##VIDEO ID:oiKkGDWpvKA## the council will come to order all rise and salute the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all please remain standing for a moment of silence for our veterans service members and those who have given the ultimate sacrifice we will do our land acknowledgement we honor and acknowledge the massachusett Penacook pcket 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 present moving forward we are committed to ensuring that our the history's voices and contributions of indigenous peoples are recognized respected in the life of our city the clerk will call the role I just to one more we have one more um yeah I mean uh one second councelor WS all right um uh former President Jimmy Carter passed away so I think it's appropriate um you know it was really nice um one of his legacies for the council here is we had the opportunity to actually help build the Habitat for Humanity uh buildings along Main Street so um his Spirit um lives on here in Malden that um people in Malden and there were still working on homes that um people can live in and uh you know it just really is uh you know I was just listening he just someone who believed in and loving who was ever in front of him so I think it's a great spirit that way so uh so I just think that uh we should honor him um so just a moment of silence for Mr Carter this thank you any other acknowledgements or the clerk will call the role Council Hayes here councel Conan councel Crow here councel linahan here councel McDonald here councel sea here councelor simonelli is in our meeting with us tonight um via Zoom so all of our votes tonight will be taken by roll call Council spora councelor Taylor yes yes council president oh sorry councelor Winslow here and council president om Ali here under the provisions of the open meeting law for those in attendance please be informed that Uma Urban medeor Arts will be recording this evening's meeting so just to be aware there will be audio and video recordings of this meeting uh we are just going to take uh this uh agenda a little bit out of order I wanted first uh uh thank Council former council president uh Steve Winslow for his service on the council uh in 2024 uh part of our tradition here in Malden is uh the going president is presented a plaque with a a gavel which I have uh here uh so I'd like if council president wissow could join I'd like to present this to him all right thank you thank you so much all right thanks everybody it's been an honor to serve as your president good luck to new president thank you councelor wiso um I do so just for for for um I appreciate everyone's patience as I've as I've recovered from my health uh it's just been really a lot U and I do appreciate all your support over the years um I will be taking just so everyone knows um what the Committees are I will be taking uh paper 1425 out of order um so I can present the Committees and they can be um um amended as as as adopted and presented um so I'll hand those out now uh to the counselors here and I have a short presentation uh very very short can actually I need one I is that okay yep it's perfect so um uh will the clerk please uh read the paper paper 14-25 council president do Ali will announce the appointments of the 2025 Council committees thank you very much so um again this is the uh the O what I'm presenting here is our overarching goal for the for the city council in 2025 um I worked uh with Ron Hogan our chief strategy and Innovation officer to kind of come up with these um uh goals and I really appreciate the help help that he has been I always believe it's important to give credit where credits do and he helped me um very immensely as I was making sure there'd be a smooth transition um one of the overarching goals is to remove barriers to results uh and we want to engage more uh so we want to embrace technology uh on and and some off night committee meetings uh when I say technology I mean the uh Zoom PL the the teams platform that we have rolled out as a city um I would like to not ify the mayor to submit proposals directly to the council or committees uh to help streamline how uh papers are sent down giving him direct access to the council uh go uh allow uh any committee papers to get submitted directly to committees um so that right now what happens is we are presenting a lot of our ideas to the full Council they're getting vetted without really having any um uh real thought to them uh so sending them to committees first so that they can worked through uh maybe improved uh and then sent out for full hearing allow the public to remotely access all meetings over teams um and then at the next meeting I'd like to generate 202 2025 goals with all of you so rather than me telling you what my goals are I would like to be able to develop this with all of you in Co in coordination and finally I'd like to encourage our key resources to participate in city meetings so as you'll see tonight uh we have new tables here that are an extension of the dis uh and these are for our distinguished guests um which include the uh city solicitor our Clerk of committees our treasur and our controller our controller gives his regards he he was not feeling well tonight and wasn't not able to attend um but this is a area where uh people can bring their work uh they can bring their laptops so they don't feel like they have to have everything on their laps or on the on the chairs around them and it really kind of highlights um a place of Distinction for our financial team our legal team and our support staff um I will go on to the actual um some of the new and changed committees that we're going to have um so a couple of the new committees that we're going to have is arts and culture uh this committee shall work to expand arts and culture opportunities in Malden um the the Committees will work to kind of figure out their own mission statements and we can always amend them as such um there will be another Community called Community traditions which shall work to inventory and document cherish malen traditions in our community U there are so many things like this whether it's seven bumps or or or the road races or uh just different things that we need to document now that shows what's makes M special uh particularly as we uh lose lose people in our that we love in our lives or are close to us who remember Traditions that we might not uh the third new committee and some people might think this is a little bit getting ahead of yourself is the Quadra Centennial planning committee which is for our 400th anniversary uh this committee shall work on the planning and fundraising for malton's 400th in 2049 um you know it's very difficult to fund um major major projects uh and you know the the 400th anniversary or 100th anniversary is very different than say a 25 or a 50th um so in the past they would have built monuments they would have built buildings so if if we can start saving a little money now for the next 25 years um and put it in into an investment account uh with the with the help of our Treasurer um I think that we can actually have a really nice little pocket of money to do something nice for whoever is holding the seat in 2049 um in terms of what is going to be changing um our public properties committee was uh proposed by Council wnso last term uh to uh combine public properties Public Works and our semetary committee um I'm proposing that we codify that permanently and that we expand it to five members um and one of the reasons being as councelor McDonald has indicated that you know with three members it's really difficult to to talk to your colleagues and and do some business without violating the open meeting law uh so by having five members it allows you to get Quorum easier but also conduct business uh and finally small Committees of three have been uh uh increased to five as much as possible there are still a few three member committies um but primarily they be they' even updated to five um and now I'll will just unveil the the standing committees um the community engagement inclusion committee will be chaired by councelor colone Hayes Vice chair McDonald member spora that is all of our atlarge counselors which I think it really helps with engagement because they cover this entire City Finance is McDonald chair colog Hayes Vice chair members spor Condon Crow and Winslow license will be chaired by sea Vice chair cond members cologne Hayes McDonald Taylor personnel and appointments will be chaired by councelor Lenahan Vice chair Crow members Condon cologne Hayes Taylor Public Safety will be chaired by councelor Condon Vice chair McDonald member SAA Winslow simonelli public properties will be chaired by councelor spora Vice chair McDonald member sea om Ali and linahan rules and ordinance will be chaired by councelor Winslow Vice chair linahan members Crow Ali and Taylor I will be moving on to our special committees again this is the the some of the new ones so arts and culture will be chaired by councelor Taylor Vice chair linahan members Crow seika om Ali Community Traditions will be chaired by councelor Sika Vice chair omali members include Condon Crow and cologne Hayes Charter review will be continued to Chair by Winslow uh Vice chair om Ali and member simonelli the city clerk is an ex official member as well as our chief strategy and Innovation officer the Quadra Centennial planning committee will be chaired by myself om Ali Vice chair spora and member McDonald we're asking that the mayor uh or or design be part of that committee that the CFO or or their design be a member of the committee a member of the 375th uh committee uh and a member of the Chamber of Comm the Waterfront access committee will be chaired by cologne Hayes Vice chair Crow member SAA Ali Winslow our Harbor Master is uh EX officio on that committee also and finally we have our ex officio uh committees which are appointed by the uh the chair we have affordable housing trust fund linahan the climate action and sustainability committee Al complete streets Winslow the comp comprehensive plan steering linan om Al uh Library trustee om Al malen riverworks cologne Haz Open Space Taylor and cologne hay public property Crow sign design spora and Taylor site plan review for the MBTA isali and linan site plan review for the malen river Crow Winslow colog ha and site plan review for Rose Quarry is seea and spora is there a motion to receive and place on file um on councelor Sea's motion seconded by councelor clone Hayes to place this on file the clerk will call the role Council clone Hayes yes councel Condon yes councel Crow yes councel linahan yes councel McDonald Council sea Council simonelli I have I can do it councelor sea I mean councelor sanelli yeah he voted yes councilor spora yes councel Taylor councilor Winslow yes council president J Ali yes um because there are some changes to our standing committees um I have presented um proposed amendments uh related to the number of members so is there a motion to uh amend the committee as the committee structure as am as presented on councelor con's motion seconded by councelor um McDonald uh the clerk will call the role councel clone Hayes yes councel Condon yes councel Crow Council lahan yes councel McDonald Council sea yes Council simonelli yes thank you Council spora yes Council Taylor yes Council Winslow yes council president Jo Ali yes so just so everyone knows this will be documed again next week week to take the final vote uh because our standing committees are in the rule book this is technically a rule change which means you cannot do it in the same night so we will do it again next week next order of business staff from the office of strategic planning and Community Development will appear before the city council to provide an update on changes in State Law related to accessory dwelling unit zoning including the expected local application of this new new byright designation thank you everyone um so as you all know a number of City staff U including myself so I should introduce myself Alex Pratt I'm the incoming opcd director um a number of City staff have been working on um understanding and preparing for the new accessory dwelling unit law uh that includes Deborah Burke Maria Louise Ron Hogan Nelson Miller Michelle Romero Alicia mcneel uh Ben gatley who's our staff in oscd and myself um to give an update from the team I want to uh invite Michelle Romero good good evening Michelle Romero city planner um give you a few key dates to do with the new law one is August 6 2024 that is when the governor signed into law the so-called affordable homes act which amends the state zoning law which is Mass general laws chapter 48 on December 6th 2024 the state executive office of Housing and livable communities released draft guidelines regarding that law and then finally the important Date to Remember is February 2nd 2025 that is the date the regulatory portion regarding accessory dwelling units of this new state law goes into effect I'd like to give you some highlights of the new state law and the draft guidelines so first the state law calls the new unit in accessory dwelling unit it is in fact simply an additional dwelling unit a single additional unit at a property must be allowed by right the use of land or structure for the additional unit may be subject to reasonable regulations including but not limited to site plan review regulations concerning dimensional setbacks and the bul and height of structures more than one or a subsequent or additional unit shall require a special permit an additional unit may be added to any building or property with a dwelling unit an additional unit may be added to property located in a zoning District where single family dwellings are allowed for Malden this means residence a residence B residence C residential office and neighborhood business zoning districts the maximum size of the additional unit is the smaller of 900 square fet or half the size of the principal dwelling the additional unit cannot be required to have parking if located within half mile of a subway station or bus station or bus route which is the entire city of Malden except a small portion of the middle sex FS reservation the additional unit cannot be required to be owner occupied nor can the principal dwelling the additional unit cannot be required to be affordable the additional unit must comply with building fire and sanitary codes and it may be subject to restriction and prohibition on short-term rental some of those requirements I just read are contained in the actual law the law itself is 27 lines of text others that I just read are provided in the draft guidelines which currently is six pages of text it may change and still needs to be finalized by the state zoning amendments that are proposed in paper city council paper 13 of 2025 which we will discuss later are intended to update Malden zoning ordinance to reflect this new state law regarding accessory dwelling units and finally I will just end with the statement that the magnitude of the impacts which this law will have on most neighborhoods in Malden remains to be seen thank you are there any questions for the city planner council president I got a question councelor simonelli just one second we're trying to figure out how to make you louder over here that's unusual no I can I can hear but be [Music] councilor SIM can you try talking now yes sir oh perfect we can hear you great thank you Mr President you know I I I know that we were supposed to have several meetings before this but uh you know I know there's not much we can do because it's uh state law but this is going to have a a adverse effect in the Holy old section of my neighborhood because as you know I have incredible am amount of absentee landlords and to add more uh dwelling units is going to have a serious impact in my neighborhood do we have anything that CS that city planner thank you uh what's proposed you will hear later on this evening in the zoning Amendment proposal that the team has worked on um the mayor's team has worked on to present to you in that city council paper are various requirements and regulations that are allowed as far as we understand under the new state law they will include review by a site plan review committee and compliance with certain requirements uh basically just dimensional controls as I mentioned uh no parking can be required for these new units that doesn't mean we are not going to be able to address parking for the existing unit but we will get to that during the discussion so would be would we be prohibited to put like an extra tax on absentee landlords because they don't keep up with their property as it is now so you know if they increase uh by another unit I'd like to be able to have I was talking to uh Chuck ranigan maybe putting together some sort of a uh an account somewhere so that we could uh you know start putting on attacks uh to these absentee landlords that don't take care of their properties so that we could send people out to take care of the properties so people that own property around that area don't have to suffer the burden of this yeah I would defer to the treasur and controller uh regarding and the assessor regarding taxes I don't have information about how these will be taxed or whether we can do additional taxing but are we prohibited from it C councelor simell I think that the discussion one of one of the requests I've had I've made to the um to the presenters um related to this is that um after we refer it to a joint ordinance and planning board hearing that we meet an ordinance to kind of flush out more of this um so I I would um I'm not sure if I if we can put them on the spot to ask if something is legal necessarily I think we have to do some research to figure that out um but it's definitely something that um I can commit to you that willing to have that conversation in ordinance fine appreciate it thank you councel McDonald yeah thank you so much for this and you know just on my colleague's point about absentee landlords I think that's a huge concern um and landlords who are not taking care of their property and their tenants I think that there are some so I'd be very interested in pursuing that in parallel with this as I imagine maybe some of you all might as well but you know we don't even require landlords to register with us so we don't even really know who they are um we don't necessarily know um whether they're following our existing Health codes about inspections between tenants we have some really excellent landlords folks who you know are just renting out units in their building and and care about the community and then we have a whole bunch you don't and so um anyways I just want to sayate I'd be very excited to work on that um my question to um city planner and the team is so in this so this is a staff proposal about the best approach here as I understand from the mayor's memo and I was wondering if you could speak to what were some of the priorities or the values um or the like what went into shaping this proposal what were you trying to accomplish what were things that felt really important to you in developing this proposal to bring to us thinkful do you think it would be helpful if I read the mayor's memo or you want to read the mayor's memo in that provided some detail do you want to read that into the record how he introduced this paper clerk will read we'll read yeah actually what yeah why don't we do that we're so um I appreciate the the presentation I think what we're going to do is we're going to take up uh paper uh 1325 uh the clerk will you please read the paper and the mayor's Millow paper 13-25 be it ordained by the Malden city council that the code of the city of Malden title 12 zoning is hereby amended to establish requirements and regulations for accessory dwelling units including definition in the establishment of a site plan review committee for accessory dwelling units by amending chapters and sections 12.03 16.01 20.01 32.6 and by adding new subsections 12.28 01 k 32.3 d 32.3 e and then the mayor's memo is as follows dated January 2nd as you know the state affordable homes act signed into law last year requires that accessory dwelling units be allowed to be built by right in single family zoning districts similar to other specially protected do Amendment uses under mgl chapter 48 Section 3 under the law adus will be allowable by right as of February 2nd 2025 regardless of whether a municipality has updated its zoning to comply the new law however allows municipalities to create regulations for adus in several areas including regulating size dimensional controls and other regulations it is therefore Paramount that we have appropriate zoning in place before the February 2nd effective date after the law was signed City staff including city planner ospc director parking director ISD director and city solicitor developed proposed zoning amendments that will bring our zoning into compliance with the new state law while establishing ing allowable regulations to help mitigate the negative impacts of adus on our community the actual impacts on the city remain unknown but have the potential to be significant these potential impacts include but are not limited to health safety nuisance and parking concerns unfortunately the state's executive office of Housing and livable communities has been slow to provide guidance throughout this process in only released draft regulations last month which may change nevertheless our team has worked tirelessly to develop the proposal that is now before you highlights of the zoning proposal are as follows defines adus and establishes regulations prohibits short-term rentals of adus consistent with existing city ordinance parking requirements size and dimensional controls site plan review despite the above mentioned challenges I believe the proposed amendments before you represent the city's best Approach at this time to achieving compliance with the new law while simultaneously addressing the interests of malen and its residents thank you for your prompt consideration and action given the state's February 2nd effective date thank you very much for reading that um councelor McDonald so I I hope that like helps elicit some of the the PRI priorities that were um in this current version um and then like I said we we have um a plan to to really dive into this into ordinance um and and what we've been advised by our city planner is that this is the ceiling uh and that if we want to amend it downward we're able to do that uh what we can't do is we can't make it more restrictive um so that's one one of the the discussions that we really want to have in the ordinance committee is if there are any amendments rather than making them on the floor now um we would rather do that into in ordinance prior to the public hearing the one caveat is if you want to add anything else to this now would be the time to add anything because we can't add after we can only take away uh if can I respond Council presid yes please you're encouraged yeah thank you that's very helpful I mean I I think that sheds I think the mayor's memo which I read does shed some light but I think um just trying to understand like what's what's the intended impact of some of the pieces in this um as proposed would certainly be helpful to me because I have my interpretation but I'm not sure that that's necessarily the intent or that's what's um or that others may have other perspectives so I I think that's important um I don't have any additional things I I don't have any additional restrictions I'd like to impose I I'm someone who believes and has said many times that I think that the crisis in housing affordability is a primary threat to our community I I understand the state has kind of forced our hand on this but I think there's an opportunity to figure out how we can encourage more responsible and sustainable development with this that creates opportunities for people to stay in their houses because they can do more creative things with their property um and that we can address some of these other concerns in parallel so I'm glad that we're moving ahead with this um and I very much support that and look forward to more conversations and ordinance thank you very much I think that's a good approach thank you councelor McDonald councelor Winslow yeah no I have a couple questions uh I mean and some I these are more notes I mean I do think that what we should do ultimately with the paper and I actually have have something else to raise but um is to pass this on to a joint planning and rules and ordinance committee so we can tackle that and get public input um so a few things that you know I've been dealing with to talk of site plan review in terms of other you know chapter 40b uses educational uh religious and dayc carees and one of the questions that I think comes up um and I think it's maybe a overwhelming one thing of additional concern related to staff is that um has the city analyze and this don't have to have an answer but um you know Alex and Maria and Michelle and staff um have we really looked at what resources it's going to take to actually Implement our our ordinance if if in fact do it so so that's one of the questions I have you don't have to try and answer it but I think it in the course of adopting this I mean one of the things um so that's one of the questions I have is that um you know and so I think and in the vein and and and I I'll I'll talk about a little bit what I I want to introduce is that um one of the questions I have is also to look at you know right now there's a proposal that um to have um in the tensity use um square foot the lot has to be at least 7500 square feet um how many Lots in Malden would qualify um and and that so so that type of thing um you know so so some of those questions I would be looking for to be answered um so those are just some key things and the other thing is that um in that vein I'm going to hand out um you know I I did take a look at this once it was sent out with our agenda and um I think that um what would be fair as we're having a hearing is I think that um to propose I'd say I I what I call alternative B um and this is a little my perspective um you know what I've seen you know I've been a resident um in Maplewood since 1991 um the neighborhood in that that in in Maplewood um Maplewood is not uh doesn't have huge homes like some part of our community um but we have starter homes and what I've seen over the course of the my living in the neighborhood is that um as homes have changed hands there's been some pretty substantial additions I mean I think if the Adu law was in place now those additions would probably have done as separate units but um I've had several neighbors do you know 50% expansions of their and having they had went through the zba process and variances and when they reached out to their neighbors and um had and they were pretty Rel relatively um you know expansions that fit into the character in the neighborhood you know four out of the five that that I can recall went relatively smooth with the zba now someone came in and proposed to tear down a building and basically just try to maximize that and the neighborhood fought against that so I guess in my experience at least in my neighborhood um that I think that um you know the typical lot size is usually 50 foot Frontage and somewhere around a 100 in depth so 5,000 square foot is is the historic ones and so um my concern is that um I've seen people actually move out of my neighborhood because they are um a multigenerational family and they could not have a unit for their elderly mother someone who was a great uh Community member here in Malden um had to move out and I I see that um you know that type of thing um that there's a desire that you know families are changing families aren't as big and if uh you know I see the dynamic of the family are some somewhat structured differently and that sometimes multiple adults are living they they they don't want to live room live as roommates but they want to live in the same building so I think that's something that um I'd like to have more flexibility so I'm just I'm handing down the line sorry um what I could Sol did keep keep put passing if everybody I had one for everybody but um what I'm handing down was I'd like to um propose that in addition to sending the mayor's paper to rules of an ordinance as kind of plan a um I would propose that what I'm handing around is sort of a plan B which sort of takes into account a little more flexibility it doesn't give cart blanch to everybody like if we don't act um you know it could happen anywhere we wouldn't have much guidance for staff but I think this is somewhat maybe a middling ground that um more flexibility for um that but um it would um especially neighborhoods that are particularly compacted it would um you know allow that so just just for example I'll go through so people on Chris who's not here um but right now the dimensional controls proposed by staff are 7500 sare feet councelor councelor W if if possible this is the discussion that we would like to have an ordinance right so I'm taking this as an amendment to add to the existing paper um on on your on your motion to amend to add Plan B is there a second I'll second it second it by councelor simonelli so we can discuss more at that public hearing but I just thought it would be good for discussion I feel like we should have a range of ideas to talk about at the public hearing we can get public input and then as a council I I would hate to have one proposal out there and when other of us might have some other things in mind that um that hasn't presented at the public hearing so I just put this as an alternative to be discussed and expand the discussion of thank you C motion's been made the clerk will the clerk will call the role Council clone Hayes discussion on the oh yeah sure hold on there's there's a request to have some discussion about the amendment um I have um councelor cologne Hayes linan and Crow did yall want to talk about the amendment kid I I just explained like so this is not striking what the staff did it would just be adding adding so there'd be option A and option b and I did reach out to um planner Romero and this in the Overlook Ridge zoning there was a similar type of thing that went through so it's it's just an option that can be discussed and that way the public has a a a range of ideas that might be discussed with the council when it comes to rules and ordinance and so that's it's we're not striking out anything we're just adding to the discussion of what would be noticed in the public hearing and those Alternatives we can get opinion on both sides and then we can talk about that as a council so this is a is a very important issue for the council councelor windso I'm going to go to councelor Crow for discussion on the amendment thank you Mr President so as we said at the the beginning that we can make things looser you know through the um the joint planning and ordinance but we can't make them more strict so to me these are the things that you do have um the conversation about in ordinance to say it's from 75 um th000 ft to you know 5,000 ft square feet so but makes it less restrictive so again making an amendment to a paper that's there are we sending two papers in or are these just going to be the um soort what the discussion is that I think it should be you know 5,000 feet not 75,000 Square fet it just seems to be that we should we should again we as we said had the sealing and then we can lower the ceiling but having an an amendment as this has been described seems like it does kind of strike some of the other things so why are we amending that and not so I the only thing I'm I'm going to hand it over to to Council lindan next but the only thing is I think some of these things say like for instance on number two it says it says existing height so there do seem to be some language additions um but I I see what you're saying when it comes to like purely the 7500 to 5,000 I see what you're saying yeah the special permit and then it's yes and you mean like so those seem to be less rest restrictive and that's why you you take the ceiling and then you figure out where are we GNA make the changes so I'm goingon to I'm going to hand it off to councelor linahan and then councelor winow to to respond councelor lenan thank you Mr President so I just wanted to sort of clarify I'm going to look to um planner Romero to correct me if I'm wrong because we did have a meeting um council president and I met today to go through this the Amendments submitted by councelor Winslow and just kind of determine a process here because I think we're on a bit of a tight timeline and I just wanted to lay it out not just for for us up here but for the public as well so this state law goes into effect on February 2nd um meaning that if we pass nothing the state law will actually override anything that we do or don't have on the book so this isn't like the mvta communities where we have to certify zoning to the state they approve it and then there's this waiting period uh in which you know whatever we're working on basically is freezes the zoning if we have nothing February 2nd literally 8:00 a.m. people can come in with architectural plans in Nelson will have to entertain them and I know we are already have folks interested I'm I'm sure others are getting emails I'm hearing from constituents there are certainly folks getting ready so it behooves us to do what we can between now and then so in by way of process because it's such a compressed time frame we essentially have tonight's meeting we have the need to advertise The Joint planning and ordinance meeting for the end of January has to start this week in The Advocate because it has to run for two weeks so we effectively can't meet again in committee to refer the paper so what we've asked the the team that's worked on this to do what councilor Ali and I have asked them to do is come to the ordinance committee to allow us to have more of a brainstorm discussion and prep for joint planning and ordinance um but not to send the paper there and then send it back with amendments and so the advice that we got in the meeting with the with the team and that's been working on this is that we actually put forward everything we might want to discuss tonight and append it to the paper so that it's able to be advertised in the paper in the newspaper so that the public can see everything that we're considering I think I hear your point councelor crow about if we're striking things then it looks like that's off the table and what I heard from planner Romero was that what we have before us that the the the the mayor's staff has submitted is essentially the the most restrictive that we're likely to discuss and then we would be making it more permissive if we were to do the Amendments that councelor Winslow or anybody else might submit so I I think we're we're essentially saying the same thing we want to take the most restrictive and then discuss from there if we want to make it more permissive but if we don't give all the information to the public at the time that we advertise which has to happen later this week then we can't discuss we would be changing the paper substantially and would not then be able to pass what we want in order to be in place by February 2nd correct does that make sense or I'm seeing okay I'm seeing nodding I want to make sure I characterized the conversation correctly with the city staff so so that's why we we be having not a referral but a a conversation in ordinance next week thank thank you councelor Lenahan I see councelor cologne Hayes you have your light would you like to talk yes okay I wanted to speak on this paper um I might have misunderstood on the agenda I thought we were going to have a presentation so I'd have had more questions so um just to clarify I actually asked that this be kept as brief as possible got it so that um we can actually have more in-depth conversation ordinance so that is not a reflection of the the presenters that is a request that I have made that that the bulk of this discussion happen in ordinance okay that makes way more sense I would have had questions I was saving my questions till then but I um now that I have the floor I would like to say I am um very much in support of this and I like what councilor linahan just explained it seems like the fastest um way to kind of move things along so I support that as well thank you thank you councelor motion to move the paper and ordinance um C councelor wiso did you want to speak one more time oh oh yeah councelor spap for for no no councelor spap for for the first time oh sorry thank I I just want to I just want to um procedurally for these meetings I think it's very helpful uh because I think what I'm hearing forget square footage right whether it's five or seven essentially I think it's the entire city let's be realistic it's the entire city it's commercial use it's five families it's four families it's six families it's everything all you have to do is say I want to add Adu and there's nothing we can do so for me and I think for our our community we have technology we should have the GIS maps right because I think it's helpful to see these things and again I'm not debating on square footage but it's the entire city and we can say that but I think until we show the community because we all know very often when we talk about changes the presidents don't understand our our our terminology of vocabulary and then when something happens they say how did this happen I didn't know this going to happen or they think something's going to happen it's not going to happen or vice versa so I would just employ whoever's whoever's going to do the presentation of these meetings to have uh as much of the gis the maps like Council wiso wants the apostles with the with with the square footage I think it's very helpful for myself I'm certainly other members of this but certainly the community it's all I had thank you I appreciate that councelor spap for great Point councelor Winslow yeah no I just want to point a clarification on I I mean my intent here on and having this paper is to to add it to the the paper to be have it as an option and refer it to Joint rules um uh and ordinance and planning so that's not to refer to rules and ordinance but to so that's my intent so I don't is that what your intent is councelor SAR just to just refer there's a motion to amend on the floor and the the clerk will oh Council before guess I'm not I'm appending this not amending it iess understand will you append this paper to councelor Condon for the first time thank you uh Mr President I want to make sure I understand this we're going to be adding a bunch of units do you have any uh idea how many units could possibly be added by right hundreds thousand I don't have an exact number we will have that number or an approximate number at the hearing because we can make an estimate using the gis system um I will um say it's I would expect it's going to be in the thousands thousand um but I do want to just make one point of clarification or two if I could it's the entire city that would be exempt from the parking requ requirement however the way this is proposed is this will only be allowed in residents a b c residental office and neighborhood business so only in those districts so if you're in a in a any the other District Central Business Highway Business Industrial one or two this would not be an option as proposed and I want to just make note to that that would be an example if you want to propose to allow these in other districts you would need to amend this paper tonight this is proposed in accordance with state law districts where single family dwellings are allowed at least that's what the guidelines are currently telling us and I also want to make note of that the guidelines are going to change or could potentially change so in the event the guidelines change and it's no longer includes bus Roots it only includes what the state law says which is half mile of a subway station or bus station it will not be the entire city exempt from parking we go back to just the half mile so that is a key thing that hopefully we will have by January 27th we may not have it by January 27th which is why I want to also just clarify if you're amending in accordance or you're appending for example Council winzo proposes to delete parking no parking is required for Adu I would recommend you do not do that because if the state changes its guidelines we can require parking for some adus so you know we don't we wouldn't want to delete it all based on guidelines that are still draft um so I'm not sure I thought you were going to propose to amend it so it would be or what's written or these other Alternatives I'm not sure about appending it I don't know what that means but I just want to be clear cuz I'm I've got the notice prepared and I want to amend the notice accordingly so that we're covered when we have have the public hearing is the paper being amended so when the public goes and looks into the system and says what are they going to hear at the public hearing and discuss that paper needs to be attached and you need to have your record that you want that paper discussed you know what I'm saying so the record needs to be very clear my understanding is that coun councel uh councelor cond are you do you have any follow I'm just going to let councelor Condon follow up and I'll clarify your question so we're going to add thousands of units in the city estimate best estimate okay where are the cars going to go because I don't have much room down there in w i i can't figure that out and there's going to be no uh parking oversight for these PE people that out a unit for for units that are within a half mile of a t station or a bus route at this point no parking will be required for the new unit it remains to be seen whether we can regulate parking for the existing unit because in many cases the new unit whether it's an addition or in an accessory structure is going to displace existing parking for the existing units so that remains to be seen how we're going to be able to regulate that the way I look at it there's not enough parking now I agree with yeah what we have for housing I kind imagine looking Beyond a half a mile all those streets on the outskirts what's going to happen everybody gonna have bicycles or something because you're not going to be able to park cars yeah boy how do we make this thing uh more difficult councilor con so we so we are uh we are looking to to just to clarify uh U the the city planers question the way I've taken this is that councelor Winslow is looking to amend not by striking anything but amend by adding this entire second paper as a Andor um I don't think it is the best use of our time to go line by line um this could happen in ordinance but there are some things like exist there are some additional wording in here that could be considered an addition and not a like deletion that's how I've taken councelor wiso's motion um thank you councelor Condon council president I'm gonna call I'm gonna call the question there's an amendment on the floor to just one I will be councelor seek for the I'm I'm just a little confused after listening to everybody up here for the last 15 minutes if if we have to pass something by February 2nd and we have the option to pass at a higher thing and we can go lower but we can't go higher why wouldn't we just go for the highest that we can go at this moment and then it we're not rushing all of this by February 2nd that like I see it seems like all of a sudden everybody's rushing because we have to put something on paper before the February 2nd deadline so I think we should put on paper the highest we can go for the time being and then we can have these conversations whether we're going to go from 5,000 to 7500 and if we're going to require parking or not require parking I think that we should be going we should be voting to send out the highest at this moment so then we're not ruining it for ourself in the future because in a month from now or two months from now we could say oh we should have did this but if we go low we're not going to be able to go back high so right now I think instead of us rushing it and looking like kind of idiots if there's something that comes up like Michelle just said they're constantly changing this this isn't even finalized so I think right now we should be voting on whatever is the higher requirements that the state has down and then we have the ability to go down but once we go down we will never have the ability to go back up again so before because we don't know the outcome of this I I think that that should technically be the way that we go with this I appreciate I appreciate that councila and and I agree I think this this conversation really should be happening in ordinance I am going to call the the the role on amending it to add Plan B as presented by councelor Winslow the clerk will call the role councel clone Hayes yes councel Condon no councel crow no councel linahan yes councelor McDonald yes councel sea no no councilor simonelli no councilor spora to go yep councelor McDonald's point of order yeah I just wanted to clarify something I think there was a misunderstanding in the question that councelor Conan had asked planner Romero I think the question you asked councelor Conan was how many theoretical units could be permitted under this law and planner your answer was thousands correct thousands would likely be able to be theoretically permitted but then I think that was also councelor McDonald we're going to go back to the voting now that councelor spaur um is back and we will return to your point of order uh councel spora we it's a motion to amend by adding the plan B that was presented by uh councelor Winslow uh no councelor Taylor Council Winslow yes council president do Ali yes six to okay the paper has been amended um I will return to council McDonald's point of uh point of order but what's the point of order though this is I just want to I want to make sure that the record reflects that we're question we're not putting into the record that we estimate that thousands of units will be built on this there was a those things just got conflated in the conversation understood thank thank you councilor McDonald it Mr President yeah so we're we're gonna yep so there there is a there is is there a motion to refer this to Joint ordinance and planning uh councelor linahan seconded by councelor Winslow to refer this to a joint ordinance and planning board hearing uh the clerk will call the role councilor clone Hayes Council Condon Council Crow yes Council linahan yes yes councel McDonald yes Council sea yes Council simonelli yes councel spora yes councel Taylor yes Council Winslow yes council president jali no the next order of business oh yeah it was referred it was referred 9 to2 yep so we have public comment uh public comment is allowed under Council rules each speaker is limitted to the subject matter relevant to the uh evening's agenda and must uh and must keep their comments to two minutes or less the clerk is just collecting the list it sounds like we do have some people who have signed up for public comment if you have signed up please feel free to come up to the podium first name on all is Carol Harington Carol inton welcome wasn't sure what I was signing up for oh well well welcome to Adu and um I'm hoping it happens I live on Ferry Street among multifamilies three family four families two families and I'm one of maybe three single families and years ago I requested um if I could convert it to a two family and was denied so when the Adu stuff came around and I got very interested in it and I intend to create an Adu an internal Adu in my house so I'm hoping this all passes I have parking and I just didn't understand the yard uh the uh square footage is that for if you're building another house on the land or is you're talking about where the house stands so in public comment we can't we can't really interact I apologize otherwise I will no worries okay but um but we will clarify we have an ordinance committee so uh if you could attend the ordinance committee that would be really helpful okay thank you thank you for your comments Lois Pepe Lois Pepe oh okay thank you okay so Lois Pepe is in support uh and do we have anything to to it's do do we have anything to be read into the record yes we do we have one email to be read into the record it says D city council when you dis discuss accessory dwelling units please keep in mind the spirit of the underlying affordable homes act which makes these Innovative new housing options available the AHA is intended to quote to counter Rising housing costs caused by high demand and limited Supply and quote the AHA was signed into law by Governor Mar hey on August 6 2024 and allows adus less than 900 square feet to be built by right in single family zoning districts in all communities while prohibiting owner occupancy requirements as well as parking mandates within a half a mile of Transit the positive impacts this can have on Malden are easily imagined this includes improved Health lifestyle flexibility and affordability of housing for Malden residents the opportunities for the city of malen are many in embracing this forward progress for housing it is critical for city leaders to embrace the benefits of adus can bring to the city of Malden and its residents moreover it is crucial that City leaders avoid unnecessary complications and costs in implementation of this new law I look forward to your clear communication on the affordable Pathways ahead to help Malden understand and implement the Statewide legislation balancing reasonable local controls with forward-thinking State goals is in the public interest thank you for working to streamline this process and make it available accessible and inclusive for all Malden residents who would like to participate sincerely Brian Dey 1 Earl Street thank you very much uh we now have our consent agenda this evening's consent agenda consists of meeting minutes to be approved one appointment to be referred to personnel and nine petitions to be referred to license does any councel councelor have a desire to remove any of these items from the consent agenda for the purpose of further discussion seeing none councelor on councelor sea to approve the consent agenda as presented is there a second second by councelor simonelli uh the clerk will call the role councel clone Hayes yes councel Condon councel Crow councel linahan yes councel McDonald yes Council sea Council simonelli yes Council spora yes councel Taylor Council Winslow council president Ali yes consent agenda is approved Mr President may I just say something yes councelor simell you have the floor thank you you know I just want to say that you know nobody's been more of an advocate on developing affordable home ownership in my district and I'll continue to do so but I I gotta say that uh what's coming what's coming ahead is not good for this city because it's going to take a serious impact on our infrastructure the the class sizes fire department are we planning on you know uh making them bigger Police Department um so I mean we've got to take all these things into consideration which I don't think the governor has so these are some things that we're gonna have to really take a look at moving into the future I know we've already talked about I don't want to beep you know beating a dead horse here but again you know for some neighborhoods it works single family homes in Forest Ste you know people that live live at home want you know their kids to live have in-laws that's fine uh some other places in ward 3 same thing but you take a ride down in the hoolio section in my neighborhood man and see six and seven unit dwellings of absentee landlords that don't ever care about the property and now you're gonna allow them to build even more units ridiculous that's all I can tell you thank you problem thank you for your personal privilege counselor s thank you Mr President the docket is clear as any other personal privilege on councelor sea Mo on councel so councelor clone clone Hayes has a a personal privilege thank you I'll try and make this brief um first of all I just wanted to thank um publicly councelor Winslow um for leading us last year and um and I just wanted to to thank you for that and then also to congratulate publicly uh to uh our new council president um Ryan Ali I know I don't have to say this but um you always had what it takes to lead this Council um you're smart you have emotional intelligence empathy you care deeply deeply about this community and um and most of all you're brave so I can't wait to see what we're going to do together this year thank you so much thank you very much for the kind words um I will just say from from the floor um you know I I met with various department heads preparing for this and I want to thank them uh but I do want to highlight some really good great words of wisdoms that our cityas Dan Grover shared with me when he talked about the most important thing in our lives is health and family and I just want to say I'm so grateful to have both of that so thank you Dan for the great uh words of wisdom and thank you to everyone for being here tonight on is there on councilor oa's motion to adjourn oh uh councelor wiso has a uh Personal Privilege actually I wanted to ask councelor colan Hayes talk about the MLK celebration so if you can just do that thank you thank you very much I was going to say that and then um um got eyes from people like wrap it up so where um we are having I've been announcing it a couple of times but um the Martin Luther King um Junior Day celebration it's uh the theme is making the dream a reality um last year it was continuing the dream it is going to be on a Saturday at the Emanuel Baptist Church um that was January 18th Saturday 3:00 to 6:00 um at the Emanuel Baptist Church keynote speaker is going to be Dr Deborah um there's going to be youth speakers and more and just want to thank um there's a committee we've all been working on it and um kosana is part of that the city myself uh uh former counselor um Neil Anderson and uh there's obviously the pastor and a few more of us and we're just been working hard so I hope you all join us um there's a bit on that added on to this that's not on this flyer so there is going to be food there that we weren't sure if we had a lot of room to have a sit down dinner so they're going to have like some soul food that you can buy and take home at the end of the day if you're hungry you just purchase it there and take home or you can sit and eat it depending on the space so um I think it is $20 I'm going to say $15 to $20 so be prepared for that thank you so much thank you on councelor Sea's motion to aour and seconded by coun President I have personal privilege oh yep councelor simonelli thank you I just wanted to thank all the people during the holidays that helped me with uh suff Mana with their dinner we had a great time down there also with the uh toy giveaway down at the new Street Housing Development I'd like to thank them all housing Lor St fin uh for helping us put that on it was a very successful uh evening and uh I'm G to be down here in uh Laguna Beach California for a little while I'm heading up a substance abuse program for high Executives for my son well he's opening on one in uh Miami so I am gonna be coming back to Boston as fast as I can so be patient and thank you very much thank you councelor on on on the on the motion to adjourn the clerk will call the role councelor clone Hayes councelor Conan Council Crow Council linahan councel McDonald Council sea Council simonelli yes Council spora councel Taylor Council Winslow council president dalii yes the meeting is adjourned at 8:30 thank you all great job council president thank you Council simali thank you okay