[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Good evening everyone, welcome to the October 24th meeting of the Medford Zoning Board of Appeals. Thank you for your patience and waiting for the start of the meeting. We are going to get started now. Dennis, if you could re-read the first case.
[Denis MacDougall]: 32 Jimpkins Road, case number A-2024-22, athlete and owner Kimberley and John Roper, I installed a garage at 32 Jenkins Road on the Woodside Road side of the property within the front yard setback, which is not allowed for the City of Mecklensdorf and Williams Chapter 94 Table B Table of Dimensional Requirements.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Thank you, Dennis. And do we have a representative for the applicant?
[Mike Caldera]: Amy, don't we have to take a roll call?
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Don't. Thank you. Sorry. My script is... Let's take a roll call of attendance. I appreciate the procedural. Mike Caldera?
[kCdGHg1OaMo_SPEAKER_21]: Present.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Jim Tarani?
[kCdGHg1OaMo_SPEAKER_21]: Present.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Mary Lee? Present. Christy Aveda?
[Chris D'Aveta]: Present.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: And Jamie Thompson, present. Thank you, Mike. And do we have a representative for the applicant?
[SPEAKER_03]: Hi, my name is Kimberly Rupert.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: So, do you have a anything you can go ahead and if you will present to the board.
[SPEAKER_03]: Sure. Dennis, were you able to show the slides for me? Sorry, the volume on my side is really low and I can't get it any higher. So hopefully you can hear me. Okay. Okay, great. So, so thank you. My name is Kimberly Rupert, my husband's also on the call here john Rupert, and we're at 32 Jenkins road. So I just want to say thank you to the board for all your time and expertise and reviewing our application and also being here tonight. So this first slide is a picture of our addition. It's on the left side of our house adjacent to Woodside Road. We are hoping it will be a garage on the first floor and then above the garage is a bedroom, bathroom, and laundry room. And then the work also includes backfilling our existing driveway, which is on the right side of the house, which I'll talk about in a little bit. Dennis, okay, you can go to the next slide there. The next slide just shows the rear views of what the proposed addition would look like. So the back on the left is the back is the backyard is the view from the backyard and on the right side there is the view from Woodside Road. I'm not sure if it's on the right side. So our proposed garage would be 16 feet wide to accommodate one car. And it provides a setback of 9 feet. So my husband and I are here tonight seeking a variance of 6 feet from the required 15 feet side yard setback on a corner lot. And if you can jump ahead, Dennis, to the plot plant, there's a simplified plot. So that just shows what variants we're looking for. So this is a simplified plot plan. If you click again, there'll be a little red circle that shows the addition that we're proposing. So it's 16 feet wide there and 24 feet long. And then the little red box there shows that the setback that the addition allows is nine feet when it should be, or what's required is 15 feet. And then I just wanted to point out on this line, I mean, I know you guys are probably used to looking at plot plot lines, but the lines are the property line. So there's like another almost eight and eight and a half, nine feet beyond our property line to the road. So there's like nine feet of grass there, which I understand, you know, is an easement. But I just want to point out how much space is on that piece of our property lot and kind of the only buildable space on our property. If you click forward to the next slide. So our hardship here is that our property is unique, and the strict adherence to the side yard setback will not allow us to fix our existing driveway and garage and expand our home. our lot is not only a corner lot with three 15 feet setbacks, but it's also a very different shape, size, and topography when compared to other corner lots in our neighborhood. Looking at other corner lots, there are these beautiful, nice rectangles with the house nicely centered in the middle of the lot. Ours is a reverse pie shape lot and our house, and so we have angled property lines. And our house is set back in that kind of like a slight angle, too. And additionally, you can go to the next slide. Additionally, the topography of our existing driveway plays into this. It's also unique. And it's what we're aiming to fix by filling it in and building a new garage. So our driveway on the other side of the house, on the right hand side of the house, is this very steep slope. directly into our garage that's under our first floor of the house. So when it rains, the water just flows right into our garage. We have installed a trench drain and a sump pump, but unfortunately it doesn't keep all the water out and it still fails occasionally. So what this means is that we can't really use our garage for cars and storage because of the water damage, mold and rust. And also in the winter, it's just a complete sheet of ice because the house blocks the sun. It's unsafe, I've fallen a few times, and just everything about this driveway is stressful. If you click to the next slide, we just have a couple pictures of the driveway. This just shows it. The height of this wall right by the garage door is a little over six feet. I don't know if it's hard to tell how much of a slope of it is, but when it rains, the water is definitely a river that goes right into our garage. Right at the bottom there, you can see the trench drain, and then that picture on the right is the sump pump that we installed. And if you go to the next picture. Unfortunately, I, you know I haven't taken a lot of pictures when we've had flooding so this, this is an old one before we installed the trench train in some pump. but it has looked like this since then. It just shows that the water comes in and it also shows just how gross it is because all the dirt and everything comes with it. It's a mess. Go to the next slide. These next pictures, demonstrate how our proposal does not nullify the intent and purposes of the 15 foot setback on a corner lot. So the positioning of our house on our lot does leave a lot of space to the intersection. there's almost 38 feet from where our proposed addition would be to that intersection of Judkins and Woodside Road. So this means that our addition, you know, shouldn't or will not interfere with visibility for drivers and pedestrians at that intersection. And then the bottom picture just shows from our backyard neighbors right like in our backyard there that the addition wouldn't interfere with them pulling out of their driveway either because the addition would be within our fenced area and still leave that visibility to the road. And next slide. And I just wanted to make a few more points to why the relief, we're seeking does not create substantial detriment to the public good. So our proposed addition is reasonable size for a one car garage. It also leaves one and a half feet from the side yard requirements of all non corner lots in our neighborhood. We were also very thoughtful in designing the addition, you know, to preserve the character of our home in the neighborhood. We mimicked the gambrel roof and then we're maintaining the wood painted shingles on it. And then, you know, we also rarely park our car in our driveway because it's such a nightmare. So our new flat driveway will allow us to keep our cars off Jenkin Road, and just kind of create more space there for our neighbors and anybody who's coming through. Um, and then one more slide. And lastly, um, I actually reviewed the Medford's comprehensive plan because it was part of the application process. Um, and so although, you know, I do realize it's more for, you know, big picture citywide planning, um, I did see that our proposal is compatible with the plan's goal to preserve the character of Medford's neighborhoods. And it also aligns with the goal to adopt flood resilience and is actually a direct example of the plan's acknowledgement that flexibility with zoning ordinances will be needed to address flooding issues. And that's actually all I have. And thank you. We hope that you'll grant us the relief we're seeking. I'm happy to answer any questions.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Thank you very much, Kimberly. I'm just going to go to the board first. Do any of the board members have questions for the applicant? Mike, go ahead.
[Mike Caldera]: Yeah, you mentioned something about not owning a portion of the property and an easement. So you said it sounded like it was longer than nine foot and I'm looking at the different plans and I just want to make sure I understood that correctly because I don't see the delineation between your property line and the part you were referring to.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, in that that plot line is just our property lines. And, you know, I actually don't know what the actual city easement is for every property but there's always like a piece of land that is between the street and where our property line starts. At least that's my understanding. The plot shows our direct property lines. If we go back to the pictures, our fence is a little short of our property line. I was just pointing out that there's, like I said, eight to nine feet of grass beyond our fence.
[Mike Caldera]: Okay, that makes sense. Do you own the property in the city just has an easement so you can't use all of it or does this city on the property, I'm looking in the assessor's database and I don't like it looks like it goes all the way to the line I don't know if Scott, you know, I don't know if somebody else has knowledge there.
[Scott Vandewalle]: Hi, Scott, Building Commissioner. I think what she's talking about is what is known as the roadway. The roadway that the city has is the asphalt plus the sidewalk and all that. It's not really an easement. It's the roadway that her property butts up to. It just happens to be more than what you see as the asphalt. It's all of those parts and pieces together. It's not really an easement. It's just road versus property. Yeah, maybe we're using the wrong term there.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, sorry. Well, we don't have sidewalks through our neighborhood. So I'm guessing that's what that part of that grass. It could be a sidewalk.
[Mike Caldera]: Yeah, yeah. No public participation right now. So but so yeah, that was my what I was trying to figure out. Is it nine foot of grass or is it nine plus nine? Okay, so it's
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, nine feet of it's I did measure. I don't want to say I think it was. I'll say it's 8 1⁄2 just to be a little less, but it's 8 1⁄2 feet from the edge of the road to our fence. Got it and then. In within our fence will be another. 9 feet. Hopefully I'm saying all this right 9 feet till our to where our addition will start.
[Mike Caldera]: OK, thanks.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Kimberly. Danielle, go ahead.
[Danielle Evans]: Thank you, Chair. I'm Danielle Evans, senior planner. I'm just going to add that I believe this is a private way. So generally, it's the property owner owns to the central line. So there's no city ownership of the road itself. Thank you.
[Mike Caldera]: I don't want to belabor it, but it. It still seems like I'm getting mixed information. Is it. Effectively 18 foot of grass or is it 18 foot to the center line?
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, if you want, you can bring up the simplified plot.
[Mike Caldera]: Yeah, I mean, which could be wrong as it was nine foot to the point nine foot to the property line.
[SPEAKER_03]: Which is basically where our current fences. And then beyond our fence, there's an additional nine feet of grass, but it's my understanding that is beyond our property line. So the setback measurement is from the property line, not the edge of the road.
[Mike Caldera]: Yeah, I just don't see it reflected in the assessor's database or anything like that. It looks like the plot goes all the way to the road.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I agree. It looks like that everywhere. This is a simplified version of a much more complicated plot plan that our surveyor, I mean, we had a surveyor come out and do the whole survey and this was the end result. That's actually why we thought we had a lot more space. We didn't think we would be, you know, dealing with any variants or whatever, but okay.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Thank you. So I see where you're going with it. Mike is if they're. If the property line property does go to that point, then they would have, they'd be within the setback.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah.
[Denis MacDougall]: uh, I guess my question reminds me of, sorry, I'm sorry, Scott. This was, remember we had the property at Century, which they wanted to put the porch in the front, but because if we counted where the street met the grass, they had enough room, but because it was a private way, it sort of pushes it back like three or four feet from where it really is. So it's sort of the, I think it's kind of along those lines. I think I'm getting it right.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Yeah, because it was a private way to push back from the center line. Building Commissioner, if you can add something.
[Scott Vandewalle]: Yeah, this is a common misunderstanding with ways, whether it's a public way by the city or it's a private way. Your property line is not always where the asphalt stops or starts. And in this case, that is what it is. They do on the right to the fee in the road to the center of the road. But they can't use it because it's technically off their property. They can't use it to build a pond. They have to maintain the right to re-pass and re-pass to all the butters on both sides. So it's a complicated thing, but yes, there's an additional nine feet of grass that belongs to her partially, but she can't use it for purposes of constructing. Thank you.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Thank you, Commissioner. Mike, does that cover where you were trying to clarify?
[Mike Caldera]: Yes.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Yeah. Perfect. Any other questions from the board? Chris, go ahead.
[Chris D'Aveta]: Mr. chair. Yeah, just through you. I'm just looking at Google maps and I'm. This is just a clarifying question sort of. does the fence that you have reflect your property line or is it sort of before?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's just right inside of our property line. So I think, I don't know exactly how many inches or if it's a full foot, but if you look on our more detailed plot plan, you can see that our fence is just inside of our property line.
[Chris D'Aveta]: Thank you, I just was curious, thank you.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Thanks, Chris, thank you. Any other questions from the board? Okay, we will go to public comment. If anybody from the public wants to comment on this case, please raise your hand on Zoom. Or you can email Dennis. Dennis, if you would, put your email address in the chat. Thank you, Dennis.
[Denis MacDougall]: Jim, while we're waiting for that, I mean, I did send this to the board, but we did receive four letters in support of this from neighboring butters to this property.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Yep. Thank you. The board has received. Yep. And those are in the folder as well.
[Denis MacDougall]: Correct. Those are on in the public record.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: But I understand that we did not receive any letters against correct. Correct.
[Mike Caldera]: And as I saw the I don't know, maybe I missed one. Is there?
[Denis MacDougall]: report said one today. Earlier earlier today, we got 3 of them and I sent another one that came in today.
[Mike Caldera]: I don't think it's in the folder yet.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: I don't see any hands raised on zoom.
[Denis MacDougall]: Dennis of you know, raising.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: And I'm not seeing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you folks hear me. I go ahead. I can't hear me. I'm not sure.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Yeah, we can hear you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just want to say I'm totally in support of Kim, John, Jack and Charlie. I've been a resident of method for 42 years. You couldn't ask for better residents. Um, so whatever the board can do, we certainly want to keep people, families of their nature in method. I know we're losing people here and there, so I totally support it. The neighbors totally support her and her family. And, uh, we certainly want to keep these people in method.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Thank you, Robert. If you could just get your name and address for the record.
[SPEAKER_01]: My name is Robert Mello. I live at Robert Mello and Paula Mello at 40 Judkins Road, right beside Kim and John, directly beside them. Yeah, 40 Judkins Road.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Thank you very much. Dennis, do you see anybody else? I don't see anybody else with a hand raised.
[Denis MacDougall]: I do not. And yeah, apologies. I didn't copy that 1 letter and now it's up on the. Google drive, so right?
[SPEAKER_01]: We did send a letter of support for Kim and John.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Thank you. Do we have a motion to close public comment and go to deliberation? 2nd, 2nd. Thank you, Mary. Mike. Hi, Mary. Hi, Chris. Aye. Jim. Aye. And Jamie, aye. I am just going to pause that because I do see we have somebody trying to raise their hand. Tim, if you want to go ahead and speak. Can you guys hear me okay? Very faintly. Okay. Just another thing. I also, I live across the street from John and Kim and I totally support the building of the house.
[kCdGHg1OaMo_SPEAKER_21]: for great residents, great people, and we have absolutely no issue with them, including the addition on the house.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: So, thumbs up from myself, Tim, and my wife, Michelle, at 43 Jenkins Road. Thank you very much, Tim, I appreciate it. Thank you. All right, for board deliberation, I will open it up for the board. Would like to start. I can take the 1st comment on this 1. so obviously, we do have a corner lot at the end of a row. Um, the. Is no budding neighbor on the side that where the addition is looking to go. From the condition of the lot, obviously, this is a variance. So we are looking specifically at soil condition, shape, topography of the land, and where a little enforcement of the provisions of the ordinance or bylaw. Apologies, my light just went off. Sorry. would affect the owner's ability to build. And that desirable relief may be granted without substantial detriment to the public good and without nullifying or substantially derogating from the intent of the law. With the space on the property line of nine feet and obviously the public space to the road of additional nine feet, I don't see difficulty with the addition, especially considering the position of the home on the lot and their opportunity to develop on the other side where the driveway currently exists. Mike, go ahead.
[Mike Caldera]: Yeah, I tend to agree with you, Jamie. The lot's clearly an unusual shape and topography, and the position of the current house limits the possible locations for an above Um, it looks like there is no sidewalk in this case, and so, you know. I don't know for sure, but I would presume there aren't. Current plans to add one, and so, you know, unlike that other case, Dennis, you were referring to, it seems like the effective setback is. More than 15 ft anyway, and so, um. So yeah, you know, it would have been nice to get an explicit confirmation one way or the other from the neighbor on Woodside, but I think it's, um, you know, the design is, um, it fits the neighborhood and, um, it, it's set back enough from the street. So, and the lot is certainly unusual and the, the water damage, uh, is a, is a hardship. So I think it meets the variance criteria.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Thank you, Mike. Anyone else from the board?
[kCdGHg1OaMo_SPEAKER_21]: I'm also in a agreement with that as well. Everything Mike just mentioned, I feel the same.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Thank you, Jim. You're welcome. Mary or Chris, do you guys have anything that you'd like to add?
[Mary Lee]: Um, I'm, I'm in agreement with what everybody has said so far, and particularly in light of the slope, the topography of of that garage, and I do believe that it will be in the best interest of safe for safety. For granting that variance.
[Chris D'Aveta]: Thank you. Yeah, I would also say as long as the neighbors are happy with it, I think this is one of those projects where it mostly hinges on the neighbors. And because houses are different types as you go around that neighborhood, so it's not unusual to have such an arrangement. So yeah, as long as the neighbors are happy, I don't see a problem with it.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Thank you, Chris. The board awaits a motion on the variance for 32 Judkins Road.
[Mike Caldera]: I motion to approve the variance for 32 Judkins Road. I'll second.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Thank you. I just want to thank you. All right. Roll call. Mike. Thank you. Jim Tarani.
[kCdGHg1OaMo_SPEAKER_21]: Aye. Aye. Aye.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[Mary Lee]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[Denis MacDougall]: If so, I'm going to write the decision and then when it's done, it'll get signed and then filed in the clerk's office. And then that starts a 20 days appeals period. And then once that appeals period is done, then you can get your building permit.
[SPEAKER_03]: Great. Thank you so much, everyone.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good luck.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you. Really appreciate it. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Board. Appreciate it.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Okay, Dennis, if you would read the next case.
[Denis MacDougall]: 4,000 Mystic Valley Parkway, case number 40D-2022-01. MVP Mystic LLC is making a request that the board determine that certain proposed changes to multifamily eight-story apartment development consisting of two buildings located in approximately three acres of land at 4,000 Mystic Valley Parkway, property ID 7-02-10 are insubstantial changes pursuant to 760 code of Massachusetts regulations 36.0511 of the regulations governing comprehensive permits issued under Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 40B. There are no proposed changes to the number of units, parking spaces, bike parking spaces, or building rights.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Thank you, Dennis. Do we have a representative for the applicant?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes. Good evening, Mr. Chair and members of the board. Tim Alexander from Mill Creek Residential. Good evening, Mr. Alexander. Nice to see you all again, and appreciate the opportunity. I also have with me members of our design team and consultant team, and you'll hopefully, those of you who've been on the board will remember Chris and Louise from Goulston and Storrs, our legal counsel, and then our team from TAT, the architect Andrew Stebbins and Matt Duggan are here. Tony Donato is our civil engineer from Hancock Associates. And Rob Adams is on as well as our landscape architect from Albertson. So the same team that has been working on the project now for a few years. Mister chair I I know with a couple of new members it you let me know it will be helpful to provide some background on the project in general. If that help I'm happy to do that otherwise I do have a few slide to sort of help describe and maybe put some imagery to the refinement that we're showing in the plan that sort of make up this is a special change request.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Sure you want to do a quick overview and then move into the specific changes that we appropriate.
[SPEAKER_05]: Great so just for the new members of the board and I know the building commissioner as well is new since our hearing process that was I remember correctly started in October of 2022 and concluded in June or July of 2023. So this is 4000 Mystic Valley Parkway a residential multi-family community that was approved under the, as Dennis stated, the Chapter 40B laws. It's the corner of Mystic Valley Parkway and Commercial Street, just north of McDonald Park, and hopefully folks are familiar with that location, just directly to the west of the Cambridge County Courthouse. And as I mentioned, we went through a process with this board that concluded just over a year ago that approved the 40B permit. The project consists of two buildings that are eight stories each, a total of 350 residential units, obviously parking on-site, on-site leasing and amenities. And so that was all, obviously, reviewed and peer reviewed during the process in late 22 into mid 23. And since that time, we have We're pleased to say now we've been able to advance our drawings, right? So get more detail into our drawings that eventually become the construction drawings. And as part of that process, certain refinements come to light, certain small changes are made. And so that's what has predicated this in what's known in 40B as an insubstantial change submission. So I have, if you don't mind me sharing, I have a couple,
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: You should have co-host options. Please go ahead.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yep. I think I do.
[Denis MacDougall]: Sure.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: And we are seeing your slides.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay. Excellent. Um, so I'll provide, uh, we submitted to the board, I think it was on the 14th of, of, um, October, a letter and a revised set of plans, architecture, civil, and a landscape rendered plan as well, outlining these refinements. But happy to provide just on a few slides, I think eight or 10 slides, just the quick summary of the changes. And as Dennis read into the introduction, these plan refinements are really related to the advancement of our construction drawings. Um, as we, as we went from the permit set, if you will, into what's known as schematic design and design development. Uh, we noticed there are some opportunities for it really improvement and refinement to the plans. They're generally related to. efficiency of design and construction, and I think more clearly, efficiency and a betterment for the resident experience, the operational experience, and I'll talk about a few of those things in a minute. Just to be very clear, the refinements don't alter any of the major program or categories that are already approved. Of course, still 350 residential units, The unit mix, meaning the, the mix between 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, 3 bedroom and studio units remains. remarkably the same. We have the identical parking count as we've had. The commercial space of 2,000 square feet remains the same. The building programming and spacing is really substantially the same as well. And I also wanted to note that, you know, one of the things we looked at in some detail with the board in 2022 and 23 was the corner plaza on the corner to show that in our in a couple of slides here. So jumping in, this is just a quick overview that shows in red the foot building footprints from the comprehensive permit or the permit that was issued a little over a year ago. And then underlying that all the black is what's proposed in the current scheme. And this is helpful just to show, you know, a couple of tweaks and ins and outs, right? One here where the leasing, or I'm sorry, the building lobby may jut out a little bit further than previous, but in other areas, you know, the building is pulled back a little bit from where it was previously. So this is just a general overview to sort of underpin again that these changes are really minor pushes and pulls. Oops. Yeah, so getting into a little bit more granular detail and hopefully these are again, I think will will prove to be improvements to the plan both for for resident experience and our operational experience. But 1 of the things we wanted to point out is a is a change in a relocation of the bike storage rooms. This is something that had a lot of discussion. I know many of you will recall adequate bike storage, adequate placement for bike storage. And so it's something that we, as we continue to progress the plans. started to look at in greater detail, and we're able to find a way to move bike storage from interior of the garage, where it was on two levels, the first level and the second level of the garage, and move that outboard to have an exterior access along the center drive aisle between the two buildings. So that's what's shown on the right. Obviously, the approved plans on the left and the proposed plans on the right of the screen. The good news is not only are the bike rooms now accessible directly to the exterior, but we're also able to fit 15 or 18 more bikes, we believe, in this configuration. So that was submitted, and there was actually a sheet in the architectural set with some blowups on these and detailed drawings of these bike rooms. But I wanted to point that out as what we see is really an improvement to the plan. Another couple, similarly, we had trash rooms for the residents and the retail space that were in board in the garage. And something we have now are accomplishing here is the ability to move the trash rooms to the exterior, have an exterior access. And in this case, a trash room that is more proximate to the retail space as well. So again, operational efficiency, you know, trash is picked up sometimes two, three times a week. Want to make sure we talked about during our hearing process, I recall, you know, how does that trash get from the corner of the garage and then to the outside of the building so it can be picked up? Well, now we've got a direct door that goes directly from the trash room out to, out easily stop and pick it up. So this is showing the trash in the southern building. The next slide is the same thing in the northern building where it was previously in an inside corner, and now we've moved it out to an exterior corner, which is actually good that it's along also this long lay-by access area that we all created during the first review and hearing process. couple more to point out. I mentioned retail. Retail is the same size, roughly 2,000 or just actually exactly 2,000 square feet. In the previous plan, it was pulled off of the corner and there was some back of house on the building corner here. The move to the trash room meant that we could also push the retail all the way to the corner of the building. Which we feel is the right thing to do operationally to have it directly adjacent to trash, but also it activates this corner of the building. So this is the Southeast corner of the building. If you go further plan north, that's where the, the courthouse is and. Driving east to west on Misty Valley Parkway is actually a very prominent corner on the site, gets lots of eyeballs, and so we feel like this is the best way to set up a future commercial retail tenant with both eyeballs, signage, and visibility. A couple more. This is showing the two building lobbies, really the resident lobbies that are facing each other along the center access drive. Prior, they were quite small, really just a quick entry and then obviously access to elevators. What we've tried to do in looking at it again is expand those resident entries in the lobbies and make sure we had adequate space, not only for daily, for mail and, you know, mailboxes for the residents, but also package room, which of course in a multifamily community is always at a, space is at a premium and packages are obviously much more, are a big part of daily life. And so we wanted to make sure that these lobbies can accommodate those kind of daily needs for our residents. And it's also helped us to better delineate a lobby space from actual residential units. So you can see, if you can see my cursor, this lobby in the southern building was really directly adjacent to a residential unit. This A denotes a one-bedroom unit. And we've been able, you can see on the right, to now have a lobby space within a corridor with a door there before you get to the actual residential space. A couple more quick things and I'll wrap up. The changes to in a couple of different locations, but this is a good example of it. In the prior plan, we had some shallow unit depths, shallower than we would normally want to do. And we're able to just slightly adjust the footprint of the parking within the building to allow for full depth residential units here. And then of course, the trash and the bike rooms that I had mentioned before. And so what that meant for the rest of the plan is just some slight shuffling and adjustment of where the residential units then fall within the building, especially on the ground floor. And that's sort of what's shown here in this red box, you know, slight change to the footprint and how the units are configured on the very northern edge of the building. So this is right up against that abutting sort of driveway. And then further north is the wetland area. Lastly, a couple things on amenities that are further up in the building. You'll recall our courtyards on the fourth level of the building have amenity spaces that are adjoining them within the building. Prior, they are shown in a corner here and in a rectangle here. Those are single height spaces, obviously valuable space and wanting to engage and activate those courtyards. And so a couple of things we looked at is one is making these actually double height space. So this space in the red boxes below are actually not just on the fourth floor, but they also encompass space on the fifth floor as well. So we're able to have really meaningful space there and good visibility in and out of the courtyard. And we also just shifted the one in the southern building to be that much closer to the elevator core, so we didn't have to go buy a residential unit in order to get to the amenities. So just, again, small things, but things that we felt were going to be beneficial to the daily life of our residents, and hopefully the daily life of, you know, everything, all the servicing and operational needs of the building as well. So no changes to the courtyard, no changes to the fact that we've got storage space adjoining those courtyards. That was all the things we talked about during our initial hearings. And the last one is going up to the roof. We have a rooftop amenity that we showed previously on the Southeastern corner of the building, if you will. So this is Mystic Valley Parkway looking south over the park and with views of the Boston skyline eventually. One of the things, and this is, again, just to really try to maximize the resident experience, shifting that further to the west, so in the southwest corner, allows, you know, really a direct access from the elevators down to that rooftop amenity or the top-level amenity, if you will. So same size, shape generally, but just transportation of the elevators. So, I'll leave it there. Again, these are, that's, there was, I think, a little bit more detail, obviously, in our letter, but wanted to make sure we could sort of generally explain these types of changes, and A, why we think they're beneficial to the project, and B, of course, why, you know, they're seen under Chapter 40B as insubstantial. So, I'll end there, and Mr. Chair, happy to take any questions, and of course, our team is here, too, if there are any specifics.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Thank you very much. Mr. Alexander. Um, so I just want to check with Dennis, uh, the board real quick. We don't need to go to public comment for this. Correct. This is a review of the existing project for an insubstantial versus substantial change by the board only. Correct.
[Denis MacDougall]: That seems to be my interpretation.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Mike, go ahead.
[Mike Caldera]: Yeah, Jamie, whether or not we're required to, I don't see the harm in checking, as long as the comment is focused on what the board's actually deciding here, which is whether it's a substantial change, yeah.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Okay. So first, we'll go through the standard process. Go to the board for questions to the applicant. I might go ahead.
[Mike Caldera]: Yeah, not a question, just a comment. Thank you for the update on the project. Glad to see it's advancing. I think all of the changes described seem very reasonable. And yeah, I mean, when the board deliberates, I guess we'll talk about insubstantial. But yeah, just in general, I think these are good changes that make the project more functional.
[SPEAKER_05]: Great, thank you.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Thank you Mike. Any other questions from the board or comments?
[Mary Lee]: Does the proposed plan alter any way the exterior of the previous proposal? Or do they remain the same?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, thank you for the question. And I'm sorry, I should have mentioned that before the know. So, the, the exterior of the buildings and the design language, and many of the things that were adjusted as part of that. year remain the same so the elevations are also provided in the architectural plan set and I think you know this is where there you know are there slight adjustments to where balconies are located on the facade there's there are but the design language and the ins and outs and the materiality and even the colors that we proposed are maintained in this but also I think there are a couple of renderings on the cover page of the of the architectural plan set and that's probably the most helpful to see.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Thank you. Any other comments from the board? Okay, just for scope and for understanding, since we are doing public comment, I do want to just read the section of the code that does apply to this. It's 760 CMR 5607, section four, substantial changes to the project. I'm just going to read the examples that are considered substantial, just for reference. So substantial changes, for examples, would be something along the lines of an increase of more than 10% in the height of the building. an increase of more than 10% in the number of units proposed, a reduction of the size of the site of more than 10% and a decrease in the number of units proposed in that same scale, a change in the building, garden apartment styles versus townhouse versus high-rise, or a change of one form of housing tenure or another. So again, in a 40B state market and with 25% affordable, there's no change to that scope. Just so you're for an understanding of what we're looking at from the scale and impact perspective. So we'll open it up for public comment. If anybody from the public would like to make a comment, please raise your hand on Zoom, or you can send an email.
[Denis MacDougall]: I apologize, Chris, go ahead.
[Chris D'Aveta]: I did, Mr. Chair, have a question just on the first proposed project change to the north building where it talks about the trash rooms have been relocated from interior corners within the garage of each building to exterior facing areas in the building. Is there any more detail on that? Do you have a, you know, is there any Any rendering that shows a little bit of that or an elevation?
[SPEAKER_05]: Thanks for the question. Let me reshare my screen real quick. That'd be helpful. There. So to answer your question, is your question like, how does this generally opt? So this is the southern building. I can move to the northern building. It might be helpful. So here's the northern building, where trash was in the northwest interior corner of the garage. And it's been moved to the southeast corner of the building. There are yet when there are elevations provided within the architectural plan set that show how this, you know, kind of looks and feels from the exterior. Generally speaking, the way these work within the building is there's a trash chute or a trash room on each floor, you know, door access, and then you go in and there's a chute, and then the trash, you know, drops down into our collection bins within this trash room. And then the double doors are there, so those bins can be rolled out on the, you know, morning of a trash pickup or, you know, the defined time of a trash pickup. So I'm not sure if that answers your question, and why we located it where we did.
[Chris D'Aveta]: Yeah, thank you. It does. I'm curious as to how the collection would occur and whether or not that's visible. But in fact, I guess it's, in a way, looking at the proposed change, possibly less visible to the street side than the permanent way of last year. Yeah. So you know what I'm saying? You know, what is the exterior of this, uh, appear to the passerby or, you know, someone that, um, everyone has to crash at the back usually.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. Sorry. So it's for the vast majority of time, it appears as a double doors, um, out to this access drive. And then, like I said, whether it's twice or three times a week, you know, at a defined time, the bins can be rolled out through these doors, picked up, and then the bins are rolled right back in. So that's generally how, you know, a multifamily sort of trash collection works. And quite frankly, one of the things that we had some discussion on during the original hearings was the fact that having trash inboard to the building would have to roll out through the vehicular entrance and then back, you know, somewhere off to the sidewalk here. And it's probably going to be more impactful to the daily life of residents and, you know, more work for operations staff and possibly more work for the trash pickup folks too. So that was kind of the reasoning behind, all right, let's get this outboard where, you know, it's not any more visible on a daily basis and it's actually just easier.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Thank you, Chris. Thank you, Mr. Alexander. So we will open a public comment. And then from public, if you could raise your hand on Zoom, provide your name and address for the record, or email Dennis. His email is on the chat. Again, dmcdougall.medford-ma.gov. And Dennis, we haven't received any communications from the public prior to the meeting, correct?
[Denis MacDougall]: That is correct.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: I don't see any hands raised on Zoom. Do you have anything in email?
[Denis MacDougall]: No, I do not. Thank you.
[Mike Caldera]: I'll just close the public portion and enter deliberation.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Do we have a second? Second. Thank you, Jim. Mike? Aye. Jim? Aye. Chris? Aye. Mary?
[Mary Lee]: Aye.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: And Jamie, aye. Okay, we are in deliberation. Again, I reviewed what is considered substantial. Obviously, 10% change to the building in height, size, increase in units, reduction in units, or a change in form or type of housing. Again, conversion from what we see here in garden style to townhomes or such. Go ahead, Mike.
[Mike Caldera]: Yeah, so I don't see any changes here that trigger the technical requirements that would be a substantial change. And like I said earlier, I think the changes make the project better. So I would be comfortable for the board to find that these are insubstantial changes.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Thank you, Mike. Uh, 1 thing I do want to add, we did not have, uh, we did get, uh, a review with our, uh, legal, uh, KP law as well as our 40B consultant, uh, Judy Barrett and both of those organizations, uh, did agree that there was no substantial changes documented in the request. Uh, any other deliberation from the board? Chair awaits a motion on the consideration of substantial versus insubstantial changes for 4,000 Mystic Valley Parkway.
[Mike Caldera]: I motion to find these changes to the plans for 4,000 Mystic Valley Parkway to be insubstantial.
[kCdGHg1OaMo_SPEAKER_21]: I'll second that.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Thank you. Jim? Aye. Chris?
[Mary Lee]: Aye.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Mary? Hi, Mike. Hi, and Jamie. Hi. Thank you everybody for your time. We have the decision finding here is that the changes are in substantial. Um, do we for this? We need a decision on that as well written up.
[Mike Caldera]: David, you can check with the lawyers, but I think the recommendation is yes. It's not like a full decision, but it would be a, oh, go ahead. It looks like Attorney Grenier might have some feedback.
[B3oaa8YVtBA_SPEAKER_16]: Go ahead. Thank you very much. Thank you, member and Mr. Chair. Yes, typically this is documented in a simple letter where the board acknowledges, sorry, the insubstantial change, references the plans that were submitted with our letter. It's a one and a half pager, typically, and I'm happy to coordinate with you, Dennis. We've got examples of this. I'm sure Amy Quessel would have examples as well, but typically this is documented in a simple letter.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Excellent. Thank you very much. It'd be great.
[Denis MacDougall]: Yes, please. Well, the heads up Chris, I am actually out of the office tomorrow. We'll be back in on Monday.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Okay. Um, we do not have any cases on the additional cases on the agenda. Do we have any administrative updates? Dennis?
[Denis MacDougall]: I'm going to be straight up nothing to speak of right now. You have a couple of violence for next month. We should actually we're doing this. Discuss the date for the next meeting. The next meeting in November would be Thanksgiving. So, again, we sort of mentioned it last. Eating, but, you know, whether we love to have dinner with.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Okay, so I know we talked about the potential moving it to the 21st. Or to the 5th. I think there was a preference for the 5th when I correct based on. Filing timing, and then also the consideration for the. December meeting that would likely get bumped forward into the 2nd, week of January.
[Denis MacDougall]: Exactly, that was sort of the reason because that one would more likely be moved into January 2nd.
[Chris D'Aveta]: The 5th is election day, by the way.
[Denis MacDougall]: 5th of December, sorry. 5th of December, yeah, sorry, yeah.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: We can do voting in the morning and the evening.
[Mike Caldera]: Just announcing up front, I can't make the 5th, so that doesn't necessarily mean choose a different date, but just want that to be known.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Okay, thank you Mike. Chris?
[Denis MacDougall]: I can put it out there for the other members who aren't here and then we can sort of put a pin on that one and if we can't, there's no meeting continued so we can just, you know, as long as everything is advertised right to the proper date, we'll find a better date.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Perfect. Well, we've got everybody here. I just want to check. Jim, would the fifth work for you? It works, yes. Chris, does the fifth work for you?
[Chris D'Aveta]: Yeah, it does. Sorry, I have the wrong
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: 1 month. Yeah, no worries. I've done that plenty of times. Uh, Mary, does the 5th work for you?
[Mary Lee]: Uh, December 5th.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Yes, correct. All right and 5th does work for me, so we can pencil that in tentatively. Um, and we can follow up with, um, Andre to see if he's available.
[Denis MacDougall]: And just to the record, you had to actually tell us last meeting. She wasn't going to make she actually be. I just forgot because. Okay. The other thing we have is that we didn't. Uh, still working on the meeting minutes from last meeting. Um, that was midterm, so things got a little sideways for her. So, but I do, we did the last meeting. We were going to talk. We didn't approve the August minutes because nobody had enough time, but. We tabled it for this month.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Okay. Does everybody have an opportunity to review minutes or do we need to bump that and add it to the agenda for next meeting?
[Chris D'Aveta]: I say next meeting, but if others have reviewed, that's fine.
[Mike Caldera]: I unfortunately didn't read them. I assumed they were approved last meeting.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Yeah, you weren't there, so no worries. Um, Dennis, why don't we, uh, that was August.
[Denis MacDougall]: Yeah, why don't we bump that to a bunch of meeting minutes approval next meeting?
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Yep. And if you could resend out the August minutes when you send out the other minutes, that way we can review them all. Perfect.
[Mike Caldera]: Okay, I'll motion to adjourn. I'll second.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Roll call. Jim? Aye. Mike?
[Chris D'Aveta]: Aye.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Chris?
[Chris D'Aveta]: Aye.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: Mary?
[Chris D'Aveta]: Aye.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_31]: And Jamie? Aye. Thank you everyone for your time tonight and your patience. Have a good evening. Thank you very much.