[Adam Hurtubise]: Okay. Paper 23-302, Subcommittee on Business, Cultural Arts and Economic Development meeting notice. Thursday, May 25th, 2023 at six o'clock PM. There'll be a meeting of the Medford City Council Subcommittee on Business, Cultural Arts and Economic Development on Thursday, May 25th, 2023 at six o'clock PM. Originally posted for the Medford City Council Chamber on the second floor of Medford City Hall and via Zoom. And obviously it's via Zoom only now. Purpose of the meeting is to discuss zoning tools to encourage smart growth in commercial and industrial zoning districts, including on Mystic Avenue, which is paper 23-302. Subcommittee has invited Building Commissioner Bill Forty and Alicia Hunt, Director of Planning, Development and Sustainability, to attend this meeting.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. If you could please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Sure. Councilor Collins?
[Unidentified]: Present.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Knight? Councilor Knight is absent. Chairman Caraviello? Presents. And I will note that Council Vice President Bears is also present at the meeting.
[Richard Caraviello]: So two present, one absent, Mr. Clerk. Thank you everyone for coming to this meeting tonight. I'm not gonna belabor the point too much. Something that has come to my attention, which I brought to Alicia Hunt's attention is, is that there's a company coming around the city of Medford and he's approaching all the garages and body shops to buy them and to bring in other body shops and garages in the city of Medford. This company also has a map that's identified 40 locations in the city of Medford where they feel a garage or a body shop would be allowed to go. And we had, I don't know, for those who were on the meeting last night, we approved a garage for Linden Street. And the woman who owned the garage came on and made a little speech, and she made the point that they were located in Somerville, in Assembly Square, and they were pushed out, and they had nowhere to go. where they came, they came here to Medford. So, and my argument to that is, well, look, they took an undervalued piece of property in Somerville, and now we're probably getting five to 10 times the amounts of tax revenue they were getting from the body shop or garage that was there. And let's say, and that's what we're seeing coming over here, like on Mystic Avenue, our wife auto comes out of Somerville. So all these companies are coming out of somewhere in Cambridge where they're getting pushed out and they're putting in better developments. And we're kind of getting the credit. We're getting the, I don't know how to say this, the less than desirable businesses taking up good pieces of property. I know they've made an offer on Elm Street of $9,800 a month to take over that old gas station there. I know 7 Canal Street is now on the market with this company and they've gone around to two others and they're trying to sign other people up. So what we're trying to do is we have a table, I think Alicia will share it to you at some point, to stop getting the other city's leftovers that are getting pushed out and that are coming over here and take up our valuable pieces of property with garages and body shops. Lisa, if you want to put the screen up and see where we are. And Bill, any comment you'd like to make to this discussion?
[Adam Hurtubise]: I have to unmute him. Hang on a second.
[Unidentified]: Are you there, Bill?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Alicia started sharing the screen. I had to go to another screen. Hang on a second.
[Bill Forte]: Here we go. I'm good. You can hear me? Yes, Bill. All right, terrific. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. So I know that there has been some issues with, you know, repair vehicles being parked out on the street. Is that, is it related to this?
[Richard Caraviello]: No, that's no, no, this is, this is something totally different. This is, these are people that are leaving other communities and coming into our communities. They're getting, they're getting chopped off of their property and they're coming over here and moving over here.
[SPEAKER_02]: I see.
[Richard Caraviello]: So that's I think that's what the issue is. We want to maybe maybe regulate that or maybe Alicia, you can help us out with the avenue to maybe to slow that process down. I know I know we can't stop the places that are already here and in place. But for newer things, I'd like to figure out how to stop them because, like I said, this company has identified 40 parcels of land in the city that they feel they can put a garage or a body shop.
[Bill Forte]: Okay. Yeah. I don't have any comments at this time. I'm kind of here to gather some information and see how I can be of. Yeah.
[Richard Caraviello]: And I say, I know we weren't going to solve anything tonight, but I wanted to get the discussion started on this. So when we come to our next meeting, uh, we're all on the same page and we can understand what we're looking for. So currently at least you're showing, um, uh, we're looking at, uh, on the age part, uh, the C2s, um, Service station motor vehicles, which I don't see. I think I think body shops require a special permit. Is that correct?
[Alicia Hunt]: So there's two things going on. One is what is the use? And then it's some things like gas stations need fuel permits as well. And you know what, Bill, can you, I was trying to understand which category actually means gas station. Like is light service station the equivalent of a gas station?
[Bill Forte]: What service, I believe, includes it? I'd have to look at the definitions. I don't know.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. You know what? Maybe. And I'll take a look, too.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have to get that from me.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah. One of the.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let me just see if I can. One second here.
[Alicia Hunt]: Oh, I found them. A motor vehicle light service station is a premise, building or premise used for dispensing sales or offering for sale of motor fuels directly to users of motor vehicles. Other sales activity and other repairs should be minor in scope. So that's, I'm wondering if one of the things we should just make a note is to update some of this language so that this actually says gas station so that, most people know what it means, but that's a side.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yeah, that's a good idea also.
[Alicia Hunt]: So I think the H1 is the gas station, because it says building or premise used for dispensing sales or offering for sale of motor fuels directly to users of motor vehicles. And then I think what you're... So we're seeing... How is it worded right now?
[Bill Forte]: It's fuel dispensing?
[Alicia Hunt]: Yes. So there's a couple different things going on. And one is around gas stations. One is about vehicle repair establishments. And then the other that we have talked about is vehicle sales. Basically all of H, right? And then there's vehicle washes, car washes, and that's the last item there.
[Richard Caraviello]: Okay, so number one is it will be a gas station, just selling gas or doing repairs?
[Alicia Hunt]: It says other sales activities shall be minor in scope and clearly subordinate to the sale of motor fuels, oils, and lubricants. So like they could do a little something, and I think that is what is a little.
[Richard Caraviello]: That would be like the gas station that has a garage, correct?
[Alicia Hunt]: Well, motor vehicle repair is a building or use which is designed or intended to be used for the storage, servicing, repair, maintenance, or cleaning of motor vehicle equipment.
[Richard Caraviello]: And no fuels, they're not selling any fuel there.
[Alicia Hunt]: It doesn't mention it on the definition. So I guess I would like, I would say to Bill, how would you categorize something where they have fuel pumps and you can leave your car there and they'll do repairs on it, right? Like there's some right around the corner from us by the police station.
[Bill Forte]: I don't know that I would classify it as a separate use. I think it's a combined use that makes it by definition. So I'm a little confused right here. At least you're on this table of uses. It looks like motor vehicle related uses have two C2s in here. And I just want to clarify that that's supposed to be a C1 or a C2.
[Alicia Hunt]: There was a typo. Yes, C1. Yeah, OK.
[Bill Forte]: I just want to make sure. OK, right.
[Alicia Hunt]: It's another typo.
[Bill Forte]: We didn't catch when we did the typo. Yeah, right. So obviously, the C1 district is a more restrictive district when it comes to auto repair and auto sales. Are these properties? Councilor Caraviello, are these properties in the C1 or C2 zone?
[Richard Caraviello]: I don't know if that's where they are located, Bill.
[Alicia Hunt]: I pulled up the map for you. And I could switch to that if you want, but I could tell you. So Mystic Ave is C2. Chancellor Caraviello, you were asking about a particular business on Canal Street. That location is actually in an apartment one, it is adjacent to the C1.
[Richard Caraviello]: But that- So 7th Canal would be in apartment one.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah. And then the Elm Street one is actually interesting. That's in a SF2. And just to be clear, there is a gas station up at the very top of Elm Street on the rotary. There's a very small C1 district up there, but the rest of Elm Street, basically from the houses on down, that's C2, or SF2, single family two. And so it's not an allowed use there at all.
[Richard Caraviello]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Mr. Gavis, sorry, Bill, your reception.
[Richard Caraviello]: No, we're kind of losing. Yeah.
[Adam Hurtubise]: No, we're losing you.
[Richard Caraviello]: And while we get billed back, um, uh, Councilor bears has his hands raised.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Caravallo. Thanks for having me here.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, sorry. Yeah, it's kind of crappy here. My apologies.
[Zac Bears]: If I could just jump in. Much appreciated in all these specifics, you know, where we're looking at future uses. Okay, you know, yeah, let me see if I can get a better Thanks, Bill.
[SPEAKER_02]: Just in my two cents where we're looking at future uses.
[Zac Bears]: Sorry, I'll wait to see if Bill's leg ends out before I start. OK. OK. Just my two cents on this, where we're looking at future uses and not current uses, my suggestion would be across the board that we don't allow any motor vehicle uses by right. And then we can look at what kind of special permits we want to allow. And in my view, I think my preference would be as few allowed at all in any district. I mean, I understand that the I district and the C2 and the C1, they are slightly different, but the expectation is over the next couple of years that we're gonna be significantly changing that anyway. And a lot of the I districts, we're now targeting for more mixed use type development and even in some places that are I districts for seeing residential development. So that would just be my two cents on the whole thing. I mean, if there are specific reasons to keep a certain use allowed by right, I'm totally open to hear it, but I think allowing any of these by right at this point doesn't really fit with our plans for the future, the comprehensive plan. And I could see a number of these uses across a number of districts going down to at very least, you know, special permit by the council or the Board of Appeals or the city board. And in multiple cases, just not allowed at all.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yeah. And I mean, I mean, the ones that are already there, I mean, we're kind of stuck with at the moment. Right. Yeah. So, yeah, I agree that that's that's a good suggestion. Council of us. Did you have anything further on. Want me to come back to you.
[Zac Bears]: No, that's it. I'll take my hand down. Sorry.
[Richard Caraviello]: Council calls.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello. And I was going to say much the same the Vice President Bears. just covered, you know, I think I wouldn't want residents watching this conversation to be left with the impression that we're, you know, now trying to single out individual companies that are seeking to operate here. Rather, I think that this is like a really great opportunity to recenter on some of the work we're already trying to do with planning development and sustainability through zoning recodification to bring the work of the comprehensive plan into the city. And I think we're running up against is, you know, we do have these uses allowed by right there's not much we can do, you know, but to, there's not much we can do to keep them out of the areas that they're allowed to be in by right. So I think this is just really a cute example of the need to rezone these specific areas, to bring them into alignment with what we actually want for these areas for as long as, you know, I think that what's allowed by right is essentially what we are prioritizing, even if it's a remnant of a past priority. So I'd be glad to see these brought down to special permit at the most, maybe disallowed in some areas, and hopefully, you know, this specific project will soon be part of a overall project to update these areas to bring them into alignment with our many plans for the area. Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: Well, as Councilor Bears has brightened up, you know, the I-District, I mean, there's very little industrial uh establishments left in the city of Medford right now and they seem to be uh going by by the wayside uh so I think this is our opportunity uh as they leave to uh to uh do the district over and uh and actually you know uh talk about the whole uh each section um and you know to see where we want to go with these uh uh going further.
[Zac Bears]: And Mr. Chair, if I could just jump in again. Yeah, and I think, you know, I think the point that you made in the initial resolution, right, is we're doing the work to get what we want in these places. What we don't want in the interim is things coming in that mess that up. So, you know, to me, this is kind of a no brainer to just say, let's let's put a pause on uses that really don't fit with where we want to go as a city. in these areas, especially in C1, C2, and I, you know, they're already just not allowed in any of the residential districts and the MUZ district and the Office 2 district. So that's already solved. And then, you know, we could do that. I think it's a no-brainer. I very much doubt that the CD board or the you know, I don't know, I don't want to speak for them, but I think given my viewings of their meetings, they would probably agree that this is something that we should do. And the other thing we could also do is, you know, we have found a number of typos and small errors that we want to correct. It would make sense to, I think for me to, to package this and that, and try to do that quickly. And then we're, you know, in a good foundational place for our, you know, zoning consultant to work on really rezoning the city.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yeah. Yes. I agree. I agree. Thank you. Uh, bill. Mr. Clay, can you, can you unmute, uh, bill?
[Unidentified]: Here we go. All right. All right.
[Bill Forte]: Thank you. Yeah. So, um, the, the, okay. Can you hear me clearly now? Can you hear me okay now?
[Richard Caraviello]: Yeah, you can. You're coming in and out bill.
[Bill Forte]: Yeah. Jeez. I'm so sorry. I'm, I'm down the campground, so it's a little bit. My reception's not that good. Am I okay right now? Yeah. Okay, good. Anytime one of these shops comes in for an ownership change, normally I'll get a visit from someone and they'll ask me, what can I do? What can I can't do there? And essentially in areas where it either requires a special permit or it's already nonconforming, say it's in an SF1 zone because it's been there for decades. In that case, they may not be able to do exactly what they wanna do. you know, without having to go to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a special permit to, you know, continue on with the nonconformity or increase it. And so, you know, oftentimes when a garage is going to be taken over, usually that's our opportunity to get it cleaned up. And in most cases, those types of garages usually have like a lot of junk cars sitting around, they may not be doing a great deal of business and the new shop that's coming in may be doing a substantially more business than what it's done before. And so as a result, these things can trigger off the requirements for site plan review, special permit, whatever it might be. So I'm of the opinion that a property that's being used to repair cars It's not always static. It's going to be to a point where there's some kind of changes have to be made. And so in that case, it might not deter, but it may make it more challenging for an owner to convey or lease a property in that. I think I had somebody come to me a while back. They wanted to sell the cars that they repair, and I told them that they needed a special permit. So, those are the kinds of things that may help to regulate better what's already happening down there.
[Richard Caraviello]: I agree. Would it be beneficial to the city to maybe be a little proactive and maybe reach out to these establishments that are already here and maybe suggest some better uses for their property than the body shop or the garage with some assistance from the city. Alicia, did you wanna answer that one?
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, I was thinking about it. Do you want me to stop sharing this chart for a few minutes?
[Richard Caraviello]: Yeah, yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: And we could also look at the map if you want.
[Richard Caraviello]: Maybe we get to be a little more proactive
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, it's definitely something that when we have the proper staffing, I'm trying to get the position, I'm doing interviews again next week for economic development director, and then when we have the right staffing, we've done some things like that where there is one example that comes to mind of a storefront that was very underused, it didn't make the area look very nice. We knew the owner and we had a nice conversation and suggested there was a better use. and he could make more money and it would be better for the community. And that's actually underway right now, that particular shift. It's sensitive because people don't like to be told what to do with their property. But if it's approached well, if somebody is open to ideas, we're happy to talk to them, talk through what are the best uses. We do have to do it hand in hand with some of this zoning change because some of the places And I met with not a property owner, I actually met with the marketing firm for a property recently to sort of talk about, yes, your property is only zoned for two-story industrial, but look at what else is going on in this area on Mystic Valley Parkway. And here's what's coming in and what we'd like to see. And if you bear with us, we're working on a zoning that we think there'll be some real zoning change. We're working on a study and stuff. If you don't want to wait for us. Here's the process to come in and ask for those zoning changes faster and to get ahead of us. That's what you actually saw in the council Tuesday night was a property owner who wants to turn it to a higher better use. And he doesn't want to wait for our process for the speed at which. So there is a mechanism for property owners to go faster than us. So yes, we can talk to business owners about it. Until I get somebody hired, I don't have the capacity to be doing this in any large scale. But I've taken one off meetings in the past six weeks with various property owners. about what could they do, what's the process. Some of it is difficult because what they want to do with their properties, it's harder in the SF2 zones. It's a little easier in the apartment zones. It's going to be very easy in the C2s. But is it helpful at all if I put the map up? I mean, I could also just send you guys a link so you have it again for your reference.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yeah, if you if you want to do that, there'll be there'll be there'll be okay for the people who don't have it.
[Alicia Hunt]: And let me put just put it up for a minute. I'm a little zoomed in here.
[Richard Caraviello]: Is this the newest one?
[Alicia Hunt]: So this is the correct, except for there's two labels. There's one label on here that is not updated yet. This is not the one that Bill has been working on, but everything that's on here is correct, other than the one rezoning we did from I to O2. So this is Mystic Ave. This is the C. Over here, this is where we changed this to O2. There was some talk of West Medford. I'm going to zoom in on that area. So you can see most of West Medford is this C1. There's this apartment. So there's a garage, Stevens Auto Garage is in the apartment one district. This is GR, and so actually there's another project coming through the process right here, the funeral home that was torn down on High Street, they've applied, or we're working with them on their application path.
[Richard Caraviello]: So they're here- What are they looking to put there?
[Alicia Hunt]: They actually want to do first floor commercial and then nine units of apartments above. And part of their difficulty is that this pale yellow is SF1. And their parking lot for their building is actually in the SF1 zone. And that complicates things.
[Richard Caraviello]: I recall when the funeral home was there. I remember that was an issue.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right.
[Richard Caraviello]: Some years ago.
[Alicia Hunt]: And that's an issue again. It's a very nice proposal what they've put in front of us. but it's not allowed as of right. And I think the other area that you were sort of thinking about here, this is Fulton Heights, you can see is SF1 and single family too. And there's an old abandoned gas station on Elm Street down here. This is all single family too.
[Richard Caraviello]: They've made a substantial offer on that property to rent it.
[Alicia Hunt]: So I will tell you that use has been abandoned for more than two years. So therefore they don't have anything as of right there. They would need a new permit and in an SF2 it's not allowed. So Bill, I believe that means they'd have to go to the Zoning Board of Appeals and convince them. Can I unmute Bill?
[Richard Caraviello]: That owner has not renewed his permits to keep the gas station alive.
[Alicia Hunt]: Sorry?
[Richard Caraviello]: That owner has not renewed the permits.
[Alicia Hunt]: My understanding, and Bill can comment on this, is that it's not just a matter of renewing permits, but you have to be actively using, like actively conducting the business. Is that correct, Bill? Oh, maybe he froze. He definitely is unmuted, though. But you can tell him.
[Bill Forte]: And the way that I would seek that kind is if someone, yeah, if someone, let's see, hold on. Can you hear me? Yep. Hello? Okay, sorry about that. So the way it would happen is if someone was to claim a nonconforming use that was still, you know, active, I would require documentation proving that. So it would have to be receipts, it would have to show, you know, generation of business and it would have to be continuous without interruption. So, you know, just because somebody says, I never changed it by permit, doesn't necessarily mean it gives them the right to continue in that non-conforming use. So that's correct.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yeah. Because I don't think when it was Louie's, I don't think Louie had done anything in there for many years either.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: I mean, it certainly had a fence across the front of it for years.
[Bill Forte]: Right, which means that the use has been abandoned by definition. So, you know. OK, OK. All right.
[Alicia Hunt]: And then I'm just going to zoom out so you can.
[Bill Forte]: Yeah, and then it's noteworthy to mention that, you know, it works the same when a use wants to be continued. Let's just say somebody comes in and they want to take over ownership of an old convenience store that's still running. I might allow it by right if it's no more nonconforming than it's already been. If it stays the same, then I may issue a permit for the continuation of that use without the need to go to ZBA because nothing about it has changed. So I try to give everybody a fair shot at proving the existence of it as it is now compared to what it's going to be. And if it's similar without any disruption or any increase in the nonconformity, I might allow it to continue.
[Richard Caraviello]: Okay. Yeah, that sounds okay. All right. So I think we're all on the same page here, what we want to do. It's just the issue is how quickly can we get it done, especially in the I-District, which seems to be the most obvious ones, that things are moving quicker than we'd like them to be. And I don't know, so Councilor Bears had mentioned that we don't allow any motor use by right. Is that something that we could do in the I-District? Or put a pause on it? Or a moratorium in that area? What would be the course of action there?
[Alicia Hunt]: Well, yeah, go ahead, Alicia, sorry, City Council could propose a zoning amendment. So there's a moratorium has to meet some legal tests around, like, what's the problem that's occurring, what's the solution, it has to be for a timeline. Um, it might actually be easier for the city council to propose a zoning amendment to change the motor use the motor uses whichever ones to City Council special permit or I will say that we've been talking about most cities don't have Board of Appeals do use permits they they tend the special permits would go either would go through the planning board. So we can look at that like who would do it, but you could change it to be a special permit, rather than. a yes, and that means that you don't have to issue any of them, that you would look at each one and say, well, why are we doing this one? What's the benefit? Is this better? Do we want it here? And the city council could make a blanket statement that we don't wanna see any, we're not intending to approve any, but it allows you that if something comes up that you're like, oh, actually that one makes sense, you could. The zoning change would go pretty quickly, relatively speaking. The city council could propose it and refer it to this CD board. CD board does their hearing, council does their hearing, the zoning is changed.
[Richard Caraviello]: Okay, so we would- Councilor Collins has her hand up. Okay, Councilor Collins.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, thank you for noticing my hand, Director Hunt. of course, open to hearing other courses of action. But I think your point is well taken. That's probably the most expedient option available to us right now. And it seems like, you know, the point of contemplating this outside the scope of zoning recodification anyway, is to be able to move on quickly. So I'd be happy to make a motion that this subcommittee or Councilor Caraviello as chair, you know, just work on getting the correct language to put forth zoning amendments for those specific districts that would change these uses from by right to a special permit circumstance. And I'm certainly, I'm very interested in hearing more opinions as to whether that special permit granting authority should be the city council or should it be the planning board, but that seems like the best solution to me that's on the table. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thanks and I just want to throw in again, you know, if we're going to go through a zoning amendment process and we're going to schedule the hearings. I know there are some technical changes that building and PDS have noted that need to be made to the zoning ordinance and I just think it makes sense to do that at the same time. If that makes sense to you Director Hunt and Commissioner 40.
[Alicia Hunt]: I will tell you that I was actually planning to bring some, our next CD board meeting is the first week of June. And I was planning to bring three things to them because the planning board can make a recommendation for a zoning change. It would go to council, you would refer it back to them and they would refer it back to you. But I could mention the three that are on my short list right now, if that's at all helpful. Or you can wait.
[Richard Caraviello]: What would the three be?
[Alicia Hunt]: There was the Zoning Board of Appeals had originally, when it was changed to have five members, was changed to have two associate members. And somehow in the recodification that got changed to one associate member, they would really like that changed back to two. That seems pretty simple. I'm trying to think, wait, one of them fell off my, the meatier one is that we've run into, during the recodification, there was a discussion about multiple primary buildings on one lot, and it was supposed to address an issue with single family homes on one lot. However, the way the language was written, it has made all our housing authority properties non-conforming and many of our shopping districts. So we're not allowing multiple buildings on one commercial lot. And that's not doesn't make sense. And it's causing a problem for the housing authority, where multiple apartment, multifamily apartment buildings on one lot. So I wanted to bring forward language to change that because it's putting some of the housing authorities financing at risk. And that we could put language together that would keep it so you couldn't do the single family homes or two family homes on one lot, but to exempt that commercial properties and large apartment buildings would not be impacted by that.
[Bill Forte]: And if I may interject, Halisha, it's driving your building inspector crazy. So every time I see this, I now have to reject an application to say, oh, by the way, you need relief from this because you can't have more than one principal building on a lot. Let's look at Rays and Kains. That's one of the ones. And so because they go through hearing, I kind of stay silent on it. you know, statutorily, I'm required to reject it on that basis. So it's a big problem that needs to get resolved, you know, in short order.
[Richard Caraviello]: So I just wanted to kind of emphasis the- And I think when we codified, I knew, you know, some stuff was gonna have to be readjusted. Councilor Bears, you still have your hand up?
[Zac Bears]: Yeah, just what was the third one, Alicia?
[Alicia Hunt]: I'm trying to remember, I talked about it three times today. It'll come to me, but I will tell you that there's another like accident that we found throughout. And that was that there are a number of sections where definitions were supposed to be brought into the definition section and they weren't, and they were therefore left out of the ordinance completely. All the definitions from inclusionary zoning, the definitions from the solar ordinance. So that's clearly like, a little bit more than a Scrivener's error, but it was an accident. Everybody said, oh, yeah, yeah, we'll move those to that section. And then in the version that got printed and voted on, there are a whole lot of definitions that were just left out completely.
[Richard Caraviello]: If you bring those forward, I think the council can rectify them.
[Zac Bears]: Yeah, and and and again procedurally just to get all of these done as fast as possible. Alicia, does it make more sense for that to just come right from starting with the council and doing it all at all of these things at once.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right, so that's so somebody has to put it on the city council agenda. And then you refer to CD board, and we do one big hearing on them all. And honestly, can we get it together for your, when's your next meeting? It's not this week. Um, we could get it typed up. I'm trying to decide if I'm over committing because Amanda's out all week and she's, um, really excellent on these, but I think you have an extra week. Well, we could get them pulled together for June 5th. You vote to refer them to the CD board, and then that would be the fastest.
[Richard Caraviello]: Right, that'd be good. If you could do that, that'd be great.
[Zac Bears]: I can help Alicia if Amanda's not around.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, she's going to Japan for a week. I'm not asking her to do anything.
[Zac Bears]: Not that I'm as good as her, but I can help.
[Richard Caraviello]: So I think at this point, I can't make the motion, but I think Councilor Collins, if you'd like to make the motion that we had discussed earlier. Yes, so moved. Do you want to read it to the clerk so he has it, Mr. Clerk?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Let me read back what I have and then we can make edits.
[Richard Caraviello]: Okay.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Hang on, give me a quick second. Council Collins moved to get the correct language to put forth zoning amendments for these districts to change these from by right to special permits.
[Unidentified]: Is that the correct language?
[Kit Collins]: And can we also add the, what was the correct phrase? Also the technical corrections from Director Hunt to add to those zoning amendments that will be forwarded to the CD board.
[Unidentified]: So each of the one.
[Alicia Hunt]: Oh, the other one that we are talking about, I feel like I might need to get somebody other than me to help explain it better than I can do it. Right now, we changed it so that The ZBA has something that are called findings that is a lower bar than a variance, but all findings now are technically special permits and all special permits have to go to the CD board, which technically means that almost every case in front of the ZBA has to go to the CD board, which nobody ever intended. And so I need to get some more information on that. I don't know. It's a big problem for the ZBA. I'm hoping to actually, I'm gonna hop on their meeting after this and talk to them about it. So it may be something we can pull together and it may need to be just a separate explanation. But it's very technical. Yeah.
[Richard Caraviello]: All right. All right, so we have the motion made by Councilor Collins. Mr. Clerk, could you call the roll please?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yes. Councilor Collins? Yes. Councilor Nairn is absent. Chairman Caraviello?
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes. Two in the affirmative, one absent. Motion passes. Okay. I think that's about all. I think that's pretty, I think we made some pretty good progress. Alicia, will you help us out with the language for that?
[Alicia Hunt]: Yes.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yeah. And does anyone have anything else to offer? I know we're all kind of meeting out and I know Alicia has to go to another meeting in a few minutes. Do we have anything else before we adjourn?
[Kit Collins]: Thank you so much to all the department heads for helping out with this project. I'll make the motion to adjourn.
[Richard Caraviello]: Okay. I will reschedule a meeting within the next two weeks to do this. So we can defer it to a committee of the whole?
[Zac Bears]: We may not even have to do that. We may be able to just write it and then we could all co-sponsor something to go on a regular meeting agenda.
[Richard Caraviello]: All right, sounds like a plan. Okay, so before we adjourn, any other comments or questions?
[Adam Hurtubise]: You need to vote to adjourn because it's a Zoom meeting.
[Richard Caraviello]: Councilor Collins, if you could make the motion to adjourn? Yes, motion to adjourn. Second. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Collins.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Tonight is absent, Chairman Caraviello.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes, two in the affirmative, one absent, motion passes. Thank you everyone for taking the time out on a Thursday. I know we're all kind of, we got a bunch of seats coming up and there'll be a whole bunch more meetings coming up. Thank you everyone.
[Bill Forte]: Off to the next week. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you, Bill. Thank you, Alicia. Bye-bye. Thank you.
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