Town of Otis
Planning Board Meeting Minutes
November 19, 2018
Town Hall Inspectors’ Office
Meeting called to order at 7:00 pm in the Otis Town Hall Inspectors’ Room.
Present: Michael Ernst, Jim Kauffman, Jen Daily, Hal Kobrin, Larry Gould
Approval of Minutes: The October 15, 2018 Planning Board meeting minutes were approved as written. Jen made the motion to accept and Jim seconded with Michael abstaining because he was not present for the meeting.
Recreational Marijuana Bylaw: Michael brought to everyone’s attention Rona’s emails regarding the issue of marijuana odor in Franklin, MA. Larry noted odor is the biggest complaint in Colorado. Larry also noted that the ZBA can enforce a “no odor” policy as long as the location is zoned light industrial. Larry has the information to ensure certain types of equipment and their associated costs are known to any applicants. Besides odor concerns, it was noted the bylaw also needs to address Dark Sky Lighting policies and ensure water usage and waste water won’t negatively impact our resources. Hal has already begun putting pieces of a possible bylaw together so he volunteered to pull that work together for an initial bylaw draft. Jen plans to work with Hal on that as well. Larry noted a Special Permit should probably be required due to the location requiring a zoning change and it should stipulate that if the business fails the land will revert back to its original agricultural use.
December Meeting: December 10 is the next meeting and is the last day of Chanukah. Everyone was good with holding the meeting that evening. The 2019 Planning Board meeting schedule and the 2019 Holiday schedule will be provided to everyone at the December meeting.
Other:
Discussion on Public Meeting: Hal mentioned that there was no discussion about rules ahead of the informational meeting and he didn’t like that meeting at all. Jen agreed it did feel strange, but we did get positive feedback from the meeting. Larry reviewed the purpose of the safety complex discussion and noted that nothing is concrete as yet – it is all still in the “what do we need, what do we want” stage.
Michael moved the meeting be adjourned, Jen seconded, and the meeting was unanimously adjourned at 7:54 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lisa D’Orazio
Planning Board Clerk
Town of Otis
List of Documents
- A copy of the email from Lisa referencing other town bylaws and the BRPC website will be filed with these meeting minutes.
- A copy of the two emails from Rona regarding the Franklin Board of Health information will be filed with these meeting minutes.
- A copy of the email and map from Rona regarding DEP air quality information in Franklin, MA will be filed with these meeting minutes.