##VIDEO ID:xiGYLNZ3oHI## Craig can you hear me can you please t your mic before we begin the meeting can you hear me Yes sounds good thank you Council come to order all rise and suit the flag pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for it stands One Nation God indivisible 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 we have a um well I didn't know okay perfect councelor sea no council simonelli mentioned that he had a moment of silence for somebody so but Caroline said that you know uh yeah do you want to give the moment of silence I don't really know Alan so if you have something prepared that would be great I know of him but I don't know much about him so I I don't want to dishonor his yeah so I uh so councelor simonelli uh would like to do a moment of silence for uh Alan Campbell who who is the president of Club 24 uh we were in formed that he passed away unfortunately so please do a moment of silence thank you are there any other moments of Silence I'm going to hand it over to councelor clone Hayes to do our land acknowledgement and mass one second counselor we honor and acknowledge the Massachusetts Penacook and Paka peoples whose ancestrial 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 col colonization and continuing to the president president moving forward we are committed to ensuring the histories voices and contributions of indigenous peoples are recognized and respected in the life of our city thank you thank you the clerk will call the role and to and prior to doing the role I just want to apologize to the community for our late um attendance tonight I also do want to um apologize to our guests that we going to be presenting tonight which were the friends of the M Public Library uh they will be rescheduled um our ordinance committee meeting went uh late uh because we have to pass a ordinance related to accessory dwelling units uh which is what resulted in is going an hour and a half over uh so I do apologize for that the clerk will call the rooll councel Clone Hayes councel cond councel Crow here Council linan here Council McDonald Council sea here Council simonelli Council spaur councelor Taylor we know you're here Council SP for thank you councel Winslow here council president here so I just want to say that councelor spatap for is joining us tonight with video call therefore all of tonight's calls uh votes will be taken by roll call thank you under the provisions of the open meeting law for those of you in attendance please be informed that Urban media arts Uma will be recording this meeting's uh this evening's meeting first order of business we have two public comment emails that I would like to read into the record dear city council please consider amending Malden's current zoning legislation relevant to accessory dwelling units in order for adus so that they are easier to build in the city the current zoning laws that affect adus are currently set up in an unreasonable manner so that to complying with them 100% is not really possible this would help address malin's housing needs sincerely thaam 223 Oliver Street and the second is says Dear Miss desiderio I would like the city council to vot in favor of allowing accessory dwelling units I believe it is one way to help alleviate the affordable housing crisis at the same time it can provide more housing for family members Andor income for homeowners thank you for your consideration sincerely Janet green of 57 Rocky Nook thank you very much is U so public comment is allowed under Council rules each speaker is limitated to the subject matter relevant to the evening's uh agenda and must keep their comments to 2 minutes or or less um is there any public comment for anyone here in person I didn't know if anybody signed up I don't would have gone home there's no one here in person there's nobody here so we're going to move on to the consent agenda so this evening this evening's consent agenda consists of meeting minutes to be approved one communication to be placed on file does any counselor have a desire to remove any of these um items from the consent agenda for per purpose of further discussion motion to approve on councelor seek as motion to approve the consent agenda seconded by councelor uh Winslow the clerk will call the role councilor clone Hayes yes councelor Crow yes Council linahan yes councel McDonald yes councel sea yes councelor spora yes Council Taylor Council Winslow yes council president dalii yes okay next order of business we have communications paper 51-25 communication from the planning board regarding CCP 13225 Adu zoning ordinance amendments is there a motion to receive this and place it on file motion to receive on councelor Winslow's motion to receive and place the communication from the planning board on file is there a second a seconded by councelor Taylor the clerk will call the role councel colone Hayes councel Crow yes Council linan yes Council McDonald yes Council sea yes Council spora yes councel Taylor Council Winslow council president Ali yes next up is is committee reports paper 52-25 committee report the standing committee on rules and ordinance to whom was referred paper 13 series of 2025 having considered the same make the following reports on Council Winslow's motion to receive the committee report is there a second second by councelor lahan all those in favor oh the clerical call the rooll I apologize councel clone Hayes yes councel Crow yes councel linahan yes councel McDonald councel sea yes Council spora yes Council Taylor Council Winslow yes council president dalii yes the clerk will read the paper paper 13-25 be ordained by the malen 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 definitions in the establishment of site plan review committee for accessory dwelling units by amending chapters and sections 12.03 16.01 2.010 32.6 and by adding new subsections 12.28 01 k 32.3 32.3 e councelor Winslow for the committee all right um got mic all right thank you very much council president so um last Tuesday uh the rules and ordinance committee met for about four hours to talk about and review the um the proposed ordinance changes and then um last evening we had a joint meeting with the um planning board um to further um review those and we did um the planning board um did advance and and you have that Communications that was forwarded from the planning board uh planner do we have to do anything beyond what we just did just accepting the report do we actually have to do anything you mentioned in terms of the planning board's recommendations that was sufficient just to yeah okay not staff recommendations so yeah so we have that so so we'll uh so I'll go over that so we had um so we had that uh meeting last night um the there were some uh residents as well as Council spatap for who submitted um comments or attend attended and then the planning board U made recommendations that um have been filed so um so just in terms of today the the committee met again to go over the planning board recommendations in detail to go over its its own recommendations that had been developed last week and to make some further recommendations tonight um you know one of the things about this whole dynamic and I appreciate thank you for the work for um uh planner Romero in particular that this has been a moving Target I mean just literally since this paper's been introduced the state um did update its own regulations and guidance which affected both how the council needed to react to this as well as the planning board so um I appreciate that effort um so just to go over um in terms of what the um the the council has done um in terms of the planning board made 11 recommendations and so the council tonight reviewed those and I I'll I'll I'll State what the um the ones are so um so in part um generally the um the rules and ordinance committee recommended the paper up favorably with amendments and um and adopted generally the um many of the recommendations of the planning board so I will go over for that now but um that's the the recommendation so of the 12 recommendations um we um the the council did vote in support of the recommendation to limit the um number of accessible dwelling units to um one per um you know property and that was be eliminating the initial um table of use regulations that would have allowed an accessible dwelling use unit above one to be considered through special permit process so we uh did vote to um approve that recommendation as an amendment or recommend that as an amendment and then in terms of um their second recommendation this is related to the table of intensity use regulations um we voted to delete um the all the columns that were set out in section 12 .1 6.01 um related to adus and then they basically refer people to um the section 12. uh the planning board recommended some changes to section 12.3 2.03 D um which change some of the uh description of the purpose and intent of the um new regulations to add some Provisions related to protecting the health safety and general welfare of the city's present and future inhabitants as as key purposes and also um the C the council um did vote to delete language that that um said the so-called affordable homes act so um so we um did add those um recommend that act recommended language to read with that way um we did also um adopt the recommendations of the planning board um in terms of the applicability to um state that prior to the issuance of any building per permit or certificate of occupancy for any accessory dwelling unit site plan review and site plan approval for the site plan review committee shall be required pursu to the section so um that is to applies to um all uh accessible dwelling units whether they are attached or detached there was some discussion of that but we adopted um site plan review for all adus um and the Building Commissioner as zoning enforcement officer shall determine whether a unit is an excessive dwelling unit so we adapted that um they we uh adopted the recommendation of the planning board for um changing the description of the scope of review and to be more consistent with the state law and now it would read to revise the provision um to read through site plan review the city May review and impose reasonable terms and conditions on the appearance and layout of a proposed you proposed use of land or structures for an Adu prior to the issuance of a building permit and may consider what reasonable requirements concerning dimensional standards such as dimensional setbacks lock coverage open space bulk height and number of Stories of the structure if any should be imposed on the use so um we uh adopted that recommendation but also inserted the um the the term reasonable before the ter terms and conditions that to clarify for site plan review um and that uh just to make a note that the state requirements um do not allow us to co consider lot size so that was something that was actually eliminated when we eliminated um something in section two but that lot size is not listed in uh in the recommendation ver um for that section um for uh recommendation number six um we did adopt um both those recommendations related to um adding some the word required before open space and then um also making clear that again only 18 AD you shall be allowed on a single lot so we um did adopt that recomendation of sex in terms of um their recommendation s related to six sections 12.3 2.03 0. D5 which are design standards we uh adopted um proposed paragraphs a B and D um and uh we did not adopt their recommendation for C because we thought it was maybe duplicative now and then we did in add in section B to say that um the requirements shall be those required or um you know existing um for the principal dwelling unit so we added the term existing to make clear that um the dimensional control requirements would either be um the ones that apply to the principal dwelling which could be you know two three four multif family U residential and a residential a it could be the single family residential dwelling or the accessible accessory structure in that zoning District um but it could also be um relate to the existing um non-conformant setbacks as well so that was something we um we added in but and we did not ad doop section c which um had a limit on expanding the building's footprint or addition to the existing yellow um building so we did not adopt that um we did adopt the following um recommendations to delete um a reference to the definition of a bus station um in section 12.3 2.03 d6d um because that could change might be um more beneficial to the city if that does change um we did uh adopt the recommendation of submission requirements that um we there was a pretty extensive list of submission requirements in the the proposed draft that was submitted to us um now those very detailed requirements are deleted and now we are just referring people to um title four of the code of city malen ordinances which would uh list what's necessary and um we will um update that as necessary the 10th recommendation related to um the dec timing of the decision under 12.32 point3 um we did adopt that and make the agreement that the um the timing of the decisions uh would have to be done within 14 days of completion of the the the meeting related to site plan review um and then there was some typographical Corrections that we uh also recommend be done as well as um there was a a slight typo correction to the typo graphical Corrections that we did in terms of um that and then finally on 12 um recommendation 12 because we um there's no longer a site plan review process for adus because we're not allowing ones beyond the first one um we recommended and and accepted the recommendation to just delete that section so that's related to all to the planning board recommendations and then we did have some further ones that we did on the uh in terms of section um a SE subsection a which related the composition of the site plan review committee um the the uh rules and ordinance committee recommends that we amend that so that the building commissioner or design shall re place a city counselor as someone who is on that and otherwise um the D director of Public Health the director of oscd or their designes would be the third members and then we also um recommend that um an associate member be appointed by the zoning board of appeals in case of one of the main members cannot serve so um so that is um what an additional recommendation um let's see um keep going here um then um in terms of some of the recommendations that we we did develop last Tuesday we had a couple at least one we had to um uh we did agree um and to keep and recommend that that subsection d d and section four be struck um strike the language of any accessory dwelling unit shall conform to building fire and sanary codes and written proof of compliance shall be provided part of the beginning of site plan review process um though we all want that to happen that is already required under the building fire and sanary code so we thought we did not need to include that in the um uh this regulation so um we don't recommend that language be added let's see and then okay and then um and councel Al's recommendations here do I getting everything here okay that's done all right so then finally um councilor Mali had a couple of motions that were um accepted to recommend so in terms of section two um applicability um we did um adopt language to um say that site plan review is part of the building permit application there shall be no additional fee for the site plan review um and then we also recommend that section four related to um B of the Quorum for the um site plan review committee that um that that be amended to read Quorum of all members of the committee are required to approve approve with conditions or deny an application for site plan approval um unless recused for conflict of interest and that c and new par uh sentence C be added voting by a simple majority a simple majority of the full membership is required to take any action so did I cover that Caroline Is that ah was a long Mee okay good I guess is yeah right so that's all the and oh yes yeah sorry and then councelor McDonald and we did actually make one more I almost just um we did in the proposal um section 4f the committee recommends that we strike language that if the establishment of an accessible DW accessory dwelling unit creates a violation of dimensional controls indoor parking requirements for the principal dwelling e I.E eliminates open space or parking required for the existing dwelling the violation shall require variant so we recommended that be struck so that it be clear that um though that might be considered during the site plan review process we don't want to see people eliminating parking or open space necessarily for the Adu we didn't we wanted to make clear it was not a variance that was necessary that would be considered in site plan review so um so that is the recommendations of the committee thank you Council wi and I will be allowing debate so do not get concerned about debate there will be uh plenty of debate uh where where based on what the would like but is there a motion on this to enroll for purposes of debate technically you're supposed to make a motion in order to debate so on councilor win's motion to enroll as amended by the ordinance committee which accepts in part I'm not going to call I'm not going to call the vote which accepts in part the planning board recommendation as was communicated by paper 5125 seconded by second councelor Lenahan discussion on the motion councelor Crow oh I'm GNA go over to councelor Crow thank you Mr President so I'm in agreement with all the Amendments we made the last one about not having to go for a variance that's a little concerning to me I think you know we kind of talked about that and I voted no for that one because you know for the principal dwelling so why do we have open space or parking requirements and some of those things if someone's going to put in Adu and it really doesn't matter so I feel like there has to be and I understand it that it goes to the site plan review but I feel like it has to have a little more teeth um and May and I think the variance is the right thing to do so if you're not just put up the whole yard and now we have you know the concrete jungle so I do have kind of a problem with that that it's just going to create other issues and so why do we have any of those controls as it is thank you councelor Crow I'm going to go to counselor uh spora on online so councelor SP for thank you Mr President I thank you Mr President I I appreciate the time uh I do want to commend uh the ordinance committee uh and I think the full Council there was a lot of work done here uh and I agree with councelor uh Crow I I will say this I will not be supporting this uh I thought I was going to be doing it but uh I think the last one is going to be a killer uh will say this publicly because I think in in a couple years when this city is uh o inundated uh we can look back and then uh we can I will point fingers to be quite honest with everybody because what what challenges me is we want to sit here and debate on words about affordability let's make this clear to the to the residents there's no affordability component none this is also not an ordinance that is fair throughout the Commonwealth Marin will require no parking spaces where the Richer communities will be able to designate that Marin is already depending on what list you look at number four and number five in density that's only second a sumerville Chelsea Cambridge mden and Everett ironically three of the four on that list are the highest rental properties in the state so we are literally spitting in the wind here with affordability and we're making it worse the other thing is I do like the site plan review but the audacity of this Council sometimes to talk about environmental justice in green space an open space you threw it all out the window threw it all out the window because there's nothing you can do and then we debated too set setting foot uh setbacks from the malen river which was a great idea 100 feet but now you're going to allow somebody to rip up their entire yard and build on it and create heat islands and and and pavement and those residents have no their neighbors have no say and you're making the city more dense affordability not becoming in here I I I put it in my letter yesterday my public I put I'll put my letter publicly too because it's been a long night um there's a lot of other ramifications here there City infrastructure there is there's a potential more school children here we all have a a floored for formula and we know supposedly it's going to get fixed I hold my breath but if if everybody in this room thinks that the ideal scenarios that I've heard are going to happen let's let's do it let's make a deal here as a console we'll do an audit in 5 years from now and see how many are owner are occupied and let's see what the average rent is here because if if they're not owner occupied and the rents continue to go up we failed our community miserably and and the counselors who want to talk about environmental stuff I'll be honest with you every time I hear it I'm voting against it because it's it's it's absolutely ridiculous that you don't even want to hold up open space and green space and then you sit there and say oh we got to worry about the environment nobody in this nobody here cares this this is a game this is a game with the residents and for the and when the wards come in and there's more cars in your street and you got you got a house built on your fence line that people look in you to pool it's not because of this counselor I think having some reasonable expectations to protect the privacy of citizens who live here is not that hard and I can also guarantee you that the the communities around us that have more money will have much better controls than we are that's all I had I will not be supporting this thank you so much thank you councelor sp for for your for your um comments councelor I'm going to go to councelor lenan for the first time thank you Mr President I'll be really brief I think um God knows the community has heard me speak more words on this issue in the last week than we probably all need to hear um I do just want to make clear for ourselves and for the benefit of the community if anybody's still watching after that long delay so we need uh nine votes to enroll this paper a no vote act six votes oh tonight we need six votes to enroll six to enroll nine to ordain or just we I thought we needed a super majority for this papor I'm going to sorry if possible so my I my understanding and and I and I would invite the city planner to to correct me if I'm not correct but because of the uh state law uh we need six votes to enroll if we wanted to suspend the rules which I do not recommend we do you would need nine and then it it throws a lot of complications so I do not think we should try to do this in one night so the that is why we have scheduled a second meeting tomorrow which would be to ordain which would also require six votes we all have also scheduled a meeting on Thursday as a placeholder in case someone reconsiders my goal this is not ideal for anyone but my goal is to make sure that we are not left with no zoning and this could go anywhere so I'll hand it back over to councelor linan is is that correct yes about the amending amending okay okay I'm gonna call after after Council lham finishes her comments I will go to the city planner yes and thank you for that clarification and my point still stands which is that um a a no no vote on this if this the zoning that we've proposed tonight whether we amend it or not if this zoning does not pass tonight we are actually giving our control essentially to the state the state zoning overrides us so the concerns that councilor spatap for and others have identified which just to be clear our committee shares um nobody came in advocating for Paving yards losing open space Etc we actually have less control over that if we don't pass some zoning tonight so I just want to be really clear on that because I think think this is a very imperfect process is highly unusual for us to have guidelines from the state that are this permissive I might even say unprecedented I think it's it's looser than MBTA communities was um the four hours that we spent last week hashing through dimensional controls essentially on Friday the state obliterated and put us back to square one um a lot of the compromises that we had worked out to try to address things like open space things like setbacks livability privacy um we really lost our say in that so um I want to make sure that others have a chance to speak because again I've been talking about this a lot as a member of the committee and as the paper sponsor but I think that it's it's it's not as simple as voting no because we want to keep open space I think it will actually have the opposite desired effect and that what we're going to have to do as a council is actually look at our ordinances to address some of these things in other ways whether it's parking or whatever the other dimensional controls that we can control related to single family zoning we're we're going to have to do that through a separate process because we can't do it through this we can't do the things that we just talked about through this and I'll yield my time thank you councelor Lan I'm going to hand it over to to city planner Romero uh to uh fill in any gaps that we might have uh left but if in the meantime I just need to check with councelor winsell on one thing hi thank you I just I was at the meeting and so I had been making my own notes as well and I I think there was there was um there were two two additions that you made um that I did not hear you read so I just want to make sure they're included um I heard you adopt the different planning wood recommendations but I had um section 12. 32030 D3 under scope of site plan review you added the term word reasonable and I didn't hear you read that in the list this was separate from the planning board also under 1232 030 d5c you added or existing and I didn't hear that read either so I just want to make sure because those were two things you talked a lot about I do appreciate voted on I circled the same things so I I I will I will hand it over to councilor Winslow but I will also say that the let the record reflect that the call of the chair is that um that in section 1232 030 D3 scope of review the the the word reasonable is before terms as reported out by the ordinance committee and that uh in section 12 32030 d5c dimensional controls the words or exist listing appear after required councilor wins right that was my two points thank you yeah no I think it's just good to emphasize those were additions by the rules and ordinance committee to the recommendations of the planning board so yeah th those are ones that the council uh rules and ords committee did recommend so yeah those those certainly um if people did not get that um it's good to we have that clarification that those changes are part of the recommendations thank you thank you h and counc rzo you had your your your light on okay yeah no so um I uh you know I I think I appreciate all the effort of the staff and and of the rules of ordinance committee and and others who came out and our planning board um there was a lot of discussion this past week intensely I mean one of the things that um I think there was a lot of you know trepidation I mean I I think Council Lan mentioned she wasn't on the council when we were doing the Cannabis stuff and that where we had rooms full of people going going through maps and being very particular and a planning board recommendation that the council had to kind of modify and Council sea uh LED some effort to get an overlay as well so um that was a very intense thing but there was there was and a lot of commune input here the committee that came out I mean generally I mean I had several constituents um Mr thong um last night um come out and just explain why they um would like to see um this happen I mean having people who have a family situation where they have young kids and in-laws and they have a lot they think that they could do an Adu so I heard that you know we heard that when the paper was introduced so um so I think that that um is is one of the reasons why I really am favorable to this I think that I'm I'm happy that um we work to um at least create less onerous process for people to apply while still having rigorous standards um I think that in fact though though it seems like we we don't have uh you know the dimensional controls expressly um set out um the like the open space dimensional control basically um will be there um just as it was when the council uh we we recommended those things be in there so I think that um you know unfortunately it's really the the state that that created a little more havoc in terms of um go really making sure that that at least insisting that dimensional controls be um interpreted in the most you know permissive way um but I think that um we um you know we we sticking to the Minal controls we have and I think that site plan review will be a way to help moderate that and I do think that ultimately um this will be beneficial to a lot of people and I think the other thing I know councelor Sim n in our rules and ordinance committee talked about issues of what about um Property Owners um who were absentees and were neglecting and causing um Havoc or whatever we talked about that I I actually had some language I thought we should interject but both the city solicitor and the building inspector emphasized that if someone is in non-compliance with our codes or paying taxes or you know has have fines for trash uh collection um they will not even get to the first step of site plan review so we have processes in place um we do ask that you know people have to report those things um we can't um you know just at the last minute have complaints people have to be active and um in that so I think that's the type of thing that we have uh ways to um make sure that there's limitations and I say that that you know that the fact fact that their their dimensional controls on open space and other type of things will um help moderate and having the site plan review committee um to review every one of these to make sure um and and have the community have the opportunity to provide input and to have some reasonable conditions uh enforced I I think that is the the fairest way to go forward so I am supportive of uh the paper as we've amended it thank you but I'm gonna do it y so um councelor McDonald yeah thank you so much uh council president so I will be supporting this zoning uh change tonight and I want to just remind folks who have perhaps gotten are watching and gotten a little like lost in all the details this one has been a little B confusing but essentially what we're doing here is creating some reasonable guidelines by which um we will comply with the state requirement that accessory dwelling units which is just another living unit Le 900 feet or less can be built in most of the city and that is what the state has required of us is as councelor linahan said if we don't adopt any other guidelines we default to what the state says um so that's pretty straightforward and I do want to recognize that you know while we are rushed here councelor linan had asked about this earlier a couple months ago and and I wish we' been able to be on that timeline and we all would have gone home a little bit earlier I suppose this week but nonetheless I'm really grateful for everybody's hard work to get here um I I know that there's a lot of concern and worry and I think frankly some Scare Tactics being used about this but I will say I think this is good for malen I hear consistently residents do want to be able to add to their properties to for lots of different reasons yes because they may want family members to be able to stay with them but also because they want to be able to have more rental income we have a housing shortage in this country uh and it is extremely acute here in the Boston area and it's a huge problem in Malden and it's pricing people out I wish a lot of things about this process had been a little bit different I wish we could have targeted it based on affordability requirements we're not allowed to do that but I will say it's pretty straightforward also that supply and demand are a lot of what Drive housing costs you look at new housing starts you look at the demand for housing you look at what's available so something that reasonably increases housing Supply that doesn't concentrate that in any one neighborhood or part of the city that spreads it out a little bit um and now with our site plan review that it's required here we do make sure that we're retaining the ability of yes the community and neighbors to make sure that we don't put some that we don't add something that's incredibly disruptive um without any commentary that is yes the way we can talk about Green Space um and that will be and is named as a part of what site plan review will be talking about so it's not accurate to say that that's not happening um so I think that I think people are going to appreciate it I don't know how many will get built I hope some um but I also think that this is this is uh this is overall a positive thing for our city that will that will build our tax base and will be a a net benefit um to every neighborhood in Malden just a couple other things um I really do yeah I care deeply about climate mitigate about climate action uh as folks know and green space is a part of that but so is being able to access Transit and being able to access things that allow you to walk or bike or roll that's incredibly important for folks are aging in place as well so green space is not the only thing that we have to care about and it's not the highest impact thing necessarily um depending on where you are uh so I do think that we have to look at the whole picture about this and and accessory dwelling units are helpful in that regard um I really wanted to make make sure that we have a straightforward process for our residents I think a not an unfair scenario that we've had too many times is that we end up with something that's trying to you know address every possible conception or imagination or worst case scenario and we end up creating something so Byzantine and hard to understand that our residents cannot figure it out and so here you know like the conversation about variances which is a little bit technical but perhaps High highly impactful I really think that we need to air on the side of clarity for our residents and make sure that people understand what is their right and what they can do and I believe we still retain the tools that we need to address concerns that arise um finally I do I do just want to underscore I this point about the need to be paying attention to absentee derel landlords uh we need more Tools in our toolbox this is not the way you you can't address that is a zoning problem it's not a zoning problem as much as is an enforcement problem and a communication problem an accountability problem and so um I've talked to yes councelor simonelli and councelor Taylor and others and I'm really looking forward to digging in and finding ways to have a really co coherent and accurate list of landlords to be able to update rental inspections to incentivize landlords who are doing a great job because plenty are and to really find ways to systematically crack down on those who aren't so that's a commitment that I'm making as I provide my support for this um for this ordinance today is to continue to work with my colleagues on those items um so thank thank you all for your hard work on this and um I look forward to supporting it thank you councelor McDonald councelor SP 4 I see you have your hand raised is would you like to speak yeah I I just I wanted to be clear I mean I I hear the fact there Scare Tactics but let's I want to be very clear there are no dimensional controls with these and part of that is the state and I think every councel here everybody every councel here would probably agree if they made it owner occupi not everybody owner occupied affordable right it would be a slam dunk it'd be a slam dunk right but again let's be very clear this is almost every housing usit in the city can add to it so it's just not the singles and the twos it's the threes and the fours and those are not going to be owner occupied those are going to be business and Commercial and again we build more we're going to build more housing units we're the fourth densest in the state we cannot keep on building this way and then and keep on talking about this standard and this standard there are no standards with these adus there are no dimensional controls that's not a scare tactic that is a fact in fact we had something there that would make it so that we would at least have some say that was taken out that is a fact that is not a scare tactic and this I I understand that people want to walk and bike and do these things I say this all the time drive through the city of Maron and if a counselor up here can tell me that there is not there's not too many cars you're all lying and the idea and I know everybody shakes their head at this right but I'm I'm going on the record because when the neighborhood gets dated I want to see what this Council says because they're going to pass it on because they're not going to be affordable there are no dimensional controls and it's not the singles and the twos and they can build up so somebody who has a nice yard right now and is a pool is going to lose their privacy that's what's going to happen and it's not just this board's fault it's the state I know that but it's not a scare tactic if the facts bother people the facts bother people we've lost control thank thank you councelor spora I'm going to go to counselor linan for the second time oh oh sorry councelor uh councelor sea for the first time thank you I thought you forgot about me sorry I just uh want to go on the record uh saying that along with Council as spatap for and Council Crow I do not agree with the removal of the variants for the principal dwelling not the Adu we have been given legal legal advice by KP law that states of variance is allowable however this is not a large enough issue issue for us to risk having absolutely no zoning in place this coming Sunday this is something that we can always revisit in the future it's not something that we're uh hands are tied at this very moment um so I will be supporting this even though I do not agree with this variance but I rather support this and know that it's going to pass that we have some sort of a zoning in place for this Sunday February 2nd then let the state do whatever they want with us having absolutely nothing so thank you thank you councelor sea councelor cologne hay is for the first time thank you thank you council president um yeah I just want to thank this has been a grueling process but um I have to say it was one of the most um impressive ones like we we've gone through four-hour meetings last week two of them maybe um today uh in our um committee meeting and painstakingly went through every single requirement to try and make no mistake we tried our hardest to preserve what we could regarding open space dimensional controls setbacks Green Space um everything that we care about in the city um voting no will be a big mistake uh because if this doesn't pass it will be much worse um so of course I'm in support of it the this will also help our current residents um although it does it mandate affordability you know the simple process of supply and demand hopefully the more Apartments we get out here the lower um costs we'll get uh but in any case we all know that there is a housing crisis that is there is no mistaking that that is a fact and we're doing the best we can here to work with the um State mandate and again voting no here is not a good idea uh because come February 2nd people can just do whatever they want so I in full support of this thank you thank you councelor clone Hayes councelor lenan for the second time thank you and this will this will be my last um comment I really just wanted to appreciate and underscore what some of my colleagues have said I think that this is not an easy situation for all of us to be in and I think it's just important to underline that we are trying to do the best we can for our residents a lot of what councelor McDonald said took the words right out of my mouth I mean these are there are long-standing issues that we're trying to address through this we don't necessarily have as much control as we might like to have as we if we had crafted this ourselves probably it would look a little bit different um but I do also want to not lose track of the fact that speaking personally anyways I get asked about this I always have from residents um and you know I think people it's easy to say Well the West End has a lot of big houses and everybody wants to chop them up or put in a a granny flat inside there's a lot of very small and a lot of multif family in the West End as well um there's a housing mix like there is across a lot of the city and what I find folks asking about is again multigenerational living or they've got a child that's graduated from college and looking to move home for a couple of years before they try to enter the housing market themselves of course it's not going to be all um you know our retired grandparents and adult children trying to move back home it is an income opportunity the way that it's written you know we're not up here naive to that fact um but there is also a large segment of the community that genuinely does see this as something that will help them to adapt the home that they already live in for the long term and I think that it's important to keep those folks in mind and for those folks I think what we've done here is really thoughtfully crafted a predictable process um again the state you know kind of did a lot of the work for us in a lot of ways some of the things that we were really tussling on about lot size and height and setbacks it's just simple it there is there's there's not a lot of tinkering to be done with that so for folks that I know I'm looking to Nelson our building commission I know there are folks that are waiting and ready to go and we're going to see them on Monday morning that they've been working with an architect to come up with plans they're going to be here and this zoning is going to be what guides their process and what they will encounter thanks to the hard work of our city staff and our ordinance committee is a non-political body that's going to guide them through the process we have intentionally taken counselors out of that process so you have City staff who are going to undergo again a predictable site plan review process to address all of the things that we are able to address you know if I think about my own property and what existing accessory uh you know sheds and garages are on the properties around me yeah it is kind of scary to think about somebody going up two or three stories and looking in your yard I think that's a concern we've heard over and over um but again we've crafted a process where those concerns can be elevated a Butters can engage in that residents can come and understand what they need to do to be successful and to respect their neighbors and then again you know we've seen in other cities this process already exists and has been very successful Salem and Boston both very dense very architecturally similar cities to us have had this for several years Boston has a fantastic resident guide book that walks you through the process I know that's something we agreed we'd like to work towards of course it's going to take a lot of time um but there is precedent this is working well in other places and just my final point to just to reiterate if we do have problems with parking or if we are finding you know a lot of properties are coming in that are that are pre-existing non-conforming we do have the tools to look at that if our zoning is mismatched to what the built environment looks like you know our planning board brought this up last night is that something that maybe we need to reexamine we absolutely can do that if we want to we can tackle parking we can address the affordability by finding ways to more consistently and predictably fund our affordable housing trust there's just lots of tools that we have that we can look to as a Next Step that I would encourage all of us to think about to mitigate some of the impacts and some of the fears that are being expressed here so that we can focus on the good aspects of this because I really do think that for a lot of people this is going to be a game Cher for Aging in place and for providing solutions for their children when they're launching and are not yet ready to enter the Home Market um so that's all I have to say I'm I know this has been a tough tough process but I think that this is as best as we can get it and I want to thank everyone for all their hard work thank you councelor lenan councelor Crow for the first time second time oh sorry the um so and I I agree with all of the things and hopefully the people that do do these um adus are doing it for the right reasons but we know all the absentee Lew that's where we we're probably going to see it but I still think that if we're going to use some of the tools that we can use as councila said that we got um you know some some guidance that you know we can have a variance you know they have them go for the the primary delling so I would make a motion that we add that back in if it's something that we can do so it's under General number F the establishment of the access accessory dwelling unit creates a violation of dimensional controls parking requirements of the principal dwelling that they have to go for a variance I'll second thank you very thank you very much so we do have um so just to clarify process so everyone's clear we have a motion on the floor um we have a motion to amend in in consultation with um our our um city clerk uh what what I what I'm going to do is I'm going to take up the Amendments so so the first amendment that I'll be taking up is the the committee report amendment that we talked about rather than going straight to enrolling uh and then I will take up the amendment that that you're discussing um I do want to say before we start taking the votes um that everyone all of all of the counselors have been respectful and and honest when it came to this uh and it's very you know contentious we all have different competing priorities we all have different um things in terms of what we think is in the best interest of the community um but y all have really engaged with integrity and I just want to say thank you really from the chair um so I will be uh taking up uh councelor Winslow's um motion to amend the uh paper to reflect the committee report recommendation which accepts in part the planning board recommendation which was seconded by councelor linahan on that is there any more debate on that particular Amendment the clerk will call the role councel clone Hayes yes councelor Crow yes councel linahan yes councel McDonald Council sea Council spora one second coun I'm sorry I'm sorry no I had on mute apologize so you're voting no to amend correct thank you councelor Taylor councelor Winslow yes council president Al yes okay so the paper has been amended based on ordinance and planning board recommendations on councelor Crow's motion seconded by councelor seika to amend by reinserting 4 F the clerk will call the role councilor clone Hayes yes Council Crow yes Council linahan no council McDonald no councel sea yes councelor spora yes councelor Taylor yes Council Winslow Council uh council president Ali no so one two three four one two three four five so that passes so the paper was amended by reinserting the variance uh counselor uh cologne ha has uh misunderstood the the the vote I'm going to uh I'm gonna vote uh take counselor uh cologne Hayes's would you like to explain yourself or can you do that yeah she's yeah I mean she didn't understand the vote vot a reconsideration I could reconsider or we could just change it here to be honest with you I it's been a long night yeah we all should I know it's happened reconsiderations happen all the time how did you want to vote you wanted to vote yeah um v a yes vote a yes vote would add the variance provision back into the into the ordinance a no vote would keep it based on how we just amended it from committee a no vote would keep it what came out of the committee corre correct okay no that's what I meant to do whether or not it's like you can decide that but that is what I'm yes the ruling from the chair yeah no it's been we can all uh agree it theight has been crazy so whether or not it's that I'm just telling you that whether or not it goes thank you councelor Colones the the ruling of the chair is that councelor colon Hayes has changed her vote from yes to no is it would anyone like to doubt the ruling of the chair that would be how you resolve this matter understood so that failed is there a a motion to enroll as amended motion to enroll on councelor Winslow's motion to enroll is there a second I'll second seconded by councelor Lenahan the clerk will call the role Council clone Hayes yes Council Crow yes Council linahan yes councelor McDonald Council sea yes Council SP no councel Taylor councel Winslow council president Al yes okay so that has it been enrolled that paper was enrolled by a vote of um 8 to One 8 to one and just for for clarity's sake again uh tomorrow night Wednesday uh January 26 the city council will meet meeting at 7M for the purposes of ordaining that zoning ordinance we encourage you all to attend uh we will be Distributing a final version of what we just Ana enrolled so everyone is very clear if anyone has any issues tomorrow would be the day to take them up if for some reason anyone decides to reconsider any of the votes that we've taken we will also be having a placeholder meeting for this coming Thursday the 27th at 7 p.m. if no one reconsiders that meeting will get cancelled but I really want to avoid a circumstance where we have no zoning and the state uh regulations are the are the are the sailing so next order of business paper 53-2 committee report the standing committee on rules and ordinance in a joint session with finance committee to whom was referred papers 32 and 33 series of 2025 having considered the same the following report joint committees unanimously recommend both papers out favorably to the full Council on Council wisel's motion to accept the committee report is there a second second second by councelor linahan all in favor the cler will call the rooll councelor Clone Hayes yes councelor Crow yes Council linahan Council McDonald councila Council spora yes Council Taylor yes Council Winslow yes council president Ali yes and the first paper is 32-25 it is ordained 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 on Council Winslow's motion to enroll the ordinance is there a second second seconded by councelor Crow the clerk will call the role Council colone Hayes Council Crow yes Council linahan Council McDonald Council sea Council spaur yes Council Taylor councelor Winslow yes council president Ali yes so that paper has been R next order of business paper 33-25 order that the sum of $50,000 be in the same is hereby transferred from salary Reserve to library salaries on councelor McDonald's motion to oh councelor McDonald for the paper that would help okay I I'm I'm on right y okay um so we went through our joint rules and ordinance meeting and um discussed the uh the appropriation here which will apply to um the updated salary schedule um for this contract that also includes uh it is retroactive to July one of this year and so it covers uh the the marginal additional costs of the new contract for um for this fiscal year thank you on councelor McDonald's motion to adopt the order is z second seconded by councelor cologne Hayes the clerk will call the role Council clone Hayes yes Council Crow yes Council linan yes Council McDonald yes Council sea Council spora yes councelor Taylor Council Winslow yes council president Ali yes that order has been adopted next order of business paper 54-25 committee report the standing committee on license to whom was referred papers 4 20 through 27 and 37-44 series of 2025 having been considered the same make the following report on C seek se's motion to receive the committee report is there a second second by councelor Crow the cler will call the role Council colone Hayes yes councilor Crow Council linahan yes councel McDonald Council sea councel spora yes councel Taylor Council Winslow yes council president Ali yes uh councelor sea for the committee thank you could the um clerk please read all of these petitions um together but really quickly I have one correction on paper 4425 petition Class 2 Sega Auto Sales and Service 449 fer Street it needs to say 451 fer Street and it's not 19 cuz it's 10 everything else looks great everything else was okay great thank you paper 4-25 Amusement machines Townline 10 pin Corp 665 Broadway 25 machines paper 20-25 Class 2 top C Motor Group Inc 259 Main Street Malden 30 cars renewal paper 21-25 extended hours plan of Fitness 795 e a hours open 24 hours Monday 12:00 a.m. to Friday 9:00 p.m. renewal paper 22-24 Livery company Bella Luxury Transportation 19 Mount Vernon Street one vehicle renewal paper 23-25 Livery Drive Michael checka 19 Mount Vernon Street Renewal Paper 24-25 liery Company kashan T deita 411 Salem Street 1 vehicle renewal paper 2525 Livery driver Kahan deita 411 Salem Street Renewal paper 26-25 Livery company jml luxury 500 Broadway apartment 5158 two vehicles renewal paper 27-25 Livery driver Joel Lopez 500 Broadway 5158 apartment number renewal Paper 37-25 liery Company AB limo services incorporated 51 to 53 Claremont Street one vehicle renewal paper 38-25 Livery driver abam baruk 51-53 clamon Street Renewal Paper 39-25 liery Company Ruby Lin Transportation LLC 259 Mountain Avenue one vehicle renewal paper 40-25 Livery Drive Al Linda Del aono 259 Mountain Avenue renewal paper 41-25 taxi company Malden trans Inc 290 Eastern Avenue 10 cabs renewal paper 42-25 Class 2 Franks Auto Sales 189 Highland Avenue five cars renewal paper 43-25 Class 2 Joe Champa Auto Body Inc 322 Eastern Avenue for cars renewal paper 44-25 Class 2 Sega Auto Sales and Service 451 Ferry Street 10 cars renewal thank you that was a lot you need to take a drink I do so over the course of the past two weeks the license committee met um and discussed all these petitions we had compliance in there were no issues or concerns for any of these petitions and all of them were voted out unanimously by the license committee so I make a motion to Grant all these petitions on councelor Sea's motion to Grant the petition seconded by uh councelor clone Hayes the clerk will call the role councel clone Hayes yes Council Crow yes councelor linahan yes councel McDonald councel sea yes councel spor yes councelor Taylor yes councel Winslow yes council president Ali yes all those papers have been granted personal privilege the docket is clear would anyone like Personal Privilege oh me please since my lights on councelor sea perfect sorry um okay so I have one quick thing um that the golden tornadoes Club had asked me to remind everybody they're having a little trouble with their ticket sales for their comedy night that is scheduled for Wednesday February 12th at Prince Pizza it's $40 a ticket um and it is includes Pizza soda and a show it's right in the giggles um and it benefits uh Malden golden tornadoes Club so if you can attend that would be great if not if you could at least buy a ticket to help their sales that would be amazing uh and I think that's all that I have what's what's the next dates coming yeah no I think that's it thank you not that anybody's watching anymore anyway thank thank you councelor SAA councelor Winslow all right yeah um so Maplewood Square we're going to have very vinyl Valentine um on Saturday February 15th from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. at Patrick's Pub so this is if you have any old or new vinyl records you can bring them out and uh take a spin and so we'll have a little music a little fun a little food so um you can go to um uh the Patrick's Pub on that night it's $10 to uh to come in and join in to that so um all to benefit the Maplewood association's beautification fund so going to get some flowers in the in the springtime so so here we go but uh yeah let me know if you need anything so great thanks thank you councelor Winslow councelor Taylor thank you um just want to let people know tomorrow night right here at City Hall at 6:30 W five is having a small meeting to talk about upcoming events for the year and how you can volunteer and get involved our first big one is going to be in April on the 27th and we're going to be doing a community cleanout so a w five yard sale um hopefully you can come grab some recycle some stuff from your neighbors um and there'll be more information about that so 6:30 and room 105 here if you'd like to do any volunteering in Ward five thank you councelor Taylor councelor colog thank you um I almost forgot it's been such a long time I'm um frazzled that that the the Martin Luther King Day event was actually just this um this past Monday the day but we had our event on Saturday it feels like months ago like so much has happened but I just wanted to thank everyone who came out all the counselors who helped and donated towards it it was a fantastic event um the keynote speaker was just phenomenal um our team worked really hard and um we were excited about that uh we do realize and apologize to the Chinese Culture Connection we didn't realize it was on the same day but we did have it later so people could go there and then come you know come to our event so next year we're definitely going to make sure that that doesn't happen um and we hope to see you all then thank you thank you very much is there a motion to adjourn motion to on councelor Crow's motion to adjourn seconded by councelor sea the clerk will oh councelor spor did you want a personal privilege at all no absolutely clone ha yes Council Crow Council Lan Council McDonald Council sea Council spora yes councel Taylor yes Council Winslow yes council president Ali yes we are adjourned we are adjourned thank you at 942