[Mike Caldera]: Hello, and welcome to this special meeting of the Zoning Board of Appeals. Before we get started, we're going to take a quick roll call, and then Dennis will read the first item, and then I believe we have a request from the applicant that we'll go to next. So, Jamie Thompson? Present. Andre LaRue? Present. Yvette Velez? Present. I don't see Jim Turani. Jim Turani? Absent, and then Mike Caldera, present. So we do have a quorum, and we're gonna proceed, because I believe the request pertains to a continuance. So Dennis, can you please read the, kind of the open meeting law notice and the first item.
[Denis MacDougall]: On March 29th, 2023, Governor Healey signed into law a supplemental budget bill, which, among other things, extends to temporary provisions pertaining to the open meeting law to March 31st, 2025. Specifically, this further extension allows public bodies to continue holding meetings remotely without a quorum of the public body physically present at a meeting location and to provide adequate alternative access to remote meetings. The language does not make any substantive changes to the open meeting rather than extending the expiration date of the temporary provisions regarding remote meetings from March 31st, 2023 to March 31st, 2025. All right, thank you, Dennis. The 1st item.
[Mike Caldera]: 4000, Mr. Kelly parkway case number 40 B dash 2022-0 1 continued from April 24th, 2023.
[Denis MacDougall]: The resumption of consideration of the petition of MVP Mystic LLC and affiliated Mill Creek Residential Trust LLC for a comprehensive permit pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 40B for multifamily eight-story apartment development consisting of two buildings located in approximately three acres of land at 4000 Mystic Valley Parkway. Property ID 7-02-10. This proposal will be developed as an approximately 350-unit rental apartment building containing a mix of studio, one, two, and three-bedroom apartments, with 25% of the total units being designated as affordable housing to low- or moderate-income households.
[Mike Caldera]: Thank you, Dennis. All right, so I see we have multiple representatives for the applicant, and like I said, I believe there's a request for a continuance here, so who would like to speak? I think that's all I have to say.
[MCM00001600_SPEAKER_05]: Thank you. Mister chair and members of the board. Yeah, I wanted to provide a quick update and then can answer any questions of course from the board. So we
[Mike Caldera]: Yes, so the letter made it into our hands. And so I think it would be helpful just in case anyone's watching if you could just sort of briefly describe the request. Because we're short a member and I don't want to I don't want to risk issues with them dropping out. I'd prefer if we don't do presentations tonight. But yeah, I think we can discuss the issue at hand and plan for next steps.
[MCM00001600_SPEAKER_05]: Great, yeah, thank you, happy to do that. So as you all know, we were, after the last hearing two weeks ago, we were, our project team was working on revisions to the plan set based on the latest peer review comments and working session, and then with the completion of those plans, finalizing an updated waiver list and updates to the tabular zoning analysis and other sort of ancillary submission documents. The intent and the goal was to have those submitted by the end of last week so they could be reviewed and discussed and presented tonight. When we got to a certain point last week, we realized that the plans as revised would be most helpful to have one more working session with the peer reviewers to ensure that, you know, they were fully up to speed and on board with the revisions that were being made prior to submission. That wasn't able to happen last week. It actually happened this morning. And so we felt really it was a case of, well, let's take one more week to get everything perfectly polished up and everybody up to speed. And it's really a case of trying to take one more week to get this full submission ready in order to hopefully save time in the long run. to the board. We have a lot of work to do on the ultimate review and discussion and anything else that the board needs to do. that plan. And along with that, certainly we recognize that if we are, you know, seeking a continuance tonight and sort of pushing out a week that submission and a review, that a commensurate sort of one-week extension to the overall hearing timeframe certainly makes sense. And so that was in the letter as well, just to make sure it was clear that we're not trying to shorten the time for review and turnaround. One other thing I would just mention is, so I did mention we met with Mr. Reardon and Mr. Bomer today, this morning to review, you know, again, largely the same kind of updates that we reviewed at the last hearing two weeks ago. And that was very productive, positive. We picked up a few other comments from them this morning that we're going to be incorporating into the plans over the next couple of days as we work towards a submission by the end of this week at the latest. I also learned this morning that I wasn't aware of that both Mr. Bowmer and Mr. Reardon weren't going to be available tonight either. So that sort of confirmed our thinking that, all right, let's use the time wisely. Let's not... to your point, get into a presentation or anything substantive tonight that we would then just be kind of maybe redoing next week. So, I'll stop there and happy to answer any questions on next steps. I do see us submitting by the end of this week the full package as previously conceived. And then, you know, presentation, comment, questions on the 15th, a week from tonight.
[Mike Caldera]: Thanks for the update. Yeah, so the board did receive your letter. And so the the significance of the milestone for today's hearing was really working backwards from the deadline for us to conclude the hearing. And so, you know, if there was an ask to continue within the timeline and at not least kind of extend out, as chair, I would have more concerns. I do think that we should still continue treating this with a good sense of urgency, just we wanna make sure that we're able to have a timely conclusion to the hearing and also I think, If you were to spill too far into June, we would start to butt up against summer schedules and things of that nature. In the letter, it was recommended that we wait until next week to determine the new end date for the hearing. But since there's already an acknowledgment and a willingness to extend by at least one week, I certainly feel comfortable extending or continuing to that date. A couple other things I just want to get out of the way before I quickly check in with the board. So we did get a clarification from City Legal about some of the questions of purview, which I'm going to plan to send a letter to the proponents, you know, maybe tomorrow, just with the with those details. I think it's important for you to have that clarification. I don't want to say it on this meeting because I don't want to do anything that would be construed as a presentation or deliberation. But then it's my intention to also publicly clarify some of those issues at our next hearing. So yeah, I'm certainly comfortable. With us continuing this matter to a week from today, which was our next scheduled special meeting, the board will plan to coordinate on other schedule elements offline. But yeah, just want to check in with the board. Does anyone have questions or logistical items before we move forward? Okay. Chair awaits a motion to continue this hearing to Monday, May 15th.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Motion to continue the hearing until next Monday, May 15th. Do I have a second? Seconded. All right, we're going to take a roll call. Yvette? Andre? Aye.
[Mike Caldera]: Jamie? Aye. Mike I. All right, this matter is continued to next week. So like I said, I'll send the correspondence tomorrow with the details on the clarification, in particular the condition surrounding the sprinklering of the building. And then I'll plan to make a public statement at the next hearing. All right. If there's nothing else, Chair awaits a motion to adjourn.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Motion to adjourn. Do I have a second? Second. All right, all in favor? Aye. Aye. All right. Thanks, folks. Have a good night. See you next week.