April 13, 2026 – Finance Committee – Video & Transcript
April 13, 2026 - Finance Committee
Okay, so we are commuting the Finance Committee meeting. I'll do a little reading first and then
we'll go on. The meeting is being recorded and will be made available to the public on
Wacom as soon as possible after the meeting. Pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025,
this meeting will be conducted only via remote access in accordance with applicable law.
One may watch or participate remotely with the meeting link that can be found
in the calendar tab on the town's home page. Just click on today's date and then click on
Finance Committee. When required by law or allowed by the chair, persons wishing to provide public
comment or otherwise participate in the meeting may do so through the remote access. Public
comment should be limited to two minutes per person. Thank you. So with that, I will call
the meeting to order. Oh, Rob, welcome. That's all of us. I know you've got a short time frame.
Yeah, yep. I'm going to go to the public meeting on Holiday Road in 10 minutes or so.
Okay. Robin, are you here as a member of the public?
No, as a member of the planning board. Okay. We've got a little bit of a glitch there.
I spoke with the clerk today about whether Becky could address the meeting and we had
to amend the agenda to allow her to speak on behalf of EDC. You're not on that agenda,
so if you want two minutes to speak for yourself, I'm happy to provide that,
but otherwise I'm afraid I can't let you participate. Okay. Well, then I'll speak
for myself. It seems odd that the planning board's not being allowed to address a planning board
article. The planning board addressed the meeting last week on April 6th. I know. I was there.
But if a planning board article is being discussed by the Finance Committee, it just seems that the planning board should be permitted to speak. And it was. And I'm not going to repeat that. It was. Yes, but we should be able to address any new concerns that are raised tonight.
I hear you loud and clear, but I'm sorry. We're going to have to move on if that's your concern. That's one concern, but I'll speak after Becky. I'll take the two minutes. These are your two minutes. Well, I will need to hear what is being... said about the article before I speak. I mean, I don't know what's going to be said specifically. Robin, pardon me. This is your opportunity for public comment. You will not be permitted to speak after Becky speaks. Okay. If you would like to request to be at our next meeting, you can do that. I will let Annette deal with that when she's back in town. So then I will address what I expect to be Becky's comments. We had a meeting with them last week. We were not told they were addressing you today until we got this. You were speaking on behalf of the planning board. Hello? Are you there? Yes. Okay. You're speaking on behalf of the planning board. That's an open meeting law violation. I can't allow you to do that. Okay. So I can't address what Ms. Stenizzi discussed with us? She's about to do that. You're welcome to listen.
Okay. This seems to be several sorts of violations, but
I'm going to go ahead and get back to you. Okay. So I will just say that the article that was proposed is a reasonable article. The amendments that I understand people would like to make are not actually before you. There is no article with any amendments before you, and any amendments to the article as it was proposed have to be approved by the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. I understand that. And there isn't time before town meeting to do that. That's what Annette told us. Understood. Loud and clear. That's what Annette told us. So thank you. I'm going to have to move on. I'm sorry. Okay. The agenda for tonight is – I've lost my screen. There you are. The agenda for tonight is to review the minutes of April 6th. April, thank you so much for getting those to us. To discuss Article 25, and as you saw, Rebecca Stenizzi is here, and she's going to – she was? Yes she is. Is going to give us the views of EDC. And then we'll vote on the – we'll discuss and hopefully vote on the town manager's request to transfer $18,000 from the Reserve Fund, with an approximate time of adjourning of about 7.35. So, moving on then – Minutes. You might have seen April's email from just a little while ago. ago I gave her some minor comments earlier today and thank you April for reflecting those um anybody else have any thing to add or change just spelling of my last name which I sent to April but that's okay it might be easier to change your name Phil I'm gonna pass on that okay it's no idea yeah I'm pretty sure I was at the meeting last week yeah oh I think I was I was attending on via Zoom yeah but I think you joined a little after it started Rob okay but it you shouldn't be noticed should I be listed in members absent I think it would be members present in it and you just list the time yeah I just have to put the remote sorry it's um I think I had it there and I thought I changed it but it did not change so I will do that right now good catch Rob I just don't want anyone wondering how I voted without being there anything else from anybody I just had a couple like on the um the fourth paragraph under the discussion of the multi-housing article um the I guess it's the third sentence um any bylaw amendments require the planning board to model changes before updating the article I'm not before the planning board to to model changes is that if we were to amend this article you're saying or if we were to change the bylaw I wasn't clear on what I think it's supposed to be bylaw sorry before updating the bylaw yeah okay um and then I think the last sentence I just had a question on it says psych site plans can't impose restrictive restrictions but the plans can or the the approval requirements or I'm not I'm not great with the terminology and all this stuff but I don't know I don't know site plans is what it should say that was just a question so I'll just I'll just leave that I'm wondering if I can get it out because she she made that comment but at the end of one of her um when she was talking about special permits and saying how they can't impose a bunch of restrictions so maybe misunderstood I think maybe the special permits can't not the site plans just to clarify that my only other comment was pardon in the um the last media paragraph review and discussion of the town's processes um the second sentence there was a call to follow bylaw timelines and request staff support for I would just put in Finance committee just to clarify and that's all I had thank you again for producing those okay last call anybody else hearing hearing nothing I'll propose that do we um or make a motion to approve the minutes as revised I can do all in favor we need a roll call vote so I'll go from no sorry Phil we've got to go through the um and I'll go through this in order in which you appear on my screen April yes Carl's a yes Iris yes Phil yes Pam yes Bill yes and Rob yes all right great thank you all um we heard extensively from Annette last week on article 25. um Becky representing the EDC is asked to um uh speak to us as well and I was able to get her into the agenda late this afternoon so thank you for that Becky um our time is limited but if you would um like to step up and tell us what's on your mind that would be great or or so mostly I'm just here to report on the meeting that we had two meetings we've had since we'd sent the email so I'm recording as a chair of EDC um and I can bring you up to speed on conclusions that were reached um ultimately we met last Wednesday with both Rahmad and Annette and our entire EDC board except for one who was traveling and so we talked through concerns of uh how a change or an amendment um would somehow uh make it too difficult to process at town meeting that is the question procedurally if it can happen but ultimately we talked through the content as well which we are recommending that along with the additional heightened units that we'd be sure to protect the town with certain height constraints and then setback constraints and number of floors really importantly Annette brought up last time Alta Oxbow some of these guidelines and standards um Alta Oxbow was always at 58 feet in the back quadrant of the site the variant she was talking about brought it across the whole back of the site since the I believe I wasn't part of that process with town manager's office but because remember we had environmental issues and the town had to stop and we had to take care of the asbestos issue and go to town meeting get money blah blah blah it dragged on and it would led to additional costs in terms of time and construction uh cost increases which is why they were looking for the financial hardship um from the town's point of view ultimately we got additional units we were paid you know that incremental amount for the land and then we also got additional affordable units which got us above our 10 so as a town we weren't necessarily harmed by it it was just sort of a sound looked like a good solution to try to fix the money issue as well as help the town at the same time so the key is the 58 58 was 200 to 250 feet back from Route 20. um closer to Route 20 there was a no build zone for the first 50. there was 35 feet which is two story in a peach roof in the next 50 feet it was 45 which is three stories in a peak truth and it was 58 way at the back which was four stories in a beach roof so our main concern an easy way to cut right through it our concern is that the the zoning doesn't require a peach roof and it doesn't mandate the number of floors so especially we had sent some images of what a four-story building with no setbacks um with a peach roof so you're seeing it about 49 feet um we became even more concerned when we looked at the design regulations that are separate and aside from the zoning which requires that no more than six foot of the garage comes out of the ground which means if you have 58 feet you're leaving 52 feet which typical Florida floor is 10 10 and a half 11 feet you can get five stories right so if you know anything about this construction type it's heavy duty construction or concrete foundations and then they do a tension slab and then it's all wood frame construction above um wood frame construction the smaller the footprint the lesser the the concrete footprint the smaller the roof the more efficient it is developers are absolutely wanting to do five stories over a parking garage instead of four over a parking garage so given no constraints on the number of floors this zoning could very likely lead to a five-story building five residential floors over a half uh garage or a five and a half story building which does not exist anywhere in Wayland um so that's the concern of having the zoning pass and then we don't have anything to help guide it um once we are dealing with a developer who has as of right um the planning board was wanting to robin and Annette um that speaking out of turn wanted to try to address it in the regulations which is done by the planning board it doesn't have to go to town meeting it's literally just the regulations of what it looks like landscaping lighting Etc um it's said well you know we can we can manage these things in the design regulations the problem is and Annette mentioned it in your her presentation saying the state is watching very carefully because the easy way to make as of right zoning very hard is to make it difficult right so if we passed 58 foot zoning but then in the design regulation said you can only do four residential floors a developer's going to say hey look it's so much more efficient to do five over one I should be able to do that within that height right and we really wouldn't have a leg to stand on so we talked through a lot of this stuff um we interestingly enough we didn't disagree on the design criteria right and net was thinking that the setbacks from the road we were protected from that because the fire fire department needed to have a loop all the way around um that actually works for the site that if you turn in the road on the right hand side but on the left hand side it doesn't necessarily um she had noted that that site is unlikely to be developed uh just doing the numbers the pantry bought that site for a million 225 just to give you a sense they bought it uh for the building itself and ultimately the zoning was 20 units an acre right so if they were an acre and a half they had 20 units they could do 30 units potentially there if they so choose to do residential typically uh you know land that's permitted the value is about 40 to 50 000 per unit so that would mean if they permitted for residential they'd be about a million 225 two million three um and so they would be unlikely sorry million two to million five which is unlikely because they bought it for their use with the new zoning at 32 units that brings them up to 48 units which then is worth 2.9 to or sorry 1.9 to 2.4 so if they were given the option to cash out and be able to buy a building somewhere else and have an extra million dollars in their pocket which is all for the good they are a food pantry wanting to expand and wanting to do good things they would be very motivated to do so to combine right so it is likely that that site would be developed so it is important on both sides for these setbacks to occur because the fire department clearly could drive on a flat lawn out front and be able to get to the front of that building so for a lot of these reasons as you think about the real life situation how developers look at it um and essentially we agreed um you know conceptually bill sterling was there who's on the design review board who was doing his work the plan for the building and it was the board that was on the design review board rather than the character of the fire department that was on the design review board and so we did the setup of the building and we presented it to us and we were very happy about it and we pretty much decided to begin to work on it for the rest of the the planning phase and I don't know how many people will agree with that but the fact that it was built on the design review board was a help to me in terms of the original plan because we thought oh wow this is going to be a really good place for us to live in and so there was a lot of work to do 58 feet with no break whatsoever. So it's going to feel like a very big building, right? So we listened a lot and we understood where they were coming from. We refined it so that numbers stayed with numbers. And there is one sentence that would be an amendment as an asterisk to the table that it would say, you know, the table would stay the same, that you basically can go to 20 units and 35 feet, which is what the existing approved zoning is with the state. Nobody wants to disturb that, but have an asterisk and say, if you want to go up to 32 units an acre, and if you want to go up to 56 or 58 feet, then you have to step back. Then you need your top floor to step back, that step massing. Then you need to do these things. So those are really important criteria to protect the town. So we had discussed that at EDC on Friday. We did that revised zoning where the zoning would have a single asterisk, a single sentence, and then anything else qualitative can happen in the design regulations and asked the planning board to consider that. And we're more than happy to usher that through with you guys, with the design review board, with planning board. It is a question of time-wise, can it be done in time? We leave that to the planning board. But again, we did vote unanimously that it is essential that this amendment be added to the zoning to protect the town. All right. Thank you. Any questions before I go? I guess I was curious what is in front of FinCom tonight? And maybe that's not you, Becky, but. The vote, no, sorry. The article that's in the town warrant, in the warrant for the town meeting.
We don't have the power to look at or approve amendments tonight. And currently we're listed as not taking a position on it because it's a non-financial article. Is that? No, I believe. We just deferred to town meeting. But I think we deferred to town meeting. Right. Okay. There are discussions still ongoing. And we can continue to defer it for that matter, but. I see. So that's the choice tonight. We could vote, you know, up or down or simply continue to defer it to town meeting. Correct. We can't take any action on the specifics of what Becky just suggested. I do not believe we can. Right. The amendment isn't in front of you at all. It's really just, yeah, it's just the backstory of what's in front of you and what the discussion has been. Yeah.
Thank you. It will likely be amended at town meeting. What was that, Pam? Sorry. And what you would likely make an amendment at town meeting. You're just surprising us of what could happen. Exactly. It really is up to the planning board. Again, what Robin was mentioning for them to be able to do an amendment, most likely be a public hearing. You'd want to go through the planning board, right? It'd be very strange if we got up and did it. But ultimately what we were recommending was. short amendment we can kind of bring it through the planning board and we are happy to assist bringing it through those boards get design view board sign off planning board sign off fincom select board and if all those were generally in support on the on town meeting floor it might work um whether the logistics of that will work or not we're not sure that we we we don't plan on posting it on the on town meeting floor so if it goes ahead as is um we have our concerns um and clearly we feel strongly that there should be an amendment to help um refine this zoning amendment all right thank you thank you all set anything else for for becky okay really appreciate your time all right thanks for having me thank you okay um i don't really think we have a fixed schedule between now and town meeting we can dispose of this from our perspective tonight we can kick it down the road one more time um i think annette was clear in what she said i think becky's view is clear um whether those two are reconcilable or not i don't know um but i i i'll leave it to the group to decide whether you want to take a vote or continue to defer
okay i will make a proposal that finance committee uh i guess the word is recommend article 25 is written in the town warrant uh the more for the town meeting um i think that's all we can do right i mean that's a recommendation it's not a approval or anything beyond that right i'll second it's recommended approval yeah thank you okay um again we need a roll call vote for this um so i'll start april yes i'm a no iris i'm also a no phil abstain pam um i know we have to get these things done but i i would really like to see some of the
what's been discussed incorporated into the bylaws so i'm going to say i'm going to know i'm a no also okay and bill uh abstain so if i'm counting right we have one in favor three against and two abstentions is that right rob is gone same count as i have okay good thank you yep so one two two is that five one one three two one three two thank you okay yeah okay thank you um next time on the agenda is to consider and possibly vote on the time manager's request to transfer eighteen thousand dollars from the reserve fund um in addition to the request itself which he sent out um a week or ten days ago i forwarded a memo today that gives a little bit more information about it the bottom line is that the council and aging um community center came online and had not been budgeted for insurance up to that point and in addition there were um i believe four events in town that led to liability which led to deductibles we had to pay and then there was an audit of workers compensation insurance which has generated um a um an adjustment a retroactive adjustment i don't know what the total amount of all of that is when you add it all up but they were short about eighteen thousand dollars on that from what was already in the appropriate appropriate account so that's the explanation behind the request from the town manager and move to approve oh sorry sorry i just had a clarifying question so they had an audit and they found that they did not have the funds set aside to fully cover the premium or they had an audit i'm just trying to understand they had an audit and the cost was driven up retroactively
i only know what you know from that memo but i think it's the latter i think that's what happened not a question of not having the premiums um set aside huh i didn't even know that was possible that like they could retroactively like change change the cost how interesting okay well i'm not remotely suggesting this happened but if we told them they had we have 100 employees and we had 120 right when they got out they would adjust the premium no i'm not by way of example only but okay okay that's no that that gives me some context for why that could happen thank you i appreciate that because otherwise i was struggling to understand how we could get okay um phil you're you were starting to say something yeah i moved to approve the transfer okay i'll second that okay um oh do we have any other discussion well that's a good question um i guess my i appreciated the the um kelsey's review because i it really added a lot more color than what we had from the original um i guess my question is like looking at the original request we're looking at the expenditure that was extraordinary and unforeseen i guess i the additional endorsement for the coa i i don't know why that should have been unforeseen and that's been that's been in the write-up is one of the reasons unfortunately due to the chance of additional oh oh it actually says additional vehicles here being purchased um the vehicles are addressed in your memo you know so right i i just feel like vehicles being added through the year that happens periodically that i i just wish the write-up kind of correlated a little bit better with i it mentions here the high edition the endorsements on um the audit for the workers comp like i get that that that was unforeseen and and typically um you know we get some dividends that we didn't get this time that offset things i just the write-up itself doesn't completely uh not necessarily to me um defend the fact that some of these things were extraordinary and unforeseen all right so i'm not disagreeing i'm not saying that we shouldn't but i don't disagree that i disagree with with funding this i just wish the write-up were a little bit more clear in the explanation in defending the unforeseen and extraordinary piece so i'll just say that the original write-off. I'll be honest with you about it. It was a little vague. It was quite vague. And I definitely take your point about the COA premiums not being unforeseen. Maybe they didn't know the amount, but they certainly should have known they were coming. But that endorsement was $20,000. It looks like we're talking about $41,000 for the workers' comp, which, by the way, I understand they're working on. I mean, they haven't accepted this audit adjustment. But it seems like, I wouldn't, calling it minor is too strong a word, but it's not the lion's share of the increase. So we could- Right. I mean, when you read the explanation- We could ask them to be- More precise or to take that out or whatever. But I think we have the information we need to decide whether we want to give them the money. Yeah. I agree. I just, I don't know if they could change the wording just to be a little bit more clear, but that was my point. So I don't need to continue with it. Okay. I appreciate that. Any other discussion? All right. Then I'll take a roll call vote. April? Yes. Carl's a yes. Iris? Yes. Phil? Yes. Pam? Yes. Thank you. And Bill? Yes. Okay. Thank you. That is all of the items on the agenda. I have no other topics that I didn't anticipate. If you do, great. Otherwise, I'll call for adjournment. Move to adjourn. Sorry. I was just going to ask, when's the next meeting? Meeting? Do a second and then a discussion.
Seconding? I'll second it. Now we can discuss. Thanks. Okay. To the best of my knowledge, there's one other article. I can't remember which one it is offhand, but there's one other article we deferred to town meeting. We can talk about that. But honestly, I'm not aware of any other business that we need to conduct between now and then. We do have a joint meeting, right, with the select board on the 27th? I think Pam and I were the only two that were able to go, potentially. The 27th? I think we were attending. I don't think we were a joint. Oh, okay. I think that's right. It's a warrant hearing. It's going to be part of their public hearing in the middle of the select board meeting. I'm glad you mentioned it, though, because if anybody's plans have changed and they want to be there, that would be lovely.
And in addition, I think you know that the select board is planning to hold a meeting similar to ours of last week to try to talk through... the process and how it can be improved in our role and their role and everybody else's role. That's not been scheduled. So when it is, and I don't know, I believe that's going to be before town meeting, but I just don't know right now. So stay tuned. I'm guessing it might be after town meeting, but I don't know anything. Yeah. Yeah. If you would like to have a meeting date on the calendar, just so we at least have it on our calendars, we can set that up with the possibility... I think in the past, didn't we do last year a quick meeting prior to town meeting? We've done that before. Yeah. So we just start a half hour or like 45 minutes. At the town meeting, we just kind of huddle up. Yeah. Yeah. And we will have to post that and, you know, but between now and then, you know, so what are we, we're at April 13th. Yeah. You know, town meeting starts on the 4th. It's roughly three weeks.
It'd be next week, right? Or Wednesday of the following week, the 27th? Because the select board meeting is the 27th, that following Monday, and then it's town meeting the following week. So it would be, what, the 29th is a potential?
If we need one, that's certainly a potential. Are people available?
Yes, for me. Yeah, I can do that. Yep.
I said, would it be a quick Zoom meeting again? I suppose it depends on the content, you know, and on the agenda, but I don't see why it couldn't be. So let's pencil in.
Seven o'clock on Wednesday, April 29th. Okay. We'll circle back as necessary. Okay. Okay. Good question, April. Thank you. Okay. We have a motion on the floor. Any further discussion?
All right. I move that we, well, it has been moved that we adjourn. And seconded. And seconded. Thank you, Phil. April? Yes. Carl's a yes. Iris? Yes. Phil? Yes. Pam? Yes. And Bill? Yes. Terrific. Two minutes past schedule. Thank you.
But if a planning board article is being discussed by the Finance Committee, it just seems that the planning board should be permitted to speak. And it was. And I'm not going to repeat that. It was. Yes, but we should be able to address any new concerns that are raised tonight.
I hear you loud and clear, but I'm sorry. We're going to have to move on if that's your concern. That's one concern, but I'll speak after Becky. I'll take the two minutes. These are your two minutes. Well, I will need to hear what is being... said about the article before I speak. I mean, I don't know what's going to be said specifically. Robin, pardon me. This is your opportunity for public comment. You will not be permitted to speak after Becky speaks. Okay. If you would like to request to be at our next meeting, you can do that. I will let Annette deal with that when she's back in town. So then I will address what I expect to be Becky's comments. We had a meeting with them last week. We were not told they were addressing you today until we got this. You were speaking on behalf of the planning board. Hello? Are you there? Yes. Okay. You're speaking on behalf of the planning board. That's an open meeting law violation. I can't allow you to do that. Okay. So I can't address what Ms. Stenizzi discussed with us? She's about to do that. You're welcome to listen.
Okay. This seems to be several sorts of violations, but
I'm going to go ahead and get back to you. Okay. So I will just say that the article that was proposed is a reasonable article. The amendments that I understand people would like to make are not actually before you. There is no article with any amendments before you, and any amendments to the article as it was proposed have to be approved by the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. I understand that. And there isn't time before town meeting to do that. That's what Annette told us. Understood. Loud and clear. That's what Annette told us. So thank you. I'm going to have to move on. I'm sorry. Okay. The agenda for tonight is – I've lost my screen. There you are. The agenda for tonight is to review the minutes of April 6th. April, thank you so much for getting those to us. To discuss Article 25, and as you saw, Rebecca Stenizzi is here, and she's going to – she was? Yes she is. Is going to give us the views of EDC. And then we'll vote on the – we'll discuss and hopefully vote on the town manager's request to transfer $18,000 from the Reserve Fund, with an approximate time of adjourning of about 7.35. So, moving on then – Minutes. You might have seen April's email from just a little while ago. ago I gave her some minor comments earlier today and thank you April for reflecting those um anybody else have any thing to add or change just spelling of my last name which I sent to April but that's okay it might be easier to change your name Phil I'm gonna pass on that okay it's no idea yeah I'm pretty sure I was at the meeting last week yeah oh I think I was I was attending on via Zoom yeah but I think you joined a little after it started Rob okay but it you shouldn't be noticed should I be listed in members absent I think it would be members present in it and you just list the time yeah I just have to put the remote sorry it's um I think I had it there and I thought I changed it but it did not change so I will do that right now good catch Rob I just don't want anyone wondering how I voted without being there anything else from anybody I just had a couple like on the um the fourth paragraph under the discussion of the multi-housing article um the I guess it's the third sentence um any bylaw amendments require the planning board to model changes before updating the article I'm not before the planning board to to model changes is that if we were to amend this article you're saying or if we were to change the bylaw I wasn't clear on what I think it's supposed to be bylaw sorry before updating the bylaw yeah okay um and then I think the last sentence I just had a question on it says psych site plans can't impose restrictive restrictions but the plans can or the the approval requirements or I'm not I'm not great with the terminology and all this stuff but I don't know I don't know site plans is what it should say that was just a question so I'll just I'll just leave that I'm wondering if I can get it out because she she made that comment but at the end of one of her um when she was talking about special permits and saying how they can't impose a bunch of restrictions so maybe misunderstood I think maybe the special permits can't not the site plans just to clarify that my only other comment was pardon in the um the last media paragraph review and discussion of the town's processes um the second sentence there was a call to follow bylaw timelines and request staff support for I would just put in Finance committee just to clarify and that's all I had thank you again for producing those okay last call anybody else hearing hearing nothing I'll propose that do we um or make a motion to approve the minutes as revised I can do all in favor we need a roll call vote so I'll go from no sorry Phil we've got to go through the um and I'll go through this in order in which you appear on my screen April yes Carl's a yes Iris yes Phil yes Pam yes Bill yes and Rob yes all right great thank you all um we heard extensively from Annette last week on article 25. um Becky representing the EDC is asked to um uh speak to us as well and I was able to get her into the agenda late this afternoon so thank you for that Becky um our time is limited but if you would um like to step up and tell us what's on your mind that would be great or or so mostly I'm just here to report on the meeting that we had two meetings we've had since we'd sent the email so I'm recording as a chair of EDC um and I can bring you up to speed on conclusions that were reached um ultimately we met last Wednesday with both Rahmad and Annette and our entire EDC board except for one who was traveling and so we talked through concerns of uh how a change or an amendment um would somehow uh make it too difficult to process at town meeting that is the question procedurally if it can happen but ultimately we talked through the content as well which we are recommending that along with the additional heightened units that we'd be sure to protect the town with certain height constraints and then setback constraints and number of floors really importantly Annette brought up last time Alta Oxbow some of these guidelines and standards um Alta Oxbow was always at 58 feet in the back quadrant of the site the variant she was talking about brought it across the whole back of the site since the I believe I wasn't part of that process with town manager's office but because remember we had environmental issues and the town had to stop and we had to take care of the asbestos issue and go to town meeting get money blah blah blah it dragged on and it would led to additional costs in terms of time and construction uh cost increases which is why they were looking for the financial hardship um from the town's point of view ultimately we got additional units we were paid you know that incremental amount for the land and then we also got additional affordable units which got us above our 10 so as a town we weren't necessarily harmed by it it was just sort of a sound looked like a good solution to try to fix the money issue as well as help the town at the same time so the key is the 58 58 was 200 to 250 feet back from Route 20. um closer to Route 20 there was a no build zone for the first 50. there was 35 feet which is two story in a peach roof in the next 50 feet it was 45 which is three stories in a peak truth and it was 58 way at the back which was four stories in a beach roof so our main concern an easy way to cut right through it our concern is that the the zoning doesn't require a peach roof and it doesn't mandate the number of floors so especially we had sent some images of what a four-story building with no setbacks um with a peach roof so you're seeing it about 49 feet um we became even more concerned when we looked at the design regulations that are separate and aside from the zoning which requires that no more than six foot of the garage comes out of the ground which means if you have 58 feet you're leaving 52 feet which typical Florida floor is 10 10 and a half 11 feet you can get five stories right so if you know anything about this construction type it's heavy duty construction or concrete foundations and then they do a tension slab and then it's all wood frame construction above um wood frame construction the smaller the footprint the lesser the the concrete footprint the smaller the roof the more efficient it is developers are absolutely wanting to do five stories over a parking garage instead of four over a parking garage so given no constraints on the number of floors this zoning could very likely lead to a five-story building five residential floors over a half uh garage or a five and a half story building which does not exist anywhere in Wayland um so that's the concern of having the zoning pass and then we don't have anything to help guide it um once we are dealing with a developer who has as of right um the planning board was wanting to robin and Annette um that speaking out of turn wanted to try to address it in the regulations which is done by the planning board it doesn't have to go to town meeting it's literally just the regulations of what it looks like landscaping lighting Etc um it's said well you know we can we can manage these things in the design regulations the problem is and Annette mentioned it in your her presentation saying the state is watching very carefully because the easy way to make as of right zoning very hard is to make it difficult right so if we passed 58 foot zoning but then in the design regulation said you can only do four residential floors a developer's going to say hey look it's so much more efficient to do five over one I should be able to do that within that height right and we really wouldn't have a leg to stand on so we talked through a lot of this stuff um we interestingly enough we didn't disagree on the design criteria right and net was thinking that the setbacks from the road we were protected from that because the fire fire department needed to have a loop all the way around um that actually works for the site that if you turn in the road on the right hand side but on the left hand side it doesn't necessarily um she had noted that that site is unlikely to be developed uh just doing the numbers the pantry bought that site for a million 225 just to give you a sense they bought it uh for the building itself and ultimately the zoning was 20 units an acre right so if they were an acre and a half they had 20 units they could do 30 units potentially there if they so choose to do residential typically uh you know land that's permitted the value is about 40 to 50 000 per unit so that would mean if they permitted for residential they'd be about a million 225 two million three um and so they would be unlikely sorry million two to million five which is unlikely because they bought it for their use with the new zoning at 32 units that brings them up to 48 units which then is worth 2.9 to or sorry 1.9 to 2.4 so if they were given the option to cash out and be able to buy a building somewhere else and have an extra million dollars in their pocket which is all for the good they are a food pantry wanting to expand and wanting to do good things they would be very motivated to do so to combine right so it is likely that that site would be developed so it is important on both sides for these setbacks to occur because the fire department clearly could drive on a flat lawn out front and be able to get to the front of that building so for a lot of these reasons as you think about the real life situation how developers look at it um and essentially we agreed um you know conceptually bill sterling was there who's on the design review board who was doing his work the plan for the building and it was the board that was on the design review board rather than the character of the fire department that was on the design review board and so we did the setup of the building and we presented it to us and we were very happy about it and we pretty much decided to begin to work on it for the rest of the the planning phase and I don't know how many people will agree with that but the fact that it was built on the design review board was a help to me in terms of the original plan because we thought oh wow this is going to be a really good place for us to live in and so there was a lot of work to do 58 feet with no break whatsoever. So it's going to feel like a very big building, right? So we listened a lot and we understood where they were coming from. We refined it so that numbers stayed with numbers. And there is one sentence that would be an amendment as an asterisk to the table that it would say, you know, the table would stay the same, that you basically can go to 20 units and 35 feet, which is what the existing approved zoning is with the state. Nobody wants to disturb that, but have an asterisk and say, if you want to go up to 32 units an acre, and if you want to go up to 56 or 58 feet, then you have to step back. Then you need your top floor to step back, that step massing. Then you need to do these things. So those are really important criteria to protect the town. So we had discussed that at EDC on Friday. We did that revised zoning where the zoning would have a single asterisk, a single sentence, and then anything else qualitative can happen in the design regulations and asked the planning board to consider that. And we're more than happy to usher that through with you guys, with the design review board, with planning board. It is a question of time-wise, can it be done in time? We leave that to the planning board. But again, we did vote unanimously that it is essential that this amendment be added to the zoning to protect the town. All right. Thank you. Any questions before I go? I guess I was curious what is in front of FinCom tonight? And maybe that's not you, Becky, but. The vote, no, sorry. The article that's in the town warrant, in the warrant for the town meeting.
We don't have the power to look at or approve amendments tonight. And currently we're listed as not taking a position on it because it's a non-financial article. Is that? No, I believe. We just deferred to town meeting. But I think we deferred to town meeting. Right. Okay. There are discussions still ongoing. And we can continue to defer it for that matter, but. I see. So that's the choice tonight. We could vote, you know, up or down or simply continue to defer it to town meeting. Correct. We can't take any action on the specifics of what Becky just suggested. I do not believe we can. Right. The amendment isn't in front of you at all. It's really just, yeah, it's just the backstory of what's in front of you and what the discussion has been. Yeah.
Thank you. It will likely be amended at town meeting. What was that, Pam? Sorry. And what you would likely make an amendment at town meeting. You're just surprising us of what could happen. Exactly. It really is up to the planning board. Again, what Robin was mentioning for them to be able to do an amendment, most likely be a public hearing. You'd want to go through the planning board, right? It'd be very strange if we got up and did it. But ultimately what we were recommending was. short amendment we can kind of bring it through the planning board and we are happy to assist bringing it through those boards get design view board sign off planning board sign off fincom select board and if all those were generally in support on the on town meeting floor it might work um whether the logistics of that will work or not we're not sure that we we we don't plan on posting it on the on town meeting floor so if it goes ahead as is um we have our concerns um and clearly we feel strongly that there should be an amendment to help um refine this zoning amendment all right thank you thank you all set anything else for for becky okay really appreciate your time all right thanks for having me thank you okay um i don't really think we have a fixed schedule between now and town meeting we can dispose of this from our perspective tonight we can kick it down the road one more time um i think annette was clear in what she said i think becky's view is clear um whether those two are reconcilable or not i don't know um but i i i'll leave it to the group to decide whether you want to take a vote or continue to defer
okay i will make a proposal that finance committee uh i guess the word is recommend article 25 is written in the town warrant uh the more for the town meeting um i think that's all we can do right i mean that's a recommendation it's not a approval or anything beyond that right i'll second it's recommended approval yeah thank you okay um again we need a roll call vote for this um so i'll start april yes i'm a no iris i'm also a no phil abstain pam um i know we have to get these things done but i i would really like to see some of the
what's been discussed incorporated into the bylaws so i'm going to say i'm going to know i'm a no also okay and bill uh abstain so if i'm counting right we have one in favor three against and two abstentions is that right rob is gone same count as i have okay good thank you yep so one two two is that five one one three two one three two thank you okay yeah okay thank you um next time on the agenda is to consider and possibly vote on the time manager's request to transfer eighteen thousand dollars from the reserve fund um in addition to the request itself which he sent out um a week or ten days ago i forwarded a memo today that gives a little bit more information about it the bottom line is that the council and aging um community center came online and had not been budgeted for insurance up to that point and in addition there were um i believe four events in town that led to liability which led to deductibles we had to pay and then there was an audit of workers compensation insurance which has generated um a um an adjustment a retroactive adjustment i don't know what the total amount of all of that is when you add it all up but they were short about eighteen thousand dollars on that from what was already in the appropriate appropriate account so that's the explanation behind the request from the town manager and move to approve oh sorry sorry i just had a clarifying question so they had an audit and they found that they did not have the funds set aside to fully cover the premium or they had an audit i'm just trying to understand they had an audit and the cost was driven up retroactively
i only know what you know from that memo but i think it's the latter i think that's what happened not a question of not having the premiums um set aside huh i didn't even know that was possible that like they could retroactively like change change the cost how interesting okay well i'm not remotely suggesting this happened but if we told them they had we have 100 employees and we had 120 right when they got out they would adjust the premium no i'm not by way of example only but okay okay that's no that that gives me some context for why that could happen thank you i appreciate that because otherwise i was struggling to understand how we could get okay um phil you're you were starting to say something yeah i moved to approve the transfer okay i'll second that okay um oh do we have any other discussion well that's a good question um i guess my i appreciated the the um kelsey's review because i it really added a lot more color than what we had from the original um i guess my question is like looking at the original request we're looking at the expenditure that was extraordinary and unforeseen i guess i the additional endorsement for the coa i i don't know why that should have been unforeseen and that's been that's been in the write-up is one of the reasons unfortunately due to the chance of additional oh oh it actually says additional vehicles here being purchased um the vehicles are addressed in your memo you know so right i i just feel like vehicles being added through the year that happens periodically that i i just wish the write-up kind of correlated a little bit better with i it mentions here the high edition the endorsements on um the audit for the workers comp like i get that that that was unforeseen and and typically um you know we get some dividends that we didn't get this time that offset things i just the write-up itself doesn't completely uh not necessarily to me um defend the fact that some of these things were extraordinary and unforeseen all right so i'm not disagreeing i'm not saying that we shouldn't but i don't disagree that i disagree with with funding this i just wish the write-up were a little bit more clear in the explanation in defending the unforeseen and extraordinary piece so i'll just say that the original write-off. I'll be honest with you about it. It was a little vague. It was quite vague. And I definitely take your point about the COA premiums not being unforeseen. Maybe they didn't know the amount, but they certainly should have known they were coming. But that endorsement was $20,000. It looks like we're talking about $41,000 for the workers' comp, which, by the way, I understand they're working on. I mean, they haven't accepted this audit adjustment. But it seems like, I wouldn't, calling it minor is too strong a word, but it's not the lion's share of the increase. So we could- Right. I mean, when you read the explanation- We could ask them to be- More precise or to take that out or whatever. But I think we have the information we need to decide whether we want to give them the money. Yeah. I agree. I just, I don't know if they could change the wording just to be a little bit more clear, but that was my point. So I don't need to continue with it. Okay. I appreciate that. Any other discussion? All right. Then I'll take a roll call vote. April? Yes. Carl's a yes. Iris? Yes. Phil? Yes. Pam? Yes. Thank you. And Bill? Yes. Okay. Thank you. That is all of the items on the agenda. I have no other topics that I didn't anticipate. If you do, great. Otherwise, I'll call for adjournment. Move to adjourn. Sorry. I was just going to ask, when's the next meeting? Meeting? Do a second and then a discussion.
Seconding? I'll second it. Now we can discuss. Thanks. Okay. To the best of my knowledge, there's one other article. I can't remember which one it is offhand, but there's one other article we deferred to town meeting. We can talk about that. But honestly, I'm not aware of any other business that we need to conduct between now and then. We do have a joint meeting, right, with the select board on the 27th? I think Pam and I were the only two that were able to go, potentially. The 27th? I think we were attending. I don't think we were a joint. Oh, okay. I think that's right. It's a warrant hearing. It's going to be part of their public hearing in the middle of the select board meeting. I'm glad you mentioned it, though, because if anybody's plans have changed and they want to be there, that would be lovely.
And in addition, I think you know that the select board is planning to hold a meeting similar to ours of last week to try to talk through... the process and how it can be improved in our role and their role and everybody else's role. That's not been scheduled. So when it is, and I don't know, I believe that's going to be before town meeting, but I just don't know right now. So stay tuned. I'm guessing it might be after town meeting, but I don't know anything. Yeah. Yeah. If you would like to have a meeting date on the calendar, just so we at least have it on our calendars, we can set that up with the possibility... I think in the past, didn't we do last year a quick meeting prior to town meeting? We've done that before. Yeah. So we just start a half hour or like 45 minutes. At the town meeting, we just kind of huddle up. Yeah. Yeah. And we will have to post that and, you know, but between now and then, you know, so what are we, we're at April 13th. Yeah. You know, town meeting starts on the 4th. It's roughly three weeks.
It'd be next week, right? Or Wednesday of the following week, the 27th? Because the select board meeting is the 27th, that following Monday, and then it's town meeting the following week. So it would be, what, the 29th is a potential?
If we need one, that's certainly a potential. Are people available?
Yes, for me. Yeah, I can do that. Yep.
I said, would it be a quick Zoom meeting again? I suppose it depends on the content, you know, and on the agenda, but I don't see why it couldn't be. So let's pencil in.
Seven o'clock on Wednesday, April 29th. Okay. We'll circle back as necessary. Okay. Okay. Good question, April. Thank you. Okay. We have a motion on the floor. Any further discussion?
All right. I move that we, well, it has been moved that we adjourn. And seconded. And seconded. Thank you, Phil. April? Yes. Carl's a yes. Iris? Yes. Phil? Yes. Pam? Yes. And Bill? Yes. Terrific. Two minutes past schedule. Thank you.