CDB: Medford Square District Zoning Amendment - 2026-04-15

AI-generated summary. Written by gemini-3.6-flash from the transcript below, which is the record. It may be incomplete or wrong; it does not report votes. Every item links to the moment it began.

The Medford Community Development Board reviewed site plan applications for a retail conversion at 85 Main Street and a new Tufts University aquatic center, continuing both public hearings. The board also voted to recommend city council adoption of the revised Medford Square District Zoning Amendment.

2:12 85 Main Street Site Plan Review — The board continued the public hearing for site plan review to convert a motor vehicle repair establishment into a neighborhood retail store at 85 Main Street to May 6, 2026.
23:41 Tufts Aquatic Center Site Plan Review — The board heard a presentation on Tufts University's proposed 45,800-square-foot aquatic center at 130 College Avenue and continued the Dover Amendment site plan review to May 6, 2026.
1:51:00 Medford Square District Zoning Amendment — After reviewing revised draft language regarding building step backs, height calculations, and historic preservation incentives, the board voted to recommend that the City Council adopt the zoning amendment text and map.
2:39:08 Administrative Business and Approval of Minutes — Staff introduced new Economic Development Director John Ahumada and discussed advance notification procedures for board filings before the board approved previous meeting minutes.

[Chair Doug Carr]: All right, everyone, my name is Doug Carr. This is the Medford Community Development Board. It's Wednesday, April 15th at 6.37. I will call the meeting to order. John Anderson. John?

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: I just made him a co-host. I think he wasn't able to unmute.

[Chair Doug Carr]: I know that Ari Gothman-Fishman is not here. Myself, Doug Carr, present. And do we hear from John?

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you, John. Very good. So I'll just give some introductory remarks. Please know that the project materials for all products before the board tonight can be viewed on the city's website, MedfordMass.org. uh forward slash boards dash commissions forward slash community development boards and by clicking on current cd board filings for those on zoom which is everyone i believe tonight you can also find the link in the chat um you'll see that soon uh danielle can you introduce yourself and any other staff at the meeting tonight

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yes, thank you Mr. Chair. I'm Danielle Evans, senior planner in the Office of Planning, Development and Sustainability. Also with us is Director Alicia Hunt of our department and our graduate student intern, Christian Zepeda-Lepofsky. I think that is everybody from our office tonight.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you, Danielle. So I'll just outline what we're going to do tonight. We're going to start with the public hearing, a site plan review for 85 Main Street first. Then we're going to move on to a new public hearing site plan review for 130 College Ave, which is a Tufts aquatic center. And then we're going to wrap it up with a continued public hearing for the Medford Square District Zoning Amendment towards the end. So those are the three big items that we're taking on tonight. And we'll start with 85 Main Street. So again, this is a new public hearing, so I will read the public hearing notice for the record.

The Medford Community Development Board shall conduct a public hearing on April 15th, 2026 after 6.30pm via Zoom relative to an application by M&E 85 Main Street LLC for site plan review to convert the existing building currently used as a motor vehicle repair establishment into a neighborhood retail use. The subject property is located on Mystic Avenue in the Mystic Avenue Corridor District, MX-1 at 85 Main Street, Bedford Mass 02155. Alicia or Danielle, do you have any introductory comments before we move into the presentation from the applicant?

[Sean Beagan]: Mr. Chairman, I have a conflict with this particular property, so I'm going to recuse myself from this hearing, and then I'll rejoin later on. Thank you, Chairman. We'll text you when we're ready. Okay, thank you. Thank you.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yes, so this is Though it's a small project, it does trigger site plan review as the retail sales use is classified as a major project, which requires site plan review by your board. The gasoline station is staying, but the automotive repair establishment would be leaving and they proposed to convert it to a to the retail sales use. This lot was recently rezoned from, I think it was the C1, to the MX1 and the MACD, which requires open space and green score. So we worked with the applicant to try to find ways to get close to that number if not meeting it.

So that's all I have for now. And the engineer who's representing them is here tonight. And I made him a co-host so that if he wants to share his screen.

[Chair Doug Carr]: So this is M&E 85 Main Street LLC. Please give your name and address for the record, if you could.

[CAS00002420_SPEAKER_23]: Yeah. Hi. I'm Aiden Schlotman. I'm with TF Moran. I'm the representative for M&E 85 Main Street LLC.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you go ahead and make your presentation. We'll make your coat your co host. So you can put your, you can share screen.

[CAS00002420_SPEAKER_23]: Excellent. So. It's a little background for the property, this property 85 main street. You may know it. It's right across from the, the police department there. It's the gas station with the mechanic shop in it. We have some pictures here of existing conditions to. Help jog your memories on this. It's a pretty small site. It's been a gas station. I think for just about 30 years now with. With that building of being on site. We're proposing to essentially to have a change of use here, change the mechanic into a neighborhood retail, like you guys said, and with that, we would do a lot of improvements on site.

Uh, we're really the lot as it is now is 100% impervious with no real. Parking or anything like that, so we're going to strike some of the parking areas just to really delineate and make sure that. The store has adequate parking and as well, we're going to widen and really shape up the. Front sidewalk there to provide proper access. Other than that, the main site work is tearing up some of this pavement around the sides of the property here and replacing it with the landscape area just to really max out the green score there.

It's a pretty funny property. It itself is fairly small, the property lines being around here, but there's a kind of a retaining wall in between. the property and the neighboring property, there is an easement on that to allow for parking on that area, which if you know the site now, it's been taken full advantage of. So we're definitely going to be improving those conditions there. It's not going to be full of parked cars left and right.

Additionally, we received some comments from City staff that we're working through, we haven't been able to fully address all of them. So, we're really here tonight just to make sure we hear from you guys and see if you guys want anything from us. And that way we can come back. I believe it's the May 6 meeting with a nice. Application package to hear from you guys. There are some things that we're going to take care of this property previously has encroached into the right away. We're going to do our best to get rid of some of those areas there. Um, that includes kind of an extension of the, the parking paved area here. We're going to remove that, um, get it out of the right away. Um, and, um, moment, see that turn it back into grass. Um, and as, you know, the, uh. Mass plans on doing a bit of a project there. Um.

The only encroachment that's a difficult one to get out is the existing sign on site is within the right of way, just barely. I think it's like a foot over. And I did confirm with MassDOT at this time that that sign is going to remain untouched by them. And then we're also proposing plantings throughout the whole entire thing, really around the rear, and then pervious pavers for an accessible walkway. What we plan on planting here is one October glory red maple.

3 spring flurry service berries, 2 white spruces, 8 low scape black chokeberries, 7 16-candle summer sweets, and 11 sea green junipers. All in all, we're going to do massive improvements on this site. And most of the project was going to be kind of interior renovations. It's really a change of use. As you can see from the existing conditions to some renderings that we put together here, really the front is going to be getting a major facelift here, really spruce up the lot here, beautify it a bit as much as we can here.

But all in all, The site is small and rather constraining, so there were a few waivers that we requested for this application. First of all, we need the front yard setback. As you can see, there's no front yard. The existing gas pumps here are right on the property line, but the sidewalk there is a bit smaller than it needs to or supposed to be, which allows the front setback there to be pushed back to allow extra room for the sidewalk there. Since the sidewalk and the site is completely flush there, it becomes an extension of the sidewalk.

Secondly, minimum height of 3 stories. Obviously, you've got an existing building there. can't really magically slap on two extra stories on there. So that's a waiver that we need. And then lastly, the minimum green score. We did our best trying to maximize the site here, but I think we got a green score of 22.7. The minimum, I believe, is 25. We did our best to absolutely max out green score here, It's, it's, it's difficult. It's there's not a whole lot of room on site. We couldn't bring this more forward because there's an existing right away here that we believe is reciprocal. So we can't really interfere with that right away there.

And even still, in order to get trucks out, if anything, we would need to be a kind of a mountable apron there, if anything. And then there's this large driveway here, shared driveway there, to benefit this reciprocal right-of-way and allow access between the lots and use of that shared driveway. In order to make the proper turning distances here, aisle access distances, we're swapping those site to one way. There's a median in the center here, so it's going to be a right in, right out. with the main entrance being right by the highway here, and then a right out to continue down Main Street. Four parking spots proposed, one handicap, and then we're going to keep the existing dumpster that's fenced in there.

We did get some town comments. We're going to push the parallel spot back a little bit. As well, we're going to add some, pavement markings to really push home that we're turning this into a one-way. Rather large stop bar here we're going to add, and then we're going to add one-way pavement markings. It's a little difficult. They requested that signage be added, like physical standing signs to a stop sign and then a one-way or do not enter.

It's a little difficult to really locate a sign on site here without it getting hit by a car coming in. A one-way sign would have to come here, but the curb cuts back here. I'd worry that somebody's going to drive right into it. And as well, we can maybe put one in the on the side of the site here, but I worry that people driving through are going to turn too early and then end up dinging it there. So I'd like to get your opinion on maybe just strictly doing pavement markings, pretty obvious ones, pretty large and obvious, and hoping that's going to suffice for the flow of the site there.

Not much is going to change in terms of sewerage demand, water demand. And we do need to file a stormwater permit, which we're going to work on. But everything in that regard, we're tearing up pavement and putting in landscaping. Everything's going to be a substantial improvement. But all in all, I'm more than happy to get any comments from you guys, see how you guys feel about the project and if there's anything that we can approve for next time, let me know.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you very much. Before I open the questions from the board, can you just describe what you anticipate the retail being in that building so we can understand that context?

[CAS00002420_SPEAKER_23]: Yeah, it's mainly going to be like kind of like your typical convenience store. It's yeah, exactly that. I think that sums it up the best.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Okay, that's what I thought. Not much else could go there, I imagine, but that's perfect. Okay, I'm going to call on Paige first. Page Buldini, go ahead.

[Page Buldini]: Thank you so much. I'm very excited because I live right near here. And I second what Doug's question was. Is the current tenant, are they going to be managing the convenience store? Or do you know if there's, is it an outside company?

[CAS00002420_SPEAKER_23]: So the mechanic is renting out the place. They're going to leave. And then I believe the current owners are going to essentially refurbish it and hire out on their own.

[Page Buldini]: Okay, great. And I'm very excited, especially with you beautifying and adding trees and adding, you know, green space and removing the cars. I think that's great, especially with the extension from the square coming from under 93. I think that that's just a really wonderful way to keep the square going. So thank you.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Yeah, very good. I'm gonna, I guess I'm gonna ask Dina Calguero, do you have any, do you have any comments?

[Dina Caloggero]: Yeah, OK. Yes, I am very excited to see that this development is going to take place. I can still see, I walked by the site today, and I still saw the cars on the other side. Looks like a junkyard. So beautifying that in the side is. is wonderful. So the way that they'll get in is they're going to take that hard right and they're going to circle through the gas station area and then exit just out of that driveway there. And you said it's going to be like a grocery store so I think the dumpster would be adequate. When is the trash pickup?

[CAS00002420_SPEAKER_23]: I'm not sure. I think they can work and decide, I believe they can do it on and off hours just to make sure there's no conflicts with clients. Yeah.

[Dina Caloggero]: Yeah. And so the garage is going to completely go. Well, there won't be any of the environmental waste, right? You'll have a different kind of waste with the dumpster there and not oil and everything else that goes on. Yeah.

[Dina Caloggero]: And how many parking spots in the front? You said there's four along with the handicap.

[CAS00002420_SPEAKER_23]: Yeah, yeah. There's two here with the handicap, one parallel, and then one extra space there. There's also two pump islands, so there's four stacking spaces there. OK.

[Dina Caloggero]: No, I'm good. It's been a rundown area for a long time, so this sounds like a very good project to me. Thank you very much.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Could you go back to the exterior renderings? I just want to take a look at those again. I think they're a significant improvement, obviously, over what's there now. It's a bit dated from what I saw. So there'll be some signage there eventually when you get somebody, which is a separate issue, obviously. Okay. I guess I'll call on John Anderson. Do you have any comments? John, you're muted.

[Chair Doug Carr]: You're all set. I unmuted you. Thank you. No questions. Thank you. Thank you, John. Let's see. Ari's not here. So I guess I don't, my sense is, I mean, this is obviously a big upgrade to a kind of rundown corner a little bit from what I can see. I do appreciate you trying to maximize the landscaping and trees. Maybe you could put that landscaping back on screen if you could for a minute. There's quite a bit in that corner.

It's a lot more green than I actually thought this site could actually handle, which was quite impressive. So I think that's good. Does the handicapped accessible spot, I think you're showing a five foot striping next to it, does it not need to be a van, which would be eight feet on this site? I wasn't sure about that.

[CAS00002420_SPEAKER_23]: I believe a van is preferred, but it's not necessarily needed. It's that comment did arise. Uh, if we did put the van. Space there, um, this would go to an 8 and then the 8 would essentially push us to. The setback of where a parking can be to the lot line.

[CAS00002420_SPEAKER_23]: Um, so. Trying to stay away from that waiver and keep it as a as a regular. Um. We are going to push. this spot back a bit more. While there's not a full eight the whole way, there will be adequate room at the front there to maybe work with it a little bit. But yeah.

[Chair Doug Carr]: I think what you have is fine. I just want to make sure. If you've already talked it through with the city, I'm on board. I'm good with that. Oh, go ahead, Dina.

[Dina Caloggero]: One other question. So what are the hours of the store? Is it a 24-7, or what are we talking about? 24-7, I think it's more kind of like a 5 to 9 or 10, not a 24-hour. OK, like a 24-hour 7-Eleven.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Well, I'm not hearing or seeing any other board comments. I'm gonna actually open it up for any public comments at the moment. So let me have a brief statement here and then we'll see if anyone from the public wants to comment. Those who wish to provide comments can use the raise hand feature, which may be under reactions in your Zoom. Or if you're dialed in on a phone, you can use star nine to raise your hand. You can also message Alicia in the chat if you're having technical difficulties. Before providing your comments, please state your name and address for the record. A reminder to all meeting participants to please refrain from using the chat function to message any comments to the city staff or board members, as it is not part of the public record. But if you're having any audio or technical difficulties, you may message staff or assistants. Anyone who's interested will have two minutes to speak. Is there anybody who would like to make a public comment about this project? If you do, please raise your hand.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Not seeing anyone, and I haven't received any direct messages.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Very good. All right. Hearing that, I will then close the public comment period for this meeting. Are there other final board comments? Otherwise, we're going to ask for a motion to continue to the 6th of May per the previous conversation. Any final board comments? Okay, hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to continue this to the May 6th, two weeks from now. second, please.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you, Paige. We call the roll call. John Anderson? Yes. Page Buldini?

[Chair Doug Carr]: And myself, Doug Carr. Yes. Thank you very much for your presentation. We'll look forward to a few weeks. Hopefully any last concerns with the city will be resolved by then and we'll be on our way.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you. All right, that went much faster than I expected. All right, next item on the agenda is a new public hearing, site plan review for 130 College Ave, Tufts Aquatic Center. This is CDB file number SPR-2026-3. This is a new public hearing, so I'll read the public hearing notice for the record.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Can you hold on for a second, Mr. Chair? Oh, sure. Just got to get Sean back on. Oh, very good.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Very good. We'll get him in a second. We have a quorum, but we want Sean to be part of this conversation.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Okay. All right. I'm going to get at least the preamble going. You can join us. He knows this is coming. All right, so the Medford Community Development Board shall conduct a public hearing on April 15, 2026 after 6 30 p.m. via Zoom remote video conferencing relative to an application for a site plan review submitted by trustees of Tufts College to construct a 45,800 square foot Tufts University Aquatic Center along with a tennis team room and restroom structure at 130 College Avenue Medford Mass 02155.

The project is subject to site plan review for Dover Amendment uses per the City of Bedford zoning ordinances, section 94-11.8. It requires approval from the Community Development Board. Alicia or Danielle, do you have any introductory comments before we move into the presentation by Tufts?

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Mr. Chair, I don't have any comments except just to state that This is site plan review under the Dover Amendment, so it's a more limited review. You guys know the drill. Rocco, should I make you a co-host and you can unmute and mute folks, or is there someone else I should make?

[Chair Doug Carr]: Okay, we'll get started with the presentation. All right, so Rocco, why don't you go ahead and introduce your team and let's get firing here.

[Rocco DiRico]: Great. Good evening, everyone. Thank you, Chairman Carr, members of the board and city staff for allowing us to present to you tonight. My name is Rocco DiRico and I'm the associate vice president of Government and Community Relations at Tufts University. We are here to discuss a very exciting new project which will benefit our students, faculty, staff, and neighbors. Tufts University is proposing a new aquatic center at 130 College Avenue. We believe that it will be actually the first aquatic center that is all electric and meets the state's new stretch energy code. If we go to the next slide, here is our agenda for this evening. I'll begin with introductions, hand it over to our swim coach who will talk about the need for a new pool. We'll go over site, landscape, building plans, show you the building exterior, and we'll wrap up by talking about zoning and parking. And we look forward to answering your questions and hearing your comments. So now taking a look at the project team. Myself, Robert Corbett, Nick Piscitello, Adam Hoyt from Tufts University. The owner's project manager for this project is CSL Consulting. So Mark is here tonight and thank you to Mark for driving the PowerPoint for me. Our attorneys on this project are Chris and Pat from Goulston and Stores. The project architect is Suzuki, and we've got Shay and Andrew with us here tonight. The construction team is going to be Consigli, and we've got Greg and Iris with us. Niche engineering is doing the civil and transportation. We've got Jonathan and Brian here with us, and Brian Sweeney is here from Haley and Allrich. He is the geotechnical engineer on the project. And with that, I'd love to pass it off to our swim coach, who is Adam Hoyt. And I'm just going to find him on my Brady Bunch screen and unmute him. Adam, you get the center square.

[CAS00002420_SPEAKER_25]: Yeah, thanks everyone and good evening. Really appreciate your time tonight. My name's Adam. I'm a Medford resident, live a couple blocks from our current pool. My kids go to the Missittook, third and fourth grade. Been here for 15 years now in Medford, so it's pretty cool to be able to speak to you all about this project. This is year 22 for me at Tufts. been in this pool the whole time. The pool's a little over 70 years old, so it's quite old. We make it work. We get creative. It's a six-lane, 25-yard pool. We carry about 70 athletes on our team, eight divers, 62 swimmers. We currently run eight hours of swim practice every day. To fit them all in the pool, we can kind of max out around 20 people per practice.

Our divers travel over to MIT. They kind of walk down to the Athletics Center, get in an athletics van, drive over to the Z Center in Cambridge, and have their two-hour dive practice. And then they drive back, so on and so forth. So it's not an optimal facility to run our varsity athletics program. We do our best. that we can with recreational swim hours for students, faculty, staff. Some of you may be aware we run six weeks of community swim lessons. We're in week two for our spring session. We'll run some summer sessions, which is a big hit and a lot of fun for our students to be able to engage and support the community. We also have club water polo. This is not a water polo regulation size pool. So basically we don't host much of anything here. We don't host any water polo games. We usually host like one swim meet a year, normal. college program would host five or six swim meets a year.

So we do the best we can, but we're really excited about this new pool. It's going to allow our team to actually practice together. Right now the only time our entire team's together is for a team meeting, our team banquet. And our competition days, so we're allowed 10 competition days, and that's the only time the actual team is all together, overseen by our coaching staff. Practices, people are coming and going throughout the day, so it's really not ideal from a team camaraderie standpoint, or just from an athlete experience standpoint. Um, this new pool is going to give us, you know, we go from 625 yard lanes to about 2025 yard lanes. It's 52 meters long. So, it's your standard Olympic size swimming pool. There's 1 over at MIT. There's 1 over at Harvard.

It's going to be gorgeous. It's also going to allow for divers to be able to practice at our pool, um, and give us much need upgrades and all the other offices and facilities. I mean, our, our facilities crew at Tufts does a great job keeping our current pool running. Um, but I call them just about once a week with something, something going on. So hopefully I won't be doing that in a new athletic, uh, uh, like Sarah aquatic center. Um, And I'm hopeful, based on our current programming, that we'll be able to expand it to community use. Right now it's pretty limited to abutters and just basically Tufts people getting in there to get exercise for recreational swimming. I think our plans are to be able to expand that to more members of the Medford community. We hope to expand our swim lesson program as well to access to the community. Right now, we always have a wait list for our swim lesson program. So it's definitely gonna serve the specific Tufts community needs, but excited to see what impact it has on the greater community, honestly, Medford, Somerville, surrounding area. The water's a special thing. It's a safety thing. And we love bringing people in there and helping them have a positive experience around water. So that's kind of the most important points, I think. you know, that I wanted to mention to everyone. Rocco, if I'm missing anything, I'm happy to touch on it. I guess, sorry, I just thought of one thing. We do have the Elliott Pearson Elementary School next to us, and we do give them use of the pool in the summer. They run, I think, six weeks of summer camp for students. So they're usually coming in the mornings. But other than that, that's pretty much the programming that's happening at our current pool.

[Rocco DiRico]: That was great. Thank you, Adam. And thanks for your years of coaching and dedication to the Tough Swim team. I'm now going to pass it off to Shea from Sasaki, who will go through the site and landscape plans.

[Penelope Taylor]: Great. Thank you so much, everyone. My name is Shealina Bigelow. I'm part of the architecture team at Sasaki. So first, I'm going to walk through the existing plan. And what we see here is the larger site parcel in red, which is bound by College Ave. the MBTA rail line to the west and residences to the north and south of the site. The site is home to many of Tufts athletic fields, as well as athletic buildings across the street with the Tisch Center and Cousins Gym. And there's a few features, site features that I want to point out. First of which is at the northern most part of the site there's an existing grove of mature trees that buffer the site from the neighboring residences on the north side. Second is that College Ave has a fair amount of grade change. The lower end of College Ave is closer to the Tisch building and the higher end of College Ave is towards the Boston Ave side of the site. And the parking area that you see in the red parcel is the Cousins lot. I mention those things because in the early stages of the project, the team looked at several different locations within the site. We found that locating the project farther south on College Ave, so sort of more inward to the campus, added several complexities to the project. One of which is we'd need to maintain right-of-way access to the rail line. There were some concerns about vibrations from the rail line that might impact the swimming and diving program if it were too close. And that significant grade change that I mentioned would be difficult to mitigate from a construction standpoint. And so it's because of these reasons when we look at the proposed site plan.

The aquatic center is located closer to the Tisch Center. So again, at the lower side of College Ave. This introduces a simpler take from a constructability standpoint, but also this location situates the building between the existing athletic buildings on the other side of College Ave and the rest of the athletic field, sort of connecting the larger athletic complex. This particular location and orientation also minimizes the impacts to the existing parking lot. I'd also like to note here that this application includes the tennis team room and restrooms, which you will see just below the top two rows of the tennis courts. And the Tufts team will talk about those more later in the presentation, but I just wanted to point them out here on this larger site plan.

So with that, we can move to the landscape plan. So in the landscape plan for the Aquatic Center, you can see that the building is nestled in between the baseball park, Sol Gittleman, to the south and the northern property line shown in red. You can also see here that existing grove of mature trees that I mentioned that provide that buffer between the site and the neighborhood and this new building. To reinforce the buffer with the neighborhood, the design team has also proposed some evergreen trees at the northern property line to provide some additional visual screening year round. The building footprint is slightly rotated from College Ave and is positioned in such a way to minimize the impact to the existing parking lot, like I mentioned previously. And this also presents the shorter facade along the street at College Ave. This orientation creates a more generous plaza and a green buffer with several new canopy and understory trees along College Ave. framing the new plaza in front of the building. And as part of the feedback from the community, we've also added a pollinator garden at the south facade of the building. And the team will work with the Tufts Pollinator Initiative as part of the implementation effort. The last thing I'll point out on this slide is that in the massing of the building, The team has taken great care to consider the residential neighborhood, so we've actually located the single-story volume that's part of the project on the northern side, which is closer to the neighborhood, and we've put the two-story pool volume more inward to the site in that sensitivity.

When we go to the pedestrian circulation diagram, we can take a look at some of the circulation paths that we anticipate. The major of which the kind of major anticipated paths that we see are coming from the Tisch crosswalk to the building where the main entrance you can see marked with red triangles. Pedestrians can also move through the plaza into the athletic fields. The second major route that we anticipate will be coming from campus along College Ave and crossing at a proposed relocated crosswalk. There is a new curb cut entrance to the parking lot as part of this design. And so we see that as a major pedestrian The area between the aquatic center and the baseball park will be a primary route to the rest of the athletic fields. To the north is an existing path that's in that lighter orange color. This is a path that starts at the Tisch crosswalk. The existing plaza that's there, the path, and those trees that I mentioned will remain part of the design as a quieter path around the building and to the fields.

And now we'll take a moment to walk you through the floor plans. So first, just to orient everyone on this level one plan, I'll point out that north is generally up on this page. College Ave would be to the left side of the page and the main entrance you see extends into the plaza, allowing access from both directions on College Ave. The area you see above the words pool deck on this page is that single story volume that I mentioned. This is the part of the plan that is closer to the neighborhood to the north. This low bar houses the lobby community lockers with single user changing rooms and showers and an all gender restroom directly off the corridor in light yellow. Moving left to right past the community lockers are the coaches offices and a wet classroom. Men's and women's team locker rooms and general locker rooms are at the right side of the low bar and the two story volume is mainly the pool and then there's some spectator seating above where it says pool deck. The end at the right side of the image we have the building support. This is at the east side of the building which is facing away from the street, and it's also a single story volume with it has building mechanical equipment on on its low roof.

And as Rocco mentioned, this building is being designed as an all electric building. This will be one of the first all electric pool facilities in New England and is in line with Medford's ambitious sustainability goals, the specialized stretch energy code. The project will be solar ready and is planning for EV ready parking spaces. So from the lobby, there's a stair and elevator that take you to the second floor that you see here. On the second floor, we have an event room, a small lobby with restrooms, and then an open concourse with spectator seating. The open concourse looks down onto the pool below. We can also see here the rooftop mechanical on that low roof, which is screened by a mechanical screen on its three exposed sides. Understanding the sensitivity to building height, we took great care to locate all of the mechanical equipment on this low roof where it can be easily screened. And there is no mechanical equipment on the high roof of this building.

Next, we'll take a look at a couple of the building sections. First, we're going to take a look at a section cutting along the length of the building. Here, we can see that two-story pool volume with the spectator seating beyond. At the left side of the section is that main entrance vestibule along College Ave. And on the right side of the section, we see that single-story support space with the mechanical equipment on top. And you can just see beyond the mechanical screen that visually screens it. The next section cuts across the width of the building. So this is a cross section that shows that lower single story, which is 15 feet tall. And you can see the lobby and then the stair up to the spectator lobby and the spectator seating that opens onto the pool itself. The two-story volume is 35 feet to the highest point of the roof. And in this section, the lower side where the lobby is showed, this is the one that's facing the neighborhood.

And next we can take a look at the building exterior with a few of the renderings. So the first image that we're seeing This is a view that was previously shown at a community meeting. In general, given the nature of this building as an athletic facility, it does have a certain scale. And at this stage of the project, we were taking advantage of the long wall as an athletics branding opportunity, as well as a moment to express detailed brickwork in contrast to the streamlined facade on College Ave. From that meeting, we received good feedback from the community. And since then, the design has evolved, but we've also included views that we feel more accurately captured the plaza design, which wasn't really shown in the previous image, and the overall experience of arriving at the aquatic center. Given its visibility, the team has also made some tweaks to the south wall that faces the baseball field, to address the pedestrian scale, which we hope will speak to some of the input we've received from the community. So this is a view taken as though you're coming from the Cousins parking lot, looking toward the main entrance. So you can see a little key plan at the bottom right with a blue arrow where you would be standing. At the left side of this image is the new plaza along College Ave. This is today a parking lot and in this proposal will now be a new green space and plaza with trees planted at the street and providing shaded areas in the plaza. We see this space as a place for people to gather in front of the building or to move through to get rest to the rest of the athletic fields. Focusing more on the building, the street facade, We see facing the new Plaza has a rhythm of slot windows, which allude to the lanes of a pool where the main entrance sticks out as one of the last lanes just beyond the rest to give it some a bit more prominence in the Plaza. The wall at the right-hand side of the image faces the baseball park. This is away from the neighborhood and is southern facing. Behind this wall is the pool space itself. And we know there's been some questions about windows on this wall. We wanted to note that it's important to control the light that comes into the pool volume so as not to create glare, which can impact swimming competitions and safety. But likewise, having windows located on the south wall near baseball makes it a bit vulnerable to stray baseballs, which could damage the glass. But that being said, the design team is sensitive to the importance of scale and detail in this wall facing the athletic fields. So since it's not pragmatic to have windows on this wall, The design breaks down the scale of the wall in other ways. So the south wall creates a visual backdrop to the athletic fields. So we think it's important to address multiple scales. The verticals that you see are recessed bricks in a darker tone to break down the overall length of the facade. And their placement starts closer together and gradually gets wider to create a feeling of movement. The playful brick pattern within those bays is a textured projected more of the pedestrian scale of this facade. And these two things working together are meant to respond to some of the detailed brick patterning that's in the neighboring buildings. As we move to the next view, this is as though you're moving through the promenade where we can see the baseball bleachers and the press box beyond. This view shows a bit more of that vertical rhythm along the wall.

And the plantings have been refined in this area as well. So to the left is the pollinator garden that I mentioned, and to the right we've actually extended the planter a bit with a shade tree to sort of frame the new promenade as you walk down. The next view that we see is taken from College Ave as though you just crossed at the crosswalk in front of Tisch. In this view we can see the main entrance reaching out into the plaza with access from both sides. From the main entrance the metal wall that you see is a termination of that low bar and the darker brick. This This single-story volume contains the lobby, the locker rooms, and aquatics offices. Offscreen to the left is where the residential neighborhood is, and we'll see that a bit in the next view. But I'll point out here that the openings that you see on the first floor have been kept fairly slender. This is to let light into the corridor on the inside, but keeping a more subdued approach, given that we're on the neighborhood side. And beyond the low volume, we can see the two-story pool volume, which is more inward to the site. And on the next slide, if you were standing at that main entrance and you turned a bit to the left, this is the view that you would see along the northern side of the building. So given that this is the side that faces the neighborhood, it has a slightly different character to it. The existing path from the crosswalk on College Ave remains, We have these smaller openings at the first floor of the building. And at the left side of the image, we can see some of those existing mature trees and how they screen the neighborhood from the building.

And if we go to the next image, we also wanted to show a few views from the neighborhood. So this is as you are coming up College Ave with the Tisch Center on your right. This too gives a good look at those mature existing trees, which are at the far left of the image that will remain. These provide that separation. Beyond those trees, you see the main entrance of the building, which is reaching out into the plaza and the two-story volume beyond and the plaza as well. The next view is taken from the neighborhood. So this is from, for those of you familiar, this is from Hinsdale Street, which is one of the closest, has some of the closest neighboring buildings. The existing trees here you can see provide a very helpful screen in the summer. You can just see a peak of the darker brick and the lighter brick behind it of the building beyond. And we also took a look at this view in the wintertime. And even though most of these trees of the existing trees are deciduous, they do still provide a fair amount of screening. of the building, but as I mentioned in previous slides, we have also proposed evergreen trees that provide an additional buffer for the neighborhood from the viewing the building. And with that, thank you very much, and I will pass the presentation on to Patrick from Goulston and Storrs.

[Patrick Gallagher]: Great, thank you very much, Shay, and Thank you members of the board and staff and members of the public and neighbors who have come out to hear from us tonight. I really appreciate your time. I'll try to be as brief as I can on zoning. As Danielle Evans mentioned at the beginning of this hearing, this is a project that's being presented as a Dover amendment use. Rather than falling under section 11.7 of the zoning ordinance, this falls under section 11.8.

Um, a Dover amendment use, uh, these are educational religious. Or child care uses that have a special treatment under the state zoning act. And under Medford zoning ordinance, there's a 2 pronged. Uh, approach to evaluating these uses for site plan purposes. The first is whether the use qualifies for protection under the Dover Amendment. And the second is what reasonable regulations concerning the bulk and height of structures and determining yard sizes, lot area setbacks, open space, parking, and building coverage requirements should be imposed on the use. So just addressing those two very briefly, this is an athletics use by Tufts University non-profit educational user squarely within what the Dover Amendment is trying to protect. In terms of those reasonable regulations, I do want to highlight that we've made a really concerted effort to design this project in compliance with the underlying zoning requirements as much as feasible. There are several areas where we are requesting relief. But as you'll see on the next slide, we really did make an effort to minimize those areas where we would need to ask the board for relief from the underlying requirements.

This site's located in a general residence district and wanted to highlight that the maximum allowed height in that district is 35 feet. As Shay presented earlier, that's in line with the top line height of this building. And again, as a, you know, I think important point to highlight here, we really wanted to take into consideration the neighbors, how this project would impact the neighbors who are closest to it. And so rather than locating building mechanicals on the higher rooftop, we have located those on the low rooftop and screened them off so that they are not any higher than the balance of the roof. So that was an important design element that we worked through as we were putting together this project. In terms of the areas where we are requesting relief, and these are all explained in more detail in our application, the first two relate to the front yard setback and the side yard setback. So based on the formula that determines setbacks for the general residence district, the applicable front yard setback here would be a little bit over 31 feet. In this case, we're providing for a 30-foot setback. We consider that to be just a pretty minor amount of relief, but allows us to situate the building in the optimal orientation as Shay was explaining. As to the side yard setback, again, based on the formula for how that is calculated, the applicable setback here would be slightly over 51 feet. And at its closest point, the side yard setback that we are proposing would be 45 feet on the northeast corner. As you see, we've made an effort to really jog back that piece of the building from the closest properties. And again, that setback relief is what enables us to have the rooftop mechanicals on that lower roof and shielded from the neighborhood.

We're also requesting relief in the form of shared parking approval. This is under section 6.1.9 of the zoning ordinance. You'll hear after me from Nick Piscitello of Tufts University. The underlying concept here is that as a campus, Tufts is managing parking holistically. It wouldn't be reasonable in the campus setting to have new parking facilities corresponding with each building. Rather, there are a number of larger facilities that are going to be absorbing most of the parking demand for campus. And so we're requesting that the board approve our request for a shared parking designation for this project. And in relation to that shared parking, we are seeking a waiver from the requirement that any shared parking facilities be located within 500 feet of the principal use. In this case, as Nick is going to explain in a few minutes, we expect that the large part of the parking demand, if not located at the cousin's lot, would likely park in the Dowling Hall garage, which has more than sufficient capacity, but is more than 500 feet away.

Just a couple other areas to touch on. One concerns requirements on the width and length of parking spaces and the location of parking spaces. Part of what we are doing here to mitigate the loss of parking from the building footprint is to stripe parts of the south end of the Cousins lot that are currently not striped for parking. To align the dimensions with the existing parking, we may require relief from the maximum, I believe it's 30% of spaces can be compact size spaces. And after that re-striping, we may exceed that 30%. So we're requesting relief there. We're also requesting relief from Medford's solar ordinance, that's section 7.4 of the zoning ordinance. As Shay mentioned, the building has been designed to be solar ready. But at the time of initial construction, we're not proposing to include solar. For that reason, we're requesting a waiver from the solar ordinance. Then lastly, there's a provision of the zoning ordinance that limits the number of principal buildings that can be located on a single lot. In this case, we're treating the entire athletics field parcel as one lot for zoning purposes. and given that there are existing structures and we're proposing two new structures here in the form of the aquatic center and then the tennis team room and restroom facilities, we are requesting relief from that multiple buildings on a lot requirement as well. So I think that summarizes it, but again, I wanted to really emphasize that there was a lot of sensitivity to trying to match up this project with the underlying requirements wherever possible. So, with that, I'm going to hand it off to my colleague, Nick Piscitello, who's Senior Director of Auxiliary Services with PUPS.

[CAS00002420_SPEAKER_18]: Thank you, Patrick. As Patrick just described, when we look at parking demand on campus, we view it as a shared parking across all of our parking inventory on our campus. This map kind of provides that holistic view approach, and you'll be able to see we have multiple lots in close proximity to the proposed aquatic center. And our largest parking facility, Dowling Garage, which has 532 spots, is a short distance away from that proposed location. With that said, during the community feedback, we did hear And we recognize that the community raised some questions about how Tufts manages events related to athletics. I can share since those meetings, Tufts Parking Police and Athletics has been working to improve how we manage parking during athletic events in the future. This includes working with our parking team for improved stopping and improving event signage to direct participants to the Darwin Garage. In addition, we're exploring additional transportation demand management options, which in simple terms means how do you get people to go get to campus without driving, right? So we're looking at methods to improve communications on encouraging people to take the Green Line or other public transportation options to attend our games.

With this multi-pronged approach, we hope this will improve the overall experience for those attending the athletic events as well as the community. At this point, I'm going to pass it over to Greg McGuire from Kinsiglu Construction.

[Councilor George Scarpelli]: Everyone hear me okay? Good evening. Thank you for having me. So this is our construction logistics plan. So as you'll see here, our goal is to minimize our impact on college as well as to athletics. So we will be orienting our site trailer and lay down area basically in right field to the bottom of the screen here, as you see. And then if you look at the access, we're going to be using the existing curb cut as our construction entrance at the top of the page. And then we'll, in part of enabling phase, set up the new curb cut for the existing parking lot to be able to maintain that.

From a trucking standpoint, our goal is to maintain Again, minimal impact to College Ave as well as the neighborhoods. We have a strict trucking route plan that'll show us coming up north on the page and then heading towards our east to also avoid as best we can the train stations down towards the west end side. We do have some utility connections and things like that that we will be working with DPW and scheduling whether that's temporary police or flagmen to ensure that when we're doing any work in the road we are have proper signage to ensure that all work is being done. We'll also make sure that there's some existing pathways that the students use and we'll make sure that we maintain those to the north of the site as well as I know a question on one of our earlier meetings was about the southern path, which you cannot really see on this plan, but that will also be maintained through the life of the project.

[Rocco DiRico]: Thanks, Greg. We'll now go to Robert and we'll talk about the tennis team room that we're adding as part of this project.

[CAS00002420_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, thanks Rocco. Robert Corbett, executive director of design and construction for Tufts. Shea had mentioned early on that in addition to the aquatic center, we've included the tenants team room in our application. This is a one story building, approximately 1100 square feet. This would normally not come in front of the community development board. but because it is being constructed at the same time as aquatic center, we wanted to be transparent about the building and also because it is going to share the same lot with the aquatic center when it's complete.

The building will serve two purposes. One, it is a team tennis room, as noted. That's approximately half the size of the building. And then the other half will be restrooms for use by both athletics and the community, visiting community and community that regularly utilizes the athletic areas. The facility will be open in the spring and fall during the athletic season. and also in the summer when we have camps and events. We are near the end of the design process and we will be bidding this and construction on this small building will take about 9 to 10 months.

Overall, the schedule for the aquatic center, we are nearing the end of our design phase currently. The entitlements process is what we are in presently. We would love to take the opportunity with the good weather of the summer coming to start construction after the entitlements are completed. If we started the project this summer, it would take approximately 22 months to construct the building, and we would hope to open in the late spring, early summer of 2028. Rocco, I will turn it back over to you to close out our presentation.

[Rocco DiRico]: Thank you, Robert. And just again, I want to thank the board for your patience. We know that that was a long presentation, but we wanted to make sure we did a lot of community outreach prior to this meeting. We had a community meeting. We've had one on one meetings with neighbors, phone calls, emails. So we wanted to make sure that we addressed all their concerns and included those requests into our final presentation to the board. So with that, I will turn it back over to you, Mr. Chairman, and we are happy to answer any questions that you may have about the project.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you, Rocky. That was a great presentation. Let me open up to the board first. I'm going to go in reverse order because I think, I know Ari's not here tonight, but she often gets the last questions I want to reverse at this time. She's not here, but I'm going to start with Dina, and then I'll do Paige, Sean, and John Anderson afterwards. So Dina, if you could, any comments you have?

[Dina Caloggero]: Yes, I want to thank you for the very thorough presentation. on the aquatic center and I did notice that the parking study was done during the week before the hours I think between the hours of 10 and 6 p.m. Now according to the design it looks like you're losing how many parking spots from the current Cousins parking lot over 100 or is it 91?

[Rocco DiRico]: Nick are you able to answer that question in terms of The total number of spots that we're losing after we add in the new ones.

[Dina Caloggero]: Right, 115 spots. OK. Now, the parking study that was done, it was done during the week. One of the biggest impacts on traffic regarding Tufts University and athletics is on the weekends, on Saturday. So I haven't seen any type of study done on Saturday. And the problem is that people, creatures of habit, they park close to where they want. They park close to the lacrosse. They park close to baseball. And the Cousins lot fills up, and then the folks park on the residential areas, causing traffic on College Avenue, while sometimes the lot at the Dane School and the Elliott Pearson remain available at the same time. And the problem with those events is it creates congestion on the surrounding areas, and people come home from doing the errands and they can't park. on streets. And I know it's an issue where Method should enforce the permitted parking on those areas, but it is quite frustrating for the residents trying to park. So I would like to see a traffic study done and a parking study done on the busier times when there's lacrosse, baseball, softball, and what the parking situation looks like then. I have noticed when I walk just around the area that the Cousins lot is full, is full almost every single day. There is an area in the back that is used for trash. There's a dumpster back there. There's old appliances. Can that area be repurposed and establish more parking spots for Tufts to offset the loss of, I think you said 151 spots? 115, Dina.

115. Okay, 115. So I'd like to see that. I'd like to see a study done on the weekend with those major events. And then I'd like to see how we could repurpose that. The staging area, I think you said is going to be behind the baseball. But could that area be also expanded to provide additional parking once the project is complete? The other issue I see is the crosswalk. As you leave Tisch, that is a very, very busy crosswalk. And I have seen where buses park in front of the Tisch Center, you know, to drop off the athletes who have their equipment. And sometimes folks try to park across and they're nearly hit because of the speed that the cars come from the top of College Avenue as they rope around towards the intersection of George and College Avenue. So that's really tough. There is a huge speed problem on College Avenue. And I think the crosswalk needs to be clearly lit, not only for the safety of the residents of the area, but for the college students as well. And I think you said that you're going to have the Elliot Pearson kids cross over to the aquatic center to take swimming lessons. So I would seriously consider the safety of that of that crosswalk area. I think you should put a speed table in the area as well. And I think you need to light it especially at night. You can't even see when the kids cross the street and it's dangerous. It really is dangerous.

The other thing that I'd like to see is on the weekends, during the big events. And not graduation, because graduation is a very special thing for Tufts University. And everyone gets that. But during the athletic events, how many spaces are available at Dowling Hall? How many spaces are available at Dane and also the Elliott Pearson at the same time? Because again, there is so much traffic on the weekends with these athletic events. So the crosswalks and the stairs. Another thing, the other problem Tufts has is you have that Starbucks up there. And I know Starbucks is gone, and I miss it. But there might be another cafe up there. And the student spots right across, coming out of the new Cummings Center, down from the top of the hill or up the corner trying to make the light. So there are a number of safety issues. And I see with the addition of the aquatic center, which is, believe me, I agree Tufts needs it. I used to see that.

For 25 cents, I remember it all. But I think we really, really need to consider the utilization of parking, not only in the middle of the week, because I know the lot's full. I walk by it every day. But especially during a lot of the sporting events where the traffic is extremely, extremely heavy and the demand for parking is very, very high. And that's all I have. for now. And the other thing is those trees that I think when she was a great presentation, I love the street views, but they were trees there. I don't think there are any trees as you cross over from Cousins Gym across the street. I just I just think that's just fencing. I don't think there are any trees there right now. Are you intending to plant trees there? I think it's a wonderful idea.

[Rocco DiRico]: Yeah, we're happy to go back to the diagram and show you the existing trees, as well as, yes, we're planting trees. We actually spoke to the director, Butter, to the property, and that was one of her recommendations, so we added evergreen trees between her property and our building. And thank you for being a great neighbor throughout the years, Dean. I know we've talked a lot. So appreciate all this feedback and some great suggestions. And we'll be sure to take a look at all of them.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Very good. Rocco, before I go on to the next one, could you or somebody in your team address the possibility of a speed table? That does seem like a reasonable idea to slow people down on College Ave. That can be a very challenging street. I see that problem. I know you share the concerns with the safety for anyone who's there, but is that something we could look at together maybe?

[Rocco DiRico]: Thank you, Doug. Yeah, absolutely. And as you said, the safety and security of Our students, faculty, and staff, as well as our neighbors, is our top priority always. I know the project is going to be adding a crosswalk on College Avenue. So we can also look to see if that could be maybe a raised crosswalk or a speed table. And we'd be happy to look at that and explore that option as well, as well as the other pedestrian safety enhancements.

[Dina Caloggero]: I forgot. I'll get back to it. I wrote it down. Let me find it.

[Page Buldini]: Sure. Thank you so much. This was a great vision and I appreciate the diligence. I have two questions. One actually for Coach Hoyt. I'm also a Ms. Tuck Monarch mom of a second grader. And I appreciate that. So quick question. My daughter also has done swimming lessons in your program. So thank you so much. I think that's such a great life skill, and we appreciate it. And we can walk. We do sometimes drive. Do we expect the opportunity for more programming? I know you mentioned the wait list, but for some of the littles to really get a swim program established that is larger, is that something that you're expecting to create?

[CAS00002420_SPEAKER_25]: I would love to, Paige. Yeah. And it's nice to see you. I'm sure I've seen you before, but yeah, I think, you know, I think there are two things that are going to happen with this facility with regards to like swim lesson specific programming is one. We have a lot of instructors. Our pool's just really small. So if we had a bigger pool, we could take on more kids for every session. Right now it's almost all like one-on-one. And a lot of the older kids could go one-on-two, three-on-one, you know, two-on-one, three-on-one. They don't need the one-on-one. It's really the littles, the four- or five-year-olds. And then the idea of like what happens after swim lessons to bridge that gap between learning to swim and maybe being on the high school swim team or something like that. You know, there are swim clubs, but they come at a fairly costly expense to families. So, I think, like, in my head, like, how can we do it without, you know, taking over this pool since it's so large, like, I do think we're going to have more access. It may not necessarily. Be in the shape of like, oh, there's going to be a wider time range. It may just be like, oh, the pools bigger more instructors. We can take on more kids for a session and maybe shift the programming a little bit like in the summer. We do a pre team program for like 11 and 14 year olds, which is pretty cool. And then I hope to just be able to expand some different short like weekends here. uh, like a little clinic here, a little weekend thing here, let my athletes run it. Like, it's always great getting the college students to take a pause and think about paying it forward to some other kids and the other people in the community. Um, so yeah, those, those are kind of the visions. It's all kind of coming together, you know, as we get close to this pool and once we're in it, we'll certainly know, but I do anticipate being able to increase kind of our current offerings. Yeah.

[Page Buldini]: That's awesome. Happy to be supportive with that too. A lot of your athletes are clients of mine, and they're really wonderful student athletes. So I appreciate that. Do you anticipate diving coming back from MIT? Is that something?

[CAS00002420_SPEAKER_25]: Yeah. We'll have two one-meter springboards, two three-meter springboards, anticipate our divers coming back. And then that brings into question kind of like what sort of community access there might be. to springboard diving, which is something kind of on our list of things to consider. I know Medford High School, I bring my daughter to that pool. They don't have any diving boards. So my assumption is they don't have a diving team, but I assume high school swimming and diving competes that way. So is there potential to help out with something like that? I'm sure in some capacity there absolutely is. I remember when the high school was redoing the pool, We had Mary Judge, the swim coach, all the swimmers coming over at random times. Whenever we could squeeze them in our teeny pool, I think they came over at like 5.30, 6 in the morning. God bless the high school kids. But that was the best we could do, I imagine. With this pool, we could probably do better and support it. So those are all ideas that we have been talking through at the university. And they've been really supportive too. And I don't think they're going to squeeze out Tufts needs as well. So yeah.

[Page Buldini]: Well, I love it. Thank you, Coach Hoyt, and have a great season. I just have one second question. We spent a lot of time down at the fields. We were there for softball, met for youth girls softball, are big fans of the big softball girls. So when we are down there, it is a significant space that now will be the aquatic center, which totally makes sense being that size. And I know that many neighbors, and Doug, you can definitely attest to more of the design, but I do know with the history of Tufts University and Medford, it does make sense to have an homage to brick, but are there any other, I know on the resident facing side, it's different tones, is there an opportunity to change it up? So it is great that there's been different renderings that showed different versions of brick. It is just such a big, it's a stark wall. We were there the other day and it's, yes, it'd be wonderful for Tufts. to have that marketing space too, but is there a thought to potentially do something that could be a different look than just straight brick or variations of brick?

[Rocco DiRico]: Thank you, Paige. That's a great question. Yeah, and that is definitely something that we looked into. The pollinator garden that was added along that wall was based on community feedback and a request from a neighbor. We're also, you know, we've added lighting there. We've added different variations on the brick. I think part of the challenge is. as Shay explained during her portion of the presentation is we can't have windows on that wall because of how it affects the performance for the swimmers in the pool. And also it ends up really being like a foul ball wall for the baseball field. But we are certainly, we recognize that that issue has been brought up and we wanna continue working to make improvements to that wall to make it more attractive.

[Sean Beagan]: Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Very nice presentation. I reviewed the filings and I appreciate this. This is a very nice memorandum by Goulston and Storrs that was prepared, which really spells out what Tufts is looking for in terms of relief. And it seems like the biggest issue or the biggest ask here is in regards to parking. So as I see it, you're losing 115 spots. But then at the same time, you also need 63 spots for this new building based on reg. So we're really talking about 178 spots.

that you're in the negative. Is there any thought of a parking garage down in this area on what's left of that cousin's parking lot or somewhere? Is there talk of perhaps adding some parking? I understand the concept of shared parking with the other garages and lots that might be available at Tufts, but I don't know how, realistic all of that is and how many times you can do that and say we're going to build another building and we're going to share parking again and again and again. I'm just wondering if there's been any thought or talk of putting a parking garage down in that area. I guess it would be next to the aquatic center, whatever's left of your cousin's lot.

[Rocco DiRico]: Thank you, Sean. That's a great question. And we recognize that parking is a very important issue. Nick and his team are able to control parking on campus, and they're already looking at ways and making changes to parking that would actually free up additional spots in Dowling. As he said during our presentation we have 532 spots there and there's ways that we can regulate parking to take away certain permits and privileges for certain people so we can add parking there. I don't think we'll be, we have plans to build a garage in the cousins parking lot. However, I can tell you that there are other opportunities in the future to add parking in the area that doesn't involve building a garage. But we are looking at are there other spots on campus where we can add surface parking in the athletic district.

[Sean Beagan]: Thank you, Rocco. And then in regards to the design or the look of the building with the brick. Is there any opportunity, I saw you added the, you know, what is called the flower garden there on one side near the baseball field, perhaps to add some additional plantings, maybe some taller plantings that take up and kind of break up the, that brick look in terms, so you're not changing the building, but maybe just giving something else for people to look at or see in terms of just sight lines and things of that nature.

[Rocco DiRico]: Sure, Sean. So you're talking about kind of like taller trees along the brick wall to kind of block that view a little bit and green it up.

[Sean Beagan]: Yeah, I'm certainly not the design guy on this board by any stretch. That's the best I can do.

[Rocco DiRico]: Well, I feel for you, Sean. I'm not the design guy either. But yeah, no, we will definitely talk with Shea and Andrew, who are the design folks, and who also know a lot more about landscape design than I do, and see what else we can add in there. but that was exactly what we were going down that road in terms of trying to green up that space and block the wall. We'll see if we can do some taller plantings if the space allows.

[Chair Doug Carr]: And then go back to Dina first, and then I'll get Paige for a follow-up. Go ahead, Dina.

[Dina Caloggero]: Yeah, so maybe this question's for Alicia and Danielle, but could we also do like a speed study? I know like a while back, I know the Method Police or the traffic group in Medford was monitoring the speed. You know, they had that sign, and it was always buzzing and going off. If we could do that, because I think it would really reinforce the need for some type of traffic calming measures, along College Avenue. That's my first point. And the second thing I was thinking about, you know, with the project up in Boston Avenue, I think it's been coming along quite well, but the trucks, the construction trucks, what is the plan to mitigate some of the trucks coming down the residential areas with debris and a lot of the construction material? Someone showed a design of the truck roads.

[Rocco DiRico]: Thank you, Dina. That's a great question. And you're right. Greg talked about how that showed the construction routes and how they're going to ensure that our contractors and subcontractors stay on College Avenue and avoid Stanley Avenue and Frederick and the other streets. So, yeah, we will we will certainly make that a requirement as part of the construction management plan when the project begins, but we'll also be sure to reinforce that with contractors and subcontractors as the project goes on.

[Dina Caloggero]: And my last question, I promise, is pest control. One of the other issues that we see with a lot of construction activity in the areas is all of a sudden you disturb the rodent beds and the rodents leave. They find other places to go. Is there a mitigation or some type of pest control plan?

[Rocco DiRico]: Yes, absolutely, Dana. So the university has a master contract with Bono Pest Control for our entire campus, including the athletic district. But on top of that, we're going to ask Ken Sigley, who's the construction manager, to include a pest control plan as part of the construction management plan. And that plan will be approved by the Medford Health Department.

[Chair Doug Carr]: David Ensign, PB – He, Him, His.: : Before I go to page Lisa do you want to chime in here for a second.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Lisa Smith, PB – She, Her, Hers. Lisa Smith, PB – She, Her, Hers. Lisa Smith, PB – She, Her, Hers. Lisa Smith, PB – She, Her, Hers. to be placed somewhere is a request that I can put into our traffic department to Todd Blake. And usually he's got requests for them, he'll put it in the queue. But having that located somewhere for some window of time is a reasonable request to make. And I don't know if Rocco or somebody wants to follow up with me if there's anything specific about that, where we should put it, what's My understanding is College Ave, just across from there. I'll e-mail Rocco or Todd and copy Rocco saying that there was a request this evening, and can we just follow up on that?

[Page Buldini]: Sorry, just real quick. Thinking about relief, can I just ask how come we're not doing solar?

[Rocco DiRico]: Yeah, that's a good question. I'm going to turn that over to Robert, but I would say, you know, this building is already all electric. It meets the state's structural energy code needs, and we already have, much like we manage parking university wide, we also manage energy. University-wide, and so we've kind of picked the ideal spots on campus to add solar panels, like on top of Gantcher and on top of Cummings Center, on top of Dowling Garage. So we've really tried our best to max out solar on other portions of our campus. But Robert, please add anything that I may have missed.

[CAS00002420_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, Rocco, you're exactly correct. You know, we do look for opportunities on campus where possible. This will be a great future location. The federal subsidies and the economics around solar panels have changed tremendously under the current administration. And that's a big factor where under the current situation, it would probably be a lot more putting in the panels we would hope to in the future. We think it's a great opportunity. That's why we're making the building ready for solar. Hopefully under new administrations, we'll be able to do that.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you, Paige. John Anderson, you're next. Go ahead. Thank you.

[John Anderson]: I want to thank TUS for this very cogent and impressive presentation. I think I'll hold off any comments until we've heard from the public.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Okay, thank you, John. All right, before I would like to address the project before we open it for the public comments as well. I think there's a lot good here. I love the site plan is excellent. The siting of this building is good. The 35 foot height massing and scale, I think, is very reasonable and as low impact as it possibly can be, I think, to the abutting neighbors. So I feel like most of the zoning, almost all of it, I really don't have any issue in terms of the relief being requested. The few feet being requested here and there are, in my mind, have no significant impact. The parking, I'm okay with. I'm surprised that, frankly, Dowling has the capacity to take on such more because that parking garage is, you know, it's what is it, 20 years old now? And I'm surprised that it seems to be less used than I thought it would be, given the age of the facility and it seems parking demand just goes up and up, and maybe you guys have managed that better over the years. I think that the plaza out front is an excellent landscape. I think the landscape all around this building is excellent. And I think the elevations, both on the call it the North and the East side are perfectly reasonable what's shown there with the brick and the minimal windows and the mechanical step down. I think that's good. The challenge I have with this design is on what I call the public faces of the building. The South side, which is facing the athletic field, and the West side that is facing College Ave. Those are the public faces that are most prominent that the Medford public and the Tufts public interact with a lot. I think both those elevations, in my opinion, still need a lot of work. I saw some improvements with the original renderings put versus what's proposed now, but I want to challenge a few things on that. The wall facing the athletic field is by my measure about 215 feet long.

And even with textured brick and a slot of different color brick, it's overwhelming. It's a giant blank, mostly blank, billboard of brick. And I think there's a way to articulate that better. And you have steel columns that are just inside that wall. My first thought of looking at it was I would take those columns that are inside and kind of bump them out as, not pilasters inside, but pilasters outside, so that you get some rhythm and texture and some real shadow, not just a brick thick, but a foot and a half in dimension that would really give you it would break up that really long wall that I described as longer than the green monster at Fenway is its length and size. It's about the same size as this building. It just needs more articulation. It's too flat. And some creativity there, I think, would go a long way towards making that an appropriate elevation because that elevation is visible from between 700 and 900 feet across all the Tusk playing fields to Boston Ave to the Green Line and all around the whole arc of the surroundings. It's one of the most prominent elevations on Tufts campus, believe it or not, once it's put there. In my mind, this building should be a jewel box. The way it's sited, the way it's skewed, it should be something that has a three-dimensional quality, but it's very flat and it's very It's heavy, it's all brick, there's minimal windows. It just feels like a bunker, a warehouse. And I think there are ways to creatively lighten that design and make it something that has texture, that has more going for it than the majority of it right now is just blank walls. So I'd ask Tufts University in good faith to try to Try to go back to the design and see if you can articulate it, see if you can improve it. You've already done so with what I've seen tonight, but I think there's a few more steps that can be taken. I would like to challenge the idea that the south side can have no windows because my immediate thought when I looked at the elevations when Danielle put the package around was that if I had a huge cantilever on that roof of 5, 10, 8 feet, and I put clear story windows underneath it a few feet tall, there's no way a foul ball would ever hit that class at all. It's literally impossible. And if you need to make the backstop of the field 10 or 15 feet higher, like almost any Little League or Babe Ruth field that I've ever seen around New England, just that gesture alone would, I think, go a long way towards No sunlight would ever hit the water. It would just allow, it would lighten that elevation. It would improve that elevation a lot. And it would break that up a little bit. I agree with Sean's comments about a few more trees or other ways to kind of divide and conquer that elevation. Because right now it just, it feels so heavy, so overwhelming. And I think I challenged Tufts to kind of go back to the drawing board you're not changing a thing in plan at all. The massing of the building is the same, but just take a look at it because I think there's some creative ways to do it. And I want this to be the best building for Tufts and a great building for Medford too. And I think we can get there with a little bit more creativity and effort and maybe a little less brick, to echo what Paige said as well. I think it's, Medford brick only goes so far and most buildings in Medford, even when they're brick, they have a lot of windows too. And I think this board, I don't think it's a single project that has come before us where we have not added windows somewhere on it because we felt there was too much blank wall to butter to even the back of the building because somebody's looking at that building. And again, I think there's a little bit of opportunity there to make this building stronger, a little bit more three-dimensional, a little bit more shadow and texture. And I would challenge you to do your best on that. So with that, John, I'm going to go back to you after we have the public. I'm going to open the public. Oh, sorry. Pat, do you want to have a comment? Go ahead, Pat.

[Patrick Gallagher]: Thank you, Mr. chair, I did if I may just want to quickly respond to a couple of comments on on parking just before jumping into the public comments I agree that I think this is a really important piece. And I just did want to underline that we've had many conversations as a team as to how to best address that I think a lot of these conversations are. totally independent of this project, frankly, and are discussing how to best manage parking and events on campus. And so I did want to just underscore some of the comments and say we hear you, and especially for this neighborhood, and we understand that that's an impact. And I do think one other item that we've talked about as a team is with the project schedule here, it's going to be You know, at least a couple of years until this facility would open and so I do think that gives some more time to pull the levers that can be pulled around parking and to see how we can really more efficiently. use the parking that's on campus today. And so all of those are things that are being actively discussed. And again, I think independent of this project, there's a sentiment of, you know, we can improve that. And so I wanted to just assure the board and folks on here that that is very top of mind for us.

[Rocco DiRico]: Yeah, and just to add really quickly Mr. chairman because I know we want to get to the public comments. You know, 20 years ago when we built the garage there wasn't an MBTA station there. So we now provide free MBTA passes for our students that go back and forth to our SMFA campus. We're also adding to blue bike stations on Boston Avenue that will be open before this opens. Freshmen and sophomores aren't even allowed to bring their vehicles to campus. And most of the people utilizing this pool are going to be, you know, students that are on campus already. So the theory is they're going to be walking to the facility, not, you know, driving from Dowling Garage over to Cousins or driving from their dorm to there. So we're really trying to take a multimodal approach to transportation and encourage people to not drive to campus. We want people to take other means of transportation when they come to campus.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you, Rocco. All right, so I am now going to switch gears and open the public comment period. Those who wish to provide comments can use the raise hand feature, which may be under reactions on your Zoom, or if you have dialed in on a phone, you could use star nine to raise your hand. You can message Alicia in the chat if you're having technical difficulties before providing your comments. Please state your name and address for the record. A reminder to all meeting participants to please refrain from using the chat function to message any comments. to the city staff or board members that is not part of the public record. But if a participant is having issues, technical issues, you may message staff or assistants. Each participant will have two minutes to speak and Alicia will be running the clock. Would anybody like to make a comment about the project? Please raise your hand.

This is, oh, here we go. Judy Weinstock, please give your name and address for the record, Judy.

[Judith Weinstock]: Hi. Actually, I'd like to defer to Jeremy Martin first, if that's OK, and then I'll come back after his comments.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Jeremy, name and address for the record. Good to see you again.

[Jeremy Martin]: Always. Jeremy Martin, 65 Burgett Avenue. Hey, obviously this is a really great project for the university and the students. Certainly a better use of that site than a parking lot. And I appreciate that Tufts has offered to expand community access to the pool. I think we would all love to hear more concrete details about what that is and who that applies to. when that's available. While it's a really good project for the school, it's also reasonable that the neighboring community have concerns. I think we started to hear some of those tonight. The short term impacts of the project will be appreciable, especially considering the timing overlap with an already disruptive construction project on Boston Avenue. Some of this can be mitigated with a good construction management plan. And I would encourage the board to ask Tufts to adopt some of the language that was added to the CMP for the residence hall project. which was improved in coordination with the neighbors. While I don't oppose the requested parking waivers, the notion of relying on remote parking, especially Dowling Hall, which is almost three times the 500 foot distance from this site, really further highlights how dependent Tufts is on using city infrastructure and public realm to connect and operate its campus. It would be great to see a recognition of the shared responsibility for these community resources, reflected in a commitment to implement on the proposals that come out of the active Boston Avenue and College Avenue public realm studies. I think Dina's right on with some of her concerns that she's expressed about traffic and safety on College Avenue right now. And can you imagine how incredible it would be for College and Boston Avenues to be tree-lined streets with wide sidewalks like other parts of the campus?

The proposal requests relief for front and yard side setbacks. How about instead of this big massive brick wall, we have some public art or some kind of art? Many residents have asked for that. And I know the Tufts landscape architects can do better than the little sad strip of planting along that wall. I have more to say about this. Two minutes is not enough to comment. I wish we had more. I hope you'll give me another chance to comment, because I would like to add just a little bit.

[Chair Doug Carr]: I will, Jeremy. You're a standard in so many of these meetings, and we appreciate it.

[Chair Doug Carr]: I'll come back to you, Jeremy, at the end. I want to make sure. Judith, why don't you go next?

[Judith Weinstock]: Hi, I'd be happy to cede the remainder of my time to Jeremy.

[Chair Doug Carr]: I don't think it works that way, but don't worry. We'll get Jeremy back.

[Judith Weinstock]: Okay. Terrific. Again, thank you to Tufts for the presentation. I really do think it's going to be a great facility. I think it's going to be a great benefit to both the university, but also the community. So I'm really looking forward to that. Um, I agree with the comments about the South facing wall and Rocco knows because I wrote him a separate note as well as from the community meetings. The idea I'm sorry Rocco. I know you're shaking your head. You poor thing. But, um.

I think it is a really great spot for Tufts to think about some type of art installation to help break up that wall, whether it's a mural. We have some unbelievable mural artists in this, around this city. There's someone in Somerville named Sophie Tuttle, who is just amazing. Something that could not just play to Tufts strengths, but also to the community strengths as part of the Tufts community. And I don't know whether it's a mural. I don't know whether it's a sculpture. I don't know, because I'm not an artist, but I think that there's a great opportunity there. I also agree to some degree about the clear story window idea. You know, it's hard. It's hard to imagine if they were done properly that they could create many problems on the interior of the building or the exterior of the building. With that, I'm going to stop. I really, I think this project, I know it's going to move ahead. I think it's going to be a great thing when it's done. And let's get that south-facing wall looking terrific.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Just about to ask you that. Thank you very much. Would anybody else from the public like to speak? Please raise your hand. This has got to be a new record for a Tufts project. Wow.

[Rocco DiRico]: Okay, well, I assure you, we've had a lot of conversations outside of this meeting. Mr. chairman. So, and we're always God bless you for that.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you. With that. I'm going to, I'm going to go back to Jeremy. I'm going to give him. We have time here. Go ahead. Jeremy.

[Jeremy Martin]: Thank you all. I do appreciate the time and I agree with everything Judy just said. It is a really great project. I think it has been very thoughtful in the design. There are some areas that I think we can improve and. look beyond this exact site of the project and really make sure this ties into the community and to the campus well. I attended a conference on campus planning and development yesterday, and there were some really important and valuable comments made about relationships with neighboring communities for universities. Aram Farouk from Harvard University said, more communication with neighbors is key, and mechanisms for that communication need to be a part of a campus development master plan. And in another panel, Barb Stein noted how important it is to be careful with the relationship with your neighbors, which I really appreciated hearing. But the reality is that the community found out about this project, maybe a month and a half ago and it sounds like Rocco's had a lot of conversations but I do think there's still an opportunity for more engagement and better engagement in a more meaningful way from Tufts. Many of us are wondering what's next for this street. what's happening at the LA Pearson School and the Dame School or the other properties owned by the university. As the school becomes more interwoven into the neighborhood, strong planning and communication practices matter even more. So I hope the work that this board will be doing, will be taking up on institutional zoning really tries to get to the heart of those issues. It's not just about height and setbacks of parking, there's more to it.

In the meantime, please do keep asking Tufts to make this the best possible project for everyone in the Tufts and in the Medford communities. Thank you very much for the time.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you, Jeremy. I'll just say a few comments. You know, we, the last agenda item tonight is about wrapping up the Medford Square zoning. Our next frontier, so to speak, is going to be Boston F Tufts. So we're already starting those conversations now. With Rocco and his team, it's going to be a very engaging process. We look forward to this. Like everywhere else in Medford, the zoning we have is beyond antiquated, and we want to bring it into the 21st century and be forward-looking. encourage development, but have reasonable guardrails as well. So we're just starting that process now, wrapping up Medford Square, starting Boston Aft Tufts University, and we're looking forward to working closely with Rocket Winter's team to make that an efficient and beneficial process for everyone involved. So, um, with that, unless anyone, if there's anyone else last chance for this meeting, because this, this, this is going to be continued. This is, uh, if we're going to close the public comment, it's only being closed for this public meeting, not overall.

Uh, seeing none, I will close that, close the public comments, and I will open it up to Mr. John Anderson, who requested that he speak after the public comments. Go ahead, John, you're unmuted. Hold on. Go ahead, John, we can hear you.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Also a first for you, John. I'm very impressed. Very good. Are there any other comments from board members before we close this one out for tonight and continue it to May 6th? Okay, hearing none. Rocco, can you maybe just give us an outline of what you think the next step will be in three weeks?

[Rocco DiRico]: Thank you, Doug. I think we heard a lot of great feedback tonight. So I think as a team, we're going to go back to the drawing board, make some changes, and also we'll spend the next Three weeks meeting with city staff to also go through those issues that came up tonight. And then, you know, we hope to come back on May 6th with probably a much shorter presentation, but one that addresses the concerns that were raised tonight.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Okay, I would like to add just to take a look at adding a rendering from across the fields towards this building, looking at that south elevation, either from Boston Ave or somewhere along that line so you can get a sense of it in the scale of the athletic buildings behind it. and the green space behind it, just seeing that full elevation. I think that would be important just to, because the ones you have are good, but they're quite close. And again, this building has a huge visual impact. So take a look at that if you can. It shouldn't be a heavy lift for your team. I know they can pull that together relatively quickly. And I guess with that, we will see you on May 6th.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you, Rocco. So I'm going to ask for a motion to continue the Tufts hearing to the next public meeting on May 6th.

[Dina Caloggero]: I make a motion to extend the next public hearing to May 6th for Tufts Aquatic Center.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Second. Thank you, John Anderson. I'll do a roll call. John Anderson.

[Chair Doug Carr]: All right, Goffman Fishman is absent and myself. Yes, the motion passes five. Thank you much. Appreciate it.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Cheers all. Okay. We are now moving on to the last major item tonight, which is the continued public hearing for Medford Square zoning, Medford Square District zoning amendment. So I'll make an announcement here. This public hearing on the Medford Square zoning district was continued from our third joint hearing with the city council on March 25th, 2026. The board will review the draft zoning text that has been updated by Innis Land Strategies Group based on feedback from the city council and the board and the planning staff of the city of Medford, and vote on a final recommendation to the city council to adopt the amendment as revised. Maybe I could ask either Alicia or Danielle. Oh, go ahead, Alicia.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Mr. Chair, as we've been going two hours, could we take a five-minute break before we go and open another public hearing?

[Chair Doug Carr]: I think that's a great idea. I always appreciate you doing this, because I'll just go on forever. So let's take a five-minute break, and we'll see you back here soon. Good to go?

[Director Alicia Hunt]: I created a timer, and I forgot to turn it on. But I'm back.

[Chair Doug Carr]: I guess Tufts must've been a draw. I mean, Tufts had 15 people on the call, maybe 20. Yes. Anyway.

[Chair Doug Carr]: I just had the fastest dinner in my life right now. Too late to eat. All right, so I'm going to crank it back up again. So now we're going to continue the public hearing Medford Square district zoning amendments. This public hearing on the Medford Square zoning district was continued from our third joint hearing with the Medford City Council on March 25th, 2026. The board will review the draft text, the draft zoning text that has been updated by Innis Land Strategies Group based on feedback from the City Council, from this board, and from the PDS staff in Medford. And our plan tonight is to vote on a final recommendation to the City Council to adopt the amendment as revised. So with that, maybe Alicia, could you put the zoning map on screen just for reference?

And maybe you and Danielle could give us a snapshot of where things stand. There's been a lot of movement in the last 24 or 48 hours from Innis. Give me a sense of where you are. I think there's a few straggling items, but there's not much left from what I can understand.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: So, Mr. Chair, I believe the plan here, Danielle, correct me if I'm wrong, is I will share screen and Danielle will talk.

[Chair Doug Carr]: No, I'm not looking for a presentation, just a high level executive summary of open issues or closed issues that were open. All right.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Sorry, it's just taking me a second to share the right window. There we go. This is the map and that's just correct me. It's getting late for some of us.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Yeah, that is the map. It's still funny that they have yet to put a date on it or North arrow, which is kind of, we've asked for that a number of times, but, um, I don't think there's any changes to the map because that's not what we were looking for last time.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Right. And I think that there were a number of changes. Danielle, interrupt me if you're ready to talk, I didn't see you. But a lot of them were, I think so in the big picture, the board tonight is planning to make recommendations. And I'll remind you that in technically, the recommendations you're making is what to accept and what to change from the original that you received back in January. Um, and as a brief refresher, we've seen a lot of changes over the whole window of time, including some shifting of the borders. You can see some of that by the dotted lines that the red, because I do think map changes can be very important. The red line, we're including the library in this area, not that we expect anything to happen. We've removed some individual houses that are in this. Um, we have made some, uh, parcels, uh, Um, they've changed from what was originally proposed of them. Ms one Ms two. We've done some swapping around that, and in a big picture way, we changed the whole name of this rather than being mixed used to being Medford Square zoning such that we're not trying to with this amendment change things throughout the entire zoning, but rather Medford Square specifics and this most More recently, we've incorporated some options such that if a building takes on things that would reduce the reliance on vehicles, then they could automatically get a reduction in parking. We've changed some of the what uses are allowed and some historic protections. And most recently, Danielle was working with Ennis around step backs. If you want, Danielle might be able to speak to the most recent changes a little bit better than I can.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yeah, thank you, Alicia. Yeah, so since the last public hearing where City Council closed their public hearing and the Community Development Board continued it to tonight, there were, you know, some, a few outstanding issues. One of those was to clarify the daylight minimum standard and make that more easily understandable, incorporate upper level step backs on the high street portion of the square where it's much more narrower and is more of the older historic part of the square, just to make sure that there's not the unintended consequences of creating a canyon effect. or shadowing wind tunnels, keeping a human scale that is a enjoyable place to spend time in. We're hoping that folks will come to the square and have reasons to hang out.

It also would create more visual interest and opportunities for terraces and amenities the at the step backs. Um, in addition, we made the changes to reduce or to eliminate some of the conflicts. Um, in the main ordinance is all kinds of provisions buried here and there. Um, that you have to read in its entirety to understand. So we identified some regarding application of height requirements. And so we made sure that there were the appropriate footnotes um, to make it clear which provisions apply and which ones don't. Um, the historic preservation, um, incentives and waivers, the language was clarified so that there could be a process with the Medford Historical Commission to approve the appropriateness of, um, a, you know, redevelopment or adaptive use of a building that didn't necessarily have to follow the letter of the rules regarding Secretary of Interior standards, which could be a little stringent, but there could be an appropriate alternative approved by the Metropolitan Historical Commission, and so allowing a process for that.

[Chair Doug Carr]: And Danielle, that was advisory, right? It wasn't, they didn't, they didn't have veto power, but they wanted, we wanted their opinion. It was like a design review almost, right?

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yeah. So the, the, the Medford historical commission would be the body that would determine, you know, if it isn't already, you know, on the historic register or something, they would be the body that would make the determination that a building is historically significant and which would be the same bar as, you know, preferably preserved and, you know, worthy of a demolition delay. And so that would be the threshold to qualify for these waivers or incentives under the historic preservation incentives.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Okay. Is there any – I think the map is pretty clear. I think Alicia did a good job outlining it. Do we want to take a quick look at any particular language pieces that anyone has any questions about? You've summarized Um, you know, there's store protections, the set, the step backs, the daylight minimums. Um, I don't think there was any open issue on parking that I'm aware of. But are there any other, I guess, maybe we could just pause there and ask the board members if they have any specific questions about any section that they want to talk and I'll start with you, Paige, and then John next.

[Page Buldini]: Thank you. And I just want to say thank you to everybody on this board, and Alicia, and Christian, and Danielle, because there has been so much diligent work. And I really appreciate that. And that goes to the board before, too. But it's really impressive how everybody has just found certain things that they can amplify or share. So thank you all. Danielle, if you could just really super quick help explain the setbacks on High Street, super fast. I was going to say that, yeah. what that may look like. I think it's really important specifically getting closer to the rotary, and we don't have to get into crazy specifics, but when we're up on that higher point of High Street, what that may look like, if you wouldn't mind.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yeah, so I wonder if we should put that map back up. Put the map up. Yeah, so, you know, as you know, the different sub-districts have, their own particular base heights and then the additional stories, um, with incentive zoning. So in the, in the MS1, which is four stories by rights, uh, with one additional story for inclusionary or non-inclusion for incentive height, um, What we're, the footnote that we put in the table is that though in the MS1, it would be allowed to be four stories at the front setback, which is including the sidewalk would be 12. So I know Dina went out and looked at the widths of the sidewalks and said that there are about nine. So they exist. there would be an additional three feet that a property owner would need to provide on their lot. And that's when the building could go up to four stories. And then after the fourth story, the fifth story would have to be recessed back 10 feet. So that's the difference between the step back, which is the floors of the upper stories, and then the setback, which is with the base of the building, um, meets the ground. Um, and the height, the definition of height, um, would be, was, is going to be changed so that it's, um, the, it's the average of the ground where the building sits. So not at the curb, uh, at the front. Right.

And then, so once you get to the MS2 where it's five stories by right and two inclusionary, There would still be the four stories at the front setback, and then the fifth and sixth story would have to be stepped back 10 feet, and then the seventh story would be further stepped back to be 30 feet from the lot line. Innis had come up with the 30 feet for anything over six stories, because that is pretty much the existing built condition of some of those older apartment and condo buildings, that they're tall, but they're set back 30 feet. So if we're changing things, we don't want to create nonconformities.

And so that's the way not to do that. And also we see that it's not detrimental. So just to continue that existing condition there, not to let anything over six stories coming closer than 30 feet. And then for the MS3, it's the same four stories. 5th and 6th step back the 10 and then any remaining stories are stepped back 30 feet. Yeah, 30 feet. And those are the only and then on the other side, on the north side of high street, the step back would be just for the inclusionary. I keep saying inclusionary, because I see in my head the incentive zoning stories. So they're a little bit higher. And the reason for that is because of the topography and also the way that the shadows cast. It's the southern buildings that have more of the effect on creating those shadows. And the other side, we still want to keep it more of a human scale.

It's still a little bit taller than I want, but I, you know, we don't get everything that we want. So thank you for explaining that.

[Page Buldini]: Thank you for helping us all be mindful of the single family homes that are up going on a hill, and the opportunity for shadows to be going the other way. So thank you for that.

[Chair Doug Carr]: And Daniel, could you also, before I get to John, could you clarify that we talked about this the other day that there's some zoning requirements out in the residential that we're not touching that won't be applicable here because they would negate the zoning that we spent the last years putting together, right? There's going to have to be some resolution of those two because they're at They are in conflict, right? Because all the single family residential say a certain thing can and can't be built. Right?

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: And we can't so there's a. So, there's a provision in the, uh, in the ordinance under the. Dimensionals see. Just have it right in front of me, but basically it says that. Within 100 feet of a residential district, you can't have a building over four stories.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, I think you're looking for page 17. Are you talking about?

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Footnote number three, Danielle. Yeah, we're working my way up there.

[Dina Caloggero]: It's under, it's on page 17, the high transition to adjacent residential districts. We discussed that. Height setback is required along the side and right lot directly abuts the residential district. The height setback is calculated by a 45 degree angle beginning at the third floor and extending the highest level of the building in the MSD. The fourth floor and above shall not break the plane of that 45 degree angle.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yeah, so those are the rules that would apply to the MSD and was a conflict with the 100-foot distance. It's footnote 3. For additional standards and waivers, section 94-4.2.6 does not apply to any development in the MSD. That was the application of the height requirements. which had the no structure within a 100 feet of the boundary of the SF1, SF2, GR, or apartment one district shall exceed four stories of 50 feet in height. The protections in the MSD are more nuanced than that. And so we believe we can get the protections that way. Yeah, the 100 feet was a little bit draconian and would really render a lot of the development just not possible.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Right, which is not the intent of this entire process, or I'm sure the city council would be in 100% agreement of that. So that's just making sure we're avoiding a future conflict where zoning, two pieces of zoning are fighting each other, and we don't want that, obviously. All right, let me jump to John Anderson. Why don't you jump in?

[John Anderson]: Yeah, could you refresh my memory on height and number of stories in the case where a lot has frontage on two streets, for example, Mystic Valley Parkway and High Street. There's quite a differential in height in some of those properties.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: I think, Danielle, what he's referring to is that the new definition of height, Talks about the height at the base of the building or the average if it's on a slope, the average of those as opposed to the height at the curb. And that's how we're resolving that. So, if a building is so picture the buildings that are. flush with the ground at Mystic Valley Parkway. You look at one story, maybe up two stories, and then you see the curb from High Street. Those buildings would be now measured from the ground that they're sitting on, not from the curb at High Street. Yeah, that's right. I'm sorry, the ground where? Where they sit, where they open, you see where you walk in the door flat basically.

[Dina Caloggero]: There's a two-story difference, depending on where you're looking at the building. Right.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: But if you look at those buildings, if they are on a slope, and so they have, like, so I don't know how many people are familiar with Medford High School. It sits into a slope. So you can walk in on the third floor at ground level. Right. And in the back and in the front, you walk in on the first floor at ground level. you would measure the slope, but the difference between them and get an average. Danielle, did I get that?

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yes. Also, the example of those buildings where there's a large retaining wall and it drops down two stories, those buildings would be measured on the ground that they sit on, not the curb. So it's eight, the building is eight stories.

[Chair Doug Carr]: It's actually, if the slope, if the, if the land is flat, that makes complete sense. We don't want a story buildings on high street, right? No one wants that. Right. But if they're, if they're not, if they're not on flat ground, is it the average or is it the low? Is it the lower one? Does it govern?

[Director Alicia Hunt]: So this is what I wanted, if you look at this, this may be one of the buildings that you all are thinking about, right? So if you see here and I zoom in, this building is at flat ground here. Under the previous definition, we would actually be measuring the height starting here, which is the curb at High Street. But one could argue that this building has frontage on Mystic Valley Parkway, right? So now, rather than an argument about where your frontage is, It's just a measure from this ground, right? If we look at the building next to it, it does sit shoved up against the property and clearly see where the ground of this this building is. Yeah, I was looking to see if there are any on high street that are actually on the slope.

I don't know if anybody, I mean, the rectory church and the rectory is sort of built into the slope. And there you would take the height at the front and the height in the back of the ground. And you would take an average. Right, Danielle? Because I don't want to misspeak this. Yeah, I'm trying to bring up the actual definition that's in here. And actually, if you look at the rectory, I guess this is a lot steeper. You don't realize how steep this angle is unless you see this little wall. And then you see, actually, this is on a pretty steep angle here.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, two stories. So for that, you would take the average and not the height of the ground. So this is all below ground at High Street. And actually, our library is built like that. I was just discussing with somebody the fact that the library itself is built into the wall. And so let's see if I can get it. So you can see the slope here. And so actually part of the energy efficiency of the building is that the first floor is half underground. And so it has some very significant insulating factors from that. So here you would take the average between this height at this level and the height down here to say, what is the height? It's under section 94-12.0, building height.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Oh, we I think we did a really good job with this. This modified definition makes more sense to what it does. It's what people expect. Especially when you're dealing with the situations like exactly where we have on high street, right? This building that literally you walk across a bridge to get to the door. on High Street. Nobody would ever assume that you measure the height of this building from this curb line. Exactly.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Or if they do, they're going to be disappointed. Because they'd put two stories of parking, and then they'd build a building on top of it, most likely. And it'd be a much deeper building. Anyway, are there still open questions? I have one. Go ahead, John, and then we'll go to you, Dean, afterwards.

[John Anderson]: Yeah. Now, so I understand you split the difference in this situation where the building has entrances particularly on two different streets. What about those buildings that are somewhat similar scale where the back of them is up against the river? You have high street and then you have the river level. In that situation, We'll only be talking about the height from High Street, is that correct?

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Here, I'm going to zoom in on one. Let me actually share again, just so that we are all behind the screen.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: It says, where a building is located on slope and terrain, height shall be measured from the average ground level of the grade at the building wall. Average ground level shall be determined by locating the mean between the extreme upper and lower finished grades per building elevation. Right. And that's Brookline Bank right there.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: So if you're talking about this point, which is the ground, you would never measure from the river because the river is not I don't think reasonable people would interpret that as the ground.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: And let me see if we can get it up. That's right. So you can actually see it at ease. The things that you think of as being up against the river, many of them actually have like a little, some of them have like a couple of feet in the back that you can see. Oops. OK. Show what the ground looks like from the back.

[Dina Caloggero]: You could look at it better in the wintertime because there's no green.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Does that help where you would measure? Yes, yes. Thank you. There might be some slope, but not very much. Yeah.

[Dina Caloggero]: Yeah, I also want to ask Danielle and Alicia what they think of the daylight minimum. I think it's a little bit better. I don't think it's a very easy calculation to figure out. I mean, at this stage in the game, I think if you feel both feel it's OK, I'm willing to accept it. I think with the good work that we did on the setbacks and then redefining the building height I'm comfortable. I like the buildings maybe a little bit smaller on High Street, because it's not a very big street. And I was at Assembly Square Mall, and I did not enjoy the wind tunnel as I went down Assembly Square Mall. But I think it's important that it is a walkable city, too. I mean, that's one of the big things. But getting back to it, daylight minimum. I was looking at this, and I'm like, ah. How do I apply it?

[Director Alicia Hunt]: So we realized, so I had some conversations with Emily Innes. And one of the things that we realized, because she went back and talked to Paola some more about it, is that Paola was bringing us something from Denmark. And she was translating it directly from the Danish. And it turned out that we realized that what she was doing was they refer to shadow studies We talk about shadow studies in shading, and they talk about the solar and sunlight. And literally, we were talking about the same thing, just inverse. And so what they meant was, and I will tell you that any architect can run a shadow study. There's software these days. We can run it with free tools on the web, as of kind of recently, in my opinion.

that you can pick the day of the year you want to run the shadow study, go where it is on a map, and it calculates where the sun is. You can say what time of day. And you can see these things. We usually expect to see the professional versions done by the architects. But so that the indication here, and the one thing that we did talk about was that it would be a minimum of two hours of sunlight, which is basically the inverse of the shadows. You show where the shadows hit and where the daylight is on these two shoulder days.

And that's where we said to demonstrate it rather than putting in all those calculations, we say you provide a shadow study. And we tell you that right this minute, your rules and regulations do not require a shadow study. However, Danielle and I have started saying to every single applicant, please plan to provide a shadow study because the board will ask you for it. We may not have set the garage, the station for that, but we almost always will say, please provide a shadow study. And it is our expectation that when this board gets a minute, we will update rules and regulations. And that is one of the things.

[Dina Caloggero]: Yes. Very good. OK. So if you are comfortable with that, with that. And the other thing I just wanted to say regarding building height, I think that the plan that we are presenting, and I think the one that we will pass along, it shows that we have increased the density by lot coverage, by setbacks, by building coverage. We've done a lot of that in this. And I think it's extremely thoughtful. These are not big streets. They are narrow streets. And every area of Medford Square is a little bit different. So it's really difficult to apply you know, district zoning to these chunks of areas where there are nuances. And I think the setback table here is extremely important with the footnotes that we need to make sure that this version that we are looking at right now goes into it because it's well done. There was a lot of thought put into this. And it's something I can live with even after I pass on. So I just want to say, so I am comfortable with the Daylight Mineral Review. And you did a good job explaining it. And I'm fine with it.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Okay, we have some folks, we still have to open the public comments. We want to open it, hear the comments, and then we want to close before the night. Are there any other initial comments from the board before we open the public comment section? Okay, so I'm gonna do that now. I will now open the public comment period. Those which provide comments can use the raise hand feature, which may be under reactions in your Zoom, or if you dialed in on a phone, you can use star nine to raise your hand. You can message Alicia in the chat if you are having technical difficulties before providing your comments. Please state your name and address for the record. A reminder that all meeting participants to please refrain from using the chat function to message any comments to the city or board members as it is not part of the public record. However, if a participant is having issues with audio or technical, you may message staff for assistance. Each person who's speaking will have 2 minutes, and I will recognize Jeremy, long time no see.

[Jeremy Martin]: I mostly just want to come in to thank you all for the really careful review you've done of this. There's been a lot of work that's gone into it and that really comes through in the just in the conversation tonight. I appreciated the clarification of those building heights and where that grade is measured from that's really important and I understand why the 100 foot setback is is likely omitted in this area. I do think that's really important in other neighborhoods and other conditions so I hope that it's you know thought thought of in each of the future zoning considerations. Last thing I'll say and you've heard me say it before but I'll feel better if I say it, is that there is an incentive zoning in here for improving the street in front of a frontage, a city-owned frontage in front of development. I can't imagine a project where somebody is going to build a building of the scale that we're talking about that doesn't warrant replacing the street and improving the streetscape.

[Jeremy Martin]: Again, I think that that should be a baseline requirement, that that be implemented and not an incentive. Um, perhaps that's something you'll consider sending back to the city council. Um, but I have said my piece and I appreciate you all and the work you put in. Thanks for hearing me three times tonight.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Go ahead, Alicia. You have a comment there? No, I'm sorry, Danielle.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yeah. So Jeremy, thank you for that. I did also flag that and in the most, I don't know if you saw the most recent version, um, Which really just went online today, so do not blame me for not having seen this, because that's what I said. I was like, we don't want to give incentives for things that they're going to need to do anyways. The engineering department is going to require replacement of the sidewalk along their frontage. They're going to require milling and repaving along the front. So no one should be getting bonuses for that. So I asked them to elaborate what are some of these things that they could do that would not be required. And it was much more in depth. It was, um, let's see, they put in, yeah, like street furniture, you know, street trees, you know, bicycle racks, you know, upgrading, you know, lighting, things like, like that. Um, that's good. So it had to be more than, What we're already asking them to do so. I don't know if this if this is, um.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Meets goes far enough you think you're saying that what's on screen represents that tighter standard. Right?

[Jeremy Martin]: Yeah, thanks for that Daniel. This is the version I was reading. I mean, again, in the projects that I work on in cities, building buildings, all of the things listed here are like a given that they have to be there. I think it should be the case in our city as well. But appreciate the language getting tightened up here. I'd still say, let's expect this from developers. And that's not coming from someone who is opposed to development. I know that's how our city is getting it. Not in the least. Yeah. So anyway, thank you again. Appreciate it.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Very good. All right, other public comments from anybody? I see Karen, Judith, anyone there want to speak? Go ahead, Judith.

[Judith Weinstock]: Hi, Judy Weinstock, 144 Brigette. I didn't mention this during the Tufts presentation, but as you all begin to think about parking, and maybe that's a little bit out of context for what you're looking at tonight specifically. Is I'm getting an increasing sense as things get discussed sort of as individual trees rather than the forest that parking is actually is 1 of those things is going to have to really be looked at it as a forest because as more and more calls come for. not requiring parking, requiring parking, taking away parking, and making improvements around streetscape, anything, it is going to become a thing that really requires, I think, an incredibly comprehensive tracking. It's one thing to say, for the aquatic center, they'll lose 115 plus whatever. Jeremy and I were chatting offline. I hope you don't mind, Jeremy. I'm going to quote us.

Tufts has also got to accommodate all these people who are going to live in that 10-story dormitory building in the Dowling garage. It's not an infinitely large space, and there are other things that are being discussed that would limit some of Boston Avenue parking potentially. I just want to say that as you think about parking even in West Medford Square, As you begin to move into the residential areas, I really don't want us to become the south end of Boston where people cry for an hour and then leave the south end of Boston because they can't park. That's true. Yeah. You know, I mean, it's real. It's real. And I would hate to see that happen here in the name of.

trying to bring in more development to bring in more money to the city and as well as a quality of life for the community and then lose it because you actually expect too much from people in terms of losing their cars. So that's all. I just I'll get off my horse right now.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Anyone else would like to speak? on the Medford Square zoning. I think we're approaching the grand finale soon. Well, seeing none, hearing none, I will close the public comment period for this meeting. And I think, oh, let John Edison go right ahead. You're unmuted.

[John Anderson]: Okay, thank you. I'm sorry, you breezed through the sort of historic preservation changes. for Medford Square, and we got on to building heights and never got back to that. I guess my question is this. So I understand the process, certain buildings will be designated as historically significant. If a developer wants to redo that bill or say, tear it down, it would go to the historic commission. The historic commission says, you shouldn't do that, you should do this, you should do that. the developer sort of stonewalls. Right now, that doesn't happen that much because a lot of the developers are just like one small building, a homeowner. They don't want to wait for a year and a half. But we know the developers have long timelines and are better financed. So what happens if you have a sort of recalcitrant developer who really just Doesn't care about historic preservation. Can we add the community development stop them?

[Chair Doug Carr]: Let me take a stab at this, John, and I obviously would welcome Alicia and Danielle to chime in after. I mean, we asked that many times with Ines, and she was pretty clear that as an absolute, if somebody's intent on tearing down a historic building, even with demo delay, 18 months, we can't stop them. But if they try to build another building, It won't be as big as it is. And all the incentives go away by tearing it down. So they'll actually be building something smaller. And economically, we're hoping that makes no sense. So we're trying to use carrots more than sticks, but we're trying to do our best. But as an absolute, it's almost impossible with a few exceptions. And even that, I don't even think it's true. Someone said, I'm gonna tear down Grace Church. We'd fight it and fight it for years and years, but I'm not sure we could actually stop them. I just don't think they will, because they could build a six-story housing behind Grace Church and do it almost by right. You know, so it's, we have a lot of guardrails in place, but I can't promise you, and I thought long and hard about this, we just have to make it so economically painful, it makes no economic sense. And I think that's what we have actually accomplished with what we've done. Okay, thank you. Sure. I don't know, Alicia, Danielle, did I miss anything?

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yeah, I just want to say that Also, you know, zoning isn't, isn't permanent. I feel like there's been a culture in the city that you change the zoning, like once every 50 years, and it doesn't have to be the case. Like, it can be iterative. If we determine that these incentives or waivers aren't serving, you know, the goal, then we can tweak them. We could be like, okay, this actually isn't going to save this building or, be an incentive not to tear it down because, yeah, we need to make it make financial sense to preserve it and be much more expensive and onerous if they tore it down and started new. So the idea of being able to waive some parking. So the board can never entertain waiving parking for a building a replacement building that tore down a historic structure.

[Chair Doug Carr]: And if they had to spend so much money making parking, it would become economically infeasible just on that alone. You think about $40,000 a spot, and they needed 10 spots, that's $400,000 that they don't have to spend if they keep the building. And can go higher, right? Right. Again, it's, it's, it's doing our best. I think, but John, did you have other. Other historic questions about process or anything like that, or is that. It oh, that's enough for now. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. John.

So we've closed. the public comment period. I think we're actually going to be voting to close the public hearing now. That's something that we need to do, right, for this process. So I think given, I think tonight in the last meeting proved that people have spoken their mind and I feel, I personally am feeling very comfortable with where we stand. It's not perfect, but I think it's pretty damn good. And it's certainly a lot better than what we started with just four months ago. I agree. So I'm going to take a motion to close the public hearing on the Medford Square zoning.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Dina Colagaro? Yes. All right, Gothman Fishman is absent myself. Yes, the motion passes five to nothing. Thank you all. Let's talk now about the recommendation motion to the city council. And I think this is something that we talked about, you know, I think, I don't know as Christian, have you been working on it? Do we have a draft that we can put on screen?

[Christian Zepeda-Lipovsky]: If you look at the chair doc, simply if you would just say that you would want to adopt the amendment text as dated 4-15-26, which is today, which reflects all of the changes that were made up until that point, and the map zoning dated 3-23-26. Very good. Okay, so.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Well, that's what I'm concerned about is making sure that everything that we don't want to cherry pick here.

[Sean Beagan]: Is there... There was one reference, an incorrect site reference that I had found. I made those to the document. Okay, so that's the... We did.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Okay. So I'll ask for a motion to recommend that the City Council adopt the Medford Squares District Zoning Amendment text dated 4-15-2026 as edited today and Medford Squares District Zoning Map dated 3-23-2026.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Ari Goffman-Fisherman is absent. Myself, Doug Carr. Yes. The motion passes five to nothing. Thank you all. That is an achievement.

[Chair Doug Carr]: And Danielle, and Alicia, and Christian, you guys were awesome. Thank you very much. Thank you. You were as close to this, you're far closer than we were, because you were fighting it out every day. Sometimes hand-to-hand combat, from what I could tell. But we got where we needed to go. So, really appreciate the effort. It was huge. And I hope the city council, if they dare to try to change a word, we're going to, we're going to have a problem.

[Sean Beagan]: So much work. I think they'll be very, very happy to see this come back. I think so too. I think their biggest fear is that we were going to make five more recommendations for changes and tell them we'll see them in June.

[Chair Doug Carr]: If it was April 1st, I would do that, but it's, yeah. All right. Are there any other updates for zoning, uh, administrative updates from either Danielle or Alicia? Are we good there?

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: I can't hear Alicia. Alicia, we can't hear you anymore.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Okay. Oh, you know what? I'm still sharing. No, I stopped sharing. Since our last official meeting with you all, we've hired a new economic, well, our new economic development director has started, John Ahumada. I can't, I'm not pronouncing it right. Thank you. You pronounce all the letters. So he started last week. We're very excited. We've started introducing him to developers and people. And I think this will be really helpful because some of what, you know, he's providing first point of contact for stuff. as well as he'll have the bandwidth to follow up with developers that we have heard from. There are people who have actually gotten permission from this community development board in past years that never went to construction. And he'll have the time to follow up with them and find out what's going on, where do these projects stand, which has been just a little bit more than my bandwidth has been able to handle. So we're very excited about that. And he is hitting the ground running.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Um, yeah, I think that's, that's in, um, well, we've mentioned that we have a new, uh, head clerk who is spectacular. We've also given job offers for interns for the coming year. So we have at least four starting. One had some contingencies. Our budget is tight, so we rely on work-study. So the fifth offer was contingent on their being able to secure work-study, because we literally can't afford them if they don't. It's not a discrimination thing. We do appreciate that we're giving jobs to people who technically need it because they have been qualified by the government. But the reality is that it significantly helps our budget if we pay them through work-study.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Um, is it all worth mentioning very briefly the process that has begun? I alluded to in the meeting that with the zoning train is starting to leave the station on Boston. They have Tufts and there, there was a working group meeting with the mayor and Rocco and a few people there and Tufts has a, a list of of ass, you know, and I think we're, this is like the opening, opening round. So, to speak, there's a long way to go, so we're not going to get into that tonight, but we've got to get through the method square stuff 1st, and then we'll quickly pivot as, you know, to Boston and Tufts, and it's going to be it's going to be. It's going to be hard. It's huge. It's complicated. But I think a lot of this good stuff on Medford Square will translate to Tufts. It will be adapted into Tufts and to Boston F. So I think what we've done has laid the groundwork. Because I think, to quote what Danielle just said, zoning in this city is not going to be static anymore. And we need to go back to Salem Street. We need to go back and fix that and apply some of these principles there as quickly as we can. I know from the historical commission, they're immediately going to start looking at these buildings and declaring which ones are significant so that we get ahead of that as quickly as we can. That will start probably within the next two meetings, even before the city council actually passes it potentially. So, um, I think that's everything. Is there any other open items?

[John Anderson]: Go ahead, John. I just have a quick request regarding site plan review. I think it would, it would be very helpful for me and perhaps for other members too. If we knew if we had a little bit of a forward vision as to what ones are coming down the pike, For example, the gas station on Main Street, I didn't know about that until last Friday or something. But I suspect these people have been talking to the city, I would hope, for some time. If we had a list of sites, just a very brief description. For example, for this one, the owner wants to change it from Mechanics Bay to a retail store and do a lot of landscaping. You know, as I drive around town, I could stop and sort of eyeball these places. And it would be very helpful for me, at least, to have some kind of advance notice that this stuff may be coming.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: I think there's one thing that we can do when they file. we then circulate plans and drawings to department heads. We don't send them to you then because they may very well submit updated changes based on what they hear from department heads. But in theory, we could just let you know at the next meeting that we've received that filing and we've circulated it for comments. I feel like we usually do do that because then it's real, right? If we've circulated it for department head comments, But maybe we're not.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: We have not been copying you, but I was thinking that at this public meeting, we could say. This has been circulated for department at review to John's point.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Why wouldn't you just circulate is saying this is the 1st draft. It may, it may change at least. I think to his comment, we can at least start thinking about it. If it never comes before us, or it comes before us different. I still think it's better because we'll know what it was versus what it is.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: I'll tell you that historically we haven't because we don't want to confuse board members with like different versions if we can avoid it. And two, because some board members have limited time and we don't want you spending your limited time on a version that's going to change. I would say that on the other hand, I think it is possible to notify you that it's out. Right? Danielle, I don't know how you feel about it. Some change very little. Some change really dramatically during that window. Some change very drastically.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yeah. Because this is before even we've noticed the public hearing has been noticed. This is before we've even really scheduled it. It's a step beyond conceptual sometimes. And from my experience, sitting on a, on a land use board, I never saw anything earlier than the Friday before the meeting. And we could have 30 cases, but these are all available two weeks in advance. Per open meeting law there, the public and everyone has the plans are available. Once the legal notice is published. So two weeks before the first hearing, the plans are available, but those are the ones that we've accepted as complete, because that's part of the thing is we're making sure that these are complete and meet everything. And then those are what goes out to the board.

[John Anderson]: I guess if I may say, I don't think you have to worry But I'm going to waste my time reading everything you've sent me. I think that, but just giving us what notice you can of things that you think are likely coming along. would be very useful. And if I don't have time to drive by and look at it, I won't do it. But at least I'll have the opportunity, and maybe some of the fellow board members will have had the opportunity.

[Chair Doug Carr]: I think maybe at the next meeting, Danielle, we could have a coming soon section, like just a list of things that you know about, you can qualify it. Anyone in this board can choose to dive deeper if they want or drive by it for John's comment. But just a heads up because I'm sympathetic with John in that something complicated coming just a couple less than a week before in our inbox can be tough. If someone's going away for a weekend, they have very little time to actually look at this. And I know it's even hard for you to get it out on Fridays because you don't get everything. You're often doing it on weekends yourself. Yeah, I think just a heads up list and you could, you could, you could, it could be just, you know, you could almost just say, you know, we think this is a month away. We think this is 2 weeks away, or this 1 may be going nowhere. We could just talk about it just to just to know what's on the horizon. We do that with the historical commission too. We know. Things are coming because people are poking around City Hall, that they're making inquiries to the building department. They might have filed something and they don't realize they're historic buildings. We get a little bit of a sneak preview and we can react quicker to it sometimes just by knowing what the address is. We can look it up on Google Street and say, okay, that's a 150-year-old building. That's definitely coming before us. So we can try a few things to see what works, if that makes sense.

[Sean Beagan]: I think to Danielle's point, two weeks ahead of any hearing, those plans are available on the city website, right? Under the current filings.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yeah, they are. So, I mean, I can maybe send a tickler out to let you know that something's been uploaded, but we don't have the staff capacity to be like, Hey, that all is, it's just one more thing. And like, honestly, like I can't.

[Sean Beagan]: I think, yeah, I think just an email, hey, from Christian or whoever, you know, hey, these just got uploaded, just, you know, these are at the city website.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: I think we could make it for, Danielle, the head clerk helps with those mailings, the public notice mailings. she could, as part of that on her list, send a note to the board saying that this is now posted. Yeah, that gives everyone two weeks.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Yeah. I think that's great. That's perfect. I do think it's helpful and reasonable that when we're at these meetings, and I know I've tried to when we know about something really big coming, giving you a heads up that it's coming.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Right now we have a public hearing scheduled, a new one for May 6th, that has been circulated to department heads, but is not up for the public yet. It's 161 Mystic. Yeah, that hasn't even been advertised yet. Right. But if you wanted to look at it, and it's an existing Medford business that's moving from one location on Mystic Ave to another. I can't even remember what's currently there. I think it's Duff. It's Quick Auto Body Supplies. Yeah. They're leaving.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yes, Lechmere Rug, the owner, they bought the property.

[Page Buldini]: Gotcha. One really fast question. Just because I live and work in, all my clients live up here with Boston Ave. Will we have to talk a lot about the Dover Amendment while we're rezoning Boston Ave? Because I really, it's a lot. All my clients, it's a big deal. So I would love to be as educated as possible. Is that something that we need to be mindful of? I don't know. I don't even know if that's the correct way to say it, but it's like a third rail up here.

Well, Christian's thesis is on the domain. I was going to ask you guys to mention that. I have new light reading material about it that I would understand.

[Sean Beagan]: The title of his thesis is why Tufts should get to do whatever they want, whenever they want, and the way they want.

[Page Buldini]: But if you wouldn't mind, that'd be helpful. I don't even know if this is going to have to be part of the zoning, but it's a lot. So I would love to be more educated in it. And Christian, you can give us a lesson.

[Sean Beagan]: I love to hear it, yeah. It's a very short statute with a lot of power. Yeah, I know, a lot of power. It's like three lines in one section of a statute.

[Dina Caloggero]: And I think there's a number of cities and towns that have tried to amend it and change the law. I know there's cases where residents from Harvard, MIT, Cambridge have tried to.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Right. The reason they talk about the case law is because that is one way to change the law.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: And one of the precedent cases that they talk about fairly frequently is Tufts v. Medford. Yeah. And I'll tell you that before that, during that dorm meeting, I read a bunch of that, if not all of that case. Yeah. When was that? It was in the Andrea Campbell memo. I did read that.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Dump the dorms. In a very, very quick summary, that case had to do with them building or expanding the library. The zoning required parking right next to the library. They said, that's ridiculous. We should be able to put the parking in our parking structure, not next to the building. And then they were also, am I correct, building Dowling Hall? And their zoning would have required that Dowling Hall be set way back because of the height divided by length, height times height. height plus length divided by six right would have required to actually way back so either up on the hill or way back into the hill and they said that is burdensome and ridiculous we should be able to get a waiver from that so we should get a waiver from the setback and we should get a waiver from the parking having to be right next to us and Medford apparently said no and Tufts took Medford to court and Tufts won.

[Dina Caloggero]: Can I ask you one question about Tufts? So up at Tufts University, where the old tennis courts were up there, they're still there. There's a softball field in the corner. It's like a park. Who owns that property?

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Are you talking about Fletcher Field over there?

[Dina Caloggero]: I think so. It's in the corner. It's like this empty, barren spot.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yeah. Yeah. The corner of Capon and Professor's Row. That's it. That's it. That's Fletcher Field. I think that's technically Somerville. I thought so. Somerville owns that. Well, they originally were looking at putting the dorms there. I figured they did. But ultimately decided on Boston Ave, because guess where you can go tall? Boston Ave, not where Fletcher Field is, which I think on the left, 35 feet.

[Dina Caloggero]: I was told that Somerville, yeah, Somerville on that. Because everybody says, why don't you just put it there? Yeah, that's right.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Thank you. And they did provide us, Tufts provided us with a map of what they, of what Tufts owns and where and what their. Yeah, it was crazy.

[Dina Caloggero]: Did you guys, did we send that to all of you? Yeah, you did. I saw it. It was in the package. I saw it. I was like stunned. That's why I think you need the financial analysis part as well. That, that study they did on Wellington. where they went over the financial assessment of each of the different developments was excellent done. And it should include education as well.

[Chair Doug Carr]: All right. All right. Are we ready to move on to mini minutes?

[Unidentified]: Yeah. I'm dying. I'm dying. All right. I'm going to ask for any.

[Chair Doug Carr]: I'm going to ask for any edits to the draft minutes dated 12, 17, 25, and 1, 7, 25, if anyone can remember those. I'm going to ask for a motion to accept the minutes. So moved. Second. And second. Thank you. OK, we'll call a vote. John Anderson? Yes. Sean Began? Yes. Page Buldini?

[Chair Doug Carr]: Harvey Kaufman Fishman is absent, and myself, Doug Carr. Yes, motion passes five to zero. Motion to adjourn. So moved.

[Chair Doug Carr]: I got from fishermen is absent myself. Yes. Motion passes five to nothing. Good night, everyone. We'll see you.

Page Buldini total time: 4.83 minutes total words: 858	George Scarpelli total time: 1.77 minutes total words: 288