Planning Board — 2022-03-28
Minutes
MELROSE PLANNING BOARD MEETING MINUTES Annual Meeting Monday, March 28, 2022 7:30 PM Remote Meeting PRESENT: Tim Bailey, Beth Delahaij, Anne DeSouza Ward, Brian Gregory, Paul King, Robert Mercado, Greg Sampson & Jack Welch ABSENT: Carla Morelli STAFF PRESENT: Denise Gaffey, Director and City Planner, Lori Massa, Senior Planner & Maya Noviski, Assistant Planner The meeting was called to order at 7:33 PM by Mr. Sampson. Pursuant to An Act Extending Certain COVID-19 Measures Adopted During the State of Emergency signed by Governor Baker on June 16, 2021, this meeting was be conducted via remote participation. Specific information and the general guidelines for remote participation by members of the public and/or parties with a right and/or requirement to attend this meeting could be found on the City of Melrose’s website, at www.cityofmelrose.org. No in-person attendance of members of the public was permitted, but every effort was made to ensure that the public could adequately access the proceedings in real time, or in the event that we are unable to do so, they would be post on the mmtv3.org website an audio or video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting. A link was also available on www.cityofmelrose.org. Meeting access information was found at the following link: www.cityofmelrose.org/remotemeetings. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Planning Board Regular Meeting, February 28, 2022 Board Members had no comments or adjustments to previous minutes. Mr. King made a motion to approve the meeting minutes. Mr. Mercado seconded the motion. All members voted in favor. None were opposed. SITE PLAN REVIEW Case 22-001, 148 Myrtle St., Brown Dog Properties, LLC Robert Bell, Attorney, appeared on behalf of the Applicants to ask for a continuance. Attorney Bell noted that the Applicants did not submit the supplemental materials the Board requested during last month’s meeting with sufficient time for review. No public comment or testimony was taken at the meeting. Mr. Sampson noted that the new materials will be posted online and the Planning Board received copies of the written public comments that were submitted. Planning Board Meeting Minutes March 28, 2022 Page 2 of 4 Mr. Welch made a motion to accept a continuance and hear this case on April 25, 2022. Mr. Gregory seconded the motion. All members voted in favor. None were opposed and none abstained. OTHER Net Zero Action Plan Martha Grover, Sustainability Manager for the City of Melrose, appeared to present the City’s recently completed Net Zero Action Plan. Ms. Gaffey began by introducing Ms. Grover and explained that she had been working on this plan throughout the pandemic and is interested in receiving feedback from the community. Ms. Gaffey noted that many action items in this plan overlap with the Planning Board’s activities and complement action items in the recently approved Housing Production Plan. Ms. Grover continued with her presentation explaining that this plan was created with the help of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. Ms. Grover outlined how the plan seeks to move the City towards net zero emissions by making homes and buildings as efficient as possible; electrifying residential heating/cooling and cooking systems; electrifying transportation; making walking, biking and public transportation as easy as possible; and greening the grid. Ms. Grover noted that the plan presents roadmap milestones and midterm goals for 2030 and 2050, and for every goal there are action steps and suggested strategies, which are iterative and adaptable. She made sure to highlight several important policy areas that may be of particular interest to the Planning Board. These include incentivizing energy efficiency and renewable energy in new construction and major renovations, adopting zero emission mobility zoning measures, supporting transportation oriented development, adopting efficient use of parking spaces, and reducing single occupancy vehicles. Ms. Grover concluded by explaining that she hopes that this plan can act as a guide to the Planning Board as they consider new policy measures and when reviewing new projects. Once Ms. Grover finished her presentation, Ms. DeSouza Ward asked for clarification around the building design standards promoted in the plan. Ms. Grover explained that the City is currently working with Malden and Medford to develop green design guidelines specifically around energy use and sustainable building features. Ms. Gaffey expanded on this by adding that the Planning Board already started on this work with creating incentive zoning ordinance last year around sustainable design standards so having this plan will be a nice complement to the work that has been started. Mr. Welch commented on two things he felt the City could do to help achieve the goals outlined in the plan were changing the Building Code, specifically around solar energy, and the enforcement of traffic laws to prioritize pedestrian and cyclists’ safety to allow for this form of transportation to be more feasible. No other questions or comments were raised. Ms. Grover mentioned that there will be links on the City’s website with more information and she will be releasing the plan to the public in April. Documents: Net Zero Action Plan, March 28, 2022 Planning Board Meeting Minutes March 28, 2022 Page 3 of 4 RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE BOARD OF APPEALS Board of Appeals Public Hearing on April 13, 2022: Case 22-002, 68 Granite Street, Michael Carter The Board found that due to the uniqueness of the grade of this property and existing massing of the house they were not opposed to a variance for the dormer. They discussed that while they usually are protective of the dormer regulations, they felt that this case was a unique situation. Additionally, it was noted that the lot is very deep and the dormer’s proposed placement will leave the streetscape unaffected, which garnered further support. A motion was made by Mr. Welch and was seconded by Ms. DeSouza Ward to send this recommendation. All members voted in favor. None were opposed. Documents: Applicant Materials for Case 22-002 Case 22-004, 69 Glendale Ave, Stephanie Lawson The Board took a neutral position on the proposed addition. They noted that this addition is consistent with the neighborhood and that the dimensional requirements for corner lots can be challenging. The Board felt that the proposed encroachment on the front yard setback is minor. Mr. Gregory made a motion to send a neutral letter and Ms. DeSouza Ward seconded the motion. All members voted in favor. None were opposed. Documents: Applicant Materials for Case 22-004 Case 22-005, 61 Tappan Street, Joseph Coelho The Board did not find that the proposal would be detrimental and did not have any issues with the proposed addition. Mr. Welch made a motion to send a neutral letter of recommendation for the case. Mr. Mercado seconded the motion. All members voted in favor. None were opposed. Documents: Applicant Materials for Case 22-005 ELECTION OF OFFICERS Mr. Mercado made a motion to nominate Mr. Sampson as Planning Board Chair and Ms. DeSouza Ward as Clerk. All members voted in favor. None were opposed and none abstained. Mr. Sampson, as Chair, reappointed the subcommittee members - Ms. Morelli as Chair of the Design Review Subcommittee and Ms. DeSouza Ward as Chair of the Zoning Subcommittee. Mr. King, Mr. Welch, and Mr. Bailey will be members of the Design Review Subcommittee. Ms. Delahaij, Mr. Gregory and Mr. Sampson and will be members of the Zoning Subcommittee. Mr. Mercado announced that he is stepped down as a Planning Board member and this will be his last meeting. The members thanked him for his twenty years of service. Planning Board Meeting Minutes March 28, 2022 Page 4 of 4 NEXT MEETING The next Zoning Subcommittee is scheduled for Wednesday, April 6, 2022. The next regular meeting of the Planning Board is scheduled for Monday, April 25, 2022. The meeting adjourned at 8:32 pm.
Transcript
▶ 0:03 Good evening. It is Monday, March 28, 2022. This is the regular meeting of the City of Melrose Planning Board. We are holding the meeting remotely pursuant to legislation passed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that allows remote participation through July of this year. The meeting will be available on City of Melrose's website and on MMTV. And with that, I think our first order of business is meeting minutes from February 28th. Did everyone get a chance to take a look at those? They were circulated on Friday. Questions, comments or motions? I move to accept The minutes the 2nd, uh. Any questions comments or discussion. Okay. All those in favor say, aye. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Any opposed or nays right? That has passed.
▶ 1:29 Our next item is the site plan review public hearing for case 22-001, 148 Myrtle Street, Brown Dog Properties LLC. This was continued from February 28th, 2020 to 2022. Attorney Bell? Yes. Good evening, Mr. Chair and members of the board. On behalf of the petitioners, we respectfully request that this matter be postponed to the next meeting we realized that our supplemental and updated materials had just recently been submitted and likely that not all the members have had a chance to absorb them and you know we think it's the important that everybody get a chance to take a look at what we've recently turned in we apologize to to the members of the public both supporters and potential objectives but
▶ 2:38 we feel it's in the best interest of my client to ask for this postponement even though it upsets our potential construction timeline thank you thanks so because of the way this works we're not going to take any testimony or public comment at this time because um that way all the board members who are available at the last meeting will be able to continue to vote so um with that i would just note for those in the public that the additional the new materials will be posted on our website and uh we understand there are numerous letters submitted and those are part of the record so we'll we'll uh make sure the upkin has a copy and we will um continue to deliberate on this so the next meeting what is
▶ 3:29 the next meeting day denise uh april 25th okay so do i have a can i get a motion to continue to april 25th please i'll move to continue to april 25th do we have a second second okay um any discussion of questions from the board all right all those in favor please say aye any abstains or nays okay we will see you on the 26th thank you thank you Mr. Chair and members. Good night. The next item on our agenda is the Net Zero Action Plan presentation. Yes, just while we get that set up quickly, I wanted to introduce the presenter. We're going to be joined by Martha Grover. Martha is the sustainability manager for the city. She she works in the planning office. She's been working on this net zero action plan
▶ 4:45 Denise Gaffey: all through COVID, just tracking alongside our housing production plan. Kind of a fun activity to be working on during the pandemic. And she has recently completed it and is taking it on the road, so to speak, interested in getting feedback from a wide, A wide group of members of the community. Very interested in meeting with the planning board tonight. Many of the action items in this plan will. I think will eventually involve some, some action on the part of the planning board. And a lot of our activities. Certainly overlap when it comes down to our interest in transit oriented development and smart growth and sustainable. Sustainability so, um, so I think without much further, I do, I'll just turn it over to Martha so she can run through the slides and then, you know, when that's complete.
▶ 5:47 Seems like we have a little more time in our evening, so we can. You know, feel free to entertain or ask Martha some questions about the plan. So, take it away, Martha. All right. Thank you very much for the introduction. I think, Laurie, are you going to share the presentation? So, while you're bringing that up, I just wanted to introduce myself. Denise already did, but for those of you who don't know me, Martha Grover, I'm the sustainability manager. I've been working in the planning department now for 10 or 11 years. Started out when Melrose became a green community. And over those 10 years, we've I've managed a number of projects to make our municipal buildings more energy efficient. LED streetlight project, we've added electric vehicles to the fleet, some charging stations,
▶ 6:50 utilizing, I calculated about two and a half million dollars in grants and utility incentives over the last 10 years for these projects. And in addition, we've done a lot of community outreach projects related to solar, energy efficiency in the home, and a whole variety of things over the years. In 2016, Mayor Dolan, along with 14 other mayors in the metro mayor region of Massachusetts, a group that's convened by the metropolitan area planning council signed a commitment um to for net zero emissions by 2050 and um so that commitment was made then uh and we over the years you know we continue to do work towards towards that goal where melrose is definitely headed in headed in the right direction. We have been for a number of years, but we never really had a plan
▶ 8:00 or anything in writing that really charted out some specific goals related to that commitment. So MAPC approached us a few years, a couple years ago, and we worked with them as the facilitators and also with the towns of Natick and Arlington. And MEPC used the three communities to go through this process of creating these net zero action plans. And the end result was a great greenhouse gas inventory tool that they've now can have rolled out to the 100 communities in their region and also this net zero playbook that communities can um can use as the baseline so they don't have to invest in really expensive consultants and long processes in order to create their own net zero action plans and at the same time of course you've probably been reading
▶ 9:00 about how all this work is happening at the state level where the state has set very very aggressive goals, some of the most aggressive in the country for, with, you know, midterm goals for 2030, 2040, and then the eventual net zero goal for 2050. So that's the context for what we have, what I'm presenting tonight. So I just, I'm just giving you a few, an idea of what the, what their overall Plan is. And Denise can share. It will be available publicly, the actual plan, over the course of April, Earth Month. We're going to be releasing it. So if you want to just go to the next slide, Laurie. In creating this plan, Laurie, next. Oh, great. So in creating this plan, it will be like i said we work with the mapc arlington and natick along the three of us
▶ 10:13 working together with lots of input from volunteers on the energy commission melrose climate action leadership melrose ped bike a number of volunteers throughout the community who weighed in we did a kickoff at a victorian fair community input survey we held one of those first early on virtual open houses during COVID online open house and got a lot of feedback from the community. Next. So the first step obviously is to create is to calculate what the emissions are for Melrose and there's no big surprise here given the makeup of our community that is mostly residential, that most of our emissions come from buildings, 61%, with 38% coming from vehicle transportation. The data that we have now feels like it's pretty dated.
▶ 11:15 2017 is our baseline data um we i think it's the the hold up is the registry uh motor vehicle registry is very behind in their data and we can't update the vehicle vehicle data until they update their database so that's the 2017 is the most recent date that we have um the best data available for all of the components of the greenhouse gas inventory next slide and again um reflecting the makeup of melrose um a good 80 percent of our 81 percent of our emissions come from residents their homes and their cars um 17 from commercial and industrial sources and then three percent where I've spent much of my time over the last 10 years comes from municipal buildings, streetlights, and other municipal sources. So, which again, you can kind of see why
▶ 12:19 my position and my job is starting to really change as we start to focus on these other sectors of of melrose to try to reduce emissions next so um this is just a pie chart that reflects the the fuels generate generating all of these emissions here in melrose um gasoline that's vehicles we still have a certain a number of homes heating with oil most of it comes from natural gas in a small chunk from the electricity next so the the goal here is to um get to net zero and what does it mean and and how do we get there and that's where this road map comes comes into play uh next so what we're trying to do obviously is go from the today where we have um all of these greenhouse gas emissions coming from our homes, vehicles, fossil fuels that
▶ 13:33 we're burning to a future 2050, next, where emissions are greatly reduced, hopefully as close to zero as possible and offset by clean energy production, carbon sequestration from trees and emissions removal from if there are any remaining power plants or other sources in 2015. So next, a big component of this, like we're all hearing about a lot these days, is trying get there equitably and not leaving certain populations the most vulnerable or the people who can least afford it behind. So there's a big push came out of the roadmap, the climate legislation that was passed about a year ago to enact this roadmap in a way that everybody is considered, including those who have been impacted historically, and that we, as we
▶ 14:55 make changes, that we are cognizant of who might be impacted most by the climate changes, by, say, heat or by flooding or severe storms and that we um that we're very that we're aware of that and get input from those populations as we put these new policies and programs into place next so um and next so that there are five main themes here um they have to do with buildings making our homes and buildings as efficient as possible we're talking about building envelope we're talking about um sealing sealing them up for both existing homes and new construction we're talking about electrifying the heating systems and the cooking equipment heating for space heating as well as water heating and then we're also talking about electrifying
▶ 16:03 transportation electric cars trucks transit but also at the same time making walking and biking and public transit the best way to get around get people out of their cars and as we electrify these end uses, our home heating and transportation, we then green the grid and make the electric grid that is supporting all of these electric end uses as green and as possible from renewable energy sources. So in the roadmap, the plan that we put together, and you can go forward a couple of slides, We've charted out a number of milestones for those five themes, strategies, overall strategies. We document where we are today. We've set some mid-term goals for 2030 and then the long-term goal for 2050. I won't go into all of this in a lot of detail now, but I suspect that this will, you know,
▶ 17:10 in five years we're going to revisit this and with new innovation and new programs and new federal and state funding this it's possible we could set goals that are you know 20 that are even more aggressive than this i would hope with an end goal maybe of being net zero earlier than 2050 a number of communities have set earlier goals than we have at this point uh next so the roadmap lays out potential co-benefits of a number of the strategies and actions We will also, for every action, there's an equity consideration. And then in the final section, we lay out the timeframe, partners that we'll work with on all these actions and funding needs. So what I thought I would do rather than go through the whole, all 31 actions, just kind
▶ 18:00 of highlight some that I thought would be of most interest to all of you. So you can go ahead to next. And the first bucket are the homes and buildings. And the five-so we laid out five strategies for-with underlying actions for homes and buildings. And again, we're back to electrifying the fossil fuel end uses in all existing homes as well as new construction, maximizing the energy efficiency, doing deep energy retrofits in existing buildings around building envelope. And we've done some work already in large multifamily buildings, but really it's one of our strategies here in Melrose because there's still a good number of older multifamily buildings that are in need of energy efficiency retrofits and then the policies which is a lot
▶ 19:08 of where you come in to incentivize energy efficiency and renewable energy and new construction major major renovations and then of course there's with all of these is the city leading by example as we've already been doing um for our municipal municipal municipal buildings in net-zero building policies. And this is a fun graphic of a future home that the MassClean Energy Center has created. Next. So one of the actions that, like I said, is this big focus on this electrifying the existing home. So the plan is to create this Electrify Melrose Programming campaign to help homeowners and businesses and others transition from fossil fuels to lower emissions alternatives. Melrose is, and as part of this, and the wind in our sail is
▶ 20:15 the Mass Save program, which I'm hoping you're all familiar with. But Mass Save just went through a three, a planning process to create the next three-year plan for their incentive program. and it was just released and approved early this year for 2022 through 2024. And for the first time we've got a bucket of incentives that really could make it worthwhile and financially incentivize homeowners financially to switch from natural gas to heat pumps, for instance. they've beefed up all of the weatherization building envelope incentives for building owners and with a target for low and moderate income households multi-family housing and small businesses and we just we applied for and we're just accepted to a program
▶ 21:15 that, through MassSave, that will give us a chunk of change over once a year, over three years to hire an energy coach to work with homeowners to do this work and also to do all the outreach and education. We're creating also at the same time a platform, it's, we have a name for it yet but to help help residents take action and that's another another tool that's that's in use the other wind in our sail is this new building energy code as a green community melrose adopted the stretch energy code a number of years ago 2010 2009 and the stretch energy code It has not really, well, at this point, the building energy code, the base code that's effective next year has pretty much caught up with the stretch energy code that we've
▶ 22:20 had in place. So the state legislature tasked DOER with updating the stretch energy code. So when it's, when that stretch energy code is adopted by DOER, we would automatically adopted because it would just be an update of the energy code we already have in place. That's supposed to happen effective next year. So the other component that they were charged with creating is a specialized opt-in code that's available at the end of this year. And the DOER issued a straw proposal for this specialized opt-in code in February, and we're all waiting on the actual language for that code. There's been a ton of public comment and news about it that you may have read about in the Globe, but the idea is to create a code that incentivizes and requires all-electric new
▶ 23:32 construction and with infrastructure for electric vehicle charging and all all of those components so we're hoping that when that's released at the end of the year that Melrose would move forward with adopting it but in the meantime we will also be at the very least adopting the new stretch energy code which has all kinds of additional energy efficiency components and building envelope components and those kinds of things next um so we talked about um adopting and always you know taking another look at the special permit requirements you already did some great work hard work last year to update the incentive zoning process Um, but, um, and we've got some work underway through a grant with, um, again, with MAPC with Malden and Medford to create some green building design, design guidelines to support developers who are building to this.
▶ 24:45 To these, um, to the new incentive zoning. Um. but there's always room for more for improvement there's always room you know opportunities to to tweak that process and make it stronger over the over the years and as part of it what we're looking to do also is create some kind of check process hopefully a process that's not too onerous for the planning staff to have um a year after um the occupancy permits are issued to have those building owners report on their you know some components of energy use so that we can just monitor and they know that somebody's looking a year after to see how whether they've actually built the building they said they wanted to or would next those are just so those
▶ 25:40 are four actions out of i don't know 15 in the building section next section is getting around Melrose, transportation. Again, with a focus on encouraging low-carbon modes of transportation, walking, biking, public transit, encouraging use of zero-emission vehicles. The car industry is going to be a huge help in this. There are going to be so many great new cars coming out in the next next five to ten years um great new electric vehicles and um we need to install the infrastructure melrose is ahead of the game there we've got those really cool i don't know if you've noticed them the pole mounted ev chargers around melrose in certain locations but um we might be doing more in some other public areas public parking lots um the zero emission zero emission mobility zoning
▶ 26:37 measures that's again where you guys come in and then with the city leading by example to um electrify our own fleet next again this just shows this is no surprise most most of our most of our transportation vehicles my vehicle miles traveled are from our residential cars which is why we have to focus on electric vehicles next um so again a couple couple actions within the strategy are to um supporting the the great work that you've already been doing over the years um smart growth transit oriented development um the housing production plan is a great supporter of this work and just continue on this path and and keep it up adopting parking policies to maximize the fishing efficient use of spaces reducing the use of single occupancy vehicles
▶ 27:41 um and incentivizing electric vehicle charging infrastructure by the way did you guys know that jack flats just installed six new ev chargers which is really exciting uh next and then finally the grid there's only so much that residents can do about the electric grid, but you can move on to the next slide. But continue to maximize onsite renewables on our rooftops, on our municipal buildings, and other programs, community shared solar for people who can't install solar on their roof or if they rent, and then procuring renewable energy for all remaining energy needs. Melrose as a city already I think our next contract includes an additional 10% renewable energy on top of what the state requires. Um, we have Melrose community power that includes additional renewable energy.
▶ 28:49 And, um, always looking for ways to advocate for and. Um, increase the amount of renewable energy on on the grid. With the state, as, you know, doing a ton on offshore wind and other other ways. of greening the grid so i think that's it this is melrose's makeup and a couple actions that we have i don't need to go into it and then keep going and then there's an implementation plan there's always an implementation plan we talk about governance what i'd love to do is create a sustainability commission of different people from different backgrounds to help us stay on track we need to do a lot more public education and engagement and partner with different different stakeholders throughout the community to to continue to roll
▶ 29:49 roll out these strategies and actions so thank you for your time i just wanted to you know i think the importance of this is to just provide you with the context for things that might come your way and also as you consider new policies or new developments um know that this is the the um the underlying plan that the city has and the mayor's adopted and um i think is um uh what we're moving towards over the over the next few years happy to take any questions Thanks, Martha. We'll get some feedback. Also, thank you for your efforts when we went through that incentive zoning. Your input was very helpful with that, so we appreciate what you're working on. I don't have any questions right now, but does anyone else from the board have any questions?
▶ 31:04 I have a feeling we're going to think about a lot of them at some point during all the zoning changes that we're going to start considering, but it was 1 place and this is, I tried to take some notes, but I've forgotten was 1 place that you talked about developing design standards. And I think that's 1 of the things on our plate too, is design standards. They may not be just energy related, but I think we're, that's a big project. So, can you just remind me what design standards were you working on? Was it for new construction and energy use or? Green building, right? Yeah. Yeah, this is this is. Around energy use for the most part. That where this is a, this is a grant from the municipal vulnerability preparedness program and the, the, the, what we're doing is working with to create a suite of.
▶ 32:14 Green building design guidelines that I think that are. Hopefully in support of, you know, the work, the zoning updates that you've already put in place and helpful to developers. Um, Denise and others, you know, there will be a review process as we get closer. I don't think that, um, we're gonna, I don't think that these will be adopted by the end of this grant period. Cause we have to be done with this by June 30th, but we'll have something to move forward with at the end of this process. And I just want to add it definitely piggybacks on the work we did last year, the planning board with the incentive zoning. Um. amendment because if you recall we were trying to build sustainability measures into the
▶ 33:03 Denise Gaffey: into that zoning tool um but also felt like you know there was still a lot of information that we were a lot of changes happening in the marketplace and a lot of information around design standards that would be really helpful so so we were really excited when um you know martha brought this grant to our attention and lori and i are are working very closely with her um on this kind of this collaboration so i think it will be very helpful to our efforts awesome anyone else um just uh um mathano is my my position on the grid so we won't go there um that's way too long a subject for this uh but in this whole plan there's certainly two things that that jump out at me that that the city itself can do um and and one of course is the is the change to the code which i
▶ 33:58 think is going to be great um anything that can be done to um to encourage solar is is also really big um if we want to change attitudes about walking and cycling in this community then the police department is going to have to get on board with that and actually start enforcing the traffic laws um because right now there's a serious bicyclist i hate to say this but i put my bicycle in my vehicle in my big suv and drive somewhere to bicycle and i do that only for safety reasons and um and that's not right i should be able to if i live in maros i should be able to get on that bicycle anywhere in the city and safely ride to um to any of the bicycle pass that we're surrounded by um to ride so uh this from the city's point of view
▶ 34:55 they're going to have to come to grips with enforcing the traffic laws so people will feel safe to walk and cycle in the city thanks i agree we look forward to the opportunity to provide additional input and um appreciate your time thank you very much for for your time and giving me some time on your agenda tonight i know your meetings are really busy and very long but um just uh i appreciate the opportunity and you'll be hearing more about it during first month april um so you you're my you're the first presentation there will be others and again if you're interested this will probably probably be linked on the website if you want to read more about it and it'll come out in drips and drabs depending on what kind which initiative or action we're working
▶ 35:56 on but now you have the back story so thank you we'll keep everyone posted yep thank you martha thank you that was a good one thanks martha thank you okay um so our next item we're on to the recommendations to the board of appeals um these are recommendations for the board of appeals hearing on april 13th The first is case 22-002, it's 68 Granite Street. Michael Carter is the applicant. Can you all see my screen? Okay, you can all hear me all right? Okay. Yep. So this is the first case. Like Greg said, it's 68 Granite Street. The applicant lives in a single family dwelling and they're seeking variances from 23, or 23544E, 18 and 19 for left side yard in 3 stories and 235.5 for half-story and
▶ 37:08 gable setback. So the subject property has a single family house on it, that's non-conforming as it relates to the right side yard, the left side yard, and the front yard, and the lot is preexisting non-conforming in terms of the lot area and their request is to construct a shed dormer across the rear to expand both existing bedrooms and expand a half bath into a full bath this property is a little bit unique in that because of the elevation the basement counts as a story so the proposed dormer provides a small amount of additional living space to expand the second floor bedrooms and bathroom. But the site does slope downward towards the backyard and also from the left and the right. So the dormer is technically creating a three-story structure, but the house
▶ 38:06 will still function and appear as a two-story structure. The basement is unfinished and And even if it was to be made into a usable space, it wouldn't, it would still appear as a basement. So, we feel that the proposed location of the dormer is such that it won't be seen from the front of the house, leaving the streetscape relatively unaffected. So, I can, should I go on to the next one or should I stop? Okay, we'll pause there. Okay. I guess any questions comments or input from the board. I did have a comment, I guess I went to, I walked by this because it's an easy, it's an easy walk from where I live and I could bring the dog that way. And it's a really funky neighborhood with the changes in grade.
▶ 39:04 It goes down and goes up again and a lot of the houses like this. i think the way you're explaining it is truly a two-story house and even with the dormer in the back it doesn't it's not dormer in the third floor it's the second floor but it's a three-story house technically because of the basement being fully exposed above grade i guess in the back um and i i do think it's because i felt very strongly about the three-story the two and a half story limit and really sticking to our guns with the rules about farmers but this one i think is very unique because of the grade of the property and all the houses in that area in some places look very very tall just because of the grade going way down all of a sudden
▶ 39:56 and then it goes back up so i'm actually in favor of pointing out the uh the the condition of the grade at this making it unique and at least not opposing a grant of a variance for this sideline setbacks obviously are existing. I don't see them making any change to the impact on the neighborhood, but the dormer part, I think I would like to at least note that, that this is really kind of a unique situation because of the grade in this area. Okay, thanks. And that's helpful. Anyone else? I agree with Ian. You had a good phrase that you said it's dormer ring. The 2nd story is it kind of is if you look at at the house, it's a 2 story house. If they had more fill when they built it, it would probably look like a 2 story house in the back.
▶ 40:59 But, yeah, I know. I agree. The lot is very deep. It was way back there a lot of trees. It looks like to it. Yeah, this, this will be fine. So, I guess is that is that Paul and Ann, are you thinking that we do a neutral letter, but point out that we don't object to the dormer situation in this case on with, you know, some clarification or is it a supporting letter? I'd support it. If anyone else feels differently, it could be neutral, but yeah, I think it's a very good application of a Exception because it deserves it. On its merit, that's always makes me a little nervous supportive areas, but, you know, at least like, to be neutral. But if the, if the general consensus was more supportive, I think I could go there in the case.
▶ 41:59 What about a, you know, we have no objection and we'll point out the uniqueness. Say, we typically are protective of the dormer, but this does propose, you know, a, a unique situation and and leave the standard language about deferred discretion. Is that kind of kind of toe the line there? I think we should follow me. I don't want to make it complicated. No, I think we should be careful to point out that, you know, we don't object because it is unique. And this is something. Oh, yeah, absolutely. The uniqueness makes it. That that that decision. Okay. Anyone else. Yeah, I agree with I agree with Paul and I think, um. You know, I think that, uh, and your comments, uh, as well. Um, something just, uh, better than a neutral letter, um, without toll wholeheartedly endorsing it is is fine. You know.
▶ 43:12 That sounds like a motion, Jack. Sure. I'll emotionally. We send a slightly positive, um, letter based on your verbiage. 2nd, 2nd, that, uh. Does the, uh, we can double check the language a letter when we. Before we submit it, but I think that made sense. Right. And as far as. Okay, any further discussion on questions. Comments all right so all those in favor of that letter say, aye. Aye aye aye any opposed. Okay, the next case is 22 dash 0, 0, 4, 69 Glendale Avenue, Stephanie and Daniel Lawson. Can you see this new case? Okay, perfect. So this is on 69 Glendale Ave. It's another single family dwelling. This applicant is seeking variances from 44G18 and 19 for the front yard. So the subject property is a corner lot. The existing structure is pre-existing non-conforming as it relates to the front yard setback.
▶ 44:29 and the request is to construct a two-story addition with a porch on the first floor in the left front corner of the house. This proposal does include removing the existing roof to construct a second floor addition and a rear mudroom by right. As you can see the front yard the required is 20 feet. The applicant currently has 18 feet and they're reducing it by about a foot and a half. So we feel that the proposed addition doesn't appear terribly detrimental. it doesn't severely alter the front yard setback and the new structure will follow all the other setback land coverage and height requirements as set in the zoning code thanks maya um any comments observations from the board i think it's a similar letter or or at least or at least
▶ 45:25 uh a neutral letter objection and we could note the corner lot problem that houses like this have it's a small set variance you know it's a small further encroachment in the setback technically it's the side of the front and i i feel like we've had language in these recommendation letters that are kind of canned language with respect to the corner lot issues that we could probably reuse sounds good yeah i'd agree especially lots of the neighborhood and the proximity of houses you know the equivalent side you know equals basically or they the second front equals a lot of other people's sides so it would be consistent with the neighborhood i think sounds good so i think we need a motion for a neutral letter with a
▶ 46:29 clarification on the you know the explanation of why we don't have an issue based on the corner lot sounds like the way to go brian you want to make that motion uh i'll make a motion along this line wait a second that was in i i didn't hear you but i saw you um one second sorry um any other comments right okay all in favor say aye aye aye aye aye aye any abstained or nays nope so okay that next one is um case 22-00561 tappan street joseph coelho is the applicant um great so this is um on top industry it's a single family dwelling the variants are 44g 18 and 19 um for the left side yard so the subject property is a single family home and the existing structure is pre-existing non-conforming as it relates to the left side yard setback and the request is to
▶ 47:46 demolish the existing one-story addition on the left side of the house and a deck on the rear of the house to rebuild an addition that is one and two stories tall and then the deck will be constructed on the right side of the house and a farmer's porch will be built in the front of the house which will be by right we feel that the proposed left side addition is not detrimental it does extend the existing non-conforming setback which is relatively generous and then the structure on the abutting lot is also set back far enough from the property we think so that is this proposal okay any any feedback from the board on this one um no i feel pretty much you know it's only a couple of foot uh off the uh off the required
▶ 48:41 amount anyway and they're not going to change it it's still going to be it's existing seven and a half feet it's going to be seven and a half feet when they're finished um so i don't see uh i certainly have no objection and i think it's like the other two probably just uh pretty much a neutral letter with comments okay uh jack you want to make that motion and bob can second it I'll make the motion that we write a neutral letter with with the comments about not being detrimental to the neighborhood okay okay second any further discussion or comments all in favor say aye any abstains or nays All right, great. So that wraps up the cases. Uh, the next item is the election of officers. So this is our annual meeting election of officers.
▶ 50:02 Did not get a 1Million emails asking for people who wanted to take over the role of chair. So, I'm happy to continue in that if that's. What folks want, but I'm willing to. Entertain other thoughts or suggestions of. People feel differently. What are we in? Which officers do we elect? Is it just. Chair and clerk, those are the 2. yeah. And currently, Greg, you are the chair of course. And Ann is the clerk. If anyone's interested in taking on the clerk position, it's. As far as I have done it before, it seems to me it's not that hard. Occasionally, I have to sign things, and these days so many people work remotely, at least part of the time. It's not that hard to get down to City Hall to sign things on behalf of the planning board.
▶ 51:11 If anyone wanted to step up, and I think I'm empowered to sign approval, not required plans, or is that a separate authorization? That is a separate authorization. Yeah, and I know. Continue the same place. I think I heard to nominate the same slate. That's correct. We have a 2nd, 2nd. Any further discussion last minute opportunities jumping. All right, um, you've been doing a great job. Thanks, um, so all in favor say, aye. All right. All right. All right. Any abstain or nays and do we need to appoint the subcommittee chairs? Denise? We usually do that at this meeting and, um, just to. Just to clarify who's on which committees and, um, and just to yeah. Just refresh the chair position and.
▶ 52:29 I just we, you know, we need the chair positions. Sure. So, right now, and is chair of the zoning subcommittee and Carla is chair of the design subcommittee. Right? And since Carla is not here, we'll obviously advance her to continue, but, um, do we know that she's okay with that for certain? I think she is. Yes. Okay. And and are you good with that? Yes, I like being on the zoning subcommittee. I think in the next couple of years, someone else should take the chair, but yeah, I'm willing. Okay. Anyone else interested in one of those positions? I think it probably makes sense to continue, but we would definitely be happy to start to make some transitions if folks want to. Can we clarify who's?
▶ 53:22 We have a lot of new members now, i'm not sure who's on design review and who's on zoning subcommittee okay well i think the zoning is um and greg beth and brian oh oh no not paul anymore it's brian okay i i defected over to the site plan uh review all right that's okay and um and that's where everybody else is so it's a five to four split in favor to have a view at the moment okay do we need a motion then for the committee chairs or you can take a motion we have a motion to continue the same appointments for the committee chairs sure i'll move i'll move that we appoint the same committee chairs as we have a second i'll second that okay all in favor say aye aye aye aye any opposed or nays that's it all right so our next meeting we have a zoning subcommittee meeting
▶ 54:32 Denise Gaffey: next week April 6th where we are kicking off decent amount of work yeah so we'll refresh that list we'll bring that back and of course we have a lot of a lot of items from the housing production plan which by the way was approved by the The council last week. Oh, good. Fantastic news. Right? Um. So that will now move on to the Department of housing and community development. They're the. Entity that also has to approve it. Um, we have no concerns there. But, um, so that's good news now, the hard work, you know, begins and there are quite a few zoning initiatives. In that plan, uh, as well as many other initiatives, but we'll start to talk about that next week. Um, and, um, yeah, so. That will be a remote meeting again, right? Yes. I think we, we had to do a remote meeting because some of the members were.
▶ 55:34 We're not going to be in town. I'm not going to be in town then I am now. Right? Okay. Yeah, I think that's why we have 1 of them. So that's good. And I ask, are we talking about going back in person at any point or probably not before next fall at this point? Well, we might have to after June to the governor's order expires. Spires in mid July, so we should probably start thinking along those lines. And I know we would have to go into executive session to discuss specifics, but is there anything. That suit over the, I think it was an appeal of. Uh, you know, the little dead in the street, the names escaping me suddenly. Yeah, yeah, I don't I do not have a, an update for tonight's meeting. The, the, the conference has been postponed multiple occasions, so there just really hasn't been any.
▶ 56:47 I mean, I think Shannon indicated she'd have it. Executive session meeting when there was something to. Essentially talk about, well, the postponements are just core postponements. It's not like the parties are talking. Oh, no, the parties are the parties are talking also. Oh, good. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Anything else from anyone? Yeah, I just want to say this will be, this will be my last meeting with the board as you know, and I appreciate both of you guys. The time has come for me to step down though. So, I appreciate it and it's a privilege working with the group. I wasn't sure if you were going to make the announcement tonight, Bob, so I was holding that in case you were still hanging on for April.
▶ 57:48 We really appreciate everything you've done. Bob, you were 20 years? Yes, yes. Oh, wow. That's a long time. Yeah, that is Bob. Thank you. That said, you're probably going to enjoy your time more than a lot of meetings. You know, I enjoyed the meeting with you guys. I learned a lot, you know. Congratulations, Bob. That's great. I wish you the best, Bob. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you'll be missed. We'll need you as a consultant on removal of . Let me know anytime. Thanks again. I think we're all set then and we'll convene again in a month. except for the subcommittee that I'll meet next week. Okay. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Good night, everyone. Bye, Bob. We'll miss you. Do the same, though.
▶ 59:08 Bye, Bob.