Community Preservation Committee 03/10/26

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The Medford Community Preservation Committee held its annual public hearing to review Fiscal Year 2026 Community Preservation Act projects, public feedback, and department updates. The committee also received a presentation on the Mystic Shoreline Initiative and approved past meeting minutes.

0:20 Annual CPA Public Hearing and Presentation — Theresa Dupont presented an overview of Community Preservation Act funding history and reviewed $2.4 million in awarded Fiscal Year 2026 projects across open space, historic preservation, and affordable housing.
24:19 Public Participation and Partner Updates — The committee heard feedback and updates from residents and officials on accessibility, cemetery master planning, recreation facility upgrades, and affordable housing challenges.
1:22:33 Mystic Shoreline Initiative Presentation — Carl Alexander of the Mystic River Watershed Association presented conceptual plans for shoreline restoration, accessible pathways, and recreational improvements along the Mystic River and Mystic Lakes.
1:57:01 Meeting Minutes and Committee Business — The committee deferred officer elections to the next meeting and approved the meeting minutes for January and February 2026.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: All right. So all of that fixed. I'm going to call the roll to get us started. Reg?

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: And myself here. All right. And then we will have our annual public hearing. And I think that we're going to start off with Teresa giving a presentation about the Community Preservation Act program.

[Theresa Dupont]: Yes, and I'm going to do this so successfully, I think. I'm just trying to share the screen, so bear with me, folks. Can the folks on Zoom tell me if this is full screen for you guys? Fantastic, wonderful, thank you very much. Well, we are here today, March 10th, 2026, to conduct our annual hearing. just a lovely little shot of us all at a beer hall for our social outing earlier. So I was trying, there we go.

So a little bit about CPA. So the CPA Community Preservation Act was approved by Medford voters in 2015, which allowed for Medford to establish our CPA fund. It can be used for three different categories, open space and recreation, historic preservation, as well as affordable community housing. In Medford here, we can go up to 3% surcharge in other communities, but here in Medford, it is a 1.5% surcharge on top of our property taxes. We also received a small variable amount every year from the state's trust fund. That money comes from sales transactions at the Registry of Deeds. So more people buy houses, the higher that trust fund is, the less people buy property, the lower that trust fund is. So in its totality, we have Out of applause, we've actually awarded over almost $18 million in awards since the lifetime of CPA. So that's a lot of projects that may not have ever seen the light of day had it not been for CPA. So our split is about $7 million in open space, about $4.5 in housing, and just under $6 million in historic preservation. That's a little history of Medford CPA.

So this year, let's talk about what we did this year. Fiscal 26, we just wrapped up our funding award cycle. So these are just a quick little shot of all of the projects we funded this year. We'll go over them in a little bit more detail here, but just as a quick look, our total awards for fiscal 26, we've given out about $2.4 million. And the split on that is about 625 to housing, 640-ish thousand to open space, And because of a large project at the Brooks Estate, 1.1 million in historic preservation. Like I said, we'll dive into each one of these projects on the next slides.

So as we're looking at it as a pie chart, you know, that 2.4 million splits to about 48% for historic preservation, about 26% for housing, and again, another 26% for open space and recreation. It's nice little visual aid. So in a trailing five-year period, this is our revenue sources. In the orange on the top, that's gonna be our state match money. So as you can see, remember when everybody went crazy and bought a lot of houses during COVID, that's why we're seeing 670 here, just over 600,000, but then that's kind of dropped off. So the orange again represents that state match, and the blue is our local revenue. Our local revenue has crept up year over year as we grow our tax base and just the year over year increases that we're seeing. One thing that I did notice, and I pretty much punched up the numbers, is the overrides that were voted in actually did in fact, increase our CPA revenue too, because the more taxes, you know, then there was more of a base for us to put a surcharge on. So we saw a little bit of a bump just organically from the overrides as well.

So now let's get into what we did in a granular way. So our first up is our Tufts Park field lighting project. Yes. Yes. I'm going to move Doug. Doug, you're getting... Just so that we can see the whole screen here. So our Tufts Park field lighting project, this was a project that had quite a big range to it in terms of what could be done here. The original ask was for the full park, which was approaching about a million dollars, but because of budgeting, because we looked at this project in terms of the priorities of the park, do we need to light the entire park or is it just the priority field? So we elected to find Field 2 lighting. This lighting will actually be really great because it matches all the new lighting fixtures we're putting in our parks that are operated by remote means, like people can use an app for them. It's way better than the manual lights on, lights off that most of our parks are still suffering from. So that was about $432,000 award, and we're hopeful that that will probably be underway realistically next year, next construction season.

So this was a project that we funded last fiscal year, the Riverside Plaza Shade Structures. That's right here at Enmetha Square. Lovely space, but it currently has no shade protection. So during those high summer months, it can be a little brutal out there. The planning department has put together a really nice project that's actually going to break ground. I want to stay in the next three to four weeks. So this is a project that we will see happen this summer, which is exciting stuff. But once they got the project really underway, they realized they needed a little bit more contingency money. So we're really excited about this project. It'll be a great thing for our downtown district for sure.

And then we have our annual charge funding to our newly appointed affordable housing trust. This is to help them get their really their projects underway. They did successfully fund the Fells Bay West project to really finish. And now they're currently occupied three affordable housing units on Fells Bay West. So this was a big accomplishment for both the CPA as well as the housing trust. So we want to continue funding their efforts to do some good things, continue advocating for resource programs for really building up the development side of our housing efforts here in Medford. One thing I'll note here, as CPA, we want to try and keep our funding to housing at a 25%. We're held to a minimum standard of assigning 10% Of our annual budget to housing to any of the three categories, but we really want to try to make efforts to keep our housing allotment to 25% because this gives us a housing does it doesn't have some choice doesn't make your house.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: gives that allows us to be eligible for more state funding to support affordable housing.

[Theresa Dupont]: So by really investing in our trust a little bit more than our standard minimum that it held to, it actually opens up doors for us to receive other funding sources. So this is something that the committee has really tried to commit to, funding at a 25% per year standard. And 550,000 actually happens to be exactly 25% of our annual budget. And we'll hear more from, ooh, there's somebody in the waiting room. And we'll hear more from Lisa Davidson, the chairperson on the trust, a little bit later in our presentation.

And then we were able to fund Oak Grove Cemetery, the access road. There is a section of Oak Grove Cemetery that is currently really only accessible by foot traffic. It is the historic section of the cemetery where the Supreme Sacrifice statue, everybody knows this, the steps on the corner of Playstead and Winthrop, So there's really only one way to get there, and it's by foot traffic, which doesn't help if you have mobility challenges. So they came to us and asked for additional design funding so that they can incorporate accessible parking and formalize a parking area up behind the historic area of Oak Grove Cemetery so that visitors can come through the cemetery, park there, and then be able to come down to this wonderful section. We also did fund, it was completed last year, but we funded it three fiscal cycles ago, the restoration of the World War I Memorial. So we really want people to come visit it and see the great work that was done up there. So this was a great project that the committee wholeheartedly supported.

And just if anybody does have any questions on projects, there'll be time for public comments. You know, this is an annual hearing, so we want to hear from folks, but I just wanted to share the projects for us. But again, if anybody has any questions, we'll definitely be taking questions. So forgive the blurry picture. I don't have a great picture of Berry Park. But Berry Park will be getting a new community garden. It's kind of located behind the basketball courts in the playground area. But it's in the way, way outfield of, I believe it's a softball field. There might be baseball. So we'll see 24 new community garden beds coming to the Berry Park area. And I think the community, I would like to applaud the community garden commission for their work in really trying to find exactly where we should be expanding our gardens. It's not just, oh, there's some green space, we can plot it there. They actually went through and mapped out where all the 300 some odd names that are on a wait list that's been years long And they mapped out where all these folks live and then used that to really triangulate where we should be putting in these gardens. So I want to applaud their efforts for coming to the Parks Commission and working with the neighbors and the commission on finding a really good mutual location for this garden.

And they're really hoping this will come online for the growing season. So everybody sends some good juju their way. They're really open for a June 1 opening. Next, the Playstead Park digital baseball scoreboard. So Mombo Cat Field at Playstead Park is the home field for Medford high school boys baseball team. So that's their home field. And right now it's a great surface to play on, but there's really not any other amenities for the area. So for the past couple of years, Coach Oz up at the high school has come to this commission, really trying to get this project underway. And this year, we're able to make it happen. So they received $100,000, put a digital scoreboard in, again, really great, because it'll have that wireless access that just makes everything go way more smoothly. It'll have some sponsorship opportunities, too, so it'll continue to be a nice little revenue generator for them. Thank you very much, Councilwoman. Have a good meeting. So it'll be a great, wait for them to continue to gain revenue. It is solar powered, so there's less impact to the field, which is great. So we're really excited about another project that we're really trying to get out the door this season. I will take all hopes and prayers.

And our next project, this came to us as an off-cycle small grant application earlier in the funding year. Our friends at the Unitarian Universalist Church, we gave them some funding last funding cycle to do some restoration of their exterior. They had some window jams that were rotting out and some shingle work. So once they did all that, they came back and said, oh, would we be able to have a little bit? I think it was $9,000.

to do some preventative restoration on this large, beautiful stained glass window that in time will need some more restoration. But that's hundreds of thousands, so hundreds of thousands of dollars to do the restoration. So in the meantime, we helped fund a protective barrier on the outside of that window. Really lovely what they've done. And again, another applicant I'd like to applaud. They were able to do so much. with the small amount of money. Last year, I think it was $100,000. And if you drive by the UU church, it's night and day to what it was last year. So I want to applaud their efforts there as well.

This one's really exciting, something that's near and dear to my heart. Trees Medford, at our last meeting, came to us again as an off-cycle small grant application to conduct an invasive plant inventory and study of all of our city parks. Unfortunately, CPA can't fund the entire city, but we can start with our parks, learn some great best practices from this research that this project will do, and then hopefully implement them citywide. But we don't know what we don't know, so this project would really create a nice inventory of known areas of Japanese knotweed. The bane of my existence in this picture here, Black Swallowwort. But if anybody can take any one thing away from this hearing is if you see these little pods, pull them, put them in your pocket for a moment and get home. They're the worst. So this is a project that, again, they hope to implement starting late spring this year into fall so that we can really hit the ground running next year for some removal efforts.

Couple more projects. We did a lot of good stuff this year, so thanks for bearing with me, folks. The Metro Historical Commission came to us asking for $10,000 to conduct an archaeological desktop survey, we're really calling it. You hear the word archaeology and you think shovels in the ground and dirt and finding fun stuff, but it's really more of a research project behind a computer doing some archival research, doing some satellite imaging to really try to map it out. where we could potentially find some hotspots for archaeological interest. And this is going to go right up to the Oak Grove Cemetery boundary. And I believe DCR has a little bit of an area, I think, over there as well. But it'll come right up to what is city-owned at Oak Grove.

And another good benefit from this project is it will actually kind of dovetail nicely with the restoration project that has been ongoing for A long time at the Brooks estate. So this, this will help inform other projects as well. So we love to birds with one stone projects, which is when it's. Continuing on the talking about the process state to try and activate the site, you need to be able to have parking. So visitors can promise. So this project would help with the construction of accessible parking. as well as pathways to get up to the Shepherd Brooks Manor and the Carriage House, which is the long-term goal is to restore those two buildings to activate them as event spaces for the community, for the city, for residents. Somebody could get married there and wouldn't that be wonderful? It can be just community meetings as well. But first, you got to have parking. So this project will help make that come to light. Very technical drawing here. but that's kind of representative of here. Here's the carriage house, and then here's the manor here. So just kind of get visuals of the area. Really excited about that project. I think that's another one that's kind of trying to happen this season, if I'm not mistaken.

Next, we have the Cross Street Cemetery Monument Restoration. This is a cross street that is now located up at Oak Grove Cemetery. This was relocated cemetery from Medford Square in 1958, you can see here. So they came to us last year for a small amount of money just to do 10 headstones. They came out amazing. So now they want to continue to doing the rest of the work. I think they will be still looking for volunteers if anybody has an interest in learning how to properly clean headstones. They were always love sweat equity. So that is coming from the Medford Historical Commission.

And this is kind of a repeat awardee. They come to us usually every other year, if not every year, for the Housing Families Homelessness Prevention Program. Housing Families is based out of Malden, but they serve the Medford Medford community and helping folks navigate through, you know, legal challenges they may have with their landlords, but really it helps with rental arrears, people that are eligible under low income guidelines to help them stay in their homes, because we all know it is so expensive to go get a new home, it's cheaper to stay in the one that you're at. This one helps, again, with the income eligible folks to stay in their homes where they're facing some back-do rent. Big fans of housing families over there. If anybody has any spare dollars, they're always looking for donations. They're a really lovely organization. And our friends at Shiloh Baptist Church. This was a picture here of the groundbreaking ceremony. So we had Maisha there, and Roberta and myself were able to attend. But Shiloh Baptist Church is, again, another applicant that really has relied heavily on CPA funding. They have a lot of work to do in that big, beautiful building of theirs over in West Medford. So they came to us asking for a little bit more money to finish up their ADA improvement project, which is putting in an elevator as well as ADA-accessible entrance into the building. Because right now, I have to go up those stairs, and it's a little bit challenging.

They also came for additional funds to really kick off their window restoration project, which as you can see, the exterior of that building, quite a bit of stained glass there, and it all needs a little bit of help and love to get it restored to its original beauty.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: Can I just jump in a little bit? Yes, of course. Also in the picture, you see second from the right is the childcare provider. who is going to be converting the entire basement of the church into a large childcare facility for Medford. And that was the impetus for starting this elevator project was enabling the childcare use to be to be able to locate in that building. So it's a real partnership and opportunity to make this community building, like come back to the community and be more of an asset for the whole community. Absolutely.

[Theresa Dupont]: And this project is, I think they ran into a couple of snags with the weather, but they're hoping to wrap up by early April. So we should be having a ribbon cutting early May, which of course everybody's invited to. But it'll be very exciting to see that the years of work there come to completion. Last project, I promise. World War II fountain restoration. This is the Angel of Peace and Victory. I always want to invert the Victory and Peace, but this is a statue that is a fountain as well that was sculpted by local sculptor Emilius Champa. who also was responsible for the beautiful artwork that we see up at the World War I Memorial with the doughboy, the Supreme Sacrifice statue. This has been inoperable for quite a while. I believe the superintendent of cemetery has been there for about 35 years and it's never worked in his tenure. So this would see that the fountain be restored to come back to its original glory, which this is one of the welcoming amenities when you first come into the cemetery. I think it'll be very powerful to see this functioning. And this was brought to us in tandem with the Veterans Affairs Office, as well as our cemetery trustees.

So those are all the projects. I spoke a lot. I'm going to pause for a moment to see if anybody has any questions that may have bubbled up while we were reviewing projects.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: I just had one, actually, back to the archaeology. You mentioned that this project has no shovels in the ground. But do I recall seeing recently that there is a follow-up activity related to the previous archaeology project that did put shovels in the ground, that they are looking for volunteers right now to help with, cleaning and cataloging the artifacts that they found?

[Theresa Dupont]: Yes, so adjacent to the Brooks' estate is Thomas Brooks Park, which is a passive recreational park for the city of Medford. It's right on Grove Street. It's really heavily utilized by folks in the neighborhood, but I would encourage anybody to come and check it out. But it was the original homestead of the Brooks family was in Thomas Brooks Park. So I actually I played a little Indiana Jones and I was out there like sifting through the dirt and pulling out little pieces of pottery and glass and nails. And it was very, very cool. So we did that this past fall, but yes, we pulled out probably 13 or 14 gallon sized bags of things that now need to be cataloged and really inventory. I don't have off the top of my head the dates on that, but the Medford Historical Commission, Ryan Hayward in particular, is leading that project and is really, I think we can reach out to them and they would share. They also maintain a very robust website that they may have something on there as well.

[Theresa Dupont]: Okay, great. Thank you, Doug. Sure. Yeah, but if anybody is interested, Teresa DuPont, tdupont.medford-ma.gov, feel free to email me and I'll get you in touch with them. Thank you for mentioning that. And this is, oh, back to just to wrap this up, this is another project that we're cautiously optimistic can happen this early spring. We would really love it to be restored for Memorial Day ceremonies, but that might be a lofty goal. All right, and I think next.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: Do we want to pause and invite, before we start talking about outreach and what we hear from the community at large, let's hear from the community who are here with us today. Yeah. Hi, Cindy. Hi.

[Cindy Watson]: I just want to commend all of you for accepting. I worked hard on the ADA, which I believe was passed on July 26th of 1990. So you can see that it has taken many, many years for all of these agencies to be in compliance. Now, initially, I had people with severe intellectual impairments work So it was a rule that if they had a central function of the job, with or without reasonable accommodations, you could not deny them the position. So I'm not as knowledgeable as buildings, but as we know, our population's aging. We have a lot of people out there that are denied access to buildings because of their disabilities, et cetera. So I think that's wonderful. And keep in note, many of these come under the Americans with Disabilities Act. So thank you. That's a real source of love in my heart.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: There are not many funding sources that are providing for the upgrades that are needed to make old buildings accessible. And old buildings are historic buildings and to make them functional today, we need to make that investment. And CPA is, that is an eligible use of funds for CPA is making buildings, making assets functional for their intended use. And handicap accessibility is part of that functionality. So it's really wonderful when we can actually use it to bring a building into full accessibility that hasn't been.

[Ken Krause]: I also want to commend the committee and all the applicants that worked on these projects so diligently. This year's projects, I think, really just exemplify what this was all about from the beginning, you know, what its purpose was, what its intention was. There were skeptics in the community about this, if not downright opposition, but I think this really and all the years previous, but this one in particular really shows what can be done with this. And it really fulfills the mission in all three categories. Just want to clarify one thing for people who might be watching. an outdoor recreation, right? So you can't find an indoor recreation, just to clarify.

[Theresa Dupont]: As much as the guy that's sitting to your left. I love that. I wish. Unfortunately, yeah.

[Ken Krause]: Two other comments. One, I was involved with the advocacy for the Mont Bouquet field scoreboard over the years. The other nice advantage of that is it's going to bring visibility to the Mont Bouquet name right now, you only would know as long as you happen to come across the rock with the plaque on it. So now, anybody attending a game, walking by, riding by in the commuter rail, perhaps even because the scoreboard will be on the left center field, that brings visibility to one of the all-time great Medford athletes and Medford citizens. So that's good. Last question I had was, on the Affordable Housing Trust, they have a lot of categories that they're focusing on there. Is there any staff dedicated to that, or is it all volunteer? And can CPA funds be used for staffing at all, or just general functions?

[Theresa Dupont]: So we, the city of Medford, I think about two and a half years ago, added a housing planner to our full-time, to our planning staff upstairs. Now that person does support the housing trust. I will say that the housing trust is really staffed with very robust, highly experienced people in the field. But we do have somebody on staff who supports them. And to answer your secondary question about CPA funding staff, yes, I'm actually paid 100% from CPA admin funds.

We do have flexibility to be able to use our administrative admin funds to pay for staffing if it supports CPA efforts. So yes, yes, yeah. The more we raise CPA revenue, that admin bucket gets a little bit bigger so we can have a little bit more flexibility with what we do with those funds. And just for everybody who's watching, listening, I didn't call it out earlier, but of our annual budget, no more than 5% of our annual budget can go to administrative funds. So it's not like we can increase that to 50% and then start hiring a whole bunch of people. No, it's limited to 5%.

Which isn't nothing, but it's also, wish there was more. So thank you very much, Mr. Krause, appreciate that. Well, D. We're honored to be joined by Dee Morris, historian extraordinaire to the city of Medford. And Dee also staffs supports on the cemetery trustees as well. And Dee, would you like to share a little bit about all the great things that CPA has helped activate over our Oak Grove Cemetery over the years?

[Dee Morris]: Well, in particular, I want to give a wild shout out for the restoration of the World War I monument that we will be celebrating in particular this Memorial Day because they'll have the traditional Memorial Day ceremony right at the front gate, World War II. And then we will invite people to come over to the World War I area, which is not that far a walking distance, but we will also have some transportation people. And we have gotten now also some funding to get the access road to that World War I group because that was lousy. Not to dress it up much, but it was absolutely lousy because right by the mausoleums, and then you have the elk statue, there was a thing called a road that would bring you to the back of the World War I monument. But it was in lousy condition. Like sometimes trucks would go up there, DPW trucks, and park for a while, or whatever. But it was really miserable for people to use that. And the front stairs to the World War I area are formidable. There's so many of them. And people say, why do you have four million stairs? So that becomes a problem. So we did get funding, and hopefully that will be worked on this calendar year, that the access road will have. is to know what should be done. And so it's not going to be glamorous, but it will be very utilitarian. And that's what we want, something simple to get to the back of that monument, which is so extraordinary. And Amelia's Champa, the sculptor, is, of course, buried at Oak Grove. So we're going to have wreaths and everything for him. Because it's a family. This is a family cemetery. This is a community cemetery and the World War I monument and Amelia's Chamber exemplify that. So we're very excited to have school kids coming up there and learning about history and also the extraordinary sculpture that is the World War I monument. The guy is a soldier.

He's in a very ragged fatigue outfit. He's, he's seen battle. It's just, you know, that the minute you look at him, he's standing on his weapons and his arms are extended out to his comrades who have fallen and buried in front of him. So, um, I know when I brought school groups up there, you know, nine year olds, 10 year olds, I've said, so what do you think? And the kids, I said, what, what does this, What do you want to do when you see that statue? And everybody goes, I want to hug everybody. And I said, you're right. That's exactly right. That this is a soldier who has been through everything. And his main objective is to be a member of community and to love those who have given, as it is called, the supreme sacrifice. So it's having this repaired, renovated, Etc. Etc. And then having the access road redone Wow We're going to be having an absolutely fabulous place for people to come and meditate and we've had also Which is sort of a unique twist on things over the years High school prom pictures have been taken in that location. We should go what? No, it's great. It's called life and this is what guys done for is to have life and to have community. So it's an absolutely, we're so fortunate to have this amazing sculpture as part of our cemetery.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: A question for you, Dee. I'm really grateful that you brought the need for that project to us years ago and that we've been able to support that project and some other projects at the cemetery in phases. And we've also supported a study looking at the buildings at the cemetery and a study of landscape restoration in the cemetery, which I think that that landscape restoration hasn't actually been carried out yet. So what I'm really curious about is how we can get a sense of the big picture of what do we do next at the cemetery. The building needs, I understand that, does the house, is the house worth renovating? And- That's the superintendent's house slash office. Right, yeah. Is the superintendent's house and office, is that worth renovating given the utility of it for the next hundred years? is what use can we make of the beautiful WPA garage building behind that? And given the cost to renovate that building, where can the cemetery utility need, shed, be located, all of those are like big questions. We need an overview. We need an overview of the whole place.

[Dee Morris]: Yeah. And to, I don't mean nitpicking every little thing, but to get a sense of how did this place evolve. Right. Because it is a garden cemetery following like the Mount Auburn model, where people, it is not only a place where you place your deceased relatives, friends, et cetera, heroes. It's a place for the living and for people to walk around and enjoy. I see a lot of people doing that. I think it's fabulous. Like on a Sunday, they walk around Oak Grove. Great. They should, because it's designed that way, because it's not just, except in the very modern section, It's not just straight lines like a grid. And you go, ah, why bother? This is discouraging. No, in the older part, especially the winding paths, they're not there by accident. That was purposeful. Because that was to, like, when I brought groups in there, I say, okay, we're at the front gate. First thing you do, put all your concerns here, leave them at the front gate. And let's walk. And what strikes you? What designs do you like? What years are you drawn to? And people, oh, you mean we should look at stuff? Yes. But not in a notebook-y kind of way. Scavenger hunt type of way. Well, just looking. Yeah. And what hits you? What are the symbols that might strike you? And do you know what they mean? And why would you put them there? And people go, oh, you know, I've got something coming up, and then I need to sort out my mind. I'm going to come walk around here. And I've been thrilled at that response, because that's what the founders of the cemetery intended, was that this was a community place, not only and primarily, of course, for the burial of the dead, but also great high on that list for the enjoyment, relaxation, and maybe being a problem solver for people to come through and leave. You know, you can pick up your problems at the gate when you leave, but I suggest you just leave them there. You know, go out of here refreshed.

And it's because it's contemplative, in a very frisky kind of way. You see the birds, you see the squirrels, you see, I've seen turkeys walking through. And it's such a, it's a relief. And it's a place of joy, in many respects.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: So what I hear And I'm like thinking about how do we take what you're telling us and think about our priorities for the next year. I hear we need a plan for the whole cemetery.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: and consideration. To really consider the open space and natural environment, the history, the art in the cemetery.

[Dee Morris]: Yeah, it's a place for art also. Yeah. Yeah, so I think we need not just a type of plan or structure and what do you need here and where you put the cars and the trucks and the, you know, that's also essential. I get it. But I think there's also this intellectual, philosophical, emotional component. This is a rare place. This is sacred ground. It's not just a patch of land and you put people there. It's sacred ground.

And that's something we need to really look at. Thank you. I really appreciate that.

[Dee Morris]: Thank you. And there's the ages, too. Little babies, kids, people in their youth, mother who died in childbirth. And you go, wow, this is a thumbnail of life.

[Ken Krause]: One of the questions that came to mind, you talked about how it evolved. directory from our, like the different sections, like you'll be walking through there and this is the so-and-so section and these street names.

[Dee Morris]: As long as you can come across all that information, as far as out on the grounds, I mean, I don't want to get things all cluttered with signage.

[Ken Krause]: Yeah, I'm not talking about that, like going online and finding why this is all this. Yeah, that might be a small grand project.

[Dee Morris]: You know, and I don't mean just rich white guys. Because that just drives me nuts when people say, oh, so you're doing history. That must be rich white guys. There were all kinds of people. Yes. And we need to appreciate them and what they did for Fort Benford.

[Theresa Dupont]: You're right. Oh, thank you, Dee. Appreciate that. Hey, Kevin. Yes. We're joined also by our recreation director. I want to recognize Kevin Bailey. who has been a recipient of quite a few past open space and recreation projects. So we'd love to hear from you about how CPA has really helped champion some projects and what we may be able to champion in the future. Put you on the spot, my friend.

[Kevin Bailey]: Well, I will say, you know, when I first started, I actually wasn't too familiar with CPA funding, but it was really great. I know we met at Tusk Park, we talked a little bit about CPA funding and how it can help recreation. And yes, it is sometimes a challenge. There's so many times different projects I'd love to be able to find that is indoor recreation, but there are certainly many outdoor space and recreation projects that help a lot with the CPA. Just to kind of give a recap of some of the CPA projects that we have done and already completed, probably one of the largest ones was at Tufts Pool was our pool deck.

I knew immediately the first year there with all the concrete going and missing, tripping hazards, we knew we needed to do that over. So that was one of our first projects, doing the pool back over, adding a water mushroom in the wading pool area. After that, that was completed. We also did the Hormel Street Hockey Rink, which is yet another thing that the recreation department took over Hormel Stadium and the Hormel area. That was one thing that we noticed very quickly. seeing people trying to skate, or some of our programs and activities. Kids are very reluctant to skate because of the different cracks and the condition that it was in. So we were able to do the street hockey rink over, which is the only street hockey rink at MAPIT right now.

[Kevin Bailey]: And we have two projects right now that we received funding that we're currently working on. The first one is the cotton shell lighting project. That is something we've heard for many, many years. When we did begin to manage and implement the conning shell, there's a lot of performances that really struggle. It was about lighting up, or actually towards the end of the performance, how we can turn the lights on so that people can walk to the parking lot. So certainly restoring the two lights that are already existing on the stage would make a big difference, but we're also adding additional lighting so people can walk from the, from the stage area all the way to their parking lot at night.

[Theresa Dupont]: And that has a little additional, again, two birds, one stone, where that will help out the farmer's market as well, especially later in the season when it starts getting darker earlier. Absolutely. Yeah, that was a great project.

[Kevin Bailey]: And the new recent one is for Tufts Park, new field lights over there, starting with first phase is doing the Sambal Field II lights, which is where the high school athletic team also practices. There's also many things that the Parks Division also done that really benefits the Recreation Department as well. Some quick things to note, Duggar Park Tennis Courts has absolutely changed the way the Recreation Department does a lot of programming over there with not only pickleball, but all the tennis programs that are going on there as well. Hickey Park also has a new basketball court and a tennis court that we've been able to use and program out of. very soon, Placeton Park will also get a new tennis court, which is another area that we continuously have that is running for some updating as well. But one of the things I really want to add and one of the reasons why I particularly like the CPA project is a lot of times in recreation and our main development department, we're looking to do renovations and a lot of our big funding sources means that you have to redo an entire park or you're asking for it. millions of dollars to do a whole park over. What the CPA allows us to do, and you've heard a couple of the projects that I listed, it's when we started managing our facility, or when we really looked at the way our programs are operating, and we say, you know, we don't need to do the park over, but we need to do the straight hockey rink over, or it'd be really great if we can do this one little project, something that's under that million dollar. This is what the CPA funding has really helped us out with, those small little projects that really made a big impact, that as a department, when we're seeing our programs or we're seeing the permits and we're listening to people who are using the space in the open recreation areas, we know what kind of small projects make the biggest impact. At the same time, the other thing that I really enjoy about CPA funding is, of course, the recreation department doing a lot of the permitting and the reservations with the park commission, we hear routinely from people what they would like to see, if they wanted to see, for example, back in high school, we've had many parents, we've had the coach talk to us about the need of a school board. What I like about CPA is it doesn't have to be just a city department or a head to make the decision that this is what we're going to fund and this is the next project, but something like the school board at Placeton Park. That was the coach, that was the parents seeing the need and being able to do the work and apply for it. MYGS, Men, Hickies, Girls, Softball, is another perfect example of doing that at Hickey Park, of getting the structures and the dugouts. So there's many different things that CPA has also been able to do that organizations and groups have been able to work together, find that need, and actually find that funding source, grouping their particular organization.

[Cindy Watson]: I love the natural playground going on right now, Logan. Yeah. I would walk by them.

[Kevin Bailey]: And just one thing I do want to add, and I know sometimes people might also be asking, what is our plan? Like, what made us choose some of these projects that I mentioned? Sometimes it is permit holders, organizations telling us where the need is. But remember, we also have an open space and recreation plan that we have to follow. And that's part of the requirements to have CPA funding. And that is a document that we also look at when we look at what type of CPA project do we want. Here's a very clear guidelines of what some of those tasks are and what requirements are assigned to that task. And that's something that I have looked at. When we have decided to do a lot of the lighting projects like Tufts Park, I am open in the future. to really look more on the lighting projects in some of our other fields. One of the reasons is because it's very clear in the open space and recreation people wanted us to look at the lighting situation. And I know that's something that we can see as an observation that Tufts Park, Memorial Park, there are a lot of different fields that are still having integrated halogen lights that are on a timer and it's on every single day, whatever it's set to. people can see that. That's what we saw the last open space plan. People can see the lights are on when nobody's using it. So trying to digitize that, put it on a web base that makes it a little bit better. And the other advantage is a lot of residents who live near the park don't want the light spill going into their home. So upgrading that and making that improvement not only involves the open space plan, but it also helps listen to what the public is asking for us to update.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: That raises a question for me, which is the open space plan. I understand we've reached the end of the period for the existing open space plan and our staff were able to get an extension from the state to buy another, I don't know how much time, but how are we, do we anticipate when the open space plan may be actually updated? What are we doing in the interim for guidance to know what our open space priorities are before that's completed?

[Kevin Bailey]: Yeah, that was a great question. And I know Amanda has been working on that as well. We did get the extension. I believe it's two years. I'm not 100% sure. I think it might be three. That's not the correct number, but I agree. And we are working on a funding source right now to be able to fund having an open space plan. I don't believe we've received an award yet. but there is an application right now to help fund that project. Is that from an outside funding source? I do. I don't know exactly the details. Amanda Centraal at the Planning and Development Office is doing that, but I know she talked about a funding source to be able to do that. But in the meantime, we have collectively as a city department, we have monthly internal parks meetings where we talk about current projects that are going on in our parks. That is one thing that we did set some time and review our open space plan, looking at what we accomplished and what we didn't accomplish. There's certainly things that are in that open space plan that we have not been able to accomplish yet that will carry us through the next two years. But I will say what was really exciting is going through that plan. to really see all the different things that we weren't able to check off. But it is really nice to see when a plan is written and you can actually see all the different things at the end, what you've been able to accomplish. There's other things that obviously has changed within that timeframe that we've been able to also adjust, make improvements to. Like we said, there's certainly more than two years left that we can continue those updates.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: Other questions, comments about our open space and recreation?

[Theresa Dupont]: Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. I think last that we want to recognize chairperson Lisa Davidson of the Affordable Housing Trust. Thank you very much, Director Bailey. Have fun at city council. Thank you. Good luck. So yes, we're joined also. Thank you, Cindy. Thank you, Ken. Thank you. Appreciate you. Thank you. We do what we can. I think the folks online can hear people in the gallery pretty well. Thank you, John. Should have checked that a little earlier. Yes, I want to recognize chair Lisa Davidson from the Affordable Housing Trust here to share how CPA has helped champion some of the trust activities, and what else we need to do to partner with you. Thank you for being here.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: Well, first of all, thank you all for your allocations this year and last year. The trust is, what, three years old, I think, now, and we're just getting our footing in. We were able to assist at 100 Melsway West to fill a funding gap. Pause for a second.

[Doug Carr]: Yes, Deb? Is it possible, Theresa, could we move to the table? Because she's blurry behind in the distance there.

[Theresa Dupont]: It's actually hard to, it'd just be great if you could be part of the conversation.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: Thank you. As I was saying, I'm sorry, with the funding award last year, we were able to fill a funding gap that was at 100 Fellsway West that was able to assist in completing the project. And as Teresa said earlier, they're all occupied, which is really exciting. Isn't it? It's very exciting. Um, we are with the trust is now that we're, we're having more monies in the bank account. We're now doing some brainstorming and looking at our five-year action plan and picking some of the activities of what we want to, where do we want to go next? We've been talking about some down payment and, or equity equity, uh, buy down in, in, um, properties here in Medford to help. either help new first time home buyers purchase in the city of Medford, or those who are have been longtime home homeowners who need some assistance with their, their housing costs are now extraordinary. So we can then help with the buy-down of the equity and put in an affordable restriction on that property. So when the property does sell, that it will be sold at an affordable price to, I assume, a first-time home buyer, because what we are doing right now is all brainstorming. I look forward to the day that I could come in here and say about a housing development that we were able to fund from scratch, like from, from the shovel into the ground all the way up and seeing the housing development be part of the development in Medford. I'm excited about that. I can't wait to do that stuff. But like I said, we're three years old. We are looking and figuring out sort of to speak to the gentleman about staffing if we are doing programs What is the left, what is the left on city staff that is that supporting the housing trust and where in where the trustees can assist in maybe implementing some of the programs that we're looking at doing.

[Theresa Dupont]: Would you say that it's safe to assume that the biggest hurdle you have right now isn't that you don't have the expertise or the drive or the ideas, it's just you need more funding to accomplish these things?

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: Absolutely, absolutely. I don't know what the total dollars are in the trust, the trust bank account at the moment. I think it's probably about, we got six.

[Theresa Dupont]: 600,000 award went out, so probably, yeah. Yeah, maybe about six thousand.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: It would be nice in part three, but in really. I work in the housing development field, and right now, the subsidy to create one unit is anywhere from $650,000 all the way up to $800,000, and that's just to create one unit. So for a developer to come into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, the lift that they have to do, the gaps that they have to fill, the funding gaps that they have to fill, we don't have the bank account to actually fill those gaps yet. I know we will eventually. I'm excited. I know that the city is looking at doing a nexus plan, a nexus study, excuse me, that will hopefully result in some linkage fees that will go direct to the trust. So in addition to the CPA funding, we'll hopefully have other fundings coming into the trust, which will make it more.

I think we are blessed with such a strong trust. You have a lot of really great people. We've got some fantastic people on our trust. I think most of us have been in the housing industry one way or another for a long time. We have an architect. We've had former people that worked in the development field. So I'm really excited. I can't wait to give you a laundry list of activities that happened during the trust. Maybe not next year, but maybe the following year. So I have a question and a challenge that we've had since the beginning of the CPA program. We've been trying to build relationships with organizations who might build affordable housing in Medford. We've succeeded in Forming relations, I'm sorry, providers, and we've, Medford Community Housing by the Medford Housing Authority, but other organizations who've looked at Medford, they've talked to us sometimes, but They haven't put a stake down in the city. So what does it take to bring affordable housing developers to put a stake in the city? And I felt like, well, yes. It's going to be hard waiting to get money. It really is going to be money. I mean, we had a nonprofit developer attend our trust meeting last week who's looking to expand their efforts into Medford. But again, it really is the dollars. A lot of the housing developers are going into the state for low-income housing tax credits and other funding sources, but that's still not enough. We need to be able to have the money.

to come in and build and be able to fund those projects. I think what we are doing is, and we did it really well when doing our action plan, is we brought people in, we brought developers into the planning process, the community, asking for state, asking for their opinions. And we took that feedback, really, and looking into our application process for funding. I think we can continue doing that, but until somebody has a pro, I think some people are like until I have a project until there's funding, you know what.

I don't want to say why bother, but there is kind of what can you do for me sort of thing. But continuing building our relationship, inviting developers in, into the trust meeting, letting them know. People know that we're here. We put out an RFP last year for development, and that's how we got Medford Housing, Community Housing. I always would switch from Medford Community Housing coming in and applying for funds. I think it just takes a little bit of time. We're getting our footing, and we're talking to developers.

Developers are now approaching us, from what I understand, city staff, not necessarily to the trust yet. And we're sharing the information on the website. If you have any thoughts, happy to pick the brain. I mean, the purpose for us being here tonight, it's really helpful to articulate and document that this is the gap. This is the need. Here's what we have to do in order to accomplish that goal. So, um, you know, it's, it's documented. And we can continue like using that as as the message to continue asking for more and looking for more ways to And I understand that part of the housing trust action plan is looking for additional sources of funding. You mentioned the linkage, potential linkage. We're also, the city council has approached the trust about doing a fractional payment. Right now the inclusionary program is for ordinance.

I hate calling it a program, but people call it a program. It's really an ordinance. They have to create affordable housing if they're going to build here, if they're doing so many units. Right now, the city ordinance says that you round up to the nearest number. And instead of doing that, they're looking at putting some language, changing some language for a fractional payment. So if it's a tenth of a unit, then there will be a formula that will be created that would be a pain instead of rounding up to the additional unit. The dollars would then be going into the trust, which would then be used to assist in other housing developments. And the trust is also talking about fundraising, fundraising. Yes. Donations. I can't ask for donations.

As a trustee, as a trustee, we cannot ask for donations, but what we are doing is we're putting out the information about who the trust is, what the trust is, how can you be active, how can you sort of become part of what you can do to help the trust, to help develop housing. Creating a portal so that people can see where that opportunity is. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you for the reminder. All right. Any other questions from committee members? Doug?

[Doug Carr]: Yeah, just a couple. On the city board, we've seen kind of the affordable units in action in terms of proposals. For example, we had a proposal on Main Street that had eight units. and there was no affordable component. And then there's one on Salem Street that had 14 that had two. And the developer on Salem Street made it quite clear that if he was cut to 12 or 11, the project wouldn't go forward because the affordable component would become so big compared to the number of units that he needed to build that it wouldn't pencil out. So this is kind of dead zone between nine and 13 that will never be built in the city, I think for that reason. which is unfortunate because that seems like it'd be a barrier. Some units, some places that might be perfect for it, but if the numbers don't work, you just can't do anything about it. But I think that's where the developer conversation that you're having is important because you can understand how they think and understand what their thresholds are and what makes sense for them because they're going to be honest. They're going to say, that either works for me or it doesn't work for me. My clients have been developers for 30 years. have to understand their language in order to succeed with them. That's just one thing that we've seen just in the last few months with proposals that are coming in as one-story buildings that turn into three or four-story buildings on Main Street and Salem Street in Medfordford, just as two examples.

My other point, my other question to you was, I feel like we're kind of ceding to your group to be the resource and the experts on affordable, which is the intent, I think. But I think that means telling us where you think the money is best spent, like, to leverage the most affordable units. I don't know where that is. If you're talking about $700,000 or $800,000 just to get one unit, that's essentially A third of our budget every year to get one unit. I mean, that's not great. You know, I would obviously we want much more than that. But is that the best use of our affordable dollars in the pie chart that we have?

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: In my opinion, yes. Because you're creating the housing. I mean, there is a housing crisis here in Medford, in the state of Massachusetts alone. The dollars that are coming in, the dollars that the trust would be putting in would be leveraged with other funding. So it's not just because it's cost 600, you know, an estimate of 650 for one unit at $650,000 is going to is a piece of the puzzle is a piece of the financing that goes in that may be creating a larger, larger, affordable, all affordable property, right? So you've got something in other communities that have gone in and used their trust monies to do 24 units of elderly disabled housing, right? And with all the other different financing, they still had that funding gap. So the monies that the city could put in, that their trust put in, helped Fix that penciling era, right? It fills the gap to create the housing. It really, it's not an overnight. Again, I realized that, you know, the CPA is the only funding source right now. So, and that's why we're looking at other ways, looking at other programs of maybe it is a down payment assistance program. Maybe it is an equity buying until we are able to get the other funding streams into the trust where those streams of leveraging the CPS, bless you, CPA dollars that would allow us to fund those larger developments.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: Thank you for that. No, when you think about it and when you think about numbers and you think about the cost of developing, it can be depressing, right? When you're looking at it, when your ultimate goal is to find a way to create more affordable housing. And then, you know, some of our city ordinances, they add to the cost of building affordable housing. Inclusionary adds to the cost to the developers for affordable housing. Our stretch codes adds to the cost of affordable housing. So we sort of, It's a lot of navigating. It is. It is a lot. It's a lot of balancing. It's a lot of conversation and thinking about, you know, what is what is the goal? The goal is to create affordable housing, create sustainable, affordable, preserve affordable housing.

[Theresa Dupont]: I love the creativity of like the equity buy down, it's not swinging hammers, it's taking existing stock and converting it. So I love that approach.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: That's not creating additional units in the city. However, it is creating naturally occurring. Joan.

[Vice Chair Joan Cyr]: So I kind of look at this like the Walkling Court example. That thing cost millions of dollars and we were never going to be able to fund it. But we did seed it with a little bit of money to basically show others that we had skin in the game and that it brought others to the table. So I don't think we're ever going to fully fund housing in Medford, but if we can at least participate and bring others to the table with what little we can contribute, I think that's really the goal.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: And again, thank you, guys, for all that you do. I loved hearing about all of the projects. It's really exciting. So thank you. Thank you. We love having a captive audience to force somebody. So let's continue learning about the outreach efforts that we have undertaken. Yes.

[Theresa Dupont]: Hopefully I can just present right from here. Just a few more slides, then we are joined by Carl Alexander from Mystic River Watershed Association to talk about a project. So just a couple more slides I have and then we'll bring in Carl. So part of what we do is we engage with the community. We don't tell them what they need, they tell us. me as well as a large amount of our committee members engage in tabling activities. Cache puts on some wonderful events throughout the year, Circle of Swear, Mystic River Celebration, the Harvest Your Energy Festival, Farmer's Market, Holiday Extravaganza, National Night Out. Basically, if we can throw a table down, we try to be there so we can really get some feedback from people about CPA. So these are just some pictures from what we've done over the past year or so, and some upcoming events. This one has been It's still in the preliminary planning, but CDS will be having... Well, thank you very much. Appreciate you telling me that. Sorry. It is... Why am I not seeing it? Is it right in front of me and I'm not seeing it? There you go. Thank you. One more time. There we go. So upcoming events, PDS, the Planning Development Sustainability Office that I roll up to is having an open house. We had one this past fall. So it was awesome. So we're going to have another one on Monday, April 13th. I believe it's 430 to 630. I want to try to activate in our neighborhoods. We'll talk about it at our next meeting. But the citywide cleanup is a little bit later this year. It's May 2nd. So maybe we can do some engagement while we're out helping clean up parks. And then I want to revisit Saturdays in the park this year about trying to get out one or two Saturdays a month at various parks around the city just to engage with families and visitors to the parks and learn a little bit more, tell them about CPA and take some feedback. So we're always out there.

So we did publish our CPA annual survey. This is something we do every year. It's been out about two weeks now, and I think we have about 30 or 40 responses, which I'd love to see that number higher, but I'm actually really quite happy with that. And some of the, we want to highlight a couple of things here, but the number one question that we really like to get from people is how would you, if we gave you our CPA money, how would you as a resident divide those funds amongst those three categories?

I'm just going to move this up here now. So for open space and recreation, this year, with our results so far, we've got about 29% of our overall budget. Let's assign that to open space and recreation. Affordable housing is taking the big chunk of the budget. Again, this is just based off survey results of 47%, leaving 24% for historic preservation. So this is just kind of a gut check of how people would spend that money. We're next going to get into some of the specifics of, we always ask people, what would you prioritize in historic preservation in our open space as well as our housing? So these are just some call outs from historic preservation so far again this year or things I've collected over the past 12 months in our tabling activities.

We can certainly read through them. I really like that. There's some people out there who are trying to creatively think about how we can use historic preservation dollars. How we can two birds, one stone again with historic preservation dollars. So what I really like is historic preservation projects that allow expansion. of a property for more active use. So mixing our historic and modern to add more housing to existing historic buildings that may be underutilized. That was another thing somebody else said, is there an opportunity to convert underutilized institutional historic buildings to housing? So rather than just leaving these buildings to rot, can we convert them for modern day usage?

Some call outs for the Brooks Estate restoration, as well as some fire stations and our Salem Street burying ground. So not all of these projects necessarily are going to automatically be eligible, but these are what we're hearing from residents about what they feel is important as we're looking at historic preservation. Any questions, pause for a moment. We'll go on to, I think the next one's open space and recreation. So this one's a lot easier for folks to really engage on because Everybody goes to our parks, whether you have family or not, or dog or not, you're in our parks. So splash pads continue to always be a big thing. People would love to have a splash pad in every single park in the city. Some more trees. Actually, I keep having to move this window around, so sorry.

Tree plantings across the city. One person did say, hey, it would be great if we can pay for a program to remove invasive plants in our are across the city, we're doing that this year. So it's really nice to see these comments lead to actual projects being funded. A playground at Con and Shell is one I've heard that's an annual request, especially to serve the Medford Square families, because there's not really anything immediately here for them.

Some funding going towards Le Conte Rink. This one was an interesting one because the site that's the old Malden Hospital does have a very small sliver of green space that does land in Medford. So there's an opportunity to partner with our friends over in Malden to maybe do something to activate some of that space that's up there. So while we don't have many responses, I think what we're getting is really meaningful. Any questions there?

[Theresa Dupont]: I believe Roberta was just championing the partnership with Malden Hospital for that site. I don't know if you heard me mention that.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: Yeah, I was just acknowledging that the folks who are advocating for the preservation of a park at the Malden Hospital site helped us to pass CPA in Medford back in 2015. So without them, we wouldn't be here. And they're still trying to get that project over the finish line. And there may still be an ask in the future to take care of the Medford side of that project.

[Vice Chair Joan Cyr]: And I'll tell you that I'm one of the volunteers that goes with the Medford cleanup activities, and we're always cleaning up behind the Malden Hospital in Medford on Grover Road. Although I did pick a different location this year. But anyway, yes, that is right for the activation.

[Theresa Dupont]: Yeah. Well, more to come on that. All right. And last, our affordable housing category. Again, some really robust responses here. So as we heard tonight from Lisa Davidson, I think that there's an opportunity for our senior property owners in the city. They live in a lot of house right now, and some of them are kind of getting upside down. So are there more opportunities for equity buy-down, for co-housing opportunities? I think Councilor Callahan recently championed trying to find unique ways for co-housing, specifically for our senior residents.

been a big call for ADA accessibility in our units. I think we only have one subsidized, so affordable, accessible three-bedroom unit in the city. There's only one. And that's a high demand. You know, if you have a family with a couple of folks with mobility challenges, you need more than two bedrooms. So seeing some more focused shift towards protecting and helping support a lot of the seniors, disabled residents of Medford. Again, I plug the opportunity to underutilize institutional historic buildings here as well, because I think it applies to both.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: Any thoughts? I really appreciate people giving us all of this input. with respect to converting underutilized institutional historic buildings to housing, that we have such a limited amount of institutional historic buildings in the city. And we also have community needs as well as housing needs. So I would love to see housing development increase across the city. And I would also love to take advantage of any opportunity we have to, oh, Jeremy is, to make sure to expand our community spaces as well. So there's a trade-off in there.

[Theresa Dupont]: All right. And I think thus concludes our annual hearing. Thank you. I want to thank everybody. We still have a little bit more to come, but I think we have to officially close the public hearing. Is there a motion to close the public hearing?

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: Ada? Yes. And myself, yes. Thank you, everyone, for the public hearing. And we still have more to learn about our needs. We just didn't incorporate this particular presentation into the public hearing. Welcome Carl Alexander from Mystic River Watershed Association to our meeting this evening. Thank you, Dee. Thank you for coming and learning and giving us your opinion. Oh, thank you. You're welcome. We are dazzling.

[Theresa Dupont]: You were the highlight of the meeting. All right, Carl, you have the floor, my friend.

[CAS00002481_SPEAKER_01]: Okay, great. I'm also just going to share my screen here. You see my screen. Okay.

[CAS00002481_SPEAKER_01]: All right. Well, uh, it's getting later here in the evening. So I'll try to keep things entertaining. Um, and it was so great to hear about all these amazing projects and. Such great enthusiasm. You know, just projects like this are really the bedrock of the community. So thank you so much. It's really great to see some friendly faces and some new faces as well. My name is Carl Alexander. I'm senior manager for greenways at the Mystic River Watershed Association. And I'm here tonight to present on our Mystic Shoreline Initiative. If you're unfamiliar with the Mystic River Watershed Association, our mission is protect and restore the Mystic River and its tributaries. are found in 1972 with the passing of the Clean Water Act. And we really do carry through our work through a number of different programs and efforts while our core programming really revolved initially around water quality, but we've expanded, recentered our focus to look at more of a holistic perspective on what it means to be a watershed anywhere from focusing climate resilience, educating our our youth and our community members through stewardship and engagement, herring restoration, and of course our Greenways program, which I have the great pleasure of working on on a day-to-day basis. So our Greenways vision is to connect 25 miles of parks and paths from the Mystic Lakes down to Boston Harbor, kind of similar to Teresa's just now presentation, right? Really working to engage community members along the way and hearing and and learning from and being guided by kind of what residents want to see in their backyard. And as I was at a conference recently, right, in the living room of our great urban cities, right, or these great urban open spaces that we have. Greenways in particular, I worked with a couple of my fellow peer Greenways folks in the Boston region a couple of years ago to define collectively what we thought a Greenways meant. And we came up with greenways are safe and accessible routes for walking, biking, and rolling that connect people to places, nature, and each other. You can think of these as linear open spaces, connecting folks from A to B, allowing them to, as places to be able to go to rather than through as well and connect with each other and nature. I like to split up my work into kind of four different categories. The mobility aspect of it, but then there's also a wellness aspect of it, both physical and mental, focusing on environment, ecological restoration, and then also advancing our efforts around climate resiliency.

Our Mystic Greenways network, again, 25 miles. A lot of that is in the city of Medford and right at the trunk of the Mystic River Reservation, that's right through the city. has done so for a very long time. I'd say our overall vision is around two-thirds complete. Tonight I'm going to be really focusing our gaze towards the upper corner of this vision, and so we have a series of these linear open spaces as you head up towards the Mystic Lakes that that are in need of an investment, let's say, after decades of underinvestment. And what we've heard from folks is both community members, municipalities, DCR, across the board as an opportunity to address some pressing and ongoing needs for this area. So this is definitely an area of focus for us when it comes to the Greenways program.

The Mystic Lakes and the West Medford shoreline are, of course, remarkable environmental resources. They have great historical value, recreational value. Present conditions can provide challenges for folks when they're trying to access these spaces. And a lot of environmental challenges from invasive species to erosion, water quality, as well, is sometimes a factor. And so the past few years, we've done a number of different planning efforts to get to work to address these different challenges and doing some advocacy along the way. There was a community member who was struck and killed in a crosswalk on Mystic Valley Parkway last year. And we did a lot of robust advocacy to try to get a raised crossing there and try to shine a light on these issues. But accessibility, erosion, dealing with stormwater are just a number of these different challenges that we're working through.

Geographically, we're thinking of this and kind of we've worked on this so far in three different kind of planning phases. The first one was actually more on the Arlington side and conceptualizing a connection between the Minuteman Bikeway and the Mystic River Reservation Path network. And so thankfully, three different segments, both DCR and the Town of Arlington are working on advancing more of a mobility corridor on that side. We also convened a resident steering committee and conducted a conceptual design process in 2024, funded through a mass grails grant, to look at what a reimagined corridor of Mystic Valley Parkway on the eastern side of the Mystic Lakes would look like, all the way from the Wedgmere MBTA commuter rail station in Winchester, heading south about two miles or so to the High Street Rotaries. And then we followed up that study pretty soon thereafter in 2025, again, reconvened a resident steering committee to look at more of the shoreline elements of the area, so more of an eye on ecological restoration and more about passive recreation opportunities immediately along the shoreline. And we expanded that scope to actually look south of High Street as well. So looking at the Mississippi River shoreline and West Medford, going downstream and around the bend all the way to Boston Avenue.

Included in that work, too, I should note that we did do environmental surveying, wetland surveying, and cultural resources surveying just to help get the ball rolling on more of the technical components of preliminary design work. I do have the full report in the appendix if we need to look at it, but I wanted to share some conceptual renderings that were prepared. This first one you have just an example cross-section at Mystic Valley Parkway along the lower Mystic Lake, looking towards the Mystic Dam. So you have an outfall location that's seen severe erosion, just sheep runoff from Mystic Valley Parkway, no amenities, and based off of what we heard from community members, what folks wanted to see, making sure they could have an opportunity to also be directed towards a particular point of access to along the shoreline so that other areas could be protected and conserved. Um, uh, this would be kind of an example of what we'd be looking at. So, um, taking advantage of these existing infrastructure areas, um, to provide seen accessible scenic overlooks with, uh, signage, um, seating, uh, and then accessible pathways, um, depending on the character and use. So some of the areas we're looking at more regional bike connections, others are more for secondary and pedestrian use. Um, so depending on the particular location, uh, we'd be looking at, uh, you know, an unpaved or paved path surface site, depending on the location.

Just another example, looking in West Medford, again, this is looking maybe more at the environmental components, but you have, you know, really folks definitely have an opportunity to enjoy walking and strolling along the river, but folks with mobility needs, really, really present a challenge to be able to make their way along the shoreline. And also it doesn't provide any protection for trees or vegetation as well. And so we wanted to envision what would a realign path that enables root protection and also allows for a native habitat restoration to take root, quite literally, look like along our shores.

And then finally to again kind of a mixture of the two. If you're looking at places of severe erosion and runoff. This is, I believe, Mystic River Road. As you're heading around the bend. And so looking at, you know, kind of addressing this area again, sheet flow runoff. What if we captured that, filtered it, heading into the river, but provided an opportunity to maybe actually look at these areas of higher traffic or where people are putting in their non-motorized boats. No jet skis work on designing around that. Um, but, uh, uh, you know, and it doesn't need to be too wide, right? Just making sure that folks can get down to the water and enjoy some time by the water and also, uh. Have access again, the more delineated access we can provide, the more we can conserve and protect other areas of the shoreline.

So, so where are we at now? Um. We've completely conceptual studies environmental cultural surveying. It's been really great collaborating with community members on helping to identify that vision as well for the process. We also have done robust community engagement throughout our watershed. On what people see and welcoming and inclusive greenways, because the mystic lakes is a state park. It's actually a regional destination. If you go on a hot summer day to Shannon beach, right? It's incredibly popular for folks from all over the area. Um, so we're taking all these different inputs in order to, uh, not only advanced concepts, but then to ask community members what. what we should focus on first. We're a non-profit, we only have so much capacity, our partners only have so much capacity, there are certain funding sources available for certain work, and so we're shaking that all up and develop a project-basing document. that's going to allow us to be able to methodically advance this over probably a decade or so.

So we're kind of at the tail end of that process. We've heard that from over 70 community members through the surveying process, just about the phasing alone, have had conversations with municipal staff, City of Medford staff, DCR, and a few other CBOs in order to, again, develop that phasing. And then we'll hopefully get to work by identifying those phases. We can really take that methodic step forward. And I think one other piece I wanted to plug is that we want to help to develop a do our part, at the very least, to be able to help foster a culture of stewardship and programming along the shore, right? These are very valuable spaces to cherish and enjoy, and we want to make sure everyone feels included and invited to those spaces. Not everyone likes taking a walk by themselves, and so we want to be able to host maybe more programming that allows folks to be able to uh, enjoy that. And so, um, looking at what we can do for more cleanups in the area. Um, but also we're, we're piloting a mini grant program, um, for Mystic Lake State Park, you know, also West Medford. Sure. Why not? Um, this year. So we actually have a call out right now. Um, you can visit that, that website, um, uh, to put forward an idea for community programming. We're giving out small $500 grants for the summer. We have an intern coming online to help manage that. Um, so again, it's like, yes, we're working on, we want to envision like millions of dollars of uh, transformative, uh, hopefully improvements, um, along the shoreline, but, um, but what can we do to also look at this, the softer and more, uh, social elements as well to help make them valuable spaces too.

So with that, again, like I mentioned, I have the conceptual plans too in the appendix if folks have any questions, but I'm curious to know when it comes to prioritizing work either on DCR property or kind of more in West Medford or along the lakes, kind of what you've heard from community members, what folks are interested in. We've had conversations with the city of Medford around Duggar Park. So more than happy to open up to any questions or thoughts y'all might have too as we take the first step forward.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: Thank you very much. I'm sure we have lots of comments and questions. I wanted to throw one first thing out there to get started, which is how do we pick where to begin? I can imagine that if you break this into enough small pieces, we could chip away at it with funding the scale of annual CPA grant. And how do we know where in that whole stretch are the highest priority locations that need physical improvements? What are the criteria? Are we trying to facilitate access, prevent erosion? How do we know what's the most important place to start?

[CAS00002481_SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's a really great question. And what I've tried to do best with my planning background is to identify as many inputs as possible into that question. I think I think with each funding source right and it may be CPA has slightly more flexibility than like a mass trails grant or a bio state biodiversity grant right. But you know, looking at funding sources looking and permitting needs and level of difficulty for implementation looking at key stakeholders. And you know when it comes to that degree of difficulty right. only DCR is gonna advance design development for a partway redesign with a shared use path, right? And so even though community members in their survey said that's the number one priority, and we can label that as a phase one, we're not gonna get far if DCR's budget is clogged up. So I think, you know, there's, you know, I think in terms of inputs, right, we really wanna make sure that we are actually looking at grouping elements of this plan that are most likely to be funded and permitted together in order to make sense. And so looking at more of the ecological restoration components geographically in buckets together, looking at path improvements Um. Again geographically together. Uh and then for really destination based locations. Mystic Lakes Dam Shannon Beach area, Dr Park. Those are starting to bubble up. And would that include more amenities? Those are starting to bubble up to be a little bit more, um, as a maybe coupled together, maybe across both ecological and, um.

What we're seeing from the data is that Mystic Valley Parkway, that corridor redesign along the lakes is the number one priority. But given the practicality of implementation, we can lobby DCR to try to advance that. We've advanced preliminary design probably as far as we can. We did intensive archaeological surveying this year for that. But what community members said that they wanted to see was ecological restoration. as a priority moving forward. Dogger Park as well. So I think if looking at Narragansett from your perspective, perhaps that would be maybe an area looking at focuses, addressing areas of key erosion, looking at some bioengineering in these areas, and then looking at ecological restoration and strategic areas, and then starting to look at the accessible path. The lowest priority was, or sorry, I wouldn't say lowest, but like the least prioritized was non-motorized put-ins and get-downs.

So I think maybe those would maybe be strategically coupled with other phases rather than a standalone phase that implements three non-motorized put-ins. So I hope that helps to provide a brief verbal answer. But within the next month, I hope to have a written report that would be good to look through.

[Reggie Graham]: How you doing? I enjoyed working with your group this year. I learned a lot. And I commend your project. One thing that I have not heard once is comfort stops. And in a 25 mile project, if you will, I don't hear anything about comfort stops. Now, if you're a walker, or if you're a bike rider, or if you're a bicyclist, 25 miles might be a little bit a road too far, if you know what I mean. And I think that in all of the presentations that I've heard, even you know, I work with the Prop Commission, comfort stops are not even considered. So I just want to put that maybe at the bottom, you know, next to the auto, the automobile component, you know, maybe a little bit above the automobile component, because not everybody has an automobile, but everybody has to use a comfort stop.

[CAS00002481_SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, I would, you know. Reg, I would say if I came into the office every day and someone leaves a different schematic of a different port-a-potty company, like you did, for me, I would be a happy person. We've suggested rest stations through this plan at two different locations, Mystic Lakes Dam, which currently doesn't have that, and then which is more DCR, but then also Duggar Park, And, you know, we've seen through through all of our serving that's the number one. Well, from not this particular survey but we did a lower mystic vision plan for like what. people want to see on the harbor walk and what people most need. And it's public restrooms and comfort stations. And so totally with you, we had a productive conversation with city staff and the DPW director to discuss kind of Duggar Park and what could potentially be worth advancing. Splash pads are very, it's the environmental impact potentially in this area. I'd love to figure that out. They said that that's maybe out of cards, but they said water fountain and a pad for Porter potty, um, I think would be a really great, uh, two small lower cost, relatively lower cost items to try to advance for Duggar park. Um, because there is so much there already, um, uh, in a, in a positive way. Um, the one thing around the Porter potty is, uh, maybe trying to engage some of the, um, like summer programs and recurring, um, Uh, recurring sports groups that use the park facilities, um. To maybe be the ones to kind of. Uh, pay for, or, um, uh, help with with leasing out the, the Porter party. And so it would be a concrete pad with a post. So you can lock the Porter party to it. Um, that would then allow for, you know, um, seasonal installation, um, at the park and that would be like a good 1st step in the right direction. Um, for Dr park, at least.

[Reggie Graham]: So, Carl, you know, I've been on the park commission for a number of years, and I've advanced some ideas about this. If you go over to Dennehy Field, St. Peter's in Cambridge, they have an excellent pad that actually is dedicated to their quarter parties. They have a facility where they actually put the two quarter parties, one for ADA compliance and one for general. And there's also a self-contained unit that is already in place in Waltham. Nobody seems to like to have to go until they have to go.

So I know where you are, so I'll bring some stuff by and you can take a look at it You know, see if you like it.

[CAS00002481_SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, definitely. Like, we're really enthusiastic to get that and the water found that park. So, um, let's keep talking.

[Jeremy Martin]: Hey, good to see everyone. I'm sorry. I was a little late. Carl, thanks for the presentation. I'm sorry if I missed this in it, but could you speak some to the association's goals around swimming in the river and the lakes? What role you all play in facilitating that? I know that these two yards are a big part of that as well, but how does that fit into your plan and the work that you all do?

[CAS00002481_SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, absolutely. And is there a particular concern you have around water quality or access?

[Jeremy Martin]: Well, water quality is obviously a big part of it. I think access is what I'm thinking of. You mentioned controlled or defined access points as part of the planning exercise, and it makes all the sense to try to define those so that other areas aren't trampled. I often get out to the bottom of the lower lake, and I know there's a lot of swimming that happens there, and people trying to get into the water. Are there more opportunities to get into the water? And then obviously water quality is a big part of that too, that I know you all play a role in.

[CAS00002481_SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah. You know, I think officially, officially water access to the water, unofficially, right? But like, The, you know, our water quality team, and I would never pretend to be a water quality scientist. My work is on land at MIRA. But, you know, the upper Mystic Lake has some of the best water quality in, you know, best water quality in the region in terms of fresh water. Like, it's pretty great. And I think One of the issues that we are trying to advocate towards solving is the way that DCR monitors water quality. They use a five, I'm pretty sure it's a five week running, no. Sorry, it's average. So it's the average test over five tests. And so if you have one major storm that increases stormwater pollution into Upper Mystic Lake that causes the water quality spike for two days after a storm, that spike is high enough, even though the next four tests are completely fine, it still takes the average from five different cycles to get back down to a swimmable water level. And so you could have an entire month of July where on July 1st, there's a massive storm. You can still have a closed beach on July 30th because of that one spike. And that doesn't serve us as residents who need to get out there in the summer, right? And we really rely on DCR for all of their resources and all the With what limited capacity they have to maintain and make sure that everyone's safe at the beach, it's really critical to make sure that they can be open as much as possible. And the way that they currently calculate water quality is not that. We know that kind of these more informal access areas along The water are really important as well for folks, um, and, you know, the way that the way that they, the way that that's been addressed, you know, whether it's on the Charles river or Walden pond is introduced kind of more granite get downs or natural stone get downs for these areas. which then protects the immediately adjacent shoreline that's really dealing with erosion. And so I think it's strategically inviting folks to these very specific get down areas, whether it's to go sit down and read a book by the water or to jump in. Those obviously aren't going to be, we can't officially encourage folks to go swimming there because there's no lifeguard on duty. Um, but, uh, you know, we've in the plan, we've included, uh, get down areas or not motorized, but both put ins at numerous locations and, um, the water quality is really good. Um, so we want to again, if it's not jumping in, we want to. Give an opportunity for folks, but they're at the very least.

[Doug Carr]: Yeah. I just want to make a pitch for a couple of things here. I've seen this plan. It's a fabulous plan. I think you covered an incredible amount of ground. Obviously, it's going to take a long time to even make a fraction of this plan reality, but I walked through the lakes 100 times in the last 5-10 years, and it's My wife used to do it every day almost. So it's really an incredible resource. A couple of pitches for the cultural resources. You have some great information there about the Mystic, sorry, about the Mystics Canal. I think there's some Native American resources that you also identify in history that will be part of it. But I think a kind of forgotten piece here is that the 50 acres of land along this shoreline from Route 60 to I think the Winchester Line and above I believe was donated by the Brooks family to what was then the new MDC back in the 20s, I think, which became DCR, which is why this land is what it is now. It was their pleasure grounds. It was their private, before it was developed as a neighborhood, it became, it was as big as the Brooks Estate is now. It's just a different shape and much less well-known, but I just want to, I think that there's a layers of history here that once you get to the cultural resources and the signage and historic interpretation. Just want to plant that seed that we could we could make that connection because it connects to a whole bunch of other things in Medford. Thank you.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: Thank you, Doug. Yeah, actually, you know, if if we could. write Medford's history. One of the pieces that's really significant about Medford's history is being one of the focal points for the environmental movement that created the Middlesex Bells and a lot of our nature conservation areas around the country were inspired by the work that we did here in Medford. And so I think telling that story through like why we have the entire Middlesex Reservation is all public open space. That's really an incredible story. And I think that's worth highlighting in this. And telling that story becomes part of what Medford is known for. Medford should be known for The amount of public open space that was preserved by people who had the foresight to recognize our natural resources as being our core community resource.

[CAS00002481_SPEAKER_01]: It was actually, correct me if I'm wrong, I believe it was Charles Elliott, Olmstead, Olmstead and Elliott. So it was, I believe, Doug, I believe it might've been a little bit earlier for the creation of the Thystic Valley Parkway, maybe late 19th century. But it was acquired via taking. I don't know. Doug, you probably know this better than I do, so please let me know. But there's the reason why the western shoreline, the state didn't have enough money to purchase the eastern shoreline. And so the western shoreline remained in private domain of the lakes. And there's just incredibly layered history here. And I think just an example, again, looking at more of those location based improvements up at Shannon Beach right we have the new boathouse the accessible boardwalk is fantastic but there's a need for kind of as you're going towards more of that peninsula that I'm showing on screen there's no delineated natural footpaths and so even though it's a it's a steep photography topography the environmental resources there are Kind of what you see in the sorry in the dotted gray or sorry to dotted brown. Um, we want to look, we've suggested keeping those natural surface, but delineating them so that we can address erosion in the area. Um, but then you have that walkway that actually just resurface.

I would have loved to have seen that be stone dust, but they repaved it. That is the old alignment of the Middlesex Canal and the concept of maybe doing a story walk there to tell that history. And then you have that overlook at that point that's in really tough shape. and maybe had repointing done to it maybe like two decades ago, but it needs to be restored. It's in Winchester, but we'd love for that to be kind of a culmination of a story walk and to tell that history. So that's just like one concept that we'd love to advance more as a cohesive package for that area.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: And Carl, this brings to mind a funding source if you're not already familiar with it, The Freedoms Way National Heritage Corridor could potentially provide funding for Medford and Malden for projects like this. They're concerned with natural resources and history and the confluence of the two. And they're willing to fund programmatic projects as well as capital improvements. So there might be a real opportunity to be able to do some small thing. They're not a big funding source, but some small significant thing they might be a resource for. Absolutely. Thank you.

Any other questions, comments for Carl? Thank you so much for joining us. This has been very enlightening.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: And we'll look for opportunities. Oh, you know, there was one more thing I wanted to mention just from my experience in in Somerville, where we found that the boundaries between DCR and city land affected. who had control of the area that we wanted to improve. I wonder if you have delineated the boundaries of what DCR actually owns along this corridor and how that affects what we might try to do.

[CAS00002481_SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that was a great question. DCR owns virtually all of it. Definitely take our learnings, Roberta, from our work at Blessing the Bay towards this. Virtually all of it. Duggar Park obviously is leased to the city, and that was the main purpose of our hours-long conversation with DPW director and um, planning staff, um, uh, last month, um, to really talk through that delineation of what city staff could could approve versus what would need to go to DCR. Um, and that, that in the Duggar Park area, that really came down to what would be considered like maintenance versus like, um, uh, you know, capital versus maintenance work. Um, So, you know, something like a water fountain, something like a concrete pad is okay for the city to advance, but for looking at a shoreline reconstruction or accessible path where we're digging down, then that would require engagement and we'd want that too. So we've started conversations with them. I think outside of that.

The Boston Ave bridge. We do include a potential staircase up to Boston Ave. That would probably be more of a headache than worth putting in, but if you folks want to see it, maybe. Boston Ave bridge is owned by the city of Medford. with staff as well. There's those kind of dead ends, Sharon Street, Jerome Street, and maybe one other where connecting to that path network requires involvement with the city. But I believe Arlington Road, Mystic River Road, those are DCR to my knowledge. So largely DCR, some implications for city jurisdiction as well, but definitely considered.

[Theresa Dupont]: Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing an application in the future.

[CAS00002481_SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, absolutely. I'm sorry we had to butcher ours for the bridge. No worries. But I'll send you my presentation here. And again, we have a dedicated website for this work. So please keep an eye on it, y'all.

[Theresa Dupont]: Good night. Oh, 1121. One, one, two, one. Off by one. So sorry. I may, through the chair, I guess, or whatever, since we don't have everybody here and it is kind of late, maybe we move officer elections to next month. Yeah. Yeah. Also, I will share, you know, maybe folks didn't have enough time to respond to me, but I haven't had anybody. reach out saying that they've raised their hands. So I think your seat is secure, Joan, but we'll do official elections next month.

[Theresa Dupont]: Stop. So I think the only thing that we have left are the meeting minutes from the January and February meetings, which were on the Dropbox.

[Theresa Dupont]: All right, thank you. The edited version ended up in the Dropbox, I think, at like five. Um, we have a timely, but these are both February.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: Okay. They were seen. Excellent. Great. And so does anyone have any other comments for, uh, on the minutes?

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: Can we do that? Uh, yeah, we have a quorum still in one is three, four. Oh, okay. Yeah. I guess we'll have to wait.

[Theresa Dupont]: Jerome is not, uh, he finds it so funny. Jeremy, uh, I think he is traveling for work. It looked like it was very much not local.

[Vice Chair Joan Cyr]: So we don't have a lot of palm trees here in Medford. All right. So, um,

[Vice Chair Joan Cyr]: I make a motion to accept the meeting minutes from January and February, 2026. All right.

[Chair Roberta Cameron]: I think Reg made that. I made the motion. Second from Joan. And I will call the roll. Reg?