[Adam Behrens]: All right. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to tonight's meeting of the Community Development Board. I will call the meeting to order. And since we have a couple of new members this evening, and we also do not have a chair, I'd like to motion that we suspend the rule requiring that we elect new officers tonight so that we can move forward with an acting chair this evening. Can I get a second from a member of the board?
[Sean Beagan]: I'll second that.
[Adam Behrens]: Awesome. Now I will call each member's name and take a vote. John Anderson? Yes. Ari Goffman? Fishman? Dina Caliguero?
[Dina Caloggero]: Present.
[Adam Behrens]: Doug Carr? Yes. Sean Began? Yes. And myself, Adam Behrens? Yes. So I guess motion passes. Danielle, do you want to chime in now?
[Danielle Evans]: So we need a member to make a motion to nominate someone to serve as acting chair. Member Behrens, you graciously volunteered for that. So if we could have a member make that motion.
[Sean Beagan]: I'd like to make a motion to nominate Adam Behrens as acting chair for the meeting tonight.
[Dina Caloggero]: I second the motion.
[Danielle Evans]: Danielle, you can take the roll. OK. Doug Carr? Yes. Sean Began?
[Sean Beagan]: Yes.
[Danielle Evans]: John Anderson? Uh-oh, John's frozen, I think, or very still. We'll skip John. Dina, you're going to have to remind me how to pronounce your last name again. Colagero. Colagero. OK, Dina Colagero. Yes, I accept. Oh, say it one more time. Colagero. Colagero, OK. Yep. And Adam Behrens?
[Adam Behrens]: Yes.
[Danielle Evans]: So the motion passes. 4 to 0 with John Anderson having a technical difficulty and not part of that vote.
[Adam Behrens]: All right, so as acting chair, thank you for bearing with us. I will now begin with some procedural matters. This hearing of the Medford Community Development Board is being conducted via remote means. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings. Anyone who would like to listen to or view this meeting while in progress may do so by accessing the link that was included in the meeting agenda posted to the City of Medford website. A recording of this meeting will be posted to the Medford Community Media website as soon as possible. A reminder that given the remote nature of the 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 at the city's website, medfordma.org. by clicking on the current CD board filings tab. For those on Zoom, I believe someone will post a link in the chat so that you can see those, the agenda and the meeting items for tonight. To begin with, I will now take roll call for the meeting now that we're in session. John Anderson, I think just say present. He might still be having technical difficulties. Ari Goffman-Fishman? Dina Caliguero?
[Dina Caloggero]: Present.
[Adam Behrens]: Doug Carr? Present. Sean Began?
[Sean Beagan]: Present.
[Adam Behrens]: And John, maybe we'll try you again. John Anderson? Nope. Nope. Maybe I'll note that John is in the meeting, but still having difficulties. And then I, myself, Adam Behrens, Acting Chair, present. So I believe we have quorum. Danielle, I will let you introduce any staff that are on the call tonight.
[Danielle Evans]: Yes, thank you. Attending tonight is myself, Danielle Evans, Senior Planner in the Office of Planning, Development, Sustainability. Director Alicia Hunt, the director of PDS, our wonderful intern, Christian Zapata-Lepofsky, and we have Nina Nazarian, our chief of staff, who will be presenting one of the agenda items.
[Adam Behrens]: Great. So before we begin, I'll just run through the agenda very quickly. We have a request from the mayor's office to take her request to endorse the submission of an amendment to Salem Street Neighborhood Corridor District zoning. We'll take that first. Then we'll discuss the approval of a tripartite agreement and release of covenant for the Bridal Path subdivision. Then we'll discuss a request. Then we'll move to a public hearing regarding the site plan review for a development at 10 and 20 Revere Beach Parkway. And then I see John might have his service backup. John, can you confirm that you can hear us? All right, he's still having a little difficulty. So first, we'll take a motion. Just since the public agenda, the Salem Street corridor item was listed as the last. We'll do an amendment to take that item first. So can I get a roll call vote to take that item first? Well, I'll do the roll call. Dina Caliguero?
[Dina Caloggero]: Yes.
[Adam Behrens]: Doug Carr?
[Dina Caloggero]: Yes.
[Adam Behrens]: Sean Began? Yes. Myself acting chair, Adam Behrens? Yes. So I believe That's enough to take the item first. I will now let Danielle introduce the agenda item, and then she'll pass it to Nina Nazarian, who's the chief of staff for the city. And then I think Danielle will also give a little bit of context for just the procedural process for the zoning amendment and the public's ability to provide comment.
[Danielle Evans]: Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. So, as you are aware, the Salem street neighborhood quarter district, there was a zoning amendment that was adopted by city council back in March 2025. the city board had held several public hearings and made recommendations. to the draft that was submitted to them. City Council adopted most of them, save for one, which was the Salem Street and Park Street node. The City Board had recommended that it be The mixed use 1 zoning district, rather than the mixed use 2 zoning district, which would have been referred to to your board. However, they did not accept that change. So there are several ways that amendment zoning amendment can get started and. 1 of those is ways is for the community development board to submit an amendment to city council to start the amendment process under section 5 of chapter 48 mass general law. The mayor does not have that authority to submit an amendment directly to city council. So she is requesting that this board consider. submitting an amendment to City Council to take up your original recommendation. With that, I will turn it over to Chief of Staff, Nina Nazarian.
[Nina Nazarian]: Thank you very much to the members of the City Board and Senior Planner, Danielle Evans. As Senior Planner Evans stated, This is a request that's coming from the mayor. And just to add to the information that Ms. Evans has presented, basically there, as you may know, there was a petition of over 1000 residents of Medford on this matter. A lot of those people spoke up at prior city board hearing meetings, as well as city council meetings. But as stated by Ms. Evans, the recommendation by the CD board to the city council on this specific node was not accepted and it was adjusted to MX2. And the mayor's asking for this board to reconsider by way of effectively presenting its prior recommendation back to the city council procedurally Under Mass General Law, Chapter 40A, Section 5, there are a variety of ways in which a zoning amendment may take place. And it is those ways that are listed in that statute identify how it gets referred. They get referred to the city council. One of the scenarios in which a referral can be made to the city council for a zoning change is for the It's quoted in the law as the planning board, but in the city of Medford, that has the effect of the community development board. Once it goes, if this body chooses to refer this proposal to the city council, then the city council would have to go through its procedures in order for a zoning amendment. So it would review and consider the matter. And then if it approved, it would refer it back to the CD board for a hearing. then the CD board would have a formal hearing in which it would have to go through all the required posting and notification processes. And then once the CD board formalized and finalized its decisions and made a recommendation to the city council, that would then go to the city council for further hearing, frankly. Again, all those are assuming that the proposal tracks with the avenue of making the change. The main reason the mayor is presenting this request to the CD board is because of the, well, frankly, the real reason, the reason specifically is the number of stories. MX1, as proposed by the CD board, had a maximum of four stories, but six stories is what MX2 would ultimately allow. So, with the additional height, there's a concern and there's been an expression by the mayor and members of the community that, you know, the Salem street quarter is frankly quite mature and. This is effectively attempting to right a wrong that exists, and the mayor wants to show the public that she is listening to the issues and concerns that have been presented by the public as to some of the zoning changes. And this particular one, I think, has risen to the very top. Thank you. Happy to answer any questions.
[Dina Caloggero]: So at this stage, this is Gina, at this stage, I as a member could make a motion to submit this amendment back to the city council. And that would be to change the MX2 subject district back to the MX1 sub district as proposed by the community development board that was rejected by the city council. Can I ask for a second?
[John Anderson]: I second that motion.
[Doug Carr]: I heard John Anderson say he seconded it.
[John Anderson]: Correct.
[Adam Behrens]: All right, I guess this might be where I step in and do roll call. So let me do roll call. John Anderson?
[John Anderson]: Yes.
[Adam Behrens]: Ari Guffman-Fishman? Tina Caliguero?
[John Anderson]: Yes.
[Adam Behrens]: Doug Carr? Yes. Sean Began? Yes. And myself, Adam Behrens. So the motion passes and the mayor's letter will be sent to the city council for consideration. And then just to underscore for members of the public, that will then come back to the community board where we'll have a public hearing and the public will be able to provide additional input. All right, now let me find my place in the long document here as my first time as acting chair. So let's see, we asked for a motion. And so now we will consider the bridal path subdivision. There was a tri-party agreement and release of covenant. I will ask Danielle to introduce this item specifically. And then we have Kathy Desmond present, the attorney for the applicant. And then Kathy will add anything that's worth noting for the community board, after which we will then take a vote as a board. Take it away, Danielle.
[Danielle Evans]: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, so as you recall, this board approved a subdivision, Bridal Path is what it's being called, off of Franklin Ave, or Franklin Street, rather, by the high school. And as part of the subdivision approval, a covenant was put in place. Attorney Desmond can explain this more artfully than I can, but there are, you know, there's... Oh, Danny went on mute. Have I been talking this whole time?
[Dina Caloggero]: Well, we heard most of it and then there was a pause. Oh, weird. Okay, I'm sorry. Where did I... You said that Ms. Jasmine could describe this in further detail.
[Danielle Evans]: Yes. There's currently a covenant in place and there's a menu of options that it's the applicant's choice of what kind of surety to have in place, whether it's a bond or a covenant, or in this case, a tripartite agreement. So Attorney Desmond is looking to have the covenant released and the tripartite agreement approved. And this has been reviewed and approved by legal counsel. So we don't have any issues with it. So it's sort of a kind of a perfunctory kind of board action at this time. So through the chair, we'll pass this Attorney Desmond, I think I need to unmute. There we go.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Good evening, Chairman Behrens and board members. Kathleen Desmond of 335 Main Street Stoneham. I'm here this evening with Ron Lopez of North Shore Residential Development. As Danielle mentioned, when we originally brought this project forward, we proposed a covenant to be recorded on the eight lots, the single family lots in the subdivision. The covenant indicated that the roadway would have to be constructed prior to the release of the lots. At that time, my client did not own the property. It was subject to a purchase and sale agreement. So there weren't other options in terms of what's permitted under Chapter 40 of Section 81U of the statute. So this was the only real option because to place a bond or a cash deposit at that stage where you don't own the property is a substantial financial risk and the tripartite agreement was not a possibility because there weren't loan proceeds to be held back. So at that time we indicated to the board that we would be coming back once my client acquired the property to substitute the covenant for the tripartite agreement. I think it's significant to mention too that at the the time of the hearing, the engineer, city engineer, uh, would have preferred a, uh, a whole back of $200,000. And this is actually $220,000. Um, so what we're seeking to do is substitute under chapter 40, section 81, you, uh, the tripartite agreement, which gives the city security in the amount of $220,000. There's an exhibit a attached, which, provides the client, the developer gets returned to him, um, in increments, uh, the amount that is being held based on a certificate of completion, uh, that has been approved by the city. So the city has essentially a hold back of the 220 until the road is completed. Um, this project has, has, um, has moved forward very quickly. Um, most of the utilities are in, it's anticipated that, um, that the utilities will be installed as of October. And the road, the binder on the cover on the road, will be hopefully in place in November in order to move this project along, because the project is required to be finished within two years. This allows the developer to multitask, essentially, to complete the road and also to start construction on the houses so that it can quickly move to completion of the subdivision development. It's anticipated that my client will be prepared to have certificates of occupancies for the dwellings, at least some of them, in the summer of 2026. So he's moving this project right along. I think it's also worthy to mention in terms of our efforts and our good faith in this project is that we have negotiated easements with uh, the 2 owners that are on Winthrop street behind the development so that their access to bridal path is protected. And also they have rights in terms of, of, uh, of maintenance of that, that roadway. So they'll be able to share in bridal path, the use of bridal path. And that's essentially, uh, yeah.
[Sean Beagan]: if there are any questions.
[Adam Behrens]: Thank you, Kathleen.
[Sean Beagan]: I had a question. Uh, if I may through the chair, is it the applicants understanding that the money's set out in exhibit a can only be released upon further approval by this board? Or is it some other city mechanism that you would be looking for?
[Kathleen Desmond]: Well, so that the statute, um, and there aren't regulations that that have been drafted that apply to this. It would be certainly nice if, upon a certificate being issued by the city of completion, by the city engineer, that it be permitted to be released by the department director, Director Hunt. But there isn't any specific authority in the regulations or the statute. I think the board could, if they sought to delegate responsibility to Director Hunt to do that. or to take those matters up without having to have an appearance once the certificate is presented, then the board can certainly authorize the release of the funds.
[Adam Behrens]: Great. I'll open it up for any other questions that board members might have. I would just like to add, I appreciate the work, Ms. Desmond, that your team has done. I think the community board sees many different proposals in front of it from developers and from folks. And so it's appreciated the speed at which you guys have acted and the cooperation with the city. So I guess if there are no other comments from the board, I believe we have to do this in two parts. The first is to ask for a motion to release the covenant. Oh, yes, Kathleen, sorry.
[Kathleen Desmond]: One other item. We have requested that the board give the director of planning and sustainability authority to sign the documents so that in terms of notarizing signatures, we only have to notarize one signature as opposed to collecting signatures and notarizations for each board member.
[Adam Behrens]: Okay, great. All right, so if there are no comments from the board, we'll do this in two parts. I think the first is a motion to release the covenant. And then after that motion, we'll do a motion on these specific tripartite agreement. So I'll ask for a motion to release the covenant.
[Sean Beagan]: I'd like to make a motion that we release the covenant.
[Adam Behrens]: Thanks, Sean. Is there a second?
[Sean Beagan]: I seconded.
[Adam Behrens]: Great. That would be John Anderson with the second. And so we'll now take a vote to release the covenant. John Anderson. Aye. Ari Goffman-Fishman. Dina Caliguero.
[Dina Caloggero]: Yes.
[Adam Behrens]: Doug Carr. Yes. Sean Began. Yes. And myself, Adam Behrens, yes. So the motion passes. So now we will do a second motion. And so the second motion is a motion to approve the triparty agreement and authorize Alicia to sign on behalf of the board. Is there a motion?
[Dina Caloggero]: I second the motion.
[Adam Behrens]: great. If I think the procedurally will do Dina, you can do a motion.
[Sean Beagan]: So Mr. Mr. Chair, before we vote, can we add onto that motion that the applicant is excused from appearing at any future board meeting in regards to the release of the funds and exhibit a unless specifically asked to attend?
[Adam Behrens]: I am good with that addition. So let me try to reword this. Is there a motion to approve the triparty agreement to authorize Alicia to sign on behalf of the board and to release the obligation of the applicant to appear back before the board? So is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Seconded. Great, so now I'll do a roll call vote. John Anderson?
[John Anderson]: Aye.
[Adam Behrens]: Ari Goffman-Fishman? Dina Caliguero?
[Dina Caloggero]: Yes.
[Adam Behrens]: Doug Carr? Yes. Sean Began?
[Sean Beagan]: Yes.
[Adam Behrens]: And myself, Adam Behrens, yes. The motion passes. And I see we have a question from Ms. Desmond.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Yes, I would ask the board to also allow or take a vote to allow the director to sign the release of covenant as well, because that needs to be signed by either the board or under the board's authorization.
[Adam Behrens]: Okay, yes, we can definitely do that. The previous motion authorized Alicia to sign the tri-party agreement on behalf of the board. So just to make sure that we have everything, every T crossed and I dotted, is there a motion to allow Alicia to sign the release of covenant on behalf of the board?
[Dina Caloggero]: So moved.
[Adam Behrens]: Is there a second?
[Dina Caloggero]: I second it.
[Adam Behrens]: All right, I'll take roll call. John Anderson.
[Dina Caloggero]: Aye.
[Adam Behrens]: Ari Goffman-Fishman. Dina Calagaro.
[Dina Caloggero]: Yes.
[Adam Behrens]: Doug Carr. Yes. Sean Began.
[Dina Caloggero]: Yes.
[Adam Behrens]: And myself, Adam Behrens. Yes. So the motion passes. And now we will move on to the third item on the agenda, which is the site plan review for a number 10 and number 20 Revere beach Parkway.
[John Anderson]: Mr. Chairman.
[Adam Behrens]: Yes, John.
[John Anderson]: Can I just apologize to the board and anyone who's tuned in for going dark here? I was having some trouble with my internet connection and I think it's going to work a lot better if I don't send my video.
[Adam Behrens]: So appreciate John, I think we've all we've all experienced that over the past few years was with with zoom. So, great for the site plan review. This is a new public hearing. And so I will read the public hearing notice for the record. The Community Development Board shall conduct a public hearing on September 17th, 2025, after 6 p.m. via Zoom, relative to an application by Transom Real Estate for site plan review to permit the construction of a new seven-story multifamily residential structure that would contain 248 units. The subject property is located in the Wellington Station Multifamily Overlay District. zoning district 10 and 20 Revere Beach Parkway in Medford, Massachusetts. Now, if there's any introductory comments that the staff would like to make, I'll provide room for the staff and then we'll pass it over to the applicants from TransOm. Yes, Danielle.
[Danielle Evans]: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I just wanted to, um, state that this Wellington station multifamily overlay district is our, um, compliant district under the MBTA communities act, um, which is section three a, um, where cities, cities and towns that are, um, served by the MBTA needed to create these multifamily districts where, A certain amount of units based on a formula are allowed by right so this project is coming in by right. But we do have the. The local authority to perform a site plan review so that is what is. before you all tonight. This is our first one. Um, we were a rapid transit community, so we had the shortest, um, deadline to comply and we got it done in time. Um, so that was exciting. So that must've been, was that 2023? I think December, 2023. It must've been. Yeah. So here we are in September of 2025 and this is our first test case. So, um, With that, Mr. Chair, you could pass this on to the applicant. I believe Attorney Moore is representing Transom Development.
[Adam Behrens]: Okay, terrific. And then just procedurally, I see we have a question from a board member, Doug.
[Alicia Hunt]: Mr. Chair, Peter Spellios, who's raised his hand, is actually the owner, so I think we would pass it to him.
[Adam Behrens]: Ah, OK. I will then pass it to Peter Spellios. And I guess this will be to Peter to give any comments. And then we'll pass it to Trans Am Real Estate to present the slides.
[Alicia Hunt]: If you want to take Doug's question first, you can.
[Adam Behrens]: Oh, OK. Sorry. I interpreted that as needing to supersede Doug. Doug, your question.
[Doug Carr]: Yes, Daniel, kind of a quick follow-up question. This gets us over the line for the amount of units that we need for the state. How much are we above that line right now with this project?
[Danielle Evans]: Oh, so there's two different, there's the subsidized housing inventory of having your 10% or making incremental progress. But then there was the zoning under MHCA communities, which required that you zone to allow so many units. And the state didn't actually care if they ever got built. You just had to zone that they would be possible. So that's what we did. We do currently have Safe Harbor through incremental production of units. I haven't crunched the numbers to see what would happen with the number percentage-wise with this project. Thank you.
[Adam Behrens]: OK, great. We'll then pass it to Peter and a chance on real estate. So let Peter, you go.
[Peter Spellios]: Good evening, everyone. I'm Peter Spellios with Transom Real Estate. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, thanks very much for taking the time tonight. We understand that we are the first 3A project coming for the city of Medford. So I just want to say 3 quick things before I turn it over to our team. 1st is the 3A has obviously garnered a lot of news about the both the need for the production of housing and also the change that makes it perceived anyways to be easier to be able to do housing developments. I do want to credit the City of Medford, this board and staff. You folks, when you did implement the 3A district and you did so on time, you did so with some very significant design standards and dimensional requirements to address concerns. So while we are before you on site plan, it's important to note that it's site plan that comes with a very long list of design guidelines and dimensional requirements. I'm pleased to say that our plan complies with those dimensional requirements and guidelines, and we're seeking no waivers in that regard. And that's really a credit to staff and to you all for putting forth something that was substantive, sophisticated, and that we were able to follow. Second, I just want to comment and credit City staff. City staff has been available to meet, to share comments, to share technical feedback about the proposal and has provided significant feedback for which the team has just this week received and submitted, end of last week, excuse me, received and then earlier this week submitted responses to those. Really helpful feedback. And, and last but certainly not least on my list is I just want to acknowledge the neighborhood. We are adjacent obviously in the corner of reach Parkway, middle sex, and then we're also adjacent to a private street nine street. For those tuned in City of Medford, I understand that Medford has a long history of private ways and challenges with private ways. There are many parties that have ownership interests in these adjacent private ways. I really appreciated the ability of the neighborhood to get together. and to meet and to talk about what we can collectively do to improve some of those private ways and to address long-standing concerns in those private ways. And so I do want to acknowledge three condo associations in very close proximity. We've met several times. We'll be continuing to meet really productive, really thoughtful conversations. And I think those conversations result in better projects and better neighborhoods. So with that, I would like to turn it over to Valerie Moore, our counsel, and she will take it from here. And I'm available tonight to answer any questions as they arise.
[Adam Behrens]: Thanks, Peter. We'll get you unmuted, Valerie, and hand it off to you.
[Valerie Moore]: Thank you so much. Good evening, members of the board. Could you allow Ryan Sprague to screen share so that he can put up our presentation? Thank you. I'm Valerie Moore. I'm an attorney from Nutter, McLennan and Fish. Those of you who've been on the board for a couple of months may recall that I was in front of you with respect to this site, seeking a couple of amendments to the Wellington Station Multifamily Overlay District just a few months ago. And we'll talk about how those facilitated compliance momentarily. So you'll see on your screen the CAPES building which is the current use of the site. This site is a gateway to Medford so we are really excited to be before you with a new vision for the site this evening. And we'll be showing you what that looks like in just a few minutes. I do want to acknowledge that we received a lot of thoughtful comments from city staff and departments. We submitted responses to those comments this morning. So I don't know if those have been shared with the board yet, but you should have them and they should be circulated to city staff. None of those comments required material changes to the site plan. So the site plan is the same as what was submitted to you for this project. Do you want to move to the next slide, please? So as Peter indicated, this project has been really carefully designed to comply with what was put forward in the Wellington Station Multifamily Overlay District. As you can see from the slide in front of you, the site, which is currently comprised of two lots, that's both the CAPU site that we showed a moment ago, as well as the Monroe, Muffler and Brake building site that is next to it. It's 1.877 acres. and the building has been designed to comply with all setbacks. Now, the site has frontage on two state-controlled roadways. The Department of Conservation and Recreation holds setback easements on those two state roadways, and so our maximum front yard setback Pursuant to the footnote that we had added to the dimensional table as part of the amendments to the Wellington station multifamily overlay district is set to coincide with those setbacks so that we're complying with both what the state requires as well as what's required by the zoning district. Additionally, with respect to the height, compliance is proposed through the bonuses that are outlined in the zoning overlay. And I'll get into those on the next slide. I'm not going to speak to each of these criteria specifically because they'll be addressed through the subsequent overview of the site plan. Do you want to move to the next slide? So we're taking advantage of two separate height bonus incentives. One of them is that the building is going to be designed to be LEED Platinum certifiable, and that entitles the development to two additional stories of height. And the other is we are providing some deeper affordability units. So 15% affordable units is what's required by the overall zoning ordinance for development of this size. Normally those units are required to be provided at 80% AMI. in order to qualify for that additional story of height, 20% of those 15% of the units are going to be provided at a deeper affordability level so that they will be affordable to persons earning 65% or below of the area median income. So that's how we propose to comply with the zoning bonuses for height. So with that, I am going to pass it over to our architect, D'Artagnan-Brown, who is going to give an overview of the rest of the project. So if you want to allow him to unmute, I believe he has his hand raised so you can find him.
[SPEAKER_06]: Wonderful. Can you guys hear me? Good evening. Thank you. Good evening, all. D'Artagnan from Embark. Excited to be here tonight. We have a great team with us. We look forward to running through our presentation and can certainly answer any questions. I'll kick it off by following where Valerie left. So as mentioned, 248 units. Within that, and through the density bonus, we are at 38 affordable units. We meet the lot coverage percentage Requisite parking for both bikes and vehicles. And then working with Transim and our landscape architects, Spencer from MDLA, we have a very robust amenity and public realm program we'll show you. Next slide, please. The site, as you may know it well, close to two acres, really nicely located as kind of a gateway into this neighborhood coming off of Middlesex and Revere Beach Parkway. You can see to the southeast, Tober Park, walking distance to Wellington Station. So quite an opportunity here to really design something, which we'll show you more tonight. As we move to the next slide, we're really walking around the site. The first is the view from the Fellsway intersection. You can see our site straddles both Middlesex to Revere Beach. As we go to the right, the existing view down Revere Beach, you'll notice a heavy tree line which will be remaining both with those setbacks and easements that Valerie mentioned and just the positioning of our site as well. And as we loop around down to 9th and then 9th and Middlesex, really rounding out the existing conditions. So quite a good opportunity here, really a blank canvas to do something special. Here we've worked with MDLA, which we'll jump in, but really look to kind of take the public realm and provide something meaningful here. So with that, Spencer, take it away.
[SPEAKER_31]: Thank you, Dr. Tanian. Spencer Beebe with MDLA. I'm the landscape architect on the project. So what we're looking at here is our landscape concept plan. I'd like to start along page north here on 9th Street. With the improvements that we are doing, we're increasing the existing sidewalk to five foot wide clear, as well as adding a buffer that gets up to about six and a half feet wide, which will be filled with shrubs and perennial plantings that will help kind of soften the facade on that north side. Moving page right, where we abut our neighboring condo, we have our five-foot wide egress pathway leading to 9th Street, as well as a substantial planting buffer of shrubs and perennials, as well as shade trees along that to buffer our building, as well as our tenants from the adjacent property. Moving page south along Revere Beach Parkway, D'Artagnan mentioned that we are leaving the existing trees, you know, outside of that, you know, inside the easement. We are leaving the existing curb cuts as they are today. We will be introducing permeable paving, as you can see in the textured paving running page left and right. This will be a one-way traffic flow as well, so improving that, you know, coming in and coming out. We've introduced parking space as well for the loading and unloading of moving trucks for the protected tenants. And due to the multifamily, they are dog friendly. They have a pet wash station inside. We've added a pet relief area where number eight is shown just outside of that exterior amenity space. Next slide. And then as we kind of move towards Middlesex Avenue, we'll zoom into the main entry here, you know, noting coming from the intersection, trying to keep, you know, the view to the main entry open that we'll kind of take a look at later as Ryan will talk about. You know, we've added in another vehicular access. So this will also be one way we'll have a drop off for Uber, drop off for food, deliveries. We've added in a few parking spaces for future tenants, you know quick drop us as well. Worth noting as well this is all permeable paving that you see here with the kind of brownish white paving in the vehicle area as well as the pedestrian, where we have our drop off. you kind of step out onto the pedestrian area, our paving pattern changes 90 degrees. And the reason for that is that we're kind of drawing everybody down to the main entry. And as we're kind of coming down about the halfway point where that number seven is, we've added a few exterior bike parking spaces, which will allow for six bikes outside. Additionally, there are a lot of bike parking spaces on interior of the building as well. continue to move south towards the main entry. We have our perennial plaza space that's filled with loose outdoor seating. It's framed by these low architectural seat walls with wood insets as well. The whole thing is really framed by very nice shrubs and perennials that not only soften the space on the inside from the intersection, but also soften the building a little bit and creates a very nice space for the tenants in the building. you'll see we have along Middlesex Avenue, we have some street trees spaced along. These will be ornamental. We do have utilities, overhead utilities there, so being mindful of that. And we do have a net gain of 15 trees throughout the whole property as well. Thank you. Hand it back to D'Artagnan.
[SPEAKER_06]: Thanks, Spencer. So as we move from here to the next slide, a couple Key things we've done is really look at shielding the parking within the footprint of the building. Coming off of Revere Beach, as mentioned, the curb cuts will remain in place, but redone from a materials perspective. We've aligned active program with building amenity. We have a second lobby here, pet spa, direct access, bike storage, bike workshop. That pulls you into the garage as we go around clockwise. As mentioned, off of Middlesex, we do have the main lobby here. There is a two-story really kind of grand space at the northwest corner, which we'll show you in rendering. But the idea is to pull tenants within the building. Within here, we have kind of the requisite setup between leasing office, mail, package room, gender-neutral bathrooms, utility space. kind of ringing the perimeter of the building. And as we pop into the garage itself, we've started to establish all of the back of house spaces needed to operate the building between trash, electrical room, et cetera. This level will house 125 of the total cars with, um, a couple of additional tandem and EB spots, which I'll talk about in a second. And as we pop up with an internal ramp to the next level, we have the balance of we have a total of 98 spaces here with 109 total with the tandem, and we are meeting the city's requirements around EVs. We have that requirement met both in spots provided day one and then also future proofing for EV-ready spaces as well, which will be a total of 50. Here is where we start to introduce the residential units. On this floor, we have 16 units that ring both Revere Beach and Middlesex. The amenity continues to that two-story space. And really, the goal is to take from here up. And then if we pop to the next floor, it will spill out onto the amenity courtyard, which MDLA has lusciously designed here. I think a couple key things to note, really, beyond the units in the breakout here is if you can see in the facade, in the footprint, we've really taken effort to work on deliberate kind of architectural camps in the lengths of the building to break up the massing, use it as an ability to really define the architecture. You'll see in renderings that really helps set up quite cool gateway views onto the site within both kind of on a hyper level around the building, but pulling back out. It allows us to transition material really nicely into the neighborhood. And so as we move up to the next floor, you can see that kind of continues. And then to note, which we'll show you in renderings on the northwest corner, we've pulled back a unit and really terminated the tenant experience at a outdoor roof deck and a lounge space here. In the next slide, Ryan, if you don't mind. More technical in nature, but just to let you know, we are working with both our mechanical and structural engineers to make sure not only do we get all of the required equipment for the heating and cooling, but we also are solar ready, both in terms of space layout and structural sizing for our joist members on the roof. And I think with that, in the next slide, I'm going to turn it over to Ryan, who will walk through the architectural narrative. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_07]: Great. Thank you, D'Artagnan. My name is Ryan Sprague. I'm with Embark. I'll take you through these next few slides that deal with kind of our conceptual design, our generative thinking, starting with this slide, which is really just illustrating that from the outset of our design process, we like to sort of research and understand kind of the context in which we're building. which includes sort of how the city is looking at the area in which we're proposing our building. So through our research and going through Medford's comprehensive plan, we sort of began to understand that this area is really seen as a gateway node, an area where people are arriving to the city, an area where people are Sorry, sorry, an area that that presents an opportunity to sort of announce welcome and reflect and reinforce the identity of Medford on the right is a plan that just sort of illustrates land uses in the area in our immediate vicinity. And I think the real takeaway from us for us from this diagram is really the. that our site is kind of negotiating this transition in scale and density. So to the south, sort of these larger scale, higher density projects, and then transitioning to the north into sort of a lower scale, lower density neighborhood. And these are just some takeaways that started to inform kind of our design process and our conceptual thinking. This is a massing strategy and material strategy that just reflects our acknowledgment of those conditions. So one of those being this transition of scale from south to north and how that's reflected in our massing. So a larger sort of expression along Revere Beach Parkway that then transitions and breaks down in scale as you move north along Middlesex Ave. And then this material just sort of steps back up as you move east along 9th Street in an appropriate way that sort of reflects the scale of these other multifamily buildings. With that stepping reveals kind of a warmer material that we're using along these exterior facades to just kind of warm and soften the exterior. This secondary material that we're using is an acknowledgment of that idea of gateway that I was mentioning. These larger expressions along gestural movements along Middlesex and Revere Beach Parkway that reach out to Everett and Somerville to the south at these corners where people are arriving to this intersection. I move to the next slide starts our elevations that start to sort of illustrate how this is sort of panning out in greater detail. So, I'm starting at the bottom with our Revere Beach Parkway elevation. You can see the sort of the, the 5 story expression of our material a, which we're thinking of as corrugated metal at the moment. that then, as you turn the corner along Middlesex Ave, starts to break down and scale into a four-story expression. This is also where you enter the building, our main lobby, which is sort of this grander two-story expression, atop which sits this gateway, sort of that gestural sort of movement that I was referring to down Middlesex Ave over the bridge towards Somerville. Then the next slide is our remaining two elevations. It'll come up. There it is. Starting on the bottom of the 9th Street elevation where we do have that two-story expression of parking garage, which I'll show you in the following slides, how we're proposing to soften that expression, understanding that it is a narrower corridor and sort of a pedestrian area, how we're really trying to sort of acknowledge that and soften the expression there. And then turning the corner, this upper elevation is a continuation of that garage expression that then terminates along Revere Beach Parkway with that secondary kind of gestural gateway expression. This is our streets or the intersection street view of the proposed building. Here you can really see how that scale is transitioning from larger scale down to smaller scale. These elegant inflection points that D'Artagnan was mentioning, I think you can really see here, they start to accentuate that gestural movement that I was referring to with the gateway and the reaching out down these main corridors. the presence of our two-story lobby expression that I had mentioned and this plaza that's really well planted that Spencer was alluding to. This is really an opportunity we feel like to celebrate this historic or the heritage of Medford in celebrating the brick material, understanding that that is part of the history of Medford as brickmakers. Then turning the corner, this is along Ninth Street, just to show that two-story garage expression that we're really taking care to soften with our screening as well as our landscaping plans. And then lastly, a reverse angle from Revere Beach Parkway along that sidewalk, just helping to illustrate how far we're set back from the street and the sidewalk and the maintenance of that nice green space and street trees. And with that, I believe I will turn it over to Samira.
[SPEAKER_06]: You may need to unmute her.
[SPEAKER_01]: My name is Samira Ahmadi. I am at the Energy Studio, and we're providing energy and sustainability consulting for the project. We are incorporating integrative design process for our project, and our sustainability approach focuses on not only the operational carbon, but we're also going to pay attention to embodied carbon of the materials that are going to be selected, and keeping in mind residency as well as the sustainable material selection. Um, our project is subject to the opt in a specialist code and therefore is going to be passive house certified following the fierce core 2024 performance pathway. For the all primary services, heating, cooling and domestic hot water. The project is going to be all electric. The only areas that the fossil fuel will be used is going to be for exterior grills as well as the fire pits. As Valerie noted earlier, the project is going to be lead platinum certifiable. We are going to participate in a massive incentives program, and we are going to register the project as one of the core requisite of the passive house. Our project is also going to be Energy Star multifamily certified, and therefore, all the guidelines is going to be incorporated. And also, as Embark team noted, the project is going to incorporate solar ready requirements, and they have shown the PV zone areas on the roof And electrical interconnection pathway to this zone is also included in the design.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think at this stage, we're going to turn it over to Rebecca. She may be muted. Her hand is raised.
[SPEAKER_24]: Thank you. Great. Can you hear me okay now? Yes. Excellent. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Rebecca Brown. I'm from Greenman Peterson and we're the traffic consultants on this project. We have put together a traffic impact assessment for the proposed development. We did go out and actually count all of the existing driveways to the Cappy's Liquor and the Monroe Auto Service. You can see here on the diagram in the middle column shows what the existing site is currently generating for traffic. And then we also estimated how much traffic would be generated by the proposed residential development based on standard trip generation rates published from the Institute of Transportation Engineers. And what it does show is that for all time periods, with the exception of the weekday morning peak hour, the proposed development is actually going to be a reduction in vehicle trips as compared to the existing uses on the site. We are also proposing a robust transportation demand management program to help further reduce the traffic that would be generated by the development. That includes the site being located within a half mile of the Wellington station. for access to rapid rail transit and commuter rail services. We're also proposing to reconstruct and complete the sidewalk network around the site so that there would be a continuous connection to sidewalks in the surrounding area. We are proposing to have 248 bicycle storage parking spaces within the building itself, so there would be at least one bicycle parking space. for every unit within the building. We've also proposed a dedicated ride share and delivery drop off area at the front of the building with parking for those ride share and delivery services. We will have work from home. spaces and co-working spaces within the building, as well as pet spas and over 8,500 square feet of additional amenity space to include things like gyms, lounges, rental spaces to reduce the need for residents to have to travel off of the site. We have taken a look at the safety and access of the site as well. Access to the site is going to be provided, as was previously noted, via an entrance-only driveway and an exit-only driveway onto Revere Beach Parkway, which would both be limited to right-in and right-out only. Movements and then a full access in egress driveway out onto 9th street to access into the residential parking garage. then there would be an entrance-only driveway and an egress-only driveway over on Middlesex Avenue for that drop-off and pick-up loop, which would also be used for the rideshare and delivery services. And we have evaluated the sightlines at all of those driveways, and all of them do exceed AASHTO's recommendations for safe sightlines. And lastly, we did look at the existing collision patterns around all of the streets surrounding the site, and all of them had crash rates lower than statewide and district-wide average, indicating that there's no significant crash occurrence on any of the streets surrounding the site. So overall, we do feel that this site can accommodate the traffic that would be generated by the development in a safe and efficient manner. And with that, I believe I'll turn it back over to Valerie.
[Valerie Moore]: And not me, I believe our civil engineer is taking over at this point. Just Matt Costa, if he's on.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yes, good afternoon. Matthew Costa with Beals Associates. Just talk to this slide here. So we just the team now analyze the walk shed obviously with Wellington station nearby so. Walk score transit score with the close proximity of the building to Wellington station. It's a great opportunity to support walking paths and bike routes. It's about a. a quarter mile walk, five to 10 minute walk to Wellington station and the bike path, similar route to that can be a little bit faster. And that's shown there with that orange line that you can see to Wellington station. You can go to the next slide. Sorry, Matthew. There it is. Great. So this is just the overall site plan again. Just want to speak to kind of the curb cuts and kind of the permitting behind that. So as others have mentioned, Revere Beach Parkway is under MassDOT jurisdiction. There are two existing curb cuts on Revere Beach Parkway at the bottom of your screen. They are two-way. As of now, we are proposing to change those to a one-way, help to alleviate traffic and just a better circulation for tenants to enter and exit the building, including the interior parking spaces. On Middlesex, on the left side of your screen, there's a short section of curb cut that we'll be closing. There's an existing curb cut that's shared between the Cappy site and the barbershop and tattoo parlor, so we'll be closing about 18 feet of that. That'll help to improve traffic conditions and congestion at that intersection. And then we'll be opening two new curb cuts on Middlesex, which will be one-way curb cuts 24 feet wide that are being highlighted there, as it was discussed before. So again, helping to kind of alleviate traffic and overall better circulation. Up on 9th Street is a very large curb cut, about 63 feet wide, and it's right at an intersection with a stop sign and a light By moving that curb cut down onto Middlesex, closing that on 9th Street, that's really going to help to alleviate any traffic concerns and help to improve circulation of people getting out onto 9th Street and into that intersection where they're not blocking that intersection. And then there will be a two-way exit outside of the building on 9th Street to the kind of the top right corner. They'll be closing about 30 feet of an existing curb cut, shifting that over just slightly, it'd be a 24 foot wide curb cut there for vehicles to exit the building. And we're also proposing, just due to the condition of 9th Street, especially along our property's frontage, we're working with the property owners along 9th Street to mill and overlay that section of roadway. We'd also do new stop sign and crosswalk striping at the intersection of 9th and Middlesex. So we will be working with MassDOT for both Revere Beach Parkway and Middlesex as well as DCR for their approvals of these curb cuts and all of that is ongoing. We've also met with city staff prior to our application being submitted, including the highway department and the city engineer to talk through this site plan, the circulation, Um, and we got a lot of good feedback from them and have been working, um, have addressed their comments and are working to address their comments as well as, um, comments made by, um, the others out there. Go to the next slide. So grading and drainage on the site, everything is going to be kind of graded interior. We'll be capturing stormwater through a number of LID measures. We'll be using subsurface infiltration systems as well as water quality in the form of the permeable pavers that were mentioned before at the bottom of the screen on the left side. those permeable pavers will capture and treat that water before introducing it back into the groundwater, something that's not happening right now. So overall, this will be a great improvement to ground water recharge. And then interior to the building is going to be that subsurface infiltration system, chambered tanks that will capture roof runoff as well as any overflow. put it back into the ground, increase groundwater recharge. We're capturing about an inch of runoff on all impervious surfaces. And then to the impervious surface, we're actually reducing impervious surface on the property by about 6,000 square feet. So overall runoff on the site, we're actually going to be reducing in the range from about zero to three cubic feet per second. So reducing how much is going off to the abutters, going off to the streets. and then obviously improved water quality. So we're getting 90% TSS removal, total suspended solid removal through this stormwater management system and about 60% of phosphorus removal as well. The development will also have an operation and maintenance plan for the maintenance of the stormwater system and overall site maintenance. And then, you know, obviously the stormwater design has been has been designed and designed to comply with both local and state regulations. There will be overflows that connect into the municipal system, but as I mentioned, it's an overall reduction in runoff and flow from the site. So we've also, as I mentioned, we met with the city engineer. We've talked through this. We do have an application for a stormwater permit to the city that's being reviewed right now. Go to the next slide. Uh, just quickly on the utilities, um, all new utilities across the property on the utility services, we will be tapping into the existing mains that run along the property. Uh, what we've shown in blue, the light blue is the existing water mains, uh, you know, wrap around nine street, middle sex and Revere beach parkway. We'll have a new domestic service out to nine street, new, uh, fire protection service. hydrants that are also added, and then a backup fire service connection onto Middlesex. Gas service is a new connection underground, obviously, with a gas meter along the side of the wall. And we'll have a new sanitary sewer service that connects to the existing main that runs down Middlesex, Fells Parkway. For electric and telecommunications, that'll be an underground duct bank that runs along the eastern side, which is that purple line on the right side of the screen. I'll be a couple or two or three transformers along Revere Beach Parkway that is all screened by a impermeable fence. Then I'll run Duck Bank Underground all the way out to 9th Street where it'll connect through a riser to an existing utility pole out in the street right there. This is all included in our site plan review package. We have reviewed it with the city engineer, and I believe we're all set with these utility connections. I believe that is our last slide, so I'd be happy to open it up to town, city comments or any public comments or whatever your next step is. I appreciate your time today.
[Adam Behrens]: Thank you, Matt. We appreciate the presentation as well. Just for procedural matter, just for visibility for the public, we will open it up to the board for questions and comments to the applicants. Then we will open it for public comment. And then we will have board discussion after the public comment. So I will open it up for the board for any questions. I see Doug has his hand raised.
[Doug Carr]: Yes, thank you to the chair. First of all, I want to compliment the design overall. I think it's a really thoughtful design. I think it's very well organized, and I think the aesthetics are pretty strong. I think the organization is good. Obviously, the design of the building, I think, would be very different had the corner lot that's obviously not part of this project been available. But I think you've made a lot of good moves here that will allow some interest with the light coming into the courtyard, activating that space, connecting it to the larger park across the street. So there's a lot of good moves here. I do have a few questions. If you could put up the elevation facing Revere Beach Parkway, I'd like to see that slide again.
[SPEAKER_06]: Certainly. Thank you, Doug. I think Ryan's going to flip to that.
[Doug Carr]: Sure. I think my concern is the blank CMU wall that is behind the building. You can't see it obviously on this perspective because the white box is there. But if you go to the slide before this one, I think, yes, it's that lower left blank wall. Sorry.
[SPEAKER_06]: Elevator. Right. You're on mute. Yeah, it's yeah.
[SPEAKER_07]: Large document, a little bit of a delay.
[Doug Carr]: So I know that why it was done, but I think it is my sincere hope. that the building in that corner may not be here in 10 or 15 years. And I feel like that blank wall will not be well served if that building is gone. I feel like there's many spaces behind there. There's, I believe, a leasing office behind there. I figure there's an opportunity there, if not to put windows, at least articulation Like, it's not something left behind. I feel like that would be an important piece. You could look at so that someday, you know, when that if that building is gone, if that turns into a. a park or whatever, a green space. There is a proposal from MassDOT to have a pedestrian bridge across Route 16, and that would land pretty much almost not exactly where that building is. So there are possibilities here, and I feel like that's an opportunity to articulate that in the hopes that someday that wall will be more visible. That's one comment just there. The second comment I have, it's a big one. This is a kind of a strange one. I'm going to put it out there anyway. You've parked far more cars in this design than you need to per zoning. You're not the maximum, but you're nowhere near the minimum as well. And I'd like to understand that better, why that is, if someone could address that. Maybe Peter? Go ahead, Peter, sorry, you're unmuted.
[Peter Spellios]: That's all right, Doug. Thanks very much for the question. Thoughtful comments, and the first one, let me just talk about that CMU wall. We agree, we don't know, and we don't control what the future is of that corner building. Our understanding is that the existing tenant might be in a state of flux, but we have actually met with the existing user, who I understand has been there for 17 plus years. to actually engage, frankly, their artistic creative side. And we've actually had a conversation with the existing tenant to have his team work with us on making that wall really into a piece of public art. something more exciting, something more vibrant. Obviously, we'll continue working on that, but we agree with you, whether it's in collaboration with the existing tenant and use that's there, since it's really fronting also their use, or a future user or whomever, we 100% agree with you that that wall can be brought to life in a more interesting way. And so we've started that, but we don't have a conclusion to that conversation yet.
[Doug Carr]: Appreciate that. Thank you. What about the parking question?
[Peter Spellios]: Parking is a really interesting question. So, look, you're talking to a firm that historically, if you go through the annals of our history of development, you'll see that we actually never over park. As a matter of fact, most of our projects are very limited parking because of the proximity to public transportation. Here we carefully studied the adjacencies, we carefully studied all the existing housing supply, more specifically the housing supply that's been built in the last 10 to 15 years in the area to look at what their parking ratios were and what their, more importantly, what their utilization rates are. And it led us to be close to a one-to-one, to be comfortable, to make sure that we had ample parking. But secondarily to that, and something that frankly became more reinforced as I began conversations with the neighbors, is the neighbors, understandably, especially on the 9th Street side, there's existing parking on that private way. But frankly, they don't want more parking on that adjacent private way. And I agree with them and our team agrees with it. So it was important to us to be able to, as we met with them, to be able to talk about the fact that we had ample, that we weren't going to displace existing on-street parking with new parking by residents in this building, so that was a real careful consideration. And ancillary to that, but not less important, I would say is that just this week we met with some of our 9th Street neighbors, and they talked again about snow. And we all know in small side streets, snow and snow storms, if we ever have them again, are major inconveniences and really create some traffic headaches. And the ask was put to us whether or not we would be willing to allow neighbors during snow storms and other events To the extent there was excess parking in the garage to use that so that they wouldn't have to drive into other areas, commercial parking areas across etc to to get off street. So hear you on that. We, I can't it's, it's, it's. science and art combined, we feel comfortable with the number and especially feel comfortable with the number of the adjacency on 9th Street and our neighbors, which I think you folks know this is three of our neighbors are, I think, cumulatively 6,600 condominiums. So it's three significant sized condominiums. So there is quite a density in the neighborhood. So we feel it's important to the neighborhood as well.
[Doug Carr]: Let me follow up with that, Peter, that I'd like to see the metrics for those surrounding properties. My firm has designed several buildings within walking distance of Wellington T Station. In my experience, and they're older than yours, than some of the ones around here, but they're all over parked. They were designed for a certain number and some of them have 50 or 75 empty spaces in the garage right now, because Medford zoning back in the day was much more traditional. And I'm not saying 1.0 is wrong, but it is for something that is a 10 minute walk door to door. to a major transit station, not a bus station, but an Orange Line station, it feels high to me. And you know better than anyone that every parking space you build, it costs, what, $35,000 more? Structured parking. I mean, I could see in a different environment, you could take out an entire floor of parking and this building would still function in my head. Now that may not be what you want to do, but that is what a lot of communities are doing.
[Peter Spellios]: Yeah, Doug, I appreciate it. So let us, we will, I've written down, we'll follow up with that data so that you folks have it. We really have been talking with the property adjacency, property management teams, who are the ones that really deal with the daily utilization. So we'll follow up with that information. And you're correct. Look, parking is a is a cost, right? It's not a revenue source. And the money that a tenant pays for parking does not nearly cover the expense of parking. And as you full know, because you're so experienced in this, parking is a significant cost. And if we can comfortably do less and feel as though we're meeting the needs of the project and our neighborhood, we certainly look for those opportunities. So we'll definitely follow up on that point.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, I respect the neighbors, obviously their desire for that. I appreciate that a lot. I just think there's a study by the MAPC that did 200 properties in greater Boston outside the city, and they were on average over parked by 30%. And I just want this to be looked at closely. I want this building to work. There are compromises, I think. So I do appreciate your wanting to look at that. That's all my questions. Thank you.
[Adam Behrens]: All right, thanks, Doug. I will now call on Dina. I think she's got her hand raised.
[Dina Caloggero]: Yeah, I want to thank you for a very thoughtful design. And I think it really takes into consideration a lot of the community needs and concerns. One of the things I was looking at in particular was there was a traffic study done between the Cappies traffic and what this type of traffic is going to be. And it's a little apples and oranges, because Cappies, you went in, and you bought something, and then you left. But these are residential, right? So I see that you put in walk sheds and walkways to Wellington Station. And I think that's a wonderful idea. I remember walking in that area and having to go walk down the hill to get to the train station. So that's great, and that will assist in many of the safety concerns as residents from the facility travel from their homes into the transit. But what about residents that would travel to, let's say, the station landing, which has multiple restaurants and has stores, and also the Wellington Plaza area? I think you're going to see an increase in foot traffic to the facilities rather than to the building and to the Wellington area, as well as Wellington Plaza, Stop and Shop, Aldi's. There's all those types of stores that are there. So if I lived there, I would see myself walking to those. And I know the area is notorious, for instance, with pedestrian traffic. So what are the considerations that were that are taking place or being considered to prevent pedestrian accidents, let's say. Thank you.
[Peter Spellios]: Ryan, would you, Dina, thanks very much for that. Ryan, do you mind just going to the site plan? Because I think that's going to be a helpful tool to navigate this. And again, I'm very careful not to take credit for good ideas of the design team. We're fortunate to have a team that is thinking about things that perhaps I may not be thinking about here. I think the slides are a little slow getting to the site plan, but a couple of things that we did here. So, 1st of all, obviously, the jurisdiction of and obviously, the ability for the city of Medford and us to decide to do some upgrades here is obviously inhibited by making sure that they're comfortable with them. There was a reconfiguration of this intersection a number of years ago to make some improvements. In terms of our project, in terms of things that we were looking at are the follows. You'll notice that there's two lobbies. There's one facing a Middlesex and there's a smaller lobby faced on the rear beach parkway. That was done, frankly, just to acknowledge human behavior and to frankly promote the behavior of the pedestrian behavior. Right. So we make sure that when people are coming from Wellington Station, they are safely Um, finding their way, they will, they will have crossed reach Parkway well up towards the station, the overpass, and they'll have made that connection there. But instead of having them walk around our building, we're, we're getting them into the building as quickly as possible. Secondarily, you know. We think the removal of the curb cut on the existing curb cut on 9th Street, which is in close, very close proximity to Middlesex, it would never have gotten approved in today's standards. By eliminating that curb cut, I think we are removing what has been a contributor. There still are existing issues and there will be continuing issues, but a contributor to traffic concerns. Um, there, um, thirdly, we really separated, um, our vehicular trips. We've separated those of residents who are coming and going, and we've done so, I think, um, thoughtfully, both on the rear parkway, excuse me, and on 9th. But probably most importantly, is kind of the evolution of design over the last decade. Two things that didn't exist a decade ago that exist now in buildings is making sure you're addressing the drop-off area, the reality of Lyft and Uber. For some people, it's still a novelty, but for the younger generations, it is a fact of life. point earlier, one of the reasons less parking may be needed is because there's increased reliance on ride shares. And so we have that exclusively off of Middlesex. And so we don't mix the resident traffic, if you will, with the ride share traffic, and that can be voluminous. And so we've created a dedicated space for that. That space is also available for Amazon. That's the second thing that is in existence in buildings now that didn't exist 10 years ago. And I'm sure Doug can attribute really large package rooms to accommodate the inordinate amount of drop-offs there. So there's these. small but I think important interventions to make sure that we are segregating kind of the activity appropriately here. And then last but not least, making sure that our entryways are lined up and we're facilitating access to the safe crossing points on Middlesex, the safe crossing points on Revere Beach Parkway. We will say and we wouldn't say otherwise. Crossing Revere Beach Parkway takes time, it takes patience, and so I don't want to diminish the importance of it, but it's certainly, we agree with you that it's an amenity for the neighbourhood, so we're going to want to promote that use, and I think people, frankly, that are going to come live here are going to want the pedestrian environment as one of the reasons that they are moving here.
[Dina Caloggero]: Thank you.
[Peter Spellios]: Thanks, Peter.
[Adam Behrens]: I actually had a similar question, but I do feel like I would like to underscore at that point. I think I've lived in many cities. This intersection in particular is probably the most egregious anxiety and producing intersection I've ever encountered. I realize the difficulty with the state ownership, but I do think if Medford is going to push density in the area, it seriously needs to consider how to make this pedestrian friendly. I think to Dina's point, if I lived in this building, I would want to just walk over to station landing. I would actually probably drive instead of walk because I just feel so unsafe with this intersection. I appreciate the consideration and I understand the constraints that, you know, one building cannot sort of solve the broader transit problem.
[Peter Spellios]: Mr. Chair, if I can, I just want to and you folks probably know this better than I just to remind people that there is a plan out there that has been out there for a bit now, and I don't believe there's funding in place for a pedestrian kind of bridge to try and address some of the significance that was put forth. I think by MassDOT, I believe Danielle and Alicia might be able to shed a little bit more color. I apologize. I just don't have it in front of me here, but I do know that there is a plan, but I'm not aware that there's any funding in place or realistic timeline for it. Thank you.
[Adam Behrens]: I see one remaining question from the board. So I will open it up for John to provide any comments or questions, or I guess also Sean. So there's two other board members.
[John Anderson]: Thank you. I have a question about the affordable housing component. I understand if I understand you correctly, there'd be 38 affordable units. And of those eight would be the, um, deeply affordable. Is that correct?
[Peter Spellios]: That is, that is correct. As part of the height density, um, 20% of the 15% affordable. So 20% of the 38 will be at the lower AMI levels of 65%. Okay. Now how will those be distributed? I mean, you have mostly,
[John Anderson]: one bedroom and studios and a much smaller number of two bedrooms and three bedrooms, will, for example, one or two of those multiple bedroom units be affordable or deeply affordable?
[Peter Spellios]: Great question. I will admit I haven't gone through the process with the City of Medford, but I assume City of Medford goes through the lip process. And it works with the state, but whether it's local or with the state, there's a careful review by the public stakeholders to make sure that the allocation of affordable units are evenly distributed, both geographically, meaning across the building and different floors, different parts of the buildings. And in unit types to make sure that the affordable units aren't all put into dark corners in small units, for example. So if we have 30% one bedroom units, 30% of the affordable units would be one bedroom units as close as possible. we will have to submit to the city and as the state, if they do the lip process, a proposal as to what units would be designated as affordable. And what they look for is really equity, making sure that we evenly distributed throughout the building, high, low, different types of units and unit types. So I have every reason to believe that would include the lower affordable, or sorry, the more affordable units versus the standard affordable units.
[Valerie Moore]: And I'll just add that in order to comply with your zoning bylaw, it in fact expressly requires that the affordable units be evenly distributed throughout the building and that they be provided with the same finishes that are provided in the market rate units. So they will ultimately effectively be indistinguishable from the market rate units, unless they happen to review the contracts with the city.
[John Anderson]: And the local, the Medford state public stakeholder in this process would be which group, which board, which individual. I mean, who would be reviewing this plan locally?
[Peter Spellios]: To Valerie, maybe Danielle, or to Alicia, I just haven't gone through it with the city of Medford. Different cities use the state for it, but Medford may have its own process for reviewing these.
[Adam Behrens]: I'll call on Danielle, who probably has thoughts or understanding of the process.
[Danielle Evans]: Yes, so we do get these on the subsidized housing inventory, which involves going through the local initiative program to have these units listed as local action units, meaning that they weren't produced by a 40B comprehensive permit or some other subsidized program or agency. So the housing planner will look at the initial Placement of the units to make sure they are evenly distributed and that also it's the same ratio of the bedrooms. You know, oftentimes we'll ask them to move some of the units to get a better distribution. I should add that. Generally, they're floating units meeting, so they start off. All distributed, but with turnover. They could move because you have to have all of those units. occupied by eligible tenants. And there are provisions where if they go over income, that you don't kick them out of the unit. They can stay there. It just reverts to market rate, at which point another available comparable unit needs to be designated as one of the inclusionary units. So we do monitor all of our You know, rental developments that have inclusionary units to kind of make sure that things aren't migrating to, you know, less desirable corners of building are all being kind of clustered. So that is something that we do yearly. So. But I guess my question is for the applicant, did you intended for these to be floating not fixed?
[Peter Spellios]: Right? Yeah, so we've done it both ways. And cities tend to have a preference of how to do it. So the floating makes sense to us. It doesn't change for us, since all the finishes are the same in the units and et cetera. It doesn't really change any reality for the utilization of the building. So we're happy to do what the city's comfortable with.
[John Anderson]: Sounds like quite a process. Now, in terms of, for example, the three bedrooms, do you usually round up? I mean, by the time you take 15% and then the percentage of them that's super affordable, you're going to wind up with less than one. Right?
[Valerie Moore]: The bylaw does require us to round up for a fractional.
[John Anderson]: OK. OK. I want to go on to parking and traffic, if I may. I appreciate that you've looked at other condominiums in the area to determine your parking needs because for reasons that people have talked about, you can imagine that a number of people live in those buildings for whatever reason don't want to walk over the orange line. That leads me to believe that a large number of the people who live in those other condos use their cars to drive to work. What I'm wondering is, with the 247 parking spaces, even let's say only 220 of them were used, if your calculations are correct, for your morning traffic, you're showing how many departures? Was it 50 or 75?
[Peter Spellios]: I'm going to defer, if okay, to you. I defer to Rebecca Brown, who's our traffic consultant. Okay. I don't want to misstate anything. Oh, sure. I appreciate that.
[SPEAKER_24]: So, we did not take a look at other parking facilities that are in the surrounding area, but what we did do was we looked at or Institute of transportation engineers what their parking demand generation rates were for. residential developments that are located in close proximity to rapid rail services. What they estimated was that the peak parking demand would be about 197 parking spaces. ITE recommends that your parking demand during the peak time not exceed 90 percent of your parking supply. And the reason for that is to avoid illegal parking or excessive recirculation of vehicles looking for those empty parking spaces within a lot. So what ITE would recommend that we have is essentially 219 parking spaces. So the 247 that are proposed does meet that recommendation from ITE. Then to go along with what Peter had said earlier, it does provide some additional parking to ensure that if people have visitors, there's parking available for them. They're not parking out on the street and taking up that valuable parking that is used along Ninth Street by many of the neighbors, as well as for some of that snow parking. um, that can be used by the area residents when they need to get off the streets, uh, during snowstorms.
[John Anderson]: Okay. That makes a lot of sense. I'm trying to figure out how that meshes with the predicted number of, uh, rush hour, early morning rush hour departures, which you use to, to, uh, estimate the impact on traffic in the area. Do you understand my question?
[Adam Behrens]: Yeah, John, did you have, or maybe TransOM can provide the slide, but I believe there was a quoted number of people leaving.
[John Anderson]: Yeah, I think it was 50, maybe it was 75.
[Peter Spellios]: I think Rebecca, I think Rebecca inadvertently muted herself again, so she just needs permission to unmute.
[SPEAKER_24]: Yep, sorry, I was muted again. I'll make sure I don't mute myself again, so that way that won't keep happening. Yes, so if you want to go to, it's slide number 25. in our slide deck shows what the projected morning and afternoon trips are. So in the morning, we are anticipating about 50 trips that would be exiting. And that's really just during the peak one-hour time period. Now obviously, not everyone leaves within a one-hour time period. The morning peak generally ranges from about six o'clock in the morning till nine o'clock in the morning, at which point people will come and go throughout. Then there's some people that don't work your typical eight to five jobs that will be living here, so they won't leave during that morning time period. The numbers that we're showing here are pretty consistent with what you would anticipate, but based on the parking demand.
[John Anderson]: Okay. One other question or perhaps an observation. I noticed the entrance and exit onto Revere Beach Parkway. It's a right-hand turn from that rightmost lane as you head towards the turn for Middlesex Avenue. And I use that lane a lot myself because sometimes I'm coming, I'm headed west and I usually go up either Middlesex or the Fellsway there. And people tend to zip along in that right lane because when the traffic gets backed up for the straight ahead, oftentimes that lane is quite open and people zoop along there. And I'm wondering if we should have any concerns about, you know, once a minute, somebody is trying to pull out of the site. Sure.
[SPEAKER_24]: Yeah, and that won't be the only egress point for people. So we expect people who want to head out towards the Fellsway and Middlesex Avenue to the north, they may very well likely come out that driveway. Some people who want to head kind of straight through to the west on Revere Beach Parkway will likely come out that driveway. But for those people who want to be taking the left, Those people are probably more likely to come out onto 9th Street and make the loop around to Brainerd Avenue and back at Revere Beach Parkway so that they can come out and join sort of at the back of the queue to get across all of those lanes to be able to take that left-hand turn. Otherwise, it's a little bit more difficult. several lanes that they're trying to cross plus that, as you described it, that zip lane or that channelized right turn lane that heads towards Middlesex Avenue and Fells Way.
[John Anderson]: Okay. Now, how did the 9th Street residents feel about this?
[Peter Spellios]: So I think that's a good question for the 9th Street residents probably to answer and I think several of them are here tonight that I've begun conversations with. But let me kind of share how I feel about it based on the conversations with our design team, but really with the conversations with the 9th Street residents. Look, they've had a long simmering issue with, not because of this property, just because of 9th Street being a pass-through street a few years ago. Thanks. And again, I'm sharing information that the neighbors have shared with me. A few years ago, coming off of Revere Beach Parkway, MassDOT did a right-hand turn lane onto Brainerd Avenue. I don't know if we have a slide that shows that better, but Ryan, perhaps we do a right hand turn on to Brainerd Avenue. And what that would do is allow people to that wanted to take a right hand turn at the intersection to avoid the intersection altogether avoid traffic altogether. and go on Brainerd Avenue and then left onto 9th Street. So it's a real pass-through. That problem exists today and exacerbates. In the morning, traffic is backed up. So it's a significant concern, and it's a narrow street. So in our conversations internally, we feel as though we need to balance the access and egress from the site. And one, for the reasons that you just articulated, Revere Beach Parkway alone isn't the right site to put 100% of that. And so I think that it's really important to have the multiple access points to the garage. Secondarily, we really think it's important to separate The ride share into delivery vehicles, just because of the chaos. I think we all intuitively know if we haven't experienced ourselves happens in that situation. The last thing I'll say is we're. We're, we're, we're now a stakeholder in the conversation about ninth street as as one of the butters and one of the, you know, many owners of ninth street, it being a private way and so I hope and again I want to give space for the neighbors to really express their concerns, their ideas, but we're in the midst of a conversation which is complicated because there's lots of different owners, if you will, of 9th Street about things we can do that are traffic calming measures that will deter that pass-through from Brainerd and 9th Street, that will slow traffic, make it more inconvenient such that people aren't going to want to take that turn. And secondarily, they're asking us to consider things like not allowing our tenants and guests to park on 9th Street. to allow snow parking in the garage. And frankly, to contribute to these traffic common things that we're talking about here. And I feel like every one of those things that they're asking of us are really fair and reasonable things. As a major property owner in the neighborhood, things that we should continue the conversations, we're going to continue that conversation. It's complicated just because there's so many parties involved. And so, therefore, we need to make sure we're including all the parties in that conversation. Um, but I think we've had a productive start. Um, but look at we still have, um, this project or not. This project 9th Street is an issue that seems to have been long and brewing that needs a resolution. And I frankly hope that one of the things that comes out of this is that we can be an impetus to help kind of bring that conversation to fruition. Um, and and help with the resources as well to do these things to change the reality that has been in this. small side street as in many small side streets in Medford.
[Adam Behrens]: Thanks, Peter. Just so that I can piece it together from the visual, the entry and exit from the parking garage is on 9th Street. And then is there a second one on Revere Parkway? And then the Uber lift is from the Fellsway.
[Peter Spellios]: OK. It's on Middlesex. Yep. Correct. OK. Great. Yeah. Thank you. The other thing before I forget, I do want to, and I know we're going to get to public comment, I do want to invite, I think Daniel and Alicia have it, but I would, we've sent out a lot of letters. We've met with a lot of people over the last couple of months and more than once with many. I do want to welcome you to put my contact information, my email into the chat for people. And to the extent I haven't talked with people and people do have questions that they may not get fully answered tonight, I welcome it. If staff's comfortable doing it, putting my email in the chat is perfectly acceptable and I look forward to people reaching out.
[John Anderson]: Just to make sure I understand, if I were coming, if I were eastbound on Revere Beach Parkway, wanting to enter the building, what would my choices be?
[Peter Spellios]: So if you're eastbound coming on Revere Beaks Parkway, you're going to be most likely finding your way towards the 9th Street entrance. Rebecca, do you want to kind of go through the circulation and just articulate it better than I'm going to do directionally and otherwise? she may be muted again.
[SPEAKER_24]: I just yeah actually if you can go back to the traffic slide you can kind of see the intersection to see where people would go it's slide 25 there. So if you're coming along Revere Beach Parkway headed eastbound you can see that there's kind of those two left turn lanes that cross over and up to Middlesex and Fellsway. You would take those two lanes and come in to Ninth Street in that back access way into the parking garage.
[John Anderson]: Okay. Thank you. My last question is about what you folks call the walk shed. I just want to make sure I've got this straight. The two ways you would go from the site to the T Station, one would be to take that crosswalk that we've talked about. Well, I don't know how dangerous it is, but it certainly feels dangerous. The other would be to stay on the north side of Revere Beach Parkway, go across the railroad bridge, then you go down a flight of steps and there's a narrow sidewalk in that tunnel. Is that the alternate path?
[Peter Spellios]: Yeah, that's correct. You've described it correctly.
[John Anderson]: Okay. That's it for me. Thank you very much.
[Peter Spellios]: Thank you.
[Adam Behrens]: Thank you. I think Sean is the last member from the board of the San Andreas, so we'll pass it to Sean.
[Sean Beagan]: Thank you. Just a couple questions in regards to the mill work and overlay on 9th Street. Are you proposing to do just the section that encompasses runs along your property? Are you talking about the entire length of 9th Street?
[Peter Spellios]: We're talking about the portion that was identified in the presentation adjacent to our property. And that's really only because that portion hasn't been done a few years back. It's my understanding. If you go down the street today, you'll see there's a marked difference between the condition of the two. There was, I guess, a water main break a number of years ago, a couple of years ago. And so the rest of the ninth street was milled and overlaid just a couple of years ago. So it's in much better condition than the portion which we would be milling and overlaying.
[Sean Beagan]: Okay, and in regards to the development incentive bonuses. Could you speak to how you came to choose the bonuses that you chose? I for one was hoping that on our first project under this ordinance that we maybe see a deeper, a more and deeper affordable housing units. That's a huge issue in Medford. One of the biggest talking points I think in the city is the issue of affordable housing. And I'm wondering if you would, maybe discuss how you arrived at the incentive bonuses you chose and whether you'd consider increasing the, going to the 30% on the 65% AMI units.
[Peter Spellios]: Yeah, thanks for the question. Not an easy decision, but one that was made based on a couple of considerations. Number one, we care deeply as well about the affordability. We actually, again, in our background, we do a tremendous amount of pure affordable. housing. So we also do market rate. So we care deeply about it as well. There are certain financial realities about the cost and the cost structures that go with it. So I would not be genuine if I didn't acknowledge just the financial realities of increasing those. We felt, frankly, the city of Medford did a really good job with structuring its bonuses. in that, number one, you start at a higher percentage than most communities. Yes, Somerville, Cambridge, Boston, you're on par. Cambridge is obviously on its own. But beyond that, 15% is a very significant percentage and something that the city, I'm sure, is proud of. That increased affordability is also an expensive thing that projects have to do. But candidly, we think it's a really important one. So I share with you the import of that increased affordability. When you look at the numbers and you look at what levels and what income levels that gets to, that really starts getting to the heart of the problem. So financial realities. And secondarily, we feel passionately about the sustainability elements here. It is a significant cost as well, and so I think as though we're putting money to work in two good ways here, as opposed to putting maybe more in one bucket as opposed to another, by balancing the sustainability and doing lead platinum. which is significant. There are very few LEED Platinum buildings, residential buildings in the Commonwealth still, and also doing the increased affordability. So understand that people could come to different ideas about it. It's not an easy discussion, but it feels like the right balance for us, just given some of the realities.
[Sean Beagan]: Thank you.
[Adam Behrens]: Great. So, if there aren't any other questions or comments from the board, I think now we will open it up for public comment. Let me see if there's anything in particular that I need to preface public comment with for those that joined the zoning public comment period. We will keep a timer. We'll set that to two minutes. The intention is not to, you know, limit the public's ability to give a voice, and there will likely be another public comment period, but it's really just to make sure that we balance giving everybody enough time while making sure that we don't keep people, you know, until 10 or 11 p.m. So those that wish to provide public comment can use the raise hand feature, which seems like a lot of people are aware of. So that's under the reactions button on Zoom. If you're dialed in to phone, you can use nine to raise your hand. If you have any issues, you can message Alicia in the chat. And then before providing comments, please state your name and address for the record. And a reminder to all meeting participants, please refrain from using the chat to message any comments to the city staff or board purely because it's not part of the public record. So the exception is if you're having any difficulties with audio or anything else, you can message Alicia or the staff to get help. So I think with that, Alicia or Danielle will kind of keep me honest here with the timer, and then I'll just call folks kind of as I see them in order. And we appreciate all the public comments, and we appreciate for the patience. We know that there's a lot of information to go through and to digest. So we'll start with Michelle Wright, if you could state your name and address for the record.
[SPEAKER_29]: Oh, am I unmuted? Okay. Hi, Michelle, right? I am a representative for the carpenter's union for Cambridge, Medford and Somerville area. I actually represent two hundred represent. Residents that live in the medford area this question is actually for peter i was just wondering if you are planning to use a responsible contractor meaning a contractor that is not going to. Basically have tax fraud or anything of that sort. this is a big issue amongst the residential and due to the fact we have a residential rate that is very competitive to work with the residential side so we just want to make sure that you know that us the carpenters are definitely willing to talk to you. We've definitely reached out and we haven't gotten anything back from you so we were just wondering If there is anything that we can do, my partner Greg Poole has reached out to you and Jimmy Burrows have reached out to you, but we haven't gotten anything back. So we're just wondering.
[Peter Spellios]: Mr. Chairman, do you want me to respond? Yes, sorry. Great. Thanks, Michelle. I'm happy to continue this conversation. We've made no commitments on kind of the construction. We've been really heads down, focused on the community conversation and whatnot. We care deeply about who we partner with. It is, as you well know, really important who we partner with and make sure that we're partnered with the right general contractor. So happy to continue those conversations and appreciate your thoughts.
[SPEAKER_29]: Thank you. I will definitely be emailing. I hope your email does go back into the chat. I will definitely email you tomorrow morning and so that you and I can have a great conversation and see if we can come to some kind of decent agreement.
[Peter Spellios]: I think I've seen it in the chat already posted. Okay. Look forward to it.
[SPEAKER_29]: Great. Thank you.
[Adam Behrens]: Awesome, thank you. We'll now go to Jane Baldwin. Please state your name and address for the record, and we'll start the timer for two minutes.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, Jane Baldwin. I live at 12 9th Street. I have been a resident at 12 9th Street for 34 years. I don't know when the traffic study was done. However, I would venture to guess that the reason that there is a decreased Crash rate in that area is because it is totally gridlock 90% of the time I leave in the morning. And if I thank goodness, I'm an early person. If I don't leave. By 630, it takes me from the end of Brainerd Ave to get out to Middlesex Ave probably a good 25 minutes. It becomes gridlock. People get frustrated. How I understand the sign, you either have to take a right or a left. People try to go straight across to the Fellsway, it's gridlocked, it backs up, and that is even before buses happen. The question about if you're heading eastbound on Route 16, and you want to take a left to come in, that light usually allows two cars to get through at a change of the light. Two cars, two. So there is going to need to be significant traffic engineering, especially about lights at Wellington. And as a matter of fact, it's even worse on the weekends. You probably have to sit on Middlesex Ave if you want to go towards Charlestown, towards 93. And I would say, average, you have to wait 3, 4, 5 light changes to get through the lights. And it has really decreased, I think, the quality of life of the people that live on 9th Street. I applaud this building. It looks beautiful, but the traffic is my biggest concern. Thank you.
[Adam Behrens]: Thank you, Jane. We appreciate the comments and also seconded that thought. Great. We'll now pass it to Linda Lennox. Please state your name and your address for the record, and we'll start a timer for two minutes. And we'll get you unmuted here. Alicia, Danielle, do you know if we're able to unmute Linda or is that something that she'll need to do?
[Alicia Hunt]: We don't have the ability to do it for her. Just send her. Oh, there we go.
[SPEAKER_33]: There she is. Okay, thank you. I live at 22 9th Street. I've known Jane for many years. We're neighbors, and she is not lying. My unit faces 9th Street. I'm on the first floor. Saturday afternoon, I knew that there was a lot of traffic on the Revere Beach Parkway westbound. No fewer than 40 to 50 cars drove up the street from the Revere Beach Parkway to avoid that intersection. I don't know where you and there's so many thoughts running through my head in the morning school buses come up the street. All the trucks for Bianco sausages come down the street, 18 wheelers. We've had to call the police to help them maneuver the corner because they don't know how they got there. There's no room. I don't know what. studies you guys looked at, but if this is going to be a major traffic problem for this street, that's all I have to say. It's going to be a mess. Thank you.
[Adam Behrens]: Appreciate it, Linda. All right. We will now call on Garan. Please state your name and address, and we'll start the timer for two minutes.
[SPEAKER_30]: Hi guys, thank you for your time. We are at 89th Street. We also share the same concerns regarding traffic, so we won't talk about that. I have two questions. One is regarding schools. I didn't hear, I joined a little late. Has there been any study or look into how this new development will impact the local schools? What are the predictions of how many students will be joining? It's a pretty large unit. You are looking at some multiple room units. You're looking at affordable housing. That is going to definitely have some school-aged children. And the other question is about visitor parking spots. The two visitor parking spots that are visible in the plans outside are definitely not going to be sufficient. So what is the plan? I think our fear, obviously, is that we are the building right across. So then everyone from your building might be coming into ours to park. So what is the plan for parking? And then what is the plan for the impact this will have on local schools? Thank you.
[Adam Behrens]: Thank you, I appreciate it. All right, we'll pass it to Adam. Good first name. If you could say your name and your address for the record, we'll start a timer for two minutes. We're having a little trouble hearing, so maybe just a microphone.
[SPEAKER_19]: Sorry about that. Adam Lozier-McCanty, 2293 Unit 105. Could you please pull up slide 16? I'd like to thank the Community Development Board for considering the neighbors and butters concerns in this and welcome Peter to the neighborhood. I just noticed that in this slide that 50 Beard Beach Parkway is kind of missing. The building that's going to be built is considerably larger than the other character of the neighborhood. And this particular building is going to be almost three times wider. It's going to block a lot of sunlight for our neighbors across the street. So I was just a little concerned about that. Thank you.
[Adam Behrens]: Thank you for the comments. I will now call on the 9th Street committee. Maybe just a question for either Daniela or Alicia, just what the protocol is for kind of a joint, a joint comment, or if there's one person in particular that wants to state your name or state your name and address.
[SPEAKER_09]: I think there are a couple people. We are in one of our meeting committee rooms. So is that OK?
[Adam Behrens]: Yeah, it's OK. Just if you want to state your name or whoever wants to speak can state their name and address. That'd be great. And if there's multiple folks, we can maybe go through the line and then come back to the next person in the room if there's multiple.
[SPEAKER_03]: Actually, my name is Patricia Murray. I live at 89th Street. And the traffic situation was already brought up. But a gentleman asked about going from, if you were going on the Riviera Beach Parkway East, how would you get into this building? There's going to have to be another study done, a traffic study done, because like at four o'clock in the afternoon, there is one lane that would go into your building where your residents would go. And all the traffic is backed up all the way through Malden, Highland Ave, all the way back to Middlesex, and you cause gridlock sometimes in Wellington Circle. So there's one lane that would take you to this new building. So the traffic study would have to be looked at again. And maybe they should look at different times. Obviously, they probably have done that, but that's just my concern. It's horrible, the traffic around here.
[Adam Behrens]: Yeah, I think it's a great concern. And maybe just to interpret the comments, maybe when we have our board discussion, we can discuss if there's any additional things that we want to ask for Trantham to address or to maybe come back at the next hearing with. Maybe, yeah, if there's a second person that wants to speak, state your name and address.
[SPEAKER_17]: My name is Slava Sidorova, 8 9th Street, one of the abutting buildings. I just wanted to add to the comment about the traffic study and wanted to mention the response by the city's director of traffic and transportation, Todd Blake. In his memo from September 2nd, 2025, he actually mentioned that the data overstated the current traffic levels due to the collection methods and acknowledge that the project's actual impact on the area is yet to be determined. So by approving this project and using 250 cars and 250 bicycles to this area, the city would be ignoring the neighbors' challenge, all of us living along 9th Street and adding insult to injury. So we encourage you to carefully study the area and perhaps do another traffic study just to investigate what the actual impact will be. Thank you.
[Adam Behrens]: Great, thank you. All right, we'll now move on to Sachin. State your name and address for the record, and then we'll start a timer for two minutes.
[SPEAKER_14]: I search in here 12 9th Street, people have brought up traffic already I think my so maybe one comment I agree that traffic study, I think was mentioned correct me if I'm wrong, was more of like a national level something done with an institute, I don't really think that's indicative or representative of a unique area like Boston where public transport is available, but it's not very well connected. I can tell you right now, most people who work in Cambridge are not able to get into Cambridge unless they drive. And that's just one industry, right? Biotech, which is very heavy. So that's just a comment. My question was more so around how people, I think someone had mentioned that there was discussion about curbing efforts of people cutting in from Revere Beach Parkway on the brainer. Curious to hear what those are because it's a state highway. I don't know what the ideas are on how to combat that, but it's very difficult and it's actually just very dangerous. Forget about traffic, it's very dangerous. People are speeding down that way. So curious to hear what types of discussions have already happened around that.
[Adam Behrens]: Um, great. Maybe we'll take a note, um, and then kind of collect all these questions for transom to respond to at the end of comment. Um, uh, I will call on, I think Alicia had mentioned, uh, that someone was having difficulty with unmuting. So, uh, we'll have Alicia read, uh, the person's name and address and the comment that they wanted to share.
[Alicia Hunt]: Great. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I'm afraid I'm going to mispronounce the name, but I do have it for our records. Um, for the minutes, a con Harvey at G I live at 30 Revere beach parkway. I apologize if I am mistaken about the number, but based on my understanding, there are 251 parking spots with 248 designated for residents. This leaves only three spots for guest parking. My question is, will this parking area be exclusively for residents? Will it also be used for paid public parking? Where will guests be expected to park?
[Adam Behrens]: Thanks, Alicia. Monaha and Emily Palmer, please state your name and address, and we'll start a timer for two minutes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, thank you so much. Emily Palmer. I live at 28 Brainerd Avenue. I have two questions and comments. I appreciate the care and attention that has been focused on 9th Street. Obviously, that is a key channel of this new building development. But I would like to just call attention to Brainerd Ave as well, which faces similar private way issues. that 9th Street does as well. And it's also a key channel to a local business, Bianco's, which is very active in the community and a very important industrial business in our neighborhood. I live towards the end of Brainerd Avenue and we're oftentimes one of the last streets in Medford to get plowed when there is a storm. So I do fear that future residents of this building will also face the challenges of the private way limitations of Brainerd Ave as well. So thank you for taking the same care and attention. You're focusing on 9th Street on Brainerd Ave as well. And then my second question is, I don't believe I saw these in the plans, but I'm curious if you did consider having any room for commercial spaces in this building, such as for a local coffee shop or something else, knowing that this would take place, this would remove Cappy's and Monroe. two businesses that I am active customers of. I'm just trying to think of any way to increase another business footprint in the neighborhood. Thank you so much.
[Adam Behrens]: Great. Thank you, Emily. We'll now let Rebecca Brown look at the floor, state your name and address, and we'll start a timer for two minutes.
[SPEAKER_24]: Oh, actually, I had raised my hand a little while ago to respond to another comment from one of the residents that brought up the letter from Todd Blake, where he had stated that the counts of the existing trip generation may be overstated because we counted all of the driveways. Although we did count all the driveways, including the barbershop driveways, we provided a response to Todd's Comments that explain that even though we counted all the driveways, the trip generation that was included and summarized in the table did not include all of the driveways. So we only included the traffic that was going to and from. The cappies and the Monroe site and Mr. Blake did also ask us to provide a comparison to ITE data, which we did do that and ITE data actually came out a little bit higher than what was actually counted on the site, which verifies that the. The counts at the driveways appear to be accurate, and although they may include some cut through, that volume is probably not a heavy volume based on the counts.
[Adam Behrens]: Thank you, Rebecca. We'll now have Tony, please state your name and address.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hi, Tony Piscardi, 28 9th Street. And so in addition to reiterating whatever else says that the traffic is a major problem here, and I don't know if the answer is to block Brainerd Ave during the morning rush hour or to open up the gates to allow people to go to 7th Street, 6th Street, 5th Street, 4th Street, and not all Jam and 9th. One issue that hasn't, I don't think it's been addressed yet. Right now, I'm glad you're repaving, but right now our system of painting the lines consists of random residents going out at midnight with spray paint cans to repaint the lines. This is not a sustainable or safe system. Who is going to repaint the lines? And in 10 years, when the road deteriorates because of all the traffic going down it, who's going to repave it in 10 years?
[Adam Behrens]: Thank you. Thanks, Tony. Sudeep, we'll now give you the floor if you want to state your name, address, and then we'll start a timer for two minutes.
[SPEAKER_11]: Thank you so much. My name is Sudeep Mehrotra. I live here at 8th 9th Street as well. Some of the questions have already been raised. I just want to point out some little facts which I have also observed. Traffic isn't one of them. And I remember seeing a gauge counter which was put near the visitor's parking at 8th 9th Street. I think it was something to do with the traffic. It was interesting to see that it was put around the long weekend, which means traffic is already low. If you're looking at those numbers, well, please don't trust them. B, you are projecting something in here which you assume when building will be put up, there will be that many parking, that many people coming, well, population is going to grow. I don't think we are projecting how many actual traffic will be costly following through here if something has not been done correctly, which is already a big problem which everybody has raised. But trust me, I tell you that those 15 numbers which you are looking for is not 50. People come at heavily used street. People who are living here, all our residents suffer when we have to go to outside out of 9th Street. So that's a very big concern and you have to really revise those numbers. Then other comment is, which was brought about, I forgot, it was how you should go to River Beach Park way going through Baynard. Well, you know, there is something which should be done and there is something that people do. There are two different things. People don't follow rules all the time. And technically there is a big sign says, do not enter this street from 7 a.m., 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Well, people do. So, you know, assuming people will follow the rule or if there is no gate system or something, you are putting yourself in a ditch. So I really hope that you pay attention to these small facts and really look at the facts and really make some changes out of that. Thank you so much.
[Adam Behrens]: Thank you, Siddhit. All right, we'll now have David take the floor. If you want to state your name and address, and we'll start a timer for 2 minutes. And unmute yourself.
[SPEAKER_27]: There we go. Can you hear me? Yep. Great. All right. My name is David Hayes. I live at 28 9th street. I've been living here since the complex opened 1984. I don't know how many years that was. But I am on the 9th Street Committee representing the Wellington 187 units. The three condo complexes over here represent over 400 units, families, 400 families. And then we also have Wellington Place, which is another, I believe it's 190 families over there. So as everybody mentioned about the street and the traffic, unless you experience it and come here and go look at it, you're not going to appreciate what people are saying. One gentleman did bring up about when they measured the traffic, I saw the equipment go in, it was July 4th week. Of course, the traffic is going to be a lot lower over the holiday and the kids are not in school. But now when the kids are back in school, the traffic is unbearable. So we're actually stuck. We're stuck in our homes because we can't drive down the street. And we're in really good talks with Peter, and we're trying to work around that we're going to meet with his engineers so we actually have a list of a couple of dozen items that we've already sent to the city. I don't know when this board is going to discuss those items. The mayor said it was going to be done at the meeting, I haven't heard many of them or any of them come up. But another issue that we have is snow. So the people that live here now, and we haven't had a major snowstorm since like 2015, 16, thank God. But when even a medium snowstorm, 9th Street, which is already jammed with cars, goes down to one lane. So, one car comes down, one car goes out. So, somebody has to sit at the end of the street, the eastern end of the street, by Brandon Ave, and wait for somebody down by the Cappy's end of the street to let them pass, and then the other car comes, and you pass. So, it's one lane, and we're trying to pass each other. Now, with the city allowing the state, because we feel abandoned by the city, the mayor's office, we were promised a lot when Wellington Place was built, a lot. They said those lines were going to be taken care of every year. We didn't need to worry about it. They're going to monitor the traffic for us and work on it. And of course, that all disappeared. I don't know why, but it did. So we have the snow and the people that live here.
[Adam Behrens]: Thanks, David. The time's up. I don't mean to cut you off. I'll now open it up if there's any other comments from the public, if there's anything additional. I don't see any hand raised. But, oh, OK. AP, if you want to state your name and address, and then we'll start a timer for two minutes.
[SPEAKER_23]: Hi, can you hear me?
[Adam Behrens]: Yes, we can.
[SPEAKER_23]: All right, so this is Shibha Gupta. That's my husband's profile. We live at 28 9th Street in Medford. So a lot of our, you know, community members already mentioned about the traffic issue. But I want to bring up a personal issue which happened a few years back. We actually had a flat tire because of the roads condition. And they try to repair it a little bit here and there on the 9th Street. But it is awful. I don't know if this has been mentioned before or not. But I just want you to consider this part as well, that the roads you mentioned in the project that only a certain part would be taken care of. But I think a complete revamp is required.
[Adam Behrens]: Great. Thank you for the comments. I've also experienced a flat tire, not in Medford, but I understand how frustrating it is. If there's no other public comments, I took some notes about issues that folks had questions about. things that people wanted addressed. So I did want to give room for Transom to respond to some of them. But I do see Sudeep. Is there an additional comment that you'd like to add?
[SPEAKER_11]: Actually, I was just going to say if there is some time, why not, David, let finish his comments.
[Adam Behrens]: Sure, I will let you cede your two minutes, David, if you had anything else you wanted to say.
[SPEAKER_27]: Thank you, Sudeep. I appreciate it. Yes, I have a lot to say. So the snow, so the cars now that are coming off Revere Beach Parkway do not know you have to wait for one car to pass so the other car can come down the street. So the first time we have a major snowstorm, even without the building, we're going to have a mess over here. with the building is going to be so many more cars on the street, so many more people trying to enter down here. So what is the plan for the city to clear the snow off the street? I mean, they need to take it away. It's a very narrow street, parking on one side. And if they don't clear the snow away, we're down to one lane, a single lane on this street where we're going to have over 800 families living on it.
[Adam Behrens]: Great. Uh, thank you, David. Um, I maybe, uh, I guess if there's no other public comments, uh, we will, uh, try and some respond to some of the comments here. Uh, we will then open it up for the board to, uh, uh, have any additional discussion. I guess Akan is maybe you'll get the last word in if you want to state your name and address. We'll give it to you.
[SPEAKER_28]: Thank you. My name is Akan Harbiji. I live at 30 River Beach Parkway. Alicia, thank you for reading my first question. Actually, the plan, why so wide? Why is this plan so wide? The building is so wide and it's not like other buildings. There's not enough green space around the building. Why they are building to the line? Why they are not leaving enough space for the residents? So that's all. Thank you.
[Adam Behrens]: Great. Thank you, Ekan. Yeah, we can ask Transom about the architectural choice between outer space versus maybe inner space. I had one question, maybe a point of clarification, maybe just to help me understand. uh probably for danielle or alicia um just given that ninth street is a private way and then given that the fells way or the parkway is a state road um what specifically is the involvement of the city or the involvement of the particular property with the concerns that uh, the residents raised and then also recognizing that this is a by right development proposal. I just want to make clear that, uh, that, um, we'd sort of kind of properly contextualize, uh, sort of who's responsible for the different pieces here.
[Danielle Evans]: Right. Um, yeah, I can, uh, address that. So, One of the comments I heard was the condition of the road. Unfortunately, private ways are completely maintained by the abutting residents. The city does not maintain them, pave them, build sidewalks, because private ways, my understanding is they can't expend public monies. on private ways. So it is possible to bring it up to the standard of a public road and ask for the city to accept it. And then the city could assume maintenance and control of that, which is on a schedule. It's not magic. It's kept meticulous. So that's one. But my understanding also, talking to the DPW commissioner, is that if there is a public safety hazard, they'll fill deep potholes if it is considered dangerous. But in general, public funds can't be spent on private ways. And that's why you'll see that the private ways are often in deplorable condition. I live on a private way in Medford. It's not fun to live apart. They sound fancy, but they are not. They're basically just forgotten about roads.
[Adam Behrens]: And then in terms of routing of traffic from the state kind of jurisdiction of the parkway, what relationship does the city have with those concerns?
[Alicia Hunt]: Commissioner Greenwood. Mr. chair, if I might, I think some of this question for you also is about what is the authority of the board here?
[Adam Behrens]: Yes.
[Alicia Hunt]: So the board cannot require them to do something on a private way unless the other butters of the private way agree to it. If they come to an agreement and transom says, we're going to do X, say they say that they're going to repave this section or put in a raised, a speed hump, right? And the abutters are saying, yes, we agree to that. Then the board could put it in as a condition, and then we could hold transom accountable to do it. What we can't do is say, we don't care what the other abutters want, you have to do it whether they want it or not. And so that's where the owner is having some negotiations with them. But if they come to an agreement and they can sort of provide us that the other condo associations agree that this is what should happen on the private way, then we can put that in the conditions and then the city can hold them to that. On the state road, it is much harder because you will never get the state to agree to or commit to anything in the timeline of weeks to a couple, In a short time frame, we would need a long time for that, and I don't know that you could get the state to agree to anything. So anything that's on the state property is much, much harder. But what wouldn't hurt is recommend that the applicant negotiate this, discuss this with the state, attempt to do this, do this if the state will allow it. Those types of things can be put in. And then they have to show us like for one applicant, we had them send us copies of their emails back and forth with the state that showed that they tried. And the state, in fact, said no or said you had to do something different. Right. So we had proof that they tried and proof that it didn't work. In some cases, the state says yes to things. So you can put it in, but if it's on a state road, it really needs to be more of a, you have to make some sort of best effort.
[Adam Behrens]: Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Um, so then, yeah, maybe I'll, uh, give the floor back to transom, uh, just some of the call outs that I heard from the community were, um, maybe skepticism about the traffic study. Um, and so it'd be good to just give a bit of voiceover, um, to maybe those concerns or if there's, um, just any thoughts to, um, maybe how to kind of end it. from a data-driven way address the concerns about doing it during the July holiday week versus when school is in session. We're all back in September now. I think there was a good question around consideration for commercial space or coffee shops, if that was ever considered. maybe a question of how the group thought about public space and green space. And then I do think it would be interesting to just hear a little bit more detail of the conversations that you're having with the abutters on 9th Street. And I'm sure the board would like to know a little bit more about the things that are being discussed, the line repainting, the snow. and maybe potentially conversations with the state. So I guess I'll give it to Rebecca.
[SPEAKER_24]: Thank you. So yeah, I can respond to the first question that you raised about the timing of when the traffic counts were done. So they were not done over 4th of July. I'm not sure where people got that impression from. But we did actually do the counts during the third week of June. They were done June 19th to the 21st. and not over the July 4th weekend. I do not know that school was actually in session at that time, but the counts included just the driveways themselves and not traffic along Revere Beach Parkway. They were just done for trip generation purposes only, and the type of uses that are on the site right now would not be heavily impacted by school traffic.
[Adam Behrens]: Great, thank you. Just because I don't know everybody's name on the team, I will let you guys kind of hand it off between you if there's specific questions that you want to answer or if there's things that I missed.
[Valerie Moore]: Yes, I want to I'll jump in on a couple of the points that you raised. I'll start with the easier one about why the building is designed the way that it is. The zoning has maximum setback provisions in it. So there are limits on how far back we can go from the road, we've complied with that. So with that, our architecture team can certainly add on to that if they would like to, but we did have to design around the constraints in the zoning. And one of them really requires us to provide that street frontage and where we do have frontage on multiple ways, we are required to do that. With respect to 9th Street, I think we can perhaps suggest some language for a draft decision concerning what we can and can't commit to. With private ways, it is very difficult as a new owner coming in to make commitments because they require coordination with many, many different parties. We only own a very limited portion of the way and we can't take responsibility for fixing problems that extend far beyond our ownership of that way. We are very limited in what we can agree to. And certainly any decision where we commit to making any improvements to that way is going to have to be constrained as directly as exactly as Director Hunt indicated by getting the assent of all required parties. But then we'll have to have some further limitations on that because ultimately, particularly if there are improvements that extend beyond where we own, We can't control what those parties do with that in the future. So it wouldn't be right to have a decision that requires us to maintain an improvement that we can't preclude the owners of that area from removing in the future. So we will continue to work with our abutters. We certainly understand and respect their concerns, and I think the fact that we've continued to engage with them extensively reflects that. We are planning to make significant improvements to the condition of 9th Street, just repaving a loan in the area that extends along the site frontage will be a significant improvement over what exists today and the addition of sidewalks where there currently are none will be again a significant improvement over what exists today. But we do want to make sure that any decision really reflects what we can do and what we can commit to. So we will work to do that. With respect to your questions concerning commercial space consideration, I'll turn that over to Peter to respond to.
[Peter Spellios]: Great. Valerie, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. I just want to add a little bit to what Valerie just said about 9th Street, and specifically if, OK, Mr. Chairman, speaking to the 9th Street neighbors that are here and the ones that I've already started conversations with, please don't mistake that as backpedaling on our conversations. Look, I'm serious when I have said to you the biggest mistake that developers do is to deny an undeniable truth. and 9th Street going well back beyond any of our time and exacerbated most recently it seems by MassDOT's slip lane onto Brainerd needs addressing. And so I just it would we are going to we're scheduled to meet so the board knows as well we've our Rebecca Brown is actually going to be joining us and the 9th Street neighbors the representatives of the condos associations to explore all the possibilities for 9th Street and what is possible and what are the pros and cons. It is complicated. If it was easy, it probably would have been done by now and the neighbors would have gotten together because I don't know that it's Expensive more so than it's difficult, right? You have so many different parties and there's pros and cons and people have different interests based on where they live relative to others. But, but to the 9th street neighbors in particular, I've committed to continue that conversation. I think to the, to the board. We're obviously not concluding tonight, so between now and when we do reconvene, if you'll take Valerie up on her suggestion to draft something, but even more importantly, we're going to continue these conversations, and I genuinely want to come back and share detail, and I want the 9th Street neighbors to have voice. and agency to make sure that you're hearing from them directly. We're not going to be able to solve it all. We're not going to be able to change the fundamental reality of it being a difficult area to traverse. But I do believe fundamentally we can make it better. And that's my goal. My goal is to make it better. And I think we can do it. And I say that because I've now sat across from the 9th Street neighbors and then the representatives of the condo associations. And you know what? They're really serious, earnest. They don't mix words. They're telling me exactly what they're telling you. But they're rolling up their sleeves and, I think, recognizing some of the challenges. And so we're going to continue those dialogues. We're going to be a beneficiary of that. We're not here just to build a building. We're here to build a building and have it be successful for all its residents. So we too care about traffic, because if the traffic is so horrendous, residents aren't going to want to lease here. And so we are a vested stakeholder, and we are committed to working with, understanding that there is a tremendous amount of stakeholders and a long history here. But I do believe that we can leave it better than we find it.
[Adam Behrens]: Thanks, Peter. Maybe just a point of procedural clarification, either for Daniel or Alicia. I think there's a hand raised from the Ninth Street Committee. I have not yet closed public comments, but I also want to be mindful of maybe not reopening too much public comment, given the clock right now. but is it okay to call on the two raised hands?
[Alicia Hunt]: So you can call on them. You can also ask them to email their comments in and then we can forward them to the board and to Peter. And I do want to clarify that when you close it, I assume that you're meaning that you would close it for this evening. And that I expect that the board expects to reopen public comment when, because clearly again, you're not closing this hearing tonight at the continued hearing.
[Adam Behrens]: Yeah, correct.
[Danielle Evans]: Yes, through the chair, you can definitely close a public comment period for this meeting just to keep. Things you can't just keep, you know, if someone comes on and wants to pipe up, there's order to things and I can leave in the chat that. Please email any comments. To staff and we'll get it to the board and the. Applicant, if you have a lot more to say that you couldn't get through in 2 minutes.
[Adam Behrens]: Okay, so I think. Keep it quick committee, you'll be the last ones and then we'll close public comment for tonight and then we'll open it up for board discussion.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thank you. So name is memo. I'm on the 9th street on the 8th 9th street. And yeah, let's see. As Peter said, he did reach out to us. We've been having dialogue and it's been very. sharing his knowledge, expertise, very helpful conversations. So we're looking forward to continuing that dialogue and like the idea of maybe potentially putting some of these things in writing as suggested today. So we can continue that conversation as well. Finally, I also wanted to echo one of Dave's comments from Wellington next stage, next door neighbors that we had emailed some of our questions and many of them are actually to the, not just to Peter, but to the city or the state, whoever can answer them. So we would appreciate their discussion acknowledgement as well at some point.
[Adam Behrens]: Okay, great. Thank you. I think I have it, the document pulled up. Um, so I guess with that, we will close public comments. Um, I will open it up for now the board discussion. Um, if there's any discussion that the board wants to have any questions, um, anything that was kind of sparked from the public comments, raise your hand. Uh, Dina.
[Dina Caloggero]: Here I am. One of the things I heard from the public comments, in addition to the concerns of traffic, is a study on the impact to local schools. I think I heard somebody say that. To see with the increase, especially with the affordable housing, that there would definitely be an impact to the students, the impact to the neighboring schools on that. So we'll have to get that in the notes as well.
[Adam Behrens]: That's a good call out.
[Dina Caloggero]: And then, of course, traffic. And I think one of the things I'll do is I'm going to take a ride down to 9th Street and take a look at all that, because I'm going to become even more familiar with the area.
[Adam Behrens]: Prepare to be attentive.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, there's clearly a lot of neighborhood context issues that need to be resolved, and I feel like this is the first of, I imagine, a couple of different meetings to try to resolve this, and it's going to take a lot of effort by the city and the state and the stakeholders here to try to bring this one over the finish line. I assume we can get there. I do agree with what someone commented earlier that it seemed like the standards of looking at proximity to transit for generating cars doesn't seem to be, in my opinion, as valuable data as what we have right around us that are comparable projects that are virtually the same walking distance to Wellington and have been around for years. And I think that goes true for also the the school impact. You know, I've been hearing this for many decades that there are people concerned that they're going to be, Medford is going to be building new schools because we built, because we've added so many apartments. It never happens. It just doesn't. The demographics are just different and more diverse and they're not, you know, just, but I'll leave that to Peter and to the, again, for the surrounding impacts and the historical data. of the literally two or three thousand apartments that have been built at a half mile of this to prove that out. I think there's a lot of questions out there and I would like to understand my first time on this board, my first meeting, how we can continue this dialogue with Peter and the design team at MBAR so that we come to the next meeting narrowing the issues as much as possible, trying to solve things as we can, and still making sure the public is heard, especially the neighbors on 9th Street and the surrounding neighborhood.
[Valerie Moore]: Would you like us to respond at this point?
[Adam Behrens]: Yeah, if you want to.
[Valerie Moore]: Sure. So first, with respect to the request for an estimate of the number of school children, we're happy to provide that for informational purposes. We didn't provide that previously because it's not one of the site plan review criteria that Medford has established, but for your informational purposes, we're happy to provide that. You know, I certainly understand that everyone is looking for more information on traffic and, you know, the city traffic engineer has coordinated with our traffic engineer and did provide input into how the traffic study was approached. And we did receive his comments and have responded to them. where those responses were submitted today and I didn't see them added to the sort of publicly available document file this afternoon. I certainly understand not everybody has had a chance to review those at this point, but I do think that some of the information that was provided will be helpful in addressing some of the comments and questions that were raised. I did hear a suggestion from the 9th street committee that it be helpful to start thinking about how we put some of this in writing. I think that can be a useful way to start narrowing the issues. So, if it's acceptable to the board. we would propose to submit a draft decision for your consideration so that you can start to think about conditions at your next continued meeting, which I understand would be October 15th, if that's right?
[SPEAKER_06]: Correct.
[Adam Behrens]: Great. Um, and then a point of clarification, Alicia, Danielle, uh, just for the board, uh, just so that we're aware of the types of things that we can be either requesting, um, or the types of changes that can be imposed on a project like this. Um, could you just maybe restate those and then so the public also has an understanding of that?
[Danielle Evans]: Yeah, so there's specific criteria outlined in the ordinance of what you take into account. School-age children is not one of them. In fact, we can't limit the bedroom sizes or discourage children from coming to these, living in these developments. The state specifically put in language in 3A that you can't age restrict and that you have to be able to allow developments that are suitable for families, and they specifically use that language. So having three bedrooms or more, so there's no asking to reduce bedroom sizes to discourage children, nothing like that. That would be completely illegal. But as Doug mentioned, these developments tend not to actually generate that many kids. And as a city, it is our obligation to educate any students that come to Medford. And we will make it work, whether it's adjusting the boundaries of which schools go where. We do have two elementary schools that are under enrolled and the high school is also under enrolled. They're not at capacity. We just, we have two schools that are crowded, but that's going to be addressed. So I wouldn't really go down the road too much of impacts on schools because it's not something you can take into consideration.
[Adam Behrens]: All right, thank you. Sean?
[Sean Beagan]: Yeah, question. So I think every single public comment had to do with 9th Street and traffic on 9th Street and what's going to be done with 9th Street. And I totally understand that. Has there been any discussion with the abutters about perhaps bringing that street up to public spec and then petitioning the city to make that a public way and perhaps gaining some more control over traffic once it's a public way using the powers that the city might have available to them?
[Adam Behrens]: I'll let the developer answer.
[Peter Spellios]: Peter. Chairman, I'm happy to respond to that. And again, I want to be perfectly clear, I don't speak for the 9th Street neighbors by any means. But we have had conversations. We've actually, what I want to refer to is the conversation back with the city traffic engineer, which I think, just for this reference point tonight, who had, during our discussions with our design team, talked about the pros and cons. of bringing a road up to certain levels and then have it be accepted. The pros being the city now owns repaving. The pros being maybe there's more enforcement. The cons being that the private stakeholders now are at the whim of the city in terms of paving, when they pave, when they don't pave, and what they do. And probably even more specifically traffic calming measures and the ability to do traffic calming measures. 1 of the pros of it being a private way, and I'm not advocating either, but 1 of the pros is that the, the, the owners of the private way. have within their ability to do traffic calming measures that perhaps the city wouldn't do, or wouldn't get around to, or wouldn't want to do, or any number of things the private owners do. So I think there's pros and cons to that conversation. Again, I don't take a position on that for the purposes of this conversation here. I think, just to give you a little color, and I don't want to speak out of school, the conversations we're having are about traffic calming, about things candidly to bring the street to a better condition, but also the true condition being lessen the impact of the cut through. And that being a major source of concern, I've heard questions about guest parking and where that's going to happen. I think if okay with the chair and the board, I think the suggestion of drafting a decision for you to see, we'll start to see types of things that we. As to what we can control ourselves and what we can do in our building, we want you to see affirmatively language to make you comfortable with the fact I'm going to use guest parking as an example about making. It's not just the 2 spaces. As a matter of fact, the 2 spaces on middle sex are actually more marketing for people coming to the place to look at the, but there's guest parking in the garage and. and to play some of that stuff out. In the interim, we're going to continue the conversations with the 9th Street neighbors and figure out ways that work for everybody. Again, this hasn't happened to date, going back decades and decades and decades of private ownership, so we're corralling, if you will, Decades of relationships and things here and trying to come to a conclusion, or at least a better place. And I think we will. But I demur as to the ultimate question about private-public way.
[Adam Behrens]: Yeah. I appreciate it, Peter. And yeah, I think the board sees a lot of proposals in front of it, and I think There's an obvious demonstration of intention that you guys are putting forward that. takes into account, I think, the concerns of 9th Street. And I think it's good to see from a board perspective. And I think I would personally be excited to try to help support that collaboration in ways that we could build mutual trust. And if that's helping put forward a good faith agreement between the residents of the community. which it sounds like you guys have been doing some thinking and thinking too and discussions with. John, do you have anything additional?
[John Anderson]: Yes, I would just appreciate it if someone could, I've never been on a site review plan before. So I would appreciate and perhaps some of the other new members would as well, how this usually plays out. I mean, we're gonna get more public comments You know, typically, how long does this go on? How many meetings? Just some idea of. And I guess the ultimately what happens is we can request some changes or can we put specific conditions on our approval? I mean, you know, how does this play out?
[Adam Behrens]: I think Danielle can probably speak to that.
[John Anderson]: Yes, I'm sure.
[Danielle Evans]: Yes, John. I'm also happy to chat with you offline. Yeah, because this is the 1st site plan review we've had in a while. We've been living and breathing zoning amendments for so long. This is a nice. I know.
[John Anderson]: I almost forgot that this was part of the work. I mean, there are other new members too, who I would imagine.
[Danielle Evans]: Yeah. Every project is different. It depends on the scale. Some projects are less complicated, don't have a lot of issues and could You can conceivably get through in one meeting and not even need to add many conditions because you're satisfied with what they propose initially. It could take several. I fully expected that this would take at least two, so I did not draft any draft conditions or try to make any recommended findings. I plan to do that for the next meeting. I also like to hear from the residents and, um, you know, the applicant presentation, because that also, you know, brings up issues that maybe we weren't aware of. So, um, this is like the listening meeting and then, um, you know, kind of, you know, sitting with it and thinking about it and seeing what the changes are and then, um, Ultimately, it's up to the board how many meetings you need.
[Alicia Hunt]: I might also add what's helpful is that the department head comments, those typically frequently will get incorporated as conditions of the project, but it's not. So this project is considered by right. So this board cannot deny this project and they cannot unreasonably condition it to the point where it is like a financially infeasible project, because that would be effectively denying it. But what has happened, and I apologize that it went up quite late this evening, but the department had sent concerns and conditions to the applicant. They actually, so those you were able to see, the applicant's responses went up late this evening. They're in your packet now, but they weren't there before six o'clock tonight. We received them today, and I can't do thinking instantaneously.
[Danielle Evans]: Right.
[Alicia Hunt]: But you'll be able to see them and where they say, yes, we're going to do this. Then this board will or should I should put it that way. I don't tell you what to do, but should just incorporate those as conditions, because that will allow city staff to hold them to those comments. Right. This is a situation of trust, but verify. And the verify part is that once it's in a condition, then it's legally binding. But if something is very expensive and they say that's not possible, like if you told them to cut their building in half, that would be something that they just couldn't do. And they would say that you're ruining, you're killing the project, and you don't actually have the authority to kill the project. Just to give you a sense of scale. And Danielle will help, as she mentioned, help draft recommended conditions. But this board can always come up with other conditions that are off the department, that are not on the department head list and not on Danielle's list. And then the applicant and staff can guide you as to whether that's a reasonable condition. Planting a tree might be reasonable. Reconfiguring Revere Beach Parkway is not reasonable.
[Adam Behrens]: Yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: Thank you.
[Adam Behrens]: Thank you, Alicia. I know it's getting late and I want to be mindful of time. Sean, did you have anything else?
[Sean Beagan]: If none of the other board members have any comments, I would like to make a motion that we continue this hearing to the next scheduled meeting date.
[Adam Behrens]: I like the sound of that. Um, uh, and then I, I'm also excited, I think for the next meeting, um, you know, the board reads all of the public comments. So if you have additional things you want to email, um, do send them to us, uh, especially from the ninth street committee. If there's just, you know, if you give more thought to, um, the proposal and considerations that you want the board to make that will give us breathing time to digest it and think about it. And we're looking forward also to the information from Peter and his team with the conversations with 9th Street. So I like the motion to continue to a date certain. The next meeting will be the 15th of October. Is there a second? for that motion? Seconded. Great, John seconded. So I will do roll call vote, or not roll call vote, but I'll call folks for vote. John? Aye. All right, Guffman Fishman is not present. Dina Calagaro?
[Dina Caloggero]: Yes.
[Adam Behrens]: Doug Carr? Yes. Sean Began? Yes. And myself, Adam Behrens, is a yes. And so we will continue the discussion in October. And we're looking forward to seeing the turnout from the community. And then hopefully we can kind of quickly get to any conditions and clarity on the project. If that is, I guess that is the end of the agenda. And so there are no additional items on the agenda for tonight.
[John Anderson]: Wasn't there approving the minutes?
[Adam Behrens]: Yes, I just meant for the public. And so we will now turn to the minutes. I believe there are no minutes from the previous meeting. So there's no action there. So the only remaining item is a motion adjournment.
[Dina Caloggero]: Yeah. I make a motion to adjourn.
[Adam Behrens]: Great. Thank you, Dina. Second. Thanks, Sean. So I'll do a vote. John Anderson.
[Dina Caloggero]: Yes.
[Adam Behrens]: Dina Caliguero.
[Dina Caloggero]: Oh, yes.
[Adam Behrens]: Doug Carr. Yes. Sean Began.
[Dina Caloggero]: Yes.
[Adam Behrens]: Myself, Adam Behrens is a yes. So we are adjourned for tonight.
[Dina Caloggero]: Thank you, Adam. Great job, Adam.
[Alicia Hunt]: Good job.
[Unidentified]: My pleasure.
[Alicia Hunt]: Thank you. And board members, don't forget that we do actually need to elect chair, vice chair, and clerk, which we are happy to discuss with any of you offline if you would like to discuss that further.
[SPEAKER_33]: Recording stopped. Good night.
[Unidentified]: Good night. Thank you.