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e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good afternoon uh today is Monday uh June 17th this is the planning housing and Parks committee um uh uh I’m here with my co-member council member neany Gonzalez council member frz and council president fron is unable to attend today so I’m chairing the meeting uh we’re also joined by council member Kat whose District comprises much of the plan um this is the first of multiple sessions uh that we taking up the great synica m master plan um and really want to just start by appreciating the planning Department’s work uh many of us went on a bus tour um in the planning board’s work uh last week and many of us have been pre-brief on on this certainly on the committee and so uh really appreciate the Outreach and engagement over many years and months that’s been done here um and also obviously Miss dun and our our great team uh as well um so what I want to do is first can we just have everyone introduce themselves and then I’ll turn it over to you Mr Harris for any open remarks and then and to Mr sator if there’s any remarks from you and then we’ll go to miss Dunn to walk through the packet so yeah let’s start on the left here sure I’m Bala Ali and I’m the legislative analyst focusing on economic development with County Council Central staff right good afternoon I’m Pam Dunn I’m a senior legislative analyst also on the County council’s Central staff uh Marin Hill a planner with the Montgomery planning Department hi good afternoon um Jessica mcar I’m a planning supervisor with our midcounty master plan team Jason sori mcgomery County planning director yeah good afternoon Arty here is chair of the mcgomery County planning board Mr Harris I’ll turn it over to you for any opening remarks yeah thank you thank you so much uh members of the committee and uh council member Catz I wanted to take a moment to thank the PHP committee for embarking on this process to thoughtfully revieww the great cynica plan this life science center area is vital to mcgury County’s economic competitiveness now and in the future as part of the 2021 the life science center and adjacent areas contained 33% of the County’s private life science establishments and 64% of its private life sciences employees I know that staffs has worked tirelessly on this plan that provides a strong vision for the growth in this important Community to retain existing and attract New Life Sciences businesses and employees I look forward to this work session today and look forward to work sessions in the future to answer if you have any questions please answer ask them where we’re here today which I know you will and I now turn it over to director Sartori and the rest of his team thank you sure well I don’t really have much more to add to this I’m just going to say that we’re really excited that we’re here and we’re at this stage of this process for this plan uh I think the by line of the plan name is really important you know connecting Life and Science is really captures pretty well what this plan is about and what this area about and so uh looking forward to to getting into discussions about the details thank you Mr Harris Mr stor um Miss done turn it over to you great good afternoon and thank you um I’ll just give a little overview of how we’re going to cover the packet today and what’s inside the staff report um this is primarily the high level view of the plan we’ll get into all the specific recommendations when we look at each of the individual plan areas in work session number two and work session number three um but today we’re really just looking at the the big picture of the plan um and we go through sort of the same uh way in which the plan is written um and I’ll note a few things for anyone that’s tuning into this that hasn’t had a chance to read the plan in detail uh so they know what’s in it um and with that we start there um this plan is really replacing the 2010 great senica science Corridor master plan um that the planning area covers over 4,000 Acres um and it is situated between the I 270 Corridor the cities of Rockville and the City of gaitherburg as well as the town of Washington Grove um it has several what are non-contiguous neighborhoods that are covered in the plan um eight of them in particular and the largest one being the Life Science Center we’re going to spend probably the most time talking about that one and we will start that at the next work session we go into it in DET detail um but with that if you look at the second page of the staff report we just have a a small map that tries to give people a context for the um non-contiguous nature of the planning area which is outlined um there between like I said the cities of Rockville and gathersburg um and the focus of the plan really is on that Life Sciences Center um and how to support that growing sector but to also provide a lot of flexibility so that it introduces some more uses into that area to provide more amenity for the people that live there more open space more Parks um and more retail um the purpose of the plant is noted at the bottom of the second page of the staff report it really is to address barriers that have hindered progress toward the vision of the 2010 plan integrate policy guidance from countywide plans and policies and initiatives we’ll go into that a little bit more develop recommendations that respond to social environmental technological demographic and economic shifts that have occurred since 2010 establish a shared Vision to guide the future development and investment as well as to advance racial equity and social justice and attract retain and grow the life sciences and healthc carees industries by enhancing that life science center as a complete community and you’ll hear more about that the plan provides a really nice uh background in history for the plan area uh it starts with the indigenous population of Maryland um and walks through sort of what that looked like who who was here before us uh what happened when the white Colonists came um the history of the African-Americans um and the first African-American freed slave neighborhoods that were in this plan area there were several um and then it moves into having um a really nice discussion of how the federal government’s uh importance of moving out into Montgomery County what that did for this area um it was a place where several of those federal agencies then located outside of DC including the National Institute of Health and the atomic energy commission and back in the day it was called the National Bureau of Standards which is now called the um National Institute of standards and Technology they all located along the I 270 Corridor there and brought with them other private Science and Technology firms um So eventually this did become a a really big epicenter for our Biotech Industry um and that started and really was spurred by the 1971 gathersburg vicinity master plan which proposed the medical center and paved the way for the biosciences in the area um the plan also provides a really um thorough demographic context for who lives in this area now um there are approximately 16,000 people in 9600 households in the plan area the population has grown by 6,900 households right what did I say 96 oh dyslexic there yeah I do that too that’s why I recau it the population has grown by 20% since 2010 um and over 40% since 2000 so you can see this is an area where we have had a lot of Green Field development occurring um over the past two decades um the rate of population growth in this plan area has far outpace the population growth in the county as a whole uh which has only grown by 23% since 2000 so that is compared to 40% in the plan area the plan area is slightly younger than the average uh age profile in the county with a larger share of 20 to 34 year olds um and while the net growth of this age group in the plan area between 2010 and 2020 was limited there was a net loss in this age group in Rockville gaitherburg and in Montgomery County households in the great Cal plan are notably smaller um more often include renters and have a lower median income than those of Rockville Gaithersburg or mcgomery County nearly 2third of the plan area households are renters compared with onethird of the county overall uh rational and ethnic diversity in the plan area consistent with those of the county overall with no notable differences however there is a higher percentage of residents 50% compared to 40% countywide that speak a language other than English at home in addition to English the top Lang angues spoken in the plan are Spanish Chinese Korean and French uh so it’s important to think about that as we go through and think about the recommendations you’ll be hearing in the plan for changes in housing and density um the plan also provides a thorough review of its Community engagement and racial equity and social justice um and has provided uh a lot of context for the way in which the planning process included different types of people and had lots of different types of Outreach to try to reach people um really a move that the planning Department’s been undertaking for the last few Master plans um with everyday canvasing and to be more engaged in the community itself and reaching people not just online um and with that I’m going to turn it to Mr Ali here to talk about the guiding plans policy studies thank you Miss dun um this plan is supported by a lot of countywide policy guidance and plans including Vision zero uh the racial equity and social justice act the climate action plan the complete streets uh design guide Corridor forward the prosac parks recreation and open space plan and Thrive Montgomery 2050 um all of those plans you know provide guidance about creating safe Equitable places and and promoting sustainable development but also um incorporating Economic Development into the planning process um this plan is also unique in that it commissioned us a detailed and rigorous Life Sciences study focused on understanding how to support the industry from a real estate and development perspective um that study was conducted by ESI in Philadelphia and a joint committee meeting of PHP and econ uh heard from the Consultants back in January um but we’re just go uh we’re going to go through some of the big ideas that they had and some of the recommendations that they included and the extent to which they were incorporated into the plan um the first big idea was to expand and create new development practices and standards to encourage the creation of intensive mixed use life science districts so really um try to you know make an urbanized uh mixed use area in within the great cica plan area and so one of the main recommendations is to optimize the LSC Zone to ease restrictions on providing a mix of uses um and this is incorporated via the great great senica life science overlay Zone which is introduced on June 11th and will be taken up after this plan um that overlay Zone lifts the restrictions on retail and Housing Development within the LSC Zone and offers a density bonus of up to 200% so just want to correct the staff packet there every reference to 150% density bonus is actually a 200% density bonus um and the idea there is just that the current maximum mapped f is one and a half um they’re very large sites though um so although it’s not an insignificant amount of development it may not necessarily be enough to support sort of the denser urbanized vision and a mix of uses on each site um and so it’s critical to sort of the the form that’s envisioned in the plan currently um the next recommendation is to incorporate an overlay Zone which is again directly incorporated into the plan um and the higher densities would be promoted through uh the density bonus um the plan also identifies uh Catalyst sites which was also recommended in the study there are 10 different sites that have critical placement within the plan area that um can provide some of the amenities that will help implement the vision of the plan um and it also acknowledges that the there are some publicly owned sites for which the county may have additional opportunities to sort of inform and guide development um and you can see some of those opportunity sites many of which uh the council visited on their field trip uh last week um the next recommendation under this big idea is to strengthen the process for developer spe uh selection through rfps or requests for proposals um you know the county may have an opportunity to do that through the publicly owned sites um less so on the privately owned sites or not at all necessarily um but some of that might be outside of the scope of the plan specifically other than calling them out as opportunity sites in the first place uh moving on it’s also recommending to strengthen connections within the with the real estate development community and public agencies which is probably also outside of the scope of the plan um but the planning team may have some ideas about some good best practices um to that end um finally align land use plan planning efforts Regional State Economic Development entities and objectives um the plan recommends creating an entity or place management organization within the LSC to help Implement some of the recommendations which can include you know programming placemaking activities but also potentially advocating for funding to provide some of the infrastructure improvements that are called out um and the committee may wish to just confirm that the uh entity would also be responsible for coordinating planning efforts and some of the other life science clusters that exist in the county because while this is certainly the epicenter of the industry there’s clusters in Silver Spring Bethesda North Bethesda and Germantown um as well so the question is sort of what is the overall vision for that for that entity and some of that may up the at the council’s discretion questions sure uh so I can pause there and see if there are any questions about that first big idea and some of the recommendations uh underneath it no questions anything that plan any wants to add you you don’t have to but may color um well just on the the last point about the the vision for this place management organization or entity uh within the plan um the vision of the the the great senica plan is that this uh entity would be place-based meaning it would be focused on the Life Sciences Center um so while while we would imagin that coordination with uh property owners and um you know companies and organizations that are in that area would be part of what the place management organization uh does we did not imagine this as something that like Maryland Tech Council or uh the you know bioinnovations Maryland’s uh life sciences organization um while that might be an important role for uh an organization in Montgomery County we didn’t picture that as the role of this entity go yeah to build on that a little bit um you know there are a lot of um organizations and entities that are that are advocating for Life Sciences in Montgomery County today um certainly mcedc is one um and we were really thinking about the place management organization being focused on the Life Sciences Center um as uh chair Harris mentioned in his opening remarks this is the epicenter for the county with you know over a third of the private sector Life Sciences employees located in and around the Life Sciences Center oh sorry 2/3 yeah and so we you know really felt that it was important to have an organization um or an entity that was exclusively focused on how we could uh retain and attract um life sciences to this specific area to continue to grow that critical mass I yeah I I would just say that I hear you uh we have so many different groups in Montgomery County that’s the job of mcedc now I’m putting my hat as the chair of the economic development committee that’s their job their job is to attract and retain business especially when it comes to life sciences uh when I was at in Taiwan with the can executive and ncedc that was her job and we highlighted uh the 270 Corridor so creating an additional entity is that what exactly what you’re saying so yeah no I think I think we’re um we’re struggling to be clear so this wouldn’t be to just promote Life Sciences this would be more if you imagine something like the uh White Flint partnership or if like you imagine the national Landing that’s a different thing cuz it’s not did you said it it’s not just the life science so it’s just plac making within downtown whatever you want to call it I 270 or as we have in downtown super spring and we had in uh W now guess nor betesda they’re going have to change their name friends of nor Bethesda right and uh and how and what we’re doing now in Wen that’s a different story because it’s about activating that community and making sure that you are not just promoting the life sciences but you’re promoting the local restaurants you’re promoting the local culture of the area which is different right so I think that the the way that you just phrased it is is how we envision it is that you know this area has an important life science component but it’s not just that it’s also working with institutions like Universities at Shady Grove that is there like Adventist Hospital as well as the um you know multif family buildings that are located there and doing some of that plac making um we see it as an entity that can also you know help uh search out and acquire funding for the infrastructure improvements by 1c3 just like you have in guint and any other nonprofit yes that’s I would just add I think there is perhaps some emphasis on some of the technical nature of the scientific type of development you there so all thinking about you know attracting life science not outside the role of mcdc but maybe bringing life science development that encourages you know meeting of of minds and that kind of innovation I think there might be a little more scientific expertise that might be inherent in this place management organization but it’s fundamentally I think meant to be that what you’re describing thank you I appreciate that yeah and and obviously this is a big master plan change so I I think also to help move forward the The Envision the vision right over time and maybe s help with sequencing or you know getting the right players in in in the mix as far as implementing the master plan right is that also something that you think this would do yeah correct and I think um we referenced in some of our recommendations that this uh entity of FS could be a good partner in implementing the recommendations and moving them forward both as an advocate but also in procuring funding and um buy in from the uh organizations and companies that are located in the area perfect thank glad we teased that out a little bit thank you for taking the bait go ahead and continue great um so the big idea number two is to create value capture tools to encourage development and investments in the public realm so this is really about the delivery of many of the infrastructure improvements and amenities that are Central to establishing the vision of the plan the first recommendation is to explore the creation of the business improvement district that we just discussed um and so um we can sort of move on from that but I think some of the other than calling it out here a lot of that implementation work would fall onto the county and executive branch agencies to sort of figure out exactly what that looks like and funding it and so maybe there’s a extended discussion to be had about that later um finally the next recommendation is to support the use of incentives or development districts to Target attract and facilitate um value added Life Sciences development and so the great senica life science overlay Zone Pro proposes a mechanism whereby reaching for more density than the map density um would uh Inc would include the projects providing some of those improvements um this also would include uh reducing the current um standard method uh uh threat hold from 1.0 F to 0.5 F recognizing that the current MAC FS are one and a half and so there may not necessarily be an incentive to take that additional half uh f um which may be one of the reasons that um the development has not necessarily u m you know taken up what the current map densities are um I think one thing the staff would point out here is just that um while it the density could be an incentive this is more about creating the condition for more development I think it’s hard to say for sure whether it can necessarily attract but it certainly makes a more compelling Vision or at least one that aligns up with their recommendations and and sort of brings developers to the table about thinking more along the lines of how to build a more urbanized Vision but the extent to which it’s a direct incentive maybe that can be explored further um so I don’t know if there are any questions about that before moving on to the next big idea no makes sense to see if see what before you get give the away the whole store let’s see what works you know you know you know and take it Case by case but yeah know that makes a ton of sense so big idea three great um so the next idea is to focus uh Place based investments in and around life science clusters so again recognizing um that there is more than one in the county and of course the studio is countywide not specifically focused on the great senica plan area um the first recommendation is to work to establish that place management organization or entity in the Life Sciences Center um and of course the plan does call that out um in addition incorporate placemaking and streetscape improvements in areas with life with concentrations of Life Sciences employment which would be this area and again um we’ll discuss some of those specific uh improvements that are called out next week when we discuss the Life Sciences Center uh section of the plan but again many of those are related to uh the overlay Zone in terms of how they would be implemented um next is to Le hold on one second Council cat has a question I I guess I’m a little confused as to what this um this organization the place management organization would actually be doing would someone go to that organization and say look this is what the master plan calls for and that’s what I want to do this organization that you’re suggesting wouldn’t have what kind of authority would it have um the way that the planning board draft um recommendations are stated in the plan it gives flexibility to what the actual um Place management organization what form it takes if it’s a business improvement district if it’s an innovation District if it’s a partnership um we really wanted to have flexibility in how um sort of the form that that place management organization takes so that property owners um Institution Partners um you know others could play a role in defining what the place management organization looks like um but it is envisioned that it would be uh really a champion or an advocate for this area to um not only you know attract and retain um life sciences but also to program Open Space to activate um open space for example the um the plaza that we stopped in on the tour last week you know how they could bring events and activities to that um to that location um how they could advocate for funding for for um whether it’s through grants or um other Partnerships so sort of serve as that um Champion for advancing the recommendations of the plan in consultation with with uh property owners and institutional Partners who would fund them well and that’s also part of the flexibility in terms of the the recommendation and the way that it’s written it could be a it could be a tax similar to a business improvement district um it could be something that is uh similar to our urban districts um so we’ve tried to give that flexibility to be evaluated and considered um you know following the approval and Adoption of the plan have have the property owners and I’ll stop but have the property owners themselves been advised of this suggestion um we’ve we have met extensively with the proper they age to let me say it another way did they agree to it um we didn’t you know we’ve left flexibility in the way that the language is written such that we could be coordinating with them further um to determine you know what contributions look like or how it’s funded we’ve really tried to kind of stay out of the specifics of that because it goes Beyond kind of the the purview of the master plan thank you yeah yeah so this I know this is sort of out of the box a recommendation but because it’s a this is this the Life Sciences Center Grayson it it it inom compasses a large area with lot with a lot of recommendations for infrastructure improvements prominade improvements um you’ve you’ve seen there it could be you know we’re also talking about in the um in the Gip how do you fund um major infrastructure improvements where we made recommendations there about thinking of new ways to do that and we’re we’re coming to to the committee of the council and also to the uh County exec how do you you know because there a lot of pressure to on impact taxes and all these things to get funding for stuff and they’re looking at other models and how to do this so it’s all about putting this idea out there we have to put some meat on the Flesh on the bones there but it’s uh in order to implement this grand plan we think there’s going to be a lot of coordination needed implementation needed and we thought that having this this um this management this place making management place would would be a good idea so it needs to be fleshed out more but but but that’s a start that we’re trying to make here thank you I’m going to tell you why this is not an outside the box idea because it’s this is what we’re already doing in Montgomery County we have four urban districts in Montgomery County doing exactly what you’re saying here if you follow the economic development committee which I take it that you guys have not uh we talked about pilot programs to have one in um only another one in wok and another one in Germantown we did not get the funding after this last budget for them so that should give you a red flag right here what I’m think this is exactly what you’re saying you want to have a pilot Urban District in this area which I agree sounds great I don’t have a problem with that but it’s not going to go before the other ones that we already talking about in Montgomery County so what I think it should happen here is to have the recommendation that we should have we should consider having establishing an urban District a pilot program because that’s exactly what you’re talking about Place making uh making sure that you in it attacks on the business by the way and that’s one of the conversations that we’re going to be having in eco with TN very soon because right now the way it works in three out of the four uh Urban district is that the parking lots help pay for all the things that you see in all these urban districts that’s where you get the money it’s not free and the businesses get taxed okay they’re paying a tax it’s not free so when the coun when council member Sydney Cass is asking you have you talk to businesses and you say well we haven’t run to the details that’s the type of thing that the businesses need to to know so what I will suggest here and we don’t need to make a decision just because especially because um president fritsen is not here today is that this whole idea which obviously I agree with should be placed in the same vein that we took the other urban districts I we might consider creating an urban District in the Life Science and then once we had the TN and econ work session pretty soon we could even start talking about this and add it because right now we have three Pilots plus four urban districts this will be another pilot added to the whole thing this is so that’s why it’s not a outside the box idea so um that’s just the way see forward but we need to flesh it out maybe the ghy um staff can come back to us in the next work session or whenever you decide um especially after uh cancel pressing fre is here that’s yeah and I welcome anywhere response but I you know the way I viewed this when I saw the recommendation is that like you’re saying hey this would be a good thing to do down the line to implement it and it’s master plan language it doesn’t it’s not binding in the sense that it’s not you know creating an urban District or creating the entity but I I I also agree with the the point I think that council member FY Gonzalez and council member cats are making that you know we need to obviously have Buy in from the community you know we we had to revisit the bid idea in in Silver Spring and you know we’ll be doing so again and but obviously the urban District so I I I I think it’s from my view again we’re not decide we don’t have to change anything today but to say that this thing like in other places would be something that would be good to help is fine to me you know go ahead yeah no and I would just say add to this that we did have conversations with the property owners in the area and I think one of the things that was important to our team because we recognized that it wasn’t planning was not the best entity to say this is what this is going to look like that that would be up to uh the council that that would be up to uh perhaps other agencies and to the um the community that was there so we did have conversations with property owners and different models we looked at different models we broached different models um with with property owners in the area and I think you know the recommendation that we landed on um as you said Council M jandoo was so that it could be looked at more in depth by uh by the council um to decide on an exact model um and I think that we also recognize that it could be something like an urban dist District or it could be something that was more um of a privately Le entity as well we didn’t want to say one way uh or the other so we looked at things like the the Tyson’s partnership in Virginia we looked at um you know the national Landing um bid and um and one thing that uh Mr Ali uh referenced is the study uh the real estate study that looked at um uh life science centers all over the country one thing that tied many of them together is that they each had uh a different version of this type of entity that was like Place Management a uh organization that was sometimes public was sometimes focused on the industry like an innovation District um and was somewhat sometimes focused as more of a community organization and placem organization one one key takeaway from me on this is that I think there are certain elements of this that would be helpful in every single one of our plans right we ask ourselves often how are we going to see this plan implemented and this is one of those tools that you know we’d like to just throw out there and considered as you know helping us activate open space to do the plac making to help bring you know attract you know that the things that are needed in the neighborhood that help Advance the the recommendations in the master plan and so it’s something that I think internally we’re asking ourselves a lot how can we even play a more active role in that implementation but here’s an idea that’s in a a master plan that you know again could be in some ways I recognize that we can’t prioritize every single one but this could be something that’s you could be used in in other master plan areas as well appreciate that Mr Charlie U no just to reiterate both Mr Shor and Miss Hill’s comment you know the the life sciences study actually does provide some really important examples that we could consider as part of a wider discussion with the urban districts but there are some unique differences such as you know it being more of a privately L organization or having more of that scientific emphasis and making sure that there’s consistency between the sort of technical aspects of an innovation District as well as that sort of Place Management aspect and so um I think there is a meaningful difference but there’s some great examples and not only locally but also from some of the other successful life science districts like in Kendall Square Research Triangle that are included in that and we can borrow some of the lessons as part of the wider discussion in econ or wherever else yeah I think that makes sense and obviously this is different than Like a downtown urban area where you’re going to have a ton of like you know just foot traffic that’s not unrelated potentially to the life science work so it might you know make more sense to have it be privately LED because that’s who’s benefiting from it most you know but obviously we want people to come to it too so over time it hopefully can be built out then as the housing comes that would change the nature of it as well so yeah I think in trying to be non-specific and say Place management organization you we we it made us ask more questions about what it is butay for it yeah well that too and then about who’s going to pay for it so but really really appreciate uh explore the creation you know is is the language that I see here a big idea too so um okay so I think we’ve we think we’ve satisfied that for now could also call it an entity you just want to put that out there so um the next recommendation under this big idea is to leverage Regional Trails Greenways and bicycle planning efforts to enhance connectivity to and from the uh life science hubs that exist throughout the county and as it relates to the Life Sciences Center specifically this was something that was brought up in a lot of the community outreach as uh the plan has referenced which is just you know there’s some really large blocks it’s hard to sort of get around on foot or on bike um or you know in another other ways and so just making sure that it’s it’s sort of hospitable to to that kind of interaction is is important and the plan does recommend a lot of those uh improvements to support that and then finally just creating more opportunities for investments in public spaces and event programming which has been discussed um unless there are any other additional questions move on to the next big idea yeah so growing an entrepreneurial ecosystem I think some of this will rest outside of the master plan generally but in terms of you know creating a Consortium of government a agencies and institutions of Higher Learning and private employers um again that’s something potentially that an entity could do but also is worth recognizing that the council has um you know invested in some efforts that that are moving the needle on this biohub will provide a lot of Workforce training um that will support the businesses and certainly the business community supported that and then um3 uh Institute for health Computing is this um really high-tech Cutting Edge facility that’s going to attract a lot of investment um and and researchers to the area that should grow The Innovation sort of ecosystem and that was something that was discussed extensively at the econ committee during the budget work sessions um also creating more opportunities for stepup space for startups so a lot of startups um need small to medium La size lab space as they graduate from being an early stage company um worth noting that the overlay Zone includes providing this as part of a new development as one of the public benefits or amenities that developers can provide for um using additional density above their maap density um finally leveraging existing startup and life science grant programs to encourage new activity in and around life science clusters this is again probably outside the scope of the master plan but the council may wish to explore this further in consultation with mcedc and state Partners to understand the full um inventory of what’s available and how to leverage them best to support life sciences in this area and with that I’ll turn it back it’s done unless there are questions well I I have overarching question as on some of these and while they’re all good goals and we’re always Towing the line of like what’s appropriate to put in the master plan and where to put it do you have a a view on that at this point of you know things like this do you know I know we have in the past I’m just thinking of previous Master plans we have referenced goals like this in in sections that aren’t but sometimes we don’t so I do you have a misone do you have a view yeah what I would say is that um uh where we use language similar to this is usually where it’s in relationship at least to something that the board would have at least some level of input on whether it’s through the approval of an application um or whether you know again the council could have input through a future zoning change or the implementation of a body um but when it’s completely outside of the realm of something either the council would do or the um the board would have any oversight on we tend to shy away from it um the reality is you could put it there but if if it if it doesn’t have a connection to any of those things then it’s probably just going to sit in the plan because it then would require the Private Industry to open the plan and want to implement it by itself not out of the it could happen but it is much less likely than if you’ve got the board overseeing like recommendations remember applications have to be um substantially consistent with the master plan so even you know every application the staff is going to look at the board is going to review and make a finding that things are consistent with these recommendations yeah appreciate that that’s helpful so the framework and implementation sure um so as I already mentioned and and as you’ve seen in the maps we’ve shown the um areas of the plan are are non-contiguous and we’ll be reviewing each one of those um areas we will do just the Life Science Center at the next work session and then likely the remaining um areas in the following work session uh but each of these has um recommendations that are organized in the following themes the built the social the natural and the economic environment um and for each one of these there are then recommendations and in some cases goals of the built environment provides the foundation for how people live travel and interact with their surroundings um the recommendations in this section for these different plan areas um try to get at that idea of uh a 15minute living or a complete Community are recommendations there strive to do just that Implement things that would create that type of an environment um and the overall goals for this section for the whole plan um are on the n9th page of the staff report and they are to prioritize investments in infrastructure and amenities near Transit hubs and activity centers where people live and work eliminate Transportation related fatalities and severe injuries and provide housing and transportation options for all people so these are very broad um goals for the built environment Council staff suggests that the committee support these there’s there’s there’s nothing here that’s out of line with what you’ll see in the rest of the plan um for the social environment um again it’s to uh Foster relationships and create spaces for interaction um these usually relate to the you know public open spaces private Open Spaces um any place that people can uh gather together and have social interactions uh the goals for these areas are to build spaces that serve multiple functions rather than a single purpose to make outdoor healthy physical activity irresistible to add an enhance parks and outdoor recreational facilities and densely populated centers of activity to focus on the specific needs and desires of an increasingly diverse population particularly of historically marginalized and underserved communities and groups and then finally to create places that Foster Community Civic engagement and social cohesion again there’s nothing um out of line with any of those as goals for the social environment within the plan area the next one that each of these areas will cover is the natural environment um and the natural environment interacts with all the facets of the built environment the social environment and and the economic environment so it’s very broad ranging and has lots of impacts um and and what we think of mostly when we think of that we can think of storm water runoff issues um air pollution um things that are really impacted by what we do with our built environment um there’s no um so let’s see um the goals for this if you go on the top of page 10 um are to create resilient communities that respond to climate change create communities that protect and support good health by minimizing climate threats and pollution and provide opportunities for physical activity identify land that prioritizes natural resource protection and management including existing park lands identify and address environmental Injustice from lands that disproportionately affect the health and well-being of communities of color and people of limited resources and finally to continue to protect and improve air and water quality and biological diversity and again you’ll see many more specific uh recommendations related to these in each of those plan areas these are broad overreaching goals um and with that I’ll turn it to you do the environment yeah those all sound great by the way okay no issues with those no I don’t think so um as for the economic environment I mean it’s uh obviously the plan seeks to retain attract and grow the County’s major industries um in capacity to support a healthy economic environment but it’s a land use plan primarily and so um the recommendations to supporting an economic environment think about making it a more Dynamic place incl including creating housing opportunities to allow more people and more workers potentially to live near their place of employment uh providing Mobility that promotes um ease of access to the place um creating a complete immunity that’s um you know with uh housing and amenities that really attract people and businesses to want to be there um and then just increasing the opportunities in the value proposition creating more potential development on the ground that attracts um the type of development that is consistent with the urbanized vision of the uh of the plan um so yeah and if there’s no question to that what I will um emphasize is as we’ve had this long discussion today after listening to the um recommendations that were in the life science real estate study uh implementation is also something that’s addressed in every one of these uh plan area U evaluations and recommendations and so we will um have a more specific conversation again when we get to the life science and what the implementation recommendations are there and take into consideration the comments that you’ve provided with us today um and then last I wanted to note in this staff report I haven’t done this before but I think it’s just very important um plany staff do an amazing job and they provide so much information with their Master plans and not all of it gets into the plan itself but it’s certainly the basis for what’s in the plan so I wanted to provide for uh people all of the appendices that are also associated with this plan they are all posted online on the same website as the plan itself um but they cover variety of information the demographics the existing conditions all of the Outreach information that they did um and so anyway they’re in this staff report but I think they’re they’re highly important so much work goes into what the plan is when we get it and um we just really appreciate um the thoroughness of it and wanted to present that for people that’s it thank you so much uh for the for pointing that out there’s a lot of work that goes into those appendices I know and um and thank you for the overview I have a couple questions just based on that are kind of like overview type questions to maybe tea up for going forward uh so we had the public um hearing last week you know and wasn’t a big group most and a lot of them were these institutions and folks that are directly connected um one of the things I think will be helpful for this plan particularly of this plan but also just going forward is to take those major institutional player comments or even major Community comments in any point and and and have kind of like a a side by side of okay this is what they’re concerns are and this is why we think this is our POS this is the position the plan takes and then maybe uh why say you know like a here are the factors that went into why we made our recommendation obviously I know you engaged with these Partners these aren’t new things to you but to the committee and to colleagues it might be you know oftentimes we’re asked away okay what is Shady what does adventus Hospital think versus and why and just trying to sus that out in our role uh obviously the board considered that you you all took things into account just having a little more insight into that and having it easily accessible is that something do you think you could yeah put together we would be happy to share we um we did do that for our staff report um for the um for the board for the board when we visited the opportunity sites most of the people who testified were uh representing various opportunity sites so um we’re happy UHA have most of it already so we yeah we do have a lot of it already and then I think there were some new points raised as well so we’re happy to kind of repackage that and and provide that in the board well I just mean like I I just have sense that we don’t we don’t look at it always that way but between our staff whatever is the easiest way to present that does that make sense I just want to make sure I’m not I don’t want to create anything new if we already have it but I just think we share it with Council staff um so that they can they can package it um for a future work session please yeah just I mean as we have done in previous uh Master plans when the council staff keeps a report you usually say this is what the planning board says this is what I heard from the property owner and this is what we believe that’s what I’m expecting from you correct um typically what we’ll do is when we get uh testimony we go through all of it and it is typically related to a specific property um so what happens when you get to the neighborhood staff reports that we’re going to be writing any time there is um a recommendation a concern that comes up in that testimony where we’re reviewing that information of the the plan we note what that testimony is and we’ll provide sort of the questions the the committee could ask or where we think the committee ought to consider either making a change or supporting what’s in the plan so we’ll do that yeah and you’ve been great on that but I think this would be a little additional in that a different type of document I we’ll make sure we attach that I appreciate that yeah go ahead I just do want to make uh clear you may not know this but the same folks that testified uh provided written testimony when we were going through it and many of them um I met with I mean like they and so so we we hear loud and clear their their comments and their concerns and the board took all of them into consideration but we will also make sure we um address you know like you said what were their concern and this is how we think it fit or does and why we did make this decision or didn’t make this decision okay yeah I I appreciate that like one that sticks out to me is you know you had someone questioning like the the extent of the grid right you know that there’s no I I don’t think any one saying there shouldn’t be or maybe I’m sure there is someone saying that but you know that there shouldn’t you we shouldn’t have have more of a grid type layout but some people are saying well maybe it shouldn’t be this extensive right you I can’t remember who that was but I have to go back and look but um and it’ just be helpful to say well here’s no here’s why the planning staff and the board these are the factors that we considered and and I know Miss Dum will do that and she does great packets I just think sometimes when in this plan it’s going to be heavy from these institutional players and they’re going to have all and I and I we will benefit from not only our staff’s insights but also to know why why and how you all made your decisions so that we can factor that in as well that’s kind of to the extent that maybe when we received prior comments on that we may or the board may have even made some changes adjustments so you could see how the kind of the the evolution of some of the recommendations based on some of the feedback we exactly right exactly right yeah cuz you know I know I know you having four kids you know I may have taken what they said to an account made a change but then they still want the full thing you know so you know so we need to know that um the the other uh uh thing I was going to mention and then just see if colleagues have anything um that we always talk about the community engagement and I know you all and we talked about that here about what you did um and really appreciate that and I think one of the appendices here right is is uh is that one of these yes engagement there you go where you describe I just want to highlight that for our community and that you know I as I’ve said before I’ve participated in some of these things and I think you all continue to improve how and how deep you do this um and I think you know this talking about who you spoke to what they said how you approached it I think it’s all laid out here uh the breakdown of who you spoke to what the takeaways were look there can always be a deeper level and I know you have some of that but I just want to give you credit uh where credit is due and and uh uh bring that up because I know that’s that’s a tough nut to crack but you all spend a lot of time on it which I appreciate um anything from colleagues I think you on the okay Miss DN anything else no we’ll be back to you in one week uh and we will cover the Life Science Center portion of the plan sounds good Mr Al thank you so much thank you to Mr Harris mror and to our planners the team uh with that we are adjourned Y and so inter mention