Council come to order all rise and salute the flag pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the it stands God indivisible liy and justice
for all please remain standing for a moment of silence in honor of our veterans service members and those who have given the ultimate sacrifice thank you we honor acknowledge the Massachusetts Penacook and Paka peoples whose ancestral lands we now call home
and on which we gather today we Express gratitude to the indigenous peoples who have cared for this land for Generations predating European colonization and continuing to the president moving forward we are committed to ensuring that the histories voices and contributions of indigenous peoples are recognized and respected in the life of
our city the clerk will call the role Council cologne Hayes here Council Condon Council Crow here Council linahan here councel McDonald Council sea Council simonelli Council spora Council Taylor Council Winslow
here council president Ali here under the provisions of the open meeting law for those in attendance please be informed that Uma Urban media arts will be recording this evening evening's meeting uh first order of business we have public comment oh so we're going to take uh public comment
public comment is allowed under Council rules each speaker is limited to the subject matter relevant to this evening's agenda and must keep their comments to two minutes or less I believe we have one individual signed up for public comment Tina lagard Tina lagard good evening members of the
council it's pleasure to be here this evening I'd like to speak to you uh in regards to the resolution 82025 on tonight's agenda my name for purposes of the record is Tina lagard I'm the executive director of urban Med Arts located at 145 Pleasant Street here
in Malden um I I I wrote a statement if you would indulge me um I would like to point out the need for affordable housing in Malden is undeniable proposing the sale of key public po properties such as the molden District Courthouse and Oak Grove
Community Building will come at a significant cost to our community the malen courthouse has an established Redevelopment plan to become a center for arts and culture serving as a vital hub for artists Arts education cultural programming and Community Gatherings a key advocate for this
Vision Urban media arts has a strong interest in being a collaborative partner in shaping this space into a thriving resource for the city Uma has a long has long supported malin's creative Community fostering public access to Media storytelling and the Arts the
vision for the center would provide inclusive Innovative programming that strengthens the city's cultural identity and offers valuable opportunities for residents and artists alike selling the cous would permanently eliminate the potential for this trans formative initiative depriving Malden of a space
designated for Community engagement and artistic growth Additionally the sale of the Malden courthouse for housing could require careful legal and procedural review due to existing restrictions on his use under the terms of Bill h. 545
signed by the governor on August 2nd 2022 it states the use of the perals shall be restricted to nonprofit recreational educational or Community use and inciler uses furthermore the deed includes a clause stating that if the property is
not used for these purposes ownership could revert back to the Commonwealth given these conditions repurposing the site for housing could present significant legal and logistical challenges for these reasons the Mal Malden city council should reconsider
this proposal and continue working with strong Partners like Urban media arts to bring the Arts and Cultural Center to fruition thank you thank you very much do we have any uh public comment that has been submitted in writing we do
we do we have a few the first one is from Nixon pey dear counselors on behalf of Mystic Valley Regional charter school I would like to comment very briefly on the revisions to proposed zoning Amendment site plan approval for MVR cs's future
use of Maplewood properties the proposed amendment cannot apply to any of those properties on November 14th 2024 Mystic Valley filed applications for subdivision approval for those properties and under Massachusetts law the zoning in effect at the time the applications were filed will therefore
govern any projects Mr Val Mystic Valley has for those properties for at least eight years accordingly if the proposed amendment is adopted it will not have any effect on plans at Mystic Valley May propose for its Maplewood properties until 2032 at the earliest but it will
impact plans proposed by all other private schools such as M and Catholic or nonprofit educational providers including potentially the YMCA and YWCA and two all religious entities three all daycare providers second the proposed amendment
apparently disregards two important recommendations made by the planning board for instance the planning board recommended that the site plan review committee be required to act within 65 days of submission of an application but the proposed amendment contains no time limit for conducting the public hearing or voting on an application next the
planning board recommended that the city council obtain review of the proposed amendments by the city solicitor and opinion of the city solicitor regarding legality of the proposed amendments and consistency with mgl 48 subsection 3 there is no indication from the
information posted online that any such review has occurred or that any such opinion has been provided if the proposed amendment is adopted and is challenged in court the failure to comply with these recommendations would make it especially vulnerable to summarize if the proposed amendment is
adopted it cannot be applied to Mr Valley's Maplewood properties until 2032 at the earliest it will however apply to other educational uses religious uses and daycare uses and it will disregard two key planning board recommendations
sincerely Jennifer R shelz next paper is on 80-2 please consider the following in regards to the selling of the ove community building many of you may not know but this building is listed on the
Massachusetts cultural resource Information Systems as historical but I believe its true value is not just the age or the architectural design but in the use of the building throughout the years Oak grve Improvement Association Incorporated established in 189 97 was
the Catalyst for the construction of the 1927 Oak grve Community Building since then the community building has been a focal point of many celebrations including the Fourth of July tree lightings and holiday parties it has been used up to seven days a week comprised of art groups Civic groups and
organizations throughout Malden such as Malden Youth Soccer Girls Scouts papuana Malden Little League AA groups Boy Scouts a Shakespeare project the planning of the Harvest Moon Festival a voting Precinct a kindergarten 18 teen center a public meeting place and so
much more for almost 100 years the oov community building has given people a place and an opportunity to gather as a community to solve problems vent frustrations laugh work together share their knowledge volunteer create and be inspired and give back to the city that
they live in being able to provide a space like this helps us as a community to bring together the like-minded people for the same goal of fostering a rewarding and engaging Community presently ove Improvement Association is working with the city on an improved Grant by our citizen L
Community preservation committee city council and mayor for designed plans to reopen the community building These funds do not impact the city budget as they are funded by the citizens through a tax in a percentage match by the state it is our hope to obtain additional grants from other sources as well to
reopen this asset back to the community together we can thank you Carol Melly resident 35 Wyoming Avenue Oak Grove Improvement Association the next paper is also for paper 80-2 dear counselors I am against the
sale of the Oak grve Community Building at six Grove Street if the city sells the Oak grve community building the city will be selling another part of its dwindling architectural and cultural history and selling the community at large along with it in order for Malden and all of its residents to thrive we need a place to meet connect and
actively engage with and give back to the community we need the oak Community Building sincerely Bonnie gadia thank thank you 98 Beltran Street um paper 80-2 I am deeply concerned about the
city of Malden's decision to sell Surplus properties particularly the Oak grve Community Center in the middle sex courthouse on Summer Street while I support increasing affordable housing such actions must include clear and responsible communication especially with residents who have invested time
and IDE years and shaping the city's Future these properties were previously considered for Arts culture and Community engagement many participated in focus groups to explore transforming the courthouse into a Center for the Arts generating excitement and hope only
for the conversation to suddenly disappear without explanation now the city council is set to vote on selling these properties without first inviting Community input this lack of transparency is troubling what happened to the ideas shared in earlier discussions if the city could not act on
those plans What alternative efforts have been made to creatively address both arts and housing needs has the council considered requiring dedicated Community spaces or additional affordable units in new luxury developments selling these properties without exploring Creative
community-driven Solutions dismisses their economic social cultural and Civic value it also raises serious concerns about the council's commitment to transparency and vision Malden has access to incredible resources leaders cultural institutions and best practices
from the talent in and around Boston why not tap into that Collective wisdom before making irreversible decisions I urge the council to pause this vote engage the community meaningfully and consider Innovative Forward Thinking Solutions before moving forward and that
is from OC Schwab 55 Granite Street the next two papers are for 7725 dear council president this letter is in respon resp to the recent request by DMS Trinity LLC DBA Trinity Naturals
we have been notified by the city of Malin as a Butters to 36 Charles Street that the petitioner seeks modifications to their special permit to operate a retail marijuana establishment our firm purchased the property at 99 CH Street in October of 2024 the parcel is
currently occupied by our tenant Stop and Shop in addition to the freestanding restaurant building that backs up to the Char Street for your information we are approximately 68 ft away when measured property line to property line we have reviewed the petitioner's request and
the recommendation from the city planning department and are specifically concerned about the likelihood of customers crossing over Charles Street to park on our property due to an insufficient number of parking spaces to support the petitioner's proposed business
operations our review indicates that if approved this request will exacerbate the parking shortfall that is was deemed to be gross deficient in the planning board's initial parcel use review the initial plan required five off-site parking spaces and the this proposal
increases that deficiency to 12 offsite parking sites to be secured for our knowledge any agreement regarding offsite parking and its location is not included in the application for the sake of clarity we are confirming that there is no agreement in place for our property to
be used for overflow parking and in the absence of such an agreement any use of our property by the petitioner and its customers would be considered to be trespassing in an effort to avoid any future disputes we ask that these concerns be taken into consideration in
review of this petition sincerely i k Malden LLC David Katz the Malden city clerk please read this comment into the record stating my opposition to the special permit for 36 Charles Street this permit should be denied or tabled until Malden's cannabis licensing enforcement commission fully
vets all relevant details the planning board disclosed osed on December 11th 2024 the petition of violated prior special permit conditions by altering the floor plan such significant deviation raises serious concerns regarding security ownership and parking
this requires careful review by the city council and the clck key issues number one security risks malen code 12.12.19 requires an approved security plan yet no substance discussion has occurred changes to the floor plan
introduce security risks including a larger Vault and increased off-site parking raising concerns about cash transactions and controlled substance transport number two unclear ownership malen code prohibits special permit transfers the city council must clarify
ownership and financing details especially given the clu's prior acknowledgement of potential changes the Ein T linked to this application is also tied to a Chelsea retail location warranting further review number three parking deficiencies the proposed expansion exacerbates the parking
shortfall increasing the deficiency from 50% to 65% offside parking is being increased from 5 to 12 spaces parking must comply with malen code ensuring it is not shared with non-marijuana businesses call to action the city council should
deny or table this permit as more detrimental to the neighborhood and also call on the the cl to conduct a full review the cleck has not addressed these issues their oversight is essential before any further approval of the special permit is considered thank you
for your consideration sincerely Brian Dey one Earl Street thank you very much clerk um so we're going to move on to our consent agenda uh this evening's consent agenda cons consists of four meeting minutes to be approved
eight about what okay so perfect um eight orders being referred to finance and one communication to be placed on file I'm going to go to councelor McDonald uh yeah I'd like to request that items
uh 6825 through 7525 be removed from the consent agenda I just want to make a quick comment about them prior to referral and then just point of order Mr President I would just like to ask you know our our Council rules say that um public comment is limited to 300 words when submitted by written comment and I
would just be curi ious if any of those exceeded the 300w limit I measur them they're all within 300 words that's great is it also do we have a policy on whether public comments about something that is a hearing should be read as part of a hearing or as public comment it
only says that it has to be on the agenda I'm sorry I didn't say that loud it only says that it has to be related to an item on the agenda I I I cannot answer you off the fly like this but I'm willing to have this conversation like offline to great
appreciate it yep thank you would anyone else like to take anything off the consent agenda uh councelor colon I I wanted to see if we had the same one so I just want to repeat I was going to ask for um and I appreciate the CPC yeah to take off this
6825 um 6925 and all of the CPC all the CPC on okay you're going to speak to that thank you very much very good so those will be
removed um is there a motion to approve the consent agenda on councelor Sim Elli's motion seconded by councelor Condon all those in favor please say I I any opposed that passes
unanimously 6825 68- 25 order that one , 450,000 is reappropriated to pay cost of revitalization of DEA Park in the amount of $450,000 in the River Works Park in the amount of $1 million and for the
payment of all costs incidental and related there to and that to meet this appropriation 1,450,000 shall be reappropriated from the portion of the amount borrowed on August 2nd 2023 under the loan order passed by the city council on June 11th
2019 to pay cost of Roosevelt Park revitalization which which project is abandoned and no liability remains in accordance with GL chapter 44 section 20 uh councelor McDonald for the paper yeah thank you and I'm happy to speak to all of these as a group but let
me just say what I want to say about this particular paper and then you can apply that to the rest of the CPC papers I want to let folks who are watching this meeting know that um you know once a year it's once a year we get um recommendations from our community
preservation Commission on the grants that they would recommend that we make based on the money that they have these need to be referred to the finance committee um so that we can have a conversation in public about them and um so that we then can decide whether to
approve or deny those grants that the CPC recommends uh I want to be clear um that while my name is attached to these papers I cannot take any credit um for any of these proposals that is simply uh just an uh because I'm the I'm the finance
chair and our Council rules require somebody's name to be attached to these papers so that's true for all Financial orders um I just want that to be clear that I I really can't take any credit for the good work of the CPC or any of the proposers of these items but I did want to let folks know that our hope and plan is to have a finance committee
meeting next week to discuss all of these um all these points uh and all of these papers that will of course be um on teams as all of our meetings are right now and as we've done consistently with the finance committee so there should be time next week to be able to
um discuss each of these uh CPC uh proposals or we'll get through as many as we can and finance next week and I'd be happy to make a motion at the appropriate time to then refer all of these papers in fact to the finance committee I just wanted to say a word about that to the public which you have
to pull things off the consent agenda to do thank you I appreciate that um councelor simell thank you Mr President uh I'm going to Second uh my colleagues uh motion to uh Senate to finance it but I do have a
comment and I you know when I when I was first elected uh this time around you know the whole Roosevelt uh Park project you know I was asked by strategic planning and development to you know forfeit uh my share of cdbg funds which
my neighborhood qualifies The Lion Share of that funding and uh I did so and I just want to get some clarification and I'll wait till it's in my colleagues committee to ask these questions so I don't tie up the council tonight but I am concerned uh you know that my
neighborhood lose lost loss out on uh that funding three years ago and now it's being displaced from the Ros of heal Park uh Arena and you know being put elsewhere and I got a problem problem
with that Mr President so I am definitely going to take that up uh with my colleague in strategic planning and development so thank you yeah understood thank you very much we have and I guess do we want to take this up paper by paper or should we just
read all of the would be happy to read them all the CP what's the con what is how is everyone feeling do we want to do it paper by paper or take all the CPC up at once okay okay so we're just going to read the rest of the paper I'll go to clone Hayes and then we're going to read
the rest of the papers and everyone can just talk about whatever CPC thing they want to talk about you sure okay yep okayed yeah paper 6925 order that the appropriation enumerated below being in the amount of
$39,586 be appropriated from the community preservation act fund for the following project Deva Park revitalization Phase 2 open space Reserve $94,000 budget Reserve $225,500 paper 70-25 order that the appropriation
enumerated below being in the amount of $88,000 be appropriated from the community preservation act fund for the following project Pearl Street Station envelope assessment project historical preservation Reserve $88,000 total appropriation $8,000 paper 7125 order
that the appropriation enumerated below being in the amount of $88,000 be appropriated from the community preservation act fund for the following project all of Street Station envelope assessment project historic preservation Reserve $88,000 total appropriation $8,000 paper 7225 order that the
appropriation enum enumerated below being in the amount of $349,250 cents be appropriated from the community preservation act fund for the following project affordable housing trust fund community housing Reserve $349,500
9,166 52 paper 7325 order that the appropriation enumerated below being in the amount of $475,000 be appropriated from Community preservation act fund for the following project Forestdale Cemetery wall restoration project historic
preservation Reserve $278,000 budget Reserve $197,000 total appropriation for $175,000 paper 7425 order that the appropriation numerated below being in the amount of
$14,500 be appropriated from the community preservation act fund for the following project St Paul's Parish envelope assessment project historic preservation Reserve 14,500 total appropriation
$14,500 paper 75-25 order that the appropriation enumerated below being in the amount of $440,000 be appropriated from the community preservation act fund for the following project housing subsidy for older adults project budgeted Reserve $40,000 total
appropriation $40,000 thank you very thank you very much councelor Clenz thank you um council president I wanted to address people watching who I know are um looking at the the reallocation of
funding for the Roosevelt Park project and just to let you know I know we're going to go into detail at Finance so hang tight and please attend that Finance meeting but I did also call um the CPC chair we had a long conversation I also had a conversation with um Dan
Grover a while back who when we spoke said that the funding could not be reappropriated to other Council unless it was approved by the city council so that's why it's coming before us um so it's um we're going to need to approve
that if we do also will free up some money um from the CPC so I heard that um hopefully people like the friends of Roosevelt Park who already submitted something maybe they could reapply again um and that we could you could watch the
video I was just told will be online probably after tonight maybe tomorrow um because a few of us wanted to rewatch it just to make sure we totally understood what was going on so um check back on that tomorrow um thank you and I'm looking forward to having a big discussion thank you thank you we have a
motion on the floor by councelor uh McDonald to refer these papers to finance for further discussion that has been seconded by councelor simonelli is there any other discussion on that motion all in favor of sending this to finance for further discussion please say I I I any
opposed that has been referred unanimously next order of Business Council will hold a public hearing on the petition to amend the special permit granted in Council paper 20222 and further extended by Council paper [Music]
233-236 Charles Street paper 77- 25 petition DMS Trinity LLC DBA Trinity Naturals seeking amendment to special permit application cm045 98221 as granted by Council paper 20222
and further extended by Council paper 23323 specifically to revise the approved floor plan for 36 Char Street to increase the size of the premises by approximately 1627 squ ft on the first floor of the building by one expansion
into 2393 squ foot area on the Eastern portion of the building and to elimination of approximately 766 foot area on the northwest corner of the building public hearing required thank you very much um just to
to to councilor mate Donald 's uh earlier inquiry in Consulting with the city clerk we will read the public comments we will just read them um in the appropriate for or against we won't read them all again but we'll just refer back to that so they will be in their
record um so with that uh I will hand it over to the petitioner uh Mr Rob DeMarco and the DMS Trinity team welcome good evening counselors Roberto DeMarco here on behalf of DMS Trinity um I was before
you at both the time of the special permit and at the time of the extension of the special permit and during those meetings I told you we would follow the rules and I am here to apologize for the lapse that occurred it was a lapse we
trusted our contractor we thought and the record shows at the city uh the building commission office that the plans were filed but they were filed incorrectly ly so we thought that the amendment that we were looking to do was approved my clients did not consult with
except their contractor and their architect and they thought that was all taken care of the idea here came out of their experience with Chelsea Chelsea is their other location they are allowed three locations under cannabis control rules they opened Chelsea and told you
all about their experiences in Chelsea in fact there was a discussion at that time about what would happen first m or Chelsea Chelsea got going first Chelsea has been operational about a year and that experience informed them on how the business really flows it's import excuse
me it's important to note that Chelsea's location exists across the street from the Chelsea Market Basket a much larger facility than the Stop and Shop across from us now and a busy location they have never had more than nine spots
taken up at Chelsea location at any time because this isn't an inout business right it's go in buy your product leave in fact most people will look at the website and will decide before they even get there what they're looking to buy but my
client in in that experience realiz that first they were required by cctc to put in earthquake sensors in the walls of their vault over there so that somebody trying to bust in from the outside would have to go through through the
building they also realized that their vault was too small and that it was making it difficult that measuring and labeling product that was that was there was kind of difficult because it of the
lack of size so they said let's increase the size of the Vault that should it's not going to be used by more than any any uh more than the one person working there that would have been working in the vault anyway it's storage space they thought that that was a good idea they
were abandoning those offices and the Vault area that was previously and they were moving everything to the the corridor that made the Vault deeper in the building more secure location and directly accessible to the uh retail
location so they thought that these were good ideas and they thought that they got approval that it was going to Simply Be a change they were wrong they are here to apologize themselves for that so our
request is that this amendment be allowed the construction proceeded before the mistake was realized they immediately asked me to apply for the amendment and to come in here and to apologize and that's what
we're doing this change does not practically increase the use of the Loc there aren't more people going to be coming just because we increased the Vault and these offices are
increased these offices and by the way this Council says look we think there's too many offices we'll work we'll work to to cut back we will invest the time and money in stripping out things that you feel is necessary but we don't think that it's necessary we don't think that
this is going to cause more business there the retail space has remained exactly the same we we have an agreement with New England tea and coffee not stop and shop with New England tea and coffee to use parking and we have an agree we
have not an agreement we would be buying the um the city permits the two-hour permit uh passes for the parking garage at CBD which is right down the street and easily accessible by clients
additionally we are going forward with the um the agreement with the city to allow for the bike path to be used and to pass through our property we want that to happen we want foot traffic we
don't want parking we don't want people you know zipping in and zipping out that's not good business where a downtown location should be part of the Walk of Malden that's the way my clients see it lastly in terms of
the apologize just going back to my notes quickly in terms of the um the H the uh Community host agreement we have not moved forward with the community host agreement because we're trying to work with the city on this the
CCC has blocked us at this point because the community host agreement rules changed we are not forcing the city to abide by the old rules we're willing to work with the city at all times my
client has remained uh open to these discussions to work with the city on all issues we've remained in touch with the kleck at different times when things arose we've remained in touch with the building inspector this was an error we made the error we take full responsibility for that error and so I
would ask that the council consider the uh circumstances and that they agreed to the amendment as requested I'm here to answer any questions additionally my clients who are the main operators there
uh are here present um Mr penon uh is the uh main person on the business his husband Tim halpen is also one of the supporters though not an official supporter he's just in the household making sure that this all happens so um
we would uh ask if you have any questions we're ready to answer them thank you thank you Mr DeMarco there any questions for the petitioner seeing Oh councelor McDonald yeah thank you um so I'm just
reading the planning board's recommendation which is approval of the uh they recommend approval of the uh amended petition with 20 conditions yes and can I just ask do you have any response or commentary on those 20
conditions no we we felt that they were they they compli with the conditions we had already agreed to previously and we feel that they are reasonable okay so you are not contesting any of these conditions we are not okay uh thank
you uh councelor simonelli hello counselor any idea when they may be opening at at this point in time I know that there's been a delay but any idea time frame we are down we have uh a couple of conditions that the CCC has requested of us number one we
have to finish this we have to get the special permit fixed number two we have to get the HCA uh fixed with you guys which is an issue that the rules changed on all of us and so we're trying to we're working with the city uh
diligently on that issue and then number three we have to have a couple more public hearings because those have phased they timed out um you can not apply for a uh a license to open until you've had those hearings so we have to
happen that all that has to happen what we we like to be we'd like to be open tomorrow right this project has lasted way too long but we are feel that we can be open by Springtime okay thank you thank you thank you Mr President uh
you're welcome councelor Winslow um can you explain a little bit about the connection um how do you anticipate that the bike path connecting is it I know like the old dwop Diner there was sort of a a crosswalk through a kind of a p parking area what have you have you kind
of scoped that out uh we believe that there could be a cut that uh has the bike path go between the building and the parking air the parking spots that we could because there's a walking path there we could widen it a little bit and have the bike path go through there with
pedestrian protections on each side right so it would be so it actually would be kind of cut right across and go into the greenway excellent so it would be really a separate path rather than going through a sh people would have to cross it in order to get build but cars wouldn't be Crossing thank you good I
just wanted that clarification thank you councilor Crow thank you Mr President um I do I am in support of this um you know petition um I do think increasing the Vault we know that um trinities under our current zoning that
they're the only people in the building so you know that they had a lot of the building that a large part of the building was not going to be used at all so I think increasing it I actually think it increases safety that you have more things that are in the vault and in a central located um area and so I I
definitely am in support of this um I just kind of want to back to the the bike path thing because the first time I heard that we now we agree and we have a plan was when Council or the council president sent me an email in my from my it it's 6 something this afternoon today
just before um the meeting so I I appreciate that um there's been some agreement and and we can put that on on the books but I think there has to be a full conversation because I wasn't I wasn't invited to any meetings I wasn't aware that this was having a conversation about I wasn't aware that
there was any agreement to do this we we all agreed when we were talk about the spot on Brook Greenway um that that might be a good spot because then it was going down Canal Street but I need to look at it further so I'm a little disappointed that nobody um decided to
have the conversation with the ward counselor my my apologies councelor Crow that wasn't intentional we were we have it in our conditions that we would cooperate with it and so we've just started those conversations and and felt that and I agree at the at the first one
it was cooperated with it and look at it and it was like some you know that was if it worked it didn't if it didn't work or you could you know kind of take it out so now that there's an agreement I really would like to vet that a little more fully although you know but this special permit is really about the Vault
and the changing of the the floor plan um and then I think the CCC was right about like increasing that that Vault size and you know to I think it does make it safer and changeing those things um but so that I'm I'm voting on the special permit for the vault and all the
other things that happen and we're going to have to have more conversations about and and we also and as we've as we've mentioned we have to get approval of the landlord at the end of the day to everything so so we we are at the beginning of that discussion but we are cooperating fully okay and my apologies
again and again this is not on the applicant this this I I had intended to email um you this weekend uh and it just got away from me so I do apologize I did pass out AE yeah and it it was really kind of an anticipation of of of this um and it
looks to potentially modify uh condition 18 um based on prior conversations that we we've had um I'm going to go to counselor colon thank you um so thank you for coming here and admitting about the mistake
that's a big um a big plus and um for you both of you as well it is confusing so I hear that we have a lot of people that are confused with um these ordinances so I do understand how that can be I'm just having a hard time um
thinking about supporting this without public like you were saying the public hearings that you just mentioned um I would love to for them to happen first even though I do take um councelor Crow's point about it just being about the vaults tonight but um hearing also
the letter from Stop and Shop sounds like some of your Butters aren't happy um and so again I appreciate you coming here um admitting that that happened but I I'm just having a hard time finding how I could support this without having
you know to let the public be you know know about these changes again and just having some public meetings maybe you can help me through that uh in terms of the the Stop and Shop their concern is the is the parking and I understand that and that's why I rais that the Chelsea property has never had issues with
Market Basket we we know how to operate across the street from a large retailer um in terms of the of the the changes this happened and we are prepared to discuss it we we put it out
there to the to the uh as part of this public we're ready to have the disc discussion here tonight with people if they if they were interested they could have contacted me at any time um I am disappointed with some of the comments and the public comment just because it
questions our security and it questions the um the ownership which are not issues that are number one frankly uh correct in how they're worded and number two aren't issues that are
directly related to the Vault issue in terms of the ownership my clients own the property own the the business period there is no question they own Chelsea as well they have teams of investors all have been disclosed fully they are part
of our public um uh hearing uh disclosure when we've had those meetings and we by the way have had more of those public meetings than any applicant in any City I've ever seen mainly because there were so many delays in this and
because those public meetings um expire after a little while and so we've had a total of I think at this point seven public meetings about this project we've invited people we have published in all
of those meetings we have had five total um uh participants come from the city to discuss it with us we have sent out mailings they are all on the record so at any time people wanted to talk about this they knew where to to have this
conversation and none of the people who have actually commented publicly now were ever interested in the project before they didn't reach out to us and I want to I'm not apologize correct myself I meant Community meetings but you're right they are public I'm sorry but I agree no I you have and I've been here
for them okay um councilors have attended and we appreciate the council having attended and being president at all times but you know the councilors who were there know that it was a very empty meeting and I threw away some Dunkin Donuts coffee okay no I appreciate the response that's what I
was looking for thank you counc thank you and just from the chair we are currently having a public meeting related to this that's what we're having right now and then we're going to have um a public hearing as soon as the questions from the counselors are are over um I see we have one more from
councelor selli and then I'm gonna ask a question myself ccor simell thank you Mr President you know I'm just going to um comment on my colleague Peg Crow uh councelor Crow's comment um you know I I I don't know what it's going to take up
here to learn that you have to include the ward counselor in all Endeavors that have to do with their District by by not doing it you it turns into problems now nobody likes anybody stepping on their toes when it comes to their districts so
you should return the respect so I'm going to defer to my colleague and I'll do whatever she wants but I don't know how long and how much it's going to take uh for this Council to realize that you got to include the ward counselor or you get nowhere it's just
the way it is so thank you nothing to do with you thank you thank you councelor sanelli and then just uh from from the chair I just want to oh councelor spor yeah thank you Mr President um yeah I I want ACC Council sellis too because I
know I know the president came up to me you know 35 minutes ago and handed me this but uh you know I don't think it's territorial but literally we have W councils to literally worry about their ws and three at lodge to look at at lodge and I think the idea of having uh any type of Deal or agreement without
the ward counselor is a challenge for everybody uh and you talk about public uh you know public meetings and Community intake that's that's the role of the ward council and hopefully Council Crow I think you know based on how she works she's she's she's I think she's understanding but you know she's
got to talk to Residents now she's got to talk to stop and shop and other businesses there regardless if it's a valid concern or not that is her role she's going to demonstrate and I think without having her whether in your court or not again I'm going to use the word I hope every up here I'm I'm making t-shirts for everybody we we talk about
transparency but it's only when we want to talk about certain things I mean we're literally having a public meeting right now the ward counsel wasn't aware of any deals being made and I'm glad there was a discussion had but it it's it's frustrating because I talk to counil Crow time we bounce ideas out
each other and and I look at I look who I don't know who is in that meeting and I'm not going to ask because I'll get frustrated but I think it's it's it's incumbent of everybody here and I think it's Al incumbent on you to make sure when you come up here whether you're in good spirits before the council or you're coming up here to ask for forgiveness like you are the very least
you can do is ask for the W council's participation because I think it's important but other than that let's move forward uh from the chair um we we are joined by uh col members Nelson Miller and Ron Hogan um you know I I the only thing I'm going to add uh is that could
could you clarify of the the ownership discussion I know you you briefly T touched base on it and how how ownership is different than maybe a loan that was something that came up um just to kind of clarify we we have we have borrowed money from individuals who are not
owners those have Lan terms they are they are not owners they do not not have a right to anything except to uh collect on their loans and in the event that we do not pay the clients are personally um liable on that not the not the they
wouldn't be foreclosing on any assets so there's there's loans in place to help fund various operations but they are not at all uh owners and they do not have any ownership interest in this thank you for clarifying if if if possible uh
taking that discussion off uh if if Mr Hogan do you would you mind coming forward and kind of uh doing a better job than I have tonight explaining some of the conversations that um have happened related to um access to the to the property um I clearly I didn't do a
good job explaining and um if you could maybe try to help summarize so so which P not not the ownership piece I'm sorry did no not not the own ownership piece but the but the unless anyone has any any more questions about the ownership piece it sounds like there are some loan agreements but the ownership isn't is
the same um but there has been some uh concern about uh the the fact that uh we had some conversations with the applicant related to access to the site uh and I do want to let everyone know that you know that is on me that's not on the applicants it's not on Mr Hogan
but um if you could maybe help try to summarize kind of the conversations that we've had yeah I do just want to add the ownership piece just to continue what attorney dco said real quickly there is a very specific language in the the portion of the CMR that that regulates cannabis that excludes the from the
definition of a license he anybody who's purely provided money for the purposes of a loan and whose only right is interest pay you know principal and interest payment so so he's explaining that that's where the additional money comes from if you're more than a 10% owner or you're otherwise controlling the business then then those are folks
that are disclosed as lenses if you are purely providing Capital that's being paid back so even if that came up out sort of later in the game than when they started with you know with our body you know they have a business isn't going to borrow money as time goes goes on right I think everybody knows what the environment is right now so so I think
you know Rob has explained that that's what they are and there is no requirement to list them as a license it doesn't change the ownership I think the owners are who we were so I guess just you know councelor Mell we had had a conversation just as a um you know making sure that to to attorney DeMarco's point that they were still
willing to work with the original language that was in the special permit and trying to provide access and I think U you know Council Crow you're 100% right it needs to include the right folks that are in the room and so to what to whatever agree it didn't and I was part of that conversation then then I apologize you know also but but it was
it it certainly was just with the I think last minute goal of making sure before this meeting tonight that you know sort of both the spirit and the intent of of that desire was still there with a little bit more specificity and and certainly I think that's what we heard from Rob was was that so you know
Chris is right and you're absolutely right there should have been more conversations but I think was a little bit of a last minute scramble to say hey are we are we still thinking the same thing you know so thank you Mr Hogan I appreciate that yes so again it it was no no offense it was basically uh when we were talking about this grander
Vision we wanted to try to minimize any any potential impact uh to Canal Street uh and and the discussions that we did have as a group um were that it would be more ideal to go do go the shorter route and so I do apologize for not getting
that email out to you sooner about an update and I guess the only other thing I'd add is this still is Council crow andou that needs to be developed a memorial is exactly what this is and and and definitely something that more folks should be part of so absolutely yeah and just to clarify there is no current
agreement so with that um I'm going to declare the public hearing open anyone wishing to speak in favor of the petition please come forward and state your name and address for the record so again if anyone anyone speaking in favor of this uh petition I'm seeing none in
person uh is there anything uh in writing in favor doesn't look like we have anything in writing in favor again I'll ask one more time anyone in in person that would like to speak in favor please approach welcome just state your name and address for the record good evening my name is
Timothy helpen uh I've never gotten up in front of you all in the past almost seven years that we have been working on this project together with my husband and myself uh but tonight I did want to get up I wanted to directly apologize on behalf of my family for uh the errors that were made along this
pathway and I wanted to let you know councelor Crow specifically that we did not intend to offend you in any way what we were saying is whatever you folks would like to do we'd like to be cooperative in that matter we appreciate everything that you folks have done for us over these many many many many
meetings that we've had with you and that's all I wanted to share with you all tonight thank you so much thank you any any other uh comments in favor I will declare that portion of the hearing uh closed uh because I'm hearing and seeing none anyone wishing to speak
in opposition to petition please come forward and state your name and address for the record I'm gonna do we have we I think we have some that were in in in opposition uh in writing if we will just identify what they are we're not going to read them again again to reiterate for the record we had two public
comments regarding paper 7725 against Brian Dey one Earl Street M Mass sits and Stop and Shop expressing their concern about being in their parking lot thank you very much uh again is anyone uh in person would like to speak in
opposition please come forward seeing and hearing none I declare that portion of the hearing closed I see we have councelor Winslow no I just have a point of uh order um I
know you know this this uh the issue I mean I definitely it's great to see the the applicants um the petitioners uh wanting to be more clear um about a condition that was a little bit vague before and to get some definity to do
this so I think that's a great thing but I know it's a little bit sprung on the council do we have to vote tonight I mean could we could we vote could we wait a couple weeks so that councelor Crow can understand what's going on here and then we could move forward so that um I I just have that question is there
any requirement that we have to or any deadlines that we have to vote on this tonight or could we table it and then take it up so that um you know I would like to actually have this condition included and so that we have that Clarity but I I wouldn't I want to make sure that councelor Crow was would be
supportive of that so so I I just want to see could we wait a couple weeks to make sure we um get counselors in particularly counselor krog has the opportunity to understand that so I just I didn't know if there's any requirement we had vote on tonight that's that's
I just and I appreciate that councelor I um you know it just sounded like when we were talking about it that it's this is what it's going to be and as we know with the spot pun Brook Greenway we've had lots of um different discussions um really from my perspective what the
special permit was about is about the Vault and I think we need to be voting on that so they can move forward as he said seven years they've been doing this they you know they need to keep um this moving along long so if it's the condition and and I know as we just got
handed out the existing condition just says shall work with the city and you know I do know that councelor om Ali had said when we then when I heard there was going to be a um special Premier like maybe you know that's a time we kind of
see both strengthen that because it was like sort of shall work with us doesn't mean it's going to happen or we decide it wants to happen um and so that's why that was the last I heard of it maybe this is the time apparently was the time so um you know again and I think to Mr
Hogan's point that there really is even if we change the language it's it's not saying you're putting it in if we decide to go a different room I think do mean that you know I mean we talked about that that that was um something that we we really liked you having that idea I
think it has to be vetted more just to say it's going to be 12 feet we're going to do it this way we're going to do it that way I think you that there needs to be some more conversations about the whole thing so I think on the Vault part um really it was what the really the public
hearing was all about not necessary change in these things I think we should vote on that and vote on that tonight so I make a motion what's the motion that we um approve oh sorry approved the special permit as presented
which really was about the Vault the all right and he had no problem with all the planning blood recommendation so that's what we want to go forward with that yes councelor
McDonald yeah I think that motion has been ably seconded but I am happy to support it um and you know while I I hear a lot of commitment from the petitioner to engage around the bike path and the need there and I agree that you know just tying our hands with too
much specificity is how we got here in the first place so I don't think that's a good choice right now um I do want to say that you know I really am excited to get your uh business open and contributing to the coffers of the city as cheer of the finance committee um and
I just really appreciate your diligence and hanging in there and uh I appreciate the honest and the forthrightness of the response that feels heartfelt to me um the diligence that you're you know really trying to work through this um I I my opinion is that we make this harder than
it needs to be so I think that we could do more to learn from the steadfastness of committed entrepreneurs and business owners like yourselves so thank you for that um and I am happy to support um the motion as you made counselor Crow and
and um uh with the with the conditions from the planning board as written thank you Council lenan thank you and I'll be brief um I know we've been through a lot of meetings and discussion here and we need to move this forward um I definitely hear the sentiment of the
council and I agree this is a motion that I can support I think I do want to just underscore how important the connection to the trail is for me personally and I know that when when we have a good idea but the process is flawed that loses support and I think we can't afford to do that we really have to get this right it's a pivotal parcel
and I think for me I see the way that folks patronize our other cannabis retailers I you know I see that the the cars we just it's a lot of parking and we probably it is in and out I recognize that and I think to councilor Crow's Point what we're really talking about here is the is the Vault piece but I
think the other items and the things that the planning board have touched on we've done our due diligence here I do just want to make sure that we don't lose sight of this Trail connection because it is such a critical piece of the downtown and I really feel that if we commit to that verbally that working together we can have the meetings we can
engage the counselors that need to be engaged as a w counselor I very much feel that and I would want to stand by my fellow Ward counselors in the same situation um so thank you also for your cander coming tonight I just wanted to appreciate the honesty and coming back and you know that's not easy to do but I
think that we've had a thoughtful discussion and we have a path forward here so thank you thank you councelor Winslow yeah know I I chime in with Council Lan I mean you know I was the one who suggested condition 18 in the first place I I raised that originally to
councilor Al and councel Crow and that was why it got in there I mean it does say that peer shall work with the city and the abiding Property Owners to connect spot Pond Brook Greenway to the bike path so it's it's saying shall so um and I um I appreciate you know I know
councelor Crow um we worked very successfully on the Center Street project your ideas you were very committed and um you know if I I take it that this is how you want to go forward and I and I take it you're committed to the trail we work on that successfully
so I will I will support you on this and know that you'll fulfill your your commitments on on that so good all right thank you very much great so we have a a motion to uh approve the special permit um I do just want to clarify uh if our
city planner could clarify what the vote total needs to be for the special permit is that 8 or six so eight votes are required to to um I guess approve the special permit as amended um and per the recommendations
of the planning board oh we have language I need to read oh oh my apologies our city clerk is amazing I have that in front of me um okay so on counselor a so a yes vote would Grant this this special
permit U Amendment a no vote would not um the clerk will call the role councel clone Hayes yes councel Condon yes councel Crow yes councel linahan yes councel McDonald yes Council simonelli Council spaur Council Taylor yes Council
Winslow yes council president Ali yes that is 10 to zero that passes unanimously next order of business paper 7 8-25 petition Massachusetts electric company DBA National Grid in Verizon New England
Incorporated plan number 309 32051 National Grid to install one J poll on Eastern Avenue pole 1944-5 on Eastern AV and public way approximately 52 feet east of pole 1944 hearing
required I is there anyone in the audience who would like to come and uh give this please state your name and address for the record yep uh Peta 170 Medford Street in Malden I'm here representing National Grid regarding the petition could you spell
your first and last name please uh uh pet p e t r a q Jaa x h e k a thank you please continue yep so I'm here to represent uh National GD regarding the petition uh National GD wants to install
um joint own poll with Verizon uh poll 194 44-50 in eastern between poll 1944 and poll 1945 uh it's mostly due to uh to relieve
some uh load from one of the poles that is also being replaced in the on the road hold on we're just going to look up the address uh councelor sell how are you you're fine okay so I'm going to declare the public
hearing open anyone wishing to speak in favor of this petition please come forward and state your name and address for the record do we have anything in uh in writing no sir anyone else speaking to uh anyone
else who would wish to speak in favor please come forward hearing and seeing none I declare that portion of the hearing closed anyone wishing to speak in opposition to the petition please come forward and state your name and address for the record do we have anything in writing in
opposition there's nothing in writing anyone else wishing me speak in opposition counselor SP for you want to speak in opposition you have a question but if you can go through the opposition then I'll ask the question sorry good sounds good so hearing and seeing none I declared that portion of the hearing
closed uh councelor spor so so I have a question on the con of East and Lisbon right is that what you said no it's Eastern Avenue yeah yeah it's close to Lisbon Street
yes is it is it what side of the street is it on um on the right side no depend where you're coming from on the right side do you know do you know what's do you know what's near the plaza or is it across near the or you would know the is it near the plaza where the there an ATM
over there I think it's near uh it's not across like the mall like it's not in the mall it's the other side no it's not on those it's on the it's on the side that like the police station is also on okay so the side of police station you have to add another pole yes they were uh that's that's what they are
petitioning for so so they're going to add another 52 pole 52 feet inch uh 52 foot pole on that side of the street it's a 5050 foot pole um
yeah that that's what they're proposing can you just explain why you need to the poll uh and I don't mean to ask these questions like this because Council Crow myself did a walkth through a couple about six months ago and they told us they need a poll and they didn't need a poll they didn't want to dig the street and treen because it cost you
guys more money and one thing I hate to see is when you add polls on sidewalks it makes it harder to maintain it's harder for people use those sidewalks it's harder for people in wheelchairs and it's harder for us to just take care of that and and often time let me finish oftentimes it's easy for you guys to
throw a poll up right uh and then before you answer that what else is going on the poll so you're not going to lease it out right so the why don't I believe you so
the reason why is because um pole 1945 has two components on it uh we P we specifically now ask for one component on each pole and that has what's a component tell me what a component is uh it's a disconnect switch okay and a
three-phase Transformers so like uh three Transformers yeah those are the buckets yep okay uh so National Grid requires one pole one purpose so either you have either one Transformer or one disconnect switch on it
they that's why they are proposing uh another Poll for for the disconnect switch and where is where do the other poll goal is it right next to it uh cuz so what you're telling me is there's two things in this Pole right now right yeah you're going to remove
one of these what was the term you used uh components you're got to take one of these components off and put it on the other pole yes right is that other pole going to be right next to it it's going to be 50 52 feet away from it
I don't I mean it is what it is but it's just I just feel like we add polls to add polls sometimes my my my only condition I would say is um you make the sidewalk back to whatever the the superintendent of DPW works and that you cannot place any other equipment on
there but National Grids so so no no Wi-fi antennas on there because that that's that's what happens with these uh I don't know what I don't know if they're putting anything on it so that's well I just I would ask
for that condition because remember we we have an ordinance that you cannot put a new poll up just for the Wi-Fi antenna so what often what happens is they come in and get a new poll under a different reason and I'm not saying this is this is it and then they come back six months later and we don't remember the poll and they say hey we already have this existing poll because it happened on
Highland AV and then they add that component on there and we don't have the ability to say is this the right spot I'm not concerned about the spot from residents but it's just fness it's commercial yeah yeah no it's up to you it's your award I just well I mean you make some good
valid points so I wouldn't mind I know you've had problems with the double polling and using the polls for excuses and it seems like this gentleman doesn't really have all the details so I wouldn't mind entertaining a uh tbling motion until we get some of these details ratified thank you great and and
prior to taking that tabling motion up um there is a double poll uh one two two three PS away so if we could uh if we could get that resolved um you're saying that a component is a bucket I see I see the
pole that you're referring to having three buckets on it yeah that that's a three-phase Transformer and then I see another pole directly next to it that also has three buckets that's and then I see another pole that also has three buckets yes because it's a commercial
area they require a lot more energy than a residential which is why three phas is used okay there so how many how many of these buckets is going to be on the new pole uh the new pole it's not going to have those it's going to have the disconnect switch which is a which is
the thing that is on top of the uh buckets basically there is okay yeah that's when you say disconnect switch what is is that like how a new a new service line might be connected to this pole the disconnect switch is uh
basically a sectionalizing equipment uh if you open that you're basically removing power from the rest of the line okay they are used uh in specific cases if there is like an equipment failure they have to open that in order to safely operate and remove that and
replace it basically understood uh counselor uh spor the only other thing I would say is um so that is a commercial area and hopefully that grows to be a commercial area my question would be at one point do you put a transferor in on the on the ground a Pad Transformer
which would reduce the need for all these buckets and that poles because Council Crow myself that's what on Commercial Street they have a couple pads that have been soed right because you bring in at a higher voltage and you it depend yeah the higher the load that
the commercial building requires uh if it goes too high we cannot go overhead they have to go underground we have to put a pad if it's too high uh so how do you determine that uh because because what I'm hoping is if you do grow that area commercially you're going to come
back and a year and a half or two years say that's what that uh that all depends on the customer the customer comes to us with like uh the yeah what they what they want and based on what they have we make the Judgment if it's more than like
a thousand amps uh we have to go underground we cannot do overhead okay yeah it's just good to know the I mean there's there's ways that they can they can take some of this stuff off polls and make it easy and so I think sometimes we got to ask these questions just so we know what's going to happen in the future because then once the poll
goes up we never get them down so so we have a we have a tabling motion which takes presidence by councelor simonelli it hasn't been seconded yet um but in discussing with him one of the things that we would like to uh potentially see addressed between uh when we table and when we take it back off the table is
having uh any of the double poles in this stretch of road uh removed uh and to to definitely meet with the ward counselor on site to kind of walk him through what's going on and any other changes that need to be made based B on his assessment is there a second to that
tabling motion seconded by councelor Taylor and councelor spap for um do you have any last questions before we table uh just this one uh could you repeat this one last thing I'm Yeah so basically uh work on removing the double poles in this stretch um I I'm going off
Google Earth so you know it's six months old I it could have been taken care of but it probably hasn't been uh and then if you if you could meet with councelor simonelli on site just to discuss the infrastructure in the area and really kind of walk through where's the poll going to go um and really just clarify
why it's necessary yes um thank you uh and that's kind of a requirement that we do usually have is that the the W counselor be notified uh and met um and we just want to make sure that that happens so this is not a reflection of you specifically uh we're just trying to make sure that we hold National good accountable so on that uh motion to
table uh all those in favor please say I any opposed that has been tabled thank you next order thank you paper 79- 25 resolve that it is the sense of the malen city council that
they request the finance committee collaborate with the City Assessor and the city solicitor to draft a proposal aimed at increasing the residential tax break to 35% it is further requ requested that the committee explore the feasibility of doubling the state limits for owner occupied properties belonging
to seniors veterans widows and individuals with disabilities this was sponsored by Council spap for and we have assessor Kramer with us tonight as well if you have any questions councelor spap for for the the paper and Mr Kramer you're welcome to approach thank you
very much uh for the uh quick minute I'll just discuss and this paper along with the other paper really a discussion I think after we've talked about adus and in the makeup the of the city in terms of residential uh hopefully our ability to to to loot some of that bring
commercial but I'm I'm I'll be honestly I'm not that optimistic and the other thing is right now the H our housing stock is about 55% owner occupied um I'm hoping that would go up I'm optimistic but I I doubt it because that number was about 11% higher about six years ago
based on some numbers again I'm probably rounding a little bit but we've seen a dramatic drop in home ownership here this is something I've done this before uh it failed so this is to ask that we really help the the local homeowner the widows the veterans the people live in
this community to take to take that tax burden off them while we are 30 right now there are two communities around us both Boston and sville that have gone to 35 and I think Boston and maybe I'm wrong it's either Boston some they were actually considering going to 40 but they have to go to the state legislator to do that right so I think it's worth
us entertaining looking at 35% uh the highest we can go right now under the state law uh for own our occup occupi this will shift some of that burden uh and again you know we've talked about housing here and the cost of housing we know it's not getting cheaper uh no pun in tenant to to National Grid I had a
very high electric bill this month and a very high gas bill it is expensive to live now and and we all know that so I think any way we can do this uh it's worth entertaining uh Nate Nate Mr Nate CR is here as well uh if you have any questions he he would certainly be here to answer he was actually going to give
a presentation I told him not yet uh but this is the uh request the council thank you Mr President good question um what was the last thing you said I said okay understood we're gonna we're gonna
go to councelor sell I just want to say I I um I agree with Council spatap for I would uh like to support this paper yes the paper will be amended so the councelor Sim is a sponsor councelor W
oh and councelor Taylor uh councelor winsy yeah no um I mean I think it's always worth discussing things with our financial people to see uh what we can do I mean I know at least the initial response is that there's some concern
that um it may seem in concept to be increasing it to 35% is better but it may you know the way this works it's it's a seesaw so it means some people's taxes will go up and others will go down and it you know it depending upon where
that point in the Seesaw is it it can actually affect people who have um some homes so I I just I that's you know the assessor I really want to make sure that we have that analysis before um as part of this that we really understand you
know what the actual impacts are it might seem easy to think that it's just 35% but because essentially the residential exemption the way it works is that there's some people are going to pay more taxes some people are going to pay less and depending upon where the the the folc point in the Seesaw turns
it may we actually may be increasing taxes on more people than we're we are uh so so we just have to understand that so just as we you get ready for that presentation and Analysis um that's just something I'd like to see thank you great thank you councelor wiso councelor
McDonald yeah thank you now I appreciate my colleague putting this consider ation forward it's something I've wondered about as well in terms of increasing the residential exemption and I'll just take this moment to note that the residential exemption does not reduce the amount of money the city is bringing in it's a
shift from who's paying that tax bill so it is literally a zero some game just to be clear um that being said I mean I agree with all these points I you know I really so I would like to be able to support this and I'm certainly happy to have us talk with our with the finance
committee about it um folks should know that you know we approved these rates typically in October is that when we November we approved them typically in November for the following tax year so there's a long lead time on these um to be able to take effect um I just wanted
to know you know the list of other possible limits to consider seniors veterans widows I I'm not even sure if we can do that legally individuals with disabilities I was just curious about that list and would you consider also adding affordable housing to that list because in some uh municipalities in
Massachusetts if you are a you know certified afford you know if it's a certified affordable unit um then you can get add you can get an additional exemption like that which is something I'd also be very interested in adding in hold on councelor spord certainly
happy to add to that list and you can keep me honest with Nate all that is already approved by the state as ways to th those um those Monas I guess or those those segments of the pop that deemed to already have uh an abatement right an abatement or a tax tax abatement right
it's a tax abatement so um those are not made up by any means uh but if you if if that home if that if that uh affordability component is something we can do I have no problem added to that listable uh so could I could I ask that
as a friendly Amendment yeah absolutely so there's there's a friendly amendment to add affordable uh affordable deed restricted home like something something like that it's a friendly Amendment we'll we'll just have it reflected uh C and then or or qualifying affordable
units a qualifying affordable unit um unanimous consent that we're amending it under unanimous consent we've amended that um councelor Lenahan thank thank you Mr President um yeah I would Echo some of similar um
remarks that my colleagues have made I think it's I would always welcome a discussion particularly if our chair of Finance is open to it um I was sort of reading this and reflecting that it does feel like we just set the tax rate and had this discussion with Nate and so I guess I was kind of wondering like why
was this not a recommendation that came up um as others have pointed out it's not raising the we Levy to the Limit we Levy the maximum that we can since we're so limited in what we're able to bring in in taxes and the state stipulates how much we can raise each year or the
percentage and then the ratio that's residential and Commercial which I think is where the Boston example becomes relevant because once you reach that cap if you want to go above it you do need State approval Boston did not meet with success which I don't think is a good indicator of how much higher others might go just to think about how we
might want to spend our time but always open to the discussion um and then I think one thing that I am curious about is what councelor Winslow mentioned which is since this is just essentially Shifting the money around given the value of the real estate and how many homes may have shifted into that higher
than the limit range are we just pushing the tax are we going to make a lot of people's taxes higher while we make a few few or less and then particularly as we bring in this affordability component are we suggesting that we allow an owner occupancy exemption on nonoccupied deed
restricted affordable because we could actually come out we could come out with less money in that scenario I'd love to game it out and understand that but those are some of the questions that I have otherwise I think it's a great idea to explore um Mr Kramer I figured I'd come up instead of just sitting in the
background this this is Mr Nate Kramer our City Assessor uh so the reason it's coming up right now is because it normally comes up two weeks before we set the tax rate which is just much too late so that's why it's coming up right now um and as far as the
affordability um component I'm not sure how that's applied so with the residential exemption it's a shift within the class um like Carrie mentions it's a zero some game we're collecting the same amount of money it's just shifting uh the burden to those higher value properties I'm not sure if the
affordable component is an actual exemption that the city gives back or if it's a shift I don't know how that works um yep just exploring yeah I I had another question but I lost my train of thought so I'll
I'll leave it there oh no I was going to say the the widows thing I just I I do actually get more calls from widowers um that are struggling on a one-one income so that is totally anecdotal but I feel like we need to find a way to be more inclusive with that language I really
welcome the notion that we would help those folks a lot of them are in very Dire Straits and you know we have insurance companies are droning properties and then telling people they need to spend 10 grand taking down a tree that's catastrophic anything we can do to help that's just one example I think that there's people that need it for
sure thank you councelor clones thank you uh council president um yeah I'm glad this is a great idea um to explore it I'm glad I just learned more now that we are going to have hopefully a presentation and um something in finance which is great because the first thing I
did I think I can't remember who I picked up called and said didn't we just do this um and so I remember because you come before us every year and I'm thinking can we are we actually allowed to do that twice but then you just said it's in two weeks so you decide to do it ear you know with more
less more than two weeks before you set the tax rate yeah would be ideal yes it would be ideal exactly that's why just point of information this is not happening in two weeks I know it's not yeah and also this would not take effect until fiscal 26 yeah so so January it would be when we set yeah be the yeah
you said the deadline to set is in two weeks which is yeah um so when I saw this I was kind of like yeah was confused by why it was coming up um because I definitely have some concerns about what this would mean and our business community and um and and businesses aren't affected it's shifted
within the residential class shifted with okay okay thank you thank you um so I'll have more questions and hopefully they'll be that easy to answer um but I would you know um definitely uh like to explore this more and get some answers so thank you one final point I do want
SP I I do want to understand how the Mechanics Work and uh unfortunately some my house is exempt and has been exempt uh because of the value which you can't complain about right right but I think this is a way for The councils Who who've said we do not I don't want to say we don't want but we want to discourage as many
law land laws as possible they're not doing the right thing the burden of this goes to non-owner occupied in another way and while obviously taxes are not always fair and Equitable yes some people might pay more but the the home ownership that we don't control the
value either I mean if your house is worth more money I don't think most people would argue because it's a really tough seesaw you want to pay less taxes you want your house low right so the idea though is here really to give an incentivize people are homeowners to stay here and if you're not a homeowner
to consider being a homeowner right because you get a bigger discount and it does shift the burden with inside that residential right and unfortunately we don't we we have the apartments but that's it's not it's not commercial which if we could get that commercial it'd be game over right but we can't do
that that's a state decision so this is another way for us to have another lever there and I I just hope this Council takes it seriously this year because I feel like this is an area that we can certainly give a little back not to everybody I get that and that's why I want to bring it up up earlier in the year uh have plenty of time that we can
debate this in the floor we can show the impact maybe for next year and really communicate this out I I I I brought it up a couple years ago it didn't work and I did bring it up late so I was thinking this year let's do it before the budget starts that's the other reason and then give give Nate enough time and then we could probably just debate before the
summer ends and if not right before the fall when we have to get this done so that was kind of the timeline thank you Mr President thank you counil spap for and just from the chair um you I I do want to and maybe this is what you were going to say the burden doesn't just shift to to non-owner occupied uh
properties the it's the benefit only applies to owner occupied but the burden can shift to both owner occupied and non non-owner occupied because it's based on the value the valuation there's a break even Point yeah and and that's the one thing I I would say when it comes to
this is we really do need to take a hard look at this because um I've reached out recently to the City Assessor related to our condos and how they evaluated um the the the the properties that that uh by and large benefit from this are low value condos because they have such a
low value compared to some of the homes in our community which you know it's like the house poor families who live in a giant home can't afford it but their home is worth a ridiculous amount of money and they really have no control over that so we do really need to understand um what is going to be the
impact on our residents who live in some of these larger homes and don't have the benefit of living in a small condo that's going to over way over benefit in this particular type of um shifting any last words Mr Kramer um
yeah so back in 2021 I did a presentation there's a PowerPoint right on our website that explains how it all works um so the numbers are from they're loose numbers from fiscal 21 but if you want to learn more about it it just shows how it's all
calculated um so going from 30 to 35 wouldn't affect it's one yeah right around one two just just under one two yeah yeah which is always so you're talking about house 1.2
million so so I think they're about who's getting the value is everybody who has a house less than 1.2 about 13 single family homes that don't benefit yeah 13 thank you 5,000 600 and something 5,000 homes which most of them are all in my
neighborhood let's talk about well I I appreciate this great conversation thank you Mr Kramer I believe there's a motion by counselor spatap for to refer this to finance seconded by councelor simonelli sorry just are we referring to finance are we
approving the order that requests resol the request Finance understood so on counselor's why don't we pass resolve so to councelor McDonald's Point councelor SP fors motion to approve the resolve seconded
by councelor simonelli a yes vote would uh order the finance committee no no you would just request it but I'm happy to oblige would request the finance committee to collaborate with the City Assessor and the city solicitor to draft a proposed increase of the residential
tax break to 35% a no vote would not request the fin committee to do that all those in favor please say I I any oppose that passes unanimously 80-2 resolve that is the sense of the city I'm sorry it is the
sense of the Malden city council that they express their support for the sale of surplus property for the purpose of affordable home ownership uh I see two sponsors councelor Condon and councelor spora I don't oh can I make a request that we
read the whole text that is in the there's a there was a request to is a body to the paper so we're going to we're going to read the full the full paper the mayor and the director of office the mayor and the the director of the office of strategic planning and
Community Development are hereby urged to investigate the potential sale of malin's surplus properties specifically targeting such sites as the malen courthouse in the Oak grve Community Building this proposal seeks to address the critical need for affordable home
ownership units in Malden a city that has experienced significant growth in development in recent years by repurposing these underutilized properties the city can help alleviate the housing crisis while simultaneously fostering Community Development and inclusivity the transformation of
surplus properties into affordable housing not only contributes to the well-being of residents but also enhances the overall vibrancy of the local community furthermore Target in these specific properties allows for strategic urban planning ensuring homes are situated in accessible locations
with available services and amenities through this initiative Malden can set a precedent for responsible property management and social responsibility increased tax revenue and reaffirming its commitment to providing Equitable housing opportunities for all thus a
thorough explanation exploration of this proposal is essential to creating a more sustainable and inclusive Mal for present and future generations and this paper was sponsored by councilor spor co-sponsored by councelor Condon who councelor
spor councelor spora for the paper thank you Mr President I knew this would not be popular but you're I knew this would not popular uh topic um but I do want to let the residents know we've been through so I want to page the picture here we start with we uh and I know some
of my colleagues agree disagree we didn't have a lot we all agree there wasn't enough time this the state mandated um that we had to change all our zoning laws by right for adus they've also done the MBTA uh overlay District here I will be I will tell and I know this will be
debatable it was not Equitable because communities like us that have MBTA and have bus roads have no requirements so you can build a house anywhere you want essentially now we've done a great job with the adus it was a lot of work but I heard the word crisis 15 times the governor came out last week and said
they need $220,000 homes so I said why don't we start looking at some of the properties that we have there are actually four properties that we own that I would consider Surplus two of them are actually being used so I did a little due diligence so the lyen square is using by the building department and they're actually spending some money to do that over right now for that
maintenance facility they don't have enough space uh I believe the uh Mr the Strategic planner uses some of the billing on Pearl Street as well as I believe the m and police uh uses a portion for some of their trading uh on that street as well the two properties left ironically with a courthouse and
the oako community center I'm not going to sit here and say I don't think we need them both but if we are truly in a crisis and we really need affordable housing we should do our part both properties have been vacant for several years both are right in near train
Center and that's that's what I here ideal is for us this is not new when I when the first debate came on the concert Lodge I believe councel uh McDonald was there I think Council uh councelor Hayes was there and I believe the other Council I don't know if there was another one
running there was debate and I said we always talk about housing but when we get a piece of property we never want to put any housing in it so this was not a new idea now I know the state has put a um a covenant on it that we could not sell it that was the old Governor I'd be
willing to bet a lot of money right now if we went to the governor and asked her to release this to make it affordable home ownership for families indeed restricted she would do it absolutely would do it that building right now and they've done a great job that building in 2000 that
building was given us to us in August of 2022 it's almost three years ago we had meetings there was a lot of meetings in 2021 there was a figure given of $12 million to bring it up to speed that's not operational cost and if any of my
colleagues come up here and tell me there $12 million show us I will tell you right now I don't expect this to pass but I think this is a discussion we all have to have if we're really going to be in a crisis and we're really going to be in some budget issues later on everything should be on the table
because we can't sit there and say we have no money and we don't want to do cuts and we don't want to sell that it's not a luxury anymore it's not a luxury and it's not that I'm against the odds but I'm not laying teachers off I'm not laying firemen off and I'm not laying policemen off they're off the table we don't have
a DPW so whether it's now or later this will be a discussion so there's $12 million to bring this up to speed and I the end again I read all the documents that even if we did give the $12 million the programming would be very expensive and we probably have to rent it out all the
time so we would have some free time but it would be rented out and I'm not knocking it but it's it would be expensive to maintain I would love to have a chal theater here it that that building cannot produce a chal theater it can't so I'm hoping this is a discussion we can have with my
colleagues I expect it to go down but I not going to ask the residents of this city to dig deeper in their pockets for basic stuff and in three years we're going to ask them to now put in these other luxuries so it's
a decision it's a topic and Oak Grove the same thing I sponsor those papers but we we we sit up here and talk out of both sides of our mouths we need affordable housing but would' like to have this we'd like to have a lot of
things bless you but I this is an ex size because I know it will fail but I'm hoping that we can have these discussions and it's not to embarrass anybody but I think these are the kind of decisions we have to have going forward because I don't know if it's going to be this year or next
year we're not going to be getting a lot of federal funds in this state coming anytime soon let's be very honest and cuts will come down and there will be hard decisions to hear and nobody up here wants to cut any staff we know that so if it's entertaining this idea to at least explore it and this this is not
this is an option this is not required what we're talking about um that that's my thought process here thank you Mr President uh I'm going to go to councelor uh lenan well first of all councelor Condon you are a co-sponsor do you have anything you'd like to add
councelor Condon thank you I agree with the Council of spor it's simply a choice what's more important to you an art center or maybe providing uh affordable housing for 10 or 12
families and I think that's an easy question to answer thank you thank you councelor Condon councelor linan thank you Mr President um so just despite not having gotten a heads up or a courtesy of a phone call about this paper that's about my ward we all talked
earlier about how important that is kind of ironic given that this paper was later on the agenda um I am I am going to give the benefit of the doubt I I came in here tonight saying to myself this is either about
affordable housing or it's really about the two properties I was hoping that really what we could do is have a discussion about affordable housing because I would actually love to do that I think our affordable housing trust fund um action plan identifies that Surplus property should be on the table and I think there's nothing to say that
we couldn't still have that conversation um what I wanted to do was make a friendly amendment to strike the mention of these two to buildings so that we could have a discussion only about affordable housing I would still love to do that if anybody's amenable to that
the specific motion would be to strike the words uh specifically targeting such sites as the Malden courthouse and Oak grve Community Building from the first sentence and then the second to last sentence in the body of the paper that states furthermore targeting these
specific properties and so on and so forth for me personally that would feel like a more productive way of entering the conversation I think it's completely valid that we don't all support the notion of an art center we're all up here to represent what we believe in and I believe in the art center and I believe in the Oak
Grove Community Building I believe in their potential I think that it's shortsighted to sell public assets when certainly when they have a proor that indicates they'd be Revenue producing within five years or less which you'd be hard pressed to find another adaptive
reuse that could do that like the art center will do if anybody had asked me would have been happy to share some of the progress that we've made in meeting with the Architects that were Grant funded to work on this to update the numbers it's actually a lot worse than
$12 million counselor SP for it's a lot higher so that's the bad news the good news is there's a very concrete phased plan that if we wanted to tackle we could do that's a conversation that we could have I think that um the folks
that have worked on this are passionately in favor of a vision of working artists being able to stay in our community Malden has more working artists than any other city in our region even accounting for the pandemic the governor's own numbers show that the
Arts and creative sector has bounce back essentially to pre-pandemic levels um and that's just the that's just potential that's that's hard to quantify we don't know until we get started what the potential might be here I think and I've said this in all
the meetings if anybody attended I think there's potential to actually do both affordable housing and an Arts use on this site this is a multi- um this this is a multi- parcel site there's a surface parking lot across the street
there's a surface parking lot behind there's a 26,000 square foot building and that's if we don't go up if we go up the revenue potential is even greater um the Mountain AV deck which I'm I'm you know not trying to speak in councelor 's Ward this is right on the border here
and the okro community building is actually in Ward for um don't tell most of Ward three that but it's a it's an asset that that is valued by the entire West West End um when you pic took at the look at the whole parel you know together with all the surrounding uses
and the up zoning that we've just implemented with MBTA communities there's potential to add housing and extend the square onto the other side of the tracks here I mean we have a downtown where we've invested first in housing and then I would argue thanks to
that housing we've been able to recruit Borg karaoke dozens of restaurants we have Pokemon go every weekend um I could go on and on and on all of the entertainment things that build on the Legacy decades and decades we used to
have a dozen Theaters Downtown you build on that you adapt for what we have now we could take that under the tracks onto the other side of the square the transit adjacent nature of this parcel in my view means the possibilities are endless um I'm focusing a lot on the courthouse
because I've put five years of work into that as have over 700 people that took our survey hundreds and hundreds more that came to street festivals that we had um we had multilingual focus groups I think you'd be hard pressed to find a more inclusive public engagement process
so yeah I feel really really deeply about the future of that and at least we have to give it a shot if it's something that the community decides that we don't want to put our dollars towards that's a community decision but I don't feel comfortable having a
resolve frankly kind of out of nowhere I end I hear counselor spatap for is rationale that we've gone through two very difficult State mandated processes that make it feel like our we're losing local control and like we don't have a lot of ability to create affordable housing but I actually think that this
is a false equivalent I think that talking about these two Parcels in instead of actually having a more in-depth policy discussion about affordable housing is just not the way to proceed so I have an amendment on the floor if there's a second to that I would be happy to um take the vote on
that otherwise I I don't think I can support this paper as written thank you thank you councelor Lan I'm gonna go councelor simonelli first thank you Mr President and I gotta honestly I gotta stand up for this one because I'm going to be honest with you you know since I've been in office I
have been asked over and over again to to create affordable housing in my district I live in the affordable capital of America for that matter and every time that something comes up I got to hear it over and over again now look I'm not trying to tell anybody what they
need to do in the award I'm not that type of guy but I could tell you what we've done in my neighborhood but I don't see it happening I see a lot of people s sit up here and talk about affordable housing and I'd like to ask you show me where you made it and then I'll show you where I made mine
you know I looked at the Bri the Brian Street site which is the temple site which already has a stage in it which I wanted to use it for lowincome which my neighborhood qualifies for the lion sheare once again for a loow income arts
created art Society myself all right to have kids to be able to be up there and uh you know be on stage with performing arts and everything else but you know what I was told that wasn't feasible so what we did was we turned it into into affordable home ownership that's what
it's going to be affordable home ownership I brought family housing into into my district I bought a lot of scattered housing sites on already on top of the Newan Street site suffk Manor and Bowden Street Apartments so is it the geographical area is where the
affordable housing can go in no other parts of the city so I would say you might want to watch your mouth a little bit when you're sitting up here and you're talking about affordable housing if you haven't created any now again you know I'm not trying to tell anybody what to do with their sites in their neighborhoods but I mean I just think
it's really wrong to sit up here and only allow affordable housing to go in one area I've got plenty of affordable housing and I continue to still build it but I don't really see that happening from some of my colleagues because you got to show me I'm a show me type of guy
show me where you built it in your area and we can startop talking about sites all day long I don't know how many sites are going up in the hospital site how many affordable units are going up there not that many not any not any but not any not any one not any if I if I could
just ask if we could please try to listen I got the floor right I'm just saying there's not any I'm just if we could turn the heat down just a little bit and keep it respectful oh I'm just passionate no I understand I let you finish I I do want to just clarify that counselor uh lenan said that she
believes that there's an opportunity to do both an art center and affordable housing so so I don't think that councelor lindan is saying she doesn't want any affordable housing in W 3 but I'm gonna let you finish just there isn't any there isn't any now and I know and I I highly doubt there's going to be any at all and not at the magnitude that
myself and councel Crow have so I mean I just think it's you know you got to be fair when you sit up here and talk about affordable housing because I'll go at it with anybody on this floor about affordable housing and how much you created and how much my neighborhood created and we'll see what
the end result is the proofs in the pudding thank you Mr President thank you councelor simonelli um C councelor lyand would you would you like to respond but only to apologize for yelling over counselor simonelli I I'm not really sure why we're standing up I
hope maybe we can just stay seated I felt like that was a little aggressive um but it it brought out my aggressive Italian side too so I'm sorry that I took the bait and and matched your energy there I I do want to just state that as council president said I I am in
favor and you can watch any of the recordings of the meetings I've asked the architect specifically to find a way to bring affordable housing to this Redevelopment if the whole site ends up being only housing I think that's not a bad outcome but I don't want to do that
before we at least explore what the community has asked us to do and which the state is requiring us to do with our acquisition those are the terms of the acquisition which is explore an arts and culture use I know I hear all the time from constituents they want more
programming they want after school they want our educational opportunities they want classes these are the things that we're responding to and respectfully I've been on the affordable housing trust and our arpa committee that devoted millions of dollars to projects in Ward
7 we have took a Citywide approach to acquisition and those were where we had properties ready to go I have seen properties slip through my hands that I've tried to be working to bring a CDC to purchase in W 3 the purchase prices
are higher and the speculative Market is incredibly intense right now and I think if it's that way in my word it's going to be in every Ward eventually I would say that if anything we're a har we're a Harbinger for what where things could go as real estate values go up and how challenging it's going to get to build
affordable housing we absolutely unequivocally have to be building it everywhere uh thank you councelor Winslow yeah no I will uh I will second councel lyan's motion I mean I I do I I do have to you know say the irony of
just hearing counselor so adamantly speaking about being respectable to the wards and then having this resolution I mean I know I appreciate Council SP for sending out there I think we all as counselors knew what was in the paper but as it was represented to the public
in the in the um you know on the agenda it really seems very neutral I reached out I mean I think I can put it on the agenda well but but how it's it's it's it's was represent here so I don't know how how that happened but it became very neutral so I just think it was just are you accusing me of creating the agenda
I'm just who however that's phrased in the agenda I may you know I'm just saying it it got neutral but I do have to say it it's it's ironic that you were so passionate about making sure in councelor Crow's situation I'm saying
you hey I I have the floor Craig I have the floor I have the floor councelor councelor wins I have the floor counc Wis I have the floor and I say I say it's very okay right councelor winow I will I will control the meeting I appreciate it I know it's hard to get used to it um I will let you finish okay
I will go to you you're not going to go to me you're I will go to the clerk have the floor I will go to the clerk there a conspiracy now no we're going to go to the so councelor winsell you finish your your statement we're going to go to the clerk to clarify the agenda I here here's a paper that that underlies
focusing on two Wards and that is not sponsored by the ward counsil so I just that's thing but I do have to say that I did reach out to council spatap for and inquired I like why are we just focusing on these things I am supportive of affordable housing and um sat you know
help develop the affordable housing trust and all that Craig and I you were that together um I think that we need to look at it more broadly I mean one of the things that ties the hands in Ward Ward six is that we have this requirement you can't go above three stories for anything anywhere so that
was uh actions of Prior counselors uh councils that both councelor spatap for and councelor Condon were were part of that so if we talk about that I I do think that there is the parking lots around the courthouse that that have that potential but we should perhaps
even look at you know the type of thing what you would do here is put out an RFP and and maybe we need to look at having maybe larger scale I mean we have the Gateway uh Apartments there that are much higher maybe that's the type of thing of of looking to see can the
housing help in the money that we can get money to help pay for the the things we need at the Art Center that's something that we should look at so and I do think that there's you know the city has other properties there's a lot of parking lots here we we we feel free
to give free parking to people maybe we need to look at that that as the Surplus as well to look at parking areas to see if that can be repurposed to have both housing and parking rather than just these Lots I mean some of them I see that the you know um you know that it
looks like just commercial trucks are part there not uh is that really what we bought them for so I think that's the other type of thing that I think is that I mean if we're really serious about using city property for um affordable housing we should also look at those
properties that are merely being parked on and is there other ways to look at and I mean we have a lot in and I guess it's in W five now but um but I think we need to be more expansive so that's why I would support councelor lilian's MO motion to make this more Broad and look
at any property that's not currently you know actively used for a city uh City purpose um that that that that would be what I'd like to see and I think Council lyan's amendment is there so um so that's that's I just would like to broaden it for having this discussion
and I mean I think that ultimately if we're talking about affordable housing to look at you know moving ahead with our master plan to you know we we we did what we had to do for the NBTA community but I think there are that there other opportunities to look at housing and and
and and adjust to what we have I I don't agree with what Cambridge has did to vote on Multi you know six stories or above everywhere but I think there are opportunities to do a little bit more I mean the three story cap um is is
actually holds back some development in terms of housing commercial um that we could do if we were a little more flexible so I think we should look at housing um a little bit more broadly and but I think here if we're talking about trying to use city property to help
Advance affordable housing we should be more expansive and and that's why I agree with councelor Lan's motion thank you so we're going to go to the clerk Now to respond to the language on the agenda understood So yeah thank you for giving me the opportunity to just
explain that we use the title embody formatting feature in our software granicus when we create these agendas just as a safe uh space saving measure so that when we're printing the agenda it's bad enough on nights like tonight it's like seven pages long sometimes it
could be 14 pages long if we didn't use this feature it's most commonly used with resolves because usually you can sum up a resolve with one sentence and then there's a lot of other language that explains it in Greater detail and that's what we have here tonight so if you have a click through the live link
on the agenda it will open it up where you can always have the ability and the public does as well from home to see the full text of every paper in the history that is that's attached to that paper as well um I do want to just point out to
council Winslow when you asked me to read the resolve in its entirety tonight you may have heard me thank you for reminding me of that I got a little I got my hands a little bit full with all of the motions and stuff that we had proceeding this with um trying to keep up on importing the information as you
guys talk and um didn't read it had intended to read it and thank you and we thank you again for pointing out that it should have been read in its entirety that is the way that we normally do resolves um when we read them into the record so thank you that's why the agenda looks the way it does council
spor doesn't build the agenda I do um and there you have it thank you it was a conspiracy thank you uh city clerk uh so I'm going to go to council spap for to respond um councilor McDonald and councelor clones yeah I just want to address so council wisel did reach out to me but he never told you what I said
so that's the way stories are told right is you League it like I didn't respond so my exact resolve my response was I selected these two properties based on discussion these properties are currently underused and given the capital requirements are unlikely to remain unactive there are locations in transit or areas of the city further emphasize the needs to address our
housing challenges it's not a game I mean we all just admitted it's a probably a $19 million cost to change that right we don't have $19 million unless we're going to do a prop two and a half go ahead do it go that's the only way you're going to get the money for that and and the the last figure I saw for the O Grove
Community server was $1.4 Million to do it over it's a th000 square feet that's $1,400 a square feet foot I'm I'm not an architect but that's more than a casino cost so if we're going to be stewards of money let's be honest
with ourselves we're not coming up with $19 million and I'd love to see housing on top of that building and the idea that we want to put more housing that's fine but remember the taxes remember the taxes we're 89% residential and you talk about
tax burden at one point that equation is going to go in the wrong direction like Boston's try to do right now because we can't attract commercial space and then I will be honest with you the the term is screwed screwed we're 89% we have no way to get out of that at this point so
the answer is let's build more and yes we'll get some affordable but it's not all going to be affordable just like the state law MB TAA not affordable nothing in the language nothing the last rule the Adu not affordable nothing in the language
so we can play the game all day but creating more housing is not automatically going to make it affordable especially when the cost I mean Council ly even admitted it it's going to be more money it's that's what it cost and finally I circulated both proposals to this entire body two weeks
ago clerk the entire body got it three two weeks ago two weeks ago so I wasn't going behind somebody's back I wasn't have neighborhood meetings because I know some councils have neighborhood meetings in other other Wards so the idea that I went behind somebody's back is
ridiculous and so this is a discussion that's all I asked here's my motion I don't know how much money we've raised or identified for this $20 million Courthouse I'll table this for five months and let's come back and discuss where we are with both properties in terms of funding design
grants whatever we got caught and then we can because it'll be right it'll be after our budget season so I'll table it for five months and we'll see what happens thank you Mr President I would like if if if possible I would I understand a tabling motion takes precedence I would like to finish
this conversation as matter a lot of talking by the same yeah I'll Grant it to you thank you um councelor McDonald well I'm just thrilled there's so much energy about a affordable housing hot diggity dog that's one of
the reasons I ran for city council so I I mean I I think my question to my colleagues is like do we actually want to try to solve this problem or do we want to just yell at each other about it solving the problem in my I think to solve the problem we have to look at every neighborhood we can't concentrate
Solutions in any one neighborhood uh I completely agree with councelor Lan's points that look there's absolutely win-win Solutions here that do value the input of the community rather than trying to steam make it seem like we're steamrolling everybody but yes absolutely we all have a parking pass to
sit up here to park in a lot that is right next to a five-story many multi-unit apartment building that's right there and we could absolutely get preserve that parking while creating affordable housing that the city would control right there and you know Ron's
probably somewhere watching this and and ready to haul me out for it but I will just say that on the record and I so I mean I would love to support the amendment I understand we may be now tabling this but yes let's talk about all of our properties let's prioritize the ones where we don't have a plan but
there's a lot of pieces of property that we could that we could leverage for this purpose I'd love to talk about it and if we are serious about wanting to build affordable housing in this city it is not going to be just on city-owned property we have to allow changes to our
zoning that will allow people to more easily build affordable housing other cities do this they they incentivize it we do it already in our affordable housing um uh inclusionary zoning but this city is still full of exclusionary zoning in the majority of the city you
cannot even build a multi family house now you can build an Adu but in the majority of the city you cannot just build a two or three family house not in res residential a which is like 80% of the property of the city so what if we made it so that you could if you're
building an affordable unit that opens up Parcels in every single neighborhood and that is a lot of what honestly W7 already looks like so if we're serious about really wanting to do things that will tackle this I would be happy to support this resolve with Council Lan's
amendment I would be happy to talk about City properties I would love to talk about that and I would be happy to introduce a similar resolve that says let's actually look at making it easier to build affordable housing in our zoning which research shows actually does get some things built that also
doesn't depend on you know the tax the the ownership of the city and we can do it we can incentivize mixed use too so it's not only residential development it can be mixed use but we got to be willing to to have those conversations and not just you know talk about it when
we have a point to make so I'm excited I'm excited for the energy let's move this forward go team I yield the floor for thank you councelor McDonald uh councelor cologne Hayes thank you council president um I
also when I read uh we got an email you're right I did um respond back actually um immediately saying something actually similar um that what you said Council McDonald it was hello Craig um thank you for voting this resolve very
excited that everybody is happy about affordable housing um I'd be willing to explore this further as long as public input is involved um I know because I've seen councelor linan work so hard um over so many years for affordable housing I sat in those
meetings well you fought for it at the hospital so not that you need me to um you know help support you you can take care of yourself and I love the way what you just said because you're absolutely right and um you've been working harder than almost anybody I know in this city for affordable housing so I want to
thank you for that um but the I did say we can't just pop this out in the community without letting people know people were very confused um I was getting tons of calls about the Oak grve Community Building about the the H the
um the art project because they also couldn't find it on the city's website so I had to explain to them I actually kind of Googled and and and try to find no I actually photoed them your email that's what it was so they did have it's up there but people did fumble around and didn't you know know exactly where
that was so um I'm glad that you just explained that but I was saying as far as transparency goes um it is key neighborhood involvement is key um just putting this out there targeting two buildings is not the way you go it just generated tremendous anxiety um in our
city about what is going on here so I would even like to make a motion to I will second your motion to add that but I would even have it referred to um the community in um engagement and inclusion um committee to have a big talk about it um because people have been working for years on
these projects and just to have us thrown out there was just so unfair of a way to go about it um I definitely will support looking into affordable housing I would have the like oako community building the art center I have no problem with those being but not without Community input not without Community
input so um I would second your motion as well and hope we go about this in the right way yeah hold I'm just tracking all the Motions give me one second yeah I got three too um so the first and I'm going to say something before we take these
motions up the first motion I have is to table which was um made by councelor uh for five months by councelor spora seconded by councelor simonelli that does take precedence um the second one is to amend it to strike uh any reference to specific properties that
was made by councelor linahan seconded by councelor colog Hayes and the third one is was made by councelor clone Hayes to refer this to community engagement um currently that does not have a second second seconded by councelor Winslow so those all have been
seconded um from from the from the chair um you know I earlier in this meeting kind of got red over the Kohls for for not doing appropriate uh engagement of of counselors and I understand that it was not it was absolutely not
intentional um to be honest with you I I thought that U myself and other uh members of of the of the staff were were working based on the last conversation that we had that we were going to try to figure out a alternative that would avoid Canal Street and go over that
property so I apologize for that um but I did think that I was going with with your blessing to try to work on this other this other way of going about it um when it comes to this you know to to councelor Winslow and councelor lyan's point um I I yes I did get your email
but I was a little blindsided about this um as one of the ward counselors for these properties that are loved by the neighborhoods um you know particularly with the Oak Grove Community Building um it's it's not vacant it's not publicly accessible but it's not vacant we use it
for storage um so it's not excess property um you know there there are other properties that I do feel like are excess in other Wards like I would say that not to throw you under the bus councelor clo but you know I do think the Charles Street lot is completely
underutilized and could be a great location for affordable housing I think it's next to another affordable housing project um done by tricap um it's right on the bike path it probably wouldn't need a lot of parking uh really close to the train um but I I wouldn't just kind of throw that out there but I do think
that doing community engagement um you know parking or or these low use um uh uses you know are not the highest and best use they don't enrich our community a a community art center does enrich our
community so I don't think that we should you know Rob Peter to pay Paul and say that because we don't have affordable housing we need to give up on our dreams uh of an art center or a community center um I I just think that is a false dichotomy um I don't think
Malin has recovered from the loss of the Oak grve community building I don't think we've we've recovered from the loss of the Emerson School in Edgeworth um I don't think that we've recovered from the loss of the community center in your neighborhood um so I just think that we shouldn't give up on our dreams
I think there's a middle way here I hear that how expensive this is and the challenging Financial Times that we're entering um but there are ways in which we can try to make up that Gap over the over the coming years um but there might be a middle way to do something cheaper uh and still get it being used in a
useful um a building whether that's involving the wreck department or or other uses um so that's my thoughts um when it comes to tabling I don't think we should table it um and I wouldn't support a tabling motion um honestly I'm indifferent on amending because I do
feel like if we keep some of the Beloved buildings as as specifically referenced it will help make sure people come out uh but if it's just generic it might not get the same type of public engagement um and when it comes to referring it to community engagement I I would support that too um so we'll take up the tabling
motion first uh a yes vote would table this discussion for five months a no vote would not table this at this point and would allow us to take up the the other am other motions that are on the floor um all those in favor please uh the clerk will call the roll on
tbling sorry motion to table by councelor spor seconded by councel simonelli uh councel colone Hayes no councel Condon yes councel Crow yes Council linahan no
councel McDonald no coun simonelli yes Council spor yes councelor Taylor no council Winslow no council president Ali no the tabling motion failed two three four six four to six so
that vote that tabling motion vote fails four to six um the second one is an amendment by councilor lenan seconded by uh councelor Winslow uh and that would be to uh a amend it by striking out any
reference to the Oak grve community building and the courthouse that clerk we'll call the rooll council clone Hayes yes Council Condon Council Crow yes Council Lenahan yes councelor
McDonald councilor simonelli yes councilor spor yes councelor Taylor Council Winslow yes council president ali uh no so the amendment passed by an 8-2 vote uh so that passes 8-2 and uh so it
is now the paper is now amended and there is a motion on the floor to refer it to community engagement uh which was made by councelor uh cologne Hayes and it was seconded by councelor Winslow I do see that we have some lights so I'm going to go to councelor Crow thank you
um and I think that's a little premature we have no nothing to present it was discussion so until we can kind of work out something that you are going to you just I don't think it's it's a little premature to send anything that doesn't have anything
around it so I would be voting no councelor McDonald yeah I I was going to say something similar I think it we got to talk about this in public property first so either refer this jointly or refer to public property first um to be able to
come have some discussion with our city staff and come up with what's on the table then I think yes we it it would be very helpful to have it go to the C the cic commit I'm on both committees so I guess it doesn't really matter to me but the um I think that's a better place to start in terms of process I'll second
that motion okay so there's a there's there's a fourth there's a fourth um motion to refer to public properties U by councelor McDonald seconded by councelor simonelli um I am going to speak on that if if if I may um I I think that really Community engagement
is is the is the is the next step on this um because just so the council knows it's public properties that would determine whether or not something is an excess property so if if you're hoping that these be deemed excess property The Next Step would be public property if
you do not want this to be deemed excess property you would not want it to go to public properties understood I just want everyone to understand the significance of sending something to public properties no there's a there's a if if public properties and cic want to want
to ordinate okay we have a fourth yeah we're going to go so a joint now councelor simell would like to do a joint between cic and Community engagement and public properties counselor Colonus yes thank you um I was
thinking through that process as well so I like that idea of a joint so can I just withdraw my motion or no because it was second do we have this understood so councelor uh yeah so so it sounds like there's
is is there a unanimous consent to to withdraw the specific referral to cic and public properties and instead have it go to a joint yeah is unanimous consent that we're okay so we have one motion on the floor look at us we're efficient so
we're we're so we now have a motion to refer counc simell I see you have your light on but did you already say what you wanted okay councelor selli Joint Committee for uh public properties and the uh commity engagement on councelor uh simi's motion to refer this to a
joint Community engagement and public property is seconded by councelor cologne Hayes um a yes vote would oh councelor Lan sorry no I'm sorry I just I'm recalling that on councilor spatap for's previous resolve we said we
couldn't refer a resolve to committee are we making a recommendation that we my my ruling would be no my my ruling saying the one we just voted on before this we said we couldn't do that no I think it's like best practice but I'm saying that you absolutely can refer a resolve to to a committee res is
supposed to either yeah I'm I'm fine with resoles is supposed to either pass or fail like on the last one we passed the resol but then also requested yeah that the finance committee take up the the discussion I just want to be consistent we just had this conversation
I think it resolves typically is pass fail and then we make a request you know I I think that um what is is what does the language say right now does it refer does it refer to a it says that it's a city council it just says support it's not it's not
directing any particular committee um I I'm not going to be passing I would not vote just pass this resolve I would refer it to send it for Community engagement to talk about Surplus property um I'm okay with it being referred to a committee there's a
motion on the floor to refer this to a joint uh Community engagement and public properties any more discussion on that I have a question we gonna askal todraw We already have a motion did you
withdraw and everybody was in favor of that okay got it okay thank you for that yeah absolutely and I we're just clarifying okay so again the motion on the floor is to refer this resolve uh for Community engagement uh with both Community
engagement and the public properties uh in a joint meeting a yes vote would refer to a joint meeting of the two committees a no vote would not the clerk will call the role on the referral Council clone Hayes yes Council Condon
Council Crow yes Council linahan yes councel McDonald Council simonelli Council spora yes Council Taylor councel Winslow yes council president jali yes that has been referred by 9 to1 vote thank you
all next order of business paper 32-25 be it ordained by the malen city council that the code of the city of malen 2.24.20 Library salary schedule is hereby amended by adding the updated salary schedule chart effective July 1st
2024 this is an enrolled paper that needs a vote to ordain is there a motion to ordain motion to ordain on councelor wisel's motion to ordain is there a second second by councelor Taylor uh the clerk will call the role oh a yes vote
would ordain this uh this oh oh okay I understood so all all those in favor a yes A yes vote would um ordain this ordinance a no vote would not ordain all those in favor of Ting
please say I I any opposed that has or and uh yeah paper 33-25 order that the sum of $50,000 be in the same is hereby transferred from salary Reserve to library salaries this is a paper that we voted on last week but because of our
new Council rule it needs a second vote for final action because it was ref referred directly into committee before coming to the full Council yes so so everyone understands um we are uh talking about the financial
paper um on councelor McDonald's motion to approve uh for final action this order is there a second uh 3325 this just to clarify this is the new process we we didn't want people to
be surprised of things coming directly out of committee um so we already voted on this we you voted last week in favor of it yes so yeah just a final action vote because two weeks on the agenda yeah so we're it was voted
favorably last week um on the council floor it came out of Finance last week it was voted to be approved on the council floor but as a new part of presidental Mal's procedures when a paper goes directly into
committee without first being ref referred by the council we're going to put it on the agenda for two weeks before a final action is taken just so the public is fully aware and it doesn't look like the paper just came out of nowhere and and and and and now thinking
about how this is played out I think that probably what we need to do as a process Improvement is just list it on last week's the last agenda as to be voted on at the next meeting just because now we're voting on it twice and like so we voted in favor of it the last
time and now what happens if we voted o against it so this would just be um a vote for to approve a final action okay so that I would then send the paper to the treasurer's office to take final action so yeah I I would vote so what
happens yeah we need to talk about process Improvement yeah we that's what we need to figure out so it's a new process coun point taken uh I if you want this to pass and you voted for it time I would ask that
you vote against this yeah so yeah and I'll be honest with you my my I think yeah I I I I was not intending for it to be voted on twice but but now that we we just we should make sure we just list it and say okay next week we're going to vote on
this for final action just so people know it's coming out of the committee um so is there a second to councelor McDonald's motion I think it was Taylor councelor simonelli um that the order be adopted uh all
those in favor please say I I I any opposed that paper thank God is adopted next order paper 8-25 committee report the standing committee on rules and ordinance to whom was referred papers 356 series of
2024 and 47 series of 2025 having cons considered the same make the following report committee recommends these papers out favor favorably by unanimous vote to the full Council on councelor Winslow's motion to receive
the committee report is there a second seconded by councelor simonelli all in favor please say I I any opposed the committee report is received unanimously paper 35624 be it ordained by the Malden city council that the code of the city of
Malden is by amended by adding title 12 chapter2 section 500 site plan review educational religious Andor Child Care Facility uses councilors Winslow and selli councelor Winslow for the
committee okay um yeah so we did discuss this uh you know we we had a hearing uh with the joint hearing with the planning board and then we also um discussed this um last week extensively in rules and ordinance so this is um the site plan
review process for do Amendment use uses that are not adus so that includes educational facilities religious facilities and daycares um you know as a result of particularly of great input from staff in the public at the public
hearing um we have substantially revised the proposed paper and so in the rules and ordinance committee um and this is uh now What's called the Winslow's edits February 4th 2025 we the rules and ordinance recommended that we first
amend the paper to um be consistent with those those edits that I had proposed um on the 4th and then we also then from that we recommended a few more amendments so I I'll I'll just raise those right now so um we recommended
that um that the word substantially de added in section um B before for um expanded religious or educational use or Child Care Facilities to make sure that sort
of Dom Minimus um things do not have to go through site plan review so that was recommended by the committee to that we um clarify um that about where this applies um so that's the other the thing we agree to um and then um in terms of
the site plan review committee I originally proposed um that the composition be um be include the city engineer and parking director councelor spora suggested that we just keep the site plan review committee the same as
we just passed for Adu so we did um the the the committee recommended that the site plan review committee be meet up the building commissioner or design director of um uh public health or
design and then the uh director of oscd or designate that's a member of obcd Staff um we he talked about um also then just clarifying that the board of appeals would appoint a member an associate member that would s serve as
an alternate member as needed um so that's in section e E1 um we re we the committee also recommended that we clarify that um a quorum would be um uh would require um uh members of the
committee are required to approve or approve with conditions um the plan um we deleted um the wording about that the the Quorum could deny the application
and they we deleted language about conflict of interest um and then we also clarified that um that takes a simple majority 2third uh to to take any required action so in the event that there is an
alternate it doesn't take um it's just two-thirds of the people there that would be required so um so that's just on the Quorum um and then in scope of review um we deleted some language about that the scope of review would cover
whether the use qualifies um as a do Amendment use because that's determination that the building inspector would have already made so that was a recommendation um we delete uh section um um let's
see section see that's C 3A and then we would just rumber uh yeah we would just delete section 3A and reum accordingly um and then in the
final um section four related to decision um initially we had talked about having a for 14-day period um to make the decision per the planning board the planning board were Meed a different schedule um
and that uh let me see just uh so the schedule for review would be consistent with um the site plan review committee would hold a public project review meeting with the applicant no later than 45 days after submitting the proposed plan um to the Building Commissioner the
site plan review committee shall hold as many meetings as necessary within the 65 day review period to review the proposal however within the 65 days of the submission of the plan to the Building Commissioner the site plan review committee shall provide recommendations and writing to the Building Commissioner
if no action is taken within 65 days the application shall be deemed approved as submitted and the applicant May apply for the building permit without site plan review letter so that's the the language that was recommended by the planning board that again the rules and ordinance committee um recommended be um
an amendment um to the paper so those are um uh those are the uh the the Amendments so uh I guess I would make a motion that we amend per the uh the the ordinance
committee report so that would be my mation so so on councelor uh we're we'll have discussion but councelor uh wisel's motion to is to amend uh the paper uh consistent with the committee report that he just delivered seconded by counselor Manelli uh discussion on the
motion to amend yeah I just have one point I know that there was a comment from in in the comments from the public today that we didn't that it didn't have the 60 review period but that was actually corrected in committee so so it does have the review period so we that
comment's already been addressed and there was also a comment about not doing legal review um you know we did incorporate the comments of legal review in the the what's being reported out from Kitty so those two comments have been uh already addressed thank you for tying up those loose ends I was going to
ask you to do that that's great any discussion on this amendment seeing none um a a yes vote uh will would make this amendments yes so make no vote would not so uh on the Amendments all those in favor oh uh the
clerk I believe will call the role on this because it's a zoning paper oh yeah so yeah I mean so yeah so we we'll just do a roll call we'll just do a Voice vote so all those in favor uh of making the amendment
please say I I any opposed yes uh there so that was uh one no councelor SP voted no and there's only is it 9 to1 all right
any other motions on the floor so8 to one oh and that's make am on councelor wiso's motion to to
enroll enroll yet the zoning ordinance as amended oh yeah yeah we're yeah we're actually just going to we're going to wait a moment uh yeah is there uh was there a second on the the motion to
enroll does anyone second the motion to enroll uh seconded by councelor lenan uh counselor uh so we're going to we there's been a motion to enroll the paper as amended it was made by councelor Winslow seconded by councelor
lenan uh the clerk will call the rooll council clone Hayes yes councel Condon Council Crow yes Council alahan yes councel McDonald yes Council simonelli Council spora Council
I you want to change your vote okay we'll acknowledge that UND understood hasn't been announced yet so okay Council Taylor Council Winslow yes council president Ali now I'm confused I think
it's yes you want that that passed uh n 921 um next paper is 47-25 be it ordained by the malen city council that the code of the city of Malden Title 9 chapter 24 section
010a regulation of lead pipes and residential housing is hereby amended as follows after the word sale inserting the following of addition or an accessory dwelling unit to or you want me councelor this was
originally sponsored by councelor spor all right we already we already accepted the report so if Craig wants to speak or I can speak to it what oh yeah um yeah councelor winsell for the committee and then we'll go to councelor SP for yeah
no This was um a an amendment to our code related to you know right now when a house is sold a residence is sold that people do have to replace the any lead pipes before the sale is finalized this
just um clarifies that and and there also any any work on a house over 300 thou $30,000 that the pipe has to REM be removed this clarifies that um an addition um of an accessory dwelling unit would be subject to that
requirement so if you add accessive dwelling unit you have to address any lead pipes so I don't know if Craig had anything more to add to that but yeah councilor's metor no I think it's just another opportunity for us to take a bite at the Apple anytime we can
replace as many lead pipes as possible I mean we know it's a cost and a hindrance but we know it's a heal it's a it's it's it's for healthy reason so um I think it might even trigger that that 300,000 depending how big your Adu could be I mean the cost of materials tell you crazy but I think this is an opportunity
for us to really kind of solidify that and make sure that if somebody's adding that especially if they're going to take it off their house and it's still coming through that lead line now you're affecting potentially more people so it only makes sense to kind of solve that uh uh that issue right where it is so any way we can tighten it up I think
it's a a good opportunity thank you awesome so Mo most of the council has has uh joined as co-sponsors um anyone who's not listed would you like to join as co-sponsors so we we got councelor simonelli councelor clone a would like
to join councelor Condon um very good so on counts uh on councilor's Mo on councelor Spa for's motion to to enroll the ordinance seconded by councelor Winslow the clerk will call the ro oh
this is this is not a zoning orance all all those in favor please say I I any opposed that passes unanimously sorry paper 82- 25 the standing committee on license to whom was referred paper 315 series series of 2024
and papers 58- 60 series of 2025 having considered the same make the following report committee recommends paper 58- 25 reported out favorably as amended to reflect the license as granted for five cars committee recommends paper 59 and
60 be reported out favorably to the full Council committee recommends paper 315-24 be reported out unfavorably to the full Council councelor Condon for the committee yes that uh last paper that we
voted out unfavorable uh I uh I totally agree with it and so do the committee awesome thank you for your committee report and the other ones you said came out uh favorably so paper 315 yes the motion is to deny 50
8-25 am granted as amended and then the other two granted so one second so on councelor Conor's motion to take this action uh action on these petitions in accordance with the committee the license committee's
recommendations and again what that would do is that would deny uh 31524 at 200 Beach Street and it would approve uh 5825 5925 and
6025 5825 granted as amended granted as amended um councelor con is motion seconded by councelor cologne Hayes um all those in favor please say I I I any opposed that passes
unanimously or the the the recommendations are approved unanimously paper 8325 order that the city council will go into exe will vote to go into executive session with Lea a mcneel city solicitor
regarding the matter of benevolent Botanicals and 926 Eastern Avenue V the city of malen for the purposes of exemption three Mass General Law chapter 3A section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to litigation where such
discussion and open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigation position of the city and if so declared but if so declared by the chair and if so Allowed by the body to admit Maria Louise special assistance to the mayor roll call required citing exemption
three of mgl chapter 3A section 21A wherein discussing paper 8325 in open meeting would have a detrimental effect on the city's litigating position is there a motion to enter into executive session on councelor Sim
Elli's motion seconded by councelor uh Crow to enter into executive session the clerk will now call the role Council clone Hayes yes Council Condon yes Council Crow yes Council linan yes Council McDonald yes Council simonelli
Council spor councel Taylor Council Winslow council president Ali yes that is 10 the council will enter into executive session uh the council will now enter into executive session uh and the body will not reconvene for any further business this evening and
we'll adjourn directly from executive session thank you all is