Community Development Board 05/20/26

AI-generated summary. Written by gemini-3.8-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 Community Development Board approved site plan review and multiple zoning waivers for the new Tufts University Aquatic Center, recommended City Council approval of easements along Main Street for a MassDOT safety project, and approved site plan modifications for 99 Revere Beach Parkway. The board also released subdivision covenants on Mary Kenny Way and discussed hearing schedules for the Boston Avenue zoning corridor.

2:00 Alteration of Public Way and Easements: Main Street — The board voted to recommend that the City Council approve layout alterations and both temporary and permanent easements along Main Street and Mystic Avenue to enable a MassDOT safety and signalization improvement project.
37:40 Release of Covenants: Mary Kenny Way — The board approved releasing lots 6, 7, and 8 from the subdivision covenant for Mary Kenny Way, authorizing Director Hunt to sign the release on behalf of the board while the city continues to hold cash surety and covenants on the remaining lots.
44:38 Site Plan Review: 130 College Avenue (Tufts Aquatic Center) — After finding the project protected under the Dover Amendment and approving waivers for setbacks, multiple structures, solar canopy requirements, and shared parking, the board approved the site plan with 24 conditions that include a raised crosswalk on College Avenue and expanded community swim access.
1:38:27 Zoning Amendment: Inclusionary Zoning — The board voted to continue the public hearing on the inclusionary zoning amendment regarding fractional payment formulas to June 17, 2026.
1:40:36 Site Plan Modification: 99 Revere Beach Parkway — The board approved modifications to the previously approved site plan, reducing parking garage capacity from 238 to 209 spaces to avoid an Enbridge gas pipeline easement, reconfiguring ground-floor delivery and drop-off areas, and adding six inches to building height for Passive House insulation.
1:58:28 Meeting Minutes — The board approved meeting minutes from March 4 and May 6, 2026, with an amendment clarifying height and story details for a Mystic Avenue review.
2:02:57 Administrative and Zoning Project Updates — The board and staff discussed hearing logistics and community outreach for the Boston Avenue corridor rezoning ahead of June meetings, as well as establishing earlier design review protocols for future Tufts University projects.

[Chair Doug Carr]: We are not, however, talking about the Boston Avenue zoning tonight. The next public hearing, the first public hearing for that subject for Boston Avenue zoning will be on June 3rd at 6 p.m. So if you're here to talk about Boston Avenue zoning, it's not on the agenda tonight, and we have a full agenda, so I don't think we're gonna get to it other than to talk about planning for potential meetings. But we're not gonna be talking, we're not taking public comments tonight. So just want everyone to know that in advance because I don't want anyone to wait a couple of hours thinking that we're going to get to Boston Avenue when it's not on our agenda tonight.

Just to make that clear. So go back to the talk. So Danielle, could you introduce any staff at the meeting or on the call tonight?

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yes, myself, Daniel Evans, Senior Planner in the Office of Planning, Development, and Sustainability. Also our Director, Alicia Hunt. We have Sierra Schatz, I think I'm pronouncing it right, who's a new Assistant City Engineer. We also have Todd Blake, who's the Director of Traffic and Transportation. We have our Graduate Student Intern, Kristian Saveda-Lepofsky. uh, who is our outgoing graduate student intern and we have, um, some new ones who just on boarded this week, uh, Natalie Rodman, Isabella Chung. I think that's all them who are on tonight. Um, I think that's everybody.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you, Daniela. All right. First up on the agenda tonight is the request for recommendation to city council for the alteration of a public way. This is, we will now hear a request from the city's engineering division for the board to make a recommendation to the city council on the approval of the, the alteration of the layout of main street and the establishment of easements in order for MassDOT to make safety improvements to the corridor. I'll ask Alicia or Danielle to please give any, any introductory comments before we move into the presentation from Sierra Schatz, the assistant city engineer.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think I'll just turn this over to Sierra, who has the background and actually educated me quite a bit on this, because I hadn't seen this during my tenure of staffing the city board. But my understanding is this is a requirement that planning boards first review and make a recommendation to city council. anytime a public way is proposed to be altered, modified in any way. And this is in association with a much needed safety improvement project on Main Street.

[Chair Doug Carr]: So could you please put Medford Engineering in your name so people know who you are?

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you. And do you have a screen I assume with some, uh, yeah, sure. Please go ahead.

[-MlgNixuHJY_SPEAKER_15]: Okay. Hi, everyone. Um, Sierra shots, uh, one of the assistant city engineers and, um. Yeah, I'll give just a quick overview of what we're asking. And then Todd Blake has, I've just been here for about three months working on this project. Todd has been here for much longer. He can explain any more background where this project came from, why it's necessary. Although I think it's probably pretty universally agreed that it's going to be a really excellent improvement to Main Street once it's completed.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: I'm just making Sierra also a co-host so that she can mute herself and unmute as needed.

[-MlgNixuHJY_SPEAKER_15]: Screen share. Okay, cool. So this is, Yes, basically, this is the what I sent to the planning development sustainability department. Basically, we are requesting. per MassDOT procedure for municipal takeings related to layout alterations. Planning Board needs to give a brief recommendation to City Council that you approve of this alteration to Main Street. And there's a few different, in Massachusetts general law, a few different sections that explain the role of the planning board. Right here, for example.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Oh, no. I think it said you're sharing screen, not sharing application. I'm sorry.

[-MlgNixuHJY_SPEAKER_15]: I think it's because I have two screens on. Let's see. Let me try this again. Sorry about that. OK, I will share screen. There we go. Hopefully this works, my window. OK, cool. Can you zoom in a bit there? Yeah, yeah. Let me go to the next. Can you see this? Yes, we can. OK, so these are this is just a list of all of the temporary and permanent easements that are proposed on Main Street. And there are a few also on Mystic Avenue. And I'll show an image in a second.

The temporary ones are just five years or until, well, until construction ends, but they last for five years just to make sure that they don't need to be extended. And then permanent, the permanent easements, most of them are just for, yeah, for like a redoing the sidewalk and street layout for utility. Some of them are for utility access. And yeah, we will be, We've already sent out letters to all of these property owners to basically the city will compensate them for the easements.

And these are all necessary just for the construction project. And then here is the alteration plan. So I know there's a lot on here, but this is basically this screen right here is what the board is what we need your recommendation to approve. So this thing basically shows all of the different, all the different, oops, yeah, temporary and permanent easements. And this is the, yeah, the intersection of Main Street and Mystic Avenue, and also there's Emerson and Thomas Street on this, within this range as well.

And I think, yeah, we have also attached, sorry, are the right-of-way plans that explain in more detail what each easement is, what it's for, and then our contact diaries where we've sent several rounds of letters and met in person with all these property owners just to brief them on the project and what's coming and the process for the just compensation. So yeah, Todd, did you want anything else about what this project entails in this area?

[Todd Blake]: Yeah, if I could share a role plan, I could give. Can you see this plan, everyone? So this kind of shows the entire quarter. So, so the area. So the area from Mr. Gavin Main Street past Emerson to main itself in the ramp near the police station. underneath Route 16 and the intersection near the Craddock Bridge and the Route 16 westbound ramps. So this is all just south of Medford Square. So the two intersections on either side of Route 16 will become signalized intersections. and the intersection of Main and Mystic will also become signalized. So the primary goal of the project is to improve safety given the crash history. It was the top 200 crash location in Massachusetts. The state is offering to design and construct this for us based on that information. And it also entails a lot of improvements for pedestrians and cyclists as well. But it's primarily a safety improvement project, but it will improve access to others like that.

So it's a significant, much-needed project. last year mentioned, in order to accomplish what you see on this screen, this is, sorry, this is a graphic that MassDOT provided by their consultant back during the design public hearing stage. So this isn't the LAVES plan, but it's largely unchanged from this. This includes all the elements, and in order to build this as designs, those slivers of property are necessary to accomplish that goal. So, in terms of just some terms of, there's some history about public meetings that we've held about this project. The state held two public meetings, one a public information meeting, and one a design public hearing, and then the city had a local meeting with the traffic commission to approve the overall concepts.

I don't want to take up too much time, so I guess I'll just leave it to questions if anyone has any.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Uh, thank you, Todd. Appreciate that. Uh, thank you, Sarah as well. Um, I guess I'll open it up to the board. If the new board member has any questions or concerns, this is the time to ask them. Go ahead. All right.

[Ari Fishman]: Thank you. Um, and thank you for presenting this. I'm very excited to see this become. a series of intersections with lights that's been long needed and been baffling that the lights are there and not being used. My questions are primarily procedural, which is to clarify whether we're voting on the general project and passing it on, or are we supposed to be looking at any specific plans? With either answer, is there going to be an opportunity for Medford to review plans or is this entirely up to DOT in their wisdom and benevolence?

[Todd Blake]: Is the question related to the overall project or the taking specifically?

[Todd Blake]: Oh, so for the overall project, the state's public hearing process was the, typically the state has for a project like this, one design public hearing where they solicit comments and then they take from there in modified design as they see fit based on those comments and then move forward from there and that's the only time. In this particular case, Medford requested a second a public meeting beforehand, a public information meeting, and that led to some changes for the design public hearing. But in the MassDOT way of doing things, that's the only opportunity for comment from the public, and then it advances from there to construction. So, and I don't, I don't think tonight is asking for a recommendation for the overall projects. That was just context for the taking.

[-MlgNixuHJY_SPEAKER_15]: Yeah, and on the question, yeah, on the question of the, the, what, what mass dot basically has told us as, like, the city, the city employees working on this project with them. is that we just need a recommendation from the board, not necessarily a vote, just a recommendation to accept the order of alteration of layout, which is just that it's that one page that shows how the street layout will be changed. So that's really the only thing that the board needs to recommend. This did happen once recently, a similar federally funded MassDOT project. It was Safe Routes to School Project for the, was it Thomas Brooks School?

[-MlgNixuHJY_SPEAKER_15]: Yeah, and so I just, last time the chair of the board just basically wrote a one-page letter saying that the board recommends that city council approve this alteration of layout. So it was just like a letter, that's how it was done previously.

[Todd Blake]: So perhaps if it's beneficial to the board, if they didn't have a chance to look at the materials beforehand, if you bring back up, say, the right-of-way plan, you could maybe zoom in closer to each liver and pan over if that's helpful.

[Dina Caloggero]: Yes, that would be helpful. Because I'm trying to figure out where the signals are going to be.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Sorry, if I might. Todd, perhaps it's helpful for you to clarify that at this stage, am I correct in remembering this has been out to bid and they're already getting ready to do construction?

[Todd Blake]: No, no. It's basically past 100%, but not quite at PS&E, which is the final stage before bidding. So it's like if you looked at percentage-wise, it's really like 95% before bidding, even though it's called 100% plans.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: T is not willing to take additional changes at this time.

[Todd Blake]: Correct. Yeah. Correct. They're moving forward with the project as is. Yeah. So usually from 100%. Yeah. So 100%, like I just explained, PS&E is really the final stage before going out to bid. And that's after the 100%. So it's almost like 105% or 100% is more like 95%. But at that stage, it's very minimal cleanup of things, not changes of design. Yeah.

[Dina Caloggero]: Yeah, I'm just curious. So there will be signals at the point where that mobile gas station is on to Mystic Avenue, and then Mystic Avenue on past the police station, and then another set of signals at South Street. Is that correct? I was trying to digest that.

[Todd Blake]: Yeah, so the first intersection as you leave Medford Square going to South Medford, that first intersection right over the bridge, that with the ramp, with this Route 16 westbound ramp system, that will be a signal. Then you cross underneath 16, the next section at South would be a signal. And then at Main at Mystic where the fire station is.

[Todd Blake]: Three signals, and then Medford Square will remain. That's the fourth, all working in concert with each other. Yeah.

[Dina Caloggero]: Yeah, that's good. I mean, so many accidents there. Thank you.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Are there any other questions from anybody on the board? Okay. Go ahead, Sean, and then we'll get you, John, next. Go ahead, Sean. Okay.

[Sean Beagan]: So, If you could, could you just bring up the map, Todd, that shows the easements on the private property?

[Todd Blake]: Yeah, we could do that. I think Sierra has the official alteration map, but then there may be right-of-way plans as well that may show other information. But I think the one-pager, if you zoom in closely to the shapes here, that probably helps.

[-MlgNixuHJY_SPEAKER_15]: Yeah, definitely. Let me open it. OK, so here are the alteration plans. Sorry, I guess where, yeah, we can, so, yeah, start it.

[Sean Beagan]: And what I'm trying to figure out is the extent to which these easements are easements that are on an existing sidewalk, easements that are on land that is currently being used by these property owners,

[Todd Blake]: Yeah, it's a little bit of a mixture. For the most part, it's the former, right, Sierra? Land that's sidewalked, being practically used by the public already, I think. But then there's some that would go on to what they're currently using, I think.

[-MlgNixuHJY_SPEAKER_15]: Here is the summary of all the municipal acquisitions. And this is included in the attachments. It shows what all the easements will actually be used for. So most of them, as you can see on this remarks column, are driveway, sidewalk, paving. A couple of them have traffic signal equipment, overhead wires.

[Sean Beagan]: So when it says, so for example, when it says driveway, what does that mean?

[-MlgNixuHJY_SPEAKER_15]: So like this one, for example, this one here, Broadway Piano, so it's a 234 square foot temporary easement. Todd, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is basically during the, they're going to be redoing the driveway apron for this property in the course of the repave, because yeah, repaving the street will necessitate having to redo the driveway apron. So it's basically temporarily allowing them slightly onto, slightly onto their property in redoing that driveway apron. So essentially, most of it's going to be the same as it currently is, just very minor differences.

[Todd Blake]: If I might add briefly, yeah. So exactly what Sierra said, plus, you know how usually after you do, say, a sidewalk over, there might be a lip, so you want to smooth out that lip a foot or so into their property, like the paving. And it's the access too. Those are mostly the temporary ones. I think the permanent ones are for the sidewalks. If a sidewalk already exists and there's a sliver, even like an inch of it, technically on private property, if it's federally funded project, they require us to take that inch, even though practically in the street, it's no physical change.

But there's one that I would highlight that's more than that. It's the one along the gas station on the Mystic Ave side. The roadway is being widened by a foot or so, and then the sidewalk might be widened a little bit so that I think that one goes maybe a foot or two into what they currently use for their property.

[-MlgNixuHJY_SPEAKER_15]: You mean this one right here? Yeah, if you keep zooming in. I'm sorry. It's a very large scan of a very large file right here.

[Todd Blake]: Yeah, so the dark black line versus the dash gray line below it. So you could see that the new back of sidewalk will be a foot or so into their property. And then there are a couple others when that reference signal equipment say so there's going to be sorry my summary I didn't include the crosswalk near Emerson Street that crosses Maine currently is unsignalized, where that one won't become a full signal but it will become an RFB rectangular rapid flashing beacons. And they're locating one of the poles for that on the 101 Main Street property. That's actually, sorry, that was a bad example, Sierra, because that's a state one. But basically, there are some locations where to fit the traffic signal post or something like that, it's a carve out onto the private property from the back of sidewalks. So there's small things like that. I don't know. if it's helpful to go through each one individually or not, but that's the gist of it.

[Sean Beagan]: Yeah, I don't require that, that you go through each one individually. I just wanted a better idea as to what the types of easements, the areas that were being affected, I think I understand now.

[-MlgNixuHJY_SPEAKER_15]: Yeah, Global Companies LLC, which is the gas station right on the corner of Mystic and Main, that definitely has the largest combined area. Although the majority of it is temporary easement, as you can see, it's about 2,000 square feet of temporary easement, only 400 of permanent easement. So most of the largest ones are actually just temporary easements.

[Sean Beagan]: And are these property owners being compensated for both the temporary and the permanent easements?

[-MlgNixuHJY_SPEAKER_15]: Yes, they were appraised by a certified general appraiser and review appraiser. They appraise each one of these right-of-way parcels individually. And so we'll be compensating for each one of them. And currently, where it's at in the process right now, we've mailed out the just compensation offer letters, like preliminary offers to all the property owners, and they have 30 days to consider them. And then the city council will vote on, hopefully in June, on the actual taking of the easements by eminent domain.

[Todd Blake]: And briefly, just full disclosure, there are some other easements and takings that MassDOT is the lead on if it abuts MassDOT's property. And they're not the purview of this board. I'm just sharing that in case people heard that and, oh, this property got a letter too. So that also exists, is going forward as well.

[John Anderson]: Okay, thank you. During this review and approval process, has there been any opposition to what you're trying to do?

[Todd Blake]: So I could speak to the actual easements from the property owners, but for the project as a whole, I could speak to that a little bit. Obviously, with any project, there could be some differences of opinion. And what some people might see as improvement, other people might not. Overall, I would say it's been positive in my recollection at each public meeting and the traffic commission weighed all those, whatever may have come up in positive or negative in all comments and weighed the benefits of the overall project and the improvements to safety and approved this concept that I had shared. So that's what the state moved forward with.

[John Anderson]: I'm just trying to imagine why someone would object to the idea.

[Todd Blake]: mean it is going to be a change in the sense of operations from a you know a throughput standpoint like right now it's un-signalized for several of these sections so so you don't necessarily get delayed at each block and that will be a change in the future with the signals you might have to queue in each block uh for south street for instance south street Some people liked the old way before we did the emergency improvements to improve safety, where you used to be able to go straight across South Street to get to the highway on-ramp. So some people preferred that being available, and other people like the way it is now where it's blocked off because it kind of prevents some of the cut-through and crashes from happening. So I can't speak for why people wouldn't like it. I think it's a great project, so hopefully I answered your question.

[John Anderson]: Okay, thank you. So I should be warned if I want to roar through at 50 miles an hour in the middle of the night, I might have to slow down a little.

[Todd Blake]: Yeah, if you don't. That's okay. Exactly, exactly. So we see it as overall benefit, especially for pedestrian cyclists. So that, you know, there's some difference of opinions on, you know, how it's configured in terms of what space is allocated to what use, but overall, I think it's good.

[-MlgNixuHJY_SPEAKER_15]: And I'll just really quickly add that only the opposition I've heard from some property owners is just concerned about the disruptions that extended construction will have on their businesses, especially because it's projected to be more than one year. So 2027 and 2028. So I've been trying to do my best to assure them that MassDOT will have a resident engineer on site every day of the project who's supposed to their job is to make sure the businesses are as minimally affected by construction as possible, and they always remain open, and there's always a path to get to them, and just letting them know when the construction is going to be happening right in front of their business so they can plan accordingly. So that's mostly on MassDOT, their engineering team, but yeah, that's been the only kind of the concern that I've heard.

[Page Buldini]: Thank you, Sierra. You actually just answered one quick question I had about business disruption, especially on the businesses that are impacted. So I'm hopeful that MassDOT can really help those businesses out if they will be impacted specifically when traffic needs to come in. So thank you for answering that one. I'm very excited about this. We almost got killed, my daughter and I, on our bikes over here. So I'm very excited that it will be safer for walkability. for bikes and for kids specifically when they're trying to get over to the middle schools over there so that's awesome. And then I know I looked at the map quick but does this impact at all and I'm sure it doesn't but where the fire department headquarters are and the police department because I know they're there does this change their traffic pattern at all minus I know the lights and some of the bump outs but

[Todd Blake]: So for traffic pattern or property easements and or both, I guess. So there are some property related items, some of which MassDOT's dealing with, but it's like from the city to the city, from parcel to right of way. For traffic impacts, I think personally for the fire department, I believe it's a positive because they'll have a traffic signal right at their driveway. And they'll have a hardware connection where they could press a button to get a green light at that light to be able to exit. And then we're also preserving the projects preserving their access the secondary driveway access, kind of towards Mr. gab Union Street corner. even though we're providing necessary improvements for pedestrians, we're also still maintaining that driveway, which they preferred to maintain. For the police, they have the same access they've always had with the median. But for both, just like each business during construction, there might be some minor impacts, but I think it's overall favorably for both of them.

[Dina Caloggero]: I was just going to ask about the parking spaces that are used, I think, by Broadway Piano and Briden Bell, like where the 7-Eleven is. Are those going to be used as part of the construction or taken away? Because I'm thinking about both of those businesses and the parking that is used in between just so they can have their clients come in. I know that Bride and Belle certainly has clients, not just that come from Medford, but all over. That business has been there for over 50 years and has provided bridal dresses for everybody. I mean, my wedding on. So I just want to make sure the business is able to function and prosper as they have for over 50 years.

This is a small parking space. It's like a little sprouts area that's used as well. I mean, I have, again, this was posted today. So I haven't had a chance to really look at it.

[Todd Blake]: So are you referring to, so the bridle goes kind of right up to the back of the sidewalk. So they don't have off street parking directly in front. And there's no on street parking on Main Street there. But are you referring to like that little parking area of six cars or so in front of the little sprouts?

[Todd Blake]: Okay, so some of that at some point during construction will be impacted because that dashed line, the dashed dark line, is kind of like the limits of the temporary. So at some point, it's got to be worked out with each of them on what the impacts will be. But for the majority of the roadway construction, it shouldn't have impacts. But in the time when they're in that vicinity, I would think that there might be some impacts.

[Dina Caloggero]: Is there anything that the City of Medford can do to help with the parking that is needed to support that business?

[Todd Blake]: We're always open to helping as much as we can but there are strict some existing restrictions on say Thomas Street Emerson for like resident parking so maybe those could be relaxed in some way, you know where where like those streets. And I'm not promising anything for others, but maybe in my mind, like not be so strict with resident parking enforcement for those two streets during construction to allow for like on street parking for some of these businesses in the area.

[Todd Blake]: So that could be some sort of like olive branch to the businesses that are impacted, right?

[Dina Caloggero]: Could we put that in as part of the recommendation? Because again, I'm thinking about that the business there, this Broadway Piano, and also the bridal shop that has been there for that.

[Todd Blake]: I don't want to speak for the Director of Parking, so that's not one of the problems, I think. But these are the types of things we would consider. We're very mindful of that. We wish we had the magic wand to construct the project without impacts, unfortunately. OK.

[Dina Caloggero]: So that's something that the business owners would need to work out with the traffic department.

[Todd Blake]: And possibly, sometimes, depending on what the impacts are, there could be opportunities with the contractor that's working for the state.

[Dina Caloggero]: Yeah, I'm just concerned. And again, the customers that come to that particular shop come from all over. I mean, they come from all over the state. So they need to park.

[Todd Blake]: The other opportunity, and I don't want to pretend to know the ins and outs of that private parcel, but they do have a pretty decent sized surface lot in the back in the rear of those buildings. So I don't know if, you know, within that parcel, there could be some restructuring potentially, but I don't want to speak for them either. Physically, I know there's a surface lot behind those businesses, a pretty big one.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you, Gina. Thank you. Uh, just a couple of quick questions and I think we'll move this forward. Uh, director Blake, this is a two year construction project. Is this, and I apologize if this isn't the package, but is this phase, is it impact the entire, uh, limit of work line for the entire two years, or is it somewhat phased a little bit across the, uh, across the, um, across main street, just broad, general question. Todd, you're on mute.

[-MlgNixuHJY_SPEAKER_15]: I think Todd is having connectivity issues. Can you speak to this, Sierra? I think Todd knows more than me, but in terms of, yeah,

[Chair Doug Carr]: There you go. Thank you. What was the question again? It was about the phasing. Is it a 2 year impact for across the entire scope of work? Or is it is it is it somewhat phased across Main Street up into quite a large. limit of work?

[Todd Blake]: It's a great question. It does seem like a large area, but at the same time in relation to say like a several mile corridor, it's smaller. So I wouldn't want to promise anything, but it's two year beginning to end roughly construction, but then there's going to be long pauses for winter time each time, right? So So and then individual driveway impacts type thing construction in front of an individual property might be short-lived depending on but it's gonna it will come in stages in the sense of there'll be digging and utility type work first then at some point there'll be paving type work at some point there'll be pavement markings work so like It's definitely in various stages, but usually when they go out to bid with a project like this, they don't necessarily put a lot of restrictions on how they go about doing this. Besides safety and traffic management, they don't necessarily want to put a lot of restrictions because then it could influence the cost of the bids coming in, like the bid prices. Usually there's a window to construct the project, all the elements of the project, and it's a lot of means and methods for whoever wins the award. But within that, it's pretty much consistent two years with gaps for weather and then other things.

[Chair Doug Carr]: It does. Thank you. I guess I would build on what Paige and Dina and others have said, and that obviously, anything the city can do to mitigate the impacts, the business impacts on that very busy corridor would be greatly appreciated, whether it's parking or just access, that kind of thing. And I think, I mean, this project, to my mind, obviously builds on what was the previous changes that were made on Main Street that I think made it a lot safer. This is the next step, I think, building on those previous alterations that make it a little bit like less of the Wild West that it was for so many decades, certainly when I was driving through Main Street on a regular basis. Unless there are any other questions from the board, I will entertain a motion to send a recommendation to the city council to approve the alterations to the layout, of Main Street and the associated temporary and permanent easements as shown on the plan entitled Alteration of Main Street Route 38 and Preliminary Right-of-Way Plan. So moved.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Very good. I will call the roll. John Anderson? Yes. Sean Began? Yes. Page Buldini?

[Chair Doug Carr]: And myself.car. Yes. The motion passes 6-0. Thank you, Sierra. Thank you, Director Blake. Good luck, and I look forward to this. It'll be a couple of years of pain, but it's going to be a great project to me, and thank you.

[Chair Doug Carr]: All right. Next item on the agenda is the request For release of covenants, this is the Mary Kenny way. I'll give you the background and then we'll talk. I think Danielle may have a few words here in 2020, the city board approved a 10 lot subdivision at Mary Kenny way as part of that approval. The applicant was required to provide surety through a recorded covenant to guarantee completion of the roadway and other required subdivision infrastructure. In 2025, the city board voted to release the covenant on four of the 10 lots. And the applicant is now returning to the board to seek to release on three more of the lots. So now a total of seven of the 10. Alicia or Danielle, do you want to give any remarks on this, if you could?

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Did you prefer if I do that, we didn't discuss this ahead of time.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: I mean, the only information I have is was pretty much what you stated they. It's a 10 unit subdivision. They are. building this house lot by house lot, and as different lots become available and ready for sale, they release the covenants. And the covenants are to assure that the project will be finished, that the road will be finished. The last time that they came here to have the covenants released, For the first three lots, there was actually a cash surety that was provided to the city, which that number was provided by our city engineer for the estimate of what it would cost to complete the construction of that new road, Mary Kenny Way. It's been a little while, so I actually forgot that there were additional covenants to be released. I thought maybe there was a swap.

I can't retain information this long anymore, but we wanted to turn it over to I believe somebody from that project. It's on the call, maybe, um.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: If somebody from the project is on, you can raise your hand. I think I'll just add to be completely clear. The reason why Danielle and I actually were a little confused is because when they were here on March 5th, 2025, they provided here's a detailed statement on what was needed to to complete the construction of the road. Our city engineer said, yes, this looks right cost-wise. They provided a cash surety, which money we are holding at the city to that amount of money. And at the time, we only released four of the lots. This will be three more, and then there will be three more lots that are still under covenant. So we have both the cash surety and the lots under covenant.

So therefore, Danielle and I feel like it makes sense to release these lots, basically so they can sell the lots. Whereas because we have, if for some reason, for example, the developer was to close up shop and walk away, the covenant means that we would take possession of the lots and we have cash that we're holding at City Hall that we could pay for the construction of the road. So, I'm not seeing anybody. We had told them that it would be better if somebody was here, but we didn't tell them they had to have somebody here. If there isn't, I did talk with them a bit over the past week or so, and I refreshed my memory on what we did in the past on this. If there are any questions, I could answer those, or I could try.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Through the chair, I believe that Ari was on the board at the time, but might be the only remaining member.

[Page Buldini]: actually was just gonna ask a question. So Ari, it's good to know that you are there. So just so I'm clear, just because this is the first process for myself with this and subdivisions, would there then be would we hold the covenant for the last two lots nine and 10? What does that look like?

[Director Alicia Hunt]: In theory, we could have released the whole covenant last year in exchange for the cash surety. And Our memory is that at the time, we weren't sure we wanted to release all 10. They were anxious to sell like two of them and they were getting close to finishing construction, another two. So they really only cared about those four at the time. And there was a huge time pressure. So we said, rather than coming, being a hundred percent confident on everything here, let's just release four. Then we still have the rest of it. So right, yeah. Did I get my math wrong? We released four. If we release three more, then right, we'll still be holding two. I'm very bad at math. Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, three, yeah.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: See, I can't do simple math. Definitely, thank you for explaining that. That MIT education, Alicia. I know, I know. Just ask me some calculus.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Are there any other questions or concerns from any board member? All right, seeing none, hearing none, I'll ask for a motion to approve the release of lot 678 from the covenant as described by Danielle and Alicia.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: And would you not mind, can you vote that I can sign it? I think that's what we did last time. I know it's not in your notes, but that I can sign on behalf.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: So that you don't all have to individually sign the document. Yeah, I'd rather we just put that vote on record as well.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Yeah, so we'll amend it so that Director Hunt will be the one who will be the signature of the document. All right, we have a motion and a second. I'll call the roll. John Anderson. Yes. Sean Began? Yes. Page Buldini?

[Chair Doug Carr]: And myself, Doug Karyes. The motion passes six to zero. Thank you, Director Hunt. Thank you, Alicia. Thank you, Danielle. All right. Let's keep this moving. Next up, This is a continued public hearing site plan review for 130 College Avenue, Tulsa Aquatic Center. This is our 3rd session of the public hearing for this project that was open on April 15th of this year. And the applicant, Tulsa University will present any new information to have a response to city staff and board member comments from the last meeting. And I'll ask Alicia or Danielle, if you have any introductory comments, please, before we turn it over to Rocco and his team. And I'll just state for the record that member Ari Goffman-Fishman did watch the meeting record from April 15th meeting and submitted a Mullen form. So she is eligible, they're eligible to vote on the site plan approval. Alicia or Danielle?

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yes, through the chair, if you recall the last meeting, there were still some things that need to be buttoned up. We needed the new elevation drawings that corresponded to the renderings, which were received favorably from the board. So they advanced those drawings and the impacted site plans from those elevation changes along with a drawing of the proposed raised crossing and traffic calming improvements on College Avenue that were agreed upon. So those, we have those, those have been submitted to you for your review. We have some draft conditions, slightly updated since the last meeting. So as far as planning staff's concern. We feel that everything is in order and we're ready for an approval if the board is so inclined tonight.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you, Daniel. I have unmuted. Rocco, if you're unmuted, you can. Is Rocco a co-presenter, Daniel, to make sure that he can unmute anyone?

[Director Alicia Hunt]: And to be co-hosts. I think, Alicia, you need to do that. I'm doing it. Sorry. Thank you for the reminder. I forgot.

[Chair Doug Carr]: OK. And I see Brian Zboga from NICH as well. You're unmuted as well.

[Patrick Gallagher]: And Director Hunt, could you also make Mark co-hosts so that he can share our presentation?

[Rocco DiRico]: Just give Mark one second to share his screen. But in the meantime, Chairman Carr, members of the board.

[Patrick Gallagher]: Mark V. Mark, can you raise your hand just so that you pop up on the screen?

[Rocco DiRico]: There we go. There he is. Thank you very much. All right, so Chairman Carr, members of the board, city staff and neighbors, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak again this evening. Tonight we are seeking approval for a new aquatic center to be located at 130 College Avenue. We hope to get our approval tonight so that construction can begin this summer when our students and faculty are not on campus. This past weekend we celebrated commencement Which is our biggest weekend of the year. So, thank you for your patience and support through that. And the good news is that it is now a great time to walk along campus and ensure the campus as I did today. So, I encourage our neighbors to do the same as Danielle mentioned after our last meeting, our transportation engineer, Brian, who's on the call with us today. met with the city's transportation engineer Todd, who I believe is also on the call tonight, and they agreed on a proposal to improve pedestrian safety on college Avenue. So, Brian from niche engineering will walk you through that plan this evening as Daniel also mentioned. There was a request. request to see the elevations of the building now that the design has been improved. And that has been submitted to the city and Shea from Sasaki will walk through that with us tonight. And I know that Attorney Began at the end of last night's last last meeting had asked for a view of the zoning relief that we are seeking. So Pat Gallagher From Goulston and stores, we'll go through that again. And then finally, I will recap the community benefits associated with the project. So, now I will hand it off to Brian from niche engineering.

[Bryan Zimolka]: Thank you. So, I don't. I don't think Director Blake is on here anymore. I think he might have stepped off. But regardless, so Todd and I and Rocco and others from the team met this week to talk about the crossing and basically we presented this plan to him and he accepted it as is. So I'm just going to walk you through what we did. So, basically what you're seeing is we aligned the crossing with the site driveway and the new Desire Line, which is going to be at that diagonal sidewalk on the north side of College Ave. This is going to include rapid flashing beacons, which I'll show on the next slide later, and new catch basins at the corners of it.

Director Blake said this was a great location. He said he agrees with it is the desire line and that the addition of the rapid flashing beacons will enhance safety there. So another thing we're doing is we're extending the bump out for the blue bikes on the north side of College Ave to include a blue bike station. Director Blake also agreed that this was a good move and that the extension of the bump out at Halligan Drive is a good place to accommodate the blue bike station.

We also talked to Todd about closing the access to the stairway leading to the parking lot. He thought that was a good idea, and he said that this discourages the crossing here, which we agreed with. Combined with the accessible route from Halligan Drive, it'll redirect all pedestrians to the appropriate area, a nice safe crossing. So it was good we came to consensus on that as well. And then lastly, inevitably, there will be parking impacts with the extension of the bump out and the implementation of the raised crossing. This is removing in total about four spaces and the relocation of two handicapped spaces. Director Blake thought that was acceptable to provide the accommodations that we're providing.

So just to, on the next slide, For anybody that is not familiar with rapid flashing beacons, just to give you a real world example, these are solar powered. They eliminate the necessity for electrical connections and they're essentially just crossing signs with push buttons and they're consistently used with other locations to improve pedestrian safety.

[Rocco DiRico]: Thank you, Brian, and I'll just mention we added some temporary rapid flashing beacons on Boston Avenue as part of another project. And we've gotten very positive reviews of those safety measures from both our students, but also from our neighbors. And now I'll pass it over to Shea from Sasaki, who will just go over the elevations.

[Penelope Taylor]: Hi, everyone. It's nice to see everyone again. As was mentioned at the last Community Development Board meeting, the team presented a new design for the south facade and the main entrance of the aquatic center. This was in response to feedback that we received from the board and from the community. We're pleased that this reimagined design was received positively. And we've since updated the building elevations. We're looking at the south elevation right now. And the site plans to reflect the design intent that was shown in those renderings presented in the last meeting. We've resubmitted these drawings to the city to be included as part of the control documents for the project. So we'll keep it short and sweet, and I will pass it back to Rocco.

[Rocco DiRico]: Thank you, Shay. And, uh, as we said, we wanted to address or give a recap or a refresher on the zoning relief that we're seeking for this project. So Pat Gallagher from Coolston and stores will walk us through that.

[Patrick Gallagher]: Great. Thank you, Rocco. And thank you to the members of the board for, uh, for the time this evening and for the previous, um, couple of sessions. Um, so we, uh, in our first hearing walked through the zoning relief, and this is also laid out. In our application materials, but in the interest of making sure that everyone understands what we are asking for through this over site plan approval process, we wanted to again review the relief that we are seeking.

So there are 7 individual items of relief 2 of them. are specific to dimensional requirements. One has to do with solar. One is a technical requirement concerning number of buildings on a lot, and the balance relate to parking. I'll just very quickly go through these. The first relates to front yard setback. As you can see, we're proposing a 30-foot front yard setback of the project. What would be required under the ordinance is a setback of about 31 feet and eight inches. That's calculated based on a formula that takes into account the height and length of that side of the building.

And as Shay summarized in our initial public hearing, there were a lot of considerations that went into the siting of the building and the orientation of the building. We're working around the neighborhood to the north, the ball field to the south. This was really the optimal location and orientation, and to do that necessitates some minor relief from the front yard setback. We're also seeking relief on the northeast corner of the building where you see it marked as 45-foot side yard setback. In that location, again, based on the ordinances formula, which accounts for length and height, the required setback would be approximately 51 feet. The reason we think this relief is appropriate here is because getting to a 45 foot side yard setback at this corner enables us to extend the building as you've seen in the plans and to put the building mechanicals on that low roof so that we can avoid needing to put them On the top of the roof and keep the profile of the building as low as possible, and to try and mitigate the impact on the surrounding neighborhood. So, we think that that relief is specifically in connection with being able to shield the mechanicals from view.

With respect to solar, we're seeking an ordinance from the requirements under section 7.4 of the zoning ordinance. Ordinarily, this type of building and size of building, the ordinance requires a rooftop solar array to be installed. For reasons that we spoke about at earlier hearings, number one, we think this is an extremely sustainable building. This is an all electric design, and we happen to think it's one of the first pool facilities in Massachusetts to have that type of an all electric design. It will comply with Medford's specialized stretch code. The roof has been designed to accommodate future solar. Um, just given the environment, uh, with tax credits and, and, uh, at a kind of macro level, um, it, it's really not feasible at this point in the project, but we have designed the building to enable future installation if the environment, uh, gets more favorable. So we're, for now we're seeking relief from section 7.4 of the ordinance.

The next item is, again, a technical requirement. The zoning ordinance has a prohibition on multiple principal buildings being located on the same lot. We're treating this entire athletics field complex as a single zoning lot. Today, there are existing principal structures on the lot in the form of the baseball grandstand. We're also proposing, in addition to the aquatic center, the tennis facilities and restroom, which is a roughly 1,000 square foot building that will be located off this plan to the south. That's going to result in more than one principal structure, and so we're seeking relief from that requirement of the zoning ordinance as well.

And then the remaining relief relates to parking. And I know there have been a number of conversations and questions. And so I wanted to briefly go into that request and why we think that it is merited here. So the 1st is that we are seeking approval of shared parking under section 6.1.9. And what the zoning ordinance provides for is if you have multiple uses that are owned by the same party, that as long as you can demonstrate adequate parking capacity, the CD board may approve a shared parking arrangement. This is something that's actually outside of Dover that non-Dover projects could request from the board.

And we believe that based on the parking study that we've conducted, that there is adequate capacity on campus. I think I want to distinguish between two separate conversations we've had with regard to parking. One relates to daytime, weekday, what I would consider the peak usage of Tufts parking facilities. And these are faculty, staff, commuter students. And our parking study showed that today, The cousins lot is at a relatively high capacity, but we strongly feel that. There's adequate capacity and the Dowling hall garage and other lots on campus that are located in close proximity to the project. So we feel that that mitigates the loss of parking spaces that will result from cousins lot. And also addressing the demand at Cousins Lot, I want to emphasize, right, that this is not, we're not looking at this in a vacuum. I would almost consider this like a structured parking garage at a shopping mall. When someone drives into the garage, they're most likely going to take the 1st available space, but there might be more capacity higher up in the garage. So. We're, we're taking that type of approach here that if someone is looking to park on campus, um, a student faculty member, and there's not parking available in the cousins lot in the future. we're expecting that they would continue to Dowling Hall Garage, which is just over a quarter mile from the project site. So we think that's an appropriate location to have identified as this is where we'd envision the project sharing parking with.

Another point that I want to emphasize that is a subtle one, but this project, like any project, has parking that would ordinarily be associated with it. But that parking that is associated with the project site, I think, so when you're looking at our parking study and when we calculate what are the number of spaces, what's the demand that would be associated with this facility, the land use code that is used to generate anticipated demand is for a health and fitness club. Now, that is the closest match in the land use code to determine parking demand. As I think we all can understand, this is not the same as a gym. This is not the same as a lifetime fitness or as a you know, pick your gym where folks are driving, parking and coming in. We anticipate this is largely going to be used by students who are walking from elsewhere on campus. So to the extent that we are reducing parking spaces in the Cousins lot, we're not concerned from a capacity standpoint, because again, we feel that most of the people who are using this facility are going to be walking from elsewhere on campus.

And then the other kind of category of things that we talked about with parking relates to event parking. And again, that is largely events that are occurring in the evenings, on weekends, times when there is much more capacity on campus than what you see on a weekday morning or mid-afternoon. And so based on the updated parking plan that Tufts has previously submitted and that we intend to implement, we think that we have a solid plan for addressing concerns about game day and other event type parking. So all of those things taken into consideration, we think that the request for shared parking here is reasonable in light of Tufts campus parking plans and available capacity. And so for that reason, we're asking the board to grant that approval of a shared parking arrangement.

There are two other items to note here. One is that ordinarily under section 6.1.9, shared parking needs to be within 500 feet of the use it's associated with. And in this case, Dowling Hall Garage, which is where we would primarily expect folks to be parking who are using or who are, you know, being displaced from cousins is located more than 500 feet away. So we would be seeking a waiver from the requirement for shared parking to be located within 500 feet.

And then lastly, we're seeking a waiver from the requirements of section 6.1.4 of the zoning ordinance. This relates to things such as the width and length of parking spaces, the percentage of parking spaces that can be compact spaces. And the reason we're seeking this relief is we intend to restripe parts of the southern end of Cousins Lot that are not striped today. And in order to really maximize the spaces that we can create there in the southern part of Cousins Lot, we anticipate needing some relief from those dimensional parking space requirements. So I think that covers what we are requesting. I'm happy to talk further if folks have questions, but we really do feel like this is the minimum relief that be needed in connection with this type of project. We were really very cognizant of what the underlying zoning requirements are and put a lot of effort into satisfying those as best as we could. So thank you for your time and I'll hand it back to Rocco.

[Rocco DiRico]: Thank you, Pat. I appreciate it. So, the new aquatic center will allow diversity to expand access to recreational swimming and other community programs. The new aquatic center will accommodate recreational swim hours for our butters. In speaking with Medford Recreation, we also agreed to host lifeguard certification classes for them on campus. We also, in talking to the school committee, would be happy to host a Medford Summerville High School Swim Classic on campus every year. And we did tend to do that, just like we do for basketball. And I also want to talk about our incredibly popular and incredibly valuable and important community swim lesson program, which we run and now we'll be able to run much more often and serve much more youth in Medford who need to learn the important life lesson of swimming. and realize that there's been a lot of talk at these meetings and questions about specific programs and I think you know once we because the pool is two years away from opening once the facility is open and we look at the demand for the pool we are happy to continue to work with Medford Recreation and Medford High School to offer additional program that that meets their needs and that we can accommodate in this much larger facility than what we have today.

And then finally, I would just like to thank the board, the city and our neighbors. This has been a very collaborative process. We heard your feedback after our first meeting and our second meeting, and we went back to the drawing board and we made very significant changes to this project. And thanks to you and thanks to your feedback, we actually have a better product today for the university and for the city. So with that, we respectfully ask for your approval this evening, and we're happy to take any questions that you may have.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you, Rocco. Appreciate it. A good presentation. I'm going to open it up to the board for any comments or questions on what they've seen tonight. Go ahead, Dina.

[Dina Caloggero]: Yeah, let me unmute myself. How good am I? So I am This weekend was Tufts graduation and I noticed that you put the event planning in place and it was really good. It was really good. I think it worked. You did a very good job. I live close to the university and it was still parking in the street and we always just relax in graduation because it's such a significant event for Tufts University. So kudos on that. And I also want to thank you. for the traffic calming measures.

I'm very pleased and I am very grateful as well that you have done that. I just want to say that I would consider, you did mention that you were going to do some re-striping in the parking lot at Cousins. And I'm just curious, is that re-striping going to be done in areas where in the Cousins parking lot that is currently being used for trash receptacles, recycling materials, or is it just open space right now that's in the Cousins lot closer to the railroad tracks?

[Rocco DiRico]: Thank you, Dina. I'm going to see if Robert Corbett is on the call, because I do think it's going to take a portion of that area. That is now what you were talking about being used for trash. And if Robert can raise his hand, I'll call on him to confirm. But if not, I would say, I believe it's a combination of. both so we're going to restripe the lot to maximize the number of spaces obviously and then there is going to be i think a portion of those areas not all of them but that will be taken and converted into parking

[Dina Caloggero]: That's great. I'm so happy to hear that as well. Thank you very much.

[Rocco DiRico]: Thank you. And thank you for your patience this past week. I'm glad to hear it went well. I know our traffic and parking team were at the previous two meetings, and they took your feedback to heart.

[Dina Caloggero]: I mean, we usually get blocked driveways and everything, and it was done pretty well. So I congratulate you. Thank you very much.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Rocco Robert appears to be having technical problems. I've had to readmit him multiple times.

[Rocco DiRico]: That's letting me know. He texted me as well, but I think we're I think we're good.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Yeah, I think so too. I, I try to let him in a few times, but I think I think we're okay right now. Unless something else comes up other board comments or questions. Go ahead. All right. You're unmuted.

[Ari Fishman]: Thank you. I just wanted to clarify in the crosswalk. I saw on the map that there was a note that it would be a raised crosswalk and that was a matter of kind of substantial discussion in the last meeting, but you didn't mention that verbally. So I wanted to confirm. if that desire path primary crosswalk will be raised or not. And my second question was just a continued desire to have the option to purchase access to free swim as non-direct abutters.

[Bryan Zimolka]: So I can answer your first question about the race crossing. Yes, it will be a race crossing consistent with the Medford detail. And that was discussed with director Blake and the specifics of that will come through design. But yes, it is a race crossing.

[Rocco DiRico]: Wonderful, thank you. And for your second question, Ari, thank you. It's a good one. You know, we have hundreds of neighbors that are eligible in wards four, five, and eight to purchase a Butters Passes, and many of them do. As I said earlier in my presentation, as we open up the new facility, we may be able to expand that. We've expanded it since I've started here 10 years ago. And now I think with the bigger pool, we'll be able to expand that list even further.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Great, thank you. Okay, how about Sean, John Anderson, Paige, anyone in the comments before we start moving through the procedural stuff?

[Page Buldini]: I'm all set. One quick thing, I'm super excited that the feedback was taken to heart in design, and I'm looking forward to the future. So thank you very much, and thank you for listening to the board and the neighbors.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Yep, and you're good. John Anderson. You're all set. Okay. Very good. I would like to echo what Paige said. This is a better project. I think it's been a good collaboration. I appreciate the feedback you guys have given us, the flexibility you've shown City of Medford. I hope this is a a new page forward in an improved communication between this city and Tufts. We're obviously going to get into some deep weeds over the next 4-5 months, whatever it is, for the zoning for the whole campus, which was a conversation for another day, obviously. But I think this is turning out to be a great project and I'm really looking forward to it.

A number of procedural things, and I think Sean Began, you were talking about this on our last meeting. We need to look at both the waivers for the various zoning sections, and I'd like to call on you to kind of make sure we keep this in line as we go through this before we look at conditions, if that makes sense.

[Sean Beagan]: Yeah, I had kind of jotted down about, let's see, one, two, I think I have seven. eight motions that I think we need to accomplish the waivers that they're looking for, as well as a motion to make a finding that this is actually a Dover Amendment project, which I think we need to make that finding as well. Very good. So I can go through the list of motions that I prepared. I sent Alicia and Danielle and you, Doug, a copy of what I prepared. And I just added one more.

to account for the dimensional requirements for the parking spaces. So I can go through them, and I guess we can vote on them if you want to, or unless you want to do something else first.

[Chair Doug Carr]: No, I think we should do that starting with the Dover Amendment one, I think, for all kinds of reasons. And then we'll go through the other seven, which I think will largely comply with what Pat mentioned earlier, I mentioned.

[Sean Beagan]: Sure. So the first motion would be a motion for a finding that the applicant's proposed project is an educational use and qualifies for protection pursuant to Mass General Laws Chapter 48, Section 3, the Dover Amendment, and Section 11.8.3 of the Medford Zoning Ordinance.

[Chair Doug Carr]: So let's move that forward. Don't move. Thank you, John. Second?

[Chair Doug Carr]: And myself, Doug Carr, yes. Motion passes six to zero. That's number one. Go ahead, Sean.

[Sean Beagan]: Okay. Second motion. A motion to grant the applicants requested relief from the dimensional requirements of section 4.1.1 of the Medford zoning ordinance as it pertains to the relief sought for the front yard setback along College Ave and the minimum side yard setback along the north side of the proposed aquatic center.

[Chair Doug Carr]: And myself Doug Carr. Yes. Motion passes six to zero. I'll just say that just before we move on, the dimensional relief asked for here is almost imperceptible compared to what, you know, a couple of feet here and there for a building that is quite far from. So I think that is more than reasonable, but let's move on to the next one. Thank you, Sean.

[Sean Beagan]: Sure. Next motion, a motion to grant the applicants requested relief from section 3.1 0.1 paragraph one of the Medford zoning ordinance, and to allow the construction of both the aquatic center and the tennis project on the same lot as depicted in the plan submitted by the applicant.

[Sean Beagan]: Okay. The next one is motion pursuant to section 6.1.10 to waive the requirements of section 6.1.9 requiring that offsite shared parking be located within 500 feet of the premises, and to specifically allow the inclusion of such other parking lots and garages owned by the applicant and located within the Tufts University campus to be used as shared parking for the purposes of this application.

[Sean Beagan]: All right. Next motion motion to allow for the use of shared parking pursuant to section 6.1.9 of the Medford zoning ordinance. The applicable requirements of said section having been satisfied by the applicant as modified by motion of this board. So that will actually allow the use of shared parking.

[Chair Doug Carr]: And myself Doug Carr, yes. The motion passes six to zero. Okay, next motion.

[Sean Beagan]: Motion to allow a waiver pursuant to section 6.1.10 of the dimensional requirements as set forth in section 6.1.4 for the parking spaces to be striped within the Cousins parking lot.

[Sean Beagan]: Okay, the next motion based upon the board's finding that the applicant's project qualifies for protection pursuant to the Dover amendment, a motion is made to grant relief from the requirements of section 7.4, the solar ordinance of the Medford zoning ordinance in its entirety. So moved.

[Sean Beagan]: Well, I think that's all the motions I had. Good job. Good job. Pat, did we turn a gal or did we get them all for you?

[Patrick Gallagher]: Thank you, Mr. Biggin. I think so. Yes. Yes. Thank you very much.

[Sean Beagan]: And I think the only other motion, the only other motion we will have is a motion to approve the application after we go through the conditions.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Yes. I think just again, just a brief context here, the, the parking presentation that Tufts made about this being part of a larger campus as described by attorney Gallagher tonight and Rocco as well. I think, again, this is the last time we'll be doing this once the zoning is rewritten so that we'll have a more comprehensive holistic approach to Tufts. So, I don't think anything here is is by definition on a reasonable, you know, there is less parking, but I think has made a good faith effort to show that they will manage the process in the parking and make sure that no, that negative impacts are mitigated and minimize wherever possible. With that, I think we should turn it over to Danielle. Let's put the draft conditions so we can go through those. Some of them relate directly to the presentation tonight of the raised crosswalk.

[Chair Doug Carr]: We'll need to zoom in a little bit more. My eyes can't see that, I'm afraid.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yeah, it's hard to tell. It's when you're sharing a screen, you don't see what you're sharing.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: It's because I use three monitors, and one of them I have vertical for spreadsheets. And I've got my little.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Maybe you can move it to a horizontal one and zoom in so we can see the text.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: All right, so. Boilerplate, the control plans, these were updated to reflect the revised plans that we received for this meeting. 2nd, 1, 2nd and 3rd are also boilerplate about the process for plan modifications, having a de minimis process that doesn't require coming back for. A full public hearing for something that's very minor. The requirement that it be recorded the ratio of deeds. We have the engineering division conditions about the roadway restoration, which is. standard, their engineering directive number three, that they, you know, restore the pavement curb to curb. And this also would include the micro milling of the markings for the crosswalks and such so that those last longer than just simply painting on the surface.

In addition, there's their condition about The driveway aprons, that they're concrete, so that it's a continuous sidewalk. It's not like a road where people can just fly in. It slows them down. That's a standard requirement of the engineering division. Number six is about a new sewer manhole, if it's found to be necessary, the boat coordinate on that. comments on the plans. Number seven is kind of a reminder, a separate stormwater permit will be required for this project at the time of construction. Number eight is regarding the raised crosswalk. This has been updated since the last one to basically describe and text what is in the plan that was presented. So I'll just read it for the record. In coordination with the engineering division and subject to receipt of all applicable permits and approvals for work within a city of Medford public right of way, the existing curb bump out immediately adjacent to Halligan Hall shall be extended within College Avenue by the applicant up to 35 feet. in order to accommodate a future blue bike station within the College Avenue right-of-way, as shown on the crosswalk relocation plan defined above in the control docs. Said future blue bike station would be installed by the city, utilizing funding procured by the city, and in connection with the extension of the curb bump-out, the applicant shall block access to the existing stairway that is located opposite College Avenue from the to-be-expanded bump-out as shown on the crosswalk relocation plan. Number nine goes with this. The new raised crosswalk across College Avenue shall be located adjacent to the relocated curb cut and shall include signage with rectangular rapid flashing beacons and new catch basins, all as shown on the crosswalk location plan defined above. The existing crosswalk location adjacent to the existing driveway into Cousin's Lot shall be removed as shown on the crosswalk relocation plan. I don't know if you want me to pause and discuss this at all.

[Chair Doug Carr]: I, I will ask if any of the board members have any questions, cause that's obviously what we spent the most time on tonight, looking at College Ave and some of the details in the, in the configuration that basically has been blessed by, um, uh, director Blake going into this. Are there any other final comments on these conditions? They do comply, I believe directly with the drawing that you all have seen both in your packet and on screen.

Okay, let's keep going, Daniel. I think the rest of the fire department is going to be a lot of boilerplate, but continue as well.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yes, so the fire department conditions about the exterior mechanical access, emergency radio coverage, fire alarm reporting, site access and hydrants and fire command center. That's regarding having an annunciator at the main entrance. Taj has popped in. Still going?

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: The health department's conditions, pool plan review, these are all kind of standard boilerplate drainage and groundwater management that we're working with the engineering department on that, sewer management, and also with the city engineer, demo and construction. You know, basically remediating any dust and keeping the streets clean because every workday, you're not tracking stuff out into the street. Solid waste permits for any dumpsters, pest management plan. We don't want rats going around everywhere. So that will evict that.

I'm sure if there's any rats, you'll see them. Let us know. And then the miscellaneous conditions to the maximum extent feasible, the existing trees located along the northern boundary of the site shall be preserved. The next one is prior to issuance of a building permit, the applicant shall provide a written construction management plan for review and approval by the building commissioner and engineering division, safe and ADA compliant pedestrian and cyclist access, will be preserved on College Ave during the duration of construction, a 24-7 contact line for construction-related questions or concerns will be established for the duration of construction. The contact line number will be posted at a highly visible location at the project site. And this is similar or the same language that they had for the dorm project. And then this last condition is new.

and reads, the applicant will in good faith consider opportunities to expand access to recreational swim and other community programming subject to availability and NCAA requirements. So this kind of reaffirms their commitment to providing this community benefit, understanding that they can't get into the specifics in a condition like hours and things like that because we can't have you know, changing the hours and having to come and amend their site plan re-decision because it was stipulated. So, Mr. Chair, that is what we have, 23 conditions.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you very much. I would like to pause at this moment and open up the public comment period now that people have seen the final conditions, the final plans, the final elevations. So I'm going to do that, and then we'll come back to the board right afterwards. So those who wish to provide comments can use the raise hand feature, which may be under reactions on your Zoom. or if you 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. please refrain from using the chat function to message any comments to city staff or board members as it is not part of the public record. If you're having audio or technical difficulties, please message staff or assistants. Each participant will have two minutes to speak. Would anybody from the public? Oh, there's Judith Weinstock. Judy, go right ahead. Name and address for the record, Judy.

[Judith Weinstock]: Hi, Judith Weinstock, 144 Breguet. Thanks again for hosting and Rocco and his team and the city and everybody who's been participating. Just a quick question. I couldn't tell, and I don't know that the conditions address it. The crosswalk that is in front of Tisch now, that will be sort of the main thoroughfare probably for the students coming out of that Tisch Center to go across the street to the pool. Were there amendments that were included in this to that crosswalk, as well as the addition of the raised one with flashing lights?

[Chair Doug Carr]: Mark, would you like to address that? Oh, I'm sorry, Brian. Go ahead, Brian.

[Bryan Zimolka]: Hi, sorry. Yes, the crosswalk that I don't really have a plan right now, but the existing crosswalk, the one to the south, that one is going to be removed and replaced with the raised crossing. The wide one is planning on remaining.

[Judith Weinstock]: Yeah, no, I was sort of asking whether there were going to be any modifications to the really, really wide one that leads. It's the closest one to the Elliott Pearson School, and the one that most of the students used from the gym to cross over the street there to get into the fields.

[Bryan Zimolka]: Uh, nothing was planned in speaking to director Blake, uh, this week. He was, he accepted, you know, the proposal as is and thought no modifications to that needed to be made.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you, Judy. Appreciate it. Would anybody else like to speak, um, about the project? Okay. Very good. So with that, I will close the public comment period. Is the board, are there any other questions for the board? Is the board looking to move towards a vote? Any final comments, questions? Go ahead, Sean Began.

[Sean Beagan]: Just a couple comments on item 23. I'm wondering if we can change the language such that it says, uh, the applicant will expand access to recreational swim and other community programming subject to availability and NCAA requirements and remove the term in good faith, consider opportunities to.

[Chair Doug Carr]: So it Daniel, you can put that back on screen so we could see the verbiage.

[Patrick Gallagher]: I think that's a fair comment. And I don't have any issue with that. I think that captures our full intention. And I think just to emphasize, the details are the thing that is going to have to wait until the center opens. But certainly, there will be an expansion of access.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Sean, could you repeat the text so we could maybe edit that in real time here?

[Sean Beagan]: Yeah, just delete. So in that section, just delete after the word will. Delete, in good faith, consider opportunities to. So now it'll read, the applicant will expand access.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: I can't hear anybody anymore. Would somebody else volunteer to share the screen? It's in the draft. I have to try to log out.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: If you give me a minute, I can jump in. I was not in the.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Yep. uh it's the draft conditions edited 55 today okay yep and uh the word two goes away as well so it's will expand access that's what uh we're talking about oh somebody's editing it that's not me who's sharing oh christian's christian's on it christian you can't leave us for another job but i don't have a position to offer him you gotta make him a better offer i can't

[Sean Beagan]: Yeah, I have one other. I'd like to add as item 24 that the applicant will implement the recommendations and enhancements contained within the applicant's athletic event parking management plan dated May 2026.

[Chair Doug Carr]: So you want to tie it back to the presentation drawing from last time.

[Sean Beagan]: Last time they gave us, they presented us with an athletic, it was called an athletic event parking management plan. And it was just, it was basically, I don't know, I'd call it a brochure of things that they were going to do to enhance athletic event parking. And their problem, they may already be doing it. I don't know.

[Rocco DiRico]: Uh, thanks Doug. Yeah, that language works for me. And, uh, as, uh, as Dina noted, we, we started implementing that during commencement weekend. So yes, we are, we are, uh, happy to continue, um, implementing the athletic event parking management plan.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you Rocco. That's all I had. All right, anyone else from the board? Otherwise, I'll entertain a motion to approve the project with the conditions noted and edited. So moved. Second. Very good. Roll call. John Anderson. Yes. Sean Began. Yes. Page Buldini.

[Chair Doug Carr]: And myself, Doug Carr. Yes. The motion passes six to zero. Congratulations, Rocco. Could you briefly summarize when construction will start and when, how long it will be?

[Rocco DiRico]: Uh, so construction will start this summer. Obviously, we need the board's decision letter and to get through the appeal period, but we are eager to begin construction the day we can start and I believe it'll take about 18 months and we'll be just in time for our, our swim season.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you, Rocco. Great job with you and your team. We'll get you that letter as soon as possible. Appreciate it.

[Rocco DiRico]: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And again, thank you to the members of the board, the city staff and the neighbors. This really was a great process and appreciate you working with us on this one.

[Chair Doug Carr]: All right. We're going to move on to the next item in the agenda. Uh, continued public hearing the zoning amendment inclusionary zoning. Uh, my understanding is that staff is still trying to workshop a different method of calculating the equivalent value of the affordable units for fractional payments. So I will ask for a motion to continue this to our next meeting. Um, on June 3rd, 2026.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Hold on, do we want to continue to June 3rd, or do we want to do it for the following one, given that Boston Ave?

[Chair Doug Carr]: Actually, you're right. Let's amend it to be June 17th, the following one, because that meeting's not going to be packed tight with Boston Ave.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Myself, Doug Carr. Yes. The motion passes six to zero. We'll defer that until June 17th. Good. Moving on. This is a modification. Mr. Chair.

[Chair Doug Carr]: You always have to remind me because I just going to keep going and going. So I appreciate it. Let's take a five minute break and please set the timer. Director Hunt, we'll be right back. What is the... Thank you, Alicia. That was great.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: I love the dramatic music just because I thought it would help.

[Dina Caloggero]: I didn't get dramatic music. Can we do that when we're in the council chamber too? Because we really need a bathroom break. You know, it's like you have the same needs whether you're here or there.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: At first, I thought you meant could I use the same dramatic music when we're in the council?

[Chair Doug Carr]: All right. All right, let's get going. All right, so now we're back to modification to site plan approval, 99 Rivera Beach Parkway. This board approved the project on November 19th, 2025. And now the applicant, Criterion Development Partners, is seeking a modification to the site plan to alter the garage layout, reducing the number of parking spaces from 238 to 209, and to increase the height of the building by six inches. I will ask Alicia Danielle to give any introductory comments before we move into the presentation from the applicant.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: I don't have any real substantive comments other than the changes don't affect any zoning relief, but they are, we wouldn't consider them de minimis, so they need to come to the board for a modification, not a full amendment, but modification public meeting.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Very good. All right, so why don't we go ahead and turn it over to Attorney Moore and Joel and the team and have them go ahead and walk us through the changes, if you don't mind.

[Valerie Moore]: Thank you very much. And I appreciate that you've had a very long evening, so I'll try very hard to be brief here. Since we were last before you in November, project design has continued to advance, resulting in a couple of modifications to the previously approved site plan. that we're seeking your approval for this evening. The board can approve these modifications in this manner without a new notice public hearing because they do not amount to a waiver or substantial alteration of any of the conditions or requirements of the board. The project still remains fully zoning compliant. and we don't believe that any of the changes materially alter any of the board's prior findings.

As our architect will review with you shortly, the majority of the changes are to the garage floor plans of the building, and those were really driven in part by the need to accommodate a gas pipeline easement that sits beneath the site that's controlled by Enbridge. As part of that, They felt we were able to reduce the parking. We know that was something that the board was interested in when we were last before you in November. So we think that this is the best way to both protect the pipeline and accommodate a request from the board that we previously didn't think we would be able to address. So the parking garage has resulted in a reduction in the total number of parking spaces from 238 to 239.

nine which still complies with the minimum required parking that's in the zoning ordinance. There are also some changes to the drop-off area that Joel will review with you but I also wanted to point out that the height of the building has increased by six inches. That is just to accommodate the additional insulation that's required to meet passive house standards. And even with that increase in height, we're still below the maximum that's allowed by zoning. So with that, we don't believe any of the board's prior findings for this project are altered by these changes. And we believe that more than sufficient parking continues to be provided by the development. So with that, I will turn it over to Joel, who can walk through the plans and show you the changes. Oh, or Chris Copeland is raising his hand too. I'll turn it over to Chris then. Go ahead, Chris.

[SPEAKER_20]: I think I need to. Okay, here we go. Great. Thank you. Here we go. And just as a matter of update, we are moving full steam on pre-construction. The building as it exists today should be knocked down next week. We've done some abatement there. We do own the land. We closed on 12-31-25, so everything is moving. These are just some changes, obviously, we'd like to bring before the board. And I can turn it over to Joel to walk us through the before and after on the elevations.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Oh, you'll have to unmute him yourself, or he can raise his hand.

[SPEAKER_14]: Go ahead. Finally, I got. Okay. This isn't the garage. We're going to just quickly go through the facade. There's some minor changes. We wanted to make sure that you were aware of them so that didn't get built and someone questioned it. The front facade, the main changes to the after version is on the right, and you can see above the building sign name at the entry to the building, there are two rows of windows that are smaller than they were on the previous. That was an adjustment to the windows to comply with the passive house. envelope. We just had to reduce the area of glass. Those are bedrooms. It made sense to do it there, and we thought it actually looked nice to do it.

Further to the right on that drawing, it's hard to see, but the ground floor, right where the hand was, recesses there. It used to be a continuous facade, which you can see on the left. The reason being is there is now a drop-off that you'll see when I get to the garage plan, which I meant to do first, but there's a drop off there and that drop off was created so that the Uber driver could come in, make a drive into the parking space and exit out and alleviate the congestion at the entry that got discussed a little bit at the last meeting where we have the Uber. I mean, we have the Grubhub and we have the building entry and the fire department access point.

Next slide. The lower right image shows that change. The ground floor really cuts back. You can see there's two cars there. There's an Uber lounge where those three large windows are. So you can wait there for your car. It also allows UPS and the Postal Service to park there. And that door where the hand is goes right into a package room, and the mailboxes are to the left 25 feet, and that's the mailroom. So it's a convenient way of getting vehicles and the delivery of daily events out of the main entry and out of the access point.

The upper image shows the before and after of the corner. By making that drop off, we no longer have to drive underneath the building on the corner, which was shown on the left side. And we were able to then move the retail space to the far corner, bring that down to grade. And so the corner that faces Wellington station. is a little bit more active of a corner and not just that driveway and pedestrians having to scoot away as a truck makes a U-turn underneath the building there.

The next slide. This is a minor detail, the southeast corner. We just made a better spot for the kayaks on the base of the building. There's a little bit more. You couldn't really quite see the base, so we took the landscape off so you could see where the kayaks are stored. They're symmetrical. at the other side of the building. There's a little change to the balconies on the corner of this, this four corner. There's five balconies that didn't used to have balconies on them. The number of balconies is the same. We just distribute them a little bit more to the active view of the river. The big change here is I think a really positive change to the stair at what we call the portal. It's hard to see there, but you can see it here. And I have a blow up on the next slide. There you can see the, well, let me go to the next slide, and then I'll come back.

Here's an enlargement before. It was a symmetrical stair in front of an asymmetrical portal, so it bothered the heck out of the architects. And also, we have an interesting geotechnical issue. So being able to put a lighter weight stair in that location got us really to eliminate a whole section of ground improvement. And we thought that the stair worked a lot nicer with the portal. It's more lightweight. We think it's more inviting. And the stair has a landing to it, which I'll show you in plan in a minute.

It sort of acts as a seating point as you walk along the path. It's not just a landing to a stair, but it's quite large and you can sit on it. It seems a little bit more inviting and graceful. If I can go to the previous slide, it shows that stair at night coming down on the right side. So it's lit. You can see the kayaks where we've added space for those. And this whole corner of the building, The left side of the building used to be metal, and this side used to be fiber cement, which we thought was maybe backwards. We should put the better material on the Revere Beach Parkway side of the building. So this four corner is now metal, and the fiber cement was moved to the secondary corner, which is the gray corner that's sort of on the parking lot of the Wellington station.

So that's a sort of quick overview. You can see the change before and after on the previous slide. So it's not a huge amount of changes, but we just wanted to make sure that we went over those. The garage is an interesting and difficult to explain concept. We knew the Algonquin gas easement was there. Everybody, including Algonquin Gas, thought that the gas line was in the middle of the easement. It turned out that when Hayling Aldrich did the ground penetrating radar to locate the pipe, it's right on the edge of the easement, which is right along the edge of the building. So what we were able to do is we were able to, it doesn't affect the first floor, but the footings of the garage were impacting The lateral for.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Joel, do we lose you? It's frozen, but I don't think he's there.

[SPEAKER_20]: The gas lines right here to the south edge and the lower level. Joel, are you there? Yes. Sorry, we lost you there.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Must be an unstable connection. We lost Joel for about 20 seconds. I don't know if you can hear us, Joel.

[SPEAKER_20]: The overall impact on the lower level here, if I just zoom out a little bit, this is before. Are you with us now, Joel?

[SPEAKER_14]: We're trying to balance the cut and the fill, and bringing the garage back a little bit, eliminated the cut on the site, which is quite deep into the property, and that results in the reduction of the parking to 209 spaces. There's de minimis change to the upper level, but if I can go down to that lower picture, lower right, You can see the drop off for the, the Uber drop off on the front of the building.

Can we go to lower right? Yeah, where the 3 parking spaces are for the Uber drop off Chris. At the front of the building, we can see it.

[SPEAKER_20]: Yeah, I think you're delayed Joel. Okay. Right. Can everyone else see that? It's right here.

[SPEAKER_14]: There you go. Okay. Yeah. The inside of the garage has been rearranged ever so slightly for safety and column grid and that, but the... No, I lost him again.

[SPEAKER_14]: Their transformers are moved to the North side of the building, because the electric company couldn't not only do we have an Algonquin gas easement, we have a sewer easement and that was preventing access of the electrical lines on the South side of the building. So it. and grid wants to bring them in on that front side, there'll be landscaped and we've relocated the electrical room to that side. So there are actually only 2 transformers as of this morning. We able to eliminate 1 transformer and 2 transclosures, so be less equipment there. Right.

[SPEAKER_20]: Should also note we still have 1,900 square feet of bike storage, just as the original condition. And one thing I was going to note is there's about 12,500 square feet of difference on this lower level. So that's what you're seeing here with this, the approved original plan and to this lower level, you can see it's a bit of a smaller box and it is about 12,000 square feet, give or take.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you. Thank you, Joe. Thank you, Chris. Are there any other, any other presentation comments you want to make? Otherwise I'll open it up to the board. Okay.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you to any more. Um, would anyone on the board like to ask a question or have any comments? It's been a while since we've seen this, but it wasn't that long ago. Um, I don't see any. I personally don't see substantial change here. I mean, this is almost at the point where it could be staff approved because it's essentially the same building. I think the design is slightly improved by some of the comments that Joel made. I like the stair entrance to the upper level of the courtyard. I think that is actually an improvement.

And maybe it's just a fortuitous occasion, but it is true that some people on the board were looking for less parking last time. And if you guys obviously are comfortable with this number still within zoning, I don't personally see much of an issue for that at all. I will now, not seeing anyone raise their hand, I'm going to open up the public comment period. If there is anyone here, please raise your hand. So those who wish to provide comments can use the raise hand feature, which may be under reactions on Zoom, or if you're dialed in on the 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. I remind to all meeting participants that to please refrain from using the chat function to message any comments to city or to staff or board members, as it is not part of the public record. If you're having any audio or technical difficulties, please mention staff for assistance. Each participant will have two minutes. Is there anyone who would like to speak on these changes or for the project in general? I would be surprised if there was, because I don't think we had many comments when we originally approved it. So that sounds like a good thing, not seeing anything. I will then close the public comment.

Period. And ask if there's any other board comments, otherwise I'll entertain a motion to approve as amended to design. So moved. Can I have a second, please?

[Chair Doug Carr]: And myself, Doug Carr. Yes. The motion passes six to zero. Congratulations team, CDP, Joel. Thank you. Great project. Looking forward to it being in the ground soon. It sounds like it will be pretty damn soon.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Thank you, Chris. Good evening. Thank you. All right. Um, Next up we have minutes. Any edits to the draft minutes dated on 3, 4, 26, and 5, 6, 26? Yes. If not, I'll ask for a motion to accept the minutes.

[Dina Caloggero]: I have my hand up. Go ahead, Dina. Yes, so I read them. And I think one of the sections of the minutes is very confusing. Okay. For the Mystic Avenue project.

[Dina Caloggero]: The minutes I saw. Okay. It states that, so for that project on Leachmere Rug, the building is within the dimensions for the height requirement, but it doesn't meet the minimum stories. My understanding, it's just one story because it's a rug store. So I think the minutes are pretty confusing when you read that.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yeah, I did review these, and I found them accurate. But it could maybe be wordsmithed to make it more clear.

[Dina Caloggero]: Yeah, the building is one story. It's within the height requirement. Yeah, it doesn't meet the minimum stories. And is it MX? I think it's MX1. It's not MX2, right? I'm not sure. Yeah, I just got the map again. See, I did all my homework, and I read them. I think Mr. Gavin with that section is MX one because it's on the.

[Dina Caloggero]: I would say it's a MX one sub district. The building height, the building height, um, does not meet the story height requirement. The building is one story. to meet the need of a rug dealership. If you want, I can send some warning. I didn't know if you wanted me to do that. I figured you wanted to discuss it first. But in my understanding, it's not three stories. It's one story, right?

[Chair Doug Carr]: So we could say that the one-story building does not meet the three-story requirement. Why don't we just add that before the right there? That clarifies that. What else did you have?

[Chair Doug Carr]: MX1, okay. Can you double check that? I believe it is the MX2 sub-district.

[Dina Caloggero]: Okay. See, I think what is confusing, and it might be just on the website alone, and I wasn't on the board at the time when Mystic Avenue was approved, but it's hard on the website to look at the final zoning map.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yeah, we're working on getting an interactive viewer, trying to see if we can.

[Dina Caloggero]: Yeah. I know it's not your fault. I know it's not your staff fault. But when people are looking at it, it's like, we have MX1, we have MX2. And if you look at the final proposal, that area was MX1. I can look it up.

[Chair Doug Carr]: OK. So if we clarify MX1 versus 2, that should be it, Dina, is that correct?

[Chair Doug Carr]: And myself, Todd Carr, yes. The motion passes six to zero. All right. Next up is zoning project and other administrative Updates so we're not talking about really anything substantial here because of what we said at the beginning that we're really looking towards June 3rd for the Boston have to do a deep dive on that. I know there's been a lot of chatter online and in this. questions that people have been just raising just one-on-one here. No group talks, obviously, because that's not allowed. But I don't know if, Danielle, Alicia, you want to give us kind of an outline of where you think this is headed? June 3rd to June 30th is not a lot of time, and we're just dipping our toes in the water. I think I speak for a few people on the board that I'm concerned we can get there by June 30th, given the complexity, and I want to make sure people have a lot of time to be able to chime in on this zoning in a pretty warm, heading towards summer month.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: I'll just go through the timeline. So next week on May 27th, the public hearing to open the Boston Avenue neighborhood corridor district was advertised to be heard. And as because the time that we needed to pop to submit the legal add to the Herald. There still wasn't a backup date chosen, so we had to send that out so that we could hear it if there was no other option. But then, thankfully, we were able to come up to an agreement with City Council to use the June 3rd meeting of this board, which is already scheduled, because we actually don't have any items on it.

[Chair Doug Carr]: So how about that? And Danielle, can you clarify, the meeting on June 3rd, is it just Zoom or is it hybrid? Is it just us or is it city council?

[Director Alicia Hunt]: I would say that it is, the city council has a strong preference for hybrid. So I assume that it was their intention that it be hybrid. At least one of the city councilors needs to be remote, I'm aware of, but anytime we offered an in-person option, we would never say something's only in-person for city council. It would always be hybrid. So that is, I actually assume that it's always hybrid unless President Bears explicitly says they can't do hybrid for some reason.

[Chair Doug Carr]: But is it the, I mean, obviously I couldn't make the meeting last in person. I can make this one in person. Is there a preference that as many people as possible try to be there in person for this meeting on June 3rd?

[Director Alicia Hunt]: I will tell you that I have found that it is easier for a hybrid meeting for members to be in person because it's easier for them to see each other. It's easier for them to sort of understand who wants to raise their hand, who wants to speak first. Um, And when you are remote, you being any one person is remote and other people are in person, you can't see the in-person people really well. And so when you're all remote, you all can just see who's looking like they want to speak. But if you're remote and everybody else is in person, it's really hard to see that and to understand. So it is my personal recommendation. that people come in person. I will say there is no reason why you can't come remotely. If somebody doesn't feel well, or they're going to be out of town, or they just can't make the timing work, then just be remote. Don't feel you have to jump through hoops or fly back to Boston just for this.

[Chair Doug Carr]: No, there are times when I'm not in the state. Could I just see an informal poll who plans to be there in person on June 3rd, just to get a sense of how many people?

[Chair Doug Carr]: The socks are in, but I can find someone who will. So it's most of us. That's good. Okay. That's good enough. And it seems like.

[Page Buldini]: One clarifying question about the 27th purchase protocol. Do you need us to be there?

[Director Alicia Hunt]: I don't know how that question. So this is a question that I've had. We've asked with legal before because there must be a mechanism for, say, the reason a public hearing isn't going forward is because members aren't available and there isn't quorum. And so we have been told that only one member needs to show up and say I'm continuing this to a date and time certain because I do not have quorum here for the meeting. It's like this legal mechanism that's necessary or else what do you do, like re-advertise because your person to make quorum got the flu suddenly?

So we don't need everybody. We need one representative. I mean, if others want to, but it's not a good use of your time.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yeah, so I have one question. I think it's if we, I guess if we continue it, just continue it and don't even open the public hearing, definitely don't need a quorum. But then I was reading President Bayer's email about if we wanted to open it, that we would need a quorum. But I don't think that we even need to open it.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: I think difficulty if you open it and you do anything, then all of a sudden you're triggering mulling roles where people have to read in on it. And you don't want to do that. Yeah, I think we just want to continue it.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: And that's why I suggested no quorums. If there's no quorum, there's no chance of anyone even trying to discuss anything.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Oh, I see his message saying, I think we will need a quorum of both bodies to call the meeting to order. So let me actually clarify with him that you absolutely do not, because it's something we've run into over the years about the local mechanism for if you do not have quorum.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: Yeah, it's like who draws the short straw. When I was in in-person meetings and we had to continue something, it was like, which person on the board drew the short straw? And that was Joe of City Hall.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Yeah, if you can sort that out Alicia with, with Councilor President Bears and just inform us as soon as you know, obviously.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, I will email him and let him know that if he wants to like, talk it through, I'm happy, like, we can do a call, but I'll send him an email. Sorry, I actually, there was a back and forth and I missed this one. I was out for a couple of days. Congratulations, Director Hunt, with your tickets. I had two children graduate from college this past weekend. So I took a few days off to manage all the travel. Thank you.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Wow. Two graduations and the third child went to the junior prom. I did not embarrass him with prom photos on Facebook. But the other two liked being celebrated on social media.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Um, we're not going to talk obviously about the content of the zoning. I would just say that. I am doing a lot of thinking about that. I would urge you to bring to the next meeting what you're looking for, you know, what not only your questions, but changes like, if we have a tight timeframe. and you want changes, we've got to get them on the table at that meeting, whatever they are, you know, so that we can debate them and see it. Go ahead, John, and then we'll do page after. Go ahead, John.

[John Anderson]: Thank you. I'm just concerned when I look at the documents that are available on the website, I don't think this proposal is really ready for public hearings. We have the Innis memo, and we have the maps. But I mean, without the large maps that were handed out at the last meeting, my progress would have been almost impossible. The NS memo in terms of a legal document to amend the zoning is fine. But for someone who's not deep into zoning, it's really hard to make sense out of it. And I don't think we can expect meaningful participation in the public, unless we have some materials for them that enlighten them as to the concept behind this.

A little bit of the history, how we went from one to basically four areas now. I think people will just be very confused and frustrated.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Sorry, I don't know what you mean by from one to four areas.

[SPEAKER_05]: That's right. The area that's being looked at right now, it's now it's three separate zones plus.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: No, it's it's the Boston Corridor. And as with any area, right, there are different parts like you. You don't you don't zone the whole thing to be exactly the same.

[John Anderson]: Right. See, so if I'm confused, think about everyone else. Well, maybe it's just me.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: OK, I just want to try to put some guardrails on. I don't want us to talk about the Boston Ave zoning at all.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: If there are materials you would like to see on the website, you could even just send us an email or have a separate conversation, not in front of the rest of the board. letting us know what materials you'd like to see posted. I personally have not been, and actually maybe this Christian, if you can help me remember, wait, did Christian, I feel like Christian's there. Let's ask the new interns to take a look and say like, hey, I'm confused, here's what should be, what would help me. And then make sure we're getting the right stuff on the website. I think that's the right way to do it.

[John Anderson]: Can I just mention a couple of specific examples? Sure. One would be parking. You look at the table and it talks about how many units, but then there's a little footnote, a tiny little footnote. When you chase down and find the footnote, then it tells you something else except in this area where it's something else again.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: I'm getting nervous with the talk. Okay, we can email me this email me John week. Okay, I want to talk about anything right?

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Okay, discuss it with me or Danielle on a phone call or in person. Outside of this meeting, that would be acceptable. Give us the examples then. Okay.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: And I'm going to try to work on being able to show things like graphically. trying to work with our GIS manager or seeing what I can do to help with that. That'd be wonderful.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: I'm not offended. I'm just trying to keep everybody legal.

[Page Buldini]: Real quick. June 1st, Monday, that is at Breed Hall. That's a community meeting about Boston Avenue Corridor as well.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Yes, that is if you know people who really want to have a conversation and want to have things explained to them in detail and discussion, they should come June 1st. That is so we can like really help the public understand things. If you want to be there or watch it, you are welcome to do it. But it Please, I think I'm just going to put it this way. Please don't express your personal opinions at that meeting because of the risk of it being some sort of open meeting violation. Keep your opinions for the public hearing. But it is a great place where if you say, well, I know this person is going to be interested. They're confused. They're not understanding. They can come, and because it's a public meeting that's to educate the public, we're willing to go back and forth with them and have dialogue and try to make sure people understand what's going on.

[Chair Doug Carr]: And, Alicia, that's at the church at Towson on Winthrop Street. At what time on the 1st?

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Darned if I know. And also I was asked to create a zoom for it. Hold on. I think it's six to eight. Is it on the public calendar yet? It was on your Instagram. That's how I found it. I don't know who that was. This is why we have wonderful staff. I don't personally do everything. You can't see it's at six o'clock though. Yep. Okay, then I am going to make that Zoom for six o'clock and I am going to send it to the comms office.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Right. Yeah, I think I'm going to attend that one because I think I want to see what the conversation is too, because two minutes per person here is not a lot of time. And I think I'd like to see that dialogue.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: I'll be there. I'm going to go. I think we're starting to find that it's better that some people need to discuss. That's a proper setting for a step of back and forth and a discussion and help people understand and flush out individual concerns. And then we encourage them to either, if after the end of that, they have something that they want to, make as a comment or a change. We encourage them to either write it down on one of the cards we bring, or to come to the public hearing and voice their concerns to the board. But the benefit, so for example, for the last one, we didn't have a ton of people at it, but like the 10 or 12 people who were there really were abutters and had the real opportunity to have a conversation and really understand things better. And most of them walked out of there no longer really having comments because they walked in just not really understanding. And that was their concern. And once they understood, they were like, oh, you know, okay, we get this.

[John Anderson]: So. May I ask how is this June 1st meeting being publicized? Ask the comms department.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: It's on my face, my Instagram. It's on Instagram. I'm sure it's going to be in the robocalls because that is the number one that we're finding that people find out about these. And the communications office manages the robocall system and they are managing the outreach for this.

[John Anderson]: Will the robocalls only cover people who live in the district or would include the whole city?

[Director Alicia Hunt]: What we've done in the past for some of these others is that we did two things. As you know, the mayor does sort of a robocall with all the upcoming things, and those go to the whole city always. This will absolutely be in that in the mayor's newsletter. Then they will do a more targeted robocall that is just a message saying this meeting is coming up. And those they usually do in a more targeted area, it wouldn't be just the zone, it would be a buffer around the zone. That's what they did for Medford Square to make sure that those people really understood that this was happening. That's great.

[Chair Doug Carr]: All right, any other logistical comments or questions going forward? No content, just logistics. I do want to have one follow-up comment regarding Tufts. We're going to obviously be getting into it with them, and I think this was a positive step forward tonight and in general. I did have a separate conversation with Rocco, which is not private, and I told him that They're bringing to this board basically 100% construction documents, completed buildings, and submitting them as if we could change them. And it's not really the right thing to do, because they had to scramble. They've got to be breaking ground. They've got this price. This building is ready to go. So imagine if everyone did that.

just how wasteful that would be, the number of changes we've made to buildings, massing, shifting of buildings. It's much harder to do that when you have several hundred construction documents already done and you're submitting something as if it's a concept design. So I did ask him, and this is part of a larger conversation with a master plan from Tufts, institutional master plan, but also starting the conversation earlier so that we can have these conversations and not get into a situation where they have to make expensive changes down the road because they have pushed it. They've basically given us a finished product at the very beginning of our review process. It's just not the right way to approach projects.

[Senior Planner Danielle Evans]: No private developer would ever advance designs to that degree. It's very presumptuous. And I have some other adjectives I would use. But I won't. And hopefully they can be better about this.

[Chair Doug Carr]: And I ask for that. In the spirit of cooperation and rebuilding relationship, which has been badly damaged the last couple of years for obvious reasons, that would go a long way to saying, hey, you know about this for a couple of years. Show us a rendering when it's truly a concept design, not when it's done. This one was done when we presented. Good job.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Let's hope that's the case. That's what I want to see. I think it's a reasonable request. But the next project will be the test, I suppose, and the conversation about master plan, about I think he offered to

[Page Buldini]: presented this board once a year uh you know what's coming a sneak preview which is a good start too but there's a lot to talk to go ahead page um was there ever and i know the working group you guys meet which i'm so appreciative was there ever a conversation where the cd board or the city councilors asked if tufts had visions or i know that you guys have been working hard to have they been receptive to share you know i'm sure alicia and danielle you have to just so that we have a hint, like, I know that there's been asking about their plans, their master plan, but.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: They claim they don't have one. There's two things that's come out of that. One is, Christian actually did some looking that we can't under Dover, under state law, there's been case law saying we can't require them to provide a master plan. Boston is accepted from Chapter 40A, and so their rules are different. So Boston can, but we legally can't. However, what they have offered, and I don't think this was as well articulated as I would like, is that they would plan to do an annual meeting with the Community Development Board. where they would come in and say, this is what we think we're going to come forward with over the coming year. These are the projects that are on our radar that we are developing to bring in front of you. These are projects that are on our wish list that we do not have any funding for. But if the funding miraculously appears, as it does in universities like this pool, then we will bring it forward. But we have no funding, but they're on our wish list. I think that's what this board wants to know. And they would also sort of say, and by the way, here's an update on things you've seen in the past. So they have been doing a public meeting, mostly every year, started during the pandemic, where they do a construction update for the general public. This would not be that, because that is about what's going to go into construction. In theory, anything that's on that presentation, you already know about. This would be, these are the things that we've asked an architect, a designer, a landscape designer to start working on so we can bring plans to your board.

I think that with their wish list of things that are unfunded may be pretty darn close to a master plan. I agree. Because they keep saying to me, they don't have plans 10 years out. They have a wish list, but that wish list is not plans.

[Page Buldini]: I've heard similar things. Just creating it, I think, is possible. So I'm hopeful.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: Yeah. I think that that would really improve. And I thought that would really help sort of set a tone and sort of help the board know what's coming. It would help the public know what's coming. The reality is, I don't think they really did not know that they were going to bring this pool forward until the funder showed up with money, and then they were full speed ahead. I don't know exactly when that happened.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Alicia, I agree with that. But that funder didn't come forward in March. That funder came forward at least eight months ago. Yeah. And if we had seen a rendering then, we could have given input then informally just to say, hey, guys, it looks like a prison. Maybe we should think about this.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: They have this weird thing about how they want to announce things. Right. And so like they gave us that their president gave the mayor a heads up. It was coming. I heard from Rocco a little while later, like verbally, that there was this project coming that I said to them, is this something that I like? How secret is this? He's like, please don't let your interns know because they all go to Tufts. It was confidential. Like, so and how they announce things, right? When they have donors, they have to make their big, fancy announcement the way their resource development office wants them to make their big, fancy announcement. It's part of fundraising, especially if it's just a lead donor and they need additional donors.

[Chair Doug Carr]: Yeah, it's really about communication and transparency and it's just don't keep things secret as long as you can to make our process and their process better. Imagine if we had a real problem and they couldn't break ground in three weeks, which is what I think they're gonna do, or damn close to it, that we would look bad, they would look bad, and it's not a positive thing, and I just wanna avoid that for them and us. Right, I got a good project out of this and I'm.

[Director Alicia Hunt]: I'm pleased they need to push back on resource development sometimes and just say, like, you know, you want to do a fancy announcement when you have a fully designed rendering. But, but we're not, but we're going to miss all your milestones if we don't start getting our legal permissions earlier.

[Chair Doug Carr]: I personally believe that had the conversation started earlier in the dorm, I think they were in a similar condition. They had pricing. They had drawings that were done. They did not want to make any changes. It was easy to make changes on a. you know, a couple, 10, 20,000, 30,000 square foot building versus something that's 10 stories and has geotech and everything, you know, figured out and been priced by a contractor. Like, we could have had an earlier conversation happen. There may have been a chance, but it was too late once that conversation started and they just, My, my personal opinion is that they just, they couldn't make changes because they were going to miss student housing. You have to deliver it at the end of July or it's game over, you know, for whatever year it is. They couldn't take a month or two to change it because they would have missed their window and they never would have caught up. So let's, let's work together with them to find a better path forward.

[Chair Doug Carr]: And myself, Doug Carr. Yes. Thank you all. Christian, great luck. We'll hope for some viewing on the other side of the table.

Page Buldini total time: 2.37 minutes total words: 440