e e e e e e e e e e e e and the floor is yours Mr chair good morning everybody and welcome uh I will call to order the public Improvement commission hearing of March 28th 2024 Mr lining please take a roll call would the representative from the public works department please State their name for the record Yasha Franklin hudge Property Management Department y here inspectional Services Department ran Ron Water and Sewer Commission Denise dein commission for persons with disabilities there we have uh we do not have a representative from BTD but we do have Quorum all right thank you very much uh so first item of business is hearing minutes one at the request of the public Improvement commission staff the acceptance of the minutes of the pic hearing held on March 14th 2024 do I hear a motion to approve the minutes I make a motion to uh accept the minutes of the pic hearing on March 14th 2024 second all in favor I I I I any oppos or obstain so moved on to our next item public hearing continued number one on a set of additions by the Harvard Commons butters for roadway betterments to upgrade the following private ways in West Dr 32b public WS Senator bowling Circle Northwest of Harvard Street Snowden way between Senator bowling Circle and Senator bowling Circle new business on uh February 8th uh with a public hearing on uh March 4th to be continued uh on Monday April 1st 2024 at the brook Charter High School 200 American Le Highway mapin at 6 p.m. Todd want to explain what's going on here for the record sure uh this this is really just kind of an interim step um we had uh our last public hearing out in the community um with the ab butters on March 4th um at that time we uh W had not been able to secure a meeting location and time for the final meeting uh which presumably will be the vote of the abutters um so we had to continue the hearing to this date um we've now secured that date it's going to be this coming Monday on April 1st um at which time we expect to take a vote of the abutters to see whether or not they are in favor of moving forward with this these petitions um right thank you very much um any uh before we move to continue any uh comments or uh questions from the commission or uh members of the public all right seeing none do I hear a motion to continue public hearing continued number one I make a motion to continue public hearing contined agenda item one until the next pick hearing on April 11th uh 2024 uh Joe I believe the intent here is to continue to uh April 1st uh on Monday when we will have the public uh hearing uh meeting um so I I'll restate that I make motion to continue this uh uh public heing continued agenda item until April 1st second all in favor I I any oppose or abstain don't moved we'll see everyone on Monday night uh on to uh public hearing uh number one um actually before I uh you know read this into the record I just um you know I want to take a moment to ackn um something that the the tragedy that happened um in this area in Fort Point uh on Sunday evening um a uh young girl uh four years old visiting their family from Colorado was killed um at the intersection or near the intersection of Congress and sleeper Street uh in a a crash and uh you know this is uh um obviously it's devastating when something like this happens in theity city um and you know underscores I think just how important it is that uh we be pursuing these kinds of transformative projects that can uh improve safety for everyone using the road so um I just want to acknowledge that um this coming in the midst of this review process by the pic uh I think certainly for me at a personal level is a um a very very sad reminder of why this work uh is so important here so um with that I will read this it to the record uh public hearing number one I'm petition by the city of Boston Public Works Department for the making of specific repairs within the following public ways in South Boston consisting of curb realignment roadway and sidewalk reconstruction with structural soil as well as new and relocated pedestrian ramps specialty pavement Street lighting infrastructure Street trees storm drain infrastructure bike racks Street Furniture Ballers trash receptacles raise crosswalks protected bicycle facilities and driveway curb cuts Congress Street between sleeper Street and Boston War Road sleeper Street between Congress Street and seport Boulevard a Street between Congress Street and melter Street Boston morph Road at Congress Street bport Boulevard at sleeper Street this was new business on March 14th as shown on its set of plans entitled city of auson Public Works Department engineering division pafic repairs plans Congress Street sleeper Street and a street of Boston 19 sheets dated March 28 2024 would the proponents please introduce themselves their affiliations and give us an update on any changes since your new business hearing as well as uh any uh potential uh progress on uh some of the outstanding Community issues that were identified in new business um thank Chief um morning chairman uh members um of the commission um thank you for the the words you expressed um chairman um absolutely at the Crux of all our projects is you to improve safety um for all users um and and this is this is one of the important project that we would we want to move forward with um to address those needs um my name is Jeffrey Alexis um with the public works engineering division um petitioning for the Conger Street sleeper Street and a street U reconstruction project I'm joined here with u my colleague from BTD Pat OE um as well as our Design Consultants for Crosby Slinger um and small r as well as um HDR um I let them introduce themselves shortly um before getting started I just wanted to provide some background information on this project um the Congress Street project um actually is a carryover from The Big Dig and the crossroads initiative um in which a a handful of streets were selected to make improvements to with the creation of the greenway um as of recent Boston Public Works Department as well as BTD have reinitiated this design project um as you mean to to address you mean the safety concerns along the corridor um and with the assistance uh and direction of the community as well as the landmarks commission uh we did develop a design that updates and uaes existing infrastructure uh while maintaining the cultural fabric of the Fort Point neighborhood um as requested by The Neighborhood um we're proposing a design that um proposes bicycle accommodations additional sidewalk space um for accessibility as well as some Cafe Cafe space um as well as existing Street trees along the corridor um with that I would turn it over to um to to our Consultants to go with the rest of the improvements and as well as to address some of the changes that were made in regards to the comments um the comments and inquiries that were made um from the the um the business Kevin thank you je uh my name is Kevin marrison with HDR again I'm part of the CSS design team let me share my screen with all the plans so again um yeah members of the board and commissioner thanks for having us again um we had some very minor changes from last time and which I'll I'll go over quickly here um the biggest change we had from new business is the plant set got significantly smaller from 26 sheets down to 19 that's because we combined the landscape plans and the specific repair ples in one combined set so um on the surface that's one of the bigger changes um we did get some comment back from both the public Improvement commission and the disabilities commission all which were Incorporated here and then I'll go through those really quick and I'll if anyone wants to see a particular thing in the plans please let me know but I'll start going through these now so um at Congress and sleeper we're currently proposing the that raise crosswalk um we're doing everything we can again to double check to make sure that we're making every kind of improvement we can at this spot we do have a proposed curent bump out into sleeper Street which Narrows the crosswalk Lane and and a combination of that in the rise crosswalk will really highlight the The Pedestrian first um priority that we're really trying to establish here um rest of the sheet is pretty much um the same as you had last time but we have separated cycle tracks uh at at roadway level on both sides of Conger Street as part of our proposed project so completely separated from the roadway we also have bumped out the sidewalk significantly um the sidewalks on Kong Street are at least 10 ft wide and are in many areas up to 17 feet wide where possible if I if I can just chime in here um there was a a comment about having uh minimum 4T wide passageways from the Walking Pathway to the cafe or seating areas and um the on the north of this sheet you can sort of see the outline of uh what's potential location for the blue bikes but we added the passageway way to the right of that to the east you can see by the mailboxes that area is you know exact use of that is influx of the location of where that passageway is is also in flux likewise um we had passageway the cafe spaces um that we want to make sure that the owners of the C cafes um that we work those out with them but there there are passageways to all of the areas that are either existing cafe or uh future Cafe spaces thanks te um we did received one comment um from disability said you notice the Landscaping strip with the existing and proposed Street trees is in the exact same spots in today that's because the underground utility um conflicts hun Conger Street are pretty extreme um from Curb to curb the entire streets utilities so we did try to see if we could push those landscape strips out at one point but the utility confli it was just impossible so but we do have the 10ft path to travel oh sorry we have at least a minimum 5 foot wide path to travel along the building phases we have that landscape strip that has occasional uh concrete cut throughs to get to The Wider sidewalk and then where possible we have that extra sidewalk space out into the road for uh we have some benches in that area Cafe space uh whatever that may be FR Street also has a race crosswalk um one change we had make and we don't take this slightly based on the tragedy that just happened at sleeper street is at stilling Street we we had to remove the race crossw that we had originally proposed that is because the sidewalk at stilling Street on Conger Street on the North side is 10 ft wide um we are making it slightly wider to the east but there was not enough room to have a raised crosswalk and have the accessible path of travel lie entirely within the cities right away that's because Stelling street is not a city own Street it's a private way so um we're still looking to see if there's any other improvements we can make but for now that race crosswalk had to be removed with the the other ones that we had proposed all still remain on sleeper Street and working with uh Dan mer at BTD right now we are while they're not shown on the plane yet we proposed to add two speed humps onto sleeper street we have two locations that we've picked that work from a a drainage perspective and traffic safety so we're working with BTD to get those added to the plan and um those will be put in uh before the set goes out for advertisement also on saer Street um and two other locations on this project as well we added in reciprocal ramps this was uh both a pic and a disabilities commission comment so we have um these new recipal ramps added in the one at sleeper Street and Cort Boulevard will require an architectural access boarded variance the existing slopes coming off the moley bridge and coming around the corner to Martin's Parker um they're very steep so we can get an accessible ramp in but the the ramp going around the corner up onto the bridge will be uh it won't meet the maximum slope requirements from Ab so um we will be pursuing a variance for that on E Street the same thing we're going to be um adding in a reciprocal ramp at the the alleyway underneath the Summer Street Bridge here and we're also adding in a a catch Basin here at this location too section of a street has very poor drainage and adding in a catch Bas and while we do the ramp will help take care of that and um eliminate a recurring problem on that little stretch of the street there so one another added benefit to the what we're trying to do in Hy street we have or we propose a 10-ft sidewalk which will allow us to have a 5ft uh passageway an accessible Route Around the existing Bridge stair up on the Summer Street uh which we have nothing like that today here the sidewalks are extremely nrow so um that'll be a good Improvement there for the community for pedestrian safety beyond that we um we have gone through we've uh we did me um at least for with to we've uh believe we covered all the comments from both those agencies um we did for utilities we did receive some Bost more in Ser comment today which I have not had a chance to look at yet um we did the only other response we got from util the agency was National Grid um they may be looking to improve some of their gas infrastructure before this project goes out for construction so um th is the consultants and um we're working with public works and the utility company to coordinate that effort but um the design is mostly unchanged from that point Sorry Jeff yeah no I was just going to add that um we we will be working with Boston water in regards to the infrastru structure uh which is located in the sidewalks um it may be some conflicts with the street tree so we will continue to work with um ogi as well as the parks department to figure out um the best path forward in order to provide some Street trees along the corridor um we probably include jent language in the contract um to address you mean should you mean the the utilities be discovered you mean where we are proposing a street you we'll look at providing something else but um ideally we're going to try to provide Street CH along the court we look at species um they will be within um the existing line of Street trees that are on the corridor um but then uh with the the per paver strip um it should allow the roots to get enough water and not have to impact um the the the SE infrastructure so we're working on that um and we'll definitely have um a way to address it as part of the final design thanks jef and then for those who didn't get a chance to see this at the new business meeting two weeks ago this is a proposed rendering of what uh Congress people look like look look like this is looking eastbound t e Street from fransworth street so um yeah we'll have Kevin I'm seeing the plan I don't know if it's oh something else that should showing oh all right hopefully that's better yes um this is the proposed rendering of Congress Street at fars worth looking eastbound so this will give you an idea of what the much better than what the the plan can show again we have the widen sidewalks uh beyond the Landscaping strip where possible we have the curb separated uh cycle track facility in both directions on Congress Street and then um we have um Tak improved Street lighting uh uh New Street trees uh wherever possible where they don't conflict with utilities um that are all going to be in the same row as the trees that were there as Jeff had just mentioned so overall this is a very worthwhile Improvement to a Carter that that desperately needs it and um that we look forward to making these improvements to this neighborhood thank you very much uh appreciate that and uh uh with that I'll open it up to Commissioners for questions or comment all right hearing nothing from members of the commission I see Tom has his handed up Tom go right ahead yeah thank you Chief um Tom ready from uh for Point neighborhood association um thank you for your comments regarding the tragedy on Sunday um Tom we we lost your audio there for a second oh is this any better Chief sorry yes lost your audio maybe maybe it was on my yeah anyway I just wanted to reiterate thank thank you for the words regarding the tragedy on Sunday and remind uh uh everybody in the city and uh and our elected officials that the four-year-old had a name her name's Gracie right um and with regard to the uh Community engagement on this project we're very happy with uh the amount of effort that the city put in uh as I stated um earlier in the business uh a number of meetings took place um all well attended by both uh retail businesses on the ground floor along Congress Street as well as res residential buildings and about the projects um all of the issues that were identified and raised uh seems to have been addressed there was one outstanding item that uh that uh we brought that we had raised in new businesses that was relocation of existing uh resident permit parking and BTD has been uh responsive in that regard so we're looking forward to that uh um you know we don't expect any issues with that Chief uh I just a quick question um with regard to construction phasing assuming this gets prioritized uh funded and then construction begins in 0405 does a construction management plan get um put together like uh a typical commercial building how how is the community get engaged with regard to construction efforts thank thank you so um yeah so as part of this project um we do develop um Al the consultant generally does develop construction management plan for the contractor um essentially um but realistically the contractors um can then submit their own um construction management plan um that is a conversation that we can have with our construction management team um as well as a community to kind of understand um where you mean they they should take priority as well as um just coordinating the work to be done um as you as you're aware um ultimately we want to make improvements L the quarter where it's it's but it's it's mostly needed and where where prioritized so um yeah that is a conversation that we we can kind of reach out um in our community engagement team our Communications teams um have been um very vocal um and um and essentially transparent about what the city is doing and how we're doing it so um there will be construction updates um as as part of the construction um ahead of the construction um so that we'll definitely reach out and an alert and notify to the community of when this is going to be happening thank you Jeff uh so uh Commissioners um you know the neighborhoods in support of this the sooner we can get the better um that's it thank you thank you very much Tom um any other comments or questions from members of the public uh pic Commissioners pic staff no I'll take this opportunity to remind the public if you wish to ask questions or um add testimony please use the raised hand function at the bottom of your screen which um has kindly demonstrated I see nothing else and I'm all set on the um I appreciate the plan updates that HDR um did in in regards to our comments all right uh with that do I hear a motion to approve public hearing number one I make a motion to approve of public hearing agenda item one uh on a petition by the city's public works department for specific repairs in the area of Congress sleeper and a streets Boston W Road and seport Boulevard as further read into the record by the chair second all in favor I I I any opposed or abstain so moved thank you very much let's get this built yes commissioner thank you all right on to public hearing number two on a petition by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority for the making of specific repairs within the following public ways in Boston Proper consisting of curb realignment sidewalk reconstruction with structural soil as well as new and relocated pedestrian ramps specialty pavement Street lighting infrastructure Street trees storm drain infrastructure bike racks Street furniture trash recepticles driveway curb Cuts Green Storm water infrastructure and a race crosswalk St James Avenue generally between dartman Street and Trinity Place Trinity Place South of St James Avenue this was new business on March 14th has shown on a set of plans entitled city of Boston Public Works Department engineering division specific repair plan improvements to Copley Square Phase 2 St James Avenue Back Bay five sheets dated March 7th 2024 the prund please introduce themselves their affiliations and give us an update on any changes since your new business hearing morning I'm Pete Roy deputy director of active transportation and station access at the MBTA um I'm managing the design of this project for the te um with our consultant Howard Stein Hudson um Valerie CH here is our representative from hsh and I will hand it over to her in just a minute um but I've been working very closely with Beach Outfield at parks and William moose at ptd um B William if you'd like to introduce yourselves hello everyone um be atfield Boston Parks and Recreation project manager for a renovation of cofy Square Park just a little bit about background um Parks presented our cop Poli s project to pic back in 2023 in September and during reviews the streets and the disabilities commission and the NBTA shared their priority to realign the St James curb to improve Transit experience in pedestrian safety Parks did not have a consultant team that was prepared to address this request so we've been working um meeting weekly with streets and BTA and disabilities to participate on a plan for this area so this is the plan that we're reviewing today and thanks all for the collaboration and I'll pass it back over to the rest of the team for introductions thanks B uh Willam moose with BTD I'm a transportation planner with uh with the transportation department and uh I don't really have much to add I think Pete and be gave a great intro there but it's been great working with them on this project and uh we're excited to present it to you today thanks I'll just I'll just recap really quickly an overview of the project so this design will upgrade the passenger experience bus operations in public realm at St James Avenue at Dartmouth Street um uh the bus stop um it will add new trees previous pavers two JC to co bus shelters additional bus birthing space and a new Transit signal it'll also uh make required accessibility upgrades and safety improvements to the intersection of St James Avenue at Trinity Place including a raiseed crossing and a small bio retention area on the Southeast corner of the intersection um the bus stop serves people in eight Boston neighborhoods as well as Watertown and Newton in 2022 about, 1500 passengers boarded and alighted from buses here each weekday making this the ninth busiest bus up in the MBTA Network and in the coming years the MBTA will increase bus service here by about 60% making the need to provide additional space for passengers and buses even more critical so I'd like to address a couple of questions that arose at our new business hearing two weeks ago um first on the question of Engagement we are working with 200 Clarendon and the Fairmont Copley Hotel as immediate abutters to this project um since 200 clar 200 Clarendon is licensed to maintain the specialty pavers on the Southeast corner of Trinity Place we're working with them to update their maintenance agreement to include an additional 100 or so Square fet um that will be added to the streetscape in order to make curb ramps compliant and as requested we've also engaged the Back Bay Association and have reached out to the Boston Athletic Association for their input on this this site um next it was requested that we develop a plan for maintenance in the project area and I'm just going to share my screen quickly sorry can you all see that we're still seeing the plan oh now works so we've um been working with our respective respective agencies to determine maintenance responsibilities within the project area and we've drafted an agreement which was shared with pic staff in order to move forward with that to formal acceptance so this list here shows all of the sort of business items contained within that that maintenance agreement um Point by Point um for the area for most items we received written or verbal agreement M from for the responsible parties um much of this is covered in existing City policy um however we're still having ongoing conversations about some of the Furnishings such as um trash and benches which we'll look to be ironing out in the coming weeks um winter snow clearance will be handled jointly by uh JC Deco according to their contract the parks department and mbta's Transit facility maintenance as part of its key bus routs snow clearance contract uh currently I believe this this stop handles two key bus routes and will hand will uh handle an additional key bus route in the future um this is basically in order to ensure that the stop is well cleared and accessible throughout the winter and this diagram shows uh sort of where we've landed with those parties um in terms of responsibilities and the overlap for uh winter maintenance so I will stop sharing my screen and hand it over to Valerie to um speak to the the specific repair plan thanks um well you did all the easy stuff cuz you went through everything that we proposed I don't really have to explain too much except for the changes that we made since new business two weeks ago so below and above are the graphics that we showed at new business showing all the ramp reconstruction side off reconstruction those R Crossing um the realigned ramps the bio retention Basin in this curb extension piece um two things that have changed since new business are um the bus shelters so previously we were showing a large one which you could see here but now they will be two um and then the other change um which is not as noticeable noticeable but we've widened all our proposed ramps out to 10 ft to match the width of the raced Crossing um Mike who is our traffic Le um for this project can also talk about the L bike uh marking comment that came up at the new business meeting last week so I'll turn that over to him uh we're um M senior traffic to St um we're not showing the bus bike lane because this is an existing bus lane uh that comes into the study area from the east on St James Avenue which is not currently bus bike uh and also since we're expecting a 60% increase in bus service at this stop um plus with layovers uh would introduce conflicts of bikes approaching in a bus bike lane um with you know buses stopped at the coply square stop they would need to merge into adjacent traffic uh so we felt that keeping the bikes in the travel Lane uh instead of sharing the bus bike lane was uh the better approach for this project all right um any additional updates I think that was it all right missioners questions comments I just want to thank um the project team for working collaboratively um with my office over the past I think it was 6 months 7 months um since September um so I just want to um uh pass on um those sentiments from our office likewise thank thank you Sarah we appreciate your input you've been there for you know every coordination meeting we really appreciate having you commers other comments all right hearing none K staff or members of the public uh I think we're all set on this um I appreciate Pete's work on the maintenance agreement stuff I'll continue working with him and Shan to make sure that we get all of those documents ironed out before we issue permits all right uh with that do I hear a motion to approve uh public hearing number two make a motion to approve a petition by the mass Bay Transportation Authority for specific repairs uh in the area of St James Avenue and Trinity Place as further readit to the rec by the chair all in favor I I any opposed or abstain so moved thank you very much thank you thank you all right on to public hearing on to public hearing number three on a petition by sfh 48 Boon Street LLC for the acceptance of a pedestrian eement adjacent to lra Street public Way Boston Proper located on its Northerly side at address number 41 generally between Tamworth Street and Washington Street this was new business on March 14th that is shown on a plan entitled city of Boston Public Works Department engineering division pedestrian eement plan 41 L greine Street Boston Chinatown one sheet dated October 24th 2023 the opponents please introduce themselves their affiliations and give us a brief update on this project and any changes since your new business hearing all hello commissioner thank you um to the commission uh my name is Carla chaffie I'm an attorney at Nixon p and I represent the planning office of urban Affairs the proponent of this application um unfortunately there was an error with the public notice in the herald so we are requesting a twoe continuance got it uh do I hear uh Commissioners spy staff any comments or questions before we move to continue all right do I hear a motion to continue public hearing number three I make a motion to continue uh public hearing agenda item three uh uh to the next pick hearing on April 11th 2024 second all in favor I I I I I and opposer abstain so moved on to public hearing number four on a petition by sfh 488 milon Street LLC for the making of specific comparison with in the range street public Way Boston Proper located on its Northerly side at address number 41 generally between Tamworth Street and Washington Street consisting of curb and sidewalk reconstruction as well as new Street lighting INF the structure and the removal of one driveway curb cut new business from March 14th is shown on a plan entitled city of Boston Public Works Department engineering division specific repairs plan 41 MRA Street Boston one sheet dated March 5th 2024 the partitioners please introduce themselves and their affiliations again and let us know how you would like to proceed on this agenda item yeah hello again Carla chaffy Nix and py on behalf of the proponents uh we would like to request a continuance to the next hearing of the pic um so we can cure an issue with public notice do I hear a motion to continue public hearing number four I make a motion to uh continue the uh public hearing number four agenda item to the next pick hearing on April 11th 2024 second all in favor I hi I I any opposed or abstain so moved uh thank you we'll see you in a couple of weeks thank you see you in two weeks bye all right that concludes the public hearing section of our agenda so we have two new business items today we'll start with new business one uh 1318 River Street business Street hide Park specific repairs and a petition by HP tracks realy LLC the petitioners please introduce themselves their affiliations and walk us through what you are proposing to do uh here good evening chairman and commission staff Joe Connelly of Howard Stein Hudson uh acting as the civil engineer on this project and representing HP tracks realy LLC uh I'm joined today by James Downing and Ian McKinnon Howard Hudson as well as the proponent of the project Bobby Patel and Spectators um so will now share my screen can everyone see that yes great um so our uh our site is located at the corner of River Street and business Street uh in Boston's High Park neighborhood uh it is across the street from mbta's High Park Comm rail station um so the Redevelopment project itself involves the demolition of the existing automotive garage you're looking Southwest from the corner of River Street business Street and the construction of a new four-story residential building with about 950 sare ft of retail space on the ground floor along with covered resident parking providing 30 spaces with access from business um so the specific a pair of improvments along River Street this the closing this existing curb cut um along with installing three new bike racks three new Street trees and tree pits uh permeable papers within Furnishing Zone and corupting the entire length of sidewalk uh the business Street improvements are a little more complicated um we coordinated through the last few months with multiple agenci spearheaded by L hosle like DP along oversight from um and we ultimately determined to that this design created the greatest benefit to public BR given our constraints with the MTA parcel encompassing approach of Industry uh as well as the bring space within trffic adjacent to our city um so we've decided to bump out the public sidewalk to provide some public space and possible outdoor seating for our Cafe space for similar use once ter um we will also Closing one curve cut business Street while modifying another to be used for the garage uh comments from multiple City agencies we have also Incorporated an additional street light while relocating another uh there's been some improvements as far as Green Space uh that will serve as bio retention areas also including most Street trees um we also received comments from pic staff earlier in the week we will be incorporating radi Crossing cross business Street for their Direction um so that will be reflected and we revise plans prior to public here so our draft CMP has been submitted as well as I draft el1 and we are currently The Bu with Bal that I will open it up to question thank you very much Commissioners hearing none pic staff or members of the public I think we're all set on this um looks like Mr Craig Martin um has his hand raised go ahead Craig thank you Mr chair I'm Craig M from the high par neighborhood association been invol very involved with this proposal a couple of years ago and I can be honest with you I could hear this whole hearing except for that presenter right there Howard Stein Hudson I don't know if if the Commissioners had the same experience but he was very hard to hear what I I main question I do have is the business Street um leg that is currently owned by MBTA how was that how was that arranged has there been any change in that business street that you're using as a public way is owned by MTA I want to know if it still is yep that's still the case and that's why we uh kind of had to revise our approach um it's no longer going to be discontinuing um this leg of business street with a a larger public Plaza um okay well that um so you're going to keep the two legs of business Street onto River Street correct correct okay um I'll be honest with you in all fairness we had to go through meetings and we had hollering hollering matches um there was so much disagreement and I thought it should have been fair to bring it back to the neighborhood association you make a major change to a proposal before it goes to the public improvements commission may well be that we're all very supportive of this change but I don't know anything about it and I'm I'm I'm with the hypo native Association which was addressing this matter um I I don't I don't know if we should be getting any approvals or what have you today uh until theyve met with the community again we had several meetings of dpda were huling for traffic studies we may well not need one now because you've made this change if you were closing a leg bpda had promised us a traffic study over and over again at the meetings in the last meeting they said nope we're not going to do that but it might well be that we don't need one now if you're not closing that extra leg but we don't know uh yeah I'd love to see if this could be continued until April 11th and they can give us a quick overview through our elected vitual or or what have you or at our at our community meeting that's just step I'm I'm I'm liking what I hear I think when you're not closing that extra leg but I don't know what that entails cuz I'm sure there's a lot of details um that allowing you not to close that extra um business Street leg I guess we'd like to know what those details are so traffic patterns shouldn't be impacted uh the only thing we're doing is reducing the width of the left leg of business Street to uh accommodate um an increased width of sidewalk reducing the width of of that second leg that goes onto River Street right right um and now the the memorial that's in the middle of business street is anything changed that's not that aspect no are you are you still connecting that to your parcel no that's that's no longer part of our project um and again and this all sounds good but I I the thing is is that the zoning board of appeals gho about this um proposal because of that aspect that you were actually connecting the memorial and having a a bigger what they call what they were referring to as a pocket part and and that's why they approved it so so so gleefully that's not that's not part of the proposal anymore again I bet you we're going to support this but CH wish I'd like you to bring it to na Association just to so we can have a quick view of the diagram and then continue to state for 11th I hope with our support would the proponents be willing to um so so in thank you Mr Martin for those comments um would would you be would the proponents be willing to meet with the neighborhood association between now and the public Hearing in two weeks and present these changes and provide a little bit more of the context behind uh this change yeah absolutely um first this first Thursday in April at the municipal building at 7:00 a community meeting in on monthly meeting first Thursday at the Comm at a municipal building in April April okay oh we appreciate ATT this we we can facilitate a an email connection uh just to coordinate uh around that and uh hopefully that that presentation will happen just for the record on on this um my understanding is that the the decision not to close this leg of the street um was not ultimately that of the proponents but rather that the city and the pic and the public works department um because the MBTA was unwilling to uh feed their ownership and control over the other leg of business Street uh it was determined that it would be inappropriate to discontinue the public right of way here because in some hypothetical future where the MBTA was to exert their property rights over the other leg of the stream if we had closed this leg in front of this proposed development there would have been no Street left uh and so uh in the interest of preserving uh long-term um access to the uh to ensure that there is a street connection here um the city determined there was necessary to keep this uh leg of business Street open uh to uh since we could not secure a permanent long-term right to the other leg so I think that's my understanding of a little bit of the background behind the um decision to leave this open that's the right decision and we're so I'm so very glad to hear that behalf of the neighborhood association but again just hyac neighbors gmail.com and confirm that you can come to the April meeting just for a quick 5 minute over you just might to us what you changed and we want and be thrilled it sounds like the proponents are pled to be there so thank you thank you so much for your time Mr chair thank you uh there's one other hand up briefly elain kovi but it looks like that hand has been lowered um alen if you'd like to speak you're welcome to I'm the secretary of the High Park neighborhood association and I just wanted the contact information for Mr Conley so that we could communicate about the uh meeting on Thursday I I can put you all in touch um offline uh via email after this hearing okay thank you all right uh any other questions comments Commissioners members of the public uh P staff um I think we are all set I know that this these plans have been um a little bit of a moving Target um through no fault of the project team so we really appreciate their understanding and patience um as we the city work with our colleagues at the MBTA and others to try to figure out what the best course of action is here um I understand it probably hasn't been easy um and for that I um I I sincerely appreciate the the time and effort you put into this thank you all right well with that we will uh plan to see you uh for your public hearing on April April 11th and uh appreciate uh you meeting with the community uh in between now and then if there are of course any uh changes or or uh adjustments that come to the plans as a result of that um just work with pic staff uh on those issues we'll do thank you again all right um on to our final item your business number two 30 Park Street Warren Street Henley Street Charlestown specific repair is on a petition by 30 Park Street condominium trust for the proponents please introduce themselves their affiliations and walk us through what is being proposed here we cannot hear you a from 30 Park Street there we go now you go you got it all right thank you I was this klin here 30 Park Street City Square Char I am the home of my planter uh the picture that you presently see is the picture of the street level of the we we don't see a picture yeah it's coming up there we go we got Miss here today there we go okay uh that is the site as it sits right now I like just to walk you through the history a little bit of it if I may M uh slide down with these I purchased this property it was built in 1985 I purchased it 1987 uh just before the Reconstruction of City Square began uh this is what some of the pictures of of what the construction looked like in front of my my building uh and you can see there was no heat island at the time it was being added um if you could keep moving my it would be good this is a picture from the walk out looking uh to what was the the route 95 uh Highway and the area that that was developed out there uh that with the white uh building there that's called the IAI Grill it's been empty for the last four years but uh moving on this was the picture of uh what would look like for my front door of 30 Park Street that was the off ramp coming off of the Tobin Bridge uh onto Warren Street in Charlestown it was directly across from my front door um there is a picture of what the building looked like as as this project was getting wound down you can see there's a new concrete sidewalk that was put in front of the building and then there was a wide open area what happened was the side Warren Street didn't line up with the property lines so Mass Highway uh built this build out this bump it's now called the heat island both at theide Grill the white building on the left and in front of myself so that's how we wound up with it and they paved it over extended it out built a heat island they then put red bricks over the hot top and over the red brick sidewalk and there we go there's another picture of the off ramp that was coming down in front of my building so the off off ramp created a lot of not clean dirt and so forth and but we wound up with the this heat island when we've had fun since that day 1988 there have been numerous numerous trees planted in front of my building they just all die because the soil I believe is just all just rocks through ited the soil and U uh there's another picture of the ramps and so forth across the street from me so so the purpose of this the purpose of this is try to get some cut down the size of the heat island rece the size of the Heat Island and allow some clean fill to be put into a planter area that will help the trees grow that has been because it had been the offer there before it also encircle the heat the planter with a low level 13 in high fencing to keep the dogs off the planter and give them a chance to grow um we've planted many trees there over the years none of them take n them grow uh since 1988 we've been chasing trees there and just a happen and we'll be replacing the two trees that are presently there that are basically not that healthy uh with three new trees so with that uh I'd appreciate your consideration on this matter thank you very much and thank you for those uh incredible photos uh it's very cool to see that uh transformation documented so well much appreciated um commissioner question comments all right uh hearing them from others I have a a couple um so the uh can you go back to your your plan showing the dimensions uh the the uh the plan view here thank you next one up next one yeah this one there we go um so one uh one item related to the uh the crosswalk and the planting area the small planting area proposed on the left uh of this um bottom left portion of this area yep right there so it's showing a yep right there so it's showing a 5'4 clearance it looks like um between the edge of that planting bed and what looks like a granite um post that is kind of connected to the planting area in front of the building is that is that correct yes uh Anthony Pani architect that is the 5 foot4 5.4 ft um is what the existing Dimension is and that's the dimension that we're holding okay so one uh observation just looking at some of the street view photos from of the area is that it appears that some of the plantings on uh the um in the kind of planting area basent to the property are growing out uh into that uh over that pedestrian Zone uh and extending beyond that Granite marker um which functionally is sort of narrowing the um pedestrian the available pathway there can we get a commitment to keep those plants trimmed back so that that is this s true 5 foot 4 in poth there yeah yes uh SK I have a landscape uh person called you and I YW and I from Jamaica plan and they have been doing all my planting there for the last 30 plus years what 33 34 years and they're there numerous times during the season they do cut it back constantly uh but I will stay on them about kind to get back even further um I I I do keep an eye on that as especially on the corner of Henley Street because it's closer there to the pole um we we can cut that one back quite a bit all right excellent I appreciate that um you know beautiful plants but want to make sure that people can uh have the available with through the sidewalk to them um right to the I think yeah I think the the the next kind of thing I want to talk about is just the the sort of uh if you can go back to plan view again um so currently this area these crosswalks um or these ramps uh are not uh ADA Compliant and um as you may know the city is under a um both a a legal consent obligation as well as a moral obligation to make all of our crosswalks uh fully compliant with Ada and uh this is these ramps will at some point uh need to be reconstructed in a way that complies uh with uh the Americans with Disabilities Act um I suspect that when that reconstruction happens that it may impact the edges of the planting area and potentially the decorative fence uh here and uh we may also do work uh on the sidewalk as well for accessibility given that the brick often has its own set of challenges is so I want to sort of just one state that for the record and two confirm with the proponent that you understand that if the city does do work in this area and it impacts these planting beds well we will obviously do our best to not uh you know damage trees or other planting materials but that there may be damage or removal of elements uh that are being installed here and the city does not um as a matter of polic SE are put back in place on its own dime specialty materials that were installed by others that would mean that if it is necessary to remove um fencing or impinge into the planting area that it would be your responsibility to do any restoration work um to bring it back into the condition that we would be that we're reviewing here today um so I want to make sure that's understood and see if you have any questions or concerns about that uh no I believe that's in the agreement the draft agreement that uh uh we have have drawn up between uh 30 Park Street condo trust uh which I'm trustee and which has been worked on with my attorney Jonathan silverin who I believe is on the phone Char yes I can confirm this John the cons St Council for the applicate I can confirm that the license agreement um the form of which has been um agreed upon between me and the city's Council um does explicitly note that you know any projects that the city conducts that result in damage to the planter that it will be um can's responsibility to uh to replace those okay um I appreciate that and in the same vein just confirming that you uh intend to fully maintain the plantings in the planted area is that correct we plant uh plant three trees and maybe some small Shrubbery on the outter ridges to fill up some space and you maintain oh oh yes that's part of the licensing agreement that I'm maintaining it yeah oh yeah and if the trees don't make it there my responsibility to replace them okay excellent excellent pretty comprehensive all right well we we appreciate that uh it's it's it's somewhat unusual to get uh these kinds of proposals from uh you know a smaller building they're usually associated with with larger projects so we just want to kind of make sure all bases are covered in terms of the maintenance and the you know expectations around this um I don't know that I have any other questions uh other Commissioners pic staff uh members of the public anyone else no I think we're all set on this one all right excellent well then we will we be ready for your public Hearing in two weeks on April 11 yes yeah all right thank you so much uh we appreciate it we'll see you in a couple of weeks okay thank you all right and with that we have reached the end of our agenda uh do I hear a motion to adjourn I make a motion to adjourn second all in favor I all all right so moved thank you all see you soon thank you thank you all right bye-bye