[Kathleen Desmond]: One, one of the participants is asked that we sign in with what our relationship is to the project. It's about 602 Peter Quinn is here. We can start the presentation for you. And then any questions that you have, we can answer them after the fact. So I'm Kathleen Desmond, I'm with Touchstone Law Offices in Redding. I represent the owners of the property located at 421-423 High Street in Medford. Cyril Hughes is the manager of 417-423 High Street LLC. And he's here with me this evening, Galena Penlova may be joining us but we can get started. Since we're all on the call. In addition to the owners of the members of the development team team are here as well. Jack Sullivan was solving engineering from Woburn Peter Quinn of Quinn architects and Milton you as well of Quinn architects in some of all. Just as a, as a plenary, this meeting is being recorded, um, so that it will be available on the website. If you folks want to refer to it at any time, um, there was just to preface it. Um, I had sent out notices on December 31st to the post office, went down to the post office and I hand delivered them, um, to the post office clerk. Apparently, um, they were placed in the wrong bin. And the notices weren't delivered I happened to get them back today and I notified the city of that. However, it was on the website and I understand that they did do a robo call in my letter actually I think was posted on the city calendar as well, but the meeting will be available for those who, who want to share it with others. By way of background, for those of you who might not be familiar with the project site, 421-423 Hyde Street is a location of the former Sincota Funeral Home and includes the parking area located behind it. The existing structure is a two-story mixed-use building. In addition to the funeral home, the structure did include a second floor residence. The combined parcels provide an area of approximately 11,420 square feet of land, The portion of the parcel on which the funeral home currently sits is situated in the C1 commercial district that allows for mixed use. The back portion of the lot is also the parking area that was used by Sincada that is located in a single family district. The, the project proposes to construct a four story mixed use building in place of the existing structure with a gross floor area of approximately 13,882 square feet. commercial space will be located on the first floor and as well as one of the nine bedroom nine residential units. The units will be two bedroom units of varying square footage. As most of you know the site is located within walking distance to the West Medford commuter rail. It's close to shops and parks and also some of the elementary schools. I know the developers excited about this project and believes it will be a nice fit for the neighborhood, bringing in some commercial use, increasing the flow of traffic to and from businesses, and also providing necessary housing in the city. With that, I will turn the project over to Peter Quinn, and he can run through the plans for you. Peter.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Hi, everybody. Peter Quinn, Peter Quinn Architects in Davis Square, Somerville. I've been with this project for a very long time. Some of you I recognize from the many hearings we had with the historic commission in order to get demolition approval. And this is substantially the same building that I showed them after a lot of work trying to alter it to their design comments and so if it looks familiar that's the reason. What we've done is provided a mixed-use building where the ground floor has a retail space facing the street and then in the back of the first floor and particularly we have nine residential units. They're all two bedrooms, some are two baths, some are one. They're mostly on the small side, you know, 875 square feet to about 1200, which is substantial, but most of them are smaller than that. And three of them have decks or porches, the rest do not. So they're They're nice units front and rear so you know you get a lot of windows, as you can see in this in this image and way we laid this site out, we are using. The land that the funeral home sits on right now, there is a right of way between us and our neighbor to the left that gains access to the parking lot in the rear. So that's being reused. It's only one way in for us. And then the other way out is on the other side of the building, which you can see a little bit of pink driveway. or give you an idea how it feels on the street. It has a nice substantial base with brick columns and behind that storefront windows and doors. And then above that sits our block, which is the residential units. You can get into the building for residential purposes at the corner on the right. And also you see this cove in the back on the left that comes from the parking area. So between those two areas, you can get anywhere into the building. And in the middle, there's a core that takes you up to the building. And another 3D view here. So it is a little bit higher than the buildings around it, but not substantially. And part of that is because we are introducing kind of a breakup of the massing with the historic commission and a very nice storefront window and openness on the front, trying to add a good retail feature and some texture to the streetscape along the high street. This is more or less the last commercial retail building along the whole high street strip in West Medford. I'll show you later, I have a shadow study, which I can show you. Right now, first, I just want to continue with the streetscape. This gives you an idea of how these look in two dimensions in relationship to each other. The upper one has a couple of buildings in each direction. Our building is right here. You know, there's quite a variety of buildings. If you go up and down the street, there are all kinds. But most of them, you know, meet with two to three stories, a few four stories. As a matter of fact, there's a surprisingly large number of four stories in the area. We just mapped them out on this. Most of them are clustered around the train station, but not all. And let's see what else. In terms of the layout, just to give you an idea, first with the cyclone, we did engage in a landscape architect. And what you're looking at here, the sort of blue barbell shape in the lower part of the page is the footprint of the building at the ground floor. And around it is a pool of water. have a driveway around it to the purpose of fire access, as well as that's our egress out back onto the street from the parking lot. In the parking lot itself, we made an effort to really enclose that with a landscape buffer in all directions facing our residential neighbors. So there's quite a few plantings, both on this right-hand side where we have about five feet, six feet of planting space. and then on the other we'll have more. We also have a bike storage area, which is enclosed also by landscape on the left-hand side here. And the usual way people come in if they park here would be to place their car in their parking spot and then walk into the building on the side of the cove that I mentioned before. So it seems to work pretty well. And when people will leave here, go right out through here and go right back out into the street. Street has good visibility in all directions. We have introduced a street tree that is not there now in the front. And if the city would like us to do more, we certainly could do that. But at this point, this is what we're proposing. And this does show somewhat lightly some of the other trees in the area that our neighbors have. In the end, the whole parking area I think will be pretty well landscaped and enclosed. Now, going on to the floor plans. So we have a small commercial space in the front, which is this dark blue area. That's about 785 square feet. To give you a sense of what that could be, would be like a small personal trainer or, you know, craft or retail sales type place, not suitable really for a high volume by pedestrian traffic kind of retail store. And in the back, as I mentioned, there is a two-bedroom, two-bath, and it has its own one bath each. And then finally on the fourth floor, as you can imagine, these are premium units. We have two bedrooms with two baths each, and they have substantial roof decks for their use as well. So these are quite nice premium units. Elevations and materials, we use a clapboard, as I mentioned, we have brick on the base, fiber cement, a metal panel or equal type system on the roof, home windows, along with casements and transoms throughout the building. Traditional kind of detailing. And then you'll see how that moves around the building. We actually are retaining some of the stained glass from the existing funeral home and inserting that in our stairway. And back in the building, again, You know, this has to withstand traffic in the light, so we have a brick base back there as well. And then finally, the side where the cove entry is, bookings and windows, you know, kind of an orderly pattern for those residences on that side. I showed you this earlier. And this, now I know some of you want to be concerned about lighting, So we have two primary lights around the building. We have building wall sconces that are dark sky compliant. And so those are mounted on the side of the building. They don't cast light out toward neighbors, only to the ground. And that's done intentionally. But we do need to light it so that people can get around the building safely. In the parking area itself, we have bollards. They're approximately three feet high, and they are also all down light. And they'll create pools of light around these parking spaces. So there's no large light canopy that's casting light into the yards. It's all kept underground intentionally. In the front, we have more substantial light to light that. arcade that we have in the front between the columns and the retail building. But that's appropriate for the street light. Now onto the shadow study. This is going to be a little hard to read, but I'm happy to send this to people if they want to look at it further. So the way we do the shadow studies is first we look at the impact of the existing building. What is the shadow that it creates? And then we look at what does the new building change, and those changes in shadow are done in the yellow. So to orient you, the building to the left, the three-story is over here, right there at that location. And then on the right is 417 High Street, the two-family. And then back here is 10 Park. So this first study is what you would see either in middle March or middle September when we have the equinox. So it's kind of a medium case scenario. In the morning, we do cast shadows out toward our parking lot and toward our commercial neighbors. A tiny bit goes into the backyard, I think the first residential building. Then by midday, that has completely rotated and is almost all And then in the late afternoon, three o'clock, or beginning of the late afternoon, where all the shadow is directed toward 417 High Street. So this would be a typical spring or fall situation. Now, there certainly is, it's impossible not to have some impact, but you know, I think the building but also because of the orientation where it sits on the street. Now in the summer, as you would expect with sun as high as it is, at those same times there's very very little shadow and almost all of it is on site except for a little bit early in the morning and late in the day. So that's pretty straightforward. In the winter, when you know so much is in shadow anyways, We do create a shadow early in the morning that heads out over the parking lot and then goes into the landscape in the back of some of the yards there. And then midday, we have the shadow rotates around. It does go into 10 Hammond's backyard. And then that will rotate around by 3 o'clock. It's almost all on 417. But there's also quite a bit of shadow everywhere at that time. So I think I've covered everything pretty well. Some of you may wonder where the building sits in relationship to the existing funeral home. So here is a survey which shows you the existing funeral home. So we're coming up much closer to that driveway on that side. And on this right-hand side, we actually, to the right, we are up against that as well. So, you know, we occupy between these two property lines. There is an easement on 417 for this driveway that allows us to get out to the street. That was when the lots were split, that's what the agreement was. This gives me a sense of the texture of the landscape, the landscape architecture. Selected a lot of native plants. which we have to think about these days. And so let's just say that is it. Thank you. Kathleen, I pass it back to you.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Yeah, do you want to, while Peter has his screen up, Peter, maybe you could go to the engineering pages.
[Jack Sullivan]: Yeah, sure.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Jack, do you just want to give an overview of the engineering on it?
[Jack Sullivan]: Yeah, yeah. Peter, if you don't mind going to sheet two, the proposed site plan. Yeah. So everyone, my name is Jack Sullivan. I'm owner of the Sullivan Engineering Group. I think Peter covered pretty well the site circulation, what we're looking to achieve. It's one way circulation around the building. And everyone knows we're basically utilizing how the previous use was utilized with parking to the rear. We have a total of eight conventional parking spaces at the back of the lot, six compact car spaces, and we're providing one handicap parking space which will be van accessible. The building will be serviced with a new domestic water line, and we'll also have a fire protection line servicing this building. We're looking to reutilize the existing sewer service. That'll be video inspected. As long as it's structurally sound, the size of it is sufficient to handle the retail use of the nine two-bedroom units. As far as drainage, we look to do a low impact low impact drainage analysis for this site. It's a redevelopment project. As such, we were looking to remove about 666 square feet of pavement. So there'll be almost a 7% reduction in impervious surfaces from what's existing today to what will be built. And also in removing the pavement areas off of the rear parking lot We're putting in a bioretention cell, which is basically a rain garden. It's a planted area. Stormwater can filter off the parking lot, go into that bioretention area, and then there'll be an overflow out into what presently is a stormwater basin. We did some investigation to the back left corner of this property. There's a drainage area there that consists of riprap stone. We dug down about five feet deep. That's all stone. I was out there during a heavy rain event. All the water is getting to that area now. There's good soils, but there is a high groundwater table. So we're looking to utilize that location and by removing some impervious surfaces, putting back grass, some crushed stone where the bike spaces are going to go in the bioretention cell. We're providing some treatment to any of the water coming off the parking lot before it gets to that storage basin. And you can see, yep, thank you, Peter. That's gonna be the bioretention cell. So really, that's just a shallow depression that's planted so that when water moves through, anything collected like sediment, any impurities can be filtered out through that area, and then before it moves off for final discharge to the basin. And as far as site grading, there's really no site grading changes. We're going to look to pulverize the parking lot, repave it and restripe it. There's existing curbing in place, so water that moves off is collected and channeled along that curbing, then moves towards our drainage area. So we'll have a net reduction of water moving off the site. And as I said, really no regrading, but just basically be a glorified repaving and restriping project. And that's about it from the civil side. I'll turn it back to Kathleen if there's any questions after I can try to answer them.
[Kathleen Desmond]: I now have a huge appreciation for Dennis McDougall and doing this there's a couple of people who are in the waiting room that just came in so let me admit them. I have received some questions on the chat and certainly people are more than welcome to, to ask their questions. you know, verbally. But with regard to the chat questions, the two questions I have, three questions I have, what percentage of footprint is occupied by the building? And I can answer that. The lot coverage is 29%. And I believe looking at the zoning, the existing Sincota building. was 28%, so it's clearly within the lot coverage requirements. The second question by Tom Lincoln was why are no solar panels on flat roof? This project is subject to the solar panel ordinance and an evaluation will be done. I believe that that's being calculated into what's gonna move forward and, you know, It will be, it will follow the process it's a building that that has to comply with the solar ordinance. And then the last question he had was, is this a lead building led. If not, why not, and how many. How many trees are being being cut down. And what is the distance to the nearest residents house in terms of the last question which is five, the distance. You've got a right of way on the right side of the building which is essentially 20 feet, and that that doesn't touch the house so you're more than you're probably 2122 feet away from the existing house on the. on the right. With respect to the house on the left, there's a 10 foot right away, which runs here, and that's 10 feet. So you're probably 11 or 12 away from this structure, which is office space. In terms of the residences, I think, Peter, what was the measure on this particular number 10?
[Adam Hurtubise]: So the red lines that you see are all 100 foot radius. radio. So most of the houses, you know, this our new building would be kind of in this location. So this is showing two L shaped structures in the parking area. That's what used to be there. I think it was a single family to at one point, those were torn down some years ago. But from this location right here, to any other residential structures, you know, we're probably just using this as a scale, this hundred foot right here. I can actually do that. Just give me a minute. So just to get a sense of the dimensions. From our new building to this neighbor at 417, that's going to be about 40 feet. From, we're about at this corner right back here to 10 Hammond. That's about 60, 60 feet at the closest corner to 14 Hammond. Over 100. And then in the other direction. And our building ends approximately right here. This is an outbuilding, so just go to the main building. This is showing 150 feet. And then at 9, more than 146 feet. So substantial distance. And then to address Mr. Lincoln's question as to whether this is an LED building. You know, we have, we have not. Pursue that, but you know, I would do the buildings all the time, gold, platinum, and others, and we also do passive house projects. This would easily qualify for LEED gold. I think it's really just a matter of paperwork and cost involved on the administrative side. But because it's a redevelopment site in an area that's transit rich, you know, it would actually
[Kathleen Desmond]: last question was how many trees are being cut down?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, hang on just a sec. Let me look at that landscape plan.
[Unidentified]: I don't think that's the record of it.
[Adam Hurtubise]: So I don't see any cut here. Usually it goes to them. All the trees that you see back there are actually off property. and I don't see any getting torn down, getting cut down. But I think everything stays. You know, I think, you know, we took the approach that there are some very nice trees back here that we wanted to supplement, but we're not doing anything that would jeopardize them. And, you know, I think we do kind of working with those existing trees So, you know, you can see that it's like an existing Norway maple that's right off site. That's actually considered invasive, but of course it's not on our property. And then, yeah, I know, a lot of people don't believe that.
[Unidentified]: And there's other trees, fruit trees and so forth. And I believe that- The answer is zero.
[Kathleen Desmond]: I believe that's what I have in the chat for questions. And I'm trying to navigate. So you folks can all unmute yourselves. I know Paul Spielman, I think, had some questions that he wanted to ask. And maybe if you just give me a note in the chat that you want to ask questions, and then we can just kind of do it that way.
[Adam Hurtubise]: While you're muting.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Yeah, Tom, you can. Okay.
[SPEAKER_06]: If he could undo his screen share maybe each other would be great. Although it might be that he wants to use the screen share to to answer some questions. Go ahead, let's see where it goes. I want to know if there was, you know, the views that we see from the front include the look of the building. The rear one was just a architectural drawing. Is there a picture of the rear of the building? Because that's what I would see from my house on Hammond Place. I'm the one that's number 14 Hammond Place.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we have rear elevations. We didn't do a 3D model.
[SPEAKER_06]: So you don't have a 3D model of the rear?
[Adam Hurtubise]: No.
[SPEAKER_06]: You showed a rear elevation already. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I could get that to you. I'd be happy to.
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, that's what I'm going to see. I'm pleased. I'm pleased with the lighting that you're talking about. I'm very displeased with the lighting that's on the back of the Armand glass building, which when the parking lot was originally proposed, we were promised by Sinkati that there wouldn't be additional lighting shining into our yards from the back of the Armand glass building. But that is a huge bright light right now. And that's a really polluting light. I realize that has nothing to do with your project, but that's something that I want the neighbors to hear that we're not happy with.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I just want you to know that we spent a lot of time working with a lighting consultant and have actually done calculations of all the foot candles on all the spots on the site. And we're very confident that we don't have any substantial off lighting on the other properties. And I think you'll be happy with the lighting scheme. And yet, if you're walking around the building, you'll feel safe because of the light on the ground, shining on the ground where it belongs.
[SPEAKER_06]: Tim seems to, what's the height and depth of, is that a lighting question, Tim? Height and depth of the street level arcade. Okay, well, let's get to that at another time. Um, how much higher you said it's not much, not much higher than the than the accompanying buildings, how much higher in the other company buildings are always peaked roofs. This is a block structure.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah. So, if you take it, you know if you take it at the lowest okay so you're, you're here you're looking at.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, that's that the placement of your cross your horizontal line. Yeah, is what the view kind of is above that is what's being diminished.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, now this fourth stories does step back. So, you know, this chorus line here be more dominant. And that's intentionally done. You can see that in the 3d view. a cornice line, similar to what, you know, the yellow building has. And, you know, almost all the buildings up and down the street, as you look, have some sort of cornice line along the second or third story. This is second here, second here. And then here, I mean, this is, couldn't get a plainer building, but basically it's three stories plus a very generic low slope roof.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, it seems like most of the other buildings, even the ones you pointed out as four story buildings, have a three story. Yeah. Inhabitants and then the rest is just a peak truth, except for that for that one box across the street.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, yeah. And I'm not gonna say that was our model. Good. We just, we don't want to commit the sins of the past but yeah, crown right at the top, but next to it, this old mansard, you know, has a real nice cornice in great shape. But basically, you know, this is kind of our model right here.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, it's a very ugly building, actually.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I know. But you can see that it had some nice bones at one point, you know, it's got a beautiful dormers up there. And these are actually arch windows. Of course, they've been taken out, but you can imagine what they during the century. And this whole bottom has just been filled in. So there's something to be done here at some point.
[SPEAKER_06]: Are there any affordable housing units coming?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Kathleen, you know the answer. I think there's one, right?
[Kathleen Desmond]: affordable housing units in this particular structure?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yes, please.
[Kathleen Desmond]: The requirement is, I don't believe that there is an affordable unit.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Oh yeah, because we don't cross the threshold.
[Kathleen Desmond]: The requirement is 10 units that affordable units are.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Okay. One thing I will say is that given the size of the units, I think they'll probably be a really attractive price point if they're for sale units. because they're not too large and not too small. Two bedrooms is a professional building with easy access to the team.
[SPEAKER_06]: The fence that now exists, a fairly new chain link fence in between 417, is that the property line currently? Does that mark where you're
[Adam Hurtubise]: That marks the easement line. So in other words, go back to this example. The property line is this area plus the back. And then there's a granted easement on the 417 property of 18 feet width.
[Kathleen Desmond]: When the property was conveyed, that easement area was reserved. to 421 High Street so that they can use that for all uses that are associated with parking and driveway and landscaping and buffer. And the only restriction is there's no temporary or permanent structure that can be placed on that easement area.
[SPEAKER_06]: So the chain link fence does mark the end of the easement? Yes. Okay. Yes. I'll give somebody else a chance, please.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Tom, do you wanna? You're unmuted, so. In my what? You're unmuted, so you can speak if you'd like.
[Tom Lincoln]: Yeah, I'm a little new to this. I live up the hill. I have to say, this building looks like every other new apartment building built in Bedford in the last five years. I like the brick. I think it's way too big. And it's got a flat roof because you're maximizing the number of units here. I think the units ought to be cut down to about six, in my opinion. I'm a little skeptical of the traffic with those narrow alleyways coming onto a very, very busy high street, which is already a kind of a death trap for pedestrians. Going there myself many, many times a week. I worry about what a building like this will look like in 50 years. I don't think I'll be here, but somebody else will be. And, you know, the brick will look fine, but I wonder about the other materials. You look at the apartments being built or have been built along the Malden River, Lumiere, over by the Wegmans, et cetera. They look okay now, but I don't know. I wonder about the aesthetics. This building kind of looks like it was dropped from the sky into West Medford in terms of scale. It may be permitted with our archaic zoning system here in Medford, but I don't think it really does much justice to the site. Another thing I was wondering about I'm certainly no expert on drainage, et cetera, but if you plan on improving the drainage, why aren't you using a pervious surface rather than just slabbing the parking lot with traditional asphalt?
[Adam Hurtubise]: We are, in fact, using pervious pavement. That's what all this kind of pinkish look is.
[Tom Lincoln]: So let me just ask this. My assumption is that this building has, it's none of my business, but my guess is this building has a tremendous return on investment. With nine units, given the fact the property was sold for a couple of million dollars, but half of it was already recovered, or maybe a little less than half with the sale of two family house, you know, it looks, It looks like a big leap to me here. I'm certainly in favor of additional housing, but I think this building is too big. You can show all the shadow studies you want, but psychologically, it looks really very large. It looks very different, looks very untraditional, and I don't know, it doesn't sit well with me.
[Kathleen Desmond]: I'm not sure in terms of questions I understand you know what your opinion is with respect to the building but with respect to the questions that you have as as to the building is it what why there's any pavement I mean the only area of pavement is the 24 foot access in and out of the driveway parking spaces. of the size of the building, it's within what's permitted in the zone. It certainly isn't anything more than what is. The units are a mix that provide both small units that people can afford and a few larger units. And it's also very close to rail, which I think mitigates. And the traffic study, when they did the traffic impact study, didn't take into account what what the rail being in close proximity would mean to the project and it still fit within the parameters. It was not something that was going to create an inordinate amount of traffic on on high street. It's a small variety commercial space. It's not something larger you're going to have. traffic in and out. And in fact, the traffic study found that it would be less traffic than you would have with a funeral home where it's residences and people are, it's basically overnight use. There aren't people going out on day trips. I think it was maybe four trips during peak hours that they anticipated coming in and out. Also with the driveway, it's a one-way drive. So you're not gonna have I'm a little reluctant, if you could hold on one second. I just, I have this view and I'm not sure. Is anyone familiar with an Okie's iPad? I'm not sure I want to allow that in. It popped up on my screen earlier and it's kind of late in the meeting to allow that in. Does anyone know anyone who would have that? tag, I'm kind of inclined not to admit. Just because I think it may be spam. But so, you know, I don't know what beyond that you have questions concerning, I understand what your, your position is on on on what you think of the look of the building.
[Adam Hurtubise]: And I will get those rear views out to the neighborhood the next day or two.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Steve Pompeo asked the question, how do vehicles behind 425, 427 High Street exit? And now will they now go behind the proposed building and out over the row of the two-family house yet? I'm not quite certain.
[Adam Hurtubise]: They have, I think, yeah, they have the use of this driveway in both directions.
[SPEAKER_06]: So they would violate the one way rule of that going in?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, the one way rule is imposed on the residents of this building, our building. not to exit that way, but to go around the building the other way. You can't make somebody else do that as well. I think it's relatively low use, but it's a good point.
[SPEAKER_06]: Can I ask another question? Currently, the people from Almond Glass use the parking lot a lot. They park their vehicles there. They do work there. They make a lot of noise there. Would they be restricted from this parking area 100%?
[Kathleen Desmond]: They're probably using it because no one's telling them they can't at this point, right?
[SPEAKER_06]: What I'm saying is I'd like somebody to tell them that when this project happens, I'd like somebody to be telling them that they cannot because they take advantage of us. They take significant advantage of us as residents. My property is diagonally touching the parking lot. And they're there at seven o'clock in the morning with loud voices out in the parking lot, foul language. It's really appalling the amount of noise we get from our Montglass people.
[Kathleen Desmond]: We can probably send out a notice sooner rather than later in that respect. because they don't have any legal right to use that parking lot.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, well, I would encourage you to please do that, please. You're the lawyer, right Kathleen? Please, I'll follow up with you. If you have your contact information, I'd love to have it. Sure, I can put it in the chat. That'd be great, thank you.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Does anyone else have any, at least it can be. The parking lot is zoned residential. Yes, it is zoned residential. And it will require zoning relief.
[SPEAKER_06]: Do we know who controls the lighting behind the Arlmont Glass building? Because that is significantly affecting our property.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't.
[SPEAKER_06]: There's a big bright light right in the middle of that building that illuminates the whole parking lot at this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have any knowledge as to.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, I don't either.
[IC6Elh6AwZY_SPEAKER_00]: Okay. I have a question. This is Tim Conant. Um, could you just tell me the height of the arcade and the depth from the sidewalk, uh, from the, from the front of the arcade to the, um, the entry doors on the arcade.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Okay. So from the front of the arcade to the storefront is the sum of one, six and three, four. So, uh, four, 10, almost five feet. Okay, and then the height of it.
[Unidentified]: 9-7.
[IC6Elh6AwZY_SPEAKER_00]: Are there any plans for planters or anything to sort of soften that arcade a little bit and make it a little more pedestrian friendly?
[Adam Hurtubise]: That's a good idea. We did not have that in the plan.
[Kathleen Desmond]: I thought there were some in the landscape plan.
[Unidentified]: Let me just check.
[Kathleen Desmond]: I might be mistaken, but I thought there were.
[Adam Hurtubise]: see seasonal planners.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Which can take a whole range of things.
[SPEAKER_06]: There's currently a plastic fence around the parking lot side and rear. That's my property. It's really a cheesy looking fence. Actually, a piece of it fell down for a while. It took a long time to get replaced. Is that fence going to be maintained or is it going to be a nicer fence?
[Adam Hurtubise]: I think that's something that could be, you know, we could work with our landscape architect on and try to come to some agreement. Right now, we call for it to be, to remain because I think it's unclear exactly on which property it is. You know, looking at that. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_06]: That impacts my property, particularly in that I'm the abutter all along the back side of the property.
[SPEAKER_06]: Let me just understand which one. I'm 14 Hammond Place. OK. Yeah.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah. You've got this big chunk right here.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Peter with respect to that initial question about was it was it this property in particular they were asking where the access was on the right of way or was it 17 because there's also a passageway here if that was the question I wasn't clear I'd ask the question and maybe I had the number wrong was he referring to 417 So there's a passageway. I don't know. Yeah. Whether they have access through that passageway as well, but they may.
[SPEAKER_06]: Who is this? Oh, this is for force for force or 25 for 27. For them to be passing on the left side of their building.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_06]: Is that what you're saying?
[Kathleen Desmond]: Yeah. I'll have to drive by and look at it.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, there's a fence there now, but they park their trucks in that space in between the two buildings.
[Kathleen Desmond]: I'm not sure the right way prohibits that, but I'll take a look.
[IC6Elh6AwZY_SPEAKER_00]: Peter, could you talk a bit about the materials on the exterior of the building?
[Adam Hurtubise]: So this would be a brick veneer with cast stone detailing. And then we have fiber-spread panels with some detailing on it, creating a place for sideboards or any retail space. The rest of the building has a variety of fiber cement clapboard, which is the substantial blue area. And then to the right at the corner and near the entry, we have a fiber cement paneling system. And then on the roof, we call for either a metal or similar type of aged look, you know, maybe with copper patina or something like that up on the fourth floor level. The windows themselves are double-hung, probably fiberglass with transoms. And there are a few locations where we use a casement window or awning. The windows down below are also storefront windows. They could also be fiberglass as well in this kind of sizing, but the entry itself would be aluminum.
[Unidentified]: Two entries. Those are the basic materials. Thank you. Yeah. I forgot to mention metal railing as well. Steel railing. Actually, probably aluminum.
[Kathleen Desmond]: One more question. Actually, Tom Lincoln had another question concerning the landscaping, and I think it's the building, how that will be maintained. Typically, there's requirements in the documents with the special permit that require that the association maintain those documents. I would anticipate that it would be a requirement. With respect to the building, I mean, they're gonna be owned by people who have an interest in maintaining them and there'll be an association and I would imagine that there would be a schedule of maintenance associated with that. And then Stephanie had a question and Stephanie, I'm not sure if you were here at the beginning of the meeting when I extended my apologies for of the mailing. I had mailed and stamped 100 letters to go out to abutters. I actually delivered them to the post office in Reading on December 31st in the morning. And today they were delivered back to my office with attempted not delivered, no forwarding address. I had my assistant go down to the post office today and ask, Why that happened, I think in retrospect, I probably would have been better off not mailing them on December 31st and not actually going down to the post office and handing them to someone because they ended up in the wrong bin. And apparently when they get sorted, they got sorted out and rejected. That's what he told me. He also indicated that we could rip the peel off of them, but as it was three hours, four hours before the meeting, there wasn't much that we could do in that regard. The letter was posted on the Medford calendar. And I know that robo calls went out as well. You know, my 30 years of practice that hasn't happened, but it happened. And there's not, you know, much I can do about it. I took every precaution to try and get them in the mail early. And I handed them off to the post office didn't throw them in a in a mailbox. So I apologize for that. With respect to the notice in concerning demolition, I believe the building department has a requirement that we notify Before demolition is a whole number of steps that have to be taken before commercial building is demolished so I'm, I'm certain that you will get notice of that it's not something that I do something that's required through the building department. and I may have one new message. In terms of variances that will be needed, currently I think Steve Pompeo has that question. You know, it may to some extent be determinative of where we are in the recodification of the zoning code. Currently we have 15 parking spaces, the requirement is 20, 18 associated with the residential units and two related to the commercial space. There is some request or some possible modification of how many parking spaces are gonna be required per dwelling unit. So that may change. Also, if the project is at the zoning board level after recodification, it may very well be that parking is not a variance request, it's a special permit request taking into certain factors, such as how close in proximity you are to public transportation, what you have in terms of public friendly uses, such as bike racks and things of that nature, commuter passes. So the parking may or may not be required, will probably require a special permit in any event. The front yard setback and the side yard setbacks are also required. Those areas don't include the easement areas. So as Peter showed you before, when he outlined what the lot was, those easement areas are not taken into account on the side yard. There is 10 feet on one side and I think 20 feet on the right hand side when the requirement being, I believe, 21 feet because of where the lot lines are, the side yard will need relief from side yard setbacks and also front yard setbacks. Open space is also another required variance and that is a function of what the requirements of open space are. I believe this project exceeds the landscape requirements, but open space requires that you have a 15 by 15 plot of land that you can call open. And it also is determinative of grade. So those are the main variances that we'll be looking for. There also may be a variance required on that back lot as to use this parking lot, but I've got to look at that a little more closely. I hope that answers your question.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, Paul. Will we as butters get notified of the hearings on those variances?
[Kathleen Desmond]: Yes. So the requirement is that when we get to the Zoning Board of Appeals, there's no requirement that notices go out on the Community Development Board hearing, but they are on the calendar. the city calendar as to when those meetings move forward. And I can certainly notify you if you send me an email as to when that hearing is going to take place. With regard to the zoning and the special permit hearing, that's a public hearing that requires notice. So all abutters within 400 feet will obtain notice of that hearing. And in addition to that, there's a requirement that a sign be placed in front of the property indicating the date, time, hearing, and what relief is being sought.
[SPEAKER_06]: And if I have further questions about that plastic fence and the border between my property and the parking lot, who would I address those questions to? You can address the questions to me. Peter indicated that the landscape architect would be taking that into consideration, but I'd like to get more than taking that into consideration as far as a response.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Sure. So if any of you want to direct To direct questions to me, I can take those questions and send them on to the team and get you responses to those questions.
[SPEAKER_06]: Kathleen, there's a difference between questions and assurances. I'd like to get assurances that the border between my property and the back of the parking lot is gonna be more attractive than it is now.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Well, any plans that we submit to the Community Development Board and anything that is ultimately determined by plans is set forth on the plans. And any variant special permit that's granted is subject to those plans that are submitted. So we can certainly have discussions about that and what works and what doesn't work and incorporate that within the plan. And then we're required to go by what the plans are.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I think what I was saying was, and this may be helpful, Paul, I think at some point it would be a good idea to meet with the landscape architect and the owner and just kind of walk the edges and talk about, you know, the impact landscape-wise and what, you know, making sure, you know, showing you how we're enhancing the landscape there. And this subject to this, you know, fence can come up at that time as well. That's appreciated. There'll be a right time for that. I don't think I'm going to get anybody out there in the middle of winter, in the middle of COVID. But we will keep that in mind. On most of the projects that we do, this happens as a matter of course. That's appreciated. Good fences make good neighbors, some poets said once.
[SPEAKER_06]: Do we have a time frame on this, Peter?
[Kathleen Desmond]: In terms of filing, we'll probably be filing within the month for the Community Development Board and Zoning Board of Appeals hearing. Once the filing occurs, there's then a 35-day period where the department heads weigh in from the city as to what their requirements are. Once that's met, and it really depends at that point on the Community Development Board schedule, when we meet, but it's probably a month and a half, 45 days from the filing. And then after the Community Development Board hearing, it then goes to the Zoning Board of Appeals. They're the special permit grantor in addition to providing the various variances that you needed. Depending on how many meetings the Community Development Board goes, generally those meetings can occur in the same month. Community Development Board has been meeting at the beginning of the month. And the ZBA meets on the last Thursday of the month, at least I should say at least that's how they've met. It's a new board going from a five member board from a three member board. So that may vary a little. Did I answer your question? Not really.
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, it's probably... Is it next summer? Is it next fall?
[Kathleen Desmond]: No, it's probably... Well, in terms of construction, that's different than hopefully the permitting process, three to four months. to get out of out of the zoning board hearings. If we're successful to get a decision, move the appeal period. And then from that point, you know, building plans have to be submitted, I would think, you know, probably year to 18 months is probably the, you know, if everything goes according to plan is probably where you'd end up with shovels in the ground.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Peter, someone had a question as to who the landscape designer is, and I started on it.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, it's Verdant out of Brooklyn, V-E-R-D-A-N-T.
[Kathleen Desmond]: And then, Steve, with regard to your question, as to the right, the common way right, we have to look at that. I don't believe so. I mean, there's some variances that, there is an entrance exit drive variance that's gonna be required based on the, it's 10 feet and 20 feet on one side, but whether that, you know, that will be something we'll have to look at a little more, I'll have to look at a little more closely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does anyone else have any other questions?
[IC6Elh6AwZY_SPEAKER_00]: I have one question. Will there be any parking for that retail location at the ground floor? Will they have one or two spots behind the building?
[Adam Hurtubise]: So the way we discussed this with the building official, you're allowed to make an accommodation for a small retail, up to one and two spaces, using the same spot that a residential would. So it's a manner of management that, you know, because we have quite a few normal residential spaces, probably not all of them will actually be used. And then, you know, the retail can use it during the day on assignment. So there is a possibility of providing some limited parking, especially for employees. But, you know, honestly, the people who would frequent this retail spot, for instance, if it were a personal trainer, would probably be parking on the street for 45 minutes and then moving on.
[Kathleen Desmond]: And that is something that's typically also vetted through the process, you know, with the Community Development Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals as to how they want to treat those spaces. But, you know, I think that will be certainly most of them will be dedicated to residential use. And there is some flexibility under the code, as Peter indicated, for shared spaces where one uses primarily overnight and one uses during the day.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Thank you, everybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is anyone else?
[Kathleen Desmond]: Are we all set, folks? Okay, I appreciate your attendance.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, really, really. And great questions. Appreciate that a lot.
[Kathleen Desmond]: If you have any questions that you want us to respond to, I put my email in the chat. So you can send me the questions and then I'll send them off to the appropriate party to provide you with an answer. And feel free to give me your email addresses as well if you want notice of things. Okay. Thanks. Have a good night folks. Stay warm. Take care. Thank you so much. Good night.