[Anna Callahan]: Reporting in Baja, Mexico.
[Marie Izzo]: Everything all right in there? Councilor Callahan, Vice President Collins, Councilor Lazzaro, Councilor Leming, Councilor Scapelli, Councilor Tseng, President Bears.
[Zac Bears]: Present. And I'm noting Councilor Collins was present on Zoom. When she comes in, we'll note her presence. Okay. Five present, two absent. The meeting is called to order. 25178, submitted by the author.
[Alicia Hunt]: Good evening. Alicia Hunt, the Director of Planning, Development, and Sustainability. I'm here with you this evening. As all of the members of the Council are aware and most of the public, many years ago there have been decades of studies of Medford Square and plans and recommendations And a couple years ago, we put out an RFP. We actually hired a consultant to draft an RFP. We put out an RFP for the redevelopment of the parking lots here with the goal of developing housing and replicating the parking that we do continue to need, but also adding housing and some additional commercial to Medford Square and to enliven this end of the square to connect the hotel to our active businesses a little further down. This is a higher and better use of our public parking lots. We've been in front of you before where we had a committee that reviewed the responses from the RFP. I was going to name who was on the committee. I'm afraid of misspeaking, but Council President Bears was on there, the chair of the Chamber of Commerce, also the representative from the Chevalier Theater was on that committee. Commissioner Tim McGivern was on the committee, as well as Nina Nazarian, the chief of staff. Mayor Brianna was on there, as well as myself and our economic development director. To review the proposals, we had received two. We recommended to this committee One, to this Council, one of the proposals, transom, where Peter Speleos is the principal of that company. Peter Speleos is with us here this evening. We have started negotiations with them to get the details of the language of a land development agreement with him. And we will be needing this body to vote at some point to release this property. Technically, it has to be voted as a surplus property in order for this to happen. I will be clear, we are not selling the property. The plan is a 99-year lease. That term is sufficient for a developer to get financing on the property as if they had purchased it. leaves the property in the care and control of the city that cities, in my opinion, companies come and go, but cities are forever. And so we would still maintain ownership of this property in the long term, but we would be leasing it on a long-term lease to Transom Real Estate. And Peter Speleos is here this evening to share with you what our plans are, what his plans are for the property as we move through the negotiations to get a legal document that will be signed for this. And at some point in the next weeks, two months, we will need this body to vote on that and to vote on the surplus property. And so we did want to bring you up to speed on where things stand and at the same time share this information with the general public so that everybody is aware of where things are going. We are still early enough in the negotiations that there are tweaks that can be made, but there was a proposal. The proposal was two buildings and a parking garage. And I think that I'll leave the rest of that presentation to Peter because he has visuals that will help dramatically with the understanding of the proposal.
[SPEAKER_04]: Good evening. Can you hear me okay?
[Zac Bears]: Oh, now my mic is on. Sorry, Peter, one second. That's okay. Just before I recognize you, just want to say thank you to Director Hunt. Just wanted to note, the mayor and I were non-voting members on the committee, and I did have one question there's a vote that we need to take to do surplus property. I guess, are we 100% sure how many approvals this is gonna need from the council? There's the surplus property vote. Is there also a vote on the lease? And then is there also a zoning consideration?
[Alicia Hunt]: So to take those separately, under the current zoning in Medford, this proposal would need a lot of variances. It is the city's intention that we have been discussing rezoning in general, and there is general agreement that we need rezoning in Medford Square. It is our hope that when we do the rezoning for Medford Square, it is my personal hope that that would be this winter, that that would allow these buildings to be done as of right. If not, they would be allowed to be done with minor variances through the Zoning Board of Appeals. But that they would, in general, in the big picture, would be allowed under the zoning, the zoning that was previously proposed. There are a few little details that we would either need to negotiate, change, or go for variances on. So that is one thing. At this time, we are discussing that as a separate item. It is zoning for the whole square and not just for these three parcels. If it became necessary, he could put forward a motion, a proposal for just these three parcels as a planned development district, but that is not the current plan. The current plan is that the rezoning of Medford Square would in general, make this a feasible project. So there is that. I'm still seeking clarity from our legal counsel as to whether we need city council approval for the 99-year lease, because if it was a sale, the only vote from the council would actually be the vote for surplus property. So if it was a straight-up sale, this council would vote this is surplus property, the city could then sell the property. Because it's a 99-year lease, and a mayor can only enter into a three-year agreement, we are still clarifying whether we actually need the permission to vote on that. And to be clear, I'm not asking for any votes tonight, but we wanted to get information in front of you to have time to think about this, to get out any questions before we come in front of you for a vote. But then the third one, potentially, is the vote for surplus property. That is actually required. And it actually is often in land disposition projects and redevelopment projects done before the property even goes out to RFP. Often an RFP will say that the city has voted that this property is surplus property and is making it available for RFP. That is not what Medford, Medford hasn't sold or redeveloped a property like this in more than approximately 15 years. And so, our records from that period of time are a little sketchy, but it does seem that they waited until after the RFP for voting. Many, most communities, according to mass development, actually vote before they ever put the RFP out. So, just for your information.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Do we have any questions for Director Hunt before I turn this over to Peter Spellios? One question, I have Councilor Fleming.
[Matt Leming]: This is a minor procedural question. I probably do a little bit too in the weeds for this meeting, but I'm curious anyway. We currently have a proposal for rezoning Medford Square that's attached to West Medford Square sitting in the Community Development Board. I think it's just kind of there. Hypothetically, would City Council have the authority to hold a joint public hearing with the CDB and then during that sever the West Medford Square from the Medford Square proposal and then refer it back to Council just to potentially speed up the process should the contracts go through and we continue the rezoning process?
[Alicia Hunt]: Yes, so to take those two separately, the City Council and the Community Development Board can choose to hold a joint public hearing, so that is possible. Holding a hearing and choosing to sever it is something that the City Council could choose to sever the two, vote one through, and keep the other on the table. And we are also working with legal to understand what is the best and cleanest process for moving forward the zoning measures that are on the table currently. whether like for example some should be withdrawn and then resubmitted fresh later or whether we should and honestly to move forward with the existing Medford Square proposal severed from West Medford would be the quickest way because it is actually still a legal public hearing there it has been It was tabled to a date certain by the CD board. I believe that date is in January. I believe the CD board voted, wanted to just put it far enough out so it wasn't an issue. Because of the legal notice period, we need two weeks in a newspaper in order to hold a public hearing. So that just sort of helps set expectations about when things could happen, but that one we could take up in January on that date certain.
[Matt Leming]: And during a joint public hearing, does the City Council have the authority to vote as a body to sever that and then consider them separately during that same public hearing?
[Alicia Hunt]: Right, so what would typically happen is that the CD board would make a recommendation back to the City Council. Here's our recommendation on this, and we recommend that you sever them. The City Council would take a vote to sever them and then would consider just the City Council. the Medford Square portion of it, I think you would, for simplicity, declare at the beginning of the meeting that that was the intention and that you were only taking really considering that one portion of it. And then the vote would come as part of you've had it referred back to you. I understand from consultants that it is not uncommon for a city board and a city council to meet jointly in a joint public hearing on zoning matters.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Thank you. Seeing no further questions, I'll turn this over to Peter. Peter, I know you have a presentation you should be able to share on Zoom and take it away.
[SPEAKER_04]: Great. Mr. President, thank you very much. Members of the council, I just want to make sure that you can hear me fine.
[Zac Bears]: Yes, we can.
[SPEAKER_04]: Great, thanks. I'm excited to be here so early. I know the city's been talking about this for a long time and you've all been working on it for a long time, but truly in terms of the evolution of kind of the development overall and the idea and the visioning. This is early and I think it's really great and a credit to you all that this conversation is happening to make sure people are aware and we have the greatest opportunity for input and collaboration. So I'm going to share my screen. I'm going to go through a relatively quick presentation, welcome people to interrupt me, but I really want to take the conversation where the council would like to. So bear with me one second here. Give it a second. You should be able to see my screen. Just want to confirm you folks can see my screen okay?
[Zac Bears]: We can see your screen.
[SPEAKER_04]: Great. I'm going to put it in full screen mode to make it even better. Good evening, everyone. I'm Peter Spellios with Transom Real Estate. I'll talk a little bit at the end about Transom, but we're a Boston-based company. All the principals live and work here. We are Boston-centric. All of our projects are, if not a tea ride, a short car ride. for us all. I wanted to start by focusing really quickly on the team and in particular one, two, but one in particular member of our team. When we saw this RFP, we really, the RFP was really very well done in putting forth a vision. and making clear to anyone, whether or not you've been in Medford Square once or you've been in Medford Square a million times, that these are really important parcels. Parcels that, frankly, are important from every direction and every perspective, whether or not you're a resident living there, whether you're a business there, or you're walking through, you're driving through, no matter which direction you're coming from. And so we brought on PCA as the project architect. PCA may not be a firm that you folks know by name or is a household name, but what's really important is PCA is the architect and really the design brainchild behind a lot of very successful dynamic mixed-use projects, many of which you would know about, Legacy Place in Dedham, Chestnut Hill, Linfield Market. to name a few. We thought it was really important to bring someone who not only could do a lovely job designing a residential project, but really focus on the street level, right, that first 30 feet of a building, the one that everybody that passes by experiences, the one that adds life and vibrancy to any neighborhood. So we're excited that they're part of the team. Another team member is Beyond Walls. Some of you may be aware of Beyond Walls, which is a nonprofit, which is really specialized in public art, murals. If you've been to the city of Lynn, if you've been any number of cities in and around Boston now, you're familiar with these really incredible murals and art installations that Beyond Walls has done, working with local communities, working with local schools, working with other nonprofits to really advance art and interest, and I'll talk a little bit more about them briefly. I had already mentioned, excuse me, PCA. The most recent dynamic mixed-use village is actually just north of our border in Salem, New Hampshire by PCA, Tuscan Village. But as I mentioned, PCA was instrumental with Market Street, Linfield, the street in Chestnut Hill, and legacy place, Dedham. As you all know, these are the three parking lots for which the RFP was put out for. Again, remarkably dynamic parcels given that they are just asphalt gardens for the most part currently, but really important parcels. The RFP that went out was really clear about several things. One being, I'm going to just deal with the least interesting part, but very important part, parking, right? There's a lot of parking that's on these parcels today. There's a lot of demand for parking, especially for City Hall, especially for the Senior Center and some of the neighbors. So making sure that whatever plan happened dealt with the realities of parking was number one. Number two, and again these are not nor does our priority, number two was a desire to bring people downtown, to bring people living here, to build housing downtown and have a core focus on housing. Third, putting some street front retail here with particular interest in a grocer and having an urban grocer or a downtown grocer added to the list of other retail opportunities in Medford was a really important element. And then last, and again, the list goes on, but I'm just highlighting just a couple on the top, is really connectivity. coming up with a project that doesn't have a front or a back, doesn't have a left or a right, but really is a project that speaks to its neighbors from all sides, that communicates with every resident, every business, and really hopefully is done in a way that sets the table for other things to happen down the road in Medford Square. You folks have, as Alicia mentioned earlier, done a significant amount of planning and Medford really has, I think, an envy of a lot of roadmap of how to do these type of things. And so when we were making our proposal to the city, we reviewed all these plans, the comprehensive plan, the interest in public art, resiliency and sustainability, to make sure that we were addressing things that we knew by virtue of these plans and other initiatives, that we were addressing the things that were important to you all and to the city. This screen here puts forth some metrics of what the project could look like. I say could look like because we've responded to an RFP. We're grateful and very enthusiastic about continuing this conversation. And this is what our original thoughts from the RFP looked like in just numbers. This will evolve, this will change, this will be fluid based on feedback from you all, from stakeholders in the city. And so I want this to be seen as where we are now, understanding that this is very early on in the process. So we think appropriately in density wise, approximately 300 residential units here, 20% of which would be affordable units. which we think is a really important part to make sure that you do have the mix of income stratification in your housing stock. I mentioned the local grocer. We are proposing approximately 15,000 square foot grocer. on one of the parcels. Importantly, residential, and I'm happy to talk more as the Council would like to, residential is something that you can build almost always if the financing markets are available. But retail, especially grocery stores, you really are subject to the market. Where is the market at any given time? I'm excited because we're, you are doing this RFP. We are collectively collaborating on this RFP at a point in time where the grocery market, the urban grocers are increasing in numbers. And this is a market where they're looking for growth. And so I think as though we have an opportunity here, not just to talk about a grocery store, but really to put a dynamic grocer downtown that I think is really important. parking. I'll talk a little bit more about parking again in a minute here, but we are providing ample parking for City Hall and for visitors to City Hall and for City Hall business and staff. And we are also providing public parking for the senior center. Very early on, the mayor and staff have been very clear about the importance of making sure that this project be a benefit to the Council on Aging. I met with the executive director recently of the Council on Aging to just start and make sure we had names and faces with each other to make sure that we are having a good dialogue and that she felt comfortable reaching out to me and as this progresses, knowing that we're going to be in touch to figure out how to create that connectivity. The grocery store is currently designed right across the street from the Council on Aging, which we also think is really important as an amenity as well. I mentioned beyond walls and public art. Look, I just fundamentally in my core believe that there can't be fronts or backs to these buildings. And while the people that live in the building may not see the buildings, you know, if you will. and care as much about the exterior as they do the interior, the reality is 99.9% of the world sees it from the outside. And so these buildings themselves are pieces of sculpture, but we can do it in a way to make the first 30 feet for sure very vibrant, very interesting to not only make people wanna be there and feel safe, but also to attract others and help other existing businesses in Medford Square prosper. And then the last thing, which I guess two quick things here is resiliency we'll talk about and sustainability. You folks are champions on this topic. This project will be passive house, which is a really important and terrific goal. It will be all electric. And then lastly here is green spaces and connectivity. I think it's really important to just further accentuate what I was talking about with connectivity. We looked at this from every direction, pedestrian, whether you're on foot, scooter, car, in the back seat of a car, front seat of a car, to understand really how to create the connectivity, how to bring people from one place to another, how to help people navigate through signage and nonverbal markers to the river, which is only getting better and better with the trail network. And so how do we make them easier to get to City Hall? How do we make it safer and more convenient for seniors to get to the Council on Aging? In doing that, we look at a bunch of core areas. So this is a first take, if you will, about those same three parking lots we were talking about before. On the upper right-hand side is where we're suggesting the parking garage go up against I-93. That will have both surface parking and a parking lot. As you may recall, the Hyatt has the benefit of a easement with the city to allow parking on a portion of that for the hotel. And so we will certainly be making accommodations for that and making sure we don't interfere with those rights for the Hyatt Hotel there. And then as we move down plan south, if you will, to the screen, you see the two residential buildings, one on lot B and one on lot A. Lot B being the larger of the two residential buildings that also has some ground floor retail and public outdoor space and courtyards. And then Lot A being the one right across the street from the Council Aging, which is where the grocery store would most likely be located. Showing this to really show the key is how do you weave these together, right? So they can become a linear park. They can become something both through verbal and nonverbal cues. Really set this table for Medford Square and hopefully in a way that does a couple of things. One, creates connectivity to the rest of Medford Square. Two, sets a standard, hopefully, to get success and to help others increase traffic volume for business, foot traffic for business, so that the businesses that are there now and future businesses will thrive in these locations. So again, different techniques that will do it different of these spaces here, whether it's roadway improvements in terms of sidewalk improvements in terms of race crosswalks. There are so many tools available in the toolbox for us to partner with the city on both on these parcels and for the city to look at for some of its adjacent streets as well as a project. And again, I've already mentioned the retail, so I won't spend much time here. We really think as though we have an opportunity, a window here because the grocery market, the urban grocery market has been growing and they're in a growth mode right now. And so we think we're in a good position to be able to execute on that, which is very exciting. And then I've already mentioned Beyond Walls. I encourage you, if you ever have a Saturday that you want to go to Lynn, do a mural tour in the city of Lynn. It is the most remarkable way to see a city, is by looking up the entire time at the buildings. But really excited that they agreed to partner with us and to bring that energy and their collaboration with the community here. I mentioned parking before. Preliminarily, this project provides upwards to 600 parking spaces, which will include 100 parking spaces dedicated just for staff and visitors to City Hall at no cost, and then also includes parking that's dispersed throughout the project. Again, the goal is not to start with asphalt gardens and finish with asphalt gardens, but again, do it in a way that the parking kind of fades away. It's convenient, it's there, but it's no longer the focal point. And most especially, as I mentioned before, is really working with the city, working with the Council on Aging on how to create better connectivity, how to create more convenient parking and safer access and more comfortable access to the Council on Aging. I already mentioned the sustainability passive house construction. We're excited to roll up our sleeves and have the design team go to work on this. These are images. They're just images. They're not necessarily images of what is going to end up in Medford Square, but just to kind of give a sense of the connectivity and the place that can be built and the vibrancy. Again, The first 20 feet, 25 feet of a building is the one that most people experience. We want to make sure that on all sides and all ways, these are communicating to all the neighbors around us. This is if you're just to the left of City Hall, looking to the rear of City Hall on the left-hand side, potentially is where the parking garage would be up against 93. And you can see the Hyatt in the rear. Again, ideas right and I'm really excited that this is the start of conversation and really a lot of people have reached out and and we're excited about it. And then, lastly, I'm just going to end with kind of schedule schedule is a very fluid thing as Alicia kind of intimated about. We're having really good conversations about the formalizing the legal documentation. Not very interesting legal documentation, but interesting because it's going to unleash, I think, a flurry of activity that we can take these ideas and we can take the things that we're hearing from the city, that we're hearing from you, that we're hearing from the neighbors, and bring it to life so that we can have more community conversations and we can go through a permitting process with the city. We are aware of the draft zoning that was out for Medford Square. We did comment to staff. We actually think it's in really good shape. We did have some comments that we shared. We're excited to roll up our sleeves and work with the council and staff to see that through and happy to talk about it. Um, and then construction is roughly, um, you know, 24 months. Um, if again, I think there's going to be some sequencing because we're going to be very careful about not displacing everything at once and making sure there's always parking and making sure that we're doing things. So we'll have to work out the details of how to sequence things and make sure everything's done appropriately to minimize disruption, but also accelerate, uh, completion. Um, so that's also something we'll be having conversation with the city about. And then very last is Transom. I leave them last because I think that's us and we're important because we see ourselves as now a partner with you all. And I really am really proud of what we focus on at Transom. It really is. We, I think, do a great job for the residents and people that are in our building and use our building, but I think we do an even better job for the neighborhoods and the communities. I tell everybody that has ever worked with Transom and people that allow me to bend their ear is developers make a mistake and they act like it's their last project they're doing in a community. And I think development companies, if they really wanted to do good for themselves, they would treat every project like it's their first. project in a community, not their last. And because we are all local, because we are here, my wife and I spent our first years of marriage living on Humav in Medford. We care deeply about it. We want to leave significant pieces of architecture in communities here. And we think we've been successful and the communities in which we've been in our communities that we would be welcomed in again and again. And so with that, I'm gonna stop sharing. I'm happy to go back to any screen or to whatever you folks wanna take the conversation. So thank you, Mr. President.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Peter. All right, do we have questions from members of the council at this time for Peter about the presentation or the project? Sounds like there's still some work left to do, so I'll go to Councilor Tseng.
[Justin Tseng]: Thank you, Peter. I just want to thank you for having met with, I think, a number of Councilors before. I know we talked ahead of this presentation. Back when we talked, I think we talked a little bit about how the legalities would work with the parking lot. how we could operate that while still keeping the land under city ownership. I'm curious as to if there are any other legal details we need to sort out before we take a vote on this, before this project goes into effect that are along the lines of that.
[SPEAKER_04]: Mr. President, would you like me to speak to that? Yeah, go ahead. Okay. Or unless you'd like someone from the city to... No, I think, Councilor, thank you. I think, and I appreciate the conversation. I think Alicia did a good job explaining kind of where we are. So it's gonna be a 99-year-old ground lease. We will, the way in which it's currently contemplated, again, can change and can evolve, is we will be the, owners of the parking garage, but the city will have rights under its lease agreements, which will extend and control as the landlord to use and be able to maintain the control of the parking spaces that they need and deem important for the operation. In my Former life going back a couple years ago I was on a select board in a Massachusetts community and I, we did several land development agreements like you folks are now doing with us in many respects. doing a land development agreement and having it be a ground lease actually gives the city greater tools than if it was just a private development. And I was just here as a private developer coming and filing something with the Community Development Board. Here, there's not just permits and approvals that will dictate what is done to these properties, but there's actually going to be a lease, a living document, a lease document that's going to last. be in place for decades longer than all of us to control and make sure that the things that the city cares about, things that the neighborhoods care about, are codified in writing, are legally binding, and that our successors, people that will fill our respective chairs years down the road, will be obliged to maintain.
[Justin Tseng]: Thank you, Peter. I have one more question right now. This is something I had asked you before, and I think seeing as we're in a public setting, I think it's important to ask again. Has Transom reached out to the Building Trades Union with regards to exploring a project labor agreement to get this work done?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, thanks for that question. We have not asked to this project, but we've actually recently been in touch with the trades on another Medford project and have actually had follow up with them. We've had great success with the trades and the quality of work and the importance is unquestionable to us. They will, and I've said this to them privately, would say it publicly, they would have every opportunity. We haven't selected a general contractor. We wouldn't this early. We typically don't this early, but certainly whoever we work with, they would certainly have opportunities to be bidding and be part of this project.
[Justin Tseng]: And just a quick follow up on that. What does that bidding process look like? Are there criteria you look for? What are the main factors you look at?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so I think there's quality and price is really the two things that really come down to it. And I think that if the trades were here and we were having a round table conversation, I think there would be acknowledgement that I think historically, there's no question about quality. Right? Quality is never the question. I think pricing is always an issue. It's an issue for every deal, right? The balance between making a deal happen or not. And I think the trades even acknowledge that. So really what it comes down to is working with them and find where can they be most cost effective, where they can be most successful in that process. We control our general contractor. So our general contractor goes through a process that we require them to go through. So it's a balance. It's a balance between making sure that we are inclusive, that we give everybody a fair opportunity to do things. And at the end of the day, we still have a project that we're able to execute on.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Thank you, Peter. Thank you, Councilor Tseng. Councilor Callahan.
[Anna Callahan]: Thank you. It is really great to see this project. I want to just reinforce some of the things that are coming in here for anybody in the public who's listening. Having a grocery right in downtown Medford Square is going to be absolutely amazing. I so appreciate the thoughtfulness about continuing to have ground level parking right across from the senior center. I love the idea that we are going to work with a partner beyond walls that will be able to incorporate our community in the artwork, not just to have artwork there, but so that it is in fact like artwork sort of driven by our community. And I know that, you know, I've talked to so many seniors who, you know, have lived here most of their lives. They don't want to live in their, they're at the age where they cannot upkeep their house anymore. They want to downsize. They do not want to leave Medford. They want to live near their friends and neighbors. I know from my own mom, getting older, that it is not easy to move when you're old to a new community. I want our seniors to stay here and I think it's wonderful that we are looking at creating a ton of housing that is the right size for our seniors to downsize into. And of course, there are many other people here in Medford who also are looking to live in a one bedroom, a two bedroom. So I'm very excited about the project. I do want to ask if any of these are condos, are they all going to be apartments? If you know that at this time, if you're still thinking about that.
[SPEAKER_04]: Through you, Mr. President, Councilor Callahan, we would anticipate all these to be apartments and not to be condominiums.
[Anna Callahan]: Thanks.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Councilor Scarapelli.
[George Scarpelli]: Thank you, Council President. I apologize for being late. running a little late from work, so I apologize. I think my question is really that if you've already said this, forgive me, but I think that the questions we have is really for the city. I think that really moving forward with this project, understanding traffic patterns, understanding the garage. I know it sounds that we're building a garage just down the street from the senior center, but it's just not across the street. And I think that there's some serious fear for our seniors that attend our senior center, that even down the road a little, it's just too far. I know when we've worked together with, in my full-time position talking about creative ways to support seniors during projects that were in neighborhoods where we were taking, in growing neighborhoods, and we looked at partnerships where developers and our city work together to try to set up a shuttle service where even though it's only 100, 150 yards away, our seniors feel comfortable that when they park their car in the garage that they have a safe passage to the senior center. I think that's very important that down the line we address that. I'm excited that we're doing the project, but again, I err on the side of understanding the process a little bit better. And when we look at, you know, how are we really using the whole corridor correctly? Are we looking at Did we, again, this could have already been done, but there's no information. There's no, the community doesn't know that this has happened, but have we worked together with the Riverside Mall? Have we talked about doing one project and working with them? and relocating their buildings and restructuring all of Method Square, not just our three parcels. And then again, the parking issue comes up a lot on the other side of the city. So I think that it's really not with transom or that this project in particular, because we're excited that we're moving forward, because I think it's something that needs to be done, but there are a lot of questions that the average citizen still doesn't know. All they hear is that we're taking three parcels in the city, in Method Square, and we're making this amazing transformation, but there's still so many questions. And I hope the city does a better job and making sure that people are educated and they understand the process. Because as we've seen in the past over and over again, it's been a huge divide in our community when we just keep things in a bubble. So again, like I said, I think being more transparent to the public, making sure that everybody understands that we've gone through certain processes. And then again, my biggest ask and making sure that we're taking care of our senior citizens. because to them right now, us talking about this is absolutely devastating to them. A lot of people, the only piece of being part of a community is that senior center. And just the fact that we're taking spots away that are right across the street have absolutely floored them. I'm sure most of you heard, I hope, and you've talked to some of our seniors, but I think we need to do a better better job of educating our community. So we eliminate the negative discussion, the negative banter, which turns into the divide. So again, this really wasn't to our presenter, but really to our city administration to really start doing their jobs a little bit better than what we've seen in the last major, um, concerns and issues that have been brought up to the city. So thank you, Mr. President.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Leming.
[Matt Leming]: I do definitely agree with the need for a better communication, particularly with seniors who don't go on the internet, who really get most of their information through word of mouth. I was glad during the presentation that Peter gave to Councilors a couple of Councilors last week when I asked him about this specifically, he said that they do have plans to actually go into the senior center and hold these, hold information sessions about this, about this project in order to answer their questions. Because I do know that Councilors, Lazzaro Calhoun and myself over the past year, year plus, we have gone to the senior center and we've had this exact conversation with many of the residents there where, We're trying to, you know, we try to communicate with them. Your parking will not actually be lost with this development. This contains underground parking. And with, you know, before the days when we actually had access to the developer behind this, I couldn't exactly give too many details about it. And so I think it would be very helpful to actually have the folks who are very familiar with the plans in gross detail, in granular detail, going there and talking to the seniors in particular. And after that, posting very clear plans and commentary on the website, on their website and on the city's website for those who do go on to the, who do get their information from the internet. So the point is just multiple forms of communication. And also to my, to my colleague's point about transportation for the seniors, I spoke with the mayor and I've been harping about it in our planning committees for a while now, which is a, getting a transportation demand management program within the city. And that is a part of our zoning plan. Through something like that, we would be able to have developers put a portion of, put some funding towards buses that would then be able to serve the city. These programs are very successful over in Everett where they do have private buses paid for by a TMA that provide transportation within the area, but they don't go down to Medford because none of our developers are really a part of this. So things like, um, a lot of what we're discussing, a lot of what's going through this council is, uh, uh, will address many of the concerns that residents bring to us if we just actually bring these projects through the completion. So thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor. I mean, Councilor Lazzaro.
[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you. I appreciate the presentation. And would also reiterate what Councilor Leming alluded to, which is that members of this Council and members of the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee meet regularly at the Senior Center to talk about all kinds of issues that come up and are of interest to seniors and people who go to the senior center with regularity. I believe this RFP was chosen in particular because there is a parking garage included. It's not directly next to, underneath, or on top of the senior center, but that I don't think that, I mean, I think there's an argument to be made that the city would be better served by a building that wasn't a parking garage, but what we have is a parking garage. And if there was a compromise that had to be made, I think that this is a pretty good one. So I think continued public engagement conversation is a good move by the mayor's administration, by city councilors, I think we can absolutely invite Peter, other members of your team to have that conversation, but there are multiple stakeholders and we have a lot of people whose experience matters equally and a lot of people to make happy in the city. And as we consider different people's needs, I think we have to continue to keep the conversation going and keep the lens of communication open. and keep the invitations flowing and make sure that we're talking to everybody who has a vested interest in this. Something I also wanted to mention is that the conversation about zoning in Medford Square, as Director Hunt mentioned, would really facilitate this project moving forward if we can move that forward sooner rather than later. Peter, if you could mention what is the height of the tallest building in this plan? I can't remember if that was mentioned in the presentation.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's seven stories is the tallest building.
[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you. So seven stories, I'm not sure if that was part of the zoning conversation, but it's not a short building. But I think that's something to keep in mind as we continue our conversations about zoning in Medford Square, that in order to have the number of housing units that we're interested in accessing here, we should be keeping an eye toward continuing those conversations and making sure that that's something that's being prioritized. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Lazzaro. Do we have any further questions or comments from members of the Council? Seeing none, Peter, is there anything else you'd like to add at this time about kind of next steps and where we go from here?
[SPEAKER_04]: No, nothing in particular, Mr. President, but I do want to invite, I think I've, and I will similarly make sure that those that don't have my contact information look at, one of the benefits of us being local is that it's me, right? And I want you all to feel, I want you to, as you hear from residents that we haven't touched base with, we've had a lot of great starts of conversations with the Chevalier, with the Council on Aging, with a lot of the neighbors. But we still need to get to know a lot of people and have a lot of conversation and really be open to the good idea. And we're committed to do that. We'll let you know when we can't do something. But at the same time, we'll spend as much time as possible to make sure we hear the good idea and to bring to fruition those good ideas. So thanks for having this conversation so early with us.
[Zac Bears]: Great. Thank you, Peter. And if you could let us know, you know, when some of those informational meetings and, and engagement sessions are happening and can forward that to me and I'll send it to the clerk's office to share with members of the council so that they can be a part of those as well. Please let us know. Absolutely. Great. And I'm going to turn it over to director Hunt for a final comment.
[Alicia Hunt]: Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to share one final comment. As many of you know, we've worked with the State Mass Development on this project all along. They've provided various supports, starting with the DIF, you might remember, in Medford Square. That was to support some of this. They helped us, they provided us with a consultant to write the RFP for this process. And I've actually reached out to them for some real estate support and some additional consulting support. that would include some project management and help specifically with—they wouldn't do outreach, but help us do—put stuff on the website, help us to figure out what should be on the website, what to be sharing when. So I met with R&D consultants today with Mass Development, and I do think that we will be able to bring them on very quickly that there would be funding through this project to help pay for consulting and legal fees. And so I did just want to share with that that we are likely, if everything goes smoothly, to bring them on board in the next couple of weeks. I was hoping by next week, but I was informed that the state could not turn around a contract that quickly. But anyhow, hopefully that will help with some of the robust outreach that people are looking for. So thank you very much this evening.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Director Hunt. I will go to the podium for public participation. Name and address for the record. And you'll have three minutes. One second there, Andy. That mic's not working. Not sure why it's not working. Oh, one second, Andy, hold on. The more you tap it, I think the more trouble we may have. I'm not able to turn it on. Jim, could you maybe reset it and Emily could we use your microphone for a minute? Oh, now I'm having trouble with that one. Great. Well, no one will be able to hear you on the recording. Give us just a minute here.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: Thank you, Angel Castagnetti, Cushman Street, East Medford Mass. Thank you, council. Thank you for the presentation. I was not aware of this. I just want to play devil's advocate while I'm here. Does the presenter know how many total parking spots we have with the three parcels as we speak?
[Zac Bears]: Andy, if you could finish your comment and then we'll see what answers we can get.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: And then what would be the parking spots after the three building development?
[Zac Bears]: Sorry, what would be the what?
[Andrew Castagnetti]: How many parking spots do we have in all these three parcels and how many will we have after this proposed development is completed?
[Zac Bears]: Great. I'll write that down. Anything else you want to say on this?
[Andrew Castagnetti]: Yeah. How many present senior parking spots do we have presently? And how many will we have in the future after development? I have one last one, should I continue speaking to you?
[Zac Bears]: Yes, yeah, if you could.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: Okay. And those grocery store right there, is it really a really good idea? There used to be a grocery store here on the left side of Transit Street. It was there many years ago, and it was a decent size. I don't remember the actual company name. But I was wondering, if there's a grocery store there, where would the customers park? And how many spots would they have? Or is it needed parking? They have to pay for parking. Those are the only three questions I have today.
[Zac Bears]: Thanks, Andy. We'll work on getting some answers to those questions. All right. Seeing no further public comment and no further questions from councilors, is there a motion? On the motion to adjourn by Councilor Callahan, seconded by. Seconded by Councilor Lazzaro. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Callahan? Vice President Collins? Yes. Councilor Lazzaro? Yes. Councilor Leming? Yes. Councilor Scapelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? President Booth?
[Zac Bears]: Yes, I have the affirmative, none the negative, the motion passes. We'll have our regular meeting in just a few minutes and this committee
|
total time: 1.73 minutes total words: 173  |
total time: 4.48 minutes total words: 369  |
total time: 3.99 minutes total words: 100  |
total time: 1.13 minutes total words: 109  |
|
total time: 4.06 minutes total words: 45  |
total time: 2.91 minutes total words: 229  |
||