Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2018-10-29
Attendance
Manisha Bewtra ; Robert A. Boisselle ; Scott M. Forbes ; Jennifer L. Lemmerman ; Kate Lipper-Garabedian ; Shawn M. MacMaster ; Monica C. Medeiros ; Peter D. Mortimer ; John N. Tramontozzi ; Francis X. Wright Jr. ; Michael P. Zwirko
Agenda
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE CALENDAR● OCTOBER 29, 2018 Aldermanic Chamber, Melrose City Hall Rescheduled Meeting 7:30 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 The public should take notice that the Melrose Board of Aldermen may, on certain occasions, have a quorum in attendance due to standing committees of the Board of Aldermen consisting of both voting and non-voting members. Members attending this duly posted meeting are participating and deliberating only in conjunction with the business of the standing committee. Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Jennifer L. Lemmerman Chair Present Scott M. Forbes Vice Chair Present Peter D. Mortimer Ward 6 Alderman Present Robert A. Boisselle Ward 4 Alderman Present John N. Tramontozzi Voting Member Present Francis X. Wright Jr. Ward 3 Alderman Absent Monica C. Medeiros Alderman at Large Present Michael P. Zwirko President/ Ex-officio Member Present Manisha Bewtra Alderman at Large Present Kate Lipper-Garabedian Alderman at Large Present Shawn M. MacMaster Ward 5 Alderman Present
ORDER-2019-20 Grant Authorization to Accept a Grant in the amount of $168,000.00 from the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) through the Housing Choice Initiative; and Authorize the Mayor to Execute a Contract with DHCD Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 10/30/2018 11:41 AM
Transcript
▶ 0:00 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Good evening. The hour being 7 30 on October 29th, 2018. I call to order the appropriations committee of the Melrose Board of Aldermen. This meeting is being recorded and broadcast on MMTV and can also be accessed online at the City of Melrose website. I am the chair, Alderman Lemmerman. I'm joined this evening by the vice chair, Alderman Forbes, as well as committee members Alderman Mortimer, Alderman Boisselle, Alderman Tramontozzi, Alderman Medeiros, President Zwirko, Alderman Butcher, Alderman Lipper-Garabedian, and Alderman McMaster. Motion to open the floor for public participation, Madam Chair. Second. We have a motion to open the floor for public comment made by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Alderman Boycelle.
▶ 0:44 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Seeing no members of the public present, I make a motion to close the floor for public comment, Madam Chair. Second. We have a motion to close public comment made by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Alderman Boycelle. All in favor of closing? Aye. Any opposed? Public comment is now closed. We have one order on our agenda this evening, order 2019-20, authorization to accept a grant in the amount of $168,000 from the Department of Housing and Community Development through the Housing Choice Initiative and authorize the mayor to execute a contract with DHCD. Motion to suspend the rules. Second. Go ahead, Mr. Vice President. We have a motion to suspend the rules, is that Alderman Mortimer?
▶ 1:25 Denise Gaffey: Seconded by Alderman Boycelle. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We are now under suspension of rules. We are joined this evening by Denise Scaffey from our planning department, please join us. Thank you for being here this evening. Oh, my pleasure. Would you like to say a little bit about this order before we go to questions from the committee? Sure, yes, good evening. I just wanted to mention that we were recently awarded by the Department of Housing and Community Development for this Housing Choice Capital Grant Award. this was in recognition of our being designated as a housing choice community several months ago which we were selected amongst I think about 60 plus some odd communities throughout the Commonwealth to receive that designation
▶ 2:13 Denise Gaffey: based on the work that we've done over the past five years in terms of creating housing or best practices in zoning and other areas to create housing for a range of households throughout the community so we were really pleased about that designation and it also made us eligible for this grant program only the communities that received the designation could apply for this capital construction program so the governor's office was trying to incentivize communities to to be proactive about housing giving the housing crisis in the in the region so we we decided to apply for grant funding for a project that is on our complete streets list this is a project on Cherry Street which is a neighborhood street direct downtown which connects residents in a lot of our
▶ 3:11 Denise Gaffey: senior housing to the downtown area and it's a street that's frequented by pedestrians especially senior citizens and they have great difficulty walking on the street because the sidewalks are not compliant in the street isn't really great disrepair so we we thought we had a very compelling project just tying in some of the zoning work and housing production work that we've done in that particular area and in our downtown to this great need that we identified through a comprehensive complete streets process and and so we were we were fortunate to get the grant award very recently so the hundred sixty eight thousand dollars that we received is is will fund 100% of this project there's no matching funds whatsoever required and it will enable us to replace the
▶ 4:01 street in its entirety with new pavement and build a conforming accessible sidewalk it'll also allow for new street trees on the street and some other types of amenities just to beautify and make that a safer street neighborhood street and we're hoping to do the project this fall so we're respectfully requesting your approval of the grants so that the mayor can sign the contract and we can move forward with the program this fall while the weather allows us to complete the work thank you thank you thank you for being here just a quick question out of curiosity was there was there any other neighborhoods to consider other than Cherry Street and if so like how you determined that Cherry Street was
▶ 4:51 Denise Gaffey: the one is it based on critical need so we to what we were talking about they had a lot of criteria it was it was kind of a challenging grant and we knew it was going to be very competitive so we were we were really trying to develop a a project that would um would rise to the top and and and quite frankly just you know get meet their criteria and get funded so we um this project they were hoping for projects that could get that were sort of shovel ready as you said so they could get done quickly and that weren't that didn't need a lot of design work and all that kind of stuff so we knew you know we needed a project that could be fulfill that criteria and we looked at all the complete streets
▶ 5:33 Denise Gaffey: we looked at the complete streets list and this particular project was pretty high on the priority list it's it was probably it wouldn't have been it's not the highest project it would probably get done in the next two to three years but looking at where it was on the priority list and also looking at where we've been most successful at creating housing and also sort of successful on the one hand and also you know obviously there's there's demands that have that occur when you are bringing new residents into a neighborhood so there's a lot more pedestrians and they need the sort of pedestrian amenities so we knew that this would be a really good tie-in for the grant program and that was the other reason why we chose cherry street
▶ 6:21 Monica C. Medeiros: thank you well it's great to see these types of grants continue to come forward and as we continue to revitalize not only main street but also the neighborhoods that connect main streets so i appreciate your effort thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you i know cherry street has been before the traffic commission a few times over the last few years does this change any of the parking that that you know i know there's been some changes to parking i think it's been working well yeah will there be any future changes to parking through this project so the biggest change on cherry street that has happened in the recent years is to make it a one way heading from east to west and I think that was a highly successful move
▶ 7:07 Denise Gaffey: and the parking itself there is only parking there's only provision on that street for parking on one side so this project will not change that cars will still be able to park on one side it is a very narrow roadway all of you know that and so when we did walk this walk the site we determined that you really couldn't put sidewalks conforming sidewalks on both sides so we will have a five foot wide conforming sidewalk on the church side and then we will have a curb on the other side that that will delineate the roadway but the parking will still exist on the church side and we effectively maintain all the parking that's there today there's one space that's kind of a questionable space close to Myrtle Street that we may we may lose but we just did we actually
▶ 7:59 Monica C. Medeiros: just I just came from a neighborhood meeting on this variable project and and parking is always a concern there were members of station crossing there who expressed their concerns about losing parking but everyone was in support of this project and because primarily for the most part we will be maintaining all the parking on that street that's great and just a curiosity is that is you know we look at the front side of Main Street and that's sort of like the back side of the business district but at the same time with the new housing that's going in it's it's very much an entryway is there any talk or would it be feasible to bring some of the Victorian lighting to that to that stretch in this project
▶ 8:41 Denise Gaffey: or is that just out of the realm of scope I don't think there's enough yeah I mean we hadn't really talked about that as is being in the scope of the project there are two streetlights that we are working around on that street which is another reason why we can't really have the sidewalks on both sides because they're on the north side I'm not sure I mean we could look at it I don't know that the budget would accommodate that to be honest yeah it definitely may not but yeah but worth looking at since we're really yeah doing that if even if it were one I mean that was really important to us when we were doing the Essex Street mass works project and when we were working with the developer of the new assisted living site it looks you know bringing those
▶ 9:32 Monica C. Medeiros: lights in and making that connection in Main Street I'm not sure it'll you know it's quite as necessary on this street it has this it would have the same effect but you could look at it very good thank you very much I'm happy to see that we've been designated as a housing choice community and that's for all your hard work and the hard work of the city and the board and the mayor and the previous mayor so we're happy about that and doing our part to address the housing crisis thank you thank you thanks so much for being here so it's great that we have this designation and then that made us eligible for the grant award was that still a competitive process for those 60 some municipalities who did every municipality get a grant no it was a very competitive process I
▶ 10:23 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: think we were one of 30 communities and they had four million dollars that they could spend and they had about nine million dollars in requests so we felt we were really excited because that was the amount we asked for absolutely fund this project completely it won't require any city funds whatsoever so yeah we're excited that's great and um i recall cherry street being on the sort of top tier of the prioritization list that the working group developed with city staff so that makes a lot of sense i'm wondering just while we have you here if you could give us a quick update on the three complete streets projects that were funded through the complete streets grant program so there was the work that was
▶ 11:04 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: was done at Howard Street and green where they're reconfiguring that intersection for safety purposes then there's some work around the high school middle school and lastly there's the bike path and north to south and I'm wondering I believe on that last one one of the proposed routes that the bike path might take would sort of go through the business districts not too far perhaps from Cherry Street or maybe even Cherry Street would be impacted by that that. So maybe also if you could speak to that. To be honest, I really can't. I'm not as close to the Complete Streets program. I mean, I'm familiar with all those projects and I know they are happening. They're taking place, but it would really be probably more appropriate for the city
▶ 11:45 Peter D. Mortimer: engineer to speak to that. So you aren't aware of whether or not Cherry Street would be part of the north to south bike route? Because I've seen some maps that go pretty close along Essex and then cut down behind sort of main street yeah i don't recall seeing it on that um on that plan okay all right i'll follow up with the engineer thank you you're welcome that's all thanks any other questions or comments alderman mortimer thank you very much madam chair as of course everyone is aware cherry street is in ward six of the ward i represent um we've had a There's a lot of citizen involvement down there. Some of the citizens have been particularly vocal in advocating for their neighborhood. As we know, which is a good thing, and
▶ 12:37 Peter D. Mortimer: now hopefully this will make the neighborhood be very happy with the developments that we have. Some of the questions I have is, this is referred to as a contract rather than just a straight grant. I see the word contract here authorizing the mayor as the chief executive officer to enter into this contract. And that brings to mind a quid pro quo. Is there anything that we need to do to fulfill our side of the contract? Naturally, we can't use the money for schools or cleaning ponds, but I imagine part of the contract is we have to use it for the parameters of the street improvement. But are we entering into any other conditions, duties, or obligations as a result of this contract? No. Like you said, we have to spend the money according to the scope of work, which is essentially what we applied for.
▶ 13:38 Peter D. Mortimer: So that's all delineated in the contract. And then there's reporting requirements, things like that. but the primary thing is we have to spend the money on the project that we delineated in the grant application and this language is is standard language that we use right because one of the the reason I'm asking that is one of the letters in the accompanying correspondence says that I want to thank you for leading your community's commitment to housing production in the In the city of Melrose, a lot of people in Melrose have taken note that Melrose seems to be getting crowded. That there's a lot more people and a lot more cars. And I know this Department of Housing and Community Development from the state wants to see us increase even further the amount of housing that we have in Melrose.
▶ 14:41 Peter D. Mortimer: That, of course, has pros and cons. It's difficult, you drive around Melrose now, and there are people everywhere and cars everywhere. In the last nine years, the population of the world has increased by one billion. The last time it increased by one billion was from 1979 until 2009, and the last time before that that increased by a billion was the Civil War. It seems that a lot of the people, that new billion people in the world, they all want to live in the Northeast. A lot of them want to live in Melrose. It's such a popular city, we're kind of victims of our own success. But I'm just wondering, when I ask about this contract, I just want to make sure that we're not getting roped in that we owe them a thousand housing units or I exaggerating
▶ 15:45 Peter D. Mortimer: I exaggerate for effect but you get my point I know they can't compel us to create any more housing this is really a reward for the work we've done over the past five years well I like the sound of that that it's a reward but we're not going to be tied into no because you live here we all live here we see what's going on. It's no secret. You go out any time almost of the day and night and you can see what's happening. So I'll just leave that point there and ask a few more mechanical or pragmatic questions. You mentioned the church and the as you know, your children and my children attended Melrose Daycare so, so long ago when we were both starting out here me as an alderman you as a city planner
▶ 16:41 Peter D. Mortimer: and we've been through a lot since those days personally and professionally are they going to construct any hay bales or anything to protect because they have that little playground right on the corner of Cherry Street and so will they do anything to mitigate the dust that might affect the kids will they take the kids to another location who were at Mauro's daycare is that going to be made sure that the kids will be safe and protected from all the construction dust or is it too soon is it too soon to delve into that no it's not really too soon I know I know the daycare director the last thing she wants to do is take the kids away from the the action because that's like she can't you know she can't pay for a better field trip than construction project right outside
▶ 17:31 Manisha Bewtra: of the field trip every day so there she's pretty excited about it i mean we did we did talk with her about um stabilization issues around the fence because the fence does come right up to the back of the sidewalk and so i think that we'll be working really closely with her to make sure that the fence stays stable and if it has to get reinforced you know we would do that through the project very good that's all the questions i have made i'll share thank you very much much ms. Gaffey appreciate that thank you Alderman Boudreaux thank you thank you ms. Gaffey for coming in I feel we're calling you back you as Denise I appreciate your work on this housing choice initiative grant I know um you know I just wanted to respond to some of alderman Mortimer questions or
▶ 18:21 Manisha Bewtra: comments regarding the housing choice initiative as I understand it it is in response to in order for us to qualify as a housing choice community it's based on past activity in terms of the new multifamily housing production that's close to Oak Grove and and other production around the city that's correct right yes it was based on production of units for the past five years years they were looking for a certain number a certain threshold and I was curious a little bit if you could expand on what kinds of you said the criteria were pretty complex this sounds kind of similar to like the mass works grant program is that kind of like the idea that basically in that by being designated a housing choice community it it shows that you're thinking
▶ 19:14 Denise Gaffey: proactively about housing and smart growth and what kinds of criteria were in that grant application so they in addition to looking for projects that were shovel ready ready to go they were also looking for best practices if we were a community that had used best practices when it came to producing encouraging housing production so certain zoning tools and in incentives and things like that whether we had kind of we had we had those kind of tools in place so we were able to catch we were able to get several points through those best practices from what I was told from the funding agency wait thank you I just wanted to point out a couple of things here in Melrose we actually peaked in population in the 1970s we're actually about 5,000 residents fewer than at that
▶ 20:08 Manisha Bewtra: time and projects like this I think potential could have the potential of taking cars off the road because they'll have the the better walking infrastructure to connect residents with downtown so from a sort of traffic congestion I would think that this project would not actually add to traffic congestion I think I'd also like to further point out that Melrose is about at between seven and eight percent I believe on our subsidized housing inventory which means we're actually falling short compared to many other communities around the state the state looks at you know that minimum threshold is being 10% we are subject to potentially a comprehensive permit for DB applications because we're not at 10% and ultimately due to lots of changing
▶ 21:01 Manisha Bewtra: demographics in our region folks aging but wanting to be remain in the community or high housing prices etc we have an opportunity to think about who we want to be as a community how we could welcome new housing production or redevelopment of properties while also thinking about traffic and some of the other concerns you raised which may be a discussion for a later point but I just wanted to put that out there that that is a deeper discussion we should have at some point. Thank you. Thank you. Any further discussion? Motion to recommend for passage. Second. We have a motion to recommend for passage by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Alderman Boycelle. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? This will be recommended for full passage at our next board meeting. Thank you very much. Thank you. Motion to adjourn, Madam Chair. Second. Motion to adjourn, made by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Alderman Boycelle. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We are now adjourned. Thank you, everyone.