 Good evening, everybody. I'm Maureen Zemrak, president of the North Thering Neighborhood Association. And tonight we're having a meeting to discuss 194 Auburn Street and the gas station suggestion of being put there and reopened. Tonight's speakers representing site design associates and Cian Brown is Tom Saussier, is that correct? Saussier, not French, I'm sorry. And also here tonight is Kevin Moore from Cian Brown Company. Tom Saussier, the site design associates. We're here tonight to present a proposal by Cian Brown Company to reopen a historic business at 194 Auburn Street, which is the fueling station for automobiles. They also are proposing to open a heating oil office in that facility. The building will be limited to fuel sales and heating oil office activity. There'll be no servicing of automobiles there under this proposal. No convenience stores, basically just the historic use that's been there since 1955 or somewhere thereabouts with the added use of the heating oil office. We met with city officials in the planning office and the code enforcement office, explained our proposal. Let me back up and tell you why we're here. In September 11th, the gas station, September 2011, the gas station was closed and wasn't reopened within a year. When that happens, your grandfather's status expires. A major or minor service station is not permitted in the current R3 zone. So we met with city officials in the planning and code enforcement office and asked what process do we need to use to reopen this gas station? Their suggestion, they had a couple alternatives. The best one seemed, there were two viable ones. One was a suggestion to rezone the site to a B2 zone where the use of service station is a permitted use or to go for a conditional rezoning to a B2. The difference between those two is is that the B2 zone has a wide variety of uses, more intense uses than maybe you'd want to see in this neighborhood. The conditional B2, conditional rezoning, basically it stipulates what uses can be allowed in that B2 zone on that site. So we can limit the uses. The dimensional requirements are all stipulated specifically for this site within the B2 zone. So say if CM Brown opened in 10 years and closed, all the other uses that are permitted in a B2 zone would not be allowed on that site. It would probably, and we haven't figured out with the city whether it'd revert back to R3 and that might be part of the conditional rezoning. There's a contract that you sign with the city that outlines the dimensional requirements, the use, what happens if the business closes and all the details of that. The process for doing all that is that we submit an application within two to three weeks of submission of the application to the planning department. We hold a neighborhood meeting, we send out notifications to the neighborhood and there's a planning board workshop. That workshop planning board reviews a project, I think technically that's not a public hearing when they have the workshop, they'll schedule a public hearing for another planning board meeting or they might open that one up to that. The planning board's function is to make a recommendation to the city council on whether they believe that the conditional rezoning should proceed. The recommendation can be positive, it can be negative, either way, it will go to the city council. If we received from the planning department a negative recommendation, you might need to rethink some of the terms of the contract or the conditions that will be applied to the rezoning. When it goes to the council, the council will have two readings of the proposal to do the conditional rezoning. They'll do it typically at two consecutive council meetings, but if we get to the first council meeting, they said we'd like to tweak this and make certain adjustments to the contract and it might be a third meeting or a fourth meeting after the first one you go to. Both of those council meetings are open to the public to speak out at that time and again, we'll have the neighborhood meeting, planning board public hearing, so there's plenty of opportunity for input from the public. It was suggested by city staff that we reach out to the Northeering Neighborhood Association before we do anything and meet with you folks, explain to you what we're trying to do here. We haven't filed any applications, we haven't done anything except meet with the city before we talked with you folks and we held this meeting to explain the proposal and listen to concerns. I've got a site plan here and basically the site plan represents the existing conditions out there. It's part of the conditional rezoning. We'll probably propose some landscaping, there'll be some improvements to the building and possibly some site improvements to the walks and things like that. It's part of the heating oil office. There will be a couple delivery trucks on the site, park there. In the winter they're on the road most of the time but they could be there if the drivers are gone for the night or something like that. There is an opportunity to put a couple of those trucks inside, move the garage doors off the front and put them around to the end and get the trucks inside. So we're looking at that, is one thing is part of this. But essentially we're not proposing any changes to the curb cut, the building footprint, the gas pumps, the same number of gas pumps, it's the same gas pumps, not the same number, it'll be just the same gas pumps that have been there for, well that were there when they closed in 2011. So, made it kind of simple but it is we think and I'll take any questions. Thank you, you said that, I'm trying to orient myself. The right hand side of the gas station, I'm looking at it right ahead. I thought there was a road that leads down into the, there's some housing units down there. On the right hand side, left, on the left hand side, that's where it is. Okay, that's where that road is and the right hand side is a house, a residential house that's away from it. Yeah. Okay, I just wanted to orient myself. Yeah, it's a 15 foot easement actually for the use of the people behind us. Oh it is? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yes sir. Thank you. Can you tell us of the condition and age of the storage tanks for gasoline at that site? I cannot. Kevin, can you answer that right off? Yeah, they're predated 1988 and they're a 30 year warranty on those. Okay, there is, I'll take the question because we'll get it on the record too. They're installed in 1988 and there's a 30 year warranty. Thank you. Just, I look kind of diagonal to the property. On Auburn Street? On the side where the school is I guess. Okay. 165 Auburn Street. So I can see lightage and things like that. Is there any plans to change signage or lightage or in terms of hours that the lights are gonna be on or that the signs are gonna be up in terms of the brightness of the signs or is it just gonna be what it was before? Well we were, right now the proposal is what it was before but to answer your question about hours the hours will also be regulated in the contract zone and there's no intent to be open real late at night at all. It's selling fuel and the only time you're gonna sell fuel is when there's cars on the road so. Yeah, and in terms of the signage any plans for a new sign or is it just? Kevin? Not, you know. The sign will probably stay as it is. The only thing that might change is where it says service center will stay heating a little off is probably regulated by the city to whatever the deal costs. For the record the sign will stay as it is. The sign that says service center will be changed to heating oil office and the signs will all be in any changes or implementation will be in conformance with the city ordinances. How many trucks will be parked there? There would be two regularly. There might be an occasional need for one more and there's a smaller delivery trucks. So there could be three but we think we can put two in the building. And will be self service or full service? Full service, for the record. When it was open in the past were there any issues with crime? Not through our knowledge. Have you gotten any indication from the city that they have heard from anybody? Any neighbors? Anybody starting to raise some questions? What I'm hearing is from some of those is that some people are beginning to really rethink this. You haven't heard from the school or any of those people? We haven't received anything from the city. Got in touch with any of you guys? No, that's the purpose of this hopefully is to reach out. I mean Ted, I had heard a couple of the same comments generally that there were some neighbors and that's why I asked about the neighbors. I go by there every day and I was you know you don't look at things and you know what's there but you don't know where it is so you just clear me up. I thought that the road was in front of the station but anyway and some of the issue I guess with the budding neighbors is that whiting, Ted raised an issue that and I think the guy directly across the street from you on the other side. You know on the other side of the world and more there's a house there. He had raised an issue that light signage that thing was lit all night and that I think that was an issue that I'm hearing so if there's some way that you can address that when you go into your proposal I think that may stop some of the other thing I heard was what someone had just raised about trucks being out there. Not that when it was a gas station believe me there was broken down cars out there. There were all in that yard so what you're telling me there'll be two heating trucks oil trucks but they'll be underneath cover at night. I heard you say go inside the building and you may have one small van outside. It might be a heating oil delivered truck. That's an improvement to what was there. Trust me. And the other thing is if you can put a pump out there that says free air you will get this approved with no problem. I mean that. I mean that sincerely. Really. But that I mean that was just generally what I was hearing now you may get I mean I wouldn't take this as indicative of what the neighborhood will do when you send out your notice to the butters within 500 feet. I know I know you will get at least some of the folks on San Juan street you'll get some of the folks that are in that housing thing behind it and you'll get the next door neighbor and you might get some folks across the street. So I think I'm hearing you're changing the building. You're not looking for any additional cuts on the curbing. It's what you see is what's there. You're just you want to reopen it to sell gas and put a fuel oil opposite where people will stop in and sign up for fuel. I'm assuming you'll be delivering your trucks will be delivering. You use the same tanks that are there will there be additional tanks on the property. So while if you're delivering fuel oil where's that coming from out of the south wall. Oh so it's just a truck. See I think those are the kind of things that people will ask. And I think because there used to be a tank that was outside there. I don't know if it's still there or not. Is that still there? No it's gone. It's gone. Okay. So that has been cleaned up. So I think that's just a couple of things in general. I thought maybe someone had passed those on to you and that's where these guys were getting it from. The city might have reached out to a few people. I mean we contacted your ward counselor as well so. Oh you mean John Coyne? Good luck with that. You guys are on TV. The membership is around 100 100 and a half but that's not indicative. This is a pretty big neighborhood. Like I say when you reach out to the within 500 you're going to get more. So I think it's best to explain as much in Ken in that letter that goes out. Sure. I think that'll be but I'm not. I mean personally I'm not hearing any. I don't know if I live with environment feeding on. So I don't know if we'll get noticed but we'll watch it. I don't. I think those are the kinds of things you're going to hear from. Maybe I'm seeing something because it was never a big traffic issue. But I can tell you this. When the gas station was open the light to the school was not there. The lights that are there now they regulate the traffic in the morning going into the school they slow everybody down to 15. So I think that wasn't there and there may be some people that are worried about the kids in the morning going in and out of that station but I think it's still going to be regulated by the lights no matter what you do. So I can't remember I got to remember if coming out of there you're before the light or after the light. You're right on the light oh okay. So the light controls you coming out of there? I wouldn't think you would because it's the schools. Yeah we haven't we've got to update our survey this is a survey from quite a while ago so we don't have the left turn lane on it yet. Yeah that's the thing I think people may be concerned about. So how do you get left because if you're not regulated by the lights where are you coming out? I know the bus stop is there just up above you I think but I have to look so I think that would be some of the issues that they may be talking about. Oh he would coming out of the light. That's good to know thank you. Yeah. Just to follow up on that someone has left me a question they have safety concerns with cars getting back onto Auburn Street. Traffic seems to be the issue because children are there in the morning it's a pretty busy intersection to begin with it's 15 miles as a child crossing section but if there's that concern of increased traffic if there isn't a worry or if the lights are going to change if there's going to be a left hand entry into the gas I just didn't know if you could if you know yet how that's going to work if at all it's going to change. Yeah we don't plan on any left turn lane into the site from there we expect that if it's not convenient for someone to turn in they probably won't right but that you know that could change we go through the process but right now there is no plan for that and it will be used with the lights that are already existing Yes. Yes. You've mentioned about improving the landscape of the building itself I know it's been dilapidated a little bit Is that going to be improved also? Yes there will be some cosmetic work done on the building and the doors actually will be moved from the front of it to the back so there will be some you won't be looking at garage doors on any of them You're saying moving to the front of the back. Front to the end. To which end? Okay so right now the doors this is the canopy this is the building and we would put the doors here Is there enough room? Yes. I don't think there's enough room for a truck to put your hand in there Yeah we made sure there was before we told you that's okay I'm sure you did I don't think so And I'm sorry you said the whole service Yes How many employee vehicles will be on the site during a typical day? I would think there are probably two drivers and the manager The manager and two drivers Who's going to pump the gas? The manager will add Really? Wow Two pumps? There's two pumps for fueling positions A question that was given to me was will price of this gas because it comes from Southport I believe you said Is it a discounted rate compared to sitting mobile down in the street? Is it going to be a reason why? You're always less expensive than mobile than on the street Hopefully it stays that way Is there something I'm reading one of our Yeah that's a good question Who knows what it'll be I don't know I think your biggest problem when you face that at the 500 area meeting is going to be the traffic because sitting here with those lights you're either going to back traffic up or they're going to crash turning into there because there are two lights out there there's one when you're coming out of the school you look at it and it's right there and you're right your station's over here they're the two folks that are there for crossing I know where they park they park on the other side of your station in that road I'm talking about that goes down the Shalom house there's a light right at the end of that road too it lets those people that are in that lane come out in the morning and turn right to go in town so there's two lights you're going to have to contend with we were just talking about that if the people turn right out of your station trying to go to Portland they're right at that light they ain't even going to know what that says so I think that's going to be your issues with the city of Portland and the traffic there's a member of us the vice president she's not here tonight I wish she was she's a traffic expert which I found out she brought that up in an email to us her name is Ariel Greenwald she's moved into the neighborhood but she said if you're not doing an impact study of traffic from any of that you better start now that was what she said to us tonight because that's what they're going to talk about she has no problem with what you're doing with the property but I think that's what the issue is going to hold because those lights I don't know how they sync them up because they go red at midnight when there's nobody around there they're supposed to be letting people into the school and the buses out in the morning but they just installed new cameras on all of the signals on all of them now and I think that's helping it but I think that's what you've got to hone into and if you don't have that on your plan and ready to answer those questions when you go there I think that's going to be the biggest problem out there Tim and I were just talking about that because Tim lives right down the road we don't notice it as much I think what he's probably trying to say is that in the morning and in the afternoon on your side of Auburn Street inbound to Portland they're either stopped or backed up so if somebody coming out of your building heading inbound to Portland we'll have a little trouble getting out of there because it's backed up and likewise if they're coming from Portland and trying to turn into your they're going to be faced with that on coming backed up traffic so that's the consideration and also I think likewise when they come out to head inbound to Portland they're going to be right on top of that light so if it's a stopped light it's going to be tough there because it's one car backed up I just have to say though we had some stations closed in the past you guys have done a great job as far as you know we realized it's closed and there's only so much you can do to maintain it and I drive out there every day and you know at least it's respectful because it is empty but kept it up and I know one time there was a whole fleet of people went in I don't see so many people going in from somebody from your company and clean the place all up so that's nice thanks for the information yeah just being across the street I would say that I'd much rather see something in there than nothing in there so I mean in terms of discussions and everything you know I'd rather see it be a business as a business and have people in there than have a completely empty baking building that's just going to waste so and I plan is to work with people on the lighting and the signage that's open to discussion and we don't plan on keeping late hours anyway so it should be daylight hours pretty much most of the time plus in the wintertime of course if we look later I don't know whether the devil's out of care or what but I worked at Lime & More for many years and when parents are going into Portland and they're trying to turn into the school light and no light they're blocking traffic anyway so I don't see much of an impact on schools in session because they back up traffic like I said whether there's a light or no light and going towards gray and taking a left end of the station there was always a problem there anyways if you're trying to do it during school hours any other time but somebody coming out of there might have a better time better chance because if people are going 15 miles an hour you might be able to scoot in if you're going towards Portland a lot easier than you were before but the lights have helped people trying to get into the school or just going in town but I don't see any problem with that light because the parents do back up traffic a lot in that area so light and no light I think during school hours you're going to find a problem no matter what okay just like to say this is a plug for NDNA we have business memberships so I'd like to have your participation we'd love to have you join as a business member put you on our website and kind of show people in the area that you're up and running and ready for for business anything else well thanks for your time thanks for coming out and if I can get a copy Maureen the sign in list you can email it to me and anybody will keep you updated on where we are the emails and let you know how the process is going thank you very much