Ordinance and Administration Committee

RECEIVED By City Clerk at 4:59 pm, 1/20/22 AMESBURY CITY HALL 62 Friend Street Amesbury, MA 01913 City Council Ordinance Committee Minutes Tuesday, October 19, 2021 at 6:00 PM Virtual Meeting NOTICE: This meeting will be conducted under the ‘Executive Order Suspending Certain Provisions of the Open Meeting Law G.L. c.30A, §20’, signed on March 12, 2020. You can also dial in using your phone. United States: +1 (312) 757-3121 Access Code: 441-545-749 Meeting was called at 6:05pm Roll Call was taken and present was Councilor Lennon, Councilor Rinaldi and Councilor Mandeville. Attorney Raffa arrived at 6:08pm and Attorney Johnson was absent. There were no minutes for approval at this time. 2021-108 An Ordinance to adopt a limit on the number of licenses that may be issued for local cannabis retail sales locations. - Councilors Stanganelli, Rinaldi and Hogg Sponsor Summary: This ordinance implements the local option to limit the total number of retail cannabis licensees operating within the city. Councilor Lennon stated that she saw some new updated material came this afternoon but she has not had a chance to review it and requests that the Ordinance Committee consider continuing to the regularly scheduled meeting of the Ordinance Committee in November. Planning Board has not even opened their hearing yet. She stated that she is open for discussion but feels they are not ready to make a recommendation tonight. Councilor Rinaldi questioned if the Planning Board is looking at bill #108 or just the zoning portion. Councilor Mandeville stated that bill # 2021-111 was referred to Planning Board. Councilor Lennon stated that her recollection is that only bill # 2021-111 was sent to Planning Board but they should be sent back to council together. Councilor Rinaldi stated that revision #4 of 2021-108 limits to two licenses. The reason it should be moved forward is right now there are no limits. Mayor has no recourse for requests now. He stated they can amend when zoning is done to raise the limit. He feels they should move forward with this. Ordinance Committee 10/19/2021 1 Councilor Lennon stated that it would be careless and reckless for Ordinance Committee to make a recommendation on a draft received this afternoon and almost nobody has had the time to review it. She stated that the Mayor did not ask for this and we as a council do not need to do her job for her. She is capable and can handle any type of development to include cannabis dispensaries at her own discretion. She feels they can take this up in November; they just receive a final red-line 20 minutes before the meeting. Others may want to comment on it and it has not been posted on the website for any public viewing. It would be careless for the Ordinance Committee to send it back to council under these circumstances. Councilor Mandeville agreed that he does not feel the Mayor needs them to help her out, nor did she ask for them to. He does feel slightly indifferent in the larger scale of things and since it did just come in, they may not want to act on this as everyone has not had a chance to review it. He feels they are not helping the Mayor out because they are looking at a larger body of legislation here. He commented that they are trying to help the Council out to approach this legislation without the possibility that anything may or may not be approved while we are in the process of doing it. He stated that he is not anticipating any host community agreements being approved in the interim but given the changes they are trying to make to the larger CCC overlay and zoning districts and we need feedback from Planning, his inclination as was city council it would be beneficial so as not to have the reins taken from them before they have the ability to review all the legislation and go back to city council with a comprehensive clear picture of all the parts. There are a few interested parties and lots of discussion and he does not want to rush any of the items. In his opinion he feels they would be best served by setting a temporary cap and then setting some timeline for which to revisit it and amend that cap once they have had a chance to look at it comprehensively and how they handle the zoning overlay. He feels they need a little more time to work through it and he wouldn’t want to see any host community agreements be in progress while we review. He feels it would be good to control that dialog while they review other items. Councilor Rinaldi agrees, the Mayor did not ask, he made an assumption. Talking to the Chamber of Commerce, there is a lot of discussion about downtown. Councilor Lennon pointed out that they are discussing the procedure of how to try to execute this matter and not actually the matter itself. That should reflect enough just how literally half- baked this policy is. The only reasonable responsible thing to do under the Open Meeting Law with this matter is continue it until November, so that the public may view version 4 and respond to it, that is it. There is no other action. Councilor Lennon moved to continue 2021-108 to the next regularly schedule Ordinance Committee meeting to be held on November 16, 2021. Atty. Raffa seconded. Roll call vote was taken: IN FAVOR: (2) Lennon & Raffa OPPOSED: (2) Rinaldi & Mandeville Motion failed Councilor Rinaldi shared that this bill is not a new bill. They have gone through KP LAW to get the wording and it accomplishes the same purposes. Ordinance Committee 10/19/2021 2 Councilor Lennon stated that it has not been made available for the public to review. She stated that it is a total violation of the Open Meeting Law. Councilor Rinaldi stated that it was read into the last meeting. Councilor Mandeville stated it was read at the Council meeting and was referred to Ordinance Committee. Within the Ordinance Committee, Councilor Stanganelli has offered an amendment to it as one of the sponsors of the bill. Councilor Lennon stated that for the Ordinance Subcommittee to vote on material that has not been made available to the public is absolutely a violation of the Open Meeting Law. There was discussion as to what version would be okay to discuss at this meeting and make amendments to. Councilor Mandeville stated that they could take Version 2 which is posted on the website and the Ordinance Committee can make an amendment to that version to change the percentage from 30% to 20% and change the wording to reflect KP Law’s changes and it would be legal based on the discussion at this meeting. Councilor Lennon stated that since new material has been rec’d into the Clerk’s Office and stamped it belongs as part of the public record. You can’t introduce new materials and then go backwards. Councilor Rinaldi moved to continue 2021-108 to the November 16, 2021 Ordinance Committee meeting. Atty. Raffa seconded Roll Call vote taken: Unanimous (4) 2021-111 An Ordinance to amend the Amesbury Zoning Bylaw to establish and extend the retail cannabis overlay district to the Central Business District. – Councilors Stanganelli and Rinaldi sponsor Summary: An Ordinance to amend the Amesbury zoning bylaw to extend the retail cannabis overlay district to allow retail sales of adult use and medical cannabis within the Commercial Zoning District of the Central Business District to be defined by Special Permit and site plan approval from the Planning Board; to amend section (XI.02) to the Amesbury Zoning Bylaw to regulate the permitting, locations, and operations of Adult Use Cannabis Establishments in this extended area; and to update the Zoning Map and the Table of Use Regulations in accordance with the changes. Councilor Lennon moved to continue to the November 16, 2021 Ordinance Committee meeting. Atty. Raffa seconded Roll call vote was taken and it was Unanimous (4) 2021-143 An Ordinance to strengthen the City’s Solid Waste Ordinance. – Mayor, Councilor Stanganelli and Councilor Hogg Sponsor Summary: Section 392-2 of the City Ordinances address placement for collection of solid waste receptacles. Given the increasing problems with rodents in the City and beyond, the Ordinance Committee 10/19/2021 3 Health Department has reviewed this ordinance and recommended additional language to ensure compliance with the Commonwealth’s Sanitary Code with respect to storage of garbage and rubbish. Councilor Stanganelli commented that the bill should be amended to reflect the word Ordained in place of Order. Councilor Lennon questioned who would be in charge of enforcement of this. Mr. Fahey stated Inspectional Services will be in charge of enforcement. Councilor Rinaldi moved to send back to the City Council with a positive recommendation with the modification of the language from Be it Ordered to Be it Ordained. Councilor Lennon seconded. Roll call vote was taken and it was Unanimous (4) 2021-144 An Ordinance to authorize the City to create an Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Station Revolving Fund for the collection of revenue obtained from sponsorships of advertising on EV charging stations and energy sales revenue. – Mayor and Councilor Rinaldi Sponsor Summary: In order to fund the maintenance contract for the eight (8) EV stations currently in Amesbury, the City, through the efforts of the Energy Committee, will solicit and contract with local business owners for advertisement on the EV charging stations. This revenue will also allow the City to reduce the cost of the energy dispensed during a charging session, making the stations more attractive to potential users. Atty. Raffa stated this bill has the same language issues; Ordained not Ordered. Councilor Einson questioned if this conflicts with the new bill that passed recently on electronic signs. Councilor Mandeville stated that the electronic sign bill relates to Billboards which are currently already not allowed within the City of Amesbury. He does not feel this conflicts with any current legislation or zoning orders that we have in place. Councilor Rinaldi moved to send 2021-144 to the next city council with a positive recommendation with the change to the language from Be it Ordered to Be it Ordained. Atty. Raffa seconded. Roll call vote was taken and it was Unanimous (4) Councilor Lennon moved to adjourn at 6:59pm. Councilor Rinaldi seconded Roll call vote was taken and it was Unanimous (4) Respectfully submitted, Sharon Dunning Assistant City Clerk Ordinance Committee 10/19/2021 4