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[Hurtubise]: actually.
[Collins]: Oh, we're in trouble then.
[Hurtubise]: The button that turns it on.
[Hurtubise]: Yep. Yours is on.
[Collins]: Okay.
[Hurtubise]: This thing over here.
[Collins]: Okay.
[Hurtubise]: Hey, Sarah. Oh, do I have to touch this? Can you help us with the microphone for a second?
[Collins]: I'm sorry. I haven't been chair before. It's on? Oh, it is on. Great. Okay. Can you turn your microphone on as a test?
[Callahan]: Oh, now it is. Yes.
[Collins]: Thank you. That I recall. Can folks is this picking up my voice at all? Not really. Okay, I think I'm on. Great. Medford City Council Planning and Permitting Committee, December 3rd, 2024. This meeting will take place at 6 p.m. in the City Council Chamber, second floor, Medford City Hall, 85 George P. Hassett Drive, and via Zoom. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: President Bears?
[Collins]: Present.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Callahan? Present. Councilor Leming?
[Collins]: Councilor Leming let us know that he could not attend tonight.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Scarpelli? And Vice President Collins?
[Collins]: Present, that is... We got four for present one absent. The meeting is called to order. Um, the action discussion item for tonight is again. Paper 24-033 zoning ordinance updates with the Innis associates. Team. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for being here. Planner Evans and Director Hunt as well. I'm going to briefly summarize the agenda for tonight and then turn it over to our guests as we just have about an hour for this meeting with a regular meeting starting at 7 p.m. So we've had a busy past couple months. We have referred the Mystic Avenue Corridor District zoning proposal to the CDB. Same with Greenscore. So we are kind of in the middle of our discussions, kind of beginning middle of the beginning, beginning of the middle of our discussions about the zoning proposal for the Salem Street Corridor. We touched on that a little bit last time when Vice Chair Leming was presiding over the meeting. The purpose of tonight's meeting is to kind of recenter ourselves and where we are in the timeline of the zoning review project overall, where we are in the year. and place the Salem Street zoning proposal in the context of that, its next steps after the committee takes its time with it. And then we're going to have an introduction to the Salem Street Corridor zoning proposal by NS Associates. This is just the first time that the council and the committee is going to have a chance to kind of get a really solid comprehensive overview and start to get into the weeds on this zoning proposal. We've already started advertising for our next planning and permitting committee meeting where we'll be going over the Salem Street zoning proposal. That's going to be next week on Wednesday at our regular time. I understand that in collaboration with Director Hunt and the mayor's office, we put out some promotional materials about this meeting today on social media, as well as a robocall just to make sure that we're really getting the word out. So the purpose of tonight is to introduce this proposal to councilors. I know we've had it in our packets since last week so that we can start to make those comments and ask those questions so that we can be kind of having more informed context for residents in the week between now and next week when we talk about it again. And again, invite residents to hear about the proposal and ask questions before the committee takes any further action on it. So with that, I'll turn it over unless Danielle or Alicia, if you have any comments that you want to make up top, I'd happily turn it over to Paola to begin her presentation. Oh. Sorry, one second.
[Hurtubise]: There you go. Okay. Thank you. Sorry.
[Ramos]: No. Um, yes. So thank you very much. Um, Madam Chair. Good afternoon. Um, Emily is also joined. She's virtual. Um, so I'm physically in the City Hall. It's me from Innis Associates, Paula Ramos and my colleague, Jimmy Rocha. Um, and virtually Emily Innis that she will present also one part of the presentation today. I'm going to share my screen. So in the agenda for today, we're going to just talk about the timeline. Then we are going to introduce the plan that we have for the next year, 2025. We're going to do an introduction about the Salem Street District Corridor. And then Emily is going to present the draft itself. So the general changes to the Medford Zoning Ordinance and then the new district draft. Um, so this comes from July 24th. We had a workshop here, um, with the city, uh, staff and the Councilors. where we presented some analysis of the area. Then we presented just an outline of the corridors, Mystic Avenue and Salem Street together in August 14th. We have been working on Mystic Avenue the last month, and today we're going to present the Salem Street corridor draft. Um, later on the next, uh, in December 11th, we will present with your comments from the City Council staff recommendations and any comment from the public. We will do those, integrate those comments in the draft and bring it again for a final review. So starting with the plan for 2025, we just wanted to introduce an outline so also the public could see what things, topics, districts and geographical areas we're going to be talking about and analyzing during the next year from January to May. So we're going to start in January with North Medford. We're going to study and analyze the single-family districts one and two. And we are going to explore many topics, but mainly we're going to study the dimensionless standards, development standards, and housing topics about, different topics about housing, like the ADU, et cetera, topics that are important in these next months. In February, we will talk about South Medford. The districts will be apartment one, two, general residential. And the topics are going to be very similar. And we will also introduce this idea of the neighborhood commercial, these neighborhood notes. How can we approach those and study those? In March, we will talk about the Medford Square, mainly commercial one, and other districts that are related in these areas, in these locations, we will talk about standards, dimensional and developments. And then in April, West Medford. And finally, in May, Wellington and Glenwood area, we will review office, district, industrial and the mixed use zone. So that this is the big, big outline that we have prepared for the next year. And we will in the next meetings, we will be more specific with the topics and also the dates that the public meetings will be. So just a little reminder, Medfair has done for, I think it was in 2022, started a comprehensive plan and it was released in January 2023. And we are building on that. So all these zoning updates are not coming from anywhere. This comes from the comprehensive plan. And when we talk about the corridors and why Mystic or Salem Street, this comes from this study that was done years before. So here we see the Salem Street, for example, and we have different strategies that comes with it, like, for example, the Vibrant Places 1.1.2, where it talks about mixed use in these village centers. as a right in smaller nodes outside traditional commercial squares, such as in Salem Street. So just wanted to introduce this with the idea that this comes from a bigger plan that was done before. So we are just doing that update in the zoning from the comprehensive plan. Where are we and what is the existing conditions? That's what I'm going to present now. So we are in Salem Street. This is where we are in Medford. So what are the districts that are already there? And we have a little bit, quite a mix in here. Mainly the lots that are abutting Salem Streets are apartment one. The last part of it, the last piece, it's in commercial one, and then on the north of Salem Street, we have a general residential, and on the south, the single family two. What does it mean? In this table, what we show, and it's a lot of numbers, I'm not hoping that you will look at all of them, but this is exactly what you can do right now in those districts. where are the minimum area, the minimum lot area, which By the way, in apartment one, a lot of non-conforming. We will have a lot of non-conforming because of the square footage, the minimum that is allowed. And then it tell us the heights and the stories, the setbacks, et cetera. So in here, there are all these different districts that apply in Salem Street. This is exactly the conditions that what can be done now. This is what we proposed in a previous meeting, where we analyzed the area and we wanted to do this different districts, depending on the connection and how it related with the bigger services in the districts. So we took this Hike Park or Morrison Park as important nodes. also the school, to create two, and this is the reddish areas, two bigger nodes, commercial nodes with higher density, and that is in Parker Street, Salem Street, that is one of the nodes, and the other one is Felsway West at Salem Street. So the distinction that we do from that analysis, bringing also the districts that we have worked with in Mystic Avenue, we bring the mixed use one, mixed use two commercial, and we add one new one, which is the multi-unit residential. And this works as a transition between the corridor and the existing residential neighborhoods. Um, mixes one, it's very similar as we did for mystic Avenue. The different between mystic Avenue and Salem Street is it's a different character in this quarter, mystic Avenue is very citywide. So it should serve the city demands. Salem Street does not have that. It should not have that capacity. This is more a neighborhood corridor, so it will serve the districts and the neighborhoods that are around Salem. So the density here is going to be less, and the heights are going to be less. For example, Mixuse 3 that we used in Mystic Avenue, we are not going to see it here. So we have mixed use one, this is active ground floor, three stories, and with incentive zoning, we bring that back, we can have four stories maximum. we are talking about a small, medium scale program. In this notes that I was talking about that connects with the school and the parks, here we have mixed use too. And this is active ground floor as well, 75%, four stories, and with incentive zoning, it can go up to six stories with a step back from the third floor. In commercial here, this is the bright red, the darker red. Here we have a bigger scale commercial. It's exactly what is existing now. We will have different development standards than what is there. The big target, for example, or the MBTA bus collection storage. Um, but we want to have it a bit more density. So here we can have from 3 to incentive zoning six maximum. This is really a more commercial program. Um, gas station is permitted in this area, and then we have this transition, and this is the new one that we had. This is the multi unit residential, which is maximum three stories. Um, and these are multiple dwelling from 3 to 6 units. So what is right now there? What we did is, if in these blocks we have a mix of commercial and a mix of residential, we keep it as a mixed use. Only the blocks that are entire residential, we maintain it as it is, because we think that that character is part of the identity of the neighborhood. So we want to maintain it. And at this moment, we don't see the necessity to do a complete commercial. ground floor in the in the corridor. So what you see is that we have some commercial, some multifamily already existing. And what we are doing here is just we do a bit of densify a bit these commercial program and we introduce residential in this area. So we expect for a very open, active ground floor and then residential on top. So what we have prepared is a bit of what is existing there. Historical buildings we wanted to be preserved three stories high. And for example, gas stations to not have them in the corridor and only have them in the commercial area, so really near Felsway West. That makes a lot more sense. Sorry. Um, so we have in in a very few meters or feet. Sorry. We already encountered three gas stations, so that's something that we would like to avoid in this quarter, especially because we wanted to be more vibrant to be pedestrian focused to be more active. Um, So in, as you can see, really just a few feet away, we have three gas stations. Then the residential that is already there, two and a half stories high, and also three stories high, that is exactly what we permit in here. So these are pretty much staying, and we wanted to keep them. Um And then finishing with the most commercial part, which is already As existing. This is exactly what is in here. Now what is permitted in these areas? Um, this already is the commercial one district. Um, and It is permitted buildings until six stories high. So you could have something like this. As you can see in the I don't know if you can see my cursor moving. I don't think so. Yes. Okay, perfect. But, and with the dimensional standards with these step backs, this cannot happen with the new zoning in the Salem Street corridor. But because of what you have at this moment, it could happen, especially in the east part of it. It also has the hotel that can go up to 12 stories at the moment as existing. Yes, so that's something that we want to avoid because we don't see that that can really happen in this. So that's one thing that we need to look and that we have looked into is what is existing right now there, what is the character, and another one is what your zoning allows. And so we want to make something that makes sense, taking both into account. And I think that that is the introduction. So now I'm going to let if Madam Chair, if I can ask Emily to present the second part.
[Collins]: Thank you so much. Please go ahead, Emily.
[Innes]: I was just going to ask you to allow me to unmute. Thank you, Madam Chair. So I would like to cover the changes to the overall general ordinance, zoning ordinance rather, and then the specific for Salem Street. So really the change to the existing zoning is just to include Salem Street as a district. We have already created all of the definitions that we need so far. We are continuing to think about one new definition but it's not in the current draft. We would amend the table of uses, we would amend the table of dimensional standards, and then we would have the zoning for Salem Street itself. Before I talk about the specifics though, I do want to continue with the context that Paola was setting in that we got to a geography with Mystic Avenue. We had been doing the more general changes at the beginning of the year but with the introduction of a geography, we're able to delve into what could be in terms of uses in a corridor. How do you think about a corridor and the different pieces of the corridor? How do you think about the relationship of the buildings and the building heights along the corridor? How do you think about the development standards? And we talked at our last meeting about the idea of You're going to see some similarities at this point in terms of geography. So when we think about quarters, we're going to continue to think about. what happens along that entire stretch of the corridor, what happens when we go from what's going on in the corridor into the existing neighborhoods. We're going to see similar development standards that when we come back at the end of this process, most of those are going to be removed from the individual corridors and put in a single place by themselves where we can refer to them. All of this is to say, when you look at the Salem Street zoning, you're going to see that it looks very familiar. It looks like Mystic Avenue. But there's some important considerations, and one is that Mystic Avenue, as Paula said, it's a place that acts as both a citywide draw, perhaps a regional draw. the zoning for mystic avenue is intended to be transformational for the area to take something that has a lot of good pieces to it but along the stretch of that corridor reinforce the idea of a pedestrian friendly more active area but at a higher scale with salem street as pala said we're working with an area that has existing neighborhood where we want to make Some enhancements to what's there already based on the function at the two corners at those nodes and we're going to see as we move into next year the idea of sort of neighborhood commercial nodes popping up again. So when you look at the zoning, you'll see that there's two color-coded pieces that are important. And the first is, and it starts off in the table of use regulations, you're going to see both colors appear. The first one is that multi-unit, which is, I think, in an earlier draft, may, depending on which one you've got in front of you, may be referred to as MF as well for the old multifamily. You're going to see yellow and that indicates that this is a brand new district. We are looking at this district for the very first time for Salem Street and this district as Paola said is intended to go from the corridor to be a transition point from the corridor itself into the lower scale of the adjacent neighborhoods. The second color you're going to see and this starts on the table of uses but it is throughout the proposed zoning is a bright blue. And that bright blue you will see in the existing districts, the ones, the mix one, the mix two, the commercial. Those are the districts that we introduced in the Mystic Avenue. We're bringing them forward to Salem Street, but because Salem Street is a different type of neighborhood, a different corridor, lower scale, different mix of uses, those bright blue colors represent a change in Salem Street from the similar district that is in Mystic Avenue. So you're able to see with this how we can tailor the districts to be specific to the individual, in this case, corridors. When we look at squares, when we look at neighborhoods, you're going to see the same sort of thing. In many cases, what we're doing in this is in the multi-unit district, it's really all residential. So we're prohibiting a number of the uses that are commercial or industrial and really focusing on the residential or the municipal. um in the case so that's all the yellow in the case of the blue uses what we're doing is we're removing the industrial uses we're removing the adult uses that are only found in the commercial district in the mystic avenue we're removing paola mentioned the gas stations we're removing um uh the motor vehicle service sales etc from the commercial uses so There's a lot of change to the commercial uses in Salem Street Corridor. There's a little bit of a change to the Mix 2 uses. We're removing the light manufacturing, the life science, the food production facility from the Mix 2 because those are less appropriate for Salem Street. The other thing you'll see as you look through the zoning is the same thing is true of the dimensional standards. So we're adding the multi-unit, the dimensional standards for that. If you remember the non-conforming uses that we looked at or the non-conforming analyses we looked at, we're trying to represent or to build on what's there as much as possible. So making the things that are non-conforming under your current zoning, conforming so that people don't have to go for as many variances. So there's the ability to reinvest in the existing properties. We're being very respectful of the maximum or the existing heights in the multi-unit and to many extent in the mix one and then on those nodes which are mixed to or mixed to adjacent to commercial going a little bit higher and deeper. You'll see again with the standards and almost done on this and with the incentives that they're very close to what you're looking at for Mystic Avenue but might be applied in a little bit of a different way. In some of the discussions we've had about Mystic Avenue where we've made some changes to the development standards or the incentives, we've already gone ahead and incorporated those changes into the drafts for Salem as we go. Eventually, those sections are going to be standalone sections of the zoning ordinance and will modify Mystic, Salem, and any other corridor to point to them. So I think that's the overall outline, the differences between the two that I really wanted to call out for you. I'm happy, I know Paola is also happy to answer any questions that you may have, but I also want to be respectful of your time because I know you have the 7 o'clock meeting
[Collins]: Thank you so much, Emily and Paola for that overview really appreciate that appreciate you know the I was appreciate getting walked through the zoning proposals even reading them ahead of time. It's not the same as having a professional zoning planner. define what we're looking at for me. Appreciate that, and especially since we've gone through the Mystic Avenue corridor district zoning proposal already, I appreciate kind of the heads up about what we'll see in those sub-districts, where the sub-districts have the same name, but what they mean in Salem Street will be a little bit different, or maybe a lot different than what they mean for Mystic Ave, because Mystic Ave and Salem Street are so different, and what we want to do in those two districts is very different. responsive to, you know, what they are and what they represent in the community and what people do there and what the neighbors want there. So thank you so much for for calling that out kind of at the beginning of this conversation. I know we've had some time to look over this. I think, you know, for me, what stands out to me from the presentation so far is You know, when I was looking at this prior to the presentation, looking at, you know, where do we have mixed one? Where do we have mixed two? Where do we have commercial and why? It makes a lot of sense to me to cluster mixed use close to those intersections that are already, you see a lot of foot traffic, you see a lot of all kinds of traffic. There's already really thriving businesses there. We want to enhance that thriving business character at those places. And I really appreciated seeing that some blocks are left mixed use one, we can keep that concentration on residential. I really appreciated kind of the thoughtfulness with first defining, you know, Salem Street is a really big neighborhood. We're not talking about Reno re sorry we're not talking about rezoning the neighborhood here. We're talking about rezoning this quarter so I appreciate the thought that was given to. How many parcels, you know, north and south of Salem are we really talking about when it comes to those key intersections what should be at those intersections and when does it taper off back into residential. And then what I think is really key and I think something that's really bothered a lot of residents for a lot of time is, what do we need to do to make Haines Square, more we want it to be and start using those big parcels in a way that will be more, more of an advantage. for the folks who live around there and shop there and just want to see more for the community in that space. So with that being said, appreciate the thoughtfulness to the existing character, existing heights and trying to update the zoning to enhance the existing residential business character and make it more of what we want. I'll go now to comments and questions from the City Council. Thank you so much. We'll do public presentation at the end. Thank you. Comments from fellow city councilors. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. President Paris.
[Hurtubise]: Did it do it?
[Bears]: Thank you, Madam Chair. Just wanted to say that I think this is a really great start to this proposal. I appreciate its responsiveness to the city's comprehensive plan and the thousands of residents who participated in that process. And I also just appreciate the thoughtful presentation from Innis Associates. I think what we're looking at is an enhancement to the area to make it what we want it to be, which is more walkable, bring commercial in, and just make it a place for the neighborhood instead of just the cut through that many people experience it as now. I just really want to note the comment about the sprinkling of gas stations. You know, not only is that from like a design perspective and an experience perspective, not great, but we've had a lot of problems with those stations over the years as a community being not great neighbors. So that's something to note. And we're also going to see this become high frequency transit corridor with the T96 coming soon every 15 minutes. And this is going to, I think, really respond to that and make this a really improve some of the outstanding issues with the existing zoning. I want to thank Innis Associates for noting the residential blocks remaining residential, keeping historic buildings, as well as noting like the serious loopholes in the existing zoning that would allow like a 12-story hotel right now, which I think None of us, nobody wants that here. So correcting this to match more of the community character and identity while also enhancing it in exactly the ways that we want it to was the goal of the comprehensive plan. And that seems to be the content of this draft. So I look forward to discussing this next week. Also just want to thank the chair for working with the administration on the outreach plan, both for this meeting and for the meetings in the upcoming six month period. Thank you.
[Collins]: Great, thank you so much, President Bears. I'll move up here so I can actually see my colleagues. We'll go now to Councilor Scarpelli. Did I do it right this time? No, I did not. You're number eight. My apologies.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate all your hard work. I think that presentation was great. I think that I'm going to be the person that people call because they're nervous about what they hear. And what's good is that we're having meetings so we can express the rumors. So the fact that they're being permitted, we're going to look at zoning for 12 stories. It's nice to see that's not going to happen on Salem Street. We appreciate all your hard work with that and making sure that that message is out. I think that when we talk to residents from that corridor, the biggest concern they have, not just the people on the main drag, but on the budding streets, is making sure that we have parking, making sure that they're seeing different different processes that are happening that are taking parking away from a business district. And that's one of the things there, you know, the business owners that I've talked to this weekend, they were really concerned about that because they're all small businesses and it's very important that, although we can hope that it's just gonna be a walkable transit, public transit corridor, the truth of the matter is that's not necessarily true. So having an open mind when we look at what the total community looks for, I appreciate my colleagues doing a better job, I think, and getting the word out, but I will share with you that there is still the need to put that comprehensive plan that we asked for in the RFP to go into the Salem Street neighborhood and have those neighbors that can't come here or join us on Zoom that want to really get involved and understand what happens in that quarter. And I think that you're seeing this, you're seeing fractions of the community right now where neighborhoods are rallying and creating neighborhood groups and getting attorneys and fighting zoning everywhere because the truth of the matter is there isn't enough, there is enough information that's out there. It's nice to say that there are people getting it, there are a lot of people that aren't getting information on what's happening. So, I mean, I try to do my best and I'll share this information for the people that have reached out to me and said, George, we're concerned 12 stories on Salem Street. You know, this is easy. There's no such thing as 12 stories on Salem Street. So, but you know, it's nice to see that looking at pieces like the MBTA area where maybe redeveloping that area where it made Salem Street look like such an eyesore as a, you know, gateway to our community. Because I think that that's when you see successful zoning changes. You see neighbor communities really using the gateway. So the communities is really enhancing that. And I know that we have some limitations for businesses that are there, but I'm glad to see that we're looking at, you know, being responsible to our neighbors and our residents. And I'm excited to see a change on Salem Street where we have mixed-use areas and we're seeing more storefronts. We're seeing more families walking that corridor and looking at, you know, having little pockets of, you know, sitting areas with fountains and, you know, but I think that And now that we've seen it, and we know all the hard work that we put forward with this, is that really getting the true message out. And that's all I'm saying, because I'm saying that, you know, in other situations that we're seeing in the community, where there is concerns that they're going to an extreme, you're seeing some pretty extreme things happening. And this is so good and so new that I think we really have to find other avenues to reach more of our residents in that area. Whatever we have to do, I know that, you know, I know Ms. Hunt you've explained and it's tough that other communities have big, big departments and we have a small department. I understand that. That's why when we talked with the last council, we really stressed the fact that no matter what it took in the mayor's office for the city to put that into the RFP where our zoning partners can come in and bring teams in just like neighboring communities have done. Like I said, as we're moving forward, I love the clarity. I see it, but I think that there are a lot of people that don't see it. And I think that's the biggest concern right now. Because it's great if everybody rallies around this. It makes everything a lot smoother, believe me. So I appreciate your work, so thank you.
[Collins]: Thank you so much, Councilor Scarpelli. I'll go to you next, Councilor Callahan. Just want to echo Councilor Scarpelli's words, you know, really appreciate the collaboration to bring this out to the community and to kind of bring in all of the public engagement that's been done over the past several years into this process. I know it's tough, you know, I think with every project that we do, it's like, that does involve collaboration with the public. There's always part of me that's like, no, it's really, let's take five years to do, let's take 10 years. Let's talk to everyone, let's canvas the neighborhood, talk to every single person. Unfortunately, this contract does not cover that. And I was taking some time to re-read over the RFP as I was looking over the presentation this past weekend. We know what we do have your support for. It's not a new comprehensive plan for Salem Street, but we do have this bringing in what we know from the comprehensive plan of the three years that it took to put that together into this proposal. I know that in the RFP it mentioned as well, you know, a workshop in City Hall dealing with the neighborhood and we had kind of a One version of that a few months ago with the zoning workshop before we got into the corridors in the neighborhoods and supplementing that with, you know, online meetings for the public for the benefit of the public, bringing the public into these meetings. So I know for myself as one Councilor, I've been really glad that Steve from the mayor's office was able to help us out with shoring up our communication strategy to make sure that we're using the robocalls to get this out over more channels. I'm also going to hold myself accountable to do what I can on my own personal Councilor communication channels to make sure this tries to reach everybody that it can, and to keep doing that with every neighborhood and corridor that we do discuss over the next six months so really appreciate those comments and you know, let's do it we can behind the rail to supplement these coordinated public engagement strategies. Thank you for indulging me.
[Callahan]: Thank you. You know, looking at this over the weekend with some of my volunteers like going like going through Google Maps and doing street view and looking very specifically like at an individual blocks like it's it's really impressive. What you've done to sort of preserve the neighborhood as well as really help us get to the point where we are able to develop in a way that. that just amplifies what we have and doesn't overdo it. So I really appreciate your attention to detail. I actually have one very tiny question that is sort of not specifically related to Salem Street Corridor. I just, I'm curious because I noticed that there is co-living that is allowed, and I noticed this also in the Mystic Ave when it came through City Council to go to CDB, that co-living was disallowed on Mystic Ave, and here there's places where multiple dwelling is allowed and yet co-living is not allowed, like in Mixed Use 1 and Mixed Use 2. Um, and perhaps this is a conversation I can have with someone, you know, maybe after the meeting, but, um, to, like, my understanding of co-living is that it is explicitly making it okay for people who are not related by family, um, to rent together. So I would be curious as to why we would have rental properties where that was disallowed. Um, so I, that's, maybe there's some nuance that I'm not understanding, um, and if, talking about it after is more appropriate, that's totally fine. I just was curious about that small detail. Thanks.
[Innes]: Madam Chair, I can answer that or speak to that with your permission. Thank you for bringing that up. I was, Paula and I of course went back and forth on all uses. I was going back and forth on co-living. I think we had been, or particularly I had been, don't want to pull Pamela in on this one, she may disagree, but I had been thinking of it more as people doing that within a single building. And so the scale of the Mix 1 and the Mix 2 was a little bit too large to allow for that, possibly on the Mix 1. If you and I are thinking about the definition of co-living in a slightly different way, I'd be happy to chat with you offline about that and make sure the definition is tweaked to get closer to your idea of how that would be. I had been thinking of it as a building in which people were sharing common common spaces, common kitchens, and either bedrooms or smaller units. It may be that the way I was visualizing it did not match with the way you were visualizing it. So more than happy to discuss that offline. And if we have to make a tweak, we can do that.
[Callahan]: Wonderful. Thanks so much. I think talking afterwards is probably appropriate. I would just say co-housing. That is what I think co-housing is. But I think co-living, according to the definition that we wrote, is a little bit different. So let's talk about it after the meeting. Thanks. Sounds perfect.
[Collins]: Great. Thank you, Emily. Thank you, Councilor Hillion. Alicia, did you have a direct response to that? Okay. And then I'll go to you, President Bears.
[Hunt]: I just wanted two things is to, I'd like to join you guys to discuss it offline to knock out the details on it. And then we need to look at, I both wanted to flag for everybody. that there is no change to parking ratios to any of this as to what we've had in park in the city throughout. And if we were to do that, it would be a different meeting, it would be a different study, and it would be different noticing. So I don't want anybody to think that we're doing anything with that. But that said, we need to look at, we have to fix the parking for congregate housing. That's not correct. And I do want to go through that and make sure that we have the right parking for the new housing types we have included. And there was one or two places where if anybody does look at this for parking with a fine-tooth comb, there was a typo of a Y in the parking column a few times. We just need to go back and clean those up. And I'm just, I'm making a note of some of those tonight.
[Collins]: Thank you so much, Director Hunt. President Bears, go ahead.
[Bears]: Thank you, Madam Chair. Just wanted to note also that when we redid the zoning with Mark Hrabowski, probably most of these discussions were two terms ago. Supreme Court decisions don't allow like there were like family restrictions on renting units. Those are illegal and were removed like for three years ago. So those aren't in the zoning anymore. And I just also wanted to know, in terms of next steps on this proposal. Yes, we'll be coming back next week and having the meeting here. Then this will be referred to a council meeting to then be referred to a community development board meeting to then be referred back to a final council meeting. So there will be three public hearings after the public meeting next week, in addition to the meeting next week, although next week is a great opportunity for discussion. Thank you.
[Collins]: Great. Thank you so much, President Bears. And yeah, I think it's, I think to the extent that we can, you know, as soon as there are questions and comments, whether it's from Councilors, as we continue to look through the draft, as we look through the updated amended draft that we'll see next week, and as soon as there are questions and comments from constituents, whether it's at this meeting next Wednesday, in between the two, you want to contact any of the Councilors or myself as chair, and I can certainly ferry questions along to NS associates or the planning team. It's, it's very okay and good to front loads those questions as much as possible so that they can be considered and incorporated earlier in the process. But the great thing about amending the zoning ordinance is that procedurally we have to have so many meetings on it, even after it gets referred out of committee where we'll have lots of like in the weeds conversations like this. So thank you for reminding us all about all the steps that come after this. So speaking of next steps in terms of potential changes that might be made on the zoning consultant side for next week, I heard that there's going to be some typos in the parking table that might be tweaked. Can we expect to see a more finalized version of the inclusion and the incentive zoning that might apply to next use one and two by next week as well? Or is that going to come later?
[Innes]: uh with your permission madam chair the incentive zoning i believe the last draft has been um updated to match what's in mystic avenue at this point we'll double check um but if it's if it's so if it's not updated to match that then we will fix that and send it over but if they're the same i think we'll leave it as is for discussion purposes and then can always review it afterwards okay great thank you for confirming
[Collins]: Excellent. So next week we can expect more discussion on this proposal to stay more finessed and some typos removed version of this Salem Street zoning proposal and that's next Wednesday 6pm our regular meeting time for this planning and permitting committee. I'd like to go to public participation unless there are any more questions or comments from councillors at this time. Seeing none, we can start in person then I'll go on zoom so you can just walk up and form a line behind microphone and everybody has three minutes. Thank you. My first name and address for the record, please.
[Spinney-Flagg]: Sorry, Lori 55 Garfield Avenue. I'm two doors in from Salem Street. I don't want to see any rezoning done on Salem Street at all. That's a hugely residential area. We have businesses, as Scarpelli said, that are struggling down in Haines Square because it's the one square that has not been kept up throughout my lifetime in Medford. You're talking that there's no parking. You're talking about communal living on Salem Street. What is that gonna do to our residential and our home values by doing all of that? What's gonna happen to our backyards that we will no longer have sunshine because of stories high? And where did you come to the conclusion that Mystic Ave and Salem Street are corridors? I can see Mystic Ave because it is basically commercial zoning, but Salem Street is a residential district. What about High Street corridor? You go right to a commuter rail down there if it's all about transportation. And there's many people who used to take a bus into Boston that got canceled at COVID, both in West Medford and off of Salem Street, which I might add was part of the big, deep contract because of our car bonds on Salem Street. And you took them away, why? For bike lanes that aren't even being used. I mean, now the traffic on Salem Street is tenfold. I've been in my house there 27 years and watched the traffic just every year get more and more and more. The last thing we need is to go up any stories on Salem Street. And at what point are you going to do this? The whole length of Salem Street?
[Collins]: Thank you for your comments. I don't want to go point by point. I appreciate you putting this all on the record. I will say, if you want to have a really close look at where certain heights are enabled and where other heights are enabled, the proposal that the consultant showed on the screen, that's available on the city council.
[Spinney-Flagg]: Yeah, well, unfortunately, most of us work, so we can't get here for a six o'clock meeting.
[Collins]: No, no, no. I mean, you can go on your own time. You can pull it up and you can take a really fine tooth comb and look at it. I will just say, I know that a lot of the potential heights, minimum heights, maximum heights are based on the heights that are already present.
[Spinney-Flagg]: I tried to download all those documents while I was in work before I headed out and I got an error message every single time.
[Collins]: Gotcha. Well, I'd say this, feel free to send me an email. I will download them and send them right back to you so that you can take a look.
[Spinney-Flagg]: Why is Salem Street being considered a corridor? I believe that is because it's... Was it something that the residents in that area wanted, asked for?
[Collins]: I don't want to go back and forth with you with the people who are waiting, but I will just say I think Salem Street matches the characteristics of other parts of the city that have this mix of residential, thriving businesses. It's a main thoroughfare. I think a lot of care is being taken to make sure that it preserves its residential character while supporting businesses and businesses that want to take root on that corridor.
[Spinney-Flagg]: Actually, if you go and talk to some of the businesses on Salem Street, what you have done already has made a mess of Salem Street. And it's just a matter of time that someone's going to get hit and killed on Salem Street because of the major traffic that's going down there now. And the whole cluster of what you did down in Haines Square down by the bank area.
[Collins]: Gotcha. Thank you so much for your comments. Appreciate it. You have to go to the next person now. Thank you. All right. We're going to switch between podium and Zoom. So thank you for waiting. We're going to go first to Dave on Zoom. Name and address for the record, please.
[McKenna]: Hello, thank you. David McKenna I live at two vine street which is on the western edge of the map that we're looking at. I'm really excited to see new development on Salem Street we desperately need more housing. And so I'm excited that, you know, this does allow for more housing. I did have to. Questions, I don't know if they can be answered now. The first was what does it take to get the incentive zoning. And the second is the dark red part of the map where there's the target and it's zoned commercial. Would any housing be allowed to be built on top of the commercial in that district in the present scenario? And if not, you know, I would advocate, you know, for that to allow housing on that. It's a very large parcel. So thank you.
[Collins]: Great, thank you, Dave Peller Emily, could you quickly speak to the characteristics of the commercial if there's any. residential involved in commercial sub district in Salem.
[Innes]: Madam Chair, I have been answering the questions, but I'm going to just briefly interrupt for Paola who jumped up to say, I am transferring all answering of questions now over to Paola and my apologies, I have a planning board meeting that I have to jump to. So thank you for the chance to be in front of you and I look forward to the discussion next week. pilot lawyers.
[Ramos]: Thank you. Um, so at the moment, we in in the commercial, we do not allow the residential. Um, but I'm open to research that and to talk to this week with the city staff if that is possible.
[Collins]: Great. Thank you, Paula. And Dave, to your first question, I think that the incentive zoning, I believe, is already drafted. That was part of the Mystic Avenue corridor proposal. So it looks like that's going to look pretty much the same. I think the characteristics-wise, it's just what that minimum and maximum height would be. Go ahead.
[Hunt]: If you want to see the incentive zoning, if you look at the agenda for this meeting tonight and you scroll through, it's 21 pages long. There's a table in the middle of it. And that table is the incentive zoning.
[Ramos]: Page 15 and 16. Yeah, and it's about affordability. Basically, incentive zoning is if that development gives something back to the community, and in that table, it sets what they need to give, then you can build more density. So basically, you have more height. You're allowed to have more height.
[Collins]: Well, thank you, Paolo. Yeah, in short, it's kind of that exchange between what we're willing to say, hey, ordinarily you can't do this, but if you provide this great community benefit that we've decided is highly valuable and residents really want, then you're able to do a little bit more than developers ordinarily can. That's incentive zoning in a nutshell, and page 15 and 16 of tonight's agenda, if you want to take a closer look. We'll go now to the podium.
[Vardabedian]: Name and address for the record, please. Paulette Vardabedian, Central Lab. I have just a couple of questions. But first, I want to say thank you, Paola. That was a really detailed well report. And thank you, Zach, for saying no hotels on Salem Street, because it is inappropriate. And we have enough hotels in Medford. And thank you, George, for saying no 12-story buildings in Salem Street, because that is inappropriate as well. On the commercial side of Salem Street, where the Dunkin' Donuts is and things like that, there are several three-story buildings and such. So my opinion is that would be OK. But as far as four stories and up, I don't think that is appropriate in that area. I do have a question for Ann or something maybe to clarify afterwards about the living spaces, what you were talking about. I don't really understand what that's going to be. Is that going to be like rooming house type things? And that would be totally inappropriate. The other thing that is a major concern for me is the traffic. Has a traffic study been done on Salem Street? Central Ave is parallel one block in from Salem Street, and they already use Central Ave as a cut-through street. In the past, there's been major accidents on the corners of Otis and Central, Dudley and Central. Now there's four-way stops. I complained numerous times because no one stops, or I shouldn't say no one, Many, many people don't stop. So I requested to have the flashing yellow lights. I know that's a different discussion. But my concern is that with the increased housing, which may or may not be needed, that it's going to increase the already overflowing traffic on Salem Street. It's a nightmare to get out onto Salem Street. And it's going to really affect the traffic on Central Avenue. has a traffic study been done, and if so, it should be and when. That's all. Thank you. Thank you very much for your comments. Appreciate that.
[Collins]: All right, we're going to toggle back to Zoom. Rebecca, name and address for the record. You have three minutes. Thank you.
[Davidson]: Yes, thank you. Rebecca Davidson, 101 Yeomans Ave. I am a resident of this area. I grew up in Medford in the hillside area, but have loved living in this area and plan to stay for many years to come. I feel that the plan that was presented tonight really reflects The great parts of the area and this plan builds upon those and also speaks to the potential in the neighborhood. I feel that this plan will really improve walkability, which is incredibly important to me and something that I really appreciate about the area already. The plan will increase the amount of housing, which is something that we desperately need in Medford. And I appreciate that a lot of the, a lot of the improvements that have already been made in the area. And I'd like to see more investment and more attention placed because I feel like there is a tremendous amount of potential. I've really enjoyed the bike lanes. I think they're an important feature for Salem Street. I like that the plan speaks to the gas stations. I think that we don't need so many gas stations in such a small area, so I appreciated that there was some thoughtfulness put into that piece. I will say speaking to what other residents have also brought up that traffic calming measures are absolutely needed along Salem Street. I don't think that was within the purview of this particular plan, but I will say that that's something that we desperately need and I look forward to conversations where we can talk about that. and hopefully have better signage and things that will lead to traffic calming in the area. So overall, very supportive of the plan and looking forward to seeing these changes come to fruition. Thank you.
[Collins]: Great. Thank you for your comments, Rebecca. We'll now return to the podium. Name and address for the record, please. You have three minutes.
[Matarazzo]: Paul Matarazzo, 25 Barber Lane. I just want to applaud the council and the planning team in moving forward with amendments to Salem Street and this corridor. This is really consistent with the comprehensive plan, visions of the community, its opportunities to increase housing, the city. We're going to continue to support our targeted new commercial development as well as provide a level of predictability for future investment in this square. So as a resident of the city, I applaud the efforts of City Council and City staff. Thank you.
[Collins]: Thank you very much for your comments. We'll go down back to zoom. Is there any more? Oh, it's back up. Spoke too soon. Jennifer, name and address for the record. You have three minutes. Thanks.
[Sullivan]: Sorry about that. Jen Sullivan, 35 Washington Street. Rebecca basically stole my thunder and said everything I was thinking. I, too, grew up in the hillside and recently purchased a condo in this area, the area that we're talking about tonight. And I just want to say I second everything that she said. I'm looking forward to some changes in an area that has so much potential. And I appreciate the work put into it and that we have some time to digest it after tonight and then come back and have another conversation. So thank you everybody that's involved.
[Collins]: Thank you very much for your comments. Director Hunt, go ahead.
[Hunt]: Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to sort of add one thing that kind of addresses some of the stuff that we've heard tonight, that when I talk, I have been talking to people about the need for changing the zoning in the city. Salem Street's been one of my examples, because if you look at our current zoning right now, that neighborhood node at Park Street, the commercial stuff that's going on, all of it from 93 up basically to Fiore d'Italia, just shy of Hanes Square, isn't actually allowed by our current zoning. And the multifamily buildings are absolutely allowed. I think in this area, three to six story, three story buildings are absolutely allowed, possibly six, I'd have to check. And so what we're trying to do is allow the commercial where it exists and we love it, not add it to the parts that don't have commercial right now. Keep those as residential. but allow three family houses. Do you know that there are three family houses are not allowed in our zoning in Medford right now? So sort of allowing a little bit like that and then having a real commercial note at the end. And I just kind of wanted to bring that out is that a lot of these changes to the zoning are not changes to the street. And I think that's really helpful for people to understand just because it feels like it's a big change. But when you say like, actually it's allowing There's so much that's there that people come in and say, Oh, I'd like to put in a ground floor commercial and two apartments on top and we have to say that's not allowed you have to go to the zoning board for permission. That just doesn't make any sense. So I just wanted to make sure people heard that, and you can send comments to our office all week on comments received before Thursday are greatly appreciated. because we're going to have a new final version in front or another version in front of the city council on Friday, preferably Thursday for your packets. And that way we can incorporate things that we hear between now and then into it. So, great.
[Collins]: Thank you, Alicia, and thank you so much, Councilor Callahan. I think that's a great reminder. I think it's something that I remind myself throughout this process, even though we've been talking in quite a lot of depth about zoning, you know, for more than a full calendar year now, is that zoning is counterintuitive because it seems like we're talking about what's going to happen when we're talking about what's going to be allowed. And I think Salem Street is a really great example, and there are examples all over Medford, but it's a great example of where what is currently there might be allowed under our current zoning, or maybe not, and we're having a conversation about what that's currently there, do we still want to be allowed, and we're done with this, but we'd not want to be allowed, like, I think there's broad consensus against the 12-story hotel, I think. I think everybody's in favor of that. And what do we want to be allowed that isn't allowed currently, so that the businesses are there, are even more thriving, that the residences are there, it's an even cozier neighborhood for the folks that live there. Councilor Callahan.
[Callahan]: Thank you so much. Just one incredibly short for anyone who heard us talk about co-living. I want people to be reassured. Co-living literally does not mean anything outside of a normal rental apartment being rented by people who are not related to each other. That's literally it. It's not congregate housing. It's not any of those things. It's incredibly simple. It's really adding nothing. And if you want me to explain to you why we are putting it in the zoning, I'm happy to explain. you know, why we're trying to differentiate between that and other kinds of housing. But it's nothing changing, nothing new in that particular definition. Thanks.
[Collins]: Thank you so much for that clarification, Councilor Galleon. Seeing no further public participation on Zoom or in person and no further questions or comments from Councilors, we do have a regular meeting to get started. So just to once again restate our next steps, we're going to be talking about this exact zoning proposal again next Wednesday at 6 p.m. Please feel free to help us in spreading the word and we're glad to have the collaboration of the mayor's office and spreading the word on social media and through robo calls to residents. You know, this process has been informed by the past several years of public participation on what they like and what they want to see for Salem Street and other areas around the city. and these conversations, you know, in the here and now have to be informed by all of our voices as well. So thank you for being here. So we're going to see this 6 p.m. next Wednesday, whenever it gets referred out to the City Council, it will then be referred to the Community Development Board, and then it will be referred back to the City Council. And I just say that over and over again every meeting to remind you of all of the opportunities that we welcome you to be a part of this process. All right. 7-12, do we have a motion? Motion to adjourn by President Bearsar, seconded by Councilor Callahan. All those in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Meeting is adjourned. Please stick around for the regular meeting. Thank you so much, Innocent Associates, Danielle, and Alicia.
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