good evening and welcome to the April 7th meeting of the appointment subcommittee will you all rise and salute the flag please i pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much madame clerk will you please call the role roll call of the members councelor Go Saya here here councelor Hass absent councelor Harammo here here
councelor Nasellki here here and council McKenna here here are four Mr president uh we have three appointments today on tonight's agenda first being that of uh Shai Shy Husani to the human rights
commission hi Shame can are you here can you come up please to the podium uh is it what is it shea shea okay can you um just press the button so you can have the mic hello hi Shea how are you i'm good sorry I I didn't pronounce your
name right um so you're getting um selected to the uh Human Rights Commission could you tell me a little bit about yourself and why you're um you're interested in this position um yes of course so um I'm actually going up for reappointment into this
commission i've been um a part of this commission since its reestablishment in 2020 um I have served as the vice chair for the first three years and then um for the um for the past two up until now I have been elected as chair and
reelected as chair for the 2025 2024 2025 um year uh ever since I started this ever since I got appointed to the commission my duty was to bring issues are happening
in our city to to light to the rest of the um to the committee members and then figure out different ways of how to solve those problems especially going through community engagement which is something that we have done and incorporated over the past um two years especially with the circle practices we
like to en encourage community engagement because that's the only way that we know how to handle a lot of the issues that are happening in our city especially when it comes to um racial and ethnic equities or inequities that are found in the city of River thank you very much i'm going to open it up to councils any
counselors councelor Heramino thank you Madam Chair uh Shame I'm so glad that u the mayor has uh chosen to reappoint you to this commission and I think it's a testament to the work that you've been doing and especially the last few maybe year or so you've been
leading the commission uh you're doing a really great job i I got the a chance to take a look at the documentary that uh the team put together um over I think it was in the fall and it was really well done really intentional um and I want to continue to encourage those practices
here in the city as we kind of make an assessment of how we make our city more available for everybody so really appreciate the work that you've been doing and I I hope that my colleagues will join in uh approving this appointment reappoint
thank you any other counselors councelor Noelsowski thank you Madam Chair uh Chamber thank you for everything you've done you know I know she's a constituent of mine living down on Beach Street in 525 and
um I thank you for all the work you've done and all the folks that you connected with and it's just amazing that you've continued it and nothing has diminished some from anybody to to diminish what you've done and I think
it's uh important to keep it up and I thank you and I look forward to voting for you tonight thank you thank you councelor councelor H thank you Madam Chair chamber thanks so much for being here um a lot of residents reach out and ask what exactly the human rights
commission is um I've got a lot of questions and um I know you guys you talked a little bit about it here tonight have can you talk a little bit about the strides the city has made the last few years especially during your time as the chairperson thank you
so one thing that we decided that we were brainstorming about doing in the past in the first couple of years was how are we going to like the only way we're going to solve a lot of the issues in our city is if we hear directly from the community and have the community be
involved more in making these decisions of we know as a human rights commission that we inherently don't have an executive or a legislative power but our job is to bring that information to you folks in order to make those in order to
make those um strategic um choices so we know that the human rights commission is only somewhat representative of what the city of River is so we knew that the next step is to have more community engagement and that's when we started talking about that's why I brought up
the um the idea of circle practice i believe our first circle practice was just with the human right human rights commission just to see like how is it going to work with city hall how is it like how are these conversations supposed to go and then over the years especially the last one that we um the one that we did two years ago and the
last one that we did um back in November um in regards to Indigenous People's Day we saw we heard opinions from people that aren't found in the Human Rights Commission you um if you understand what I'm trying to say so I heard from
community members um uh I heard from different community members and I heard from different sides of the story and that led us to opening a conversation about a topic that people don't like to actively talk about when it comes to the city and that's just that's just a step
if we could do we if we could have more engaging conversations like Indigenous People's Day um in regards to Italian heritage month um in regards to city reversal topics that isn't only limited to the people of the human rights commission but actively involves people
of the community so that's that is like a first step and that step is a fundamental step which is why we're taking so long to make that first step strong before we move on to the other step which means are we actively going out into the community are we doing all
these things to have so that not only is the community coming to us are we going to the community themselves so one are we able to uh build that foundation in our own selves to to be open to have those conversations and then from there are we vulnerable enough to hear the opinions
that let's be honest some of us don't want to hear but we should be hearing in order to have in order to make uh decisive and strategic uh choices so that's that's basically it i knew going into it it's going to be a very long
process to see active changes because it's not a sprint it's a marathon i feel like everyone in this committee knows that and um in this in this committee knows that and that my steps forward is to keep pushing people to come to our
meetings to have our members actively come to our meetings to have our members um speak their minds because if there isn't a level of honesty within the commission then there isn't enough honesty coming from the community and then we won't have we won't have that
level of fluidity between the two groups um another thing is that one thing that I made sure especially with the integration of um the community members with the circle practice itself I don't like the idea of having a barrier just
like here where the um you know community members are here and the people who are elected are over here i rather have I like the plan is to have almost every meeting when it's necessary to have um to be built in a circle format so that there isn't a barrier
between us and the community so I know it's like when it when it comes to the long run it sounds so trivial but it's it's these are the very small important things that we need to do in order to build that morale with the community before we start talking about you know
citywide projects citywide programs things that we would propose to you folks in order to make active changes in the city um but we can't get to that step before making that first step happen so yes thank you great well said thank you thank you very much thank you
um we'll continue to do a good job for this city and um all in favor all oppose so ordered thank you very much for coming up thank you very much commission next appointment is that of Lark Logan to the cultural council
lock can you come up please and just state your name and address for the record please and just turn on the mic um good afternoon evening my name is Lark Logan and um I just recently brought a property at 10 Ocean Avenue so
congratulations i'm a new resident of River can you tell us a little bit about yourself and why you want to be on the cultural uh council please um well I first came to Boston in 1972 i'm a New Yorker from New York City on Long Island
came here hello long Island okay um came here for Tus University in 72 fell in love with Boston and um I've lived here off and on for 30 years my radio career started
here at WL and Kiss 108 and Oh thank you if you stayed up late then you heard me but um those uh that experience and also growing up in New York I'm very very passionate about the arts i have a background in theater a background in
music um I was a national representative for our high school forensics league in in debate and public speaking and uh I've managed bands i've written proposals for uh bands going on tour things of that nature so now that I have
set roots in River I've noticed Revier has changed tremendously from when I first knew about it in 1972 i love the diversity that's come here um I love I I went to the performance of
Greece the other day and was totally blown away by the kids and that's something I'm passionate about i'd like to I'm not sure what the cultural council would like from me i just have a lot I think I can bring to the table i'd like to work with the kids with theater
possibly getting workshops using some Emerson faculty um working with maybe developing um the experience of doing some television uh maybe even having a radio um program things that you know I
can mentor and and be involved with um I'd love to see a community theater here in River um I'm a big supporter of that and um maybe down the line this beautiful beach i wish we had a hatshell you know
to do theater and music so I mean I don't know the politics of River because I've only been here a few months um but I put roots here and I really would like to be involved with the community and I especially love working with high school
kids so um I have a lot I can bring to the table someone just needs to direct and tell me where my talents can go and I'm there great thank you thank you you're welcome i used to go to Skippy Whites to get my records from when
listening to W oh because no one else would uh had them so I used to go to Skippy Whites in Roxberry just to get them awesome crazy wonderful any counselors council Garina SA thank you thank you
thank you thank you for coming to the city of Rivier you are a breath of fresh air i am so excited i can't wait to work with you well thank you and whatever you need from me I'm right there well I'm going to write your name down you write my name down i promise you that i will
just say this i'm really excited and that play The Kids with Greece it was amazing and it I I just I want to be involved with it great so thank you do a good job for the city all
in favor all opposed so ordered congratulations thank you and next up is the appointment of Sheila Johnson to the Human Rights Commission hi Sheila could you just state your name and address for the record please sheila
Johnson 98 Ridge Road thank you very much can you tell me a little bit about yourself and why you want to be on the human rights commission i just want to be part of it i just want to be part involved i've been standing on the sideline i've been in River over 20 years raised my family here my grandkids
come visit i see the changes in the diversity and I talk to my neighbors i have a dog so of course you see everyone and I see our city going in a great direction and I want to be involved in that i want to learn as much as I can
and be part of the city great thank you any counselors well I say do a good job for the city and uh we're going to All in favor all opposed so ordered congratulations thank you and this is uh
there's no further business uh this concludes the April 7th appointment subcommittee meeting the zoning subcommittee meeting is up next thank you welcome to the zoning subcommittee of April 7th 2025 all rise and salute the
flag please i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all
madame clerk roll call of the zoning subcommittee members councelor Aenzio here here councelor Go Slaya here here councelor Haramio is absent councelor Novaski here here and chairman Zamutoo here here quorum is present one item on tonight's
agenda and there's a special permit request to raise the existing non-conforming structure and construct a five-story mixeduse development consisting of uh 50 two residential units and two commercial units at 114 Shirley Avenue
name and address Mr attorney mr chairman members of the subcommittee attorney Joseph Ktogio one sprag street review representing the applicant uh who's making this presentation initially for a special permit application um one small correction I know the initial
application had a 52 unit uh building being uh proposed we're actually amended that to a 50 unit building with 48 residential two uh commercial or retail units on the first floor um this application was initially presented to
site plan review who made uh the the requirement that we apply for the special permit and along with it some initial recommendations on uh some amendments to the plan uh we uh incorporated those amendments into the plans that were submitted to the city
council um and uh at the direction of the city council was directed here uh to the zoning subcommittee and in the interim uh site plan review uh updated their list of requirements and on March 27th I believe presented um to this
board and to the council a list of recommendations and requirements for uh the construction uh should this uh uh the council approve uh we reviewed and accepted uh those proposals we would be more than happy to incorporate each of
them into the uh into the proposal u we have our engineer our architect here to answer any uh specific construction questions which are beyond my capability um but we hope to be able to address any questions concerns you have um and look
uh forward to a positive uh uh an approval of the application thank you thank you we went over this obviously after the public hearing uh any other uh let I'll call it proponents even though it's not proponents anybody else want to
uh speak in favor of this or against it or whatever name and address please lou McCarthy thank you Mr chairman just um quickly I just wanted to let everybody know that this has been the culmination of over a year of working not only with
the local counselor um I was happy to be part of the initial resurgence of Shirley a when this counselor came and asked for the right developer we took the synagogue and turned it into the 30 units of veterans preference housing
first of its kind and when the previous administration wanted outdoor seating that's what we gave them when they wanted a police substation on the first floor that's what we gave them so when the sellers came to me in this
particular property and said that we spent 20 years seven days a week we're done we'd like you to get the right developer and clean up the site didn't have to look too far we have another local developer had the
community meeting try to get the input although it's far from perfect I think that it's another piece to the puzzle for the resurgence of Shirley thanks Mr chairman thank you Mr mccaragus anybody
else i guess we go to councilors council Novaski thank you Mr chairman mr chairman uh we had a community meeting uh to let everybody know what was going on and uh we had we had five or six local
neighbors uh and four or five of them were in total favor of it one the media butter had an issue but you know we that's something that they'll have to deal with um I do have some questions on the site
plan review report and I don't know if the uh the uh architect or the engineer could answer some question whether or not these things are legit uh on item number one we've had a landscaping plan including perimeter stockade fence at
least six foot in height the planting of six-foot evergreens as buffer between the project site and the abuing residential property can one of the uh either the architect or the uh engineer come to the podium please thanks guys um and and basically the
question is is there enough room from the building to the uh property lines to put in all these trees i'm not sure i don't I don't remember if there was enough room i know we I think we gave them 5
ft as part of the uh variance i'm just curious to see if there's enough room to put those trees in there sure so u Thank you Mr chairman for the record my name is Rick Salvo with Engineering Alliance um what's here is is the site plan here you might recall the
building on the um westerly side used to be right up to the property line that's since been pulled back is about 2 and 1/2 ft off that property line there and there's a notch out in the front uh to allow for the transformer to be located there so there could be plantings put in
that area there's plenty of room along this back property line for plantings and along this whole property line for plantings as well i I just want to make sure there's enough room for the planters you know the plants to be put in and still safely and still exist with
only you know two feet in this case yeah and two and a half feet i mean we could get you know a row of arborites or something in there that could create sort of a green wall um on that side okay and the uh the other question is on item number six about the planting of
six trees on Shirley A in front of the building i know we've always had an issue there because of the underground uh power power that goes from the the uh light for the lighting on Shirley and uh
I it was always been expressed to me that there may be a problem planting trees because of that underground uh trough that's there so I just want to make sure I don't mind the trees being there i just want to make sure it doesn't interfere with anything yeah correct i remember when we had the um
Cycl Review you actually brought that point up when um when Cycl Review mentioned the idea of putting street trees um along Shirley A there um but I think what we what we're willing to do is work see if we can work around the electrical maybe there's some
opportunity to get some maybe not trees but planters if it's the in the backside against the building or get the trees in there if we can work around the electrical ducts yeah actually I think planters may be along Shirley aside maybe better nicel looking planters uh
instead of the actual tree itself yeah we could do the same well same size well like a 3x8 well which should leave enough room for that sidewalk cuz it's it's a wider sidewalk there and be able to put some planters right up against the building and then not interfere with the um with electrical those electrical
conduits usually about 30 in deep so if we did some shallow shrub shrubbery type planting then they should be able to coexist without problem and that that was one of my concerns and the last item I had was uh in item number 11 about uh parking
uh in the back i I don't remember how many spaces we were going to nine parking spaces nine well and the site plan review is requiring you to put in two parking spaces for zip cars and also and that includes power
for those yeah what we would probably do we have um we have two uh a hand two handicap spaces um right here rest of these ahead in there's two parallel spaces here it would make sense to make those two parallel spaces the zip car space okay so that takes care of four
spaces so that leaves you with five spaces left over um are you going to provide a couple for the retail spaces that are going to be in the first floor retail you have the retail they're for the retail they'll be dedicated to the
retail the other the other five the other five but none of them none of them will be for the residents because Yeah cuz the way it was worded here was about the leaseold agreements and the number of off- streetet parking spaces which they can't get you know because of no permits but I was just concerned about
you know some of it was kind of leaning towards some of the tenants but it it's not absolutely no tenant parking back there okay other than that Mr chairman uh you know I'm good with this and uh I think uh the uh the developer has made
an offer because I know there was some talk about affordable housing and um I did talk to him this afternoon if Joe if it's uh okay for me to say something at this point okay um he did offer you know he couldn't the bank wouldn't let him uh
put any affordable housing into the units because of the amount of money that's being put into the building uh but he did make an offer to uh put in $20,000 towards the affordable housing trust fund so which I I think is a good
move well that's that's generous of him but I I don't think we make that part of the special permit i No it's an offer that he's making and I think we I think I think this this committee ought to accept it
Mr chair mr attorney how do you want to again it was it was discussed and presented um it's not something we were looking as far as a precedent goes for you know for any other developers we were you know just uh uh looking to address a concern
um so it it's made it's presented uh if it's not part of the the special permit we'll obviously still stand by it but it doesn't need to be That's great a condition we will comply all right we don't have much time we got to continue councelor Armell thank you Mr chair mr
chair um so I know they made this offer to contribute to the affordable housing trust fund um I do have some concerns right so for the past year or so the committee uh this council has not approved any property without at least
one unit at 85% of AMI now for the viewers at home 80% of AMI in the city of River is 91,20030 if a renter is going to pay 30% of their rent on that amount of money that's
$27,000360 27,360 divided by 12 months this is for one person you're talking about a rent of $2,280 now I bring that to this point because we're talking about 50 units in the
city's mo like most dense workforce uh population and the developer has mentioned that they're going to do 20,000 you don't want to put it in the permit and there's some talk about arts
an arts something something but there's no plans before us and so what is the developer actually offering to the working people which we could barely say that someone that makes $91,000 as a
single person is truly really struggling and they are and so I just have I do have that question and I'd like to know how are we going to address the affordably cris affordability crisis that it's pricing out our professionals from city hall that are having to move to the
south because they can't afford now I really appreciate the calls that I've gotten the folks that are involved in this product project are good people but I do worry that we're missing the mark on the workforce housing here and
$20,000 doesn't even cover at 30 at 80% of AMI doesn't even cover one year's rent for one person so I do call the question on that Mr chair and I move that the $20,000 be added to the special permit and I'll ask
for a roll call on that what is the exact language $20,000 so $20,000 that it be added to the special permit that $20,000 be given from the developer to the Riviera affordable housing trust fund thank you Mr chairman i'm just afraid
that this is going to set a precedent i I think it's going to set a precedent and we don't I mean if he offered to give it to us and he promised to give the $20,000 why don't we just take it at that instead of trying
to start a precedent that everyone's going to say well you know this is what they did and we're not going to put in the affordable housing units because I can just give you $20,000 at some point i don't know thank you councelor councelor Ginger oh I'm sorry
i thought you had M i was going to call you Mr president i can't do that not going to get mad you never lose the title though uh Anthony Cogandro 105 Newman Street River W 3 city councelor it's not that I don't agree with what you're
saying i want to help as many people as we can but to put this in a special permit to councelor Garino SA's point is going to set a very dangerous precedent who are we as a body to tell a developer how much money they have to give on the side to the affordable trust fund we we
should not be in the business of doing that thank you Councelor Jenzio thank you Mr president uh could you speak a little bit more about the space or the meeting space that was supposed to be provided for the um public arts commission i know
somebody spoke here last week and was looking forward to that is that just a gentleman's agreement or is at this point it is but we were um there are two retail or commercial spaces that are on the the first floor um we were
approached by uh the the gentleman from the arts committee i'm sorry who was it brian brian um and we were receptive to his to his approach and and would be willing to work with him we haven't finalized anything at this point i would
I would love to be able tell you that we did um but we are open to it we know that it is something that he was very passionate about um we if that is something that uh we can work out as a positive for this project then uh we look forward to doing that is is there
some sort of a community room in there or something where would if that did come to fruition honestly we're not sure he would be he would be better uh to speak on how he would use or that uh committee or program would use that space he talked a lot about um using it
as a basis but actually having a lot of programs outdoors um in the beach area you know close by to that uh to the unit and I know Shirley A is is tight um but he uh uh working out of that area he was looking forward to making presentations
on the beach on the the uh open areas uh in that area um and again we we thought it was a a wonderful idea and and would uh be happy to work um with him but he would probably be uh better available to speak on that
thank you all set uh Council Novaski thank you Mr uh Chairman um in regards to the retail spaces right now they're open for anybody to rent okay in in a case like this with the Arts Commission that's something that uh Brian would
have to work with the mayor to set up a uh an RFP actually to rent space you know at in private in private property so that's you know it's only talk it's only his request and you know
if uh you know it's down the road you know he's still talking two you know two years down the road before he they moved in but you know he's looking for something now even to utilize for the on Shirley which there is one potential space but it's really small
but right now it's open it's an open door for them to uh rent to whomever they want mr mccakus thank you Mr chairman yeah the discussion we had at the community meeting um the issue is the funding u
the developer was open to that he felt that the arts and cultural district since we are a diverse community and surely have would be the perfect place but I do believe Joke made that commitment that provided they had the funding it would be similar to what we
did with the police substation there was a like an RFP that went out and they ended up there but I think it's more the issue is with the funding of that arts and and cultural commission they would probably offer a discount rate but he made that commitment okay great thank
you mr so we you want to speak again or you want Yeah I just have a question about the same thing i have a follow-up question on this arts oh go ahead uh I just like to know is there is there a vehicle for
sustainable funding for this arts commission or committee space um because if there isn't right now then I I do want to call the question as to how do we expect um that this space is actually going to be something that's going to be used for
the community uh if we don't have a vehicle for sustainable funding and so we have the chairman of the arts commission here hi Joan McKenna and I am the chairman of the arts committee we don't have any money i mean we have zero
in the in the bank so I don't know how we were going to get get the funding or if the city would fund it but I mean where we have a new high school uh and we where we have to pay rent I don't think this is going to happen i you know
I hate to uh uh you know put a negative deal on this but uh for especially for Brian because he's been working so hard on this but we don't have we don't have a bank account so thank you Madam Chair thanks for your honesty
okay so now what's on the table is uh Council Arlo has a proposal to put this in the special permit some of us want that some of us don't so we're going to have a roll call as to whether or not it's going to
withdraw my motion you withdraw okay thank you so that's withdrawn um so on the special permit with the conditions that the clerk is reading of the conditions I will wave the reading of the conditions uh they're certainly part
of the record and they've been agreed to by the developer and the team so uh want to call the role shall the zoning subcommittee offer a favor or recommendation to the city council to grant the relief requested subject to the conditions of site plan review
councelor Aenzio yes yes council Garino SA yes yes councelor Jammo no no councelor Novaski yes yes and Chairman Zambo yes yes the special permit will be forwarded to the full city council this evening with a favorable recommendation
no further business uh that's ends the zoning subcommittee for April 7 2025 thank you all for intending good evening and welcome to the April 7th meeting of the Economic Development
Subcommittee meeting all rise to salute the flag please i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all
madame clerk will you please call the role roll call of the economic development subcommittee councelor Arenzio councelor Jenzio excuse me yes here councelor Hass here here councelor Harmo
here here councelor Nasellki here here and chairwoman Go SA here here a quorum is present there's one item on tonight's agenda and it's a communication from the chief of planning and comm relative to the conveyance of certain tax title properties to the
affordable housing trust fund board of trustees state your name and address please good evening counselors tom Skowski 281 Broadway i'm here tonight to talk about um the conveyance of five parcels um to the affordable housing trust fund these
are parcels that were taken by the city for non-payment of taxes um a long time ago over a decade in some cases and um have been on the the city's ownership for quite some time and through a review
from our legal council um they had determined that these could be sites that could be utilized for um the production of single family affordable home ownership opportunities um that being said I will say each of the sites
comes with some significant constraints and in many cases it might not even be likely or possible that development could actually take place on those sites so um the language as we had written it is uh conveying these properties either
for the production of affordable housing on site or to through the sale of that property utilizing the proceeds of the sale perhaps to a sideyard a butter or um that would probably be the other most
likely interest somebody who is a neighbor buys the property to expand their yard or to expand create parking um in those cases where development is impossible then the proceeds from that sale would also go to the affordable housing trust so happy to talk about
each of the individual parcels with you all um and pros cons and challenges within each of them and take any questions as you have them council Novaski Green oh here we go um thank you Madam
Chair uh Tom and I have had uh discussions on uh item number three on Hitchpoint Street and uh as of last week you know I I knew there was a u there's an easement
a city easement going through a utility easement going through the property which you know probably takes up about 10 ft from the property line uh into the space and I'm not for any construction
on that piece of land you know the building would be very very small i don't mind selling it i know the a butter is willing to bid on it you know if it when it go if it goes out for an RFP or when it goes out for an RFP but I would still say it's an unbuildable lot
and I I think uh we ought to uh vote to make it that that it's an unbuildable lot i don't know about the other four lots but I'm not happy about building on this small piece of property and I would just add upon further review our legal
council stated it was buildable we had a initial review by our city planner deeming that it's buildable but after talking with our city engineer and the the nature of the easements beneath um and the impracticality of relocating them I agree with you um this should be
sold to one of the abutters on either side still is an RFP process correct yeah because there's two abuters um one one is a private owner and the other one is a group owner from Mass Mass
Health I believe it is so they just built a new building on on the property next door so I don't know if they'd want that to expand their property but I know the individual owner for uh 140 uh Hitchborn Street is willing to buy it if
the other folks don't want to buy it so he's willing to put a bid in for it uh as an unbuildable lot thank you Council Jenziel thank you very much thank you Mr skrosski do any of these properties meet our zoning to build a
single family yes and no um they they they all um meet it through some fashion so uh the state highway um parcel would um would meet it
through the undersized lot provision um and only if you consider State Road as the frontage not Butler or Eustace which is the the additional frontage it has um the Northshore rear property would need
an NOI and likely an order of conditions from the conservation commission and again would be one of those pre-qualified undersized lots um Glendale and Bay Road would both need a special permit from the ZBA uh for the development of an undersized lot and
similarly given their proximity to wetlands would need uh conservation commission action so what all of these are complicated there's a reason they've been in city hands for a while the intent here would be frankly we've sold a couple of these through auction in the
past where we just sort of buyer beware if you will um here we're actually going to be working with a realtor who will work and come to a development agreement with with a prospective buyer but not close on that agreement until they've actually worked through the steps so
we're working to make sure that it's actually um a lot that could be developable in some fashion thank you very much i'm all set anyone else anyone any counselors council has thank you Madam Chair tom I
know you said this has happened a few times in the past um was that a handful of times that maybe 15 times um it's auctions of tax title properties happen quite often in municipal government i think what we're doing here in terms of
doing an RFP and walking through the process I'm not sure if we've ever done this before i've done it before in another community but auctions happen quite often thank you Council Novaski thank you Madam Chair
uh you know being on the council for so long we have done this in the past and uh you know it has worked in some cases you know some people just bought it as an abuing property you know to utilize either putting a garage on it or uh you know using it for additional parking for
the the home whether it's a multi- family home and it gets cars off the street so but I would make I would move that once we do this that that property on Hitchbborne Street uh be slated as an
unbuildable lot and make that as part of the motion and so uh people know that when it goes out to bid they can't build a a private home on it you know if they wanted to put a garage on it that's something that they and depending on the sideyard and rear yard they'd have to go
through ZBA to do that as part of their own prop property so uh you know when I say non-buildable you know I'd say a garage would be acceptable but not a a a family home thank you
request to speak from the chair thank you um I understand where you're coming from Council Novaski um most of the properties here that are we're speaking about are in Ward Five um and I was was doing some thinking
about it and if people want to take those properties purchase those properties and add more parking or add more um build more on their land i think it would be
fantastic or the best part of it is by giving ownership of these properties to the board we're giving them a chance to actually turn empty lots into real homes for people that can't afford to buy an actual home so for example we can bring
more lowincome housing for a smaller lot and people can maybe afford to live in the city of Rivier who normally cannot afford to live there so if they can be if they are buildable I would say yes to letting the people purchase it
um so for for the low income but it I think it's a step in the right direction but I think we need to do a little bit more investigating on it to see if they are actually completely buildable or what type of permits that are going to be needed and stuff like that but um I I
don't know how the board feels i would like to leave this in committee i don't know if you how everyone feels so could we leave it in committee ashley of course yes okay whatever the whatever the committee members decide
all in favor all oppose leave it in committee so I just have a question uh this is just to convey it to the affordable housing trust fund so at that point it will be determined if they're
buildable if they can be built on if they're going to be sold to the abutters correct so So that determination won't come till the future um councelor Jen if if you don't mind threw you to the counselor madam Chair
the um what Thomas you know and he's explaining excellently but I speak council so I'm still fluent um ultimately we we can't just sell these off to anyone we can't have the neighbor come and say "I'll give you $20,000 we want it to use for extra driveway space." It has to go out to through a
public RFP process and a bidding process each parcel can be purchased now there's no guarantees but what the the the general hopes are outside of there is one that we we identified as completely unbuildable because of the easement is the hopes is that a
qualified bidder or biders many biders uh will purchase these properties and be able to build we will give we will hope to help them attain variances this would be through a typical variance process to build an affordable home ownership opportunity so let's just say a lot was
3,800 square foot it was short of 200 square feet not totally uncommon in the city of Riviera to build a single family house sometimes even a multif family house u but in order for us to grant that variance you will have to build it and sell it at an affordable rate to a rea homeowner there's no opportunity in
the city like this right now and there hasn't been ever uh so by us taking control and having a little bit of le uh giving the potential builder because the city doesn't build we always talk about building we we don't build homes um I'm not a very good builder i don't know about any of you but we just don't do
that so by offering it to an af a builder that would do it affordably and then sell it affordably what we deem affordable through through our affordable housing trust that is the win-winwin for everybody to a a rea resident that's what we're hoping to happen if like the like uh the the
position in Ward one I'm sorry W two pardon me um is not buildable and maybe it's worth a fake number i'm going to use $100,000 we can then take that $100,000 reinvest it into the affordable housing trust to again continue to offer
affordable opportunities to the to residents of Revier that's the other part so they may not be available there's no guarantees that's kind of a buyer beware and then they'll have to do their due diligence just like you would if you were buying any other parcel you'll have to do your due diligence um
like uh Tom mentioned some of them may need may need variances we're not giving any variances out with the purchase we may help And that would be with the the the the support of the council and and other uh if they have to go through special permit but that may be another
incentive to build affordable we will not help i'm going to make it clear we will not help if it is not for an affordable home ownership i state that again because home ownership and rental are two totally different things ownership takes you out of that cycle rental doesn't not that I I'm
discounting rental there's plenty of need for that too but that's what we're hoping to do is to really spark home ownership opportunities for residents of REI thank you clear so Madam Chair I don't see any reason to leave it in committee i This
sounds like a a great program and you know I'd like to see it move forward madam Chair if I may can thank you for the leaning leadway um the the only issue I see you know is a big picture is
that when you advertise something as a buildable lot and then they find out that it's not a buildable lot now I'm not talking about my lot i'm just talking about even the other four lots you know we have to determine whether it really is buildable or not and you know that that kind of ups the
price you know if it's buildable the price goes up if it's not buildable the price goes down right so our intent through the RFP process versus just a traditional auction where you you bid the dollar amount it's yours the recommendation from the legal council in
this instance was actually to come to terms on an agreement for proposed development but actually walk through with basically in partnership with the developer so we don't close on that deal until it's actually shown to be
developable so in those instances where it is shown not to be at the end of the day like in yours in this case we know and we wouldn't market it as such in the other cases there might be opportunities we're not sure yet that would be borne out in the process
working in partnership with whomever submits the winning proposal if I may Madam Chair um you you just hit a a point that you know auction rather than RFP so why wouldn't you auction off the property on
Hitchborn Street rather than put out an RFP i I think you could as long as I I think what we would have to work out the mechanics of is how that money would then get transferred over to the affordable housing trust because the what the language is here in
the council would be to take it away from the tax title custodian who does those auctions and put it into the hands of the trust and I understand that's that's a an issue that the city has to make a move on you know to transfer it from whatever monies they get to put it into that account and I that's
acceptable but you know whether it goes an RFP or an auction is a big issue for me because why should my guy have to go through or my neighbor have to go through an RFP and everybody else has to go through an auction so you stay across the board with everything and if you're
going to have an auction have an auction at each location whoever shows up bids on it and and that's it so I think this is the only one I would recommend an auction if we were to pursue it at all but it we'd have to work out the mechanics i think the
others there's virtues to the RFP model um that are worth sticking with because of the various conditions that make it complicated thank you Madam Chair what is the committee's will
um I would say we could do a favorable recommendation minus the Hitchbborne property is that Council Noelski i don't know if we do minus i'd still we still want to get rid of the property you know or move the property on but so you know I would say
that uh make to specify that one as unbuildable right away you know I don't mind going specify it as unbuildable i we certainly can and I I think you can do an RFP that's a pretty light lift for a project like that we'll be asking more
of a developer if they're looking to actually build here it is what do you want to do written description what do you want to pay and then we'll we'll get the the various proposals in and can evaluate it on its merits i think the challenge is once you get into auctions you need an auctioneer and all that
stuff and I think we'd want to keep it RFP but I I think we can capture the spirit of what you're asking thank you thank you Madam Clerk can you do a roll call please for favorable recommend yes yes shall the economic development subcommittee offer a favorable
recommendation to the full city council to convey the following parcels to the affordable housing trust fund state Highway parcel ID 16238-1 Northshore Road Rear Parcel ID 13-192U1-1 Hitchborn Street Lot 41
parcel ID 8-127-13 Glendale Street lots 137 138 and 139 parcel IDs 11-18 A1-6-7 and8 and Bay Road lots 88 88 A and
89A parcel ID 10-187 C-37 councelor Aenzio yes yes yes here we go councelor Aenzio voting yes councelor Hass yes yes councelor
Harmo yes yes councelor Novasellski yes yes and Chairwoman Gino SA yes yes the conveyance of those tax title properties to affordable housing trust fund has received a favorable recommendation there's no further business chairwoman seeing that there's no further business
this concludes the April 7th economic development subcommittee meeting thank you [Music]