ORDER-2019-16 : Acceptance of Community Mitigation Funds, Encore Boston Harbor (Wynn) Casino

Transcript (~16 min @ 5:30)

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▶ 5:12 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: motion to close public participation by alderman mortimer seconded by alderman Boisselle all in favor aye aye any opposed public comment is now closed we'll move to the first item on our agenda this evening which is order 2019-16 acceptance of community mitigation funds on core boston harbor

▶ 5:32 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: wind casino we do have mr shenninger the director of dpw if anyone would like second we have a motion to spend the rules made by alderman Tramontozzi seconded by alderman mortimer all in favor any opposed we are now under suspension of rules we have mr shena joining us at the table

▶ 5:51 Speaker 2: good evening good evening everyone would you like to address the order before we go to questions

▶ 5:55 Speaker 3: sure i can give a brief summary of it the this order is in conjunction with the encore boston harbor formerly wind casino project that comes through the massachusetts gaming commission during the acceptance of and the issuance of that permit mitigation funds were were set aside for communities that could um could show that the project created a hardship and the former administration did that because the their current plan their prior plan is still their current plan is to offer shuttle service from the orange line for their employees they're encouraging their employees to travel to the casino through the orange line and the last stop on the orange lines oak grove which abuts melrose um it's a small piece of funding compared to some of the

▶ 6:50 Speaker 3: mitigation funds that the casino is is distributing and the gaming commission is is distributing on behalf of the casino to neighboring communities but it is something and what better way to to implement those funds in melrose than to look at the corridor leading into oak grove the pedestrian corridor along pleasant street and washington street we with these funds will use stantec traffic consultant to look at ada accessible ramps crosswalk locations existing and proposed we also want to look at bus stops accident records up and down this corridor it's all of pleasant street that we'll study washington street from pleasant to the station and then a piece of wyoming from main street to cottage and that's where the buses where the bus route typically is and that's a lot of what the traffic pattern that we see during commute hours it's about two and a half miles of road all together that the consultant will look at as part of it once we have completed the study we actually started some of this this grant was It was awarded in February under the prior administration. And it took us a little while to bring it before the board for final acceptance. We did a little bit of work over the summer in terms of traffic analysis. We wanted to see what that summer period brought. But the consultant will be back out in the fall to look at this corridor once again. Once we have a final study, there'll be recommendations. We will try to leverage the balance of the funds. It's $100,000 that have been set aside for us, $26,000 for the study. And then the balance will go towards implementing the recommendations. Some of the recommendations may not cost anything. Some of the recommendations may be bring the MBTA in and maybe there's a shift of bus stops that's required that could help things. Some could be part of our spring traffic marking program. could be part of ongoing construction at um it's taking place at ashmont for instance so i i know that this corridor has the residents along this corridor and commuters in general that use it have always sought improvements to pedestrian bicycle accommodations in this area it blends in well with the complete street program i had an email correspondence with all them minnesota and you know why this corridor not main street well main street was already part of the complete street program when we were applying for this at the same time and with pleasant street on washington street we felt we could directly connect melrose to the station if you go main street we're relying on the state to finish banks place because the mbta owns a portion of that um but like i said with coordination with the mbta their complete street program handling the main street piece of this corridor we thought this would be a nice nice project to run in parallel that's kind of an overview of what it is thank you alderman Tramontozzi uh thank you madam chair

▶ 10:18 John N. Tramontozzi: uh mr schenner is these this community mitigation fund grant uh require any matching fund from the

▶ 10:31 John N. Tramontozzi: city no no uh is there um the total amount that we get is a hundred thousand correct and there are other cities and towns that uh also um get are part of this program you got other funds yeah

▶ 10:44 John N. Tramontozzi: there's communities that are getting who determine the amount that each of the cities this is all

▶ 10:50 John N. Tramontozzi: under the control of the gaming commission okay is this uh a one-time grant or is that is it one time one time is there restrictions on what the funds can be used for and such as you mentioned a lot of what appears to be uh transportation type of issues are there are the restrictions on the use

▶ 11:06 Speaker 3: of the funds yeah yeah there's a lengthy there's a lengthy agreement that comes with the funds but basically we applied to mitigate the hardship and the hardship that we argued was you're telling people use the orange line where the community right next to the orange line people have to get to the orange line that was the hardship that we argued and we were awarded a hundred thousand dollars to study that uh with a certified consultant and then start to make some of

▶ 11:39 John N. Tramontozzi: the improvements you said some of the improvements may not cost any any um any funds um if what What happens with the funds if we don't use it?

▶ 11:46 Speaker 3: We'll use all of it.

▶ 11:47 John N. Tramontozzi: Otherwise we would have to be returned to the-

▶ 11:51 Speaker 3: Yeah, there'll be new handicap crossing areas recommended, I'm certain of, with this. Just knowing the corridor, the $100,000 was a number that we could easily justify even without a study. No question, I think we could use it. Yeah, that was a number that we felt very comfortable with. there will be more recommendations that then this program alone can implement i that's almost certain but just like complete streets there's the complete street project and the complete street program because police streets also gave us as a department the opportunity to um think differently and look differently and we were able to incorporate some of the discussion points of that program into our other projects this study will do the same to this corridor but

▶ 12:42 John N. Tramontozzi: it's uh it's clear that we uh we wouldn't be able to use the money for the schools

▶ 12:47 Speaker 3: no no you can't no just thought i'd ask you thank you madam chair

▶ 12:54 Shawn M. MacMaster: thank you madam chair thank you mr shena for being here this evening um even though this is only a modest amount of money um i do think this is a good opportunity for the city i especially am excited as the ward 5 alderman because this will make some needed improvements to the washington street corridor as you know chief lyon and i have been working with you on some issues that have been raised in that area i've been working closely with chief lyle in particular on safety issues relative to pedestrians on washington street and with you know the apartment complexes that were built there, 1,000 to 4,000 Washington Street. You have 46 and, excuse me, 47 and 37 Washington and 2 Washington. There are 465 housing units that are new to that neighborhood. Based on my work with Chief Lyle, he and the department conducted a study to look at the number of pedestrians who are walking right now southbound on Washington Street to Oak Grove. And the study was done during a one-week period in August. It was August 13th. And the median average of pedestrians walking just during a two-hour time period between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. was 275 people. Again, that's in August, and that's during a week presumably where people are on vacation. So if the casino isn't going to be encouraging residents to take the T to get on the shuttle, whether they walk there or they drive there, we're going to see more foot traffic, and we're going to see more traffic in general, which I think makes it very clear that there are some improvements that we should be looking at. So I know you and I had a conversation about some of the concerns that I have, and I'd appreciate just if we remain in contact throughout the process. I appreciate the outreach that you did to me independently to talk about this. And in addition to the consultant, you know, to ensure that the residents of the ward have a voice in what's coming down the pipe.

▶ 14:48 Speaker 3: No, that's most certain. i mean this is in ward five totally so um and i probably envision a neighborhood meeting of some sort as well and if you get into the mbta and the issue of moving bus stops up and down that corridor those require public meetings as well the reason we're studying the t stops is because some of the argument that we made is that some of these people will use the bus to get to the train to get to the ultimate work location um so we'll be looking at all of that as part of it but again yeah you're right it's a benefit i hear the same issues that you are now hearing in your award of pedestrian improvements and ways to more safely access the mbta station well thank you for

▶ 15:33 Speaker 4: coming before us this evening thank you madam chair thank you alderman lippert garabedian

▶ 15:38 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: sure um thank you for being here mr shena and um for giving us some information about this I'm wondering if you've talked to other communities that are also going to be deploying some of these funds for their own analyses, or if you think that you'll be in touch with them at all just to sort of bounce ideas off each other or hear about some of the innovations or solutions they're coming up with.

▶ 16:03 Speaker 3: No, we haven't yet. It's still early in that process. I think reaching out to Malden and Medford could be an option, but our community is still different and the type of impact that we argued is very different than each community argue their own impact obviously the closer you get better argument you have but yeah that is something that's something we could do at least reach them all them to see if they're implementing anything in and

▶ 16:28 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: around their train station I think that would be a good idea and so far as we do share Oak Grove essentially with Malden and maybe they'll have some good ideas or you will get you'll have some great ideas that would be worth sharing with with them for some consistency and learning from each other well it's definitely a good point something we'll consider okay and I'm wondering you mentioned that you're gonna work with us doing some traffic study will they also analyze to alderman McMaster's point other modalities of transportation so is you know is it Stantec are they looking only at sort of car and bus traffic or will they also be taking a look at people walking or biking people walking

▶ 17:07 Speaker 3: and biking is an absolute point of this study great it's one of the main points of this study to be honest with you because that's that's that's something we see happening more than people driving to the station yeah that's

▶ 17:25 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: that's right in their scope of work that's great do you think you also will look at street parking and where currently in these areas there is on street parking and the hours may differ but I've certainly talked to a few residents who live along Pleasant who talk about the safety issues that there are concerns that they have with the on street parking there for example no it

▶ 17:48 Speaker 3: is and that is one of the issues that Alderman McMaster and I along with Chief Lyle are still trying to work out along Pleasant Street right now okay what are the current restrictions are they being adhered to should they be changed and And, yeah, that's another thing that this study will absolutely look at.

▶ 18:07 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: Great. That's really encouraging. Yeah. I mean, I really appreciate that it sounds like you're thinking about ways to use these state resources to complement the work that's been going on with respect to the Complete Streets work and also, you know, having a long-term sort of view of this area and some of the challenges that have already existed that may only be exacerbated by this. so I'm pleased that you know hopefully this won't just be reviewed in isolation but instead is sort of looked at comprehensively and it sounds like that's the lens that you're using yes that's great thank you so much thank you

▶ 18:45 Manisha Bewtra: Alderman Bewtra thank you thank you mr. Shana I sent you a barrage of emails on Saturday and I appreciate your time looking at these today anyway that was main thing i wanted to say uh i think i'll also add um you know folks are interested on the mass gaming commission's website it outlines what all the surrounding and neighboring community agreements are i had the opportunity to work a little bit on this process so i'm a little familiar with it and melrose is considered a neighboring community versus a surrounding community the communities that were surrounding communities got probably a lot more in mitigation funds i'm pleased to learn that we get a hundred thousand um especially given that the terminus of the orange line is right here but um i just for i guess the public's edification um if you check out massgaming.com and look up uh surrounding and host and neighboring community agreements you can find that info thanks for coming in tonight thank you alderman boyzo thank you

▶ 19:53 Robert A. Boisselle: Thank you. Thank you, John, for coming. Question, I mean, there's been discussions concerning on-street parking. Would this study make recommendations for a parking garage in the present area where the parking is for the T?

▶ 20:06 Speaker 3: I don't think it would go to that level. I mean, the T is the T property's T property, but it would look at on-street parking leading up to the station or in that entire run of Pleasant Street and Washington Street. Any change like that, we would have to propose of the traffic commission to implement just like some of our complete street initiatives require traffic commission approval at the end of the day but um yeah i don't think we'd look at that but we would look at on street parking in melrose things that we can regulate ourselves how many

▶ 20:40 Robert A. Boisselle: people are estimating at this time to use this service we don't know i don't know it's unknown

▶ 20:47 Robert A. Boisselle: they've not given a number a thousand or i mean they're estimating to be hiring three thousand people so that's a lot of people for three shifts yeah i'm not certain of that but when we heard of

▶ 20:57 Speaker 3: this plan we gave it a shot as a potential way to get some grant funding into melrose to make improvements and we were successful in that um to the level of a hundred thousand dollars so

▶ 21:13 Robert A. Boisselle: okay thank thank you john thank you madam chair thank you motion i'll recommend this order for

▶ 21:19 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: passage second the motion i recommend for passage made by alderman mortimer seconded by alderman

▶ 21:25 Speaker 2: Boisselle any further discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed thanks thank you second item on