The Advisory Team reviewed and recommended a revised site plan for the Medford High School building project, focusing on a more pedestrian-centric layout and distributed parking. The team also discussed designs for the track and field, a new pedestrian breezeway, and the placement of emergency assistance stations.
[Matt Rice]: We're good. We're going to jump right in.
[Kimberly Talbot]: I think so. I imagine. Few more folks will jump on, but. Okay, let's get caught.
[Matt Rice]: So, again, just thank you everyone for joining us for this meeting. Number 4 of the site safety and security advisory team for the Medford high school project. We're going to be running through a couple of topics today, really with the goal of both advancing the advisory teams understanding of where we are, but also trying to get to a point of having a recommendation to share with the full school building committee at their upcoming October 6th meeting. So we'll talk a little bit more about that as we get into the discussion in the presentation of the information that we have to share. We do have a suggestion of what that recommendation would be, but we obviously want to talk it through with this group to make sure that there's consensus buy-in. And then we'll actually look any volunteers, or we can nominate any individuals from the advisory team to share that with the SBC. At a fallback scenario, we can certainly do it as the design team presented, but typically it works better If there are members of the advisory team that can share the thoughts in the materials, we would obviously share, provide the materials visuals for the recommendation piece. But we can get to that as we get to the end of the meeting as Helen was saying, maybe as some of you hopped on, we do have a slightly abbreviated timeframe for this meeting because we have an MEP and sustainability advisory team meeting right afterwards on the heels. Um, so, um, right as we get around, what is it? Um, there may be a transition over and you may see some folks hopping on for the next meeting as well, but we'll manage that as we get there. So, with that as a setup provided, I can get the slides to advance here. I don't know, Laura, if you want to take us through the agenda here, I will say that we'll probably skip the introductions in the interest of time just because this group has gotten together a fair number of times and we'll try to just jump right into the content if we can.
[h56i5SspnTk_SPEAKER_08]: Um, good idea, Matt, um, uh, the recommendations that we are hoping to develop today have to do with, um, well, the parking program has been accepted by the school building committee, but we're going to go over it today. There's an updated site layout. We are going to share our thoughts for the elderly track and field. and discuss a little bit of the pedestrian experience and the ECC Breezeway, which will make more sense when you see what it is. And just stop at the end and look at those call for assistance stations slash AEDs and where those might be located across the site.
[Matt Rice]: Let's see. This is most of us.
[h56i5SspnTk_SPEAKER_08]: I have to say, there is someone new joining us, Eric Bangsness, our senior landscape architect from SMMA.
[Matt Rice]: All right, Eric, you get to introduce yourself because you're new.
[SPEAKER_01]: Go ahead. Yes, I'm Eric Bangsness. I'm the senior landscape architect with SMMA working with Laura.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[Matt Rice]: So this is our team. We're going to keep going through as well. I know that there's a good critical mass here.
[h56i5SspnTk_SPEAKER_08]: I would say the big update on this project timeline and construction facing approach is that we are going to probably need one more advisory team meeting. just because there was so much material and a few things that we still need to figure out and settle with outside groups before we have everything buttoned up. But today is going to be meeting for, we are in the middle of schematic design. So you can see where we are in this timeline.
[Matt Rice]: And we'll schedule the exact date for that as we move forward here. We'll work with Will and the rest of the district team to get that into everyone's calendars at a time that works.
[h56i5SspnTk_SPEAKER_08]: Okay, without much further ado, the parking program. So we looked at the existing inventory on the site, counted the striped and the informal. but commonly used spaces on the existing site and came up with 451. And it's been pretty well utilized, less so behind the school, more so to the CTE yard and in front of the school, the staff and student parking. We did do a transportation survey of the students and staff and got a lot of responses. That let us know to expect that most students, they do rely on either parent drop-off or another mode of transportation to get to the school, but a large number of them do use the bus, whether that's the school bus or the MBTA.
Teachers are the ones, though, who do tend to drive every day, and we expect that behavior to continue. So much further ado, this is the numbers of teachers and staff spaces we anticipate, the fleet vehicles, the visitor spaces for these different programs, and then we added in student spaces. We did make an adjustment for the number of teachers and staff that use alternative modes of transportation and were not driving their car. We were also hoping that visitor spaces could be used for different programs and shared in such a way that we would not need to dedicate them to a certain
program only to have them sit empty during other times of the day. And we are also reserving spaces for 100 students. So you can see on the right, this is about that amount of pavement that's necessary to make that many spots. This is 477 spaces. So a slight increase over what is on site currently.
[Matt Rice]: And maybe Laura just might explain that note in the bottom right hand corner. We have designated Ken. Um, as having the authority to if the programs, the program sizes within the school reduce, because we have this parallel process going on with the full building committee of looking for efficiencies and also confirming which, which programs stay are coming to the building. If that modified for any reason, we would make an analogous adjustment to the parking accounts that are shown here based on the affected program. But just so that eventuality is covered, we're just wanting to give Ken that ability to modify the parking program from this baseline as what is shown here, the 477.
[h56i5SspnTk_SPEAKER_08]: That's true. There are a few programming decisions that are about to be finalized. So let's go into the updated site layout. This is what we had at the end of PSR, and you can see kind of it has the rough outline, I would call, of what we're trying to do on the site. Accessible access, plazas, spaces that can be used to support the educational program. We heard how difficult it was to have a driveway that went only three quarters away around the school, so 360 degrees for emergency access as well as just the ease of navigating behind the school.
Parking that will meet the new program needs. The athletic track and field we have is new to this site, but we are going to keep sort of a rectangle field like we have, or is currently at Edgerly, and put that in front of the school.
[Matt Rice]: And not noted here, but the practice field is still maintained as a natural grass field as well on the Western side of the site here, but will be completely replaced from what is there. We're not looking to just keep that existing condition as a stent.
[h56i5SspnTk_SPEAKER_08]: Yes. Okay. Um, so this is a side-by-side with what we had at PSR on the left and our sort of evolved and evolving design on the right, which has two drop-off loops. We are moving the rectangular field, um, up towards the school and trying to move play for the ECC next to it. This is also sort of distributing the parking instead of one gigantic parking lot. It will be, you know, both around that field and also distributed next to the practice field and next to the track and field that will go up on Andrew Lee field. So we'll give people the opportunity to park next to these amenities and make it easier for people to access those fields. Let me just.
[Matt Rice]: Sort of reinforce 1 of the rationales behind this change. We did hear from the when we went in front of their facilities assessment subcommittee that the image that you see on the left in terms of the parking is maybe reminiscent of a big box store or something. When you drive up to it, a large sea of parking that can feel impersonal. Impersonal as well as potentially just from a safety perspective, you have a lot of pedestrian students and teachers crossing drive aisles to get a pretty good distance all the way over to the main entrance. And so what the encourage us to do is just to reconsider that they didn't point us in another direction, but they just pointed out that fact and that. That could be a challenge and so what you see on the right hand side was really our response to that to try to create a more pedestrian centric experience, but also coming up to the site something that's a little bit more welcoming. Um, from a visual experience as well, the other consideration that comes into play here, and there's a little bit of an overlap right with our next advisory team meeting that's coming up. Is that potentially this parking lot wherever it ends up has the potential of having photovoltaic. solar panels on canopies over the top of it. In this particular instance, what we'd be putting directly in front of the building is a large, fairly tall structure that would obscure the sight lines to the main entrance of the school if we end up putting in a full photovoltaic canopy over the entirety of this parking. In this scenario, we have the ability to pull those canopies a little bit further away from the building, We're creating a site line when you come up that is not obstructed by those photovoltaic panels. Yes, they would still be there, but you'll have a much clearer view as you enter into the site of where that main entrance to the school is, and that experience will again be improved. So, there's a variety of improvements that were located around this general concept of adjusting the field location.
And I think the next slide is really. Oh. Yeah, next slide is sort of a prompt, right? That we would like this advisory team to go through a formal vote process. And unfortunately, I don't have the list of everyone here, so I'm not sure if there's maybe somebody on the left field side that could help with sort of a voting activity or the roll calling. I don't know, Helen, if you have the ability to do it just off of the participant list of who we have up. This is just a way of conveying the level of confidence that this advisory team has in terms of the recommendation of this. And before we sort of open it up for discussion and questions, because I imagine folks may want to talk this through. I think we do also want to point out the fact that. What we're going to be voting forward, and we can talk about a particular motion if we want to, is really the general site configuration. There are some circulation nuances that still need to be resolved with the overall traffic pattern and drop-offs across the site. It's something that we are engaged in current conversations with the district on, as well as other interested parties. But we do feel that with this general rearrangement of the field and the parking in the bottom right hand corner, we still have something that is an improvement over the prior layout that we had, but also allows itself to be evolved and developed to address those circulation.
nuances that need to get sorted out between say buses, parent drop off, the pickup and drop off for the kids corner as well as meet the preschool programs that are coming here. So there is still work to be done. Really what we're looking for is just a confirmation that this general shift from the PSR site plan that we had to this rotated field distributed parking site plan is a positive direction to move forward with. It's probably easier if I leave this up here. If there's questions, maybe.
[Kimberly Talbot]: Yeah, questions. Yeah, and I can certainly call the roll as it were. Go ahead, Alicia.
[Alicia Hunt]: Thanks. I was looking at this and it does look like a definite improvement to my eye. I'm not a traffic expert, but I look at these things and I think about these things. But I had a couple of questions and I just wanted to clarify a few things. Um, and why don't I just tell you what they are and then you can respond? I think they're pretty straightforward. I was trying to match your legend to the stuff on the map to make sure I was finding everything and I never found number 4 pedestrian. Access, which I thought meant a door, but that, oh, that's the walkway at the bottom.
[h56i5SspnTk_SPEAKER_08]: So, yeah, there's going to be pedestrian access on 1 side of steam Miller drive, but not on the other in order to have a wider median and a bit of a buffer, which is what we kind of heard back from the fire chief and police police chief might. be a good idea to have some sort of separation. And so that pedestrian, we're trying to get them all on the south side so they can cross the on-site traffic just once, instead of having to cross multiple driveways.
[Alicia Hunt]: That makes sense and I just hadn't even processed what it was. I think I may have missed a meeting. The other thing that I was hoping this could provide solve and I think it either one solves may be solving. Maybe it's something you're thinking of and that's sort of I've heard that once buses are loaded after school, it can take them a half hour to get off the property and whether this is actually a way of giving buses some priority access. To get back off the property, they won't be waiting in lines of cars to the same extent that they used to without a person, a human flagging them through. And then the other is just sort of, I wanted to reconfirm what you were saying about the solar that I do believe the ground mount solar is going to be very important to the net zero net. And that that's possible on here and that I'm assuming these green spaces along the parking would be would be involved with pedestrian access. So people or people would walk across the field. There's going to be desire lines, like, how are they going to walk? So they're not walking through the middle of the parking lot to get safely to the to the entrance. So, thanks.
[Matt Rice]: Do you want me to take some of that Laura? So, in terms of the bus circulation on site. Yes, Alicia, the idea was we're trying to get buses on and off the site as quickly as possible to alleviate some of the backup and congestion that's associated with them. And they're starting and stopping whether again, be it the MBTA buses. And, or the, the yellow school buses, what we found in our recent sort of traffic site circulation discussions is a, that the school has recently shifted the amount, the quantity of the buses and the cadence of the buses and how they're queuing up, especially in the afternoon, which I think is really the more challenging part in terms of dealing with everyone getting out efficiently. From a bus perspective, and there was just some overlap in terms of potential for kids corner drop off and and potentially high school parent drop off as well in terms of. Coming in circulating back out and sort of entering this zone where the MBTA buses might be going. So, we're currently going back and sort of taking another look at that to understand what opportunities exist as we go forward. So, again, from a site circulation standpoint, certainly understand people rightly are. should be interested in how that gets addressed. We are just currently working on it to try to find the best solution possible. We think we have a lot of good circulation area, a lot of good queuing opportunities. It's just a matter of orchestrating it with the various drop-off times and pickup times and when everyone is coming and going. Um, so we'll just, we'll just have to pause on sort of that larger topic for a moment. I don't know, Laura, if you want to take the, the pedestrian or Eric, um, that, that question or question.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm happy to take it. Um, so what this new plan does is by kind of directing all of the primary circulation around the perimeter of the site. Once you get into the parking lot, we will have to look at the number. The parking number we're still working on achieving that you see it here, but you can see the kind of the cream colored areas are the pedestrian walkways. So those the intent is to minimize the number of. Places where people pedestrians have to cross vehicular paths. I mean, it's a large parking lot with a lot of. uh parking spaces just to some extent pedestrians will have to maneuver through the parking lot but we'll try to make that as safe as possible what we're trying to avoid to the greatest extent is for them having to cross drive aisles where the speeds are typically higher and then sort of related to that is the the pv and you know one of the things because of how tight this area is that we have to work with is we're going to be looking to see if maybe we can position the vertical supports for the PV at an intersection of striped parking spaces. And if we can do that, that will reduce our need for maybe making the paved area bigger to accommodate areas that are just reserved for those foundations for those supports. But yeah, that'll take more coordination. But we are thinking about it in the back of our mind.
[Matt Rice]: All right, I saw I see Tim and Brian's hand up. I'm not sure who put their hand up first.
[Kimberly Talbot]: So I think it was Brian. If I'm keeping score. It's all about keeping score.
[Brian Hilliard]: Yeah. So I just want to say, I think this looks great. It's a huge improvement. And for all the. Big reasons that you said, particularly the approach to the building, you know, I think this clearly opens line of sight, which is nice. A couple of questions I have. Like, I love pushing the field up closer to the building so that it does give sort of literally a big green space in between parking and the structure itself.
Obviously, the bulk of the parking is kind of shifted further away from the main entrance and I'm a Walker. So I have no problem with this, but just generally speaking, do you guys think you'll have pushback from the people who are attached to their cars who say. You know, there's just not enough parking up close and front and do you have a good answer? Because hopefully you do. Again, personally, I like this much, much better and I like forcing people to walk. So that's kind of question 1. Question 2 is.
whether or not there's any concern, you know, if I'm looking at the new diagram and sort of bottom right corner, page bottom right, if kids are parking there or staff or whatever, and the shortest path is directly across the fields, is that a problem? Like, do we ever care if people stroll across a soccer field? And again, I literally, I don't know. I just don't wanna, you know, like Harvard Yard have all these cow paths Cut across there and how do we keep people on the walkway again? I'm all about making people walk as far as they can. So, you know, is this like a gated thing or what do we do to keep people from wearing paths through the field? And 3rd quick question is, I love the rotary. I love the idea of it. I think it solves a ton of issues. This 1 looks complicated. And Matt, you may have alluded to having the school buses. Drop off there, but I wasn't sure and would that alleviate sort of Alicia? I think you talked about speeding up that in and out of the MBTA and the yellow buses themselves. Is that an option to allow buses to use that smaller loop by the kid drop off or not? That's all.
[Matt Rice]: Yeah, so let me, I'll start on reverse order and I'm probably going to hand it off to the folks that are more educated on these topics than I am. But I'm going to start with that last 1 again, just by putting a little bit of a pin in it, Brian, in terms of the circulation. We were thinking that buses, I'm sorry if I move my cursor, that buses may be queuing right over here in terms of providing direct access, no crossing of any traffic back to the school main entrance. But again, we're really looking at that, given the potential for sort of overlapping circulation patterns that may come through there and especially any buses, be they yellow school buses or special education vans that may have a stop sign out while they're loading or unloading and could sort of create a log jam in that. And that central rotary piece, so we know we need to do some more work on that. We're working through that at the moment. Um, and then I'll take the fence 1 or start the field 1 as well, because of the fence. And because I think it's low hanging fruit, we will need some type of perimeter fencing around the field, just in potentially netting as well for ball control. We'll get into the design of exactly what that looks like. Um, but there will be some type of control to prevent students, teachers, anyone right from walking directly across the field. If they're trying to get into the high school, there will be amenable sort of plazas and pedestrian environments. Like, Eric was talking about on either side. So, it's really a matter of getting to those sort of safer situations and working way around the field as you come in.
But I'll let someone else take the proximity of parking if.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I can add on to the field in order to get a field in this location, there's going to need to be retaining walls that on both the North and the South end to sort of cut this and balance it into the site given the topography out there. So those walls too will couple with the fences to help with that. And I think your question about the parking is a great one. So you can see we did provide accessible parking at the North Loop and we provided accessible parking, infant drop-off parking, and some additional parking in the South Loop. It's all gonna be a part of that re-looking at this. You know, when you create these multiple different drop-offs for different uses, you have to meet, you know, turning requirements for fire trucks and buses and things like that. So we'll take a look at that. I mean, we got the, in this option, you know, we got the parking as close as we could. We prioritized, again, accessible parking. There's actually going to be an excess of accessible parking here just because of all the different building entrances, just to make sure those people do not have to walk as far. And, you know, we'll do our best to minimize if there's ways to minimize. In this concept, the distance that people have to walk, we will explore it.
[Brian Hilliard]: Yeah, I think again, it looks great and I love distributing the parking in the. I'll say the least desirable area of the site, because that's how it should be. So, but if there's anything I've heard over the years in town, people. People like their cars, so I just I hope hopefully we can. make a good case.
[h56i5SspnTk_SPEAKER_08]: But there are 100 student parking spots, and we can always make the put that burden on the youngest members.
[Brian Hilliard]: Awesome.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, there's we there's a part of this where we we also want to educate people on, you know, just because the parking is close to the building doesn't make that a safe condition. In fact, sometimes that makes that a less safe condition, right where you tuck the parking up by the building and you have to cross a big driveway for you know everybody has to cross a big driveway to get to it so it's hopefully bringing up some of the advantages of a layout like this might offset some of that not always but we hope.
[Brian Hilliard]: Well, actually, I think that's a good point and it might behoove us to really indicate very clear paths, you know, like, super highways for pedestrians from the parking into the building or towards the building. So you can see that it's easy to flow from bottom right to top left in the diagram. Because again, I think. You know, if if people can see those yellow pad or tan pads really clearly and say, this is how I get from parking in that might help.
[h56i5SspnTk_SPEAKER_08]: And I will add that there's some spots, like the, like the lower, the most Southern lot that. seem like they're far from the main entrance, but they are next to the ECC and where the central offices are going to be. It's like 100 staff members that are going in that door. And also, there will probably be some sort of access for staff to use the parking by Edgerly Field or the practice field. They can go into doors that the student population can't.
It might actually be more convenient for them.
[Brian Hilliard]: Yeah, good point.
[Kimberly Talbot]: All right, can we get to Tim's question?
[Tim McGivern]: Thanks in general, I think a big improvement and I can support the change and I'm glad to see the site design morphing and changing as it should be in this stage. I like this, the idea of splitting up the parking lot too. So you don't have to see a parking. I like that. I was a little. So this talk about parking, access to the building, and field, and all that. The field does seem like it's kind of like surrounded by parking. One of my questions was, did you guys look at maybe swapping the location of the field and the right up and down parking bay? Like if you put the parking close to the building, just kind of swap those two. So you have access road on the outside, field, parking, and then plaza building. Just just a thought, um, says that, you know, I was just curious, like, what do you guys because I know grades are a big issue on the site for that West driveway. I was curious at how that's going to happen if it's a cut. I think there might be some rock there. What kind of slopes are using for that? And then. What else? Yeah, I think with the broken up parking lots and the way you get the different loops and stuff, and it's 1 way around way finding is going to be really important. So people aren't driving in circles trying to figure out which lot they need to be at. I think that's going to be important when we're talking about breaking up the lots, but in general, I think this is headed in the right direction. So, thank you for your presentation.
[Kimberly Talbot]: Who wants to take on grading?
[Matt Rice]: I was just going to offer up the fact that just a little bit earlier today, Tim, we were looking at some 3 dimensional modeling of the topography through there. So, I think when we get together for that next meeting, we'll be able to show it. It helped me understand it a lot more going through there. I think the site and civil folks, you guys can sort of intuit what's in through here, but to be able to understand that field. As Eric was saying, there's a lot of great changes happening across the level of it. We have to pick a relatively flat plane to try to insert there. So you get high retaining walls at the bottom or a cup retaining wall at the top or something in between. And then, yeah, that road up to the side is something that we know works, but there's going to be some earthwork and potentially some rock removal associated with there. There may also be just some fill to be able to make it work because where the slope is right now starts to drop off pretty quickly on that side.
[h56i5SspnTk_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah I think what we're looking at on the eastern edge is mostly cut though you are right that there's a little bit of a bluff up against the fells.
[Tim McGivern]: Do you know enough as far as like what you're maxing out on slope when you're coming from the high point to the low point there on that side?
[h56i5SspnTk_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah in the roadway or for the
[Tim McGivern]: In the road, in the circular road.
[h56i5SspnTk_SPEAKER_08]: Oh, OK. We're looking at trying to keep the grades below 8% everywhere and to have below 5% in most places so it's accessible. That won't be possible for every stretch. But you can kind of see right next to the five, For instance, there is a ramp, an accessible ramp, that will be at 8% to get people from one level to another in that location.
[Tim McGivern]: And you're trying to hold the road at 8%, do you think?
[h56i5SspnTk_SPEAKER_08]: I think it's going to be at around 7% to 8% is what we were looking at. And that's what we're aiming at, is our high side high side for grades.
[Tim McGivern]: That would be good to see. If you get to go up to 10, I think in isolated spots, that probably is okay. You got a grading challenge. I'm excited to look at the grading plans when they're available.
[Matt Rice]: And maybe just to transition into the next question, I just wanted to clarify, Laura, something that you mentioned. So, like, we will keep the 8% or 5% where we can, where we can't, we have introduced ramps so that we do have an accessible path also all the way around the building for pedestrians. But we do need to incorporate ramps in some cases, just to deal with the obvious reality of what's on the site there, topography wise. But yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you. And I should point out, we always build in a little bit of wiggle room in terms of the slopes. We try to keep the ramps even under sometimes 8% just so the contractor has a little bit of wiggle room when they go out to build them, because they can get long.
[Tim McGivern]: You should. You know it well. I didn't ask this question, but what's the pinch point for the road there at the corner, the upper right corner? And what do you have for a width of that pinch point? Yeah, there.
[h56i5SspnTk_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I'd have to double check up the top of my head. I know that we have a minimum of 22 feet. For 1 way circulation, but we try to. Keep it at 24 feet. The real pinch point is between the pool and the property line in that corner.
[Tim McGivern]: That's what I was wondering if you can get your 22 feet through there. That was really my questions.
[Matt Rice]: It looks like it through there, but we'll go back and check it. And certainly it's a fair point. Something that we have to accommodate.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, I'm more curious than anything because that's a fixed corner. That's your existing.
[Matt Rice]: It is right. Yeah, that's the corner of the pool building and that is our property line. So.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, similar to the existing condition, unless you have a little bit more space, you can move to the right, which you probably don't.
[h56i5SspnTk_SPEAKER_08]: So, actually, 1 of the nice things is we are removing a mechanical room that's behind the existing pool building that right now is causing a lot of issues with the site lines. So, it will be a little bit. There will be more room to the North.
[Tim McGivern]: That's wonderful because I hate that corner. So if you can get rid of that corner.
[Kimberly Talbot]: Everybody hates that corner.
[Tim McGivern]: Oh, it's terrible. Yeah.
[Kimberly Talbot]: All right. Can we get to Nick's question?
[Matt Rice]: Yeah, and then I think we may want to try to just see if we can get a vote maybe after that, because we have a couple other slides that we just want to go through for informational purposes.
[Kimberly Talbot]: Exactly. Go ahead, Nick.
[MCM00001753_SPEAKER_02]: Thank you and good afternoon everyone. Thank you all so much for all your work. This is looking fantastic. I just had a couple of questions on the disability end of things. Well, first of all, are we Are we voting on the 2. On which 1 of the 2 pictures we want to see.
[Matt Rice]: So, what we're voting on Nick, just answer that 1st question. We're voting actually on the option of the image that's on the right. The revised site plan that's forward.
[MCM00001753_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, okay. That that that's what I thought. Thank you. My question would be, one, accessible parking, given how the parking spaces are set up right now, and seeing
[Kimberly Talbot]: I think we're losing you a little bit. We did hear. I think we got Nick, you're asking about the location of accessible spaces, and I know you were still trying to say something, but your audio broke up.
[Matt Rice]: Yeah, we're only still getting about every other word. Nick.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm certainly happy to proactively just jump in and so the way the accessible spaces work right now is that we have some up at the North entrance near the number 2. we have more down at the south entrance near number one so it's very important when you have a building with this many entrances that you spread out the accessible parking spaces you don't want them all in one place right and then so what we will do is there is a there's a requirement 521 cmr based on how many parking spaces you have in your facility dictates how many you're required to have and we will have at least that number of accessible spaces just for the school. For the track and field, we're adding based on some experience we've had recently, we would be providing eight additional accessible spaces alone just up in that area. It really is helpful for larger events, things like that. If this wants to be a pillar of the community, it's very important we have a separate dedicated amount of accessible parking just for that use. So we will make sure that there is ample. And if there needs to be more, we can always add more. That simple striping can always do that.
[MCM00001753_SPEAKER_02]: Thank you. Another thing, if my memory serves me correctly, the current high school also has a place where students from across the city can come for physical therapy. And so I was wondering if that will be having an access point so that people are not having to walk around the whole school Um, just just to get to that particular level on that.
[Matt Rice]: Yes, just just. Cover the, the programs within the building there is, um, there's both an alternative and physical therapy space that will be in the building. So I can't recall that we've talked to that program specifically, but if it exists today, there certainly will be facilities within the school to accommodate it moving forward. And I do think because of what Eric was pointing out, the fact that we are distributing accessible parking spaces really around the majority of the perimeter, maybe with the exception of where the old skate park is, but there's really no sort of main public entrances there. There's a community program that is for the auditorium and the pool. Um, which will have an elevator up to the pool within it as well as the gymnasium. There's the main entrance. Um, there's entrance from the North. There will even be an access access point into the building. So. I think Nick, well, maybe not has not landed. I'm fairly confident saying that we will have an accessible parking location in some proximity to that program wherever it lands because we are, we're pretty pervasive around the perimeter of the building with, various locations of accessible parking spots, both van and traditional.
[SPEAKER_01]: And just because the regulations set out a certain minimum number doesn't mean you can't have more than that. So if this site needs more than that, then we'll look at that. Like, for instance, at the northeast end of that parking lot, right? maybe we want some dedicated accessible parking near that events entrance, right? So even though it's not the primary high school entrance, if it's an events entrance, we might want to incorporate some there. And we're happy to move those pieces around and make sure that you all have what you need.
[MCM00001753_SPEAKER_02]: Right. OK. And just my last question, the sidewalks around the school, they go all the way around. Continuously, right? That is perfect. And of course, we already mentioned about Decorating for the for the for the for the ramps and I will not be because we, we, we do not want a repeat of what we already have. Well, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll be with the gigantic ramp at the front.
[Matt Rice]: No, no, all of our ramps will be fully code compliant as well as ADA compliant.
[MCM00001753_SPEAKER_02]: And the access to the fields will also be American compliant, right? Correct.
[Matt Rice]: Yes. 100% across the site. All right. Thank you all.
[SPEAKER_00]: We check it with a two foot smart level, Nick, so during construction.
[MCM00001753_SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[Kimberly Talbot]: He's not kidding. I'm not kidding. Just quickly address Alicia's question in the chat. And then I will, if you all feel ready, I will call. For a vote.
[Matt Rice]: Yes, so all the parking Alicia is up at the track level and you may have noticed as well that we, if we go back to the prior 1. Oh, no, we had already incorporated it, but from from the prior layout of the track that was up here, we did increase the quantity of parking spaces up by the track and field, which we think is advantageous. And yes, it will be actually up at the field level as opposed to having to navigate the. The multiple switch back and or the really high vertical stairs up there. So. Should be a significant improvement in that regard. It's the needs.
[Kimberly Talbot]: All right, are folks ready if I call your name to say yay or nay or abstain if you wish to recommend to the SBC to proceed with the updated site plan? Knowing it'll continue to evolve. Ready to go for a vote?
[MCM00001753_SPEAKER_02]: Yep.
[Kimberly Talbot]: All right. I'm just going to go down the list as I see it. Ken? Yes. Okay. Our people are not voting, Tim. Yes. Great. Alicia? Yes. Amanda? Yes. Brian?
[Brian Hilliard]: Yes.
[Kimberly Talbot]: People are shifting on my list. Okay. I may miss someone. Let's see. Matt Galussi?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[Kimberly Talbot]: Thanks. Melissa Young?
[Matt Rice]: You may be muted if you're trying to talk.
[Kimberly Talbot]: Okay, I can try you back. Nick?
[MCM00001753_SPEAKER_02]: Yes, thank you.
[Kimberly Talbot]: Rob White?
[Matt Rice]: Yes, thank you.
[Kimberly Talbot]: Great, and I will try Melissa again. Melissa, are you able to say yay or nay? Okay, we're not able to get her, but vote passes. So everyone who responded was a positive vote. Thank you very much.
[Matt Rice]: Okay, so the next series of topics we have, and I'm going to really stress to everyone, to folks that are on the SMA team, you have literally two minutes. I will stop you. So you need to be able to say what you have to say really quickly. The rest of these topics are for information only. So we just want to give people a little bit more of an update on different parts and pieces. So apologies that we don't have a lot of time for a dialogue on each one of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Very simply, track and field here, synthetic turf. A is a new concessions restroom building. There will be probably a slide gate there and a perimeter fence around this stadium area so that it can be secured for ticketing purposes. There will also be a slide gate and emergency access at the east end, probably for emergency vehicles. I think that's the crux of this. Bleachers at the north, number four, just so everyone can visualize where the access will be.
[Matt Rice]: And I'm going to just violate my own rule here. I did want to mention to people that we have had conversations with DCR. They have give us an initial indication that is acceptable to build structures on the deed restricted land, all of which this is provided that those structures are in support of the recreational use. So, in the cases, the specific cases of, say, a toilet building and ticketing concessions building at the front, The bleachers themselves, and if there's a storage building for track field equipment that can all be located on the deep restricted property, we will be getting some written documentation of that. The MSBA will be requiring that as part of the process. So that is to come, but we are proceeding with this overall general approach as Eric just described it.
So, I think this is just a general section to the site that gives a relationship of where the field is going to be, but spoiler alert is at the same elevation that the current field is going to be. So there's not a lot of update there.
[h56i5SspnTk_SPEAKER_08]: No, Matt, there was 1 question in the chat about how many lanes on the track.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep, so right now what we are planning for on that is an 8 lane straight and a 6 lane oval because of the space constraints. That is a pretty typical configuration. Maybe not ideal, but it's pretty typical for a high school.
[Matt Rice]: And just as a group, Eric, myself, the athletic director, and the track coaches, we did make a visit over to both as well as Dillboy stadiums to sort of compare and look at those tracks and the layouts. And this is will certainly be an improvement over the Hormel condition in terms of how it is laid out. And I think it's even a little bit of an improvement over the Dillboy sort of configuration as well in terms of just surrounding perimeter space beyond the field dimensions.
[Kimberly Talbot]: And can you address Nick's question about the press box accessibility and our assumed approach to that, Matt?
[Matt Rice]: Sure. Yeah. No, I didn't see that. But that's a great question, Nick. You are very sharp there. We have you covered the idea is that we're going to be creating the press box within the building itself. So there will be an elevator located within the building immediately here. So we're actually going to be able to get up pretty high, potentially even to have scoreboards maybe in that area. I think we're also showing a scoreboard out here, but we will have accessible.
Route up to the press box, wherever it ends up. Okay, I see that there's other chats. I'm not, I actually closed that down.
[Kimberly Talbot]: Teachers have space for wheelchair, um, companion seating. On an accessible route was Amanda's.
[Matt Rice]: They will yeah, that that is part of the accessibility requirements from the Massachusetts architectural access board as well. So we will, we'll be complying with that. 100%.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there'll be ramps leading up if the bleachers are raised, we always incorporate ramps to get up to those that are appropriate.
[Unidentified]: Great.
[Matt Rice]: Okay, easy breezeway. Is this me? Am I taking this 1 more?
[h56i5SspnTk_SPEAKER_08]: I think it is architectures.
[Matt Rice]: So, I will adhere then to my, my general sense of brevity. What we're introducing is something called the breezeway, which is a pass through through this portion of the building. really based on the concept that if we have to have people that are in the parking lot, regardless of whether it's this layout or a revised layout, come all the way down to the southern end of the building and all the way up. It's an extended route to get through there, and it's not quite as amenable if we can create essentially a shortcut through the building to get up and through.
In addition to that primary circulation, if people are parking down here and coming up to a game, even though we do have more parking spots up here, For a large field event, there's still going to be a fair amount of people that are parking down and having to walk up. We have that desire line that we're creating or respecting with this breezeway concept, and we'll show you what that looks like in a second. The other real main benefit of this is it allows us to create a separate and dedicated entrance for the Curtis Tufts program, which wants to have a separate identity from the main high school entrance that's really part of the educational plan. and the IEPs for those students that are coming in to have a separate sort of sense of entrance and being. So this allows us to create another frontage that's quiet, a little bit more off the beaten path than the main high school entrance. And it provides some immediate access into their space, which is located through here. So as we walked around the building, we didn't find a really great spot otherwise to achieve that. But by creating this breezeway, you'll see in a second, we have a really amenable spot. to create an access point, both for the Curtis Tufts to the north, as well as to the preschool program, which is located on the 2nd floor in this general area.
In section, I know not everyone can read or get through sections, but this is actually cut through this breezeway piece. If you look in the little plan, the key plan that's in the upper right-hand side of the slide, you'll see this section cut through this heavy dark line right through the center of the building. There is a pathway. The grading is not a very dramatic grade chain from one side to the other as we rise up. We're actually not looking to incorporate any ramps, but rather sloped walkways as it comes up through. So it's a very amenable path for anyone to travel, whether you're in a wheelchair, or if you're just walking up through, there will be some stairs and ramps and stramps and things just to make it a little bit more amenable as you pass through it. And what this could look like and again, these are just some, some early sort of conceptual images of what this might feel like. We don't want it to feel like a tunnel or something that is imposing as an environment for pedestrians to move through, but we will have the ability to sort of view the existing tree line back through daylight. And also during the evening, right? There will be ample lighting across this so that it feels like a welcoming environment. There is a piece of the building that connects up above so that we can have program linked up above on level 3. And we actually do have the ability as well to connect program below at level 1. So this outdoor pass through is really going to happen up at the level 2 elevation. On the right hand side here is where that Curtis Tufts High School entrance would be. On the left is where you have an opportunity to bring in the preschool students. So, we do think that this is going to offer a large improvement from overall pedestrian site circulation as well as a couple of the specialized programs.
So, I will pause there quickly. I think we have about 3 minutes, so maybe I won't pause, but Helen, if you see any.
[Kimberly Talbot]: Other comments there, and just some thumbs up from Brian. Okay, thanks Brian.
[Matt Rice]: Is this, Cody, do you want to give a quick rundown here?
[Mike Cabral]: Yeah, I can do it. Yeah, that's okay. I was, I was muted before, just because I was in the car picking up my daughter, but I'm back in the office now. So, but yeah, I wanted to quickly go over the call for assistance stations around the site. If you're not familiar with what they are, you typically see these on college campuses, but they're a way that you can communicate with police and 1st responders. And in some of these cases, we're also. Uh, looking at, including cabinets as part of the call for assistance stations where they're in close proximity to the athletic fields. So, there's a few locations that we've identified and really we try to put these in locations that are.
You know, they're not regularly occupied spaces away from the building. So, you know, in those dark months, when you go out to your car, and you're parked in the back parking lot, you have some means of feeling safe with the means of communication back to somebody if there is an emergency, or if you do need assistance in those specific areas. So the blue dots are where we're proposing these call for assistance towers. They do have a blue light on top of it and they're always illuminated so people out in the parking lots can always see them and know exactly how far they are away from them if there is some type of emergency. And then up at the athletic field, we put 2 in opposite corners. 1 of the concessions and 1 at the storage shed in the upper right hand corner in the event there is some type of emergency out at that field. And then we're Co, locating 2 in the. Autumn near the soccer field on the multipurpose field where they do include areas of the parking lot as well as a field themselves. You know, and then any, any other situations if they get close enough to the school, there's other means of communication on the school itself. But these would be the locations that we've identified for for the site, including the parking lot and the, the athletic areas.
[Matt Rice]: All right, that does get us to 515 the next steps. I think we mentioned that we're going to have an additional discussion with the. The district about site circulation, vehicular circulation, primarily on site, and that we are going to be getting some review by DCR and written confirmation of those allowable uses on the deep restricted land. And then we're going to set up that subsequent advisory team member meeting early in November. So that is the plan moving forward.
And we probably have a backlog of next advisory team folks that are ready to jump on. We probably have like 27 seconds left if anyone wants to ask a final question. There is no one in the waiting room.
[Kimberly Talbot]: Yeah, I think the next one starts. Yeah, but I think leaving a tiny gap is not a terrible thing for those of us that are continuing on. I think the time spent to review the plan where we're asking for a vote was well spent. And I thank everyone very much for the excellent discussion and comments. Yeah, there was something in the chat. More of a comment, Brian. Oh, another. Okay. Go ahead. Do you want to speak to that?
[Brian Hilliard]: Uh, just a quick thought about having 1, maybe in the top, right up by the. Back of the pool there, I was thinking sort of by your number 6. yeah, yeah, sort of in that that corner in that zone. Just a thought just thought.
[Mike Cabral]: Yeah, no, no, it's a it's a good point. What we can do too. I don't know if those necessarily need to be a tower. That could be something that could be mounted to the top image on the building, but it's a good point. They can we can look at that to see. where the best location for a device like this in that back area. But it's a good point. We'll take a look at that. Because it's own private Idaho back in there.
[Brian Hilliard]: It's a tight little play or a little canyon back there. Sure.
[Matt Rice]: Awesome.
[Brian Hilliard]: Thanks guys.
[Matt Rice]: Yeah, I think the, the trailhead probably for the Mustang loop is going to end up. I mean, it is in there right now and it's going to end up somewhere in that area. So that would be a good adjacency to just for anyone that's coming out of the fells from that pathway to have access to some emergency notification features.
[Kimberly Talbot]: Nick has a question in the chat. You're going to be a CFA station in the breezeway.
[Mike Cabral]: So we wouldn't plan on putting us as call for assistance station the breezeway but we would have a means of communication in there that would be there would be intercoms inside that area we will have camera surveillance in that area as well. I'm not saying that it doesn't have to be a CFA station there. It certainly could be, but we will have, for sure, we will have a means of communication in there. I imagine that the doors will be on the left and right. So we'll have a way to communicate if there is an issue in there. And it might look like, you know, similar to that other station, but we can certainly work with the design team to identify the proper location for something like that. So absolutely, Nick, we'll take a look at that.
[Kimberly Talbot]: All right, so you saw the next step. We would like to reconvene this group. Obviously, we're actively continuing to develop the site plan and after we've had that working session on site circulation with the district reps, I think that would be a great time to reconvene with you all and share the latest and greatest as we move towards getting this set priced in the middle of December. So that's where we are. In our process, so if there aren't any other comments suggestions.
[Tim McGivern]: We can adjourn see in November.
[Kimberly Talbot]: Great. We'll be in touch. Thank you so much.
[Tim McGivern]: Thank you. Thank you.
[Kimberly Talbot]: Thank you.
[Brian Hilliard]: Thank you all. Thank you.