AI-generated transcript of City Council Committee of the Whole 05-26-26

[Zac Bears]: Medford City Council Committee of the Whole, May 26th, 2026 is called to order. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Kelly? Aye. Councilor Leming? Present. Councilor Mullain? Present. Councilor Scarpelli? Present. Councilor Tseng? Present. Vice President Lazzaro? Present. And President Pierce?

[Zac Bears]: Present, seven present, none absent. Meeting is called to order. Action and discussion items 26095, submitted by Office of Planning, Development and Sustainability. Presentation on the Wellington Transformation Study. And we have our economic development planner, Kayla here with us. So I will recognize her to introduce the presentation.

[SPEAKER_02]: Hi, Councilors. Thank you all for taking the time in this busy season to hear a presentation from our consultants on the Wellington Transformation Study. The consultant team has an introduction prepared so I won't spend too much time, but just to give you a quick background, the study kicked off in the summer of last year and it considers the future of Wellington here. the Wellington area in terms of design and connectivity and economic development and how it can grow and change as a neighbourhood. And we are in the final stages of this study after engagement and outreach and focus groups and a variety of sub-studies that we covered today. And so today, we ask that as you engage with the presentation, to highlight any points to us that don't sit well or areas where you might have concerns or questions. And we will use that as input to make the final rounds of edits and revisions. And what will be produced is a report which will guide future zoning questions. And so with that said, I will turn it over to agency. I can introduce Rhiannon, sorry, and Justina and Wallace as the presenters.

[Zac Bears]: Great. The mic should be on.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amazing. Wonderful. Hi, everyone. Can you hear me OK? OK. All right. Hi. My name is Rhiannon Sinclair. I am a planner with a firm called Agency Landscape and Planning. And today, I am going to pull up a slide deck on my computer to walk through the Wellington Transformation Study. So just give me one second. OK. All right. So again, my name is Rhiannon. I work for a firm called Agency Landscape and Planning. We had the joy of working on the comprehensive plan together with the city. We're joined by Innes Associates, who has been doing a lot of zoning work for the city, as well as worked with us on the comprehensive plan. Bowman Associates, they've done a lot of transportation work in the region, as well as in Medford. And RKG Associates. who does a lot of economic development work and will show you a little bit more about what they've done as well. But first, just to give you a brief overview of this project. So the Medford Comprehensive Plan articulated as a recommendation that the city should better understand the various neighborhoods that make up the city of Medford and develop more kind of physical and more specific recommendations to guide future change or growth. And so this project was funded by the Gaming Commission in support of really trying to better understand the impacts of the development of the Encore Casino. But what it has done is enabled us to think critically about that recommendation from the comprehensive plan to help guide the future of the neighborhood as community needs change, as development happens, and as trends have evolved. It also means that we've been able to work together with the community, key stakeholders, as well as city leadership to understand what the pain points are in the Wellington neighborhood today and to make decisions or to give you recommendations that help guide you towards change. And then last but certainly not least, it's a chance to take many studies and a lot of projects and work in this area or places that have impacted this area around land use and zoning, economic development and mobility to ensure that this plan is unified and both connects and supports what is already a thriving neighborhood. So I'm not gonna go into too much detail around our schedule, but we started this work back in last June, and we've been working over the past year to go about those conversations, to really understand those past studies, and to develop this vision study. And so what I'm gonna share with you now is effectively a summary draft of that study. Okay, so that we're all on the same page, the Wellington transformation area that we're looking at doesn't encompass the entire Wellington neighborhood because we're not looking to change everything. What we're really focused on are the places that are supporting commercial uses today, the places that are supporting transportation uses today that we need to think about now before change happens to them when we don't have the ability to affect that change. And so this area includes a lot of spaces that either have recently been bought or sold, whether it include the Budweiser Distribution Center. We have a lot of retail that currently exists in this area, like the Wegmans, Stop and Shop, Aldi, as well as a series of smaller retail and food establishments. We have Station Landing, which is a more recent development within the area, as well as Wellington Station and a lot of the commercial and residential uses just north of Revere Beach Parkway. We also, working with Bowman, looked to Mystic Valley Parkway, the Fellows Way, and Revere Beach Parkway to understand where there are opportunities to alleviate some of the pressures on those spaces. So much of this you likely already know, but here is a brief snapshot of what we understand about Medford as a whole. You have quite a diverse community. So one in three residents identify as people of color. Somerville and Belmont actually have very similar demographic profiles that you have. You also have a really interesting growing cohort of young professionals, people 25 to 34 who are who maybe don't want to live directly in the city of Boston, but want to live someplace that they have options to be able to get into the city for work, and to be able to have space or connection to nature close by. With that surge in 25 to 34 year olds, it also means household size is decreasing. So there are, you're growing in the number of housing units, the number of people living in each household is going down, and that's for a variety of reasons. And then last, but certainly not least, you are experiencing a lot of growth in the number of high-earning households. So people are making a lot more money than they did 10, 20 years ago, even with inflation. So the key opportunities, and these opportunities have really started to evolve into goals for us, are to encourage growth of the various industry sectors that are unique to Medford, and I'll show you in a moment what some of those industry sectors are that we're looking at. Places that we think the Wellington neighborhood might be uniquely positioned to support. We also think this is a really nice moment to lean into what we understand about Medford's residents today and how Medford's resident population is changing by supporting a balance of housing and jobs to create that complete neighborhood that places like Medford Square and other spaces are really already supporting. We also think this is a really nice moment in every single conversation we had with residents who live here and people who come here on a frequent basis to really think about the, I forget the name, but the rotary at the center of it all oftentimes has a loving name that is labeled in Google Maps as just a really challenging space and a challenge for pedestrians, bicyclists, and cars. And then last but certainly not least, and this was at the core of pretty much every conversation we had with residents, was this idea of planning or designing for vibrancy and comfort. People want to have places that feel good. They want to be in places where they feel included. They want to have places that are comfortable. And I think there are many ingredients of that in Wellington, but holding it together is a critical kind of moment for us to be planning for. So I'm going to briefly walk through some of what the engagement, some of what those conversations included. We had what are called focus groups or focus conversations with the mayor, with the community development board, who we met with I believe three or four times. The MBTA, since they have a pretty large amount of holdings within this area. Various developers who are either actively involved in Medford or looking to be actively involved. Medford City staff, the public school system, as well as residents who live directly in the neighborhood. So we had a series of conversations with them, two focus groups and 24 participants. And then also broader conversations with Medford residents, which included over 50 participants in two open houses. Those were those kind of science fairs that we had. And for both the neighborhood resident conversations as well as the broader Medford resident conversations, we took advantage of the city's robocall process to be able to make sure that we're letting people know this is happening so they can opt in or opt out of participating. What we learned from many of those conversations were that traffic and transportation are pain points. It's really hard to get around in the neighborhood as well as outside of it. And it's also, and a lot of residents in the neighborhood shared this, that many different roadways are owned by different entities and that makes it really challenging to manage. We know, and people talked a lot about how important open space is to them, but we know that open space is abundant. We also know that those open spaces can be really, really hard to access or to get to. We learned that other challenges about sewage, water lines, and storm water resulting from development must be mitigated. While I think city staff really lead in this space, they really care deeply about making sure we can manage water usage and water systems. It was something that came up a little bit in conversations with residents, too, who are experiencing some of that flooding, which you can see on that bottom left image, just some of that kind of like daily inland flooding experience. And then we also learned that parking is definitely a challenge here, especially the challenge of resident versus non-resident parking, so making sure that any investments in more of a destination here support residents first. So here are just a few images of some of the experiences or challenges that folks articulated. But people also came to the conversations with a lot of ideas. There were many conversations about what it means to really embrace the idea of this being a transit-oriented community and providing more housing close to the T as well as, you know, supporting that housing with public realm and open space amenities. There were many conversations about, and we had a really fun exercise in our second workshop where we asked people to take blocks, building blocks, and actually build what they imagined their city's future land use could be. A lot of people talked about this idea of adding density and optimizing lots in underutilized areas to support more folks coming in, but also to think about affordability. There were a lot of opportunities articulated again about transit oriented development as well as connections between neighborhoods and open space. Some conversations really centered on what is now very much a kind of back of house experience behind a lot of the strip malls. It's currently a wetland. It could really be a special moment, but today it is closed off, it's fenced off, but it provides what is a very, very important role in keeping flooding from happening in the Wellington neighborhood. And then last, again, this idea of vibrant and welcoming that a lot of people would like to see this idea of a kind of supportive community in the neighborhood through better kind of communications of what exists as well as new programming. And so with all of this feedback that came from residents and came from those focused conversations, we created a vision together with the city's planning group that Wellington is a gateway into the city that Medford is proud of. That vision also includes this idea that it's a thriving neighborhood with a vibrant and comfortable public realm that people want to be in, and it supports many different experiences for residents and visitors. And so there were a couple critical pieces to that, one that came from the CD board, this idea of walkable and bikeable mixed-use neighborhoods. The idea of balancing retail and amenities for residents and neighbors, again, another, you know, it was something that was discussed by residents about how do we think about the tax base and supporting and growing that. CD board definitely reinforced those points. We talked about this idea of pairing development with public space, public realm improvements to improve mobility, to expand park space, and to make those spaces high quality. And then last but certainly not least, let's not continue to build housing that is only one bedroom or studio apartments for the 25 and 34-year-olds, but let's start to build more housing that supports people at many different stages of their lives. And so briefly, just to touch on the transportation opportunities, we looked to and compared Wellington to a couple different places that are nearby, Central Square in Cambridge, Assembly Square in Somerville, and then Medford Square here in Medford, and started to articulate what it would look like to take what is now a very, very large block size in Wellington and make that block size a little bit smaller to support some of what makes or what can make a more pleasant experience to walk or to bike or to get around. And so we also paired that with a better, kind of like deeper understanding of where people currently use vehicles today versus not. As you can see, Assembly Square, about 50% of people who live in Assembly Square don't use vehicles to get around. But when you look to west of Wellington Circle, about 20% of people do not use a vehicle to get around. And then east of Wellington Circle, so again, that really centered space where you have a lot of people living close to the T, many more people are using public transportation because it's close by, because they don't have to cross over the circle to get to those transportation options.

[Unidentified]: Oops.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay. And so adding more blocks adds more intersections. Why would we add more intersections? Intersections can be a problem, right? Shorter blocks, clearer street hierarchy can mean more options for getting around. Yes, keeping blocks larger does enable people to move through more quickly, especially in a car, but when you create these kind of smaller moments internal to that large street infrastructure, you create more spaces for people to stop and stay, you have more opportunities to connect buses and to connect vehicles to their destinations, and then you also reduce the amount of energy and the amount of volume that has to be on those bigger streets by distributing that across smaller streets. All right, so the market analysis. This is my favorite section, because it digs into a lot of what is going to drive what could happen here in the short term, and what might need to be a longer term investment, and then things that we used to think might be possible here, but maybe are no longer a future for us. And so the current reality of Medford, and I shared this at the very beginning, is that home prices are quite high. There are fewer homes for sale in the city of Medford, there are very high interest rates nationally, and it's reduced turnover. It's made it really difficult for people to buy a house. Home prices actually are much higher in the region and have grown at a higher pace. So Medford is experiencing this really big boom in cost for housing. Simultaneously with high home prices, you're experiencing a lot of actual kind of strong job access. So you have, Medford has healthcare and education sectors that have been stable. They're strong. They aren't necessarily growing at a big pace, but they're staying as they are. And then other sectors are experiencing slower growth. So that table or that chart on the right-hand side shows you four quadrants, strong but declining. You really don't have many job sectors that are declining in Medford. But you do have a lot in the green that's strong and advancing. So those educational services, healthcare, social assistance, retail, trade, construction, information, professional services, and tech services. And then that bottom left, weak and declining. more of the kind of blue-collar types of jobs like manufacturing, wholesale trade, as well as more kind of white-collar jobs that are declining kind of across the board nationally. Finance and insurance, real estate services, more admin and support services, those are also declining. And then accommodation and food services, it's kind of in the center. It's not growing, but it's not weakening either. What else has happened is there is a cooled life sciences market. So the lab market expanded really, really fast. Everyone wanted to be part of it in the 2010s, into the 2020s. It expanded too quickly. There are many labs that are currently sitting vacant, empty in the city of Somerville, in the city of Cambridge. you know, both good and bad. Medford was able to kind of miss a lot of that because you weren't quite ready for the lab market. And that means that this is a really nice moment to reestablish a new hub to think about what types of investments are right for Medford and what will be growing. So, What do we see as the near-term possibilities? There is strong demand for multifamily rental. That will continue. People cannot afford to buy houses, interest rates are too high, and so rental housing is the way to go. We know, too, that the office market which a lot of what is north of Revere Beach Parkway is currently office commercial. The office market has more space than what tenants need. It is making it easier to be a tenant because you can ask for lower per square footage costs, but it also means that the office market is cooling down. It's not really a space that a lot of folks are creating. And there's also, what's interesting is this is pretty specific to Medford, there's a stable retail market despite economic uncertainty. And a lot of that has to do with the audience that lives here and the change in the audience that lives here. You have younger folks who have a lot of disposable income, they might not have children, and they have higher incomes than what many folks who used to live here have. So you have a stable retail market that could, there is a chance to grow that. at least in the near term. So then in the long term, a possibility there is that rental demand will likely stay high, especially if ownership continues to be limited, and depending on what we see from the kind of like national trend and federal government, what will happen there will dictate where we go with rental versus ownership. What's interesting is that the industrial market will continue to remain in demand, and the industrial market is large and captures a lot of different things, including things like distribution, but that is an in-demand space. It will continue to be in demand, especially as redevelopment in cities happens to create more housing. Last but certainly not least is Tuftec, which until we did this study, I didn't actually know what Tuftec was, so I'll define it for you all. Tuftec is essentially companies that are in industries that are making what are called complex physical products. What is a complex physical product? It is essentially anything within advanced manufacturing, clean energy, manufacturing of medical devices. A lot of tough tech is growing because it is a space that requires both research and development as well as that initial product development stage. So tough tech is growing and they really just need kind of more flexible spaces to be able to make that happen. So they don't really ask for a lot. They don't need the lab spaces that life sciences needed. They really need shells. And so that's what we're, when we think about what is on the planning horizon, what's on the market horizon, that's what we're looking to. So when we plan for tomorrow, We have three future scenarios, I'm gonna go through those scenarios and then I'm gonna share a little bit more about how we consider the kind of market demands against what you want to invest in. So Wellington today is an interesting, strong commercial, strong industrial defined area. This identity doesn't exist in many other places within Medford. So you have about 44% residential, 35% commercial, and 21% industrial. They are really concentrated in sectors where we see limited growth happening. And so Medford as a whole might be strong in certain sectors. Wellington itself has an opportunity to reconnect to and reconsider the sectors that it decides to invest in. And so we looked at three potential futures, the first being this idea of a commercial center, so digging into, leaning into the near-term possibility of retail demand, while also simultaneously considering the future of industry and tough tech and housing. The second that we looked at was an industrial node, so repurposing commercial spaces for light industrial use, plus creating some space for mixed-use housing. And then the last one was, let's go all in on housing. Let's go all in on the near-term opportunity to build housing where it's needed most. And so the one that a lot of folks in many of our conversations really landed on or really connected to was the commercial center because it gave us the strength of the near-term possibilities while simultaneously setting ourselves up for a strong long-term future. And so this is a little bit about what, this is just a kind of initial mapping of what that could look like. Essentially, you know, really leaning into preserving industrial spaces where those industrial spaces and zones occur. preserving some critical commercial uses, like the site where you have the Wegmans and other uses there, while also considering new mixed-use development and a little bit more density on the site that currently holds some more strip mall developments, but really protects and turns the wetland space into more of a destination. And then also simultaneously thinking about north of Revere Beach Parkway as part of the neighborhood fabric, part of the housing fabric that already exists and turning a lot of that over into housing and then bringing more housing close to the T since we know so many people who live close to the T already take advantage of the T and won't be contributing a lot in terms of vehicle use. And so one example of that, if you've ever been to Watertown's Arsenal Yards recently, it's a really interesting example of that adaptive reuse of buildings that already exist while simultaneously creating mixed-use new development that complements what's there, but also stepping up away from the neighborhood so it doesn't feel like a kind of big, big challenging space. So I wanna talk a little bit more about... What does that mean for the types of investments that we're making? I think that this is something that you all understand quite well, but we've used this a lot in our conversations with the public about how cities bring in and how they spend money. So cities bring in money through things like local taxes, fees, and other payments, and they spend money by providing municipal services for residents like public safety, education, public works governance. And so this is very simply put, and this doesn't capture all of the ways that you generate money, like grants and like other forms of revenue, but what you can say is revenues to the city minus the costs that the city has to pay out equals the impact, the fiscal impact of development if a development comes online. If a new investment is made, if it's a police station, it has a different fiscal impact than a housing development. Same with a grocery store. Each one has a different fiscal impact. And so continuing with that simple way of applying fiscal impact, we looked at all of those different land uses that we articulated for that commercial center to better understand which one has the best impact on the city. And so, again, this is just looking purely at the revenues that each one provides in dollars per acre per year, minus the costs, and then the blue is the net impact. So, as you can see, you have your single unit, your single detached units are providing the least amount of net impact. Your townhomes are providing a little bit more. Your condos are providing significantly more because you have a lot of density in one space. Multifamily is a little bit lower. And then when you enter into, so housing provides some net impact. When you look at things like office, life science, industrial, or retail, that's where you have significantly higher net impact on the city because those spaces aren't taking advantage of city services in the same way that housing is. However, these impacts are entirely based on full occupancy and use. And so what we know is things like life science, there isn't the demand for that. So anything that you invest in, any life science opportunities, will be challenging to commit to, challenging to be able to have full occupancy of. And so while it does provide a very large amount of net positive impact, it's currently not feasible in this environment. So what we did was we took that net fiscal impact and the least feasible, or sorry, the lowest impact is on the left-hand side, the highest impact is on the right-hand side, and then market feasibility, same thing, the least feasible from a market perspective from that, you know, what near-term versus what long-term can this support versus more feasible, we mapped that in a different way to say, It's not just about what provides the most money to the city, but what will actually commit that money to the city now and in the future. And as you can see, the things that provide the highest net fiscal impact aren't always the things that are the most market feasible. But there are places like in industrial uses, retail uses, and market family rental that could provide more of that positive net fiscal impact on the city. And I think I also want to caveat this with just a really important point, which is that you should never go all in on one thing. This is always a moment to think about all of these in an ecosystem or a neighborhood condition. And so last but certainly not least, we've shared with you a little bit about kind of how we got to this idea of a commercial node, and then what does it mean from a kind of fiscal impact market feasibility perspective. There's also the point about design guidance. So it's really, really critical that if you are going to transform this neighborhood, that we commit to a series of recommendations about how this neighborhood will look and feel. People have already said they want it to be vibrant and comfortable and so a few of what we've shared and what we will include in our report will identify some of the ways the city can help get there. So design guidance is that description of the look feel and quality of a neighborhood. It is meant to respond to what people want to see there, how they get to school, how they get to work, how they gather, to ensure that it's creating spaces that people feel safe and welcome regardless of the way that they're moving around. So design guidance is not required by zoning, and it's really meant to be suggestions to support movement forward. But it can be a really important carrot when you're in conversations with future developers, when you are advocating for the future of this wonderful city to ensure that we are fitting any investments into the existing community fabric and transforming this neighborhood. And as you can see on the bottom page, these are just a few photos from, you know, getting around the Wellington neighborhood. There are variable experiences today. And so the way that the design guidance section of this report will be organized is around four different topics. The first is this idea of transitions. So it's really important that when we do consider future development, that we consider building heights that transition up away from the neighborhood, that support the amount of development that needs to happen for those projects to pencil out while simultaneously protecting the sunlight needs and character and look and feel that the people who live there or work there currently enjoy. The second is this idea of connectivity and access, being really thoughtful about all of the ways that people can move around, whether they're walking, rolling, or driving, that we're making sure that there are those protected spaces for those things to occur, because today, that is where much of the conflict exists. Third is to really think critically about neighborhood resilience. The wetland can do a lot of that. It can act as a sponge park, which will be so, so critical. If you've ever been to the development north of Alewife Station, really great example of these series of boardwalks that connect into the Minuteman Trail while simultaneously acting as kind of a sponge to collect rainwater and to protect those developments from flooding. But to encourage that neighborhood-wide resilience both through water, but also through energy is really important. And then the last one, prioritizing vibrancy. And so making decisions about block sizes, creating spaces that are only for pedestrians will make this, will really set this place apart and create a place that everyone can be excited about. And so I've gone through a lot in a relatively short period of time. So I welcome any questions that you might have. Happy to revisit any slides and talk about any of them.

[Zac Bears]: Great. Thank you so much for the detailed presentation and for all the work that you put into this. I certainly have a few questions, but I want to go to my fellow Councilors first. The lines are lighting up. So I will start with Councilor Tseng, then Councilor Scarpelli, then Councilor Callahan, then Councilor Mullane.

[Justin Tseng]: Thank you. I want to thank you and your team for doing so much work on this. I know I was at one of the open houses and I chatted your team off, their ears off for like an hour and a half, just walking block by block and intersection by intersection through it. I think a lot of the issues raised here. So I, for context, I've grown up there. I spent most of my life in that neighborhood and When I hear things like flooding, that's something that you never hear anyone talk about, but it's such a real lived problem there, and I really, really appreciate that. That you're seeing those kind of... the things that show that there really is listening and feedback. So I'm really appreciative of that. There are a lot of ideas in here that I'm fascinated about and I'm, just as a Councilor, I'm curious about how we bring that into fruition. I mean, I think the first one being small blocks. Wellington can be a really daunting neighborhood to walk around. I'm curious with small blocks who, Like, in other cities where that's happened, what kind of steps do we take to get there? What kind of cooperation is there with private property owners?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. Yeah. So the Wellington neighborhood includes, especially the places that we're talking about, include a lot of private property owners. And so the planning group has already been in contact conversation with a lot of those property owners to start some of those conversations about, you know, what are your future plans? How do we support you? What we really want to start with is this idea of creating a land use map that really supports or articulates where the best blocks might happen. Bowman had done a transportation study, thinks critically about where the best intersections happen. We heard a lot from a neighbor who was really unhappy with the lack of signalized crossings for her to be able to walk or drive from her neighborhood to get to the Fellsway. And so it's really going to start with, this is the idealized plan, and then sharing that idealized plan with private property owners and saying, this is a negotiation. How do we help you get to what you need while simultaneously helping the city get to what it needs? It is all private property owners and so we tried in the plans that we crafted to articulate those roadways as much as possible where parcel lines exist but there are moments that would need to connect through.

[Justin Tseng]: That's helpful to know that you guys are already in conversations and are being as detailed as possible. I think a lot of people do feel like something could be done with the strip mall. Obviously there's private property rights there too. Do you know what the conversations with the property owners in that neighborhood have been like?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think Kayla might be able to speak to that a little bit better than I can.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'm still here. So the strip mall that we're thinking of is the Stop and Shop Plaza, the Fellsway Plaza. Yes. Yeah, okay. Right now, the property owner who owns this plaza, they hold this style of strip mall style developments across the eastern seaboard Connecticut, Western Mass, and they aren't immediately looking to change their business model. But they were intrigued by what neighbors were saying in this study and want to, you know, stay informed of what the city envisions for this area. So I think in that, in that statement that they gave that they want to stay informed, that there's potentially a potential that they might sell. But I don't, you know, that's being optimistic. But as of right now, what they have said is that they intend to operate as usual, but are intrigued.

[Justin Tseng]: Thanks. Thanks for the update, Kayla. I had a question also about Wellington Circle, which I think our residents lovingly call the Super Collider.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the word I was looking for that I can't remember. Yep, Super Collider. MassThought is... I kept wanting to call it the centrifuge, but that was not right. It also feels like a centrifuge.

[Justin Tseng]: That's actually really funny. MassThought has released, I think, a vision study for the Wellington Circle on area, and I don't know if it's super clear whether or not that is actually going to happen, but how does that impact the study that you guys have done?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so Bowman reviewed that study and assumed because MassDOT has, you know, a lot of control over that space, assumed that that would still come to fruition. And so a lot of their work was, you know, really trying to think about how do we make it as pleasant an experience for people trying to get over or get through as the focus of their work. And so a lot of their kind of work looking at, you know, where do those block intersections happen? How do we, you know, create those positive pedestrian connections? We're about, you know, responding to a study that has already been done that MassDOT has approved.

[Justin Tseng]: Hopeful to know, thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sadly it will not go, I don't think it'll go away anytime soon. It is an important regional connector, but there are ways to make it a little bit more pleasant to add things like appropriate shade to increase the, to increase spaces for people to have shelter between them and cars. So there are those kind of like small moments that you can do that have a bigger impact.

[Justin Tseng]: And of course, crossing the Fells Way, as you said, is a tough challenge nowadays, especially for people who are trying to catch the bus. So I think that would be a huge improvement. Something that I talked with your team about a while ago was the, well, they had mentioned opening up the wetlands. Yes. And I'm curious what that looks like. Because we talked about the need for more connectivity to green spaces, both McDonald Park and the wetlands. Of course, there's, I think there's industrial ground around it that might need cleaning. What does that process look like and what's realistic for the neighborhood?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I would have to look at the specific regulations about wetlands, but what, you know, the benefit of living in a place like Massachusetts has meant that they are really, really thoughtful about protecting these places because they are decreasing supply and they provide critical habitat and critical ecosystem and water function for cities. And so it would be really, really difficult for someone to try to develop it, which means that it very likely will stay as it is if no one intervenes. And so that's part of the reason why we're so keen on this idea of making it more of a space that can provide education, that it can provide recreational opportunities, and that it can also serve those kind of ecosystem and water functions. What it would look like, I think, would mean, because it's privately held, would mean, again, that kind of conversation, that negotiation with property owners to really think about how do we make those investments in this place. There are many options that are available to the city. One would be for the city to try to purchase the wetland outright and to create it into a park itself. Another would be to work with private developers to kind of co-develop it into a park or to create that carrot or incentive for those private developers to make that investment. But there have been a lot of really good examples of when you have many, many property owners that are developing around a park, park space increases real estate values, it brings more people to them, that you can really make a good case for those private property owners to make those investments.

[Justin Tseng]: Thanks. And I think the, I think this is my last question, but it's really interesting to hear about the vision for different housing options and different industrial use options as well. Tough tech in particular is really interesting to me because I think it's something that Somerville and Cambridge have really started investing in. It seems like it's doing quite well over there. Of course, I think the presentation acknowledges with all of this comes kind of challenges for affordability, a really hot rental market as well that we're both simultaneously trying to take advantage of, but I think we also have to serve our residents by Promising affordability as well. What do you think that balance looks like moving forward? What recommendations would you have for the zoning with regards to affordability and public benefits like green spaces, parks? What should be required versus recommended?

[SPEAKER_00]: That is a great question. I might have to deflect that question a little bit just because I don't have NS here to really dig into their understanding of the zoning code, but what I do know is that the the state of Massachusetts has made it abundantly clear that housing is a priority, because they know that when you build housing, when you alleviate a lot of the pressures that people feel to be able to access housing, you can make housing kind of naturally affordable. By opening up more housing, by having more supply, you can continue to have housing, the newer housing to support people who want to spend money on shiny new things, while simultaneously providing more spaces for people to be able to access housing that maybe are less concerned with the shiny new things or can't afford the shiny new things. I would say as an example of that kind of like natural affordable housing moment is Medford might have a lot more young people living here. and household sizes are decreasing, but part of the reason household sizes are decreasing is because you also have a growing senior population. And so that senior population is staying in their houses that many of them have four to six bedrooms. And I think a lot of people that we met with, a lot of people we had conversations with, said that they would like to see more options for them to have to stay in place, but also not have to care for their large yards, would love to be able to see a family move into their space that wants to grow and live in Medford, but they just don't have that option today. And so that is a very clear kind of opportunity to think about how you can support housing production, keep a lot of the residents that love Medford here in Medford while also simultaneously making it affordable or giving more choice to people who want to move here, start a family or grow their family but can't today because there are no houses for sale for them to get. And because that demand is so high, people can make their houses more expensive.

[Unidentified]: Yeah.

[George Scarpelli]: Thank you. Councilor Scarpelli. Thank you for the presentation. It's exciting when you look at the transformation of possibilities. The only thing that I've said this over and over when we started new zoning is really doing the work to really get the neighbors and the residents that are there that are a pretty tight-knit neighborhood and getting them involved in the process. I know that most of us that know the process, we're invested. We understand. But just today, I contacted five people that are pretty influential in those neighborhoods. They knew nothing about what we're doing in Wellington. So this is something that was shouted from the mountaintops when we started our rezoning. really took us back months and months because we didn't do what was needed at the beginning. Now this is great, but to get out to the residents that it impacts the most, the people that are there, I mean the plan sounds great and it's exciting, but it's scary when all of a sudden it's dropped on you. I'm sure you know that.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh yes, absolutely.

[George Scarpelli]: And that's why I ask our community development board and our community development team to really be proactive in starting that dialogue, because this isn't, looking at the process and being part of the process is exciting, and it could be something that everybody champions together, as long as everybody's heard, right? But when people that are, you know, I'll give you one, one was a former Councilor here for many, many years, and when I asked him for his thoughts on the process, he says, what are you talking about? And to me, it's glaring that we're not getting the word out to those neighbors. So no matter what we have, if we don't get the word out, even if it's phenomenal for everybody, we're going to start with animosity. And again, this isn't to you because the presentation is great, but you have to be put in front of the people that are the stakeholders. This is an opportunity as we're starting this new and fresh. I think this is something that I hope our community development team really pays close attention and learn from our past where we did months and months and months of zoning and it was just closed and reworked and brought backwards. Like I said, I, Justin's asked some great questions. I think, excuse me, Councilor Tseng has some great questions. We, you know, the presentation is great. I think it's comical that our inability for development, gave us an upper hand when it talks to science. This is great. Let's do nothing.

[Zac Bears]: But that's all I wanted to share. So thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate that feedback.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Callahan.

[Anna Callahan]: Thank you. Just a few kind of questions at first are sort of very general. I also, the idea of smaller blocks, I was like kind of trying to wrap my brain around what that would actually look like. When I think of that area, I think of like one enormous parking lot with like buildings and free-for-all cars, pedestrians, you know, so. Can you just, for a moment, paint a picture for people who are listening that may not be as wonky and need to be able to picture it a little bit more? What would actually happen? You'd put roadways with sidewalks in between some of the large buildings so that people could actually walk and not get run over by random cars going random directions?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. So I would say, one, I would say we call it the transformation study, and maybe that's a bit of a misnomer. I think council member Scarpelli brought this up, and a lot of it is making sure that the message is clear to people so they understand what are people reaching out to me about? What is a transformation study? Is this happening tomorrow? No, it's not happening tomorrow. It's happening over a very long term because it will take a long time for this transformation to happen. But the purpose of the study is to lay the groundwork for those investments for those things like smaller blocks. you asked about what does it actually look like? So if you imagine on the Fells Way, if you look at the parking lot on your right, you're driving south on the Fells Way, parking lot on your right, all the strip malls, and then on your left, you see these neighborhoods, and you see these individual roads that come down to the Fells Way. Imagine those roads from those neighborhoods coming down to the Fells Way, meeting the Fells Way, and continuing through. And those roads come with sidewalks and they come with trees. That is what we're imagining, that we are effectively bringing back or completing the blocks that already exist in Medford and making it feel like that walkable community that exists just north of the transformation study. Thanks.

[Anna Callahan]: Second question. Sure. Can you just talk a little bit about transit-oriented development? Yes. What does that actually mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes. As a planner, I often forget that not everyone nerds out the way that I do about transit-oriented development. So transit-oriented development essentially is any investment in housing and typically a mix of uses, so housing and retail and jobs. It is investments or development in those spaces tied to a significant transit station like the Wellington station or a big bus hub. That is transit-oriented development. The purpose of transit-oriented development is not only to put people really close to that train station so that they can quickly access the region that they can quickly access the city but also to reduce the amount of reliance on cars. I have the joy of living in Somerville really close to Magoon Square and so I don't have to have a car because I can hop on the Green Line and I can get to my destination and also I can bike because I feel safe and comfortable biking in Somerville. Those are the kind of investment around stations that already exist are good ways to bring more people into this place without also simultaneously increasing the amount of vehicle volume that is what makes getting into and out of Wellington Circle difficult.

[Anna Callahan]: Thanks. Okay, my next one's a little bit more specific. Sure. So, I understand that office space, we have more office space than is currently being used, and I assume you mean in Medford and not just regionally? In Medford.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would also apply to the region, yes.

[Anna Callahan]: In Medford and regionally. And I'm curious if you've seen any data that points toward the idea that a younger, slightly higher income, more professional population After post-COVID, when office space is no longer being rented by, you know, these companies, specifically because people work from home, if you see any data pointing toward co-working spaces, places where people can go to do the work that they are doing remotely from home, but if they don't happen to want to, like, sit in their house every day, like, do you see that as a possible use for some of the office space that we currently have in the city?

[SPEAKER_00]: I would say that what we've learned about the office market and what we've learned about the ways, the lifestyles that people are looking for is that they're looking for more flexibility. I was in an interesting, so our office, we don't work directly with developers. We only work for public agencies, but we have a lot of conversations with developers. A developer told me that they have shifted their model for developing housing because they have an apt comparison to, I think it's unclear what Gen Z is really looking for because they don't have that income yet, but millennials, they compare millennials to retirees. They say millennials want all of the things that retirees want. They want those communities with open space. They want the bar, a five-minute walk away from their home. They want all of the amenities. They want pickleball courts. They want all the same things that retirees want in retirement communities as people who are working, either working from home or working in office. And so they want flexibility. They want amenities. And they want all of those things within close proximity. So I don't think that... I think that there is a desire for more kind of flexible ways to think about office space. And I do still think that there are, that there is a desire for traditional offices and there are companies that are trying to get folks to come back to the office. But I think they're doing so under the mantra of being flexible and enabling that flexibility to happen.

[Anna Callahan]: Great. My next question is about the net impact graph that you showed. Do you mind going back to that? No, the bar chart. So I'm really curious for these, if the cost is, assuming that it doesn't exist yet, right? So is the cost about the cost of building?

[SPEAKER_00]: So the, when you say, so the, essentially it is.

[Anna Callahan]: The cost of running, right? Because you did talk about, you know, that housing uses up amenities in the city, so that assumes that like, there is an ongoing cost to having people be in these spaces.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you were to bring a new office building online, The cost per acre of that new office building being online, so the revenue would be just over $100,000 per acre. The cost for that new office building coming online would be about, I would say, $25,000, and the net impact is about $90,000.

[Anna Callahan]: And so you're talking about cost to the city, not the cost for a developer to actually build the building.

[SPEAKER_00]: Correct.

[Anna Callahan]: Cost to the city. Thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the net impact is the important thing because that is what is ending up in the city's coffers and is a benefit. Great. Thank you. That clears it up.

[Zac Bears]: I just have a quick follow-up on that if you don't mind, Councilor Callahan. These numbers seem low.

[SPEAKER_00]: They seem low.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah. I mean, we have developments that are coming in right now where the expected revenue to the city is significantly more than... There's multiple multi-family rentals where the expected revenue to the city is significantly more than $100,000 an acre. Yep.

[SPEAKER_00]: The purpose of this graphic, the challenge is that there is going to be variation across graphics. The purpose of this graphic was to try to create kind of like a normalized method of comparing apples to oranges. It's really, really tough to compare, surprisingly very tough to compare the net impact of a townhouse to an office building. And so it is, I think that, there could be significantly higher revenues for sure, especially depending on how tall or how much density you're bringing into a space. We were trying to be conservative so that we weren't creating a scenario where the costs were much greater, but you could imagine that revenues could be much higher, for sure.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah, so that's helpful to understand because And it might be interesting for us to see some of the assumptions that are kind of underlying this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely. Yes. So there will be a, we're hoping to have the report itself will be, we want it to be as kind of light on text and as clear as we can make it so that it's accessible to a variety of audiences. But there will be a series of technical appendices that will support a lot of this work and that are kind of the background for some of these graphics. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: I'm sorry. Go ahead, Councilor.

[Anna Callahan]: And my final thing is just I really want to sort of echo and support something that Councilor Tseng mentioned, which is I understand our need as a city for revenue and that if we can build a retail that supports higher wage people that would bring more revenue and I just want us to really be cognizant of the idea that we need to serve everyone in the city and so to really, you know, whether it's you or Ines and associates, the folks that we work with long term, that our Like, my priority, and I think, you know, other Councilors can speak for themselves, but I really think it is really important that we not leave lower income people behind in our creating a city that has both retail and amenities that can serve everyone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely, and this we we had tried to kind of really condense the slide down but I had this at the very end of the slide deck post questions which You know articulates again, like you said strong incomes are helping retail to remain stable despite economic uncertainty But retail success is really dependent not just on so we call it experiential retail like the the you know Not just axe throwing, but really fun restaurant experiences. Those are destination retail. Simultaneously, you need services. So you need to have things like a laundromat. You need to have things like a dental office to be able to make sure that you're both creating the things that people imagine when they think of retail, while also providing for the basic needs and necessities of a community.

[Anna Callahan]: Absolutely, and I hope we can include like fun things too, not just root canals and laundry. But yes, absolutely. A reality, yes. Thank you.

[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, of course.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Callahan. Councilor Maloney.

[Liz Mullane]: Thank you again for putting this together. This was really helpful to kind of see all of this. And I think my fellow Councilors have kind of asked some of the questions that I was looking at as well. Just in general, in terms of the public engagement, the neighborhood residents and the Medford residents, the different participants you have, do you guys have like a breakdown of kind of like a little more specifics about what they heard and what their direct feedback was, if they saw some of those diagrams of these smaller areas. I mean, I think it's pretty cool, but I would be curious to see what people thought when they actually saw it. To Councilor Callahan's point, like it's hard to imagine that without kind of maybe seeing that a little bit more. And I know you said people had different things they could build. So I'm just curious if you have like a recording or something of it that can demonstrate that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. Justina, do you want to talk a little bit more about how we've been capturing engagement My colleague, Justina, is a planner behind a lot of the more detailed work.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sure, yeah. To clarify, we're talking about the vibrancy and comfort design guidance with the smaller blocks and increasing street furniture and all that kind of stuff, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I think that and then just community engagement in general. Do we have more detailed kind of articulation of community engagement feedback?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, for sure. One of our great loves at agency is community engagement and taking all of that data that really not quantitative, but qualitative data and deriving takeaways from that. So we have a lot of that data both from all of the different engagements that we've done. From the first round of engagement, we had this activity where we asked people to select elements in the different topic areas that Um, so that will be in the report and I believe that we've shared it at, um, for the second round of engagement that we did where we talked more about the design guidance. Most of the feedback that we heard from the public was about, well I don't say most of it, a lot of the feedback that we heard from the public was around how important it was to for a place to feel beautiful and comfortable and like somewhere that they really want to be in and so they really they, what's the word I'm looking for, not vibe, I guess I can say vibed with, it's a little casual, sorry, but they really vibed with that sort of, you know, delineation of smaller blocks, making it feel like you're not being surrounded by huge buildings and also having this really beautiful streetscape that is comfortable and has the amenities that are involved.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so Justina is in love with spreadsheets and she takes everything that is said in those kind of focused conversations with the residents in that particular neighborhood and simultaneously with, you know, other conversations, that marble activity. the kind of block activity and turns it all into quantitative feedback. And so we have tables and charts that articulate, you know, what was the feedback shared? Who did it, and what venue did it come from? And so, you know, like she said, it's, we organized it by milestone, and so we kept it high level, didn't attribute it to anyone in particular, but we do have that as background if needed.

[Liz Mullane]: Great, thank you. And then the two last quick questions I think I have are maybe, better answered by Kayla. In terms of some of the different things that we've seen about near-term and long-term possibilities, it looks like having more of an industrial kind of economic base seems to be most beneficial. And I guess my question is, are we seeing a lot of those types of companies being interested in finding space in Medford? And then I guess coupled with that, I know you kind of mentioned the stop and shop area, In terms of these different areas that we've seen mapped out, are there any property owners that seem more willing to kind of start experimenting or looking at some of this a little bit more seriously, I guess?

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I can take that question. So we are seeing a need for flex space, which falls under that industrial zoning. The flex space it allows it falls also like with that tough tech it helps companies like green recycling, maker spaces, other companies of like this size that may be in their in their middle stages, right before their growth period, they're really, really looking for industrial space and can't often lease 40,000 square feet that we have available currently. And so yes, And in short, we do see that there is demand, but it looks a little bit different than perhaps what the industrial or classic industrial company of 30, 40 years ago, how their space demands, what their space demands were. modern 21st century uses just really need this flexible space, more of a shell space, things that can be subdivided. So with this, I do think that there's potential to meet this demand and like agency and RQG's assessment has found that this is not just unique to Medford. So I think there's an opportunity to capture some of this demand. And then in terms of where we're seeing property owners, I would say that I have recently heard from areas on Linden Street that they're intrigued of what's going on and what could possibly be changing in their area. But very early stages for the larger property owners were still looking at the former Anheuser-Busch site to understand how the MBTA will intend to use that site, and if there is still an opportunity to see a commercial tenant on that site or introduce other uses. So that is still a potential, and then we still have the air rights to Wellington. So I would say that those are probably the three areas within our study area that are at the top of things that might move, but, you know, yeah, I'll leave it there.

[Liz Mullane]: Great. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. And I think that's everybody. So I'll ask my questions. My fellow Councilors have asked several of them. Is the recommendation going to be going towards the commercial center approach?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, that is our hope, unless you've decided housing hub is a place for us to explore or industrial. That seems to be where the community is situated, is this idea of a greater diversity of different uses.

[Zac Bears]: What are examples of, you know, is Assembly a housing hub or is it a commercial center?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I wish I had those slides in the back of this deck too. But yes, Assembly is definitely that example of a housing hub. It has retail, but it's very much focused on housing. We included in, I'm blanking. Justina, what is the name of this in Somerville? There's that.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Somernova and Greentown Labs campus. Well, not campus, but that area.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so there's a, in Somerville, there's the Summer Nova campus, which is right next to the Market Basket on Somerville Avenue, and that is a really great example of kind of that more industrial hub space, so we use that as the industrial example. Housing is similar to assembly. We actually compared it to Alewife as well. Alewife is very much that kind of housing hub close to transit, and Watertown felt like that kind of like much more commercial-focused opportunity.

[Zac Bears]: And how, I guess, How would those be significantly different? Is it just the scale of the housing on top of the retail?

[SPEAKER_00]: For the housing hub, I think that it's a mix of the scale of the housing on top of the retail, but also just housing and not retail. A lot less retail.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah. Because I mean, I think, you know, Arsenal Yards doesn't have transit access in the way that this area has transit access. Correct. Correct. Assembly does. Alewife does. Yeah. I think, you know, we should should take advantage of the fact that we have the transit access that we have in the location and if the, you know, the graphics here, commercial versus housing hub, seems to me we could have a commercial center just with more housing on top of it. And I think we really should think about that in more, and I don't know, this may have been in the earlier, yeah, like, is there something between these two things where we can really, be envisioning this area more similarly to similarly sited locations, while still keeping some sort of commercial balance. Because I do think that the other thing that's going on here, in my view, It seems to me that it would take us a very long time, especially if the main property owner in the area doesn't want to change the way that they're using their property to implement this kind of street grid style approach, which I think would be fantastic. And it also seems to me that maybe the kind of commercial center scenario is more car oriented maybe than the housing hub scenario. And I wonder if we could kind of take the best of both worlds of those two approaches and orient the site, not necessarily the site, the neighborhood. to its advantages, which I think, like, I wouldn't want to model this after Arsenal Yards because it's not the same location. It's not really a similar project. So that would really be something that I would like us to maybe take a look back at. Is there something where we can do something that's maybe not as tall, obviously, as like an assembly row? And I don't think the ALY proposals are as tall as what's in assembly. If I know correct, thank you. Appreciate the confirm on that. But really does take advantage of the transit access that we have in this area.

[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely. Yeah. Would love to be able to dig into a little bit more of the precedents and also appreciate kind of this idea that, you know, we maybe shouldn't go all in on one, but provide a little bit of flexibility between a couple just to be ready for any moment that does come up as kind of an opportunity for change.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah, and I wonder if there are some lessons that we can learn. This site is bisected in such a weird way by the two major roadways, so maybe it can't use the exact models, but Arsenal just seems a little off to me as an example. So that's just my two cents.

[SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate that, yeah.

[Zac Bears]: And I guess my other thing is, outside of the property owners at Fellsway Plaza really wanting to do, to just do it, and it seems like that's not what their business model is. Are there ways or are you going to be able to provide some examples or strategies that we could use as a city to try to incentivize or otherwise like get the train rolling and, you know, maybe maybe get them to bring, you know, to say, well, we don't want to do this here anymore. Like, maybe they're not the business to do this transformation, but maybe they'd be willing to move on from the location.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's a good challenge for us to include in our recommendations is to kind of specify some of the ways or some of the tools that you can have at your disposal to make that happen. Yeah.

[Zac Bears]: Because I really do think that the key on the northwest side of the super collider is the connectivity and turning the wetland into a place, a placemaking with the wetland. And there's no way to do that without the Felswood Plaza property.

[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.

[Zac Bears]: Great. All right. Thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Do we have any further questions from members of the council on this project? Seeing none, is there any comments on the Wellington Transformation Study? All right. To everyone who is here, and thank you very much for the presentation. To everyone who's here, we are running behind. So, I apologize, but we now have to go into an executive session, I would guess, for at least half an hour before we come back for the regular meeting. So, such is the world of the public meeting. Thank you all. Is there, with paper 26-053 submitted by Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, Litigation strategy, Turtog versus City of Medford. Request to enter executive session pursuant to Mass General Law, Chapter 30A, Section 21A3. This is to discuss strategy with respect to litigation where an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the city. And Turtog v. City of Medford et al., U.S. District Court, case in 2026. I'm going to announce that votes may be taken, and we will adjourn the committee of the whole from regular session. from the executive session, and then we will come back here for our next meeting, our regular meeting. And I can't, I don't know how long it'll take, so I apologize everybody in advance. And actually, we probably needed to take a vote on the previous one. Is there a motion to keep the paper in committee on presentation on the Wellington Transformation Study? On the motion of Councilor Tseng, seconded by Vice President Lazzaro. Mr. Clerk, please. Yes, and there's a motion to enter Executive Session on paper 26-053. Votes may be taken under the exception to Mass General Law Chapter 38, Section 21A3, and I'm notifying that votes may be taken, and we will adjourn the Committee of the Whole from Executive Session. On that motion, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Scarpelli? Councilor Tseng? Yes. Vice President Lazzaro? President Pierce?

[Zac Bears]: Yes. I'm the affirmative, none the negative, the motion passes.