Planning Board 03/19/2026

(Episode Description is AI generated and may be errors in accuracy)

A planning board meeting sounds routine until you hear what’s actually inside the decisions: a 122-room extended stay hotel proposed on Commerce Way and a Chick-fil-A drive-thru planned for the former Party City site at 600 South Street West. We walk through how projects move from concept to site plan approval and special permit, and why peer review, timing, and even voting thresholds can shape the outcome as much as the plans themselves.

On the hotel proposal, we dig into stormwater management and the legacy of the Raynham Woods Commerce Center’s original MEPA-era design, then bring it down to the lot level with retention, detention, and DEP standards. We press on utilities like sewer connections and force mains, parking ratios, fire access, and practical safety items like bollards near first-floor rooms. The conversation also gets candid about what “extended stay” really means, what demand studies look like, and how towns think about edge cases like long stays and school impacts.

Then we pivot to the Chick-fil-A hearing, where the big story is circulation and traffic engineering. You’ll hear how a traffic impact study is built using turning counts, MassDOT seasonal factors, background growth, and ITE trip generation, plus how pass-by and internal plaza trips change the picture. We also raise real-world operations questions: drive-thru, entrance re-striping, snow storage, and legacy environmental constraints like an Activity and Use Limitation.

If you care about local development, zoning bylaws, traffic, stormwater, and how public process works in real time, subscribe, share this with a neighbor, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

Meeting Setup And Process

SPEAKER_03 0:01

Okay, we're on the uh town of Rainham Planning Board, March 19, 2026. Um the meeting is live. Um it's broadcast on Comcast Channel 98 and Verizon Channel 34. Um 6 o'clock, and call the meeting to order. Um Chris Gallagher, I'm the chairman. Um to my right is Anthony McCauley, our clerk. To his right is Pim and Coney, our member in Surface Rep. To my left is Matt Andrade, our associate member. To his left is Brian Oldfield, our planning board member. Um the way we run the meeting, we have a couple public hearings tonight. Um we do is you know we we read a notice if it's a new public hearing, if not, we just continue it. I'll read any correspondence into the menu, the record rather. I'll ask any questions I may have for it. I'll send it to the board for any questions which I don't anticipate any initially because none of us have really gone through, but I'll, you know, if anyone's looking at the plan. After that, I'll open it up to the applicant or his representative who has to identify themselves and do their presentation. After their presentation's done, open it back to the board. I'll have any questions I might have for the applicant, and then each member of the board will field any questions they may have. Once that's done and the applicant responds, if there's anybody in the public that want to speak, I'll recognize them by a show of hands. Each person, whether it be the applicant or its representative of the public, has to come up to the podium, state their name, and um then everything goes through the board to the chair. Uh the first thing we have on our agenda is minutes of December 4th, 2025 and January 15th, 2026. Burke Fountain, our vice chairman, is not here tonight who generally reviews the minutes, but Burke has reviewed these minutes and he's fine with the way they're written. So I'll indicate a motion to accept those minutes. Anybody? So moved. So moved. Second, second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor. Unanimous. Okay. We actually have two more minutes for a public hearing coming up. Um Farmers Way Hotel Site Plan. It's our first public hearing. Um we don't have oh, we do have some invoices and bills. I'll sign and send around. Much thanks to the sewer that's been installed on every street. Uh but there really isn't much left. So generally what we've been having is a lot of site plans, a lot of commercial stuff, a lot of uh new and um reconstructed sites. Okay, 605. We have a public hearing for Commerce Way Hotel site plants, a new public hearing. And we're gonna have our clerk, Anthony Pauly, read the public hearing notice.

SPEAKER_10 4:51

The Rainham Planning Board will hold a public hearing on Thursday, March 19, 2026, at 6.05 p.m. at Rainham Veterans Memorial Town Hall, 558 South Main Street on application for site plan approval, pursuant to Rainham zoning bylaws, section 350-13.2 special permit to allow a 122-room extended stay hotel with associated improvements, parking, pedestrian walkways, storm water management system, and underground utilities on roughly 2.96 acres on Common Play. Access Map 15 lot 176-21 map. Application is submitted by Gregory T. Hefflin on behalf of Park Silver Development, LLC, open. Copy of the application and plan are available for viewing at the town clerk's office and planning board office by the DHL Main Street or HMS during usual scheduled business hours. Any person which can be heard or interested in the submittal to appear at the time.

SPEAKER_03 5:52

Okay. So this is the new hotel on Commerce Way. I'm going to give a brief background for members of the board that weren't here as long as I've been and others. Commerce Way was a big development done by the Freeney family, you know, with Stoneforge, Walmart, and all that was. When it was initially developed, it was went through MEPA, went through extensive permit process, and the whole entire park was designed to accommodate full build-out. So all the drainage systems all were designed as a park as a whole. After build out, we possibly were having some downstream flooding at Hill Street, a little back of it at Calvert. It's been all redone, but it was designed so that no individual site needed drainage and it would just discharge into the roadway drainage system. But because of the potential downstream flooding, we had asked each applicant that comes in to do some retention, detention. Didn't necessarily have to meet DEP standards as they already have, but we've asked them all to do the best they can on each individual site. And that's basically the background of the development as a whole. No, Matthew? Not yet. Okay. In that case, I'd like to invite the applicant or its representative up to the podium and state your name and then give us your presentation.

Hotel Design Utilities And Stormwater

SPEAKER_12 7:48

Good evening, board members. My name is Greg Heflin. I'm the applicant. Matt Ashley is with Boulder Engineering. He's our civil engineer, and he'll walk you through the plans. I heard all the particular information read into the record, so I'll just add some color to that. We're in the designated development district on lot 35 on Commerce Way in the Rainham Woods Commerce Center. The use of hotel, it's by right. That's why we're before you tonight. We I believe Matt will give the presentation that we comply with all the zoning rules and regulations. We had a pre-sub that we coordinated with Bob back in August of 13 August 13th of last year. In attendance were Fire, CONCOM, the departments that represent the town staff. We have some things to work on with relative to sewer, but there is capacity. Water, highway, fire have all reviewed the plans, and we've had a discussion at least preliminarily with them. We were before CONCOM on February 4th for an RDA that got a negative determination. There's wetlands across the Commerce Way, and we are not developing inside the buffer, and we they're not jurisdictional. At least our plan was doing not to be.

SPEAKER_03 9:41

Could I stop you just for one? Something I missed. One, there was a letter from Sewer in the record that you're going to have a force main. When this was initially designed, it was designed and your capacity was approved way back when for full build-out on the site. Yeah, it goes through your pump station down by the freezer place. The one thing I wanted to point out is this is a special permit, and when there's a special permit, you need a supermajority. So in our case with a five-member board, you need four out of five members. Burke Fountain is not here. So there is only four out of five voting members. So you could continue at your peril if we're all going to say yes. The other thing, Burke also can, uh he's not running, so he's only here till the end of April. So we'll hopefully button this up before the next two meetings. He can review the minutes, watch the meeting, sign an affidavit, and say that you know he's seen everything, so it's legit for him to vote. So I just wanted to point that out that we're short of member. Okay, thank you. So you and your engineer are aware of that and apologize, continue.

SPEAKER_12 10:57

Thank you. Um along with the site plan, the architectural drawings that you'll see from Matt, uh, we filed a traffic memo from Vaness Associates. Um there didn't seem to be any mitigation uh required uh based on the development and the numbers and the trips. Um I think that's the end of my presentation. I'll turn it over to Matt unless there's questions for me. You know.

unknown 11:28

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

Like you said, the Russ moderana, just to point out, they have a group that's as you know that runs the park and they review every single thing that comes through. It's John Norville and Russ, the Pamela Boys, and you know, it has to, you know, they have a fairly stringent acceptance for what goes on in here, so it has to pass through them as well as us. Understood. Thank you.

SPEAKER_07 11:57

Uh good evening, Mr. Chairman and Planning Board members. For the record, I'm Matthew Ashley with Bowler Engineering. I'm the civil site uh design engineer for the development. Um, Greg did a great job giving a little history of what we've done before, so I'll try not to repeat uh anything that's been said for everyone's sake here. Um so just to get everyone's bearing, uh, this particular development is on Commerce Way. Um Walmart situated right behind the site. Um and then there's another uh hotel use right next to us on the left, um, depending where you're looking at the site, right if you're looking in. Uh then there's uh an emergency, not an emergency access drive, but a um a secondary drive for Walmart that comes up through existing access easement through our site, and then there's an industrial or or light industrial kind of uh commercial use uh there. And then uh commerce way right in front of us. So the site's approximately just under three acres. Um it's not developed, I'd say it's previously disturbed. Someone's been out there, I think, with the larger development going in, um, but not developed, but previously disturbed. Uh as Greg mentioned, we went in front of conservation, um, kind of showed them what we were planning here, got a negative determination on that front. Um as far as existing conditions, what's out there, uh, kind of around the edges of the property, a little bit inland, um, there is some mature growth in trees, uh, and the inside really just kind of undergrowth has grown in over time since it was disturbed from that nature. Um good amount of topo across the site, drops down drains to the existing edge faces and the proposed use is the extended stay hotel hundred and twenty-two rooms going to be accessed off a commerce drive here, full access driveway located over here. Um the parking uh requirement is one to one to the room ratio, we're a little above that. Um I believe it's at 127 um for the 122. Um full access around the building, uh, which was coordinated with fire ahead of time, something that they mentioned they wanted. Um and then for uh utility information. Uh so uh difficult with the chair mentioned, um, we do have a um surface infiltration basin located at the front of the site. Um, and with our calculations, um, we are expected to reduce peak rate and volume through the hundred-year storm for what's out there in the existing conditions. Um, so being a fully vegetated site, um, we're definitely taking on quite a bit of stormwater up there and containing it on the site itself. Um for other utilities like Greg mentioned, water and sewer within Commerce Way, we've been working with both of those departments and um both have confirmed capacity. We're working through the details of how we're going to connect with them. Um, not anticipating any issues, but hopefully we have to work through the finger details with them as well. It's fully zoning compliant landscape land, a bunch of shade trees throughout the development. Um one thing I did want to point out, and I know this is something that has been mentioned previously. Um we really tried to situate the site where we could minimize disturbance to the existing vegetation out there. There's definitely some mature growth. Um, there's definitely all the street trees that were planted a long time ago, and we placed our driveway to minimize the impact of those. I think there's only the removal of one tree up there with the spacing. It was a little tough, but we worked with that. Um and then on this side of the property over here, the existing berm and some mature trees over down in that corner. Uh so we limited how much we're going into there to try and maximize how many trees uh we can save over there. Um, and there's a natural earth berm as well. Uh we have shade trees throughout the whole development, along with plantings up along the building to break up the foundation as requested. Um I think that's just about for landing. Um Greg mentioned, um, from a traffic perspective, an asset associate submitted um a uh traffic memorandum for this, and their you know, analysis determined that the development fits within the capacity of the roadway network and is not um calculated to have any adverse traffic impacts on Commerce Way or the surrounding systems. And then last. So the building is four stories tall, uses a variety of materials and heights, um, along with some stone veneer on the lower level to really break up everything there. Um terms of massing for comparison, um pretty much the same height as the use right next door. Um so no real difference there. Uh from a height requirement, I think it's 90 feet that's required here. This is uh well below that at 50 as a conservative measure, um, and very typical to the surrounding areas in use. So keeping it high level tonight, and we are still waiting, I think, for peer review to come back. Uh so just kind of wanted to introduce the project to the board and and get initial feedback as well. So happy to answer any questions.

SPEAKER_03 18:09

But um the traffic, all that, that was all vetted out through MIPA. And so all the impact of this on the 44 and surrounding, way back when this was initially done. And MEPA is the Mass Environmental Policy Act, and which does an extensive review on every environmental thing possible, traffic, noise, drainage. Um you're getting zero peak in volume on your site, the way you have it designed. Is that what I was understand what you just said?

SPEAKER_07 18:43

Uh we there is some volume leaving the site typical, just in the existing conditions, with there's two existing catch basins out there, some from the site, from from the roadway, and we're reducing the volume that's going to those catch basins right now.

SPEAKER_03 18:58

So on your individual site, you're meeting DEP standards without having to look back at the old drainage that was already approved.

SPEAKER_07 19:05

Correct. Yeah, DEP requires peak rates. Yeah. Um we're above that with peak volume.

SPEAKER_03 19:10

Okay, no, appreciate that because that's uh you know, it was all asked to do the VESHA can, and if you're meeting DEP standards just on your site, that's as good as you can do. Um the only other driveway is how how close is that to the adjacent driveway in the other hotel. So I guess it would be a lower driveway, the one closer to 44.

SPEAKER_07 19:43

So the the properties over here. Okay, so you're substantially away. So we have yeah, a good amount of distance there. Just the property, okay. That was my week.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

Um that's about all I have. I mean, pretty much this development was already engineered, trying to do every each individual lot. Um the source and the correspondence, like I said, you want a force main. Um, that you'll have to deal with with them. Water you'll have to deal with with them. Um so I'm gonna see if any of the board members uh have any questions on your proposal. Uh Anthony, do you have anything?

Market Demand Extended Stay Questions

SPEAKER_10 20:23

Yeah, um, aside from the force main of the sewer, which we have a letter about that, water it's meets meets water, water has capacity.

SPEAKER_07 20:31

Yeah, yeah, we went with the water department. There is, I think, already a stub out there, um, so we're working with them to see if we can reutilize that um as best as we can as well.

SPEAKER_10 20:40

It's engineered very well, but in in my mind, I'm having a hard time understanding why we need an identical business next to an existing business. Is there is there like an analysis, a market study done based on the capacity? Is there a demand for an identical business next to an identical business? It just kind of seems like putting I mean there's no gas stations next to each other everywhere you go, but yeah, I mean there's something to go to Starbucks. Right, they're not 122.

SPEAKER_12 21:08

Yeah, so we do three studies. Uh they're all proprietary, but I'll give you an overview. Um Star Smith Travel Research does a report with the market that we pick the competitive set, we get rate and occupancy at RepAR, um, so we can see what the other hotels are doing. That's a good indicator that our business would fit. With the one next door included in that? Yes, yes, yes, sir. Um, and then secondly, Choice Hotels International, who's our franchise or does a site score uh report that does all the population density, um, traffic counts, uh, local businesses, regional businesses, highway networks, all that stuff. So we take that into account, and then lastly, the Highland group that's out of Atlanta, they're a highly reputable extended stay and hotel firm, but mostly focused on extended stay, their report came back glowing. So It's not necessarily, I mean hotels and restaurants tend to cluster, but uh we're we're drawing from a regional basis, not just um the guy next to it.

SPEAKER_10 22:13

That one was recently a point of uh I'm wondering what the capacity is right now. I could see it's coming back open and could come in and out.

SPEAKER_12 22:22

Yes, I believe they need to open the the bag is off the open franchise again and the literal bag is off the bag.

SPEAKER_10 22:30

Yeah, yeah. Um the traffic study, I don't know traffic study first, and what's the criteria that they that they use to return to the full capacity that they study for traffic? Is it the five time?

SPEAKER_07 22:41

What's the criteria for um I'm not quite sure on that. Um NASA associates who's not here today prepared that, but I can therry to circle back uh with the 450 or sure it was at 100 percent capacity to add.

SPEAKER_03 22:58

When you're doing it when you're doing it for average study, you take the hotel and the room and they have all the standards that you've looked up and says, okay, this hotel with this many rooms, this would be a thrift generator. So you take the thrift generator and put it in through basically if you looked at that like a network of veins and arteries, they put it through there and see the pull that out of the manual.

SPEAKER_12 23:28

Right. We we did not give him rate or occup, well not rate, we didn't give him occupancy of the hotel because obviously it'll fluctuate. Right, of course. But he does worst case scenario as the chairman pointed out from the ITE manual.

SPEAKER_10 23:42

That's really thank you.

SPEAKER_09 23:46

Um I apologize if I missed it, but what is the definition of an extended stay?

SPEAKER_03 23:55

You didn't miss it.

SPEAKER_12 23:57

Yeah, I mean extended stay hotels are are fashioned and and fit out to accommodate longer stays. Um so where a transient hotel might be an average of two nights, we're probably closer to eleven nights. We're trying to attract people coming to the area to relocate, to train at the local corporate offices, uh, military, uh, traveling nurses, um, people that are looking for an apartment that are on a wait list. The apartments do very well around here, so there's always a wait list. When they're doing well, they're usually looking for a 12-month to 24-month um rent agreement where we could do a month, two months, people decide that their wait list is up and they um get their apartment. Um so there's a a variety of people that that come stay with us, but we're not focused on a transient hotel like uh Fairfield down the street or the Hampton Inn suites, something like that.

SPEAKER_09 24:55

Do you have a cap on what like I I guess what on do you have a cap on how long somebody can stay? Because what would be it could be a blurred line between what's an extended stay and what's a permanent resident.

SPEAKER_12 25:10

We don't have a cap, um, but we we haven't had to put a cap on there. We people don't want to live in a hotel for a year or two, and we don't we don't see that. Um it's usually a couple months, 30 days or less, two weeks, something like that.

SPEAKER_09 25:29

Um do you have your impacts said it had no impact on the schools? What what kind of, if any, what kind of safeguard is in place? Safeguard may not be the appropriate word, but how do we know that this will not go nobody really maybe wants to live in a hotel, but sometimes people have to because they don't have any other options, um, which I think is just a reality of the world that we live in. But what my question is gearing towards is how do we know that the impact of nothing on the school is going to maintain that win? If we have maybe some families that are living there for whatever reason, whether they're waiting for the house to be built or one of the parents is getting transferred from one corporation to another, like how do we, if at all, differentiate that that is a true statement that this won't impact the schools?

SPEAKER_12 26:31

Um we haven't had that issue come up. Um to to my understanding is you need to set an address and then register your child into the school district um or hotel.

SPEAKER_09 26:48

People could register to vote there if that's where they're living.

SPEAKER_12 26:51

I suppose they could.

SPEAKER_09 26:52

No, they do. They do.

SPEAKER_03 26:54

We haven't seen that. I think if this is the past issue we that's happened like in Taunton and all over the state, where you know, what's her name up there, the basketball player. Um, but all these people stay in these hotels that were illegals and we end up with a bunch of people in school. But I think that's kind of clearing out. Are you talking about the emergency shelter program? Whatever it is, the one that had all the illegals in the hotel next door to you.

SPEAKER_04 27:27

That's what it was.

SPEAKER_03 27:29

And I mean, I don't know if we can do much about it, but it's a legitimate concern.

SPEAKER_12 27:34

Understood, but it's a concern for us too.

SPEAKER_03 27:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_12 27:37

We we you can't you can't take someone like that and then put them next to a business traveler and expect the business traveler to come back and utilize them.

SPEAKER_03 27:48

Yeah, because that other hotel, that's what happened there. They they trashed a lot of the hotels and so they closed them, had to fix them, and that's why they reopen. But I don't know if that's a thing of the past or not.

SPEAKER_15 28:00

Would rules be put in rules that are put in place by a town be overridden by a state judgment on something like that anyways?

SPEAKER_12 28:08

Probably. I I I we're we're not familiar with the program. We don't do business that way. We don't we don't take Section 8 housing, we don't take um, we don't cut deals with the state, and it it just uh the uh home two next door proved our point. I mean, what what's the business loss that they had to shut down and renovate the hotel and put it back in order? And then once you get that reputation, no one stays with you anymore. So we we would either uh it's just not an option for us.

SPEAKER_06 28:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:38

Well, I think when it was done, people chomped at the bit because it was a hundred percent capacity, and then they ate Crowaftacause the one in Taunton get trashed, they all get trashed. They they all do. But um I don't know if that's anything, like Matt said, I don't know if that's anything we could even regulate, especially given the position.

SPEAKER_15 29:02

I know this would be changing school systems, they would require a letter from either the purchaser, the from the purchaser to the buyer. If it was like someone would move in school systems and they say effective, you know, April 1st, you're gonna be moving into this house and you were trying to transition a child in ahead of time, you'd have to have it signed off by the builder or the homeowner. I'm assuming if you guys are saying that you you ever run into it. I'm sure that no one's approached you with a piece of paper to say, hey, can you sign off that we live here?

SPEAKER_12 29:38

We wouldn't sign that.

SPEAKER_15 29:39

Yeah. Because typically they need something in writing to just transition a child in school.

SPEAKER_12 29:45

Yeah. I mean, we we don't see that. Um I mean, I guess if if someone's house burnt down and they were already in the school system, they could come stay with us until it got rebuilt or something of that nature, but that's somebody that's already here.

SPEAKER_09 29:58

I don't I don't know why you would well they could come from another community as well.

SPEAKER_03 30:04

I mean, I don't know where our jurisdiction begins and ends on what to tell you on who gets to stay there. No, I I agree. I mean but it's good information.

SPEAKER_12 30:16

We're we're we're not seeking people to come live with us. Our rate fluctuates. It it you can't it's not rent. You can't it's not stabilized. I I might charge a hundred dollars one night and a hundred and fifty dollars another night, or if you're staying with us for two months, I might get it down to eighty bucks a night, just you know, so you you'll you'll stay longer. Um, because that's that's what it's designed to do.

SPEAKER_03 30:44

Okay, I don't know if there's much we can do about it, but I think that's it. It's a concern. I don't know if we could regulate it though. Um anyone else want to go on that?

SPEAKER_09 31:00

Is there a restaurant in the no so there's like no food services, anything? Are there kitchenettes in the rooms? Yes, okay.

SPEAKER_12 31:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_09 31:08

So they're either microwaving or door dashing.

SPEAKER_12 31:11

Yes. Okay. And we're right next to Walmart. You could you could get, you know, it's a full-size refrigerator, so you could, you know, stock up and get a little bit more.

SPEAKER_09 31:20

Is it a suite or like a single?

SPEAKER_12 31:22

It's a suite. Okay.

SPEAKER_09 31:24

Two banners on.

SPEAKER_12 31:27

Uh no. One. Just one.

SPEAKER_04 31:30

With a kitchen.

SPEAKER_12 31:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 31:32

Okay. You're gonna need a grease trap when you're doing the soup.

SPEAKER_12 31:39

Okay.

unknown 31:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_12 31:40

We can plan for that.

SPEAKER_04 31:42

Well, there's a plan for that. Yeah, they're gonna have kitchen too, even though you're not gonna have a restaurant.

SPEAKER_12 31:50

That didn't come up with the sewer and the pre-sub, but I understand what you're saying.

SPEAKER_04 31:53

Trust me.

SPEAKER_15 31:54

You're gonna need a grease drive.

SPEAKER_12 31:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_15 31:58

On the rendering, it shows is those those are rooms on the first floor?

SPEAKER_12 32:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_15 32:03

So uh is it fair to assume that around this entire perimeter is a walkway?

Safety Details Bollards Grease Trap

SPEAKER_12 32:08

Yes. Uh I'll let Matt. Yes.

SPEAKER_15 32:12

So is there I mean, I would find it to be advantageous to put bollards along this walkway to prevent someone from hopping this curb and driving into the first floor residence.

SPEAKER_12 32:25

Okay. We hadn't done that in the past, but um, we can take that.

SPEAKER_15 32:28

Yeah, I mean just because I'm looking at the windows here on your picture, and they look to be about right in line with the hood of that car. And it doesn't look like there's a ton of vegetation between there and just like a stone bed.

SPEAKER_12 32:41

We're we're a minimum 10 feet from the curb, yeah, and it gets to about 15 to 20 feet. So there's there's good separation between there, but I understand what you're saying.

SPEAKER_15 32:50

Yeah, just if someone pulled in and they were tired and they were coming in after driving 12 hours, and they just thought they put it in parking off the curb and ended up in someone's suite, it'd be kind of that we're understood.

SPEAKER_03 33:06

Just to backtrack, um when I mentioned Burke, uh, Matt, this is a special permit. Matt's an associate member, he can vote on it, so you don't have that issue. Okay. So Bert doesn't have to react. And what Matt's saying about the ballards is fairly consistent with what we've done when there's been first floors with parking and driving near them and you know, window facades.

SPEAKER_12 33:33

The ballards could be planters, it's a lot of different we can look at something and come back to you, and the not all of them are rooms, some of the lobbies, some of the gyms, some of the guest laundry and back-of-house space, so maybe we'll just do it at the at the guest rooms.

SPEAKER_15 33:49

Yeah, I mean, typically in the past, we've all anytime there's a walkway adjacent to parking space, it's just it's always best to put a baller there. Just in that. You see it more now on the news than ever before. People ending up in storefronts, blowing through stone walls and barbershops and everything else, and ending up and so on. So it's just what I thought.

SPEAKER_02 34:17

Understood.

SPEAKER_15 34:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:20

Anything else, Matt? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:22

Brian, getting just uh seven kitchen, so you've got to put a grease track. You know, other than that, extended stay. I agree with Japan. Should be a cap. There's nothing saying that people aren't gonna stay there for a year.

SPEAKER_03 34:48

Well, if there's nothing else from the board uh to the applicant, is there anyone in the public that wants to be heard on this? I don't see any hands. Okay, um you need to, you know, go through your peer review. Bob's gonna provide you with the peer reviewer. So we'd rather you two talk to each other, you know, and Bob will provide that so you can talk to the peer review and hash everything out. And we don't want to sit in here all any little technical things. We'd rather get a letter saying, okay, we went through everything and we agree. But um, I'm not sure when the peer review can be done because it hasn't started yet. What we have available for meetings in the future is April 2nd. We do first and third Thursday of the month. So April 2nd, um, I'm not gonna be here, but Burke, our vice chair, will be here, and he can, you know, Bob maybe tell Burke to look at things ahead of time, or you can come back on the 16th. I will be here, um, so we'll have a full board. So I don't know what our time to act on this is, if it's beyond the end of April. 25th of April. So I'd anticipate we'd like to get this out of here before Burke exits the board. So no later than the 16th. So you can you know it's up to you when you want to come back the second or the 16th. The 16th will have a full board and put it to bed.

SPEAKER_11 36:45

Um, I confer with Matt, but I would assume that we come back after the review is done and we can make revisions and live with what the review is asking for.

SPEAKER_03 36:55

That's what I'm thinking, because you might waste your time the second, and it gives you plenty of time to get together and just thinking outside the box, can we continue without coming to the board?

SPEAKER_07 37:06

Say if we get on for the second, we're not ready, we'll just continue ahead of time.

SPEAKER_03 37:10

What you'd do is via email to Maureen.

SPEAKER_07 37:14

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 37:15

You'd uh continue if you you know, try to give a fair warning. Yeah, absolutely because we don't have a lot of work going on right now, so we haven't had a lot of meetings. I mean, this is our first meeting in a month and a half anyway, maybe even two. Because we just there isn't a lot going on in town.

SPEAKER_07 37:36

I I mean I think this the 16th is probably fair. If we don't have the peer review, the second's two weeks out, we're gonna need time to review it with them and come back. So I think the 16th will be fine.

SPEAKER_03 37:47

Well just try to give us, if you could, at least maybe the at least by Tuesday before 48 hours ahead of time.

SPEAKER_12 37:58

So we know notice that we are on or notice that we are not on. Uh both. Okay. So we're not on any agenda right now.

SPEAKER_03 38:06

No, you you're asking to continue to the second.

SPEAKER_12 38:09

No, 16th. 16th?

SPEAKER_07 38:10

16th, yes.

SPEAKER_03 38:11

Oh, okay, okay. 16th fine. Yeah, you should be ready by then. So I didn't detain a motion to continue this till 605 on the 16th. So moved. We have a second.

SPEAKER_04 38:25

Second.

SPEAKER_03 38:25

All in favor?

SPEAKER_04 38:27

Okay.

Chick-Fil-A Notice And Site Overview

SPEAKER_03 38:28

Okay, and contact through Bob or Maureen. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Okay, 610. We have a public hearing on a Chick-fil-A site plan that's in the old Kmart Plaza where Staples is. Um what is it? Taco Bell, I think. Um, but it's the old, it's a party or a party place, whatever it was. Party City. Party City is gonna get raised and they're proposing to do a Chick-fil-A, but we got to read the public notice first. Um, Anthony and Cole uh.

SPEAKER_10 39:16

The Rainham Planning Board will hold a public hearing on Thursday, March 19th, 2026, at 6.10 p.m. at Rainham Veterans Memorial Town Hall, 558 South Main Street. On application for site plan approval pursuant to Rainham zoning bylaws, section 350-13.2 special permit to allow a 5,183 square foot Chick-fil-a restaurant with a drive-thru and associated improvements such as utility services, landscaping, and parking, an overall net decrease in imperfect areas, all at 600 Stealth Street West, Cestors Map 14, lot 218-B, Rainham Mask. Application is submitted by Kevin Fargus? Vargas. Anyone? Vargas? Vice President, RK Associates the 8th, Incorporated uh Nita Mask. I don't know my Roman numerous. A copy of the application and plan are available for viewing at the town clerk's office and planning board office, 558 South Main Street, Brain A Mass. During usual scheduled business hours. Any person wishing to be heard or interested in the submittal should appear at the time and place designated.

SPEAKER_03 40:23

Okay, the same rules applied as previously outlined as far as um the way the meeting will be run. Um just briefly, all I have to say it's an existing paved area, it's an existing building that's going to get raised. I don't imagine the drainage is going to change it all because it's just it's they're telling me it's less impervious, but um so the issues uh this again hasn't gone through peer review yet and has to be looked at. Um and if no one has does anyone on the board have uh any questions at this time before I turn it over to the applicant? No, anything? Same as before. We don't have any correspondence on this project. I'd imagine it's already got sewer water, and was there a meeting with this? Uh so there was a meeting, and um just asking Bob, was there any issues from the meeting?

SPEAKER_05 41:25

Pretty straightforward. I think there are a couple of questions that were answered at the meeting, but uh we get no feedback. So I think uh other than the access way, which we're gonna get a we're gonna find out what the uh the final uh verdict was. But uh as you come into that site at the first entrance where the uh tackle bell is, um the the packing is uh right in front of the entryway. That was the biggest concern by the back. So uh what the applicant uh take the presentation.

SPEAKER_03 41:57

Okay, okay, what's the question?

SPEAKER_13 42:07

Um presentation. Thank you, Chairman, uh board members. My name is Joey Funsack, and I'm also with Polar here tonight to kind of walk through this uh Chick-fil-A proposal. Um so I'm gonna kind of run through the site plan landscape lighting. I've got Maureen with uh leapt and with um Powman, who's our traffic consultant. Um she will kind of run through the traffic report that was submitted uh along with this application, um, and then we'll close out with any comments, questions, uh and I've got some architectural plans that we can run through as well. Um so as as you all know, this is um site addresses 600 South Street West. This is the former um uh party city building. So this is just an area, I'm sure you all are pretty familiar with the site. In red is the existing uh party city building. Um, the green sort of highlighted area or dashed area around it is gonna be sort of our uh our work limits. Uh so when I flip to the plan, that's kind of the area of the site that we're gonna be focusing on. Um but this is within the existing RK Center's plaza here. We've got Route 44 on the west. Uh the two curb cuts uh to this plaza are via South Street West on the south side of the site here. Um and again just access to the party city is just via South Street west here into this plaza. So sandwich between 44 and I believe that's the home goods portion on the end cap there of the uh larger plaza building there. Um overall parcel area is about 14 acres, 14.2 acres, um, and it is identified as map 14 lot uh 218-B. Um this is zone business uh district, so as I go through the proposal, a quick serve restaurant with drive-thru is permitted through site plan review and special permit, and that's what we're here in front of you all for. So I'm gonna flip to again this is kind of just zoomed into that area I was describing before, but the sort of that beige area in the center of the plan that that indicates where that existing party city building is today, and there are just some um I believe there are seven spaces, um, nine existing spaces along the sort of south side of the building. Um along that building front, and that's really the only parking that's adjacent to party city. The rest of the parking is just shared, you know, throughout the plaza um area. Uh it is mostly paved as as you just heard as we're reading in the project. It is just a paved parking area uh with the building, and that building footprint is about 12,000 square feet total. Utilities that serve the building currently, electric gas. We've got uh some drainage catch basins out there that tie into the the existing uh drain system within the plaza, uh, and then there's sewer, an existing sewer connection to the building, as well as uh the water services along that kind of run along uh Route 44 as well. So this is the proposed site plan uh that was submitted. Um the sort of the white box in the middle uh that represents the um proposed 5,200 square foot uh Chick-fil-A restaurant. Uh this restaurant will feature a double drive-thru, um a triple lane at the entrance, but a double drive-thru at the pickup, um, with parking associated on the sort of the west and the south side of the building. We're showing a total of 14 spaces that are being proposed between uh the south side and sort of that east side of the building, which is plus four. So this is sort of we're sort of nestling this development in where the existing sort of party city developed area is. So we're trying to maintain existing drive aisles, um, certainly along that you know, from the main entrance on South Street into the site, as well as drive aisles along kind of the south side of the site between um between the proposed Cirque-Villet building and the larger plaza building. So really just kind of using that space where the the party city was was a much larger building and maintaining drive aisles and parking kind of surrounding that. Um so really our we're limiting our our work to just that kind of triangle um uh portion of the site right there. So really just trying to limit the amount of overall development impacts. Um the restaurant will contain 90 interior seats, um and as I mentioned, uh we've got about 14 total spaces being proposed just adjacent to the building. So currently there are 803 parking stalls throughout the entire plaza with this Chick-la restaurant and the other existing uses on site. 774 required with this uh with this slight increase in parking gets us to 809 total park, so we're we're you know we're still uh compliant as far as parking goes for the overall plaza. Um so no adjustments to the curb cuts as mentioned, uh, those are existing on South uh South Street West. We're gonna be maintaining both of those. It's really just interior improvements uh just for for the restaurant. Um the drive-thru itself will contain two canopies, I'll just point them out. A canopy for the order station and a canopy at the meal delivery area. Um those are prototypical canopies. I'm not sure if any of you visited Chick-fil-A, but uh for all their new builds and even some of their existing sites that are being upgraded to these two larger canopies within the drive-thru. Um the utilities are gonna be similar to the existing. Uh, we're gonna be tying into the existing sewer service in the front. Water will, you know, we'll have to cut cap some of the existing services, but we're gonna be connecting to that existing sewer uh existing water main, um, and then that feeds into our building for both fire and domestic line. And then electric and gas will get coordinated through the utility companies as we get closer to construction when we get there. Um drainage on site, as I mentioned, there are catch basins currently within this area. They all drain and can convey stormwater towards the existing system within the plaza. We are removing about 4,200 square feet of impervious coverage here. As you can see, a lot of the green space in the middle is currently their building or paved area. So decreasing stormwater rates just with that decre decrease in impervious coverage, but also being able to kind of enhance that with some landscaping, and I'll I'll get into that later in the presentation. And I think that's that's really from a high-level site plan perspective. I will say the canopy at the meal delivery side, which is which is on the left side of the building. Um we we've coordinated that with um with with Bob just looking at the overhang on that building with respect to the building setback. So we've adjusted the canopy so that the columns are outside the setback, and we've got a less than two-foot overhang into the setback for that canopy for it to be uh compliant from a structure standpoint. Trash enclosure location um towards the rear of the building. It's it's it'll be you know hidden, uh, really being behind the building, and we're also kind of you know in elevation, um, dropping from 44 there. Um and we're just showing some walkways uh for the pedestrian access near those parking spaces. But just high level on the site plan. Um what I'll do is I'm gonna turn it over to Maureen to kind of run through some of the traffic um uh component of this. And again, a chart report was submitted with the project, but she can give you just a high-level presentation on the traffic.

SPEAKER_03 50:02

Well, you do you have the white you're building and the canopies, I understand. What's that thing behind the white that looks like it sticks out into the back of my this this is the trash enclosure?

SPEAKER_13 50:14

Um slab in front of the enclosure. So the the actual enclosure itself is right at the end of the side.

SPEAKER_03 50:20

Oh downstairs. Okay, so I see what you're saying. Yeah, so that's okay. Yeah, because they're front end clouding.

SPEAKER_01 50:26

So reports.

SPEAKER_08 50:44

Good evening. My name is Maureen LePaint. I'm with the Bowman Consulting. We'd completed the traffic impact study for this site. Um and the traffic impact study, we followed several steps to assess the existing intersection operations within the study area, the future no build conditions, which is the future conditions, but without the project in place, and then future build conditions, which would be the future conditions, future no build conditions plus the project trips. Um and that whole process starts with data collection. We um collected turning movement counts at the study area intersection in red on the board on Thursday, January 8th, 2026, and Saturday, January 10th, 2026. Um and we did the weekday counts during uh a midday peak period time frame from um 11.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. And then the afternoon ones are from 4 to 6 p.m. And then the Saturday time frame is also a midday, but longer from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Um and Chick-fil-A's do serve breakfast, but the midday is kind of more of the lunchtime rush, so that's just why we didn't do a weekday morning necessarily. Um January data we then look to see if it needs to be seasonally adjusted. Mass DOT has seasonal adjustment factors, which we look at and it's based on day, the week, and the month. Um and those tell us that the January um traffic volumes that we collected are about six percent lower than an average condition. So what that means is that we would increase um our counted traffic volumes by six percent when we started doing um all of our analyses. So we increased those volumes, um, and then we look at general growth in the area. So there's two different kinds of growth. We look at historical, just general background growth, um, and then site-specific projects. Um, and based on our review, there weren't any site-specific projects that were necessarily within these study area intersections, um, and the site-specific or the historical traffic growth based on coordination with the local planning and regional planning agencies was about 1%. Um, so that 1% can account for developments that aren't known at this time and just general growth throughout the area. Um, and that's used to grow the existing traffic volumes to a future year. Um, it's a seven-year time period, um, is what we use standard for mass DOT policy for traffic impact studies. So our existing uh traffic counts were 2026, so we look at 2033 for the future year conditions. Um and then we look at the ITE Institute of Transportation Engineers trip generation manual. Um, so that's the manual that tells us based on the type of development, um, they have land use codes and tells us how many trips would be expected for certain uses. Um, and they did just come out with a recent revision to the ITE manual specific to higher trip generating fast food restaurants. So we use that land use code a little bit more applicable to this development than regular fast food restaurants like a McDonald's or the Taco Bill that's in the plaza. Um so that's land use code 929, um, if you need the reference for a high capacity fast food restaurant. Um and on top of that, there's other project-related trips that we can take into account. So this is development within the plaza. So there might be some internal capital trip. So that would be someone that's going to uh an adjacent use within the plaza, and then they decide you know they're gonna stay in the parking lot and go to the Chick-fil-A and then exit the site. So that's kind of a shared trip. Um so not all the trips to the site are all new trips. Um the other kind of trip that we take into account when we do our analyses is considered a pass-by trip. So that's a trip that's already on the roadway network, but they might decide you know, on their way to go back the way they were heading. Um so that's a new trip at the site driveway. So we we reroute those trips um in our analysis, but it's not a new trip just based on this specific development. So we take all of those different kinds of trips into account, we distribute them along the roadway network. Um that's based off of the existing travel patterns and the volumes that we collected. Um, and then we use those volumes to analyze the capacity of the study area intersections.

SPEAKER_00 54:49

Um for the purpose of our analysis, there are a couple of different things here, but we didn't think that everyone's gonna use this person closest to enter and exit just as a uh kind of a conservative estimate.

SPEAKER_08 55:03

Um so we have two different conditions in the future that I talked about. We have a future no build analysis, so that's all of those different uh the growth, the one percent growth in the area. We don't have any site-specific developments, but it's the existing seasonal adjusted volumes, the 1% growth analyzed without the project trips in there. Um and then there's the build condition which adds those project trips in there, and those are the two that you really want to compare. Not the existing conditions is more of like a starting baseline. Um so based on our analysis, the no build condition in the future, um, we are showing that the signalize intersection during the Saturday uh peak period may have some operational issues without any other kind of development, you know, in this plaza nearby, just based on general traffic growth. Um the overall level of service, which is how we rank the operation of an intersection, it's on a scale of A to F, with A being better and F being worse. Um on a um the weekday midday and the weekday afternoon was an overall level of service D, and on the weekend um it's an overall level of service E. And again, that's without the project in place, that's just in the future, um, which indicates you know a level service D is generally considered sufficient, but when you start getting into the E and the F, um, that's when it's kind of reaching capacity, you're probably gonna need some other kind of signal timing adjustments or um phasing adjustments, uh, regardless of this development or any other development that would be in this plaza or in the study area. Um so we did look at a mitigated condition, which was some simple phasing and timing adjustments, um, and we were able to get the level of service down um to uh a better condition that kind of more matched the no-build, um, you know, and that's including the new project trip. So obviously the new project trips added to that level of service. Um, it was just gonna continue to operate um kind of at that worse level that we were expecting. Um, but we were able to mitigate that and kind of bring it back to the no-build condition, and that's with the project in place for the plaza driveways specifically. Um there were no level of service concerns, those all operate sufficiently. Even this uh first one were showing level of service, I think C or better. Um, and really it's specific to the car here. We weren't showing too significant a queuing or anything like that. Um, realistically, people do have other options to use, so there is probably a chance that people are going to use another driveway. That other driveway also has sufficient capacity to handle if someone were to decide to go out that driveway instead of the closest one. So no concern specific specifically with the unsignalized intersections. Um, we did look at crashes for the last five years, and that's based on the Mass DOT crash portal. Um, and based on that, all the crash, uh the crash data showed that the intersections are below the statewide and the district five averages. Um, MassDOT did just do some improvements at this intersection. So some of the earlier years that we were looking at, the intersection did have a higher number of crashes, and then after that improvement project was in place, um, there was a significant drop in those crashes. So that crash rate does take into account the couple of higher years before the Mass DOT project came through. So if we were to look at it, you know, in a couple more years, I think that rate would probably go down further than what we had calculated.

SPEAKER_03 58:28

Just dumb it down for a minute. Sure. Like with us, is the impact, is there gonna be an impact? Is it not gonna be an impact? Um I probably think there probably isn't. Rule 44 just been all redone by DOT, all the signalization, all the lights, and they probably anticipated much more blow up, and that's why they arrived at all the stabilization. They did it, they redid the ramp. I mean, you you've seen I don't know if you saw what it was before. Yep, yep, we can see.

SPEAKER_08 59:03

Yeah, there's certainly certain movements, and that's what so each movement kind of doing overall intersection operation, so there's certain movements that maybe are worse than others, um, and that's what's leading to that overall Saturday, even without this development kind of creeping into that level of service B. Um, with the project in place that gets a little bit longer, the delays are a little bit longer. Um, but there's uh mitigator.

SPEAKER_03 59:28

The concern just sounds to be more internal at least.

SPEAKER_01 59:33

Yeah, as far as circulation, yeah, it was more specific to I think people dodging around that market spot. More concerns to be internal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:45

You're saying more understood that's not a big issue. You don't feel I don't have to put it right back.

SPEAKER_13 59:52

Sorry, speak back. Yeah. Yeah, and I I think it the concern is um as you as you enter in through South Street, you're you're sort of facing a car that's parked right here, right across from top of the um so what we were discussing, and this is outside of sort of triple base area, we went coordinating with Kevin and RJ and all that on this correctly, is to eliminate I believe it's four spaces, I can go back to look, but basically just kind of extending this drive out as you enter, removing those four, it's all done strike it, but uh remove these four spaces in the front here. Yeah, and they're just slightly turned. Yeah, too. So you have to put it left right in that plans. Uh it is not just because it's outside of our our lease for particularly, but but it's something we can certainly provide.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:46

The owner's the owner, so we have that to accommodate the use to have to accommodate it, whether it's outside of the lease or not.

SPEAKER_10 1:00:54

Was that the solution? Remember the pre-sept fire of our was that the solution removing those up?

SPEAKER_05 1:01:04

We had another meeting out. Yeah, so that's what we can decided to do that, but I was hoping to see it plan tonight.

SPEAKER_13 1:01:10

Yeah, we could we could certainly share it at uh the next hearing, but yeah, essentially we we were looking at ways to to mitigate you know some of the concerns, and we had a great working session uh just kind of running through different options, and what we sort of went on was just restriking those four spaces and continues going on.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:29

So yeah, I think like something that could be added into the approval that should is it allows us to revisit that if it should be a problem.

Environmental History And AUL

SPEAKER_05 1:01:42

No, I think you you supply as a plan, we'll have the deputy sign up on it and make sure these go through it because uh you know obviously um big concern because it's gonna generate a lot of traffic coming out, so we can revisit it if we have to, because we decide it doesn't work, but we should show us um you're offset.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:10

I'm gonna have a couple comments and go through. We got we got gist of it. The last thing that we checked was just like the son's going through PhD in physics, but here I am. I tried to professional, I don't understand half of what he tells me. So we're kind of the same boat on traffic, and uh you know, so I get it. And you know, I'm not a little it, but the way actually demanded professionalism knowledge. Um the only things I have used is uh you know, I know a lot of that site history. Um the pocket conclusion was one, and I think that's gonna you know you're looking into that. Remember, there was like the laundry mat, and I used to drink a lot of my ties there too with the Kahiti. No, I did I did my laundry after I got through up on that stuff after the Mai Ties. There was a lot of I I thought I remembered there was hazmat issues there and some uh stuff, so I don't know if there's anything in the background but what to clean up and if a site professional gave a clean bell of help, just because you do with food, you know. But I know that area, from what I remember, was a laundry mat, and I knew they had some groundwater contamination and soil contamination, and didn't know if there was something you could provide us that was done by an LSP back then that give us a warm fuzzy feeling.

SPEAKER_14 1:03:44

I don't know, are you the owner of the I am, my name is Kevin Marcus from RK Centers, appreciate the opportunity to be here. Uh obviously property owner here is the applicant property owner on behalf of Chick-fil-A, but yes. What you're referring to is um it's not even on the plan, but uh further down on the backside of Dangeworth and talk about as you come through that directory. There's an AUL in a small area outside the limits of work for Chick-fil-A. Uh Chick-fil-A and their due diligence prior to signing the leagues that hiring Whitestone Associates did multiple phase one and phase two testing, uh, including ground uh in the AUL is actually more or less right behind the building in a very small area. And I believe the A1 uh AUL says that anything deeper than six to eight feet could be contaminated, and that is the only area that we are not allowed to excavate without legal documentation.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:42

So I knew that went back towards the stream and some issues.

SPEAKER_14 1:04:45

Yep, with that we have um we have documentation on all of that, and uh everything is filed with the state and uh, so we are more than happy to share any of that.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:56

Yeah, no, we'd like you to show it. I mean, I don't need to have any big volumes of documentation. I mean if there's an LSP right off, then you can see you know see what the LSP had put down. We can certainly realize I thought the laundry mount was back where that was. Uh I think they and possibly there was a gas station at one point here. There was a gas station on the corner years ago, probably where that ramp is right now was the gas station.

SPEAKER_14 1:05:25

So most of the site that's been cleaned up in the gas station, the AUL from the laundromat is one of the ongoing, and it is monitored on an annual basis, and I think a five-year basis as well, still. And I don't believe that expires until 2040. Um so something that we still do monitor track with the state, provide documentation on. We haven't had any issues, we really haven't done any development um beyond the you know the conversion of the Taco Bell and D'Angelos and swapping tenants, if you will.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:54

Um the gas station was the only use on the whole site, I think, at one point. And I remember when you guys weren't weren't septic and when it went on sewer, we had septic tanks about half the size of this room. Gordon Kirker pulled them out and buried them under his driveway on Logan Street. They're still there. You've got stairs going down into them, they were massive underground tools. They're still underground there.

SPEAKER_14 1:06:22

We unfortunately still have four other properties that are still on septic systems in Massachusetts.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:27

So luckily this is not one of them. Okay, no, I was curious. I knew there were some issues out there, and um I'd imagine Chip filada 2020.

SPEAKER_14 1:06:40

Um they they looked up, down, under, in between before they signed up the top line.

Drive-Thru Queues Parking Snow

SPEAKER_03 1:06:46

Okay, well bring us what you can just so we can you know get a more fuzzy feeling. Absolutely. That's all I have. Um Anthony, I think I do.

SPEAKER_10 1:06:57

Um I may have missed that there was a lot of traffic information going at us. What was the intersection rating after the build? Because you said it was like a D approaching E with a no building.

SPEAKER_08 1:07:09

Sorry, yeah, yeah. Which is not to reference it correctly. So existing, again, as the baseline, everything overall is a level of service D for the signal for all three time periods. For the no build, so without the project in place, but in the future, we're showing a level of service D for the midday and the weekday in the afternoon, and then the Saturday creeps into the E. And then for the build, assuming the same exact timings, phasing are kept in place with the project, those two weekday time frames go from a D to an E, and the weekend the Saturday would go from an E to an F. So with the mitigation, the phasing, timing adjustments, optimization, we're able to bring that back down to the no build condition. So before the project trips are included, it does creep into that kind of E timeframe, but we're able to keep it in that E with the project trips. And that's just changing what kind of optimizations. Yeah, so we looked at a bunch of different options. I think in in this one, it it changes the phasing a little bit too. Um, but it it's um who goes. It's a matter of the phasing and timing essentially. No widening or other kind of thing that we're gonna do. Yeah. So and with that intersection it on the Saturday in the no build compared to the existing conditions, it it would need some kind of timing adjustment in the future, regardless, like I said, of anything else that's kind of going on. Um, because we're assuming that the timings are going to stay the same, but then it's getting worse, so it probably is gonna need some kind of adjustment from future.

SPEAKER_10 1:08:46

Um yeah, uh I believe over this uh we talked about this in the pre one of the pre-constion meetings. Um I've been a check for like at peak, those two dry bottles, what happens if it's spilling out into that dry? So the orderly uh if the traffic is only spilling into the drive line next to the data, if you don't happen.

SPEAKER_13 1:09:19

So you're saying if it spills out beyond it's the drive-thru entrance. So this drive-thru, like the overall length of the drive-thru, it falls within Chick-fil-A's sort of prototype, and that and that is assuming the two lanes from start to finish. Um, that is their their new prototype. This is about 600 feet. Yeah, so this is about, I think it's it's just under 600 feet from or from the window to the entrance, which is where through all their market research and all their restaurants, that's kind of where they the sweet spot of where they want to be for their drive-through. Um, and there's many factors there. So when I I described it during our pre-up, I can quickly run through it now. So Chick-fil-A gives these operators the ability to adjust their drive-thru operations just given their uh their timing, their peak times, their off-peak times. So during the mornings, breakfast isn't a big popular item up here in the northeast. It is down south in that here. The operator will just run this as a single lane driving through. Anyone that's going there that wants to order a breakfast meal is going to enter that inside lane, order at the menu board, proceed to the pickup window, pick up the mail, and leave. It's just one lane, the other lanes are just left open. During their peak time, which can vary in locations, they'll be running both of those lanes, so the inside and the middle lane for ordering. The purpose of the canopies is to allow team members to be in those canopies. It gets the team members out of inclement weather and guests as they're ordering, but it allows them to take multiple orders at a time and take payment, multiple payments at a time too. So you're not just ordering and paying and picking up at the window, you're getting all that done up front, and then as you approach the pickup window, it's it's both a window and a door. P times open is the door, team members exit, they deliver meals to the inside lane and the outside lane that's staggered, and customers exit out into the drive aisle. So when all of that is working efficiently, efficiently during their peak, and they've got the team members out there, the length of this drive-thru is essentially what they're what they're looking for, and that's what they've seen. So if there are if there is any spill over, though, the operator will likely cone off an area here. It is already going to be striped to allow cars to queue in there and not queue in the driveway. So operators are trained, you know, they want they want to be good neighbors, obviously, to the town and to you know an abutting plaza as well, so they will work and make sure that you know that there aren't disruptions like that for their driving.

SPEAKER_10 1:11:57

I do. Nice. Um I know we talked about this, but that mobile lane, the outermost lane, is a very quick entrance and exit lane, so generally that'll be like an open lane for emergency.

SPEAKER_13 1:12:10

Correct, yeah, that is that would serve as kind of like your bypass lane. During even off peak times, you're gonna have sort of two bypass lanes there. And even during peak times, when you do have two lanes of cars, there are team members of the driveway. So if there is an emergency or a vehicle breaks down, they will just have customers exit the drive-thru, park in a parking space, they'll bring their meals onto them. It doesn't happen often, but if it does, they're trained. You know, to do that to allow either emergency to get there or you know, remove that car. That mobile through lane is you know, you're ordering for your app. Through your app, you're arriving on site, they prepare your meal, you enter that mobile through, you're in that outside lane, they deliver your meal, and you're out. So it is it is mobile through, it is it is a quicker way to um you know to pay your meal. So it is becoming more popular here.

SPEAKER_10 1:13:01

And then the last one, this is based on personal experience with Chick-fil-A at Westgate. Um, I will get my meal and it's not a top parking at uh Chick-fil-A, I'll park elsewhere and the parking lot. No issues with that here. I anticipate people to be parking you know in front of it and before. Yeah, so yeah.

SPEAKER_09 1:13:25

Um none of the traffic study was done for did you say you serve breakfast?

SPEAKER_13 1:13:30

We they they do, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 1:13:31

Okay, but no, no, it's not repeat time, is that why there's no traffic on that? Yep.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:37

Yeah, touched on it a little bit. So it like Joey said, breakfast isn't necessarily as popular up in the northeast, so we look at you know what hours a day we want to collect traffic volumes and analyze though based on when we expect those trips to be higher. We look at the midday time frame for uh Chick-fil-A use like this or some other fast food places that that may not have a higher breakfast um uh guest user, I guess. Um so we looked at the midday time frame, which is the lunch is really the popular attraction here in the roadway volumes during that lunchtime.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:14

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_15 1:14:16

Um is this outdoor seating area uh exists on that planet?

SPEAKER_13 1:14:20

So it it this location won't have any outdoor, it's it's just really tight side. So if you're yeah, it's hard on the right-hand side, so I just didn't know. These are like their prototypical elevations for the building, just uh just to identify color you know, break um, etc. on the elevation. But this this location.

SPEAKER_15 1:14:39

Uh again, same thing I said before for the last one of these bars in the front, which are on the plane, little black dots there on each bar. I believe they are. Yes, they are. Yep. Um discussions about snow storage?

SPEAKER_13 1:14:55

Um I think we briefly touched on that.

SPEAKER_15 1:14:59

Like that border, and then obviously now that previous building was shaped like a triangle, so I mean you could stump snow behind that building, but now you've kind of created a full parking perimeter as well as traffic flow that's gonna go, and if we get another 20-inch snowstorm, your greenscape's gonna be kind of trashed. Yeah, also you have the the drive-through, so I'm assuming the power drive will have to go around, push it out, and then he's gonna say, where do I put it? Yeah. I just didn't know if that discussion of it had.

SPEAKER_13 1:15:35

Yeah, I think that Trick filet will manage probably the smaller storms um on site, whether they're storing it in some of these landscape areas, but I believe there's an overall um snow removal you know uh component to the overwhelming plaza. And I'm sure that you know the Trick-File operator will be organiated.

Continuances Peer Review Next Steps

SPEAKER_03 1:15:52

So I got right already. Yeah, we have between that and any that asked me a question. So um nobody on the board has anything else. Is there anyone in the public that any public input? See no hands. Um again, this is like the last proposal that yet to be reviewed, Bob can put you in touch with who's reviewing it. Um, would you like to come back on the 16th as well so we don't stagger these meetings?

SPEAKER_05 1:16:37

Yeah, I mean, so do we have an idea of why that's gonna be? It'll probably start next week. You can call me on Monday. Okay, we'll activate the peer review um company uh early next week. I'm not sure how much time he's gonna be uh take to review your project. You might be able to do it a week, maybe take a few weeks. I don't know. You'll have to discuss that with him.

SPEAKER_13 1:17:01

Yeah, I think what I'd like to do is keep the second. If he is able to review in a week, depending on you know if there are comments, we can review them. But as far as getting plans back, do you need that a week before the hearing to review? I mean, that's what you might want to do.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:18

That's a bad idea to put them on for the second, and if it's not ready, then he's asking.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:24

Knowing that we may not have anything else on the second, and if you're not 100% ready, yeah, rather you're not waste that time. And the way we we do things is you you talk, you know, engineer to engineer. So I mean that is it's your call as far as what you want to do with the continuance. So if you want to make it the second, we actually do have a road acceptance reserve on, and that could get pushed forward to the 16th as well if we had to. I'm not sure that we're taking place by that. Okay, so I entertain a motion to continue this to the second at 605. So second. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay, I guess we'll either see you then or we'll see you on the 16th ahead of time if you're not 100% ready via email, because I'm sure the time to act must be at least till the end of the month. Past the 16th month. Time to act on this.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:39

Um the 25th. It's not the 26th on the time.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:42

Okay. So try to do it by the Tuesday before give us a request that they go to the 16th and the second.

SPEAKER_13 1:18:53

Once we have the section, we're not like you know there's going to be a few resources. We're not gonna have time to reply to that. So I can say we'll be here after that.

Town Updates ADUs New Projects

SPEAKER_03 1:19:06

Until Albumori and they they contact us to take care of us after. Okay, good luck. Appreciate it. Thank you. Um okay, invoices, bills, we did them. Old business, new business.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:25

Is there anything but all business of it? Or or do we want to go through okay? All the above, yeah, I'll be very good to alternate. Um public hearing, we need to put that together if I pass it around. Does anyone have any comments or any corruption that are added to this one for the menu? Uh, we need to have public error so we can put that on the agenda.

unknown 1:19:56

We have compared what we have.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:58

We got this updated to extract what we've not uh accepted by the AG. So pretty straightforward. I think we need to have something. Uh it gives us some guidelines, and uh, you know, some towns have them and some towns don't, but I think it's a good idea to have it. So I agree. How many of you have? Um we have about uh 26 so far in 13 minutes, and they they come in, they come in fasten carriers. So you know how many more internal or separate? Most of them are attached, you know, most of them are finished basements, finished over garage faces. I haven't had one detached yet. But uh yeah, there's a lot of people who are in the planning stage, and there's a lot of things that look like looked into a couple hundred grand. They're not cheap. Um small hops, rent it up? Yeah. Oh my god. So yeah, so we need to think about that. Um I finally get the approval today from uh town administrator to uh engage with SERPED uh so we can finalize that uh 138 overlay bylaw, which will probably bring forward in the fall. We don't have a time to springtime meeting. But that's something we can work on in the next several months and get it ready for the fall. Uh, we're gonna have to have at least two public hearings to get some input. Um, so that's gonna be something I work on in the month of April. Um a lot of people have called me, asked me what's going on with the Shah's. I mean the stop and shop plaza. I reached out today to the owner and the contractor. They're just about to break ground on that. Um, the lot that they subdivided for the citizens bank is no longer gonna be a citizen bank. Citizen bank can relocate to Tottenham and leave Radium. They found a spot over the line further up on 144. So that lot is uh available for uh anyone who wants to develop it. Tax rates. Um I got a phone call today from the owners of Market Basket. Uh so your agenda is gonna you know ramp up a little bit here in the next few months. Market Basket is uh planning to uh re-renovate their plaza. Their renovation is gonna include a total demolition of what's there, and it's gonna be a brand new building, brand new parking lot, no rental units, all market basket. So that's an exciting project for the town. Uh I'm gonna meet with them next week and then I'll be setting up a uh uh pre-submission meeting once they plans up to the point where we can uh review them. So I would imagine sometime this summer uh you'll get you'll get on that previous. Um and then also um the uh 1000 Route 44. Uh we have an application coming in for that location. Uh that's gonna be a car dealership. So they're still car dealership. So I got a phone call from them. Uh they're working on their plan. They're looking to get a uh department head meeting on that. Um specifically, it's gonna be an electric car dealership, so I'm not sure the branding, but that's what I'm using. But I'll keep it closer to the more information. Um other than that, yeah. I just want to let you know that you know it's been quiet, but it looks like we're gonna you know get a little more activity in the months coming. Okay, good to hear.

Closing Accounts And Adjournment

SPEAKER_03 1:23:39

Um okay, we have project review account closing. So these are all accounts, 295. This is what I'm assuming, New State Highway, Hanoush, Thousand New State Highway, Thousand New State Highway Industrial. That's what I just talked about. Yeah, five, but so that these are reviewed from the prior submission previously. Um 539 South Street East. Genoa, wow, Greymoor Woods. That's one I haven't heard. Genoa, that was uh what's his name? Asher and Basher. Bisher, Bisher Hasher. That's Bob Campbell's thing. Yeah, I did work on the Braymore, that's our old one. So would you like a motion to release all unused funds on these listed um accounts? Is it all dead? Okay, I entertain a motion to that effect. So moved. Second. Second. Any discussion?

SPEAKER_05 1:24:50

Is everyone else interested now?

SPEAKER_03 1:24:52

Okay. Um all in favor? Aye. So that's uh three ayes and an abstention. Okay, so you did your update anything exciting at Seraphid? No. No? Okay.

SPEAKER_09 1:25:09

One of these days I might have something, but not right now.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:12

Yeah, no, we just you know, you're the new other new person.

SPEAKER_09 1:25:16

I'm not doing my job because I never have anything to do.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:18

No, it's it's not even, you don't even have to go. At the end of April, if you know nobody does a sticker campaign, Frank Lindsaws, and he inherits that. He inherits that. So no public comments, any plans to be signed? Okay, I guess that's it. Um next meeting, April 2nd. Um I did detain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second? Second. All in favor?

SPEAKER_06 1:25:51

All right, okay, good meeting. Thank you.