Community Housing Council

Judge Welsh Hearing Room

October 29, 2007

4:30 p.m.

 

 

Members Present:         Elaine Anderson, Catherine Reno Brouillet,

Joe Carleo, William Dougal,  and Molly Perdue.

         

Members absent:          A.J. Alon (excused)

 

Staff:                              David Gardner

 

 

The meeting was called to order at 4:40 p.m.

 

Meeting Agenda

 

Minutes of October 1, 2007 meeting.

Motion:  Approve the minutes of the October 1st meeting as written.

Motion:  Elaine Anderson     Seconded:  C. Reno Brouillet      Vote:  4-0-1 ab (WD)

 

Motion:  Approve the minutes of the October 15th meeting as written.

Motion:  Elaine Anderson     Seconded:  Molly Perdue              Vote:  5-0-0.

 

The RFP for Shankpainter is nearing completion and David G. felt that the PCHC’s input would be very important.  It will come before the Board of Selectmen (BoS) in late November so it was determined that David will e-mail the RFP to all members of the Council as soon as it is ready; they will have ample time to go over it in detail and then provide the necessary input.

 

Schedule for next meetings (will be planned for every other Monday in the future).

          November 19th                4:00 p.m.

          December 3rd                  4:00 p.m.

          December 17th                 4:00 p.m.

 

Discussion/Preparation for a joint meeting with the Planning Board at 5:30 p.m.

Molly P. said that she had attended a Planning Board meeting and was quite impressed with their consultant, Martha Hevenor, from the Cape Cod Commission.  She would like advice from her on the by-laws. 

 

Elaine A. said that we have a Local Comprehensive Plan and we also have an action plan which would allow us to implement affordable housing.  Bill D. said that you may need a 40B to get the density you need at Shankpainter; state law will supercede the housing plan.   He also said that he would like clarification on the mixed-use project from Planning and to have an understanding on how the current by-law responds to a mixed use affordable housing project.

 

Molly P. suggested that Bill was talking about “smart growth” and it allows people to utilize stores as houses.   Also, ask the Planning Board how they are defining NEED.         

 

*********************************************************************

 

Planning Board

and

Community Housing Council

5:30 p.m.

Judge Welsh Hearing Room

 

Members Present:      Ellen Battaglini, Howard Burchman,

Joseph DeMartino, and Annie Howard.

 

Member Absent:         Kevin Rich

 

Staff:                            Maxine Notaro (arr 5:36 p)

 

 

The joint meeting was called to order at 5:30 p.m. with Planning Board members listed above.

 

Meeting Agenda

 

Discussion on Bylaws

 

Joe Carleo opened the meeting by saying that we’ve been a Council since the begin-ning of July – started with Bissell – and we wanted to have a joint meeting with your Board to get on the same page and to find out how we interact.

 

Howard B. said that his group has an upcoming issue with sub-division and also with      medium, middle, (income levels) and stuff like that.  He then asked if  something came out of the Summit that we want to look into? 

 

Joe C. they had some specific questions and then Bill interjected, “Why don’t we talk about sub-divisions for awhile.   Bill continued, “Whether the Community Housing Plan should be the enabling legislation when you look at applications.  We’re using the Local Comprehensive Plan as a basis of our decisions and we’d like to have some reference on how our recommendations will be received.  We’d like to have input and we do have an official role.  Bill finally arrived at his specific question – the legal relationship between the Community Housing Plan and a 40B – which will override what?”  Maxine arrived at this point.  What we have is the potential for developers to come with an application and saying they want to do a 40B and they have 400 people on the waiting list and we can’t access the list.  Where are the listed people located – and in that way we’ll have a better handle on the Town’s need.

 

The discussion became cyclical with final questions/comments being formulated, i.e.,

1.      The Planning Board would like to work with the PCHC and vice-versa.

2.      Martha Hevenor will be asked to a future joint meeting of the two entities.

3.      Can a list of potential people interested in affordable housing be obtained   

      (no names – just locations)

4.      How to ensure local preference in the by-laws.

5.      Positive definitions of median, medium, etc. income levels.

6.      How can either or both groups create incentives for developers.

7.      How to plug perceived loopholes in the by-laws.

8.      An overlay district for the downtown area.

9.      Seasonal housing vs. year-round.

10.  How to streamline the application process.

 

When questions were raised by the PCHC about the Zoning Board of Appeals’ (ZBA’s) function, the Planning Board said that Planning is the group who orchestrates by-laws and the ZBA enforces them. 

 

Joe DeMartino summarized the discussion by saying that – what didn’t work last year was that we didn’t work together.  We all have the same goals but because of all of the dissension - nothing seemed to work because a lot of the pieces were left out.

 

David G. said that if we are going to ask Martha to come in – we should refine our questions and she will need to focus within the by-laws themselves.  Some of the other issues mentioned (sewer regs, etc.) are not going to help her help us. 

 

Elaine A. said that the focus is in going through the by-laws in their entirety so that we can see how they were dissected and how they were projected. 

 

Thus it was decided...............  both groups will plan another meeting with Martha H. and then we’ll get town counsel’s advice to see if Chapter 40B supercedes John Ryan’s plan. 

 

Adjournment happened at 6:50 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Evelyn Gaudiano

E. Rogers Gaudiano

 

Approved by _____________________________ on ____________, 2007.

                   Joe Carleo,  Chair