hello everyone welcome to community conversations i'm your host roger coulton the following podcast is produced or sponsored by a community member the content views and opinions expressed are those of the participants in do not reflect those of coming week we are going to here in belmont to be having a special town meeting the town meeting will be a fall gathering it is  not unusual to have a town meeting in the in the fall but it is not regularly scheduled there are some extraordinarily important decisions the town meeting will be making this this coming week and to talk through and look behind the curtains to get a notion of what is being presented we have today with us joanna ju of us who is the multimedia journalist for the belmont citizen herald belmont online in print source of hyper local news thanks for stopping over today joanna happy to be here roger it is the day after election day so everybody is running a little slow having stayed up late  that's for sure let's go through just article by article in the st article i mentioned election day the st article flows from results of  belmont election yesterday it is an article where town meeting is being asked to appropriate money for the new seven dollars to twelve dollars schools is that correct that is correct and it passed overwhelmingly and seventy six percent in favor of this debt exclusion is it was that a surprise to you it wasn't a surprise that it passed to be honest with you but i think a lot of people including the yes for belmont campaign were surprised by the margin did it have county wide support or was there a precinct or two or more i don't i didn't get a look good look at that's a very good question i should have brought the t print out from the town clerk's office so we could a looked at that together because i am curious about that now that you mention it see what precinct might have but it really by in every precinct it was it was pretty much the same like that seventy six percent i think that the the margins in precincts two and eight were lower but i think everybody voted yes on it and i think there were a little bit lower now that that's as i remember the numbers when i saw them last night so my question is now if that the town has voted yes in and election what is there for town meeting to decide what is it that's being presented to t may have this project can't move forward until a town meeting votes and then it has to be a two thirds vote in favor of the debt exclusion for it to pass and so that this project can move forward they really want to start this construction in the spring of two thousand and nineteen and is there any can they need the money is there any conceivable way that town meeting would vote no after the town as a whole voted yes by meeting st thing this morning with the town administrator and some of the other key players to prepare his presentation because he still has to do a presentation to sell this project to t so what happens next let's assume for the moment that that town meeting votes yes and appropriates the money that the town election approved by really a three to one margin let's assume the town meeting approves the appropriation what happens next what happens next is the shovels will come out in two thousand and nine ok so there is no there's no israel other hurdle there's no further decision making i mean they'll be meetings they'll start up their meetings again i know there's one november th i'm planing to go to continue covering the meetings and keeping people updated process the massachusetts school building authority process that the high school building committee has to go through so i think there is another module that they'll begin where like now i think they're going to get into the nitty gritty of the building plans i'm ongoing role in the oversight of the construction right that's right and as far as the traffic that you just brought up there well there's actually a memorandum that the selectmen just signed off on this past monday night november th and so it's basically a memo that all the traffic working group subcommittee has a lot of concerns they did just want to make sure would be addressed once this  passed and so this memo kind of assures that yes we're not going to forget about these concerns they're already moving forward on addressing some of them and there's they'll continue to do that like for instance they just want to make sure that the median of trees would not be cut down with this project and they've already said we will not cut down the trees will stick so those things like that and they just you know they're obviously very very concerned about traffic worsening in that area so they're going to do everything they can to make sure that it doesn't get worse and maybe even gets better so the headline for for our listeners is that the seven through twelve school debt exclusion  yesterday on election day passed by a three to one margin seventy six percent yes twenty four percent know that town meeting next week at the special town meeting will vote on whether to appropriate that money that vote needs to be passed by a two dollars thirds majority but everybody expects that two thirds majority to be easily attained and that last the final phase ok let's go on to the next article the to wrap up with the seven to twelve school we're not to be a cheerleader here but we're on our way fear that more more people will move to the town now and the moment won't go down but you know it's a testament to our to our town and how much we care about education education yes and that's why people do move here let's move to the nd article it test special town meeting there is a proposed no name overlay district for south pleasant street can you explain to me short what's going on there let's sure well currently it's owned as a local business to district which doesn't allow for mixed use facilities or assisted living facilities it does allow for car dealerships and other businesses so this overlay it's a local business one overlay that will allow for mixed use developments and assisted living but all age restricted i want to make a very special note of that they will not allow mixed use facilities that would allow like that they don't want to draw more children into the school systems or they prefer the assisted living in belmont matter does have a proposal for an assisted living facility that working with andy rojas on it so this will help them move forward with their project now there is a specific proposal for the assisted living facility but the overlay district isn't specifically designed for that proposal and that proposal alone there could be other proposals oh yes definitely might come in definitely  what are the public comments on this proposal have people embrace that and the question behind the question is the town adopted in overlay district for cushing square and we all know how controversy zero that became has the public embrace so i don't feel like this has been controversial i think this i've heard concerns you know continue concerns about you know possible traffic getting worse particularly on trip a low road but not too not too much concern i mean i think there there are shoring people that however they're go build this it won't it won't make traffic worse but i get traffic is always an issue in belmont it's going ongoing issue it's not going to go away and again when you say build this that's the assisted living facility right and there's a lot like if you look at what the planning board has prepared and what town meeting members should have in their packets to review before they vote there's a lot of information or tell me member right i have a lot of information about this overlay district it really gets into all the details and you have a chance to look at it yes and my one of my takeaways was that even though there is a proposal for an assisted living facility that the enactment of this overlayed district would allow that assisted living facility but it would allow other alternative  significant chance that there would be a no vote on this right you think that this will get i do think it'll pass i do let's talk about something that may or may not pass the probably the biggest issue at special town meeting i mean with the high school being significant but one of the more controversial issues will be zoning for adult use marijuana as the moderator for that and so they reviewed all the articles and how many members had the opportunity to ask their questions and steve pinkerton vice chairman of the planning board spoke at the warm briefing and basically pleaded with all the town meeting members there to pass this article he pleaded with them and so did charles clarke actually please approve this and in your mind is there a chance meeting would vote no i don't know ayers i'm hearing yes it does require a two thirds vote i did some man on the street interviews at the members out there that might consider defeating this there's also the possibility that and i want to say what will happen if this is defeated but there's also the possibility that i don't know if it'll get amended or someone will attempt to amend it in the spring but but if it doesn't pass then marijuana would be allowed in any commercial district in belmont without a special permit process and let's back up for a minute because it strikes me that you know what we're talking about and i know what we're talking about but let's shore layout what with the decision being presented to town oh absolutely because now the damage has decided that there can be up to  marijuana retail establishment in the town the question becomes now where whether they're coming but where they're going to go where exactly and there really turned out to be some controversy over not surprisingly when i say turned out to everybody expected there to be yeah lots of public comment but the planning board almost immediately eliminated the notion of putting  allowing the retail shops in the town centers and the question was whether they should be limited to south pleasant street or whether they should also be allowed over in the area where the loading dock is over by the high school right in st yes so basically they joining the whole process and they were there were several public hearings on this and meetings so what they decided planning board what they decided is ok let's just look at where medical marijuana is allowed in belmont and let's look at that and so then they were they were they said well why don't we just make it the same zone for retail but then a lot of people expressed their concern about that area where the loading dock is located the brighton street area because it's because of its proximity to win brooke and the high school and even the community path that's over there i think just a lot of people had a lot of concerns thinking it's just too close to where young people are and the flip side of the argument is that allowing it only on the south pleasant street doesn't provide an adequate opportunity that's what people are arguing however when someone actually brought to the attention to the planning board that in colorado they actually had a map showing how close together these marijuana stores they are mustered together yeah you know having them in one area really wasn't right a limitation and planning board also consulted with the town council who said that this is the there and there would be no grounds for a lawsuit if you decided this because they were concerned that they could potentially be a lawsuit and town council said you know have to worry about a lawsuit now the zoning by law that's being presented to town meeting really  we need to talk about that along with the citizens petition that has been submitted and there has been a citizen's petition which is a separate article but let's talk about them together sure which would and belmont can can apply and go start the special permit process but this citizens but titian is asking for it to be extended to june th two thousand and nineteen and the reason behind the petition they're saying is what i'm not quite sure actually my impression is that the the thinking is that the town needs more time the legal on the town of doesn't need more time and that was also brought up at the league of women voters warrant briefing that you know we what more is there to study we have already studied this but now i'm looking at it as ok if this adult use marijuana overlay recommendation by playing board is defeated by town meeting if they defeat that article then this has happened potentially could be needed it could potentially so that would mean what would happen is they may have to pass this to go back to the drawing board for another six months but the response to that would be there are two alternatives that are on the table at least one is to limit their marijuana shops to southwest and st the other is to have the marijuana shops on southwest and street and also allow marijuana shops or more i guess over in the area by the loading dock that's actually no longer no longer you know a proposal so have to go back and try to argue why why it should go there and i think one of the arguments is that cambridge is or how already has something like just steps away from there could you know how close cambridge is j area so cambridge already does have something already open over there so they say why should cambridge get all the money why can't we get some of it well let me ask you to use your imagination for  street and at the loading dock area eliminates a rd more than a rd so two thirds won't agree on a by law does that mean the town is just open project maybe we should save a chair just for prosperity sake so the headline from marijuana for special town meeting is that there is a proposal as only proposal that proposal would place or would allow marijuana shops to open on south pleasant street and there is a constituency that argues for that and there's a constituency that argues against it and you are a tell me member what are you hearing well i'm hearing that it's your vibe you're getting i'm hearing that people don't like the limitation to south pleasant street but that that study from colorado that says that marijuana shops really clustered together in colorado is is pretty convincing what about the fact that superintendent john failon actually told the belmont citizen on the record that he doesn't approve a marijuana store opening near the high school or any school i think there are a lot of people who who think john failing knows who what he's talking about that's good let's close close hold so let's close the door on marijuana that there is in an article to appropriate money from the community preservation act for the design of the alexander street underpass so i have that correctly alexander av yeah this is very exciting roger and i call it a story yeah i was gander at this is so exciting this is like forty years in the finally i think maybe because of the belmont high school project and the concerns about traffic state senator william brownsburg on involved state rep david rogers got involved and really got the state to basically commit to funding the construction for this however belmont is responsible for the the design has which is four hundred thousand dollars just for that portion and this is all part of the community path this is one portion of it and what you just said i think is important for people to hear that there are a couple of elements to this where town meeting is voting on is funding for the design of the underpass  however the state is going to fund the construction of it so once this vote occurs that underpass is on its way and it's it's like the high school where we're on our way  to having that done another huge development from belmont and in my mind people associate the underpass with the the community path but what the underpass past really does is it connects the wynberg neighborhood with the school with the new seven through twelve school it connects the wind brook neighborhood with  the hockey rink it connects the winberg neighborhood with the pool in the neighbor in the library it's true because now they have to cross over the tracks which is not safe right so a lot of parents don't like around to drop kids out there will definitely help traffic and more and more walking i are their neighborhood concerns at all about traffic on the other side i haven't heard see that's the thing i haven't heard so i don't know how butters would feel  i have not heard what's the next step anything like nimby not in my backyard as you mean the town meeting approves this what's the next step while they'll start the design there's already a community path committee building committee that that will start the the design process get this thing designed and then bring it to the state and say ok we've got a design now fund it on the construction so are looking at an imminent start on the design in the construction were over assuming town meeting approves this four hundred thousand dollars were over the reduction in the interest rate for the deferred property taxes the timing of this is good this is good because now that the debt exclusion has passed right taxes will go up for residents so senior citizens living in the town maybe like i don't know if i can afford to stay here but this is kind of an incentive to stay here so if they qualify they can apply to defer paying their property taxes and currently the interest rate that you have to percent and the expectation is that there would be a higher take up maybe more people would take advantage of it and given that he able to stand the town and given the debt exclusion that we just approve that that would be a good thing it would be that we'd be able to help our majority vote so not not a two thirds majority will i think it'll pass ok thanks for stopping over we're out of time we're out of articles and there is a special town meeting starting next tuesday night and november th and there are major major issues ranging from the high school to the community path to multimedia journalist for the belmont citizen herald belmont's on line in print new source for hyper local news you can listen to i tunes to community conversations on i tunes by searching for c podcast network and you can also access community conversations at belmont media dot org media website this is community conversations thank you for listening today i'm your host roger colton i will talk to you again next time