Speakers labeled via automated voice-based diarization + AI name-matching against the city's official roster. Automated transcription can still mis-hear a name during fast speech (e.g. a rapid roll-call vote) -- clear near-misses are auto-corrected, but this is not manually verified line-by-line. Treat names as a strong best guess, not an official record.
[7:12] Speaker A (unidentified): I don't think we're great. Tony is Tony still on this one? No, I think no, I didn't
[7:22] Speaker B (unidentified): think. I don't know if he formally resigned or not. I think he's traveling, not for work.
[7:27] Speaker C (unidentified): I don't know. Yeah, I'll reach out to him and just, I think, yeah, he's backing off something, but I can't, it wasn't, it's sort of that's busy and busy on the economic as well. He had
[7:38] Speaker B (unidentified): been, I thought he backed off and it went down, so he was on both, so I'm not sure if he was
[7:43] Speaker C (unidentified): backing up. I think he's on this. Well, I have, I've sent him the minutes each time and he hasn't
[7:48] Speaker A (unidentified): sent me an email, so we can take him in. I haven't just said anything as far as I can see, exciting. Yeah, if he's saying that she's winning, I guess so, then I didn't think about it. I didn't either. I have a short sentence. Can we say, we have a conversation towards the end about the fact is that we need a policy that includes a recommendation policy around aesthetics, remember? Yeah, and I'll read it very quickly. If it's on, I'd love it to be there.
[8:24] Speaker B (unidentified): It wasn't around aesthetics.
[8:26] Speaker A (unidentified): That's great. Yeah, it's a short sentence.
[8:28] Speaker D (unidentified): If you give me a minute, I can pull up on the screen. Okay.
[8:31] Speaker C (unidentified): can't actually go to my point of just looking at this thing. Yeah, just like YouTube is under the
[8:35] Speaker A (unidentified): black screen. Oh really? Yeah, you build this, it's not anymore, sorry. You know, once, oh yeah, see, that's what it was. Oh, it's just us with the historic nature of the time. Yeah, I didn't miss that. I just
[8:52] Speaker B (unidentified): read the minutes, but I probably didn't read them very well, but it's not that I didn't see that.
[9:01] Speaker D (unidentified): Can I see now we're
[9:21] Speaker A (unidentified): live, by the way. That's, that's all right, I
[9:30] Speaker D (unidentified): can't say it, can
[9:43] Speaker E (unidentified): you give me, why can you claim post, oh, hosting privileges?
[9:54] Speaker B (unidentified): All members are asked to bring topics, so that's the research and assignments to create forward momentum.
[10:04] Speaker C (unidentified): I didn't, I didn't remember it with that now, but I will, I will add something, more.
[10:13] Speaker A (unidentified): So the names are now up here, so we are making, I think suggesting the data. Hello everybody, I have none, so I asked if we could just have another item that reflects our discussion about the need for some sort of language.
[10:41] Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah, because we did actually discuss that, I think I was just talking and didn't. So, I will add a last item that says that we should propose language, policy language
[10:53] Speaker A (unidentified): in evaluating new housing and something that is sort of engaged with the target.
[11:00] Speaker C (unidentified): Right. I mean, not that this is what I'm going to put, but something that will prevent just somebody putting a box, you know, on their property. How can you do that? Well, I don't know. Let me talk about it. Yeah. Okay.
[11:17] Speaker A (unidentified): Otherwise, apart from that addition, does anybody, is there, you know, a proposal to re-accept the minutes? I so move. And I'm second. And... Hi. Okay. Hi.
[11:38] Speaker D (unidentified): Sorry, now I'm just looking for my... Okay.
[11:41] Speaker A (unidentified): Okay, so the first item on the agenda is maybe two parts, but is to hear Aimee, did you
[11:48] Speaker D (unidentified): get to the meeting, the Poop meeting in Blue Hill?
[11:51] Speaker A (unidentified): I did. Last time we met. Could you give us a brief report back on that meeting? And that was the meeting about Poop in Blue Hill and they were discussing all the work they've done and listening to public comments about what people want.
[12:06] Speaker B (unidentified): Right. And I, what I thought I would do is share,, basically, the group talked about what they've been doing, and some of the information that they've been putting together. And the information that they presented, in general, this isn't a presentation, but this is the website that they put together for the project. So it's communityscale.com slash blue dash hill dash hoop Slap.
[12:45] Speaker C (unidentified): Communityscale.com slash who again?
[12:48] Speaker B (unidentified): Slash blue dash hill dash hoop slash again. Little forward slash here.
[13:00] Speaker E (unidentified): Where are you looking?
[13:03] Speaker C (unidentified): oh scale.com slash good bill okay so
[13:18] Speaker B (unidentified): so this just they describe first of all the 10 you know the 10 towns on the initiative they are planning to put together a housing a toolkit. I don't know exactly what that's going to look like, but they are, they will include case studies for a couple of, two or three, there's two they have designed, to help streamline the development and provide a rural concept and a village infill sort of scenario and those case studies will include water wastewater infrastructure concerns with both traditional and modular or manufactured building types they've come up with a couple with several design potential designs that's their survey really wanting to survey they put up some so they had yeah they had the mode was that they put up several housing designs and they're not detailed plans but they put up a few designs just yeah people do use stickers and say what they liked best and they've got a lot of analysis so but this i would encourage everybody to have a look at the website there's a lot in here
[14:58] Speaker A (unidentified): They also had a survey, right, that you sent up? You did. You sent us a link to their survey.
[15:07] Speaker B (unidentified): I thought that was some time back.
[15:11] Speaker A (unidentified): Could well be that was me looking at it while I was traveling.
[15:15] Speaker C (unidentified): I don't think there was a survey attached with this.
[15:19] Speaker B (unidentified): It is this again. Yeah. I'm not sure if this is, do I have the right website here? Is it Hoop? No, it was Blue Hill. But there was a whole lot of, I feel
[15:36] Speaker C (unidentified): like I'm not in the right place. You look like you're in the community scale.
[15:40] Speaker B (unidentified): Yeah, exactly. Website. Yeah.
[15:44] Speaker F (unidentified): They have explored the data here at the bottom of that first page that you were on.
[15:48] Speaker A (unidentified): You did say something on the 9th, this is the 10th?
[15:54] Speaker B (unidentified): Yeah, here it is. This is it. So this is their dashboard for HOOP. So it's useful if we're, you know, going after a grant for something or getting a regional picture, not just a
[16:12] Speaker C (unidentified): a town-specific picture. Do you know if anybody has initiated anything in any of these communities
[16:20] Speaker B (unidentified): that have been involved has initiated anything, so like several towns got together and started anything? So what is being discussed is a some type of not-for-profit that would be that would come out with this project, not so much from community scale directed, but representatives from Surrey, let's say Surrey and Sedgewick, or Surrey and Sedgewick in particular, and Dan's been very involved as well, I as sort of driving founding members type of thing. They'd like to, sorry, said you can't see, yes, just as a starting point. So it's it's it's being done on the basis of individuals and not the towns. Okay, so some individuals who have been involved in this project are starting to talk about how to put together a not-for-profit that would focus on regional solutions and perhaps they're still putting that not being a service provider for different, you know, for different needs, and I really it hasn't really consolidated or gelled, but there is some discussion going on. Just excuse me, Aina, yes, yesterday or Monday at the selectmen's meeting, Dan announced that they were going to perform to form a non-profit and that was all set, and I don't, I don't remember, I remember the fourth town being Sedgwick, but I don't know, but it doesn't go any better. It's just that they've gone another step. But it's not the towns who are doing that, it's individuals actually that are from the towns, right? So it's not, the town is not forming a non-profit. Those individuals get sort of a little separate from the group project, but the message during this community consultation was that we need to do more than just your body analysis and come up with some housing you know templates and some case studies. Unless you have people who are really willing to work across the Peninsula and create something you know it's just a lot of all, and so those individuals have gotten together and are taking steps to do that.
[18:47] Speaker A (unidentified): And is the significance of being individuals in such towns about being able to move nimbly?
[18:52] Speaker B (unidentified): Well also that the town is not making a financial commitment to this other non-profit, we might benefit from it, we might engage with it, we might use their assistance, but it is not being driven by municipal governments if that makes sense. They wanted they need to do some fundraising, they have identified a one candidate as a potential director you know, they will probably go out and look at others, but they need to their feelings that I've sat in on some of these, they 'd like to raise money hire a director they need to develop their scope to work and they're really their mind language value propositions for different for different types of activities. So they want it right now, they're open in terms of would they directly be involved in a house managing the housing development, would they simply provide advice and resources to a different group that might be wanting to put together a housing development, do they want to manage things in the future, they're not closing any doors right now but they also haven't defined the details. They have simply decided that in order to raise money they need they need a few family directors and they need to be an entity to which funding they need, so that's so that's so that also is being called, so it gets a little you know it can be confusing right, but this has an opportunities on that peninsula is the name, they fit into this collaborative project working consultancy I they when we got them to this is one of the consultation meetings they had this is not the ngo this is the this is this is the project yeah the project okay the grant funded yes project yeah and technically casting Christine has is the nominal leader right and they are they're working on this toolkit might include some of these plans we've asked them specifically to change one of their deliverables to a sort of a calculator that would that would look at what are the different variables that go into a very specific housing project and how can you tweak those variables to really identify what your, what your target price point is, you know, how many, what's the cost per square foot, what's your financing rate, what's your land cost, what's your, what's your estimate for, you have some of the other, some of the other components, and it can all get wrapped up in dollars per square foot, but it might be conformance. I'm not exactly sure what the calculator is going to look like, but they have done that point of work and we thought that's, I mean, that's one of the questions that Doug, who's asking, like, I know what, how much to, what's something, you know, what I need to be targeting towards, this transition is this, I'll see
[22:06] Speaker A (unidentified): that this calculator deliverable, are they wrapping things up and saying before you go, please
[22:11] Speaker B (unidentified): give us that? Yes, yeah, we've replaced one of their other less useful deliverables with that, so they're wrapping up in December, that's what they're, they're shifting towards and or working towards, and they'll have various tool kits
[22:31] Speaker F (unidentified): I, this is sort of the time, let's go down a little bit on this page to the, I'm on the fair as well, they have this question a little bit like we have the housing affordability in Blueville Peninsula, so we'll bring it up from there, yeah, and then affordability gaps, if you click on affordability gaps, it's right below the charter of housing, you scroll down a little bit with this red stuff, you see the red stuff, and then keep going a little bit, keep going a little bit, and then that, if you click down on that in this chart, that's helpful. Yeah. So it's showing Castine and Orland in a very different, that we have a surplus and all the others are spread. A surplus of what? Affordability. Can we talk through the chart? It looks like in Blue Hill, they're saying the typical home is $507,000, the affordable to median is $390,000. that 's like we're supposed to understand this chart more yeah that's okay it's a good question
[23:39] Speaker C (unidentified): I have not looked closely at this chart. Okay, is it affordability? I just read the little thing that you click on. What does it say? Affordability to medium. Yeah, affordability medium. So here.
[24:09] Speaker B (unidentified): I don't know where they're getting their typical price from, because that may be a medium to an average. It so again, well, and also I don't know what has this one for 307. That's like for me, yes, the issue like you know the two of you brought up with data from the beginning. This is why they do all their graphs and charts. It is interesting, but where they get their data from is really kind of one can ask questions. So I asked a lot of questions when they were first tired, right? They never were answered. Yeah, so I mean, and this is where do you get your data, right? And this is why we have a sense of what the problem is. These are some facts and figures based on available data. Available data is flawed, and why we've, why they've been pressured a little bit over time to adjust their scope of work to include some practical tools, because the data it looks good, but it really doesn't help us that much.
[25:21] Speaker C (unidentified): It's the same story when we went to see, Sarah and I went to see Greg Paduke in Ellsworth, the running director, whatever he is. You know, he said the same thing. It's just, it's all questionable in that period.
[25:35] Speaker F (unidentified): He was really nice. He's like, this is what is published. Right.
[25:40] Speaker B (unidentified): And they are required to use that, certainly for comprehensive planning and stuff like that. But if there's nothing else, that's what they use.
[25:46] Speaker G (unidentified): The data is from the American Community Survey, which is done by the census, which is the same data we used for comprehensive plan.
[25:53] Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah. We were asking about it.
[25:57] Speaker G (unidentified): 2010 through 2024.
[25:59] Speaker B (unidentified): But so, you know, I think it's not a great use of time to focus in on all of this.
[26:03] Speaker F (unidentified): Yeah, I was just like, does everyone else understand this chart?
[26:06] Speaker B (unidentified): Yeah. Fair, very fair point. And so what I would just say is there's information on this website, I somewhat flood data but there's, there's you know there's illustration of things like I
[26:22] Speaker F (unidentified): Well, it's a really good, even if the data isn't accurate, it's a really good guide when we think about data in terms of what you want to know, what should we try to be collecting, what you know, we could say there's this. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a really good guy. Yeah.
[26:42] Speaker B (unidentified): And there is interesting information here, for example, short-term rental market. Again, not everything is reported in it. I'm not sure where this specific data came from. But certainly it's probably roughly on par, like, you know, MDI area has the highest number of price percentage.
[27:01] Speaker C (unidentified): Realty or some rankings, yeah.
[27:03] Speaker B (unidentified): Yeah, on this sort of broader Blue Hill Peninsula, within the 8%, 9% range, which is significantly less than necessarily the problem isn't that bad.
[27:19] Speaker A (unidentified): But this committee, are we recommending that we just kind of look at it and get a sense of?
[27:25] Speaker B (unidentified): This is just background.
[27:28] Speaker D (unidentified): So I don't want to spend too much time with this.
[27:29] Speaker B (unidentified): It's just this is an interesting information source we'll be getting a few products out of, you know, it's good to know what they've produced, and it's there will be a few, a few more slightly flexible products out of the food project. I and I again the people involved had said it's unless you want to do something next it's not going to help us that, and so individual towns are working on their own thing, right, and I this is where we sort of might come to, we could wrap this up and come to this Document that I shared on with anything you can copy on, sort of a perhaps more, I'm hoping, more coherent way of talking about what the housing community is doing. One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four.
[28:36] Speaker A (unidentified): One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four.
[28:44] Speaker B (unidentified): It's the same thing as if you didn't have one. So the project is continuing to work the way they've got three more months. They're working on some deliverables. The most interesting thing is that some people are getting together and want to pick this step up and continue to move forward. I think they have a share, I think they have a fifty thousand dollar promise of money that they've asked the hoop committee to match, yeah, who's there that those four people, those people from those four towns that are starting, somebody from that group, if we really has said if we're really, if we have a serious plan I will provide a 50% $50,000 starting point. So they're moving along. So it's the casting person. Yeah.
[29:45] Speaker F (unidentified): OK, just sort of our non-profit person there.
[29:49] Speaker B (unidentified): As an individual, I'm also a little bit involved. So OK, great. Just great. Yeah, a little bit. I won't be offering $50,000. I'll offer you $50,000.
[29:59] Speaker D (unidentified): Come on. I know. I can't believe it's more than.
[30:03] Speaker B (unidentified): So that's the hook stuff. Stuff. We could, we could move on to priorities. I think that's a more useful thing than for me to show the files. I didn't pass a copy. Sorry? Did you pass a copy?
[30:19] Speaker D (unidentified): Oh, I'm sorry. Just think of my email. You have a copy here. Yeah, so it fits. There's three different documents about that.
[30:30] Speaker B (unidentified): Yeah, one is the point. The other one that I sent you was just an example from the Ecomon development group and this is, it's, I think you have to sit down and look at it, so if you know
[30:39] Speaker C (unidentified): Sorry, but just, we're just, you know, we're going to discuss housing subcommittee, sure and
[30:45] Speaker B (unidentified): That is that I want to provide, I just want to provide the context that the strategic framework document on Wednesday is a draft version that's just saying what is, if that the town has to do to do what are you trying to do and how are, how does work under any of these subcommittees or working groups support what the town is doing. Sorry, does housing, that's under
[31:14] Speaker C (unidentified): That, well, you're talking about the Cassidy strategic, yeah, exactly, yeah, is this from the
[31:19] Speaker B (unidentified): Comprehensive, yeah, so I have, I've, Roberta and I have been speaking about how the comprehensive plan is so complex, so duplicated, it's, we thought let's just throw back the booking groups and you guys figure it out and it's proved really unworkable, yeah, so I, really, housing supports the economic base and fiscal capacity strategy, I number three there, provide methods to invest, increase local, regional housing options that can to meet all target groups with special attention to essential workers Families and seniors, so that's really where this housing group kind of fits into that, I, think I, at some point I've had some stuff, things but they're not here, so but basically within four, okay, so moving to the housing, so then we go to the housing committee and again this is for your feedback, this, you guys can own this, is a first draft to get me started thinking, I break it down a little bit differently than previous efforts but you will see what we've talked about before reflected there And we sort of decided to call each of the buckets markets, sort of initiative areas, and so one is on data analysis, one is on sort of the bigger picture of financing, building developments, incentive programs, and I thirdly there may, this might is not necessarily a, you know, but again this, you might want to think about over five years, but certainly, we should be collaborating in some way. Anything we do in Pasadena will be supportive of a regional expansion of housing. And then digging into sort of some more detail areas, the zoning and ordinance considerations, which we started to talk about, is another bucket. And then really focusing on middle entry and family housing versus seasonal workers housing versus senior housing. And there might be certain tactics or approaches for each one. I didn't flesh out actions in each instance, but I included them where I thought that we already had some dialogue about how what this group or individuals in a group might work on. This doesn't mean you're working on all this stuff all at the same time all this year, but there might be some things that individuals want to pick out and say I want to, I want to work on this, maybe I want to flesh out one of our tactics, or there's one of those action points that 's something that we think is really important as this group to move forward sooner rather than later and there's stuff missing here right but it's the starting a close you know more of a starting point in a little bit more of a i hope coherent structure it's clear what the layers are and again maybe some tweaking of language because they're not quite right but they're for you guys to work with a little bit
[34:41] Speaker F (unidentified): Can I ask a big question? Yes. When we are talking about housing, are we using that as the term that covers both rental housing and the opportunity to buy something? Yes. Yeah, I mean in terms of what the
[34:59] Speaker B (unidentified): The town needs. Doesn't mean this group is going to produce everything.
[35:03] Speaker F (unidentified): Right. So, but I think when I've been chatting with people just about how... Wait, it doesn't really mean anything. And it's like, chatting with people is just really interesting because people all immediately go to what impacts them the most. And so everyone can read anything that we publish. They're going to filter it through their own lens
[35:19] Speaker D (unidentified): If we're not... To just be more specific from what... Yes.
[35:21] Speaker B (unidentified): And then, by the way, that's why this deals with both of those things. Because there are different strategies for different aspects and I and every it's all where a lot there's a lot of venn diagramming going on where one thing makes something else possible or two
[35:44] Speaker C (unidentified): Approaches can solve a problem. It's interconnected. So I look at this and again I'm new to testing
[35:50] Speaker A (unidentified): seen in all of this and so I'd love clarification on this. Seems a lot for a little committee of people who meet, you know, meet whenever. That's, that's right. Yeah, so to me some of this just seems way beyond the, anyways, beyond the scope or whether it's ability or with, so I don't see that.
[36:13] Speaker B (unidentified): This, yeah, so all of these things are like the things that should probably happen. The group's role in this might be quite, in one of these things, that's where we get down to the actions. The action might be actually quite discrete or quite small, maybe my office is handling it, or.
[36:31] Speaker A (unidentified): Or maybe it's, maybe this might be a recommendation to me. I mean, I'm happy, I mean, again, you know, I might be wrong, but where I think support the document, sure, you know, I'll support either in the time, but when it's, it starts saying the benefit mapping survey does, you know, it puts.
[36:49] Speaker B (unidentified): The drill I'm supposed to look, so this is this, you know, so I guess I've got some sense.
[36:55] Speaker A (unidentified): From the committee, but they think if the right scope for us to do is, my sense would be to identify and then recommend to people who have the expertise and full-time jobs to do whatever, at which point they could say we're over well, right? I guess the issue is, the issue is that.
[37:12] Speaker B (unidentified): These working groups are intended to get something done, not just talk. And so, yeah. And there's no way that six volunteers can take responsibility for all these things. But what I think is important is that it's really clear what the linkages are. So it may be that the initiative is something that the town is responsible for, but and the tactic is what is this approach that we all are agreeing that this is the approach that this group, that somebody in this group is trying to support with the specific patterns that they're doing, and I've got all kinds of typos in here, ground sourced information, what.
[37:59] Speaker C (unidentified): What was that supposed to be?
[38:01] Speaker A (unidentified): Let me do that.
[38:03] Speaker B (unidentified): It's about mapping survey and ground. In fact, you guys started with mapping. Well, yeah.
[38:17] Speaker C (unidentified): One of the things, for example, Sarah and I sort of formed the data and analysis committee way back when we were first starting. And our goal was to create a map of Kasteen that was color coded, that would allow us to understand like where the rentals were, and other information like that, you know, maybe it's not one map, but that kind of thing. And so of course, we figured how are we going to get that information and some of it's available, but a lot of it would be voluntary.
[38:56] Speaker A (unidentified): And Gabe, your expertise, can you...
[38:59] Speaker G (unidentified): Actually, I have it open right now. Yeah. But you can... I'll show it out there.
[39:04] Speaker A (unidentified): So, again, we have you now. So are there things we can say we'd love to know more, Gabe, can you...
[39:09] Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah, and the point of that was so that we could understand the way we are right now. Yes. You know, so that we can go, you know, forward in these various directions. And I think we sort of, I mean, Dave helped with a lot of that, but I don't think we ever achieved that goal.
[39:31] Speaker F (unidentified): Now, and part of what we've learned, or that I learned, I don't want to speak for Debbie. She's been here much longer than I probably knew this. Part of what I learned through this process and through the town meeting in May of 2025, 25, so last time we did, is how high sensitive housing is at the top in Cassine, how sensitive rental housing is, how complicated the relationship is between the town and its rental properties actually is, and how we are not just going to be able to ask people for that information.
[40:10] Speaker B (unidentified): On the other hand right now I mean yeah no absolutely but I do think that the template that you guys came up with is really valuable and could be Gabe's really very good with Maps and you know something he can work on over the winter is filling that out what I don't want this group to do is like come up with 100 tasks and get them to game okay give them to me i but i do want us to think together about what information you know is needed and where people would like to play a role and as we Then talk about you know how do we go about these different tactics or approaches what you know something might be a nice idea to have in three years, but, you know, we're going to work on that in year two, or, you know, like, looking, for example, if you, know, there's a lot of interest around data analysis, the kind of stuff that, again, HOOP has on its website, it's so high level, right? But really, if we're looking at what site evaluation should look like for a housing project or housing development that somebody was proposing perhaps this group would want to identify and you're not the planning board but sort of think through like what are what questions are the neighbors going to ask? What are the criteria for decision-making, the criteria for input, the questions that should be part of a community consultation on some of these related issues? I could see those are things, those are things that a diverse group of town members with some deeper knowledge than average on the topic can really help us figure out, and that then helps the town staff do their job in site evaluation for setting priorities, right? So it's not that you're taking responsibility for all of these things, but that I would like us to kind of identify some pretty concrete doable things that then support one of these things that need to happen. But if we're just coming up with ideas here and there, but that aren't part of the coherent whole of what the town needs to do, then it doesn't hang together. I think that's the problem we've had.
[42:56] Speaker F (unidentified): Pamela, to answer your question about what could we do, I mean, again, just my perspective or opinion, whatever you want to describe it. I would love for this committee in nine to twelve months if we are publishing a four to five things report outlining current information about housing, whatever, you know, sort of whatever analysis, you know, some of the data that who has that is specifically relevant to us, we're finding that, right? Is there an idea and or two? Is there a case study? I might be able to offer a case study. We've talked about that, the personal case study on survivor that we have, right? So like that. And then with the goal, I think one of the big first steps of Debbie, I know Chris talked about this, but I'll speak for you again, is that we can publish and it can be distributed, you know, it can be on the website. We can talk about it. It could be like, this is why housing is important. This is why people need to care. Here are the next steps. Here are questions we're going to be asking, but actually publishing something that is It's easy to digest, it's not a 400 page or whatever it is. It's pretty, it has color, they're graphic, whatever. But it's like, here, this is housing, this is why it's important. Because I have to tell you, I mean, until I became involved with this, was not really aware, and I'm even more aware. But a lot of the towns, they're not, and I think that's fine. It's our, to me, our big responsibility is to communicate and educate. Really that seems to me like a really big of the first step that we could actually achieve yeah.
[44:37] Speaker B (unidentified): I would like to add another piece to that. I think we started maybe last time, we started trying to identify what projects could be done sooner rather than later, or what property might be available, or such an example is the fire state, the old fire station. I mean, that needs to probably be a pretty specific build out for workforce housing, for example. And then there's the Douglas area, then there's senior housing, and then there's the property that lies between XYZ and different big properties that could take some more units.
[45:29] Speaker F (unidentified): And in the report, we could have, you know, a brief analysis, a snapshot, you know, information so that people are receiving that.
[45:40] Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah, but I want to do something about this. Always do something. Oh, 100%.
[45:46] Speaker F (unidentified): The idea that, like, anything's going to happen with the fire station in the next year, you
[45:51] Speaker C (unidentified): know, what is that? That would be... Well, I mean... I mean, yes. It's it is an easy project because eventually however many years down right now
[46:00] Speaker B (unidentified): Yes, I know what do you need how many how many units could go in there what do you mean what can that property take so do you have to tear down the bill so without getting into support into the specifics so under developing data and analysis this is an analysis and you report how to do analysis say this right that I you would be you need to identify what your criteria are for reviewing suitability which is exactly what you're talking about not just you're jumping straight to the analysis but What are the points that you want to look at and describe for any of the properties that you're looking at and I was going to mention that we are going and that's for looking at that's exactly the site evaluation question is what you're what you're asking and you're not saying you want to do a professional you know there was some idea that the prior group members wanted to hire somebody to spend one to spend fifty thousand dollars and we're doing a essentially site analysis and building plan I Think you're talking about working at a broader and less specific level but I see producing a report is sort of one of the final actions after you've after you've gone through a couple of steps and you will be talking to other groups you'll be having community consultations and so forth because we need to have in the report?
[47:40] Speaker F (unidentified): Not simply like, oh, we can handle this, but why? I think the biggest question that the report needs, in my mind, again, this is just my little report in my head right now, we don't have to do this, is like, why? I mean, it's always, why are we talking about housing? I would say a lot of the time it's not talking about housing at all. Most. So we go into it with this like, oh, we need to do this, and it's like, there's
[48:03] Speaker B (unidentified): So that meets a public advocacy goal, which is important, and I think we need to do more than that. But I think that to get to that public advocacy goal, you will be doing several other practical things that will benefit a number of these other objectives. Yes, I also think that there's 24 that I think Craig is releasing 24 rooms for rentals for next year. And that's big. Yeah, who is a great
[48:41] Speaker F (unidentified): MLA here, right? Because that's what they really want to do is sell to groups. I remember how's it the dorms will be done at the end of this year, the end of the year, but I've also talked to students to say the dorms are really not that different.
[49:28] Speaker D (unidentified): Well, for example, should somebody go and check him?
[49:32] Speaker B (unidentified): I've chatted with him recently.
[49:36] Speaker C (unidentified): He's easy to check.
[49:38] Speaker D (unidentified): He's too busy to be honest. I know.
[49:41] Speaker B (unidentified): He has chosen not to delegate somebody.
[49:47] Speaker A (unidentified): That'd be great, if I could challenge Jeff, I mean, you know, but we do need someone that's
[49:52] Speaker B (unidentified): our biggest, I mean, yeah, I think it's huge. So, and maybe, well, I know we won't spend an hour, but we could, I could, I wanted to cover a number of different things, but,
[50:07] Speaker F (unidentified): I, do have a question, and then I just really want to be part of the next, The rooms that you would release would be technically considered substandard or not they would have a kitchen or would they?
[50:19] Speaker B (unidentified): No, they're dorm rooms. So dorms. Yeah. Okay.
[50:22] Speaker F (unidentified): So that is technically substandard housing if you don't have access to a kitchen.
[50:26] Speaker B (unidentified): But there are, you know, I think like on the floor there's a microwave and all, whatever.
[50:31] Speaker F (unidentified): Right. So like learning some of that data, because that could have been too much.
[50:34] Speaker B (unidentified): And then there's the, there's Sodexo, I think, Sodexos.
[50:38] Speaker F (unidentified): Yeah. But they're only open in the summer, right?
[50:41] Speaker B (unidentified): Well, it's for summer seasonal workers is the argument.
[50:46] Speaker C (unidentified): So this kind of goes back to the data and analysis, which is another thing that I think people in the town are not aware of, and that is how many both current and potential employees there are in Casteen, people who work in Casteen. It is a very big number.
[51:11] Speaker B (unidentified): So, I went to him on a meeting. We prepared an economic survey for businesses in town. Second round, people didn't respond going into the busy season. It has finally agreed to do some for that survey. We'll pick that up in the next month. And it includes the questions that have been requested to ask people about employees and where they live, et cetera, et cetera. So we also, on the survey in front, we will also in the next month be compiling the results of the rental housing survey, and that includes a lot more data than it has in the past and a lot more specifics. We'll see how well it's filled out, et cetera, et cetera. There's probably maybe a few people who don't respond, but it is, it compulsory? I mean, it is required, but there. So in order to, it is compulsory, but there are, there's, there are no penalties.
[52:24] Speaker A (unidentified): From your point of view, and then you get to on the select board, what do you if you would say number one thing that you need this committee to do even if it's in order to do the kind of report I like to have a report but I think you know that's a great problem what is the thing what is the thing that you just fish out you know we wish someone would take on also understand that you know yeah
[52:49] Speaker B (unidentified): So my wish is that individuals in the group would pick up an area that they are interested in and pick out something in here or something related to something in here and work on it. We cannot, you guys are not gonna get anything done with one hour group discussions every two weeks or once a month. Nothing is gonna happen. Or you're not gonna get anything finished, right? And so there's a lot of opportunity this year for the people who are on the group to get engaged in an area that they're interested in. And I can go through this. I had been trying to be comprehensive. I know that you want us to prioritize. I know that, but that housing needs, that housing is an overwhelming topic. You need to have a grip on what's involved. And then pick out some things that you would like to move forward.
[53:57] Speaker A (unidentified): I think what would be helpful, like hearing what you're doing and doing the survey on rentals and all the things, you know, like for example when I see on the middle entry family housing, I'm very happy to be some sort of liaison with M&A to go and chat to people and find out if, to find out more data, if that's already making its way to some data to funnel gay people. I guess I'd like to know where we superfluous and where we essential.
[54:28] Speaker C (unidentified): And I'd like to ask if there's some sort of a prioritizing that we need to do, because it seems wasteful in a way to jump into something that we might find we have an interest in or know something about, but there's so many steps that need to happen before that.
[54:49] Speaker B (unidentified): So can I think one person, yes, so Pat is an observer with
[54:54] Speaker F (unidentified): they can just have their show, yeah, don't you hear me, yeah, yes, it's I'm extensively involved in casting for a very long time.
[55:07] Speaker B (unidentified): So my question is, are you going to try and focus just on rentals, number one? Number two, how many rental units are there in town? What is anticipated over the next five years, right? Is that our sole purpose, or are we going to flip over to single-family housing? So, I think the group has been, to date, more focused on increasing housing without really focusing. There's been very little discussion on the rent and stuff. I bring that up because I've been trying to come up with a plan to work on that, and it is a related bucket. And if we are looking comprehensively at what the town needs to get done, we need to have a comprehensive look. I have another question on this. Does the state offer funds or education to come to communities to talk with them to highlight what is needed and what we are expected to do just because people have been doing this for a long time. Main State Housing, for example, has been in business for 30 years, right? Right. So, they have a criteria. So, we can invite people from various groups to come and talk to us if you would like. The step before
[56:49] Speaker C (unidentified): that is we can find out what they're offering and you know choose because they probably offer a number of different things so main state housing
[56:59] Speaker B (unidentified): you've talked about the main housing authority so the main housing authority is a group that I believe supports specifically affordable housing in the formal with the formal definition community most of our discussions with through group in the summit across town stuff some number of the other towns for the Blue Hill Peninsula are trying to not use that affordable housing term there are there's there are funding sources that developers can go after that municipalities can go after but they come with various long-term short-term long-term restrictions and Carly who's not here today has experience with affordable housing in Boston. We're trying to use other terms so that those choices can be made. For example, the renovation of the island nursing facility. No, not the one in Penobscot, one in Deer Isle, a bigger one in Deer Isle. It's a much bigger facility. They're turning it into 75 units, I think, is it 75? No, it's possibly even $75, $1,000 per unit, something like 20.
[58:41] Speaker D (unidentified): I can see. Yeah, we're running down.
[58:44] Speaker B (unidentified): Let's try and prioritize. My point is, we've chosen not to go down the affordable route because it's very restricted. My suggestion is that you guys look at this and see what kind of things are interesting for you. I really like the idea of, I think just planning to produce a report for advocacy purposes is very helpful.
[59:11] Speaker F (unidentified): And then we're working towards something.
[59:13] Speaker C (unidentified): And I think that's our obligation as a committee that's, you know, the town has asked to.
[59:18] Speaker B (unidentified): So one of your obligations is to report out on what you are doing and to produce something that is has an advocacy purpose. It's great. I think that as I think that it should be recording on your work I think that it could be one product but I don't I think they're efficient
[59:42] Speaker C (unidentified): I'd like to I'd like to interject that we are talking in kind of two directions about housing. On the one hand we want more because we need it for employees refusal employees or full-time employees in town we need it for seniors but we also want to protect our I think we should look at it from the point of view of protecting the town from in the scrum the whole thing being put up so they're we're promoting on the one hand we're hopefully going to try to you know put some controls on it before it happens and to answer your question we're not really focused on more student rentals. We're more focused on the things that I mentioned, so. [Speaker B (unidentified): So workforce housing.] Workforce. Thank you, what I propose is seasonal and rentals.
[1:00:42] Speaker B (unidentified): Workforce, family, essential workers. And seniors. And seniors. And seniors. And fair. I think we have a fair, I don't know what to say.
[1:00:51] Speaker A (unidentified): Okay, people, we need to, so what I propose is that we look at this, I'm talking about the draft, and by next Wednesday you email me if you know what you would like to grab hold of or suggest something else I mean because it's proposed and we're supposed to be meeting on the 7th of October next I can't but I could meet on the 14th or I could yeah I could meet
[1:01:17] Speaker E (unidentified): in the 14th which that works or you can meet without me on the 7th submit on 7th I also
[1:01:22] Speaker A (unidentified): won't be here again so what's that 14. How did you go enough yeah this is the second time you'll see
[1:01:32] Speaker F (unidentified): When I say a report, what I mean by that is that then is of the work that we have been doing, and then it's the sense of we're working toward it with the understanding we want to share this information. What do we have to share in a year so that we're not in a year still talking, not the report has that. Because right now it's like, what would we put in it? No, the work is then-
[1:02:09] Speaker A (unidentified): Which is fair, I actually think, I find this issue around brain cells really interesting. I mean, I think doing buckets around what we're looking at, some people might be looking at brain cells, some people might be looking at something else. else. I think getting some more grassroots on the ground, you know, looking and investigating as opposed to, there's so much, as you said, Irene.
[1:02:32] Speaker C (unidentified): So yeah, there's also the very specific thing of looking at these, you sort of touch on it here, but looking at our ordinance, town ordinance, with a view of what roadblocks they're in the way. Yeah, it's stopping. Yeah, so I would urge you to really carefully work through
[1:02:57] Speaker B (unidentified): these because all the things we've been talking about, I mean she was like I tried to break them out into, you know, you got to say something, so I tried to break those out, but working on some really practical aspects that you that you see in here that are kind of buried down below level. And what I would envision is that we get to a point where we're identifying just a few things with really clear objectives and timelines and that are something for this year. But it provides a building block and you know where that, where the building block
[1:03:37] Speaker A (unidentified): is leading to. I do understand, yeah. What would also be helpful maybe for next time is if you could just, yeah, just tell us what is, what are the kind of information that you 're beginning to be able to connect since you're now, you know, you're focused on in your way, it sounds like maybe things weren't for years, you know, I mean you are maybe developing and pulling, so where do you say don't worry, we've got this, we continue once, well I see, actually I see
[1:04:03] Speaker B (unidentified): a bit of an intersection, so like we pull together this analysis on all the rentals, then I think
[1:04:10] Speaker E (unidentified): can be interesting. Yeah, is that exactly? I'll just say real quick on that, we have that number
[1:04:17] Speaker G (unidentified): from community scale, that eight percent estimate of how many rentals there are in casting. I have 50 responses right now, there are 800 lots in casting, give or take the musical lots or
[1:04:28] Speaker C (unidentified): houses, lots, okay, but lots doesn't mean in the village or in the town, in the in the town, yeah.
[1:04:35] Speaker G (unidentified): Yeah, on and off, Mac. Yeah, I have six responses so far, I think. In a month's time, that's what, yeah, the 14th would be a month's time. I think we'd have a pretty good idea, not complete compliance with the form, but a good idea of what we're looking at. And I, my laptop just died, but I have those numbers up on, in a map, in an interactive map, have.
[1:05:02] Speaker E (unidentified): So there could be multiple, correct.
[1:05:09] Speaker G (unidentified): But I can filter that out by looking at building value.
[1:05:14] Speaker B (unidentified): They were sent to, they were sent to every taxpayer. And some people send back the same. We don't want to return it if it's not applicable. And I do think that maybe coming out of some of this work, we can start once again, actually, maybe not for next year, maybe for the year after next, to try to put through a new rental housing ordinance. This -huh and if the ground was not well prepared to that's what yes and so.