Public Comment

Transcript (~8 min @ 0:43)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 0:00 Jen Grigoraitis: Good evening. It's lovely to be back in person with all of you. Today is Monday, March 14th, 2022, and the time is 7 p.m. This is a meeting of the Appropriations and Oversight Committee. I am Councilor Grigoraitis, the chair. Joining me tonight are Vice Chair Migliorelli and Councilors McMaster, Eccles, Garipay, Jamaleddine, Stewart, Karamcheti, Williams, and President Cinella, ex officio. I just want to note for the record that Councilor Obremski had a work conflict tonight. this provides notice of the quorum for the record in accordance with the open meeting law this meeting is being recorded and broadcast on MMTV as well as live streamed on the MMTV website and will be available for future viewing through the city of Melrose's meetings portal at this time I would entertain a

▶ 0:52 Jen Grigoraitis: motion to open public comment so we have a motion open public comment made by President Sinella seconded by Councillor Eccles all in favor aye the motion carries so public comment is now open this is the portion of our meeting where any member of the public which wishing to speak to any item on our agenda may do so good evening Ms. Katz can you please state your name and address for the record I am Ellen Connolly Connolly my apologies and I

▶ 1:16 Speaker 1: live at uh 7 Union Street in Melrose I come before you to speak in support of the proposed housing

▶ 1:32 Speaker 1: production plan. This comprehensive plan was put together by a notable group of housing advocates and interested members of our community. It is a well thought out proposal that deserves your support. Thank you to Denise Gaffey and the entire development team for all the work that went in to this proposal and there was substantial work in review. I am a member of the Melrose Affordable Housing Corporation and chairperson of the Melrose Housing Authority. While I have had a long-term professional career in economic development and housing, I speak to you tonight on my personal behalf. Melrose seems to be a wealthy community, but 36% of our population is considered low income. Many residents are seniors living alone. We want to support this population, especially those seniors living on fixed incomes. In fact, about 1,500 residents are seniors living alone. Many are struggling to remain in their homes or living in senior housing.

▶ 2:57 Speaker 1: This plan works to support these often long-term residents to stay in Melrose. Melrose Housing Authority assists 550 households, supporting 873 residents through its public housing buildings and its rental assistance programs. For our seniors, there are about 1,000 residents trying to stay in Melrose on their own. At the Housing Authority, we see an acute shortage of units outside of our high-rise buildings at the Steele House and McCarthy House. We also see an acute need for units for non-elder disabled people. These people are often the forgotten neighbors that we don't have enough units of housing to support. This plan also highlighted that we have a substantial rental unit inventory. Almost 4,000 units are renter occupied. Both the Housing Authority and the Affordable Housing Corporation support this rental market. The rental market has extremely low vacancy rates and the costs of renting are rising substantially. This plan seeks to address both of these needs. therefore i urge the city council to vote in favor of this plan thank you for your support

▶ 4:53 Jen Grigoraitis: and your work thank you for joining us are there any members wishing to speak remotely there are

▶ 5:04 Speaker 2: mr mcsweeney can you hear us

▶ 5:10 Speaker 3: i am here speaking on behalf of the millrose ed bike committee to endorse the passage of the housing production plan this plan is comprehensive and data rich it serves as a worthy guide for illuminating the many strategies we have before us for creating and protecting affordable units while also diversifying the city's housing stock we urge the council to pass it so that mellows can accelerate its work on the subject which is clearly of great community interest our committee cares about the subject because we believe our city's housing policies directly affect our built environment larger lot sizes more parking lots and greater distances between amenities create less walkable communities we should ensure that our zoning and our policies and guidelines discourage them further walking and biking are simply the most affordable ways to get around melrose in a community where one in three households are housing cost burdened this matters deeply we must provide safe affordable housing for more lower income residents we must ensure they have access to safe and affordable transportation as well in our letter to the council we called attention to two areas of the plan we feel are critical the first is placing the community preservation act on the ballot legislation enabling the cpa was passed in massachusetts over two decades ago melrose is now in the minority of cities and towns which have chosen not to adopt it to date the state's trust fund has paid out over 800 million dollars for amongst other things the creation of affordable housing units almost 10 000 new affordable units have been created with this funding and another 15 000 supported melrose has forgone over 1 million dollars in state matching funds which could have been used for for these purposes. The CPA can be passed so as to fully exempt low income individuals and households, including seniors from having to pay a single cent more in taxes. 50% of the respondents to the housing production plan survey all the CPA a high priority and a clear majority of respondents support its passage. As the plan makes clear, there is simply no better source of consistent funding available to us. encourage the council to put this question before the city's voters the second is proactively closing the gap on two-family and multi-family zoning in 2020 the state legislature passed an economic development package which made several changes to the state's zoning act these changes were designed to make it easier to build new housing and they allow for the city council to pass certain zoning amendments by a simple majority rather than the two-thirds vote historically required the council could pass numerous plan recommendations via simple majority for example allowance of accessory dwelling units allowance of more different types of housing in more areas of the city and a reduction in required off-street parking spaces so as to allow for more housing units on a given lot these changes put special responsibilities on communities like melrose which have access to mbta service so-called mbta communities must meet specific thresholds for multi-family zoning around transit stations we urge the council to work with the planning board to update the public on whether or not our current zoning is compliant and if necessary to use the housing production plan as a tool to prioritize any zoning changes necessary to bring us into compliance we thank the council for their time and consideration and our members look forward to continuing to engage with the council and the planning board on these issues of critical importance thank you very much for your time thank you for joining us

▶ 8:52 Jen Grigoraitis: is there anyone else wishing to speak in public comment okay seeing none i'll entertain a motion to close public comment motion to close public comment second so we have a motion to close public comment made by president snell seconded by vice chairman gliorelli all in favor hi hi okay the motion carries moving on to our agenda the first matter before us tonight is order 2022-78 acceptance of the fy 22 firefighter safety equipment grant awarded to the melrose fire department by the commonwealth of massachusetts department of fire services in the amount of eighteen thousand nine hundred and one dollars and eighty cents and i believe chief kalina is here to speak to us just chief before you begin may i have a motion to suspend rule 37b so we can hear from the chief so moved so we have a motion to suspend rule 37b made by