TOWN OF SIMSBURY
BOARD OF SELECTMEN
SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES
May 16, 2008
The Special Meeting of the Board of Selectmen was held in the Main Meeting Room of Town Hall. Present were: First Selectman Mary Glassman; Board members Richard Hogan, Moira Wertheimer, Robert Hensley, Michael Long, and John Hampton. Also in attendance was Town Attorney Robert DeCrescenzo and Brandon Robertson, Director of Administrative Services.
CALL TO ORDER
Mrs. Glassman called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m.
DEVELOP A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR INDEPENDENT PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IN PREPARING FOR AND CONDUCTING A CHARRETTE
Mrs. Glassman thanked the Board and the Town Attorney for being available for this special meeting. She acknowledged that there has been much public input on this topic; the Board has heard from many of the Boards and Commissions in Town and all opinions have been noted. The members of the Board of Selectmen have spent a lot of time on how best to move forward with this decision.
Planning Director Hiram Peck provided a consensus document for the Board about how the RFP would work (attached).
This process has two major overall tasks; first doing the detailed planning that needs to be done and second, implementing the zoning regulations. Potential tasks involved would be determining tax revenue characteristics of the various scenarios, the Plan of Development does not develop specific revenues for detailed scenarios for mixes of various uses and this is something that everyone wants to know, it would be a key task.
Second is the question as to whether there is a need for an independent survey of the citizens to determine whether there is a broad consensus of what type of development there should be. The
general consensus is that we need to draft a mixed use zoning regulation; the particular form of that regulation is a question that the RFP would address.
Mixed Use would deal with areas that are available for development specifically using the Route 10 corridor to tie these together and specifically with regards to addressing the traffic impacts of either of these developments based on the mixed scenarios.
Distribute the RFP for this process with several potential available alternatives. It is a type of regulation, Euclidian, typical standard mixed use or form based regulation, could be an alternative in this RFP. Type of development that the Town desires would be part of this as well as the development density and intensity.
It is important to understand that when the RFP goes out along with the accompanying information; the maps indicating the general areas that people think are available for development. The POCD would be part of that package as well as a lot of the documents that were done previously, the Charrette of 1998 for the center of town and other historical documents so that the consultants would actually have some basic background for what they actually give back to us.
A Development Survey could be completed by August. Evaluating the fiscal impact of these various development scenarios could be done in about 180 days; this would be more detailed and more data intensive and could be completed by November. The third task which could be done in conjunction with the second task or completely separate from is to separate the RFP RFQ process out and proceed with that along the same timeline.
Developers are anxious to proceed with their plans and would like to know where the town is headed so that is the reason for trying to get this done by the end of the year to show them that we are serious in moving forward.
By Fall of 2008, review the results of the survey; review the results of the economic analysis; the Charrette process and then the Zoning Commission hopefully will have a regulation in place ready to adopt by the end of the year.
Variables - applications that may come forward in the meantime; what needs to be done with those. Processed in a timely fashion and evaluated based upon their merits. We've had some folks approaching us for various developments such as assisted living facilities, mixed income housing and mixed use development.
Other activities - at present include revisions to our current zone regulations which is on-going; we'd like to finish those by the end of the fiscal year as well.
Next Steps - recommend proceeding with the completion of the distribution of the RFP as soon as possible. Proceed with the survey on a separate and parallel track; not sure who would run that. Proceed with the economic evaluation, there are a number of highly qualified consultants available. Revise the Zoning Regulations; the responsibility of the Zoning Commission.
Discussion ensued regarding the application process for interested developers, the condition of the town center and what is envisioned for the future.
Moira: rough number of applications in the pipeline?
4 people that are asking - not including Keystone - inquiries
Mr. Peck informed the Board that there were approximately four queries from interested developers.
MG: mixed use and form based - not familiar with as a town - is it possible to go forward and adopt a temp mixed use regulation in a basic form and then continue with the process for an RFP for a form based.
Euclidian - who decides to move from Euclidian to form based.
Planning/Zoning and Design Review want to go to form based.
Long Caveat: there is a lot of confusion with Charrette - what does it mean?
Mary - RFP's will provide some answers
Industry Day - firms come in and present their firm's contributions
Motion: By MG to start process - more discussion
37:35 - is this public audience?
John Loomis for comments:
Dunny: clarify
Long-proceed with 3 things in parallel - first 2 could probably do faster -
MG: more work to be done on the RFP but consensus to send out the RFQ
Hiram: RFQ is the separate document but tries to roll that information talking about the expertise and qualification of the firm interest in this specific Charrette proposal so while the RFQ is going to typically talk about previous expertise
Hiram feels that the RFQ and RFP should be combined. Wants to be done by end of month.
48:38
Loomis: underwhelmed by lack of embrace of the concept of Charrette. Process oriented of small step by small step approach that this board is taking - may be prudent - in terms of understanding and embrace I'm just mystified. It is disappointing.
MG: trying to develop a consensus from the position which you have articulated and I appreciate that with other positions of not doing anything, just having the Zoning Commission adopt a regulation so there's a lot of things that we're hearing; financially we're hearing we may or may not be able to afford this. There are a lot of moving parts; we're just trying to keep the ball moving so that we can coordinate all of those parts.
51:45
unknown female speaks about getting to the meeting for 8:30 a.m.
58:39
Next Steps: keep reviewing and get back to Hiram after trip to Redding.
Hiram: schedule: get it out by end of month, hopefully get back
BOS will vote for the RFP
1:02:40
Bob D discussed ordinance - accepting gifts in response to Hogan question about private funding
1:06:39
Hiram will take BOS comments, finalize the RFP for this process with the options, e-mail that out, make sure there are copies available to the commissions and the public and the BOS will provide their feedback to Hiram. Hiram will be authorized to send out the RFP provided that you consider the comments from the BOS.
1:08:05
post new draft on web and continue to do so
on the Charrette - speaking as a citizen and someone who has been in the architecture business for some time. Thinks the process is great. 3 general points he wants to make:
1. urge the town boards and BOS that as going forward and investing money - make sure in your minds that you have a clear path, not just to a glossy report with a bunch of ideas and concepts, but a clear path to whatever change you want to accomplish. Know where you want to end up and reflect that in your RFP.
2. when you craft the RFP make clear where the end point is and allow the bidders some latitude in how they arrive at that end point.
3. in the time that you have before the RFP goes out consider having an Industry Day - have some firms come in and talk to you about their experiences - take advantage of free information.
1:14:17
Diane Nash, 5 Merrywood: some people are not supportive of this process; my response to them is this - if you think Simsbury is too divided that is exactly what a Charrette process will help. If you will not/cannot get involved in this process this is what a Charrette will do. She is in support of the Charrette process.
Motion to adjourn: Rich Hogan, seconded by Mike Long.
Meeting adjourned at 9:40 a.m.
TOWN OF SIMSBURY
BOARD OF SELECTMEN
SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES
May 16, 2008
The Special Meeting of the Board of Selectmen was held in the Main Meeting Room of Town Hall. Present were: First Selectman Mary Glassman; Board members Richard Hogan, Moira Wertheimer, Robert Hensley, Michael Long, and John Hampton. Also in attendance was Town Attorney Robert DeCrescenzo and Brandon Robertson, Director of Administrative Services.
CALL TO ORDER
Mrs. Glassman called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m.
DEVELOP A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR INDEPENDENT PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IN PREPARING FOR AND CONDUCTING A CHARRETTE
Mrs. Glassman thanked the Board and the Town Attorney for being available for this special meeting. She acknowledged that there has been much public input on this topic; the Board has heard from many of the Boards and Commissions in Town and all opinions have been noted. The members of the Board of Selectmen have spent a lot of time on how best to move forward with this decision.
Hiram Peck, Director of Planning, presented an overall view of the Planning and Regulation Implementation Process listing two overall tasks: a detailed planning process and the implementation of zoning regulation(s).
The Board received the presentation and then discussed it in detail with Mr. Peck and Atty. DeCrescenzo. It was agreed that the Board of Selectmen would e-mail any comments to Hiram within a week's time and he would then finalize the process including all of the opinions from the Board and Mr. Peck will send out the RFP incorporating all of the comments.
PUBLIC AUDIENCE
Bob Beinstein, 26 Fairview St. spoke as a citizen and someone who has been in the architecture business for some time. He is in favor of a Charrette and offered three general points for the Board to consider.
First, he urged that going forward the Board makes sure there is a clear path to whatever change they want to accomplish; second, when crafting the RFP make clear where the end point is and allow the bidders some latitude in how they arrive at that end point. And third, consider having an Industry Day to have some firms come in and discuss their experiences - take advantage of free information
Diane Nash, 5 Merrywood, expressed her support for the Charrette.
Mr. Hogan made a motion to adjourn at 9:40 a.m., seconded by Mr. Long.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary A. Glassman, First Selectman
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