[Jennifer Keenan]: Hey everybody, this is the Medford Historical Commission. Tonight is Monday, August 12th. I'm going to read our statement and then I will open the meeting. Pursuant to Chapter 20 of the Acts of 2021, this meeting of the City of Medford Historical Commission will be conducted via remote means. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so by using the Zoom link provided for in the agenda. No in-person attendance or members of the public will be permitted. Any public participation for this hearing will be by remote means only. Just a couple of procedural things off the top here. As of right now, I do not have a quorum for this meeting. We're going to take some items out of order. I was told that I would have a quorum tonight. I'm still waiting for one member. So as of right now, we will not be kind of taking any votes or accepting any new applications, et cetera. Also, Attorney Desmond, I wanted to let you know that as it pertains to 38 Pearl Street, Kit has to recuse herself because she has a conflict of interest. So I will not have a quorum for tonight to vote to lift that demo delay. So unfortunately, we will have to table that to next month.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_00]: Okay, there's no way to table up to another time to take vote separate from that.
[Jennifer Keenan]: So I can't make that decision right now because I don't have enough people here. I would need to try to see if I could gather, you know, the three, three of the other members between now and the next meeting, which I'm happy to try and do. I just can't answer that question right now.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_00]: Okay. All right, thank you.
[Jennifer Keenan]: So I will work on that, and I will let you know, and we will do everything we can to try to get it done before our September meeting.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, I appreciate that.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay, and I'm so sorry.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay. Okay, I saw Ed come in. Hi, Ed, thank you so much.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: Sorry about that.
[Jennifer Keenan]: No, it's okay. Just wanted to let you know that for tonight, 38 Pearl Street will be tabled because Kit has to recuse herself, so we don't have enough people to vote on that. So we'll try to pull together maybe a one-off meeting for that to get that property owner going on that project. We'll talk about that and see if we can get that scheduled before our September meeting. Okay, so let me just kind of back up here and just start at the top of our agenda. As it pertains to 18 Wedgmere Road, I just wanted to put this one to bed officially. We will not be having a preferably preserved hearing here. The applicant has withdrawn their request Demolition request officially it was a little kind of back and forth there for a couple of months. So they have asked to withdrawn and they may or may not come before us in the future. They're, they're getting an architect and trying to figure out what they're going to do there. So, just wanted to, since that's been hanging on our agenda for a few months, just wanted to officially let folks know that there will not be a vote there. And that 1 is pretty much complete at this point. As far as the homeowners are willing to take it. Okay, tonight we are going to accept an application for 18 Cherry Street. Commissioners, I did send around the link to accept the application. If somebody would like to make a motion for that one, I will take it when someone's ready.
[Doug Carr]: I move that we accept the application of 18 Cherry Street.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you, Doug. Is there a second? I'll second. Okay, I heard you first, Kit, so thank you. Okay, motion on the table to accept the demolition application for 18 Cherry Street. I will do a roll call vote as I see people on my screen. Kit? Yes. Doug?
[Doug Carr]: Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Ed?
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: And I am a yes as well. So this will be a 4-0 acceptance. So next month, we will have a significance hearing for that property. So that will be continued to next month. I'm going to skip over the Form Bs for now, just because we have some other that's more administrative work. Doug, do you want to do 56 Wareham now?
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, I can put it on screen. Hold on a second.
[Jennifer Keenan]: OK. So Sid and Yale, welcome. Nice to see you guys. And also said just for clarity, we will put Alexander on next month. We'll take the application and do significance for Alexander since we missed the agenda, but we'll order the form B so we can do both next month. And so we'll do significance for Cherry and Alexander next month.
[MCM00001781_SPEAKER_01]: Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I think Yale is here. Yes. Hi, Yale.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Hi. Oh, sorry, are you okay to take minutes?
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: Okay. I am taking them. I'm having some problems with the audio, so I may stop and ask for some repeats, but yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay. So we have Sid Gelot and Yale Gates from Tree Top Development here to talk about 56 Wareham Street. And Sid and Yale, I apologize because we only have Doug here tonight from the, subcommittee, Peter and Eleni are both out. But we can definitely kind of look at where we're at with the plans and get you on your way to your next iteration.
[MCM00001781_SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, I mean, yeah, you can talk more about whatever feedbacks were given the previous meeting, we'll try to incorporate. most of them or all of them. Let's see if this is something to your liking.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah. Doug, do you want to just go over this one a little bit? So this property is under demo delay, just to give a recap. We're trying to work on some demolition mitigation here.
[Doug Carr]: Are these the plans you want to see or do you want to see the three-dimensional view?
[Jennifer Keenan]: I think the exteriors, the elevations.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah. Here we go.
[Jennifer Keenan]: And I think the last email that I saw, last email I saw from Peter said, I like the design direction. I like the roof decks and the roof cutout. It breaks down the massing.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, I remember that as well. I think the subcommittee had a consensus that this was a good direction. It was not a literal historic restoration. It was trying to do something a little creative, which we thought was very successful for both amassing and connecting basically the volumes of the building. So I'm pretty sure the subcommittee was satisfied with the last version, Jen, based on the emails that I think you were copied on as well.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, and I just, Ryan did email in some feedback, so I'd like to just share that with Yale, since I know that we're still kind of in the preliminary designs here. Ryan's feedback was, I feel the new addition is eating the existing house. I'd like to see more of the forward mass retained. It's okay that there are large additions on the rear. I have no issues with those. So I'm not sure how much, You know, we can do there, but I know that, you know, Peter and Eleni and I, it sounds like Doug to for the most part we're generally okay with this direction.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, I think that's, I think that's the case. I think actually I mostly defer to Eleni on this one. You know, if I remember correctly, the only comment I saw was it was a, you can see here on the top of the three elevations, I think we'd requested some small windows be added. There's a staircase there on that elevation. So it's, there are no windows there now, but we thought with the prominence of that elevation, we wanted to see just a little bit more of a breakup of that one. I think you take obviously Ryan's comments as well. I'm not sure exactly if that's enough direction for the architect here to do, but I think there's one last iteration here. I think we'll be ready to close this out, but I think you got to take Ryan's comments into consideration and then I think we'll be done.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, and I'm happy to Yale or said if you have anything to go back to him with or want to think about it and then just, you know, send in a little bit more based on that comment, you know, happy to.
[MCM00001781_SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, could you repeat that and yell if you are able to understand it correctly?
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_00]: Let me hear it again.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay.
[MCM00001781_SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Ryan's comment was, I feel the new edition is eating the existing house. I would like to see more of the forward mass retained. I have no problem with the large additions on the rear.
[MCM00001781_SPEAKER_01]: Again, Yale is the architect. But looking at what she has done, I know maybe he's talking about the side view, the addition. But if you're looking from the front, it blends in from whatever the front is and the side and this. Are we having a higher height yield in the back? Is it bigger or taller or something?
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_00]: It's a little bit taller so we can use an attic because the attic is non-usable. But what I think I understand, remember this is the second iteration. The first one that you saw where I kept the facade the way it is, there was a small dormer here close to close to the facade of the existing house, which I kind of kept. But then as I reworked the layout and where I placed my stairs, it kind of didn't work. And I took that small, maybe you can look at those drawings, the previous one. I feel like maybe he's trying to say keep that, but that's not going to work with the layout and the stair because I need the head height, right? So if he's telling me that he wants to keep that dormer, it tells me that I have to reshuffle all the layout of the first unit, like the front unit. The question is, is that really needed because that dormer does not repeat again and then it's gonna look different height and a little bit different dimensions from the other more modern dormers that are, keeping the language but are different dimensions, right? So I don't know that it's not going to look like a mess if I have two different ones. I'm trying to understand if that's what he meant because I am keeping, you know, not just the facade. I'm keeping, you know, a few feet in of that, you know, of that original mass of the house, right? I can try to find on my computer what it was.
[Doug Carr]: I'm going to try to hazard a guess here. It's hard for me to read Brian's brain here, but I think when I look at the image on the top of the screen here, is that there's a blend between the two masses. It looks like the three vertical windows are like a bridge. If I were to infer what he said, I think he's saying almost like, define the end of the existing mass a little bit without changing the plan. I think it's about articulation, at least I think it is. And you can confirm with him. And so that the front mass has a definition to it where it ends, so to speak. So I think it's the blending is what he's referring to. That's my take on this comment. But maybe if you want to put something on the screen to compare what we had last time to this, We can take another look and see if we can infer any more.
[Jennifer Keenan]: I'm also happy to clarify that with him and send you some notes tomorrow, Yael.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_00]: Okay. Yeah. If it's the blending between the two kind of fissures, you know, the existing historic one and the new one, which I'm showing in a kind of almost black, right? If that's what you mean, or if he means keeping that mass of the dormer, off the exit, because if I push back the new house even more, then yes, that dormer would appear, right? I mean, the dormer was right there. It just doesn't work with my layout, and the layout is nice. I don't know if you looked at it, but it's a nice layout. And also, the different dormers will look a little strange, in my opinion. I mean, I don't want this to look too messy. There's already dormers, roof decks, a lot going on on the roof level.
[Doug Carr]: I actually agree with you. I don't think dormer types are the answer. I think you have a language here. You have a language of shared dormers around the first floor on multiple sides on both pieces, which I think is successful. The two dormers being the same on both, I don't think that's a problem. I don't see that being an issue. I don't think Ryan is either. But let's get his comments to you.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, I'll clarify that with him, and then I can send a follow-up email tomorrow. And then, hopefully, if you guys wanna do another, you know, we'll do the final pass, and then maybe we'll be ready to vote next month.
[Doug Carr]: I think so.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Cool.
[Doug Carr]: Okay.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay. Okay, awesome. Thank you. Thank you.
[MCM00001781_SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay. So, I think, Sid, we're good with all your stuff for tonight. Okay. All right, thank you everybody for that. So 56 Wareham, hopefully we'll be able to vote to lift that demo delay next month. And I will follow up with Ryan on his comments to clarify and get those notes to Yale for next month, for this week. Okay. Um, Nelson, I, I just gonna, uh, God, before I move on to the next thing, Nelson, I just wanted to let you know that we had to table 38 Pearl tonight. Um, because I don't, Kit has to recuse herself with a conflict. Um, so I don't have enough people to take a vote. So I just spoke to attorney Desmond and we're going to try. to squeeze you in before the September meeting so that we can lift that. But I just wanted to let you know that that was happening. And I will follow up with Attorney Desmond in the next couple of days to see if we can get something scheduled before the September meeting. Okay, thank you. Sorry, I'm so sorry. It was an unexpected absences from three commissioners tonight. Okay, awesome. Thanks so much. All right. Amanda, you want to talk about the Riverside Ave Plaza?
[Amanda Centrella]: Yes, that would be great. Hi, welcome. Hi. There we go. Thank you guys for having me. I'm Amanda Centrello. I work in the Planning, Development and Sustainability Office. And do I have permission to share my screen? I could have a little presentation just to have visuals to talk to, if you all would find it helpful.
[Jennifer Keenan]: We would find it helpful. And yes, you should be able to share your screen now.
[Amanda Centrella]: Okay, let's give that a try.
[Jennifer Keenan]: So it's my understanding that you're looking for a letter of support for this project from us. That is our takeaway.
[Amanda Centrella]: Yeah, yeah, or or comments about the project and so basically to give a little context, we are office applied for a parkland acquisition and renovation for communities grant park grant state program to kind of. implement some like targeted treatments to the existing Riverside Plaza. And as part of that application process, we submit a description of the project and some materials to the State Historical Commission. And then they sent us a response, which I forwarded to you all, which asked for a couple of things, namely that we come before this commission And they asked for some more detailed documents, which I'll make a note at the beginning of this that part of our grant application was actually funding to create those documents. So we don't have detailed designs or construction documents to show, but we do have some conceptual designs. And then we're happy to talk through questions or see what information we can provide. Um, right. So with that, and can folks see my screen? Okay.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yep.
[Amanda Centrella]: Okay. So just to give a little overview, Riverside Plaza is in Medford Square, as I'm sure you guys are familiar. It's nestled up against the Salem Street Burying Ground historic site. And it's kind of surrounded by a business district. So there are lots of little shops and some great restaurants right nearby. You will frequently find me at the Ebisu Japanese Market across the street. And you can see from the overhead shot here that there's the patio and then sort of adjacent to the patio on the right hand side is this kind of lawn area where there are some mature oak trees. We're going to be talking about both of those areas. So just a couple of shots of the existing plaza as you can see the patio. It's a really beautiful space and it is used so frequently during the shoulder seasons to summer. So spring and fall when temperatures are just a little bit more mild. It's a great spot with a lot of seating and You know, you could easily see someone grabbing lunch at one of the places nearby and bringing it here. The left-hand photo shows sort of the other side of the plaza that there's like a walkway that goes along this like lawn area that we're going to be referring to, which is adjacent to the cemetery. A couple more photos just to kind of give a feel. So, what we have in mind is we think that the plaza operates really well. It's again a great spot that is used actually very heavily throughout the shoulder seasons of the year. But one of the main challenges that we think that this spot has is that there is no shade. And so what we've observed periodically throughout the past year is that the way that most people use it during hot days is to pull the mobile chairs and tables underneath the lawn area where there are those existing trees, understandably, because there's great shade. The challenge, let me see if I can just zip ahead a little bit. is that there's not an accessible route to that space. And instead, there's just this sad patch of dirt. Grass can't really establish there because people are constantly traversing back and forth. And it's not great for the trees that are in that area to have erosion of that soil and also compaction of what's there and some exposed tree roots. So we go back here. So what we're thinking about is the way that people are already using the plaza is to go under those trees. So we could provide a floating deck around the base of the trees into part of that area and a ramp up to there so that there's an accessible route to that space, maybe some additional mobile furniture for people to use in place up there. And then in addition to that, to create some shade in the patio area because it is so nice. We would certainly be keeping some sunny spots, but we were proposing to add some shade sails. Here's a little bit better, more clear graphic. Again, this is just sort of a conceptual plan. So having a couple of posts where these shade sails, they are commercial grade, so they could stay up throughout the year. It could be taken down maybe for winter, although you can leave them up. They probably just might wear a little bit faster that way. And just a rendering again to kind of give us a sense of what that could look and feel like. The deck is about 1,000 square feet. Again, it's in this sort of area off of the walkway. And here's a rendering just again to give us a feel of what that could look like. That looks great. And then a couple of, you know, again, our grant application included a couple of these furniture pieces. So there are some existing light bollards already in the area. So we would, you know, use the same style of bollards to light the back end of the deck. We were considering a drinking fountain and water bottle filler, given that it gets so hot in that area, and it's actually part of what the state calls a hot spot. daytime temperatures reached reach a certain point for you know periods of the year, typically in the summer. So having water there could be really, I think, a helpful public health amenity, and then some more table seating. And so we'll pause a bit and kind of pivot to the 2017 renovation. So y'all may remember better than I do that this area used to be kind of like a underutilized bus stop with brick paving, I want to say. And so the renovation in 2016 was informed by community input. And was possible through a land and water conservation fund grant, which is actually a very similar grant program to the one we're applying to. And in fact, the, the project team went through the same process of providing project materials to the state historical commission. describing the project. In that case, for whatever reason, no comments were received at that time. But this renovation was much, I think, I would argue, much more disruptive and bigger in scale and scope than what we're thinking about, which is, I would like to say, a bit more targeted. And just to kind of give you all a feel, so in this existing plaza, there are a lot of footings that are already there. Just to name a few, we have these chimes that are actually in the area that we're talking about for the lawn area. And those footings are, I think, traditional, just like concrete cylinders that are about three feet deep and a foot wide. And we see more of that for other types of fixtures within the patio area. So there's like a interpretive sign panel and those light bollards. There's like, I think, some wall seating, all of which require footings at and around the depths that we're talking about for the treatments we have in mind, the shade sails and the decking. And just a couple of photos from that time that kind of show all of the work that was underway there. And I think this is my last bit, and then we can pause for questions and go over any of what I've already talked about. But the duck product that we're looking at, we chose initially because it was meant to limit the disruption to the soil. We were most concerned initially about the existing tree roots that are there in that lawn area, and the way that these diamond pier pilings work is you sort of have this like node through which you have these bearing pins that go into the ground at angles. And actually to install them, you don't have to excavate, you don't need any heavy equipment, which is kind of wonderful. And you install them with this sort of like, I'll show you in a very small video clip, but like a hand tool. Let me see if I have that. Yeah, right here.
[SPEAKER_02]: The diamond pier is a totally new way to think about engineered footings. Like tree roots, the load bearing pins and systems are not the sort of tool that pushes the bearing pins in.
[Amanda Centrella]: Each diamond without having to actually dig into the soil.
[Doug Carr]: And Amanda, those pier foundations are purely for the wood deck, the 1,019 square foot wood deck, right?
[Amanda Centrella]: Yes, that's correct. So for the shade sails, which is the other half of this conversation, I would imagine we would do a traditional footing. They haven't been designed yet because, again, we're sort of just at a conceptual point. But I did notice that there are light posts in the plaza that are at the same sort of height around which we'd have the posts for these shade sails.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, I think because I counted five posts per sale times two. So you have 10 new foundations. I mean, I think, look, this is a great design. I think it's all additive, which is great about this, is that you're building on the success of this space already. I've been there for a mini concert and a beer garden and a bunch of events. I can see that it could use a little bit more real estate and obviously adding shade. both under the existing trees, usable area, and on the open plaza, which is baked spot. Obviously, every single day it's sunny because it's almost due south. It's a great addition to tweak this space. I'm sure this is going to continue over the years, but this to me looks like a really good start. The only question I had is I saw that little, I guess it was a plaque on a rock on the right in the middle of the wood stuff. That would have to be raised, I would think, if it would be visible, because you're up about a foot or so, I think. You have to put some kind of new foundation, I think, under that to make that work.
[Amanda Centrella]: That's a really good question. And something that I had noticed last week as I was going through all the materials, there is this memorial plaque boulder in that area. And yeah, I think. It's small enough that I think we would need to raise it as opposed to having the deck go around it.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: I think so, yeah.
[Amanda Centrella]: What is it for, do we know?
[Jennifer Keenan]: For the whole plaza? I don't know. Because the other option is maybe you move it. Maybe if it's possible to move the stone.
[Doug Carr]: That might be a better choice. I think moving it is worth considering it because it's going to be really hard to build that foundation and the wood around it's going to be very uneven. I agree, Jen. Maybe we put it a little further down the pathway. along the linear path that goes in the direction towards City Hall. There's 50 feet there where it could probably just be right on the side and be fully accessible like it is now from ADA perspective, et cetera. And that would clean it up a little bit. It wouldn't be this tripping hazard in the middle of the deck also. So I think that's a good idea, Jim.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, and if it's in a better visible spot so that people will stop and read it and kind of pay attention to what it's for.
[Doug Carr]: And you won't need a foundation, Rob, more than just a really simple one.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Gotcha. I think that's a great idea. I'm scarred by the marker at the POMS wall. And so it's like anytime we have a marker, we need to make sure it's in a good spot for people to access it. Makes sense. I agree. I mean, I think this looks great. The shade sails are obviously very much needed. I think the deck over that dirt patch looks great. You know, I think this with, you know, all the renovations happening at the high rise building there, where the seniors live, you know, it's just going to be, you know, a lovely outdoor space for people to use and to continue to use. Yeah.
[Doug Carr]: Amanda, could you go back to the rendering, the three-dimensional rendering, looking at that wood deck? It was just a few slides back, I think. That's it. It looks like the deck will actually be above on the left side. You see where the brick piers are? You'll be able to see under that deck, I think, at the high points. There'll have to be some kind of closure piece there, because it would look a little weird from the cemetery side. That's a detail you guys can figure out. It's good. You don't need any railings because it's one to 20 or less. You can't fall off the edge of it very far. You don't need any guardrails either. I think it's a very simple and minimal design, but it gets you a lot of bang for that buck.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Do we so I think I think in with Doug's comment to on that side if there's if it's open, you know, you don't like if they're leaf blowing or if there's any maintenance in the territory, you don't want stuff kind of getting under that is that cause it to rot. I think to from like a. I don't know, maybe you want critters under there if they're trying to get to them. But there could be some critter management that needs to happen under here. I mean, that's going to be, especially with the access by the tree, it's going to be just a sweet little spot for little things to borrow and make a home, which maybe is OK. Maybe that's what we want. But I think, I don't know, maybe just talk I don't know if something has to go down on the ground first to make it less inviting environment. But I mean, that's not really our purview. But just thinking from, obviously, the conversations around critters are high and mighty these days in Medford.
[Doug Carr]: So just thinking through when you have- There'll be a condo of rabbits.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yes. Yes. What I've seen around Medford. Right. But just, you know, thinking when you have that void, that'll be a little home for things.
[Amanda Centrella]: Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, we can give some thought to how we treat that. If it's an open edge, it looks like it would be based on this rendering, at least along the cemetery wall there. And then also like where the tree bases are.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, you might need an access panel to be able to see. Did you say it's only a foot higher? Is that what all it is?
[Amanda Centrella]: Yeah, like 13 inches.
[Doug Carr]: With the framing, it's going to be like four inches below the framing. It's really small in there, so it's going to be hard other than a rodent or a muskrat to get in there or something.
[Jennifer Keenan]: But you don't want trash getting under there either.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, I think the way you closed it off is good. You just got to continue it.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: Is there adequate, I think this looks fantastic, and I've been there in the summer and it definitely needs some shade. Just looking at this deck and looking at that tree though, I'm wondering if there's adequate, if that tree's going to get any water.
[Amanda Centrella]: The nice thing about, so the deck will be able to infiltrate. This rendering doesn't do the kind of panel type structure that I think we have in mind justice. It kind of just looks like a block. But there will be, it's the part of our concern which was communicated to the design team we're working with is that water be able to get through and that we'd be able to not disrupt the tree roots and not disrupt the soil too much. So that is part of the design intent. And I can stress that with the design team as we move into more detailed design.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Is that a, do we know what kind of tree that is, is a Norway maple? I think they're both oak. Oh, okay. Nice. Great. This looks lovely. Um, so we could write up our comments if that would be helpful. Um, and then get you over a letter that you can submit with your, um, whatever you need for your next phase. Ryan did have a comment. He's not here tonight, but he did email me a comment to read. And he writes, I support this project. We should help her make it clear to Mass Historical that the disturbance to the soils will be minimal, which I think we can all agree with those pylons it will be. Mass Historical will likely not budge on their requests. The sooner you get them their info, the sooner you'll get your approval. Doug, would you be able to start a draft letter?
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, I'm happy to do so.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay, great. Amanda, what is your deadline?
[Amanda Centrella]: That's a great question. They haven't really given us one. So the grant submission was due July 11th, which is around when we sent in all of our stuff. And they're, I guess, in sort of a decision-making phase. I don't know exactly when they make final decisions, but I will reach out to them just for an update on that timeline and can communicate that to y'all. Obviously, the sooner, the better. But I understand, too, that you have plenty of things to do.
[Doug Carr]: This won't take long.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Great. I'm not sure if Ed, I know Ed's here. Do you guys have any other comments? Are we good with this project? Looks terrific. It does look terrific.
[Amanda Centrella]: Awesome.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you, Amanda. Thank you guys.
[Amanda Centrella]: Thanks for hearing us on short notice.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Oh yeah, no worries. We're happy to help and we'll get you that letter and let us know if we can help you with anything else as it pertains to this project.
[Amanda Centrella]: Okay. Thank you very much.
[Jennifer Keenan]: You too. Okay. Um, up next we have Teresa, our friend, Teresa DuPont.
[Theresa Dupont]: Good evening, everybody. Sorry, it took forever for me to move that three inches. Hi, everybody.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Hi. I know you have a couple things to update us on. So if you'd like to go forward and yeah.
[Theresa Dupont]: Yeah. So for those who don't know me, Theresa DuPont, I am the City's Community Preservation Act Manager. I've worked I think I know everybody, but what brings me here tonight is we are at the beginning of our application round. A couple of things, I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have on some CPA projects that the Historical Commission is undergoing. I saw that that was in like old business, so if we But I'm here to answer any questions on that. But what I would really love for this commission to consider tonight is one of the applications we received was to do some restoration at the Hegner Center at 15 Maple Park Avenue. Historically, it's known as the Ralph L. Kendall Fieldhouse, I believe it was his middle initial. This commission did order a Form B assessment done by our friend Mr. Clemson in the fall of 2019. It's not a new to this board request here, but when I reached out to Ryan, lo and behold, at that time, it was verbally discussed as being significant, but there wasn't the paperwork end of it done. I'm here tonight to ask, administratively, does it need to be sussed out again or can that just be picked back up from 2019? Ultimately, again, I'm looking for that letter to accompany the application to the CPC.
[Jennifer Keenan]: I don't think we need to start over. I mean, if we determine significance, I would just double check. I can go back and check our minutes, just double check that we actually voted and that we deemed it significant. And assuming we did, we can definitely fire off a letter so that you have that for your application.
[Theresa Dupont]: fantastic. Yeah, it's our applications are due. I believe the day after the body meets in September. So that's why I was really hoping to get onto this agenda. So thank you very much for taking the time there. So happy to answer any questions that anybody has on it, but especially about the project, in particular, because it has been a Unused, I wouldn't even say underutilized, but just straight up unused building in the city's inventory for many years. So.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, if you want to give us a little rundown, I remember. This is the athletic center or the old. It's like a little, yeah, I remember seeing the form B on this. I remember discussing it for sure. It was definitely before kids time on our commission. Ed might have been on as well. So, but if you want to refresh us, that would be great.
[Theresa Dupont]: Certainly, yes. It's a building that is attached to Gillis Field over in North Medford area. It was built, I believe, in 1927 as to be used as the field house for the athletic operations for Gillis Field. And then 93 came through in the 50s, and it got kind of repurposed, I believe, over the course of many, many decades. And I believe in the 80s or 90s, it landed in the ownership of Hegner. Bridgewell was the private home I believe it was home care for adults with physical and mental needs. Then it was taken by the city in the early mid 2000s and been kind of sitting, doing nothing since then. The building itself needs a lot of work. As you can imagine, when you leave a building alone for 15, 20 years, it was often unused by the city for various operations, trainings and whatnot. It hasn't been properly maintained for many years. So roof, what CPC will be reviewing is for roof repairs, windows, as well as doorways. There is much work to be done inside in terms of interior restoration, HVAC, the whole shebang.
[Jennifer Keenan]: And the future of this building is going to be the home for Medford Rec, is that correct?
[Theresa Dupont]: That is the goal is to move. I'm not sure if it'll be like the home base. I'm not privy to that quite yet. It's still up in there, but it absolutely will be used for recreational use. They're thinking of moving a lot of the afterschool programming to the center, which would be great. It would also be used as the city's resiliency hub, which is a fancy phrase for basically whenever there is any sort of emergency to be able to deploy supplies to our residents. So this will be a resiliency hub slash recreational usage center, which is great. As a resident of North Medford, I welcome it, so.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Awesome. Commissioners, does anybody have any questions for Teresa on this?
[Doug Carr]: Just a couple of things. Teresa, I know that about Or 5 years ago, I wasn't sure if it was cash or somebody asked me to look at that building or adaptive reuse. I think they were looking for a center. And I remember, like, uh, I thought. But the 2nd floor wasn't worth putting an elevator because it was such a small footprint and not really much. Available real estate, I don't know if any kind of that analysis has been done or not, but the 1st floor obviously has. Tremendous value, you know, the infrastructure is there to do a lot of good things in the, in the. The ground floor, but the 2nd, 2nd floor looks looked really tough to me to get make it work on a couple of different fundamental levels. Does anyone look at that?
[Theresa Dupont]: I believe that they have it was a cache. It may have been in conjunction with our. Medford collaborative, they were looking for an art center. We do have a feasibility study in hand as part of their efforts there. So we are borrowing that intelligence that they gathered to utilize the final plan for the inside there. But I don't think anybody's really planning on blowing out any dormers and really making that second floor significantly usable. Somebody might have a fancy office up there, but it would just be a very small footprint.
[Doug Carr]: But it was the elevator that I was concerned about because you're going to spend a quarter million dollars to get an accessibility up there for a tiny real estate. Is that what the plan is now?
[Theresa Dupont]: I asked about an elevator usage because that would be an eligible CTA expense, and I was informed that they're not considering it at this time.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[Theresa Dupont]: I think that really the plan is to utilize the first floor there. And then second floor, we're always looking for places to put files.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay, so we, yeah, we can definitely get you a letter for that one for significance.
[Theresa Dupont]: I appreciate that. Thank you.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah. The Curtis Tufts Tufts School, we sent you that letter, I think.
[Theresa Dupont]: Correct.
[Jennifer Keenan]: So you have everything you need for that.
[Theresa Dupont]: I do. The fires have been put out. Thank you very much for your help with that. OK.
[Jennifer Keenan]: OK, yeah. So we can definitely do that. And I will let you know if for some reason a vote wasn't taken. But we might be trying to squeeze in a demo, lifting a demo delay since we did not have a quorum tonight. So if we can all like if we're getting another group together, we can vote on that if we have to as well.
[Theresa Dupont]: I think that based off of this conversation, it sounds like the board is in favor of supporting this. So there's a little bit of less pressure right now. We could probably wait and put like the September regular meeting for this board. I wouldn't want to make that meeting any longer. then it needs to be, but we can wait till September. I appreciate that.
[Jennifer Keenan]: If we do end up getting together and it's just a matter of officially voting, we can probably make it happen. I appreciate that. We can get the letter drafted in the meantime and just make sure procedurally things are buttoned up before we give it to you. Yes. I understand. All right, great. Sounds like a great project. Glad to hear that that's moving forward. I feel like we talked about that a hundred years ago, so nice to see some movement on it.
[Theresa Dupont]: Yeah, we're excited as well.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Good. Anything else for us?
[Theresa Dupont]: No, I mean, the DPW crew was able to get up to Thomas Brooks Park and Grove Street and do some cleanup along the stone wall that was there. It came out really nice.
[Jennifer Keenan]: It does look good. I definitely we're going to set up a meeting with Tim because there definitely needs to be some clearing behind the wall as well, because the growth is also out of control on the backside of the wall. But again, you know, like we talked about, these are long term maintenance issues that need to come up with. So I think between that and Brooks Estate, we'll get a meeting with him to talk about how we can get on their kind of regular schedule or, you know, somewhat regularly, a couple of times a year to keep that maintained. So, but it does look a lot better. So thank you for helping with that.
[Theresa Dupont]: Of course. And I have been tag teaming with, just to get ahead of the agenda, I have been working with Ryan on Cross Street. So I'll hang back if you get to that later in the meeting, and I'll chime in if I have anything I can add to that conversation.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, actually, I can just give an update real quick, because he sent me some notes on that, just while we're talking about CP. Well, that's not really it. Is that really a CPC project?
[Theresa Dupont]: We're involved with the back end. Yeah.
[Jennifer Keenan]: But the update that he sent me for that project, just to keep everybody in the loop, this is the Cross Street Cemetery. The archeological field work quotes are in and we're working on awarding the project. The excavation fees came in too high at over 30,000. We have to rebid to be in compliance with procurement. And I know that I saw some emails that you guys were chatting about potentially Having a second conversation about trying to bring that back in-house so that, you know, the city gets the work instead of a vendor. So I think more kind of ongoing conversations there to see if that's feasible or not. And if not, we'll go back out to bid since it's more than 10,000. So we're in compliance with procurement. And then his last note was that the headstone study is underway. The final cost will not be ready for CPC applications in the fall. So we'll miss this year's cutoff, but that's okay. We'll work on getting that done and then we'll focus on next year. So that is ongoing, which is great. All right. Thanks, Teresa. Thank you all for having me.
[Theresa Dupont]: Have a good night.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Good to see you. Bye.
[Theresa Dupont]: Nice to see you too.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay. I will work with Ryan on that letter for that case for Teresa. That is my to-do there. Just wanted to throw this out. Actually, Teresa had sent around an email to our email about the preservation and changing climate event, which is taking place at the Peabody Essex Museum. I want to say it is September 18th. Don't quote me on that. Let me just check to see if I have it in the email. I will, oh, here we go. It is, yeah, September 18th. So we... I think we can go at no, yeah, there is a registration fee, but it can be reimbursed for CPC members and CPA folks. So if anybody would like to go, again, the topic is preservation in a changing climate, let me know and I can put you in touch with Teresa to get you registered. So I just wanted to put that out there to everybody. And I'll remind folks at the next meeting too, since we're a little light of commissioners this month. Just super quick, I had a meeting with Meg Bowen from the Medford Historical Society to talk about joint promotions between us and them. I'll talk more about this next month, because I'd like to talk about it with everybody here, but just trying to kind of revive our networking between our group and their group. And they're actually working on a fantastic calendar for the next 18 months of events that they would love us to help um, kind of co-sponsor and, you know, help with some, um, just to help getting the word out, which I think we're really good at doing on our socials, on our websites and just in our network as well. So we can talk a little bit more about that next month. I'm going to continue that, um, to next month. Okay, our last bit of new business, we do need to order some form Bs, both for properties that came in tonight and some of ones that we know that we are getting a heads up on. So I'm going to read off the addresses so that we can put those into the meeting minutes. So kit, okay, form, and then I'll take a motion from somebody to spend the $500 for each of these Form Bs. 18 Cherry Street, 110 Brooks Street, 39 Wilson, 39 Marion, and 106 Alexander. These are all being considered for demo, and we need to have Form Bs on hand. So 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Form Bs, so that would be $2,500. You said 18 Cherry, 110 Brooks, 39 Wilson, 39 Marion, and 106 Alexander.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: Correct. Does somebody want to make a motion to spend $2,500 for Form Bs for those five properties? I'll make a move. So moved.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you, Ed.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: Second.
[Jennifer Keenan]: OK, Ed and Kit, thank you. OK, $2,500 for five form Bs. Roll call vote. Kit?
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Doug?
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Ed?
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: And I'm a yes as well. So that will pass 4-0. OK. Does anybody else have any new business for tonight? No, okay. All right, we will move on to old business. Let's see. We already talked about our demo delay properties tonight. So 56 Wareham is ongoing, 38 Pearl tonight is tabled, but we'll try to get that scheduled before September 9th. We have not heard from the folks at 27 Allmont. And we have not heard from anybody regarding 91 Winchester, the carriage house. So not too much update there. Permitting subcommittee, we are starting to get permits again. It's gone back and forth between the building commissioners in terms of what they're inviting us to look at and what we're not being invited to look at. We are back on the more than not kind of track these days. So Ryan and I are going through the permits typically. at least once a week, if not a little bit more frequently, depending on our schedules, so keeping those moving. And again, that's how some of the Form Bs that we have ordered, some projects that are kind of out there and starting to be discussed, which is a good thing. The more we can have a heads up, the better, so that we can move folks along as quickly as possible through the process. So nothing too crazy there, just everybody's acquiring their properties and getting their permitting ready for the fall in anticipation of next spring for selling their renovations. Cross Street Cemetery are already updated folks on. We already have the update for Thomas Brooks. Oh, one other update for Thomas Brooks Park. As Teresa mentioned, we got the DPW out there to kind of clear some of the growth that was overtaking the curb. We are trying to set up a meeting with Peter Hedlund, a public meeting to talk about You know, kind of the historic design that he floated by us and some of those. Caps so that we can move on for phase 2 of the project there. We thought we had a room for September 17th and it turns out we don't. And now the library is also booked. So we're looking to bump that meeting. So I'm working on getting a room and then working with Peter to find out his schedule so that we can get that scheduled so that we can give especially all the immediate neighbors, some notice so that they can come out and have their voices heard, and certainly anybody else in town that would like to come out and talk about the next phase of the project there. So we are going to be working on that date. I'm working with the library on an evening date, and that will be forthcoming. Hopefully we can lock that down this week. But otherwise, that is the update for Thomas Brooks Park. Ryan finished up the survey work for Fulton Heights. The project is done. He's going to upload all the inventory forms to the drive when we have a minute, but we'll be able to close that out. And we do not have a survey product for the rest of this fiscal year. We will pick up a new one next spring for the following fiscal year. So we have a little bit of a break there. And I forgot to send around the meeting minutes. Let me see if I have those in the email. In fact, you know what? We're just gonna table the meeting minutes and we will approve them next month. We will approve July and August next month. It's a little bit of a mishmash of an event tonight. I'm all thrown off since we are missing three people. And I was not expecting to have as robust of agenda as we did for the second week of August. So I apologize to everybody. I'm a little off my game tonight. Does anybody have anything else for tonight? I feel like for our agenda that flew by really fast.
[Doug Carr]: I'll circulate that letter. I've already started writing it tomorrow just to get it going on Riverside. It shouldn't be that hard to put that one to bed. Okay, great. I guess I have a question. Obviously, I'm the CPC liaison. When Teresa's here, she can update people, but do people want to have like a regular report. I haven't really typically done that unless people have asked about specific projects because there's usually 10 or 15 applicants at least. Sometimes the money is there, sometimes it's a stretch. I just want to know what degree people are interested in just in terms of my keeping them inform. I could email minutes or I could email vacations to the people interested or it all depends what you're looking for me to share.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Personally, I don't know that I'm lacking anything. I feel like the information that's out there is pretty available. But I think, I don't know, maybe if there's anything of a heads up of things like this that you're like, well, we might get asked for support, because that's what affects us here. Not to be so selfish that it has to be all only about historical commission and what we're doing, but. I mean, I'm always fascinated by CPC projects. So on one hand, I'm super interested. And on the other hand, I feel like, you know, on social and kind of everywhere else, the information is pretty available once applications come in, or they're talking about or there's meetings, you know, just discuss these projects. But I'd love to hear what everybody else has to say.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: Clearly not on the right socials. Maybe I just need to do a little more perusing. But I mean, I would be interested, but I don't think it should add to your workload, Doug. I mean, I think if there's something that you could readily share or maybe just in the right direction.
[Doug Carr]: I can probably pull together an executive summary. Once we get all the applications, there's a detailed process where they present know, they get asked questions and usually there's an executive summary of the spreadsheet of like what is there. I think that's worth sharing because that gives you a sense. You don't need to see all the how the sausage is made perhaps, but at least you'll see what's coming. And then if you have any thoughts about priorities, you know, I could represent that obviously because, you know, sometimes we don't have enough money and we have to make choices and we don't fund everything 100% if we don't have enough money. In the last couple of years, for the first time, that's been true. Of the six cycles we've had, only one or two of them we've had to make some haircuts with some people wanting, say, 600,000, they got 400,000 for a park or even Brooks Estate. Brooks Estate took an $80,000 hit one year because there was just not enough money. All right, I'll keep it open and look for the kind of the high level stuff and share it as people are interested.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Hit preserve Medford is the name of the Facebook page. So definitely like that page if you don't already like it. All right, great. I feel like We're good. Does anybody have anything else?
[Doug Carr]: We have a social gathering coming up soon or something like that? I can't remember.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yes, our summer get together. Ryan and I were chatting today about a location, so stay tuned. But yeah, I think we said the Tuesday the 27th for some cocktails. Doug's paying. No, just kidding.
[Doug Carr]: Oh, yeah. What, 7, 6? 6.30.
[Jennifer Keenan]: when people get there. And also Dennis, make sure I'll send you an email, but make sure you come if you can.
[MCM00001781_SPEAKER_01]: You're around.
[Jennifer Keenan]: We were tossing around Long Cross. They have a great bar and a great patio. But I'll confirm that with everybody. Spread the wealth around Medford since we've already hit a few different places. between the holidays and summer. Does anybody have anything else? Okay, I'll take a motion to adjourn. Thanks, Ed. Thanks, Doug. Okay, motion to adjourn at 8.08 PM. Kit? Yes. Ed? Yes. Doug?
[Doug Carr]: Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: And I am also a yes. Thank you, everybody. Thanks, everyone. Thanks for coming. I know it was a tough night with three people down. But I will see you all. Our next meeting is September 9th. And maybe we'll try to do one in between. So I'll email about that. So for Pearl Street.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: Is September 9th Labor Day?
[Jennifer Keenan]: No, Labor Day is early this year. It's like the second.
[MCM00001614_SPEAKER_01]: All right. Fair enough.
[Jennifer Keenan]: So all right. Have a good night, everybody.