AI-generated transcript of Community Development Board 06-05-24

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Good evening and welcome to tonight's meeting of the community development board. I'll call the meeting to order. Let's begin with some of the procedural matters. This meeting 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 assess 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 posted on the City of Medford 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's all votes from the board will be made by roll call. Please note that the project materials for our projects before the board can be viewed on the city's website at MedBrainMA.org. And you can click on current city board filings. You can also find the link in the chat. I'm going to do roll call attendance. Vice Chair Emily Edelman? Present. And let's see, do we have Peter Cowles? No. Ari Fishman? Present. Sally Akiki? Present. And myself, Jackie McPherson. I am present. Danielle, can you introduce any staff on the call, please?

[Danielle Evans]: Yes, myself, Danielle Evans, Senior Planner in the Office of Planning, Development, and Sustainability. We have Alicia Hunt, who is the Director of our department. We have Kalam Deset, who is the graduate student intern. Zooming in from Chicago, glad we still have him. And then we also have Gabe Weising, who is our newest graduate student intern in our office. I believe that is everybody tonight.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you. So for our first item, let's see. I believe our first item this evening is approval not required. It's an ANR, which I plan for review. And it's seven and nine Jeremiah circle. At this time, I'm going to provide the proponents of the plans, the 79 Jeremiah Circle. Danielle, can you give access to screen share?

[Danielle Evans]: Let's see. First, I want to check if the applicant is here. I got an email not too long ago. It's having trouble.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: That's okay to keep that what I can do is we'll see if we'll just move it to another portion of the meeting later. And at this time, I'll see if 400 mystic adversary for special permit site plan review. And I believe because we don't have a full voting body this evening, we will be listening to a presentation by the proponent because there will be a site plan review revision that's needed. So I will at this time, read the public hearing notice before the proponent can make, before the city makes introductory comments. The Medford Community Development Board shall conduct a public hearing on June 5th, 2024 at 630. PM via Zoom, relative to an application by Herb Chambers, 400 Mystic LLC, 400 Mystic Avenue LLC for site plan review to permit the construction of a new three-story structure to replace the existing three-story structure, renovation of the existing five-story structure, along with the modifications of existing parking, vehicle circulation, landscape, and utilities associated with proposed Herb Chambers-Toyota-Boston In addition, the proposal requires special permits for the following motor vehicle-related uses as applicable. H3, motor vehicle sales or rental of new vehicles only, accessory storage entirely within enclosed structure. H4, outdoor motor vehicle sales and storage accessory to H3. And H6, class two used motor vehicle sales. The property is located in the commercial two, which is C2 zone district of 400 Basic Avenue, Redmond, Mass. And at this time, I'm gonna ask the staff to make introductory comments before inviting the board to present the proposal.

[Danielle Evans]: Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, this is a proposal that requires a special permit for the motor vehicle sales of new vehicles. There was question of whether they needed the special permit for the used vehicles, but I think we clarified that that's not actually needed But I'll let the applicant opine on whether they still want to pursue that, because there's a, our use table, the primary use just speaks about new vehicles only, but that's not a typical arrangement in vehicle sales, that there's always used cars or pre-owned. So I'm not sure if we want to cover our bases by, also approving use number H6. But besides that, they also need a special permit for the outdoor motor vehicle sales and storage that's accessory to H3, which is the new car sales. they already received a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals for height, which clears the way for this board to approve a site plan since they were able to obtain those variances so that it's compliant with the zoning now that it's been buried. This has been circulated to the various department heads. We received comments back, met with the applicant team. The applicant team has met with some of the department heads and we'll start to incorporate some of the changes. So I think tonight will be a presentation asking about the revisions that will be being made and input from the board of any of the further revisions.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you. Can I actually now invite you to introduce yourselves and make sure that we have sharing facilities for them?

[JjIkY7Z2rzw_SPEAKER_03]: Good evening, Chairperson McPherson, can you hear me? Yes, can hear you. Did you want me to proceed? I'm sorry. Yep, you can go right ahead. Thank you and thank Danielle for that summary as well. My name is Frank Marinelli, just for the record, and I'm a land use attorney with offices at 439 Washington Street in Braintree. And I've had the privilege of representing Mr. Chambers in his various developments for over 25 years. Tonight, just by way of background, we're proposing significant investment and improvement at the 400 Mystic property, specifically transformation of the commercial two property to Herb Chambers Toyota. With me, Chairperson McPherson is the Director of Construction for the Herb Chambers Companies, John Welch, and also here is our civil engineering team, Gabe Crocker and Dave Newhall of Crocker Design Group. They prepared the engineered site plans that you have before you. Also here, our architect, Lee Hemingway, Regent Associates who prepared the floor plans and the elevations that you have in the record as well. Also here is Julie Lucier of Ryan Associates and Julie prepared the very nice landscape plan that we've submitted with all the new plantings and preservation of existing trees. So at the conclusion of our presentation we're happy to answer any questions the board or the public may have. Just by way of company background for Over the past 40 years, Mr. Chambers has built a major regional business, which entails approximately 60 motor vehicle dealerships employing over 1,500 people. The company has been named by the Boston Globe as one of the best places to work. All of Chambers facilities are neatly maintained under the direction of corporate manager, John Welch, who's here with us tonight. Concerning the property itself, as the board knows, it's a 4.86 acre site located in the commercial two zone. It has a large building, formerly Century Bank headquarters. That building is comprised of a five-story tower office section that was used for banking offices approved for a height variance from the zoning board in 2001. Then there is another older three-story section to the north, That old three-story section would be demolished as part of the Herb Chambers project, and we've already processed and received the demolition permit for the three-story section. Three years ago, just as a matter of background, Herb Chambers, 400 Mystic LLC, the entity acquired the commercial property for $20.5 million. The property, as you know, is uniquely surrounded on every side by roadway, road network, including the I-93 ramp, I-93 itself to the east, and then Fulbright to the north, Mystic to the west. Our proposal that you see in the plans is to first renovate the four floors of the five-story tower section. In those first four floors, we will have display and showroom of motor vehicles along with sales and finance offices and customer amenities that are shown on the file floor plans and the elevations. The footprint of the existing five-story tower stays as existing. In addition to renovating the five-story tower section, the project involves, as I said, demolishing the old three-story section to the north, and we're building a new three-story section which is comprised of approximately 40 customer service bays on the first floor, and then interior parking on the second and third floors for over 200 cars, approximately 106 cars on each of the second and third floors, also as shown on the five-floor plans. The total addition is about 125,775 square feet. There is also constructed a car elevator, and the car elevator is between the new three-story section to the north and the existing five-story building. So that's the car elevator which will transport cars to all levels and showrooms in the existing five-story building. Conversion and improvement to the building is an approximate $30 million investment in MedFed in addition to the over $20 million acquisition. The project will also create about 50 to 75 new jobs. As Danielle mentioned on May 30th, last week, the Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimous approval for the project to proceed. The height limitation, as you probably know, in the Z2 zone is an infeasible two stories and 30 feet. There already exists on the property three stories and five-story height. So the Zoning Board granted the reasonable relief to allow the new three-story section and the car elevator to connect to the existing five-story building. For the CDB's jurisdiction, as Danielle pointed out, we're requesting the grant of special permits under the principal use table, which is categories H3 and H4, as Danielle mentioned. H6 is really when you have a principal use of a used car lot. That's not the case here. We're a Class 1 licensee. under Chapter 140, Section 58 of Mass General Laws. And basically, when you apply for and receive a Class 1 license, you are automatically entitled to sell pre-owned vehicles as well. So, excuse me, that would be pretty much included in the H3 and H4. And we appreciate the all-inclusiveness of the ad that was published. Just, again, on the use and the importance and the benefits of the proposed use, even though it's a change of use, the five-story building is a significant existing condition on the property. And we believe the best way to repurpose the existing building is our core use of the Herb Chambers Company's an additional $30 million redevelopment investment method to create an owner-occupied state-of-the-art dealership. Herb Chambers sales and display in the five story building and a new service center and interior parking in the new three story building. We don't believe that the best use is trying to rent the building as is as office space to disparate users, particularly where office buildings, as you know, are facing increased vacancy nationwide and in the greater Boston market. Other benefits to the proposed use, Herb Chambers and Toyota are two strong brands. One comprehensive dealership use. Toyota has been a leader with electric vehicles. And as I said, the investment represents and augments Medford's commercial tax base in the TC2 zone creates new jobs and results in less traffic and vehicle trips as compared to the former office building and bank use of the property. We do have a traffic report in the record that was prepared by Chapel Associates and on page 25, in the conclusions, it talks about quote, on a typical weekday, the dealership is projected to generate 686 fewer trips than as of right bank and office use. end quote, of the property, the prior uses. We also consume less water and sewer than the former office building type use. There are also stormwater management and treatment improvements that our engineers will talk about. As I stated, three stories exist at the site, five stories exist at the site. So the height of the car elevator connected to the five stories is consistent with what already exists on the site. and the project is consistent with the C2 zoning purpose. The project is also consistent with nearby commercial uses in the C2, which I'm sure the board is familiar with. It's an area of mixed industrial, warehouse, automotive, and retail, includes uses like Jason's Trucks, Tractor Trailer Storage, C's Gas Station, Millennium Maintenance, Power Sweeping, Foreign Domestic Auto, Colonial Volkswagen, AutoZone, Public Storage, Dunkin Donuts, and many others. So there's improvement and no substantial detriment to the neighborhood. We would respectfully submit with the investment in Medford that's represented by Herb Chambers and Herb Chambers Toyota. Yesterday, as Danielle mentioned, we had a productive review session with Danielle Evans, the senior planner. We also had a productive review session with Todd Blake, the city transportation engineer, and we'll be incorporating suggestions into a revised plan set for the special permit and site plan review. At this point, I'd like to thank you and the board for your attention, Chairperson McPherson, and if it's okay, I can turn it over to our engineering term for just a discussion of the site layout.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you, Attorney March. I'm sorry, Attorney Marnell, yes.

[pgAMiNw28q8_SPEAKER_01]: Great, thanks Frank. So David Newhall of Crocker Design Group for the record, site civil engineers for the project. Um, as Frank had mentioned, uh, the existing site, um, which we're showing here with our existing conditions plan, um, which we prepared, um, our land surveying department went out, did an on the ground field survey, and that is stamped by, um, Shane Brenner, our registered professional land surveyor. Um, the existing site is about 4.87 acres, um, has the existing, big building that has the three-story building and then the addition that was put on in the 2000s for the five-story building. The site currently has three access points. There's two curb cuts, one on Fulbright Street, I mean two on Fulbright Street and one on Mystic Ave. The two Fulbright Street curb cuts are full access so they have in and out permitted with both curb cuts, and then our Mystic Ave curb cut is exit only. So the site when it was utilized as a bank building, everybody would enter the site off of Fulbright. There's a drive-through for banking needs here that then exits through an exit only onto Mystic Ave.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Mr. Newhall, I apologize. Do you have something else that's to scale just for the public? And I can follow along, but I'm not sure that everyone's going to have an easy enough time following along. This is hugely engineering. And I understand that as yourself as an engineer, but I'm not sure that anyone's able to follow along from the public.

[pgAMiNw28q8_SPEAKER_01]: Okay. Would you, I guess that was what we had for our existing conditions plan. Don't we just go with the site layout plan? Might be a little bit easier for us to follow. Sorry about that.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Okay, this helps. Thank you.

[pgAMiNw28q8_SPEAKER_01]: It is easier. Perfect. So the existing site, we're going to keep that five story. tower building, the existing three story building will be removed. We're showing the footprint of a proposed three story building that as Frank mentioned will contain the service and storage of automobiles. There was the existing mystic F curb cut. is roughly in this area here. We're proposing to move that curb cut further to the west, just to align this curb cut with the service reception area. So when a customer comes to the site, and they're bringing their vehicle for service, they will enter the site off of Mystic Gap and be able to drive directly into the building, into service reception, where they'll drop their vehicle off, head into the building, and then a valet will take the vehicle and bring it to where it needs to go within the building, whether it be to service or to storage. Additionally, if somebody is accessing the site and is coming there for a new vehicle purchase, They can enter the site and immediately take a right and park in front of the five story building or in any of the other open spaces on site but out front is where these spaces will be reserved for customers. We are also proposing to retain the two curb cuts along Fulbright Street. We have received some feedback from Todd Blake that we are in the process of incorporating in regards to these curb cuts and some potential modifications. But the goal is to keep these two curb cuts to provide full access in and out of the site along Fulbright. This back access here will mainly be used for employees and for delivery vehicles. to access the site back here. So customers will be using the Mystic Ave curb cut, and then the back curb cut will be used by employees. And then the first curb cut along Fulbright Street may be used by customers, but mostly will be used by employees and other delivery vehicles to access the site. Additionally, as Frank had mentioned there is on-site stormwater that is subsurface that is located out in the front parking area. We are going to retain those two subsurface detention systems. The site generally drains within a series of catch basins today and goes to either these two detention basins or to the grass swale that is along the southern portion of the property into the east. There's some stormwater that does flow overland to the grass well to the north, all of which then drains to a reinforced concrete pipe that adds under the I-93 off ramp at exit 21. And our proposal is to retain those two systems and then also propose a third system to the rear parking area here. All of our stormwater will still drain towards the same location, but we are reducing the rate in which stormwater is headed that way and also increasing the treatment. Additionally, we proposed 292 parking spaces based off the comments we've received from Danielle. We're in the process of altering our parking to the east of the building. In particular, we're adding some more landscape islands to break up some of this parking. So some of those changes we're working on now based off that feedback, the proposal is for 292 spaces. The existing site has 314 parking spaces. For building and circulation within the building, Lee, we'll get to that later. But for the most part, we'll have employee parking and access to the rear. Customers will be out front and then inventory spacing here where you see the stacked parking. We have also met with the fire department about the circulation around our site and our fire protection measures. They gave us some preliminary feedback a few months ago. We have since incorporated all of their feedback in the record plans that are on file, and we've addressed all of their concerns. So we've satisfied them for access and for fire protection, both on the site and within the building. Additionally, we did submit our stormwater management package to the engineering department for a preliminary review and we received preliminary feedback in which we have addressed that. We will now be filing formally with their stormwater permit and they will provide an additional review of our stormwater management systems. Additionally, for what we have shown here, we show the reconstruction of the concrete sidewalk that is along Mystic and then goes to the curb cut along Fulbright. We've reviewed this with Todd Blake and we're working on a proposal that extends this exit the proposal for concrete sidewalk down to our second entrance to align with the concrete sidewalk that is around the building so to provide better access for employees if they're using public transportation. Additionally, there was a comment about bicycle storage. We'll also be providing bicycle storage to the rear of the building here. This is the proposed area of the building in which there'll be the lunchroom and employee areas. So employees will be coming and leaving through this area mainly. So we've tried to put the bicycle rack as close to where they will be entering and exiting for the day. I think with that, probably best to turn it over to Julie of Ryan Associates to go through what we currently have for a proposed planting plan.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you, Mr. Noel.

[SPEAKER_12]: My name is Julie Lucher of Ryan Associates. I'm the landscape architect for the project. We've preserved as much of the existing established landscape as possible. This includes the shrubs in Evergreen Hedge that run adjacent to 93 at the east of the property, as well as the shrubs at the southern end near the 93 exit ramp. Can you see my cursor? Dave can walk us along. So those plantings are below the wall. There's a number of evergreen shrubs interspersed with deciduous shrubs here. Then going up mystic, we're preserving five mature honey locust trees and infilling with two new trees to match, resulting in a more continuous canopy at the street here. Below these trees, we're proposing a robust new understory planting. It's a mix of ornamental grass, evergreen shrubs, and flowering deciduous shrubs. It's about an eight foot wide bed, which widens to encompass the trees and a larger bed around the proposed pylon sign. The planting is made up of nine or more plants, massings of nine or more plants, and it includes Ilex glabra, or inkberry, a low horizontal juniper, which will maintain a presence throughout the year. There's also pennisetum, or fountain grass, spirea, physocarpis, or ninebark, and knockout roses to bring color and interest to the planting viewed from mystic. Moving on, at the, well, at the main, the Mystic Ave entrance, we have a formal planting with larger massings of sedum, pennisetum, a low-rugged juniper, evergreen liriope, and roost aromatica or fragrant sumac. There's bands of decorative stone around the sign as well as at the base of the three flagpoles. And then moving up along Fulbright, Between the two curb cuts, we have added nine slender silhouette sweetgums, which are a tall, narrow tree. And there's an under-planting of ornamental grasses here, pennisetum and panicum, or switchgrass. There are stone blocks that are on the site, and we are proposing to rearrange them and place them between the trees here within the grasses. Further up on Fulbright, after the second, Curb cut, we're maintaining the existing trees and under-planting with more ornamental grasses. And then at the eastern edge of the back lot, at the top of the drawing here, parallel to 93, we're planting four quants and cherry trees, under-planted with evergreen shrubs, Alexaglabra, and more ornamental grasses. And then tucked in behind the new architecture, where the break room is. We do have four bicycle racks there, as well as 11 emerald green or emerald sentinel junipers. They're going to be about, we'll go in at eight to 10 feet high to give some relief to the facade from 93. There'll be turf in the rest of the area back here. Moving to the front of the building, the entrance frame is framed by two plant beds, each with a boxwood spine in those longer plant beds, and sedum, liriope, and penicetum, as well as spirea in these plant beds. There's a short wall and steps making the connection along the pedestrian path here. In the front parking lot, we have one additional Kwanson cherry tree and five honey locusts planted in the islands. So in conclusion, our landscape plan includes eight existing trees to remain and 33 proposed trees. 22 of them are deciduous and 11 of them are evergreen. We have 201 shrubs that will be added in addition to the ones that we're maintaining and 396 perennials or ornamental grasses. I can hand it off to Lee from Regent from here. Thank you.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you, Ms. Lister.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hi, everybody. Lee Hemingway, senior project manager with Regent Associates, and we've been working on the plans and elevations that you see. Dave mentioned a little earlier, a little bit about kind of the flow through the building. And so I'll just quickly go through that again. As Dave mentioned, you can drive your vehicle straight in from the main entrance directly into the service advisors where they'll take your vehicles to get worked on. From there, you can enter directly into your service advisors and discuss your plan of attack for your vehicle. From there, we have a direct access into the bank building through a stairwell and a ramp. And you'll find our business development center there, so people can do some work from their laptops. We'll have some big comfortable chairs there. And then in the same area, we have a little cafe area, so you can grab your coffee or some waters or a snack. While you're inside the bank building, we're going to have a large seating area for customers to relax, and then you can peruse all the new vehicles that they'll have in the showroom. To the right of the showroom is where they'll have the new vehicles that will be purchased, and then the staff will go over all the new perks and all of the all the features of the vehicles from that side. And then there's some sales further inside once you're in that first floor showroom. Switching back over to the new addition, you can see that we've got our car elevator to the right side. And it doesn't connect on this floor, but it does connect on the upper floors. So the access through the new addition is through this location here. Through the center of the building, we've got a two-way ramp to guide you up for parking storage on the second and third floors. And in the far left corner of the new addition, we've got some detail bays for car washing in-house. And directly next to that is where we have our parts department, parts storage, wholesale parts. And then to the right of that, as Dave mentioned, we've got our break room, our staff break room and lunch room, as well as some toilets and locker rooms for them. And that's pretty much the first floor. We want to scroll down to the second floor. Second floor, again, is mostly just vehicle storage. We've got a spot for a photo booth, which is on the lower left corner for taking web pictures for inventory. Now, as I mentioned, there's the attachment to the bank building at this location where the car corridor and our car elevator. So that will be how we'll be getting vehicles onto the second, third, and fourth floors. And then we've got a couple offices and some more sales. We can go to the third floor. And the third floor, again, is very similar. Vehicle storage on the new addition. Car corridor and elevator to the right. And then this floor is basically just going to be vehicle storage and displays. OK, you can go to the fourth floor. Similar as well, this car corridor and connector for this floor, and then some additional spaces for staff, some back of house for the Herb Chambers companies to work with, and some more vehicle displays. And then for the fifth floor, basically, we are just proposing the car corridor connector at this time with no additional work on the fifth floor. And the top view is what you'll see from Mystic Avenue. So as you drive in, you'll see the service reception. That's going to be out of ACM panels, the silver with the red highlight per Toyota. So that portion and then the portion to the right, which is going to be where their service advisors and entrances is all of the same material. So that'll be all ACM. The car elevator connector was also going to be made out of ACM, so the same material. The bulk of the new addition will be made with insulated metal panels. Again, the same color or very similar to what's going to be proposed for the Toyota. And there's going to be a new portal that you'll be entering through at the bank building. You can see like in the outlined blue there. And that's your typical Toyota illuminated portal entrance. So that's the main entrance. If we scroll down, this is what you'll see when you're on the exit ramp or if you're heading 93 North. So you'll see a side of the existing bank building. And then beyond that, you'll see the new addition for service and vehicle storage.

[pgAMiNw28q8_SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: So as plenty of us have been on 93 and sitting in traffic, this is what you'll see. This is the rear of the building. So you can see we have the existing bank building, then the car corridor, five floors, and the car elevator. Again, made out of the same ACM as the bank building. And then the new addition to the right, This will be all out of insulated metal panels, which is, again, the same kind of color. And you can scroll down a little bit. Yep. So this is what you'll see on Fulbright Street. Again, insulated metal panel systems for the new edition. The front of the new edition will be, like I mentioned before, the silver ACM with the red highlight as demanded by Toyota. And beyond that, you'll see the existing bank building. And so minus the trees, this is what you'll see from Mystic Avenue. So this is the main entrance to the building. And I think that's it for me. Anybody else has any feedback or questions.

[JjIkY7Z2rzw_SPEAKER_03]: Yes, madam chair that concludes our presentation and we're happy to answer any questions that the board or the public may have.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you all for your presentation. We truly appreciate it. I'm trying to, I know that there were some significant comments from Director Blake regarding traffic and he's not present with us this evening. And you said that you had sat down with him as well as planner Daniel Evans. And I'm just trying to figure out, I have not heard mention of an access permit. Is it true that you need a mascot access permit and that can actually dictate or impact the recommendations by the city for what you need to do on the site. Can you explain a little bit about that process?

[pgAMiNw28q8_SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's correct, Madam Chair. Again, Dave Newhall with Crocker Design Group. Mystic Ave is a mass DOT right-of-way, so we will need a access permit that we need to apply for from mass DOT. That process, if we have obtained a positive approval from this board, in addition to the ZBA approval we have already, we take our approvals and our plans and we submit those along with our traffic study and our curb cut per their standards. that gets submitted to MassDOT for an access permit, and they'll further review the access that we propose along Mystic Ave, so the radiuses of that curb cut, the width of the curb cut, the movements, as well as the sidewalk, the pedestrian sidewalk along the frontage. that we're posing within their right of way. So they will ultimately have the final say in what we can and can't do within their jurisdiction. Additionally, Todd Blake had made some comments on pedestrian access across the Fulbright Street and then across Mystic Ave. We won't be allowed to do any of those without their approval, those will be included so an added crosswalk across Fulbright Street, making sure our accessible route is there for ADA, as well as any indicators like the pedestrian flashers for crossing Mystic Ave, all of that will have to get permitted through. MassDOT. So we received those comments from Todd Blake, we're working on incorporating them into our site plan set. But ultimately, we receive approval from the board, we would then have to go to DOT and then go through their process in which they'll review their plans. And if there's anything significant that changes during the DOT process, that materially affects the plans that are approved by this board, we would then come back at that time to present the updated plans based off the feedback we received from DOT and their requirements.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you, Mr. Navarre. I'm going to open it up to the board for any further questions. Vice Chair Feldman?

[Emily Hedeman]: You know, I always have a few. Thank you so much for this really thoughtful presentation. I've said this about a few different applicants, but I feel like this is the type of presentation that, you know, Danielle and Alicia, when future applicants come to the board and say, what do we want? This could be a really great model for HRO, very detailed. So thank you so much for that. I'm a Herb Chambers customer. I bought my Honda up in Burlington, so I'm very familiar with the excellent service, you know, the quality of the business. So, you know, just adding that little anecdote. A couple questions. Are you still planning to maintain your Alston location? Because that's kind of like the Herb Chambers in Boston for Toyota.

[pgAMiNw28q8_SPEAKER_01]: That location would be moving to this location.

[Emily Hedeman]: Okay, okay, that's helpful. This feels like a much more accessible location, so that's nice. And I know you already mentioned the landscaping islands and the parking lots, and it sounds like that's still a work in progress, so I don't want to spend too much time on it. I saw that some landscaping islands were removed or relocated, and I think what would be helpful when you come back to us would be to understand a comparison of the permeable space as it was to what it is proposed to be, just to help us kind of understand that, you know, yes, maybe some islands are removed, but, you know, in summation, it's, you know, it's maintained, or ideally, you know, there's a decrease in impermeable space. I would also love to hear about any sustainability initiatives, whether it's tonight or future sessions. So permeable pavers, EV chargers. I know Toyota has some electric options in their fleet. And then I would also be interested in you all looking into solar as part of the feasibility of your project. Solar is very affordable. There's a lot of tax credit programs out there right now. There's actually a dealership, I just looked it up, I think in Texas, which does have a slightly different solar profile than we do, that has a ton of solar panels. You can also look into solar canopies, which serve a dual purpose of renewable energy, plus they protect the cars from sun, snow, hail, bird excrement, whatever you want. So those are just my initial comments. thoughts. Thank you. Okay.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you, vice chair, vice chair. When you, can I just, when you said EV charging stations, so the proponent does have EV charging stations on the site. Do you want more in addition to? That was something that was proposed.

[Emily Hedeman]: I'm sorry, I must have missed that. Thank you for pointing that out to me.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yeah, so there are EV chargers, but I just wanted to, I didn't know if you wanted more in addition because they, they're, Director Blake has also mentioned that he would like to see more as the need arises.

[Emily Hedeman]: Yeah, I would trust Director Blake's expertise there in terms of the quantity and location of those. But yeah, thank you for pointing that out to me, Chair McPherson. I appreciate it.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you so much. And one of the things that, so speaking of that, I wanted to go back. I had not, thank you, Vice Chair Edelman, for bringing up the also location. So that brings more traffic here. And Attorney Marinelli had originally said that the traffic report said there was going to be 656 fewer uses than the former bank. So at this point, I'm just trying to figure out how that ties into the traffic. I guess this is when we need our board member, Peter Cowles, and understanding the impact in that area. So I'm going to trust that you did your traffic report. I don't get into that, but I just, I want to have a little bit more confidence that it will not trigger any kind of more traffic congestion there.

[JjIkY7Z2rzw_SPEAKER_03]: I think, you know, you might find useful to take a look when you have a chance at page 25, which are the conclusions of the chapel engineering. And they did a pretty thorough job on probably like eight or 10 bullet points. You know, the one that I thought was important was the trips per day and the amount that's fewer trips. But it does in the bullet point above that, it does talk about, you know, the amount of cars basically it says the increase is expected to amount to less than one trip per minute during the weekday a.m. peak hours and slightly more than one trip per minute during the Saturday midday peak. So that's the bullet point below the one that I had referred to on page 25. But I think, you know, before the next meeting, if there's any questions on that, maybe through Danielle, you could let us know and we'll get any clarification on anything that you want.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I appreciate that. I know that there are sort of generic codes and it's kind of hard with the actual versus versus existing conditions and trying to forecast for that traffic. So me being a planner myself, I don't usually, traffic studies, they're very helpful, but just knowing the area itself, I usually look for other indicators of confidence, but I appreciate that. I'm going to go with board member, Ari Fishman.

[Ari Fishman]: Thank you, Chair McPherson, and thank you to the applicants for a very clear and detailed presentation. Much appreciated. I have two kind of separate questions. The first one is about the landscaping. I recognized many of the species, but I just wanted to check in about what percentage of them are native. I know a decent percent are, but we have really been trying to push. As high a percentage of native as possible in new developments, especially such large ones and. I can either ask my second question now or wait for a response.

[SPEAKER_12]: I will respond to the first, so I don't distract you. The majority of them are Native, and I would say close to 90% of them are Native. There are a few that certain towns will say are Native, some aren't. But we did aim for Native plants.

[Ari Fishman]: That's wonderful. Thanks so much for confirming. I thought that's what it was. And my second question is on mass transit or public transport access. I know there are a few bus lines that go down Mystic and as we're talking about pedestrian crosswalks, is it near any stops of that bus? And is there any planning that's been developed around making sure that that is a pedestrian safe entrance?

[pgAMiNw28q8_SPEAKER_01]: Yes, sorry I must have skipped over that. There is an existing bus stop enclosure that is located right at the corner of Fulbright and Mystic Ave here. So we are proposing this concrete walkway across our frontage and then this will also extend down. So on-site access, it'll be ADA compliant to this bus enclosure here.

[Ari Fishman]: Lovely, thank you so much.

[pgAMiNw28q8_SPEAKER_01]: You're welcome.

[JjIkY7Z2rzw_SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yes, thank you so much. Actually, Director Blake has captured that. That was one of my concerns, but it was something that was captured within. And so I guess at this point, I'm going to ask the city for clarification if there's anything that you wanted to add before I open it up to public comment. Danielle,

[Danielle Evans]: Thank you, Madam Chair. So when Director Blake and I also discussed this project, and in order to encourage employees and folks to come on public transit, so they can arrive at that bus stop that's on the north side of north, where's the north arrow? Well, on the curb chamber side of the, of Mystic app, but when they're crossing the street to take the return trip, there's actually no bus shelter there. So one of the recommendations from director Blake was to perhaps provide one. I think that might need to go through DOT approval, but that was a suggestion, I believe in the memo, So, yes, it was in charge, but also leaving was there. Was there anything that was agreed upon and meeting with director Blake. But other pedestrian safety. Encouraging these, these mode shifts away from trips.

[pgAMiNw28q8_SPEAKER_01]: So in our meeting with Ms. Spike, nothing was formally agreed to. We took his feedback. Now we're just, we would need to get DOT to allow us to do that for us to actually agree to do it. We need to be able to be allowed to through DOT to add the bus shelter and the pedestrian access across the street to improve those. So, With DOT approval, we would be able to do it, but we just wouldn't have that at this time to be able to agree to that.

[Danielle Evans]: And if I could add another aspect of MassDOT and their approval. So we recently had another project further up the Stigav where they applied for their access permit and it wasn't The full access was not granted. There were turning movement limitations, so there was no left in, no left out. So it was all right in, right out. Do you have a backup plan if that is what they decide for this site as well, and how that might impact queuing of cars? And that throws the whole study off of where cars will be going, where trips will records will be going instead of, you know, uneven disbursement, they're all going to be shunted a different way.

[pgAMiNw28q8_SPEAKER_01]: We haven't formally studied the restricted access, but we would shift access for employees or for customers really who would be impacted by this curb cut would be using the Mystic Ave curb cut to then take this left here onto Fulbright and use the first access point here to then come in and take a right and access the site to get the service into sales. But that's something we will certainly look into and make sure that our traffic study has addresses that if that becomes the case during our DLT permitting process, you can have an idea of how that might may impact.

[Danielle Evans]: Yes, through the chair, because if. If the access permit isn't granted, you know, doesn't go the way that you, as a requesting, then it could cause changes to the site plan requiring you to come back. So I'm wondering if there needs to be a plan B for if you're not able to get the turning movements.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And if there's a plan B, it would help with the process going forward because the board can vote on an administrative process for the city to actually, for planning staff to approve as opposed to you coming back before us. So that's something to keep in mind if you do have a plan B. We've learned our lessons previously.

[pgAMiNw28q8_SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Director Hunt?

[Alicia Hunt]: Thank you, Madam Chair. I actually wanted to follow up on the bus, sorry, the bus access and the pedestrian access. I wasn't quite following. So it is very reasonable to me to expect that both employees and customers would take advantage of the bus route there, right? Drop off your car, hop the bus to Boston, pick it up on your way home, et cetera. And I wasn't quite following how people what the safe pedestrian route was from the bus shelter to the front of the business, or to the back of the business if it was for employees or, or both. I just wanted to follow up on that. And then I had a second completely unrelated question.

[pgAMiNw28q8_SPEAKER_01]: To answer that question. for the employee access and what we had discussed yesterday with Director Blake was to continue this concrete sidewalk along our frontage and then align it with this concrete apron here so if we have employees that finishing up their shift here and they're leaving for the day they can walk have a safe passage it will require us and we're working on those updates for this relocated curb cut on Fulbright so that they'll have access going straight down to Fulbright Street and then along Fulbright Street and then along this concrete walkway to the bus enclosure here. Additionally, they could walk along the building as well. Access for for customers would likely come from this area here and across my bring up a very good point of how they get there. Extending this walkway up our entrance will be something we will add to address that, whether it be across the curb cut here and up this way, and then provide some cross hatching and some painted marks to alert drivers that there will be pedestrian crossing here to then access the bus stop would be the best way to do that.

[Alicia Hunt]: Thank you. And then actually, I realized just sort of the entrance that you're proposing there off of Route 20. What are we 38? That is actually the same location as the existing one. Is that can you just confirm? Is that correct?

[pgAMiNw28q8_SPEAKER_01]: It is not the same location. The existing location is actually And this is just approximate, but somewhere over here ish and just shifted a little further this way a little farther away from the off ramp.

[Alicia Hunt]: Okay, so that does actually play in that the mass dot access permit is actually a. In my mind, if it was the exact same location, it might not be so subject to their, you know, thoughts. So, so that's helpful on the other. So, the. As just a piece of advice, I think this has come up before, but I would recommend that you have. significant bike parking for employees. It doesn't, the area is not wonderfully bike accessible at this time. We do have bicyclists who do bike down here to go into Boston. Usually anybody going a long distance is actually going on the bike path that is behind you along the highway. But I do, we are seeing more and more and local people biking to work. So I would encourage you to make sure you have some facilities so they feel that their bicycles are secure while they're working. And then having a few for customers. I know Director Blake spoke to that, but the employee ones I think are very realistic, will be well used. If I had a smaller bike, maybe I would take it with me, drop the car off and then take my bike back to work. Um, so I just want to mention that and then the solar, we have a solar ordinance that requires that new and major renovations, uh, study solar, uh, and then typically, uh, put solar on the roofs of their buildings. As long as the solar studies say that they are, uh, make sense. I can't imagine why it wouldn't make sense at this location. So I just want to make sure you're aware of that. And we encourage that as early as possible before building permits, but it's good if you want any waivers that they should come through with the site plan review. And yeah, to get a waiver, you'd have to provide a study showing that it's not possible. So yeah, so I encourage that.

[pgAMiNw28q8_SPEAKER_01]: to respond to both of those points. So part of our discussion with Director Blake was in this back area here for employees. I believe he said in the range of enough for 12 bicycle spaces in his comments here. And again, putting it along the backside of the building here since our employees will be in this area here. Assuming that 12 is kind of a good number for that, we're acceptable to that and adding that to the next round of revisions to address that comment.

[Alicia Hunt]: As far as- I would just add, if you have the ability to put it roofed and or caged, I would highly recommend that as somebody, we have a number of staff who bike to City Hall in the rain. And it's nice when your bike is not soaking wet when you leave the building, so.

[pgAMiNw28q8_SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we can certainly look into if there may be a location inside the building as well in there if there's any, any room but and then to proof outside as well. It will certainly look into that. And then, I'm sorry what was your second point was solar sorry. Yes. So, we have. contracted with a solar company to initiate that process, get a preliminary layout of solar. And now we're just in the back and forth process where they see a roof, and now we just have equipment for the building that goes on the roof. So now just trying to do the jigsaw puzzle of getting solar on the roof to meet the requirements of that ordinance that you had mentioned. So we're in that process. We do have a solar consultant that we are working with, um, to do our best to meet that.

[Danielle Evans]: Um, well, we spoke yesterday, or I think it was yesterday or the day before, and I brought up the same point that Vice Chair Hedeman did about exploring solar canopy carports, especially over the storage area in the middle. Did you look into that or can you have your solar consultant look into that because I do think it would be a win win of protecting the cars and I didn't even think about for a good point. And also that would. you wouldn't have to put the landscape islands under there. So it could be a wash of what, how many spaces you would lose for these, the supports. I'm not an expert, so hopefully you would have a sort of result looking at the feasibility of that. So trying to get away from a large parking fields and how to better use them when they are present.

[pgAMiNw28q8_SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so like we had said, and to your point for our conversation that we had with you yesterday morning, we do have the solar consultant on board for the roof, and now we're engaging them to take a look at the solar canopies. Kind of the first step was running it through our client, through Herb Chambers, because that's something that they don't have at any of their other dealerships. Obviously, it affects the visibility of cars and the businesses to sell vehicles. So it's not something that they're accustomed to. And they haven't done it before. So obviously, it's something new. So we are in the process of gathering that information. We've provided them with locations where we've seen this done, where they can go see it in person, as well as engaging the solar consultants to see if that's something that may be a fit here. We do have a few different elements out in this inventory parking area that can become a challenge as you had mentioned with the supports. We have the plastic chamber system here that is subsurface that is existing, and then also another one here. So those do limit where maybe those supports could go in this area, as well as some other drainage structures and subsurface pipes going through this area that aren't shown here. So those are some of the limitations, but we do have a solar consultant on board, and we are exploring the possibility to see if that's something that might be a fit for this location.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you so much. There's no other questions. I'm going to open it up for public comments since the public hearing this evening. So those who wish to provide comments can use the raise hand feature or message to Young McConnish. You can also send an email to OCD at welfare-ma.gov. 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 the participants have an audio or other technical difficulties, this may be entered into the chat to let myself and staff Danielle, can you manage the comment queue and read any previously sent emails or letters?

[Danielle Evans]: I see one raised hand, Ken Kraus.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Mr. Kraus? Yes, thank you. Can you state your name and address?

[Krause]: Certainly, it's a can Krause and I live at 50 mystic street in Medford. I'm in favor of this project as was stated by someone else. I also purchased a car at. Herb Chambers a couple years ago, a wonderful hybrid RAV4, have actually been taking my service needs to Woburn Toyota, honestly, for a number of reasons. But this project looks very comparable to the Woburn setup, which is very high tech and very state of the art. So I have a feeling my Service work might be coming back to Medford at some point, but two comments I want to make. One, specifically, I wanted to use this opportunity to register a comment about the historical context of the site of the three-story building that's going to be removed. The proponent may or may not know, but this site was for about 50 years the home of the Ballaroo roller skating rank. It was truly a Medford institution that attracted skaters from not just Medford but throughout the region for for social skating and for competitions and it really was a landmark from about the 1930s to the I know the building has been approved for demolition. I'm not suggesting that it not be replaced, but I think there is some bones of the, if not the original building, certainly an older version of it. Attorney Marinelli mentioned at the Board of Appeals meeting that there were some wood piles still existing, and part of the reason why they needed to tear it down was those were just not conducive to remain for what they want to build. What I would like to ask of the proponent, though, is that as they prepare the plans for furnishing the interior, that they give consideration to acknowledging the previous use of this site for five decades and perhaps in the seating area, display some photos or maybe on the video board of what this site previously was. I mean, there are a lot of uses dating back centuries that we could think about acknowledging appropriately as well, but I think it would be appropriate to acknowledge this 20th century use if possible. I know Mr. Chambers has an affinity for local history, particularly his own Dorchester neighborhood, so I'm hoping that the proponent would be open to acknowledging the local history of this site as they furnish the the inside of the facility. Secondly, looking at the proposal, I'm confident that Todd Blake has done a good job in assessing the accessibility needs. It jumped out at me like in the image that's shown there that the bus stop was gone and there's no sidewalk in front of the building. I'm glad to hear that a lot of that has been already addressed and will be added to the plan. I mean, in a perfect world, we'd want to continue a sidewalk up and down Mystic Avenue. There's a lot of mixed-use development envisioned for this corridor. It's going to look a lot different than it does currently in the next few years. Continuing the sidewalk past the site towards Somerville, maybe unrealistic, especially with the I-93 ramp there, but I'm happy to see that the crossing is going to be improved because a lot of people will be walking to this point and then probably crossing the street to continue their journey. One little tweak that I'd like you to consider with the sidewalk, if you look at the property next door. I think it's a Volkswagen dealership. They have a sidewalk there that is very beautifully designed. There's a concrete sidewalk with about a eight foot or so, maybe even wider grass median between the sidewalk and the street. The landscape plan that I saw here, I'm glad to see the sidewalk has been added to the bus stop, but it looks like it's right up against the curb and That is less safe for one thing. It's also hazardous when snow plows come by and push the snow up onto the sidewalk and people splash as they drive by in their cars. So, if possible, it would be a more attractive and a more safe design if there was some way to move it back from directly against the curb so there was a bit of a buffer there as there is at the sidewalk in front of the adjacent property. I know that the driveway is right up against the back of the bus stop in that landscape area but If you could possibly look at that and see if there's a way to move that sidewalk from directly up against the curb, so there'd be a little bit of a buffer that would be appreciated and the last comment would be also. if Herb Chambers would commit to keeping that sidewalk clear in the winter. Sometimes these little stretches of sidewalk sort of become orphaned and they aren't always maintained. So in the plans for keeping the whole complex free of snow, I'd hope that sidewalk that's gonna be along Mystic Avenue would be included in the snow maintenance plan. So those are my comments, I thank you.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you, Mr. Cross. And we didn't have any other, so I appreciate your comments. And I didn't want to cut you off at the two minute mark because we don't have any other comments coming in. I'm going to allow the proponent to decide if they want to respond now or just keep in mind what Mr. Cross has mentioned.

[pgAMiNw28q8_SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we can respond on the sidewalk. Our consideration was obviously the bus stop that's there today and there's a sidewalk there as well to reconstruct that and in a similar location and extend it further. We'll certainly take a look to see if there's a way to possibly provide a landscape buffer, as you mentioned, similar to next door. um the reasoning for not continuing down down mystic is because the off-ramp there there's really nowhere to go from there so um as as as todd blake had mentioned and improving this access for pedestrians going across the street and visibility is kind of more of our focus that we think would be more worthwhile than better used um as far as the Committing to any snow removal or to the plaque I'd have to defer to to john on this call if he wants to comment on that now or or or just Think it through on their end and we can respond to that at a later time So with that if john wants to comment, I'll turn it over to him.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: It's definitely something for you to take with you. Um, don't um at this point, it's it's it's you're not um If you can just take uh, mr. Cross's comments into consideration and and just respond accordingly going forward.

[pgAMiNw28q8_SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Okay, thank you so much. I appreciate it. And Mr. Cross, we appreciate your input. Danielle, do you have any other comments to read into from the queue or from emails?

[Danielle Evans]: I don't see any other raised hands. I will check our general mailbox, see if anything has come in since I last checked. I don't see any comments that have come in.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I'm going to close the public comment period for this meeting. And I'm going to ask for clarification if the board has any clarifying comments or questions going forward. Just to remind the board that we will not be voting this evening. The proponent will be coming back before us with revised site plans as per recommendations of Todd Blake and other department heads, including the PDS staff. But if there's any last other additional recommendations you want to give before we continue their hearing to a date certain which would be June 26. hearing none, and actually before I ask for a motion, I just wanted to just circle back really quick to Mr. Cross and let you know that I definitely, I didn't want to put the performant on the spot right now. I wanted him to take your recommendations into full consideration to be able to offer an appropriate response for you. So that's why I didn't. I wanted to move it for them to think about it going forward with us. So coming back to June 26, if I can have a motion to continue the hearing for 400 Mystic Avenue to June 26. I'll make the motion. That's Vice Chair Henneman. And do I have a second motion?

[Ari Fishman]: I second.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Okay, so that's, so roll call, Vice Chair Edelman?

[Unidentified]: Aye.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ari Fishman? Aye. Sally Akiki? Yes. And myself, Jackie McPherson, I'm an aye. Thank you so much, Attorney Ron Valley, Mr. Walsh, and all that have presented this evening. We will see you on June 26th.

[JjIkY7Z2rzw_SPEAKER_03]: Thank you very much, Madam Chair and members of the board, and for your time and attention, and for all of the comments, appreciate it. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you very much.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Have a good evening.

[Unidentified]: You as well.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Danielle has our I just want to make sure before I know we're going to do the next item, but just for the A&R is has the performance showed up for 79 Jeremiah circle?

[Danielle Evans]: Yes, I see him now. I'm Sam Ibrahim.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: All right, so I am going to invite the board to present for 79 Jeremiah, just to remind the board that this is an approval not required. We are specifically looking to make sure that it meets the frontage right requirements and adequate access. So at that point, if I can, Ms. Ibrahim, if you can go ahead. You're on mute. Let's see.

[Danielle Evans]: Asked to unmute him. All right. I'm going to share my screen. Thank you. Show the planes. Can everybody see those?

[SPEAKER_06]: I can, yes.

[Danielle Evans]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_06]: So this right here is my house at 9 Jeremiah Circle and this is my next-door neighbor of 40 plus years. So a few years ago we built a pool back here. and the distance from here to the to my fence uh is a bit narrow so I had asked him if uh if I could get a small narrow piece of land from him and and he actually without hesitation he says you can have anything you want so So I hired Medford Engineering. I know they've done work with the city of Medford with all this stuff. So they came in and planned all of this. And they maintained this as my next door neighbor's lot remains. meeting all the approvals. The frontage is unaffected because this is the front of the street right here. And as you see, the four foot wide parcel of land by 62 feet long starts in the middle of the lot, passing by the corner of his house. After the rear right corner of his house expires, then that small forefoot section starts. So none of his house and the setbacks or anything is affected by it. And the size of his lot remains above 7,000 square feet, which is the minimum required. which is why I learned the word ANR. So I guess that's really the only thing I'm asking for and that's pretty much it.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you, Mr. Ibrahim. I want to make sure that so this doesn't change the frontage at all does.

[SPEAKER_06]: No, the frontage. This is Jeremiah circle right here. Yes. So and right over here is South Water Road, and he is number seven and then follow that as number nine. So the frontage of his was as a 65 feet remained. And mine was 65 feet and it also remained no changes there. The only change, the only change happened is when you come in from Jeremiah's circle in between his house and mine if you walk on the grass once you pass by his house several feet later is when it starts so the rear the rear lot line will change by four feet the front does not change

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: The real lot line, so that does not affect access. Can the city help me with this one? It does not sound like it's affecting access at all.

[SPEAKER_06]: No, DCR is behind us.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_06]: There's about one square mile of woods behind our houses. As you see in the bottom left, you see number 61 there, because his lot is rectangular, 65 in the front, 65 in the back. If you deduct four feet out of that 65 year down to 61, which is what he now would have after this.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Okay, thank you so much. So, To clarify for the board, basically, again, we're looking at the front on the right-of-way. Does it satisfy the minimum frontage requirements, which is 35 feet at least? And is there vital access to the lights provided? And based on Mr. Ibrahim's presentation, I would ask for a motion to endorse the plan as an A&R. I don't see any other reason not to.

[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: It doesn't need approval, but it needs an endorsement for not needing approval. Yes, Vice Chair Herman.

[Emily Hedeman]: Two things. I was going to ask if we could put the visuals back up, but this is great too, Danielle. And then my other question was just, besides like a procedural thing, Why are we doing this? The city of Medford, oh, sorry.

[SPEAKER_06]: Go ahead, I'm sorry.

[Emily Hedeman]: It was more like, yeah, sorry.

[SPEAKER_06]: Originally, when we put the swimming pool in.

[Emily Hedeman]: So you're the pool owner.

[SPEAKER_06]: Correct.

[Emily Hedeman]: Okay, yes.

[SPEAKER_06]: So when we put the swimming pool in, we put the fence in and there's about a six to seven foot area there. Okay, this is more of a convenience thing. It's not like a life and death thing. So it's, it's, there's just not quite enough room to get around the other side of the pool if you put a lounge chair in there. And you know, I didn't really do a full study on where the sun and all of that happened. So with my mistake, So we find ourselves sitting on that side, you know, abutting his fence, or on my fence really, abutting his lot. So, you know, we thought if we had a little bit more breathing room in there, uh, to, uh, to have, uh, a little bit more like, you know, just so we can get around the pool. And, um, you know, uh, now I've got a couple of grandchildren that are freshly born. So I just, you know, for safety for that part of it, just so when they get around or they're running around and stuff like that. you know, there's enough room there for them to walk around. So I asked him if I could purchase so that he said, you don't need to purchase it, you can you can have whatever you want. So, so, so that's kind of where we came up to. And when I, you know, called Chuck Viniciano from Medford Engineering, who is the person I've dealt with in the past when we did the addition or the pool and any of that stuff. uh you know he did the work on it then he said you know he he gave me those three letters this is a and r but uh so whatever that meant but so he said you know you gotta go down go through the process and get their stamp yeah that's all fine so yeah the the applicant that signed the form aa is that your neighbor No, he hasn't signed anything. The only thing that Okay, from what I understand is going to be signed by him is once once we get your approval, then I give it to the attorney, my attorney, he's gonna redo the deed. And that's when my next door neighbor will sign whatever paperwork needs to be signed. So my attorney can go and re register the deed with the new

[Emily Hedeman]: With this, I'm just confused, though, because it says applicants certify that they are the owners of the subject property, and the subject properties are seven and nine. We have you in front of us, we have potentially your signature, I just want to make sure we're not doing this, like, I totally believe you. And I'm honestly, very happy that you and your, your neighbor have such a wonderful relationship that, you know, you've been able to work this out. But I just um, you know, verify.

[SPEAKER_06]: So I'm happy to get I believe when we did that, when I went to do the paperwork, I maybe by we, we thought we were only needed one application to fill it.

[Emily Hedeman]: So I don't know how it's for two different properties, seven and nine Jeremiah circle. And it looks like both applicant fields have been highlighted at some point yet only one is signed.

[SPEAKER_06]: Okay, so do you need me to I don't know.

[Emily Hedeman]: I don't know. I just like I don't want to give our approval with one party Well, I mean you're you're like present and I guess that uh, mr. Abraham This is the last question for you and maybe more question for the city because if we don't need both and great Yeah, but if we do then I'll leave that up to daniela. We just want to be intentional about it. Thank you

[Danielle Evans]: Madam Chair, I do have the plan that's signed by your neighbor.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yeah, this is what I'm looking at.

[Danielle Evans]: I am seeing more, this one I have, and that's the one that I put into the... Yeah, this is, it's part of the materials, the meeting materials.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I just want, that's what I'm trying to double check as Lily was asking.

[Emily Hedeman]: Is more the neighbor? Yes. Yes. Okay. Okay, good. Yeah, that's the one I was asking about.

[Danielle Evans]: Yeah, I think there was, I think there was just some confusion.

[Emily Hedeman]: Yeah. Yeah. No, no issues. No questions. Congratulations on having a great neighbor neighbor relationship.

[SPEAKER_06]: It can be very rare these days. You can have this is good neighbors and I got one on each side. Very nice.

[Emily Hedeman]: I might say something nice about you to Mr. Abraham.

[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, you know, you have to be good to people around you if you want them to be good to you. You know, Thank you very much for your time. Danielle, I'll email you tomorrow to see what the next process is.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: One second, Mr. Abraham. Abraham, before you leave, we just wanted to make sure we got Vice Chair Hederman's, we still haven't voted as a board. Oh, I apologize. This is all. No, it's okay. No, it's totally okay. She had a great, Vice Chair Hederman brought up a great question, and I knew that I had seen something on the site plan, but it's, I think it was just the way that the information was presented, and so now we're all back. And I can ask for a motion to endorse the ANR 47 and 9 Jeremiah circle.

[Emily Hedeman]: I'll make the motion.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And can I have a second?

[Ari Fishman]: I can second.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Oh, Sally can have it. And so roll call vice chair Hederman. Aye. In Arby Fishman. Aye. Sally Akiki. Aye. and myself, Jackie McPherson. Thank you so much.

[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you. Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you.

[Emily Hedeman]: Have fun by the pool this summer. Thank you.

[SPEAKER_06]: Thanks a lot. Danielle, I'll reach out by email to you later. Thank you.

[Alicia Hunt]: Thank you. Have a good night. Madam Chair, just before you move on, I will just remind the board that you have the document on file that I can sign an A&R on behalf of all the members. So nobody has to come in and sign this. I can just sign the document for him probably tomorrow.

[SPEAKER_06]: Sounds good. I'll reach out to Danielle whenever it's ready. I'll come and get it and take it to the attorney to move forward with it. Thank you. Thanks again. I appreciate it.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you. Have a great evening.

[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you. Thanks.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Okay, so the next item on our agenda for this evening is zoning amendments. And I believe there was a city council paper number 24-033 where they refer it to us for this evening. And I will read the public hearing notice. The Medford Community Development Board shall conduct a public hearing on June 5th, 2024 at 6.30 PM via Zoom. remote video conferencing relative to the following proposed amendments to the City of Medford zoning ordinance. One, amending the format of the table of use and parking regulations to replace the parking and loading code columns with specific parking and loading requirements. Amending section 94-12, which is definitions, to add new defined terms and revise existing definitions. Number three, adopt a new GIS-based digital zoning map. Adoption of the new map format is not intended to result in any material changes to the zoning of any parcels within the city, but is intended to confirm the best information available to the city regarding the existing zoning destination for all properties in the city. Number four, amending sections 94.1-4, 94.6.3-3, section 2, 9411.7.2, section 4, and 94-12, to exempt municipal uses from certain use parking and dimensional requirements. A link to the public hearing is posted on the city's website at medford.ma.org. Okay, so I'm going to request at this point for Alicia or Danielle to please give us a to introduce the consultant and to give us a brief update or introductory comments.

[Alicia Hunt]: Do you want me to do that, Danielle? Sure. Good evening, Madam Chair, as you all know the zoning process when there's a zoning change occurring. And I think Emily may touch on some of this, but, uh, the zoning changes proposed to the city council, they must refer it to this board for your opinions and and review. And then you send that back to the city council and then they can vote it for approval. For background, this is actually coming from as a joint project between our office and the city council that we hired Emily Ennis several months ago to work with us on a rezoning update. And this is the very first stage in that with some smaller things to set the stage for a larger zoning revamp. It is the intention of the city to be looking more broadly about dimensions and uses and map lines, et cetera. In order to do that, we are doing a couple of more minor changes to help set the way for that. And so Emily's here this evening to present what we currently have in the works.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And.

[Emily Innes]: Good evening, Madam Chair. Good evening, members of the CBB. Very nice to see you all. I need to be able to share my screen if that's possible. Aha, beautiful. Thank you so much for whoever turned that on. So my name is Emily Ennis from Innes Associates. As Alicia said, we have been starting to work with you all on this project. I'm going to just run through a couple of initial things just to set the stage for where we are now. And then we can go through the individual pieces at your pleasure. We can stop and chat, or I can go through the whole piece. So I think you've already mentioned the agenda, so that's just what we have here. This is the project team that is working on this project. So myself, Paula Ramos-Martinez, who's a senior urban designer and planner, Jimmy Rocha, who's not only our spatial analyst and data scientist, but is actually a resident of Medford. So he's been great for on-the-ground information. And then Jonathan Silverstein from Blattman, Bobrowsky, Haverty, and Silverstein is providing a legal review of the code changes, the ordinance changes, as we move through the process. So you will see all of these faces at some point. Working on a actually it's a year and a bit project we started in March, and to update several sections of the zoning ordinance and they fall into two four major buckets. One is missing elements from the recodification. So when the city did the recodification earlier, it was really to, it was more of a formatting change and a filling in some of the missing pieces change, but it was happening about the same time as a comprehensive plan. So there was some things in the recodification that were known, the city knew that they wanted to make some changes, but because of the scope of a recodification, they didn't happen then. So there's some administrative pieces, there's some definitions, there's some other technical pieces like that. Then I mentioned the comprehensive plan. We're also looking at the second bucket, which is past planning efforts. So the comprehensive plan the climate action plan, the area planning studies, all of those have had zoning recommendations. So we're looking at those piece by piece. And then the mayor and city councilors have made suggestions. You also are welcome to make suggestions from your experience working with the zoning on a regular basis. And we have a memo where we're tracking suggestions that come in and figuring out which bucket those need to go into. And so some of those have been accessory dwelling units, transportation demand management, inclusionary zoning. There have been some other pieces in there. We've also talked with your building commissioner and he's made some suggestions, some of which are coming forward in the definitions and some of which we're adding at a later date. And then just general best practices as we walk through the zoning. Are there pieces that we have seen other communities address that should be addressed in this process? So Alicia mentioned that this is the first round that's coming through. We're calling this the small plates round. It's whetting the appetite for the bigger changes that are coming up. We're also looking as we evaluate the small plates and sort of start this process in these bite-sized pieces, we're also looking at whether or not there are citywide policies where a zoning change is affecting the entire city. What does that mean, for example, some of the climate action plan may affect the entire city. And then we're looking at area studies so are there zoning changes that might affect very specific areas and there have been a couple that have come up in the past part of this process we're going to revisit Mystic Avenue is one of those. Medford Square is one that's been mentioned, the city's doing other work in other parts of the city and so we want to incorporate those as other planning processes happen. So the idea is that we do the small plates by the end of this month, maybe take a little bit into July on those. Then we're going to be starting to look at the citywide elements and then start to focus on the area studies. So we're close to the end of the phase one small bites meeting with you tonight. and then the next two meetings of the Planning and Permitting Committee. We're going to continue discussing the next steps. Those steps are prioritizing the zoning recommendations from the Climate Adaptation Action Plan and from the Comprehensive Plan. We are doing a lot of mapping analyses, so citywide analyses, and that includes thinking about Non conformities among others. So, watch when we look at the current zoning, which areas, which parcels are non conforming at several different levels. We are also prepping our prioritization of the neighborhoods, quarters and squares by mapping transit recreation. open space, all the things that you'd like to know before you start the neighborhood studies. And then that will lead into our next step of working with city staff and then the planning permitting committee to get to those neighborhoods, quarters, and squares. An early one may be Mystic Avenue, just because we've had so much work that has been done on that. We want to revisit that and see if that's an option. But there are certainly others that we see as priorities. And the terminology for neighborhoods, corridors, and squares comes directly out of the work of the comprehensive plan that was identified then. So that's the broad view of what we're doing over the next year and a half to finish by June 2026. For tonight. You had already Madam Chair mentioned the buckets that we're looking at tonight. The first is the table of uses so your current table of land uses includes your parking regulations, and they're all a letter code. So somebody has to who's who's interested in doing something has to go to the table of uses. look at the letter code A, B, or C, and then go to the table of parking regulations and figure out what that code meant. And the thought was that it would be a lot easier if the parking regulations could be just right next to the use, so you can see it there. keeping people from having to go to multiple places, maybe making a mistake and thinking that they were a B and actually they're a D and they just go forward on that. So it's just easier to do that. So I believe you have in your packet the entire table and I can certainly pull it up as well. But what you see here is just the first page of that. And that is all. We're not changing. It's important to know that we are not changing the parking regulations at all. We're just replacing the existing code with the number of spaces required for that particular use. The next thing that we're talking about tonight is definitions. And we have two sections of those. One of which you see here is the terms to be modified. The other is new definitions that we'd like to add. I do have a slide for each of the definitions. So I'm going to hold off showing those until we get into that discussion. And then I'm gonna make you briefly very dizzy. The final thing to talk about tonight, at least from our perspective, is a municipal site plan review language. We are recommending that the city modify this language to allow for city projects to come through the municipal site plan review, not to be subject to the dimensional standards, but to create a point at which the public can have a voice in the overall process. That is primarily what that language is about. And then, as you mentioned, Madam Chair, you're also looking at adopting the new digital zoning map. So I'm going to stop there and just check in with you to see if you would prefer to take these one at a time, especially in terms of the definitions. I don't want to read out each definition, but unless you would prefer that, but I can certainly put them up on the screen as we go through each definition. I also have the memoranda that you have in your pocket that I can put up if you need to see the whole thing as part of the screen. Alicia or Danielle, I don't know if you want to add anything at this point before we start discussion. Okay, great. In that case, Madam Chair, I would recommend maybe we start with the table of uses and go from there. Yes, please proceed. Thank you. If I switch over, do you see a memorandum format at this point? Yes. Okay, good. I just wanted to make sure I'd share the screen instead of the document. You should have this memorandum from us. It gives the entire table of use and parking regulations just to orient anybody who may be at home who's seeing this for the first time. What we are changing is in this bright yellow-orange on my screen. Again, these were all just letter codes and now we are just simply changing them to the number of spaces either per dwelling unit or per guest room or whatever the requirement is for use. Again, we're not changing the actual parking requirements themselves. So I think for the table of uses, that's really the only part of the presentation.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yes. I think at this point, it's preferable if you just go through everything, and I guess we can ask questions at the end.

[Emily Innes]: Great. Then I will go on to the definitions. So in terms of the ones to be modified, we have accessories. So there has been a question about Accessory use versus accessory structure. So we've changed that and I'll show you the one by one. We're changing some of the definitions about different types of dwellings. The definition for mobile home and you'll see when we get to it that we are adding additional definitions for manufactured home. and tiny home, and the definition of the yard. So you have a definition of accessory structure. We're adding a definition of accessory use. It was just accessories. So we're going to, the changes here throughout this, if it's bolded and underlined, it means we're adding text. If it's strikethrough, it means we're deleting text and the terms to be modified. So we're recommending that you change your definition of accessory to accessory use, a use customarily, incidental to, and on the same lot or group of lots as a conforming principle use. For dwelling multiple, we're going to, we're recommending that you change the dwelling, this definition to be consistent with section 3A of the Zoning Act. And so the bold text and underlined below is that definition with the addition of defining some building types as well. So just because we're anticipating seeing those in other parts of the zoning. You do have a division between class A and class B multifamily, although we're going to recommend at some point that that division be removed. We're not ready to do that yet because there's some other types of work that we need to do before we can do that. We need to look at the districts themselves and the standards in the districts. So for now, we're recommending that you keep the class A, class B division, but we anticipate coming back to you for that. The other thing that we're recommending is removing the word family, single family and two family out and refer to units instead. This is a change that we're seeing in a number of communities rather than defining a family as somebody who's occupying a space. a household or a unit. So we're talking about single units. Again, you're seeing some references to some building types. So you can have a single-family attached dwelling, which is also known as a row house, a two-family detached, also known as a duplex. We're trying to clarify some terms that we've seen elsewhere to make it easier for people to understand what we mean. The next one, dwelling unit itself. So we're removing the word family from the definition of a dwelling unit and referring to the word household instead. You can also see that we are removing mobile home as a definition and replacing it with manufactured home, which is much more of the current standard. And as I said, you'll see when we add the add the definitions later on that we have some other definitions around this. And this was getting I believe this is one of the ones that the building commissioner requested us to do because there was some confusion between mobile homes manufactured homes. Tiny homes, so this helps to clarify those. And then the other thing that we've seen is a misunderstanding between yards and setbacks. So setback is a dimension and yard is an area. So we're recommending that the current definitions of yard be removed and that they be replaced with these definitions which make it clear. that a yard is an area. And we've added, in addition to just the definition of a yard, also the definition of front side and rear yards, the different types of yards. So those are all the terms to be modified the terms to be defined as new terms. Some of these are coming from the building commissioner. Some are coming from other areas. So we're adding doggie daycare as a use so that it is distinct from a kennel. That was a request from the building commissioner. We're adding factory built home, which is not the same as a manufactured home. So a manufactured home, the definition is that we showed you earlier is really about a building that is built completely. Transferred to the site and then basically installed on the site a factory built home. You may have seen some of these where the panels are built within the factory, but when they're assembled on site, and you can't tell the difference between that. or a building that's been, say, stick built on the site. It is a new way of manufacturing housing to reduce the waste, but it's different from an entire unit that was built on site and then is transferred in one or more pieces, but essentially built to the site. So we're trying to define that. Defining institutional use, we're anticipating that we will have some additional administrative changes at some point. that will need that definition. So we're putting it in now. We're defining junkyards to go beyond just automotive junkyards and adding in some additional criteria around a junkyard. Redefining mixed use again, and this mixed use is the section 3A of the Zoning Act definition. Defining the class three motor vehicle use. This was another request from building commissioner and defining neighborhood cafe as distinct from a restaurant. Again, we're anticipating some changes to the districts at some point that we're going to need this definition. Tiny home movable and stationary really goes to the manufactured versus factory build homes that we talked about earlier. And here's where we talk about the yard setback to increase the differentiation between setback, the dimension, and yard, the area. And then finally, the municipal site plan review, I mentioned earlier, these are the sections that need to be changed in order to allow for city projects to come before the city board for review for the public comment, but still exempts it from the dimensional standards, which is consistent with many communities. And that is it, Madam Chair.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Anyone unmute me. Thank you so much. We appreciate your presentation. At this time, I'm going to defer to the city and see if you want to add anything before I open it up to the board for clarifying the questions.

[Alicia Hunt]: Madam Chair, this is wonderful. We've been working with Emily for quite a while on it. I had one question, which maybe even is a legal question, but the lawyer's not here tonight, so I'd rather just be comprehensive. I noticed in the table of uses, one of the things, and I did want to call your attention to, was that when we added in these the parking codes directly so you're not going back and forth. We do have some reductions, and so they're in there with a footnote. In my mind, the footnote should be in the parking column so that somebody who's looking for a parking information will see that there's a footnote on that. And that's where we reduce the amount of parking for affordable units and for transit oriented units, and whether the location of the footnote is something that the board needs to recommend versus just that's an administrative could be changed. And whether there's any reason why it shouldn't be where I think it should be. I'm not always right.

[Emily Innes]: I'm just looking at your footnotes. Madam Chair, I think I can respond if that's possible. I think if the CD board members voted tonight and then requested as part of the vote to put the footnote numbers, I think it was a typographical error. I see we've got one of the footnote numbers, but not the others. So if you made as part of your vote a recommendation to add those, I think just from a typographical issue, that would make sense.

[Alicia Hunt]: Right, I see them, so it's clear they're on under A residential lines, two, the second, three, four, and five have a little footnote number of four under the residential use name column, but on the PC loading code, at the very top PC footnote five is on the PC, but those fours should be in the yellow column. Agreed, yeah. And Madam Chair, that's it, that's all I have.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I do have, I just wanted to know in the definitions, Ms. Stenz, you had said that the factory built versus manufactured, the only difference was that one was built in a factory and put on site, and then one was actually built on site. I could have that backwards, or did I get that wrong?

[Emily Innes]: It's slightly more complex than that. They're both, The pieces of the structure are both built in a factory. The difference is the manufactured home, I'm just going back to the definition so I don't mess it up. So the manufactured home, the entire structure is assembled. It's not just the components are built, the entire structure is actually assembled off site and it may be split into two, but it is still transported as that full structure. Whereas the factory built, all the panels, all the components are assembled on site. So the walls, the pieces of the walls are all created on site, built on site, but then they're transferred and those pieces completely assembled on site. So if you were to look at, say, A single-family house that a contractor stick-built versus a single-family house that the panels and other components were built off-site and they were assembled on-site, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. They both look the same from the exterior, whereas a manufactured home does not.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Okay. In the manufactured homes, as far as like utilities and things like that, that usually doesn't have a basement because it's manufactured offsite, correct? Utilities go replaced with a basement. I'm just trying to follow with the definitions. Thank you.

[Emily Innes]: Yes. Just to clarify that, you're absolutely right. You put it on a pad and you hook the utilities up to it when you get it to the site. Okay.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Does the board have any other questions?

[SPEAKER_02]: Just a comment, a compliment, basically, coming from the construction field, I do really appreciate these updates and modernization. It makes it much easier when we're using the code. Yes.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And for myself, too, having followed this with Danielle and Director Hunt, I just I just wanted to appreciate all the work that's gone into it and I wanted to encourage the board to take Ms. Enns up on the recommendations as Director Hunt has been asking us. I know that I wanted to dive into the site plan changes. try to get some feedback on things where, why do we do things a certain way? Can some things be done administratively through the PDS and so forth? I just have not found enough time in a day to get that, but I encourage us all to sort of think about how we can be more helpful in that process going forward. And with that, I don't have any other questions myself. I do know that I have to open this up to public comment. And before I do that, I wanted to see if the city has any other questions or comments at this point. All right, I am going to open up for public comment. Those who wish to provide comments can use the raise hand feature and message Danielle with a comment. You can also send an email to ocd.networkopenma.gov. 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 the staff. Danielle, do you have any previously sent emails or comments?

[Danielle Evans]: I haven't seen any public comments in email and I don't see anyone in attendance tonight.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Okay, then I will close the public comment period for this meeting. And at this point, if the board has no final comments, I'm going to ask for a motion to recommend to the city council, recommend approval of proposed amendments to the city council as presented. Actually, if the city can help with this, we would recommend also to add the footnotes as brought up by Director Hunt. Director Hunt, if you could actually help us to wordsmith that. Revision.

[Alicia Hunt]: I would recommend, perhaps may I suggest the language to recommend approval with the one edit of moving the footnotes, the number four superscript for footnotes from the left most column to the PC parking column.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And with that, can I actually ask for a motion to recommend with direct the recommendation, uh, the approval of the proposed amendments to the city council. I'll make the motion and a second motion. Okay. A roll call, uh, vice chair. Hi, Sally. Okay. I. Ari Fishman. I. And myself, Jackie McPherson. I'm an I. Thank you so much, Ms. Sims, for your presentation. I truly, at least, really appreciate all of your work. I look forward to the rest.

[Emily Innes]: So are we. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, members. It was a pleasure.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Have a great evening. Number four is approval of minutes for 417.24. I'm not, do, Danielle, do we have, so I know that we have a quorum and basically we're allowed, even if we weren't in attendance, we're allowed to vote the minutes into file, into record.

[Danielle Evans]: Yeah, you're accepting the minutes.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I'm just accepting the minutes, okay. So if I can have a motion to approve the meeting minutes from 417.24.

[Emily Hedeman]: I'll make the motion to approve.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And a second.

[Emily Hedeman]: I'll second.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Oh, probably you can have it. Vice Chair Hedeman.

[Danielle Evans]: Aye.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ari Fishman. Aye. Sally Akiki. Aye. And myself, Jacqueline Person. I'm an aye. And now unless there's any other comments from the city or from the staff before we go to adjournment, is there any? Okay, so now I need a motion to adjourn.

[Emily Hedeman]: I'll just keep making motions.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I'll make a motion to adjourn. And a second. Oh, second. Vice Chair Hedeman?

[Emily Hedeman]: Aye.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ari Fishman? Aye. Sally Akiki? Aye. And myself, Jackie McPherson. I'm an aye. Thank you, everyone. Have a great evening.

Paulette Van der Kloot total time: 21.49 minutes total words: 1838