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HomeMy Public PortalAbout2021-06-3-Draft-CPC-MinutesTown of Watertown Community Preservation Committee Administration Building 149 Main Street Watertown, Massachusetts 02472 Tel. (617) 972-6417 Fax (617) 972-6595 Committee Members Mark Kraczkiewicz, Chair Jason Cohen, Vice Chair Jonathan Bockian Bob DiRico Dennis J. Duff Allen Gallagher Jamie O'Connell Susan Steele Elodia Thomas Meeting Minutes: Thursday, June 3, 2021, Remote Zoom Meeting, 7:00 p.m. Committee Members Present: Mark Kraczkiewicz, Chair; Jason Cohen, Vice Chair; Jon Bockian, Dennis J. Duff; Allen Gallagher; Bob DiRico, Jamie O'Connell, Susan Steele joined at 7:13 pm, and Elodia Thomas. Others Present: Lanae Handy, CPC Coordinator; Leo Martin, Conservation Commission; Michele Waldman, Ernesta Krackiewicz, Janet Buck, Jessica Grimsby, Chris Penland, and Anne Fitzpatrick. 1. Call Meeting to Order Mark Kraczkiewicz, Chair, called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. He read the Governor's Executive Order suspending certain provisions of Open Meeting Law, allowing remote meetings. Lanae Handy called the roll. Jon Bockian, Jason Cohen, Bob DiRico, Dennis J. Duff, Allen Gallagher, Mark Kraczkiewicz, Jamie O'Connell, and Elodia Thomas were present. 2. Acceptance of 4-15-21 and 5-20-21 Meeting Minutes Mark asked if there were any amendments to the meeting minutes. There were no requested changes to the 4/15/21 minutes. Motion: Allen moved to accept the 4-15-21 meeting minutes and Dennis seconded. Vote: Jon Bockian, Jason Cohen, Bob DiRico, Dennis Duff, Allen Gallagher, Mark Kraczkiewicz, Jamie O'Connell, and Elodia Thomas voted in favor. Mark noted he had two corrections to the public hearing minutes and Jamie pointed out the link to comments gathered through email was incorrect. Mark asked whether to include a capsule of the exchange with Ellen Rothman about individuals or ad hoc groups coordinating with the town on a project application. Elodia thought it was too detailed to include and Mark agreed. Anne Fitzpatrick added that her address is Standish Rd., not Dandridge Rd. 1 2021 -6 -3 -Draft -CPC -Minutes Motion: Dennis moved to accept the 5-20-21 minutes with the proposed corrections and Allen seconded. Vote: Jon Bockian, Jason Cohen, Bob DiRico, Dennis Duff, Allen Gallagher, Mark Kraczkiewicz, Jamie O'Connell, and Elodia Thomas voted in favor. 3. Allocation and Transfer of CPA Funds - FY2022 Budget Through screen sharing, Jason displayed the FY2022 CPA budget and financial statement (as of May 6, 2021). Motion: Jason moved to request the Town Council appropriate and transfer from the fiscal year 2022 Community Preservation Funds, totaling ($3,051,210) the following funds: 5% ($152,561) for the administrative expense of the Community Preservation Committee, 10% to the affordable housing reserve ($305,121), 10% to the historical preservation reserve ($305,121), 10% to the open space/recreation reserve ($305,121), and 65% to the undesignated fund balance ($1,983,287). Dennis seconded. Vote: Jon Bockian, Jason Cohen, Bob DiRico, Dennis Duff, Allen Gallagher, Mark Kraczkiewicz, Jamie O'Connell, Susan Steele, and Elodia Thomas voted in favor. 4. Additional Graphic Designer Fees Lanae told the CPC that she spoke with Marcia Ciro about changes to be made to the plan. Marcia explained that if there were minor changes that did not affect the layout, she would not charge the CPC. However, if the changes were more involved, she would charge the CPC. Lanae suggested a $500 maximum to ensure there would be no need to vote on the issue again. Motion: Dennis moved to set a maximum $500 for additional designer fees. Allen seconded. Vote: Jon Bockian, Jason Cohen, Bob DiRico, Dennis Duff, Allen Gallagher, Mark Kraczkiewicz, Jamie O'Connell, Susan Steele, and Elodia Thomas voted in favor. 5. Adoption of Community Preservation Plan - 2021 Jason shared the comments from the public hearing via his screen. Mark suggested going through them to decide if any warranted changes to the plan. Jon was curious about the correction of facts. Lanae described the two corrections to the history section of mislabeled names and Elodia added one in the open space section where the Greenway was mislabeled in a table. Mark stated that Jennifer Van Campen had some criticism of the application timeline and thought applications should be accepted on a rolling basis. Mark remarked that while the CPC would accept eligibility forms on a rolling basis, the full funding application deadline should be kept. He read from the Department of Revenue regulations that the CPC evaluates projects and makes recommendations based on other projects competing for CPA funding. Mark indicated that assumes reviewing and evaluating project applications as a group. 2 2021 -6 -3 -Draft -CPC -Minutes Jon shared his screen and following up on Jennifer's comment. He researched the NRPA performance review and the ratio of governmental land per person. Jon believed the plan should accurately represent the town and provide a full picture. He declared the NRPA points out the ratio is not meant to be a basis of comparison. Jon thought the Watertown ratio should not be compared to the NRPA number 9.9 acres/1,000 persons because that figure was presented as a median number derived from survey responses from municipalities. Jon also suggested including publicly accessible open space to give a fuller picture of the Watertown ratio. He proposed showing the ratios for both town -owned and all publicly accessible land. Mark proposed changing the text in four places to replace the word standard with median. Elodia pointed out that when DHCD did their calculations for Safe Harbor they did not accept any open space land that was not owned by the municipality because those privately owned areas may be developed at any time. Elodia also noted that the language in the plan comes from town planning documents and the CP Plan uses the same language as those documents. The latest wording used by the NRPA is level of service —what people can play on and use for recreation. Mark responded that we need to use the most up to date information available and that the NRPA language moved from standard to national median. Elodia said the plan is evolving with changes such as the completion of the housing plan and the development of a municipal affordable housing trust. She further stated, Leo spent a lot of time putting the figures together and consulting Gideon and Laurel. Jamie thanked Leo and committee members for their hard work on the plan. She found Jennifer's comments useful, although she disagreed with her conclusion. Jamie was not clear on what was included in the 3.25 acre/1,000 persons ratio in the plan. She thought Jon's comments were helpful in comparing the different ratios detailing exactly which open space is included in the ratio calculations. She agreed that that the NRPA figure it is not a standard, but it is useful for comparison, showing that Watertown's ratio is low compared to the national median. Jon disagreed with using the NRPA median in the plan and stated that the CPC could consider proposals from the owners of private open space. He thought privately -owned publicly accessible space should be included in the ratio. Mark declared the term national median term should be used in the plan and the committee needed to decide whether to reference the NRPA median or not. Jaime said she likes the median terminology. Jamie supported clearly conveying what land is included in the ratio. Jason emphasized the data should not be cherry -picked to advocate for one category over another. Jon pointed out the ratio of 10.29 acres/1,000 persons that he proposed adding to the plan does not include the country club. Mark asked whether the term NRPA median or standard should be used or not used at all. Susan said there was real clarity in Leo's argument against using a ratio that included privately -owned open space. She thought the plan's text was clear and the modifications would make it more confusing. 3 2021 -6 -3 -Draft -CPC -Minutes Resident Comments: Anne Fitzpatrick thought the plan was very good as written since it was done in consultation with planning department staff. She thought the town needed to make a concerted effort to preserve land because there is a shortage of open space and available land is rapidly being developed. Anne voted for the CPA to preserve open space and for historic preservation. She disagreed with not using the NRPA figure simply because it does not include privately -owned land. Chris Penland said that he concurred with Anne. As a resident he understood that town -owned land is what is represented in the plan. To Jamie's point, the plan may add a footnote to explain which land was used to calculate the ratio. He further added that if the town gave up all town -owned open space, one could argue that the ratio would still be 7 acres/1,000 persons, though that land would not be protected from development or preserved for public access. Motion: Allen moved to adopt the plan the way the plan was written and Dennis seconded. Discussion: Dennis found Jennifer Van Campen's statements insulting and offensive. Elodia said the work by staff and Leo needed to be respected. Jon took offense at the idea that no changes could be made to the draft plan because people worked so hard on it. Jason agreed and thought that to function properly as a committee, the group must be able to accept changes without being so defensive. Jon felt obliged to vote against the motion on the table because it shut down the conversation. Leo pointed out that he put tables together, including acreage of publicly -owned and privately -owned land. Jon suggested amending Allen's motion so that wherever the ratio of 3.25 acres/1,000 persons is mentioned, the text should clearly state that its town -owned open space. Mark proposed striking the word standard and changing it to median. Susan said changing the language to "NRPA median" sounded like a good change. Allen amended his motion to include town -owned open space where the ratio is mentioned. Dennis seconded. Motion: Mark made a motion to replace standard with NRPA national median where it occurs. Jon seconded. Discussion: Mark said the word national could be dropped if needed for layout reasons. Elodia wanted to be cautious about language and wanted to use the language from the town planning documents. For example, the town changed its language to "levels of service per acre". Jamie asked whether it was appropriate to update the language to NRPA median when the town documents are still using the word standard. Elodia stated the 2021 National Recreation and Park Association Agency Performance Review document would be added to reference the national median ratio. Elodia read what she understood would be the revised language, "Watertown's low ratio of town -owned open space (3.25 acres/1,000) is far below the NRPA national median of 10 acres/1,000 persons." She said that similar language would be inserted in four locations in the plan. Vote: Jon Bockian, Jason Cohen, Bob DiRico, Dennis Duff, Allen Gallagher, Mark Kraczkiewicz, Jamie O'Connell, Susan Steele, and Elodia Thomas voted in favor. 4 2021 -6 -3 -Draft -CPC -Minutes The committee then voted on Allen's amendment to accept the final plan with the changes noted. Vote: Jon Bockian vote no. Jason Cohen, Bob DiRico, Dennis Duff, Allen Gallagher, Mark Kraczkiewicz, Jamie O'Connell, Susan Steele, and Elodia Thomas voted yes. Dennis asked if the plan included the application. Jon agreed that there should be a motion to accept the application. Motion: Dennis moved to accept the application and to forward the plan and the application to the Town Council. Allen seconded. Jon said he was glad to approve the application packet but did not want to vote yes on sending the plan as to the Town Council. Elodia stated the plan had to be sent to the Town Council and that he would not be voting to approve the plan because he already voted against that. Vote: Jon Bockian, Jason Cohen, Bob DiRico, Dennis Duff, Allen Gallagher, Mark Kraczkiewicz, Jamie O'Connell, Susan Steele, and Elodia Thomas voted in favor. 6. Adjournment Motion: Dennis moved to adjourn the meeting and Allen seconded. Resident Comments: Anne as a novice, said she understood the plan when she read it. When she made her statement, she was not worried about offending the authors, but rather her point was about listening to the professionals. Anne thought some of the amended language clouded the issue, making it seem like the town has more space than it does. Anne appreciated the hard work and is thrilled the CPC voted to adopt the plan. Jessica applauded the adoption of the plan. She said as a resident, she found it clear. Jessica hoped the CPC would be open to hearing feedback. Vote: Jon Bockian, Jason Cohen, Bob DiRico, Dennis Duff, Allen Gallagher, Mark Kraczkiewicz, Jamie O'Connell, Susan Steele, and Elodia Thomas voted in favor Meeting adjourned at 9:06 PM. 5 2021 -6 -3 -Draft -CPC -Minutes