ORDER-2023-1 : Appointment of Benjamin Rosenberg, 76 Ardsmoor Road, as a Regular Member of the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) to fill the unexpired term of David Roache, whose term shall expire on the last day of February 2023.

Transcript (~11 min @ 1:40:22)

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▶ 1:40:22 Speaker 3: order 2023-1 appointment of Benjamin Rosenberg 76 ardsmore Road as a regular member of the zoning board of appeals to filled unexpired term of David Rocher. Whose terms shall expire in the last day of February 2023.

▶ 1:40:39 Speaker 2: counselor karapay

▶ 1:40:44 Speaker 2: this

▶ 1:40:46 Mark Garipay: the main you can make the motion. I'm sorry. I thought you were gonna do it. Sorry Mr. President this This motion came from Committee just recommended to the council and the mayor is he had introduced a candidate. Okay, so we have a motion to the rules. recommend the passage and did we get a second on that second second by counselor Stewart

▶ 1:41:12 Speaker 2: we are under suspension still so Matt Broda if

▶ 1:41:16 Paul Brodeur: you'd like to thank you president and members of the council again. I appreciate. You all taking the action that you did to move this fold without recommendation because of the candidates lack of availability though. It is very important. Obviously the other chance to vet Mr. Rosenberg. If you had an opportunity over the somewhat extended period of time to check out his resume, you'll see someone with an exceptional amount of experience in project management and development work and I would be remiss if I didn't point out the very nature of that work. It's everything from small projects to large building developments. He's done some historic restoration. At the shaw Memorial that I hope you'll talk about because that is a very interesting and cool thing though. I'm not necessarily directly Germain to the work of the zba. He also as experience in professional capacity as a teacher at risdee as soon as the Rhode Island School design, which might not think is necessarily that important, but I believe that an important part of Any Board of commission membership a particular the zba where you're dealing with? Sometimes complex legal issues or regulatory interpretation and Different levels of sophistication to the applicants coming before the board to having that that knowledge base but also that ability to communicate I think will serve both the zba and our city. Well our offers recommendation without reservation.

▶ 1:43:03 Speaker 2: Do you have anything you'd like to add or?

▶ 1:43:08 Speaker 7: I apologize for not being here last time it was a simple mix up on on my part. Um, I am a practicing structural engineer. I've worked for 17 years 16 years at my current firm eight of those in the city are in Boston and my family and I moved to Melrose last July. So just over a year ago and amongst the other Roots. We're putting down in the community. I see this as an opportunity to give back and join local government and Start what I hope is a long residency for our family here. My wife is actually a senior construction manager for a developer in town and we both saw the ad in the Melrose weekly newspaper, which we get and we had a number of days of discussion over who would actually apply and which made sense because we were both interested in it. We have a spot. Yeah, and if only are two kids have child care. Yeah, and ultimately she had she was looking for other opportunities, but I'm really excited to serve and thank you.

▶ 1:44:15 Speaker 2: Right, so we have a motion on the floor anything on a discussion. possibly

▶ 1:44:22 Leila Migliorelli: Thank you for being here tonight Mr. Rosenberg. I'm just curious in your experience. Have you have you had any local government experience working on some of the projects you have worked on and you know, how would you see that kind of experience relating to your role in this on the zba? Yes,

▶ 1:44:38 Speaker 7: so we are structural engineer. We are usually consultants for The Architects. We have a lot of experience working with government entities and the federal state and city levels and even projects that aren't specifically government projects. We tend to appear a lot for zoning boards Landmark committees historic preservation committees and other similar entities mostly to describe the structural impacts of our projects and to answer questions. They may have regarding say the structural capacity for buildings on to go development or restoration. So I would say that's primarily my focus within the governmental structure besides the project we actually work on

▶ 1:45:20 Speaker 2: Thank you.

▶ 1:45:22 Shawn M. MacMaster: Council McMaster, thank you, Mr. President and good evening. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your interest in the position. I just want question for you. How would you balance the oftentimes competing interests between developers and neighborhoods when you know approaching a matter before?

▶ 1:45:38 Speaker 7: my we take very seriously at our firm our role as Trying to find solutions to the problems which involved a lot of different stakeholders. So we're usually clients for The Architects, but we know there are owners there are contractors. There are stakeholders and users and neighbors and it's almost a daily practice in the projects that I work on to be able to come to the table and we always say we don't want to come into the room get our assignment and golf in the corner. We want to be at the table so that we can be a voice to try to find the solution when I was speaking with the mayor about Eventually joining, you know, when he was first interviewing me. I he asked what the biggest issues facing the town were and in my year here, it's clear as it is in a lot of greater Boston that the speed and pace and size of development is critically important as a teacher I listen and then I try to balance objectivity and subjectivity because it's not one of the other it has to be both and I hope that I lend my view on from the structure and then from understanding the code and things that are related to it. There's not one answer pro-oriented development. It's what is the best outcome in each individual case? And I think my background is suited to be able to understand the facts and be able to bring my expertise to that if that answered your question. Very good. Thank you,

▶ 1:47:09 Speaker 2: sir. How's the conversation?

▶ 1:47:13 Manjula Karamcheti: Counselor McMaster kind of asked my question, but he asked if better I think that I would have but I'm the city councilor for Ward one where actually a lot of proposals are either in the process or we will be coming down the pipeline and the residents are extremely concerned about a variety of things one including blasting and the the structural Integrity of their homes that are unledges. So How do you go about like investigating and exploring potential issues and mitigating conversations between developers and residents? in your practice, but also As you potentially are on the zoning board. How would you approach those kinds of things and how would you recommend other City entities and City councilors approach that as well?

▶ 1:48:07 Speaker 7: Yes, I can speak about my practice first. We do a lot of single-family residential work which involves one house undergoing some construction and neighboring house is not and having to deal with it and we do it in areas where there is good soil and poor soil and and ledge or ledge on part of the site or not on part of the site and we've also worked for the people into going construction and the neighbors who have to deal with it, you know different cases not at once obviously. So what we always recommend is number one if you're a neighbor that your house if you're Neighbors having construction done. You need to get an exterior interior photographic survey of your house done before any work begins and send it to the person whose house is being worked on that is your record of if you need to make a claim if your plaster starts cracking if something goes wrong here is your proof. So whenever we work with clients, we always say that is your number one defense and you have to do this Society. We live in we also work very closely with the Geo technical Engineers who we mandate have to be on all of our projects. It's not us. We don't do that work to discuss what the options are for geo Tech work. So is it blasting is it drilling are there and this is usually not set by us. But we always raise it is good Engineers. Are there time limits are there noise issues are there vibration issues? Do we have to put in place that vibration monitoring scheme where we set a threshold at which an electronic alert goes out. So we see it and say what happens stop or let's understand. there's a lot that we take very seriously about that because we do it a lot and we know our owners and the neighboring owners. They things can get combative and you have to lay the groundwork for that. I think on the zba. Reviewing as much as I understand reviewing the cases and being able to ask my questions to flesh out. What potential issues there are in construction so that the parties can understand what they may want to do is really important and I don't know but I'm curious if and how the city might move towards thinking through things that they can guidelines are one that they can put out to people so that they can at least have every courses in that area. Not as part of the ZB. I don't know how that exactly fits but

▶ 1:50:35 Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Very appreciated.

▶ 1:50:39 Speaker 2: Okay, I don't have any other hands that I saw Madam clerk if dope Council together. Oh this time I was gonna make a motion for a passage on the yard and done. You have the maker and the second. Call the roll, please Consular Eccles. Yes. Counselor.

▶ 1:50:58 Speaker 1: Gary pay yes counselor. Grigoraitis. Yes counselor. Jamaladene.

▶ 1:51:05 Speaker 2: Yes Council caramshady. Yes counselor

▶ 1:51:07 Speaker 1: McMaster. Yes Council amigliarelli. Yes

▶ 1:51:11 Speaker 2: councilor obremski. Yes counselor Stewart.

▶ 1:51:14 Speaker 1: Yes counselor Williams.

▶ 1:51:16 Speaker 2: Yes, president sonala. Yes, Levin. Yes. All right. Thank you, Mr. Rosenberg, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

▶ 1:51:24 Speaker 6: For not asking how he's going to get to work in Boston Okay order

▶ 1:51:28 Speaker 3: 2023-2 appointment of Michael Avi 16 Hillside Ave. Complaining board to fill the term of Robert Mercado, which expired in February 2022, Mr. Ervini's term shall expire on the last day of February 2027.