[SPEAKER_10]: Let's call the roll. President Bears. Present. Councilor Callahan. Present. Councilwoman. Present. Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Scarpelli is absent. Vice President Collins.
[SPEAKER_04]: Present. Four present, one absent. The meeting is called to order. At this meeting, we will again revisit paper 24-033, offered by President Bears and Vice President Collins, zoning ordinance updates with the Innis Associates team. The agenda says this is the fourth Zoning Updates meeting with Innis Associates, but I think the actual number is higher than that. For this meeting, we have agreed on the following agenda, to look at priority zoning recommendations from the Climate Adaptation and Action Plan, to prioritize zoning recommendations from the 2023 Comprehensive Plan, discussing completing the mapping analysis by June 30, and to discuss new topics that came up during the May 8 committee meeting that should be added to our work plan, including legal definitions and formatting and permitting and process. Given that, that's a lot to discuss. I know that NS Associates has prepared a memo with a first draft of pulling those zoning recommendations from the comp plan and the climate adaptation and action plan. So there's a lot to potentially go over in that already. speaking as one councilor, speaking as the chair, I think my ideal goals for this meeting are to do an overview of the existing recommendations that Innis Associates has already pulled from the cap and the comp plan, to have a discussion on that with councilors towards the goal of at our next committee meeting on June 26, making sure that councilors, Innis and staff all feel comfortable that all of the recommendations that should be pulled from the climate action and adaptation plan and the comp plan have been fully culled, they're all in our work plan, and that we've also talked about assigning priority levels to those zoning recommendations so that we can enter into the new fiscal year feeling like our source documents have been properly vetted and that way we can just approach things by topic and by neighborhood from there on out. I'd also love for us to have a discussion about kind of how we can codifying, putting legal definitions in format, permitting and process into the work timeline to make sure that gets baked in, and then discussing what we need to do to make sure that the mapping analysis, which I think is in a draft stage, will be completed and ready for review at the June 26th committee meeting. Before we get started with reviewing, I want to pass it off to NS Associates. Any preliminary comments from Councilors?
[SPEAKER_02]: The only thing, and maybe we can talk about it more on the 26th, that I think would be good to at least start talking about is the, and it's kind of in here as the new topics, but the work plan, kind of the two tracks of the work plan that we talked about recently, where we'd have kind of the global citywide changes on one track and then changes that are going to require different local neighborhood discussions or essentially the district by district and neighborhood type changes on another track and hopefully kind of try to have that out there well in advance so the residents can be informed and know when we're going to be talking about their neighborhood as it relates to the comp plan and all the other changes we want to make. just that I think maybe we can take that to the 26. Maybe it's like a natural next step from this final topic here on our agenda today.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, president bears. I agree. I think it'd be great to publish that well in advance so that residents have lots of lead time to know when changes that might affect their neighborhood are coming. Um, and I think it would be a great segue to, I think it could be a great segue to complete this categorization pulling from the cap and the comp plan and making sure that we've been thorough and comprehensive. It seems to me that we might be able to solidify the work plan for the global and the district changes once we kind of have the full scope of what we're looking at and how those might file in. Any preliminary comments from city staff before I turn it over to Ines Associates? Well, I'll turn it over to Paola. And, um, I was thinking open to alternative ideas on this, but knowing that we have, uh, reviewing the, um, the memo that was circulated to Councilors last week with that draft of, uh, Zona recommendations pulled from the cap and the comp plan, um, there's quite a lot to discuss in there so far. And I think that we'd probably all appreciate adjourning no later than eight 30. So to me, I think that our time could be best served doing kind of a general overview, not going through things necessarily in great detail line by line. But I know that my priority is making sure that everything that ought to be on that list is and working on assigning a priority. So if we could kind of do a high level overview of what's currently in that memo. Paola, and if you could speak to, you know, if there's anything that you particularly think ought to be flagged, anything that didn't make it in, and why I think that that might be most helpful for starting us out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. This is Paola from Menace Associates, representing Emily, the director. And with me is the GIS expert, Jim Irosha, Um, so yes, I think that what I was. Actually, what I wanted to do was going really explaining what we did. Um, and then ask if there are any, uh, comments or things that you didn't see that you would like to see. So get more of the feedback from you instead of reading one by one. Um, so I'm going to share my screen. So we can see it maybe a bit better.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think the plan sounds great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay. Here we are. Yeah, so as you said, the agenda is about the SONY recommendations from the Climate Adaptation Action Plan and the recommendations from the 2023 Comprehensive Plan. At the moment, we have a list with all of them, each in one table. And actually, what I wanted to do today was more to get your feedback on how we do the prioritization. So we have an idea and a method, and that's mainly what we wanted to run by you. But we can go step by step. And so that we all agree. So first, the first topic that we treat was the climate resilience. And we took it from in the in the table, you are going to have the number and the number is exactly the number that is, it's taken by the by the CAP, the Climate Adaptation Action Plan. So you see the number, we have the big goals first, and in bold, and then after that, you will see the recommendations that are more specific to this first goal. So for example, we have diverse and affordable housing. We explain what it entails. And then we have the three sub strategies that comes with it. You will see the topic. In this cap, we only use the climate resiliency, but actually, there are more topics that are influenced directly by this, and we will see it later, that we will use to create, to prioritize these strategies. Where does it come from? So in this case, it's the cap. And then after, so the next weeks we want to, as Zach Barrett said, we want to work on the work plan. That's why we today wanted to work on the priority, because it will help us to go through the work plan and so that every of these strategies can be more specific to which phase are going to be in. In this, in the first table, you will see inside the strategies, these like B51. This comes from the zoning memorandum that we've been working. And these are the strategies and suggestions that came from the Department of Planning and Sustainability. And so what we did is include these ones in exactly the strategy from the CAB that we thought were more appropriate. So, for example, In this case, the B51 overlay district that has a lot of different suggestions. The density zone was applied to this strategy, the BE11B. And you can see that all the way we have the BE12, high-performance new buildings. This comes from the CAP. And then from the department, the suggestions about the eco-roof ordinance, is in here, or the B49 by right allowances is in here. So we tried to not have a lot of different tables. We wanted to have one in this case that took all the climate resiliency suggestions into one. And that's why you will see these bold numbers B51, B52, B47 in here. This is for the climate resiliency. And then if I go a bit further, we will see the list of objectives and actions typed in changes, but this comes from the comprehensive plan. So in here, we did the same. We have the number of it. The main one, it's in bold. And then the more specific are later on in normal letters, not usable. Then we have the topics, the main ones. Obviously, as the other ones, sometimes we have several because it's not only one. These usually overlap and usually almost always overlap with different topics. But here we try to do the main ones that affect these strategies. In here, this table is only for the comp plan, so that for now it's easier to see and not to have them all together and overlap. And yeah, it's exactly the same as the other one. We have the number, the specification, so the description of the strategy, the topics that are treated and the origin, and we will work on the phase and the priority the 26th. So what I was expecting is that if you have any doubts or if you have any comments on this, that we will love to hear about them. What I want to show you is, and maybe we can do this after, what we have prepared is also how to treat priority. And so what we can do is that I stop here at the moment we can see if there are any doubts. If you want me to read one by one, I can totally do that. Or if there is any specific that you want to tell me about, we can go to those specific strategies.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'll go first to President Bears.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you. And I just had one, I think this is great. I just had one quick change from the Climate Adaptation Action Plan. I just think that BE 1.1 should probably be like an HP or maybe HPHA instead of in CR, but the rest of that did seem to be climate. At least that's how I read BE 1.1.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, this one's yeah, I understand. So this will come also later, because it does affect climate resiliency in because you have more, maybe it's the density, change densities, and so on. So it has different topics. And it's, they are very intertwined, it's difficult to take one without the other. And so this is what we are going to use later for the prioritizing the The strategies affect different topics. The more they affect, the more impact they are going to have. And that is a way of prioritizing them. But so what I can do and what I wanted to do is to add also main topics that also are affected by this. So I totally agree that this one should be H-A-C-R so that we have both in them.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and I think H-P as well. But I hear what you're saying. I think adding to the list makes sense.
[SPEAKER_07]: You will see later what I mean.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. The rest of the CAAP, you know, recommendations seem pretty solidly in the climate resiliency bucket to me. Well, now we get back down to the accessible neighborhoods and maybe I'm, yeah, I can see something that could have some overlap there as well. But I like the idea of going through, I don't know, Maybe, maybe we could go through the bolded ones like the, with just the one point, you know, without the sub letters and maybe we could prioritize those first.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's okay. So I can go now. Do you want me to go now?
[SPEAKER_04]: Great, Paula. Yeah, just to jump in quickly. I think that's a great place to start. And as I'm looking through this, you know, I think my priorities for the 26th is, and if we, if there's a way to have this reflected in the updated table, if we can kind of be in a process of over the next two weeks, kind of as much as possible, disaggregating the zoning goals with the specific zoning strategies, or replacing some of the goals with specific strategies to achieve them. I think how you have it laid out for today is great. And I hope that, you know, through our discussion and revision over the next couple of weeks, it can be, you know, kind of more like left column, goal that this recommendation is pointing to, column next to that, here are the specific zoning changes that would get us closer to that. And I believe the bolded headings right now are, for the most part, the goals that have specific strategies attached to them at the moment. Should we start there? And Paolo, was it your intention that we would kind of start there and we could also be talking about prioritization as we're going through those strategies? Director Hunt, I want to recognize you if you had a comment. I might have missed your hand.
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm having a little trouble following some of this. And some of it is, I just want to, for anybody who's following who is lost, the key for the topics is at the very bottom of the chart. So this is all, if anybody is watching, this attachment that we're looking at is, in the handouts for this meeting. But the key that tells you what CRHPHA are is in the bottom. But there isn't actually a key to the letters on the left in the left-hand column. And I am having trouble remembering what all of these things stand for, because they're not ringing a bell from either the climate plan or the comprehensive plan, the WSVP in the left-hand column. So that was a little bit confusing, and I just wanna make sure, it seemed to me, I was trying to follow, some of these are goals, these are not things that we're gonna do, right? We're going to try to achieve them, and many of them are actions, and it wasn't actually clear to me that only the things that are bold are goals. And so some of these things, like how do we properly separate some of these?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, thank you, Director Hunt. I know, I think that's, you more eloquently put the point I was trying to make just now, which is right now we have the goals and some strategies to achieve them in the same column. I think that's totally fine for a first draft. But I think that it's important for the, you know, comprehensive and updated version that we look at in a couple weeks that we separate the actual strategy that's being recommended of this body from what's the point of this? Why are we doing this? What goal does it relate to? And what topic does that goal fit within? Maybe it's a matter of just a column getting added if we have number Sarah Silver, PB): Goal and then recommended zoning related action or something along those lines. But right now, I think it's confusing to have goals and strategies aggregated together.
[SPEAKER_08]: Sarah Silver, PB): Right. And I think part of it is, for example, under be the very beginning is a great example though that diverse and affordable housing housing. It's like a title. But actually 1.1a, reduce zoning barriers to multifamily and mixed-use housing development is the thing I think we're gonna do throughout this entire process. And enables, although enables small and more diverse housing options through zoning updates. Like we're doing the zoning updates. We wanna keep that in mind as we do this, that those are some of our goals of the entire process. And I see that one recommendation is to create an overlay district. Whereas there are other things in here that are seeing much more actions. And that maybe we need a separate list of like, what are our high level goals? That is just a separate table. These are our high level goals that you could keep referring back to them. And here are things that we're going to do throughout. And a little bit of it is because I'm anxious to actually getting to changing talking about actually in this district, what in this area, what do we want the borders to be? And what do we want the dimensions to be? And what do we want to add for performance standards?
[SPEAKER_04]: So, yeah, 100%. And I think that I'm feeling similarly, you know, I think it's this is necessary runway up to getting to the point where we're taking votes on strategies that get us there. But we're here to take votes on the strategies that will allow us to actually to actually reduce the zoning barriers to multifamily and mixed use housing development, for example. Um, so, you know, just to restate as one Councilor, my priority is to make sure that every, every, every strategy that has been put into the cap and the comp plan so far as a change that we could vote on and make that would achieve these goals. I want to make sure that that's in this table or an updated version of it. Um, so that, you know, at the beginning of July, what we have is a list is essentially a to do list. Um, so I think for today, you know, I think all of this aligns with what you were talking about is making sure that discussing what's here, if there's any flags that are raised from Councilors are the things that strategies that are in here that are confusing or strategies that aren't in here that we think should be, um, and to work on, you know, assigning perhaps a priority level to the strategies that are already inside as a bears.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think it might also be useful to both of your points to look at this. I mean, I think we can do what you just said and kind of go through this and put some general priorities down, but I think it might actually be useful to, instead of have like almost a turn the table, like instead of having the numbers and headers from the plans be like the defining column, but to have the topics be the column, and then we could split it out into goals and actions grouped within the topic. I mean, I think we're kind of doing it just as like, if this was a spreadsheet, I would just move a column and then sort it differently. Right. Um, so, and I think it might, like, it might be useful for us to take, like, I generally think that most of the things in bold here are goal statements and most of the sub headers are like different possible actions that could happen within each topic. I think it might be useful for us to have a table, like take the goals that are under each topic and kind of come up with what you just said, Alicia, like a general goal statement for each topic area. I think these are a great starting point. We probably would narrow them down a little bit so we don't have like a nine bullet point kind of necessarily goal statement. And then have the specific recommended strategies in there as well. And then I think the other piece of this, like to Alicia's point, like I think there's two things we can do here, right? Like One is, there's one track of this that's like, we want to look at all of our district and our map, and we want to talk about what uses we want and what places, what dimensional requirements we want in which places, and essentially what we want neighborhoods, corridors, and squares to look like across the city. And then there's what are things that we want to be happening in all of those districts for all of the new construction, right? Like we, like some of the, um, climate resiliency type stuff, like we're going to want new construction generally. And maybe it's not in all of them because I don't, I don't know how the building code interacts with quite frankly, that's a piece of it. I have a lot less, uh, understanding of, but, um, general guidelines that we would want to apply to the entire city. And to me, it's, um, it's the climate resiliency and the housing affordability and the, to an extent, the economic development and business growth and the transportation and multimodal ways like those seem to me to be more like we want complete streets everywhere. We want net zero construction everywhere. We want, um, you know, more housing affordability everywhere we want more business growth in all parts of the city and what are policies that can do that. And then that's one track of things. Then there's a track of things that is, this is kind of the specific like form, um, of, you know, the shape and size of structures and the vision of lots and like what, um, and the heights and densities in different parts of the city, um, and redrawing the boundaries and barriers of, uh, of the zoning district. So, um, that just to me, I think is a good, a way that I could think about this a little more clearly. And I think to like, just taking that, maybe taking these, all of these topics and putting them into those two buckets and then taking kind of resorting this, um, list of recommendations from the climate and comprehensive plans. to have be like shorter tables under each topic area could be a way of organizing it. Um, but I also think we could go through today and at least talk about prioritizing some of these, but again, it, yeah, like I, my top priority is reducing zoning barriers to multifamily and mixed use housing development. And then also probably something in the, uh, you know, not necessarily undertaking corridor and commercial center studies, but allowing an appropriate mix of uses and land controls for cohesive development along corridors and within squares. Like those are my two big ones.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yep. Thank you. Yeah. And I think I would co-sign those priorities. Um, but in terms of our strategy for today, um, you know, I think we're all eager to get, put some, to successfully get through the part of the process we're figuring out how to fit these goals on the page in a way that makes our work easier so that we can proceed along to the point where we're actually discussing the material changes that are being recommended to achieve the goals that are being articulated in the updated version of the spreadsheet or any others. And it made me think about the flowchart or spreadsheet that's in the implementation section of the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan itself, which always stuck with me because I found it so readable and useful. And maybe I think what we're talking about is like a one step more granular version of that, where right now, like that has... I think that's exactly what I was just looking at.
[SPEAKER_08]: That's why I laughed.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, no, I mean, that's what's been sticking in my brain because that implementation matrix is so useful. I can bring it up if you give me a second. There's an implementation matrix at the back of the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. I can bring that up unless somebody has it at their fingertips.
[SPEAKER_08]: But I think like, if I might, when the air blows, you have to project more because it's hard. It's the white noise is making it hard to hear you. Sorry.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. And I guarantee I am trying as hard as I possibly can.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the microphone. It's not you. I know.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's why it's so frustrating.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a little box up there, a little cardboard box. Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: We're going to make a supplemental appropriation for a little Barbie mic for me so that people can hear me for the first time ever. Hang on one sec. I'm going to pull up the CAP plan.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have here the topics in this list. Alicia, the BE and all this EN that you're seeing there, it's over here. These are the main goals from the CAP and the main goals from the COMP plan. I have it here because I wanted to use this so that you can help me or I can get your feedback on the importance and rating these big goals. Yeah, sorry for that. We tried to simplify it as much as possible to just get the priorities first. But I agree that there is still a lot of work to do. This is a work in progress. And so we also want to group all these strategies in the sections of the zoning that needs to be changed so that we only do these things once. So all the strategies that, for example, are talking about changing dimensions and uses or that are about standards, to group them so that we know that, OK, let's change the dimensions in order to achieve these goals and all these strategies, and so that we pass only once and we don't have to do that many times going from goal to goal. So there are a lot of ways and different ways to continue to explore this and group to make it as easy as possible. And so, yes, I agree with all your suggestions. We can separate goals and then do another column for the specific strategies. We will add also the part of the zoning that needs to be changed and altered in order to achieve that. So we all have, okay, this is about the dimensions, the standards on these on mixed use or in this district, and so that we have all those also. But I didn't want to bring a lot of information. It's already a lot. And I really wanted to focus on having this kind of rating so we can prioritize a bit better. But totally, I agree with everything you've said.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, Paola. I really appreciate that.
[SPEAKER_02]: this is really helpful, this table.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. No, I think that's great. Just since we're talking about it really quickly, I'm going to share my screen. So this is not as useful as I thought it would be because the version of the cap that's on the city website has the way that two page view works is it's just flipped. So what's on the left should be on the right, but I think this gives an idea at least of, you know, this kind of stepping down towards granularity. What's the word I'm looking for? Visual layout that we're looking for. or at least that I'm kind of thinking of, of starting with the goal and then saying within this, you know, and maybe what I mean by making this more granular is instead of here having strategy and action is having, you know, replacing that action with the specific zoning change that's recommended to achieve that goal or that strategy. So just, I just wanted to provide a visual guide for what I was, what we were describing earlier since we were talking about it. And again, sorry that this page is flipped, but I think this gives you a better idea. Another thing that I like about this, just in terms of a template, I think it's helpful to have a snapshot of a timeline over which, as we get into strategies that will require more research, more neighborhood meetings, I think it would be great to have a snapshot of the time that we might need to take on those strategies. and like other benchmarks kind of in the same spreadsheet. And Paola, you mentioned that maybe for next time as we pursue all the updates that we've discussed so far in the updated version of the spreadsheet, I think it would be great to have a link to where specifically in the zoning that update or addition might occur as we get into specific strategies. I think that that would be really helpful. And I really appreciate you, you know, trying to pace us into this and I speaking for probably not only myself, I know that we're all really eager to get through the phase of visioning and talking about strategies and getting into the nitty gritty. So thank you for not throwing us into the deep end, but as one Councilor, I'm eager to be thrown into the deep end. Should we return to kind of a conversation of prioritization at this point, I'll make sure at the end that we're kind of all clear on the updates to the spreadsheet that we wanna see for next time. President Bears.
[SPEAKER_02]: Could we take a look at the kind of more simplified tables that Paula just said? Yeah, great. Because I think it might be better to like go through those than to go through each of the, I think that sounds like what you were saying, Paula, if I heard you right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, yes. So our idea today was to have this exercise of These are the topics, the big goals from the CAP. These are the big goals from the COMP plan. Associated with this, we also included the different topics that are related to them. And this comes, as you said, Alicia, at the end of the document. Because if we start writing all this HA, housing affordability, house production, economic development, it just, it gets too messy. So that's why this is so helpful, but it is in the document. And then what I wanted to show you is how we would do it. So it's to prioritize it's at some point, it gets very subjective. And what we wanted is to make it as subjective as possible and to work with how much impact this strategy has and to somehow have a number or give a number to that, how impacted it is. We developed this like three questions. The first one is, do this strategy appears in both plans or only in one? That is the first question that we make. And so, for example, you see here the B1, and the WS11 that are very similar in their intent. And so we know that these will appear in both. It's kind of important if it has some kind of overlap, right? And then we have, the second question is how many topics are involved in these two, in these strategies? And so we have, for example, here under we have Well, this one will talk about affordability, production, economic development, climate resiliency. And also, it's directly, but a bit less than the others or less influence than the others, will be the corridors and the uses and districts. So they are also there. So we know that these have a huge impact. And then the third question that we ask is, is it a strategy that should be applied in the whole city, or is it a strategy that is applied only to certain areas, right? And so that is like the third thing that we look in order to rate it. And so, for example, this BE11, it's rated as an importance of five. All these strategies are important. and that we are rating it a bit less, it doesn't mean that we're not going to make them or that we're not going to care about them. It's just to help us to create this work plan and to focus on very big and important and the efforts where we wanted to place them. But it doesn't mean that we are not going to worry about others that will have a less kind of importance rate that I wanted to make very clear. For example, we have this another example, and this is the high heat mitigation. It is very important. It appears in both plans, but it's so specific that it only affects climate resiliency directly. Indirectly, it affects many things, but let's say directly only that topic. And so because it's that specific, we have it as an importance of two. And so this is a bit of how we will do this with these strategies. And these were only some examples. And so what we wanted for me today is having this in mind. We would like to go through all these topics and if we could rate them, if you could rate them and give us the feedback, which ones do you really think that are five or three or one. I don't need all the numbers, but something like that. Um, we have prepared. This board so that and Jimmy is there to help me. Um so that we have here all the big goals and that Jimmy will help me to assign each color is for one of the Councilors or city members and to start putting these post-its on the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 rating, if there's something that you would like to test. So while we talk and discuss, Jimmy is in the background doing this, so then we can take it home with all your opinions. Is there something that you would like to do, or do you want to have a bit more time to process this? Let me know.
[SPEAKER_04]: Before I recognize President Bears, thank you. I think this is a very creative way to do this exercise. Just my first instinct is I'm kind of of two minds on this. I think this is an exercise we could do synchronously. I think this is something that Councilors could do asynchronously as well. I think that there also could be value in kind of going through a row and discussing that to kind of make sure that we're aligned on rating systems and then making sure that additional feedback is sent back to Innocence City staff on a reasonable timeline over the next week, perhaps. In any case, I do just want to acknowledge that we also want to talk about the status of the mapping analysis. Yes. tonight and it's 7.45. So if we are going to have a conversation about prioritization, I just think that we should probably try to keep that to no more than 30 minutes to make sure that we get through the rest of our agenda and have time to get solid on our plan for June 26th. I'm sorry, Councilor Leming, you are next and then President Bears.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thank you, Paola. I do appreciate the energy that has clearly been put into breaking down a very complicated set of topics down and simplifying it for us. I would personally be of the mind that I do want to engage in the rating exercise, but I fully agree that it can be done offline. And perhaps there could be a motion to do that before the next meeting, before this has ended. What I would like to ask you is in terms of these general topics that you've seen from the comprehensive plan and the cap plan. And I do understand that there are certain things that are very broad and there's certain things, like you said, the heating that were very specific. What very, and it's going to be very difficult for y'all to come up with something that can integrate all of the themes from both of these into one comprehensive zoning plan. What, from your impressions, could there really be, do you really see there being like contradictions when you're actually trying to implement these things? So if, you know, there is, could be, you know, there could be a need for better transportation, there could be a need for more affordable housing, there could be a need to make buildings more energy efficient. Do you see any of these things in a single zoning plan strongly contradicting each other when you really get down to the nitty gritty? I'd like to hear your general thoughts on that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So to be honest, no, I think that this is very well done. The CAP and the COMP plan are very well done plans And I think that these things actually help each other, so that when you actually do one goal, you're actually helping the others to also be implemented. So maybe when you go to the very specific, we would have some contradictions, but I expect very minor things, to be honest. I think that this all works towards the same direction. And that's what I see from the cap, from the comp plan and both together. There is a lot of overlap because they have the very similar goals. So at the moment, nothing has popped up that to me saying this really, this goes really both ways. No, I think that is everything that I've seen. To be honest, it's been on the same and I think it's a very good path.
[SPEAKER_09]: Okay, so when we're rating things, it's not like we're saying you should do this instead of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, no, no, no. We just want to use this to make the working plan and to help us a bit to do this strategy. And also it doesn't mean that when some of the strategies can be, let's imagine that one of the strategies is lower It doesn't mean that we're not going to do it or that we're going to leave it at the end, because sometimes things need to go in packs. And so we can have a very high priority, medium priority, and low priority going all in one package together. It's just to help us understand, to make a strategy of how to work this, and to really put our time where we all agree that is needed from the beginning. But it's only about that. It doesn't mean that we don't think it's important or that we don't think that we should do it. I think that all of the things that are here and that are on the plan on the tables, I think are great and all of them should be done.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. And if I could just jump in and then I'll recognize you, President Bears. I think that because the goals and topics that we're talking about are In one sense, they're things that we're constantly talking about. I think, you know, for many of us, that's why we're in office, because we want these goals to be achieved. And I think we're all completely aligned that these are, all of these are high priority in terms of creating a prioritization system that will help NS Associates, you know, know in what orders we present things to us and to city staff. The more I think about it, I think it could be a productive thing for us to do in between committee meetings, perhaps over the next week so that NS has enough time to digest it before our next committee meeting. But I think, you know, for myself, one way I might approach this in terms of what would I really want to be high on the priority list would be either things that are most achievable. Let's get it done. I think that Councilors might have, you know, we could look at priorities at the topic level or just at the specific strategy level. And some topics might be high priority because the strategies that go along with them are high priority. But, you know, knowing that this issue of priority topics is something that we think about, you know, so constantly, I would be inclined to, you know, focus our thinking on, you know, what information and what format is in us, most need to be able to, you know, put together a functioning helpful work plan from us so that we can hasten to that part where we're kind of looking at specific zoning strategies and seeing where in the zoning court that lines up with. So, you know, eager to hear other Councilors perspectives on this, but I think it might be productive over the next week if Councilors can, you know, kind of do a look back through the topics and the goals that we're thinking about and writing about and emailing constituents about all the time and say, you know, here's my ranking or here are the strategies that I think really have to be in the first three months. I am pretty confident there'll be a lot of alignment. President Bears.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was following up until the kind of timing element of it. Are you saying that a number would mean a time?
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm sorry?
[SPEAKER_02]: Like a five would mean three months, a four would mean six months or something like that?
[SPEAKER_04]: No, no, no.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, I just, I just meant like, as a way for councillors to say, this is what feels most urgent to me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Got it. Yeah, that's okay. Is the, what is, it's called a Miro page. Is that what I saw, Paula?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that able, like, could that be shared? Could we edit that separately? I think it would be worth it personally. I mean, I understand that people don't want to do it this way, but I could, I think we could spend five minutes and each of us pick a row and, you know, you guys can pick a row. We can pick a row and we can just move them now and then we don't have to wait. And then we can talk about why things are where they are for 10 minutes. Cause I just worry if we do it asynchronously, It's, there's no collective time for us to interpret it until the next time we want to talk about it, which is when we want it to be done. Sure. So yeah, I know it's kind of fast, but I feel like I could do it.
[SPEAKER_04]: No. And I think that, you know, kind of by the same token, because this is topics that we're constantly immersed in. I don't think that we need a lot of time to digest these topics.
[SPEAKER_07]: So for us to be doing it.
[SPEAKER_01]: For the sharing, it's a bit, it's going to take a bit of time. What we had in mind was to just go one by one, tell us, and then Jimmy in the background is going to put it in the place. Oh, sorry. So that if that's okay, if you want to, if we can just go one by one so he can just write it, he will write your name. And then for example, the black is the first person that wants to talk. And then he will start moving them into the rating system.
[SPEAKER_08]: Right. Here's the problem. We've been talking for an hour. This should take us three hours tonight. There is no way that we can do this in a reasonable length of time. And I was a little bit confused whether you wanted us to rank just those high level topics, which we can't, they're all important. To rank the individual strategies, we can. but that will take us hours. And I, I'm sorry. I just, I think we, why don't we talk about the other things we wanted to talk about this evening and then see where we are.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm very much on the other side of that. I thought we could take the top level topics.
[SPEAKER_08]: Right. Well, I'm not ranking ensure affordable housing for all over, you know, create 12, you know, the economic development one versus the networks one, like,
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I felt very comfortable doing that. It's not to say that they're not, I think this is about importance in terms of timing, right? That's what I'm hearing.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, if I could step us back for a second, Paola, could you recenter us on what, from your perspective for your work plan after tonight, what the utility of our prioritization is? Like, is that to put that in order of what you present to us? Like, you know, say that we order it, number one, housing, number two, business development, number three, climate resiliency. What does that influence? Does that influence, okay, we're gonna package up all of the recommended zoning strategies for the committee in July, and then in August, we'll do the next one. Like what's the causal relationship between the prioritization and what we do next?
[SPEAKER_01]: So for me, the prioritization, we can do it as I was telling you. This is the way we would do it in each of the big strategies, we would do it like this. And one way of doing it is we do it with all the strategies we send it to you and you can tell us, yes, no, we agree, we do not agree. The prioritization is mainly to create the work plan, what things we go first, what things we leave for later. and to just see where we spend the most of our time. It doesn't mean that it's not important and it's not that I need, I mean, I imagine that it's very difficult and that's why we, I didn't want to push you into do this and to give us our feedback because I understand that for Some people can be very difficult because they don't know like climate resiliency is very important. Housing is very important. So I totally understand that it's difficult. And so what we can do is we work the prioritization, we work the work plan, we present it to you, and you can tell us if you think that that is correct or if you think that this topic should go or this strategy should go first or this strategy, We can do it either way. If it's too difficult to say and prioritize, because I understand, and maybe the goals is very difficult. It's easier when you go strategies by strategy because it is more specific. And so, as I said, the climate, the heat mitigation, it's very specific. It can come later. And first, we can really go for the ensure affordable housing for all. I totally understand that that is that makes sense. But when you go through climate resiliency or housing, maybe you don't have it as clear.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I'm just going to cut you off. Councilor Callahan has had her hand raised. Go ahead.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks. So it seems to me that really, if we're just talking about timeline the most important thing is we don't choose to do one thing first, that we will realize when we then look at something else, but those are conflicting. So, things like for example. creating more affordable housing and the natural environment. Like if we're gonna be like zoning, great, we're gonna zone everywhere for tons of housing. And then we're like, oh, when we get to natural environment, we're like, oh crap, like we forgot that we actually meant to also prioritize this. So can we just look to see which ones could conflict with each other and make sure that we look at those at the same time or close to each other?
[SPEAKER_04]: Go ahead, President Burris.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that's what this is. Examples of rating strategies section is great. It takes similarly grouped things from multiple plans, says which topics they're in, if you could scroll down a little bit, and then kind of says, okay, there's like seven strategies, it falls under six topics, that's a five. And then if you scroll down to the next one, it's like, yeah, we want Medford to be, we want to mitigate heat islands, right? There's three strategies, it's only climate resiliency. So it addresses that conflict question, right? That first topic, that's across six of our topic areas. We need to talk about that discreetly because if we talk about it by topic area, it's not gonna be useful. It sounded to me like Paola was saying, if we could kind of just as a general thing, take these top goals, that that would provide them input as they go through these strategies to help inform what they think of as basically creating these little strategy summaries for each thing. And I think that, to me, that's valuable. It's not saying this is more important than the other. It's saying You know, to me, it's easy for me to say, okay, I think all of them are important. I'd like to do all of them. There are some of them that I would call a five and some of them I would call a two. Heat islands, I care about them. Do I think it's as urgent as the fact that nobody can live here? No. So calling housing affordability a five and calling heat islands a two, which is what it is in here. I'm just saying that as an example. But it sounds like the two options are we could either give a little bit of input now to help guide, or they could just do it themselves, and then we can come back with our changes later. And to me, it seems valuable. I mean, at this point, it's eight o'clock, maybe we should just not do it. We should just say, go ahead, Ines, and come up with it. But that seemed to me to be where we were. It took me a minute, but that does seem to be a valuable exercise to me to take five minutes and say, this goal is a five, this goal is a three, this goal is a two, and hopefully that informs the work plan more than just having them develop it themselves without that kind of something to guide them. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you. Councilor Callahan. I just want to follow up on the point I was making and see if our planning department has any particular thoughts on that question, because I'm not convinced that the rating system that they came up with covers what I'm talking about. So for example, if we're like affordable housing, We're gonna do that first and then mitigating heat islands is gonna be last. Those could in fact be in conflict with each other. Whereas I think 18 hour communities and balanced growth are less in conflict with each other, but I don't know. So I wanted to ask and see if you just have any initial thoughts that you could put in on that. If any of these goals are things that if we don't consider them at the same time, we might regret it later.
[SPEAKER_06]: If I may, Danielle, I'm a senior planner. Yeah, so I'm having trouble with the ranking exercise, too, and I did it in conflict. So one of the strategies of increasing housing density would move forward increasing affordable housing, but to not be in conflict with some of the climate goals, you want to make sure you're going up in height and not completely covering the lot, so we wouldn't want 100% lot coverage where it's all hardscaped. So I feel like it's all woven together. So it's, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I may, I mean that we tackle one of these strategies first, it doesn't mean that we completely forget about the rest of the things that we have in our plan. And a lot of things can go together. So if we think that it might be a conflict, so that if we have higher density, maybe we need to put together with certain strategies of climate resiliency. So whenever we see that there needs to be a balance to put them in the work plan together. So absolutely, we have some areas that are more dense. We need to be aware that with climate resilience in mind, there are other areas that we need to not have SDANs, and so that locked coverages are not everywhere 100%, I think that that is very clear for us. But maybe what we can do is wherever we see that some of these things might be in conflict, as I say, it really goes into very specific, because generically, I don't think they go in conflict, but when you go into the specific, could be, it's a matter of balance. It's not really about, you cannot do this, because then you can't do the other. It's about having a balance between both, and so that we can work in the work plan that we can put this together, even if it's high priority, lower priority, they can go in together. So yeah, I think that I got all your opinions and the part that worries you, I totally understand it. So what we can do is come up with the work plan that address all these issues.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, Paola. Thinking about a path forward here, it strikes me that there might be a way to thread the needle here where we're giving a little bit more exposition during this committee meeting and the time that we have left. And maybe we could go round the horn and have the Councilors give a top level And again, I think like maybe the word prioritization is like was throwing us off a little bit at the beginning of the meeting. But again, it's not about like what what are we not doing, but rather like what's very important to do first and thinking about prioritization at the same time as we're thinking about pairing. What does it make sense to do first with urgency? What does it make sense to do together? knowing that we're not going to be considering any of these strategies in a vacuum. So I think we could possibly take 10 minutes. Maybe Jimmy is just working on the mirror board in the background. So we could go around and have Councilors kind of give their impressions, you know, again, and I don't really think this counts as off the top of our head because these are goals that we think about constantly as we're doing city business, you know, to give some impressions of if it's not the full one through five, but what's my one and two. We could just go around to take two minutes each and do that. councilors felt more comfortable, we could, you know, spend 15 minutes on the mapping analysis to make sure we're in good shape to have a complete version of that submitted to us ahead of the June 26 meeting, and then we can come back and do two or three minutes each per councilor on the prioritization. So that's just one proposal for me, is to go around and leave NS Associates with just a little bit of feedback from each of us before the end of this meeting. I'll recognize Councilor Leving.
[SPEAKER_09]: Well, so I asked to be recognized before the chair made the proposal, but I was actually going to make a motion to just have this emailed to Councilors after the meeting so that we could submit our feedback. And then outside the meeting, maybe have Paola forward the sticky note page to us and then move on because I don't, given the fact that we all do tend to talk quite a bit, I do it too, I'm doing it right now. I think it would take more time than what we have left.
[SPEAKER_04]: Certainly, I think that what I was proposing was a very explicitly pared down version of, I think certainly I could talk for an hour about the topics before us, but I think if we wanted to entertain the idea of saying, everybody has one minute, everybody has 90 seconds, everybody has two minutes, you don't have to say you're one through five, you can just say you're number one and number two. And then certainly, you know, Councilors are always welcome and encouraged to submit further feedback and ideas to NS Associates. So me as chair at any time, we could certainly follow up with additional context over the next week. So we kind of have, let's decide on a path forward. I think I see one vote for taking a minute or two each. Sure. I think that we should step away from this for 20 minutes and talk about the mapping analysis, because that's another very big piece that we haven't talked about yet to make sure that we have adequate time for that. And then if we're left with five minutes, we can spend five minutes talking about our priorities.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, if Paola could just send that table that's in that document that you were just on, Paola, I can send it back with, I can just fill the whole thing out and send it back.
[SPEAKER_05]: Great.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you email it now, I can send it back to you in five minutes.
[SPEAKER_04]: Great. Paola, if you could circulate that by email, if you could send it to me and President Bereson, or President Bereson, the clerk,
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, just that little table that you were just on in the prioritization of strategies.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I will do that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sure Jimmy can move the. What was that? I'm sure Jimmy can move the sticky notes around by my next meeting.
[SPEAKER_04]: Just let us know when you're sorted, Paola.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just sent it to Zach.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, great. Great. Thank you so much, and we'll try to revisit that in 15 or 20 minutes. Let's go now to the mapping analysis. Thank you so much for preparing this memo. This is great. So my understanding is on June 26, the intent is to have these lists and bullet points manifested in an actual series of maps for us to review that, you know, demonstrate the analyses that will guide us as we do our, implement our global and district-wide zoning change strategies throughout the rest of this process. But Paola, can you just give us a idea of what is left to be done on the mapping analysis before the next committee meeting? The intent, the goal of the mapping analysis and what's needed from councillors to complete it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes. So with me is also Jimmy. He's our GIS specialist. And So we would like to do several sets of maps with the analysis. We would like to start with a non-conforming analysis. So this is to see which are the parcels that are non-conforming in each of the zoning districts. And we will analyze the frontage, setback, height, lot size, the minimum building coverage, and lot coverage. These two are mainly lot coverage, and the impervious surface. It has a different definition than in your zoning. So that's why these two words, I need to change them. But it mainly is that we are going to do frontage, setback, height, size, lot coverage, and impervious surface. Those are the ones that we will do in nonconforming. We want to prepare a base map. And this is just the base map that we will use to project all these different topics. And this base map will have the main characteristics of Medford in order to be easy to read. So all the important things that should be on the map so that it's easier to read. So like the river, the fells, train stations, and so on. In here, because we started already and at the beginning, these were the things that we will do on the base map. We will have all these together. So chapter 91 lands, hydrography and wetlands, the FEMA, open space, parks and trails. This is too much information to have in one. So what we are going to do is have a base map. We will have another one with all the hydrology information. the Chapter 91 lands, hydrography and wetlands, and the FEMA, and another one with the recreational map with all the open space, parks, and trails. Then we go to the residential clusters. These will be all the parcels with all the different residential units that are in This is mainly to see the density on the map. So a single unit, two unit, three unit, and then four to nine, 10 to 20, plus 20, and then the rest of the non-residential uses. Then we will have transit and accessibility, all the local transit stops, routes, and bike paths. So we will have bike paths, blue bike, MBTA bus routes, MBTA train routes, and then the quarter and half mile radius around the major transit nodes. So it's easy for us to understand, or walking is an interesting distance to do walking movements. Then we'd like to do socioeconomics. So this is ethnicity, income, age, all by the census tract, and then environmental justice population. The sixth one will be the value. So building value, land value, and total value all in one map. The set that we call anchors with all the municipal assets, major institutions, major employers, and retail and service centers. And then housing stock and historic location. So all the different ages of the existing houses stock is split into decades. And then the historic properties. So these are all the different sets that we would like to do before 26. And Jimmy is...
[SPEAKER_04]: very hard for that overview. And I think that'd be really helpful in guiding us for both of the tracks that we're talking about global strategies and district strategies. And I think my, my only question at this point is, you know, what do you need from councilors or city staff to complete these by our next committee meeting? So that we can do these?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, we are. gathering all the information at this point. And I think Jimmy has everything we need. But Jimmy, if there is anything that you need to add, please let them know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I can add to that. Thank you, Kit, for asking. I think I have all the data I need. I think one data set that would be of use is a neighborhood data set, if you guys have anything that signifies, you know, shape files for each specific neighborhood for Medford. But other than that, I have all the data that I need to complete the mapping.
[SPEAKER_08]: That's great. Can I speak to the neighborhood thing for a minute? Just so you know, we have maps with neighborhood names on them, but we have never drawn the lines. because that results in people arguing a lot about the borders. However, I feel like for the purposes of analysis, if it's helpful, like there are some lines that could be drawn and some of them are bleedingly obvious, like Felsway West and Felsway borders, right? That cuts, divides neighborhoods and the river divides neighborhoods. I'll provide you with the map that has like the names, but the names don't have lines around them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I mean, that would be great regardless. I don't plan to use the boundaries for any sort of analysis. It's just more for a visual representation. So like you said, if people are gonna get up in arms about it, just a text for the neighborhood would be fine for the map. So thank you for that, Alicia.
[SPEAKER_04]: Great, thank you, Paola and Jimmy. It's great to hear that this is continuing apace. I know that Councilor Callahan has to depart in just a minute. Are there any additional comments on the mapping analysis or should we start our very quick bullet point prioritization to round out the meeting? President Paris?
[SPEAKER_02]: I was just wondering, are we going to be able to see these different layers on top of each other and be able to have just two layers on at a time or one? Or how exactly is that going to work?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes. So yes, absolutely. You can set the layers to have it on and off so that Whenever we need certain information, we just use that information. So these are the sets with absolutely all the information that we're going to have. And then in order to do different analysis, we can have the base map and then we want the residential clusters, but we only want to see the very high density and the value of those buildings so that we can mix and match. So in order to be helpful for our analysis. So at the moment, these are the thematic buckets. And then what we will have is all these analysis are going to be there for us to use. However, we want to mix and match.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, Paola. I'm really excited. I think that'll be a really flexible tool. Thank you. I'm excited to see that in our next committee meeting. With that, I apologize for the quick pivot. I think we should start our quick recap of priority rankings, priority call-outs, so that we can get to that before councilors have to start leaving. So again, let's do a quick one or two minutes. It can be as short as you need it to be. If there's any impressions, ranking, prioritizations, those topics, Councilor Callahan, start with you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you so much. I just have four that I would say are from my four priorities, housing, the 18 hour community and specifically creating walkable neighborhoods. So, you know, little neighborhood centers, and then buildings and energy but really like two thirds of our emissions come from buildings, and almost all of our buildings are existing buildings. So I'm not really focused on the new building stuff, but anything we can do for existing buildings, which I know is not easy and zoning and the natural environment. So those would be my four. Thanks.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you so much. Thank you, Councilor Callahan. Councilor Tseng.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thank you. I think my recommendations are similar to Councilor Callahan's. Housing is my first priority. On the climate front, I think it makes sense given where our carbon emissions do come from to attack the buildings and energy. So top two for me. And then going after that, the walkability aspect of things, the accessible 12 and 18 hour communities is up there, although I think multi-modal networks does tackle that as well. I would put the mobility one as my fourth.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you so much. Thank you. Councilor Leming.
[SPEAKER_09]: Affordable housing and transportation.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. President Paris.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. The other one I have a question about is the encouraged balanced growth. Is that a balance of commercial and residential?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it's about house production that makes use and economic development. Those are the big topics that need treated.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's like the economic development one. Okay. Then yeah, it would be for me the affordable housing and for all the growth, balanced growth and coordinating mobility and development. And I think Yeah, outside of that, I'll leave it at those three. But if I was to pick a fourth, I'd probably pick Achieve and Evolve, the 2022 Climate Action Plan. I feel like buildings and energy, I mean, I'm sure there's more we can do, but I just think also, it seems to me that the new building code that we've adopted also just mandates a lot of new stuff. So it's like, how much further do we wanna go down that road first?
[SPEAKER_10]: if I may, I think that makes a lot of sense. And I actually think that point actually includes a lot of what Councilor Callahan and I were thinking about buildings and energy as well. So, I mean, if it matters, you can update and replace the buildings energy thing in my lists with the 2022 climate action adaptation plan.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, Councilor Tsengin, President Paris. Of course, unsurprisingly, I agree with all of what's been said. I think that my top four would be affordable housing, courage, balanced growth, climate resiliency, and achieve slash evolve the 2022 Climate Action and Adaptation Plan with the same pieces of context that were just stated you know looking at that in the context of what does the most recently adopted building code already mandate for us but I know that. to use my full 60 seconds, I think that what's most exciting to me in this zoning project is doing, you know, implementing every strategy that we can around affordable housing, encouraging that mixed use commercial development along our corridors, and implementing, you know, the full extent of our incentives and mandates around energy efficiency for our largest developers in the community. In addition to, you know, street level climate resiliency changes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Paolo, we can be sure to send you my notes from this conversation, the clerk's notes to make sure that you have everything that you need to capture that. I think that if it is also useful to have Councilors do a more mural style exercise to send to you in the next couple of days or to provide additional context, I'm sure that Councilors would be amenable to that. Director Hunt?
[SPEAKER_08]: So if I might add something, as we're talking about developing a work plan, I think that I just want to sort of put out there where I think the urgency is, that there's a lot of stuff in our plan and in things we want to do that would encourage better growth, denser growth, more affordable housing, that's all important things that should be done thoughtfully, intelligently, and we should get it done. But I think there are some things that are urgent, because there are developers and property owners along Salem Street, so the Salem Street corridor, and the Mystic Ave corridor that are looking at what they're allowed to do by right. And they are gonna build new buildings by right, unless we rezone them to what we want to see there, which frankly is denser, is more, is some mixed use in general, right, in a broad term. And that I think that it's actually more urgent that we move forward on, like, as much as I'd like to say, let's talk about, you know, ADUs, but right, and to allowing two families throughout the city, things like that. Somebody building a new one family isn't going to prevent lots of new two families. but if large parcels on Mystic Ave get developed to two-story industrial buildings, because that's what's allowed there as of right, so if somebody came in, we couldn't actually stop it, where what we wanna see is more. I think that the priority and the urgency is around rezoning our corridors into things that meet these, that talk about affordable and multimodal connectivity that respect the environmental pieces of it. So I just wanna sort of put that out there and where I think our priorities should be. Thank you, Director Hunt.
[SPEAKER_04]: President Burris. Yeah. If I can say- Sorry, Paola, we're gonna go to President Burris real quick and then we'll come back to you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and that's why I wanna take the two track. Like I think it, and I was even saying in our meeting, like one meeting a month on these global questions, one meeting a month on like specific areas, and then we can take the, most urgent corridors, I agree with those two being primary ones sooner than later. Hopefully if we can put out something in July, we can do, you know, Mystic Ave in September, Salem Street in October, then we can go to the other squares and corridors. And similarly, so we could start looking at the, you know, some of the global housing affordability and economic development type things earlier in the fall. I think the one question at the end of that is like, when do we come up with the coherent, you know, map? So, and does that, is that map end up being the product of a number of changes or not? That's an open question to me. But other than that, like, that's kind of why I would like to see us go in that direction. Because I mean, each month, this group can have one meeting to talk about each of those two tracks and hopefully outpace some of the stuff you're talking about.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. I think those last two points are very well taken. And I'm hopeful that the 26 can be kind of our final meeting of this style where we're talking about kind of discussing how to discuss. We're workshopping how to work. And then with the product of the mapping analysis and what comes out of this work plan. I'm hopeful that in June, we can start that cadence of one meeting that's talking about global strategies. You know, personally, I would love to see us begin June with, you know, one meeting that's talking about global housing strategies, what's most actionable to get started on, knowing that any changes we advance will, you know, for the most part be bundled with other strategies that make sense and they're coherent with. And then two weeks later, a meeting that's talking about a really priority district issue. Like I think, Director Hunt, your point is really well taken, that there are some corridors that we, you know, we really have to get to, if we want them to look the way that they need to look for the future and the development that we wanna see. So let's plan for that. Paola, go ahead.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so the thing for the priority, what we were doing was to use two strategies. One is to look at the importance and that is how much impact this strategies has. And the other one is urgency. So what things are really urgent that we need to do it now. And so one doesn't take the importance of the other, it's just that we need to look at both. We know that Mystic Avenue and Salem Street are important to look at, so that in our plan will also go pretty much really above, because it's something that is really urgent. And so in order to do this, we needed to look at what is important, what is urgent, and have this kind of charged with important, not urgent, important, very urgent, and to come with a strategy. It's really complex. There are many, many things. So I understand that we want to do them all at once. It's not possible. So that's why we wanted to create some guidelines to tackle them. But of course, urgency is also something that we are taking into account to work on our work plan. So thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, Paola, and I think that that matrix of importance and urgency will be really helpful to us in determining exactly what to talk about when, kind of to the point of what we were just talking about and the point that Director Hunt raised with the example of the uses currently allowed by Right on Mystic Ave, or sorry, in industrial zones. with that being said, just one thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it might be also useful for us at some point to maybe it's not on the 26. Maybe it's in a July or August meeting to have the break out the neighborhood squaring quarters topic into the actual neighborhood squares and corridors and like prioritize physical areas of the city. I think the mapping analysis will help a lot with that, which is I suggest maybe for July or August.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, agree. I'll add that as a note.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we might have to put some lines around some neighborhoods. People might have to deal.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm not really stepping in. Just taking a quick note. Right.
[SPEAKER_08]: So I just want to, we have a conflict with the 26. We had to reschedule the community development board to that night, and you might recognize that date. Yep. So I just wanted to flag that for you. We certainly can meet with the consultants without us, but we have to be at the Community Development Board.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's been scheduled that way since January 1, actually. We published our CD4 calendar.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. I think, to my mind, kind of to wrap up to talk about our next steps for the 26th, totally hear you. I know that's an important conflict. I think what might be additive for Councilors to follow up with the consultant about ahead of our next meeting is if Councilors feel moved to kind of further embellish the priorities that we talked about just now with doing a version of that importance versus urgency matrix that Paola showed earlier. If that hasn't already, you know, if there's anything that city staff have to care to add along those lines, especially since you won't be present at our next committee meeting or actually scratch that last part because this is going to be completed by that committee meeting anyway. We'll just be reviewing it. But I think that making sure that all of those, all of those thoughts, you know, are kind of on the record ahead of our next meeting in terms of what's our priority and also what's a priority because it really needs to be done sooner rather than later. President Bears.
[SPEAKER_02]: We could potentially do an hour on Tuesday night And meeting on Wednesday night, if you guys, I know that, I know, cause I said it wrong last night, you're on the 26th and the 27th are the CD and ZBA. I think right now we have six to seven on the 25th before our regular meeting, if we, so maybe we can just consider that over the next two weeks. I mean, I don't wanna, it's obviously up to everybody being available at that time, but in our council schedule, it is available.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you for that suggestion. I was actually thinking along similar lines earlier, and I know this committee meets a lot, but we're doing some of the most substantive work that the council is gonna do this year. So if that can help move the ball forward to a place that we're all comfortable with, that sets us up with the information and context that they need to have a really ideally functional work plan for us, I think it's time well spent. So we can work on that over the next week to make sure, you know, to assess how valuable that would be and make sure that people would be free at that time. But until then, you know, Paola, if it's possible, if you could, I think I have the, you know, importance versus urgency matrix from the memo that you sent over. I could circulate that to committee members with the invitation to fill that out. you know, within the next week, through me, I could send that back to you as some additional context for building out the work plan, just to make sure that, you know, again, all of those strongly held opinions about importance and urgency are on the record when we put forward this work plan. We're looking forward to having the completed mapping analysis to review on June 26th, and then we can also make sure that the spreadsheet of recommended zoning changes pulled from the cap and the comp plan is updated along the lines that we discussed at the beginning of the meeting. You know, adjusting that template so that it looks a little bit more similar to the implementation matrix that we're used to from the cap. You know, kind of having it flow from global to strategy so that they're not in the same column. Having it sortable by district based strategy versus global strategy versus strategies that could apply in either case.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure. That sounds perfect.
[SPEAKER_04]: Great. Thank you. And we'll be in contact to make sure that you have all the information from this meeting that you need to move forward with all that. Any concluding remarks, questions from members of the committee? Or from city staff? Motion to adjourn by President Bears, seconded by Councilor Tseng. Oh, right. Seconded by Councilor Leming.
[SPEAKER_09]: Well, maybe I just won't second then. Maybe I just won't second. Oh, no, second. I second.
[SPEAKER_04]: Seconded by Vice President Collins. Mr. Clerk.
[SPEAKER_09]: Oh, oh, oh, really? Really?
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, yeah. All those in favor. Aye. All those against. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you so much, Paola and Jimmy. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. I just forgot.