welcome to continuation of the two thousand and sixteen annual meeting and then two special town meetings i'll review those for you in a moment so i'd like to one or two and then fall of the scrolling to make sure your name shows u anybody have any problems if it's not working come and talk to dan ok glenn glenn will go through this one final time and then we'll scroll through them three or four times so there you are marrying your set ok great thank you so some housekeeping as you know the limits of the hall of these this is town meeting right and center gas town officials that cetera terms of admission to the floor james both of the energy committee and then six i will come back to this in a minute when we get to shortly to the special town meeting sort of butchered some names but in any case those are for the special town meeting and i'll explain momentarily in terms of the structure tonight it will seem a little confusing so let me explain what we're going to do and then try to make it simple so we will momentarily i will just resume the end you will meeting but then recess the annual meeting and we will open the special town meeting the citizens petition and then we will debate article one on to the special that special town meeting we've called a second special town meeting for eight thirty tonight on the incinerator so when we get to eight thirty we will briefly very briefly recess i'll interrupt the discussion if unless it's complete of course we'll recess the a special town meeting article one that we're discussing convene the second special town meeting and immediately recess it until monday so we've called it for eight thirty in the night we will recess it monday at seven thirty and then we will return immediately to the special town meeting and the discussion on the on the citizens petition and then we'll complete discussion on baghdad at that point we will return to the annual meeting and there will be two brief reports at that point from the energy committee and the library for its ability study no more than five minutes each and then we'll turn to the budget so essentially what it really comes down to is a special town meeting on the citizens petition and the budget or we're going to and then a couple of other items after the budget if we can get  to it but so when you hear all of these maneuverings it's just simply to what we need to do in order to meet the obligation of when we call the meeting in adjourn and so forth for the end for the annual meeting ellen o'brien cushman town clerk do hereby certify that i gave notice of the adjourned session of the annual town meeting held monday june sixth two thousand sixteen by posting in a tested copy of the notice of adjournment on the town works official bulletin board in the town hall and at least five other places in town giving notice that the annual town meeting had not been completed and had been adjourned to meet again today wednesday june eight two thousand and sixteen at the cherry middle school at seven pm briefly stating the business to be acted upon all in accordance with the representative town meeting acts of one nine hundred twenty six as amended and section three zero dash one one zero c of the general bylaws of the town  on the citizens petition special town meeting well now turn to the special town meeting and call on helen on the reading of the line you'll see me a few times  tonight pursuant to the warrant for the special town meeting to be held june eighth two thousand and sixteen i ellen o'brien cushman town clerk do hereby certify that i gave notice of said meeting and by posting in a tested copy of the warrant on the town official bulletin board in the town hall and at least five other places in town fourteen days before the date of this meeting in accordance with chapter thirty nine section ten of the general laws and section one one zero eight of the general bylaws of the town of belmont furthermore i do hereby certify that i gave notice of the special town meeting of june eighth two thousand and sixteen by causing a copy of the warrant to be sent to the town meeting members at least fourteen days before the date of this meeting and by causing copies of the warrant to be made available at the public library in the town clerk's office all in accordance with section three zero dash one one zero b of the general bylaws of the town of belmont and the representative town meeting acts of one nine hundred twenty six is amended thank you alan i now call the special town meeting on the citizens petition relating to the installation of interior moment ago and people who have some expertise or involvement in this issue and i have some are proponents of the of the article and others are opponents of the article and others are i just neutral i've said the same to all of them that i conditionally admit them to the floor and they're here in case there was some question that was legitimately raised by a town meeting member  for purposes of their call on their expertise in one way or another so they would not be admitted to just freely go to the microphone and share their opinion  so i'll have to make a judgement if somebody has to hear from them whether it's in sco three quick points this appears to be somewhat heavy a emotional passionate issue and which is fine but i hearken back to last summer when obviously we had a lot of passions around the belmont center in the various options and i think we conducted ourselves very fairly that night respectfully that's all i'm really saying strong opinions of course articulate those opinions but let's be respectful secondly just to comment on monday night it was quite impressive almost all of the people who came to the microphone and there were lots of people so we heard from lots were focused they were able to make your comments in one or two minutes i'm not saying there's any limit as a five minute limit of course but you were able to make articulate comments about your position in a brief period of time and so to the extent that we can do that again tonight  then i would encourage you to do that finally the issue of scope and what i will allow and not allow for the discussion clearly this is a gray area and i'm going to have to make judgments as  as i go along and i've taken very i've talked to a number of different people and right i think it through the one area that i'm not going to allow us to get in absolutely is the issue of health impacts this is the reading of the motion and isp or making are you going to read the motion please introduce yourself good evening my name is karen barmak and her roshan i'm a town meeting member for precinct t with the town vote to amend section three point three of the town of belmont zoning by law the schedule of use regulations by changing the designation for interior wireless telecommunications facility where it appears under accessory uses from wide to s p in all districts as shown in the following  table for the record we can say that in the table it shows all of the uses and the whys have been struck out and replaced by s p d for a special permit so now i turn to previous citizens petitions i assumed cell antennas were regulated similarly meaning i thought they all required special permit now when they go to the first slide thank you as you can see this is the the why for the interior wireless communication is like yes by right it's allowed and if you look at the districts it's every district single families thieves single residence see that we just voted on general residence a local business one two three parking lot it's allowed everywhere and with the exteriors it's allowed with the special permit interior it's by right let's go to the next life so goes to our amendment what we're seeking to do is to close the loophole and ensure that neighboring residences and businesses can have their voices heard and have meaningful discussions during a special public hearing and that all applications for says wireless cell antennas are treated consistently so if you look at what we're proposing wireless cell antennas interior are still loud in every district single residence general residents parking lot there you don't see a no on there it's allowed we just want the process to be a special permit along those lines so me tell you how we got here tonight in order to call for a special town meeting you need two hundred certified registered voters in belmont what i have in my hand we had two hundred forty two signatures of registered voters there was certified by the town clerk and they're from every district every precinct and the one thing that i was struck the i don't see the number of people present tonight before i got up it was somewhere around two two hundred right now the words we have more people that signed for this special town meeting that are actually in the room and that's a lot of people in there from every precinct so you may want to just look around the room so i have that if anyone wants to see it the next slide i want to thank the league of women voters i want to thank the people at the town meeting members that came to the league night and they came to different precinct meetings it was very helpful you ask great questions we were able to research and get the answers and i hope we have the answers that you were looking for tonight one of your questions is to be very clear and clarify what is a wireless wireless telecommunications services mounted inside direct inside why thats not and this is where the questions came and again they were very helpful it's not about wireless routers baby monitors i hope i'm pronouncing it right be it with the fam to sell wireless repeaters cordless phones so hopefully that's fact questions answered next again would this article prevent installation of interior wireless telecommunications facilities in belmont that question came up no as i showed in the earlier slide it's a wound in every part of belmont in every zone and it would still be allowed to applicants would be required to obtain a special permit one of the things our zoning by law does which we're not changing or touching is our amendment interior would still be strongly favored over  exteriors interior cell antennas are allowed to be closer to buildings if someone wanted an x terrier antenna or they have to show that that need can not be addressed by a facility other than a freestanding there's even more in the bylaw but i thought that would make the point it is still favored show the special permit process takes a more transparent comprehensive and considered approach to antenna towers sightings than the limited design and site plan review are by laws regarding cell towers and in tennis have not been updated since nineteen ninety eight and a lot has changed this article goes a long way in catching up to those of our neighbors the next slide is the belmont savings bank that all this time i thought you were allowed to do an interior sell in town are in glass even though it was visible but that's not true what happened this installation was concealed originally i don't know if it was paper or shade or something but it was concealed and it met the definition of interior wireless installation no special perm no longer for years now though it's still contained by class the antennas are no longer cause sealed and clearly visible the bylaw says it has it cannot be visible generators external air conditioning condensers and they do a company most installations both can get loud and the generators may smoke if you live anywhere near the wellington you he r the diesel generator at six thirty for a half hour every tuesday along with the antenna equipment these generators and condensers require regular maintenance and testing the highland meadow tower which is up by the cemetery has weekly testing and they have four different carriers and i did see increasing square i see it all the time there  six antennas at one twenty five i don't know how many visits and how often but only with the special permit process is the applicant formally required to submit proposed hours for servicing without the special permit neighbors have no input the two pictures were just when we were in town there's of arisan building in belmont center and this is  view of a diesel of of a diesel generator from the back yard you can see his bird feeder on the right i don't know that's the view from the back yard of eddie right and the other is just an example of what an extra arnel air conditioning condensor looks like special permit process requires a discussion of the feasibility of addressing such a need with the facility located on municipal e owned property design and site plan review does not currently belmont receives forty three thousand nine hundred eight dollars and eighty fourth from the two installations located on municipal property one is the highland meadow with the cemetery  cell tower and the other is on top of the police station and there are seven others in town nine total two are municipal so overall the special permit process provides for much more transparent considered fiscally responsible approach to meeting belmont's wireless telecommunications need going forward  many of our neighbors belmont first drafted our wireless telecommunication by line ninety eight our neighbors in arlington and lexington and other towns but the use of the two were that are adjacent have continued to their by laws since we have not neither town allows either type of wireless telecommunication facilities by right in residential districts as belmont does arlington require a special permit for both interior annex tarrier installations in all those owning districts lexington require a special permit for both types of installations in all districts except for  clearly defined small commercial district which where it can be by right what we're trying to say is there's nothing radical about this there's we're not setting a precedent this is how our neighbors have have required special permit as well comprehensive approach to sell an antenna siting under the special permit process neighbors are allowed to participate in an open and transparent way without it they may be denied this voice and it may lead to disharmony in the neighborhood and i just have a closings a couple of sentences we could leave that up thank you finally as i pointed out this isn't like popping over to radio shack or best buy and installing a wireless router or some equipment to boost your cell reception it's also not like installing a t v antenna on your roof like in the hundred seventy s so you can catch the latest episodes of mash or mary tyler moore this isn't something that a neighbor is doing on their own this is a commercial enterprise these are transmitters being installed by a major cell phone carrier on your neighbor's property furthermore as we've already pointed out this may not all be inside these installations are likely to require air conditioning with condensers or compressors as well as backup generators which may be sited outside in addition they may require a will require periodic maintenance visits by the carrier in some this article is not about preventing cell antennas and belmont in fact interior cell antennas will still be strongly favored as they constantly are in our by law by requiring a special permit we ensure that these installations are quire a public process during which neighboring residents are given an opportunity to provide meaningful input into the decision making whether they are in favor of the installation or opposed to it i hope you will agree and vote yes as we need two thirds of this body and we hope you will press number one tonight and i thank you for your attention in consideration abstention and one member who recused herself thank you are now open to discussion on the on this petition praising to a member of the water committee and i rise to oppose this for the first obvious reason that i can understand special permit if i do a tower was going to be put up with outside my window but i just don't see that if it's going so now the arguments that i heard the first one that troubles me a whole lot is it seems that there is built into this motion a preference that they should first show that they can't put this on the municipal building and that really surprised me because as a town meeting member i think i'm here to represent citizens people who own property people who might like to have the income from of arise and tower in their building and belmont although it's a government function to the extent to which it rents out of buildings it's in the business too and we should not be competing with our constituents and in this situation where we have the power to make law i find it very upsetting that the the competition should be tilted in favor of dom and it causes me great concern may be a violation of any trust law might even be a civil rights when the color of straight law is very troubling secondly i keep hearing this issue of transparency transparency transparency i don't care what goes on in your attic or in your building and i hope you don't care what goes on in my a no good reason i find i find that very troubling but now i've heard do the say a hundred times here but we're not denying it it's a special permit it's a special permit well i've been to a lot of special permit hearings in my lifetime and unfortunately and more times than not neighbors that got along extremely well are put into a forum where they're going to be contentious and pitted against each other i've seen situation where good neighbors end up not even talking to it is a special permit process doesn't cause harm in your neighborhood it brings contention in neighborhood the second problem with any permit special permit or not is it's one more slice off personal liberty and that's fine if there countervailing public good ways that i see no such public good in the situation if whether or not someone's got an interior whether they are getting paid and it's in a business or not none of my business not a public good the public good here is is good self good cell reception which we don't have however there is one very good reason for that special permit process and that's because it's grat of the individual for the decision chair of course please my name is reader ian i'm a radio frequency designs and design engineer typical cellphone tower outputs approximately fifty watts thank you thank you and then you were next thank you mr moderator i support the concept of mr stanton i can jennifer vincent stanton town meeting member precinct three i support the idea of increased disclosure i think  it's reasonable that people should know when these are being placed and where they're being placed i wonder however if it would be possible to attain that disclosure without a special permit process that has the advantages that mr mclaughlin mentioned simply by passing a law that said this is what an application will look like and an application will be made public you know x weeks or months before an installation but it's all a rule driven not a rule driven process not a special permit process it would be within the scope of the article to to  forth i can ask town council whether he's aware of that i do not want us to get into a discussion of alternatives here but again and terms of a factual question and while he's making his way to the ice my second question would be if the when as we increase the number of items that are determined to require a special permit we put an increased work burden on our volunteer boards the planning board and the zoning board of appeal and i'd be interested in hearing from the chair of the c i if he's here whether he thinks this additional burden is something that is committee is prepared to take on ok fine two questions mr hoffa on the first thank you mr moderator george howell town council not aware of any communities that require advance notice of a buy right installation there are some communities that have recently adopted the practice of sending a butters notice of building permits but that's obviously very late in the process the belmont bylaw currently does require all facilities where a lease facilities including interior ones to go through a design and site plan review process and that there is a notification to a butter public notification requirement associated with that but i'm not apart from that type of notice requirement i'm not familiar with another model do you think that would be a do you think would be within the would would it's still be by right if you simply required that two months before you intended to put it in you submitted your plans and gave additional information more information that's than is currently required in the application including details like what the power output is and what air conditioning is going to be there and what the noise level is going to be all the types of things that people are concerned about george hall town council that really is  what you're describing is the principle under which towns have developed administrative site plan review a basically an advanced set of disclosures that get publicly reviewed before a building permit can be issued so while there may not be a part of an exact match between the way the byelaws currently drafted around design and site plan review procedurally essentially that's what the town already has don't have a dog in this fight however i rise in support of the article one i agree with the systems petitioners and the board of selectmen that installation of interior wireless telecom facilities should be subject to the same special permit process as  there both public utilities and neighboring property owners should have the right to air their concerns at a public hearing before duly constituted adjudicator not in the streets in front of the facility or on social media or in the barrage of emails that assault it is over the last few days i'm confident that belmont zoning board of appeals is capable of rendering intelligent decisions on such matters i do not think that requiring a special permit will created an appreciable burden for the utility or for the host facility nor do i think it will prevent installation of much needed new wireless telecom capacity particularly in belmont center it'll just be a more carefully designed and better understood facility stuff that i've heard the sea and i think it's sort of a trojan horse i i just feel as though well we already do it for the outside antennas we should do it for the inside antenna on and maybe there's going to be some exterior equipment is really just hiding concerns that happen probably have no scientific basis about health insurance that are in fact prohibited by federal law to be considered  was going to be sited inside but those would really be the things that would be driving the neighbors i mean if i want to put something very tall on my roof i expect my neighbors to care if i want to have a blue couch i don't expect my neighbors to care in any event the number of buildings that are likely to be amenable to these things you know i don't have a steeple on my house either and i think most of the there are going to be a lot of level the the energy is actually much much less than the cellphone held up to my ear can you answer that mr area radio frequency energy falls off identify can you identify yourself i'm reading again radio frequency energy falls off is a square distance it's exactly equivalent to having a fifty fifty watt light bulb  so standing at ground level you receive about one milliwatt which is much much less than you receive standing outside on a sunny day going on within three hundred feet has certainly changed the tenor of the town it all started back in concord when the did you viney building went up and all hell broke loose and since then within three hundred feet people were notified part of this problem was no one was notified they saw all these big horizon trucks and everybody went crazy and that's how it all started and now i want to run that you're talking about six in ten is not one six and the other reason he has a building right in the middle of belmont center why don't they put the tower in their building so that's my question thank you yes hi peter would never tell me a member precinct six and i rise in opposition to this just a couple points i think we need to consider as a town whether it be pro or needlessly impede business and i think this represents to me i mean this impeachment of business i think that for  example you know being of the r that's fine but the people that are going to install in this are small churches and small businesses that could really use the extra cash and i think placing the burden of going to special a printing process for the people that they're trying to yes ok it's in my past but i've been through design and site plan review and i've been back and forth with the planning board over many sessions dealing with all kinds of design issues things like where the generator would be placed would be an appropriate part of that discussion so it is a parent isn't correct that we don't have any ability to comment on these things and  we are obliged under federal law to go forward in any event and it seems to me that design and site plan review is probably the proper way to go on this so i don't plan to vote for this particula based on my hearing will be a pause both but i'd like to make a few comments anyway against that i think we should treat this because it doesn't do anything it's not worth the effort let's consider some of the points made by those forming the appearance little or nothing will change with an interior one so that the appearance before and after is essentially the same there is the question of noise he has a standby generator produces noise when it is used but it's not used all the time mostly it's used testing as often as once a week perhaps  only once a month and that is something that is allowed by our zoning our i'm sorry noise by law and that covers the amount of noise that would be generated  radiation that are considered safe the i triple e has committees that work on this problem and where corrections and updates need be made they ar about a quarter century ago i personally has just gone i think we're moving a little bit into the area i'm sorry we're moving a little beyond the scope as i defined it in terms of radiation and i just want to say that i participated in a survey on top of the prudential the building and everything was within the code at that time so radiation should not be a consideration here so what is left notification of of voters transparency as our previous speaker said what right does my neighbor have so what is going on inside my house as long as it doesn't affect  arnault thank you mr moderator would we be permitted to have dr martin stefan give a rebuttal to the earlier power comment to get the gentleman fname but yes briefly and thank you briefly and there's fine briefly and to that point my name is martin stephan to eighty one school st it's a real ready hearing what they're saying about fifty watts and a light bulb fifty watts of a light bulb is not the same as fifty watts of the radio frequency radiation i know we're not a lot of what health effects but the powers that are being generated create health effects mr know you're out of has recommendations on co location agreements for towers and antenna and i just wonder if this group that brought it forward did some research on that if we could hear from what the recommendations are with the policies are apparently they have factsheets and things that we can learn from instead of just saying arlington lexington already done this the very i if there's some if somebody has  david chase town meeting member of precinct three i will briefly say i agree with all of morty coincide remarks and addition i was curious if this were to pass and one of these special permit application superiors comes to the planning board for an interior cellphone antenna what changes would the planning port conceivably recommend to an interior antenna that would make it transform it from an unacceptable antenna to an acceptable antenna if it cannot be seen cannot be heard cannot be smelled alcohol i'll take that as a rhetorical question well four and my background is in telecom i'm not an r f engineer but i've spent decades in data networking and in a network architecture and so two things about the presentation popped up to  me one was the generator outside the horizon central exchange and belmont center i'd love to hear the gentleman from horizon discuss the power requirements for what's going on in belmont center versus the power requirements for a cell phone tower and whether or not you need to have something of similar size something smaller or something not at all and the other is that when you're building a network and in a cell network it's not just open them then anywhere you have to deal with geographic coverage some locations are better or not for putting out you know cell phone service so the question is does it really make sense to give preference to a town building when that may not be a good place to put a in terms of the question i don't know whether it's also for the gentleman to the rising could he comment on location of cell phone antennas in terms of giving the coverage we need for town how important is actually where it is in him that i think that that is beyond the scope ok that that larger question the first question if the gentleman cares to comment on that then yes i'll come to the microphone of the generator is there any current regulation that requires those elements to be hidden hall town council if i'm understanding the question correctly the current definition of an interior while it wireless facility is where it's entirely located inside the structure and the definition of wireless facility includes not only the antenna but any appurtenance structures so my interpretation of that would be that every all of the components including generators air conditioning units so forth would have to be located inside the structure in order for it to meet the definition of an interior facility so to clarify the generator and all the other aspects are there then what would be on top of a tower but all i need to be enclosed and not visible at all that's the way i read it i don't know whether that's the way it's been applied but that's the way i read it my cellphone service is carriers horizon and i live on dean street i opposed this article because i can't get a decent cell phone call in my house the i'm constantly told you know during the call that it goes in an out and i have to step outside to get it i want to let me be clear i don't want people to a series of people saying they can't get come out of order and within the scope i think the larger issue of coverage is within scope ok in terms of just general coverage there are times when  customers cannot get coverage in belmont center and is that and also i think this is yet another move unfavorable to business and development in the town better service makes  desirable area to live in and just to make clear my husband has read your ian and he does not work for horizon he works at draper laboratory in cambridge thank you thank  parts of discussion that i just want to trouble me some one of them is a statement that was made earlier this evening and i've heard it in other contexts saying well why can't we just put cell antennas on building  of signal and strength in the coverage that those antennas could provide you have a special permit process as well we would much rather tell the telecommunications company to put something on a municipal building despite the fact that it may not have optimal coverage relative to another private building i find that problematic and i cannot bring myself to vote in favor of this article thank you thank you mr bradford i  sami baghdad a vice chair of the board of selectmen and precinct for town meeting member the board of selectmen voted two to support this article and one abstained the person who abstained was chair polo and selectman williams and i voted in support i will tell you my reasoning for supporting this article and i think selectman williams will agree but i will let him elaborate if he wants to regardless of where the scientific and medical studies on health effects fall wireless telecommunication facilities or cellular antennas do incite public concern and panic if their sighted in close proximity to residences imagine having a cellular or cellular antenna in close proximity to where your children sleep or where your meaningful and meaningful exchange what it does is it helps alleviate concerns that's why i supported it currently the by law does provide sight plan review for interior wireless telecommunication facilities but that doesn't provide the opportunity for meaningful resident comment and participation because the planning boards powers are very limited in this instance when you talk about site plan review it's typically triggered when someone builds a new commercial building or makes an addition to a commercial building of twenty five hundred square feet or more or add six or more parking spaces in this instance you have site plan review when nothing has happened to the site there's been no exteriors addition there's no additional parking as a result the planning board to review of a site plan in the context of something that's completely internal really leaves the planning board with very little authority to provide any regulation or or or any direction to the applicant again i support increasing coverage in belmont i do think it's important for us to have the best cellular coverage in town but i also think that by requiring a special permit again you allow people to have meaningful dialogue to voice their concerns and know that their opinions can make a difference with the zoning board which currently does not exist it helps alleviate fears lastly i will say i believe among the communities that also require a special permit for interior and tennis is watertown as well so this is very mainstream it will not prohibit interior towers it will just provide an additional opportunity for people to make meaningful comment train quality i've been involved not necessarily personally but i've been involved in several instances in my short tenure as a selectman where i think that if people have a chance to comment on what's going on in the understand that they've at least been heard then they can live with the with the outcome i know bob doesn't think that bob's an attorney and i'm not also  of selectmen we didn't have the same number of people that the planning board did so we couldn't afford to split our vote or have a member sit mark will speak for himself but he's a member of the neighborhood tranquility i saw the opportunity to use the existing process to to achieve both of those goals i also think i'm kind of less confident in federal federal prescriptions for local issues and i prefer local commonsense in my judgment that results in supporting this also jeffrey says this he says for example if the town said can we call on mr wheeler if you have rather than you quoting him and do you have a question yes let me hear geoffrey said for example of the town sa no due to health concerns that will make that also isn't right for a lot of talking about health concerns what is the question from what it was we would have a lawsuit apparently if we talked about health issues jeffrey is making a statement not i'm not blaming geoffrey what i'm asking is have they ever been have there been lawsuits over the radiation issue in cell towers i would like the town council to see to tell us if there has been any lawsuits that were related to health related issues that's what i'm asking mr hall you knowledgeable on that either by writing that into their byelaws or by forming up the ground for the decision i would point out that the amendment on the floor doesn't direct the board to consider health effects the existing wireless bylaw that would be administered here doesn't direct the board to consider health effects so my expectation would be that they wouldn't be considered by the zoning board even if this were to put there has been we've gone trainers no we're not talking about how to secretary and so yes sir thank you mark smith town meeting meet member precinct eight i have to clarifying questions i think we hear tonight because of a particular installation of an interior wireless system if we passed this motion tonight will that have any bearing on that particular installation or is that process so far along that it will only it deal with future installations i think there are too many variables we've talked about this in do you not want the question answered but i'm sorry you said there are too many variables so we can see if you have a point of view i yeah i mean there are mean obviously we can't ask horizon what it's going to do for example and that's what that's what i'm referring to  require only design and site plan if you in this case the existing facility that some of competition church received designs i plan review from the planning board already so if indeed this is to pass tonight they would be required to get a special permit from the zoning but of appeals they've already fulfilled the design inside plan week if you requirement but that means if there are other interior facilities within town all of those will now retroactively have to go now to know only this one because what only this one ok mr hall i just want mr hawes answer your second question george trial counsel under the zoning act of an amendment to the by a law applies to any project for which that has not yet received either a building permit or a special permit so all of the existing facilities that have received building permits and have been built would be exempt the one in the plymouth congregational church has not yet did not receive a building permit before the public hearing notice was published on this would be subject to the thank you have one more clarifying question for town council as for answer to a previous question is interior facility means the same thing is not visible because we saw the window so by make by requiring it to be interior does that mean it's not i can just read you what the definition says is a wireless telecommunications facility mounted inside erected inside or supported supported entirely within an existing building or structure and not visible from any public way or adjoining property thank you michelle thank you ellen schreiber precinct eight member of the work committee i am rising to oppose the article for three reasons the first is that i think we don't need  it there's not much to be gained with more process in this case we've already been through this process of building sellon ten is nine times those sites include two apartment buildings with people living in the buildings two banks one church three commercial buildings building and one in open space there are eight hundred residential properties within three hundred feet of these existing cell antennas that means we have worked through the concerns already of one to two thousand and ten the neighbors in this town i don't see what we're going to learn and what this is going to gain a spike going through this process secondly i believe that this additional procedural step is not guaranteed be guaranteed to be simple  quick we've heard tonight that this new procedural step requires a company like for aizen to try to site the antenna on a municipal building before choosing a privately owned building that means that an antenna project in a private building could not go forward until the municipal options are exhausted how long does that take how long will it take for us to do to believe that we've done enough due diligence in order to feel like we can go forward i can believe that sometimes that might be very fast and it might be a simple process but i also believe that if there is opposition it may not be simple and quick so that's my second reason and my third reason is that i think we have a very pressing issue right now in belmont center and precinct eight i believe that further delay in belmont center is a public safety issue just a couple of facts forty seven percent of americans right now only have cell phones forty one percent of the calls to the belmont police and fire station come from cell phones and the massachusetts average is fifty seven percent there is currently no verizon cell antenna belmont center only on mclean and waverly square and cushing square these signals are blocked from getting to belmont center by hills and that leaves belmont center in the entire wind burke neighborhood without reliable service i'm not complaining about my personal service what i'm trying to say is that if you can't call nine one one and forty one percent of belmont people who call the police and fire station use a cell phone if you cannot rely reliably call one one it is a public safety issue and if this goes into effect and we delay this process any longer i believe we continue to leave a large portion of our town vulnerable i think that what we need to be doing is clearing a path to solving the belmont center problem and the wind brooke problem and not adding more growth blocks thank you i'm juliet jenkins from precinct three and i have a question about typical considerations during a special permit process for the exterior wireless communication devices if anyone can speak to that and then secondarily wench which ones of those care characteristics would apply for the interior wireless communication devices jeff so with respect to special permit the factors that are to be considered in whether or not to grant the special permit at the height of the syllabi the proximity to residential said that i should have done some editing self editing that freestanding wireless telecommunications to silesia tower up on top of them and hill also fall under this so these same it's also apply would apply to that  good faith efforts to locate under the existing structure a building that is less intrusive less obtrusive availability of alternative technology that doesn't require this facility  telecommuting services that are beneficial to the town the good faith effort to avoid making the facility a principal use of the of the lot and finally and this was a big issue a long time ago for those folks that live in waverly square but that the potential interference with other electronic devices within the town in the square that used to be country radio am country radio station that people picked up on their light switches and such in the technology was so new at that time that they didn't want the interference the second part of it with any of those applied to the interior while with me if he comes a special permit than all those those that are applicable obviously those that's what i'm the general sense and belmont i strongly recommend that we don't pass this because we really do need better coverage for cell phones everywhere and it's more and more younger people in particular are not having wired phones in their homes and have no other way to call for help and there are many places in town that do not have good phone coverage whether it's for aizen or some other phone service we have many different phone services i want to encourage cell phones to come to belmont and get us better coverage even if our neighbors don't have as good coverage i'd like to have good coverage thank you mr weiss jack weiss precinct one i have a couple of antennas and facilities am i correct in understanding that if it's an exterior antenna that that's already an obligation or requirement that we're simply paralleling for the interior that which is required for ext mr homer trial town council just to clear up any misunderstanding the current by a law does not have any explicit requirement that there be a preference for municipally owned properties in the submission requirements it requires that the applicant make disclosures about the availability of municipal you own properties but beyond that the by law does not directly the border explicitly authorize the board to deny an application on a private property because of the availability of a municipal property so quick follow up on that before that so so is our is that what we're approving tonight imposing an additional burden around that issue that doesn't exist for exterior or are we paralleling what was already required for exterior no it would be a new requirement be quick because what i was referring to is in section six point eight point five special permit standards and submission requirements so it's a submission requirement related to a special permit application so currently because there aren't is not a special permit requirement for interior facilities they're not subject to this so there is a special permit for exteriors for say the next year yes this existing so we would be doing the same for both would require a special permit and this is required under the special permit provisions george hall town council i think in so far as anything applies to the exterior facilities in terms of submission requirements and approval standards the effect of this amendment would to make all those same things apply now to interior requirements that would include submission of comment earlier that under his interpretation of interior all the pertinent components would need to be interior as well and i am curious to entity within our town who blesses interior cellphones make a similar interpretation that any exteriors structure or component all pushes this interior intent it into the exterior category and thereby requires a special permit so that clear you know not what i that we have a special permit process for exteriors are intended i think and we've heard our town council say that in his interpretation if you have an air conditioning unit or at generator that that intent it wouldn't be in his mind considered an interior an antenna and i'm curious to know whether or not the enforcement or permuting a body within our community will have that same matter yes i'm concerned if we took a vote this down if we vote this down will you take the interpretation that any piece of exterior become a cool quip meant by it by definition pushes others into the recently had a hearing on an interior cell antenna under the existing design and site plan review language of the zoning by law we did not require an interior ac unit we did not require an interior generator our goal as always is to minimize the impact on the neighborhood and after discussion at which at which many neighbors spoke and discussions with the planning board the applicants decided to revise the engineering on the project so that neither was needed i am looking at my colleagues but i think we would always try to have the minimum impact on the neighborhood but we would not impose it absolutely cannot be exterior we have very meaningful discussions with that we would always have very meaningful discussions with the applicant about the nice spotless right thank you michel if i've others thin listening to use your example if that application had come to you with an exterior air conditioning unit would you have said mr weiss this is beyond the scope we can't start going down conjecture here want to after another  we've come to the eight thirty time i said so just bear with me we need to recess so we're going to for one moment and i will come back stay in line recess call recess on this this on the special town meeting on the citizens petition you know order to briefly convene the meet the second special town meeting on the incinerator and so i would call on our town clerk on the reading of the warr pursuant to the warrant for the second special town meeting to be held june eight two thousand and sixteen i ellen o'brien cushman town clerk to hear by certify that i gave notice of said meaning by posting in attested copy of the warrant on the town clerk official bulletin board in the town hall and at least five other places in town fourteen days before the date of this meeting in accordance with chapter thirty nine section thirty one of the general laws and section three zero dash one one zero eight of the general bylaws of the town of belmont furthermore i do hereby certify that i gave notice of this special town meeting of june eighth two thousand and sixteen by causing a copy of the warrant to be sent to the town meeting members at least fourteen days before the of this meeting and by causing copies of the warrant to be made available at the public library and at the town clerk's office in accordance with section three zero dash one one zero b of the general bylaws of the town of belmont and the representative town meeting acts of  through the course like would tell me member at large i move that the special town meeting on the conveyance of the former incinerator site be adjourned continue to monday june thirteenth two thousand and sixteen at seven thirty pm at the cherry middle school all those in favor please say i to call the question meaning terminate debate not debatable requires a two thirds vote there are a few people standing in line so i'm going to i don't have an opinion on it but i don't want to have any doubt so let's  vote on terminating debate ok glenn please display the vote eighty in favor one sixty four opposed the motion fails julie that we would take a couple of minutes here she's got to move from the special town meeting to the annual meeting so we need to make sure we have the appropriate record blowoff moderator mark plough chair for selecting tommy member at large moves at the time meeting here the motions in the following order one ten twelve sixteen eleven nineteen the member at large moved that article one be taken from the table all is in favorite place a i suppose no adopted unanimously now call on miss cruz for a brief report on the energy as i said earlier we have to pray for ports this and the library fears ability study my name is jan cruz i am town meeting member from precinct three and the vice chair of the belmont energy committee with me tonight are two other members of the committee on your far left in  selectmen had requested sustainable belmont to create a climate action plan with extensive input from all stakeholders in our community in the fall of two thousand and nine the boers lekman intel meeting adopted a climate action plan resolution based on that plan a key provision was to create a permanent town energy committee to work collaboratively with the belmont community to reduce our carbon footprint eighty percent by the year tw based on our two thousand and seven emissions next slide please since i'm belmont has made some good progress i'm going to give you just a quick overview of four projects there are more examples on the energy committee page on the town website the high school fuel system has been converted from oil to natural gas which is yielding yearly savings of two hundred thousand dollars per year have applied for and were designated by the state as a green community which allows belmont two to participate in the competitive grant project grant selection for  better open is open only to green communities in the state our first one hundred fifty thousand dollars state grant was applied towards energy improvements in town buildings which is yielding thirty five thousand dollars a year in savings the better homes belmont weathers ation program for residents has been a big hit with one of the highest participation rates in the state and the recent belmont go solar campaign which the energy committee spearheaded at the request of the board of selectmen and is comprised of members of the energy committee community groups in belmont light and as of yesterday one hundred ninety homes had signed up for solar rooftop in b that is equivalent to more than thirty thousand trees being planted over fifteen years collectively those four projects alone means that belmont will be  avoiding approximately eight hundred tons a year of carbon dioxide emissions another major project that we the energy committee under took over this last year was to update the  belmont communities carbon footprint and james booth is going to give you no overview of that thank you james booth member belmont energy committee has been said the climate action plan included a inventory of belmont's carbon dioxide emissions for two thousand and seven to assess our progress we recently updated this with data for twenty fourteen the full updates available on the town website on the energy committee page so i'll just highlight a few the key findings we found that overall as you would expect in belmont a town of homes most of our emissions come from the residential sector emissions from electricity use declined by about twenty percent as the new england grid became cleaner and less carbon intensive there is also emissions reductions in home heating of taking fuel oil and natural gas together with a substantial shift away from fuel oil use and then there's transportation residential vehicle use is the single largest component of belmont's carbon footprint and we found there was a small increase in missions from transportation as the number of vehicles in town actually increased over this time period despite a decline in the overall population next li all together we found a overall emissions reduction of about five percent so we're moving in the right direction but not as quickly as we need to be our target as john mentioned for two thousand and fifty is an eighty percent reduction from two thousand and seven levels to meet our climate goals and we continue at the pace we've been going will clearly missed that target by a wide margin so how can we increase the rate of our emissions reductions clearly there are many actions we can be taking in our taking as jan has mentioned some of them in there more on the energy committee  page but for the large scale reductions that we'll need to see next slide please well need to see a transition away from fossil fuel use in both the heating sector and transportation and that transitions already happening with the adoption of more efficient electrically driven technologies specifically electric heat pumps and electric vehicles these are our technologies that offer the potential for large productions and the scale of these reductions only increase as we have taken the electricity to drive those increasingly from renewable sources so belmont light has a rebate program and in place already for heat pumps and it's currently similarly investigating and setting up a program for electric vehicles so we've encouraged you to keep an eye out for that upcoming initiative and more generally to get informed about the initiatives in town and think about what we can all do to keep moving in the right direction as quickly as possible thank you thank you thank you  calling precinct two town meeting member and chair of the library board of trustees will share a few slides with you tonight to keep my remarks brief but i'll ask all of you for your thoughtful engagement and consideration to the fuse very good recap of the things that we're offering and it's important that you understand programs and services at the library because that's key to drive the type of building that we need the second thing i would ask is to visit the library if you haven't been there and we know that sixty five percent of the town has a library card so many of you are there but we ask you to go walk the floors of the stacks and look at the facility yourself and so you can gauge your own opinion about what kind of investment we need and that facility with that so we were here last year and at the town meeting we agreed or were granted the opportunity to fund a feasibility study and to share the cost of that study with the library and the capital budget committee there has been very little investment in the library over the last number of years many of the systems are core the core systems are out there are regional to the building the other night when mark was giving his report he was talking about the library mean the high school and the need for investment in the high school the library is capital budget forecast and there are nearly two million dollars in required minimum maintenance items in the library facility forecasted over the next five years so it's not a matter of you know can we kick the can down the road we're really at the point where we need to do something and consider what investment needs to be made in the library so the scope of this study is three fold looking at renovation we're committed to the site the site that we have and we're committed to looking at how we can renovate the facility renovate with an addition and lastly look at a replacement if those are not viable  ere we've been since last town meeting the first and most important thing that we did was to develop the long range plan long range plan as required by by the state but it's also a very important component and driving  feasibility study so that was done and completed with a long range planning committee it was that we had public in point and we created the plan in the fall it was registered with the state and approved by the state in january of this year in february we created the fuse ability study and since that time the feasibility study feasibility committee has been very much focused on pursuing a request for our qualifications or request for proposal and the decision was to go forward with there are a few requests for qualifications and with strong input from gerry boyle who is on the feasibility committee with us and driving that process so we've developed that the documentation gone through the state approved process had interest provided and gone through the and actually the submissions came in last week and so we're in the process during the month of june the committee will look at those submissions and then select in our architect as we think ahead in the forthcoming month the architect hopefully will be on board in the july timeframe and that's when we'll really roll up the sleeves and get busy architect will well look at the site look at the past any used to meet with the public solicit ideas then they'll come forward with some conceptual ideas across the three options and to important that we make the decision we the community about what's best and that way and that we don't want them to limit the choices cost component associated with that and again many public meetings it's critical that we get the public important and then it will go forward with a recommendation the last thing we would ask is behind me or all the folks that are on the feasibility we've had a very strong year all of our numbers are out so in spite of so folks thinking nobody's going to go to the library more people are visiting the irene now than they did in the prior years they continue to engage people are using libraries differently and it's important that through this process we assess what the needs of the community are and what the type of library facility the town kind of foreign so we look forward to engaging with you and look forward to your contributions thank now turn to article ten in the budget mr levinson will present an overview of the budget and then we will do a series of motions for those of you who are new to town meeting we do separate am pleased to be before you to present the fiscal two thousand and seventeen budget so just a brief agenda for what i'll walk through i'll give a brief background on the budget process i'll speak in some detail about the budget itself of course where the revenue comes from how the expenditures actually  break out by department of then speak briefly about an update on free cash and stabilization funds as it relates to other warrant articles that we'll be looking at over the course of this town meeting and i'll end with some comments on long term trends that hopefully you'll find helpful ok the budget and of course the work committee report that accompanies it is the product of considerable work by many people the work is by done by  the board of selectmen of course the school committee the capital budget committee the warren committee and the town leadership and school leadership so there are a lot of folks that are involved in the big process  the process that we went through this year was generally very similar to the way we approach it in the past the big change however this year was that the override actually impacted the budget in a substantial way the result of all of this work was a budget that all present to you and a work committee report that hope hopefully all of you received and read i hope you found it helpful and we welcome feedback on both the content and format of that report ok so turning to the revenue side and the overall itself the budget this year is one hundred six point three million dollars in revenue and if you look at this pipe chart and i'll show you a few other pie charts in every case the way to read the pie chart is if you go clockwise in the pie chart starting with twelve o'clock that's the top item on the on the key so course the large orange is the property taxes which dominate eighty percent of the revenue the rest of the revenue side comes from local receipts free cash and other and then state aid and all of these revenue sources actually grew over the course of fiscal two thousand and seventeen we had an override that meaningfully altered the  the property tax revenue of course we had a a use of free cash that was similar to last year but we had some other revenue the came in the form of nine hundred ninety five thousand dollars in a settlement related to fire stations which i'll explain a little bit more so that increased the free cash and other category and then stated was also to our benefit up by about four hundred fifty thousand dollars ok so i'm going to dig in a little bit here on the local receipts category which is that yellow part of the pie and this chart this pie here again going from twelve o'clock around an hour in clockwise order shows you the sort of the the entire pieces of the local receipts to highlight four of them for you so you can see that the largest area of of the local receipts are in the form of motor vehicle excise tax which is the green area three point one million dollars ambulance receipts which is the blue piece of the pie eight hundred twenty two thousand dollars recreation programs which include course includes pool fees and other things the yellow which is seven hundred thirty five thousand dollars and then licenses and permits which is the orange slice of the pie one point one million dollars there are other categories as you can see but those four are the major drivers of local receipts ok so let's talk about the expenditure side again this is one hundred six million dollars budget a little bit more than that the way to think about this chart is that the total budget of course is in the first row of this chart and you can see that the overall both revenue expenditure of the overall budget is six percent larger than last year as i said increased in each of the categories the fire settlement is just a pass through and you'll see that money in the capital budget that enry mahoney will present but that ninety five thousand dollars just gets spent directly on the fire settlement so if you think about what the budget would have grown without that individual item it's a five percent growth  meaningful growth in terms of the budget largely driven by the override and other factors i mentioned when we think about the budget we subtract out first of the fixed cost that's about sixteen point six million dollars that's also grew by about five percent the largest piece of that are pensions and debt and i will get into that in more detail and when you subtract out the fixed cost that leaves you the operating budget the operating budget is just under ninety million dollars and that budget grew by six point two percent and the operating budget then breaks out into three different categories school town and capital budget discretionary all of the budget basically falls into two warrant articles that we will talk about article ten and article fourteen so the school budget in the town budgets everything and for that matter the fixed costs all will fall into ten or fourteen most of it is in ten the capital budget and then the rhodes is in fourteen so we'll go through each of those will first you tend to night and then we'll do fourteen with capital budget with emory mahoney on monday the school budget as you can see grew by point nine percent now there's an important thing to to be aware of and that is that we have because of the consolidation of facilities we've moved the facilities large chunks of them felt as if it's all his department from the town from the school side budget i'm sorry to the town side budget within the public services department and so as a result the change in the school side is less than one percent but if you were not to factor in that change the school side budget would actually grow by six percent which is you see in that box on the right so that's actually an important clarification similarly if that change had not happened on the town side the the increase on the town side would have been four percent instead of the twelve percent that you see that it actually grew overall ok finally on the capital budget it grew by forty five percent now that's a very large number but again that nine hundred eighty five thousand dollars of  fired settlements is in that number so if you were to take out that fire settlements and also do a bit of an apples to apples comparison to last year because there was also another movement i think that a fair assessment is that the capital budget has increased by seven point two what's the major components of fixed cost these are all the components of fixed cost just to be clear the two parts that i mentioned that represent seventy percent of fixed costs are pensions and debt pensions at just under seven million dollars which is grown by seven percent and debt at just about five million dollars rhodes of course is the override vote which we did before in the early two thousand plus monies that came from last year's override of say the minuteman is the minuteman and you next comes operating cost again just under ninety million dollars of operating costs again the pie goes clockwise so public schools represents about fifty six percent of the budget the remainder is about forty for public safety in case everyone doesn't know is that both the fire tips are the police department and the fire departments public services is the department of public works the media element apartment facilities as i mentioned before general government is a number of different departments which includes the town administrator town clerk town treasurer i th are a number of different things insurance that piece is where we pay for our a number of different things  including workers compensation but a big chunk of that is our pay as you go retirement health care money that is paid for town employees so when we think about opeth the pay as you go portion appears in that in that line item insurance  again we will vote on individually and then lastly as the capital budget which enery will present ok so in the next year you can see again where these pieces of the pie all fall in articles ten and then article fourteen as you can tell by the meaningful increases in the budget overall we've actually have a relatively easy budget process from the standpoint of being able to fund things at i would say level service or better in many areas both on the municipal side and on the schools on the school side we've had a number of pressures which i'll talk about in a few minutes long term pressures that continue to face us and so we've been able to make some hires to cover for increasing school costs whether that's in the form of new enrollments or in the form of increased special education special instruction costs and i'll get into that little bit more detail but again with seven hundred twenty new students in the last ten years in a forecast of another four hundred  over i was specifically designed to do that and that's actually been funded here we've continued to have a positive approach experience with health care costs very good work done by the town in the past has kept our health care inflation costs down so in  after cent increase in the past that's actually been as low as zero and so keeping our health care costs down is a very important thing for us not only of course for the current employees but for that matter for retirees in affecting our own ability and then finally we are able to fund seven point six million dollars in certified free cash that's last year in july of two thousand and fifteen and we've already allocated one hundred one point four five million dollars towards the modulars of the generator and we've already allocated  three hundred seventeen thousand dollars for a stabilization fund we did that on monday so the remaining piece that will do an action that's actually an article twelve is one point seven million dollars as an allocation of free cash for this fiscal year and that is something that we have done allocated money towards the operating budget as as a matter of course over a number of different years and that will leave us with four point one million dollars of free cash if we if we in fact do that now we establish a guideline between the border selectman in the war t committee a year ago that suggested that we would have between three and five percent of last year's total budget in free cash since last year's total budget was one hundred million dollars what that means is pretty simple math you have between three and five million dollars of free cash is what is suggested by that guideline there also is article nineteen which we will address and that would lower the freakout of that would use another one point one million dollars or free cash and so if we in fact vote for that that means that that four point one million will drop down to three million and that would mean that we would be at that lower end of that range to mean will decide that with that article one thousand one article ok so specifically elaborating on that so again twelve and  fifteen is where the as i just mentioned so right i didn't realize that i didn't have those pieces just again the three million dollars guideline of the three percent the five million dollars guideline of the five percent apologies for not showing that earlier  k so in terms of stabilization funds we have four of them i'll just focus on one and we've already voted the stabilization fund article fifteen the general stabilization fund it was funded originally last year with one point six seven four million dollars of money from the override that we did not use in fiscal sixteen so we took that money and by two thirds vote put into the general stabilization fund there are two articles that we'll address over the course of town meeting one is article levon which takes one hundred fifty thousand dollars of unused levy capacity money that we have not yet taxed and basically has a vote to tax it and then put it into the general stabilization fund so we'll deal with that with article levon and as i mentioned article nineteen puts one point one million dollars of free cash if we choose to vote it if we do that then we would have a total of two point nine million dollars of free cash i'm sorry of money in the general stabilization fund so finally i'll end with a few comments on some long term trends i think  everybody knows this is not a heavy commercial district is it's we have a town of homes and what that typically means is that we tend to have typically between two and a half and three and a half percent revenue growth in the absence of of an override and so when any of our budget line items are increasing faster than that faster than let's say three and a half percent that is putting pressure on our budget and over time is not sustainable without either increased revenue or are cuts that actually can address that or shifting of money around employee compensation represents sixty eight percent of the total budget and so when compensation growth as it often does is greater than our revenue growth that puts meaningful presence present pressure on the on the budget that is our number one challenge we have a significant set of union negotiations that will be coming up the i will say that the impact of those negate negotiations are one of the largest factors in whether or not our costs will how our cost will grow relatives who are revenue and to the extent that they exceed much faster than our revenue that is a challenge that we will have to face secondly i'll say that the enrollment growth and mandated school costs continue to be a meaningful impact on the town as i mentioned six hundred seventy five new students four hundred more and on the spot on the mandated school cost side that is basically special instructor special education and english language learners which combined makes makes special instruction special instruction this year  seventeen is growing by twelve point five percent right versus two point six percent growth in regular instruction so when you have twelve point five percent growth which is much larger than our revenue that puts pressure on our budget and we have no choice because those are mandates from the government from the federal or state government of course have many capital needs that we have to address and we will talk about them in detail we have a high school to address we have a library as we just heard about we have a police station needs to be addressed  w that needs to be addressed facility and we have just general infrastructure needs to be addressed including we'd love to have continued progress as we will on roads and sidewalks finally in terms of pension and health care obligations including large cost item like a seven million dollar cost item at seven percent each year that number will grow to roughly fourteen million by the time we pay off for unfunded liability in two thousand and twenty seven that puts pressure on our budget that money has to come from somewhere and there is there's a work to me report as you all know that we did on pension which is available on the website and there will be ongoing dialogue about how we might be out to mitigate those impacts potentially by by altering the the pace of that growth whether we use a seven percent growth factor or another one that's a decision that the retirement board will make with input from others thank you very much we're going to take a brief break but i wanted to score as a number of people a politely pointed out that our five minute break is turning into fifteen or twenty which obviously doesn't help us in terms of getting our work done  on time and staying later so we'll take a five minute break and and resume promptly at nine fifteen thank you