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[Andre Leroux]: Okay, welcome to the Medford Community Development Board meeting of May 4, 2022. My name is Andre LaRue. I'm the chair of the board and I call the meeting to order. Pursuant to Chapter 20 of the Acts of 2021, this hearing of the Medford Community Development Board will be conducted via remote means. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so by accessing the meeting link contained herein. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted and public participation in any public hearing during this meeting shall be by remote means only. To participate remotely outside of the virtual platform, questions and comments may be submitted via email to OCD at Medford-MA.gov or via phone to 781-393-2480. That's OCD at Medford-MA.gov or phone at 781-393-2480. We're gonna make a tweak to the agenda tonight since our Director of Planning, Development and Sustainability, Alicia Hunt needs to step away soon and we'd like her to be able to present this. So we're gonna move the reassessment of the linkage fee schedule item to the top. Director Hunt, would you please present this item?
[Alicia Hunt]: Great, thank you very much. Thank you this evening. So linkage is a very unusual thing. Medford is one of the few communities that does linkage. We're all pretty familiar with it. It's when there is a development project of certain size, fees are automatically assessed, community betterment fees. And this was approved by an act of the legislature in 1989. And we have it in our zoning and we have trust that are set up through it and a lot of bunch of legal documents. One of the things that was set up through that was the requirement that our linkage fees would be reviewed every three years by the Community Development Board. The linkage fees have never been reviewed, or at least they have never been changed. So we are still assessing the same. I can't say they've never been reviewed. They may have been reviewed. They've never been changed. the originally assessed ones. So we actually have two simple proposals. One that we would put out a scope of work to hire someone to do an assessment and make a recommendation to the city as to what linkage what a reasonable increment should be or what the linkage fees should be today. And we have gotten some estimates on what that work could cost. And the difficulty is nobody does. There is somebody who's done linkage proposals to develop a new linkage program for communities. But Boston is the only other community in Massachusetts that currently has linkage the same way we do. So there aren't like, oh, consultants that do this all the time. So we would write up a scope of work, put it out to bid, see how much it costs. We would be doing this on behalf of the Community Development Board, so we'd like your permission to do that. We feel like we would then need to make the final decisions on everything based on what those numbers come back to. Our guess is somewhere between $10,000 and $70,000. We've, we got some estimates that were like $70,000 and that was, we believe, a scope of work to set up a linkage program for a community. So it's got to be a lot, it's got to be less than that. And it was $10,000 back in 1989 to originally set the fees. Um, we believe that there are a number of different funds that we could use to pay for this work, including linkage itself was used back in 1989. Um, and theoretically site plan review. So once we actually know what the cost would be, we would then make a recommendation. Um, if the decision was to use linkage fees, the spending of that money is actually approved by the linkage board. Um, so that wouldn't need to come back to this board. They would approve it. And if it was site plan review, then we would consult with community development board. But we thought that it would be appropriate to ask you all for permission to go attempt to hire somebody on behalf of you to evaluate and make a recommendation on setting linkage fees. So that's, why don't I leave it at that? That's the first piece. If you have questions or discussion.
[Andre Leroux]: I have one question, Director Hunt. So do you need to come back to this board once you have a more accurate proposal?
[Alicia Hunt]: Well, my feeling is that if we decide that we want to use site plan review, so we could if you guys say, please don't actually engage somebody without talking to us, we could certainly do that. Because this board meets monthly, it's going to take us a while to write the scope, it's going to take us a while to get it out to bid, we're not sure exactly what the timing will be. You could choose to say if it's site plan review funds, it's money we control, then we need you to come back and discuss spending that money with us. If you decide to use another funding source, then obviously you couldn't approve a funding source you don't control, but you could say whether or not you thought it was a good use of the city's resources. So I guess I'd say it's up to you. I don't feel that we'd have to if we're not using money that isn't controlled by this board.
[Andre Leroux]: would we have to specify the revenue source tonight, or would you, do you have a recommendation for us?
[Alicia Hunt]: So I think that it depends. We actually haven't had a chance to look recently at how much is in site plan review, because that feels like it would be a good source of funding for this, because that is money, it's fees that come in from site plan, the site plan review fund. Um we don't know when linkage is assessed frequently when site plan like it's not a direct. It's a very the same projects are assessed that, um, so it seems like an appropriate source. But we don't. We actually That's sort of where linkage is much more flexible money. Site plan review is really only used for peer reviews by this board. And we haven't done that in a long time, actually. So there's probably a lot of money there. And it's probably useful for you to all know that we can hire peer reviews of things. So does that help? recommendation is for you guys to say you should write the scope, you should hire somebody to review linkage and come back to us with a recommendation to change linkage as long as it's not money that you need to also approve.
[Andre Leroux]: Do other board members have comments or questions?
[David Blumberg]: I guess I'm just kind of confused. And maybe Alicia maybe you said this and it just didn't sink in with me but isn't this just something that city council should be authorizing funds for I, I don't really see it coming from the board but again, if I missed it. Sorry to make you say it again.
[Alicia Hunt]: but it's different pots of money are different authorizations. So site plan review funds are set up for the community development board to use for peer reviews and for their things. And you don't have to go to city council to spend money in the site review fund. Linkage is a board that's overseen. Actually the board itself is the mayor, the city council president and the director of finance. So any request to spend linkage goes to that body and it's posted as a public meeting, but it does not go to the City Council as a whole. If we were asking for free cash, we would go to the City Council, or it could be something we could ask for in our budget if we knew how much it was going to be. We could ask for an increase to the budget and then the City Council would vote on it. the City Council does not vote on how to spend site plan review money.
[Andre Leroux]: So it seems to me that we would be kind of voting on a, uh. A to evaluate, for a consultant to evaluate the linkage fee system that we have, or the schedule. And if there is, the funds are under our purview, I think we would need to sign off on that, which would be the site plan review funds. It would be good, and certainly as a kind of a separate issue, it would be great, Director Hunt, if you could come back to us anyways and report to us on that fund. We've never kind of talked about it or how we might use it or how much money is in there.
[Alicia Hunt]: Actually, I can see Amanda making a note. We've actually been getting, we have a very excellent administrative assistant now who has access to the finance system, and we've been slowly adding the funds to which she has access to see and review. So we'll actually see if that, we probably have to actually request to have her added to that one, but we should be able to do that and then just get our own report without having to go else. Up until now, we've had to go elsewhere every time we want a finance report, but we're able to get those in-house now. Yeah, that would be great. And actually, I feel like the right thing to do would be we would send you all the scope of work so that you could see it, we would tell you that it was posted, and we would tell you that we've hired somebody, and us giving you information can be done via email. If there was a need for a discussion or a decision, that would have to come back to a public meeting to do it at that. But we could keep you informed as to the process.
[Andre Leroux]: Right, and once a consultant is selected and is doing this report, they would be coming back, they would be reporting back to us essentially, would we be the client, right? Right.
[Valerie Moore]: Okay.
[Andre Leroux]: Okay. Great, so do we have a motion to request that the Department of Health and Human Services planning, development and sustainability, prepare a scope of work for a consultant to evaluate our linkage schedule.
[Amanda Centrella]: This is Deanna, I'll make that motion.
[Andre Leroux]: David, did you have a question or did you want to? That's fine, I could second the motion. All right, thank you. Roll call vote. Deanna Peabody. Aye. Les Andresen. Aye. David Blumberg. Aye. Christy Dowd.
[Valerie Moore]: Aye.
[Andre Leroux]: And then an aye as well. So 5-0, the motion passes. Thank you, Director Hunt.
[Alicia Hunt]: There was one other thing with linkage I just I wanted to keep them separate so that it was very clean that that that was one thing that actually I feel is something. My personal recommendation is that we should be doing something like that every three years, so this should become routine that we. get an update every three years and make an active decision whether or not to update them based on some sort of data. So that's one thing. The other thing that has come up is I've been working a lot, this is actually perhaps the right time to introduce that we For those of you who haven't heard, our city engineer, Tim McGivern, was appointed direct commissioner of public works. He's here with us this evening. And Owen Wartella has been appointed as our new city engineer. And I had been talking to Tim about stormwater, and this is actually one of Owen's strong areas of expertise. And we had been discussing some ideas around stormwater, stormwater fees, stormwater assessments. how that could work. And one of the things that Owen and I have discussed very recently is the idea of having a stormwater fee assessment with new development. And I said that sounds actually exactly like what we do with linkage. So we were reviewing the enabling language for linkage, which seems to allow an expansion of linkage. And so that is something we wanted to consider and do a review of. And to both, we would need legal consulting on that, as well as an economic evaluation to determine whether or not a category for stormwater with climate change, as you know. So it used to be that, you know, you had stormwater was in the ground, you replace pipes occasionally. Now we need bigger and more because of climate change. We're having more and more precipitation in this area. And so this is something that we wanted to consider and look into was the idea right now, I'm gonna do this off. I don't need to do this off the top of my head. I was gonna name the stormwater categories. My book isn't here. Um, the storm or sorry, the stormwater, the linkage categories are parks and open space, roads, water and sewer, police and fire, public safety. And it is conceivable that when they passed this in 1989, when they said water and sewer, they meant water, sanitary sewer, and storm sewer. We no longer refer to it that way. Now we call it storm water, not storm sewer. So we're not, there isn't a great way to tell. We may need to do some analysis of what they implied, but the way it was written was things such as the following categories could be assessed with linkage. And there were other, many other things listed there. And so our thought was to look into whether or not it would make sense to add a category and a fee schedule for stormwater on new development. And I sort of wanted to put that up to you that that's more of an area of discussion and not a we definitely should do this, but I think this this might be a smart way to look at it for the future.
[Andre Leroux]: But Director Hunt couldn't that be folded into the scope of work that we just recommended?
[Alicia Hunt]: It could be it would definitely increase the scope of work, and we might want to do it as at the same time somehow sort of break them out that there were two scopes of work, maybe the second is the alternate that we definitely want to do one, what would be the price to do the other. and I think that we may want to consult with some of our lawyers first to just get a second, get a legal set of eyes on the enabling legislation. I've read it, it looks to me like it says things such as, and stormwater really is such as those other things, but I think we should have a lawyer review it too.
[Andre Leroux]: Thank you. Moving on to the next agenda item, we have a couple of public way transfers potentially. One moment. So a request to accept Freedom Way as a public way. This is the job of the Community Development Board to submit a recommendation to the city council on whether to accept Freedom Way as a public way. and we have City Engineer Owen Wartella here to tee this up for us. Engineer Wartella, welcome. This is the first time I think I've met you for sure and probably the rest of the board. So if you could take a moment just to introduce yourself to us, that would be terrific.
[Owen Wartella]: Hi, how are you guys? I'm Owen, I'm the new City Engineer and I've been here for a few months and I come from many, many years in the private sector. So this is all kind of sort of new to me, but not really. I've been on the other side many times and I've volunteered with my local community as well. So it is kind of familiar with me. So, but I'm enjoying it here and I hope to get to meet every one of you. If you want to just dive right in here, I don't know how familiar you guys are with this public way, but what the intent is, is that these public ways are ownership by the school, and we are trying to acquire them into the city so that we could use the appropriate funds so that we can fix them. So this whole process basically started when Tim was here, and now I'm taking it on. So what we're looking for is a favorable report from city council for them to recommend and approve the public ways of Steve Miller Drive and Freedom Way.
[Andre Leroux]: And Engineer Wartella, could you explain to us what the benefit to the city is of accepting them?
[Owen Wartella]: I'm glad you mentioned that. So there are, as part of this, since they are existing roadways or site drives, there are no improvements as part of this acceptance. And so the estimate of betterments is zero for the city. It's just basically the legal documentation of who owns it is going to be different. The entity, it's not going to be the school, it's going to be the city.
[Andre Leroux]: And does that, my understanding is that in terms of calculation, for example, for state aid for road repairs, the kind of the mileage of the roadways is affected by that. So this would add to the city's mileage and maybe increase it.
[Owen Wartella]: Yes, it actually will. We've just recently done that and we've increased I think this year maybe four miles to Bedford so we're trying to go back and get adjusted funds from the state to for those funds. Yes, but this will just be a more additional for the next round.
[Andre Leroux]: And Freedom Way is just to remind everybody is the roadway it's essentially, it acts as a roadway even though it's been a driveway which I just learned recently. that goes from Riverside Ave over to the Wegmans Plaza area. So people use it obviously as a road. It's not in very good condition right now. I can basically see it from my window.
[Owen Wartella]: Yeah, it's about 20 years old now. So it needs some care. So is it owned by the school? Sorry. Yeah, I believe the school board owns it. I believe Tim can, if he wants to hop on here, he can probably talk to more about that, but I believe it's the school board owns it.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, the school it's owned by the city so it's a city parcel but there's a school on it, so it's a school building parcel building lot. So, in the characterization of a site driveway is correct, and I think the only other benefit that wasn't mentioned was that we would be able to spend state aid money on the road to fix it up. So chapter 90 money. So that's why we haven't been able to fix it up. So, we're trying to resolve that and We're basically transferring the property from ourselves from one type of parcel to a different type of parcel. So it's laid out as a public way and can be accepted as such with as Owen mentioned betterments of zero because we're not planning on doing anything or taxing ourselves to do it. So all we need to do really is lay it out, get the recommendation from this board to city council to endorse it. Thank you.
[zMDmsK0LIsU_SPEAKER_03]: So the expectation is that it's going to be fixed once this happens?
[Tim McGivern]: Yes, then we would queue it up for repairs, preventative maintenance as well as curbing, and such, actually already. We've already ordered curbing to see if we can do just some rebuilds box outs, and a million overlay.
[zMDmsK0LIsU_SPEAKER_03]: I guess the only thing I would suggest is that, you know, before the road gets fixed which I desperately needs to be fixed. I also think it needs to be looked at from a sort of traffic equity point of view. I'm wondering if that's something that we could request.
[Andre Leroux]: Can you explain what you mean by that.
[zMDmsK0LIsU_SPEAKER_03]: It's a two lane road with striping basically for, you know, cars and buses and there's no bike lanes and there's no, none of that has been considered obviously because it's 20 years old. And I just think it should probably be looked at holistically before we start making just repairs to the system that's there today, which is again, out of date and not up to current standards.
[Tim McGivern]: I can address that. Yep. Um, so the road as it is, is restricted, based upon the development that land when the schools were put there, so we have, we have what we have there. We can't really expand it to get more with. unless we start doing things like reducing sidewalk width, which we may not want to do. The school though, we would still own the city, the school would still own the sides of the road to be on the back of sidewalk so any sort of increases for pedestrian traffic in the future could be thought of in that zone, I believe, as long as it's not encouraging on the conservation aspects of the development. So that can be looked into. And then as far as improvements we would be pretty restricted to material improvements like concrete curb to granite curb, which is an improvement but not necessarily for traffic equity. But we would look into putting bicycle accommodations and paint on the road, but I can't tell you just knowing the road that the it's pretty narrow for that so probably talking like share the road shadows reduce speed, maybe like a speed hump or something like that. So those are the types of discussions that we've had on so.
[zMDmsK0LIsU_SPEAKER_03]: That's exactly what I'm talking about. That's great.
[Tim McGivern]: Yep. So that's what we would be looking at. So anytime we are doing any sort of maintenance work on a road, we try to work with what we have and improve it with creating some giant capital project or something like that.
[Andre Leroux]: Actually, my concern or inquiry was about the sidewalks alongside it because it does the very weird thing. As you know, pedestrians end up walking over the curb and there's that dirt area where there's no sidewalk. So I'm wondering if we could actually make a pedestrian kind of crossing that's much safer there next to the road so that people don't have to like go into the parking lot Most likely something can.
[zMDmsK0LIsU_SPEAKER_03]: I could give a dissertation on this subject, because I walk my kids to that school, that's your house every day and it's, there's just so many things that are wrong that intersection. First and foremost, where, you know, people come hauling down Riverside Avenue, you know you have kids. Thank God we have a crossing guard but you know they're not there. Let's say they're there for maybe an hour a day so. there's a lot of things that I think that need to be fixed in that artery. And that's sort of what I was getting at with my question to Tim. Yeah.
[Andre Leroux]: When you guys take a look at it, that looking at that entrance that to Riverside Ave is kind of a pretty big apron. And if that could be kind of narrowed a bit.
[zMDmsK0LIsU_SPEAKER_03]: We don't even have a push button Same now there.
[Tim McGivern]: So, we will be limited with the type of project that it's going to be so we will be doing things like extending our Milan overlay to encompass the intersection, as much as we can, you know, reasonable amount, we typically do handicap ramps and these type of projects and we typically do sidewalk repairs. So that's kind of what you can expect, and then sign painted. Like like I discussed and then potentially some speed humps and then when you start talking about changing signals and upgrading those it becomes a different level of project so to speak much larger amounts of money and. Um, a different way to procure it. So with all that said, um, you know, what we can do relatively quickly with the funding that we're using for these type of improvements, um, that's, you know, hopefully I've described what kind of project that we're looking at here. Um, you know, hopefully.
[Andre Leroux]: Director Hunt.
[Alicia Hunt]: Sorry, having trouble with my mute button. Um, thank you. Tim, could you share with the board how, if they wanted to get something, like, I feel what I'm hearing them say, but it's not the same language, is a complete streets project. And how would one put in a request to the city for things like the intersection improvements or complete streets? Because we do have a list that exists in the city, and how would one get these added to that list?
[Tim McGivern]: Sure, so there's a complete streets committee, and I believe what we're trying to do when I was on it before the whole transition to Commissioner thing, we always sort of left things was we created a process for just that thing. So if basically all you need to do is talk to one of those committee members. of that committee. So you could tell Owen and then it gets on a list and then it's basically vetted out through that committee and it bubbles into a set of recommendations that then go to the mayor. So that's probably the best way.
[zMDmsK0LIsU_SPEAKER_03]: Sorry. It's okay. I said I don't know about my fellow board members here but I would love to have the Complete Streets Committee join us for a meeting so they can discuss their projects and their process. I think that would be enlightening. given the fact that that's basically our charge here is to understand how, you know, private projects interact with the public way. So I can probably set that up with you. No problem. That would be great.
[Andre Leroux]: That's a great idea.
[Tim McGivern]: Oh, synergies. I love it. Fantastic.
[Andre Leroux]: Other board members have any questions or comments about this project? Okay, so I think we are able to entertain a motion to recommend to the city council to accept Freedom Way as a public way.
[zMDmsK0LIsU_SPEAKER_03]: I will make that motion.
[Andre Leroux]: Happily. Plus, is there a second?
[David Blumberg]: Under its David I'll second the motion.
[Andre Leroux]: A roll call vote, plus Andreessen. Hi, David Blumberg. Deanna Peabody.
[Jenny Graham]: Aye.
[Andre Leroux]: Christy Dowd.
[Jenny Graham]: Aye.
[Andre Leroux]: And I'm in aye as well. So five, zero. Motion passes. Great, thank you. Next item on the agenda is a similar one. This is the Steve Miller Way, which is the roadway going up to the high school. So Engineer Wartella, anything different about this project?
[Owen Wartella]: The only thing different about this one is the length. is the same, there's still the betterments is zero. And we're just asking for it same kind of process. It's owned by the school. We're trying to move it to owned by the city so we can use state and federal funds to prepare.
[Andre Leroux]: Thank you. Any questions or comments about this one?
[David Blumberg]: I agree, David. I just thought the discussion of the city's plans on Freedom Way was very enlightening. And so if there's some background that the city could offer us on what the plans might be for Steve Miller as well, that would be great.
[Andre Leroux]: Tim or Owen, would you be able to talk about any improvements that might be in the works?
[Owen Wartella]: I'm not aware of any improvements at that. on this road on Winthrop Street, that's a whole different scenario that's coming. But for the most part, you know, again, first process is to, you know, switch it over to ownership. And then from there, we can, you know, put it on the list of, you know, future roads to, you know, look at complete streets with maybe traffic calming measures, and all the aspects that you want.
[zMDmsK0LIsU_SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. I think For me, a bike lane on that one would be huge. Where does, obviously it starts at Winthrop, where does it end? It ends at the school. Like at that first intersection?
[Owen Wartella]: At the first intersection, right where the parking lot is.
[zMDmsK0LIsU_SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so just that first little spur. Yes, that's exactly right. Thank you.
[Andre Leroux]: Other questions, comments? If not, a motion?
[zMDmsK0LIsU_SPEAKER_03]: I'll make that motion again.
[David Blumberg]: Is there a second? Andre, it's David, I'll second.
[Andre Leroux]: Thank you, David. roll call vote. Class Andreessen. Hi. David Bloomberg. Hi. Christie Dowd.
[Jenny Graham]: Hi.
[Andre Leroux]: Anna Peabody.
[Jenny Graham]: Hi.
[Andre Leroux]: And I'm an eye as well. So the motion to recommend the city council adopt a Steve Miller way as a public way is passed.
[Owen Wartella]: There's one more thing that I just kind of want to put on your guys radar. These my lars need to be endorsed by the element board members, so you'll need to come in and sign.
[Andre Leroux]: And generally, our, our planner Amanda Cinchella handles that corralling us and telling us where to go. And so, I think we'll. Thank you.
[Amanda Centrella]: I will shepherd you all.
[Andre Leroux]: Next item on the agenda is 23 Sycamore Ave linkage credit application. Here, I'm going to pass this to Planner Santrella to kind of tee this up and explain what is happening. And then we have some proponents to talk about their request.
[zMDmsK0LIsU_SPEAKER_03]: Andre. Yes, this is the one. Right. Yes. Okay, yeah, I'm going to recuse myself from this because I have an affiliation with a firm working on this project. Thanks.
[Amanda Centrella]: All right, thanks for the intro, Andre. So I thought maybe I would just briefly describe kind of the nature of this request, and then I would hand the baton to the Oxford Properties from 23 Sycamore. So the idea behind this is that, as you all know or are aware of, that for every, you know, larger development property or project that comes through the city, there's an associated development impact fee kind of system that we call linkage. In this case, 23 Sycamore, that project was approved by the board and the engineering, I think, division, and or DPW more generally, had asked that the proponent kind of look into some of the water and sewer work, like network that exists and infrastructure that exists for that area. The proponent went ahead and did that, and my understanding is that, you know, was able to come to the conclusion that actually a lot of work did need to happen there in order to support the project. Um, so what I believe will be proposed tonight is that, um. The proponent has since worked with engineering DPW, um and is. Proposing to do this work, which they have detailed how much that work is valued at, um and that that work will be Um, and I believe we have, uh, values that, um, Valerie will share with us, but I want to say that actually the, um, proposed amount of work exceeds the, what would have been the linkage costs. Um, so with that, I think I will hand it off to Valerie and her team. Um, and we can go from there.
[Valerie Moore]: Thank you very much, Amanda. Valerie Moore from Nutter, McLennan & Fish here on behalf of the applicant Oxford Properties together with Ken Stapier from BHB. I think Amanda did a great job actually summarizing everything so I won't add too terribly much more to it. As Amanda noted, this came about as part of the of the sewer line in Sycamore Avenue that was requested as part of the site plan approval that this board issued and the estimate that the applicant received for the work was $134,000. The linkage fees that would otherwise be due are approximately $68,000. So as you can see, the value of the work far exceeds the linkage fees that would otherwise be paid to this city. Um, Oxford is willing to absorb the entire cost of the repair rather than entering into some kind of cost sharing arrangement with the city and would be undertaking the work in its entirety. Um, and is asking that that be credited against the linkage fees that would otherwise be due, um, set forth in the zoning ordinance. And this board has the ability to approve, um, credit against linkage for voluntary site-related improvements that are undertaken by a project applicant. So that's the basis for it. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions that the board may have about it.
[Andre Leroux]: Thank you, Ms. Moore. I guess, let me go to Commissioner McGivern to see if he has any comments on this before we open it up to questions.
[Tim McGivern]: I'll say it all rings true. and I did work with the proponents and their team to look at the sewer and kind of see what was wrong with it. We had talked about some spot repairs, but it made sense to, I believe, if I understand what they're proposing, is what we discussed is replacement of some of the line there in Sycamore Ave where it connects to Riverside. So I think it makes total sense, and I would be in favor of doing an arrangement like this. Thank you.
[Andre Leroux]: Any members have questions for attorney more or her team. And just to note that we, this board did take a similar action for the housing development on locust have across from the Wegman's Andre David. Yes, David.
[David Blumberg]: I have a question it's not for attorney more I don't think, but more for the city. Are we feeling comfortable that the vendor is pricing this reasonably. I only saw in the materials that there was one proposal. Obviously, the money is ultimately at some level the cities to do this or do something else we want to make sure that we have good, good pricing on the project. And we're working for the Oxford is working with a good vendor who will leave this. project in good condition and do a good job. So, if the city could comment on that, that'd be helpful.
[Tim McGivern]: Sure. So, this, the board can certainly just request that the engineering division review to whatever level of standard you'd like. So, I think we would tip and I think I'll install the call, but we would typically review it on behalf of the board. And I'm not exactly sure where this is in that process. And I think when it comes to doing the work, there will be requirements for them to meet our typical standards. There'll be inspections with the water and sewer division. There will be a street opening permit for connections. So all that will be taking place. So the typical quality control that we perform on ourselves and other contractors would be taking place. So hopefully that, and usually there's a quality control video at the end of something like this to just to say, yep, it's all there documented and then some sort of as built condition. So we would anticipate all of that would take place as part of this.
[David Blumberg]: Thanks, Tim for answering that knowing the cities involved in checking the pricing and the quality is is good. That's very helpful. Thanks.
[Tim McGivern]: And like I said, it's up to you if you did, you will go as deep into it as you'd like linkage was 60 something thousand and the proposals $20,000 worth of work. So I think probably the recommended level is making sure that it passes the sniff test and that the scope of work matches what was discussed with the city and that the plan would be to use current standard materials and methods for the execution, which I have no doubt that they're planning on doing.
[Valerie Moore]: If I may add on to that, I believe as part of the permitting for the work, we would also be posting a contractor will be posting a performance bond to ensure that the work is completed to the city standards.
[Andre Leroux]: Any other questions or comments from members of the board? Okay, hearing none, do we have a motion on the floor to just get this right, to accept the application for a linkage credit for the work done by the proponent.
[David Blumberg]: This is David. I would like to make that motion.
[Andre Leroux]: Thank you, David.
[David Blumberg]: Is there a second?
[Jenny Graham]: This is Christy. I second.
[Andre Leroux]: Thank you, Christy. Roll call vote. David Blumberg. Aye. Christy Dowd. Aye. Tiana Peabody. Aye. And I'm an aye as well. So 4-0 motion passes. Thank you, Attorney Moore and your team.
[Valerie Moore]: Thank you all. I really appreciate it.
[Andre Leroux]: Have a good night. Thank you. Thank you. You too. That brings us to our last item on the agenda, which is just miscellaneous and other updates, and I will turn this over to Linus and Trella.
[Amanda Centrella]: Thanks, Andre. So just two things that I kind of wanted to put on the board's radar. As you all are already aware, probably we've got a site plan review process coming up for 4060 Mystic Valley Parkway, which is the rise development. It's a biolife sciences lab space there. So you all can expect materials and comments coming in from me over the next week or so. And just a reminder that our next meeting date is May 16th, Monday. And then in addition to that, folks might know that there is going to be a community meeting over Zoom tomorrow evening for a proposed project, Great American Beer Hall. which I should get the address for. I just know it because it's very close to where I live and it's on Mystic Ave. You know, board members are not obligated to be there, but I just wanted to put it on your radar as something that is happening and will likely come before us in the near-ish term. And I welcome Alicia or Vic, if you're on the line still, if you have anything else you want to add, feel free.
[Victor Schrader]: Amanda, just that the Green American Beer Hall location is 142 Mystic Ave. It's the site of a bus parking lot currently. Thanks, Greg.
[Andre Leroux]: My understanding is the concept there is that it is not like a brewery, but it's kind of like a place where other craft brewers bring, sort of have stalls or something like that? Is that what that is?
[Victor Schrader]: Yeah, they'll be working with a distributor for the beer, but targeting regional craft beers for the taps. And it'll have a beer hall, food hall, type five, common seating in the middle, some game rooms, outdoor patio space. If folks have been to any of Trillium's setups, it's the same architect. So modern, fun, beer hall vibe is what they're going for.
[Andre Leroux]: Are we allowed to do fun in Medford?
[Victor Schrader]: We're really pushing the limits here, Andre. We'll see.
[Andre Leroux]: Great, thank you. Director Hunt, any updates from you?
[Alicia Hunt]: Right, I think we're- I will just remind everybody comprehensive plan. So Circle the Square is, we'll get that to you. The comprehensive plan is not doing a public meeting to present sort of the final stuff, draft things. They're gonna have tables at the Circle the Square with the hopes of engaging with more people who would be there at that event. And that is Saturday, June 18th from three to seven in the afternoon in Medford Square. And all over Medford Square, we don't know where their tables will be, but the consultants will be there with a lot of draft comprehensive plan materials. You're welcome to talk to them. Other people are talking to them. That's when they're gonna be releasing the draft comprehensive plan for comment for the next several months.
[Andre Leroux]: Director Hunt, just on that topic, does the comprehensive plan draft come to us at all? Or I know that our vice chair, Jackie Furtado, has been participating in that committee, but we've never really had kind of a briefing about it. And I'm wondering whether members are interested in that.
[Alicia Hunt]: So that's actually a good point. In the end, the Community Development Board is asked to accept it, I believe, in theory, because it is part of I had that in front of me, chapter 41, section 81. I wrote it down on something earlier today. And that it's the Community Development Board has a comprehensive plan. So we can ask them to come present to the board if you guys would prefer that format, or for you guys to review it, whether you wanna have them come in during draft period, happy to arrange for them to come meet with you all.
[Andre Leroux]: Any thoughts from board members? I see you nodding, Christy. Yes. Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: Yes, please. Provide a briefing.
[Alicia Hunt]: I guess I'd love you all feeling, is this like they present for 20 minutes, you ask 10 minutes of questions and we're done, and that's part of another meeting? Or should we actually plan a separate meeting for you all so that you feel like you can take as much time with it as you want? Because I don't wanna ask you all to add unnecessary meetings, but if it's preferable for you to have it as a separate meeting, we can arrange that.
[Jenny Graham]: I prefer the separate meeting, even though I hate to impact on meetings, but I think it's pretty important and of significant interest that I think we could benefit from a separate meeting. That's just my vote.
[David Blumberg]: I'd second that motion.
[Andre Leroux]: It's the community development board. Not everybody might in the public may know that we are also considered the planning board for the city. So it seems like this may be an important thing for us to review.
[Alicia Hunt]: And I would prefer to do it in the drafts, either right before it's released as draft or in the draft window, just Obviously it would be presented to this board as a final document, but I would prefer, as you're saying that, for you all to see it and be able to say like, let's change this piece or that word or this section, whatever, and that still be a really doable thing.
[Andre Leroux]: Right, and would we have to host a public hearing or would it just be for the benefit of the board? Because I know that there's been lots of public meetings around it.
[Alicia Hunt]: The meeting we're discussing right now would be the difference, not a public hearing, no legal ad in the newspaper, but it would be a public meeting because if this board meets, it's a public meeting.
[Andre Leroux]: Right, I was thinking more about the participation piece of it, whether it would be another forum for public participation on it or just an opportunity for us to engage with the document.
[Alicia Hunt]: I think that's up to the board how you'd like to do it. And right, I think that. It feels like we've had a lot of public meetings where we've pushed out, get the public here, try to get the public here. And part of it is we've done them a lot of them online. And that's why we're going to circle the square to sort of be where the people are more rather than a meeting. So it seems to me that it would benefit this board if we posted a public meeting that the comprehensive plan was gonna be presented to this board. That was the topic of agenda for the evening. Um, and that's it. We don't push to get the members of the public here, right? This is, you know, I will say that we have a number of planners that live in Medford. They may be interested to see the questions that this board asks of the comprehensive plan, but we wouldn't build it as a forum for the public. This would be a meeting for the board. Okay.
[Andre Leroux]: Um, Jackie, I saw you just went offline, but I'm wondering whether you have any thoughts about this issue.
[Jacqueline McPherson]: One of the questions that I had for Alicia and this is I'm not sure if this is the proper forum but I know there was some back and forth with the actual comprehensive plan itself in the public and some of the steering committee members were just trying to figure out implementation actually and you graciously explained to them all the work that Community Development Office was doing to prepare that and I just was trying to figure out the steps myself. And I know that there's a lot of work behind the scenes that's being done, but even before we get to implementation, obviously, as you say, we have to get to a draft. And I'm just wondering what more work will even the steering committee get to do before it even gets to the community development board?
[Alicia Hunt]: So there is one more steering committee meeting. Amanda could tell us when that is. And it is my expectation that there would actually be an implementation plan in the draft plan. And that is one of the things that is being worked on at this time. I am anticipating that one of the recommendations would be to form an implementation committee. and that there might, and that would be like an oversight committee that might meet once or twice a year to check in and see where things are and how things are moving along. So I would anticipate that some members of the steering committee might want to be on the implementation committee, but others may feel that their service is done. So it would be set up as a new group, but there would likely, I would expect there to be some carryover from that. But that would be having an implementation committee would be like an oversight committee. And for those of you who aren't aware, so our should have said this, our Climate Action Plan, the final was released last week as part of Earth Month. I invite you all to check it out. And I particularly say that because there is heavy influence from the The form of that has been feeling on the comprehensive plan. There's been discussion that we like how it's laid out with strategy, with goals and strategies and actions, and then like paragraph about each action. And we really like how there's a chart at the end that lists all the actions and it lists, it gives it, there's a timeline for each one. And then there's a first, milestone, and then there's a steward. So somebody in the city who is responsible for that action. And that is a table, it's a four or five page table at the end of the climate plan. And I've talked to the consultants that it feels right. And as long as people don't say, oh my God, that's a horrible idea, use this format instead. I'm expecting that we would end up with a table, an implementation table like that as well. So I invite you to look at the climate plan. And if you have something else in mind that you think would be better, please show us that example because this is the best idea we have so far. And Amanda just dropped the link for you all of the climate plan in the chat.
[Andre Leroux]: Right, and for anybody watching, there's also the next steering committee meeting for the comprehensive plans, May 18th from six to 8 p.m. So great, so I don't think we need to have a motion or anything, but maybe after that last steering committee meeting, we can schedule a meeting of the community development board to talk about the comprehensive plan.
[Alicia Hunt]: That'd be great. Amanda will reach out to you all about scheduling and she'll reach out to the consultants about scheduling.
[Andre Leroux]: And Jackie, just want to say thank you for all the time you've been putting into this on behalf of us.
[Jacqueline McPherson]: Thanks. And if I can just congratulate the city, especially Alicia, on releasing your Climate Action Plan. The Medford patch actually made a notification, so I've been trying to get to it. So I did know that it was out there. So congratulations on that. Thanks.
[Alicia Hunt]: We're very excited that it's final and it's out there.
[Andre Leroux]: Thank you everybody, let's see we got two minutes before we go here we hit the hour mark so let's try to beat our record. Oh, David.
[David Blumberg]: Oh we're offering congratulations. I want to offer a standing round of applause to you. I watched all of the city council proceedings on zoning, and thank you for representing the board and you did a great job.
[Andre Leroux]: Thank you, well, that was a big win for all of us. We put a lot of time into that and I think it paid off because they ended up really accepting almost just about everything.
[Jacqueline McPherson]: Yeah. That was awesome work, yes. I echo David, that was awesome work, Andre. Thank you.
[Andre Leroux]: All right, now I'm gonna accept a motion.
[David Blumberg]: Andres, David, motion to adjourn for this evening.
[Andre Leroux]: Thank you, David. I will second. Thanks, class. Roll call vote. David Blumberg. Aye. Class Andreessen. Aye. Christy Dowd. Jackie Furtado. Aye. Deanna Peabody.
[Jacqueline McPherson]: Aye.
[Andre Leroux]: And I'm an aye as well. So thank you, everybody. Meeting is adjourned. And really appreciate everybody's time. Thank you all.
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