.

[1:37:58] Does address the homeowners association in their addresses.

[1:38:00] The size addresses a couple things.

[1:38:02] Yeah, it does say in there that what was the term

[1:38:05] miss Vandenberg we were using before when it came to there

[1:38:08] was some kind of unreasonable limitation, unreasonable

[1:38:11] limitations.

[1:38:12] That's what it was.

[1:38:13] There's also Maryland Department of planning

[1:38:15] has a frequently asked question regarding ADUs

[1:38:17] that I think is very helpful.

[1:38:19] So we can send that a link along with the explanation.

[1:38:22] Yeah, that would be great.

[1:38:23] What's the housing bill number.

[1:38:25] State 1414 1414 1614 6666.

[1:38:29] Thank you Mr. Thomas, thank you, as always, for your work.

[1:38:39] And for putting up with us.

[1:38:41] Thank you.

[1:38:43] My pleasure.

[1:38:44] And obviously, again, we're keeping this open.

[1:38:46] So folks at home you want to.

[1:38:48]

[1:38:52] Contact the town and share your thoughts and concerns.

[1:38:54] You may do that as well.

[1:38:55] And of course, we'll have it open for the next meeting.

[1:38:58] Yeah thank you to the folks that have

[1:38:59] already reached out with some.

[1:39:01] Absolutely yes.

[1:39:04] All right.

[1:39:05] Moving on to ordinance number 862,

[1:39:07] an ordinance of the town of Easton

[1:39:08] granting the application of Lowe's home centers, LLC,

[1:39:11] formerly Lowe's home centers, incorporated, for a planned unit

[1:39:15] development Amendment under the provisions

[1:39:18] of the Easton zoning ordinance.

[1:39:20] Good evening.

[1:39:21] Good evening.

[1:39:22] My name is Todd Bartok, senior construction manager for Lowe's

[1:39:26] home centers, LLC, Mooresville, North Carolina,

[1:39:30] and I'm here to seek the approval

[1:39:32] for the storage of outdoor sales and display of trailers

[1:39:41] and sheds on that portion just outside

[1:39:45] what we call the lumber yard.

[1:39:48] Thank you very much.

[1:39:49] First of all, for coming this evening.

[1:39:52] We appreciate you being here.

[1:39:55] Normally when we had an Amendment change or anything

[1:39:58] like that, we usually have somebody come in

[1:39:59] and there wasn't anybody here last meeting.

[1:40:01] So thank you for making the trip.

[1:40:03] That was my fault. No, no, no I apologize.

[1:40:05] I travel all over the US and just missed it.

[1:40:08] No worries.

[1:40:08] And thank you very much for making the time to be here.

[1:40:12] Does anybody I have a couple of questions,

[1:40:15] and I'm not sure if they might be able to be answered or not

[1:40:17] this evening, but does anybody have any questions or comments

[1:40:20] about ordinance number 862?

[1:40:24] And if you remember, I'm not sure

[1:40:27] if everybody was here for that.

[1:40:29] Yeah Mr. is there any way you can put that up on the screen.

[1:40:34] Because we didn't have it because there's

[1:40:36] a lot of the actual ordinance.

[1:40:38] Well, the maps, the map and the layout.

[1:40:42] Yeah I lose.

[1:40:45] Give me one second.

[1:40:47] Who gave us that presentation, Mr. mayor.

[1:40:50] There All right.

[1:40:52] Thank you.

[1:40:53] Joe I know it was you.

[1:40:54] Appreciate that.

[1:40:55] Joe could I ask just a quick factual question

[1:40:58] while we're putting that up.

[1:40:59] Absolutely will, what you're doing now

[1:41:01] change the function of any of the rest of the buildings there.

[1:41:06] The garden center will stay where the garden center is.

[1:41:09] The does not affect anything, any

[1:41:13] of the existing improvements.

[1:41:15] All right.

[1:41:24] So, Joe, one of the questions that I had had

[1:41:27] was about the screen between the shop, the end of where

[1:41:34] the Lowe's building is.

[1:41:36] And then over to the Weiss, formerly the Food Lion,

[1:41:42] used to be a Food Lion.

[1:41:43] Now it's Weiss.

[1:41:45] And that's one of the.

[1:41:47] So for those of you that were not here because.

[1:41:50] Were you here.

[1:41:51] No, you weren't here.

[1:41:51] So I'd like our other my fellow council members

[1:41:55] to see what Lowe's is proposing as far

[1:41:59] as the screen screening goes.

[1:42:04] Well, do we have that.

[1:42:06] Do we have that.

[1:42:08] It might be on the laptop.

[1:42:12] Sorry, we're just throwing this at you

[1:42:15] and I'll do a brief description.

[1:42:19] There it is.

[1:42:20] There we go.

[1:42:21]

[1:42:26] That's better.

[1:42:27]

[1:42:31] Does that work for everybody.

[1:42:32] Perfect so that's the current.

[1:42:34] That's the current view.

[1:42:35] Yeah, but this is rendering.

[1:42:39] Yeah those are.

[1:42:40] These are not there right now.

[1:42:42] And then this is the other.

[1:42:44] These are the proposed right next to it.

[1:42:46] So they would be on both sides of the area.

[1:42:49] No just the one just the two different views.

[1:42:54] Yeah, two different views you're getting.

[1:42:56] This is not our property.

[1:42:58] So we can't really put anything on there.

[1:43:00] But that area there, we would plan to screen.

[1:43:06] We're looking toward the Lowe's building at this point.

[1:43:09] Yes OK.

[1:43:10] 322 OK.

[1:43:12] So we're screening it along the public well,

[1:43:15] semi-public road, which is the road

[1:43:17] that goes into Kroger circle.

[1:43:21] Correct OK.

[1:43:22]

[1:43:25] In this view is if you're at Lowe's looking

[1:43:28] back toward right Parkway.

[1:43:33] And right now, you seem to have almost permanently had

[1:43:35] a large trailer sitting there.

[1:43:38]

[1:43:40] That trailer moves around the site.

[1:43:43] It's a preload site.

[1:43:45] So when someone comes in and orders a large load,

[1:43:48] we'll load it on that and then they'll haul it off.

[1:43:50] No, I meant the 50 foot 1.

[1:43:54] That's parked there frequently, right behind

[1:43:57] where those trees will be.

[1:43:59] Are you speaking of this one here.

[1:44:00] The trailer that's been there.

[1:44:02] I don't see anything as big as what I know.

[1:44:05] It's pretty good.

[1:44:05] I don't have anything out there permanently.

[1:44:07] Yeah, I know it has wheels, but no, I mean, not in that area.

[1:44:12] That area there in front of the lumber yard.

[1:44:16] We don't have anything out there permanently

[1:44:18] that there that's shown there.

[1:44:22] Potentially I don't believe it's there.

[1:44:24] Google Maps.

[1:44:25] Yeah I don't have a better.

[1:44:29] So it moves around the site depending on parking available.

[1:44:33] OK talking about.

[1:44:36] Tractors any other questions at this point.

[1:44:41] And again, since we had two people

[1:44:43] who weren't here last time.

[1:44:44] Yeah I apologize because I've also been trying to figure

[1:44:46] this out from the renderings.

[1:44:47] So the plannings would provide a screen between where you're

[1:44:51] looking to do this and then those parking spots there you'd

[1:44:55] be displaying right in here in those parking spaces,

[1:45:00] you'd be displaying sheds or whatever it

[1:45:01] is you want to be displaying.

[1:45:03] There's typically four to five sheds that are display only.

[1:45:07] They're not.

[1:45:08] You can't actually pick it up and buy it.

[1:45:10] It's a display.

[1:45:11] And then the others are 6 to eight actual pull

[1:45:16] behind uncovered trailers.

[1:45:19] They're utility trailers that are for sale,

[1:45:22] so they range from depending on the sale of them,

[1:45:26] anywhere from 5 to 10.

[1:45:29] So it's like an outdoor sales floor.

[1:45:30] Is that a yes for those trailers right there and then right now

[1:45:35] they're parking spots.

[1:45:36] So they would just be converted to this outdoor showroom

[1:45:39] concept.

[1:45:40] Yes along this area here.

[1:45:42]

[1:45:46] I don't believe we're going all this far.

[1:45:48] Somebody else.

[1:45:49] That's enough.

[1:45:51] You're just taking those first 10 spaces,

[1:45:55] and it won't impact any of the circulation

[1:45:58] around the shopping center.

[1:45:59] It takes out that whole last row of parking, which, I mean,

[1:46:05] which is not the people who use those parking.

[1:46:06] No, because that whole side is basically for contractors.

[1:46:12] Contractors and professionals.

[1:46:14] So it's separated from where the retail customers park and go.

[1:46:23] It is those 10 spaces there that we're talking about.

[1:46:27] OK from landscape island to landscape island.

[1:46:32] And there's no stipulation that's

[1:46:33] interrupted because they don't take they

[1:46:36] don't exceed the parking space.

[1:46:39] They're actually back about a foot.

[1:46:41] So they do not exceed the length of the space.

[1:46:45] Correct the length of the parking space.

[1:46:47] OK, so are they actually the trailers are parked in a parking

[1:46:51] space, like head in.

[1:46:54] OK no.

[1:46:55] Their tail in their tail so that you can hook up to it

[1:46:59] and drive it away.

[1:47:00] OK Got it.

[1:47:04] And then the sheds are actually pushed back

[1:47:06] to the edge of the curb, back towards the edge of the curb

[1:47:08] here because they're on that end,

[1:47:11] but they're sitting like in this area

[1:47:14] because they're not a full depth of the parking

[1:47:16] stall, which is 18 feet.

[1:47:18] So there's plenty of room for pedestrians

[1:47:20] to stand out in front of them.

[1:47:22] And how many sheds at one time 4 to five.

[1:47:26] It all depends, of varying sizes, I would imagine.

[1:47:30] Yes, but they're more of a display.

[1:47:32] They're not.

[1:47:34] You're not going to bring a 4 by 14 out there.

[1:47:36] You're going to have a display.

[1:47:38] So it'll be about 6 to feet wide by 10 feet.

[1:47:43] OK anybody else with a question.

[1:47:51] I don't know if you're going to be able to answer my question

[1:47:53] or not, but we had a lot of residents

[1:47:55] that we're concerned about flock cameras on Lowe's parking lot.

[1:47:59] There's three of them in that parking lot,

[1:48:01] and I don't know if there's somebody that would be

[1:48:04] a good person to contact if we had questions

[1:48:06] about the use of flock cameras.

[1:48:08] It's the only place in town that uses them.

[1:48:11] And so I think some residents had some questions about them.

[1:48:14] I can put you in touch with someone.

[1:48:16] That would be wonderful.

[1:48:17] I don't have that individual's name with me.

[1:48:20] They're in AP, which is asset protection.

[1:48:24] Gotcha so I can definitely are they strategically located.

[1:48:29] I know there's one on both ends of here,

[1:48:31] so I'm not sure if it is to protect this new outdoor area.

[1:48:36] It's not to protect anything.

[1:48:39] It's reading license plate as they come in.

[1:48:41] So we're trying to keep those that have warrants.

[1:48:47] I mean, if you have a warrant and it comes up, it'll flash it

[1:48:51] and it notifies the police and they come over

[1:48:54] and we don't want a whole bunch of people that

[1:48:57] are out there, known felons that are out there trying

[1:49:01] to rob from us.

[1:49:02] But I know that the police department, typically in some

[1:49:07] of our other jurisdictions, are the ones

[1:49:08] who actually ask us to put them in the parking lot,

[1:49:12] and we do that.

[1:49:13] And then we do have some that we provide our own.

[1:49:17] So third party would you have somebody we can reach out to

[1:49:22] and I'll send it to you.

[1:49:23] I'll actually send it through, Joe.

[1:49:25] That'd be perfect.

[1:49:26] OK thank you very much for that.

[1:49:28] And if I understand that correctly,

[1:49:29] this is a Lowe's policy, not just like local to Easton,

[1:49:32] but this is something that regional.

[1:49:35] Yeah I don't know what the policy is.

[1:49:38] I'm sorry.

[1:49:38] That's fine.

[1:49:39] It's not in my purview, so I can't really answer that.

[1:49:42] I don't want to say anything stupid.

[1:49:44] Does anybody else have any questions

[1:49:50] regarding the location.

[1:49:54] Anybody have any motion or question or concerns.

[1:49:58] Are we taking any questions from the audience

[1:50:01] at this point or no.

[1:50:03] The public hearing was closed.

[1:50:05] The public hearing is closed.

[1:50:06] Yeah you closed that two meetings ago.

[1:50:08] Yeah you did.

[1:50:10] I'll move to approve the Amendment.

[1:50:13] Second We have a motion and a second to approve

[1:50:17] ordinance number 862.

[1:50:19] An ordinance of the town of Easton granting the application

[1:50:22] of Lowe's home centers, LLC for a planned unit development

[1:50:26] Amendment under the provisions of the Easton zoning ordinance

[1:50:30] Mr. roff MS Murray.

[1:50:33] Yes Mr. Rankin yes.

[1:50:35] Doctor Montgomery.

[1:50:36] Yes Reverend Davis.

[1:50:37] Yes president.

[1:50:39] Yes thank you.

[1:50:42] Thank you for your time, sir.

[1:50:44] And if people did have comments, they can, of course, make them.

[1:50:50] Let me get to public participation.

[1:50:53] All right.

[1:50:54] Moving on.

[1:50:56] Ordinance number 863, we have to set a public hearing

[1:51:00] for this ordinance number 863, an ordinance of the town

[1:51:02] of Easton adopting a temporary moratorium on the application

[1:51:05] for approval of construction, of expansion of process,

[1:51:10] processing of excuse me, or issuance of the building permits

[1:51:14] for the operation of a data center within the town of Easton

[1:51:17] for a period of 12 months, pending consideration

[1:51:21] and adoption of revised zoning ordinance provisions

[1:51:25] and such other legislation as the town council may

[1:51:28] consider advisable to promote the public health, safety,

[1:51:31] and welfare.

[1:51:32] So we need to set a public hearing for this.

[1:51:34] Yes and for the next one.

[1:51:38] And for the next one.

[1:51:39] OK ordinance number 864, an ordinance

[1:51:42] of the town of Easton amending the town of Easton zoning

[1:51:45] ordinance to create the use data center

[1:51:47] and to provide supplemental standards

[1:51:49] associated with the use.

[1:51:51] So the soonest we could have a public hearing

[1:51:53] would be at your September 8 meeting.

[1:51:56] There's time, I think, to get an advertisement,

[1:51:58] because there's an extra Monday in there.

[1:52:01] And it's going to go to the planning

[1:52:03] commission for recommendation that later this week.

[1:52:06] So there you will have that before your public hearing

[1:52:09] if you did it on the eighth.

[1:52:10]

[1:52:13] All right.

[1:52:14] With that, sir.

[1:52:16] All right.

[1:52:16]

[1:52:19] All right.

[1:52:19] Moving on.

[1:52:21] Time for the public participation and comments.

[1:52:24] Just like with the public hearing

[1:52:25] can come up to the microphone and share your concerns

[1:52:29] or questions with the council.

[1:52:32] I'll try to keep it to about three minutes for an individual.

[1:52:35] Five minutes if you're representing a group.

[1:52:37] We'd love to hear from you again.

[1:52:38] Please come up to the podium and share your name with us.

[1:52:42] You do not need to share your address,

[1:52:43] but share your name with us.

[1:52:44] And what you're concerned about is about the data

[1:52:58] center moratorium.

[1:53:00] It's public comment.

[1:53:01] So it could be about whatever you want.

[1:53:03] You can come up to the podium.

[1:53:04] Sure hello, my name is William Grant.

[1:53:13] I did not honestly expect for a data center moratorium here,

[1:53:19] but I just want to express my own personal support for it

[1:53:23] as typically data centers, especially

[1:53:26] the more recent ones about AI.

[1:53:30] They require large amounts of processing power and that

[1:53:34] and generate large amounts of heat and noise.

[1:53:38] Because to cool the large amount of processors in there.

[1:53:44] And that generally results in a large quality of life.

[1:53:54] Cost to the residents of this town.

[1:53:56] And as such, I don't believe that a data center in Easton

[1:54:03] would be remotely close to worth the quality of life

[1:54:07] and economic cost of it.

[1:54:09] That is all.

[1:54:10] Thank you.

[1:54:11] Thank you sir.

[1:54:12]

[1:54:24] Any other public comments.

[1:54:26] Seeing none, move on to committee reports.

[1:54:31] Anybody have any committee reports for this evening.

[1:54:35] I do not.

[1:54:36] All right, then, we'll move on to items

[1:54:38] by members of the Council MS Curry.

[1:54:41] I don't have anything this evening, Mr. Rankin.

[1:54:45] A couple of brief things.

[1:54:46] Thanks, as always, to everybody who provided public comments.

[1:54:49] We appreciate those.

[1:54:50] And they're important for our work.

[1:54:52] I want to continue to lift up the Todd family.

[1:54:54] Family in Cambridge, who lost their daughter

[1:54:56] last week in a car accident.

[1:54:58] I know that's impacted a lot of folks,

[1:55:00] not only in Dorchester County, but also Talbot County.

[1:55:02] So I want to continue to lift up that family.

[1:55:04] And then finally, I wish good luck and safe travels

[1:55:08] and semesters to all those going off

[1:55:10] to school, returning to school.

[1:55:12] President Patel and myself have daughters

[1:55:14] who are going off to college this week,

[1:55:16] and it's our first, well, this first one for me.

[1:55:20] So it's going to be a big change and a big challenge.

[1:55:22] And so I just wish all those kids going

[1:55:25] out to figure out who they are.

[1:55:27] Good luck and have a great time.

[1:55:30] Doctor Montgomery, first of all, I'd

[1:55:32] just like to again congratulate our youth baseball team.

[1:55:37] I am constantly impressed at the ability of our local teams

[1:55:42] in this small town to win state and larger championships,

[1:55:47] and we just have a great and varied

[1:55:51] group of teens in high school and players second.

[1:55:58] Again, I want to thank our Mr. and Mrs. Van Amburg for taking

[1:56:05] on the task of sorting through the issues at Easton club

[1:56:12] and MHC that have to do with mowing of the grass, which I

[1:56:17] know has been a constant thorn in the side of the residents

[1:56:21] there with issues of is it a meadow or is it a golf course.

[1:56:26] And then with the many, many issues and questions

[1:56:31] that have come up about stormwater management there.

[1:56:35] And I think that establishing that there

[1:56:39] is one point of contact in the town

[1:56:42] to which complaints, requests, suggestions should go.

[1:56:47] And similarly, one voice coming back to answer questions

[1:56:50] in one consistent way is going to do a great deal

[1:56:55] to make the community more comfortable with

[1:57:00] where things are and to move us forward

[1:57:02] for an ultimate resolution.

[1:57:04] So thank you for the time that you put in,

[1:57:06] and thank you even more for the time,

[1:57:08] you are going to be putting into this in the future.

[1:57:12] Reverend Davis.

[1:57:13] So I want to make sure that everyone understands

[1:57:16] the school is about to start in our community

[1:57:19] and when school is in session, be patient.

[1:57:23] Take your time.

[1:57:24] Traffic is heavy.

[1:57:26] And if you have some free time, you pray for those two fathers

[1:57:30] down there that are grieving, that their children

[1:57:33] are going to college.

[1:57:35] They'll probably save some money from the food bill and all that.

[1:57:39] So we just want to keep them in school.

[1:57:42] Starts for council president Donna Vitello.

[1:57:46] So we just want to make sure he stays safe.

[1:57:48] And I also want to speak out against all this gun

[1:57:51] violence that's happening in our world and even in our community.

[1:57:56] Senseless people are dying because of gun violence.

[1:58:00] We need to seek some answers to the Gun Violence

[1:58:03] that's going on in our country.

[1:58:04] So thank you, Reverend Davis.

[1:58:09] I also want to congratulate again the Maryland State Junior

[1:58:13] League champions, and I really want to share a big

[1:58:17] thank you to not only the coaches, but the parents,

[1:58:19] having been on one of those teams once before with my son.

[1:58:23] It's a lot of driving.

[1:58:25] It's a lot of extra practices.

[1:58:27] So the parents and the coaches really

[1:58:31] thank you very much for doing that for your kids.

[1:58:34] And just because everyone else has said it,

[1:58:36] we do have school starting on Monday here in town,

[1:58:41] dutchmans lane, peach blossom.

[1:58:44]

[1:58:46] Glenwood thank you.

[1:58:48] Just keep those locations in mind.

[1:58:50] Country school.

[1:58:51] They're on Goldsboro high street with ST

[1:58:55] Peter and Paul Elementary.

[1:58:57] So just keep those locations in mind out on Washington Street.

[1:59:00] There you go.

[1:59:01] Thank you.

[1:59:02] Just keep those places in mind because it will definitely

[1:59:05] be different next week.

[1:59:08] And again, I know residents in certain parts of town

[1:59:13] are hoping to see changes occur, and hoping

[1:59:17] to see them maybe occur a little faster than they are.

[1:59:19] But again, we are making those changes.

[1:59:24] We are working towards it.

[1:59:25] And government is not necessarily supposed

[1:59:28] to be moving fast all the time.

[1:59:30] We're supposed to take our time and make sure we're

[1:59:32] doing the right things.

[1:59:33] So those things are occurring though.

[1:59:36] And with that, I'd like to take a motion to adjourn.

[1:59:39] Second All in favor.

[1:59:41] Aye good night everybody.

[1:59:44]

Town Council Meeting

Agenda

Transcript