April 7, 2026 – Historic District Commission – Video & Transcript
April 7, 2026 - Historic District Commission
let's open the meeting and the first thing we can do is approve the minutes from the last meeting
which yes i can share as well as pretty good okay on the screen do i have a motion to approve
the minutes remote second second yeah and we shall vote to approve the minutes of march 17th yes
yeah so do you need more time to oh auto power off what's happening are you still around alex i am
i'm still here okay it's just tv oh we just have to continue watching right yeah okay um oh why
greg is getting all sorts of signals from the i was just greg i was just about to comment on your uh your tech savviness you've you've uh improved leaps and bounds since you took over this role
i'm still here it says antenna cable disconnected now that thing turned off
rob is i assume you guys can still hear me you know what all that matters is that we can hear you and you're good right and you and you can hear me and i can hear you yeah that's all that matters you don't have to know you don't have to see you just you don't shut the system all right alex yeah we're good yeah that's fine i have all the i have everything you've shared so all right so i moved that we did that we do approve the minutes of march march 17th and marjorie seconded it correct yes and we have a vote gregdale aye gregton yes marjorie yes so i think i have to abstain because i wasn't there no you don't know okay well then i approve them
they look great all right good uh i was grateful to greg he did the formatting i did not format the only as well you did and right yes yes okay don't want to miss that we will move on to the second topic now which is the letter which is now on the screen i think you can see my shared screen right alex i can good okay the memo and that's an introduction gretchen you want me to so this is a memo that we decided at the last meeting uh to write to the board the select board uh regarding the lack of parking in the town center and uh at the time we were like there were all sorts of reasons to be um negative about it and somebody walked me off the cliff probably marjorie and said let's you know be positive about it so anyway i've tried to do that here and give some ideas hope that they will continue and i think that what we we can change anything in here if you want but i also think that we have to adopt our strategy tonight that do we take this and all the five copies and give it to them there do we send it to them now um and who does the the speaking how do we you know how do we present i have a question yeah what would be the most effective way gretchen from what your experience yes uh i don't know i don't if it go if we send it to them now it goes into their packet and then the world sees it sure so that's the benefit of that yes yeah that others see it as well and they have a chance to think about it yes and so i would but i would hope that it doesn't mean that we can't talk to them we should be able to you know it's a can't we even ask to not ask tell okay can we tell them that we would like to speak to them about this i mean that's what i think we should do well i think no i think they need it both ways this way and hopefully i mean they definitely need a copy i mean a free card copy but if they get it in their packet i mean we can still bring five copies yeah case fits you know page 85 i know what i could have 100 and something exactly exactly yeah yeah no gretchen this was very very positive so gretchen is your concern that once we send this to them then it's sort of open meeting laws would apply is that no my concern my concern is that it gets swept under the table yeah okay understood it just gets lost yeah that's why i want to also talk about it at the public comment you know you only get two minutes but it might not be public comment it might we might have to because it is on there hopefully they're on on their agenda but if it's not on their agenda i guess we can no it's not on their agenda it's it would be in the packet of information so could we so we don't move on the agenda otherwise i don't think they put it on the agenda i think they'd probably make this you know two months from now okay this is during public comment then good if it's not on the agenda you can speak at public comment this is on the other hand i could call uh uh mike uh call and ask him if it's appropriate to be on the agenda on this item or if they would not put us on the agenda then we would definitely come to public comment i think of uh talking to him would be a great idea that's the mission possibly so i'd recommend that start with that and i'd be very happy to was this um and this is a monthly meeting or a meeting about every other week yeah and we you mentioned last time we might tie it to the the new bistro opening this is something that i just said you know there are all these different competing things the only thing i didn't say in here i mean i put the library in yeah but i didn't i mean my big bugaboo ouch you should know this too because uh it was said at the meeting but um not in the the minutes that um the libraries put up all those signs um across the uh front of the top parking lot um saying this is library patrons only and um i don't believe that that's should be the case and the selectmen have the authority of um but you know i decided not to bring that up in the memo just to be you know there are x number of parking spots up here and back there and up here i think it's nice to use positive and as hopeful as i think the other thing that is going on greg there's just so much happening now um we have terrain going in where whole foods was yeah that great yes okay that's going in with duncan and restaurants that's going us uh we um have the rail trail they finished in sudbury we're going to be coming into wayland this is the time if there ever was a time when they're going to be paving as gretchen said in the letter they're going to be paving that this would be great time to find some parking somewhere for people who use the rail trail um the other thing and this isn't the historic district so this goes beyond what we would need to talk about but what the town has done greg we've developed and developed and not given enough thought to pedestrian ways and parking and all that kind of thing i mean oxbow is up there on a hill with no sidewalk you have 216 apartments yeah how do they get to the rail trail uh when it comes through i mean uh some of these things i just boggle my mind that has been part of the discussion of what to do with the south dunk on the south side of the of route 20 uh and i don't know what they're what the alternative is it's under the uh jurisdiction of the highway department yes um and i know that they've thought about you know parking for buses and fields for you know uh some sort of athletic field and but that was has always been part of the discussion before they were being built well as a 218 or 14 apartments one of the things i saw gretchen was for the realtor when it comes through they a part of the plan was to come right through there and they they show just what you're saying you know the ball field parking and and then continuing on um another thing i'll mention um and i mentioned mr gretchen earlier i read an article about um wayland has uh earned um a new designation it's a climate leader community um designation it's from the state which means that wayland is eligible to apply for grants for projects that reduce municipal emissions now if we could somehow maybe this is impossible and maybe this is a bridge too far but what we're thinking of is trying to provide parking for the rail trail and trying to connect things it's a connective kind of thing trying to do whether they're on their bike and they want to the library the museum or the depot or the office office or anything you know you'd like them to be able to do it safely and um in in some instances it's not safe right now um so i guess my thought was if the select board did come up with an overall plan maybe there's some way we could even tie it into a grant because it would be to reduce make sense cars cars could park take a bike or walk or somewhere you know i think um so we're as the historic district commission we're seeing this concatenation of things happening at this intersection right yes and and this nicely lays out some options yes and we're sending it to the select board board but what we're what we should be asking i think is the town planning commission or the town planner takes action and so we're recommending well here's some proposals we're not i'm not a parking lot expert yeah we can't do it but should we add like one sentence or a request saying we are requesting the planning commission to take action um do we say that strong enough i don't know that it would end up going to the planning board because they don't have jurisdiction over the various parcels does the select board have the ability yes really that's why um we need to get them to act particularly on the parking areas that at the depot and at the um library to expand those and potentially uh change the um signage the sign slower for a few hour parking or whatever they're willing to do that um those are our quick solutions um and then we're saying that maybe you should engage a planner for yes and the planning board i'm um sharing my screen probably only alex can see it but i put a carriage return right at the word for these entries to be to welcome patrons just so our rick our recommendations sentence stands out entities to welcome patrons and these yeah yeah just just just uh highlight we're asking them please look at these i just i just wrapped this text back oh i see just yeah yeah yeah okay and shy of saying adding another sentence i don't know but that at least our commission is recommending this that's why it's standing out a little bit more great if you don't mind i asked i just did right here you see that watch i'll do it enter enter okay
so what has been added what has been nothing's been added oh just uh move that down to a new oh oh i see okay sure just to separate it because it was too bulky you know i don't even i just bolded this is your expectation recommends oh very good you know the formatting does make a difference for it and you know the minutes it's a big help and that's great alex any comments for you on the string um no i i i like that you've separated that part of the the letter that it it draws more attention to it and i think that's appropriate yes and it's helpful to the spot i i think i mean it's clear change the margin so it all fits on one page where you're doing and i'm doing that as you speak up just move the bottom margin up you always make the font smaller it's on one page okay so so far we're talking about me calling uh mike mccall and asking him if we should be on the agenda on april 13th for this item and if he denies that says no we don't have any room on the agenda then i will say we'll come for public comment and you will work we'll come for public comment yes but if he says we can be on the agenda we'll come and speak yeah when it's on the agenda okay the other thing is if it goes into the packet uh there's a good chance that then the library will see it and will come to make sure that they keep their parking spots which is what they did at the zoning meeting um when i'd be surprised if that one made attention you remember you were there i know i was there but i think that was a different situation uh yeah no i know it was but i mean they that's when the science went off did you mention that i think i must have missed this the the upper lot the library is claiming all the spots in the upper lot yeah yeah and so they and they said that the select we made an agreement with years ago um that those were was their parking their jurisdiction and it came up when the um townhouse was uh going through the zoning board of appeals uh to turn ponds market into a cafe distro yeah and and and the library was concerned that uh patrons employees and all that would park over there at the library so it's also our house party overflow parking lot yeah i i it feels like it's a public parking lot and it is it's public down by the town exactly um and that and the selectmen you know govern that and that's why we want them to to say yes and let's get some greater in there and grade the back behind the uh the freight house i mean there was some big event i can't remember what it was and i ended up coming late and i was with our two way in the back and there were another six or eight cars back there you know sort of jammed into the weeds well they can you know undo the weeds and make it more um accessible there is even a possibility and it's a it's a reach but it's a possibility um there is a set of rails when you think of the weight of a train how heavy it is okay um there's quite a drop off yes but if you go near the drop off and you look down there's a set of rails in there so you know they're on which side uh nearest the drop off on the east side okay going toward uh millbrook okay you walk along there and it goes all the way down to millbrook roads yes distance but um there were two sets of tracks so we you know how heavy trains are and so they must have quite a sub base or stones or whatever under there so maybe parking could be excluded you'd be fencing you'd be able to drop off and they have to um deal with uh dcr or not dcr dot right bta or something dcr or something yeah i would imagine i would imagine there would be a consideration for maintenance as well right plowing and if it's just going to be gravel it would need to be graded you know every couple of years at least well you know the thing is um dcr and the mbta all of them working together on this rail trail this is their baby this is their baby people need to be able to park to use it
so you know we there's a common uh need that we all have for well thought out parking and yeah i i wonder about um if there's an opportunity to um you know the old not the freight house but what's the what's the little gift store called depot yeah the depot what is there is there an opportunity to expand the parking beyond that as well i think a little bit i think you could get a couple of spaces and it could be better arranged yeah it feels like isn't there a um like an old turnaround for the train right there yes exactly yeah down a ways yeah and so you could almost go you could almost go all the way up to that and you know quite frankly alex speaking of that there's even a little road that goes in from that area right over to route 20. oh there is yeah i've done that before great yeah there's been a little breath and there's something could be done with that so there'd be some connection again when this terrain this big store goes in with duncan and everything else and restaurants where whole foods used to be um there's going to be people walking around and trying to drive and park so the more uh intelligent plan we can come up right for the parking and create safe walking um it would be great that's why i'm so glad uh what's in this gretchen included that um they the select board consider hiring you know a traffic consultant i was just going to say this this screams of a study needing to be done it does it does alex yeah but hopefully they'll think think about the short-term stuff that they can do right now sure while they're waiting for them yep yeah yep and and i think that we would need you know we would need some some opportunity to comment for them to consider that right or at least to at least at least to pull them in that direction that would be a good benefit of uh having it on the agenda because then we're not limited to two minutes right um on the other hand i suppose we could each have two minutes like comment yeah just you know yeah this this is really a good opportunity i mean um especially with the real trail coming through and i don't think they really can sweep this under the rug and wait on it it's not one of those things that it's going to get worse yeah worse and gretchen it's going to get dangerous yeah it's good you you have so many cars going down 27 and then you have the parking and yeah open me open meeting rules and laws are new to me so this this is a question for you guys uh you know gretchen i've heard you say a couple of times two minutes is sort of the uh that's a public comment yeah how how strict is that very it is okay very um it's uh it's at the beginning of the meeting generally um and uh they try and keep it and they do not comment at all they just hear you okay and they say thank you very much okay and so that would be the advantage again of being on the agenda because then you can have a dialogue and so that would be what i would say to mike but what i don't want him to say is okay we can put you on on may 16th whatever you know may 18th whatever it is the monday um i just don't want to wait on that i know it so if they do if he does say that i might say okay we'll take that but we're coming to public comment on the 13th right yeah i was just looking at this one's on one oh let's see i was just looking at their agenda and maybe i was looking at the wrong one it looks like it looks like the 29th uh it should be april 13th okay maybe it was on the it was on the um calendar as their next meeting the april uh the 29th might have been their last meeting march is it march no it says 4 29 oh um i don't know oh that's the this that's the planning board i'm looking at the wrong oh okay desmond i see you online can you hear us and can you speak desmond you're there desmond oh desmond sorry about that can you hear me yeah yes we can oh great great great great so yeah i mean i i've listened to all that's been um been been said and and i think that it is a really great opportunity to try and given all the things that are happening now to try and engage um the town to somehow engage some some urban design planning to understand how we can make it as we're saying safer and better a better pedestrian experience because the the pedestrian experience in in in uh in the the town center quote unquote i mean wayland per se is not great um and if they if they're trying to i think we should wrap this up with that i think you're quite right the way you wrote the the the uh the the the letter if we wrap this within the context of success for all these new enterprises that are starting to come into the town uh after this is this is the opportunity i agree with what everyone's everyone's been saying um and um i do think that if they if they just restrict us to um two um two minutes it's two minutes per person and each one of us maybe has um a message to give them a uh a portion of the message that we want to get across to them and and and we we say it to them that way if they they don't give us some time to um um to to um to press the idea you know i mean the two minutes is their rule for public comment and so that's why we're thinking well wouldn't it be uh a good idea to get on the agenda then oh yeah that would be much better absolutely i agree with you i agree but if we don't if they said you can be on the agenda in a month um i think we should still take this to public comment and it's two minutes and usually they all let you have two minutes and me have two minutes and greg have two minutes on the same topic they might say the one of us off if we tried to okay okay have a second person i just like that i like that idea
so uh yeah i don't want the two minute thing but i we have no choice if we stick with public comment but i i think that's a good idea i hadn't really thought about calling and until marjorie brought that up are we gonna i think i think it is good um and the the other thing is um um i'm wondering how many towns around us when sudbury concord all these all these other towns west west west concord have either engaged or have uh an urban designer or or or or a planner um um trying to help them go forward and how the how the uh the the towns become more engaging and more pedestrian friendly and more more uh friendly for for for parking and for pedestrians to to to allow for um um public life to actually occur in the town yeah yes i don't know i i bet comfort does oh yeah i'm sure they do yeah yeah i don't know about sudbury but you know i do think desmond that we're we're i would not unique but we're unusual because you have two major roads going right through wayland yes major i agree 20 000 or something like that vehicles in a 24-hour period and a little more than that a route 20 i mean it's major so um we and you know what i really liked about what you shared with brechen too is that if we could get this in order it would help it would be outside of our jurisdiction mentioning this i suppose but it would help with the new projects that are coming along oh yeah oxbow is very much wanting some kind of connection so that they can safely step outside their apartment and not get run over right and and um the rail trail when it comes through people need to park somewhere so they can get on the rail trail right right yeah yeah so oh and then not only that when uh whole foods that big development that's going in where whole foods used to be right there are people there who want to cross the road and come over to the bistro or to the whatever uh we we need some kind of plan for safe passage i concur um so there's just this there's got to be some there's got to be some way we can we can um we can we can it just seems foolish to me that the town would not take this opportunity to to start reassessing how vehicles and pedestrians interact and use the town even within the restriction of the fact that it's route 20 is a major road um i know we're not going to we're not going to end up like like conquered with with um parallel parking on the street and with that's not going to happen i know that but but at least it can be it can be a place where people we can dream though desmond we can we can we can but but at least we can make we can we can get a situation where as as many have said in this in this meeting so far um there's a level of safety and you know what perhaps we do slow the cars coming down through 20 perhaps we do have um a couple of pedestrian crossings um that that make people slow down a bit as they're driving through 20 you know uh i don't think that's a terrible thing to look at no that's right maybe even a light up there by oxford so they can cross and get over to the rail trail right and and and and um um you know downtown boston has has put bike bike lanes to many major roadways in downtown boston and it's it's slowed it's slowed down traffic yeah it's slower to get through through town but that just means that it means that the the the streets are more alive with actually you know people bicycling and and and and and and and jogging through those lanes and walking across so i think that's that's i'm not sure how that can't be out of bounds to start thinking about about route 20 as being more than just uh uh uh uh state highway yeah right is it do we do we have some reason to believe that they would be opposed to this i i don't think that they would be just inertia it's inertia yeah the other thing about okay the other thing i'll mention about route 20 which is interesting uh a fellow who used to be a surveyor in town um told me at one point that that there's a 50 foot right of way uh in certain places on route 20. so if there's a 50 foot right of way coming through our town center there's leeway there's leeway to do things right right interesting yeah but but um i mean so well that sounds small that that doesn't sound like an actually enough enough enough space yeah for well for the road that's there and the sidewalks and the limited amount of sidewalks but well two tools is 24 and then five either side uh 34 35 40 feet maybe all told is the do you think it's 40 feet you think it's more wider than 40 feet no that that's probably right yeah yeah um but but i but i i do think with that that that you know we all talk about wanting to have wanting to i mean if i've always i i lived in wayland for a while and and um um the town per se is really not a very friendly place to walk about in it really really really isn't and and it would be it would be great if we could somehow as i said you know slow down traffic a bit um control it a bit as opposed to being you know basically at this point we don't there's no there's no attempt at even controlling the traffic coming through the town it just is right right right it's a state highway yeah so so maybe this is an opportunity for the town to to to um kill two birds of one stone to actually engage in and allow and help some of these new um businesses uh thrive and um to to encourage people to be walking through the town to the library to to to to the rail trail to all this stuff so it all it all ties into a more a more a more specific place it does and desmond and and alex uh the other thing that was i don't know if you saw it was in the uh i guess uh the boston the wayland post uh the biggest taxpayers you know an awful lot of our tax money comes from believe it or not oxville ah it's a huge portion now if they're paying all that taxes my goodness they should be able to walk about safely right yeah and and have access to our town center right right i concur was there any conversation last month with the uh townhouse cafe and bistro about what their you know have they considered parking as a as a limitation to their business was there any conversation about that at all or no well i did ask i did ask kirsten i i said kirsten if you don't get the parking that you feel you need if you don't get the parking you'd still go ahead with this she said yes but she said that she really hadn't focused on the parking she was trying to get all these other things in order and the next thing she's going to focus and she was talking about trying to work with she's working with a pediatrician who's behind her uh to to get some parking there and then she's thinking we even talked about a little bit about stop and chop and that kind of area up there trying to get some parking from them if if that's possible i mean she is looking there's also there's also the town parking behind the town building but then you have to cross route 20. well that's that's where it ties into the notion of of of slowing down traffic and allowing allowing for pedestrian crossings on route 20. i know we get across there if you wait for the light yeah well but there should there should be a maybe maybe there should be a light there that you you press and um then cars have to stop and uh there is people get to walk across there is but they don't it's not instantaneous you have to wait for the cycle you you do and we might need another light i think further down almost now where the entrance right right right but i mean all these all these things can can can can be accomplished it's just a matter of controlling traffic really yeah that's what it comes down to is there are devices that are used in every single city to control traffic to slow it down and to allow for for pedestrians to walk across safely uh now desmond to get back to what you were saying earlier about this being an opportunity for the development that's coming along uh perhaps we could even make reference to that in the in our memo yeah what we tried to do was to stay within the historic district because we're a historic district commission but i suppose at the end we could say that if something were put in place creating an overall plan it would be a blessing to the the new um developments you know well i i i i think i think i think i think we need to think of it as less isolated pots and more a larger plate of different ingredients in it right and the different ingredients are the historic district the library the public the public realm as well as these these private elements that that add to the public realm i mean i think that's the way to speak to it and think about it is that is what we're trying to do is we're trying to raise awareness the fact that um the public realm um would be enhanced if we were able to to accomplish some of this stuff by allowing people to to to park let's say behind the the where we have we have large parking zones like um near the supermarket um near um uh the town the town behind the town building and then be able to get out of their cars and walk around the town you can go from different places right yes exactly yeah i mean i mean that's that's sort of urban design 101 is to get people out of cars slow cars down restrict them get them out of cars and have them walking about that's urban design 101 you you suppose desmond and everybody that you know that i'm looking at the great comments i'm listening to the great comments i'm looking at the memo which titled parking in a very central historic district but what if we added bullet point three to long term that affects something like you know expanded parking lots at a at a distance from the historic center would um could be entertained with improved walking yeah right yeah i think you're right i think you're right uh greg and and even even if if i mean it seems to me that we should just we should just come out and say if we if we if everybody feels um that's appropriate that um we see this as a way to encourage uh urban design within the town to make the town more of a more of a living thing where people feel that uh not only they entitled but that they are able to walk around it in an in an unencumbered way and gretchen is scribbling down ideas yes i think we can handle that with two set two sentences as a new bullet point three and and it's the focus is walkability but it's somehow we get into the words it's enables um town building and supermarket parking lots so people can get can walk around everything you said does but we've got to get it into two sentences here so you said expand uh parking lots at a distance from the town center uh can improve pedestrian and improve pedestrian traffic and we think we start with the improving pedestrian walking okay yeah um facilitates use of larger parking lots e.g the town building right that are already that are already in place yeah and are being underutilized yes utilizing utilizing existing um parking both in the town center the the town center quote unquote and behind the town building would enable us to support these new activities in the town these new businesses in the town that are going to enrich everybody's lives and at the same time the way we would enable that is by is by um um um somehow facilitating um uh pedestrian access back and forth across route 20 that way that way you could you could park you could park um behind the stop and shop you could um and you could spend an hour or so walking around going across to this to this new this new uh complex that's being built in the old um whole foods and uh get a cup of coffee and um maybe uh then decide you're going to walk to the library and walk to the library and pull a book out um and and then then then go to the rail trail and sit down on the the benches and read for an hour or so or or you know and and desmond even russell's garden center yes that should be part of it you know yes to walk around the other thing is which kind of exciting about it to me is that if the rail trail is coming through within a year and putting down asphalt where we now have stone dust this is an opportunity to think about additional parking and walkways maybe between the stop chop area and the rail trail right and other egresses from the rail trail over to route 20. i mean we it just needs a bigger plan you made me think of something there when nita and i will walk from our house cut through the woods trying to get to russell's and you cross route 20 in that span between the two traffic lights yeah it's you gotta run up yeah oh yeah yeah there's no crosswalk that's the point yeah right yeah and well i had to wait the other day 20 people were able to walk across to the farmer's market and when i changed yeah wow yeah that was pretty good yeah no that is great it is so you know one thing just occurred one thing occurs to me um and again i know we're not wellesley center in terms of the way that's developed however that's a relatively main road going through the middle of of of of it and and they have parallel parking on both sides and they have um uh they have they have shopping on both sides and people seem to be able to get through it and there was two or three um um zebra crossings uh uh uh what do you call it um with controls on them that you hit crosswalks you hit the you hit the button it it's and and people seem to work people seem to use it and it seems to work yeah so it's not impossible it just it just needs um in fact i'm also even thinking about um in wellesley hills um there's there's um there's crosswalks as well because they have they have that that little cluster down before you can um um go on to route nine yeah so there's there's a couple of examples we can cite of what were suburban um areas that have urbanized themselves somewhat and enable people to to find a little bit of community and a little bit of a little bit of urbanity within that that that that that development and and and um um make it work desmond do you do you think it might be possible i don't know if you heard me there is a designation and there's a possibility for grant possibly uh if we can come up with something that is supposed to make us greener basically is what it is make us greener right and um so maybe um we would apply for a grant right yeah well how much how much greener can you get is taking people out of the cars and having them walk i know i'm looking at um google maps right now and i've got the street view open between pelham island road and the post office there's um oh it's probably eight or ten feet from the curb to the sidewalk um and that's a significant stretch of road i mean we could just put parking spaces in right there it's a it's a dilapidated sidewalk too yeah yeah yeah yes i mean there's a beautiful row of trees there and so i wouldn't want that sidewalk to go away but right there's space between you know the the white line and the sidewalk right um it's i bet it's 10 or 12 feet right right there's space there but you see what all of this will do is it will it will it will turn the town from being a place that has a couple of isolated moments here and there into some place where people can park the cars get out of them and walk about and actually discover the town and actually engage in the town this is why we need a really good a traffic planner and i i i like kevin dandrade very much he's done very good work for us in the past the town in the past but you really need somebody who is kind of an expert in this field yeah i would agree that somebody who understands parking and traffic but also somebody who understands urban design and and what will get people engaged yep yep i i love the idea and and desmond you've said it a number of times but let's slow some people down yeah i can just i mean just imagine you know putting 15 or 20 cars along the side of the road here in parking spots and how that would so naturally slow people down absolutely absolutely absolutely would and you know what um com ave boylston street i can name a dozen streets half of cambridge where they've where they've successfully done this i mean a mass ave in cambridge it's a nightmare to drive you know it it has it has parking on both sides parallel parking it also has a bike lane trail yeah it's you know this is done all the time yeah i hear a motion for how do we proceed i would uh make a motion that we uh present the memo is is is as being developed and uh that uh gretchen call uh maybe we don't even you see that part of it but we need a call to go into my call and then to find out just exactly how it should be handled and then if we are only doing public comment well either way uh do you want do you should you do this present it as the chair or i don't know anybody else want to thank you do you want me i mean i don't care it doesn't matter but they will recognize her they'll recognize her and inspect her for knowledge and what she knows i mean i think and i think we can all all be there for for um support as well right yes so what i'll do is i'll send everybody an email saying that mike said we could be on the agenda in june yeah so we're going to whatever you know whatever he he says and we'll either be on the agenda at a specific time or we'll be a public comment which will be seven or 6 30. i just look there's no agenda yet so okay yeah all right yeah i'm sure that was not a clear motion and you're going to make some tweaks to the letter yes i will now do we care there obviously i can change the font so that it's a little bit uh smaller so i could get it all on one page i mean i'd like to get it all on one page yes it'd be good too so i'd like to add and take the bottom margin top margin up and that will fit yes i know and i have to start all over because i did it on top of something else and couldn't manipulate it it's okay i can send you another copy okay you mean that you will have already manipulated oh love it was it word yeah should be able to manipulate it i know i i just i couldn't do it yeah i was doing it so are we are we also agreeing that we're going to try and wrap this notion this idea in some kind of urban design notion about how the town can become more um pedestrian friendly well i could put that into below one of the long-term solutions yeah yeah i think i think that's where it belongs i agree that's where it belongs um i i don't want to i don't complicate things i just want to you know be able to get that idea at the same time in there and i think we can get rid of all of which could be expanded to some extent that's for all the sense yeah yeah yeah and just um and change this planner slash urban designer yeah uh and then is that unless unless anyone thinks that's too much of a reach i think it would be nice to do yeah uh i actually i think it's right on but i i think it'll be a new sound to the board of select one i see well we should all be listening to new sounds
well okay do i have a second so i'm gonna second and uh vote all in favor all in favor thank you and aye okay unanimous okay um i think what i'll do it might be a little i'll i'll fix it and then i'll send it to everybody and don't respond to everybody you can just respond to me only okay you know that was a really bad use of that word would you switch it yeah that's right it's not going to be the real content here yeah okay how do you do this here sir yeah yeah i can edit it okay i'll email you okay okay great great so um motion to adjourn the meeting you do remember um what about things that were not on the list just so matters not anticipated anything um i i will just mention that the gutter on the front of my house is going to be removed and another wood gutter is going to replace it but that just maintenance and yes the other thing uh i'll mention is on the side of my house west toward uh route 20 the the parking lots are getting closer and closer and closer and uh i was trying to just grow bushes there to hide them but the bushes i planted got destroyed this past winter i tried to plant motodendrons they got just warm boozles they oh yeah i mean that's no everything else because they pushed from the parking lot onto and i'm downhill a little bit so they were destroyed i'm really going to have to i haven't wanted to do it but i really need to put up a fence and what i'd like to do is put up something that's composite that looks like wood it's going to be from a distance you it's not up front the picket fence will stay the same this is way in the back where there are two parking lots and then there's a dumpster i mean it's all of that back there um and so i'm just thinking of something that's composite that's high that could be attractive i hope right uh any thoughts or ideas um i can i can um we're doing a couple of smaller scale projects at the moment that are are um using some um some fencing i'll i'll i'll i'll do a little quick bit of research uh later in the week to see what uh people are specifying for that um just to see if there's anything new out there it'd be wonderful i'll i'll i'll i'll i'll ask around in the office and see what they're using yeah no that'd be great and i'm thinking of a dark color something that'll go on yeah yeah yeah yeah okay i guess that's all i had okay come to the uh may 3rd historic house tour of the historic historical society in the 250 there will be five houses that were witnesses to the revenue show oh excellent how great that's amazing that's my house may five huh okay will they be house tours house tours oh yes just like yeah well we had before we did recently it's wonderful i'd love to go to that well may 3rd maybe that is excellent excellent okay meeting adjourned
greg is getting all sorts of signals from the i was just greg i was just about to comment on your uh your tech savviness you've you've uh improved leaps and bounds since you took over this role
i'm still here it says antenna cable disconnected now that thing turned off
rob is i assume you guys can still hear me you know what all that matters is that we can hear you and you're good right and you and you can hear me and i can hear you yeah that's all that matters you don't have to know you don't have to see you just you don't shut the system all right alex yeah we're good yeah that's fine i have all the i have everything you've shared so all right so i moved that we did that we do approve the minutes of march march 17th and marjorie seconded it correct yes and we have a vote gregdale aye gregton yes marjorie yes so i think i have to abstain because i wasn't there no you don't know okay well then i approve them
they look great all right good uh i was grateful to greg he did the formatting i did not format the only as well you did and right yes yes okay don't want to miss that we will move on to the second topic now which is the letter which is now on the screen i think you can see my shared screen right alex i can good okay the memo and that's an introduction gretchen you want me to so this is a memo that we decided at the last meeting uh to write to the board the select board uh regarding the lack of parking in the town center and uh at the time we were like there were all sorts of reasons to be um negative about it and somebody walked me off the cliff probably marjorie and said let's you know be positive about it so anyway i've tried to do that here and give some ideas hope that they will continue and i think that what we we can change anything in here if you want but i also think that we have to adopt our strategy tonight that do we take this and all the five copies and give it to them there do we send it to them now um and who does the the speaking how do we you know how do we present i have a question yeah what would be the most effective way gretchen from what your experience yes uh i don't know i don't if it go if we send it to them now it goes into their packet and then the world sees it sure so that's the benefit of that yes yeah that others see it as well and they have a chance to think about it yes and so i would but i would hope that it doesn't mean that we can't talk to them we should be able to you know it's a can't we even ask to not ask tell okay can we tell them that we would like to speak to them about this i mean that's what i think we should do well i think no i think they need it both ways this way and hopefully i mean they definitely need a copy i mean a free card copy but if they get it in their packet i mean we can still bring five copies yeah case fits you know page 85 i know what i could have 100 and something exactly exactly yeah yeah no gretchen this was very very positive so gretchen is your concern that once we send this to them then it's sort of open meeting laws would apply is that no my concern my concern is that it gets swept under the table yeah okay understood it just gets lost yeah that's why i want to also talk about it at the public comment you know you only get two minutes but it might not be public comment it might we might have to because it is on there hopefully they're on on their agenda but if it's not on their agenda i guess we can no it's not on their agenda it's it would be in the packet of information so could we so we don't move on the agenda otherwise i don't think they put it on the agenda i think they'd probably make this you know two months from now okay this is during public comment then good if it's not on the agenda you can speak at public comment this is on the other hand i could call uh uh mike uh call and ask him if it's appropriate to be on the agenda on this item or if they would not put us on the agenda then we would definitely come to public comment i think of uh talking to him would be a great idea that's the mission possibly so i'd recommend that start with that and i'd be very happy to was this um and this is a monthly meeting or a meeting about every other week yeah and we you mentioned last time we might tie it to the the new bistro opening this is something that i just said you know there are all these different competing things the only thing i didn't say in here i mean i put the library in yeah but i didn't i mean my big bugaboo ouch you should know this too because uh it was said at the meeting but um not in the the minutes that um the libraries put up all those signs um across the uh front of the top parking lot um saying this is library patrons only and um i don't believe that that's should be the case and the selectmen have the authority of um but you know i decided not to bring that up in the memo just to be you know there are x number of parking spots up here and back there and up here i think it's nice to use positive and as hopeful as i think the other thing that is going on greg there's just so much happening now um we have terrain going in where whole foods was yeah that great yes okay that's going in with duncan and restaurants that's going us uh we um have the rail trail they finished in sudbury we're going to be coming into wayland this is the time if there ever was a time when they're going to be paving as gretchen said in the letter they're going to be paving that this would be great time to find some parking somewhere for people who use the rail trail um the other thing and this isn't the historic district so this goes beyond what we would need to talk about but what the town has done greg we've developed and developed and not given enough thought to pedestrian ways and parking and all that kind of thing i mean oxbow is up there on a hill with no sidewalk you have 216 apartments yeah how do they get to the rail trail uh when it comes through i mean uh some of these things i just boggle my mind that has been part of the discussion of what to do with the south dunk on the south side of the of route 20 uh and i don't know what they're what the alternative is it's under the uh jurisdiction of the highway department yes um and i know that they've thought about you know parking for buses and fields for you know uh some sort of athletic field and but that was has always been part of the discussion before they were being built well as a 218 or 14 apartments one of the things i saw gretchen was for the realtor when it comes through they a part of the plan was to come right through there and they they show just what you're saying you know the ball field parking and and then continuing on um another thing i'll mention um and i mentioned mr gretchen earlier i read an article about um wayland has uh earned um a new designation it's a climate leader community um designation it's from the state which means that wayland is eligible to apply for grants for projects that reduce municipal emissions now if we could somehow maybe this is impossible and maybe this is a bridge too far but what we're thinking of is trying to provide parking for the rail trail and trying to connect things it's a connective kind of thing trying to do whether they're on their bike and they want to the library the museum or the depot or the office office or anything you know you'd like them to be able to do it safely and um in in some instances it's not safe right now um so i guess my thought was if the select board did come up with an overall plan maybe there's some way we could even tie it into a grant because it would be to reduce make sense cars cars could park take a bike or walk or somewhere you know i think um so we're as the historic district commission we're seeing this concatenation of things happening at this intersection right yes and and this nicely lays out some options yes and we're sending it to the select board board but what we're what we should be asking i think is the town planning commission or the town planner takes action and so we're recommending well here's some proposals we're not i'm not a parking lot expert yeah we can't do it but should we add like one sentence or a request saying we are requesting the planning commission to take action um do we say that strong enough i don't know that it would end up going to the planning board because they don't have jurisdiction over the various parcels does the select board have the ability yes really that's why um we need to get them to act particularly on the parking areas that at the depot and at the um library to expand those and potentially uh change the um signage the sign slower for a few hour parking or whatever they're willing to do that um those are our quick solutions um and then we're saying that maybe you should engage a planner for yes and the planning board i'm um sharing my screen probably only alex can see it but i put a carriage return right at the word for these entries to be to welcome patrons just so our rick our recommendations sentence stands out entities to welcome patrons and these yeah yeah just just just uh highlight we're asking them please look at these i just i just wrapped this text back oh i see just yeah yeah yeah okay and shy of saying adding another sentence i don't know but that at least our commission is recommending this that's why it's standing out a little bit more great if you don't mind i asked i just did right here you see that watch i'll do it enter enter okay
so what has been added what has been nothing's been added oh just uh move that down to a new oh oh i see okay sure just to separate it because it was too bulky you know i don't even i just bolded this is your expectation recommends oh very good you know the formatting does make a difference for it and you know the minutes it's a big help and that's great alex any comments for you on the string um no i i i like that you've separated that part of the the letter that it it draws more attention to it and i think that's appropriate yes and it's helpful to the spot i i think i mean it's clear change the margin so it all fits on one page where you're doing and i'm doing that as you speak up just move the bottom margin up you always make the font smaller it's on one page okay so so far we're talking about me calling uh mike mccall and asking him if we should be on the agenda on april 13th for this item and if he denies that says no we don't have any room on the agenda then i will say we'll come for public comment and you will work we'll come for public comment yes but if he says we can be on the agenda we'll come and speak yeah when it's on the agenda okay the other thing is if it goes into the packet uh there's a good chance that then the library will see it and will come to make sure that they keep their parking spots which is what they did at the zoning meeting um when i'd be surprised if that one made attention you remember you were there i know i was there but i think that was a different situation uh yeah no i know it was but i mean they that's when the science went off did you mention that i think i must have missed this the the upper lot the library is claiming all the spots in the upper lot yeah yeah and so they and they said that the select we made an agreement with years ago um that those were was their parking their jurisdiction and it came up when the um townhouse was uh going through the zoning board of appeals uh to turn ponds market into a cafe distro yeah and and and the library was concerned that uh patrons employees and all that would park over there at the library so it's also our house party overflow parking lot yeah i i it feels like it's a public parking lot and it is it's public down by the town exactly um and that and the selectmen you know govern that and that's why we want them to to say yes and let's get some greater in there and grade the back behind the uh the freight house i mean there was some big event i can't remember what it was and i ended up coming late and i was with our two way in the back and there were another six or eight cars back there you know sort of jammed into the weeds well they can you know undo the weeds and make it more um accessible there is even a possibility and it's a it's a reach but it's a possibility um there is a set of rails when you think of the weight of a train how heavy it is okay um there's quite a drop off yes but if you go near the drop off and you look down there's a set of rails in there so you know they're on which side uh nearest the drop off on the east side okay going toward uh millbrook okay you walk along there and it goes all the way down to millbrook roads yes distance but um there were two sets of tracks so we you know how heavy trains are and so they must have quite a sub base or stones or whatever under there so maybe parking could be excluded you'd be fencing you'd be able to drop off and they have to um deal with uh dcr or not dcr dot right bta or something dcr or something yeah i would imagine i would imagine there would be a consideration for maintenance as well right plowing and if it's just going to be gravel it would need to be graded you know every couple of years at least well you know the thing is um dcr and the mbta all of them working together on this rail trail this is their baby this is their baby people need to be able to park to use it
so you know we there's a common uh need that we all have for well thought out parking and yeah i i wonder about um if there's an opportunity to um you know the old not the freight house but what's the what's the little gift store called depot yeah the depot what is there is there an opportunity to expand the parking beyond that as well i think a little bit i think you could get a couple of spaces and it could be better arranged yeah it feels like isn't there a um like an old turnaround for the train right there yes exactly yeah down a ways yeah and so you could almost go you could almost go all the way up to that and you know quite frankly alex speaking of that there's even a little road that goes in from that area right over to route 20. oh there is yeah i've done that before great yeah there's been a little breath and there's something could be done with that so there'd be some connection again when this terrain this big store goes in with duncan and everything else and restaurants where whole foods used to be um there's going to be people walking around and trying to drive and park so the more uh intelligent plan we can come up right for the parking and create safe walking um it would be great that's why i'm so glad uh what's in this gretchen included that um they the select board consider hiring you know a traffic consultant i was just going to say this this screams of a study needing to be done it does it does alex yeah but hopefully they'll think think about the short-term stuff that they can do right now sure while they're waiting for them yep yeah yep and and i think that we would need you know we would need some some opportunity to comment for them to consider that right or at least to at least at least to pull them in that direction that would be a good benefit of uh having it on the agenda because then we're not limited to two minutes right um on the other hand i suppose we could each have two minutes like comment yeah just you know yeah this this is really a good opportunity i mean um especially with the real trail coming through and i don't think they really can sweep this under the rug and wait on it it's not one of those things that it's going to get worse yeah worse and gretchen it's going to get dangerous yeah it's good you you have so many cars going down 27 and then you have the parking and yeah open me open meeting rules and laws are new to me so this this is a question for you guys uh you know gretchen i've heard you say a couple of times two minutes is sort of the uh that's a public comment yeah how how strict is that very it is okay very um it's uh it's at the beginning of the meeting generally um and uh they try and keep it and they do not comment at all they just hear you okay and they say thank you very much okay and so that would be the advantage again of being on the agenda because then you can have a dialogue and so that would be what i would say to mike but what i don't want him to say is okay we can put you on on may 16th whatever you know may 18th whatever it is the monday um i just don't want to wait on that i know it so if they do if he does say that i might say okay we'll take that but we're coming to public comment on the 13th right yeah i was just looking at this one's on one oh let's see i was just looking at their agenda and maybe i was looking at the wrong one it looks like it looks like the 29th uh it should be april 13th okay maybe it was on the it was on the um calendar as their next meeting the april uh the 29th might have been their last meeting march is it march no it says 4 29 oh um i don't know oh that's the this that's the planning board i'm looking at the wrong oh okay desmond i see you online can you hear us and can you speak desmond you're there desmond oh desmond sorry about that can you hear me yeah yes we can oh great great great great so yeah i mean i i've listened to all that's been um been been said and and i think that it is a really great opportunity to try and given all the things that are happening now to try and engage um the town to somehow engage some some urban design planning to understand how we can make it as we're saying safer and better a better pedestrian experience because the the pedestrian experience in in in uh in the the town center quote unquote i mean wayland per se is not great um and if they if they're trying to i think we should wrap this up with that i think you're quite right the way you wrote the the the uh the the the letter if we wrap this within the context of success for all these new enterprises that are starting to come into the town uh after this is this is the opportunity i agree with what everyone's everyone's been saying um and um i do think that if they if they just restrict us to um two um two minutes it's two minutes per person and each one of us maybe has um a message to give them a uh a portion of the message that we want to get across to them and and and we we say it to them that way if they they don't give us some time to um um to to um to press the idea you know i mean the two minutes is their rule for public comment and so that's why we're thinking well wouldn't it be uh a good idea to get on the agenda then oh yeah that would be much better absolutely i agree with you i agree but if we don't if they said you can be on the agenda in a month um i think we should still take this to public comment and it's two minutes and usually they all let you have two minutes and me have two minutes and greg have two minutes on the same topic they might say the one of us off if we tried to okay okay have a second person i just like that i like that idea
so uh yeah i don't want the two minute thing but i we have no choice if we stick with public comment but i i think that's a good idea i hadn't really thought about calling and until marjorie brought that up are we gonna i think i think it is good um and the the other thing is um um i'm wondering how many towns around us when sudbury concord all these all these other towns west west west concord have either engaged or have uh an urban designer or or or or a planner um um trying to help them go forward and how the how the uh the the towns become more engaging and more pedestrian friendly and more more uh friendly for for for parking and for pedestrians to to to allow for um um public life to actually occur in the town yeah yes i don't know i i bet comfort does oh yeah i'm sure they do yeah yeah i don't know about sudbury but you know i do think desmond that we're we're i would not unique but we're unusual because you have two major roads going right through wayland yes major i agree 20 000 or something like that vehicles in a 24-hour period and a little more than that a route 20 i mean it's major so um we and you know what i really liked about what you shared with brechen too is that if we could get this in order it would help it would be outside of our jurisdiction mentioning this i suppose but it would help with the new projects that are coming along oh yeah oxbow is very much wanting some kind of connection so that they can safely step outside their apartment and not get run over right and and um the rail trail when it comes through people need to park somewhere so they can get on the rail trail right right yeah yeah so oh and then not only that when uh whole foods that big development that's going in where whole foods used to be right there are people there who want to cross the road and come over to the bistro or to the whatever uh we we need some kind of plan for safe passage i concur um so there's just this there's got to be some there's got to be some way we can we can um we can we can it just seems foolish to me that the town would not take this opportunity to to start reassessing how vehicles and pedestrians interact and use the town even within the restriction of the fact that it's route 20 is a major road um i know we're not going to we're not going to end up like like conquered with with um parallel parking on the street and with that's not going to happen i know that but but at least it can be it can be a place where people we can dream though desmond we can we can we can but but at least we can make we can we can get a situation where as as many have said in this in this meeting so far um there's a level of safety and you know what perhaps we do slow the cars coming down through 20 perhaps we do have um a couple of pedestrian crossings um that that make people slow down a bit as they're driving through 20 you know uh i don't think that's a terrible thing to look at no that's right maybe even a light up there by oxford so they can cross and get over to the rail trail right and and and and um um you know downtown boston has has put bike bike lanes to many major roadways in downtown boston and it's it's slowed it's slowed down traffic yeah it's slower to get through through town but that just means that it means that the the the streets are more alive with actually you know people bicycling and and and and and and and jogging through those lanes and walking across so i think that's that's i'm not sure how that can't be out of bounds to start thinking about about route 20 as being more than just uh uh uh uh state highway yeah right is it do we do we have some reason to believe that they would be opposed to this i i don't think that they would be just inertia it's inertia yeah the other thing about okay the other thing i'll mention about route 20 which is interesting uh a fellow who used to be a surveyor in town um told me at one point that that there's a 50 foot right of way uh in certain places on route 20. so if there's a 50 foot right of way coming through our town center there's leeway there's leeway to do things right right interesting yeah but but um i mean so well that sounds small that that doesn't sound like an actually enough enough enough space yeah for well for the road that's there and the sidewalks and the limited amount of sidewalks but well two tools is 24 and then five either side uh 34 35 40 feet maybe all told is the do you think it's 40 feet you think it's more wider than 40 feet no that that's probably right yeah yeah um but but i but i i do think with that that that you know we all talk about wanting to have wanting to i mean if i've always i i lived in wayland for a while and and um um the town per se is really not a very friendly place to walk about in it really really really isn't and and it would be it would be great if we could somehow as i said you know slow down traffic a bit um control it a bit as opposed to being you know basically at this point we don't there's no there's no attempt at even controlling the traffic coming through the town it just is right right right it's a state highway yeah so so maybe this is an opportunity for the town to to to um kill two birds of one stone to actually engage in and allow and help some of these new um businesses uh thrive and um to to encourage people to be walking through the town to the library to to to to the rail trail to all this stuff so it all it all ties into a more a more a more specific place it does and desmond and and alex uh the other thing that was i don't know if you saw it was in the uh i guess uh the boston the wayland post uh the biggest taxpayers you know an awful lot of our tax money comes from believe it or not oxville ah it's a huge portion now if they're paying all that taxes my goodness they should be able to walk about safely right yeah and and have access to our town center right right i concur was there any conversation last month with the uh townhouse cafe and bistro about what their you know have they considered parking as a as a limitation to their business was there any conversation about that at all or no well i did ask i did ask kirsten i i said kirsten if you don't get the parking that you feel you need if you don't get the parking you'd still go ahead with this she said yes but she said that she really hadn't focused on the parking she was trying to get all these other things in order and the next thing she's going to focus and she was talking about trying to work with she's working with a pediatrician who's behind her uh to to get some parking there and then she's thinking we even talked about a little bit about stop and chop and that kind of area up there trying to get some parking from them if if that's possible i mean she is looking there's also there's also the town parking behind the town building but then you have to cross route 20. well that's that's where it ties into the notion of of of slowing down traffic and allowing allowing for pedestrian crossings on route 20. i know we get across there if you wait for the light yeah well but there should there should be a maybe maybe there should be a light there that you you press and um then cars have to stop and uh there is people get to walk across there is but they don't it's not instantaneous you have to wait for the cycle you you do and we might need another light i think further down almost now where the entrance right right right but i mean all these all these things can can can can be accomplished it's just a matter of controlling traffic really yeah that's what it comes down to is there are devices that are used in every single city to control traffic to slow it down and to allow for for pedestrians to walk across safely uh now desmond to get back to what you were saying earlier about this being an opportunity for the development that's coming along uh perhaps we could even make reference to that in the in our memo yeah what we tried to do was to stay within the historic district because we're a historic district commission but i suppose at the end we could say that if something were put in place creating an overall plan it would be a blessing to the the new um developments you know well i i i i think i think i think i think we need to think of it as less isolated pots and more a larger plate of different ingredients in it right and the different ingredients are the historic district the library the public the public realm as well as these these private elements that that add to the public realm i mean i think that's the way to speak to it and think about it is that is what we're trying to do is we're trying to raise awareness the fact that um the public realm um would be enhanced if we were able to to accomplish some of this stuff by allowing people to to to park let's say behind the the where we have we have large parking zones like um near the supermarket um near um uh the town the town behind the town building and then be able to get out of their cars and walk around the town you can go from different places right yes exactly yeah i mean i mean that's that's sort of urban design 101 is to get people out of cars slow cars down restrict them get them out of cars and have them walking about that's urban design 101 you you suppose desmond and everybody that you know that i'm looking at the great comments i'm listening to the great comments i'm looking at the memo which titled parking in a very central historic district but what if we added bullet point three to long term that affects something like you know expanded parking lots at a at a distance from the historic center would um could be entertained with improved walking yeah right yeah i think you're right i think you're right uh greg and and even even if if i mean it seems to me that we should just we should just come out and say if we if we if everybody feels um that's appropriate that um we see this as a way to encourage uh urban design within the town to make the town more of a more of a living thing where people feel that uh not only they entitled but that they are able to walk around it in an in an unencumbered way and gretchen is scribbling down ideas yes i think we can handle that with two set two sentences as a new bullet point three and and it's the focus is walkability but it's somehow we get into the words it's enables um town building and supermarket parking lots so people can get can walk around everything you said does but we've got to get it into two sentences here so you said expand uh parking lots at a distance from the town center uh can improve pedestrian and improve pedestrian traffic and we think we start with the improving pedestrian walking okay yeah um facilitates use of larger parking lots e.g the town building right that are already that are already in place yeah and are being underutilized yes utilizing utilizing existing um parking both in the town center the the town center quote unquote and behind the town building would enable us to support these new activities in the town these new businesses in the town that are going to enrich everybody's lives and at the same time the way we would enable that is by is by um um um somehow facilitating um uh pedestrian access back and forth across route 20 that way that way you could you could park you could park um behind the stop and shop you could um and you could spend an hour or so walking around going across to this to this new this new uh complex that's being built in the old um whole foods and uh get a cup of coffee and um maybe uh then decide you're going to walk to the library and walk to the library and pull a book out um and and then then then go to the rail trail and sit down on the the benches and read for an hour or so or or you know and and desmond even russell's garden center yes that should be part of it you know yes to walk around the other thing is which kind of exciting about it to me is that if the rail trail is coming through within a year and putting down asphalt where we now have stone dust this is an opportunity to think about additional parking and walkways maybe between the stop chop area and the rail trail right and other egresses from the rail trail over to route 20. i mean we it just needs a bigger plan you made me think of something there when nita and i will walk from our house cut through the woods trying to get to russell's and you cross route 20 in that span between the two traffic lights yeah it's you gotta run up yeah oh yeah yeah there's no crosswalk that's the point yeah right yeah and well i had to wait the other day 20 people were able to walk across to the farmer's market and when i changed yeah wow yeah that was pretty good yeah no that is great it is so you know one thing just occurred one thing occurs to me um and again i know we're not wellesley center in terms of the way that's developed however that's a relatively main road going through the middle of of of of it and and they have parallel parking on both sides and they have um uh they have they have shopping on both sides and people seem to be able to get through it and there was two or three um um zebra crossings uh uh uh what do you call it um with controls on them that you hit crosswalks you hit the you hit the button it it's and and people seem to work people seem to use it and it seems to work yeah so it's not impossible it just it just needs um in fact i'm also even thinking about um in wellesley hills um there's there's um there's crosswalks as well because they have they have that that little cluster down before you can um um go on to route nine yeah so there's there's a couple of examples we can cite of what were suburban um areas that have urbanized themselves somewhat and enable people to to find a little bit of community and a little bit of a little bit of urbanity within that that that that that development and and and um um make it work desmond do you do you think it might be possible i don't know if you heard me there is a designation and there's a possibility for grant possibly uh if we can come up with something that is supposed to make us greener basically is what it is make us greener right and um so maybe um we would apply for a grant right yeah well how much how much greener can you get is taking people out of the cars and having them walk i know i'm looking at um google maps right now and i've got the street view open between pelham island road and the post office there's um oh it's probably eight or ten feet from the curb to the sidewalk um and that's a significant stretch of road i mean we could just put parking spaces in right there it's a it's a dilapidated sidewalk too yeah yeah yeah yes i mean there's a beautiful row of trees there and so i wouldn't want that sidewalk to go away but right there's space between you know the the white line and the sidewalk right um it's i bet it's 10 or 12 feet right right there's space there but you see what all of this will do is it will it will it will turn the town from being a place that has a couple of isolated moments here and there into some place where people can park the cars get out of them and walk about and actually discover the town and actually engage in the town this is why we need a really good a traffic planner and i i i like kevin dandrade very much he's done very good work for us in the past the town in the past but you really need somebody who is kind of an expert in this field yeah i would agree that somebody who understands parking and traffic but also somebody who understands urban design and and what will get people engaged yep yep i i love the idea and and desmond you've said it a number of times but let's slow some people down yeah i can just i mean just imagine you know putting 15 or 20 cars along the side of the road here in parking spots and how that would so naturally slow people down absolutely absolutely absolutely would and you know what um com ave boylston street i can name a dozen streets half of cambridge where they've where they've successfully done this i mean a mass ave in cambridge it's a nightmare to drive you know it it has it has parking on both sides parallel parking it also has a bike lane trail yeah it's you know this is done all the time yeah i hear a motion for how do we proceed i would uh make a motion that we uh present the memo is is is as being developed and uh that uh gretchen call uh maybe we don't even you see that part of it but we need a call to go into my call and then to find out just exactly how it should be handled and then if we are only doing public comment well either way uh do you want do you should you do this present it as the chair or i don't know anybody else want to thank you do you want me i mean i don't care it doesn't matter but they will recognize her they'll recognize her and inspect her for knowledge and what she knows i mean i think and i think we can all all be there for for um support as well right yes so what i'll do is i'll send everybody an email saying that mike said we could be on the agenda in june yeah so we're going to whatever you know whatever he he says and we'll either be on the agenda at a specific time or we'll be a public comment which will be seven or 6 30. i just look there's no agenda yet so okay yeah all right yeah i'm sure that was not a clear motion and you're going to make some tweaks to the letter yes i will now do we care there obviously i can change the font so that it's a little bit uh smaller so i could get it all on one page i mean i'd like to get it all on one page yes it'd be good too so i'd like to add and take the bottom margin top margin up and that will fit yes i know and i have to start all over because i did it on top of something else and couldn't manipulate it it's okay i can send you another copy okay you mean that you will have already manipulated oh love it was it word yeah should be able to manipulate it i know i i just i couldn't do it yeah i was doing it so are we are we also agreeing that we're going to try and wrap this notion this idea in some kind of urban design notion about how the town can become more um pedestrian friendly well i could put that into below one of the long-term solutions yeah yeah i think i think that's where it belongs i agree that's where it belongs um i i don't want to i don't complicate things i just want to you know be able to get that idea at the same time in there and i think we can get rid of all of which could be expanded to some extent that's for all the sense yeah yeah yeah and just um and change this planner slash urban designer yeah uh and then is that unless unless anyone thinks that's too much of a reach i think it would be nice to do yeah uh i actually i think it's right on but i i think it'll be a new sound to the board of select one i see well we should all be listening to new sounds
well okay do i have a second so i'm gonna second and uh vote all in favor all in favor thank you and aye okay unanimous okay um i think what i'll do it might be a little i'll i'll fix it and then i'll send it to everybody and don't respond to everybody you can just respond to me only okay you know that was a really bad use of that word would you switch it yeah that's right it's not going to be the real content here yeah okay how do you do this here sir yeah yeah i can edit it okay i'll email you okay okay great great so um motion to adjourn the meeting you do remember um what about things that were not on the list just so matters not anticipated anything um i i will just mention that the gutter on the front of my house is going to be removed and another wood gutter is going to replace it but that just maintenance and yes the other thing uh i'll mention is on the side of my house west toward uh route 20 the the parking lots are getting closer and closer and closer and uh i was trying to just grow bushes there to hide them but the bushes i planted got destroyed this past winter i tried to plant motodendrons they got just warm boozles they oh yeah i mean that's no everything else because they pushed from the parking lot onto and i'm downhill a little bit so they were destroyed i'm really going to have to i haven't wanted to do it but i really need to put up a fence and what i'd like to do is put up something that's composite that looks like wood it's going to be from a distance you it's not up front the picket fence will stay the same this is way in the back where there are two parking lots and then there's a dumpster i mean it's all of that back there um and so i'm just thinking of something that's composite that's high that could be attractive i hope right uh any thoughts or ideas um i can i can um we're doing a couple of smaller scale projects at the moment that are are um using some um some fencing i'll i'll i'll i'll do a little quick bit of research uh later in the week to see what uh people are specifying for that um just to see if there's anything new out there it'd be wonderful i'll i'll i'll i'll i'll ask around in the office and see what they're using yeah no that'd be great and i'm thinking of a dark color something that'll go on yeah yeah yeah yeah okay i guess that's all i had okay come to the uh may 3rd historic house tour of the historic historical society in the 250 there will be five houses that were witnesses to the revenue show oh excellent how great that's amazing that's my house may five huh okay will they be house tours house tours oh yes just like yeah well we had before we did recently it's wonderful i'd love to go to that well may 3rd maybe that is excellent excellent okay meeting adjourned