[0:07] okay we Trevor the Morris Planning and Zoning commission I'd like to call to

[0:11] order a public hearing

[0:16] to review the progress of the work on the town plan of development with you

[0:23] know boards here's J hi there than you hi guys how's everybody no problem

[0:31] um I just called them starting to call you have or you haven't I have I'm

[0:36] starting to excellent you're right on perfect few minutes behind but that's

[0:41] okay I apologize thank you appreciate you're

[0:44] being here happy to be here as long as you didn't have any deer or bear on no

[0:49] driving SL if you want some pizza there

[0:57] also no yes

[1:01] so I'm calling to order the uh it's a regular Workshop meeting of the Planning

[1:07] and Zoning commission I well actually it's not a regular as I said before it

[1:12] was a a public hearing the town plan of development

[1:17] that we um approved back in March of

[1:24] 2021 and I have online I have Helen White and Mark pet

[1:30] sold as board members and in the house I have Kim

[1:37] door BS Veron Florio and Erica Leon who is in alternate and is appointed for

[1:44] Barbara bonani and of course you're chairman

[1:48] D so basically what time you call order oh it

[1:55] is approximately 7:06 p.m. okay thank you

[2:00] at least in Geor let me switch over to we're

[2:08] talking that's this document here is the front page was effective March 1

[2:15] 2021 and in here there's a number of um you know suggested actions and

[2:25] such and want to review

[2:30] what's been done here we also have in addition to um you know just as a roll

[2:35] call we also have Janelle Mullen who's our town

[2:39] planner we do know our special guest Josh lire and we have a number of

[2:44] special guests in the audience and was introduced to two people which of course

[2:50] I've lost those names by now there's Ben San hi Ben s pres moris land trust with

[2:56] me are two of my board members Cindy Ferrara and Kathleen Woods who have been

[2:59] shairing our recently formed strategic planning efforts so that's why they're

[3:04] here um Lucas is a board member but and I'm here on behalf of White Memorial

[3:09] Lucas haers thank you Lucas and we also have Ken bur Renee

[3:14] Norman and who in the audience I just they our regular public that attends

[3:22] basically all our meetings um do you want me to leave this

[3:27] or do you plan did you plan me I did not plan to leave it I will leave it

[3:32] I to you chair we broke down the plan you know this is basically the you

[3:41] know the uh table of contents here and um we'll go over the water and natural

[3:48] resources the rural character and economic development housing and

[3:53] infrastructure and we'll go Section by section and review

[3:59] what is the first part here is largely um uh demographic information the first

[4:07] Pages here that I just skimmed over and this is there Legend to Define different

[4:14] boards that are involved in all of this so our first goal was to

[4:22] direct protect drinking water supplies and I take it we've not held

[4:29] the public education question has anybody held a

[4:34] public education meeting in or sent at least one mailing to share best

[4:38] practices with moris land owners on ways they could reduce Frost rates or help

[4:43] protect drinking water unless you guys have specific things you want to present

[4:48] on your your part I would start with you guys on behalf of White Memorial I can

[4:52] just say annually we send out a letter to our tenants and asked them to refrain

[4:56] from using you know per pesticides and herbicides on their properties

[5:01] and speaking as a us paying member of Bantam L protective Association I do

[5:07] note that uh they have been very good about communicating with their members

[5:12] and I think with the public at large about best practices as it relates

[5:16] specifically to Bantam Lake and they they and White Memorial recently and

[5:22] Lucas would probably speak to this even better than I could um you know in the

[5:27] last couple years did a very uh exciting uh study of the Phantom Lake Watershed

[5:35] which attempts to identify sources of things like the excess

[5:40] phosphates and you know they're still working on trying to deal with some of

[5:45] the loow hanging fruit efforts on that and there is an annual meeting of

[5:52] the protective Association every year where these things are aired so if you

[5:56] want to use that as a public meeting it's not too much

[6:01] it sounds like efforts are underway because that

[6:04] was you know basically that covers all three of them that are on the list here

[6:10] very good I don't think we we've not

[6:13] established a public drinking water overlays no do you have a thought as to

[6:19] what that would entail um I would look more closely when we get farther to

[6:24] developing the vantom lake Waterfront overlay District because that could

[6:28] potentially um speak to water quality in a different

[6:33] way that would not only just speak to public drinking water supply but also to

[6:38] the Bantam Lake Waterfront and the water shed

[6:45] okay and and then what is not here I don't think we have any report anybody

[6:52] don't not give me anything but that's

[6:56] um R salt and herbicides major issues I do get

[7:04] there and I think this is something we haven't

[7:08] done and something we might have want to add to

[7:13] our PO is to talk

[7:21] about SL plan so well we did want a plan so did we do anything to so we address

[7:28] as far as our approval criteria we did actually address this and we tie into

[7:33] mentioning the low impact development standards really explicitly which we

[7:37] hadn't done in the previous iteration so I would actually check that box as

[7:42] saying we did do

[7:50] that we're actually doing number one and well the first one on the list

[7:58] is we did um um I take some action

[8:04] on here too I know we did go through

[8:11] that and

[8:16] um provide adequate financial support Andor assist with applications for grant

[8:22] funding for bam Lake protective Association and question Shing for

[8:26] neighborhood communities that benefit from the lake

[8:30] to to continue to implement a bandam Lake management plan including

[8:36] professional monitoring of basic water quality parameters which I think it

[8:39] sounds like we're do something of that too but said

[8:43] already some fall essentially to track the progress in including water clarify

[8:50] Focus to clarify um excuse me and Clarity and to

[8:55] focus future Improvement projects lake and river Shoreline

[9:00] surveys during the growing season for new invasive

[9:03] plants chart the movements of existing invasive plants treatment of invasin

[9:09] plants and or excessive bline algae not say

[9:15] the the scientific name oh no cyanobacteria that's not too

[9:22] bad and fund and support rapid response program down Lake protector Association

[9:28] to act quickly if a other invasive weeds

[9:34] identified and explore develop and then here's your B Lake Waterfront District

[9:40] talking about so it sounds like a lot of what's

[9:44] going on when I read already is underway on your your parts right as far

[9:50] as bam Lake protective has done a lot which the treatment of the lake

[9:54] monitoring and they I think they have monthly you know or iotic

[10:00] um um surve surveys of the lake you know looking at invasives and

[10:06] cyanobacteria we've had staff involved in that also over the years um we White

[10:13] Memorial has been funding you know the Coalition fund for a number of years um

[10:19] I think we're the largest private entity that's donating town of Morris has

[10:24] donated substantial amounts and Lichfield has started again in the last

[10:27] year or two oh good um but that's that's that's

[10:32] positive um yeah so they've been work they've

[10:37] also treated for the Blu green algae the cyano bacteria bom Lake protective has

[10:41] done that number of times over the last few years and they're definitely

[10:45] monitoring for that as that's a a risk to people that use the

[10:51] lake excellent

[11:00] so I think we've got going through this there are a couple things that we need

[11:04] to add to our um Workshop list and those are the two overlay disc

[11:13] pieces that we' hit so

[11:16] far that we've done not done anything on and maybe that's a good reason why we go

[11:22] through this here and now so we make sure that we keep our shop in order too

[11:28] it sounds like other people are doing their jobs and doing a good job of

[11:35] it or at least a better job than I had

[11:41] hoped is so far so good encourage State and lo local

[11:47] agencies to enforce rules concerning the potential introduction of asent species

[11:52] of animal Lake kind of hard to

[11:57] uh trap backp increase awareness about

[12:02] about and ensure that applicants follow the low income excuse me low impact

[12:10] sustainable develop design manual I was want to call

[12:15] that to treat storm water and runoff before it reaches the lake and as we did

[12:21] do something on that as you pointed out our site

[12:26] plan problem like to make a comment on that one yes please you know you have

[12:32] that document on the Morris but it's 243 pages and it's a

[12:38] little onerous I mean I like to share it with with our tenants you know when they

[12:42] do any any work on their properties but it's just it's too too too much for them

[12:48] to to take in so if there was something that was an abbreviated version hitting

[12:52] high points or certain aspects of it I'd be interested in that something that

[12:56] could pass along like a frequent asked questions well yeah a really good point

[13:03] abbreviated yeah a primmer rather than the Deep Technic document that quite

[13:10] hard to follow yeah it was written by an engineer so there you

[13:14] go everything but wants to put a driveway in or talk about permeable

[13:19] pavers or something like that then that you know it' be nice to have you know

[13:22] really good the full document something like a

[13:26] homeowner's guy to the low impact development

[13:30] appro yes yeah that was a great question that might be more important the two

[13:34] overlay zones too [Music]

[13:41] yeah very good point thank [Music]

[13:50] you well at least one educational form or mail Emil information discour to

[13:56] discourage excessively cultivated Landscapes on Phantom Lake and on shine

[14:02] areas of rivers Brooks lakes and ponds remind people and part-time

[14:10] residents that wetlands and regulated buffer areas are off limits for the use

[14:16] of fertilizer herbicides

[14:20] and

[14:25] pesticides sounds like you do have something Like Son already said that

[14:31] sort of does that but we do have um well we have over 100 tenants you know on the

[14:36] on the lake and um we do have guidelines that if they want to do any improvements

[14:41] of their properties now we have um you know set restrictions on percentage that

[14:47] they can improve and we really try to work with them to you know minimize

[14:51] impervious surface you know plant buffer plant things along the lake and things

[14:55] like that so yeah we're actively trying to work work with our tenants on that

[15:00] well chairman I think this truly ties in not so much for Inland Wetlands

[15:05] commission but also when it comes to that overlay district with the Phantom

[15:09] Lake um to making sure that we are establishing buffers that could be a

[15:15] part of the zoning regulations in addition to anything that the wetlands

[15:20] is doing could you make a note on what we're going to put into our yeah

[15:25] absolutely our Workshop list got it I'd love to see a definition of excessively

[15:31] cultivated [Laughter]

[15:48] Landscapes I'm zoom in

[15:56] [Music]

[16:03] welcome and just to intro to bring up to speed the person who just joined we are

[16:10] reviewing the town plan of development and what's been done and bring out what

[16:17] we've got a a list for ourselves but we found out the White Memorial and B Lake

[16:23] protective Association is doing a lot of good work behind the scenes which I

[16:28] think is a large L part of what they do to begin with anyway but still I was not

[16:33] aware of how much they do on this stuff which is very

[16:39] and White Memorial oops excuse me and

[16:45] um

[16:50] so we just went through we' gone through two sections so

[16:55] far protecting drinking water supplies and two goals to protect bad

[17:00] leges water quality and now we're on to the prime Farm lamps protect Prime

[17:06] Farmland soils from the and we did not I mean we're not in

[17:13] any position as a zoning board that would be

[17:16] or adopt to write the farm ordance but I think we kind of cleaned

[17:22] up our regulations way to make it a lot easier for farming activities to

[17:30] occur and to make them you know you know make them more accessible

[17:36] to people or I think there are more Farm stands in town because of our

[17:41] regulations and I think we could call it pretty close to right to farm and what

[17:45] we did yes yeah yeah um it yeah I think that's a fair

[17:53] statement but it would be nice if there was an ordinance yeah I was just going

[17:57] to say like to dovetail with the regulations and then maybe even to

[18:01] mention the regulations even further supporting we can always refer an

[18:07] ordinance crafted by the pnz to the ordinance committee and or the board of

[18:15] Selectmen as I assign

[18:20] myself for punishment the list

[18:25] R rack and stack and figure out Things fall I mean we've had a lot of pressure

[18:32] in to adopt regulations based on laws adopted by the state in 2021 to make

[18:40] sure we deal properly with accessory Apartments um housing you know housing

[18:47] basically low income housing and supporting you know having multif family

[18:52] housing as an option for example there's a whole ly things and there are a few

[18:57] things we chose to do also you know from the you know like our farm which

[19:03] actually does address a lot of what we're trying to do here too with the

[19:07] farming stuff but now I think is a good time to be able to dive into this so

[19:12] This is actually happly time for our point of view Le this doesn't an

[19:17] ordinance take precedent over yes they're equal actually Yep they're both

[19:21] on the local law playing field so one does not supersede the other one is not

[19:26] more powerful than the other but they should harmonize one another

[19:45] right and next one is to rank the most important farmlands in moris protect

[19:50] with the focus on protecting active working farms and

[19:54] farmland direct Farmland owners to the Connecticut farmland preservation

[19:59] program State open space grant program USDA Farm and Ranch act

[20:09] Grant if I could ask go ahe Kathleen or Cindy to tell tell you all what land

[20:16] trust has been starting to do in that area or which one of you want to speak

[20:21] we started with a um a couple weeks ago we went to I went to the assessor's

[20:25] office and at least got um the farm by location so kind of looking for that so

[20:31] we're starting with an inventory to see what we have and Cindy's kind of

[20:35] categorizing them and then I think the next steps would be to come up with a

[20:39] ranking system so maybe going to Connecticut farmland and seeing if

[20:43] there's a tool that we can use to start ranking by you know I don't know if

[20:47] we're gonna know about soil I think we do have some information on soil that

[20:50] Cindy has um we got from Dan Doyle and then look at location probably views how

[20:58] they're what kind of if they're in a wildlife Corridor you know what what is

[21:01] it Wetlands yeah Wetlands all that but come up with a rank a tool that's used

[21:07] there's probably Universal tool or at least one in Connecticut that we can

[21:10] obtain start looking at that but that's we're just in the early stages of

[21:14] looking at that we also have a map that we're going to kind of map it out drive

[21:17] around and take a look at some of some of the farmlands but um I think the the

[21:22] information that um that I got from the S office doesn't match up exactly to

[21:28] what's in report so I don't know if that you know what we have from the

[21:32] assessor's office is what people have categorized in the um is it 490 or

[21:38] 1040 490 so that's there may be some that aren't in 490 you know they're

[21:44] still Farmland yeah they're still Farmland so then also what they're

[21:47] farming is another um thing that's in the uh for ranking so that's kind of

[21:52] where we're at we're we're looking at that we did that in the last few weeks I

[21:55] don't know if you want to Syd's going to categorize them a little bit

[21:59] differently or kind yeah we're we're just creating lists and categories so we

[22:04] can kind of get a very specific picture about where everything is and what it is

[22:10] but and I think getting information out to people that do have farm land about

[22:15] gr information all that there's probably some educational information we can

[22:19] offer people that do have Farmland that could help

[22:23] them that's excellent and in addition to Kathleen and syan with third member of

[22:29] our strategic planning we have a fairly new board member will oir who's one of

[22:33] the principles of hungry Reaper he brings us you know a lot of expertise

[22:38] and point of view that we don't have and we would be looking ahe heavily in this

[22:44] process also I would note that if the ordinance committee wants to do a right

[22:47] to farm ordinance they please let us know so we can plug will into the

[22:51] process

[22:53] okay and I just want to applaud you for just

[22:58] doing that inventory of the Farmland how important that work is if there's

[23:03] anything that the pnz can do even with mapping or anything um absolutely use

[23:10] this as a partner thank you and are you you you

[23:15] have the um natural resources inventory that has a lot of good the thing from

[23:22] yeah we have a bind Maps like maps and Maps ands we have a couple

[23:29] the you know ranking of soil lands but it's all it's a little bit older it's

[23:33] older start yeah there's that there's old5 that's the one I have yeah but I

[23:39] mean a lot of those things aren't going to change right

[23:42] right and there are some real ancient maps that go back to

[23:46] the 1980s maybe or I think it was was before I came on the board I think it

[23:52] was n so it been mid to late 1980s at the latest that were very sophisticated

[24:01] that I sure there're somewhere in the zoning office and that's something you

[24:05] can ask that's good toony about because they were very detailed soil Maps now

[24:11] have you got any of you guys ever seen them you would you remember they used to

[24:14] be up in the zoning office the big map that was on the wall in the room over

[24:19] there there's a big map that's when we started talking about

[24:23] going to soil based zoning been a while ago

[24:29] but that's excellent that's

[24:34] and I'm sure we're continuing tax releas 490 I think that's pretty much a

[24:39] standard thing anyway and I think there are enough farmers who would not

[24:45] would not that Revolt if there was removal on

[24:53] that next one is actually for for that Dave I said one bump on say your name

[24:59] please Ben pety uh just you know responding to uh Ben in company um yeah

[25:06] I think we I think it's good to have that inventory list I think we want to

[25:09] prioritize reward-based systems other as opposed to punitive or or layered

[25:15] regulatory systems um we want to make sure that you

[25:19] know Farms are embracing these policies as as we have to um you know utilize the

[25:27] land every day as opposed to um find policies that are uh less palatable so

[25:35] if if we can look at this as a reward-based system for behavior that we

[25:39] want to nurture I think that's the way to build

[25:44] community thank you Ben so the next item is preserve import

[25:50] wildlife habitats in

[25:54] cour and I don't think we I don't know

[26:01] that I don't know that they

[26:06] maintain danger threatener special so deep should have the nddb maps that the

[26:12] wetlands commission uses reviewing appli there's something that's really out yeah

[26:17] so hopefully they they are actively reviewing that they do map critical

[26:21] habitats IND dangered species Etc and deep has become a really good resource

[26:26] over the recent years um to reach out with enforcement issues Andor education

[26:33] so they've gotten a lot better in that realm so hopefully in L uses those Maps

[26:38] I have a comment for that too um I do feel like Ben speaking again I do feel

[26:44] like um we should rely on deep in in a manner that um aligns with what Morris

[26:50] wants and we should also use our own judgment in certain situations as well

[26:55] um it seems like deep might not be keeping up with some of the changes with

[26:59] bare populations and other natural habitats where it's creating life safety

[27:04] issues or other other challenges uh garbage or littering or just I I while I

[27:11] agree we need to listen to what deep is saying we should also um since we are

[27:16] our own town residents we can also consider what's best for our

[27:22] community thank you Ben um and

[27:29] M Wildlife Corridor and moris with the assistance of the janic valley

[27:34] Association subdivision regulation open space section should be amended to

[27:40] include among the purposes for open space protection of unique and fragile

[27:46] areas important habit habitats and Wildlife

[27:51] ORD that's the pnz sessions

[27:59] so you put that down yes I have to be honest I haven't looked at the open

[28:03] space criteria and I have not spent much time on the subdivision regulations no I

[28:08] know that's not been a priority either and that may be something that falls off

[28:14] to the next time around when we do this too but it's like it is let's make sure

[28:19] we have a full list that we can manage and prioritize and work off

[28:26] of and and focus on protecting lands that link Open Spaces by acquisition

[28:33] easement or other action to provide continuous Wildlife corridors and

[28:39] habitats for public passive recreational use

[28:44] and Environmental Protection other words basically green

[28:50] Lanes so we just uh last month Mor Land Trust completed a process of certainty

[28:58] December 2021 and we acquired through purchase 37 acres of land on Lane White

[29:04] Road for conservation there um it was part of a the Humphrey

[29:11] farm and um we are going to be in the next as we move forward after we take a

[29:17] deep breath uh we are going to put a hiking trail on it for public

[29:23] access and so you know that that's that's our latest

[29:29] accomplishment so that's our seventh property we own now four properties we

[29:33] have e been on three nicew AC I think I don't know I always

[29:39] have to go look at our website don't and I apologize for my naev about

[29:45] the goals of the land trust here in Morris but do you also include in your

[29:51] mission to preserve working farms in addition to preserve open space and

[29:56] other lands that's a good question we are actually

[30:00] looking at our we have a very lengthy mission statement which covers

[30:05] everything including Farmland open space archaeological sites and our bandwidth

[30:12] is not as broad as our current mission statement and we're actually looking at

[30:17] refining that mission statement but as I say you know we are I think newly

[30:23] sensitized to the Farmland aspect I should mention that the Humphrey

[30:27] property does have some hayfields that there's a local farmer hang that we're

[30:30] going to hopefully have him continue with um we all one of the easements we

[30:35] own is in connection with is also partnership with Connecticut Farmland

[30:39] Trust on faram farm and East Morris and Ethan who to has his Dairy bird there so

[30:46] so yes already answered your question fantastic yes yeah that's cool and just

[30:52] to your earlier point about archaeological sites again to make sure

[30:56] that Planning and Zoning is aware of things if there's ever a map of the

[31:00] inventory of archaological sites that are significant in town I think it would

[31:04] really help for us to be aware of that in other towns where I consult we do

[31:09] have these archaological maps that really helps if somebody comes forward

[31:13] with a project that we do actually conduct an archaeological study and it

[31:18] then out of that archaeological study becomes a resource for all of us well

[31:22] let me turn it around to you are you aware does Morris have any

[31:25] archaeological Maps because you know we've only been in existence since I

[31:30] don't know the historic societ I think the Historic Society in

[31:36] moris might have those interes okay I love doing research

[31:43] so Revitalize after being kind of quiet for a while awesome I think for for

[31:48] buildings we do but for for like literally archaeological sites I think

[31:54] they're um less uh organ they're not in a single document but there's a lot of

[32:00] tribal knowledge of different locations that are of significance so I don't I

[32:05] don't think we have a ranking system to say hey here's the threshold of what we'

[32:08] qualify as the historical site within town but there are quite a bit of uh

[32:13] books and other collateral that support where they are what and we have a list

[32:18] of historical homes yeah yeah there that's what I'm saying there is a list

[32:21] for homes but not for like necess sites yeah no that's great information

[32:29] chairman can can I mention one other resource this is

[32:33] Joselyn Jos um just want to mention you know we've been working closely closely

[32:39] with honic Valley Association on this affordable housing and conservation

[32:44] collaboration work and um Ben's probably aware of this but um uh hva has this

[32:51] great map called the follow the forest map um back to your goal here around

[32:57] mapping Wildlife corridors um and Wildlife like habitat linkage

[33:04] connections um you know I think I'm I'm sure there's a lot more work that could

[33:09] be done on that but I will say if you Google follow the forest you can zoom in

[33:14] to Morris and see um where they've identified areas for Habitat linkages

[33:21] and just might be interesting um you know just another

[33:26] interesting data point we have that map we have that map and we

[33:30] know what those quars where they are in fact we had a presentation by to follow

[33:36] the forest Guru from

[33:40] HBA uh at our annual meeting in June and we're always you know we try to

[33:45] publicize our annual meeting no one ever comes very

[33:48] sad we do our best invite us I send money invite us pizza it's on our

[33:54] website it's you know I don't question does anyone have is there any

[34:00] kind of a list that that shows the kind of Wildlife and plants that exist in

[34:06] Morris inventory place like what animals have

[34:11] been seen or would that

[34:17] would we listed like the you know things like the hotwood

[34:23] tree trees animals that's and wetland whatever is

[34:29] there any kind I know there's I know there's a

[34:32] black State inventory or anything of what exists in our have a list of forest

[34:42] properties have florath and critical habitats

[34:47] inventory and I know there's a Black Swamp

[34:54] B yeah it looks like there is something in that um on page 30 of the natural

[35:00] cultural and resources inventory requiring protection the red

[35:06] bat birds that we

[35:10] have so we do have some of that in there I know somebody did like a 50-year

[35:16] study of chickes or Bing the chick does it say what areas

[35:23] they're in some

[35:28] some of the data is um sketchy

[35:32] dated like incredibly sketchy but we can it's a that's a diplomatic way of

[35:38] putting it like like if we follow the science um we'll be disappointed so we

[35:44] should again treat our town like a town and use our own judgment instead of

[35:48] deferring to internet sources some are okay

[35:53] but quite a fewer suspect just a

[35:58] Veronica is reviewing our natural resources inventory well that's a town

[36:04] let's keep moving we've got plenty yes I know thank you Janelle we

[36:08] got I'm not planning on being here all night yeah we're we're at a slow clip at

[36:14] the moment I think we really hit the high points for especially the

[36:21] audience as the next one is considered the design of Scenic roads the Planning

[36:26] and Zoning Miss Commission should consider a Scenic Road ordinance which

[36:30] have adopted Property Owners L one who live along a Scenic Road segment to

[36:35] petition for seate Road designation there's some information add

[36:41] in the time plan my question is are there property

[36:45] owners that are interested in designating this because that it would

[36:49] be the impetus for designating a Scenic Road so if we're not hearing from

[36:53] Property Owners with a real interest I mean that's probably

[36:58] pointing out his bot worst I I I think I have two couple thoughts on that one is

[37:03] uh do we want that does Drive no I mean like in seriousness I I've had issues of

[37:09] telling people not to park near a blind corner on HBY Road and that's likely to

[37:13] be one of the sites like if there's a Scenic Lookout to accommodate vehicle

[37:18] traffic or or just pedestrians I would say that's fine but like drawing people

[37:23] to locations that are not safe just doesn't help any body and um and so I

[37:30] guess something to think about this line item is what does that do for

[37:35] us um is it good for I think we wrote that before everybody went to the same

[37:41] place to get their face on freaking Tick Tock probably like the problem they have

[37:46] been had in Vermont in New Hampshire this fall they've been like having to

[37:50] block off roads because so many people come to the same spot because they got

[37:53] to get the perfect picture so I think this was a a propagation from the

[37:58] previous so this is you know 15 20 years old now but like we should think about

[38:03] whether that's something we want to continue um doing or not yeah I don't

[38:09] think we want to be that popular

[38:13] anymore well okay I would consider taking that one out

[38:21] yeah it just required you to consider it sounds like you consider it you want to

[38:25] maybe revisit it

[38:30] but but the thing is it's something that should be on the list we we can say it's

[38:35] not on the list and we'll revisit it when we revisit the town plan yeah we

[38:40] don't want Scenic roads popping up on Google and having 500 we should we

[38:44] should just list out the pros and cons and if it if it clearly leans one way or

[38:48] another that's you know we we can take be a conversation and we have enough on

[38:52] our list anyway that would make this not something we're going to run to in the

[38:56] first place anyway and the same you know like and

[39:01] then there's the encouraged use of wood cable with wood or ort steel rather than

[39:08] galvanized steel God rails on Town maintained

[39:11] roads there's nobody here really to comment on that I that's not something

[39:16] that anybody here can really um have an impact on I don't think amend the open

[39:23] space section of the subdivision regulations place a priority and the

[39:26] protection of open space along the fronts of town and state roads amend the

[39:32] regulations to allow for private road subdivisions to protect value SE

[39:37] features or roadside views and change the setback regulations from a minimum

[39:42] of 50 feet to 75 ft from the road right away or 75 ft from the road pavement

[39:49] whichever is greater Dave I have a question about that is there a function

[39:54] for that number or is is that is that done

[39:57] idea yeah doesn't sound I don't know what the number came from sounds you

[40:02] know how I feel about [Laughter]

[40:06] arbitrary and again I don't think that's something we to focus

[40:13] on I'm just saying that's 25 feet more than what the state requires and the

[40:17] state requires a uh a crazy

[40:23] number and then finally consider a blood ordinance

[40:28] and bl ordinance could be created specifically to regulate prevent the

[40:33] accumulations of registered Vehicles outside storage of junk and

[40:41] I I deteriorated abandoned structures view from the road we got yep we do sure

[40:51] do and again I think that's something we will we probably keep on the list but

[40:57] it's not going to be a high prity item either at the top of that page we need

[41:02] to strike that word which word rural character oh rural

[41:07] the whole section well yeah I mean we can call it rural I mean we can call it

[41:12] country living was the number one reason respondents to I don't know yeah we can

[41:17] find another way to say what we want to say USDA does consider us a rural

[41:23] community by their definition nice yes but the issue and is that the state has

[41:28] pretty much Bann use the word character and regulations and like that

[41:34] because it's very potentially

[41:39] discriminate and regulations to protect rid lines and slopes change the wording

[41:45] and subdivision regulations Section 6.1.5 strict development of land 20% or

[41:53] greater identifying inventory exing Ridge lines

[41:57] prioritize protection while clearly defining the needs and benefits of such

[42:04] protection what is the um purpose for the

[42:08] 20% [Music]

[42:11] um well see that as being you know your access and and such as that you know do

[42:18] you I think driveways of greater than 10% are an issue and you know land with

[42:25] high slopes like that your access is going to

[42:30] be yeah but the engineer is going to design something to address that one way

[42:34] or another that's not true that's not a regulatory thing that's a engineering I

[42:39] mean the whole point of the ridge line is want the protect the views yeah is is

[42:44] to encourage development off the top of the ridge lines and have them along the

[42:49] sides of the ridg lines so you can maintain those Ridge lines it looks like

[42:53] it's a rural town from the distance there could be houses

[42:58] yeah but but that's saying it says land with a slope of 20% that's not that's

[43:02] not the top that's the side I have action and that doesn't really address

[43:07] what that I hear what you're saying that's a very good

[43:12] point and you know anyway amend zoning

[43:17] regulations set a reasonable fence burm or visual Buri along Public Road

[43:21] Frontage on the Lake Shore to prevent against blocking roadside views of

[43:28] B this will protect important segment of Scenic views of the lake from

[43:32] surrounding roads as these Road view vistas of Van

[43:37] Lake are important to the state and local visual assets worthy of

[43:43] protection and probably helps keep people coming to town to see them

[43:48] [Music]

[43:51] too I don't know that that's I would I would love to hear someone from Ben

[43:57] Blake commenting on that one way or another I don't have a horse in that

[43:59] race but I just I just have a issue with putting regulations on or discussing

[44:06] regulations when there's no one here to that that it impacts to reflect on

[44:11] it and um anybody else want to weigh in on

[44:17] it no

[44:21] um establish new and update current regulations for docks and floats on

[44:25] banam Lake consider total length and surface limits on dock numbering and

[44:31] registra and a do and a dock numbering and registration system to protect

[44:35] against the cation of excessively large or long

[44:41] docks that interfere with safe boating cause disruption to the lake shore SL

[44:46] bottom and disturb the visual beauty of the

[44:50] lake I see that tying into the lake overlay Zone um especially I know that I

[44:57] IWC is named as the point here but the CEO issues permits for structures so I

[45:05] would see them being able to regulate this since they would be issuing those

[45:10] permits I imagine IWC also has some sort of overview but with the Zeo if there

[45:16] are strong regulations limiting doc size they could confirm for compliance as

[45:21] well so I see that also fitting into that Lake overlay Zone discussion well

[45:27] that b BL Point under that makes sense establish lighting regulations to

[45:33] protect nighttime Fs in

[45:38] the we have done we have a dark sky regulation that we put in place that's

[45:43] one of the things we did Do America busily promoting it well I told you to

[45:48] send that link on the record a few towns are following the lead and I always

[45:54] mention Morris did it first Morris did it first so um yeah that's one and lfi

[46:00] are following in your footsteps we did too Center those lights down uh oh I'm

[46:06] gonna drive through all my way out of here it's like daylight in the center of

[46:10] town and it ever used to be inreased the wattage I guess let get my postcards TR

[46:17] to give that link to the anyway just a little pat on the

[46:24] patting ourselves on the back apologize for that

[46:27] what we consider adopting zoning regulations that will require all

[46:32] subdivisions and site plans to include identifying AR geological historical or

[46:38] cultural resources within the property to be developed and provided that the

[46:42] state AR

[46:48] just the on-site rological assessment of the impact of the proposed development

[46:55] prior to the work commencing on I really like this

[47:00] one twist that's not really I just just

[47:04] trying to slow down because I had the page to pay the screen down to finish

[47:09] the sent and consider a two three acre

[47:14] minimum lot size with the requirements of the minimum lot area cannot include

[47:19] Wetlands water courses or steep slopes this will help to prevent the sub

[47:23] suburbanization of moris Regulation should include protecting existing lots

[47:29] of less than that size that can be grandfathered in consider the effect of

[47:34] this possible change on meeting the goal of increasing housing options especially

[47:39] for seniors and young families it's still continued at the top

[47:45] of the other page yeah that's part of

[47:51] it I'll review the current Z map with the oh yes this is the important part

[47:56] when a lot size size zoning map make larger Lots in areas with poor soils

[48:01] this will help prevent septic failures in Watershed areas with a growing

[48:07] poage soil based zoning that is the most logical way to

[48:12] do it after through all the years I agree

[48:16] with that then it's based on reality not on some arbitrary number it's still kind

[48:23] of arbitrary in my opinion but and I'm curious what you mean by that or how

[48:31] you what I've seen is that soil the soil based Zoning for example in the town of

[48:37] Washington does not reflect how much how many acres you need to get a septic tank

[48:43] that would be functioning um so even with soil-based

[48:50] zoning there is a temptation to make the lot sizes much

[48:55] larger than is needed for a you know a good safe septic system and that's what

[49:01] happens in some towns in the area that have soil

[49:05] based zoning so I don't think it's all what

[49:09] all I mean I understand that it seems like it would be more based on the

[49:16] actual soil characteristics but it isn't in my

[49:23] experience in other words people don't necessarily implemented for they just

[49:28] use the buzzword and yes they B like you don't you don't really need you don't

[49:33] really need two or three acres for a three-bedroom septic tank for example

[49:38] need an acre and a half to acre to an acre depending on the SI the structure

[49:43] well they are requiring a b100a anytime you put a additional footprint to your

[49:48] house which means that you have to prove that you could build a new septic

[49:52] somewhere that's not going to affect the new

[49:54] addition property your yeah I just wor we are in two watersheds

[49:59] that's the you know I get a letter every year from the city of Waterberry that

[50:02] they're coming to look so it's

[50:06] just I think as people we should want to keep the Watershed

[50:13] clean whether that means bigger Lots or not

[50:16] I well that's part of the B 100a is that you have to dig down prove that you're

[50:22] you know doing the whole test for where your where your water is and and making

[50:27] sure you put a septic somewhere else on your property doesn't affect the ership

[50:33] right and protect Camp Columbia explore the purchase of Camp Columbia from the

[50:38] state of Connecticut state budget cuts in the future could jeopardize the

[50:42] status of the park and control of the property by the town would help insur

[50:47] future as open space as well as for Passive recreational purposes as a

[50:53] dressable and I know we've talked about that a number of times in I don't think

[50:57] but I'll see a lot of movement on that any near time in the future but consider

[51:04] adopting zoning regulations for commercial buildings and other

[51:07] non-residential structures proposed in view from the town roads

[51:12] especially in Bill centers encourage buildings of a size

[51:17] scale and style compatible with the towns rural New

[51:22] England I can't say the word Vibes Vibes I like that

[51:29] Vibes that's our new word r Vibes we couldn't do that within zoning

[51:34] regulations inherent in the fact that zoning regulations cannot control

[51:38] Aesthetics so in the event that the town of Morris wanted to go that route you'd

[51:42] have to develop a design review board for a very specific District that you

[51:46] would also need to name so in the event that you wanted to have a Village Center

[51:51] District and then control Aesthetics it would have to be an outside entity it

[51:55] could not be the PNC and that also becomes very expensive and

[52:03] unwieldy there something that was a hot button I think that there was an ugly

[52:09] building out there that a lot of people make that goes back to 20 years too that

[52:14] one was hot but probably so

[52:19] ild Center kind of things protect historic

[52:24] landmarks Morris is over 80 homes from the 18th and 19th century as well as

[52:30] numerous historical landmarks these these structures are an important part

[52:35] of the town's rural character and should be wherever possible preserved and

[52:41] protected zoning regulations should be updated to protect the cultural and

[52:46] archaeological archaeological inventory as listed on pages 36 to 44 of the

[52:53] Morris natural and cultural resources inventory prepared in 20

[52:59] how about if we replace the word character with

[53:04] culture culture oh I think they'll probably not like that

[53:10] [Music] wordun may I also suggest them with that

[53:15] a demo delay ordinance so in many towns where there's old buildings they'll use

[53:21] like for buildings older than a hundred years in the event that someone wants to

[53:25] come in and completely demolish there's a review period there's a notice to an

[53:30] abutter requirement and then there's um a study that has to be done so that you

[53:37] don't risk losing these vulnerable historic sit I have a question so like

[53:42] we have a house near the Dollar General the 1756 house that somebody bought and

[53:47] is letting it rock that windows open they're just letting it sit there and

[53:50] rot and there's nothing we can do about it that house is going to be destroyed

[53:54] yeah yeah so I why because they want the view they're going to knock it they're

[53:59] going to wait for it to rot and they're going to knock it down because they got

[54:01] the view because I mean this points out that there are significant homes but it

[54:06] doesn't really give any action towards preserving them it's nice that there's a

[54:10] list but how do we take the list a step further that's a that's my question so I

[54:18] suggest a demo delay ordinance for properties that are or like significant

[54:22] structures that are on this list put it on a list

[54:28] suggest to the ordinance committee there should be a letter to anybody who's

[54:30] letting their historic home go to rock I know that you can't do that I don't

[54:35] know we tell them what to do well that goes in hand in hand with a blade or

[54:41] yeah I mean especially for historic homes that's just not

[54:47] right incentive for someone to come in and store a home versus demolish it at

[54:52] times shipo does give grants for houses that are recognized yeah I don't know

[54:58] what that cycle has been like but I do know that there have been opportunities

[55:02] I could look into it more I think it could be a nonprofit and they will give

[55:07] you five grand towards stabilization yeah

[55:12] yeah now next section is economic development and continue enhance the

[55:21] option for plan development District review the plan development

[55:26] District regulations moris shall continue to use the plan development

[55:30] District's PDD regulations to meet the goals of the town and provide

[55:35] opportunities for new development that improves the town tax base revision SL

[55:41] updates should focus on ways to priorize prioritize uses such as un and culture

[55:50] two tourism and loding three Agriculture and agriculture technology

[55:56] for outdoor regulation note the PDD for a mixed use

[56:02] approach for larger properties and joining town and Commercial centers

[56:06] there are large Parcels of land that ad join various town and Commercial

[56:10] settings centers I mean these properties would provide opportunities to expand

[56:16] these town and Commercial centers with mixed development use to provide housing

[56:19] as well as commercial uses to support the

[56:22] residents of the development and the town

[56:28] pznc PCC the plenty and Zoning commission should review the PDD

[56:34] regulation to see if it if updates are needed and to allow mixed use

[56:42] developments again that was a hot button over the past you know decade for us and

[56:50] that's why that's there and we did see what winvian and American country Barnes

[56:57] brought us through the PDD and decided that it was

[57:02] actually more than simply a loophole regulations which was what I was always

[57:07] concerned about at the

[57:11] start no what

[57:18] Butler Butler we're about halfway through the review of the regulations we

[57:25] review the um water resources and

[57:32] um really oh and the rural character and we're down to Economic

[57:39] Development and that's right here we just reviewed the fact that we have a

[57:45] pbd regulation for plan development districts it's has served us well and

[57:53] feel that maybe it needs to be at at the time we put this together it needs to be

[57:59] enhanced and it is by having it in the regulations

[58:03] to broader application of the

[58:08] regulation and and as I stated before just I think it's worth KN that's how we

[58:13] had windin farm and how we have um the American

[58:19] barns Harvest Moon excuse me Harvest Moon they used to be called amican

[58:24] country barns I think Harvest Mo and um you know those two businesses are

[58:32] here from that regulation and continue to support homebased businesses update

[58:38] the regulations for homebased businesses the Planning and Zoning commission

[58:42] should continually monitor the evolution of homebased business uses and modify

[58:48] the zoning regulations as needed Ure the building approval process is not a

[58:53] barrier to the creation m a homebased business that can be conducted without

[58:59] ping ging property Val and then support fiber the home

[59:07] broadband initiative and increase sale air coverage

[59:11] areas at least I know that we have fiber optic run through town yeah Dave this

[59:18] this line item is slightly obsolete now the fiber to the home part right Jo any

[59:25] EXP well in the S it's obsolete because it's been addressed yeah and there are

[59:32] other things in here that are addressed and there are things that would come off

[59:35] the list when we redo the plan which we are probably not going to

[59:41] do right down I think there's enough work for us to do that we've gone

[59:44] through the list now that keep us busy for the rest of the another three or

[59:49] four years and then we got to then we got to rebuild the plan Town plan of

[59:54] development rather make progress and have a slightly outdated

[59:59] plan mind you that we approved the plan in 09 and

[1:00:05] 2021 and prior to that it was I think it was like

[1:00:09] 19 in the 19 was

[1:00:13] 1992 2009 and then

[1:00:17] 2021 and they're supposed to be done every 10

[1:00:21] years anyway and then I think the state regulations did

[1:00:29] something ENC explore life care fa no that's something something something

[1:00:35] explore life care facilities and other similar facilities the task

[1:00:39] space life care facilities are compatible business type of use housing

[1:00:45] for thanks guys thanks for coming very much I appreciate thank you and all the

[1:00:51] good work you're doing yes thank you for all the work you're doing you're welcome

[1:01:01] and

[1:01:04] um this type of use provides housing for

[1:01:08] active Elder adults on the same campus provides and on the same campus provides

[1:01:14] assisted living nursing and even Hospital type

[1:01:20] facilities I don't think we much I don't know if we want to put that

[1:01:26] on our list or not and I just have to say there's much more

[1:01:31] value to these Life Care Facilities than enhancing the tax space but

[1:01:36] anyway and certainly keep I think it's a PPE dream yeah I think Dem like it's an

[1:01:41] important to keep in mind our demographics as we plan um and work

[1:01:47] through our planning and zoning and analyze the commercial uses

[1:01:52] in town to determine what we have and where we can grow the tax

[1:01:57] base Morris completed a comprehensive natural resources inventory it's

[1:02:03] probably almost 20 years ago now W however there has never been an analysis

[1:02:08] of this nature on economic development with sub analysis the board could would

[1:02:13] be better determine what economic development options make sense that was

[1:02:19] this would also help determine what changes to the zoning regulations should

[1:02:23] be considered

[1:02:27] that's I'm can blame this one on me because I've just felt we did all this

[1:02:32] work and I know a few people tried to do something

[1:02:35] with um Economic Development back when we were doing the open space plan back

[1:02:40] in the Arts and it

[1:02:45] never got anywhere but I still think that's

[1:02:53] a something to consider but it's not again top of the

[1:02:59] list review and update the permitted uses in the commercial zones the bulk of

[1:03:04] the uses in the commercial zones and in the Morris Pine and zoning regulations

[1:03:08] date back to late 70s and early 80s while regulations have had updates in

[1:03:13] recent years a comprehensive review and update has not been undertaken though

[1:03:18] we've done some of that but just not on this SE section we're talking about here

[1:03:23] the objective this review should be to bring these regulations up to date

[1:03:27] including agricultural tourism which we did and arts and culture related

[1:03:35] businesses my favorite one is like the printing press I think it's on one of

[1:03:38] the permitted uses and I always out of it when I

[1:03:45] read or like the motion pictures like just like it's so funny like you know

[1:03:50] movie theater you know like can we keep it in there for laughs no

[1:03:56] those are the kind of things obviously where yeah when you do comprehensive

[1:03:59] review you're like yeah like wow this is interesting imagine somebody brought

[1:04:03] their printing press to town and we didn't allow

[1:04:06] [Music] it I think this had been done in the

[1:04:10] past by Leon and I think we do still have that document somewh a catalog and

[1:04:15] publish a list of non-conform uses and special exams helpful I don't see how

[1:04:20] that's useful to be honest with you because in the in the event that Tony

[1:04:24] reviews the property he can to deem in that moment in time whether or not it's

[1:04:28] nonexist if it's existing non-conforming and if it's a special exception gets

[1:04:33] filed on the land record so it's going to be filed so I don't see why having

[1:04:39] having a list is going to help anyone do anything more I think probably the

[1:04:44] reason that they wanted the list was maybe to protect the people who had

[1:04:47] these uses maybe that's what I think maybe that was kind of like the push for

[1:04:50] it but it also says to avoid the unintentional expansion OPP protection

[1:04:57] more need out because it's like more we're coming for you you need to have

[1:05:01] definitions of what exists because that way when no that's what property files

[1:05:07] should have for you so if you go through a street file of what existed prior it's

[1:05:13] not going to be easy to find in a list it'd be much easier to find in a street

[1:05:18] file unless you're sorting your list well I don't think we therefore I

[1:05:23] don't think our files are very good well then that could be the issue well the

[1:05:28] problem with the filing is that it's up to the landowner after they get their

[1:05:31] special exception or their approvals to go file in a lot of times I feel like

[1:05:35] they probably don't and I even me like we haven't done that many but I

[1:05:39] specifically tell them always like when they come in like as soon as you get the

[1:05:41] approval go put it in the clerk so that they can have it I don't issue a zoning

[1:05:45] permit if they've filed a special exception and they haven't filed it on

[1:05:49] the land record just don't issue a zon yeah no no but so it's like it's just

[1:05:53] interesting how like you fight so hard to get the approval and you don't take

[1:05:57] the last you know it's just arbitrary Step at then and it's funny because

[1:06:01] obviously I'm in Thomason now too and actually in Thomason they put it in the

[1:06:04] fee structure where the the for for some reason the land use Administrative

[1:06:09] Assistant she actually files it for them like that put in like the fee so so

[1:06:14] that's interesting so it's big city stuff oh yeah well no I mean it's like

[1:06:19] you know it's like there it's a full-time position with an assistant

[1:06:22] here it's part-time so it's like yeah it would be

[1:06:26] tough to do it here you know but somewhere else you might be able to do

[1:06:29] it but they're also backed up in filing that too because it's just like with

[1:06:34] this job it's tough because you can never catch up almost in a

[1:06:39] sense thank you assure compatible development in

[1:06:44] Morris's commercial centers hamlets and parenthesis we have Morris Center East

[1:06:50] Morris Route 209 Route 61 and Lakeside and develop a for growth of commercial

[1:06:59] center hamlets and Morris while protecting the world character of the

[1:07:03] area [Laughter]

[1:07:07] Vibes particularly mostly commercial zone areas that will

[1:07:12] regulate appearance and presentation of structures all that's that's the old

[1:07:17] thing that we just talked about Adventure structur for these centers

[1:07:21] explore the use of pdds for properties ad joining these centers and larger

[1:07:25] mixed use development ensure small town

[1:07:31] character are retained when permitted commes are

[1:07:36] implemented the special exception can be employed to provide

[1:07:41] greater scrutiny on uses that would today be approved by a site plan it is a

[1:07:45] tool that ensures public hearing is held for larger applications or applications

[1:07:50] or uses that demand a closer review having a requirement for a public

[1:07:55] hearing visibility having the ability to apply

[1:07:58] conditions to manage situations that are inconsistent with the rural and small

[1:08:03] town Vibes nature nature I mean to be fair to us when we implemented this pocd

[1:08:09] they hadn't passed the rule yet so to be fair to us than goodness now it's like

[1:08:14] you can use the word character we have you can use the word character but you

[1:08:18] have to Define what it is you know it's not you know you can't just say the word

[1:08:21] character you have to say what it means you know sense Vibes because so how can

[1:08:25] they say we can't use that word they're never coming after

[1:08:31] it having the ability to apply conditions situations that are

[1:08:35] inconsistent with the rural and small town Vibes of

[1:08:39] Morris way to manage these applications consider adopting design requirements

[1:08:45] yeah we C that or guidelines and encourage building the science scale and

[1:08:50] style compatible with the with the towns World New England Vibes Vibes yes

[1:08:56] yeah I think there's some things in here I think we're gonna eventually

[1:09:04] scrap maybe simplify it a little bit or call feels feels you

[1:09:09] know small town feels so we did you know just for those who weren here at the

[1:09:13] start we did go through the the water section and found some things that we

[1:09:21] probably need to put on our list that um um and but Janelle's an

[1:09:28] overall list of what um we need to do here and so then we're going to at our

[1:09:37] next planning meeting spend some time basally slicing

[1:09:42] and dicing that list and racking and stacking

[1:09:53] chair so anyway on the house 18 and there are some some good news here that

[1:10:01] we can talk about increase housing options especially for seniors and young

[1:10:06] families study possible expansion options at elderd housing that one and

[1:10:12] that's something we have are in the process of doing

[1:10:16] done done check it off check it off your

[1:10:22] list Joselyn a just for the

[1:10:28] increase the accessibility housing stock

[1:10:32] [Music]

[1:10:40] byess guide

[1:10:47] also cannot or to make needed accessibility modifications

[1:10:55] that's an important thing nobody here it comments on it's important it sounds

[1:10:59] really helpful yes it does consider facility the creation of a new nonprofit

[1:11:05] mors Housing Trust organization with local volunteers to facilitate the

[1:11:10] creation of downsizing options for seniors and housing options for young

[1:11:15] families ask residents consider donating land to the trust once it is

[1:11:21] formed another interesting idea

[1:11:26] I can I can comment on that if you hear about that yes I mean I think

[1:11:32] you know obviously since you worked on this uh PCD there's

[1:11:38] now as it says at the bottom a a housing plan as well um yes that's true and I I

[1:11:46] I would probably rely a little bit more on what's in the housing plan since you

[1:11:51] know we had time to think more specifically about that um obviously the

[1:11:58] Morris Housing Authority right now has uh affordable homes for apartments for

[1:12:04] seniors and the new um eight units that have been approved uh are will will not

[1:12:11] be restricted to seniors but there will probably be a fair number of seniors in

[1:12:15] those units as well I do think one of the things that we talked about when we

[1:12:20] created the housing plan is um trying to have ways for affordable home

[1:12:26] ownership um I looked at your uh median sales price again today year to date

[1:12:34] it's hovering around $500,000 for a median sales price um and

[1:12:40] again if you're a if you're uh a family earning 80% of their immediate income

[1:12:47] you really can only afford something more like

[1:12:51] $250,000 um so you know many towns and the region do have a local Housing Trust

[1:12:59] organization that focuses on creating those home ownership

[1:13:03] opportunities um so I would still say you know if if there are residents that

[1:13:09] any of you come across who are interested in um creating some

[1:13:14] affordable home ownership opportunities I'd be happy to work with that volunteer

[1:13:20] group to think about how to get started um I don't think think the Mor's Housing

[1:13:26] Authority they're pretty focused on rental I don't think they're going to do

[1:13:30] home

[1:13:34] ownership but just putting it out there if you guys know anybody who's

[1:13:38] interested in that I'd be happy to work with them to think about how to get that

[1:13:43] going fortunately I think they're all up in

[1:13:47] Lichfield Lichfield has a great Housing Trust as well yeah yes they do

[1:13:55] sounds like they're trying to throw them out too so we have a land trust right

[1:13:59] but we don't have a Housing Trust we have a Housing Authority correct that's

[1:14:02] housing authority and a land so she's recommending we try to get a Housing

[1:14:07] Trust that's well I guess I'm just saying in the towns that have a Housing

[1:14:12] Trust they are able to build those affordable firsttime home buyer

[1:14:18] options honestly Joselyn I don't know anybody in Morris that would volunteer

[1:14:22] to start that committee yeah that's fine that's the

[1:14:27] problem it involves money uhuh I think we should try to get some younger people

[1:14:34] as well involved in all boards and commissions in the whole town and then

[1:14:37] maybe some of those would like to do something new and exciting such as a

[1:14:41] Housing Trust well that would be great if we

[1:14:45] could get rid of the nonparticipating members right in

[1:14:49] fours but you can't do that either Noe we

[1:14:53] tried I go it's an issue well we got rid of one person mean don't mean it that

[1:14:58] way but we got one person toep step up to the plate yes there's a couple more

[1:15:04] that need to I mean I'm guilty of not making all

[1:15:08] the meetings but but if you make half to three quarters I mean I mean J I'd like

[1:15:14] to look into this with you if you wanted to yeah I mean if you could you know it

[1:15:19] doesn't take a lot of volunteers to do okay to do it um

[1:15:25] and uh so yeah any if you know if you could dig up a couple more people who'

[1:15:30] at least want to talk about it okay happy to do that and there's you

[1:15:36] know there's a bunch of strategies in the housing plan itself around this you

[1:15:42] know creating firsttime home buyer options that are

[1:15:45] affordable okay yeah a great idea it

[1:15:51] is so update zoning regulation to allow life care facilities and active housing

[1:15:58] as described in the economic development sections the zoning regulations to allow

[1:16:05] more flexibility in the creation of accessory

[1:16:11] Apartments including allowing them by right or by site plan rather than

[1:16:16] special permit

[1:16:19] again do we do this we can do this do we still have that 40% % rule though can't

[1:16:26] go more than 40% of the especially housing I think limit

[1:16:34] to to we limit toet th square feet yes that's what we have technically of

[1:16:41] living space other it's 40% or th th square feet

[1:16:49] okay you're saying that probably should be maybe relaxed a little bit too

[1:16:55] I think the reason for 40% is to make sure it's accessory yeah to the primary

[1:17:00] building I mean at the end of the day you could make regulations that are more

[1:17:04] laxed suppose that's how you can maybe create more housing choice I don't

[1:17:09] know talked about that small garage that we have a yeah no

[1:17:15] exactly and then like our minimum lot size is technically one acre R40 is the

[1:17:20] smallest but where I am yeah so for example because now working Thomas out

[1:17:25] too but like they have a smaller Zone it's an ra15 Zone but the thing is we

[1:17:30] don't have sewer capacity they have their own you know right they do it but

[1:17:34] nor do we want stores yeah no no exactly and you know in that zone they allow two

[1:17:38] and three family homes even though the minimum lot size is 15,000 square

[1:17:46] feet so anyway at least we can we've actually done reasonbly well I think

[1:17:51] this is probably the even though there a lot of things we haven't even touched

[1:17:55] there are a lot of things we have done very from that point of view it's

[1:18:01] rewarding going through this work towards developing an affordable housing

[1:18:06] plan for the uh J one on the

[1:18:10] back 2021 utilizing existing grant funding from the state thank you Joselyn

[1:18:16] thank you Joselyn yeah of course it was fun well and I'll just note I don't know

[1:18:22] if you um want to as part of this you know exercise that you're doing today um

[1:18:30] but I was just you know referencing back to the housing plan itself and it does

[1:18:35] have I'm counting maybe four Str zoning related

[1:18:41] strategies in here um so you know again I don't know that you want to

[1:18:48] necessarily go through them tonight but I think it would be great if you guys

[1:18:53] add that to your things to you know think

[1:18:58] about um I think that's a good idea I don't

[1:19:03] know I don't plan to go through it tonight I would want to do one of two

[1:19:07] things or really both I'd like to add them to the list and I'm also willing to

[1:19:14] invite you to another Wednesday meeting and go through that

[1:19:19] list together first if you'd like yeah I mean again

[1:19:25] it's it's up to you um there's just you know there things like um considering

[1:19:32] allowing duplexes considering allowing townhouse style units in

[1:19:38] certain districts um we did some of that yeah if you've

[1:19:44] already done it then great give that's why maybe that's what we should do is we

[1:19:48] need to schedule jocing yeah no that's fine I mean if she wants to come or we

[1:19:53] just schedule time just go through the so yeah I mean so the next meeting is in

[1:19:57] December it's right around the holiday so maybe it'd be a good thing to do

[1:19:59] maybe after the new year and then we can just focus at the planning meeting on

[1:20:04] that yes well maybe we can go through them ahead of time because if you've

[1:20:08] already done them great you can just pat yourself on the back and save 30 yeah

[1:20:13] we've done actually a good amount I would say so maybe me and Janelle can

[1:20:16] look over what we've done and then knock that stuff like cross that stuff off and

[1:20:21] then just focus on the stuff we need to do sounds

[1:20:26] good

[1:20:32] infrastructure Prov safe and efficient traffic

[1:20:37] circulation

[1:20:40] P yeah we are in charge we are kind

[1:20:46] of comes who wants to put in the damn rotary window

[1:20:50] no I don't think Che for the town World System is to provide for safe and

[1:20:55] efficient traffic circulation in a rural Town such as Morris an important

[1:21:00] objective is to design and lay out New Roads and maintain existing roads in a

[1:21:04] manner that supports the town plan use land use policies and preserves the town

[1:21:10] rural Scenic beauty Beauty I don't see that as being the PC

[1:21:17] is Le and I'm pretty sure that the highway department wasn't really

[1:21:21] interested in doing it as well the highway department because there they

[1:21:25] have to no I'm just saying I just don't think that's anything like we can really

[1:21:29] do in a sense it's not like we're playing out New Roads no no yeah we

[1:21:34] trying to find new you know I don't think I mean like you know we haven't

[1:21:38] even had a subdivision like application I've been here that's what I'm saying so

[1:21:43] it's like you know you can make them put sidewalks in and Roads and this and that

[1:21:47] and this but where are they going to do it you know the last subdivision was

[1:21:52] with thron yeah we approve that was the Cur or whatever yeah exactly so that's

[1:22:00] oh so did they it seems like they considered taking the bump out of aaine

[1:22:04] white Road as an improvement here there you go we did

[1:22:08] it it's done so we can cross people go faster to see if they

[1:22:14] maintain I feel like they've done a pretty good job on Benton and Anderson

[1:22:17] Road I feel like they maintain them pretty well recently right da I'm the

[1:22:21] one who got rid of the Benton Road triangle yeah yeah yeah my son called

[1:22:25] him up who are you the one who got rid of the Ben Road triangle so I feel like

[1:22:30] there's definitely been improvements since you not many people do it but I

[1:22:36] live on Benton Road a this side of the trial and if you

[1:22:43] go to left to go down higgy Road from Benton Road you have those people coming

[1:22:50] around the corner that can't see you because the hedges in front of the house

[1:22:53] on the corner there and you know finally I think I convinced somebody to put a

[1:22:59] stop sign in yeah so at least they might slow the traffic down going through that

[1:23:03] intersection yeah but it's like you put your take your life in hand because you

[1:23:07] never know what's going to come zooming around that corner it's it's it's an

[1:23:10] improvement definitely yes yeah it's confusing even for people just trying

[1:23:14] like where do you go like that we're so close guys oh yeah anyway so

[1:23:20] yeah keep moving and I'm not going to read through it but it says what does

[1:23:24] and and that I'd still say that yeah we haven't really reviewed the subdivision

[1:23:28] regulations but definitely we need the the latest one is from 2012 so

[1:23:35] yeah it could use probably tons of improvement but I think that was on our

[1:23:38] list but we focus on some of these other things I think there's still other

[1:23:42] things that probably will end up do you mind just printing me a copy of what the

[1:23:46] subdivision regulations are talk I'll do right now I'll do a little audit take it

[1:23:50] home with me read it go to bed tonight like

[1:23:58] read sleep in about two

[1:24:04] minutes and um I think we been said that this is another thing that we can take

[1:24:10] off of our list people to thank for yeah you know the Broadband improvements in

[1:24:17] the

[1:24:19] area the cell coverage we can keep because that's

[1:24:24] so yeah can't get any coverage over by the oh boy those dump they're really

[1:24:33] important I can never get a

[1:24:39] signal down Washington no well Washington at's best carefully consider

[1:24:44] any new sewer installations no well there's always been an adct attitude in

[1:24:51] this town that we don't want sewers but I would also say argue that sewers could

[1:24:56] be part of a Bantam Lake overlay Zone because you yes you have sewers on the

[1:25:03] west side of the lake but you don't have that on the east side of well where does

[1:25:07] it all go though who's got the sewage treatment

[1:25:11] facility okay because how much capaity they have I don't want to build a sewage

[1:25:15] treatment plant in L yeah but it's might be a capacity no

[1:25:21] yeah it could be I don't know I don't know where they say no to

[1:25:28] a but it's like that's the sewer avoidance policy is

[1:25:35] always been a a thing in this town but I still say that well it's a way of

[1:25:40] restricting how many structures go how many to preserve the bodies that

[1:25:46] are vies I know when I first moved here I was like okay now we can put gates at

[1:25:51] every entrance we don't need any more people here

[1:25:56] out keep Farms here we want to yes farms and Rural Vibes

[1:26:00] yeah sidewalk and

[1:26:06] biking apply for Community connectivity or other funding to do a planning study

[1:26:11] for the cost and benefits of sidewalks and

[1:26:16] crosswalks and the command commercial centers and a bike

[1:26:20] walk bike slw walk paths or two

[1:26:28] there Dave there is an active request to the board of Selectmen from all the

[1:26:31] business owners and East Morris for sidewalks interlinking uh the East

[1:26:36] Morris intersection there be good they want State thing to

[1:26:41] get the sidewalks for free that would fit one of those things thought part of

[1:26:46] the roadway plan includes sidewalks in

[1:26:51] um in Center moris was that corre does anybody know enough about that the plan

[1:26:56] for the road for the traffic circle yes the sidewalk that the sidewalks and

[1:27:01] Stu some of that is happening and it's I'm glad to hear what you're talking

[1:27:05] about Ben because I think that would be a good idea yeah there is a petition

[1:27:09] from um all the business owners I think aside from the extra Mark um petitioning

[1:27:16] the board of selectman to uh have a um sidewalk that connects basically

[1:27:22] belluna to the Mexican place get people all the way over to

[1:27:27] um uh the wisel dog and also across to like pasture area because what we're

[1:27:33] finding is a lot of people are parking in random lots and then patroning one or

[1:27:38] two businesses and often crossing the street right now there's no safe passage

[1:27:43] across the road and when there's not a crosswalk right there then the um lot of

[1:27:51] the where the car originates or where it parks

[1:27:54] there's liability concerns so there's there's some like practical reasons why

[1:27:58] we need that right now in addition to just um you know we want to encourage

[1:28:04] Economic Development between the local businesses and if you do stuff like that

[1:28:09] aesthetically it's not it's yes it it makes for a nice

[1:28:13] town you know the state road that's the that's like if you if you think about a

[1:28:21] bant like Center of Bantam where it does have a sidewalk but it's also so steep

[1:28:25] that people aren't utilizing it like in East Morris at least you know we have

[1:28:29] the benefit where you can you know walk to any of those very easily it's not

[1:28:35] it's not a uh it's not a challenging walk Ben do you know if those crosswalks

[1:28:41] included like you know blinking lights or any any slow down for

[1:28:47] cars I think they um uh I'm trying to think of the example

[1:28:54] think the example they were that we were thinking about is uh there's one on um

[1:28:59] through White's Woods where they put the uh the uh uh new Greenway and they have

[1:29:07] one that's um you know you press the button and it just has orange flash

[1:29:11] lights start flashing and yeah yeah but aside from that it's not like a very

[1:29:16] active system um it would probably still be able to maintain the four-way stop

[1:29:21] and uh it would just cross it like one or two places

[1:29:24] so we we want like something that's pretty minimal impact but like checks

[1:29:28] the box to say hey we have a crosswalk yeah right and there saer pedestrian

[1:29:33] access well right now what everyone has to do is put signs up to say no no

[1:29:37] parking other than the business that you're you're attending and that's

[1:29:41] basically done for

[1:29:48] liability and Camp colia you talked about that already

[1:29:54] want to encourage way more accessible and more useful and TR to preserve

[1:30:01] it and support encourage renewable green energy

[1:30:06] installations solar panels of James Morris Elementary School to rce energy

[1:30:10] costs other opportunities to install renewable energy should be exped I think

[1:30:15] we did kind of do something like that yeah when are they suppos to I think in

[1:30:20] the spring I think this year when they could do

[1:30:27] it Sam Lan transfer station yep little

[1:30:34] Sam yes po I'm glad they named it after nice you know one of my favorite

[1:30:39] memories of Sam was during the pandemic we had to wear a mask I went one day and

[1:30:44] I actually took a picture I to dig it out one of these days he cut a hole in

[1:30:47] the mask for his

[1:30:51] cigar fantastic Sam that's like the best thing I've seen

[1:30:56] all day was great very creative very creative oh my God he was so funny and

[1:31:01] with that we're at the end of the really

[1:31:09] nice I also appreciate J's work on getting us Maps done and everything just

[1:31:13] so you know she's still on

[1:31:24] thank you everybody thank you really

[1:31:34] good that we actually did the public speak before

[1:31:41] yes may I think

[1:31:47] name and Lucas was here too right for my

[1:31:52] Memorial I wondering

[1:31:56] oh actually we can just close it it's public heing okay yeah you close it

[1:32:01] we'll just

[1:32:04] close is here in the audience Ben yep we had both b b Sol Ben no I just making

[1:32:12] you know obviously I was I came late obviously no no no we had we had a

[1:32:18] actual show we actually got I mean one of the interesting things is

[1:32:23] the farmland and um

[1:32:27] um they're they're cataloging the farm properties okay well

[1:32:34] okay yeah I think that's I and I still feel the same thing

[1:32:40] with the cataloging of commercial uses and that's and that kind of tags on

[1:32:47] with the business directory almost well also with the special

[1:32:52] exception and and non-conforming users those also are part of the business

[1:32:58] listing too yeah I would look at special exceptions and non-conforming being more

[1:33:03] of like an academic exercise for the CEO not so much for like a business

[1:33:09] directory for like Economic Development driver I see them as being two different

[1:33:14] purposes but in are uses that go with the property of course they are

[1:33:18] commercial businesses a lot of times yeah that's something I think inherent

[1:33:22] in the CEO responsibility not so much being a

[1:33:26] public list okay that's accessed that's how I see it and it's the onus of the

[1:33:32] property owner if they want to support a pass use of the property and not so much

[1:33:38] the responsibility of the town to have cataloged every past use it could

[1:33:42] actually get the town into some trouble in the event that it doesn't list

[1:33:47] everything that it once was okay well you can't go back to the beginning of

[1:33:51] time necessarily because zoning happened a lot more recently than the town

[1:33:56] established itself could do more harm than good I

[1:34:00] got you our regulations 1979 Zing's been around for I would say at least a 100

[1:34:04] years I don't know my complete history but it's been out probably over 100

[1:34:09] years so do you want to break the recording or just continue the recording

[1:34:13] the I mean if you wanted you could pause it and then we could just just just to

[1:34:17] have a little second break and then we can just resume it it's up to you

[1:34:20] whatever you want to do how much longer do we plan on going just for my own

[1:34:25] I don't think so to make sure there's nothing on here we need to talk about

[1:34:29] quickly no I don't think nothing I'll just quickly stop the

[1:34:36] recording 539 this is Dave we chairman of the

[1:34:41] mor Zing commission regular Workshop meeting

[1:34:46] which I tried to do earlier when I was calling are you taking minutes or should

[1:34:49] I just start just start okay let me get this P then I haven't brought pens for

[1:34:55] anyone who needs them today pens and P it's

[1:35:00] 8:39 right and it's um at calling to order 8:39 pm thank you Kim door and the

[1:35:09] board members present in the house are Kim Bill ALS Veronica Florio and Erica

[1:35:15] Leone who's appointed for Bob Bon gelotti and online we have Helen White

[1:35:20] and Mark petzold our foreign correspondents

[1:35:26] and basically is there anything for a agenda

[1:35:29] review no unless Veronica wants me to add something no good okay so I just put

[1:35:36] a summary summary statement for

[1:35:41] 3A um Janelle is going to assemble a list and we'll check it

[1:35:47] twice it's just in time for the holidays because we already determined

[1:35:52] who's been naughty and nice

[1:35:57] who's and so I think that's where we're at I think it was a very useful session

[1:36:03] yeah and chairman I'm just going to focus on the P andz assigned tasks I'm

[1:36:07] not I don't expect you to worry about anybody else great great I just want a

[1:36:10] list for our planning meetings perfect excellent and that's why I'm concerned

[1:36:14] about joselyn's list too just to make sure we figure out what we've done I'm

[1:36:19] less concerned just knowing all the housing we've recently focused yeah I

[1:36:22] know we've done a lot I know included the mix use the multif family

[1:36:26] housing so done a

[1:36:29] lot making property prior got I don't want anything to all through the crack

[1:36:34] this we fig we already took care of I don't want to

[1:36:40] assume so we have you done we already did draw

[1:36:46] some samples of what the character yeah so if you remember last

[1:36:51] time we met we found there were only two instances I believe where character is

[1:36:55] mentioned in the regulations so it's it's not as heavy as it's mentioned in

[1:37:00] the pccd um so where it is mentioned I

[1:37:04] flaged the last time and the suggestion it's it's actually quite simple the

[1:37:10] first instance it's mentioned on page 50 under light industrial and it just

[1:37:15] States uses allow or type and nature that are compatible with the town's

[1:37:20] rural character and if we change that to with the town's

[1:37:27] rural nature or the town's rural um atmosphere atmosphere I mean anything

[1:37:34] along those lines I would atmosphere yeah I mean we

[1:37:39] should look at the statute exactly as written and then base it on that I guess

[1:37:42] because you can use the word but you just have to use it properly I guess is

[1:37:47] the right so the statute doesn't actually make any specific

[1:37:51] recommendations what the statute does is it says that tangible

[1:37:57] characteristics should replace the term character because character is such a

[1:38:01] nebulous term so it doesn't actually give us any direction other than telling

[1:38:06] us not to do something which is typical of state law it tells us what we can and

[1:38:11] can't do but not really how to get there um so I would just suggest uses allowed

[1:38:16] are a type of a type in nature that are compatible with the towns

[1:38:23] Al composition there you go rather than

[1:38:26] character um because we're talking about the way that the town set up right

[1:38:32] buildings are masked and roads are laid out so I look at that term as being

[1:38:36] composition and then the other instance that character is mentioned we do not

[1:38:41] get to until page 58 and it's with reference to home occupation we say the

[1:38:48] home occupation use May occupy an accessory building if the location

[1:38:51] appearance and scale of the the accessory building are consistent with

[1:38:55] the residential character of the lot I would just say residential nature of the

[1:39:00] lot and the neighborhood so therefore with home occupations we still need to

[1:39:06] make sure that it looks like a house it acts like a house um and then our final

[1:39:12] instance where character shows up in the regulations is on page

[1:39:17] 76 and it's in the plan development District number one states to permit

[1:39:23] Trax of land of considerable size to be developed and designed as harmonious

[1:39:27] units consistent with the character of the town and the neighborhood and again

[1:39:33] um I would look to that as being like consistent with

[1:39:37] the

[1:39:41] composition of the town and the neighborhood where we're looking more at

[1:39:47] massing density size of buildings then we're

[1:39:52] looking at quote unquote character and I don't even mind putting composition

[1:39:57] parentheses massing density size of buildings so that it's really clear do

[1:40:04] that so you so they understand exactly what we mean yeah of these words nature

[1:40:09] Vibes yeah yes um so so I would suggest that we just say composition parentheses

[1:40:16] massing density lot size building size um in parenthesis for that final

[1:40:22] instance that character gets reference and that's it we only mentioned it three

[1:40:26] times in the regulations so it's not too

[1:40:30] bad poke heads a little next time um we do do another substantive change with

[1:40:37] the regulations I'll make note so that we carry this over because this is a

[1:40:42] pretty small change but if we have another public hearing public hearing

[1:40:46] yeah yeah yeah just to eliminate the use of character

[1:40:50] yes and that's all I have for four 4 a thank you for

[1:40:56] 4B I know we did the survey is that that's done with right so yeah the

[1:41:01] survey has gone out I sent a link to Tony so he could share the data you want

[1:41:06] to email that to everyone that would be ideal the takeaway from all the data

[1:41:11] essentially is status quo do nothing they are not a problem um so that was

[1:41:17] there are 33 survey respondents and the general consensus was nothing to note as

[1:41:22] a problem not um a big concern and not to take major action immediately have

[1:41:31] there only like 10 airbnbs so it would be even if they all filled it out it

[1:41:35] would only be

[1:41:38] 33% um I just want to make sure that Tony if you are okay with just sharing

[1:41:45] that link to yeah I'll share yeah I just got it

[1:41:48] yesterday the people that have the airbnbs were the ones suring oh no no

[1:41:52] we're not no no that's not what we that was the joke that's the joke that was

[1:41:56] the joke Ser well was posted on the website the mor homepage the point is

[1:42:01] there a way to cross reference and find out if the people who responded are

[1:42:05] Airbnb owners they had to list their address there you go yeah well I don't

[1:42:10] have that information and again it's a relatively small so Survey Monkey for

[1:42:15] everyone to also know it's not as user friendly as it used to be they're now

[1:42:20] charging a lot more so if you get more than 25 respondents and you want to look

[1:42:25] at it and analyze it further I can look at it as the administrator but I can't

[1:42:29] share it with everyone unless I pay money which is obnoxious and I didn't

[1:42:35] think we were going to do a lot of surveys if we were going to do a lot of

[1:42:38] surveys I would have opted in to pay um but I can look at all the property

[1:42:43] owners and I can create a list for next time of just who's responded 33 people

[1:42:48] out of a town of this population it's not an overwhelming response

[1:42:53] granted it was posted on the town website not a heavily trafficked web

[1:42:57] page so if we really wanted a more robust reading from Town's people I

[1:43:03] would definitely suggest a larger campaign of like going around to local

[1:43:08] businesses and making sure there's a QR code to the survey at the at the time

[1:43:13] that we put out this survey it didn't strike me as being like of an immediate

[1:43:20] need that we get a ton of responses but if we change directions and we do think

[1:43:25] getting a broader swath of residents response we'll definitely have to go

[1:43:29] about it in a broader way um just because we're not all perusing Town

[1:43:35] websites regularly Tucker in course I'm telling you it was funny when I was I

[1:43:41] left meeting last night on a horse with a QR code on your

[1:43:48] back SP out the pz survey so discuss it in more detail at

[1:43:54] our next yeah we want to get more information everyone and we can skip or

[1:44:00] c d w well wow then we can talk about 5A was your

[1:44:08] T up what do you board membership we GNA

[1:44:14] talk about 5 we should probably skip it yeah tonight yeah I'm skipping it

[1:44:18] tonight no problem then well maybe what I'll try to do is reach out to people

[1:44:23] who want to join I know Ken's interested maybe see if they want to come to the

[1:44:27] next December meeting sounds like a sounds like a great

[1:44:32] plan so I don't know what do you want to talk

[1:44:38] about I

[1:44:43] would the regular meeting of the Morris Planning and Zoning commission November

[1:44:47] 20th 2024 at 8:49 p.m. I second it and I'll just call the question I'm not

[1:44:55] going to give a line item I mean a roll call quote all those in favor

[1:45:01] yeah extensions motion

[1:45:09] Carri meeting is been close at approximately 8:49 p.m. on Wednesday

[1:45:15] member 2024

[1:45:24] who knows so sad I

November 20th 2024 Meeting and Public Hearing Recording

Transcript