Uh, okay. The we're going to call a meeting to order. And the first order of business is the approval of minutes from our May 27th meeting which were emailed to us. So unless anybody has corrections
or additions, I'll entertain a motion to approve without reading. I'll make a motion to approve approve the minutes without reading. All in favor? I All right. On the regular agenda, we're
going to seconded. I'll second. Thank you. Oh. Oh, sorry. I wasn't trying to overlook your second. Okay. On the regular agenda, we are going to um
take case 202506 because the interpreter is not here and it's believed that we would need the interpreter for 255. So, we'll take 256 first. And this is at
46 469 Eastern Avenue. Uh and the surrender soni is the petitioner. Um introduce yourselves and state your case. Uh thank you Mr. Chair through to
the members. Uh my name is Rebecca Edmonson Cororum. I'm council for Mr. Surrender here who is the owner of Broadway Variety 2 which is located 469 Eastern A right at the kind of the crux of Broadway and Eastern A. across from
the Beth Israel Urgent Care and Walgreens. Um they Mr. H the Mr. Sony has applied for from the liquor uh uh commission, the licensing commission to move from a beer and wine license to an
all liquor license. They were approved uh in January 2025, but this area of the city is zoned as a residential area. Therefore, it will require a special permit in order to move from a the
current non-conforming use of a beer and wine license to a full liquor license. Uh so, we are here before you today um requesting the special permit. You're welcome. A question for you. Um just how long have you been in business as your store
is currently configured right now with the beer and wine license? We uh we've been there since 2015. 2015. Any incidents that you can recall related to any of this? Never been nothing. No problems at all. Okay. Thank
you. Are there any changes you need to do to switch over to a full liquor store? No, the building just is there the way it is. We just going to um we have a lot more wine there right now. So, we don't really sell too much wine, so we're just going to cut that stuff down and add more liquor to it. That's
all. And we have some beers that we put on the on the on the uh floor that we could move it to the back room and just to just that that's all we doing. We're not doing anything other construction work, nothing. Just staying the way it is. Just rearranging the store to add
liquor in there. That's all it is. And what are your current hours? We open 9:30 to 11 Monday to Saturday and 12 to 11 on Sunday. Okay. Do you plan on keeping those same hours? Same hours. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
Is there beer and wine in the Walgreens across the street? No, just yourself. Just myself. And what was in that property before you were before you were there? Was it Was it a wine shop? It was a wine shop, too. Yep. Great. Thank you.
like to make a motion to approve this uh special permit for I'll second the motion. Uh moved and seconded that we approve the or that we recommend approval of the uh petition.
All in favor? I. Any opposed? granted. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you all. Before you uh head out, just um we'll see you at the zoning board meeting July 8th. July 8th. Yes. Thank you very much.
Yep. All right. Uh, case 2025-8, uh, at 50 Herd Street. The petitioner is David Gamble. Come forward, introduce yourself, and
uh, make your case. This isn't to garner sympathy. I'd use them for sympathy. Uh good evening uh members of the board. My name is David Gamble. I'm an architect and urban planner with Gamble Associates. We're based in Cambridge. Uh we focus on neighborhood revitalization
and community development. Good evening members of the planning board. My name is Alex Train. I serve currently as the chief operating officer for LARiva in Chelsea. I'm the owner and proposed developer of the 50 herd project. Um and so tonight, you know, we're before you to seek zoning relief
um in order to accommodate a new redevelopment project that we're setting out. We're going to share a bit with you about the project goals and then David will delve into the design objectives as well as the ultimate vision for the redevelopment of this space. Um so, as
many of you know, 50 Hard Street situated in the R2 residential district. Um, it currently is comprised of a vacant uh three unit home that was recently sold in May of 2024 to La Collaborative by the former owner who subsequently retired and moved out of
state. So, at that point in time, you know, the organization sought to really bolster economic development infrastructure within the community uh to improve access to living wage jobs, catalyze small businesses, and ensure that all residents have access to highquality education. Um, and so with
that, you know, set of goals, we retain David's firm in order to conduct a neighborhood visioning process and ultimately a design exercise uh to accomplish a redevelopment scheme that we're really proud of and we're really excited to uh to show you. Um, so in
total, you know, the the floor plan calls for a fourstory structure that will eventually house our new workforce training, vocational education, and small business development uh programming. Over the last year, we've purposfully scaled a lot of that to meet
the needs of existing residents and help residents boost their income and achieve economic self-sufficiency. Uh so with that, I'll turn it over to David to dive into the design process. Thanks, Alex. Can you hear me? Okay. Uh also here is uh other members of the
leadership team from Luck Collabiva. So as Alex has mentioned, it's a fairly small building adjacent to two existing buildings that LA collaboriva currently has which begin to form a bit of a campus and I want to talk about that and the importance of the buildings having a
dialogue with one another. Next please. Uh it is adjacent to a new Silverline stop or maybe not even that new anymore which is clear clearly putting development pressures in the orbit of the station. We're of course in city hall slightly off the screen to the
bottom. But what you see here in the profile line is the 12,200 square foot. Yes, fourstory building, but also on a site that changes grade, which is an important consideration regarding building height. And central
to the design of the building is the creation of a public space, a placita that has a dialogue with the existing two buildings. So the survival center and the eco center combined with the new uh economic development center start to
form this public space. Next uh so in relationship to transit as you know we are asking for parking relief. We are just a few steps from the silver line itself. Uh the TA station uh the the uh rail line there and of course LA
Calabertiva has uh I think 128 surface parking spaces below Route 1A which is a very important consideration not only for the parking demand but also for the events that LA collaboriva holds in terms of servicing their population.
Next please. Uh here it is in the uh project site. Not everything is rosy. Of course, it also happens to fit within uh the flood plane. And so many of the design decisions that we created are attempting to leave alleviate that burden. And much of our landscape
strategy is trying to address issues of storm water. Next, please. Uh how are we doing that? Well, we're putting the mechanicals uh above that lower level. It's not really a basement. It's a lower level that's accessed from the south side of the building. So to your left uh
is the plaza. To your right is the herd street. This is a longitudinal section through the building. Pretty simple plan. It's a small building. So on one side are workshops that face south and on the herd street side there are classrooms that face the street with the
building core in the center. Next please. Uh so what is there today? As Alex mentioned, it is a fourstory, three and a half, fourstory residential building. That image on the lower right
is the driveway to the back of the site which is currently used to park uh the garage which is the image uh on your lower left. So that view is actually important because that becomes a public passage through the site. This is
actually a throughb block connection between Herd Street and the street uh opposite. Next, please. We did look at possible adaptive reuse for the building, but it just wasn't possible given the demands of uh congregation for the educational facility. Uh I don't
want to drill down too much into the details, but to my point about the diagram of the building, which you see in the center is the stair and the elevator. On either side are the workshops. There's uh the ones to the herd street and the ones to the plaza
side. Those become kind of the activity zones, the classrooms uh that activate the building. And at the bottom of the page is that ramp, the gently sloping ramp that navigates about 5 ft from Herd Street to the plaza level.
Uh the massing of the building uh then plays out like this. Essentially because of that grade change, the building is situated kind of into the land. Uh so it's not seen as four stories from above. This is a view taken from uh the
southside looking towards this uh more transparent portion of the building which are these carpentry workshops, HVAC workshops. So the potentially noisy things are to the back away from the residential neighborhood closer to the plaza. uh it
faces south. So therefore we have to have some strategies to address heat gain. Uh but at the same time you really want those programs to be visible because it is actually the focus of the project. You're also seeing in this
image uh an incline plane. We are looking at the viability of adding solar. Interestingly enough, the existing buildings that they have, the survival center would be much better suited to that because, of course, it's a much larger area. Our building footprint is
only about 6,000 square feet. It's actually pretty tight. Next, please. Uh, so what are we doing architecturally in terms of urban design to help it fit, help a nonresidential building fit into a residential
neighborhood? A step back actually makes a very big difference. And so we've stepped back, not set back, but stepped back at the third floor about five feet uh to provide a terrace. The intention is to align that more or less with the
triple deckers on either side. So there's a datim line that's created. We are showing a different material uh for that step back. We're not sure what that is, but essentially it's an intention to try to differentiate the massing. And
then we also have a canopy. This is not Herd Street is not the main entrance to the building. We actually don't want people to think that's the case. The entrance is from the plaza side. But nevertheless, there is a emergency stair that comes out from that from that side there. From the south side, then next
image. Uh it's a very different expression. Uh this would be seen potentially from Route 1A if you could get up that high and there wasn't a fence in front. Uh but the opportunity to celebrate La Calabraiva's logo, their
colors, uh that would be a very large wayfinding sign that could be seen from the Silverline stop to help draw people into the space. And importantly, I would say essentially the space in the foreground is this plaza that addresses rainwater. becomes
a place of interior and exterior integration and the whole public realm interface is navigated or negotiated by the an overhead trellis that we're beginning to design more clearly. So this is a view of the plaza. Next please.
Uh with respect to its sighting then if you blur your eyes it may look exactly like the building that's there today but it's not quite. It's a little bit longer uh in the gray tone. And what you're seeing there toward in the middle of the image is is all of the uh uh dimensional
criteria for this plaza that we're working very hard to maintain. Next, please. A few more slides. Hang in there. I know you always have very long agendas. Uh next. And yeah, if you could go back
one and I' I'd like my uh engineer Bill to come up and he can talk a little bit more the civil engineer about the strategies of uh addressing the water that forms I think even today in that space. Do I have it here?
Good evening. My name is Bill Maher with uh Niche Engineering and we are the civil engineer for the for the property. And as you can see uh you know as shown on this um you know plan here um our intent is to uh number one uh use the
existing utilities um in Herd Street for our water for domestic and fire protection use as well as connecting our proposed sewer um system uh or service from the um from the building and into the existing sewer system in Herd
Street. Uh we will be providing an erosion control uh plan as we do with every project and because this project does lie within a flood plane um it will be enhanced a little bit more because we do realize that we need conservation commission um approval. Um we are
working with um the architect and the uh landscape architect to um you know soften the exterior you know somewhat to allow uh you know some permeable papers you know things of that nature to allow some recharge. We're looking to add some
um underground recharge components, chambers, things of that nature. Working with the geotech um engineer on um the existing water table, the soil conditions and so forth and um possibly have some sort of overflow um you know
from the rear of the site uh because it does um naturally grade from Herd Street to the uh rear of the site there um and then connect into the um it's actually a combined um storm drain system or sewer
system in uh Herz Street that takes both sewer and um runoff um in the same pipe. We have had conversations with the existing uh DPW and city engineer about some of our strategies and they seem to be um favorable with um our approach at
this time. Next slide. Yep. Okay. I think that's great. Thank you, Bill. Uh you can go to the next slide, please. Uh one more. Yeah. Uh so in terms of the landscape plan to Bill's point, we are
imagining that it's not entirely a hardcape. Uh it will be used for events and performances and likely some small classroom gatherings. We are trying to provide a landscape buffer around the existing buildings that will actually green them up a little bit more and use
the drainage alignments to from the adjacent uh roof drains to help feed water into the landscape there when it rains. Next, please. Uh the ambition is are to
use uh drought tolerant plants um that also have a good deal of color. We could see this almost as a small urban garden is the aspiration. Next, please colors. Uh so it will be landscaped around the edges. Next.
Uh and relative to I think what you're most uh interested in which are the number of dimensional tolerances that we're hoping for some graciousness but for uh the project becomes infeasible. So, uh we have one slide for
each of the uh uh demands and uh we can go through one at a time and of course I'm sure you have uh more questions if uh they're not answered through the presentation. Next please. Uh so uh we've aggregated what's uh required and
what's proposed uh and it might be a little bit clearer if we go one at a time here. So uh the rear yard setback of course if we maintain that there would be no placita. Uh so the goal is actually to set the building back farther which allows us to have a it's
probably a space about the size of this room actually from that back wall to where we are here. Not the entirety of the room but that would be about the size of the plaza. Uh so the proposal is to set it back 37 feet as opposed to the 20 foot that's required.
Next please. Uh the parking requirements as said previously. So the 128 spaces that are below Route 128 are very close to the site. We see the passage between the economic development center and that space is being improved with a better
crosswalk. I'm sure you've witnessed cars that queue up as a silver line goes through or a train that's right in this area. So enhancing pedestrian movement. Uh there is an aspiration to also increase uh blue bikes in this location. There's plenty of space to to fit those
uh if possible, but really within a 300 foot walk, you're at the edge of the parking area. Of course, what you're not seeing is the Route 1A overhead. This is cut through the columns of the space. Next, please. Uh minimum lot size. Well,
it's nonconforming now uh to its uh current condition. Uh next, please. uh the sideyard setbacks uh uh I'm trying to do the math right here. It's a matter of inches. Uh but in order to get the corridor inside the building to be
ADA accessible and to get the minimum requirement sizes for the workshops, uh we're sort of constrained. We tried to pull the building in as close as we could and actually an early dialogue with uh John Depri helped us think about what's the best side for the building
entrance given the fairly close proximity of the neighbors. I mean this is an urban area. Next, please. Uh we did have a little model. It was a little too windy to bring it, but we're happy to bring it back if you'd like to see it in its physical nature. Uh but in terms
of minimum frontage, again, it's kind of non-conforming. 60 ft required. The existing site is 50 uh F that is a typo. It is a required of one. We are over the density but we have tried through the stepbacks and the
extending the building to mitigate that sense of scale uh on the residential abutters and in the neighborhood in general. Uh in terms of the elevations, these are still very conceptual, but what's important to see is that horizontal line towards the bottom, which allows you to
see that the lower level and the second level actually straddle the topographic conditions. So the Florida floor heights are almost 11 ft in order to enable the mechanical equipment to function properly uh allow the classroom spaces
to be generous. But because we are I would say nesting the building into the landscape that perception of height is diminished. And you can see on the uh left side of your screen the profile of the neighbor which is the triple decker more or less aligns with the parapit of
our building. Uh with the maximum lock coverage again there is a slight increase of 3.8% there. Uh and this is the the total area summary. Uh and that may be the last um
demand. Yes, we do have an appendix that has lots more renderings and pictures, but I think uh we can end it there and uh open it up for discussion. Thank you. Um, on slide 25, is that an 8 foot or so setback on each
side? The sideyard setback on the west side is 8 point 8 n inches. Yeah. Uh, it's on one side. Okay. Yeah. And set back on the other side is I think it may be in
the site plan. I think we matched what was required of 10 ft. Okay. We initially had the entrance on the other side, but that was even there's less space between that and the abuter. Yeah. And just for context, um so one of the sides, as David mentioned, will
function as the the main egress. Um David alluded to this during the presentation. You know, the sort of access requirements for the site will entail everybody accessing the building from the existing survival center site. So, there won't be any access permitted
off a herd street proper to minimize neighborhood impacts. There will be an emergency exit. And secondly, the opposite setback will include a landscape kind of vegetative buffer um that we're looking to provide some some screening and insulation for the
adjacent property. How have the neighbors reacted? Have they provided any letters of support? That's a great question. So, um, we've had a number of discussions with the surrounding neighbors, including director debutters and and folks in the broader neighborhood, um, including
one-on-one meetings, um, that we've had probably 15 to 20 of at this stage, as well as two larger community meetings where we extended invitations to the Abutters. Um generally there's excitement in the neighborhood for the uh the project. Um there are number of neighbors that have benefited from the
education and workforce training programs that we implement currently. Um there was also a lot of input provided around the plaza design. So we do envision that the plaza separating the two buildings will function as a public space and be open to the surrounding neighborhood. So we're excited to see
some enthusiasm about that as well. Um and we'd be happy to supply letters of support after the meeting. related to that, some questions about the plaza and how that will interface with the proposed structure and also the collection of homes that are immediately
to the right if you're facing that direction. Um, what's the proposal for, you know, creating some sort of barrier between those properties or is there an intent to do that? Yeah, that's also a great question because if this is a public space, you
don't want it to get too loud or too transparent. Otherwise, there are unintended impacts uh with the abutters. So, we're imagining right now it's a six-foot solid fence. Uh it might have some coloration associated with it, but it's intentionally replacing. If you could go to the existing photographs
early in the presentation, there is a fence there now. It's somewhat dilapidated. It's wood. We're imagining a wood fence also. Yeah. So, the image on the lower right gives you a sense of what that looks like. Uh so the goal is to reinforce that along the ramp side and on the opposite side also there is
an existing fence. We of course would not are not proposing a chainlink fence on Herd Street uh but rather having an extension of the sidewalk which will be a more gracious uh public realm interface there. So defining the placita but also reinforcing the pedestrian
pathways through the property. Okay. And about those pedestrian pathways through the property, are that is that going to be basically only pedestrians? I see there's an alley there. Nothing large enough that say a vehicle could fit through. No. No. The ramp is about uh 6
and 1/2 ft wide, but not wide enough for a car, unless it's a Yugo or something. Um, I've seen some construction or construction structures going on on
site. Could you you explain um what kind of uh work is going on? You mean on the existing site currently? Yes. Um, so we don't have any major construction that's ongoing right now.
uh about a week week and a half ago we had a contractor replacing some glass panels to one of the awnings to one of our buildings. Um and then separate from that uh David's subconsultant team has mobilized to conduct a subsurface investigation. So there's about a 4-day period when there was a drill rig on
site collecting soil samples for our environmental analysis. Um but outside of that right now there's no um ongoing construction. drew a rig on site in a wetlands without contacting the conservation commission for that's my understanding. Yeah,
McVale, our subconsultant, I think did reach out, but no, nobody contacted me. I'm the conservation agent. Nobody contacted me at all. Okay, we can follow up with them on it. Well, you just admitted to a violation. Was
there any consideration put towards the the design is incredibly modern. It's it's very clean and efficient, but it it is very noticeably different from the housing structures adjacent to it. Is there any thought to making especially
that back end that backs onto Herd Street a little bit more conforming in terms of visual appeal to its neighbors and especially because you have the dual fronts in a sense you know what I mean which is your nod to the height that's
it's it it looks visually it looks like another story above the other buildings. Is there a way to incorporate a slightly traditional design to the back end so that it looks like it belongs there.
Can you describe what you think would make it more traditional aesthetic? Your um I love the wood the use of the wood at least in this imagery. Um what is the is it metal or plastic for that siding that's on the other part of the building? The light gray color that you
see is anticipated to be metal panels. Yeah. So to to in in in my opinion the uh a roof a roof line that changes to a more sloped roof line would would be more traditional. Your window treatment
your sort of approach to windows would also if you have something that looks like it's a nod to the sort of history of the region. That would also give you a little bit more of that integrated look. And the tiling on the front of the
building is also very inongruous with what traditionally is in that area. So ju just thoughts on design feedback for how the street reads and especially if that's not an entrance. Right now it visually looks like an entrance even
though you you guys have done a great job on explaining that it's not but it looks like an entrance. Okay, that's fair. I will say that what you're seeing in the orange pattern is an attempt to also celebrate their culture and the culture of the population they serve,
which granted may not be part of this neighborhood, but is certainly part of the ambition of the of La Collabora, but we're we're still working on that. Your other comments are well noted. I can I I thought that you'd also incorporated that collaboriva logo into
the the tower aspect of the of the building itself, right? Yeah, that's right. So, okay. Yeah. On the south facade, but much larger in scale because it actually can't be seen from most of the neighborhood only when you're up maybe from the Koopa of this building or on Route 1A, which has a solid wall
unfortunately. But thank you, Regina. Relative to your question about the uh the door on Herd Street, David and I have discussion relative to the design of this and we thought it was best to keep at least some form of residential appearance to
it. And you know all those doors, all those structures that have front doors, we thought it best to at least leave a door there even if it's only used for emergency or rear uh access. Yeah, these these are all great points, but if I may make a comment about the roof slope. So most of the neighbors, not all
of them, but many of them are a flat roof because they are triple deckers. There are some that are sloped and peaked. To do so on this elevation would compromise quite a bit of the square footage on the top floor, which is another classroom. I mean, we could take a look at what that looks like formally, but uh certainly the building in the
foreground has a peak. The three or four afterwards are flat roof, but Well, may I suggest then if if if it's a question of compromising space and your your ideas to maximize space. Think about then a parapited, you know what I mean? To incorporate that
into your design structure. It's it just, you know, in thought process on that one. Okay. Thanks. I have a large picture question for you guys here and I mean this is definitely talking about what your future ambitions are for this area. There's five houses
that amount to that that you know essentially comprise that corner that's on Herd Street and then crossing over there. Um do you have ambitions to create a one unified property there? No, that's a a great urban design question. I think you know right now our
our major focal point is executing this project. This is a sizable you know undertaking for us. It's our major priority for the next uh two fiscal years. U we touched on this earlier briefly, but you know the construction timeline for this project would span around 18 months and we're currently in
the midst of a capital financing campaign. And so that's a few years I think down the line. Um we would definitely be interested in working with the city to understand what the urban design goals for this neighborhood are, especially now that we have the silver line. I think from an organization's
perspective, we're very concerned about the neighborhood changing, you know, with ongoing development that may not be designed to accommodate our existing residents. So, we'd certainly be interested in working with the city to identify, you know, equitable solutions for everyone. Any prop any discussions
with those property owners about their appetite for selling or have you had those kind of conversations? No, not at this point. Um, the two uh directly behind the survival center um there are two owner occupy properties. Uh, one of which is a retired couple. Um, the
second which is a uh, you know, family that has lived there for maybe 15 or so years. Um, so our understanding is they're looking to, you know, continue staying there and we're really happy to have them. And through your neighborhood conversations, would you count those folks as the supporters of this project?
Absolutely. Y Okay. I got a couple of questions. How come there's not a loading dock? If you guys are going to be having a workshop, the there's no loading dock. What are you guys doing with trash? What's the weight of the building? Because the fact that you put
all the mechanicals up, which is what they did in Seapport because of weight and and it's in a flood district. Um, I also have questions about trash. Uh, I have questions about the size because at
one point in your proposal, you were only saying you were going to employ eight people in a 12,000 square foot building. So, I have concerns about security. I have concerns that you are very vague about landscaping, lighting, building supply. I mean, it's it's it's
I understand what you want to do, and I understand we're concentrating a lot on the outside of the plaza, but nobody's concentrating on what's going on inside the building or how you're going to move equipment around, power, you're going to need, you know, water, uh, you have
multiple bathrooms, so I, you know, what else do I have? What do I um, and I'm a little concerned about the density of the space because it does change the
neighborhood quite a bit and um so uh I I understand the the work that you guys do and it's important but it's a pretty big building. I can try to address many of those if you can go to a
ground floor plan. It's a big building, but it's not much bigger than what's there. Now, that's an important thing to notice. Uh, if you go to the ground floor plan, so you're absolutely right. There are loading requirements. What we see is the ground
floor plaza. Maybe go to the ground floor uh floor plan that has more detail. So, the workshop on the lowest level has a very large garage door that opens up onto the plaza. Uh
so that is essentially that lowest level workshop is the input for the material pallet. I was just at the carpenters union building down by 93 south where actually the collaboriva has their current students travel to. Uh and they store their materials largely for the
wood shop are uh 4x8 sheets of plywood and they fit on uh steel racks. So the bulk of the lowest level workshop is essentially the intake of that. Although the garage door does open and we see that placita forming a space for the
students. Uh that's essentially the input. Uh we do have bathrooms on every level including two on the ground floor and two on the upper floor because of the student demands. We have more than are needed but we think it's appropriate for the educational use. Uh here you're
seeing the entrance there from from the plaza side. Is there a driveway access from the other building is what you're saying into this garage and the plaza area? Uh, it's not a driveway access. No.
To get to the workshop, how how do they get So, forklifts are what's typically used to move their things around. Uh, and the alleyway between their two buildings is about 12 feet now. Uh but there's no intention to get service vehicles or anything to go
through that. Um the comment about weight is a great one and in light of the fact that this is a educational facility we have 11 foot Florida floor heights we are proposing an all steel structure uh which will go up faster but
it also has placed demands on the soil conditions. So hence the drilling and McFale and Nichch and all the engineering that we're doing to try to make sure that this can touch down as delicately as possible on a landscape that is uh compromised soils. Uh so we
are doing a steel building that will help with sound absorption and noise uh as well as the clearances that are required. Uh trash we haven't actually shown on these drawings. I think that's a great point. The lighting, we want to make sure that it's not overwhelming to the
neighbors, but still provides sufficient space for outdoor activities. So, we have a lot to work through on those points. Okay. Have you looked into the possibility of adding a more robust storm water system down the road as
flooding becomes more problematic and potentially extending the life of the structures around you by taking on more of that load? Have you looked into some more creative solutions that u might not be possible in your current
budget but that you could implement as that concern becomes a bigger one? We can look at that. Absolutely. Yeah. For now we've looked at the entirety of the Labiva parcel at the moment. Um given that this is an area prone to
flooding, is it possible uh that the area on either side and plaza are a permeable substance so water can pass that's the goal. Yeah. I think what we've shown right here in terms of the
entryway area, you know, we're committed to making that some type of permeable surface. the opposite setback area would all be landscaped. Whether that's native plant species or um native grasses, you know, we'll going to flush out in our landscaping plan. I think the other
element to point out that David referenced earlier is that we are designing the first floor to be almost purposefully floodable. You know, we recognize that with sea level rise and coastal storm surge, this area will be susceptible to flooding. We're not planning on using that space with any
type of higherend equipment. The larger training facilities will be on the second and third floor so that mechanical equipment is out of the flood plane. The ground floor facility will be used as a multi-purpose educational classroom with lower value assets and designed so it it could accommodate
flooding in the event that sea level rise does affect the property. And if I can just add, it's a very light tone, but if you see those blue bands that are crossing diagonally across the placto, so those are runn. They're used to allow the water to run
off directly into the planters. And the use of permeable pavers, one has to be a little bit careful because they can also be they can styy accessibility, issues of accessibility. So we're trying to be judicious about where those are located. Much of the
placito will likely be scored concrete just because it's going to be uh patterned and then we'll combine that with a combination of rentals and permeable pavers. Um what hours do you envision this building being used for?
That's a great question. And so, um, you know, right now our normal business hours are generally 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Um, we do have a small number of classes, primarily English language classes and citizenship classes that run until 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Um,
however, we're committed to making sure that our, you know, more impactful activities, particularly the building trades workforce training, are set during hours that don't impact the the surrounding neighborhood. How many folks do you see in a classroom
at a time or in the building at one time? Sure, that's a a great question. So, in general, we're designing um most, but not all of the classrooms to accommodate up to 20 students at a time. Our typical class size is around 12 to 15 for most classes. Uh some of our
healthcare training programs serve up to 20. Um, and generally speaking, we'll have around eight full-time staff that'll be um, housed in this facility managing that portfolio. How many classrooms uh, Alex? How many classrooms are you
hoping to have in this building? Um, so we'll have about six in total. That includes the um, two workshops on the second and third floors as well as multi-purpose educational space on the first floor and the fourth floor along with some office space. Um the ground floor also has a lobby and small
welcoming area with lockers, restrooms, um as well as an art gallery area for uh local artists. If this building was full of classroom space and people and things going on, what would the anticipated amount of people capacity for people
that would be in this building at the its busiest time? probably busiest time would be somewhere around you know 160 to 180 maximum if we had all classrooms running simultaneously. Uh generally in our facility today we we will have anywhere from three to four classrooms
running simultaneously just given some of the staffing limitations. Um this will be you know facility that will be designed to accommodate very specific uh workforce training with specialized equipment. Uh so a lot of those programs are grantf funded. you know, we operate
them to the extent that we can operate them as funding allows. Um, so I think if we're up to us, we'd run, you know, as many as we could each year, but obviously funding limits that and would limit the intensity of the use in the building. Do you have any plans to use this space for events in addition to
classes as well? Um, like indoor events. Yep. You mentioned concerts and things like that in the Placita. No type of uh indoor events. No, I think we would picture that the the place would be used for as a neighborhood gathering location as well as for some smaller ancillary
events. For instance, we hold a staff cookout each summer. I could picture that we'd host that in the place area as well as have um outdoor classroom space um for some of the educators we work with. Some questions for you about
transportation and parking. So, um, the configuration obviously here is you're setting down right in a pretty densely packed neighborhood and particularly Herd Street being a oneway right there. I know it's been said that there's no plan to have any kind of entrance there. Um, do you have any plans to try and
actively stop people from dropping off there? Uh, because what I can see happening if people were to get, you know, so be able to do that, you would create a real jam up on a street that's already pretty tight. Um, and so a my question is how do you have any plans to
offset that? And then I also have questions about uh the parking that you've got there that you're counting on under 1A. Um, but if you could talk to me about Herd Street first, that'd be great. Sure. No, absolutely. So, um, you know, Herd Street along the, uh, the building
frontage right now, uh, is signed as no parking. Um, there is parking located elsewhere on the street. Um we've looked at um bumping out the curb line there to preclude any type of drop off activity. It's something we're examining right now because directly opposite the site there
is a curb cut for one of our neighbors. So we just want to ensure that we're not adversely affecting access to their driveway in terms of the swings in and out of that that driveway. Um but outside of that, you know, we're open to adding ballards, signage, pavement markings, as well as other um
streetscape modifications. We do intend to fully reconstruct the sidewalk along the frontage um in conformance with city requirements and would like to add some type of traffic calming there in particular um just given some of the speeding in the uh the neighborhood. That sounds great. Um and then about
under 1A where your larger parking um is concentrated. So I'm assuming that's not property that you own at this point. Uh that's correct. That's property that we have a long-term lease um with uh the Commonwealth under. So, we use that primarily for our food pantry. There's
some ancillary staff parking over there. Um, the majority of our our staff use public transit or walk um given the high prevalence of Chelsea residents that that we employ. Um, and the vast majority of the members that we uh serve on a daily basis also walk or take
public transit. Um, I'll also note that all residents that are enrolled in our workforce training, educational, um, and related programs receive, um, MBTA benefits on a monthly basis, um, including the monthly link passes. So, we try our best to steer people towards
public transit and reduce the reliance on on personal vehicles. Absolutely. But how solid are those leases? You say you have long-term leases for that parking space. Um, you know, how how solid are those? Are those subject to kind of the whims of the state ultimately or um you
know what what are your what how how long are they? Excellent question. Um so we recently executed as of this year a new 10-year lease on that space um that was enacted by the legislature. So it's solid during that period of time. Thank
you. Thank you. John, uh, that lease does not include a clawback by the state. I would have to look at it and follow up with you on that question. Yeah, my concern is that um should the state uh
move its workers back to the MITC center, they will want that parking spaces, those pocket spaces back. There's no clawback with regards to the MITC use. I do want to just double check to make sure if as long as we don't violate it, it wouldn't be clawed back, but there's nothing in there regarding
the um use of the space by the MITC. Okay. Um under the zoning regulations, they can't be counted toward the parking because they don't own it. Our zoning regulations say have to be within 300 feet and have to be owned. But I'm also concerned because you're talking about a
campus here and um you were the collaborative was giving relief for the off street parking on their uh on their building at the corner of Arlington and sixth and with fewer spaces than required and those spaces aren't even being used. They're actually
being blocked off with benches and and uh tables. So just exacerbating a problem. No, absolutely. And we uh we received your note on that issue. We're we're happy to comply with the permit requirements and are in the process of moving those uh temporary picnic tables
that our staff put outside um to an appropriate location to to grant access to that lot. [Applause] Um, are there any members of the public who would like to address this petition?
Please come forward and uh introduce yourself and tell us your thoughts. Yes. and speak into the mic. You can take it off the stand if you want. Um, hi. Uh, my name is Hen.
I'm one of the I'm the owner of 54 her Street, which is on the right hand side of 50 her street. Uh, I guess I missed the letter. I never had a one-on-one with the collaborative. So, I definitely don't support what's going on right now
for several reasons. U one is the is 50 is her street a residential or a business uh buildings now. Uh I guess that's just a question for for you guys is is a residential. So so
what they're planning to do right now to me is like they're doing business. So they're changing the acquire residential area to a business area. Could I respond? Yeah. So it is a uh residential district an R2 district. Um
however this use is coming under a you know educational like nonprofit use which the state has codified as a an exempt use. So it is allowed in any district. So that's why um the use per
se isn't in question at this meeting. Okay. I just want like I said yes I've been living a a 54 street over 17 years quiet neighbor uh so that's one of my issue the residential business the second one is
is noise uh 50 her street still is not part of the collaborativa and still and up to this point um uh they've been having events and that's creating a lot of noise.
I'm right next to the 254 50 her street and they be having events up all the way out up to uh 11 p.m. And uh to me that's the
is disturbing all my kids neighbors. So that's another reason that I'm against it. uh three parking spells. They're eliminating seven parking spaces
at 50 Hz Street right now. And that's with uh probably 12 people living at 50 Hz Street. Now I'm hearing that at any point they can have up to 160 people in that building.
Where are they going to park? I know you have a lease under the bridge, but that's not that to me that doesn't count as a parking spot and you're mentioning that the buildings that you have that you currently have there are parking spaces there, but that
doesn't count either because I'm sure those parking spaces is for those buildings only, not for the not for 50 Hz Street uh for floating Since that collaborativa built the new
buildings at the front, no 50 Hz street, even though they're using 50 50 Hz street, um let let me let me just back up. Uh floating is an issue at 50 Hz at at her street period
since they built the buildings the new buildings in the collorativa that made everything worse because one of the things that they did is that they at 50 Hz street I don't know if you know they built a large
basin to catch water from 50 Hz street and also they're using it to uh for the storm water runoff into 50 her street and that's affecting the neighbors especially me because I guess I'm the only one here still for my
neighbors there. Um so flooring is is an issue. So I know you tal talked about the the flooring issue but you just you didn't go into details. What are you planning to do? I was hoping that when they were building the collaborative, they were going to
add a pipe uh straight to the main storm sewer. But that didn't happen. Instead, they they just dig a big a big hole in the middle of the parking lot. And what is
it doing? Yes, it's helping you, but guess what? That water is running under under under the ground to the other neighbors. and that's affecting us. So those are the the main four four
issues that that I have. Two is that um I already said the noise uh you're blocking 50 Hz street but I guess someone mentioned that that's not that won't prevent anyone from gathering 50 Hz street
creating uh potential accidents because now there's going to be people gathering right outside of 50 Hz Street. Um, those are the my my my main issues.
Uh, like someone said here, I understand what you're doing, but I don't think that's the right location to do it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay, we'll close the public session and
resume questions and comments if there be any. Um, if this ends up getting approved, I'd propose putting or adding on a condition
of hours of oper hours of operation from like 8:00 a.m. through like six or five to ensure classes or other things aren't going on
as people are trying to eat dinner or fall asleep. To that end, I mean, I'm kind of hearing here that, you know, it's a great idea and a great, you know, philosophy behind what's going on here. Although I do think that there's some issues that need
to be thought through a little bit more here before we really should be saying yes or no to this plan. I feel like there's a lot of questions that are open around what this is going to mean for the neighborhood at large. Um and you know just generally the logistics of it maybe might need a little bit more
thought before we really give this that kind of vote. Yeah. And as a personal aside, I'm actually over on I'm actually over on uh over on uh over on Eden Street, and some of
those Labraativa parties can get a little uh little noisy. So just turning it down like after 10:00, I'd personally appreciate it.
So, it sounds like we have a few different issues. We've got noise, neighborhood noise as as something you guys really need to consider and work on. Hours of operation are important to the neighborhood. We have neighbors who are worried about the the whole
basically a a trib block creating water issues that will need to be looked even further into other than digging a hole and letting the underground water seep through the neighborhood. Uh we've height issues and the look of
the overall building on the back that faces into Herd Street. We have issues with uh access point like people just ignoring it and doing drop offs, pickups or parking in that on Herd Street and creating traffic issues. So we want you
to look at those those concerns as well and try to figure out a good plan for coming back to us with with that. Um, yeah, I think those are those seem to be the big concerns with this particular plan. And then there's just a question as the residents brought up is are there
any do you guys have any other pieces of land that you had also thought of this particular campus, the educational part in Chelsea that you would would you be open to using other than this particular lot? First off, I want to just extend our
gratitude for the uh the feedback relative to the, you know, height, the hours of operation, the noise, and some of the other legitimate issues. So, um, you know, I live two blocks away on Orange Street. I can also appreciate, you know, maintaining a quiet sort of orderly neighborhood. And, and I will
say that as a leadership team, we're committed to doing so. Um, we're more than amendable to, you know, submitting a noise mitigation plan to the city for approval as part of this process, as well as, uh, moderating our hours of operation, whether that's 6:00 p.m. or
or 7 p.m. I think our only request would be to consider many of the working families that we serve that may only be able to attend night classes and balance that with some of the neighborhood um neighborhood issues. Um similarly with storm water management um we can
certainly present a final plan for approval that's agreeable to the city's DPW. Um I will say that we have engineered our our storm water system on site a little bit differently than than characterized here tonight and we'd be happy to share more detail about it. Um
but I think all those are very legitimate and we right now don't own any additional property in Chelsea where we could envision a use like this. uh nor are we in a position to acquire property uh for the foreseeable future.
Um the drainage plan really needs to be approved by this board and by the conservation commission. So, it's not just a DPW. I'd like to make a proposal that you come back to us with some of the
additional concerns addressed and just kind of look over these plans. I think you guys have done a wonderful presentation. Uh, very thorough. Thank you for that. Um, and especially with being able to answer a lot of the questions that we had. It was fantastic.
But I'd like to like to see some of these questions sort of work through and come back to us with them. Absolutely. So this I'm making a proposal that we put this on pause till some of these
issues are addressed and you can appear before us again. You need to um if the motion is to continue the case uh to an exact date uh the July 22nd meeting. Is that what you're proposing? Yep.
That's a proposal. Second. I'll second it. Moved in and second to to continue the case and this one. Yeah. July 22nd meeting. All in favor? I make it work. Is that is that enough
time for you? Yes. Any oppose? See you in July. Thank you very much. Have a good evening. point of clarification that is for both the recommendation to the ZBA and for the major site plan. Yes. The last case here.
All right. Next, we'll hear case 2025-5 at 24 Lewis Street. Good evening. Would you uh introduce yourselves and tell us your address and
and present your case? Cortez and I live at 24 Louis Street in Chelsea. Street in Chelsea. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Cecilia Flores. I live at the same address, 24 Lewis Street in Chelsea.
Tell us what you would like to do. Okay. So, the main reason we are here is because we are seeking approval of a driveway opening permit because in previous occasions our car our cars have
been crashed before. while parked on the street. About two years ago, they tried to steal one of our cars. So, we asking for your permission, your approval. If you can, if we can build that driveway, we're seeking approval
for it. Um, are you proposing um some sort of retaining wall? Would the would the driveway be sloping or would it be flat with the retaining wall holding the earth back? You will have a little inclination,
not completely flat. If you allow, if you give us the permission to build the parkway so we can park one car parallel and next to the other one, we can agree of making the space flat rather.
I'm sorry, it's not wide enough for two cars side by side. Then if that is the case, sir, then we're willing to do park one car after the other one in in a straight line if that is what is allowed.
Have you talked to your neighbor? We did talk to our neighbors and everybody's in agreement with from us building this driveway. Everybody agrees. Um, is it possible to construct it with permeable pavers?
Say one more time. Is it possible to construct it with permeable pavers or a permeable substance? The the floor itself, right? Yes. Yes. Yes. [Music]
We're not very familiar with the latest materials the companies are using, but we are willing to consider different options if that is required. Yeah. The the idea would be to not take away um the ability for the land to
absorb water. If you pave it over with standard pavement, it pushes the water into someone else's yard or adds more load to the storm water system. What is the elevation from the sidewalk
to uh the back of the area where they're proposing the driveway finishes? the elevation from Yeah. What is the Ugrade the grade elevation how big the hill is going to be? Yes,
exactly. Since you're since you're going to put it in a hill, how what's the what's the angle of the hill? If you're referring to the height itself is probably a 50 or 60 degree angle if
that is what you're referring to. Yeah, it it could requirement for that. Yeah, of course. Oh, wait. Please. Uh, sorry. Grab the mic. So if you refer to the height of this
particular wall, it is approximately half a meter 50 cm right here. And I can confirm that when I took this picture, I measured the height of the wall was about 18 in. John, question for you is
if you took this picture, do you are what is the elevation of this property? Does it need a retaining wall to put in a driveway? If the idea is just to give it a little of an incline, yes, it's going to need retaining walls to hold up the driveway. Okay.
Otherwise, otherwise it might be treacherous trying to pull out backwards into the street if you're coming down a steep slope. It, you know, it's just a little more to make If we approve, would you be willing to
give up the right to park on the street? Say that again. If we approve, would you give up the right to park on the street? Would that be okay? Their park their right to park on the street. Right. say absolutely. Absolutely. We're willing to do that. I don't think we
have the ability to make that a condition. We can't take someone's city parking stick and go away. No, if they get the relief they need, they cannot get sticker parking. No, they're they're meeting. So, the zoning actually was just changed. The
city council approved a zoning amendment uh last night. They're only needing relief for the location of the um the parking spots, I believe. Uh so, not within a front yard. It's being placed in the front yard. It's within 5t from a
wall with windows and within 5t of a sidelot line. They are meeting the number which with this zoning amendment means if this were to get approved they could put in the driveway and still receive residential parking stickers for
the street. So they still retain the ability to park on the street if it's approved. Yes. However, if we're removing a street spot, we're decreasing the number of available spots.
So they're saying they had heard more both versions before that they did have the right to retain the right to park on on the street and then they had hear different uh versions as well that they would lose the ability to park on the
street if the project was approved which caused a little bit of confusion. because we are about Chelsea residents and we do travel within the area. So for that matter, we should have the right to have a sticker and park on the street and I have done my research as well
which says that we do have that right as well. So, up until last night, they would have lost the right to park on the street if they got this relief. However, the city council approved a zoning or a zoning change last night that will allow them
to keep the parking in this instance. So they will retain the the right to park it on the street, right? Because of the approval of this ordinance or that you're referring to. So the net effect here would be that this would privatize a parking space. Yes. Is that right, John?
If we were to approve this, that would essentially privatize a parking space with no offset to the larger community. You're losing it will be losing one on street parking space, gaining two off- streetet parking spaces. So essentially, you gain
gain one space on the street. Um, I'd like to make a proposal that we approve, but I want to make sure with with conditions particularly that they understand about the retaining walls and the pavers
and uh and the the time frame name for this. Um I think standard condition. Yeah. I just want to make sure he understands about the walls because that's very important because if he just
takes that first wall down and doesn't put walls up on the side, that's what a retaining wall is that it'll collapse. We are very aware of what your proposed ma'am and that we were waiting for this approval and we're willing to follow any
requirements regarding the contention wall and what is required in terms of the water and the special type of material preventing the water from expanding. I agree uh I agree
uh with every condition proposed except for completing the project in a certain time frame. I'm a little bit concerned about precedent it sets and it'll force people to complete jobs like fast and
dirty. But I support pavers. I support retaining Not any sort of on timing. You made the motion. Okay, I'll
second that if if you hadn't already done that. All right. Could I um could I just make a suggestion to the condition about the retaining wall? Um that whatever plan or like basically submit a
plan for the retaining wall to the department of permitting and land use planning uh just yeah just as a condition. Does that sound good? Include that in your motion. Do they have to do that in that regard or like once this is
officially approved uh whenever they draw up the plans to put those retaining walls in to just submit those plans to the department of permitting and land use planning before they start their construction and that department is right here? Yeah. Yeah. It's myself,
John. Okay. Downstairs. the priest then we have to wait what's the do we have to wait sometime for this or in terms of they can No you don't you don't have to like wait Um, if this board
recommends approval to the zoning board, you will go to the zoning board meeting, have a meeting similar to this one and then they'll make a final decision. If they decide to approve, then you know, you could start working on those plans.
You'll have these conditions that you have to meet. One of them which is providing us a plan for the retaining wall and you could just submit that to us like whenever you can. So it'll be another meeting they have to make this proposal which is for you guys. If the board recommends approval to the zoning
board they will have to come back to here on July 8th for a zoning board meeting Tuesday July 8th. I see here at this floor same same location. Yeah. Yeah. With the zoning board and that board makes the final decision. Like me to read.
All right. I'd like to make Okay. I'd like to make a motion to recommend approval to the zoning board with the standard conditions as applicable and the use of some form of permeable pavement or pavers and that a
plan of um the retaining wall gets submitted to the Office of Land Use and Development. They don't have to schedule an appointment, right? Once they just come back on July the 8th for that purpose, for the final approval
on July the 8th. Correct. Sonification. They're wondering if you guys can provide the specifics of the type of material, the companies that they offer this type of material and they're willing to to to get that type of material if specifics are provided. Type
of material, companies that offer that permeable type of or they would have to research themselves. I would assume that contractors who do this type of work can provide those that documentation, right? But they just need to be aware of their requirements.
Okay, we have a motion on the floor. Would you like to repeat it? I think I think Sarah is so I approve I would like to recommend recommend that we approve this with the conditions that
Sarah has stated um eloquently better than myself and yeah and let that go on to the zoning board. Okay. Does everybody understand your second motion? Thank you. All right.
Everybody understand? Motion. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Nay. One opposed. Motion carries. Your next meeting is July 8th.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Also, please feel free to stop by the office, speak to Hector, you know, we'll we can help. You guys are downstairs first. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. First floor. Thank you very much, Joe. Great time.
Thank you. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. Good night. All right, we need to appoint somebody to sit on the community preservation committee. Those who've already done it are
excused. I'll volunteer myself if uh people are immunable to it. Volunteer. Any other volunteers? Yeah, we're you and I are you're appointed right here. I can just quickly speak to the
community preservation committee. Uh the community preservation committee. um basically reviews applications uh that relate to the creation of affordable housing, open space and recreation and historic preservation. Um and that community preservation
committee meets once a month once a month for an hour on the third Thursday of each month in yeah in room 102 and um yeah it's in person and essentially you'll there are
two cycles of two application cycles one in the fall one in the spring um and I was talking to the community preservation committee coordinator uh who said that usually Usually you're handling around 15 applications each cycle, somewhere around that range. Um,
and also usually handling around a million in funds that gets distributed to these different projects. Uh, and you get a bunch of uh merch and swag too, I guess, as well. I don't know. I'm hearing you get uh water bottles, uh,
bandanas, a tote bag. So, yeah. Paper weights, all kinds of good stuff. Yeah, it is a nice committee and they have money to uh award. So,
yeah, there there's no vote. It's just an appointment. So, next. Oh, Chelsea master plan updates is next. All right. So, um, as we talked about, you know, last meeting, we are trying
to, uh, engage the board in discussions around the comprehensive plan and some specific topics that the plan will cover. Uh, this week we are talking about transportation and mobility. Um, which is still a large topic area. that we had asked board members to think
about in your opinion, in your experience in the city. What do you see as strengths? Uh what do you see as weaknesses as it relates to transportation and mobility? What would you like to see? What's your vision for this? Um I had sent to the board um a few materials around recent projects
that the city has been engaged in as it relates to transportation and mobility. Most of these projects have been focused on increasing safety for both uh drivers and pedestrians. Um, I included a link to an MBTA study that looked at um, you
know, assessing whether or not it would make sense to extend the silver line. Um, so those are some of the more recent projects that the city has been involved in. Um, we do have some visuals here that I I would like to pass over to Adam as he's been a bit more involved in some of the vision zero and safe streets
projects that the city's involved in. So, yeah. So, these are just some maps that I pulled from our safe streets for all project, which is looking to enhance uh the city's safety on the streets. Essentially, the goal is to reduce all
traffic fatalities to zero. Um, this map uh just to provide some context is just all the crashes that have occurred in the city of Chelsea in the past 5 years. So essentially the bigger and redder the dot the worse the injury was from this
cause of the injury. The red X's are where the fatal injuries have occurred and then the the shading is just like the um density of crashes that occurred at that specific intersection. Um, if you want to move on
to the next map, it highlights some of the consultants safety improved locations that they highlighted. So, the G the ones that are highlighted in green are the ones the cities have is already looking to address. Um, the ones that
are in red are the the top locations that the consultants would like the city to address next. And then the yellow locations are some of the other um pretty densely uh crashed locations that would be uh
prime for future investments for safety um improvements. And then just for some Sorry, can you before you go on to the next um do you have documentation on if bikes were involved in those? Oh yes, sorry. What
kind of crashes are they? Yeah. So, so the these are all crashes including vehicular um cyclist and pedestrian um accidents. Um if we go to the uh back to the safety
or improvement locations, these are weighted based on what type of accident they were. So the the high the high priority locations are weighted with a like a 10x multiplier if it was a a
fatal or serious um pedestrian or cyclist accident 5x multiplier if it was a fatal or serious car accident um and then just a one and 2x multiplier if it was like minor injuries based on that.
So it is factoring in um what type of crash is occurring and the severity of the crash that occurred in those locations. Does that answer your question? Okay. Well, this is just for providing context. Um if you want to learn more
about the safe streets for all project, we'll share share the slides with you. This is just to shape the conversation for tonight um and give you some some context and maps to provide you with. So I moving on to the safe streets project. These are just the goals that um have
been highlighted through the uh community engagement process so far. Um welcome to have any uh input. If you guys want to fill out the survey um for the safe suits fall project, that would be much appreciated for the consultants
and the staff working on that. How are you going to improve drivers behaviors? Improving driver behavior. I love it, but how the hell are you going to do it? Improving driver behavior, um, what they're trying to focus on is, uh, education, but then you can also design like it's it's a broad goal that sort of
encompasses all of the other goals. So, prioritizing safe street design can influence driver behavior and improve it. Um, additionally, working on engaging and educating um, residents would be beneficial and hopefully
improve driver behavior um, going into the future. You um, vision zero isn't like a pipe dream. There are cities in the United States like Hoboka, New Jersey that have achieved zero um, traffic fatalities in
the past three consecutive years. So, this is an achievable goal. And then to shape our conversation, um we're just going to throw up the questions that we asked at the last planning board meeting, which is what are the strengths and weaknesses you see for transportation and mobility in
Chelsea? Um and what are the opportunities and threats that you guys have thought about and wish to discuss here? And also just want to you know I think the goal of this discussion is to kind of synthesize some of the comments from the board members so Sarah can like
bring this back to the steering committee uh and this can try to get incorporated into uh the master plan. Um and of course uh you know transportation and mobility are is you know it's a broad category. It maybe doesn't just include like driving though that is a
major mode of transportation. uh but just the more recent projects that the city's been engaged in has have been around uh improving driving, you know, safety for drivers and pedestrians, but I think we can also think beyond just like driving issues and stuff like that.
Um so just a general question about the map with the X's on it. There was maybe five of them. Are those in the works right now? Are those No, the X's are where the fatal um fatal accidents occurred. Sorry, the red triangles. No,
the green ones are the ones where the current projects are going. The red are the one the projects that that the consultants um are the top priority for future investment. Adam, can you
sorry can you descri describe what they have put in place to address those concerns? Are they moving out sidewalks? Are they putting in bumps? what what are they doing specifically to deal with these particular issues that they see? What are the proposals? I don't know.
Read some of that. So, I just want to Yeah, I don't know exactly like what's going on at each location, but I'm I'm assuming they're taking um the necessary steps that they need to to make them safer, like you said, widening sidewalks
and improving. Well, one of my concerns with the question is the the I don't I call them mopeds or motorbikes which are becoming quite popular and so it's it's different than a bicycle because I'm happy to share the road with
anyone but the the concern is that some of them are because of they're fairly aggressive usually and also because they're they have the speed of a bike and then I mean speed They have somewhat
of a small car, but they have very good mobility. So, that's one of the I think it's a strength and a weakness. I think it's a strength in the sense that it's um interesting that that's what people are are turning to, but I also think it's like bike paths, things like that.
So, they uh because I work in Cambridge, people don't like to to share the bike path with them. And I don't know how I I don't have a solution to that. I just think it's an something we need to sort of I don't I don't see it a lot here. I see it more but I think it will come
into Chelsea because it's a really great inexpensive mode of transportation. Technically are are motorized vehicles supposed to follow essentially motorbike laws rules the road and ride on the
roads not on the bike lanes? I mean, do we have any rules around that as a city at this point in time? I think it's driven by exactly what type of vehicle you're talking about. I mean, how how powerful is it? How fast will it go? Absolutely. Does it take gas or, you
know, whatever. Does it take a license plate? You know, because there are moped, you know, rules and things like that. But I think a lot of what Mimi is talking about are like the e scooters and the ebikes that don't require that. like they're deliberately kept at a low enough wattage where they don't require
a plate or like a motorcycle license or anything like that to drive them. So well like bic bicycle. So like today I was driving to Cambridge. I wasn't going but this bicycle came up to me on my left hand side literally cut me off and when and then I'm like holy cow because I know you know bicyclists are supposed
to follow traffic laws and and they don't basically and I certainly don't think they should be in danger but at the same time I don't know how to address it. So, I'm just saying that's one of the things that I would like the master plan because I think it will be
an interesting thing to happen. So, then it sounds like one of the things we should consider is not just putting in this plan for messing with the streets and the roads and all the rest of it, but that education around bicyclists, motorized bikes, scooters, that that
should be part of our master plan. In addition, it's like rules of the road and keeping, you know, getting the education going in both the school systems and the and in Chelsea in general should be part integrated into our into our system rather than just
stick the lanes in and good luck. Absolutely. I think those Yeah. So, yeah. So, Vision Zero is just it's an international it's an international movement that essentially strives to eliminate traffic fatalities. It it it doesn't accept that these are
just accidents that occur, but it tries to improve uh driver behavior through street design, through education efforts to help eliminate these these traffic fatalities. Yeah, maybe more of a public service announcement about um all the
factors that go into vision zero just so that people are aware that the community is striving for a higher rating. I I would also um I've seen a few few communities that have incorporated the the um pedestrian crossings that have
the yellow flashing lights, but the lights are placed lower than normal lights. And what I've seen happening is the cars don't see them and they don't stop like basically till somebody's in the middle of the crosswalk which is just as dangerous in fact maybe more
likely to get somebody killed. So, we might want to take a look at at if we are incorporating light systems for some of these like highly dangerous areas that we really are very very careful about the design that either we make the striping on the
street another color altogether that we're we're really creating visibility, lights are in a position where oncoming cars can see this no matter what time of day it is. Um, and that there's that there's um
what would I say is the other piece in the pie that maybe a little unconventional approach to that in terms of striping for like if it's a crossing we used to call them zebra crossings in Ireland and they would literally be like you know diagonal as opposed to straight black and whites. So I mean just
thinking outside the box on how we approach some of these lines. Are they doing horizontally? Okay. They put big you've seen them big red boxes into the so that the Yeah. So the
problem is it's I I mean I love signage. I love but problem is people just don't pay any attention to it. It's one of those fields I always feel really bad when people do it because they they you know like airports where's where's the how do you get to gate A and there's a little giant sign says gating. So it's
it's it's a hard it's a hard thing. It's one of those hard things to do. But no, I I but a big in big bigger intersections are always helpful because it but that's almost would be very hard to do in Chelsea to have really like in Cambridge they eliminated a lot of
parking. People are having you know uh fits and you know it's just that I think that if you're going to um change the behavior of the driver then you should also change the behavior of the bicyclists. It's not that the pedestrian Well, it's hard. It's rare that a
pedestrian gets hit, but it's more common that a bicyclist has fatal fatalities in Boston. And I'm not I'm not blaming either the victim or the the aggressor. But I'm just saying that's why I laughed because it's not just the driver. It's, you know, like when you
drive, and I drive a lot, you know, these um I get it. They're, you know, tend to be younger, feel invincible. I get it. You know, women here, but I I just um wanted to say that in our meeting, which was what
over a month ago in the um Palante meeting, um the safety of streets was considered one of the most um you know, the biggest concerns. I think the other one was was housing availability. So, this is way up there on the list of
priorities for most of the residents. So, it's certainly worthy of some better understanding. And to that end, I mean, I see this around Chelsea a lot. You know, as a part of a master plan, it probably really is worth putting a lot of thought
behind a deliberate plan about how to weave in these ecooters and the bikes and things like that so they're not out there in the mix with traffic and, you know, create creating chaos for themselves and others. I mean, that's one of those things that a lot of the time people get those and don't really
quite know what they're allowed to do or not do with them and so they just ride them anywhere. I see people ride them on a sidewalks at times, you know, just because because they can and no one's stopping it. But if we are creating a master plan, then, you know, then we
have an opportunity to kind of build in some infrastructure that kind of addresses that. I mean, these maps are so helpful, but you know, we we want I'd like to know more. So is something like this available on the city's website so we can you know dig into it and see like
what happened at number five for instance and and understand where the real problem areas are so that we can one of the questions I had to that to that as well is on this does it tell us are these accidents that were accidents
that involved two parties or were any of these accidents that were just single single vehicle or single individual issues? like people crashed their own car or something like that. Um yeah, on the other slide it included all the accidents um that have occurred, right?
But it highlights the ones where an injury occurs. And on the next slide where you've got the priority ones, I mean are these are just the priority locations based on like the weights that the consultants used um and based on essentially the map and like what types of accidents were occurring. Um to
answer Sarah your question, yes, we are putting together a website that um is going to be a part of this vision zero process that that highlights the the locations that we're looking to improve and the types of improvements that we are are looking to to do at
these locations as well. So I think we can get much more helpful feedback if we're dealing with real, you know, data. So yeah, definitely. Um I can I can try and send that link to Will or to you guys um and and definitely share that
with you. And also a map that shows all these transportation routes um you know that are existing and proposed. It's it would be helpful to have all that in one
in one diagram so that we can discuss it you know just react to it. Now I'm not sure if that is going to be part of the palante process or if this is the kind of um thing that we should be doing you know within the planning board to
discuss amongst ourselves but that's in my opinion the most um like streamlined way to get a good discussion of it to have some good graphics to go by. I have one more idea I'd love to see in some of the like connector areas or massive
intersections is the idea of a pedestrian bridge if if that's even possible within our budget of some kind. Like so for example down where the high school is that connects into across 16 into Everett and also into Prattville
and also down by uh basically where Chelsea ends from where this the section 8 housing is at the end of Chelsea behind Tambo that connects over to the river into that area the the Mystic Mall not the mystic mall the other mall that
we have there. I'd love to see a pedestrian bridge connecting that side of Chelsea to that water area and into that mall area would be and and just that area is super dangerous to cross. And there are also we have a little problem with some of our addicts in that
particular area. So that would kind of that just help get people from one side of 16 to the other. And it's one those two intersections are extremely busy. Plus the one down by the high school that connects across 16 is also extremely busy. So just thoughts on that
one. And then well one thing they're extremely busy because you have huge height requirements. Yeah. And then because you mean they're extremely expensive. They're extremely expensive. You have to have huge height requirements because of the trucks. You have to have ADA compliances. And my experience when I
watch them is half the people don't even use them because they they just don't want to go up the stairs or they go up the ramp. There's one at, you know, Bunker Hill College. I see it being ignored 90% of the time. So, I agree that it's an interesting idea and it's a
safety idea. But, yeah, and I I think they these pedestrian bridges will contribute to the success of some of these high dense areas like the MBTA communities act areas. um you know the a
lot of the parcels if you can't get to say market basket easily then it just makes it that much less um of a successful project. So um there's quite a few locations I think where these
pedestrian bridges would help matters tremendously. Yeah. Yeah, the I mean the the only other thing, Mimi, I hear you on expense, but we could we could also incorporate a bike lane to into someone like that where the waterfront is connected to as well. So So you have one end of Chelsea that's almost cut off,
right? That sort of corner of Chelsea that backs into River and Everett. You connect it to the Milhill, the mill water way down there. It could if it if it's going to be expensive, well then do it the right way with with bike access
on it as well. If they're putting in new infrastructure down in that area where uh the old uh uh what's that that new build Forbes that it it would connect that to and in and also our our Chelsea waterfront
potentially. So that that I mean just on a master planning level it's just throwing out a thought process on something that might bring multiple areas together and create safety as well. So just adding to that, I think going back to the questions, one of the
strengths of Chelsea currently and has been is we're well connected to by through the MBTA. I think that being said, it's different segments that are connected and if you need to get to like South Boston, you got to do like three different transfers. And so thinking about are there opportunities to be
better connected or more strategic about it is important. It's like using fairies for example or using waterways I think is would be a good focusing fair transportation. What is what's the conversation going on? I I agree that the tea is both a
strength and a weakness here. Um and one of the things I think about is what the te's plans are for us. there's much media and talk about, you know, what they might do in terms of expanding the Silver Line or, you know, other things. Do we have any any real intel from them
about what their plans along those lines are or is this planning process something that they're going to use as a guide? I'm Yeah, John might know a bit more on that. I'm not as well versed, but well, as the city's representative to the MBTA
advisory board, I can tell you that the uh T just put out their capital improvement plan and it's all maintenance and no expansion. No expansion. Okay. And so, but what they've been doing too around, you know, the reconfiguration of the bus lines and things like that. Is that something
that's also, you know, not is that considered new projects or is that Well, well, they have uh instituted some of those reconfigured lines. 104, right, that used to run from Sullivan to Maldon now runs from Malden to the airport via Second Street. Yeah. And I'm talking
about that kind of thing is that that was something that's created a change. I don't know how great the change has been or not, but I just have used it. But it's only been in effect for a short time, so I don't think they have a lot of data on it yet. Is there any other plans like that in the works that
they're already thinking about? Is it project approved or RFP to extend our silver line out into I think it was Assembly or Somerville? Yeah, it was over to um uh the casino actually. Uh because getting over the river would be
the the diff the difficult part. Um it is it's still being talked about. Whether it's been funded yet, I don't know. Um, what was funded, I think Will sent it out to you, was the uh the pedestrian
bridge over the river to from Casino to Assembly Square that is being funded. Will that tie into the bike path? Yes, it will. That's a big win. part of our master some of our infrastructure into the stuff that connects you all the way
through the Northshore as well and and think about that too as well as as as something that we would want for our community. Yeah. the more of this information that we can get in one place, even if it's not approved yet, but you know, things
that are proposed, it'll help us um think how Chelsea can be reacting to some of the moves that are happening around us. Like for instance, the ferry that may at some point touch down in
Assembly Square and then maybe somewhere in Charleston other than the Navyyard downtown, um, East Boston, maybe up Chelsea Creek at some point. But there's some really progressive things happening in Cambridge. I just learned about an
eboat, an electric powered boat that's going to be um stopping between Watertown Square and I think the science museum bridge at various spots along the water. And you know, I I really think that we should be putting this to as a
top priority because there's a lot of things happening and these things take years in the making. Um and um there's really no downside of prioritizing ferry transportation. So I I but one of the challenges of
course is vehicular access to the ferry terminal and how can we um mitigate that? How can we make it more doable for those who don't have a car to take advantage of the ferry and um you know
perhaps have smaller depots so it's not a big um burden on any one neighborhood. It's kind of transportation but also kind of off topic as a personal aside.
Um, I'm quite interested in Chelsea's Quiet Zone project. I feel that's just been getting like pushed back and pushed back over time. Say which project? Uh, it's called our Chelsea Quiet Zone
project, so trains don't need to blare through every intersection. Um, we miss wasn't that one of those things where we missed some sort of dead important deadline and then we're stuck with the noisy trains for until we build
a certain crossing or something like that. John, what was the story on that? I have some history with this project. I found the one. You mean to open the can? Sorry for triggering you. No, not a problem. It's it's it's a frustrating one for me because we got a notice 20 years ago
from FRA that uh you know they were going to institute blowing the whistles again and uh unless we built uh crossings that were safer and then by that they mean instead of just crossings at two quarters crossing out four quarters. At the time they gave an
estimate that this would cost about $60,000. Our engineers said no it'll cost about 10 times that amount for each crossing. So it got delayed because we're trying to find that funding. Um and then you
know uh we got some thought from powers of be that they weren't going to force it yet pandemic came they had nothing to do they found out that we weren't doing it and then they pushed for it. I know the DPW uh did have uh some their engineers
look at it. I don't know what it what the pro uh the um where it went from there. I just I just don't know because I wasn't involved in it after that. Potentially still up in the air while we look at how we would acquire the funding
just to do over all the crossroads that are required by the MBTA. Yeah. State. Yeah. So, Eric, we're we're kind of that one might be on the long finger. At one point there was federal funds to help us, but with the administration
that's maybe we're losing federal funds. All right. Well, Jessica, what you were suggesting is um you know about the connections that are missing. It would be helpful if people could, you know, email me some of your ideas and I could
sort of compile it all into one um, you know, some feedback that we can hand over to the Palante committee. So, also on the topic of trains, except on topic, um there's also the potential
to add a stop at our Forbes site if any future um construction occurs there for bus or or commuter rail. Yeah. Oh, cool. Commuter train.
There was one at one point, right? I think so, but it was before my time. All right. So, like Sarah said, I think if you have other thoughts, email Sarah individually. Do not email everyone.
That would break open meeting law. Um and Sarah can kind of synthesize these comments to provide back to the um Palante uh steering committee. Um we of course were taking minutes so we will also send those out and that can be also used. Um and also finally I think we can
try to like when these plans and projects kind of come across our own sort of view we can try and send it out to the planning board. Um, I feel like with the, you know, we have a permanent land planning department, then there's a housing and community development
department, and HCD tends to do more of these like larger plans. Um, so I feel like I'm not as like connected in them, but when we do hear of them, I think we can definitely try and like send them out. Um, just so y'all are a bit more wellversed of like what's going on.
Yeah, I think it would be helpful to have a map that shows the proposed um ferry locations and like what you were suggesting for instance, Eric, about the a train stop at Forbes and then we can
begin to think about how people can get around the harbor with these various modes of public transportation and um you know dissuade people from using cars because it becomes becomes more and more convenient
to get from point A to point B. But if we have a map, then we can have a, you know, more productive discussion about it. Would you like us to create a map? Because I also, John, you might know. I'm not sure where this ferry project is at or if there's even proposed
locations. Um, well, there's a new there might be. I I'm just not as director of ferry services for the MBTA and I I saw one map with the ferry stops that are already existing but I've certainly heard discussion about future ones and
um you know with some of the developments that are happening in Everett for instance. So that anything along the lower mystic, it would be helpful to hear what are potential locations. The ferry sites have been looked at over
30 years I've been here. Uh most recently by the Boston Harbor Assoc. So um don't know how realistic they are or whether they're still being studied or not. Related to that, is there water
taxi access in Chelsea? No. No. Is there any space that might accommodate that that anyone's aware of? Well, at one point there was a ferry from the T uh the pier over at Mariel Mali Park. Yeah. Um that was
30 odd years ago. You know, a water taxi might be the better way to better term to use because when people hear ferry, they think of, you know, lots of big infrastructure. I'm just thinking of a touchdown point amongst Boston. There is it's viable, you know, from East Boston
into like the city proper. The water taxi is effective and there's stops, you know, through like throughout the harbor, you know, and various points to Boston, Charles Town, but most of the water taxis are or fairies that are operating in the MBTA are being
subsidized by the MBTA. So, they're not all generating enough to do it on their own. subsidies. Right. Right. John, I have a question for you in regards to bike lanes and bike connections with other communities. So, do is there is there
any discussions with like Everett and River to connect bike lanes through our city or I mean to for for us to be able to connect ones. So, so you have the new bridge going into Somerville that connects Assembly through essentially
Everett. Do we have the ability to have conversations with Everett to connect, you know what I mean, to connect all the all the dots on that one? Well, we when they built the uh civil line connection and they built the uh greenway adjacent
to we pushed hard for a connection to specifically to the bike to the uh to the sea uh project. There is a little issue at the connection over in Eric because you would have to go over existing communal line to get there. So
that would so they've been working on that for a while. Um and we also pushed to get it to East Boston as well. Um the only they built that bridge with only one sidewalk on it. Um but we are pushing for it. uh as
what the current plans are. I I'll check with uh housing and community development and get some answers for you. I I I think this should be part of our master plan is that that connection to our our communities should just be part, you know, incorporated that it connects
all our communities and just gives access points to during the good weather and hopefully recreation, you know, the ability to do recreational exercise. Yep. And I love the idea of bike to the
sea. connect the whole Northshore. Um, so what are we going to tackle next month for topics? Honestly, I can't remember the four categories we said. I Yeah, I have them right here, but I didn't know if you wanted to follow that same format, but
um I have So, this is transportation. Um, I have infrastructure more like you know, climate resiliency type of infrastructure and
maybe some of these um some things sort of overlap with transportation, but like the Tobin Bridge for instance. Um yeah, I mean would you want to do infrastructure or we could do cultural and historic preservation because uh the design
guidelines actually were just finalized that the historic commission was working on. So, so that would make sense to do that next month. Yeah. Cultural and historic preservation. Okay. All right. Cool. So, I will email out to everyone um those design guidelines and any other
kind of projects or plans related to historic and cultural preservation. Um and I think we'll do the same kind of framework, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. Um maps and maps. Um,
and if anyone has more comments around transportation mobility, email Sarah individually. Um, and yeah, we can try to create a map that includes like transit routes, potential ferry stops. I if you have more thoughts on the maps, please email me and we can try and
create something for for next meeting. Yeah, I can summarize that this discussion and send it to you with a list of the helpful maps. All right, cool. Definitely. All right, I guess uh pass it back to Tuck for adjournment.
Motion. I'll make a motion to leave. Seconded. Seconded. All in favor? I I see you in July. Twice. Twice. One more comment about Palante. The the um survey is still up. So if you haven't taken that yet, it's
going to be up for the Yeah. through the end of June. Okay.