evening and i am hoping roughly to do half an hour on each of them and then reserve the last half hour for the other items on the agenda and to make certain that we as a board get our questions for the applicants in order to the extent we haven't done that in the half hour let me ask you i have anyone here to speak just school ok with that i will begin by asking mr clarke to read the notice a public hearing case number seventeen dash ten notice a public hearing by the plating board on application for a special permit notice is here by given that the belmont planning board will hold a public hearing on tuesday july eighteenth two thousand and seventeen at seven pm in the board of selectmen its meeting room town hall fo permit under section one point five point four of the zoning by law to alter a non conforming structure non conforming law in order to construct a true story addition at the rear of the home greater than thirty percent of the existing gross floor area  seventy five warmer road in a single residency zoning district thank you rafi and is the applicant here and  who will be presenting for the that she can be with us tonight we have been in belmont for twenty one years and at seventy five or armor for about eighteen years we have two children and they are there teenagers in the belmont school system we and we have three bedrooms in our current house and we have that very often gas  and example my mother in law so we need more space we need to have a better additionally we have a very small kitchen that is basically the hub of the house and it has five  we have our kids we have always tried to have a house that's a welcoming to the kids in the neighborhood and so very often especially on rainy days we have from two to additional kids in the house and with that five door kitchen at times it seemed like south station at rush hour so we really we really would like to have more space in the house hearings on cable media then come to the meetings and i think that if you were to brazil pick up that mike and present from over there purpose then but wait the board could see it those here could see it and those at home could see it read one of a paper like yes a new shot chief designer at the cutting edge homes when when the highs approached us to design their their home they had been they'd been working with other designers in the in the past who hadn't met their requirements one of the non negotiable to design a design a house whose massing massing kept with the skill of the neighborhood yet met the needs of the of the highs so the project the project itself primarily primarily contains a kitchen a kitchen with a family can gather a master bedroom suite above a general update and refresh of david stated it in the house for one thousand years wanted to remain in the house and invest back into the into the neighborhood with the project  starting with the with the landscape plan the guys wanted to keep the heaps of the mature screening that that was in place and then add add more or more plan to the to the front and back and back areas with with a terrace in the back driveway and garage remain remain the same a new more inviting walk at the front and a similar gate on the side to what was what was existing just updated with the next plan and shows the existing the existing to remain a one point you are looking at the first floor second floor plans the first floor plan and see the addition primarily is the area at the at the back of the  rebuilt rebuilt with modern modern standards so in the kitchen addition to the to the back with the living room dining room in the same location some fig three so upstairs proposed is four bedrooms and and  in the in the past her bedroom a one point three shows a a study last april ceiling of the master bedroom with service access to the mechanical space in the on the street side elevation again wanted to keep the keep the scale of the house very similar to what it what it is but up to up the detail so in the center of the house that is the existing dormer with more classical  it to the left is is in and leave with a covered portico that's more inviting than than what was there before and then a continuation of the roof line over there were currently there's an awkward pitch side and rear elevations we try to carefully and to break down the scale of the architecture in order to in order to create to create more interest and and present a smaller and smaller mass eighty three point one shows a section cut through that master master bedroom showing the loft in the in the height and then we go into a construction and sectional tells through same and also shows that the the additions in the in the rear are not visible from from the ministr by laws the the  and i think here because this is this is a very distinctive neighborhood and if it's clear there was no there was no difference of the people occasionally when we define neighborhood they'll be a discussion about where you should draw the boundaries of this neighborhood there was no discussion about where you draw the boundaries of this neighborhood this is a fairly homo genius an extremely well defined neighborhood heavy on town meeting members so in total there were one hundred and fourteen  homes in this neighborhood and the  we would be looking of the hundred fourteen this would take the house this would be in terms of total living area this would make the house the hundred and seventh largest house in neighborhood in terms of floor area ratio it would make it the hundred third and in terms of bedrooms and here we are looking at their reading room as a bedroom because it we can grant that one but we can also consider existing office space or there will be there's an existing office space in the basement fault it's not a fault it's just saying that the times folks use space in a different way and you may not be the case for us the applicant but it's a future use and that's oftentimes something that we're trying to bear in get your name david high but can i point out that the office space in the basement has no he grasso could not be used as a bedroom and that he loft and the new proposed master bedroom is within th have radiant for heating in the the new part of the basement so that that there is a rec room that you enter into and then there's another space just for me for my sake on a one point one i just to find it is number two not heating is is above all to avoid condensation problems community problems in the basement for doing that a little bit my stoop well do it all the largest and actually that's a cellar space not basement space the largest proposed summer space will be a recreation room of some type this small room will be a workshop and utility room thank god i have a under by law four point three three other proposed home meets also requirements including the on enclose roof porch with an enclosed on roof steps which comply with the front setback requirements of respectively sections four point three two three three which which say that that porch of a certain dimension can go five feet five feet beyond the front i guess ok but i guess my only concern about that one of the issues  since we've gone for a special permit on this whatever cern's is that even though this we fall within the regulation it seems just on the face of it to be a no for me we're reducing the stat that we're concerned with with the overall effect of the improvement on the so yeah it's right in the clarification is that the only thing differing is that this new one has a roof where the old old porch which was in the same area did not have a r so we started we started with a total living area of one thousand three hundred twenty seven square feet so this is more than doubling the square footage so i'm not sure where where that number came from feet to thirty two sixty eight this comes from the assessors records so the cacs basis for this house has been thirteen hundred twenty s middle dormer was fairly fairly large and then the dormer to the to the right is not large compared to the middle one but had had some presence that we felt was taking away from the from the front entry so we thought in a story and a half keep style just break breaking down some of the roof the roof asked thank you jeffrey and from the community development review do you have any additional points and as we turn to the landscaping the rate for the reasons mentioned earlier we will need to continue this case but i think even even if we had four we need to continue this case from my perspective because as we as i look at the if i ask myself question suppose we allowed everyone in kendall green to move to this floor area ratio and to more than double the living area of their house what would candle green look like and answers it would look nothing like candle green looks today and i understand that with the plans were not on line moment i'll ask for a motion to continue this to august first but i think we either you know perhaps need a working group to see if there is some way to reduce the size of it we always have concerns about a basement that lays out really nicely as an accessory apartment with direct access to the outside and again it's not about the uses to which the applicant would put it but as we look down the road  it lends itself to higher density in a neighborhood where doubling the number of families there if this were to become the general practice would make a very very large difference to the neighborhood yes of course the neighborhood is not static it is you've all been yes it has empty nesters and new families with little kids we've been there one thousand years and our kids are more mature but they empty nesters are moving out new couples move in and they need more room they do in addition and that's all we're trying to do the parents of the front of the house  a house doesn't change and from the the parents change because the shed roof goes away it goes up the street but other than that it's basically the same with on the first floor except this more of a it's a more attractive house from the back there is none of the voters have any objection and they all believe that i have forty one signed letters of approval so all the about not everyone said that they thought it was a great plan but everyone know what there were no objections to it at all so from that the characteristic of the neighborhood the house really doesn't change that much because no one no one can we have we have we already have screened it in the backyard and we will have more and no one can really see the back the house so thank you for those observations and  i think in general we understand that they need i don't think this planning board has ever said you have to come in with a new house that i had to meet the keeps the median in the neighbor median size in the neighborhood unchanged we never say we clearly it's moving up it's a question of how much it could move up and what would it look like the the thing i would mention and you know we appreciate the time and effort you put into talking to the neighbors and the observation that i would make because we all live here as you do is that when a neighbor with whom who whose house has been your child's second home as you describe it  approaches you and says please sign it's very hard to sign saying no but then when we turned on the bed the best example is when you turn down you haven't met my neighbors are plenty that would say no if they checked and we have the time maybe members would object if they didn't like it if they felt it was understood i would just say the number of people who comments when we turned the third floor get the number of people who have come to the meeting a say absolutely and then sidle up to us at the belmont watertown game or at the star market or and say oh  first meeting or will this be through you know typically the working group would be reviews the existing plans that you need to have to go and as a conversation about all right and we now move along to a public hearing to see ninety five washington street generally middle school design inside plan review to install solar arrays single resident see clearly the crowd pleaser of tremendous success of the residential delmonico solar program fifty thousand dollars worth of solar panels installed which would notice forty four panels just a matter of scale remind the board that several years ago you want to take a proposal from broadway electrify the wellington school that project was five hundred panels so we're looking in a much much smaller way the second part is i'm happy to report that you know from the start this has been a very collaborative and positive effort a much amongst not just a project team but all the people involved too with the selectmen has accepted the fifty thousand dollars gift the school committee has approved the project provisional to this board's decision the superintendent of schools has been engaged in his support of the principal the school has been engaged in support of the staff regarding curriculum have been engaged we've had a survey to the abettors that has been positive we had a neighborhood meeting that has was attended by a number of residents it was positive my department's been involved in every step of the way in terms of the details of the design knowing about how it's going to look and how it's going to operate but also as to we had independently vetted out the structural assessment to make sure that the roof can support the solar array that's going up there in the third point i would make is that you will you will learn a little bit more about the financial benefits of this there will be  energy savings for us as well as income from what's called s rex all that marty talk a bit more about that it is not a windfall we're not going to make so much money that we can hire the teacher so that being said we're always happy to have savings we will never say no to them but i would point out that from the very beginning because the financial piece of this is not the real impetus there has been a definite focus on the educational component of this project in fact the particular location with the with the panels were going to be sited is so that the kids can see them from the play area the second part is as is very calm with these project the teachers if they so which can use their smart boards and a web based program to take real time monitoring of what's going on that particular day so the students would like to see how much solar electricity produced that day that is available to them so that being said let me introduce the members of the team that here today marty bittner is the energy committee our martin class local resident was just volunteered his time as a mechanical engineer for some technical assistance and felt there you know all pun intended here he's been the energy behind this project to keep it moving forward and care a little bit further so i'd like to ask marty bittner from the energy to come up and a little bit more detail of what i talked about thanks jerry my name is marty bittner member of the energy committee time meeting member precinct eight chair of the solar site selection committee of the energy committee charged with finding a location to host these free solar panels from direct energy increase solar adoption in massachusetts belmont had over two hundred sixty solar installations on residences and based on that success direct energy has given this gift of forty four solar panels which is a thirteen point two kil array to the town and the job that i was charged with was finding a suitable location bit about the process we went through for that we approached the pool committee and to see about putting on the pool house  they they essentially said no because of the statics we consider the beach street center wellington school belmont light and a number of categories which is listed here but mainly that the viability so is the structural integrity of the roof sound to hold the solar panels is it a favorable location for energy production because we like to maximize the benefits of the town and then last educational value so we you know having at the site of the school is a great thing because the kids can get interested in the science teachers can base a curriculum off of this and that's where it top based on those criteria so once that was the case we approached superintendent phailin to see the reception from the school side of things whether they'd be willing to host this we've had a series of meetings people attended all of whom were in favor in addition to that we had a website were soliciting feedback and we had a bit more and fifteen folks rode back there  of which were positive so from the folks we've heard from we haven't had any negative feedback from voters so the the overall design you can see that there's forty four solar panels which would be placed on the gym panels has the added benefit that the panels are visible so remember the wellington proposal that at that time the proposal was to put the panels on top of the roof where they wouldn't be seen but here especially since this is a school can kind of illicit curiosity from students when they they can see these as they walk in to school so we think that's a good thing he the orientation of the gym roof is favorable as it faces south and so it that's ideal for maximum electricity production from solar panels and along those lines the the expected production of solar panels would equate to about eighty eighty five thousand dollars in savings over over twenty years and that includes both the electricity savings to the town as well as what are known as s rex these are solar renewable energy credits every thousand kilowatt hours you produce you get a certificate and it's in terms of potential impact to the about hers so we've in the presentation slides there are we took pictures of views from various locations immediately surrounding the schools you can get a sense of what the sight lines would look like for the of others and the nice feature about this location is it's there are trees well situated which would block the visual sight lines towards the panels so there's a series of photographs showing that starting on slide eleven leave if you want to follow  on so the so in terms of visual impact it's mitigated by by the surrounding trees fortunately that the trees do their job to mitigate the visual impact without shading the roof and  trees that are and immediately in front of the gymnasium are fully grown so we don't expect that they would grow over time and then proceed to shade the solar panels additionally the any concerns about glare from the solar panels again but the views are blocked by the trees in addition the existing proof is metal and that's more highly reflective than a solar panel since the solar panels job is to absorb light not reflect it so this would actually be an improvement in terms of reflectivity off of the off the roof and as jerry mentioned the  opportunity for engagement with the students so there's a slide nineteen shows that kind of an example of what you can see in terms of immediate feedback so you know on a fifteen minute time scale you can see what what sort of production you're getting and this really lends itself nicely to folding into a science curriculum to engage students you know about renewable energy simple you know science and physics or math you know math curriculum so it's a pretty rich educational dataset as well which is a nice feature of the in terms of the effect on that the building the that the middle seem roofie the wrecking itself so no concerns about breaching the structural integrity of the roof additionally the there is a conduit that has to run from from the from the gym roof across the on floating ballast on the roof so again this avoids any kind of unger's into the into the roof structure itself and the visual impact on the on the school itself is minimized by routing the conduit around the cooper up on the roof so we there's a there's a short run off the gym roof and then it's all up on the horizontal roof or the of the school itself and not visible from the ground and then at the right edge of the school they'll be a bit of conduit coming back down to the electrical closet which will be painted to match the existing brick structure in the last piece in terms of again along the the right side of the school as you face it from the back in a fenced in area so that will not be visible and additionally that is expected to produce about fifty five  which is you know allowable by standards and is also it's roughly well it's a conversational speech but again it's that's that and he sounds mitigated by the surrounding fence area ok and then the the only penetration to the school would be to come in to the electrical closet in one spot so again behind the fenced in area to the right of the school there's there's one single penetration to get into the electrical closet to tie into the rest of the to the sub to the main panel of the school other than that i think that's that's sort of a high level overview but if there's any questions you'd like to have answered i have all questions but i suspect all questions means left oh i have my list left over from wellington understanding that the scale is mr  solar panels are rated to withstand hail so the i think i'd be more concerned about a hail storm than a basketball or doing any damage so there's a there but they're pretty robus to the second point i don't know if jerry has something to say about experience with the conduit for what we're what's the specific concern that it would be it is and i just say you know when i look at the diagrams i just said hey you know what  down so we don't have an issue with ice standing ever there on occasion we have some of those wind blown blizzards where everybody gets some snow pushed up into some areas will get some accumulation but on the flat of the roof on the i'm not talking about where the panels are i'm talking about where the conduit second they're tested with one hundred pound punching ball essentially that's about the size of a basketball that's dropped against the panels and most panels don't break from this hundred pounds if it's panels will continue to produce because these panels are equipped with what's called up to my eyes us so each panel can operate independently so one defective panel will keep all the other panels operating  function and it's easy to identify as a defective panel from the software that comes with the system thank you and so you know getting this installed in the fall is it's you know sort of paramount into making ensuring that we get the s right here in time before they change the policy and then we don't we don't know what robust enough to hold them under the worst conditions we've got like a fifty percent flux right you know you're over capacity in terms of it's a very small this system in terms of that so what also parallel with that is the impact on the insurance for the building now it says in your package that because of this you you don't anticipate that the building insurance will increase or because of the cost of the building of the improvements that it's a minuscule change do you have any sense of that yeah if i find or say what you're asking it's in terms of adding a rider to that yes hounds insurance yeah it's  o we checked into that and because the the policy is already sufficiently large that adding the insurance writer further for the solar panel system which is relatively small does it wouldn't be expected to necessitate an increase in the gym roof that's right there in the same orientation as a gym roof now the reason is in compliance with the law that that's good have you i know we've talked about and you in your presentation results of that in addition i thought you know the more compelling or the simpler explanation was simply that where we are replacing we're covering up a more reflective surface with a less reflective surface and so by definition  sounds about right i don't know the exact number but you know if it would be good to know about that larry now this the other issue has to do with new it one of the things that yeah i don't think i mean these don't make noise themselves when they produce anything and they shouldn't produce it shouldn't make noise that there are other groups making the wind noise or anything like that they're concerned with  inverter it's a very small inverter was the put the inverter in the basement did you consider i think it was a good change taken from a couple of down ok i think that was good did you consider you would only and it's of course only one's assistance would use power so it would be only over the days so typically like you know like probably in the morning even when the sun is up you know once a fan would need to come on it's probably only standing outside said so wall in front of that corner there you won't be able to hear that invert a fan at all i'm sure you only hear it i mean i see it in my house i have to open the kitchen door and i walk down the basement steps i have to be like five feet away from it to hear like if i goes my kitchen door i cannot hear the van anymore so it's like and this is the same so some of the all questions have been answered and i want to go over the couple that haven't been answered and then i think we need to come up with a a list of dock of documents that we need to include as part of this application there are many fine documents have ready as part of this application there are a few more where absolute after the fact thing you kind of wish you had done absolute clarity at the time it would be easy to do so i want to go through that list as well  in terms of the concerns left over from wellington the first is the wellington discussion ended when the company police who proposed to install these panels went bankrupt and therefore the warranty and any other guarantees were of no value would have been of no value so my first question since you may or may not watch planning board meetings often but our motto is we don't make exactly the same mistake twice that does that does not prevent us from making other e but we really try not to make the identical mistake twice so the first is do we have any financial information done bradstreet report anything on the financial stability of this company i'm looking at mr boyle as i say this as well  because any any problem that can't be covered by a company that's gone out of business will come back to the town subsidiary of direct energy which is a multi billion dollar energy company out of texas and they were they bought asked from solar i think about two years ago which was maryland based  withdraw from the residential solar installations and only will do commercial solar insolation so they will severely cut back their installation crews and support here in massachusetts you know like  strength certainly will be able to on any one sees you know i i don't i don't doubt that will be the case but having something in writing to that effect is i think is really critical to protecting the town the the second is the trees the trees surrounding are they ever green  to take try to take a look at what will this look like to the a butters when the trees have no leaves but thirdly on the  insurance again it would be good to have something in writing from whom ever in the town is now currently responsible for insurance again just it's not  don't doubt that this is the case that it will make no difference but whoever will be responsible if it ever comes to make a difference needs to give i think needs to provide a letter of assurance  similarly in terms of the of the noise and there may be enough in the past yes we'll take a look at the specs we'll see if anything more is required in the way of it we have learned a lot about a points around generally was the same sort of glare analysis that i did around wellington and i found the same sorts of results which which is that the there never was there any extreme glare it was always minimal glare and it was only at certain times of the year and it's at times of the year when the the the trees and i believe they are are deciduous are left out so it's and it's u the the morning between five and six in the morning close to sunrise and also sometimes close to sunset so just as we saw with wellington the resident would have to almost be looking into the sunrise or the sunset in order to to see that that glare and the other thing that i definitely should mention is that the glare in elsa's does not take into account trees so it assumes a completely bare surface so so on i went to all the spots where it did the glare analysis and there were trees obstructing that that if that any any reflection off the panels so i'm not a the school statement this approval is only for the application process in the school committee reserves the right to await the planning board decision before voting the approval of this project in the fall i think we ought to just reach out to the i've read more ringing endorsement and i think we ought to reach out to the base and i understand mr boyle that you're formally responsible for this building but they live in it most of the time so i think we ought to reach out to the school department and just get some sense of the level of enthusiasm and see if perhaps a somewhat stronger indorsement could be forthcoming that's ours that's on our list not yours form that the savings would go back into energy more energy conservation measures we have particular line items in our budgets one for time one for school for energy conservation measures so over time when we are able to confirm the four thousand dollars a year or so  it's a little bit more involved but point taken we can remember that often i mean i think the concern is always but since we have to cover belmont like departments costs any revenue the savings to the  if you have a comment if you could make it relatively brief that would be appreciated we have four more items but by all means we're glad you came in make your comment  public comments my name's jay banner on one of the a butters i just wanted to wholeheartedly endorse the plan i think it's fantastic i am really pleased with it i'm very glad to see that it's going to have educational view and i think looking at solar panels makes me glad and i'm very i would be very happy to see them there my daughter uses that playground all the time and we look forward to there being installed frank  i think that's pretty much my main concern  but i want to also kind of reiterate again to the planning board and the town that this free gift we have to take advantage of it very quickly given that energy so it's using its insulation capacity here in massachusetts i'm not sure if this gift will be available to us in the fall and so therefore i think this is a great great free gift to the town it's has the potential to save over one hundred thousand dollars for the school and i just urge you to quickly moves was a process so we can get the system installed that's all and we appreciate the comment but for those who are here from wellington it will have a familiar ring and so i take it was some grain of salt but we we hear your point yes the end perhaps this can be the  we question the planning board be certain that there's a proper risk mitigation analysis affectively many of the questions you're asking are related to yes we guessed and we just want to make sure that if you get this free gift it's not more hassle than it's worth it and i don't like many of the issues raised are whether or not they're on a dissipated problems that could arise right in the end could be more complex that's all i require yet we are aware that the trojan horse was a free gift but we think this has been staff that we look forward to getting this additional material and you know we think this has been stepped out carefully and the other right thank you clearly the agenda for august first should say bring a light snack and a bottle of water yes we're going to the rescue workers ok yeah all right i'm going to suggest could i ask you we have four other items could i ask you for discussion on evaluating parking waivers i really feel needs take place when there are more of us here agreed though i'm going to that that be postponed updates on current potential cases and planning board projects in committee reports i am not certain that the  be brief next steps on waverly square south present street discussion i would say that there is nothing new to report in les but i noticed that we have are you still the chair of the  i notice we have the chair of the library trustees with us so i would ask if there's any comment you would wish to make otherwise we'll be reporting on this in the first of  and find out more so my question is how can the library community learn more and see if there's a meeting that i can have with me with yourself if you are the sponsor and we're just eager to understand more and we've been put in a tough spot where we've been getting a lot of calls from home and we have no information now would be interesting to find out how we could connect to understand more so  t a couple things we did have a brief and even more informal conversation about this and a brief exchange of emails we had a hallway conversation candidates night individual and you shared with me or is led to believe that if there is going to have further conversation that there would be a reach out that was my understanding and that's what i would expect we all get you know where we're trying to work together in a situation asked to defer to the fall which we did we are eager to do fundraising for the solution for the library and so there's been so many conversations about a path forward with key members of  government i would think so so just we just want to be in on the conversation and not feel like we're left on the si we're happy to we're happy to have any conversations in any person you know it in any form we will have a better idea by the end of the month whether this has a ny reality to it and i would just say you know what you know some of the facts that we've shared a thousand unique visitors a day on average some days a few last many days a few more what's been considered what's the factor and that's membre for an end to this plan what's the what's the step in the process as we as you as you go forward and what facts and input are you considering we had over six hundred people participating give us feedback we did a long range plan we did a few usability funny so we've heard pretty clearly from residents what they want and a look and feel we've also heard pretty strongly that people like the site they like it their proximity to the school walls so so you know we just need more information about what you're considering and what facts were or were brought into the design and the of i mean much like oh it was billed that the presentation that we do it's an idea and it's one just to throw out on the table for consideration and there's a lot of stakeholders that need to be  engaged and to get their support and for them to express their support in order for this to go but i think one of the gating things is i was list said and it's likely by the end of this month we'll have a better sense of how grounded this is for us to proceed but it's an idea that's all it is at this point and i look forward to having the conversation with the the many stakeholders on this one as you can imagine no shortage of opinion of the court and and just trying to understand we were just caught off guard now did you want to comment as well i'm sure i wasn't talking to you doug on so i'm trying to understand what the next steps are now i think it might be worthwhile to have a conversation to understand what the proposal is for or should we just either go to the next meeting everything that we know everything that's been shared or everything that's been known or understood about this idea was shared at the present ation last weekend it was also those and i want to say it was a dry run but it was also proof presented and i thought you were consider it done it just means it won't be there till thursday all right and just every it's a something to think about i think we want to organize it a little differently preview agenda for the next meeting well the next meeting will be we will do two things the first is we will be continuing the hearing on three forty four pleasant  number rafi has raised a number of environmental issues i don't know chuck if you will have more traffic issues but certainly a great and certainly we have a number of legal issues  available has been unavailable but he will be available toward the end of this week we hope and in hill therefore it is not it is not a good use of our time or the applicants time to just to have them come and have a discussion in the absence of answers to those some assistance and then the balance of the discussion for which i will not be present will be the belmont they school  and with that we have no minutes to review and approve