 meeting to order. Welcome everyone to the town of Arlington Redevelopment Board. It is Monday, August 28th. We have several members of the Redevelopment Board joining us remotely who are ill this evening so that we can hold the hearing. So thank you for bearing with us as we changed rooms and tied in our folks remotely. So I'll just go ahead and introduce some members of the board starting with myself. I'm Rachel Zembery. I'm the chair. We've been joining us in person and if Steve and Gene, if you could introduce yourselves who are joining us remotely. Steve Revoloch, good evening. Eugene Benson, thank you. Great, thank you. And we also have with us this evening the director of the Department of Planning and Community Development, Claire Ricker. Thank you, Claire, for joining us. All right. So let's go ahead and jump into our first agenda item. Agenda item number one is the review of meeting minutes. We have two sets of meeting minutes to roll through tonight. The first is the set of meeting minutes from July 10th, 2023, and I will run through and see if there are any additions or corrections starting with Gene. Oh, no additions or corrections. Thank you, Steve. No additions or corrections. Ken? Nope, not this one. Okay, great. Thank you. And I have no additions or corrections either. Is there a motion to approve the meeting minutes from July 10th, 2023 as submitted? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. I'll second. Thank you, Gene. We will take a roll call vote starting with Ken? Yes. Gene? Yes. Steve? Yes. And I may yes as well. The meeting minutes from July 10th have been approved. We'll now move to the meeting minutes from July 24th, 2023, and I will again ask for any additions or corrections starting with Gene. No additions or corrections. Thank you, Gene. Steve? No additions or corrections. And Ken? I think I had one. Okay. I can't seem to find it now. On page four. Okay. I just wanted to add, do you have that one or no? I have it in front of me again. It said, Mr. Law replied that the driveway wouldn't narrow. It would only eliminate parking. I meant, I think I was referring to putting the street trees in the parking space, not in the landscaping strip along the sidewalk, which Gene was referring to at that time. So how would you like to edit this? So we're on the third paragraph from the bottom, Claire, on page four. So planting them in the parking lane would narrow, would require narrowing the already narrow streets, which seems unlikely. Mr. Law replied that the drive line wouldn't be narrowed. It would only eliminate parking. So I said that the street trees could be parked in the parking spaces, eliminating parking, but not narrowing the street, or something along those lines. That was one proposal. The trees would only eliminate parking. They would not narrow the drive line is what you were. No, I think Gene was talking to narrowing the planting strip along there, and then potentially narrowing the street. And I'm not saying no, just move the tree right into the parking if there is parking, and then leaving the driveway in the street alone. But that the buffer would need to be built in where there's currently parking. Correct. Okay. Sorry if that didn't make any, it still doesn't make much, but you know what I'm saying? I know what you're saying. Yeah, buffer, got it. All right. Is there any other correct additions or corrections? No. Great. Is there a motion to approve the meeting minutes from July 24th, 2023 as amended? So motion's. I'll second. Thank you. We'll take a roll call vote, starting with Ken. Yes. Gene. Yes. Steve. Yes. And I may ask as well, the meeting minutes from July 24th, 2023 have been approved. All right. Let's now move to our second agenda item, which is the public hearing for docket number 3760, 1306 to 1308 Massachusetts Avenue. Do we have the applicant with us this evening? Okay. Great. Thank you so much. So for everyone joining us, what we will do this evening is we will provide the applicant with up to 10 minutes for any type of introductory presentation that you would like to make. I'll then turn it over to Claire from the Department of Planning and Community Development who might have an overview of information for us. We'll then turn this over to the board for any questions that they might have for you. We'll have some initial discussion. I'll open this up for public comment. And then the board will decide whether or not to take a vote this evening or if there's any additional information that's required. Okay. So with that, if I could invite the representative from the applicant forward, the microphone's right here in front of us. You're more than welcome to make any presentation you would like. And Claire would be happy to pull up anything you might want to see from the application on the screen as well. Okay. Awesome. I'll do my best. Sean, I need you to come help me do this presentation. I'm not seeing any screen. You can shoot. Can I help you? If you'd like, I've got Zoom here, but I can't access it. Yeah. And I've got Zoom here as well. We'll have technical assistance. He'll be here in a minute. Thank you. I apologize. It's all right. Oh, there he is. Right here. Thank you so much, Sean. Just because I'm not able to put on the window that Jean is on. There he is. Excellent. What screen? What would you like me to start with? Just the plans? And it's even harder when everyone's waiting. I know. I'm so sorry. No, it's not your fault. We're all using a new system this evening while we're temporarily in this room, so I appreciate your patience. It will not cut into your time. No, no, it certainly won't. Sean, this still isn't working for me. I'm sorry. Madam Director, is it possible the document is in one of the other tabs? So they can see this at home, but I can't see it up there on the screen. Oh, is it with two different screens? Okay. There we go. That'll do it. Fantastic. So two screens. I can make it duplicate or whatever you see on this is up there. That would be great. That would be very useful. Thank you. Oh, just if there's any communication that would be up there. Okay. Oh, that. Is that the plan you wanted to see? I believe it's missing some. This is. It's not this. It's the signage. We can just go to the first page. Okay, that's excellent. Are you going to look to the site plan or the floor plan A104? A104? A104? That's the floor plan. A104 is the floor plan. Yep, a little bit more. Just a site plan. I don't know why it's not rendering. Can you go ahead and get started? No, it's fine. Yeah, if you want to go ahead. We have it all electronically. So if you're okay with speaking to it while Claire tries to pull that up, we can go ahead. Okay. Great. Thank you. So if you could just introduce yourself, that would be fantastic. Okay. Thank you. Absolutely. So hello, my name is Natalia Kirino. I'm the designer for the project at 1306, 1308, Mass F. Here with me we have the applicant, which is the Cardo Batista. So the proposed design consists of an interior renovation for an existing retail space, where we're proposing a retail space as well, about 522 square feet, and also an office space. So just to clarify, 1306 is currently an office space, and 1308 is a retail space. What we're doing is pretty much just switching positions. So 1306 we're proposing to be a retail space, and then 1308 would be the office space. So the office space would be for the RB Farina Roofing Company, which is a company that's been serving the neighborhood for the past 40 years. So they're just pretending to expand their office facility to better assist the community, and also propose a showroom for the customers. We're not proposing any change on the footprint of the building, no exterior work will be done, just a new sign for the RB Farina Roofing, and no structural work will be done as well. So all the beams and columns will remain as existing. And it's just going to be interior partitions for office spaces. The building will be AJ compliant, so we have two AJ bathrooms, and also two restaurants for the employees. And I believe that's all. Okay. If you have any questions, I'm happy to. Yeah, here we go. Okay, great. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. No problem. Claire, did you have anything to bring to the attention of the board regarding this application? Sure. So this is an application for a special permit for the board to review and approve the change of use from retail to a commercial office of greater than 3,000 square feet in the B3 Village business. There is some signage that is associated with this project. We received a drawing that shows the dimension of the signs, but no detail or section and no indication of whether or not the sign is going to be internally illuminated. So that would be, you know, on the recommendation of the board. If that is a future something you'd like to assign to staff or have the applicant come back to talk about the signage, we could do that. The other thing I'd like to point out is that there are no parking spaces that are associated with the storefront, but that is typical. They did not submit a parking plan, but, you know, I believe the parking that is available here is the public street. A new office would require seven spaces with two short-term bike parking spaces, two long-term bike parking spaces. I think the board may be interested in considering requiring some interior bike parking and or bike storage on the site, but that the public parking on Mass Ave and public bike rack facilities right now are what is being proposed for parking and bike parking. Great. Thank you very much. So we'll go ahead and open this up to any questions that the board might have for you and your team. Great. We'll start with Ken. Do you guys own the building or are you guys renting the building and fitting it out? You're buying the building. Okay, congratulations. I'm just going to ask, I know that it's not convenient, but if when you're responding, if you wouldn't mind just coming up to the microphone so that we can pick that up, that would be great. Thank you so much. That's okay. Thank you. You guys probably know much better than I do, but you guys have like a moat in the backyard right behind the building where there's a retaining wall and where the landscape comes down. And it's, you know, it's pretty, are you guys planning to fix that up at all or or what are your plans for that back space? There's no real access from anywhere. You can't get it from anywhere, but through your building. So it's pretty much landlocked back there, but it's a huge eyesore or insects grow in that swampy area. I mean, you guys can clean it up and try to clear off the area drain or some of that. So it just becomes a little more friendly to the neighborhood. Yeah, we're planning to clean it up. Absolutely. Yeah. We just got, I mean, I was aware of this when we saw this site plan. They probably knew before. So we actually talk about this, probably just clean it up. If any retaining wall, I mean, we have also a structure engineer in the team. So if any retaining wall reinforcement is needed, we can also reinforce as required. I think the retaining wall is fine. It's just the the fact that it's all dilapidated. There's chunks of brick down there. It's got to be at least a couple inches of mud down there and just trash and debris. And the only way you get access to that is through your rear door. So I'm just hoping you guys, you know, be good neighbors and sort of clean that area up a little bit. And let me cut. Yes, I would just say that we are more than happy to try some activity that can enhance the area, not just making sure that that is clean and looking good, but also trying to, we cannot do that in a back, but also making sure that we can support the city with some bikes, because we have the area across close to us too. So we could have some kind of encouragement for the community to have some bikes and things like that. Yes, answering. We would clean everything and make sure that that looks good. Okay. Claire, can you pull up a 104, please? Yes. It's the floor plan a little further up. Okay. If you look at that floor plan there where you have your marketing, your marketing suite right there. The showroom in the front? Nope. In the middle, in the middle, there's AW marketing. I don't know. It gives you a ceiling height, but that room there. There's actually a door there that you guys are infilling now. There's a door that accesses out to the side. It goes to the driveway, to the citizen's bank. Do you guys have some sort of easement with them, or somewhere where you guys plan to get rid of that door and infill it with brick the way you shown it here? I might make a suggestion saying if you do have some sort of easement back there where you can use that as an access, you might, I was going to suggest that maybe you have two bicycle parking there for long-term parking for your employees. If you choose to ride the bicycle to where they work, they don't have to drag it all the way through your showroom space or anything else. They can sort of access from the side maybe, and then this way you're encouraging some possibility of employees riding the bicycles when the weather's good. That might be a suggestion, and if you can allocate some space inside. I know you have it extremely well laid out, but if you can find some space for at least two bicycle parking there, that would be nice. I think there might be access there. There's no other access besides the front door. I'm not even sure how you guys are dealing with the two means of egress, because the front door is one. Where's your second? The what? The back door. It goes nowhere. It goes into, you know what, you didn't know anyone went back there. It's just a big pit. It's an un-maintained courtyard basically. Yes, and there's no access. You have a retaining wall. When you first go out that door on the left, you get the building to your right. I think it's the back of the kitchen to the restaurant next door, and then you've got the hill right behind you, so I'm not sure how you get two means of egress out of that space there. I know it's out of our preview. It makes sense, again, if it can solve two. It affects how you have the front door laid out. Yeah, absolutely. We could definitely keep that door, the wing feuding. That wouldn't be a big deal. I'm not sure you can't keep that door. That door is not illegal. It's a pre-existing condition, which you can have as a door, but it's not a three-foot door. It has a curb to it. You'll have to work that through with the building department, too. With the viewing department? Yes, exactly. I'm not saying it's our place to do that, but if you have to put a second means of egress, that means you have to put a rated quarter down the side somewhere and punch out with a door on one side or the other of the front of your building. I think that would affect how this whole thing looks. You have a nice looking, which you've done that looks nice, but you know where to get a corridor in there, you're going to have to sacrifice something. Yeah, but that wouldn't be a big deal. We thought about actually having other options for the layout, and we thought about keeping the door, so that's something that I could. So in the retail space, you put a hallway along the back side of that retail space, so there'll be a hallway there, and then you access the retail space from inside that little vestibule there, or something like that? Could it be? I think the retail space is small enough that it... It's a small space. No, but this whole space in these two means of egress. The larger space, but the small retail space. Yeah, but then you bring the corridor right there, then that's your second means of egress through a two-out rated hallway. Yeah, but that's not in our purview, but I think that there's a payment one. The code reveal might let us just have one for the retail space. Retail? Yes, not from. It's below 500 square feet. It's nine. That's right. Okay. That there, I'm very proud of this project. I've seen that storefront empty for the longest time, and putting something there is good. And the other thing I have is right now, I'm assuming all your work trucks park somewhere else, right? Where do the work trucks park right now? They have a parking lot in Malden. In Malden? Yes. Okay, so that's where they have all their stock, the ladders, this staging, and all the stuff there. So this is just administrative and showroom. Yeah, we do have our operation department working in Malden, where we have our parking lot too. Our trucks are always there. What we have here is that the sales team, usually in the end of the afternoon or sometime in the middle of the day, they need to stop by to get some material to deliver for customers or sample, and then they have been parking at David Street up there after the Cambridge, the bank. This is what they do. Sometimes they do park in a mass app just to pick up something quickly and then leave, but they don't really spend time in the office. Usually it's just the staff and management. This is how we are working. I see them park alone, park out a lot on the hill. Yes, because we have eight, almost nine sales members, and then it's kind of switching every time it's one. That's all that comes ahead for now. Okay, great. Thank you, Ken. Thank you for your answers. So we'll now turn it over to Jean for any questions you might have. Yeah, thank you. And I also think it's a nice project, and my only questions relate, well, some of my questions relate to the bicycle parking, and that is, do you think you'll be able to fit two inside bicycle parking spaces into the office area? Two parking spaces for Michael? That's where you say the bicycle? Yeah. And I think outside, you don't really have any of your own property outside, but maybe to be able to work with the town to see if there's a place to put an additional outside bicycle parking. Would that be okay? Yes, that's okay. Great. For the retail space, do you have any prospects to rent it? No, we don't. Not at this moment, yeah. Do you accept to have any exterior lighting? I didn't see any. No, we're just doing just a sign. No lighting, no illuminated logo. Those were my only questions. Thank you. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Jean. Steve. Thank you, Madam Chair. Likewise, I recognize this particular storefront has been empty for quite a while, and I'm really happy to see a new owner come in and make an investment. On the northeast corner of the property, right next to the northeast corner of the building, there is a blue bicycle rack. Is that part of the property, and is that staying or what are the, yeah, I guess, is that bike parking area part of the property and what are the plans for it? I believe you mentioned that it's part of the property. We're just planning to keep it, correct? Just keep it, yeah. Okay. I think there's three or four spaces possibly there. I happen to know this because it is my favorite bike parking spot in the Heights, but it's quite convenient. But aside, I do have one question about the sign. Director Ricker mentioned it wasn't a complete sign package. One thing to keep in mind that may come into play is there's sort of a vertical spacing requirement for the sign and the sign band. You need 20% on top or 12 inches, and 20% for 12 inches on the bottom, whichever is less. I don't know the width of that sign band, but you may, I'd just suggest, you know, maybe consider centering it. And I think that's all I had. Okay, great. Thank you, Steve. So the only comment I had as well was about the sign. So I think I would feel comfortable with moving for an administrative approval, but one thing which would mean that you would need to submit signage details to the Department of Planning and Community Development for their review and approval, as long as it falls within our guidelines in terms of the upper and lower spacing, the spacing from the sides and the actual size of the sign. You know, the department can approve it. If you're looking for any relief, we would need to reopen this special permit application, and you would need to come before us again. One thing that I just want to point out is you're working through the details. I believe if I'm not mistaken that there's a slight pitch to that roof. So again, that I think that's one of the reasons why we would like to see the sign detail to understand is this on a backer? Are you standing this off? How are you mounting this so that it's easily legible? And then I think too, even just in looking at the sign here, some of the black on that dark roofing material is a little hard to read. And I would encourage you just to think about again the legibility of the sign as you're working through those final details, you know, a backer may actually wind up helping people to be able to read the sign or maybe think about whether, you know, again, just taking a look on site at the black on that dark roofing color and whether or not that will project enough. Yeah, absolutely. I'll check this. The rendering never shows really the reality, right? The rendering is always hard. So that's why I'm just suggesting that that's something you take a look at before submitting the package to the department. Okay, perfect. Yeah, we'll make sure we just make sure we follow all the guidance for the sign so that way we don't need to get any pressure. Okay, great. Thank you. Are there any other questions for the applicant from the board before I open this up for public comment? I see Steve shaking. I said no, no from Jean. Not this time. Okay, great. So at this time, I would ask any member who is, any member of the public who has joined us this evening, if you'd like to make a comment on this hearing, please raise your hand. Seeing none, we'll close public comment for this hearing and I'll turn it back over to the board to see if there are any further questions. I think first what I'd like to do is summarize what I heard as potential conditions to the approval of this docket. So one would be to submit a complete sign package to the Department of Planning and Community Development for administrative approval, assuming with the caveat that it meets the requirements of the signage by-law and the zoning by-laws. The second is to include two interior bike parking spaces and through the Department of Planning and Community Development, you can also request our bike parking standards, which have requirements for what type of, what type of, what's the word I'm looking for here, Steve? Rack, I guess. Yep. What type of interior bike racks are approved by the town? And the third was to work with the town to locate an exterior, to see if you can locate an exterior bike parking location. And then the fourth really I think is covered by one of our typical conditions, which is again to work with the building department for all required, all required reviews, which would include the review of the location of that second mean-to-be address. Thank you. And the final condition would be to clean and maintain and ensure proper drainage of the rear courtyard. Does that sound like what you would intend? Okay. Anything else, Ken, in terms of conditions? No. Good luck. Okay. And so what the Board would also be doing at this point then is finding that we are in agreement with the, with the change of views would be our finding for this, that is here. Madam Chair, we also need to waive the automobile parking requirements as part of this, which I think we would all do, but it does need to be in the finding since such a permit. Excuse me. I was a little unclear about the sign. We are not issuing a sign permit, as I understand. They need to go back and file the materials to get a sign permit with planning and community development, who will then decide if they can administratively approve it or if it will have to come back to the Board. So I just wanted that clarification. Correct. That is, that is the intent of the condition. Yes. All right. I'd like to point out one other thing and I'm not saying this to fault the applicant, but, and because it's in all three of the applications today, if you look at the requirements and middle checklist on the second page, I think it's on a different tab. That's okay. I'll just say what it is. There's a requirements and middle checklist. The second page has a checkbox that's not checked. That says sustainable building and site design elements. Two parts of it, neither of which they did. The first part is the solar energy systems assessment in which they either have to do the assessment or give a detailed explanation of why the project meets an exemption. Because they didn't do what I looked and I believe they meet an exemption for change of use. So I'm not going to raise this as an issue, but I want to just point this out that in the future, if people don't check off these boxes, they should be told that they're not going to be able to go forward with this. So in this case, I don't think it matters because it's easy to figure out the exemption as a change of use. Thank you, Jean. That's it. Okay, great. And just to reiterate where we are waving the requirement for parking on site, that is relative to section 6.1.5 in the zoning bylaws for record. Great. Okay, Steve. Yes, Madam Chair. Going back to the proposed list of conditions, the applicant, the proposal that the applicant work with the town to find a place to provide bicycle parking, if I understood the applicant earlier, they, the property already has a rack installed and they were planning to keep it. Okay, great. So we will eliminate that condition. Steve, that rack is not theirs. The rack to the left off the sidewalk? Yes. There's a four-bike parking rack? No, that's not. Only a portion of that is on their property. Three of the park, three of the bike parking spaces are on the bank property. And I believe I'm not sure who owns that, but when we approved the restaurant, that bar up there, they fixed the bricks down there before it was all torn apart. Someone went and fixed all that brick and it was not the owner, it was not the previous owner. So I want to make it clear that four spaces there for the bicycle parking, which I think is a great space, is a great location, but it's not part of their property. My answer. Okay. Well, in that case, I should retract my suggestion. Thank you. You can see it on your site plan when you look at it. It's not within your property. Okay. So again, are there any other comments from the board before we make a motion for approval? Okay. Seeing none, I will ask if there is a motion to approve, excuse me, let me just pull up the docket number, approve docket number 3760, the application for 1306-1308 Massachusetts Avenue. With the conditions as previously stated, I'll recap those to include two interior bicycle parking locations to work with the town to see if you can locate an exterior bike parking rack on your property to clean, maintain, and ensure proper drainage in the rear courtyard and to submit a full signage package to the Department of Planning and Community Development for review and approval. Those would be the conditions and we would find that the redevelopment board approves the change of use and also is willing to waive the on-site parking requirements due to the inability to create them on your site per section 6.1.5 in the zoning bylaws. Is there a motion? So motion. Is there a second? Gene, we can't hear you. I think you're muted, but I think I saw your mouth say I was. A second. Sorry. That's okay. Thank you. We'll take a roll call vote starting with Ken. Yes. Gene. Yes. Steve. Yes. And I'm a yes as well. Congratulations. And we really look forward to seeing you take over that space. So thank you. All right. So that closes the public hearing for docket number 3760, 1306 to 1308 Massachusetts Avenue. We'll now move to public hearing, the public hearing for docket number 3759, 355 Massachusetts Avenue. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And as the applicants change places, I believe that you heard the order of business will take this hearing in the same fashion. So I would invite you if you could introduce yourself and you'll have up to 10 minutes for a presentation to the board. Sure. Hi, my name is Seth Morrissey. I'm an architect at Olsen Lewis Architects and I'm representing Dr. Sarah Courtney and Mr. Matthew Owens for their plans to renovate 355 Mass Ave. Dr. Sarah Courtney runs her business out of the first floor and she wishes to renovate the residential unit above to be her own residence for her young family. There's no change of use. There was there has been a business there for around 50 years on the first floor and the bulk of this work is mainly focused on the second and third floor. But in doing and making the spaces more livable for our young family and more safe, we've ended up renovating much of the exterior to meet today's standard of living and bring more aesthetic pleasing look to the neighborhood. If you could pull up the existing photos, I think that gives a good picture of, you know, some of the issues that we were looking at with the existing site. So the building hasn't been has been touched many times over the years. There's been various additions to the back and closing multiple porches, which have different levels and heights, which have caused much water, a lot of water damage to occur in the existing spaces. So the idea and the addition is to add some space to the second floor and clean up a lot of the roof lines on the rear of the building. We intend to keep the existing height of the main ridge the same, but extend the main ridge all the way through to the back of the building, simplifying the massing of the site. I think if you go up to the elevations, we can do the colored one. Should be a 2.0, please. I think it's a 2.1. 2.1. Yeah, so that's page 24. Oh, sorry, page 23. Hold on just a second. So since we started renovating the plan was to renovate the second and third floor, we ended up replacing, planning to replace the windows on the first floor to match the new windows. Okay. We're doing the vinyl siding with the new 4-inch clavards, typical of the residential neighborhoods around here. I apologize. That's okay. There we go. One more page. One more page, please. I'll see what I can do. Doing a great job. Maybe that's the PDF. Sorry. It is a big PDF. It's been a little temperamental for me. I use Gloobie. Gloobie is better. It took a while to get used to. Try to just reopen this. You know, we can't see what's on the screen, but if you tell us the page number, I think we can do that. There we go. Yeah, page number 23, Jean. I have 96. Okay. Well, 23 of the individual PDF. 22.1. Yes. Okay, I've got that. Great. I'm totally frozen, Jean. That's okay. I'm fine. I can just start to describe it. That's fine. And I'll look on with Ken. So in drawing A, the Mass Ave elevation, we have added a porch cover over the existing stone porch that is there. We've added a little bit more character and make the entrance a little bit more inviting. The main gable still is there as you can see in the front. And we've just replaced the windows with more traditional double-hung windows as opposed to some of the larger windows that were there existing. At all the bay windows, we are adding paneling under a paneling detail below just because it is a typical detail when you're dealing with like a hearty blank clabbered. You'll see on the rear elevation that we are adding another covered porch to which this will be the client's main access into our apartment. Again, creating a more inviting entrance to the existing space. I think that's it. I think that's it. I mean, I think we'll be adding dormers on the third floor just to help to give the client more space. But overall, the goal was to simplify the structure and make it a little bit more appealing. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Oh, you did a good job making it more appealing. Thank you. So Claire, I will turn it over to you for any comments you might have before we open it up to the board. Yes, great. Thank you. This is a great project. So this is an application by Matt DeMello of DeMello Fine Building and Woodworking for a special permit under the jurisdiction of the ARB. The applicant seeks approval of significant exterior renovation in addition of a covered porch and mixed use building on Massachusetts Avenue. I think if there's anything that I wanted to point out to the board, again, it's bike parking. There's none proposed as this is also a residence and the driveway for the building serves the residents. I'm not sure exactly how the driveway also serves the business, but there is ample parking again on Massachusetts Avenue that has been used successfully by this business for years. I think that's it. I think, you know, with respect to Mr. Benson's comments earlier, I did speak with Seth a bit about solar. I believe this roof is going to be solar ready. If not, solar installed. I believe the owner is taking a look at what it would cost to install solar, but that the roof that is going on could certainly handle it. This is not a historic building and the use has been in place since at least 1980. And in terms of, I think, any efficiency or lead standards, obviously, it looks like we'll be doing Energy Star Certified Appliances, Mechanical Systems, et cetera. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Claire. All right. And I'll turn it over to the board for any questions starting with Ken. I have one. It's a very nice project. I support it. Great. Thank you, Ken. Gene. Yeah, I don't have any questions other than one. I just wondered if she'd be, and I don't think we would require this if she'd be interested in putting a bike rack somewhere there. So her clients, customers, whatever, she terms them who ride up on a bike have a place to lock their bike. We did discuss it a little bit and the way the site now is there's a kind of a small retaining wall. So you'd actually have to do a pretty decent amount of work to actually create that space. And again, we would prefer not to have it in the back in the driveway because that is our residence. And that's, I mean, we're open to it, but it just, it seems like it would be more work than expected. Okay. Thanks. Just asking. Great. Thank you, Gene. Steve. No questions, Madam Chair. Great. Thank you. So at this point, I'll open this up for public comment. Anyone who's joined us this evening, if you wish to speak, if you could raise your hand. All right. Seeing none, we will close public comments. And I will turn this over to the board to see if there is any additional discussion. I'm not tracking any special conditions at this point, but I will start with Ken. No. Gene? None. Steve? None. Great. Is there a motion to, let me pull up the docket number. I had one more request. Please. So in doing this planning process, the client has actually moved out of our business and hasn't been able to work in the office. And we're looking to kind of fast-track this a little bit more. So we're seeking approval for the wave of the 20-day appeal period as well. That, I don't think we can waive, unfortunately. I apologize. Okay. Yep. So. We told you in the past, sorry. Please go ahead, Ken. You can proceed at your risk. Yes. Is that something the board would be willing to do? Well, that's not us. Okay. We say proceed at your risk. Yeah. Proceed at your risk. We're not going to punish you for it. All it is is someone, a neighbor or something, would come up and want to say no. Right. And they're going to challenge you. Yeah. I've seen other projects do that. They want to streamline it. They should proceed it at their own risk. Okay. So if I approach the buildings back there and say that you guys are okay with us proceeding at risk. Well, I mean, no, I mean, you'd still have to pull a building permit. Yeah. So that we, you know, again, we had talked about the fact that you could pull a separate interior versus exterior permit. That's really the only thing that we can provide you the opportunity for. Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Anything else? Great. So with that, is there a motion to approve docket number 3759 for 355 Massachusetts Avenue? So motion. Is there a second? I'll second with the conditions that Claire had added to her memo. The usual conditions. Yes. The usual conditions. Yes. Thank you. No special conditions. No. Okay. So we'll take a vote starting with Ken. Yes. Gene. Yes. Steve. Yes. And I may ask as well. Congratulations. Docket number 3759 has been approved and it's now closed. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We will now move on to agenda item number four, which is the public hearing for docket number 3752 Kellogg's Peak at 251 Summer Street. I don't believe we have anyone from the applicant here this evening. So Claire, I will turn this over to you. Thank you. At 1035 this morning, I received an email from the proponent asking that this hearing be continued at least until October 2nd. They asked for potentially a meeting in September, but this board will be doing, at that point, will be occupied with public hearings related to Falltown meeting and any zoning amendments that are suggested there. So at the discretion of the board, if they wish to continue the hearing to the 2nd, that is a request directly from the project proponent. DPCD did write a memo related to this project as proposed, which you have in front of you. There have been some requests from the property owner and the project applicant requesting or at least asking the board if they would be willing to evaluate this project on its own merits on the Kellogg's Peak side of the property versus the auto sales side of the property. The property owner currently does not wish to make improvements on the side of the property that he will be using. Kellogg's Peak intends to move forward with improvements that they have designed and put in front of this board even in the first hearing. So a question I have is with this, you know, my speaking with Doug Heim, it is at the discretion of the board if they're willing to do this, if you're willing to evaluate this project in that way. I will also point out that the project as sort of proposed to be reviewed by the proponent has not been in front of the select board Health and Human Services or Arlington Police Department at this time. The presentation that was made to those groups showed a single business in that building, Kellogg's Peak, the cannabis dispensary without, you know, a co-location of the auto sales. It is trying to think of how to say this. I think this project can be reviewed on its own merits. Certainly if the board is willing to evaluate a project on half the site. Again, I think it's to the discretion of the board and I would also like to point out, you know, this is not anything that has gone back in front of the select board at this time. Thank you, Claire. Just to clarify, the project that was reviewed and approved by the select board, though, was the full development of the site. It showed the full development of the site with one business in the existing building. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Okay. So with that, I'd like to turn it over to the board for discussion. I think there are two points that we need to come to a consensus on. The first is over whether or not we feel that this needs to go back in front of the select board, Health and Human Services and the APD before we review it. And whether or not we feel that the changes as proposed are substantial enough that it needs to be re-reviewed in terms of the host agreement. Correct. Status. And the second is whether, if we decide that it does not need that, would we then be willing to, that we would, you know, be able to review it in its altered state? Correct. Would we then be willing to continue the hearing to October 2nd? So those are the two items that the board... That's correct. Great. Thank you. And we'll start with Ken. My opinion is, no, that we would ask them to start over again because there's enough change to this project that you need to go back to the select board, the police department, public, all the different agencies that you mentioned, Claire. Health and Human Services. Health and Human Services and establish that, come back with a new plan for us and then for us through you then. With the honesty that they control that portion of the site that they're looking to work on. Great. Thank you, Ken. Jean. I think that it's not our decision whether it needs to go back to the select board for a new community agreement or APD or to Health and Human Services. It's the decision of the select board, APD and Health and Human Services. So I would want to know whether they need to review this again and whether they need a new community agreement or not. If all of them say that they're comfortable with this new proposal and they don't need to review it again, then I would be comfortable in reviewing a new proposal but not the proposal that we've gotten up to this point because I can't imagine what it's going to be like with the auto sales place on one side and the Calix Peak on the other. What are they going to do with the driveways, for example? So I would need to understand what that is. The other thing which I was going to raise if they were here tonight is we don't have in our record the traffic study and therefore we could not make a decision on a traffic study that only went to the select board and that traffic study is a few years old now. And if anything, traffic has gotten worse as the pandemic has slowly wound down and I think it was based on only having the Calix Peak business there. So my opinion is we would need an entire new traffic study done based on the two businesses continuing to operate and current traffic conditions. So that's the other thing that I would like to see also out of this. Great. Thank you, Jean. Steve. Thank you, Madam Chair. I, like Mr. Benson, I would defer to the select board APD and Health and Human Services whether they felt a second review was necessary. If they did not, I would be okay with reviewing the project on its merits. Great. Thank you, Steve. I believe that the question is do we, a corollary question to that because I also agree. I think that we should ask them to approach those three departments and confirm as to whether or not that should be, will be required. How do we feel that the project has changed enough that rather than continue the hearing, we would like them to reapply because it is a substantially different project at this point. So I think that we should ask those three businesses as opposed to if they are granted the permission by those three bodies to continue on with the original host agreement, would we want them to come in with a new, new, new, completely new application? Correct. And I am leaning towards that for several of the reasons that Jean said. I think that the project has been set up and again the fact that this has significantly altered in terms of the application itself. So, Ken, your thoughts? Yeah. I would just say for them to go back. Go back when you are ready. Yeah. Yeah. And if the boards say the original agreement was fine then process it like you normally do it. But it's... But we could close this hearing this evening. I like to close it. That would be my suggestion to close it and have them resubmit once they get approval from all the different boards and go from there. And they've cancelled us three times now. Yes. I mean... This is the third. This is, you know... Come back when it's a more formed project. Yes. Yes. So, Jean, your thoughts? I could go either way. I could also just say if they want to put in a completely revised proposal under this current application I would be fine with that too. Thank you, Jean. I'd go either direction. Steve? I'll agree with Mr. Lyle. Okay. So is there a... I think we would need to vote to... Close this document. Do we have to... We could close it and... Actually that's a... This is a sort of a technical question. Does the applicant need to withdraw? Or can we withdraw on the applicant's behalf? I'm not entirely positive we can, but I don't know for sure. I think the applicant would have... Excuse me, this is Claire, Steve. I think the applicant would have to withdraw and I'm happy to convey that message to the applicant, but I don't think that the board has to vote to continue the hearing. To close the hearing. Yep. So I think what I'd like to see is if there is a motion from the board to request that the applicant withdraw the current application to approach the select board, the Arlington Police Department and the Department of Health and Human Services to confirm whether a new community agreement would be required and at the time when this project is ready to move forward in whatever shape it winds up taking that they reapply to the redevelopment board when their materials are fully compiled. I'm okay with that. That sounds good. Okay. Would you like to make that motion? So motion. Is there a second? Second. We'll take a vote starting with Kin. Yes. Jean. Yes. Steve. Yes. I'm a yes as well. So we will continue this hearing by asking them to, they would have to formally withdraw and at our next meeting we will accept the withdrawal of the application. And if they don't withdraw then. We will disapprove the motion to disapprove. Okay. That makes sense. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Claire. Let's see. And I think we would need to give them a timeframe in terms of getting on the select board schedule. They may be able to get an administrative ruling on this but in case they need to go in front of the select board again I think we would give them until that October 2nd meeting to withdraw. Okay. To formally withdraw. Okay. So that continues agenda item number four. And we will now move to agenda number five open forum. So you'll, if you could please introduce yourself first, last name and address. And you'll have up to three minutes to address the board. Thank you. Okay. All right. So you'll have time to address the board. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. There are already 68 Brentwood road, Allington. I feel like it's on a birthday in many respects. It's three years ago. About 10 days ago when the board granted permission to started prior to COVID and based on the date I just gave you, I'm sure everybody realizes it was during COVID. Hospitality industry was greatly impacted, probably arguably more than anyone else. Needless to say, painting a picture for you basically that I would have been attempting to reach out to the planning department. I last spoke with Kelly on the matter back in April or so and I've had some email correspondence and other voice mails etc. And haven't had much dialogue come back so I was hoping that we could put it on the agenda if it's the desire of the board to discuss that matter at a date. The appeal commenced on September 15th of 2000 and the decision was sometime in early December. So the preference obviously when I first spoke to Kelly about this was to do it prior to September. I'm not sure that's in the cards right now quite frankly because I don't know when your next meeting is if it would be prior to that. But again I didn't come, I understand what public forum is. I didn't come here, you don't have to respond and not looking to have it. So I hope I didn't go to my three minutes but that's really all I wanted to get across and if you do have any questions I'd be happy to answer them if not. If you could put us on the agenda that would be great. Thank you very much. And just so that you know I have been on vacation the last two weeks and Claire and I did speak about this earlier today. I just returned today. And the intent is to put you on probably October 2nd. That agenda once we get through the September hearings for a hearing about your request for a continuation of the approval. Yes, great. I appreciate it. Absolutely. Thank you so much. I hope you had a great vacation. Thank you, I appreciate it. You guys have a big brother. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. So seeing no one else we will go ahead and close open forum for this evening and move to agenda item number six which is new business. And I will turn it over to Claire to see if you have anything for us this evening. Thank you. The only new business I'd like to bring up this evening are updated guidelines that we received I think it was about 10 days ago now from the state regarding MBTA communities with some new regulations as they relate to commercial development. And the chair of the MBTA working group and I are developing a memo in response to these updated guidelines. We think that the work that we have done with the zoning so far is solid. We think that the bonuses and incentives that we have put in place for commercial development are honestly go further than updated MBTA communities guidelines which are only recommending 30% commercial on the first floor. I think believe we are recommending up to 80% on the first floor commercial development. And the fact that we have stayed out of all commercial zones in town really I mean it doesn't necessarily impact us that we would need a regulation that would you know allow for commercial to remain in a development in a commercial zone. We simply did not do the project that way. So while this is an interesting update and guidelines that have come in I you know pretty late in the game for the communities with the heavy rail or with the rapid transit in them such as Newton and Brookline who I believe we're advocating for this change. This is really not something that has impacted the work that we've done in Arlington. We are we are it is contextually different and we think the work of the the work that the working group has done at the ARB has done and that the public has done at this point in Arlington will serve to incentivize commercial development as it is. So although I don't have a memo for the board tonight Sanjay the working group chair and I are putting a memo together for the working group tomorrow which I will distribute and I wanted to this evening at least you know acknowledge that those guidelines have been updated two days after we took our final vote as a working group but I think it would be remiss to let it go sort of undiscussed and unacknowledged. Thank you. Any questions for Claire about that update starting with Kim? No. Gene? Yes thanks. I think the problem for me and maybe for Rachel is I mean I was gone out of the country for a week and saw the guidelines I think just before I left the revised guidelines on commercial and my initial thought which I hadn't sort of thought about since I was in London or since I got back was that they weren't going to be very helpful for us and that we could probably do it better than they were doing. But again I haven't seen the latest map. I haven't seen all of the detail that probably Ken and Steve have seen and you have seen Claire. So I don't really have any context in which to judge what you said. My thinking up to this point has been with the incentives for commercial on the ground floor that we have the MBTA community zone where we're doing the site plan review but if someone hopefully wants the two extra floors and getting rid of the first floor setback they go into special permit review which I believe that we can do because the mixed use isn't required by MBTA community guidance and it sort of seems to me it would be a better way to do it than to create a site plan review which does not give us as much authority in leeway as as putting it into special permit review. So that was my thought about how to do it and I haven't had the chance to say that to anyone until now and I think it's worth having said some conversation about bifurcating that way. So Gene if I'm wrong. And if we do and if we do that then I think that's a lot better than what my initial read of the new guidelines led me to believe. So Gene what I'm hearing is that if the if someone were to opt into the bonuses then it would become a special permit. Yep they got back into the special permit process. Because they're going to get a review from us on either case so we might as well have our better review with the criteria that are in the ZBL right now. Great thank you Gene for that feedback. Steve did you have any feedback for Claire? Yeah. With regards to the new guidance I think I don't think it's necessary for for us to adopt it. I think our the decision to go with bonuses to encourage grant for commercial will work just fine and it's there's not because we're not using any parcels in the business or industrial districts I don't see a strong need to mandate its inclusion. Sorry about that. Mr. Benson's suggestion is intriguing and I will have to give it some thought tomorrow night before tomorrow our meeting tomorrow night. Well if well when either that or we'll all have to discuss it if it doesn't come back from the working group that way. Yeah I do think it I do think that makes sense you know because that is a you know we I think I think that it's an interesting idea I think it works I'm gonna I'm gonna I like it but I want to sleep on it a little bit. Understand. I'm just gonna say what the working group will probably think because I've been working with them for a while and they're thinking that they're using this as of right and the bonuses would be as of right and you're saying now that if you want to take any bonuses you have to go back into the special permit which which then has a chance of not getting approval so the encouragement to take these bonuses are not as high because yes we're making the MVD communities is as of right to do housing in these areas but if they want to take advantage of any of the bonuses. Well let me just say I could be persuaded otherwise but at the moment you probably would not have my vote if it was as of right without a significant special permit review by us that's just my feeling at the moment but I'll have to sleep on it the same way Steve. You know I'm not saying one way the other either. I think I think again I don't want to get into you know a discussion of this particular since this wasn't on the the agenda but I do think that it is important for us to see Jean what is being proposed for site plan review to understand because we haven't seen that right in terms of what what the standards are what what the teeth are are within that so agree but it can't be as significant and as far reaching as understood but I think that is part of the review is to understand what is being proposed to that end the other item of did you have another item of business. Yes before we move on may I ask a clarifying question of Mr. Benson yes so Mr. Benson we had the working group have been discussing three different bonuses one for the inclusion of ground floor commercial one for the inclusion of additional affordable units and one for a project that was certifiable as sites gold would you were you thinking in terms of having a special permit requirement for all three of those or only the ground floor commercial mixed use bonus. Well I think that's a big question about whether we as a board like all those three incentives and wanted to would want to put them all into the same package now you know I haven't seen this but I heard through the grapevine and maybe the grapevine was wrong or inaccurate that we're not actually requiring site certification or even certifiable but some lesser site standard than real sites if that were indeed the case I would be really really concerned that we took a product that took years of the green building council to come up with and started stripping things out of it and still give people credit for it so if that's if it's like sites less I'm not so happy with it but again this is just what I heard through the grapevine that had me concerned but the answer Steve is yeah I would probably be okay with site plan review if it was for affordable housing I'd have to understand what the incentives are to say for sure we really need to see the full package absolutely yeah so that brings me to our our next item so our agenda on September 11th is to review the full MBTA communities package is that that's correct correct that's correct so one of the challenges we are going to have in terms of timing is that is also the day that the warrant opens and closes so we have several articles outside of MBTA communities that the board has already reviewed and voted on and put on to the spring town meeting which was will then just push right into to fall those can easily be can be moved on to onto the warrant and I'll just for the record review what those are those are to modify requirements for landscaped and usable open space in the business districts reduction of rear yard setbacks in business districts clarify and adjust step back requirements in business districts eliminate or reduce the reduced height buffer area modify the corner lot requirements and adjust height and story minimums in the business districts and at a minimum height requirement those are the warrant articles that we had previously voted on for spring time meeting and pushed to the fall madam chair what is there also one about stepbacks I guess clarifying adjust step back if I didn't read that I apologize that is I might have missed it it's okay I read them quickly so yes stepbacks are included in that so in addition to that we will need a language around the MBTA communities zoning proposal which will be broad because it will encompass multiple sections of the zoning code and in fact create an overlay yes within that clarify understand correctly the site plan review process will be included that's correct currently as written the board will use the in the EDR process the process that you currently enjoy as a non-discretionary review review process a site plan review so there was a package that was sent to EOHLC which is the successor I think to EOHED for pre-adoption review that went in at the beginning of last week I'm happy to share that package with the board obviously we can't deliberate on it but you know I think certainly as I'm happy to send that along I think that would be helpful to to see ahead of well ahead of that meeting but that meeting that would be great so without having the opportunity so the warrant on September 11th opens and closes before our meeting that evening so what we would need to do is to ensure that we are comfortable and I'm happy to work together with Claire and if we decide it's it's Jean you know two of us can work together to ensure that the language is written such that we do not need to review and vote as a board on the actual warrant language for again not the entire not all of the language basically just the heading for the warrant that is that is what needs to be included and obviously the full language of the article is what we will review starting on September 11th with the hearing process that will run through September on all of these actually the others that we had identified were rezoning the Saint Camilla's parcel which I don't believe we are in a position Claire correct me if I'm wrong to move forward with at this point that is correct so we will take that off from fall and if we decide to pursue that for spring that's when we will look at that one the other one is a pretty simple one which again we've been speaking about from multiple meetings now which is to remove single and duplex slash two family by right in the business districts is a simple article that needs to be written and adding street two requirements for every 25 feet of street frontage for all developments again this does not mean that we are if we submit these that we are in any way beholden to move these forward post hearing but we need to get these onto the docket unfortunately before our meeting that that evening so what I would like to propose is that I work together with Claire and perhaps Jean although Ken and Steve we could certainly submit and have you we could have Claire or myself collate feedback and make sure that the language is submitted during the warrant open warrant article period and again this would not affect our hearing process we would still have full hearings and still need to fully develop the actual warrant article language for the full article so I wanted to get people's thoughts on that as a procedural procedural I don't do business I'm okay with you and Claire doing this okay I just don't have a bandwidth right now totally understand and I appreciate you guys taking time to do that okay Jean yeah I just like to review them before they are submitted and the ones that you mentioned other than MBTA communities I think are doable and our should not be very complicated correct I am very concerned about MBTA community stuff because I'm working for that because we have over the six plus years I have been on this board boxed ourselves in more than once by not putting the right wording into the warrant article where we then couldn't do what we wanted to do or had to try to Jerry Rigg what we wanted to do and since neither Claire nor I have seen or participated in what the proposal will be from the MBTA communities working group we don't know whether we like it what I've heard through the grapevine and what I looked at when I saw the map on the website this morning is that at least some of the recommendations that Claire and I made when you did just for record you mean Rachel I mean Rachel I'm sorry that Rachel Rachel and I made I'm not sure if it's COVID or jet lag I understand Jean I'm just trying to help thank you seems not to have made it into these proposals so I don't know where we're going to be on those things so I you'll be great if we could write it both broad enough so that we can make changes to the proposal from the working group if we determine that it's appropriate to do so and that you know it does include things that would allow us to do things that the working group maybe hasn't talked about so that's my concern about it agreed thank you Jean see I am fine I'm completely comfortable with delegating the warrant drafting to the chair to Mr. Vinson and to Ms. Rigger great thank you Steve I appreciate that and we will Claire and I will touch base with Steve again three-quarters of this is complete it is really those two minor clarifications and then the more complex wording of the MBT a community's zoning overlay right district which again we can have an offline discussion about and move that forward and I should mention I thank you both of you the other day about a minor change to a lettering in one of the zoning bylaw sections that we should have done last year when we changed something else but we didn't so the reference is to the wrong section now and I think we can put that in this thank you Jean I am still waiting through my email from being out so I will look for that today I will also just mention that there were two one fairly administrative one I'm not sure if it's quite as administrative requests from the zoning board of appeals and I asked them if they would be willing to hold those for springtown meeting and they seem amenable to to that so we will have a few articles from the zoning board of appeals to discuss for springtown meeting just as an FYI any other items of new business starting with Claire Ken Jean yeah I just want to thank everybody who's been working on MBTA communities because it's been a long I can see drawn-out process in which you get back thrown at you fairly regularly and you know I'm getting I'm sure the rest of you are getting lots of emails from people some of which are heartfelt and some of which are heartfelt but are based on a lot of misinformation so I just want to thank everybody here and everybody else on the committee who's been working so hard great thank you Jean I'd also like to extend that to all of the members of the public who have attended the meetings and provided feedback and to all of those who are continuing to provide written feedback as well it's very helpful Steve any other items of new business no new business for me manager great thank you Claire actually did you want to mention the postcard which went out yes thank you and in fact it was it's it's funny I was just thinking of it so we yeah the excuse me the community outreach section of the MBTA communities working group has worked very hard to put together a postcard with QR code that will send folks to the MBTA communities web page which of course has all of our information and our iterative work on it this postcard went out is went out in a bulk mailing this afternoon it encourages folks to provide comment at the September 11th hearing and then to continue to provide comment and advocate for MBTA communities as as they can through the process before town meeting so this is a full town mailing it will go out to like I said it went out it went out today I had a conversation with Rachel about it this morning as I also booked town hall for your September 11th meeting because we will be expecting quite a few people to be there for that so postcard mailing today out to the full town obviously clearly legal notice will go legal notice is going out to about 4500 homes also this week as as is required so we do think that we have our basis covered in terms of town notification and you know we will we will move on from here excuse me what happens if we when it gets to redevelopment board adjust the map will we then send out cards or letters to property owners who weren't done before so this is we required to we did we notified everybody who is under the potential overlay as well as those who extend 300 feet from the edge of the overlay I am not anticipating changes to the map that are so significant that we would need to notify a new group of property owners if we do then we'll have to do that okay thanks short thank you gene any other questions for Claire regarding the mailing can Steve no no great thank you any other new business no great seeing none I will see if there is a motion to adjourn so motion second we'll take a boat starting with Ken yes Jean yes Steve yes yes as well we are adjourned thank you everybody thank you everybody feel better