Public Comment

Transcript (~7 min @ 17:22)

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

▶ 16:53 Jeff McNaught: Pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12, 2020, order suspending certain provisions of the Open Meeting Law, and the Governor's March 15th, 2020 order imposing strict limitations on the number of people that may gather in one place. This meeting with the Legal and Legislative Committee will be conducted by a remote participation. We will post an audio or video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City of Morrow's website and on MMTV3.org. At this time, I will entertain a motion to open the floor for public comment, public comment.

▶ 17:37 Jeff McNaught: 2nd, I should open the 4th, public comment by culture. Seconded by council.

▶ 17:45 Speaker 1: Chairman not yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Council. Yes. President Grigoraitis.

▶ 18:01 Jeff McNaught: And do we have anyone in the queue wishing to speak this evening?

▶ 18:04 Speaker 1: I am looking if anyone in the room would like to speak to any of the items on legal legislative agenda. I know you and I had talked about a couple of people want to talk and I believe 1 of them is Jim Tierney. Do I see in here? Let me just yeah, I'm going to make. Unmute Mr. Tierney. Okay, thank you.

▶ 18:27 Speaker 1: Mr. Tierney. Good evening. Tan, it sounds like you can hear me as well.

▶ 18:32 Jeff McNaught: We can hear you Mr. Tierney and the floor is yours, sir. Terrific, thank you and thank you all for your

▶ 18:35 Speaker 7: service and for your time. I'll be brief. I wanted to speak tonight on this topic of establishing affordable housing trust because I think it's really important that this community and this Council continue to do its part in addressing the affordable housing problem not just in Melrose but in our region I work in the commercial real estate industry I've got a background in public administration as well and so I know full well there's no one solution to the affordable housing problem here in eastern Massachusetts but without one single solution what we really need to do is use all the tools at our disposal and that's why I'm really pleased to see this on the agenda today to create an affordable housing trust uh for our city because it can be a very effective tool to help bring greater affordability to families in melrose and other households in melrose who need it i don't suspect this is particularly controversial uh matter because it'd be hard to spend uh some of the funds that we have without creating this trust but i still wanted to take a couple moments for two main reasons to advocate for its passage out of committee tonight uh one of those is because i think it's uh just really an important continuation of the momentum um that started with the adoption of the affordable housing incentive program of course the payments that are made in lieu of building affordable units and new developments have been collected and while i know that those payments don't amount to enough to uh develop massive uh projects of any sort uh there's still some creative things that other communities have done that Melrose may wish to emulate and even innovate some new things that can help households in Melrose one at a time and make a difference. And secondly, I think it's really important because as I mentioned, this is a regional issue and it's truly important that every community does its part. I'm really pleased to see Melrose continuing to continue momentum with actions like this. Again, every household that can benefit from this makes a difference in our city. So I thank you for your consideration of the proposal tonight uh and for the opportunity to speak and most of all appreciate your continued commitment to address uh affordable housing in our community

▶ 20:49 Jeff McNaught: thank you very much thank you mr tierney and madam clerk i do see the other person

▶ 20:59 Speaker 1: who had emailed in in the room yep dana i'm gonna so dana can you hear us they don't have

▶ 21:07 Jeff McNaught: have their virtual hand up but they're they're definitely in the queue can you

▶ 21:12 Speaker 3: hear can you hear me now yes that's my sorry my you unmuted me but my headphones were still muted and you'd think we would be past this phase of virtual meetings but we're not so thank you so much for giving me some time I really appreciate it and I will probably echo many of the same comments as the gentleman who preceded me in his comments but my name is Dana Lewenter I I live at twenty one brig street. I am the director of municipal engagement for citizens, housing and planning association, which is a statewide affordable housing advocacy organization. Um, I want to thank you for for both taking this up tonight and for giving me the time to speak and I did send some written comments. So I won't take too much of your time, but I will reiterate several of the things that I pointed out in my email, which is, you know, that. I'm really proud of the efforts that Melrose has made so far, the work that we've been doing here in Melrose to meet the needs of our community, becoming a housing choice community, changing our inclusionary zoning calculations. These are all things that will create more opportunity for people to live here. People who already live here, seniors, families, our local employees, all need housing. and I don't need to tell you all how unaffordable it is to live in Melrose or anywhere else in the region. But more importantly, I think the creation of a trust is such a critical piece of the work that we're doing. One, it was called for in the Melrose Forward Plan back in 2017, so it's an effort that just builds on the vision that this community created to move forward in meeting those needs. And also it's a really flexible tool. It allows us to do so many different things. We have money available, and this just really is a mechanism that allows us to operationalize those goals that we've set out in Melrose Forward and that you all have set out as a council. Some really great ideas that we could do include a buy-down program to help first-time home buyers, some direct rental assistance to keep people in their homes. We could increase affordability in newer developments to make sure that they are accessible to people. And I think all of this is critical because we are a community that wants to be welcoming to people of all ages and incomes and the trust enables us to do that. I have direct experience running a trust in Somerville in a past role and I've worked with municipalities all over the Commonwealth. Over 100 communities already have a trust in Massachusetts and I think that we would be in good company here in Melrose adopting one as well. So I'm just excited to see this move forward allow us to really um set forth the the vision that we that we um planned in the in the melrose forward plan and i'm um happy to see you all taking this up tonight thank you so much for

▶ 24:09 Jeff McNaught: your support of this thank you miss loiter do we have anyone else uh with a virtual hand up

▶ 24:15 Speaker 1: wishing to speak in public comment no anybody else you could raise your hand i do not see we have 25 attendees i do not see

▶ 24:31 Jeff McNaught: nope okay public comment second motion to close public comment by councillor sanella uh seconded by council mcglurelli madam clerk will you please call the role chair mcnaught yes

▶ 24:40 Speaker 1: yes councillor sanella yes councillor eccles yes council mcglurelli yes president Grigoraitis