total time: 8.24 minutes
total words: 722
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Good evening everyone and welcome to tonight's meeting of the Massachusetts Community Development Board. I'll call the meeting to order. Let's begin with some obligatory procedural matters. This hearing of the Medford 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 on the meeting agenda provided 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 also know that project materials for projects before the Board can be viewed on the City's website at methodma.org. And you can click on CD, current CD board filings. And you can also find a link in the chat as it was just put in there by a city staff member. And again, just for the public, we want to offer a warm welcome to Sabrina Alpino, our newest board member, as well as Adam Behrens and Annie, I apologize, Annie String. Any, did I say your last name correctly? Now I'm going to do a roll call attendance. Vice-chair Emily Hedeman. Present. Peter Cowes.
[Peter Calves]: Present.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ari Fishman. Present. Sabrina Alpino. Present. Sally Akiki. Present. Adam Behrens.
[Adam Behrens]: Present.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Andy Strang. Present. And myself, Jackie McPherson. Amanda, can you please introduce any staff on the call?
[Amanda Centrella]: Sure thing. So, um, I guess out of this group, only a few of you may remember me. I'm Amanda Centrella. Um, I'm, uh, uh, open space planner for the city of Medford planning development and sustainability office, but I used to, um, staff this board and I'm visiting tonight. Cause, uh, Danielle is, is, um, out of the office this week. Uh, also with us is Alicia Hunt, the director of planning development and sustainability.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you, Amanda. So great having you with join us again this evening. So our first item on the agenda is a site plan modification for 121 Riverside Avenue, which is my foot housing authority salt install building. I'm going to ask the staff to make any introductory comments and just, I just want to just quickly put a thought out there for the public to let you know that all board members are open to participate in this item this evening since there's no requirements for them to have been on the previous decision. Amanda.
[Amanda Centrella]: Great, yeah. For I think all of you here, this might not be an item that you've seen before, although this project actually came before the board in late 2022 and early 2023. And so the board last met on this project to discuss 121 Riverside Ave, February 15, 2023, to approve a modification to the site plan. And this is recorded on a set of minutes that I put in our meeting packet. I wouldn't have expected you guys to see it. I just, in the last hour, put it in there. But in case you all want to refer to it over the course of this discussion, it's there. At the time, the proponent, which was the Medford Housing Authority, explained that on their site plan, which was approved in January of 2023, It showed parking spaces on land that was owned by the Mass Department of Transportation. And that portion of land had historically been used for parking by the Housing Authority. The Housing Authority and MassDOT planned to have that land conveyed to the Housing Authority. And at the time, it was shared to the board that the process would take several months to do. but that there was a full intention to have that completed. To retain the construction pricing that the housing authority had received for the project, the housing authority needed to fulfill zoning requirements, which is a requirement of 111 parking spaces, and secure site plan approval in order to close out the financing and advance the project. And so the Housing Authority presented what is the current site plan, which was approved to the board, but specified, and this is detailed a bit more in the minutes, that it was their preference and intention to revert to the original site plan parking when the land conveyance was completed. And so that is just a little bit of a summary that brings us to today. And the housing authority, I'm sure, can speak with a little bit more detail as to what's being proposed, but wanted to offer that kind of background information. Alicia, is there anything else we should toss to the group?
[Alicia Hunt]: I think that covers it just for the board members both Amanda and I were present at that. So we are actually familiar with this. And if you have other questions throughout I suspect you will that maybe we can field if not the housing authority.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yes. And with that, I'm going to invite the House of Authority representative from the House of Authority to present. And just please keep in mind that if you can please keep your presentation high level to give us the points as you've so greatly presented to us previously, just for the new board members. And if there's any additional questions, then we can open it up at the end. Attorney Kilson, will that be you? Can you please unmute, Attorney Kilson?
[Kilson]: I think I unmuted myself. Okay. Thank you, Chair McPherson. I think that Natalie Janssen, who's one of the development consultants for Medford, is going to lead this conversation. So, Natalie, I'm going to send the mic over to you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks, Hannah and thank you everyone for having us again. My name is Natalie Hanson I'm with the Cambridge Housing Authority. We've been working as development consultants with the Medford Housing Authority on the Sultan stall modernization. So, thank you Amanda for the background I think that captured it really well we also provided a memo that went through some of the dates and some of the changes. It's an 11-story high-rise owned by the Medford Housing Authority that is currently undergoing construction. And as Amanda said, during that process, we've been working with the Mass. Department of Transportation to get the land. MHA now holds the land that was previously owned by DOT, and therefore we can now finalize the parking plan, and that will essentially allow the project to move forward with site work. So if it's all right with the chair, I can share my screen, which has the updated plan, and I can go just through some of the changes quickly.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yes, please.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right. I'm just going to click share screen. All right. So can you see my screen and does it include the site plan? Perfect. So when we refer to the land that was owned by the DOT and is now held by the MHA, it is this little triangle over here, close to number one, as well as this, if you see my cursor going over it, where you have the area that's red and striped. That's another area. So that's now under the control of the MHA. And so the changes here are primarily related to the parking. As Amanda mentioned, we're still providing the 111 required parking spaces. that are required under the zoning code for the building will have 222 units once it's completed. It is affordable senior, it's affordable units for seniors, and also households with disabilities so the parking requirement is point five per unit. Um, so the project, uh, MHA self-install LLC, uh, which is the owner of the project, it will still have 111 parking spaces. We're just kind of rearrange where those parking spaces are. Um, so I'm going to go through these changes here in order. Um, uh, this one's very small. Number one, here's the generator. We needed to slightly adjust the orientation of that in order to provide adequate spacing.
[Amanda Centrella]: here.
[SPEAKER_03]: Number two here we improved this area for circulation in order to make coming in and out of the parking lot safer. where you see the threes, three here, three here, and three here, there used to be parallel parking spots here. So when MHA did not have control over the DOT land, we needed to make sure that all 111 parking spaces were on land that was owned by MHA and that would be ground lease to MHA Salton Stolicy. So we added in, I can just go back. Oh, sorry. We added in parallel parking spots along here, but we feel that it will ease with circulation to not have parallel parking spots at those locations. And then where you see four, we improved the paving for residents who are walking to the building. So, and then number five here, this is now on land that will be owned, is owned by the MHA and that will not be ground leased to the partnership that owns Saltonstall Apartments. Here what's happening is that MHA is going to enter into a parking easement agreement to provide 22 parking spaces on this land that will be for the use of the Saltonstall apartment building in order to make sure that it has access to the 111 required residential parking spaces. That in turn will allow these 27 parking spaces to be able to be used by the administrative office. So for people not familiar with the building, where you see the admin entry and this little box here, this is the location of the MHA central office. And as part of the construction at Saltonstall Apartments, it's being modernized and also expanded. So then all in all, on a combination of the MHA, the Saltonstall Apartments land, which is essentially land that's ground-leased by the MHA to the partnership that owns the Saltonstall Apartment buildings, plus the parking easement agreement here, there will be 111 residential parking spaces for the use of salt install apartments plus the 27 administrative office spaces for the MHA and that is essentially a reflection of what is currently at the property. MHA has their parking spaces for the administrative buildings located here. So that was my overall summation of the changes. I'm happy to go to show the old plan that was approved in February, if that's helpful. And of course, I'd be happy to take any questions.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you so much, Miss Jensen. Um, I actually I don't have any questions at this point. I'm going to open it up to the board before it is a public hearing and I do have to open it up for public hearing. I'm going to ask the board if there's any questions from anyone. This would be your chance.
[Peter Calves]: I don't have any. I just want to say, I just want to comment on, I'm happy to see the removal of the parallel parking spaces. I think that'll make the circulation a lot safer. But I'm glad you managed to get everything settled with Mass UT so you didn't have to use that design.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yeah, I was pretty going to say, pretty much going to say that towards the end, there's so many more beneficial aspects with having established site control, such as the adequate space to remove the parallel parking with the circulation and safer access regress. And then you have, not only do you have the required parking spaces for their residents, but you have given additional 27 for MHA employees and staff. I think that it's just way more beneficial and I'm glad that you were able to establish site control and I'm going forward just just reminds the board that we definitely need to start to do a condition for modifications for these sorts of things so that the proponents do not have to come back going forward. And what's saying that and seeing no other. Yes.
[Adam Behrens]: I had one, it might be a hypothetical that isn't worth discussing, but the area B for future potential development. I was just curious if the design of this kind of parking lot and layout was sort of like future-proof to ideas that you guys had for that future use, or is it just kind of two separate things that we don't really, that weren't really sort of like considered together?
[SPEAKER_03]: So one, we were very happy to get rid of the parallel parking spaces for safety reasons and also thinking about area B. So the hope is to be able to develop this and provide more housing. That's why it's not part of this overall plan. But we had a couple of parking spots here where you have number three, that would have really made area B essentially an island surrounded by parking spaces for another development. And there might be some opportunities to, once we get to area B, you know, we look forward to working with the board and with the designer team for that to determine how to best provide parking there.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you so much. Are there any other questions from the board? So I'm going to open up for public comment. Those who wish to provide comments can use the raise hand feature or message Amanda in the comments. You can also send an email to OCD at medford-ma.org. Before providing your comments, please state your name and address for the record. A reminder to all meeting participants to please refrain from using the chat function to provide comments as it is not part of the public record. However, if a participant is having audio or other technical difficulties, this may be entered into the chat to alert myself and staff. Amanda, can you please manage the public comment queue and read any previously sent emails or letters?
[Amanda Centrella]: Absolutely. So no previously received comments or letters. Just going to give folks a minute in case anyone's feeling shy, but I don't think I see any hands raised or comments indicating an interest in speaking. Yep, nothing so far.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I'm going to close the public comment period for this meeting. And one of the questions that I originally had was just how the city stood on this. And because it's reverting back to the original site plan, there were no concerns from the city or the transportation engineer at all. So with that, if the board, if there's no other questions from the board, I will wait a second and then we can move to a motion to approve if there's no other questions from the board. All right. Seeing none, I will ask for a motion to approve the site plan modification for 121 Riverside Avenue, Myford Housing Authority, Salt and Stall Building. I'll make the motion. And may I have a second?
[Peter Calves]: I'll second.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Roll call. Vice Chair Emily Hederman? Aye. Peter Kautz?
[Peter Calves]: Aye.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ari Fishman? Aye. Sabrina Alpino? Aye. Sally Akiki? Aye. Aye. Adam Behrens.
[Adam Behrens]: Aye.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Annie Strang. Aye. And myself, Jackie McPherson. I'm an aye. Thank you so much, Attorney Kilson, Ms. Jansen, Mrs. Cittarello, and everyone else. Thank you.
[Kilson]: Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Take care.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Have a great evening.
[SPEAKER_07]: You too. Thank you very much. Have a good evening, everyone. Nice to see everyone.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: The next item is approval of minutes, but as of now, there's no minutes to approve as they're not yet ready for us. Then the third item would be zoning overhaul updates if Alicia or Amanda has any verbal updates that they want to share with us on zoning overhaul updates or Amanda, Alicia, at this point, if you want to fill the new members in on what that is.
[Alicia Hunt]: sure i just i didn't prepare remarks but i do think that this is a good opportunity um to sort of give you guys an update um in a big picture way the city did a comprehensive plan um it is available online we did it in 2023 it was finished um we we do have copies here in the office if you're really tangible paper people um Through that, we recognize that the zoning in the city of Medford both doesn't reflect what is actually built in the city of Medford and doesn't reflect what we would like to have in the city of Medford. Many of the neighborhoods areas that we like are actually nonconforming. And some of the areas that we like the least, that we feel need development, we really would like to see different zoning there before it's developed. So along those lines, there's a number of things that have occurred. You'll hear about the city council did a recodification. So they basically had a lawyer go through and clean up zoning and make things legal, et cetera. And that actually introduced a number of changes that occurred actually before the comprehensive plan was done. The city council decided that they would really like to undertake to change the zoning in Medford to reflect what people would like to see in the city of Medford based on what we heard through the comprehensive plan. So we have in fact hired a consultant, and this consultant is hired jointly between our office and the city council, so the city council got budget and we have budget and we're each paying half. And so we are working very collaboratively on this project. I'm actually meeting it once. So the city council is meeting twice a month on Wednesday evenings opposite these meetings to discuss this. I encourage all of you to attend, to watch, to participate. You don't have to. At the very least, check out the handouts that come with it because that'll give you a real feel for what's going on. Um, the city council is actually excellent about putting their packets online now, um, which is a huge change from, you know, a year ago. Um, so you can get all the handouts for these things. Um, so that's meeting publicly. And then, uh, Danielle and I are actually meeting with the consultants and sometimes other staff from our office, essentially every week. And some of the city Councilors Councilor Collins is meeting with us, almost every week as well and Councilor bears, some of those meetings to prep for the public meetings. And there's in fact a timeline that they posted that let me. Give me 30 seconds and let me put this up because it is actually what is going to be discussed at each of the coming meetings. It is part of a larger presentation that was done at the last meeting.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Alicia, they meet every two weeks on this? Yes.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yes. And so and in fact, it's intentionally scheduled to be the opposite night. So if this board meets, I can't even, in third, then the city council is meeting second and fourth, but we are not actually meeting next week. Nope, that is not the, here we go. I just wanted to pull up just this one slide for you, and then we'll share it around. I actually got this packet today in my email, so I didn't have it to even consider sending it to you before today. So the like, gee, Alicia, I would have liked to have had this weeks ago. I didn't have it. Brand new, here we go. So July 24th, we did a workshop with maps, looking at zoning, what's existing built environment currently. This past week, we met about Mystic Ave and Salem Street specifically. And then I'll just go through this verbally. September 11, we're going to talk about condo conversion, housing definitions, and incentive zoning. September 25, we're going to focus on Medford Square and West Medford. October 9, we're going to focus on ADUs and affordable housing. October 23rd neighborhood centers. So that's more like, you know, there's a little pocket over here and a little pocket over there of commercial, but they don't necessarily have names that the rest of the public knows. The 13th is citywide strat, November 13th citywide strategies and November 27th corridors and areas. So we can send that out to you guys. This is actually part of the whole presentation. So last week when we talked about Mystic Ave and Salem Street. So partially what I also want you to know is that we are getting a lot of development pressure on Mystic F and we're getting it in two forms. Auto-based uses that are being pushed out of Somerville and Cambridge think that that's the perfect auto mile. We don't. So like we had a car wash apply last week for a special permit. And we, we actually just approved a car wash, like, six months ago in like on one of the back roads behind Mystic Ave. Like that's an example. We are also hearing from developers who are saying, wow, you've got some great stuff going on there with the Great American Beer Hall. We would really love to do some ground floor commercial and a couple of floors of residential within walking distance of that because we think that's a hot area that we want to get in on the ground floor of. So, and that is not allowed. So, we want to make that kind of development allowable and our consultants who Emily was actually the project manager on the comprehensive plan. She has some excellent ideas. She and her team. about how we can use zoning to make Mystic Ave a more accessible, green, walkable area. And so that was some of what we talked about this last Wednesday night. Because of the development, we are also seeing some development pressures on Salem Street. and Salem Street, but in fact, it's not allowed to have commercial by zoning anywhere from Medford Square to just outside Haynes Square. So right about where Friore, Italy is, that's the start of where commercial is allowed. Salem Street is all commercial. There's residential, but it's all non-conforming. So if somebody actually wants to rebuild or do commercial ground floor with residential above, non-conforming, not allowed. So those two, and you've seen some of these projects in the past year or the board has, So we are focusing on those two corridors. The council has actually asked the consultants if they could provide them with zoning language in September to review and refer to this board. So there is actually a really solid chance that you will be seeing zoning changes from the city council in September or early October for Mystic Ave and Salem Street. And so for those of you who are new, legally, it first goes to the council, they have to refer it to you, and then you make comments and suggestions and give it back to them. then they adopt it. So that will be coming. And I'm very excited to see that come, because it is so much easier to say to a developer, here's what's allowed and not allowed, than, well, that's allowed, but we don't really want it. And this is what we do want. And it's not allowed. It's just not the best kind of conversation to be having. And when those cases go in front of the zoning board, they look at me and say, but if the city really wants it, why don't they change the zoning to reflect that? So for everybody, including the new people. Danielle and I are happy to talk about these offline. We are happy to talk about them individually. In order to talk about this as a board, it has to be on your agenda, which is why we've started putting a standing item on the agenda. But if any of you would like more information, would like to talk about it, if you have things you'd like to see changed in the zoning, we have a long list. So the list is very mishmash now. And we've sent it over to the consultants to start working through it. There is also a Gantt chart of all the different things that we need to deal with and when it's coming. And I'm thinking that I should have a version of that I could send you. But I'm going to tell you that this Gantt chart is of a scale that if you wanted to print it and read it, you actually have to print it on 3-foot by 4-foot paper because it's just that kind of like so much on there. It's kind of unwieldy. I actually think I, I think I have some two foot by three foot versions in my office, but they're not the most recent versions. So, any questions?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I just wanted to clarify that it's Emily Keatons, the land use consultant and not our fabulous Vice Chair Emily Hederman that the city's working with.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yes, Emily Innes of Innes Associates, and she is rapidly growing.
[Kilson]: We'll find out.
[Alicia Hunt]: What is that name again, the consultant? I'm sorry. Emily Innes, her last name is I-N-N-E-S. And it's Innes Associates. And actually, fun fact, the other thing that you'll be seeing coming out but is much less relevant to this board, other than Medford Square zoning, is the RFP to build residential buildings, preferably with ground floor commercial, on the parcels behind City Hall. So we have three parcels here. And that actually one of the things on my to do list for this week that I'm never going to get to is to read it we have a solid draft, we actually hope to have that out on the street by September 12, and it'll be open for three months. for those parcels. And Emily, by pure chance, is also the consultant on that. We went to Mass Development, asked them for assistance in preparing this RFP. And they said to us, well, we have this wonderful consultant. We can give you technical assistance where we, Mass Development, will hire a consultant who will do it for you. And we have this wonderful consultant, Emily Innes. Let me see if she has time. Do you guys know her? And I was like, Oh, well, there's some serious synergy going on here. So.
[SPEAKER_07]: So, Annie. I'm curious about what was the final on Herb Chambers.
[Alicia Hunt]: So that was approved, that was decided that down there at that at the end, at that exit to 93, that that was approved.
[Ayni Strang]: OK.
[Peter Calves]: Yeah, I believe that was one of those kind of the case we had with the auto glass, similar to the case we had with the auto glass place on Harvard Ave, that while it is not long term what we like to see for the corridor, that it is an appropriate use for the space as it stands.
[Alicia Hunt]: Thanks. And that one, and they are actually adding a significant large building to that, where they will be repairing and holding cars in a large building, and they'll have a lot of jobs associated with it. It's not going to be just a big open parking lot with a tiny building on it.
[Ayni Strang]: So it's like what they did a further up for Toyota and Nissan off of 95, where it's the cars are, are piled a couple of stories up.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah. It's a more dense use than you would expect from an auto-based place. So I might say not our favorite. They're also probably going to be consolidating some of their corporate offices there, because it's such a beautiful view of the river. So that was also kind of nice.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And without having to watch the entire meeting previously, Annie, or for anyone, the decision, I just approved and signed a decision. So it should be filed with the clerk's office. Danielle did that prior to her leave. And if you want to see what came along with the decision, like the conditions.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right.
[Ari Fishman]: When we finish this discussion, can I ask about progress with the beer hall? Because I know they're behind schedule and that there were kind of a lot of questions that they were asking you guys. So I'm just curious about the status since we mentioned it.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. We have been working with them. We have been working with the department. So the newer members may not realize we also have working in our office, a director of economic development. And so his part of his role is to bring in larger businesses, to work with businesses, to help shepherd them through the process as necessary and appropriate. His name is Sal DiStefano. And so Sal has been keeping close in touch with them and with all the different departments that need stuff from them. So they are coming along. I am not aware of them. They had a ribbon cutting date. They've had a couple scheduled. They do not currently have one that I am aware of, but they are continuing to move along. This I would just say that the professionals in City Hall are not surprised by how long the project is taking, and the various pieces, especially because of the interplay with National Grid, the utilities, I think there was some MWRA piece, and MassDOT, the owner maybe.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I'm glad to hear that we weren't the ones that completely wrecked that schedule.
[Alicia Hunt]: Oh, no, not at all.
[Peter Calves]: I mean, I don't think anyone wrecked their schedule except to, I mean, I remember we talked about it a little last time it got brought up, that they had a date that kind of no one outside of them thought they were going to hit. Those of us who know how the project process goes were like, they're not going to do that.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yeah, their timeline was completely aggressive considering the circumstances surrounding some of the things they had to get done, like MassDOT by itself. Yeah.
[Peter Calves]: Kind of segueing into that, I had a question. You said that Emily had some ideas for the Mystic Ave corridor. Was there a thought given in any of those ideas to the jurisdictional piece where Mystic Ave is a MassDOT road? And I mean, I can think. Off the top of my head of multiple times, projects have come before this board that have had to deal with the fact that they need to get kind of MassDOT access permits or MassDOT approval for anything they do that touches the street.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. So in two ways, and actually I'm glad you said that because I was just thinking today that I may need to talk a little bit more explicitly with Emily about some of the MassDOT pieces to it. But if you remember in the MBTA zoning that was approved last winter, one of the pieces that was not really talked about very much and was not really a big deal was some of the performance standards about how properties would be accessed They had a lot of recommendations that loading would be in the back, that there would minimize curb cuts, minimize ways that they would get onto the property, but then deal with the access from behind. That was actually built into the zoning. I think some of that will actually help this. if there are ways that we are right off the bat in our zoning saying to these developers, minimize your curb cuts, minimize how many times people are crossing the sidewalk, that may make it a little bit easier on the MassDOT side. There's also a piece around the whole And I thought this is where you were going about the sidewalk and the curb area. Let me just quickly show you, they had a suggestion. that we actually put in the zoning so that so this here in the gray is kind of what we have now where the red dotted line is the property line and people either build right up to the property line with the curb or they set back and they have parking in front of it. They're suggesting that we have a build-to line that is not necessarily, is not a setback. A setback would be you have to build behind it, but that this is the line at which you put your building. And then actually requires part of the zoning to have green space and sidewalk space, some of which, so this red dotted line might be your property line and the sidewalk might be on your property line. and that there are ways to do this, and then we would work out easements, et cetera, to give us a more walkable feel, but also not allow them to set their buildings back and put parking in front of it, like in the area that would be a place for pedestrians. And this was some of what it might look and feel like at different heights. They were giving us some different ideas.
[Peter Calves]: No, that is cool. I was also thinking somewhat in the vein of... I mean, this is perhaps a little too granular for the zoning overhaul and more directly the things that are relevant to this board. Just the number of times we've... I mean, this is something else with the Great American Beer Hall, where we've had conditions that we've put on developers that are contingent on Mass.Approval and they come back and don't get Mass.Approval. So we have to figure something else out.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. And so that was something that Danielle and Amanda and I have been talking about a little bit and Jackie, this idea of having contingencies, like pre-approved, like this is what we want you to do. The beer haul was the hardest because It never occurred to any of us that they would say you can't put your driveway there you have to shift it 15 feet to the left, but there may be some like guardrails that we can put around projects that say, you know, if you know the. the modifications that you need to make are under a certain threshold then the staff can approve them administratively without you coming back to the board or if we have a sense that there's going to be different versions like what we're realizing would have made sense with the salt install was that we could have approved a control site plan and then a secondary site plan that if you get control of that property, you may just revert to this other site plan that we can approve because you don't have legal control. But if you get it, then you can do that and you don't have to come back. You just need to register that with the office that you are swapping in and this pre-approved alternative.
[Peter Calves]: Yeah, I've noticed that we've been doing that for the last few months of meetings. I do think that's a good idea.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, and that's because of some of these things, because in order to have a sense of what is the difference between something that is major that the board needs to rethink that we hadn't considered versus this, you're being required by a state agency or something outside of your control. And it's reasonable and it makes sense. and you literally can't do what we had approved. How do we do that without having to re-notice a whole public hearing? So any other questions? We promised to keep tonight short, but it's not even 7.30, which is our end of the workday anyhow. So if there are any other questions.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I have.
[Ari Fishman]: Oh, Jackie, you can go.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: No, no, go ahead. I was about to go for your favorite item. Well, I think all of us at this point, go ahead.
[Ari Fishman]: Okay, sorry, it'll be fast to end. I can totally take this offline if, but while we're talking about Beer Hall, I was curious if they've gotten a alternative like driving exit route approved, because we had said that staff could approve it, but the proposed one had been absolutely bonkers. And since we're talking about it now, I'm curious if it's a new one.
[Alicia Hunt]: We think that that would take quite a long time. So we're not anticipating that that is something they would get approved before they open by by any stretch of the means of the imagination. Yeah.
[Matthew Page-Lieberman]: All right.
[Ari Fishman]: I see a question from, I think, a member of the public.
[Matthew Page-Lieberman]: Yes, hi. My name is Matthew Page Lieberman. Alicia, this Emily Ennis that you were talking about, Ennis, is this the same person you told me had circled the square who was contracted and would be advising on the parking lots?
[Alicia Hunt]: The RF, yes, the parking lots in Medford Square, yes. She's doing both that and the overall zoning for the city.
[Matthew Page-Lieberman]: That's good, thank you. Is there any development on that?
[Alicia Hunt]: Yes, so the lots we are reviewing draft RFP right now. It's actually going to be legally advertised next week and it's going to be available to the public September 12th. And I will say we have circulated it to some members of staff and council because the city council and legal Council, although I better write that down. I think I might not have sent it to legal council yesterday. And assuming that none of them have any showstopping issues with it, it is our intention to make it available to the public on September 12th with responses due to the city December 12th.
[Matthew Page-Lieberman]: But you know that myself and many people, including Councilors, are opposed to the notion of having a singular RFP that would go out to both people that would like to purchase the lot or to lease the lot. Is this RFP that's going out going to be once it's going to continue to be all of the above?
[Alicia Hunt]: It's actually we have settled on putting it out as a 99-year lease.
[Matthew Page-Lieberman]: Excellent. Thank you so very much. Thank you so very much, Alicia.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you, Alicia. And with that, I am going to ask so that we're not adding other things to the agenda that have not been advertised. I'm going to ask for a motion to adjourn.
[Peter Calves]: So moved.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: A second. Second. Roll call, Vice Chair Emily Herriman. Aye. Peter Kelce. Aye. Ari Fishman. Aye. Sabrina Alpino. Aye. Adam Behrens.
[Adam Behrens]: Aye.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Annie String. Aye. And myself, Jackie McPherson. I'm an aye. Thank you, everyone, and have a great evening.
[Ayni Strang]: You too. Bye-bye.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Have a good night. And nice to meet all the new members.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yes. Thank you all. Thank you.
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