[Denis MacDougall]: So good evening, everyone. Welcome to the City Metro Conservation Commission meeting for July 23rd. First item on the agenda is a continuation of the notice of intent for 99 Rivera Beach Parkway, DEP file number 215-0242. CPC Land Acquisition Company LLP has filed a notice of intent for proposed redevelopment of 97-99 Revere Beach Parkway. The redevelopment proposal includes the demolition of an existing radio station building, parking lots, and associated structures, and construction of a new 352,400 gross square foot transit-oriented multifamily residential building with ground floor retail and structured parking. Additional site improvements include a new stormwater management system, waterfront public access walkways, and wildlife habitat enhancements. A portion of the property is within a 200-foot riverfront area, being the Malden River, and then 100-foot buffer zone to top of bank and bordering a vegetated well.
[Heidi Davis]: Thank you, Dennis, and welcome, everybody, for the continuation of this hearing. I understand that the proponent has submitted... Recording in progress. ...supplemental information. and we'd appreciate if you could walk us through the benefit of all the commission members here.
[MCM00001777_SPEAKER_02]: Sure. Happy to do that. I'm going to share my screen. I put together a short presentation. Let's see. Can everybody see that?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[MCM00001777_SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for having us. My name is Natty King. I'm a consultant for CPC Land Acquisition Company. We're here to discuss the 97 and 99 Revere Beach Parkway project. Also with me today is Jack Englert and Eric Van Aram from the applicant J.P. Shadley from Shadley Associates, the landscape architect, Nate Shiel from Tetra Tech, the civil engineer, and Valerie Moore from Nutter. So I'll keep this brief. I'm going to just summarize the supplemental materials that we submitted to you a few days ago, and then I'll pass it over to J.P. Shadley for a brief discussion on the context of the proposed walkway and landscaping. So on the screen here, the image you see is our updated site plan submitted to you a couple of days ago. Dennis ran through the spiel about the project components, but for everyone's benefit, I'll just quickly say the project consists of a six story, 350,000 gross square foot residential building. We're proposing new publicly accessible shoreline walkways to help complete a link in the regional greenway network We're proposing native landscaping, including significant wildlife habitat as mitigation, as well as removal of litter and invasives from the site's Malden River shoreline. And then last but not least, we're proposing a new stormwater management system with infiltration provisions. So we appreciate all the feedback we got at the last hearing. We grouped it, our updates based on that feedback into a few broad buckets. The first of which is stormwater. So at your request, we updated the plans to show snow storage areas, denote that existing catch basins will be protected during the construction period and show the inspection ports for the infiltration and detention system. We've also clarified our stormwater pretreatment measures. This consists of best management practices, including street sweeping, deep-sump hooded catch basins, water quality units, and infiltration basins that result in a total cumulative, total suspended solids removal rate of about 93%, well above the 80% required under the stormwater standards. We've also summarized previous soil and groundwater investigations that were the basis of the stormwater design. And we've increased soil cover above the southern infiltration basin in order to accommodate the planting of native vegetation, including several small trees in that area. Most of our updates fall within the walkways and landscaping categories. We heard from you at the last hearing concerns about impervious walkway surfaces. So to that end, we've eliminated one of the walkways that was proposed south of the building, resulting in an 1100 square foot reduction in impervious surfaces. and we've converted the remaining walkways to porous pavement, which results in a further 12,000 square foot reduction in impervious surfaces, all but eliminating walkway associated impervious within the riverfront area. We've also significantly expanded our wildlife and pollinator habitat mitigation areas to both east and west of the shoreline walkway. This includes areas that were previously proposed to be lawn, as well as the BVW areas along the project site shoreline. We've provided a planting schedule outlining the native trees and ground cover that will be used in those mitigation areas. And we've summarized the existing trees along the site's shoreline and how they'll be impacted by the work. The last major category of updates was the invasive species management plan. Based on your feedback, we clarified our intention of three years of annual monitoring of the shoreline area with further targeted removal of invasives conducted on an as needed basis over that timeframe. and we've updated our control methods for Tree of Heaven, Japanese knotweed, and Phragmites, including the hack and spray method requested at the last hearing for Tree of Heaven, and addressing the Phragmites within the BBW areas that wasn't proposed in our initial NOI submission. And then lastly, we added black swallow wart to the plan in case that species is encountered and needs to be addressed while the proposed work is being undertaken. So to summarize our updates, appreciated all the feedback. The changes incorporated as a result have led to a decrease in permanent riverfront area impacts, a near total elimination of impervious surfaces associated with the shoreline walkways. in a significant expansion of mitigation, including nearly a tripling of wildlife and pollinator habitat area and a near doubling of the total mitigation program. So overall, we're confident that this project represents a significant improvement over the existing conditions and will create significant benefits related to habitat, stormwater, and public access on this site, both for Medford residents and the local environment. And with that, I'll turn it over to J.P. Shadley. He has a few words he wants to say specifically about the walkways and the landscaping. So, J.P., over to you. Take it away.
[MCM00001777_SPEAKER_03]: Mattie, you've got to disable the mail set. Yeah, it says you've disabled screen sharing.
[MCM00001777_SPEAKER_02]: I think Dennis might need to grant that permission.
[MCM00001777_SPEAKER_03]: Okay. Thank you. So here we go. Thank you. Go to the first slide. The project is a link within the Wellington Greenway system, and so it's under the design jurisdiction for the DCR and the site shown here in green and the future. red link here by the MBTA station are the last two links that need to be constructed in the center of otherwise connected and constructed over five miles of existing continuous trails. The DCR, these three images here, our site is right here. These three images are taken from recent parks that we did with the DCR. And so they require a 10-foot wide path, continuous throughout the Greenway, and for fire and police and maintenance crews access, and to provide a continuity for the users along the Greenway. And in addition to that, they often employ swaths of lawn that enable a little bit more increased public safety that uses peace of mind in the secluded areas of the projects that we do for them. And they also allow us the ability to do a variety of different landscape types in our designs. So the inventory of the existing trees that you asked us to do, what we did was we took our plan, we took the, the, uh, inventory that we had had of it and laid it on the new site plan, which you can see the outlines as, as the, uh, park design has evolved just a little bit for grading purposes. I started on the South end of the site and took, Copious notes, it was a lousy day, and any one of you who would like to join me out there sometime to confirm what I found, you're more than welcome to. It was awful. Mulberry and cherry on either side of the Atlantis. Really, it's pretty nasty, you guys. There's just a lot of vine, grapes, bittersweet, deadly night shade. And, unfortunately, you know, and Mulberry's borderline, it's invasive anyway, but there's not much out there. But there's a couple things. One is there is, on the south end of the site, a beautiful pin oak. And we'll obviously save that. It's up above the wall. The grades here are about 15 feet higher between this tree and where we'll be here. So that, I'll talk a little bit more about that wall later, but we did check as we were asked to confirm that, and we are going to need that wall. But also, I found a beautiful, beyond what we had previously said was our limited work line, I found a beautiful birch grove. they're just really sweet and so located those on site and they're outside of our grading work so we can recommend that those are saved and if we end up doing the work we will save them and I also found and I think you saw in my notes that man there's an amazing black locust grove and relative to how few trees there are out here this would be pretty darn easy to get the vines out of and maintain the form and so there's a lot of good things about black locusts. I know that they're invasive, but they're native and they're moving north fast with global warming. So I spent some time making notes and we look to you to let us know. Subject to your approval, we'd like to keep them. If you don't want us to, we'll take them out. And either way, we could contain them over time with the methods that we've described in the Invasive Species Management Plan. So it wouldn't be a case of allowing them to just take over the new work. So that's a question for you. On the north end of the site, it was fairly similar. The mulberry and the apple, here's a picture of one of the apples. This is the bottom of the tree. I bent over to get a look at it. And this is the top of the tree. I just stood up. And this is how bad the grape was just engulfing the tree. So there's not that much, unfortunately, that isn't invasive out there. But there is one beautiful native cherry that I found and that we would want to keep. We'd recommend saving that. So in our plan, our new plan, These trees that have this darker clouded graphic are the ones that we would absolutely recommend and save. Then the black locust is this lighter color here. That's where we are with the tree inventory and observations about it. I'd like to give you just a couple more project design elements quickly. The project, it's a link between the Greenway, Wait a minute, I'm sorry. I'm going to grab my notes here. It's going to be a gateway between the paths to the north and the south and east and west. And it's also going to be a place where the 700 people who live in the new home use it as their front yard. Let me go back to this. I want to describe the plan a little bit more. So, the native trees that we're proposing planting will contribute quite a bit to habitat and they're chosen for artistic composition and things like fall color and flowers and beautiful bark and form and different scales. But this is the stone wall that we talked about, and a new stone wall. There's a lot of stone walls on the Greenway. And so by doing what we've got here, we're creating a new central space where these trees, the new habitat plantings, and the walls form of a framed space that the public has more direct access to than the secondary path. And so it becomes a formal space that you can sit at, lean on the wall, hang out, and get incredible views out to the river. And again, the proximity, there's the stairway down from the building, the wall wrapping around. And the main path is shown here. This is an older rendering, so this is showing lawn, but we've changed it since then. I also did a couple of cross sections I thought would be very helpful to get at the issue of providing a comfortable path adjacent to the building. And when you see the scale of the building and actual size, the path is about 70 feet. The DCR path, the public path is about 70 feet from the building. There's about eight feet of grade change at this point, which is for section B here. Then for section C, I blew it up a little bit more so you could get a sense of how it's really pretty close and I think would be more comfortable for everybody involved if there was delineation of the various spaces. That's the end of the presentation. Welcome to questions. Thanks.
[Heidi Davis]: Thank you for that, for walking us through that. I open this up to discussion by the commission.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_18]: I have a question if I may. Of course. One of the applicants represented speak a little bit to the construction sequence. I don't think I fully realized that it sounds like these are going to be two different projects headed by two different contractors, maybe. That red spot dotted line of the limit of work, I think was new or I missed it last time. So if someone could just speak to the construction sequence and your coordination with DCR, that'd be great.
[Jack Englert]: So, we've been speaking with the DCR about their path for quite a while. We wanted to permit this as 1 project, because we don't know what's going to happen with their funding. We don't know whether or not. you know, the earmarked dollars are still going to be available. So we wanted to be in a position to do all the work on this project. So there's still discussions to be had with DCR, but the intention is we don't want to just improve the left side of the red line and then have what's happening out there exist. If they're not in a position to do it concurrently or in sequence with us, we would step in and go ahead and complete the path.
[Unidentified]: Thank you. Okay.
[Heidi Davis]: I just want to say in general, and I hope I speak for the commission, but we appreciate the responsiveness to our several, many comments from two weeks ago. And I'm sorry, who did I interrupt?
[Jeremy Martin]: I have some comments and questions on the landscape plans, if I may. I agree with what you just shared, Heidi. I very much appreciate the changes to the plans, and I find them to be a welcome improvement. There were just a couple things that jumped out to me. For the wall on the south, I understand that there's a retained condition there. I think my concern even more so than the wall is where the path is shown relative to the shoreline. If I look at the The majority of the site in the plan that's here, there's a significant distance between the mapped shoreline and the DCR path. Down at that south end of it, it gets half or even a third of the distance from the shoreline. And I don't think it's necessarily something that needs to be resolved, but seeing a little bit more context on that bottom end of the pathway, understanding how this ties into a future alignment there, and understanding the relationship to the shoreline a little better. and the grade there I think would be beneficial. So that's one thought. The other is that I very much appreciate the mapping of the existing trees and I support the proposal to maintain the black locust and the birch and the cherry and the pin oak. I think those are all good steps. What stands out to me though, well I should say you also answered our question about what happens between the pathway and that setback line, where in the previous plan there was not proposed landscaping. But what seems to be missing there are proposed trees in the zone between the path and the shoreline. And there are plenty of great trees to the west of the path, but no new proposed trees in the places where there's active grading work and replanting work. And I think to really replace that condition or respond to the impacts, there should be trees in that zone. And when I look at the sections that you've shown us, there are numerous trees in that area at the B and C section cuts and none shown in the plant. So it asks that you add some considerable tree planting into that area between the pathway and the shoreline. That's all I've got. All the other changes, invasive species removal, other aspects of the planting plan, I appreciate the updates and am satisfied with those. Thank you.
[MCM00001777_SPEAKER_02]: Thanks. I do have, on your first topic, you mentioned the proximity to the shoreline. On the plan JP is showing right now where you see the pin oak just to the left of the pathway immediately south of that is a stormwater pond that manages runoff from the MBTA parking lot. So we couldn't impact that nor the MBTA parking lot. As part of our pathway alignment, and I think same goes for who will ultimately be working on the segment to the South. I think there's consideration about. How to align that pathway so that it doesn't impact the existing MBTA operation. So that's really the driving reason beyond that specific location. And then on the trees topic, I think we'd be happy to submit our final planting plan for the project prior to the start of the construction. I don't think that should be a problem, you know, as everything's finalized and further refined.
[Jack Englert]: And I'll add to that, Natty, that we will commit to planting. JP hasn't probably taken a look at exactly what and where we would do that, but to the extent he can do that and incorporate it in the next plan, we will commit to doing that planting.
[MCM00001777_SPEAKER_03]: I think it's a great comment.
[Heidi Davis]: Great. Thank you. We appreciate that. Regarding that southern transition, I wonder if prior to construction, it would be helpful to have a plan detail for that specific area and how the grades will be met between. Does that seem like a helpful thing once design has been furthered?
[Jack Englert]: Absolutely. We're happy to do that because we have to figure it out as well. We'll be working together on that one.
[Jeremy Martin]: I agree as well, Heidi. Thank you for that suggestion.
[Heidi Davis]: Great. Also, Jeremy, I ask your opinion. I also think we should keep the black locust because there isn't very many trees there, but do you feel that it should be contained as was suggested by Mr. Shatley?
[Jeremy Martin]: I don't have a concern about black locust. I agree with you that because there are so few existing trees that it's valuable habitat. I think it is probably a good idea to keep them from expanding too much, especially if we're trying to establish new tree plantings in that same vicinity. So keep what's established there, but monitor and prevent any significant spreading of that growth.
[Heidi Davis]: So that can be addressed in the invasive species management plan? Correct. That we will review prior to construction. Anyone else?
[Craig Drennan]: I've got just a quick comment. Regarding the stormwater comments I had last meeting, I'm going to echo everyone else here in saying I appreciate the responsiveness to a lot of the comments that I had. I am going to echo something that you guys included in your supplemental information submittal. I do appreciate the provision of that groundwater data. But I'm going to recommend that the commission include a provision asking for confirmatory test pits prior to the start of construction. Just acknowledging that that groundwater data is from the 1980s. I work in the remediation field and groundwater data changes in 30, 40, gosh, years is a long time. So it's great to get a feel for design. It's nice that there's a decent buffer above that. But I do like the recommendation that the applicant put forward of doing confirmatory test codes. So that's my only comment. Otherwise, I'm all set.
[Heidi Davis]: Thanks, Greg.
[Jack Englert]: Happy to do that, obviously, yes.
[Heidi Davis]: It seems like we don't have any further comments from the commission at the moment. So just to confirm it, are there any members of the public here that would like to speak? Hearing none, then back to the commission.
[SPEAKER_04]: We are talking about several conditions. So it appears that we believe that this project can be conditioned to meet the interests of that.
[Heidi Davis]: So let's talk about some specific conditions. And we've already mentioned them, but I want to, in particular, Craig, how does this sound? As a possible condition regarding confirmation. Soil valuations confirming at least 2 feet of separation between the infiltration. And estimated seasonal high groundwater shall be provided prior to the Pre construction meeting.
[SPEAKER_11]: That works for me. Excuse me, this is Nate Shield with Tetra Tech. Just one question or comment on that. Would it be possible to do test pits after demolition, just because part of each system, one sits partly within the existing building, and the other sits right in the footprint of the existing radio tower?
[Craig Drennan]: As long as you guys think you'll have enough time to, in the event that seasonal high water is higher than anticipated, do you have time to pivot and adjust design to increase fill? That's fine with me.
[SPEAKER_11]: Okay, I would appreciate that. I think, you know, when we pull the foundation out for the tower, that's probably a great test right there.
[Unidentified]: Fair enough. Makes sense.
[Heidi Davis]: Can I second forward that language to you if you'd like? Thank you. We also spoke about receivable plan detail at that southernmost transitional area.
[Denis MacDougall]: Prior to construction, yep, I've got that one.
[Heidi Davis]: And also a final planting plan prior to construction. Acknowledging the commitment to planting, again, appreciated. And that will be incorporated. Also prior to construction, we want to receive for review and approval the invasive species management plan.
[SPEAKER_03]: And the other thing that I think we need to look at is an overlaid historic issue. So this parking zone actually puts a historic issue here, and I don't think it should be a historic issue.
[Heidi Davis]: Did I miss anything, or does anybody have any additions? There's some historic issues.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_18]: Heidi, I'd like to propose one and see how the commission receives it. I'd actually propose it to be a general condition for all projects, but this one, it sparked my brain. no application of herbicides, pesticides, or enticides in resource areas, unless prior written consent from the commission, or I'm thinking for rodenticides, unless ordered by the Board of Health or something like that.
[Heidi Davis]: I understand where you're coming from, and I completely agree with the rodenticide. However, in dealing with Phragmites, I'm not sure that herbicides can be. Without herbicides, I'm not sure that management is effective.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_18]: Yes, and my intent is not to prohibit herbicide use with invasive species, so we may have to work that out. But I meant, you know, for like lawn care, I don't want, you know, fertilizers put down and stuff like that.
[Craig Drennan]: Approval of the invasive species management plan would count as written approval by the commission to use those pesticides.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_18]: Yeah, I agree, Greg. For that purpose, for that length of time, and then just a shared spreadsheet.
[Heather]: You're basically talking about aftercare maintenance. If I'm understanding you, yeah, which makes sense. I mean, that's along the same lines as snow plan, et cetera, that basic maintenance. I agree with Carolyn on that. But we're going to need pesticides. If you guys have, I don't know who else is familiar with that area, but we're definitely going to have to use pesticides. Whoops, did we freeze up?
[Heidi Davis]: Speaking of storage areas, that was one of our comments, and I believe it was addressed, but it wasn't mentioned in the overview. Are there designated snow storage areas?
[MCM00001777_SPEAKER_02]: There are, yes. They're shown on the frozen sedimentation plan. I didn't see that.
[Heather]: Yeah, I did.
[Denis MacDougall]: Caroline, this might... Jump off the screen share for a second. Everyone can see each other.
[Craig Drennan]: Carolyn, this may be just me not knowing things I should know, but would the provision regarding pesticides or denticides and stuff occur after notice of termination is filed? Does that stay on the property upon completion of construction?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_18]: You mean certificate of compliance?
[Craig Drennan]: Sorry. Yeah, I'm thinking Swift language. Yes, sorry.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_18]: I'm thinking it would be a condition in perpetuity and survive the order of conditions.
[Unidentified]: gotcha. It's also like, it's like, I will talk about the past.
[Heidi Davis]: And for swear, but some language reporting specifically for treatment of invasive species. I can't I'm able to send file to the admin restriction, sorry.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know why.
[Denis MacDougall]: Can someone send me one that I can use and what I can do is I can add it in there and then Heidi, I can share it to you and one of the other members of the commission just to see how the language sounds before I actually send it out for signatures.
[Heidi Davis]: Okay, I could read it out loud. Fairly straightforward. If needed, use of herbicides to control invasive species shall be implemented in accordance with the approved IPMS and with the following requirements. Herbicide shall only be applied by a licensed applicator. Only herbicides registered with the Massachusetts Pesticide Board Subcommittee shall be applied to the targeted area slash species. The manufacturer's label directions must be followed in addition to any conditions imposed by other state or local authorities. Herbicide application shall use no more than the minimum application rate to accomplish removal of the target species. And applicants must obtain a BRP WM04 herbicide permit from MassDEP Wetlands Program, the dredge unit, before performing herbicide application in water bodies. And this is traditionally lakes and ponds, so probably not applicable here.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_18]: Sounds good to me.
[Unidentified]: Okay, good.
[Heidi Davis]: Any other discussion? Do I have a motion?
[MCM00001777_SPEAKER_08]: I'll make a motion to issue an order of conditions that includes the five aforementioned special conditions discussed by the commission this evening. Second that.
[Heidi Davis]: Excellent. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_18]: Aye.
[Heidi Davis]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[Craig Drennan]: Aye.
[Heidi Davis]: Aye.
[Jeremy Martin]: And Jeremy's and I also, I'm so sorry, Jeremy, I didn't see you. That's okay. I'm off the screen, but I agree with all the conditions. Thank you.
[Heidi Davis]: You're very welcome. Thank you very much.
[Jack Englert]: Thank you everyone. Thank you.
[Denis MacDougall]: So I should have the, I'm going to write the order. I've already got the. bunch of it like already filled in. So I'll add the conditions. I'll just send it off to just Heidi and another member just to sort of do a double check. And then once that's completed, I'll send it off to them for their signatures. And I'll let you know when it's signed and stamped and filed. Excellent. Thank you very much.
[Heather]: Just one more thing. I'm especially appreciative that this company is willing to go ahead and complete that work with the potential and probably realistic anticipation of the loss of funds. Thank you.
[Jack Englert]: I think we're probably going to have to do it. So we're just prepared.
[Heather]: I think you are as well. So thank you.
[Jack Englert]: Yeah. Thank you, everyone.
[Heidi Davis]: Well, one bit of housekeeping, if I may. A file number was recently assigned, so if you could please make sure that DEP's Northeast Regional Office has a copy of the supplemental material referencing that file number, then it could get matched up with the notice of intent.
[MCM00001777_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'll send that along to them right after I pop off.
[Heidi Davis]: Great. Thanks. It doesn't look like it's been reviewed by the analyst assigned to it yet. So that will certainly help with their review. Okay.
[MCM00001777_SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[Heidi Davis]: You're very welcome. Best of luck with the project going forward and we will probably. see you at the pre-construction meeting. Yes, looking forward to it.
[Jack Englert]: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
[Heidi Davis]: Thank you. You're very welcome. Thank you.
[Jack Englert]: Bye-bye. Good night.
[Heather]: Good evening. I'm old enough that KISS Radio was part of much earlier time in my life.
[Denis MacDougall]: My sister went over there when she was in high school to record. She won some sort of, like, it was an American Legion contest for like some sort of speech. And she went and she won it from Edford, so she had to go over there to record it to go out to the state level. And that took me along, because I was a wee lad. And it was actually kind of cool being in an active radio station. But, uh. So just, uh, somebody else, I actually, I am talking to a prospective new member on Monday. Um, I actually, cause I go through like, we have this like smart sheets thing that sort of lists people. And I was, there just was nobody really who was for the com com. And then I decided to just start looking at everybody who's applied. And I found an environmental engineer who was just applying for the bike commission. So I just emailed him outright and I said, Hey, would you be interested? And he said, let me talk. So I'm meeting him, talking to him Monday. So. I think seems pretty, pretty energetic. So I think that'd be good. So, um, hopefully enough. And then I'm going to actually search through everyone now. Cause like he was literally, he just, he just put in his information. And so it was literally very top ones. And I'm just going to start scrolling through everybody to see if someone who maybe just hadn't thought about the con com or things like that. So, and, um, good luck. Thank you. Well, I make a good first impression. My second impression, not so much. First impression is great, so I think we're okay on that end.
[Craig Drennan]: All you need is the mayor's office to play ball.
[Denis MacDougall]: Yes, which it hasn't just been us, it's been a few other boards of commissions, so they are ready to not have that happen again. So we're between our office and a few other offices.
[Heidi Davis]: Yeah, if people are willing to volunteer,
[Denis MacDougall]: Snag them before we'll do so. And no other, we should have a, we should have a meeting in 2 weeks. I received a notice of intent for some work. Along the. the river and within the drill buffer zone stuff down on west bedford that we talked about before so that should be all in place ready to go for our next meeting and actually the next door neighbor is doing something similar so they might be ready as well so um we might actually have two filings for pretty much almost identical cases that would be august 6 correct thank you and which might be kind of a first. So, because I mean, they are literally right next door to each other. Because we had this, we had something that both came before the zoning board about a month apart, and it was basically the exact same thing. So when I had to write the zoning decision for that, I, for the first, I mean, I usually use older ones as a blow over plate or, you know, something to work off, but this was the exact same case. I just had to change numbers. OK. So it's very fortuitous. But speaking of writing, we actually do have meeting minutes that could be approved. Yes.
[Heidi Davis]: OK. Thank you for handing those over, Dennis. It's particularly helpful for Heather.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Heidi Davis]: Thank you. The format's interesting. It's kind of not a big deal, but the section on my comments missed some of my comments. OK. Oh, well.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_18]: Those might have been attributed to me, Heidi, because I was attributed a lot of comments that I did a lot of good comments that I didn't make. They might be in my section. That's all right. You can have them. Engineering and stormwater comments that I know nothing about.
[Craig Drennan]: Take the credit. Yeah.
[Heidi Davis]: But so I think that we can approve them if I have a motion.
[Heather]: We have a motion with a second. For tonight.
[MCM00001777_SPEAKER_08]: Was that a motion? If you motioned it, I'll second.
[Heather]: No, just thinking ahead.
[Denis MacDougall]: All right.
[Heather]: OK.
[Denis MacDougall]: We have a motion and a second, so let's.
[Heidi Davis]: Great. All in favor. Caroline. Aye. Eric. Aye. Heather. Aye. Craig.
[Craig Drennan]: Aye.
[Heidi Davis]: Jeremy and myself, isn't I?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_18]: Dennis, can I say one thing before we jump off? Yeah, go ahead. While I have an environmental audience, the law firm I'm working for is looking to hire environmental land use and zoning attorney, if anyone knows of anyone looking full-time, part-time. We're in downtown Boston, are really great people to work with, good firm. And that's my plug. Email me and I can give you my work email or send you the link to our law firm.
[Heidi Davis]: But also I wanted to speak to the topic you brought up earlier today, Caroline, regarding the Mass Ready Act. Yes, that was. And we have been neglected to move forward on the under the bylaw language that you drafted. I believe I reviewed it several months ago, but I definitely need to go over it again. And I suggest that we dedicate a meeting date to review and discussion of that so that we can move it forward because it doesn't seem to happen if we just tack it on the end of our regular schedule.
[MCM00001777_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I agree. I think that'd be a great idea. And I would suggest it's probably more than one meeting, but just getting one on the books would be a good start, I think. I also have a question on this. Heidi, maybe you know a bit more. There are pending regulatory revisions. Do you anticipate this being a two-step process, meaning they would promulgate those new revisions and then tackle what's in the Mass Saves Act?
[Heidi Davis]: That's hard. That's hard to answer. The regulatory revisions are being proposed by DEP. And I'm not sure where they are exactly. And Mass Ready Act is proposed by the legislature. So it's two different bodies. I'm not sure how
[MCM00001777_SPEAKER_08]: But to be fair, I've been primarily focused on the Chapter 91 stuff in the Mass SAVE Act, but doesn't the statutory changes, does it direct DEP to make regulatory amendments, or is it all statutory?
[Heidi Davis]: Yeah, I'm sorry, I don't know, Eric. I'm not involved, unfortunately, with any of that, or maybe fortunately.
[Craig Drennan]: Is this like the changes coming to the stormwater design standards for MAS, or is this completely separate?
[Heidi Davis]: The regulatory revisions address stormwater changes. The MAS Ready Act covers exemptions for culverts, 40Bs, and what else? That's the two I'm aware of. Do you know, Caroline?
[MCM00001777_SPEAKER_08]: It was, broadly speaking, priority projects, which I think is primarily housing. But it does include ecological restoration and resiliency, vulnerability projects.
[Heidi Davis]: Right. Any energy-related or climate resiliency as bypasses of permitting.
[SPEAKER_04]: Bypasses permitting.
[Craig Drennan]: So that's the streamlined permitting section that the AI overview is spitting out. Summary of the Mass Ready Act. Interesting. Okay. Thank you. I'm not as in tuned with.
[MCM00001777_SPEAKER_08]: And what is really interesting to me is the suggestion that appeals of orders of conditions would not go to the regional office.
[Jeremy Martin]: What would be the alternative order they proposing? Just back here. Superior court. Superior court. There was an email today from the association that I only skimmed asking people to submit comments by the deadline on the 28th, I believe. And it noted a few good things in the bill and some other sections that are causing concern.
[Heidi Davis]: Is this from MACC?
[Jeremy Martin]: Yes.
[Heidi Davis]: What do they consider good? I'm curious.
[Jeremy Martin]: Good things in the bill. There is great funding for several important environmental programs. Electronic notices using electronic delivery will streamline and reduce costs. The abutter notification typo has been fixed from 1,000 feet of a linear project to 100 feet of a linear project. There's a new procedure for permitting projects with negligible or minor wetland impacts not requiring NOIs or public hearings.
[Heidi Davis]: Yeah, that's the culvert one, unfortunately.
[Jeremy Martin]: There's a ninth interest of the Wetlands Protection Act proposed for climate change resilience. Unfortunately, they don't get into as much detail in the sections causing concern. They just reference the section numbers.
[Heidi Davis]: The one about exempting culverts really troubles me.
[Jeremy Martin]: That's section 74.
[Heidi Davis]: DPWs can go ahead and do it.
[Heather]: We've had a lot of experience with that here in Medford. Yes.
[Heidi Davis]: If we can close the public hearing, just one other non-hearing item.
[MCM00001777_SPEAKER_08]: Need a motion that? Yeah.
[Heidi Davis]: Do I have a motion to close the hearing?
[Craig Drennan]: Motion to close the hearing. Seconded.
[Heidi Davis]: All in favor, Caroline. Aye. Eric.
[Craig Drennan]: Aye.
[Heidi Davis]: Heather. Aye. Craig. Aye. Jeremy. Aye. Myself is an aye.
[Unidentified]: Great.
[Heidi Davis]: I am remiss because I