ORDER-2022-47 : Appointment of Brian Gregory, 146 W. Wyoming Avenue, to the Planning Board for the remainder of a five-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2025.

Transcript (~11 min @ 27:38)

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▶ 27:32 Speaker 1: speaker with their digital hand or check mark by their name okay uh seeing no members of the public

▶ 27:38 Mark Garipay: looking to speak and if there are no objections i will move with you uh unanimous consent to close public comment comment is is now closed tonight we have one order on our agenda it is order number 2022-47 which is the appointment of brian gregory 146 west wyoming ave to the planning board for the the remainder of a five-year term, said term to expire on the last day of February 2025. At this time, I'll entertain a motion to suspend the rules so we can hear from Mr. Mayor and the candidate.

▶ 28:22 Robb Stewart: Mr. Chair, I will make a motion to suspend the rules.

▶ 28:25 Speaker 2: Second.

▶ 28:26 Mark Garipay: Motion to suspend the rules was made by Councillor Stewart, seconded by Councillor Grigoraitis. Mr. Clerk, can you please call the roll?

▶ 28:37 Speaker 1: Chair Garipay. Yes. Vice Chair Stewart. Yes. Councillor McNaught.

▶ 28:45 Speaker 1: Yes. Councillor Grigoraitis.

▶ 28:50 Speaker 1: Yes. Councillor Thomas. Yes. And President Cinella. Yes. That's 6 yes.

▶ 28:58 Mark Garipay: Thank you. Mr. Clerk, can we bring in the candidate and Mayor Broder if they're available?

▶ 29:13 Paul Brodeur: Absolutely, thank you. Mr. chairman. Thank you to the members of the committee. I'm very excited to bring forward. Mr. Gregory's name for your consideration if you've had an opportunity to look at his resume and his cover letter. I think you will pretty quickly see there is nothing that he hasn't done. Related to the work of the planning board and land use. He has been involved in. um municipal zoning he's been involved in big development projects he's been involved in one unit residential and so what we're really doing is we're we have the opportunity to bring on board uh the outstanding um architect by training and and um and planner by by application by professional experience, and meld that with an enthusiasm for this community. He chose to move here and can tell you a little bit about that. He's a little bit biased because he's a neighbor on West Wyoming and a proud Ward 3 member. And what comes through, again, is his incredible level of technical expertise and his long-standing record, though he's a young guy, of not just being a professional, but also giving back in whatever community he has been in. Again, it has reflected both in his resume and the enthusiasm that comes through very strongly in his letter of interest. Very excited, as I said before, to nominate him for your consideration. And I believe you will be excited and we'll be very supportive you have an opportunity to hear from the candidate so thank you as always for your consideration

▶ 31:06 Mark Garipay: thank you mr mayor um mr gregory if uh if you'd like to make a statement um i'll turn the floor over to you and then after some of the councils may have some questions so the floor is yours

▶ 31:18 Speaker 8: fantastic well thank you so much and uh thank you mayor broder for those kind words and uh the counselors for entertaining my candidacy to join the melrose planning board uh as the mayor mentioned i i moved here gosh it's probably about three and a half years ago after a relatively exhaustive hunt for uh sort of that perfect community and i just my wife and i really fell in love with melrose as you mentioned my background is in architecture but uh i professionally have primarily practiced as an urban designer and so the things that were really important to my wife and i a walkable community access to green space a vibrant downtown that was intact a beautiful housing stock access to public transit all these really desirable qualities and we just sort of found everything we were looking for here and haven't been happier so i would really love to be able to give back to that community that's welcoming with open arms my wife and i over the last three and a half years uh everything we've done from porch fest to walking around el pond and just it's just amazing and and really uh i personally have always had a strong conviction for trying to get involved in the communities i've lived with prior to melrose i lived in east boston for for 10 years and had the opportunity to be on the neighborhood council and to um to participate on the board of a community development corporation so i've really had a wonderful opportunity across my career to see both housing and planning and design and development from many different facets and i think sometimes i feel like a jack of all trades In that way, but I think it's given me a really holistic view of of the different facets and all the different unique tensions that come to bear on development and and the sort of different priorities that are all competing. Uh, sometimes to with the end goal, always trying to create the best community. And so it's something I'm really passionate about. It's something I would really like to contribute back to the community. It's something, as the mayor mentioned, it's sort of in my wheelhouse and I think it behooves us all, of course, to donate our time to those around us and to the communities where we're a part of. And I would love the opportunity to do that on the planning board.

▶ 33:36 Mark Garipay: Thank you, Mr. Gregory. Does any councilors have any questions for the candidate? Councilor Stewart, the floor is yours.

▶ 33:44 Robb Stewart: Thank you, Mr. Chair. And Mr. Chair, through your chair, I just wanted to say a couple of words about Mr. Gregory. Mr. Gregory, great to see you submitting this, and I think you're just gonna be an outstanding addition to the planning board. Mr. Chair, I've gotten to know Mr. Gregory, who lives right around the corner from me, and his wife, Jen, have just joined the community with open arms, all around great guy. I think he's true to his convictions. His resume and his background speaks for himself, so I'm looking forward to supporting this when it comes to Fulbright. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you, Mr. Gregory. Thank you.

▶ 34:32 Mark Garipay: Any other Councilors have any questions? Councilor Greger-Ryder?

▶ 34:37 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Gregory, for being here and for another illustrious Ward 3 resident to be joining us tonight. I will echo Councilor Stewart’s comments about how impressive your resume is. What I'm most intrigued with is your sort of personal mission statement at the top about how you're an architect by training, but an urban planner in practice. And I think that's really a critical lens for a community as dense as Melrose. You know, we're only a few square miles and I really think we have to think about how projects impact one another and, you know, we are really at a critical junction in the Metro Boston area around housing. I was Had an opportunity to hear the secretary of housing and economic development speak last week at the chamber of commerce and he talked about the housing. Crisis in Metro Boston, so I would love to hear your thoughts on how. Melrose works to do our part and how you would see your role in the planning board being a part of that.

▶ 35:33 Speaker 8: Sure, certainly yes, there's an incredible housing issue in the greater Metro Boston area. I think. Melrose Melrose is actually, I think the 14th densest community. So, in some senses, Melrose Melrose has sort of stepped up and done part of its part for that. But of course, there's more that we could do. I think the primary opportunities to leverage the transit connections that Melrose has building around transit areas as much higher likelihood that the residents there will be able to count on those transit amenities and not necessarily add cars to the road. And traffic is always a concern for existing residents. I know people don't always believe that if you build it around a T station, people will use it in that way. But I think that there's plenty of evidence from organizations like, and others that that is indeed the case. And I think that. The, um, the last, uh, planning document that the city did is the real sort of, um. Guiding document that we could use in this, because it does identify both the cluster around Oak Grove, which is. The majority of it is developed, but there are still opportunities. Obviously, this is the 1 building under constructions where the furniture company used to be. So that area is still continues to to sort of find its footing. But I think it's a, it's an amazing example of a different housing typology. That's allowed. More people at different phases of their lives, and maybe at different socioeconomic levels to participate in our community. Um, the area where perhaps there's still a lot of potential to include. Sorry, increase the amount of housing and density in the neighborhood is the, um, the transit quarter that sort of been identified along the commuter rail. Obviously, Melrose being served by the 3 stations and so I know there was, um, there's a zoning overlay district for that. And I would imagine that. Is where if we were going to produce more housing, it would be important to produce that. I think. The trick in that some senses is always to balance that because I. I think you always, or there's a potential to run the risk to be a complete bedroom community with no businesses. And so any of the businesses along that corridor, they employ people that's livelihood. So we don't want to displace that. But I think there are certain. businesses that may naturally phase out or if there are sort of transitions in a family and ownership that those are the parcels that could be most easily sort of leveraged in a way that would be sustainable for the community both from an environmental and from a traffic standard.

▶ 37:59 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you and I appreciate your acknowledgement that we want to build housing across the lifespan. I think that's particularly critical in this community as we want both our young people and our older residents to feel like they can be here. I think there's no harder working group from the planning board so thank you for stepping up and i would motion to recommend

▶ 38:21 Mark Garipay: thank you second motion to recommend by council of Grigoraitis seconded by councillor stewart

▶ 38:30 Speaker 9: on discussion mr clark will you please call the role

▶ 38:35 Speaker 1: yes vice chair stewart yes councillor mcmott yes councillor Grigoraitis yes

▶ 38:46 Speaker 1: Councillor Thomas? Yes. And President Selle? Yeah.

▶ 38:51 Mark Garipay: We have 6 yes. The order will get sent to the full council with the recommendation for passage. Mr. Gregory, you do not need to attend the next meeting. My understanding is it will be brought up at the next full council meeting, which will be December. I believe 6th, Monday, December 6th, so that's when it'll be the final vote will be taken.