[Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e um and we'll be used to ensure that the select board and the town of course has an appropriate I'm sorry the select board has an appropriate role in the production of the financial statement and the advisory committee's budget that goes into uh goes to town meeting so um that's something to look forward to for next week and the select board is uh preparing their each select board memb is preparing their uh priorities for our discussion uh at that meeting any other updates from the select board Mike Mike has one um Mike uh I was a substitute for um epw commissioner uh Erin Chu at a meeting of the uh greater Boston Metropol Metropol planning organization and got a very interesting look at the way the transportation Improvement plan is put together and there is some substantial amount of money on there for uh for Washington Street a couple years out um but it was uh it was just uh I am at I think you know a transportation geek and so uh it was a really interesting educational uh sort of thing and I would encourage um other select board members every once in a while to sit in on one of the meetings that uh staff normally uh uh normally uh represents us and just be a fly on the wall really uh because you can learn a lot about whatever you happen to be a geek about um so uh that was a very very helpful very useful yeah experience a very good idea and I think someone should make sure the select board is aware of these meetings because they are fairly frequently H not just this group you other groups other uh Regional or or um Metropolitan groupings John uh just a few announcements if I may I'll try to go through them as quickly as possible um a couple of upcoming events that I think are U worthy of people's attention um Google search uh Brooklyn neighborhood alliance and you'll go to their website and you'll see that they are having a annual Awards night tomorrow night right in this very room um uh another event that I hope people will seriously consider attending um is the what they're calling the rose stroll at the minet Rose Garden um uh and if you just um visit the town website or look look for the friends of the minet Rose Garden um do that Google search I think you'll find information about the event the minet rose garden rose stroll on Sunday um and then of course mark your calendars for juneth um that's coming up a week from tomorrow and there's going to be some some wonderful celebrating going on in Brookline which you can find out about uh all of the uh plans for juneth if you just go to the Brookline town website uh and then I want to say one thing quickly about an event that occurred um just this past weekend uh Brooklyn Community Mental Health Center had a very successful Gaya for what they call their kids fund and um I I won't go into the dollar amounts that were raised they were significant lot of generous contributors there a lot of people having a good time um despite the fact that it was held at the Boston Public Library which under most circumstances is a very special place to have a Gayla event but when the air conditioning hasn't been working for two whole weeks um it's a little bit of a challenge but they Rose to the challenge everyone in attendance was in a good frame of mind and participated my colleague here Paul uh and his wife Amy they were there I was there with Barbara and it it really it reminded everybody of the really important work that the bookon Community Mental Health Center does they had a speaker who was a young man of 15 who if if that video becomes available I'll let people know um it was one of the more inspiring speeches I've heard in a long long time so I I wanted to mention all those things and then finally mention that um the town has a new resource and um our own Tiff Tiffany Oliva has had a significant hand in setting it up it's called the um housing case inquiry portal um and if you go to the town website um uh you you'll see more information about how to use this housing case inquiry portal to address a whole host of questions that people might have um who are dealing with housing issues dealing with the housing affordability issues and and searching for housing searching for affordable housing so it's great to have that up and running it goes back to an initiative that stems from some several town meeting members who are very active on this issue good for them good for the town for following through and um the housing case inquiry portal is now up and running great thank you Paul uh just briefly thank you uh Bernard um I wanted to highlight a couple of things one these are behind the scenes things that we often don't talk about uh the public May notice that we the agenda for this meeting and the packet if you follow such things looks different uh tonight than it has in the past um it's a small change but it's a a very significant change um we switched o our system over to a new agenda format uh in publishing system and I know that doesn't seem to be a big deal but it is a very big deal I know that Kate mcgilvery Our IT staff and others have worked very hard to uh transition us over to that system um I found it to be much more user friendly and I hope that the public would as well so I just want to say thank you to staff uh for for their work in making that transition and then um I see a number of folks uh online tonight with the with the zoom of course uh this is our um transition continued transition to the full Zoom meeting from the webinar format um so folks that are participating tonight May notice that there's a difference everybody's now visible uh in the meeting and that's uh that's new for many as well and I forget when we made that as a requirement maybe about a month ago the SEL board did that a couple of months ago uh and uh boards and commissions are slowly transitioning to that uh with the select board being uh including in that so um it's nice to be able to see that everybody is in essentially in one virtual room together tonight so thanks for everybody that made that happen Okay anything else so let's go to public comment uh our new assistant Town Administrator for operations Tiffany Oliva uh will read the rules and serve as clerk to tell people when their time remaining is 30 seconds and when their uh time has expired and I will enforce with my gavel all right thank you for joining us for public comment this is an opportunity for us to hear your perspective on the issues in Brookline that matter to you each person speaking tonight is limited to 3 minutes you don't need to use the entire time but you may if you like once 15 minutes has been met there is an opportunity at the conclusion of the select board's business for additional comments members of the public sometimes raise questions during public comment we may be able to provide a quick answer to a question but are more likely to work with staff to get a more thorough answer and respond over email we'll let you know when you have 30 seconds remaining and when your time is up please conclude your remarks at that time if you have more to say you are welcome to send an email to the board members expressing your thoughts in Greater detail and the first person that we have signed up tonight is Donell O'Neal good evening everyone Don elil Senor town meeting member from Precinct 4 I'm also on the advisor committee I'm speaking on behalf of myself and a few others in town black and brown specifically um I mentioned this at a previous select board meeting the process of how the town determined who who what when and how Brookline was going to sponsor this year's juneth celebration in many eyes was wicked flawed and unfair a real compromise would have been having the celebration at ay re field and not at the ffr field where Museum of America's original sin still stands I know those who were shut out shout out of shout shut out of participating in the planning of this year's celebration um due to the the two main members of the Brookline for culture group um and their personal issues um had us or H has us in a situation where there there's going to be an ugly Cloud over Brookline juneth an unnecessary ugly Cloud over Brookline on juneth good news though weather permitted we will still be marching away from the devotion house at 11: a.m. same route we've been doing the last few years down the Brookline nav and people want to return and come back up to the Florida really more than happy to um so I don't I don't feel it was fair that the process and what we did to to Chaz Our Town Administrator by putting him in a situation where he had to play referee determining the who what and where who was going to do what it just it just wasn't fair to him at all or Bernard in in the committee that that was formed to de side now at a former town meeting so so basically have 30 seconds thank you it feels like celebrating at the devotion house on that field is similar to let's say Jewish Jewish folks celebrating at a concentration camp that's still there that you can still see okay that's how it feels to me and others okay black and brown commission would have solved all this the select board was the the select board was supposed to do some research on creating a black and brown commission town meeting we that concl your board thank you Tiffany so please do something about that thank you thank you the second speaker we have signed up for public comment is Arthur Conquest Arthur if you're in the room please approach the station D Arthur conquest yeah right thank you Arthur Conquest town meeting member uh Precinct six um I uh I sent uh Chaz a memo um it was uh June 3rd I don't know whether he received it I spoke to him very briefly one of the uh concluding sections of town meeting uh and said that I would be sending the email and um I'm a little just concerned that that I haven't reive the response uh from my email um to Echo uh a little bit of what Donell has said I served on the uh the on the the Opera committee and I think that the the way uh the monies were divided okay as it related to the black community was wholly inappropriate and I don't know what we could do what we can do right now but there has to be a change in how how we deal with the black community there's no way for us to have uh 20 million dollar go mostly to White organizations and very few very little of the money going to black people for okay uh black residents now I use some strong language in my in my memo to Chaz um and one of the terms that I used was uh genocide okay I I was coming over here this evening and I passed the basketball court and I saw I'm gonna say 15 year olds on the basketball court right in front of Brookline High School maybe 5:15 smoking reefer young children what is you have 30 seconds thank you what is that Bode for those children and what are we doing okay to stop that how do we I'm talking about black men get an opportunity to work with our youth okay and for you to divide that uh $20 million that we had and deposited in Black communities with black people responsible black people I know that there's some issues but you've got to be that concludes your time to be able to correct that it's just not fair okay thank you thank you Mr Conquest yes uh thank you for the reminder there I've been working with on staff to respond to your email we'll get any response to you as soon as we can okay uh you know it's related to juneth right I know next week I know thank you okay thank you very much we do have 20 participants online if anyone would like to speak please raise your hand to be recognized we do have someone raising their hand um um we have a commenter raising their hand uh who was listed as Anonymous we're going to promote them but we would just remind folks that Anonymous comment is not permitted at select board meetings you must identify yourself when speaking but I think I know who this is and I know them to be good and and a person who identifies themselves on regular basis so oh well thank you Chaz I guess you know it's me ad JY brookly resident um good evening everyone wow um I don't even know how to go about this it's a little bit funny uh just echoing what DaNell said uh Chaz I'm sorry you got put in the middle of this I I think we spoke a year ago I told you it's a lot it's a lot going on in this town and you don't want to be caught in in the middle of it but we are where we are now and um we'll continue to move forward as a young as a black leader in terms of this generation we're talking from the 40 and Below to see the intent which is intentional what is been done with Jun to force black people to celebrate on a slave owner's property man that's going to be a cloud you guys can get rid of and we know we all know every last one of you all know the reason beside the new select uh board member all know the reason why and you guys keep going down that road it's not going to come out well you cannot fight the same people that you are saying you are stand up for and I happen to be a member of that community and a leader from that community so however you guys are going to think you can circumvent the story of kicking set black people to the C and think you're going to come up with your narrative to uh suit the uh Dei standard it's not going to work I could guarantee you that it's you can clearly see and we've seen the situation with app as well so we might not say to much publicly lately uh but we're planning on addressing that issue specifically on APPA $42 million and you can tell the number of black and brown people in in this community that benefited from that why some people still going around and try to copy programs that we created to but may you there uh you guys could continue doing what you do and but that has nothing to do with our community and when the likes of Donell and us speak we speak for majority majority of that community and I think Bernard you're well aware it's just a shame that a black like you de can't guide them that that is something the black community can stand imagine those slaves and our ancestors if they were to get up today and see what you guys about to do next week what a disgrace but I guess Brook line is very inclusive right so we'll continue in my narrative and we'll see how it plays out uh good luck to you guys though thank you if anyone else would like to speak online please raise your hand there are no other participants raising their hand thank you okay uh next items uh miscellaneous items uh starting off with approval of meeting minutes from May 21st May 28th and May 29 2024 any edits or corrections to these minutes from the select board okay I'm Mo approval of the minutes from May 2st 28 and 29 2024 all in favor please indicate by saying I John V skak hi Michael smon hi Paul Warren hi David Perman hi and chair votes I next we have items miscellaneous items 3B through 3L uh that people have had an opportunity to review unless you have any desire to pull one or two out I'd like to uh deal with them in a Omnibus fashion however uh there is one item item three B three B that's the proclamation I'm sorry right uh 3B that um Mike samon has volunteered to read his Proclamation recognizing June as lesbian gay bisexual transgender in queer month um Mike you want to read the proclamation go got to go and get it I'm sorry oh should we go ahead and improve the other items I why don't you go if you wouldn't mind okay we'll we'll approve uh the rest of the items um we're not one one comment um I'm hoping the the Town Administrator just for the Public's benefit um there's a number of questions raised by the community in the past about um how we handle the snow and ice budget and you know why do we move money around at at the end of the year aren't we budgeting for it are we over budget there wasn't much snow I'm just hoping you can maybe just take a moment of talk about that sure so snow and ice is kind of an odd an odd thing out in our budget in that it is one of the only things the state allows us to deficit spend for um and so paradoxically what that has encouraged municipalities to do is to budget with the idea that you will spend any contingency or unspent funds in other areas Beyond a minimum amount on snow and ice at the end of the year this year because of good Financial Plans by the DPW to DPW team um we are able to cover that without recourse to the reserve fund we will be covering using salary savings and other savings that we've identified in the DPW budget okay and normally this would come out of the reserve fund but yes also through the cooperation of nature we uh we also undp great thank you so much cooperation of uh climate changes that uh you know we enjoy during the winter time but long term you know maybe it's not a great benefit you're right okay so um are you ready Mike yes sir okay so a proclamation of the select Board of the town of Brookline recognizing June as lb lgbtq pride month in the town of Brookline whereas the town of Brookline has always had a diverse lesbian gay bisexual transgender and questioning community and is committed to supporting visibility dignity and equity for all people in the community and whereas many of the residents students Town employees and business owners Within within the town of Brookline who contribute to the enrichment of our town are part of the lgbtq community and whereas various advancements have been made with respect to Equitable treatment of lgbtq persons throughout the nation and the world but there continues to be discrimination against people from this community in the United States and around the world making it important for municipalities like Brookline to stand up and show support for our residents who are affected by this discrimination and whereas several municipalities across the United States recognize and celebrate June as lgbtq pride month and whereas June has become a symbolic month in which the lgbtq persons and supporters come together in various celebrations of lgbtq Pride and whereas the rainbow flag also known as The lgdb lgbtq Pride flag or gay pride flag has been used since the 1970s as a symbol of lgbtq Pride and lgbtq social movements and activism and whereas painting The Pride crosswalk at Town Hall further symbolizes the town celebration of diversity and support for the lgbtq community now therefore the select Board of the town of Brookline Massachusetts does hereby proclaim the month of June as lgbtq pride month in the town of Brookline invites everyone to reflect on the ways we can all live and work together with a commitment to mutual respect respect and understanding and further recognizes pride month by supporting the students and employees of the public schools of Brooklyn who will be painting a PR painting Pride crosswalks outside of various elementary schools and Brookline High School in collaboration with the gay student Alliance and Rainbow Club advisors which will complement the pride crosswalk at Town Hall thank you Mike so um I Mo of approval of items 3B through 3 l all in favor please indicate by saying I J Squak hi Mike samon hi Paul Warren hi David Perman hi and chair votes I okay next our calendar items probationary police officers I see Chief p in the audience come and introduce four student officers to us good evening thank you all for hearing me tonight try to make it brief um but I'm here before you this evening to ask that we move four employees from the status of student officer to probationary police officers here in the town of Brookline um this will be contingent upon their graduation Tuesday Morning from the Cambridge nor Eastern police uh police academy at that time they'll have completed the municipal police training Council recruit officer course which began on January 15th and they'll be certified uh by the peace officer standards and training or post commission um so first I'd like to introduce to you Miss Elizabeth Wagner um Miss Wagner is 25 years old she currently resides in Boston she graduated from Norwood High School in 2016 in Southern New Hampshire University with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice since 21 she's been employed with us at the police department as a 911 dispatcher next up is Mr Dylan Hirsch I'm sorry D Mr dur is 23 years old currently resides in Dorchester he graduated from Hingham High School in 2019 in the Ohio state with a bachelor's degree in criminology he has served in the Vermont Vermont Army National Guard since 2019 and was previously employed in retail miss her uh hermesa D Silva is 38 years old currently resides in Canton she graduated from Maynard Evans High School in Orlando and the University of Central Florida with the Bachelor's of Science degree in 2009 she was previously employed by the suffa county sheriff's officer as a deputy sheriff where she served for 9 years and finally Christian Silva who's 24 years old and currently resides in Chelsea Christian graduated from Hudson High School in 2008 and attended Quin quinaman Community College since 2020 he's been employed um like Miss Wagner as a Brookline Public Safety emergency 911 dispatcher these officers will be assigned uh after graduation starting Monday to our Training Division will they familiar familiarize themselves with our organ organizations policies and procedures our rules and regulations that training period lasts for about two weeks um and is followed by about three months where they'll ride on the street accompanied with the field training officer thank you I'd also like to invite the board um to you know pending your approval uh the swearing in ceremony which will take place across the street tomorrow at 4M um and their graduation ceremony which is Thursday morning at 11:00 a.m. at nor Eastern and I can send the the details by email thank you okay any questions from the SL board okay I'm Mo approval of uh the four um probationary police officers uh Elizabeth Wagner di d janesa jamisa d Silva and Christian Silva all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak hi Michael Sandman hi Paul Warren hi David Perman hi and chair votes I thank you thank you very much okay next uh we have a public hearing a draft ground floor commercial incentive guidelines public hearing um these uh guidelines that are found okay we we'll wa we'll wait for you okay uh the ground floor commercial incentive guidelines that are found on pages 103 to 110 of the materials in the package are being presented to the select board for review and consideration um of both the guidelines and the views of the public in this public hearing we will take it up for a vote at our next uh regular meeting on June 25th but right now we're just learning about them and and making sure we understand what's what what is uh you know what we are doing here give us a moment okay e thank you thank you for your patience I'm Maria melli a senior planner in the regulatory division of the planning department and on behalf of the planning department and the economic development Advisory Group Sandy silk uh Ken Lewis and Marilyn Newman I'm really happy to be here and I also want to thank you um for your support and Leadership uh in the adoption of this provision the ground floor commercial incentive program um which fall 2023 town meeting adopted as a provision of the affordable housing bylaw to encourage compliance of this provision the select board is required by this bylaw to review and approve companion standards uh and guidelines in consultation with the economic development Advisory Board last week um we provided an update to the housing Advisory Board which endorsed uh the draft guidelines uh one thing that I quickly want to mention we toggle sometimes between incentive and investment when we describe the program incentive is the word that is used in the bylaw uh it is something that we would say we are trying to incentivize investment in ground floor commercial spaces but the real estate professionals that we consulted with um the word investment resonated better with them uh so we we tend to use [Music] both okay so very quickly uh the provision of this ground floor commercial incentive program is that under the zoning bylaw section 4.0 08 uh the affordable units are allowed to be offered at a higher household income limit and that is 70% area meeting an income or Ami for rental and 100% Ami for ownership and that is an exchange for the investment in Baseline ground floor commercial tenant improvements what we refer to as bti this is applicable to any zoning District where commercial uses are allowed or mandated provided the affordable unit are located on site now the Baseline requirement of for the affordable units in the bylaw are for lower income limits 50% Ami for rental and 80% Ami for ownership there's also another provision in the bylaw that those affordable units can be provided at 80% Ami for rental and 100% or 120% Ami uh for ownership in exchange for supplemental cash cash payment to the Housing Trust now we've borrowed this concept of this supplemental cash payment uh to the Housing Trust uh to have something that really works in mixed use districts so instead of a payment to the Housing Trust the developer would either do the buildout or provide an allowance for the tenant build outs and this really works works well in mixed use um mixed use districts where you have these reciprocal benefits I think it just takes a little while um hey so actually I think we skipped one right okay one a few things that I just want to recommend as I mentioned the select board is required to review and improve uh these these companion standards and going forward if there's ever a need when we observe practical application of this provision if they ever need to be tweaked or updated the process would be the same you would not have to go to town meeting the standards and guid lines are enforced by The Building Commissioner is if they were embedded in the zoning bylaw and that is stated in the bylaw we are recommending a Target date for this approval of July 1st uh because the Harvard Street zoning which is in effect which is ostensibly functional zoning hasn't been in effect for a while uh again this is available townwide wherever um ground floor commercial is mandated or or allowed so the program benefits uh we do want to ensure that ground floor commercial spaces are equipped with infrastructure and Sandy will describe what those components are and what they look like this is not a given so a developer could provide a building without the basic buildout for that ground floor commercial space but what are the advantages of the developer providing there or at least an allowance toward it well one thing you know we we often see is that those are reduced vacancy periods so it's a lot easier for that retail commercial broker uh to attract desirable and lucrative uh uses like restaurants um often if you have venting to the roof if that is already provided or if you have trash rooms that already are sized to accommodate trash with indoors and not dumpsters Outdoors there's going to be a better impact on environmental health if you can be proactive about that this also notably reduces hundreds of thousands of dollars in upfront cost that these businesses do assume so they're the ones responsible for the build outs they're not developers uh often this is not the business that they're in so there is an advantage to the landlord providing it or providing an allowance toward it this tool also gives uh landlords of financial buffer so retail is very cyclical and in a week Mark Market you do want to be able to attract desirable tenants if you have a tool that allows you to provide those affordable units at a higher rents that's going to improve the bottom line for that that project it'll make it easier to negotiate and offer more tenant improvements uh to a desirable uh Les e uh so that's in also in exchange I mentioned that we're saving or the potential tenant is saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in up front cost they can put that money in their businesses and in exchange for that that is really you know such a a huge thing to be able to offer that they are willing to to pay higher commercial rents um in exchange for that upfront savings and what that does is it improves the commercial tax base uh it also helps the uh landlord improve their bottom line and one of the aspects of this reciprocal program that we're really so proud of is that we are able to expand the offerings at different household income levels so there's a big jump between a 50% Ami unit and an 80% Ami unit well what about all of those levels in between by by providing um or to really stimulate affordable housing units at 70% Ami um we're really going to expand Workforce housing which still needs to be subsidized in Brookline to be feasible um that is going to expand the customer base especially within walking distance of these amenities so now that I've provided a general framework uh Sandy will provide concrete details about the requirements and compliance standards and then uh um Canen will provide a financial analysis as part of our due diligence can we ask some questions before that absolutely um I guess one question I'm going to throw out and see what see where it comes out out um so we're we're allowing 70% Ami uh with with this build out um yes I mean that's not really Workforce housing that's really low I mean it's not Town employees and I wonder why you didn't go higher uh I know that they they can with a payment uh get it up to 100% which is closer to you know real Workforce housing um but why why didn't you go up higher without the payment I me it would be beneficial to us as well as to the developer well there are a couple of reasons for that uh number one we do provide the 100% option for ownership uh and remember that okay you know so the 70% ownership is not really you know what what what we're looking for in Brookline um we don't have very many ownership uh projects I mean just a couple um and it's really rental that that you know is going to bring in housing for our workers and and other middle- inome people so you're right some people will officially think that the band like 70 to 100 120% is really what you would say solidly is Workforce housing um there are there are camps that will say that anything above 50% Ami is Workforce housing it really runs the gamut and there is a need for every single level um we we have so many huge huge gaps in the affordable housing that we Supply and our our housing production plan has made that very clear but more more to the point we consulted with the housing Advisory Board which was not willing to provide this kind of break if you will um for anything that was really close to market rate and that was the real reason of why we were given the limit of 70% um Ami oh Bernard you had you asked a similar question that I um was going to ask um so first thank you for the description is there anything in the bylaw that restricts us to go higher or so the bylaw makes it very clear that it is capped at 70% Ami for rental for rental and doesn't it's not 80 it's 70% that's correct okay so if we wanted to go higher than 70% we'd have to change the bylaw yes you would okay not yes mik so uh it is possible to go higher to 80% or 120 120% with a payment to the Housing Trust Fund exactly um what's the N how how does that work uh economically for a developer what is the nature of the is what's the formula basically for determining what that payment is right so the the formula is for the the uh supplemental cash payment if it's rental it's 4% of assessed value as determined by the assess and for uh ownership it would be if it's the 100% Ami it's 6% of assessed value and for one the 120% tier uh that would be 8% of assessed value um so I also just want to make it clear we do have this provision in the bylaw for Workforce housing which provides that 80% option and the 120% for ownership right so this is just another tool in the toolbox oh I'm sorry I just had a followup to Mike are you um not quite okay so I'm just trying to so calculating my so-called brain that that um so if you have 12 units and you're making an 8% payment basically you're effectively putting aside enough money for an additional unit somewhere else that's right it goes into the Housing Trust it can go toward a 100% affordable housing project and okay get a sense of how many and you You' need to have 24 units in order to get 4% to do the same thing with 4% okay thank you well so I just wanted to follow up on Mike's question so a developer could choose to go to 70% Ami for rental we're just talking about rental right now and that money would go into the uh ground floor commercial ground floor commercial investment is that work called investment Absolut but they could still go higher if they wanted to by making an additional payment to the Housing Trust they can't combine the two oh they can't one of the other so they have to provide those units at a at a fixed house household limit so again that is an option if they wanted to go with the 80% uh Ami they would have to make the payment to the Housing Trust and this kind of makes sense I think when we get to Ken's portion because his due diligence was really a financial analysis getting in the mind of the developer looking at these three options comparing the 50% the 70 and the 80 and the other variables they might use to say well what do I need for a feasible project so there is a little bit of pain involved for the developer to do the 70% Ami which we which is why we structured it uh the way the way we did um thank you okay uh Paul David yes you you mentioned the importance of having these different Ami bands yes I'm wondering if 70 is the cap and realistically everyone's going to go for the highest they can then how do we encourage it at 50 at 60 Etc right so number one um we can't already assume that people are going to the 80% so remember if you have a project with uh four units or more the affordable housing bylaw kicks in if you have a project with four to 10 units you can make a cash payment uh instead of providing those affordable units on site so at 11 units or more 15% of those total units need to be on site and they need to be provided at 50 % Ami so the one way to ensure that we are triggering or applying this bylaw is to ensure that our zoning is functional to allow for you know multif family buildings or mixed use buildings um so that that's a given you have to do the 50% Ami we don't see a lot of options we don't see a lot of Developers opting for the 80% Ami um the supplemental cash payment um so what we're hoping here is that often you do ground floor commercial if you are in a premium where you're getting premium rents for retail that retail is going to be highest in best use like Harvard Street and and folks are going to want to have retail on the ground floor to make that project work so they have an option to think well do I want it because I might be negotiating with this desirable tenant why not get rewarded for what I would be doing to attract this tenant I could have those units instead of 50% Ami I can have them at 70% Ami so that's the reality of how negotiations work um between like a developer and a tenant and we're taking advantage of that and saying if you're doing it anyway let's reward you with some higher um higher rents does that does that make sense yes okay okay John did you have your hand in well I I do have a question um what is what is the problem we're trying to solve here yes so our ground floor commercial um by having we can't always assume that there is going to be permanent investment in that infrastructure and it'll be a lot more clear um like right now we have this this slide Sandy will be taking over from here and you'll see the the coal show in the white box um you'll understand it's hundreds of thousands of dollars that sometimes a small independent business owner is absorbing has to provide that upfront not the developer okay and if so so if we really want to attract small independent unique businesses we have to do something to help them and developers don't necessarily have this extra money or this padding to do that so we have to understand in a weak Market we're going to have to provide a financial benefit the town isn't providing the money so let's provide some flexibility in our regulations especially if we also want affordable housing in those projects that really helps me I hope it helps others who are listening so um if I may just one more kind of clarification of all of this so is what is what this is all about um is a tradeoff of housing that's a little bit less affordable for um a greater likelihood that a developer will be able to build out the commercial space on the ground floor it's it's I don't want to call it a a tradeoff because we have a need for it so we I want to make it clear that we are not undermining um those lower income household tiers so one way to think about this and I don't mean to answer the question in a roundabout way but you know we hear of stories of families who have like a 50% Ami unit and they improve their household income and they have to think about do I take this better paying job and then lose my affordable unit because they can't keep that unit if they're improving their household income so we want to make sure there's the continuity of affordability um and that's why we're we're looking at this natural um kind of negotiation that happens in real estate and providing that flexibility in the bylaw great thanks thank you when you say continuity of affordability yes and then use the example of uh a family that has an opportunity to get a better paying job how does that help that family well go back on list supply I know it's there's not enough for every need and we are still using lotteries which doesn't seem fair so that's not really helping that family it might not be helping that family but it's help it's really addressing the problem so keep in mind we need affordable housing for different household types we and we need them for those different household income levels 50 and 80% there's a huge that's a huge Delta okay all right I'm going to turn it over to Sandy Sandy it takes there's a little good evening I'm gonna spend a little bit of I'm going to spend a little bit of time just walking through exactly what we're asking a developer to do so you can kind of understand a little bit of the nuts and bolts of the pro of the program so uh this particular slide illustrates two different examples the one on the left is two Brookline Place which is still vacant on the ground floor of the retail and the one on the right is um built out space at the brook liner we we use these not because we've had long conversations with these developers but really because they illustrate the vast difference between buildout and what developers are doing today they kind of do what they've decided that they're going to do they're not really guided and there's no standard necessarily that they have to deliver a space to but for meeting kind of health and life safety um requirements in order to get a temporary certificate of occupancy the space on the left doesn't have most likely does not have the electrical distributed throughout the space there's probably a conduit for the electrical um there's gas to the space um if it has gas um there is um there's water to the space again not distributed and there are Baseline sprinklers upturned to protect the floors above um because there's nothing in the space truly to protect it usually doesn't have a finished floor in it it could have a gravel floor if there's nothing below grade um so it's a very raw space condition that's acceptable to meet those TCO requirements what we're really asking a developer to do is upgrade their space closer to the um space on the on the right what that really entails and includes is significant improvements um relative to actually bringing electrical and plumbing to the space um de de with fire alarm security issues um getting HVAC into the space um building out any demising walls finishing walls um and uh for restaurants um we have a threshold of uh contiguous 2,000 square fet that we are calling to be restaurant ready so there's a an added layer there and the goal here is really as Maria was saying to put the onus on the developer to even the playing field between what's called first generation space which is brand new space that's never been occupied and second generation space which often in a town like Brookline is in much older buildings um so may not be great but it's already built out and so therefore may be a little more attractive to a to a retailer um or a new a new operator so we're our goal on EAB specifically was to say how do we help keep our retail areas more vibrant is there something we can do to support the retailer um and the developer in that conversation um in a in an a time of rising construction cost the ability to use the um program as Maria was describing where we're um the developers getting a benefit in exchange for this investment in the ground floor kind of neutralizes the impact of the developers proforma while also providing uh enabling the town to meet two really important goals right the yeah Mike sorry I have I just one one quick question it's not the most important question of all but since I've already started um does the the space on the right in P Wasing Street and Brighton is in Boston does Boston have a a a requirement for a white box because it does not it does not so it happens to be this developer chosen to do that for their own purpose correct and and there are developers in Brookline to be honest that are already choosing to do that but not everyone and so in the vein of in a changing Retail Landscape in the in in the vein of EAB looking at what could we be doing and supporting to really support our retail nodes and Commercial districts this was a tool that we really um honed in on um we don't know of anyone that's doing this I'll I'll note that I've mentioned this in um my um day job as a developer to other communities where we've are talking and it's gotten a lot of interest of people saying hey I can't wait to see this um that's not neither here nor there but it's just to say we I have not heard of this um type of program where it really kind of supports the retail in in that changing landscape and does this is there any requirement to put venting in or the potential for venting for for a restaurant because the restaurant buildout is probably the most expensive correct buildout that there is so we are in within the vein of this program there is so once you hit a contiguous 2,000 square feet you kind of trip the threshold of requiring restaurant ready which means we want it vented up to the roof um and a grease trap planned for um making sure that electricity and other utilities are sized appropriately for that use because trying to do that after the fact is much more complicated and expensive and you're not going to be able to run the venting you need up through units so it ends up out on the street which truthfully in a lot of our commercial corridors is not ideal yep Pa thank you and the restaurant was I wanted to go Sandy um so restaurant ready means even if it's going to be a bookstore if it's 2,000 sare feet you're going to stub out you're going to do those three things um the risk of people coming in at 1,800 square feet because they don't want to have to go do that um we definitely identify that risk right and kind of know that we have to draw a line somewhere we did have a lot of conversations um one of the things I'll talk about in a minute is the due diligence we did in talking with Brokers and lenders and existing Developers that are doing work in Brookline and kind of felt um in those conversations that when you get to 2,000 square ft you're really at the point where people are having sit down service and needing um a a more robust restaurant buildout you might get a um you know somebody who is bringing in food from another um commissary type location in a smaller footprint so we felt 2,000 was was the the right number do do you have a sense of the average square foot for retail versus restaurant when when when does that kick over do we know that um I don't I mean I don't I don't know that there is such a thing I mean I can tell you from my own experience with mixed juice projects in Malden which is Opera Cline but similar we have um we literally just are in talks about demising a space where two the 2,000 square foot spot is going to a restaurant that requires this level of venting and a bubble tea is likely going in adjacent to it in 1500 square ft and they do not require the venting or grease um trap um they may we have gas there different different Community um so they they require less so it doesn't restaurant doesn't necessarily mean not food service right there there are different levels of food right okay all right thank you oh oh I'm sorry David now the two Brook line Place example that's not a residential building so what kind of incentive would be offered so that they would have a buildout similar to the Brighton example so in this particular case that was just used as an example this program as it's written today and approved in the bylaw is really designed for mixed juice residential buildings if we wanted to do look at something for commercial buildings we'd have to do that separately okay right so just to kind of continue a a key element of this program is that as we kind of talked it through and really identified what we were trying to do here there's some there's some disconnects if you will between the timing that a developer is going through a process and delivering space and when um retailers or and tenants are typically taking that space and building it out in order to address that disconnect in timing we have um provided for a procedure with a letter of credit that a um that a developer will provide um when they go in for their building permit so the the way this program is structured um kind of the mechanics of it are that a developer says raises their hand and says I'm going to use the GFCI program I'm going to provide plans that show this Baseline tenant improvements um as part of my building permit submission they are going to provide estimated costs from a contractor for specifically for those improvements which are provided on a spec sheet and an affidavit from both their architect and mechanical engineer to speak to those things these are very typical things in a development process um the thing that's less typical um in this type of process but is used in 4db processes and others is a letter of credit um and the the point of the letter of credit is once the horse is out of the barn here relative to them getting their first affordable unit locked in at 70% Ami we don't want them to not be able to put these improvements in we don't want to have to change affordability so the way we have protected against that is that a developer will um provide the town with a letter of credit in an amount that's equivalent to the supplemental cash payment that's required for the 80% Ami this letter of credit locks them in for this program then they have two choices as they come to kind of the um implementation of these improvements the developer can either build them out themselves or they can provide the new tenant with tenant Improvement dollars um that are sufficient to cover the cost of these Baseline tenant improvements um and then upon completion of those improvements whether they were done by the developer or by the tenant um there is an affidavit provided um again from the contractor and from the architect confirming that those are complete and the town will then release the letter of credit um so that's the shy if you will so in the event a developer never does those improvements and they leased all of the affordable units at the 70% Ami the town still has the ability to say okay we're going to we're going to monetize your letter of credit now and so the town's protected so this is a really critical component and we did walk through this um with our due diligence um as I noted before we spoke to developers lenders Brokers um and tenants um and then also Maria spent a good amount of time working with the town and we had a several Zoom with Town Council the building department housing staff Etc to kind of walk through each of the um components of this Pro this program to make sure we got to the right spot um Ken and I worked pretty um in depth on a lot of financial analysis and I'm going to give huge kudos to Ken for really taking it the to the Finish Line um to make sure we kind of really thought about um some of the pros and cons including um Mr War your um comment about what's the right size for that um commercial space and then so I'm very familiar with letters of credit but uh I think the best way to explain this to the average person is probably to say that this is similar to an escro U and so I'll say that it it is and I'll be honest we talked about an escrow early on but we wanted to simplify it on the behalf of the town and simplify the need for agreements which is why we did the letter of credit it also makes it I'm assuming that the uh developer can get can get a letter of credit from the bank without actually putting money in exactly depending on it may actually make it easier for the right the cost of a letter of credit is roughly one to two% of of the cost of that they're protecting okay let let her finish um so just to quickly sum up on my part before passing off to to Ken we had really good conversations as part of this due diligence uh we spent a couple of months doing it we got um feedback from the developers and the lenders um and the Brokers that they felt this was a feasible program that it would be attractive to both tenants and developers lenders felt like it didn't create any undue challenges in The Lending process which is something we wanted to make sure we weren't we didn't want any unintended consequences here of making it more difficult for things to happen um we provided flexibility which the developers really liked that they could either do the build out themselves or pass to a tenant and so that can work um for differently for different developers um and that we've also provided protections for the town relative to compliance while minimizing the need for staff um engagement and oversight um there there's there's no big checklist that a staff member has to go through that's all managed through affidavits thank you I'm gonna pass off to Ken and let him walk through the we'll try not to ask too many questions so you can get through your presentation but sounds no guarantee right so you open the floodgates earlier Well I this is an important issue that we have to understand and and yeah there there aspects to it that uh you know I may be a little uncomfortable with so so one of the key tasks of our working group is to quantify how the ground floor commercial incentive program would compare to the other two options that Maria outlined earlier for the provision of on-site affordable housing units under different development scenario and fact looking at you know scenarios in which that might be the preferred option to to do that we uh created a development profor that's based on a hypothetical 10,000 SQ foot site on Harvard Street the development program is consistent with the Harvard Street Main Street District zoning bylaw amendments that were passed last fall um that includes a a mixed use four-story building um under the maximum Building height of 48 ft uh ground floor commercial space with rental apartments although it was noted that this program is also eligible for condo ownership um the parking is assumed to be within the at grade within the building Podium uh we did not assume underground parking due to the cost or uh surface spaces due to the uh setback and open space requirements under the bylaw so this resulted in a um a 3X3 Matrix that we set up um so we have the three options to uh Supply uh for the developer to provide the on-site affordable as noted the Baseline requirements the 15% at 50% Ami rents the supplemental cash payment into the affordable housing trust is equal to 4% of the value of the residential units um and this is then provides uh uh the the developer the ability to lease at the higher uh rent scheduled 80% Ami and then the new program here which is in in exchange for investing in first generation T improvements up to the minimum standards the developer can release the affordable units at the 70% Ami schedule the three development scenarios uh we set up U Were for three levels of commercial space at grade um it's been described by to to me by an architect that designing a mix use building is a battle for the ground floor and I think this is a good example of that where uh you exchange the more commercial space you can put at the ground level uh the less available for the residual uh for parking and residential use we also wanted to note this is a comparative analysis it's not a financial feasibility right now four story uh mixed use buildings um in most cases are not financially feasible due to uh high in uh construction costs and high interest rates the U metric we used was um the adjusted fair market value uh the capitalized fair market value at stabilized occupancy this is consistent with how the bylaw treats the supplemental cash payment option um where you uh establish based on the net operating income and a market capitalization rate you establish the value and in this case then we would then uh deduct the initial Capital outlays that a developer would have to make to create the U comparability of the three options we did not include uh a 10-year hold period or other uh parameters that a developer might use in evaluating U this option um some of them may be uh focused more on um looking at the longterm relative to the potential Divergence of rents between the 70 and 80% Ami um the um so the results of our analysis um couple key things is that the difference in the adjusted fair market value the three options is pretty marginal um and I think that's by Design with the negotiations with the hab and uh and EAB and others on on how these programs would be would be set up and and the differences provided for the affordable housing but it could be meaningful um when you look at minimum threshold returns um for return of cost return on Equity or even debt service coverage ratios but it is important to realize that there is a marginal difference so we need to keep the the guidelines user friendly can't make it too complicated now the another point was that the adjusted fair market value of the supplemental cash payment and the Baseline is um roughly equivalent in our analysis and this is by Design have wanted to create an indifference point when they priced out the uh supplemental cash payment and they succeeded in working with their consultant Pam mcen a few years ago and um and that that provides this payment into the housing afford the affordable housing trust and also allows for more affordable more potential Workforce housing um it is important to note that the ground floor commercial incentive had had a higher adjusted fair market value than both the Baseline 15% of 50 Ami and then the supplemental cash payment that's primarily due to the fact that there's a significant low significantly lower initial cost of the ground floor inent improvements than there is for the supplemental cash payment a couple other programs uh we're as was noted this is really a a program that encourages investment in commercial space it's not uh likely to incentivize the expansion of commercial space um in areas that do not support premium rents um first of all it was noted um by Maria that premium rents are creative to a total investment returns um quick example of that is the apartment rents that we're using in our analysis um averaged about $52 a square foot per per square foot on a gross basis but when you net out um operating in taxes that Nets to about $35 a square foot and that's significantly less than the $50 to $60 that develop can get from for Prime commercial space a second Point um is that most many of these locations are already in in areas that mandate uh uh ground floor commercial space so this could provide some incentives for those marginal areas that permit ground floor commercial uses but don't mandate them and then so finally we just note that this has a some broad benefits for the town this we think the short Leisa periods have a chance to enhance our commercial area vibrancy um they would likely improve uh commercial property tax revenue and as noted they would reduce logistical barriers for first generation space for smaller independent operators um so this is the this is I know this is difficult to read this is the our 3x3 Matrix here and you can see in the yellow those are the three different scenarios for commercial space at grade excuse me and then here's here's the results of our analysis um showing the different um variations uh in the adjusted fair market value so with that I think I'll turn it back to Maria to go over the the next steps okay and before you go um Mr Warren is um G to leave you not because he doesn't want to hear your presentation but he has a prior engagement okay so to quickly wrap up um on May 6 the economic development Advisory Board did endorse the draft standards and guidelines as did the housing Advisory Board last week um this is the first I understand perhaps a two-part um I think you'd like to have um you know a session before you actually vote um so we are scheduled two weeks from now um unless you decide otherwise and again we are encouraging a a July 1 a publication date uh keep in mind that the select board can make changes to these standards and guidelines without going back to town meeting so as we observe the application we're able to Pivot and be a little bit more Nimble right yeah I don't think there'll be a problem with us voting on 25th on these I did want to give the board an opportunity to just digest uh you know this program and um you make sure that we're comfortable before voting and I I think it's July 1st because that's the beginning of the fiscal year so so that's that's our sort of deadline there thank you and we're glad to answer any questions in between um and this is a public hearing so let's uh see if there's anyone in the audience here in the select board room or on Zoom that would like to speak and as you heard before please raise your hand using the hand raising feature if you'd like to make a comment during this item's public hearing and there are 15 attendees and no one is using the hand feature yeah I don't see anyone in the audience uh interested in speaking not even Regina okay so I'll close the public hearing and uh as I said this is not something that we're gonna vote on so thank you I'm sorry John well I I was kind of assuming when they finished we could ask a couple more questions is that possible I mean yeah I don't want if we've got an agenda that we have to get to no no okay um all right I I just getting back to the original question you know what what is the problem we're trying to solve uh when I think about our you know current state of affairs in our commercial districts I picture some Legacy properties some of which fortunately still have active commercial use of their commercial space some of which have had a vacancy for a while maybe is is this going to help them now this this is really for a new new project where you're going to be building new housing okay and then there's going to be commercial below so the one of the reasons why we're calling it an investment program this investment program could have other prongs so this is just the beginning okay of how we can address different scenarios so uh followup to that first question is we also have um kind of stacked up um kind of like planes you know getting ready to take off uh at the airport um uh quite a few 40b projects um which assume commercial first floor right um is this going to help them by permitting them to go back and reconfigure what they're proposing to do well so that they'll no longer be stacked up but will actually build right so anyone who holds a 40b permit and has not received a building permit they haven't exercised that um they could consider this and there are developers who have even talked to us you know should I build that 4 and a half story 40b or should I do the four story um uh project under the Harvard Street zoning and so sometimes it is a a discussion I we haven't had anything definitive there are three permitted 40b projects on Harvard Street that haven't sought uh a a permit um I will say just to manage expectations if you have a permit for you know five-story building or six story story building that's a lot of square footage so this is probably not going to be competitive enough um for those projects okay um and my final follow up I promise is are there developers sort of knocking at the door to develop in Brooklyn who have said you know I'd love to develop in Brooklyn but every time I do the numbers it just doesn't work out but it would work out for me if I could go to 80% um you know Ami in the you know rental part of my development in exchange for me building out the commercial space well you know it's funny but in our due diligence and talking to developers of you know all sizes it's a very it's really unique to the project it depends on if you are like a Buy and Hold developer it really depends on your investment values some who are going maybe to hold it for longer periods might want the 80% Ami um we haven't actually had too many people ex you know exercise that option and I don't know why um but they have that option if they if they want to so they could provide the ground floor commercial buildout in exchange for 80% if if they wanted to um but for those developers who think that it's too much of a stretch and again it really depends on the weak Market okay okay thanks yeah Mike um I understand perfectly that um the current combination of of interest rates and uh construction costs um is is a problem certainly uh for uh for developers um but I think this is a question for Ken if you plugged a lower uh interest rate in an interest rate that was certainly not not down at the in the b in the basement the negative numbers almost that we saw um uh a couple years ago but uh or three years ago now but uh somewhat a lower number at at do we get to the point where um four stories is financially uh viable you come to the mic wait Ken uh you need to come to the mic so that our VAST TV audience can hear you okay thanks so you know I'm gonna hand that off to Sandy who's okay that's partner at the Jackson apartment yeah I um I spend my daytime um building multif family or in the current market trying to figure out how to make a multif family project work um I would I would actually say that one of the um early sensitivities we did on this financial model in the early days was actually to sensitize it to interest rates and the scale of these projects as such that they are hyper sensitive to interest rates at today's interest rates nothing works um when you get back to you know interest rates of 24 months ago things start to work again and so the to kind of answer your question and answer Mr van Sak's question as well a a big part of this was what are the tools we can add in to the town to make us more competitive more attractive and to maintain the vi vibrancy of our retail districts um things either go up or go down they don't stay the same and so trying to create um an this incentive program that also has the benefit of differentiating our housing stock felt compelling um as a way to to do that particularly at a point in time when costs are going up pretty significantly and smaller retailers and independent operators in particular are um fighting very hard to um absorb those costs so that that is again why we were focused on the investment in the space which then continues on to future tenants it's not just about the first 10 and it's about the longer term of that um commercial space well I understand that part of the you know the the it's a very I I think it's very well put together very very thoughtfully done um what I'm really interested in is and I think you've answered my question when you say that um uh attractiveness is very much dependent very sensitive to interest rates we've just gone through as you know um a fairly um a fairly arduous process of getting uh the zoning changed along Harvard Street for four stories if we uh made a mistake and we should have gone for five stories which I don't know what have passed um then uh we have to you know we have to say well okay what what do we do next but if it's possible to bring things back down so that or rates come down so that four stories become attractive again then we haven't made a mistake and that remains to be seen obviously what happens with rates and what happens with construction costs but uh it's interesting to hear the sensitivity analysis was done and what the results were okay thank you great thank you next we have a noise bylaw waiver uh hearing for coolage Corner Theater we have someone in the audience who's going to tell us what kind of noise you're going to make yeah can you hear me this is Jennifer depaso Gilbert hello Jennifer yes hi how how are you thank you thank you I didn't know that I had been promoted um I believe Jay hery uh your water and sewer director may be available as well um and also Michael Allen who is the general contractor for The coolage Corner Theater project which is finished but there is some utility work that needs to be completed um this particular work the town would like the town's DPW would like to happen in the evening so that there will be less disruption and it includes um cutting and capping an old water M water line um and doing the work in the roadway under the direction and supervision of the water and sewer division uh Jay hery the director and I know that the general contractor and his utilities um subcontractor genes Genesis utilities have been coordinating this work the subcontractor is ready to go next week um but we need to coordinate that with the town um to make sure that it happens during the overnight hours and so the request is for a waiver from the noise bylaw which prohibits this type of construction and demolition work um in the roadway uh Beyond 7 p.m. and this would be in the evening so that it's less disruptive the water line would be shut down temporarily and then um put on again so that those uh folks with without water temporarily would have it again in the morning um and so that's the request and the subcontractor is ready to go next week but again that work has to be coordinated um with the town's Water and Sewer division so we would ask for permission um the work should only take two to three evenings maximum um and it can start as early as next week so I have two questions uh yeah first of all are there I don't think there are any Residential Properties in this area and secondly will the cut off of the waterline affect any Residential Properties that are out in out Outer Ling areas I don't believe it does but i' would let Jay um answer that okay sure um yeah that particular stretch is mostly commercial uh we haven't identified any residential um and it's the shutdown would actually take um the units that are like 274 to 292 out of service temporarily and it's my understanding what's 274 uh 274 is right there on you mean 274 Harvard yeah the 292 it's actually a very short little run that we're able to isolate and temporarily shut down how about uh how about restaurants there are I believe the the places there so we would plan on actually not shutting the water down until close a business okay so the commercial entities wouldn't be impacted good any other questions any other explanations or okay this is a public hearing uh Tiffany could you see if there's anyone on the zoom audience that would like to speak I don't see anyone raising their hands in our real audience so far no one is raising their hands in the virtual meeting okay so let's close the public hearing any other questions from the select board I me seems there is actually a hand raised is it too late no we we'll we'll make an except I'm going to promote David leier David you should be able to unmute now thank you I almost missed it uh so thank you I just have a few uh comments I distributed to the select board David this this is a um noise BW waiver hearing it's not the sorry I'll come back I'll come back for that yeah thank you okay stick around any other hands raised there are no others okay um good unless there are any questions from the select board I'll I'll move approval of the noise bylaw waiver request from The coolage Corner Theater related to water main service all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak I Michael samon I um David Perman I and chair votes I great thank you thank you thank you very much have a good evening thank you for your time have a good evening okay and next we have another public hearing uh um water and sewer rates and we have Erin sh uh at the microphone to start us off here that sounds great good evening my name is Erin chud I'm the commissioner of Public Works and um we are not necessarily voting tonight is or are we or do you want us to vote we'd love for you to vote this evening yeah typically we do typically we provide the information in advance um then we have a public hearing and barring uh any concerns following that the select board generally takes the vote yeah I don't I don't think that there can be any concerns but all right so um if we could go ahead and share the slides that would be great but I'll I'll just get started with a an introduction so again good evening my name is Erin chud I'm the commissioner of Public Works we're here this evening to present the annual Water and Sewer fee structure and rate increase for fy2 uh we present the upcoming fiscal year fees to the board for your approval and vote uh at a public hearing mid June every year and the annual um at this meeting the select board uh review uh and vote it follows uh a rigorous budget review with the advisory committee a department budget presentation to the select board which we've already done uh budget approval by town meeting our mwa final assessment to all participating municipalities that generally comes into us late spring uh review discussion vote and recommend ation by the water um and Sewer rate task force and advertisement in the Boston Herald which we do for 21 days generally we actually make that a month posting on the town's calendar and water and sewer web page and also uh I sent a direct email to all town meeting members asking that they share the information with their constituency uh for this evening's hearing we work on our budget through the calendar year the full calendar year with projections and then finalize the rates uh once those mwa assessments are complete so I'm here with our water and sewer director Jay hery who will be available to answer any questions you may have and I'd also like to recognize our water and sewer rates task force uh who meet several times throughout the year to review the budget discuss us usage Trends look at Reserve balances and set rates for the upcoming year and what we're presenting uh is our Collective recommendation that they voted on the following individuals represent different water and sewer customers they care about the reliability and importance of the service that we provide and consider impact on customers so it's David lecolier Ernie fry Tom owski Linda pelky and Dick Bena so um I'm going to provide a recap um kind of at a high level on the overall Water and Sewer budget uh this budget was presented with our budget book submittals and uh in multiple public forums leading up to town meeting so I think with that if we can go to maybe full screen here it looks like this is not in the format that I would generally present this we could do um the full and then we can just forward it so the the budget that we have for the full water and sewer Enterprise is 33.4 million uh this represents a 2.76% increase over last year which we're actually pleased uh about that and how we've been able to manage costs uh the increase that we have in salaries um represents contractual increases we've also moved the environmental engineer position into the water and sewer Enterprise this position focuses mainly on all matters associated with storm water uh and environmental Regulatory Compliance in Services we see an increase largely with catch catch basin disposal um catch Bas and cleaning disposal and also Dig Safe services this is required uh in terms of U utility service markouts um for us it's water sewer storm water it also applies to gas electrical cable etc for safe excavations um supplies minor increase due to inflation uh we have our Reserve which is we um shoot for at least 1% of the budget to help ensure we have a financially responsible reserve for the water and sewer Enterprise um budgeted capital is for vehicles and Equipment replacement and then Debt Service um this increase here is associated with our sewer lining work uh water meter replacement and storm water work and I'll just say that we're really maximizing our um ability to utilize uh grants and 0% loans from the mwa so really stretching um the town's dollars with the rate payer payers dollars and then the in fund transfer is the formula we um have to cover indirect EXP expenses associated with the water and sewer Enterprise this is legal services Treasurer and controller services and the full Suite of benefits uh for all water and sewer employees and so if we look at this just in terms of a snapshot um of the overall percentages uh the makeup of the pie chart doesn't actually vary much year toe about 70% of the budget is the mwa assessment uh and the remainder of the budget uh covers our cost to provide all the services associated with providing highquality water servicing the overall Network and maintaining the infrastructure within the town so for our um presentation of the rate study I'd like to introduce our financial analyst and consultant David Fox from rapis he's an economist uh and expert in water and sewer utility um with national experience he helped the town develop its current rate model and has worked for with us for years years on a financial stability plan and reaching our goal for a healthy Enterprise fund that helped us maintain the critical infrastructure and services required of the town and also plan for the future so with that um David's going to go over our our plan and our recommendation and um from there we'll answer any questions that you may have thank you thank you thank you Aaron uh good evening everyone everyone happy to be here again my name is Dave Fox vice president with rafis I've been working with the town for a number of years now raap Tellis is the largest firm in the country predominantly focused on Water and Sewer rate and financial planning related matters and it's certainly my area of expertise um I know you were already deep into your agenda I'll try to keep this as brief as possible um but I did want to kind of um for those of you that are around last year you saw this but for uh anybody who wasn't and for those that are listening at home um I wanted to provide a little bit of an overview of what a rate study is why we go through this process on an annual basis um what we're trying to accomplish we're trying to uh ensure the long-term Financial sustainability of both the the water and the sewer funds for the town um which will in turn allow for the long-term operational sustainability to have reliability and Quality Service uh water and sewer for all of the residents within the town um in doing so we also want to look at at what are the impacts to customers uh our predominant Revenue source is your residents paying water and sewer bills um and we want to understand what those impacts are to those customers over time um just to provide a little bit of context here so you have an idea of of some of the industry trends when we get to the point where we're making our recommendations uh water and sewer rates across the country have been increasing um over the last 20 to 25 years by about five and six% respectively every single year uh more than twice the rate of inflation and that's um predominantly due to recently inflationary impacts um especially here in New England aging infrastructure the need to renew and replace that infrastructure um to maintain quality and reliability of service um and per capita uh uh reductions in per capita consumption U which in turn reduces the revenue stream when customers are using using less um just briefly talk about the the plan that we go through um several years ago we had we veloped a uh Financial Planning and rate model uh for the town looking at its water and sewer operating expenses uh annual Debt Service payments um future Capital needs how those projects are going to be paid for um how revenues are coming in um this model is updated annually we also take into consideration uh fund balance which uh Aon mentioned previously um and I'll get into that in just a slide um in a slide or two um trying to maintain some Reserve fund balance and a fund balance for financial viability purposes um this model allows us to look over a typically a fiveyear window the model goes out much further than that but once we get outside of that window the crystal ball gets really hazy so we want to focus on the next five years um play with the best information we have today and understand how much we think uh rates uh need to increase by annually to support the financial plan and maintain Financial sufficiency um and this should be updated annually uh I was here last year um or I think I was on Zoom last year um this should be an annual process to understand how things are changing um because the forecast of where we thought we were going to be here in fiscal year 2025 last year has changed uh for the positive which is a fantastic thing that's why we want to update these these models and this uh financial plan annually to understand how things are changing um so to uh summarize what our uh assumptions are and our general recommendations we are recommending a 35% across the increase to the town's Water and Sewer rates um we're assuming that there will be no Reserve funds uh utilized to offset the rate increase um actually the opposite is happening we are contributing more money to the reserve funds something that a plan that we set forth uh a few years ago trying to build the reserve funds up for reasons that I'll explain on the next slide um again I mentioned before these plans should be updated annually um and one thing that I will mention or two things uh one is when I was giving this presentation last year we forecasted out where we thought we would be a year uh from from where we were fiscal year 2025 and that rate increase we actually thought we were going to have is a 4 and a half% rate increase so it's um fantastic that we're here um you know Water and Sewer Department DPW has done a wonderful job of keeping cost low um and the fact that we're sitting here recommending something less than than what we thought we were a year ago is fantastic um and in doing so uh we also took a look at how customers are build um if you remember correctly you have a uh inclining block rate structure for single family residential customers and then a uniform volumetric rate for all non- single family res uh all other non- single family residential customers we went through and did just an an audit of how customers were classified to make sure that they're being build correctly and we've made those changes and we'll be um starting to Bill on them this upcoming fiscal year um and we factored in the changes to the revenue requirements accordingly um just a few things on operating reserves we're going to talk about how we're seeing these operating reserves build up over time um this allows for the water and the sewer fund just to um maintain more financial self-sufficiency and sustainability um it allows us to not have to deviate from what our initial plan was of having uh moderate to low stable increases every single year uh without fluctuations from year to year which can create some rate shock on customers we want to try to Main maintain that stability of that financial plan as much as possible and by having some money in a reserve fund that allows us to do that um it does that through one-time Capital expenditures that pop up that we were not planning for um we can utilize some of those Reserve fund balances or in a year uh where our consum declines meaningfully and our Revenue declines meaningfully we have some Reserve funds to balance you don't have to have a midyear rate increase or deviate from what our rate increases are um too significantly um we are recommending uh Reserve fund balances that are typically higher than what a general fund would hold but that is industry best practice for an Enterprise fund that is predominantly funded through um consumption and demand that is more volatile or significantly more volatile than um you know ADV valorum taxes or something of that nature which is incredibly fixed um this is our uh cash flow assuming 3 and a half% rate increases annually um obviously we're only asking for vote on fiscal year 2025 a 3 and a half% rate increase um but this model is actually assuming 35% rate increases from 2026 through 2029 as well um but we will continue as I mentioned before to update this model annually uh to to understand where things have changed um what might change over time and come back and make some recommendations to you based on the best information for that upcoming fiscal year um and what you can see is every single year from 2025 out through 20 29 our revenues are actually uh generating a bit more than what our Revenue requirements or our costs are in those years which are indicated by The Columns and if we go to the next slide you'll see that where where our um fund balance for water and sewer is starting to grow over that period and getting up to where our Target is of about 90 days of of operation and maintenance expenses um I know on the tail end of this forecast uh we are getting a little bit above what our Target is we had conversations um with DPW Water and Sewer as well as the uh water rates task force and we determined that we were able to actually we've been kind of moving in this direction to get up to that uh that Target level and we thought it might take us through 2028 or so to get to that point um but maintaining a 3 and a half% increase is allowing us to get there a little bit faster and if we get there given that we're going to update these rate increases annually if we get there by the 2027 time period and we don't need that three and a half% rate increase we will make that recommendation and not have that three and a half percent rate increase and kind of sustain where we are um so we we're trying to be um while having less rate increase than we thought we were going to a year ago um get to our Target level a little bit faster to maintain that Financial viability and that Financial uh Financial sustainability um a few slides here that are going to get uh a bit repetitive I wanted to show what a the bill impact uh are for a few customers um starting with a a low volume residential household uh using about 900 cubic feet 100 cubic foot is about 748 gallons uh per quarter with a 5/8 inch meter um all these customers are experiencing a 3 and a half% rate increase um but they're going to experience different magnitudes um for example this customer is currently spending about $737 per year for Water and Sewer Service combined um that same bill with the 35% increase is going to increase to $763 approximately um it's a about a $26 per year increase $645 per uh quarter $25 cents per month or to break it even down to a daily basis a seven uh seven Cent increase per day or about three and a half per. um a typical volume household or typical volume residential customer using at 00 cubic feet um you could see a same 3 and a half% increase about a $3.50 per month increase on this customer uh in 2025 going from um about $1,188 to $1,230 or so um the out years are showing you what those increases are again as I mentioned with the best information we have today we are forecasting about 3 and a half% increases um but we will continue to come back to you with recommendations for 2026 and Beyond um high volume household I told you these are going to get repetitive I apologize but we wanted to break this down and show you all of these customers are experienc just because we are doing an across theboard increase of three and a half% their bills are going up three and a half% the only difference is the magnitude of dollars obviously a higher volume customer is spending more based on their consumption um they're going to have a higher volume or a higher dollar amount increase um this customer a high volume residential customer using about 36 or double what a typical residential customer uses is seeing about a $7 per month increase in both its combined Water and Sewer bills uh from 2024 to 2025 um and finally a a typical um it's really hard to Define what a typical is we looked at kind of average consumption and average meter size for a non- single family residential customer um the average consumption is about 40 CCF per quarter with a 1 in meter um you can see still a 3 and a half% increase here um this customer's Bill increase by about $8.32 per month or just under $100 um per year uh in in fiscal year 2025 um something that I always get asked to do uh I don't love doing this because I think that a community should make a decision based on its water and sewer rates um based on what is right for that Community not compared to what other communities are doing um but I'm always asked to provide this slide um and actually it looks pretty favorable here in Brooklyn um this is a typical residential bill um at the 1,00 cubic feet per quarter um and a 58 inch meter at uh several communities including where Brookline is currently in 2024 at $1,188 where they will be with a three and a half% increase at $1,230 compared to um starting at Boston all the way through Melrose at the High to the the far right end of this um and one thing I will mention is that many of these communities it does not take into consideration any rate increase that they're going to have for fiscal year 2025 either a lot of these are fiscal year uh fiscal year 2024 rates and the proposed Brookline fiscal year 2025 rate is still uh below many of these other communities um this is uh the recommended vote um broken down by category the actual rates themselves that we would ask you to vote on with a 3 and a half% increase the water rates as you could see there on the top of the screen I mentioned before for single family residential customers there is that inclining block rate structure uh once you get over 1,800 cubic feet the volumetric charge increases and then for all other customers is a uniform rate whether they use 100 cubic feet or a million 100 cubic feet they would pay the same um same volumetric charge sewer is exactly the same a uniform rate for all customers um then we have a quarterly fixed charge based on meter size um and then uh some miscellaneous charges one being just fire uh service charges which is incredibly uh common miscellaneous charge or ancillary charge for the industry um I'll pause here I don't know Aon if you want me to stay here that's really all we have left okay we'll stay here and take any questions thank you for your patience I hopefully I got through that efficiently enough for you any questions from the selectboard no I'm sorry John should we um ask for just a summation of the also the report on the um possibility of an of a subsid subsidy program or exp subsidy program is that really relevant to this discussion I I had thought that it was done by the same person who's the speaker I believe it was but you want to speak on that I I'm anticipating we're going to get question from no we'll get a question why don't we wait for that question and then respond to it um did you see if David lco is um ready to yes David I'm going to promote you so so why don't this is a public hearing so we'll open up the public hearing and David lco would be the first Speaker David you've been promoted you should be able to unmute okay thank you very much and thank you David Fox for a really impressive presentation and as I mentioned in the memo that I email that I sent to um select board uh I think yesterday there's been a over the last 10 years since we started having these hearings a tremendous amount of progress and I'm so privileged and um grateful actually to be to have the opportunity to be on the uh and water task force it's sort of like a dream assignment where we can actually make a difference and I want to make clear I support fully uh David Box's recommend the Department of Public Works recommendation for three and a half% rate increase uh but I wanted just to mention it's not really exactly on your vote but uh at the same time that um the uh recommendations came out um Rellis also provided a report as was requested by the seel select board last year and I think that is going to be gist for our Mill it's called the June 4th affordability report and uh I'm cons a bit concerned about it and I wanted to just throw this out not that you can really do anything about it tonight that according to the Brookline Community Foundation as I outlined in U what I sent uh Brookline is not a low burden Community for 25% of its residents I'm a bit concerned that the conclusion was low burden it's sort of like the wrong message or an inappropriate message but tonight we're not uh don't need to and shouldn't be getting into the uh weeds other than to say more work is needed on this and I hope that the water and sewer task force will continue to work toward feasible portability recommendation we agree about our values and the first step is to to solving the problem is to acknowledge the problem which is what I which is why I'm speaking tonight thank you very much thank you David there are six participants and no one else is raising their hand um before um good to you Regina do you w to respond to David's comments I um I believe the select board received my response to right okay um you received that in for our V TV audience for your VAST TV audience um I understand Mr L's uh Point um I think we're talking a bit apples and oranges in terms of nomenclature of high burden versus low burden um we relied upon industry best practices uh that are adopted by industry associations um across the country with regard to Water and Sewer to um to the best degree uh possible provide a CommunityWide assessment of water and sewer affordability for the entirety of the town of Brookline um that does not mean even though our the assessment based on it CommunityWide was low burden typically for water and sewer bills that does not mean that there aren't individualized affordability concerns within the town I can guarantee you that there are um we state that in the report we were asked to use industry best practices to identify the community as a whole um we also spent although the vast majority of that report is focusing on data uh we spent most of our time talking about ways we could help people um help residents lowincome residents um and unfortunately uh we got to the point where um we didn't think that there was a viable solution for expansion of a customer assistance program that would actually be effective in providing relief to customers at this point in time I agree with Mr lco that um additional work in diligence should be done I think a lot of that work should be done more on a CommunityWide broadspeed uh broads spread basis I don't think that water and sewer are going to The Water and Sewer Department is going to uh alleviate poverty concerns or significant low income concerns um through its water and sewer bills uh unfortunately I wish that were the case I wish Water and Sewer bills could just be waved and poverty would be uh stricken I don't think that's the case so um I know I'm getting a little longwinded here I think uh a discussion and more in-depth discussion which I know is not the scope of this meeting um I'd be happy to come back to a following meeting we can get into all the details around that report uh What uh the the rationale and the reasons why we said what we did and what our recommendations were um which at the end of the day I know molier can uh disagree with the presentation or maybe how we got to our assumption uh that water sewer bills are generally lowb burdened uh for residents here in the town of Brookline um but the ultimate recommendation of not expanding the water and sewer assistance program um any further was ultimately I believe unanimously adopted um or approved as well by the Water and Sewer rates task force great thing thank you you know um affordability is incredibly important uh question and and we we have to deal with it uh my concern though is what is what are we basing that on um and maybe this is a question to David um if he's still available um in your email uh you cite the Brookline Community Foundation saying that 25,000 Brookline residents per in 25% are financially vulnerable that can't be an accurate number uh that would suggest that we have 100,000 population which we don't um is I i' I'd like to actually ask him if if he could explain what what that number is and where it came from um and why it's even relevant well uh I what you see in what I wrote is direct quotes from the uh Brookline Community Foundation summer 2023 understanding Brookline report and the 25% represents about um what uh 5,000 households 15,000 residents that's what we're dealing with and uh I agree with David Fox that water and sewer is a small part of that and in itself cannot alleviate that but we need to look at it in the context of our affordability and it has to do with um a large portion much larger than than we even acknowledge of residents that are having trouble uh making ends meet at the end of every month and it's because of the escalating housing cost costs and uh water and sewer costs are passed on um into rents by landlords obviously so that has an impact on this Pro on the situation you look this is a very serious problem and if it's if it's really serious we have to make sure that the data we're using is accurate and and I don't I'm asking about what you put in your email that 25,000 Brooklyn residents are financially vulnerable um I'd like to know where that came from doesn't even make sense sounds like he just made a mistake he meant to say 25% of 25,000 25% of 25,000 but even 25,000 residents that's that's half population household yeah I mean he said his comment right now was 15,000 residents 5,000 households maybe it's a typo so if I 25 25% 25% I have the report right here suppose if I uh start my video I can show it maybe um David if I could just for a moment um so in the report that we um worked on we actually looked at all census um data we looked at um income we put I mean the analysis was very thorough in terms of the population um in Brookline and looked at other um programs that were out there that we're providing assistance through a whole host of different mechanisms I think that um Mr lasier does not disagree at all and actually was in agreement with the recommendation not only for the rates but also for any change uh in an assistance program at this time but his concern is largely on um the wording used in the report around affordability which is an industry standard that economists use when they're talking big picture about um water utility and I think David very rightly wants to make sure that there's no misunderstanding that there's still need in Brooklyn that we want to continue to explore which we will do and so is that correct yes that's correct got in my comments I talked about the the macro view which is what David Fox explained and I actually took the charts four of the charts a b c and d and adapted them to a micro examination using brookline's numbers coming right out of the American Community survey I looked at the census the numbers I have there are consistent but you'll find on table 2503 so uh you know it's 25% and it's um and and Ain has it exactly right you know just but I was really reacting to is saying low burden we need we need to acknowledge it not low burden for certain people and an industry CommunityWide standard is fine I don't dispute that I don't dispute David Fox's methodology and it's it's industry standard what I tried to do is adapt it to look specifically at Brookline and Brook Brookline situation and by plugging those numbers in at least for the uh lowest quintile the lowest 20 percent of brookline's residents uh it's not low burden it's high burden using the formulas and charts that uh uh were provided in that report so it's just sets an agenda and says that we still have work to do which we all know and we all agree about it we all coming from the same set of values and we'll continue to work on this um the department and the my only concern is that we we really base our work on accurate numbers and and you know too often I see numbers coming out of the Brooklyn Community Foundation that just don't make any sense I mean yeah there's another remember I went back to David's uh report and I also went to the tables that he used from the American Community survey 2023 to verify so the numbers I have that I cited are very close to the numbers you saw in his presentation we have another hand up yes we do Richard Bena I'm promoting you now you should now be able to unmute and share your video if you're comfortable thank you I may have to lose my video if uh I get Frozen I've um I've had internet connection problems and I've gone to a different room um I I am not going to talk about David Leer's analysis it's not necessary to do that at this point um for a couple of reasons first of all as uh David has indicated it's not part of the vote today secondly the task force which we both sit on was made aware from the get-go of both administrative and legal issues the administrative problems with um dealing with subsidies for low-income renters uh and the what's really a non-starter uh and that is the Department of revenues um view that it would be illegal to use the water and sewer Enterprise fund to subsidize low-income customers um so that um uh that from the GetGo um really uh closed the door to some significant changes in what we're doing now in the town and it's not part of the vote today uh it can't be part of the vote today as as a legal matter and I think that should be the end of the matter for the purpose of this meeting thank you thank you thank you dick I agree okay any other questions or comments from the selectboard oh I'm sorry Regina and do you want to speak no thank you Regina fley from South Brookline uh where we have single family homes except for Hancock Village that said I believe I want to just speak Common Sense here because I don't think all this uh survey information gives you the real picture there's only one of you up there who owns a home and pays your own water and sewer bill directly so it's possible some of you don't understand how they really imp so for example if I get $10 worth of water listed clearly on my bill and that's not an unusual number for me I will a few years ago it would be double exactly double for the sewer quietly it's now triple so $30 will be for the sewer $10 for the water yes and finally there are the uh so-called base charges that used to be called the meter water meter charges and that's another $80 so my $10 water bill is really closer to 120 and I could bring the bills and improve it so when you're talking about the low income or low impact it really it doesn't reflect what people are actually paying for the water bills and these are all the gift of the selectman's decisions over the last 20 years let that sink in these are decisions you guys made not just on the water structure and what we owe the MW this is a how do we pay the bills well let's have a water meter uh section let's also have a base charge for the sewer I took a Course once at Harvard on how property taxes came about in the started in the Middle Ages when cities began to be the place where uh deviant if you want to use that right technical term uh would would leave their thums and be kicked out usually and they form cities well cities needed garbage collection they needed water so a a a well might be in the center of of housing in um in London or Paris so you provided that then they had aul and other trash and that had to be taken away and that was the justification for um property taxes we get nothing now in our property taxes this is now sewer used to be deductible in my property taxes and I only paid for water none of it's deductible now so that I remember being at a meeting at the select board at a four o'clock meeting when Andy Papa sturgeon the Water Commission the director of water then um said that in 20 years it'd be $1,000 for a family of four it's $1,000 for a family of one as long as you keep using this as the cash cow it is there's no end to increasing what was a $35 SE charge was now $38 both on Water and Sewer base charges I mean it just no end to it this you really have to understand the impact of the people you're elected to serve and that all of these decisions were made right there on the sixth floor by decisions on how to pay the bills and I don't mean to be disrespectful but I really want to use a the word moo because it's a cash cow thank you any further discussion uh this is still an open public hearing anyone else uh looking to there is no one else raising their hand okay um any further discussion from the select board I'm ready to vot okay you're ready to vote I'm ready to vote okay well let's vote it's about to do okay uh we have a full page of votes um eron do you want me to read through each vote um except for uh item two I mean won't won't take much time to do this think uh Town Administrator Carrie is there a way to simplify the vote you want to put the vote back up on the screen and we can uh we'll unpin Mr Banker we'll repin that the actually I can read this fairly quickly except item two I'd want to just refer to the schedule I mean I think you can say you know you refer to the um it's up to you you know you have yeah okay let me just start right uh I move approval of orderly water and Sewer rates effec of July 1st 2024 uh as uh indicated in the schedule on the uh materials in our packet with respect to water rates uh and with respect to sewer rates um that sufficient for the select board yes okay it's also up on the board there on the screen uh all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak hi Michael Sandman hi David Perman hi and Sher votes I uh number two uh iove approval of the quarterly base charge based on meter size according to the following schedule effective July 1st 2024 and the schedule is the schedule in the packet and also up on the screen with respect to meter size water quality size uh charge and quarterly sewer base charge uh all in favor please indicate by saying I John v skak i Michael Sandman I David Perman I and chair votes I to approve the quarterly irrigation rate of $649 per 100 cubic feet effective July 1st 2024 um all in favor please indicate by saying I uh John Van skak i u Michael Sandman I David Perman I chair votes I to approve the annual fire service Char service charge of $235 cents per inch diameter squared of fire service pipe size effect of July 1st 2024 on favor please indicate by saying I John Ben skak I Michael Sandman I David Perman I fa votes I to continue the senior Water and Sewer rate discount program in an amount equivalent to 50% of the water and sewer base charge for eligible rate payers with eligibility for said program determined by eligibility for property tax exemptions allowable under the Massachusetts general laws chapter 59 Section 5 Clauses 17d uh 41A 41c in the senior tax and Senior workof tax program all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak I Michael Sandman hi David Perman I there votes I um and then just for information the above rates uh votes are set under Massachusetts general laws chapter 40 section 22f and that um in in total is a recommended vote for water and sewer rates of 3.5% thank you very much okay wasn't that difficult painful that was poetry not sure it's poetry but thank you okay thanks okay uh next item on the agenda uh public hearing another public hearing Noise by bylaw waiver for the MBTA um K5 Corporation under contract of the MBTA requests a noise bylaw um waiver uh for night pavement markings uh installation as part of the Gateway East bus pilot project it's rest stripping and retiming is there anyone here to explain that and and uh let us know more uh if you're here on this uh Noise by waiver and you're present present remotely can you please raise your hand Dan Murphy is raising his hand i'm promoting him to co-host now Dan you should be able to unmute and share your video hi U my name's Dan refy I'm the director of engineering and transportation I'm here tonight with Alex hell e body from the MBTA and uh we're here to request a waiver from the noise control bylaw uh for Gateway East work uh on Washington Street and would' like to do the work would take about 10 nights we're looking for five weeks from 6:24 to June July 31 uh it's for painting work and there will be some uh noise minor noise it's relatively Bas based on air compressor noise intermittent and some from they use the electrically flows but I'll I'll let Alex rander and Eileen provide you more detail with the request if you could unmute them and let them speak on that would be great hi good even go ahead hi good evening this is Eileen bti with the MBTA project manager um as Dan mentioned we're seeking um a waiver for the noise bylaw um specifically in regards to some of the inter intermittent use of um in a compressor and an electric blower uh to assist with the pavement markings installation um with the red bus lane paint um and so we've attached some details to the request um but just to quickly recap what that is um there's um a bit of intermittent use throughout the surface preparation um the application of the paint itself and then the cleanup um so it will generate some noise um on and off throughout the process uh but it isn't continuous um and this is again as Dan mentioned to start uh June 24th um and expected a 10 evening duration um but seeking a window to July 31st um on the unforeseen circumstances that it needs to be extended um we wouldn't expect it to take more than 10 nights total um and we're happy to take any questions um or explain the process a bit further do you um have you taken any measurements of the potential decel levels at the various Residential Properties nearby I mean there there a lot I don't believe we have that level of detail um available for the decel um and just to mention this is as I said it is intermittent um and as requested by the town um we're seeking to do the overnight work so as not to impact traffic uh during the daytime hours um and just to efficiently move the project Along on a quicker timeline um it will take fewer nights U than the amount of days it would take if that helps to give some context so do do you have any sense of the deciel level of your compressors and other equipment I don't have the decibel levels um available with me tonight um it is an electric blower um for the town's uh request for equipment previously um from what I'm aware of um from some previous projects I I guess my question I mean I don't think it's going to be a serious problem because the Residential Properties are pretty far away but we will be asked about this so it' be good to have a sense of you know what what how much noise we're talking about even if it's not going to be noise it's going to bother people sure uh eron chud Commissioner of Public Works thanks for being here this evening to present um to the select board so I just would like to let everyone know that we typically do all of our painting overnight so all of the painting the um when we do sort of full construction projects and we're repainting a roadway the annual painting that we're doing on your center lines um the bike Lanes the uh symbols the crosswalks generally unless we're working with the community and doing our rainbow crosswalks these are all done um at night and so um it's you know an operation that is generally done during that time but because this is a little more concentrated it's a little more paint honestly with these bus lanes that have that full um sort of brick red color we just wanted to be really mindful of of coming before the select board for the noise bylaw waiver we're working on a press release right now and so I'd be glad to include some information in that in terms of what the community can expect um during that uh the the time um when the lanes are being uh prepared and uh you know in terms of decibels I don't have that off the tip of my brain in terms of the you know the battery operated electric uh leaf blowers but it's generally a relatively low decibel any other questions no I'm usually the uh the one who uh uh gets very concerned about noise and noise spal but I I there's no alternative here so no I not suggesting there is but I think people will want to know you the answer to that so if make sure that that some information with respect to the decimal level levels uh is included in the press release so that you know those who are curious or those who are you know think that they're particular sensitive to noise you know we'll know very good there's really only one um residential building that's probably going to be close to this and that's the new building at Route 9 and High Street the BHA properties are sort of a block away in the B the brook house is like a block away there okay any other questions this is uh is this a yes it is a public hearing this is a public hearing um uh Tiffany do we have anyone in the audience who would like to speak if you would like to speak please raise your hand there's no one raising their hand at this time okay I will close the public hearing and unless there are any other questions I'll call for a vote um I move approval of the U noise bylaw waiver for the MBTA uh painting project on uh Washington Street at at Route 9 all in favor please indicate by saying I did you have a question John no John vanak hi Michael Sandman hi David Perman hi and Cher Bai thank you and thank you to um Dan and Eileen as well thank you thank you thank you okay the last item on our agenda was proposed by Mike Sandman um which is discussion and possible vote on a proposal to sponsor a facilitated public conversation on the impact on brookln residents of events in the Middle East uh Mike turn the turn the um microphone over to you okay thanks all right um so the agenda item calls for a discussion of whether there's interest and support for a mediated Community conversation on the Gaza war and that was something that we talked about uh when we reconsidered our recommendation to town meeting before the um Maytown meeting uh uh took up Article 19 and um certainly the demonstration that took place uh and especially the counter demonstration at Brookline High School on May 30 um highlighted the division between proponents of a ceasefire and and opponents uh and um I think that we all regret that some of the counter demonstrators in particular made uh hateful remarks to the petitioners and their supporters um hateful speech is protected by the First Amendment threats of violence are not I understand from the chief of police that her offices reported back that the comments made did not cross the line to being threats but just the same I think we all regret that a small number of people were unable to disagree um without being uh hateful um having said that the petitioners of Article 19 haven't been enthusiastic at least at this point about iMed immediated Community conversation and I think the impetus for such a conversation needs to come from the public so I suggest that we step back and wait to see what we hear from residents and whether anyone steps forward um to organize something of that sort um and obviously I'm interested in hearing hearing what my colleagues think um separately it's really impossible for anybody who listens to the news to ignore the um humanitarian crisis in in Gaza and given that crisis um I circulated a draft of a possible select board resolution endorsing the position President Biden made clear on May 31st which is that the United States urges a release of hostages by Hamas uh a ceasefire by both Hamas and Hamas and its allies and provision of humanitarian aid for the civilian population of Gaza and I'm not suggesting any action by the select board this evening but I'd like to know whether other select board members are interested in considering uh a select board resolution supporting the president's current position and obviously before we vote any resolution would have to be posted on as part of a future agenda agenda perhaps on June 25th but with that I'm very interested in hearing what other select board members think any David so with respect to having a public forum I initially as you may recall expressed some support for that idea but I saw it more as an opportunity to create a mechanism by which there could be a respectful dialogue between the petitioners as well as those who oppose the Warren article given though that the petitioners don't seem particularly interested in having this uh mediated conversation uh then I would not endorse having it I don't think we need to create something that there is not a demand for as for the resolution uh I do have difficulty supporting anything that used the language ceasefire in it uh unless of course it included a uh immediate um resignation by Hamas and that they're no longer going to be in power and something to that effect I don't anticipate that will occur so I personally would oppose anything that includes the term ceasefire in it okay okay um I'll just um you know add to what David said um David has brought to the surface the the issue that I anticipated we might run into which is if we don't have agreement individually among the members of the SL board as to um uh where we think um we personally individually would be positioned on this um I don't think there's much point for example in having a three to1 vote you know um or four to one vote or a three to2 vote um uh and uh you know if if we don't have unanimity we don't have unanimity we've already taken the opportunity as individuals to express ourselves those statements I think are still available on the town website interestingly enough um the statement I made was essentially an endorsement of U President Biden's position that was shortly after October 7th um and you know uh in all likelihood I would have no objection uh endorsing his position today um but I'm just not sure there's a point to the S board pursuing that I also want to say um just because I was um along with our chair um not in favor of the um tabling of the whole matter before town meeting um one of the reasons I was not in favor of it was that it seemed just human nature to me that um this notion was being floated of instead of doing what we were being asked to do at town meeting which is to vote on something that was properly petitioned as part of our local Democratic process we should like defer that table it silence it and then instead have a mediated conversation between the people who had petitioned town meeting and the people who were um trying to table the whole matter and not allow those people to speak um was you know was fallacious from the start I mean if you if you don't allow people to speak don't be surprised if they don't want to participate in a mediation later and I'm not surprised at all that that is what has happened I just said that um you know Mike really pointed to the key issue here and that is when we turn on our TV we see dead bodies we see bodies of children with missing limbs you know we we we we we know about you what happened on October 7 and we remember the um the pictures of that uh to talk about any resolution without talking about a ceasefire I'm sorry and and and you know we also see the need for a humanitarian uh humanitarian Aid to a um area of the world that is you know under catastrophic conditions so the talk about a resolution or anything without talking about a ceasefire so that we can begin to address the humanitarian crisis there makes no sense to me um but you know it doesn't look like we have votes for anything so um that's kind of beside the point I I do want to mention you I'm really really concerned about some of the hateful um remarks that I'm told were were made at the um uh stand out before town meeting I did not you know observe that but I've been told you know some of the things that have happened um or that other people observed and I just want to remind people you know when you start when you when you um give Credence to hateful language to hate of any sort against in this case people who are supporting and SE cease fire because hatred is indivisible you're also giving support to hate that would be directed against other uh other other people uh you hatred against uh people calling for a ceasefire or you know people who are Palestinians or people who are Jewish means hatred against Jews Palestinians and others there is no separation between hate for one group and hate for another group and I I just hope that people who who who you expressed and you know who who've told people that I know who are Jewish uh that they were anti-semitic because they they didn't go along with some you know uh required way of thinking I hope they just remember that you know by encouraging hate in one area they're encouraging it elsewhere and it's it's just unacceptable and uh I I I would have hoped that we were much more educated and thoughtful Community than maybe we are so David I would certainly agree with you that we should never condone expressions of hatred in any which direction but by the same token I wouldn't want the statements of a relative few to represent an entire political movement for or against a particular waren article there were a lot of thoughtful well-intentioned people on every side of this and so I I do get a little bit of concerned I'm not saying you're doing this if we brand people too broadly based on the actions of a few but I do certainly agree with you that we do not want to be a community that supports hate speech of any kind yeah I wasn't suggesting that you know or or branding you broadly um you know people who uh you know had a position one way or the other but you whenever whenever whenever hate appears we have to say it's not acceptable any other discussion of this or is this the end of our meeting well I'm I'm just wondering whether just as I think it's the end of the meeting but um I'm just wondering whether a resolution focused on that might be appropriate and we can think about that one we don't need to do that right away okay so um I mean I don't know what other people think I mean I think that that's perfectly acceptable but in terms of process why don't you draft something yeah and um you know have Tiffany circulated to the select board um and u see what happens I I see that um I I sorry I do take John's SP I agree with you John and and I understand your your perspective that um something that isn't a resolution of the sort that isn't unanimous is not appropriate absolutely okay I see uh Scott Carson's at the mic but you can you can do even though it's not technically a public hearing you can say be public comment at okay this is public comment at the end of the meeting and uh Scott Gladstone then Regina has her hand out great uh Scott Gladstone Tomy member Precinct 16 um so I want to thank David Perman for uh one of the points I was going to make U you were all the rest of you were kind of piling on a little bit um I I am I'll commend to you the uh very good Brookline news article um about the rallies where um I very clearly called out um the minority of people um who as I identified were not from Brookline in fact it seems that most of them um piled into a car from with Rhode Island plates who are saying things that were not only Off Script but were um absolutely um things that I called out and I said were unacceptable and I tried to Corral them before I had to go into town meeting uh to direct their attention to the town meeting members who we were trying to persuade rather than speaking at all to the other side for which um there was no uh useful purpose uh also in that article though it will point out that um the pro 19th side um later devolved into a chant that we all heard frequently at um col college campuses from The River To The Sea Palestine will be free and I again uh commend you the article because I do explain how to the ears of many many people that is um at uh at at worst um a call for elimination of Jewish people uh 7 million Jews in Israel at best it is called for one state where there would be a um Arab majority um and then the one Jewish state where um Jews have self-determination and as part of their self- Liberation movement would be effectively um um changed forever and uh the really valuable um immigration policy which allows Jews who are in trouble around the world to be able to go to Israel and have a safe place would effectively be shut down because the majority always wants to protect their hemony so um there's this is complicated right and that's why town meeting overwhelmingly much more than 2third decided that there was plenty of conversation there are plenty of conversations everywhere certainly no one is ever silenced you look everywhere you see that people do not particularly feel silenced and uh but they didn't want to pick winners and losers I asked this board to support the Gladstone bur te Amendment apparently everybody does now um but um even I decided Well that if if that's also divisive I I supported tabling uh which was successful uh I appreciate where you're going um I believe a mediated talk um has to come from the parties if it's imposed on the parties in a kind of neocolonial sort of a way um then it's not be going to be successful it has to come from the parties I will say that um the people who were sort of the leaders of the Amendments and the um and the petition we are talking you have 30 seconds we are talking we recognize each other's Humanities we recognize that each other are members of this community I celebrate that that the town celebrated uh the ey Festival um and good things can happen but it has to happen organically it can't be imposed by people who just think that well if you all just got together in the same room that's just not how it works and please don't impose that thanks Regina yes I agree with uh uh what chair uh green cited many many people who dispute and dis disagree and criticize Israel for the uh lack of proportionality in its response under international law and I'm one of them we're called anti-semites tonight Mike referred to it as the Gaza War I'm not sure that's accurate it's the hamus war with Israel taking place mostly in Gaza but none of us that I know of that feel as I do feel that it's the average uh gazen citizen who's at war and right now they are actually quite victimized and it's is very difficult Beyond difficult heartbreaking to see what's happening to to them um when it came to the issue of town meeting tabling was one issue the subject of the warrant part was a separate issue I was somebody who was one of the people and Scott really made it sound like I did a bad thing he pointed out to my whole neighborhood I was one of 47 people who voted against is if it was a bad thing I wanted the opportunity for citizens to petition their government which is in the Constitution and I see I saw that uh warrant article as a reflection of that that's all it was I probably was going to vote for his Amendment actually so it had nothing to do with the content it had to do with the ability of citizens to petition their government and ex a our residents of the town of Brooklyn and they needed to have a place to speak and I don't know who he's talking to most of the Arabs that I've heard about are just heartbroken and don't know what to do about any of it so their celebration of Aid the other day I congratulate them they Rose above any of the hurt that they felt by being tabled at town meeting that's number one number two on a different topic um if the Senate were to approve the state senate were to approve um the house votes and the governor's push for housing that included a clause that said that not only would there be no zoning effective but there wouldn't be any restrictions on parking you have 30 seconds I was hoping that you guys would get ahead of it realizing we're a town that doesn't vote for parking on the streets but if it if building is done in disregard to par parking you're going to be having to deal with the issue of parking on the street so get ahead of it thank you okay any other uh comments there are three participants remaining online and no one is using the raise the hand feature okay thank you any other comments from the select board that's all right I therefore declare the meeting over [Music]