January 10, 2009 40R Workshop Medway Planning and Economic Development & Board of Selectmen Draft Minutes – February 2, 2009 January 10, 2009 Medway Planning & Economic Development Board Meeting 40 R Workshop 71 Whitney Street, Holliston, MA Attendees Andy Rodenhiser, Planning Board Jim Wickis, Open Space Committee Glenn Trindade, Board of Selectmen Ralph Caton, Affordable Housing Committee Bob Tucker, Planning Board Dave Kaeli, Master Plan Update Committee Larry Ellsworth, Finance Committee Phil Giangarra, Finance Committee Dennis Crowley, Board of Selectmen Karyl Spiller-Walsh, Planning Board and DRC Dan Hooper, DRC & Master Plan Update Committee Gary Jacob, DRC Teresa O’Brien, Affordable Housing Committee Mary O’Leary, Affordable Housing Committee Andy Espinosa, Board of Selectmen John Schroeder, Open Space Committee Alison Slack, Affordable Housing Committee John Williams, Planning Board Concord Square Development Angus Jennings Karen Cullen Adam Duchesneau Town Staff Susy Affleck-Childs Fran Hutton Lee Dave D’Amico Gino Carlucci & son Nate Carlucci Chairman Andy Rodenhiser convened the meeting at 8:50 am Welcome - Andy Rodenhiser Thanks for taking the time to be here. I want you to imagine that you went through an invisible force field that eliminated everything you know about 40R – open to anything being possible – We can learn more about what is happening than what we might otherwise allow – we are looking for a clean slate and these guys will explain – common questions – We are looking for dialogue and feedback. – We want questions and debate – come out with a better base of January 10, 2009 40R Workshop Medway Planning and Economic Development & Board of Selectmen Draft Minutes – February 2, 2009 knowledge among us as various board members to move forward to Medway’s future with a good grasp – serve as beacons of communication – I would like to introduce Angus Jennings and Karen Cullen and Adam Duchesneau of Concord Square Development – also recognize Gino Carlucci and his son Nate who has done some of his maps. PGC Associates is a consultant to the town, not just the Planning Board; he is a resource to the town, not just the Planning Board. – great person to ask for – Also, Susy Affleck-Childs and Fran Hutton Lee are here from the Planning Board office. Introductions all around Housekeeping details – bathrooms, etc. please shut off cell phones Andy Rodenhiser – We met Angus Jennings through the Citizen Planner Training Collaborative. We generally go as a group. – Angus Jennings has presented at those – I have learned a lot at these various workshops – form based codes – we are here to explore today Angus Jennings – Thanks to all of you for being here on a Saturday – this reflects the kind of involvement the boards have in the town – proactive – a little background – I now work for Concord Square Planning and Development. Prior to that I was town planner in Marshfield, Karen Cullen was town planner in Spencer, Massachusetts. Adam Duchesneau is a trained planner – our colleague Ted Carman is a developer – lot of historic preservation work – strong sense of preservation – Ted Carman had the founding concept for 40R – he was frustrated by housing situation in the state and the consequences on state’s economy and the housing prices and what that was going on - much of the dialogue at the time was on affordable housing – He rode the commuter rail a lot and saw all this vacant land around the train stops – he had written an overlay district in Westford in 2000 and he thought, let’s see how to do this across the Commonwealth and try to get economy moving again in Massachusetts – As he looked further, there are a lot of good reasons why towns have not zoned for higher density higher – impacts on infrastructure and fiscal – He came to the conclusion that the only solution was to develop something voluntarily – get community and public interest with state need to have more affordable housing production – That is where the idea of some incentives – he put together a working paper that was developed and presented to Commonwealth Housing Task Force – 2003 – We like that idea – 8 page paper turned into a full study – June 2004 40R statute was passed – It was different than what I had seen from the traditional legislative process – While I was in Marshfield I was on the committee to help write the regs for 40R – Then I went to work with Ted Carman. We have been doing consulting with 20 communities – 9 different 40R districts – spent a lot of time working with the 40R policy in cities, towns and small communities – full range – That is the perspective we are coming from here today – 40R is not going to work everywhere. – The first step is to look at the situation. – What are the objectives? What are the options to get there? And what is the best option; and that is what you bring to town meeting. In one town, in Wrentham, we were hired to do a 40R district. We spent 4-5 months on the planning side and recommended that 40R was not the best fit for the site in question There are two study areas – Oak Grove and Route 109 areas Andy Rodenhiser – Angus, could this presentation be available as a CD? 2 January 10, 2009 40R Workshop Medway Planning and Economic Development & Board of Selectmen Draft Minutes – February 2, 2009 Angus Jennings – Yes. Attach presentation to the notes Key elements Broad Consensus - The town sets out a vision for growth and development. Use private investment to generate public community benefits – how to improve the town In some cases, this technique can have town wide use. Establish design standards – what would it look like? The advantage of 40R with design standards – you have explicit clear legal authority within the statue to regulate design in a 40R district. There is nothing comparable to the 40R language elsewhere in Mass General Laws that would apply to regular development projects We spent time talking with Andy Rodenhiser, Susy Affleck-Childs, and Gino Carlucci about some of the questions and concerns we wanted to put out there first. We will come back to them at the end of the workshop. First – Does benefit of 40R outweigh the loss of special permit authority? Can this have an affect on a town wide growth strategy? Would 40R be revenue positive? – critical threshold How stable is the state’s funding commitment to 40R? Does it allow for mitigation? Big Picture The rate of development has occurred at 6 times the rate of population growth. – more land is being developed per household vs. 20-30 years ago – When you look at some of the reports that have come out – there is broad agreement from the development and environmental community what the problem is - Solution – channel development investment to areas with existing infrastructure Greenfields are presently undeveloped areas There are a lot more developers who are open to mixed use development. To be effective and get the results it is not just a matter of saying you can build here and not there, but to align the public and private interests. Create a profit motive for someone to invest in the downtown area. They are going to do what is in their economic interest. Only at that point will you start to see a shift in development patterns John Schroeder – That implies some sort of education for developers. Is there a similar session we could invite developers to? Angus Jennings – There are groups like the Urban Land Institute and the Congress for New Urbanism. In my opinion it is still a pretty small niche. I don’t think there has been a whole lot 3 January 10, 2009 40R Workshop Medway Planning and Economic Development & Board of Selectmen Draft Minutes – February 2, 2009 of this kind of thing for the development community. That might be a good place to put time and energy to get the development community engaged. If they see it is in their financial interest, as well as the public interest, everyone pulling in the same direction. How to align the interests and have money going into architecture and design and solving problems instead of into litigation and fighting. We have to get past that. Karyl Spiller-Walsh – The incentive and instigation comes from within a community to enlighten, present and entice prospective developers – that is our burden and responsibility Angus Jennings – 3 ways that a 40R zoning change – a. town says this is what we like to see b. town reaches out to the existing land owners – and that can be the most challenging thing – they may not really be developers, but just landlords - no easy answer to that . c. developer comes to a town and says here is what we want to do. that is the clearest way to get something to happen on the ground – if someone comes to town, they have capital, Karyl Spiller-Walsh – as a town, we are at a workshop and some visioning step Angus Jennings – Karen Cullen and I are impressed on the amount of planning that has already been done - you have done a lot of zoning changes and there are more in the works – the next step is to turn it into getting some investment – that is where we see you are now Karyl Spiller-Walsh – does business or development come to us or do we come up first with a clear vision? Angus Jennings – if you have a developer knock on the door, that is always a great opportunity. John Schroeder - that sounds like a developer from outside who is familiar with this type of development who comes to town from somewhere else – I am suggesting we have a bunch of local developers who have built in town who are very comfortable with the same old thing – I would like to see some education