[Nicole Morell]: 23-408 Committee of the Whole meeting. Tuesday, September 12th at 6 p.m. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Vice President Bears.
[Zac Bears]: Present.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Caraviello. Councilor Keohokalole. Councilor Collins.
[Kit Collins]: Present.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I'd like to ask Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Sanders.
[Justin Tseng]: Present.
[Nicole Morell]: Present. Six present, one absent. The meeting is called to order. There will be a meeting of the Medford City Council Committee of the Whole on Tuesday, September 12th, 2023 at 6 p.m. in the Medford City Council Chamber on the second floor of Medford City Hall and via Zoom. The purpose of this meeting is a walk-in court redevelopment update. The council has invited Medford Housing Authority Executive Director, Jeffrey Disrell, to attend the meeting. For further information, aids, and accommodations, contact the city clerk at 781-393-2425. Sincerely yours, Nicole Morell, Council President. So as the meeting notice states, we have invited Executive Director Jeffrey Driscoll here for an update on the Walkway Court Redevelopment Project. He and his counterparts have a presentation for us tonight, but before we get into that, I just know if the councilors have any burning questions before we get started. Otherwise, we'll do the presentation first. We'll take questions from councilors, and then I know we have some members of the public who would like to speak as well. So we'll start with you.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Thank you very much.
[Nicole Morell]: One second. Sorry. Yeah, let's see that you go. You're on perfect.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Can you hear me now?
[Nicole Morell]: Yes.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Okay. Again, Madam President, thank you very much. And in councils, thank you for having us here today. I wanted to provide you with a brief update on the housing authorities activities. And in particular, to provide you with some information insofar as Walkling Court and where we're at with that redevelopment project. We have a PowerPoint. Are we able to get on?
[SPEAKER_12]: I've handed out to you a printout of the PowerPoint.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Should be able to see your screen now.
[SPEAKER_12]: Excellent.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: OK, Madam President, if you'll turn to the first page, it says Medford Housing Authority reinvestment goals.
[Nicole Morell]: I just want to mute that computer. OK.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: The Housing Authority right now has a portfolio of 851 affordable housing units that are located in Medford. I'll touch upon just a moment from now on the addition of 22 units through the redevelopment of 121 Riverside salt install project construction project. But at this point in time, it's 851. Those units are all deeply affordable. And in so far as 121 Riverside is concerned, the next slide. The Saltonstone renovation, that project closed in May of this year. That construction project is $105 million that we are investing in the redevelopment of that site. That site was built in the mid to late 60s. It needs a great deal of renovation of that. And that is a total gut construction project. Modernization of the 200 existing units, they include new central AC, ventilation, plumbing, electrical kitchens, and baths, and community space. And as I indicated, an additional 22 affordable units will be created. If you look at the picture on this page, you'll see the 11th floor. You'll see the 11th floor in the picture at the top. That is when you walk out of the elevator. The first thing you see is if the wall is still there is the opposite wall. We actually are taking down the facade of the building. The brick facade is coming off and behind that is the cinder block that holds that up. That is being taken down if you were to drive by. that's self-installed now. If you were on the highway going into Boston, if you looked up, you'll see on the 11th floor plastic, because there are no walls. So that when you come out of the elevator, now you don't even see the far wall that's pictured here, because there is no far wall, because we're putting in additional support into the building itself. That is necessary for a building of that age. That's our first construction project, our first redevelopment or reinvestment into the Housing Authority's property. Walklane Court is the second. Gabriel Ciccarello. is our Director of Modernization and Procurement. Gabe, in a moment, is going to go through what we're specifically doing at Walkling. But Walkling is expected to close in phase one of that project in June of next year. Thirdly is that we are looking for further redevelopment of the Housing Authority's properties And we're looking specifically at the Pre Village, where we're currently undertaking a physical needs assessment of the property. And we're also investigating what efforts are necessary for our other sites to modernize the Housing Authority's properties. All of the properties are fairly old. Some of them do not meet current needs, and that's where we are with the Walkland Court project. I'm going to let Gabe go further. And what I'd ask is, if you have any questions, if there are any questions, we'll certainly be glad to answer those. But if you'd like to hold those to the end, we'll be more than happy to do that collectively.
[Nicole Morell]: Absolutely.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: All right. Thank you. In addition, before I continue on, Margaret Moran is our development consultant. And she is here with us tonight, who will be able to answer any technical questions that you may have about the ongoing project. Thank you.
[Ciccariello]: Good evening, everybody. Thank you so much for meeting with us this evening. My name's Gabe Ciccariello, as Jeff stated. I'm the Director of Modernization and Procurement with the Medford Housing Authority. I've been working with Jeff in public housing for over 20 years now. I joined him in Medford a few months after he came here. And as Jeff stated, we operate, manage, and own a little over 850 units of public housing. We also administer close to 1,000 Section 8 vouchers or affordable housing vouchers. So the Medford Housing Authority is the largest provider of affordable housing in the city. We're going to get into Walkland Court a little bit, and kind of why we're here before you this evening. So the existing site at Walkland Court, it's 144 units of state-aided public housing for existing low-income senior and disabled households. All units there are deeply affordable, with the resident rent calculated at a maximum of 30% of their income. Historically and to date, Walkman Court has received insufficient funding operating subsidy to address its physical needs. There's just a few pictures we've included on this slide just to kind of show a little bit of what's going on within the building. It's built in 1963 and suffers from a couple of the main things. Number one, it's a poor physical condition, ventilation, is poor, if non-existent within the buildings. The plumbing, electrical are all original. So it has not received what we like to call a comprehensive modernization since it was built. But the biggest thing we really, how we look at the buildings is they lack the accessibility features really needed for an elderly and disabled population where half of the units need to be assessed by STAIRS. So, We like to inform everybody when we speak about this proposed redevelopment, we get a lot of what's called reasonable accommodations for our existing residents that live there that may have a second floor unit to get an accommodation to move from the second floor down to the first floor. So the redevelopment of Walkland Court is a local priority. And the replacement of the existing 144 units And the construction of possible new units on the site is included in the fiscal year 21 through 25 city of Medford's housing production plan as a strategy to help assist the city's housing goals. And really like what there's really like what better of a place to try to make an impact on affordable housing than an existing affordable housing site. And so the new units at walk and code would help the city of Medford meet 15% of its comprehensive plans goals to build 600 subsidized affordable units by fiscal year 2025. So this is just a bird's eye view of the Walkman Court site. So the existing site, it's nine two-story walk-up garden flat residential buildings. Each building, they're identical. They have 16 units per building. And there's a community center kind of in the middle of the site. And there's a small maintenance garage. And it's a very interesting site, as you can see, because of how it's bordered. To the west, you have commercial space with Whole Foods and Starbucks. To your south, there's an industrial kind of commercial complex with mid-rise buildings. And to your east and north, you have your traditional city of Medford, you know, the traditional neighborhood, single family, two family homes, and you have the Mystic River, an amazing amenity, which is like a 50-yard walk from the entrance to Whatcom Court. And it's extremely accessible for seniors, disabled residents. You get the bus lines on Boston Ave. And now with the Tufts Green Line stop, it's an amazing location for affordable housing development for seniors and disabled residents. So this is kind of an elevated view of what the proposed redevelopment would look like. This is kind of from like the corner of North Street and Auburn Street. What we've tried to do with this is kind of scale the buildings from smaller on the north part of the site, as you get to the southern portion of the site or by the train tracks or the industrial spaces across the train tracks, we scale up in the building. So the direct abutters on North Street and Auburn Street, they'd be abutting similar structures to what's there right now, but we'd like to think a lot nicer looking than the two-story brick flat buildings that are there. So if they were to look out their rear window, they'd see a two-story townhouse building. And those are the director photos on North Street and Auburn Street. So I think what's possible with this redevelopment is 238 deeply affordable, high quality units in the walkable and transit hillside neighborhood. Phase one, which would be that mid-rise building on the southern portion of the site, would be 198 deeply affordable units for seniors and people with disabilities, with construction slated to start in June of 2024. Of those 198 units, 188 would be one bedroom units, and 10 of those being fully handicap accessible. 10 of the 190 would be two bedrooms.
[Zac Bears]: Can you just explain what you mean by fully accessible versus?
[Ciccariello]: So what a fully handicap accessible unit would provide is you have wider doorways, a resident that is fully handicapped, that is in a wheelchair, can roll up to their kitchen sink, can roll into their shower. The way you position grab bars and different Hardware and your bathrooms and kitchen it just set up for people with disabilities and also like audio Visual disabilities to provide within these units So there's a plan to have ten two-bedroom units also and within one of the two-bedroom units be fully cap fully handicapped accessible and That is in a six-story mid-rise building where the majority of the ground floor is actually podium parking. So it's kind of like one floor of parking and then five floors of residential units. Phase two would be 40 deeply affordable family housing units. With construction, all goes well would be anticipated to start the end of 2025, early 2026. 24 of the 40 units would be and a rare elevator accessible four-story family mid runs. And out of those 24 units, six of those would be fully handicap accessible for families. And this type of building is a rarity, not just in Medford, it's a rarity throughout the Commonwealth, throughout the country. Having fully handicap accessible units for families is a huge need. would also put, so there'd be 24 units in the family mid-rise, then 16 units within townhomes. So there'd be three townhouse buildings, so three townhouse buildings with a total of 16 units, and one of those townhouse units would be fully handicap-assessable. Every single unit on the site would be deeply affordable to households that are at or below 60% of the area median income. And tenants, again, would pay no more than 30% of their income on rent, And this whole redevelopment, the only thing that makes this possible is switching from what is like our public housing platform to a project-based voucher platform. How things work is that we get through your vouchers a higher per unit subsidy than we get having it in the public housing platform. And that just allows for better operations, maintenance, capitalizing for capital repairs, So being able to switch from that historically underfunded state-aided portfolio to this project-based voucher platform, it's the only way we're able to do this. So again, phase one of construction would hope to start in June of 2024. Our architectural team is currently in the construction drawing phase. The total development cost would be approximately $117 million, which would be funded through the 4% low-income housing tax credits, a permanent mortgage, federal and state funding, and MHA contributions. So, you know, we pool as many resources as we have, and whatever we can get locally from the state, from the federal government, we put whatever we can into these projects. So far, we've received a very competitive $15 million grant from the state. And we just submitted, on Friday, another application to the state, which could possibly award up to $10.8 million. We've also submitted for local funding. We've submitted a MassWorks infrastructure grant application in June. And by the end of the month, we'll be submitting what's called a home application. Currently, we've secured 1.95 million from the Community Preservation Commission. In this project, the city would be expected to leverage $23.70 for every $1 provided to the project. And this is based on a $4.75 million local funding. So that's a combination of the community preservation funding, mass works, home, To date, we've had a very active public engagement process that has allowed feedback and dialogue with our residents and the neighbors. All of the meetings have been held at our Walkling Court community room, so that it's very accessible for all of our residents, accessible for the neighbors who don't have to go far to attend. We've had seven resident meetings to date. We provided with our PDD application to the community development board, um, some letters at 78 letters support from our residents. Um, we've had five full community meetings and we've had a lot of meetings with, with the city of Medford, um, staff, including the planning department, fire department and historical commission. And as I stated, we just last month submitted, um, the plan development district of PDD application. And the next slide, this is the final slide. This is just some of the key topics that are discussed or that have come up during our resident and community engagement process. And one of them is density and height. So the key goal of this project is to provide elevator access to seniors and residents with disabilities and families. And the senior mid-rise building is six stories. Again, as I discussed with the first floor, community space, administrative offices, and podium parking. And then a family mid-rise of four stories, again, to allow for construction of elevators. So going a little higher provides you a more efficient footprint to allow for the creation of more open space. So one of the things we've heard in the residents, the staff, the community, It is a beautiful site. It's a nice space between the buildings. So we're trying to recreate that in areas where we can. We know how important the landscaping is. So we really have spent a lot of detail, a lot of time on trying to create really nice, usable landscape spaces. The ground floor, yeah, it's at the ground floor of the scene, mid-rise, it's podium parking. As I stated before, we tried to, carefully place the density on site based on the surrounding uses. So the senior mid-rise is adjacent to the industrial mid-rise building across from the train tracks. So the abutters, the neighbors right now, they look out on North Street, they're looking at a mid-rise building. We just hope they'd be looking at a nicer residential mid-rise building when this is done. The noise of the passing trains. So we onboarded a while back an acoustical engineer. The site facade is going to be designed to meet HUD noise requirements and you obtain that through triple glazed windows, better insulation. And the way we position the buildings, the noise will actually be greatly improved from the current situation. So not only for the remainder of the site, but for people living on North Street and Auburn Street, the way the building's positioned will reduce the noise that they're experiencing from the train. So we've discussed access to the site. How do we get to and from the site? Right now there's two access points, one from North Street, one off of Auburn Street. We're creating a through street through the site. So you'll be able to enter from North Street and come out onto Auburn Street. So this just provides better access to the new buildings. It provides better, we've met with fire department. It provides better emergency access to their fire apparatus and ambulances. And it will be designed to ensure pedestrian safety through traffic calming measures. And so one of the topics that was brought up was environmental justice. And a goal of this project is to remove any hazardous materials that are encountered on the site. We have completed already a phase one and phase two environmental site assessment. As I said, asbestos remediation and any soil remediation would meet state and federal requirements. And the project is subject to a HUD environmental review. Actually, I'm sorry, there is one more slide. I'll try to get through this quickly. So this is just kind of the top point. So the number one thing we're looking to preserve the 144 existing deeply affordable housing units for low-income seniors and disabled households. We're looking to build 94 additionally deeply affordable units. in the transit rich community within walking distance to Boston Ave bus lines and the Tufts Green Line stop and provide a range of housing through the inclusion of elevator accessible family units and smaller family units. So we're incorporating a fair amount of one bedroom family units because there is a need for that. And then improving sustainability and resiliency to climate change. So we're going to be with this project, we'll be meeting state and city sustainability requirements and enterprise green communities. We'll be improving energy efficiency, ventilation and HVAC, the stormwater management on the site. And again, removing any hazardous materials and really trying to integrate the walk and court site into the neighborhood through the street design through street, we discussed landscaping and the transition of density, as I discussed across the site from the North of the site to the South. And the economic benefit, when you look at this as a whole, it's 166 million in local economic activity through the construction, which would generate support up to 968 good paying full-time jobs.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.
[George Scarpelli]: Mr. Chigrello, thank you so much. Mr. Driscoll, I know your team has been amazing. There's been some talk and I just wanted to, I know that you mentioned it, but the community has been involved. There's been outreach. I know we've had some phone calls saying that some of the parts of the community haven't been involved in what's going on. And then I've talked to other people that live in those same neighborhoods that have said, oh no, we've been directly involved. So I just wanted to spell any rumors or, so can we talk about that?
[Ciccariello]: Yeah, so I can speak to that, thank you. So legally, we're supposed to provide like a legal notice to any abutters within 400 feet of any Walkling Court property line. But so we did those like legal mailings, snail mail, stamp, but we also flyered way further, like 800 to 1,000 feet out to the community, mainly focusing on the residential single and two family homes. So we went out way past the 400 feet for every meeting and delivering to people's doorsteps. And then we also like just posted that, you know, we know it's a heavily commuted and traffic neighborhoods on Auburn Street, North Street. there were flyers placed on telephone poles and stuff like that. So people walking through, they could be informed about the meeting.
[George Scarpelli]: So have you seen the attendance? Has it been good?
[Ciccariello]: We've had standing room only. Okay. Some of the meetings. So the, the, the surrounding neighborhood is it's great. They're very involved and they, they love the walking courts. You know, the majority of people, they love the existing walking court site. Um, so there is a passion for this site, which is great. Um, but you know, they've been very well, every meeting has been very well attended by both the residents and the surrounding
[George Scarpelli]: And I appreciate it though, that these are the questions that I would share. And the last one was, is the fear that with all this growth that it's going to just engulf the neighborhood with traffic. And first I'd like to see that we're adding underground parking. So it really, that eliminates a lot of the concerns with on-street parking, off-street parking, making sure that the residents aren't affected there. So I'd like to see that. As you can see, I know that we were just talking about this earlier, in the mornings, you have kids that are now 20, 40 minutes late to school in Medford High School because of the Winthrop Street corridor, that it's really, really busy. So I know that, I like the idea that now that there's an open in and out through Auburn, and there isn't the funneling in and out through one way, through the other way, I know that was always an issue. So that's a good sign, but have you heard, Has there been any talk with the residents? Have they shared their concerns that we've heard?
[Ciccariello]: So we have a few residents here. And that is the feedback that we hold the dearest. They live there. And I feel like we have an amazing rapport with our residents. We've had city staff attend. We've invited city staff to our resident meetings, community meetings. City staff has been there to witness our engagement with our residents. They live there, so they know the conditions of the buildings, and they know if something isn't done, and it may not be today, but five years from now, 10 years from now, this is a very rare, unique opportunity we have right now to make a significant impact on this site. So we have some residents that joined us this evening, but overwhelmingly supportive and understanding of this project.
[George Scarpelli]: For one, I know that this is something this council's been looking for and looking for affordable housing. being the fact that we can put it in an existing footprint, where it's really not encroaching into the neighbourhoods physically, that we're seeing that as a huge plus for us here in the city. And I think it's our neediest community that we should be taking care of, you know, when you're talking about our senior citizens and what we're seeing and local communities. You know, I work in Somerville and now we're looking at one of the biggest elementary schools has been shut down because of crumbling infrastructure. And it's good to see that we're seeing not just, you know, the Saltonstall building, we're seeing actual aggressive tactics and techniques to make sure that we're thinking ahead, and that when we're far gone, these buildings will be safe and be a solid footprint for our seniors to come, possibly even me. Not you, Zach, you're always gonna be a spring chicken, but for me.
[Ciccariello]: No, but of course, we hear the concern. It's change, it is change. But we feel like the density is thought out We tell people walk through, there's currently 144 households on site now. You don't walk through there, there's no, for these, especially the elderly disabled developments, there's not, it's minimal traffic generation. for these developments. So if you were to go walk through any time of the day, generally walk in court, it's a peaceful site. There's not much going on there. So we feel like adding 48, so it's a total of 98 units. I believe it's 48 being elderly disabled units and 40 family units. We've done traffic studies. We really feel like this site can accommodate it.
[George Scarpelli]: It's a little different than what we're seeing with other development where You know, we're having families with two or three cars coming in. We're looking at mostly handicap accessible vans coming in to pick people up that need to move around.
[Ciccariello]: And we're greatly increasing the parking ratio. With this redevelopment right now, there's nothing. Negligible parking on the site. We've incorporated enough parking. We've got plenty of parking so that it's not going to creep out into the neighborhood. It will be contained within the walking distance.
[George Scarpelli]: I appreciate your thoroughness. I know that we do have, we have very dedicated neighbors, some behind you that have dedicated themselves to be the the the voice of their neighborhoods and they stand strong to support and but I'm glad that we have uh educated open-minded people that are willing to make sure that there's a there's an open dialogue with everybody here so I it it's it in this society it's very in this time it's very uh it's very refreshing to see that um I think every party wants the right thing, but I also see that for what we need for our most needy members of this community, I think this is definitely an uptick and it's a way to protect what we should be doing, what we should have been doing a long time ago here in the city of Metro.
[Ciccariello]: And I try to stress in our resident meetings and the community meetings that it's not lip service. We're all in around, it's a, there is a crisis. It's a crisis. It was a different point in time, but there is an affordable there. We have six, the wait list, we just opened, we had a close for seven years. So people waiting seven, eight years to get a unit. 6,000, there's about 6,000 people on a wait list. There's a huge need, and this isn't gonna help everything, but as Jeff said, we have a plan. We're incrementally trying to tackle our portfolio to make whatever impacts we can.
[George Scarpelli]: Well, thank you so much. You're welcome.
[Zac Bears]: Appreciate it.
[Nicole Morell]: Thank you. Vice President Bears.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Madam President. Yeah, thank you for the presentation. questions. Um. Two lines of questioning. I'll try to keep it brief. I think it might be helpful to, um, although. Maybe a little beyond Robert's rules like have residents come up and then have the proponents be able to actually answer questions directly. Um but, um, through the chair through the chair, of course, but you know. In this meeting. Um. My two questions are just quickly on the traffic and Is there going to be kind of designed for keeping things very low speed like speed bumps, race crosswalks, etc.
[Ciccariello]: Yeah, that is a great question. So yeah, there will be speed. I know there's a plan to have speed tables, and we still we've had some meetings with planning. believe our design teams met with the city engineers, but I know we still need to, during, I believe, the site plan review process, we're really gonna nail down, hey, is this entrance a one-way, or, you know, we still need to figure it out, but yes, it will be traffic calming measures, because we don't want it, we don't want to make it a shortcut through, yeah, so, you know, yeah, so we're definitely gonna, You know, it's just intended to be access onto our site for our residents and visitors.
[Zac Bears]: OK. And you know, I wasn't going to ask this question until you said, there's basically no parking on site now, and it's not an issue. And you're adding a lot of parking. What's the ratio we're looking at?
[Ciccariello]: So for the seniors to see, so right now, it's about 0.5%. 3.5 or .4 of spaces. It's going to be .5 per unit for the elderly, disabled. For the family units, it's going to be one space per unit.
[Zac Bears]: Okay, got it. Do you, given the studies you've done so far, do you think a lot of that's going to end up sitting empty?
[Ciccariello]: It's a great question. I think it's adequate. Is there too much parking, or is, because it's close to transit accessible. For the elderly, I think we're good. The family, you just don't know. It depends if there's like a two bedroom, a three bedroom unit, maybe. The household may have two cars.
[Adam Hurtubise]: So if you may be able to speak to that, Marvin, you may have some better experience with that. Yeah, so presently there's 34 parking spaces per 100 people.
[8msxsKW1z_4_SPEAKER_26]: Okay. Good evening. I'm Margaret Donnelly-Moran. I'm the Housing Authority's Development Consultant. I work through the Cambridge Housing Authority, which is the development consultant for the Medford Housing Authority. I'm their Deputy Executive Director for Development. In terms of parking, as I said, we have 34 parking spots now for 144. So I think it's been underserved. But going up to 0.5 will greatly help the elderly population and adequately meet that need. We're doing the one space per unit for the family. And I think, for the most part, that will be adequate. There's a larger number of one-bedroom units as part of the 40 units. And I think it's very clear those unit cars will have either one or no parking. And then folks have to remember that this is deeply affordable housing. So the average rent that a family has typically in the Medford Housing Authority portfolio is somewhere around $600 per month, which is about a $30,000 income. So it's very hard to afford one car, let alone two or three cars per family.
[Zac Bears]: And the angle I'm going at here is more so on the, And I know this is pretty far baked, so it may be too late, but could there be more units because there are going to be a lot of empty parking spaces, right, if it's in the podium structure?
[Ciccariello]: Even five affordable units is huge. So one of the things we need to account for, too, is the visitor parking. Also, because you do have a lot of visiting nurses here and there that come, home health aides. So yeah, we feel that we have it lined up fairly well for what is going to be necessary on the site. But it is a great question.
[Zac Bears]: And this may be a long shot, but say you find that we have twice as much parking as we need in five or 10 years, would it be possible to renovate a piece of that parking to add units at a later date? Or is the construction not going to be sufficient that you could put something in that same location? I understand that parking infrastructure looks physically different than a housing unit.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: It's a tag team approach.
[Zac Bears]: Yeah, I appreciate it.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: I don't know that at this point in time there's any consideration of any additional units on that site. But there certainly are opportunities at other sites of the Housing Authority that would probably be more beneficial for us to explore. Not only, as I indicated earlier, LaPree Village, but we also undertook a master plan for the 121 Riverside. And there's a possibility right now for an additional 88 units on that site. So I think the housing authority would look more toward that than any further expansion of Walkman Court. Walkman Court's just over three acres, whereas Lippery Village is almost 12 acres.
[Zac Bears]: Oh, for sure. I guess I just mean within the existing structure. If you have a parking in the podium and it's half empty all the time, it's just space that maybe could have been designed differently. And we're seeing a lot of that in a lot of parts of the city.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: At this point, I can say that we're not investigating that. But as I said, I think there are opportunities elsewhere for that. And as Gabe just indicated, there's a very low percentage of available parking on site for the residents who are there now.
[Zac Bears]: And it's usually pretty full.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Yes. Oh, yes.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Thank you. My other question is about the shift to the project-based voucher structure. It seems a shift in model, and I want to make sure I understand it. Moving from, you kind of said the public housing model to the project-based vouchers model, is the property going to stay under the ownership and management of the MHA?
[Ciccariello]: Yeah, that is a great question. Essentially, our residents will experience no change. Their rent remains affordable throughout construction, throughout lease up, in the new building. And the Medford Housing Authority will still maintain, operate, manage during construction and when we're complete. So yeah, we are gonna still maintain ownership and management operation of the development.
[8msxsKW1z_4_SPEAKER_26]: So the switch from public housing to the project-based voucher program is really an attempt to bring more federal resources to the project. And I'll speak to the salt and salt property first. The housing authority went through a process with HUD where submitted a disposition application because the renovation needs were so in excess of what any resource that the housing authority had access to. And in doing that, that application and being successful with it, the housing authority was able to We see from HUD 200 project-based vouchers that are being used now at Salt Sol to fund the renovation there and keep the units deeply affordable. That added to the housing authority and to the Medford community somewhere around $3.6 million of annual increase in income that the housing authority has been able to reinvest in that property. And we're following that model to a certain extent at Waukland Court, where we are actually switching it from state public housing to federal public housing, and then going through a process that HUD has created to move it into the project-based vouchers. Because as Gabe said, that income is much higher and more predictable than what we received under the public housing program, and even much more significant than what the housing authorities receive under state public housing. So the conversion to federal is really key. The other piece that is being used at both at Salt and Stone and Wakling Court is low-income housing tax credits. And the housing authority maintains the ownership of the land but uses the really one tool that HUD has that provides more meaningful resources for affordable housing preservation and development, the low-income housing tax credit, which incentivizes private folks to invest in affordable housing, and their return is a tax credit from the federal government. And we've been able to raise about $60 million of tax credits for Salt and Stall, and it will be close to the same amount for Waukland Court, where all the housing authority is promising to do is keep it as affordable housing check. We do that day in and day out, and to continue to operate it consistent with the program requirements that we have. And over the time, they will get their return through the tax credit. But it is a way to bring the funds that the housing authority needs to make these deep renovations or redevelopments to the equation. But as part of that transaction, housing authority maintains ownership of the land, but the property goes and is held by a limited liability corporation that has the private investor involved because that's the only way that they can get the tax credit. So there's a legal piece that happens that allows the investor to get their tax credits, allows the housing authority to continue to be the manager maintainer and owner of the land of the property and then after the 15 years when the tax credit investor has gotten their full tax credits, the property actually is, you know, is goes back to the housing authority to a transaction so Cambridge Housing Authority has kind of set the model for this. going back over 20 years. And we've seen properties go through that entire cycle where we've brought in a low-income housing tax credit investor. They've given us a lot of money. We've reinvested that into the property. And at the end of that 15-year period, those units, that building comes back to 100% control of the housing authority. But throughout that 15-year process, the Cambridge Housing Authority, in this case, the Medford Housing Authority, has all the protections of being the day-to-day manager of the property, as well as the holder of the ground lease, as well as other key terms and provisions within the documents.
[Zac Bears]: Thanks for explaining it. I think I finally understand something that I had heard and was kind of studying for a long time. I know this is completely out of your control, but that seems like a really convoluted way to solve for not funding public housing.
[8msxsKW1z_4_SPEAKER_26]: I always usually say that. It's not the way I would design it. I've been doing affordable housing development in the public housing arena for over 30 years, and this is the most inefficient way to deliver resources to a community. But unfortunately, it really is the only way that we can, as a housing authority, generate any kind of access to any meaningful capital to kind of do what's absolutely needed, which is protect and preserve the resources that we have and then look to expand the resources in the way that the MHA is doing with the 22 new units at Salt and Stall, but also the 98 new units at Waukling.
[Zac Bears]: I may just repeat it, and I don't want to take too much more time on it, just so I'm not completely off point. Basically, federal government created a tax credit that only private investors can get for affordable housing, and the only way for public housing to access it is to create a legal entity to allow someone to privately invest to get the public money.
[Adam Hurtubise]: You are good. Yeah.
[Zac Bears]: That's like four steps. That could be one step.
[8msxsKW1z_4_SPEAKER_26]: And then it reverts back to the ownership at the end of the back to the housing authority. Okay. And guess what? You could do it again.
[Zac Bears]: Right? Well, yeah, great. You know, I'm sure that's Yeah, I the word inefficient certainly comes to mind. But, you know, glad it's been successful in Cambridge, for what it is.
[8msxsKW1z_4_SPEAKER_26]: I mean, in Cambridge, So I mentioned about $60 million at Salt-N-Salt will be equivalent, plus or minus, at Walkman. That's $120 million of economic resources coming to Medford. In Cambridge, we're close to now about $450 million, just since 2010. And that's just not money we would be able to access. And we've used that money in Cambridge to do about $650 million of construction. Again, vitally needed because we had units in as dire condition as what the MHA has. And it's really a chance to reset the housing and really restore it as well. I think it's a real wonderful outcome. All right.
[Zac Bears]: I think the last three short things I can get to really quickly. You already answered this the last time we had a meeting about this, but everyone who is in Wakling Court who wants to come back is able to come back, correct?
[Ciccariello]: Yeah, exactly. So every existing resident has what's called the right to return. So every existing resident walking court will have the right to return to the new mid-rise building.
[Zac Bears]: And does this low-income tax credit structure or the project-based voucher structure change eligibility for residents or change how much they're paying compared to what they pay now?
[8msxsKW1z_4_SPEAKER_26]: So the rent structure is still based on percentage of income. So it's 30% of the income which is comparable to what it is on the state public housing side. There's some slight differences. For many residents, I think they'll actually see a small decrease in rent because there's a little extra deductions on the federal side that exist on the state side. There are a few instances where there will be some residents who have an exclusion of earned income that we will work with to mitigate or lessen the increase that they might face, but it's literally a handful of folks. But programmatically, it's very much the same. The eligibility overall, you know, everybody will have the right to return. If for some reason they're over income, then the housing authority just would not take the tax credits in that unit so that we would fulfill the commitment made to the residents. And then going forward, the eligibility is 60% of area median income, which is slightly lower, I think, right now. Is it 80% for state housing? So the ban will go slightly down, but that's consistent with the low-income housing tax credit requirements.
[Zac Bears]: Okay, got it. I think that's it for now. Thank you, I appreciate it.
[Nicole Morell]: Thank you. Councilor Hollis.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you so much. Really appreciate the presentation. As in the previous times, this project has come before the council into a really compelling picture, and I appreciate the presentation. I think it helps clarify it helps me visualize why this is a really good site to invest in to put more affordable housing in to put more dense affordable housing in, especially now that we have even more transit along this corridor. And of course, there's not many opportunities that as a community, we get to make a double digit percentage leap towards our sustainable unit goals as a city. So that's extremely exciting. And I appreciate also the discussion of like, can we be doing even better on the land that we have an opportunity to redevelop right now? So thank you so much for that. Since we were just talking about AMI, I always wanna make sure that I'm understanding those distinctions just a little more clearly. And I know in the presentation you just mentioned, it's going to be at or below 60%. AMI, I was curious if there's a further breakdown, if it's like X many units at 30% and then at 60%, or is that everybody's going to be at or below 60% and... Yeah, this is totally inside baseball, but I appreciate the question.
[8msxsKW1z_4_SPEAKER_26]: So under the qualified allocation plan that the state sets up for handling how low income housing tax credit projects work, today we have a requirement that a minimum of 13% of the units be set aside for folks who are at 30% of area median income or lower. So if you were a typical developer, not a public housing agency, your requirement would be 13% of your total units, and you would pretty much adhere to that. But the housing authority, you'll be on a wait list. You'll come in based on the date of your application. You could be at 60%, you could be at 0%, you'll get housed irrespective of that provided, of course, we meet that 13% requirement. What I've found my many years working with the housing authorities, most applicants on the housing authorities waiting list are below 30% of area median income. So our development will be typically more to meeting the 30% requirement. rather than the 60% number. You know, we do get folks who are between 40 and 50%, they'll be housed as well, because they'll be coming up on the waiting list, but the majority of the folks will actually be 30% of area median income or below.
[Kit Collins]: Okay, thank you. And just to check my understanding and also to check my hearing, because the acoustics in here are hard, what I'm hearing is you take people off of the queue, and usually that results in more of a shift towards the AMI-30.
[8msxsKW1z_4_SPEAKER_26]: Yeah, just because that's what was reflected on the waiting list.
[Kit Collins]: I agree. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thanks so much.
[Nicole Morell]: We'll go to Councilor Caraviello on Zoom.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thank you, Madam President. Thank you for the presentation. It was, as always, very thorough. Probably the most amount of concern that I was hearing from residents were for the two six-story buildings. They were somewhat concerned about pollution from the train and other issues. How are we addressing that?
[Nicole Morell]: said pollution from the train, correct? The height of the buildings and the potential pollution from the train.
[SPEAKER_10]: The six-story height, that seems to be a big concern that I've heard from a lot of residents.
[Ciccariello]: Yeah, great question. So the six-story height, as we spoke about earlier, to try to maintain a fair amount of landscape, open, usable space, to go a little, so the higher you go, the more you can shrink that building footprint. And we scaled the site back again towards the southern part of the site where across the tracks there's a mid-rise building. So our building will be right along the same height as the building across the train tracks. In terms of pollution from the train. We have existing structures. So three of our nine residential buildings are actually within the proximity or even closer than some of the new units at the mid-rise will be. So at a minimum, we need to have a 30 foot setback from the train tracks. So we have existing units that are right now within that footprint. And as I stated before, regarding acoustical stuff like that. Yeah, I'm sorry, it was 20, a minimum of 22 feet from, yeah, current buildings, yeah, within the footprint that are right now within 22 feet of the train tracks. The new structures need to be a minimum of 30 feet from the train tracks.
[SPEAKER_10]: Would it be possible to put a sound barrier up there, like a sound wall to play some of the noise too, also?
[Ciccariello]: That is something that we have investigated, but I know dealing with the MBTA and building anything within or with on their property lines is, I know historically is a big issue. I can't speak to that at all.
[8msxsKW1z_4_SPEAKER_26]: So, I mean, the design of the building itself will be done to really handle the noise so that the noise inside the building will be kept to well below any kind of measurable standard in terms of requirements. Very different from the leaky, not weather tight, not very good window buildings that we have in place. So the windows will be triple glazed, there'll be added insulation. The actual way the building is structured on site, most of it does not face direct onto the train, so it provides for a little bit of a bounce off of the noise. with the way that the architect has positioned it, but the buildings and the materials that are gonna be used are gonna really mitigate less than the noise, certainly well below any kind of standard and certainly well above what residents currently experience in the three buildings that are closest there. And then the ventilation system, you know, it will actually have a ventilation system that works, which is something that the existing buildings don't have, and a cooling system as well. And I think that will really enhance the quality of the air and provide healthier air coming in and out of the buildings than what the residents currently experience.
[Justin Tseng]: Thank you very much.
[Nicole Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Perriello.
[Justin Tseng]: So it sounds like essentially you've built the sound barrier into the building, into the walls. I mean, that was a major question that I had received from a lot of folks and it's, I think, comforting to know about the 30 foot setback. And I guess the second part of what Councilor Caraviello was saying was about air quality and insulation. And if you could speak a little bit to that as well and to what you guys are doing to mitigate that, that'd be super helpful.
[Ciccariello]: Yes, just as Margaret stated, so right now the buildings, one of the biggest complaints we get from residents is sound through units that their existing units are not insulated well. The exterior, just the way buildings are built now, and especially with how we're gonna be building this new mid-rise building, compared to how things are built in 1960s, the residents will see an amazing increase in the air quality within their units through ventilation, through, as Margaret stated, we're providing central air conditioning, central heating to the building. So just through those state-of-the-art ventilation, the triple glazed windows, better insulation, the existing residents now, the quality of air comfort within these new buildings is going to be night and day compared to what they're experiencing now in the existing structures.
[Justin Tseng]: So those things are things that don't exist now? within the current structure. And so a lot of, you know, what folks living there might be doing today, right? Like opening the windows, that behavior will probably shift with the new ventilation and AC coming in.
[Ciccariello]: Exactly. Yes, there will be operable windows in the units, but yes, they'll be able to have the type of system we're providing, they could in April, if they wanna cool their unit down a bit, they can do that. These new systems, yeah, they're pretty amazing. So the resident next door could turn the heat on if they're cool, resident next door if they're hot, they can cool their unit down. So yeah, the comfort that the residents are gonna experience is night and day compared to what they have right now.
[Justin Tseng]: I'm glad to hear that. I think it's no surprise that a lot of us have heard a lot of different concerns from folks living in the area, and I think it's comforting to hear that. And I do really want to thank your hard work on a project that I think Councilor Collins made the point that it's like, it's a double digit percentage shift towards our goal, which is, you know, our city desperately needs to meet. And so I think there's a lot of promising things about this project. I'm sure there's a lot of questions in the audience as well. And so it'd be great to, you know, through the chair, make this a forum. But I appreciate your work on this. Thank you. Thank you.
[Nicole Morell]: Thank you. I just have a few questions. I think most of them have been asked going last, and usually I'll get asked. So just so I understand, I believe you said this. So the increase in the number of elderly and disabled units is going to be 48, 54. And then, so currently, Walkling Court is just elderly and disabled. And now with this change, it's going to add 40 family units?
[Ciccariello]: Correct.
[Nicole Morell]: OK. I think I've seen maybe one email just concerning about how that might change. community vibe or, you know, the comings and goings of the community, if you could speak to that a little bit.
[Ciccariello]: Yeah, so, so the way, the way we try to explain is now is like our existing buildings, we're trying to better integrate the site into the community, because it is used as a cut through a lot of people from North Street. And there's people that work like Elizabeth Brady on Boston Ave use walking court as a cut through walk through to get to Whole Foods. And You know, we have two family, single family homes that directly abut some of our existing structures. So we say what our thought is, what's the difference from right now a family living on North Street, directly abutting one of our buildings to what we're proposing here that we think that it can actually be a benefit through, we have an amazing resident services department that we can, We're creating better community, like an amazing community space within the buildings that we can try to integrate, you know, and show the benefits of having some family units within the same kind of development. There'll be a delineation between the two and the seniors will have their own dedicated outdoor space. But yeah, that's how we've explained that. We feel like it can be an actual benefit to both seniors and the families on site.
[Nicole Morell]: Great, thank you. And with this, have you spoken with planning as far as this being subject to the city's solar energy ordinance, the solar energy systems ordinance?
[Ciccariello]: Yes, we actually discussed that. I don't believe we wrote any exemptions for affordable housing, but... Yeah, no, we are providing solar.
[Nicole Morell]: Okay.
[Ciccariello]: Yeah.
[Nicole Morell]: Great, yeah, because it starts the assessment, if you can even do it, and then the rest kicks in. Okay, great. Thank you. Those are my two questions. Are there any other questions from Councilors at this time? I know there are members of the public who wish to speak. If you have any questions, please direct them through me. We'll, of course, get them answered by the folks at MHA, but.
[Tom Lincoln]: Absolutely. Tap here.
[Nicole Morell]: Oops, you're already on. There you go.
[Tom Lincoln]: Tom Lincoln, 27 Gleason Street, Medford. I've been living in Medford for well over 30 years. I've observed the public process in many guises, including proposed developments, et cetera. I have some concerns about this. I don't live in Walkland Court. I don't live near Walkland Court. However, this project is being supported by public money, including CPC money, which is funded by residents' taxes. My general impression is the housing authority is kind of are independent power centers in communities. And I'm hoping that this project is fully vetted by the broad community. That said, I want to be sure people understand I fully support expanding public housing or low income or deep, sorry, I can't, deeply affordable, interesting phrase, deeply affordable public housing. I am familiar with the site. I think a couple of other things here that I will rephrase those questions, but first a couple of concerns. One is I think it's not just the neighborhood, it's a little broader than that. It's not just the residents and the neighborhood, but I think the ripples of impact go beyond that. Recently, the city went through a long process of developing a comprehensive plan. Among the major goals of that plan we're preserving and enhancing tree canopy, climate change resilience, walkable, affordable neighborhoods, a whole host of items. Since that plan was approved last fall, I think, I'm not sure a lot of progress has been made, but there's a lot on the agenda in Bedford. For that, is this on? I'm sorry. Okay. Doesn't sound like it. It's so good. So a couple of questions through the chair. I'd like to know the current percentage of green space on the site and what the percentage of green space will be after the proposed development. That's number one. There are a number of 60 or 70 year old trees. A lot's been talked about that. I don't think anybody in this room is going to be here in 70 years. Well, maybe some people will be, but not very many. Yeah, you'll be here in 70 years, sorry. I won't, I'm 72, so I qualify for housing here, I guess. I'd like to know what the plans are for tree planting. I would strongly suggest that it be enhanced. This is an opportunity to do the right thing. That's the second question. The exact plan for tree planting, there's been some references to landscaping, although the word trees does not appear in this document from what I can see. I'm certainly concerned about the through traffic. I think we're naive. We think that this has become a cut through. Traffic has, as people have referred to, has increased remarkably in Medford, and that process seems to have accelerated in the last five years. I live not far from High Street. High Street is to be avoided. Woburn Street, much busier. Auburn Street, that whole area down there is a bit of a traffic nightmare under the best of circumstances. So I think that's, you know, people use these apps like Waze and basically Waze will send you where they think the traffic isn't right through residential neighborhoods. It's been roundly criticized for that. Also would like to know if these are going to be LEED buildings at some level, gold, silver, I doubt platinum, but that would be certainly a big, big plus. Also would like to know if you're going to have solar panels on top. We have them on the library. Supposedly we have them on the DPW building. I'm not sure that's actually happened yet, but given the footprints of these buildings, given their height, They're excellent candidate for solar panels. And I hope that's part of the plan. So I'd appreciate some answers to these questions.
[Nicole Morell]: Sure. I can take the solar one. So we do, we have the solar ordinance that was established in the city that buildings that it's a 10 units or more, 10,000 square feet or more. They have to be assessed for solar energy to see if solar energy can apply. If it can be applied, it has to have a coverage of at least 50%. And Gabe did say that that's something that they're aware of and working with.
[Tom Lincoln]: So I'm sorry, I don't understand that. Does that mean the buildings have to be solar ready, or does it mean that they have to have solar panels?
[Nicole Morell]: If they are assessed as a good candidate, I'd have to look at the exact wording.
[Tom Lincoln]: If they can actually even put solar, then they have to have at least- Well, then my follow-up question to the proponents here is whether that assessment has been made and whether they plan, because if you don't plan it now, you're never going to get them, if they plan to put solar panels on these buildings.
[Nicole Morell]: Yeah, I think, yeah, they did say that they're working with that.
[Tom Lincoln]: So we can expect solar panels?
[Nicole Morell]: Yes.
[Tom Lincoln]: Okay, I'll take the word for it. So my other questions.
[Nicole Morell]: Yeah, if you want to address as far as the treaties and then LEED certification. Okay, you were about to. I was going off memory.
[Ciccariello]: I think I got lost on that. Let's start with the trees. So we've hired an arborist. There's currently 52 trees on site. At the end of the development, there'll be at least 52, at least 52 trees remaining on, not the existing trees, but there will be a planting plan, landscape plan of 52 trees on the site. We're trying to save as many trees as we can along the perimeter that, you know, on our shared property lines, but the trees that are in the middle of this site are going to be tough to save. And we're, the plan is to replace those trees with native species, as big of caliber trees as we can afford. Yeah, maybe.
[Nicole Morell]: Yeah. I think I'm probably trying to read Tom's mind because I'm sure, as you know, a new tree is not equivalent to an old tree. So same number of trees doesn't necessarily mean the same. beneficial impacts.
[Ciccariello]: Right, of course, but with with new trees and how that if you have a good landscape architect, locations of trees, the medium they're planted in. I like to tell people I was involved right down the street, the Cape, the redevelopment of the Cape and Cord property in Somerville. And we put in decent sized caliber trees, they're probably 10 foot trees within four years, it is amazing how the growth, they look like fully mature trees in four years. So just making sure that the landscape architect puts the right species of trees in that are native, that will thrive in the conditions that we put them in. Yes, they're not huge 40-year-old trees that are off the bat, but if they're done correctly, the rate of growth is significant and can have a really big impact. You wanna answer the question about percentages if we have that?
[8msxsKW1z_4_SPEAKER_26]: Yeah, so in terms of open space, right now there's 49,000 square feet of open space, and there'll be 30,000 square feet of open space. Again, we really try to balance with the podium parking, the ability to provide open space, but with the increase in the number of units, there is a decrease in the open space. In terms of the LEED certification, We're going after what's called the Green Community Certification, which is much more suitable for multifamily housing and has been around really for over a decade. And the standard would be kind of what we define it as equivalent to either silver or gold leads, leads being much more suitable for commercial type of buildings. But the Green Communities Certification is very robust and requires a lot of sustainable and resiliency measures. I'm trying to think what was the last question.
[Ciccariello]: And I'd like to stress, too, that the new, open, usable landscape space is going to be a lot more accessible, easier to use for our elderly and disabled residents, where right now we have, it's a nice site, but there's just like just unusable lawn spaces where there's no pathways through them. They're really not, they're really not used, they look nice, but we're looking to create actually nice outdoor spaces that can be easily usable.
[8msxsKW1z_4_SPEAKER_26]: Including like a circular walkway that folks can go out and get exercise. I think the last question that was on my list was around through traffic, which I think we covered, which is, you know, we're following the direction of the fire department. I think we definitely have traffic calming measures in the scope of work and I think the discussion on whether a portion of the road will be one way or not is something that we'll be taking our guidance from city staff and particularly the emergency service provisions or the departments of the city.
[Ciccariello]: looking at different options too, like having, like we have now two separate entrances, like what if you had just an entrance for the family site, a separate entrance for the senior disabled site, and we're actually having a through street, and she really greatly reduced the amount of impervious surfaces. So having a through street afforded us actually, you know, more open grave landscapes than if we would have to have separate entrances, like we have now, and except for the private apartments,
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Thank you. Madam President, I may just make two comments. One is that the arborist who has come out and studied the trees, you're absolutely correct. The number of trees is irrelevant. But what they've told us is that there are a number of trees there that are not healthy and that will be replaced by healthy trees. Secondly, is insofar as the solar is concerned, the Housing Authority has been one of the leaders of that in the community. We've had solar on 121 Riverside for the last 12 years.
[Nicole Morell]: great. Thank you for that. And I didn't mean to be dismissive of the number of trees. It's just not just not equal. So of course, Tom, we'll go. We'll see if any other residents want to speak. We'll come back to you. Does anyone else would like to speak? Or sorry, Marianne's behind you.
[Maryanne Adduci]: Marianne, I do see two North Street. I want to add a few comments here about the public meetings. Gabe said there were about seven public meetings. I think the very... Resident meetings, yeah. I think the first one was for Director Butters, which was... I think the first one was only attended by a couple of people. And after the January meeting, the next meeting was in April, and the January meeting, I don't know, there was probably about 15 or 20 outside residents there. So when the April meeting came along, the housing authority doesn't know this, but I personally spent $200 of my own money and peppered the whole neighborhood with flyers about the meeting. That's why you had so many people at your April meeting, because I notified a lot of people. The other comment I heard is because the neighborhood meetings were held at 6.30, parents with kids were feeding their kids at that time, putting them to bed. They couldn't come to meetings. Other people were working. So the other meetings, I would say, tops 20 people from the neighborhood, you think? Well, some of the, you also have to consider that there were some- Yeah, Marion, if you could just direct me. You also have to consider that some of those people who attended the evening meeting were Walkling Court residents. So they weren't all residents from the neighborhood. All right, so that's that point. As you all know that I went around with a petition, almost 99% of the people I talked to beyond the immediate area knew nothing about this. So there hasn't really been a lot of communication to the rest of the neighborhood. As far as the traffic, the traffic that has been addressed tonight is primarily inside the complex, but there are issues outside the complex. For instance, the North Street Bridge is very steep. It's the truck route. It's the route that the trucks use to bring supplies to Whole Foods and the liquor store, because they can't go on Route 16. When you have an 18-wheeler fully loaded with supplies coming over that North Street Bridge, gaining momentum on the way down, if someone should come out, either from Marshall Street or from the complex, that truck may not be able to stop in time if they come out without looking. So while they've addressed the concerns inside the complex, there are other concerns outside the complex that would be very difficult to address with traffic calming measures. For instance, I don't think a speed bump at the end of the North Street Bridge would be good because cars have to accelerate to gain momentum to get up the hill. And on the way down, that's not gonna work either. Um, even though there are one way streets all around the complex now people violate that they go down the wrong way. And that will happen even if you put one way signs everywhere, people will still violate that. So as far as the traffic issues, that's still a concern to the neighborhood outside walking court. Um, as far as, um, There's been some talk about the Elizabeth Grady buildings and so forth. I don't know if the housing authority realizes that the Elizabeth Grady building has been given permission to demolish the building. And they have changed the zoning for that whole property to allow for six story lab and office space there. Elizabeth Grady also bought the property on the corner of North Street and Boston Ave. So he owns the property from the tracks all the way out to Boston Ave. Now, about three months back, he applied. He had a developer that was interested in buying that lot to put that six-story lab and office space building up there. The deal happened to fall through. However, He's bought that property with the intention of selling the whole lot. So that's going to come down the road. When Elizabeth Grady builds that building and 200 Boston Ave, who also just got permission to build on top of their parking garage, a building equal in size to the building currently on the tracks, there'll be more workers that will be coming to those buildings. So that will increase the traffic North Street, and Boston Ave, all around the whole complex. So there are gonna be traffic issues outside the complex that haven't been addressed here, or actually really can't be addressed at this point, because they've been concentrating on the traffic inside, which is reasonable, because you want it to be safe also. As far as the buildings that are on the complex today that are near the railroad tracks, yes, there are three, but they're perpendicular to the track, not parallel to the track, as the new complex is gonna be. So the short end of the building, the stairway is against the railroad tracks so that the apartments are facing away from the tracks. So the other issue is the housing authority had residents sign a couple of form letters that mentions there are benefits to the surrounding neighborhood. So what are those benefits? We in the neighborhood haven't heard how this complex is going to benefit the residential area around Walkling Court. So maybe you have some ideas on that or you'd like to address that. So that's what I'd like to hear about.
[Nicole Morell]: Thank you. If you'd like to address any of that, do you want to talk about the benefits to the surrounding area?
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: First, I'd like to say that I don't agree with what was stated in a number of instances, and I'm not here to debate that. I will say that the benefit to the community is that we are providing a resource that is necessary. We are providing a resource to the individuals who live in that immediate area when they no longer can afford to live in that immediate area. and we are providing a resource to the community. That's the greater good by providing additional affordable housing to folks who otherwise wouldn't have that. As Gabe indicated earlier, we have thousands of people on our wait list. We're looking to assist those folks who live in the city of Medford. The immediate benefit to the community meet the residents in that area off the property. We've discussed that with the neighbors at the meetings. We've discussed the ability for the neighbors to be able to still come on the property and traverse over the property to go to the grocery store next door. We have indicated that we're attempting to be a good neighbor in so far as the way that we scaled the property so that the larger buildings are at the back of the property. They are not parallel to the railroad, but they're designed so that it mitigates the noise. The townhouses that are adjacent to the private homes have been done with consideration. We'll no longer have the larger two-story buildings that are looking over the fence that we put up on our property for the residents who reside on North Street. Insofar as the public safety issues, as far as the traffic is concerned, We've met with the city, we've met with the fire department in particular, and it is they who have provided us guidance as far as the roadway is concerned. And I'll emphasize something that Gabe said a few moments ago, and I think it was in response to a question that was raised. We are going to have, the planning right now is that we are going to have raised walkways. We are going to have attempts to mitigate the traffic going through there, whether it be with the design of the road, whether there's a bend in the road, whether or not there's parking, parallel parking, which tends to slow down vehicles. All these things are going to improve not only Walkling Court, but also the neighborhood, because now we're not going to have people who are going to be driving all the way around up North Street to come in the back entrance because they can easily access the property on Auburn Street. So there's a number of things that we've taken into consideration. The benefit to the local community as the executive director, what I've insisted on is to have community space there so we can reach out to the community. It was mentioned by either Gabe or Margaret earlier, as far as our resident services department. My hope is to be able to provide services to the people in that immediate area from our resident services staff who are helping only now our residents. But I'm hoping to be able to open that up. We have a significantly large enough community room to be of assistance to the community. for events if they want to have things. We're going to continue to have that to be a polling place. We're going to continue to provide services to our residents. I've been at the Housing Authority since 2017, and we've increased our resident services staff significantly. There's no reason why those folks can't be of assistance to the residents in that immediate area. Today there is. Today there is because the funding source that we receive is strictly state funding through what is now EOHLC. It used to be DHCD. And we're restricted from only assisting those folks who live on our property. Going forward, we're not. We're not, we have the ability, the housing authority has the ability to make that determination. So will it be a benefit to the community? Yes, it's nearsighted for us to be getting criticism that we're not going to be a good neighbor because we are. And if I can just address one other thing that was brought up earlier, and that is that we are one of, if not the largest landlord in the city of Medford. And we deal with elderly folks who live on family developments, and they integrate well. They may have lived there for 30 years. They haven't moved out. They integrate well with the community. And our housing manager for Walkling Court is here tonight. She also manages family units. Very, very familiar with the administration of our federal units. We're more than qualified to be able to do this and to ensure that the benefit is there for the residents. And one last thing is that we're a public agency. We are an open book, and that's why we're here tonight to provide you this. And one of the reasons why I reached out to the council to do this was I was contacted by someone who said to me, why is it that all the rich people are gonna live in the front of the development? And they were told that because that was the word that was on the street. And I think we've dispelled that today. Thank you very much.
[Nicole Morell]: Thank you and I do just want to know something about as far as vetting process or public process as this is part of the plan development district or this has to be submitted as that. That has been submitted to the CD board. They will hold a public hearing, then work. So public hearing again, they will work with the applicant to refine that. That then comes back to the city council public hearing again. And all along the way, there are chances for public input and any changes. Are you raising your hand?
[Zac Bears]: Even after we approve it, it goes back to public meetings for site plan review for details. So yeah.
[Nicole Morell]: So it's, there's many, you know, outside of everything MHA is doing, there's a whole public hearing process as far as the zoning amendment that is needed to move forward with this.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Madam President, this today was just for informational purposes only for council. And I don't mind taking questions or having to make comments. So thank you very much.
[Nicole Morell]: Yes, and I do thank you because yes, this meeting was absolutely at your impetus. So I appreciate this and your availability to be here tonight. Mr. Lincoln. Unless, is there anyone else who'd like to speak for the first time who hasn't yet spoken? Okay, back to you.
[Tom Lincoln]: I realize this is a complicated process. There's a set of societal goals. There's a set of goals for the residents. There's a set of goals for the housing problem in Medford, which is manifest and very, very large. But I think it remains to be seen to some extent, and the devil is always in the details, exactly what the impact or the proposed impact or the supposed impact or the predicted impact of the project will be. I would suggest that most projects like this have some deleterious effect, perhaps in the short run, perhaps in the long run. It's a question of balancing of interests. I had one other thing that struck me and forgive me if I'm way behind the eight ball here. On the noise business, if you put the building parallel to the railroad tracks, it strikes me that the noise will also reflect off the building itself into the neighborhood across the tracks, which it probably is not doing because the buildings are perpendicular. Has that been considered in terms of the sound footprint or whatever you call it?
[Nicole Morell]: Can anyone from MHA speak to that? I'm certainly not a sound engineer.
[Ciccariello]: So, yeah, so the way the buildings are gonna plan to be designed, the mid-rise senior buildings, is that the acoustics from the train would kind of like bounce off, you know, would bounce off the building. So they're not straight perpendicular, they're angled, so it would bounce off back towards like the train tracks, yeah. That is the plan. right, the building materials themselves would help absorb some of the sound.
[Zac Bears]: And when we say neighborhood across the tracks, I mean the U-Haul building and yeah, the lab building.
[Nicole Morell]: Thank you. Any further discussion from councilors or members of the public who wish to speak? Councilor Collins.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, President Morell, and I appreciate I know, like I said before, I know that there's been a lot of opportunities for residents, residents of Walkland Court already, residents of the neighborhood, residents across the city to hear about this project and to engage with it. And I really appreciate that thorough and very long process. And I appreciate the back and forth here tonight. I think that's why we're all excited to have an additional meeting about this project here because often we do serve the role of public forum in addition to our more discreet roles as a city council. And of course there, you know, there's a whole raft of specific concerns that I think we've been hearing from from certain constituents and it's really helpful to have this meeting where we can hear about how thoroughly they've been addressed and thought of and planned for and for myself as a representative, that's really comforting to hear, like Councilor Tseng said earlier. And especially having a discussion about, you know, what about pollution? What about trees? What about noise? How indeed are we going to balance these various interests and make this the net positive for the community that we know it's going to be? You know, for me, I reflect on what we started with at the beginning of the presentation, you know, the opportunity to create really modern, state-of-the-art, more dense, increased in number, affordable housing, not just for any members of the community, because of course we have such a discrepancy between the amount of affordable housing that we need in Medford and the amount, even after this project, it's staggering, the number of residents who probably wouldn't even consider themselves housing cost burdened, who are, not to mention the people who are obviously in dire straits and in great need. but especially to be creating state-of-the-art affordable housing for the disabled community and for fully accessible household units. This strikes me as an opportunity for Medford to take a step towards being a leader in that regard, and that's a really special thing. So thank you.
[Nicole Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Collins. Can I have my name? Sure, please.
[SPEAKER_05]: Name and address for the record, please. My name's Barbara Vivian. Thank you very much for letting us all come in today, both sides. I've been with the Medford Housing Authority for 15 years this month, and I've been the Hearing Officer and Reasonable Accommodation Coordinator for the past 12 years. I hear many of the requests for a lot of the people in the state development that were on the second floor that could no longer do the stairs, and I had to move them down to a first floor if it was available. And now I have people in our family developments that have children that are disabled, that are in wheelchairs, paraplegic, many different ailments, and they have no way to bring their children up to the second floor to use the bathroom. There's no bathroom on the first floor. There's many people that have aged out in family housing that can no longer due to the stairs, due to COPD, due to neuropathy, and a lot of other medical issues. And some of those families cannot move into an elderly site because they have families, they need too many bedrooms. So the fact that they're putting a family site on this property means the world to me as a person who answers these and hears from people that are the least fortunate. And right now I have to give them a Section 8 voucher and have them go out and search for a place to go that maybe they need to find a place with a ramp, which means that their housing subsidy then goes up. And they need special accommodations for that. So I just wanna say that from my position where I am, that this adding the family units there that have an elevator and have handicap units is gonna benefit our family residents as well as our elderly. So thank you very much. Thank you.
[Maryanne Adduci]: Mary Anna Ducey again. I wanna address something that Mr. Driscoll said I went around with the petition. I did not spread any information that was incorrect to anybody. So if anyone got the idea that the family units were for the rich people, that was fabrication in their own mind. I've lived in my house for 65 years. I was there before Walkling Court was built. My whole neighborhood has coexisted with Walkling Court for 60 years. We're willing to do that in the future. No one is opposed to putting public housing there. We've lived with it before. We're going to live with it again. However, we need to have some compromise, because people think that the complex that's being built is too big for the neighborhood. That's the first thing. do not like the fact that the seniors are going to be along the railroad tracks. To them, that's like putting them in the second-class position. The other thing I heard from some residents is they called the housing authority, they told me, and they said that they wanted a public meeting here at City Hall so it could be telecast, so that people that couldn't come in person could see it. It never happened. They only had the meetings on-site at Walkling Court. It may be a good idea, before you wrap up this whole project, to have maybe a public meeting here in City Hall, invite a broader perspective, maybe all the people who vote at Walkley Court, because they have a firsthand knowledge of Walkley Court, because they've been going there for years to vote. So it might be a good idea to consider that going forward, rather than just having a small little community meeting with the abutters. And you'll get maybe a broader section of concerns that people have. As I told you when I presented the petition here, I got 1,131 signatures. 99% of the people who signed were opposed to the plan as it's designed. They're not opposed to having Loughlin Court there, but they're opposed to the design. And I understand why they designed it this way, because they've tried to get as many people in there as they can. But there has to be a middle road here. And I know that that affects the funding because they have to have a certain number of people in order to get the funding. It's a balance that has to be worked out here. But the community is supportive of public housing. We're supportive of affordable housing. It's just that it needs to be reworked a little bit more. Thank you.
[Portrait]: Okay, I've grown up in this neighborhood. I'm sorry, just name and address for the record. I've grown up in this neighborhood most of my life. I literally live on the train tracks. Three years ago, you turned around and said to somebody, Okay, go and cut down trees. I had them there at 5.30 in the morning. I called the police department. The police department tells me, not my problem. Now, I understand about traffic. I've lived in this neighborhood for years. My street is a one way. I see people come up the wrong way, go down the wrong way, whatever. It's normal. But in this community that we're talking about, These people need help now, not next year, not today. They need it today. There are too many people out there that don't have homes. Like I said, I literally live on the railroad tracks. I'll tell you, in the last 10 years, I've had to replace 15 windows because of the trains. And now you want to put a third rail, and they're worried about a six-foot building. Well, I'm sorry, but if that six foot building turns around and eliminates a lot of that sound, then go for it. Because we have to house these people that are out on the street or have nowhere to go, they're disability, I'm disability, my house isn't just a lot handicapped and Rose knows that, she's been at my house. But I do what I have to do. As a homeowner, I have to clear off my lots like everybody else. These people can't clear off lots. They can't walk. I've met a lot of those people. I've known a lot of those people in Watling Court. Like I said, I've grown up in the neighborhood. I had to go through there to go to the Hobbs. I had to go through there to get to the high school. Sorry, it's necessary. And if you want to turn around and hear noise, come live at my house for two weeks and listen to the trains. Okay, traffic is atrocious no matter where you go, because everything is being dug up, rebuilt, or whatever, and they're sectioning it off into neighborhoods, not just ours, but everybody's. I came home from New Hampshire three days ago, and I had to detour so much around normal routes that I'm used to taking because of the construction. If they're willing to turn around and make a through street, because that's what the fire department is asking for, then by all means, make it a through street. But that doesn't mean that everybody else has to make it a through street too. And that, in my opinion, unfortunately, will probably happen. As much as I want this project to go by, it's going to create traffic regardless. We have trucks coming down West Street, which is a family run, that go into Whole Foods, go into the liquor store, go up into Boston Ave, because they can't go on 16th. It's not just North Street that hits the big trucks. It's West Street too. It's Auburn Street, Boston Ave, Winthrop Street. They're all in that community. They're all affected regardless. So yeah, you're gonna put in a lot more people in this housing development, but it's going to be a lot more friendlier too. And the one thing that I've gotten out of the meetings that I have been at in Auckland Court is they're also going to make community gardens, which is a big plus because they will be able to grow their own food if they want to. They will grow their own flowers if they want to. And that is only going to add more beauty to the project. These people right now, Like you've heard, a lot of people can't make the second floor. These buildings were built when I was coming up as a kid. My father retired. We bought the house in Medford. I grew up, went through school. My kids went through school here. And I don't turn around and have a lot of dysfunction, but This aggravates me of why people won't, I think a building going sideways would be a whole lot better than what we've got now because I listen to my windows rattle and roll every time a train goes by. So I can imagine what it sounds like in their apartments. And they weren't, my house was built in the 1800s. So I have a crumbling foundation broken windows, siding that's come off my house, gutters that haven't come off my house due to trains. To me, that's more of an issue to me, that people can get quiet time. Even for us, they have to turn around and figure out a way. In 93, they built walls. for noise construction. Why can't we have the MBTA build a wall for noise construction? Eliminate the problem. I'm just asking. But I think this is a great project to get and help families that have disabilities that can't walk. And as you can see, I don't walk well either. but I managed to get up the nine flight, nine stairs I have to get to, into my house. And I have neighbors, thank God, that help me during the winter to clear off my walkways. But again, I've been a lifetime member of Medford. I've worked for the senior center. I still volunteer at the senior center and I love it. And there's no other reward other than the seniors, because they teach you a lot. And you need to listen to them also. And unfortunately, a lot of them can't make it here because they have no way to get here to explain their views. Like they can explain it when we have the meetings at Watling Court, because it's a whole lot easier for them to get to Watling Court, where they live, and where they know what to do, than try to get here to City Hall. I happen to bring one of the residents with me tonight, because it's important. It's important that you have everybody's view. Yes, maybe the signs didn't go out like they should have, or they weren't notified like they should have, but this should be pertaining to, quote unquote, the neighborhood in progress, not somewhere down on on the Brooks School or down by Main Street. This is our community, and this is the people that you should be asking who, what, where, when, and why. And when we have the meetings at Rockland Court, yes, they do show up. The last three meetings I've been, there's been standing room only. And I agree with the developments because there has been standing room only. I get there early enough so I can make sure that I have a chair to sit in. But for other, there's no reason, yeah, granted they're 6.30 at night, but unless you have a toddler, I don't know any kid that's in bed by 6.30 at night. But again, that's my opinion. but I hope you take it into consideration, I really do. Thank you, could we just get your name and address for the record? Sure, it's Rosemary Portrait, it's 78 Orchard Street in Medford.
[Nicole Morell]: Great, thank you so much. Yep. Is there anyone else who would like to speak? Sure.
[SPEAKER_06]: Hi, good evening, my name is Jeanette Francis. And just address for the record too? My home address or street address? Yeah, you just give the street or you know, I'm the housing manager from Method Housing Authority. I'm actually the housing manager for Walkley Court. Sorry, cut you off, go ahead. Sorry. I just wanted to say that I know change is hard, but we're in 2023, we've come from 25, 30, even 10 years ago, things have changed. I'm talking personally and professionally, because I understand the importance of having affordable housing, because I've been there. Fortunately, I've been able to get a job here, and I've been here for 10 and a half years. And I'm very grateful, but I've been there, so I understand what it is. And as far as a housing manager's aspect, to be able to talk to someone that lives in the neighborhood, when they call in to find out what their options are, because there's not many options in Medford and not being able to give them one, that's disheartening to me. Like, to be able to tell them, I don't know. Right now the waiting lists have X amount of people on it and it's basically not moving. It's not a great feeling to not be able to give someone options. And I just want to let everybody, the majority of the people that's on the waiting list is people that's in the Medford area that would like to stay in the town that they have grown up in and that they know. and not be forced to move out because they can't afford it. So being able to add more affordable housing to our portfolio is a positive thing for the community. Yes, I understand change is difficult, but it's a positive change to move in a direction where the world should be moving to because affordable housing is a problem, not just in Medford, it's across the board. It's across the board. I live in Boston, and you can't even get past that waiting list because it's ridiculous. And affordable housing, as far as market rent, it's increasing. It's increasing. So a lot of people, and everything is not balancing out in our society as far as affordable jobs that be able to make you be able to afford what the rent cost is right now. So being able to have affordable housing in your neighborhood is a positive thing. And it's the balance. I mean, we're not looking to take over the city of Medford, but we would just like to be able to provide housing for the people that's here that loves Medford and don't want to move out and would like to stay here and not be forced to move out because they can't afford it. So I just wanted to just say that piece and I just wish that I can't wait to see what the outcome is this I'm hoping we're able to move forward and I'm excited to be part of this new development. Thank you.
[Nicole Morell]: Thank you. Any other members of the public wish to speak. Come on up. And just name and address for the record, please.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure. I'm Deborah Gage, and I proudly live at 14 Wackling Court in Medford. And I've been there for 12 years of my more than 20 years in Medford. I worked in academia for 23 years. And I was a volunteer English teacher in the community center at Wackling Court for five years until the pandemic, unfortunately, befell all of us. I just wanted you to hear from somebody who lives there because I've met retired nurses, bankers, gas station owners, bakery owners. teachers at Walkling Court. And I don't want anyone to think that Walkling Court is sort of the thing we have to tolerate instead of the neighborhood we could enjoy. So I just want you to know that I love living at Walkling Court, but I can hardly wait until we've got elevators. Okay? and I wish you all well. This was my first city council meeting, very interesting, but you all talk very fast, okay?
[Nicole Morell]: Thank you. Yeah, I think we've all, I think we've all gotten that note a few times in our life. Thank you. Any other members of the public wish to speak? Any further discussion from the council? Or do I have a motion? Do I receive and place on file? Or is there a paper?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Technically, the meeting is a paper.
[Nicole Morell]: On the motion of Vice President Bears to receive and place on file and adjourn, seconded by Councilor Tseng, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yes. Yes. Yes.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Six in the affirmative, zero in the negative, one absent. Motion passes. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you all.
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