AI-generated transcript of Medford City Council Committee Of The Whole 09-14-22

[Zac Bears]: Medford City Council, Committee of the Whole, meeting notice Wednesday, September 14th, 2022, on paper 20-680. Meeting is called to order. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Excellent. Councilor Caraviello, I see on Zoom. I see that he's muted, but I just spoke with him, so I'm gonna mark him as present. I'm in. Councilor Collins.

[Kit Collins]: Present.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Knight. Councilor Scarpelli. Present. Councilor Tseng. Present. President Morell. Present. Vice President Bears.

[Zac Bears]: Present. Six present, none absent. Meeting is called to order. There will be a meeting of the Medford City Council Committee of the Whole on Wednesday, September 14th, 2022 at 6 p.m. in the Medford City Council Chamber on the second floor of Medford City Hall. Purpose of this meeting is to discuss the proposed housing production plan, paper 20680, City Council's Inventive Director of Planning and Development Sustainability, Alicia Hunt, and Housing Planner, Danielle Evans, to attend. For further information, aids, and accommodations, contact the City Clerk at 781-393-2425. Sincerely yours, Nicole Morell, Council President. So today we will be meeting to discuss the housing production plan. We have met on this a few times. Council had some questions and concerns, I believe, We now have a presentation from the planning development and sustainability office on general overview of the housing production plan since it's been a while since we met on it, as well as some specific amendments that have been made to address council concerns. So I will turn it over to director hunt for presentation. That's not on, there you go, now it's on.

[Alicia Hunt]: Okay, good evening. Thank you. I am just getting the presentation up. I can see that you don't see it. There we go. All right, hopefully you're seeing it. I actually got some reports that through the Medford Community Media may have not seen the slides I presented last night, but I am certain that all the Councilors can see these slides since we're on Zoom, this evening. So thank you very much, Councilors for having us back here. So most of you are familiar with the housing production plan. This is a document that is codified in state law that they ask communities to have to talk about how you make housing production. It's a tool that is used throughout the state for various purposes. This the housing production plan was actually prepared for us by a consultant. And in this plan, there are lists housing goals and strategies. There's information about the city's demographic profile, the current housing conditions, development constraints for our city, and implementation capacity and resources. If you are somebody watching from the public who is really interested in housing issues, this is a great document to get a lot of background from what's going on in the city. The Councilors have all had it before I know that I'm two of the Councilors are new that Daniel actually spoke with Councilor Collins today to bring her up to speed and and offered that as well to Councilor Tseng. I'm sorry so the goals in Medford's 5 in. So housing production plans are designed to be 5 year plans and things that you want to accomplish within 5 years. So our goals of this plan to address local housing needs meet production goals. And actually should clarify that the state has a goal for all communities that 10% of your housing. The deed restricted affordable housing. And that's not just housing that's affordable by the dollars that it costs to rent it, but that they're restricted to people who are income eligible. So the goal would be to meet that production goal of the state that's kind of a requirement of the state document. Promote a welcoming, diverse, intergenerational, and inclusive city to foster safe, well-designed, and sustainable housing. integrate affordable and diverse housing options throughout the city, preserve the affordability of existing affordable homes, expand local capacity to implement housing initiatives, and to promote transparency and engagement. And to accomplish these, there are 18 strategies. I am not going to read all 18 strategies, in the document there is a page that lists them and indicates which goals each of these strategies is designed to meet. All of these are strategies. It's a menu of things that we can choose from with the goal of helping us get to that 10% deed restricted affordable housing here in Medford. Many of these are things that actually would take council action To then make happen meant most of them all of them have to be sort of researched and developed by administrative staff in the city housing staff. But a lot of them anything that has to do with zoning would then need to go to the city council to be approved. Some of these things continue to city recruitment of mission based developers that's you know, obviously us working on that. So when we were in front of the city council, there was a lot of concern about two of the strategies. And so what we have here this evening are our proposed language changes for those two strategies. The first was adopt affordable infill zoning provisions. And our proposed change is to research the feasibility of affordable infill zoning provisions. The other that the council had concerns with was foster affordable infill on city-owned vacant lots. And our proposal is to change it to consider affordable infill on city-owned vacant lots where appropriate. And I just wanted for a minute to use this to illustrate what it is we're talking about here. Because most people, particularly with the city-owned lots, Think about these giant parking lots out here. Those are things that we're looking at requests for proposals from developers. We're looking at large projects. This infill provision is this. So this is an example. It's a relatively random clip from our assessors maps. And in some of these lots, so the numbers are the lot numbers. They're not the house numbers, but there's the assessor's lots numbers. In a few of them, this one here, you can see the number 4,500. That's the square footage of that property. Here you can see 4,950. Here you can see 4,770. And these lots all to the eye look like they're about the same size. These lots were made before the 1960s. They were made a very long time ago. Many of these lots were divided up in the early 1900s. In the 60s, the city came through with zoning and said that for a single family house in Medford, in most of the city, you need a 5,000 square foot lot. And there are actually some areas where you need a 7,000 square foot lot. So not one of these lots with the square footage on it, is developable under our current zoning. So that makes this lot with the 4,950 would have to go to the Zoning Board of Appeals. And so would these other two lots down here in order to build a new house on them. The current houses, they could be torn down and rebuilt, but to do a new one, you'd have to go to Zoning Board. So our proposal is that we should look at some zoning that talks about if your lot is between four and 5,000 square feet, and you agreed to put an affordable deed restriction on the property, you don't have to get a zoning variance to build on that property for the size of the lot. If you wanted to ignore some of our other zoning, like how far you are from the side lot or the front, you would still have to go to the zoning board for a variance for those things. it would simply be about the size of the lot. And what would happen is it would unlock the development potential of these existing properties. Because you might walk by, an average person would look by a reasonable person and say, why can't you develop that lot? It's just like all the others next to it. It's because our zoning came in and took away the rights of those property owners back in the 1960s and said, you can't develop them anymore, they're too small. That's what infill provisions are. So we are not with this housing production plan saying we should pass this and allow it. What we're saying is we should study it. We should consider it in order to make that change in zoning and allow this infill development. We would actually have to come to city council and propose a zoning change to the city council to do that. But we do think that this would incentivize people to build single family homes that are affordable deed restricted. because otherwise these lots are not, you can't develop on them. They're just large yards. So that is sort of our proposal for how to change the items that we heard concerns about in the past. Our proposed next steps is that the city council would vote the housing production plan with these amendments out of the committee tonight. We will then submit a clean revised copy of the housing production plan with these changes. and then to the City Council. The City Council would vote to adopt the revised HPP. And just to be clear, we would then need to send it to the state for their approval. Once they receive the version that has been approved by both the Community Development Board and the City Council, then they would review it and they would certify it back to the date that they reviewed it, unless they ask for changes. We don't expect them to ask for changes. They did review this about a year ago. and we addressed those before we ever brought it to the council the first time.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Director Hunt for the presentation. I'm going to stop sharing. Yes, thank you. there we go. I'm going to definitely hear from Councilors. I just want to emphasize one point you made and one point maybe you didn't make that I think maybe people should know, but this is an outline of goals and strategies to explore. Actually implementing any of the items in here would require further process, many of them requiring this council to review zoning amendments or other or other items. So this doesn't make policy choices today that you know, it's not like all 18 of those items just going to affect tomorrow or whenever we pass it, it's just kind of outlining a plan for things for us to continue to look at in the future. And the other thing I just wanted to note that you mentioned, it's part of state law. There are actually some benefits that could occur to the city were we to pass one, especially around, I believe 40 B, you know, the city's currently under the 10% threshold and therefore developers can come in on a 40 B and build developments outside of our zoning code. This is one implementing on housing production plan as a tool that helps us have protections from, you know, of state law around that. So I just wanted to put those two things out there. Do I see questions from my fellow Councilors? I see. I'm going to go Councilor, I'm going to go President Morell, Councilor Collins, Councilor Tseng, President Morell.

[Nicole Morell]: Thank you, Mr. Bears. Thank you, Dr. Hunt and Planner Evans for being here tonight. So I just want to go reaffirm kind of what Vice President Bears has said. So this is all, you know, this is a plan to study more. I understand that things that are suggested in this to study more for any changes to happen, you know, if there is zoning that have to come to the city council. Is there anything within this that if it were to be approved would automatically happen, like trigger some change in the city, or all of these require additional steps?

[Alicia Hunt]: I would say that there's nothing in here that approving it triggers change. These are all a menu of things that we might want to do. And some of these are things that we have already been making progress on. One of them is around adopting an affordable housing trust. As you all know, you've had meetings about that. You did not need this to be passed for you to consider that, for you to choose to do that. So there are things, there's another one in here is around working with more mission-based developers. That is something that our staff have actually been doing. We've been meeting with mission-based developers. So there are things in here that one might say we're already doing, we didn't wait for the plan, but this passing this does not trigger anything with regards to policy or regulations of the city.

[Nicole Morell]: TAB, Tila Duhaime): Okay, thank you and then going back to the question just the the infill so again any changes related to that would have to come through as zoning, because I know you referenced that I don't want to get too into the weeds on zoning stuff. TAB, Tila Duhaime): But just that you know if there is existing non conforming. TAB, Tila Duhaime): homes on those lots they wouldn't if they were knocked down, they would not be able to be rebuilt, but the existing non conformance or me, I mean maybe I don't even want to go to right now.

[Alicia Hunt]: So zoning would never affect the existing buildings. If it's an existing unconforming building, they have rights. What we would be thinking about are the vacant lots.

[Nicole Morell]: Okay. Thank you for that clarification. That's all I have right now. Thank you, Vice President Bears.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Madam President. Councilor Collins.

[Kit Collins]: Thank you, Vice President Bears and thank you so much, Alicia and Danielle for being here tonight and for all the work that went into this draft of the housing production plan I know a lot of that work predated my time on the council and it's been. a lot to pour through. There's really so much here. It's a really incredible document. I'm really excited for us to be discussing it. I don't have any questions about the document. I was able to talk to Danielle earlier about some of the finer points about what the plan does and doesn't do is very helpful. I just wanted to note, as we begin our discussion about it, to just reiterate the point that's already been made. It's a menu of options. I could certainly talk until I'm blue in the face about the need for us to address our mismatch between the type of housing and housing cost scenarios that are currently needed by existing Medford residents and people who'd like to live in Medford and what we currently have. But for right now, I think the question is just, do we want to pass a document that would put more of the control back into our hands for how to make our own decisions about how to address our housing needs? knowing that this is not, as President Morell clarified, any sort of like trigger conditions. It's just a toolbox that we can reach into and as a council or as administrative staff where appropriate, select what happens to fit the scenario. I think that these are options, menu options, tools that we should empower ourselves with. So I'll leave it there, thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Collins. I'm going to go to Councilor Tseng and then Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Tseng.

[Justin Tseng]: I wanted to first and foremost thank your office, thank the working group, the housing production plan working group, and the city staff that have been working so diligently on this plan. I encourage people to go read this plan. I think the plan lays out a lot of challenges that residents already know about, but also additional challenges that might not be foremost on people's minds that are serious challenges that our city faces. In particular, I think this plan draws a lot of attention to the, as Councilor Collins referred to, the mismatch between the types of housing we have and the types of households that we need to house here in Medford, between the price of housing here and the and the income and the economic means that we see here in Medford. This plan also addresses issues specific to youth and elders, environmental justice, and I think it is very comprehensive. And so I want to thank you all for that. It's a very long plan, but it is very enlightening as well. I wanted to I guess reiterate the point that Vice President Barry's and Councilor Collins have already made and also present role that this, this plan allows us to take, take more control and initiative over our own development here in our city. It is a means by which we can achieve many different, I think, outcomes that everyone on the council can agree with. When it comes to addressing the cost of living in cost of cost of living prices in our country when it comes to addressing housing prices addressing rental prices, addressing housing stock. There's that aspect of it. There's also the municipal control of it, which I think, I think we as a city can get behind. I found the plan comprehensive. I'm sure when it comes time, we'll have more conversations about implementation and specific measures that we'll take. But I just wanted to take this moment and thank you guys for your work.

[Alicia Hunt]: Yes, thank you. We appreciate it. And actually, I appreciate you mentioning the Housing Production Plan Working Group. I do think it's fair that we should say there was a working group of residents that met with us on this, and worked with us, as well as the consultant held focus groups, and we did public meetings on this. I feel that residents may be sitting there going, what? But it was more like 18 months ago that a lot of this outreach occurred, and sometimes that feels like it was a different world. But that did occur during the beginnings of the pandemic.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Tseng. Councilor Scarpelli.

[George Scarpelli]: Thank you, Councilor Villes. I know we had a few residents questioning that the, still to define what they're hearing that you see in other neighboring communities. As we put the trust together, everybody's still, their question is still asked, How are we going to fund the trust and one of the questions that one resident wanted me to ask is that the, the, the idea of what neighboring communities are doing that if you were a resident for 50 years and you were lucky enough to sell your house and move to Florida, that. That neighbor communities are given 2% to their trust or for their, for their communities and something that they would would protest. So I, you know, I think that that's other than other than the, the, the questions about. You know the funding of the trust and how we'll, we'll, we'll do that. I think that, you know, that I understand that this is something that I would approve tonight's fact that, you know, we need to move forward but I think that understanding, you know, having our zoning expert. in-house with us as we move forward, as we make these changes are gonna be something that I would look at to say it would be imperative before I would move on with any other changes that we need. I can understand tonight moving this forward, but I think there are some questions still that need to be answered and how we look at the need of housing in Medford. I think that, It still has yet to be defined. There are great ideas and but it's also open ended so that these are things that are concerning to residents and. As we move forward I think we need to, to discuss that to, to really get all of the, all of our residents on board and understanding how how important this is, and especially as you. We look at this new, our new development that hopefully we start moving forward to these 40 bees and we start moving forward with Mr. gap quarters and others that. we can eliminate that 10% and get to 15% for our needs. So thank you.

[Alicia Hunt]: And I appreciate that. Thank you, councilor. So as we were mentioning discussing each of these items needs would have separate meetings to be able to then implement them right for the affordable housing trust. We would have a separate you all would have committee of the whole you would have committees, we would have conversation to then answer all of these detailed questions like the one that you're asking tonight. that this is basically giving us a menu of things that we can pick from and start to move some of them forward. And honestly, 18 actions is a lot of actions. Maybe we don't get to all of them in the next five years. Maybe we do, maybe we do some additional things that aren't on this list because a new program shows up next year that was not on any of our radar. So it doesn't limit us and it doesn't force us to do any one of these. So, but we appreciate your question, and we'd love to be able to discuss that further at a meeting about the Affordable Housing Trust.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Thank you, Director Hunt. Are there any... I'd like to go, but just before I go, any further questions from fellow councillors? Okay, not seeing any. I will just, I will say a few things. I was, took a minute for the 114 page version to load, but I finally have it in front of me. Or Councilor Scarpelli, if you wanna go again, feel free, sorry.

[George Scarpelli]: No, no, made a mistake, Council, sorry about that.

[Zac Bears]: No worries. So just looking at some of these strategies, you know, when we were presented with this last time, that was before we had gone through the bulk of the zoning recodification process and the passage of the new zoning ordinance. And I actually think, at least for me, you know, this plan helped me as I was thinking through my questions around the zoning recodification and on a lot of these strategies, you know, amending existing zoning to make it easier on multifamily and mixed use development and encouraging creation of affordable units, you know, We made some changes with the planned development district that would open up some opportunities around that. know, amending accessory dwelling units. We, we did that, you know, we now that's a goal that we have achieved here. Um, you know, there's certainly some things that, uh, uh, we haven't done as much on, um, senior housing is such a huge priority. I think that would be a really important to look at, cause we do have so many folks who are looking for a different option than staying in their home. And, you know, they may have as Councilors probably said, they may have bought it for a hundred thousand dollars. Now it's worth a million dollars and they're paying the property taxes on a million dollar property. And, maybe would like a different option for them in that stage of life. And we've been having the meetings on the Affordable Housing Trust, collaborating with a lot of community partners as well throughout the zoning recodification process. So I'm just saying all that to say we were able to secure funding for us to have our zoning experts through the next phase of this process, which I think is going to be taking from this plan and the comprehensive plan And as well as other other work that we're doing to look at more zoning changes take a deep look at the zoning map and our zoning districts and align them to the priorities of the city today. So, you know, less a question more a comment but I just think it really shows how. We are trying to do the work of aligning what you're doing and what we're doing and moving forward together. And we've really, I think, had some early success with that as well. I was at the meeting on Monday about the proposed commercial development district, Mystic Avenue. And I think that is really exciting, a change that has now been opened up through the new zoning process and would bring great benefits to the city. And we're gonna have a lot more discussions and meetings on it as well, like all of these other things. I think through a collaborative and deliberative process, we'll be able to achieve some really great outcomes for residents and for our community. So that's really all I had to say. I just wanted to make that point. Even though we're here now approving this now, we have been moving on some of the key goals that are contained within this plan, because I think really we all agree on many of them and that they're important for Medford.

[Alicia Hunt]: Great. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Great. Councilor Collins.

[Kit Collins]: Thank you, Vice President Bears. Not to jump the gun if there's any other councilors that wanna make points, but I would motion to report this out of committee. I'm certainly happy to hear other comments and questions from my fellow councilors, but I'd love to voice my approval for this tonight. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Motion of Councilor Collins to report this out of committee to the full council as amended. Great.

[Nicole Morell]: Second.

[Zac Bears]: On the motion of Councilor Collins, seconded by Councilor Tseng. Is there any further discussion on the topic before us? Any discussion or comments by members of the public? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Caraviello. Yes. Councilor Collins. Yes. Okay. Councilor Knight is absent. Councilor Scarpelli.

[Justin Tseng]: Yes.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Tseng, Yes, President Morell. Yes, Vice President Bears.

[Zac Bears]: Yes. Six in the affirmative, none in the negative. The motion passes. Any further discussion on this topic? Anything more you guys want to say?

[Alicia Hunt]: I just wanted to be clear so that we take that as that we will make those two edits and we'll remove the word draft from this. And I believe that we're going to update the date on this to be now. And then we will submit it with the council paper to the city council to vote on.

[Zac Bears]: Great. Thank you. Seeing no further discussion, I'll entertain any motions. Motion of Councilor Collins to adjourn, seconded by Councilor Tseng. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Caraviello? Yes. Councilor Collins? Yes. Councilor Nunez-Apson, Councilor Scarpelli?

[George Scarpelli]: Yes.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Tseng?

[George Scarpelli]: Yes.

[Adam Hurtubise]: President Morell? Yes. Vice President Bears?

[Zac Bears]: Six in the affirmative, none in the negative. Motion passes and the meeting is adjourned. Thank you.