 All right. I haven't heard from Ken. It's five past. I don't want to delay this any further. So I will get started now Welcome to the April 6th 2020 meeting of the Arlington redevelopment board. We are being recorded by a CMI Thanks to them for assisting and coping with things This is Andrew Bonnell, the chair of the R.D. And I just want to confirm that everyone on the wall can hear me. Okay You're on the zoom call. Okay. So raise your hand to give me a thumbs up if you have your camera on You can't hear me raise your hand Electronically, otherwise, I'll assume you can hear me and we'll keep moving on here. So as I said, we're missing Kinlau this evening, but I see Rachel's and Barry Eugene Benson and David Watson if you could all confirm that you're on on the call here Appreciate it Yes, I'm here. We have Jenny rate and Aaron's work. Oh from the staff All right. Yes. All are here. All right. Good We have no speakers on the agenda this evening. This is a pretty straightforward simple meeting This is an open meeting of the Governor Baker's executive order of March 12 20 state of emergency in the Commonwealth due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus In order to mitigate the transmission of the COVID-19 virus We've been advised and directed by the Commonwealth to suspend public gatherings and as such the governor's order suspends the requirement of the open meeting Law they have all meetings in a publicly accessible physical location Further all members of public bodies are allowed and encouraged to participate remotely This order which you can find posted the agenda meetings Agenda materials for this meeting and various other sources allows public bodies to meet entirely remotely So long as reasonable public access is afforded so the public can follow along with deliberations of the meeting Ensuring public access does not ensure public participation unless such participation is required by law This meeting will not feature public comment during what are considered the open hearing public hearing Agenda items we will have an open forum at the end of the meeting consistent with our usual agenda structure This meeting is being recorded as I noted at the beginning All attendees are participating by video conference People will be able to see you. Please don't screen share your computer. Anything you broadcast will be captured by the recording and sent out there All of the materials for this meeting are available on the novice agenda dashboard We recommend that everyone following along follow along using novice agenda and Bear with us as we move through this So we'll turn to the first item on the agenda Just cover some ground rules for effective and clear communication And conduct of our business and so that we can keep meeting minutes accurately The recording can be clear I'll introduce each item on the agenda We'll walk through if any members have comments we'll go to them For any votes we'll be doing those by roll call. So anyone who's on the line Any members i'll just call their name and ask for an affirmative or negative or an abstention For those of you who wish to speak later on in the meeting. We'll use the raise hand function via zoom And allow you to do so individually at that time Moving on to the first agenda item which involves the Meeting schedule moving forward We've determined Jenny and I have determined That it's in town's best interest to continue to try to conduct business as best we can and not shut down the ARB So long as regular business is progressing. So we need to set a schedule for the next several weeks and months To ensure that everyone is able to continue to do their job. So Jenny, I'll turn it over to you Great. Thank you so much Andrew For everybody's benefit the next meeting that is technically on the schedule is april 27th And all meetings from april 27th on were technically devoted to town meetings. So your Your meeting time was actually reduced to about, you know 15 minutes of opening a meeting and then adjourning to town meetings. So We typically would meet at, you know, 745 maybe 730 if we wanted to do some sort of business But we didn't we didn't necessarily have a proper Or planned meeting but in the absence of town meetings starting at that time Town meeting is now likely to begin later in june We have many open possible dates for those upcoming board meetings. So I entertain any Suggestions about when you would like to meet next my suggestion would be first That you look at april 27th and maybe think about the luta the monday before that And then any mondays after this evening We're talking obviously at 6 p.m. Instead of our regularly scheduled 7 30 p.m But we should also clarify the time that you wish to meet Especially given that schedules are very different and somewhat constrained by various circumstances Given the current situation So I'll um, I'll unmute The board If they would like to talk I mean, I'd be happy to meet on monday the 13th and monday the 27th and 7 30 works for me starting it a little earlier 7 o'clock Would actually work for me also on both those dates the other monday the 20th is patriot's day I don't know if that's still considered a holiday or not You're jenny shaking It's been moved So it will not be recognized this year at that on that day this year So I could meet that monday evening too. So any of the next three On monday evenings 7 or 7 30 would work for me Yeah, I'm in the same position. I think it makes sense to meet at either 7 or 7 30 to keep things as routine as possible Not only for for those of us who are involved in the meeting but for Town participants who are used to it being at 7 or 7 30 David or rachel any suggestions ideas? I'm available on any of those upcoming mondays 7 30 continues to work for me, but I'm open to doing it earlier if Circumstances make that easier for people On the 7 p.m. Would be would be great for me just a little bit earlier And I'm also open the next the next three mondays since I'm not traveling anymore Right, so um jenny doesn't make skin sense to schedule those Mondays how many do we need and I think starting at 7 probably works for everyone Okay, I'm glad to schedule all three of those mondays. I think um, we could just jump to the 20th and then also the 27th I'm not sure much will change between now and next monday night If we don't need to schedule next month if we don't need to schedule the 13th, let's keep that off now And we can okay, we can do the 20th and 27th unless there's any business for them. Yes 7 p.m. Okay any other dates in the future we need to think about Um, well, you should just think about your may dates because the main dates were all You know geared towards so you technically we had scheduled may 4th and may 18th were your meetings um, you know your regular arb meeting outside of town meetings So if you want to just keep those evenings we can keep that as is Um, it would mean three consecutive monday nights though Go ahead jean Sorry, hold on i'm okay with keeping those two may dates as it is maybe moving them to 7 p.m And then always regroup and find another date to air. That would be my thought for now Yeah, i'm fine to do it that way All right, great chill. Okay I'm okay with that. I agree. I Yeah All right, so we need to vote to reorganize the schedule as discussed so if someone would like to make a motion to uh Schedule those meeting dates april 20th april 27th uh, and then may 4th 11th and 18th So moved I thought it was just a 4th and the 18th. Is it the 4th 11th and the 18th of may You added the 11th That Okay, that was the motion Oh, so Sorry, maybe Were we not discussing the 11th and it? Sorry, I thought we were right. All right, so we'll keep we'll add the 20th and the 27th Let me let me Sorry, we're all getting used to this So I'll take a motion to there is a motion on the table david. We would draw that motion I'll I'll withdraw that motion. So we'll need a motion to reorganize reschedule the rb meetings to April 20th april 27th May 4th and may 18th So moved at 7 p.m. At 7 p.m. So moved Only a second Rachel seconds All right, so that could it. Okay, so Mr. Benson, are you in favor or opposed? Uh, yes in favor. Okay, mr. Watson Yes, in favor. Is this in berry? Yes, in favor. All right, and I vote in favor. So let's 4-0 I'm moving on Okay, so now we need to continue the public hearings that have sort of been sitting in the hopper As we figure things out and figure out other people's schedules. So I'll bring jenny back on for this The first one is open mass abs Thanks so much, Andrew. Um, so for this agenda item you have four public hearings Three of them are continued public hearings from prior meetings And one of them had their first public hearing tonight. All of the materials are posted To novice no this agenda related to 434 math and 880 math Which is the new public hearing The 833 math had been continued previously and then 1207 to 1211 math Had also requested a longer term Continuance Initially it was to may 11 so So for any of these you can continue them to any of those future dates that you've now scheduled And we can then communicate that back to the applicants As I mentioned the I think actually you want to take them one by one and vote um, and then uh, the one that's last that's listed here has its first public hearing tonight So you'd be just immediately continuing that. Okay. So first up is 1207 1211 math Have they had communicated to the department that they were available may 11th Uh, I think we can continue that to may 18th Okay, and david has his hand raised Okay, go ahead david. Oh, I I just wanted to ask whether jenny Had a recommendation on which dates we should continue which hearings to That's a good question. Um, I think that the best thing to do is to Take the 1207 and you've suggested may 18th. I think that for the other three you could Probably april 20th or april 27th um Either one of those dates would work. I believe for the those applicants if we needed them to They're all 434 mess of and 880 mess of With the exception of the staff report Um, those are ready to go for your review 833 mass av as you know is the adwood house and they do have it with the board So they would be prepared for that So I I would recommend those three could be moved to the 20th or 27th or just the 20th And then the other one I mentioned for the 18th Okay, um, we can do it that way. I don't think it's Since we're just rescheduling I think that's fine. So I think I take a motion to move 1207 1211 Uh mass av to may 18th All right, so david moves the motion. I need a second Oh second Okay I'd like a little discussion about this I'm not opposed to moving it but I would like them between I'm not sure we can require this But if we can I'd like them before they arrive on may 18th To have gone to the historic commission to present what they're proposing to do to the historic commission and Start the process for the demolition by-law so that they can give us an update on that on may 11th I'm just afraid that if that's happening later everything is getting pushed back So I'd like that to um, I don't know if that's part of this motion An amendment to this motion or a separate motion So this is right now. We're talking about 1207 1211 mass av which is the heights hotel. Oh, I'm sorry I'm sorry. I was thinking the atwood house my apology. Yeah, I thought so so we can we can get to that This is Okay I withdraw what I said. I'll save it for later. So we have a motion and a second I'll go basic based on my screen rachel In favor. Yes. Okay, david Yes Jean yes, and I am in favor. So that hearing is moved to May 18th at 7 p.m. On zoom Okay, so for mass avs This is the uh Taipei Tokyo And their signage application they are ready to go I think Under these circumstance under normal circumstances, they would have been ready to go tonight But given how we chose to run this meeting and introduce things this evening It makes sense to have them come back another day so that they're prepared to present But I think we could have them back on April 20th for review and uh a vote So moved Second, okay, rachel Yes, in favor david Yes, jean. Yes. All right. I vote yes. So 434 mass av is continued to april 20th 833 mass av is the atwood house So jean you can now make your point as far as a historical commission and jenny you can weigh in as to whether we can push them to do that Uh, I do think that's probably a good idea if we have that authority Keep that ball moving Especially given the fact that things are uh slow lately have slowed down necessarily um I'm okay with that. I think continuing that to april 27th makes sense I'll ask jenny. Do you think they can get to the historic commission? No, I do not no at the moment I am going to be working with the historical commission to to determine when they can meet and Probably assisting them to meet virtually which they are currently not really set up to do just yet So um, they cancelled their meeting that was supposed to happen. I believe it was last week Or maybe it was going to happen this week This week to tomorrow night And uh until I know when they're going to meet again. I can't promise that I can You know or that this applicant would be able to go to them before the 27th. I doubt that would be It seems unlikely. It's not necessarily impossible, but it seems unlikely I mean, perhaps some consultation with the chair of the historical commission would be appropriate. I might recommend that And then uh, see where we go from there. Uh, whether or not the commission will meet and when Um is another requires uh further follow-up Would would they File Whatever application they need to file to start the demolition bylaw and could they do that by the 27th? I mean they could I think they want to have The redevelopment my sense was that they wanted the redevelopment board to weigh in a little bit more before they would go to the historical commission And I think that perhaps giving them another opportunity Um to get your opinions on their proposal before they go to the historical commission still makes some sense um And then also maybe even to provide the historical commission with uh with a letter regarding where you know not a vote necessarily of the the decision but some uh You know sense of where the board stands in the review process and our expectations for the applicant moving forward I think that would be appropriate. But again, I don't believe that the commission will meet before that meeting that you suggested continuing this too And so my suggestion would be that I consult with the chair of the historical commission regarding The request that you've made and there's sort of review of where it stands right now Coming back to the board on the 27th perhaps And then finding a later date for them to present the entire commission But that's the case and and keeping in mind gene's request I think kind of having them come back on the 20th might be better If all we're doing is getting a status update from them and telling them to get Get their ducks in a row with the other boards in town commissions in town that needs to review their application I'd agree with that too So I so move Second Rachel Yeah, David Yes, gene. Yes And I vote yes, so Just to clarify We're continuing it to the 20th Between now and the time that we post that meeting. I will send any plans to joanne robinson the chair And ask her if she could weigh in and also get some guidance on when they might be meeting next And then I'll be able to share that information with the board when you meet on the 20th Okay, good that sound like a plan. Yes, I think not only have joanne weigh in But um on the process they would need to go to Initiate the demolition bylaw process Okay, good All right, and then 80 mass av was a new sign application by td bank Or signs that they were more or less ready to go This evening as well, uh, we could hold that hearing on april 20th or april 27th depending on how people felt about Uh the schedule thus far So what do we got on the 20th already? Uh 434 mass av which is the Taipei Tokyo hearing 833 mass av which is the atwood house um my thinking is um We could probably do this on the 20th without a lot of heavy lifting um The atwood house hearing is likely to take up a lot more time and would require Um, all of these would obviously require public comment, but I would expect there to actually be public comment during the hour Significant portion of the meeting Just in the interest of time and uh using everybody's wisely It might make more sense to do that on the 27th We can have a conversation about that right now I'm just wondering whether We think there'll be any Other item that might be on the agenda for the 27th because if there's not And we included them on the 20th and we wouldn't have to meet at all in the 27th Why don't we do that on the 20th then and they haven't If it's not necessary Always take it off the schedule. Okay So I would move that we um continue Um 880 mass av to april 20th Yes Yes So 880 mass av has continued Then so department will have a conversation and we'll see all those folks on those dates Good good job. All right, um moving on to directors updates. So jenny, this is your turn Share with you is really just uh where we stand in terms of you know the operations and and what's going on Um with the department and so i'm i really just plan to read something to you briefly right now Which is um to outline sort of where we're at and what the expectations are to the public Um with regard to just office operations as well as uh board operations. Um, I think I've communicated bits and pieces to you Uh through email, uh, obviously over the past few weeks, but I wanted to state things publicly for everybody's awareness So, um, I'm going to read now So in response to the covet 19 related state of emergency The department of planning and community development has transitioned to remote operations completely We will be checking our voicemail and our email messages regularly We're also responding as soon as we possibly can that's practical practical Due to the volume of calls and email that we have been receiving in the past and we may expect to receive again We ask that everybody bear with us as we work through this really unprecedented um event In accordance with uh the house bill four five nine eight, which is chapter 53 of the acts of 2020 It's called an act to address challenges faced by municipalities and state authorities resulting from covet 19 Which was signed into law on april third 2020 Specifically section 17, which applies to permitting reviews and meetings The department is transitioning to accepting all Elections therefore can be mailed by pf and some sort PDF format or other format and attached to an email with a copy of the application fee The original application and a check will be mailed to the office And a receipt will be provided by mail to all applicants All applications will be emailed to the clerk's office and posted on the town's website A butters notices will continue to be mailed and decisions will also be mailed Application reviews will also continue to take place Including permits that are already in progress and under view under review by the department and the board The business of the board will also continue within the order issued by the governor regarding permitting application reviews and public meetings and hearings As you now have discussed the meetings and the hearings that you will be holding In the future the immediate future So until further notice all board business will be conducted electronically Zoom software as I think most people know is what we are using for these meetings The meeting is recorded by zoom and it is also being rerun by acmi who's recording this meeting right now The board the board's meetings as everybody knows are not live meetings They are recorded and they're run at a later date following the board's regular meetings Meeting rules will be outlined by the chair at the start of each meeting and also rules will be added to when we have public forums For public open forum at the end of our meetings I also wanted to let you know that long-range planning activities will continue And the public engagement processes that we had planned and really envisioned and hoped for For the spring and the summer and the fall Are being reimagined so that we can continue those activities to gain input and to have dialogue about plans and progress Any upcoming virtual meeting opportunities will be posted on the town's website and shared via multiple media channels We appreciate your patience at this time and we thank you for your continued interest in our operations and for your cooperation So That was what I wanted to let everybody know Thank you Thanks, jenny anything else? No, that was all I'm open to any questions Go ahead gene Just a procedural question. So we've got the hearings on the 20th two of them are for Permits, let's say we actually vote in favor Of one of those permits housed up Permit get circulated for our signatures So instead of you coming to the office to sign it. I will have to do sort of a mail chain with all of you And it'll it'll unveil mailing it to one of you and then you probably dropping it off either at somebody's house In their mailbox, perhaps Or and we can do that in there's there's various ways which we can transfer these documents safely Um There's also an option We will have the staff person coming to the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays who will be there from 10 to 11 to deal with mail and all of our billing and our accounting and You know regular responsibilities that can only be handled directly in the office But there could be an option where the documents are left outside of town hall for you to pick up and sign And then that individual would pick them up I'm wondering if my preference would be by mail and then circulated across the five of you And then when it comes back to us, we will record it, you know in accordance with all the the regulations and for Keep it in the clerk's office as part of a posted item on their website So that it's the full 20 day appeal period can be achieved before it's final I'm wondering if there's a possibility of electronic signatures during this time There is a possibility of that And I can explore what that might look like So yes, that is that is allowed under the order and I can investigate that if that makes everybody feel the most comfortable That would that would definitely be the most comfortable for me by far Yes, jc just announced that it's losing it loosening its own requirements. Uh, I got an email just as we're getting on this call David and jean, you probably got it too Yep, well you have an active bar registration. So we'll see what that has to say and how we can incorporate that To special permits so good any other questions from the director regarding Her updates. Thank you, jenny. You're welcome. All right. I see we go Three guests on the line Um If any of you would wish to speak, uh, we'll move into the open forum portion of the hearing or the meeting this evening There's a little button on your zoom screen to Raise your hand. So if you would like to speak during the open forum portion Please do that And then we'll have jenny who is the host of the meeting on mute you so that you can leave a comment Uh, I'll give you 30 seconds or so to do that if you can't find it There must be some way to there's also only three of them Yeah, so Go ahead. Uh don go ahead I'm I okay. Am I muted? You're on now. I unmuted you. Okay. Thank you Just a couple quick questions for jenny. Uh, I think you mentioned that the there were new materials received for the atwood house application Is that going to be or is it already posted somewhere online for the public to see? I think it was posted with our last meeting. Um, which didn't take place on march 16th And We can read we'll make sure that it's posted with the other atwood materials at woodhouse rather materials Okay, thank you. And uh on the 1207 1211 mass av project, uh, are there any new materials that have been submitted since Uh, I guess it's been since january on that No, I do not believe so Thank you. Anything else? Not for me. Okay. I'm gonna mute you then. Thanks don Ann or winnell. Do you wish to speak? This is an Ann Leroyer I was just curious About the hotel's project and so I see that you're just post-partigate tail base So we'll wait to see any new materials that arrive about that. Thank you All right. Thanks All right No head winnell Um, I'm just lurking. I just wanted to say thanks to all of you for for continuing to work during these extraordinary times And I hope you're all doing well Thank you. All right, david you have your hand up Yeah, I uh had a question for don since uh, he's he's on the line Which is um, he uh, did submit some additional correspondence with shadow studies for 1207 12 11 mass av and I was wondering how did he produce those? Actually, uh, do I have the capability of sharing a screen? I haven't done it before in zoom. No, I can Okay It's actually well it goes back to last year when I heard a number of members of the board On several occasions saying that they were kind of dissatisfied for what's written in the bylaws regarding shadows and they Isn't enough to know simply which houses might be affected, but you are more interested in knowing How significant the impact would be And uh, I started looking into it and I found it's really pretty simple to find out for any particular house How many hours during the day and when they occur that'll be in shadow It's something I was able to do by hand and I'm sure there are software tools that will do it even more easily So it's in the case of the hotel for instance I sent you a memo regarding it and there were two structures One's a three family and the other I think is a two family on pier street And they're the only ones that are significantly impacted um and it's very easy just knowing the Measuring on a map the distance and the angle between the proposed building and these houses I can determine very quickly Um When the houses first go into shadow and when they come out of it on any particular day um And I I use the basically the information from the us naval observatory, which is sort of the us's version of granite shinglin observatory For sun azimuth and altitude um, and I think I showed in what I had sent you that One of the houses, uh the one on 22 pier street Um, I picked february 2nd as a date because that's the midpoint of winter halfway between the solstice and the spring equinox and It's in sunshine from sunrise at 7 a.m. And then goes into shadow about three hours later and It never goes back into sunshine for the rest of the day Uh, the other house that's affected Which includes 26 28 30 pierce It has only two hours of sunlight in the morning and then it picks up about an hour and a half in the afternoon now Although it was done for february 2nd This is pretty much the same time throughout much of winter In fact, it this condition lasts from about mid october to just about march 1st um, so that is the impact on those houses and um I can run other scenarios look at other houses, but for the particular project here Those are the only two structures which are significantly impacted Does that sort of answer your question? Uh, yes. Thank you I could I'd be glad to correspond with you Um offline if you if you have any more detail questions or other things you want me to look at on that Sure, I appreciate that Okay All right Thank you anything else Jenny anything else? No, thank you. Well, thanks everyone for joining us and Because the first shot this went all right and we'll continue to work at it. This is the new normal for As long as anybody can tell so I appreciate everybody's work and stay sane stay healthy Uh, get outside, but stay away from anybody else near you And I'll make a motion to adjourn. Thank you gene second second All right Rachel Take it. Uh, yes David. Yes, gene. Yes, and I vote yes meeting adjourned. Thanks everyone. Appreciate you everyone be safe. Thank you