10/13/2020 Planning Commission Minutes
Subject to Approval
PLANNING COMMISSION-MEETING MINUTES
TUESDAY, October 13th, 2020
The public hearing was web-based on Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/2574297243
Meeting ID: 257 429 7243
I. CALL TO ORDER - Chairman Rice called the meeting to order at 7:02pm.
1. Pledge of Allegiance
II. ROLL CALL
1. Appointment of Alternatives: N/A
Present: Michael Glidden, William Rice, Erin Leavitt-Smith, Julie Eaton, Alan Needham, Holly Beum, Craig MacCormac, David Blume
Absent: Richard Cortes
III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES of the TUESDAY September 22nd, 2020 regular meetings
• Mr. Needham lead the minute review. Mr. Needham initially noticed that all pages are numbered as page 2. Ms.Beum asked to add another L to her name on line 20. Ms. Leavitt-Smith noted a space is needed after her last name Smith and between the word ask. Line 53, Mr. MacCormac noted the words Chairman and Rice need a space between them. On line 61 and 63 Mr. MacCormac explained he isn't sure the way it is written is how Mr. Needham intended it to be stated but Mr. Needham confirmed that is what he said. Ms. Leavitt-Smith stated on line 72 the word owner should read owned. She then stated line 76 needs a space between the word certain and preserving. Mr. MacCormac noticed that on line 78 a space was needed between the words but and Ms. Leavitt-Smith’s name. Ms. Leavitt-Smithexplained that on line 80 she would like to remove the words a and little before the word uncomfortable. On line 92 Mr. MacCormac stated a space is needed between he and told. Ms. Leavitt-Smith stated line 97 needs another space between the words Chairman and Rice and on line 99, Chairman Rice noted his last named needed to be capitalized. Ms. Leavitt-Smith noted she doesn't feel line 107 made any sense. Chairman Rice answered, statinginsert the word one so the sentence reads, one or multiple projects. Mr. MacCormac stated line 122 needs a space between the words line and Rice and capitalize the R on Rice. Chairman Rice noted a space is needed between Chairman and Rice on 135. Ms. Leavitt-Smith noted on line 127 to remove the word her before ChairmanRice. She also stated line 128 to line 130 doesn't make sense and it is a run on sentence. It was decided to put a period after the word space on line 130 and capitalize the word so, then put a period after the word path on line 131 and take out the word but and capitalize the word it. Ms. Leavitt-Smith also stated replace the word unit with the word line on line 131. She then noted line 135 needs another space between the words Chairman and Rice. She explained on line 150 respell shouldn't to include a n and include the word in after the word up. Line 158 a space is needed between the words Chairman and Rice noted by Mr.MacCormac. Ms. Leavitt-Smith noted line 192 needs a space between Chairman and Rice. Mr. MacCormac noted that on both lines 183 and 186 Chairman Rice’s name needs a space between the words Chairman and Rice and there should be an apostrophe before the s in the word Eaton's. Ms. Leavitt-Smith noted line 190 needs a space between the words Commission and their along with the words Chairman and Rice. Mr. Needham noted on line 242 New Canaan is misspelled twice on this line. Mr. MacCormac added that online 212 Rice needs to be capitalized. Mr. MacCormac noted there needs to be a space between the word Commission and the word and on line 237. Mr. MacCormac noted line 244 New Canaan is misspelled three times on this line. Line 254 needs a space between down and payments as reported by Mr. MacCormac. Line 267 needs an apostrophe on Eaton’s as noted by Mr. MacCormac. Ms. Leavitt-Smith noted on line 292 the word permanent should be removed.
• Mr. MacCormac made a motion to approve the minutes as amended. Ms. Leavitt-Smith seconded the motion.
MOTION: All in favor, no opposed, one abstention Holly Beum (5-0-1).
IV. Commission Workshop
1. Affordable Housing Plan
• Chairman Rice noted Mr. Glidden uploaded the completed revised document and noted he likes the flow of it and thinks it is an improvement from what they started with. He asked to go through it one page at a time. Ms. Leavitt-Smith asked if people are aware there is a housing forum sponsored through the library next Wednesday from 6-8pm. The Commission was not aware. Sheexplained she did sign up for it and she stated she believes the first selectman is going to be there. Chairman Rice asked for any detail associated with it and Mr. Needham asked if it is at the library and not sponsored by the library. Ms. Leavitt-Smith noted it is being held via Zoom; it is a forum to discuss the inequity, housing and education in Simsbury a virtual forum from 6-8pm. Mr. Blume confirmed that he signed up as well. Chairman Rice asked if it says who is sponsoring it. Ms. Leavitt-Smith answered and stated it is sponsored by the Simsbury Diversity and InclusionWorking Group, the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, Simsbury Public Library, Simsbury Spirit Counsel and Block Bias. She read the meeting description out loud. Chairman Rice asked if Ms. Leavitt-Smith could forward the email to the Commissioners. Ms. Leavitt-Smith will send it to the town staff. Chairman Rice stated he feels they should be aware of what’s being discussed, and he feels there may be information that they should at least consider. Chairman Rice asked Mr. Glidden to share the completed revised plan on the screen.
• Page 1, Forward: Chairman Rice noted he thought the forward was nice.
• Page 2, the cover page: Chairman Rice noted Ms. Fernand-Glenn’s name is still there but she is no longer a part of the committee. Mr. Glidden stated he will still give her credit for some part of her participation. He stated he will note when she resigned as she was part of the initial conversation, so he wants to give her credit.
• Page 3, What is Affordable Housing: Chairman Rice proposed to remove the first line as they talk about the 10% later on in the plan and he doesn't feel it really defines what is affordable. He did state he feels the next sentence defines what is affordable. Mr. Needham and Ms. Leavitt-Smith asked to leave it in. Chairman Rice recommended to change it to CT Statute 8-30 defines affordable as and at the end of the paragraph they can add the information about the statute requiring 10% of the housing stock to be affordable. Mr. Needham noted that tells the reader where the definition of affordable comes from. Ms. Beum added that on the last sentence she wants to add, among other possible qualifications as shown in the table on page 6. She stated it isn't just deed restriction and the chunk of the document is talking about the other options. Mr. Glidden stated deed restriction is a part of the system and the other is a part of the point system to meet the 10%. He stated that sentence directly relates to the previous sentence; if the cost of ownership cost less than 30% of the gross income of a household earning 80% or less of the Area Median Income. Chairman Rice agreed with Ms. Beum, stating it could get a little confusing and Ms. Leavitt-Smith agreed. Mr. Glidden will delete the sentence. Mr. Glidden will make all changes from tonight's meeting and email it to the Commission tomorrow.
• Page 4, a continuation of what is affordable: Chairman Rice and the Commission felt this page was clear.
• Page 5, Why is Affordable Housing Important: Ms. Leavitt-Smith stated she thought they weren’t taking out the 2000 Census because it is 20 years old. Mr. Glidden apologized and stated Ms. Leavitt-Smith is correct and he will delete that.
• Page 6, The Law: Affordable Housing Appeals Act: Ms. Beum noted that her point earlier, which relates to this page, is that deed restriction isn't the only thing affordable. Chairman Rice stated they are still stuck on the sentence in the first paragraph. Mr. Glidden stated under the affordable appeals act, the only way you add new units is the deed restriction. He stated the others are specific to the occupants of structures. He explained that 8-30g is very specific and the first sentence applies directly to 8-30g; although points are given to other mechanisms the only way you can add more affordable units is through the deed restrictions. Chairman Rice stated in this plan they are trying to put together it doesn't necessarily need to focus only on deed restricted units and asked if he is misunderstanding this. Mr. Glidden stated the way he has understood it the plan has to follow 8-30g, so it has to be deed restricted to add units. Ms. Beum asked to change the wording to, deed restrictions can be utilized, so they understand that there is more than just deed restrictions. Chairman Rice asked for clarification on the last paragraph on this page; In the case of Simsbury a family of four would require a gross income of $78,3200.00. He asked to add, meet the 80% requirement after the number $78,3200.00. Mr. Blume stated what makes it confusing is the word required and he feels they should change it to say, no more than, instead of, required. Mr. Glidden will make both the changes.
• Page 7, Goals for Diversifying Housing Simsbury’s Housing Market: Ms. Leavitt-Smith and Mr. Needham noted that their version of the plan they downloaded on dropbox doesn't match what Mr. Glidden is sharing on the screen. Mr. Glidden confirmed that he did email the draft to everyone and he did put the updated plan in the dropbox. Ms. Leavitt-Smith noted that on number 4 it should read for and not of. Mr. Needham stated the first line should read the word consider not considered. He then stated in the next sentence where it says affordability for the rental market it should read affordability in the rental market. He then went on to state he doesn't understand the end of the sentence where it states attract and retain groups of people. Ms. Beum recommended it should just say attract and retain people. Mr. Needham proposed that it read to attract new and retain existing residents. Mr. Needham noted that the word incremental shouldn't be capitalized. Mr. Needham stated he feels the sentence isn't clear; the goal of this plan is the incremental improvement to increase affordable housing in town. Mr. MacCormac and Ms. Leavitt-Smith stated they feel it could read, the incremental increase to affordable housing. Mr. Blume felt the word incremental isn't needed at all however,Ms. Leavitt-Smith reminded Mr. Blume that they are aiming to make incremental improvement. Sheexplained they could say incremental improvement to affordable housing as Ms. Eaton initially recommended. Ms. Beum stated she feels the word increase should remain. Ms. Leavitt-Smith then agreed. The final decision from the Commission is that the sentence will read as such; the goal of the plan is the incremental increase to the affordable housing in town. Ms. Eaton asked about the $70,000 and $50,000 numbers mentioned in the first paragraph on this page. Mr. Needham noted these are percentages from the Area Median Income. Mr. Glidden stated they were just ballpark numbers, highlighting the 60% since they already hit on the 80% above. Chairman Rice stated he was going to ask to take those first two sentences out but if the numbers are revised to reflect the numbers previously explained in the plan than he is okay with leaving it. Mr. Glidden stated he will change the numbers to reflect a family of 4 at 60% and a single family at 60%Ms. Leavitt-Smith stated she feels changing the percentile is confusing. Chairman Rice agreed and stated he goes back to his initial thought to remove those first two lines. Mr. Glidden stated he will just strike the first two sentences to leave the goal in the box by itself.
• Page 8, How Will Simsbury Meet the Goals: Chairman Rice reflected on the following sentence; Simsbury Center is a walkable and vibrant town center that would highly desirable for someone looking. Chairman Rice asked to remove the part of the sentence that reads, for someone looking.
• Page 9, How Will Simsbury Meet Affordable housing Goals continued: Chairman Rice noted that the title of this page does not match the title of the previous page if this is a continuation. Mr. Glidden stated he will match them. Ms. Leavitt-Smith stated she does not like the structure map provided as an example on this page as it was already denied for the Aquaphor. Chairman Rice noted this was zoned for development. Ms. Leavitt-Smithasked why would they propose a development on a piece of land that was rejected in part for the water. She stated if everyone else agrees that is fine, but she is going on record that she objects to the use of this piece of land for this. Mr. MacCormac stated he interpreted this as an example. Ms. Leavitt-Smith again stated she still isn't in agreement. Mr. Blume stated he agrees with Ms. Leavitt-Smith and asked Mr. Glidden for another example to use and Mr. Glidden respondedstating he has to think about it. Chairman Rice stated he can’t believe they would rather reject the site and leave it underdeveloped because of Aquaphor. Ms. Beum interjected and asked if they really need an example of a site. Ms. Leavitt-Smith agreed and stated that is her point. Mr. Blume stated he does feel that they do not have to have an example and they can just use the words already on this page. Ms. Leavitt-Smith stated there are other properties so why target this site when they know there are potential issues with this. Ms. Beum stated she doesn't feel they need an example if it is going to be problematic. Chairman Rice stated if this is causing this much commotion than he can only imagine what it will create with at the listening forum so he thinks it should be removed because he does not want these many issues right out of the gate. Mr. Glidden noted he will remove it. Ms. Beum also noted she would like to add an additional paragraph on this page to be called government assistance education: educate potential homeowners, home sellers and real estate agents about government assistance programs that can designate existing housing stock as affordable. The Commission agreed. Ms. Beum emailed Mr. Glidden the exact wording. Chairman Rice asked Ms. Beum who did she envision would do the educating. She answered stating a task force could be created by the town and she would volunteer.
• Page 10 ,Who Can Assist Simsbury: No concerns reported
• Page 11, Goals and Objectives: Chairman Rice noted they already listed their goal on a previous page and does not like the term goal being used again on this page. Mr. Glidden proposed using the word action instead in which the Commission agreed. Mr. MacCormac suggested to use the word objectives however, Chairman Rice disagreed and stated he would prefer to use the word actions as these are specific instructions. Mr. Glidden will change every word on this page that states goals or objectives and change them to the word actions. Chairman Rice noted there are some actions on this page that is not found anywhere in the body of this plan, like the action of developing a housing ordinance. He feels these actions listed on this page should be a summary from some of the ideas presented earlier on in the plan. Mr. Glidden stated they have to develop a housing ordinance per the Small Cities Grantprogram they are in and offered to add it in on page 10 so that it will tie it into the action; it will read, affordable housing ordinance and reference the Small Cities Grant. Chairman Rice noted that the action, amending subdivision regulations to require a % of new developments to be deed restricted affordable units, is not found anywhere in the plan. Ms. Eaton noted that could be incorporated in on page 8. Mr. Glidden stated he will write out a sentence about amending the subdivision regulations on page 8 to tie it back to the action. Ms. Beum noted she thought this table was their objectives for the town to consider so that the goal can be met rather than a summary of action ideas. Chairman Rice explained he feels this table should be the collection of actions required to implement the increase. Mr. Glidden asked Chairman Rice if he would prefer to go back to page 8 through page 10 and tie all the information laid out into the chart. Chairman Rice asked if these should be additional items to be considered compared to what is written in the body of the document or is it to formalize the actions, identifying the responsible party. Mr. Blume stated he feels it should summarize into a table the actions which has been described in the plan above, who should take the action and by when. Ms. Beum asked Mr. Glidden for his thoughts since he wrote this document. Chairman Rice then asked to look at action item 4 as it was not brought up in the body of the document; identify state and federal funding that can assist with the construction of new affordable housing units. Ms. Beum asked about the Simsbury Housing Authority and the Commissions previous thought about helping the Simsbury Housing Authority realize their expansion plans. Mr. Glidden agreed with Ms. Beum. He asked if that action should be specific to the housing authority. He stated the Commission did discuss that the Simsbury Housing Authority has a potential expansion plan that is put on hold for other reasons. He stated he will reword that action so that it is specific to adding more units at the housing authority through grants or federal funding. Mr. Blume suggested that Mr. Glidden give these action items numbers that can correlate with some of the information listed above it in the plan. Mr. Glidden felt that is a good idea. Mr. Glidden stated he will also add some additional action items that were listed above in the plan to this table. Ms. Beum acknowledged that this seems like a pretty solid document. Mr. Blume stated they have not talked about the listening session and asked if this document will be provided to people in advance of the listening forum. Mr. Glidden answered yes; under the Governor’s mandate they will have to release this document at least 24 hours before the meeting. He stated he will write draft all over the document to ensure everyone understands that this is not a final document. Mr. Needham asked if they can formalize the process. Chairman Rice asked Mr. Glidden to pull up the listening forum guidelines that was sent out. Mr. Glidden stated he took an example from another town and tailored it to this situation. Mr. Glidden read out loud the document titled public workshop procedure. He stated this will give an expectation to the night; introduction, brief presentation by staff or commission, read written comments received by members of the public and then have public comments. Mr. Glidden read the instructions for the public to register to speak and stated during the meeting everyone has to mute themselves and cannot speak until they are acknowledged by the Chairman. He stated they will remind the public that this is a public workshop and not a public hearing. Mr. MacCormac asked Mr. Glidden if there will be a time limit for the public to speak. Mr. Glidden asked the Commission if they want to give a time limit to for someone to speak. The Commission all agreed there should be a time limit per person. Mr. Blume noted he feels 5 minutes is a good amount of time. Chairman Rice noted that he feels they could tell the public that they can be allowed 5 minutes and if they need more time they can come back after all the speakers are done. Chairman Rice did explain to Mr. Needham there will not be any questions answered and any questions proposed will be taken as a statement. Mr. Blume stated he feels all concerns and comments should be summarized at the end by the Chairman along with discuss next steps. That will be added to the agenda. Mr. Glidden explained that written comments have to be sent directly to Mr. Glidden and he will read them into the record as they receive them. He further stated anyone that wants to speak has to email Ms. Barkowski with their name and address. Mr. Glidden stated they are going to give a cut off time for people to register to speak will be the same day as the forum at 12noon. Mr. Glidden shared the draft agenda and stated he is going to upload this document sooner rather than later. Mr. Glidden noted they are looking at a date of 10/27/20. Chairman Rice asked Mr. Glidden to put together one or two slides that states comments by the town staff or the Commission that sets the stage for the discussion. Chairman Rice told the Commission that the document will be made available and hopes people will read it ahead of time and will come prepared with their comments. Ms. Beum stated there may be people who haven’t read it but they should have the link ready so that they can just send it to people on the Zoom link. Chairman Rice would like the document ready as soon as possible and have this listening forum publicized as soon as possible.
• Chairman Rice asked Mr. Glidden for any correspondence. Mr. Glidden denied there was any.
V. ADJOURNMENT Ms. Beum made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Mr. Blume seconded the motion. The meeting adjourned at 8:50pm.
MOTION: All in favor, no opposed, no abstentions. (6-0-0)
Respectfully Submitted,
Amanda Werboff
Commission Clerk