total time: 9.61 minutes
total words: 820
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Good evening and welcome to tonight's meeting of the Metro Community Development Board. I'll call the meeting to order. Let's begin with some obligatory procedural matters. This hearing of the Metro Community Development Board is being conducted via remote means. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings as provided for in Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2023. A reminder that anyone who would like to listen to or view this meeting while in progress may do so by accessing the link that was included in the meeting agenda posted on the City of Medford's website. If despite our best efforts, we are not able to provide real-time access, we will post a recording of this meeting on the city's website as soon as possible. A reminder that given the remote nature of this meeting, tonight all votes from the board will be made by roll call. Please note that the project materials for all projects before the board can be viewed on the city's website, methodma.org, and you can click on current city board filings. You can also find the link in the chat. For starters, we want to offer one welcome to Ben Lavely, who is our new associate alternate member and can fully participate in meetings and deliberations. Welcome, Ben.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Thank you so much. I'm excited to be part of this. I appreciate it.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: It's a pleasure having you. Thank you for joining us. Just to note, as an associate member, Ben is eligible to vote when there are fewer than seven members present and eligible to vote. Again, thanks for joining us, and we look forward to working with you. I'm going to do a roll call of attendance. Vice Chair Emily Hedeman? Present. Peter Cowes?
[Peter Calves]: Present.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ari Fishman? Present. Sabrina Alpino? Present. Adam Behrens? No, Adam. Annie Strang? Present. Ben Lavallee?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Present, minor pronunciation correction, it's Lavallee.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Lavallee, Ben Lavallee, thank you. And myself, Jackie McPherson.
[Danielle Evans]: Danielle, can you introduce any staff on the phone? Yes, as myself, Danielle Evans, Senior Planner, along with Alicia Hunt, who's the Director of Planning, Development, and Sustainability. And I believe that is all of us tonight. My graduate student intern now has a conflict with class, so he won't be joining us on evening CS class. He'll be watching them. I think he'll still be doing them, so after the fact.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Our first item is approval not required for review, seven grant F. I'm going to invite the proponent to present their plans for the log division. But first, if the city can actually set us up with this, and then the proponent can go ahead and continue.
[Danielle Evans]: Yes, so this is, we've had several of these lately. an approval not required under subdivision control law, which basically says if the lock division meets the criteria to be divided, then the community development board acting as the planning board is required to endorse it. And that's the questions you have to ask is, does it front on a right of way? Does it satisfy the minimum frontage? In this case, it's 35 feet. and is there adequacy of access? So those are the criteria in which to review this. One thing to note is that the second lot to be created will actually be undersized, but that is not a reason to not endorse it, strangely enough. So this will be going to the zoning board for a variance for minimum lot size if they choose to develop that second parcel.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So approval not required as reviewed by the board, we are to make sure that it meets certain criteria in which one of the criteria it does not meet as of yet. Is that my current correct understanding?
[Danielle Evans]: I mean, I believe that it clearly meets the first two. The third one is the only one that's subjective, and I don't see why it's not met. It doesn't have access, adequate access from the right of way.
[Peter Calves]: Yeah, if I understand it, it meets all of our criteria, but it may, it needs a zoning variance to do something else with it along the line, but it doesn't, it meets all the criteria for the ANR.
[Danielle Evans]: Yeah, so endorsement isn't, basically an endorsement doesn't give them a variance and endorsement doesn't say that this needs zoning now. It's a oddity of Massachusetts subdivision law since we adopted it and didn't opt out. Still wanna look into how we can opt out so that we can just have these done by the planning director signing off. Either here or there. So, Attorney Cabral is here. Attorney Cabral, do you wish to share your screen or do you wish I could share my screen?
[Mike Cabral]: That would be fine, if you want to share your screen.
[Danielle Evans]: Okay.
[Mike Cabral]: And while you're doing that, I'm Attorney Michael Cabral on behalf of the applicant and homeowners, Michael and Elaine Orahan, 7 Grant Ave. You'll see here in a second, they have a pre-existing lot that they are dividing in two.
[Danielle Evans]: Can folks see this?
[Mike Cabral]: So total lot area right now, the existing lot is 9,500. They're splitting the lot in two. Lot one is on the left side of our screen. Lot two is on the right-hand side of the screen. Lot one would be a conforming lot in that it's 5,000 square feet and meets the minimum frontage of 35 feet. It has 50 feet. The new lot, the lot in question for A&R approval, is lot two on the right-hand side here. It has 4,500 square feet of lot area. It does meet the minimum frontage. It has 45 feet of frontage. Additionally, it's located on Grand Ave, which is a public way, so satisfies both frontage and, I would argue, adequacy of way. Grand Ave is, again, a public way and currently paved, so suitable for vehicular travel as the law requires. Also, as mentioned here and above Danielle, it does actually, some surveyors used to put on The zoning criteria, some did not boards were welcome to put on that. It was not quote a buildable lot until it met zoning requirements. This has actually already been laid out on a table at the top of this plan, which does show as the board mentioned that if. Our clients would like to build on lot to the lot in question that it would require approvals from the zoning board for both lot area. The 1st criteria there, it is 2 asterisks next to it in a lot with as well. Short by 6.4 feet on lot with as well. So to, um. to issues of non-conformity, but in terms of the issue here this evening of A&R approval, again, we do satisfy minimum frontage, adequacy of the way, and that it's on a public way and paved for vehicular travel. And I'm happy to answer any questions any members of the board might have.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you. It's Heidi Cabral.
[Danielle Evans]: And Madam Chair, through the chair, I just wanted to flag one more potential zoning violation you might need to address, and that's the proposed parking area that appears to be front yard parking, because if it's in front of the structure. So if that's where the structure ends up going, then that could be an issue.
[Mike Cabral]: Thank you. We've noted that as well. This may not be the final location of both the building or the proposed parking. This surveyor does show a 20 foot curb cut, but that may not be where the parking actually goes. It may run down what I would call the side of the new lot, which would have a 20 foot drive aisle as well.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you. Are there any questions from the board at this time? So, based on the presentation by Attorney Cabral and Planner Evans has stated that it meets minimum percentage. There is adequacy. of the right of way, and as of right now, there's vital access to the lots provided by Parkin. So it meets all of the board's criteria. I will put forth a motion to approve 7-Grant-F for approval not required, or to recommend, is it adopt? Endorse. So you'll endorse the plan as approval not required. Endorse the plan. Approval is not required.
[Adam Hurtubise]: So much.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: A second motion. A second. I'm going to do a roll call. Vice chair and we had him in. I Peter cows. I re fisherman. I Sabrina Alpino. All right. Adam burns. Still not here. Annie Strain? Aye. And we have a quorum, so in this case, Ben Lovalli would not be voting, is that correct Danielle? No, he can vote. Okay. He can vote, yeah. Ben Lovalli. Aye. And myself, Jackie McPherson. Thank you so much, Attorney Brown.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Have a great evening.
[SPEAKER_00]: You as well. Take care.
[Danielle Evans]: Thank you. And I'll have Alicia sign the Mylar before we leave the building. So it'll be available for you to pick up.
[Mike Cabral]: Great. Thank you. We have another one right behind us, so I'll pick it up and file another with you. Thanks everyone. Good night.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Good night. Thank you.
[Mike Cabral]: Thanks.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: The next item is approval of minutes. And I guess we can just ask for approval of all of us. Anyone has any objections or any corrections to any of the minutes? I did have one, it was minor. I believe it was the very first one and it has like typos or something like, it was an approval not required, it was an original approval not required and it was supposed to be, it says nor, nor required. Tiny little typos, if the city can actually look over those. And I would give a motion with those typos being corrected.
[Danielle Evans]: So it was the June 5th meeting? I believe, sorry for some reason,
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Oh, yep, I see it. I'll fix that. That was the only thing that I caught. Actually, I will go through and ask for a motion for May 5th and May 25th because at that point, I believe only myself, Vice Chair Hedeman, Peter Kaus, and Ari Fishman are eligible to vote on those two. So I would need a motion from either Vice Chair Emily Hedeman, Peter Kaus, Ari Fishman. I'll make the motion. Second. Thank you. And that's for both May 5th and May 25th. I guess I'll do a roll call for ourselves. Vice Chair Emily Hederman? Aye. Peter Cowes? He's muted.
[Peter Calves]: Aye. Sorry, missed the button.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ari Fishman? Aye. And myself, Jackie McPherson. Aye. And then I will ask for a motion for July 17, 2024, which myself, vice-chair Emily Hutterman, Sabrina Alpino, Peter DeKalb, and Ari Fishman are eligible to vote.
[Danielle Evans]: And I would ask- Both those sets of meetings have the same- Actually, yes.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: This would be July 17th and August 7th, 2024. And I would need a motion. Okay. I'll second. Oh, Emily can have it. A lot of competition today. Vice Chair Emily Hedeman? Aye. Sabrina Alpino? Aye. Peter Kiles?
[Peter Calves]: Aye.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ari Fishman? Aye. And myself, Jackie McPherson. Aye. And the third item on our list this evening, zoning overall updates are Alicia, Danielle, do you have any updates for us?
[Alicia Hunt]: So we don't really have any updates. I will just tell you that we have been working through things like a green score for the city and, um, uh, We haven't looked at design requirements, but we've looked at incentive zoning. This would be you're allowed to do this much density, and if you do additional affordable housing, you can get more density, stuff like that. We're working through those. One of the questions that came from the consultants should, design guidelines be part of zoning or something that's adopted by the CD board. And my recommendation is that that's adopted by the CD board. But I asked them if because they were going to kind of go hand in hand with the new zoning. If they could present both of them at the same time, so that they would actually come to this board and the city council together at the same time. Here's what we're recommending for design guidelines. And here's what we're recommending for the for the zoning. Design guidelines would be adopted by this board. but the zoning would be recommended by this board and adopted by the council. We are pushing those through together. That gives us more flexibility in design guidelines, so it doesn't have to go through a full zoning process. Things change and we want to have that changed. So those we are expecting drafts of those to be coming in September. And I actually will tell you that I just received I had mentioned wanting to get files up on the website. I just got most of those from the zoning consultant today. So I'm hoping over the next few days to get those. I think we're talking about needing a web page to put this. Although we do have a page from the Medford Comprehensive Plan that I'm thinking maybe we should then just actually update that to include the stuff that's coming through the zoning. And I'd like to include links to the zoning meetings we've been having. Just wanted to tell you guys that stuff was there. And if anybody has any questions or anything that has come up since the last time we were talking about stuff, I'm happy to answer questions. But that's really all I have this evening.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: The design guidelines, how would those be construed? Will we be working with a consultant or is that something done internally? How does that work? Because I know we started this process a couple of years back when we did the zoning recodification and we didn't pick up on it. So I'm trying to figure out how we will move forward this time.
[Alicia Hunt]: In this case, the zoning consultant is prepared to provide us with recommended guidelines specifically for Medford, which was actually kind of the problem with the recodification that that consultant was giving us like, here's like a straw man, a stick man kind of thing. Now you guys make it Medford specific. These consultants have been hired because they did our comprehensive plan. They have talked to Medford residents and developers, and they're prepared to say, here's what we think would work in Medford. My hope is that by the time you guys get it, you'll just want little tweaks, but you'll look at it and go, wow, this was done by somebody who understands our city. As opposed to staying like, oh my gosh, now we have a lot of work in front of us. Okay.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you, Alicia. I'm going to ask for a motion. So if there's nothing else, if there's no support, has no questions, new members, anyone you want, this is your open time before we actually ask for a motion to adjourn. Do you have any questions?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Nope, just taking it in and getting comfortable with how the meetings go. So thank you.
[Danielle Evans]: Awesome. I feel like it's the calm before a storm. I'll take it.
[Peter Calves]: I'll take it. As someone who works on the consulting side of some of these projects, we're starting to get the storm on our end. So a couple of months. The number of traffic requests I sent out today.
[Alicia Hunt]: Because we're ready for more development now that we've opened the Great American Beer Hall. We're ready. Is it open? It's open. It's amazing. It was at capacity all day on Saturday from noon through like closing. There was a line almost all the time and they were letting people in as people left.
[Danielle Evans]: Yeah, I swung by on Saturday. I was going to come in and then I just I, you know, I just scratched that. I was like, yeah, it's too packed.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I would love to pitch. I don't drink beer. That's not a reason just to go and see, you know, hang out and have a great time. Right. So patronize my foot.
[Alicia Hunt]: They have wine and cider too.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Oh, they do.
[Alicia Hunt]: They do. They are in the bar. Yep.
[Ayni Strang]: They have a full bar, mixed drinks. Oh, okay. All right. The other place in West Med for, near the train station. This place has everything.
[Alicia Hunt]: Oh, it's I will say it is lovely. They are operating under a temp operating permit, because there are a few things they still need to complete for the city. The road in front dot they're still making some dot stormwater connections. And they're still the elevator, there's a lift to the second floor that hasn't arrived. So the second floor is closed, they do not have occupancy permit for the second floor. And like they don't have their I'm railing around the balcony of the deck. So you can't obviously you can't go on the second floor and you can't use the deck yet. That stuff is coming. They're still expanding their menu. Um, for the food, um, but, and, but I want to pass along something. So Brian, you will remember was here a couple of times. And one of the things he said to me on Saturday was, you know what, Alicia, I did not want to put in bike parking and you made me do it. And you were right. Look at how full that bike parking is. So just passing along that that was, that was a community development board thing was to put in the bike parking. Um, yeah. He's very happy and in fact, he's getting pressure to put in more bike parking because it was so full. We'll see if it continues to stay full. Do they have EV stations? Do they have EV? No. But he's putting solar on the building. We required a solar assessment, and that was so, the proposal he got was so favorable to him that he is actually not only putting solar on this building, but they own property down near Patriot's Place, and he's looking to put solar, like a solar farm there, and then make his properties up here the offtakers for it. So I thought that was pretty cool. But he sent me the interconnection agreement to National Grid. So like the paperwork that he needs to do with the utility to put solar on. So I know he's serious.
[Ayni Strang]: I'm hoping he'll put EV in so that he puts good foot forward on that.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. I think we did not because there's such It was this project was a real shoestring. Actually, if you might remember that I came to the board, I talked to his banker and then I came to the board and said, like, I talked with her. She was at his soft opening Thursday night and I got to meet her in person. And she said she was like, it was a really good experience. And she was glad that she had talked to me about that project.
[Ayni Strang]: So she was lovely in the future for the next phase of improvements that he puts in. It's just really important to the community. Yes.
[Alicia Hunt]: The BJs, we asked for EV in addition with the gas station. And then I don't think this board required it. But then when he went to city council, they said they were doing it. And they have four stations that have gone in. I haven't gone over, they're not open yet. They're still fenced off. But from my experience, they look like high speed stations. Like, they don't look like basic little level two stations. So I'm curious to see what goes in at BJ's.
[Danielle Evans]: Was Great American Beer Hall, did they come in before the specialized stretch code? Is that why they don't?
[Alicia Hunt]: Long before it, that only kicked in this summer.
[Danielle Evans]: Okay, so that's how, because yeah, now you have to have at least EV ready spaces now, they go in just before.
[Alicia Hunt]: And that project was on such a shoestring to get in there that we did not require of that one.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Just to note that board member Adam Barons have joined us and thank you so much for joining us, Adam. Adam, I want to let you know that we have another new board member that joined us this evening, Ben Lavallee.
[Peter Calves]: Hey Ben, welcome. Hey Adam, look forward to working with you.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And with that actually, oh and one other thing Adam, there was a note that Alicia and Danielle had suggested that we all send our cell phones to to them so that they can compile it in case we're running late or anything, and they'll know that we, they'll reach out and see if we're coming to the meeting or whatever, so that they actually have that and we're not waiting, going forward. And it's not so much just because, not because of your tonight, it's just to have it overall. Because sometimes we don't even know who's waiting in the waiting room if it's a phone number, so we try to match it.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, cool. Okay.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yeah. but it's really short meeting. So I'm going to ask for a motion to adjourn. I'll make the motion.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Second.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Awesome, then I'm going to do a roll call since my document of names opens back up. Actually, I think I have it memorized. Yeah, go on Jackie, you've got it. Hi. Peter Cowes.
[Peter Calves]: Hi.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ari Fishman. Hi. Sabrina Altino. Hi. Ben Lavallee.
[Peter Calves]: Hi.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Adam Behrens.
[Peter Calves]: Hi.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Annie Strang. Hi. And myself, Jackie McPherson. I believe I got everyone. Nice job. Thank you, everyone. Have a great evening.
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