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[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Good evening, everyone, and welcome to tonight's meeting of the MIFA Community Development Board. I'll call the meeting to order. Let's begin with some obligatory procedural matters. This hearing of the Method Community Development Board is being conducted via remote means. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings as provided for in Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2023. A reminder that anyone who would like to listen to or view this meeting while in progress may do so by accessing the link that was included on the meeting agenda.
[SPEAKER_34]: Recording in progress.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: posted on the City of Medford's website. If despite our best efforts, we are not able to provide real-time access, we will post a recording of this meeting on the City's website as soon as possible. A reminder that given the remote nature of this meeting, tonight all votes from the Board will be made by roll call. Please know that the project materials for all projects before the Board can be viewed on the City's website at medfordma.org and clicking on the current City Board filings. You can also find a link in the chat. I am going to do roll call attendance. Peter Kautz.
[SPEAKER_03]: Present.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Ari Fishman. Present. Sabrina Alpino. Present. Adam Behrens.
[Peter Calves]: Present.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Annie String. Present. Ben Levallee.
[Ben Lavallee]: Present.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: And myself, Chair Jackie McPherson. Danielle, can you please introduce any staff on the call?
[Danielle Evans]: Yes, I'm myself Danielle Evans senior planner, and the office of planning development sustainability we also have Alicia hunt, who is the director of planning development sustainability. We have Sal DeStefano, who is our economic development director. We have Derek Seeger, who is our graduate student intern and helping to take minutes tonight. And we have, I think, somebody else, Jessica Martinez, who is our economic development planner. We have Jackie Fursina, who is our head clerk in our office. And I think I've got everybody. Full house.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you so much. So tonight's meeting, we're going to start with the non-public hearing meetings. And so the first item on the agenda is a site plan modification for 421 to 423 High Street. Danielle or someone on the staff, can you please give your introductory remarks?
[Danielle Evans]: Yes. So this was a project that was previously approved. original applicant and property owner, you have got the project permitted, got the state plan review, got the variances from the zoning board. And in the interim, they sold to a new developer. And there was some kind of mix up where there were some changes that naturally crop up when you get to the construction document level of drawings, and there were some window openings and different changes like that that are not considered de minimis, so it cannot be approved administratively by our office. So although staff worked with the applicant to make sure that the changes were keeping with the spirit and goals of the original approval, it needed to go back to you all to prove the new control documents.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you. And who is representing the proponent this evening?
[Danielle Evans]: C.J. Daugherty's iPhone is the person C.J.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Shall I unmute him? Yes. And are there any others that will need to be unmuted so that I can identify ahead of time to make sure that you have access for your presentation? I'm unsure. Okay. We can start with CJ. Hello. Hello. Would you like to give us a quick overview of your application?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_10]: sure sure i i wasn't fully prepared to present um so the situation as um danielle spoke about um we purchased the project post uh issuance of the permit from the building department um and we wanted to make a minor change to the exterior facade of the building uh when we submitted that there was a realization that the plan approved by your board didn't match the plan that was um ultimately approved. So we made changes to sort of reconcile the differences as close we could given the structural limitations after design. So it's just some relocation of windows and things like that. It's fairly superficial. And we're hoping that the board can approve those so we can continue with the work.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you so much, Mr. Dougherty. I will ask the board now if there is any questions in reference to the proponent's request.
[Peter Calves]: I don't think so. I mean, I think this is something we've seen come through with a few other projects recently. And we've been more careful with our wording of approvals to make sure that we don't run into this. Yes. Because we don't want to have these kind of things happen.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you. Yes. And just to save the time of the public and ourselves, as well as the proponent, I think this could have been administratively handled. And with that, I will, I will ask if there's any public comment before I move for a motion to approve. And I'm using two screens. So if anyone can help me, if there's any hands, any I don't see any, so I'm going to actually just move for approval so that we can let Ms. Fidority be all set. So I would need a motion to approve. I so move. I can second.
[Peter Calves]: Okay, I move.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Awesome, and I'm going to go in order. Peter Cowles?
[Adam Behrens]: Aye.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Ari Fishman? Aye. Sabrina Alpino? Aye. Adam Behrens?
[Adam Behrens]: Aye.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Eddie String. Aye. Ben Lavalle.
[Adam Behrens]: Aye.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: And myself, Jackie McPherson. I'm an aye. Thank you so much for taking the time to come before us. Mr. Dougherty, you are all set and it's been approved.
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_10]: Great. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Have a great evening. The second item. on our agenda this evening is 401 Boston Avenue. It's a site plan review for Dover amendment use. I'm going to read the public notice. public hearing notice. The Medford Community Development Board shall conduct a public hearing on November 20th, 2024 after 6.30 p.m. via Zoom remote video conferencing relative to an application for site plan review submitted by trustees of Tufts College and Capstone Development Partners LLC to construct a 677-bed dormitory consisting of two 10-story buildings totaling 275,079 square feet, of which 4,000 square feet will be ground floor commercial at the site of the existing surface parking lot at 401 Boston Avenue, Medford Mass, 02155. The project is subject to site plan review for Dover Amendment uses per the City of Medford Zone and Ordinance Section 94-11.8 and requires approval from the Community Development Board. This will be the first public hearing and no votes will be taken tonight except to continue the public hearing until a date certain. But I am going to ask, we're opening up the public hearing this evening to start the voting on the approval process. And I'm going to ask the staff for any introductory remarks for 401 Boston Avenue.
[Danielle Evans]: Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, Daniel Evans, Senior Planner. I'll just restate that this is a site plan review under the Dover amendment. So that's a more limited review per ordinance. The two questions that the board is to ask is, one, does the use qualify for protection under the Dover amendment? And if the answer is yes, The second inquiry is really is what reasonable regulations concerning the bulk and height of structures and determining yard sizes, lot areas, setbacks, open space, parking and building coverage requirements, if any, should be imposed on the use. So the board's allowable actions are to approve, approve with conditions, or deny, but you can only deny for a failure to provide the necessary information. It's similar to the last meeting. We also had a Dover amendment used, so it's kind of like the same process for that. So unless Director Hunt has anything to say, I believe, who from the Tufts team should we make a co-host or unmute?
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Is there someone from the Tufts team that would be doing the presentation? Don Rocco DiRico.
[ZQDZZh_VfdI_SPEAKER_08]: Thank you, Madam Chair. I think Rocco DiRico will kick us off.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: OK, awesome. And also, Mr. Gallagher, will you be presenting as well? Do you need access?
[ZQDZZh_VfdI_SPEAKER_08]: I'll be available to take any questions, Madam Chair, I think. And I sent Alicia, Director Hunt, pardon me, a list of folks who will be presenting on our team.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: OK, awesome. Thank you. Sorry, and I apologize, but from looking away, I'm using two screens, so I'm trying to keep up. I do not see Rocco, actually.
[Rocco DiRico]: I'm right here, Madam Chair.
[Danielle Evans]: Oh, there you are. Hello. Pardon the interruption, there's also another individual who messaged me that needs to be able to have screen sharing, Ross Cameron, and I cannot. I have.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, I have the list and I'm doing that. And so for your team, can I just ask that as you all are presenting, if you need the next person to speak and they don't have co-host or whatever, if they can use the raise hand function, that'll pop them to the top of my screen and make it very easy for us to unmute them as needed. So it's just, it makes it simpler for the process. And just so the public is clear, after they present, then things will be open for public comment and the Zoom will help us keep a queue of who's raised their hands.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: It will be opened after in a different order, Director Hunt, but I will reiterate that.
[Rocco DiRico]: Madam Chair, would you like me to start?
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Yes, please go right ahead.
[Rocco DiRico]: Great. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Director Hunt, Danielle. For being here tonight, my name is Rocco DiRico, and I'm the Executive Director of Government Community Relations at Tufts University. Tufts University is a mission-driven nonprofit organization that educates more than 6,000 undergraduate students on our Medford campus, and a key part of that mission is providing on-campus housing for our students. I am here tonight to discuss an exciting new housing project on Boston Avenue that meets many of the city's and the university's shared goals. On-campus housing, mixed-use development, transit-oriented design, and an energy-efficient building design that meets the city's specialized stretch energy code. I've worked at Tufts University for the past eight years, and during that time, housing has been a top priority for the university. We have added more than 700 on-campus beds through conversions, renovations, and new developments, and we're currently renovating Blakely Hall, which will provide another 120 undergraduate beds on campus. All freshmen and sophomores are required to live on campus. And we also house more than 300 juniors and seniors on campus. And we feel it's in the best interest of both the university and the city to house more juniors and seniors on campus. And this project will help us accomplish that goal by housing 677 juniors and seniors on campus. Providing more on-campus housing opportunities for our students is essential to our mission as a university. But more importantly, it also frees up apartments off campus for working families in Medford. We picked this particular location for a variety of reasons. We wanted to make sure that the project was on campus, which this is. that it was adjacent to mass transit, and that it provided us with an opportunity to add more retail opportunities for Boston Avenue. This project will provide much needed public realm improvements on Boston Avenue. As part of this project, Tufts University will be adding new sidewalks to Boston Avenue, new crosswalks, new trees, a blue bike station, and new retail options. This project will make Boston Avenue greener, more walkable, and more accessible. We've spent the last 4 months meeting with neighbors, elected officials, city department heads, and other key stakeholders, and we've received a lot of feedback during those meetings. And we've tried to incorporate many of those requests into this project. I am joined tonight by Barb Stein, who's our vice president of operations at Tufts University. And what I would like to do now is introduce Walker May from Capstone. When Tufts decided to do this housing project, we did a nationwide search. to try to find someone who's an expert in developing these housing projects. We're delighted that we were able to find Capstone and work with them. I'm now going to turn it over to Walker May from Capstone.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, Rocco. The Capstone companies started in 1990 and have been focused solely on student housing development and operations ever since. Capstone Development Partners, the successor company to Capstone Development Corp, is a private principal-led company that was formed in 2011 and has been focused almost entirely in on-campus student housing and related facility development, partnering with over 70 universities to deliver over 50,000 beds and 3.3 billion in total development cost. We've been awarded Student Housing Project of the Year seven times and five projects awarded Best P3. And when Capstone was invited to participate in the competitive procurement to become Tufts Development Operational Partner, we quickly put together a team of local design build specialists, and that includes Elcas Manfredi Architects, represented tonight by David Manfredi, Erland Construction, represented by Eric Green, Niche Engineering is our civil engineer represented by Jonathan Hedlund and Crowley Cottrell Landscape Architects represented by Michelle Crowley, and then our local council, Golston and Storrs, represented tonight by Pat Gallagher. Most recently, Capstone has also been working with Tufts and the finance team to evaluate and select the most appropriate finance structure for the project, as well as the best non-profit owner for the project, which we have done over these last couple of weeks. So I look forward to presenting the project here to the board and to the community. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to David Manfredi, who's going to walk you through our current design plans. David, or I guess maybe Rocco, you're going to speak to the schedule first.
[Rocco DiRico]: I was just gonna say, if we can just speak to the schedule really quickly, just to update folks on what we've done so far. We began having pre submittal meetings with the city of Medford in August. We had an initial meeting with department heads in September. We did our 1st community meeting, which was a virtual zoom meeting on September 26 and that was very well attended. In October, we continue doing follow up meetings with the, with individual department heads. On October 28th, we had our 2nd community meeting. This 1 was in person and in November, we continue doing additional meetings with. individual City of Medford department heads. We've also been meeting one-on-one with neighbors, local business owners, key stakeholders, and really anyone else who is interested in the project. We're here tonight on November 20th in front of the Community Development Board seeking site plan approval. It's now my pleasure to turn it over to David Manfredi, our architect on this project.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_52]: Good evening, everybody. I'm David Manfredi from Elkis Manfredi Architects in Boston. And we are the Project Architects. If you could go to the next, please, Ross. So we'll start on the site, and I suspect that everybody on this Zoom knows this site. You can see it outlined in blue. It is about halfway on the south side of Boston Avenue, about halfway between College Avenue and Winthrop Street or University. And you can see it's a long linear site parallel to Boston Avenue. It is surface parking today. It is the beginning or the toe of that steep hill that goes up to the residential quad and up to the center of campus. It's used today as surface parking and really underutilized on this important site as surface parking. You can also see in our diagram obviously the importance of Boston Avenue and of College Ave, and of Winthrop Street as well. And then the dash lines really represent pedestrian paths. And through Dowling Hall, which is the parking structure up to the top of the hill, and the stair on the west side of Dowling, and several different paths that come up at University Ave, that come up through the residential buildings of Tufts University. If you go to the next... And so here's a site plan, and there's been some important modifications to this since some of you have seen this in earlier public meetings. Again, Boston Avenue is on the top of the page, University Ave to the left, and Dowling Hall to the right. And you're looking where it says East Building and West Building, you're looking at the footprints of the two proposed buildings. And it is two buildings. They are separated not quite in the middle by a stair that's open to the sky. That's the beginning of the walk up the hill that brings you to the top of campus. You can see that the east building looks like it has hardscape, meaning sidewalk, on Boston Avenue. And that's correct. It basically, first floor is basically at grade. And if you look at the west building, you can see there's some green against the building and then sidewalk. And that this building is a little bit higher, especially where you get to the green space, a little bit higher on the grade, because our goal is to fit the buildings into the slope of the hill, as opposed to a significant amount of excavation. That's obviously Lighter construction, less of the heavy earthwork kind of construction. And it's also good sustainability, meaning that you don't expend a lot of energy to move earth around, but build buildings. that accommodate the earth as it exists. Now, I mentioned that there was some new ideas here, and you'll notice that on the south side of Boston Avenue, we are showing a continuous row of street trees. And on the north side, we're also showing a row, a continuous row of street trees that are smaller. Now, in order to achieve that, there's a number of, several things have to happen. We need approval from the MBTA to plant trees on the north side of the street. The MBTA, of course, concerned about limbs falling onto tracks and disturbing the service. And so it does require their approvals. It would require lower trees that fit underneath the power lines above. MBTA requirement, but that's a utility requirement. And on the south side of the street, it would require the relocation of those overhead utilities in order to accommodate those trees. We know that the trees are important to the neighbors to the north, but they're also important to creating really good sidewalks and what we call complete streets, meaning streets that have sidewalks and a planting zone, that create shade in the summertime, but also just create more green in an environment along a relatively wide street that is a lot of hardscape. The other thing I'll point out here is that you'll notice that right below where it says West Building, you see some dark gray. That's service. It exists today. We'll get kind of reconfigured in order to accommodate service to these buildings. All the service to these buildings, well, all the service to the West building will be from the South side of the building, as well as some of the service to the East building. There'll also be service in that passageway between the East building and Dowling Hall. If you go to the next please. So I'm not going to read this whole list, but I do want to point out the bold letters. And these are the public realm improvements. And again, you can see the footprints of the two buildings. You can see the numbers in blue, and the numbers in blue correspond to the items below. And the biggest one is really what Rocco introduced at the very beginning, that the project provides on-campus housing for approximately 677 upperclassmen at Tufts, which, of course, takes students out of the neighborhoods. hopefully will have the long-term effect of, even short-term effect of, reducing rent pressure and reducing traffic. Students are living on campus. There's less movement on and off campus. Second is improved accessibility. And what we mean by that is sidewalks, better sidewalks, On both sides of the street as we're showing here, if we have the permission to do that additional fire hydrants and that's number three and you can see on the south side of the street, new fire hydrants at the east building and new fire hydrant. at the entrance to the West Building. Fully enclosed trash and recycling rooms inside the building, so no trash is left outside, no trash from food that attracts rodents, all will be kept inside the building. Reduced light emittance, and I know this is an important one, a community comment that we have heard. There'll be operable shades in all rooms, but maybe The most important thing is that this is a passive house building. That means that the amount of glazing, the amount of glass in windows is less than, is about 30% of the total surface area of the building. So it's not like a curtain wall building where there's a lot of glass. It's less than 30%. And so that will obviously significantly reduce light emittance. There are no amenity and student activity spaces above the first two levels so that that kind of activity only exists on the lower part of the building. There will be new crosswalks on Boston Avenue and University Avenue and again the wider sidewalks. There's retail space on the east side of the east building and that sidewalk is wide enough to accommodate cafe tables and some outdoor seating for food and beverage. There'll be a dedicated rideshare pickup and drop-off zone on Boston Avenue. I mentioned the new trees on the south sidewalk. The capstone is in conversations with National Grid and the MBTA because that will require moving power lines. New sidewalks and tree screening on the north sidewalk again with the approval of the MBTA. And as I mentioned, passive house construction, what that really means is that these will, these buildings will be very airtight and heavily insulated to produce the most sustainable buildings possible. These are all electric buildings, there's no fossil fuels. And it also means that they are That insulation also provides protection, acoustic protection inside out. There's available parking for retail visitors on the street along the south side of Boston Ave, and we will accommodate a new blue bike station on Boston Ave. Next please. So, 2 buildings, the East building is smaller than the West building. These building is 265 beds. The West building is up 412 beds for a total of 677. And what's really important, and you'll see it when we get to our plans, is, again, this is for juniors and seniors. These are apartments. And so it's a much more typical kind of dwelling unit. living accommodation. Let's go to the next place. So the plans are a little bit hard to understand because of the fact that we are building into the earth. So what you're seeing in color is the footprint at the elevation of the sidewalk. And what you're seeing in very dark gray is earth. That's the hill. And so when we draw a plan, it's as if we cut off the building four feet above ground and we're showing you that area in color and those uses, but then we're cutting into the earth. And so that's everything that's in dark gray. So you see in the building, the building on the right is the east building. You see the little yellow box, that's the entry. It's at elevation 59, and you can see both buildings right and left are at elevation 59. Everything in purple is lobby, amenity space, it's waiting space for an Uber or somebody to pick you up. It's social space. It is access, and you can see where the two little red arrows are, it's access to elevators to go up the building. There's also, Capstone will have offices here, and you can see in gray there's a men's and women's room. The pink is retail, and by retail we mean third-party retail, retail that is open, accessible to everybody, to the neighborhood, likely to be food and beverage, but it may well be a mix. Now, you go to the West building, you can see it has a very small amount of color. That's because there's a very small amount of first floor here, and that is simply to get in the door, to get a lobby, to get an elevator lobby, to get a little bit of of back-of-house utility space, but the real first floor is a level up because, again, we don't want to excavate that hill for a variety of reasons, but not excavating means you're accelerating construction and you're eliminating some of the most annoying parts of any kind of urban construction. Go to the next one, please, Ross. So now I've gone up one level on the west building. And you can see that everything in purple, again, is common spaces for students, social spaces, it's study spaces, it's fitness, it's laundry. And then you can begin to see just to the left, the actual apartments. And the colors simply mean their designations for the orange are one-bedroom units. The yellow are four-bedroom units. There are some six-bedroom units in the east building, but in this building, four bedrooms is the biggest. And you can also see that gray area where I had pointed out the service drive. That's how we'll access the building for trash, for service to mechanical and electrical equipment. And you can also enter the building, if you're coming down from campus, you're coming down the hill, you can enter the building on that second level, on both sides, both buildings. So this is the level two plan, and you can see the west building is all apartments. It's all one bedrooms, two bedrooms, and four bedrooms. On the east side, this is really the second floor now of the building. And so again, you have the yellow and the orange, those are apartments. The purple is amenity space. That means social space, study spaces. You also see some CMP means capstone management. And so that's some of their utility spaces. And again, you can see the elevator lobbies that take you up the building. If you go to the next, this is a typical floor. So these are floors three through eight. They all look the same. The white is the core, meaning the elevators, the corridors, and then the yellow and the different. The orange just mean the difference between one bedrooms and two bedrooms and four bedroom apartments. I should have pointed out, if you look all the way to the right, you can see a six-bedroom apartment that's up against Dowling. That's the only six-bedroom on each floor, and it stacks up on that east side of the East Building. Go to the next. Oh, and so important in 9 and 10, you can see that the building steps back. So where it says level 8 roof, the building steps back away from University. The floor plate gets smaller in the West building on floors 9 and 10. If we go to the next. Now, I wanted to show you this section. because this is a very steep hill. So when we say section, what we mean is we're cutting through the building and we're cutting through the earth below the building. So just like in plant, the dark gray represents earth and then everything above it, the trees, that's the existing topography. You can see all the way to the left, the Cummings Center, the Green Line and Boston Avenue. And then the building, and we're cutting through the east building here. You can see it's 10 stories. The first floor is all common spaces. Floors two through 10 are all apartments. And you can see the building's 107 feet tall from grade, from Boston Avenue. Now, the reason we showed the 125-foot height is that's the allowable height, so we're below the allowable. We also wanted to show, though, where the top of the building is relative to the top of the hill, to the residential quad, Ben Denson Hall, is at elevation 140. And so from the top of the hill, you're basically seeing two stories of building, or at least until you get closer and start walking down the hill. Obviously from the north side, you're seeing a 10-story building, and I'll show you that in just a moment. If you go to the next. So we've got a series of perspectives here. This is the existing site, and call your attention to the sidewalks, which are not in great condition, both on the north side and on the south side of Boston Avenue. You also see in the upper right that very steep slope. And that's the steep slope that we want to excavate as little as possible, because that's earthwork. It takes time, and it's probably the messiest part of a construction project. So we're going to minimize that as much as possible. And you can see lower left, existing surface parking lots, all pervious. And really not a well-utilized piece of property. If you go to the next. So I'm going to show you a photograph of the existing and then from the same view, a rendering. And so this is Boston Avenue looking west. That's Dowling Hall to the left, the stair that goes up the hill, the building, and you can see the, this is the east end of the east building, so that's retail, there's about 4200 square feet, you know, probably two or three shops. maybe food and beverage, may have some outdoor seating. You'll see that a little bit more up close in a moment. The buildings are clad in brick, largely in brick, and they have a kind of two-story base, meaning a darker color brick and then a kind of buff colored brick above on the east building and on the west building, a red brick above. If you go to the next, And so this is on the sidewalk, you can see street trees pending approval and wide sidewalks and a little bit of outdoor seating. You can see spilling out from the building and you can see the entrances and the darker brick on the lower levels. Now I'm looking southeast, and to the left is obviously Boston Ave. Climbing up the hill is University. So this is the corner. That intersection will stay the way it is. And we'll be using that service drive as you go up University and turn left into that service drive. And you can see the above grade power lines in that photograph. Now that you see the building, and this is the West building, red brick, 10 stories tall, stepping down to 8 stories tall, street trees along the building side and street trees on the rail side. But you can see those street trees are lower to be under the relocated power lines if we get permission to do that. if you go to the next. So this is a longer view. You all know that retail, the food and beverage on the left, and the houses on the right that are just west of University. And you can see the building beyond. It's the eighth story on University and then stepping up to 10 stories. And the next, and now this is a view that I mentioned. This is the view from Brookings Street. That's actually a photograph that we took last summer. So the leaves are still all on the trees, but those are the real trees and with all of their foliage on them. And then you can see you're looking straight on the West building, but you can see both buildings in this photograph. And this view gives you everything, meaning you can see the campus. You can see the residential quad and the president's lawn beyond. You can see the proposed building kind of three quarters of the way to the left in the middle. The two buildings, the lighter colored buff brick building, and then the red brick building. and mostly obscured is Boston Ave, but you can just see it there, University, and obviously the upper right corner you see, at this height, you see all the way to downtown Boston. One more view from, this is from Boston Avenue looking south, kind of southwest. You can see Boston Avenue and the rail lines, and downtown Boston beyond, you can see Dowling, a little bit left of center, and then first the East Building, the space between the two buildings, and then the West Building, and all the way over here to the right is University Ave. And I think that's oh, no, that's not my last slide. I want to talk a little bit about sustainability because these will be highly sustainable buildings. And probably the most important thing is they will be fossil free buildings. They will be all electric. Obviously, the benefit of public transit with the green line. At Cummings Center, we'll have bicycle storage and bicycle amenities that encourage bicycle use. Recycling, construction waste management, which is all about create as little construction waste as possible and then recycle as much of it as possible. All the plantings will be drought tolerant. We're having a very, very dry fall. And the air handling will be energy recovery. So we want to use as little energy as possible. And obviously, we want to create, use less, consume less energy and use less power to power the building. Highly efficient lights and appliances, heat pump technology for heating and cooling. So I said it would be passive house, which means a very air-type building envelope, very little infiltration. And to get certified as passive house, you have to provide high-performance windows and doors, which are good for energy, but also good for sound. Keep sound in the building and not out. And the next, I think, goes to Eric Green to talk
[SPEAKER_29]: Eric has his hand raised. I think it used to be unmuted. It's Eric Green.
[SPEAKER_42]: Yep. Thank you, David. Good evening, everyone. My name is Eric Green. I'm with Erland Construction, and we're based in Burlington. What's on the screen is our site utilization plan, how we plan to manage the site. You can see the kind of purple perimeter fencing area around the site. Uh, that fence will be a full time. Obviously we'll have full time on site supervision. Uh, we do plan on taking the parking lane closest to the building along Boston Avenue. And the purpose of that is so that we can get trucks into the site and out of this site without having to back up. It makes for a good truck path, uh, to the, uh, to the buck hoist locations into the tower cranes. Uh, Tufts has committed to allowing our workers to park on campus. so the construction workers will not be parking on the streets or in the neighborhoods, which is a big plus for the project. This will be submitted along with a lot of other information in the form of a construction management plan to the city for their review and approval. We have already reached out to Bono Pest Control, who does the pest control currently for Tufts, and they've prepared an integrated pest management plan, which is part of the construction management plan. I know there was some concern from residents at past meetings about rats and other pests. So we have a pest management plan that we'll review with the city and make sure that's acceptable, and we'll follow that as the project goes along. The bidding period for the project, for anyone that's interested, whether you know subcontractors that might have an interest, it looks like it's January. I don't have an exact date yet, but it'll probably be the month of January. And right now, construction time frame is approximately April 1st of 2025 to late July of 2027. So that's a little bit about how we plan on managing the site. I think next up is maybe Ross or David.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_52]: Thank you, Eric. I'm back to talk about shadows. some of you have seen our shadow studies before, but before we actually get to the shadows, I just want to remind people of sun path. So if you look at the diagram on the left, you can see in the kind of orange color, the two proposed buildings. And what we're trying to show is the arc of the sun at during the hours of the day, and obviously the sun rises in the east, you can see 6 a.m., and rises to its zenith at noon, and then continues to come down and set in the west. And what you all know is that in the summertime, the sun is very high, and that the arc that's the closest to being kind of just a big loop over at the center of the sphere. So in the summer, the sun at noon is at about 74 degrees from horizontal. So buildings cast the smallest shadow they will cast all year long. The winter solstice, the sun is lower all day long. It's at the bottom in the right hand, it's the bottom. of those series of concentric circles. And so the shadows are longer in the winter and the sun sets at 420. It's coming up soon on December 21st. So you have longer shadows and of course a much shorter day. If you go to the next, we'll show you the shadows at the at the four key times of the day. And that's 9 o'clock in the morning, 12 noon, 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and then here we're showing it at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. And we'll show it at the four key days, which are spring and fall equinox, and then the winter and summer solstice. So on March 21st, the spring equinox. The sun rises at 645, it sets at 658. If you look at the upper left, you can see that, of course, the sun comes up in the east, and the orange is the building footprint. The purple is net new shadow, meaning there's no shadow on the ground or on building roofs. unless you see purple or lavender, that's net new shadow caused by the buildings. Any darker gray you see is shadow that already exists. So now, so we go from nine o'clock in the morning, oops, go back one please, you went too fast for me. You say you see you see a shadow on the hillside on the Tufts campus side. By 12 noon, the shadow is now on the south sidewalk of Boston Ave. By 3 in the afternoon, the shadow is really across the street to the North Curb. And then by 4 in the afternoon, it hasn't reached any houses, but it's probably on the rail tracks at that point. So now if you go to the next one, you can see we've extended this from the last time. We showed it so you could see it at 4, 5, and 6. So at 5 o'clock, sun is setting on March 21, starting to set. And so you can see it stretching and just hitting a few of those houses closest to Boston Ave. And then by 6 o'clock, the sun is setting. It sets at 658. And you can see some shadow on the ground. And all the dark gray around it is all the existing shadow. If you go to the next. So now I'm going to go to the summer solstice. So June 21 and sun's very high comes up and comes up early in the morning at 508 shadows on the campus side of the buildings at 12 noon. There's almost no shadow because the sun is so high in the sky. And so it's a little bit of shadow. You can see just a little little tint of lavender. And then by three in the afternoon there's shadow on the south side of Boston Ave and by six o'clock there's shadow on Boston Ave but hasn't even reached the backyards of those houses, because the sun is so, so high. If you go to the next, you can see at 7 and at 8, the shadow does cross Boston Ave, and then at 8 o'clock, because the sun sets so far into the west and the northwest, the sun actually is over at Cummings Center. The shadow, I mean, is at Cummings Center. Go to the next. And now I'm on September 21st, the fall equinox. The spring and the fall are basically the same, not exactly, but almost the same. Nine o'clock in the morning, the shadow's on the campus side. At noon, it's on the sidewalk. At three in the afternoon, it hasn't quite crossed the street or barely crossing the street. At four o'clock in the afternoon, it has crossed the street, hasn't reached any houses yet. And if you go to the next, you can see at five, It does cross the street and into the neighborhood. And then if you look all the way to the right at six o'clock, you've got some shadow on top of the Tufts athletic buildings. And that's what we're showing in that purple. And now the last one is December 21st. The very, very low sun, so the very longest shadows for any building for your house or any building. So you can see at 9 o'clock in the morning, the sun comes up at 7 o'clock, 710. but it actually comes up much further south than it did on June 21st, and so the shadow is cast more to the north. By 12 o'clock, the shadow is on Boston Ave. By one o'clock, it has just reaching some houses. At two o'clock, you can see shadow, but you can also see that there's a lot of existing shadow because you've got a low sun, so even low buildings cast shadows. If you go to the next one, you can see you'll follow through to 3 o'clock in the afternoon. We stop at 3 because the sun has gone by 4.15. But you can see some purple there. And you can see there's no purple typically in the streets because the streets are already in shadow from the houses that are there. And that is the end of our presentation. Thank you for your attention.
[Rocco DiRico]: Thank you, David. And thank you, everyone, for your patience. go through all the details of the project and all the public improvements that are included. I would just like to wrap up by saying that housing is a top priority for both Tufts University and the city, and this project does increase on-campus housing. It is also in the same shared values that the city and Tufts have about building near public transit, improving retail opportunities on Boston Avenue and creating buildings that are energy efficient and passive house design. So again, just want to thank you, Adam Chair. Thank you, Director Hunt and Danielle. And we would be happy to answer any questions that you may have.
[SPEAKER_29]: I think you're muted, Madam Chair.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you. I was saying thank you so much for the presentation and thank you to your partners for the presentation. And before I open it up for the board to speak, I actually just want to reiterate a couple of things. One, if I just want to make sure that the public understands that there will be a time very shortly that I will open it up for public comment. But I want a reminder that any comments in the chat are not included as part of the public record. So please save them. Or you can email them to OCD at method-ma.gov. Please do not message Danielle during this time and do not put them into the chat. And with that being said, I will open it up to the board for any questions. And I do know that on this, uh, Peter cows, is there, and if I can ask whoever is sharing their screen, if you can, please, uh, it will allow us to be able to see the hands more so that we can control for the public comments. Thank you so much.
[Peter Calves]: Yes, Madam Chair.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Yes.
[Peter Calves]: I think this is what you're talking about. For this item, I will be recusing myself as I work for Niche Engineering, which worked a good bit on this project. And as per policy, if something comes before the board that Niche has worked on, it is our policy to recuse ourselves from that item. So thank you, Madam Chair.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Yes, thank you so much. And if the city staff can actually help me with the hands down for now, that's not part of the board so that I can see who's on the board. And then we will go to the public comment in order. Oh, I believe I see Adam Behrens.
[Adam Behrens]: Yeah, I just had a question for the tough staff regarding just more of the bigger picture for the university. Is the university planning to expand the student population or the student size? and just how the dorm sort of fits into the strategic goal that the university has for the student population. You don't have to be super in-depth, I just wanted to get a little bit more of that context of how the dorm fits into that goal.
[Rocco DiRico]: Thank you, Adam. I appreciate that question. Our goal with this project is to get juniors and seniors that are living off campus and bring them back on campus. That is a strategic goal of our new president. He has also said that he does not plan to increase undergraduate enrollment. So our purpose for this project and how it fits into our strategic goals is really that objective of bringing students that are off campus back onto campus. which we think is a is a big benefit for our students, but also for the neighborhoods that surround the campus.
[Adam Behrens]: Thanks.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you. I'm not seeing any other board members as of right now. And thank you, Adam, for that question. I actually believe that freeing up housing stock and lowering the demand of the pressure, as Mr. Mahed recently said, the demand on pressure of rents and put many more housing options within reach for workforce and families is a benefit at this point. But one of my biggest questions and concern was, are you actually accounting for higher enrollment rates or are you actually technically freeing up the students and freeing up that housing stock. I also believe that increasing the commercial activity and vibrancy on Boston Ave in the area of the Green Line stop is a good thing. I also believe that this is You know, having a parking lot next to a transit station, especially a parking lot next to a massive parking garage is not ideal. So I think that's an ideal situation with the housing going in. However, there are butters and there are concerns by the public for various reasons. And in saying that, I will open it up for public comment so that we can begin to hear those concerns. And I will read the public hearing. I will now open the public comment period. Those who wish to provide comments can use the raise hand feature or message Danielle in the chat if you are having technical difficulties. You can also send an email to OCD at method-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 substantive comments, as it is not part of the public record. However, if a participant is having audio or other technical difficulties, this may be entered into the chat to alert myself and staff. Depending on the number of commenters, which we have a substantial amount tonight, we have to limit this to two minutes per comment. Alicia or Daniel, can you, Alicia, can you, Director Hunt, can you please manage the public comment queue? If it's not possible to read all the email letters at this point, I'm not sure how many are coming in. Are you able to summarize the themes for us so that the public and the board can know what those concerns are?
[Alicia Hunt]: Yes, Madam Chair, would you like me to summarize the written comments first before we take the verbal comments?
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Actually, yes. And then unless you want to hear the verbal comments and then possibly those summarized written comments will resonate with those, I'm not sure. What's more beneficial sharing here?
[Alicia Hunt]: I did provide a written document. So the public knows for all the comments that came in by 5.30 this evening, they were all saved in a file for the board so that they can read all of them in detail if they want to. I also provided a Word document with a summary of all of the comments As summarized by what each person said as opposed to summarizing. sorry, I was trying to open my summary file at the same time I was speaking, as opposed to one long summary. But I think that I could pretty well summarize it. I will share that there, I'll actually start in reverse order. So there is a flyer going around with a link to a form that is sending a standard message uh opposing the parking waiver, but there seems to be some significant confusion about what the parking waiver is Because the letter doesn't actually address what the actual parking waiver that's been requested is um, and we're not really sure where How how these two connect? um, but we have As at about 5 30 this evening five people who had sent the form letter saying that the exact same form letter that they were opposed to a parking waiver and we had received actually five people had sent letters saying they were supporting a parking waiver and they didn't want to see additional parking built through this. But I do think that we may want to just address that issue so that there's some clarity about what is being requested because there is confusion being circulated among the public. Do we want to address that first and then I'll go to the other comments? Yes. Okay. Sorry. I believe that I shared with you the form letter that we had received. Could you actually help us by explaining what the parking waiver is that you are asking for. I think that would help the members of the public who have submitted this letter.
[ZQDZZh_VfdI_SPEAKER_08]: Yes. Thank you, Director Hunt and Madam Chair, if I may. I'm happy to respond to that. So I'll talk first. I think just high level what we're trying to do. So ordinarily, under the zoning ordinance, this project would be required to implement, I believe it's 170 parking spaces. Given the nature of the project, it's a dormitory where the students who are living there, by and large, are not bringing cars to campus. And given the excess availability of parking elsewhere on campus, we're seeking a waiver or the approval of a shared parking arrangement that would enable folks who are bringing their cars to park elsewhere on campus. And the reason why we need a waiver is because ordinarily, if we were to share parking or if we were seeking to share parking, it would need to be located within a certain distance of the project site. But in this case, given the nature of the college campus, students might be parking elsewhere on campus and not necessarily in the Dallin Hall garage. So we're trying to take advantage of the university's existing parking capacity to be able to not create any new parking in connection with the project. And so I think just the technical element of that, it would either be a shared parking approval under 6.1.9 of the zoning ordinance, or a waiver under 6.1.10 of the zoning ordinance, the practical effect is the same. As I said, we're seeking to utilize the existing parking capacity on the campus to accommodate any new demand resulting from the project.
[Alicia Hunt]: Thank you. I think that helps clarify it. And I will comment that the board received the traffic study, including the parking information only today. So there is no intention to actually get a full presentation and to address traffic issues tonight. The city's traffic director has not had a chance to review that yet and provide his comments. So there is an expectation that this meeting won't close, this hearing won't close tonight, but rather we will talk in more depth about parking and traffic and transportation at the next meeting. I just, I appreciate that because I would hate for people to keep drafting letters and sending us letters that are not reflecting what you're actually asking for. Thank you. So that said, the board, as of five o'clock this evening, had received one, two, three, four, five general letters of support saying they think this norm is a good idea, including one of them was for the Medford Chamber of Commerce. We then received a number of individual letters, one, two, three, four, five, six that seven have very a lot of very similar concerns several of those people are here this evening I expect they're going to want to speak for themselves, but in general, the comments were that the building was too tall. that they were concerned about the relationship of the large surface areas of the large buildings and rain and wind, noise pollution, noise reflecting off the buildings, how this wind could impact their houses down below, light from the rooms, from the windows, whether this large building there would make the trains that are along the train track, but make them feel the vibration more, whether it would impact the water table, and then a lot of comments about shading and light loss. There was also some concern about additional traffic on Boston Ave because of the dorm, that it would bring more traffic to the location. I will say that many of the letters did support the idea of having tough students live on campus and supported the idea of a dorm in general, but felt that this building was too large. There was a group letter with 54 signatures that explicitly said they support the project in general, including on-campus housing, density near transit, improved rail on Boston Ave, and that it was an energy efficient building, but they were concerned that it was too tall. They were concerned about the sound and light pollution, net new shadows in their homes and yards, limiting their solar potential and increases to cost their homes, and that they would really like to see public realm improvements, including on-site stormwater management, improved sidewalks, protected bike lanes, defined spaces for deliveries and queuing. frequent well-lit, well-marked crosswalks, new canopy trees on both sides, both to counter the heat island effect and to buffer the light and sound from their homes, and traffic calm and consistent with complete street guidelines. And they were questioning whether using a for-profit development partner negated the use of the Dover Amendment. So that's a general summary of the written comments that came in. As you can tell, there were so many that if I were to read them all, we would be here all night.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Just quickly, as far as if this is a Dover use amendment, I just wanted to reiterate, especially just to make clear for everyone, without being a lawyer, Tufts obviously is using it for an educational purpose. This is housing for their students, solely for their students. So that should definitely fall in the lines of it being a Dover amendment. So I wanted to make sure Director Hunt that and you can speak more on that because I know that there was some questions regarding that regardless of the public partnership, the housing piece.
[Alicia Hunt]: And for students, right, so we did check in with our legal staff. I mean, we've been dealing with tops and Dover amendment for so long that some of this is clear, but we did check in with our legal staff today and yesterday. And the short answer is yes. Tufts is building a dorm for students that there are some, the nonprofit entity that owns it, relationship needs to be like worked out that that, but there is no question that that is going to happen and that this is a dorm for Tufts students and this qualifies under Dover. There was some other legal questions that we got around other little, can we apply other pieces of our zoning code to this? And honestly, that question came in today and legal counsel said that they would meet with us, they would review everything and meet with us before the continued hearing date in order to just address those nuances about whether there are pieces of the code that we could enforce through with this being a Dover or that we might want to talk about, but that they couldn't give us an answer on less than a couple of hours notice on that piece of the question. But the Dover, using Dover itself, they said, that is absolutely, this is a Dover case.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you, Doretta. And with that, I'm not sure if you've kept account of who put their hands up first.
[Alicia Hunt]: So it is my experience that Zoom keeps the hands in order unless a hand goes down and back up. So with your permission, we'll call on them in the order that they are on the screen. I will read your name as it is written on the screen because that is what the information we have for you. We ask that everybody please state your name and your address for the record and we do have an intern who may chime in if he needs assistance hearing the name and address. And with that, oh, is somebody else keeping time on these? I need somebody, not me, to keep time. But we have a lot of staff on this call.
[Danielle Evans]: Through the chair, this is Danielle Evans. I can keep time, was it two minutes?
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Yes, we're going to give two minutes due to the substantial amount of commenters. Yes.
[Danielle Evans]: And also, I just want to add that if folks could go ahead and change their screen names so that we can accurately record your comments with your name for the record, if you want to be on the record of having commented, that would make things easier for our minutes taker. Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: All right, are you ready, Madam Chair? Yes. All right, the first commenter is Tom Wall.
[SPEAKER_03]: Good evening, everybody.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Hello.
[SPEAKER_03]: My name is Tom Wall, I'm a Medford resident. I live on Hillsdale Road, up on the hillside. And I deal with pups and pups students every day of my life. So I do have two questions. The first concerns, building trades and the contracts associated with the Building Trades Council provide area standard wages and benefits to workers. They also create opportunities for area residents to enter into training programs that lead to sustainable careers. So the first question is, is the development team working with the Building Trades Council, the local Building Trades Council? And the second question is, Wage theft, I'd like to address wage theft. Representative workers really encounter wage theft. If there are issues, they're generally resolved quickly without further intervention. Unrepresented workers, on the other hand, aren't that lucky. It's estimated that $1 billion are stolen from workers in the construction industry annually. That comes from an AG report. What is Tufts and the development team's plan to ensure wage theft is not present on this project?
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: And just to be clear, for our opponent and your all partners, we can wait until the end to do a collective answer because there may be some more of the same exact questions and we can summarize and you can answer as needed, as you feel is needed. Thank you, Mr. Wong.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: The next speaker is Judith Weinstock.
[Judith Weinstock]: Hi, my name is Judith Weinstock. I live at 144 Brigette Avenue. I can see some of the positive effects, particularly for Tufts, of the project. And I can appreciate, I certainly have never had any issue with the aesthetics of Tufts. When they build buildings, they tend to be lovely on the outside. So I have no concerns there. But as you know, the board knows, because I've corresponded twice, I really, really think that the light emissions from the building, regardless of the fact that in theory, there are 30% glass on the facades of the building, according to David, I think. I think if we do some rough math, so let's just say there are 677 people living in that building. Let's assume that there are for 300 windows on the front and the back and maybe splitting up the remaining, because there's got to be a building per student, right, if they're going to have bedrooms. So let's just assume that there are hundreds of windows that will be emitting light into the surrounding neighborhood and down the hill. I would like to understand better. So I guess this is a question. What is it that prevents? the project planners from building in low emission light windows into the building costs and structure. So that would be my first question. What is it that prevents you? Is it a financial issue? And if so, can you please frame the scope of the size of that problem? And the second thing is, What will happen if it, in fact, is not students who are living in the building? It's my understanding from Rocco, who I spoke with yesterday, that the leases in this building will be 12-month-a-year leases for the people living there, and that if it can't be filled with students, it will be filled somehow. And so I guess the question of the day is, what is happening there? if they, in fact, juniors and seniors do not want to live on campus in the numbers of 677. So to give you a little extra.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you, Miss Weinstock.
[Alicia Hunt]: The next person with the raised hand is a Bernie.
[jJ8nibzobNI_SPEAKER_03]: Hi, I think that's me. I can't figure out Zoom. I'll put my name in. Can you hear me? Yes. OK, great. This is Amy. I actually live next to Judy. I'm at 138 Burgett Avenue. And I guess just overall comments, housing on campus, fine. I'm not really sure. You said 6,000 on your students. So that's about 10% of housing going in there. On the other side of me, I have renters all the time from your campus. Since I've been here nine years, it's construction of tufts somewhere around me. It seems high, 10 stories. If I look at the opposing thing across, 10 floors seems a lot. It's two floors higher, I think, in the parking garage next door. It would have been nice if it was kept even. The sun in the back of my yard, even in the summer, disappears. I get a little sliver by the shed. I think it will be improvements to Boston Ave. That part looks good. I'd be curious about the retail going in there. Hopefully it would be something interesting to the neighborhood, not just something that competes with the mom and pop shops down the road. I'm curious about the extra space you're going to find for sidewalks, because it seems you'd have to dig out of the ground, I guess. It's not much sidewalk there to begin with, so I'm not really sure how you're getting more space there. Parking. I'd be curious how many students have cars on campus now just because we're so close to where that would be on our dead end street. I guess the comment is, I moved to a dead end street to look at a nice quiet neighborhood that really changes. It looks like assembly row to me up there with the type of construction that's being done. I don't know what to say about that, other than it just seems like imposing in the neighborhood. That's what I'll phrase it. Two big buildings, it sort of changes the nature of these. And if you go to the other streets around there, just little bungalow houses. So we're like these little tiny houses in the shadow now of these assembly row looking buildings. So I don't know. 10 stories seems like a lot. I'll yield my time, but just wanted to make those points known.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you so much.
[Alicia Hunt]: The next person with their hand raised is Dan McNulty.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hello, my name is Dan McNulty. I am a member of Laborers Local 22. I'm also a Medford resident. I live at 16 Lewis Street in Medford by Hickey Park in Gillis Field. I just wanted to comment tonight to talk about labor standards for this project and making sure that Tufts, as well as the community development board is really looking at requirements. They can place to make sure that this is a good beneficial project for the community. That can take the form of requiring registered apprenticeship on it. So you're creating demand for. young people coming in getting good wages and benefits as they are learning their craft. You can also talk about local resident requirements, braids women and people of color requirements on the project. All of this is standard practice to put into a project and ensure it's not just a good faith effort and that it's genuinely monitored and followed. So I'd really urge this board to reach out to Greater Boston Building Trades Unions and other organized labor groups to see how those standards have been used and find out in doing so that it can still be a competitive process, it can still have union and non-union contractors competing on it. But if those standards aren't there, this is going to be a race to the bottom for the cheapest labor possible. And that's a loss for Tufts and this ambitious building design with energy, as well as for the community. Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: The next hand raised is Catherine Leach.
[SPEAKER_41]: Hi, my name is Catherine Leach, I live at 31 Windsor Road, so right by the proposed site, and just wanted to express support for building a large dorm for Tufts students. I'm currently a renter, my rent goes up every year, and we are quite cost burdened in this community with regard to rent. So it'd be great to see Tufts take on some of the burden of housing in our community. And I was definitely turned out also by the flyer around the parking waiver that seems to be non-existent. But I also just wanted to express support for not building additional parking for these units. I personally do drive in Medford. I have no trouble finding a parking spot. And I think it's good that we're disincentivizing students from bringing cars to campus by having them live on campus. And hopefully, that will reduce traffic in our community. Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: Thank you. The next speaker is Jeremy Martin.
[Jeremy Martin]: Good evening, everyone. My name is Jeremy Martin. I live at 65 Burgett Avenue. I'm also a member of the Medford Conservation Commissioner. I want to keep my comments brief since we've already submitted a letter endorsed by many of our neighbors expressing our concerns about the project. I want to start by saying I support development on this site, and I support Tufts' original proposal to build seven-story buildings here, keeping with the scale of the surrounding buildings and significantly reducing the negative environmental impacts on the adjacent neighborhood. Tufts owns numerous other properties that could be densified to more sensibly distribute on-campus undergrad housing and achieve their housing goals without such an acute impact on neighbors. We've been misled by Tufts in this process and have been disappointed with the distorted process for notifying the community about the project and the unaddressed questions about its Dover status. We understand it's educational, but it is being developed by a for-profit entity, and we question whether that undermines their Dover status. And it severely reduces the city's means to ensure abutters are protected from harm through a full site plan review, which is appropriate for this project. At any height, this project needs to come with infrastructure improvements appropriate for a change in use of this scale on this already underperforming street. It shouldn't take neighborhood pressure to get street trees or reasonable traffic and mobility modifications added to a project like this. It's very encouraging to see street trees added to the plans and renderings presented tonight, but as we heard repeatedly, these trees are still a big maybe, and these last minute changes are meaningless until they are incorporated into the technical drawings submitted as part of the site plan review application, which to date they are not. To city leadership who have decided this development is in the community's best interest, we hope you're hearing us loud and clear that this particular building is not in our best interest and there are better ways to achieve the city's housing goals. And to the community development board, you're being asked to provide relief on several aspects of this project that did not meet the ordinance or zoning code. And I encourage you to consider approving those relief requests only under the conditions that the building height be reduced to seven stories to reduce harm on the hillside community, and that the public realm be further improved, guaranteed to be improved to mitigate the significant impact this project will have on daily users of Boston Avenue. Thank you for your time and consideration.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you, Mr. Martin.
[Alicia Hunt]: The next resident is Lori Krieger.
[Laurie Krieger]: Hi, everyone. I'm Lori Krieger. I'm at 124 Brookings Street. And I want to really ask all of the people on the board, please read our letters in full. We've spent hours working on them so that we can be clear with you and have a communication outlet with you. I also second everything that Jeremy just said. This what I'm just about to say is an addendum to what I already put in my letter to you all. So there's just no way any project of this scope with this impact on the greater community should be allowed to go forward without the input and buy-in of that community. That a project of this magnitude has included neighborhood input or even has not included neighborhood input or even shared with the community at all as at odds with how healthy communities function. Though Tufts touts that this will free up housing in our neighborhood, there's no discussion linkage to affordable housing or even making the homes usable by young couples and families. There has also been no discussion of impact of our infrastructure in any of these meetings. This building is out of scale and inappropriate because of that. It's so tall it will block out the positive, the passive sunlight we count on during the cooler months. If you look at the history of the hillside, you know we've already undergone drastic changes due to the Green Line extension. We want development and progress, but one that includes us and supports our lives as well. The Greenline extension did not come with expected mitigation like train beds that would absorb the vibrations of the heavy rail or large canopy tree replacement. And in these designs, there has been no inclusion of any life-sustaining components to mitigate the effects of such enormous buildings. Mitigation of sound, trains and street traffic of the building, light reverberations from the heavy rail amplified from the buildings, wing tunnels, reintroduction of large canopy trees. Again, we don't know that's going to happen. And bringing the buildings down to scale so they don't impede the winter sun are all essential. We recommend the board have Tufts redesign the project with the communities affected. That's us, anyone on the hillside, anyone who uses Boston Ave regularly and is part of the constituency to reimagine this project. We even asked the board to do a field trip to Hillside. Come visit us and speak with us and imagine the proposed building from our vantage point. But also please take a tour up Curtis Avenue and see that there are multiple service parking lots on the Tufts campus as well. That could easily be multi-story dorms.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: And who is the next speaker?
[Alicia Hunt]: The next speaker is Paula's iPhone. Please state your full name and address for the record.
[SPEAKER_18]: Yeah, hi, my name is Paula Parisi, and I own property at 70 Colby Street. And I'm just curious about, you said that the buildings have no fossil fuel usage, and I'm worried, I'm concerned, is this all coming off the grid that's currently being used? Does Tufts have their own? Generators are, you know, I'm just concerned about the electricity usage. That's it.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: The next speaker is Janie Tallarita. Sorry, I think I got your name wrong, misspoke.
[Janie Tallarita]: Hi there, can you hear me okay? You actually got my name right. It is Janie Tallarita. I'm at 68 Charnwood Road. just down the street from this project. And I do want to thank you all for taking our comments, share a few concerns about the project and I'm hoping that the city will consider the review of the site plan and ensure that any approval is truly consistent with Dover amendment includes and includes conditions that address building height, light and sound pollution, The opportunity for streetscape improvement like shade trees, glad to see that in there. And also, how does this truly address affordable housing. This building is vastly out of scale with our neighborhood, as others have said. We are a neighborhood of triple deckers and small bungalows, and this will have a huge impact with shadows, light pollution, not just from windows, but from bright lights on the buildings. I see that coming in my window all night. It is already a huge issue. Boston, I've lacked street trees for over a mile, so I'm happy to see the trees in there. I really want to see a true commitment to that. shade trees native trees, not calorie pairs, please. Really importantly, the city, you have all said and this is wonderful that you support this project, because it frees up existing housing throughout the city for working families which is a great thing, but Rents for most of the apartments around here are market rate. That is unaffordable for many families, especially those headed by single parents. Students can live as roommates and together they can pay thousands of dollars in rent. That's not an option for many people. And while additional housing stock may help to alleviate that a little bit, I'm skeptical that it will be enough for too many families. So, I really want Medford to be looking at how this project and other projects impact affordable housing, hold Tufts accountable for being part of that plan. And I also just want to say, thank you. Thank you very much.
[Alicia Hunt]: The next speaker hasn't posted a real name. I will click unmute, but please share your real name.
[SPEAKER_05]: Hello, my name is Noel Xavier. I'm an organizer for the Carpenters Union. I am representing over 200 members who are residents of Medford. I'm here tonight to express serious concerns about the upcoming Tufts Residence Hall project, where Erland Construction is set to serve as the general contractor. While we support the building of much-needed housing, we want to ensure it's built responsibly. Erland has a troubling history of working with subcontractors who fail to pay fair wages and that operate in the underground economy by exploiting their workforce. Unfortunately, despite discussions with Tufts about these issues, they have shown little regard for taking meaningful action to address them. Right now, we're in the process of helping workers who have not been paid for work they performed on a Bowdoin construction project in North Attleboro. These workers were employed by a drywall subcontractor named Dynamic Interiors. Both Bowdoin Construction and Dynamic Interiors are currently working at the project on campus named Blakely Hall. This kind of waste theft not only harms the affected workers, but also undermines the integrity of our local labor market and community standards. As Medford residents and workers, we worry about the impact this project will have on our community. Projects like this can either uplift neighborhoods by creating good jobs and fair opportunities, or harm them when contractors cut corners at the expense of workers and local businesses. It's critical that Tufts and the contractor selected prioritize fair treatment, diversity, safety, and accountability. This board has the ability to set expectations for development in Medford that support ethical labor practices and strengthen our community. I urge you to use your oversight to ensure that this project will be built with contractors who respect workers, pay fair wages, and reflect the values of this city. Thank you for your time and consideration.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you very much, Mr. Xavier. One of the things I want to make clear is in this project, Rocco, you can feel free to defer this, but is your contract. actually procured through a proper means. The board has no control over selection of contractors, but I wanted to just make sure that we were on the same page with understanding that there's a procurement process. There's Massachusetts laws that are followed, and I just wanted to make sure that we got that clear.
[Rocco DiRico]: I appreciate that, Madam Chair. And yeah, what I want to say here, I want to defer to Barb Stein, who's our Vice President of Operations. Barb, if you can raise your hand, and I will try to unmute you. And you can talk about how we select our contractors and then the requirements we put on them.
[SPEAKER_21]: Sure, sure. I'm happy to do that. Hi, I'm Barb Stein from TUS. Happy to be here tonight. Regarding represented workers in the procurement process. So Capstone was competitively procured and their team competitively procured. So Erland Construction was competitively procured to be working on this job. And then they in turn will competitively procure all of the subcontractors and sub-bids that work on the project. And we do have, union workers on campus. For all our projects, this one and all our other projects, we do competitively bid the work and we're open to talking with and taking bids from all qualified subcontractors. Erland is here tonight. They've encouraged interested firms to talk to them about bidding on this project. So please contact them if you're interested in doing so. And I'll stop there.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you so much for that information. I really appreciate it. I didn't mean to take a derail from the conversations that we were having, but I know that that was a huge concern. Director Hunt, please continue. Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: Great. Our next commenter is Lisa DiMatteo.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_25]: Hello everyone. Good evening. My name is Lisa D Mateo I live at 138 Brookings Street, and I am the very last house on the dead end directly abutting the project site. And I'm not sure that I can add anything unique to what has already been stated in many different ways tonight. I think it's also clear that this project isn't going to satisfy everybody and there isn't a way to mitigate for all the situations that are being brought forth here. So I'm just going to go ahead and be really self-focused here and describe how the buildings that are already there impact the neighborhood and at least, like, I can be in my bed and see directly what's happening in the dormitory across the street as it exists today. I appreciate that these new buildings are going to be made with different materials, up-to-date technology and construction. There is a really, really direct harmful impact to residents downhill from the proposed construction site. So, um. Other people have used different words for it. I'm just going to say, I think it's, it's going to have a very unhealthy impact on the neighborhood. And I really hope that all of the parties that are being asked to consider these comments will really will really do so with care. And for the sake of more than So it's time for the sake of our community. Thank you, Danielle.
[Alicia Hunt]: The next commenter is Ross Simons.
[SPEAKER_13]: Hi, Larry. Can you hear me?
[Alicia Hunt]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_13]: Hey there, my name is Ross Simons. I'm a long time resident about seven years now here in Method, about three blocks down from the Tufts campus. Just want to lobby my support for the building. It's going to improve housing prices overall for renters that are not part of Tufts campus. And on the parking side, just want to point out that the parking minimum waiver that's been going around Four of the lowest car ownership campuses in the entire United States are in Massachusetts, with 6% or below. Tufts' own data says only 10%. Only 10% of their students have parking minimums, and the proposed building has they want to do a 15% parking for the dormitory that's being added. So in my opinion, that's more than enough parking for that, and I would hate for the dorm to be restricted in some way because of that minimum.
[Alicia Hunt]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_13]: Thank you very much.
[Alicia Hunt]: The next commenter is Elizabeth Bale.
[Elizabeth Bayle]: Thank you, can you hear me?
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Yes, but there's an echo. I'm not sure if you're on two different devices.
[Elizabeth Bayle]: How about now, is that better?
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_52]: Yes.
[Elizabeth Bayle]: Sorry, just a second. Okay, I hope you can hear me now. Yes, we can hear you. If you could state your name and your address. Elizabeth Bale, 34 Emery Street, which is a few streets over from the proposed site. And I learned of this project only on October 28th, and I do try to follow what Tufts is doing but I feel like I think some in some of the letters that may have been stated that for something this size and magnitude and impact on the neighborhood. It certainly would have been really nice, and I wish it was required. that Tufts could have sent letters around or in some other way informed people who live in Medford Hillside, because this is really going to have, to me, a hugely negative impact. We've worked with Tufts for years over various issues, and we've asked for housing on campus because we have negative impacts from students living off campus. You know, we've participated in asking for mitigation on other projects, but it's I just want to echo the comments of everyone who said that these are way too huge and tall for the scale of the neighborhood and they're going to permanently damage. the neighborhood and I don't understand why they can't take advantage of buildings that they have control over or own like hillside hardware and other sites to make either several lower buildings or make these buildings lower and take advantage of other opportunities because these are I'm just really horrified at the scale of them. And I have really appreciated Medford Hillside and worked hard to get the T station here. And I don't wanna see this whole neighborhood ruined by these colossal buildings. Thank you. Thank you very much.
[Alicia Hunt]: Our next speaker is Ian Hines. Oops, I think I may have clicked the wrong one. Ian Hines, there you go.
[SPEAKER_28]: Yes, thank you. So my name is Ian Hines. I am also with the Carpenters Union, and I just wanted to echo what my brother Noel was saying before. Also, follow up on what Ms. Stein and Mr. Dorrico were talking about, about the qualified contractors and how this process has been working. Now, to my understanding, this is a private development, which means that it is exempt from a lot of the protections we typically have on public projects for universities such as Tufts or in the past. Now, what that means for us is that we have no general contractual liability in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. that it essentially entails you can hide behind, as a general contractor, the actions of your subcontractors. And those actions are typically not documented. So when Noel is talking about who we have been chasing after, who we've seen as bad actors in this industry ending up on these projects, just because they can be qualified through the state's Parameters does not mean that they are not bad actors. So I would just advise and please request and someone who my whole family's from Medford. I was born in Medford, raised my first few years of my life in Medford and still there plenty of times and also represent those 200 workers that live in the city and more who will work there. please understand this part of the issue because there are too many ways that those cheating contractors are getting into these projects. Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: Thank you very much. Our next commenter is Kelly and Claire Rhodes.
[KaEkSOLEwkQ_SPEAKER_23]: Yeah, hi, my name is Kelly Rhodes. I'm representing myself and my wife, Claire Rhodes. We live at 83 Charnwood Road with a lot of our neighbors here as well. And we just want to reiterate what Jeremy said so eloquently as well as our neighbors, Lisa, who we live right across the street from, impacted greatly on this, and Georgie, who discussed the letters that we've written and that we really would love to have a lot of attention brought to. It seems as though Tufts, as a connector to our community, they really pride themselves on their work with our community to bridge a gap between the university and our neighborhood. And this seems to go completely against it. I also just learned about this recently and we are extremely connected and all of the ways that you can be connected both through Tufts University as well as Medford. And so I'm also saying, you know, shame on Medford because I think that you could have done a really better job informing your neighbors that are going to be directly impacted on this. It seems that this is probably going to go through the way that Tufts is going to see that they want it to, and that these neighbor concerns might not have any impact. I would ask that you all treat these neighbors with respect, because they're coming at you with sincere and dire concerns over the impact that this will bring, not only currently to our daily lives, but in the future, two to five to ten years from now, as many of us have been in this community a long time. Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: Thank you. The next speaker is Jason Jolcinet.
[SPEAKER_43]: Hi, good evening. My name is Jason Wilson. I'm a 25 year resident here in Somerville, and I'm with carpenters local 328. And as someone I'm going to practice, by the way, and as someone who's worked on both sides, non union and union, I just can't speak enough to how much more protections that you need membership brings. and the quality and the training it brings along with to the work that's being done. Tufts kind of just passing off saying we have open bids and we're willing to talk to the union doesn't really show support or push for union work on the site. It's just kind of like I said before, a race to the bottom with the work that may be done. And, you know, I just think you could really do better for the community and the people that live here and that work here, you know, and just support us in our efforts to get ahead in the world with the right protections at work. And I just hope you can, you know, get behind this properly and do the right thing. Thank you very much.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: Sorry, I got called away. Is the next speaker Richard Lavoie or is that who just spoke? That's the next speaker. Yes.
[Rich Lavoie]: Hi, hello. Yes, I'm Rich Lavoie. I am a lifelong resident of Medford here at Sheridan Ave. And I am also a representative of the Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen. And I have just two questions. What is the financial relationship between Capstone Partners and Tufts University? And also has Capstone publicly committed to not making a profit on this project? So look forward to hearing the answer. Thank you.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you very much.
[Alicia Hunt]: The next speaker is Jeff Saliba.
[SPEAKER_34]: Evening everyone. My name is Jeff Saliba. I am the business manager of the heat and frost insulators local six. I represent around 600 mechanical insulators with many of them. And I mean many of them living in Bedford. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one in that unit that doesn't live in Bedford. But I want to touch on wage theft. The construction industry is plagued by rampant wage theft, a practice that exploits workers and siphons billions of dollars annually with Massachusetts alone, seeing an estimated $1 billion stolen from workers each year, according to the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. Unscrupulous subcontractors frequently misclassify workers. underpay wages, deny them sick time, deny them overtime, or fail to pay workers altogether, creating a systematic crisis of exploitation. Institutions like Tufts University and contractors like Early Construction bear a moral and perhaps legal responsibility to ensure that workers on their properties are paid fairly and in compliance with the law. Turning a blind eye to the practices of subcontractors and claiming no responsibility for their actions is not only complicit, but perpetuates the cycle of abuse. I believe the only reliable way to safeguard workers' wages and uphold ethical standards is to hire union contractors. Union contractors ensure transparency, accountability, and adherence to wage and labor laws, guaranteeing that workers are paid fairly and treated with dignity on every job. And I appreciate your time. Thank you.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you very much.
[Alicia Hunt]: The next speaker is Mike Korzynski.
[4FsPfOqpqG0_SPEAKER_00]: Hi. I submitted written comments, so I will just be brief. Judy Weinstock, my neighbor, had brought up a point earlier about how these are 12-month leases. And I know Alicia had mentioned to start off the meeting that they had checked with their legal team, I guess, about, of course, I don't think any reasonable person would say a dorm is not protected under Dover. But this project sounds a lot more like the escape development that they tried to do in Conway and tried to do in Davis Square, and both of those failed. And neither one of those was Would have obviously been entitled to do over because they're essentially for profit projects and if you if you really think about how the storm is going to operate and be operated by capstone not by toughs. It sounds a lot more like a for profit project than than a dormitory and I think if you ask those questions. Maybe it's a more interesting answer than just a reasonable person would say university dormitory is protected by Dover. But I think there's deeper questions to be asked. And I would implore you all to read submitted written comments because I think that they try to go into more detail and get to the nuance of some of this. And I also support everything Jeremy and Laurie said as well, and I do think that this project, we support a dorm in general, but this particular version of it is just not right or fair for the neighborhood. Thanks.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: The next speaker is Laura Jasinski.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_26]: Good evening, everybody. My name is Laura Jasinski. I live at 65 Burgett Ave. I'm also a member of the Medford Arts Council. I was a member of the Medford Comprehensive Master Plan Steering Committee, and I'm also a proud double jumbo, so say that to note that I care about the success of Tufts, but very much care about the success of Medford, and want to be one more voice in appealing to this board to use every tool in your power to provide the level of review that the project of this scale really requires. We've heard a lot of concerns tonight I echo those concerns around building height and mitigation, and also just recognize this as I think an opportunity for tops but really an opportunity for Medford and we're setting a precedent with this building and we need to be very do that with care I think someone said that really nicely. So have a lot of concerns around, again, the impacts of this will have on the neighborhood and ask TEPs to really show up as a true partner with the community, use this as an opportunity to build a bridge and not to build a wall. Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: The last, almost last, the next speaker is Chatten Green.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hello, everyone. My name is Shaton Green. I'm an agent with the Boston Building Trades Union. I represent hundreds of workers in Medford. And I really want to open with a quote, and it's, no one who works for a living should live in poverty. Before joining the union, I've worked non-union and experienced wage theft myself. And it literally almost displaced me out of my neighborhood, out of my home. It wasn't until I joined the union and had those protections that I was able to really grow roots in my neighborhood. And I know this is the same for many, many members who we represent. So my question for the board is what is your policy to combat wage theft in Method?
[Alicia Hunt]: Thank you very much. The next speaker is Eric Etienne.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Eric, you're muted. Are you able to unmute yourself? Nope. Alicia, can you help him with technical difficulties?
[Danielle Evans]: There, he's unmuted. I think there's too many people trying to unmute at the same time.
[Alicia Hunt]: If one person handles it, then... Do you want me to send him the unmute request again?
[Danielle Evans]: Yes, nobody, no one who's a co-host, please don't... Hello?
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Hello.
[SPEAKER_27]: Hi, can you hear me?
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_27]: Hi, my name is Eric Etienne. I'm a long life resident of Method. I live at 117 Princeton Street. My backyard was actually Spicer Field. I am a highly trained union mechanical insulator and I would like the opportunity to work in the city I live in. Unfortunately, too many times these contractors who work on these job sites that tops higher workers who live in other cities and towns, and many times from New Hampshire, or from a Home Depot parking lot. But it was it was emphasized here to the importance of insulation at a friend of mine working on a building that's how sent me some pictures of inferior insulation work and untrained insulator attempted to install in a building. It was brought to the engineering department's attention with a contract that was made to re-insulate the piping. Hiring trained mechanical insulators is not just an investment in the quality of the building, it is an investment in the environment and the future of train potential. Ensure that insulation is installed correctly, maximizing energy efficiency, reducing waste, and minimizing carbon emissions. In contrast, untrained workers compromise these benefits, leading to higher costs, greater environmental harm, and missed opportunities for substantial development. Builders and contractors must prioritize prioritize hiring qualified professionals to ensure their projects are both economically and environmentally sound. I'd love the opportunity to work in this building. Please, please do the right thing. Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: Thank you very much. Madam Chair, I'm gonna keep calling on people. I just thought I should clarify in case anybody is confused about this, but the board doesn't have any authority or anything over labor contracts. They can't require anything around labor. It's completely outside of their scope. So I just don't want the abutters and the other neighbors listening, thinking that we're ignoring it, but the board cannot include that in their conditions.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Yes, and I was going to clarify that at the end of the public comment period. Thank you so much, Director Hunt, for saying that, that we're only limited to two specifications, and I will reiterate those later. Okay.
[Alicia Hunt]: So the next speaker is Rick Keogh.
[SPEAKER_45]: It's Rick Keogh. Can you hear me now?
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_45]: I'm not, I actually don't live in Medford. I'm a sheet metal representative for the sheet metal work at Local 17. And I actually, I'm in that area all the time. I have, you know, members that live in Medford, and I also have family members that live in Medford, and they'll be sending in their emails. But, um, just want to mediate. I'm not going to go on just like the other building trades because I don't think trust itself. Tufts used to be a very honorable school. They really don't care. It's all about the profit now, as you can tell by the building. These buildings are there just strictly for profit. But as far as I'm concerned, driving down, they're adding a 10-story building with commercial property at the bottom, and I'm driving down there all the time. I don't know how many times a biker almost hits my door. It's dangerous enough, and you're wiping out the parking. I mean, maybe you should should maybe eliminate one of the buildings or something or lower the buildings, like they said. But I know when you're going to have the spring people moving in and, you know, and moving out in the spring and moving in in the fall. I said it's dangerous enough. I really think I think these neighbors are right. You're asking for trouble. They've had enough accidents there already with the, you know, people getting hurt and sent to the hospital lately. So I don't think you need more. And I would really Let's speak against this project totally. So just like my point of view, very dangerous. Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: The next speaker is City Council President Zach bears.
[Zac Bears]: Hi everyone. Thank you. to the chair and the Community Development Board. I want to thank residents for their feedback and concerns, some of which we have heard as city councilors as well, and I've been listening tonight. I just want to speak mostly to Tufts at this point, given what we know about the law. A lot of what we've been advocating for from the city council perspective and state legislators exist because we don't feel that there's a fair balance of power between the city and the residents and Dover exempt institutions like Tufts and other institutions in the education and health space. And I really want to encourage Tufts to use this as an opportunity to build some of that connection. I see a lot of the benefits here. The housing shortage is real. We want more students on campus housed at Tufts, but I think Tufts could use this as an opportunity to build some connection, even though they're not legally required to, by accepting a voluntary site plan review beyond just the Dover site plan review. looking at a pilot payment similar to the Cummings Center, an additional pilot beyond what is provided to the city, more concretely committing to working with the building trades and other union contractors to ensure fair labor on the project. And I also want to just thank the CD board for their work on this and hopefully given the difficult legal conditions that exist there can be additional public realm improvements on traffic safety and trees on Boston Avenue as well as light and sound mitigation. But again I just think this is an You know, there's a reason why we're filing the institutional master plan bill. There's a reason why I support pilot bills at the State House. And I think it's because we just see how limited municipalities are with the Dover Amendment and the exemptions given to our large nonprofit educational and health care institutions. So I'm asking Tufts to use this as an opportunity to work differently and maybe go beyond just what they're required to do. Thank you.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you so much. President Bears.
[Alicia Hunt]: The next speaker is Jim Lister.
[Jim Lister]: Good evening. My name is Jim Lister. I live 193 Winthrop Street. I'm also with the Building Trades and I've lived in Medford most of my life. And it hurts me that Tufts continually snubs the building trades. Trained workers, you know, Tufts is a world-class school, yet they build and they scrape every dollar for what they think they're saving in their night. They're penny wise and dollar foolish. I would like to see them commit, like any other world-class school, to build all their buildings and maintain all their buildings with the Boston Building Trades, with a collective bargaining agreement, you know? I know this board said they can't do anything about that, but we have the power in other ways to, you know, hold off until they come to their senses somewhat. The procurement... I don't want to say the last thing. Again, Tufts is a world-class institution. Wage theft is real. Exploitation is real. It happens every day. It happens under your nose. I would hope that Tufts doesn't want to be a part of that. I would hope that this board would better understand what the word open shop means, what the word union means, collective bargaining. You need to know all those things before you can make a judgment on giving them a building permit, giving them the rights to build a building. You know, exploitation is real. I hope that you do a little research. Please. Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: The next speaker is El Roco.
[Rocco]: Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Hi, yes, Linda Rocco. I live at 15-17 University Ave. Just a couple of points I'm gonna make. I find it very interesting that Tufts University is telling the Method residents that we're beginning construction on April 1st, 2025. I also know I have a major issue with the building height. At one time it was seven floors. Now it's 10 and above. I have an issue with parking on University Ave. I noticed in one of the pictures that there was some kind of construction parking area on University Ave for construction workers. I'd like to know exactly where that's going to be because no one will be parking anywhere near my property. issue with trucks coming up and down the street of University of what type of damage is it going to be to the street of University of and who's going to repair the street. I have an issue with construction going six days a week. Um, I work five days a week and I certainly don't want to hear trucks coming up and down the street of University Ave on a Saturday morning. And the last issue I have is if and when they do break ground, the rodents, the rats and the mice that are going to be floating around University Ave, Boston Ave and God knows where. Thank you very much. Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: I'm madame chair that is the last one I can check for more written comments. But I'd like to know if you actually I'll tell you. that there've been two comments that have come in since seven o'clock. One of them was another of the form, the opposing the parking waiver. And the other is a message saying that they wholeheartedly support long campus housing. And he'd love to have more trees on Boston Ave. That's it for the written comments that have been received so far.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you so much. Since seeing no other comments, I will close the public comment portion of the meeting and bring it back to the board for deliberation. Actually, before deliberation, I'm going to defer to Mr. DiRico, or would you prefer Braco? I have been remiss in referring to you by your first name.
[Rocco DiRico]: Madam Chair, everybody calls me Rocco. I think I'm the only Rocco at Tufts.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Okay. There are actually two questions that I would hope that you can answer to the public, but then I would defer back to you and your partners on which others you want to address this evening, or you don't have to feel pressured to answer them all this evening? but the two that I would like to be answered tonight is one, Ms. Weinstock had referred to a discussion that she had with you regarding the apartments, if you couldn't lease them with students, they would be leased otherwise. Can you explain that to us a little bit more?
[Rocco DiRico]: Yeah, and that is not what I said to Ms. Weinstock when we met earlier this week. So this building is being built for Tufts University students. We've done a demand analysis, and there are plenty of juniors and seniors who are on our waiting list right now for on-campus housing and want to live in this dorm. So I want to start off by saying I have no doubt that we're going to fill this dorm with juniors and seniors. In the event that we can't, we will go to other Tufts students, graduate students, freshmen and sophomores, faculty and staff. So the only people in this building will be Tufts University affiliates, students, faculty, or staff.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: At all times, okay. Thank you very much. Another question I had, going back to the light reflection, if you guys can just, there were some shadow studies that were provided, but that has been a huge concern for many of the abutters. I'm hoping that at some point we can mitigate some concerns with, you know, reasonable solutions going forward. But if you can just, if someone could touch a little bit more about exactly how those, how the windows or how it won't affect the abutters, the actual lighting.
[Rocco DiRico]: Sure, I want to allow David Manfredi, our architect, to speak to this a little bit. But I do want to emphasize that I know one of the things that was brought up was low light emission windows. And the issue with that is, as part of the passive house standards, you need to allow light to kind of come into the building to heat a certain portion of it because you're relying on the light for it. So there are things we can do to try to mitigate Shades, blinds, other things like that, and we're going to do that. But there are other parts of the project that we can't because we have to meet the building code. David Manfredi, did I, A, did I say that correctly? And B, is there anything you want to add?
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_52]: No, you absolutely had it right, Rocco. I will reinforce that It is passive house, and because it is passive house, that very much limits the amount of glazing to approximately 30% of the surface area of the building. And so that limits the light spill that would come out of those windows. There will be shades on all windows. Obviously, they rely upon the occupant using the shades, but they will be on every window in the building. Glass is rated by its visible light transmission, and typically that's somewhere It can vary widely. Of course, you could get reflective glass, but I don't think you want that because that just increases the amount of daylight or sunlight that's getting reflected across the street. You want probably a visual light transmission that's, I don't know, I'm gonna say somewhere around 50 to 60%. But keep in mind, these are these are residences, not dissimilar to your own, meaning that that the the quantity of light in a in a residential bedroom or living room, coming from LED Typically, LED lights is two, three, five foot candles, not 40 foot candles that might be coming out of an office building or more at a lab building. And then, layer on that. the fact that it is only 30% of the building will have glass. But we will look at all different glass types. And obviously, we're still in an early stage, and we'll look carefully at all the specifications for the glazing.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_04]: Should probably also note, David, that the existing parking lot, the way that the configuration of the spaces is that when people pull into park there, you're seeing headlights that are much more intense light and focus light coming into the neighborhood. Redeveloping that parking lot will actually remove those more intense lights from shining down into the neighborhood.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you again. And again, Rocco, anything that you feel your team wants to further address from tonight's meeting, please do so.
[Rocco DiRico]: I will go into a few things and Pat, please tell me if there's anything else that you want me to kind of address. I tried to take as many notes as I can. You know, I know there were a lot of questions regarding labor, and I want to assure everyone on this call that we're going to comply with all state laws, all safety requirements, and we're really confident in our team that they will do that as well. I know the question came up about mom and pop businesses we would love to have locally owned small businesses participate in the retail here tough currently leases out space to a number of locally owned small businesses. Tamper, Semolina's, Danish Pastry House, those are all locally owned small businesses. And there have been some that have reached out to us that we're speaking to, you know, in real time about potentially leasing that space. Um, you know, we talked about parking. I think 1 of the things I want to emphasize here is we do have over 2000. 2000 parking spaces on campus. Freshmen and sophomores are not allowed to bring cars to campus as 1 of the neighbors mentioned. Um, for the juniors and seniors that do bring their cars approximately 11% of those do. Um, and so if that same ratio, um, for this dorm brings cars, we have ample space on campus for them to park on campus. Um. Electric usage, I think as part of the search energy code, this has to be an electric building. David, I assume we have enough electricity in the area to support the building once it's constructed. David, I'm going to ask you to unmute.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Director Hart, if you can unmute David.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_52]: Yes, thank you. Yes, there is sufficient power, substation resources for the power for the buildings.
[Rocco DiRico]: And then, you know, we heard in our community meetings, um, you know, the, the request of a lot of folks to do more streetscape improvements, add more trees. Um, and do more of that on Boston have and that's exactly what we. You know, presented this evening, so we just want to emphasize that we heard from the neighbors on that. and we went ahead and made those additions to the project based on the feedback that we received at the community meetings. Pat, is there anything else that you'd like to address?
[ZQDZZh_VfdI_SPEAKER_08]: I don't think so, Rocco. I think Madam Chair and members of the board and Director Hunt, we're glad to hear any questions and follow-up points that you all have for us.
[Alicia Hunt]: Madam chair to housekeeping things, and we do, we asked the board to provide us with the slides so that we could share those will add those to the file that's available to the public. And a minor housekeeping, our board member who's actually recused from this item had to log off from his computer. If he is actually on one of the anonymous iPhones or some other, please raise your hand so that I can identify. He had a computer problem and was reconnecting with the phone, but he's recused from this case anyhow. But other than that,
[ZQDZZh_VfdI_SPEAKER_08]: Madam Chair, can I ask a question?
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Yes, please Mr. Gallagher.
[ZQDZZh_VfdI_SPEAKER_08]: Thank you very much. Would it be helpful, we didn't include in our initial presentation an overview of the specifics of our application and where we are requesting relief through site plan approval. Would it be helpful to provide an overview of that for the board?
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Yes, I know that Parkin is one and we weren't discussing Parkin in detail this evening only because the director of traffic and Parkin has not had a chance to weigh in and neither has the board. But if you feel as though it will help with the public this evening, you can go right ahead.
[ZQDZZh_VfdI_SPEAKER_08]: Thank you, ma'am. I think I think it would be helpful just to and it's at the table and, uh, you know, um, deliberately wanted to stay away from the. Legal stuff earlier to keep everyone awakened with us. Um. I think the unique piece of site plan review. For Dover amendment projects under the zoning ordinances is, as you had noted, madam chair, the inquiry is relatively limited. Um, to a 2 part test and the 1st is, is the use protected by the Dover amendment. And then the 2nd looks at. What reasonable regulations concerning the bulk and height of structures and yard sizes, lot area setbacks, open space, parking and building coverage requirements should be imposed on the use? 1 of the unique things about how we were able to design this project is to do so in a way that really deliberately minimized. The amount of relief that we would be requesting from the board. So, in this case, and we outline this in our application. We are seeking a small amount of relief from the front yard setback along Boston Avenue. And in that case, only for small pieces of the building. Most of the building will still comply with the setback requirement. We're also seeking a small amount of relief from the side yard setback along University Avenue. We are seeking what I would describe as technical relief, given that the Tufts campus is a single owned parcel. There are going to be buildings in the rear yard, which is ordinarily not permitted by zoning, but given the nature of the campus, we're seeking relief for those items as well. And then as you noted, parking and again, you know, we want to give folks time to. Um, review the parking impact study that we have provided and we'll be following up. Um, with the transportation department on that as well, in between now and the next hearing. And then the last piece that we had included is relief from certain requirements of the solar ordinance component of the bylaw. And our intention is to build the building in a way that it will structurally accommodate future solar. Um, today we do not have any plans. Uh, any definitive plans, I should say, um, for solar installation, but it's absolutely something. That the team is looking into, um, and, you know, I think. I can speak for the team would would be very interested in trying to do that in the future. Um, so again, just to. To really summarize, we're really trying to minimize the relief that we're seeking, keeping this building below the maximum height limitation, and that was an important piece here, while also trying to provide for Tufts what is really a significant opportunity to bring as many students back onto campus as it's able to do. So I'm happy to address any questions, but I appreciate your time Madam Chair.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you so much Mr. Gallagher. And if there's no other questions or comments from the proponent or partners, I am going to open it up for board questions or clarification. Adam Behrens.
[Adam Behrens]: Hi Jackie. And thanks everybody for for the comments tonight I think it's super helpful for us. I just wanted to ask a clarifying question of sort of what's in scope for the board to kind of put as a condition. And so there was a lot of discussion on the height of the building in particular and I think the Tufts University presentation mentioned that under current zoning it's actually under the maximum allowable height. And so from just purely from a kind of board restriction or capability perspective, does that limit what we can do and so it's kind of are we to go by the guidance of what is what is zoned for the area?
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: This is absolutely correct. There are some other pieces, including Park and I believe that Director Hunt had mentioned earlier that we can probably apply, but that has to be legally sorted out with council. But for this, the purpose of this meeting this evening, our two inquiries are, does this use qualify as a protected educational use under the Dover Amendment? Our council has already confirmed that yes, it does. And then as far as reasonable regulations, What are the reasonable regulations that could and should apply to the project? And that's yet to be determined. And that would be one of the questions. Should the requested relief from parking requirements and relevant dimensional standards be granted? What conditions of approval are needed to mitigate any adverse impacts of waiving requirements? So tonight is just pretty much a meeting to take it all in. And then we'll continue to just discuss with the city as well as council and continue to review the project with the proponent so that we can actually understand reasonable solutions. So that we can better understand which reasonable solutions we can impose as a board body. I hope that answers. Sorry, I don't know if you're muted, Adam.
[Adam Behrens]: Oh, yeah. That answers. Thank you.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Sorry. Thank you.
[Ben Lavallee]: Thank you, Jackie. I'd like to just invite maybe Tufts or whoever the appropriate party is to respond. It came up a couple of times, and I know that there's what's within the power of the board and what isn't, but this is a great opportunity with almost 100 people on the line to address the change from 7 to 10 floors that was brought up by a couple of community members. It's a great time to provide context on what happened there, change in scope. I know it was mentioned housing as many people as possible, and that makes sense. But just wanted to bubble that one up to the top and see if anybody wanted to chime in.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you, Ben.
[Rocco DiRico]: Thank you, Ben. Yeah, that is a good question. And I'll start off and then pass it off to Barb. But I just want to make clear that there was a proposal a few years ago that was seven stories on that site. We never filed for that project. We never went to the Community Development Board. We just weren't able to proceed at the time due to financial conditions. And then, as we've stated earlier in the call, we really wanted to maximize the amount of beds we had on the site. A couple of the comments that we did receive on that previous project was, can you put more beds on campus? You need more beds on campus. We took a hard look at that, but I will pass it off to Barb if there's anything else she wants to add to that.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Yes. Director, can you please unmute me?
[SPEAKER_21]: There we go. I am. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes, I will add a little bit to what Rocco said. You know, we have one chance to build on this site, and we really wanted to maximize what we could do here. This building is not only a little bit taller than the last iteration, but it's more efficiently laid out so that we can get as many beds as we can out of the communities and onto this site. And it also had to achieve some economies of scale for it to be financially feasible. So that was a factor as well.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you very much, Ms. Stein. Before I go to Ari Fishman, I want to just let the public know, because I see a couple of hands up, that the public comment period has passed on this. Any further questions can be emailed to OCD at Medford-MA.gov. At this point, we will not be taking any more public comments this evening. Ari Fishman?
[Ari Fishman]: Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the applicants. I want to express my sincere gratitude to all the neighbors and union representatives that turned out for this meeting. It's a very concerted effort and I kind of speaking for myself, but I think also for the board, we really hear and appreciate the time and thought that you've put into your comment. We read every single piece of feedback and strongly consider it. And I thank you for taking the time. I have a few kind of thoughts, questions, et cetera. The first one is that I kind of understand that our role on the board, we cannot require anything about union labor. However, as was just mentioned, this is a call with over a hundred neighbors and I would love to hear if Tufts can perhaps say anything about committing to The aspects that the unions brought up, things like committing to no wage theft, committing to hiring locally and hiring young people and apprentices. It's something that I think would go a long way towards supporting the community and building some of that goodwill. In terms of the other aspects that we are looking at, we are allowed to look at things like height, bulk, setbacks, et cetera. And I've seen a lot of shadow studies in my time on the Community Development Board, and I have not seen one that has such strong, serious effects on the neighbor hood and have the proponent not say anything about mitigating it. Usually, I'm a huge proponent of dense housing. I love the fact that there's going to be more on-campus housing. I think that's a mutual need for both the university and the community. But those are some serious shadows, and there was no discussion about decreasing them or limiting that effect on the neighbors. And that is actually something that I really do want to hear more about. And I look forward to hearing more guidance from legal about what are the parameters within the height, bulk, et cetera, exceptions in Dover.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you so much, Ari. All right, we've come to the end and I'll just summarize.
[Ari Fishman]: Can I ask if someone from Tufts can perhaps comment on my question about voluntary commitment to?
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: I'm not sure that we can. They can definitely comment, but we can't pressure. That's not something that's not in the board's purview. So they can, I think, and I don't want to negate your comment or silence you on that, RA Fishman, but I believe that Rocco tonight has answered it as best as he could, but if he feels as though he wants to provide a different answer.
[Rocco DiRico]: Yeah, I have commented on it. I'm happy if Barb Stein wants to say anything on the matter, but I think we've, we've stated our case and our policy on labor unions.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you, Rocco. All right, so it's come to the point where we will definitely have to vote on a date, sir. And I wanted to sum it up by saying that although the board is limited, my hope is that Tufts, first and foremost, I want to also mention that I am a Tufts triple jumbo. I have three credits from Tufts University, I have no financial commitment. I want to make sure that I'm very transparent and that no financial interest in any project in which Tufts does. So I feel as though that I can, I would not need to recuse myself on this matter going forward, but I did want to make that noted. But in saying that, I also want to ask, you know, as a resident I actually want to ask if Tufts as a proponent can listen and if you've heard all the residents tonight and you'll consider being a good neighbor. And someone mentioned earlier, build a bridge and not a wall. And as chair of the city council, Bears has actually said, please go beyond what is required. Maybe even a donation to Medford House Affordable Trust. I'm just throwing some things out there. Think about scaling back on the heights. Pretty much it's not within our legal jurisdiction in this board to require that, but it's been my experience that a good neighbor doesn't need to be persuaded by law. And I wanted to end with that and ask for a motion to continue to a date certain since we're not able to vote on this matter this evening. The date would be the 12-4 or 12-18. That would be left up to the Tufts proponent to see if you would prefer to have 12-4 or 12-18, and then the board will vote.
[ZQDZZh_VfdI_SPEAKER_08]: If I may, Madam Chair, our preference would be for the next hearing on the board's calendar.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: 12-4, okay. Thank you. So I will do a roll call for a date. Actually, I would need a motion to continue 4-1 Boston Ave site plan review for Dover amendment use for the trustees of Tufts College to 12-4-24.
[Ayni Strang]: I make a motion, Madam Chair, to go forward for the next meeting on December 3rd.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you very much. A second?
[Ben Lavallee]: Just a point of clarification. I think the next meeting is on December 4th. The motion was set for December 3rd.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Yes. 12th. Yes. 12th. I automatically heard 12th. Sorry. Thank you. So the motion is for 12th and a second.
[Ari Fishman]: I'll second it.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you. And I'll do a roll call vote. Ari Fishman. Aye. Sabrina Alpino. Aye. Adam Behrens.
[Peter Calves]: Aye.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Annie String. Aye. Ben Lavallee.
[Peter Calves]: Aye.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: And myself, Jackie McPherson. I'm an aye. Thank you so much, Rocco, and everyone that has showed up tonight for Tufts University. We will see you on 12-4-24.
[SPEAKER_29]: Thank you, Madam Chair.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Have a great evening, and thank you. And thank you to all of the public.
[Danielle Evans]: Madam Chair, may I suggest we take a five-minute recess?
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Yes, please. Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: So I'll just clarify for anybody, there is an additional agenda item. We're taking a five-minute recess. People will turn their cameras back on when they're back in the room.
[Ari Fishman]: That was an extremely cheery timer sound.
[Danielle Evans]: I know, I discovered the timer app. Wasn't that cute? If only I'd found it earlier.
[Peter Calves]: Was that the Zoom timer?
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah. I thought somebody was playing like old music for us. All right. Thank you for doing, um, I needed to stand up and walk away from the computer.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: No, yeah. Thank you for the, and just quickly, I mean, Tufts is gone, but I originally said that I have three credits from Tufts. They're probably like, you only did one class. I meant credentials just for anyone that's still listening. I'm like, wait, credits? Wait, they're going to be like, you did one class? Yeah.
[Ari Fishman]: I don't think I need to disclose that I used to work for Tufts and Hamilton years. Yeah.
[Danielle Evans]: Half of our office are alums as well. Yeah.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: No, I just, I don't know. I totally. There was another Tufts jumbo on, so I figured I would say that, but I probably should have kept it to myself talking about credits.
[Alicia Hunt]: As we're getting started for our next agenda item, you should let me know who of our speakers you want me to make co-hosts. I think Paula is going to present or Emily. I mean, one of you is going to share your screen. I'm looking for Emily.
[Danielle Evans]: There she is. You're awake. Can you unmute her?
[Emily Innes]: Now I can unmute. If you can make me the co-presenter, please, Alicia. Yes.
[Alicia Hunt]: Done. Thank you. Only co-hosts are able to unmute themselves. So I've made you the co-host, but if you want to have members of your team speak, you can make them, you can click the unmute button for them and things will go more smoothly that way. Okay, that sounds great. Do we have all the members of the board back?
[Danielle Evans]: Looks like we do.
[Alicia Hunt]: All right, Madam Chair, whenever you're ready.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: So for our next item, let me just put it in front of me. It's Mystic Avenue Corridor District, MACD zoning amendment. I will read the public hearing notice. the Medford Community Development Board shall conduct a public hearing on November 20th, 2024 after 6.30 p.m. via Zoom remote video conferencing relative to the following proposed amendments to the City of Medford zoning ordinance and zoning map. One, amend section 94-2.1, division into districts to add the Mystic Avenue corridor district. Two, amend Section 94-3.2, Table of Use Regulations, which is Table A, by incorporating the Mystic Avenue Corridor District into the existing table and to designate the uses implemented therein. Three, amend Section 94-4.1, Table of Dimensional Requirements, Table B, by incorporating the Mystic Avenue Corridor District and to state the dimensional requirements therein. Four, amend section 94-12 definitions to amend and add various definitions. Five, amend section 94-9.0 to insert a new subsection to create the Mystic Avenue corridor district. And six, amending the zoning map to create a new Mystic Avenue Corridor District and to change the zoning district designation of various properties along the Mystic Avenue to place them within said district as shown on a map entitled Mystic Avenue Corridor Zoning Map dated October 9, 2024. I'm going to ask Director Hunt for any introductory remarks before turning it over to Ms. Emily Ennis from Innes Associates to present the zoning amendment.
[Alicia Hunt]: Thank you, Madam Chair. As the board is aware, and I hope the public has heard the city, so the city did a comprehensive planning effort two years ago, adopted in 2023, where we looked at the entire city, how we wanted things to change, what we wanted the city to look like. In some cases, we found that what we wanted was what existed, but not what the zoning said. And in other places, we found that what the people what people would like to see there in the community would like to see is not what was not what is allowed. And so the zoning needs to change to allow the kind of development we'd like to see. To that end, just about a year ago now, the city council and the administration together engaged Emily Ennis along with Jonathan Silverstein as legal counsel to be our planning consultants, our zoning consultants to look at rezoning of the city. In May, you all had before you some preliminary changes to the zoning that they brought forward as a first step. We then have been working on additional changes, and I will actually point out that the consultant and our staff meet twice a month in public meeting with the City Council at the City Council Planning and Zoning Subcommittee to review zoning ideas, changes, proposals, etc. Um, and through that process, we've been working on a number of different items in areas, but the most urgent one is Mystic Ave. And the reason Mystic Ave is coming first is because the city has been getting a lot of development pressure, a lot of interest from developers to build things on Mystic Ave. And in general, what they're proposing is not what's allowed by zoning. Um, but are things that would be attractive to the city and the city would like to see. Um, and so some of those proposals have helped to inform, um, the zoning as well as the research and the work done by, um, Emily and her team at Innes Associates. They've worked diligently on zoning for Mystic Ave and our staff and Members of the city council have met with them regularly. We actually meet weekly in working meetings and twice a week in public meetings to review things. The city council voted out of committee and to the city Mystic Ave zoning. That zoning was formally on the city last city council agendas, city council agenda last month. The next step is that this board will have a public hearing on that zoning and make recommendations about what they like, what they'd like to see changed, how they like that. And we'll then send those recommendations to the city council and the city council will be having a public hearing. If this board votes this out, well, the city council will be opening their public hearing on December 3rd. If this, board feels that they need two meetings to go through this and needs to meet again and discuss this again on December 4, then the board, the city council will simply open their meeting and continue it. If this council votes out recommendations this evening, then the city council will have their hearing on December 3. I, Emily has a presentation to walk us through all of this. One of the things that I do want to say, the zoning's been available to you in your folders. We've actually been working through a couple of recommended changes from the staff. that Emily has to present this evening as part of that. So we do in fact have a couple of recommended changes that we would like that as the zoning, the planning staff, we would like to see recommended to the city council. At this point in the process, that's the cleanest way for them to change the zoning. Pardon me for stumbling. It's been a long day. I think that's all that I need to add. Danielle, did I miss anything?
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: I don't think so.
[Alicia Hunt]: All right, let me turn it over to Emily.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Director Hunt, the one thing that I would ask as Ms. Ennis presents is if you can actually stop after each point and answer a question as it comes up. Thank you so much.
[Emily Innes]: I would be happy to do so. Director Hunt, all set? Yep. All right, I'm going to share my screen as I do so. I would just like to say that I'm very happy to be here with Paola Ramos Martinez, who has been leading a lot of the background work on doing this. And has been an integral part of this and also Jimmy Russia who has been doing the mapping analysis for our team and is in fact a resident of Medford, so we, the three of us have been working very closely with the city as Alicia said. And we're delighted to bring to you this first set of recommendations that involve geography, that involve an actual area of the city. The recommendations that were made in past the spring were mostly administrative. This is the first that has an impact. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to take you through the high-level changes that this zoning has. I'll talk for most of it, Paula will talk about some of it, and then as you suggested, Madam Chair, we will stop after each presentation or each slide or point and stop for questions because it is a lot. I am not taking you through every single word of the text because you do have that in front of you, but I do want to give you the framework for the zoning. So we'll just talk a little bit about the timeline. We have been workshopping some of this since we came forward with the administrative changes and started focusing on the geography itself. We were talking about, in the comprehensive plan, the idea of corridors, squares, and neighborhoods. And so because of the development pressures that are coming on Mystic Avenue, we started with corridors. We've also been looking at Salem Street as well, although that's not coming forward tonight. So, in September, we really started to drill into Mystic Avenue and what should that look that look like. And then proceeded from there. These are all meetings with the planning and permitting committee to bring forward the final draft, which you see tonight. And then, of course, because it's zoning, we do have a few amendments to share with your proposed amendments. So, let's start with the main part. These are the sections that we're looking at. Chair McPherson already read out some of them, but just to let you know, we are changing a couple of different sections of the existing zoning ordinance, and then we're adding a brand new section, which is Mystic Avenue Corridor District. So, I'm just going to hit each of these in turn. We are adding a lot of definitions. These definitions are being added to the main part of the zoning ordinance because we anticipate using them for other parts, other recommended zones later in this overhaul of the entire zoning ordinance. So these are the list of definitions. I do have them at the end of the presentation if we need to look at them. But you're going to see that they're in a couple of different categories. Now this is These new definitions are responsive to a few issues that came out of the Comprehensive Plan and discussions with city staff. So in the case of arts and creative enterprises, some of the additional definitions for commercial, for housing, for light industrial these are about housing which we certainly heard about earlier today, but also jobs and economic development and it is zoning as marketing it is saying these are the things that we the city of Medford would like to see in our in our community in our commercial areas and our mixed use areas. And then some of them, healthcare being one of them, and some of the other actually related to housing is where the city has bumped up against definitions not being as flexible or as specific as they needed, whether it was the building inspector looking at an as of right building permit or something where a proposal has come forward. So we've tried to give definitions as additional tools for the city to use. So I'm going to stop here and see if there's any questions on definitions. Seeing none.
[Ari Fishman]: It took me a second to get to the reaction. Can you just tell me what the difference is between co-living and co-housing in plain English in like two seconds?
[Emily Innes]: Yeah, absolutely. So the difference is how the actually, if I answer and get it wrong, I'll feel really bad. So let me just jump to Did we put it on here? We did. OK, so this is on our supplemental definitions. Always, always look to the definitions. So co-living is where the residents have input over the selection of other residents. It would be like if you got together with a group of friends and said, look, we'd like to share a building, share a cluster of buildings. We're going to have smaller units, common living space. but you all together decided that you were going to do that. Co-housing, you don't have that situation which the tenants are choosing. So the idea is that the living spaces are the same. It's smaller personal units with larger shared common spaces, but one is an intentional community. if you like, and the other is allowing people to join as they choose, but it's not a group of people coming together to start off that co-living arrangement. Does that make sense? This is a little bit newer in Massachusetts. There have been these housing types on the West Coast for a while now. I can remember a Dwell magazine article from like the 1990s. There is a senior I'm pretty sure it's co-housing in Littleton that's been being built, where the historic home or the original historic building is the common space, and then there are smaller buildings around it that allow people to live together and share amenities.
[Ayni Strang]: Are you also talking about the legal entity which you have in New York City and in San Francisco, co-ops, cooperative, this would not comply with a cooperative?
[Emily Innes]: That is correct. That's a different legal structure. Thank you for bringing that up. I'm going to make you all dizzy as well as myself and jump back to the definition.
[Alicia Hunt]: I think that I might add that co-housing is often a very intentional group living situation. But the big idea is that there's a central area, a central house, central shared facilities. And then everybody has their own separate living space as well. There are some in, I think, Somerville and Cambridge. That might be more traditionally it would be in a more rural area with a main house and then smaller houses. You might see it in an area like Somerville where it's an apartment building with some big shared spaces and then smaller spaces. My impression is that it is, there's usually shared living agreements that you agree to when you move in there. The idea of co-living was really more the idea that it's a single house. One might think of it structurally like a boarding house, but a boarding house, you don't have say in who lives in those other rooms. Where co-living is you are choosing together to live with other people. You're not saying that you're a family, but you are choosing to live in this place together. These are some definitions that actually came from some members of the city council who were asking for some of these definitions.
[Emily Innes]: And it was, if I may add on to that, it was in part to allow, and for the same reason that these other definitions are here, to allow a wider variety of housing types. Both the co-living and the co-housing came out of the conversations Director Hunt said with city Councilors in talking about different communities who are wanting to age within the community. but are looking for options other than a condominium or an apartment and a larger building. They, again, want something a little bit more intentional than that. So this provides the opportunity for this type of housing to be built. So if there's no other questions on definitions, and we can always come back if you think of something. There's no harm in going back and forth. I want to talk a little bit and turn this over to Paola when we get to the map. So division into districts is just, it's an existing portion of your ordinance. We're just adding the Mystic Avenue Corridor District to your list of districts, saying what the classification is and what the abbreviation is. So that's a standard. existing piece, kind of boilerplate. I think the real key is going to be the boundaries and the sub-districts. And this is going to be, I think, a little bit new for Medford in thinking about how some of these districts play out, not just for Mystic Avenue, but as we come forward to later in the process with other geographies. This is your first introduction to some of the concepts that came out of the comprehensive plan, some of what we've been working with, with the Planning and Permitting Committee and with the staff. So this mixed-use one, mixed-use two, mixed-use three, and commercial, you are going to see again applied in slightly different ways to different geographies. So with that, Paula, I'm going to ask you to unmute. and let you explain this and the dimensional standards which will follow.
[Paula Ramos Martinez]: Thank you, Emily. And if I may, Madam Chair, I will explain this slide for all of you. So here we have two big groups and one is the mixed-use and the other one is the commercial. The mixed-use then we separate into other three because they have different gradients on especially the scale and heights in dimensions. And then we will see later on, Emily will explain different uses to each one of this. I want to start by saying where North is in the map, so we all understand when I say North and South and East and West. So North, the true North in this map is on Main Street area, so North, the upper left corner of the map. And so the south will be towards Somerville. East is on the Mystic River and west on the residential neighborhood. So I'm going to start saying that Mystic Avenue, it's not very uniform, it's very different because of the surroundings that it has. And the street itself, because of different ownerships and how it's laid out, from the north is kind of a narrow, it's not super narrow, but it's at its narrowest point. And then while we go to the southern point towards Somerville, it gets quite, quite wide for different reasons. and we will see how that will affect the plan. So the first district that I'm going to talk about is the mixed-use one. This is the blue one that you see, and you will see it mainly in the north area on Main Street, Mystic, and then you will see it on the south, and I will explain why that later. This area is the most historical part of the Mystic Avenue. It still has the same layout of streets as it has the historic Medford maps. The parcels that you see are very small, very regular and the narrow of the Mystic Avenue in this point, it's very creates an environment to create a very vibrant, very pedestrian center area with very human scale, small scale Lots and buildings. So just to say a bit of the start to talk about the dimensions that we will talk later and we can pause later. But I'm going to say that here we have the smallest parcels permitted. We have 30 by 60, 30 in width, 60 in depth. And then we will have the, we have two types of heights that you have seen in the standards. We talk about the base. Well, we have three, we have minimum, and then we have the base height and the maximum height. And the difference is only, it's very simple, is the base is without incentive zoning. So it's the maximum height that is allowed without incentive zoning. And we will explain that later. about the incentive zoning that is explained in the language in the draft. And the maximum height is the maximum permitted with incentive zoning. So here we have four stories maximum without incentive zoning and with incentive zoning we can go to, we allow two more and that will be a maximum in total six stories. In this area, because it's the narrower part of Mystic, what we have done is after this fourth floor, we asked for a step back of a minimum of 10 feet so that it keeps this lower scale in the area. We have done sections and a bit of sun studies and we think that that is very doable in here in this district. Then we can go with the dimensions, but these are the main points that I want to tackle in each of the districts. The Mixis 2 is on the west side of Mystic. It's this lilac kind of color. This is a bit also smaller scale. It's very different from the others. It abuts the neighborhood on the west side. And it's also still quite smaller, a bit bigger, a smaller scale. So we allow for a small, medium scale in this area. We allowed for exactly the same as before, four stories high plus two with incentive zoning. So in total, six with incentive zoning without having to do the step back here. Gradually, the streets starts to widen apart. So we think that It allows for having this six stories high without the step back and also it creates a bit of variety in the diversity in the facade design. If I go then to the one thing that is different from the rest is that the rear setback because it butts the neighborhood is a minimum of 10 feet. Then I go to Mixed Use 3. This is going to be the biggest scale, the highest scale. Bigger plots, we can see it very clearly on the lots here, more regular than the others. And it has a great advantage that is on the east side, it abuts all the infrastructure in green. And so we can permit in here to have a higher building. because the longest shadows are going to be from the west towards the east and so we have plenty of space in there to really go higher. So the lot sizes in here goes from the minimum 60 in width, 120 in depth, and that's the minimum. And then the heights, we create a plinth so that it kind of uniforms the area. And that plinth is of four stories height. And then from there, we have a base. base height that is the plinth 4 plus 6 of the like an upper building we call tower it's not really a tower but upper building and this needs to have a step back of 20 feet because of the height being sometimes a problem so we break that facade from having a lower plinth and then 20 feet step back and then six floors on top, giving us a total of 10. And this is without incentive zoning. With incentive zoning, this upper part can go higher, up to 10. So in total, we would be 14 stories. And then in the southern part where we see the commercial, so we see that here is really a very wide street. The kind of active and vibrant corridor starts to loosen that kind of atmosphere because it's really too far away. And then we have a lot of the parkway, the Mystic Park, Valley Parkway connection, the connection towards the 93, so we have more heavily traffic in here and some of these areas, really on the southern part, are not really meant for walking because it can get very dangerous near these very traffic areas. And it's good for commercial because then the logistics are very easily to go in and out towards the 93 immediately. So that's why we left this part as the most commercial, so no residential in here. And we will talk about the uses later, but we also bring some of the light industrial uses in this area. Then we have a little bit of that mixed use one, and that is abutting all the residential. We don't want to have the commercial in this area. We wanted to make it easier for the residential and to abut residential better. We also have the park that can benefit from these type of uses, the Columbus Memorial. I think... There's only one thing that I also want to mention, and it's that also the MixUse 3, we have a rear setback to allow, to have some buffer between all this infrastructure and the buildings of at least 30 feet on the rear setback. And I think that That is all. Thank you.
[Emily Innes]: Thank you, Paola. And before we open it up for questions, I just want to reiterate, I had mentioned that Jimmy Rocha, one of our colleagues, had done a lot of mapping in this area. And so we were looking at the existing conditions, not just the current uses that were on these sites. Paola mentioned looking at the historic development patterns, the historic street patterns. We also looked at how the current zoning ordinance applied to what was actually there now. And we found there were a lot of non-conformities in this area. For those of the people who may still be listening from the public, non-conformities is when the parcel or the building that actually exists does not match the zoning. It makes it harder for somebody to reinvest in their property and so we had a couple of goals here. One is to create that connection in the northern part, the mixed use one with the downtown across the river, the infrastructure. We wanted to create that mix of uses of residential and of jobs to address many of the city's goals. We wanted to reduce as many non-conformities as we could. And so the map that you see here is really responding to a lot of input, a lot of research on what's on the ground now and what could be there based on what we heard in the comprehensive plan process, based on the city's goals. And then also thinking about, and I think Paola spoke to this when talking about where the shadows would be, so putting the taller buildings next to the infrastructure, keeping the shadows away from the neighborhood, keeping the impact away from the neighborhood, and then allowing the building height and massing to drop down as we approach the existing neighborhood. So those are really the goals of creating these districts. I would love to answer any questions at this point.
[Adam Behrens]: Just one question. The Columbus Park area, the way that it currently is, it's pretty kind of isolated away from the existing residential area. And so the mixed-use one, I think, makes a lot of sense. If the intention is to kind of like thread that back together, I think a lot of those streets like dead end. and cut off. And so that that might be the rationale for it. Because the way it is today, it kind of feels a little bit more like it would have been done for like mixed use two or mixed use three just because it's cut off.
[Emily Innes]: Yeah, that's a good point. We actually went back and forth a little bit on this area and landed on the Mixed Use 1. There's some smaller scale commercial in the area. It felt like there needed to be a transition from the commercial only, that dark pink, to the neighborhoods and that Mixed Use 1 was more appropriate as we discussed it for that transition than Mixed Use 2. You know, it is something so I'll mention now you'll probably hear me mentioned a couple more meetings that we have, but one of the things that we're doing is, as we recommend these changes to you to city council, we know at the end of this process, we're going to need to come back and say, hey, we've. recommended changes in different parts of the ordinance and different parts of the city. Let's do one final look to see if they all make sense. So that's something that we could come back to as we all see how these play out. But we did feel that Mix 1 was a better transition in this area.
[Paula Ramos Martinez]: If I may just very quickly, this was also brought from the city staff. They have been doing a walk in the area and this is at the moment very closed. So we also wanted, there is a connection but very small, it's like very informal kind of connection to the park. So we also wanted to include it and this was the best way that we thought.
[Emily Innes]: I'm seeing staff hands up.
[Alicia Hunt]: So, what I, what is not quite obvious from this map, because this map is a legal map, is the long blue parcel between Columbus Park and the pink is actually rear Mystic Ave. And there is actually what appears, what appears to the average person to look like a public road with a long building with lots of small businesses. And from near Mystic Ave, you can just walk straight into Columbus Park. That's what Paula was just referring to. And that just struck us as maybe we don't want to allow commercial things just commercial auto uses, the types of uses that we were allowing in the pink area, because the pink commercial is a more industrial area, right there in next to the park. And then on the other side of Hicks Ave, those buildings actually back right up to public housing. And those are townhouses family housing. And right now they are living adjacent to like a paint shop and stuff like that that are kind of smelly, and that just didn't feel right. And so the thought was that we would allow. more lesser dense mixed use in that area, things that you wouldn't mind next to your houses like we're doing in the other part of the blue. So mixed one or two seemed appropriate there and the one was the smaller scale to be next to the public housing townhouses. And people just don't even realize that that's what's right behind those buildings.
[Emily Innes]: Danielle, I think you're next.
[Danielle Evans]: Through the chair? Yes. Yeah, I was. Yeah, it was actually I was the one that took a walk and saw that and suggested the change because it didn't feel right. It's environmental justice community is the park, there's the elementary school, the public housing, and I smelled paint fumes and I was like, we can't. We can't have that here. I think when we were Looking at it in plan view, I think there was perceived topography issues. But actually, it's completely level. You can walk right into the park from there. So something that was a little bit more of a transition area. Yeah, and the rear mystic ave is actually not even a road. It's a parcel. So it's not even, I think, even, it's very bizarre back there. I was walking around and everyone kept trying to help me. What are you doing? So I think I've just talked to a lot of business owners and property.
[Adam Behrens]: My partner has a business in that area.
[Danielle Evans]: Yes, I heard that. So you must be familiar.
[Adam Behrens]: If you stop by OPT Industries, Advanced Technology Company.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Ben?
[Ben Lavallee]: Thank you, Madam Chair. I work for Google, so we use Google Meet. And I'm still getting used to Zoom. Thanks for the time. I had two things I wanted to bring up. The first one was that rear Mystic app. I'm very familiar with that area, because my kids go to a dance school that's back there. And it's a pretty treacherous place to be walking, that's for sure. I'm a little confused. I guess I'm still sort of getting used to zoning and things being new to the board here, but what would this actually look like, right? Like, my understanding, having been back there a lot, is that this is like one or two gigantic buildings, right? Like, what kind of time frame? Like, how does this actually get... If this gets approved, the zoning update, how does it actually get enforced? I assume that, you know, this is like a multi-decade process as properties turn over and things like that to transform an area like that rear Mystic Ave area. I also just want to mention for that specific area, when there are events going on at the park, whether it's sort of authorized or not, it turns into supplementary parking for like community events and softball games and things like that. So any zoning plan, I would say, particularly anchored around Columbus Park should include some plan for accommodating parking so that it doesn't bleed over onto East Albion Street and into the residential neighborhoods too much. I just wanted to get a sense of how does an update like this to zoning actually take place in a segment of the city like that. Then I guess I'd like maybe just a little, I realize it's getting late, but just maybe a little bit of additional commentary on the other mixed use one area at the north end of this map. an area I'm very, very familiar with. I know two people who've had their cars totaled in accidents in that area. I live just on the other side of the river in Medford square. That is like the traffic apocalypse. And I'm, I'm just sort of curious the thought process behind making that like a mixed use one versus, you know, some, some alternative. Again, it's probably a longterm plan, but if anybody would be willing to sort of chime in on the thinking of that particular apex of multiple busy roads and a highway all coming together being designated as mixed-use one. I'd love to just hear a little bit more.
[Emily Innes]: Through the chair, I'm happy to answer that. So you call out an important question, and I'm glad you did, because you brought it up early enough in the process, which is, what's the difference between zoning and a development project? And when we think about zoning, we're thinking about a 20, 30, 50 year horizon generally, right? Because the zoning puts the option in place. It says we're going to allow these uses under these conditions. Some of these uses will be as of right and will require a building permit. Some of them will require, most of them are going to require site plan review. Some of them are going to require a special permit. With all of this, and I'll highlight it later, there are development standards that must be met in order for the development to happen. But all of this is required, is Assuming that a property owner is going to make a decision either themselves to develop a property or to sell it to somebody who's going to develop a property. And so when that happens, the thresholds that are in the zoning come into play. So if it's a a use that requires site plan review, you'll all get to see it. If it's something that requires special permit, you'll get to see it. And it's at that point that things like, what does this building look like? Where is it sitting on the lot? Where's the parking? how much parking is there, if it's a special permit, is there a community benefit that's happening here, what are the traffic studies, so you know what the impact is going to be. All of that comes when the development happens. Zoning is really just setting that potential up to happen. It's the community saying this is what we want to see here. You know, so that's sort of the broader piece. In terms of the mixed-use one up in the northern corner, yeah, I've driven that road several times. And it is a little bit of a challenge, especially at night and especially when there's been construction in sort of some part of that area. It's right now quite mixed use. There are smaller scale houses there. There's municipal uses in that area. There's some commercial uses in that area. So some of those we know aren't going to change over time, right? The municipal uses will remain. But zoning that whole area just gives an option for maybe some of those smaller parcels to get reassembled. to consider a better organization over time of that. One of the standards you'll see as you go through is thinking, and is certainly critically important for site plan review, is thinking about the access and reducing the number of curb cuts in an area so that you don't have Or, and also reducing the width of the curb cut so you don't have cars come out at surprising areas, which just contributes to, you know, already challenging a road layout. So. But that mixed use one is very deliberately at that corner because it's a gateway into the downtown. It's a gateway into a transition from Mystic Ave into a more residential area. So again, it steps that density down to what already exists. Yeah, you're very welcome. Do you have something? Yeah, sorry.
[Paula Ramos Martinez]: Yes, I just mute myself and then I'm not able to unmute it. So also, I wanted to explain a bit more also about the mixed use, why they're one is, as Emily said, it's like the extension from Medford Square, the entrance to the south part of the of the river. And Right now, we have an auto-oriented development in all this corridor. That means that parking, logistics, carpets, it's all in the front. Buildings are in the back. They are very isolated. So with this, we try to create a more vibrant, active, pedestrian-oriented. And in this area, we want to create that smaller scale. That will also, when this, it starts to develop will also tell cars that this is a different use. This is not auto-oriented developments. These are pedestrian-oriented developments and that they need to reduce their speed. So the buildings will be more towards the street. There's going to be a lot more active use. We wanted to make sure that the sidewalks are, and we will see it on the standards, but that the sidewalks are have the right size to be able to have pedestrian oriented developments and that will help to reduce that speed. We also talked to the city engineers that are in And this area, Mystic Avenue, has two ownerships. One, the first third from the north towards the south, is Until Hancock, that's Metfor Own, and then the rest is MassDOT. You also see that difference in sizes. And talking to the city engineers and what they are able to do in here, they really have the same vision as we have, very pedestrian oriented development. They will have here, the vision is to also have bike corridor in this area so that more people from Wellington are able to reach this area by bike. So there is a lot of future vision that really goes well with these type of developments. We don't see it now, but this is zoning established in the future vision that we want for this area. I hope that answers a bit more.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you. I have a quick follow up question going back to parking. For one, thank you to the city for thinking about the environmental justice of that area. When I came to Medford years ago in the 90s, I actually lived in South Medford in the Exchange Street projects going along there. So the fact that that went into thought, because I'm still trying to orient myself to exactly what's going on here on Mystic Ave. as far as parking. There's commercial there. I think there's Avelino's and a few other restaurants there that actually have to park. They have a huge setback with their parking in front of the building. So I'm trying to figure out where all of where they're situated. Never mind Rare Mystic, because I park on Rare Mystic just to be able to go to Avelino's restaurant there. So I'm just trying to figure out how this is all going to situate with parking and so forth and so on.
[Emily Innes]: I'm just pulling up the Google map. It'll take me a second so we can see what it looks like on the ground.
[Alicia Hunt]: And to be clear, nothing actually changes unless somebody sells their property. Like what could happen is that the owner of Rear Mistic Ave decides that he could redevelop into something a lot more lucrative for him and makes that like public appearing road and parking go away. He could do that no matter what we zone it, but he or she, or they.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Yes, and while you're answering that, I am going to actually, if we can please allow President, City Council President Black Bears has to ask, would like to ask a question.
[Emily Innes]: I've just asked him to unmute and while he's unmuting, so this, can you see my cursor, I hope? So this area is going to be our mixed one. And then we're coming all the way down. Think of Mix 2 on the left-hand side and Mix 3 on the right-hand side, coming down to here. And then we're getting into the, I have to zoom out to see where I am now. And then we're getting into the commercial area down in here. And then we're out. So that's roughly it. But you can see why we reoriented the map a little bit. It's a little bit easier to see that way.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: So yeah, I'm just trying to see how this area would be improved because right now I even state police like are all they're allowed to park illegally. Right. So I'm just trying to figure out how this all works.
[Emily Innes]: So here's here's the housing we were talking about. Here are those smaller businesses. Here's the Columbus Memorial Park. So we were talking about putting the next one in here just so you can see how that would lay out. And then this being the commercial area, you can see there's a lot of parking and commercial uses already. And then as we go north along Mystic Avenue, you start to see that some of the parcels start to get smaller. So the closer you get to Medford Square, the smaller and sort of more mixed uses there tend to be. So it's, you know, it really was a case of looking at what was on the ground and then trying to envision based on what we heard from the Comprehensive Plan sort of collectively in this conversation, what Medford wanted to see, what the opportunities were over that 20 to 30 year time horizon. And I'll cede to Council President Bears.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair, through the chair. I just wanted to give a little more context on a couple of things. That big trapezoidal pink lot is the Walnut Street Center now, and formerly Russo Marine. So that's kind of where the commercial would start. And then that small purple right next to it, that's kind of where the current Dunkin' Donuts, Sarah's Chicken Pie, the thing between Alexander and Bonner is. Then the street that's going in Hicks Ave that goes from the pink into the blue at the end where that intersects with Mystic Ave, that's Avellino's there. You'd be trying to take those paint shops and the auto shops that are further back along Hicks Ave and instead of having that abutting Exchange Street and abutting the Missittuck School in Columbus Park, trying to have that be a little bit more of a connected area. I just wanted to provide also 1 more piece of context on the Northwestern end. If you look, I really think Emily and Paula hit the look forward piece. Great. Something that was really important to just 2 other pieces to note is the mass dot. A redesign of the Medford square, main street, mystic Avenue intersection to be signalized. And how that whole area is such an essential transparent transit connector for multimodal transit, um, from an East West perspective. You know, we're still going to have a lot of lanes of traffic there, but the idea is to reduce speeds to reduce the constant throughput and the dangers there. Because it is basically the 1 place that you can cross East to West and North South across the river. Eventually on the 16. Uh, overpass, you're going to have a. two-way bike lane that's connecting essentially across that whole 16 connector. Then the other piece where we really wanted to put thought in is what were those street layouts originally designed for? Because this is one of the parts of the city where the auto culture really has demolished the original intent of the street layout. If you look at some really old photos, there were really gorgeous buildings multi-story, three-story brick, very similar to Bigelow in the square at the triangle intersection of Mystic and Main. That's now the mobile gas station, right? And with the change in the intersection, I think there's a real and with just the change in the dynamic of auto centric industry and where we're going with development. I think there's a huge opportunity in that Northwest corner. To restitch that neighborhood together and try to research it together with Medford square. While also working through this east, west, north, south, like connectivity area for multimodal transit and pedestrian bike access. So that was really the thinking of the council. It was definitely a look forward. But also a look back to what was there before all the body shops and gas stations where it really was a. one of the city's oldest residential neighborhoods with interesting mixed use buildings and residential structures. So it'd be great to try to restore what I consider to be an error of planning of the 50s and 60s to something better.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you, President Bears. Before we go to Peter Kautz, I just wanted to a quick note to the public that we will have a public comment period in which we will address your comments then. I don't want you to think that I am ignoring you, but anyone that's not on the member of the board will not be called on until that period. And Peter Kautz?
[Peter Calves]: Uh, thanks. I just wanted to touch on the, uh, the parking piece that the Chair McPherson brought up. I, while you guys were doing Tufts and I was recused, I was looking through the some of the tables and, correct me if I'm wrong, there is still parking ratios at those locations, so I don't think that's, like, there will still be what is deemed sufficient parking at those locations. So I don't think that's as much something to worry about just because you put mixed use on a map.
[Emily Innes]: Yes, through the chair, there are parking requirements still. And you'll see that when we get to the table of uses. We have not changed the parking requirements by use that you currently have.
[Paula Ramos Martinez]: If I may add just one little thing, the only thing that we want to change is where that parking is located on the parcel. And instead of being on the front of the parcel, because we wanted to make it more walkable, we want that parking to be on the back of the parcel.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you.
[Emily Innes]: With respect, Madam Chair, I think Adam's hand would be up, or it is on my screen.
[Adam Behrens]: Yeah, one question just to help with the mental map of what would be permitted. I think we see, I haven't been on the committee too long, but it seems like in the greater Boston area, there's a lot of demand for life science developments. And so is that kind of development, you know, those buildings have certain needs to them. I don't think I've really seen a mixed use life science building unless it's in downtown Boston. But is that really like a, that would be sort of the development that would be allowed in the commercial part of it? And then the mixed use up to three is? Yeah, maybe life sciences, but has additional requirements that there's other things there. It's not just a kind of corporate headquarters.
[Emily Innes]: Yes, through the chair. So we're talking about mixed use district in that the district itself has a mix of uses. It does not require that every building be a mixed use building. So you can have buildings with a mix of uses, but you could also have standalone life sciences and mix two and three, mix three. You could have standalone multifamily and a couple of, I think mix one and mix two, but not mix three. So it's a mix of uses within it. Yes.
[Adam Behrens]: Thanks.
[Emily Innes]: Excellent question, by the way.
[Alicia Hunt]: Did we get to the point about talking about the actual dimensions? No. I think we have one more question, maybe. And then that's next. Oh, I didn't see that Annie had her hand up. Sorry. I just did notice that people are starting to fade. Yes.
[Ayni Strang]: I'll be very quick. So on the subject of life science, I've spent most of my working career in life science building laboratories in mixed use areas, specifically Cambridge Port, East Cambridge, Watertown, Arsenal. And life sciences are very self-contained buildings. They have very stringent guidelines, they make very good neighbors. And one of the things I feel very strongly about is that along with having life science buildings, to have housing right nearby. Because what I have found during the 25 years that I watched For example, Cambridgeport go from Ford Motor Company, and when Millennium went in and Sylvania was there, and it truly was a manufacturing area, and it became a true mixed life science buildings, retail, and heavy residential. So for example, we know that Bank of America is decamping. So that location is in the mixed-use three area. What is coming in to the city with properties like that? right now. How is the thought of developing those areas right now that are abutting the highway?
[Alicia Hunt]: I'm not positive what you're asking, but I'm wondering if we should actually look at what are the uses we're allowing in these areas? Because the idea- Yeah, that's where I was going. Thank you. It allows high-rise apartment buildings, and it allows high-rise life science buildings or other kinds. It wouldn't allow like a paper manufacturer. And we also have in here performance standards. So I think that's what we sort of want to start to talk about, as well, because we are, we do get a mix of different types of people coming in. I think it would actually be helpful to see the rest of this. We didn't get specific enough yet for you to really get it. Thank you.
[Emily Innes]: So I will proceed with the permission of the chair. Paul, I'm going to do the dimensional standards and you can jump in if I forget anything. Because we just talked about geography and buildings, we're going to talk about dimensional standards next and then we'll talk about uses. These are the table of dimensional requirements and POA already hit some of these, so I'm not going to go through them all, but you can see that the different districts have different requirements for lot width, depth, frontage. This is reflecting A, the conditions on the ground that we already talked about, the fact that some of the areas have very much larger parcels than others. It's also talking about the type of ground floor we want to have. So the mixed use district, we are looking for active ground floors, the commercial less so because of the self-contained nature of some of those businesses. You can see the minimum height, the base height, and the maximum height, as Paolo has already explained it, the maximum height is achievable only with these incentive bonuses. And then we've also created a ground floor story minimum maximum height consistent with how mixed-use buildings are being built today with a higher ground floor that is particularly important in restaurant and some retail. So we wanted to give the flexibility for that. And then Pella also mentioned the step back above the fourth floor for mix one and three. There's a different requirement for mix two. When you do a step back, you're pushing those upper floors away from the street. We and that means that the more is going towards the back of the lot. We didn't want that and mix to which is a budding the residential areas so we don't have a step back requirement for that. If you look at some of the earlier presentations which I believe are on the city's website we have diagrams showing that and can certainly provide that to the planning board in the future. We can circle back to these. I do want to get, oh, and I forgot the setbacks. So this is from the lot line to the building. We give a minimum front to widen the street, but also to keep the buildings fairly close, but you see that you have that 20-foot maximum. That's if they're going to do a public plaza or some other activated use in front of the building that contributes to that pedestrian environment. So there's already flexibility. They don't have to ask for a waiver or a variance. There's already flexibility built into the guidelines for doing that. And then stormwater and landscaping. So in addition to the comprehensive plan, the city's housing production plan, the goals for the economy and for housing, the city also has the climate action adaptation plan and this starts to feed into some of the other standards. So that includes the building coverage, the green score, which is a new type of standard that we will talk about later, and the open space. And so these requirements, in conjunction with the other development standards, are designed to help the city address its climate goals, especially for not just stormwater management, but also the heat island effect with new development. So we'll talk about those a little bit more. Any burning questions on developments on the dimensional standards? I'm going to move forward and talk about the table of use regulations. Now, I can, I did not in this presentation, because it would have been tiny little text, put up all of the uses, but I'm going to explain what you're looking at and then I can put up the table of uses and just walk you through them. So, you will be familiar, I think, with the table of uses from the existing zoning. This would be added to that section. The bold is new text, the crossed out is removed text. This is lined up with your existing table of uses. We but it will be it's, it will be in the same section but it'll be its own table because otherwise you're going to need to do a scroll instead of eight and a half by 11 pages. The mystic Avenue quarter district so in addition to the, the sub districts here are not just different by. dimensional standards, they are also different by use. So you should be looking for the Y for yes, permitted as of right, the no, which means it's not permitted, or CDB for a special permit from the Community Development Board. The parking space requirements and the loading requirements, we changed these in the spring, so we have not further changed these. These are still the same requirements for the existing uses. The table of use regulations is broken down into these categories, so residential, community, etc. What I'm going to do is I'm going to stop this share and I'm going to bring up the actual zoning regs so we can see what that looks like, and then I'll walk you through some of the changes that I think will make more sense to see. So, some of the changes are adding the uses that we had talked about in the definitions. Sorry for making you all dizzy. So you see co-living, co-housing, et cetera, coming in. These are the new defined terms that are being added to the districts. Now you're going to see no in all of these because what we're doing is twofold in this zoning ordinance. We are adding them to the overall table of uses. And then, in some cases, we're adding to, for the sake of, yes, they're being prohibited here in Mystic Avenue. They may be allowed elsewhere in the ordinance as we move through. So, you will almost always see some sort of definition or table of use change as we continue to come before you. So, as I said, in some cases these aren't allowed, but in some cases they are. So, looking at the mixed use one, you can see that we allow multiple dwelling. We allow the co-housing because that's a larger scale. So, primarily the mix of uses in one, two, and three is the multiple dwelling. We're working on some lower scale neighborhood that will have the 4 to 6 unit or the 4 to 12 unit. We haven't brought that forward to you yet. Community uses are allowed. Some of these are the exempt uses under state zoning laws. So there's some under Section 3 of Chapter 40A, there are what they call exempt uses. These are included in here. In this section, you see the open recreational and agricultural, and then I think the commercial uses are where it starts to get a little bit more interesting because you see some of the goals for the new economic development type uses coming in. artisanal fabrication, artistic creative production, those arts uses that we looked at in the definition. You're seeing some of the medical uses come in or the hospital-related uses coming in. And then there's some uses that came in earlier this spring, like, for example, the neighborhood retail. One important thing is the adult uses. This particular area was the only area that had adult uses, so those have been appropriately added in here. You're seeing in the mixed-use, all of those motor vehicle uses are being removed from the mixed-use areas, but they are allowed in the commercial subdistrict, and that's consistent with the type of uses we'd like to see and with the pedestrian environment. parking accessory uses. Again, most of the industrial uses are being taken out of the mixed-use district. Some of them are allowed in the commercial district under a special permit. And then these new industrial uses that you didn't have until we defined them now. So you see life science being allowed to mix 2-3 in commercial, food production in 2-3 in commercial, distillery or winery and all of them, makerspaces and all of them. We added shared use kitchen by special permit because there's certain standards we might want to have around loading and access in there. And then most of these are similar uses. So that's overall, that's what we're looking at as the change use standards. More in an enhanced commercial profile for the mixed uses. This is a primarily a multifamily development area, so you don't get some of the other residential uses we're adding to the definitions, but you will see those come through when we look at the next set of zoning changes. Any questions on uses?
[Ari Fishman]: I don't have a question, but I'm going to be honest that I am feeling myself fading and having a hard time focusing. I've been up since six and have to be up at six again tomorrow. And so I don't know what to do about that, but I am recognizing that and wanted to be honest about it.
[Emily Innes]: I love honesty. I'm going to zoom through the boilerplate portions of the zoning, if you don't mind, and get to, I think, the key things, which will be the development incentives and maybe an introduction to the development standards. Probably take me another five minutes, if that makes sense to the board. Okay, great. Let me just reshare that screen. And... So we finished up with the uses. So this is the last piece where we're adding the district itself. Everything else we've talked about, we've amended in the main part of the zoning ordinance because you had the sections. Now we're adding the district. There's a purpose. There's an applicability section. Waivers from the dimensional requirements or additional standards for the dimensional requirements. The development incentives, which I want to talk about with you. The design guidelines and the applicability of the development standards. The development standards, which we'll talk about a little bit. And affordability requirements is easy because we're just pointing you to your existing zoning, so that won't take long. Purpose, we've pretty much already talked about. Mixed use, wider variety of uses, wider variety of building types. This just describes the purpose of the sub-areas, which we've already talked about. This is the applicability section. Dimensional requirements and waivers, so we explain what has to happen in each of these areas. We allow for multi-building lots. We describe what ground floor active use means and how we're requiring it. We talk about the transition from the higher intensity to the adjacent residential districts. We have some height waivers in there. We create setbacks or the ability to vary the setbacks for infill lots between two existing buildings. allow for a drop-off zone, and allow for energy efficiency installations. Some of these you will have seen in the zoning for Section 3A that was passed last year. Some of these are new and specific to this district. The affordability requirements and development incentives are also based on the 3A zoning that passed last year. We have some tweaks to them that we're going to ask you to make at the end of this presentation. So, let's ignore the affordability requirements for now because that's one of the tweaks we're going to make. But essentially the development incentives is what allows you to get from the base height to the maximum height. And a developer can come into the city, to the CD board if it's a special permit, and say, I would like to add two stories or three stories or whatever that difference is. This is how I'd like to accomplish it. And they can choose from this menu. And the reason we have a menu is to create flexibility for different market conditions and to respond to different requests or different desires from the city to meet certain goals. So you can see there is affordability requirements. I will talk about that at the end. There's also community amenities that are privately maintained. So one thing that we hear is communities saying, I would like this, I would like this, I would like this, but the city doesn't have room to maintain it. So one of the benefits in exchange for an additional story, you get some of these benefits. Low income shared community solar is one that we're working on, which is why you see it to be confirmed. We're still exploring how to do that. And then we have some options based on that ground floor, parking, rents for local businesses, economic development requirements. Most, if not all of those came from 3A. We also have something on environmental resilience. You see the green score being introduced there. I'm going to change this bit about the lead gold and platinum. So I'll talk to you about that later. Development standards cover all of these topics. They start with the types of things that you would look at under site plan review, so site standards, general building standards in terms of position and massing, what happens if you have more than one building on the lot, what happens if you have mixed use development. The idea of these standards is to make your decisions on site plan review and also special permit when it has site plan review, which pretty much always. make those easier. You know what you're deciding on. We've also put in provisions that would allow you to adopt design guidelines. We do not have those for you yet. That will be a later stage of the process, but the language that allows you to adopt them are there. You also have corner lots, standards around parking, and then you have the ability to waive certain standards, just the standards in this section, not the dimensional standards. because sometimes you end up with an irregular lot or there's topography or there's some reason why an applicant can't meet the standard, you have the option to discuss that with the applicant and waive these development standards, if appropriate. So, with that, I'm going to tell you what the recommendations are and then I will stop talking. The first thing is in the table for affordability requirements, the language we had in there could be interpreted in more than one way. So thank you to Director Hunt for calling that out. We've been working back and forth on some language and so rather than just saying do 20% of x, This table here starts with your existing requirements on the left-hand side and then creates the minimum percentages for getting either an additional floor or two additional floors and adds them up so it's absolutely clear how much a developer would have to provide to get that to that state. They could get one floor either by creating a deeper affordability, in other words, taking the number of required units and making some of them affordable at a lower rate of income, or by providing more affordable units. So that is their pathway there. The other recommendations we are suggesting is many buildings are already certifiable as LEED Gold or equivalent standard. We would like to remove that and say certified as LEED Platinum or equivalent to one additional story. We'd like to delete providing active ground floor space at more than 75% of the ground floor that was appropriate for the section 3A zoning. It is not appropriate for Mystic Avenue because we actually have that as our base standard. And then we'd like you to add a height waiver to the dimensional requirements and waivers because we would like to be able to waive the minimum height for projects that are proposals that meet the purpose of the district and the goals of the Medford Comprehensive Plan. We put a minimum height in here so that you don't have low value buildings going in and a higher value area. But sometimes, especially if there's a rehab of an existing building, you want to be able to waive that minimum height. we've put that in there as flexibility for you. That is a quick what we have in this zoning. Happy to take any more questions from the board.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you so much, Emily. I appreciate all the work that you've put into this, but one of the things that I do know is the board is supposed to recommend for approval, recommend to the city council for approval with the changes raised by the staff as well as yourself. But I think I need, you did an awesome job. You've been, so much effort has been put into this, but in order for me to give a vote, I think I needed to see something from PBS on how I can better digest this. I'm not sure the feeling of the rest of the board.
[Alicia Hunt]: Madam Chair, the problem is that it's too late and we're too tired because this presentation was how to better digest this.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Yeah, that's my whole point, Director Hahn. My whole point is that I think the entire board, I'm not sure how they're feeling about voting on it tonight.
[Ayni Strang]: I agree. I think I agree with it's late. I printed out the whole thing and reviewed it before. And it was wonderful the way Emily walked us through. But frankly, I'm fried. And I don't think that, is it possible to vote on it next time we meet?
[Alicia Hunt]: That's actually what we said at the beginning, that if the board wasn't ready to vote tonight, the council would just simply legally open their hearing on December 3rd and then continue it to their next meeting so that this board could then look at it again on December 4th. But we do want to strategize on how to not make that a repeat of tonight, because... Yes.
[Peter Calves]: That is what I was going to bring up. If we continue it to 12-4, we have also just continued Tufts to 12-4, and we will run into the same problem that we had. We'll run into the same problem we had tonight on the fourth where Tufts will have hours of public comment.
[Alicia Hunt]: I will say you don't have to take that much public comment. We kind of felt like we did tonight, but it can be limited to the items that are new items, the new presentation, new materials. And there is a different way of doing questions. Sometimes the way we did it tonight is the best way. Sometimes it might be better to take a question and dispose of it and then say we're not. we don't wanna hear the same comment. We've heard people say that it's too tall, we get it, we don't need to hear it again. We've heard a comment on the union, we're not taking additional comments on the union. That is perfectly legal and it is a way to do it. It's just, it didn't seem like it was the right way to do it for the first opening hearing. But for continuance, it is very reasonable.
[Ayni Strang]: But Alicia, to Jackie's point, is there a way to stylize the discussion for the next meeting so we could act on it relatively quickly?
[Alicia Hunt]: Well, I guess I don't know how else to. I would suggest that the board should read it through. Honestly, I met over in many meetings. And then when I finally read it, I had comments. So some of the changes that we are recommending that you recommend are because we thought we had finalized the zoning. And then I read it one more time. And when I read it one more time, I said, and honestly, Danielle found one more thing this evening wasn't even presented. that we may need we're just going to check with Jonathan around one of the the uses may need to be changed in order to not create a legal conflict. So really I think the board needs to read it.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Which is great and the board can have a little bit more time over the weekend and we can be prepared the next time we can strategize and how that will be presented and being done. Planner Evans if you can please go ahead and speak. I've been through the chair
[Danielle Evans]: And even, I know that you guys read it, so it's not a you need to read it. Of course you read it. We're not saying you didn't read it. But yeah, so we've been living this for months, but you haven't. So it's hard to digest. It takes a lot. Like Alicia said, I found something to just now, and I was like, oh, how did I miss that before? Because it just starts to kind of blend.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Yeah, and that's what I was trying to say.
[Emily Innes]: Yeah, I think I may have found the same thing, Danielle. So we'll compare notes that it was the same sort of thing. I've looked at that page 12 times. With your permission, Madam Chair, I think if after the members of the board have had a chance to look at it again, because I also know that you've looked through it once, but zoning is complicated. If there are any questions that could be forwarded to planning staff that, you know, we could have answered for you for the next meeting if that would be helpful. We'd be willing to work with city planning staff to get those addressed so you could have that before your next meeting.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: And thank you so much for all of, again, for all of your effort that you've been doing with the city with this. I just wanted to clarify that what I'm referencing is the changes that have been presented. I have not been able to digest the changes that have been presented. So I want to make sure that we knew what I was referencing. Fishman?
[Ari Fishman]: I strongly move to table the vote till when we can comprehend things. And I wanted to potentially suggest if we have any possibility of changing the order, maybe just switch the orders next time. And we might be able to get through this more quickly when we're fresh at the beginning of the meeting, and then let Tufts go for as long as it goes.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: That can definitely be done the way that we did High Street this evening, because that was relatively easy. We can be prepared to vote on this decision, to provide a decision for this item first. And Dana?
[Ayni Strang]: We email any, if we have any questions, can we pre-email those questions? And that this way, prior to the meeting, whatever questions we have can be collected and then addressed all at once at the next meeting.
[Alicia Hunt]: it will be easier for us if you send us individually. Try not, there's open meeting law violation. So if you were to send everybody. No, just to you, the one person. I just want to say that very, very clearly. Oh, yeah. Yeah. To me, I think is best.
[Ayni Strang]: Yeah, I agree. I just All I'm saying is, is that even though I reviewed it, this is all fresh to somebody like me. I haven't been, you know, I even printed this out because I have a big printer and I looked at all, but it's still very complicated material. So any questions, if we could collect the questions directly to you, Alicia. And this would be the first thing we would bring for the meeting order. We might get get there quicker.
[Alicia Hunt]: And if anybody has questions about zoning in general and how it works, if that comes up, like, I'm happy to talk offline or have Emily talk offline. Like, we shouldn't, you shouldn't be deliberating these things. But if you don't understand some of the, if you're like, I think I'm confused by how this works at all. Oh, that's, I don't know. I was confused before I started digging into this.
[Ayni Strang]: The point is, if it's questions like that, or questions specific to something that we're reading as to why it's a yes or a no, we'll just forward that directly to you. So this way at the next meeting, we can just cut to the chase.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: And what I've also found helpful is the presentations with the city council. Those are recorded on method media, but I haven't had a chance to read, to go through the last one. So I don't know if anyone else will find that because usually the city councilors will flesh out those questions with, as well, and questions that I have, anyways.
[Ayni Strang]: It's a great suggestion.
[Danielle Evans]: Danielle? Yes, to the chair. I was also going to offer anyone who wants to come in and meet or give me a call to discuss anything, because sometimes it's just easier to just talk about some questions, even though I'll say that I hate talking on the phone, but then I will. It's easier sometimes to explain things and to craft an email. Lost my train of thought. Oh, yes, the 12th floor meeting. We also have another doozy on it. We have the continued public hearing for St. Clair, 21 St. Clair. So it's gonna be a busy one. So we'll just have to say that.
[Ayni Strang]: St. Clair is December 4th also. Yeah. Oh, wow.
[Danielle Evans]: Happy holidays. So Tufts knows that they might need three meetings, and they're fine with that. I already told them.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Yes, I was looking to see if I didn't know if you readily had those city council meetings available. I used to have them right at my desk, but I don't have them just to help with the board so that they're not digging. This is a public hearing, so I'm not sure if there's any public comments. So before I even open it up to the public, I'll see if there's any hands raised. There were earlier. I totally forgot that part. There's no hands raised, so I'm not even sure that I need to... Do I need to open it to public legally? There's no hands raised. Yeah, just to make sure that we're well within legal... You kind of just did that.
[Alicia Hunt]: You said open it to public comment.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Okay. And then close it. There's no one. All right, then I will, oh, and are there any previously submitted emails or letters on this item? Danielle?
[Danielle Evans]: I haven't received anything.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Anything? Okay, I will. I will close the public comment. And at this point, then I will ask for a motion to continue to a date certain of 12-4-24.
[Peter Calves]: So moved.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: And a second. Second. And we'll call vote. Peter Cowles?
[Peter Calves]: Aye.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Ari Fishman. Aye. Sabrina Alpino. Aye. Adam Behrend. Aye. Annie Strang. Aye. Ben LaValle. Aye. And myself, Jackie Rieferson. I'm an aye. Thank you so much, Emily, and we will be ready for you next meeting.
[Emily Innes]: Looking forward to seeing you again.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Thank you. Have a great night. Is it time to move to close the meeting? Yes, there's no minutes. So and there's a zoning updates, but I'm guessing we can just, we'll just, we can adjourn. We're going to move to adjourn. A motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn.
[Unidentified]: Seconded.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Peter Cowles?
[Adam Behrens]: Aye.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Ari Fishman? Aye. Sabrina Alfino? Did we lose Sabina? I guess that was her motion, no? Okay. I guess we still have quorum to close. Adam Behrens?
[Adam Behrens]: Aye.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: Annie Strang? Did we lose Annie too? I think they thought after, yeah.
[Adam Behrens]: Okay. So, all right.
[fZTCR91cjd8_SPEAKER_43]: and myself, Jackie McPherson. I think we have a quorum to close. Have a great night, everyone. Thank you for all that celebrate. So we'll see you on the floor.
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